Page 13 of Across The Stars
Just then, the Irlos exited the jump. I peered out the window to see the ring of red defense drones surrounding the impressively built human space station. They called it the Nexus. I’d been there many times, but it always seemed to impress me in one way or another on every trip. For a race just barely venturing past their planet’s atmosphere, they could accomplish great things collectively.
Glad to see they’d listened to my warning, I glanced back at the scanner to see that the other spacecrafts were slowly backing off.
“I’m thinking maybe they were looking to ride the transport signals through the blockades,” Salukh said quietly. “Or they just wanted to blow a couple shuttles out of the sky so they could get everyone flustered.”
“Attacking the Yutan is one thing. We’re already enemies. Attacking humans is either foolish or it means they have confidence they could win if they started a war with another race. Especially one already allied with us.”
“That’s unnerving…”
I nodded, but didn’t relay that theory to the Nexus. Not yet.
“Spacecrafts are retreating,” I said over the coms. “I’m requesting entry onto the Nexus in order to speak with mayor Blaine.” Ahead, one of the transport vessels was circling, waiting for the blockages to deactivate. On the side, it readNTS 4.Ipointed Salukh toward it. “We wish to escort Shuttle 4 through the blockade in order to dock. Requesting approval.”
There was another stretch of silence while the humans went through their chain of command to get the request approved. It wasn’t an ideal process, but I waited nonetheless, focusing on what was important.
“Irlos,” the man said. “You are permitted to escort Shuttle 4 past the blockades and dock at bay 3.”
I sighed with relief and straightened myself off the communication panel. On my glance, Salukh maneuvered our ship toward the smaller vessel near the blockade.
“This will be interesting,” he muttered to himself. “How are you planning to explain that an enemy race might be targeting the human space city to get to us? Doesn’t seem like the sort of thing that will go over well with the mayor.”
“If the gek'tal are targeting the Nexus, they’ll be more inclined to lend a hand,” I said. “If they don’t, no more syfer. We’ll have too much on our hands to continue trades.”
“You’ve got a point. But that’s a big decision. Maybe your sister should be in on this?”
“Later. We’re the ones here now.”
“As is the pattern. You rile people up and she comes to calm them down afterword.”
Our ship came to hover over the small, white shuttle. Salukh swiped lazily over a few controls.
“Activating the tow,” he said.
I could feel a slight vibration in the floor as the bottom of the ship lit up with syfer veins, which, combined with the metal from our home planet, created a magnetic harness that began to pull the transport through the barricade.
“You didn’t need to do that,” I said.
“I know,” Salukh grinned. “But it’s fun and it probably got the little workers inside all excited.”
I smirked, crossing my arms over my chest and shaking my head. Salukh was nothing if not playful, especially with the easily shaken humans.
As we approached the docking stations, Salukh released the shuttle and veered smoothly to the left to park the ship one space down at bay 3, just as we were instructed. I watched as the white shuttle lined up in a smaller space and lowered itself to the metal platform. The giant energy barriers separating the outside from the docking bay rippled as the ships passed through and then steadied, making it look as if nothing was there.
“Their barriers look like they’re holding up,” Solukh commented.
“Thanks to our tech, as usual,” I said under my breath. “Helmets on.”
He grumbled. “We don’t need them.”
“You know the drill. Helmets on.”
He stood and dragged his feet toward the slick, metal wall. He slammed his hand on the smooth surface and a seam in the wall parted to reveal a rack of black, tinted biohelmets. Humans weren’t aware that valerians could breathe oxygen just as easily as they could and valerians intended to keep it that way. No one should know everything, we always said. The gek knew too much and it wounded us deeply. We’d only been associating with humanity for the last twenty Earth years and they still made me tilt my head with regret now and then.
Salukh tossed a helmet to me and I reached out to catch it in one hand.
“Hey,” he said, pointing at my bare fingers.
I turned my hand over to see slight traces of glowing color beneath my skin. Specifically, the color purple. I wrinkled my forehead with confusion. The rest of me was covered in a fitted, black bodysuit with thermal veins glowing along its length, but Icould feel that a warm trickle was moving across my entire body and it gave me pause.
