ALICE
Our new quarterswere luxurious beyond belief. The mattress was out of this world—literally—adjusting in just the right places and with the right temperatures. A real shower and bathtub waited for me in the bathroom, and best of all, there were no nutrition dispensers. Silla had filled Luph's cargo hold to bursting. I had no idea how they kept everything fresh because the bread tasted freshly baked, but I would definitely investigate it later when I had a moment.
Because we had been up late last night, or should I say early in the morning, the lights were about to dim for the night again by the time we ate breakfast. Raasla had left earlier for a scouting trip, and Zoe sat anxiously at the table, not eating anything.
"What if they caught him?" She said for the hundredth time.
"We don't see any ships around Darlam," Noodar tried to soothe her by bringing up a cube screen and showing her a single blip, which was supposedly Raasla. "Looks like he's already on his way back."
"Are your marks hurting?" I asked her.
She shook her head, "We never had that distance thing problem."
"Ours are gone too, thank God." Sloane picked up another piece of bread. "This is so good."
"Isn't it?" I agreed. "I have to figure out how all that food keeps so fresh."
Xyrek shook his head, "Don't."
"Oh ye of little faith," I teased him.
"You still have three bots to fix," he reminded me with a smirk, to which, in reply, I made a face at him.
"By the way, what is a Xanomarph?" Noodar asked.
"Xenomorph," Nova giggled.
"Please tell me she made that thing up," Zaarek groaned, still recovering from his headache.
"It's a made-up thing from one of their Earth movies…" Tharaax drew his brows together in concentration, "Alien one, two, three, four… right?" He looked at Hannah for confirmation.
The men stared at him, dumbfounded.
"What? Do your mates not let you watch Earth movies?"
"Oh, they're so much fun," Nock exclaimed, holding a box of honest-to-God Oreo cookies in his hands and munching on several.
"Alright, I vote we do movie night once we've figured this Darlam thing out. We'll start with Alien!" Nova decided. Sloane high-fived her.
"All clear," Raasla declared, walking in. Zoe rushed forward and melted into his embrace. Over breakfast, I’d learned that Zoe was about three months pregnant, but besides a tiny pouch, she didn’t show at all.
"What do you mean,all clear?" Sloane stared at him.
"There's nothing there. No Ohrurs, no Space Guardians." Raasla clarified.
"They do know we have three Ohrurs as our captives, right?" Luph clarified.
Last night, they explained that three Ohrurs were needed to get through the forcefield surrounding Darlam.
"They assume we have two males and one female," Hannah snapped her fingers. "I bet they think the field won't let us through because of the female."
"Why?" I asked, confused.
"Because the Ohrurs have this chauvinistic attitude toward women. They think we're inferior to males," Sloane explained with a disgusted expression.
"That would make sense," I remarked, earning me some strange looks from the other women, and I hastened to explain. "I don't mean it makes sense they think we're inferior, just that they would have calibrated the field to only allow men through."
"Oh. Okay." Sloane nodded.
