Indeed, as she watched, La’Gross’s top lip pulled up, revealing a pulsing red tooth-like thing right in the center of his upper line of broad, plate-like teeth.
“Well, well—an alien delicacy, you say?” he rumbled, sniffing with his tiny, slit-like nostrils again.
“One that no one on your planet has ever tasted,” Torri assured him. “You could serve them to your guests at your next dinner party to impress them. Or you could keep them all for yourself,” she added enticingly.
“Mmmm…they smell so good they make my tooth itch!” La’Gross rumbled. He looked at Torri. “And how much do you want for this alien delicacy?”
“Fifty yorns,” Torri said promptly. “I won’t insult you by asking any less,” she added, as she had heard several of the Gemmite merchants say the night before.
“Fifty yorns it is,” La’Gross agreed. “And I suppose you’ll want that added to the four hundred-fifty you generated last night to finish paying your bill?” he asked.
“Exactly.” Torri smiled at him as she recapped the apples and handed over the glass jar carefully. It was a rather large mason jar, but it looked tiny in the Gemmite mechanic’s broad, blunt hands.
La’Gross unscrewed the lid with surprising dexterity, considering his fingers were the size of sausages, and sniffed the contents again.
“Well, I might be crazy to pay so much, but the smell makes my tooth itch, so it does,” he declared, staring down at the jar. He nodded at Vic. “Kindred, consider your debt paid in full. Have a safe trip and come back and see me next time your ship needs service.”
“Many thanks, La’Gross. It’s always a pleasure doing business with you.” Vic nodded cordially as the mechanic stomped out of the room again, still sniffing the contents of the glass jar.
“You didn’t have to do that,” he said, as soon as the mechanic was gone. “I could have paid, Torri.”
“I know you could.” Torri came to stand by him and put a hand on his broad chest, looking up at him anxiously. “Don’t be mad—I just couldn’t stand the thought of you being hurt!”
“Oh, sweetheart…” Vic’s blue eyes softened and he leaned down to plant a soft kiss on her lips. “Thank you,” he murmured. “For paying the last fifty yorns and also for helping me earn the first four hundred and fifty.”
Torri felt her cheeks getting warm.
“That was, uh, my pleasure,” she murmured.
“It was mine as well,” Vic said seriously. He sighed and a troubled look crossed over his face. “Unfortunately, now I find myself even more reluctant to end this mission and go back into stasis.”
Torri felt her heart sink.
“I don’t want you to go back either,” she whispered. “I mean, I know we have to contact the Mother Ship and ask them to come to Earth, but couldn’t we run away together after that? Maybe travel the galaxy together?”
“I wish I could.” Vic shook his head. “But my positronic net is programmed for absolute loyalty. The Kindred are my people and they will need me again in the future, the next time they have to scout a hostile planet.”
“It doesn’t seem fair.” Torri blinked tears out of her eyes. “You’re finding a whole planet full of brides for all of them, but you can’t even take one for yourself!”
“I’m so sorry, Torri.” Vic took her in his arms and held her close. “If I could change the situation, I would. But unfortunately, I cannot. My loyalty protocols forbid it.”
“I know.” She pressed her face against his chest, breathing him in, and tried not to let the sobs take her. “I just…I’ll never forget you, Vic. And after what we shared last night… I know I’ll never find anyone like you ever again.”
Vic just held her close and stroked her shaking shoulders. Torri knew he was sorry to be leaving her, but there seemed to be nothing he could do about it. As a cyborg, he didn’t seem to have the same rights the other Kindred did.
Which isn’t fair! she thought, still trying to hold back tears. Just because he’s half robot, doesn’t mean he can’t love and that he doesn’t have needs!
But it seemed that those needs were going to go unmet and the love that had bloomed between them in such a short time was doomed to end almost before it had begun.
Forty-Five
“Commander Terex, may I introduce you to Torri,” Vic said formally, speaking to his current Commanding Officer over the newly repaired com-link viewscreen. “She is an Earth female and she has been most helpful in my mission on her world.”
“Hello.” Torri nodded. “Uh, nice to meet you.”
“Greetings, human female.” Commander Terex, the head of the Kindred High council nodded at her briefly and then turned to Vic. He was a Blood Kindred, with the cool demeanor that was usual for his kind. “VIC Unit,” he said, speaking as formally as Vic had. “I am surprised to hear from you. “You went so long without sending any communication we assumed the humans had disabled or decommissioned you and that your mission was a failure.”
“My positronic net did suffer a malfunction that kept me out of action for some time,” Vic acknowledged. “But then I met Torri, and my net began to repair itself. The two of us were able to escape the place where the humans had incarcerated us.”
“They locked you up?” Terex’s eyebrows lifted and he frowned.
“The country I was attempting to start negotiations with thought I was a threat to their leader,” Vic explained. “I could not tell them otherwise because my positronic net was disabled at the time.”
“All right. I suppose that’s understandable.” Terex nodded. “Go on, VIC Unit.”
“After we escaped, we made our way back to my ship where I found that my com-link was broken,” Vic went on. “This necessitated a trip to Gemma Alpha Three to get it fixed. We have just left the Gemmite atmosphere so I am calling at once to ask you to send emergency aid to Earth.”
“What?” Terex frowned. “Why should we send aid? I thought you said you weren’t able to communicate our offer to the leaders of Earth.”
“I wasn’t, but there is no time for negotiations right now,” Vic said grimly. “The Scourge are on their way to despoil the planet and kill the inhabitants. The Kindred must come to their aid now, before it is too late.”
“The Scourge?” Terex’s blue eyes grew wide. “Have you seen their scout ships hovering around the Earth?”
“No,” Vic said. “Torri has been having visions of the AllFather and the Fathership coming towards her planet for some time. In the last vision she received, she was informed that the Scourge would be there in less than one solar week.”
Terex frowned.
“So you are certain the Scourge are coming because your companion is prophetic? Is she a priestess of some sort?”
“Um, no—I’m a bank manager.” Torri’s cheeks were red. “Look—I know it sounds crazy, but I inherited these…these visions from my grandmother. She used to call them ‘Seeing Dreams’ and they’re never wrong.”