Basket Star
By Sage Groves
Kanya flinched, her shoulders tensing and her hands spasming around her searing coffee cup as soft kisses were meticulously placed upon the back of her neck. Her heart beat hard against her ribcage for a moment until she regained her sense of awareness, her body realizing she was not in danger but in an embrace from behind. The woman continued to gaze out her kitchen window, eyes following the swirling dust clouds that lifted from the farming plots not far from her own front porch.
“Sorry, dear,” a soft voice, rough with sleep, whispered into Kanya’s ear. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Kanya inhaled the tendrils of steam rising from her coffee. “You’re up early,” Kanya sighed. She turned to meet the sleepy eyes of the woman, and her gaze trickled down to the woman's white turtleneck embroidered with a serial number and the name XOCHI DA, her blue jumpsuit thick as seals’ skin, and her black magnetboots that Kanya hated seeing on the hardwood floors of their house.
Xochi offered a sad smile. “I got called in.”
“I figured,” Kanya said with a sigh and a nod. Her coffee cup clinked hard against the counter as she set it down. “For how long?”
A glint in Xochi’s brown eyes told her wife all she needed to know. Long.
“Six weeks.”
Kanya threw her hand up to the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache impending. “For fucks sake, Xo. They keep getting longer.”
“I keep traveling farther.”
Kanya bit down on the insides of her cheeks and forced air into her lungs. “Traveling is what you do when you drive across the country to a fancy resort, Xochi. What you do is not traveling.”
The pair were silent in the morning light that peered through the kitchen window, as if to spy on their early argument. Kanya’s head pounded and her fingers started to go numb just as they did every time Xochi left on a business trip without her.
Finally she broke the angry silence wrapped between them. “I’m coming with you.”
“You weren’t approved—”
“—I’ll override—”
“—t’s not within company jurisdiction, you can’t override i—”
“—the fuck are you going that’s not withi—”
“—Onoxial System.”
Kanya blinked. It was the only motion her body let her do and she had to do something. She blinked again and then again until her body gave her control again. She shook her head. “You agreed to this?”
“I di—”
“—re you fucking craz—”
“—Will you let me explain?”
Kanya closed her mouth, teeth clamping down on the inside of her cheeks again. Xochi took Kanya’s hand in her own and squeezed her palm reassuringly. “I know it’s a long time to go no-contact. But, babe, this is the opportunity of a lifetime! Mapping a whole system that humans have never been to before? I’d be the most famous mapper in history!”
Kanya brushed her free hand against her wife’s smiling cheek. “You already are, though!”
“Kanya! I’m going. I’ll be back in six weeks. I’ve been on longer routes and have been fine.”
“Nuh-uh,” Kanya huffed. “Not like this, you haven’t. Onoxial is completely uncharted, probes can’t even get in!”
Xochi let out a frustrated groan. “I’ve done the research, Kan, I know the risks. And I don’t think they’re risks for me. I know what I’m doing more than anyone else in the known universe!”
Kanya’s head ached. “Just because you’re the best doesn’t mean that it’s safe for you. I’m the best in my field too, remember? I wouldn’t put my life at risk for the field though.”
“You know I’m not you, Kan. I never have been.”
“Okay.” The woman nodded and wrapped Xochi into a tight hug. “You know how mad I’ll be if you don’t come home?”
Xochi chuckled, the warm sound muffled in Kanya’s shoulder. “I’m more afraid of your wrath than I am the edge of space, Doctor Da.”
She pulled back, arms still around Kanya’s waist, and kissed her nose.
“The second you’re within DSN range, you’ll call?”
Xochi yanked her go-bag off the kitchen table. “Of course.”
“Six weeks.” Kanya smiled to mask her palpable worry. “No big deal.”
“No big deal.”
***
Kanya flinched, her shoulders tensing and her hands spasming around her searing coffee cup as soft kisses were meticulously placed upon the back of her neck. Her heart beat hard against her ribcage for a moment until she regained her sense of awareness, her body realizing she was not in danger but in an embrace from behind. The woman continued to gaze out her kitchen window, eyes following the swirling star clusters that danced above the farming plots not far from her own front porch.
“Sorry, babe,” a husky, warm voice whispered into Kanya’s ear. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Kanya inhaled the scalding steam rising from her coffee like the tentacles of a writhing cephalopod. “You’re up early,” Kanya sighed. She didn’t want to move, didn’t want to leave the embrace of her wife.
Xochi made a foreign sound in Kanya’s ear—something wet, like an egg dropping on tile.
“What was that?” Kanya asked, voice wavering.
“I said I got called in.”
“Oh. I figured,” Kanya said with a sigh and a nod. Her coffee cup clinked hard against the counter as she set it down. “For how long?”
Xochi’s embrace tightened. Long.
“Six weeks.”
Kanya threw her hand up to the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache impending. “For fucks sake, Xo. They keep getting longer.”
“I keep traveling farther.”
Kanya bit down on the insides of her cheeks and forced air into her lungs. It burned. “Traveling is what you do when you drive across the country to a fancy resort, Xochi. What you do is not traveling.”
The pair were silent in the dim red light that peered through the kitchen window, as if to spy on the pair. Kanya tried to break her gaze from the window that felt like an eye. Kanya’s head pounded and her fingers started to go numb just as they did every time Xochi left on a business trip without her.
Finally she broke the angry silence wrapped between them. “I’m coming with you.”
“You weren’t approved—”
“—I’ll override—”
“—t’s not within company jurisdiction, you can’t override i—”
“—the fuck are you going that’s not withi—”
“—Onoxial System.”
Kanya blinked. It was the only motion her body let her do and she had to do something. She blinked again and then again but her body was frozen.
“I know it’s a long time to go no-contact. But, babe, this is the opportunity of a lifetime! Mapping a whole system that humans have never been to before? I’d be the most famous mapper in history!”
Kanya felt a pair of tears slip from her stinging eyes.
“Kanya! I’m going. You can’t stop me.”
“You know how mad I’d be if you didn’t come home?”
Xochi chuckled, the warm sound muffled in Kanya’s hair. “I know how mad you are, Doctor Da.”
“Six weeks. No big deal.”
“No big deal.”
***
Kanya flinched, her shoulders tensing and her hands spasming around her searing coffee cup as soft kisses were striking the bruised flesh of her neck. Her heart beat hard against her ribcage for a moment until she regained her sense of awareness, her body realizing she was not in danger but in an embrace from behind. The woman continued to gaze out her kitchen window, eyes following the swirling star clusters that danced in the inky void of space not far from her own front porch.
“Sorry, love,” a wet, deep voice murmured into Kanya’s ear. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Kanya inhaled the scalding stems rising from her coffee like the tentacles of a writhing cephalopod. “You’re up early,” Kanya sighed. She couldn’t move, couldn’t leave the embrace of her wife.
Xochi groaned, the cacophony emanating from her entire being like a siren so colossal that it could cast shadows over entire galaxies.
“I said I got called in.”
“Figured,” Kanya spat. Any more words were lost upon her. Her coffee cup clinked hard against the counter. “For how long?”
Xochi’s embrace tensed, fingers like ropes wrapping around her limbs, suffocating, strangling snakes with squelching scales. Long.
“Six weeks.”
Kanya’s head throbbed. Her mouth opened but there was no room to speak.
“I keep traveling farther.”
Kanya bit down on the insides of her cheeks and forced air into her lungs. Pain blistered through her chest.
The pair were silent in the dim red light that peered through the eye, spying on the pair. Kanya tried to break her gaze from the eye that bored into her flesh, seeing straight through her rotting body, staring at the skin slipping off her bones, studying the slithering movements under her skin. Kanya’s head pounded and her fingers fell off just as they did every time Xochi left on a business trip without her.
“You weren’t approved to come,” Xochi said.
“Not within company jurisdiction, you can’t override,” Xochi said.
“Onoxial System,” Xochi said.
Kanya couldn’t peel her gaze from the eye that was the kitchen window and the void of space that was the farm.
“I know it’s a long time to go no-contact. But, babe, this is the opportunity of a lifetime! Mapping a whole system that humans have never been to before? I’d be the most famous mapper in history!”
Kanya felt a pair of tears slip from what was left of her eyes.
“Kanya! I’m going. You can’t stop me.”
Xochi chuckled and the sound made Kanya’s hair wet with something that smelled of nothing. “I know how mad you are, Doctor Da.”
Xochi who was not Xochi reassured Kanya. “No big deal.”
***
Kanya flinched, her shoulders tensing and her hands spasming around her searing coffee cup as soft kisses bit into the nape of her neck. Her heart leaked into her ribcage as her heart ever so slowly beat. Her body realized she was not in danger but in an embrace from behind. The woman continued to gaze into nothing but void.
“Sorrrrrrrrry, loooove,” a warped and wrought voice croaked into Kanya’s ear. “I diiiiiidn’t meeeean to eaaaaat you.”
Kanya inhaled the scalding streams of flesh rising from her coffee like the tentacles of a cephalopod writhing into her nose and through her sinuses and down her throat and into her stomach and into her bowel and into her organs and into her veins and into her arteries and into her own flesh. Was she flesh? Was she she? “You’re up early,” Kanya tried to say through the bubbling blood pooling in her mouth. She couldn’t move, couldn’t leave the embrace of her wife.
Xochi bellowed into the void of space, so loud that the parts that were intertwining with Kanya’s porous body vibrated.
“Called in.”
“Figured,” Kanya gurgled. Her coffee cup clinked hard against the counter.
Xochi’s tendrils weaved in tighter, fingers like ropes wrapping around her limbs, suffocating, strangling snakes with squelching scales.
Long.
Kanya’s head throbbed. Her mouth hung open but she had no mouth from which to speak.
“I keep traveling farther.”
Kanya bit down on the insides of her cheeks and felt cool air through the holes in her mouth.
The pair were silent as Xochi absorbed Kanya, her eye an unwavering voyeur in her own consumption of the one who called herself Kanya. Kanya tried to break her gaze from the eye that bored into her flesh, seeing straight through her rotting body, staring at the skin slipping off her bones, studying the slithering movements under her skin. Kanya’s head pounded and her fingers fell off just as they did every time Xochi left on a business trip without her.
Xochi said.
Xochi said.
Xochi said.
Kanya couldn’t peel her gaze from the eye that wasn’t the kitchen window and the void of space that wasn’t the farm.
Xochi said.
Kanya felt a pair of tears slip from what was left of her eyes.
Xochi said.
Xochi sucked on Kanya’s head making her hair wet with something that smelled of everything else indescribable.
“I knnnoooooow howww maaad youuu aaaare, Doctor Daaaaaaaaa.”
Xochi’s words were barely comprehensible and Kanya didn’t know if it was because they weren’t words or if it was because she had no more ears left to hear.
“Noo biig deaal.”
***
Kanya flinched as soft kisses tore through the flesh of her neck, carving a path for Xochi’s tendrils like tentacles like snakes like veins like arteries like roots, yes like roots, sucking up the rich and delicious nutrients of Kanya’s body. Her heart she could not believe was even beating, could not believe she had, could not believe was being consumed by Xochi, but alas her heart had always beat for Xochi, had always belonged to Xochi. Her body realized she was not in danger but in an embrace from everywhere. The woman continued to stare into the darkness of the unmappable unsearchable unexplorable unknowable Onoxial System.
It spoke, it moaned, it gurgled, it digested.
There was no air to inhale, for the scalding streams of flesh rising from her coffee like the tentacles of a cephalopod writhing into her nose and through her sinuses and down her throat and into her stomach and into her bowel and into her organs and into her veins and into her arteries and into her own flesh—it was all Xochi.
“You’re up early,” Kanya thought through the bubbling blood pooling in her brain. She couldn’t move, couldn’t leave the embrace of her wife.
There was no answer. There was no mouth for Xochi to answer from, because she had no mouth because she was not Xochi.
“Figured,” Kanya thought. Her coffee cup clinked hard against the counter of her kitchen billions of lightyears away.
Its tendrils slithered everywhere. Between every muscle, every layer of skin, in and out of every orifice, and around every cell.
Long.
“I keep traveling farther.”
Kanya was silent as it ate the last of her. Its eye, an unblinking voyeur in its own masturbatory feasting on what was once Kanya. Was she Kanya? Was she Xochi? Was she anybody? Was she just flesh and blood to quench the unrelenting thirst of it? To satisfy its ancient hunger?
Kanya’s head fell off and her fingers fell off just as they did every time Xochi left on a business trip without her.
Had it been six weeks already? Had she returned? Xochi where are you?
Xochi.
Xochi.
Xochi.
Kitchen Window Porch Farm, space, void, food. I’m looking for
Xochi.
I came to look for—
Kanya felt a tear slip from the pit where her eye used to be. I used to have eyes, I used to be. It’s been six weeks. Where are you?
—Xochi.
Everything indescribable.
I don’t need to pretend you’re in the kitchen. You have no limbs to fight me, you have no mouth to scream.
It didn’t speak, it had no ears to speak into.
It just ate.
No big deal.