Page 58 of Alien Prince Fake Fiancé

Eventually, Ashlyn gave a self-conscious laugh and tried to swipe at her tears, only to be blocked by the goggles. With a choked laugh, she shouted over the howling wind, “Look at me! I’m a mess!”

“You look great!”

“You’re a terrible liar!”.

“Hey, no fun starting without me,” Rachel chimed in as she joined them. After a long group hug, they broke apart as Zade’s stasis pod floated past on its way out, directed by a medic, a stark reminder of why they were together.

Snow crunched underfoot as they stepped farther from the transport, each step a struggle as the blowing swirl of frozen white flakes threatened to sweep them away. She tapped Rachel on the shoulder and shouted, “I thought you said it was spring here?!”

“It is! Now you know why no one wants to live this far north! No one sane, anyway!”

“What are those?!” Ashlyn pointed to a long line of sleek, aerodynamic craft that looked suspiciously like faster, scarier, alien versions of snowmobiles, with some kind of emitter device attached to the front.

“They’re calledskimmers! You’ll love ‘em!”

“What? No pack mules?”

“Ha! Very funny!” Rachel shouted back. “Cam took me for a ride on one of them the first time he brought me to Caldor, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise!”

Ashlyn glared at her sister. "Are you kidding me right now? I’m not in the mood for surprises! We’re on an alien planet and the man I love is in some kind of freakish coma about to die!" Her voice got higher and more stressed with each shouted word.

Rachel reached for her and gave her a fierce hug. "I know, Ash. I was trying to distract you, okay?"

Glancing from the skimmer to Cam and Dagan, who were already busy prepping their own vehicles, Ashlyn nodded and gave a small, watery smile. "Sorry. I’m just stressed out. I know you’re trying to help. Forgive me?"

"Always. Besides, Zade is going to wake up and be better than ever, proving we were worried over nothing, and then you’ll kick me for letting you ride one of these bad boys without showing you how cool they are. I know you’re secretly a science nerd."

Ashlyn’s lips quirked. "Geeking out over sci-fi movies does not make me a science nerd."

Sasha chimed in, "I think it does! Remember how you nerded out over thoseStar Warsmovies when they rode those flying things? You got online and searched up everything you could about how they would work, and almost changed majors in college. To engineering! So, I agree, total science nerd!"

Rolling her eyes, Ashlyn shrugged uncomfortably and huffed, "Well, they were cool!"

"Hey, Cam!" Rachel waved to get his attention. "Ash needs to know how the skimmer works!"

Cam stopped what he was doing and motioned for them to join him next to his skimmer.

"Before we go anywhere, we activate the wave displacement shields." He flipped a switch on the instrument panel, and Ashlyn felt, more than heard, a low hum.

“That’s it?” She was about to be epically disappointed when the air in front of the skimmer became visibly distorted, like heat waves shimmering above a hot road in summertime. "Whoa. What did you call it? Wave shield something or other?"

"Wave displacement shields. They operate by generating powerful, focused sound and electromagnetic waves that interact with, and displace, matter using phased arraytechnology to focus the waves into a concentrated beam in front of the vehicle. This beam can be directed and adjusted to target specific areas, creating a ‘clear path’ effect."

Squinting in concentration, she tried to make sense of her brother-in-law’s highly technical explanation. "Are you saying these waves blast stuff out of the way?"

He nodded. "Yes. You have these technologies on your planet. Ours are simply more advanced. We use a sophisticated LiDAR system, or light detecting and ranging sensors that analyze the object in front of us and adjust not only the type of wave emitted, but meticulously calculate the frequencies needed to either push the object out of the way or, in some cases, disintegrate it, leaving a clear path forward. High frequency ultrasound has a ‘push’ effect, but low-frequency infrasound waves actually weaken the structure, breaking it apart."

"And electromagnetic waves? I know we have all this stuff on Earth, but I never understood how it works."

“They can heat, ionize, or otherwise destabilize an object.”

Ashlyn stared in awe as all of the falling, blustering snow within about five feet of the skimmer seemed to magically change direction, blowing around the vehicle, leaving the space eerily clear. "Oh my god. That’s so cool."

She looked at her sister, who had a smug grin on her face. "Shut up, Rachel."

Laughing, Rachel held up her hands in surrender. "I didn’t say a word."

"Your face says it all, so shut up."

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