Abalim

Chapter Two

Sitting in the conference room on the hidden moon city of Azadi, Abalim rubbed his temple with absentminded diligence. After enduring a week-long voyage in space from Hiigar back to Earth in the small scuttle jumper the Akurns provided, he ended up with a stifling case of claustrophobia. And now that he was “home”, he sat in an underground city on the moon instead of being under the wide-open skies of Earth he yearned for. Which didn’t help the suffocating sensation squeezing his chest.

He glanced up, taking in the soft orange glow of the conference room with its glass dome and lattice decorations outside, as if the person who designed the place wanted to give it a sense of openness. Too bad they failed. Nothing replaced the blue sky he craved.

“So, it”s settled then.” The Federation Chancellor, D’zia E’etu, announced with a silent pound of his fist on the table.

Since the image was a hologram, no sound accompanied the act.

Abalim forced his attention back to the discussion.

“The four of you will go to FiPan and see what you can find out about those missing women. If you need any further assistance, don’t hesitate to ask.” He sat back with a wave. He and the other holograms from Zerin disappeared.

Abalim glanced from his eldest brother Adapa to the others sitting at the round table. How Adapa and Inanna kept the Akurns who ran the city of Azadi out of this discussion was a mystery. But the only ones in the room were him and his four brothers along with Queen Inanna. Nary a human in sight.

Even Adapa and Inanna’s five sons were missing. How interesting.

He squirmed as Adapa stared at him with his mouth fixed in a stern line. Dammit. He never could keep anything from his older brother. Just before he landed, Abalim decided he’d rather discuss with his family the other threat headed their way before telling the entire galaxy about the incoming Krystalii from another dimension.

“Doesn’t anyone else find it weird that only four women are missing?” Asmodel’s distinctive hazel eyes, with their mixture of browns, greens, and a starburst of gold crinkled at the corners, twinkled in their depths with mirth that matched his smirk. “And there just so happens to be four of us with nothing better to do?”

“Well—” his sister-in-law, Queen Inanna, sat back and touched her fingertips together. “—we don’t know for sure they’re the only ones missing. We have to wait until the Zerins check with each and every human who boarded their ship to verify they’re all accounted for.”

“I thought the StarChance wasn’t the only ship that participated in the Exchange. Are they the only ones who seem to have encountered that particular problem?” Arakiba observed.

“Damned careless, if you ask me.” Adapa muttered. “When they first approached us about offering human woman to join the Exchange, we shouldn’t have assumed they had everything under control.”

“I don’t know”—the reserved one of the group, Azazel, spoke in a soft tone—“no matter how diligent anyone thinks they are, those who wish to benefit themselves, even at the cost of others, are prevalent everywhere. No matter how much you trust those working with you.” The pointed tips of his ears darkened as he spoke. The man didn’t like to be the center of attention, even if it was only the six of them. “I’m sure they had no idea about the betrayal as it happened.”

“Since it was under the Prince of Zerin’s watch, I’m sure they took every precaution they could to ensure the women’s safety.” Inanna offered. “Or he would’ve taken immediate action.”

“I’m sure the deceased Chancellor U’unk took advantage of the prince being under exile to install his operatives to disrupt the prince’s bid to get back into his father’s good graces.” Abalim shrugged. “That’s how bad guys work.”

The image of the Krystalii he’d met on Hiigar popped into his head. He rubbed his temple and looked down at the table. Maybe he shouldn’t bring it up in front of the others. If he got Adapa alone, they could discuss…

“Knock it off, Abalim.” Adapa’s voice held little humor. “Just tell us what’s got your panties twisted into a knot.”

Abalim frowned. It was hard to understand Adapa sometimes. The slang the man picked up in this new century baffled the hell out of him. A lot. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He glowered at his brother sitting across from him. I need to speak to you alone. He told him telepathically on a private stream the others couldn’t access.

Oh, please. That wasn’t Adapa. Abalim’s startled gaze swung to Arakiba. You only thought we couldn’t hear you. Dumbass.

What he said. Asmodel said as he and Azazel nodded with identical smirks on their annoying mugs.

Well, fruk. Abalim tugged on his earlobe.

“I know you people aren’t talking without including me in the conversation.” Inanna’s delicate blonde eyebrows rose over her bright-turquoise eyes. She crossed her arms under her bountiful breasts and frowned.

“They are.” Adapa gave them all up. Wuss. “Not me, my dove.” He scooted his chair closer to her and put his arms around her slender shoulders. “I would never do that.”

His phony tone belied any sincerity he tried to pull over on her.

She gave him a long-suffering glare before focusing on Abalim. “Why do I get the feeling you’re keeping something really important from us?”

“Because he is.” Adapa intoned. “It’s not just the missing women you’re worried about, is it?”

Abalim huffed a sigh. “Yeah, it’s not.” He glanced at his shoulder where JR15 rested. “Go ahead. Show them.”

The little bot quivered and opened his top eye to activate the video he’d taken at the Galaxy’s Pub.

Once the scene ended, JR15 scuttled back to his hiding place under Abalim”s dreadlocks.

A dead silence laid heavy in the room.

“Damn, fruk me sideways.” Adapa said out loud what everyone had to be thinking.

Life in the cell from hell turned out to be a boring bunch of nothing burgers. After Lisa got over her initial panic attack, she settled into a routine with the others.

That is until the day when the neon-red robot who’d been their normal guard unexpectedly came just hours after tossing them their daily ration of dry protein cubes.

“You will follow me.” The android”s metallic voice had a sultry lisp. She raised her hand to turn off the force field, but paused before touching it. The damn thing stayed like that with its finger stretched as if to turn off the force field covering the entryway.

When nothing else happened, Lisa and the others looked at each other.

“What the hell is that all about?” Toni put her hands on her hips. The nice outfit she’d put on to attend the Exchange was fast getting wrinkled and threadbare.

Lisa sighed. What a weird thing to think about now.

“Maybe she ran out of power.” Izzy leaned close, covering her heart with her open palm.

Morgan snorted. “Yeah, we should be so lucky.”

Several days later, what Morgan wished turned into a horrific prophecy. They hadn’t seen anyone since the droid froze. Which meant they hadn’t gotten any food or fresh water lately.

Lisa stood with Althea and studied the red android. She crossed her arms and gave the robot a narrow glare. “I’m beginning to doubt it being frozen like that is a good thing.”

“Yeah.” Althea put her hands on her hips. “Well, at least she can’t take us somewhere worse, like a slave auction. Damn, if someone doesn’t come soon, we’ll starve to death. We haven’t seen anyone since that stupid thing got stuck like that days ago.” She said the last in a soft whisper.

Lisa grunted. No arguing that.

Althea sighed and glanced back at the small room. “We might as well sit down and relax. Doesn’t look like anything’s going to happen anytime soon.”

Lisa reached over and gave Althea’s hand a squeeze.

It was easy to tell how worried the other woman was. Who was she kidding? Worried wasn’t the right word to use. She might as well admit it. Panic was starting to haunt her.

She sat next to Althea on the hard floor and thumped her head against the wall. Closing her eyes, she started to doze off.

“What’s that?” Althea jumped up and raced to the open-looking doorway.

With a grunt, Lisa pushed herself off the floor and stood next to her friend. “What’s what?” She squinted, trying to see what made Althea excited. Wouldn’t it be great if something good came their way? Like a tall, hunky hero from one of her series that came from some other dimension and rescued kidnapped women from Earth. “You think a dimensional portal is being activated?” Her heart thumped. “I’ve always wanted to go through one!”

Althea’s only answer was a raised eyebrow.

“What are you guys looking at?” Toni asked from the cot behind them.

Izzy squealed. “Someone’s coming?”

Morgan, the reigning queen of sarcasm, snorted. “With our luck they won’t take us somewhere that’s gonna be better than these luxury accommodations.”

The other three joined them in a single line to look out the entrance.

A shuffling noise, like a herd of cattle clomping close, became clear.

A sense of dread made Lisa catch her breath. That can’t be good. She glanced at the prone red robot. Whatever was coming didn’t sound metallic at all.

An unmistakable rancid odor wafted to her before anything or anyone showed up. It was a weird mix of wet cardboard and cooking oil gone bad. She wrinkled her nose until she caught sight of what was making that scrambling ruckus.

Damn. Look at that. More aliens. At first she was jealous she hadn’t dreamed up these creatures for one of her books. Here was a group of pudgy, bulky aliens that were a cross between a dingo and a beaver in pants — no shirts. Standing on two hind legs with six arms and a flat tail of coarse hair and scales. Pink-and-blue tongues hung from the sides of their snouts as four beady black eyes blinked in unison. Their thick, fuzzy fur ranged in colors from burned gold to midnight blue.

It took a moment before why they showed up sank in.

Each one was armed with various weapons. Guns, knives, and even some weird kind of round metal contraptions hitched to a belt that clanked with each movement. Handcuffs?

Gibbering between them, two of the aliens grabbed the red robot under its stiff arms and pulled it away from the entrance. Without a second glance, they dropped it on the floor as one of them aimed a black box in their direction.

Before Lisa had a chance to gasp and back up, it clicked a button and the force field evaporated.

With its snout curled in a snarl, the creature pushed another button on the black box.

Agony stabbed through her. The leather collar around her neck sparked with sizzling heat, sending tendrils of pain throughout her body. She flopped on the floor like a fish pulled from a lake. Spasming and squirming, she clutched the black nutesh snare in a vain attempt to pull it off.

The torture only lasted a few seconds, but it wasn’t until she could take a lungful of air that told her the pain stopped. Lisa swore lingering waves of agony squirmed through her, inside and out. Too weak to struggle, she didn’t have a chance to stop one of the little aliens from tugging her hands in front of her. It jerked two of the round metal things from its belt and clapped them on. Her wrists swiftly locked together, as if drawn by a powerful magnet. He then slapped a putty-looking thing over her mouth. It expanded until a flat surface prevented her from talking—or breathing through her mouth, for that matter. Thank God it was far enough away from her nose to give her room so she didn’t suffocate.

It was tempting to not move, but the creep who handcuffed her yanked her to her feet. She wobbled to get her bearings, dizzy. When the alien spouted some gibberish at her, she scowled and went with him as he tugged her with one of his middle arms.

His lower hand grabbed the waist of her pants while the upper hand held some type of gun. He led her to the end of the corridor that had an elevator.

She and her cell friends were smashed together in the cramped car with a bunch of the smelly aliens. She tried to make herself as small as possible before glancing at the other women. All wore the same gags she had and their hands were held together in the cuffs.

Morgan’s eyes were narrowed as she glared at everyone.

Izzy’s were filled with tears, her fear palpable.

Even with her hands stuck together, Toni was trying to pick at the gag over her mouth. Her thunderous expression looked lethal.

Althea stood stoically, staring straight ahead.

The trip lasted forever and yet was over before Lisa had a chance to moan at the pain when the alien elbowed her in the ribs. Her headache pounded.

When the doors to the lift opened, the short aliens squealed and hissed, pushing Lisa and the others out into the main lobby.

Her eyes widened at the destruction all around.

A variety of aliens were scurrying around, grabbing what they could or destroying furniture and fixtures evidently for the sheer joy of it.

Various androids, robots, and mechanical AIs littered in sporadic places, frozen when their power was ripped away.

The little alien kidnapper pushed her to the open exit, where the massive rusted metal doors listed sideways on the hinges.

The last thing she saw before being shoved out of the building was the neon-green sexbot she’d named Kermit sitting on the floor with her legs splayed and her head broken to the side, resting on her shoulders. Her tongue hung out and her eyes were blank, like a TV screen turned off.

Scrambling outside, Lisa squinted and turned her head to avoid looking at the dim sunshine. After living in the dusky lightning of the prison cell for who knows how long, anything brighter made her eyes water. Didn’t help her stupid headache either. The other problem was she couldn’t see where they were going. She tried to rub her eyes, but the alien had a hard grip on her arms and she couldn’t move them. The only thing to do was rub the side of her face against her shoulder.

After blinking to help the situation, she wished she hadn’t bothered. Racing through a dilapidated town… village… that looked like it’d been deserted for decades, made her heart sink. No help there. Added to that was the overwhelming smell of nasty. She thought the little aliens smelled bad, but holy crap, their scent was like comparing a field of spring wildflowers to an open, neglected septic tank. With one more jerk on her arm, the little guy led her to a back alley.

There at the end was an octagon-shaped contraption.

She stumbled when the wheezing alien shoved her. She would’ve fallen if the snare around her neck hadn’t tightened and lifted her off the ground. Choking, she grabbed the collar with both hands and tried to catch her breath. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the panels on the coarse metal structure, streaked with unknown stains and pockmarked with potholes and scratches, open.

A long tray extended as her body floated over to it. Something clicked, and she was turned to face her captor. With a hiss that sounded suspiciously like laughter from the pudgy alien, she was lowered on the slab and forced to lie on her back. The minute her body touched down, several straps wrapped over her from the tip of her head to her ankles and locked her in place.

Well, shit-snacking crackers. Not again. What was she? The poster girl for alien kidnappings?

As the table slid backward into the dark cavern of the ship, she tried to scream, but the gag muffled any sound she tried to make. Something sharp pierced the side of her neck. Darkness rolled over her, and she absently heard the sliding panel click shut.

Revulsion coursed through Abalim as he and his brothers disembarked from the spaceship Elemi, on the gangster planet FiPan. Chaos, filthy and unrelenting, was their welcoming committee.

“Holy shit, what a dump.” Arakiba put his meaty fists on his trim hips and looked around with a scowl. “I bet this place didn’t look any better before it fell apart.”

Asmodel nodded. “Agreed.” He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the dilapidated buildings on the outskirts of the small town.

The structures were only one- or two-stories high and didn’t appear to have much support. Broken doors, windows, and roofs weren’t quite abandoned since several figures hid in doorways or peeked out cracked windows as they walked by.

Abalim wrinkled his nose at the combination of stinging sharp odors. The vile smell of feces mixed with rotting food left a bad taste in his mouth. He stepped on small debris and pebbles, crunching as he walked alongside a shallow ribbon of dubious liquid running down the middle of the cobbled road.

Small bits of trash swirled in the air, mixing with wispy dust devils.

“Do you think that’s where we should go?” Azazel pointed at a nondescript building that had a wide doorway permanently open.

Inside and out were various types of robots and droids, either lying broken on the ground or frozen in mid-action. Most were female shaped with bright metallic neon skin in various shades, complete with a set of three breasts and barely there short skirts in transparent silky fabric.

“Jeez, I wonder what these babies did when they were wake.” Arakiba snorted. He chuckled as he passed a model in eye-burning metallic pink.

“I think they were called sexbots by the prior owner, the Dred Pirate Maynwaring.” JR15 helpfully provided to Abalim from his favorite perch on Abalim’s shoulder. “They were once programmed to give sexual pleasure to whomever paid the pirate for their services. They were also spies or thieves if the need arose. I would recommend we don’t activate any of them.”

Abalim humphed his agreement. “Be sure to share that information with your brothers.” He eyed Arakiba, bending over to examine the pink droid. “Especially him.”

He watched as each JR droid on his brothers’ shoulders vibrated as JR15 communicated with them.

When Arakiba didn’t move, he walked over to him. “Come on, leave the damn thing alone. I’m sure JR12 told you how dangerous they were.”

“Maybe when everything is done, I’ll come back and grab one of these.” He fingered the robot”s bald head. “I bet I can activate it.”

“Holy Goddess, Arakiba. Don’t you think about anything but your libido?” Asmodel groused as he fist-bumped his kneeling brother and pushed him onto his ass. “We don’t have time for this bullshit.”

Arakiba laughed and stood, brushing off the seat of his brown leather pants. With one last glance at the prone droid, he followed them to the open archway. He whispered something to the gold-and-silver JR on his shoulder.

The little bot did a dance and waved his spindly forelegs before wiggling his bulbous body in what looked suspiciously like joy.

Abablim resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Keeping Arakiba focused had always been a challenge. Now that they were no longer slaves to the Akurns, the tantalizing taste of freedom made the task harder than ever. And his robotic companion was of little help. Where JR15 was shy and reserved, Arakiba’s bot was part daredevil and part mischief-maker, eager to try new things.

“Keep an open communication between you and JR12,” Abalim whispered to JR15. “If they even so much as hint they’re going to veer away from what we have to do, let me know.”

“Yes, Mister Abalim, sir.”

Satisfied JR15 would help keep an eye on Abalim’s mischievous brother, he followed his other brothers to the only semi-fortified looking building in the small square. He had to admit, even in its heyday, it probably didn’t look much better.

“Are you sure this is where that human Althea said she was held prisoner?” Azazel narrowed his pecan-brown eyes. “I can’t imagine them surviving in all this disarray.”

They’d passed through the open arch and proceeded into what used to be some kind of lobby. All the furniture had either been smashed or stolen, leaving a mostly bare room.

“Which way?” Asmodel stopped, his head swiveling from right to left.

“You two go that way.” Abalim pointed to the right. “Azazel and I’ll go this way.” He thumbed to the left and gave Arakiba and Asmodel a stern warning. “If you find anything, have your JR bots tell ours immediately.”

Arakiba waved his concerns away and trotted ahead of Asmodel. “Come on, bro. Let’s see what we can find.”

Asmodel frowned as he followed his brother.

Looked like Arakiba was getting the hang of Earth slang. Abalim didn’t have to read the man”s mind to know how much that had to annoy Asmodel. Maybe exposing Arakiba to new experiences right now wasn’t such a good idea. Lips thinned, he headed to the dim hallway he’d pointed to.

“Don’t worry.” Azazel spoke in a soft voice behind him. The light in the corridor darkened as they got farther from the open entrance. “Arakiba is just trying to work around all the extra stimuli we’re exposed to at this time. He’ll eventually come to terms with who he is inside.”

Abalim grunted. Trust his philosophical brother to see the good in any situation. “I guess the only thing we can do is keep half an eye on him. Hopefully, he won’t end up somewhere where we can’t help him.” It was becoming impossible to see where they were going. “JR15, would you give us some light?”

The little droid opened his upper eye and emitted a wide beam of light.

Azazel’s red-and-gold JR14 did the same on the other side.

At the same time, a tentacle of familiar psychic energy grabbed Abalim’s attention. “There.” He stopped and grasped the filament with a sensory hold. “Just ahead. I feel a small portion of that woman’s energy just ahead.

Wordlessly, he and Azazel stopped in front of an open archway into a small room. Before he had a chance to lock on to the psychic trail, Arakiba and Asmodel joined them.

Azazel turned to them. “How did you get here so fast?”

Arakiba grinned and crossed his arms. “Place is just a round hallway with a lot of little rooms like this one. All are empty, with only a few droids scattered around like that one.” He pointed to a red sexbot lying on the floor with its hand extended. He stepped into the room and froze. His eyes glazed over.

“What do you suppose he’s looking…” Asmodel studied his blond brother before he too froze.

Abalim and Azazel looked at each other. “I guess…” Azazel didn’t finish because the same thing happened to him.

Abalim’s eyebrows rose. He’d never seen his brothers get caught in a trance at the same time before. The only thing he could do…

Abalim was swept into a vision. His brothers were there as well. All five of them stood in the middle of the room while three women were either sitting on the floor or sat on a narrow, thin cot. Two stood with their backs to him, talking in quiet tones as they faced the hallway at a safe distance from a shimmering force field.

Damn, he hadn’t experienced being in this type of psychic plane before. It took a moment for him to get his bearings.

“Where are we?” Asmodel looked around until one of the seated women caught his attention.

“Where do you think we are, you dumbass…” Arakiba started to harass his brother but then he focused on a different woman.

Azazel didn’t say a word. He’d turned to face the three women and froze.

In tandem, Arakiba and Asmodel also stood stock-still as their eyes turned white.

Abalim grunted. Looked like his brothers had entered a different psychic plane. Good. They must’ve latched on to the women’s psychic energy. Maybe they’d get more information that way.

“Do you think it’ll ever come back online?” The blonde woman standing next to Althea asked the question.

Abalim had to be having a vision of the past.

He turned his full attention to the woman speaking. He couldn’t catch his breath. His heart raced and his vision narrowed. On an intellectual level, he knew his physical body wasn’t suffering the unexpected reaction. But all the same, it didn’t matter. It was hard to focus on what the women talked about. The only thing he wanted to was do was concentrate on the blonde in greater detail.

He watched her profile and moved to face her. The mesmerizing shade of sapphire blue in her eyes struck him speechless. They sparkled with intelligence and a sense of a creative spirit. He narrowed his focus, hoping to read her and find out her name.

He sucked in a breath when his psychic tentacles hit a hard wall. Well, shit. That couldn’t be good. Turning his attention to the curly brunette next to her, he was able to penetrate Althea’s thoughts with no trouble. She was thinking she didn’t have to answer… Lisa. Ah, this one must be Lisa Ivy, the author who was a successful sci-fi romance writer. Thankfully, the Zerins provided him and his brothers with the extensive profiles they’d developed when the women were accepted into the alien exchange program.

But that dry information didn’t tell the full story. It listed her hair as “short, blonde”, but didn’t describe how it framed her pixie face and carried several shades of gold and light bronze in the strands.

The profile said she was “five foot four” but didn’t go into detail about the gentle dip where the indent of her waist met her hips and accentuated their prominence, emphasizing the timeless hourglass shape that defined her figure. The slight rise of her hipbones beneath the surface hinted at the strength that lay beneath their alluring exterior, a tantalizing juxtaposition of power and beauty.

“I wonder if it being frozen like that is a good thing.” Lisa crossed her arms, lifting up those mouthwatering breasts as if offering them to the gods. “Or a bad one.”

Abalim withdrew from Althea’s consciousness and didn’t bother to hear her response. Nor did he care what in the nine galaxies they talked about. With each movement of her plump lips, he got lost in erotic fantasies of what he’d love for those mounds to do to him… on him. A well of deep longing he’d never experienced before rose up. Damn, just watching her mouth move as she spoke created a harsh yearning for him to explore her in person. Need pounded in him.

It startled him when the two women left the entrance and sat on the hard-looking floor at the back of the cell.

Althea wrapped her arms around her bent knees and rested her head against them.

Lisa slumped against the unforgiving wall and stared off into space, worrying her bottom lip with her top teeth.

He had the strongest urge to go over and rub his own lips over hers. Giving her a slight, sharp nip was optional.

No telling how much time passed as he stood there like a lovesick moron blindly watching a fascinating woman. He startled when she jumped up and raced with Althea to the front of the force field again.

With a shake of his head at his inability to keep his mind in the game, he joined them to see what had them so excited.

“What’s that?” Althea exclaimed, standing on her toes, craning her head as close to the shield she could without getting hurt, and peered down the corridor.

“What’s what?” Lisa responded. “You think a dimensional portal is being activated? I’ve always wanted to go through one!”

Abalim caught his breath. Could it be the Krystalii were already invading? No, that couldn’t be right. He was experiencing the past. And if he wasn’t mistaken, this happened long before he met up with Lord Baelon on Hiigar.

By the time he shook off his musings, all five women were standing at the force field trying to see what was happening down the dark corridor outside their cell.

The sound of stomping footsteps and hissing snaps got louder as who (or what) got closer. Bursting into the dim light outside the cell was a strange crowd of small aliens. The beings weren’t bigger than four or five feet tall, with two legs and six arms. To add to their oddness, they boasted tails shaped like a beaver’s with leathery scales and sparse, coarse hair. Each had a long snout with four black glinting eyes perched just above. On top of their oblong, flat heads were pocket-sized round ears that flickered and twisted. None of them wore any type of shirt, just pants or shorts ranging in color from brash gold to navy blue that covered their fur-lined skin.

Each carried a variety of weapons, complete with several sets of what looked like handcuffs.

Since entering the vision, Abalim constantly wished he had JR15 with him to ask if the bot knew anything about these aliens.

Then Abalim noticed the prone neon-red sexbot frozen with its metallic hand raised on the outside of the wall.

Not that the larger robot standing in front of the archway stopped the aliens. Two of them grabbed the android under her arms and dumped her to the side, leaving the archway clear.

Gibbering in a guttural language, one of the creatures aimed a small black box at the force field.

A sizzling whine before the shield dissolved.

Now the alien aimed the black box and pushed a different button that activated the nutesh snares around the women’s necks.

All five screamed in agony, gripping the leather collars and dropping hard to the unyielding floor.

Abalim clenched his fists as he watched the little shits scramble to the women with hoots and whistles, securing their wrists and slapping putty-looking rappu gags over their mouths.

Once the women were secured, the aliens forced them to stand. They grabbed the women and scurried with them down the deserted, dark hallway.

The vision switched.

Now Abalim stood outside the building and watched Lisa being dragged to an alleyway. Racing after them, he skidded to a halt when he saw her floating next to a small spaceship. The alien activated the nutesh snare around her neck and dragged her over an open table at its side.

Abalim rushed to her, and made it in time to watch her hit the metal sheet inside.

At the same time something was injected into her neck. Her eyes fluttered closed as the table slid into the ship.

He did his best to follow her, but couldn’t. The vision stalled, so he linked himself to Lisa’s psychic trail to see if he could connect with her in a different Dreamwalk.