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“Fleegans,” Cinq mutters.
Something tells me the word isn’t complimentary, but I ask anyway. “Is that bad?”
He laughs as we enter the main living room and turns to give me a cheeky grin. “Very. One of those to avoid using unless you mean it.”
I nod at Quin as he passes by on his way toward the bedroom. Leaning close to Cinq, I ask, “Does anyone else speak English?”
“Not yet. I need to share the files with them.”
“You haven’t yet?”
He pauses for a second, then continues walking to where the food dispenser and shelf of various things are. “You’re right. I should have distributed the downloads sooner and now I have. Give them a few seconds to process the information.”
I follow and sit at the table as he brings me a glass of water. Dying of curiosity now that I can converse with him, I ask in rapid fire, “So, how can you just download a language like that and how can I? What else can you download? When are you letting Earthers have this capability? Who were the people who took me? One of you or one of the other guys?”
Laughing, Cinq brings two more waters over before taking a seat opposite me. “I don’t blame you for having a lot of questions. I also know you have to be hungry. The Kostans aren’t known for their hospitality toward Earthers.”
He’s not wrong. I take a long drink before admitting, “It was pretty bad on the ship.”
Cinq frowns, pushing another glass toward me. “I don’t understand. Pretty and bad? Kostan vessels aren’t known for their aesthetics.”
“Oh, sorry. Pretty is an adjective sometime used in the place of very.” I drain the last of the water from one glass and take another. “Anyway, we were all in there together, a bunch of Earth people from my city. I don’t even know how it happened.” He takes my empty glasses and returns to the dispenser and I keep telling him about the abduction. “Huge mushroom shaped ships were above us one minute and the next, I was in a cargo hold with a lot of others. I’d made a friend but we were separated after the crash. A tall bronze guy similar to you and S’Tou convinced her to go with him.”
He stares at me for a moment before looking down at the table. “That makes sense and she’s better off with the Gharians than here.”
“Are Gharians some sort of alien or world or police force?” I ask, glad he considers them better than him because he’s been decent so far to me.
“A little bit of everything you’ve said mixed together, yes.” He nods a thanks to Nilt as the reptile humanoid brings over another couple of glasses and takes the empties. “They’re from our homeworld, Ghar. I consider them very militant, but yes. She’s safer with them than here.”
Their silent conversations unnerve me a little, but I suppose familiarity and all that. I take a drink, thinking about his comment over my friend’s safety. “And yet, you wouldn’t let me go with them, too?”
“No.”
I wait for anything else but nothing comes from him except a mulish expression. Resisting the urge to tap my foot, I cross my arms. “No?”
“No,” he replies again and I stare at him, giving my best death glare until he looks away first. “All right, I’ll be transparent in my motives. I, we, all of my people, have this way of knowing who our bondmates are when we meet. Most of the times it’s by scent. I’ve heard of touch, and sight is rare. I think there was a case of two people matching only by their voices.” He shrugs. “I’m unable to retrieve from the datalinks, so I can’t be sure. At any rate, you and I have matched as bondmates.”
He has got to be shitting me. “Bondmates, huh? We’ve bonded? When did this happen exactly?” I ask.
“We’re not bonded. Just matched.” He gives me a wan smile. “Don’t worry. We’re not really bonded because I won’t accept.”
Weird how all of a sudden, I’m freshly ticked because now he doesn’t want me. “You do know you’re not making sense. I can’t go home because you’re matched to me, yet you’re not accepting anything with me because why again?”
“It’s a long story,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck like he’s tense or something.
Standing, I take our glasses to the dispenser thingy and set them on top since I have no idea on how to open the door. Going back to the table, I manage to say, “You seem full of long stories and since you want to keep me here for good, start talking.”
Nilt comes over and sits on a square pillow on the floor. “Maybe you shouldn’t have acquired Earther language skills after all.”
I stare at him, refraining from saying what I do to his rattler cousins at home. “Nice, but no one here could have avoided my questions since I was on my way to learning his language anyway. Each one of you would be next so it was only a matter of time.”
The reptilian man gives a nonchalant shrug like my determination isn’t important. “There’s no need since he sent the files to the four of us.”
Shoving aside my irritation and faking my best smile, I grin at Cinq, since he’s the fount of all knowledge around here. “Great, then, big guy. Send me the Gharian file so I can talk to your spacefaring friends and not just these people.”
He shakes his head, frowning. “I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?” I hiss, ignoring Nilt’s approving grin and Quin’s surprised look as he strolls into the large room.
