I swallowed. Hard. “What do you mean? Lovath hired me as your mechanic.” Kryn scoffed. “I have eyes, Derrick. Your eyes, however, only follow Gray. So why are you here?” The water sterilizer gave another creak and my fingers twitched. He really  couldn’t sit on that thing; not when he was probably edging on 300 pounds of muscle. Truly, the alien had muscle groups I was certain humans didn’t possess. “I’m here because staying on Pretia wasn’t an option. This was my best way of

Gray happily set me up in the room that used to be his before he moved in with Lovath. It was not much bigger than a closet, but that was typical of rooms on small ships and I wasn’t bothered. What irked me was the knowledge that I was getting Gray’s leftover space while he spent his time in Lovath’s bed. There was a finality to knowing he was putting me in a room he never intended to use again. Of course, I’d been informed Qwexil’s empty room was available, but there was no

“Am I supposed to feel different?” Gray called back as he bounded onto the ship. He was surprisingly chipper for someone who just woken up from having tech implanted in his heart, but all I could focus on was how clear the air tasted on the Event Horizon . I knew it was bad on Pretia, but there was something novel about taking in a whole lungful of air that didn’t feel thick and heavy. That didn’t leave a bad taste and grit in my mouth. Even in my filtered apartment, breathin

Gray walked into Grishe’s clinic easily, but I could tell he was nervous. Back on Earth, I’d spent a lot of time at his place, and it had been a mess. Cleaning up one day I found a bunch of his medical records and as a child he’d been in and out of the hospital a concerning number of times. He’d told me he was clumsy as a kid, but what I’d found was far beyond that. It was quite clear his parents had been abusing him and he didn’t remember. Between that and two abduction expe

My entire mood soured at the sight of Gray’s traakian lover. Lovath looked like any other of his species, with pale green skin and darker green, leathery patches all over. Most notably, instead of hair he had long, dark green head tendrils that looked enough like locs to be mistaken as such. Fucking weird . Gray had sex with that thing? I’d give him the benefit of Lovath’s body being relatively human. He was leanly muscled too, in less of an overly buff way and more of a subt

I hated this fucking place. I hated aliens, space, and most of all this horrible planet. I wanted off. But every time I mentioned making enough credits to get back to Earth I was just given sympathetic gazes. Even the few humans I’d come across had grown stupid and complacent. Well I’d decided they couldn’t keep me away. All their laws were bullshit, and I knew if I could get myself onto my own planet, they wouldn’t bother getting me back. One human who knew about alien socie