His little speech—and she’d heard him talking—made it sound like mates were highly prized. This place certainly did not seem like he had another female around him. It was too cold.
On a wall, floating over a pedestal just behind him, was a stone--a crystal, actually, at least the size of her head. One that she recognized.
"Is that raw citricite?"
He still had his back to her, so he was facing the pedestal. "Yet. My first one.”
"Your first one?" she asked. She’d never seen a piece that large. One so big could power, well, she couldn’t imagine. A building, anyway. Or a family home for years, and he just had it on display in his apartment like a piece of art.
That answered the issue of the means. If that was his first piece of citricite, then yes, he was of financial means. It was one of the most valuable exports in the galaxy. It powered everything.
"It's a mineral that's mined from asteroids,” she said. “The process to retrieve and process it is, well… Difficult."
"You're being kind." This did make him genuinely smile at her. “It is very dangerous. Hence the crystal’s place of honor in my home. It was the first large piece I found."
Her gaze ran over him, clinically. She wondered why he had such a muscular physique. "You're a miner?"
He turned back around, so he faced her. "No, though I have done the work before. It's a rite of passage for Kantenans. Much of our society revolves around the proper mining and processing of citricite. Part of a Kantenan's transition to adulthood is to go mine for pieces. I found this one, a very large piece, on my own." He took a few steps toward it. "I took it as a sign that I needed to follow my own path. Not the one my family expected of me."
"Why?"
"Because I was told to mine in a certain area in my family plot, and my instincts told me to go a different way. I found several large stones and a small, unmarked vein."
"That's amazing." She moved closer to the stone. It indeed was a beautiful piece. Whether it was the lighting or the rock itself, it seemed to glow of its own light.
It should. It was considered one of the better power sources for the sector. Citricite was in most anything that required power. The crystals were about to do a great deal for pretty much any race of humanoids. Unfortunately, they could only be mined in the vacuum of space due to how unstable they could be until refined.
And he had one in his home, like a prize.
She couldn’t get over it. The differences in their life experiences.
"That would power a home for months," she muttered.
"A small one, I assume," he said.
"Not everyone has this much home to call their own." She crossed her arms and continued to stare out into the forest and the land. It was beautiful. Yet she couldn't help wondering about the opulence seeing. Whether she should even be a part of it.
She hated to say it, but maybe Khalzin chose wrong. Someone like Roemary would be much more suited to this kind of world. She obviously wasn't used to this kind of thing.
It felt like a dream.
That she'd wake up back on Trinity Alpha Prime with a hungry stomach.
"How are you feeling?" His voice was soft and delicate when he spoke to her. Compassionate. Why it touched her, she didn’t know, but it did.
She did not have a lot of people who were compassionate toward her. It tended to make her question their sincerity and motivations if they were.
No one did anything for nothing.
Yet he felt different.
Maybe it was his tone.
But his inquiry seemed sincere.
Withholding judgment for the time being. Besides, she didn't have an answer for that one. Not sure for certain. "Still shaken, I think. This feels very surreal to me." She had so many questions, and she wasn't sure where to begin. The biggest one being, why did he pick her out of all the females that were there? She wasn't even supposed to be chosen!
And now the ship almost crashing? What about the rest of the humanoids on it? Were they okay? Had anyone else been hurt?
