She sucks in a little breath.
“Tell me how it goes.”
Her voice is calm and soft. “I prepare like I’m doing the A3 kick, but then I…” she trails off. She’s silent for a long time.
She pulls her hands from mine and stands up. At first I’m terrified that it didn’t work.
Without speaking, she crouches down, then roars, a fearsome, beautiful sound, and leaps.
I catch my breath. It’s the most graceful, destructive thing I’ve seen.
“I got it back!” She screams. She does the move again. Again.
She comes over and bends down, squeezes me awkwardly, so hard I can’t breath. “Kee, you fixed me! You got into my head. I didn’t think you could,
but you did. Oh, sweet Mother Earth. I’ve got it back.”
There are tears in her eyes and she doesn’t bother to wipe them, and they shine like little stars in the light. “Kee, you’re a genius. How did you do that?”
I flush. “I’m no genius. It’s just a thing… that I do.” I stand up, and one knee pops. I shake it out and shrug.
“It’s incredible.” She steps back and does the thing again.
I want to ask how she does it, to teach it to me. For a second, I imagine myself leaping and screaming, and Mykl’s face, amazed—because I’m a warrior, too, someone he can respect.
But even I know I need many solar rotations of training to even come close to trying what she can do.
I bite my lip, both pleased and sad. “I’m glad I helped.”
“I’m going to go directly to the training dome.” Her words tumble out. “Teach this right now, to whomever is there. Oh, Kee, I love you.” She grabs me again and I hug her back. Maybe my life is a wreck right now, but fuck, it does feel good—to do something useful. Something valuable. And as she hurries away, happiness in every footfall, my own eyes tear up and I smile, watching her go.
Chapter 5
Mykl
* * *
“You’re on that again?” Lanz points at my ultra-far-reach scanner. “Why do you even bother?”
“Some planet rotation I’ll get the message for which I’ve been waiting.” I twist wires together and reach for my soldering tools. “It passes the time while I work.” Kianna is off duty today, and Amber isn’t here, either—she’s on leave expecting her young. Apparently human females need time to prepare for the birth.
Lanz snorts. “Some planet rotation you’ll wake up and realize that you’re too old, and you wasted your life waiting for something that will never arrive.”
“When I prove you wrong, I expect you to bow down and apologize on one knee.” I narrow my eyes.
“Oh, I’ll grovel and writhe around like a Marsan worm if you find a batch of Zandian females by listening to that scanner.” He smirks. “I’ll eat dirt. I’ll cook you a meal. I’ll be your pleasure slave for a planet rotation.” He likes to joke around like this now. In the past, I would have punched him. Now, I admit it’s mildly humorous. He’s almost as funny as Kianna—I push her out of my mind.
I snort. “Veck off. You’re the last being I’d want as a slave.” Thoughts of Kianna fill my mind again. She was a factory slave before Zandia acquired her. Not a pleasure slave—thank veck. If she’d been a pleasure slave, I would spend every planet rotation here wanting to kill every nasty being who used her.
“What’s the news, then?” He taps the volume button.
Static fills the air, then snippets of tower talk from a hundred thousand light years away: Two Marrians discussing airspeed velocity to leave their planet.
“The usual. Nothing. Yet.” I raise my eyebrow. “Where are you headed?”
“A pleasure slave auction. Checking for human females.” He crosses his arms. “Which we learned about from our official scanner and our army-sanctioned comm listening devices.”
“Veck you.” I grimace, but it lacks bite. “Where?”