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  “So I could have taken my cell phone?” She gave a jagged little laugh that made the tightness in his chest worse. “Thanks but even though they have awesome coverage, I don’t think my cell provider can handle long distance calls from outside the freaking planet.”

  “Be that as it may, I would not have tried to stop you from taking it,” Six said quietly.

  “No, but you’re perfectly fine with dragging me away from everyone I love and taking me to some planet in a distant solar system where I’ll never see them again.”

  “Actually, my world is located in a whole other galaxy from yours,” he corrected her. “And the Claiming Period is only for one lunar month.”

  “Only one month?” She turned to him, looking suddenly suspicious.

  Six nodded. “One month.”

  “But if I go with you, even for just a month, everyone I love will be dead by the time I get back,” she protested. “I might have chosen social work as my major but that wasn’t because I couldn’t do the hard sciences—I made an A in physics. Even traveling at light speed it would take so long to get to another star—let alone another galaxy—that everyone I love will be long dead and gone by the time I get back. If I ever do get back,” she added darkly.

  Six began to see why she was so worried.

  “I understand your concern. But don’t be afraid—we will not be traveling to my planet using linear flight. We will fold space which allows us to emerge in my sector of the universe almost at the same time that we leave yours. And the same will be true in reverse.”

  “So…we can go there instantly and come back instantly without losing any time?” Mei-Li asked uncertainly.

  He nodded. “Exactly.”

  “And the Claiming Period is only a month?”

  “One lunar month,” he repeated, nodding.

  “Whose month?” she asked, sounding suddenly suspicious. “Because I know that, for instance on Venus, a day is longer than a year because the planet rotates around on its axis a lot slower than Earth does. So if the months on your planet—on Z4—are five of my Earth years long or something like that—”

  “Actually, I believe our solar month is somewhat shorter than the one you have on this planet,” Six said. “Your calendar usually has a cycle of twenty-eight to thirty-one solar days, does it not?”

  “Yes,” Mei-Li said cautiously. “And yours is shorter?”

  He nodded. “We have two natural satellites or moons on Z4. Depending on their phases, we divide our year into thirteen or fourteen lunar units or months, as you call them. Not twelve, as you do.”

  He was glad now he had taken the time to learn a bit about Earth, although he still wished he had been permitted to spend some time on the Mother Ship learning human customs. If he had, Mei-Li might not be looking at him so mistrustfully right now. Was she really so unhappy that he had incapacitated the violent male that attacked her? Six couldn’t understand why this should upset her so, but who could understand anything to do with emotions?

  “Okay,” Mei-Li said at last. “But what happens when the month is up? Do I…have to stay with you forever? I mean, I’ve heard all about how the, uh, Kindred persuade the girls they take to stay with them on the, uh, Mother Ship…”

  Her voice sounded strange and tight and his ocular scanner indicated she had elevated breathing and heart rate. Six glanced at her and saw that her cheeks were flushed and she was biting her lip. What emotion could that facial expression signal? Was she worried? Scared? Embarrassed?

  “What is concerning you?” he asked. “Forgive me but I have difficulty interpreting emotions as I have none myself.”

  “What, none at all?” She shook her head. “Commander Sylvan said something about you Dark Kindred not having feelings but I thought he just meant you were stoic or repressed or—”

  “We have no emotions,” Six assured her. “Thanks to this.” He tapped the small silver and black button at the back of his neck.

  “What is that?” Mei-Li asked. “And how does it keep you from having feelings?”

  “An emotion damper enhancement. It allows me to live without the inconvenience of emotions through a complex interaction with my brain and neurochemicals. But you never answered my question. What are you feeling and why?”

  “Why should I tell you? Why do you even want to know?” She looked away.

  Six opened his mouth but he didn’t have an answer for her. Why should he care about what emotions she experienced? Actually, he shouldn’t. And yet…he still didn’t want her to have negative feelings about him. It was foolish but undeniable—he wished for her good opinion. And so far it seemed he was doing a poor job at earning it.

  He looked back at the controls and realized they were far enough from Earth now that they ought to be out of the immediate range of the Mother Ship. He could send a signal at any moment to alert the medical barge back by Z4 to fold space and open the rift. Yet, he didn’t want to do that yet, for several reasons.

  Mei-Li was still unsettled for one thing—he could tell by the set of her shoulders as much as the elevated levels on his scanner that she was having strong emotions—almost certainly negative ones. If he’d had a sniffer with him, he could have been certain exactly what she was feeling…but no, that would be a disaster.

  Mei-Li’s intense emotions would have sent a sniffer into immediate overload and caused it to try an immediate purge. Six frowned to himself. He would have to be certain that the dispensation for her emotional state was in a prominent place. It would be important for her safety once they went to the surface of Z4. First, however, they had to go to the medical barges to get her enhanced.

  He wondered what sort of enhancement she would choose—somehow he doubted it would be an emotion damper although that would be the logical choice. In his recent encounters with Feelers, it seemed that those with emotions preferred to keep them, no matter how many difficulties they caused.

  Mei-Li moved slightly and made a muffled noise of pain, reminding Six of the second reason he didn’t want to fold space to Z4 yet. She was injured and he wanted to tend her wound. Of course, he could wait until they reached the medical barge and allow a Tolleg to heal her. Tollegs were a race of natural surgeons the Dark Kindred employed to staff the medical barges where they offered free medical care in exchange for DNA. But somehow, Six didn’t want to do that. He wanted to tend to her himself—to treat her injuries and ease her pain with his own hands.

  He frowned to himself. He worried about her injuries and he didn’t want her to have a negative opinion of him. In a very short time, this little female had become very important to him. Why?

  It’s simply the Kindred instinct again, he told himself. The urge to care for and protect the female I am claiming—that’s all.

  Another glance at Mei-Li’s stiff bearing and the way she was turned as far from him as she could get made him wonder if she was willing to be treated. Well, she would at least have to let him examine the wound—he couldn’t allow her pain to continue—not when he could stop it. But was there any way to put her at ease so that she would be amenable to his treatment? A way to allay her fear and distrust?

  Suddenly, Six had an idea.

  * * * * *

  Mei-Li stiffened when the big Kindred first got up from the pilot’s chair but he didn’t make any moves towards her. Instead, he went past her, into the back of the ship which was much bigger than it had at first appeared. Mei-Li wondered what he was doing back there but she was too proud and too angry to ask.

  She stared out the windshield at the front of the ship at the cold blackness of space, feeling sick with uncertainty. Part of it was fear for the kids on her caseload. She knew Claudia would deal them out to other caseworkers and take as many onto her own load as possible but Mei-Li still worried about Kristen and her sister and all the others that depended on her.

  That was the fear she allowed herself to admit anyway. In the back of her mind, she was wondering how far exactly Six was taking her. Also, would he ever br