“I would have thought so, but so far…nothing,” Shadow interjected.
“How do you know that?” Wingman asked.
“With Mysk’s assistance and his equipment, I was able to tap into subspace-anonymized communications to try to determine what the consortium knows. I’ve picked up a lot of discussion about the bombardment itself, but there’s no mention of the Castaway. I think maybe because Xeno is light-years away and Earth technology is primitive, there’s a delay in the signals getting here. Next time we visit Mysk in Seattle, I’ll check again.”
That didn’t reassure Chameleon. That Shadow had found a way to keep tabs on the consortium was good news, but it was old news. Because of the time delay, the Xenos could be at their doorstep before they realized it. “The High Council won’t give up searching for us. If they ever suspect Earth has assisted us, they will retaliate. Earth’s primitive weapons would be useless against the Xenos.” It would be like the bombardment all over again.
“What if this woman is your mate?” Psy asked quietly.
“All the more reason to leave.” He would never do anything to put his mate or her people in jeopardy.
The moment Kevanne had entered the diner, his being had gone still and his spirit reached out to her. He’d never experienced such an intense, passionate yet comfortable connection with another person. It seemed like they’d always been together. And then this morning, he’d awakened to find the mating glands at the base of his throat swollen, which strongly indicated she was his genmate. She hadn’t been genetically programmed to bond, but he had, and this suggested he had more human DNA than he’d suspected.
“If she’s your mate, how could you stand to leave her?” Shadow asked.
“It kills me,” Chameleon said. “But knowing she’ll be safer with me gone makes it bearable. I don’t think the consortium will look for us here—but with such a large bounty on all of us, they will expand the search to places they never considered. They will leave no planet unscanned.”
“You said you scared her—how?” Tigre asked.
“I showed her my natural form. She’d never seen a nonhuman before.”
Tigre’s stripes darkened. “We agreed to keep a low profile. What good does it do to remain hidden on the Castaway if you’re out in public showing yourself?”
“First of all, I revealed myself only to her. Second, we—all of us, revealed ourselves to Edwin Mysk.”
“We had no choice. We needed his help,” Tigre said. “Besides, he is interested and sympathetic to our situation.”
“So is Kevanne.”
“But she can’t help us. And what if she doesn’t keep our secret?”
“She will. I trust her.”
Wingman snorted.
Kevanne had promised to keep their secret, and he believed she would, but Tigre was right. How she made him feel didn’t matter. Their connection didn’t count in the big picture. He’d been close to forgetting his responsibilities. Locating the other refugees and leading them to safety came before everything else. If there was any solace, it was that leaving would ensure Earth escaped any possibility of retaliation by the Xeno. It would be many, many millennia before the consortium remembered the existence of a little blue planet in the Orion Spur of the Milky Way.
“Do you have any updates on the repairs?” Chameleon asked.
“Actually, yes. Yesterday afternoon, Mysk sent an aeronautical engineer, a fabricator, and a designer to inspect the ship,” Tigre said.
So much for maintaining a low profile, he thought, but stifled the retort. Logically, his irritation had no basis. Mysk’s people needed to study the Castaway to fix it. Thus, it was a reasonable risk.
“They estimate they can fabricate the parts and repair the Castaway in less than two months—if they have easy access to it. They would like to move the ship to a hangar on the Mysk campus.”
Two months left little time to spend with Kevanne. “How do we move the Castaway without people seeing it? We can’t lift off and fly it over there. I can’t imagine anyone on Earth would have a vehicle large enough to tow it if we could haul it down the highway, which we can’t.”
“That’s the problem,” Tigre admitted. “If the ship remains here, and they have to travel back and forth to remove and test parts, the estimate is four months to completion.”
“That’s still much faster than we estimated,” he said, trying to sound upbeat. Four months was better than two but still inadequate. He probed the swollen, tender mating glands with his fingers. Duty and desire, logic and emotion warred. For Kevanne’s own safety, he had to leave—not to mention finding and ensuring the survival of the remaining ’Topians.
Tigre made eye contact with everyone on the bridge. “You all chose me as a captain when we left ’Topia. We’re not in space anymore. I don’t have the authority to give orders. Personally, I recommend minimizing our contact with the local populace—” He looked right at Cam. “Telling you to avoid the woman won’t do any good. For herian’s sake, don’t show yourself to anyone else, and at the least, keep us apprised of your coming and going. You’re a part of this crew. You’re one of us. What you do affects us all, so take that into account.”
Tigre had rebuked him in front of the others, but the dressing-down had the opposite effect, causing a lump of emotion to form in his throat. You’re a part of this crew. You’re one of us. Nobody had ever said that to him. Perhaps the distrust had started to fade. Not with Wingman—Chameleon wasn’t stupid—but maybe he had proven his loyalty to Tigre and some of the others.
“I promise I won’t leave you wondering again.” Then he added, “I’ll uh, see Kevanne tomorrow.”
“Excuse me. I have work to do.” Wingman swept by, and the door opened at his approach.
“Hey. I’m sorry for saying I’d wished I could have left you behind on ’Topia,” Chameleon apologized, trying to mend fences. He’d spoken out of anger, and even though he and Wingman had their differences, he would never wish the man dead.
“I stand by my words. Once a Xeno, always a Xeno.” The door slid shut behind him.
Inferno glanced between Tigre and Chameleon. “I’ll talk to him.” He hurried after the Avian.
“Wingman has a big chip on his shoulder for reasons none of us can ascertain. Ignore his attitude. You are part of the team.” Tigre clapped Chameleon on the shoulder.
“Yes, you are,” Psy said, and left with Tigre.
Shadow started to follow but then halted. His face contorted. “If she is your mate—”
“It complicates things.” Chameleon sighed.
“For me, it would simplify things,” Shadow said.
Chapter Fifteen
“Why do you give him such a hard time?” Inferno asked.
“I don’t trust him.” Wingman pulled in his wings to make more room for Inferno to walk alongside him. The passages were narrow and so low, his wingtips scraped the ceiling. The suppressed urge to fly had become a physical pain, but he couldn’t leave the ship. Humans didn’t fly.