Aykeetan

by Harpie Alexander

  I almost go numb, and don’t even feel anything as Aykeetan floats us down the ship towards medical.

  No way off the ship. Took out escape pods. Captain Rasheed not responding. Alone out here.

  The words play over and over in my mind, I can’t escape them.

  This might be it. This might be where it all ends, before it even began, and I’m sitting here in my thoughts while my mate carries me to the most secure place on the ship. I want to cry, but I hold back the tears. If these are my final moments, I can’t spend them selfishly in my thoughts. I need to think of my mate too.

  I wrap my arms around him, pulling him closer to me as we finally enter medical bay.

  “This way!” Sabrina and Dr. Dus’haad’s voice say in unison as they motion us to a room in the the back I’ve never noticed before.

  My mate heads through the room. Someone closed the door and locks up. It’s like a bomb shelter in here. Shelves of emergency supplies line one wall, an enclosed bathroom and a few beds. It’s not much, but it looks like this room is to prevent people from getting in.

  “How is their gravity in here?” I say, the words blurting from my mouth.

  “Emergency, gravitational supply.” Dr. Dushaad responds quickly.

  My head jerks upwards at the ridiculous name for whatever it is keeping us on the floor in this room.

  “Are you guys OK? Do you get hurt in the blasts?” The worry on the doctor’s face almost ages him.

  My mate grunts but looks at me. “I’m good, just freaked more than anything. Nothing serious.”

  My mate has me on a bed in the blink of an eye, and Dr. Dushaad scanning me. Right, they’re worried about the baby.

  The room is tense, the air is thick, almost palpable.

  “The baby is—”

  Boom!

  The room shakes more violently than before, sending everyone to the floor, except me. The room, which was previously quiet, starts blaring the siren from the corridors. Lights flicker, as the ship is blasted several more times.

  “Oh my god!” Sabrina cries out. I can hear the Doctor reassuring her everything is going to be fine.

  “I’ve got you, and the little one,” my mate quietly says. I look up and his face is tight.

  “Is there some way we can strap down, so we don’t fling across the room again?”

  “No, but if we survive, that will have to be implemented,” Dr. Dushaad responds, as if he’s irritated by the lack foresight.

  Boom!

  Another explosive shake ripples through the room. Somehow my mate keeps me in his steady arms. We’re on the floor, next to the bed.

  The lights flicker three more times, then go out.

  The emergency gravitational supply goes out.

  The sirens go out.

  Nothing.

  Nothing but the shaking of the ship and the echoes of blasts hitting the hull.

  “If everything is out, we can only assume environmental and air supply are too. Sorry.”

  The Doctor’s words hit me like a knife. This can’t be the end. I want to scream and shout at the universe for playing unfair, for being cruel, breaking down everything Aykeetan and I have built together.

  We huddle even closer, if that was even possible. I kiss him with a desperation I’ve never known, pouring every ounce of my love for him into this last moment we have.

  Eventually the air becomes thin. We’ve all agreed to stop talking, holding onto the hope that maybe someone will come and recuse us, but we’re not overly optimistic, the chances of som—

  Clang!

  A hiss and a few more clangs and then the only door to this room opens up, blasting us with light.

  “Wha..what’s going on?” I croak out as I notice gravity is back.

  Huh?

  I stir my mate awake; he was dozing off. He takes a gasp of fresh air.

  “Stay where you are.” He manages a threat, poising himself upwards in a defensive position.

  I haven’t heard anything from Sabrina or Dr. Dushaad. They may be out of it too.

  “Calm yourself. It’s me.”

  Aykeetan pulls me up, carrying me out the room. I shield my sensitive eyes, to the hours we’ve spent in the dark, waiting for our deaths.

  “How?” my mate asks.

  “We received your distress signal; sorry it took so long. We’re taking everyone from the ship and transferring them to the mother. If you have anything on here you need immediately grab it, if not you can get it later after repairs.”

  Now I recognize the voice, its Captain Rasheed.

  Thank heavens. We’re saved.

  Epilogue

  Four Years Later

  Jane

  “Haylee, darling, where are you” I sing-song.

  Turns out full-term Human-Kea’Terrans are carried for approximately six months, so it wasn’t too bad. I got to deliver the sweetest little button before she got too big and I didn’t swell up like an elephant, so that’s a plus too.

  She’s almost three and a half now and growing faster than a weed, and she's as smart as a whip. Everyone adores her and spoils here. Sometimes I wonder if she’s even mine.

  “Haylee?” I know she was with my mate, so she has to be around here somewhere. I peek around the yard as much as I can from my position.

  I’m sitting on my front swing, staring at my cottage. I still can’t believe the incredible luck I struck with my mate, who secretly had my cottage from Earth scanned so he could have it built from scratch on Kea’Terra. All the supplies were originally from my home world too. He even had the Vo’Sharitah import the staircase. My grandfather would be happy.

  To top it off, everything, and I mean everything from my old cottage was brought over. I’m not sure how long Aykeetan spent putting everything exactly how it was, but the effort he put in had me in tears.

  This was probably the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me, and just thinking about the lengths my mate goes through to make me smile has my heat melting to goo.

  “Mommy. Mommy, look.” My daughter comes zipping around the side of the cottage with my mate in tow behind her. She has a blue daisy she must have plucked from my garden in her hand. My eyes narrow. She knows how much that garden means to me.

  She hands me the blue flower and I place it on the swing beside me. “Where were you darling? I called for you. Aww, honey it’s beautiful just like you.”

  And she really is beautiful but looks nothing like us. I almost lost my mind when she came sliding out of my hoo-ha. Gray downy fur, soft as feathers and fine as silk, covers her entire body, and she has the most chocolate brown eyes I’ve ever seen, with small circular protrusions on the side of her temples like her sire. Apparently all Kea’Terrans come out this way and when they get a little older, their fangs come in.

  My mate comes up behind me and nibbles my ear. “I couldn’t resist her. She’s too smart for her own good, playing her sire like a fool.” His tone turns serious, as if he’s worried for his self-preservation.

  I chuckle and stroke his cheek. “It’s alright Hun, it’s alright if she plucks one from the garden, that’s not an issue.”

  His face turns tight, and I look down at my daughter in suspicious. “Haylee...how many plants did you pick from mommies garden?”

  “Turty.” She flashes me a toothless grin.

  All that growing and still no teeth. It’s quite a sight, but it also mean’s she’s on a pure diet until her teeth come in. This little turd nugget stole thirty flowers from my favorite garden.

  “I swear we’ve created a monster.” My head swerves to my mate, and of course he’s disappeared, leaving me to deal with this monstrosity of a youngling. I don’t know where she gets this behavior from.

  “Haylee, you know mommy and nanna have worked hard to make the daisy garden, and that mommy doesn’t like it when you pick her special flowers, but you can pick flowers from anywhere else. OK?”

  Damn garden wasn’t easy to plant. Shayla, my mate’s mother, and I s
truggled because of the difference in soil quality and temperate between here and Earth, but after two years of hard work, the flowers are finally thriving.

  Her lips pout. “Yes mommy, no more pluck.” Her voice is so darn cute and squishy, but I’m not like my mate, I’m not going to give in to her cuteness. If I do, I don’t know how I’ll say no to her when she gets older.

  I stroke her hair and create a loose braid, one that would make my birth-mother proud. Some kisses here and there, and my daughter is laughing like a goose.

  “Alright darling, mommy needs to use the bathroom. This bun is pushing on her bladder.” I stand up and waddle my way over to the bathroom.

  “Oh Jane, there you are, we should probably start dinner soon.” Shayla holds a basket full of picked veggies.

  I whiz past her as fast as I can, trying not to let my bladder loose. I do my business and come back out.

  “Sorry about that, had to go really bad.” I wash my hands again, because that’s how my grandma taught me. Always wash your hands again when you start cooking. Bathroom doesn’t count.

  We’re cutting root vegetables together. “So, Haylee’s plucked the daisies again, thirty this time.”

  I can almost hear her wince. She sighs. “Well, at least she’s not as bad as Aykeetan, he got into everything. Nothing was safe from his prying, curious hands. Well except flowers,” she says and lets out a laugh. “Never really had an interest for those, until now at least.”

  “What are you females talking about?” Tayvor, Aykeetan’s sire, walks in and questions us.

  “Nothing,” I reply as Shayla ditches our prep station to embrace her mate.

  The two of them only live about a 10-minute walk away in their own home, but they visit so often they should just move in, saving them the trip. They are wonderful people, and I honestly love having them around. Always helping with babysitting, chores, hunting etc.

  It’s really nice to have family meals together with everyone, sometimes other members of the family pop in and it gets a little crazy, but this new family of mine has filled some holes in my heart. They could never replace my birth-family, who I know would approve and be happy that I’ve found my step again.

  “So, what are we making today?” Tayvor’s question brings me out of my thoughts.

  Shayla taps his chest. “Well, I guess that depends on what you boys hunted today.”

  Honestly, anything sounds good to me, I’m always hungry, but I can’t complain. “I have no cravings today, it’s so strange. I always heard about cravings from human mothers, but I didn’t get any with Haylee or this little bun.”

  A grunting sound has me distracted as I glance by the staircase. My mate's peeking around a corner. “You!” I chase after him as quick as a pregnant hippo could, so not very fast at all, but he lets me catch up.

  We end up in bed, which is currently on one of the main floor bedrooms until after my pregnancy. We end up kissing, laughing and playing. This male has been so wonderful to me, I can’t imagine my life without him now.

  I lay back and stare at him. “I love you.”

  “And you too, my love.” The crinkle in his eye says it all.

  Needless to say, I didn’t learn any new recipes today since Aykeetan and I spent a few hours making love and enjoying the quiet before the storm. Our newest one will be here in about a month. I expect life to get crazy all over again. We’re both super excited.

  Tayvor and Shayla cooked something up for us and took our daughter out with them, probably for a sleep over, her new favorite activity. I don’t even feel bad letting them babysit again. I swear they make any excuse to whisk away our daughter and she’s so good for them. We can pick her up tomorrow when we head out to the new market that was built last month or so.

  My mate pulls me into his arms. “One more time?” I ask him in between a round of kisses.

  “Mhmm, and then let’s take a walk down to the beach.”

  I gasp. “Deal!”

  He knows me so well. It’ll take us a few hours to get there by walking, but I don’t really care. The beach may not be as close as it was back home, but everything I got here is far better anyways.

  The end.

  Glossary

  Hope this helps Explain anything

  AY’KEA’TERRRA- PLANET

  Kea’Terran- species indigenous to the planet Ay’Kea’Terra

  The Deep- dangerous area filled with beasts on planet Ay’Kea’Terra

  Vratike- Long loin cloth that basically goes down past their knees – sometimes to the ground. I wanted to use something slightly different, but still similar.

  Suayblis- feline like creature that ruts often

  Taykadas- beast from the Deep

  Graykling- beast from the Deep

  Shaykset- beast from the Deep, 8” tall, 4” wide. Four eyes, serrated teeth, venomous bulbous barbs on the tail.

  Tave- sweet tree fruit

  Vrakk- curse word

  Minima- moment

  Kea’Vah – bonding ceremony permanently joining two souls together

  Tavayk- is a plant indigenous to Ay’Kea’Terra used specifically for mating rituals. After the Kea’Terran goes through their kavesta and changes to be like their mate, they sacrifice their blood to the plant. Their blood alters the plant because it absorbs the DNA of the newly changed being. The blood links the tavayk so the being can feel their name, and the blood also causes the plant to go through a kavesta so it can look indigenous to the mate’s world as well.

  *During the ceremony when the tavayk is consumed by both parties, that’s how the mates become more aware of each other (more so for the Kea’Terran than the other species. This is why jane never feels the heart sensations)

  Kavesta- physical change that happens once a Kea’Terran hits sexual maturity. Their body changes to be similar to their mate (whatever species their mate is)

  *Note in this case, Aykeetan should have been a traditional human colour, but given that she’s an artist, loves to paint, and her favorite color is blue – So it seemed right for him to be that color

  Acknowledgements

  I want to thank everyone SO much for making it to the end of my FIRST ever novel. I went into this with absolutely zero experience, I had no idea what I was doing, or what I was supposed to do. English and literature were not my strong suite, I disliked the idea of sitting and writing for hours on end. There was so much to learn, and there were many times where I felt like this wasn’t for me, or I can’t do this; leave it to the professionals.

  But you know what? Everyone has a story, an imagination. Even if its buried deep down inside them so far it seems like it will never come out. I’ve had so many wonderful people rooting for me, and if this is something you want to do too, I’m rooting for you too! YOU CAN DO IT!

  I want to also give a special thanks to everyone that pre-order my book. YOU guys kept me going. Honestly, every-time there was a bit of self-doubt as I told myself, I can’t let these people down. They want this story (I did too!). You guys took a chance on a brand new, unknown author. You had no idea what you were going to expect, you had no idea what my writing style was, and I appreciate you guys to the world and back. You’ve helped to continue to inspire me when I needed that extra little push. So, thank you guys <3 <3 <3

  Last thing I want to say is that I’m still working hard to learn more about fiction writing, so it’s really important for me to get any feedback from you. I want to continue to do this, so if there’s something you really enjoyed, or something you that could be better or maybe you found a ton of errors in a section, please let me know. Reviews really help authors improve their work!

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  About the Author

  Harpie Alexander is a loving wife and a mother to many pets. She's raised birds, ducks, cats, dogs, fish, snakes... you name it! When she's not taking care her of her lovely, little babies, you can find her holed up somewhere reading the latest book from one of her favorite authors.

  After reading so many novels, and running out of books to read, Harpie Panicked. With no prior experience, Harpie leapt into the word of writing books and is currently working on several Sci-Fi & Fantasy Romance novels to bring to you. She hopes to inspire others to share their passions and not be afraid to try something new.

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  *Harpie Alexander is a pen name, and any resemblances to any live, or deceased person is purely coincidental*