Page 27 of Love Galaxy

Coupled upChloe called us.The real question is if Briar will still want to be paired with Sorin by the end of their twenty days.

But it is not twenty days, not really. Surely we have already used up nearly two precious days.

I clear my throat but immediately can think of nothing to say. The sound of my breaths is all I can hear; they fill the small cabin, accentuating the otherwise uncomfortable silence.

I should ask her something… something about, er, her… Scudding fek!

“It feels a little like we’re hurtling into the belly of the beast,” she says, cutting through my inability to form coherent sentences. “How long is the tunnel? How did you guys build it? How fast are we travelling?” Turning, she loops an arm around my shoulders so she can more easily see me.

The control panel is backlit by a muted light that throws deep shadows over the side of her face, illuminating the hollow at her collarbone and reflecting our faces in the translucent hatch.

“I’m sorry,” she says, before I have chosen which of her questions to answer first. “You’re probably really uncomfortable. I hadn’t realized the ride would be so long when I first sat down. Maybe— If we—” Releasing me, she shifts from side to side, as if trying to move her weight from my legs but finding no other space to sit. “I bet Mr. Smith thought it would be a real laugh making us both squeeze in here together.”

Catching hold of her wrist, I return her arm to its place around my shoulders. Like this, her side is pressed to my chest, and we can speak face to face, rather than me trying to talk to the back of her head. Like this, I can almost ignore the small camera clipped to the control panel with its flashing red light indicating it is recording.

Of course John Smith could not even allow us this time to be private.

“I am comfortable,” I reassure her. She is small, delicate, so easily broken. I would keep her wrapped in my arms forever if I could, protecting her from all the harms of the world. “So long as you are comfortable, too.”

“Oh, yeah?” Do her cheeks flush, or is that the red light of the camera reflecting off her pale skin? She does not meet my gaze, looking instead at our reflections. “I’m comfortable.”

“The tunnel travels the length of our farm. Our parents cut it, when my family first settled here. They could not afford to bring much with them, but even then they understood the importance of an auger drill.”

“An auger— Oh, like a bore. We have those back on Earth, too. When you said your parents had made the tunnels, for a second I thought you meant they’d dug them using picks and shovels. I keep forgetting about spaceships and how you guys must have technology that’s so much more advanced than anything Humans have.” She rubs at the back of her neck, where her translator must be. “We’re so different.” Still examining our reflections, she continues, saying: “I don’t have any horns or scales. I don’t have four arms. Seeing you, talking to you, that’s been the catalyst for my entire world changing.”

“You look at me and are reminded of being stolen from your home planet?”

“No, I don’t. When I look at you”—her gaze finally settles on my real face—“I see someone who is kind. Someone who looked after me when I needed it most.”

I scoff. Kindness will not keep Briar and the other Females safe.

“Hey, I’m serious. I’d have liked a friend as kind as you back home,” she says, squeezing my shoulder. “I’ve been meaning to ask, what’s this planet called?”

“Officially, its name is a series of numbers which denote its location within the galaxy,” I explain. “Unofficially, my family and I call it Ril II.”

“Ril the First being the planet on which you were born?”

I nod.

“Why did you guys come here, when there’s literally nobody else around? That is, if you don’t mind me asking.”

Of course I do not mind. I would be honored to answer anything Briar wishes to ask of me. “It is— My parents—” I struggle to know where to begin. This is not something I talk about. It all happened before Roan was born, and Killan will not speak of our old life on Ril I. Being older than me, he remembers the events with more clarity. I am never sure if my memories are real or if they are old stories told to me by our parents. “When Roan was born, here on Ril II, my parents named him in remembrance of our older sister, Roa.”

“Oh.” Briar stills, as if she can guess what I am going to say next.

“Roa was nine Common years when she became ill and died.” I was four then; Killan, seven.

“I’m so sorry, Sorin.” She presses her free hand to my chest, her fingers splayed over my scales.

“Why are you sorry?” I do not understand. Roa’s death had nothing to do with Briar.

“I’m sorry that your sister died. I’m sorry that you and your family had to go through something so difficult.”

Akh, I see. “It was difficult,” I agree. “She was diagnosed with an Eoli deficiency. It should have been curable, but there was not an alternative source of Eoli readily available on Ril at that time. After her death, my parents brought Killan and I to Ril II with the hope nobody else would have to suffer as Roa did.”

“Eoli isn’t translating, I don’t think. At least it’s not something I’ve heard of before.”

“It is a vitamin responsible for increasing our intestinal absorption of other important elements. It comes from our sun, on Ril I that is, and we absorb it through microscopic pores in our scales.”

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