“You will clear it with Vegrun?”
“I will handle it.”
“Fine. I could use a break from you anyway.”
“You will still see plenty of me.”
Khar watched her stomp away, small boots striking the deck in furious rhythm.
Better finish the transformation soon.
A Liberator does not deserve to be kept waiting.
Chapter 12
Back to Business as Usual
Lily
“Lily, you always go for the bad boys. That useless guitarist in high school. The biker guy at university. That ripped guy from the office. I swear, even in kindergarten you liked the boy who pulled your hair…I swear, it’s the abs.”
Lily’s sister, three chrono-years ago
Khar had only been away from work for a few chrono-cycles, yet Lily was already bored.
And lonely.
She had crammed all the work waiting for her into the first two cycles, and now she had nothing left to do. No tasks. No conversation. Not even Vegrun had checked in, and he usually liked to ping them about his beloved space cruiser, just to make sure everything was running smoothly.
She cursed herself for how quickly things had changed. Nearly two chrono-years alone aboard Helios, with only brief excursions to space stations, had never weighed on her like this short stretch of solitude did now.
At least the sexy dreams had stopped.
That really would have been too much.
She did not know where Khar lived on the station, and she could have messaged him through Vitro, but she had no real reason to do so. Instead, she searched the public IMPERIUM database for information on the Divani.
She learned a great deal about their social hierarchy, which was essentially a meritocracy based on strength and combat capability. Their biology. Their history. The material wasinformative but dry, although she quite liked some of the older Divani sayings, like “The horns that arch highest bear the greatest burden,” implying that the strongest were responsible for acting in the interest of Divani society.
Only one unusual line stood out in the free database, and she could not quite make sense of it.
“The Divani are not only highly sought after in military and law enforcement roles, but are also valued for their potent reproductive capacity. See Divani imprinting.”
There was no further information available.
Lily assumed it referred to the fact that many advanced species struggled with declining birth rates, something the Divani apparently did not. She briefly considered subscribing to the expanded database, but in the end she could not bring herself to hit purchase.
When Khar finally returned after a week away, Lily was not sure whether it was just her starved-for-company brain talking, but he seemed more attractive than ever.
She could not pinpoint what had changed. She just knew she could not stop watching his face whenever he was not aware of her gaze.
The only obvious difference was his skin.
It had darkened completely, now a deep, absolute black from the tips of his horns to every inch of skin visible beneath his uniform, right down to the ends of his claws. His ominously glowing eyes stood out even more starkly against the ebony tone.
She loved it.
And did everything she could to avoid making him uncomfortable under her attention.
