Free Beyond by Maureen A. Miller Page B

what you would call a week. In that time, Salvan tested you.”
    A chill coursed through her at the thought of being unconscious with that man for such a long period of time. “And?”
    “You came up negative as we all suspected. We are certain the cure will come from vegetation. Warm-blooded creatures are merely a vessel for what they eat anyway.”
    “I’m not Salvan’s pet.” Aimee couldn’t get past that.
    Zak crossed his arms. “He will try to make you into one.”
    Before she could rant a response, Zak nodded over her shoulder. “Do you recognize that?” he asked.
    Aimee spun around, still angry, but a smile consumed her face at what Zak had pointed out.
    “A palm tree!” She ran up to it, feeling the coarse bark. Glancing up into the balmy leaves she laughed when she saw a coconut. “It’s a palm tree!” She smiled back over her shoulder, her anger momentarily forgotten.
    His morose expression eased. “If you say so.”
    “How did you know this was from Earth?”
    Zak tipped his head down at the plaque in the ground. A series of symbols were inscribed on the chrome surface. “It says so.”
    “But we don’t have palm trees in North Carolina. Did you make another stop?”
    He surprised her by joining her and testing the endurance of the trunk with the palm of his hand. “We stop at all the planets in the path of our metagalactic rotation.”
    “Right. Once every five years.” Some of her enthusiasm waned.
    Zak’s gaze dropped from the coconut to meet her eyes. His head cocked slightly to the side and he seemed to sense her dispirit. “I like your planet.”
    “You’ve actually been on Earth? Did you come down and get me? Did anyone see you?” The questions would have continued to roll from her tongue if the rustle of a Sumpum didn’t startle her. She saw its two rear feet disappear into a thicket of red weeds.
    “We don’t often visit the planets personally. Our salvage stream will extract whatever we need to bring back. That ray is very accurate. If we see a seedling this size,” he held up the pot, “the salvage stream will retrieve it. That’s why the accident of picking you up seems suspect to me.”
    Indeed. It wasn’t as if she had accidentally jumped into that ray of light. It suddenly appeared around her, and nowhere else.
    “Your salvage stream feels weird.”
    “I imagine it would, considering you were broken up into about three billion pieces.”
    Aimee glanced down at her arms and wiggled her fingers. “I guess they put me back together okay.”
    When she looked up, Zak’s eyes lingered on her arms and climbed up to her face where she could feel them tracing over her hair and touching the curve of her cheek before they met hers. “Yes, it looks like they did.” His voice was husky.
    Aimee cleared her throat. “So when were you on Earth?”
    Stepping off the dirt embankment, Zak strolled over to an empty plot and crouched down to deposit the seedling into a pre-dug hole. Mud wound around the base of the sprout without him touching it. A light emanated from behind the blank plaque in the ground as symbols formed on the chrome surface. The light faded and Zak stood up.
    “On our last pass.” His dark eyebrows dipped in recollection. “As a warrior, we must protect the Horus. There was another ship traveling just outside your galaxy at the time. We suspected it was the Korons, but the vessel was small and hard to track. What we could trace though was the beam they shot. Earth is the only planet in your universe with mewahs on it, so it’s the only planet worth spending any time visiting. The Korons know that as well, but they are not a peaceful group as you saw in this latest battle. Anyway, I had to track that beam and make sure they weren’t sending some of their own down there.”
    “What does a Koron look like? Is it human…ummm…a mewah?”
    Zak chuckled. “No. Not at all. A Koron looks like a—” His fingers went to his forehead in thought. “I’m