Tessa’s POV:

  With all of the bending and leaning Soranto was doing as he organized things, I finally flew over to a crate where I could lay down and watch him. He was slowing down, but he wasn’t quite relaxed enough for me to try talking to him yet.

  He eventually sat down on a crate and looked at me. “We might be trapped in here for a while, but the good news is that nothing can get in here while those heaters are running.”

  The opening was almost perfect. “That’s good.” I managed to keep my voice from shaking, and it even sounded friendly.

  His head spun toward the door as he tensed. Pausing, he narrowed his eyes in thought, and his gaze drifted slowly back to me in disbelief.

  I tilted my head innocently, keeping my voice younger sounding. “What’s your plan?” I had a feeling I was making this situation far more awkward than it should have been.

  “Tessa?” he tentatively asked, blinking slowly.

  I perked my ear tufts and trilled while replying, “Yes, it’s me. Mom finally gave me permission to speak with you. She says Taureen is asking if you know where we are.”

  “Taureen and… Tasha?” He stared blankly at me, still trying to get over his shock.

  “Yes. I can still speak with Mom and Dad. Dirk too. They don’t know where we are, and your wrist comm isn’t sending whatever special signal it is supposed to.”

  “Where are Drae and Sipar? I saw Drae trying to get into one of those ships.”

  “Sipar is in recovery. Drae is in a scouting shuttle looking for us.” As per Mom’s earlier suggestion, I added, “Adeline apparently has some big gun that Taureen locked in his weapon room the moment she wasn’t looking.”

  That startled a laugh out of him. “I should have known she would drag out the fusion blaster.” He shook his head slightly. “Can all fire lizards speak telepathically?”

  “Tele-what?” In reality, I knew what it meant, but Mom had suggested playing down my intelligence a bit.

  “In our minds.”

  “Yes. If we choose. Most dragonets speak with their chosen handlers once they trust them enough. It varies. Some don’t talk much. Dirk says that I’ll talk your ear off now that I’m allowed to speak with you, which I’m probably doing now.”

  He rubbed his forehead. “This…actually makes far too much sense. There were a few things in the handlers’ notes that seemed kind of off. Like when Alec originally named Serena and Tom, and they refused to listen to him. Then, just two days later, he changed their names and their progress skyrocketed.”

  “They really didn’t like being called Flaer and Vatar,” I said, amusement coloring my voice. I got back on track. “Do you know where we are?”

  “Not really. A moon, small planet, or very large asteroid from what I can tell. I crawled into a shuttle’s cargo hold before it left, so I couldn’t see outside.”

  After relaying that to Mom, I said, “Taureen is asking how damaged your wrist comm is. They’re occasionally getting your heart reading, but nothing else.”

  His gaze darted to his wrist comm. “They are actually getting a partial signal? I knew it could pick up nearby signals like your tracker, but I assumed the transmitters were too damaged to work properly. If even one is partially working…”

  He took off his wrist comm and began pulling it apart with small tools from his belt pouch. I watched in fascination; I hadn’t known it could come apart. Soranto’s fingers struggled to move the extremely tiny parts. I tilted my head, occasionally sending images to Mom and Taureen. I mentally nudged him.

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  “I’m linking the locator beacon to the transmitters for the bio signals,” Soranto murmured. “With luck, they can get a signal and find us.”

  “That would be good. I don’t like the Votaks.”

  “I’m in full agreement. There. That is the best I can do with what I have on hand. From your questions, I assume no one else knows where we are?”

  “No. Mom said there are a lot of upset Kymari hunting down the Votaks and looking for us. They called in a flock—fleet?—as well.”

  “A fleet,” he confirmed. “Such an attack hasn’t happened in a very long time. The fighting groups will help until the situation is resolved.”

  “They got a signal!” Mom exclaimed, making both me and Soranto jump. “You’re inside a moon in the next star system. Several groups are discussing how to extract Soranto since they can track him now. They’re hoping you’re with him.”

  Once Soranto got over the surprise of having Mom talk to him, he frowned. “That could be a problem. We have to get closer to an exit or some Votaks will come in here for shelter.”

  “How long are we trapped in this room?”

  “At least another hour. I managed to download the building layouts onto my wrist comm; let me dig into them and see if we can steal one of their shuttles.”

  I flew to his shoulder pad as he began checking things on his wrist comm.

  Soranto pulled a container of fruit out of his belt pouch. “I only have enough for half a day, but I’m hoping to be out of here by then.”

  “Thanks!”

  I dropped to his lap and nibbled on the slightly bruised fruit, humming my contentment. It was much better than the minnows. After the fifth piece, I put the lid back on. My fishy dinner may have not been the tastiest, but it was keeping me full.

  Soranto set a water container down beside me, although he left the fruit where it was. The water was a bit stale, but it still tasted better than what the parrot had given me. I curled up on Soranto’s lap as he focused on his wrist comm.

  “Do you realize what the Votaks were doing here?” Soranto quietly asked.

  My mind immediately jumped to the computers the Votak and parrot had been working on. Had Soranto copied all of that information? My heart sank.

  “Possibly. They talked about some stuff. What do you see?”

  He glanced down at my nervous tone. “Most of the fire lizards were not always fire lizards, were they?”

  “No,” I whispered, my ear tufts drooping. “We always kept that a secret. No one even told their handlers.”

  “That was a very wise plan on their part.” He was silent for quite some time, looking through more information.

  “They thought it was serious. Is it?” I inquired tentatively.

  “Very. Such a process is forbidden among all races. Even the other Votaks would kill this bunch if they heard they were dabbling in it. Those like yourself, who have hatched or been born normally, should be safe enough, but warn your friends not to mention it until all of the originals are gone. If other races somehow got wind of this… it wouldn’t be good.”

  Mom and Dad had been right. At this point, I was kind of glad I wasn’t sharing this part of the conversation with them.

  “They didn’t go through it willingly, and I don’t think it can be undone, can it?”

  “No, it can’t. Judging by what I’m seeing in their database, everything this group currently owns—right down to every computer and backup file—is stored here. Apart from a crawler and the Captain’s assistant, there are only Votaks on this moon. I honestly think we should blow this place up when we leave so no one discovers what they were doing.”

  My ears perked up. “How can we do that?”

  “This place is heated by old chemical fission reactors. They’ll explode if certain parts are damaged. I can turn my wrist comm into a remote detonator, and as long as none of the shuttles or Votaks escape, the trail will end here.”

  “And the dragonets will be safe?” I asked hopefully.

  “If they can keep their secret as well as they have been, then yes.”

  “Do you think the Elders know?”

  “Of your true level of intelligence, probably. I don’t think they are aware of the blending though. We don’t have the technology to test for it in this star system, and Votaks normally never touch it, so there’s no reason for the Elders to suspect it. Even if it did, they’re the ones pushing to protect your kind.”

  I tilted my head. “Why do you think they know we’re smart? The Elders, I mean.”

  “The wording of our communications. It struck me as strange before, but I thought it was because you were so young and we didn’t know much about fledglings. Now that I know, I’m fairly certain that they either strongly suspect or actually know your race is intelligent.”

  That triggered a thought. “Did those notes say how long we’ll live?” It was an unknown detail that bothered a number of the dragonets.

  “The machine was still doing the calculations when I took a copy, but roughly one hundred to two hundred years, depending on how accurate their calculations are.”

  He continued doing something on his wrist comm, leaving me the delightful job of bringing Mom and Dad up to speed. This was going to be a long conversation.