He used his senses to check for larger prey animals. While sharks were no match for him and his powerful appendages, he tried to avoid them whenever possible. They attacked on instinct alone, only hoping for a meal, and he had no desire to harm the creatures if he didn’t have to.
Whales were another matter. They were his favorite among Earth’s seas, and he’d go a bit out of his way to swim near one when he could. The gentle giants reminded him of a similar, much larger creature found in Nefyrian oceans. Their beautiful songs helped him feel a little less homesick.
He didn’t miss home, exactly, but he sure as fuck missed swimming the seas there. Where Earth’s oceans were filled with trash, microplastics, and pollution, the waters of Nefyria were pristine. There was little he appreciated about his people, but the fact they were good stewards of both land and sea had been impressed upon him over the years living amongst humans.
Familiar whale song sounded in the distance, and he adjusted course. After a friendly hello for a mother blue whale who was often in the area—and her newborn calf he was pleased to finally meet—he pushed on towards the ship.
The very one he and Cryss had crash landed after escaping a doomed wedding ceremony. Cryss’s, not his. Cryss’s fiancé had announced a long-term affair with his bodyguard and his pregnancy by the same man the night before the wedding. Cryss’s power-hungry parents had tried to convince him to marry the prince anyway.
Luckily, that hadn’t happened, but they hadn’t made it as far as planned.
They’d spent years trying to fix the ship to continue their escape, but life had thrown all sorts of curveballs. Cryss met his mate, Alex, whom they’d thought was human but later learned was a half-Nefyrian prince himself. Not before Cryss’s brother had shown up with a newer, faster ship for them and a command to return home to marry another of the king’s princes. One not pregnant by the bodyguard.
Luckily, Alex’s father had been that very king, and the pair had been allowed their happily ever after. Two children and homes on both worlds later, and they were living the dream.
The ship Qylar and Cryss had feverishly attempted to fix was no longer a priority. At least for Cryss. Qylar spent what little free time he had continuing the repair work. It was slow going, especially alone, but it was an escape he sometimes needed. Being alone, out in the quiet depths, gave him time to think.
He swam a few circles around the craft to ensure all was well before slipping through the secure water wall underneath the belly of the ship. As soon as he climbed onboard, he returned to his human form. He reached for one of the towels he kept near the water wall and dried off. After tugging on one of the pairs of the overalls he stored there, he went to work on the routing arrayon the pilot’s deck—one of the last of the repairs left before the ship was fully operational again.
A solid hour passed before the proximity alarm went off. He dropped his Flux Oscillopliers and checked the Earthen radar system he’d added since their systems were built for space, not sea. He scanned around the ship. A few seconds later, whale song reached his ears again. He grinned. The mother and calf finally appeared as blips on the radar seconds after that. They were saying their goodbyes as they passed for deeper waters.
“Safe travels, my friends,” Qylar murmured.
He returned to his work—until a light, dull clank behind him sent him spinning. Qylar unfurled his tentacle and reached for a blaster he stored in the old tool chest.
Before he could aim it, Cryss appeared in the doorway, dripping wet and a towel draped around his waist.
Qylar caught himself and lowered the weapon. He sighed, shaking his head at Cryss.
“You should’ve told me you were coming out. You could’ve lost your head.”
Cryss grinned. “I trusted your reflexes to keep it where it is.”
Qylar placed the blaster back into the toolbox and coiled his arm back into its humanesque form. “What’re you doing here?”
“Just checking on you—and your progress.” Cryss slowly walked around the main deck.
“How’d you get here? I took the boat.”
“I swam.”
Qylar cringed. “The water near the coast issopolluted. I’d much rather take the boat out.”
“Which is why I jumped in a shower before walking up here,” Cryss said. He scanned the pilot’s deck. “From what I saw outside—and in here—it looks like you might be nearly done.”
“I am.”
“I don’t know why you’re still working on this old bucket. We have the new ship now.”
Cryss had a new ship, not Qylar. He’d take theold bucketCryss no longer wanted.
“We spent five years trying to fix her,” Qylar said. “Why stop when we were so close?” He picked up his tool again. “Not like we can just junk her out here, either. We’ll eventually need to hide the ship somewhere else, and it would be easier to do that under her own steam.”
“True,” Cryss said. “It’s amazing no one’s stumbled over her already, even as far out as she is.”
“Don’t worry. I have her protected. I reprogrammed the stealth mode system to hide her from modern Earth tech, and I have the proximity alarms on their most sensitive settings. I’ve even rigged them to go to my cell phone,” Qylar said.
“Smart,” Cryss said, eyeing Qylar’s work. “Do you have plans for this heap once she’s fixed?”
