The room was small, only slightly bigger than my barely-there living room in Albuquerque. Declan’s face took up the upper portion of the far wall. His head was hanging down as he spoke rapidly in a language I wished I could understand.

None of this was Declan’s fault, but guilt was written across his face. He was taking it all on himself.

Lorne prowled in front of the vidscreen. His movements were so fluid. I could nearly feel the power rippling inside of him, begging to break free. His skin was flickering, and I wondered what that meant. I was so frustratingly clueless of everything Aunare. My skin would grow bright when I was scared or stressed or emotional, but I didn’t know if that served some sort of purpose—other than being a full-body mood ring.

There was a long, narrow desk built into the floor in the middle of the room, nearly cutting the room in half. A captain’s chair was pushed about a meter back from the desk. The walls were all the same smooth beige stone-like material. Aside from the desk and chair, the room was empty. This had to be the bridge of the ship, but there were no buttons or switches or blinking lights. Where were the ship’s controls?

Something Declan said must’ve pissed off Lorne because he spun—facing Declan—his voice fierce as he spoke the lilting and sibilant Aunare words. A harsh fricative cut in, and I wondered if he was cursing.

I wasn’t sure what they were arguing about, but there was a very good possibility that it had to do with me.

Lorne said my name, and I corrected my thoughts. This was absolutely to do with me.

“Hey,” I said, trying to get their attention, but when they kept going, I said it louder.

Nothing.

I stuck two fingers into my mouth and whistled. That shut them up. “What’s going on?”

“Your color is better, but how’re you feeling?” Declan asked. His gaze kept traveling over me like he couldn’t believe I was standing there.

“Better.” I let out a breath. “Not a hundred percent, but I don’t feel like I’m going to fall over anymore. The food helped.”

His smile was sad and aching. “That’s good,” he said.

Lorne looked between Declan and me, and then he shoved his hands into his pockets. His shoulders hunched for a second and I couldn’t tell if he was tired or disappointed, but I didn’t like either if I was the cause of it.

“What’s the plan? We’re so close to SpaceTech, and I’m worried about Ahiga and the others. I know Lorne wanted to run a test on me, but…but if we’re going to do anything, then I want to do that now and get the hell out of here before anything else can go wrong.”