Page 53 of Alien Jeopardy
“Then it went dark. Completely dark. No contact was made, and when ships went out to investigate at the last known coordinates, there was nothing there. It was like it had vanished completely.”
I shouldn’t ask. I don’t want to know. I have a feeling I already know.
“What happened?”
He tilts his head, then holds a hand out, gesturing at nothing and everything at once. “The system made choices for the people there. Now it’s making choices for us.”
“You think we’re going to die?” It comes out in the smallest excuse for a whisper. Deep down, I know that’s what happened to the people on that space station. They’re dead. The AI killed them.
I wish I hadn’t asked it.
“No.” He sounds sure of himself. “I won’t let that happen.”
I want to believe him. I want to believe we’re going to be okay, that my friends are going to be okay.
My legs are trembling.
“It said we were going to have to fight each other. Those are my friends. I won’t do it. I don’t know how to fight, anyway.”
His face gets hard, and he tucks his arm back around me.
Leaning into him is natural and soothing, and right now, I’ll take any comfort I can get.
“You won’t have to. We are going to figure this out.”
No argument comes out, even though I want it to, because how can we figure this out? We’re sitting ducks. Worse than sitting ducks because we have nowhere to fly.
I don’t even have wings.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
Ka-Rexsh
She’s shaking. I have her as physically close to me as I can, and still, she’s trembling all over, the smell of her fear clouding out her usual scent.
The need to take care of her is the most overwhelming instinctive drive I have ever experienced, on par with the need to breathe.
“Listen to me,” I tell her, giving her a small shake.
Dazed, she stares up at me, her pupils huge with terror.
“We are going to do our best, do you understand? We are not going to give up, or do anything we cannot live with, because that is not who we are.” It’s not who I am.
There were many times, in the service of the king, that I chose to do better. To face punishment instead of mete it out.
“We will survive, and we will find a way through this.”
Ellison continues to tremble. “I think we should have sex.”
My jaw drops. Of all the things I expected her to say, that wasn’t one of them.
I despise myself for how much I want to take her up on it.
“I am not going to mate with you under these circumstances, Ellison,” I reply belatedly. “I won’t coerce you, or let… this thing coerce you.”
“It’s not coercion.” She shakes her head. “It’s logic. I need to be able to function, and I can hardly think straight, thanks to the heat.”
