Page 76 of Guardian's Heart

"Alright, so how is Raasla going to find us if he shows up?" Nova asked, bringing us back on track.

"He'll recognize my ship," I assured her confidently.

"We should buy supplies while you still have credits," Nock suggested.

I checked my tablet. "Too late." Possedion hasn't waisted a tick.

"What about your ship? Can they track it or make it not work?" Nova asked.

"Yes, but I can turn that off, stay here." I made my way down to the bowels of the ship, where the motors and generators were housed. It didn't take much to dismantle any remote power the Ohrurs had over the ship. They knew that, too.

NOVA

I didn't like beingalone aboard Zaarek's ship. Even on the second day, being alone was eerie. Nock was gone as well, so there was nothing to do but worry.

This was the last day. Zaarek had already made it clear that we would take off after he and Nock returned later. Where to? That was still the undetermined question. All we had to go by right now were three planets: Xynthac, Darlam, and My'rranow. Two were still under quarantine, and I wasn't crazy about the idea to explore those. Especially since we had nothing but a hunch about them, they might not have had anything to do with the Ohrurs.

Going to Ohrur and forcefully making one of the oligarchs talk had been brought up again this morning, but Zaarek's hesitation was telling in how dangerous that would be. Unfortunately, we were out of options shy of running into Raasla somewhere.

Just to do something, I moved to the bridge to busy myself with more futile research. I didn't think I would find anythingmore than what we had discovered already, but it kept my mind occupied and off worrying about Zaarek.

At least our mating marks seemed to have calmed down and allowed us to put more distance between us than before, as if the bond had recognized that Zaarek and I had accepted each other. For all I knew, it had.

I turned a cube and stared at the same research Nock, and I had done before.

Just because I didn't have anything else to do, I pulled up maps of the universe and slumped back in my chair with the air leaving my body in a rush of astonishment. Speechless, I scrolled the screen and scrolled it, kept scrolling it, and I still didn't find an end. The only thing that changed was that the screen became blacker with every swish of my finger, making me assume that these parts belonged to the areas that hadn't been explored yet.

I returned to the center and zoomed in enough to make out this Space Station’s location. From here, it was easy to target a planet and zoom it out with my fingers, just like I would on a tablet on Earth. Only these were planets, and I could zoom in on them like Google Maps, just further. And live.

An idea came to me. I zoomed back to the space station, making out several ships coming and going. I could even zoom in all the way to the hangar where we were docked. So close, I made out our ship and probably would have even been able to see myself through the windows had they been activated and not set to screens. What astonishing technology!

I circled the station. There were hundreds of these hangars, most of them filled with docked ships of all makes and models. Zaarek told me that all Space Guardians used the same ships, so that's what I was looking for. If I couldn't go with the men, at least I could keep their backs safe.

I tried to zoom in on one of the approaching ships, but it was too fast to get a good look at. That soothed me; at least the Ohrurs couldn't get a read on us like this while we were flying.

It was amazing how I could stare at black nothingness, only to have a bright spot appear out of nowhere, slowing down as it approached the station. Zaarek had explained that ships out in space usually flew at hyperspeed—whatever that meant, even the translator couldn't tell me if that was lightspeed or even faster.

Allowing my thoughts to travel through this mind-boggling tech, I kept surveilling the space station, watching ships come and go.

Eventually, I had to give in to my bladder, and on the way back, I grabbed a plate of the mashed potato mush, about to eat it while keeping an eye on the ships. The food was forgotten, though, when I noticed another Space Guardian's ship had docked. Fuck! How long had it been there?

I commed Zaarek. "Another Space Guardian just docked, but I don't know if it is your friend or someone else."

"On it. Where?"

I gave him the location and wished I could see him. But unless I hacked into the station's surveillance system, there was no way and Zaarek had absolutely forbidden me to do so. He wanted us to keep a low profile or as low as a Space Guardian's presence could be kept. But who said anybody would catch me hacking in? I interlaced my fingers and stretched them like I usually did before attacking my keyboard. The comm wasn't a keyboard, but old habits and all that.

Zaarek should know that I'm not the type of person to just stay back, I justified my defying his wishes.

I had fallen for Zaarek so hard it sometimes didn’t seem real. If something happened to him… no, I couldn’t even allow myself to go there because it would feel as if my heart had died. That was enough for me. I couldn't deal with this worry withoutdoing something; otherwise, I would go crazy. Zaarek would understand…

With a vengeance, I attacked the comm and was just about to enter the space station's surveillance system when a sudden announcement made me nearly pee my pants, "You have a visitor."

My heart hammered like crazy inside my chest from the scare, but I kept my wits and switched screens so I could see who was outside the ship. The unmistakable form of a Space Guardian stood there. I swallowed. Friend or foe? I had no idea what Raasla looked like. Nock had a few images of some—since he liked to stalk them—but none of Raasla.

The Guardian stared into the camera as if he was looking straight at me, as if he knew I was looking at him, knotting my stomach. There was no way I would let him in.But what if it is Raasla? My mind objected.

Comm Zaarek, was a much better idea. He would know what…

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