Page 83 of Holiday with the Aliens

“So you plan to go off by yourself and lead them away from me, is that it?” He didn’t need to say anything, the bow of his head was answer enough. “If these people are as bad as you say they are, they probably have more than enough people to send someone out to find me, even if we split up.”

His breath turned ragged and in the shadows, she saw his fingers curl into a fist.

“I contacted my people last night,” she revealed. “I would have told you, but…” She glanced down at the blanket on the floor, her meaning clear. “Whoever your people are, they won’t come after mine. It would be political suicide, and it sounds like this organization of yours is heavily involved in galactic affairs. I’m not saying that they can’t get to us ever, but the safest,surestway off this planet is on a civilian fleet ship.”

“And if they hand me back?” His whisper cut to her soul.

“I won’t let them.” She wanted to reach out. He was lying to himself about why he ran, telling her it wasn’t safe, claiming that it was all to protect her. But in the end, he didn’t trust her people. And Stella couldn’t blame him. In the same situation, she wouldn’t want to trust either. “Do you believe me?”

He stayed silent for so long that tears threatened to prick at her eyes and she almost told him to go. But finally, he took a step closer, not quite closing the distance between them. “You’ll try,” he said.

“I want you safe.” She found herself stepping forward and her fingers cupped his cheek. He leaned into her, the soft stubble on his chin rasping against her fingers. “You said I was yours. Well, you’re mine too. And we’re in this together.Please.” She didn’t know what else to say. The risk was all his, and all of his paths led to danger. She was almost certain she’d get him safely off of Prellys, but theywouldface challenges once they got into fleet territory. But they’d face them together, and that was what mattered. There was power between the two of them, more than they’d ever have alone.

Arest wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. Stella went to him, her head resting against his chest. Lips brushed against her hair and in the darkness, she heard a murmur. “Safe.” And for now, she was.

Dawn hadn’t yet broken when the call came. Arest’s instincts kept him on high alert, and every few moments, his eyes darted to Stella and away. Like him, she wore all black, the clothes provided by a vending machine inside the hotel. Unlike him, she wore no hood. Apparently Prellys was a planet known to the civilian fleet and had a small human population among the natives.

But Arest would catch eyes. And so he remained hooded and stood in the shadows. Around them, the town was beginning to come out of its winter storm induced slumber. Vehicles and robots cleared snow from the streets and sidewalks and a fewpeople braved the cold, dressed in Marad’s answer to business attire.

He didn’t see anyone that looked like his handlers. None of his trainers had looked Prellysian, instead most of them either human or Oscavian. But Arest knew they were here, he felt it in his veins.

Two cars, one with flashing lights and an official looking plaque affixed to the front, sped by, horns blaring. Stella glanced back at him. “Police, maybe?” She shrugged and looked to the sky, watching for their transport.

The hair on the back of Arest’s neck pricked and he swung his head back to follow the sound of the horns, but they’d turned away and the sound faded. He didn’t like this planetside bullshit and would much rather be sitting in the artificial confines of space.

The horizon blurred in the distance and a small craft flew forward, getting bigger and bigger as it came close. Arest recognized it as a land to orbit vehicle, the kind common on large space ships. And it occurred to him that it was a bit strange that a civilian fleet ship was so close to this little outpost.

“Where’s it from?” he asked. Words were coming easier and easier, though he doubted he’d ever want to speak in long paragraphs.

“Honora Station,” Stella answered. “It’s an old space station, a bit of a hub for this area. I didn’t realize we were so close, but Zwill was there and he’s coming to get us.”

“Zwill?”

“A friend.” She said she had a lot of them, and Arest had to trust her.

The vehicle disappeared from the skyline somewhere at the edge of the city, and Arest told himself not to panic. From what he’d seen, Marad allowed low hover on city streets, not outright flight. This Zwill would need to drive in from outside of town.

The honking teased his ears and Arest looked down the street behind them. He waited a second and then placed a hand on Stella, pulling her down a small alley and crouching behind a half-wall that divided two properties. The cars they’d seen earlier sped by again.

She looked at him, eyes wide and breath heavy. “Your people have probably been to the tunnels by now. They could be back.”

Until that moment, neither of them had mentioned it. After his abortive run, they’d moved to the bed, making love again and sleeping like the dead. And when they’d woken, they’d had no time to worry, not with the escort on the way.

Arest nodded.

A vehicle stopped on the street and a door slammed. Arest laid a hand on Stella’s shoulder, silently keeping her in place as he strained his ears to identify the number of opponents and the likelihood of making it out of this situation in one piece.

A bird chirped and he ignored it. But Stella shot up and dragged on his arm before Arest realized what she was doing. “Come on,” she said. “That’s our ride.”

She stopped short when she saw the thing that stepped out of the vehicle. While it had two legs and two arms, there was no face, and simply a small antenna sticking up where an ear should have been. Under its dark blue jumpsuit, its skin, for lack of a better word, was gray. An android drone.

“Zwill?” she asked tentatively.

“The canary flies.” The response made no sense to Arest, but the tension eased from Stella’s shoulders and she nodded, obviously relieved.

“Too scared to come down yourself?” She grinned at the machine and spoke to it like it was a person, speaking through it to its operator, who sat somewhere on a spaceship in orbit above them.

“Captain is… antsy. I think something is about to go down and you need to be gone before it does.” The drone stepped back into the car and took its place in the driver’s seat. Arest and Stella got in the back and the drone whipped around as if just seeing Arest for the first time.

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