Page 95 of Rescued

Sonya felt a warm rush of something like love fill her. It shouldn’t be possible to fall in love with someone in such a short time, but she couldn’t help it—Davrik felt so right—it was as though they belonged together. And he had saved her at the risk of his own life—how could she not feel for him?

“All right,” she whispered.

“Good girl.” Davrik kissed her again—this time on the forehead. Then he straightened up and headed back for the front of the ship.

With a happy sigh, Sonya relaxed back against the soft cushions of the couch—it was remarkably comfortable and also extremely stylish—like something she would pick out herself.

In fact, looking around the living area of the ship, it occurred to her that the whole thing was furnished and decorated exactly to her taste. There were a lot of bright, bold colors and tribal patterns which she loved. There was even a bookshelf and when she squinted, she saw it was full of her favorite books. Well, most of them, anyway…

Being careful of her ankle, she stood and took a few steps. There was no pain at all, however, so she made her way over to the bookcase.

“Hmm…Beloved…How Stella got her Groove Back…Jane Eyre,” she murmured, reading aloud. Then she frowned—most of the books were old favorites of hers but she saw a few she’d never read before. What in the world was Pride and Prejudice? And she’d never heard of the author—who could Jane Austen be? There were several more of her books in the bookcase as well as a few other authors Sonya had never heard of.

She plucked one of the books off the shelf and opened it, meaning to read the first page and see if she liked the writing style. But before she got past the first sentence…

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife…” a coin dropped out of the pages of the book.

Sonya frowned and picked it up. It wasn’t a coin at all, she realized after a moment—it was just shaped like one. The little flat silver disk was about the size of a quarter and it had a tiny button on one rounded edge.

She pushed the button and nearly dropped the disk in surprise when it suddenly started projecting images.

“What the hell?” she muttered as she watched the small holo-images—all about as big as her hand—popping up. The first one showed her and Davrik laughing and smiling in front of a mountain range. Only, she’d never been to the mountains, having lived her whole life in flat-as-a-pancake Florida. She’d always wanted to go, though.

That holo image faded and another took its place. This time she saw Davrik holding her in his arms and standing in front of the iconic Welcome to Las Vegas sign. Then a holo of the two of them in a casino, playing slot machines together. And another one of them at the Grand Canyon. Then there was a holo of Davrik hugging her in front of a giant redwood tree—the kind that only grew in California.

Sonya shook her head in bewilderment. She had never been to any of those places! How could he have pictures of the two of them together that she didn’t remember taking? What the Hell was going on here?

Then the strangest holo of all popped up on the little silver projector—it was a picture of Davrik wearing a tux while Sonya herself was dressed in an absolutely gorgeous, frothy white wedding gown. The two of them were staring into each other’s eyes and smiling—the glow of true love on their faces.

But again, Sonya had never taken such a picture—she had never been married. She’d had a few failed relationships before the Scourge invasion, but mostly she buried herself in her work. So how was this possible? Not only was it confusing, it was deeply creepy to think that the big Kindred had somehow gotten pictures of her in all these situations she had never even been in. She—

“Sonya? What are you… Shit.”

Sonya looked away from the holo projector to see Davrik standing in the doorway, frowning unhappily.

“Davrik, what is this?” she asked, holding out her hand with the holo projector, which was still cycling through impossible pictures—there seemed to be hundreds of them. “How did you get these?” she demanded, when he didn’t answer. “Is this some kind of photo-manipulation or what?”

“No, no—it’s nothing like that.” He sighed and ran a hand through his thick black hair. “All those holos are genuine, baby girl. Where did you find the projector?”

“In this book, uh, Pride and Prejudice,” Sonya said, nodding at the book which she had laid on the top of the bookcase to examine the holo coin. “I’d never heard of it so I opened it up and this fell out.”

“You’ve never heard of Pride and Prejudice?” He frowned. “But that’s your favorite book! Or one of them, anyway.”

“How could it be when I’ve never heard of it? Davrik, what is going on here?” Sonya demanded, feeling shaky.

“There must not have been a Jane Austen in this universe,” he muttered, shaking his head.

“In this universe?” Sonya exclaimed. He was beginning to sound like a crazy person and she was stuck alone in a spaceship with him! Not only that but he was almost twice as tall as she was and immensely muscular—if he turned out to be some freaky serial killer, she was done for! There was no way she could fight him off and she didn’t know this ship well enough to be able to hide anywhere…

Davrik must have seen her growing panic because he quickly shook his head.

“No, no, baby girl—don’t get upset. I promise there’s a rational explanation for all of this.”

“Then you better whip it out quick,” Sonya said in a shaky voice. “Because this is some crazy sounding shit!”

“I know, I know…” He sighed and raked a hand through his hair again. “Look, I was going to explain all this once we got back to the Kindred Mother Ship, but I think we need to talk about it now. All right?”

Sonya nodded warily.

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