Page 13 of Love Galaxy

She shakes her head, indicating her confusion. “I’ve got no clue what I’m supposed to do. I’m in outer space. Outer space!” Running her hands through her hairs, she turns a circle, making it clear she is talking to herself. And in full view of the cameras. Even now, John Smith might be watching us on his datapad.

Taking her hand, I tug her toward the stairs, but there are surely cameras on the stairwell and in the two upstairs rooms. I hesitate, wracked by indecision, but Briar steps out of the kitchen, taking the stairs two at a time.

“Do you have a spaceship?” she asks, glancing at me over her shoulder. Even on a higher step to me, she is shorter than me. “Could you take me back to Earth?”

“Ear-th? That is your home planet?”

“Earth. Yes, Earth.” She latches onto the only word of mine she knows. “Can you take me there? But we’ve got to get the other women first. There’s no way I’m leaving them behind.” Reaching the top stair, she turns confidently toward the outside door and presses the button to activate the release mechanism.

The door slides silently open, and the wind hits us full in the face. Briar splutters, shielding away from the strength of the air and spitting hairs out of her mouth.

I reach toward her, intending to pull her into my arms (to help her, I reassure myself, not because I want to hold her), but she pushes forward, head bowed and an arm before her face to shield her eyes from the merciless dust.

Despite her small stature, despite the fact that one wrong move could have swept her off her feet, she does not hesitate in her quest. I have not seen such bravery in one so physicallyinsubstantial, and were I not already convinced that our desperate grasp on this tenuous situation was about to slip, I think my mouth would have been open in awe.

Turning, her eyes widen when she sees I have not followed. “You’re not coming?” She has to yell to be heard over the screaming wind. “But I need your help. I can’t read the screens to get those stupid tubes out of their throats.” Evidently fearing I cannot properly hear her, she gestures for me to step forward.

My legs respond before I have fully appreciated what is happening. There might as well be a rope going from her hand to my legs, her wish my every command.

I hurry to catch up, and we fight our way forward, heading toward the director’s spaceship. It is not such a new model that Roan would fawn over it, but it is certainly newer than our own ship, which has been repaired more times than I can count and which I would not trust to carry me into orbit, let alone beyond this galaxy.

She so clearly wishes to return to her home. But there are two problems with her plan.

First, I do not know where this Earth is. The locations of barbarian planets are not listed in the Guild directory for anybody to use. Second, I cannot help her return home without a working spaceship of my own.

I would tell Briar this if she could understand me. Instead, I am left following her, with no plan for how to fix this colossal mess.

Chapter Seven

Briar

Battling against the wind like it’s a top-tier video game boss, I reach the ramp leading up into the… not airplane. The spaceship. It feels crazy that I’m even contemplating that spaceships and aliens and life on other planets exist. But here I am, utterly convinced the eight-foot lizard man following behind me is an alien.

Another galaxy. Another galaxy.

Those words circle around and around my head, like I’m a record player. The ground under the soles of my shoes isn’t Earth ground. And the air in the wind isn’t Earth air.

Oh, shit!I didn’t even think about how I’m able to breathe. There must be oxygen on this planet. And what the hell had Sorin given me to drink back in the kitchen? It tasted sweeter than any water I’m used to, but it clearly hasn’t poisoned me.

My hands and legs are shaking so much I can barely step onto the ramp, but I force myself to keep moving, climbing steadily upwards into the entrance to the spaceship. As I step inside, the wind immediately drops away.

The difference is astonishing. My hair, which had been whipping around my face, falls limply around my shoulders, and I can suddenly open my eyes fully, instead of squinting, even if I’ve got to wipe away all the grit caught in my lashes. My hands are a completely different color than usual, distinctly grayer, because my skin is covered in minute particles of alien-planet dust, much finer than any sand on a beach.

Sorin crowds up behind me. He’s so tall, he’s got to duck under the doorframe to enter. His eyes aren’t nearly as bright as they’d been inside, and then he blinks, and I realize he’s got two pairs of eyelids—an outer pair similar to mine and an inner pair that are so thin he must still be able to see even when they’re closed. That’s… remarkably handy. He wouldn’t always be blinking dust out of his eyes.

He’s watching me closely, his emerald irises practically glowing in the shadows of the ship.

“The other Humans were down the end of this corridor,” I whisper. “We’ll grab them and— Fuck!” I jerk backward as Chloe steps right into my line of sight. “You knocked the shit out of me.” Glaring down at her, I press my fists to my hips and resist all temptation to back away from her so she can’t knock the shit out of me for a second time.

“You’re awake.” She looks me up and down, and then glances at Sorin over my shoulder, seemingly unimpressed. I’m guessing today isn’t her first day of knowing aliens exist.

“Yep. That’s me. The girl who woke up.”

“You were supposed to wait inside,” she scolds, like I’m an errant schoolkid and she’s my teacher.

“Wait inside thespaceship, you mean.The spaceship!” I emphasize my words, but she doesn’t react to me knowing the truth, so I continue on, saying, “It’s not like you left any instructions, and the door was unlocked.”

“I thought it was rather obvious that the first rule of survival is not to go blundering your way around an unknown planet… ” She prattles on, but I don’t need to pay close attention to what she’s saying to know it’s insulting.

---