The Alien's Equal (Drixonian Warrior #7) - Ella Maven Page 0,21
anything fancy. I grew up in a hut similar to this, but we had everything we could have wanted—food, clothes, toys. There was a large moke tree in the center of our village which we played on all the time. It was where I’d learned to climb and how to fall. I learned how to fight under those branches.”
Justine sighed wistfully. “It sounds so nice. I have to admit, I’m a little jealous at your upbringing.”
The images of my home planet vanished as I focused on the female in front of me. “Justine, as long as I’m alive, I’ll make sure you don’t have to seek the company of the dead to be treated like you deserve, as a smart, brave female who will sacrifice all she has for her friends.”
Her body jerked and with tears swimming in her eyes, she turned away on a sniff. Swiping at her cheeks, she blew out a breath. “Dammit Nero,” she muttered. “You’re lethal, you know that?”
“Lethal to what?”
I swore I heard her say, “my heart,” before she cleared her throat and slapped her hands on my control panel. “Well, daylight’s burning. We should get started. Don’t you think?”
I nodded and resumed teaching.
I’d expected yesterday to be grueling. I’d tried to teach some skills to warriors in the past, and while some knew enough of the basics to fill in for me if I was injured, none picked it up as fast as Justine.
Satisfied with the progress we’d made yesterday, I started explaining the specific plan we’d created with the Kaluma. They’d get us in the walls undetected, but after that, we were on our own. The Kaluma couldn’t blank forever, as it used up a massive amount of energy for them. Unfortunately, we couldn’t operate any of their long-range weapons—which they’d used to shoot down Xavy’s cruiser—because first, they’d be detected by the Uldani and second, they couldn’t do much to an underground facility. The only way we could disrupt the network was hands-on in the control room.
“In short,” I explained, “We have to access the security database, pass the ten permission levels, and then wait for the shutdown sequence to finish.”
“In short,” she deadpanned. “Yeah, easy peasy lemon squeezy.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
She huffed a wry laugh. “It means if this was any other job, I’d say we’re fucked. But you’re a genius, and I’m a genius, and we have literally everything riding on this, so I’m going to give it my all.” She huffed out a determined breath. “I want to be an aunt to some damn alien babies.”
“Do you want chits?” I asked, throwing the question out there thinking she’d side-eye me and refuse to answer.
She surprised me when she shrugged. “Not really. I mean, on Earth, absolutely not.”
“And here?”
“Now? No, we’re on the verge of war.”
“What about after the war?”
She sighed heavily, and I braced when her shoulders slumped defeatedly. “I’m not trying to evade your question, but that’s not something I can answer. In an ideal world, would I like to be a mother?” A small smile brightened her face. “Sure, I loved taking care of my sister when we had food to eat and proper clothes to wear.”
I stiffened. “Our chits would always be able to fill their bellies and clothe their bodies. I’d make sure of it.”
Her grin widened as she patted my arm. “I believe you. How’s this for an answer? I’ll have this conversation with you when we step foot on Corin.”
There was another reward that I wanted so very badly dangling just out of my reach. I answered her with a tight nod and ignored the frown that crossed her face at my reaction.
After going over more of the plans for her, we broke for the mid-day meal. Bazel delivered our food with a big smile, clearly pleased she’d been asked to do a job. She babbled away about filling our plates before wandering around my room, her little fingers hovering just above the control panel.
She was curious, so while Justine began to eat, I showed Bazel how to perform a few tasks, such as switching the monitors between my eyes at our borders. She picked it up quickly, murmuring, “Wow,” while taking in the screens before her.
“But remember, no touching any of this without me or Justine here, okay? I’ll show you whatever you want, but it’s important for now that we supervise. I control a lot of things that are vital to everyone’s safety.”
Bazel turned to me, a solemn