Page 7 of My Big Scaly Alien Naga
With them were the Gofren Qong and his mate, Penny.She’d turned out to be the Peritan female whose empty pod I’d found during my very first visit to the cryopod chamber.For some reason, they’d let her out and made her work as a maintenance r’hat in the sewage pipes.I’d only discovered her existence after she’d freed her mate and escaped Kalumbu Station on the Artep.
Then there was Silus, the satyr, and his human bride, Pria.Silus had been part of the Artep’s crew, working as a hacker like me, but had flown to Kalumbu to save his mate.I’d given him plenty of assistance from afar, hacking into the planet’s defences to open a barrier for the satyr.I couldn’t resist sending him a hidden message, but I wasn’t sure if he’d received it.I’d helped them again when Silus had activated an emergency beacon, disguising the signal to the space station’s sensors and amplifying it for ships in orbit, namely the Bloodstar.Shortly after, letting Vruhag’s shuttle onto the planet and then back into space again had almost got me caught.The station’s security AI had caught on that someone was interfering with the systems and had laid a trap for me.I’d discovered it just in time, but I’d realised I couldn’t be the Bloodstar’s secret helper for much longer without risking mission failure.
Three Peritans had found their mates.Any moment I'd not been at work, I'd been watching their progress.They were all relatively safe on the Bloodstar.
But my mate was still here.
As were twenty-five other females still sleeping in their cryopods.
One unlucky female had been pulled from her pod yesterday and transported to the surface this morning.The thought made my coils tighten.I wanted to help her – but the longer she remained in the Trials, the longer my mate stayed untouched.Safe.
I hated that truth.I wanted to rescue them all.But I had to prioritise her.
She was my one and only.
She just didn’t know it yet.
To help the female in the Trials, I had tried to get the chii involved again, but I wasn't sure if they'd received my message.If they had, they hadn’t replied.Fortunately, most of my colleagues were obsessed with the Trials, so I could have them open on my screen without raising suspicion.
Still, the longer this continued, the harder it became to hide my true purpose.
And I was running out of time.
I used to think I could keep this up – split myself into two people.The cold hacker.The silent observer.But that mask was cracking.Every time I looked at her pod, I felt it slip a little further.Every time someone walked too close to the cryopod chamber, I bristled.
I was already making mistakes.
I couldn’t afford more.
Because if they found out who she was to me – what she was – I wouldn’t get the chance to save her.
They’d use her.
And then they’d kill her.
There was no coverage of the female just now, so I hacked into a drone and made it fly to the storage room where the pods stood.My coils tightened with every second it took for the signal to stabilise.The screen glitched, then snapped into focus.
The room was darker than usual.I switched to night-vision – and sucked in a sharp breath.I looked around the control room to make sure nobody had taken notice of my reaction, then stared at the screen again.
Her pod was open.
And empty.
My mate had gone.
Nagas' hearts are hard to stop, even with the most effective poisons and drugs, but in that moment, my hearts stopped for a click.
How could this have happened?I had multiple sub-routines running that were supposed to alert me to any mention of her pod in the system.There had been no scheduled pod opening today.And especially not hers.
I didn't know what to do.This was not planned.And I hated surprises.
Gritting my teeth so much that my fangs stabbed my lower lip, I hacked back into the system and started to write a quick programme that would search for my mate.It was a messy hack, something I wouldn't usually do, but this was an emergency.I had to know where my mate had gone.Was she already on the way to the planet's surface?She wasn't due to join the Trials for another two weeks.She was the last of the five Peritan females, I had made sure of that.
I checked on the remaining females.They were still slumbering in their pods.Lucky them.As I was waiting for my search to have a result, I had time to write some more security protocols.If anyone got close to their pods, I would get an alert.The same should have been true for my mate's cryopod.How had someone circumvented my programme?It shouldn't be possible.I was the best hacker on Kalumbu station.Yes, there were better hackers in the galaxy, but the station's systems were firewalled from the intergalactic net.You had to be on the space station itself to access them.That's why I'd been sent here in the first place.
Someone must have erased the logs manually.A higher clearance than mine?That left only a very short list of suspects.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.My tail was trembling with anxiety and anger.No, it was more than that.Fury at myself.At my failure.If I wasn't even able to protect my mate while she was asleep, how could I ever be worthy of her?
