Chapter Two

Evalee

(Evalee Mascho)

I knew I was in trouble when his hologram appeared before my desk. I hadn’t had time for a love life in a year and a half since I took this job. We were a physician short with two clinics to run. I usually picked up a couple extra shifts a week. I took emergency house calls when no one else was available.

This guy was gorgeous, and his articulate manner was riveting as he listed his credentials. As he talked about his reasons for coming to Zevus Mar, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. For some reason, I was spellbound by him, mesmerized.

“I was born on Aledus, but I am a psion, and so was my mother. After I was born, my father moved us to Zevus Mar to an agri-complex, a short flit from Elran. My parents died in the Tregan invasion, and the man chosen to be my guardian took me to Oltarin on the far side of Federation space. Our farm was held in trust for me until I was old enough to decide what to do with it.

“Now I have decided; I’m coming to settle there and either set up a medical practice or join an established one on Zevus Mar.”

Our candidate’s credentials were impeccable. My fellow Med-Techs and acting Chief Physician have already approved. None of them had ever worked with a psion before, and no one was as sexy as this guy.

He seemed to be looking right into my eyes as he spoke passionately about his experience. A shiver of sexual awareness rippled through my body, and he was a psion. My face heated as I realized I could not hide my attraction to him.

I sighed to myself as his presentation finished. I’d barely had time to take matters into my own hands with one of my toys or get cozy enough with someone to copulate. We have plenty of good-looking, sexy guys here to enjoy. But I want someone who made me feel like Lanimer did, as he seemed to look straight into my soul.

There was something more penetrating in his gaze than I had seen in any other man.

None of them were psions. Lanimer was. I drew in a couple of breaths, letting them out slowly. I couldn’t vote against him just because he was a telepath—because it would only take him seconds to know I wanted to fuck him. Then again, maybe when I meet him in person, he won’t be as alluring as he seems now.

He’s fully qualified and the first applicant we’ve had in a year. Physicians who want to come to Zevus Mar are few and far between. Barely inside Federation space, the stigma of the Tregan invasion thirty years before had slowed the colony’s growth to a trickle except for my people.

I was born here. A purple-skinned Trakellisan with pointed ears, my father is one of the most handsome males I know. Mother is Zevian, a full-blooded human with light brown skin. I am neither blue nor brown. I ended up with golden amber eyes, ice-blue hair, lavender skin, pointed ears, and no tail. Full-blooded Trakellisans have prehensile tails.

Human men have called my looks exotic, even beautiful, but I haven’t met one I wanted around permanently. There are enough Trakellisan human pairings on Zevus Mar, but not everyone accepts them. Trakellisans came to this world to escape their planet’s failing ecological system caused by the Tregans.

But I doubt Lanimer has ever seen anyone like me. My father’s people settled here after the Federation drove the Tregans out. The attraction I felt might not be mutual, or maybe I would feel different after meeting him in person. So let him come. We need the help.

Lanimer

“I’m leaving,” I said when we were all seated for our weekly meal together.

No one said anything for half a minute. My surrogate parents, Nalina and Orin, and my guardians, Hankura and Chelle, all looked at me in askance.

Finally, Hankura said, “Well, you are an adult; you have been for some time. What are your plans?”

He might well have said it was about time. After all, I was thirty-four years old, still living at home. The only reason I hadn’t left was that I hadn’t decided what to do with my life besides medicine. I’d worked at the Blue Summit Clinic for the last ten years. I loved working there and living in the Cerulean Mountains of Oltarin, but I hadn’t found a mate.

I’d been feeling the call of the desert and my home on Zevus Mar.

“I’m accepting a job through the Elran Clinic on Zevus Mar. A species called the Trakellisans settled there after the Tregans ruined their planet. I will run the clinic in the Trakellisan city of Val’kara.”

The look on their faces told me they weren’t expecting that. And even though I wasn’t reading their minds, I sensed they had mixed feelings about it. I sure couldn’t blame them. Zevus Mar was a hellhole when they were there as prisoners of the Tregans. It happened within weeks of my parents’ deaths, a time with painful memories for all of us.

“What made you decide this?” Chelle asked, frowning.

“I’ve been dreaming about Zevus Mar for a while now. Something seems to be calling me back there. I can’t even explain it. It’s nothing like the connection between you and Hankura, but a strong feeling I must go back.”

“When will you leave?” asked Hankura.

“I just got the offer this morning, and I wanted to tell you before I send my formal acceptance,” I told them. “Nalina and Orin are the only ones who know besides you. I can get a passenger freighter to Rintalis and connect with Sential Trader to Zevus Mar.”

“That’s great,” Chelle said with a smile. “It’s a shame they don’t get to Oltarin anymore. We haven’t seen them in over ten years.”

“Now that Jamerin has given up tramping and settled on Aledus, I wish I’d decided sooner to make the trip with Parei and him. But Otian and Rona are good people. I remember the stories you told us.”

“We’re all going to miss you,” Hankura said. “I know your parents would be proud of the man you’ve become.”

“We lost a lot of friends to the Tregans,” said Chelle, “but we gained you, Orin, and Nalina.”

She smiled with tears in her eyes, and I felt a lump in my throat. We all knew we would probably never see each other again after I left. I loved these people and had already shed tears over that realization.

Orin and Nalina became my parents, while Hankura and Chelle were akin to a doting aunt and uncle. I’d had a great childhood on Oltarin with them and their biological children. Still, it never erased the devastation of leaving my parents lying on the ground. Time and distance reduced the acute mourning phase. I have had so many wonderful memories since then.

At thirty-four, I still hadn’t found the right woman to share my life. I think I resisted because I felt the pull to go back to Zevus Mar. Although they were buried on our agricomplex, the planet didn’t kill my parents; men did.

Then there was Evalee, a stunning Trakellisan human crossbreed. Despite the harsh desert climate, it became a haven for Trakellisan refugees fleeing the demise of their planet.

There was something about Evalee that intrigued me. After the acting chief physician sent a holographic message to offer me the position, I received a message from her. She introduced herself and said that the decision to offer me the job was unanimous, and they were all looking forward to meeting me.

I planned to take the position before I received her hologram. I’d replayed it a few times to study every nuance of her demeanor.

“Hello, Lanimer. This is not an official notification; Chief Yaroman has already sent it to you. This message is from me. The other techs and I all voted for the chief to hire you. I’ve gone back and forth on whether I should contact you, but seeing as you are a psion, you will know as soon as we meet.”

She looked away from the camera for a few seconds. When she looked back, her cheeks had gone from lavender to blue. “As soon as I saw your message and looked into your eyes, I felt a wave of yearning. That’s never happened to me before. I nearly panicked when I realized there was no way I could hide it from you. I am an empath, so I know how this works. I want you to know upfront so it won’t hang between us and get in the way of working together.”

“Goddess, I’m not even sure I should send this, but if it’s a problem for you, I can ask Chief Yarroman to transfer me from the Val’Kara Clinic so we have as little contact as possible. I am an alien hybrid; some humans want nothing to do with us, so I understand. I don’t want to be a reason for you to turn down the job. We desperately need another physician here.”

The Trakellisans had migrated to Zevus Mar by the millions. The planet could easily support the increase in population. However, the increasing refugee population stretched medical services thin.

Even 30 years after the Tregans were driven from the planet, attracting medical professionals to the backwater planet was not easy. Yet, the exact location made it ideal for the Trakellisans to resettle because it was not far from their planet of origin.

Because the journey from Oltarin was long and tedious, we would have plenty of time to exchange correspondence and get to know each other before we met in person. As soon as I finished reviewing her message, I did an AI search on Trakellis.

The Trakellisans had a tribal culture with democratic leanings. Each tribe had a village and a say in how their world was governed. They valued individual rights and freedoms and individuals for their skills and abilities.

The Trakellisans were not space-faring on their own, but a space-faring race discovered their planet was rich in precious minerals. They built the spaceport and set up mining operations much like those on Zevus Mar. Even though they received a fraction of what the minerals were worth, the Trakellisans were happy with their share of the proceeds.

The mining didn’t interfere with their way of life until the Tregans invaded to steal their mineral wealth. Evalee’s people rebelled, but the Tregans overran them with robotic soldiers and killed many. The Tregans didn’t want or need the Trakellisan people there, so they set in motion an ecological time bomb to destroy life on the planet and make in uninhabitable. The Trakellisans had no choice but to flee.

Now, several million live on Zevus Mar.