I assumed the computer would have caught plenty of video images of Nora. I could have the clothing replicated if she wanted.
She called it a wedding dress, which translated as some sort of special outfit to wear during a mating ritual.
A horrible thought crossed my mind. “You are not mated to someone else already, are you?”
Nora laughed bitterly. “No. I was supposed to get married, but that didn’t work out so well, after all.”
Good. With my extruded claw, I ripped a line in the fabric where Nora indicated. Working together for several minutes, we cut through all the layers, leaving her in a shortened, ragged version of the long wedding dress she had been wearing until now.
Only then did I realize my side no longer hurt. Peering down at the healing pack, I gently peeled it away from my short fur. The area beneath was still tender, by the wound had healed nicely. Pushing myself up, I slung my legs over the side of the medbay bed. “I’m fine now,” I assured Nora as she stepped forward to try to steady me. “I’m ready to get up. Were you able to deal with the Karlaxon carcass on the bridge?”
Nora wrinkled her nose. “No. I tried to roll him onto one of those floatbeds, but it didn’t work. He was too heavy for me.”
“Time to space the trash, then,” I said, and dropped to the floor to move toward the hallway. “And then we can continue our trip to Drovekzian space.”
Chapter Seventeen
Nora
“Did you get the computer sorted out?” I asked as we worked together to roll the enormous corpse onto the floatbed. I assumed I already knew the answer, since the computer and I had been working together for hours to heal Dax’s wound, but I wanted to be certain.
“I believe I did. The Karlaxons managed to sabotage it somehow.”
With a thump, the dead Karlaxon’s legs landed on the floatbed.
“Where now?” I asked.
“Computer, send the floatbed to trash cute three and dump its contents. Then space the waste hold.”
“We’re just going to leave him out there floating in space?”
Dax shrugged. “It’s what the Karlaxon do with their own dead.”
“No funeral or anything?”
He shot me an indecipherable glance. “The Karlaxon are a cruel race. They live for the hunt, and when they die, they leave their comrades where they fall.” He paused. “What do your people do with their dead?”
“We bury them. Usually with some kind of ceremony for the mourners.”
Dax gave an oddly satisfied nod. “So who-mans—”
“Humans.”
“Hyou-mans,” he continued, “revere their dead.”
“I guess so. I mean, we don’t worship them or anything. Most of us don’t, anyway.” I paused, trying to figure out how to say what I meant. “But we generally don’t just leave them where they die.” I considered tempering that statement, thinking of all the times people were murdered and left where they were, but decided to stop while I was ahead.
Humans aren’t always all that great.
“What do the Drovekzian do?” I asked.
“We don’t pollute our planet by burying them in our soil.”
Okay. So maybe Dax didn’t think we were all that great, either.
“But we, too, have ceremonies to honor the dead before they are incinerated.”
“Kind of like cremation?”
He frowned as he considered, and I wondered if the translation matrix was working like it was supposed to.
Maybe we’re just too different for any translator to work perfectly.
The thought shook me. When I feared he was dying, my heart urged me to save him, to make sure he was okay. But now that he was well again, I was back to worrying I was crazy for even considering going with him.
A whole planet of Daxes. What would that be like? Could I live there? Would homesickness overwhelm me?
Yep. I am definitely insane. I should ask him to take me home now.
Instead, what came out of my mouth was, “What’s next, Commander?”
He bit his lip as he considered, and I had an overwhelming urge to kiss him again. He was gorgeous and strong, and it took every ounce of strength I had to keep from jumping him right then and there.
I forced myself to stand still as he called out a series of coordinates to the computer.
“Where are we headed?” I asked.
“I planned to take you to my planet to meet my family, but I think we had better head to the Battleship Lavelek first. This scoutship will need to be thoroughly examined and reprogrammed before it goes out again.”
A wave of relief washed through me. “So I don’t have to meet your family yet?”
Dax gave me a quizzical look. “You would rather meet my comrades-in-arms first?”
Ugh. No matter where we went, I would be dealing with Dax’s people before I had figured out whether I even wanted to stay with him.
FML. Again.
But I couldn’t very well say that aloud.
I had just opened my mouth to say something inane when Dax reached over and very deliberately placed one hand on my bare shoulder. My mouth snapped closed as he frowned in concentration.
Then his gaze shot up to my face, his eyes wide in surprise. “You are worried about meeting my people?”
“Well, yes. I mean, you grabbed the wrong girl. The computer says—” I pulled up short, my brain finally catching up with my mouth. “Hey. Wait a minute. You didn’t know that until you touched me. What the hell is going on here?”
His previous frown returned—but this time, he looked fierce, not like he was thinking. “Did you not feel my emotions when we kissed?”
I gaped at him, mouth hanging wide open. “I—um—”
“You must tell me immediately.” He grabbed both my shoulders and pulled me toward him as if he wanted to shake me. “If you did not feel my emotions, then something is very wrong.”
Twisting out of his grasp, I shook my shoulders and rubbed my hands over them, brushing away the intensity of his touch.
What should I say?
If I told him I had felt what he was feeling, he might assume that I
