Page 102 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Stars
Veyrith
I never liked being away from my mate.
My Talia.
Her name settled inside me, a quiet, unshakable thing, curling warm in my chest.
In my language, it meant cherished.
Perhaps a coincidence. But I did not believe in coincidences.
She was meant for me.
No matter her name, she remained my Tashka regardless.
The thought grounded me as I stared at the navigation panel, watching the holo-routes cycle through their programmed paths. My ship—a sleek, modified starfighter built for speed and discretion—cut through the void, its engines a low, steady hum beneath my feet.
The outpost came into range, its towering silhouette rising against the backdrop of a dying sun. It was nothing more than a patched-together hub of trade, salvage, and quiet deals, a relic of industry left to drift along the edges of charted space.
Its docking rings jutted from the main structure like skeletal arms, connecting an array of processing silos, trade barges, and transport hubs, all bathed in the cold glow of artificial beacons.
I hated places like this.
Hated the stench of desperation that clung to every deck.
But with Talia’s name, I needed to know if anyone else was looking for her.
I pulled up the public log feeds, filtering through shipwreck reports, distress signals, and scavenger manifests. I wasn’t na?ve—if a human colony vessel had gone missing, if there were rumors of survivors, the Serpent Lords would be the first to know.
And if they knew, they would take her from me.
A listing caught my eye.
A scavenger loop, a cluster of automated barges sweeping through a debris field, dragging the wreckage toward the nearest processing plant.
I followed its path.
The processing plant sprawled ahead, a labyrinth of steel catwalks, conveyor belts, and towering scrap heaps, the air thick with the acrid tang of melted alloys and recycled fuel.
I took my place at an observation deck, the glass viewport stretching across the main sorting chamber. Below, the wreckage drifted through massive mechanical arms, piece by piece, as scanners assessed each twisted hull, each mangled fragment of ship.
I narrowed my gaze.
There—among the wreckage—was something different.
A colony vessel.
Or what remained of one.
The hull was shredded, the metal curled inward like crushed bone, a ship that had lost against an asteroid field or collided with drifting debris.
A common fate.
I had seen it before—colonists risking uncharted lanes, desperate for new worlds, new lives, and instead finding only the void.
A low murmur filtered through the comms, the latest chatter rolling through the station’s frequency. I listened.
There had been a convoy of scavengers.
Slavers.
They had passed through recently, hauling what survivors they could salvage.
Only a few humans had been worth the effort.
The rest were lost.
The ones who remained?
They were bound for transport.
To the Serpent Lords.
I felt my claws flex, the tension rolling through my shoulders, my tail lashing once against the cold floor.
Not my concern.
The thought came sharp and practiced.
I had no need for heroics, no interest in risking Talia’s safety for strangers I did not know, would never know.
And yet?—
I exhaled, slow and measured, rolling my shoulders to shake the weight from my chest.
I wished them luck.
Because they would need it.
Without another glance at the wreckage, I turned from the viewport, entering my final command into the nav panel. The ship disengaged from the station, its engines burning a path back to where she waited.
Back to my Talia.
As the outpost faded behind me, swallowed by the endless black of space, I spoke her name softly, rolling it across my tongue, savoring the feel of it?—
“Talia.”
My cherished one.
My treasure.
My forever.
And nothing in the stars would take her from me.
Thank you for reading “ Treasured Little Human,” a slice of life short story that introduces a new series in the Obsidian Rift Universe, The Serpent Lords of the Star Sea.