Page 4 of Catching the Kot'oll Driver

I nod. That’s pretty much one of the qualities required to perform the job well — liking limited interaction with other beings, or at least tolerating that.

She continues. “Then you won’t have a lot of chances to get to know... others.”

I narrow my eyes. Is that hinting at... I should find a mate?

It’s Telke’s fault. Now that he has a mate, Mother, and maybe also Father, is going to think that I should get a mate, too.

I glance at Efaze. He is older than me, and he hasn’t found his mate. Why am I the one getting asked?

To be honest, I don’t even care. I’m doing pretty well on my own, so...

Father chuckles. “Look at him. Sure takes a bit of work.”

I resist the urge to say something, which isn’t that hard anyway. I’m not interested in commenting on that.

That time we had dinner with Telke and his mate, Winnie, probably. It was quite something. They were clearly happy together, but I’m not sure whether I want that for myself.

Efaze pretends to hear nothing. I hope I can do that too.

Chapter two

Chapter 2

Grihul

Time with family flew by; time on the spaceship on my own can fly by too.

The dashboard beeps as I get closer and closer to the destination. I open my eyes, rubbing my temple. There’s a mild headache buzzing. I’m not waking up at the right time of the sleep cycle. Anyway, I tap the button on the armrest to lift the chair so I’m at the right height for driving again.

I stretch my arms and my legs. Sitting too long is bad for my health, but I’m sleeping in a chair, so maybe that’s fine.

The spaceship is getting close to the destination planet. The misty atmosphere of that planet is ahead. It is white, so thickly laid over the planet that I can’t see through it. Hopefully, it’s not a boring planet.

I check the system, making sure everything on the spaceship is fine.

There’s another beep. “System check-up completed. Ready for landing?”

I hate the boring machine sound. Maybe the company should install a system that will allow custom voice selection, then I can have something else instead of a cold, robotic voice.

I tap the button for the spaceship to speed up, which will make cutting through the atmosphere easier. I take a sip of my water as the spaceship does its own thing. Unless something happens, it runs on its own.

Sometimes, I wonder why the company doesn’t use robots to deliver everything, but then I... wouldn’t have a job. We should stick to this.

I scroll on my phone, only to see photos of Father and Mother with even more food. From the clock, it looks to be dinner time over there.

Out in space, other than checking a clock, there’s no indication of the passage of time. It is always dark with stars.

Misty white wraps around the spaceship as if the clouds swallowed me. I sit back and check the seatbelts again. It is boring...

I sniff in the air, but there’s no scent of food to be missed. Maybe I should eat before starting the landing process, but it is too late to change a thing.

The clouds slowly clear out as the spaceship descends. The tall buildings show up in clusters. Just another city.

Worse, the city is buried in a snowstorm... It’s not bad enough that I can’t be flying, but it is a storm for sure.

One would think I’d escaped from stupid snow after flying the distance from my home planet, but this...

Fine... I won’t be here for long.

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