5
ASTRA
A stra swam back to consciousness to find herself in an strange bed and lay there for a moment, staring at the pale wood beadboard of an unfamiliar ceiling.
She shifted, the shushing rustle of crisp white sheets gliding over her legs.
Her body ached as if she’d run too far, too fast, and she felt strangely tingling all over.
But she wasn’t dead, so she’d take it as a win.
A large hand covered hers, the pebbly texture of his fingers making her skin prickle.
She turned her head to see Des sitting next to her bed, a faint smile playing across his lips.
He appeared worse for wear, a shadow of growth covering his jaw, dark smudges beneath his sea kelp green eyes, and hair that looked like he’d been standing in a wind tunnel.
Those surface imperfections didn’t change the fact that when she saw him, her heart skipped a beat and her entire body flushed.
What’s that about ?
she wondered, poking at the sensation.
A residual effect of whatever they did to me to fix me ?
Even as she thought it, she knew that was just a story she was telling herself.
The truth was, she was incredibly attracted to Des.
Disconcerting .
And yet, she was cognizant that she and the other women on this mission agreed to do whatever was necessary to secure refuge.
They all knew that seducing the aliens, while not explicitly required by the higher-ups, was on the table.
But she didn’t expect to have in-her-pants feelings for one of them.
She rarely had those types of feelings for anyone.
It was throwing her off her game and she’d never had much game to begin with.
“There you are, sweetheart,” Des said, the rich burr in his voice caressing her senses like the glide of silk over skin.
“Where am I?” she asked, her words crackling.
“How long was I out? Is everyone safe?” She licked her dry lips and swallowed hard, wincing at the scratchiness in her throat.
His chair screeched back over the floor as he leapt to his feet to adjust the bed so she was sitting up comfortably.
“You’re on Skualan, our capital and the largest of the Merrow Isles.” He slid another pillow behind her head and handed her a glass of water, smoothing a large hand over the crown of her head, as if reassuring himself she was still here.
“It’s approaching sundown, a little more than twenty-four of your human hours later. We’ve been in contact with the other leaders. All the human delegates are safe. You can relax and recover without concern.”
“And the anti-alien group that attacked the summit?” she asked, almost afraid to ask what happened to them.
The thing was, she could understand where they were coming from.
If strangers from another galaxy showed up on Earth, she was certain there’d have been violent protests against letting them settle there, too.
He pointed towards her glass.
“Drink your water, Astra, and don’t worry about the terrorists. We are handling them.”
But she couldn’t let it go.
“Handling them as in…?”
A muscle jumped in his jaw.
“Some are dead. As we track them down, some will resist capture and choose death over incarceration. However, others will be brought to justice and made to answer for their actions.” Noticing her still cradling the full glass in her hands, his lips flattened.
He placed a finger on the base of the glass and directed it to her mouth, forcing her to drink the precious liquid or risk wasting it if it spilled down her front.
The water tasted like salty sweetness and joy, clean and fresh beyond her wildest imaginings.
Nothing like the recycled hydration liquid she’d been drinking her entire life, the one that claimed to be at least sixty percent actual water.
That was all stale disappointment and crushed dreams.
She took another gulp, savoring the crisp flavor as the cool liquid slid down her throat, before draining the rest of it.
Des let out a soft groan.
She gave him a quizzical look over the rim of her now-empty glass.
“What?”
He huffed out a laugh and shook his head as he took the glass from her and refilled it from the large pitcher sitting on a low bedside table.
“It’s nothing.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Just.” He ran a hand through his hair, poofing it up even higher and solving the mystery of his wind tunnel hairstyle.
“I’ve never seen anyone get such pleasure from a simple glass of water.”
“You’ve never been to Earth,” she said with a little snort, her fingers brushing against his as she accepted the drink, a light shock jolting through her when they made contact.
“Water is the most precious substance on our planet. Same aboard the generation ship. This is the first taste of non-recycled water I’ve ever had.”
She drained the glass again, filling her belly and quenching her thirst.
She relished the ability to drink as much as she wanted without worrying about rations and shortages.
It felt decadent and, if she thought about it and all the people still stuck on the Legacy and back on Earth without easy access to clean water, somewhat shameful.
But this was why she was here.
So that everyone would have the opportunity to drink clean water to their hearts’ content.
“Appalling.” He shook his head.
“Water is life.”
“It is.” She twirled the glass in her hand, watching the remaining beads of water slide down the side.
“Humans won’t survive much longer without access to fresh water,” she said, looking at him through her eyelashes to gauge his reaction.
“Are we now entering negotiations, sweetheart?” He gave her a sly smile.
“What will you give me if I let some of your humans settle in my territory?”
“Did you say ‘your territory’?” she asked, nibbling on the inside of her cheek.
“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” His smile widened, his right cheek dimpling.
“I run things around here.”