Page 80 of Holiday with the Aliens

Her heart hurt and she couldn’t make herself let go of his hand, which made working at the functioning computer station a bit difficult. Stella didn’t care. The android was out of commission and the monster lay dead. More trouble would be coming soon, but for now they were as safe as they could expect to be.

Her visual translator made quick work of decoding what the controls on the screen said, and when she found the message log, she cursed.

Arest’s fingers squeezed around hers.

“The Keeper sent a message out to his operators. The reply just came in. It seems that the storm has messed with video comms, but written messages can get through just fine. They’re sending in a team.”

Arest slid closer and peered at the screen, but a moment later, he looked back at her. “No translator,” he said, waving to his face.

“It says that an extraction and clean up team is coming to take care of the problem. We need to get out of here before they do.” She didn’t mention that she didn’t know how to get him offplanet. Shehopedthat someone in the civilian fleet would help her, but her hopes had been tested in the last day and she didn’t know if she could count on anyone anymore. Anyone except Arest.

But his face had lost its color and his eyes widened. He pulled her up. “Not safe. Clean up bad.”

Stella pulled her hand free and sat back down. “How bad? That sounds like they’re getting rid of the monster back there?” Not that she wanted to meet anyone employed by Arest’s handlers, but a clean up crew didn’t sound half as bad as an extraction team.

He shook his head. “Clean up witnesses.”

Shit. “We should still have a little time. Let me find us a way out of here. Or a place to hide.” She brought up the feed from outside and saw howling winds and snow that would come up to her waist. Not ideal, but they’d make do.

And finally something went their way.

“Aha! Got it.” She punched both hands up and leaned back, glee splashed across her face. “There’s a hover car in a garage on the roof. It should be able to handle the snow as long as the wind doesn’t get much worse.”

Arest smiled with her and pulled her back up. They ran, following the path she’d found. An elevator, discreetly hidden in the stone, took them up and up and up until a bell dinged and the doors opened to a freezing cold and mostly empty garage. But the hover car was right where it was supposed to be.

“We need to find keys or an ignition code.” She hadn’t seen anything on the comp system. She and Arest split up, looking for an office or a storage box that might have the keys.

A few minutes later, she heard metal groan and smash and Arest called her over. He held up a set of small metallic squares, each with what might be a control chip of some kind embedded on them. They didn’t look much like keys to her, but he pointedto the metal box and she saw that they’d been hanging under a car-shaped icon.

Good enough.

Arest tossed them to her and she found the driver’s seat. It didn’t look much like a car did back home, but they didn’t need to go far.

Arest slid into the seat beside her. “The Keeper said there was a city close by,” she said. “I think our best bet is to head there. Our other choice is the crash site. It’ll be crawling in security forces and they’ll have a lot of questions. What do you think?”

He thought for a moment before nodding. “City.”

Now she only had to figure out how to drive a car on an unfamiliar planet to a place she’d never been. Piece of cake. But as soon as she started the car, it was. A holocontrol system appeared in front of her with forward, backward, left, right, gas, and brake clearly marked by her translator. A map appeared on the holodisplay, a path to the city already indicated.

“That must be the default instruction,” she guessed, “or it’s the last place the car went.”

Arest didn’t say anything.

Stella followed the path, mindful of the hover. Snow piled high on the ground around them, completely obscuring any road, but the system was strong enough to keep going strong. In the distance, she spotted lights and a blinking tower just visible beyond a high hill. Little dwellings sprouted up alongside the road, buildings that might have been houses and shops.

Unlike Earth, the buildings here were cylindrical and topped with domes. The windows were all circles and everything was white, though that might have been the snow. She didn’t see any of the people who lived here and wondered if they’d look like humans or something else. Given the shape of the car, she’d bet humanoid at least.

As they pulled into the center of town, her question was answered. The Keeper hadn’t been built to appear human—he looked much like the people she spotted inside of what looked like a restaurant. Their skin had a greenish hue and their eyes were overlarge. Though she couldn’t see them up close, she assumed that like the Keeper, they were all too smooth to pass for human.

But humanoid was good. That meant they could find clothes that fit and food that probably wouldn’t kill them. And her heart lifted even further when she spotted a sigil on the outside of a tall building. “That’s a Royal Oscavian bank.”

Arest followed her gaze and then looked back at her, eyebrows raised.

“It’s the most widespread banking conglomerate in the galaxy. All civilian fleet employees are required to keep an account with them. We have money.”

Arest nodded, but his expression had grown tight and lines bracketed his mouth.

Stella reached out and grabbed his hand. “It’s going to be okay. How does this sound for a plan. I’m going to find us a hotel. Then you’ll sneak into my room, we get some rest. And then I’ll get in touch with my people and find us a way home.”

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