Spaced Out

Damn it, Jim. I'm A Doctor Not A Zookeeper

Goshan? Did Barbarian mean the pilot? Did he not know the pilot was dead? Lily licked her lips.

"That ship crashed in my backyard and the pilot pulled me inside."

"And Goshan?" Barbarian's voice piped into her ears like a transmission from an old radio. He skirted to the foot of the table. Muscular arms veed over Lily's legs. Gripping the table's sides, he leaned in and brought their faces close.

Lily gulped. "G−Goshan?"

"The pilot who pulled you aboard." Barbarian over enunciated each word. "Tell me what happened to him."

Shit. Goshan was the pilot.

"Ah." Whenever Lily spoke the implant in her throat vibrated. The sensation made her swallow and cough a lot. "I tried to...fix him."

A massive hand enveloped her throat. Barbarian squeezed.

"What do you mean fix him?"

"He disintegrated and I tried using that sphere thing." Lily flapped her hand at Key Woman who had the device clipped to her utility belt. "It didn't work."

Barbarian's hand constricted. Thready cries wheezed from Lily's mouth.

"Who ordered the hit? Tell me who you work for and I will kill them instead of you."

Nothing but gasps came out when Lily's lips moved.

"Captain." The cat stepped to Barbarian's side. "The Utori we have in the belly...Goshan was with him long enough for a transmission of ash mites. Desiccated material present in the MSac fluid samples I extracted from the fledgling and from Goshan's barrier suit suggests—"

"I know what it means." The captain sneered at the cat then he rounded on Lily. "This one," his hand tightened again and her lips went tingly, "could be his carrier."

A golden hand alighted on the captain's outstretched arm.

"If you kill her there will be no answers," the cat said.

After a beat, the captain released Lily. She heaved. Feeling returned to her face. The captain seated himself on the table's ledge. A hand wiped over his face then he rubbed his chin with his thumb while he studied her.

"Tell me who hired you."

Lily shrugged then said, "T.J. Maxx once, but that was only part time last year. I don't work for anyone now and I've never worked for anyone who'd want anyone killed."

The captain shot Key Woman a look. The alien woman's shoulders went up and down. A flick of the captain's hand indicated the sphere at her belt. She tossed it to him and he held it in front of Lily's face.