Star Side

Chapter 29

"Huooff," I said obediently, finding myself ridiculously pleased that his words were easy for me to pronounce. Hazzah humanity! "Wing. Wings."

He gave a trilly sort of purr in congratulations, echoing my grin when I smiled and sending me a wave of pleased pleased impressed proud.

We'd just come to the retractable spines in the fluffy tip of his tail when the door opened and Naomi stepped in.

The alien gave an instant hiss and spread his wing above me, tail lashing around to aim the now elongated spines.

Naomi leapt back.

"Whoa whoa! Hold your horses! It's just Naomi." He glanced at me, watching my lips in particular, and I recognized the narrow-eyed look of him trying to, well, read my mind. He'd done it a lot over the last hour.

So I pointed to my wide-eyed co-worker. "Naomi."

He looked at me. Then at Naomi, who gave him a nervous wave.

His long nose wrinkled for a second.

"Nay-mee," he muttered.

"My goodness," Naomi murmured. "Are you teaching him to speak?"

"He can already speak, I'm just teaching him our language. I think you just surprised him."

"I imagine," she said, a hand over her heart. "Levi needs your help retiming the engine for an air pump. I'm not strong enough to get the panel down from the ceiling."

"Right." I got up and dusted off my front. "Probably best not to overwhelm him with too many words today."

"I'll walk with you. I want to hear what you've learned today."

I went to step out of the bionics lab only to hear the slide of nails and tail against the floor as the alien followed. He stiffened when I looked back at him.

"Stay," I said.

I got the furrowed, 'trying to read your mind' look.

"You've taught him that word?" asked Naomi.

"Know, but I might as well try. Levi hates him."

"I think he's more apprehensive than anything," she said, cocking her head as she considered him. "Maybe he'll take to me?"

I grimaced, not sure how I felt about that. I knew he wouldn't hurt me, but my only real evidence that he wouldn't hurt Levi was because he waved around a gun the whole time.

Naomi seemed to know what I was thinking, for she said, "We can decide while he walks with us. It will give him time for us to get a feel for one another. If nothing else I can keep him distracted while you're working with Levi."

Not the best outcome, but might as well. The more the alien was exposed to us the more he'd learn how to live with us. And as soon as he got a basic grip on our language, the sooner we could send him back down to his planet.

Thus, Naomi and I headed down the hall towards one of the wings mechanic rooms while the alien followed behind us with tightly closed wings and semi-silent footsteps. I'd heard him be move completely silent before, so I imagined the bit of sound he was making now meant he felt comfortable around us.

As we walked, Naomi talked softly about how she was doing of late, something I encouraged hard. Levi could say he trusted her to take care of herself, but I knew no one could be strong enough to manage the death of their own spouse on their own. So as she told me dreams she'd had of Josh with wet eyes as well as the novel she'd gotten to distract herself and letters she'd written to Josh to help accept that, though he left, it wasn't the end, I listened carefully, squeezing her hand or shoulder when I felt the need to give her extra support.

"We can all head back to earth together if you need to," I said.

"There would be memories of him there too, no matter how old. And I don't need to run from him. It will be okay." She gave me a weak smile. "I'm old. We won't be apart for too long."

I didn't mention that her good health and the medical care we had on board could very well mean her eighty or so years could just be the half-way point in her life span. But, as she'd pointed out to me before when I'd try to denounce her age, she'd grown up in a time when 120 was the maximum lifespan of the human race. A breakthrough in the breakdown of the human body had occurred when I was a child. Technically, I wouldn't reach menopause until I was ninety or a hundred because of the vaccines I'd been given in elementary school.

Levi was lounging face-down on an insulated pipe like a dead monkey when we walked in. He looked up bleary eyed only to scowl at the demon trailing in behind us.

"Did you have to bring the monster?"

"He brought himself, butt munch. Just ignore him and tell me what to do."

He groaned, dropped his forehead a few times on his pipe bed, then noodle down and onto his feet to point at a half-screwed in panel on the ceiling.

"Stupid engineering put the engine in the ceiling," he grumbled. "Almost crushed myself doing it on my own."

I sighed. "I'll pull over the ladder."