streets of Oklahoma City. She kept putting it off, and it was easy when she was working on a huge case to make excuses. She’d thought she would always have another chance. She’d never imagined it would be taken from her like it had been.
Solan put his arm around her and hugged her close. She let herself be comforted by his warmth. “I can’t imagine what that’s like, not really. But it’s natural to miss your family. Especially under the circumstances. How could you expect something like this to happen?”
Yeah, getting abducted by aliens had not been one of the dangers she was looking out for. But making a new home in a strange world? “It’s funny you should mention that.”
“What?” he asked.
“I feel a lot like my grandparents now. They had to leave Lahore, their home city, when they were younger than me. There was a lot of strife, to say the least. It’s all very complicated and I could spend a week explaining it to you,” but she didn’t want to spend all that time going over the history of colonialism, Pakistan, and India, to him. “It wasn’t safe for them,” she said, summing up and simplifying her family history into one sentence. “They moved across the world and left everything they knew behind. I understand them a lot more now.” And that was more simplification, but it was close to getting the point across. She scratched behind her ear, feeling the bumps of the translator embedded under her skin. “This thing makes it easy at least.” And that was enough about Earth for now.
But Solan wasn’t ready to change the subject. “If we could find out what happened to your family, would you want that?”
Her immediate response was no, but Lena bit it back and thought. “How would it even be possible?” If she didn’t know for sure what happened she could make up any story about her family. Did she really want to find out that they had spent fruitless decades looking for her, growing sadder and more desperate by the year? Or did she want to find out that they had forgotten about her? She didn’t know which was worse.
“Some ships travel across the galaxy faster than others. It may take a few years, but we can purchase a data record from Earth. It would allow us to search all information on their interconnected web of data. We could find out what happened to your family.” He said it easily, as if he wasn’t offering a mix of her hopes and fears.
“You can buy the Internet? How does that work?” Even if she didn’t want to know what happened to her family for sure, it might be interesting to know what had happened to her home.
“Some ships can scan the information and condense it. It wouldn’t be updated past a certain date. But if we bought one scanned 30 to 50 years after you were taken, you might be able to find the information you were looking for.” His arm tightened around her, and it helped to anchor her in the moment as she considered his offer.
“Don’t we have to wait decades for that?” She had been plucked out of 2006, but her friend Emily came from the year 2019. And as far as anyone knew, it had taken them 60 to 70 years to travel from Earth to Kilrym and then on to Aorsa.
“Ships can broadcast data quicker than they can transport humans,” Solan explained.
She wanted to know. She didn’t want to know. She didn’t have an answer. “I don’t know.”
“No need to decide now. But if you ever want to, let me know. I’ll find something for you.”
Lena stopped walking and Solan stopped with her. She cradled his face in her hands and kissed him. How could she do anything but? He wanted to give her family back to her in the only way he knew how. Even knowing that the information could hurt her. He trusted her to make that decision.
If she wasn’t careful, she was going to fall in love with him. But maybe she didn’t need to be careful. Maybe loving him was exactly what she was supposed to do.
SOLAN WAS LEFT ALONE when Lena went into the back of the shop to find the bathroom. Mixed in among clothes, shoes, and other accessories were several display cases full of nice jewelry. Solan was no expert, but he had spent enough time among high society to recognize the real thing