[untitled] Chapter 1

James sat in the shuttle, watching the space dock grow bigger on the viewscreen. He was glad that the long war against the Hymnas was over. He was looking forward to marrying the woman he had asked to be his wife the night before joining the war forces. That was four years ago. There was every chance that Katerina wouldn't want him anymore, but he hoped against it.1

The shuttle docked, and James took his small bag off the small shuttle with him. It would be a matter of an airtram ride to Earthside before he would find out if Katerina would still have him.2

Five minutes seemed to take forever. Katerina was nervous. She had kept close tabs on James' travel schedule so that she could be there when he stepped onto solid ground. She had scrubbed her ebony skin until it shone, and brushed her ivory hair until it was softer than silk. She had made sure to get enough sleep so that her purple eyes glittered in any light.3

James stepped into the terminal. His fellow shipmates swarmed around him to get to their families. so many pale colors in this area of the terminal mingled. He found what he was looking for within seconds. Katerina had come to see him. Her black skin was a welcome relief to the lighter skins everywhere else.4

It was all she could do to stop herself from running to him. His pure white skin stood out against the many colors that stood between them.5

Black and white came together and melded to one being for a moment. Four years had changed nothing between the two lovers.6

"Marry me tomorrow, Katerina," James murmured into her ear as he held her close.7

"I would marry you right now if you asked me to, my James." Katerina had been ready for her wedding day for several weeks now.8

"Can you be ready at sunrise, my black beauty?"9

"I can be ready anytime, my love."10

James held his beloved Katerina close. Marrying so early in the day, and so soon after getting back from war would hopefully catch the media off guard, allowing the two of them to have a private, relaxing wedding. But he knew what the headlines would be when it got out that the marriage had happened. 'War Hero Married to Preserve Species' and 'Last Sirinan Woman Married to Last Sirinan Man and War Hero'.11

Katerina knew that nothing could stop herself and James from being together for the next few hundred years. It wasn't the fact that they were one of the few refugees of the now-ruined Sirina Empire. They had loved long before the Empire had fallen to the neighboring planet, Hymna Minor. She and James had been lucky to escape to Earth before they were caught and killed. At that time, Earth was just becoming aware of what the Hymnas planned to do to the Sirina Empire, and were gathering troops to fight against the xenocide. Earth hoped to prevent a total loss of Sirinan life. James joined up to help the humans pass judgment upon the evil that had killed his family.12

Memories of arriving in orbit of Sirina flooded back to James. He saw the mass of Hymnan ships, which had obliterated any hope for escape. He saw the black continents, a result of the acid that was being used to cut off life. How could there be any survivors? His crew snuck down to the last outpost of Sirina rebels. The Hymnas hadn't found it yet, but it was only a matter of time. He remembered listening to reports from their flagship, of how the Hymnan fleet was being destroyed, of Hymna officers refusing to surrender because they hadn't done anything 'unnatural'.13

The Hymna troops arrived one year into the stakeout. James watched man after fellow man fall. This final massacre took months. The rebels had learned how to fight the enemy well. But no member of the rebel group made it out alive. And James barely escaped with his life. The Earth humans wiped out all of the Hymna strike force, and got James up to the ship before any more of his blue blood could be left on his home world.14

Katerina did not know what her love was thinking about as they embraced, but she knew it was something he had thought about the whole way back. Her hands felt something foreign on his skin. In time, he would tell her. She knew that.15

"What of our people, and our home, James?" She was eager for news. James' ship was the first, and perhaps, only ship to return.16

"A tale for another day, Teri. Let not our reunion be marred by dark words." They began to walk to the hover pad, where Katerina would drive them home.