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Before Pella’s eyes had even opened that morning, her hands drifted out, beneath the blankets at her side. Like little rays, weaving through sea grass, they sleepily sought out the bare, warm body of her Auronar. But, when she had reached out as far as she could and found nothing but empty cushions, she roused herself from her indulgent dozing. Her sharp eyes flickered open, as if she had not been in a deep sleep a moment before, and flitted about her. Over the cold and wrinkled pillows, she spied Cally’s curly head, bobbing and glittering beneath the harsh lights of Scorpio.
Pella sat up, and saw her alien lover sitting upon the floor, as naked as when she was in her arms. Her white body, with it’s rippling thatch of pearlescent scarring, very nearly dazzled Pella. It was arched over something, rolling between her hands, and swaying as if to a rhythm that Pella could not hear.
“Cally?” Pella called to her, the last remnants of sleep rasping in her throat.
Cally’s swaying ceased at once, jostling her curls from her bright nape and she clasped the mystery object with both hands. It was rare that Pella could surprise Cally, and worry began to gnaw at her belly. The Auronar’s dance to a silent tune was not unfamiliar to her. She had observed it on the flight deck, caught her spinning and cantering, joyously through the corridors, even felt her tap upon her back, as if she, herself were an instrument. It was not Cally’s movements that concerned her, but the object in her hands.
“Cally, are you alright?”
At last, Cally turned her head to look at her, and Pella heard the liveliness of her mind. Her stare, black and glassy, buzzed with telepathic energy. Pella was relieved to find it warm. It sounded like the vibrations of a meadow in summertime, heaving with busy insects. Through the happy cacophony, Cally’s gentle voice reached her.
“I’m fine, Pella.” Her unopened lips, darkened by Pella’s lipstick, twitched into a soft smile. “I’m quite wonderful.”
Pella smiled, tightly back, but drew her legs out from beneath the blankets and hopped off the bed. She shuffled, hurriedly over to Cally and knelt beside her, the buzz in her ears undulating, excitedly at her approach. She draped the filmy cape of her nightshirt over Cally’s exposed shoulders.
“What’s that you have?” She asked, peering suspiciously at Cally’s interlocking fingers. Cally’s smile widened, and she raised her joined hands up to Pella and opened them for her. Nestled in her palms, was a sphere. A sphere as black as Cally’s eyes, as the view outside their window, twinkling with as many stars. It was no larger than a citrus fruit. Pella frowned at it, bemusedly. “A ball?”
“A crystal.” Cally answered, from her throat this time. Pella found that her mind had quieted to a distant hum, though she still smiled. “I found it among Dorian’s things. Soolin let me take it.”
“Very pretty.” Pella muttered, pressing herself closer to her alien. “But what about it has made you so musical, this morning?”
“As you say, it’s pretty. Beautiful, really.” Cally carefully rolled the sphere around the cup of her hands, showing off the sparkle to Pella. Pella fluttered her smokey lashes back at it. “I used to have a few like this, back on the Liberator.” Upon speaking her old ship’s name, Cally grew somber, lowering the shimmering sphere back into her lap.
Pella could not help blushing, shamefully, at her jealous dismissal of the crystal’s beauty. It was clear that Cally had been sickening for a stolen comfort. And the crystal was lovely. A perfect thing, solid and certain, in a chaotic and unpredictable life. Surely, she could appreciate that?
“I suppose you would line them up and watch them all shine?” She smiled, more easily at Cally, bringing her other arm around her, letting the light fabric brush her. Cally peered at her and smiled her velvet lipped, animal smile at her, again.
“Yes.”
Pella pulled her close, sliding a hand down Cally’s cool arm, until she found the sphere in her hands. She closed her fingers around the precious nest.
“I promise,” She kissed Cally and tasted the greasy, perfumed stains, “the next planet we land on, we’ll find you another.”