Page 32 of Space Daddy’s Guide to the Galaxy (Villains in Space #2)

32

ZIGGY

It was hard not to be suspicious of the alien seated across from me, especially as Micah was within their reach, still struggling to remove the shields they’d trapped him in.

“Ughhhh!” he exclaimed, dropping his head back with a groan. “Just when I think I’ve got it, I choke…”

Oh, sunshine.

Before I could offer encouragement, Leeloo beat me to it. “I am confident you can do this, My-kuh. Everything you need is already inside you.”

Micah’s gaze flickered to me before he mumbled, “Yeah… you’ve both said that.”

It wasn’t quite what I had said, but I wasn’t about to share my unique training methods with my opponent.

“So, the Eki can star hop, have stellar collisions, and apparently pick up on resonance.” I leaned back in my chair, partly to convey an air of indifference, but mostly so Pedro had enough room to curl up in my lap. “Does that sound about right?”

“You are correct… to a point,” Leeloo replied. “Eki can hear a Stellarian’s resonance—most likely because we also resonated at one time—but it means nothing to us now. My kind identifies our stellar collisions by the pull we feel from our mate… or mates.”

That had me sitting up, although I was careful to not displace the Trol. “You have multiple mates?”

Perhaps this is more common than I thought.

“Sometimes.” Leeloo shrugged. “It helps with raising children to have more helping hands.”

Like an alien polycule…

Now Micah was rapt with attention. “And how do the Eki reproduce? I mean… Gah! That was totally inappropriate to ask. Jesus, just ignore me…”

Leeloo laughed brightly. “With our tendrils, of course.”

And then, to demonstrate their point, they unleashed a half dozen starry tendrils.

Of course, they did.

I didn’t bother to hide my annoyance at this latest revelation. “Are the Eki nothing but superior Stellarians, then?”

Micah tried to give me another look, but I ignored it. I knew full well my anger was thanks to being raised under the old Astrum Force, with the unarguable narrative that our kind was simply better than other alien species.

It’s still true.

Mostly.

To their credit, Leeloo didn’t seem offended by my tone. “I would not call it superior —more like a different branch of evolution. One way to describe Eki might be… fully formed Stellarians.”

“Fully formed?” Micah murmured.

The Eki nodded. “Yes. We also possess a starry core, with tendrils branching outward.” They undulated theirs, possibly just to piss me off. “However, unlike Stellarians, we are permanently embedded in our vessels.”

Oh.

My curiosity got the better of me. “If you reproduce with your tendrils and presumably start as novas, how do you become… this?” I gestured at their hooded figure.

Not that we know what you look like.

Leeloo made an amused sound. “Our bodies form around our core after birth, like the shell of some other species.”

Micah openly gaped at the Eki. “Is that why you can create shields? Because it’s how you keep your young safe until the vessel has fully developed?”

“Exactly!” Leeloo exclaimed, and I simultaneously appreciated and bristled at the pride in their voice. “Although, even the vessels we have now benefit from this protection. Our shields have always been defensive armor—nothing more.”

There’s my opening.

“Shields do seem to be your specialty,” I drawled. “And the skill others are more than happy to pay you for.”

The Eki froze and slowly turned to face me. “Our shields are not for sale.”

I laughed derisively. “Is that so? Then why were we sent to Ekistron by those who knew of your shields—who have firsthand experience with your supposed ‘defensive armor’ being used as impenetrable prisons?”

Leeloo continued to stare at me, and for one, unnerving moment, I glimpsed two flares of fiery light from deep within their hood—exactly where their eyes would be.

I’ve faced worse.

“Who did you say sent you here again?” my opponent finally asked in a chilly tone. “A Neluth you met at a Muonova?”

I hesitated, momentarily forgetting which lie I had told when we landed.

Fuck.

“A pair of Kaalas.” Micah stepped in to save me, like a true partner. “Although that wasn’t exactly the truth.“

So much for that.

I actually wasn’t mad about my mate’s confession. Leeloo was openly suspicious, so offering a half-truth like an olive branch could help smooth things over.

A half-truth for a full one.

“Who do you think sent us?” I asked, matching their depthless stare. “Who would send us to Ekistron knowing we had this mysterious creature with us?”

Grabbing Pedro, I held up the squawking Trol for Leeloo to see.

“The creature you supposedly have never seen before…” I added, daring the Eki to look me in the eye and continue pretending they didn’t know what we had in our possession.

In my possession.

Leeloo sighed. “That is a Trol. They are extremely rare, and the only source of karnilian — a gemstone said to promise victory to anyone who possesses it. But you know all this already, don’t you, Zig-ee?”

“We do know…” Micah cautiously cut in, no doubt attempting to diffuse the situation.

Too late.

“I was talking to Zig-ee,” Leeloo replied without taking their eyes off me.

“Does the name Uulvin mean anything to you?” I deflected—now willing to trade a truth to hide a deeper lie.

I could feel Micah‘s anxiety spiking, but I was too invested in dominating this exchange to stop.

A Stellarian never backs down.

Unfortunately, neither did an Eki. “Uulvin is a Hydrassian—a great and powerful seer. Well…” They chuckled darkly. “They were great and powerful once, until we took half of that power away.”

“So we’ve heard,” I shot back. “Now you know who sent us here. And why.”

“I do.” Leeloo retracted their tendrils and rose from their chair before smoothing their almost human hands down the front of their robes. “And it appears our training is done.”

“Wait!” Micah cried out, but the Eki had already dissolved the shields surrounding him with a wave of their hand. “I was… I was so close… “

“You were…” the Eki murmured before focusing on me again. “You both were, but I cannot help you. I refuse to aid anyone blinded by lies the way you are. I suggest you leave before I am forced to deal with you the same way the Hydrassians needed to be dealt with.”

“Gladly,” I growled. “And you are no longer welcome on my ship. I suggest you open the shields trapping us here before I blast my way out of this city and take a few of your buildings with me.”

“Zig!” Micah scolded before standing so suddenly, his chair almost fell over. “Leeloo, please… We just want to get Pedro home. Uulvin told us their missing sibling knew where the Trols’ planet was—that the only way to find it was?—”

“To free Uuktar from the Lacertus, hmm?” The Eki turned to face Micah, as if I wasn’t a threat at all.

Oh, but I am.

I’m your worst nightmare.

When Micah nodded, Leeloo sighed yet again. “I would advise you both to abandon this mission, but it does not seem as if your stellar collision is truly ready to listen.”

“Not to someone who’s feeding us lies of their own,” I growled, rising to stand, relishing how I towered over them in this form.

The Eki sniffed, as undaunted by my bold accusations as any Stellarian would be.

“Not everything is as it seems when it comes to certain species,” they continued, startling me with how closely they echoed Honnor’s words. “Enjoy facing your greatest enemy, Zig-ee.”

I will.

With a curt nod, Leeloo star hopped away, and I felt the shields surrounding Nuclei City start to dissipate, releasing us from this prison.

Thank fuck.

Micah slowly circled the table. “Give me Pedro.”

“What?” I snapped, still agitated over the confrontation and itching to be gone from this wretched planet.

“I can take care of Pedro,” he replied, oddly careful, “while you fly us out of here.”

I nodded and handed the creature to my mate. “Yes. Get them settled for our journey and then meet me in the cockpit.”

Micah abruptly looked away. “I-I actually think I’m gonna lie down. I’m not feeling so hot…”

I frowned, unleashing a few tendrils to determine if Leeloo's shields had somehow injured him, only to register…

Nothing.

“Very well,” I muttered, confused why I couldn’t get a read on my mate. “Then I will come meet you in the bedroom once I’ve set a course for Lacertus .”

He swallowed thickly and nodded. “Okay…”

Something was wrong, but my first priority was getting the Lodger out of here before the Eki changed their mind.

It was a tense few minutes as we passed through the enormous hatch, and several more before Ekistron was nothing but a glowing white dot in the distance.

Good riddance.

I charted a path to Lacertus before switching to autopilot. It would take us at least until tomorrow to reach the planet, which meant I had plenty of time to attend to my stellar collision. With one last check on our coordinates, I star hopped to the bedroom.

At least, I attempted to.

I grunted as an invisible barrier blocked my path, tossing me to the gangway floor between the bedroom and kitchen instead of allowing me to reach my destination.

What in Stellaria‘s name…?

“Micah?“ I hesitantly called out. “Are you… Is everything all right?”

I could hear him shuffling closer on the other side of the bedroom door before silence fell. It stretched on so long, I almost repeated my question, but then he spoke.

“Pedro and I are gonna sleep in here tonight, Zig,” he replied in a flat tone. “Just let me know when we land.”

“Why are you suddenly interested in co-sleeping?” I asked, mystified as to why now was the time to try out a new parenting technique.

Micah sighed, loud enough that I could hear it. “If you really wanna know, I need some space for tonight, okay? I’m not happy with how things just went down out there.”

“With how Leeloo lied about their powers, you mean?” I huffed, annoyed all over again.

We should never have set foot on Ekistron.

The bedroom door slid open with a mechanical hiss to reveal my mate, but when I stepped forward, I hit his shields again.

“No, Zig,” he snapped. “With how you just cock-blocked any chance for me to level up my powers.”

Excuse me?

“That’s not what happened!” I exclaimed. “Leeloo had no intention of helping you—of helping us. We have a mission to complete?—”

“And just how are we supposed to complete the mission of freeing Uuktar when I can’t dissolve shields I didn’t fucking create?!“ he shouted in reply.

I gaped at my mate, not only because Micah raising his voice to me was a rarity, but because his continued blindness to his own greatness was baffling.

How can I make you see what I see?

“Micah.” I spread my hands beseechingly. “I know you can do it. All it will take is?—”

“What? What will it take, Ziggy?” He stepped forward, soft brown eyes flashing dangerously. “The Force? Some magical Stellarian pixie dust? Thoughts and prayers?”

You believing in yourself the way I believe in you.

Even without our connection—which was still oddly stifled—I would have registered my mate’s emotional pain. The worst part was knowing he thought I was the cause of it.

You are the cause of it, Ziggy.

“Sunshine…” I trailed off, unsure how to fix this. “You’re my stellar collision. It’s my responsibility to protect you.”

“Yeah, well, it didn’t feel like protection,” he huffed. “It felt like you were stopping me from becoming as powerful as you.”

WHAT?!

“What are you talking about?!” I shouted as shame and terror flooded my system. “You are already more powerful than me. I’ve told you countless times—you are the most impressive creature in all the galaxies.”

Why don’t you believe me?

Micah sighed. “You know… I’m starting to think that’s just something you came up with so you don’t have to tell me how you really feel.”

Oh, fuck.

On the one hand, I couldn’t fathom how this impressive, perfect creature didn’t know how I felt about him, but on the other, I knew exactly why he didn’t.

“Babygirl.” I placed my palm on the shield, wishing he would lower it so I could touch him. “I…”

I…

Why can’t I say it?

I saw his face fall as I failed to complete the sentence—failed to express just how deeply I cared for him—and my borrowed heart shattered along with his.

“Goodnight, Ziggy,” Micah whispered, back to his impassive mask. “See you tomorrow.”

Even though I knew this conversation was over for tonight, I stood in the gangway for a long time after the door closed, mentally replaying everything—the words said and unsaid.

I really fucked this up.

It was only after I returned to the cockpit that I realized the implications of Micah locking Pedro in the bedroom with him.

He was using his shields to protect both of them.

From me.