Riina also looked hammered, but oddly content. Kellen glanced at Tim and thought he detected the same subtle contentment in his eyes. Had they finally both realized their feelings for each other? While he didn’t want to be captain of a love ship, it was nice to see that they’d finally found each other.
Still, both of them also showed signs of strain and exhaustion. But he needed their help to deal with the Arroxan Prime people who had somehow ended up with them. He couldn’t wait to hear that story.
It felt like it took forever to feed and settle their Arroxan Prime guests. Now that they knew they were safe—Riina didn’t point out that safety was relative when you were hurtling through space using a star drive—they’d become almost cheerful. And extremely curious.
They also found, according to Lt. Dish, their whine-one-one buttons.
But they’d been tucked in at last, and Riina had been able to both eat and get some rest. She woke when she felt them drop out of star drive and made her way to the bridge as quickly as she could get ready.
Tim was already there. Had he rested at all, she wondered? There were tired lines around his eyes and mouth, but he smiled when he saw her come in.
“We’ve just arrived in the Arroxan Prime system,” Tim told her. “We’ll reach the planet in six ship’s hours.”
“We were able to transit back quickly because we knew the route,” Veirn explained.
“We collected a lot of new data while looking for you,” Captain Kellen said.
He looked tired, too. She almost said something but stopped herself. He was the captain. He’d get rested when he felt like it was the right time.
“We had something interesting happen,” Kellen added. He leaned forward and manipulated some controls. An image popped up on the forward screen.
“Is that…” Riina began as she stared at a much healthier looking purple alien female.
“We believe so,” Tim said.
“It is a message of thanks,” Veirn said.
“How do we know?” Riina listened, but all she could hear was the same alien sounds they heard at the junk yard.
“It arrived with both prime numbers and music as part of its coding,” Veirn explained. “I could, of course, have translated it incorrectly if their prime numbers were different than ours, but since you saved her life, we can reasonably assume certain things about the message. And she is smiling.”
Riina grinned at Tim. “I think it is reasonable to assume it isn’t a death threat.”
“That,” Tim said, grinning back, “is new in my experience.”
Riina felt a stab of pleasure that he could joke about his dark past.
“There is more,” Tim said.
“More?” Was this the bad news of the good news, bad news scenario?
“I have been able to pick up the news telecasts from Arroxan Prime,” Veirn said.
That seemed like good news? She hoped. There were people alive to make those broadcasts.
“The damage to the planet is much less severe than we expected, based on our readings and observations at the time,” Veirn said.
“In fact,” Kellen said, “their seismic disruptions have been reduced to levels more typical of similar planets in our systems. It is possible that the sensors were originally installed because the seismic activity as so a-typical.”
“It did seem,” Tim observed, “that the entity was targeting high seismic regions.”
“And from what Dr. Walker reported, their people didn’t settle in those areas,” Riina said.
“In addition,” Veirn said, “they built resilient structures, so the damage from the extractions was manageable.”
“Extraction?” Riina’s voice might have squeaked some at this characterization.
“It is now clear that the entity extracted the Vorthari,” Veirn said.
