Fresh tears welled in her eyes, and my spirits fell. “Did I say the words wrong?”
“No,” she said, her voice wavering. “No, you said everything right.”
I frowned. “But you are crying.”
Leigh threw her arms around my neck with a sobbing laugh. Nothing about her response made sense. Why was she crying if I said the right things, and why was she embracing me if I made her cry? And how could she laugh if she was crying?
Human women were a mystery.
“I love you, T’raat. Of course I’ll marry you!” She sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “God, I’ve cried so much today that I’m covered in snot.”
I gave my nanites time to translate the last word before answering. “Your mucus does not concern me. I am covered in the blood of our enemies, after all.”
Leigh laughed again. “Yeah, about that … I think we both need a shower.”
Her insinuation took me a moment to figure out, but once I realized what she was suggesting, I raced her to the bathing facilities in our quarters.
We did not emerge for our evening meal for two full time units.
Chapter 20
Leigh
After a rather long shower, in which we may or may not have, um, forgotten to use azi’in, T’raat and I ventured out of our quarters in search of something to eat. I didn’t know about my new fiancé, but I was absolutely ravenous after the day we’d had. I made T’raat promise not to tell anyone our good news just yet. John’s death was too fresh for Marcus, too raw of a wound, and I didn’t want to rub his nose in our happiness.
Of course, if our matching mile-wide grins were any indication, I figured everyone would guess eventually.
H’rran was the only member of our tiny crew in the galley when we arrived. I wondered who was flying the ship, but then I thought about it and theorized that the Xalanites probably had some kind of automatic navigation system in place. I was sure H’rran wouldn’t leave us without a pilot in the middle of space.
“You are both luminous,” she said as we walked in. “Glowing is the human term, yes?”
Busted. “Um, yeah. I guess.”
She flashed an iridescent white grin. “Do not worry. Mating after a brush with death is common to both species, as I understand it. Although, perhaps I should restock the ship’s supply ofzi’inonce we arrive on Xalan. It would be prudent.”
T’raat and I exchanged a guilty glance, but we didn’t fess up. Instead, I cleared my throat and asked her to suggest something good from the galley.
“Oh, yes! We have much to choose from. Friedjek, freeze-driedxirt, and freshssolpthat I caught myself before I left Xalan.”
My appetite shrunk as I listened to the menu. I didn’t know what any of that stuff was, let alone if it might be edible for my species. So much had happened in the past few hours that we hadn’t taken the time to inject me with nanites. H’rran’s words were just gibberish to me, and not at all conducive to helping me decide on what to try to eat.
The Xalanite woman must have mistaken my change in expression, because she added, “Do not worry. Thessolphas been kept refrigerated for safety. If properly prepared, it will not poison you.”
Yeah. Great. So, I still didn’t know if it was a meat or a vegetable, but hey, no poison.
I tugged on T’raat’s sleeve and whispered in his ear. “What sounds good? Is any of that something with protein?”
He briefly looked confused before his eyes widened with understanding, and it was his turn to clear his throat.
“Ahem. Apologies, H’rran, but I have just remembered that I need to change the dressing on my wound. I have saturated it in the shower facilities, and I should take care of that in the medical bay prior to eating. Please excuse us.”
Taking my arm, he led me to the med bay. I sat on a cot while he rifled through a bunch of drawers and cabinets in searchof something. After about twenty minutes, he let out a yelp of triumph and held up a small metal device. It looked almost like a dart gun, and the sight of it sent my nerves into overdrive. Did he have to shoot me to inject the nanites? Couldn’t he, like, stick a nice, safe needle in a vein and be done with it?
“I-is that, like, some kind of hypodermic injector?” I asked, pointing at the gun with a shaky hand.
T’raat looked at the wicked thing like he didn’t understand my apprehension. “Hypodermic? No, nanites are not injected like that. They must go to the brain stem to be most effective at translation.”
“You’re going to shoot me in the brain?!”
