Chapter 4
Luna: Hello gorgeous, I hope you don’t mind me contacting you this way. Khephren helped me hack into your cellular phone signal on Earth.
Gemma: Khephren? Oh! Is that the name of your pink friend?
Luna: Bingo! He’s such a big softie. As soon as I told him I wanted to talk to you more, he immediately wanted to help.
Gemma: I’m all ears. What did you want to talk to me about?
Luna: It isn’t often that I meet such a gorgeous woman. I’m not one to waste a potential romantic opportunity, especially when I could tell we were vibing earlier. *waving tentacle emoji*
Gemma: Agreed. We definitely have chemistry, although I think we made that pretty clear to everyone on your ship. *winky face emoji*
Luna: Why beat around the cosmic bush, I say. After all, we’re so much more evolved than the men on this ship. They spend way too much time dancing around their feelings rather than just going for it. *heart emoji*
Gemma: You’re a woman of action. I like that. A lot. Tell me more.
—Sent via FLIRTT (Frequency Link for Interstellar Real-Time Transmission)
Two weeks before Christmas…
Luna
Felix told me his sister was gorgeous, but getting to see her larger than life on the ship’s viewscreen a week ago had my hearts racing and my tentacles tied in knots.
Dear Goddess Thekmis, but Gemma is absolutely stunning. I’ve always had a thing for red hair, fur, or feathers on a love interest. And those curls! So damn sexy.
With the limits of our ship’s viewscreen, and her inferior communication technology, I couldn’t get a full look at her, but what I could see I liked a whole lot. She’s got an ample bosom and curves for days. Talk about making me weak in the tentacles!
I grin to myself as I finish up the daily check on our ship’s engine. Now I know what—or rather who—I want for Christmas.
For the last week, I’ve been using Khephren’s invention FLIRTT, aka the Frequency Link for Interstellar Real-Time Transmission, to communicate with Gemma.
Thank fuck my friend made it technologically possible to continue talking with her, even from light-years away.
Otherwise, I might have lost my damn mind being the only crew member with no romantic prospects in sight, what with Khephren and Sasha already shacked up.
Oh, and now I have to deal with Felix and Najar, who dance around one another with the most blatant unresolved sexual tension I have ever had the misfortune of witnessing.
Why can men be so fucking dumb? Doesn’t matter the species, they’re all idiots in my book. Granted, my friends are lovable idiots, but idiots all the same.
I shake my head as I calibrate the engine’s sensor readings.
I can’t help but worry about Najar and Felix.
Who the fuck knows if those two will suck it up and communicate like adults.
They need to acknowledge their interest in one another so they can finally bone and let the rest of us have some peace.
Time’s a-wasting, if you ask me. We’re going to be heading back to Earth in a little over two weeks, and the longer they dither, the less time they’ll actually get to enjoy together.
My droid Rambo beeps at my side and then says, “You’ve got mail.”
I glance behind me to see Khephren squeezing into the small but tidy engine room with me. It’s rare to see him without Sasha glued to his tentacles these days.
I arch an eyebrow at him. “Where’s your lover boy?”
His pink appendages coil happily in the air around him. “Sasha’s working on one of his projects, and I don’t want to disturb him.”
I will admit, Sasha is super cool and now my human bestie.
He was an aspiring filmmaker on Earth, but he finally found success when he joined us aboard the Sleigh Belle.
We’ve been helping him produce an intergalactic web series called The Cat-Tacular Tales of Princess Jonesy.
We all play characters, including Sasha’s cat Jonesy, who is naturally the lead.
No matter what Sasha says, Kheph and I are convinced Jonesy is a sign from Thekmis, the goddess revered on our home world Draveth.
As a result, all Dravethians hold a deep reverence for species with catlike qualities.
Granted, Jonesy is much smaller than the half-bipedal half-feline goddess we are familiar with, but she is no less majestic.
Also, when she joined us, we discovered Jonesy was, in fact, pregnant with kittens. So now we have a wonderful little cat colony on our ship, and I couldn’t be happier.
Khephren is thrilled too. Najar isn’t so much, but he’s always a little bit grumpy.
I know for a fact he secretly has a fondness for the little furballs, but he feels he has to be the stern voice of reason on the ship.
Khephren and I tend to be the more impetuous and adventurous members of our crew.
Setting down my tools, I take a seat on a nearby bench. Knowing Kheph, he wants to talk to me about something. Otherwise, he rarely visits the engine room.
“What’s up, Kheph?”
“We haven’t had time to talk lately. I feel bad about that,” Khephren says, several of his tentacles attempting an apologetic wave.
I snicker. “Bro, I know it’s been a year, but you’ve kind of been shrouded in a love haze ever since you and Sasha hooked up. Not that I blame you.”
He gets a dreamy look in his eyes. “I still can’t believe I found my soulmate in this dark, vast universe. It’s practically a Christmas miracle!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I grumble. “Lucky you. You must have been on Santa’s Nice List.”
I may sound a tad bitter, but I am genuinely happy for my friend. Khephren is one of the sweetest beings I know, and Sasha is perfect for him.
Our whole intergalactic adventure among the stars came about because poor Kheph was a runaway groom escaping an arranged marriage his parents had organized for him.
Since they were too steeped in Dravethian cultural tradition to listen to him, Khephren decided to take matters into his own tentacles, so to speak.
He hightailed it off the planet and into the great universe beyond.
Najar and I joined him without any hesitation.
We’ve all been thick as thieves since childhood, and I could entirely relate to Khephren’s quandary.
My own family had similar expectations for me, and I knew it was only a matter of time until they’d be dragging me to the Dravethian altar too.
Sure, Dravethian women warriors are hot as fuck, not gonna lie, but not being a warrior myself, I would have been expected to be a stay-at-home partner.
Fuck. That. Noise. Domesticity is not my jam.
But warrior culture is what is revered on our home world, and the warrior class holds the most power in Dravethian society. Our planet is often attacked by outside species who want to pillage our desirable natural resources, so protecting our home world is a constant struggle.
For safety, those who are not warriors are not allowed to live on their own and instead partner with a warrior or several warriors in order to provide protection.
That kind of confined life wasn’t something I wanted.
I had too many dreams and desires, and I was tired of the limitations placed on me by Dravethian society.
Like Kheph, I wanted to see more of the universe and maybe even find my true love along the way.
“How has FLIRTT been working for you and Gemma?”
I grin. “Top-notch. We’ve been texting every day for the last week.”
It’s his turn to arch an eyebrow at me, his tentacles waving excitedly around him. “Oh, really? That sounds promising.”
I snort. “Duh. As if I was going to pass up an opportunity to flirt with such a beautiful woman.”
And an Earthling to boot.
I have to say, I’m seriously intrigued by her already.
“How’s the flirting campaign with her going? It seems like you two hit it off from the start,” Khephren says.
My tentacles wriggle with pleasure. “We totally have chemistry, but I think there’s the potential for more. We’ve been learning more about one another using FLIRTT, and the more I learn the more she continues to fill my mind.”
And dreams, but I don’t need to tell him that.
“That’s wonderful,” Kheph says, clapping two tentacles together.
“Simmer down, man. I don’t know where any of this is going yet.
Having a screen—and light-years of distance—between us is far from ideal.
Right now, I’m making the most of this chance to gradually learn more about Gemma.
I can say that, with her, it’s not about hooking up for a day or two and then saying our farewells as we go our separate ways.
If we can, I want us to try building something that lasts. ”
Because my tentacles are telling me we share that potential.
Kheph nods. “It isn’t easy to build a relationship when you’re traveling to the far reaches of the universe all the time.”
“We haven’t been staying anywhere long enough for me to have more than casual encounters. I’m not opposed to those by any means, and some have been really fun, but…”
I secretly want so much more than that.
In our space travels, my encounters with other women have all been fleeting and transient in nature.
We stop somewhere. I enjoy a night or two of passion with someone, but that’s it.
I haven’t found anybody who wanted to join us or whom I wanted to bring into our very own extraterrestrial RV among the stars.
None of my hookups this past year have even kept in touch and vice versa. Every day I spend on this ship witnessing the beautiful relationship between Khephren and Sasha and the deep mutual affection they share, I can’t help but yearn for the same.
I love the idea of true love, and I want to believe that my cosmic soulmate is out there, waiting for me to find her. Deep down, I’m a cheesy romantic at heart even though I like to act tough.
“Do you think Gemma could be real relationship material?” Khephren asks, eyes big and full of honest hope.
I’m already convinced she is, but I’m not ready to tell anyone else that quite yet.