Was he a wanted criminal?
Wait, no, that would make him a convict, one who was serving a sentence.
What was his sentence? And what was his crime.
“Tori,” Olmed said, turning to look at her.
“A friend?” the other male said. He tipped his head back and laughed. “She’s so tiny. But to each their own, I suppose. Come, come. We go now.”
Tori glanced at him. “Where are we going?”
“Back to Kantenan.”
“But, uh—”
“I’ll explain later.”
“You’d better.”
Later came pretty quick—like as soon as they were shown to their quarters. Nothing like what they had in the space station. These were little gray metal rooms with ladders that Olmed could barely fit down, beds that folded up and locked into the wall. Generally everything one would see on a sci-fi show. Well, except Star Trek. They always had clean ships with polished everything. Tight fitting, dark metal, nothing really polished or pretty, but it did give privacy.
“You gonna tell me what’s up?” Tori asked as soon as they were alone.
Olmed made a gesture with his hand.
She raised her eyebrow. “Doing magic?”
For a second, a flash of light blinked, not super bright, but it seemed to just run over the two of them for a moment before disappearing.
“Unimpressive trick. Didn’t even sparkle,” she said.
“It is a protective bubble to keep our conversations private.”
“Oh, so I can yell at you and no one will know?”
“For a moment.”
“So what’s up?” she asked. “Quick and concise answers, please, since we seem to be on a spaceship leaving the station.”
“The others are the ones I’ve been following. They have something to do with the thefts that I’m here on Disguised Serenity to find.”
“What’s in it for you?” she asked.
“I will get my name back. Be able to walk on my soil again.”
She blinked. “I thought you didn’t want to go back to your homeworld.”
“My homeworld is just that. My home. My mother is there. I have not seen her in a long time, and I am not allowed to.”
She could only imagine what that would do to someone who had a parent that actually cared about them.
What different worlds the two of them lived in.
He looked down when he spoke, almost like he was embarrassed. “I am sorry. I do not mean to—”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I’m sorry if before, when I spoke about my family, if it made you feel any kind of way.”
“Any kind of way?”
