Page 4 of Protected By the Alien Commander

I shrugged. I seriously had no idea. “I do know one thing, and that’s that we need to check on the pilot and crew and find the supplies of drinking water and food.”

Ava curled her lip. “This is not the time for your overactive fears, Olivia. You’ve done enough already.”

“What?” I tried to breathe again past the shock. “What did you say? I had nothing to do with this! How could I? What even made you think that?”

“What the hell, Ava!” Miranda glared with her hands on her hips.

Ava shrugged it off. “This is obviously a subpar cruise line.”

I shook my head, then turned around and walked out of the room. As if Ava hadn’t approved the vacation package or been the most nitpicky out of all of us.

I strode up the hall as far as I could, which wasn’t much distance at all because the crash had caved in the rest of the hallway. Behind that mess was the cockpit.

Maybe that was why we hadn’t heard any announcement or anything yet.

Miranda had followed me up, but I jumped anyway when she grabbed my arm. “What if the crew is… dead?”

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Ava said. “Probably still asleep. You know they nap during the trip to the Moon. Everything is on autopilot.”

I could feel Miranda’s hand trembling, and turned to her with a big smile. “Oh, they’ll be okay. Besides, we need to find the supplies and see what’s going on outside.”

No, I did not look at Ava as I walked past her. The sting of her comments still burned. I busied myself hunting around in the dining/med room for things needed in an emergency and had a small pile of protein bars and a few bottles of water by the time I was done. That might last us for a day, if we didn’t count the crew.

I chewed my bottom lip as I jumped down into the lounge after checking on Emma. She was breathing normally but still unconscious. My stomach twisted. She obviously needed medical help.

Now I had to face the big mystery that I had been avoiding. Where were we? Why had no one rescued us yet? Even worse, why had we heard nothing from the other side of the smashed hallway?