Page 24 of Life-Debt

Delta handled most of the flight, but when we reached his home world, I shooed him out of my seat and had him gawk at his planet. After a brief discussion with one of the planetary traffic controllers, I received authorization to enter the atmosphere for a better tour of the world. The green and blue planet with a smattering of deserts and mountains seemed like the perfect place for humanity to live. I spotted several cities, staying far from their territory and at the appropriate altitude to appease the traffic controllers.

When we flew around a city nestled on a plain a short distance from a mountain and an ocean, Delta pointed at it. “That’s where I live.”

The place had a fixation on skyscrapers, and I spotted at least one launchpad for spaceships. “Nice place. Prettier mountains.” I contacted traffic control and requested permission to reenter space from our coordinates, which was granted. I accelerated, pleased with my engine’s purr and light thrum even when I pushed her to ninety-five percent. We broke through the atmosphere into space, and I charted our next coordinate on the flight path and gave the controls back to Delta. “You’ll be back home by the end of the day probably, if it’s that close. Hell, I could have just tossed you out the back if I’d wanted to deal with imports. I’m impressed they didn’t give me more of a fuss about doing a tour.”

“You’re on the authorized list from the spaceport,” Mystoran informed me. “The spaceport would have filed a flight authorization for you to orbit the planet, and it’s not unusual for curious tourists to want to enter the atmosphere. As you went through the proper entry protocols and wasn’t landing, it was approved. Normally, Cremora Delta 005-26 bars unexpected entries unless in an emergency. The inhabitants of this planet are not as xenodiverse as some might appreciate. They’re xenodiverse with Cremorans and Veloc, but other races tend to create issues. You’re probably quite the novelty, really.”

“Was it the ears or the tail?”

“Both, really. And that they’re attached to a homo sapiens is even more remarkable.”

“Genetic manipulation for survival. Mostly, it makes me exceptionally adorable and difficult to dress.” I laughed at my own joke. “There are a few races who see my ears and lose their shit over it. I’m the cutest damned thing they’ve ever seen, and then they see my tail, and I sometimes need to dig out fainting salts to help them get over it.”

“I wish I could claim that was an exaggeration, but we Veloc are not immune to the allure of ears and tail. The first time someone modded a human for your adaptations, an entire planet of my kin went mental wanting to romance the entire species. We take our romancing quite seriously.”

“What was the planet’s success rate on romancing?” I asked, and I didn’t bother to hide my amusement.

“Two genetically modified human women opted to move to Veloci Minor. Every now and then, a Veloc will be born with unusual ears or a different style of tail, reminding us we carry diverse genetics. Those Veloc are disgustingly alluring, if I do say so myself. Once one is born, every unrelated clan attempts matchmaking. The scheming starts early, but the young hopefuls don’t start competing until they’re in their early twenties. That’s the equivalent of our late adolescence, when my species becomes quite interested in romancing. The ears and tail are wretchedly alluring.”

I chuckled at Mystoran’s complaint. “I was designed so the tails and ears would be a dominant trait. They weren’t sure how planetary adaption should work out, but my genetics were completely overwritten to be full dominance for my ear and tail characteristics. After a few generations, it might become a recessive trait, but I’m not sure. I was notified the trait was aggressively dominant.”

“It is much like Veloc genetics. Aggressive dominance will overwrite the recessive genetic traits of your offspring and ensure the survival trait survives. In humans like yourself, the aggression may degrade after ten or so generations, but were you to wed a Veloc, your children would all have ears and tail, no matter what the remainder of the genetics would be. A desired trait among my people—and most, really. Outside of the necessary care, your hearing is likely exceptional. Do your other ears function?”

“Both sets of ears function,” I confirmed. “And yes, I have superior hearing even compared to the vulpes vulpes the genetics were derived from.”

“Ah, once word spreads, expect to be romanced most seriously. When I go home and tell my clan about Little Cousin’s adventures, you will become a target of Veloc and human alike.”

I rolled my eyes over the absurdity of the situation, although a treacherous part of me hoped someone like Delta would be in the hunting party. “Oh, no. I’m being threatened with interstellar romance. Whatever shall I do?”

“Run. It’s more fun that way,” the Veloc replied.

* * *

I landed my ship in the quarantine bay, waited for the doors to close and the life support systems to make the space habitable, and escorted my two guests off to the rest of their lives. The grapevine had done its work, and Delta’s family had come to meet him. I opted to bypass the tearful family reunion, called for Pandora, and gave her the choice to decide if she wanted to keep Mystoran company while I went back into space or stay with the crazy chick.

She chittered a rebuke at me, and to make it clear she would not be leaving, went into her nest and chittered at me some more. I apologized to her, bribed my way back into her good graces with a fresh bone and some treats, and promised we’d be lifting off within the next four to six hours to go on our next adventure.

I waited for the family gathering to disperse, and they took Delta off for his journey home. The rare happy ending, where someone lost managed to come home, reminded me why I took the risks.

The ship would be quiet for a while, and I’d miss his relentless stream of questions, his determination to learn, and his fledgling desire to see more of the stars. I’d even miss the Veloc, although I doubted I’d ever get used to the vast distance he could pounce upon prey. Pandora would miss a hunting companion, but I’d make sure she would be able to hunt the next time we landed, even if I had to find mice to buy for her.

With the guests gone, I went to work resupplying, checking over the list I’d asked Mystoran’s Veloc kin to provide. I’d tried to pay them for everything, but they’d taken the whole life-debt issue seriously, refusing to accept my trade account details.

They had accepted the information for my primary token account, which they’d use to send compensation for the recovered cargo. Due to trade and recovery rules, it would be three weeks until the tokens showed up, which would be dispersed into several other currencies associated with my account and a base token supply.

Everywhere accepted tokens, but the value of a token sometimes decreased, so I tried to keep an available stash of the top six currencies used throughout the universe.

It simplified my life.

But in a pinch, I’d have tokens enough to get me through the next while without complication.

I wondered how much the Cremora Deltans thought their cargo was worth. As I hadn’t set a rate, compensation ranged from a single token to hundreds of thousands. I’d been on single token jobs before. I’d learned strange things happened in space on that job. Before I’d gotten offended, I’d been smart enough to check my ship over carefully, discovering a fortune of supplies and parts in my cargo bay, all of which had been registered as taxes paid, signed off to me as the sole owner.

They’d loaded my ship while I’d been dealing with other paperwork.

The requested supplies, already loaded into my preferred storage crates, waited at near the doors, and a pair of dark-colored Veloc skulked in the shadows, betrayed by their emerald crests.

Sometime after my heart rate returned to something sane, I said, “You get full points for your camouflage techniques. Did Mystoran sacrifice you to be muscle?”