Page 14 of Right on Time
“What?”
“Since it appears I’m not dying a popsicle and we have time to kill, I figured I should know more about the place we’re headed to.”
“Ah. Of course.” A good topic to kill not just the time but also Nitiel’s raging hard-on. “What would you like to know?”
She shrugged under his wings and resettled her head on his shoulder, this time with her face turned toward his. “Everything. All I know about the station is that it is close to Jupiter and that the Commander of your space army in the Solar System is there.”
“Your fated mate, yes,” Nitiel said, more as a reminder to himself than to Loe. “It is our second biggest military base in this system, after the one by the planet you Terrans call Venus.”
“The Venus one I’ve heard of; they often speak of it on the news. ‘Earth’s first line of defense against any scum coming through the Black Portal’,” she said with a booming masculine voice that got a smile out of Nitiel. “Shouldn’t the Commander reside there?”
“No, it’s too dangerous. Commander Siriniel needs to be giving commands from a safer location. Our technology allows him to see any battle as it unfolds and to communicate his orders in real time.”
“Wow.”
“But you should not be worried about battles, Loe. The system has been calm for quite some time now. Even if an enemy force needs to be dealt with, that will happen far from your new home.”
She scoffed, her breath tickling the side of his neck. “New home. Right.”
“Yes. I believe you will like it. You’ll have the company of other human females – the fated mates of soldiers stationed there. You’ll enjoy the calm atmosphere of the Arboretum, a garden like no other on a space military base. You’ll get to see the cibiris our injured soldiers use for flights while their wings are healing – I’m told females find these creatures cute. And, of course, with your fated mate there, you cannot but be happy–”
“Where will you be?”
“Me?” Nitiel’s brows knitted in confusion.
“Yes. I mean, you’ll be on Earth as the Commander’s representative, but where exactly?”
Why was Loe asking this? Did she want to make sure their paths would never cross again? “I’m yet to be told my permanent place of residence,” he explained. “It will be a central planetary location, since I will have to travel regularly for in-person meetings with Terran politicians and military command. To build trust. Once I take you to your fated mate, I am to gather my possessions and be ready to leave immediately for whichever coordinates I’m given.”
“Immediately?” Loe wiggled backward in his lap. Stormy eyes met Nitiel’s from a feather away. “What happened to personally declaring your mighty ASI glitchy? After my second meeting with the Commander fails?”
A rumble rose in Nitiel’s throat. There she was again, making disrespectful, blasphemous claims.
“You are protesting?” She huffed. “You said you’ll see this through. You more or less gave me your word, Subcommander. I just read about the Gaenthian code of honor: you can’t go back on your word.”
He narrowed his gaze at her.
She raised one fine, dark eyebrow at him.
“I did not give you my word. I said I would personally announce a mistake has been made.”
“Yes. Personally.”
“Personally, not in person. I can make such an announcement from any location in the Solar System.”
Loe opened her mouth then closed it.
A smile tugged at the corners of Nitiel’s lips.
A growl came from Loe, putting his rumble to shame. “We’ll see who will be laughing when I return to Earth with the news that your ASI sucks.”
He shook his head, smiling. “When you eventually return to Terra, it will be for a visit with Commander Siriniel by your side. Happily mated.”
“Hah, guess again! One look at me, and he will know it too: we don’t belong together.”
“One look at you, Loe, and he will be smitten! Anyone would.”
She sucked in a breath.