Page 50 of Star Defenders (My Alien Mates 2)

He shook his head slowly. "I think this might be way above my pay grade."

"I've almost traced the signal," Zarex said. "It's close, very close, but I can't quite pin it down yet. I'll keep trying."

I ran a hand over my hair. It was probably as wild as ever, and then some. When this was over, I might have it all cut off. Crew cut like the guys. I would look silly, but at least it would be tame.

"You won't unlock the controls," a new voice said. "This ship belongs to the Iritauri now."

I turned and took on the sheen of silver skin, the set of now silver eyes, the blaster held in a silver hand.

My heart came to a grinding halt and I felt sick to my stomach.

"Danec?"

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Danec smiled. "You missed one."

"So I see," I said. I surprised myself with how calm I sounded. On the inside, I was a trembling, quivering mess. The shape of his face and body were the same, but everything else was different. The way he held himself, the way he looked at me. He seemed curious, but the warmth was gone. The familiarity was gone.

No, not gone entirely; suppressed. He was still in there somewhere, I was certain of it.

"Can I ask where it hid?" I tried to see what J'avet and Slek were doing, but both were outside my peripheral vision.

Zarex hadn't moved from the console. Nor had he stopped tapping at it.

"Inside a tooth," Danec said. "Quite clever, don't you think?"

"Right." I had scanned his face. Somehow I missed that one, tiny speck of nanobot. Evidently that was all it took.

"I'm sorry."

He cocked his head in that adorable way he had. It was so… Danec, it hurt my heart.

"Danec wouldn't want this," I said. "Being a nanobot host wasn't on his bucket list."

He looked confused for a moment, then smiled. "Bucket list. List of activities to undertake before the body becomes deceased."

"Something like that, yeah." I felt the weight of the blaster in my hand. Could I use it on him? I wasn't certain I could.

"Don't be concerned," Danec said. "I'm still me, just enhanced. I have the knowledge of the Iritauri in my mind. It's like a vast library." He looked awed.

"That sounds, um, great," I said without a hint of enthusiasm. "But you don't have free will. You have to do what the nanobots say."

He blinked several times. "The relationship is symbiotic."

"Or parasitic," I muttered. "What will you do if they want you to kill me?"

"We have no desire to kill," he said.

I gestured around at all the dead bodies on the ship's bridge. "Excuse me if I find that hard to believe."

He looked toward the bodies closest to him. He seemed confused, as though the nanobots and Danec were in disagreement.

Good, keep fighting, I thought.Fight them off.

His head snapped up. "Only those who try to stop us will die," he said in a robotic tone. It seemed the bots won that round. "We wish no harm to the rest."

"Stop you from doing what?" I asked carefully.

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