“There are no Nefyrians who appear Japanese, so that might be a sign you’re not one of us.” Qylar considered that a moment.“Or…your father was half Nefyrian, half Japanese himself.”
“Questions beget more questions,” Kenji muttered.
“I’d be surprised if you were only a quarter Nefyrian going by your ability to shift and the speed you swim.”
Kenji searched his face. “Why’s that?”
“My friend Cryss is married to a man whose father was Nefyrian. His mother was human. He was raised here on Earth with her. He had no idea that he was half alien until a few years ago.” Qylar eyed Kenji. “He can’t shift, so learning what he was came asquitea shock. At least you had an inkling you might not be fully human.” Qylar chuckled. “Well, Alexhasfigured out how to shift his fingers into baby tentacles that look more like garden snakes but that’s as far as he can go.”
“Is it only the three of you here on Earth? Or are there more of your kind?”
“There are many Nefyrians on Earth. Probably numbering in the thousands.”
“Thousands?”
“We’ve been coming to this planet for a long,longtime,” Qylar said. He leaned against the wall as he faced Kenji. “A few centuries ago, Earth became our protectorate. We keep you safe from other races who wish to ravage your planet for its resources.”
“We do a fine job of ravaging them ourselves.”
“True,” Qylar said. “But trust me. It could be much worse. There are other empires out there who would’ve destroyed this planet years ago, simply for the raw materials.”
“It’s kind of hard to imagine there areempireson other planets when I’ve barely left San Francisco my entire life.”
“We can change that,” Qylar said.
“Oh?”
“Weareon a star cruiser and can go anywhere we want.”
Kenji eyed him. “First I’m jailed and called a spy and now you offer me the stars. Quite the red flag, Qylar.”
“You’ve been hovering around my ship for months and also landed in my bed. Coincidences are rarely that. It’s my duty to safeguard Cryss and his family. I assumed you were a threat and went into protective mode.” Qylar felt terrible for the way he reacted. “I’m sorry for assuming the worst, but it kind of comes with the job.”
“If the roles were reversed, I suppose Imight’vereacted similarly.” Kenji sighed. “Honestly, I had no idea this ship was yours. I didn’t target you in the bar, either.”
Either he was an incredible actor, or Kenji was being honest. Qylar felt no sense of deception—and hadn’t the entire time.
“Why were you hanging around the ship?”
“The ocean is my meditation. It’s where I feel calmest. I go swimming nearly every morning. I go into deep ocean where there’s little chance anyone will see me. A few months ago, I was drawn in this direction. I found your ship. I had no ideawhatit was—only that it pulsed with this strange energy that felt… oddly comforting. It felt familiar, if that makes any sense.”
“It could be the magnetic field protecting the ship. It’s formed by an incredibly rare Earth mineral that’s abundant on Nefyria.There, the ocean floors are full of it, making the seabed one vast magnetic field. We use it to help us swim even faster than we can on Earth.”
“I noticed I seemed to swim faster closer to it. That’s part of the reason I kept coming back.”
“What was the other reason?”
“I wanted to see who this thing belonged to. Maybe find out why it felt so familiar. Maybe it was tied to whatever I was.” Kenji met his gaze. “I found the hole in the bottom, and Ididtry to get inside, just so you know. But I didn’t. It was like the water was made of steel and I couldn’t get past, no matter how fast I tried to swim through it. I wasn’t trying to steal anything… or mess with anything. I just wanted answers.”
“I’ll do my best to answer as many as possible. Starting with your DNA. The ship has a biolab. We can take a blood sample and see if you’re Nefyrian or not.” Qylar searched his face. “If you want to do that.”
“Right now?”
Qylar nodded.
“How… how long… before you’d have the results?”
“If you’re part Nefyrian, minutes,” Qylar said. “If you’re an unknown race, it could take hours for the system to run through potential genetic matches, and it still might come up empty.”
