“If the plan is to eject it out the airlock into space, then I’m onboard,” L’iza retorted.
Dani placed herself between the hologram and her mogha.
Don’t worry, K’vyn’s voice said in her mind. Nobody is ejecting Hedge out an airlock.
You called him by his name, she said. Does that mean you’re starting to like C’hase’s pet?
“This molk has proven useful,” he said out loud, as much to Dani as to L’iza.
“But still a molk,” L’iza said. “I cannot detect his movements until it is too late.”
Of course, because a molk will crash a ship. Looking at her freighter, Dani understood L’iza’s stance. Still, though, she did not think C’hase would allow them to abandon the little guy. Molly let out a soft cluck.
And Molly would miss him too.
Setting the crate of chickens on the ground, K’vyn disappeared beneath the ship. L’iza leveled a measuring gaze on her.
“He wanted confirmation and now, standing next to you both, you are definitely K’vyn’s life mate,” the hologram said.
Dani blinked, the Korthan reappearing with a transparent box, the right size to contain a small troublesome pest.
Recognizing the contraption, Dani remembered the Korthan building it at the fire.
Without a word, he grabbed Hedge from C’hase’s head and placed the squeaking creature in the enclosure, closing a lid with holes at the top.
The mogha jumped to his feet in alarm. Oh, no, Hedge does not like cages.
Don’t worry, Little One, Dani said. This is not like the lab.
Running circles around the cage, Hedge squeaked, alarm obvious, as he scratched at the walls and corners.
“A molk cannot burrow through glass,” K’vyn said, peering into the cage as he held it up.
It dawned on Dani why Hedge didn’t escape from the lab. She simply didn’t think about it before, but he was in a glass enclosure.
Put something in there for him, C’hase said, handing her an iridescent lizard scale.
Brow furrowing, she lifted the lid and did as the mogha asked.
The little molk stopped his frantic movements, taking the scale, hugging it to his chest.
“Huh,” K’vyn sounded.
He needs more, C’hase said, taking off towards the freighter.
“What is he doing?” K’vyn said.
“I think he’s going to get more stuff for Hedge.” There wasn’t anything in the cage with Hedge in the lab.
The hologram projection snorted, a curl in her lip. “You only think you’ve contained it.”
“If it gets out, you may disavow me,” K’vyn said.
“Oh, I will.” There was promise in her tone.
Dani was under the impression that a disavowal was serious, K’vyn putting a lot on the line.
The hologram disappeared and the hatch popped, opening as the stairs became available again.
“Does your AI stay on the ship?” she asked. The movements were so lifelike, but the voice— Had to be AI.
“She is not AI,” K’vyn said as he picked up the crate of chickens.
“Oh, you have a co-pilot.” It made sense. Dani usually needed a co-pilot to help fly the freighter, but she didn’t want to involve him in rescuing the hellhound. Then, he’d be going to jail with her once the Human Colony Alliance caught up to them.
Although, it was odd that K’vyn’s co-pilot never left the ship.
“Is the hologram like a projection?” she asked. “Like the one you sent to my ship?
“It is not a projection,” he said as he reached the top of the stairs. “L’iza is the ship.”
Is the ship? She gazed over the hull, filled with wonderment over the magnificent AI.
“It is not AI,” K’vyn repeated. “L’iza is sentient.”
Dani’s jaw dropped, mouth hanging open as she climbed the stairs, gaze affixed to the yellow and black hull. Sentient. Wow.
Turning when she got to the top of the stairs, she looked across the landscape, orange flowers flapping in a gentle breeze, deep blue ocean winking in the light of the planet’s closest star.
Gaze resting on her wrecked freighter, a giant lizard slowly climbing the ramp, she was filled with trepidation. Would she ever go back to the Human Colony Alliance?
Molly let out a bawk and Dani jumped. Right. Time to get to Mogha.
Turning back to the ship, her jaw dropped again as she entered a world of beauty. The most pristine ship she’d ever seen, there was not a seam to be found in the shiny black walls or floor, so dark they mirrored the blackness of space and seemed just as deep.
Yellow streams of light traced through the depths of the walls in intermittent bursts. She was in a sentient ship. Were the streams akin to blood rushing through veins? Or more like synapses firing in the brain?
There were no corners, the hallway curving into another, doorways oblong ovals to pass through. Walking through one of the ovals, the Korthan plucked Molly from her arms, who squawked with a flap of wings before settling with K’vyn.
“Keep following the bend,” he said. “You will reach the cockpit at the end.”
Having no reason to believe Hedge and the chickens weren’t safe, she did as instructed, resisting the urge to touch the walls as she walked, mesmerized by their fluidity.
Entering the cockpit was a marvel to behold. Like the rest of the ship, it was round, but transparent in its entirety. Dani could see the surface of the planet with all its orange flowers beneath her feet, the sky above her head, and across the landscape at the trees on the port side and ocean on the starboard side through the walls.
Looking as if he were hovering above the ground, C’hase sat on the floor, clearly having returned from his mission, getting by without her noticing. Standing as he made eye contact with her, he twirled in circles.
Alpha, we’re going home, he said, followed by a happy yap.
Finally, she would be finding Mogha.
9
Sitting in a chair L’iza materialized from the floor, Dani leaned forward. The sentient ship grayed out the decking beneath her, because it was too disconcerting to be ‘floating’ through space.
A green world floated among red and blue nebulas, blackness of space dotted with uncountable stars all around them. Mogha—
C’hase was on his feet, elation pouring from him in waves.
Half of his fur was orange now, his antennae white, the tufts of feathers on the ends orange, standing out in the stark contrast of shiny black yellow-traced surfaces and blackness of space.
“This planet was not on any of my charts,” she said, marveling at how close Mogha was to Paradise. She would have passed it, if she had been allowed to continue her route to Colony 739.
K’vyn sat in a chair in the middle of the room, providing a full three sixty view of everything around the ship. Dani threw him a dry look.
You were trespassing, he said through the bond, the admonishment light-hearted.
“No, it wouldn’t be on any human charts,” he said out loud. “We are sworn to protect the inhabitants of this world. The location was never divulged to any human.”
Chest tightening, Dani said, “Looks like someone figured it out.”
“The Human Colony Alliance Fleet hasn’t arrived yet,” L’iza announced, hologram appearing next to K’vyn. On a ship full of things Dani was certain she’d never get used to, the appearance of a ghost-like hologram was at the top.