Page 56 of Taken to Kor
I scoff, “Centare. Those people are the worst.” Rhork laughs as I rub my hand over his stomach and he plays gently with my hair. “I mean it. They’re so busy trying to figure out how to stay alive and take from each other that they don’t even realize that they don’t need to take, because there’s enough for everyone. They don’t even know how big the galaxy even is. How much of it there is still to explore. It’s pure abundance. And even though they have the ability to travel off-planet now with the help of the Voraxians, they don’t. They stay put and keep fighting over stones and sand. They’re nothing like us pirates.”
I can feel Rhork’s smile leak through his voice as he says, “Centare. They are nothing like us pirates.” He lifts just enough to be able to kiss the top of my head. I close my eyes, just enjoying it.
Then I say, “And you know what rhymes with pirates?”
“What?”
“Nothing at all. Because we’re special.”
“We are.”
And then something clicks. “Hey, what were you planning to do with this planet anyways? Besides have sex on it?”
“My imagination only got us to this point. I have nothing planned for after.”
It’s my turn to laugh at that.
“Besides, this planet isn’t mine. I bought it for you. So you could see the ocean. Was it everything you imagined it would be?”
“Centare. I had no way of imagining this. It’s…incredible.”
“I agree.” He pats my bottom and I fight the urge to want to mount him again by distracting myself.
“But you know what I was thinking? It’d be a pretty big waste of a pretty rad planet to just use it for the off-chance we feel like leaving Kor or the ship for a sexcapade. And we’ve been looking at building secure housing facilities for the humans on Kor. But what if we built them here instead? I mean, it would be such a cool place to wake up after however long they’ve been sleeping. It’d be isolated, a planet they could call theirs, if they want. Otherwise, the cool ones that want to be pirates can join us or go to Kor and do whatever.
“It’s way better than the colony. And hey, we could even build trading ports out here, if we wanted. That would give Niahhorru a chance to meet humans in casual commerce type settings, instead of whatever forced introductions you had in mind and then when the humans are more established, maybe they have something to offer besides just their ability to breed. They could, I don’t know, bake something or build something. Harvest something. Whatever.”
Rhork doesn’t say anything for some time after I’ve finished prattling. I stay on my back, staring up at the purple sky, watch it lighten around the edges, getting yellower and yellower.
Finally, when the silence has gone on for too long, I elbow him in the ribs. “Rhork? What do you think?”
“Interesting.”
Ninety-eight solars later…
14
Deena
I was less nervous when I went out with Herannathon street racing at the Gogo tracks. Of course, I’d still been a little nervous. Rhork hadn’t exactly been thrilled to find out where I was given how pregnant I was — and still am. My belly precedes me like a damned trumpeter announcing my entry everywhere I go.
The extra weight is a little annoying. My leg hurts more often and Quintenanrret tried to encourage me to stay seated more often and be less active. But really, let’s face it. He was as crazy as I am to think that I wouldn’t be out every solar exploring and I think he knew it, too, because along with the recommendation to stay on the mothership, he also gave me a pale purple powder to rub onto my leg whenever it starts to smart. He said it’s made out of the excrement of some giant purple bird — as if that would deter me.
There’s nothing better than exploring Kor and, as pregnant as I am, I can’t say that I hate the attention. I mean, when I asked Herannathon to take me street racing in the first place he’d had an impossible time saying no. No one ever tells me no anymore and it’s freaking fantastic.
So, bird poop it is.
The Eshmiri at the next stall over draw my attention with their colorful fabrics. These are lighter, silkier, and much more beach planet appropriate. I’ll need to stock up, seeing as we’ll be opening tanks as soon as the coming solar.
So far, we’ve unloaded all one-thousand-seven-hundred-some-odd tanks onto the beach planet and stowed them in a newly constructed and ultra secure facility. Eighty homes have been built along with stalls for the first marketplace and a birthing center. A little optimistic, I thought, but I later found out that Rhork had that commissioned first and exclusively for me.
Such a softie.
He’ll make a great dad.
Adad! Holy shit, I’m pregnant!
Pregnant rhymes with eggplant. I wonder if our little grey and brown kits will look like eggplants when they pop out. According to Quintenanrret, it’s looking like I’m going to give birth to six babies all at once and in the next fourteen to twenty solars. I don’t think I’ve wrapped my head fully around that, but Rhork seems to think this is all totally above board and normal and is freaking excited about it.
