Nothing will harm my mate, not while I have any atoms left in my body. Rosalie is mine, for now until the universe ends.
No one will take her from me and live to tell the tale.
ROSALIE
“Dante-forty-two!” I yell out the second the airlock opens, pulling at the cumbersome space suit.
“At your command, mistress,”the onboard systems respond to me.
Like I even know what to command them to do. I might have been able to code, I might have been able to get the food dispensers to work, and to show Scarlett how the garment maker functioned, but a whole space ship?
A ship which takes multiple warriors to fly and to function?
I guess I’m going to have to put my big girl knickers on and try because I amnotleaving Dante.
“Bridge,” I call out, and lights appear on the wall, directing me through the passageways until I reach the open space which is eerily empty.
“Show me Dante.”
“Lord Dante is not on board,”the system says.
“I know that. He’s outside.”
“Searching…on screen.”
I grab hold of the console where the pilot was, and now isn’t, and stare down at it. I see the flash of a tail underneath wherethe two ships are joined, followed by a vent of atmosphere and then the slow, almost graceful parting of the two vessels.
There is a loud clunk which reverberates through the ship. Something I don’t recall happening when we docked.
“What’s going on?”
“We have been boarded.”
“Fuck!” I swear, reaching for the ray gun. “Who by?”
“It is not a species in my database.”
“Fuck.”
This isn’t good at all. I’d rather the ship knew what was on board than it didn’t. Mostly because I’d like to know. The only plus? If it was the cockroach aliens, the ship would know about the Veseli.
Could what’s on board be any worse?
Possibly. In fact, given everything which has happened to me so far, save the Sarkarnii, most likely.
“Where are they…it?”
“Currently leaving the airlock.”
“Where is Dante?”
“He is on the outside of the ship,”the system announces.“But his life force is weakening.”
“Fuckfuckfuck,” I chant to myself. “Get Lord Dante into the ship. I’ll deal with whatever is on board.”
“As you wish, mistress.”
Am I really going to leave it to the ship’s systems to handle Dante? I can’t see any other option. Am I really going to go confront whatever it is which is somewhere on board this ship and most likely has ill intentions? Apparently so.
