Noxx’s furious expression softened as he heard her word and took in the boy.
Surely, he could see that this young man was no threat.
“It’s going to be dark soon,” Noxx said.
“I’m not saying we have to help him find his family,” Luna said. “But we can’t leave him alone out here. He should come home with us until the next light.”
Noxx nodded reluctantly.
Luna gestured to the boy.
“Do you want to come with us?” she asked out loud. “Have something to eat?”
She made an eating motion.
The boy’s head moved up and down enthusiastically. Yes, he would like to have something to eat. If anything in the vast sea of space really was universal, it was the hunger of a teenage boy.
“Me too, kid,” Noxx said.
“I’m sure we’ll find something on the way back,” Luna said brightly.
They set off in the direction they had come from as the sky began to dim.
15
Noxx
Noxx marched through the trees, two small rabbit-deer strung over his back.
The tiny creatures didn’t have much meat, but it would be better than nothing.
Luna and the boy had been picking all kinds of vegetation to cook, but a warrior of the Invicta needed meat.
He heard Luna laugh behind him and he felt a pang of jealousy, though he was sure the boy was no competition for her heart.
Her heart isn’t mine.
He tried to shake the dark thoughts, but they wouldn’t stop coming.
He needed to use that radio transmitter.
I’m a warrior. I’m not meant for these emotions.
But the emotions were coming fast and hard no matter what he claimed to be.
At least the boy’s presence would keep him out of Luna’s bed for the night.
He ground his teeth in frustration.
“Are you worried we won’t make it in time?” Luna asked as she appeared at his elbow.
“No, I’m just thinking about the food replicator,” he said. “How is it that we went out because we didn’t have enough to eat and we came home with another mouth to feed.”
“He won’t be with us forever,” Luna said. “We just have to keep him safe tonight. Tomorrow, we can help him find his family.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Noxx demanded. “He can’t even speak.”
“He absolutely can speak,” Luna retorted, rising up to the boy’s defense. “I just can’t understand him.”
Noxx chuckled in spite of himself.
Luna gave him a friendly shove and a wave of happiness washed over him at her touch.
“When we get back, can you get the boy settled?” he asked. “I have one or two things to do outside.”
“Sure,” she said. “We’ll start dinner.”
She bent to grab a handful of pretty blue flowers.
The boy ran up beside her and gestured to the flowers.
“Yes, they look nice, don’t they?” she asked, smiling at him.
He continued gesturing frantically.
“I don’t think he thinks those are for eating,” Noxx said.
“Well, they’ll look nice on the table,” Luna said. “It’s strange though, we have flowers like this at the farm on Terra-4 and they’re delicious. Maybe it’s just not customary to eat them here.”
“Maybe,” Noxx agreed.
They walked on for a few more minutes. The boy ran ahead and peeled a large mushroom from the trunk of a tree.
He trotted back to Luna, his large eyes rapturous as he showed her what he had found.
Noxx shook his head. The woman made friends wherever she went.
At last they reached the tree.
“Go on up,” he told her. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
She scrambled up and the boy tried to follow.
“Take these,” Noxx told him, handing him the rabbit-deer.
He grinned and threw the meat over his shoulder, then scrambled up after Luna.
Noxx waited until he was sure they would have gone inside.
Then he began to climb.
When he reached the disk, he let it bring him to the treehouse. He stepped off quietly and grabbed the transmitter, sliding the volume knob as low as it would go.
He had to hand it to Luna, she had done an amazing job with this thing.
He found the Invicta frequency easily.
He had only a few minutes before the moon was fully in the shadow of Hesiod-8, at which point the transmissions would be down until they cleared the planet’s mass.
“This is Noxx, over,” he said softly.
“Noxx, how the hell did you get set up so quick?” His friend Zann’s voice was faint and crackly, but he could hear him.
“The woman is handy,” Noxx said. “Listen, I know you were pulling some strings to get someone to take my place. Did you find anyone?”
“Noxx—er——ah—bu—" Zann’s voice was broken by static.
“Zann,” Noxx said.
But the transmission had cut out.
He glanced up at the darkening sky. Clotho had moved just enough so that Hesiod-8 blocked the antenna. There was no point even trying to reach the relay to Ignis-7 again for hours.
He took a deep breath and tried to settle his mind.
But it was impossible not to try to decipher the nonsense syllables he had received from his friend.
Did they send someone to relieve me, or didn’t they?
Will I stay or will I go?
When he’d first received the assignment, Noxx had been upset at what he’d seen as a glorified babysitting job, and he’d made it clear that he wished to be relieved as soon as possible. But after the events of the last few days, he wasn’t so sure he’d made the right call.
He took a deep breath of the crisp night air as warm light spilled out of the treehouse windows, casting graceful shadows on the branches.
My duty is to my homeland.
But my heart is in that treehouse.
He decided to stay outside for just a few minutes more, long enough to calm himself and clear his head, he hoped.
16
Luna
Luna hummed to Sol. She was carrying him on her hip, as she and Snake set the table.
Sol made small humming noises back to her and she thought she might die of joy.
Noxx had come in a few minutes ago, looking a little shaken. But when she asked if he was okay, he told her that he was just tired and went to clean up before dinner.
That was understandable, it had been a long day, and she had no idea how tiring it might be to shift into a giant dragon.
Luna looked over the table with a touch of pride.
They had managed to grill the deer meat, and Snake had fried up some of the mushroom he gathered to go on top. It smelled heavenly.
So good, in fact, that it attracted some outside attention. While dinner was cooking, the small monkey-thing from their tree came down to the window to pay Luna a visit. When it got close, she could see that the mother was carrying two tiny versions of itself on her back. The eggs must have hatched.
Luna was overjoyed at the thought that she had managed to work things out for this little family and her own. Before Noxx could come back and disapprove, Luna set a few bites of the food she was preparing on the windowsill for the hungry momma-monkey-thing. The creature didn’t waste any time being shy. In fact, she seemed to be showing off her babies to Luna as she sat on the sill and ate the morsels.