Page 17 of Tail, Dark and Handsome: Celestial Mates
Mari jumped to her feet in excitement.
Rain. Real rain.
The few tourists at the temple crowded around the main temple complex, despite the temple having no roof and offering no protection from the elements. Mari tilted her head back with a ridiculous grin on her face, letting the rain soak through her light dress.
The rain did not last long, though the clouds remained. Mari soon found herself alone as she wandered through the ruins. A computer-generated voice lectured her about the history of the site through her communicator. The planet had been an early Tal colony, but the ruins predated the Tal’s arrival. An unknown people had lived on the planet, built monuments, carved roads into mountains, and shaped the landscape before vanishing.
Unknown aliens. Mari had been born in deep space and never set foot on Earth, like her mother and her grandparents. She lived with aliens every day, but people came in six flavors: human, Fremmian, Tal, Gyer, Wyer, and Corravian. That was it. There might be more civilizations and people out there, but their corner of the galaxy was fairly empty.
Well, there were the Edder, but no one had seen them in centuries. Stories of the Edder portrayed them as bogeymen—vicious, bloodthirsty, and merciless. Humanity’s first encounter with the Edder had been bloody and disastrous. The earliest history of Earth colonizing other planets included a prolonged war with the Edder.
Then they vanished. No one knew why. Historians and conspiracy theorists speculated, but the fact remained that more was unknown about the Edder than known. Homeworld? Colony planets? Basic information. Why the aggression against outsiders?
Mari had always wondered if the Edder really ate people. One of the more outlandish stories claimed that they raided unprotected colonies and harvested people like livestock, but that seemed unbelievable, like time had twisted the truth.
Lost in fascination, Mari wandered away from the main complex and down a footpath. She failed to notice the darkening sky as she followed a winding path through scrub and trees, opening to a secondary location. The site lacked the towering columns of the temple. Half walls and exposed flagstones outlined where buildings once stood.
Thunder rumbled. Mari jumped, suddenly realizing that she was alone as the oncoming storm drove everyone away.
A cold wind swept in, and the rain poured down. This wasn’t the gentle sprinkle from earlier, but drenching and cold.
Mari ran toward a reconstructed building with a thatched roof.
In the darkness, rain pounded on the roof and came in through the narrow window slits and the open door. She huddled in a far corner, as far away from the rain as possible.
The building appeared to be used for storage, at least according to the computer whispering in her ear. Pottery fragments with traces of oil, grain, and wine were found within the hut.
A bot rolled in, all-terrain wheels digging into the packed ground. A red light flashed, and a garbled voice said something, but Mari couldn’t catch it over the narration in her ear.
She tapped her ear to turn off the sound and peered down at the bot. Mud caked the undercarriage. She didn’t think she had wandered into a restricted area, but maybe it closed because of the weather. The steps were tricky enough to navigate in the sunshine. She’d hate to try in a downpour.
“Hello? Can you repeat that?” She tapped the black dome at the top of the bot. The light flashed, and a panel slid open. Gears whirred, and the bot gave a full-body shudder, then went dark.
Well, that wasn’t good.
“Don’t touch that,” a sharp voice said.
A Tal man loomed in the door, soaked from the rain. Shadows hid his face until he stepped inside. Dark hair plastered against his forehead made his triangular ears more pronounced. He appeared disheveled, like he just rolled off a long transport ride with no sleep; his eyes were a sleepless red, and dark circles hung under them. The man looked worn and tired.
And very, very pissed.
Without thinking, Mari stepped between the bot and the threatening Tal man.
“That’s a very sensitive instrument,” he said, pushing past her and falling to his knees in front of the bot. A tool appeared in his hand, and he removed the front panel. “This is completely ruined.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t let it roam through the mud,” she said.
The man’s ears flicked back as she spoke, the only sign he heard her. Focused on the bot, he pushed back wet hair and muttered. His tail swept along the packed dirt floor, picking up a coating of mud. He reached for the internal circuitry, then drew back his hand. He slammed the panel shut and rose to his feet.
“It has water damage. You did something to it,” he accused.
“I did nothing.” She barely touched the bot.
“Lies. You removed the front panel. Are you a spy? Did I interrupt your attempt to steal my prototype?” His tail lashed out behind him, angry like a whip. Rain pounded the roof, nearly drowning out his words, but she got the general gist.
“Aspy?” Nervous laughter bubbled out of her, which only seemed to make the man angry.
The man clenched his fists, and his nostrils flared. Mari unconsciously mimicked his stance. If the first thing out of his mouth had been anything other than an accusation, she might think him attractive. You know, for a grouchy grumpypants.
