Candi was about to respond when an alarm blared out.

“WARNING. APPROACHING INTRUDER. WARNING.”

“Uh oh.” Slate turned towards the glass front. “It looks like we’ve been spotted by one of your military space force.”

Sure enough, a space vehicle was coming straight at them. It was growing larger and larger as it got closer.

Candi’s eyes grew round. “Oh no! What do we do? I hope they don’t shoot at us!”

Slate laughed. “Don’t worry. I have a force shield around us.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Usually they just leave us alone. Not sure why this one is coming directly at us. Hang on. Let me do a bit of evasive maneuvering.”

Slate threw his white linen shirt back on without even bothering to button up the front. He strode over to the Command Platform where he sank down onto the control seat and tapped a flurry of things on his armrest.

Then he sat back and simply watched.

Candi quickly threw her summer dress back on and padded barefoot to her chair. She took a seat, tucking her legs up under her for warmth.

As she stared at the spaceship that was coming closer, she noticed that Slate’s transport pod wasn’t doing anything evasive in the least.

“Why does it feel as if we’re just hanging here doing nothing?”

Slate chuckled. “That’s because we are. I put us on cloak-mode.”

“What does that mean?”

“To that ship out there, we’ve just suddenly disappeared. They probably think we slipped into another dimension or something.”

Candi’s eyes grew larger. “I think they’re getting ready to shoot at us.”

“No! Really?” Slate rolled his eyes.

“Yes, really!” Candi pointed at the oncoming ship.

Sure enough, a beam of light emitted from the ship, heading straight for them.

Candi winced, expecting a large explosion.

ping.

The light pinged off the transport pod’s force shield. No damage was registered, but it gave away their location.

“I think they can see us!” Candi gasped. “It didn’t matter that you put us into whatever cloak thingy you did.”

“Hmmm. I’m afraid you’re right. They actually spotted us.” He rubbed his jaw. “I have two choices. Fight or flight.”

“Run!!!” Candi screamed.

He turned back to her with a curious glance.

“You know my transport vehicle massively outguns them, right?”

She turned back with pleading eyes.

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Can we just run away, please?”

“We’re going to look like scaredy cats, Candace,” he began laughing, “especially since they don’t even stand a chance against what I can do to them.”

“Please…” she begged as another round of weapons began hitting the transport pod’s shields.

ping. ping. ping.

“Shields at 75%.” The system’s voice called out.

“Okay fine. But Shhhhh!” He put a finger to his lips. “Don’t tell anyone I ran away. I’ll be the laughing stock of my brothers.”

“I won’t tell!” She promised, her eyes pleading desperately.

Slate turned back to the glass window. His fingers began tapping on the armrest once again. This time, there was a slight hum coming from the belly of the pod.

One moment, they were staring at a warship coming directly at them.

The next moment, they were staring at a purple green world, with three moons orbiting around it.

“Welcome to Nirovium.”

Candi’s jaw dropped as she looked at the alien world with the swirling royal purple clouds over a noxious looking green expanse of some murky liquid world.

“Is this your home?”

Slate laughed.

“No, no. This is just the first stop. Remember I told you it will take 24 hours to get to my home? That’s actually 24 Earth hours.”

He waved a hand into the air.

A clock count down appeared in midair and began counting backwards showing around 21 hours left on its face.

“We’ve only been in flight for 3 hours. We have a bit of a ways to go before we get there.”

“Are we stopping at Nirovium for anything?”

“Not in particular. It’s just a rest stop in case you get tired of looking at nothing but darkness.”

“That’s really pretty though.” She sighed, looking out at the world before her.

“You really don’t want to be around those purple clouds, Woman. That’s mostly potassium permanganate.”

She turned back and grinned at him.

“What do I have to worry about? I have you here to make sure I don’t die.”

“Indeed.” He smiled.

He got up from the chair. In two bounding steps, he was by her side.

“We could continue where we left off.”

Candi waved a hand. “I’m good. I’m all healed up. Thank you!”

He reached out to touch her hair.

“You’re good, but what about me?”

She cleared her throat and tried not to stare at the hard sculpted expanse of his chest and pecs, clearly visible between the gap of his unbuttoned shirt.

“You look healthy enough. And besides,” she held up a finger. “I don’t have any power in my fingers to do the electric zap thing that you do.”

“I don’t need electric zap finger, Woman.” He growled and pulled her into his arms. “Just regular female fingers in the right places will be more than enough to set me on fire.”

“Wow, your skin is really hot…” she gasped as she touched his chest.

“Hmmm.” He nodded. “See what you do to me?”

He leaned down and touched his lips to hers.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

“Son. Answer me or I will send a squadron of fire bats to find you.”

Slate sighed and pulled away from Candi, but not before planting one last kiss on her parted lips.

As he turned away, he began buttoning his shirt.

“Father. Fancy hearing from you, only three hours into the flight.”

He waved a hand and the 3-D image of his father appeared within the confines of the transport vehicle. The man was just as large as Slate but far older, with silver in his black-purple hair.

“I have been calling you for the last two hours. How is it that you are just now answering me?”

Slate sighed.

“I was trying to evade a human warship, father. It was shooting at me.”

Slate’s father raised an eyebrow at that news.

“That is interesting. Did you pulverize them?”

Slate shook his head.

“I didn’t want to engage them since I wanted to get back immediately. I did a quick hyper jump to Nirovium.”

“I will send someone to find out why the human warship fired upon my son’s transport pod. Meanwhile,” he gave Slate a knowing look. “Do not touch the Avgo female.”

“Of course, Father. We are now just about ready to leave.”

“Go. Remember. Do not touch the girl.”

“Yes, yes.” Slate nodded and disconnected the visuals.

He turned back to Candi.

“Looks like for the next twenty hours, all we are allowed to do is talk.”

And he had the nerve to look dejected and mopey.