19. Delta’s eyes widened. “Can you please take us back to space?”

NINETEEN

Delta’s eyes widened. “Can you please take us back to space?”

Somehow, we managed to pluck ten death horses from the planet. The original mare and stallion we’d treated at the failed colony would go home with me. The other eight would be prizes for the Veloc clan that won the right to adopt me. I also became the owner of six tree cats, all kittens from different islands that would have otherwise been doomed to long and painful deaths. With one male and five females, I would be rolling in tree cats within two or three years, and after the first litter was born, I would swap males with Delta, who had gotten a pair from two more islands.

Tree cats didn’t handle the fungus well, and once they were over a year old, death was a guarantee, much like it was in humans.

The Veloc had acquired a bunch of the tree cats as well, and I doubted we’d see much of either, as they were determined to domesticate their new pets in record time.

Fortunately for our sanity, the tree cats learned the concept of litter boxes with admirable speed. Mine all shared a cage in my quarters, and I doubted my domestication efforts would go all that well. Unlike Palta, the small spotted cats viewed me as an interesting enough creature capable of bringing them food. Beyond that, they cared nothing for me, and they were not thrilled to be petted, not like the Andean mountain cat.

Maybe one day, I would tame them and teach them how to be good companions. If it didn’t work out, I would help the Veloc find a suitable planet for them, one where they could thrive without some damned fungus eating away at them.

Due to the fragile nature of our cargo, Viva opted to take a slightly longer route to reach Cremora Delta, reducing the number of gates used to one. Like the gate at Melody, it had a mind of its own, and Viva spent an hour having a discussion with the shiftgems before committing to the jump.

Unlike every other jump we’d done, Viva didn’t approach it at speed. Instead, she eased the ship into position, sat tense in her chair, and activated the engines.

Rather than the harsh lurch I expected from a jump, the ship rocked, as gentle as a mother soothing her baby. Out of the window, Cremora Delta waited.

I recognized the spaceport and surrounding terrain far below.

“That worked far better than I thought it would,” Viva admitted, and she fiddled with her controls before activating the comm and having a chat with the planet’s traffic controllers, informing them of our quarantine precautions, cleaning efforts of the ship, and that we had sick wildlife on board that would need treatments.

She was directed to land the ship on the landing pad on the skirt of the spaceport, given instructions to wait while her vessel underwent external treatments. We would all be treated for the fungus yet again, the ship would be fumigated, and we’d be put through another round of quarantine. Once Viva acknowledged her instructions, she eased the ship into the atmosphere, opting to glide through the air to make the entry as gentle as possible.

“Delta thought I was crazy to invest in the shuttle system for this. It’s a racer, not my main ship. Right now, the shuttle system is why we aren’t plastered to our seats and cursing over a rough reentry.”

The man in question sighed. “All right, all right. You were right. The shuttle system was, in fact, a mandatory acquisition. I’m still trying to figure out how you got that shiftgem gate to cooperate.”

“I asked it really nicely, told it about all the poor animals needing tender, loving care on this world, and basically begged for it to limit their trauma as much as possible.” Viva chuckled, shook her head, and pointed at the landing pad. “You’re going to have an entourage again. I bet your daddy and mommy are gonna meet us and get angry they can’t join us in quarantine.”

“I’m not making any bets with you. Why? You’re right. That’s exactly what they’re going to do. Then they’re going to find out about the quarantine requirements and pitch a fit. We’re both going to be planet bound for at least three months over this stunt, and those damned feathered murder machines are going to be stuck with us.”

“You realize they’re not going to quarantine us in isolation, right? They’re totally going to test the spread of the fungus in a controlled environment. We’re going to be stuck with them .”

Delta’s eyes widened. “Can you please take us back to space?”

“No.”

“I thought you loved me!”

Viva raised a brow at that. “I do. That’s why I already agreed that you could catch death horses of your own now that we have checked the major islands for them and have a better idea of how many we can remove a year. That number is ten. Next year, you can have four, and we’ll take the other six to the Veloc to work with their breeding program. And if we can find more like Camellia’s pair, you can have more than four. But you must wait, sir.”

He scowled. “You went with this knowing how this would work out, didn’t you?”

“I had strong suspicions after having reviewed the planetary entries. Had you reviewed the planetary entries instead of choosing to be surprised upon arrival, you would have been better aware of what we were getting into.”

I put some serious thought into seeking out the company of the Veloc, aware the pair would spend the next few weeks keening over the tree cats they’d been unable to save. “How is quarantine going to work for me?”

“You’ll be thrown into school, and all the students and teachers who interact with you will be tested for fungal spread. You’ll be monitored and tested daily. We should be fine. We triple treated ourselves, we decontaminated the ship several times, and all the animals received baths with the appropriate medications. We’ll all get a treated bath once they let us off the ship. We will not like it, but there’s very little risk to anyone. We all scanned clean of the fungus yesterday, animals included. I checked the entire ship for it. The only fungal contamination sources are the terrariums you built, and those are sealed.”

We’d even gone as far as layering wax around the stopper, which had then been coated with a treatment before another layer of wax was installed on top. I’d then cleaned the exteriors of the terrariums three times to be certain. “And the death horses?”

“Plague and Pestilence will enjoy luxury stable accommodations while they recover, I promise. You’ll be able to visit them daily, and I already messaged to get you a teacher so you can ride regular horses before seeing if your death horses can be broken to saddle.” Viva heaved a sigh. “Did you really have to name them Plague and Pestilence?”

“Yes. It’s a memento from Earth. And if we are late with their supper, they will be a plague and pestilence upon anyone responsible. They have gotten used to set feeding times.”

I’d picked Plague for the female, and I gave it two weeks before she became more than I could readily handle. Pestilence had figured out if he provided me with attention, he would receive attention, and if he did not get attention, he made us all suffer. “I think I accidentally spoiled them.”

“There was nothing accidental about their spoiling, Camellia. Upon deciding they were your death horses, you began your campaign to befriend them without hesitation. They are smart, and it took them about twenty minutes to determine they wanted to be spoiled. And don’t deny it. The tree cats refusing to domesticate immediately has broken the hearts of everyone aboard my ship.” Viva heaved a pained sigh. “Myself included.”

“At least we managed to litter box train them. It could be worse.” That the tree cats wanted nothing to do with any of us, the Veloc included, might cost us our sanity. “Do you think we’ll actually get the Veloc to leave their quarters?”

“I’m pretty sure neither will be willing to leave until their new pets cooperate. Don’t bother waiting. Just accept freedom the instant it is offered to you, lead your death horses off the ship, and follow whoever is escorting you to the stable. I hope they listened to my directions.”

It amused me that my death horses liked the same foods I did. “At least feeding them won’t be an issue. They’ll eat grass, and dinner is whatever I’m having.”

“I’m not sure if I’ll ever get used to feeding a horse steak and potatoes, but at least you won’t have to worry about colic with them, and respiratory illnesses aren’t going to be nearly as perilous. Just be patient with them. Breaking them to saddle will be a challenge.”

“I won’t be breaking them! I will be gingerly coaxing, with a great deal of begging, pleading, and loving, to convince them to carry me and a saddle. Can I go get them ready to take off the ship?”

“You can go get them haltered and ready for their first experience on a planet that won’t try to kill them. Just remember to be careful with Plague’s hind end. We’ll work together to get her off the ship, and we’ll get a hover for her until that hoof can be fixed. She’ll be fine, she just needs a treatment I don’t have the equipment to do.”

“I’m just grateful you could do any treatments on her. Thank you for that, by the way.”

“You’re welcome. Delta, go make yourself useful. Help her with Pestilence. I want to see your daddy’s face when he witnesses you fighting with a big demon horse with man-eating teeth.”

“Fighting? With Pestilence? Really?” Delta shook his head. “I’m at high risk of being cuddled into submission now that he understands we exist to love and serve him.”

I laughed at the understatement and headed off to tend to my animals and prepare them for life on Cremora Delta.

The school had a stable and a pasture near the Veloc hunting grounds, which my death horses took over. There were four other horses in residence, and after a few tense moments, my animals decided they liked the horses—and not for dinner. For the first few days, I was expected to monitor the two species, but Plague and Pestilence settled in to eat the grass, keeping an eye on their new horse friends.

The first time I tried to ride one of the brown horses, Plague pitched a fit, doing her best to come between me and the gelding. After getting permission from the horse’s owner, I placed the gelding’s saddle on her back.

She stared at it before staring at me. Rather than ride, I led Plague around, gradually tightening the cinch until it was secure enough to be used. Then, as her hoof couldn’t support my weight yet, we got several bags of flour and strapped them onto the saddle to test her tolerance.

The experiment worked, and after taking care to praise Plague, we repeated the process with Pestilence. Unlike with the gelding, Plague tolerated me saddling the death horse stallion. Only after we’d exceeded my weight in flour did Andret, the local master of all things horses, suggest I try to get on his back, warning me I’d likely go flying.

Rather than fly, Pestilence stood still, his ears pricked forward.

“This is not normal,” I informed the Deltan, who laughed at my statement.

“Your beauties are much smarter than horses. They do not have rocks for brains. They’re not sentient like we categorize it, but they’re definitely up there for intellect. They watched me ride Cobalt, and Plague understood what was going on. Pestilence picked it up rather quickly, too. We’ll have to test them for sentience. If they are, it’ll be complicated. Caring for sentient races is always complicated, especially when they’re incapable of learning any bipedal languages.” Andret came over, praised Pestilence, and stroked his nose, taking hold of his lead line and urging him to step forward. The death horse did as told, shuffling into a walk. “We’ll treat Plague’s hoof issue in the next few days, and she should be sound to carry a rider within two weeks. We’ll try them on hackamores, as I doubt it would be a good idea to try a bit on an animal that might view a rider as lunch.”

“Let’s not experiment with that. I like my hands where they’re at, attached to my body.”

“Respecting the animal you’re working with is important.”

Plague whinnied, and she shuffled into a trot, joining me and thrusting her head my way. Smiling, I petted her. “You’re such a good girl. You’ll get your turn soon, okay? You need to feel better first.”

“If you can give me an hour a day, I can get you and these lovelies ready for travel. I think they’ll take to being ridden like fish take to water.”

An hour a day might cost me my sanity, but it would be worth it, especially as the tree cats would likely live their lives out on the world in a massive menagerie designed to mimic their natural habitat.

Unlike my death horses, they insisted on resisting domestication.

“I’ll make an hour a day,” I promised.

The school would not defeat me, and when it was time to return to the stars, my death horses would be ready to go with me.