Star hopping, motherfuckers!
It had never occurred to me to try and manipulate my personal piece of Ziggy to enhance my powers—not until Leeloo suggested it in the most witchy space wizard way possible.
“You already have everything you need inside you.”
Kind of on the nose, but whatever.
They also implied the secret sauce wasmeneeding to trust myself—to trust what I was “made of.”
Super slut alien DNA.
All jokes aside, self-confidence in my abilities was something I’d struggled with for almost my entire life. To add to the emotional soup, now I was linked with a Stellarian who had his own self-worth challenges—who didn’t even trust himself to be around our temporarily adopted baby.
Why can’t you see what I see, Zig?
I stared up at theOpertumfor a beat longer, trying to gauge whether he was eavesdropping on my thoughts. When he simply gestured at his chest cavity again, I realized this was a conversation we would need to continue at another time.
With a quick scan of our surroundings to check there were no overgrown lizards to witness my Stellarian skills, I star hopped inside my man.
I’m a space wizard, y’all!
It was still wild to get dragged through the ether by someone else, but it was way cooler to be the one manipulating time and space, to hop there yourself.
As soon as I was settled in my cozy cockpit, Transformer Ziggy started plodding along, his giant robot feet rattling the wooden planks of the wharf we’d parked the Lodger on.
Lacertuswas an aquatic planet—which tracked, since I’d grown up with Zion’s “deathpond” beneath the house. With it being a convenient stop on the Intergalactic Highway, multiple rows of piers had been built for the visiting species who couldn’t breathe underwater.
While Zig’s current skinsuit was the opposite of inconspicuous, most of our fellow travelers didn’t seem at all surprised or concerned by the sight of him.
The giant lizards lurking beneath the waves probably help with the shock value.
Zig had told me theLacertuswere a fairly antisocial species, but I still expected to run across at least one. Instead, I was getting strong Stellaria vibes from the melting pot of diverse aliens making pitstops for supplies and business opportunities.
Or… psychic readings?
Uulvin had given us the exact coordinates for their missing sibling, and the location was oddly accessible. Instead of being deep inside an underwater fortress, the shielded cell was apparently just off a bustling market square. This made me wonder if Uuktar was less a high-value prisoner and more of an indentured seer.
My Spidey sense was tingling the closer we got, and even though my partner and I had discussed this mission at length, I couldn’t help “voicing” one of my concerns.
Through our new, witchy bitch bond of course.
“Are you sure this isn’t a trap, Zig?”
“I’m not sure, and if it is a trap, it’s hard to say who set it.”
WHAT?!
“Well, why the hell are we walking straight into what could potentially be a trap?!”
He released another rumbling sound.
“Because sometimes, there’s no better way to determine who your enemy is than to allow them to believe they’ve won.”
Okay, fair.
I knew Ziggy pivoted—had witnessed him change his strategy mid-showdown before—so I knew I could count on him to keep a cool head no matter what happened.
As long asI’mnot directly threatened.
