Chapter Four

Evalee

On the way home to my flat from the clinic, the protesters were at it again. This anti-alien group, who called themselves Xenos Free, sometimes protested every day, calling for the removal of Trakellisans from the city we built. I didn’t understand what was happening. It seemed like this anti-Trake group attributed everything wrong in society to our presence on Zevus Mar.

In the meeting where we decided to hire Lanimer Dakov, I spoke up about the civil unrest. I said that we should let Dr. Dakov know what was happening in our world. But Dr. Yaroman forbade us from mentioning it to him. However, he specified we should not mention the political unrest in our introduction holograms. We couldn’t wait another year for applicants to fill the position.

I couldn’t wait because I was running the Val’kara clinic alone. I am good at my job, but it was the only medical clinic in a city with 50,000 people. Some days, we were crazy busy, and all I had was an android receptionist. Then, there were the activists who would confront me with rude taunts and gestures as I walked home from my day’s work. I did my best to ignore them unless they tried to put their hands on me. More often, they would just try to intimidate me, and sometimes it worked. There were days I just wanted to give up and quit.

I’d saved enough credit so I could go back to our village and buy a little house where I could set up a small clinic. But I loved living on my own, and I enjoyed taking care of my patients here.

Besides, Lanimer seemed so nice in his reply hologram that I couldn’t give up before getting to know him. I had hoped to hear from him again. I had sent a brief reply thanking him for understanding, but it had been a couple of weeks. It seemed incongruous that I should feel like I missed him when I hadn’t even met him. Yet, I did.

Then, I would scold myself for daydreaming about him. Still, ever since I saw that first hologram, I felt like there could be something special between us. Then, as the days passed, and I heard nothing from him, I considered that maybe I was wrong, and that thought was disheartening.

I was feeling especially discouraged the day I returned to my flat and found the offworld light on my holo com blinking. I knew it had to be him.

Setting my bag on the couch, I was almost giddy with anticipation as I pressed the button to play the holographic message. Lanimer’s hologram materialized in front of me, and I smiled at him even though I knew he was only an image.

I watched his hologram through a couple of times, then mulled over what I wanted to say to him. I went to my room to change and fix my hair before I recorded my reply.

“Hello, Lanimer,

It’s so nice to hear from you. It appears that your message took some time to get here, at least a few days. I certainly don’t envy you for the long journey in space. I have never been to space myself because I never had a reason. I was born here on Zevus Mar. I am half-human, so I have no tail.

I don’t really have time to do much of anything but work these days because I’m running the Val’kara clinic by myself. Some days, I work 10 hours and do house calls. Then I come home, eat dinner, and fall into bed to get up the next day and do it all again.

There are some things I need to tell you that Dr. Yaroman thought we shouldn’t tell you. I don’t think the real situation here on Zevus Mar is getting out to the interstellar info stream. There is a faction of human dissidents who have been harassing Trakellisans and demonstrating with demands to remove us from Zevus Mar.

I don’t understand why this is happening. Many humans and hybrids like myself are living happily among us in Val’kara. It seems to be a small fraction of Zevians involved in these disturbances, but I don’t know why they’re complaining now.

I hope you won’t change your mind about coming because of this unpleasantness. I know I am looking forward to your arrival. I hope your journey improves once you make the transfer to the next ship at Rintalis.

Evalee.”

Lanimer

We were only a few days from Rintalis when I received Evalee’s next hologram. I’d watched her previous messages many times since. I wanted to know everything about her and longed for my journey to be over so we could finally meet in person. I had never felt this way about anyone before—Evalee.

I believed my attraction to her was on the same level as she had described her attraction to me. Call it a hunch or intuition. I knew she was going to be my mate—my only mate ever.

“My Dear Evalee,

The news about the political unrest there is disturbing, but not enough to make me change my mind about returning to Zeus Mar to meet you. I believe Zevus Mar is where I’m meant to be.

My farm complex is in a remote desert location, so barring another invasion, no one is likely to bother us there. Except for a few months after I was born on Aledus, I never lived in a city, nor do I want to. I have a beautiful underground home there, and I hope one day to find a mate to share it.

Is that something that might interest you? Think about it as we get to know each other.

The com operator on our ship told me it would be at least three more months before our messages would take less than a few days to exchange. Your messages have made this leg of my journey much less dreary than I expected. Although the captain avoided me like the plague, most of the crew members were friendly.

I still spend a lot of time in my cabin, refreshing myself on Trakellisan anatomy and learning the language. I am learning other languages from the crew as well. It’s much easier to understand when I can read the meaning in their minds.

To be honest, as a telepath, I spend more time blocking out people’s thoughts than reading them unless I sense their attention is on me. Or she is as beautiful as you, Evalee.

Till next time, love.

Lanimer.”

Evalee

I thanked the Goddess that Lanimer was not greatly disturbed by the fact that we didn’t inform him about the political unrest happening on Zevus Mar. I was almost giddy with relief and excitement that he seemed to really like me. I wanted him to like me because I could imagine being his mate.

We would be working together on a daily basis, so we needed to get on well. I knew I could work with Lanimer, even though I was attracted to him as intensely as I am. The fact that he was interested could complicate things or be really special. I wanted to believe the latter because I wanted to be important to him.

I kept telling myself it was too early in our acquaintance to be thinking about life together, yet I couldn’t stop myself. On the other hand, a telepath and an empath would quickly determine their compatibility.

With my reply, we started messaging every day. Even though there was a lag in sending and receiving the messages, we got holograms from each other every day. We talked about everything from our childhoods to the most intimate things, like what we enjoyed sexually.

Sometimes, our exchanges were blatantly explicit on how we would make love if we could be together. Lanimer said that he pleasured himself to the sound of my voice telling him how I wanted him to pleasure me when we finally came together. It was a long time before I admitted that I had also done this.

Then I had the dream. It was so hot and so real that when I woke, I couldn’t believe I was alone.