8. Scary Evidence from Zyloxia
SCARY EVIDENCE FROM ZYLOXIA
VERONICA
“I t’s only a few days,” Gairo reassured me while I scrubbed at my eyes, not wanting to let him see me cry at our separation. Had I known that giving Ulfar Sarah’s letter would mean that Gairo would leave for a mission far from me, I would have waited until our relationship that seemed more stable. Sarah had sent me on a trip that I really didn’t understand. I didn’t know what was going on between her and Ulfar.
While I thought back to Sarah from the initial transport, Gairo was shoving things into a backpack that unfolded with many clever pockets and webbing. He was getting into his entire flyboy uniform while I watched. His normal clothes went under his armor. I had to say that I really liked him in his armor. He looked ready to go to battle for me.
Gairo cleared his throat and looked at me meaningfully. “Promise me that you’ll be here when I get back.”
I teased him, “I have a contract to be here for a year.”
In response, I saw him wince. “I’ll be here,” I corrected myself. It was hard for him to remember that there was a deadline. Sometimes, I wondered if I needed to even mention the deadline. I wanted to stay here sometimes, even though the galaxy called me away. Maybe I could go on vacations here and still see Gairo and my baby. I didn’t know how it normally went for surrogates who wanted more of a relationship without being a wife who couldn’t leave the planet at all.
When he left and nobody could see me, I cried. I felt so conflicted between my own desire to see the galaxy using the money that I got from being a surrogate and raising a little one with Gairo, whom I was starting to really be in love with.
* * *
Gairo had told me the launch time, so I saw the ship that he was manning leave the station. Unfortunately, Zyloxia had the same idea. She came over, glancing at her communicator before she came too close.
“Oh, his surrogate. I’m so excited for Gairo’s child. Can I touch your belly?”
“Fuck off,” I said.
Her face contorted. “You’ll never have Gairo. He only sees you as a useful thing, an import to hold a baby for him.”
I wound up my fist, ready to strike her jaw. The guards separated us from each other, but in the confusion, I lifted her communicator from her belt.
* * *
Back in my cabin, I took her communicator and put it into the replicator. Gairo had shown how to replicate the things that I wanted, especially things that I bought back in the colony that they didn’t naturally have on this planet.
Score! The replicator seemed to work on the unit. I was going to have the original anonymously sent to the lost and found in the central transport station. If Zyloxia got information, I would know.
I read through a series of messages on the duplicate. There was a new one which hadn’t been opened yet. Zyloxia really did know Gairo as Tyrlyn. It didn’t say that they were actually heart-mates. The male sending the messages her to mess up my surrogacy was named Magdorian, and for some reason, he was against Gairo having a child.
As I read on, the mentions of their parents meant that Gairo had a brother named Magdorian who was working against him. I wanted to go to Gairo with this new evidence, but the part of me that had been raised in the colony didn’t want to be punished. Gairo was away anyway with Ulfar under Soren’s command. If I went to Orvox with the Intergalactic Surrogacy Agency, they probably would not intervene in warlord politics.
The idea of trying to fight Zyloxia and Magdorian alone exhausted me. I needed to find more evidence to confirm what I knew so I didn’t sound crazy when I brought it up to Gairo. I also needed to figure out if it was the omega injection or pregnancy hormones making me so tired. The third thing I needed to do was make sure that Zyloxia stayed away from both Gairo and our potential new baby.