11. Where Are the Shovels?
Where Are the Shovels?
Her scrutiny made his skin itch. Krir pressed buttons, turned a couple dials, and kept his gaze from drifting to the dead body in the middle of the cockpit.
He refused to regret killing the pilot. The Giuk on this vessel had been a direct threat to Nicole’s life and freedom, which didn’t stop him from wishing for better choices, for him and for her.
Flipping one last switch, he rotated the seat and met her gaze. A small smile turned up the corners of her lips, those lips he kissed not so long ago—had it only been this morning? Too much had happened for scarcely a day to have passed. What a day it had been.
“Enjoying the view?” he asked with a laugh.
“Not exactly, but it is you under all the ungodly muscle.”
“That I can fix, but first…” He pointed at the seat next to him.
Nicole stiffened as she sat. Her fingers twitched against her thighs. Oh, those thighs… Not the time.
“I activated the emergency beacon, which means a ship should arrive no later than the day after tomorrow. The Geological Agency will return us to Qilffir, and the authorities will investigate what happened. If they haven’t already, they will notify the Giuk government.”
“Sounds reasonable. So, what’s my choice?”
“You spent many days with them, and all I know is a bit of their language and a few general guidelines if I ever have to interact with them. So this is not a rhetorical question. What do you believe may happen when the Giuk who kidnapped you learn they are under investigation for interfering with a non-spacefaring species, enslavement, and other dangerous working conditions?”
Her fingers stopped twitching and her eyes widened, a classic mammalian freeze response.
“They could destroy the evidence, kill all those people.”
“They could. Do you believe they would?”
“The Giuk I know, yes. If they learned of an investigation, they would hide or destroy the evidence—the people. Either way, the chances they would go free are slim.”
That’s what he was afraid of. Not all Giuk were vicious raiders, or else the Qilffiran government would not have formed the trade alliance.
Would they? Perhaps it was naive of him to think the best of his government, but he had to believe they would be as horrified as he’d been.
Hopefully, the Giuk officials would be too.
But if the Giuk on the spaceship Nicole came from found out, those humans’ lives would be forfeit.
“So here are your choices. We wait for the Agency and go through official channels. This will keep you safe but gives the Giuk who enslaved you an opportunity to kill the other humans and hide the evidence. Or we take this shuttle now and try a rescue before they realize the soldiers they sent are dead. I will support whatever decision you make and face the consequences with you.”
Nicole opened her mouth, then closed it again. She pulled a strand of her hair over her shoulder and twisted it.
“What consequences?” she croaked after a vast moment.
“What were you going to say—when you started to speak?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does. You have shown good instincts. So tell me what you wanted to say, and I will tell you the consequences.”
“I was gonna say, let’s go kick their ass. Now tell me the consequences.”
He flashed his teeth at her in a warrior’s grin.
Though the Qilffir were presently peaceful, placing the arts and sciences above all else, once they were a far more vicious warrior race.
He was a scientist, through and through, but he’d worked out his species’ vestigial aggression with martial arts training.
“We could fail and die. Or you could be enslaved again. We could be too late—it’s possible they’ve already killed the other humans.
Even if we succeed, we could cause a diplomatic incident between the Qilffir and the Giuk.
And I’ll need to remain in this form for a bit.
If we go with the Agency when they arrive, you could be stuck on Qilffir indefinitely while the investigation proceeds, delaying any potential return to your planet.
Perhaps for years. And not acting may cost all those humans their lives.
You need to decide which consequences you can live with. ”
She pressed her lips together, and her fingers tapped on her thigh in an unusual rhythm. After a moment, she stopped and wrapped her fingers gingerly around his hand.
“Why would you be willing to risk death, enslavement, or ‘diplomatic incidents’ for me?”
Because I love you, he didn’t say.
All the best stories had the lovers falling fast and hard.
He’d always thought that kind of love was for the stories.
He knew better now—here he was, falling in love with a woman from a different species because she’d crashed on the planet he was studying.
He may never tell her. She did not belong here, and it was his duty to return her safely to her home planet.
If he loved her, he needed to let her go. If he loved her, he would show her the only way he could—by helping her rescue her fellow humans.
“Because it’s the right thing to do. And because it is not my place to make such a decision about another sentient species. They are your people, and the responsibility falls to you. So what is your choice?”
She squeezed his hand, and for a second, he believed she might kiss him. For whatever reason—perhaps because he looked like her enemy—she pulled back.
“Then it’s time to cowboy up, Krir. We have a shipload of humans to rescue.”
Krir had no idea what a cow was or how a boy one was supposed to help, but before he could ask, Nicole threaded her arms through the safety harness. He glanced at the pilot’s body.
“We do. But first, we must dispose of him. Of them all.”
Nicole paled as she followed his gaze. He wished he hadn’t needed to kill to save her, but he wouldn’t change his choice for the world.
“Yeah, you’re right. Where are the shovels?”