by A. G. Wilde
This would never be his, this life.
It was all just a dream...only fleeting.
As her breathing evened out, he draped his arms around her and held her close, burying his face into the pale strands covering her head.
Who knew if he would ever experience anything even close to this ever again?
“It wasn’t nothing to me...” he murmured into her hair.
She was fast asleep. For once, he could be honest with himself and with her as well.
“It meant everything to me, that kiss.” His eyes closed as he accepted that truth. “Everything.”
17
He wasn’t there when she woke up the next morning and Evren immediately missed his presence.
The spot on the bed where he’d slept was still warm and she could even still feel his arm draped around her.
When she’d jolted awake in the night, he’d pulled her closer to him and she had fallen right back asleep.
It was the first time she’d felt so calm in someone else’s presence. Her cat, Nigel, had been the only other being she could relax so easily around.
Taking up her datapad, she realized he’d left it on the bed for her. As she activated the device, there was a message on the screen.
“More warm liquid for you in the warmer.”
That was all.
Evren’s face fell and she leaned back in the bed, staring at the wall in front of her.
Her dreams had been dominated by being lost in the forest with those disgusting toad-aliens, the Tasqals, chasing her. Only, she wasn’t a kid anymore. She was a grown woman.
Rolling her shoulders, she ran her hand over where Kyro had slept before throwing her legs over the side of the bed.
It’d felt so good having him there holding her.
Was that what the other human women were experiencing? They had that every day. Every night.
She’d be lying to herself if she pretended she didn’t want that too.
As she entered the kitchen, the light of the warmer—a cylindrical device that acted similar to a microwave—was on. Opening the lid, she smiled as she saw the cup of tea.
She didn’t know how he’d done it or what he’d used, but he’d been right. Just like chamomile, it had a real relaxing effect on her.
Tapping on her datapad, she reread his message and typed a “Thank you” back before accessing the server.
Her nightmare the night before had her feeling anxious. A change needed to be made.
Today was the day she found a job.
Biting her lip, she tapped her finger on the datapad’s screen.
She didn’t even know how she would go about doing that.
A job? How would she even find one?
Accessing the server, she typed in the only logical thing she could: jobs near me.
There was a little ping and the datapad asked, “Would you like to search for positions on the Restitution’s base?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Searching.” A second passed. “Here is a list of available positions.”
Eyes narrowed in thought as she scrolled down the list, Evren searched for something she could do. At first, she had high hopes there would be some sort of research position but there was none. All she could see were positions related to actual fighting or off-world duties.
She didn’t want that.
She was about to put the datapad away and get dressed when one post popped up that got her attention.
“Shuttle cleaner. Four hundred and twenty credits daily. No experience needed just show up and work hard.”
Ship cleaner?
Not exactly what she was looking for, but it was something.
She hovered her finger over the ‘Apply’ button for a few seconds.
As her finger descended on the button, Evren bit her finger on the other hand.
A green message appeared next with the message: APPROVED. Next shift begins in 00:59.
The hell?
Evren’s eyebrows rose. She hadn’t expected it to be that easy.
And it looked like she didn’t have much time to prepare.
Rushing to her bedroom to get ready, she took a deep breath.
She could do this.
This was phase one of her re-independence.
Dressed in cargo shorts and a tucked-in vest, Evren followed the directions on the datapad.
Surprisingly, it was taking her in the direction of the market.
As she walked past Kyro’s residence, her eyes lingered on the building but with a deep breath, she continued on her way.
There was tension between them. She could feel it every time they were around each other now and the more time they spent together, the stronger it became.
She didn’t know how she was going to face him again. She’d told him their kiss meant nothing then she’d invited him to cuddle with her in bed.
She would facepalm herself if she didn’t need to see where she was going.
She also needed to see who and what was around her. The events of the previous day were still fresh in her memory, but she’d taken precautions. She’d carried the cutting instrument tucked into the waist of her shorts and nestled against her spine. As for added protection, she’d told the datapad to contact Kyro at her command.
If Shive planned to make a move, she was ready for him. Or, as ready as she’d ever be.
That’s why she’d loaded the route to this new job onto her datapad. Whatever she was following was like a GPS and it tracked her movements, telling her how long till she got to her destination and it took her straight there. No detours.
She wasn’t going to give Shive an advantage by getting lost.
The path she was following took her through the market and out the other end where she came upon a sort of parking lot.
Rather, it was a wide-open space of unpaved ground with several dirty, beat up space shuttles parked there.
Eyeing them, Evren squeezed her lips together into a thin line.
Yeaaa, this was going to be hard work all right.
She was just about to wander around and look for the alien running the place when a tall, beefy alien with pink skin walked from behind one of the ships and toward a rickety metal building off to the side.
“Ex-excuse me.”
Maybe she hadn’t been loud enough because the alien continued walking as if he hadn’t heard her.
He was dressed in the standard Restitution kit but his was tattered and old from wear. His black trousers were now gray and his white vest more of a beige color.
“Excuse me!” She hurried behind the alien, raising her voice to get his attention. He turned then and she almost gasped, fighting to keep her expression neutral.
He looked like a pig. Snout and all. Except that his hands weren’t hooves and he didn’t have those folded over ears. She couldn’t see his ears; he had none—just two holes on either side of his head.
He regarded her for a second. “You the new recruit?”
She guessed so. “Y-yes. I suppose so.” Smiling brightly, she extended her hand for a handshake.
The alien just looked at her outstretched hand.
“Guess you don’t do handshakes.” She withdrew her hand.
The alien grunted before jerking his head in the direction of the ship he’d just exited.
“Start with that one. Payment at the end of the day. Supplies are over there,” he said, jerking his head in another direction.
Turning to where he motioned, Evren saw the “supplies.” It was some machines she had no idea how to use.
Turning back to the alien to ask for his assistance in that regard, she was surprised to see that he’d already walked off and was almost within the shelter.
The door to the shelter slammed shut as did her open mouth.
Well, it seemed as if this was going to be...different from how she’d imagined.
Slipping her datapad into one of her pockets, she walked over to the machines.
They all looked
like robots that had gone out of service and now their parts were being used without them being active anymore.
One looked like a polisher, but she had no idea what she was up against yet.
She’d start simple.
Luckily there was a container with water and a piece of material she could use as a wiping cloth.
Lifting the two, she headed over to the ship she was told to clean. With the door already open, she stepped inside, her nose scrunching up at the state of the interior.
There was food and debris everywhere, over the seats, the floor...there was even food on the roof of the vessel. Not to mention the thick layer of dirt that coated everything.
What the hell had they been doing in this vehicle?
With a slight groan, she surveyed the work and decided to begin at the back of the small shuttle, working her way forward.
As she began gathering trash and placing it in a container she’d found within the trash itself, her datapad pinged.
Frowning slightly, she slipped the device from her pocket and the screen lit up to her touch.
It was a message from Kyro.
She’d never clicked on anything so fast in her life.
“What are you doing?”
Evren cringed.
It felt almost as if he could see her. So much so that she actually looked out of the windows of the shuttle.
There was no one out there except for the pig-man resting within the rickety shelter.
“I’m working.”
“On what?” His reply came immediately and Evren put down the bag of trash so she could send her answer faster.
“I got a job.”
She could almost feel him narrowing his eyes at her. “Why?”
“I need the credits. Long story.”
“If you need credits...I have many to spare.”
He was being so nice, but she couldn’t do that.
She wasn’t even sure she was going to go to the Intergalactic Hub. She just needed the credits just in case. She couldn’t have someone else fund a “just-in-case” mission. Plus, being out and doing something was good. It kept her busy. Even if it was cleaning dirty vehicles.
“No. No, I couldn’t take your credits. This is about me being sad and miserable and I think I need to do this on my own. That way I won’t feel guilty for taking so much from you. You’ve already given me much more than you realize.”
She watched the message send and bit her bottom lip. She hadn’t intended to go into so much detail. She’d said a little too much and she wondered what his response would be.
After a few moments, his reply came.
“I can help with your sadness.”
“How?” She was already smiling. She didn’t even know why.
“Jokes.”
That one word had her huffing out a laugh through her nose.
Jokes huh.
Her smile grew.
Her datapad pinged before she could return it to her pocket and she read the message that came up.
“A bowl of moofla...that’s food if you don’t know. Moofla is food. Solid food that you must chew.”
Before she could ask if that was his joke, another message came in.
“A bowl of moofla walks into a drink establishment. It proceeds to order some drinks. The drinks administrator looks at it and says, ‘Apologies, we don’t serve food here.’”
Evren’s brows wrinkled even as her cheeks rose, the laugh coming from her lips unexpectedly. Kyro’s jokes were so corny; she had to laugh even if she tried not to.
“Your jokes suck,” she sent back to him.
“Made you laugh.”
Now how was he so sure?
Once more, she glanced out of the shuttle and then mentally slapped herself. Of course, he wasn’t out there. He didn’t even know where she was.
“How are you so sure?”
There was a pause before his message came in. “I just know.”
Grinning, Evren rolled her eyes.
“I’ve got one for you.” She sent the message and paused to think for a bit. “What do you call a fake noodle?”
She waited for his reply.
It came soon afterward. “What?”
“An im-pasta.”
She burst out laughing at her own joke, her eyes crinkling at the corners as she looked out of the shuttle. He probably didn’t know what pasta or noodles were, but her joke was hilarious. Hands down.
Her laugh must have been loud because the pig-man turned his head in her direction, his nose pulling up in a snort.
Stifling her laughter, she glanced at her datapad as it pinged again.
“Your jokes suck too.”
That almost made her double over and she had to cover her mouth to keep her laughter in.
Better she get off the datapad before she got fired when she hadn’t even started working yet. She hadn’t come out today to set the record for the shortest bout of employment.
Sending a message that she wouldn’t be able to reply but that he could send her messages whenever he wanted, Evren set off to work.
18
All day, Kyro sent her the lamest jokes he could find. At least, that’s what she assumed. His sense of humor was just as corny as hers was. Not only did his constant messages make her day go faster but it almost felt as if he’d spent the entire day with her there, as if she was in his presence.
Neither of them mentioned what happened the night before and she was thankful he didn’t bring it up.
He also didn’t mention why he’d left before she’d woken up in the morning. She figured he’d had business to attend to.
After, all he was a soldier, a rebel...he had his own life.
The security system had been easy to arm, recognizing her biosignature and securing the place once she had exited the apartment. She assumed that was one of the reasons why he’d left so suddenly. He hadn’t needed to explain the system to her. It worked on its own.
Glancing at her datapad, Evren stretched her arms above her head and surveyed her handiwork.
An unexpected smile softened her features.
She felt filthy, in need of a long, warm bath but it felt good to have gotten her hands dirty.
As she hopped out of the shuttle, pig-man was just outside to greet her, and with greet she meant with a jerk of his head and a grunt.
He looked over the shuttle, his tiny eyes widening a little. She took that to mean he was surprised.
“Didn’t expect you to get it so...” He trailed off, snorting as he did.
“Clean?”
His tiny black eyes surveyed her. “Clean.” He snorted, flipping his datapad from his pocket and typing in some information. “Here’s your credits.” With another snort, he looked in her direction as if waiting for something.
“Where?” Evren’s gaze fell to his hands. Except for the datapad, he was holding nothing.
“Your datapad...” He snorted, his small eyes regarding her as if she was just a tad slow.
“Oh... Oh! You need the pad to”—she flipped out her pad, stretching it toward him as her voice faded—"transfer the credits.”
He touched his pad to hers without looking at the devices.
A small ping sounded and he slipped his pad into a seam in his pants where it disappeared.
“Same time tomorrow,” he grunted, snorting as he walked off.
Staring at his back as he headed toward the shelter, Evren’s eyes finally fell to the datapad.
Four hundred and twenty credits had been transferred to her account.
A surprising sense of accomplishment filled her and she grinned. She’d just earned her first paycheck on a new world, a new life, a new everything. The unanticipated pleasure of this one action shook her to her core.
All of a sudden, it felt as if she could do this.
She could live again.
Just as she’d carved a life for herself on Earth, she could do so here. It wasn’t impossible. Her life wasn’t over. If anything, these four h
undred and twenty credits, earned through her own sweat and labor, meant her life was only just beginning a new chapter.
As she turned around to leave, her eyes caught something atop one of the shuttles nearby.
It was that same animal she’d seen when she’d been walking to the market that first time. The skunkat.
At least, she thought it was the same animal. Possibly, there was more than one of them at the base.
It was just staring in her direction, staring at her, its fluffy tail swinging slowly behind it.
For a second, she forgot everything around her and where she was.
The animal’s eyes...
Even from where she stood, the deep silver of the animal’s eyes seemed to penetrate her.
There was something strange about it—the type of strangeness that almost made her skin prickle but piqued her interest instead.
She wasn’t sure if she should be scared of it or not; yet she found herself taking a few steps closer.
The animal’s bushy tail paused as it noticed her movement and it changed position to stand on its four legs, still watching her. For a second, she thought it was going to bolt but, instead, its triangular ears perked and it tilted its head at her.
“Hey there, buddy,” she whispered, stretching her hand in the animal’s direction. Maybe she had a death wish...she had no idea if the animal would lick her hand or bite it off clean...but something, she didn’t quite know what, made her trust the little thing.
The animal’s eyes focused on her hand before meeting her gaze once more. She was close enough to touch it now and still, it remained frozen.
“You’re not going to bite me, are you? You’re going to be a good little cat-skunk thing, aren’t you?” Evren whispered.
The animal did nothing. It made no sound. It just looked at her frozen in place, its tail unmoving in the air, its legs stiff.
As her palm rested on its back, she felt the animal stiffen even more underneath her touch, but it did nothing else and she let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.
“Don’t know if I should be touching you...” She stroked her hand down the animal’s back and it made a soft sound, almost like a purr but more like a rumble.
