Fib gasped. Yelia!

She could feel her sister, inside her own mind.

The citadel. Destune.

Things that didn’t make sense, all slamming into her brain.

It was night time, the end of the second day. Sarah slept next to her, tired from her day of English lessons, the tentacled aliens were voracious in their desire to learn her language.

As suddenly as Yelia had entered her mind, she was gone, and Fib was left on her cot in the dark, trying to catch her breath. The bot was hovering nearby, buzzing almost silently, beeping every now and then. There was a substantial wireless information network in the town, and the bot was learning what he could about the green aliens.

“Wake up,” Yelia said to Sarah, reaching over and shaking the girl.

“What is it?” the Earthling asked.

“We have to go. I know where my sister is. I think she’s in danger.”

“It’s only been two days.”

“Let me handle that,” Yelia said, climbing off her cot.

The two women dressed in the dark as Fib considered her options. She could ask the tentacled beings to let them go early, or she could steal the ship. She had seen it, once they had been led to the small town they currently found themselves in. She knew they had stocked it already, for she had helped.

“Do you think they will let us go?” Fib asked Sarah.

“No. They are… serious about learning. If we promised three days, they will take three days.”

“Then we are stealing the ship,” Fib said.

“Is that a good idea?”

“My sister needs me. Gar needs you. I could… sense things. She reached out to me somehow, and I could sense that she was in danger. I could also sense that Gar was with her. I don’t know what is going on, but I think they are trying to save us. I don’t know what they are doing at the citadel though.”

“What’s the citadel?” Sarah asked.

“I don’t know much. I thought it would be empty. An extinct race built it. But something is there, because I could feel fear. Something was attacking them.”

“We have to go,” Sarah said, convinced. “We have to take the ship.”

Fib nodded, and she led the way outside.

*****

Bo, Gar, Char, and Yelia had taken refuge in the room with the machine. The long hallway was the perfect funnel point, and someone was always kneeling by the open door, taking shots at any of the Destune that attempted to enter.

Yelia had entered the machine hours ago, but she was still groggy and in pain. Reaching out to her sister had taken a toll.

“You know where she is?” Gar asked for the tenth time.

“Yes. I could take us there right now.”

“Sarah was with her?”

“Yes. I know everything Fib did at that moment. I can feel her. I know how to get to her.

“We have to go!” Gar said.

“There are thousands of those things. You saw them before we ran back here. We go out there, they will tear us apart,” Bo said.

“We cannot just stay here,” Gar argued.

“We will think of something,” Bo said. “We have to.”

*****

Taking the ship had been easier than either woman thought. No one came to stop them, not until the ship was powered up and lifted from the ground. Sarah looked down through the viewport, suddenly ashamed of going back on her promise to the aliens. Maybe she could come back and teach them her language.

“We are on the right side of the galaxy,” Fib said. “It won’t take long to jump to the citadel.”

“Do it,” Sarah said as the ship slid into the blackness of space, away from the green planet.

Fib busied herself with inputting the jump into the navigation computer, and then looked to Sarah. “Here we go,” she said, as she pressed a flat button on the dash. The ship jumped.

*****

“Go!” Bo called as the Destune surrounded him, their hands and teeth ripping into his flesh. But Gar wouldn’t leave him.

“Get to the ship!” he yelled to Yelia and Char as he turned to fight off the undead androids, tugging a bloody Bo forward.

Yelia was faster than her lover, and she was only ten feet away from the Patchwork Lady when it exploded.

“No!” Bo yelled as Yelia was lifted off her feet and thrown backward into Char, knocking him down to the hard ground.

“There!” Gar said, pointing up. On top of one of the towers stood a Destune, this one with a rocket launcher on his shoulder.

“They do have guns,” Bo said grimly as the Destune turned to aim at them.

There was nowhere to run. They could not escape the explosion that was sure to come any second. Gar stared at the Destune as the other creatures closed in behind him, snarling and gnashing their teeth.

Boom!

The Destune with the rocket launcher exploded as an energy bolt ripped through his body and gun, setting off the rockets inside.

“Fib!” Yelia screamed, raising her fist as she stood up, pointing to the ship swooping down toward them. It hovered a few feet off the ground and a ramp extended. Sarah stood at the top of the ramp, her eyes wide as she took in the Destune horde, the man she loved and his friends. The bot floated beside her.

Gar helped Bo forward, pushing him up the ramp, then turning and helping Char and Yelia board. The ship was pulling away immediately, and the ramp was sliding back in. Gar turned and there she was. Sarah. He took her in his arms and they kissed.