But these resources are not readily available.

They are deep below the surface.

It’s a primitive world, this Er’th. Our technology is not compatible.

Setting up an offence will be difficult. We need the resources to build more weapons and we need to do so soon.

One Gryken node is dead. The hivemind will know now that a threat is in their midst.

They will think it is the hyu’mans though. At least, we still have the element of surprise.

As we head to my quarters, Adee’ra a slight step behind me, we walk past several Vullan. Despite that my mind is on many things, I sense my brethren’s curiosity as their eyes flick to Adee’ra.

I want to shield her from their eyes.

Some of them must see the ba’clan on her arm as well.

That is something I am sure will spread across the ship.

Something I do not know how to address.

As I stop walking abruptly to activate the door to my quarters, Adee’ra almost bumps into me.

Her soft body brushes against my back and my ba’clan shiver a little before every muscle in my being refuses to move.

I can feel them stretching toward her.

I’ve never…I’ve never felt anything like it before.

“Fer’ro? Are you all right?”

Her soft musical words tickle my ear and I turn to look at her.

She isn’t looking at me though. Her gaze is wide and on my back.

My ba’clan snap back to my skin the moment I look down and realize it hadn’t simply been a feeling.

They had physically been leaving my being, going toward Adee’ra in spikes.

Reaching toward her.

“Do you feel threatened right now?” she whispers, her gaze darting around us as her fear scent begins to grow.

“No,” I growl in her language.

“Your suit was…your spikes…the blades…”

I’m both impressed by her level of observation and her fortitude for standing so still while she thinks danger might be near.

She has already realized our hackles rise when we feel threatened.

“Those were not my hackles…”

Her brow knits in the most curious of facial expressions, and for a moment I find myself trying to mimic it.

I cannot. My ridges do not allow my forehead to move so freely.

“What was it then?”

I do not know.

“In time I may be able to tell you.”

Her brow knits farther and she glances behind her down the empty corridor.

Around the bend, I sense several of my brethren.

They are listening to our conversation.

Adee’ra is looking past me now, into the dark room that is my private space.

“Where is Sam? I thought we’d be sharing…”

“No. You will not be sharing.”

Not with the other female, at least.

“Ah,” she says and looks around me into my dark room. “So…these are my quarters?”

Her words are hesitant as if she finds it out of place to be asking such a thing.

“No,” I reply. “They are mine.”

I turn and finally step into the room. The light activates enough for me to see clearly but I’m sure Adee’ra is still mostly blind to what is inside.

I click an order to the onboard computer and as the light brightens, I hear her gasp.

It is a singular room but it has everything I need. A cleansing area and a resting space.

Adee’ra takes a single step inside, leaving half of her body out the door. She is particularly staring at the geometric lights forming patterns in the walls.

“Wow,” she whispers.

I assume it is a good thing.

“You should rest.”

I click a command and the floating sleeping area descends from the roof. It’s filled with feathers from great flying creatures from Edooria and should be comfortable enough for her.

I do not know.

Only Vullan women sleep on the feathers.

Adee’ra’s eyes bulge out a little, her cheeks growing warm, but she nods and steps forward, allowing the door to close behind her.

Now that she is in my space, a feeling envelops me that I did not expect.

Her scent is already invading my quarters and my ba’clan begin to react again.

I shut them down and head to the washing station.

I must prepare myself for the work ahead and tend to my wounds.

Anything to take my mind off this hyu’man being that my whole body is drawing toward.

ADIRA

I sit on the edge of the strange bed, my eyes on Fer’ro as he moves toward the corner of the room.

I have so many questions for him, I do not know where to start.

And everything is so different now. It’s moved in a direction I did not expect.

I thought I was going to die in that orb…

Now I’m in an alien spaceship as a guest staring at an alien who is…

My breath stops in my throat as I watch Fer’ro.

He’s n—naked.

Completely.

And this is a whole different situation than when he’d been in that forest with me in the dark.

Now I can see everything clearly. And my God…

The ba’clan seem to have disappeared somehow, as if they melted into his skin.

His body is like sculpted charcoal magnificence.

There are more ridges down his chest, his back, his arms, his legs and his skin seems to glisten in the light.

He’s not aware of me staring at him and I’m glad, because I can’t pull my eyes away.

There’s a circular ring on the floor and he sits within it, his back turned to me.

There are deep gnashes in his skin and I see dark blood seeping through.

He’s hurt. Much more than I realized.

I thought the ba’clan protected him but apparently not?

There is so much that I have to learn about these things.

Even as I think about them, I feel them pulse against my arm and I look down at myself.

My arm looks alien to me but it’s quite obvious my hand is no longer swollen. It doesn’t hurt anymore either.

It feels…normal.

There’s a blast of air and when I look up, Fer’ro is standing.

As he faces me, like magic, his ba’clan crawl back over his skin.

It takes just a second to happen but I’m staring at him in awe.

The only thing he leaves uncovered is his face.

“You should cleanse yourself then rest,” he says.

I glance around the room. I would gladly take a bath but I don’t see a bathroom anywhere.

“Where?”

He pauses for a second before turning to look at the ring on the floor.

“What?” So that’s what he’d been doing? Taking a bath? So quickly and without water?

“Sit or stand here,” he says, gesturing to the circle as I slip off the bed.

My tentative steps toward the circle are met with patience on his part. He’s just watching me move and as soon as I get to the edge of the circle, I pause.

I will have to get naked.

I glance at Fer’ro, contemplating this.

Maybe it’s okay.

He’s been nothing but respectable so far and despite that he is male, I doubt my pale, bruised, fleshy human body appeals to his kind.

Now is certainly not the time to be modest.

The world is ending.

My nakedness doesn’t matter.

As my clothes slip to the floor, I watch them fall.

Stained. Dirty. They are as every bit a reminder of the last few days as my scars are and I realize I never want to see them again.

I’ll just have to find a new way to cover myself.

I slip off my shoes and leave them in the pile too before stepping into the circle and sitting the way Fer’ro did.

I’m about to ask what I should do next when the ring of light moves up from the floor and passes over my entire body. A blast of warm air follows before the light settles back in place.

A moment passes where I’m wondering what’s next. I look down at my body and it looks…clean.

The dirt and smudges that were all over my arms and legs are gone.

“Tha—that’s it?”

I turn a questioning glance in Fer’ro’s direction and my breath catches in my throat.