Page 15 of Uprooted
“There’s a receptacle right here. Just swipe and select this icon,” he says patiently and points to a diamond-shaped outline with a hieroglyph in the center of a machine that’s next to where we’re standing. A small door slides up and Bri drops her bag in and promptly wipes her hands on her pants.
“Thank you,” Bri says with relief.
He’s handsome, like the rest of them, and his helpfulness makes me like him immediately. It was a matter of time before the contents of that bag ended up on the ground, or worse—on me. I’m about to thank him when the Tilak with the terrible haircut steps between us.
“Welcome to MuraDome IV. I’m Bennet. I’ll show you to your rooms.” Bennet, a.k.a. Choppy Haircut Guy, herds Bri and I toward the door leading to the rest of the facility. He catches Bri gawking at him and pats down his hair again.
“I’ve got this one, Bennet,” the Tilak behind us says, the helpful one with the nice smile.
“But… Aro—sir. They’re on my list. Did I do something wrong?” Bennet sounds confused and panicked at the thought.
“I can take it from here,” he says, stepping forward.
“But sir, the list. I don’t—”
“We’re on your list? Lead the way,” Bri says and follows Bennet, cutting off the discussion between him and the one he called Aro. “Can those giant three-eyed Allometr-whatevers get in here?”
“Oh, you met Millie! She won’t bother us here,” Bennet says.
“Good. I have a strict ‘no dragon’ policy,” she says.
I hear a few chuckles behind us as we leave the cargo bay and head towards our rooms.
11
Aro
Fucking Bennet. He should have let me step in and walk them to their rooms.
I recognized her the moment she stepped out of the porter. Gone was the timid, nervous-looking female I saw at the reception months ago. This time she looked confident and happy. She looked like she was in her element.
If Bennet had just been cool about it, I would know what her name is and what room she was assigned to.
What I do know for sure, is that Tai didn’t follow my order about having a better attitude. He looked more irritated than ever when he arrived with the two women. I didn’t have a chance to follow through on my threat to pull rank. A dozen porters had filed into the cargo bay all at once. I barely managed to control the chaos, but we got everyone settled into their rooms without causing an interplanetary crisis.
I do a walk-through of the entire muradome after everyone is checked in.
Unfortunately, I don’t find her. Instead, I end up fetching towels and extra pillows for a few of the new residents. I retreat back to the Central Hub when Bennet walks in. He’s all smiles. He whistles while he straightens up his workstation. I do my best to ignore him.
“Aro, sir.”
I glare at him, hoping it’s enough to get him to shut up. “For tomorrow should I—” Bennet cuts himself off. “Uh, never mind,” he says and steps towards the exit.
“Did you have a question?” I ask. That came out more tense than I had intended.
“Not when you’re in this mood.” He leaves as quickly as he arrived, probably for the best.
He’s not wrong about my mood.
* * *
The next morning, I wake up ready to put a new plan into place. I head straight to Rialto’s office to get his sign-off.
“Sir. I’d like to do another inspection in the labs now that the humans are here. I think we should double-check they didn’t move anything around or whatever.” I do my best to sound like a concerned authority figure.
Rialto looks up and seems to see right through me. “No, I think it’s fine. I can’t imagine they have even been to their labs yet.”
Okay—that one didn’t work. I’ve got a back-up.
