Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 42969 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42969 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
As always when she folded space, Sylvie felt a stretching sensation—almost as though she was being pulled in every direction at once. It didn’t hurt—it just felt strange. She knew from talking to other people that folding space felt different for everyone. And of course, the only people who couldn’t fold space were pregnant women—it was apparently bad for the baby.
Don’t have to worry about that, Sylvie thought dryly. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been with a man. After suffering through the disastrous dating scene back on Earth, she’d decided to make do with a vibrator and concentrate on her work when she moved up to the Mother Ship. So there was no way she was pregnant.
“Well—there it is.” Kross broke the long silence between them and she turned to see that he was staring at the viewscreen. It showed a smallish purple-green planet spinning like a jewel in the darkness of space.
For a moment, the sight took her breath away.
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed.
“Beautiful and fucking deadly, Princess—if Dr. Barbarous is in residence.”
“He’s not!” Sylvie snapped. “Stop making excuses—the sooner we get to the Northern continent, the sooner I can get a specimen of the tangeline vine and we can get back to the Mother Ship before you mess up your hair.”
Kross glared at her.
“Yes, Your Majesty—your every wish is my command.”
Sylvie bit back the sharp reply that rose to her lips.
I won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me upset, she told herself. I won’t let him make me angry, no matter what he says!
About an hour later her resolve was truly tested when Kross was hovering over her shoulder in the dense purple-green forest as she tried to find a specimen of the tangeline vine.
“Kross, will you give me some space!” she asked at last, turning to face him. He was so close to her that his broad chest was right in her face—he was irritatingly tall, damn him! Also, why did he have to smell so good? It was distracting when she was trying to work.
“Just trying to be sure you don’t fall into the jungle and get eaten alive by whatever creepy-crawlies they have on this fucking planet,” he growled. “As I recall, you didn’t need much space on Minerva Twelve to get yourself in trouble.”
Sylvie felt her cheeks get hot with a blush—how dare he mention their last mission when he’d acted like such a jerk to her there, after acting like he cared for a moment?
“I’m fine! I don’t need you breathing down the back of my neck,” she snapped and turned away from him.
There was a small hole in the dense undergrowth in front of her—a low archway that she was sure she could fit through but she knew Kross couldn’t. On impulse, she ducked her head and slipped through it.
“Hey! What the fuck, Princess?” she heard her Protector snarl. But it was too late, she thought triumphantly. He couldn’t get to her here—not without a struggle anyway—he was just too tall.
“Just wait for me,” she called back. “I’ll come back as soon as I find a good tangeline specimen.”
“Goddess-damn it! You know you’re not supposed to go off without me! You could get hurt!”
The genuine fear in his deep voice almost made her turn back…but then she looked around her and the view drove all the guilt she felt out of her mind.
She had found her way into a lovely, natural clearing in the forest. It was a vast space of short purple and gold vegetation surrounded by a thick ring of enormously tall trees with thick, mossy green trunks—each one wide enough around to form a small cottage. Sunlight slanted through their royal purple leaves, casting magical shadows on the ground.
Sylvie took a deep breath, inhaling a sweet, floral scent that seemed to be coming from the vines that were wrapped around one of the enormous tree trunks on the far side of the clearing. The trees reminded her of the giant redwood trees of California which she had visited once when she still lived on Earth. She inhaled deeply as she walked towards the vines with the bright golden flowers.
“That’s the tangeline vine—I know it is,” she murmured to herself as she reached the huge tree. The vine looked just like the reports had described it. It was dark blue and as thick as her wrist and the flowers growing from it were bright gold and shaped like the bell of a trumpet.
Behind her, she could vaguely hear some crashing in the undergrowth—no doubt Kross was trying to follow her. He would probably be angry that she’d left him behind, but then, he was already angry with her, Sylvie reasoned. So what did it really matter?
Carefully, she reached into her collection kit and got out a specimen bag and some scissors. She snipped off one of the golden flowers—which was about as big as her hand—and slipped it into the bag. She was just about to snip off another when there was a creaking sound and—to her shock—a door seemed to open in the side of the massive tree.