Ar'Tok - Alana Khan Page 0,59

taking care of me. The best?” she says, a smile beaming on her pretty face, “My handsome blue male told me fairytales.”

As if she can’t keep her hands off him, she walks the few fiertos to him, kisses his blue cheek, then turns back to me.

“Try it,” she tells me with a wink. “When we’re all off exploring the rest of the Pleasure Planet, you feed your female with your own hand,” she laughs as if it’s an inside joke with her mate, “and tell her children’s stories. I guarantee it will produce excellent results.”

The restrained doctor, the male who never joins in the other males’ dirty jokes or songs, the male who always keeps his posture rigid and his thoughts to himself, reaches out and swats his female on the ass. Instead of scolding him, or batting his hand away, Nova laughs out loud.

“Here we are,” Shadow announces.

“Star’s completely out,” Drayke announces. “Let’s hover-stretcher her into the warehouse before I give her the antidote to the pain meds. She’s going to hurt like drack, but it will wake her up. I hope whatever she has to do can be done quickly. As soon as she’s finished, I’ll administer more medication.”

Shadow screeches the hover to a stop inside the warehouse. Dax and the doc stretcher Star into the open room.

Ergonn’s bodyguards are here, but they’re not shoulder-to-shoulder hiding their boss.

“Where’s E?” Shadow demands as I ease out of the hover taking care not to cut myself with the sword hanging from my belt. I’d been lying down for the better part of an hoara as we sped from Kimanji. Now that I’m standing, I feel every scratch, scrape, and bruise sustained on the climb up that hole.

Glancing at Star, I see she’s completely out of it. I’m glad.

Ergonn enters, flanked by two additional guards. The disparity in their height shines a spotlight on how short the male is.

“You’re late,” he scolds, even as he notices the tech genius is comatose on a stretcher.

“A slight mishap,” Shadow answers with a shrug. As always, the male is full of swagger.

“I’ll administer the antidote to the pain med in a moment,” Dr. Drayke says. “Ar’Tok, can you lift her and put her in a chair in front of the computer before she wakes?”

Eager to be of help, I stride to the stretcher and slip my hands under Star’s slight frame. I haven’t touched her in an hoara and the physical connection eases my heart.

When her limp form is in her chair, my hands on her shoulders keeping her from falling, the doc administers a shot. She moans, low and soft in the back of her throat, then the sound intensifies, and her eyes pop open.

“What?” she asks, disoriented and looking around.

“We’re at the warehouse, Star. I know you’re in pain. Dr. Drayke has set and cast your leg, your right shoulder is bruised, he gave you an antidote for the pain meds that knocked you out,” I tell her softly. “You simply have to check your programming, survey that the bots are doing their work, and we’ll give you something for the pain and then get you back to our room at the hotel.”

“You’ll need to show me verification,” Ergonn demands, “and tell me when the project will be completed.”

“Yes, Sir,” Star says, her fingers already flying over the keyboard, her shoulders hunched so her face is only inches from the screen.

“What does this say?” she’s squinting as she points to a line of code.

“I can’t read your language,” I tell her.

She makes a few keystrokes and when the text changes to Simkin, I give her the information she needs.

“Double vision,” she whispers.

We work like this for long minimas, her asking me to confirm that what she’s writing is correct.

“Done!” she announces less than an hoara later. “Sir?” she calls to Ergonn. “See? Here and here it shows that the bots have infiltrated all Federation computers in the Ariz and Procul sectors.

“These dots signify the level of penetration. The greens are complete, the yellows represent those that are over half done, and the reds are less than half. If you look at the grid, you’ll see that the reds are deeper into the system, and needed to bypass several greens before my bots could get to work on them.”

Ergonn, standing tall, is face-to-face with Star as she sits. He leans closer to the screen, scrutinizing as she points to various dots on the grid.

“We’re actually ahead of schedule, Sir. Have no fear that