Page 90 of Mazorium Buys a Human

The second stop was at a Veli pleasure planet with many activities and tours. We’d spend days doing nothing but having fun before settling into our next survey assignment.

“I can’t wait to get the new bots,” I commented as we lifted off. I needed a distraction or I might start crying also.

Eager to be helpful, I learned a lot about the flying survey bots over the last few years. Now I worked with them instead of Maz. He’d been reluctant at first because he didn’t want to burden me, but when he realized I enjoyed programming and tinkering with them, he’d happily handed the responsibility over. Talking about bots seemed like a great distraction.

“We’ll be coming back here,” Maz said, confusing me.

“Huh?”

“I can tell you’re almost as sad as Nadia about leaving, but you don’t have to be,” he said. “The investment group is dumping their shares of this planet. I bought most of them for almost nothing.”

“But why would they do that?” I asked.

“The ecosystem here isn’t conducive to doing anything profitable,” he said.

“That means we own this place?” I asked, hardly able to believe we controlled an entire planet!

“Along with Iris and Damascus,” he said. “I thought we could build some houses on some of the stumps and even create some housing in one of the trees. It would be similar to the way the Doringo live on their homeworld.”

I couldn’t believe what he was saying. “But that will be so expensive to set up.”

“Iris and Damascus will be helping,” he said. “We are already collecting bids from builders. They have amazing resources, so they can set up a lot of the infrastructure themselves. Remember, they build space stations for a living.”

“That’s true,” I said with a chuckle. “Would we be the only ones living here?”

“I thought we could invite your family to move here after the building is done. A few of Damascus and Iris’s crew have commented about wanting to retire, and they would like to live on the planet also. It’s far enough from Talarian that official oversight would be rare, but close enough to get supplies without too much trouble.”

“The timing couldn’t be better,” I said. “Iris said the company Mom and Dad are working for isn’t doing well. It’ll probably go under soon,” I said, feeling an immense sense of relief. “I’m glad we’ll have a place for them soon, but I never thought that would happen. Maybe living with them wouldn’t be so bad if we all had our own stumps.”

“I thought that might be acceptable,” Maz said with an amused rumble.

Damascus and Iris had brought my parents to visit last year. It was good to see them, but I’d worried about how worn out they both looked. We’d been gentle about talking them into staying inside the Talin Empire. By the time they left, I was sure they were half convinced.

The last message I got from them had indicated they were ready when there was a place for them to move to. They didn’twant to go to Kalor Colony because it was too close to Talarian, but now they had a place far from there to settle safely.

“I’ve already arranged to spend a year back here after the next assignment," Maz said.

“I love you so much,” I murmured.

He looked up from the display. “I love you as well.”

Chapter 28

Forty-five rotations later

Mazorium

As we were landing on our home for the next three solars, I felt intense regret. I could’ve canceled this contract. We could’ve stayed on our stump for another few years before I accepted another assignment.

Why had I been so determined to fulfill this obligation? I had two far more important obligations traveling on this ship with me.

“Da, look!” Nadia said, bouncing in my lap and pointing at the display on the wall in front of us. “Look at the blue! It’s big-big!”

“That’s an ocean,” I explained to the excited child. She’d enjoyed the space station we visited and had a great time on the pleasure planet; however, I thought she might’ve been a little overstimulated. She hadn’t protested at all when the vacation was over and we’d all gotten back into the ship to leave.

“Osssun,” she repeated. She struggled a little with some sounds, and we made sure to practice with her.

“Ocean,” I repeated.