Chapter 15

Jamie chose a seat close to where Drake was sitting and started the process of buckling herself in. She’d barely fastened the final restraint when she felt the shudder of the engines kicking on.

The blank wall in front of them lit up with an image of their surroundings. It flickered, then focused on the collapsed roof above them. The majority of it had tumbled in on itself long ago, but the edges still held, making a jagged hole that suddenly seemed too tight to fit the ship.

Jamie held her breath as the ship slowly lifted from the ground. The hole grew larger as they approached, and she fought the urge to close her eyes. We won’t fit. We can’t fit. Oh Lord, we’re going to crash.

And then, they were through.

Drake had proved himself to excel at every other skill he’d displayed, so she wondered why she’d doubted his ability to pilot the ship. They were rising into the night sky until they paused above the trees around them.

Jamie looked out over the vista of fields and farms, wondering why he’d suggested she buckle in tight. Everything was still around them.

Then all of a sudden, it wasn’t. The ship shot forward and the farmland became a blur. Jamie had to turn her head and fight off a bout of motion sickness as the ship rushed through the air at speeds she couldn’t even imagine.

“What do you think?” Drake asked, turning around to look her way.

“I think you should keep your eyes on the road!” she yelled, gripped by panic.

He had the audacity to laugh. “I thought I was the one with color-changing skin. You’re looking a little green at the moment.”
“Shut up, turn around and drive!” she said, and then she did succumb to the urge to shut her eyes up tight. The blur around them was too much to handle.

She blocked out his chuckle and focused on her breathing. Fifteen minutes, he said. I can handle that.

Jamie realized that, when her eyes were closed, she couldn’t really feel the sensation of movement from the ship. There was a faint hum, but that was it. They could have been sitting still for all she knew.

She risked cracking open her eyes and saw that the world was still a blur, but when she breathed deep and didn’t focus on the streaks of light passing them by, it wasn’t too bad. After a couple of minutes, she felt well enough to relax.

Her eyes fastened themselves on her pilot. He was back in his human disguise, just a normal looking guy she wouldn’t even give a second look to. But now she knew that underneath, he was anything but normal.

Drake was easily the tallest male she’d ever seen, and, she was fascinated to admit, the most handsome. His muscular body was a woman’s dream. It didn’t appear overly-swollen or out of proportion, like some bodybuilder who worried only about packing on mass. He was definitely well-defined and clearly strong, but his body, though exceedingly large, didn’t seem terrifyingly so.

Everything was just right.

She remembered how silky the tendrils on his head had seemed. They were thicker than human hair, fuller, but oh so soft. And his eyes, like midnight pools with a golden ring around them. If she wasn’t careful, she could lose herself in eyes like that.

Jamie wished that he could put aside his human disguise. She wanted to see him again in all his Zantharian glory. Maybe after all this is over…

She stopped herself from going down that garden path. This was no time to be thinking about a future when she wasn’t even sure if there would be one. Her planet was in peril, apparently the whole galaxy was. When compared to the danger facing countless races, her hopes for a time when she could touch him again seemed inappropriate.

And still, deep inside, she knew she wanted that again. She longed to be possessed by him, ravaged and wrapped in the rapture of his arms.

He’d taken her in a way no human male had ever come close to. Her entire being had belonged to him in those moments. It was so overpowering, so intense that she’d lost consciousness.

And I missed his climax. I regret that.

She’d been excited to watch his face change as he reached the ecstasy of his peak. Instead he’d fucked her into unconsciousness.

And she prayed to God that he would do it again.

“We’re approaching Lake Michigan,” he said, and she jumped, not realizing that they’d already covered such a remarkable distance. “Let’s see what Herman has to say. Maybe he can get a bead on Lakewood’s location.”

Unfastening a couple of straps, Jamie was able to bend down and pull open her handbag. She tugged out the robot, holding him tightly in her lap.

“Well, Herman, what do you think about supersonic flight?”

Several lights blinked over the ball’s surface. “By my calculations, we’ve been traveling at over 3,000 miles per hour. While jets are able to fly faster, I doubt the ride is as smooth.”

“Thank you, Herman,” Drake said, and Jamie detected a note of pride in his voice. “Now, are you getting any readings on our lost scientist?”

“Negative,” the helpful robot replied. “I am unable to locate Dr. Lakewood within the radius of my scanning capabilities.”

“So what do we do?” Jamie asked.

“You said Lakewood had an office here?”

The robot let out a few beeps. “Correct. He has an office adjacent to the Illinois Tech Robotics Lab.”

Drake tapped at the console in front of him. “Maybe we should check it out.”

Jamie frowned. “But how? We have to find somewhere to hide the ship, then make it to the lab, then figure out how to get inside and we don’t even know if—“

“Parking’s a breeze in this thing, at least for short periods,” Drake said. “As for the rest, we’ll take it as it comes.”

He swiveled around to pierce her with his gaze. “We’ve made a pretty good team so far. What do you say? Ready for another adventure?”

When he put it like that, she couldn’t resist. She gave him a quick nod, and her insides melted when he rewarded her with an easy smile.

Jamie turned her eyes to the view screen. They were fast approaching the city, the blur around them starting to materialize into buildings and roads. The craft slowed as they made their way around the lake and into the city proper. Soon they hovered over a large building that was several stories tall. Its roof was flat, and as she watched, Drake skillfully maneuvered the ship until it was parked high about the city below them.

“How far to the lab?” he asked the robot.

“Approximately three city blocks,” Herman replied, giving specific directions on how to find the building.

Drake unfastened his restraints in a swift, fluid motion and then came over to her seat to help her unbuckle her own. When Jamie stood, she was only inches from him.

She fought the overwhelming desire to lean into his body, to feel his warmth around her. Instead, she placed their robotic companion back into her bag and slung it over her shoulder.

They exited the craft and she watched as Drake broke open the lock to the door that would lead them down into the building proper. Apparently, they were no longer worried about violating security protocols. Jamie wondered if that meant that they’d reached the stage in their mission where they had no more time to be concerned with caution.

It was a frightening thought. Still, with the strong and capable male at her side, she felt strangely calm.

They took the several flights of stairs at a jog and were soon on the bottom floor. Because they were no longer in a secured building in that nation’s capital, no one was around to question their access. Before long they were out on the street and headed to Lakewood’s lab.

The building housing his office was squat and nondescript. The door was locked, and Drake turned to face her. “I’m going to force it.”

“There might be an alarm,” she said, anxiety at last beginning to bubble up inside her.

There was a series of beeps from within her purse, so Jamie cracked it open and peered inside. “I have the code for the access panel,” Herman said, his voice low in what passed for a robot’s whisper.

Drake entered the code Herman gave him and the door unlocked. Then Jamie pointed out the directions that the robot gave them as they hurried down unremarkable hallways.

“It should be here,” she said, motioning to a gray door that looked like the dozen others they passed.

“The same code will unlock this door as well,” the helpful robot said, and in a moment they were inside.

Drake flipped the light switch to reveal a lab in utter chaos. “I knew this guy was messy, judging by the condition of his lab at NASA, but this is another level.”

Equipment was strewn about, mechanical parts and pieces scattered about on the floor and surfaces. Papers were tossed everywhere, and Jamie had to pick her way around a busted coffee cup, its contents having soaked into the surrounding documents.

“I don’t think this is just messiness,” she said. It looked like there had been a struggle.

Drake nodded, then bent to set the office chair in front of the computer console upright. He plugged in his device and started to work on the console.

A series of beeps sounded within her bag so she pulled out the robot to let him take in the scene.

“Please set me down,” Herman requested.

“I don’t know,” she said, biting her lip. “It’s a wreck in here. Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

She set him down and the ball began to roll carefully through the debris. As she watched, the little robot made its way to a wall that was dominated by a large shelving unit, the bottom of which had two wooden panels. When Herman reached the unit, he stopped before the panels.

Jamie wandered closer, wondering what the little guy was up to. Suddenly and surprisingly, a small arm-like apparatus sprung from his circular surface. It reached out towards the panel, the thin end of it inserting itself between the wooden panels.

There was a little flash, and then the panel opened. Herman rolled into the entrance, and the panel shut behind him.

“What the heck?” Jamie crouched down, feeling along the panel, but was unable to find the little opening through which Herman had pushed his robot-arm.

Drake came to stand behind her, having finished his upload. “What’s going on?”

“Herman sprouted a little arm, stuck it into this panel somehow, and the panel opened. He rolled inside and it closed behind him.”

Drake squatted next to her. “He’s in there?”

Jamie nodded. “Yeah. Now, what do we do?”

Drake shrugged, then reached out to knock on the panel.

There was a delay, and then the panel opened and out rolled Herman, his lights blinking, his arm nowhere in sight.

“What were you doing?” Jamie asked the robot.

“Dr. Lakewood created a secret storage area for me. I am the most advanced robot of its kind. He worried that I might attract attention.”

“Makes sense,” Drake said.

Jamie knelt to poke her head into the panel. “What’s in here?”
“Spare parts. An extra battery. And a small communications array designed by Dr. Lakewood for emergencies.”

Drake put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back. “An array? Did you—?”

“I did attempt to contact Dr. Lakewood, but I received no reply.” The lights on the little robot blinked in a rapid progression, giving Jamie the impression of anxiety.

“What’s the range on the array?”

“Approximately 500 million kilometers.”

Drake’s eyes widened. “How does he receive the signal?”

“It works on the same chip as the GPS.” Herman let out a series of agitated bleeps.

Jamie looked back and forth between the alien and the robot. “Will you two speak English, please? What does that mean?”

Drake’s dark eyes narrowed. “It means Dr. Lakewood is not on Earth.”