Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
To my surprise, I wasn’t required to stick around to answer questions.
The Krezikians who stood along the wall came to replace me, basically forcing the issue.
Either the world leaders spoke with the aliens trying to help us, or the Krezikians and the IAEPP would make the decisions for them.
Trevuk led me off the platform to where Aster was waiting, a proud smile on his face.
“You did good, Enzo,” Aster praised.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “I just told them what you guys wanted them to know. You did all the work.”
He gestured to the group behind us, all in discussion but with a lot less shouting and anger involved. A few were even asking questions of the Krezikians on the platform, frowning but seemingly open to discussion. It was a big step up from what I’d seen when I first walked into the room.
“They are speaking with us. That might not have happened without your intervention.”
“He is right,” another Krezikian, one of the guards standing near the platform, nodded in agreement.
“They would not even let us utter a word before you showed up. You are a great asset, Enzo Rozzee. I for one am glad you came.” He glanced at the crowd, then leaned closer, his voice closer to a whisper.
“My mate is also human. I asked her to come on this journey, but she felt safer staying on our home planet. She wasn’t accepted before she was picked up by my ship ten earth years ago. ”
I cocked my head with a frown. “Why wasn’t she accepted?”
He pursed his lips thoughtfully. “She was… I forget the word she used to explain it to me, but her body didn’t match who she was.
She was struggling with that, and the human support was too expensive for her.
When I told her there was technology on a planet near my home that could give her the body she was supposed to have, she chose to come with us. ”
Sucking in a sharp breath, I gaped at him.
“You have technology to give trans people the bodies they’re meant to have?
” I mean, I knew their technology was better than ours, they had freaking spaceships and everything, but it never occurred to me to ask about that.
I had a friend in the military who was trans.
If he could have the body he wanted, I would bet good money he’d jump planets, too.
The Krezikian guard nodded. “It is not uncommon in the galaxies, and scientists worked long and hard to create the machines to do so.”
“And it looks… natural?” I had to ask because I knew from my friend the kinds of scars trans people had from the surgeries they got. If the aliens could do all that without scaring people, that would be amazing.
Aster nodded beside me. “Quite natural. Ian is a good example. He was born female and made his transition when he came of age. He is much happier now.”
Huffing a laugh, I shook my head. “If you made that available to humans, that would do amazing things for the trans community. What else can your technology do?”
Apparently, our discussion wasn’t quiet enough, and a few world leaders who had been talking nearby came closer to listen.
One of them, the president of South Korea, looked fascinated when another Krezikian scientist joined us to explain public transportation on Krezik.
They drew in a few more, and soon, the frowns in the room were slowly replaced by curiosity and hope.
The Krezikians had a lot to offer, if the leaders just took the chance to listen.
The IAEPP had more. We just had to be open minded enough to give them a chance.
Eventually food was brought in, both the food bars I was learning to loathe and a variety of Krezikian cuisine for the world leaders to try.
It was Voo’s idea to share their food, hoping to open discussions on responsible food acquisition.
While some of the world leaders outright refused to go anywhere near the Krezikian food, others were curious and eyed the tables with interest. Since I’d tried it before, I was happy to prove it was good, making myself a plate and commenting on my favorites as I walked down the line of the table.
World leaders followed behind me with their own plates, and when I sat at one of the tables they’d brought out, several world leaders joined me to continue our discussion.
The look Aster gave me when I sought him out to answer some of their questions said I’d done something right. His expression was filled with an emotion I wasn’t ready to read too far into yet, but made my heart go pitter patter despite telling myself it was nothing.
After lunch with at least ten world leaders from around the planet, I was dragged off by several military leaders to a far corner to discuss the return of the world’s military and the potential issues they might face with the aliens if they acted in a way the Krezikian’s didn’t approve of.
That was more complicated, and I was glad when Trevuk joined in the discussion.
He was rough around the edges, but his blunt responses left no room for misinterpretation, which I think made things easier.
By the time I was allowed to leave, I was exhausted but happy.
From the sounds of it, the world leaders were finally in agreement with the Krezikians and making plans for what would happen next.
It wouldn’t all be easy, the rich elite who profited off our planet’s destruction weren’t going to be happy when the changes were made, but as Aster so lovingly pointed out, that wasn’t an Enzo problem. I was just the messenger.
I stumbled, exhausted, into my room, with Aster following after me with an indulgent smile.
He’d mentioned going back to his ship to sleep, but I was too tired to make the trip and just wanted a bed.
Besides, it wasn’t guaranteed that I wouldn’t have to come back in the morning once the world leaders met again, and making the journey twice made me nervous.
The ships themselves were big enough that unless I was looking out a window, I didn't even realize I was in space, but the transport ships were much smaller and it made me a little nervous.
Collapsing face first onto the bed, I let out a loud groan of satisfaction. “I want this bed in my house. How are they all so comfortable?”
Aster snickered, pulling off my boots and nudging me onto my back to remove my uniform blouse. “Technology. You’d be surprised what can be achieved if money is not hoarded but used to strengthen the community instead.”
“Preaching to the choir,” I grumbled under my breath, lifting myself up enough to shed my blouse and shirt.
My pants went next, but Aster seemed to know I was too tired for anything tonight and left me in my boxer briefs, stripping out of his own clothes before joining me in bed.
He wrapped himself around me with my back against his chest, those tentacles tightening in a hug that seemed to make my whole body relax.
I hummed a happy sound, letting the stress of the day slip away from me as I just enjoyed the cuddle.
The view of the earth in front of us was breathtaking, and I was glad I got to experience it with Aster by my side.
“That is the North American continent, is it not?” Aster queried.
“Yep. It looks so small from up here.”
He ran his nose along my neck, pressing a kiss against the back. “It does indeed. Where did you grow up?”
Wriggling an arm free, I pointed toward the east coast of the United States. “There. New Jersey. Most of my family is still there. I was the only one who left.”
I remembered he said he wanted to meet them before, to thank them for my superior genetics.
That interaction still made me laugh. I was curious what he’d think of them, though.
My family was loud and nosy, a lot like his brothers were.
They were good people, though. Accepted me when I came out like it was no big deal.
Arabella even rolled her eyes and said, “Duh,” like they’d always known.
I wasn’t sure they’d react as well to Aster as they had to me coming out or bringing home my first boyfriend, but I hoped they would at least give him a chance.
The more time I spent with him, the more I wanted to explore what the whole mate thing meant.
We hadn’t talked about it since it was brought up the other day, but the conversation still popped up in my mind any time I had a second to think.
“What does your world look like?” I asked, hoping to distract myself from the direction my mind had turned. I was too tired to think about mates and what that meant right now.
Aster hummed and one tentacle released me to poke at a button next to the window. It opened a panel and he did something that made the view of earth disappear and another planet took its place. I sucked in a sharp breath.
“Woah. Is that a screen? I thought it was a window.”
“It’s both,” he answered calmly. “Sometimes the vastness of space can feel… lonely. Screens were installed between the layers of the windows so that we could project images that made us feel better. I could even tune it to the view from my bedroom window at home if I felt like it. This, however, is my favorite view. I like seeing all the ships coming and going. It’s a reminder of how far we’ve come and all the species that found refuge in our home. ”
The planet itself looked similar to earth in that it was mostly water with larger land masses scattered around. But instead of blue and green, the water was a deep purple color and the land was a mix of blues and oranges and pinks. It was so different from home that I was fascinated.
“Do you have three moons?”
“We do,” he answered brightly. “All hold stations where ships can meet for trade or to refuel. It limits the number of ships landing on the planet and destroying the environment. Shuttles go back and forth a few times a day, but the only ships that land on the surface are those like the one where we met.”
My eyes nearly bugged out at the thought. “All of them? Those ships are huge!”
He snickered again. “Yes, well, Krezik is much larger than Earth.”
As we talked about the differences between our planets and the people that lived there, I found myself wishing I could see it for myself.
Sure, I’d given up the idea of becoming an astronaut when I was a kid, but that was before space travel was ever a possibility.
According to Aster, getting to Earth from his home took them a month, instead of the year we thought it would take to even get as close as Mars.
Suddenly, the chance to see other worlds was a real possibility.
I only had a year left on my contract. I could maybe…