Page 1 of K'Vella

Previously...

The crew of the Jolly Folly assists the Intergalactic alliance in reducing sentient smuggling. They've recently completed a mission to meet with human smugglers and secure their cargo. En route to the rendevous spot, Alik and Jovi, two Varon males, fell in love with the human woman sent to act as their pleasure crew.

During the mission, a human woman, Avery, was rescued from the smugglers. Her DNA was altered to that of another alien species, Rytharian, that goes through heats. Due to her condition, she secluded herself in another room, unwanting to be with the rest of the crew.

The scent of Avery's previous heat was enough to trigger a response in Holoth, the Rytharian co-pilot of the Jolly Folly. Now, the crew is waiting for orders from the Intergalactic Alliance on what they should do with Avery while hoping Holoth doesn't fall into a rut.

one

K'Vella

It's unfair that I'm expected to sleep when there's a chance I could get a message that will change my life. I've been rolling around in my bed, trying to make myself comfortable for what feels like hours now. My lower arms feel like they're in the way, and my upper arms are too cold outside the blanket and too warm inside.

My comm tablet taunts me from its charging port on my nightstand. I keep waiting for the green glow of a notification to light up my room. I try turning my back on it, but that lasts only a moment before I check over my shoulder to make sure I haven't missed a message.

When I crawled into bed, I should've turned notifications off for the night. A part of me hopes to hear from Via before I fall asleep, but that hope is dying. She's probably already asleep. I can't help but wait for the message, though.

When a green light blips in the corner of my comm, I don't believe it at first. I rub my three eyes and then blink a few times like I can prove that I imagined the notification.

The green light blinks again. I scramble in my bedsheets so fast that the blankets fly to the foot of the bed, my nightgown rucks up my thighs, and my upper hands hit the nightstand so hard it rattles against the wall as I grab the comm.

There's a chance it's not Via messaging me about changing my life. But if I don't check it, I won't sleep tonight. It's probably a spam message, some advertisement, or worse, a message from my sister reminding me I'm no longer a real Varon female.

My stomach twists at the thought of my sister messaging me, and I try to push it as far from my mind as possible. I won't let it sour my mood before I know if it's her.

I keep my interactions with Kiena as sparse as possible. That doesn't stop her from reaching out occasionally to remind me of what I lost and how great her life still is. If her life is so great, she shouldn't be messaging me to make me feel worse. Then again, I've never understood my sister or her motivations for most of the things she does.

Thankfully, the message on the comm screen takes all my prior thoughts, balls them into a tiny little speck, and flicks them away as though they don't matter. Because they don't anymore. Nothing is as important as the message on my comm.

I found a male that I think might work. Would you be willing to act as a pleasure crew?

The message from Via has my heart skipping. This could be my chance to have everything I've ever wanted. I can start my own little family and not have to worry about the pitying looks or the cruel words said behind my back—some of the cruelest coming from my sister straight to my face.

Yes, anything. When?

I send the message and stare at the glowing screen in the darkness of my room. There's nothing I wouldn't do to start my family. I'll be a pleasure crew, move to another planet, or perform in a mating ceremony. I don't care so long as, at the end of all of this, I have a child I can love.

Varon females are expected to participate in housing ceremonies. It's a tradition for our females to live with a pair of males for six months. After they've spent time together, the groups can either decide to house the female for longer, make their arrangement permanent by mating, or go their separate ways. It's a strange custom for outsiders to understand, but it works here on Varon, where males outnumber females two to one.

The housing ceremonies were created hundreds of years ago in an effort to create more bonded pairs and to help produce more offspring. Varon conception rates are low, but switching partners often allows us to check our compatibility with a variety of different males.

Some females go through the housing ceremony only a few times before they find males to settle down with, while others enjoy the pampering and the attention of new males and stay in the ceremonies their entire lives. There's nothing wrong with either option.

I was looking for a pair of males to spend my life and start a family. Which never happened.

No, after only a few housing ceremonies, I found out I was ill. My sickness was a common disease amongst my kind that's easily treated if caught quickly enough. I ignored the symptoms, thinking there was no way I could be affected by something like that when I was still so young. At twenty-two, I went intoa medical pod to keep me alive, and nine years later, it's still greatly affecting me.

Now, I live in one of the houses for unmated females who have chosen not to go through the housing ceremonies for whatever reasons. Some are like me and can't traditionally conceive children anymore. Others prefer the company of other females, and others still just choose not to be with males for whatever reason.

I attempted to go through the housing ceremony again after I was discharged from medical housing nearly eight years ago. I had to disclose that I wouldn't be able to conceive Varon children. It made it more difficult to find males willing to house me.

I'm only in my thirty-first year of life, so if it weren't for my illness, I'd still be a prime companion for housing.

I thought there might be some who wouldn't care about my inability to conceive Varon children. Maybe a pair who might be willing to take a chance on me and try to start a family.

I was wrong. Or at least all of the males in the ninth district had no interest in me. I attempted to apply for other district housing ceremonies, but due to my condition, I was rejected.

I still want to find a male or males to spend my life with, to have children with. I thought there might be some who were looking for the same, even if any children we had wouldn't be Varon. In the fifteen housing ceremonies I've participated in since my surgery, no one has ever offered to house me.

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