Page 5 of Tempting Fate

“There’s one more part that’s difficult,” Daiytak said, her voice soothing and melodic, like my own strange voice but prettier. “Other than that, you’re over the worst of it. But you don’t need to worry for a week or two.”

“And what new torturous delight can I look forward to?”

“Soon, your body will have detoxed enough to kickstart its reproductive function.” Tokki said this so matter of fact, yet it was well known people with my deformities were incapable of such a thing.

Not deformed. Different. I’d lost count of how many times they’d told me this. ‘Different’ would be preferable, would it not? Why could I not remember?

Because you wish to believe you are still kri’ith.

“One of the main functions of the drug is a suppressant of shaa traits. They add in a reproductive inhibitor once our bodies hit a certain age,” Tokki said.

I remembered the winter my body filled out, when I had asked my nurse about new, different feelings and sensations. She hadn’t replied, but by the following summer, I’d never had them again. But it was too long ago, too coincidental to taste like the surety of a truth.

“All that was suppressed will come back. You may or may not be able to produce young naturally, but you will get sexual function back.”

Sexual function? A deformed—different—male like me could not breed.

Tokki was still speaking, and while I wanted to be prepared for whatever this next round of misery involved, I could not focus on his descriptions of what he called the kalidi. Create young? Experience pleasure? What nonsense was this? Nobody wanted a male like me for a mate.

“Do you have a mate?” My abrupt question interrupted the flow of his speech.

“I do not.”

“And you?”

“No,” Daiytak said.

“Do any of these shaa’ith on your planet have mates?”

“Some.”

It was too diffuse to hold as truth, so I let the absurd possibility of a mate drift through my fingers like so much smoke.

CHAPTER THREE

Heebie-Jeebies

Imani

THE SPEEDER JERKED as I rounded the corner, its tail kicking out before I straightened up.

Fenn quirked an eyebrow at me. “You could just let the autopilot fly.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” I eased back in the huge bucket seat, flicking on the autonav now we were past the trail leading from the shaa’ith village. I was a decent enough pilot, but the damn seats didn’t go forward quite enough, and I had to sit on a cushion to reach the ceiling switches. Yet more ammo for the ‘humans are tiny’ jibes.

The gloom of the forest penned us in on both sides, but I focused on the patches of light through the odd leaves. Cramming so many errands into the short time before work was a pain in the arse, but picking up supplies was an easy way to show our appreciation to the shaa’ith, who’d let us bunk in their village not long after we’d got here. “Tokki and Daiytak will be away for a month; it doesn’t make sense for you to spend your credits renting a room when we have spare beds,” one of them had said, and that had been that.

I loved the shaa’ith, hybrids of kri’ith and shaa who were now their own people. Despite their harsh start in life, they were kind and honorable, and inspired me every day that being wrenched from our homes didn’t have to mean the end, it could be a chance at a new and better life.

Darkness gave way to colour on the approach to town—the second best thing about Vadias. The moon’s myriad shades of green were a gift I unwrapped every morning, my joy still as fresh as the moment we’d stepped off the Dorimisa.

And the best thing? For the first time in my life, as one of only two humans on the whole moon, among the most diverse mix of species I’d ever seen—let alone lived alongside—it didn’t matter that I felt like an alien.

I wasn’t rude for saying what I thought. I wasn’t selfish for having my own particular interests. If I wanted to eat alien potato every day, nobody judged me for it.

Fenn leaned forwards in their seat as we approached the speeder corral at the edge of Vadias Town, a lock of blond hair falling over their eyes. “Have we got time to check out the clothing stalls?”

Mint green dawn still cast its glow over the towering spires, not yet shifting to gold. “Only if you’re quick.” If Fenn got zoned into shopping, it was another story, one that would definitely make us late for work. But it was only fair; I had my own reasons for being here too.