Page 29 of Logic Broken

“Sinking in yet? Okay, how about this one,” she held up a third finger, “You could have chased Drameil to punish him, but you stayed with me instead.” And with a shock, I realized I’d pulled myself back from charging into that room without a plan. I’d calmed my battle rage despite Jenny’s dire predicament and approached the situation rationally. She was right, I did have more control than I thought I had. All for her; I was feeling more strongly, but she also motivated me to do better.

Curling my arms tightly around her middle I covered her mouth with mine. “Okay, mate, you convinced me.” She kissed back eagerly, rising on her knees to press closer. I took the opportunity to slide one hand down along her spine, feeling each gentle bump that protected the core of her. Then I cupped her softly curved rear and my cock responded by eagerly rising in my pants.

“I believe,” I panted between kisses, “That on Earth, it is customary to ask a lady to marry?” She pulled back in surprise, her hazel eyes huge in her freckled face. “So, will you marry me, Jenny?” When she didn’t immediately answer I wondered if I’d done that wrong and scrambled to recall the custom again, was I missing something? A ring!

I didn’t have any rings on me, but I picked up her left hand regardless and stroked a finger along the appropriate one on her hand. “I’ll get you a ring,” I rushed out, “And cake. And a wedding dress… Uh. And a Minister,” I listed the things my mind had come up with that you needed for a wedding. My right Liades swung down over my shoulder, the tip curling around her ring finger in an imitation of a ring.

She was smiling and shaking her head as she did so. I didn’t understand what that meant, was she saying no? Or was she saying yes but objecting to one of the things I listed? Her right hand closed around the tentacle I had wrapped around her finger. “I don’t need all that, Akri. I just need you, at my side, sharing these crazy adventures with me. I love you and that’s good enough.”

The word love struck me like an arrow, searing into my chest in an almost physical sensation. Love, that’s what she felt for me. That was the word that described how I felt about her; that was right. I opened my mouth to say it back, to tell her that she meant so the same to me; and that what she wanted was the same desire I felt. Only, a proximity alarm yanked my attention away.

“I think the Vagabond is arriving,” I said while I silenced the alarm and erased any sign of a ship from their scanners. I couldn’t be sure if someone had been paying attention on the bridge, but if they had, they might think it was a glitch. I flipped through the feeds available to me until I found those focused on the airlocks on this ship, quickly locating the one at which a ship was docking.

It wasn’t big enough to be the Vagabond, but that was definitely Ziame stepping out of that airlock. Relief shuddered through me, they had arrived. This would be over soon and I could finally take Jenny to a place that was truly safe. To the ship that felt more like home to me than any other place I’d been during my travels. More like home than the Lacerten homeworld where I had been built.

“Oh, that’s good! We should get out of here,” Jenny said, and she started to rise to her feet. My Liades on her hand wouldn’t let go, and for once I didn’t fight that. I kept my arms around her waist and pinned her down in my lap.

“No, not until I tell you that I love you too,” I said to her, “And not until you properly answer my question.” I knew she said she didn’t need any of that, but now I wanted it. I wanted the Earth custom to bind her to me, so it was real. I knew this body felt a mating urge, but I had no information on what the Akilad did to cement that bond. “I love you Jenny, you’ve taught me what being alive is all about, and I want to keep learning by your side.”

She smiled, her hand moving to press the fingers with my Liades to her breast; her heart. “Then I’ll marry you Akri. Earth-style. But we can skip the minister, I doubt you’ll find one out here.” She was probably right about that particular condition, but I’d figure it out. I was good at solving problems.

For the last minute since we’d been talking, a pair of enterprising Krektar had been using a laser cutter to try to breach the bulkhead blocking their path to us. They were almost through and it was time for me to consider our options on how to reach my brothers. They had spread out across the Dart in pairs and were making short work of any resistance they encountered.

With the fighting skills Brake’s body possessed, it was probably time for me to join them. This was going to be the end of the Crimelord and I knew it would bring peace to my friends, to Ziame. I searched the feeds for Drameil, a bad feeling rising in the pit of my stomach when I realized he was on the bridge.

“On the Vagabond,” I said, “We’ll arrange it. And you can pick out quarters too, I have not done that yet.” It wasn’t something that seemed important before, the whole ship was my home, not any particular room. Privacy also wasn’t something I’d fully understood, not until Jenny and the possessive feelings that came with that.

“Of course, you hadn’t…” she laughed, and I was happy that she didn’t seem bothered by some of my weirdness. She always took everything I threw at her in stride. I was fairly certain, for example, that it was strange that I hadn’t felt the need to claim my own space.

“Now, I’m going to open the doors and take care of a few of those guards, after that, we’ll make our way to the others.” I paused in letting her go and getting up myself when I caught sight of Ziame and Drameil confronting each other on the bridge. “Oh, shit.” I realized immediately what had happened while I’d been more focused on Jenny. I hadn’t considered that Drameil would still be a threat when all the gladiators were here.

My body trembled with the enormity of my screw-up. I should have locked him out of everything and erased codes like that Alpha code of his. Calculating the distance from us to the nearest vessel with appropriate shielding made me collapse back against the wall. No! This wasn’t how it ended…

“What is it Akri? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” Jenny gently asked me. She cupped my face with her hands, raising my chin until I couldn’t do anything but look at her. My mouth was dry, I didn’t want to be the one to tell her this horrible news. I knew we weren’t going to make it, but most of my friends weren’t either. They were too far away from safety and it was my fault. I should have seen this coming and done something.

Sunder’s voice reached us over the ship-wide intercom system, saving me from having to give Jenny the bad news. “Evacuate now, the ship is headed into the sun with no shields, reaching deadly radiation levels in three minutes.”

Chapter 18

Jenny

Deadly radiation in three minutes, the words made everything grind to a halt, wiping out the happy elated feeling. “Can we make it to safety?” I asked Akri despite already knowing the answer, he wouldn’t look this horrified if he knew we could make it out of there before those three minutes were over. He gave the minutest shake of his head as if he couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge the reality that we were about to die. Horribly, we were about to be cooked alive; it wasn’t exactly the way I’d imagined I’d go.

I sat down again next to him, folding my hand around his. Okay, this sucked. I wanted to hold on to that future that Akri had promised me with all my might. I wanted it so badly, that life on his ship with his friends, friends that had walked into danger for him after just a single call. I didn’t know them, but I liked them already for that reason alone.

Then again, what more could I ask for? I’d seen that alien life was real like I’d always imagined. I’d even discovered that superheroes like those from my favorite comics existed and I’d managed to fall in love with one, he’d even asked me to marry him. That made me luckier than most, to have such wild, crazy dreams come true.

I clutched the hand Akri had folded around mine tightly, struggling with all the powerful feelings inside of me. It made me smile when his free tentacle curled around my neck in response, touching me, and holding me close. Eyeing the other one, I noticed that it was still hooked up with that shimmery, glass fiber-like cable to the computer console behind us.

“Hey Akri, can’t you stop this? You’ve done so much already, is there no way you could change our heading? Power up the shields?” I knew I was asking a lot of him, but I’d seen him do amazing things with his mind, why not this?

His dark eyes were almost completely devoid of the star-like pinpricks, his expression dark and gloomy as he shook his head. “No, I need the Alpha code Drameil used to lock in the ship’s course. It would take a supercomputer to crack in the minute and a half we have left to do it…”

I stared at him, “But Akri, you are a supercomputer, aren’t you? Try! I believe in you.” His eyes went wide at my reply and for a moment I thought he was about to say no, but what did he have to lose? A minute to say goodbye to me? I was okay with going without if it meant a slight chance at surviving.

Then the pinpricks in his eyes started to glow, first orange, then yellow, and then they turned so bright that his eyes seemed to glow with light; it cast twirling shadows along the walls. I held my breath, waiting for that moment the radiation would start to poison my body; would I feel it when it started? Or would it be too late by the time I could feel it?

Akri was trembling next to me, his body tight as a bow, muscles in his thighs twitching and jumping. The right Liades had curled around the left one with the cable, almost like it was supporting its twin. He was definitely doing something, more than he had ever asked of himself and his body.