Page 5 of Star Defenders (My Alien Mates 2)

My lips dropped apart. "No. Do you think—"

He toyed with one of his antennas.

I wondered what it felt like. Skin? Scaly?

"They have an outpost somewhere," he mused.

"I was going to suggest they're immortal, but that works better," I admitted.

He smiled briefly. "It's possible the nanobots suppress our ability to detect them."

"That would explain why everyone thought Calig was uninhabited," I said.

He looked surprised again. "That's true." He lowered his hand from his antenna and dropped it to his side. "Thank you, Nurse Wright."

"Edie," I corrected.

"Edie." My name sounded nice rolling off his tongue. "I look forward to working with you further on the journey to Agus."

"You're coming too?" I asked, confused. I thought he had a command on the rescue ship.

He smiled. "Someone has to help the captain with theHalcyon, and keep Commander J'avet on his toes."

"He'll love that," I said sarcastically. From what I had seen, the pair didn't much like each other. I understood that; J'avet was pretty unlikeable.

"Yes he will, won't he?" Zarex looked completely unruffled by the fact. If anything, he seemed to find it amusing.

I shook my head. This was going to be an interesting journey.

2

"So, what movie are we watching?"I flopped down beside Slek on the wide armchair in front of the big vidscreen.

Dendra Station housed a permanent population of personnel. As such, they accommodated residents and visitors in relative luxury. More luxurious than Moon Station orInfinityat least. Both of those were built for function, not fun. With resources sourced from the planet below, the food was better too.

"I found one calledAttack of the Killer Tomatoes," Slek said. He looked part amused and part confused.

"Oh, a classic," I said approvingly. "And popcorn." Thank goodness corn grew just about everywhere, although it tasted slightly different from planet to planet. Something about soil composition, but I don't know. I'm no farmer. I just eat tons of the stuff, especially on movie night.

"With lots of butter, just as the lady asked." He balanced the bowl on his lap and put an arm around me.

"Start movie," he said.

The vidscreen flickered to life and the movie, bad special effects and all, began.

"What did Zarex want?" Slek asked after a few minutes.

"He wanted to hear about the nanobots again." I told him about the conversation as briefly as I could, with one eye on the vidscreen.

"Masking their life signs, hmmm?" he mused.

"Is it possible?"

He shifted his ass on the seat. "In theory. If we could get our hands on any nanobots, we could find out."

"Whatever could go wrong with that?" I asked sarcastically.

"I didn't mean I would literally touch them," he replied. "But point taken. If someone other than a Freytaurian, or anyone else the nanobots could choose as a host, got their hands on them…"

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