formed within the myriad of others. They shot out with laser focus, hitting the three shuttles. He was forced to close his eyes against the blinding light.
When he opened them, the light was gone and so was the space flower. Instead, a large orbital base loomed ahead of them.
“Holy shit, was that a wormhole?” Indra asked, blinking as rapidly as Nyek was to clear the spots from his vision. “Or a flowerhole? Wait, that sounds vaguely dirty.”
“Wormhole was accurate.” He looked at the console, which was now relaying their current position. “We’re over forty tetra-parsecs from our previous position. There is no way we could have traveled that distance in mere seconds. The flower as it appeared must have been some kind of wormhole. Or…” He mused, looking up at the base the AI was piloting them toward. “Some kind of space folding technology I am not familiar with.”
“That place is huge,” she murmured, sitting on the edge of her seat. “Is that likely? That there could be technology you don’t know about?”
“Experimental technology from the engineer’s hall? Yes, certainly.” He rubbed at the stubble on his jaw. A gargantuan set of doors opened in front of them, revealing a hangar. “But this looks much older, like it has been here for many years.”
It also looked abandoned. He couldn’t see any lights on the hull and the hangar was dark and forbidding. But it was definitely where the AI was taking them. Within seconds, they passed through the bay doors, lights snapping on just in front of them and revealing the hangar section by section.
“It looks creepy,” she murmured, a note of apprehension in her voice that betrayed her feelings. “Like there’s no one here.”
He slid her a sideways glance. Sometimes he forgot just how much she’d been through. She was human, yes, and even a normal human would have perhaps struggled with the transition from life on Earth to that of Latharian society. But not only had she had to contend with an entirely new alien civilization, from what she’d said, it seemed her life hadn’t been an easy one. It had been one of violence and strife, culminating in her own people sentencing her to death.
Anger filled his chest at that thought. How could any society sentence a female to death? Especially one as dynamic and alive as Indra… it was a crime against the goddess herself and he sent up a prayer of thanks that Liaanas had brought her to him.
He did not deserve her, but that had to be a sign from the lady herself, surely? That she’d removed Indra from her own people, who had not valued her or cared for her, and put her in his path. He was Vesh. He would give his own life to protect her… not because of his vows but because, no matter what crimes she thought she’d committed, her life was worth more than his.
“I don’t think there is,” he replied.
The shuttle turned slowly, and they got a glimpse of the other two moving in concert. As one, all three touched down gently, the lights above them creating a small circle of visibility—a world of their own, with the darkness beyond pressing in.
Abruptly, the lights on the AI’s console all winked out and the door clunked as it began to open.
“Well,” he said, standing and making sure all his weaponry was in place. “We’re here. Wherever here is.”
He made sure to exit the shuttle first, hand at the ready to pull the blaster from its holster. A quick scan of their surroundings revealed most of the hangar was still in darkness, hiding whatever else might be out there. The skin at the back of his neck itched. Automated defenses were still a possibility but, given the AI had brought them here away from the raiders, seemed increasingly unlikely.
He spared a glance as the others joined them, leaving their own shuttles. For the first time, the sight of Keris M’rln didn’t fill him with apprehension. What better weapon against an AI than another AI?
“What in the hells is going on?” Seren K’Vass muttered, keeping Gracie at the center of their group, shielded by his larger body. With amusement Nyek realized all three “Lathar,” the AI included, were shielding their humans. Perhaps something in the Latharian genetic makeup forced them to become protective… But that would not account for M’rln. She had no DNA, Lathar or otherwise.
“I have no idea,” he replied. “But the AI from the crash site brought