Page 20 of Her Alien Delegate
"He was demanding a ransom for holding you captive, and I thought it would be fitting to show up and interrogate him with the very one he claimed to have at my side."
Again, his explanation made sense but didn't sit right with me.
"Why aren't the sedatives working on him?" I asked BOD.
"I'm analyzing the blood," there was a pause before a steel reinforcement slammed down over the door behind me, "Warning. Warning. Anomaly detected. Here, at the Blue District, I pride myself on maintaining a safe place for all species. You will remain isolated until the anomaly is resolved."
"What anomaly?" I asked as the garrant twitched and stopped moving.
"You have been exposed to the remains of an unknown death of a guest. Until it is determined you are not the cause, and that you pose no threat to the rest of the guests, you will remain in this room."
"Stubborn species," Romek muttered to himself.
"You know what this is," I said with no reservations now that I could see the way he was unconcerned with the amount of blood splattered on him during the garrant's struggle.
"So do you," he wiped his hands on his robes before continuing, "You'll understand when you take a closer look."
I approached and saw the purple scales underneath the deep gashes. "The solungors..."
The virus was supposed to have been eradicated.
"The garrants are notorious for faking their medical records. They are suspicious of all things not made from their own planet. I was hoping we could question him, but I guess that's not necessary when he was lying about having you to begin with."
"How long until we are cleared to leave?"
I've read reports of the virus across the universe, but every planet had their own procedures, and Romek would be more familiar with them.
"First they will need to verify that the anomaly is contained to just the host. They will wait long enough to make sure there isn't any growth inside of us. It could take a second red star rotation."
I swore under my breath. When was the last red star rotation? If I was remembering correctly, we had just had the second red star already, which would mean we would be stuck here for two more for the second red star to come again.
"We might as well get comfortable," Romek said with a sigh. "But we can use my clearance to get in touch with the palace and let Pheyal know you're okay. He'll be relieved to know that you've been mating instead of being held hostage."
I relied on Romek to connect with the palace until my own title was confirmed by the Galactic Council.
"Connect us immediately. We must send out the mating contract so that she does not believe I have abandoned her."
"Of course," he placed his hand on the interface, requesting palace communication. "Commissioner Romek, how may we assist you?"
"There should be a Commissioner Pheyal being escorted by a trill representative, please connected with his escort."
All trill had implants with communicators, while unGors chose to only have translators that had to be updated manually for new language additions. We preferred not to be traced and bound by technology.
"In many we rise, Commissioner Romek," a trill answered.
"Is Pheyal with you?" Romek got straight to the point, which I could appreciate.
"I'll connect with my tablet interface for him to speak with you." A moment passed and an image of Pheyal appeared on the wall.
"You have some explaining to do," Pheyal demanded with force, until his eyes reached mine and his shoulders visibly relaxed. "I expected you both to go offline by destroying your communicators, but there was a report of an unGor violating treaties by aiding a garrant in attempting to kill a trill. You weren't officially in the Blue District and I've been pushing through diplomatic muck to make sure they don't delay your title acceptance. Where's Vaquel?"
That was the question I was expecting from Romek, but I wasn't sure I should answer over a communication with a trill escort in attendance. With the garrant dead, there was no threat to Vaquel. He would be released from his isolation soon enough. Sooner than me it would seem.
"We are all in isolation," I answered as honestly as I could. "I've been exposed to a virus, but you must retrieve my mate and offer her a contract of delegation."
"You've found a human?"
"Yes," I replied and watched as Romek flinched.
