Page 15 of Double Her Pleasure

“You like my crazy. It is why we are avrhast. Your life would be too dull otherwise,” Agor shouted as he leapt into the skies, his twin’s laughter following him.

The beat of their wings was all he could hear as he flew toward the port. Perhaps if they got lucky, someone at the docks would recall her and know.

Chapter11

Jill was not lucky. In fact, she was pretty sure she was cursed when it came to any sort of game of chance or twist of circumstance. Nothing seemed to fall on her side. Any time she thought she was getting close; it would be snatched away from her. Case in point—the whole situation with the Geminidae twins. Now it seemed even the weather was determined to screw up her day with icy cold sheets of rain. She stared out the window and winced. The club would be closed for certain as would most businesses. Some of the hotels housed a small number of staff for such occasions in case anyone suddenly needed accommodations. The rain was no joke on Ganymede, as she quickly learned. For all the things that terraforming had done for the moon-planet, even the satellites could offer only so much when the rainstorms rolled in, bringing the temperatures down well below freezing levels.

Sighing, she dropped onto her oversized loveseat and stared out the large window that dominated most of the wall in front of her. She had the option of closing the curtains and going back to bed, but she but she couldn’t quite make herself sever that connection with the world outside of her little apartment. She liked to imagine that she was closer to Agor and Brydis wherever they were this way.

She took another sip of her coffee. Her parents didn’t understand. As far as they were concerned, she was suffering from an unhealthy fascination for a pair of exotic aliens with strange family structures. Their disapproval had been clear on their faces when she talked to them last night and they reminded her once more of all the things she already knew, as if telling her these things every time they spoke made any difference.

It hadn’t been enough time for anything real to grow. She was obsessing over nothing and should be focusing on something real and right in front of her.

They weren’t exactly wrong as far as logic went. But she didn’t know how to explain this strange thing between her and the twins. She even dreamed of them at night, meeting with them over and over again in the ship, and every morning she woke up disappointed to find herself in her bed in her apartment. Truthfully, it felt like a part of her was missing now, and she didn’t know how to get it back.

And now this—unending rain. It would last for a few days at least. As she drank her coffee, mulling over the miserable conditions outside right now, she tried to remind herself that it was good for the crops, but that did little to lighten her dreary mood. She didn’t even know why she was sitting there pretending to watch the rain fall when, in reality, she was watching for them as she’d been doing day after day. Jill stood up and carried her empty coffee cup to the sink. Even if she weren’t going into work, there was plenty to occupy herself with around her apartment. She might as well find something useful to do other than stare morosely out the window. There was no way they would be flying out in that, anyway. Not even the bio-engineered birds and insects, among the multitudes of animals bred for Ganymede’s conditions for keeping a balanced ecosystem, would be out flying in that sort of downpour.

She hoped that Agor and Brydis were safe and warm wherever they were.

Chapter12

Brydis curled his lip as he watched the rain from inside the lobby of the boarding establishment. It was an inferior place the humans called a hotel, but they had been forced to act quick when the rain nearly knocked them out of the sky. As much as they both wished to head directly to the port and begin their search immediately, it quickly became apparent that they would have to yield to the elements and seek shelter. When they pulled up options for boarding on their communication devices, the motel had been the most logical choice to stretch their funds as far as possible.

At least their Geminidae credits wouldn’t be an obstacle anymore. Their situation could have been so much worse if that were not the case.

Since exchange had begun between Geminos and Earth by way of the colony on Ganymede, it had made the exchange in credits easier than it had been upon their initial arrival. In fact, those initial weeks while discussions were ongoing between the planets, supplies had to be imported some distance from Geminos and through the fault to the colony on Ganymede. That it had been resolved some weeks ago was the only reason they were able to secure lodgings from which they could plan their next move.

Though he was distracted by the rain and his own impatience at the delay it was causing, he wasn’t not ignorant of the fact that the human female behind the counter was eyeing them warily as she ran their credits. He just barely kept himself from sighing with annoyance. He didn’t even want to know what sort of rumors were circulating. Clearing her throat with an awkward smile, she handed the chip back.

“Your credits have cleared. You have room two-twenty-three on the second floor for the next… uhm…. five days. If you need anything or to extend your stay, don’t hesitate to reach out to the front desk.”

Brydis murmured his thanks as he accepted the transfer of the keycard into his comm and his credit chip back. “It should be enough time to conclude our business.”

Her noticeable look of relief would have been insulting if he didn’t know that he would have similar feelings when they finally departed Rhapsody. So, for both their sakes, he ignored it as he picked his pack from the floor where he’d set it. Slinging it over one shoulder, he turned away and headed toward the elevator with Agor close on his heels.

“I personally hope for an early check-out,” Agor commented in a low voice as they stepped into the elevator.

Brydis nodded, silently agreeing with him. As bad as it was on board the ship, it was worse within the city. The moment they flew overhead, he had been aware of humans watching them as they passed. It was hard not to notice when many of them stopped wherever they happened to be standing to tilt their heads back and track their path across the sky. Then there were the stares from the motel staff when they entered. Logically, he understood that it was because humans were not accustomed to their species yet, but he still found it disconcerting.

Even holed up in the hotel, they couldn’t entirely avoid contact with the humans if they wished to eat. He was aware that his twin glanced over at him as the doors closed, but neither of them spoke until they got to their room.. It was only when Brydis touched the comm to the door lock, and it admitted them, that he felt a small sense of relief. Tension slowly drained from his body as they stepped into the privacy of their quarters, shutting out the rest of the hotel securely behind the door.

The thump of Agor’s pack hitting one of the beds broke the silence and Brydis set his own on the floor before proceeding to the window overlooking the cityscape. He stood there for a long moment, staring out at the network of human habitation and places of business that made up the city. It was small as far as cities went, but at the same time, knowing there were thousands of humans who lived and worked there forced him to face just how daunting their task was going to be.

His feathers ruffled slightly as Agor stepped up beside him, close enough for their wings to brush, and he glanced over at his twin. Agor gave him a grim smile in reply and released a deep breath as he too looked out over the city stretched out before them.

“She’s out there somewhere.”

“Possibly,” Brydis replied. “If she didn’t end up traveling to another location from Mercurium port."

His twin huffed and chuckled. “Always have to look at the worst-case scenario, don’t you?”

He shrugged his wings. “It doesn’t help to ignore the probability. And it keeps me from being too disappointed if it proves to be true.”

Agor scratched his jaw. “Do you really think someone at the port would know?”

“Maybe. There is an office of records where documentation is filed for those coming in and departing from the port. I believe the humans who have farms have paperwork for special dispensations and transportation arranged for them. That is my understanding anyway. It is not like there is much in the way of roads.”

There were, in fact, little to no roads except the ones that connected the ports and a few smaller routes that went to smaller towns in between them, all far from Geminidae territory on Ganymede. The farms they passed seemed to have little in the way of actual transportation routes in and out of them and were far enough away from the cities that he couldn’t imagine newly arrived humans finding their own way there easily without assistance. Even if she had traveled to one of the outlying towns between the ports, there would have to be some record of transportation from the port.

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