Fast Cars and Intergalactic Speed Dating

30: Priority Number Two

The humans were silent as they made their way back to Richard's quarters, but a lot was said in that silence. Kavita held onto Richard's arm. He pressed her hand, exchanging a worried glance with her. Garth's silence and his ill temper was completely out of character for him.

When the pod stopped, the three of them drifted out as one and went into Richard's room. There were just enough chairs for all of them to slump bonelessly into.

"I should go get us some of that tea," Richard said.

"Won't do us any good unless you can put some whiskey into it," muttered Garth.

Richard struggled with this comment for a moment. A hot beverage was a tried-and-true source of comfort, but he'd never had to comfort himself and others through an accidental trip into space before, so acknowledged the truth in Garth's words and he stayed put.

"Once the action is over, we can contact your mother," Kavita said. "I know there's technology on board that can communicate from space. I've been on the receiving end of it. I don't know if we can dial phones, but..."

Garth threw her a rather dark look. "I'll contact her myself, thank you very much."

Kavita dropped her eyes.

"I can't believe you're besties with my mom. That is some next-level weird spy shit."

"Hey. It doesn't sound that bad," said Richard. "It's not like she hacked our computer or something."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. It was mostly honest happenstance, Garth. She's just...so...friendly. We met at the holiday party and she kept me talking for what felt like hours, and then she sent me a friend request on Facebook, and after you and Richard left, I just..." She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "Reconnected."

"For nefarious purposes. To spy on us."

"What do you want me to say? That's it. It's true. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I'm not sorry I did it. These people needed our help."

"Yeah, well, now we're the ones who need help! We're in very real danger, in case you hadn't noticed. And Mom will be, too, and so will Kin, if we can't tell them what's going on and keep them away from our house. What if they come looking for us? Who knows what those crabs are going to do? They might already be in danger!"

"We've got the communicator," said Richard. "We can get in contact with them."

A brittle silence descended. After several seconds, Garth sighed and settled back into his chair. "Yeah. But I gave mine back to Aialo-El. We'll have to get it from them."

"I'm sure they won't have a problem with that. Let's take it one thing at a time, mate."

"This is not cool, you guys," said Garth. "They're human-napping us."

"They were reacting in the moment," said Richard. "I think they forgot we were even on board for a minute there. They went into survival mode."

"I get survival mode. What I don't get is how they can just blast into space with human beings on board. We don't even have space suits or anything. We could die."

Richard let out a breath out in a soft groan, leaning forward over his knees. He laced his hands together behind his neck, closing his eyes with his head hung down.

"Oh, is it your turn already?" Garth asked. He put an arm around Richard's shoulders. His tone was calmer, almost apologetic, when he continued. "Obviously, we're going to be fine. It's just the thought. The principle. They didn't even stop to consider..."

"We have experience running from those things," said Richard to his feet from between his knees. "We didn't stop to consider anything. We just focused on getting away as fast as we could."