“Am not!” She began frantically pushing more buttons.
He leaned back and folded his arms. “I canstill see you. And hear you.”
“Damn it, how does this thing work? I have to go pee really bad, catch you later!”
She sprang up out of the seat. Prenzal reached over and pressed a button, and Darfan’s face vanished from the screen.
“It only works when I do it,” he told her. “The controls are keyed to respond to ship’s personnel only.”
“You could have told me that before I made a fool of myself,” she said with annoyance.
“I could have, but where would the humor in that be?” Prenzal didn’t look particularly amused, however. He was looking at Rosamund with a mixture of suspicion and barely suppressed anger.
“I take it that you don’t want me to be here?” she said. “Not particularly fond of humans? Or just me?”
“I do not know you well enough to dislike you,” Prenzal replied, his voice colder than the vasty depths of space. He didn’t bother adding the obvious –but if I did know you better, I’d dislike you for sure. “You are an unknown entity, and there are…some inter-clan politics which may be disrupted by your presence.”
Rosamund felt a sharp zing of annoyance at his sour attitude. “Well, in my defense, I didn’t ask to be here.”
“If you did not want to be here, you should not have proposed,” Prenzal said, and walked away before Rosamund could slap him.
Irritated, she grabbed one of the other crew members and had him take her back to Kodran’s quarters to wait for his return. Dot-R was apparently exploring the ship and interfacing with its computer, at least according to the bridge crew.
Right after she entered Kodran’s room, her wrist com beeped, and then a holographic screen was projected above it. A Draell male with a long, aquiline nose and a haughty expression was frowning at her impatiently.
“Greetings, human known as Rosamund. I am Sekari, the Lord High Commander of the Draell. I just spoke to your employer at Starcrossed, who informed me that Kodran has fled Agora and you are being held captive. All I need in order to rescue you is for you to state that you were taken against your will. Then the Galactic Federation will authorize me to send a warfleet after you. Go ahead and repeat after me, ‘I have been kidnapped by Kodran Sky-Reign.’ ”
He looked at her expectantly.
Something about Sekari put her back up. His tone? The expression on his face? Whatever, she didn’t like him.
And she sure as hell wasn’t going to do anything that would cause a warfleet to be launched.
Besides, although Kodranhadkidnapped her, the great big fire-breathing caveman that he was, she had to admit it hadn’t been entirely his fault. A certain juvenile delinquent serv-bot who’d been skipping out on robot school to talk to mechanical boys was partly to blame.
She shook her head, waving her hand in dismissal. “I have not been kidnapped. There was a big misunderstanding, and I will be returned to Agora within the week. Six solar circles. Whatever.”
“Where is Kodran taking you?”
She raised an eyebrow. “I assumed your home planet.”
Sekari made a scornful noise. “Kodran and his clan are no longer welcome on our planet. He will most likely be taking you to the new planet that he has colonized, a dangerous and lawless place from which you will never escape.”
Interesting. And a bit alarming. Kodran had neglected to mention that. Then again, she’d barely had time to talk to him, and it wasn’t as if he’d lied and claimed he was taking her to the Draell world. He’d just said that he needed to deliver medicine.
“Why is Kodran no longer welcome on your planet?”
Sekari shook his head. “I cannot tell you that. And you must not tell Kodran I communicated with you.”
Rosamund frowned at him. “Fine. As long as you agree not to contact me again, and if you have issues with Kodran, you deal with him – don’t try to use me.”
Sekari gave her a rueful smile. “I was not trying to use you. I was trying to save you. Let’s hope it’s not too late.” And with those ominous words, his holograph vanished.
