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“So… you and Rhyn. How’s it going?”

Kara watched Ela’s scales darken slightly. She and the Vraxian general were at the military base a few miles from the Imperial Palace. They’d just finished watching the annual parade of troops and technology, both of which Kara was heartily glad she’d never meet in a cosmic battlefield again.

“It is progressing adequately, thank you.”

“Wow, stop gushing about it. It’s embarrassing.”

“I am not… oh, I see. Human sarcasm.”

“Seriously, you two make a great couple. Yin and yang.”

“We do seem a good fit,”

Ela admitted cautiously. “I wish I’d seen it earlier.”

“Maybe you would have, if you hadn’t been pining after my husband.”

Ela froze, only relaxing when she saw Kara’s grin.

“I am still embarrassed about that,”

she said sheepishly. “You must have thought me a fool.”

“I’ve never thought that about you, general. But you remember what I told you? You’d forget about Vahn the minute you found your kalehshun.”

“You were right. It seems strange now that I spent so much time mooning over him.”

“I don’t think anyone could ever accuse you of mooning. You’re good at hiding your feelings.”

“But you knew. You knew from the start. May I ask how?”

“Call it a hunch. The first time we met, you told me you’d kill me if I hurt him.”

Ela was stricken.

“I can never apologize about that enough, your Majesty. If I had known the truth…”

“Forget it. Things were different then.”

Kara looked at the Vraxian commander whose face had once topped every SDF hit-list on Earth. “I’m just glad you finally realized Rhyn was the one. It took you long enough.”

Ela nodded thoughtfully.

“I never thought I’d experience kalehsh. It is a wondrous thing.”

“When did it happen, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“When he kissed me. I had made up my mind not to be another of his conquests. I told myself if he tried anything I would spurn him. But my resolve shattered like glass the moment I discovered he was my kalehshun.”

“I’m actually quite astounded he dared to kiss you. He’s a lot braver than I thought.”

“It was part of the reward he demanded for defeating me at bakra. Dinner and one kiss.”

She paused. “I do not remember the dinner.”

Kara laughed.

“He beat you at bakra? But you’re an expert. You didn’t let him win, did you?”

“Absolutely not.”

Ela was horrified. “I played to the best of my ability. I would never give ground to an opponent, no matter who it was. However…”

She stopped and Kara prompted her.

“However?”

“However, I was not displeased that I lost.”

Her scales shaded to a delicate green and Kara realized she was flushed. It was quite sweet, really.

“I’m jealous. Humans don’t feel kalehsh as a physically as you do. Love is more emotional for us.”

She sighed. “It must be nice to have your path laid out so clearly.”

Ela glanced at her sharply.

“You have doubts?”

“Not about Vahn, no. Not at all. But about having children, yes. It’s so straightforward for him. But for me there are so many questions. I don’t even know if we can have kids. And if we can, what would they be like? I wouldn’t want them to be… to be freaks.”

There. She’d said it. She waited for Ela’s reaction.

“I cannot assuage your fears, Zhaalini,”

Ela said slowly. “But you and Vahn have already changed so many perceptions. On Vraxos and on Earth. You have achieved what I personally didn’t believe was possible – an end to a bitter war. And you have made us see that Terrans and Vraxians can live together as allies, as friends, and as lovers.”

“You think there’ll be more pairings like ours?”

“I do not doubt it. Even now, there are Vraxian delegates on Earth and soon we will open a Terran embassy here in Taa’riz. Intermingling is inevitable.”

“So you’re saying…?”

“I am saying that perhaps you will be the first to have mixed-species children. But I doubt you will be the last.”