Queen of Their Colony (Kindred Tales)

At the time, Terra had been reading an article written by Dr. Iyanna Washington about the unusual flora of the Kindred Monstrum Mother Ship. On the off chance that she might answer, Terra had written to ask some questions about the article. She wasn’t a botanist herself, but any kind of alien life science fascinated her.

Iyanna had e-mailed back and the two women had struck up a correspondence. When Terra had asked about the possibility of bringing a group of her students up for a Senior Class Trip, Iyanna had welcomed the idea. After running it by Chief Commander Rarev, who was the leader of the Monstrum, she had invited Terra up for a tour herself so they could decide together which parts of the ship to include on the tour.

Which was how Terra found herself aboard the Monstrum Mother Ship, talking to Iyanna face-to-face for the first time, and trying not to think about her ex-husband and his upcoming nuptials to the little bimbo who had apparently blinded him with her perfect, young body and tempted him away from his wife.

Ex-wife, Terra reminded herself. The divorce had gone through last month, but it still felt weird to go back to her maiden name and think of herself as being single again.

Single and likely to remain so. She’d looked at some of the dating apps and had no wish to try them. They all seemed so superficial—even the ones that had sections for people her own age. They all specified that they wanted a woman who “took care of herself”—which was apparently code for “young and thin.” Nobody, it seemed, was looking for a middle-aged woman with gray in her hair, crow’s feet around her eyes, and too much junk in her trunk, Terra thought ruefully.

Gregoryory could easily find someone else—he was a well-paid executive at one of the major tech companies. The intern—Terra thought her name was “Mindy”—had probably been delighted to hop on his middle-aged dick when she found out how much money he made. Terra, on the other hand, could probably count on being single the rest of her natural life and dying alone.

Stop being so morbid, she lectured herself. At least he waited to divorce you until Sean was off to college!

Which was true—Gregoryory had at least waited that long. Their son, Sean, was nearly through his Freshman year at Stanford—Gregoryory was paying his tuition—and doing well, despite the news that his parents had gotten a divorce. He was even going to be Gregoryory’s best man at the wedding next week.

No, not next week—this week—this Friday. And you still haven’t’ decided if you’re going or not, Terra reminded herself grimly. Though she supposed she ought to—she’d taken the entire week off and she had the time to spare. A tour of the Monstrum Mother Ship surely wouldn’t take a whole week. Her principal had been glad to let her have the time, even though it was nearing finals—he was as excited to see the Monstrum ship as the kids were.

Terra just wished she could be more excited herself but her enthusiasm was overshadowed by her ex-husband’s upcoming wedding and her own indecision about whether to attend or not.

On one hand, she wanted to be the bigger person—to show everyone that she was an adult and this was an amicable split, that she was happy for Gregoryory and she wanted to be friends with Mindy, so that Sean would understand that she bore no ill will towards his father.

On the other hand, all of that was bullshit!

Of course she was angry about the way Gregoryory had cheated on her and then left her for a woman half her age! And the divorce had not been amicable, no matter what her ex wanted to pretend. If she had been able to, Terra would have taken the no-good cheating bastard for everything he was worth.

Unfortunately, Gregoryory had the money and means to hire a really good divorce attorney and Terra had not. Which meant that her ex kept the nice, expensive house—which he had subsequently sold to buy an even bigger and nicer one—and Terra barely got enough of a settlement to move into a crappy little one bedroom apartment.

So hell yes, she was resentful, but she didn’t want to show it.

If only I could find some hot guy to take to Gregoryory’s wedding, she thought, as Iyanna showed her around the Light Side of the Monstrum Mother Ship. Someone to really show him up!

That way, people wouldn’t be talking about how her ex had traded her in for a younger, prettier model. Terra just couldn’t bear the idea of all the pitying looks and whispered remarks if she showed up at Gregoryory’s wedding without a date. She really wouldn’t mind going if she had someone who was the male equivalent of Mindy to show off—even if it was just for one day and there was no chance of a real relationship…