“We don’t mind,” Dyoti says, gazing at Deus.
“I mind,” Dalox booms. “And use the aquium while you’re at it.”
“This ship has an aquium?” I query.
“It does not,” Dalox replies to me in a quieter voice. “It has sonic cleaners, but unless I tell him, I expect he’ll cover the entire place with exhaust soot.”
Given the entire place is filled almost to bursting with Sarkarnii, I agree with Dalox.
It would appear all my new friends are in agreement with Dalox, however. And before he can utter another word, Deus is swept away on a tide of females shoving him to the rear of the ship.
“He’s such a nevver,” Dalox growls.
“But, apparently, he’s your problem now.”
“I don’t know what Darax is going to say.” Dalox stares in the direction Deus was taken. “He thought his brother was gone forever, after he tried to kill both him and his mate.”
“It’ll take his mind off the fact you stole his ship and crashed it,” I suggest.
I get the full force of a megawatt Dalox grin.
“Yes, it will, won’t it?”
DALOX
Deus seethes quietly next to me. He’s marginally less dirty and is wearing pants. The females put him in the sonic shower and in the pants, on threat of envenomation. A threat I wouldn’t have thought would have worked on the nevver, but it appears it was enough.
“How did you deter the other females?” I finally ask him.
“I hit them with a couple of pulsar bolts, and they decided it wasn’t worth pursuing us,” he says.
“Are there any ships left back there which can cross the ocean?”
Deus shakes his head. “I wouldn’t have thought this one would.” He shrugs. “But it appears it is.”
“It was you chasing us as we got close to your old ship, wasn’t it?” I growl.
“Then you used your shadow drive.” He responds. “A nevver’s trick.”
Deus studies his claws. I think there’s something stuck in them, but he makes no attempt to clean them.
I look back into the confines of the ship. The females have organized themselves and have obtained platters of food from the dispensers which they have managed to get working,although from the chatter it would appear they were not allowed to use them. Most of them are settled on the floor, eating and talking quietly. My Gillian is in the center, speaking with the two who first helped us with our escape.
I hadn’t thought we’d ever see females in numbers again. Even with the sarkarnlings Dante has revealed, there are only a handful of females among them. Females who won’t be of age for my warriors for some time.
“Why?” I growl at Deus.
“Why?” he repeats.
“Why did you not say about the females? When you got to our settlement.”
Deus wrinkles his nose and squeezes his eyes shut for a moment. His head tosses and one shoulder rises and falls.
“I was not who I am.” His voice is low. “I do not think I will ever be the Sarkarnii I was.”
He doesn’t elaborate. Instead he falls into a brooding silence. For a while, I glare at him, wanting answers, but whether I am the admiral of the fleet or not, he is not going to elaborate.
“Take the helm,” I growl. “Watch the engine temperature. Someone has been sat on an exhaust valve, and I don’t think the flyer liked it.” I curl my lip.
