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On the off chance that Nock had received my message and responded, I checked that, too, but there was nothing.

Our course was set to UX938. The closer we got, the higher the chances of Zaarek and Nock being in the same vicinity grew, meaning we should be able to make contact.

HANNAH

I wokeup refreshed and happy. Endorphins from last night's sex still rushed through my system, and even finding myself alone in our quarters didn't dampen my good mood. I took a quick shower and put on clean clothes before I went in search of Thrax.

I found him looking tired in the break room, holding a cup between his hands and staring thoughtfully inside.

"Good morning." I smiled, walking right up to him and giving him a kiss before I plopped down on his lap. Screw morning, new boyfriend awkwardness. I was going all in.

"You are a vision for tired eyes," he said, nuzzling my neck.

"Have you been up all night?"

He yawned, and I loved the way his neck muscles stood out and how all-male he looked.

"Most of it. I think I dozed for a little while when I came to check on you and sat down on the couch."

"You should have come back to bed," I chastised, tracing the sinew by his throat.

"I didn't want to disturb you."

"You would never disturb me." I smiled up at him.

"Hmm, I like the sound of that." He pulled my lips in for a deep kiss.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked a little while later.

"Not as good as I would have had you been there," I replied playfully.

"Point taken." He grinned.

"Did you find anything?"

"Too much," he said, and the strain of whatever he had discovered showed on his face.

"I broke into the Ohrur database and found where Darlam is. So even if we can't meet up with Zaarek and Nock at UX938, we should catch them there."

"Good." I nodded, waiting for him to elaborate.

"The Ohrurs discovered Darlam and invaded it," he filled me in, making me shudder at the image. I had the experience of my planet being invaded. It hadn't turned out so well for us. Well, judging by how Thrax was holding me right now, it had worked out well forme, but I could have done without the whole abduction thing first.

"It wasn't a full-scale invasion like it happened to your planet," Thrax surprised me. "At first, it was rather peaceful. The Ohrurs are not like the Cryons, despite their technology outmatching the Darlams'. Their first contact was that of sharing, not conquering."

"When you say the Ohrurs' technology outmatched the Darlams'…" I fished for more information.

"The Darlams didn't exactly live in caves, but they didn't know anything about spaceflight or blasters," Thrax explained and I was starting to form a picture but had a hard time imagining my Space Guardian running through the woods with a loincloth, or rather… maybe I was overthinking this… Great, and now I was stuck with the image of him in a loincloth and… yeah, I was getting wet.

"Here are some images." He pulled a cube up and showed me.Browsing through this, I got the impression of maybe the Middle Ages. The buildings weren't exactly fortresses, but they were sophisticated in their own way and made up several towns all over their planet. It was a beautiful planet, too, reminding me of Earth with forests, mountains, lakes, and oceans… except for the hint of alienness. I scrutinized some strange animals, looking nothing like Earth animals, and yet, there were some similarities. Thetreesdidn't resemble anything I knew from Earth. They didn't have one thick stem. Instead, the stem was made up of roots or branches intertwining with each other.

I had seen this before!

A heated jolt ran through me like a shockwave. Some of these images… they looked exactly like the ones I had seen in the simurunner.

"Thrax," I choked out.

"What?" Alarmed, he looked at me. "What is it?"