10. Taylor

Chapter 10

Taylor

I blink awake and find my cheek pressed against Sten’s chest. His good arm is still wrapped around me.

Not a bad way to sleep. The rocky floor beneath us is at least covered with a thin blanket which soothes the worst of the bumps. We are so lucky that this isn’t an icy planet in the middle of winter.

I leave Sten’s warm embrace and twist around to find the backpack. The circle of light is still glowing strong.

“Taylor?” he mumbles, reaching for me.

“I’m here.” I check the tracker, which gives a readout of local time and weather. “It’s now early evening outside. Our first light source has four hours left,” I announce.

Sten grunts in acknowledgement.

I glance over at him and note that he seems to be slumping more and not as alert. “Are you comfortable?”

“Talk to me. I want to hear your voice.”

I frantically check his vitals again, worried he’s taking a turn for the worse. Then I look up, puzzled, because he’s doing okay.

“I feel sleepy. And I’m not that comfortable. Thank you for helping me.”

“Of course I’m helping you. You saved my life.”

“And you’re saving mine.”

“No, I’m fixing your injury. You really saved my life. You pushed me aside and then literally fell on top of me to protect me from the rock fall. If you hadn’t done that, I would’ve been crushed.”

“Talk to me, Taylor. I enjoy the sound of your voice. Tell me all about yourself.”

“Um, okay, but I’m not that interesting.”

He holds my hand and threads his large, silver-tipped fingers through mine. “I’m certain you are very interesting.”

A warmth rushes moves through my body and I’m soon snuggled against his side with his good arm is around my shoulders again. I talk about losing both my parents in a freak vehicle crash and my lonely childhood and how I went to Intergalactic High School. I regale a few reasonably funny stories about my time at university and how I was overly intent on getting good grades so I wouldn’t lose my scholarship. I check on him often to make sure he’s still awake because I’m certain my life is just that boring.

“Explain to me how humans escaped enslavement by the Hurlians.”

“Are you sure you want to hear this story? It’s sort of depressing.”

“Yes, I want to know.”

“The Gravians and the Xylan are the heroes in this situation. The Gravians learned that the Hurlians were capturing a species called humans from their original planet named Earth and were keeping us caged on a different planet renamed New Earth and using us for scientific and medical experimentation as well as sexual respite. They eventually stopped taking us from Earth and were breeding us on New Earth as a way to create more humans. The Gravians were secretly helping us through religious missions because they are a peaceful and neutral species. This was their main way of help and is why we were able to survive for so long. About twenty years ago the Xylan, who as I’m sure you know, are a famed warrior species, found out we were being enslaved by the Hurlians, which was against Intergalactic Law. The Xylan brought in an army and came to our rescue and fought off the Hurlians and we were free. Afterwards the Gravians helped us with nation building. New Earth has made so much progress in such a short period of time.”

“Tell me more about why you love being a Librarian.”

“I love working with print books and things that are old and getting them restored so they can be read and digitized and put on the nets for research. It brings me a lot of joy, because I know that I am helping other beings. I work with artifacts that are from a variety of planets. We are really in a race against time right now, trying to restore old text with our newly invented technology.”

“What about your life as an adult? Have you had pleasure mates?”

I blink. “I've gone on dates in the past with other scientists, librarians and other academics. No one serious. One guy I’d say was an actual boyfriend, but I ended up breaking up with him too.”

“All of them were human?”

“None of these men were human.”

“Do you plan on eventually returning to your home planet to find a mate?”

“Oh no,” I laugh. “Whenever I go back to New Earth I'm treated as a second-class citizen. Women don’t have the same rights as men on my home planet. We aren’t equals. Men have more rights and hold all the positions of power. I can't even make my own choices about my own body. So to be absolutely truthful, I don't visit my home planet often. I left New Earth as a teenager to go to Intergalactic High School because I won that scholarship and stayed on Gravian for university after winning the second scholarship. My bosses and coworkers in the Antiquities Council are my family. They're wonderful beings. I really like my job, and I was excited to start this new project.”

“Your life on Gravian was perfect? Nothing missing?”

“Well, I'm about to turn twenty-nine years old, and I wouldn't mind having a husband and family in the near future. In my career, when you're younger, you're trying to make your way and then by the time Librarians hit the equivalent of an age within their own species where they’d like to settle down and start a family, a lot of them leave the council and return to their home planets. The recue Librarian lifestyle of traveling all over the four sectors doesn’t fit well with family life. Although I don’t necessarily want to return to New Earth. I am single because I'm busy with my job. I am really obsessed. I like going from place to place to place, but I must admit, it's getting a little old. I have traveled so much all I have are small quarters in the Intergalactic Institute.”

“You are certain you don’t want a mate that is human?”

“I've always assumed, if I had a partner, it would not be someone who was human. I guess I figured it'd be someone who was Gravian. The Gravians are very close in appearance and culture to humans. They literally look like humans except they are much, much stronger. That's why our two species have always been close.”

He squeezes my hand. “Would you accept a mate that was not human, or Gravian, but of another species?”

“Yes, I would. I’m used to being around so many different species that eventually having children that weren’t fully human wouldn’t be a big deal to me at all.” This time I squeeze his hand.

“Okay enough about me. I’m boring. Tell me about yourself. I want to know if you have a girlfriend. There were a lot of clothes in that room where I stayed.”

“Those were left behind by mother and sisters-in-law for guests. I do not have a mate yet because I haven’t found one. On Tarvos we pleasure mate until the we find our bound. The moment we declare for each other and then walk to the courthouse to make it official, then that is our mate for life. We are physically and legally bound to each other. But I had not yet met my bound. I’ve scented and spent time with all the available females in this part of the planet and none of them are my mate.”

“Are you a virgin?” I ask.

“No, I had a few pleasure mates while at university. I was happy to go away to university because I considered it a way to not only learn about art and history, but to also be amongst a larger pool of unmated females. My parents met while at university and my mother agreed to live with my father on this ranch, in the wildlands, even though she’d been born and raised in the main city of Tarvos. But I did not find any females I could build a lasting relationship with and bring back home.”

Our eyes meet.

Then I look down at our joined hands. “You look like you’re feeling better.”

“I am.”

“Let me check your bandages.”

A few minutes later, while he’s on his stomach and I’m checking his back, which is almost fully healed, I tell him the problem that’s been weighing heavy on my mind. “Sten, I want you to know that I’m sorry I stood there earlier today, when you were taking your morning shower outside and I stared at your naked body without your consent. That was wrong and I apologize.”

“I understand.”

I finish the last bandage and give him a playful nudge on the shoulder.

He turns over.

“No, it’s wrong Sten. Did you hear what I said? I did not have your consent. I shouldn’t have been looking at you like that.”

“But you did have my consent. I could have turned away or told you to leave at any time. Did I appear angry in any way?”

“No, you did not.”

“That is because I enjoyed your pursual. I wanted you to see what I had to offer.”

“You did?”

“Yes, and I was greatly affected by the scent of your arousal floating in the breeze and entering my lungs.”

“My…what are you talking about?”

“I’ve been able to scent your arousal for me since we first arrived at the ranch.”

Heat rushes through my cheeks. “You did?” I squeak.

“I feel the same.”

“Wait, are you telling me that you’ve been attracted to me too? I thought you hated me.”

“I think hate is too harsh of a word. I’ve been irritated. But I don’t feel like that anymore.”

“I never hated you either. I was only irritated.”

“You can stare at my naked body any time you’d like.”

I let out a snort-laugh. “I think I’ve been all locked up inside, just so embarrassed that I did that. But it was still wrong of me to stop and openly stare at your naked body without your verbal consent. You are telling me that I did have your consent, which makes me feel better, but I did know that when it happened. I was just…”

“You couldn’t look away?”

“I was stuck there.”

“How can I blame you for your error in judgement when I made my own error?”

“Which error?”

He chuckles.

“Well, it’s true that I can think of several, but I do not know if yours and mine are in alignment.”

“I thought a human was not able to lead this mission and that either a Hyrrokin needed to be the head of his project or at the very least they needed to send a different Librarian who wasn’t human.”

I grin. “Yes, that was an error in judgement.” And then I check his bone knitters on his arm and leg. The indicator on the arm says it’s almost finished. The leg has many more hours of work left.

I give him another pain injection.

Then we drink some more water, leaving enough for tomorrow. We each eat another meal replacement bar. And then we’re asleep again.