Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
An animal that dangerous had to be kept at a distance. But as scary as it was, the Vorn still deserved a safe place to live and thrive.
Kiera wasn’t only collecting and rescuing cute, cuddly animals—she made sure the sanctuary had its fair share of predators too. As long as they were safely housed and separated, there was no reason why she shouldn’t have a Chooley from Aramath Six, which had fluffy gray fur and huge, adorable eyes that changed colors with its mood and a J’rax from Tonor Sepules—a horse sized creature—which had two scorpion—like stingers—one on its head and one on its tail—at the same facility.
“Oh, I can’t wait to see what they’ve got this time!” she exclaimed as she and Iyanna left the ship together and walked towards the entrance.
Luckily, the whole docking area was covered in a vast, invisible atmosphere dome so they didn’t have to wear any special equipment to breathe or stay warm.
“I know we’re here for the schoonies,” she went on. “But I’m sure they’re going to have other animal rescues that I’m going to want to get too.”
Iyanna grinned at her.
“You’re always so excited when you get to collect new animals. I don’t think you’ll ever be ready to stop growing that sanctuary.”
“Why should I? Commander Rarev said I could have as many animals as I wanted,” Kiera reminded her.
Iyanna burst out laughing.
“I remember how you were always bringing in stray kittens and puppies and God knows what—all else in college. Your dorm room looked like an animal shelter! Didn’t you get kicked out of the dorms in your junior year for having too many animals?”
“Well yes, but I couldn’t help it,” Kiera protested. “There were just so many animals that needed help!”
Iyanna shook her head.
“I’ve heard of the Universe’s Cat Distribution System—where a stray kitten or cat comes up to you and adopts you. But you seem to be a magnet for any stray animal anywhere in the world. Hell—in the entire galaxy!”
Kiera laughed ruefully.
“I know…but I just can’t seem to help it. At least now I finally have a place to put them all,” she added, grinning. She sighed. “It’s just too bad we couldn’t bring a long—range shuttle with more compartments.”
“You’re just lucky that the Monstrum let you modify one of their bigger shuttles to carry animals—and that Dra’vik taught me to pilot it,” Iyanna remarked. Dra’vik was her Monstrum husband—he was quite imposing since he was nine feet tall and had horns and scales like a dragon. “He wanted to come with us today, you know—but I told him we could handle it,” she added.
“That’s right—girl power!” Kiera laughed and shook back her long box braids.
She was glad she’d gotten her hair done the last time she’d stopped by Earth—it was so much easier to take care of when it was in braids. She didn’t have time to be messing with her hair when every minute of every day was filled with taking care of her animals.
They reached the entrance—well, one of the many entrances—and Iyanna pushed the signal bell. There was a faint humming—buzzing sound from the other side of the silver door and then it slid to one side with a whoosh.
“Oh—they must have recognized me right away this time,” Kiera remarked. “Usually I have to wait while they verify I’m not a bad guy.”
The Ba’ltzians had to be careful who they let onto the BAR ship. Unfortunately, there were plenty of people with ill intentions who tried to adopt animals from them. Some wanted to skin or eat the creatures just because they were rare or endangered. And some didn’t have the proper facilities to care for them. The alien animal activists always made a home visit before allowing any of their animals to be adopted. Kiera had been thrilled when her sanctuary had passed their test with flying colors.
They stepped into the BAR ship and were greeted at once by the sight of what appeared to be a six—foot—tall blue ant wearing a lab coat.
“Good morning, Dr. Ztone,” the ant said in their buzzing voice. “We are zzo glad to zzee you again.”
“Good morning, Dr. A’flerzz.” Kiera nodded at the Ba’ltzian scientist. “Thank you for contacting me. I understand you have a breeding pair of schoonies I can have for my sanctuary?”
“Yezz indeed.” Dr. A’flerzz’s long, segmented antennae twitched. Their saucer—sized compound eyes turned to Iyanna. “But first, are we to underzzstand this is your colleague?”
Kiera nodded.
“Why yes, this is Dr. Iyanna Washington—she specializes in exotic plant species.”
“Zzmm,” Dr. A’flerzz nodded, antennae twitching again. “Then we may have zzomething of interest for her azz well. Forgive me, though—perhapzz I mizzspoke.” He leaned towards Iyanna. “You are a female—are you not? It izz difficult to tell zzince your zzpecies keepzz their primary and zzecondary zzexual attributezz covered.” He nodded at her exposed arm. “I zee that you and Dr. Zztone have the same brown skin tones and you both have long hair, but theze are not reliable markerzz of zzex.”