Galaxy Girls

Chapter Five

Now she’ll bloom, Phyrne thought fiercely. Now they would all bloom.

Ki followed Liss, slighter, shorter, slender as a girl, her black pants and white blouse impeccable. Before their trip to the casino, she’d learned how to use an iron and had taken out all their clothes and ironed them, even the ones that didn’t need it.

“The IDs will be ready tomorrow,” Liss said. “I released a few pheromones. If the forger had any notion of cheating us, it’s gone now.”

“Be careful.” Deena twisted her knees under her, her forehead knotting. “You could get pregnant, too.”

Liss and Ki exchanged glances, and Phyrne saw the baby news wasn’t a surprise to them. They probably knew when she stumbled out of the van and into their embrace.

“I’m not ovulating.” Liss sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed Phyrne’s flat belly. The white robe Phyrne wore bunched under her mother’s circling palm.

Phyrne leaned her head on her mother’s shoulder. It felt good. Her mother hadn’t been able to protect her from Argon, but Phyrne never questioned her love, even on the days when her world was gray and so was her aura, and she wondered if the Great Mother had deserted her.

“So what are we going to do now?” Deena asked. “We have the FBI after us. We know what that’s like.” She pointed at the TV, their font of Earthly knowledge about the police, the FBI, the CSI and the NCIS.

“We made it this far.” Phyrne lifted her head from Liss’s shoulder. “Kergeron men couldn’t stop us. Neither will Earth men.”

“We’ll find someplace safe.” Liss shivered and glanced around the room, as if any second she expected enemies to pop up, aiming blasterguns at them. “Someplace where we’ll blend in. Someplace no one will find us.”

“Is there a place like that?” Ki plunked down next to Deena, dropping a kiss on her head. Deena draped an arm around Ki’s shoulders, the corners of her lips lifting.

Phyrne tore her gaze from them. With an ache inside her chest, she thought of the female fetus destroyed by Argon’s command. Her daughter.

Her hands went to her stomach. She wanted this one to be a daughter, too. This one would live and thrive and be free.

Liss turned toward Ki and Deena. “Ki, remember when we were children, the story we heard about our uncle and his wife?”

Ki’s nose twitched. “You don’t believe they survived?”

“What uncle? What wife?” Deena sat straight, her face lit with curiosity. “Tell me. I want to know everything.”

A niggle of curiosity worked its way out of Phyrne’s grief. “I want to know, too.”

Liss withdrew her arm from Phyrne’s back, but remained next to her. “This happened before the war, before Ki and I were born, when Kergeron men were exploring other universes.” Her hands sketched pictures in the air with graceful movements. “My mother’s cousin was given an assignment to explore Earth. He took Yannel, his wife, with him. My mother said the ship signaled that they landed, but after that, nothing was heard.”

“Nothing was heard because they’re dead.” Ki’s voice was flat.

“Maybe they wanted to stay on Earth,” Liss said, and Phyrne heard wistfulness in her tone instead of hope. As though she knew she was asking the impossible.

“The cousin was a Kergeron male.” Ki’s frown dared Liss to argue. “Do you think he could live like an Earth man? Taking out garbage? Changing diapers? Caring for their wives when they’re sick?”