Chapter 6

Chapter Six

E ven though Molly had been on the station longer, Tav seemed to know it better, something that became obvious when he led her to a little restaurant that she hadn’t known existed. The food was good, he assured her, but even better was the fact that all of the tables came with privacy booths and looked out at the stars, giving them the illusion that they existed alone, as two people adrift in the galaxy. It might have been disorienting or disheartening if she’d eaten there by herself, but with Tav by her side, it gave her a sense of adventure and purpose, as if anything was possible if they were together.

“How did you know about this place? You’ve been here for two days!” After a month, Molly had her favorite places, but most of her time was spent between her room and party setup, and she didn’t stray from her schedule.

Tav held up an appetizer and offered it to her. Molly couldn’t identify it, but the menu they’d been served was safe for both humans and Detyens, so she wasn’t worried. A person had to learn to be adventurous if she wanted to live away from her own planet.

“It’s not my first time here,” he admitted. “It may not be the fanciest place, but Honora gets a ton of traffic and I’ve had to drop off plenty of passengers here. And this isn’t the first time my ship has been repaired in their mechanic bay.”

“So you’ve been traveling for a while?” She wanted to know everything, hear about every place he’d been and where he planned to go next. If Molly were honest, she wanted to climb aboard his ship and go with him. But they barely knew each other, and she needed to put out feelers for her next job, which could be a long ways away from wherever Tav planned to journey.

“Since I was a kid. I apprenticed as an engineer, but we quickly realized I make a much better pilot and navigator. I’ve had my own ship for about seven years now. Can’t say I’ve earned riches, but there’s more to life than that.” He popped an appetizer in his mouth and made a sinful sound as the flavor hit his tongue.

Molly’s brain scrambled as she imagined him making noises like that in another setting. No . That was for later. “Where do you come from?”

The pleasure drained from his face and he wiped his fingers on a napkin. “I was born on Jaaxis.”

But there was more to that story, she could hear it laced in every word. “And?”

“It’s not a tale for a romantic lunch,” he warned.

“You don’t have to tell me, but I’d like to hear.” She didn’t care if it ruined the romance. She just wanted to know all there was to know about Tav. And if this story explained some of the sadness she occasionally saw in his eyes, at least she might understand him a bit better.

“My people are from a planet called Detya. It was destroyed more than a hundred years ago. Very suddenly and completely. The only survivors were those lucky enough to make it to a ship in time, or those who were already off planet. We’re scattered across the galaxy now, with only vids and stories to remind us of our homes. Our numbers dwindle every generation, and I fear that soon there won’t be enough of us left. We—” he shook his head. “I told you, it isn’t a happy tale.”

“But it’s yours.” Molly’s heart hurt for him. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like if Earth wasn’t there, if she only knew about it from stories passed down from generation to generation. Some piece of the story was missing, though. Molly didn’t know what, but she could sense the hole in the middle of it all. “Why are you dwindling? Is…” She searched for the right question, the way to ask things so she didn’t hurt him anymore. “Do your new settlements not welcome you? Is there tension on Jaaxis?”

That startled a laugh out of him. “There’s always tension on Jaaxis, but it has nothing to do with us. The Detyen population there is only a few thousand, and we don’t cause trouble. Well, not anything significant. Drunkenness, brawling, all the things young idiots get into before an elder can grab them by the ear and talk sense into them.”

Molly grinned. “That seems to be universal.” Not that she’d ever gotten into a drunken brawl, but there had been some tipsy insults thrown back and forth back before she left the planet. “So what is it?” She wasn’t going to get distracted. Something told her that this was important, that she needed to know to truly understand him if they were going to have a future together.

When that had become a possibility, Molly didn’t know, but she clung to the hope with both hands and readied herself for whatever Tav wanted to say.

Tav heaved a sigh and flattened his hands against the table, his golden skin in stark contrast to the white top. “It’s called the Denya price.”

He’d called her that word before. Molly straightened in her seat but kept silent, willing Tav to keep talking.

He did. “There’s something weird about us, Detyens, I mean. We built up huge civilizations, kingdoms, and empires, we traveled the galaxy and met hundreds of different species, maybe more. We created great art and loved with all our hearts. And despite all that, we’re doomed to die when we turn thirty if we haven’t yet bonded with our mates.”

“M-mates?” She’d come across the concept before, but never like this. Humans didn’t rely on predestination to choose their partners, and the idea that she could die if fate didn’t intervene in time was horrifying. “You called me denya.” It was barely a whisper, but she and Tav were so close that he had to hear every word that came out of her mouth.

“For a long time, Detyens only found their denyai in other Detyens. But recently…” he paused and seemed to gather his courage. “Recently things have changed. And we’ve begun to find the bond with humans. I don’t know why now, or how it works, but it does. There’s even a small group of Detyens that want to start a settlement on Earth in the hopes that they will meet their mates that way. And I called you denya because the moment I saw you, I recognized the connection. You are my mate.”

Even though they were separated from everyone else in the restaurant by the privacy booth, Molly was glad they weren’t having this conversation in private. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if they were alone. Her first instinct was to jump up from the table and accuse him of something, she wasn’t exactly sure what. Her sense caught up to her instinct and made her wonder what she would have done if the first thing she’d heard out of Tav’s mouth was some belief that she was his destined mate and he wanted to claim her, and she could easily guess what that meant. She would have run away screaming.

And the longer she thought, the more she remembered what that first look at him had been like. It was like she’d known him her whole life, had wanted him forever, and time was just catching up to that fact by introducing them. Finally .

Wait.

Everything screeched to a halt as the other part of what he said became clear. “You die if you don’t meet your mate?” Her stomach roiled and then dropped as she imagined the galaxy without Tav in it. He was a shining light, a bright spot in her world, and even if they only knew each other for this short week, she liked to think that he was out there, living it up and thinking of her every so often.

“We die if we do not bond with our mates before our thirtieth birthdays.”

“Bond?” She raised her eyebrows. “Like marriage?”

“Like sex. No, not like sex. Actual sex. Detyens tend to fuck first and ask questions later. Emotional compatibility often follows the bond, but survival is imperative.” He looked at her straight on, a note of defiance mixed with vulnerability clear on his face. He expected her to reject him, to tell him this was all too much, too soon. And, logically, it was.

But emotionally Molly had been ready for this from the first minute she saw him. “Were you going to tell me last night? Before we went to bed?”

Tav broke the connection of their gaze and reached for his drink. “I don’t know.”

How would she have taken it? Her skin sizzled with energy, heart rate going double time as a cascade of possibilities washed over her. It seemed wrong, somehow, to have such consequential sex if she didn’t know the full story. But if he’d planned to keep it casual, despite the bond he claimed tied them together, maybe Molly didn’t need to know.

No . That was a bunch of bullshit. She absolutely had a right to know. He wanted to bind them together in some way special to his people, and that was her choice to make. “You should have told me before.”

“I am now.”

Silence washed over them and when a robot delivered their meals their silence continued as they ate. Molly felt blindsided. But Tav looked shell shocked. She could hold this against him and turn the rest of their acquaintance into a winter of frigid politeness, or she could accept what he was telling her and give him a chance. What was the Detyen principle? Sex first, love later? If her libido got a vote, it said they had a point.

And her heart was already warmed to him.

“What happens next?” she asked after she pushed her plate aside.

Tav looked up. “After what?”

“If we accept this bond between us, if we… seal it. You said emotional compatibility comes later. But you are leaving the station, and I’ll be going, well, somewhere.” Really, it was getting dire. She’d sent out proposals to several space stations and planets and had yet to hear back. After the party, Molly didn’t have another place to go. “Is this just going to be a fling that happens to save your life?” Her eyes drank him in. It would be no hardship to lay down under him and let her body do the saving. No, that would be her pleasure .

Tav reached out a hand and Molly tentatively placed hers on top of it. She liked the warm feel of his skin against hers. “Come with me,” he offered. “Even if it’s just as transport to your next job. Don’t let this end before it’s run its course.”

“And if it doesn’t?” It was a scary possibility to think about, but fate was involved and Molly knew that wasn’t a creature to fuck with.

“What doesn’t?”

“This thing between us. If it doesn’t run its course, if we… fall for each other. What then?” She was standing at the edge of a cliff, ready to jump if he just said the right words.

He squeezed her hand and raised it up to his lips. “Then we figure it out. There is no greater blessing than the denya bond. And I would do anything to make you happy, so long as you wanted to stay.”

It could have gone worse. Or, perhaps, it couldn’t have gone better. Molly didn’t run away screaming, and when it was time to return to their duties, she’d held his hand as they traveled through the hallways of the station. Tav had hope, and it was a terrifying thing to possess for a Detyen. His life had been certain to end until he made it to Honora Station, and now his entire future rested on the shoulders of his denya. It was her choice to make, to save him or let him perish. To see if she could love him, or to spite fate for its heavy hand.

In a fit of optimism, he’d left Juuno in charge before leaving the ship for the day in the hopes that he could dedicate himself to assisting Molly. Whether that meant he’d be returning to his own ship, or going back to Molly’s quarters for the night, he didn’t know. But judging from the heated looks she sent him while he worked, he thought the night might end with them together. And even if she wouldn’t fly away with him when this whole thing was over, he’d make this night one to remember, one to hold up to all future nights and wish she could live it over again.

He’d make it worth it for her to take the chance on him. He’d told her that the emotional connection often followed the physical bond, but his heart already ached for her as much as his body did. He wanted to hold her and take her worries upon himself, to make the world a safe and sheltering place for her and give her the stars and all the planets of every system his ship passed through. He’d never understood the purpose of romance before, but now Molly made him see.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked as the night brought their work to an end.

He couldn’t resist touching her, and rather than pull away, she leaned into him. “You,” he confessed.

She shivered and traced her fingers down his arm before pulling away. “Stay with me tonight?”

And always . He wanted to say it out loud, but he’d already pled his case. She would stay with him or leave, but he didn’t want to scare her into fleeing so soon. Her emotions needed time to grow; humans dove into relationships slower than Detyens, and he refused to hold that against her. “I would be honored.”

Molly kissed his cheek and turned to go, but before she left, she looked over her shoulder at him. “I like the idea of leaving with you, of seeing the rest of space. But I don’t know if I’m ready.”

His heart beat a hopeful rhythm but Tav forced his breathing to remain steady. “When you decide, I will be waiting.”

She nodded and left, and with her gone, the rest of the day dragged on as if weighed down by the mass of a thousand planets. At some point a cart filled with brightly wrapped items arrived and Molly gasped loud enough for the entire room to hear.

“They’re perfect!” she praised the android who’d brought them, but the automaton could not react to the emotion in her voice.

“Where should I put them?” it asked, tone flat and computerized. Androids had always creeped Tav out. They looked like people, as their outer skins were usually designed to mimic the prevalent alien species of wherever they were created, but there was always something obviously wrong with them. The one who brought the toys looked Oscavian, but no one would ever confuse it for a living being.

“They go under the tree,” Molly said, as if that was a completely logical answer.

Tav watched as the android stacked the presents in three neat piles before leaving, its mission complete. A few minutes later, Molly ventured over and started to unstack the piles and arrange the boxes in a pattern only she seemed to understand. The workers returned to their positions, but Tav decided to join her. Whatever she was doing seemed important.

He grabbed the first box he saw and squatted next to her. “Where should I put this?”

Molly looked over, eyes bright. “It’s great, isn’t it? I think the kids will love this.” She pointed to one side of the tree. “Just spread them out around that side. I’m sure you can figure it out.”

“The children like colored boxes?” It was her party, but children where he’d grown up had much preferred toys and entertainment tablets.

She smiled and shook her head as she worked. “No, silly. There are toys inside the boxes. Haven’t you ever been—” she cut herself off and shook her head. “Sorry, I get sort of Earth centric sometimes. Back home we wrap up gifts in paper sort of like this.” She held up a box and the shiny golden paper reflected the light. “We have a few holidays where we give gifts, Christmas, Hanukkah, birthdays, stuff like that. A lot of those holidays are in the winter, so I wanted to give the youngsters on the station something special. Even if it’s not significant to them, at least they get a new toy, right?”

“That sounds wonderful.” Tav couldn’t help but smile at the thought. He’d been given gifts at the Harvest Festival on Jaaxis every year, but he’d almost forgotten about the tradition after taking on his apprenticeship. He hoped this gesture spread joy throughout the station. The party was coming together and he was certain that Molly’s name would be held in high regard once it was done, despite all of the setbacks. She’d put together something glorious, something that would be remembered for years to come. She was a wonder.

“They’re just trinkets. The budget didn’t exactly allow me to do more than dolls and analog games. But even if they only play with them for a few hours, it will be worth it.”

It only took a few minutes to get the presents spread out, but both Molly and Tav walked away in high spirits. And by the time it was time to leave for the night, she laced their fingers together and led him back to her room without a backwards glance, no mention of the thefts that they’d suffered, no worries for the frantic days to come, nothing but the excitement and hope of a night spent together. Tav couldn’t wait.