Chapter 1
“Hey, Alex. Alex! Earth to Alexandra Taylor!”
Alex blinked at the faint sound of her name working its way through the tunes and penetrating the thick foam of the headphones protecting her ears and frowned as she turned toward it.
Extinguishing her blowtorch, she pulled the right side of her retro headphones back from her ear and frowned at the other grease monkeys in the hangar with her.
“Yeah? What do you want? I’m on a time crunch and this flyer isn’t going to repair itself.”
Mike Vikney, the team lead, grinned as he leaned against the flyer’s wing. “Calm down, girly. It’s not like Darvel is in the driving seat anymore. You don’t have to work yourself to death to impress anyone here.”
Alex rolled her eyes, unimpressed. Obviously, he had never dealt directly with Vi Harris.
The woman had rolled in barking orders just an hour ago to have the flyer ready by fifteen hundred standard.
Although Vi had arrived as just another non-gratas grunt like Alex, she had quickly established a reputation for herself after her arrival.
Naturally, she had risen through the ranks quickly through sheer tenacity following Darvel’s evacuation from the planet.
“Vi is going to be here in about three hours, expecting to leave. Do you want to be the one to tell her that?” Alex replied.
Mike grimaced. It seemed that he was familiar with Vi after all. “That one. My sympathies. Is she also having you pilot her out?”
Alex nodded. She didn’t normally pick up many piloting assignments because her work was more valued as a mechanic on the colony, but Vi had especially requested her for some reason. “I think I was the only one available on such short notice,” she replied.
Mike sighed. “Alright. We just wanted to see if you wanted to grab a few drinks with us after we finish up here. You’re always working. It’s not good for you when you are young and single and no longer constrained by Earth’s ridiculous regulations.”
Ah. That. Ever since the government of United Earth was informed of the long-term biological effects of the planet on workers that made it impossible for them to leave, Earth not only shot down all transportation of human workers to the planet surface but the non-gratas status was also rescinded, making them all colonial citizens.
And of course they would, because no citizens in their right mind would risk signing on to go to planet M285...
or Seshana, as the indigenous Seshanamitesh called it...
given the physiological changes that made it impossible to leave after prolonged exposure.
Earth wasn’t about to lose resources by sending anyone else there at all if they could help it: human and material.
The current situation allowed Earth to benefit from the continual exportation of traded minerals and resources, with Darvel limited to just working as an intermediary.
And by granting the non-gratas on the colony citizen status, it encouraged long-term population growth among the workers by natural means.
Earth would continue to maintain the advantage by this arrangement.
Unfortunately, there were many men among the non-gratas who took this as a free for all and expected the women to compliantly accept their offers as there was no longer “an excuse.” They were all quite surprised when many of the “now available women” were also giving serious consideration to the Seshanamitesh and contracted non-human members of Raza.
Their reactions were not only extremely unflattering but also a bit pathetic from Alex’s point of view.
The insane jealousy was most telling in some of the disgusting rumors that had begun circulating around the colony regarding both indigenous and resident non-human species.
Many of the human men had also begun to refuse to work with or socialize with any male who wasn’t human.
It backfired spectacularly.
Not only did the alien males not care about being isolated by the human males who already had a history of excluding them, but many women found the persisting rumors off-putting to the point where they had begun to avoid the company of men.
In fact, those women who were open to a partner among those dwelling within the colony were closing out human men completely as it persisted. Alex included.
She wasn’t looking for an alien mate, however.
She just hadn’t felt any great urgency to start dating.
But the idea of starting anything with a man who held that view was disgusting enough that she was avoiding it at all costs.
Unfortunately, the more a segment of the female population refused them, the more insistent they were that there was “no reason” to not accept their date proposal.
And Alex was definitely feeling the pressure as one of the few still single women in the male-dominated hangar where the flyers were parked, serviced, and repaired.
“I will schedule some downtime,” she lied, turning back to the flyer.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Mike fidget a bit before edging a little closer to her.
“You know, my nephew, Whitey? He’s not only a nice boy but he’s still really hopeful for your future together.
He mentioned that you two had a bit of a falling out—which really tore him up—but I’m sure he would be pleased to meet up with you to mend fences when you can arrange that downtime. ”
Whittaker Vikney. She came close to throwing up a little in her mouth.
“Nice boy” was one hell of a stretch if that was supposed to describe him.
As for Whitey being hopeful for their future relationship—clearly Mike had not gotten the memo about what had happened between them.
That “nice boy” had decided to fuck his way through the female population, and she had only found out about it after he made his way through a small segment.
She had also quickly discovered that he was one of the loudest among those being hostile toward the other males in the colony.
It was hard to believe that he was even related to someone as even-keeled as Mike.
“We will see.” That was as diplomatic a response as he was going to get when what she wanted to do was to scream “fuck no” and make her escape to another colony.
What had she ever done to deserve this? She was cursed with his interest. Oh, she had been flattered at first when he approached her within days of her arrival on the colony, and after several months she had even entertained the idea of requesting permission for a marriage license from Earth.
But now she was incredibly grateful to have learned about his character in time to dodge that bullet.
Seeing how he had now roped his uncle into working on her unfortunately confirmed that he hadn’t given up on pursuing her despite the way she had promptly thrown him out of her life.
Mike smiled with a look of relief as he visibly relaxed. He had definitely been put up to it. “Good. Good. You think about it a bit. I know he was a bit wild when things around here changed, but he still wants to make things work, and I’m sure he just needs a good woman to help him settle down.”
“Right,” she mumbled as she moved her headphones back into place.
How long did a transfer request between colonies take? She wasn’t picky. She would be happy to go to any of the other colonies on the planet at this point if it meant putting thousands of miles between her and Whitey.
Thankfully, Mike took the hint and didn’t push any further on it.
Instead, the hangar returned to its previous busy state, though Alex’s ability to lose herself in the tunes and focus solely on the task in front of her was now disrupted.
She frowned as she continued to weld, more aware than ever of the ticking minutes counting down Vi’s arrival.
She was pushing the line for time. She knew that.
The flyer wasn’t even the worst among those damaged after a freak sandstorm brought several of them down, but it was bad enough that it demanded all of her attention as she worked tirelessly on it.
Even then, she only just managed to beat Vi’s arrival.
Alex turned off the torch with an audible sigh and set it aside before lifting her arms above her head and stretching out her back.
She bit back a groan as the cramping ache in her shoulders and lower back released before lowering her arms again and getting back to work.
In a clipped pace, she began cleanup and was putting the last of her tools away and mopping the grease from her hands and face when Vi strode in with Ehsash gliding in behind her with every rapid undulation of his long tail.
She tried not to stare too openly at the male.
Among the Seshanamitesh, he was more unique among the males who had recently come to occupy Raza.
A hybrid between the winged Seshanamitesh and the aquatic Uralial, he resembled the Seshanamitesh in nearly every way except that there was a certain exoticness to his dark green coloring striated with white stripes and the finning pattern at the end of his tail was long and pronounced rather than tapered away to disappear before the tip of the tail.
He drew a lot of admiring gazes, but anyone with eyes in their head could see that he only saw Vi.
A girl had to admire that kind of intense commitment that came with mating a Seshanamitesh male.
“Is everything ready?” Vi asked in a clipped, distracted tone.
Alex nodded as she finished wiping her fingers and tossed the rag into its designated bin for cleaning. “As you asked. I suppose that you have coordinates?”
Vi nodded, her eyes flicking impatiently at the flyer. “I will give them to you once we are air-borne.”
Did that mean she didn’t have clearance?
A familiar itch of wariness settled between her shoulder blades, but Alex ignored it.
This was Vi. Although the woman had something of a reputation for being formidable and often operating by her own rules, she wouldn’t do something illegal.
She would rather argue with Eddie Wik, Raza’s current supervisor, until he was blue in the face and gave in out of simple self-preservation than do something expressly forbidden.
“You got it,” she murmured as she initiated the flyer’s hatch to open.
Her eyes followed the pair as they boarded, and she fell into step behind them.
They didn’t wait for instructions. Rather, they fastened themselves securely into the passenger bay.
She knew that Vi was a seasoned member of Darvel’s colonial team before arriving on Seshana, so she was not surprised at how quickly the woman secured herself.
She was, however, a little surprised at how seamlessly Ehsash followed her example right down to securing his straps tightly into place.
Alex nodded in approval as she passed and headed directly for the flight deck.
“Let’s get this party on the road,” she announced to the empty space as she dropped into the seat and fastened her restraints. Initiating her comm, she spoke to control in rapid fire. “Control, flyer 2XZ is departing from hanger bay three.”
“Confirmed,” they responded, and just ahead, the bay doors began to draw open. Out in the distance she knew that the dome’s field was likewise opening its entry point. “Be safe, 2XZ”
“Will do, Control. Thanks.”
With a flick of her fingers over the controls, she initiated take-off. Despite being resigned to the mechanic’s pit, she couldn’t quite help the smile that came to her face as the flyer lifted off and exited the hangar through the opening bay door. There was nothing like flying.