Vikingr by Skye MacKinnon

Author:Skye MacKinnon [MacKinnon, Skye]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peryton Press

11

Steff

Being on the Albyan ship was the complete opposite of my stay on the Valkyr. I was able to walk around on my own, everyone was friendly and helpful, and I was an honoured guest rather than a prisoner. I'd only met a few of the Albyans before, but they all knew me. Some treated me with almost reverence, knowing that I was part of the efforts to find mates for them all. A few tried to jump the queue by asking how they could improve their chances of getting matched to a human woman, but I was used to that by now. All in all, it was a pleasant journey.

Donail had explained how they'd tricked the Vikingar. He'd laughed as he told me the story and I couldn't help but grin at imagining how confused and angry the aliens would have been at finding an empty ship. The Islay was still drifting in space somewhere, but it had been programmed to reunite with the Berneray, the ship we were currently on, as soon as I'd been dropped off. The Berneray was a state-of-the-art stealth cruiser that had stayed undetected by the Vikingar. The crew of the Islay had abandoned ship as soon as the Vikingar had got close, setting a trap for the raiders. If they hadn't been worried that the Vikingar might detect the Berneray if it stayed nearby for too long, they would have engaged the Vikingar in battle to avenge my abduction, but Donail had decided that taking me home was more important. I agreed with him. I didn't want there to be bloodshed on my behalf. Until now, there had never been any aggression between the two species and I didn't want to be the reason for conflict or even war.

I sat in the viewing lounge, admiring the tiny blue dot that was quickly growing larger, when an Albyan joined me. He wore the indigo tartan of Clan Monadh, but that was the only familiar thing about him.

"My name is Clefft," he introduced himself in a soft voice. "I think we've exchanged some communications."

"Clefft! Yes, of course. Nice to finally meet you."

He was one of the Albyan scientists who'd been working behind the scenes to make our matching process more efficient. The Albyans had found a DNA marker that could be found in both them and in humans, and if it was exactly the same sequence, it meant that two individuals were mates. It was curious how both our species had this marker, and Clefft had mentioned in our emails that he was curious whether the same applied to other aliens.

"Likewise. I am curious about what the Vikingar wanted from you."

He took a seat next to me and extended all four arms. Ah, he'd clearly not met a lot of humans in person yet. I shook one of his hands, amused at his enthusiastic grin.

"He wanted to know about human women - Peritan females, that is."

"Just what I thought. With their planet gone, the Vikingar must be desperate for mates.

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