Beyond the Stars: INEO (16 page)

“Me, too,” Gaelan muttered.

In that instant, I let down my guard. I don’t know why, but Azil’s soft touch and sweet voice made me burst into tears. I think it was because of how motherly she took me in her arms when she had hugged me. I never allowed myself to experience the full gravity of the situation until now. All of my fear had been masked by adrenaline. I fought to regain my composure and wiped my eyes with my sleeve.

“You’re okay now; all safe and sound.” She stroked my back and reassured me with a firm look.

I dwelled on her much needed words of encouragement and nodded to keep from losing it again. Gaelan glanced at me with an uncomfortable grimace, trying to ignore my weak moment. He still appeared pumped and ready for anything. He didn’t say a word and instead put his attention on Tyden and Pascal as they walked through the door and approached us.

“Loic,” Tyden said, holding his body with impeccable posture. “It‘s a shame about the loss of your crew. Mining accidents are hard to recover from.”

“Yes. It was tragic,” Loic said.

Loic seemed insincere in his sentiments. I wondered what
really
happened to his men. He never mentioned anything about them when we were aboard the Grulanti’s ship. I found his reply odd for someone who claimed he lost his crewmen just six days ago. He sounded so uncaring. It made me curious if
he
killed them.

Tyden fixed his eyes on Loic with a stern glare. “Now, let me make myself clear. You are not in charge here. While you are aboard our ship, you will follow our orders,” he commanded.

“Ty, you haven’t changed a bit. You look … well, as stiff as ever,” Loic said with blatant disrespect.

Noah came up behind me and whispered, “I’d take that as a compliment.”

“Stop it,” I scoffed back before he strolled away. This was no time for jokes.

Tyden sighed. “I do not appreciate the predicament you just involved my fellow crew members in. I’m not pleased with you taking chances with their safety. When I asked you if the planet was secure for landing, I expected an honest answer.”

“Ty, I swear, I didn’t know they were coming back. Those filthy thieves came out of nowhere …” Loic changed his tone.

Tyden held out his hand to make him stop giving excuses. “You are here for one reason and one reason alone. We need you to help us locate the Dreon’s ship. After we find them, you will be compensated with your fee in hand and dropped off at the nearest port. Do we have an agreement?”

“Yeah, sure. It’s what I do. I’m the best scout out here. Look, Ty, I know we’ve had our differences, but that was a long time ago,” Loic said, sounding almost sincere.

Tyden ignored his comment before continuing in an unemotional tone. “You will be staying on deck nine. Pascal will show you the way. He, along with Gaelan and Zaric, will be overseeing your work. They will be expecting to see a draft of all possible Dreon routes first thing in the morning. Right now, I expect you to provide us with an immediate course of action. You have cost us valuable time.”

“Yes, of course,” Loic said.

Tyden seemed to want to keep his contact with Loic strictly professional. He gave me the impression it was better for him to show no emotion than regret losing his temper altogether.

“Shall we?” Pascal said, extending his arm towards the exit.

Loic looked up at Pascal’s massive build and submissively left the room without saying another word. He moved like a scolded person. I don’t think anyone would dare push Tyden after that speech. The man was scary as hell, especially when he used his authoritative voice.

Tyden turned towards us and softened his expression after they exited the landing. “You had us on edge.”

“It was nothing but an inconvenience,” Gaelan replied with remarkable composure. “Besides, we’ve learned more about the Grulanti in the past few hours than we have in last two decades.”

My eyes widened in shock.
An inconvenience! A learning experience! Are you frickin’ kidding me?
We were trapped on a bad alien vessel and almost sold on the creep’s black market.

“Good,” Tyden said with surprise. “Please document any new useful information you may have obtained. I am eager to read your report. We were at a loss on how to help.”

Gaelan nodded. “Did you come up with any new leads on the Dreons while we were away?” Gaelan asked.

“Not a blip,” Tyden said with a frown.

I heard Urit groan from where he was standing. He must of overheard us despite his being busy treating Zaric. Any word of the Dreons made his ears instantly perk up. His worry for Nia was probably impossible to turn off.

Gaelan’s eyes darted to Urit and then back to Tyden. He lowered his voice and said, “When I asked Loic if he could find the Dreons, he was ambiguous in his answer. I’m not convinced he will be of any help. He’s wearing my patience thin and appears to be hiding something about his involvement with the Grulanti. He seems to have gotten himself into some kind of mess, but has yet to come clean.”

Tyden grimaced. “By bringing him aboard, we have temporarily assumed responsibility for his karmic repercussions. I just hope more of his recent past doesn’t catch up with him anytime soon,” he said with trepidation.

“You can say that again,” I said under my breath.

Gaelan sighed. “I agree. Still, I’m anxious to give his suggestions a go. I believe he may have something to offer, although I
don’t
trust him,” he said bluntly.

“Never did … never will,” Tyden agreed.

* * *

Gaelan and I returned to our room. I couldn’t wait to get clean. I had to scrub the Dalinova dirt off my skin, hair, nails and even out of my ears.

“Mmm. You look good,” Gaelan said as I exited the shower. “Do you have to get dressed?”

“Yes,” I answered, and pulled on my underwear. “Go, get clean.” I poked his chest. I wanted to collapse, yet he seemed full of life.

“You’re no fun,” he muttered, then headed to the bathroom.

I got into bed obsessing over my list of worries. I wished I was going home. I missed everything. I would never take the routine of my daily life for granted again. I wanted to work, clean, and shop again. I was missing out on my children’s lives and needed to get home for them. They had already lost one parent. And today, they almost lost me.

I thought about Loic. I hoped his tracking skills were as good as he claimed them to be, especially after his rescue nearly got us killed. He owed us. I remembered how I’d shot the Grulanti. So quick. Automatic. I could still hear its cry. My callousness frightened me even though I knew it was in self-defense. I never thought I had it in me to kill.

Gaelan came to bed and joined me under the covers.

“You look invigorated,” I said, facing him, as he gave me one of his magnetic smiles.

He shrugged and looked down at me lovingly. “And you looked like you were somewhere else.”

“I was just thinking … I’m not sure you’d want to hear it,” I said, sliding my hand across the contours of his chest. He smiled, probably liking how easily he could get my attention. I fought to find my train of thought. The misery of my self-induced torment promptly flooded back. It must have shown on my face.

Gaelan exhaled in frustration. “I know there’s something wrong. You don’t look happy.”

“I guess I’m still rattled from being on that Grulanti ship. I can’t get those creatures out of my head.”

“Hey, we got out. And you do know those weren’t the actual Grulanti, right? Do you remember seeing those big green beasts when we visited the trading post? You know, the loud ones, in the far right corner as soon as we came in.”

“No.” I gave him a perplexed look. No doubt he was probably aware of every being in there and expected me to be as observant. “I was overwhelmed with that place. There were so many different creatures. I’m not even sure
what
I saw.”

“The real Grulanti, as Ari put it, are big, ugly monsters. Today, we only encountered their drones. They are robots used to perform mundane chores and are programmed to collect and deliver merchandise to the Grulanti. They don’t think for themselves. The Grulanti make their living by trading goods in all parts of the galaxy. They are greedy and usually steer clear of others unless they are working a deal. It makes me wonder how Loic got mixed up with them.”

“Then the thing I killed wasn’t alive?”

“Define alive.” He paused and looked at me nervously. “Sami, every drone has biological components. It’s okay. It was us or it.”

“I feel terrible.” I buried my head in his chest to hide my shame. I couldn’t explain the tremendous guilt weighing me down.

“Uh,
how could I be so blind.” Gaelan leaned away and grimaced as he rolled on his back to gaze up at the ceiling. “I am
so
insensitive. I’m sorry, love. I deliver you into danger’s mouth every chance I get. But when you hold yourself so well, I keep forgetting that all of this is new to you … that you didn’t choose this career. That’s why I was so shocked to see you start to cry when we first got back. I didn’t know what to say. I felt awful. You probably see me as a poor life choice.”

“No, it’s not your fault. I begged you to let me join you. And I’m glad I went—otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to get to you,” I said.

“I endangered your life.” He fixed his eyes on me as though he was in pain while he stroked my face with the side of his hand.

“You make life exciting,” I reassured. “I love you, Gaelan. Every part of you—your ability to call being captured an inconvenience, your ability to find joy in the littlest things, your love for adventure …”

“I put you at risk.”

“You saved us all,” I retorted.

“You could have been hurt.”

“I’m not helpless, you know?”

“Do you know how beautiful you are when you get all revved up?” He licked his lips, grabbed me abruptly, and pulled me on top of him before planting a passionate kiss on my lips.

I welcomed his advance and kissed him back with the same intensity. I felt my face flush with heat, reminding me of what was really on my mind. I pulled away and blurted out, “I saw Jack.”

“What?”
Gaelan said, lifting my chin so he could look me in the eye.

“Twice. He was on Dalinova and I heard his voice on the Grulanti ship.”

He crinkled his eyes. “
Really?”

“You think I’m crazy, right? I’m not. He was real. Maybe I’ve lost it, just like the man in your Katarian myth. I’m starting to think that something might have gotten into me. How else would I be able to see Jack?” Despite remaining somewhat skeptical to the fact that I was harboring an entity inside my body, part of me wanted it to be true. It provided me a much better explanation for having the bizarre visions than being crazy.

Gaelan turned on his side and leaned on his elbow, causing me to slide onto the mattress. “There’s no way that legend is true … okay, maybe it’s possible, but I’ve never known anyone who was personally affected. If you are, that would be awful because I have no idea how to help you. Why do you think you’re possessed?”

“I got this strange feeling inside, before I saw Jack, like I wasn’t alone. My body tingled and got warm like something awoke inside me. I felt powerful, more alive. It was similar to the heat I felt during the solar flare, except there was no rational reason for it.”

“Sure, except for the giant goose-egg on the back of your head. You were probably dreaming. You might have blacked-out and don’t remember it.”

“No. I was awake when it happened,” I said, getting defensive.

“Fine. I believe that you
think
you saw Jack, though there has to be another explanation. I’m not an expert on seeing dead people, but come on Sami it’s more likely you
saw
a spirit rather than having an alien being inside you, messing with your mind. Let’s hope, because that man in the legend went insane. At first the being acted helpful and showed him impossible things, even took him to destinations of his choice. After a while, he couldn’t decipher what was real and became so tortured, he let the being take control of his mind. He ended up killing himself and his entire crew.”

“I would never let that happen.”

“Good. Then you have nothing to worry about.”

CHAPTER 10