Chapter 8 #2
Han shook her head. “You haven’t interacted with many, have you? They’re only as tall as you when they want to stand up straight, but that’s a lot of effort. Normally they keep their middle segment folded. That means I’m only a little shorter than the average folded Mishook.”
“I’ve seen plenty of Mishook this size,” Tumoro agreed.
Zeph let go of the thinsill. “Very clever,” he complimented.
“I usually am,” she agreed, causing both guys to make sounds of amusement. Something in the greenery beyond the fence shrieked, making Han jump. “That sounded big.”
“Probably,” Zeph agreed. “But the fence will keep it out.”
What would happen when they left the boundary of the protective fence? Han was used to dealing with opponents she could fight, but that was on stations and ships. This wilderness was a whole different kind of dangerous.
“Let’s get this over with,” she muttered, leading their small group to the main port building.
As she expected, there wasn’t anyone inside. She walked up to a bank of kiosks and started searching for what they needed. First was transportation.
“It looks like the earliest we can get someone to take us to your sister is tomorrow,” she said. “But they’ll be able to jump us there, so we don’t have to travel through the forest.”
“Can they jump the supplies also?”
“Not for two days,” she said. “But it looks like they can take all three cargo containers in one jump with a bigger leaper, so that will be cheaper than paying for three individual smaller leapers.”
She arranged that and then looked for housing.
She wasn’t shocked at all to find out the place only had a few rooms available for the night.
Most visitors probably planned their expeditions out years in advance.
It had to be rare for a couple of travelers to just show up, so why have accommodations ready?
“There’re two places for us,” she said, turning to face the guys. “Thankfully they’re not too far apart.”
Tumoro didn’t take his attention off the vid capture behind them even as he made a little excited sound. “We can share the room, Elder. That way First Matriarch Han can have a room all to herself.”
“We’re going to give you the room by yourself,” Han said and looked behind her.
Tumoro had turned to face her, looking at her over Zeph’s shoulder. “I’ll be alone?”
Han was afraid of this. As an Ugarian, Tumoro was used to sharing a room, and often a bed, with siblings and maybe even a husband or two. Ugarian families were large, complex, and often a little chaotic. It wasn’t uncommon for them to end up sleeping in big puppy piles.
Until he was shunned, Tumoro probably never spent a night alone. She was sympathetic to his distress, but she wasn’t going to relent. Especially because she didn’t know what the sleeping arrangements would be like at Zeph’s sister’s compound.
She wasn’t giving up her one chance at alone time with Zeph. Even if all they did was some kissing and petting, she needed it!
“It’s for one night,” Han assured him. She expected more argument and appeals, but then Tumoro waggled his ears suggestively.
“Oh!” he exclaimed. “I understand.”
Han laughed as she turned her attention back to the kiosk.
She dug her information square out of her bag to pay for everything.
Zeph was pressed against her back, his body tense.
She couldn’t tell if it was because of the vid capture behind them or thinking about meeting his sister as soon as tomorrow.
She stifled a sigh of regret as the credits flowed from her account to fund everything. It was a testament to Zeph’s distraction that he didn’t comment about trying to pay. She’d seen his finances when they’d been ordering medical supplies for Tumoro to pick up.
He didn’t even have enough to replace his ship’s fuel rounds when they expired. The current fuel rounds would get them back to Yormun, maybe. After that, Zeph wouldn’t be going anywhere without her help.
Not only was he not going to provide her with the last of the credits she needed to retire from bounty hunting, but by the end of this adventure, he was going to cost her quite a bit.
But that was a future problem. Right now it was about getting Zeph alone so she could enjoy his tantalizing smell without an audience!
Once she had the confirmation and the kiosk display returned to the default menu, she turned to face the guys. She held up her information square with a map of the port town.
“There’s no restaurant or anything like that, but it looks like each room comes with a food packet distributor and reconsitutor. Eat your fill, Tumoro. The food is cheap, and tomorrow is probably going to be a long day.”
“I’ll be ready,” he said.
“Good,” she said then turned to lead them out of the building into the twilight beyond. The sun had set in the time it took her to deal with the kiosk.
A glance back showed a port bright with artificial light.
Although the town wasn’t as well lit as the port, there was still enough illumination to navigate.
She followed the simple map to where Tumoro would be staying.
There was a short row of tiny individual domiciles, and he was in one of the middle units.
“It’s only a little smaller than the ship,” she joked, walking in with him. She checked to make sure the cleansing unit worked and the food packet distributor was full then returned to the doorway where Zeph stood waiting for her.
“Enjoy yourself,” she said. “I’ll come get you in the morning.”
Far from looking intimidated or upset, Tumoro appeared interested. “I can really eat as much as I want?”
“Yup,” Han answered. Tumoro’s eyes kept jumping between the food area and the cleansing unit. He barely spared her a glance as she left with Zeph.
“Bye!” Tumoro called out as the door shut.
Han laughed again. The young Ugarian was probably going to spend several hours in the cleansing unit then eat most of the food packets before falling into a coma!
Han pointed to the last in the row. “We’re in that one.”
Zeph followed her closely. She wasn’t too worried about him being noticed by any vid captures. There’d only been one at the port, which should’ve had the highest security. She doubted there were any outside the port.
Soon they were inside the domicile. With a sigh, she pulled off the thinsill then her bag and set both down on the small table in the food preparation area.
“That’s a relief,” she said, stretching her arms up. “I didn’t think there’d be much to worry about, but it’s still nice that there were no issues.”
When he didn’t respond, she turned to find him standing just inside the door. His sapphire eyes were trained on her like a predator.
“Zeph?”
“Give me permission,” he said in a voice so low it made her shiver.
“Permission?” she whispered.
“I need to touch you. I need to rub my bonding oil all over your body. If that’s not acceptable, the only recourse is for me to go stay with Tumoro.” He pulled in a deep breath then growled. “Give me permission to strip you down or tell me to leave.”
She opened her arms. “Stay.”