Chapter 13

Sophie

Squealing with excitement, Sophie stared at her metrics. Getting human internet this far out in space was trippy enough, but seeing how her numbers had exploded since she started posting stuff from her life on a starship was absolutely stunning. Practically overnight, she was now number one in followers and viewers. And sure, she knew most of those people just wanted to see what life was like in space and didn't care about her, that didn't actually lessen the impact she was making on Earth.

And there would be some that did definitely want to watch her because of her personality. Because of her video quality. She wasn't about to let that slip even if it was easier now.

Yesterday, she had made alien tea – literally, that's all she did. Didn't even speak, just had some alien music over her actions. The short video had garnered so many hits, it was ludicrous.

Clapping, excited, she went back to what she had been fighting with this morning. Trying to get a phone call to connect back to Earth.

It was possible for her to call her family. She couldn't do a video call. Her live stream when she met Serval had been an exception, not the rule. A lot of power and recourses had been diverted for that. But she had been promised that voice calls would still be possible.

But the instructions for how to do so definitely left something to be desired. Whoever had written these clearly had no consideration for weak mortals of a lower intelligence than themselves. She had needed to take a break wrestling with it and cheer herself up with her metrics and ad revenue. Her next paycheck was going to be so nice. And, like information and phone calls, her money would be transferable into credz – that was part of the treaty.

Right now, however, she was more interested in getting this dang phone call to work. Sophie closed out of her video metrics and found she had a new email. Jeanie had messaged, asking if she and Serval could do a photo shoot for True Match. They wanted pics of them together being cute and couple-y for their ad campaigns.

Sophie responded saying they were on it – that was the deal, after all – before closing out of that as well and getting back to her original mission.

It still took another hour before she finally heard the telltale, familiar sound of an Earth phone ringing echoing back to her through the line. Even then, she still found herself holding her breath until she heard the most beautiful sound in the world-

"Hola?"

"Mami!"

Her mother let out a wordless cry of excitement as Sophie felt tears forming. Then, laughter bubbled up as her mother launched into rapid fire Spanish, her words tripping over themselves as she tried to both yell for Sophie's father to come to the phone, ask Sophie how she was doing, and telling the family to keep it down.

It was so good to hear from them again. She wished it could be a video call, but this was more than fine regardless. Her father joined the call and Sophie began fielding questions from both of them – an impressive feat, as they were talking over each other in their excitement.

She just smiled, loving hearing their voices. She told them about her new life, what was going on with her, and she asked for details on the family. Now that she had figured out, finally, how to make this call, she could promise that the next one wouldn't take so long apart. There was just so much to catch up on, from both sides.

"Sophie," Serval's voice called over the intercom, interrupting her conversation. "Can you come to the bridge?"

"Yeah!" She yelled back. "Be there in a second! Mami! Un momento. M-Mami! Escuchar!"

Serval didn't respond, but she knew he heard her as she tried to get her mother to stop talking. She hurried to her feet as she rushed from the room, eager to introduce him to her family.

That was another new thing.

Her alien mate was triggered, so he was hers now. Well and truly. But part of her still wasn't sure what that meant. They were still, essentially, strangers.

At the same time, she had never felt so instantly attracted to someone before. Even if no one had told her that they were mates, she would have known they had a connection. And she definitely would have pursued it.

Did she start acting like they were married right away? Did she try to keep it casual, even though it was anything but? What was the expected move?

She only took a wrong turn once, but she was able to backtrack and get to the bridge without any further problems. This ship really was huge. Which made her wonder how common things like this were in the universe. With all the planets of the Coalition connected like they were, there had to be some method of travel between them.

So, was this starship just like a fancy car? Or was it more like a private jet? Only the super rich could afford their own?

And if it was the latter, just how successful was Serval?

She made a note to ask Serval as she stepped onto the bridge. He was standing at the control panel, doing something, but she barely even noticed.

"Serval! Say hi to my family!" She declared, rushing towards him before speaking to her mom, in slow, careful English. "Mami, this is my boyfriend, Serval. Serval, this is my mami y papi, Carmen and Rafeal. Say hi. Speak slow, though, they're still working on their English."

Serval looked surprised, but he gathered himself quickly before speaking towards her combot. "Hello, Carmen and Rafeal. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh! Ay. Hola, Serval," her mom started. Sophie could practically see her fanning herself with one hand, grasping her heart with the other. "Mucho gusto. Good to meet you. Heard so much of you!"

"Mucho gusto means nice to meet you," Sophie whispered as her father chimed in, basically parroting his wife.

It was a fun conversation. Sophie pulled triple duty as the daughter calling home after too long, the daughter bringing home her boyfriend for the first time, and as a translator. Serval had the benefit of having English imprinted in his head, so he didn't have any issue speaking to them, but her parents didn't speak much English – it just wasn't necessary where they lived. They also had very thick accents, so the English they did speak with harder for Serval to understand.

But all told, it was a nice talk. Her parents were sweet and open and loving. They asked about his job and his family. They told stories from their family. Her mom insisted she cook for him if they ever managed to visit Earth – that was a big ‘if' considering the ban on bringing anything advanced or unknown back to her home planet.

But Serval was patient and considerate and treated her parents with respect. Which was all she could really ask for and she found herself hugging him gratefully when they finally finished up the phone call – promising to call them back often and send pictures all the time.

"Well, that was a surprise," Serval chuckled, looking down at her. "Finally figured out the comm patch through the communications relay?"

"Yeah, I don't know who wrote those instructions, but he's definitely fired. Anyway," she patted his chest happily, "Thanks for talking to my parents. I know they felt better having had a chance to get to know you a bit more."

He gave her a gentle smile. "It's no problem. You seem happier for talking to them."

"Definitely," she beamed. "It's good to hear from them again. And now that I've got the call thing figured out, I can text and call them all I want."

"And you don't mind doing that? You don't find it suffocating?"

"Well, duh," she laughed. "But your family is supposed to be suffocating. Like a blanket! Warm and comfortable most times, but obnoxious and heavy at others."

"Why would you want to deal with that though?"

Sophie barely heard the question. She was too focused on the huge window that was open now that hadn't been there before. In her excitement over being able to call her family, she hadn't actually looked outside or even noticed it before now. Yesterday, that spot had been just a solid metal wall, but that had changed and it was now showing her a breathtaking view of a massive, alien planet.

Gasping, she walked slowly towards the window, mouth open in awe. Sure, she was in space, but every time she had looked out a window to this point, it had either been blacked out – since apparently subspace was too weird to just look at all the time as they completed a swing – or it was just the abyss of space. Which was practically just as black.

This was the first time she had looked out and seen something truly awesome and majestic on a cosmic scale. And it was an alien world!

The planet below her had no water that she could see. It was mostly black and covered in mountains with shockingly white peaks that struck all across the surface like cracks in shatterproof glass, creating an uncountable number of peaks and valleys.

"That is Holivair," Serval said, coming to stand beside her. "All the valleys are the pods I was telling you about. The mountains act as barriers."

"There's no water," she said, stuck on that. Wasn't water a requirement of life?

"There's water," he assured her. "It's all underground. This planet has very volatile tectonics because its core is mostly water and ice."

"What? Seriously!?" She turned to him, shocked.

He grinned at her reaction. "Seriously. The crust sits on a mantel of ice where it isn't sitting directly on top of the underground oceans. There are nine underground oceans in total, I believe. That's why this planet has so many mountains though. The crust is unstable and moves a lot, crashing against itself more often than other planets, creating those extensive mountain ranges and deep valleys."

"Is it safe?" She frowned, suddenly concerned. She imagined going down and trying to walk with constant earthquakes rocking her feet.

"Very safe," he reassured her. "The pod we're going to is stable as it sits on top of an ice sheet. And the people here are experts at reading when the ground is unstable and are capable of moving their cities to entirely new pods to escape a newly unstable pod if necessary."

"They can move entire cities? How?"

"Their architecture is very modular in design. Homes can usually be broken into individual rooms, and larger buildings will either break down similarly or by floor – depending on the size. The shinuk people are used to their planet shifting. They've adapted to it. Don't worry. We'll be very safe."

Sophie focused back on the planet. On the swirling clouds over the dark surface. She couldn't see any cities from this high up. Or maybe they were just blended in with the stone. She also couldn't see any trees or plant life. Or maybe the plant life was black.

"You are still worried?"

Serval was suddenly there, wrapping his arms around her from the side, running his fingers through her hair with a fascinated expression on his face.

"Do not be," he whispered softly, kissing the top of her head. "I won't ever let you walk into danger. If I do my job right, you won't even be in danger."

She turned, smiling at him as she leaned against his chest. "I'm not worried. I'm excited. I'm just trying to figure this planet out. There's no plants. It all looks like black rock."

He chuckled. "It's mostly black rock. But there are plants too. They just match the rock. The plants, the rocks, the people – they're all going to be that same black color. You and I, lov'alel, are going to be the brightest living things on that planet."

He ran his fingers through her hair one more time before stepping back.

"I didn't bring you here to see the planet though. I talked with my contact on the planet. We have our invitation to the party. And I've booked our hotel. I wanted to show it to you to get your approval before we go down."

Sophie, who had been taking a picture of the planet for her socials, was sufficiently distracted. She eagerly followed him to his main computer on the control panel where he had the hotel information pulled up.

"Oh, this is fancy," she admired, scrolling through the pictures. "How much is it to stay here?"

"About three thousands credz a night."

She hesitated, finger over the screen, thinking. "I don't have any frame of reference for that. Is that a lot of credz?"

"It's not insignificant," he said, unconcerned.

"Erm," she stood straight, looking at him. "Not to be rude or anything, but I feel like maybe I should ask: Just how much money do you have, Serval?"

"My payment varies based on the popularity of my segments."

"Yeah, my compensation model is the same. That's not what I asked. Are you rich?"

"I suppose."

"You suppose?"

"I have an accountant who handles my money for me. It's too much of a hassle to bother. I assure you, staying in the hotel isn't going to stress my funds. We have a budget for things like this. We're posing as normal guests to a royal party – we have to act the part."

"So, if it weren't for the story, you wouldn't stay there?"

He didn't answer, which she took to mean he would have stayed there regardless. The fancy ship, which was essentially a massive pool with underwater rooms, the nice clothes, the hotel room – her mate was a bit of a snob.

She snickered, earning a look from him.

"What?" He asked, frowning.

"Nothing. You're sure it's okay for us to stay in a place this nice?"

"Of course," he cocked a confused brow. "They're my credz. I can spend them however I want. Besides, this hotel is close to the shopping district we need to go to in order to buy clothes. I've already booked an appointment at a dress maker for you."

Sophie beamed, excited. "Yeah? This is turning more into a vacation than a story."

"It's both," he grinned back at her. "You are my beautiful distraction. Be distracting."

Sophie beamed. "Careful what you ask for."