Kyle joined her at the base of the ramp, taking a relaxed stance. Still, Zana felt his tension.
“Mom, Dad, this is Kyle Kepler. I’d have never made it back without his help.” Her mother’s eyes widened as she looked back and forth between Kyle and Zana. “Kyle, this is my mom and dad, Shaunna and Drath Starchild.”
Kyle extended his hand toward her father. “Sir, it’s good to meet you.”
Drath took the offered hand. “You have my thanks and the gratitude of the whole planet, Kyle. And call me Drath. We’re not formal here.”
After shaking her father’s hand, Kyle extended his hand to her mother. Shaunna pushed the hand aside to wrap her arms around his waist, hugging him. “Thank you for helping my baby. We’ve been so worried.”
Kyle smiled broadly. “It’s been my pleasure to help. Zana’s a very brave woman.”
Zana let out the breath she’d been holding.
They had done it, and they’d done it.
And she was home.
Kyle paced the small study, eyeing the familiar face of the man he’d never met before. Ten years older, but remarkably the same as the hologram he’d been shown while searching for Onwin Cantori on Old Earth a decade earlier.
“The galaxy has spent ten years looking for you.” Kyle tried to keep it light, though accusation rang in his tone.
Onwin shrugged. “I doubt that. And when I first got here, there was no way to communicate off planet. It took me four years to build this terminal.”
“Why not tell someone after that?”
“I didn’t think anyone cared, and I certainly didn’t plan to go back to the Core Worlds by then. I like it here, and I have my Val. Seriously, Kyle, does anyone back there really care?”
Kyle nodded. “Mysteries tend to linger in the public mind, especially when they center around someone as famous as you. You had the Core Worlds’ eye on you for weeks when you disappeared.”
“Really?” Onwin’s eyes widened. “I thought they’d forgotten about my one little accomplishment.”
“Little?” Kyle found the man’s humility refreshing. “The librarian who discovered the lost Amazon archives and brought millions of historical documents back from virtual death?”
The data wars of 2037 had crippled the big corporations, brought down the Old Earth Internet, and plunged the planet into a dark age lasting four decades.
“I got lucky.” Onwin shook his head. “I didn’t discover as much as stumble across the ancient records.”
“You’re quite famous throughout the galaxy. Even more so after your disappearance.” Kyle chuckled as the man’s cheeks reddened.
Onwin shook his head. “I never dreamed . . .”
Kyle nodded. “Search your name on Galaxynet sometime. You’ll be surprised.”
Onwin patted the terminal, the one connection to the outside galaxy on Konga 10. “Kind of a waste of processing time for this old workhorse. In any case, I don’t care. As far as the galaxy’s concerned, I can stay dead. I’m not going back.”
“Not even for some decent food?”
A wistful look played across Onwin’s face. He clutched his stomach, which grumbled.
Everyone Kyle had seen since arriving on Konga 10 was gaunt and malnourished. He’d seen the scant seedling crops, empty fields, and vacant farmyards. The population was in dire straits and the animals they’d delivered were only the start of the planetary recovery. They’d need time to breed and grow. Time Konga 10 didn’t appear to have.
“Why didn’t you send to the Galactic Marshals for help? In an emergency like this, you only have to contact the authorities on any Core World and they’ll give you what you need.” There was no lack of food or ships in the Core Worlds. Something would certainly have been done.
Onwin turned from the terminal to confront Kyle. “The Konga 10 tribe is a proud people. They’d refuse any outside help.” He lowered his voice, as if to avoid being overheard even though they were alone in his study. “I did send two messages to the Galactic Marshals for help a few months back, hoping for some assistance. I never got a response. Maybe I should have identified myself.”
“No response?” Someone somewhere had fracked up. A starving population should have set off some red flags in the system. When he got back to work, Kyle would certainly check into what happened on the other end.
Steps echoed down the hallway beyond. A savory aroma wafted through the doorway. Kyle sniffed appreciatively. “Something smells good.”
A grin widened across Onwin’s face. “My Val is an excellent cook, even with limited resources.”
Val Cantori entered the study with a tray full of steaming biscuits. A statuesque beauty in her mid-forties, Val bore a remarkable resemblance to her much shorter niece. “I thought maybe you two could use a snack.”
A little girl of perhaps two years toddled behind, dragging a blanket with her.
Zana entered next carrying a tray with four glasses filled with a greenish brown liquid and ice chips. Condensed moisture glistened on the rims. “Aunt Val broke into her private larder to make something delicious.”
Val put her tray on the desk, then waved a hand at Zana. “Oh, pft. There wasn’t much left. They’re still mostly kelp, just a new way I’ve found of preparing it.”
The biscuits certainly had a more appealing flavor than Zana’s kelp bars, but had the feel of subsistence food. The drink, a kelp-based iced tea, offered little refreshment.
“Very good.” As the little girl trundled toward him, Kyle broke off a piece and handed it to her as he’d seen the others doing.
The laughter in Val’s eyes told Kyle he hadn’t sold the lie. “Thank you.”
She turned to Zana and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I like him.”
Zana beamed him a smile. “Me too.”
Kyle’s gaze swept the empty butcher shop as an idea percolated in his mind. “A lot of space here.”
“That’s because it’s empty.” Drath’s heavy sigh spoke volumes. This couldn’t be easy for someone who’d been responsible for providing food for the population of the planet. “It’s going to take months . . . years really, to bring the herds back to where I can fill the shop with meats once again. Another half-season until I can even get a little produce.”
These people were desperate. Famine was rampant throughout the population. They needed food, and they needed it now. Even the kelp fields were starting to run out, and it would take a few breeding cycles to bring the herds and flocks to where they could feed the planetary population once again.
Drath’s butcher shop was centrally located, making it even more perfect to Kyle’s idea. “I’m going to bring the ship here and park out back.” There was a large backyard available. “I’m going to use the food replicator to fill your shelves with foodstuffs.”
Zana’s eyes widened and a bright smile played across her lips. “Kyle, that’s a brilliant idea. We could even set up tables outside and serve fresh, hot meals. But do you have enough of that stuff to feed thousands of people?”
Kyle nodded. “I packed a few extra crates of lacto-proteins in the cargo hold. And we can search Galaxynet to find the closest planet to buy more, then just go get it.”
Drath shook his head. “We’d need galactic credits to buy there, wouldn’t we?”
Kyle pointed to his left forearm where his implanted credit chip rested. “I’ve got credits. Lacto-proteins are cheap. The whole galaxy lives on them.”
No one starved on any of the Core Worlds.
After a short instructional session, Zana began working the food replicator, using recipes Kyle programmed in, while Kyle flew the ship toward the town. The machine made food production easy and fast. By the time Kyle landed the ship in the field behind Drath’s butcher shop, she’d produced a dozen crates-full of vario
us non-perishable foodstuffs.
Kyle hauled the crates into the shop, then took over production, freeing Zana to help her parents. As Shauna and Droth stocked shelves, a curious crowd gathered at the front door and peered through the windows.
Soon the shop was flooded with people. Zana snagged some volunteers to set up tables outside, allowing diners to dive into this strange new food on site. Once tasted, demand for the new foodstuffs soared, and the shop shelves emptied as fast as they were filled.
Kyle produced as fast as the machine would allow, while Zana taught an impromptu session on how to prepare the packaged lacto-protein products.
By the end of the day, a sated population returned home from the spontaneous festival that had arisen, with full bellies and meals for the next day.
As the last customer left the shop, Zana turned the door sign to closed. She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Tired muscles ached even as satisfaction settled in the pit of her stomach.
Her father scowled and pounded his fist on the counter. “There are times I curse our forefathers for backteching. We need to be brought into this century. We should have had this technology to tide us over. We need more of it, now. But we have no industry, nothing to trade the galaxy at large would even want.”
Kyle stood at the back of the shop, leaning on the doorpost, listening to Drath Starchild’s lament.
Inspiration struck.
“Yes you have, or you will have once your herds and flocks are reestablished.” Excitement had Kyle’s stomach flipping. “Real food, something the galaxy has completely forgotten about.”
Drath raised an eyebrow at him. “Really?”
“Sure, lacto-proteins are tastier than kelp, but they pale in comparison to the chicken Zana cooked me on Old Earth. The galaxy has sacrificed taste for convenience. Konga 10 could specialize in real food products.”
“It’s just meats and fresh vegetables. Nothing fancy.” Drath threw his arms wide.
“It’s like my shower back home.” Kyle warmed to his idea. “The galaxy doesn’t even know what it’s missing. Fresh, real food will be the next booming luxury item.”
Drath shook his head, chuckling. “Are you telling me the galaxy is going to be excited to eat chicken?”
“Exactly!”
Chapter 11
Kyle sat at the table later that evening, Zana at his side, enjoying a hearty repast. Drath, Shaunna, Onwin, Val and a bevy of children joined them in the feast.
Kyle wasn’t sure which child belonged to which couple. There were a dozen of them ranging in age from toddler to adolescent.
“We’ve certainly earned this today,” Drath said between mouthfuls.
Children fared better than adults overall, showing the community had come together to protect them, sacrificing for their young. Kyle noted most around the table ate like it was their last meal.
Everyone he’d met on Konga 10 had been pleasant and civil, even in the midst of crisis. It spoke volumes about what kind of people lived here. Good, decent folk.
“We’ll move the food replicator and the rest of the lacto-proteins into the backroom of your shop so you can continue to produce while I go get more supplies and a couple more of the machines for backup. Your people will never go without again, if I can help it.”
“We’ll pay you back, Kyle, I promise.” Drath eyed him across the table. “Just as soon as we get this whole mess up and running and acquire some galactic credits.”
These were a proud people, Kyle could easily see. Drath certainly hated the thought of being indebted to anyone. “I consider it a sound investment.”
Best to change the subject before things got heavy.
Kyle leveled his gaze on Onwin. “Tell me more about this Soul Mate Tree.”
“Yes, of course. A magic tree. I can imagine you’d wonder how someone from the Core Worlds could even believe in something so fantastical.” Onwin’s eyes never flinched. He met Kyle’s gaze head on. “I certainly didn’t come to believe lightly. I’m not sure I even truly believed until the Soul Mate Tree brought me here.”
Kyle nodded. He was struggling, yet could come up with no other explanation for the whole mess. It had to be either technology beyond anything he’d ever encountered . . . or magic. “How did you discover it?”
“I was digging in the Amazon vault, translating some texts written in the early twenty-first century from old English to galactic common, and I came across numerous mentions of the Soul Mate Tree. Almost a dozen. Some from well-known storytellers of that age. C.D. Hersh, April Luna . . . Tina Susedik, for crying out loud. Surely you’ve heard of her work.”
He had. Some literary names echoed across the centuries. Chaucer, King, Glipsbane, Susedik. Who hadn’t heard of them?
Onwin took a drink, then continued. “I cross-referenced everything with some of the rescued information from the Old Earth Internet and found still more references to the legend. Blog posts, interviews with the authors, some fan fiction.”
Onwin shook his head. “Look, I know it was sketchy information to go on, a few old tombs and dubious references, but when I learned of the timber culling on Old Earth, I felt I may never get a chance to check it out if I didn’t go right then. They were cutting everything.”
“So you hitched a ride with the protesters.” He had Kyle’s full interest.
“Dozens of ships were going every day. They were taking anyone who wanted to join the movement. I didn’t really care one way or the other, but I convinced them I was on their side, then slipped away after landing.”
“And you found it?” Kyle pressed, wanting to know every detail. “On a whole planet, where millions of trees were being cut every day, you found one specific tree.”
“No.” Onwin shook his head. “It found me. One moment that field was completely clear, already cut clean. The next, that tree appeared right in front of me. It matched every description I’d ever read. I reached out in wonder to touch the trunk . . . and ended up half a galaxy away, in Val’s lap.”
With a turn of a bolt, Kyle finished the installation of the food replicator in the back room of Drath’s butcher shop. Powered by a jury-rigged solar collector, the machine would be able to produce enough food to feed the population for the next few days with the lacto-proteins that were left.
He stood. Zana came up from behind, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him. “I hate that you have to leave.”
“I hate leaving you.” He spun in her arms to confront her, then laced his fingers through her hair and drew her in for a kiss.
So sweet, so tender. Everything he’d ever been looking for in one compact, sexy, adorable package.
His . . . soul mate.
“Once we get this situation taken care of, get people eating again, I want you to know, I plan to move here. Be with you always. Is that okay with you?” There was nothing back in the Core Worlds for him. Nothing worth leaving the woman in his arms at that moment.
“There.” Zana pointed to the small house on the display and Kyle maneuvered the ship to land in the yard beside it.
A hint of cow manure colored the cool, fresh air as he descended the ramp to the grassy lawn. Not completely unpleasant. Something he’d probably get used to if he was going to live here.
Zana’s home was a wood-constructed, cozy looking cottage. The neat, trimmed lawn ran up to the fenced-in pasture land. A couple of the new cows had found their way over and were lazily munching the long grasses.
One of the cattle mooed as Zana approached the front door of her house.
She sighed. “I’ve missed that. Without animals in the pastureland, it gets way too quiet out here.”
Kyle had to admit, there was a certain air of serenity. Comfortable, quiet. Other homes lined the pasture, but at a distance that assured privacy. So diffe
rent from the apartments piled on top of each other amidst the clamor and congestion of a Core Worlds’ inner cities.
“You live here alone?” He took in another deep breath of the cool evening air.
She nodded as she opened the front door. “I needed to get out of Mom and Dad’s place. Too many brothers and sisters underfoot. This was available.”
A clean, comfortable living space greeted him inside. “This is nice.”
“It’s small, but it’s all mine.” She led him down a short hallway, opening a door to a bedchamber. Mischief twinkled in her eyes as she turned to him. “Only one bedroom. We’re going to have to share.”
He needed some rest before starting his mission to retrieve more lacto-proteins, and the current food supply allowed for more than enough time. The crisis had been averted.
Still, rest wasn’t the first thing on his mind. “Come here.”
He drew Zana into his arms, enjoying the lushness of her pliant breasts against his chest. His cock rose and tightened as he plundered her mouth.
Her arms hugged his neck and she jumped up without ever breaking the kiss, wrapping her legs around his hips and grinding her core against his erection.
He drank her in, relishing the heat and desire of her kiss.
She broke the kiss with a gasp. “Love me.”
He spun her toward the bed, then dropped her onto the mattress. “I do and I will.”
Shucking off his vest, he dropped it to the floor. Then he yanked off his boots. Naked lust overwhelmed him as his gaze swept her lush curves. He reached into his pants pocket, grasping the handful of condoms, then dropped them on the nightstand.
He didn’t need rest half as much as he needed her.
Zana tugged up her shirt, pulling it over her head, then sat up to divest herself of shoes and slacks. The sooner they both were naked, the sooner the desire boiling within would be satisfied. At least for a little while.
Between Venus & Mars (The Soul Mate Tree Book 3) Page 10
