Five days later, Rader was ready to introduce Skye to Makus and his mate Jhenre and their two children Sella and Bran. From the moment Rader got her back to his house, they two had barely been able to keep their hands off each other long enough to be sociable with anyone else.
“Skye, I am so happy to finally meet you,” Jhenre enthused, taking both Skye’s hands in a formal greeting reserved for special friends.
Skye smiled and gave the other woman’s hands a gentle squeeze. “Me, too. Rader has told me so much about you and your family. He thinks highly of Makus.”
“They were warriors together fighting the Drayids.”
“That’s what Rader said. And they rescued you and your family from their invasion on your homeworld.”
“Yes, that’s how I met Makus and subsequently Rader,” said Jhenre. “I understand the Drayids attacked your planet as well.”
“Yes, but they didn’t invade. They just made huge craters in some of our biggest cities---one happened right in front of me.”
“How awful,” Jhenre exclaimed, releasing her hands. “Come on in and have some beverage. I thought we would have some time to visit before we share third meal.”
“That would be lovely,” Skye said. “I think Rader wants to chat with Makus about work. I’ve been keeping him all to myself, I guess I have to share now.”
Momentarily a bot cart wheeled into the sitting room laden with four stemmed glasses of a light colored sparkling beverage. Jhenre handed one to Skye and to each of the men and took the last one for herself.
Skye took a sip and found it slightly sweet and bubbly like a cross between champagne and a wine cooler.
“Would you like me to show you around?” Jhenre asked. “I promised Sella and Bran they could meet you before they go to bed.”
“I would love to meet them,” Skye smiled and follow the other woman down the hall to the playroom where the two were playing with a toy building set.
“This is Sella, and this is Bran, she’s seven, and he is nine.”
“Hi there,” Skye said as the two towheaded children got up from the floor. The children politely took Skye’s hands in greeting. “I’m so glad to meet you.”
“Mommy said Uncle Rader was coming with you. You are his mate from Earth.” Sella said. “She said we should call you Aunt Skye if it’s all right with you.”
“That would be fine,” she told them.
“Are you going to have children with Uncle Rader?”
“One day, I hope we will,” she said.
“All right, you two. Now that you have met Skye, it’s time for you to go to bed so we can have some adult time together.”
“Okay,” Sella moaned.
“I’ll come back to say good night,” Jhenre said. “Come, let me show you the rest of the house.”
It was a lovely one-story unit that was imported in modules and connected together by a concrete polymer that formed the roof and outside walls. The house was white on the outside. Although the inner walls were all white, elegant batik wall hangings, and sculptures strategically placed made it look homey.
As Skye admired them, Jhenre confessed that she made many of the pieces herself.
“These are absolutely lovely!” Skye exclaimed. “We would call them museum quality back on Earth. Do you sell your work?”
“Sell it? No, it’s just something I do to pass the time while the children are doing their lessons. The house and gardens are maintained by bots, and the processor makes our meals,” said Jhenre. “That leaves little for me to do while Makus is working.”
“Do you wish to work, yourself?”
“With children, it doesn’t make sense to work at a job that would take me away from them. I would have to hire a nanny to take care of them, and I would miss their childhood.”
“Well, making your beautiful art pieces is work---and it doesn’t take you away from them,” Skye told her. “Back before I was born they had a kind of social revolution against females being relegated to low-level jobs of being homemakers, running the household and raising the children. Women wanted the freedom to pursue the high level, high paying jobs.”
“I could do that if I cared to, but they will only be children for a few more years,” Jhenre said. “We are thinking about having more children. Glasica is sparsely settled, and we have the room. We can support them.”
“Of course,” Skye said. “This is a beautiful world, not very different than Earth before overpopulation and pollution.”
“How are things going with Rader? I know cyborgs are different than natural humans. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve known Rader as long as I’ve known Makus. He seems more---human since they reprogrammed his emotional dampers.”
“I’ve known from the beginning what Rader is. He is not just like natural humans; his emotions seem a bit muted. But I have no doubt he has strong feelings for me.”
“And you love him,” Jhenre said with a big smile.
“I do,” Skye admitted freely and took a sip of her beverage. “According to the matchmaking service, he is my soulmate. Honestly, I feel like they got it right.”
“How did you ever find the courage to journey here all by yourself?”
“It all started with the Drayid attack. I was just ten feet from oblivion, and everything I worked for was gone. The one thing that came clear through all of that was that I was alone. I wanted a mate who I could have a family with. The matching service promised to find my genetic soul mate; they found Rader.”
“Most human women don’t want anything to do with cyborg warriors because they were originally made to be killing machines.”
“But he’s not a machine. He’s a human being first. His bioelectric enhancements don’t change that,” Skye insisted. “Calling them machines apparently gave the Alliance an excuse not to give them rights in the beginning.
“I don’t know how much Rader shared with you, but we talked for hours every day on my way here. He told me so much about his life, how they brainwashed them to enjoy killing the enemy, and that the enemy was whoever they told them to kill. It turns out reversing it was not as painless as they want people to believe.”
“I know,” Jhenre said grimly. “Makus told me that some of them took their own lives because re-programming drove them mad. Then they started putting them into a coma to do it.”
“Rader told me. They didn’t start putting them under until after they deprogrammed him. He had a really hard time with it. They finally sedated him to get him through it.”
“In the beginning, all they have is each other. The only love they know is what they feel for their brothers. They don’t even have a childhood to look back on. They learn duty and responsibility.” Jhenre shook her head in disgust. “At least now, they give them a virtual childhood. I don’t think it’s as good as a real one but better than nothing I guess.”
“Well, he has me now,” Skye told her with a dreamy smile.
“Is what they say about cyborg lovers true?”
“I don’t know what they say,” Skye said pausing for emphasis, “but it’s a good thing we got in all those long talks before I got here. Because we haven’t gotten much talking done since I got here.”
The two women laughed together.
They walked back into the main sitting room where their mates were talking shop.
“You have plenty of time coming,” Makus said. “Rader, you haven’t taken any leave in probably five years. Take all the time you need. Even cyborgs need time to recreate. Take Skye out to see the sights.”
Makus wasn’t facing where the two women entered the room, but he knew immediately when they did by the way Rader’s eyes sought his mate. Makus turned toward them. “Tell him to take more time, Skye.”
“While I am recreating, you can only cover half our territory every day,” Rader protested.
“And there has been no unusual activity any time. Dalbrath is about the only place there is ever any trouble and that mostly centered around the Pleasure Parlor. Nothing Jarod’s team can’t handle.”
“But…”
“Rader, they took almost three years to find you a mate. Take the time to enjoy her,” Jhenre asserted.
Skye felt her face warm at Jhenre’s unintended implication. They were enjoying each other in mind blowing sex every day, some days a few times. It was crystal clear to Rader’s friends they were happily in love.