| |
“You! What are you doing here?” Nadir glowered.
I ignored him, my gaze shooting to the window. “Falling stars, we left the ship!” I’d heard a booming computerized voice, felt a rocking motion and then a vibration, but I’d had no idea the spacepod had launched. Where were we headed?
“Answer me. What are you doing on this ship?” he demanded.
“Me? Why are you here? Why did we leave the ship? I didn’t realize this was a shuttle until I got inside. How was I supposed to know it would launch?”
“You didn’t know you were boarding a shuttle.”
“I’m so glad you understand.” I thought better than to reveal I’d been roaming all over the ship, surreptitiously shooting vid. At first, I hadn’t realized I’d entered a shuttle bay; I assumed the wide long passage lined by a dozen “portals” led to cabins or something. When I peeked inside one, I saw it was a life pod. Then I heard people coming, so I jumped inside to hide. How could I guess Nadir would come along and launch the damn thing?
He cursed. “You cannot be here.”
“Fine, because I don’t want to be here. Take me back to the ship.”
“I can’t do that either.”
I gawked out the window. A planet loomed below us—we appeared to be shooting toward it at a great rate of speed. I squinted. Was that another shuttle? “Where are we going? Are we landing on that planet? Why?”
“We should not be going anywhere. You should be on the LOP ship.” His yellow eyes turned green with fury.
He had some nerve getting mad at me. My presence was unintentional. He still hadn’t told me why he was here. “Why aren’t you on the LOP ship? You were supposed to escort us to New Terra.” I crossed my arms. Any other time, he’d stuck to me like gum under my shoe. Why had he left without a word? How long had he planned to be gone?
He didn’t answer but removed his cape, folded it into precise quarters, almost reverently draped it over a seatback—and then flung himself into the adjacent seat.
“There’s been an incident,” he said in a serious tone.
“What kind of incident?” I didn’t wait for an invitation but flopped next to him. “Not alien trafficking?”
The league insisted species trafficking rarely occurred, putting the odds of being abducted at a mere fraction of a percent, but having been among the rare few who’d gotten kidnapped had left me tad more wary than the average person. I’d put on a brave face, tried to act like a badass, but the experience had freaked me out. I didn’t want to repeat it.
“Not trafficking,” Nadir stated then ruined my relief by adding, “At least I don’t think so.” He rubbed the base of his horn like his head ached.
“But, it could be?” I doubly regretted getting on the shuttle now.
“No,” he stated then amended, “Not likely.”
“Will you stop it?” I snapped.
His frown turned to an arch. “Stop what?”
“Waffling. First you issue a declarative statement, then you retreat. If the answer is no, then say no and leave it at that.”
“If you’d desired certainty, you should have stayed on the ship.”
“I thought I was on the ship.” Why do I bother to talk to you? This sparring match didn’t come close to other arguments we’d had. Why did his dismissive attitude bother me so much now? I bit my lip and clasped my hands.
“If you must know,” he said in his condescending tone, “Prince Lomax has temporarily gone missing.”
My head shot up. “How did that happen?”
His lip curled around a tusk. “If we knew how, he wouldn’t be missing.”
Nadir didn’t like me in the least—unless being rude and obnoxious was his way of showing he cared. If so, he’d fallen horns over heels. “Jessie is so off base,” I muttered.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.” Thinking of Jessie made me realize I had vanished without a word. When I failed to show up at dinner, she and Kat would worry. Had they kept their loaner handhelds or turned them in? Maybe I could still message them. I unclipped my handheld.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to let Jessie and Kat know what happened, so they don’t worry.”
“Don’t do that.” He grabbed my handheld. Then he spun my chair around and leaned in. “I am under no obligation to share details with you, but, in the interest of keeping the peace, this is what I know: Prince Lomax failed to register at the summit he was supposed to attend. I am going to Aurelia to find him and ensure that he is okay.”
“So the other shuttle...”
“Is the LOP search team.”
“Shouldn’t there be more than one shuttle, then?”
He didn’t answer my question but locked my handheld in a compartment.
Guess I won’t be getting that back. There went the documentation vids I’d taken for the New Terran authorities. I scowled. “Why aren’t you on their shuttle?” Epiphany dawned. “Oh...you’re not part of the search team. You’re not supposed to be going to Aurelia. You stole a spacepod. You sneaky dog!”
He stiffened. “My oath to the monarchy supersedes LOP procedure. Prince Lomax is my responsibility. If he is in jeopardy, I must go. His safety takes precedence over all else.”
And here I’d dismissed him as a by-the-book bureaucratic aide who blindly followed the letter of the law without consideration for the desired outcome. In demonstrating he could be flexible, he’d notched up a level in my humble estimation, although I deducted a half point because he assumed he obeyed a higher law. But he still edged out ahead. “Hey, I’m not criticizing. I’m proud of you.”
“You speak of foolish matters.” The tips of his ears, visible through his fur, reddened. He averted his gaze.
Oh my gosh. He’s embarrassed. The devil on my shoulder urged me to tease him, but this time the angel won out, so I pretended not to notice his discomfort. “You don’t think Prince Lomax has been kidnapped, do you?” I asked, expecting to be shot down. He hadn’t been a fountain of information so far.
“That is the worst case but a possibility,” he admitted. “Kidnapping is an ever-present threat with royals, which is why it’s imperative I personally investigate.”
“If he wasn’t abducted, what could have happened to him?”
“Hopefully, nothing. Maybe he did show up at the summit, but his attendance didn’t get registered. His shuttle could have gone off course. Or he could have crashed.”
It sounded like the options skewed more toward the negative than the positive. “I can see why you’re concerned. So, what’s the plan?”
He sighed, and I figured he was thinking how much he wished I didn’t need to be factored into the plan. “His spacepod is emitting a beacon. First, I’ll check that out because he might be with his ship. Rescue efforts will be coordinated with the LOP—” He squinted out the window over the bow. Then he shifted his gaze between his handheld and the window.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
He frowned as he tapped into a control console. “The LOP shuttle has gone off course.”
Now that he mentioned it, it did appear the LOP shuttle veered left while we were headed to the right.
“Unless...it’s not,” he waffled.
I gritted my teeth. “Is it off course, or isn’t it? Where is the shuttle supposed to be going?”
“I assume the search team is following the landing beacon from the prince’s shuttle. I’m tracking his handheld, which leads us in a different direction.”
“Well, there’s your problem,” I said.
“What?”
“You assumed. Maybe they’re not following the beacon at all. Maybe they’re going someplace else. Maybe they received a communique the prince has been found. Or they’re rendezvousing with an on-ground search party. Or maybe, they are following the beacon, but he left his ship with his handheld. They don’t have the ability to track him, only his ship. So, they’re probably going to his last-known location,” I concluded.
He didn’t reply.
I poked his shoulder. “I’m right, aren’t I?” Poke. “Aren’t I?” Poke.
He grabbed my hand. “I had considered he might have landed and proceeded on foot to the summit.” Nadir droned on about something, but I focused on his oversized four-fingered paw. His hand swallowed up mine, the accidental brush of his furry wrists sensuously soft against my skin.
I yanked free, heart thudding and stomach fluttering. He represented everything I despised—he was a boorish, outspoken, bossy xenophobe—the opposite of what I admired and respected. And prissy. Did I mention prissy? What was with the cape anyway? This was the first time I’d ever seen him take it off. I studied him, surprised by the breadth of his shoulders. I’d assumed the epaulets had artificially broadened his shoulders, but he sported a serious set of deltoids and pecs. His torso narrowed in the masculine V shape. Nadir was built.
Ack! I scrubbed my eyelids with the heels of my palms. Handsomeness didn’t matter—he was still a jerk. If I wasn’t so hard up, I wouldn’t have given him a second glance. But it had been two years since I broke up with my last boyfriend. Would my parts even work anymore?
What would it be like to have sex with an alien? Do Arasetans have the same plumbing as humans? They must be compatible below the waist because Holly and Giselle are making it work with Aeon and Joule.
“What are you plotting?”
So piercing was his gaze, I got the crazy idea he could read my mind.
“Nothing.” Heat flooded my face.
His eyes narrowed. “You are turning red.”
“Yes. Thank you for politely pointing that out.”
“Are you all right?” He sounded concerned.
I fanned my face. “It’s a little hot in here.”
“The pod’s temperature is maintained at a steady 294 degrees.”
“That’s impossible. We’d be dead. Charred to a blackened lump.”
“That’s the Kelvin scale.” His full lips adopted a mocking curl. “It equates to twenty-one Celsius or seventy Fahrenheit.”
“Oh.”
“Perhaps you’re going through menopause and are experiencing hot flashes?” he suggested.
“You asshole! I’m only twenty-nine years old!”
“That is too young?”
“Yes, it’s too young! I’m in my prime reproductive years!” Which were zooming by at warp speed. I’d always figured I’d be married by now—or at least in a serious relationship headed in that direction. Thank you for making me feel old. “Don’t talk to me.” I crossed my arms and stared out the window.
How does he know about menopause?
I don’t care. It doesn’t matter.
The LOP shuttle disappeared amongst the clouds, and the planet loomed below us as a massive swirl of blue, green, and gray-white, like someone had splashed three colors of paint onto a surface and given it a cursory mix. It looked...stormy.
I started to inquire about the weather situation then clamped my lips shut. Nope. Nope. I refused to initiate any further conversation with him.
About a minute later, he said, “We’re approaching Aurelia’s outer atmosphere.”
Thank you, Captain Nadir. Clearly, he did not understand what don’t talk to me meant.
Suddenly, the shuttle lurched.
“What happened?” My gaze snapped to his face.
“Not sure.” His ridged brow scrunched with concern, and his fingers flew over the console. He squinted at the readout.
The thick fog of gray-white clouds enveloped us, obscuring visibility. There was another tug on the ship, and then the shuttle shook like it was having a spasm. I could feel the vibration against my feet, against my ass through the seat. “That’s normal, right?”
“No,” he said. “Definitely not.”
Why couldn’t he waffle when I needed him to? He pressed a button on my armrest, and straps sprang out to crisscross my chest. Nadir activated his own safety restraints.
I gripped the armrests and stared out at...nothing. All I saw was gray, gray, and more gray. What if we collided with something? Like another ship? Or a humongous alien bird-bat? Logically, I knew the ship’s AI wouldn’t allow that to happen, but logic wasn’t in control of my brain right now.
“Just a storm,” I murmured.
“It’s not a storm,” he said. “According to the weather analysis, it’s a calm day.”
If this was calm, I’d hate to experience extreme turbulence.
The ship’s shaking intensified. Objects in the compartments clattered; items not secured in the cockpit went flying. Nadir’s handheld sailed off the console to crash against an aft wall. If I hadn’t been belted in, I would have been knocked from my seat. I stifled a scream and clung to the armrests. Is this what happened to Prince Lomax?
The odor of ozone, of burning metal filled the cockpit. Lights and screens went dark.
“All the electronics are shot. We have no way to pilot the craft.” He reached out and took my hand. “Hang on!”
Stern over bow, the ship tumbled, free-falling toward the ground.
