“Do we have missiles loaded?”
“Yes,” Drak says. “Bays one through twelve all locked and loaded.”
“Open a channel,” Freak says.
“Open,” Aric confirms.
“Baktari vessels, your current actions are against the timeline. Retreat immediately or face quantum devastation.”
Something comes back. It sounds garbled to me, but the Psyons seem to understand it without trouble.
“Drak, launch one missile. Take out the lead ship. With any luck those bringing up the rear will think better of this plan.” Freak gives the orders smoothly and almost clinically.
He seems like a different creature than the one I have had hot trysts with. This is an alien who wields power so easily it feels natural. If I had to make a decision like that, I’d be sick to my stomach. He holds power over life and death, and he makes calls about them like I order off a menu. One missile, over easy.
It must have been awful for him to find himself confined to that experimental lab. Someone with his abilities and his natural command would have suffered greatly. I feel angry at the idea of it.
“Launching,” Drak says. He presses a button and there is a soft sound as a warhead the size of a family sedan is ejected from one of the bays. It streaks across space, traveling so fast it is almost instantly nothing more than a speck.
I expect a massive explosion when the missile hits the vessel, but all that happens is both missile and ship stop existing. They just blink out of existence, like they got deleted off the monitor.
“Whoa,” I say.
His head snaps around. He gives me a dark stare, and for a moment I don’t really recognize him. I feel a pang of intense fearinside me, like I am looking into the golden eyes of a beast who has played gently with me, but is capable of incredible harm.
“You shouldn’t be watching this,” Freak says. “Go to our room, pet.”
“But I want to see…”
“Go,” he says firmly. “Now.”
I take a step back, but I don’t actually leave. I want to see what is happening. He assumes I’ve done as I was told. I might be risking more than I realize by staying, but I want to see all of what he is capable of.
“Erase the other two,” Freak says. “Reverse engineer their heading and we will deal with the source. I’m not having the disrespect spread. We need to remind this galaxy who we are.”
I clap my hand over my mouth. I thought he was going to be more chill about all this. Why did I think that? Because he’s sweet with me? Is he sweet with me? I am rethinking everything about being kidnapped by an alien and turned into his pet now. What if it turns out that he’s an absolute monster?
“She’s still here,” one of the others says. I don’t know which one. My eyes are locked on Freak. I am surprised he can’t hear me. Maybe it’s because my mind is frozen and no thoughts are escaping it. Or maybe he’s focusing super hard on removing his enemies from existence.
Freak turns around, walks toward me, picks me up, and bodily carries me out of the room. I squeak and stiffen with fear as his arms wrap around me. There’s something hard and unyielding about him now.
“Stay in the room or we will be making a stop to get a cage for you,” he says. There’s a rough undertone in his voice that feels new. It makes electric tingles race through me.
He puts me down and leaves again.
I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t know how to process what I just saw. The power these creatures wield is incredible. And to think I was in their realm, acting like the whole place was just sort of ugly.
“But it was ugly,” I say out loud to myself. “If I was a super advanced alien, and I could make a planet look like anything, it wouldn’t look like a piece of high concept art. It would have chocolate fountains.”
* * *
I sit on the bed and I wait for him to come back. I’m a little scared to see him again. Will he be furious at me for not obeying him? Will he punish me? Will he make my ass disappear?
It’s not all that long until he returns. Minutes, probably.
“Did you erase the planet that sent them?”
“No. We let them off with a warning,” he says.
