Alien Freak - Calista Skye Page 0,87

I never had a better night.”

I bend down and hug the little chief monk. “Thank you, too. I’ll be back one day, if I can.”

“You would be welcome, of course. As would you, Your Highness. Happy voyage.”

The abbot hurries away.

I knock on one of the ship’s panels. “This is wood.”

“Only certain parts on the outside. It’s a cheap way to do it. And this ship was always cheap. Shall we go?” Zaroc opens the canopy and gestures inside. There are two seats and not much more.

I climb in. The seat is hard and worn, and there’s definitely a moldy smell in here. There’s flaking paint, there is exposed wiring, and some things appear to have been fixed with sticky tape. It’s like a spaceship made by the Soviet Union in the 1970s. “Zaroc, is this safe?”

“Not at all,” my fiance says as he climbs in and gets the ship humming really loudly. “But I think staying here is even less so. I know this model of craft. They’re simple, but robust enough where it counts.”

“Wait.”

He looks at me.

I stroke one of his cheeks. “Your face is swollen again. And you’re walking with a limp. And you’re trying not to use your left hand. What happened in that crash, anyway?”

He winces. “The ship came apart around me in mid-air. It was already burning and it could handle no more. Then it hit the tower and just collapsed. I don’t know how I landed. I blacked out.”

I stroke his hair. “You could have died.”

“So could you, and that would have been a lot worse.”

“I disagree.”

He holds my gaze. “I don’t know what I’ve done right to have you in my life. Now we have to go. Hang on.”

The ship takes off, uncertainly and hesitantly, then hangs trembling in the air. Zaroc tilts it, and it shoots upwards to the brightening morning sky.

“Not very powerful, but it doesn’t need to be,” he comments absentmindedly. “It looks like the hyperdrive has both fuel and every part present. We’ll go the Raev system and see if we can find something better.”

“Zaroc!” I exclaim, suddenly remembering. “Did you bring Koyanara?”

36

- Averie -

“I didn’t bring Grandmother to this planet,” Zaroc says calmly. “I don’t I need her anymore. I have something much better.”

I place my hand on his thigh beside me. “Yeah, me too.”

We shoot up into space, and everything goes darker.

“The computer has to do some calculations before we can enter hyperspace,” Zaroc grunts. “It’s taking its sweet time. If anyone was watching that monastery from space, they’ll know we’re here— oh, cursed Fate!”

I draw breath to ask what the problem is, but before I can speak, I can see if for myself. We’re surrounded by Bululg flying saucers as well as the dark bulk of a much bigger ship with a design that reminds me of IruBex’s gun.

Our ship jerks and shakes, and then it stays worryingly steady, creaking from its joins.

“Fate,” Zaroc spits again, letting go of the controls and slapping the console. “We’re surrounded, and they have us in their tractor beam. We’re caught.”

“Disable your engines, or we will fire!” the radio screeches.

“Don’t do anything they say,” I urge him. “If this is it, then at least we’re together. Let them shoot us out of the sky. And if they won’t, we’ll just open the hatch and let space kill us.”

Zaroc gives me a tight smile and grabs my hand. “I was going to suggest the same thing. I’m running the engines as hard as they will go. Just for spite. Averie, these couple of hours since you agreed to be my wife have been the best time of my life. I don’t mind dying now. I had my joy. It was short, but intensely sweet.”

I grab his hand with both of mine. “Me, too. This is actually… fine.”

He leans in for a kiss, and I also lean into it, with all my soul and all my love.

The Gurandu ship is approaching fast.

“Disable your engines now!”

“We don’t have much time,” I state calmly. “Let’s open the hatch together—”

“Now hear this,” another voice says on the radio. “By order of the Star Marshals, every ship within a cubic light year is to stand down and come to a halt in their relative orbits.”

I point. “Look!”

Yet another spaceship has arrived. I recognize it – that’s the Star Marshal cruiser, and its immense bulk dwarfs the Bululg saucers and the Gurandu ship.

“That may not be great news,” Zaroc growls. “The result of being arrested by the