Page 24 of Star Defenders (My Alien Mates 2)

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"What did you find?"Zarex spoke before I could give Slek a greeting, or warn him we were there.

His face was obscured by some kind of machine which looked like an alcove full of lights. He went to stand too quickly.

"Ouch." He stepped back slowly and rubbed the back of his head. "Warn a guy next time." He gestured at the screen. "I managed to pull the data from the medscanner to analyse the nanobots. I suspect they've been in there for longer than we thought."

My breath caught in my throat.

I gaped at him. "Longer? How much longer? Long enough for him to be the one to push you?" I thought for a moment. "He can't be. He was on Moon Station with me when that happened."

"Yes, he was," Slek agreed. He gave me and then Zarex an appraising look. An eyebrow twitched, but he said nothing.

"How long then?" Zarex asked impatiently.

"Before Calig," Slek said. "If I had to guess, I'd say not long before the explosion that crippledInfinity. If that's the case, there was another Freytaurian aboard who let him get infected."

"Or did it on purpose," I said.

Slek nodded. "That too. The good news is, they seem to have minimal programming beyond existing and trying to replicate. The bad news is, that could change and I can't see how to predict when that might be. Or how."

"Can you switch them off?" I asked eagerly.

My heart sank when Slek shook his head.

"If I could get my hands on one, I might. As it is, I'm really only making extremely educated and highly intelligent guesses." He grinned.

I rolled my eyes.

"See, that's a level of arrogance I cannot give you," Zarex said, his expression completely deadpan.

I hesitated for a moment, then said, "Yes, you can."

A smile broke across his face. "Fine, I can, but I prefer subtlety."

"Hey, I can be subtle," Slek protested.

"When?" I asked, then shook my head. "It doesn't matter. Let's save this conversation for later."

"Good idea." Slek turned back to the machine. "As long as they stay more or less dormant, they won't do him much harm. However, they will seek out metal to make into more bots. With only three of them, that will be a lot harder. Many bots make for light work, and all that."

Zarex tapped a finger against his lips. "We need to find whoever infected him. They may have more nanobots."

"They could have infected more than just Danec," I said.

Zarex blinked. "Correct. We'll have everyone use the medscanner. That will at least rule out everyone on theHalcyon. Starting with you." He nodded toward Slek.

"I don'tfeelinfected," Slek said.

"That doesn't mean you aren't," Zarex said. "Whoever pushed you might have infected you at the same time."

"Assholes," Slek declared.

"They would be, yes," Zarex agreed. "If you're infected, then everything you told us might be untrue."

Slek looked offended for a moment, but then sighed. "In a way, I hope that's true. Who knows what Danec got up to without knowing it."

"It might be nothing," I argued. "They could have been swimming in there this whole time and nothing more."

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