Kiera laughed ruefully.
“I know…but I just can’t seem to help it. At least now I finally have a place to put them all,” she added, grinning. She sighed. “It’s just too bad we couldn’t bring a long—range shuttle with more compartments.”
“You’re just lucky that the Monstrum let you modify one of their bigger shuttles to carry animals—and that Dra’vik taught me to pilot it,” Iyanna remarked. Dra’vik was her Monstrum husband—he was quite imposing since he was nine feet tall and had horns and scales like a dragon. “He wanted to come with us today, you know—but I told him we could handle it,” she added.
“That’s right—girl power!” Kiera laughed and shook back her long box braids.
She was glad she’d gotten her hair done the last time she’d stopped by Earth—it was so much easier to take care of when it was in braids. She didn’t have time to be messing with her hair when every minute of every day was filled with taking care of her animals.
They reached the entrance—well, one of the many entrances—and Iyanna pushed the signal bell. There was a faint humming—buzzing sound from the other side of the silver door and then it slid to one side with a whoosh.
“Oh—they must have recognized me right away this time,” Kiera remarked. “Usually I have to wait while they verify I’m not a bad guy.”
The Ba’ltzians had to be careful who they let onto the BAR ship. Unfortunately, there were plenty of people with ill intentions who tried to adopt animals from them. Some wanted to skin or eat the creatures just because they were rare or endangered. And some didn’t have the proper facilities to care for them. The alien animal activists always made a home visit before allowing any of their animals to be adopted. Kiera had been thrilled when her sanctuary had passed their test with flying colors.
They stepped into the BAR ship and were greeted at once by the sight of what appeared to be a six—foot—tall blue ant wearing a lab coat.
“Good morning, Dr. Ztone,” the ant said in their buzzing voice. “We are zzo glad to zzee you again.”
“Good morning, Dr. A’flerzz.” Kiera nodded at the Ba’ltzian scientist. “Thank you for contacting me. I understand you have a breeding pair of schoonies I can have for my sanctuary?”
“Yezz indeed.” Dr. A’flerzz’s long, segmented antennae twitched. Their saucer—sized compound eyes turned to Iyanna. “But first, are we to underzzstand this is your colleague?”
Kiera nodded.
“Why yes, this is Dr. Iyanna Washington—she specializes in exotic plant species.”
“Zzmm,” Dr. A’flerzz nodded, antennae twitching again. “Then we may have zzomething of interest for her azz well. Forgive me, though—perhapzz I mizzspoke.” He leaned towards Iyanna. “You are a female—are you not? It izz difficult to tell zzince your zzpecies keepzz their primary and zzecondary zzexual attributezz covered.” He nodded at her exposed arm. “I zee that you and Dr. Zztone have the same brown skin tones and you both have long hair, but theze are not reliable markerzz of zzex.”
Iyanna laughed, not at all offended.
“Yes, I’m female—a woman,” she clarified.
“Ahh, very good.” Dr. A’flerzz sounded relieved. “Onzze I mistook a male of your zzpecies for a female and he was mozzt offended.” They shook their head. “Zzo much drama. I don’t know why more zzpecies can’t be zzenzible like us and combine both zzexes in the zzame body.”
“Oh—you’re both male and female?” Iyanna asked, clearly surprised.
“Yezz—though we do not exhibit any zzexual characterizztics until it izz time for a mating flight,” Dr. A’flerzz said. “And then we either zzprout a zzperm tube or a zzperm rezzeptor.”
“But how do you know which to, er, sprout?” Kiera asked. She had wondered about the sexual cycle of the Ba’ltzians before, but had thought it might be rude to ask. However, since Dr. A’flerzz seemed willing to talk about it, she was inclined to be curious.
“Pheromonezz,” the Ba’ltzian scientist said simply. “Now if you ladiezz would come with me, I have much to show you.” They nodded at Iyanna. “Many of our animalzz have zzpecial dietary requirementzz that involve plantzz which we grow right here for them in our greenhouzezz.”
“I’m always interested in new flora,” Iyanna said, smiling eagerly. “Now I wish I had brought some collection cubes.”
“We can zzupply you with anything you need,” Dr. A’flerzz assured her. “Azz long as you promizz you will take proper care of any zzamples we give you.”
“Oh, I will!” Iyanna was beginning to look as excited as Kiera was.” me. I will give you a tour of our facilitiezz since Dr. Washington hazz not been here before.”
As Dr. A’flerzz led them deeper into the large, maze—like ship, Kiera nudged her friend with an elbow.
“Well? Didn’t I tell you this would be fun?”
“You did.” Iyanna laughed. “You really know how to show a girl a good time.”
“I do, don’t I?” Kiera grinned at her. “Much more fun than brunch and a thrifting trip—though that’s fun too.”
“Yes, but it can’t beat a whole ship full of alien plants and animals.” Iyanna looked so excited that Kiera’s heart soared. If there was anything she loved more in this world than having an adventure with a good friend, she didn’t know what it was.
