Page 4 of Jewel of the Alien Bandit
They come for the fun of having sex, and we allow them to mate with us to help our population growth. It was an understandable transaction. They knew we used their genetics for procreation, but Estreldez was viewed as an exclusive sex harem instead of a planet in desperate need of scientists to help our declining spawnrates.
I adjusted to look up into Loric’s blue sad eyes as he watched me struggle with this realization. A part of me wondered then, how it would be if I found Loric to be my mate. I gave him a small smile knowing he wouldn’t leave me. But Loric had been responsible for many female’s eggs dropping, and he has yet to be fertile with any of them. I didn’t think I could handle that kind of rejection from someone I cared so much about. If we mated, and had no spawn… he would try with another. That was our way.
“I’m afraid I will find a mate, and he’ll reject me,” I admitted out loud. Whether it was Loric or an offworlder, it was better not to have a mate at all. I’d still have Loric, and I’d never have to know if I was broken or not.
“It would be his loss,” he murmured into my hair, squeezing me to him, holding back all of my worries. Would Loric be mine?He was kind, smart, and a powerful estreld. Anyone seeking a mate would be ecstatic to claim him, and many have tried.
I pushed away from his embrace, and gathered my wits about me. Shoving all those insecurities away I told him something I’ve never said to anyone before, “What if I don’t wish to have offspring? What if I want to travel the systems to find new resources and technology to help our planet from out there?” The ceiling was decorated in a mosaic of jewels made to look like the star system above our planet. they twinkled in the light filtering through them from the outside.
Loric gazed up at the library’s ceiling with me and then shook his head. It wasn’t something he dreamed about, I knew he’d always want to stay on Estreldez. And I knew he wanted a family, children to call his own.
“Luan…” I knew that tone of his. He was about to bring me back down from the stars my dreams expanded to. He traced one of the colorless jewels embedded on the top of my hand. It was a gesture that was usually comforting, but not this time. This time it felt like he was pressuring me.
I pulled my hand from his grasp. “There are plenty of willing estrelds to repopulate our lands. What we need are answers, new solutions, and they could be out there.” My arm jerked to the ceiling, and I stormed off once more to find my mother. Loric did not follow this time, staying seated staring up at the constellations of our star system.
When I arrived at the assembly garden, Mabel was rushing out so distracted that she nearly toppled me over. I steadied her by the shoulders and thought I saw tears in her green eyes before black hair covered her face as she exited.
“Mabel?”
My mother beckoned me in preventing me from following after to see what was wrong. “Mabel has been informed by the M.R. that she is no longer eligible for the ceremony. More andmore of our clan have been found to be infertile before their time. We need a win, My Jewel, something to boost the hopes of Estreldez.”
Biting my lip, I knew exactly where she was leading with this conversation. She needed me to be that beacon of hope. She needed me to successfully mate during the moon ceremony. There was so much pressure building on my shoulders, that if I didn’t feel it before I certainly felt it now.
The sadness in her eyes, the exhaustion, it was all there for me to read in her features.
“Mom–”
She lifted a weary hand. “I ask a lot of you,” she cut me off, already knowing I would object once more to joining. “When you are Almder you will be faced with tough decisions, and that urge you feel now to protect our clan, and find a solution worthy of journals you pour over in our library will grow to be unbearable when you must act even when you are uncertain. Because our clan needs the best solution right now, until there is a better one in the future.
“My Jewel, I know one day we will have a better solution, and you may well be the one to find it, but for now, for this ceremony you are needed to show your support. Even if you find yourself unable to mate, you will be seen as resilient and dedicated to doing everything within your control to save our future. Everything I can not.” My mother took off her crown and stroked the jewels across the band of tarnpul. Her white hair had grayed, even her skin was silvery with age, yet she still retained a strong healthy glow about her like the largest moon orbiting Estreldez. And like the largest moon, she seemed the farthest away from me, even now. Those silvery eyes distant in her grief for her lost children, and the many lost generations of our clan.
My heart swelled for her, for our clan, and guiltily for myself for what I must do. She knew exactly what to say to convince meto join the moon ceremony, but I would make sure she agreed to do things my way next.
“I’m only one estreld, and we need to send someone out into the systems searching for new technologies, new food sources, and new alliances—” I pleaded, cut off before I could continue.
“And you want to be that someone,” she finished for me. “My jewel, you will get what you want, but it must be someone else who does it. Plan your team, and I will approve their mission. Whatever they need will be theirs, but you are the future of Estreldez.”
What she was really saying was that I would be the queen one day, and must stay on Estreldez for our clan. I bristled at the idea that this was it for me, managing from the assembly garden for the rest of my days, sequestered to the palace. My dreams of exploring myself all done through others, merely waiting for a miracle to come.
Did she not understand what I wished for our clan? My fists clenched at my sides, as my Almder, no longer my mother in my eyes, replaced her crown atop her head. The action was not lost on me, this was no longer a negotiation.
“As you divine, Almder.” I punctuated her title, and turned on my heels to leave. Mabel wasn’t the only one to leave the assembly room in tears today. My eyes burned with frustration, and exactly what my mother wanted from me… and determination to change her mind, even if it meant going against her wishes.
I would go to our moon ceremony, and I would leave with one of those mates, even if I had to stow away on their ship to do so.
CHAPTER FOUR
Vareo
GETTING AN INVITEto the Estreldez Mating Games was more difficult than I anticipated. Sure, the price tag on the job was more than worth the effort, but they were requiring a full physical examination, credentials, references, and a detailed history like I was cataloging my life’s existence for their judgment. Obviously, the only thing I could give them that was accurate was my physical exam, as they required that to be done by their own scientists on one of their orbiting moons. The largest moon called Lupa.
Carmen wanted to forge my background as some prince of a distant star system traveling the planets searching for a mate, but who would believe that kind of bullshit? The best lies were based on molecules of truth.
And I was no prince material.
I was an outlaw, working for the necia scum of the DVQ Trillume system on Necias Delta Fal that invaded my planet and considered the fact that they saved my life a debt that can be paid off with a sum of credits that would normally be unattainable. This life was all I knew.
“Vareo from planet Sholonus. Says here you’re a bounty hunter?”
