Page 36 of Protected By the Alien Commander

Olivia

We all jumped backand gave Doshax room as he stormed out. I didn’t know what that was about, but it seemed personal. My friends looked at me, but I shrugged and shook my head. I had no idea, and I wasn’t about to ask.

I headed to the break room and busied myself opening all the cupboards.

Ava walked in. "What are you looking for?"

"Anything, really. There aren’t many food bars left. I was looking to see if maybe there were some that Doshax had missed in his search."

Ava grimaced. "And it doesn't look like anything grows out there either. What will we do? How are we going to survive? I can't believe we crashed on a planet who-knows-where, but definitely not near Earth.” She sat at a table and laid her head down on her arms.

I sighed. But I would not let myself get down in the dumps. Besides, Doshax would provide for us, I just knew it. We both turned at the sound of running footsteps. What was wrong now?

Miranda burst into the room. "Emma is awake!”

We ran down the other corridor to the room Doshax had placed Emma in. She was standing in the corridor, confused, with her blonde hair messy. "This ship looks different."

She was buried in our arms in a big group hug. Then I stepped back to let the poor girl breathe. I studied her trying to tell if her mannerisms were different. Was her mind still all there? Or had the medpod scrambled her brain?

“What's the last thing you remember?”

Emma looked at all of us, frowning. "What do you mean?”

Ava and I exchanged glances.

"You know," said Miranda, "you were asleep, and we just want to make sure you didn't miss anything."

I nodded and continued to watch Emma. I hoped my friend was fine.

“We left on the booze cruise, and then—" Emma’s eyes got comically big. “Oh! We crashed, then I don’t remember anything else.”

Ava rubbed Emma's arm. "Yeah, you were knocked out in the crash. It was a few days ago. But you were healed in a medpod."

"What? I was out for days?”

Miranda glared at Ava before she turned back to Emma. "You’re fine. We put you in a better medpod that healed your concussion. The one on our cruise ship wasn't very good."

"What do you mean, another medpod?” Emma looked around. “This doesn’t look like our ship. It’s a lot bigger. And really different.”

"Well, it's not our ship,” I said. “It’s another ship that we found here on this planet, and it's big enough for all of us…"

How was I going to tell her that we were stuck here? The poor girl had just woken up from a several-day coma.

"What happened while I was out? I can't believe I was out so long."

Ava put her arm around Emma’s shoulders. "Let's go to the break room, and we can tell you about it while you get something to eat and drink."

We all walked to the break room, where we shared our meager supplies with Emma. Ava told her what had happened to them while I had been away looking for help. Then I filled her in on what had happened to me while I was gone.

"An alien?” Emma stared, speechless.

"Well, yes. We’re uh, not near Earth anymore.”

Emma swallowed. "So what does the alien look like? Short and gray like the ones from Roswell? Can we even understand him?”

I shared a look with the other girls. She’d freak out when she saw the pirate. “He doesn't actually look like those aliens. He’s in the military for the government here. The ship has a translator that’s working, so we didn’t have to learn each other’s languages."

Miranda jumped in. "He's really tall, blue, and he’s got quills from his head down to his butt.”