“Hello?”

The voice was crackly, but Bethany could at least make out the words. “Hello? Can you hear me?”

“Bethany? Is that you?”

“Culip! You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice.”

Klowix fiddled with the controls, and some of the crackling decreased.

“We were all so worried; we didn’t know if you were alive or not.”

Bethany glanced at Klowix, at the now mostly healed gash he’d gotten from one of the ciatri – what they’d named the biggest predator on Secrena, their biggest threat.

“There have been some moments, but we’re ok. We’ve been here for over four months and it still feels like there are a million things to do.”

Culip spoke quickly. “Tell me everything.”

“Well, we’ve got a good shelter, and safe places where we can gather food and water. Klowix is getting great at hunting with the spears we’ve been making. We’ve also got medicine, though we’re still working on expanding that. Winter is setting in, but where we are, it shouldn’t be too bad.

“The wind will get bad, though, so we’re trying to set up some kind of shelter over our crops so that they aren’t stripped away. We’ll need to use mirrors to make sure they get enough sunlight and so forth. But what about you? How are things in your part of the galaxy?”

Culip hesitated. “Things – they’re not so good. When the king moved against the humans on Telion, it started a war, and it’s not just on Telion anymore, it’s spreading throughout the galaxy. The intergalactic armies have been called in. It’s pretty grim.”

Klowix called from where he was. “How bad is the fighting?”

“It’s really bad in some places; not as bad in others.”

“Can I rely on you to help me?”

Culip nodded. “Of course. What do you need?”

“There are factions set aside for just this sort of thing all over the galaxy. I would know; I contributed many soldiers from the Telion army to such efforts. They need to be brought into this as well. I can give you the passcodes. This will not stand; once all the galaxy’s forces are mobilized, freedom will win out.”

Bethany sounded worried. “Are you safe?”

“Safer than you, I think. You and Klowix are wanted by Telion, wanted very badly.”

But Klowix was confident. “He has no hope of finding us here. While I may not be able to participate in the war as a soldier with a price on my head, I can help in another capacity, apart from giving you the codes. This planet is large and fertile. It’s too far out of the known galaxy for anyone to find, at least not without the coordinates.

“I urge you to come here, Culip, and bring the other girls with you. You’ll all be safe here. We’ll need to be careful about who we trust in order to keep our location a secret, but we can bring refugees here to start a new life.”

Culip nodded. “They could use it. I’ve seen all those displaced by the war so far. Some are hunted simply because they are born human or Evion. It’s madness.”

“Talk to Tolo. He can put together a team and bring help. They’ll need to get hold of a telling device to make sure that none are spies who intend to release the location, which will be difficult, but I have faith in him. Once others start arriving, we’ll need to restrict communication to other planets, at least for a while, until they can be fully trusted. First, though, you and the other girls. If you want to, that is.”

Culip seemed to think for a few moments. “I’ll come. I can’t speak for the others, but I imagine they will as well. We could all do with a peaceful place right now. If you’re going to bring more people than us in, though, you’ll need to take precautions.”

“That’s what I was just talking about.”

“No, I mean more than truth testing and communication. You need to make sure that no one can ever find your new planet.”

Klowix leaned back, frowning at the communicator. “I’m listening.”

“Space is vast. The chances of someone just happening to bump into you are negligible. The way people will find you is by being given coordinates, and once they’re closer, detecting the planet on their sensors. If you can prevent those means, you can prevent detection.

“Once that’s done, we can even work on shielding the planet so that from the outside it looks like a toxic wasteland, just in case anyone does bump into it.”

“Culip, those are good ideas, but what possible way do you propose we do any of that?”

She sounded enthusiastic now. “I’ve been thinking about it ever since you got that first message through, saying you’d found your own planet. First, we’ll have to make it so that the planet’s coordinates change constantly. Well, not really change, but appear to change.

“We’ll need to do that by manipulating gravitational forces around it. If we can get certain asteroids to orbit in certain ways, it could cause enough irregularity to do it. We’d need ammunition to blast asteroids into new orbits, but that can be done.

“We’ll also need to make the planet invisible to sensors. I’ll have to look at that once I’m there, but that won’t be nearly as hard as the coordinates. We could probably build something that does it, as well as puts out a different physical image. Then it’s just a matter of making all communication untraceable, and the only way anyone will find you is if they crash land there.”

Klowix was clearly thinking hard now. “There are memory modification drugs for that, you’re right. You must get here as soon as possible so that we can begin.”

Bethany seemed confused. “Aren’t you guys forgetting something? With all of that, no one will be able to find us. No one will be able to join us.”

Klowix frowned, but Culip seemed to have all the answers ready. “We’d need to build a specific homing device in a ship. That ship would be able to go back and forth to fetch people, though we’d need to set the homing device to self-destruct if it doesn’t get the correct code from someone on the planet every twenty-four hours.”

They talked for hours, mostly about future plans, but Bethany managed to get in a few questions about Culip and the others. Culip had managed to track them all down, so she could at least contact them. None of them had had a chance to spend much of the money they’d gotten from Klowix, not with a war happening.

They said goodbye with a promise from Culip to gather their friends and come as soon as possible. When they hung up, Bethany realized that she was grinning from ear to ear.

She sounded positively giddy. “I can’t believe it. We’ll have company! Culip, Trili, and all the others. Plus, new people making new lives just like us, it’ll be amazing.”

“That it will.”

Klowix was looking at her with a glint in his eye that Bethany recognized. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. Something caught her eye, and she saw it was that bizarre bracelet he was always wearing.

She hooked it under her finger. “What is this, anyway?”

“It’s a restrictor bracelet. It makes sure that I can’t draw more essence from you than your body can take. People have been known to kill their partners accidentally. This will physically stop me if I get carried away and go too far.”

Bethany stared at Klowix in wonder. “You’ve had that for ages, ever since the first time we were together.”

“Of course.”

“I thought, all those times, I was half sure you were going to kill me, but I was completely safe all along.”

Klowix frowned at her. “Of course you were. Did you ever think I’d put your safety at risk? You should have known better than that.”

“I guess I should have.”

Bethany didn’t want to discuss it anymore, she just wanted to kiss Klowix. His lips met hers and she sighed into his mouth. Klowix’s tongue traced over her teeth and smoothed along the roof of her mouth. Bethany moaned and pulled him closer.

In one lightning fast movement, Klowix had her in his arms, and in another, they were in the bedroom. The bed wasn’t as huge as the ones they’d enjoyed on Telion, but to Bethany, it was perfect. He laid her down gently and began taking her clothes off.

Bethany loved to watch him undressing her. She lifted her hips so that he could pull her pants down and guide them off over her feet. Perhaps in winter, when they had a cozy fire and were all stocked up with food stores until spring, she would wear some of the silk dresses Klowix so enjoyed. For now, what with gathering, washing, cooking and building every day, pants were the practical option.

Once he had relieved her of her clothing, Klowix began removing his own. Bethany smiled as he pulled his shirt over his head, and she reached for his chest. His muscles had only become more defined over the months of hard work. She could feel them flexing beneath her fingers, and she encircled his back with her arms, pulling him in.

Klowix’s cock pressed into her stomach, the precome creating a sticky patch between them. He broke away from the kiss and slowly licked his way down to her breasts. Bethany waited, trembling in anticipation as he tantalized her, planting kisses around her breasts before finally latching onto one of her nipples.

Her back arched and Klowix’s hand found the familiar position behind her neck. As usual, Bethany felt a thrill of fear, but this time, after a moment, she realized that it wasn’t necessary. She wasn’t in any danger. She never had been.

She cried out as Klowix began pulling the essence out of her and she reached for him, needing him inside of her. Klowix pulled back, teasing her, and Bethany hooked her legs around him, trying to pull him in. He ducked his head and brushed her clit lightly with his tongue.

Bethany spread her legs open, needing more, and he obliged her, using small, fast movements to turn her to a desperate, gasping wreck. Bethany’s legs tensed and untensed as her hands clutched Klowix’s hair.

“Klowix.” She needed him. He ignored her and slipped a finger inside her. Bethany moaned and pushed herself against him, urging him deeper. She twisted around, trying to reach his cock. When she found it, Klowix made a noise of approval deep in his throat.

Bethany cupped him in her hand and began rubbing him in that way she knew drove him wild. His cock hardened even further under her hand, and she could hear his harsh panting close to her ear as he started kissing her neck.

His voice was hoarse. “I need you.”

“Then take me.” Bethany wrapped her legs around him, pulling him closer. She moaned as he finally eased into her. At first, he went slowly, but neither of them could hold out for long. His hand was hard at the back of her neck as his hips snapped backwards and forwards, driving her breath out with each stroke.

He grunted as his orgasm exploded out of him. While one hand drew the essence out of Bethany, his other found her clit. Her hips bucked upwards as she came as well, her eyes scrunched shut with the intensity of the pleasure.

After a few breathless seconds, the two of them came down and curled up together.

“I love you.”

Bethany turned over and kissed him lightly on the lips. “I love you too.”

Four years later

Bethany called out to them. “Be careful.”

Snia was the one who replied. “I’ll watch them.” She got up from the bench and followed Greg and Rela as they toddled off towards the play area.

“Little monsters.” Of course, Klowix was smiling when he said it.

Bethany eventually pulled herself out of the hammock she and Klowix were cuddled in together. “I said I’d help Ruth look for some melio for the cake. We should definitely look at finding a way to store it when it’s in season; finding it now is going to take hours.”

“Don’t be too long, or I may have to come and look for you.”

“Yeah, like that time you got lost in the forest and I had to come rescue you.”

Klowix protested. “I was not lost!”

“Right. That’s why you were so relieved to see me, because you weren’t lost.”

He lightly slapped her bottom as Bethany went to help Ruth. On her way, she looked in on the play area where Snia was keeping a close watch on Greg and Rela. The two of them were getting on well with the others, all eight of them a similar age.

When Bethany had given birth to twins, she’d been terrified, but she needn’t have been. She’d always known Klowix would be a great father, and the small community they had created on Secrena offered more than enough help.

Culip called to her as she passed by. “Hey, Bethany! If you see Beoli, tell her I need her skills.” This was a singular achievement, considering her mouth was full of nails.

“I think I saw her helping to mend some baskets – I’ll tell her.”

As she walked, Bethany looked around at their home. It never failed to amaze her how much they’d managed to build, and how much joy there was here. Though the war was long over, they’d kept their little sanctuary a secret from most of the galaxy.

She’d thought Klowix would go mad with no armies to command and no battles to fight, but he had thrived. He was already teaching Greg to be a hunter. Rela, meanwhile, followed Lizzy around whenever she could, fascinated with the thin plant fibers Lizzy specialized in using to make clothes.

She called out to Yiri and Hannah, an Evion-human couple who had been one of the first to join them. “Watch out there.” They quickly righted their bucket of water and waved their thanks.

Footsteps behind her made Bethany turn around. Klowix caught up with her.

Bethany grinned. “Miss me already?”

He pulled her in for a kiss. “Maybe I should come with you, protect you from any ciatri lurking about.”

Though there wouldn’t be any ciatri where she and Ruth were going, Bethany eagerly took his hand and the two of them strolled to the end of their village. Ruth was waiting for them, an excited smile on her face. Tomorrow was Trili’s birthday, and Ruth and Bethany were planning a party and a cake for her.

Hand in hand, Bethany and Klowix headed out to the forest that had become part of their home. Bethany glanced back once more and could just see Rela, giggling on top of Snia’s shoulders. Her parents were nearby, always eager to spend more time with their grandson and granddaughter.

As they walked, Klowix put an arm around her and she leaned into him. She smiled up at him and he squeezed her shoulder, whispering words of love in her ear.

Bethany giggled as his breath tickled her, just managing to avoid tripping over a protruding root. Over the past four years, this wild, beautiful planet had become their home. Klowix had become her home; he had been long before the day they married, and he would be until the day they died.

Just as it should be. They were secrena, after all.