The Space Spoon novel Chapter 97

A/N: Sunsetrise is a short story I've written before even starting the novel. It holds the ending of the first volume and is made up of 4 parts. The first 2 parts are from Tejeda's POV and the last 2 parts from Shayla's. Enjoy!

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Tejeda Hajar's POV

“Happy birthday, Shayla!” I invite her to sit on the blanket next to me with a pat.

It took me about a week to create a perfect replica of Genoria Prime inside Jackeye's world.

Once every two thousand years, Genoria Prime, a water planet with just a few stretches of land covered in sand, is perfectly aligned to get the ultimate romantic view. One of its suns sets while the other rises, a phenomenon called sunsetrise.

To recreate it from my memories inside Jackeye's virtual world involved a few setbacks. But that isn't important anymore.

Shayla takes one of the glasses of red wine and fixes her dark green eyes on me. “Whose body are you wearing now?”

“You know bodies are just meat suits for me.” I give a sly smirk, looking her over. “Well, they have a few perks, can’t lie about that.”

“Jerk!”

Shayla knows what I am implying. No need to hide my perverted side when I’m with her. She cuts me off as usual, though her gaze says otherwise.

"But the eyes are the mirror of the soul.” I curl my lips into a smirk. “Oh, and the things I see in your eyes... "

“What do you see?”

“You should’ve asked me what I can’t see. There is courage and fear, love and hate, lust and chastity, kindness and toughness… You drive me insane.”

As she stares at the chain around my neck, her gaze darkens.

“But I’ll never be Carmen.”

“True.” I take Carmen off my neck and look at her. My darling has been in bad shape for millennia. My fingers slide over the cold metal, drifting from the tip, along the neck, and over the handle.

“I accepted becoming the second in command on your ship. I allow your moments of craziness without asking questions. But this…” Shayla looks at Carmen. “How crazy would I be to accept being the second after a spoon?”

She vanishes, leaving me alone on the beach. She has left Jackeye's world, and I have once again been left alone with my faithful companion. My ears ring with Carmen's laughter while I have the sunsetrise all to myself. She would mock me for having affections for a human being. Oh, how I miss her!

Other beings are, for me, exactly like the grains in the sand. Countless, endless, yet all the same. I pick up a few grains and scatter them in my palm. Once in a while, a flawless one appears, so exquisite that I can’t look away. I close my eyes and see Shayla. I can’t look away. This is my sunsetrise.

Shayla looks to the door. No ambassador comes to a meeting without escorts and a security detail. Yet, I bet no one else is coming. Maybe not even the Tomengi party.

The red-skinned woman winks at me and bites her lower lip. She’s playing a game for sure, one I’ll lose if I can’t connect the dots. Her black lips move ever so slowly. “Oh, Tej, don’t tell me you forgot all about me. It was only what? A few millennia? I tend to lose count after the fourth digit.”

Tej... Only one person ever addressed me as such. Oxygen seems scarce as my muscles tense and my lungs contract. I can't even exhale. "Carmen?" That's all I can ask with my near nonexistent breath.

My hand moves instinctively to my collarbone, but she isn’t there. “How? You’ve died.”

"I died in a sense. Stripped of all my organic compounds and reduced to my silica core." Her face remains expressionless even when she recalls something that any Nubilae would have deemed as hell. "Doctor Iadfoc’s experiment showed me where true beauty lies. You and I, Tej, we are different, and we should show the whole universe that we are the ultimate beings."

“Wait!” Shayla grabs my elbow in a strong grip. “Do you mean this is Carmen? The Carmen? But she’s a spoon!”

“I thought so too for a few millennia.” With my usual carefree smirk, I point toward Carmen. “Shayla, meet my wife, Carmen. Carmen, this is Shayla, the second in command on my ship.”

The coal-black eyes of the Valerian meat suit measure Shayla. “So this is what happens when a Nubilae lives too long among lesser species. Poor tastes.” Then Carmen’s gaze focuses again on me. “I’ve been watching you mingling with aliens, trying to blend in, hell, even working for the Interplanetary Police. Doctor Iadfoc must have scrambled your synapses.”

“You let me believe you died and the mad scientist transformed your core into a spoon. I've carried the damn thing with me ever since. And all this time you’ve been watching me? How dare you say I’m the one whose mind is screwed?”