Page 8 of Arakiba (Alien Legacy Brotherhood #3)

Chapter Seven

M organ crossed her arms and frowned. What just happened? She went from melting into the man’s kiss, then… whammo ! A stormfront of accusations fly out of her mouth as she charged him with all sorts of heinous things. Her shoulders slumped. Maybe it was for the best. She was getting too caught up in him, letting important things slip through the cracks.

The lights flickered before going steady again. Dammit! She dropped her hands and marched to her workstation. Calling up the floating computer monitor, she accessed the ship’s diagnostics to see what might be going on. Squinting, she found the problem right away. Some idiot had rerouted power from the critical systems to non-essential areas. Diving deeper, she found that life-support, navigation, and communications were failing intermittently.

Thank the goddess, it didn’t take her long to correct everything.

The sound of the refresher unit door opening didn’t catch her attention. But out of the corner of her eye, she zeroed in on the man wearing nothing but a thick, black leather band around his muscular neck. Her eyes widened, watching Ari traipse across the room to his alcove as if he didn’t have a care in the world. She swallowed with a parched throat. Just that one simple act of him traipsing around naked transformed every other man she’d been with into ridiculous triviality. She couldn’t look away as his profile cut a striking figure against the soft light. The line of his jaw was sharp and defined, leading to a strong, regal chin, while his high cheekbones gave him an almost feminine beauty. Her fingers itched to plunge into his thick, dark-blond hair that swayed across his tanned broad shoulders. Even in profile, the intensity of his unwavering gaze was palpable, and it wasn’t on her. He stared straight ahead, not once glancing in her direction.

She pursed her lips as she continued to study him. His powerful, muscular frame exuded a quiet strength, each step deliberate and controlled, as if he held the weight of the world with effortless grace on his broad shoulders. Those shoulders tapered to a trim waist as each step flexed his drool-worthy, firm butt. Morgan clenched her fingers at the memory of caressing and squeezing that ass. Dream state notwithstanding. A man’s firm, rounded derriere was a total weakness of hers. She snorted. Oh yeah, watching him walk around naked all day would never be a hardship. She’d never get anything done.

Morgan sighed, admiring the symmetry and perfection of his form. Putting a fist over her heart, she bit back a moan when he reached his alcove, then bent to pick up a pair of snug briefs from a pile of new clothing she’d made in the replicron for him. She hissed at the sight. Dang, stupid, weak female hormones. It was a complete shame he covered his perfect body with anything.

After putting on a new pair of black jeans, he pulled a black T-shirt over his head.

She blinked and turned her back to him, focusing on a bunch of nothing on the workstation. Last thing she needed was to get caught ogling him like a lovesick idiot.

“How does it look?”

Ari’s masculine voice behind her made her jump. She squealed and put a hand over her throat, glaring at him over her shoulder. “You look fine.”

His blond eyebrows rose. “Well, gee, thanks a bunch. But I wasn’t talking about me.” He nodded to the spider-bot laid out on her workstation. “I was asking about the droid. Figure out what’s wrong with it yet?”

Her face and neck didn’t just flush, the blood under her skin burned like an inferno. She closed her eyes, praying for strength before opening them to focus on the droid’s open abdomen. “Yes…” she coughed to clear her throat. “Yeah, I think I know what’s wrong.” Taking a stylus, she pointed to a missing circuit in its “motherboard”. While its configuration was familiar, using that word was the closest thing she could come up with on how to describe what she saw. “It’s missing vital ah, let’s call it wiring, that allows it to access its memory functions. I’m going to recreate something compatible in the replicron and see if that works.”

Clenching her hands into fists, she threw her shoulders back for courage before turning around to face him. She jerked her head back when her nose practically smushed into his muscular chest. She took a step back.

“Look…”

“Listen…”

When they spoke at the same time, she shut up and stared into his charcoal gray eyes.

Ari put his hand up. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to go first.”

Taking a step back, she clasped her hands behind her and gave him a nod. It was only fair since she attacked first without giving the guy a chance to defend himself.

He pushed his hand through the soft waves of his light hair, taking the strands out of his eyes. “Listen, I admit there is some weird stuff going on with me, and it looks bad. But I swear it isn’t what it looks like.”

She cocked her head and hid a smile. Didn’t most guilty people say that?

“I have no idea how or why I leave this room in the middle of the night.” Ari continued, crossing his beefy arms over his wide chest. “And I don’t know how I got back here last night. But I think it’s important for you to know what happened.”

“Okay, take a seat and tell me about it.” She gestured to the other stool next to the workstation platform. Sitting on her own comfy counter chair, she put one of her arms on the bench and leaned in.

He went into a deep explanation of waking up the first night and finding himself in an unknown corridor of the ship. He regaled her with how he barely avoided stumbling into a couple of Ozevroc before finding himself back in the engine room. Then, last night, he ended up in one of the garbage rooms. The most interesting part of that story wasn’t the strange creature he didn’t have time to look at, but how he got out of the doorless room.

Now it was her turn to be honest. “I might know how you got out of there.” She gazed into his troubled gray eyes. “I haven’t had a chance to tell you a little about myself. Once I do, I think you’ll understand when I tell you that you are, as far as I can tell, one of the most powerful psychics who’s ever existed.” She gave a winsome smile. “And believe me, being raised in a city full of them, I know one when I meet one.”

Ari held himself still. Did he hear her right? She might know why these weird things kept happening to him? The rush of relief made him lightheaded. He smiled when she made him a cup of coffee from the food replicator she’d put on her workstation. He couldn’t wait to hear where she was from. Maybe that would give him some unanswered details about her. Taking a grateful sip of the hot beverage, he focused on her. Had to be a big step for her to share some of her history with him. Damn, he was all for it.

Morgan sighed and ran a finger around the rim of her own coffee cup and stared off into the distance. “I’ll try to be as brief as I can, but I think it’s important for you to get a full understanding, so I’d better start from the very beginning.”

She looked up at him, her full lips drawn into a thin line. “Do you know what a rogue planet is? Have you ever heard of a planet called Akurn?”

Ari’s eyebrows rose. Out of anything she could have started with, this is what she came up with? He shrugged. “I don’t think so.” He took a second to think about it. Nope, didn’t ring any bells. “Is that where you think I’m from?”

“Hmm, not directly.” Morgan took another sip from her cup. “So, I’d better start there.” She sat back. “The planet Akurn…”

“No, no, no. Wait just a minute.” Ari held up his hand. “If you’re going to tell me a story, you’ve got to begin it the right way.”

Morgan blinked with her mouth in a perfect moue.

Damn, that was sexy. All too soon, her pouty lips turned into a slight frown.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Yeah, now, that was better. When she got all serious and stern-like, her caramel skin took on an attractive darker hue and her golden-green eyes sparkled.

“You know. All the good stories start with, ‘Once upon a time…’”

“Oh, for the love of…”

He gave her an innocent, wide-eyed stare with exaggerated blinks.

“Okay, fine.” Her luscious lips curled in a miniature smirk. “Once upon a time—“ She gave him a mock glare. When he didn’t interrupt, she continued. ”—there was this rogue planet called Akurn.”

He nodded and sat back, lacing his hands across his flat belly.

“Just so you know, a rogue planet is an interstellar object of planetary mass that isn’t gravitationally bound to any star or brown dwarf system. Akurn was such a planet. When their own sun died, they devised a way to generate enough power in their core to create its own self-sustaining eco-system. But that took an enormous amount of energy the planet couldn’t create on its own. Especially since the planetary shield took an enormous amount of precious minerals like gold to keep it running. So they roamed the galaxy, plundering any system they deemed inferior to theirs to get what they wanted. Unfortunately, most systems didn’t survive.”

“Bummer,” Ari said. “I’m surprised no one tried to stop them.” The coffee was cool enough to enjoy a hearty gulp.

“You’d think so. But I’m not sure why…” She shook her head and glared at him. “Don’t interrupt. If I have to keep answering your questions, I’ll never get through this.”

He opened his mouth to protest, but she put up a palm to stop him. “Ari, I mean it. Just sit there and be quiet.”

His cock twitched. See, sexy as all get-out when she got demanding and bossy like that. He grinned, lifting his cup to salute her to continue.

“Anyway—“ She eyed him, but sat back as if to get comfortable with her narrative. ”—Akurn ended up at the edge of the galaxy in a solar system with eight planets, three of them with all the natural resources they needed.” She sighed and took a sip from her cup. “To make a long story short, they got greedy in a civil war and ended up destroying one of those planets and decimating another one. Because of the horrific onslaught they generated in the solar system, Akurn became caught in the sun’s strong gravitational pull and became a prisoner of that system in an elliptical orbit around it that takes about 3,600 years to complete.”

“Now, that generated a huge problem for the war-loving race. They were desperate to find a way to replenish their dwindling supplies to keep their shields working. So, they sent a contingency of their top scientists to the remaining viable planet to mine the gold they had to have. To help with the dangerous hard work, those scientists did some illegal experimenting on the native population with various alien DNA they’d collected to create slaves.” Her head titled and looked him in the eye. “The name of the planet is now called Earth. Any of this sound familiar?”

Ari took a moment and finished his coffee as he considered her question. Putting the empty cup on the table, he shook his head. “Afraid not. That it?” He didn’t see how any of that applied to him.

Her laugh held no humor. “Hardly.” She held her cup in both hands, tapping her forefinger on the rim as she looked off into the distance. “The scientists were successful in creating human/alien hybrids they called the Titans. They were a nasty race of creatures that were immense in size and strength, coupled with almost unlimited psychic powers.” She chuckled. “It’s funny how their story has endured in human mythology over the years, depicting them as primordial gods who embodied different aspects of the natural world, regarded as one of the first divine rulers. Which was far from the truth. They were a violent race bent on total domination of the physical and the metaphysical realms. It was pure luck the scientists subdued then froze them into stasis in a place we call Tartarus, since they were impossible to kill.”

“Nothing is impossible to kill,” Ari stated, startling himself. Where did that notion come from?

“You’d think so, but no one has found out how to kill them yet.” Morgan tapped her finger against her lips with a faraway look before continuing. She glanced at him. “Once the Titans were out of the way, those dense scientists tried again. This time they created a smaller race known as the Adamou . Instead of being out-of-control maniacs, these hybrids were intelligent beyond belief. And, unknown to those clueless Akurns, the Adamou learned at a very early age how to hide their psychic abilities.

The one thing the scientists didn’t count on was their monarchy discovering their illegal creations. Sub-Prince Murduk vowed to destroy what he called the abominations by any means necessary.“ Morgan shrugged. “What happened next is still not clear to me why he did it, but he melted most of the ice plates of the planet and created a massive worldwide flood.”

“Well, that sounded like a cesspool of stupid. Why destroy his planet’s only hope of getting the minerals and resources they needed to survive?” Ari lifted his foot to the edge of the table and pushed with his foot to rock back and forth. It helped him think.

Morgan shrugged. “I’m sure there’s more to this story, but I’m afraid I don’t know what it is.” She sipped her coffee and grimaced, putting the cup on the table. “What I do know is that the sub-Prince didn’t kill all the Adamou and rogue scientists like he thought. One of my distant ancestors, an Akurn by the name of Rummeh, took a huge contingent of fellow Akurns and several of the humans and Adamou to a safe place, the southernmost continent called Antarctica. Deep in the ice, they created a city called Aethralis. And that’s where I’m from.”

She looked away, lost in her narrative. “Now Aethralis has one purpose, and only one. Rummeh took on the responsibility for the violent Titans and created a civilization whose primary goal is to keep watch over them so they’d never get out. Those monsters threaten not only Earth, but life as this universe knows it. Fortunately, the Adamou he surrounded himself with were all powerful psychics. Most of the humans who came with them left Aethralis to start their own civilizations, but some remained. As of today, pretty much all of the Aethralis citizens are powerful psychics, which are needed to contain the Titans.“ She frowned. “Unfortunately, lately their stronghold has been showing signs of weakening.”

Morgan sat back and mimicked his stance by leaning back with her laced hands across her taut stomach. “Now here’s where I come in. While I am a hybrid of human and alien DNA, my psychic abilities aren’t that strong compared to others. My only claim to fame is having xenoglossy. I can hear a language and speak it immediately.” She twirled her finger. “That’s why I can talk to the Ozevroc like a native.”

Ari frowned. “That doesn’t explain how you ended up here.”

“Yeah, well.” Her cheeks flushed, but she looked him in the eye. “Here’s what happened. An alien race called Zerin contacted me by taking me to their ship while I was sleeping. There they offered to enroll me in what they called an exchange so I could leave Earth and find a mate from the thousands of humanoid races in the galaxy suffering shortages of females.”

Ari stopped rocking. His mouth fell open. “Are you kidding me? You… you had to leave Earth to find a man?“ Damn. No wonder she left. She’d been surrounded by complete imbeciles.

Crossing her arms, she slid down in her seat. Her blush deepened. “Yes… I mean, no. I didn’t leave Earth to find a man.” She sat up with a huff. “I left because an alien race somehow penetrated our city shields to not only find me but to take me off planet. I felt it not only put us in danger, but that they’d somehow let the Titans loose.”

Ari’s brows furrowed. “So, your government sent you as some kind of agent to spy on these aliens?”

Morgan pursed her lips and squirmed. “Well… not exactly. When I approached Grandfather with my concerns…”

“Grandfather?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Yeah, the Akurn I told you who saved most of the people from that scientific outpost, Rummeh, is my distant grandfather.” She raised a hand to stop him. “We can go into that later. Much later,” she mumbled. “Anyway, they brushed off my concerns, so I went ahead and joined the Zerin exchange.” She shrugged. “I figured I could investigate how they penetrated our defenses and then go back with proof of the danger they brought.”

Ari sat back, stroking his scruffy jaw as he studied Morgan. What he got out of that narrative was more than she was saying. Here was a strong-willed woman who had grown up in a society where she felt less than those around her. Someone not taken seriously, even when she brought to light a danger they might be facing. His admiration for her grew. She was a woman who didn’t let others define who she was and made things happen, with or without anyone’s permission.

For some reason, he related to her circumstances on a personal level. Was he, too, viewed as someone less than those around him? What a sobering thought. “Go on,” he encouraged with a nod.

“Not much more to tell.” She shrugged and looked away. “A Zerin caught me snooping where I wasn’t supposed to on their ship, someone who’d been secretly kidnapping woman to sell on the galactic black market.” He once again became her focus. “And through several flukes, I ended up here with the Ozevroc.”

Ari waited a beat. Just to see if she had anything to add. When she didn’t, he gave her a wide grin. He couldn’t resist ending the fairytale the right way.

“And then she met the man of her dreams and they lived Happily Ever After.”

Morgan chuckled. “You’re such a dork.”

“Yeah, well, someone’s got to lighten things up,” he quipped. “Otherwise, it’d be all dull work and no funzies.” His gray eyes narrowed. “But I still don’t understand what that has to do with me. None of that sounds familiar.”

Morgan watched his face twitch, as if he was trying to remember something. It was gone as soon as it came.

“Like I said, I’m pretty sure you’re a powerful psychic.” She took in a deep breath. Should she take a chance? Like, what choice did she have? With the ship’s systems behaving more erratically than ever and dead bodies piling up, their window of escape was rapidly closing.

“I think you’re a Titan that somehow escaped Aethralis.”

Ari’s whoop of laughter caught her by surprise. She frowned. Why was that so funny?

His deep belly laugh ended with a chuckle as he knuckled a rolling tear away. “Me, a Titan.” He snickered. “That’s rich.”

“Why do you say that?” Morgan sat straight and fisted her hand on the table facing him. “It makes perfect sense! Let’s look at the facts, shall we?” She raised her hand to highlight each point by ticking off her fingers. “You got rid of the nutesh snare. You teleported out of this room. Not once, but twice! You have supernatural healing. Anyone else would’ve died, as broken up as you were when you got here.“ She leaned forward to make sure he saw the intent in her eyes. “And last, let’s go ahead and mention that Dreamwalk we shared.”

His bright gray eyes darkened. “Yeah, I’m all for mentioning that Dreamwalk.”

“Oh, for goddess’s sake, Ari!” Morgan slapped the table with her palm. “Get serious, would you?” Trying to keep him focused was like catching a puff of smoke with her bare hands.

“I am serious, Morgan,” Ari stated with a straight face. “I may not know much, but that’s something I know for sure.” He frowned and got a faraway look in his eyes before they swiveled back to her. “Listen, I bet you’ve got pictures of the Titans on your doohickey there.” He pointed to her multicorder. “Now see if you can find me in there.” He sat back with crossed arms. “I guarantee I’m not one of those big, dumb dickheads known as a Titan.”

Morgan pursed her lips. Why didn’t she think of that? She glared at him. It was his fault he had her so discombobulated she couldn’t think straight. Grabbing her handheld, she deftly typed in the command to bring up the images. Scouring through each one, her frown deepened. He was right. He might be a tall man, around six foot five, with a muscular build, but he wasn’t near the height of the shortest Titan at an even seven feet. And none of them had gray eyes and light-blond hair like he did.

She let out a hiss of relief. Him not being a Titan was reassuring, but she remained convinced he possessed powerful psychic abilities. Glancing at him, she narrowed her eyes. “Why did you think it was so funny when I called you a Titan?”

“Because I spent my whole life avoiding being confused with one of them.” He blinked slowly, as if he surprised himself.

“Really? You were around when the Titans were created?” How could that be? He’d have to have been alive on Earth when they were. Okay, enough of this second-guessing. “No, never mind. Just give me your finger.”

Ari’s brows furrowed. “You want me to give you the finger?” He glanced at his middle finger as if stopping it from standing at attention.

Freakin’ man. “No, not the finger. A finger.“ She waved her multicorder at him. “I’m going to take a sample of your blood. Which I should have done when I first saw you.” See, discombobulated.

“Okay.” He held out his hand.

It only took a quick prick from the tip of his forefinger for her to get what she needed.

Studying the readout, she glanced back at him. “You don’t have enough original human DNA to make you a Titan, but you have enough of it to make you more than what the modern humans think is normal.”

“Huh?” Ari’s expression slackened. “I don’t get it.”

“It’s a misconception among modern humans that only aliens have psychic powers, but it’s actually the other way around.” She explained, replacing Ari’s readouts back on the home screen. “The original humans on Earth were the ones with the psychic abilities. When the Akurn scientists added alien DNA to them, it diluted that ability until only a recessive amount remained in the general population. So, the more ancient human DNA someone has, the more psionic powers they inherit. I haven’t heard of anyone having this high of a reading since, well, since before the great flood.”

If she didn’t know any better, she’d swear he was an original Adamou like she’d thought before. But they all died thousands of years ago. Didn’t they? She squinted at the handsome man before shrugging. “Oh well, let’s get back to what we know. I’m really glad you aren’t a Titan, but we’ve got to figure out how to access the psychic powers you do have. Have you done anything you could control?”

His grin was infectious. “Yeah, watch this.” He held up his palm. After he scowled at it, a small ball of fire rolled over his skin. His wide smile made the corners of his eyes crinkle. “Cool, eh?”

“Is it hot?” Morgan asked, extending a finger just before touching it. No heat, just light. “Very nice.” She glanced at him. “Anything else?”

His eyelids lowered, his sultry intent clear. “We could always try that Dreamwalk thing again.” He waggled his eyebrows.

Morgan laughed. “You nut. You…” A sharp crackle split the air, instantly shifting the vibration beneath her feet. “What the…”

She never finished because the world around her erupted.

A deafening boom reverberated from the outside corridor. The walls pulsed with the force of an explosion.

Everything inside Morgan screamed for her to move, to run, but there wasn’t time. A blinding flash of light seared through her vision, and an acidic stench filled the air with burning metal.

In the split second that followed, something—or rather, someone—slammed into her with the force of a freight train. Ari. His body, all muscle, collided with hers, knocking the breath from her lungs. She stumbled back, but before she could fall, his arms wrapped around her, strong and unyielding. The impact drove them both to the floor. Ari’s weight pressed her down, shielding her from the worst of the blast.

Morgan coughed as her ears rang with the aftershock. Her skin tingled from the heat washing over them. Her heart thundered, each beat drowned out by the relentless ringing in her ears. Rolling vibrations of the ship’s structure trembled under her, as if the explosion had caused the very bones of the vessel to rattle.

Ari’s body was a protective barrier, his broad back taking the brunt of the heat and debris that rained down around them. The air was thick with dust and smoke, making it hard to breathe. Ari’s chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm against her, keeping her grounded amidst the chaos.

For a moment, everything else faded away—the noise, the danger, the acrid smell of burnt metal. The only thing she was aware of was the solid, reassuring presence of Ari covering her. His face was close, his breath warm against her neck. His arms, still wrapped tightly around her, were like iron bands, unyielding in their resolve to protect.

Morgan’s mind raced as she remained pinned beneath him. She wanted to move, to push him off and assess the damage, but she knew, instinctively, that he wouldn’t budge until he was sure the threat had passed.

His voice, when it came, was a low, urgent murmur in her ear. “Are you okay?”

All she managed was a brief nod, her throat too tight to form words.

The heat from the blast dissipated, and the tension in Ari’s muscles slowly eased.

As the smoke and dust settled, it looked like the immediate danger had passed. Tears filled her eyes. How close were they to getting caught in that deadly blast? But more than that, how close was she to losing whatever started between her and Ari?

As his grip on her loosened, just a fraction, her eyes met his. For a heartbeat, the chaos of the ship faded into the background as she connected with him in that one electric moment. A type of connection that went far beyond words.

It took everything Ari had to unwrapped his firm hold around Morgan. Placing his palms on the hard metallic floor, he raised up to check her out, just to make sure she wasn’t hurt. Satisfied she’d suffered nothing worse than several bruises, he rolled and extended his hand to help her up. “What the fruk just happened?”

Morgan took his hand and stood, swiping a lock of golden curls out of her eyes. “I don’t know, but it sounded like something exploded.” She glanced around. “Thank the goddess it doesn’t look like any vital systems were affected.” She ran to her workstation and called up her floating, transparent monitor. After a few swipes and taps, she straightened with her hand over her heart. “Yes, all right. Everything is good.”

The sound of hissing and growling from the outside corridor came close.

“Uh-oh. Here comes the scavenger patrol.” Ari pushed her behind him. He might not know how he’d do it, but he’d make sure no one laid a hand on her.

The first alien rushing through the door was the smaller, dirty yellow Ozevroc waving his weapon in their direction, followed by a group of guards that swarmed around him and Morgan. Ari didn’t need a translator to know they were warning them not to move. As they growled and mumbled, they poked their blasters or solid spears in time with the sounds they made.

“Buzz off, snout squad.” Ari growled back, shoving the weapons away when it got too close to Morgan.

None of them moved. He’d become the target of the steady glare from four sets of beady-black eyes each of them had. At least they left Morgan alone and focused on him. Win-win.

One of them whistled, and the Grand Poobah himself waltzed in. High Chief Walls or Wells… something or other.

Morgan deftly whipped around Ari and faced the Ozevroc leader, who growled.

Well, he should have seen that coming. No way would this lady hide behind anyone. To show his support, he placed his hands on her shoulders and pulled her so her back was flush to his chest.

She said nothing but replied in a like manner to the Ozevroc with a small bow and her hand over her heart.

As the two of them growled, hissed, and snarled at each other, Ari took the time to study the other aliens.

Most of them looked pissed off, rumbling in gravelly noises that made their thin black lips ripple along their snouts.

Snorting in disdain, he looked over their shortness and surveyed the room. Where the replicron stood in its camouflaged mode, various sheets of dust covered its outline. Otherwise, it seemed in good shape. Hopefully, the crazy aliens wouldn’t notice it. Glancing around, he noted that nothing was broken or cracked except the wall where the explosion happened. He was itchin’ to see what that corridor looked like on the other side.

He checked Morgan and swallowed a grin. From his high advantage point, he saw her tight expression, pursed lips and all. Whatever Mr. I’m the grand, my shit don’t stink, pooh-bah said irritated the holy hell out of her. Not that he blamed her. The guy’s total superior dickness was loud and clear.

A few more rumbles and growls before Stubby and his merry band of Fuzzy Knuckleheads departed with lofty snorts.

Ari let Morgan go and stepped back. He waved a hand over his face as if that would get rid of the stench the Ozevroc left behind. “I don’t suppose you could insist they take a bath before visiting again, hmm?” He exaggerated a gagging noise.

Morgan humphed and tapped her forefinger against her lips. “It seems like High Chieftain Welozz is having trust issues with some of his crew.”

“Yeah? No kidding.” Ari nodded at the warped and bubbly wall. “Nothing says ‘surprise!’ like redecorating with a bomb.”

She nodded. “We’re told to keep an eye out for an Ozevroc named Grozzik, who’d taken the place of one of the head guards. You know, the one we found dead here.”

“Like I’d recognize him if he showed up with a blinking neon sign plastered on his forehead.” Ari gestured to the wall. “Did Mr. Wizard know why the bomb went off in the first place? Seems like a dumb place for it to happen.”

Morgan shook her head and crossed her arms. “He has no clue. But, that’s the weird part. The blast did nothing but make a loud noise, generate some heat, and shake the ship up a bit.” She dropped her arms and went to her floating monitor. Biting her bottom lip, she studied several readouts. “Look at this.” She pointed to a page.

Ari leaned down and squinted at the image. “What am I looking at?” It appeared to be some kind of video. “Is that the corridor?”

“Just watch,” she replied.

At first, it was only an empty hallway, then a blob of purple blurred into the scene. The image sputtered out and remained that way.

“What the hell was that?” Ari straightened. “Hey, did short, ugly, and hairy leave? I’d like to look in that corridor.”

She narrowed her eyes at his throat. “That’s right, you don’t have a nutesh snare on.“ Laughing, she grabbed his forearm and led him to the warped entrance. “Peek around the corner to make sure none of them are there before you go out.” She nudged him between his shoulders, as if he needed any encouragement to step out.

“Okay, super-snoopy.” He grinned at her over his shoulder. “No need to get pushy. I got this.”

With her hands up, she cocked her head. “Okay, just be careful. I’d hate to see you blasted into space dust.”

He rolled his eyes. “Sheesh. You’d think this was my first rodeo or something.” Not that he had any idea what a rodeo was or if he even had anything to do with one before. Not waiting for her response, he took a quick peek. The only thing to see was smoke listlessly floating around, several sparks popping in and out from the exposed wiring protruding from the roof and walls. He stepped out.

“Ari!” Morgan hissed a sharp whisper. “Wait…”

Not waiting to answer her, he slid out the doorway and kept close to the wall.

“Ari!”

At Morgan’s raised voice, he glanced back at her.

She was waving her handheld at him. “Use this to take some readings!”

Okay, rodeos aside. It never occurred to him to use something to scan the area. He snuck back and took the offered device with a sheepish grin.

“Just point it around. I’ve got it all ready for you.” She shooed him with both hands.

The corridor wasn’t wide or long, so it didn’t take him long to make a complete sweep of the blasted area. He made it back inside the engine room with no Ozevroc the wiser.

Morgan eagerly grasped the device he handed back to her. Her eyes moved back-and-forth as she pursed her lips.

“Oh, this is interesting,” she said, showing the screen to him. “There’s a huge amount of the same crystalline material all over here.” She focused back on her handheld. “Just a couple of adjustments… there. Let me upload this on the computer and let’s see where the highest concentration of this stuff is.”

Ari followed her back to her workstation where she sync’d her device to the mainframe.

“Aren’t you afraid the Ozevroc will see what you’re doing and accuse you of something?”

She shook her head. “Nope. I’ve got this baby protected, so no one knows what I’m looking at.” With a huff, she grinned. “Besides, they’re either too lazy or too arrogant to think anyone could hack their system.”

He snorted. “If you ask me, they’re both.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, look!” She gestured at the transparent screen. “Oh, lucky you. It seems like the highest concentration of that crystalline stuff is in one of your favorite places.”

Ari stiffened at the mischievous glint in her golden-green eyes.

“Time for you to go back to your favorite place. The stupendously wonderful… garbage chamber.”

Well… fruk .