Page 80 of Kryxis

He hardly seemed to hear her. His nostrils flared, a dark shadow passing over his gaze, as if a simmering anger had taken hold of him.

Dani went to stand and flinched. She looked down at herself and felt the heat rise on her face and neck.Oh, no.

Another knock came, more urgent this time. She quickly wiped herself off on one of the sheets now lying on the floor and went for her robe. As she wrapped it around herself, she went to turn for the kitchen when Kryxis stood up to follow her.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let them in, but you have to stay in here,” she ordered, putting out her hand.

Kryxis’s hands turned to fists at his sides, his tail weaving.

“Please, Kryxis.” She stepped back and turned toward the door. It might be one of her crewmen with news or one of the heads, though she wondered why they didn’t bother messaging or calling first.

Fixing herself, she turned down the lights and unlocked the door, letting it slide open part of the way.

“Hey, Dani.”

She tried not to look annoyed as she stared at the soldier before her. “Garret…is something wrong?” He was still in his uniform though not in any sort of gear.

“I’m sorry to bother you again, but it’s kind of urgent.”

“Oh?” It took all her will not to let her eyes drift over to the bedroom where, at the corner of her eye, she could see Kryxispacing. She gripped the edge of her door tight, trying to keep herself hidden behind it as much as possible.

“Listen, I’m not trying to alarm you, but I’m sure you’ve heard, since news spreads like enginefire around here. But a couple of people have sworn they’ve seen something on the ship.”

Dani shifted on her feet. “Like what?”

His eyes drifted over her shoulder to the dark kitchen then back to her. “Something that might have gotten onboard on our return flight from X110.”

She kept her face as unreadable as possible. “What did people see?”

“Nothing concrete. Just movement in the dark, a big shadow. But they claim it was real.”

She could feel her pulse in her ears. “That’s scary.”

He searched her face, and she saw it in his eyes, the thing he wanted to say. He was suspicious but not enough to say the words aloud. “Yeah, so I wanted to ask if I could borrow your garometer. My team did a small search but came up empty. I want to take another look. We got trackers that’ll pick up heat, but I figured if I could get a high energy read, it would give us an idea what we might be dealing with.”

“Right.” Without looking away she said, “Well, sorry, my garometer isn’t working good at the moment. Must have bumped it or something on X110.”

“Really?” His mouth twitched to one side. “That’s too bad…”

“Yeah. It is. Sorry I can’t help. But good luck. Hopefully you don’t find anything.”

He shrugged. “If we do, it’ll be taken care of quickly.”

She gave him a tight smile back. “I’m sure.”

He nodded, tapping his hand beside her door. “All right. Sorry to bother you again. Talk to you later.”

“Sure. Later.” She went to close the door.

“Wait. Dani?”

“Yeah?”

“Just…stay safe, okay?”

“I will.”

As he turned away, she closed the door for good, locking it. She turned around, and Kryxis was already upon her, hissing and growling something in his language.

---