AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We returned to my quarters, where, after she showered and dressed, I explained to her how our tablets worked and how they linked to the larger computers in my office if she needed to use it. I wasn't happy that the Cryons had forced a translator chip—and an outdated one at that—on her, but it enabled her to not only understand our language, but to read and write it as well.
She mentioned that some of the other humans didn't have one and I assured her I would have my crew take care of it.
Garth's computer was amazingand unlike anything I had ever seen or used. The holographic keyboard hovered wherever I wanted it to and his four cube-like screens were nothing short of miraculous. At first they confused me, because they too were holograms, hovering in the air, but once I got used to turning the cubes to change screens and how to swipe, similar to an e-reader, it was amazing and fast.
Garth gave me access to everything, I was even able to read the humans' medical records, something that would have been unthinkable on Earth. The med team had found a growth in one of the women and were preparing to remove it with some kind of laser technology.
It felt like I was prying, but the information at my fingertips was overwhelming. If the Pandraxians ever stepped in and stopped the Cryons' war on Earth, they would be able to eliminate every single deadly disease that had plagued us for thousands of years. It made me realize even more how important it was for me to convince Emperor Daryus to help us.
For that, I needed to understand the Pandraxians' culture better, and I not only peppered Garth endlessly with questions, but I immersed myself in my tablet or Garth's computer for hours.
True to his word, early in the mornings Garth went to the human quarters to pick up Kevin and to train with him. I shamelessly invited myself to learn self-defense as well. If my ordeal taught me anything it was that I never wanted to be helpless again.
Not that anything like this would have helped me, even if I were a jiujitsu black belt master. The Cryons had surprised and overwhelmed us, but I liked to believe that had I had more trust in my ability to defend myself, I might not have stuck around at the real estate office making myself an easy target.
And even after just two sessions, I was already becoming more confident in myself andmy body.
Garth was an excellent teacher; he used Kevin and my strengths as well as our weaknesses to find out what worked for us best. After the first lesson Kevin would have been able to take an untrained human male down and gain enough time to run away.
When I was doing none of those things, I explored the massive spaceship that seemed to get larger the more I learned about it and still I worried I would get lost. But as long as I stuck to moving between Garth's and now my quarters, where the humans were housed, and the mess hall, I was fine.
Besides, the corridors were filled with Pandraxians all too willing to help me back to Garth's quarters.
Most of the time I was with Garth anyway, like now.
"You like him," I stated to Garth after our lunch with Kevin and dropping him off at the human quarters.
"He will make a fine warrior one day." Garth nodded.
I stopped. "You say this as if we aren't going to return to Earth." I put my hands on his chest and ignored how hard and muscular he felt underneath my palms. "Please tell me if you don't think your emperor will take up our cause or if we will ever be returned."
His countenance darkened, his eyes inscrutable, and his voice even. "Do you want to return to Earth? Do you want to leave me?"
Ifaltered. Did I?
During the last few days all I had thought about was returning to Earth—well, not all—but in all honesty, I hadn't connected the dots that returning to Earth meant leavinghim.
It didn't take rocket science to come to the conclusion that one would bring about the other, but everything had been so crazy, that no, I hadn't fully comprehended what it meant.
Confronted with the choice now, I stared at him dumbfounded.
Besides Earth having been my home, what awaited me there?
People moved all the time for people they loved.
On Earth, dear, on Earth, we're not talking about moving from California to North Carolina, or even from the good old USA to… let's say Australia. You are talking about moving to an entirely different fuckingplanet, my mind threw at me.
Are we? I asked myself.Are we talking about moving to a different planet, one I haven't even seen yet?
Well, do you want to lose him?
I stared up into those deep eyes with the strange red circle around the irises. I looked at his highcheekbones, his face that had become so familiar to me, and felt the slowly accelerating beat of his heart underneath my palm.
This was the man who satisfied me when I writhed under the influence of an aphrodisiac. The man who rescued me from an unthinkable fate when he could have just left me there. He had risked the wrath of his emperor—even though as I had recently found out they were friends. He gave me and the other humans a place of safety when he didn't have to. He was teaching me the ways of the Pandraxians. A man I had only known for four days but felt I knew better than any person I had ever met on Earth.
And let's not forget four veryintensedays, my mind supplied in lieu of any other justification for me considering staying.
Then again, what awaited me on Earth? Even if the planet hadn't been entirely destroyed by the Cryons yet, did I really want to return to my job as a real estate agent when I knew what was out there? Odds were, there would be no room for real estate agents anyway.
