Ste’vie coos and throws her arms in response, as if in agreement.
“Shall I send her away again?” L’Rzo asks.
“Yes,” I answer. “Also, relay the following messages: only those taking part in the next Breeding Ceremony will receive translation chips. Wang-Lei will have to wait until after that, like everyone else. And please remind her I have no authority over how often the colony ship entertainment room hosts romcom nights. Nor do I care to.”
L’Rzo’s ridges flap with amusement. “My Xar, I have already relayed these messages. She says it is not about that and she ensures me this matter is even more important. She is being quite insistent.”
I once again look down to my babe. “Do you see why I was so ill-prepared for the notion of actually loving my family?”
Ste’vie responds with a string of clicking sounds.
I freeze and L’Rzo’s eyes widen. “Is our Rel Regent…is she laughing? Like a Xalthurian?” L’Rzo asks, his ridges rippling with shock.
“I believe she is,” I answer, with a matching amused click of my own.
Apparently, this strapped in time I have been spending with Ste’vie, while Zin’nia walks to pick up Glee from the colony school, is having some affect. And I wonder if this also means, she’ll soon begin picking up small words.
The thought of her development into a dual language Rel Regent makes me feel a bit more generous. Or perhaps the hu’man notion of family is beginning to take root.
“Tell A’Ry she may have her audience.”
“It is about time!” A’Ry declares, charging into the room without so much as a touch to her ridges. She is wearing a bark cloth outfit, I notice. The same loose shirt and pants combination favored by most of the settlement females. I can see now why Zin’nia referred to her as gone native.
“Why ever would you keep me waiting so long?” she demands, placing her hands on her hips, much like a hu’man would. “I told you it was very, very important.”
“What do you wish to speak with me about?” I ask, already regretting my decision to grant her this audience.
She looks around, her ridges scrunching. “Where is my bestie? I heard she now sat in on your audiences, and I want her here, too. This is very, very important.”
“I highly doubt that, A’Ry.” Ste’vie starts to fuss, and I give her a finger to play with. “Zin’nia may or may not return shortly. Would you like to wait? Outside, perhaps?”
A’Ry does not respond immediately. Just stares at Stevie who is now happily shaking my finger. “How did you know to do that when the hybrid became agitated?” she demands.
“Our Rel Regent is half hu’man,” I answer, using the hybrid’s proper title to remind A’Ry she should do the same. “It is a trick her mother taught me to address the fussing.”
“Does it work always?”
“No, not always. If she is crying because she is hungry or tired, those needs must be addressed directly.”
“She cries when she is hungry or tired?” A’Ry ask, her ridges flapping up with alarm. “She does not simply click or hiss?”
“The hu’man language is much harder to acquire for babes than our hissing and clicking. And, as I said before, our Rel Regent is half hu’man.”
N’Maryah stares at Ste’vie, her ridges still flapped up.
She looks…stricken, I realize. And I find my attitude toward her gentling. “A’Ry,” I ask, as both her cousin and her Kel Regent. “Is something wrong?”
Her ridges flap down, and at the same time she lifts the hem of her bark cloth shirt to reveal a rounded belly on her otherwise rail thin body.
“I noticed this swell a few weeks ago and it has only increased since,” N’Maryah says, her voice small. “I am beginning to believe it is not, as I have heard it referred to in the old planet entertainments, a food baby. I have been ravenous as of late, and I feel…it is hard to explain. Not right. Almost sick, as if something or someone has invaded my body. I…I think I am with babe.”
I rise from my chair. For that is not possible. No female on Xalthuria has become pregnant in over twenty solars. And I know for a fact, A’Ry was not part of any of the experimentation groups L’Gon is currently running to impregnate Xalthurian females. “What trickery is this?”
She touches her belly protectively and shakes her head with wide eyes. “This is no trick. I promise you. May I use one of the ship’s toilets to confirm if this is real?”
It is real.
A short while later, we stand in my personal facilities room, scanning the read-out on top of the medical toilet, after it’s done analyzing A’Ry’s urine.
“I am thirty-two days pregnant,” N’Maryah says, reading along, her clicks short and dazed. “With a male child.”
I give a grave nod when the readout on top of the toilet stops scrolling and lead her back into the main room of my quarters. “Very well, then. I will have the ship medics give you a thorough examination. And then I will contact L’Gon directly. The rest of the council will most likely convene an emergency meeting to clear you of all charges and have you brought back to Xalthuria immediately. Because of this, you will soon be returned to your former life, and of course, I will allow you access to the Line Neixal accounts.”
“What? No!” she shakes her head at me, suddenly coming out of her daze. “I do not wish to go back.”
She does not wish to return? I am instantly suspicious. “You have gone from a large house, filled with servants to a small hut without plumbing. You are made to work here all but four or five days of each moon-cycle, but on Xalthuria you would never have to lift a finger.”
"Yes, but…. I want to stay here with Wang-Lei and the old planet entertainments. Also, there are no RomCom nights, on Xalthuria,” she answers, her ridges setting to stubborn.
Her answer is so mad, so unbelievable, I must ask, “A’Ry, tell me the truth. Has your mind become diseased while undergoing your punishment? Are you the one who stole the photon gun? Are you hatching some plot in the vein of N’Ure?”
“What photon gun?” she asks. Then before I can answer, she says, “My father has nothing to do with this. In fact, this is the first time in my life, I am thinking for myself, making decisions for myself. The only disease I suffer from is love. Love for Wang-Lei. Love for the entertainments. Love for my simple life on this planet. If I am able to carry this pregnancy to term, I want to do so here, on this love diseased planet.”
I shake my head, shocked but believing every word. This planet…love…it has changed A’Ry, just as it changed me.
“But now that we have confirmation of my pregnancy, I would like to talk with you about moving Wang-Lei to the top of the translation chip priority list,” she adds with a triumphant flash of her ridges.
Ste’vie clicks more laughter on my chest, as if to confirm my cousin has somehow managed to once again get what she wants. Even the things she did not know she wanted.
“Congratulations, A’Ry,” I say, truly impressed.
“Thank you,” she answers. And only now does she press a graceful hand to the top of her ridges.
But the unprecedented warm moment between us is interrupted by a sudden banging on my door.
“Uncle Xar! Uncle Xar!” a small voice calls out. Glee.
I rush to the door and palm it open.
I find the hybrid child outside my door, alone, with water leaking from her eyes.
“What is amiss, Glee? And where is Zin’nia.”
Chapter Forty-Five
This is why we can’t have nice things. The ancient old planet saying flashes through my mind as I try to keep my lolling head upright.
A prideful “told you she’d be out this way if we waited long enough,” was all the warning I had gotten when Glee and I came out to the redwoods to search for more ibuprofen weed. Then Dan and Phil had appeared from behind the trees where they’d been hiding.
“Run, Glee!” I had yelled as soon as Dan grabbed me by the front of my shirt. “Get T’Kan!”
My little niece, obviously not used to abandoning people in their time of need, hesitated.
But then Dan had said, “Yeah, run along, Halfie. Go tattletale to that fucking alien. But only to Goldie, and tell him no guns. If I see any of those other Xal fucks coming this way, or if he brings a weapon, I’ll slit her throat and that will be on you.”
“No…” I’d said, hanging off of Dan’s fist. “This isn’t your fault, Glee. No matter what happens, none of this is your fault.”
That’s the truth, but I could see the guilt written clear in the small hybrid’s eyes as she looked from me to Dan, obviously torn over what to do. In the end, she took off running back toward the settlement and the alien ship.
Then Dan had delivered his first punch, holding nothing back. The first one had been for, “siccing that goddamn alien fuck on me.” The second because, “I told you what I’d do if you tried to take my woman away from me.” And the third one had been for, “keeping us waiting for so many days because you were too busy fucking that alien to come out to the woods immediately after my wife beating like your usual predictable self.”
The funny thing is, I might not have come to the woods at all. The medical unit on the ship has soundly dealt with Nova’s pain. But I had been telling Glee about an idea I had to bring some samples of the herbs we used to control pain back to the Xalthurian ship, to see if we could use its food replicators to make more for the people who didn’t yet have access to the ship’s medical unit. And she’d begged me to take her with me to the red woods.
Poor thing, she’d spent an old planet year trapped with her mother in Dan’s house. And now she was finally able to attend colony school, she’d found a new love for any place that wasn’t living quarters. She would often convince me to let her tag along on all my errands, including visiting the food stands, just so she wouldn’t have to go inside a moment before last meal.
I’d found myself unable to deny her and agreed to let her come with me.
I have never regretted a decision more.
As it turns out, taking a punch is nowhere near as easy as it looks in the old planet entertainments. Much less three. I am surprised that there is so much power behind his punches considering he is still recovering from T’Kan’s beating. But I suppose rage is a strengthening emotion.
I fall to the ground on the third punch and had to fight hard not to pass out when they picked me up and tied me to the tree.
It didn’t take long after that to figure out why they not only didn’t stop Glee from getting away, but actually encouraged her to get T’Kan. As soon as I was secured, Dan brought out a photon gun.
My body is begging for relief from the pounding in my head. My eyes are drooping but I force them open. I want to pass out. I want to pass out so bad, but I can’t just let T’Kan walk into this ambush.
I have to stay awake. Have to warn T’Kan not to come within shooting range…
Yes, this is definitely why we can’t have nice things, I think bitterly, as I watch Dan blow the branches off nearby trees with his stolen photon gun. Meanwhile, Phil patrols back and forth in front of my tree with a shiv in one hand, ready to slit my throat as soon as Dan gives him the command.
Kira had worked so hard to prove to the Xalthurians that humans were, as a race, not horrible and self-serving. But look at Dan. I’ve never eaten the old planet fruit referred to as an apple, but I’m now beginning to understand why it’s said that one bad once can ruin the bunch.
“Why?” I ask Phil. “Why are you helping him do this? What do you think killing him will prove?”
“You should’ve come out with me, instead of getting back together with that alien fuck,” he says, like that’s the actual answer to my question.
Moons, he makes my head hurt even worse. But I press on through the pain to ask, “What do you think the Xalthurians will do if you kill him? And how about your own people? How will you explain this to them after he’s spent weeks doing all of their work?”
“Dan’s got a plan. He’s going to tell the others that the Xalthurian was trying to take Nova from him because he wanted to breed her, too. They’ll understand why we couldn’t let him get away with that.”
My mind nearly shuts down at his answer, because, “That is a horrible plan!”
Yes, T’Kan has only been here for two weeks to Dan’s two decades. And my fellow New Terrhans don’t know T’Kan like I do. Don’t know how honorable he can be. How seriously he takes his duty, except when it comes to me. But… “Dan’s explanation won’t fly with the Xals, who—in our present state—are superior to us in every way. Once they get wind of T’Kan’s death, they won’t hesitate to avenge him.”
“That’s what you think,” Phil says with a sneer. “But Dan’s got some help you don’t know about. And guess what, your husband’s uncle isn’t a big fan of his either.
My eyes widen, the pounding fading to the background with this new revelation. “What!?”
“Here he comes!” I hear Dan call out.
Oh moons, no!
“T’Kan don’t come any closer!” I cry out. “It’s a trap! They’ve got photon guns!”
“Shut that traitor bitch up!” Dan says, appearing with his photon gun raised in my peripheral vision.
Phil clamps a hand down over my mouth.
But it works.
T’Kan comes to a stop and taps the royal insignia on his uniform. “I am here as you asked,” he says, his voice amplified enough to reach us even at this distance.
“Fuck no,” Dan yells back. “You weren’t willing to meet with me after you took Nova from me. You ignored all my messages and tried to embarrass me in front of my people by not allowing me on your ship. Well, I got your attention now, don’t I? You came to me.”
“Yes, I am,” T’Kan answers. “So now you will put the photon guns down and let your Qel Regent go.”
“If you’re talking about this traitor bitch, I’m ashamed to call her my sister. I’ll die before I call her my queen.”
“That can be arranged,” T’Kan says, his smoky voice low and dangerous. “Easily. I will not let you take her from me.”
“You took Nova from me!” Dan screams. “You think I care about you or this traitor bitch?”
“You hurt Nova and because of your own actions, she chose to leave you. I have learned recently that one cannot be truly loved by a female they keep caged. It was a hard lesson to digest. But if you had done the work to prove yourself worthy of your female’s love, perhaps one day she would have come back to you. As it is…”
Thanks to my bionic eyesight I can see the way T’Kan’s eyes darken over his flattened ridges. “You will die here for your actions this day.”
Beside me, Dan’s face contorts into an ugly sneer. “No…no I won’t. I’ve got a gun pointed straight at your, and my people will believe anything I tell them about how you died. I’m going to win today. And you know what? I’m going to enjoy watching your face as she dies in front of you. Phil, kill this—”
T’Kan closes the distance between us so fast Phil barely has time to raise his knife. My golden Xal grabs him by the hair before he can get it to my throat.
Phil screams, but the sound is cut off abruptly when with a simple jerk upwards, T’Kan removes his head and entire spine from his body. Then tosses both in opposite directions.
Before turning his now blood splattered face to Dan.
Dan points his gun at T’Kan, his eyes crazed with malevolent anger.
“No, don’t!” I scream.
But my plea goes unheeded. And this time my golden Xal isn’t fast enough. Dan squeezes the photon gun trigger before my T’Kan can make a move in his direction.
Chapter Forty-Six
My eyes pop open with a jerk, my body tensing like it did when Dan squeezed the trigger on his photon gun…
…and vanished right before my eyes.
Dan had found out the hard way what N’Maryah would have if she’d actually gotten her hands on Br’In’s g
un. Back during the Kaidorian war, all photon guns were calibrated to immediately vaporize any person who wasn’t registered with the Xalthurian military if they attempted to fire upon a member of the armed forces.
Relief flows through me as I look around the main suite of T’Kan’s seaside mansion and realize it was only a nightmare. Just the memory of something that happened nearly a year ago. Dan is gone, and as for T’Kan…
I nuzzle my face into his plated chest, relishing all his “still here”—and what is this? I lower my eyes with an appreciative smile. T’Kan might be sleeping, but one rather big part of him is definitely awake. I admire the way the ridges on his golden dick catch the morning light.
The morning light…
Suddenly I remember the recurring dream I used to have before T’Kan landed back in my life. Our suite on what our fellow New Terrhans have dubbed, “The Xal Colony Ship” only has one small window. But T’Kan’s ancestral home on Xalthuria has 360 degree windows in nearly all of the rooms, which means waking up to a whole lot of sun every morning.
This isn’t the first time we’ve visited Xalthuria since T’Kan and I pinky kissed to make it official. He’s required to come here quarterly to give the main Kel and the Xalthurian council a full report. But one very important thing has changed since the last time we travelled here.
We now have a little boy. Buckingham “Buck” T’Kaniteton N’Vaise was conceived the night we reunited, according to our medical toilet’s insanely accurate pregnancy notification. He’s golden and onyx and unlike his mellow big sister, an early morning riser.
This is the dream, I realize, blinking in the morning light. The dream finally come true.
And yes, my mate definitely makes loving fun.
Smiling, I start singing quietly and climb on to the mountainous alien sleeping beside me. Knowing for the first time since I met him on that fateful Breeding Ceremony night exactly what comes next.
And that it’s going to be much, much better than a romcom.
His To Steal Page 23
