by Ruby Dixon
“Resonance, eh?” Vektal says, looking between me and Mardok. “I am sure there is a good story behind this. Did he travel here to resonate with you? Or is he stranded like Georgie and her people?”
“He has a name,” Mardok says in a cold voice. “And he can understand everything you’re saying.”
“He and his people are like us,” I tell Vektal, moving out from behind my mate and approaching. “They did not plan to be here, and when I saw the ship land, I approached it.”
Vektal’s eyes narrow at me. “Why would you do such a thing? You know that the other caves that landed here—”
“I know,” I say quickly, putting my hands up. I can feel Mardok growing tense behind me, and I need to calm everyone down. “I stayed a safe distance away until I saw one of them come out. Then, when I saw they were sa-khui like us, I approached.” I clasp my hands and place them over my heart. “And I resonated to Mardok.”
My brother Pashov claps a hand over his brow and shakes his head. Someone else snorts with laughter.
“Just because they look like us does not mean they are not the enemy,” Vektal tells me, a stern note in his voice. He leans forward on his spear, still displeased with me. “What would you have done if they decided they would grab you and take you away?”
I laugh, because the idea is silly. “He is not stealing me. And besides, I have a khui. I cannot leave this place. A khui cannot be removed.”
7
MARDOK
I keep my features carefully neutral, though inside I am struggling.
I could take Farli away from here. I could tell the others it is for her own good and she deserves a shot at civilization no matter what she thinks. Better yet, I do not tell the others until we are far away from Kopan VI and then they won’t have a choice about turning around. I could take her with me and seduce her with kisses and caresses until she never wants to come back here. Until she’d rather spend her time in my bed than anywhere else.
The thought fills me with intense hunger. I’ve never wanted anything as badly as I want Farli. And even though it’s wrong to think about it, I don’t care. I’m not a nice guy. Never have been, never will be. And the thought of keeping Farli—whether or not she wants to be kept—is a tempting one.
I keep that to myself, though. She thinks she is safe here. That she cannot possibly leave this planet because of her symbiont, but I know that our med bay technology can remove it as easily as it can stitch a wound shut.
Plenty of time to convince her to go with me still.
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. Traveling wouldn’t be so lonely if I had someone like Farli with me. Someone to make me smile, to share my thoughts with, to watch light up in wonder at the sight of a ringed planet or passing by an asteroid belt that glitters with distant sunlight. I could get a freighter of my own, maybe, and she could help me crew it. Most of all, it’d be someone at my side.
Someone who also mouth-kisses like a vid actress and snuggles up against me as if I’m the thing she’s wanted most in this world.
She is talking happily to her chief, and I assess the men standing before me. To a one, they look fierce and untamed. Scary keffers, that’s for sure. They are dressed in loincloths, and a few wear vests strapped with knives of varying sizes. No one has capped horns, and a few of them are scarred up. To a one, they are bulky with muscle and look as if they could tear the much leaner (but taller) Trakan to bits without a second thought. I’m glad I’ve kept in shape since leaving the military, because I could stand toe to toe with these beasts if I had to. But it’s a little intimidating to see how fierce they are.
Farli turns back to me as the others put their weapons away or relax. “Bring your people. We will have a celebration and you can meet everyone.” Her smile is brilliant.
I nod. “I’ll let the captain know. He should meet the chief, offer his greetings.”
The intimidating one that has to be the chief nods, crossing his arms over his nearly bare chest. His eyes don’t seem to have the same glowing warmth that Farli’s do. Instead, they carry a warning. He might be welcoming us, but he is still uncertain of whether or not we can be trusted. I don’t blame him.
I turn and head back to where Trakan, Niri and Chatav are waiting. They look cautious, but Chatav steps forward to meet me.
“I’m not even going to rebuke you on disobeying orders,” he says to me. “Just tell me if they’re willing to meet.”
“They are.”
“And the one in front is the chief?” He eyes the big one over my shoulder. “Do you know if they have a particular greeting that would not be offensive?”
I think for a moment, and my ears flush with heat as I remember how Farli greeted me—with her mouth. “I, ah, think you should just introduce yourself.”
Our two parties meet, and even though things are a little awkward, soon enough we are all heading down into the gorge to check out the village. After Farli’s story of living in a cave, and given that these people are carrying spears and are dressed in skins, I expect something a lot more primitive than the tiny cluster of houses and the cobblestone streets. Each dwelling is topped with a tented set of skins complete with a smoke-hole, and the walls themselves are tightly bricked. There has to be several dozen of the small houses, and one large meeting house at the far end of the village.
“You built this all yourselves?” I ask Farli, surprised. “It must have been a lot of work.”
“We found it,” her hovering, protective brother tells me. It is the one with one horn, and he likes to walk between myself and Farli every now and then, as if he can push us apart. Farli shoves him aside and takes my arm to put a stop to that.
“Go away, Pashov,” she tells him in a cheery voice. To me, she says, “The houses were here when we came, but the people were long gone. We just put tops on them and moved in.”
I glance over at Niri, but she shrugs. “Two civilizations here seems strange to me, but I’m guessing whoever did the initial survey here didn’t do a very good job if they missed this.”
We’re led to the large meeting house, and I’m surprised at the wealth of greenery in here. I’m not expecting to see rows of small trees in baskets, their branches ripe with fruit. They line the walls of the lodge and the edge of the bright blue pool of water. Off to one side, there’s a large, stone-encircled fire, and several women with small children sit around it. One tiny woman with a strange pale face and curly hair approaches the chief, and I realize this must be one of the humans that Farli mentioned that were stranded here, aliens from another primitive planet.
Gods, they are ugly. Their features are small and soft-looking, and their skin is a terrible pasty color. They look fragile and strange, their heads seeming shrunken without horns on them. I look at them and wonder how these males can be so happy with the odd creatures, but as the hunters move to the women and pick up babies, I realize that there are more of the strange-looking females than mesakkah females.
And I see that a few of the warriors in the back of the group are looking at me with unbridled jealousy. Have I stolen Farli away from them? Good, I think uncharitably. She’s mine. I shouldn’t feel so possessive, but I can’t help it. I pull her a little closer to me.
Vektal, the chief, brings his human forward to meet us. “This is my mate, Georgie.” He touches the cheek of the pale child in her arms. “My younger daughter, Vekka.”
Georgie smiles at us, displaying strangely shaped teeth. “Pleased to meet all of you. Are you from the sakh homeworld or another planet?”
I am surprised at how quickly the human understands something as baffling to Farli as space travel. “Do your people have interplanetary travel, then?”
“Not quite yet. We’ve made it into space but not much farther than that. Humanity—the people on planet Earth, where we come from—is just now branching out in that direction.” Her expression looks hesitant, and she holds the child in her arms a little closer. “You…you haven’t seen people like m
e before, then?”
“Earth is a D-class planet, I am afraid,” Captain Chatav says. “It is off limits until technology has reached acceptable levels.”
She nods slowly. “Ah. Well, I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Good, because I would hate to think there are a million humans out there being stolen, but bad because clearly someone’s stealing them.” She grimaces. “I’m sorry, here I am going on and on about me. We just have so many questions and we can’t get answers now that the Elders’ Ship is toast.”
“Elders’ Ship?” Niri asks. “There’s another ship here?”
“Salvage,” Trakan murmurs in Mesakkah, rubbing his hands together.
Georgie nods. “Come sit by the fire. We’re preparing food, though I admit it’s not much. We weren’t expecting visitors.” She hands her child off to another human female, one who has several children around her. They all watch me with wary eyes. “And yes,” Georgie says again. “The original ship that brought the sa-khui here to this place is still around, but it was damaged badly in the big earthquake several years ago.”
The four of us are seated on hide-covered stools made of what look like long animal bones instead of wood. The fire is stoked, and it’s warm enough in the meeting house that I can unzip my insulated suit without feeling as if I’m going to freeze. Niri sits next to me and leans in. “There are a lot of cross-breed children here. I didn’t think the two species were compatible seeing as they’re from completely different planets.”
I shrug. “They seem happy.” I see one great-horned savage lean down and press a kiss to the forehead of his dainty human wife, then he takes their child in his arms and swings it around. The child’s laughter fills the air. Everywhere I look, these people are happy. It’s strange. It doesn’t matter that the planet is bitterly cold and barren and that they’re living in a canyon and wearing furs. Everyone’s so damned happy. It’s almost as if they enjoy this primitive lifestyle.
Niri is right, though—there are a lot of small children, most of them with the delicate features or lighter coloring that indicate a human mother. Each time I look around, I see a woman with either a rounded belly, or a child on her lap. I wonder how many of the mesakkah females were left before the humans arrived. Was their small tribe dying out? I think it would be a very different story if they weren’t, because everywhere I turn, the hunters seem to be paired up with humans. Interesting.
One human with a rounded figure and a motherly smile approaches us, a primitive cooking pot in her arms. “I’m going to start the food, but before I do, I should ask if you guys have any allergies. The sa-khui don’t, but you guys seem a little…” Her gaze flicks to Niri’s capped horns and my tattoos. “…different. Do you eat raw meat?”
Niri makes a sound of horror.
The human’s eyes widen. “I’m going to think that’s a ‘no.’ It’s not something we humans are fond of either, but the sa-khui prefer their meat that way. So cooked meat, then?”
“No meat,” Niri says.
“Eggs? Roots?” Her small brows draw together. “I can make a great frittata—”
“We brought our own rations,” Niri replies quickly. “It won’t be necessary to feed us.”
“Oh, I see.” The human woman looks crestfallen.
I speak up, because I bet they never have visitors, and the human seems excited to cook for us. I feel bad. “I’d love to try the fritt-fritt—”
“Frittata.” She beams. “It’s a human dish. I promise you’ll like it.” She bustles away.
Farli passes by, and her hand goes to my shoulder. She leans in. “Stay-see is a good cook,” she murmurs, lips brushing against the edge of my ear. “And you have made her very happy today.”
I am more interested in making Farli happy, but I nod. I watch her as she saunters away again, her tail swishing. She moves toward an elderly couple dressed in furs and embraces them, talking and laughing. These must be her parents. Her animal is in one corner of the meeting house, chewing happily on a pile of roots.
There’s an overwhelming amount of people around us, and for space-faring loners who don’t see others for months on end, it almost feels like too much. We’re handed babies, introduced to everyone, and many of the tribe take a turn coming to sit by us. Farli’s father offers a skin of a fermented drink that Trakan exclaims over, which makes the tribe very happy. Chatav talks quietly with their chief, the human mate with the curly hair hovering nearby. Niri sips a cup of tea and doesn’t eat, and so that leaves me to taste all of the dishes Stay-see and the others are pushing in my direction. I try to ignore the textures and where the foods might come from. I don’t want to know. The flavors are incredible, though, and I think my surprise shows on my face, because Stay-see giggles every time I take a bite.
“Told you that you’d like it.”
“I do,” I say, shoving another spoonful of frittata into my mouth. It’s delicious, and if I don’t think about the fact that it comes from eggs, I love it. These people don’t use eating sticks, only spoons, so it’s a little bit of a challenge. The humans do seem to be fairly advanced, and don’t blink an eye with our talk of ships and interstellar travel. They nod knowingly when Chatav mentions that we are a freighter, and ask questions about trading posts near here or where the closest space station is.
As I eat, one female with a huge stomach comes and sits next to me. She is one of the smallest of the humans, and she has a baby on her hip, one in her belly, and a little boy with small horns and big, glowing blue eyes is clinging to her leg. He watches me with a wary expression. “Hi there,” the woman gushes happily. “You must be Farli’s new mate. I heard Haeden mention it and thought I’d come over and say hi. I’m Josie.” She sticks her hand out, and I realize humans have an extra finger. Ugh.
I take her hand anyhow, just to be polite, and clasp it in greeting. “I am Bron Mardok Vendasi, and I am honored to make your acquaintance.”
Her eyes widen. “So polite.”
“Isn’t he?” A yellow-haired human sits down next to her, grinning at me. “That’s different. I almost expected you to beat your chest and declare Farli yours. Maybe grab her by her hair and take her off to your lair, caveman-style.”
I’m…not sure if I’m being insulted. “Hello,” I say slowly.
Josie waves a hand. “That’s just Liz. Pay her no mind.” Josie jiggles her baby and then leans in a little. “Can I ask you something? Liz and I have a bet.”
“A bet?” Now I am curious. “What of?”
Instead of answering me, Josie touches her son’s cheek. “Joden, why don’t you go find Daddy, okay?” She smiles at him encouragingly and waits for him to scamper off. When he’s gone, she turns back to me, the look on her face calculating. “It’s about…anatomy.”
I choke on the mouthful of frittata.
The humans just laugh. Josie waits until I finish swallowing and then rushes on with her question, breathless. “We want to know what the spur is for.”
It’s just as bad as I thought. “Pardon?” I wheeze.
“The spur. It’s not a human thing. We want to know the purpose of it.”
“Biologically,” Liz adds. “We can’t figure it out.”
I look over at Niri, but she is deliberately ignoring me, turned in the other direction and feigning interest in what Trakan is saying. I’m pretty sure she’s smirking, though.
I feel trapped. I set down my plate of food and rub my jaw, trying to think of the best way to put it. Be blunt with the humans? Avoid the question? Am I offending someone if I tell them the truth? I don’t know how these people react, because their culture is completely different than mine. The last thing I want is some angry husband coming to beat the shit out of me because I talked anatomy with his wife.
“Come on,” Josie says when I hesitate. Her tone turns wheedling. “You’re our only chance to find out the truth.”
“Yeah, if I talk to my mate about it, all I hear is about how it’s to pleasure me.” Liz rolls her eyes. “I doubt tha
t’s the actual biological purpose of it, but I let him roll with that ego-stroking explanation.”
“I…ah…”
Josie leans forward and pats my knee. “Don’t be shy. Spit it out.”
“Pheromones,” Niri says, saving me from an awkward explanation. “It’s a primitive biological way of marking a female as belonging to a particular male. The spur secretes twice the pheromones that the rest of the body does.”
“And deposits them along the hooha. I gotcha.” Liz tilts her head. “That makes sense.”
But Josie frowns. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the sa-khui lack of a clitoris?”
“Clitoris?” Niri asks. “What is that?”
“Humans have a nub between their labial folds,” Josie begins. “It—”
I get to my feet, feeling uncomfortable. “I think I will just go thank Stay-see for her excellent food.”
“Sure, run away, chicken,” Liz calls out as I head away. She’s laughing. I don’t care that she’s amused and I’m not sticking around to ask what a ‘chicken’ is. I’m not staying around for a female anatomy lesson. That’s Niri’s field of expertise, not mine. I’m the one that’s good with engines and computers…both of which are completely useless talents on this planet. I glance around, and while most of the tribe is clustered near the fire, listening to a story Trakan is telling (very loudly and very drunkenly), there are a few around the edges, busy sharpening spears or scraping skins as they listen. Stay-see and another female bustle around, feeding everyone, and a few others are watching several children at once. One human female with brown skin is busy watering the trees. They are a busy people, even on a day like this.
And I would have nothing to offer. It’s just another sign that points to the fact that Farli should come with me. Not that I’ve seriously entertained the thought of staying here. Ever. It’s an uncomfortable, chilly place, and now that I’ve stepped away from the fire, I can feel the cold seeping back into my bones. I re-fasten the front of my suit and hand my plate off to Stay-see, thanking her for the food.
