A moment later, the door to the elevator pod whizzed open. Jarmuk thanked his lucky stars that Maisie and he had agreed to get dressed a moment ago. He couldn’t imagine how embarrassing it would have been if some city official had walked in on them lying naked next to each other on the supply room rug. From the way Maisie’s cheeks were suddenly turning pink, Jarmuk had the feeling that she was thinking the same thing.

  But when the elevator pod opened, Maisie let out a happy shriek. “Nova! Anya! How did you find me here?”

  Maisie ran forward and gave Nova, her captain, a big hug. Nova and Anya were both members of the crew of four humans that had crashed on Zocrone a few weeks back, and they were Maisie’s closest friends, as far as Jarmuk could tell.

  “We took the Starburst out to look for you as soon as the storm had passed. When we didn’t hear anything, we feared the worst. But none of the Zekkardite hit the city dome, so we had hope that maybe you made it back here. Looks like we were right.”

  “We’re fine,” Maisie said. “We barely made it here, but we made it. Jarmuk is one hell of a rover driver.”

  Nova looked at Jarmuk and smiled. “Thank you for taking care of her for us.”

  “My pleasure,” he replied. And he meant it. It truly had been his pleasure. Not for the reasons Nova might think, but she didn’t need to know details.

  “Are either of you hurt?” Anya asked. She was already giving Maisie a careful scan. Anya had been the medic on the humans’ ship, and a pretty good medic from what Jarmuk had heard. Still, he would have rather had his own close friend, Doc Kromin, look at him if he’d been injured. He was fine, though, and suddenly eager to get back to the city dome. Perhaps after he took a shower, he could convince Maisie to come out with him to his favorite bar, Black Hole Brews.

  “We’re all fine here,” Jarmuk said. “Should we head up to the surface? I’m assuming you have someone from the Zocronian military with you.”

  Nova nodded. “We do. We wouldn’t have been able to get into this mine without them. Security is so tight.”

  “It’s necessary,” Maisie spoke up. “I didn’t really understand until today just how valuable Zekkardite is.”

  Nova shrugged. “Right. Well, the soldiers stayed upstairs to look at the damaged rover. We can head back up there now and let them know we found you. Of course once we found the rover we figured you two were in here somewhere, but I was still worried. I have to say, it’s good to see you both alive and healthy.”

  “It’s good to be alive and healthy,” Maisie said. “Now let’s get back up to the top and get out of here.”

  Nova happily agreed, then turned toward the elevator. Jarmuk followed behind, tempted to slip his hand into Maisie’s again, but he held back. He wasn’t sure how Maisie would react to his acting like they were a couple in front of her friends. She had slept with him in a moment of passion, yes, but were they going to continue things beyond there? Jarmuk hoped so, but he also knew enough about women to know that putting her on the spot in front of her friends was probably not a good idea.

  And so, he held back from her a bit as they entered the elevator pod and rode it all the way back to the top airlock, where a couple of soldiers were tinkering around with the outside of the rover with deep frowns on their faces.

  “This thing’s not going anywhere today,” one of them said, as though anyone had ever thought it might be easily fixable. Jarmuk refrained from making a snide comment for once, and only nodded somberly at the soldier.

  “We’ll all take the Starburst back,” Nova said. “Evie’s waiting inside of it back on the surface, and she’ll fly us to the city dome as soon as we’re ready. The ship’s not meant for so many passengers, but the cargo hold is big and currently empty, so they’ll be plenty of room for people to sit there. Should be fine for the short trip back to Zocrone.”

  Jarmuk had hoped that Maisie would sit with him in the cargo hold, but Nova asked her to come up to the bridge of the Starburst, so Jarmuk had to separate from her for the time being. He wanted to ask her to come to the bar tonight, but he was still worried that would be too much in front of her friends.

  He might be good in bed, but he was so bad at the romance side of things. And so, he gave Maisie a small wave and went to sit in the cargo hold. He had no idea how everything was going to work out with Maisie, but one thing he knew for sure, even after spending just one afternoon with her: she had ruined him for anyone else. No other woman would ever be able to measure up to her, and that meant that if Jarmuk wanted to be happy with a woman, he was going to have to convince Maisie that the two of them were meant to be. Should be easy enough, right?

  Jarmuk had an uneasy feeling that things were going to be more of a challenge than he wanted, but only time would tell. For now, he leaned his head back against the wall of the Starburst’s cargo hold and closed his eyes. It had been a long day, and he could use some rest. He needed a fresh brain to figure out what the sludge he was going to say to Maisie to convince her to come out with him tonight.

  Chapter Six

  Maisie stepped out of the Starburst and into the industrial area of Zocrone’s city dome to find what looked like a crowd gathered for a rock concert. She’d never seen so many Zocronians gathered in one place before. In fact, she wasn’t sure that she had realized that this many Zocronians actually lived in the city dome. The dome was large, yes. But right now, all she could see was a sea of blue-skinned aliens.

  And all of them were cheering her name.

  “Maisie! Maisie! Maisie!”

  Maisie looked over at Nova with wide eyes. “What in the world is going on here?”

  Nova grinned. “Your fan club is welcoming you home?”

  “My fan club?”

  “Yeah. Word travels fast in Zocrone. You know that. It’s like a small town.”

  “It’s not a small town. Not from the looks of this. Is this seriously every single last person in Zocrone?”

  “Maybe. Come on. You have to at least wave.”

  “But why? What did I do?”

  Nova gave her a funny look. “Um, you saved all of them, for a start. If you hadn’t repaired that rover, then the Zekkardite would likely have damaged the city dome. Even if everyone evacuated to the inner dome and survived, there would have been catastrophic damage to the city.”

  “I’m not the one who saved the city dome. I might have fixed the rover, but Jarmuk is the one who drove it back to the mines despite a complete lack of navigational systems. He’s the true hero.”

  “I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think he’s going to fight over the glory with you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Nova pointed to the left side of the Starburst, where Jarmuk was sneaking out of the cargo hold while covering his face with his giant blue hands. He was making a break for it, trying to get away from the crowd before anyone realized who he was or that he had had anything to do with saving the city today.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” Maisie muttered. She took off at a run toward Jarmuk, grabbing him by the upper arm just before he disappeared into a thick grove of tropical trees. The inside of Zocrone’s city dome was heavily populated by tropical plants, and animals, which not only gave the city a beautiful rainforest atmosphere, but also meant that there were plenty of good hiding places amidst the flora.

  Jarmuk looked up in surprise when Maisie grabbed his arm. “What’s wrong?”

  Maisie gave him an incredulous look. “What’s wrong? You’re about to abandon me to this crowd, alone, and you want to ask me what’s wrong? You’re just as much of a savior here as I am. If I have to go face those people, then you do, too.”

  Jarmuk shook his head, his eyes crinkling up with laughter. “I thought you wanted to go greet the crowd.”

  “What? No! Why would I want to do that?”

  “I dunno. Doesn’t everyone want to be famous?”

  “Not me. And not you, either, apparently. But you can’t make me do this alone.”

  Jarmuk laughed. “I won’t make you do it alone. I won’t make you do it all. Come on.”

  He laced his fingers in hers and tugged her into the trees. Maisie felt a shiver of delight go through her as his skin touched hers, but she pushed away the desires that were welling up in her core. Now was not the time to be thinking about what Jarmuk was capable of in bed. Now was the time to be getting the hell away from the people gathered near the Starburst.

  “Where are we going?” Maisie asked as Jarmuk started picking up speed. The plants were exceptionally thick here, but he seemed to know the exact best places to step to get through them easily.

  “We’re taking the back way back to the residential section. That way neither one of us has to face the crowd.”

  “By back way, I see you mean ‘the way through plants so thick your face and hands are guaranteed to get totally scratched up.’”

  Jarmuk paused and turned back to look at her with amusement in his eyes. “If you don’t like it, you can feel free to go the regular way. But you’ll probably have about a million autographs to sign.”

  Maisie sighed. “Fine. Lead on.”

  Jarmuk’s grin widened, and he turned to continue walking through the plants. “Besides,” he called over his shoulder. “You braved a super-tornado storm today. What harm could a few measly plants really do?”

  “I had a helmet on when I was braving the super-tornado storm,” Maisie countered.

  Jarmuk burst out laughing. “Would you like a helmet to protect you from the pretty little flowers? I’d be happy to sneak back into the Starburst and get you one.”

  Maisie grimaced. He’d caught her in the middle of a ridiculous complaint. “No. I’m fine. Let’s just get out of here.”

  Jarmuk led her down a dizzying number of winding paths—if you could even call them paths. Most of the places he walked were so overgrown that she didn’t see how he knew where to step next. But he never wavered, and, sure enough, about forty-five sweaty minutes later, they emerged into the residential area of Zocrone.

  “The streets here are all deserted,” Maisie observed.

  “Yup. Everyone’s out by the spaceship, hoping to get a glimpse of you. You’re breaking their hearts right now.”

  “Ugh. Don’t guilt trip me. You owe them just as much as I do.”

  “I owe them nothing, and neither do you. We already saved their lives. They’ll just have to be understanding of the fact that we want a bit of rest after a day like today.”

  A day like today, Maisie thought. What a day it had been. She’d never imagined when she’d been tinkering around at Ashariz’s shop this morning that she would end up fixing a rover in the middle of a giant storm, outrunning a super-tornado, getting a tour of the Zekkardite mines, and then letting one very sexy Zekkardite miner make love to her in the middle of the mines’ supply room.

  Maisie looked over at Jarmuk, who was staring at her intently with those eyes that seemed to see right through her. “What?” she asked, halfway afraid of what the answer might be. What was going on inside that big blue head of his?

  He shrugged. “Nothing. Just waiting for you to answer my question.”

  “Your question?”

  “Yeah. I asked if you’d meet me at Black Hole Brews tonight. You’ve been frowning about it for a full minute, at least.”

  Maisie sighed. “Sorry. My mind was somewhere else. I didn’t even hear your question.”

  “Well? Did you hear it now? Will you go to the bar with me tonight? I could use a drink, and they have the best beer in Zocrone.”

  Maisie shook her head. “Are you crazy? Did you see the crowd outside the Starburst? If we try to go out in public tonight we’re going to get mobbed.”

  “Oh, come on. People aren’t going to bother you at the pub. It’s against the code or something.”

  “What code?”

  “The code about being a decent Zocronian?”

  Maisie rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m not saying anyone here isn’t decent. But people are excited, and they’re going to want an outlet for that excitement. There’s no way everyone is going to leave us alone if we go out tonight. Give it at least a week for things to settle down somewhat.”

  “A week! There’s no way I’m not going to my favorite bar for a week.”

  “You can go. But I’m not going.”

  “Not going where?” a familiar voice came from around the corner of a nearby building. A few seconds later, Chief Daxar appeared. Maisie watched as Jarmuk’s face broke out into a huge grin.

  “Dax!”

  “Jar!”

  The two men ran up to each other and embraced in a big bear hug, slapping each other several times on the back for emphasis. Maisie felt a small pang of loneliness, wondering what it would be like to have a friendship like theirs. Oh, she had the three girls from the Starburst, true. Nova, Anya, and Evie were her best friends, and the four of them had been through quite a bit together. They’d worked as smugglers before settling down in Zocrone, and it was inevitable that you’d have some pretty big adventures together as a smuggling crew. Maisie was happy to be a bit more settled now, but was grateful for the memories and adventures she’d shared with the crew.

  Still. Maisie had never had a friendship as long and deep as the one Daxar and Jarmuk had. Those two had a history together. A lifetime together. You could see it in the way they interacted. It was almost like they were family.

  That’s what I’m really missing, isn’t it? Family. Maisie had friends. She had a good job, and a nice apartment not far from Zocrone’s city center. Overall, she had a good life. But she was missing something, and she was beginning to realize that that something was family. For a brief moment, she wondered if perhaps Jarmuk could be her family. They obviously had good chemistry. Could they fall in love, too?

  Maisie pushed the thoughts away. She might be hopelessly attracted to Jarmuk and his sexy blue body, but physical attraction wasn’t a solid enough foundation to build a life on. Their lives were just too different, weren’t they? She was a weak human and hadn’t really done much with her life. Unless you counted being a kickass smuggler as doing something, which most people did not. Maisie chewed her lower lip forlornly, then turned her attention back to Daxar, who was speaking once again.

  “I can’t believe you two snuck away from the crowd! Everyone wanted to celebrate what you did.”

  “Come on man,” Jarmuk said. “You know that kind of thing isn’t my scene. I don’t want to be up on display.”

  Daxar winced. “I know. Which is why I hope you’re not too mad at me for what I’m about to tell you…”

  “Uh-oh.” Jarmuk frowned. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “Yeah, you’re not going to like it, I already know. But I think it’s necessary for the morale of our city.”

  Jarmuk’s frown deepened. “Dax, just spit it out. What did you do?”

  “I set up an awards presentation for tomorrow night.”

  There were a few beats of silence while Maisie and Jarmuk both tried to process this. Then, in unison, they both said, “You what?!”

  Daxar held up his hands in a hopeless gesture of surrender. “I know, I know. I knew you guys weren’t going to like this. But seriously. People were so scared. I tried to keep the potential problem with the super-tornado and the Zekkardite quiet, but somehow word got out, and spread quickly. And everyone was terrified. So when they found out that Maisie went out to her almost certain death to fix the engine, and succeeded, it was like a fairy tale to them. And now that you’re all back they’ve heard about how you, Jarmuk, drove the rover through the super-tornado.”

  “It wasn’t exactly through the super-tornado. More like right ahead of it.”

  “Whatever. The point is, everyone is excited about this, in a way they haven’t been excited about something in a long time. I decided that the best way to capitalize on those feelings was to award you both an official Zocronian medal of bravery.”

  Jarmuk frowned. “That’s a thing? I’ve never even heard of that medal before.”

  Daxar grinned. “It’s a thing as of right now.”

  Jarmuk punched him in the arm. Maisie winced, but Daxar only laughed, and Maisie shook her head. It was so weird to her how Daxar and his friends interacted. Maisie and Nova were close friends, but Nova was also her captain. She never would have dreamed of punching her superior, even in jest. But Daxar got punched by his crew all the time.

  Must be a guy thing? Why are men so weird?

  “So what do you say?” Daxar asked, bringing the conversation smoothly back to the bravery award. “Will you two come to the ceremony tomorrow?”

  “Do we have a choice?” Maisie asked, her voice sounding a bit bitterer than she’d intended.

  Daxar looked at her with kindness in his eyes. “Yes, you have a choice. I’m not going to force you to do this if it’s something you don’t want to do. But I strongly encourage you to come. Both of you, but especially you, Maisie. As you know, up until your crew arrived in Zocrone, I had strict rules prohibiting any outsiders. This means that suddenly having a bunch of humans around is a new thing for everyone in Zocrone. Most people love having you here, but there are still a handful who view your species with suspicion. It would do wonders if you appeared publicly, graciously accepting an award for bravery.”

  Maisie frowned, still not convinced.

  “Nova agrees with me,” Daxar said, which brought a guffaw of laughter from Jarmuk.

  “Of course Nova agrees with you. She’s your girl.”

  Daxar glared at Jarmuk. “Oh please. Like you know anything about what it’s like to have a girl. When’s the last time you had a girlfriend? When we were teenagers?”

  Maisie coughed uncomfortably, but Jarmuk gave Daxar a winning smile.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know? I don’t have to tell you everything.”

 

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