My Crazy Hot Interstellar Affair

31. Stepford Wives Discovered in Alien Cultures

Andie sank to the sand next to Oliver, his beautiful face frozen in shock and determination. She caressed his cheeks and ran her thumb across the golden-brown stubble along his Greek-godlike angular jaw. She kissed it, the inception of a beard prickly against her lips. Fat teardrops leaked onto his chest where the blast from Cyra's laser had torn away an exploding sun-shaped hole in the fabric of his spacesuit. Blue blood stained the fabric.

A large orange "bird," more pterodactyl than pelican, screeched overhead. Other than the strange bird, the beach was dead—void of life forms. Except for Cyra and Emerson, who barely qualified as life forms.

Andie glared at Cyra. "What have you done?"

The laser slipped from Cyra's claws and landed with a muted thud in the sand. "My son," Cyra cried. "You have killed him, vile human scum." Cyra fell to her knees on the opposite side of Oliver and reached for Andie's neck. "That blast was for you. Now I will terminate you with my bare hands."

She shoved Cyra away just as a high-voltage blast of Neuronic Energy zipped from Andie's fingers. The witch flew twenty feet down the strand and crash-landed on a pile of puce-colored seaweed.

Emerson ignored Cyra's struggle to untangle herself from the gooey mass, instead kneeling next to his son. He pushed a lock of hair away from Oliver's face and looked up at Andie. His lower jaw quivered and his gaze was distant and empty. Andie's gut twisted. "My son," Emerson whispered. Andie tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Was it her fault? Did her actions drive Cyra to such insanity?

"I am so sorry, Captain Lieder," said Andie. "I loved him too."

"He is gone?" Emerson asked, as if making the declaration was too final to endure.

Cyra extricated herself from the tangle of seaweed. "Because of her," she spat. She kicked up sand as she stumbled toward them in her preposterous heels. Sterling, no Cyra's metallic locks, had electrified into burnt wires, and the whites of her eyes glowed ice blue. "The laser is right there next to your foot. Kill her, Emerson. But don't shoot her in the head. We must perform an autopsy. I want to know how a human could tap into the Neuronic Energy."

They wanted to dissect her brain? Oliver's perfect, beautiful body lay lifeless before her. Her instinct was to lie down next to him and die. It would be so easy. She could not go on without Oliver.

"Emerson! Now! We have a timeframe here."

Emerson turned and grimaced at the laser. The laser that had killed his son. He made no move to pick it up.

Andie's heart tore into slivers—like an old bank statement run through a shredding machine. Andie held her breath, waiting for Bad Andie to make fun of her metaphor, but there was no reply. She was truly alone.

"Oh, come on!" Bad Andie cried. "I was having a moment. Disembodied inner voices need time to grieve as well. And I'm never leaving you. Never. But honestly, you need to buck up and get us the hell out of here. This place is giving me the creeps. Can't we just get Sterling and go home?"

Cyra thrust her hands on her perfect Sterling hips and stamped her foot. "My darling husband. We have to get back to the ship before ..."

Bad Andie was right. Andie couldn't just die. She had work to do. Sterling was close. Andie could feel it on her best-friend radar. Plus, Andie could not stand the thought of Rachel's face matching the horror on Captain Leider's when he lost his son. And on top of all that, the insidious Star Enquirer had to be stopped, and Andie was the only person in the universe who could end the Amu plot. And she knew exactly how to end their reign of celebrity terror. "Before what, you evil bitch?" Andie said.

Sharpened by the need for vengeance, a shock-wave of power surged through Andie's nervous system. Blue lightning bolts sparked from her fingertips. She closed her eyes and swallowed, trying to control her rage. "Captain, killing me will not bring Oliver back."