Page 27 of Relyn
“In the captain’s guest suite, I think,” he muttered.
Relyn stood and nodded, tempted to warn Bilks, but that wouldn’t be useful in the long run. The fact that Rutra had put them in the captain’s guest room would complicate matters. It was the room on the right side of Rutra’s quarters and the only way to get through to it was to enter the captain’s quarters. One did not enter the captain’s quarters without an invitation.
Well, he’d recently been accused of having balls of steel. Relyn could then at least get a sense of the captain’s mood, and see if he’d blown the fuck out of his operation. If he had, then he'd go with the backup plan, which included activating the virus he’d planted in their navigational computer, and then making a swift exit on the Adrastian ship.
Relyn reached the doors of the captain’s quarters and decided that it was best to go in soft, first. He pushed the button to request entrance. A moment later, it slid open.
“Thank Drasst you are here.” Rutra practically pulled him into his quarters. “They are driving me crazy. I do not know whatto do. I have never known females to be so, so odd. I think they may have been poisoned somehow.”
Relyn let himself be guided through the suite to the guest room where Rutra had installed a force field instead of a door. Oh, yes, that was exactly the way to treat your honored guests.
The two females were sitting on the bed facing each other and slapping their hands together in what Relyn guessed was a primitive children’s game. Gale was repeating the same phrase over and over again, and the one that Nora had called Wendy was singing loudly and off key.
“Black socks, they never get dirty. The longer you wear them the blacker they get. Some day I think I shall launder them. Something keeps telling me don’t do it yet. Not yet, not yet, not yet.” Then they switched and Gale began singing and Wendy took over the chanting of “Not yet, not yet, not yet.”
“They’ve been doing that for an hour. Is it some sort of hypnosis?” Rutra asked.
“Have you asked them?” Relyn asked.
“They don’t respond to questions, and the minute I open the door-” Rutra said as he pushed in the code for the force field. He was so frustrated he didn’t even try to hide the digits from Relyn.
As soon as the force field went down, the females rolled off the bed and started running around like Sangrin ground fowl with their heads cut off and moaning and shouting so loudly that Rutra just activated the force field again. As soon as he did, they settled down and climbed back onto the bed and began the hand game again.
“I’ve tried four times, and it’s always the same thing.” Rutra said.
Relyn tried not to smile. It was a rather brilliant strategy. He wasn’t sure how long they could keep it up though. “My female is not acting this way. I don’t know what you did,” Relyn said.
“Have you seen that species before? They are different species, are they not?” Rutra said.
“I believe so,” Relyn said slowly, as if he weren’t sure. “Have you given them anything to eat?”
“Eat? What do you mean, eat?”
Relyn walked over to the table, where there was still a large spread, including a pink cake that was decorated with flowers. He had a hard time picturing Rutra eating something so delicate, but he picked it up and headed back to the doorway.
He nodded at Rutra, who punched in the code and once again the females sprung off the bed and began running in circles. He deftly avoided them and placed the cake right in the middle of the bed where they had been sitting. Relyn swiftly headed out and waited for Rutra to close the force field.
Back on the bed, seated with the cake between them, the two did not begin their hand clapping again. Instead, Gale stuck her finger into the middle of the cake. She pulled it out and then licked it off with a long green tongue. Apparently meeting her standards, she ripped off a chunk and began to eat. Wendy did the same. Finally, they were quiet. Rutra seemed pleased.
“I don’t know how long it will last,” Relyn said.
“At the rate they seem to be going through it, not long. But it still doesn’t make them answer my questions.”
“Honestly, if Gale thought Alana was here, it follows that she doesn’t know the location of Alana now,” Relyn said.
“Well, if I gather up enough of Alana’s things, Alana will find me,” Rutra said.
“That’s if Alana cares enough about Gale. I mean, if they were truly close, wouldn’t she have known not to come aboard? Alana has been gone for how long now?” Relyn was speaking loud enough so that Gale could hear the whole conversation. Whatever game she was playing, he would play along with, as long as it didn’t blow his cover.
“I’m getting impatient,” Rutra grumbled.
“Perhaps abducting, detaining these two was not a good idea. If they are indeed connected to Mahdfel, I think you don’t want that kind of attention.”
“But if I let them go, they are going to find Alana, and I won’t be able to use them to find her. They’ll tell her exactly what my plan is and-” Rutra stopped mid sentence and began to pace.
“What if I-” he began again, before stopping. “I could put a beacon on the ship,” Rutra said.
The girls were still eating, and Relyn was quite sure that they could hear every word. Rutra seemed oblivious to this fact. “And then I could track them directly to her!”
