Star Side

Chapter 33

Stellar date (Earth Time): 03-03-2914

I decided to start making a habit of locking the observatory door.

The first day, Gilrack had scratched and whined a bit before stopping abruptly with a wave of my irritation. If he'd continued one more second I might have thrown something at the door. I wondered just how far this telepathy thing of his went.

Levi was far less subtle. He called me on the intercom only to ask if I was alive and Gilrack was by me, then would come thundering up whenever mealtimes came around.

"If you don't like it, pack your own food," he'd said while shoving a foil-wrapped burrito into my hands.

He hadn't been this much of a nanny before Gilrack. It was almost as though he were using my hypoglycemia as an excuse just to make sure I wasn't getting down and dirty with an alien every other time of the day, and that made me want to punch him.

Naomi was a saint, because she understood the need to decompress socially, even if it was just the three of us. She still went for long stretches of time holed up in her quarters to read and grieve, but did Levi pitch a fit at her door? Did he ever worry about Gilrack being around her when he was about her just as much as me? Noooo. Asshole.

"You should find it flattering," he'd said during the next breakfast when I'd expressed myself. Bluntly. Let no one ever say I don't.

"Flattering? How the—flattering?"

"That I'm trying to protect you," he said, his face that careful stillness I'd come to hate, when before I'd loved it because it made for a perfect deliverance of his dark jokes.

"I'm not going to hump an alien!"

"I'm not worried about you!" he'd said, an octave higher and louder. His careful façade faltered as he scrubbed his hands hard through his salt and pepper hair. "Damn it, woman."

His eyes landed on me and, for a moment, I saw a burning intensity that made me flinch. I'd half expected him to grab or hit me.

But Naomi was there, and more importantly, Gilrack, and no one wanted a repeat of the stairs incident.

So Levi had done his go to: stomping off with his shoulders somewhere around his ears.

Naomi swallowed a scoop of scrambled eggs. None of us understood how she could stomach those. Rehydrated eggs were just gross.

"How against laying Levi are you?" Naomi asked, as though asking what kind of paints I used.

I spluttered. I stared. I exchanged a look with Gilrack, who none of us had had 'the Talk' with so he didn't know any vocabulary about sex and thank god, though I couldn't read his expression either. The goat-pupil-eyes made it difficult, though I had noticed his pupils sometimes shrunk to cat-like slits. I meant to learn what that meant.

"No." I said.

"No? To a relationship or getting laid?"

"Both. This isn't happening. If he feels anything at all he can be a man and say it himself, and even then it's only because I'm the only female around he's not related to. That does not make a basis for a healthy relationship."

She snorted. "Honey, nothing with Levi is healthy, only female or not."

"Then why are you suggesting I get with him? Seriously, Naomi?"

"I said no such thing. I just asked how against it you were so I know whether or not to intervene. I know you have morals against no strings attached sleeping around, don't worry, but I could hope. It's painful to watch him. Sexual frustration is the worst."