Page 60 of Time Traveling Space Bastards
“Got it. Killer plants. This is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Baxter!” Torrek yelled, chasing after me.
Yeah, I was about to swan dive in those purple flowers, starfish, and do the equivalent of snow angels, but Torrek grabbed me, threw me over his shoulder, and started marching off.
“What the fuck?”
“The pollen of those flowers is a powerful narcotic. They used to use it for pain, but people started abusing it.”
“So, all it’s going to do is get me high, and you stopped me?”
“It’s extremely addicting. If you got a little in you, you might get hooked and trust me, you don’t want to come down from that high,” Omi said.
“There’s an extensive garden at my home if you want to play in the flowers,” Kuka said.
“I’m holding you to that.”
“And we’ll take you to get a Risni,” Torrek said.
“Like I said, best day ever.”
“Wait until we get back to the present,” Omi said.
“Space puppies,” I whispered.
Because a Risni reminded me of some kind of dog, and I was about to be the proud companion of a space puppy. Completely losing my mind over here.
“Let’s build a cairn and we can show you what happened to this planet seven thousand years later.”
I was pretty sure my best day ever was about to get better.
Building the cairn and protecting the device was almost reverent for me. The origins of my species were on that device. The foundation for the world I was eventually brought into were based on those words. She told us she wrote them to deal with her childhood and try to find other people who might have met us, but it meant so much to the people who lived on my planet.
It was pretty much time. If Kuka was going to have some brilliant revelation to explain Baxter and settle the people down who wanted to attack before we were attacked, this was it. We were back in the present hovering in space. All we needed to do was land Big Daddy at the palace and then Kuka would have to explaineverythingto his parents.
I’d been around his parents. His mother was kind to me and sensitive to my situation. I didn’t like Kuka’s father. He wanted Kuka to give me back and either have me factory reset until it stuck or programmed to do some kind of gross task regularpeople didn’t want to do so my previous owner could sell me and use the money to buy a functional Enix for the brothel.
I never saw what Kuka’s mother saw in his father. He wasn’t as smart as her and he could be cruel. I saw what went on behind the scenes being close to Kuka. His father constantly questioned her edicts and wanted his ideas being input on the planet. He was a consort and not a king, and he hated it.
Kuka’s father always liked Valtens over Kuka. Valtens looked like his father’s brother and grew up to act like his father’s side of the family. I’d never say this to Kuka because I respected him, but it was almost like his father turned Valtens into a terrible person to spite his mother. Even when I thought cyborgs couldn’t really fall in love unless they were programmed to, I didn’t think anyone would talk to someone they loved the way his father talked to his mother.
“This is it,” Torrek said. “Do you have a plan?”
“Not a clue. I guess we’ll have to see if it comes to me under pressure.”
Baxter looked slightly panicked, but the rest of us knew better. Kuka was just as good on the fly as he was when he had been working out his theories for months. It was why so many people preferred him as king over Valtens. His mind worked beautifully in any situation, even if it was an emergency.
“Are we sure we want to do the wholeI killed my brother over a humanthing on the fly? AndI’mnot sure how the last book ends and I was the one who created the series. I still wouldn’t even know how to finish it with so many people who want to use my words to be Space Columbus?”
Kuka grabbed her and kissed her.
“I work best under pressure. Do you trust me?”
“I left my entire galaxy to follow you to yours and I’m going to be the only human there. I think it’s safe to say I do.”
“Then let me show you my home.”
“You’re going to have to immediately take her to meet Mom,” Omi said. “If she finds out Torrek found his Zovea, and you kept her at the palace any longer than necessary so she couldn’t meet Baxter, she’s going to eat you.”
