Page 1 of The Emerald Boa’s Lover (Operation Colonise #3)

Charlie questions life

Charlie.

Man, I’ve done it already. I’ve engaged mama-chick mode.

I told myself I wouldn’t. I have a fundamental need to find people who need someone to lean on, and I offer my hands before thinking about it.

It’s cost me a lot of time and heartache, this particular habit of mine.

I don’t like drama, but people who are hurting and broken and need a prince charming figure tend to have so much baggage I can barely stand at the end of it.

And it always ends. Once my chicks are all patched up and ready to face the world, they fly off and leave me behind.

Usually broke and wondering where my friends went.

See, the ones who tend to take my hands don’t ever become my friends.

We all think they do at the time, but once I’ve finished patching them up physically and emotionally, off they go without a second glance. My boyfriends have been no exception.

I just can’t help myself. I did this back on Earth too.

Normally with my boyfriends. I’m a rescuer.

A fixer. Even when I’m the one who suffers for it, and I’ve suffered plenty.

My lovers tend to have their wings clipped by vices, financial difficulty, or the big one, low self-esteem.

I know it’s only going to end in heartache, but I fall for these needy guys anyway.

I commit too easily, I fall in love quickly, and I’m the one left burned for it in the end.

All or nothing is a fun way to live, revelling in the moment, until that moment includes you alone in your apartment with your heart in tatters.

My last boyfriend was a struggling artist whose last boyfriend beat him.

I met him at the hospital, where I worked in one of the research labs.

Joey was having a smoke, covered in bruises and crying, his hands shaking around his cell as he tried to get his shit together.

I was on my way home, and I was talking to him before I could warn myself away.

Oh, Joey. He was a beautiful train wreck.

We were together for three years. I got him sobre, fit and healthy, doted on my sexy damsel until he did what every single one of my ex-lovers did.

He left. He no longer needed me and went off to pursue his dreams. I had to admit, he was brave for doing it, and part of me was so proud of him.

The rest of me drank copious amounts of beer and questioned why I keep doing this to myself.

It was on the back of my breakup with Joey that I said yes to Allico Inc.

I was so heartbroken and so tired of being left behind, I wanted to leave the damn planet.

You can’t get a fresher start than going to an alien planet.

Who’d have thought that within a couple of hours of being reanimated from cryosleep after a century of space travel, and preparing for a brand new life on an alien world, I’d have two brand new chicks to fuss over?

I was drawn to Hannah right away. I thought she was a strong woman with a snarky streak I could relate to.

Relax with. But here I see she’s been a lifelong carer of her sister.

She told me her parents passed away one at a time, tragically, by the time she was 18.

Collage was never an option for Hannah. She got multiple jobs to keep paying the bills for her sister’s last year of high school.

Then to pay for Billie’s college and their new smaller apartment near her campus.

Now she upped and left Earth for an alien world just to continue looking after her?

Who looks after Hannah?

Damn it. Baby chick one acquired.

I glance over at Hannah, checking on her, and smiling.

I suppose this isn’t the same. If Hannah had been a ‘Harold’, I’d most likely find myself going down the same damned road as before.

Fussing over my damsel, getting his thighs around my waist and rocking his world.

Until he no longer needed me, of course.

Yeah, I’m glad Hannah isn’t a guy. It means my battered heart won’t invest in more than a friendship.

It will still sting when she inevitably moves on from me, but a sting is better than a burn, and my heart is still in ashes in my chest. I’ll never show it though.

I’m the one people look to for strength and confidence, not the other way around.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to change the dynamic.

To not be ‘the strong one’ in a relationship.

To have someone take care of me and my needs for once.

It would be great. Unfortunately, the kind of guys I’m attracted to usually struggle to keep their own shit together, never mind mine.

It doesn’t help that I don’t give off the gay vibe.

Even Hannah didn’t clock I was gay when we first met.

I’m not camp and I am fully aware that I have the body of a jock.

A blonde prince charming with green eyes, wide shoulders, thick thighs, and a strong jaw.

My hair is windswept and I could care less how I dress.

Then of course there’s little Billie. And I do mean little.

Hannah is about 5ft8, by my estimations, but Billie is only 5ft4.

Hannah is curvy and has a working woman’s body.

Billie is petite and soft. I think my mama hen instincts identified her as my second acquisition when I saw Hannah walking her through the corridor towards the shuttle.

Her eyes clenched shut and her body tense as she clung to Hannah’s right hand with both of hers.

Some arsehole who was too busy on their phone to see where they were going bumped into Billie’s right side.

Oh the cry she made and the way she cowered into her sister. I nearly knocked the bastard’s block off for frightening her.

Baby chick two, acquisition confirmed.

Before I knew it I was walking on her right side and using my superior height and muscular frame to look as big as possible.

Hannah smiled at me, knowing what I was doing, but she didn’t ask me to stop.

We escorted Billie down the landing ramp and behind a group of fellow colonists with their eyes and mouths open with wonder.

I had to admit, Thelia looked beautiful.

It was a tropical planet alright. A jungle planet.

There was so much green it was vibrant and eye-catching.

The trees were enormous, like Kapok trees back in the Amazonian rain forest, but these had a vast network of thick branches that seemed to be fused to the branches of the next tree, and so on.

I looked up and saw that our shuttle had landed in a circular clearing, but everywhere else was cast in shadows.

Vines grew like webbing across the trunks and hung down from branches that made me wonder if animals used them to swing back and forth. Did Thelia have monkeys and apes?

We walked along a path, the first sign of architecture, as it was made of smooth yellow stones that had been placed intentionally to make a walkway.

“Follow the yellow brick road to Oz.” I joked to Hannah, and she giggled.

I smiled, glad to have made her laugh, and we followed the group in front without getting too close to listen to their chatter.

Ahead of us were more ‘operators’ in grey suits.

We were too far back to hear them, but that was likely intentional.

Hannah seemed to be trying to reduce the stimulus her sister had to deal with until she was ready to deal with it.

I can’t imagine how hard this must be for Billie.

I look down at her face and see that she’s struggling, but determined. Impressive little chick.

As we reach another large clearing we’re being gathered into what looks like an amphitheater.

More of the same smooth sandy yellow stone slabs have been arranged to make rows of seating on the side of a slope.

As I expected, we hung back until everyone else took their seats, and then we sat on the back row.

We were facing a river and then a large open space under a cluster of massive trees with a dense canopy.

I half expected actors to start leaping out from behind the trees to start reciting Shakespeare.

Instead, two men in grey suits moved a shiny white podium into the middle of the ‘stage’, and in front of the river, to be as close to the front row as possible.

Two speakers hovered on either side of the podium and then out came the big cheese himself.

Alaric Fitz. The founder and moneybags of Allico Incorporated.

He was handsome, if I was into sugar daddies.

The sides of his head were tripped shorter than the grey mane on top, and his grey suit was crisp, despite the tropical heat already making me roll up my sleeves to try and stay cool.

I glance over at the girls, and Hannah has shoved her long black hair behind her ears.

She’s humming you are my sunshine whilst watching the stage.

Billie sat between us and I made sure not to touch her.

She’s holding Hannah’s hand in her left one, and the right is tapping her thumb and her middle finger together on her lap.

Her eyes are still closed but she isn’t tense.

“Ladies and Gentleman.” Everyone apart from Billie focused their eyes on Alaric.

She was listening though, from the way she inclined her head curiously.

“Welcome to Thelia. I know you’ve had your orientation so I won’t repeat that.

You’ve been told of the hard work that went into securing an alliance with the indigenous people of Thelia.

I’ve gathered you here today to talk to you about our new friends.

” I braced my hands on my knees and couldn’t help but be a tad nervous.

My imagination drew upon every Science fiction movie I’d ever seen.

The Ucfeni were sentient, but that didn’t necessarily mean humanoid.

AU 471 had everything needed for humanoid life.

Even the composition of the air and the proximity to the nearest star promoted photosynthesis in the planets, and therefore respiration in them and any other carbon-based life-forms. Not that they are necessarily carbon-based.

“The Ucfeni are sentient, intelligent, and altruistic. Gaining their trust has taken time and is therefore very precious to us.” Translation?

Don’t piss off our hosts, or we’ll kick your ass.

“I would like to introduce you to the Ucfeni Ambassador. He is our liaison with the Ucfeni and the Monarchy, and has been vital to our efforts in forming our own colonies and cohabiting with the Ucfeni.” Alaric didn’t move off the podium.

He held it with both hands and smiled. “Ambassador Rerasha is wearing a communication gem and will therefore sound like he’s speaking English, even though he isn’t.

You will not be able to ask him any questions, as you have yet to be issued with your CG’s to translate your native language to Vrisha.

Their language.” Still, he didn’t move. I folded my arms and started to wonder if he was reluctant to do so.

He seemed tense. I’m not sure I like our leader being tense.