Spinning, she rushed back to the doors and, for probably the hundredth time, she slammed her hand against the button next them.
The ship’s response didn’t change.
A loud beep denied her entry.
She was acutely aware of the ship finally coming to a stop beside one of the huge metal giants.
There was a creak as it came to a stop and then silence.
“Ka’Cit? What’s going on?”
Could he even hear her behind the doors?
She got an answer, but not the one she’d expected.
The vessel’s AI spoke, so loud that she jumped.
“Airlock opening.”
Nia’s eyes flew to the doors. “What? No!”
But the doors didn’t open. They remained closed.
Maybe the ship made a mistake?
She crept closer to the view screen and looked out.
For a few minutes, there was nothing.
No movement. Nothing.
The only thing that told her she wasn’t frozen in time was the lights blinking on the large structure outside the ship.
That’s when she saw movement.
Her heart thumped in her chest, skipping a beat.
An intruder.
There was someone outside the…
But when the alien turned and she saw his face, her terror turned into confusion.
“Ka’Cit?”
Nia moved closer to the view screen.
Ka’Cit was in a dark spacesuit—one of those that she’d seen hanging on the interior of the shuttle no doubt—and he was looking back at her.
He’d had to remove his mask before putting on the spacesuit and he space walked straight to the view screen, looking in as if to check if she was all right.
“What are you doing out there?!”
No answer, of course, and she had no choice but to watch him float away to the huge metal structure the ship had stopped beside.
The sheer size of the thing was even more pronounced when he drew closer to it.
The structure didn’t seem far from the ship, but it was difficult to judge the distance.
That made her heart lodge in her throat.
Just seeing him floating in the nothingness that was space unlocked a fear she never knew she had.
That’s when she saw the tether attached to the back of his suit.
Still…
Was he fucking crazy?
What the hell was he doing?
His feet landed on one of the metal pins and he turned to glance back at her once more.
Nia’s palm flattened over her mouth as she watched him turn and walk along the pin, arms outstretched on both sides to balance.
When he reached the central part of the structure, he dug into the pocket of his suit and she could barely make out the little square device in his hand.
Then he got to work. It seemed he had other tools in his pockets too because he somehow opened a panel on the huge metal structure.
Nia craned her neck to see what he was doing but between his spacesuit and the fact she couldn’t see around him, she could only guess his intent.
He was working on something and his movements suggested he was interacting with buttons within the thing.
Her brows furrowed as she watched him.
Just what was he doing?
As her heart thudded in her chest, her anxiety rising, her gaze moved across the metallic structure.
It was a satellite wasn’t it?
Like a huge, alien cell tower floating in space.
What else could it be?
It wasn’t a spaceship and it seemed to be orbiting the planet.
It had to be a satellite.
But that still didn’t tell her what he was doing.
Time seemed to slow down as she watched him, every beat of her heart sending more anxiety through her veins.
Seconds turned into minutes, and those minutes bled into one another. The longer he was out there, the shallower her breathing became until she was a nervous wreck who’d bitten down her nails so far, she was starting to bite flesh.
Finally, Ka’Cit moved from his position.
He closed the panel he’d opened and turned, outstretching his arms again as he walked back toward her.
As soon as he was at the edge of the pin once more, he floated back toward the view screen.
He came close enough to press his hand against the glass and Nia reached forward, pressing her palm against the surface to meet his.
Her gaze flicked over his face, her wide eyes trying to gather answers he could not tell her.
“What are you doing?”
He had the audacity to give her a devilish smile, one that made her heart do a curious flip-flop in her chest.
“Get in here!”
He couldn’t hear her, but it seemed he’d finished doing whatever he was doing anyway because he let go of the screen and floated toward the back of the ship.
Nia found herself pacing again for what felt like the longest five minutes of her life.
“Airlock. Closed,” the ship announced.
Her thumb was in her mouth as she bit at her finger and when the light above the door finally turned green she marched toward it.
It opened and she bumped right into him.
Standing so close, she’d forgotten how tall he was and she craned her neck as she frowned up at him.
“You!” she shouted, mildly caught off guard by the fact that she was looking directly into his face. He hadn’t put his mask back on yet.
“You scared me! I thought you’d gone crazy! What the hell were you doing out there! That was so dangerous. Don’t you ever do that again.” She let out a breath to calm herself. Her hands were trembling and she had to fold her arms to hide that fact. “What if that tether thing had broken and you’d floated away? And you didn’t even say anything before you went out there!” Her hands fisted at her sides. “What the hell was I supposed to do if you’d gotten stuck! Or worse!”
His smile returned. “So you would have…cared if something happened to me out there?”
Nia’s mouth fell open. She hadn’t expected that question. “What? Well…of course I would have cared. I’m not—” It hit her then that it seemed he’d understood her. “Wait…did you just deduce what I’m saying or did you actually understand me?” She closed her eyes for a moment and released a breath. “I
