Savior by Hazel Gower

Danickra, where are
Uvinya and Dannina? I haven’t seen them since they explained
everything?”
    He turned to her and reached over,
stroking her hair. “They thought it best they stay away while you
were upset with them.”
    She nodded. It was a smart idea
because Opal had been angry. “But it’s been a while. Surely they
don’t think Heather and I are still upset?”
    Danickra lifted his massive shoulders.
“They probably haven’t realized it’s been so long. They’re
scientists and get lost in their work sometimes.”
    “ Do they have a lab? Can I
visit them and see what they do?” Danickra seemed reluctant to
answer her. He kept looking behind her to Salamanda, who had
Heather on his lap.
    Finally, he cleared his throat, and
his eyes looked her up and down, hardening. “Opal, you will never
go to their labs. And, if they invite you, you will say no.
Actually I forbid you to go anywhere with Uvinya and Dannina
without me.”
    Shocked at the steel in his voice, she
shot a glance at Heather. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth hung
opened in an O shape. Heather’s face mirrored what her own must
look like. Biting her lip, a voice in her head told her to leave it
at that and not argue with the big alien, to tell him when they
were alone that he wouldn’t get to forbid her to do anything. It
didn’t work.
    “ May I ask
why?”
    Opal could see his jaw move in a
grinding motion. His eyes narrowed. “Unless you want to be one of
their experiments I’d stay way. They deal with dangerous stuff, and
I don’t want you to get hurt. You’re so little and
fragile.”
    Opal rolled her eyes. She was anything
but little and fragile. She’d been teased her whole life for being
chubby. In primary school, when they started to get into fights
over the kids teasing her and Heather, they had both gotten hurt.
They had decided to learn karate to help defend themselves, but
since they were foster kids, they didn’t have money to pay. So they
negotiated that they would tidy up before and after class and do
some odd chores if they could be taught. Heather and she were both
black belts, and as soon as they got a job they joined other
classes. It kept them away from whatever home they were in and out
of trouble.
    “ I’m not little, or as
fragile as you think. However, since you feel so strongly about me
not going anywhere alone with them I’ll stay away. I would like to
see them again and have a talk now I’ve had time to think.” She
smiled as innocently as possible.
    He let out a loud breath. “Fine. I
will organize for them to come in a day or two to meet
here.”
    Opal grinned, and told herself she
would have to find a pen and paper so she can write down her
questions for the women, because there were some questions a woman
couldn’t ask a man.
    Turning back to watch the men’s
tail-hands and claws fly over the screens, she stood and got closer
to two men with a big screen between them charting the dots. She
wanted to learn something, do something to help. Opal looked up and
stared out at the universe. She was going to earn learn something
so she could have a job.
    ****
    Okay, she needed to talk to someone
besides Heather. It had been almost a week since Cavlar had become
her guard, and he was driving her insane. All he did was follow her
about. He never spoke. No matter what she did to him or what she
said, he said nothing.
    Most Inteli were scared to come near
her. She had once snuck away and was talking to a nice green Inteli
about records being put into the computer about Earth, or fixing
something so her iPod would work. He was telling her the best
person to talk to is Trecno their technology guy. The green Inteli
had started giving her directions but froze when he saw a furious
Cavlar coming towards her.
    Opal needed women with
power, women who knew how to handle Inteli men, because Opal wasn’t
getting anywhere with any Inteli men. She’d tried talking to
Danickra again, but he got within arm’s length of her