He didn’t trust the way he felt ten times lighter after hearing her answer.Get yourself together. The situation is too dangerous to be distracted by the attractive female by your side.
Still, he couldn’t keep the smile from climbing across his face. He turned and surveyed the mess hall, finding debris still strewn around the tables and chairs, but the place was empty.
Jennifer turned her attention back to him. “Maybe the FIDOs are still down, after what you did to them.”
Ontarii nodded, but he feared something worse. If the Hareema had realized that the robots were able to point them out when they had taken a shape not their own, they might be bent on destroying the FIDOs. Which meant they needed to get to them before the enemy could.
Once again he picked up his pace. The human captain let out a frustrated huff behind him, but a glance over his shoulder showed that she was keeping up. He stopped before the cargo bay entry, and this time she managed to skitter to a halt before running into him.
A quick scan of the bay showed the FIDOs were no longer in their previous resting places.
Shit. We’re too late.
“Where are they?” she asked.
“Not where I left them.” He scowled, wishing he’d figured things out earlier.
“Maybe they recovered from your attack and are somewhere else on the ship.”
Ontarii shook his head, dominos starting to drop in his mind. “I doubt it. More likely, that’s what the ship came for.”
The Hareema already on the ship had probably discovered the issue while trying to complete its mission, whatever that was. Infiltrating Zanthar, undoubtedly. It found out the FIDOs could trace it and called out for reinforcements.
He glanced at his companion and saw that she was coming to the same conclusion. “We’ve got to get to that ship.”
He agreed. “The Hareema craft seems to have settled over the same hatch my men and I entered by.”
Together they rushed out of the cargo bay and into the corridor, headed back toward the mess hall.
When they reached the corridor that led to the external hatch, Ontarii pulled the human captain to his side. His back against the wall, he carefully peered around the corner. He was expecting some sort of guard, but the corridor was empty.
“Maybe we should make a thorough search of the rest of the ship before we go down there,” Jennifer mumbled.
He thought he detected a note of fear in her voice.
“Not this time.” Their searches so far had ended badly. “We need to seize the opportunity while we have the chance. They probably think we’re still locked in the bridge.”
“Maybe, but I don’t know…” she replied, grabbing his arm and squeezing it. A rush of protectiveness flooded through him at her action. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“Why does everyone inevitably use that line in situations like this? I mean, under what circumstances would you have a good feeling about this?”
Jennifer rolled her lovely eyes at him.
“Forget it.” She dropped his arm and straightened. “Let’s go.”
He instantly missed her touch.
Regretting his off-the-cuff remark, he wanted to take her into his arms and soothe her. She had a right to be scared. Alien shapeshifters were crawling all over her ship, her crew was missing, and they were about to head into enemy territory.
But he couldn’t embrace her, regardless of how much he wanted to. Her body language said she wouldn’t appreciate him pulling her into his arms right now. Not to mention the fact that the enemy could surround them at any moment, or they could run into a squad of angry robots.
Ontarii wished suddenly that he would have met her under different circumstances. He wasn’t sure what sort of situation would have brought him into contact with the brash human captain, but he longed for a chance to put aside the constant fear and nagging distrust and be able to talk to her, to hold her and comfort her, without death hanging over their heads.
Ontarii started forward down the corridor, charging up his bioelectricity. The charge was faint. He still hadn’t built up enough of his energy since taking out the FIDOs a little while ago. He prayed to Noruma that they wouldn’t run into any Hareema before he could get back to full charge.
The hatch was closed, and he motioned for Captain Brooklyn to open it. She hit the buttons on the console that would release the hatch, and when he heard the whoosh of air from the seal being released, he grabbed the hatch handle and pulled.
Ontarii was surprised to see the small craft’s own hatch was standing open. He’d expected it to be closed as an additional security measure. Taking a look around the empty vessel, he stepped over the threshold and onto the ship.
