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He opened his mouth.
“No talking!” I squeezed his shoulder, and his mouth snapped shut. “So you’re right. I train you hard because I want you to be able to watch my backandbecause I want you safe.”
Tark stared at me for several seconds, which was the equivalent of a year in Tark-time. “Can I talk now?”
I grunted.
“Thank you. I knew all that, but it’s still nice to hear it. You’re a better friend than you think. You’ve put yourself between me and danger on every mission. All the scowls in the universe can’t hide that big heart of yours for long. Just make sure you let her see it.”
“I’m trying,” I said. “I’m going to talk more.”
“Yes!” Tark’s fist pumped the air.
“But you need to help with that.” I pointed at him. “You’ve got to slow down when you talk to Zo-Fee, give me a chance to say things.”
“I can’t do that!” He bounced a little. “I just get excited and don’t think, so if I start up again, give me a sign.”
“What kind of sign?”
“Well, a scowl can’t be it, or I’ll never speak again.” He laughed and sidestepped my playful swipe. “What if you touch your horn?”
My fingers rose to my lower horn, tracing over the ridges, imagining Zo-Fee using it to pull me in for one of her Hyoo-mon kizzes.
The door slid open behind us, and she called out, “Raxnor, I don’t have my clothes.”
“Coming,” I called over my shoulder. Then I turned to Tark. “We’ll do the thing you said.”
I’d finally be able to talk more with my mate.
Lunch came, and I couldn’t get a word in edgewise.
I touched my horn so many times that Zo-Fee started looking at me funny, while Tark talked on, oblivious.
It seemed the patterns we’d engrained over the years were not so easily broken. Finally, I kicked him, making it look like an accident from stretching my legs.
When my friend met my eyes, I raised an eyebrow and touched my horn one final time. A sheepish expression stole over his face. “Sorry,” he mouthed.
I dipped my chin. He hadn’t been doing it on purpose. “What else did you do outside besides fix the impellers?” I kept the amusement out of my voice, but curiosity ate at me. Whathadhe found to do for two hours?
“I cleaned the port nozzles on all the maneuvering thrusters.” Tark shrugged. “It gave me a chance to refresh myself on their design so I can build a stealth baffle for them.”
“Stealth baffle?” Zo-Fee asked.
I clapped a hand to my friend’s shoulder. It was my turn to sing his praises. “Tark created the first stealth shuttle in the seven sectors.”
He gave a pleased grin. “The first we know of, he means.” His mouth snapped shut, and he wiggled his eyebrows at me, telling me to talk.
“It’s the first. It has to be.” I ticked my arguments off on my fingers. “If the Sjisji had it, one of their pilots would have taken it for a joyride already and have come back to brag about it. If the lizards could make stealth craft, the Tula Syndicate would be using them in their pirate attacks. And if the Grug had one…” My lips pulled back from my fangs in a snarl. “If those frekkers had one, they’d have used it against everyone else by now.”
“It is pretty great.” Then Tark’s features twisted into a rueful smile. “If only I could have as much success with my main project.”
“What’s your main project?” Zo-Fee asked.
“Let me show you!” Tark bounced to his feet and hurried over to one of the cabinets, his enthusiastic nature never suppressed for long. He pulled out a spacesuit helmet. Instead of being transparent, gray metal coated the inside of its surface. He handed it to my mate. “You know the Grug, right?”
“The big gray alien that sold me to the lizards?”
Tark and I both nodded.
