Page 68 of Across The Stars
“Going somewhere?”
She nodded. “Diplomatic trip to the Nexus,” she said. “I haven’t been there in ages, but obviously things are tense and weneed a good line of communication.” She leaned forward on the railing with a deep breath, taking in the fresh scents of the open air. “Too bad I’m not the one who surged.”
“Too bad,” I sighed. “It should be me going to the Nexus. They need military power. Not more talks.”
“Should be you.” There was sarcasm in her tone. I looked down at her to see her narrowing her big eyes at me. “Do you realize how many of us envy you right now? Word’s spreading about you and the woman. So many of us wish we could feel what you’re feeling. We’ve been a sad, empty race for so long since the Thinning.”
“It was all because of the gek,” I cut in. “They did this to us. I should be out there doing what I do best. Fighting.”
“That’s not fighting. That’s revenge and revenge can be counterproductive. Fighting can be done multiple ways. Now that you’ve surged with a human, studying the two of you might reverse what the gek did or perhaps help us uncover what truly ignites a reaction. Because clearly we know now that it is not limited to our own kind. Do you realize that? Four billion. That’s how many of us are left. Two residential planets and two colonized ones and four billion of us. Ten cycles ago, there were six billion and our numbers keep going down because we can’t reproduce outside of a lab. We cannot make children without a dozen other hands and needles poking, prodding, and monitoring every step. There is no enjoyment in it. It is empty. We do not have families, we have scientists and facilities. We are a race that thrives on our emotions and yet we’re starved of the things that feed emotions the most.”
“It keeps our race alive. And those labs are what the gek are targeting now.”
“Labs we’ve already sent ships to protect. My point is, we won’t need labs if what’s happening between you and Innifer proves to be promising.”
“And what if it is promising? You realize the physical demands of having children?”
“Times have changed. What happened to Orli was a result of much more than pregnancy.”
I knew it was. It didn’t erase the sense of guilt that I’d been carrying since I realized what happened. But Akasa was always much better at convincing me than anyone. I supposed that was why she was such a good ambassador. Communication came easy to her and she was skilled in keeping the peace whereas I was too straightforward and often made people nervous. I glanced at her, watching her brows raise like she was urging me to agree with her. Eventually, I did.
“I know you are right, sister,” I said, defeated.
“But you’re just being stubborn. I know. So? Tell me about her. I’m intrigued. I heard talk of a blue-haired woman running up the Ascension Spiral.”
I cocked a brow, surprised. “To the top?”
“I didn’t ask. So, tell me about her. I truly want to know.”
I sighed. “She’s… odd.”
“Odd how?”
“Well, she lied to get on the Nexus. She did something called stripping on Earth. Said she got paid to take her clothes off and dance.”
“Respectable.”
“Not on Earth, according to her. Her father was Perry Saint.”
“The pilot? Really?”
“You know him?”
“No, but Goreha did. Said he could fly better than any human he’d met. Strange that Innifer didn’t follow in his footsteps.”
“I thought the same.”
“Maybe you should ask her about it.”
I raised a brow. “I know what you’re doing.”
“What? If you’re grounded, might as well make the best of it and talk to her.”
“I cannot do that,” I said under my breath. “That would be courting.”
“Vahko,” she sighed, cupping a hand over my wrist and leaning in. “Listen to me. Don’t think that I don’t understand what you went through when they woke you up from stasis the way they did. I know how hard you worked to come to terms with it all and I know how hard it must be to try and erase all of that now because of Innifer, but you’re strong. I know you will do the right thing, for you and for her. As for me, I have to go. Duty calls.”
She was trying to rub it in. After her sympathetic speech, she was still my sister. My jaw clenched at the statement as she walked off, ready to take to the stars while I was forced to stay planet side. I didn’t like it. She disappeared around a corner and returned soon after, her face bright with excitement.
