Rosalie snorts. “Have you any idea how far we are from Earth?” she asks me. “This isn’tStar Trek. We can’t just teleport there.” She studies my face, looking for a reaction. “I mean, maybe the Sarkarnii can find a wormhole which would take you close to the Milky Way, but even then, you’re probably talking years of space travel at light speed. You’d have to be in stasis during that time, or you’d arrive back an old woman.It’s complicated, Gillian. Even for all the sophisticated tech the Sarkarnii have access to.”
“I need to go home.” I shake my hair out. “I made a promise to my mum and I’m going to keep it.”
“I don’t need to go back to Earth,” Kerra says. “There’s nothing there for me.”
“Me neither,” Maggie says, feeding the horc something from the low table in front of her. It makes a noisy snuffling sound. “And I never thought I’d say this, but Ilikethe Sarkarnii. I don’t mind staying with them.”
“You still have your bum gallery?” Scarlett elbows her. “Or did you delete that when you and Driok did the nasty?”
“My bum gallery consists of only one Sarkarnii bottom.” Maggie says primly. “It always has.”
They all fall about laughing. Various garbled responses suggest that not only is this not true, but whatever the bum gallery is, it is legendary.
I was never one for having close friends. After all, I had my mum, but being here, with them, in the here and now, in a place filled with laughter, makes me doubt my desire to go back to Earth.
Then I remember the pit, and I’m sure I can’t stay.
“My Gillian,” Dalox rumbles in my ear, the smoky rich scent of him invading my senses. “It is time to leave,” he adds. “We have many plans to make before we can get back to yourUrth.”
And it rushes at me like a hurricane wind.
I’m not sure I want to leave after all.
DALOX
Having her close makes my heart pound a little less. It doesn’t help much with the shed, which has come upon me like a plasma burst. I want to rip my skin off and hurl it away from me, only my shed has never been good, and it feels like this one is going to be particularly difficult.
And now there is an added complication.
“Rosalie says we’ll need to use a wormhole to even get close to the galaxy where my planet is. Is that possible?” Gillian asks.
She has hit upon the one thing I was hoping to work out before the question was asked.
“The female is correct,” I say as we collect my warriors, some of whom have fresh blood on their claws, and exit the clan hub into the neutral sector. “The galaxy we are in is well away from even the more populated parts. To reach the area where the Sarkarnii home world once was would take more than my lifetime.”
“Once was?”
“Our planet was taken from us, or rather it was surrendered to an enemy by our supposed allies, and upon which, half of the Sarkarnii population was murdered.” I grit my teeth.
“Oh,” Gillian says as all around me my warriors growl. “I am so, so sorry, Dalox.”
“You do not need to be. It was not your fault.” I stare straight ahead.
All this talk of taking her home. Maybe the others should consider returning to our original galaxy. I glance at my warriors. They should have the opportunity to take mates as I have done, and here on Vorostor, they will never get the chance.
Although, as my mate’s main aim is to return to her home, my chances of mating seem diminished too. But my rut means I cannot deny her what she wants.
Gillian will have her passage home, and I will accompany her.
We reach my sector, and I dismiss my warriors to go get cleaned up.
“I have few options, my mate.” I usher her though the ship and towards my quarters. “I need the mapping system for the wormholes, and I will be working on obtaining it.”
The door ahead of us opens at our approach, and Gillian steps hesitantly through it, looking at her surroundings carefully.
“And what happens if you don’t have this mapping system?”
“If we choose the wrong wormhole…” I feel my tail lashing behind me. “Then we may end up in a worse place than this.”
