Page 22 of Bonded

“And why wouldn’t things work out? The ship chose you and you accepted. What else is needed?” He asked.

No specific reason came to mind. I just didn’t want to feel as if I let anyone down. I also didn’t want anyone to feel as if they had to take me because I was the only option.

I was sure the captain didn’t want to hear all that, so I just simply said, “I don’t want to mess up, and if I do mess up, I want what I did to be fixable.”

Ruzan spoke up. I’d actually forgotten he was so close behind me. “There is no way you’d be able to mess up.”

“If this ship chose you, it is because you are what it needs,” Vryek added.

I wish I could believe Ruzan and Vryek’s words. They seemed to know who they were and their place in all this. They were supremely confident. All of them, including Ithran. That must be such a nice feeling.

I wanted to be part of that, too. The first step was to make sure that I knew how to navigate the ship as well as the others. “Are you bonded or linked to the ship, Captain?”

“No, I am not linked to the ship. Dirsigians and Cephela are not compatible in that way. Allies, sure. Pilot, no.”

I craned my neck to look up at the stern male. The red stripe at the top of his head was subdued, blending in with the rest of his plaits. Borrowing from the ship’s archive, I knew that meant he was at ease. “Why?”

“Let’s just say our temperament would not allow for such a link.”

The ship concurred with his assessment, though didn’t expand on why. He didn’t seem like he wanted to talk about that aspect of himself, and I didn’t want to push, even though I was curious. I would hate for him to think me a nuisance. I let the matter go until I could research it later.

We were in the ship's foredeck. They simply referred to it as the bridge, which helped me. Most of the movies and books I read called the command center the bridge.

In the videos the ship showed me, the hub was at an intersection point that cut off the foredeck with the main body. That way, the ship could divert power as needed, and in an emergency, it could split in two and essentially have two separate vessels, since part of the hub would be in both the foredeck and the body.

It was at this juncture where the previous crew placed a control collar. I shivered thinking about stuff like that.

Faces froze in fear flashed before my eyes. They wore control collars. Imprisoned in cages. I had friends. What had happened with those other girls? I hoped they were okay...

I realized I had stopped walking and stood gripping Ithran’s arm as if he were my lifeline.

“Are you okay, Priya? Has something upset you?”

Enough of my fragmented memories bloomed in the back of my mind for me to piece together what I’d been suppressing. “Don’t worry about me. It was a fragment of memory, that’s all. Nothing important.”

“Have you had problems with your memories?” Vryek asked, worry tinging his voice. “Perhaps there is an undiagnosed head injury?”

I bit my lip. This was part of what I didn’t want to tell them. I might not remember every single detail, but remember enough. But it just wasn’t something I wanted to talk about.

So, I shook my head. “No, don’t worry about it. Please. Just a momentary dizzy spell. I’m fine now.”

Ruzan and Vryek shared a look.

I guess that was the side effect of the link. It was harder to get away with lies, even innocent ones intended to spare feelings.

“Maybe you should be in observation?” Vryek insisted.

“It’s fine. The ship can monitor me now,” I said.

Vryek and Ruzan were undeterred. They insisted I might need another check up.

“Aside from feeling fuzzy, are you otherwise healthy?” The captain asked.

“Yes,’’ I said. “The Ship sees to that.” Every so often, Gizmo would deliver a drink or one of the other bots would hunt me down with a protein bar. “I swear I’m fine. I want to get a crash course on what pilots do.”

“All right. Then it is settled,” Ithran said, despite Ruzan and Vryek’s protest. “Let’s get to the foredeck. Though I would ask that you refrain from crashing the ship.”

PRIYA

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