Leaning forward, she plucked a few scattered petals off his nose and cheeks, her lips curving into a smile. “These must have been very beautiful flowers,” she said softly.
“I searched for the best I could find, but it was more difficult than I believed. I tried to calculate what dimension would make the most pleasing flower but failed to find those that perfectly fit my expectations. I know human customs involve a demonstration of flower-giving to show their affections. My databases state that is because flowers represent sexual organs, but it is strange as it seems more expedient to just show one’s own sex. Regardless, I wished to adhere to something you would recognize and enjoy. I wanted to find the most favorable flowers to demonstrate the height of my feelings.”
She chuckled and eased forward so that her body rested against his. “That’s incredibly sweet, and I love that you think of me that way, but Veral, sometimes something is beautiful even with its imperfections. I’m not perfect, nor do I expect a gift to be perfect. It’s important because it comes from you. I don’t even need flowers to show it. Love is what’s important.” She pillowed her head on his chest and looked up at him as his arms closed instinctively around her. “Do you love me, Veral?”
“The word love is one that occurs frequently in the downloads I retrieved from your satellite. There is nothing like it in the Argurma language. My programming would suggest such emotions would be due to malfunctions in my system, but I know that is not true. I find that this love matches close to my feeling for you, though it doesn’t express the depth of my emotion enough. I have never felt for another, anastha, and yet for you, I feel everything.”
“That sure sounds like love to me,” she whispered. “I love you too, Veral.”
He gave her a sidelong look. “You would not prefer to stay among the humans and find a more… suitable,” he growled out, “mate in this place?”
Terri snorted. “Find a guy… here? I would die from boredom. We haven’t even been here a full day and already I’m bored. Honestly, Veral, I can’t believe you would even think that. I don’t wish to be parted from my mate. I love you and would miss your crotchety attitude way too much. Besides, I think I still owe you a debt.”
His glowing, blue eyes narrowed on her, his vibrissae shuddering as a smile kicked up the corners of his lips. “You do have an unresolved debt,” he agreed. “You are a good partner, plus I would… enjoy your company. You may also find the chance to visit many planets rewarding and of interest.”
A slow smile stretched over her lips. “No need to sell it to me. You had me at ‘I love you.’ I’ll follow you anywhere after those three little words.”
He huffed. “It would have helped if someone had told me that it was that simple. I’ve been trying for hours to find the best way to convince you to stay.”
“The flowers were a good start,” she agreed, her grin widening.
He stepped forward and dragged the back of his knuckles over her jaw, obviously enjoying the way her eyes dilated at his touch. She enjoyed watching his own narrow pupils expanding with desire at the simple contact. “I look forward to spending a great many years proving it to you. I can think of none other I wish to be with, bond or no,” he murmured.
“All right,” she breathed. “I’m all yours.”
Veral drew her into his arms, his vibrissae surrounding her as they leaned into each other. Dropping his head, he nudged her with his nose before tilting his head to seize her lips in a kiss. Terri groaned with pleasure, happily getting lost in the sensation. Gradually, she became aware of the ship moving, rising up from the ground as it prepared to enter orbit. She giggled and surrendered completely to his ravishment.
A blinking light distracted them and eventually caused him to pull away from her.
“What’s that?” she asked.
He frowned. “An exterior receiver. Someone is trying to hail us from outside of the ship.” With a flick of his fingers, he turned the viewscreen to the source of the disruption. Two female humans jumped up and down, waving their arms below the ship. Terri laughed as she recognized her friends.
“Terri, don’t forget about us!” Meg shouted. “I love you!”
“And be sure to take advantage of all the time you have ahead of you getting plenty of alien dick!” Becky yelled happily. “I would totally be in your place right now if I could get a good one… one that’s available, anyway.” She laughed.
The women blew kisses to her and Terri clutched her hand over her heart. Veral nuzzled her cheek.
“It is time, anastha.”
She nodded her head, a wide smile spreading over her face as the ship accelerated up into the atmosphere, leaving the broken remains of Earth far behind them.
Epilogue
Three months later
Terri hopped off the medical platform—really more like med-bed—as Veral studied the results. Ever since they left Earth, he’d insisted on weekly monitoring of the embryo. Given the satisfied look on his face, she knew that the results were still positive. Terri only disliked the regular exams because it reminded her of how her pregnancy would be. Even at three months, her baby was a teeny tiny lifeform developing very slowly in her womb, so there wasn’t much to get excited about for some time yet.
In the meantime, she preferred to keep her hands busy.
His eyes slid over to her. “Scans show you are in good health and the embryo is on target for development. The nano signature is already strong. You need to eat more of the axna fruit that we picked up at the space station, however, to boost your vitamin intake.”
Terri groaned and made a face. The fruit native to Argurumal was disgusting. It was green with an almost tear-drop shape and covered with spines. She could live with that. Veral was always careful to peel the fruit and segment it for her. What she disliked though was the dry, leathery texture and nutty, meaty flavor that she couldn’t bring herself to enjoy.
Her mate caught her look of revulsion and rumbled in disapproval. She gave him an innocent smile in return. “I’ll try to eat more,” she amended solemnly. “So where are we headed to next?”
Aside from plenty of alone time with Veral and enjoying a very active sex life, Terri never ceased to be amazed by space travel. She’d come to learn that their ship did more than just salvage, though that was the bulk of their income. It was also supported by regular retrievals for odd clients. They had already delivered a heavy bride-price in jewels and escorted a princess of Nizzirn to her new husband, after which they traveled to the arctic planet of Waivul to retrieve a large shipment of native furs to deliver to a trader on the Xenxinexa Space Station.
Every day was an adventure, though she suspected that Veral was picking through the job offers for those which had minimal actual adventure. They had yet to do another salvage job, but when he illustrated for her how such operations usually went, it sounded dull enough that she didn’t mind.
Although his caution frustrated her at times, such as the way he’d kept her on a short leash throughout the space station and had forbidden her from exploring large portions of it, she couldn’t be too mad. Everything was so new to her that it took little to entertain her. If Veral tended to be broodier and more possessive over her and their unborn offspring, it didn’t often show—well, except for that incident with the Manvi. It had attempted to touch her and then had two of its tentacles ripped off and shoved so far down its throat that it had to be taken the emergency medical bay. The Manvi had been fine—the species apparently breathed through gills—but the males on the space station gave them a wide berth after that.
Her mate’s eyes gleamed at her, not at all fooled by her tactic. “After you eat your fruit, we will be heading to the Megnax system. There is wreckage on the planet that we are being paid well to salvage and return all valuables to the royal house of Grez’na.”
Terri leaned forward, eyes wide with excitement. “Was the ship brought down by pirates?”
Veral frowned. “I did not think to ask. That may change the situa
tion…”
“What pirates hang around wreckage?” she scoffed. “Pirates sink ships, raid, and move on with whatever treasure they find. Sometimes burying it and setting elaborate traps. You really should read Treasure Island. It’s already in your database,” she remarked.
Thanks to a common implant that nearly everyone in the Federation had, Veral had been able to upload basic reading comprehension skills for her language, as well as a few common trade languages. She’d once looked at the tattered remains of books longingly, wondering what worlds were held within their pages. She had far-off memories of her grandmother reading to her and wondered what she had been missing all this time. As soon as she received the download, Terri spent hours reading files of Earth books that he had downloaded, soaking them in voraciously, book after book.
Her mate chuffed. “If you say so, anastha. I will perhaps take that into consideration. Regardless, I will scout the area thoroughly for any sign of pirates before we go anywhere near the planet.”
He turned and headed toward the command center, Terri hot on his heels.
“Perhaps it is a cursed treasure,” she said with glee.
Her mate chuffed and nudged her with his forearm. Terri wrapped her arms around the appendage and hugged it to her chest. But when she stepped away to release him, he stopped her. His vibrissae twined through her hair and he pulled her up against his body, resting his jaw and mandibles affectionately on top of her head. She grinned up at him and snuggled into his embrace. She couldn’t wait to begin yet another new adventure with her mate. Sometimes it almost didn’t feel real.
On the nights when she dreamed of Earth, she would wake up in a cold sweat, certain that meeting Veral had all been a dream and that she was still foraging among the ruins, eating out of cans that she was fortunate enough to find, starving as she slowly died. On those nights, Veral’s arms would instinctively react to the tension in her body, tightening around her so that she knew she was lying in the circle of her mate’s arms.
It was all it took to dispel those nightmares.
She knew that someday her memories of the broken and dying planet would eventually fade—though from time to time she would think of Josie, Meg, and Becky, hoping they were well—and then she would be free to fully enjoy the long life ahead of her at his side.
She had a lifetime of adventures waiting for her.
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed Terri and Veral and their story. Broken Earth started out as a submission for a Dystopian Anthology that failed to be accepted into the final round of submission selection. I fell in love with the story so much that I decided to expand it into a full-length novel. While the book itself is complete, depending on how well it is received, I do plan on doing two more books for Terri and Veral, and maybe even other books in the same world for Becky and Meg. Each book introduced will be a complete novel without a “to be continued” and able to be read independently if desired.
Fans who’ve been around for a while know that I love the Predator, and some features inspired my Argurma species. I call them my mix between dark elf and Predator in design with a bit of something extra thrown in. I also wanted them to be a cybernetic species as I love cyborg books. So this was my first foray into the Cyborg subgenre within Science Fiction Romance.
When it comes to Broken Earth, many fans who had the opportunity to receive the original short story for free during the “Cyborg Monday” event in December 2019 will notice differences in the plot. I had the option of picking up where the short story left off and expanding it further, or expanding and making small changes to the plot of the short story. I chose to do the latter so the ending had to be tweaked quite a bit. I do hope however that everyone finds the changes enjoyable!
Thank you so much for joining me. I truly loved writing this book. Keep an eye out for Book 2: Pirate’s Gold introduced in novella form in the They Come from Beyond Anthology June 2020.
S.J. Sanders
Other Works by S.J. Sanders
The Mate Index
First Contact
The VaDorok
Hearts of Indesh (Valentine Novella)
The Edoka’s Destiny
The Vori’s Mate
Eliza’s Miracle (Novella)
A Kiss on Kaidava
The Vori’s Secret
A Mate for Oigr (Halloween Novella)
Heart of the Agraak
A Gift for Medif
Monsterly Yours
The Orc Wife
The Troll Bride
The Accidental Werewolf’s Mate
Sci-Fi Fairytales
Red: A Dystopian World Alien Romance
Ragoru Beginnings Romance
White: Emala’s Story
Dark Spirits
Havoc of Souls
The Mirror (also part of Mischief Matchmakers)
Shadowed Dreams Erotica
The Lantern
Serpent of the Abyss
About the Author
S.J. Sanders is a writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy Romance. With a love of all things alien and monster she is fascinated with concepts of far off worlds, as well as the lore and legends of various cultures. When not writing, she loves reading, sculpting, painting and travel (especially to exotic destinations). Although born and raised in Alaska, she currently as a resident of Florida with her family, her maine coon, Bella, and pet bearded dragon, Lex.
Readers can follow her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/authorsjsanders
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Website: https://sjsandersromance.wordpress.com/
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