Page 73 of Crash Landing
“It’s still dangerous, Sam,” he said gently.
“I know. I’m just trying to lighten the mood.”
Before I could try any harder, the doctor walked in. She was a lovely woman with a pale, silver-blue hue to her complexion. She came to me first and I stood, smoothing the front of my dress.
“You are not pregnant,” she said outright.
I sighed with relief and glanced at Saleuk, whose shoulders had lost some of their tension at the news. He walked toward me, pulling me in to kiss me on the forehead.
“I’ll tell Kaisiri so she can inform the Nexus about your condition.”
I nodded and watched him step out of the room to make his calls. The doctor started to leave as well when I caught her arm.
“Sorry,” I said. “Could I speak with you?”
“Of course.”
“I was wondering, do you even know the chances of a human woman getting pregnant by a valerian?”
Her tender features hardened a bit. “The odds are a bit slim, but definitely not impossible. Our DNA shares so many similarities that a hybrid would be as easy as crossbreeding species of kulei.” She paused a moment before saying, “Dogs. I supposed dogs would be easier for you to understand.”
“That easy, huh?”
“But the risks are—”
“I know about the risks. Everyone keeps telling me the risks. I know about the term length. I know about the nurturing colonies.”
I lowered my eyes, imagining what it would be like to give birth and watch strangers care for my child. My parents almost did it before my brother and I were forced into foster care. It seemed easy for so many people on Earth.
But I wasn’t those people. I touched my stomach, silently feeling the pain of giving a child away and I didn’t like it.
“Was there anything else?” the doctor asked. “Do you think you and Saleuk will be continuing your time together in a manner that might risk getting pregnant?”
Yes.
“I was just curious,” I smiled.
The doctor nodded and then turned to leave, leaving me in the room alone for a few seconds before Saleuk re-entered and motioned for me to go with him.
“Come,” he said.
I reached out and took his hand, accompanying him out of the medical building and onto a metal walkway that wound all through a common area with shops and eating stalls. The food on Sylos smelled amazing. Since my nose was stuffed up almost the entire time during my last visit, I felt like I was experiencing things for the first time. Over the past two weeks that we were there, I’d been getting to know my way around and after the initial shock of the very slight changes in gravity everywhere we went, my acclimation was making things much easier. I’d started sneezing only a couple days after arriving and worried I would be a sick, feverish mess again only to find out that I had actually built up a tolerance to the devil flower.
Which was just another sign that things were falling into place. There were signs everywhere and the superstitious side of my brain wanted to heed them.
“Hungry?” Saleuk asked.
I barely heard him. I was still thinking about children and though he’d all but decided to drop the idea, likely for my safety, I knew it was in the back of his mind, too. Since that initial night of wild lovemaking, we started creating intimate moments that didn’t involve the parts of sex that could make a baby. It was fun and interesting, but I didn’t want that to last forever. I missed the rest of it. I missed not being scared of the outcome. But valerians didn’t really have a reason to use birth control of any kind since they were trying desperately to build up their population, so condoms were out of the question and unless I wanted to go back to the Nexus and get myself on some kind of birth control, I was still fertile as ever.
“Sam,” Saleuk said.
“Hmm?”
“Hungry?”
I cocked my head, still barely understanding. “Um, maybe.”
He tugged my hand, stopping me off to the side of a main walkway. “What’s on your mind?”
