Page 88 of Across The Stars
Even if I wasn’t.
Then he began sending random valerian words in his messages and my curiosity piqued, as usual, until I couldn’t stand it. I started asking for the meanings of every word… which evolved into him sending full sentences. And then that became him sending me actual documents to study.
And so I fell down the rabbit hole that was valerian speech. Lucky for me, they did have an alphabet like I’d suspected and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Symbols fit together into clusters that made words, much like Korean. I wished I had someone to critique my accent when I was talking to myself late at night in my corner of the Nexus, but I didn’t.
Until Solukh and I started facetiming. Yeah… I was facetiming an alien. Lucky for me, he didn’t usually mention Vahko when we talked anymore. He did, however, like to laugh at my accent when I did my best to repeat what he was saying. I could handle that, though. Why? Because talking with Solukh was nice. He was a less infuriating version of the asshole that broke my fragile little heart. The asshole I still wanted at night when it was quiet and I was alone in my dorm.
I really didn’t want to be the hurt one again. For once, I wanted someone else to hurt because I wasn’t around.
“Dua lipha,” Solukh repeated for the tenth time.
“Dua lifa,” I said.
“Lipha. It’s not a ‘fff’ sound. It’s a soft ‘puh.’”
“Lipha,” I corrected.
“Better.”
I wrote the pronunciation down in my little notebook full of scribbles.
“So?” I said. “How—”
“How is Vahko doing?”
That caught me off guard. I looked up at Solukh’s sly, holographic face, jaw dropped. So much for not mentioning him.
“He—”
“I don’t care,” I cut him off with a sigh.
“That why your cheeks get all pink when I say his name?”
I threw him a pointed glare. “Stop. I don’t have time to think about him. I’m in the process of waiting for a reply from the mayor. It’s my second request to send out a search for Quinn.”
“Still nothing?”
“Nothing. I’m beginning to think Blaine doesn’t care.”
“To be fair, scouring the galaxy for a missing recruit isn’t as easy as it sounds.”
“So he’s just going to forget about her,” I said under my breath. “Like everyone else has.”
I knew the feeling. Running away multiple times from my mother as a child only to return and find out she hadn’t even tried to look for me had left its mark.
“Laws out there aren’t what you’re used to,” Solukh explained. “When humans send ships out to the far reaches, it’s basically ringing the dinner bell. Means you’re part of the madness. Someone gets kidnapped by an alien, there aren’t any human laws that can protect them.”
“I know. But she got taken trying to protect Sam and me. Just feels shitty not doing anything. Especially when we think she’s how they found out about me and Vahko. They could be doing all kinds of things to her.”
“You saying you’d rather be out there looking than sitting on the Nexus?”
His tone was suggestive. He was fishing…
“Maybe,” I shrugged. “But it’ll never happen. I’m just an intern now.”
“You training to fly?”
“A little. Right now, I’m just studying books. I’m hoping someone can train me in the simulators someday.”
