Page 15 of Star Defenders (My Alien Mates 2)

"We'll get that fixed," Slek assured him. He jerked his head towards the door before starting off in that direction. "It shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

"Is this a usual problem?" I asked.

"I haven't seen it before," Slek admitted. "New ship, new glitches. They'll probably start to pop up all over the place now."

"As long as the captain and pilots can still operate the ship, then I don't suppose it's a big deal," I said.

"Yeah." Slek frowned at Danec. He seemed troubled, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he led us into a room full of screens and flashing lights and waved toward a stool. "Sit down, Danny."

"Danny?" I choked back a laugh at the expression on Danec's face.

"Sure. You're Edie, so it makes sense that he'd be Danny—"

"Slekie?" Danec suggested sarcastically.

Slek grinned. "Absolutely. Why not?"

I shook my head at them both. "Let's get on with this?"

Slek glanced around. "It's a bit public, but all right." He grabbed the hem of his shirt.

"Not that," I said, putting my fingers on his hand to stop him.

"Spoilsport." He pouted. "Fine, let's do it." He leaned past Danec and pressed a series of buttons beside a screen. The screen lit up with a series of shapes I recognised as letters and numbers from one of the IF species. Parvoran perhaps.

Slek tapped the screen and it changed to another language.

"Freytaurian," Slek said.

I nodded. I recognised some of the letters and words, but not enough to really read it.

Slek pressed another button and lines of English appeared under the Freytaurian.

"Thank you." I rested my hands on Danec's shoulders.

"Let's see here." Slek keyed in a code and the words 'security recognition' flashed up on the screen. That was followed by a menu. 'Check' and 'New'. Slek pressed 'New'.

The screen narrowed to a circle, with Danec's image in the centre. He twitched.

"Keep still," Slek said.

Danec licked his lips. "S-sorry." He glanced down at his lap, then back at the screen.

Beside his image, his name appeared. 'Danec, son of Jaek.'

Under that came the word 'Unknown.'

A moment later his name came back on screen, then 'unknown' again. They alternated for several moments.

I gasped, "What is going on?"

"I don't know." Slek tapped the screen and it returned to the option to start over. "Sit as still as you can. Edie, move over here, so the computer can't sense you at all."

I moved around behind him and watched around his shoulder.

Danec swallowed audibly, but froze as still as a statue.

Danec, son of Jaek.

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