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Kate Granovsky

@kategranovsky

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Poet, artis and the author of the lyrics of songs for Magnetic Melon
A bit of my poetry @hellfirmament
My book👇 my song 👇

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Their remarkably similar eyes met, and he felt an unexpected impulse.

Before he had really thought about what he was doing, he leaned toward her, gently took her face in his hands, and kissed her lips.

Aquiwi was so astonished that for a moment she didn't react at all. The kiss was soft and careful, without any rush. Then she responded tentatively, still clearly surprised by the unfamiliar gesture.

When they finally pulled apart, all she managed to say was:

“Wow.”

Lawrence's face turned red, and he mumbled something about not wanting to hurt her.

“I'd better go. You need to rest,” he said.

And he hurried out before she could say anything.

#book #scifi by @kategranovsky

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a month ago

“When you love someone, you always miss them when they're not with you. So yes, I suppose it's a kind of struggle.”

“Here on Agikon, a pair can't be separated for very long. Usually, they're always together. They can live separately for perhaps two or three months. Not longer.”

“And what happens if they can't get back together?” Lawrence found the subject fascinating.

“They eventually die after a great deal of suffering. It's a terrible and very painful death. In ancient times, the rulers of Agikon used separation as a form of torture. They separated bonded pairs and sent them many kilometers away from each other. There is a certain distance that isn't fatal, but both members of the pair suffer terribly from being apart.”

She fell silent, lost in thought.

“That's really cruel.”

Lawrence was suddenly glad he wasn't an Agikonian.

“Yes, definitely. I wanted to ask you something else...”

“Go on.”

“Do you behave differently with someone you love? How does it work for humans?”

“Oh, yes. We do a lot of things. We spend a lot of time together. We hug, touch each other affectionately, cuddle and snuggle. And we kiss.”

He stopped, wondering whether he should mention anything more intimate.

“Cuddling and snuggling involve touching each other, right? But what is a kiss?” She gazed at him in astonishment. “The translator can't find a definition.”

“People press their lips together and... sort of taste each other.” Lawrence wasn't sure how to explain it.

“How does that work?” She laughed, trying to imagine it. “It sounds incredible!”

Lawrence hesitated, wondering how he could explain it, and looked at Aquiwi.

#book #scifi by @kategranovsky

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a month ago

“The doctors will help you,” Lawrence said uncertainly.

“You believe that?”

“I believe we shouldn't give up.”

The door opened, and the doctors came back.

“Your leader has agreed to let you stay and help with our research.”

“Good.”

After several more tests, they were left alone in a hospital ward. Aquiwi lay on the bed. She was really tired, and her painkiller hadn't started working yet. Lawrence sat down on the edge of her bed.

“They think I'm going to die,” Aquiwi said miserably.

“Who?” Lawrence felt a little guilty about the situation, but what could he have done? Of course, he could never have imagined that things would take such a turn.

“Liri and Clor.”

“The pair of doctors?”

Lawrence hadn't even thought about the fact that the two of them had names. Only now did he fully realize that they were individuals. During the day, he had almost started thinking of them as medical robots. They were so perfectly synchronized and worked so quickly.

“Can I ask you something about your race?” Aquiwi asked.

Lawrence decided that talking might help distract her from her dark thoughts. After everything that had already happened, he was ready for almost any question. He nodded and relaxed a little.

“When we talked, you said that humans don't choose their partners using logic alone. What else guides you?”

He thought for a moment and answered:

“There is something we call attraction. We simply feel drawn to a particular person. We enjoy being around them. And later, that feeling can turn into something more. We call it love.”

“Love?”

“Yes. It's a biochemical process in our bodies, but many of us prefer to romanticize it.” He smiled. “Back on Earth, I have a woman I love, and we recently became parents.”

“But you don't physically change because of this reaction? It must be a great happiness to have your special person.” She seemed curious.

“No, we don't. It feels magical, though. Sometimes it seems too good to be true.”

“Do humans struggle when they are separated from their partner?”

#book #scifi #aquiwi #agikon by @kategranovsky

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a month ago

Lawrence sat down and let them do whatever was necessary. They placed some kind of medical device against the skin of his hands. It wasn't painful. Then they looked at the monitor, and it seemed to Lawrence that they were communicating telepathically.

After a while, the doctors approached him.

“You are the reason Aquiwi's paired mutation began. It's a serious problem for her because the genetics of our species are not compatible.”

“Am I undergoing a mutation too?”

“No, we don't think so.”

“What will happen to Aquiwi?” Lawrence was starting to worry.

“We don't know. But we hope that you and your delegation will stay here for a while so we can conduct more tests and research.”

“If my boss allows it, I agree,” he said immediately.

“Please stay here while we speak to the leader of your delegation.”

“Can I talk to Aquiwi?”

“If she wants to.”

The doctors left the room.

Lawrence watched them go and then approached Aquiwi.

“Hi,” he said.

Finally, she looked up at him with sad eyes.

“I didn't mean to hurt you.”

She switched on her translator.

“You couldn't have known. And I was the one who touched you,” she said with a sorrowful smile.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I don't know.” She was really upset. “I couldn't even imagine this... I had plans...”

“Tell me, please,” he said.

“I wanted to travel for a while after retiring, with my friend. We have a plan for the next five years after we both retire.”

She looked at him with her beautiful blue-grey eyes. Then she continued:

“When I was young, I always dreamed of meeting my pair. I imagined so many times how it might happen and how I would feel. Later, when I got older and realized that I would stay alone, I gave up thinking about such things. Who could have imagined that it would happen like this?”

She spread her hands helplessly

#scifi #book #aquiwi #agikon by @kategranovsky

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a month ago

Lawrence sat down and let them do whatever was necessary. They placed some kind of medical device against the skin of his hands. It wasn't painful. Then they looked at the monitor, and it seemed to Lawrence that they were communicating telepathically.

After a while, the doctors approached him.

“You are the reason Aquiwi's paired mutation began. It's a serious problem for her because the genetics of our species are not compatible.”

“Am I undergoing a mutation too?”

“No, we don't think so.”

“What will happen to Aquiwi?” Lawrence was starting to worry.

“We don't know. But we hope that you and your delegation will stay here for a while so we can conduct more tests and research.”

“If my boss allows it, I agree,” he said immediately.

“Please stay here while we speak to the leader of your delegation.”

“Can I talk to Aquiwi?”

“If she wants to.”

The doctors left the room.

Lawrence watched them go and then approached Aquiwi.

“Hi,” he said.

Finally, she looked up at him with sad eyes.

“I didn't mean to hurt you.”

She switched on her translator.

“You couldn't have known. And I was the one who touched you,” she said with a sorrowful smile.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I don't know.” She was really upset. “I couldn't even imagine this... I had plans...”

“Tell me, please,” he said.

“I wanted to travel for a while after retiring, with my friend. We have a plan for the next five years after we both retire.”

She looked at him with her beautiful blue-grey eyes. Then she continued:

“When I was young, I always dreamed of meeting my pair. I imagined so many times how it might happen and how I would feel. Later, when I got older and realized that I would stay alone, I gave up thinking about such things. Who could have imagined that it would happen like this?”

#book #scifi #aquiwi #agikon by @kategranovsky

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a month ago

Lawrence

“They said we'll be quarantined for a few days,” Clara said.

“Why?! Do they have the right to keep us here?”

“Something happened to one of the members of their delegation. They said it could be dangerous for us too. We all have to be examined.” Clara wasn't happy about it either.

Lawrence thought about the previous day, about his conversation with the delegation member, and tried to remember the faces of the others.

They were sitting in the hospital, waiting for their turns.

The members of his crew were examined and left the office one after another. He was the last one, as usual.

When his turn came, he entered the office and saw two Agikonians. They looked somewhat similar to Aquiwi, but something about them was really different. He watched them with undisguised interest.

The two looked remarkably similar to each other. Their eyes were exactly the same, and there was something really unexpected about the way they moved—they were perfectly in sync with each other.

Lawrence recalled what Aquiwi had said about paired Agikonians: “Other races find them suspicious.”

Now he understood why.

He decided to look around the room, and his eyes fell on Aquiwi.

She was sitting in the corner of the room, lost in thought. She wasn't looking at anyone.

“What happened? Why are you here?” Lawrence asked.

She noticed him and looked at him without saying a word.

“So it was you,” the pair of doctors said. It wasn't a question.

“What?” Lawrence was completely confused and didn't understand anything.

“You triggered the mutation.”

“What mutation? I don't understand!”

“Please sit down here. We need to run some tests.”

They spoke through translators similar to the one Aquiwi used.

#book #scifi #aquiwi #agikon by @kategranovsky

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a month ago

An Unexpected Incident

Aquiwi felt much better that morning. She and Keri arrived at the hospital together. Keri was there to support her emotionally. She had always known that this moment would come, but, as it usually happens, she was absolutely unprepared for her body to start changing.

“There is always some belief that we will be young forever,” she thought gloomily.

At least she and Keri were the same age, and after he retired too, they would be able to spend the last years of their lives together. This thought made her feel better.

When she entered the doctor's office, the pair of doctors looked at her very strangely.

“Are you Aquiwi?” the female doctor asked.

“Yes, I am.”

“And you are thirty-five years old?” They both frowned.

“Yes. Has my aging process begun?”

“Did you have physical contact with anyone non-paired yesterday?”

“Yes. I work with ten non-paired people at the intergalactic center.” Aquiwi was confused by the questions.

“Is there anyone new among your colleagues?” the male doctor asked.

“No. I've known them all for many years. Why?”

“Your tests show that you are undergoing a mutation.”

“What?! It must be a mistake!” She was stunned.

“We are absolutely sure. Even now, just by looking at you, we can see signs of the process. You need to find the person who triggered it. Who were you with yesterday?”

“Only my colleagues,” she said, trying to remember. “And...”

“And?”

“Some aliens.”

“Some aliens?”

“Yes. I worked with aliens from a planet called Earth.”

“Did you touch any of them?”

“Hmm... yes, I did...” Aquiwi was really confused and felt a little guilty.

“We will have to make an urgent request to the intergalactic center. It is necessary to examine their crew. You will stay in the hospital until we finish.”

“But...”

“This is not up for discussion.”

#book #scifi #aquiwi #agikon by @kategranovsky

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a month ago

The ambulance arrived half an hour later. The pair of doctors performed some examinations and tests, gave Aquiwi some painkillers, and told her to come to the hospital the next day for the results.

The pain became much weaker. She felt really tired after everything.

“Keri, it's a natural process. Don't worry about me.” She smiled. “I think I need to sleep now. Can you go to the hospital with me tomorrow, please?”

“Yes, of course. I'll stay with you for a while, until you fall asleep,” he said.

And she fell asleep.

Her sleep was a little restless but deep. She dreamed of strange things.

She met a human, and he looked like one of the aliens she had seen earlier that day. He took her hand and led her somewhere. She didn't know where, and she wanted to ask him.

Yet somehow, she felt strangely safe beside that unfamiliar alien.

She woke up with a strange sense of anticipation.

#book #scifi #aquiwi #agikon #space by @kategranovsky

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a month ago

Aquiwi

He was a really interesting human. She had never met anyone who was interested in talking about life on their planets—or on hers. Most aliens she had met talked about technologies and the things they could get from each other. But nothing personal. It was work, and she was part of an important diplomatic mechanism. She liked her work and the whole process of exchange. But she hadn't even realized that conversations like this could be really interesting too.

Keri distracted her from her thoughts.

“It was a really long day. I'm absolutely exhausted and very hungry!”

“You are always hungry,” she laughed. “Let's go and eat!”

“Big fried Ricen.” He licked his lips and closed his eyes dreamily.

They had dinner in the half-empty dining room of the intergalactic center. Their working day had been longer than usual that day, and afterward they went home together.

They lived in the same block of flats, with a good view from their balconies. They both lived on the fifth floor.

When they reached their apartments, Aquiwi suddenly started feeling pain all over her body. Keri noticed that something was wrong and asked worriedly:

“Is anything wrong? How are you feeling?”

“I'm feeling pain all over my body,” she answered.

“Do you think your aging process has started?”

“It looks like it. I've never felt pain this bad before.” She held on to the wall with one hand.

Keri helped her into the apartment and helped her lie down on the sofa.

“I'll call a doctor. You need help and a check-up.”

“Okay,” she said resignedly.

#book #scifi #aquiwi #agikon #space by @kategranovsky

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a month ago

“Yes and no,” Lawrence laughed.

“I don't understand.” Aquiwi started to suspect that her translator wasn't working properly.

“It's a complicated thing for humans,” he said. “Some people really choose their partners practically, without emotions. But some follow their hearts. Neither of these options can guarantee that we'll spend our whole lives together...”

“You can be with different people during your life, right?”

“Yes.”

Lawrence was really surprised by how easily their conversation was going. He often had problems with such things because of his introverted nature. It seemed that his interlocutor was genuinely interested in talking to him. And she wasn't even from his planet.

“Probably, I have always been an alien,” he thought with a smile.

Something came to his mind, and he decided to ask:

“How do you find the right person, the one who is your pair?”

She thought for a while, probably trying to decide whether she should share this with an alien. Then she said:

“When we meet someone without a pair, we have a ritual greeting. We take each other's hands like this...”

Suddenly, she took his hands very carefully.

He hadn't expected it. But it was really pleasant to sit like that and hold hands.

Then she suddenly let go of his hands and continued explaining:

“After such contact, the process of accession can begin within a few hours. When it starts, the pair goes to the Temple of Score for initiation. He is the God of Unity. They spend three days together after that. Nobody should distract them from this ritual. It's an important part of the mutation process.”

“Incredible,” Lawrence said. He was truly fascinated by the biology of this unbelievable race.

They heard an announcement that the meeting was over for the day.

Lawrence looked at Aquiwi before he left. She was a really beautiful-looking alien. At first, he had thought all Agikonians looked the same. They all had similar short hair. But now he realized that they were all different.

And Aquiwi was unique, with her golden skin and grey eyes of an incredible honey shade. She looked almost luminous.

He had to go.

And he hoped he would be able to talk by @kategranovsky

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a month ago

“If I knew...” Aquiwi smiled a little sadly. “I dreamed of meeting my pair all through my youth. Sorry, I don't think it's very interesting for you. You came here not to listen to the life story of a delegation member.”

“Actually, it would be lovely,” Lawrence said. “I'm really far from diplomacy, and I didn't plan to be here at all. To be honest, I didn't read anything about your planet before the flight,” he confessed. “Please, tell me more about your life.”

“Okay.” Aquiwi was puzzled. Nobody had ever been interested in her or her life during all ten years of her work.

“We are a binary race whose pairs become something like a dual organism. Usually, most Agikonians meet their pair when they are fifteen to twenty years old. They go through some transformations together and become one organism consisting of two people, perfectly adapted to each other, with a mental connection.

“They go through a ceremony in the temple of the goddess Aribi. She is the goddess of moisture and life. The two who go through the mutation and transformation receive her blessing.

“Usually, populations from other planets that have no similar connections find it suspicious, and it doesn't help diplomatic missions. That is why non-paired individuals like me work here.

“Years ago, they weren't allowed to work in such intellectual professions. It was believed that our brains were underdeveloped. In fact, non-paired Agikonians really are underdeveloped. Our reproductive system is incomplete, and our bodies don't have immune systems as strong as those of paired individuals. We also have some other physical problems. That is why we live much less.”

“That's really interesting.”

Lawrence's instinct as an explorer had awakened for the first time since he left Earth.

“I have heard,” she said doubtfully, “that your species chooses its partners itself, without any connection—just by the decision of your brain... Is that true?”

#book #scifi #aquiwi #agikon #space by @kategranovsky

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a month ago

Lawrence got a place next to an Agikonian woman. The first thing he noticed about his companion was her blue-grey eyes—the same color as his own. They looked strikingly different from the eyes of the other members of the Agikonian delegation. She walked calmly beside him and didn't try to talk. He was happy about it because he didn't know what to say.

In the café hall, they found a table for two. Strange, but all the tables were designed for only two people at a time. It seemed really strange to Lawrence. That was why he asked his companion:

“Why don't we all sit together?”

“It's an Agikonian tradition,” she answered, using her portable translator. “We never sit all together. Only with our paired one.”

“What does that mean?” Lawrence hesitated.

“Most Agikonians have a paired one. They are sort of two parts of a complicated organism,” she said.

Lawrence wasn't sure he understood anything. So he felt a strong need to find out more. Perhaps there was some misunderstanding because of the translation.

“But what does it mean? Does it mean that every member of your delegation has someone as a partner and that you are connected in some way?”

“No, we don't,” she replied with a smile. “We are part of the society that doesn't have a pair. That is why we are used for communication with the inhabitants of other planets. Years ago, they used paired individuals in delegations, but it often caused a lot of questions and misunderstandings. That is why nowadays we work here.”

“Hmm,” Lawrence thought. “Okay. But what does it mean to have a pair in your race?”

#book #scifi #aquiwi #agikon #space by @kategranovsky

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a month ago