Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
I picked a plain white one and pulled it over my head. It had a plunging V-neck that showed my cleavage but it was warm and soft and the silky material smelled sweet like it had been freshly laundered. I pulled it over my head and slipped beneath the sheets of the big bed. The mattress was pillowy, yet firm and the sheets were silky and so soft they felt like heaven against my skin.
It would be something to live in this kind of luxury all the time, I couldn’t help thinking, as I watched the dancing flames in the fireplace with sleepy eyes. Back home I lived in a one-bedroom studio apartment and even after I got my PhD I wouldn’t be able to afford anything better for years. I was going to have massive student loans to pay off, which wouldn’t be easy on an assistant professor’s salary.
But then I thought of my family—Mama and Daddy and my brothers and Granny—and knew it would be worth it. I had to get back to them—had to get back to my old life. Living in the warmth and sunshine, even if I was poor, would be better than being rich and miserable on a ball of ice, I told myself firmly.
But you’re not thinking of Vik’tor, whispered a little voice in my head. He’s part of the equation too. What about the way he woke up your body sexually and allowed you to feel desire and need and sexual pleasure for the first time? What about that? And what about how sweet and kind and protective he is?
But I couldn’t let myself dwell on those things—if I did, I would be miserable. Because even though I hadn’t known Vik’tor long at all, I could tell there was a special connection between us—a connection I might never find again with any other guy.
I pushed that thought firmly out of my mind. I had to concentrate on getting home to my family. I would go on this one business trip with Vik’tor to the Female side of Tangella Alpha-Prime and then I would go back to Earth and everyone I loved again and that was that.
I had no idea how long that would take or how much was going to be involved in the little “side-trip” Vik’tor had asked me to come along on. But I was soon to find out…
THIRTY-FOUR
NATALIE
“So tell me about this planet we’re going to—why are the men and women split into two separate areas?” I asked, as we sat at breakfast the next morning.
The breakfast nook in Vik’tor’s ship was cozy and warm, though his kitchen seemed kind of empty, since it had only one appliance. It was something Vik’tor called a “food synthesizer” and it was basically a pot filled with green slime.
This might not sound appetizing—and believe me, it wasn’t—but somehow Vik’tor was able to make the pot produce all kinds of different foods. They were made up of the slime but they didn’t taste or feel slimy—they just felt and tasted normal. There was a special headset that you wore that was connected to the pot and you just put it on and thought about what you wanted to eat and the pot made it.
Despite the slime, I kind of wished I had a pot like it back home. It was so easy to use and it made perfect pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs—which was what I “thought up” for myself. Vik’tor had some kind of Naggian breakfast that didn’t look at all appealing to me—long curls of frozen, raw fish and a side dish of some kind of blood pudding.
Seeing the pudding, I asked him if he could simulate blood for himself to drink but he shook his head and told me that simulated blood didn’t have the same nutritional value as the real stuff. And besides, to get the full benefit, he had to drink directly from the vein—bagged or simulated blood just wouldn’t do.
But back to our side-trip—I was genuinely interested in the strange planet where the men and women were completely divided. Why and how had they made the decision to permanently split up?
“Actually, I don’t know a whole lot about why the inhabitants of Tangella Alpha-Prime separated in the first place,” Vik’tor remarked, frowning. “I only know that they’ve been that way for a long fucking time—centuries.”
“But…how do they reproduce?” I asked. “I mean, do they all get together once a year or something for some kind of sex festival?”
A planet-wide sex festival actually sounded pretty interesting, but Vik’tor shook his head.
“No—they both reproduce through artificial means. The women’s side has insemination stations where they can go to get impregnated and the men’s side has artificial wombs. Both of them have enough genetic material stored to keep going like that for centuries more. Though there is a prophecy that someday they will come back together.”