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“Jemi.” Rusp turned to him, willing him to catch up. “It doesn’t matter to Earth whether or not Irene had sex with Kalquorian men. The mere fact she was around us is enough to get her killed, just as she said.”
“She took a huge risk,” Sherv said. “The Odeergin disguise is a great ruse, but it isn’t foolproof.”
“As was proven when I saw her legs,” Rusp agreed. Such beautiful legs. Such a beautiful woman. To understand the dangers she’d faced to play and sing with them astounded him.
For music, he’d given up a lot. He’d sacrificed a great deal to be able to make it his career. The risks he’d taken hadn’t included his life, however.
Irene was at a level of courage his Nobek father, a high commander of Kalquor’s ground forces, couldn’t claim. Her bravery was astonishing.
“You don’t think we’ll speak to her again. Because of what could happen to her.” The tremor in Jemi’s voice confirmed he was finally letting the truth of Irene’s situation dawn.
“I wouldn’t ask it of her,” Rusp said.
“We can’t attempt to contact her either.” Sherv was resolute, but his disappointment was obvious. “We have to stay away from her at all costs.”
Chapter Six
In her Odeergin disguise, Irene hurried her way through the station’s docking bay, heading for Clan Sherv’s ship.
She’d forced herself to stay clear of the club Certain Death played in for a couple of days. She’d hoped the urge to risk meeting Sherv, Rusp, and Jemi would quiet. She’d banked on coming to her senses, that time and distance would quiet the clamoring to visit the trio.
It hadn’t worked. If anything, Irene’s yearning to visit the Kalquorians had grown worse. Fascination, infatuation, obsession…whatever it was, it filled her day and night. She found no peace even in her dreams, in which Sherv, Rusp, and Jemi starred.
After two days, Irene’s being clamored to see them. Following her performance, she’d donned her disguise and slipped out to watch the guys play. She told herself she’d sit in the audience and enjoy the performance, then return to her quarters without speaking to them. It would be enough. It had to be enough.
Disappointment had crashed through her when she’d reached the venue and another band, a mix of Beonids and Starfs, was playing instead. Hadn’t Sherv told her they were contracted for another week? In the semi-privacy of the service corridor, she’d consulted her handheld, then breathed a sigh of relief. They still had five gigs left, with different bands scattered between their shows on other nights. This was a night off for them.
She had two options: return to her quarters or pick up her tour of the station’s offerings where she’d left off after encountering Clan Sherv for the first time.
An impetuous note sounded in her head.Or you could…
Which was how she ended up in the dock’s huge arrival and departure lobby, performing her Odeergin slither-walk as she approached the clan’s ship.
She heard distinctive alien guttural speech behind her just as she neared the hatch leading to the corridor connected to Clan Sherv’s vessel. Smiling expectantly, she turned, anticipating the approach of her musician friends.
Instead, she saw Captain Nil and his clanmates, Nobek Amig and Imdiko Ginef. Alarm flashed through Irene as she momentarily forgot the disguise she wore. She froze, her heart stuttering.
When it dawned they couldn’t identify her, she still felt a sense of panic. In all her forays on the station, she’d encountered no actual Odeergins on board. Their planet was a great distance away, and they were seldom noted in the Beonid sector of space. Amig had marked her wearing her disguise in the club where Certain Death played. Would he think it odd the “Odeergin” was in his vicinity again?
I can’t go to the ship. The Nobek will notice and may check on what’s docked there. It’ll look odd if he learns the Odeergin is visiting fellow Kalquorians.
Irene noted the marquee sign on the wall next to her and pretended to study its shifting visuals of shops, restaurants, and clubs to visit. She waited for the captain’s clan to pass.
Though the holographic ad board didn’t offer a reflective surface, the tiled wall around it did. Irene noted when the clan passed behind her, giving her a wide berth.
Nobek Amig stared at her the whole while, until she could no longer view him. Irene prayed he watched her simply because he wanted to keep an eye on a potential threat. She hoped he’d assume her supposed Odeergin ship was berthed somewhere nearby, that like Clan Sherv, she slept on board it rather than in a rented room.
She counted off a minute, not daring to look around. She kept an eye on the tile wall while pretending to watch the marquee, fearing Amig would return.
At last, she turned in the direction where Clan Sherv’s vessel was docked, the direction the captain’s clan had been heading. There was no sign of the Kalquorian destroyer’s officers. Her tension eased, but she kept watch as she hurried on to the hatch leading to Certain Death’s flying home.
After a final look around, she entered the short corridor and went to the silver door. There was an intercom link on the wall next to her, which was supposed to link into the ship’s com. She pressed the button. When a voice spoke, the questioning tone clear though the Kalquorian words were indecipherable, she said, “Hi. It’s Irene.”
The door slid open immediately. After a glance over her shoulder…she couldn’t get the image of Amig creeping up on her to demand an explanation out of her mind…she boarded.
She was confronted by Sherv, Rusp, and Jemi. They stared in obvious shock as she whipped her headgear off. She nearly squealed in her joy. “Hi! I went to watch you, but you weren’t playing tonight.”
Rusp slapped a panel on the wall next to her, and the ship’s hatch closed behind her. He stared at her in what appeared to be anger. “What you do here, Irene?”
