“You,” I blurt out. “Well, your kind, but not your kind. What you might have been at the beginning… They were in giant vats of liquid and they were just left there.” I shudder, recalling the fleshy bodies floating, suspended.
“And you destroyed them?”
“I think so. I’m not quite sure. I targeted the central machine network and the piping coming from it. More explosions wentoff than I anticipated and I had to run—that’s when Sada got me.”
He reaches out and drifts the tips of his claws over my neck where I touched it moments ago. I swallow thickly and lean into him; he quickly pulls his hand back and turns away. “We should go.”
Confused, I plant my boots into the ground. “You have nothing else to say? Isn’t it weird that we’re smelling the same chemicals in the air now that were down in the vats?” I peer around at the trees.
It is weird isn’t it? Or am I just being paranoid?
“The scent got swept up in a breeze, that is all. There have been many unusual smellssss of late.”
Without waiting for me to respond, he slips deeper into the forest, only pausing to look back at me when I don’t immediately follow.
I take a reluctant step forward, watching his expression. It’s harder, and more distant than before. I barely have time to think about it when he abruptly grabs my arm, hauling me to his side.
“Whoa, what’s wrong now?” I ask, pushing against him to catch my footing, surprised.
“I hear the hissing of another naga. Stay close to me and try not to cough. We are close to the encampment. I do not expect they will try anything with me by your side but there is always a chance. There are always a few naga lingering around here, watching the humans from the safety of the forest. I know because I have done so myself.”
“Right,” I say before shutting my mouth again. It’s clear the time for conversation between us has come to an end. He keeps me close and, at a slower pace than before to make as little noise as possible, we slowly emerge from the dense forest into a sparsely cut down lane of piled dirt and wood. Rows of turned up roots and rock line the space ahead of us for at leasta quarter of a mile. At the end is a large group of spaceships of varying sizes. Mostly military and civilian vessels, nothing as big as a commercial freighter amongst them, which are some of the largest transport ships. I wonder where those could be.The Dreadnautdefinitely had some.
Covering my face when a waft of engine smoke drifts by, I peer up to see the exhaust trail of the spaceship Krellix and I heard by the river still drifting up into the sky.
Spotting people in the distance, I note a wooden barricade beyond the ships with numerous smoke trails rising behind it. Between us and that are intermittent rows of dirt and terra waste and several large log piles. Machines lift and sort them.
At the threshold of the forest, Krellix and I are already nearly out in the open. A few more more steps and we won’t have coverage all the way to the spaceships. It won’t take long before we’re spotted.
I shift my gun behind me and glance at him but he’s facing forward, not paying attention to me at all.
“Krellix? Maybe I should do this part alone…”
His hand still grips my arm. With a tug, he leads us out from the trees and enters the lanes of dirt, and takes us right to the center.
“Krellix, wait.” I try to pull my arm from his grasp but it doesn’t work. “Krellix! They might shoot at you.”
He doesn’t look at me. “You have to go,” he says, his face blank. “You’ll be safe with your kind.”
“Yeah—” I tug my arm some more “—but it doesn’t have to be like this! Stop! Geez, stop!”
He spins on me, rising higher on his tail, his voice cold. “It doessss have to be like this. This is the deal. You are here now and that is it! I have gotten what I wanted from you and now it is time for you to go.”
I finally yank my arm free and curl it against my chest. “So that’s it is it? You’re going to play this card.” For being an alien, he’s coming across very human right now.
His jaw clamps as he looms down at me.
Suddenly there are drones around us and shouting coming from the distance. I stumble away from Krellix to put space between us, only for a thin, sleek military robot to fly directly into it and hover threateningly. The shouting loudens, getting closer, and I glance over my shoulder to see a group of armed soldiers running toward us.
“Go!” I tell Krellix. “Before they hurt you!”
He ignores me as he faces the men despite their guns lifting to aim at him as they approach.
I step between them and raise my own rifle. “Shoot him and you’re dead,” I warn.
“Put down the gun!” one of the soldiers, a tall one with a bandage over his cheek, shouts.
“We’re here to help,” another one says. “Step away from the woman, naga!”
