Chapter 4 #2
The male Amphiran behind me gets called back to help with a larger crate, so I am the last to arrive to carry anything off the ship for now.
When my turn comes, I stop where the male before me had and watch the most beautiful female I’ve ever laid eyes on command a hoverdrone via her tablet.
It lowers a crate from an orifice in the upper deck.
She turns and smiles at me with eyes like the name of her ship, dark but warm. However, her joy quickly fades, as it commonly does when a human meets one of my kind. “Oh, you must be Jorusk.”
My voice suddenly doesn’t want to work. An urge to growl rises in me, not out of anger but out of lust. My Inferno stirs with interest, and I can’t help but steal a glimpse at her curvy body on my way to hang my head and bow gently, a Drathious custom when trying to foster trust. “Yes, ma’am.
I have assisted once before, though we did not meet then. ”
“I remember, though I admit, it’s not easy to tell the difference between you all when you have your masks on.”
A sudden sense of quietude fills me. My spark arrestor beeps once.
The drone hums beside her, waiting. Brynna studies my wings. Her eyes dance over the breadth of my shoulders with curiosity.
Afraid of overstaying my welcome, I ask, “Would you like that one unloaded?”
She steps back and nods. “Please. It’s the last one. I’m sure you’re eager to get these to your new ship, the uh…Pyralite, I think, is what Jovie called it. There are instructions with each crate. Read them carefully.”
When I take it, it is far lighter than I expected. “What is this one?”
Brynna speaks quickly, like she’s nervous. “Seeds, in case your seedlings struggle. You’ll be able to start another batch and hopefully get it right the next time.” She grimaces. “Not right as in, you might mess it up. It’s just a bit tedious. It’s easy to overwater and get root rot.”
“We have learned a lot since last time.” I thank her and know I should leave, but I don’t want to. “Are you staying a while? It would be helpful to have you watching over our shoulders.”
“I…” She looks away. “I can’t. I’m actually leaving this line of work.”
Dread sinks my stomach. My Inferno doesn’t like it either. “Why? What you do changes lives.”
She drums a finger on her tablet. “Can’t find steady and reliable help. I have to trust them with my life and all the life on this vessel.”
Brynna looks around at her ship. “I’m tired of fending off greedy Denarso and Novarks and evading Nebs. I am responsible for this whole ship, from the hull panels and defense systems to the engines and the evergreens. I can’t manage it alone anymore.”
I would help you. I would stay. I’d do anything just to see her smile again. It’s the prettiest thing I can remember. “What are you going to do with it?”
“Fieri and the Amphirans are coordinating a replacement crew. I’ve already briefed them and left instructions for all of the systems. It’s still my ship, I’m just transitioning away from operating it.”
She’s leaving, and I can’t help but feel like something is wrong.
“Where will you go?”
Brynna laughs shyly with the sweetest tones. I do everything I can to memorize her face, knowing it is likely the last time I will see her.
The light brown skin on her face darkens with a blush. “I’ve signed up for the Alien Bride Race. I’m literally taking my shuttle there as soon as we’re done.”
The race…the one Allele wants me to go to?
“When does your heat start?” I blurt.
Her eyebrows lift, and her plush mauve lips part.
“Race heat,” I specify, even though I’m already more curious about her personal heat. My Inferno wants me to reach out and touch her, release my mask, and take in her scent, and it’s a struggle to tamp it down. We’re basically strangers, and yet I can’t help but crave a touch.
Just one.
But I know if I take one, I will want another. I won’t want to let her go. And that’s playing with fire.
“Oh.” She giggles and gracefully sways between her boots. “The next race starts in three days. I’m just docking early to get my paperwork finished, get my doctor visit completed, and try to chill out after my insane week.”
She makes a goofy face and waggles her head.
“You know, Denarso leeches boring into my hull and my customers', trying to steal food. So, of course, I had to shoot them. Novarks shut down my engines with a gelblaster that gums them up. But I’ve been down that star street a few times. I just wait by the airlock. Shoot them when they enter. Drag them back into the airlock, kick them into space, and thruster my way into a different region. Then put up the shields, clean out the junk, and power on to my next mission.”
Fuck me, Brynna’s a badass. I want her more the longer I listen to her talk.
She’s comfortable in space and confronting the enemy, even if she doesn’t like it.
I don’t either, but I respect any female with the guts to stand against the worst of the worst to provide species like mine with life-saving supplies.
“And somewhere in there I find time to make deals and tend my plants,” she adds. “Automated systems have become a necessity. So it’s not as much fun as it used to be.”
“You prefer caring for the plants yourself?”
She pockets her tablet in the front compartment of her armor.
“I grew up a farmer. We had next to nothing. But planting the seeds and watching them grow into something big and beautiful that can feed people and other species… That gives me hope that we can become more, too. This automated ship is all plastic and glass and nanomachines.”
Brynna shrugs. “Which is fine. I just want to care for them myself. It’s personal that way. But supply and demand and money rule.”
“Yeah, I miss when we could focus on what matters most.”
She tilts her head and eyes me. “What matters most to you?”
I study her soft face, wishing I could admit that her smile is like a torch in the darkness to me. “Life, my brothers, my kind, and fighting for freedom.”
Brynna nods. “Souls like yours are going extinct.”
“No time for, uh, you know.”
“Starting a family?” she asks.
I breathe out slowly, wishing it didn’t feel like moments from now I was going to lose the one thing that’s made my Inferno feel the most focused it’s ever been.
“Pyraforce soldiers only get to mate when our command releases us. Mother Cinuska must release me. But my purpose to my people is more important than my personal desire, as I understand it.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. But you must be very important to them.”
“I am just a soldier, trying to do my part.”
She rests a hand on my arm. “That is honorable. I am sorry for what your kind has endured.” Brynna leans closer. “Fuck Talhuskins. They’ve iced my ship a time or two just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I hope you kick their asses.”
Now I know I don’t want to let her go. She’s got the heart of a Drathious.
“Well, I should get going. The Abr flight control center has my arrival on the schedule. If I don’t show, patrols get called to come looking.”
A fracture runs through my chest. I scramble for the words I can use to convince her to stay, but I can’t find them. “I wish you could stay, but I hope you find a mate who is good to you and can protect you like you deserve.”
She taps a button on the side of the drone, sending it back to the upper deck. “Same to you. I am going to miss this life. But… I need a change.”
I numbly bow and watch as Brynna waves and heads down another hallway. My Inferno hates me for walking back to the hangar, but I have no excuse to stay.
I carry the crate out and stack it with the others. Through a window, I see a small white transport dart out into space.
An emptiness grips me, and I feel horribly ill.
I watch until I can’t see her vessel any longer, then walk back into the suit room and rest on a bench.
Sweat beads on my skin, a rare occurrence except for when we truly are poisoned or sick.
Unmasking my face, I tear open the top of my suit and inspect myself for green veins of Talhuskin poison, but find none.
If Talhuskins see her on the Abr holofeed, and they find out she helped us, she’ll become a target.
“Already?” Eluni bursts into the room, Allele’s voice fading on her wristband. She looks down at my chest plate. “When did that happen?”
“What?”
“The green light!”
I inspect the spark arrestor and find a small green indicator in the center. “I don’t know. I mean, it beeped when I was onboard Black Sun.”
“Who were you with?”
“Why?” I ask her.
Eluni’s eyes light up with electric arcs. “Who were you with, Jorusk?”
I shrug, not wanting to answer because I don’t know what it means. “Explain what the fuck is going on first.”
She squirms like she’s frustrated. “As an experiment, I programmed spark arrestors to monitor levels and not only indicate extreme levels of activity, so we can auto-lock bulkheads on our ships, but also to determine when Storms, or Infernos like in your case, find…balance.”
“So Brynna balances me? What does that even mean?”
Eluni covers her mouth with a hand. “She just left.”
“I know. What does that mean, Eluni?” I reiterate.
Allele responds for her. “Brynna is to you as Jovie is to Aura.”
Eluni grimaces. “Probably still some residual poison in your body. You took a lot of hits, Jorusk. I’m certain that’s why you’re confused. Did you feel nothing?”
“A lot of things. But it felt so different that I didn’t know how to deal with it.” I get up and pace, my Inferno writhing inside me. “What am I supposed to do about it now? She’s already on her way to the race.”
Aura casually leans in behind Eluni, dressed in armor and decked with weapons. He crosses his arms and grins at me. “We’ve got a solution for that.”
“Is it ready?” Eluni asks him.
“I finished it a few days ago. Just been running tests. Come on, both of you.”
Eluni steps out into the hallway, and Aura motions me to him.