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“Sure thing, Boss.”
Chapter 27: Sam
There was an exact replica of the machine that manufactured all the pieces that made up a Xarc’n shuttle in the middle of the barn in front of me. It was currently in the process of spitting out a new side panel for Pip.
With this mothership still stubbornly refusing to do anything but go back to the original planet it was slated for, we’d had to get creative. There were plenty more motherships in the galaxy now than there had been when the original ten thousand warriors first left Xarc, which meant they had the ability to create new ones.
Sure enough, we found blueprints to build every single part of a new mothership right here on board. As long as we had the materials, we could create as many ships as we wanted. The parts, anyway. We’d yet to figure out how to replicate the power source.
Aaron and I suspected that it would be too dangerous to attempt to do that on Earth, just in case we made a mistake and blew it up into a million tiny pieces—both the mothership and Earth. That would not be good.
Aaron was the Tech Wizard from the Colorado group. Franklin had been working with them for years since Siobhan,one of ours, had gone on a search for her sister and found her there, living with a hunter.
With the way this ship had acted, hell-bent on completing its task, some of us were starting to wonder what would happen to the other mothership after the scourge were finally eradicated here on Earth. Would it recall all the hunters, insisting on going to the next planet? If the hunters did not obey, would the mothership call their shuttles back in?
That was what this one had started to do, but since so many of the hunters had disabled their shuttles’ connections to the main system, only a few shuttles had shown up, minus their hunters. Some had been in pretty rough shape.
It was a good thing we’d started Operation Mothership Earth. The only problem right now was the lack of some of the materials, namely the materials we’d been waiting for from that mining ship.
Up until now, we’d thought that they were minerals not available on Earth, since the translation program couldn’t match it up with anything here. But there were big gaps in the hunters’ translators when it came to scientific and technological terms. For example, we’d recently realized that the word for any metallic substance was simply metal. Copper was orange metal. Gold? Yellow metal. Silver? White metal. Aluminum? Also white metal. Worse, the minerals and ores we needed simply translated into “mineral for translators” or “element for power source.” Not very useful.
Because of all this, there was a new theory that the rare materials we needed weren’t something completely foreign and alien at all. They might not even be rare.
They’d taken apart a faulty communicator down to its most basic parts, but without the right equipment, it had been achallenge to analyze the exact combination of elements the components in question were made of.
We’d know once the next shipment arrived. But that might not be for a while since the mining ship was also lost. It had never replied to us or anyone else, and a new ship had been dispatched to service our part of the galaxy, which meant that the big brain that linked all the Xarc’n ships believed the first one lost. The new mining ship would need to find another asteroid field to mine since the one the original ship had been mining was now marked asProscribed.
Aaron picked the newly manufactured piece up and held it triumphantly aloft. “We fucking did it!” He put the piece down and held up his hand for a high-five.
I grinned, though the smile didn’t reach my eyes, and I gave him what he wanted, wishing I could feel the same happiness at our success.
It was hard to celebrate our achievement when I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about Kan’n. It was so freaking stupid. Here I was, making history, and all I could do was moon over some hunter who didn’t even want me back.
He probably wasn’t even looking for me. Lenny had made sure all the shuttles at camp would keep quiet about my whereabouts if Pip asked. The smarter ones were easy enough to deal with; my co-Tech Wizard had simply threatened to mess up their programming if they spilled the beans. The dumber ones only needed a simple line of code.
It soon became apparent that Jask’l had had more than one reason to invite me here. But it was far too soon and the pain too raw, and despite knowing that the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else, I just couldn’t.
Besides, I didn’t think of Jask’l like that. My body didn’t react to his in the way it did to Kan’n’s. His voice didn’t make me all weak in the knees, and when he clumsily tried to take my hand, I didn’t feel any spark. Meanwhile, I’d never forget the way my whole body lit up every time Kan’n was near.
My lack of a reaction didn’t stop Jask’l from having a very obvious one, though: he purred so loudly when I was in the repair bay that everything shook. He was really understanding about me not being interested, but it was still quite awkward. That was why I’d elected to help Aaron with his work instead.
“You don’t look nearly as excited as you should,” Aaron said, calling me out. “You’re not thinking of that hunter again, are you?”
I sighed. Busted. Aaron had found out about Kan’n when Kat had called, telling me to give him another chance. Apparently, when he woke up the second time, he didn’t remember any of it. Not his words to me, or punching Mo in the face. He’d apologized to Mo, asked about Terrance, and showed genuine concern for the safety of the others in our group. Most of all, he’d been crestfallen that he’d said those horrible things to me.
Kat had insisted I call him, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. All I could think of was the look in his eyes when he demanded I leave.
Aaron gave me a withering look. “Just call him already, will you? I’veseenthese hunters heal. There’s a moment when they first wake up when they don’t even remember their own names. Especially if it’s a bad recovery. And he didn’t get to heal on a mothership. They used that new IV method with him.”
I’d been around healing hunters, too. They might not recognize their mate when they first woke, but at least they’d beall sweet with them. His reaction told me that we weren’t mates, and weren’t meant to be.
“If he wants to talk to me and apologize, he’ll come looking for me.”
“You prevented everyone from telling him where you were.”
“If he really cared enough, he’ll still figure it out. After what he said, he’d better be scouring the globe for me if he wants to see me again.” I was worth that much.
“Okay. You might have a point. These guys are tenacious, and if it’s something he really wants, he’ll find a way.” Aaron stretched. “Let’s go see if we can grab some grub while this thing finishes the rest of the body panels foryourPip.”
