Alpha Centauri

Forty-One - Nizami

I hold my ground and keep eying the woman distrustfully.

Corona smiles. "I understand if you don't trust me. But if you come with me, I can convince you." She motions for us to follow her out of the warship's airlock.

Julian slips his hand into mine, and we tentatively follow the woman. She leads us down a long, echoing hallway. "Who are you?" Julian asks again.

She turns back so that they can see the side profile of her face. "I can explain when we land. We have someone waiting for you there."

"Where? Where are we landing? I'm not feeling very convinced." Julian's voice rises with impatience.

Corona laughs, but now her gaze is ahead. "You and your sister are more alike than I thought, Julian."

I feel Julian come to a sudden halt beside me. "My sister?" he echoes in a small voice.

Corona's laugh is full and has a mischievous edge to it. "Come. We'll get you two fed. We should arrive in a few hours."

Julian is still speechless, but he seems to have developed some trust, and follows Corona further into the Roc. I want to object, but the mention of Jaden could be worth the risk of trusting this strange woman.

"Is my sister here?" Julian asks as we enter a huge, strangely deserted cathedral of a dining hall.

"No," the woman answers. "But we're more than willing to take you to her."

Julian opens his mouth to ask where that is again, but he probably realizes she won't answer him. We finally comes to another long hallway lined with metal doors. "You'll be staying here for your short time on the Roc," Corona explains. "Get changed and meet me back in the dining hall for lunch. I hope these rooms will fit your needs." She turns on her heel and heads back down the hallway.

Julian and I linger outside our rooms. "Should we really be trusting a woman named after an alcoholic beverage?" Julian wonders.

"Julian, Corona is a constellation," I correct. (It's a good thing he's good-looking.)

He nods. "That makes a lot more sense."

With that, he disappears into his cabin.

-----

Not much later, Julian and I emerge from our rooms changed out of our spacesuits. I lead the way back to the dining hall. I was keeping track of each turn and hallway we traveled down in case we were to ever need to escape.

We enter the dining hall which is now full and bustling with people. They all look like humans, but I can tell that they aren't. I involuntarily inch closer to Julian, and we search the hall for Corona.

She's sitting an aluminum table alone with her hands folded expectantly. Julian and I take seat across from her and wait for some sort of explanation.

"Where's my sister? Is she okay?"

"A few days ago, she and her friends Raev and Nathan arrived here on the Roc, just having escaped from the Scriosians. We took them to our home planet in an oasis refuge. We should be arriving there within the next few hours. I'll assure you that they're all perfectly safe." There's something sincere in Corona's intelligent brown eyes.

"Who are you people?" I ask as I stare around the dining hall. All of these people look different but very similar at the same time.

"We are the Proximians," Corona says with a proud smile. "Surely you've heard of us, Nizami."