Beyond the Stars: INEO (12 page)

“I guess so.”

“Sami, please, I need you right now. I don’t know what you saw out there, but this is not the time or place to get all freaked out,” he said, issuing me an order to say no more.

“I know.”

I realized that Noah didn’t want an explanation, so I didn’t elaborate. Besides, if Jack really was here, that meant I saw a ghost, and Noah was obviously uncomfortable with discussing the whole seeing a ghost thing. Maybe my seeing Jack was just my strange way of coping with a dire situation.

Not wanting to talk anymore, Noah jumped to his feet and walked towards the levitron. Despite the steam rising from the heated metal, he touched the roof with a light tap. “It’s cool enough,” he said, opening the door with his sleeve around his hand. “Let’s go get them.”

I followed him inside, careful not to bump into the frame. Without delay, Noah hit the ignition. We had power! We looked at each other and smiled. The miracle substance had worked. Our vehicle was operational and shielded from the alien ship’s signal.

“I never hijacked a starship before. How are we going to get aboard?” I asked.

“Their transporters. We are going to drive right into one of those pain-in-the-ass beams,” Noah said with a smirk. “Ready?”

“I hope you have an exit plan in mind.”

“Uh-huh,” he uttered. “I figure what goes in, must come out.”

I glared at him in silence.

“Okay, fine. I’m swagging it,” he admitted.

“Mm-hmm,” I hummed with a nod. I figured as much. SWAG was a term used by Jack and his military friends. It stood for: Scientific Wild Ass Guess. Jack used the term anytime he needed to justify an action he wasn’t completely certain would work.

We were wasting time and knew he wanted my support. “Let’s do it,” I conceded without a fight.

“One boarding pass coming right up,” he replied with a cocky grin.

Noah lifted our air car, dusting our windshield with a tapping cloud of sand from his quick acceleration, and drove us directly into the closest beam of light. I braced myself as it engulfed us. The windows rattled like they would collapse and I prayed they would hold. I had to shut my eyes to shield them from the intense light as the ray swallowed our ship whole. I waited to reopen them until after I sensed that our windows had fallen dark.

“I can’t see,” Noah complained.

“Neither can I,” I said, seeing floating dots from the residual flash. I looked out the windshield, and couldn’t see anything but blackness. “We must be in a dark room,” I guessed.

Noah turned off the levitron and slowly opened his side door. The room was dimly lit, and we could see rows of alien ships parked throughout what looked like a large garage. There wasn’t a person or creature in sight. He closed his door and turned to me and took my hand in his. “Okay, I’ve seen enough. This place is creepy with a capital C.”

“Noah, it’s Gaelan and Zaric,” I pleaded. “If it was anyone else, trust me, I’d be long gone.”

“Did you see it out there? There’s no telling what kind of freaky predator awaits us?” he said in a jovial tone laced with apprehension. “Seriously, we have no idea what we are dealing with. What in the world is a Grulanti anyways?”

“You don’t know?” My voice raised an octave.

“No,”
he said adamantly. “Sami, I’ve been living on Earth for over twenty-five years, and the five times I went home were pretty much uneventful. What if they eat humans?”

I shook my head. “You think of this now?”

My mouth fell open as I tried to decipher his mood. Noah always had a demented sense of humor. I couldn’t tell if he was truly scared or only having fun being melodramatic.

“I don’t care. I have to find Gaelan, and I’m willing to die trying. He would face anything for me. We
are
getting out of this levitron and going to find him,” I said with conviction.

“Super. I thought you would want to.” He rolled his eyes. “Hey, before we go, I want to thank you for being such a good friend,” he said with a serious face.

I refused to get emotional. “I love you, too, but stop stalling. The Grulanti are probably going to come knocking on our door at any minute and take us into their custody.”

“I don’t think so, Sami. All of the collection barges I’ve ever seen run on a skeleton crew. And I’m assuming they aren’t too bright, either. They tend to be staffed with the least productive members of society. Total slugs.”

“So you don’t think Gaelan and Zaric are captured?”

“No. Although, I’m a little worried about how they might have survived the transport without the protection of a ship.”

That’s when I remembered the Katarian marriage band given to me by Gaelan. I had forgotten all about it in all of the terrifying excitement. “Gaelan’s alive, I can feel it,” I said, touching the band on my wrist as I got an immediate sense of Gaelan’s wellbeing. “I could tell that he was distressed, however, strong.” The matching bands linked our life forces together.
Mmm,
I loved that man. I could almost feel his presence when I touched the band with my fingertips.

The bracelet’s metal, a braided silver alloy, was originally infused with Gaelan and his family’s genetic imprint. It gave its wearer a connection to the collective by joining the wearer’s biorhythms. I recalled how I didn’t notice a thing when I first put it on, though the longer I had it on my wrist, the more I felt like Gaelan was an extension of me. Its strength seemed to grow more powerful with every passing day. I even felt as if I have become stronger by wearing it—braver and bolder, more like him. I kept my fingers on it for a moment longer, to savor the loving sensation. I could feel his essence, his vibration; it was even stronger than his scent. I wanted to be with him now, to see his beautiful body and face and hear his voice. I knew he was near.

Noah chewed on his lip as he stared at the dash, appearing to be in deep thought. “You’re right. We have to find them so we can get back to our ship. I was with Lanie last night.
Oh,
so hot. She told me she had a surprise for me tonight. I have to find out what it is. She’s wild and aggressive. I never thought I would like—”

“Enough, please. I don’t need to know the details. How old is this girl anyway?”

“Old enough to know what she’s doing,” he said with a smile curling up the corners of his lips. “She’s older than your miniscule forty-three years, if that’s what you’re asking. Actually, she’s even a little older than me, about sixty-nine, although she looks barely legal.” He smiled in a mischievous manner.

Lord knows what was running through his mind.

“See, that’s your problem. If you and Gaelan would just learn to occupy yourselves with kinky sex, we wouldn’t need to hijack alien ships. I mean, jeez, I know living in Space can get boring Sami, but do you have to keep finding ways to put us in danger?” he teased.

“Hmm,” I moaned painfully and held my fingers against my forehead. If he only knew how much I was blaming myself for Nia’s disappearance. “Could you please
focus
on how we are going to find Gaelan and Zaric?” I said, putting all joking aside.

Noah climbed into the backseat of the levitron. “We should arm ourselves with weapons. We need something to defend ourselves … just in case.”

He pulled open a drawer under the back row of seats. A shelf popped up like an unfolding minibar displaying an impressive array of weaponry, snacks, and drink bottles. He rummaged through the stuff before taking out a couple of small handguns. “Bingo. You’ve got to love Azil. We have all the essentials. Does she know how to build a treasure chest, or what?” he said with a chuckle and look of admiration.

“Azil?” I asked puzzled.

“Yes, she not only preps our wardrobe, she stocks the expedition vehicles as well. Hey, there’s food and water in here.” Noah lifted a water bottle and protein bar and tossed them at me before retrieving one for himself.

“Thanks.” I caught them unconsciously.

Acting desperate, we both took a drink and tore open our bars as if we’d never seen food.

“Oh, that’s so good,” I said, taking a bite.

“Here, take this Tagren. It’s a laser gun and has a penetration range of twenty feet,” he said, turning the weapon sideways to read the markings written on its metallic casing before handing it to me. “It’s simple to use. There are two settings—on and off.”

He showed me how to turn the lever while he gobbled down a second snack in two bites before washing it down with another swig of water.

I held the tiny Tagren in my hand. It was incredibly light, like a toy. I felt suddenly nervous. I hated this. I hoped that I didn’t need it to protect myself. I despised guns, although I dreaded the idea of being vulnerable even more. Walking into the unknown was sickeningly scary. If it wasn’t for Gaelan, I don’t think I could handle what I was about to do. Not knowing if he was safe made my heart ache.

Noah pulled out a slightly larger weapon for himself, lifted his arms to eye level, and looked through its sight while he aimed it at the dashboard. “Oh, cool, a Tagren 220. It maps out your target and steadies the shot like an autofocus camera,” he said with enthusiasm.

“Hey, I want that one. I need all the help I can get.”

He waved it in front of my face. “No, it’s mine. I saw it first.”

I reached over to take it from him, but he pulled his hand away and brought the gun to his mouth and licked it from end to end with his slobber so I wouldn’t want to take it.

I pushed him away by the shoulder. “You’re disgusting, you man-child.”

“Yep. And proud of it.”

Noah reopened the levitron door and stepped out. I followed behind him. The room had a low-pitched hum that rattled my eardrums with its vibration. It was probably due to the ship’s power source. My eyes fought to adjust to the dim lighting. We stood surrounded by a dissimilar assortment of alien ships.
Eerie,
I thought. They were different models or maybe they came from a slew of diverse civilizations. Wow, we really weren’t alone.

Our alien host seemed to have a knack for collecting. We walked between the aisles of starships, some towering high above our heads, others small and sleek. Seeing them up close, I couldn’t help but picture the designers and engineers who made them.
Amazing.
How did they learn to build these craft? The technology surrounding me at each turn was incredible in every sense.

I thought we were the only ones in the room until I noticed a man lying on the ground in front of one of the parked vehicles. “Noah,” I whispered. “Look.” I pointed to the body curled up in a ball on the floor.

“It’s okay. He’s a Garmite.”

After we walked closer to him, I realized the man wasn’t human. He looked exotic with his thick black mane of hair pulled back into a low ponytail and ruffled black shirt and black pants. I studied his Neanderthal forehead and big bushy eyebrows framing his deep set eye sockets. He looked like a modern day caveman. His skin was an ashen shade of brown, and his thick, chubby fingers were covered in gaudy rings.

Noah kicked his boot with his foot. He didn’t respond. At first, I wondered if he was dead, but then I noticed he was shivering. Slowly, the man aroused with a moan and opened his eyes. He pushed himself into a sitting position and looked up at us groggily. He was gripping a metallic red drinking bottle in his right hand.

“Katarians. I see they got to you as well. When did you get here?” he muttered with chattering teeth and a bit of a slur.

“Just now,” Noah answered.

The Garmite lifted his arm and brought his thermos to his mouth to take a drink. It must have been empty because he furrowed his brow in disappointment and pounded the metal container down on the floor with an echoing clank.

“Who are you?” I asked. “Have you seen anybody else? Are you here alone?”

“Easy, not so loud. I am by myself. My captain sold our ship when I was still onboard. I was
indisposed of
at the time. My name is Ari. What do they call you?” He took in a gasping breath and got up clumsily. He nearly tripped over the ruffles on his decorative pirate shirt when he pushed himself off the floor. His six foot tall height took me by surprise when he finally stood upright.
Whew.
I got a whiff of him after he stepped closer. He smelled like strong cologne and alcohol.

“Samantha. And this is No—”

“No need for names,” Noah interrupted. “Have you seen any other Katarians? Or Dreons? We’ve been looking for a Dreon ship as well.”

“No Katarians or,
thank the stars,
putrid Dreons here. I haven’t seen one kind creature anywhere, just those pain in the drifer monsters,” he said, squinting at me as though he was trying to see me better. “I’ve been wandering around this place for days trying to avoid the Grulanti. It’s been terrible. It’s
so
cold in here. I’m freezing …” He groaned. “I’ve been trying to stay hidden so I can make my escape when we get to auction. I don’t want to be put on the selling block.” He saw my eyes travel around the room. “There is no way out of here, and I wouldn’t waste your time with any of these ships. They are nothing but heaps of metal. Every piece has its power drained.”

Noah and I looked at one another and kept our mouths shut. We knew we had to keep our functional levitron a secret. I didn’t understand his interpretation of it being cold. The temperature seemed just fine to me, and I was happy that it was also considerably warmer than the cold weather on Dalinova. Perhaps he was going into shock or maybe he wasn’t accustomed to the climate on the ship.