Page 9 of Alien Engineer's Mate

"Go. I'll keep an eye on things here." He paused, then added, "Good luck with the meeting. You won’t need it, but good luck anyway.”

He nodded, his throat too tight to even murmur a thanks, so he acknowledged the words with a slight bow, warrior to warrior, before striding from the engineering bay.

He lengthened his stride as he entered the station corridors, already filling with personnel as one shift ended and another began, using his height to part the growing crowd. Humans and other species moved out of the way, responding to some primitive recognition of a predator in their midst. The thoughtalmost made him bare his teeth; today, he needed that predatory nature leashed.

The transition from engineering to the administrative sections always struck him as wrong. Utilitarian metal walls gave way to softer materials and decorative panels that served no practical purpose. The harsher light of the engineering sections faded into something deliberately aesthetic, designed to please rather than serve. The thrum of machinery became muffled, buried beneath layers of soundproofing that prioritized appearance over function.

A flash of movement ahead caught his eye—a familiar figure with a too-bright smile that set his teeth on edge. Aisha.Draanth.The human female had an uncanny ability to materialize at the most inconvenient moments, like a malfunction in the ship's systems that couldn't be fixed.

It was the coward’s way out, but he ducked down a side corridor before she saw him. It was a longer route and would cost him precious minutes, but it would spare him another awkward confrontation with the female—which would have taken even more time. He didn't have the patience today for her forced cheerfulness and flirtation.

He ducked back onto the main corridor just before the Latharian Mate Program offices. Here, the administrative section's luxury reached new heights, all polished surfaces and elegant furnishings meant to impress potential mates. The artificial pleasantness of it all made his skin crawl. He ignored the plush surroundings, his focus narrowing to the meeting room ahead and what waited behind its doors.

To his surprise, a tall figure stood outside the meeting room, drawing curious glances from passing personnel. His steps slowed as he approached. She was Tavkronian, so he assumed she was his legal representative.

Her black and grey skin seemed to drink in the overhead lighting, making the delicate silver markings around her horns dance like starlight on water. Her hooves clicked against the deck with each subtle shift of her weight, the sound somehow both delicate and authoritative. She turned at his approach, and he found himself reassessing his initial impression. Everything about her manner seemed calculated to appear almost too gentle for her imposing physical presence... everything from her graceful movements to the soft way she cleared her throat.

“Lead Engineer Maax?" Her voice was soft and low. He’d never spoken to a female Tavkronian before, and he found her voice pleasant even with the species’ distinctive gruffness. "I am Advocate Tisshel."

“Well met, Advocate.” He returned her greeting with a formal bow, even as worry churned in his gut. Emily's future hung in the balance, and he needed someone who could fight for her, not this mild-mannered academic. Perhaps she was newly qualified. No one who had spent much time in the intergalactic courts was quite so... soft. "I appreciate you taking my case."

"Please, save your appreciation until after we've succeeded." She smiled, and her lips pulled back to reveal pointed teeth, sharp enough to tear flesh. "Shall we review the key points before we go in?"

At his nod, she activated a datapad, long fingers moving with the kind of precise efficiency he liked to see in his engineers. "The humans have sent three representatives, which is more than standard protocol requires." Her tone shifted and took on an edge. "I suspect they're trying to intimidate us with numbers."

His warrior instincts stirred at the hint of steel beneath her gentle facade. Perhaps there was more to this advocate than first appeared. "Their strategy?"

"Likely to challenge your removal of Emily from Earth jurisdiction." She glanced up, and suddenly, her dark eyes weren't mild at all; they were as sharp as obsidian blades, cutting straight through pretense. "They'll try to paint it as an overreach of authority, maybe even kidnapping."

His hands clenched at his sides until the bones in his knuckles creaked.

"They were…” The words came out rougher than he intended, edged with a growl he couldn't quite suppress. “The conditions I found there… They expected a child to work. Clean up after them like adraanthingservant.”

"Yes." Her expression hardened. "And we have the documentation to prove it. Are you prepared to discuss the specifics of where you found her? It may become somewhat intense in there.”

The memory of Emily's tiny form curled in that locked closet sent fury coursing through his veins like molten metal, but he forced it down, locked it away behind walls from years of warrior discipline. "I can maintain control."

"Good." She tucked the datapad away with efficient grace. "Because I need you to. From my research, humans respond poorly to displays of warrior aggression, especially in matters like these.”

His brows snapped together. “You’ve never dealt with humans before?”

She shook her head, silver hair dancing over her shoulders. “No. But that does give us an advantage.”

“Oh? How so?” If she wasn’t familiar with humans, he couldn’t see how that would be anything other than a hindrance.

She shot him a small, predatory look. “Because they’ve never dealt withme."

Before he could reply to that, the meeting room door slid open in front of them. Tisshel motioned for him to followher through. The space inside had been arranged to appear informal, but he caught the subtle power dynamics at play. Three humans waited on the far side of the table… a united front, their positioning as tactical as any battle formation.

He recognized the social services agent from Emily's initial placement interview. A bit of a moot point since he’d already removed her from Earth, a fact the social services female hadn’t let him forget. The weeks since their last encounter had obviously not changed her opinion of him. Her thin face carried the same lines of disapproval as she looked at him. Beside her sat an aggressive-looking male he assumed was the human advocate; they called them lawyers from what he'd read. The male’s body almost vibrated with hostile energy, like a mis-calibrated power core about to breach.

But it was the third representative who caught and held his attention. She sat a little apart from the others, her steel-grey hair cropped close to her head in a style that spoke of functionality over fashion. In any other setting, her delicate features might have appeared elfin, even fragile. But her eyes... he recognized that steel-hard gaze. This was someone used to command, someone who could end conflicts with a gesture. Someone dangerous.

“Good morning,” Tisshel said as she motioned him to sit in the left of the two chairs laid out for them. She sat in the other, the delicate claws on her fingers clicking against the tabletop as she spread out her paperwork. He tried not to notice how, even seated, the two of them towered over the human group. “I am Advocate Tisshel from Taci Corp?—”

Maax stopped himself from sitting up straighter at that. Tavkronian culture was contract-based, so any Tavkronian was lethal in a court of law, but the Taci family took it to another level. It was said that they taught their kids legal clauses insteadof nursery rhymes from the point they learned to talk. To have a Taci on his case was completely unexpected.

“—and I am here as Lead Engineer Maax A'Taav's representative.”

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