Page 78 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid

“She commandeered a dropship,” Lidan translated. He dabbed his sleeve at a cut on his cheek. “When I caught up to her, she hit me over the head with the black box.”

Cordelia cut an incredulous look at Eunha.

Eunha shrugged. “Looked heavy.”

“It was,” Lidan said wryly.

Eunha stretched out her legs, flexing her dirty toes. Every inch of her feet was covered in dirt and lacerations. “I didn’t speak alien. How was I supposed to know he wasn’t going to kidnap me next?”

“I had to wrestle her to the ground to put the translator in.” He rubbed his jaw as though it ached.

“You touched her?” Haerune interjected with alarm.

“That is what ‘wrestle’ implies, isn’t it?”

Haerune cursed under his breath. “Fool.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Lidan waved the insult away. “You’re welcome.”

“You piloted an alien spacecraft?” Cordelia asked, turning her attention back to her copilot.

Eunha grinned. “Technically, I think Icrashedan alien spacecraft.”

“But you flew it, at least for a while?” Cordelia pressed.

“One could say that.”

“I wouldn’t,” Lidan muttered.

Cordelia gave her a considering look, the wheels turning in her head. “Think you could do it again?”

Eunha’s smile widened wickedly.

CHAPTER 33

“Madness,”Haerune said when Cordelia finished explaining her plan.

“Very much so.” Lidan grinned with delight.

“Do you have a better idea?” Cordelia demanded.

Haerune opened his mouth, closed it, and blew out a hard breath.

“It could work,” Rentir said, reluctant as he was.

“I’ve made progress with the biolocks,” Fendar said. “Almost cracked the blasters. I still can’t undo the previously assigned locks, but I think I can program the women into the system from the back end since there’s no record of them. That might be enough to grant them access.”

He’d picked up quickly on the term Rentir had used at Cordelia’s guidance.

Xeth huffed, but he offered no real objection. His eyes kept straying to Seren, the human who held herself apart from the others. No doubt, he would have offered greater resistance if she were part of Cordelia’s plan to raid theGidalan.

Cordelia wanted to use the women as bait, luring another dropship down to the surface. Fendar would jam the communications, Rentir and the others would help them takecontrol of the ship, and then Lidan would use theZithaas a distraction as Cordelia and Eunha piloted a small crew up to theGidalan.

With reassurances that theGidalanwasn’t going anywhere and that Thea was unlikely to be tortured in the meantime, Cordelia was insistent that they take a few days to get things in order before they tried to implement the rescue. Eunha, Seren, and Sophia all needed to heal and rest. When Eunha had tried to argue, Cordelia put a finger in her face and told her to “put her own oxygen mask on before she tried to help anyone else”. Rentir didn’t know what that meant, but it had swayed Eunha.

Lidan agreed to give Cordelia and Eunha a crash course on piloting the shuttle in the meantime, using a defunct dropship that sat rusting in the corner of the hangar.

The thought of Cordelia confronting more of the Aurillon made him feel vaguely unwell, but he reminded himself that she was not helpless. She was the Commander of her people, and she felt a duty to them. Twice, she had leapt into battle with him and come out victorious. He would not insult her by underestimating her. Besides, what right did he have to beg her to have faith in him if he could not offer her the same?