AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Does anyone have my datapad?” Cinq asks.
S’Tou raises a hand. “I took it back, per orders.”
“Understandable.” Cinq steps into the cargo hold after TarKrell leads us in. After a brief examination of the surroundings, he shrugs. “I’ve been in worse.”
Looking around, he’s right. This is luxury compared to the cave. The room might be small but I can see something resembling a portable and full-sized bathroom like you’d find at home. I never thought I’d be so happy at seeing a toilet, but here we are. With the guard, Cinq, me, and now Stacie in the room, it’s a little crowded. I turn to my friend. “Do you want to show me where you’re staying while Cinq gets settled?”
“Sure, it’ll be fun.”
Cinq’s sitting on the bed with his bag next to him. I shift mine from one hand to the other. “Will you be all right for a little while?”
“Yes. Go and catch up with your friend. I want some time to think about my defense.”
Now I hate leaving him alone. He’s in no way small or vulnerable, yet I feel the need to protect him somehow. “I could stay,” I offer.
He lies down, covering his eyes with a forearm. “Or, you could go and come back later.” Lifting his arm, he smiles. “I’m serious. Go, visit with Stacie. I’ll be here waiting.”
“All right.” I go over to give him a kiss on the forehead. “Don’t get used to the idea of sleeping alone, got it?”
He grabs my butt, giving it a squeeze, and laughing when I yelp, says, “Didn’t plan on it, love.”
I shake my head at his teasing and go to find Stacie’s the only one there. After a last look at Cinq, I tell her, “So show me the best Gharian transports have to offer.”
She laughs, making a come-on motion. “You’ll see. The wrong aliens abducted us.”
“Too true. Even the holding cell back there was nicer.”
“Right?” She’s leading me down a long hall with doors on either sides. “The doors open if you have permissions to be in the room. I’ll have to have S’Tou grant you access to mine.” She pauses and a door slides open. “See? It was really fun the first several times but now I’m used to them.”
I follow her into a smallish bedroom. Bigger than Cinq and mine, though, and the bathroom isn’t portable at all. “Nice. Very nice.” I face her with a slight grin I can’t help but have. “Do you and S’Tou share a room?”
Her face turns bright red. “No, not yet. We are compatible, though. He calls us a match but I’m not sure since I don’t have voices in my head telling me things like he does.”
“You know about nanos, then?” Of course, she knows. “Sorry. You’re not unaware of what’s going on. I’m surprised they let us have any information.
“So was I.” She goes to a replicator and I see it’s a manual. Interesting. She asks, “Do you want anything to drink? I can dial up nearly anything from here.”
“A water sounds good.” Although sleep sounds better with each passing minute, I take the glass from her. “You’ll have to tell me what you think of S’Tou before I go back to Cinq and pass out for the night. If it’s night, that is.”
“It’s always night in space.” She sits next to me with her drink. “Well, we were rescued, as you know, and in orbit waiting for instructions. Or so the liaison said.”
“Liasson?” I ask, taking a sip. Very good, so I take another.
“Yeah, a Gharian who is familiar with Earthers. Anyway, she told us of the Lesser World Order, who our abducting aliens were, and our choices moving forward.” Stacie also takes a drink, then stares down at her glass. “We were ready to leave the system but I protested because you weren’t on board and I knew you hadn’t been killed. I didn’t stop nagging them until they agreed to let me call for you.”
When she glances up at me, I see the sheen of tears in her eyes. I grab her free hand, giving her fingers a reassuring squeeze. “I’m so sorry, Stacie. I really didn’t want to hurt you by staying in the cave.”
She sets down her glass and wipes her cheek. “It’s okay. If I were hidden out with S’Tou, I wouldn’t leave, either.”
We both chuckle as I let go of her and shift to get comfy. “Which means now you tell me all about meeting him. He’s a great guy and I want to hear all about it.”
Smiling, her face turns pink. “He’s just the best. We weren’t even supposed to be on the same ship, but when we were ready to leave the system, a signal from the shipwreck went off. Something the Gharian rescue crew had set up in case anyone they’d missed returned and sure enough. When you came back, they knew someone needed help.”
“Or so they thought.”
Stacie grins. “Exactly. They recognized S’Tou as a member of the Gharian royal family and a known accomplice of Cinq.”
When she says it that way, Cinq does sound bad ass and not in a good way. “Yeah, he’s broken one of their serious laws about hacking someone else’s system.”
