Anka didn’t try to veil his dislike. “And you shall… when the party’s over.”

    “So… will this be like an extended house party? Or will we be leaving soon?”

    “Spencer,” Powell growled under his breath. “Shut the fuck up or I’ll have you up on charges when we get back.”

    “You mean if, right?”

    “Tell me Commander Karshay,” Holly broke in hurriedly, “what is Sumka like?”

    Anka winced when she murdered both his name and the name of his home world. “His name is l’Kartay,” Sybil murmured, “and his world is called Sumptra.”

    Holly stared at her blankly, blinking her eyes rapidly. “Oh! I am so sorry! I was never very good with names. Especially… uh… foreign names. Just ask Dr. Kusha.”

    “Kushbu,” the doctor corrected her tightly.

    Anka smiled with obvious effort. “Beautiful to us… naturally.”

    Holly gaped at him as if she had no idea what he was talking about.

    Sybil lifted her spoon, stared at the liquid in front of her, and braced herself. Almost as if the others were puppets connected by the same strings, the others abruptly turned their attention to their own food. Dipping her spoon ever so slightly into the liquid Sybil brought it up to taste it and discovered that Anka was watching her.

    Braving discovery, she slipped the spoon into her mouth.

    “It isn’t poison, I assure you,” he murmured near her ear.

    Goosebumps leapt to life along the side of her neck and raced toward her breasts, making her nipples pucker and stand erect. Sybil flicked a quick look downward, hoping against hope that the reaction wasn’t as noticeable as it felt. It didn’t make her happy to discover her hope was in vain. She swallowed a little convulsively. “It’s good.”

    “You could not have tasted it with that microscopic spoonful.”

    Sybil sent him a quick look and discovered his gaze was fixed somewhere in the region of the ‘twin towers’. He met her gaze when he felt hers. “Would you like to exchange bowls? I should warn you, though, that I’m not terribly popular around here.”

    Sybil gaped at him until it dawned on her that he was joking. It surprised a chuckle out of her-actually something more embarrassingly close to a hysterical giggle. “In that case, I think I’ll keep my bowl, thank you. Hopefully, no one dislikes me enough to poison me.”

    She’d been too on edge since her arrival to realize just how hungry she was, she discovered. The soup was hot and good even though it wasn’t like anything she’d ever tasted before and it seemed to prime her for more. “It’s very good.” She glanced at him in surprise. “Don’t tell me what it is.”

    He chuckled. “You wouldn’t know if I did.”

    “I guess not,” she admitted wryly.

    Thankfully, the rest of the crew seemed to enjoy it as much as she did. They focused on consuming the broth and by the time they’d finished seemed far more relaxed.

    The aliens, she noticed with some amusement, also seemed less tense. Maybe they weren’t as different as they appeared on the outside? Anka had shown he had a sense of humor that she could appreciate, patience in the face of antagonism, thoughtfulness and generosity. These were traits she’d always considered strictly human, and on the high end of the scale at that. Maybe it was pure conceit to believe no other species could possibly have or understand these things as humans did?

    The thought prompted a question in her mind and she turned to Anka as one of the ‘creepy’ aliens removed her empty bowl. “What do you call yourselves?”

    His brows rose at the question, speculation flickering in his eyes.

    “I guess that was too general. I meant what name do you have for your species?”

    He nodded understanding. “Ferils.”

    “It isn’t my field,” Holly broke into the conversation, “but I’m very curious as to what sort of animals you evolved from.”

    “You have none on your home world.”

    “Really?” Spencer said. “You remind me of a cat.”

    Anger suffused Sybil. She’d certainly thought so, too, but he was going out of his way to be insulting and rude. “You have the worst manners of anybody it’s ever been my misfortune to know,” she said tightly. “We’re guests…”

    “We’re captives,” Spencer shot back at her. “I don’t feel like playing nice with the enemy.”

    “He’s right,” Anka interrupted. “The felines of your world are similar.”

    “Well,” Holly put in, “I don’t see that that’s any more insulting than the fact that ours are primates. It doesn’t mean we’re ape-like anymore… not all of us anyway.”

    “What the fuck do you mean by that?” Spencer demanded.

    Holly sent him a look that was part uneasiness and part anger. “It means I don’t appreciate your rudeness any more than Lieutenant Hunter. However we got here, we’ve been extended the courtesy of being treated like guests and I appreciate it. I think you’ve adequately expressed your objections.”

    Before Spencer could verbally attack her, Powell intervened. “I’m going to second her opinion, Corporal Spencer and remind you that I’ve already given warning. I’m going to consider any further outbursts from you as a mutinous disregard of your superior’s orders. Stand down, or I will certainly place charges against you at the earliest opportunity.”

    Spencer stared at him sullenly for several moments and finally shrugged. “Yes, Sir.”

    The tension that time lasted well into the main course, but whatever it was they’d been served was as delicious as the soup. Sybil was still angry, however, that Spencer had been so determined to cause friction when they’d had an opportunity to foster good relations. Maybe he was right and they were all wrong. Maybe they were nothing but prisoners. Maybe the ferils, as they called themselves, despised them as a species and there was no hope of any sort of friendly relations, but she realized she simply didn’t believe that.

    If they’d been focused on ridding the solar system of humans, they’d had every opportunity. Hadn’t they?

    “I almost hate to bring it up… under the circumstances, but I am curious. You said before that the scientists had developed the droids because they’d believed they would be less… disturbing to us?”

    Anka nodded. “Ironic I suppose.”

    Sybil smiled faintly since she was the one who’d pointed out how creepy they seemed to her. “I was wondering how long they had been studying us?”

    Something flickered in his eyes. He shrugged. “Our people visited your world many times.”

    “Why?” Kushbu asked curiously.

    Anka smiled faintly. “I’m not a scientist. You’d have to ask them.”

    Sybil frowned, certain he knew and simply didn’t want to say. “I suppose you’ve found a lot of different species? Explored many worlds?”

    “Yes, many, and some fairly advanced civilizations.”

    “And you’ve… colonized many worlds?” she asked tentatively.

    Anka seemed to wrestle with himself. “The worlds that will bear life have. We’ve never considered it… just to take what is already claimed by those who evolved on a world.” He smiled faintly. “Animals are amazingly territorial-even those of higher intelligence. We respect that.”

    Spencer made a derisive sound that made Sybil long to be close enough to punch him in the face. Anka’s lips tightened, but he seemed determined to ignore any provocation Spencer tossed at him.

    Alien or not, Sybil had to admit his tolerance, whatever his motivation, commanded respect.

    She was fairly certain he had some ulterior motive for behaving so graciously. She’d seen a look in his eyes more than once that made it clear that he was keeping his temper on a tight rein and that he wouldn’t have minded knocking Spencer’s teeth down his throat otherwise.