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“No, I’ll never manage them both.”
“Take one. I will save the other for you.” He carefully wrapped one waffle in a small cloth bag and placed it inside his clothing.
Loka must have some nifty pocket Heather didn’t know about. “I can eat and walk. We’ll stop at my quarters, so I can grab some clothes.”
“I’ll head back to engineering,” Hoan said.
“We’ll meet back here in two hours,” Loka said, “unless the comms come back online before that.”
They said their goodbyes and headed into the corridor. It was still gloomy with only low-level emergency lighting.
Heather saw several groups of people hurrying toward them. She slowed, recognizing Jenny from the café. “Hey. Where are you going?”
“Helga has advised everyone to hole up somewhere safe.” Jenny flicked her red curls off her face. “Not that there are many places. The bots just trashed the café.”
“Where are you going?”
“The docking bay. We’re going to check the ships and make sure we have enough space if we need to evacuate.”
Heather let out a breath. “It’s that bad?”
“It’s getting that way.” Jenny glanced along the corridor. “Stay safe.”
Heather watched her hurry away and catch up with her group.
Loka touched her arm. “If you want to go with the other humans, I will understand.”
“No way. I’m staying with you.”
Loka gave a satisfied grunt before striding ahead of her. He stopped in front of her door. Of course, he knew where she lived. He’d been leaving her coal gifts for over a month.
“Come in.” Heather opened the door and gestured for Loka to follow her. “I’ll only be a minute while I get changed.”
Loka grabbed her around the waist and threw her to the couch before covering her body with his.
Heather’s breath shot out of her as she felt his hard, heavy body pin her down. “What are you doing?”
“There is a bot in here,” he whispered in her ear.
She peered out from under his arm. “It’s Ernie.”
His grip on her arms released a fraction. “Your pet bot? Are you certain?”
“Of course. Let me up.” She smacked against his chest.
Loka didn’t move.
“Honestly, Ernie won’t hurt anybody. Well, I have programmed him with an attack mode. It only activates when I say a certain word.”
“What’s the word?”
“If I say it, Ernie will kill you.”
Loka snorted. “A tiny bot could not kill me.”
Heather pushed against his chest again, not hating the fact she was squashed under Loka. “My bot is different. You don’t want to get on the wrong side of him.”
Loka finally released her from his hold. Heather jumped up. She spotted Ernie in the doorway of her bedroom. “I bet you thought I’d forgotten about you.” She ran over and scooped him into her arms. “How are you feeling?”
