“Okay, I’m looking,” I said. “What am I supposed to be seeing?”
“This is our next destination,” Sir said,
Suddenly, a glowing blue circle appeared around one of the tiny, twinkling lights.
“That,” Sir said, “Is F’too’sh Beta—a small black hole surrounded by a ring of gas giant planets. We’ll be there later today.”
“Um…you’re taking us to a black hole? Why? Won’t we get sucked in and spaghettified?” I asked, remembering a documentary I had seen once on black holes. It had talked about how anything that falls into the black hole gets pulled out long and thin, like strands of spaghetti. I didnotwant to be spaghettified—it sounded like a very uncomfortable way to die.
“No, of course not—we won’t go past the event horizon of the black hole,” Sir said dismissively. “But there is a spaceport there, tethered between two co-oribtal gas giants by gravity anchors, that supplies the kind of fuel my ship runs on. My fuel cells are low and I need to replenish them if I’m going to get us back to my home galaxy.”
“Why not just use the Matter Synthesizer to make more fuel for your cells?” I asked.
Sir smiled.
“A very intelligent question, little one. Unfortunately, that would be very dangerous in the small Matter Synthesizer my ship is equipped with. There are much larger Synthesizers on my home world that can and do make unlimited fuel, but I’m afraid that takes very specialized equipment.”
“Okay,” I said nodding. “So we’re going to the space port on Foosh beta—”
“F’too’sh Beta,” Sir corrected me.
“Right, F’too’sh Beta,” I said. “To fill up the gas tank…er, the fuel cells. Later on today, right?”
“Exactly.” He nodded.“AndI may allow you to come with me into the spaceport,ifyou do well with your training.”
“All right, I can do that.” I nodded eagerly. “Um, are there lots of ships at the spaceport?” I asked him, hoping I could find a kindly alien to give me a lift back home.
“Thousands,” Sir told me. “Which means you’ll need to stay very close to me, little one. There are many males there who wouldn’t hesitate to snap up such an adorable, curvy little female,” he added, giving me a half-lidded look from those full-black eyes of his.
“Oh, um…thank you.” I wasn’t sure what to say and I could feel myself blushing.
He kept calling me his pet but then he would come out with a statement like that which made me think he might see me as something more. Not that Iwantedto be more to him—it was bad enough being his pet!
“Where are we headed after that? After the spaceport, I mean?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
“After I refill the fuel cells, we’ll be on our way to O’nagga Nine,” Sir told me. “It’s a frozen world on an arm of the galaxy across from the one your own planet Earth sits on.”
“A frozen world? Why are we goingthere?” I asked, frowning.
“To study the Naggians and their culture, of course,” Sir told me. “They are the most elusive of the Twelve Peoples and I need their data for my report to my Sovereign.”
“Wait—Sovereign? But I thought you were an ‘Overlord,’” I said, frowning. “You have someone over you?”
“Only one—Splendara the Third and Thirtieth who is the Supreme Ruler of Korrigon Four,” Sir told me.
“Okay.” I nodded. “I guess even Alien Overlords have to answer tosomebody. Can you show me, uh, O’nagga Nine on the viewscreen?”
“Certainly.” Sir nodded and another lighted circle appeared on the viewscreen—this one considerably further away than the pale blue circle around the spaceport. “It is a frozen world, as I said—we will both have to wear protective gear—especially you, little one.”
“Oh, I’ll be fine—I love ice and snow,” I assured him.
“Not to this extent,” Sir told me. “The Naggians actually live in towers built of ice and sleep on blocks of it as well.”
“Wow…sounds like the ice hotel, back on Earth,” I murmured, remembering a documentary I’d read about the place. It was in the far north of Sweden or Norway—I forgot which—and everything there was made out of solid ice.
“You have such a place?” Sir asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Yes,” I said. “It’s a hotel all built out of blocks of ice. Of course, it’s only there during the Winter season and they have to build it again every year.”