by Eric Vall
Chapter 1
I knocked on the metal door frame to announce my arrival, so I wouldn’t startle the beautiful princess who currently had her back to me.
“Good morning,” I said, and Sef’sla straightened up from her crouch and looked over her shoulder with a smile.
“Good morning, CT,” she hissed. Then she turned to face me completely, and I still found myself surprised to see her garbed in one of our flight suits.
Well, one of Neka’s flight suits, which was sleeveless, low-cut, and sinfully skin tight. Somehow, the outfit, which was modified for Sef’sla’s taller frame, was more immodest on the blue-skinned Almort princess than her usual, barely-there attire, but the suit kept her warm, since it was hard to keep the spaceship above sixty-five degrees with how dreadfully cold it was out in space.
“Morning,” I replied as I willed my libido down, pushed myself off the doorframe, and entered the room. “I thought I’d bring you some breakfast since you were already up and out of bed before I woke up.”
“Sorry.” Sef’sla blushed and clasped her six-fingered hands in front of her. “I was only eager to check on the babies.”
She turned to gesture to the sprouting seedlings around the room, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
With the help of Akela and Omni’s drones, Sef’sla was able to start up a small hydroponic farm in one of the rooms I’d long been using for storage. It took about four days to clear out the room and set up the equipment and irrigation system, but we had the time.
Once we’d traveled through the wormhole, we’d entered the Asteria System. It was a large solar system, and according to our scans, the only habitable planet, the one we were heading toward, was at its center, smack dab in the Goldilocks Zone of a binary star system. It had taken the Lacuna Noctis nearly a week to travel through this system, so my crew and I had busied ourselves with the farm in the meantime.
Well, the farm and long hours spent getting to know each other. Intimately. But that was beside the point and, really, there was only so much to do in space.
Yesterday, however, when we’d checked the hydrofarm, we’d found the seeds had already begun to sprout.
“Babies!” Neka had immediately gasped upon seeing the tiny, green shoots, and for the rest of the day, that’s all she’d referred to them as.
It seemed the trend had stuck.
I strode across the room to join Sef’sla and placed the plate of Almort food I was carrying on one of the tables. When I was beside the princess, I slid my hand up her back and pulled her gently against my side.
“They are kind of our babies,” Sef’sla sighed as she leaned her head against my shoulder.
“So,” I chuckled and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, “how are the kids doing?”
“They are doing incredibly well,” Sef’sla hissed, and then she stepped out of my arms to walk toward a row of sprouting seedlings. “I had my doubts. I did not think things could grow among the stars, but I was wrong. They are flourishing.”
Sef’sla turned in place to take in the hydrofarm with a gentle smile, and I couldn’t help but do the same.
The room wasn’t very large, about ten by four meters, but the long space was packed full of shelves for the plants. Most of the racks were bolted to the walls of the room so the vines of certain species could grow upward in the future, but there were also some standing racks in the middle of the space for some of the smaller plants. The cylindrical metal tubes rose in rows from the floor to just below my chest, each tube was packed with soil and irrigation lines, and the tops were cut out for the seeds to be planted. The room was muggy and warm from the grow lights that hung from the ceiling, but the heat felt relaxing rather than stifling.
I looked back to the Almort princess, and my heart kicked at the relaxed, beatific smile on her face.
“You’ve done a wonderful thing here,” I told her, since I was unable to keep my praise to myself.
“I didn’t do this.” Sef’sla blinked at me, shook her head in confusion, and waved her hand around at the equipment. “Ak’ela designed everything, and your speaking-machine built it.”
Her pronunciation of Akela’s name was adorable, but I did manage to keep this comment to myself.
“Yeah, but none of us would have even thought to bring seeds on board with us,” I argued. “Also, none of us really have experience caring for small, living things. Why do you think I have Omni instead of a dog?”
“You know I can hear you, Colby,” the AI chimed in dryly over the PA system.
Sef’sla laughed, just as I’d wanted her to, and I was a little less than sincere when I quipped back to Omni.
“Sorry, bud.”
“Apology accepted,” the AI replied.
“Honestly, Sef,” I went on as I reached out and took her hand in mine. “This farm is amazing. I can’t wait to see all the different species you have in here in a few days.”
“I could give you a tour now,” the princess hissed, and excitement gleamed in her navy colored eyes. “The seedlings might look similar, but there is such a variety. Medicinal herbs, fruits, vegetables, even some fungi and edible roots!”
I chuckled at her enthusiasm, but before I could respond, Omni cut in again.
“Colby, we are currently within sight of the planet Zalia,” the AI informed me. “Our estimated ETA is approximately two hours.”
“Thanks for the heads up, O,” I replied. “I’ll head up to the bridge in a minute. Are Neka and Akela awake yet?”
I’d left my assistant and mechanic fast asleep in bed when I woke up to find Sef’sla and bring her breakfast. We’d been up a little late last night, so I wanted them to get some extra rest.
“Akela is already on the bridge,” Omni intoned, “and Neka is currently digging deeper into the bed as she tries to hide from the lights I have turned on in your sleeping quarters.”
“Don’t be cruel, O,” I laughed with a shake of my head. “Just tell her we’ll be arriving soon, and that I’ll have breakfast waiting for her on the bridge.”
“Will do,” the AI replied, and there was a crackle of static as the PA system turned off and he, presumably, went to do as I instructed.
I turned to Sef’sla with a grin and held my arm out. “How would you like to see your first new planet? We can have the farm tour later.”
“Yes, please.” The Almort princess nodded enthusiastically as she threaded her arm through mine, and her dark blue eyes were wide with anticipation.
With that, we headed off toward the bridge, but before the door to the hydrofarm closed, Sef’sla turned back to the empty room.
“I will come back to check on you later, babiessss,” she hissed.
I couldn’t stifle my laughter as we began to walk down the hall, and the Almort princess pouted at me.
“I have read that speaking to plants helps them grow,” she argued as we wound our way through the ship’s hallways.
“Oh, really?” I asked with a smile. “What else have you read?”
In between getting the hydrofarm ready, and our occasional breaks in the bedroom, Sef’sla had taken to reading up on any medical related information that Omni had in his system and, as a supercomputer, he had quite a bit. When I’d asked why she was so curious, the princess replied that she was a skilled healer on her planet, but in the context of the greater universe, she knew next to nothing.
“I want to be useful,” she’d argued with a firm set to her jaw. “Ak’ela is the machine-healer, and Ne’ka knows what you are going to say before you say it. My purpose has always been to help the sick and wounded. If something were to happen, I want to be able to help you.”
I couldn’t argue with her reasoning, and Omni had long since suggested I hire a ship doctor, so I told the
AI to give her whatever she wanted. It had only been a few days, but she was already a font of random, but practical, knowledge.
The princess was intelligent, of that there was no question.
“Well,” Sef’sla said in response to my inquiry, “I’ve also been reading up on the history of human medicine. It is fascinating but … bloody.”
“Most human discoveries tend to be.” I winced. “What’s been your favorite thing to learn about, though?”
The princess put a finger to her full lips and hummed contemplatively.
“Perhaps tissue regeneration,” she hissed after a long moment, “or the creation of new organs, which is maybe the same thing. If a member of my people lost a limb, it was seen as a tragedy, but there were ways to adapt. However, your people have found a way to create new limbs and tissue out of nothing.”
“I’m sure they’re made out of something,” I argued. “An ancient scientist discovered that nothing in the universe can truly be created or destroyed. It’s called the first law of thermodynamics.”
“Regardless.” The princess shrugged. “It is still a miracle.”
There was that word again. She used it often, and every time I found myself enamored by her almost childlike wonder.
I wasn’t so arrogant as to take everything I had for granted. The Lacuna Noctis alone was worth nearly almost as much as the entire space station I grew up on. However, I didn’t give much thought to the technology that surrounded me, let alone the medical improvements. Those had been ingrained into human society long before I was born, so it was refreshing to see the good parts of humanity through new eyes.
We continued to converse as we made our way through the ship, and eventually, we made it to the bridge. Then a smile stretched across my face when the door slid open, and I saw my assistant and mechanic perched in their usual seats.
Well, Akela was perched. Neka was more like slumped in her chair.
“I was promised breakfast,” the cat-girl pouted in lieu of greeting me. My assistant’s normally held back hair fell in a messy, orange disarray around her head, and she yawned and knuckled at her sleepy yellow eyes.
Meanwhile, I could only think of how utterly adorable, and just a little bit delicious, she looked.
“And when have you known me to ever go back on my promises?” I teased as I pulled the plate laden with Almort fish from behind my back.
Neka perked up at the sight of food, and then she licked her lips and made grabby motions at the plate. “Never ever. You are a man of your word, CT.”
“Thank you,” I said as I handed over the food with a smile.
Neka immediately tore into the strips of purple, dried squid, and she moaned in pleasure.
“Good?” I asked rhetorically.
The cat-girl swallowed and looked up at me with glazed, yellow eyes. “Have I said I love you this morning? Because I really, really do.”
“I love you, too,” I chuckled and bent down to press a kiss to her forehead.
As my assistant gave her undivided attention to her breakfast, I turned to my mechanic to find her munching on the red speckled, blue fruit. The silver-haired woman had quickly grown tired of fish after our two-month stay with the Almort, but she was incredibly partial to their fruits and vegetables.
“Sleep okay?” I asked as I reached out and plucked a berry from her plate.
Akela playfully slapped at my hand, but I popped the fruit into my mouth with a smile before she could take it back.
“Well enough,” the mechanic replied as she narrowed her eyes at me. “Even though someone, and I won’t point any fingers, decided to keep me up really late.”
I grinned slyly as I caught the faint hint of a bruise on the juncture between her neck and shoulder under the band of her tank top.
“I didn’t hear you complaining last night,” I teased, and I reached out to snag another fruit. “I just heard you moaning my name over and over.”
This time, Akela really did slap my hand.
“Get your own,” she growled as she pulled the plate out of my reach. Her tone was surly, but the effect was ruined by the blush that stained her cheeks and by the way her mouth kept trying to twitch up into a smile.
“Okay, don’t mind if I do,” I said before I swooped in and pressed my mouth over her own.
Her lips opened immediately under mine, and I twined my tongue with hers as I pulled the sweetness of both the fruit and the mechanic back into my mouth.
When I finally moved away, Akela blinked up at me with amethyst eyes, and from the heat in them, I knew she was remembering the night before when I’d fucked her through eight orgasms.
“Thank you for sharing,” I said, and my voice was a little hoarse from the desire my crew constantly evoked in me.
Akela rolled her eyes, but she leaned up and pecked me once again on the lips. Her own were a lovely shade of red, both from the fruit and from my attention.
“You’re insatiable,” she grumbled.
Before I could say my witty response, a sharp gasp cut across the bridge.
“CT!”
I turned toward the direction of the sound and found Sef’sla practically pressed up against the viewport, and beyond her, the planet Zalia quickly grew in size as we approached.
Neka, Akela, and I silently made our way over to stand beside the Almort princess, and Sef’sla’s jaw hung agape as she gazed at the planet before us.
From my perspective, Zalia itself was a little lackluster. The planet was about thirty percent smaller than old Earth, and most of its land masses were a dull, dark gray. There were large pockets of green, however, and a number of small oceans of course, since life demanded water. Still, Zalia’s defining feature was its chain of mountain ranges that spanned the globe, and the thousands of kilometers of rocky terrain hid quite the prize beneath their slate gray surface.
Just from a visual standpoint, though, it wasn’t much to look at, but if I were to judge the planet by the expression on Sef’sla’s face alone, I would call it magnificent.
“It is … incredible,” the Almort princess hissed as she studied the planet.
I noticed she had to squint her eyes to look directly at it, since the light from the binary stars Zalia circled was more than her Almort biology was accustomed to. I was about to ask Omni to increase the tint on the viewport, but then Akela leaned over from Sef’sla’s other side and tapped the princess on the shoulder.
“Here,” the mechanic said as she handed Sef’sla two small, silver disks, about the size of an old Earth quarter.
The Almort woman took the items hesitantly and looked at the mechanic in confusion.
“Put them against your temples,” Akela instructed as she demonstrated on herself. “They’ll adhere themselves.”
“What are they?” I asked as Sef’sla tucked her hair behind her long ear fins and placed the silver disks where the mechanic indicated.
“Sunglasses,” Akela replied with a smug smirk, and just as she did, the disks activated.
Sef’sla gasped again as a translucent field of energy flashed before her eyes, and I reached out to steady her, but there was no need. The holographic screen, barely more than a flicker of light in the air, had already settled over the princess’ eyes.
“The disks project a small, translucent UV shield,” the mechanic explained as Sef’sla blinked behind the veil of energy.
It looked almost like a mirage in front of her eyes. From certain angles, I couldn’t even see it.
“The field of energy should be nearly transparent on your end,” Akela said to Sef’sla.
The princess didn’t respond, since she was too busy gawking anew at Zalia now that she could see it clearly for the first time, without the glare of the dual suns.
“Guess they work,” Akela chuckled as she looked past Sef’sla at me.
“When did you make those?” I asked with a disbelieving shake of my head. “Also, what even gave you the idea to?”
“I’ve been toying with the
thought ever since we left Proxima V. ” Akela shrugged. “I knew most other planets we visit were going to be brighter than what an Almort is used to. I tried a few prototypes of physical glasses, but I realized those would be impractical, and probably uncomfortable given her physiology.” The mechanic paused and gestured to the long fins that extended back on either side of the princess’ head before she went on. “I actually just finished those up this morning.”
“You really think of everything,” I laughed.
“Someone has to,” Akela teased with a grin.
“What is it called again?” Sef’sla abruptly asked as her shielded eyes ravenously devoured the sight of the planet.
“Zalia.” I smiled. “It’s the only habitable world in this system, which is called the Asteria System.”
The princess mouthed the names to herself, and her eyes gleamed with pure joy.
“It is beautiful,” she breathed.
“And rich!” Neka chirped excitedly from my other side.
I rolled my eyes good-naturedly at my assistant’s enthusiasm. Usually, money meant nothing to the cat-girl, as long as she had a full belly. However, the one exception I’d come to find was bright, shiny, glittery jewels.
Case in point, Neka was currently fiddling with the silver necklace I’d gotten for her in Ka’le’s marketplace, back on Proxima V. The cat-girl hadn’t taken it off her neck for a moment since I’d given it to her, and even though I knew she treasured the gift more for sentimental reasons, there was no mistaking the eager, excited look in her eyes at the prospect of more shiny presents.
“What are its riches?” Sef’sla asked as she turned to Neka and me with a curious expression.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a data pad. “O, can you bring up Zalia’s file?”
Instead of responding, the AI just streamed the information directly to my screen, which then projected the holographic image of a beautiful, silvery gem.
“This is a crystal called mior,” I explained to Sef’sla as she looked down at the hologram. “Similar minerals and gems have been found throughout the galaxies, but mior is of the highest quality. You see, crystals like these are very, very strong, nearly indestructible. Because they are so durable, they are used in most laser weaponry and devices to channel and control energy, along with other various uses, which in turn makes them incredibly valuable.”
