Page 15 of A Delicate Conquest

I’m going to kill him.

SIX

Bea satin the medical bay, staring at the strange alien surroundings, waiting for whoever was supposed to come and treat her stupid, smarting ankle.

It had all happened faster than she could blink. The stoic crew member had summoned a hovering transporter thing that had whisked her away, down long, winding, dark corridors to a faraway room.

She was deep in the bowels of the ship, completely cut off from human civilization.

The crew member, whose name she’d finally learned wasOrtan, had offered to summon a human to keep her company and offer her support.

Bea had politely declined. She was a big girl. She could manage on her own. Having them call in a perfect stranger to hold her hand while she got treated for a minor injury just seemed silly to her.

She didn’t want her first introduction to the humans of the Kordolian Fleet Station to bethis poor woman who broke her shoe’s heel and fell off the damn ramp.

Besides, the chance to get a peek behind the scenes ofthemost infamous and highly secured space station in the Universe was an opportunity she might never get again.

She wasn’t nervous.

It was all rather exciting.

It was weird. She, who was normally distrustful of everyone and everything until they proved themselves otherwise—a trait from years of working in the corporate world—felt perfectly comfortable here.

Maybe it was because the Kordolians didn’t have any feeling of pretense about them. There was no facade, no falseness.

They were either coolly courteous or brutally blunt, and they weren’t trying to impress anyone.

What you saw was what you got.

It was refreshing, especially after she’d spent so much time working in the corporate world, where everything was smoke and mirrors and disingenuous smiles.

According to Ortan, they could fix her ankle almost instantaneously.

Bea chuckled. She knew Kordolians were technologically advanced, but she’d have to see that one to believe it. She’d suffered a sprained ankle before—from something as stupid as losing her balance while throwing a football—and it had hurt so bad she thought she’d fractured it.

She’d been on crutches for a couple of weeks.

This wasn’t nearly as bad, but she certainly wouldn’t be able to walk normally for a while.

Bea glanced around, taking in the glowing blue holos through which flowed a constant stream of indecipherable data. The Kordolian characters looked like ancient glyphs out of a fantasy realm, strangely at odds with all the high-tech stuff in here.

There were machines of all shapes and sizes. Bea couldn’t even begin to fathom what any of them were for. There were wheel-less trolleys and racks with alien implements.

If she were in a different frame of mind, she might be terrified right now. One could easily suspect these aliens had lured her here to do all kinds of terrible things to her.

But she wasn’t worried at all.

She couldn’t help but think about the very first Kordolian she’dreallyinteracted with.

Mavrel.

Almost instantly, he’d made her feel at ease.

These were his people. This was Kordolian HQ Central. In all likelihood, this was where he worked.

Maybe she would ask about him. She wanted to see him again—maybe over a glass of wine and some canapes.

Did Kordolians serve refreshments at functions?

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