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Negal let out a breath and went back to shoveling scrambled eggs into his mouth as if their fate was of no consequence to him.
"What about us?" Dagor prompted.
Aru winced. "We are not going home. Unless we find all the pods and all the Kra-ell are accounted for, they are not picking us up on the way back, but they will drop off more supplies."
For Dagor, this was worse than a death sentence or just as bad. There was no way to find all the pods and account for the Kra-ell. Some pods were undoubtedly submerged in deep water, and some might have been destroyed.
They were being abandoned on a forbidden planet. In three hundred years, they would no longer be able to communicate with home. They would be as good as dead to their families.
"Why?" Dagor stared at Aru. "What did you do?"
"Nothing, as far as I know."
That was a lie. The guilty look in Aru's eyes betrayed the truth he was trying to hide.
"Out with it. If I am to be buried on this godforsaken rock, I at least want to know why. It must have been something terrible to merit such extreme punishment."
"I don't think it's a punishment, and I don't think it's forever either. We are tasked with investigating what happened to the Kra-ell and searching for the survivors. Someone higher up must have realized that a hundred and fifteen years is not long enough to achieve these objectives. We might get picked up by the next patrol ship deployed for the sector." He smiled. "Or we can go home on a human-made ship. At the rate they are going, they might develop interstellar travel ability during the next seven hundred years."
Aru didn't seem upset, which was understandable since he'd found his truelove mate on Earth and couldn't take her home with him.
Dagor was happy for him and liked to think of himself as a progressive god, but he hoped that the mate the Fates chose for him was a goddess and not a hybrid. He really didn't want to get stuck on Earth for eternity.
He wasn't overly fond of humans, and their primitive technology left much to be desired. As little as he knew, he could teach the best of them a lot about programming and building hardware. He would have been an exceptional engineer if his family could have afforded the tuition. He could probably also learn a lot from them.
"I don't think they will." Dagor let out a sigh. "The best we can hope for are satellites that will allow us to communicate with home."
Aru turned to Negal, who had snatched the paper bag and was pulling out all the pastries and organizing them on a plate. "You don't seem to be upset."
"I'm not." Negal chose one of the pastries and put it next to what was left of his eggs. "I like the food here."
"What about your family?" Dagor asked. "Aren't you upset about not seeing your parents?"
Negal shrugged. "I'm not very close to them."
"A mate then? Aren't you disappointed that you will have to wait for another thousand years to have a chance to find her?"
The trooper shrugged again. "I'm not a young god like you two, and I've been all over the galaxy, but I haven't found my one and only yet. I don't think the Fates have one for me." He tore off a piece of the pastry, stuffed it in his mouth, and chewed quickly. "Maybe I'm not deserving enough to merit such a boon from the Fates."
Aru
The good news was that Negal didn't seem to mind their extended, or maybe even permanent, stay on Earth. The bad news was that Dagor seemed more upset about it than Aru had expected.
"You have suffered," Dagor said to Negal. "You were oppressed, and yet you remained a good person. Therefore, you deserve a boon from the Fates. Do not give up hope on ever finding your truelove mate."
Negal smiled. "That is true of most people, and yet only a few ever find their one and only. I think more is required to qualify, but no instruction manual details the feats of bravery or sacrifice needed."
"I think that's a myth," Aru said. "I found my truelove mate, and I haven't sacrificed more than the two of you or performed heroic acts."
Dagor groaned. "Maybe you've gotten Gabi as a reward for the suffering you will endure in your future."
Aru wasn't sure whether Dagor was being his usual sarcastic self or if he really believed in that. In either case, the words didn't sit well with him and brought a sense of foreboding.
Nevertheless, he was the leader of this team, and it was his job to inspire the others.
"We can do great things here." He touched Dagor's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "The news was a shock, and when you have had more time to think about it, you will realize it's not that bad." He let go of Dagor's shoulder and pulled one of the coffee cups from the tray. "Besides, if what you said is true, and I got Gabi as a reward for future suffering, and by that you meant being stuck on Earth, then you and Negal should get rewarded as well."
Dagor arched a brow. "Do you see any goddesses milling around here? Because I don't, and I do not wish to be tied to a hybrid female whom I can never bring home to my parents."
