Page 27 of Bound to the Alien King
“Jorran didn’t have any devices on him,” I said, still running my hand over the warm metal.
“Voice activated, then.What do you think a Pelikr’s secret passcode would be?Help, I can’t get away from my own toxic blood?Probe party forty-two?”
“It may not be just the words he uses, but the timbre and pitch of his voice.We might have to go back and force him—“
My searching hand dipped inside some kind of groove about six feet off the ground.Noiselessly, a door to my right slid open from the top of the ship and settled onto the dirt.
The inside of the ship wasn’t invisible, so the sudden juxtaposition between forest and ship teetered my sense of reality.I almost felt dizzy with the strangeness of it.
“No password required?”Miekil whispered.
For a cloaked ship, it was strange that there weren’t any additional security measures for such a piece of modern equipment, maybe even the only cloaked ship in existence.
Gripping the handle of my sword tighter, I stepped closer.“The inside’s bigger than the outside.”
“Obviously.Haven’t you ever heard of the Tardis?Dr.Who?”
“No.”
Miekil rolled his eyes.“Of course not.You were too busy readingTwilightand watching cat videos.”
“Since it’s bigger on the inside, that means there are more places to hide,” I said, ignoring him.
As we slowly boarded, I flicked my gaze everywhere at once.My ears burned for any foreign sounds.I inhaled slightly musty air that hadn’t been stirred in a while, at least in this part of the ship.
And then I saw it.ESF, stamped onto the metal grating of the air shaft above my head.
Earth Space Fleet.Nera had told Axxel that they’d hired Jorran, but since when did they have cloaked ships?
With the smallest whoosh of air behind us, the door closed and sealed us in with what sounded like locks engaging.
I stiffened, instantly realizing we’d fuxxed ourselves.
A robotic female voice came from the ship itself.“Password, please, or this ship will self-destruct in sixty seconds.Fifty-nine, fifty-eight, fifty-seven…”
Chapter ten
Rain
Accessingmemory0608452934Code:015128 \ * * * * * * * * System flux: 8 sksk sldk
Memory accessed:
Lucy gazed up at me with her big brown eyes, coated in a light shimmer of tears even with a big smile on her face.“Did you just make that song up?”
I booped her nose.“I did.Just for you.”
She flopped her head on her pillow to the side to look at Nera.“Rain’s song, Momma.Did you hear it?I love it so much, but it makes me sad and happy all at once.Why?How can I feel both?”
“I did hear it.It stopped me in my tracks just now.”With a watery, exhausted smile at me, Nera nodded and hauled herself from Lucy’s bedroom doorframe where she’d been leaning.“You can be both happy and sad because both can be true at the same time.You can feel happy that you made a new friend while you’re also sad that you don’t get to see them every day.Make sense?”
Lucy made a face.“Kind of?”
Nera chuckled as she sat on the other side of Lucy’s bed.“What does your song makeyoufeel, Rain?”
“It makes me…feel alive…and valued.”But I wasn’t sure if that was accurate or if I was just equating the song with Nera’s question.
It always surprised me when she asked my opinion about various things.It shouldn’t since I’d known her for nearly five years, but it did.What I thought and felt mattered, at least to her, and therefore to me too.Shemade me feel alive and valued.
