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“Actually, they’re trying to change that,” I replied, unzipping my bag and digging around until I found my landing papers. I fished them out and flapped them at him. “I’m supposed to be going there.”
He hesitated, but appeared at least somewhat curious when he saw the shiny silver of my papers. He took the package and held it in black claws. Then, with his long, whip-like crimson tail, he took out what I assumed was some sort of Zabrian comms tablet and scanned the seal.
“It’s legitimate,” he said after a long moment. He sounded surprised.
I smiled even wider. My cheeks burned.
“Yes! I’m one of the new outpost planet brides. And I… I just can’t wait to meet my husband! When I saw your ship was leaving now, I just thought to myself, ‘Well, Cherry, if that isn’t the best luck a Terratribe I girl could hope for then I don’t know what is!’ So I had to come down here and see if you’d take me early!”
I sounded so falsely sweet that my fucking teeth hurt. I was laying it on way too thick, but I was in too deep to stop now. Hopefully this pilot wasn’t familiar enough with humans to see how idiotically fake I looked and sounded.
“Look!” I said, tugging at my scarf and then gesturing to the exposed areas of skin on his big hands, tail, and face. “We even match! It must be a sign!”
I laughed, but it sounded more like a shaky gasp.
The pilot didn’t laugh back, instead glancing in perturbed confusion at the announcement board sign. “A sign to tell me what?”
“Ah… Never mind. Must be a human thing.” Well, I’d learned one new thing about Zabrian culture, at least. They didn’t seem to believe in things like fate or omens. “Anyway, I know you’re supposed to be leaving now. So if you’d kindly just show me aboard the ship…”
“Says here you’re to travel by special Imperial shuttle. Not by a tiny trader,” the pilot said, silencing me instantly.
Ah, shit.
I blew out a sigh, dropping all the smiley pretense.
“Look, I’m going to level with you,” I said. For some reason this made him look in confusion at the floor. “I need to get off this station tonight. Now, if at all possible. You’re going my way. Would you please, please just bring me along?”
Pretty fucking please with a human on top?
His face didn’t exactly soften, but he didn’t look quite as suspicious as he’d seemed before. His tail, flexible as rope but seemingly as strong as an arm, lifted his comms tablet up towards his face.
“Contact Warden Tenn,” he grunted.
I sucked in a breath, hoping that was a good sign.
It took a moment to connect, and I spent that time frantically scanning the docking bay for signs of Magnus’ men.
“Warden,” the pilot suddenly said, his voice dragging my attention back to his hulking form. “I’ve got a human female here. Part of some bride program no one told me about. She’s got papers.”
Even though I held my breath and strained my ears, I couldn’t hear the warden’s reply over the beating of my own heart.
“Tasha?” asked the pilot in response. “Blast if I know. I can’t read human. What’s your name?” He went from speaking to the warden to me so quickly that I almost didn’t realize he’d changed his subject of address.
“Cherry! Cherry Dawson. I swear I’m on the list,” I added somewhat helplessly.
He repeated my name back to his comms tablet. He listened for a moment, then growled an acknowledgement of whatever the warden said before sliding the tablet back into his uniform with his impressively prehensile tail.
“Well?” I asked, not bothering to try to keep the anxiety from bleeding into my voice. If he said no now, I was deader than dead. I’d probably have to-
“Still can’t believe they’re sending those boys brides,” the pilot muttered to himself.
And then he said, to me this time, “Get in.”
6
SILAR
The sun had not yet risen when my data tab grew warm and then began to shudder in my pocket, indicating an incoming call from Warden Tenn. I, of course, had been up for quite some time. Under the dark sky, lit by an uncountable number of stars and three bright moons, I’d already mucked out the shuldu stalls, freshened their water, and was in the midst of saddling Tarion when the call came in. I swiped my data tab from my pocket with my tail, bringing it close to my ear.
