The creature walking hand-in-hand with the alien was another human female.
Seventeen
Sara
“Are you… real?”Sara asked, her voice cracking in surprise.
“Real as you,” the beautiful woman said with a light accent. “Hi, I’m Ga Eun.”
“Holy crap.” Sara felt her knees collapsing.
Korben grunted in concern and caught her.
“Are you alright?” The woman charged forward and tried to take her from Korben.
He bared his teeth at her, causing the other blue alien to do the same. Sara struggled to her feet, sensing that she was about to be the cause of two blue aliens mauling each other.
Patting Korben on the shoulder, she assured him. “I’m okay. I’m just… shocked.”
He arched an eyebrow nub and slowly released her. The other alien began to settle down too. Sara turned her attention to the other woman. Ga Eun let her gawk for a second and then she wrapped her arms around Sara and hugged her tight.
The moment she felt that warm, friendly squeeze, Sara got emotional. Ga Eun started crying too and, in a few minutes, they were both bawling, snotty messes. When she’d gotten herself together, Sara glanced back at Korben. He shifted from one foot to the next, clearly uncomfortable with her tears. Thankfully, the spine dagger wasn’t shooting out—which meant he wasn’t getting into angry, protective mode.
Good. She wanted to hang with her new friend and that wouldn’t happen if her alien kidnapper went all Hulk on them.
“You haven’t given me your name,” Ga Eun reminded her.
“Sara.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
“Understatement of the year, girl.”
Ga Eun laughed. She wore a pair of shiny, almost leather pants and strange black boots. They reminded her of the bulky shoes astronauts wore, but they were smaller and fitted. Her shirt was of a thicker material and clung to her willowy frame, stopping in a V at her neck to reveal her almost alabaster-pale skin.
Her eyes were puffy from their recent cry fest but, apart from that, she seemed well taken care of. No wounds. No scars. NoI just ran into a doorinjuries.
The deep rumble of the aliens’ native tongue skittered over Sara’s back. She turned slightly and saw Korben locked in a heated exchange. Recalling the way Ga Eun had been holding the alien’s hand like he was her boyfriend, a million questions sprung to mind. She turned back to the woman, her mouth opening and snapping shut.
“Yes, we’re together,” Ga Eun said as if she’d read her mind.
“Is it that obvious?” Sara asked.
“You have very expressive eyes. I’m sure Korben didn’t even need his neural connector to translate anything you said.”
“Neural connector?”
“It’s a tiny chip that gets drilled into the skull. It connects to the nerve and allows the person wearing it to understand every tongue imaginable.”
“First of all, that sounds painful.” Sara grimaced.
“There’s also a pill,” Ga Eun admitted, “but it takes months to get to the brain. Even if it hurts, the drill is the way to go.” She studied Sara. “I guess you must have been frustrated not being able to understand Korben.”
“He didn’t understand me either,” Sara admitted.
Ga Eun’s eyebrows flew up.
She nodded. “We communicated like cavemen.”