Page 82 of Zalis
She nearly laughed. An alien catching poison ivy was preposterous.
“The contact dermatitis cleared quickly but the oil from the plant contaminated much of my equipment. I exposed myself several times.”
Now she laughed. “Yeah, poison ivy sucks.”
His arms tightened around her again. It was so comfortable being held by him.
“I was a young warrior when I arrived on Earth,” he said. “I was fresh from the Academy and I had never been far from home. The unknown frightened me. I wanted to make my parents proud. I did not want to shame the clan or my family.”
“Being away from family is hard.”
“Spiders are also disturbing.”
“Spiders?”
“Too many legs.”
He was being ridiculous to take her mind off the current calamity. “I’m supposed to believe that spiders freak you out but you’re into dragonflies. I’m not buying it. You like insects.”
“Dragonflies are exceptional.”
“How did you deal with being so far from home?”
He made a thoughtful noise. “There was a canine. It followed me one day on patrol and never left.”
“The puppy distribution system chose you.” Before he could ask for clarification, she explained, “That’s when chance or fate or the universe being random puts a puppy in your path. You have to adopt the puppy. Them’s the rules. You did adopt the puppy, right?”
“It is a highly inefficient system, but yes, I cared for the canine.”
“What was his name?”
“Doggo,” he said with pride.
“You named your dogDoggo?”
“I was informed it was a traditional Earth name.”
“Sure is something.” She laughed, which turned into a cough from smoke tickling her throat. Zalis had successfully distracted her, but the danger hadn’t passed. “What are you going to do about the tunnel being blocked? We can’t call for help and it might collapse on us.”
He looked up before answering. Gemma had no idea if he knew anything about geology or structural engineering. His answer could be bullshit but he would answer to the best of his knowledge.
“It appears stable. I have not heard any explosions for some time, so we must conclude that the raid is over. My colleagues know my location. They will clear the tunnel.”
“What about the air?”
“The air supply is sufficient.”
“I mean the giant scrubber things. What if the bombing took those out? The air is toxic.”
“There are many scrubbers, spaced apart in such a manner that it is unlikely they would all be destroyed.”
“But we don’t know.”
“I have breathing units in my pack if the air becomes unsuitable.”
“Good.” Knowing the breathers were available helped to ease her tension. “What if Suhlik teleport down? You don’t have any weapons.”
“These tunnels have naturally occurring deposits of hellstone. It blocks teleportation.”
