“I could crush you where you stand for saying that.”His voice is steel, vibrating with restrained violence.“Perhaps I should.”He leans in, slow and deliberate, until the heat of him swallows the cooler air.
I stumble backward, my spine slamming into the wall.Nowhere left to go.
Dangerous energy crackles in the air.
I lick my lips.“You c-could kill me, sure, but it doesn’t change the fact you’d be abandoning your people by taking the easy way out.”
He lifts a hand—the electrical light pulsing under his skin where veins should be—and presses his palm against the wall, his thumb close to my ear.If I turn my head even a fraction, it would brush against my skin.
“You assume Icareabout my fellow Volderens,” he snarls, the tips of his teeth gleaming in the artificial light.“They are the ones who didthisto me.”His eyes cut to his cybernetic arm, then snap back to my face.“The High Council and the humans—especially XVU—can go fuck themselves.Humans took my arm, and the Council gave me this abomination as a replacement without my consent.I am not whole, and I will never be whole again.So, tell me…why should I care what happens to them, to me, or toyou?”
The mental image of XVU removing and using his arm for one of their grotesque alien-human experiments makes my stomach roil.No wonder he’s so angry.Who wouldn’t be?
His chest rises and falls as he breathes, and he continues staring, as if daring me to deny his words, to give him any reason to justify hurting me.
No matter what I say, it won’t be the right thing.Time to switch tactics.If I’m going to die, I might as well get an early start .
I grin.“So, you hate the Council, the humans, and me.That’s a lot of rage for one cybernetic arm.D-did it come with an anger management app?”
He grinds his teeth together, opening his mouth for a retort, but freezes, as if processing my words.“Wh-what?”he asks, the anger in his eyes fading into confusion.He straightens and takes a step back, his frown melting.
“Oh, nowyou’rethe one with a stutter.Glad it’s not just me anymore.”
The corners of his lips quirk.A loud guffaw bursts from his mouth, and he claps a large hand over it, his eyes widening into surprise.
The deep sound of his baritone laughter rumbles through the small shelter and into my chest.
With a nod, I push past his enormous bulk and stand next to his desk.“Now that we’ve established you’re capable of smiling without the world falling down around our ears, let’s figure out a way to not die and get me back home.”
“You-you are not like the other humans, Ellie.I cannot remember the last time I…” He scratches his head as he locks his attention on the terminal, lost in thought.
I shrug.“People either love me or hate me.Growing up with a stutter made me different than the other kids.I had to develop thick skin to survive in school.My humor got me out of a lot of situations, and when it didn’t”—I tap my temple—“I used this.”
He looks at me, trailing his fingers over the artificial arm.“I do not like being different.I feel lesser with this, as if everyone stares, as if I am no longer Volderen.”
In a way, I can understand.As a kid, how many times had I wished I could speak normally, to not be made fun of in class?“Different isn’t always bad.That arm’s better than mine or any Volderen’s.How much can you lift?Two, three hundred pounds?”
“Five hundred.”
I whistle.“I bet that’s handy.”
He narrows his eyes.“Is that another… joke?”
“Naw.It’s a pun, so it’s punny, right?”
A grunt is my only answer.
“Okay, now that we’ve shooed away the elephant in the room, let’s get down to business.If you want to stay here and die, I can’t change that, butIhave no intention of giving up.I have family and friends who would miss me.Plus, I’m sure your people can figure out how to stabilize this wormhole if we bring them back these prototypes and whatever you’ve researched.”
With a heavy sigh, Kael stares at his terminal.“I am not doing it tohelpyou.I am doing it to helpme.If it means getting rid of you quicker, then I will do everything I can.”
“That’s the s-spirit.”
The ground under my feet rumbles.The adjoining shelter shifts a couple of inches.I stumble as I try to stay upright.
Kael reflexively reaches out and grabs my upper arm, giving me enough stability to remain standing.The metal desk rattles and moves an inch or so.Falling rocks and dirt outside, in the case, patter onto the ceiling with bangs and clangs.The shaking stops.
“Was that an earthquake?”
