Free GalacticFlame by Mel Teshco

of one bolishta , causing its
rubbery, whiskered lips to tremble.
    “They adore affection,” Genesis said with a smile.
    Her hand slid up the creature’s graceful curving face and
between its large, V-shaped ears. “They’re so big, much bigger than horses.”
She scratched between its ears, grinning as its lips continued to quiver.
    At least its comical expression distracted her from Genesis’
bare chest that had the hard musculature of a warrior and musky scent of male.
    She turned to him. “Are they all trained to be ridden?”
    “They are.” He faced the bolishta getting all the
attention and commanded, “Karsh.”
    The animal grunted, its head dropping as it all but
collapsed onto its knees. Genesis lifted her onto its back then climbed behind
her, his arms encircling her from behind.
    “I’m not sure this is such a good idea.” She swallowed.
“Where’s the bridle and saddle?”
    “We need none of those things,” he reassured. “As you can
probably feel, their coats are soft, even a little spongy.”
    She wriggled a little. He was right. It was much the same as
the memory foam cushion she’d owned on Earth, imprinting her favorite position.
    “As for a bridle…we simply look to where we want to go and
that’s where the bolishta heads. Everything else is voice control and
their sensitivity to our emotions.”
    She bit her bottom lip. If she had any hope to one day
destroy the airwave device on the tower, she needed to learn how to ride these
creatures. “Sounds…easy enough.”
    “Unct.” At his command the bolishta clambered
to its feet, making the ground seem a long way down. Genesis’ arms tightened
around her as he murmured, “I won’t let anything happen to you, okay?”
    “Okay.”
    “Merdee.” His next command had the bolishta’s long-legged stride take them closer to the mountain base, where plants of all
descriptions grew. A few of them she recognized, but there were many others she
didn’t.
    Soon enough she forgot her nerves, her focus instead zoning
in on each new plant. She pointed to one with blue and red striped leaves.
“What is that one?”
    “It’s a xenz . Its ground up and dried leaves make
incomparable pain relief. Its roots are highly toxic, as is its fresh
sap—though taken in small doses it counteracts the bacteria found in a caltronian bite or claws—if you’re lucky enough to survive the attack.”
    “And those?” she asked as they rode past the odd looking
rows of what appeared to be arm-length pieces of jagged, burnt-orange bark
stuck in the ground.
    His arms stiffened around her, causing the bolishta to nervously toss its head. Talking to the animal in his own tongue, he finally
answered her question, his tone stark. “We call it gratzi . It was
brought here after the crew on the mothership discovered an unmapped planet, on
its way back from Earth.”
    “Oh?” She peered at the gratzi with even more
interest, imagining it growing wild on some undoubtedly inhospitable planet.
    “Once its outer woody shell is infused in water for a day or
more, it triggers the body—alien or human—to produce millions of antibodies, far
more than we’d need to fight off the worst virus or bacteria.”
    Realization shuddered through her. “So…this,” she swept out
a goose-pimpled arm, her voice quavering with heartfelt emotion, “would have
saved our races from the virus had it been discovered earlier?”
    “Yes.”
    His one word expressed enough bitter regret for the both of
them and her vision blurred as she took in the unassuming wooded plant that
could have easily changed the fate of two great worlds.
    “Selfish bastard that I am, I’m almost glad it wasn’t
found,” he said hoarsely. His arms tightened. “I’d never have met you.”
    “I’m…glad too,” she admitted in a small voice. “I just wish
there could have been another reason for our worlds to unite and that we’d met
in other circumstances.”
    Moving the loosened strands of her hair