Halley
“What would happen, do you think, if the tablet stopped working?” I ask, breaking our long silence, as my mount and I sidle closer to Keelo and Rin and their bimor.
I’m a bucket with holes: no sooner am I filled with answers than I find space for more. Even if those answers come from a grumpy alien who, only yesterday, was threatening to leave me behind.
Knowing I’ve got feelings for him, not knowing if he likes me—it’s tough, not going to lie. I wish he’d take off his neckerchief for a few minutes so I can smell his pheromones and know if we’re a good match.
I guess pheromones are the dating apps of the Arrok world. Thinking someone smells good is the equivalent of swiping right.
“It won’t break,” grumbles said grumpy alien.
“Yeah, but let’s pretend for a second that it does.
Then what?” I’ve gotten used to his brisk answers, the ones he gives when he’s trying to cut short a conversation.
“I suppose I could map our way back by following the stars, although that would mean traveling at night, and we’d probably be sliding up and down sand dunes on our ass—I mean on our bums to keep from tripping in the dark. ” I wink at Rin.
“You can use the stars to find the ship?” she asks.
“Sure. Don’t you use the stars to navigate when you’re flying?”
“Yes.”
“The ship does,” Keelo confirms.
“Well, I could do the same thing as your ship, but I only need to memorize the location of a single star that rises from the horizon in the direction we’re headed. Does that make sense?”
Rin looks up at the sky even though it’s impossible to see the stars through the light of two bright suns. It’s endless blue sky at the moment.
“Could you use the suns to travel during the day?”
“Good question. Absolutely we could, but it wouldn’t be as accurate as following a star, because there are lots of stars to pick from rather than just the two suns.”
“Akh.” She nods in wise agreement, sounding a lot like Eot.
“Then you’ve answered your own question,” says Keelo, a sideways glance at me. “But we’re got a back-up datapad in one of the saddlebags, so we won’t need to resort to astronavigation quite yet.”
“Oh, cool.” I release a breath. “Because I wasn’t super keen on having to test my memory, and I really don’t want to get lost out here.”
I’m fifty percent sure I could’ve done it…but there was an equal chance I’d get accidentally turned around, and we’d end up walking in the entirely wrong direction. One sand dune looks like another.
“Isn’t there anything you’re afraid of?” I ask Keelo.
Am I trying to flirt? Yes, a little bit.
“You’re not scared of getting lost, not scared of fighting a trikon”—I list each item against a finger, counting across my hand—“not scared of the heat, not scared of market security, not scared of stun guns—"
“He isn’t scared of anything,” Rin declares, tipping her back as far back as it will go so she can look up at the underside of Keelo’s chin, looming over her.
“Yes, I am. Everyone’s scared of something.” He sighs like he’s long sick of me and is merely indulging my questions, but if that were true, surely he’d have agreed with Rin, rather than contradicting her.
“Eot scares me,” he admits. “When he gets an idea in his head and doesn’t slow down to think it through first. He’s ruthlessly positive that everything will work out for the best if only he tries hard enough.”
Collectively, we glance back at Eot. He straightens and waves, the distance between us slowly increasing as his bimor continues to slow. She does not look pleased; four days of travel with us for company is apparently beyond the amount of effort she was willing to expend for this journey.
I laugh. “I can see that happening. He’s relentlessly cheerful.”
“Although…” Keelo growls, reluctance dragging the words from his mouth, “he usually is right. Which is extremely annoying.”
It’s well past dusk when Keelo finally lets us stop for the night, and we pitch our campsite in the crook of two dunes.
Dinner is yet again more food bars that taste like their used-by date ended a decade ago.
We feed the bimors more of those strange gelatinous water cubes, and they stamp their feet when we strip off their saddles, kicking up sand over the bedrolls Rin’s lining up in a neat row to one side of the battery-powered stove—our main source of light.
Tired as I am, it’s now customary for me to take the first watch, so instead of collapsing onto the blankets, I bury my ass in the sand, digging a hollow so I’m as comfortable as I can get after another full day in the saddle.
The muscles of my legs burn like I’ve been climbing hills, and the pins and needles prickling my feet take a long time to fade.
Eot sits beside me, leaning back on his hands and staring up at the incredibly bright stars.
He slides one hand over the shifting sand until it rests against mine, and I interlink my pinky finger with his.
I feel a bit like a teenager, secretly crushing on a boy I know my mom will disapprove of and trying to hold his hand under the cover of darkness so nobody will see.
Rin takes something from one of the saddlebags and sits on my other side.
When I smile at her, I make sure to keep my teeth covered, and she slides a fraction closer until I’m bracketed by aliens.
Something like butterflies, but softer, settles in my stomach, and I’m hard-pressed not to start grinning like a fucking fool.
Mom would be so proud if she could see me now.
I wish I knew where Earth was, so we could abduct her too.
“What have you got there, baby girl?” I nod to whatever it is Rin’s holding.
There’s a long silence, long enough I worry she’s decided to stop talking to me again. But then she opens her fist and shows me a comb. It’s got narrow bristles and isn’t so dissimilar to the comb I used to have as a kid.
Apparently, even on another planet, so incredibly far from home, some things never change.
“Is that so I can brush your hair?” I slip my hand free of Eot’s and hesitatingly take the comb from Rin. There are engravings on the handle, alien words I can’t read, and on closer inspection it’s probably Eot’s or Keelo’s comb, by the size.
When Rin doesn’t immediately try snatching it back, I guess I’ve done the right thing.
Brushing the mats from her hair is both rewarding and horrifying.
Judging by both Eot’s and Keelo’s aesthetic, it’s common for Arrok to wear their hair long.
But apparently nobody has bothered helping Rin with her hair for a long time—and I don’t mean the guys.
It takes much longer for mats to get quite this dense.
Suddenly, I’m forgetting how tired I am, powered by foul-tempered indignation.
I’ve got to grit my teeth to keep from swearing, not wanting to say anything that might have Rin changing her mind.
The fact that she’s sitting still when I’ve got to be pulling at her scalp, despite how careful I’m being, says a lot about her determination and bravery.
Once I have a small section brushed clear, I braid it to keep it from re-tangling and move onto the next section.
Eot scoots closer and joins in. He doesn’t have a second comb but instead uses his fingers to pry individual strands free of the mats.
He’s extraordinarily gentle, considering the size of his hands and how easy it is to get frustrated by such a daunting task.
I seriously underestimated how long this would take.
Soon Rin is slumping forward, her eyes closed and her head lolling.
Keelo sits in front of her, supporting her under the arm and letting her forehead rest against his bare chest. With the stove beside us, light falls on half of his face.
But I don’t need to see his eyes to know he’s watching Eot and me over the top of Rin’s head.
“Tell me—before you met Rin, what were the two of you doing?” I ask the guys.
The question’s one that’s been niggling at me all day—along with a thousand more.
At first, I didn’t broach the topic because I wasn’t sure how Rin would feel hearing about her guardians’ lives before her rescue.
Now, I’ve decided she’s probably already asked this same question.
Besides, I doubt she’s still awake to hear us talk.
“Eot said something about proving yourselves worthy? How’d you do that?”
“We were working physical security,” Eot answers. “Mainly on cruise liners.”
“Cruise ships? In outer space?”
“That’s right. Some are the size of small cities. But Keelo and I usually tried to get work on the smaller ones. They tended to be the more exclusive ones with fewer passengers.”
“And bigger tips,” Keelo adds.
“What type of security? For if the cruiser was attacked by another ship? Pirates?” I gasp. “Are there space pirates?”
“There are. But the cruise liners have Fighter ships and pilots for that sort of thing. Keelo and I were internal security. The most we really had to worry about was breaking up fights between passengers and making sure nobody tried cheating at the tables.”
“Tables?” Either my translator gave me a faulty answer or I’ve missed something.
“Rolling,” Eot explains. “A jump up. Lick your luck.”
“What?”
“Gambling,” Keelo answers.
“Oh.” Lick your luck? Gross. “And that was considered honorable?” Making sure rich aliens didn’t slap other rich aliens across a blackjack table? Then again, the elders council continually misgendered Rin, so what the hell do they know about honor?
“Security work is pretty common for Arrok,” Eot explains. “Nobody wants to argue with us when they know we can transform into our monstrous form. And it’s honorable to protect others, especially those who can’t protect themselves.”
“The pay was good,” Keelo admits, clearly not trusting Eot to admit to the finer details. “Money is always honorable where the Elders Coalition is concerned.”
The way Keelo says “honorable” makes it clear he doesn’t agree. I can practically hear him grinding his teeth, and I smile at him over the top of Rin’s head, pleased we’re on the same page.
“That sounds like Earth. Money can buy you a lot of power.”
Conversation stalls. I could pretend it’s because nobody wants to accidentally wake Rin, but probably the real reason for the silence is that we’re all getting lost in our own thoughts.
I’m thinking about how strange it is that the terror of being abducted and sold into slavery and then the aching homesickness and loneliness I felt working at Xile’s have all culminated into this point, right here and now, with me being so incredibly lucky as to be keeping company with these two amazing guys.
A furnace has been lit in my core, and it’s heating my blood.
Just the thought of them both has me imagining what it might be like watching them kiss.
I barely see the strands of Rin’s hair in my hands, pretending Eot is explaining kissing to Keelo, licking into his mouth, nipping at his full bottom lip.
I squirm in my sand hole, frustratingly uncomfortable yet again.
“Halley.” Keelo’s voice is so low it’s more growl than actual speech, and it does nothing to stop the tingles convalescing at the crux of my legs.
I purse my lips, putting on as innocent an expression as I can muster knowing full well they can both smell me. I might as well have an open for business sign on my crotch. Still, I maintain the facade, if only to see how far I can push him. “Yes, Keelo?”
Surely he’s got to break sooner or later.
Surely he’s got to admit to having feelings for Eot and me—or maybe just Eot.
I hear his breath catch, and beside me Eot’s hands slip on Rin’s hair.
The kid shifts against Keelo’s chest, muttering incomprehensibly.
As predicted, she doesn’t wake. Rather, she huddles closer to Keelo, seeking his warmth.
I hadn’t realized how cold the air was getting, now the twin suns have long since fallen below the horizon.
The heat of the stove and of my own internal fire are enough to keep my skin flushed.
In response, Keelo shakes his head. Maybe he’s trying to look exasperated in a I’m-too-cool-for-this sort of way, the implication being I’m playing silly games, except the effect is ruined when he double checks he’s still got his neck covered.
I flash him a toothy grin. How is he more handsome when he’s trying—and failing—to look like a pompous git?
I’m yawning by the time we loosen the last strands of Rin’s hair, twist them into a braid and tie them off with a thread cut from a blanket.
She’s got eight braids in total, and I’m not a talented-enough hairdresser to have made them look anything but functional.
Still, it’s a big improvement on how her hair looked earlier, and I reach my arms over my head, stretching the kinks from my neck.
This could be a good life, helping to care for Rin and teaching her science by day. And by night... I chance a glance at Eot. By night I could get absolutely railed by two boyfriends. Boyfriends who are also railing each other.
I can finally see the appeal of having been abducted—not that Mom wanted to contact extraterrestrial life so she could she fuck it. She had the much loftier dream of exchanging information and sharing knowledge.
Keelo scoops Rin into his arms and moves to her bedroll, tucking her into the cocoon of blankets.
Even sleeping, she’s got her hands in fists, and I can only hope that us working on her hair while she slept didn’t give her nightmares.
At least Keelo’s gentle with her, tucking one of his own blankets under her head as a pillow so that her face isn’t directly on the sand.
They’re both fantastic dads.
I lean to the side until my shoulder bumps against Eot’s arm.
He loops it around my shoulders, and I shamelessly climb onto his lap.
It’s late, so late that my shift for watching over the camp has ended and Eot’s has begun.
I don’t claim a bedroll though, needing a few minutes in the arms of at least one of my guys.