by Heather Karn
“Did you already find a way to contact him about my unusual eating habits?” My sarcastic tone didn’t appear to bother Kilani this time, especially since he grinned at me as he stopped before a glass case of random foods I’d never seen in my life.
“No, I haven’t told him about your eating habits yet or that he’ll be responsible to make sure you’re fed properly. I plan to have that conversation with him right now while you’re eating. Before you think you’ll be a burden on him with this, I should warn you that he loves feeding others and cooking. He doesn’t get to do it often, because like you are now aware, we don’t eat often, and most of us eat foods that don’t require cooking, or food that is made in large amounts. Rarely does he have the opportunity to make a meal specifically for someone. This will be his pleasure. So, is there anything you’d like to eat?”
After staring at the items in the glass case that were available for the men to choose from, I could easily say that no one would have any idea what a hamburger or pizza was, and I was dying for either of those. I’d never liked hot dogs, but even right now I’d go for one of them. These foods just seemed so...alien. Brown balls that almost appeared like a kiwi except the skin was leathery and had small spikes sticking out from them. Pinkish noodle shaped strings were mixed in a salad with what had to be their version of chopped up vegetables, except I didn’t recognize what they could be. I assumed they were vegetables. For all I knew they could be fruits or some kind of weird meat.
“Um, it doesn’t look like we have similar food options, so I have no idea what to request. To tell you the truth, I don’t know what any of this even is.”
“I can help you with that,” a humor-filled voice boomed from nearby, making me jump since I’d been so focused on the food to hear or notice anyone approaching. It was another alien, but this one was more heavyset than the others. Unlike Kilani and most that I’d seen thus far, this alien had his head nearly shaven and was far older. Even the fur on and around his ears was trimmed short. “You must be the female I’ve heard about.”
“That’s me.” My first instinct was to extend my hand for him to shake, but then I reminded myself these people didn’t touch. This was going to kill me.
“I’m Mortan, chief cook. It’s a pleasure to meet you. And what is your name?”
Kilani tipped his head to the side, watching me intently. For a moment I didn’t understand until I realized he’d never asked me my name. All this time and he had no idea what to call me. Part of me wanted to be upset by this, and another part, the more rational side at the moment, argued that perhaps this was another one of our random custom differences.
“My name’s Cammie.”
“Interesting name,” Mortan mused with a grin.
I shrugged. “Well, it’s a nickname, so not my real name, but I hate that name, so there’s no reason to tell anyone. If I’m going to be starting a new life somewhere, I’d rather be called the name that I like.”
“If you wish to be called Cammie, then that’s what we’ll call you,” Kilani indicated, speaking before Mortan could. “It is an unusual name for us, but in a good way.”
Like he’d tell me anything different when he was hoping I’d choose him as a mate. Trying not to sigh, I turned my attention back on the food to avoid acknowledging his compliment, or what I could assume was a compliment. I wasn’t sure what was going on anymore, and I was certain I’d break more custom rules before the day was through.
“Earth food doesn’t look like this. I don’t know what any of it is or even how to eat some of it, like that spiky thing.”
Mortan chuckled and moved to stand closer to me to survey the options set before us. “Then this should be fun for both of us. I’ll be interested to see how you react to your choices.”
“You should know,” Kilani interrupted, “that she requires feeding three times a day.”
The cook’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. “Is that true? Well, now this should be even more interesting. Since this is the case, why don’t I offer you a few of my favorite dishes?”
I cringed. “That sounds fine, but please don’t be offended if I don’t like them. I’m a picky eater on Earth as it is.”
“You will not offend me by your choice of taste. I can’t imagine that eating food that you are completely unfamiliar with will be easy. Maybe sometime you can tell me about the foods you ate on your planet, and I can do my best to replicate them with what we have.”
Grinning, I nodded. “I’d like that.”
“Good. Now, do you want just my favorites or the captain’s as well?”
Shrugging, I stared at the selection. “Why don’t the two of you both pick a few of your favorites and I’ll try a bite or two of each and then I’ll let you know.”
“That’s fair.” Mortan returned through the door he’d come from which led behind the counter and scooped out a few different dishes on a clear plate. It resembled glass, but there was yet again something different about it. When it was littered with several options, he handed the plate across to Kilani.
The captain smiled when I arched an eyebrow at him, correctly reading my question. “Mortan knows what I like.”
“Of course he does.”
By the time we sat down at a table, Mortan had joined us again, his curiosity to find out what I liked bringing him back out. The two men, I supposed that’s what I’d call them since they were male, sat on either side of me, eyes fixated on me while I was focused on the random foods on the plate. We weren’t too different as a spoon looking utensil sat on the plate beside a pile of what appeared to be purple potatoes. I could already assume they didn’t taste like potatoes, which scared me to think about what they were and would taste like, so they’d be the first to pass my taste buds.
After dipping my spoon into the purple potatoes, I lifted them to my mouth. They were just about to pass my lips when the ship dipped, jerked, and rumbled. Startled out of my mind, I did what any scared person would do: I reached out to the nearest person and gripped their arm to steady my heart. That person: Captain Kilani. Did I care that I was touching him? Not a chance. My heart was beating out of control and I was panting from my near heart attack. The poor spoon was gripped so hard in my hand that my knuckles were white from the exertion.
“It’s okay,” Kilani murmured when the ship had been steady for some time and I still hadn’t released him. By now my eyes were squeezed shut. “This is normal in the area we’re passing through. It’s a rough patch, but the ship can handle it.” When that didn’t settle my nerves, a soft, fur covered hand covered mine. My eyes flew open and I looked to Kilani, who studied me with an expression I couldn’t read.
“I’m so sorry,” I breathed, prying my fingers from his fur and skin, leaving small indentions in his arm from my grip. “I’m so, so sorry.” My eyes dropped to the table as I set the spoon down.
“Have you ever flown through space on a ship?” Kilani’s voice was still soft, and if I let myself see past the man who wouldn’t take me home, he wasn’t a bad person. I’d touched him without permission and, well, I’d touched him, and he wasn’t yelling at me or lecturing me about how he’d told me not to touch anyone.
“We don’t have spaceships. There are some shuttles, but only a handful of people have ever been on one, and only to space stations. Only a couple people have even stepped on the moon. I’ve never even been on an airplane.”
“Airplane?”
“A machine that flies in the sky. Like a spaceship but for short trips to take people from place to place. They experience turbulence too.”
“And that scares you,” Kilani observed, and I shrugged.
“Most planes fly right through it.”
“And those that don’t?”
“They crash.”
He nodded. “I see. Do no worry, we won’t crash. That is normal.”
“Okay.” I bit my lip and released all the air from my lungs before taking a deep breath. “I’m still really sorry for touching you. It won’t-.
”
“It’s all right. I assume such a move is instinctual for your kind.”
“Pretty much.”
“We can’t expect you to forget everything your kind does and force our customs on you. That would be cruel. While touching is looked down upon, and I expect that you won’t go out of your way to make us uncomfortable by doing so, my kind need to realize that moments like this will happen around you.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, his fur glistening a bright gold in the lights above. “If it is truly an accident, you have no reason to be sorry. I cannot and will not hold that against you.”
“Thanks.” Taking another deep breath, I pulled myself out of the funk I’d found myself in and stared at my plate. “Okay, let’s try this again.”
“Yes, let’s,” Mortan chuckled, his eyes twinkling as his gaze flicked between the two of us. Was he already trying to picture me with the captain? If so, he had another thing coming. I was still firm in my decision that I wasn’t going to pick someone. If they thought I would, they had another thing coming.
Picking the spoon back up, I swallowed hard and stuffed the spoon into my mouth. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the smooth, flowery taste that played across my tongue wasn’t it. It was literally like eating a rose petal, or some other flower, and to my utter shock, it wasn’t an appalling flavor. It was quite refreshing.
Both men watched me as I chewed and swallowed, my eyes wide as I studied the purple glop. I adored mashed potatoes, but if I couldn’t have those, this was a decent replacement for them. My growling stomach tightened, loving the food I’d given it and wanting more. Before moving on, I took a larger spoonful and shoved it into my mouth, not caring about my manners. I was hungry.
“You liked it,” Kilani mused, a grin lifting his lips, making his whiskers twitch ever so slightly. With my mouth still full, I nodded. “Good. That’s one of my favorites.”
“Of course it’d be your choice I liked first,” I laughed, feeling at ease with him for the first time, and quite possibly the last. Once my hunger was sated, I planned to go back on the warpath that he needed to take me home, but for now, I was too hungry to care about much else.
Mortan reached over my plate and pointed at what appeared to be a very pale version of rice pudding. “That’s my favorite. If you don’t try it next, I’ll be thinking you're playing favorites.”
“Maybe she is,” Kilani snickered, and it took everything in me not to box him in the shoulder. “What?”
“I want to hit you.”
His face fell the next second. “Oh.”
Frustration ate at me as I tossed the spoon on the plate. “I didn’t literally mean it. Okay, I actually did, but believe it or not, sometimes punching someone in the shoulder or arm isn’t meant to be rude. It’s not meant to hurt, but to affectionately retaliate.”
“Affectionate, huh?” Mortan chuckled, picking one of the cracker-ish looking things from my plate and taking a bite out of it.
“That’s not what I meant,” I grumbled. “This is ridiculous.”
“Just eat.” Kilani didn’t sound appeased by my term affectionate. Why did that bother me?
Sighing, I once again lifted the spoon. Ten minutes later, I was finished with my testing samples, and was shocked to find that I’d enjoyed each one of them, even if they tasted far different than I’d expected. Both men appeared pleased that I’d approved of their choices, and in the end, Kilani managed another smile when I rubbed my stomach and stated I couldn’t eat another bite. The food was far more filling than I’d been prepared for in the beginning.
“So, where to now?” I asked him after Mortan left with my plate.
“What would you like to see?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Don’t you have to go back to the deck or something?”
“Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“No, but you also promised to tell me about why there are so few Mates.”
The mention of the topic appeared to drain him as he leaned heavy on his elbows again and rested his head on his hands, the fur on his arms matching the color of his hair.
“The Lutharian’s were once the most prosperous species in our galaxy.”
“That’s you,” I stated, remembering the word from when he’d spoken it earlier.
Kilani nodded. “Yes, that is my people.”
“So, what happened?”
“Our enemies found a way to hurt us in a way we never saw coming. Their technology rivals ours in many ways, but our knowledge far surpasses theirs. We were able to make new, more powerful weapons and defenses that they couldn’t penetrate, though we never wanted to attack them. They were only for our defense. What we expected was for them to attack with weapons as they always did, not with their virus.
“It took nearly a generation to discover what the virus’s purpose was, but it was too late. By then, almost all of the population was infected with it. Some are only carriers while others suffer the full damaging effects of the virus.”
“The Companions,” I murmured. “The virus sterilizes them.”
Kilani nodded. “Yes, and with each passing generation, more and more of my people lose the ability to bear young. We’re slowly dying out.”
“That’s why you’re taking people from other planets, to see if they hold a cure? Isn’t it?”
He nodded again, unable to look at me. “We’ve exhausted all other options. Even our vast numbers of scientists can’t find a way to neutralize or destroy the virus. This plan was only to be a last resort, but it appears that even it is hopeless. No one in our scientific fleet has made any progress.”
“But you don’t study the females of the places you take the males from?”
“No. We value female life higher than that. It will take us reaching a critical climate for our leaders to allow such a thing. Until then, the female mate levels continue to drop, and there are fewer to choose from the males that remain. I can tell you the last time a level eight was categorized was three years ago, and any others were two years before that. In some cases, level sevens have been allowed to choose from the level eight males as well, but even the sevens are dwindling.”
So that was why Kilani was fighting so hard to keep me here, there were so few females that he and his fellow level eight males could choose from, and I was a sign of hope for them. He confirmed it the second he opened his mouth again.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t take you home. We were too far away, and we needed to return to find out if someone has found a cure and to relate that we have been unsuccessful. But, I also had a decision to make, and I made it, to keep you with us to give my brothers hope that perhaps one day our race will thrive again.” He shrugged his shoulders, defeat etched in every feature of his face. “I expect you to hate me for this, for not returning you to your home and family. And I do not have any illusions that you will forgive me, even if you are kind to me. Just please, do not take that anger out on my brothers. We are already broken as it is.”
“I don’t know how to fit in with your people,” I murmured, rubbing my temples. “And I don’t know at what point this is going to break me, but I know it will. I worry about my mom being alone and anxious about me. I’m afraid of messing up your customs, and I have no idea what to expect when we reach your planet. Everything is so foreign to me.”
“We will be understanding.”
He just didn’t understand that his understanding didn’t solve my most important problems. Jittery with emotion, I met his gaze.
“Is there somewhere on this ship that resembles a human gym? Like an area to work out?”
His eyes narrowed. “We have a room that translates into what you would call a spare room. It is designed to be a room that anyone can use for whatever purpose they need. Would this help you?”
“Immensely. Can you take me there?”
Nodding, he stood and led the way from the meal hall, or whatever they wanted to call it, and back into the maze of corridors within the shi
p. How did these people even know where to go? One corridor looked like another, and there were so many.
Since I had no idea where I was in the ship to start with and grab my bearings, I was lost to begin with on our journey. So, when we arrived at a random door and Kilani opened it to reveal a large empty room, I breathed a sigh of relief we’d made it and I hadn’t lost sight of my guide, who’d forgotten my speech about slowing down for me. He studied the room a second as I stepped inside and the door closed behind me.
“Do you know how to change the room’s appearance?” he asked, nodding toward the black panel near the door, just like in his quarters.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Then go ahead and change the room to what you need.”
Stepping toward the black panel, I breathed deep and hoped the technology would give me the room I needed. After pressing my hand against the panel, I watched as the room became the gym where I worked out twice a week and took self-defense classes. It was so familiar and so real that if it hadn’t smelled clean and fresh instead of like sweat and heat, I would’ve believed I was truly there.
Yup, this was what I desperately needed. The strength training equipment would keep me toned and in shape while the other equipment would help me remain able to practice punching and defending myself. Kilani’s expression darkened as he examined the machines, like he either wasn’t sure what they were for or he had a guess and he didn’t like it. Ignoring him, I chose my first target and started working out my legs.
It didn’t take long to work up a sweat and to make every muscle in my body ache, but it was an ache I desperately needed to feel. This was pain I could relate to and would keep me grounded. When I was done with the machines, I searched for a pair of gloves and spent some time punching the bag in the back corner. Only when I was utterly drenched in sweat, the droplets streaming down my cheeks like tears and my back and torso soaked, did I stand straight to stretch.