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Max stirred on my lap.“Where we go?”
I repeated his question out loud, and Devalia said, “We’re headed for the senatorial ship. We’re going to Breyva.”
Wrin said, “Zaar is finally going to join us in resisting the Grug?”
“Yes.” His mother smiled. “You two finally helped me eliminate the opposition.”
I glanced at Wrin, who sat beside me. “What does this mean for me?”
“It means you’re going to meet the other Hyoo-mon females who are awake. And also,ARK 1is at Breyva.”
Joy rushed through me, riding the wave of relief I’d been feeling ever since I destroyed all of the doctor’s data. No matter what she’d learned about me, Slev would never be able to use it against my crew.
And now I’d finally get to see them, these women in my care.
I leaned my head on Wrin’s shoulder as he tucked an arm around me. “Thank you.”
Everything was going to be wonderful from here on out.
Everything washorrible.
I’d never been a passenger on a ship before. It sucked. I wanted to learn how to fly it, not get ushered off the bridge by the officers.
Devalia, Wrin, and I were stuck in one long conference call after another with the politicians and people waiting for us on Breyva. Those also sucked.
Because things were far from over.
The Grug, the gray aliens who’d sold me to Slev, were still out there. Even though Wrin and his crew had rescuedARK 1from them, the Grug still held most of the power in the seven sectors, because they controlled technology and trade.
It had taken a war last time to get the gray aliens to admit the Zaarn, Tula, and Sjisji were sentient. What was it going to take for them to recognize humans? They were also telepathic and had the ability to emit a field that scrambled people’s brains.
Added to that was the issue that even if we won the ability to be considered sentient, humans had no place to go if we woke everyone from cryo. At best, we’d end up scattered across dozens of starships owned by the banished Zaarn—if the women were their fated mates.
That wouldn’t be a bad life, but it also wasn’t the one they’d signed up for. Very few of the women chosen by the ARK Program had any knowledge of living in space.
A day out from Breyva, we were in the middle of another endless planning session. The conference room on the senatorial ship had been set up with a table that ended in a wall-sized screen. The senator on Breyva had a matching set up, so with the screen on, it looked like the table extended all the way into their room.
“There has to besomewhere,” I said, staring into the large viewscreen at Cara Peterson, one of my peacekeepers. She had tan skin, long brown hair, and the tall, athletic build of a fighter with good speed and reach. She’d been the one to send me the cookies.
Beside her, Gravin’s blue face scowled, cutting deep grooves in his brow. Her Zaarn mate was way grumpier than Wrin. “There isn’t. Every habitable planet in the seven sectors has been claimed.”
“Not true,” Wrin said. “We’ve barely explored the Abyss, and we already know it has at least one habitable planet.”
Cara sucked in a breath. “The kreecat homeworld!”
A bright pink head topped with burgundy horns appeared as Space Kitty put his front paws on her thigh and meowed up at her.
“Yes, your world.”
Max came running into the conference room, the sensor on the door set to open for him.“Me! You’re thinking about me!”He slid to a stop beside me, casting a quick look at the other feline before returning his attention to me.
“Don’t you want to see the other kreecat?”I sent to him.
“No can smell.”He gave a mental shrug.
“The Abyss isn’t safe,” Gravin said. “The Grug telepathy field has killed hundreds of crews over the years—”
“Yes, yes, we all know about it,” Duchess Rualii said. The bird alien clacked her beak at him, clearly immune to his glare. “We’ve taken out the emitter close to Breyva. We can take out the rest, and the Grug telepathy field will be no more.”
