The Pearl (Galactic Jewels Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

breath as the bartender handed us our champagne blitzbombs—a drink I’d found in the archives and we’d tested, along with dozens of others. Blitzbombs were sustainable; enough buzz to keep us tipsy and silly, not enough to give us crushing hangovers in the morning.
    “Ready for your birthday surprise?” She asked, laughing.
    I swallowed a large mouthful of the bubbly drink, sending a tingle of fizz up my nose. “This isn’t it?”
    She grinned devilishly. “Not quite.”
    I drained the glass and set it down, then stretched forward like a runner awaiting the starting shot. “Ready!”
    She pushed drinks and empty glasses out of the way, making a space, then swiped her hand over the emptiness, illuminating a console beneath her fingers. Winking, she entered another sequence and snapped her fingers together, extinguishing the console. “You’re welcome,” she shouted above the music. I waited, but nothing extraordinary or obvious changed. Or at least, not enough to notice from behind the haze of blitzbombs.  
    She pointed toward the dance floor.
    Gyrating bodies morphed as her command into the simulation generated new dancers. Their bodies shapes stayed static, no longer pulsing to the music, shrinking a few inches from the willowy Lyrical template. Sinewy musculature filled out the sims short stature, allowing them to move with a startling grace—like ballet dancers we’d seen in the archives. Thick locks flowed to the middle of their backs, undulating like waves to the music’s beat, extending their beauty. Indistinct round placeholders that had sufficed for eyes sank backward and became sockets; almond-shaped eyes appeared in the voids, hooded with eyelids and long, curving lashes. More dark lines became full lips and mouths, delicate ears peeked from beneath fine hair.
    They were beautiful.
    And unmistakably human.
    Tears sprang to my eyes, touched at the amount of work she must have put into this; details like these took days. “You made human boys?” I laughed.
    “I tried. Did I get close?” She watched for my reaction, breath held and nervously chewing her bottom lip. The gift of what she’d attempted was huge. Gratitude swelled in my chest. As the last human, I’d long-ago given up finding another of my own species, eagerly adjusting to all the galaxies offered. And yeah, okay, at times I’d wondered if a human would have matched me.
    I didn’t get hung up on it though. Hardly anyone mated within their own race; too many variables existed now. The universe was the ultimate smorgasbord of delicacies to satisfy any palate. Fransín’s love for dance and music made her partial to the Lyrica galaxy, men and women who communicated, fed on, and pooped music. I’d had my obligatory time with their representative, but their views had been lost on me. Boredom reigned within the first five minutes of listening to their musical language. I’d had a lovely evening, but no different than lying in my bunk zoning out to tunes. Fransín would have spent the entire time in an orgasmic state.
    I adored that about the time we lived in. Everyone got what they needed. If you weren’t hanging out with beings who spoke your love language and getting your emotional well filled day after day, that was your own fault. Finding your perfect tribe who not only got you, but wanted you every bit as you wanted them was too easy to pass up. As the pearl, I’d make it easier and better and more rewarding. On my watch, everyone was going to have what they craved at the tips of their fingers.
    I looked again at Fransín’s version of humans. She’d clearly started with me as the model, mashed against what we had in the database of the final generation of human males before they died out. I’d met two when I’d been younger and these held shadows of what I remembered, at least anatomically. There were still things she’d missed, probably because she’d run out of time. “They’re perfect. Thank you.”
    She’d made up