Page 28 of Thalen

“I need to check over the field of corn I had planted yesterday. I already let the animals out. The agribot will ensure they have salt and water if needed. Need to check for eggs and collect any we find.” He pursed his lips, thinking. “Greenhouse should have the berries checked for ripeness; see if they are ready for harvesting. They looked only a couple of days away when I checked the day before yesterday.”

“Okay. I can help gather eggs and pick berries,” I replied enthusiastically.

His lips quirked up into a smile. “Agribot drones will do that. I just set them going once I see there’s enough to bother. They’ll leave the underripe ones, and any that are overripe or damaged will get collected separately and placed in the recycler.”

“So, just the eggs then.” I eyed the large number of eggs sitting in three baskets on the counter. “We’ve got a lot of eggs already, and some of them are pretty big.”

They were like goose eggs, or some other large bird’s. Maybe an ostrich.

“We’ll crate up what we get today and send them to the general store along with the straw they’ll be taking back.”

“Um, okay. Won’t we need some of that for bedding?”

He shook his head. “We’ve got plenty. Kilt-ha aren’t like horses and cows. They prefer a dirt floor. I only put down straw when we’ve got kits. I’m not expanding the herd until after the next harvest, and that’s a couple of months away.

“Oh.” I had a lot to learn about farming on an alien planet with its wildly different critters.

“I’ll see about making our lunch after collecting the eggs, then. I need to look up a recipe for something I wanna try to make.”

He gave me an approving look, and I basked in it.

“Grab your hat,” he said. “The weather feels mild, but the sun is stronger than it looks.”

“Will do. See ya out there after I make sure he gets to school on time.”

He pressed a kiss to my forehead and then grabbed his own woven Steson style hat, which tickled me to no end. Jesse sure had had an effect on the local culture. Then, he opened the door, doffing his hat as he closed it behind him. I turned to go chase down our son. He had three minutes to make it to the sofa and log in.

“Jason, you ready yet?”

“I’m coming,” he hollered back.

I chuckled. So was Christmas.

Wait. Do they celebrate Christmas here now? Hm. If not, we sure will be. Gotta have Christmas!

16

THALEN

Evan might not have been the experienced agricultural worker I’d thought my perfect match would be when I first agreed to follow the prince’s example and register for the mate program, but he sure as anything was enthusiastic and punctual. A glance at my wrist comm showed me it was precisely nine when he came out of the house to join me.

“Okay, I’m here. Do the kilt-ha lay eggs out in the pasture in the grass or in the barn?”

“In the barn. That's why there is a dirt floor.”

He looked confused by this explanation, but I decided showing him what I meant was the way to go.

“Mind your step,” I told him as we took two steps up once inside the barn. “The dirt floor is laid over an engineered subfloor the 3D printer laid.”

“Yeah, okay, I was not expecting that,” he replied. “What are those holes? Wait - kilt-ha are a mishmash of reptiles and mammals, and many reptiles bury their eggs. Um, are those their nests?”

“They are. That’s why I only put an extremely sparse amount of straw in here. They dig into the dirt and lay their eggs in there. If not nursing a kit, they will lay a small clutch of up to six eggs every single week. They kick the straw loosely over the top to mimic how, in the wild, they would use grass or sand to cover the opening to their nests.”

I reached up onto the wall, pulling down the eggmatic and an empty basket, which I handed to him.

“Now, go kick away any straw out of the way and remove any from the nest,” I said, pointing to the nearest one to us. He walked over to it, set the basket down, and did as I instructed. He had to kneel down to reach into the nest to pull out the stray bits of straw.

“It’s a good thing I have more than one pair of jeans, as I’m going to have to change out of these after this if I’m going to look presentable for the furniture delivery,” he giggled. “My knees are going to be stained with dirt, and bits of straw are gonna be stuck in random places all over my legs, I just know it. Not that I mind, because whooo-ee! I’m doing the work I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid!”