4
“For what?”
“Talk of Earth women. Andri is up, and Gorthin will be soon. I must go to the southern barn.”
“And you will gone until both suns set I expect. What is Tammy supposed to do all day?”
“I don’t know.”
I stand, my fists clenched in frustration. “You should be here when she wakes.”
“In-Sar will be waiting.”
“In-Sar can get on with the work himself. The control station at the barn is designed to be operated by one individual.”
His tail lifts high and flicks.
“I am sure In-Sar understands that you have a new mate,” I go on. “That you were chosen.”
“What does that mean?”
“That he understands if you are not with him as much as usual. You have a new priority.”
“So I just drop him like a piece of trash?”
“No of course not. But he has a job to do, and so do you…here.”
“Now Tammy is my job? She defines me?”
“Why are you being so stubborn?”
“Because…”
“What?”
“Because…” He has reverted to our native tongue again. “I didn’t ask for any of this. Not the virus, not the grief, not a new mate. It’s been thrown at me and fascinating as these alien women are… I didn’t choose this. I got it thrust upon me.”
“Now you are being mind-blowingly ungrateful,” I reply also in our native tongue. It’s best no one else hears these words. “And you should be ashamed of yourself.”
“Shame! Thank you, brother, for adding to my list of failings.”
“I am not saying you’re failing at anything.”
“You are, it’s what you always do. You are the Ambassador, you have the king’s ear, you go go to the palace for meals now. And me…what am I?”
“Behaving like a male who doesn’t know how lucky he is.”
“Lucky!” His cheeks are red and his horns are sparkling. I eye his tails swishing left and right in frustration.
“Every male on the planet would swap places with you,” I say, “to have a female again to breed with.”
“Well they can…they can have her.” He swipes his tail at the counter and sends two plates, a cup and a container of wild flowers smashing into the wall.
“El-Frankin!”
He glares at me, his eyes narrowed, and then stomps from the room.
I rush to the window, avoiding the broken plates on the floor.
In seconds he is in his vehz and racing over the field of crop that lies next to the farmstead.
What he has just told me makes no sense. I thought was pleased to be a recipient male. That it was his dream come true, as it was mine. Ever since the king launched Project Hope with Earth we had talked excitedly about it.
But now…now I see he didn’t want it. He wasn’t ready for it.
Or at least not for a female.
In-Sar?
That wasn’t something I wanted to even think about.
I knew of some Planet Hade males who had found not just comfort but sexual satisfaction in each other after the virus. Loneliness did that to people.
But my brother?
El-Frankin?
No, that couldn’t be.
I was about to turn from the window when I spotted something black out toward Balak Canyon. I squinted, trying to make it out? It was moving, slowly, a creature maybe. But not a hirion, it was too small. Not a ghinut, no long single horn.
“What the?” A creeping sensation went up my back and my belly tightened.
This was not good news.
Oh no…this was very bad news.