“Just how exactly are you planning to grab your mate?”
Hannah’s eyebrows rise as she looks at me skeptically. “You did say only your mate, right?”
Hannah Becker has been on our spacecraft, the Discovery, for five to six rotations now. It’s true, we didn’t get along at first—and that was totally my fault. But now, I’ve been spending time with her daily to educate her on our home world’s culture. She’s a quick study, and I’ve enjoyed the interaction with a female.
It’s extremely rare on Quasar to have female friends.
Sisters? I have three, but friends? No.
I hide my personal doubts about my upcoming journey behind a smirk. I don’t have everything figured out, but she doesn’t need to know that.
Of course, I do plan to grab only mates—plural. It will cost a pretty penny to get your mate, too.
“Of course. What would be the point of grabbing anyone but my mate?”
Hannah’s nose crinkles as she purses her lips at me. Bren, whose lap she’s sitting on, seems to share her doubt.
“Well, let’s consider that for a moment. If I picked up any other females, especially if they’re young and of breeding age, how long do you believe it would be before they encounter their own mates?”
Pausing for effect, I wait to see if they argue. “I give it a few days, maybe. Look how fast you two showed your mating marks. Bren said he first noticed them long before you met.”
Bren’s arms tighten as he nods over her head. “It was a long time ago, although the distance between us kept her from noticing anything.”
Previously, they’d discussed with me how they believe when Hannah left the atmosphere of Earth in a spacecraft to Mars, it made Bren able to “sense” her. Of course, it took around three hundred daily rotations for them to meet up. During that time, Bren saw her in his daily reflections.
“Yeah. I’m not an idiot. It’s logical to target the specific clientele looking for a mate. The rich ones!”
I laugh as I stand. Rubbing my hands together, I can barely contain my excitement as I move to leave.
This is it! I’ll be separating here in the next rotation as the Discovery reaches the next jump point.
We’re ready. My crew’s on standby, and the Gazer, our personal family spacecraft, is ready to go.
I can fly it with only three crew members, but it also can carry as many as ten, including the crew. It even has five stasis chambers for longer space travel. They’re a luxury I’ve never utilized.
Sol and Gilip took some convincing. Not Sol so much since he’s my younger sibling, but Gilip wasn’t buying in at first. We are risking our lives.
Traveling into Ashen territory is dangerous. Only about fifty percent of our recorded crafts traveling through their territory are heard from again. The half that makes it never has anything to report.
You either don’t see them—or you probably do, but they’re never heard from again.
“I’m not lying for you to anyone.”
Bren’s booming voice doesn’t surprise me. He hasn’t told me how stupid I am. I know out of anyone who’s aware what I plan, he can relate the most.
After all, he has his mate.
Finding out that we can experience a mate, even with another species like Humans, is a miracle. So far, there isn’t anyone on this spacecraft that I’ve talked to that isn’t envious. To possess your own female, totally yours... it’s hard to explain what an amazing concept that is!
“I don’t expect you to.”
I swing back to face them as the door behind me slides open. “Best of luck on Quasar, Hannah.”
With a quick salute, I leave their suite and head toward my own.
“Thanks, Travek. And best of luck to you, too. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
Hannah doesn’t sound totally convinced, but it’s nice of her to not totally hate me. After all, I’m planning on traveling to her home planet to kidnap a woman.
I think she knows how desperate we all are at this point. But she’s one hundred percent happy with Bren as her mate. Why wouldn’t she want that for others?
I can only hope that everything Hannah and I discussed helps her when she arrives at our home world. We’ve gone over details on all the common protocols and niceties between females I’m aware of.
I’ve prepped her on the council members she’ll run into and what I know about them, including my mother, Kirley Pelak.
All the council members govern different aspects of the planet, with our family heading up the merchants and traders. We’re in charge of making sure merchandise, both imports and exports, whether domestic or foreign, keeps running smoothly. It doesn’t matter if that trade comes from the Pelak line, the Coalition members, or pirates off the grid. Our family doesn’t care.
My Uncle Reelo has been in charge of heading up the training and operations for as long as I’ve been alive. From the time I was a youth, he’s raised me with one mantra in mind. “How can this be profitable?”
His voice rings in my ears regularly with our family slogan.
Sure, I’m taking a big gamble by making this run into the unknown space around the human planet known as Earth. But the payoff… big.
Huge!
At first, I thought Earth females like Hannah would make superb recreation workers. That’s an unheard-of commodity in our society. Not because they wouldn’t be accepted, but because females of our kind are so few and highly coveted. With birth rates so low, every female is claimed.
As large as the universe is, we’ve never run across any other species so similar to us. I’d say the Sinth is the closest I know of. But with their need for blood sharing, there’s definitely something very different in their physiology.
Any recreation workers on Quasar are male. That’s fine, but not what everyone wants.
When I realized that Human females could physically become mates with our males, I knew they were priceless. Males will pay for that with everything they possess—except their life.
After all, she will become their life. Look at me. I’m a perfect example.
I’m required to go back to Quasar soon to join my brothers in the Tapel Line. Half of my eight brothers are promised to them and it’s my turn.
I’ve learned how impatient my Ermada has become. She’s a half-crazed female over twenty annual rotations older than me—the same age as my mother.
At least, my impression is that she’s crazy. She’s just so used to getting what she wants—in everything.
But a mate? That puts an end to any family line commitments. Mates can only be with each other.
I always enjoyed working with and learning from my Uncle Reelo about our family business. But my hobby and favorite pastime is what will make this entire venture work. The payoff is finally here.
Often, we end up with old spaceships. Pirates and other species fall on hard times, and we have collections of their old junk in our family’s holdings. A couple of my brothers tried to convince my mother to create a museum of antiquities, but she’ll have none of that. Instead, most of it’s disassembled and taken to the recycling plants.
I always try to be involved in this process because of my personal interest in technology and gadgets. Ever since I was a child, I’ve been interested in why and how things work.
Two annual rotations ago, I stumbled across some unique technology that intrigued me. The silver box I found in a long-abandoned spacecraft appeared impenetrable, but after some careful study, I gained access.
I’ve been tinkering with it ever since. Now, it will finally come in handy.
The only other person I’ve shown it to is my brother, Sol.
In fact, I just tested it last week on myself. The transporter’s range is still unknown to us, but it definitely works.
Sure, it might have killed any biological life when it was used, and I risked my neck to test it—but I was right!
It knocked me out for a long time after, but it works. And I feel fine.
I’m taking a considerable risk using it on my mate if I find her. But what’s the worst that can happen?
She’ll die? Unlikely. If we’re compatible to mate, then I’m sure she’ll be fine.
I’ve tried subtlety to get more information about Earth females from Hannah. She shared their size, weight, and other variables that need to be calibrated into the transporter device. She said it’s general guidelines about them, but that everyone is different. Also, it would depend somewhat on their location on the planet.
Now, it really comes down to desperation. Once I undergo the mating, I’m not required to go back to Quasar. My crazy Ermada will no longer be able to join with me.
I’ll be free!
And free to take others to find their mates—for a fee, of course.
