Page 37 of A Mate for Vasek
“Sorry!” Roxy exclaimed, running toward them. “I didn’t know Nibbles was going to react that way.”
“I think we need to get him used to strangers now that he’s getting a little bigger. He’s getting a little possessive over us,” Cami said.
“A little?” Dawn’s question came out on this side of incredulous.
“Okay, more than a little. He needs training before we end up with a situation.”
The way Cami said the word “situation” made it seem like she thought the little pom-pom would swallow someone whole. It was probably still a baby, but how big could it get?
Roxy handed Dawn a bundle of polymer-coated wire. “Here, hand that to him. Wires are his secret kryptonite.”
Dawn eyed the bundle warily before carefully offering it to the toothed pom-pom, keeping her hand as far away from the toothy maw as possible. Nibbles yanked it from her hand then, chewing happily on the wire.
“Okay, I think you might be right, Cami,” Roxy said. “I think we need to get him a trainer.”
“There’s the dragus breeder at Reka 5. We can drop by next time and see if they have any recommendations,” Lana said.
Dawn gawked at the feast laid out in front of her. Everything was mildly familiar but not totally recognizable as any Earth dish. “We weren’t sure what you wanted, so we got the food replicator to make a bunch of stuff. We can all share.”
They did, and as they ate, they talked. Nibbles ate with them, devouring the raw, unplucked tepins whole until he was so stuffed that he couldn’t even lift his head. Thus incapacitated, Dawn finally ventured to pet the creature on the head. It was just as soft as it looked. It was crazy that such a cute and fluffy thing could be so bloodthirsty.
It wasn’t long before the topic of Earth came up.
“Yeah, you really don’t want to go back to Earth,” Roxy said.
“I know, you probably think it’s something the Talleans tell us so we don’t run off. But I’m telling you, I’ve seen the footage when I was still back in the inner planets,” Cami said. “Earth is amess. The Dominion has control of most of the big cities, and the rest are owned by the SOG.”
“The what?” Dawn had never heard of them.
“Soldiers of God,” Cami clarified. “It’s Earth’s reaction to the Dominion and its Goddess.”
“A resistance?”
“Kinda.” Cami made a face.
“Then why are we here? We need to go back and help!”
The women all looked at her like she was crazy. What the actual fuck? She wasn’t the crazy one—they were, for settling for a life out here.
“I’m not sure they’ll accept your help even if you could make it back to Earth,” Cami said. “Which is highly doubtful anyway. If there’s one crew that could make the trip and survive, you’re looking at it. And trust me, we aren’t going.”
Dawn scowled. What was so special about this crew anyway? Sure, they were half human, but that didn’t make them any more suited to get to Earth.
“Trust me, Dawn. You don’t want to try to get back to Earth,” Roxy said again.
“So what, you want me to be like you guys? Find some Tallean man and pretend to be happy?”
Roxy put her hands on her hips. “Hey, that’s not fair! You don’t know anything about me. I fought tooth and nail to get to Kean’s compound. Then I had to be literally the best on the entire planet to get noticed and hired for this job.”
Lana put a calming hand on Roxy. “It’s okay. She’s just upset. We all went through this.”
“Anyway, you don’t want to help the Soldiers of God,” Cami continued. “I wouldn’t exactly call them the good guys in the fight. They’ll probably use you to pump out a bunch of future soldiers. That is if they don’t deem you already tainted and stone you to death. Earth decided to fight fire with fire. The Dominion went in with their Goddess bullshit, and Earth thought, hey, we can one-up that. Imagine if all the most fanatical religious nuts got together and decided to write one singular holy text to rule them all. Trust me, it’s much better out here now.
“Last I heard, there’s a small faction of the Dominion Army that defected and joined up with a bunch of humans who weren’t so gung-ho about the new religion. And eventheyare trying to find a way to get out and set up base as far from Earth and the Dominion as possible.”
Dawn was shaking her head now. Sure, Dawn had heard bits and pieces here and there. And every time she’d tell herself that whoever was saying it was mistaken, maybe they were lying, or maybe they were lied to. But Cami was so honest. And that was the worst part, because Dawn believed her.
“I’m sorry, Dawn. I know it’s hard to accept, and I don’t expect you to believe everything I’m saying, but please, consideranythingelse instead of returning to Earth. Kean’s place is really nice if you like nature. And there’s always Reka 5.”
