Page 2 of Doom Averted

“Who is this, why did you call this device?” a male voice demanded so harshly and so suddenly, that I jerked back, twitching awkwardly in zero gravity. The voice was deep and layered like it was two low voices talking harmoniously together. I remembered a musician that I used to hang out with, he’d do this cool trick with his voice that almost sounded like this, called it sub-harmonics. That’s what this voice reminded me of.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are,” I said, relieved that this voice, however alien it sounded, at least spoke English. I was so eager to hear a voice; finally, something that broke the silence other than my own prattling and the beeping from this console. “But I’m stranded on a ship, there’s no one here, and I don’t know how I got here. Can you help me? Please?” I batted my eyelashes at the console, even though this stranger with the deep voice couldn’t see me.

It was silent long enough that I thought maybe I’d imagined it, that there wasn’t anyone calling me at all. A delusion from my scared my mind. I thought I heard some kind of low purring sound followed by a deep sigh. “I don’t know who you are lady. I’m not going to drop everything just to pull your ass out of a fire,” the voice said.

I gasped, relieved it was real, “Oh, I understand that! I just… I don’t know where I am, there’s no one here and I just woke up all alone. If you could just eh… point me in the right direction regarding who I should be calling? I don’t understand any of this technology.” I was pretty terrified this guy, uh, person? Was going to hang up on me and I’d be left alone, unable to reach anybody else.

The silence this time had me on pins and needles, I was pretty sure he hadn’t hung up on me. No, I couldn’t just assume it was a guy. I was speaking to an alien, it could be anything, it could be genderless… But the grumpy kind of groan that crackled through the speakers had this distinctly male ring to it anyway.

“Fine, why don’t you go over to the nav-console and tell me your current coordinates?” he said, voice rumbling, vibrating in the pit of my stomach. I looked around the dusty bridge uneasily, trying to figure out which console was the one he was talking about. Was it one of those near the pilot chairs?

“I don’t think I can read what’s on them,” I admitted to the stranger on the other side of the line. I clutched my fists against my belly, contemplating floating over there to try, but what good would it do? I half-expected the grumpy voice to respond with a growl or a sigh, but there was a kind of chirruping noise instead. It sounded cute and friendly, so I gaped at the blinking lights on the screen, wondering if that was someone else entirely.

“Fine, give me a minute, I will trace your call,” the deep voice responded, and then, “Shush Babbit, no don’t stand on that. I need that you knucklehead.” I kept on staring, so my helper in need was indeed not alone. It sounded like he was talking to a pet. When a moment later some kind of purring noise rumbled over the line, I knew I was right. Well, he couldn’t be a bad guy then, even if he was grumpy. “Gotya,” he murmured a minute later, and I whooped in joy.

“Really? Thank you! I’m Arianna by the way, what’s your name?” I asked, leaning over the screen as if I could peer through it and see who I was talking to. Something about that voice was making me so curious. I wanted to know what a real alien looked like, was he a green small little one? Or a gray one with a huge head and black eyes? Somehow, my brain was telling me he had to be hella sexy with a voice like that. No, bad hormones.

There was a huff, and I could almost hear his eyes rolling even if I couldn’t see him. “Fine, I guess we can do introductions. I am Da’vi, and the knucklehead you hear purring is Babbit.” On cue, the animal lit up with loud purrs. I sighed, gosh, that sounded like such a cute animal. I was imagining something like a tribble but maybe crossed with a cat or something. No, I was definitely not a sci-fi nerd, not me.

“I’m so glad to meet you Da’vi, and Babbit. I just woke up from this glass coffin and I have no idea how I got on a spaceship…” I explained. In my head, I could hear my father point out that I was always much too trusting of strangers, and that I was naive. But really, what else could I do? I was going to die if I didn’t get help from somewhere, so this Da’vi was going to have to be it.

“I will call you back, I need to run a search on who you can reach out to safely for help,” he responded, with no hint of softness in his tone. Not even a hint of a smile, or kindness, let alone concern for my well-being.

Opening my mouth to respond, I heard a click, and then the dial tone beeping. He’d hung up on me.

Chapter 2

Da’vi

Pacing across the cluttered floor in the engine room, I tried to ignore the half-a-dozen Strewn mechanics that were currently wreaking havoc. Calm down. This wasn’t the end of the world, it was just a little overhaul, and it was on my recommendation even. We needed this. Stars, I’d been looking forward to digging into these major repairs on the Vagabond. Why couldn’t I enjoy it now?

I knew why, that blasted female voice was messing with my head. I had spoken to her last night through the outdated com device I’d scavenged from Drameil’s safe. I should have just called her back as soon as I knew, but the information wasn’t going to be what she wanted to hear. It was making my stomach ache and I didn’t understand why.

Why should I care about a single female who’d gotten herself stuck somewhere out in space? It wasn’t my problem. But it was a problem; a big one. There was nothing around her location, just some meteor fields that had been mined long ago. Going to her from Strewn to help her would take us months, even with Chloe risking several of her longest FTL jumps during the journey. That was the case for pretty much anything surrounding her location. She was in a complete dead zone.

“No! Not like that,” I interjected, spotting one of the Strewn mechanics about to make a grave mistake. They were supposed to be the best in the galaxy, but this was crazy, that was the third time I’d had to interfere this morning.

Stepping over several bundles of cable, and dodging another mechanic who was carrying a large structural panel across the room, I finally reached the foolish mechanic. “You were about to electrocute yourself, here, like this.” I pulled the fragile part from his hands, turning it around so that it was plugged into the correct polarities.

The Asrai tilted his face up to me, displaying the dark black and white markings that formed his ‘deathmask.’ His mouth pulled into a wide grin, showing far too many teeth to be polite, “Why, thank you Chief Engineer Ertague. You saved my life.” The bright golden eyes held an expression I couldn’t read but I was pretty sure he wasn’t feeling anywhere near as grateful as he should.

Sneering, I shook my head, “Right, just like the last two idiots I saved this morning. What is this? A test?” Like I didn’t have enough on my mind already with the female stuck out in a dead zone. She shouldn’t be my problem, but my mind was just not letting it go.

The male shrugged, “Why would we do that? It’s not like we’ve got a job opening or anything…” My belly clenched at the casual comment. So that was it, huh? They were testing my skills, trying to find out if I was a fit? Had they heard about what I’d been up to during my time in the Kertinillian Army? The thought alone made my blood turn to ice in my veins. No, I was never doing that again. Not even for all the money in the galaxy.

Babbit made a low sound when he suddenly popped out of one of the hatches the cleaning bots normally used. It was a mix between a hello chirp and a disgruntled yowl; he didn’t like how much of a mess the ship currently was. Couldn’t say I blamed the Riho.

He adeptly wove his way through the horde of mechanics and ship pieces to reach my pants leg. Then he had no qualms about using his claws to scale me like I was a tree. In seconds, the heavy weight of a full-grown Riho male settled on my shoulders, his furry, blue, and black head right next to my face. “Prrrr,” he said and his chest started rumbling in what Camila called the manliest purr she’d ever heard.

I saw how the golden eyes of the Asrai male turned from this calculating look to one of open amusement. So I sneered a little more. Like I gave a shit what they thought of my companion. It wasn’t like he was pink, or called Fluffy. Although, Fluffy did seem to enjoy following Babbit around enough for these males to have seen her. I scratched at the base of one of my horns in annoyance, maybe I should give Hina a call to let her know Fluffy wasn’t welcome in the engine room for a while. That was believable, with the engine lying in pieces on the floor.

There was a bit of laughter coming from some of the others working around me but as soon as I looked, they turned their heads away. Returning to the station that I’d been working on, I tried to get my head to focus on the massive amount of work still to do. As soon as I was in the thick of things my thoughts strayed. Soldering delicate wires into contacts to hook up the upgrades should have taken all my focus, but the task was repetitive enough.

I needed to figure out if that female was what she said she was, lost, confused, and alone. What if it was a trap? I wasn’t going to risk my brothers and their mates on a fool’s errand. What if it was real? What if there really was a female stuck out in the dead zone? I didn’t think my conscience would allow me to abandon her to her plight.

We still had at least a week’s worth of repairs to go before the Vagabond could fly again, and that was if I did the remainder of the work myself en route. I didn’t think I could convince my brothers, let alone Ziame, the Captain, that that was a good plan. We’d been limping around in a barely functioning ship for months, it was about time the Star Class Cruiser got the overhaul she deserved.

“So, you are the famous Da’vi Ertague,” a voice suddenly drawled from behind me. I jerked upright, banging the tips of my horns against the inside of the open panel. Who the fuck was that? I hadn’t heard anyone approach, and while stuck in my head, I never lost awareness of my surroundings.