“Chloe, myaruu. He is not a human.“ Aylzrunth rubbed her back.
“Huh?” She glanced at him before swinging her attention to Ari with an up-and-down perusal. “What do you mean he ain’t human?”
Great. How did Aylzrunth know that? He didn’t sense any psychic abilities from the Runihura. Maybe now wasn’t the time to address that question. Better to keep things simple. “You know how some people have mixed heritage?” He directed his question at Chloe.
She nodded with a guarded expression.
“Well, mine’s just…reallymixed. Like, muddled out-of-this-world mixed.”
“Say again?” Chloe’s dark brows rose.
“He is telling us that his genetic makeup is a combination of human and alien.” Aylzrunth explained. “He is a hybrid.”
“Yep, that’s me.” Ari spread his arms wide. “My DNA is just one big galactic smoothie.”
Morgan bit her bottom lip as her eyes twinkled.
Chloe frowned and studied Ari again. “Figures. Ain’t no way a human guy could do all that and be so good-looking.” She humphed and grabbed Aylzrunth’s large hand in hers. “Just like my man here, no one on Earth is anywhere near as beautiful.”
“Female,” Aylzrunth grumbled. “Do not describe me as beautiful.”
The sound of Morgan’s giggle made Ari smile. Especially when the onyx man’s cheeks flushed darker.
Aylzrunth turned his neon-blue eyes to look at Ari. “How much time do you need before you are ready to depart?”
Ari rested with one of his arms across his waist and plunked his elbow on it. Tapping his forefinger on his chin, he looked away as he tried to figure out the best answer. He let a moment pass before he looked at the alien taller than himself. Again, he had to be honest. It’s not like he’d gone around fixing organic spaceships all the time. “I’m not really sure, but hopefully not too long. But I think it’d be best if you remove your ship, so whenElemiis ready, I’ll be able to put her in the docking bay so we can launch from here.“ Goddess willing.
Ari braced himself under Aylzrunth’s glowing, wide-eyed stare. “If that is so, what an impressive feat it would be. I have never seen the like.” Now his pupilless eyes narrowed. “When we have finished this situation satisfactorily, I would appreciate the opportunity to ascertain your background.”
“What my man is trying to say, in his own convoluted way,” Chloe piped in. “Is we’d like to get together again. Okay?”
Morgan’s smile widened. “I’d really like that. Wouldn’t you?” She turned to Ari.
“Ab-so-frigging-lutely,” he returned her grin. He’d rather do anything than delve into his background right now. Especially since he wasn’t sure if he could pull this momentous task off successfully. It was going to stretch his limitations, transferringElemi’sconsciousness then rebuilding her ship body. Not to mention keeping the Ozevroc frozen at the same time. At least if he failed, he wouldn’t have to worry about his brothers finding out. Because if this didn’t work, he’d probably end up blowing them all to hell.
“It’s a date.” Ari widened his grin and rubbed his hands together. “So, whaddya say we pretend it’s another Tuesday and save the universe, people?
Tension melted from Ari’s shoulders as Morgan volunteered to lead Chloe and Aylzrunth back to the docking bay. He’d almost expected her to dig in, determined to stay by his side no matter the danger. As if he’d let that happen. The last thing he wanted was to risk her safety while he focused on the impossible. Damn, he was sure lucky the universe cut him a break for once. He didn’t have time to deal with battling her relentless stubbornness to make sure she remained as far away as possible in case everything went south.
So, he’d take advantage of Morgan being gone for now. The quicker the better. He turned to JR12, As’ni, and the android Elemi inside the empty ship.
“You know,” JR12 said from his shoulder. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of the other organics, but I have an idea about merging Elemi with, ah,Elemi.”
Ari glanced at the small gold-and-silver bot looking up at him with his multifaceted eyes. “I’m listening.” Anything would help at this point.
“All right, A-Man,” JR12 began. “It’s like this. Instead of fully extracting Elemi from the android unit, consider a more efficient solution—allow her to share her consciousness between the ship and the android body, creating a dual interface where she controls both simultaneously. After all, as Da Vinci once said, ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.’”
Hmm, maybe that’d work. Ari turned to Elemi. “What do you think?”
In a sultry tone, Elemi said, “Darling, that would be fabulous. Why should I settle for one form when I can be magnificent in two? Imagine me—gracing the ship with my brilliance while still keeping this fabulous body. It’s perfection, really.”
“Okay, that’s doable.” Ari pointed to the pulverized navigation console. “Stand there and put your hands here.” He motioned to a broken protrusion that used to be part of the command station. “I’ll set up a station where you can plug in, so stay calm.”
Thankfully, she did as he asked, putting her palms on the withered material without making some mind-numbing comment.
“As’ni.” He turned to the purple crystal giant sitting on the floor with his legs splayed.
The purple entity was playing with his coils, bouncing them up and down while singing a repeating ditty.
