Page 20 of Star Bright
“But, Yaya,” the littlest drakling whispered. “She can’t be with us anymore. She’s never coming back.”
Even before his son said it, the repressed memory exploded through Vash, the final catastrophic paroxysm of a dying sun.
“Because she’s dead.”
Chapter 8
Oh hell. Darcy squeezed her eyes shut.
While she’d understood that Vash’s memory had been affected, she hadn’t realized he’d forgotten his wife’s death. Of course hehadcontracted with the IDA for a mate, which meant he didn’t already have one, but to go through that worst explanation for his single father statuswhilehis children watched…
She cleared her throat. As much as she’d made a hash of her own relationship, she couldn’t just stand there and watch as he suffered. “Vash, Ug just let me know that he was able to get the med bay unlocked. Maybe it would be best if you all got checked out, make sure there’s no lingering issues with…anything.”
The little drakling boy immediately set up a fuss, which might’ve been bad, but Darcy sensed that the only reason the older sister didn’t join in was to be contrary to her brother. If the two children had unified, she wasn’t sure what their overwhelmed father would’ve done. Whatever tragedy had befallen the family, and whatever trauma had pursued them through a hundred years of sleep, she didn’t think the Intergalactic Dating Agency—as ridiculous as it still sounded to her—would’ve condoned dating or mating or whatever other euphemisms its translators offered, not when they clearly had issues to deal with.
And she was no one who could help with such issues.
Other than leading them to the med bay. Vash had to carry Atsu, and for a moment, Darcy thought he might have to do the same with his older daughter too, or she wouldn’t go. When he seemed ready to do exactly that, Yadira slumped into line with her father and brother as they made their way deeper into the previously locked facilities.
It was difficult not to gawk, even though the hallways were clearly not anything of her world. Or that wasn’t quite true: maybe half her world, half other places. Finding out about aliens and now seeing their artifacts on Earth should’ve been a decent distraction from getting dumped just in time for Christmas.
But watching the stricken man with his confused little one and his sullen, seething teen, she would almost rather be trapped on an island with her ex and his smug friends. Though the draklings were aliens and she didn’t really know them, their obvious pain made her wonder if her relationship with Christopher had faded because she’d never wanted to risk that sort of hurt.
The med bay doors whooshed open as they approached. A gust of antiseptic air wafted over them, and a mechanized voice intoned, “Welcome, honored guest. What is preventing your comfort?”
Darcy caught Vash’s eye. “I’ll give you some privacy. If you need anything…” Well, she hoped there was some other digitized option.
“Darcy.” Vash turned to face her.
But Atsu butted his head under his father’s chin and wailed, “I don’t want any inoculations.”
She had taken the news of extraterrestrial presences on Earth seeking mates with what she thought was as much equanimity and good humor as could be expected under the circumstances. And technically, she had been hired as a part-time caretaker and sitter. But this was too much. She fled.
She hadn’t gotten far when a scuffle behind her brought her around, but it was just Ug. “I hope you aren’t here to threaten a memory wipe.”
When he shook his head in an exaggerated gesture that she supposed was for her closed worlder benefit, she snorted. “So,what else has been unlocked that a disbelieving Earther might like to see?”
He padded down the hall to a smooth section of wall. Rearing up onto his back legs, he pressed his nose to the screen and whuffled. A map of the facility and grounds appeared.
“It’s bigger than I realized.” She sighed. “I suppose I should say that about the whole damn universe.”
When he touched his nose to another section of the map, it expanded. “Oh, the main kitchen is open. I assume they left at least some of the basics—canned goods from space or whatever. Maybe we can find something to help make the kids feel better.” Not that healthy family dynamics could be conveniently jarred.
Even if damage could apparently be flash frozen.
With a grunt that sounded like agreement, Ug accompanied her to the commissary. Having speed-read through some of the IDA handbooks, Darcy had a reasonable idea how the outpost worked—in theory. In practice she worked in A/V sales with a barely monetized side gig of gaming reviews and commentary, so what did she know about Earther cooking much less alien cuisine? But between Ug and a holographic cookbook that popped up from one of the central stations, she was able to grab some pre-packaged meals from various storage units. When she turned around, Ug had one of those hovering carts waiting for her, so she filled it up.
“Thank you,” she told him. “Also, I want one of those universal translators.” The not-dog just stared at her. “Oh, don’t pretend like you suddenly can’t understand me. I just want to understand everything else too. I read the handbook section about the implants. I know it’s not entirely risk-free, and it’s not like it gives me super smarts or anything. I’ll just have some of that early-learning plasticity at accelerated speeds with a built-in database like a secondary memory drive in my head. I canguess all the caveats that Brin would’ve given me too, so you don’t need to growl anything.” She gave him a wry look.
Then her amusement faded. “I also got what the handbooks very carefully did not say: that the IDA chooses its prospective alien mates from people who don’t have anything else.” Her gaze rested, unfocused, on the pyramid of otherworldly snacks. “I was with Christopher because… If I’m being honest with myself, because I didn’t have anything else. No other friends, really, no other plans, no bigger hopes. I was just…floating along. He was right to dump me.”
Ug finally made a noise, dissent this time. She gave him another quick grin. “You don’t have to make me feel better about it. This is going to be my Christmas gift to myself.”
She followed the not-dog back to the med bay, which was empty, and stood quietly while the virtual doctor went through the procedures and disclaimers for the implant.
“You may experience thoughts and behaviors that do not seem like yours. This is an inaccurate perception and merely reflects the expansion of your awareness and comprehension enhanced by the implant.”
Then the gigantic needle came out, and she abruptly understood the little drakling boy’s complaint. Ug nudged his shaggy head under her hand, and she clenched her fingers in the patchy fur as the needle went into her head.
