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“Be safe.” Her chin quivered.

Abby’s concern pulled at him. He nodded then dove beneath the water before he changed his mind. He grasped the sea cow’s flippers. With gentle but firm insistence, he urged the manatee up river. He was grateful the gentle giant didn’t balk too much.

Thank you for being my cover. He chuckled to himself as he swam. The sea cow probably never moved so fast in its life. I’m sorry, my blubbery friend, but you would make a horrible manx. The mental image was amusing.

They were nowhere near the landing site, when he was forced to stop. There was a line of boats blocking the river. These weren’t like the few fishing vessels he avoided on his swim here. These were occupied with dark-uniformed human warriors.

Ashtoret rolled beneath his water steed, hiding himself from the human’s view, then urged the sea cow deeper, maneuvering her beneath the boats. When they surfaced on the other side, he let the beast drift closer to the shore and move at a more natural speed. Occasionally he ventured to peer out of the water as they passed boat after boat. He grimaced when he sighted several odd craft with whipping blades circling in the sky overhead.

This is not good. They’ve quarantined the area.

He reached the site of his cruiser and things were as grim as expected. Two large vessels were hauling a massive object out of the river. He didn’t need to see beneath the tarps to know it was his cruiser.

Son of a metcor! Aculus is going to be pissed.

There was no way he could get to the cruiser hatch without being seen. This was an utter failure. Dejected, he submerged with the manatee and slowly worked his way back down the river.

Abby

“Your whiskers tickle, you greedy fatso,” Abby wanly chuckled as the manatee took the bunch of grass from her hand and lazily chomped.

She started feeding the sea cows when they tried to meander off. Her ploy worked, and now she just had to keep from getting crushed by the floating behemoths.

Where are you, Ash? She again glanced nervously at the sun’s position in the sky, while absentmindedly feeding another gaping gray mouth. Ash said to get to dry land, but it seemed wrong to leave. And what exactly do you think you’re going to do if he’s captured? Waltz onto the base and demand to see your father and the aliens they apprehended? Yeah, that’ll go over well.

But what was she going to do? The government could easily make everyone disappear, like they never existed.

No, no, no, don’t think that way. Ash is fine. Everyone is going to be fine.

It was strange how quickly she connected with Ash. She was responsible for him, and dependent on him all at the same time. It felt like they were the only two sane people and the rest of the world was out to get them.

Please, Ash, don’t get captured. She blinked back the tears trying to form.

“Peanut, we need to get out of here.”

Abby almost screamed hearing Ash’s voice behind her. She spun around.

“Don’t do that!”

“I’m sorry.”

The words were barely out of his mouth when she tackled him with a giant relieved hug.

“I thought they caught you for sure.” Her heart raced a million miles a minute.

“No, but we need to leave this area.”

“What happened?” she asked as they waded away from their blubbery friends.

“Your warriors captured my cruiser. They were dragging it out of the water. There were a lot of boats and vessels in the sky. We need to find cover.”

“Oh, no.” Her heart sank. “Okay. The islands where we spent the night were pretty dense. But what then? We can’t hide forever.”

“I don’t know,” Ash growled. “You need to eat and get dry. This has turned into a disaster.”

Her eyes widened at his angry reply.

“I’m sorry about your friend and ship, and I’m sorry you’re now saddled with me.” She frowned.