Page 3 of Loaned to the Leonid Knight

Sasha watched the woman wave and speed off, a hungry glint in her eye.

“She’s not going for food, is she?” Sasha asked.

“Well... Her husband is the chef. There will probably be snacking. And then there will be ‘snacking.’” Abi gave her a bashful smile.

Sasha leaned back with a slow smile spreading across her face. The feeling of safety was reasserting itself, along with a lot of questions. That was only natural in a new place with new people, she soothed internally. But she was also starting to look forward to meeting her partner in baby-making, this Farhet guy. Would they fall in love like Nessa and Abi had with their Felid husbands? Would she at least finally have a sexual experience that didn’t feel like she was someone’s puppet, someone’s way to get off?

Treated like a queen, in every sense of the word, that’s what Abi said.

Sasha fell into a natural, healing sleep, imagining her gorgeous Leonid suitor throwing his riches at her feet and sitting her on an old fairy tale throne.

I think I made a good choice...

Chapter Two

“You are an incredibly healthy, resilient woman. I think I’d need a week to recover after that jump, but look at you, two days later, and you’re up and ready to roam about the ship. Your partner, Farhet, should be here in two days. I asked him to wait until you were more ready and rested, but he was too eager.” Dr. Marcus sat across from her in the med bay, a kind smile on his face and a plate of delicious, delicately flavored little cookies between them. He pushed the plate towards her now. “These are floribunda biscuits, made by Kamau, our chef, and chief ‘farmer.’ We have goats on board for fresh milk and cheese, plumcotta trees are growing, and a whole bay that’s been terraformed for gardening. There’s a lounge with games, a media viewer, and even some physical books!”

“What, like made of paper?”

“Yes, from the Lynxian System. Paper, stone, and wood are still used extensively there. It’s a rustic place, indeed, but very welcoming. If you want to visit a wonderful human-Felid community, we’ll be making a stop at Lynx-Nineteen each year.”

“I won’t be here for a year? Will I?”

Marcus shrugged. “Not if you don’t wish it, naturally, but there may be a delay in conception that could cause you to be here longer. You have several cycles to conceive, and then pregnancy lasts about five cycles. A lot depends on your reaction to the compatibility booster that will create Felid-identical biomarkers in your hormones and in your body chemistry.”

Sasha nodded. She understood how the surrogate program was supposed to work, and why it was different than back in the days when humans on the original Earth and Sapien-One and Sapien-Two had been allowed to practice surrogacy and reproductive medicine—before the population strain was so great that such things were outlawed. There would be no collecting samples and pumping them into her with tubes. Felid semen had to be delivered in a natural fashion, since their ejaculations didn’t contain live sperm unless the female’s bodily fluids triggered the release. “I have some medical training. I went to nursing school for one year before I lost my funding for it. I understand that even the most fertile couple doesn’t always conceive on the first try. But you mentioned the boosters will create a feeling of desire—at least on my part—so I shouldn’t mind trying extensively during the two-week window when conception is likely?”

“Exactly.”

“But what about the male partner? How is he supposed to... Well, I’m a human, he’s a Felid. No offense, but it’s not like there’s a natural attraction across our races.”

“That’s very true, but it can be a delightful acquired taste,” Marcus smiled. “This ship is currently staffed by Felid and human partners, and Canid and human partners. The physical attraction seems to grow quickly once a friendly bond forms. Farhet knows what he signed up for, and I’m sure if he had any reservations about the matter, he wouldn’t have. You’ll have private quarters and all the time you could want to develop a friendship and then a... a working relationship with the goal of producing a healthy little cub. It’s very noble work that you’re doing. I know mere credits are not enough compensation, so I hope that our hospitality and full run of the ship’s leisure, dining, and social facilities will add to it.”

Sasha nodded. “They do!” Her quarters were luxurious—and oversized. They were clearly built with Felid height and width in mind, but she didn’t really mind. She felt safe and surrounded by silky sheets, able to swim in what was probably a standardtub, and she was swallowed up in softness on the couch that was three times the size of the one in her childhood home.

She didn’t think about the little apartment she had shared back on Sapien-Three. Grungy. Littered. Dangerous. Her roommate wasn’t home most of the time. Weeks would pass without a glimpse of her, and she was stuck with the credits due for rent and utilities most of the time. The pay for her constant string of short-term jobs was abysmal. Sasha was already beginning to wonder about settling somewhere in the Felix Orbus Galaxy when this was over. She’d certainly have the credits for a little flat somewhere. Maybe she’d become a permanent surrogate. Maybe... Lots of maybes, but she had one certainty. So far, she liked this place better than Sapien-Three.

“You don’t have to keep to your quarters for meals any longer now that you’ve passed all the screenings. Would you like to come down to dinner with us? I warn you, we’re a noisy group. There are a bunch of cubs on board.”

Sasha bit her lip and nodded. She was not someone with maternal instincts urging her to cuddle and coo over babies. She passed the surrogacy test because she had positive feelings about pregnancy and delivering a healthy child, but she wasn’t inclined to keep one. She wasn’t in a position to, and the way things were on Sapien-Three? Unless you were wealthy, you had to be out of your mind to even think of bringing another mouth to feed into the world.

If I see all those little families, will I be able to go through with this?

Of course I will. I know what I’m getting into, and the alternative is sitting alone for six cycles. Egh.“I’d love to come to dinner and meet everyone. Abi and Nessa have been great. And Skyla and Kay have answered all my questions and taken such good care of me.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Abi is my Queen. Did you know that? Val and Mara are our children. You could hold them if you want.”

“She mentioned! I might take you up on it,” Sasha said with a polite smile, secretly deciding that she would hold off for a while. It wouldn’t do her any good to get attached to these people. Well, not too attached.

As Marcus showed her out of the room and began a more thorough tour of the ship, Sasha couldn’t keep her mouth from popping open in wonder. It was so clean and spacious, so organized and beautiful. She’d been in large, spacious, modern buildings on Sapien-three before, of course, but all of them felt scary and sterile. Aboard theComet Stalker, there were touches of hominess and personality. Good smells wafted from the kitchen, and laughter and chatter echoed from one room to the next.

No, it wouldn’t do to get too attached to the people here.

Not yet.

But maybe... Maybe she and Farhet would hit it off. Not as lovers, probably, because romance was firmly forbidden in her mind, something that years of bad dates and worthless creeps had ruined her taste for, but as friends. One day, she and this Leonid might look upon each other as partners who had shared some fun times in the act of making his child, and then maybe she would always want to be a part of the child’s life, an auntie, someone he video-called on his birthday.

Maybe with friends like Farhet, Nessa, Abi, and Dr. Marcus, in six cycles, she wouldn’t want to go back. And what else would she do while growing a baby, besides rest, eat well, and make sure she had her regular required check-ups, but socialize? Socialize, and surf on the database computer placed in her quarters. She could spend hours trying to get media from Sapien-Three, or... She could look at the lodgings in the different Felid systems, take a chance to see what sort of offers hercontract might fetch, and research different opportunities across this brand new galaxy where women were prized and valued, where families weren’t some ruinous old convention. Yeah, there were a lot of maybes, and the one that was playing on repeat in her mind was that maybe, just maybe, she might not want to go back to Sapien-Three.