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The ship’s physician aboard the Star Cross, Giselle, had been abducted along with the passengers. “What brings you to Araset?” Jessie asked, embracing her. “Is Joule here, too?”
An LOP undercover agent, Joule had been in our cell on the slave ship. After our rescue, Giselle had been recruited by the league’s anti-trafficking task force. The two of them now worked together, infiltrating the slave cartels.
“Just wanted to visit you and Kat before you left for New Terra,” Giselle said.
We were leaving? Lomax hadn’t been deprogrammed yet! The investigation couldn’t be over so soon. “We’re being sent home? Now?” I choked with panic.
Jessie patted my shoulder. “What Giselle means is that she and/or Joule are pursuing a case that might take them away for a while.” She arched her brows. “Isn’t that right?”
“You know I can’t talk about a case—if I had one. Can’t I just come for a visit?” Giselle chided then looked at me. “I don’t have any information about how much longer you’ll be staying.”
I exhaled in relief. “No news is good news.”
“Come on, ladies, sit! I’m hungry,” Millie said. “They won’t serve until we’re all seated.”
Giselle moved to the table.
“She never did say where Joule is,” I whispered to Jessie as I slipped into a chair.
“No. I still think they’re working a case. Maybe he’s investigating a situation on Copa,” she whispered. Jessie’s instincts were usually spot-on.
Copa was the other kingdom on Nomoru. The LOP suspected its queen of funding the Copan-Cerulean Cartel but couldn’t prove it. Regardless, much of the alien species trafficking seemed to originate from Copa. Longtime rivals, Copa and Araset had fought throughout Nomoru’s history, although currently a ceasefire was in effect. The trafficking had the potential to upend the fragile truce. The whole situation had become a political powder keg.
Jessie and I took our seats. “How long can you stay?” Jessie asked Giselle.
“Just tonight. Joule and I fly out in the morning.”
I’m so glad I came to dinner. I would have kicked myself if I’d missed her visit. Time with my new friends was as fleeting as time with Lomax.
Millie and Holly had been best friends since adolescence. The rest of us had met on the space cruise, and being abducted by aliens had bonded us. We’d be friends forever, although I would never see three of them again. I would miss Holly, Millie, and Giselle almost as much as Lomax when Jessie and I went back to New Terra. We’re the only two going home. On the brighter side, I’d be reunited with my parents and my brother Jeremy. My family was probably worried to death, having expected me home from the space cruise by now.
A liveried footman rolled in a trolley laden with covered dishes. He whipped off the lids and with a flourish began to serve us, turning the process of putting food on the table into performance art. A sommelier entered and poured wine into our glasses. It was the same entertaining show every night, even when Jessie and I were alone. Despite rampant prejudice against humans and the rather rigid social strata, I couldn’t fault palace hospitality. Or maybe it was Queen Citrine’s doing. She had a soft spot for humans.
On New Terra, if you attended a banquet or a formal dinner, the food would be served in courses. Dishes were removed before the next course got served. Not here. The entire meal from starter to dessert came out all at once. At least, I assumed some of the dishes were intended to be appetizers and desserts. It was hard to tell when the foods were so foreign.
When the footman finished, each of us had a veritable buffet in front of us. No wonder the tables were extra wide.
He left, and we started to eat. I sampled a bit of everything first. As usual, the meal was an experience in exotic, unfamiliar flavors, but all delicious and, per Nadir’s instructions, curated for our human palates. Giselle, who, by virtue of her new job, had seen way more of the galaxy than the rest of us, had reported that some alien foods were gross, even worse than the disgusting slop we’d been fed on the slave ship.
“So, Giselle,” Millie said, waving her eating utensil. “What did you say you and Joule were working on?”
“Nice try,” Giselle replied.
“Don’t you get scared?” I asked. She never provided details, but we all figured her job was very dangerous. I imagined her sneaking onto “enemy” planets and space stations where a single slip of the tongue could result in death. Giselle was far braver than me.
But who wasn’t? My brother had nicknamed me “Scaredy Kat” because I avoided anything that could be the slightest bit dangerous. I preferred safe to exciting. Like my job at the New Terra Consumables Distribution Center. Every day was exactly the same. Predictable. Proving my point that safe was better than exciting, the one and only time I stepped out of my comfort zone and went on a space cruise, I got abducted by aliens.
But if I hadn’t taken the cruise, I wouldn’t have met Lomax or the girls.
Given my cautious nature, it could be considered kind of ironic that I objected to Lomax’s efforts to protect me, except I wasn’t in danger because he was not a threat. While I didn’t know every single detail about him, I knew him. A tender, kind, gentle man, he wouldn’t hurt me.
“Sometimes a mission gets a little dicey,” Giselle admitted. “But it’s exhilarating, too. The abduction made me realize I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie. I never wished for people to get sick, but monitoring healthy people isn’t challenging or satisfying.”
When Earth settled New Terra before the Great Nuclear War, the colonization program had accepted only the healthiest of the healthy. Any medical condition or adverse family history eliminated a person from consideration. Once accepted, colonists received every inoculation medical science had developed. As a result, the diseases plaguing humankind had been eradicated. Humans were healthier than we’d ever been in our history. I’d never been sick a day in my life.
“With this job, I have the satisfaction of helping people—and I get some thrills,” Giselle concluded.
“The best of both worlds.” Holly raised her wine glass.
