Chapter Seven
She glanced over at Prenzal, who was fingering the screen on his console.
“Did you just hang up on him?” she asked.
“I am not familiar with that term,” he said coldly. He got up and walked away.
“Kodran?” she said angrily.
He sighed. “Rosamund, I cannot discuss it with you at this time. This involves clan business. I am sorry. But I did not lie to you. The equipment we purchased will be used for medicinal purposes.”
Rosamund felt a surge of frustration. Darfan was lying, Kodran was either lying or wasn’t telling her the whole truth, Prenzal was standing across the bridge glaring at her as if he’d like to jettison her into outer space…
“Fine.” She scowled. “I’m going back to my room. Let me know when we’ve landed. Dot-R, I want you to play me that message.”
Once they were back in her room, Dot-R pointed her fingers at the wall and broadcast Talia’s message, which showed a happy, exhausted Talia, sitting up in bed and holding two adorable little babies. The babies had pointy, fur-tipped ears. Lukan sat on the bed next to Talia, his normally ferocious expression melted away into an enormous grin.
“I would like to introduce Verona and Laruk, the most beautiful babies in the galaxy,” Talia said.
Rosamund felt a wave of relief wash over her. As long as Talia and the babies were okay, she felt as if she could handle anything the galaxy threw at her.
She had Dot-R record a message from her.
“Congratulations on giving birth to the most gorgeous babies ever!” she said. “I don’t want you to worry about me. Don’t listen to anything that Darfan says, either. I’m hanging out with dragons! It’s awesome, everything is going well, and I’ll be back home in about one Earth week to give you more details. You just rest up and enjoy your little furballs.”
Dot-R nodded when she was done. “The message will take several hours to arrive,” she informed Rosamund. “Oh, and also my parental units wanted me to let you know that you are responsible for my physical safety, I may associate with any male sentient bots I wish to, without supervision, I have no curfew, and they will disassemble you if you return me with so much as a dent.”
“Is any of what you just said actually true?” Rosamund raised an eyebrow and stared at Dot-R with a challenging look.
“Parts of it,” Dot-R grumbled, avoiding her gaze.
A voice boomed through the air. “Attention. The ship is preparing for landing. Please take your seat or lie down in your bunk immediately.”
They hurried over the bunks and lay down, and the webbing restraints shot out and held them in place while the ship settled down with a thud.
After a couple of minutes, the webbing retracted, and Rosamund went to open her door. It stayed stubbornly shut.
She slapped her hand on the glowing square to the right of the door.
“Hello, this is Rosamund, my door is stuck,” she said.
Kodran’s voice came on. “We’re not at our final destination yet,” he said. “We’re going to take off again. We will arrive shortly, don’t worry. It’s safer if you just stay in place. Please return to your bunk or one of the chairs for now – you need to be strapped down for the landing.”
“Why did we have to make the extra stop?” she asked.
There was no answer.
Was it really safer for her to be in her room, or was he hiding something from her? What had Kodran really purchased on Agora? She somehow felt that she would know if he was lying to her…but if they really had purchased medical equipment, why were he and Prenzal being so cagey?
They remained in place for about half an hour. Then the door opened and Kodran led her and Dot-R through the ship to a skimmer. His men were piling into skimmers as well.
“Have a seat,” Kodran said to her.
“I’m not speaking to you,” Rosamund said, deliberately sitting several seats away from him.
“Yes you are. You just did.”
“He is correct,” Dot-R said as the skimmer lifted off.
