AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t worry. Once Nala finds out there’s something chewing on the wires, she won’t let Ellen out of her sight.”
Zarkan nods. “Good. You two,” he turns to Tareq and Astra, “try to help D’Aakh if you can. And no more fighting.” That last statement was definitely aimed at me. I lower my head under the weight of his scowl. “We’re all in this together. Dismissed.”
Chapter 14
Z’Ree
I’ve just begun dozingoff when the door swooshes open. Startled, my heart picks up the pace but I force myself to calm down. It’s just Nikolai. There’s no danger. Nobody’s coming to punish me.
His smile is strained. “I’m glad you’re here. I’m sorry to tell you this but you can’t return to the maintenance walkways. You will have to come with me. You’ll be safe,” he adds quickly. “I’ve prepared a room for you away from the others and it will only be coded to your biosignature. No one else will be able to get inside. You can hide in there and nobody will bother you.”
Have I ever met anyone so kind and thoughtful? I can’t remember anyone, not since my parents died. I open my mouth to thank Nikolai but my throat constricts again, not allowing the words to come out.
Tears gather in my eyes and this time, they’re tears of frustration. I don’t want to be this stupidly damaged! I want to be able to thank Nikolai, to ask him about himself and his planet, to say his name.
Seeing me begin to cry, Nikolai drops what he is doing and approaches me. “Hey, it’s okay,” he soothes. “I’m sorry to do this to you but this section of the ship is unstable right now and staying here is too dangerous. I promise I’ll keep you safe.”
I shake my head. He thinks I’m crying because I’m scared of leaving my hiding place but I’d already decided to leave anyway. It really is too dangerous to stay down here.
With a frustrated sigh, I reach for the datapad.“Thank you,”I type, grimacing at the smears my hands leave on the device. I really ought to wash up.“I’m not scared.”I consider the words for a moment before deleting them.“I trust you,”I type instead.
His cheeks turn a rosy hue. I wish I knew more about humans to figure out what it means but if I had to guess, it almost seems as if he’s embarrassed? “Thank you for trusting me, Z’Ree. I promise I won’t betray that trust.”
Nikolai’s voice lilts up and down like a melody, his breath fanning my cheeks. He’s standing so close I can feel the warmth emanating from his body. My fingers itch to touch him. My crystals humming their new song. Only for him. Holy geodes, I’m screwed. Liking someone is the last thing I need right now, especially someone who won’t ever like me back. Why is my body going crazy?
Nikolai raises his hand as if to touch me, then jerks it back. “I, uh…I should pack up my stuff.” His voice is strained as he clearshis throat. “I won’t be able to return here for a while, it seems, so I’ll have to move back to my old room.”
Nikolai steps away and I forcefully clench my hands around the material of my dirty coveralls so I don’t reach out and pull him back to me. His absence grates at me, almost causing physical pain.
I follow him as he picks up his supplies. After my earlier food raids, there isn’t much left. Then Nikolai turns his attention to the fabric cocoon I’ve been so curious about. I type my question then tap on his shoulder to show him the datapad.“How does this work? This…”I strain my brain to remember the word he used.“Hemlock? The cocoon. Does your kind go through some metamorphosis?”
Nikolai stares at the screen, his brows drawn together in confusion. “Hemlock? Cocoon?” He taps the screen to display other potential translations but he’s still none the wiser as to what I mean. Only after I point at the stretched fabric in front of us does realization dawn in his eyes. “Oh. OH! The hammock!” Laughter bubbles through his chest. “Even with advanced alien tech, the language barrier is still an issue. So, you don’t have hammocks in space?”
“Some species have cocoons they wrap themselves in to advance into the next stage of their life cycle.”Is Nikolai going to turn into something else? Sprout wings or antennae? Whatever he will become, I’m sure he’ll be just as beautiful as he is now.
“Oh, that’s not what this is. It’s just a bed. A rocking bed you can set up anywhere, like… When you’re trekking through the woods, you just spread it between two trees and you’re set up for the night.”
Trees. I tap on the word and bring up some pictures, just to be certain I have the right idea of what he’s talking about. Nikolaiwatches me, surprised. “You didn’t have trees where you come from?”
Sadness clouds my smile as I remember my home, lost so long ago that only scattered memories remain.“No. We had rocks, cliffs and lakes, but little to no vegetation.”
“Hmm, that must have looked a little dull, without colorful trees and flowers.”
“Not in the slightest.”I shouldn’t be telling him about my home planet. If I want to keep me being a Silithrae secret, I shouldn’t be telling anyone anything. But I’m about to live with the rest of the crew. They’re bound to figure out what I am sooner or later.“Our planet was more colorful than you could imagine. We had crystalline growths everywhere.
“When I was five, my mother gave me three crystal shards, and assigned me an empty spot behind our dwelling. She told me to make it beautiful. It took me months to grow a garden there. I spent every spare moment singing to those three little shards, urging them to grow and form shapes. I combined their sprouts to make every color imaginable. My parents were so proud of me.”
My tears clatter on the floor as I sniffle at the distant memory.“I’m sorry,”I type quickly, tempted to delete the whole thing before Nikolai reads it. But he’s already peeking over my shoulder, scrunching his nose as he tries to identify the Omnispeak symbols and form them into words.“So no, it wasn’t dull even though we didn’t have trees,”I conclude, hoping he won’t start asking for more details about my personal sob-story.
I watch as his eyes shine brightly in awe as he reads, his smile wistful and dreamy. “I meant no disrespect,” he says as he finishes reading. “Your home sounds beautiful. I’m sorry you lost it.” And then, instead of demanding to know about growing crystals or singing to them, which I’m sure must soundstrange to him, he grins and offers, “Do you want to try out the hammock?”
Taken aback by the lack of questioning, I just nod.
Nikolai holds the fabric and waves me closer. “Jump in. Just be careful, though, it’ll swing when you land in it. It takes a bit of practice to do it right.”
I eye the hammock with suspicion. I don’t get the point of having a dangerous bed, but perhaps it’s part of Nikolai’s culture. He’s eager to share it with me, so I’ll try it, even if I very much prefer a stationary bed to one that rocks back and forth.
I’m giggling as I try and fail to climb into the damned thing because it keeps moving away from me. I’m a lot shorter than Nikolai and it looks like I’m going to need a stool just to get inside the hammock. He laughs along with me, then wordlessly offers to help me up.
