“I thought Purvel wasn’t part of the alliance.”
“It isn’t. But we conduct business with several alliance member nations and maintain positive relations with them.”
“Oh.”
He stared out over the sea, his brows drawing down. “I can’t unravel the mystery of how they did it. My brother can’t either.”
Maybe some of those alien abduction stories people on Earth mocked had actually been real. They often seemed to involve missing time and having no memory of how the humans came to be on the alien ship or wherever the aliens took them.
Turning his head, he met her gaze. “How did they capture you?”
“My friends and I were traveling on Prince Taelon’s ship.”
“The last I heard, Prince Taelon was missing and presumed dead.”
A faint smile lifted the corners of her lips. “Nope. He’s very much alive and bonded to an Earthling.”
His features lightened. “One of your friends from Earth?”
She nodded. “Several of us were on our way to Lasara aboard the Kandovar. We passed through one qhov’rum and had just entered a second when an alarm sounded. My friend Eliana stuffed me into an escape pod. The ship started taking heavy fire—”
“The ship was attacked in a qhov’rum?” he blurted and came damn close to gaping.
Ava still wasn’t sure exactly what a qhov’rum was. It reminded her of a wormhole, but didn’t fold space or whatever a wormhole purportedly did. Instead, it was something constructed by an extremely advanced alien race that provided ships with a safe course free of objects or debris while propelling them forward at speeds even the most technologically advanced ships could not achieve. “Yes.”
“I’ve never heard of such happening before.”
“I don’t think the Lasarans had either. It was sudden and seemed to take everyone by surprise.”
“I’m amazed that there was even enough room to engage in battle.”
“There wasn’t really. The Kandovar’s shields quickly began to fail. My escape pod launched. It burst through the walls of the qhov’rum and…” She swallowed hard, thinking of all the Lasarans she’d met. “Evie—the computer in the pod—thinks the ship exploded.”
He stared at her with what could only be construed as utter disbelief. “The Kandovar was destroyed?”
“I think so. Or rather Evie thought so. She lost contact with the ship as soon as we passed through the walls of the qhov’rum. And all of her attempts to hail it since have failed.”
He looked about as stunned as she would look if someone had told her a massive asteroid had struck Earth and instantaneously eradicated all life upon it. “Do you know who attacked?”
Fury filled her. “Gathendiens.”
A slew of curse words erupted from him. “Why the drek would Gathendiens attack a Lasaran warship? Why would they attack Prince Taelon’s warship? It should be one of the hardest in the fleet to defeat!”
“I don’t know.” She had thought perhaps the Gathendiens were just getting some payback for the Lasarans kicking their asses however many decades ago. But since she’d been captured, that question—the why behind the attack—had really been eating at her. “I’m starting to wonder if…” She closed her eyes and shook her head, not wanting to say it. He’d think her a total narcissist if she did.
“What?” he asked. Touching her chin, he turned her face toward him. “What do you wonder?”
She opened her eyes. “I’m starting to wonder if they attacked the Kandovar because they knew my friends and I were on board.”
He frowned. “You think you were their true targets?”
It sounded ridiculous, her and fourteen other women from Earth being more valuable than an alien prince and a shipload of Lasaran and Yona soldiers. And yet she kept circling back to it. “The first thing the Gathendiens asked me when they pried open my escape pod was if I was Lasaran or Earthling.”
He frowned. “Then they must have known you were on board the Kandovar when they struck.”
“That’s what I was thinking. I didn’t answer when they asked because I wasn’t sure which one would screw me over more.”
“That didn’t translate.”
“I didn’t know which one would drek me over more.”
“Ah.” Thank goodness her propensity to use foul language didn’t offend him.
“But they figured out I’m from Earth. And when they did, they looked pleased, as if that’s what they had been hoping for.”
He tightened his arm around her. “How many of you were there?”
“Earthlings? Fifteen.” Tears once more pricked the backs of her eyes as she thought of her friends, wondering where they were, if they had survived, if they were prisoners somewhere like her.
Jak’ri looked out over the ocean, seemingly lost in thought. “They destroyed a Lasaran warship, killing countless Lasarans and Yona, all in an attempt to capture fifteen Earthlings.”
“I know. It sounds crazy.”
“Have your people had dealings with Gathendiens in the past?”
“No. But we learned recently that the Gathendiens released a virus on our planet thousands of years ago that they expected to kill us all off.” Anger rose. “I think that’s why they captured me. I think they want to figure out why the virus they created didn’t work. And if they do…”
“They will correct their mistake and exterminate all Earthlings.”
She nodded miserably.
“They wish to do the same to Purvelis. Even now, my brother sickens with the latest virus they’re testing on him.”
“We have to stop them.”
“Yes.”
“But how?”
“I don’t know,” he murmured, his eyes unfocused. “Can you find me outside of dreams?”
She shook her head. “They keep me locked in a cell.”
“I don’t mean physically. Can you find me telepathically? I can’t send my thoughts to you because of the nahalae. But if you could find your way into my mind, send me your thoughts, and listen for mine, we could communicate while awake and perhaps devise a plan.”
“I can do that.” She frowned. “Wait. Why can’t I read the Gathendiens’ minds? I’ve tried and tried and get nothing.”
“They’ve dosed themselves with the nahalae to make doubly sure we can’t read them.”
“Oh.” Several moments of pensive silence ensued. “Any ideas yet?”
“No.” He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “But I tend to think best when I’m swimming.”
Amusement trickled through her, displacing some of the fear and stress. “Do you?”
“Definitely.”
She waved at the water. “Well, there happens to be a great big ocean right over there.”
“So there is,” he said with a sage nod before his expression lightened. “Care to join me?”
Ava started to say yes, then remembered just how far down that ocean was. “Um…”
Jak’ri rose to his feet, and she noted again how much thinner he was. Reaching down, he snagged her hand and drew her up beside him. “Say yes.”