“Where did you hear that name?”
“Jack Sparrow?”
“Yes.”
“The Tangata’s encryption is unassailable, so I’ve been channeling all communications with Earthlings. When Lisa commed Eliana the first time, I heard them laughing over my apparent likeness to him.” Then it dawned on him. “Oh. Were you thinking the same thing when you first saw me?” Was that why she’d thought him telepathic?
“Yes,” she admitted.
Janwar wasn’t sure what to make of that. “Do I really resemble him?”
A twinkle of amusement entered her eyes. “Yes, though you’re taller.”
He narrowed his eyes. “They seemed to find it amusing. Should I feel insulted?”
Her full lips stretched in a grin. “Not at all. Jack Sparrow is a character in what you would call entertainment vids. He’s a dashing pirate who usually thwarts the many men and women who wish him dead.”
He stroked his beard. “Dashing, eh?”
Again, she laughed and managed to do so without wincing in pain this time.
He didn’t notice until then that the amber glow in her eyes seemed to be fading, rendering them browner. “Your eyes aren’t glowing as brightly.”
“The pain has lessened, thanks to the transfusion.”
“Pain makes them glow?”
She nodded. The needle in her arm withdrew. “Finally!” Her mood visibly brightening, she hopped off the bed.
“Careful,” he cautioned, recalling her limp.
“I’m fine. Don’t coddle me,” she warned good-naturedly. “I’m starting to like you, and that would ruin it.”
Then he was right. He should treat her like one of his warriors. “Then why the srul are we wasting time in here,” he retorted with a smile, “when some Gathendiens are eagerly waiting for us to interrogate them.”
Grinning, she offered him a cocky salute. “Much better. Lead the way.”
The bay on the Gathendien ship had been swept clean when Simone sabotaged the atmospheric barrier. The only things remaining in it were her escape pod, a transport that looked almost as crappy as the one she’d hacked her way into, and a few battered gray fighter craft that were locked down. A conglomeration of equipment she couldn’t identify clung to the walls, probably magnetized to it. And several smears of blood marred the floor, left behind by the first Gathendiens she’d slain after exiting the escape pod.
“I neglected to ask,” Janwar murmured from the pilot’s seat as he guided the roomy transport into the hangar. “Where did you find the white suit you were wearing earlier? It had no tail, so I assume it wasn’t one of the Gathendiens’.”
“It was in the escape pod.” She hadn’t wanted to put it on when her battle with the Gathendiens had led her back to the bay, but—technically speaking—Simone wasn’t immortal. She was just extremely tough to kill.
Decapitation would work. So would fire if she couldn’t escape it. While extreme blood loss would kill a vampire, an Immortal Guardian would instead slip into a state of hibernation similar to that of a tardigrade until a new source came along. The same thing held true for extreme cold or dehydration. Hell, Stanislav had survived being buried in Susan’s basement for two years after nearly being blown up. That’s how hard it was to kill an Immortal Guardian.
On Earth.
She wasn’t sure about the vacuum of space, though, so she’d taken a few seconds to don the bulky, annoying Lasaran space suit toward the end.
Krigara sent her a curious glance. “You wore it while you fought the Gathendiens?”
Hell no. That would’ve been too awkward. The thing had swallowed her.
Simone shook her head and nodded toward the bay. “I didn’t don it until I followed the last few stragglers in here and saw they intended to leave.”
Janwar glanced at her over his shoulder. “I’m surprised you had time to put it on.”
She shrugged. “I’m faster than you think.”
He chuckled. “No doubt you are.”
That drew a smile from her. She was starting to like these guys and hoped they were on the up and up.
Janwar set the transport down smoothly.
As soon as the engine powered down, Krigara rose and reached toward the control panel that would lower the ramp.
Simone jumped up and caught his arm. “Wait. I disabled the atmospheric barrier.” With her katana. Time had been short, and she’d hoped the presence of live Gathendiens in the bay would keep the a-holes who’d clambered into the transport from opening the bay door and escaping.
Alas, it hadn’t.
He smiled. “I repaired it.”
That surprised her. “You did?” she asked, releasing him. “When?”
“While you were busy trying to restart the transport’s engine.”
“Oh. Then it’s safe to go out without our suits?”
“Yes.”
Simone glanced at Janwar for confirmation as he joined them. For some reason, she trusted him the most.
He nodded. “It’s safe.”
Krigara tapped a code into the console.
Since Simone couldn’t read whatever language they used, she committed the sequence pattern to memory. Just in case.
When the ramp began to lower, Janwar and Krigara moved to stand in front of her while Kova and Srok’a stepped into position behind her.
Rolling her eyes, she cleared her throat.
As she’d anticipated, Janwar and Krigara swiveled to look at her. Stepping through the small gap between them, she took the lead. “This is my ship now. I go first.” When Krigara opened his mouth to protest, she scowled a warning. “I go first. You all are my guests.”
Eyebrows flying up, he glanced at his cousin, then smiled. “Yes, ni’má.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That had better be the alien equivalent of ma’am.”
“It is,” Janwar confirmed. “It’s a term commonly used throughout the alliance to address an unbonded female.”
“Good to know.”
Simone strode down the ramp as soon as it finished lowering.
Boots clomped on metal as the warriors followed her.
“This is your escape pod?”
She turned to see Janwar motioning to the pod. “Yes. I’m not sure if it looks so battered because of the explosion or because it was thrust through the walls of the qhov’rum.
“Probably both,” he said as they came upon bloody smears on the bay’s floor. “What happened here?”
Simone smiled with relish. “The Gathendien welcoming party thought to take me captive.” She jerked a thumb toward the pod. “There should be a body in there if it wasn’t sucked out when the bastards in the fleeing transport opened the bay door.” She shook her head with disgust. “They didn’t even care that some of their shipmates were still in here moving around. And they knew I’d disabled the atmospheric shield.”
“Which is why I believe the only good Gathendien is a dead Gathendien,” he said.
Simone grinned. “I like the way you think, commander.”
“Just Janwar. My men only use the formal address to vex me.”
She laughed. “Then I like the way they think, too.” Immortal Guardians often razzed and teased each other to alleviate boredom and lighten what could be a pretty dark existence. They did slay vampires for a living, after all.