"I thought I would die," Brinley whispered. "One minute, Danec told us all our lives were forfeit. The next he told us to come here." She averted her eyes.
"Doctor Mazic refused."
"He really—" I swallowed a ball of regret.
"He shot her when she touched the comm panel. She tried to call for help." A tear slid down Brinley's cheek.
"It's not really him," I said firmly.
"It's him now," J'avet said.
I turned to glare at him. "He's—"
"He's Iritauri. Unless you have some way to change that, then you need to accept it. If you can't, you'll endanger us all."
I opened my mouth to retort, but closed it again. Fuck him, he was right.
"Fine," I said after a minute. "What do we do?"
"I found the signal," Zarex said softly. "It's coming from outsideHalcyon, maybe from a nearby planet, but it's being relayed through the communications systems."
"If we can cut it, we might at least disconnect them from whoever is issuing orders," Slek said.
Zarex gave him a small nod. "If one of us is good with computers, they might even reprogram the nanobots." He looked meaningfully at Slek.
"I could do that, but we need to get out of here," Slek said.
"We'll need to create a distraction," J'avet said. "Something that might keep them busy for a while."
Slek rubbed his chin. "I wish I knew how much control Danec has. If I was Iri, I could—"
"No," I snapped. Sooner or later they would try, but for now I wouldn't let him sacrifice himself. If he was lost, we were screwed anyway. "I could try todistractDanec." I cleared my throat loudly.
"I'm sure seducing him would work on him, but that won't distract the rest of them," J'avet said dryly. "Unless you plan on distracting them all at once."
I smirked. "I'll do the men, you do the women." I said sarcastically.
"If I thought it would work, I'd do it," J'avet said. "But it won't. There are too many to keep focused all at once.
I pictured J'avet all hands, mouth and cock with a dozen Iri women and shook my head to clear the image from my head. "Do you have a better idea?" I asked.
"Not yet," he admitted. "Unless someone has an explosive in their pocket?" He looked around while we all said we didn't.
"I should have thought to carry around a bomb," I muttered.
"It was an oversight on all our parts," Slek said with a smile.
I snorted and jerked as Danec and two other Iri approached.
"Edie, Slek, come with us."
"In front of everyone?" I said sweetly.
Danec actually blushed. His face turned a darker silver and he averted his eyes.
There you are, I thought.You're still in there.
"This way," he said coolly. His expression was robotic again.