CHAPTER 3
Audra pulled away from him, dabbing her eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t usually lose control.”
“It is understandable. You have had a very...unusual day.”
“Unusual? That’s the understatement of the year.” She scanned her surroundings looking for a tissue or something to wipe her nose, and then saw her hands. “God, I really do need to clean up. I can’t have you putting me into stasis looking like this.”
“Stasis?” He beetled his eyebrows. “What is that?”
“Deep sleep. So I won’t die or age or anything during the voyage. That’s what they called it in this movie, Alien. It must be light years away.”
He chuckled, finally pulling on the shirt he had been holding all this time. “Princess, I assure you, you will be fully awake for the journey. You’ll not die nor will you age because of its length.”
“Oh.” She looked down, embarrassed. “You must think me the perfect idiot. I just assumed that, well, I was wrong. Obviously, your technology is far ahead of ours.”
“Yes, it is. About a thousand years. Though our societies are similar, we have our monarchy; other countries on the planet have dictators or an elected government. Our civilization was fully realized when Earth’s was still forming.”
As they walked along corridors without end, in and out of talking elevators she sighed.
“What?”
“I was just thinking about how things can change in an instant. I always knew someday I would leave home. I just never imagined I would be leaving the planet. Maybe the state, but never the planet.” Her heart grew sad at the thought of home. Home. Family. Would she ever see them again?
“We do not always have a choice in what fate throws at us. All we can do is make the best of it,” he said gently. “You will like Centauri.”
“What about my parents?” She thought she might cry. No. She must not. Not now. “I don’t even know if they survived the attack. I know I ordered you to find out what happened and I’m sorry I was acting like such a witch, but I may never see them again.”
He stopped and turned to her. “When Slavarien’s men saw us leaving they stopped the attack on your parents to pursue us.”
“But will they remain all right?” Tears welled in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. “What if those men go back to finish what they started?”
“They wanted you, Princess, not your parents. When that was no longer an option, they left the planet. Your family is safe.” Darius raised his hand as if to wipe a tear from her cheek, but stopped, his hand hovering in mid-air before abruptly returning to his side.
Just the nearness of his hand to her face radiated heat and sent shock waves of awareness coursing through her.
“Your aunt, er Maggie, your mother even sent you a message and a package.”
She gave him her brightest smile. “She did? But how? We haven’t been here that long and how would--“
“She has a comulator too, or have you forgotten? She contacted the ship just after you called her from your apartment to tell her about me. She then gave the coordinates for the package to be transported. Your mother was very sure of you. That bodes well for Centauri.” He smiled down at her.
She thought he might lean down to kiss her, but instead he stepped away.
“I’m glad Mom has such confidence in me. I wish I was as sure myself. Please take me to my room. I want to see what she sent.”
