“How would you like it if I examined you like this?” Lois said.
Zir looked at her. “I would like it,” he replied, and sat up next to her on the hammock. They were both still naked, which didn’t seem to be a problem. He kicked his feet as if offering them to her.
She smiled, and decided to go along with it, sliding off the nest to sit on the floor. She had to admit, she didn’t mind the opportunity to study his body. There were things she knew intellectually, but it was another thing to feel the weight in her hand.
She held his foot in her palm as he watched. His foot was rough, but it felt powerful as the scratched and worn claws clicked over her wrist. She slid her hand up to the extended heel, and tested the point of the talon at his ankle with her thumb.
“Is this for climbing trees? Or fighting?” she asked.
Zir shrugged. “Both,” he said. He tapped the barb on his chin. “This too.”
Lois hesitated. “Is that how your wing got damaged?” she asked, moving up to sit next to him.
Zir seemed to shut down in front of her, growing harder and colder almost as she watched, though there was barely any visible difference. It was something in the air, a tension that extinguished the playfulness.
“No,” he said.
“I’m sorry, you don’t have to tell me if it’s too painful,” Lois said, laying her hand on his thigh.
“No, you have a right to judge me, as a mate. Of course you would notice my wound and want to know how it was done.”
“Zir, I’m not judging you, don’t think like that. I’m not evaluating you,” Lois insisted. “I just want to know more about you, but you don’t have to tell me.”
“I was shot,” Zir said, dropping the bomb. “When the Ypex reached the forest in which I lived, we grouped together in fear. We had no idea what they were, what they would do. I met with my brother to discuss it, to plan how we would survive, where we would go. Of course, behind the Ypex follow the Rhacahr. They chased the Ypex into our territory, and I was shot by accident. This hole is from one of their guns.”
Lois covered her mouth, appalled. She knew the Volin refugees had seen horrible things to be chased off their home planet, but knowing what had happened to Zir was somehow closer, more personal. “Oh, Zir, I’m so sorry!” she said, wrapping her arms around him. “You were lucky it only hit your wing. If it was ten inches to the side, it could have killed you.”
“I do not feel lucky. I was carrying my brother’s son. It hit him. He fell.”
Lois’ blood ran cold in her veins. She knew that the Volin used falling as a euphemism for death. When you lived in treetops, you died when you fell, and you fell when you died.
How could she have been so stupid? Volin only lowered their wings when they were protecting someone. She should have known from the placement of the wound what had happened. And now she had called him lucky. She didn’t know what to say.
She squeezed him tighter, tucking her face against his chest. “That’s a terrible thing to have happened,” she said. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Zir did not respond, nor did he return her embrace.
“Is that why you left Teiss?” she asked.
“Yes. My territory was destroyed. After my brother’s son was shot, I fled. I ended up in an evacuation group, and I was glad to go. I never saw my brother again. I could not,” Zir finished.
“Have you ever tried to find him on Earth? You could submit an information request. I could help you. You never know, he could be here,” Lois said, trying to help.
“Lois, I do not want to know whether he is alive or dead. I prefer to imagine,” Zir answered solemnly.
Lois stroked her hand over his back, then titled her head back to look at his face. He was looking down at her, watching her.
“That’s understandable, and it’s your decision. If you ever change your mind, I’ll still help you. I’d like to meet him. I’m sure he doesn’t blame you for what happened, and I don’t either. I don’t think any less of you,” she told him.
He seemed to soften again, stroking a hand over her back and through her hair. “You are kind,” he said.
Lois didn’t see it, she didn’t think she’d done anything special. But she wasn’t going to argue with him now.
She thought about Taz, about how she had pushed him and Zir together then ripped them apart. It must have been hell on Zir, just carrying Taz like he had, let alone leaving him behind in the orphanage. That must have been what Kib had meant when he said Zir’s reaction to Taz’s cries weren’t surprising. Zir had lost a child. Maybe not his own, but still his family, his nephew, and he blamed himself.
Now Lois knew, she would be more sensitive. She would make him happy, she thought, and she surprised herself by realising she was thinking in the long term. Zir’s story hurt her as if it had happened to one of her own family, someone she cared deeply for. Definitely more than if it had happened to just someone she knew from work.
Did she care about Zir? Her immediate response was yes, of course, they were dating after all. She had to care about him, at least a little. But it was more than a little. And what did that mean? She wanted to take care of him, her instinct now was to wrap her arms around him and kiss his pain away. That was more than a friendly reaction, that was more than just sympathy. Was it more than she would have felt for Rico, or the guy before him, or the guy before him?
She kept her arms around him and kissed his shoulder, giving them both a quiet moment to pull themselves out of their thoughts.
“I will make you breakfast,” Zir said eventually, pulling out of her arms and helping her off the hammock. He snagged a brightly coloured bit of cloth as he passed something like a coat rack and tied it around his waist. It was in geometric patterns of dark red and a sandy orange, and the back hung down in a point while the front was higher, giving his legs freedom to move.
“I should get dressed,” Lois said, looking around for her clothes.
Zir turned back to her as if in surprise, looking her up and down. “I see no need,” he said.
Lois grinned and put her hands on her hips. “I bet you don’t. But I’m not going to sit at the dining table naked, call it an Earth culture thing.”
Zir grabbed another wrap and walked over to her, slinging it around her hips and tying it off neatly. He gave an approving nod. “There,” he said.
“And on top?” Lois prompted him.
His eyes fixed on her breasts. “I do not have anything,” he said.
Lois laughed. “I’ll put my bra on. It’ll feel like I’m at the beach,” she said, turning around to look for it.
By the time she found it and got it on, Zir was already in the kitchen, slicing up some large fruit. She could smell coffee brewing too. She took her seat at the dining table from the night before and watched Zir put their breakfast together, rather enjoying the bikini and sarong look they were rocking.
As Zir put plates of fruit in front of her on the table, Lois said “You know, it’s just occurred to me I don’t know your real name, your full one.”
Zir looked at her. “It is Ranlitazirelirozantolis,” he said.
“You’re going to have to write that down for me,” Lois laughed. She was trying not to dwell on what she had just found out about Zir’s past, letting him set the tone. If he didn’t want to talk about it, she wouldn’t force him. It was years ago for him, an old wound she didn’t want to pick at.
He put a cup of coffee down in front of her and strode into the living room, coming back with a piece of paper. It was an official letter from DETI, a form to do with his immigration, and it had his name printed out. “In Volin, it is written like this,” he said, writing it out across the top of the form.
Lois tried, she really did. She said it enough times to memorise it, or hoped she had, but Zir just shook his head. She could say it in the anglicised form, reading it phonetically, but saying it in a Volin accent was harder. Zir helped her, but just like with Ban, she couldn’t quite say it like a
native. It was also hard to associate that name with Zir. It didn’t sound like him in her mind.
“I’m going to get it right,” she swore. “I will.”
Zir smiled. “It is alright, I am flattered that you have tried,” he said.
“No, I’m going to get it,” Lois insisted. He knew her name, so she would learn to say his.
Zir nodded. “I will help you again,” he said.
Lois took a sip of her coffee as Zir sat opposite her and started helping himself to the fruit he had prepared. She watched his body move, his scales so different from human skin, but nevertheless it was the body that had made love to her the night before. He had a cup of choba with him and she couldn’t repress a smile at the random thought that he was refilling his tank. Her fingers were still green with it, making her feel kinky when she ate or touched her face, despite having showered.
She wondered if every morning would be like this. Probably not. Maybe over the weekends, but during the week she imagined them dodging round each other as they took turns in the bathroom, trying to get ready for work on time. Zir would probably insist she eat something rather than just have a coffee, and she would learn to make his choba the way he liked it. It might be hectic at first, but they would learn a routine, until they were so used to walking into work together it felt weird not to. They’d kiss goodbye when she dropped him off outside ITS, and he’d come and get her from Intake every night.
It was a pretty picture, and it felt right. She didn’t know if she was ready to be his mate just yet, but Lois knew she didn’t want to lose this either.
Chapter 22
Lois ended up going home late Saturday afternoon, when she couldn’t resist a proper shower and a change of clothes any longer. She and Zir stayed in touch over the rest of the weekend, messaging each other on their Gadgits.
On Monday, and for the rest of the week, Lois was on cloud nine. She was grinning constantly, or hiding a smile behind her hand as she thought of something cute Zir had done. She played with her teddy when she should have been working. She and Zir took all their breaks together, impatiently waiting for the next one so they could be together. If she saw him in the corridors, she grabbed him for a quick kiss. They made out in the toilets, and Zir only raised the issue of mates once, making her realise they were behaving like she had already said yes, but she didn’t want to change it.
She went home with him twice, and she convinced him to come home with her once. She couldn’t get enough of him, and the things he did to her. They held hands all the way to her apartment. She felt like she’d finally got it, the relationship she’d wanted but never found on all the dating sites over the years. She was happy and satisfied and definitely infatuated, possibly even in love.
Their relationship quickly became common knowledge. They weren’t trying to hide it. Lois told Susan, and Zir told Aaron, and the security team noticed when they arrived together in the morning, holding hands. After that it spread through the building like wildfire. Zir was protective and proud of her, showing off in front of Tol or any other male that happened to get too close to her. When they ate in public almost every day, it was to be expected that people would notice, especially when they acted as dopey as they did, feeding each other bites from their plates.
Intellectually, Lois wondered if it was just a honeymoon period. She wondered if this was what her life with Zir would always be like. Regardless, she felt herself getting closer to throwing caution to the wind and going all in with him by accepting his offer to become her mate. One day, it would be inevitable, she thought. One day she would tip over this peak of happiness and just say yes, but in the meantime, she wanted to enjoy the journey.
That happiness was shattered one morning when she woke up to news that, a couple of hours ago, the UNE had lost contact with a transport ship near Teiss. They concluded that the UNESS Tyberius had been destroyed. Everyone was shying away from dramatic words like ‘explosion’, but in the end, it became unavoidable. For some reason no one could figure out, the transporter had exploded.
Lois sat stunned in bed, watched the scrolling news on her Gadgit, reading every article she could find, watching clips from that morning’s live news broadcasts, and checking in on her social media accounts as her friends all woke up to the news too.
She messaged Zir. He was in no danger of course, this had happened a million lightyears away, but she just needed to check. Nothing felt certain anymore. If this could happen while she slept, what else had happened - was happening - over at the Teissian dorms? She breathed a sigh of relief when Zir replied, telling her he was alright and would be waiting for her at work.
All the reports circled around the same questions. Why did the Tyberius explode, and who was on board? Had it been piloted by Rhacahr, or by humans? Had it been just arriving at Teiss, or just leaving? The answer to that question was the difference between a thousand casualties, and a million. Was the explosion an accident, or not? It was too easy to forget, safe on Earth, that Teiss was a warzone, the latest battleground in the Rhacahr’s war against the Ypex.
Theories bounced back and forth online over what had caused the explosion. Most people said it had to be a tragic accident, but some people said no accident could take out a whole transporter. They said the Rhacahr had to have shot it down, and called for the UNE to respond to this act of war. Other people said it was a Teissian rebel act against the Allegiance Treaties, that the ship had been sabotaged from the inside.
Lois put the news on loudspeaker as she carried her Gadgit around with her, getting ready for work with shaking hands in a hurry, having spent too long online. She didn’t bother with her usual coffee, wanting to get to work as soon as possible so she could see Zir, and Susan, and make sure all her friends were okay. DETI was a UNE division, someone there would have to know more. She could buy breakfast and eat it at her desk if need be.
On the way into work, everyone on the tram was staring at their Gadgits, everyone looked scared and unsure. There was an atmosphere of wanting to reach out and say “Isn’t this crazy? How could this happen?”
When Lois reached the DETI building, she jogged up the steps and heaved the heavy door open. The lobby was packed with people watching the giant screens instead of going through security to get to their offices. The screens showed newscasters with scrolling red banners and headlines that said “Breaking News” and “UNE Transporter Lost with No Survivors.” That seemed to be the one thing everyone was sure of. The ship had been utterly destroyed. No one could have survived.
Even as she searched the crowd for Zir or any of her friends, her eyes kept darting to the screen. The explosion of the ship and that it had originated from Earth and had a human crew had been confirmed, but not much more was known. Reports were coming in slowly due to the incredible distance involved. The UNE was trying to get a meaningful response from the Rhacahr outpost near Teiss, but if they had succeeded then nothing had been passed to the press.
At this point, all they had to talk about was speculation, and expressions of solidarity with the families of any on board. They kept cutting to statements being broadcast from various world leaders, as well as representatives from the UNE and NASA. They wouldn’t announce the names of the lost until the families had been notified, and even then, there would be too many to read aloud.
Lois moved through the crowd, searching for a green head with a bronze crest and a black polo shirt. Finally, she found him, standing between a small group of IT technicians and a cluster of other Teissians, all staring up at the screen.
She slipped between them, grabbing his arm and half turning him to face her, half pulling herself in front of him. She threw her arms around his neck, not caring about the scene she was making in front of his peers, and Zir hugged her tightly to him.
“It’s so awful,” she said, unable to think of anything else. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“I am relieved to see you are alright as well,” he said. “I am happy to have you here with me now.”
>
When he pulled away, Lois saw that his eyes were unfocused. She was surprised at first, though it made perfect sense since they were in a crowd in a stressful situation, but she wasn’t used to it anymore. Recently he had always been focused on her when they were together.
Lois took his hand and held it as they watched the screen, unable to look away. It was horrible to see them repeat the same thing over and over, rehashing the story for anyone just tuning in. The UNE lost contact with the UNESS Tyberius in the early hours of the morning… It was confirmed to have exploded near Teiss… The UNE confirmed it was a ship from Earth with a human crew… No transmissions have yet been received from the Rhacahr in the vicinity… The cause of the explosion is as of yet unknown…
Susan found them, and Aaron, and Wei and Tol and Lee. More and more people gathered in the lobby without moving on to their offices, despite the fact that it was past nine. Lee and Tol couldn’t stay, telling them that security had just been pushed up from the Level Two warning that was standard in all government buildings to a Level Five. All security staff were expected to be at their posts, and Lee warned them that it would take ages to process everyone with the stricter protocols. It would probably take hours to get all the DETI employees currently loitering in the lobby through the check point so they could start work.
Lois knew it would just be procedure, but she still didn’t like that the building was being put on alert, as if an attack was expected, or like the staff were suspected of being involved in something. She didn’t like what that said about the loss of the Tyberius. She guessed everyone was just playing it safe, but there would be no need for a higher security warning if the explosion had been an accident.
Lois heard a commotion behind her and turned, craning her neck to see over the heads of the crowd.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Reporters,” Zir answered, having the advantage of a few inches on her and much better eyesight. “Come on, we should go in. We can watch this inside,” he said, gently nudging her forward towards the security check point, his wings down.
The E.T. Guy (Office Aliens Book 1) Page 15