My face went up in flames, but I couldn’t even use my hands to hide behind, since I needed them to hold onto Pedro.
Luckily, Ziggy came to my rescue to get us back on track. “Visits won’t be safe until this mission is complete.”
I knew he wastryingto redirect, but all he was doing was piquingeveryone’sinterest.
Does he not understand this is the Stellarian Tea Party?
“Is… Pedrodangerous?”Gabe chewed on his bottom lip, his pretty blue eyes flitting between my face and the creature in my lap.
“No, they’re just a baby,” I soothed before lifting one of Pedro’s paws and waving it at the camera. “Although check out these claws.”
Even Dre leaned forward as Gabe murmured appreciatively under his breath. And when Pedro chose that moment to yawn extra wide, both twins grinned like kids on Christmas over the two rows of sharp little teefs.
“Looks like it’s nap time,” I explained, awkwardly punching in some numbers on my phone while trying not to drop the star of the show. “Lemme just get the nanny bot in here…”
Gabe’s eyes lit up as the enormous robot clanked into the kitchen. I’d been slightly concerned at first that Zig grabbed one so big, but it turned out, this one was also programmed toprotectits charges, not just change diapers and such.
Or, in our case, empty the litter box.
“SWOL-E in the house.” Dre whistled as the nanny bot took Pedro from me, gentle despite its bulk. “Dude looks like they could take down a Transformer.”
I wonder if Transformers are real…
“Wait, sodidyou make that?” Gabe asked, his assessing gaze running over the gleaming gold surface like the industrial designer he was. “You never texted back when I asked.”
Oh, shit.
“Yeah, sorry about that.” I rubbed the back of my neck and grimaced. “A creepy snake-headed alien snuck up on me and started asking questions about Pedro and nanny bots, so I got distracted. And no, I didn’t make it?—”
“You were texting on your phone when I left you in the Muonova?” Ziggy hissed. “What if the Hydrassian had attacked first?”
“Hydrassians don’t randomly attack,” Theo scoffed. “Although why one was loitering at a Muonova in the nanny bot section?—”
“They do when they’re being paid as mercenaries!” Ziggy barked, causing everyone to freeze and the nanny bot—SWOL-E, because that was its official name now—to swivel Pedro away from my stellar collision.
Pshhh… As if Ziggy would ever hurt our furbaby.
Theo set aside his plate, calmly wiping his hands and clasping them in his lap before facing the camera, as serious as I’d ever seen him.
“Why are a bunch of fortune tellers behaving like mercenaries, Ziggy?” His normally breezy voice had turned cold and calculating. “Does it have anything to do with that adorable space cat of yours?”
Judging by how the twins were gaping at their stellar collision, it wasn’t often they saw their chaos gremlin in bad bitch mode. I was also a little weirded out, but then I reminded myself Theowasa Stellarian and had once worn his own Space Daddy armor to fight with a Star Unit for Astrum Force.
Before slaughtering his entire squadron and escaping to Earth…
So the mood changes track.
Only Ziggy seemed unbothered by Business Theo joining the chat. “Younger Hydrassians are accepting payment from various species to use their talents to track down karnilian.”When his maker’s eyebrow raised, Zig added, “Have you ever heard ofthat?”
“Of course I have,” Theo replied in that same eerily emotionless tone. “Karnilianconquers planets. At least, it has the potential to… in the right hands.”
Or the wrong ones…
“You didn’t answer my question, Ziggy,”Theo continued, switching to Stellarian.“Does the Trol have something to do with the most sought after gem in the galaxies?”
Gulp.
Theo knew I had a translation device, and the twins appeared to be following, so I assumed he was attempting to encrypt our conversation from potential eavesdroppers.
