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He pulled me up. "Come. We'll both be disappointed if I change my mind."
His good mood was contagious, but I let go of his hand as soon as we left his chamber and fell in step behind him.
This time we took the elevator all the way to the top, and I was rendered speechless when we arrived. I craned my neck to look up at the see-through ceiling. Millions of stars dotted the sky. Living in New York, I had forgotten how beautiful the night sky could be.
I was so fascinated, I didn't even pay any attention to the aliens milling around us. Only when I nearly bumped into a large man did I take a look around the floor we had entered.
As I stepped out onto the balcony, dizziness overcame me as I stared down at what had to be over four hundred floors. Transparent tubes connected levels, some even split, giving people a choice of moving in four different directions.
Straight ahead of us was something akin to a large observation deck that included a buffet. Aromas reached my nose and made my stomach growl.
"Are you hungry?"
Regret moved through his eyes when he said, "Stay here, I'll go get us something. Unfortunately, it would be unseemly for me to sit with you here, but I promise I have a place in mind for us that will take your breath away."
"You already do," I said before I could stop myself.
He grinned crookedly. "I do, eh?"
"Go get me some food," I advised with a smile.
He turned around to look at me a few times as he marched to the buffet, where he grabbed a tray and began to raid the large assortment of food. The other aliens stepped out of his way, surrendering their place in line for him, giving me a glimpse of the powerful position he held, which I hadn't given much consideration to yet except when it came to the brutal quest forced upon him.
I stepped into the shadow of a pillar to remain invisible, remembering his warning about us not being seen together. The majority of aliens on this deck wore black and green, marking them as servants, and I wondered why what had to be the most beautiful place on the ship was left to the servants. It also made me wonder where the nobles and royals were and what their accommodations looked like.
"We're almost there, come," Azazel nudged me when he returned with two trays filled with goodies.
The familiar aroma of basil and warm tomatoes made my mouth water and made me wonder if we ate the same things, but then I remembered Azazel drinking my blood, making him a vampire, right? Did vampires eat? Not according to the books I read and movies I watched.
Wide doors slid open after a short walk and the view rendered me speechless. A domed ceiling reached from the top all the way down to the floor across from me, giving a perfect view of the night sky.
What caught my attention though was a large body of water ahead of me, probably the size of two football fields. Laughter echoed off the high walls, but died down when the twenty or so aliens noticed us.
"Out!" Azazel barked.
Instantly the aliens scrambled out of the water or lounge chairs and rushed out through side doors, giving Azazel and me curious glances, but nobody objected or said a word. A wave of guilt rushed through me that they had to leave but being alone with Azazel made me quickly forget about it.
"Oh. Azazel," I exclaimed, staring around. "What is this place?"
"It's a tepidarium—swimming pool," he explained, placing the trays on top of a large round table before he pulled out a chair for me, positioning it so I could stare over the slowly calming water out into the night. The moon was so incredibly close; it gave out enough illumination to render the use of light inside this room pointless. Its reflection caught in the water, rendering me speechless. As speechless as the fact that I was on an alien spaceship, sitting by a pool the size of two football fields.
"I didn't know what kind of food you liked, so I grabbed a little of everything they offered tonight," Azazel said, bringing my attention back to him and the food.
Incredulously, I stared at what he had brought. My mouth watered at the sight of spaghetti with meatballs, garlic bread, shrimp linguini, pizza, and seared fish. The trays looked as if he had raided an Italian restaurant.
"Wow, this is incredible." I devoured the assortment hungrily with my eyes, before a question popped into my head. "How come we use the same food?"
"No, this is all from Adama. We are restocking our storage units right now. I'm afraid the food becomes rather bland later on in the journey, since we only have three stops in seven hundred years."
Our hands reached for the rolls of garlic bread at the same time, but I slapped his out of his hand.
"What?" He looked alarmed.
"Don't eat that," I exclaimed, slapping his hand some more.
"Whyever not? It looks delicious."
"It's garlic."
