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“No banished has ever successfully returned to Zaarn,” Raxnor growled, his eyes narrowed.
Tark’s expression went distant as if the engineer already puzzled over a solution to the problem. “No one’s tried in decades, though.”
El-Laa hooked a thumb toward her mate, the movement flexing her strong shoulder. Her light face wore a look of quiet pride. “Tark’s stealth gear is top rate.”
“I’ll fly anything that needs flying,” Mol-Lee said, her brown face determined, her small body looking ready to jump out of the seat and get moving.
Sul lost his usual smile and ground one huge fist into the tabletop, smashing an imaginary opponent.
Hay-Zul’s pale face blanched, making the tiny brown dots dusting her cheeks stand out more. “I don’t see how I can help.”
Kirel placed a hand over hers. “Your translation program will let us talk to her. That’s plenty.”
“I’m not sure what I can do, either,” Zo-Fee said. Then a smile lit the mining engineer’s tan face, her brown eyes dancing. “But we found the captain. That’s good news!”
At her upbeat words, the discussion turned to finding solutions, and we eventually settled on a course of action using the stealth shuttle Tark had created and recently upgraded with El-Laa’s help.
“This doesn’t solve the biggest problem,” Gravin growled, a line digging a trench between his eyes. “We need to get to Zaar quickly. It’s days away, even with our fastest ship.”
“I have an answer for that.” Mol-Lee leaned forward, rubbing her hands together eagerly. “We borrow a Sjisji racer.”
“One racer?” I said. “Isn’t that an oxymoron?”
“So we borrow two,” the pilot said.
“Yay!”The door whooshed open, and Glitter flew into the room. Her starwisp body was in its more compact form of a small flying mammal that glowed gold like no normal animal ever could.“An adventure!”
Two purple robotic mirol pups flew in after her, using their new drone wings. Lila swooped toward Ell-Laa, and Vree followed more slowly. Pink and purple kreecats ran in, meowing in excitement as Space Kitty and Lila joined the fray. Thankfully, the black one, Beans, was off on a mission to rescue more Hyoo-mons with Zol and Fran-Key.
Not that one less animal made much difference.
The Hyoo-mon females brought hope for a future to all Zaarn sent to Roam. But they also attracted pets. Lots and lots of pets.
My frekking ship had become a zoo.
It took some negotiating, but I got Duchess Rualii to provide us with two Sjisji racers. The royal senator was as canny as ever, but she hoped my trip would provide a way to get my home world to join the fight against the Grug, so she agreed.
The racers were small, sleek ships designed to carry one or two of the bird aliens at most. It would limit my support team, but I didn’t mind. The fewer of my people who put themselves at risk, the better.
I would travel in theDart, flying between them while also pulled along by their faster engines. Which cut the number of other people who could come in the other ships to four.
Gravin and Car-Raa stormed into my ready room.
I’d sent a comms only minutes ago and had expected them.
“Why aren’t we going?” he growled, his deep voice dropping even lower with irritation.
“I’m anARK 1peacekeeper,” Car-Raa said. “If anyone should be there to save Captain Lee, it’s me.”
They stood side by side, two strong fighters who always put the good of others ahead of themselves.
“You’re not going.”
She sputtered protests, while he growled.
“Enough.” I pushed to my feet and stalked down the length of the conference table to halt right in front of them. “You’re not going because I need you here.Everyoneneeds you here. If I don’t make it back—”
Gravin opened his mouth to protest, and I clapped a hand on each of their shoulders.
