Chapter 10
One day was all the kindness Roys offered.
Over the next week, we set out early. Droids ensured the rovers were ready for us.
All the unfortunate bastards stumbling on flora wanting a snack survived thanks to our overworked cradle.
At one point, Tareik panicked because of the alarms warning of a breakage.
If the cradle broke, Corporate would insist we continue working.
The east and south sides of the habitat would be cleared by the end of the day.
The north and west would need two days, so long as nothing went awry.
Roys didn’t look at me when he mentioned that earlier in the day.
In fact, he rarely looked at me. I lost count of all the times I stepped into his path, chuckling as he pivoted in another direction.
Or when I went to his office, and he found an excuse to leave.
Or how he always had me monitoring from the back of our group, keeping us far apart, when he scheduled himself on our team.
The landscape and flora changed little during our inspections, though based on scans of The Planet there were varying climates.
The habitat was situated around the equator, where the weather was habitable.
To the north and south, storms raged that left the caps under perpetual cloud cover.
The rain fell at such speed that it could cut.
To the east, swamplands peppered the landscape, far too much of a hassle for us to get through.
Far to the west, there were hundreds of active volcanoes.
Magma flowed slowly, but the eruptions happened eons ago, and the cloud cover dispersed, leaving the area arid but not entirely out of our reach.
After the incident, we wouldn’t go near the translucent flora, not even the smaller ones.
Our seats had been ruined. We took to sitting on the ground during our few breaks.
In the afternoon, we traversed a forested area with less shade than the previous one.
The flora had thinner stalks but with more branches and swaying leaves.
Sweat poured off us in droves, forcing me to tug myself free of the cursed exoskin, fuck it, and my shirt.
“Clothes stay on,” Roys said from the front of the group.
“It’s fucking hot and the exoskins aren’t doing shit. These are ancient, aren’t they? I bet they haven’t been updated in decades,” I said while attaching my visor to my belt.
“Centuries, more like it,” said Arana.
“Don’t complain when you get burned,” Roys warned.
Grinning, I cut the space between us, passing by Iylene and Lilea to do it.
Roys had me carrying the back of the group, claiming I could handle anything that came at us from behind.
He wasn’t wrong there, but we both knew he was full of shit.
He wanted me as far from him as possible, as he had done for the last eight days.
Five of those he scheduled himself on other teams. I played along, but the game was starting to dull.
Roys stiffened when I came up behind him to whisper, “Are you concerned about me, Captain?”
“Get back in position.”
“What if I don’t? You gonna grab me by the throat again for the whole team to see?”
He maintained a cold expression, eyes forward.
“I wouldn’t mind if you did, by the way, and I think it’s pretty clear you’d like to give it another go, too.”
His eye twitched and warmth erupted in my gut that had me biting back a grin. He was too fun to mess with.
“And here I thought we were finally getting along.” I pressed a hand over my heart and let our arms brush while we walked. “If you keep up this mistreatment, you’re going to hurt my feelings.”
At that, he rolled his eyes. “I am beginning to wonder if you have feelings.”
“Admittedly, not many, and usually just horny, which I currently am, and you could fix that, oh mighty captain.”
“Unless you want to be scrubbing the toilets tonight, get back in position,” he warned in his favorite authoritative style. It wasn’t so different from his tone in the cavern, the gravel in his voice, the warning, and that had a shiver running down my spine.
“Careful using that tone, it turns me on.”
Roys’ tapped his commlink.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Sending commands to the droids not to clean the restrooms. A private has decided to take care of them.”
I leaned in closer, smelling that cherry candy, seeing it pressed against his cheek. “You were more fun with your cock in my mouth.”
He still wouldn’t look at me. Snickering, I fell back and tugged a smoke out of my pocket.
Ryker gawked. “You’re having a cigarette here?”
“Why not?” I shrugged and lit it.
“It’s hard enough to breathe already. My visor is the only thing keeping me going.”
“Weak.” I blew a plume of smoke at Ryker, smiling when he waved it off before giving me the finger.
The smoke certainly didn’t help, but sleuthing around got boring. Not that I wanted another rabid flora encounter, but a man was allowed his vices, and smoking was mine.
Another, apparently, was the unruly captain.
At least being at the rear rank meant I could stare at his ass, so maybe there was a perk to his so-called discipline.
Maybe that was his kink. Get off, play hard to get, be annoying, and then jump your bones later.
That was fine. I had other opportunities.
The group stopped momentarily for Zavir, who knelt by a small plant, using the commlink to scan it.
Another member of our troop had it catalogued already.
I saw it on the holo screen from where I stood behind him.
Though I spoke to Zavir, I watched Roys across the way.
“Hey Zavir, when we get back to base and cool off, wanna fuck?”
Roys hesitated before grabbing his canteen.
“Sure.” Zavir stood and stretched all four of his arms.
My favorite thing about U’sek’s was that they didn’t do relationships.
No cuddling or pillow chat expectations, no worries about one getting too attached or thinking it was more than a fun time.
Their species considered sex to be for pleasure and reproduction.
They didn’t do relationships in the same way humans did and, frankly; I didn’t understand most of it because Zavir always struggled to put it into words we could understand.
Regardless, I appreciated their laid-back style, and the four arms. Zavir got me in positions I didn’t know I could do, and somehow my muscles thanked me for it in the morning.
I suppose I should thank the militia too.
All of us received a plethora of medical treatment to ensure there were no issues having sex across all species because…
well, if you put a bunch of lonely horny people in a group then that was bound to happen to some of them.
So, yeah, thanks to the militia for that, or something.
“You have no class, Lucky,” Ryker said, shaking his head.
“Says the bastard who messages me asking for details anytime I leave with anyone.” I flicked ashes at him but never took my eyes off Roys, whose jaw was moving from side to side.
“Those messages are private. Between two friends. It’s entirely different.”
“We’re mostly friends here, so it’s fine.”
We both glanced at Roys walking ahead. Everyone followed, with Ryker stepping out of position to trek closer to me.
“I’ve never done a tour with a survey team,” he said, holding out a hand for the last of my cigarette. I knew he’d give in and handed it over. He knocked his visor off for a moment. “Our tours were always…” he waved a hand toward the sky. “Up there.”
Guard duty for me, mostly. Ryker joined the militia three years ago.
Took two years to go from a cadet to a private.
Cadets were essentially the testing phase to see where they would place best. Ryker was a glorified stock boy on cargo ships.
I spent most of my time in a speeder. Not much fighting, unfortunately.
We were tasked with flying alongside diplomats or protecting the cargo guys, like Ryker.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved flying. I understood a speeder better than my mind.
It was an extension of my body. However, after flying around in space, passing planet after planet, eventually, I wanted to be on one.
I sat in the cockpit staring out into space to see another planet, a home for many, and wondered what it would feel like to be down there.
Gravity was a bitch, though. Being born on a colony, one among the shitty Outer Rim, and living my whole life in space, I had to do a year of hard gravity tests and a strange concoction of meds to ensure I wouldn’t die in the atmosphere.
“What are they going to do exactly?” Ryker asked before finishing the cigarette. He coughed and tugged the visor back on.
“Survey, apparently,” I replied.
“You know what I mean.”
“Our survey team is made up of ten individuals: two geologists, a mineralogist, an engineer, four botanists, and two assistants. Their job is to ascertain whether Illionxonah-14356 can be prepared for settlers or used for resources. Regardless, they will conduct tests on the environment and report back their findings to the Intergalactic Court,” Roys explained.
“That bitch was eavesdropping,” I said, causing Ryker to laugh.
“Okay, but how do they know from a few tests done in three months whether The Planet is habitable? They cannot possibly learn everything there is to know in that time,” Arana argued.
“The survey team doesn’t make that decision.
Once the Intergalactic Court receives their information, they will determine whether it’s viable not only to prolong but also expand the survey team.
There could be up to ten separate teams on Illionxonah-14356.
After a year or so, the Intergalactic Court will make the final decision,” Roys replied, cutting another stalk.
Even with that exoskin on, his muscles flexed, reminding me of how they felt on my fingertips, to be pressed against them, panting and moaning.