Kaj’k and Cov’k, two hunters who lived in New Franklin permanently with their mates, were already there, their weapons drawn and ready. I was a little disappointed not seeing Jorg’k here. We saw the blaster fire from our shuttles before we saw the creature. But as I surmised, it never made it to us. It fell a few buildings over.
With the centicreep no longer a threat, our shuttles focused their energies back on the flyers, which were getting thick in the sky. There were so many that it was hard to believe the nearby nest had already been destroyed.
These scourge had come a long way. The gathering of so many humans was irresistible.
“Here they come!” I shouted as the first scuttler, with its beady eyes and large blade-like claws, rounded the corner and came into view.
The fight was quick and brutal. And we were soon the only living things standing on the street. A pool of spitter acid bubbled away on the sidewalk. We’d won. But we also stank. Scourge guts weren’t just smelly, they were deadly.
When we got back to the gate, the human there hosed us down with clean water. They also had a decontaminator from one of the destroyed shuttles at the entrance of the market.
By the time I got inside the building I’d seen Kiera step into, she was already gone.
I didn’t even understand why I was looking for her. I was here not for the females but to fight the scourge. But the moment I’doverheard the male expressing his wish to feed Kiera played in my head again.
I knew what a date was. Humans did not have mate bonds. They formed feelings of love with those they chose to partner with instead. Many of these partnerships started with “dates,” but just as many dates ended up as nothing. Did this nomad male covet Kiera?
A strange and irrational feeling of animosity formed in my chest, and I imagined myself picking Kiera up and stealing her away so that no other males could lay eyes on her. It tasted bitter and unfamiliar. I didn’t like it.
Unlike some of the other hunters who planned to stay on the planet even after our job here was done, my plan was to follow my original mission: fight the scourge until there were none left. It was a simple directive. A worthy one.
I understood why the hunters who had found their mates would stay here. Earth was beautiful, despite being marred by the presence of our mortal enemies. The promise of a future where our kind wouldn’t be slowly destroyed by clonal decay and the lack of new genetics was very tempting. But the thought of the scourge still existing somewhere in the universe urged me to keep fighting. It had been my goal, the only reason I was alive, for so long that it was difficult to release.
A female would complicate that.
Sure, I’d spent plenty of nights alone in my shuttle, wondering what it’d be like to have a female in my sleeping nook. I wanted to experience that once or twice, maybe more if I liked it, before I left Earth.
It didn’t have to mean a mate bond or attachment. One hunter in Europe did it often, sampling females from different groups,though it stirred tension with the humans he worked with. They called him “Lothario” behind his back.
I wasn’t interested in sampling many, however. And I still planned on leaving eventually, so I couldn’t have a mate. It wouldn’t be fair to leave her if I did, and I doubted a human female would ever be willing to leave Earth to hunt the scourge through the stars with me. She might not even be able to survive on other next planets.
I scanned the sea of humans as they filed into the community center for their “lunchtime intermission,” but Kiera wasn’t among them. There were several long and very boring presentations, so I returned to my shuttle to rest.
It wasn’t until the evening meal that I finally found her, much to my surprise, sitting at the table reserved for the Tech Wizards.
Was Kiera a Tech Wizard? Why hadn’t Roger introduced her as such? Tech Wizards were highly ranked in the Xarc’n military, and up until we’d found Earth, the positions had remained unfulfilled, since we hunters, genetically modified to fight, were the only ones left of our race. We’d been on our own since Xarc had fallen to the scourge.
I squinted at the intricate map in front of her.
Was that why she’d said she hadn’t gotten her map when I’d chased the nomad away from the information booth earlier? She must’ve found him after. Did they share a meal? What else did they share?
That strange sensation coiled tight in my chest again, sharper this time and harder to ignore. I did not understand it. My kind were bred for battles, not feelings. This… this made me feel weak. Vulnerable. I rubbed my palm over my chest, trying to calm the strange ache.
It wasn’t rage; I knew rage. And it wasn’t sorrow. I’d experienced that plenty with every fallen brother. This was something else.
Jealousy.
But it made no sense. She wasn’t mine.
The male was nowhere near her now. So perhaps their interest in each other had simply been because of the map the Tech Wizards now crowded around.
“S’cuze me.” A human female holding a tray containing the evening meal bumped into me, and I realized I was standing in the middle of a busy walkway, making everyone walk around me.
I backed up awkwardly, then found the end of the line for the food. Unlike the first meal of the day, which Roger had referred to as “fend for yourself,” the evening meal was provided for everyone attending this gathering. I never said no to food, so I got in line.
But my awareness didn’t stray from the Tech Wizard table where Kiera was talking animatedly. I caught several keywords: semiconductors, nomads, and payment, amongst them. Each person at the table took turns looking at the map.
By the time I was at the front of the line and a bowl of something rich and savory was placed in my hands since I’d forgotten to grab a platter, the whole table was talking excitedly.
