Page 4 of Star Defenders (My Alien Mates 2)

I stepped into a room with a stunning view of the side of the station, the docks and a hint of Dendra far below us.

Almost entirely green, it was hard to tell the land from the oceans. Truthfully, it looked inhospitable, but was home for a few billion Dendrans and other species.

I turned as Zarex closed the door behind us. I couldn't shake the feeling I was prey, but his expression was benign. For now.

"So." I crossed my arms over my ample chest. "What is this about?"

Zarex circled around the room and stopped at the window. "You saw some of the passengers from Frey-T," the shortened name for Freytauri, "turned into hosts for the Iri nanobots."

"Is that a question?" I asked. "Because you know I did." He had attended the first debriefing on the IF ship which had rescued us from our pod above Calig.

"Yes, I do." He pulled a chair out from behind a desk and propped a booted foot on the seat.

Evidently he didn't plan to offer me a chair.

"I want to hear it again, slowly, and from the perspective of a medic," he said.

"Okay." I pictured the moment in my head before I spoke. "The nanobots looked like a swarm of glitter. I'd hate to get it on the carpet. You'd be vacuuming it up for years."

He cleared his throat.

"Right. Well, they crawled up the bodies of the Freytauri and crawled up their noses and into their mouths." I shuddered.

"They didn't enter anywhere else?" he asked.

I thought for a moment, then shook my head. "I don't think so. If they did, they went under clothes, so it would be difficult to see."

He nodded. "Why the nose and mouth?"

"I don't know, I didn't know nanobots existed until then." What was he getting at?

"In your opinion," he said slowly.

"Because they're holes?" I suggested. "A way into the brain."

He snapped his fingers so suddenly I jumped. Where J'avet would have found it amusing, Zarex looked apologetic.

"Into the brain," he repeated. He lowered his leg and looked out the window. "All the better to control thoughts and movements."

"I suppose so," I agreed. Now I thought about it, it made perfect sense. They wouldn't be efficient if they congregated in one elbow.

"Did you get any sense of who or what was giving them orders?" He turned and gave me a piercing look.

"No," I said slowly, "but I wasn't looking. A bunch of Iri had weapons on us. I was trying to survive."

"Of course, of course." He waved a hand. "As you should."

"Right. Did they find anything on Calig when they went down to free the other evacuees?" A few hundred had been held hostage so the rest of us behaved when the Iri attacked the Freytauri rogues.

"Signs of recent habitation, but not much else," he replied, which was more than J'avet told us. "It's as if they melted into the trees, but their life signs went with them. They found none."

"Do they have them?" I asked dryly.

He did a double take. "I beg your pardon?" He seemed shocked. For some reason, I found that fascinating. He seemed more—well, not human. Vulnerable.

I replied slowly. "Danec said the Iri aren't dead, but what if the nanobots suppress their life signs? Do their hearts still beat naturally?"

His eyes widened. "Did you see any children?"

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