Chapter Twenty-Five
They didn’t go to the main floor of the hangar, like they had when they arrived.
Instead, the elevator spat them out on a smaller level in between that was heavily guarded.
They were all scanned for ID and escorted onto a navy-blue tinted ship.
It was slender and bullet shaped with a tapered nose and fluttering frill shaped fins on the side.
Unlike the Vroz ships that were flat and sharp, meant for hiding in the shadows of planets and rocks, this ship was built for speed.
A true rocket. Aphrodite and Xexis were led inside and sat in two plush chairs.
Facing them from across a built-in table, was Quagmor and Xnasis.
Aphrodite half expected the prince to sit with his entourage.
However, they buckled in and made small talk while everyone boarded.
Quagmor started small, asking about context for certain words in the text he was reading.
Then they came across the word Boyfriend and she knew she was in for a hard conversation.
“Uh, well, that’s like a mate that’s not always permanent.
Boyfriend, girlfriend, partner, lover; all those words mean a mate but sometimes those relationships end. ”
“Mates are for life?” Xexis questioned, face twisted up with his pincers.
“Right, and I’m mated with you for life.” She flushed as panic made a new home in her belly. Oh, saying that outloud is new. For life. Best not to dwell on that. She continued with a loud swallow. “But not all humans have a Vroz or a mate. Some humans don’t even have attraction.”
“Of course, not all Vroz have mates. Fate knows if you need one, if you desire one.” Quagmor nodded, putting his finger back to the screen, “But why would humans not trust fate?”
Aphrodite winced. “Cause we don’t hear fate.”
Xexis huffed softly, folding his arms over his stomach as he settled further down into the seat. “Humans are complicated.”
“Trust me, I know,” Aphrodite wheezed, flipping to the next word on Quagmor’s document. She didn’t want to dwell on the conversation. It would bring up the topic of relationships ending and she didn’t even want to consider it. Instead, she focused on a new word.
Thankfully, the ship was full of tiny conversations that made the air less awkward. After a bit, Quagmor allowed her a break and returned to his text on his data pad. She sat back, leaning into Xexis. He draped an arm around her. “We have some time yet.”
“That’s okay, I’m comfy.”
“Will my mate read to me?”
She blinked rapidly. “Read to you?”
“Speaking of how fate brought you to me made me wish to hear it again.”
“Ooooh! That would be delightful, actually.” Quagmor set his data pad aside.
“Uh, Sure.” She glanced at Buddy. “Will you pull up something I haven’t read before?”
Her data pad beeped as she pulled it off her forearm.
Resting it against the table, she stared at a book cover of something…
mysterious. There was a lot of smog on the cover and bold text.
Flipping it open, she took a deep breath.
Suddenly, all three Vroz were staring at her expectantly.
No pressure. Flipping to the first page, she started to read.
“Funny how things start off in the most dreadful way only to become the reason you inhale breath.”
She didn’t feel the time pass. Three men watched her, enraptured, as she read a cozy murder mystery about a woman who could talk to ghosts through smoke.
The main character was in a candle shop one day, unaware, only to see a face in a little plume of smoke.
Off they went on an investigation of humans and what one will do for love.
They were about eighty pages from the ending when a steward of the ship stepped out from the front. “We shall be landing shortly.”
“We will continue this!” Xnasis put up a finger, before glaring at the other two at their table, “Either of you two cheat and read it before me, and there will be no mercy!”
Xexis and Quagmor chuckled, waving off the crown prince as he stood from his seat. Joining the steward, he walked to the command deck of the ship to speak. Aphrodite put the book away before either of the friends were tempted. Buddy’s text bubble came up on the screen.
We should read more.
“We absolutely will, Buddy.” Without a second thought, she stroked his round, metal head like he was a puppy. He spun in her palm happily chirping and flicking out his tentacles.
“Intriguing drone you have there. It’s almost personable.”
“Buddy has a full personality,” Xexis snorted, putting a finger to the octopus drone. Buddy booped a tip of his tentacle to Xexis’ finger before scuttling across the table.
“So, I was not misled—our Mphronatch is a technician, an engineer?” Quagmor cocked his head to the side.
“I am. I don’t suppose either of you know much about the ship we’re on, do you? I think I saw propulsion fins and…” She trailed off as she looked between a dumbfounded Quagmor and a baffled, but supportive Xexis. “Right, Kannatch and English teacher.”
“I study language and text and the love of writing; I will be of no use to you in that venture.” Quagmor shrugged.
She chuckled. “It’s fine, I’ll find Rexna sometime and ask them about it. One thing I did want to ask…is this specifically a Council ship?”
“Yes, once you join the Council as a people, they supply you with a Council ship; the guards to keep it safe, a pilot, and engineer to keep it. Vroz, Xinti, Loa, and Sinx, the four who sat on the Council first, came up with the design together and make it a resource. The Council has also made them self-sufficient so no one must waste resources on it.” Xexis spread his hands against the tables.
“Four noble houses, huh?” Aphrodite teased.
Quagmor chortled, “Some less noble than the rest.”
“I feel some backstory is about to be dropped for me?” Aphrodite leaned over the table toward the scholar. “Let me guess. Vroz is super noble and heroic, Xinti I know are cultivators and farmers, so that leaves Loa and Sinx. Not to sound human, but Sinx is giving me a villain sound.”
Xexis snorted, “The Sinx are not villains…they are merely absent.”
Quagmor smirked at Aphrodite before sitting back in his chair with his hands folded over his belly.
“No one knows the true story of why the Sinx left, but they say in the beginning, the four were the first to reach the stars. Beyond their planet and beyond their moons. They bound together to help the rest of the stars, when they were ready to join. It started off small, then slowly, the Council grew to have a person from each peoples. The main Council now is just the six main, Vroz, Xinti, Loa, and three others I won’t bore you with.
We are the ones with the most to give, the most to help, so we serve.
The Council is to serve, to protect, and to keep the stars fair for all.
When a people join the Council, they get a ship and everything to keep it, a seat at the major Council, and a few other perks. ”
Aphrodite tapped her fingers across the table. “And so what’s the requirement.”
“No trespassing,” Xexis snorted. Aphrodite nudged him in the side. He snickered to himself. “No killing.”
She shot him a look. He glanced away, focusing on his brother with fake interest. She could tell by the wiggling of his pincers he was playing with her.
Returning her attention to Quagmor, the scholar shook his head.
“There are a few. The Council is made of the people, so they require a Council member to sit on the Council, a healer for their medical bay, and the sentinels. A collection of experts with whom the council can confer on topics of resource, history, literature, business, etc. It helps communication. However, there are a few people who do not want communication to get better.”
“Humans,” she grumbled.
Quagmor grimaced, pincers curled sheepishly. “Among others.”
She really shouldn’t be thinking bad of her own people.
Earlier she begged Xexis not to think badly of her people for the wrongs of her government.
She needed to remember rich, powerful, bloodthirsty people still held the reins for her people.
Aphrodite dropped her attention to her lap as she worked to strap her data pad back to her arm.
“So, then, what’s the rumor about the Sinx? ”
“Rumor says that the Sinx left because of the Vroz. Because the Sinx were a cruel, harmful people and the Vroz told them to find empathy or perish.”
Xexis held up a hand. “There is no text that says that.”
“No, but those are the rumors,” Quagmor put up his own hands.
Aphrodite peaked up between the two, waiting to see if there was more. They fell into silence, and so she returned to fiddling with her technology. As they began to feel the brakes on the ship engage, she looked to Buddy. A tiny text bubble came up on her screen.
If I get access to their computers…I could look.
She shook her head, typing on the screen for the first time and not speaking out loud. It’s not necessary, whatever happened eons ago isn’t the problem today. I need to focus on keeping my government from trying to start fires.
Buddy twisted slightly, like he were looking at the two men sitting with her, then back to her before more text filled the screen.
I do not have an extinguisher application, but we can install one real quick.
She barked out a laugh that bounced around the cabin. All eyes landed on her and she shrunk. Xexis raised his brows. Aphrodite just slid further down in her seat to avoid more scandal. Not the best first day as a space warrior princess…not the worst, but not the best.
Buddy texted once more.
Whoops.