Page 22 of Unfinished

“Evathi-1, confirm your intent to land.” The voice of the transportation officer was clipped, his consonants harder than R’kash was accustomed to as it came through the flyer’s primary comm station.

“Evathi-1 completing landing sequence,” he replied.

“Accepted,” the terse voice said before the channel closed.

R’kash slid the edge of his fingernail over the control to initiate touch-down. He’d have a slight reprieve before he’d face Sienna. The participants of the Mate Portal Program were brought to Xithilene by the Fleet, and they landed within the security of the military compound’s impenetrable walls. He’d memorized the way from the transportation center to Fleet Headquarters, but he still worried something would go wrong and he’d lose himself in the maze-like capital city.

His flyer joined numerous others, lowering towards the smooth surface of the transportation center’s landing zone. His fingers curled over the side of his seat as he held his breath, sending silent prayers to the Lady that his flyer wouldn’t crash amid the fray of rapidly descending air and space crafts. When it finally settled on the ground, he could barely feel the landing.

R’kash bent his head as he exhaled, forcing the tension from his stiff muscles. He rose from the captain’s chair and stood with a heavy heart. If he’d been the one writing those many messages, he’d be bringing home a mate that day. Instead, he’d be making sure both he and Sienna faced the unpleasant truth.

* * *

Sienna wincedas the Xithilene medical officer placed a slim device against her scalp, slightly behind her ear. The other “mates” had told her the procedure wasn’t bad, but it was hard to believe it really wouldn’t hurt to receive her translation device. They had to get it under her skin and inside somehow, and the tech to do that swiftly and painlessly sounded more like magic than science to her.

“Don’t move, lady. It will be over soon. Look into my eyes,” the Xithilene medic told her, and as she followed his directions, getting lost in their bright green glow, she was more convinced than ever the man was a magician—he’d just about hypnotized her, hadn’t he? “All done,” he said as he lifted the device away from her skin. “Can you understand me?”

Sienna tipped her head like she was trying to shake water from her ear, but nothing felt different outside of a slight numbness. Then she looked at the medical officer again, registering for the first time that he hadn’t spoken to her in English. Her eyes widened at the strangeness of it. “Can you say something else?” she asked.

“Something else.”

Sienna half-smiled. It seemed this one had a sense of humor, but hearing him speak in Xithilene was still disconcerting. It was like her mind recognized the words were a different language, yet she couldn’t really hear the foreign sounds, only the meaning in her own tongue.

“Can I speak your language?” she asked.

The man’s feathers lifted and dropped as he watched her. “You can try, but you may be difficult to understand. The medical alterations to make that fully possible are more involved, and the Mate Portal Program has decided to delay that procedure until prospective mates have completed a mating ceremony and a successful compatibility assessment.”

“I suppose that makes sense, thanks. Am I all done here?” she asked.

“Yes. You already received Xithilene specific immune system enhancements through the meals in our dining hall. Please send in the next mate, please.”

Sienna nodded and walked to the door, waiting for it to open after the medical officer placed his big hand on the authorization panel to the upper right side. The door slid into the body of the ship with a slight hiss, and she smiled at the next woman in line.

“He’s ready for you—go on in,” she told her before she headed back towards the cabin she was sharing with two other women.

Sienna felt like she’d crammed a month’s worth of information into her head over the course of less than two days. Maybe the incoming headache was just a side effect of inserting the translation device, but it still seemed impossible to grasp that she was really about to land on an alien planet. She wasn’t sure what it would take to bring the fact home. Even standing against the big viewing window on the ship and watching the vast dark black of space hadn’t really registered. It all still felt like make-believe. Maybe the moment she could finally touch R’kash and know he was real would be what changed everything, the switch that’d flip and bring her out of this haze.

The door to her room was open. Her roommate Kendra was sitting on one of the long Xithilene beds.

“It wasn’t bad, was it?” Kendra said.

Sienna nodded. “Nope, not bad at all.”

“I told you that you had nothing to worry about. Get excited! Did you hear the captain’s announcement? We’re about to descend to the planet!”

Sienna smiled as she made her way over to her bed and baggage. Kendra was a bit like Tasha with her big, brash energy and boundless enthusiasm. She wished she felt more of that. Now that their landing was imminent, her nerves seemed to have taken up residence somewhere high in her chest, buzzing around like stirred up bees.

“I am excited, but I can’t help but be worried, too. Remember what they said during the last orientation session—there’s a five percent chance one of us will be going home after that first compatibility assessment.” Sienna couldn’t help but feel like out of all of them, it’d be her who failed. Everything that’d gone wrong with Edgar had kept replaying in her brain as she’d tried to sleep the night before.

Kendra frowned. “Maybe, but it’s much more likely we’ll be happy and things will go well. You’ve got to get out of your head. You were so excited yesterday when you were telling me about R’kash. Don’t forget that. Everything is going to be great.”

Sienna nodded and headed to the wardrobe set against the right hand wall. She checked to make sure everything she’d brought aboard was all packed. If the captain had said they were landing soon, it wouldn’t take long before their arrival if it was anything like their departure from Earth.

She sat back down and listened as Kendra described the place her mate was planning to take her for what sounded like a pseudo-honeymoon and settled in to wait. The other woman’s happiness helped her forget her own worries for a bit as the ship drew ever nearer to Xithilene.

R’kash and Veesha,she reminded herself when her heart threatened to pound out of her chest with nervous anticipation. They were all she needed to think of now. Just a little longer and she’d be meeting the man who wanted to be her husband—her mate—and then the little girl she hoped would someday see her as a mother. It was everything she wanted, everything she’d dreamed of, the story she’d never truly believed she’d get to live out.

“Passengers, go to your flight chairs. TheBite of the Fa’asathis preparing to land.” The captain's deep voice seemed to flood the chamber, and she felt it vibrate down to her bones.

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