Chapter 6

Harper

"Let's take a walk," Mandy said. She hooked her arm through my mine and turned me away from the med bay. I didn't miss how she shared a telling look with her mate. The huge, impressive male gave her a nod and slithered off after dropping a quick kiss on her forehead. I could still hear the many booted feet fading as they thumped down the hallway with Nick. To take him back to the brig.

I was still trying to wrap my head around everything that had happened. The scary intimidation and what had definitely felt like an attack from that creepy gray/silver guy. Followed by Mitnick showing up to protect me and then the discovery that he was Nick , the guy I'd been chatting with for two days straight.

All the revelations that had followed were a bit dazzling and, on top of that, I couldn't get his face out of my head. He was nothing like what I'd been imagining, which truthfully had been a cute, but kind of nerdy human. This guy was a warrior, and he was very alien with all the feathers and the massive wings. My belly swooped just thinking about him and the long, smoldering glances he'd given me. I'd kiss you if you'd let me. That was the last thing he'd typed to me before we'd suddenly, violently met in the flesh.

I couldn't shake the thought that he'd lied to me by not correcting my assumption that he was human and that his name was Nick. I needed to read through our chats again to see if I'd ever said it to him; if I'd made it obvious that I'd thought that and he hadn't bothered to correct me. It felt a little like I'd had the rug pulled out from under me, but he was the one who had rescued me from the creep. He'd broken out of prison to do it even, and a girl couldn't help but appreciate that kind of dedication.

"Where are we going?" I asked Mandy. I needed to shake off all these whirling thoughts and focus on the ship; I was finally able to see more than just the med bay. This was my chance to satisfy some of my curiosity, but my heart wasn't in it. It was still hung up on Mitnick. On his shockingly proud and handsome face, his warrior physique, and the violence he'd utilized on my behalf.

My companion was half a head smaller than me, but you wouldn't notice that from the way she walked. Confident, totally owning the place. The hallways were all dark and gloomy, they looked exactly the same, twisting and turning. The only difference each time was the number of doorways that lined it. I couldn't tell direction by now, lost after just a few twists and turns. Mandy looked right at home in them, navigating in some uncanny fashion that I was certain couldn't just be memorization.

"I thought we'd have a cup of tea in the mess hall. Brace will probably whip up some cookies for us." Mandy pointed ahead, "We just take the elevator up one deck and we'll be there. It's not much further. How are you doing? Not tired yet?" She was still worried I'd collapse at any second, and I was so sick of being treated like I was fragile.

"Nope, I'm totally fine. Please, I can't go back into the med bay…" I'd snatched up my tablet before we left, and that meant there was nothing there I needed. Just walls that were driving me crazy, a bad recollection of getting trapped, and feeling drained from that creep's presence.

Mandy gave me a piercing look as we stood in the elevator, but nodded.

"Yeah, I can imagine." I wasn't sure what she was thinking, but I suspected it had more to do with the attack than my health, though. "I just want to make sure you're okay. You were in stasis for a year while you healed… That's a really long time. Dravion was worried you might have stasis sickness." I was pretty sure I didn't, and hadn't I been in stasis for three hundred years before that? Why did one more year matter?

"Why was I in there that long?" I asked, flashing back to how the silver asshole had declared that Mitnick had kept me hidden all that time. He'd implied that he'd done that because he wanted to keep me, that it was something nefarious. I couldn't believe that. He'd saved me, twice. First from the vault, and then from that asshole. I could forgive a lot of things because of that. That realization made me feel better, I'd still check the chats, but I'd forgive him for not correcting me on his name.

Mandy didn't reply immediately because we'd just reached the mess hall. In the silence, I could get a good look at the place, but to my disappointment, it looked exactly as I expected the mess hall on a spaceship to look. A square room with metal tables and chairs scattered throughout. There was a big view screen on one wall that displayed some kind of statistics. A long bank of screens sat on the other wall that showed nothing but stars; kind of like they were windows looking out into space.

The third wall held a long bar with a metal rolling hatch closed almost entirely; someone had left just a small gap at the bottom. I suspected the kitchen was on the other side of that hatch and tantalizing scents were wafting from it. My stomach rumbled and my mouth went dry. I wanted food right away, and water too. After going for weeks with only small handouts, I struggled to control the impulse to make demands.

"Dravion says that Mitnick actually did the right thing by keeping you under that long," Mandy finally answered. "You were very weak, dying. It took a long time to restore you back to health. Dravion is an amazingly gifted doctor. Mitnick is a Communication Specialist." I raised an eyebrow, and Mandy laughed and added, "Fine, he's basically a hacker."

"Point is," she continued while steering me to a table to sit down, "Mitnick has no medical background, but he still did the best he could. Dravion would have healed you faster, but he'd have still used stasis to keep you stable. It would have taken months, not a year, but you definitely had it rough."

"Then why is everyone so mad that he did that? I turned out fine." I was grateful when Mandy placed a tall glass of water in front of me before returning to the bar to ask for tea. I wasn't sure if she was talking to a machine or a person; there certainly was no reply, but moments later two steaming cups slid from beneath the cracked hatch.

She sat down with her cup and folded her hands around it with a sigh. "Because he hid you. I think, considering the timing, he did that because he feared you'd be taken to another ship with more humans. When he found you, the Varakartoom's crew was escorting a human and her mate to a Kertinal planet. They would definitely have insisted on taking you with them."

I tilted my head as I considered that, but I didn't get it. I got how it made sense that the human would take me with her if she knew about me; that part seemed logical. That's what I'd do too if I discovered a sick girl. We had to take care of each other in the Zeta Quadrant, so far away from Earth. But why would that matter to Mitnick? We didn't know each other yet…

A ding sounded from near the hatch and Mandy perked up. "Oh, that was fast! Thank you, Brace!" She leaped up to jog back to the counter, and I discovered a plate filled with pastries had appeared. They were all in funky colors: red, purple, green, and topped with a white powder that looked suspiciously like powdered sugar. My mouth watered at the sweet, fruity smells that wafted to me when Mandy put the plate on the table.

"Dig in. I bet you're already hungry again." She grinned cheekily and patted her flat stomach. "Me too. I'm still recovering from a round of healing as well. Asmoded insists I eat every hour." She smiled even wider, clearly smitten by her man. It must be very nice to have a guy who cared that much and to have that kind of support. My mind flashed again to Mitnick, the Nick I'd been talking with for two days. He seemed like that kind of guy, but what did I know?

As I ate, Mandy regaled me with her story about how she got on this ship, and how she'd fallen for her captain. It was a story similar to mine; she'd also been kidnapped from Earth. But she'd been kidnapped a second time from the human sanctuary on Ker and then managed to escape to hide on this ship. She'd recently gotten injured when she'd ended up in the vacuum of space without appropriate gear. The whole concept made me shudder with revulsion; that sounded so terrifying.

After I'd polished off the last pastry, three for me, only one for Mandy, I brought the conversation back to what I really wanted to know. "Why is Mitnick so interested in me? He wouldn't have hidden me from that other human if he didn't want to keep me around. So why do that? What does he want from me?"

Mandy froze in her seat at my question; she wasn't sure how to answer me, even though my instincts told me she knew. The longer she waffled, the more nervous I got. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? I still didn't know so much about space, about the aliens out there.

"Ah, blazing suns! Just spit it out, Mandy," a gruff voice growled behind the kitchen's hatch. I nearly jumped out of my seat at the unexpected interruption. I twisted around to stare, but I couldn't figure out if there was a person standing behind the hatch or not. Maybe there was a shadow? It all seemed dark on the other side.

"Really, Brace? Now you talk? What is it with meddling males today?" Mandy said the last words as an afterthought almost, like she muttered that last bit to herself. What meddling males was she talking of? Mitnick? This new guy Brace?

"He thinks you're his mate, female," the gruff voice snapped in a deep, angry tone. Then the hatch slammed shut with violent force, clearly indicating his exit from our conversation. He left me reeling, confused, and oddly excited. Mate? I'd read an article about that, one I'd dug up myself, rather than one Nick had shown me. I'd gotten curious after Mandy had introduced me to hers. Having a mate was like marriage to many aliens out there, and it was a biological drive, an instant recognition for most of them. So he thought I was his one and only?

The thoughts should frighten me, but they just made my body grow warm and caused a hint of arousal to curl through my bloodstream. My thoughts pulled up images of Mitnick's huge body; his bare chest so heavily packed with muscle, the primal tattoos on his arm. His alien but handsome face. Even picturing the feral look in his eyes when he fought… They all just made me want him.

Ignoring Mandy as she attempted to explain that I wasn't under any obligation and that I was safe, I pulled out my tablet and scrolled to the chats. I fervently hoped he was online, or whatever it was called, in space, but my hopes were instantly dashed when I saw no red blinking light.

He wasn't there, I couldn't ask him what was going on, and it still felt to me like his information was the only one I could really trust. Not that I didn't like Mandy, and I was certain she wanted what was best for me. She didn't know what that was the same way I did. What I really wanted was to talk with him, to have him explain it to me.

My companion fell silent when she realized how rudely I was ignoring her, but she didn't say anything, she just watched. There were a lot of words exchanged already between Nick and me, Mitnick. But the more I read back, the more I realized that I had never outright said anything that could make him think I thought he was a human. I'd definitely only called him Nick.

When I raised my head with a frown, Mandy placed her hand on top of the tablet. "What's so important on there?" I felt a little silly when my instinct was to yank the tablet back and clutch it against my chest. That was my lifeline, my portal to information on the place I had found myself in, and my one way to contact Nick. I didn't want to lose it, no matter what. Her mouth curled into a smile. "I knew you were stubborn, but I can see Mitnick has his work cut out for him."

Hesitating a moment longer, I admitted to the talks we'd shared on there. He'd made me feel safe by openly talking of the quadrant, of the many aliens and cultures. He'd satisfied my curiosity on whatever topic I'd broached, and my investigative mind needed that; needed to feel in control of something so I could adapt, heal.

When I'd confessed, Mandy started grinning for real, and shaking her head while she was doing it. "I can't believe he managed to go around Asmoded's back and circumvent his orders. We should have known he was far from helpless, locked behind a simple force field. That man lives and breathes technology."

I still didn't understand why they'd locked him up, but maybe it was as simple as he'd disobeyed an order, or because they considered hiding me smuggling. I'd learned by now that this was a mercenary ship, and they did function a little similar to a military ship in some regards. At least, that's how it came across to me, and that made sense.

Mandy rolled a shoulder when I asked point blank, "I'll tell you, but then you promise me that we'll put this out of our minds for a bit. Since you seem much better, I suggest we go on a little shopping and sightseeing trip. Sound fun?" I did like the sound of that, though I obviously had no access to currency. But to see some of the strange alien world I was in? I liked that idea very much.