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“This some weird religious thing?” I said. “You guys out here worshiping the star spirits?”
“Fuck no, we’re just getting in touch with our own actualbodies,” he said. “It’s natural to mate this way.”
“It’s dangerous as fuck,” I said. “Sometimes the natural way isn’t better.”
His nostrils flared. “There have been casualties. But when the children are born in the spring, it will all be worth it. We do this for the next generation, for our sons and daughters, and—”
But he never finished that sentence, because I sprang up with my knife and stabbed him in the stomach.
He went backwards, grunting.
I tugged the blade out.
He grabbed at his wound.
“That’s not necessarily going to kill you,” I said, nodding at him. “But you’re not in any position to mount anyone either. So, assuming you guys had some way to get up here, some transport, you get yourself out on it, back to some medcenter. When I get out of here, I’m reporting this whole crazy thing, and the authorities are going to come up here and haul you all off for rape and murder.”
He clutched at his stomach, moaning. “Fuck, that hurts,” he whispered. He looked at me, tears in his eyes.
I gestured with the knife.
His eyes widened. “Don’t, please, don’t.”
“Go,” I growled.
He nodded. “I’m going.” He clutched his bleeding stomach and hobbled away.
I snatched the tool up off the ground and pressed it against the receptor.
The tether snapped free.
I let out a triumphant breath and hurried back onto the ship.
SIXTEEN
cypra
Liftoff was rocky.
The whole ship shook and made strange noises and Jini swore a lot in Common and Cobran and some other language, which was probably her native Abbunian language for all I knew.
But somehow we made it into orbit.
At that point, I took Holston to the sick bay to bandage him up from where he’d been skewered by that other donen’s antlers. Holston still had some of that gladiator ointment, and he had me put that on him, saying it would heal up in no time.
Jini set a course for the closest spaceport and got the manifests ready for the fake ship IDs we’d been set up with by the resistance. When we were close enough, she shot that off to the tower there, asking for permission to land. They answered the query, sent us back a slot in their landing queue, and took control of the ship remotely.
Then we sat, hovering in the air, waiting for our turn to land.
Holston and I were in seats at the back of the bridge, both of us strapped in. He was holding my hand, and I was letting him.
Jini was busy sending off more communications to the resistance, and my bracelet worked now, so I could have done that, but I didn’t. I sat there, holding Holston’s hand, and I looked at him a lot, looked at him in profile, trying to memorize everything about the way he looked. When he’d catch me looking at him, he’d turn to look at me.
I would immediately look away.
Finally, I said, “I thought you’d insist on staying up there.”
“Nah,” he said.
