Esayr and I were both in high spirits as we made our way back to that magical central terminal and into one of the transports. The loose but easy grip of his hand in mine felt right and for a moment I could imagine staying here on this ship where life was more...free.

I wasn't livestock to the Val'Dornn. I wasn't property. It was a heady thing; to feel like a treasure. There were still hesitations, but with each passing second they drifted further and further to the back of my mind and got filed away with the other worries that I chose not to deal with, like health insurance.

You're going to get to talk to them. You'll get to talk to your friends. Though in actuality it had only been a few days, I felt like it had been months since I'd spoken to my friends and I was feeling that distance acutely.

"I will leave you to speak to your Riniere on your own, however, if you need me I will be right outside with the communications team," Esayr spoke as we made our way toward the front of the ship.

I nodded absently, consumed by thoughts of how I would broach my relationship with my friends. Part of me was embarrassed that they'd been making such a fuss about my safety when I'd just been up on cloud 9...almost literally.

How will I explain this weird connection to them? Shit...if I can't even manage to explain it to them how am I supposed to be able to explain it to the populace? Does Roan still want me to be a human/Val'Dornn relationship figurehead? God, I hope not. Maybe it was only for that one communication feed. The thoughts reeled around in my head churning along with the nerves in my gut. I felt like a guilty teenager. Guilty of what? I didn't know, but I felt it nonetheless.

My hands were sweating as we stepped into the communications bay. The males in the room turned to greet us as if they anticipated our arrival. I wondered if the Aarond Form had warned them of our approach. I filed that question away for later. I took the opportunity to wave at them, and surreptitiously remove my sweaty palm from Esayr's, surely he had better things to do than hold on to my moist hands.

"Addison," Vailen shot me a bemused sideways glance before returning his attention to a screen in front of him. It was a news station, a human news station.

"Any hint of sabotage on the news yet?" I took a few steps forward, looking closer at the screen. It was certainly a news station, but it was broadcasting in another language.

Vailen snorted, it was an unrefined gesture and entirely surprising for such a rigid male, "No screentime has been leaked as of yet, but snippets of your dialogue with the reporter have been released in written formats. They were not portrayed as pleasantly as they should have been."

"No?"

"No."

"Have you sent the video to Cecelia Bird, yet?"

Vailen's silvered eyes flicked across the screen quickly, reading passages in a language I didn't even know, "Not as of yet. We have decided to -how do you humans put it- fight fire with fire?"

Hearing such a human phrase be spoken by an alien male on a ship that currently only had a single human -me- on it was jarring, but also oddly familiar. "What are you planning?"

"We are letting the rumors fester. The hope is that with no immediate retaliation your government will become bold and will further bastardize our communication and once they have made a spectacle of themselves we will release our unedited footage to completely showcase their subterfuge."

"That is...remarkably sneaky for you."

Vailen flashed a devastating deadly smile, "We are a race based on the premise of adaptation, after all."

I nearly took an involuntary step backward, straight into Esayr, but Vailen's attention drifted back to the screen.

Esayr was at my back, his low voice whispered into my ear, "Forgive him. He is on a hunt."

I shot a questioning glance back over my shoulder toward my mate.

"It is...a long explanation, another deeply rooted in our culture. I will explain later once we are alone."

I nodded, there were still so many things I didn't understand, but that didn't frustrate me like it usually did. Instead, I just felt invested. I wanted to learn about their lives and their culture. "It's a date," I murmured back and I felt a faint pulse of surprise rushed down our bond.

Esayr's eyes widened and a sudden radiant smile had me turning away before my stopped beating, but I could feel the warmth of his gaze stroking a line of fire between my shoulder blades and down my spine. "My friends. I was wondering if I could speak to my friends." I spoke aloud to no one in particular. I just needed that warm tingling sensation to stop, or else I'd be hot, bothered, and embarrassed and if I knew my friends they'd know something was up immediately.

"Yes, of course. Yarro?" Vailen drawled, but his gaze didn't stray from the screens where he flipped between multiple views of different countries news stations. I caught snippets of blurry images of my face when I was taken to the genetics lab, but before I could push forward and investigate a male stepped in front of me.

"Ms. Kane." He inclined his head.

"Yarro." Esayr intoned behind me in greeting.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Esayr and Addison." His voice was surprisingly bright, for all the formality of the moment. "If you'll follow me this way we'll get you settled in a com room that we've calibrated for communication between you and your Riniere."

"Of course. Lead the way please, Yarro."

I was led into a much more comfortable room than the room I had been in yesterday. This one sported a comfortable loveseat and a smaller more intimate display screen. The walls were a warm, but neutral brown instead of white. It was obvious this room was used for more casual communication.

Yarro stepped forward and adjusted the screen to the appropriate height as he prattled on about how they had tapped into the phone transmissions of my friends.

"-It wasn't hard at all to tap into your transmissions, which would be alarming had it not been entirely useful. The biggest hardship was pinpointing the communication units your friends carried around with them, to make sure we didn't accidentally contact the wrong human. We started by narrowing down the field of searching to a small radius where we originally located you on your planet, however, that seemed to be living accommodations and we still ended up finding many different communication feeds in that small area-"

He was a talkative male and spoke entirely in English too. I tried to pay attention, I really did, but the giddiness of finally being able to speak to my friends, and the fact that Esayr hadn't stopped making eyes at me since my date comment had me far too distracted.

"-and that's how we managed to get a hold of the little female, I believe she said her name was Gabby?"

"Gabby Ginsberg?"

"Yes. That was it."

"So I'll be calling her phone?"

"The communication will go through to her device, yes. There will be a countdown where her device will alert her to an incoming transmission. After 5 alerts the feed will go through and you will be able to communicate. Unless of course, she dismisses the feed."

"Unlikely, but alright."

Yarrow adjusted the screen one more time before turning to me, "Are you ready?"

"More than ready."

"Then I will leave and the communication will go through. Please greet your Riniere as the first newly Val'Kier female aboard the Aarond Form." With that, he left the room and ushered Esayr out with him.

I held my breath as the screen booted up and displayed that swirling counting script.

*****A/N*****

Working in retail is a pain, but it pays bills. I'm sorry I've been MIA for the last week and a half. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! I'm hoping to write some over the next few days - that is if nothing decides to interrupt me like it always does. This will be a short note because it's past midnight and I'm sleepy but I still have to channel all of my energy into finishing this chapter :)

Love,

Layla