ZI6

Location: Colony 4 (The Luxury Colony), Lurvilla City, the expensive city of pastel lights and brightly painted luxury skyscrapers.

ZI6 felt tears swelling in the corners of her mismatched eyes as she read the comment section beneath the listing of her brand-new book, Floral Thrusters. She reread her blurb:

She was a lonely florist on a space station with a secret... He was an eight-foot royal assassin who’d never felt a petal before. Now they’re trapped in a shuttle, and there’s only one air helmet.

The first comments were all positive, Flyu she knew were fans, some even said they loved to read her books to their human pets (so cute!). The fourth comment, with too many upvotes for her to stomach, said: KO65 is on a warpath of publishing an un-delightful mixture of serious-dumb, extra-dumb, or dramatic-stupid. When will the pain stop?

She flicked the app away from her screen with a sharp inhale, feeling an extra sting over the fact that it was the first novel she’d written where she’d based the main character off herself. The lonely florist was her, or a version of her, anyway.

“Oh,” ZI6 wiped her eyes. “It’s not dumb. It’s beautiful.”

She patted her blue thighs with small, manicured hands and bolted up. She was short for a Flyu, she’d always been short. As a child, she had the nickname the runt, which had made her cry constantly. She was a runt, but that was beside the point. “Time for a walk. Need to clear my head,” she told herself.

ZI6 moved past the small glass aquarium where her pet Fizzlickie, a pastel pink snake with a bright green tongue, lay curled on her warm garnet stone. She tapped once on the glass. “Bye-bye, my noodle-button, my cutest tiny-tiny-bits! You sleep on your whittle red rock, yes, you sleep!” She said, her voice elevating into pitched babytalk. She’d never used the Fizzlickie like it was intended, its venom a drug that produced a “love-high”. She didn’t want to know what a love high was without any love around her. She just liked it because it was adorable and it was something else alive in her beautiful high-rise apartment. Something to justify talking out loud to herself.

She slipped out of her apartment toward the lift. Her attempts to get to know her neighbors had failed, but she was still holding out hope that her twice-daily walks in the park would eventually lead to bumping into some dashing, big-chested commander (still in uniform), or maybe a charming rogue with a moonlight smile, or, even better, one of those tender, easygoing gym types with big muscled forearms but the temperament of a celebratory dessert. A wave of nervousness washed down her spine and settled in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t escape the past. Even with a new name and her writing career going strong.

What if they come and get me, take me home? What will happen? Will Mother defend me… will he tell the truth? ZI6 thought.

She realized she’d walked to the end of the hallway, having passed the lift entirely. She took a deep breath, turned back, and went to the lift. Thinking about Fizzlickies and fireworks, tea with those round chocolates that had the cute flower petals stuck on top. She couldn’t think about her royal union, it hurt. She’d forgiven him, in her own quiet way, aware it wasn’t born from a moral flaw but from the world in which they lived. He had love before she came into the picture and was forced into a royal union with her, told what to do, everything decided for him. To her the idea of a royal union and the approval to have children was exciting, beautiful, touching, but he had a completely different view of it all. She couldn’t do that to him… she couldn’t point the finger, reveal his secret lover, break his heart, and then sit by smugly and demand he fulfill his role. The very idea, even fleeting, disgusted her.

Shush now, have you no self-control at all? Think about something else. Walk faster, get out of this stupid lift. By the stars!

ZI6 blew out of the lift and through the lobby to the street, and clip-clopped in her white high heels toward the park, deep breathing, her small hands balled into fists and her long dark-blue hair swishing behind her from its high ponytail drawn up on the back of her skull. She passed other well-dressed Flyu, some with their human pets in tow. ZI6 felt like she was fleeing some invisible monster as she entered the park. It was a beautifully manicured creation, full of flowers and several military statues, all adorned with bright orange wreaths and mementos left in memory of beloved military members. Vibrantly painted buildings surrounded the blip of nature. It calmed her.

Everything is so beautiful. Everything will be alright, she thought softly. Her hands finally relaxed.

She passed beneath a flowering tree in the center of the park, pausing by the statue of a Flyu commander with orange ribbons tied around her boots. ZI6’s mismatched eyes, one blue and one a pale pink, blinked up at her like she might whisper advice back.

“I’m going to save you,” she murmured under her breath, a vow to no one in particular. Then, with a sniff and a sudden awareness of just how long she'd been standing there staring, she looked around, startled to see someone nearby. Hardly two feet away from her, looking at the statue.

“…Oh!” she said, flustered. “I didn’t mean to talk to myself out loud. H-hi.”