“I don’t care,” Gis responded with a surprising amount of sass.
“You’ve been spending too much time with Amina,” Helmen grumbled. “Fine, you can come, but don’t do anything unless I give you a direct order, got it?”
Gis grunted, which was what all the Ossisos had started doing in response to orders they weren’t going to follow but didn’t want to refuse out loud.
Amina chuckled, and Helmen shot her a sour look and grumbled, “Such a bad influence.”
Giving up, Helmen turned on her heels and walked out of command. They fell in step behind the irritated captain.
The dock was a typically busy place with foot traffic, cargo bots of all sizes, repair crews, and maintenance staff filling the area with noise and motion. Amina noticed that Gis hesitated for a moment but then shook it off and took the spot at her right. She was holding Myrum’s hand in her left.
“You don’t have to do this,” Amina said.
“You’re wrong,” Gis answered. “I promised everyone I’d stay at your side. We aren’t trained like Lorse’s guards, but we’ve all been practicing.”
“I know,” Amina said. “I was there helping sometimes, remember?”
“And you know that none of us are very good yet,” Gis said. “But we have enough skills to more effectively get in the way. That would allow you time to escape.”
It was more likely that she and Myrum would handle any physical confrontation, but it was sweet how much Gis and the others wanted to protect her.
“I’m sure things will be fine; just don’t start any fights,” she said.
She heard Helmen grunt, probably fighting off a laugh. She shouldn’t be so amused. Helmen was the worst fighter of the crew.
It didn’t take them long to reach a ship named Bountiful. They all paused at the corridor leading to the ship. Helmen stepped back to stand on Myrum’s other side.
“You don’t have to do this. You’re going to be an Ilgorian citizen soon, and even if they try to take you from us, you and Amina are already married. She accepted your traditional proposal. We all witnessed it, and that’s proof enough for any Ilgorian court.”
“I’m not worried that they’ll take me by force,” he murmured.
“If they try to guilt you into anything, I’ll poke their eyes out,” Amina said. “But Helmen is right, we can turn around and leave.”
“I should give them my report,” he murmured.
He was wavering, so Amina pressed. “You don’t have to do it in person. You could dictate it and send them a data packet.”
They all waited quietly while Myrum thought about it. She was sure he was about to turn around when a human appeared at the opening of the corridor. She was wearing a short wrap dress with baggy pants underneath and had a Talin-style belt with a miniature version of a standard Ident cube.
The most startling part of her appearance was the shiny collar around her neck.
“Myrum!” she shouted cheerfully with a huge smile on her face. “I’m so glad to see you!”
A red-brown Talin chased after her. “Nalia, stop right now!”
Amina didn’t like the way the Talin yelled orders at Nalia, and she really hated the way he wrapped his arms around her to stop her progress. Nalia turned around in his arms and they were talking quietly, but the fuse of Amina’s temper was lit.
“Let go of that human!” she said, charging up the corridor.
“Amina, Derani would never hurt Nalia,” Myrum said, rushing to follow her.
She ignored him and flexed her hands to reveal her claws as she stopped an arm's length from the two. “Let her go right now!”
Nalia pulled free of Derani and faced her with a curious expression. “Oh, hi! I’m not in trouble or anything, Derani is overprotective and worries I’ll be stolen any time I leave the ship. I mean, I can’t blame him because I was abducted on a Delorta station and some of them saw it and didn’t do anything. It made him a little paranoid. I probably should be more careful, I tend to…”
The longer Nalia talked in such an easy, happy manner, the more Amina relaxed. Seeing the collar was still bothering her though. If she could get Nalia off the ship, Amina could “disappear” her on the station. From there it would be easy to adopt her and take her back to Ineeko.
A plan was already forming.
