Page 10 of Star Bright
“You don’t think a clueless closed worlder was left solely in charge of an alien outpost, do you?”
Ug growled, and this time the not-dog sounded amused.
They went back to the lobby—Vash leaving the pods only reluctantly—and got the big drakling man settled in the half-dismantled pillow fort. Then Ug led her to a door set discretely behind the welcome station. The not-dog pressed his nose to what Darcy had thought was a keycard reader, and the door opened.
Inside looked like the coolest gaming station ever, with screens and consoles all around. Most of the screens were dark, which disappointed her, and the rest showed standard securityangles of the grounds and buildings. One was focused on the ship. Probably should do something about that in case anyone had seen a blaze of light across the sky and hoped to do some meteorite hunting.
Ug reared up at one console and growled at the screen. It flashed with some strange symbols, and he growled again. The symbols settled into a steady blink.
“I knew you weren’t a dog,” Darcy muttered.
With a glance at her, Ug let his tongue loll out in a very doggy grin.
The screen went dark for a long minute then flickered erratically, apparently the universal sign of a crap connection.
After another minute, Brin’s face appeared between the streaks of interference. “Darcy? How did you…? Ugly, what have you done?”
“Don’t blame him,” Darcy scolded. “A spaceship crashed on the front lawn, and there was literally nothing he could’ve done to explain that—especially since I thought he was just an ugly dog. Anyway, we barely got a signal through, so listen up.” She quickly explained the circumstances, not adding anything about how her fingers had tingled with wanting or anything like that. After all, Vash wasn’t just an alien; he had a whole alien family and apparently all sorts of alien baggage.
Indistinct figures moved behind Brin, and she waved them away. “Darcy, I suggested you as caretaker because I trusted you.”
Darcy arched one eyebrow. “Just not enough to tell me about the existence of aliens.”
“You were only supposed to be there to handle any random Earthers who might accidentally show up. Not crashing spaceships. And yet you’re even dealing with that like a champ. Which is why telling you was on my to-do list as soon as we got back.”
“You’re not on a holiday team-building retreat, are you?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t lie to you about vacationing. We’re just not doing it on Earth.” Her friend’s grin was bright even across the lightyears. “But that means it’ll be a while before we can get someone there for you.”
“I don’t know that we need more people”—Darcy glanced at Ug—“uh, or whatever. But if you could unlock some of the facility, like the med bay and maybe a repair shop for busted spaceships? Oh, and some extra bedrooms.”
“I’ll put a rush on the cleaning cycle, but I’m still sending support back to you.” Brin wrinkled her nose. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way. You were always a great friend to me and my show. Once I discovered I might’ve been a little overzealous in my ‘nothing’s out there’ beliefs, I wanted to tell you. And okay, maybe I was hoping you’d join my marketing and limited-edition hoax-crafting crew now that we’ve relaunched the Big Sky IDA. But you seemed happy with that weaselmeister Chris, and there’s nothing in the world that would make me break up a loving couple.”
“Nothing in the universe, you mean?”
“Yeah, that too.” Interference scattered Brin’s image for a moment. “If you could just hold down the fort a little longer, we’ll owe you, big time.”
Darcy pursed her lips. Her pillow fort had been seized by an alien. What was the pay scale for that?
“You could unlock the good liquor locker too,” she suggested.
“Key is under the bar. That was the only room that wasn’t infested with void vipers.” Brin laughed.
“What the hell are void vipers?” Darcy demanded.
But her friend scattered into a bunch of pixels.
Darcy glared at Ug. “What are void vipers?”
He only grunted.
Oh yeah, owed her big time.
Chapter 5
Vash woke with a strange fever. The prickling swept through his body in waves. More aftereffects of being ejected from cryo before he’d returned to equilibrium.
At the same time, he felt a little stronger, and he flexed every muscle, testing. The effort made his nerves burn, and he gritted his teeth against the pain. Maybe better if hehadforgotten how to feel.
