Page 28 of Alien's Challenge
She threw her arms around him, needing contact with another living person.
“Hug me back or it’s weird, Faris,” she said between sobs.
His arms came around her, holding her. Initially awkward, once his stiffness melted, the embrace was perfect.
He said nothing, patting her back and stroking her head as she cried out her fear and confusion from the past few days. He did not offer empty promises that everything would be okay. She didn’t need fairy tales. She needed to mourn her family and friends, the life she had been stolen from, and the minuscule odds of ever finding her way back home.
It wasn’t fair. She was angry and sad and alone. No one knew what happened to her, and she felt so very alone.
Not entirely alone. Faris’ warmth anchored her to the moment. He was solid and present. He had a strength to him that was more than muscle. It ran deeper. Eventually, her breathing evened and her heart calmed.
She pulled away, wiping at her eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to cry all over you.”
“It is not a concern,” he said, and she believed him. “Let us assume that a year is roughly the same.”
“Okay, I can do that. You have to help me get back to Earth,” she said. Then, as an afterthought, “And find Miriam.”
“That is my intention but I do not know Earth’s location. I do not believe anyone does,” he said.
“Well, that’s not true because someone came to Earth and started snatching people.”
“And their ship exploded. They did not share the location.”
“Typical,” she muttered. “Someone figured it out, so we can too.”
“The galaxy is large.”
Alice took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Panic would not win. She had this. She was a librarian, after all. Finding information was what she did. “What do we know? Earth is in a spiral arm of the Milky Way, near the edge. It’s an eight-planet system. Nine? Shit, how does Pluto figure into this?”
“That is vague.”
“Well, I’d have more information if we had a computer or a map or something.”
His quills went flat. “Network connections were damaged during the storm.”
“Earth is the third planet from a yellow sun.”
“There are many eight-planet systems with yellow suns.”
She tossed her hands in the air in frustration. “I’m trying to think of solutions, not reasons why you can’t find a needle in a haystack.”
“I said I would help you return to Earth, not locate needles.” He hissed out the last word, sounding annoyed.
“We need information, and we’re not getting any here. We need navigation charts, and we need to figure out what happened to Miriam.” Alice resumed pacing, now with purpose as her order-loving brain made a list. “We were abducted at the same time, so I think we can assume that we were put into pods near each other. If so, then we can assume that her pod was salvaged along with mine, so she went through the same warehouse as me. If we’re lucky, she’s still there.”
“Doubtful. Human females are a highly sought commodity.”
Her skin crawled at being called acommodity, but sure. It was what it was. “Then they should have a record of who bought her.”
“Auctions like that do not keep records,” Faris said.
“Oh, my dear sweet lizardman, they most certainly do. They might promise anonymity, but they definitely keep track of who drops stacks of cash and on what.” Not that Alice attended any of those sorts of auctions, but that was Capitalism 101: know your customer and hoard their data.
He scratched at the side of his neck, then jerked his hand away when he caught her watching. “We will have to journey to the Hub to get this information from the warehouse.”
“And navigation charts?”
“Yes, I will acquire those for you.”
