Page 24 of Bred By Zyros
I stare in horror before taking a deep breath and settling into my seat again. “So, you justtooktheir ship.”
It’s not a question, so he doesn’t elaborate. When he finally speaks, I’m lost to my racing thoughts, disturbed to find I’m not all that…disturbed. The Intergalactic Alliance has a history of making shady decisions. Mining on a primitive planet that would’ve had zero knowledge of the outer galaxies is terrible but not even remotely close to being amongst their worst.
“Learning to operate it was…interesting.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I can imagine that’d be pretty intense.”
“Its course was pre-logged wherever they intended to offload the cargo. I’d long ago opted to get the translator, so I sold them instead. It was odd and…overwhelming to think all of that, all this time, has existed above the clouds. It took me a few orbits to decide to go back after a creature had helped me return. They had shown interest in the crushed ones from my art. I brought them back the next time, whole.”
I shake my head, smiling softly at him. “What do you do with the credits?”
He huffs. “I do not needcredits; I prefer to trade. Add to the ship, sometimes get things I cannot make on Nyssara. Like these,” he lifts the canteen before continuing. “Mostly nothing.”
“Then why go through the trouble?”
“It is…enjoyable being off of Nyssara.”
My mind goes back to the brightly colored female and the male he also seemed not to be friendly with. I swallow hard, questions on the tip of my tongue I’d bit back for over a week trying to surface.
“Ask, female,” he hisses, his body tensing.
“Why did you need a breeder?” I nearly whisper the question, but he hears me just fine.
Another long pause fills the space. “The little ones do not live, human Melody.”
My heart drops to my stomach. “Wait, I don’t—”
“It is the females. They cannot carry them until they are big enough. They do not care to find outwhy. All of this out here, there are things we do not understand. Machines that can do good, unlike the ones on our home. They repeat again and again and pray something will change. They—” he cuts himself off, his words ending in a snarl.
“Oh god, Zyros.” I breathe, emotion clogging my throat, despite it being nothing new. Like humans on Old Earth, alien species of all kinds seem disposed to their own myriad of issues. Those being disease, famine, greed, or infertility. The ones who visit the agency are obviously interested in the latter, where some simply prefer to breed with a human…that, like me, is the exception, not the rule. “She feels betrayed by what you did…in choosing me.”
He hisses, baring his fangs. “She felt her control slipping. It is all she cares for. They have not seen all of this above us. They do not listen.”
My eyes widen, unease again filling my gut. “Her control? Is she a leader?”
He nods, but only barely.
“My god, you attacked her. Which I’m grateful for, don’t get me wrong, but—”
“Hush, Sssaryth, no harm will come to you while I am around. What Xyphora wants is achild, something to show the others as they lose hope. Even some of the females have declined to present when I am summoned, as they do not think there is any point. Our people are dying out.”
“When you’re summoned?”
His teal hair shifts as he avoids my stare, and he doesn’t speak again, not until we’re arriving at the port, docking with a trillion stones sitting heavy in my stomach and a looming, sickening sense of dread.
The port is small, far smaller than Vortara, and come to think of it, I’ve never been to a merchant port before. My smile brightens, and my chest feels lighter the deeper we go, gravity carts following behind us with their bio-coded lids. It is all surprisingly high tech for a primitive male. While the rest of his people are debatable, that term surely no longer applies to him. As soon as we dock, my holo pager dings with messages, mostly from my father. Soon enough, he’ll be receiving the uploadeddata now that I’m somewhere near a network. I stare down at the message from Lenora again, hoping she’s doing well.
Zyros more or less ignores me but only outwardly. His eyes are scanning the station the same way he scans the jungle back home. When we weave through the twisted market halls, I nearly yelp as a lumbering male steps in front of our path. Zyros is huge by my standards, his tail running the length of his ship stretched out all the way, but this is agiant.
He bends his head lower, making Zyros hiss and wrap his tail around me.
“This is a human.” The huge alien booms, his voice slow and drawn. His leathery skin wrinkled and pooling.
“She ismine,” Zyros answers, baring his fangs.
“I will purchase it. Name your price.”
My pulse ratchets up in my neck, making my heartbeat whoosh in my ears.
