Page 38 of Alien Rescue

Rose gratefully accepted the bowl of fragrant tomato soup. Steam wafted from the bowl. She inhaled and almost groaned. The bar had only had some sickly-looking peanuts she didn’t want to chance eating. They’d looked like they’d been canned a century ago. “You have to explain to me how that works. I’m not much good at cooking. I’d love to have a gadget like that.”

“It is not a gadget, it is Zyrgin technology, and we have one in our dwelling.” He sounded excessively proud of that.

Rose didn’t know what to say to that, and they ate in silence. Afterward, she leaned back against the uncomfortable seat, wishing they could open the door—that it wasn’t stinky with dangerous winds outside.

“I’m not tired yet. What can we do until it’s time to go to bed?” She bit her lip. Why did she word it like that? Now he’d think she was coming on to him. But the shuttle was too small with no room to pace. She couldn’t breathe in here. Every moment inside it felt like the walls were shrinking in on her.

“Would you like to watch episodes of The Space Ranger?”

“Do you have unaired episodes?” What she really wanted was to be outside. If she could sleep out there, maybe the nightmares wouldn’t come. But the smell and the wind up here made that impossible.

He cocked his head. “It is in my computer; it does not need to breathe air.” He said it as if questioning her sanity.

Rose giggled, picturing TC files desperately trying to breathe. “I meant episodes that have not been shown before.” Suddenly the air in the shuttle felt a little less stifling. “Or a nature program about the big five before they became extinct.”

“I have several. I will show them to you.”

“Zanr?”

“Yes.”

“I’d like to call my family.” She had to warn them. If he tried to stop her, she’d find a way.

“I have brought a TC you can use,” he said to her surprise and handed it over. “You cannot warn your family. The traitors will detonate the bomb if they try to leave.”

She wanted to argue that they weren’t traitors, but they threatened humans and not aliens. That did make them traitors. “My brother is away at school. They won’t notice my father leaving. He travels a lot on business.”

“He is a high-profile human and takes many humans with him, wherever he goes. The traitors mentioned him among those they are watching. If they try to leave, they detonate the bomb.”

It was chilling that he knew her father’s habits so well. But Rose was skeptical. Why would the terrorists go to the trouble to watch her father? “All right, I won’t warn him, but I want to talk to him.” He didn’t have to know that she was lying through her teeth.

As a child, she and her mother used the word “lollipop” as their secret word for danger. Her father had to remember that. Didn’t he?

Rose put in her father’s office number. He got really mad if she tried to phone him at home.

“I’m sorry, Rose, your father is in a meeting right now.” His secretary said all the right words, but her tone was frigid. She sometimes wondered if her father only hired assistants who were capable of freezing out his daughter.

“Please, it’s urgent.”

“It always is.” The TC disconnected.

She threw down the TC and paced up and down in the shuttle. The walls were closing in on her again; the air around her thinned. She wanted to do something wild, like shoot the alien or—she turned and looked him over—what she needed was a good fight.

“You wish me to convince him to talk to you.” From the tone of his voice, she had no doubt about what form his convincing would take.

She sighed. “Thanks, but no.” The walls rushed up to her and she took a deep breath, reminding herself that it was just a shuttle and not a big coffin.

“I will always care for you,” he said. As if he could see the raw, open wound in her heart where her family’s love and support should be.

“Yeah right.” Until the first time she proved herself unworthy of being the breeder of a superior warrior. She’d been eight years old when her actions had caused her mother’s death and her father had never forgiven her.

“Exactly,” he said, as if she’d agreed with him. “I will start the nature program and then we can see a Space Ranger episode.” He grunted and the episode started. Before she knew what he planned, he pulled her to lie with her head in his lap. She sighed when she felt him undo her braid. She should probably object, but it was soothing having him play with her hair. She could breathe a little.

She fell asleep watching The Space Ranger.

“We will go to the bar again,” he said the next day. She’d woken on the floor of the shuttle, that had somehow become softer, a silver blanket covering her. He’d been sitting at the consoles grunting at it.

“Until Morgan decides to make an appearance, I don’t suppose we have much choice.”

---