Page 34 of Defiance
“I can’t indulge either.”
Novak exhaled, loosening up his spine as he closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to the door. His ears flattened against it, tickled by the subtle hum of the ship. “Thanks for not making it worse.”
Xata glanced up at him thoughtfully. “Yeah, well. We all deserve a chance at something good.”
Her holotab pinged and Novak’s ear twitched. She purred under her breath, tendrils spiraling with appreciation. “Our envoy is waiting on the dock like a good boy. La?we Sath.”
Novak turned away from the door, grateful for the distraction. “The name isn’t familiar.”
Xata pulled up the hjarna’s dossier and clicked her dental ridges together. “Would you look at that? HIXBS’s shiniest little squish. Easy on the eyes too.”
She tossed the screen at Novak’s bionic and the information scrolled over his vision. La?we Sath was a rising star with several media appointments, all centered around protected species topics. He’d spent six orbits going back and forth between Helion and Byd Farrwel, the yiwreni homeworld. He had one credit loan that funded his initial move to Helion, but a large savings cache, and two modest home units. He traveled to and from Piaoguo on a regular basis, and took a local course on interspecies meal preparation. His last physical exam had been centered around obtaining spawning credentials, which he’d passed.
A knock came at Novak’s door and he spun back around, heart in his throat. Delicate knuckles tapped the metal rather than ping the access panel.
“Agent Gaul?” Charlie called through the door.
Novak stepped towards the access panel in a rush, then came to an abrupt halt. His ears twitched. His nose twitched. His tail twitched. Everything twitched.
“I just, ah…” Charlie cleared her throat and spoke a little louder. “I know we’ve docked. I’m ready to go anytime.”
“Thank fuck,” Xata sighed, pressing the access panel. The door whooshed open and there was Charlie, herchemiaengulfing him like holy incense. It rolled through the hallway and off her skin in glittering clouds that instantly soothed hisplumes and his tail. Hiscolearaexpanded and relaxed on the bridge of his nose.
Charlie gave him a thin-lipped smile while all he could manage was an unnerving staring contest, then her expression brightened as she craned her neck to see around his shoulder.
“Siat! Glad you’re here.”
Charlie brushed her shoulder against Novak’s elbow, sliding into the room. She held out a collection of plasdocs and Xata took them slowly with a piqued expression.
“Drawings for my food bay?” she teased. “You shouldn’t have.”
Charlie grimaced, but there was no animosity in her scent. Novak’s tail slithered out into the hallway to wrap around the straps of Charlie’s bag while they talked.
“It’s a proposal. Pure shite since I put it together in a week, but…” She cleared her throat. “Not like I had anything else to do.”
Xata leafed through the plas sheets, a crease in her brow. Her intensity strengthened, eyes flying over the words. “How’d you come up with this?”
Charlie shrugged. “I’ve been volunteering in the medbay with Pom Pom and thought maybe there’s something to that. Like museums with touch tanks and lumber companies that plant trees…” She glanced nervously between Xata and Novak, then planted her hands on her hips. “Humans do this sort of thing a lot. We’re tribal and not very good at seeing the humanity in others sometimes. Maybe it’s offensive, though. I don’t know. People aren’t really my specialty.”
Novak drew up Charlie’s bag and slung it over his shoulder. “What is it?”
“A senescence outreach study.”
Xata slid the docs into her uniform jacket before Novak could ask for details.
“I’ll look into it.” The commander offered Charlie her hand in a human handshake and they clasped palms. “In the meantime, try not to blow it?”
She looked pointedly at Novak, who grinned dangerously. Now that Charlie was in his space, his desperation had cooled into possessive vigilance.
“Yes, sir.”
The cocksure set of his ears didn’t fool her anymore than he fooled himself.
16
After slathering ourselves insakharelagain, Novak descended the ship’s ramp first, his shoulders at eye level. I stared at him, at the delicate pattern of scales that covered a long, thick neck. The base of his ears mesmerized me and I looked my fill. They were muscular, feeding into the nape of his neck to give a mouth-watering divot along his spine. The corded tendons jumped as his ears turned this way and that, standing tall and proud above his head.
Then he stepped aside and the sky opened up into a peerless blue with fluffy white clouds. The air was so dry that the insides of my nostrils creped like paper and my arms pebbled. I felt like a lizard on a basking rock, soaking in the heat without the boiling towel called “jungle steam” drowning me slowly.
