Page 38 of Stowaway to the Stars: A Duet
“Darcy.”
Her name was spoken like a whisper across the impossibly loud room.
Stephenie and E-rah were standing in the doorway, followed by A-rec and others she couldn’t name.
“Darcy,” Stephenie repeated. “What have you DONE?”
E-rah was next to speak. “You disobeyed orders. Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve endangered us ALL. We’ve talked about this! Our resources are dwindling. How could you do this?” He took a step toward her, but Stephenie grabbed his wrist, stopping him in his tracks.
Darcy stood her ground. She raised her chin in the air as she spoke to E-rah. “They deserved to KNOW where they were and what was to become of them! They’ve been living in a lie! Can you imagine? Living unconscious and without a say in what happens to you? I would rather them wake up now and face the consequences of I-ya (that’s your old caption, by the way) actions than let them wake up years from now on some alien planet with their lives stolen from them.”
The women were now staring at the aliens in the doorway, some of them with looks of fear…others with looks of strange curiosity and wonder. A few were still on their hands and knees,settling into their surroundings, while others had risen and were standing side by side.
It was the bold one who questioned Darcy, who spoke first. “I want to know. I want a choice.” She spoke with her head held high, as sure in what she had to say as Darcy was.
Another one nodded shakily. “Me too. I want to choose what happens to me.”
“Let me through!” A-rec pushed past E-rah and entered the room. He looked disheveled and beyond pissed off. He glared down at Darcy, and one of the girls screamed. “What the hell were you thinking, my Mate? You abandoned me and did this on your own!” Steam bellowed from his nostrils as he huffed a her. Darcy had never seen that before… Perhaps because she had never seen him so angry before.
“You wouldn’t listen to me,” Darcy replied quietly. She couldn’t care less about the others, but knowing she had hurt A-rec was painful. He deserved better. “No one would listen to me.” She barely spoke above a whisper, but she knew he could hear her. Tears started to fill her eyes, and fuck! She blinked them away. She would not cry. Not right now, not in front of everyone.
He reached forward to brush some of her hair out of her face. “I underestimated you. We all did.”
“Damn right,” Darcy replied, unable to keep the smirk off her lips. “Did you think I’d shut up and deal with whatever was handed to me?” Surely, they knew better than that.
“That doesn’t sound like you, does it?” A-rec replied, sighing when she turned to press her lips to his palm.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “But I’m not backing down on this. It’s important.”
“There is nothing to forgive,” He replied. He reached down to grasp her hand in his. Together they faced the captain and the rest of the ship. “They deserve to choose their own fate.”
Did he really…just agree with Darcy? She squeezed his hand. It felt like…for the first time, the two of them were really an item, together.
Stephenie surprised Darcy by stepping forward. “Darcy’s right. I’ve had conflicting feelings about this for a while… I remember how I felt when I thought I didn’t have a choice. It was terrifying. No one deserves to go through that.” She glanced up at her Mate and walked to stand beside Darcy and A-rec.
E-rah sighed and looked around the room. His eyes settled on Stephenie, who gave him a nod. Finally, after a moment’s pause, he said, “What’s done is done. We will deal with the aftermath when it comes. Let them choose.”
He said nothing more. Instead, he turned and left. The ghost of a smile formed on Stephenie’s lips. She shot Darcy a wink before taking off to join her Mate.
Darcy sighed in relief. She glanced up and met A-rec’s gaze. They seemed to speak silently to one another, both noting that the hard part was far from over. In fact, it was just getting started.
Darcy turned to face the women once more. “This isn’t going to be easy. Some of you are probably going to want to go home. Maybe a few of you will want to stay. Whatever it is you decide, it’s your choice and yours alone. And I will fight to keep it that way.”
Epilogue
Howmany days had it been since Darcy had opened the pods? She couldn’t remember. Time passed differently here since there was no sun or clock. It had been long enough that fear and terror of what had happened had started to fade, and were instead replaced with wonder and curiosity.
It took awhile for the girls to get used to the big guys and even longer for the guys to get used to the girls. Humans and Toxhocan were so different, yet the same in a lot of ways.
Darcy sat at a table in the ship’s common hall, watching the women spread out across the room. Some huddled in groups, some mingled with the aliens like they were old friends. A few others clung to the large windows of the ship, mesmerized by the vastness of the space around them.
Despite the time that had passed, the girls weren’t…entirely used to their new normal, though it was obvious it was growing on them. Some complained about the food, saying it was too sweet like Darcy had said. Others thought it was too warm on the spaceship and wanted some kind of air conditioner, which only confused the hell out of the big guys. Since there was more than enough room on the ship, the girls were all staying in their own assigned rooms. There wasn’t much in terms of clothes, though. They alternated wearing their old pajamas and dresses made of scrap cloth from old seed sacks.
“They are adapting well,” A-rec said, sliding into the chair beside Darcy with his tray. “Most of us thought they’d have destroyed the ship by now.”
“Humans aren’t as unstable as I make them seem,” Darcy teased back. “It’s good they finally know the truth.” She said, sobering.
A-rec glanced around the room at the mix of humans and Toxhocan. He sighed. “I was angry at first. Why did my Mate betray me and my kind?” He thought for a moment. “But I realized, you did not betray me. I betrayed you by not supporting you or backing you when you needed me the most.”
