Page 71 of Across The Stars
“So you produce all your food here? No hunting?”
“Any land animals here are not that appetizing to us. Valer is mostly rainforest with a lot of water. Our pallets have evolved for aquatic cuisine, so we manufacture it ourselves.”
“So, you would like sushi,” I chuckled. “Do you know what sushi is?”
“I have a vague idea.”
“It’s raw fish with rice and veggies wrapped in seaweed.”
He nodded. “We have something similar. We call it halefiri.”
“Valer sounds nice.”
“It is. Very beautiful.”
“Why are you here and not there?”
“For much the same reason so many humans are on the Nexus. It is work and advancement.”
“And, how many outposts are here?”
“There are four across the equator, but this is the central one.”
Everything he was saying was captivating, but at the back of my mind, asking questions just meant I could hear his voice. And I really liked his voice. It was deep and smooth and flowy and I could listen to it for days.
When we came around a giant tree to a patch of plants that snaked like vines up some kind of fencing, I stopped. The whole area smelled like jasmine and honey and the little budding flowers on the vines looked like tiny bells the color of plums.
“I could stay here forever,” I said. “This place is beautiful.”
“Really?” Vahko said, sounding a little hopeful.
I spun to face him, caught off guard by his color. He was shrouded in a light, blue tone that almost seemed to glow in the low light.
“I mean, sure,” I shrugged. “But, that’s just something people say. I’m sure I couldn’t stay here forever. That’s silly.”
He kept staring at me in that weird fashion of his and it made my cheeks flush. I was sure I was blushing and under any othercircumstance, I would have covered my face and turned away to hide, but I couldn’t with Vahko. I just stared right back, the humidity of the gardens coating my heated skin.
“So? Why does your skin change like that?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation going.
He gestured to my cheeks. “It’s an amplified version of what your skin is doing now. Many of my kind can control it, though. If they choose to.”
“Do the colors mean something?”
The corner of his mouth twitched, but he didn’t answer.
“Can I ask you something else?” I said, still not wanting that awkward silence to take over.
“Anything,” Vahko replied.
“What actually made you want to… you know… dothat?With me, I mean.”
He hesitated to answer. Not in a shy way. The manner in which he slowly paced, moving his hands behind his back in that proper fashion of his, made him look refined and completely in control albeit conflicted.
“It was a chemical reaction,” he said. “Between us.”
“So, pheromones?”
“Not quite. My people call it a surge. It happens when two individuals experience an attraction. A sexual attraction, more specifically. For valerians, it influences our paetal—our second heart—to start producing breeding hormones.”
