Alien Freak - Calista Skye Page 0,37

senses. “That tongue. Is it even legal?”

“There has been a lot of death and fighting lately. We both needed to feel what life is.”

I rest a hand on his massive shoulder, a mix of hard scales and soft skin, both warm. “We did.”

We stay like that for a while as my heart rate returns to normal.

Zaroc strokes a finger across both my nipples, then pulls my sports bra back down. “Much as I hate to say it, we must get going. We’ve long since overstayed the berthing fee.” He rocks me one last time, then gets up and looks around. “And someone has to clean up this mess of a hold. I don’t know why the former owner kept all these ancient weapons.”

He steps onto the elevator squares and vanishes upward.

“Mmmhhmmm,” I moan, lazily stretching. If he had stayed here another thirty seconds, I would have fallen asleep.

I sit up on the soft floor. “Oh my. That was intense.”

And probably really crazy. But my threshold for what is weird and not has grown much higher lately.

I pull my panties back on and let the jumpsuit assemble itself around me, while I feel a grin spreading on my face. Totally the craziest thing I’ve done. But it’s about time I started to live again. On Earth, that’s not really a thing right now. In space, anything is possible. Including a quick and maybe terrible death. But that makes it even more important to live while you can.

Taking out my phone, I try to think of what to say.

“There’s too much to explain,” I tell the not-viewers. “There was a space station, which you saw already. Then Zaroc tried to ditch me, but I caught up with him, we had a frank exchange of views, and then we… um. We became closer friends. I think. Anyway, we’re leaving the station now. I’m not sure where we’re going. But I will find out.”

I should get more footage for the endless amounts of voiceover I’ll have to add to make this documentary a little bit easier to understand. I go on a quick tour of the ship, filming without commentary everywhere I can get in. I really should film more, anyway. Just to get the journalistic distance to some of the weirdness in space.

When I get to my cabin, I take a quick waterless shower, which somehow makes me feel cleaner and fresher than any water would have.

Up in the control room, Zaroc is still working on some of the consoles.

“Did they do any repairs on the station?” I ask, sitting down.

“There was no time,” he replies distantly. “I only got fuel.”

The hyperspace pattern is back outside the windshield. “Do we have a destination?”

“It’s called Verv,” Zaroc says, switching to another console. “An Elder moon.”

“A moon in orbit around a planet?”

He frowns at the console, pushing several buttons and pulling levers. “I don’t know.”

“Is it old?”

“Very.”

“Because it’s called an Elder moon?”

“That’s why I know it’s old, yes.”

“What will we be doing there?”

He sends me a blue glance, this time with an icy tinge to it. “You will be doing nothing except staying right here.”

I nod. I’m actually okay with that. “Sure. Can I ask why?”

He looks away. “Someone has to guard the ship while I’m out. Strange things happen on Elder moons.”

“What kinds of things?”

The pilot’s seat creaks when he sits his huge body down and makes adjustments to some of the controls. “Have you heard of the Elder races?”

“Not really.”

“Grandmother, can you please explain to Averie what Elder races are?”

“Can’t you do it yourself?” the little metallic box squeaks, the green light flashing to life.

“I’m not as well versed in galactic history as you are.”

The imitation of Zaroc’s grandmother sighs. “Fine. Hi, Averie. Nice suit.”

I wave. “Hi, Koyanara. Can I film you while you tell me?”

“With that old-fashioned thing? Oh, that takes me back. Go ahead. Ready? The Elder races are species of aliens that lived millions of years ago. They were extremely advanced and powerful. For some reason, they’ve all vanished. But they left things behind, things that nobody can get anywhere close to making today. There are large, abandoned spaceships with many mysteries, gigantic and impossible ruins on various planets, entire stars that have obviously been tampered with, black holes arranged in humorous patterns, large planets in clearly impossible orbits, and huge space stations with no particular function that we can understand. Among a thousand other things. But mostly what they left was moons that they modified somehow. Usually on the