The Arrival: A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Paranormal Romance by Ashley West

Sorrin was confident that he could make one talk.
    "I know what to do," he said, allowing himself a smile.
    "Wow," Abby breathed. It was three hours later, and the pair of them had made their way back out to where Sorrin had left his ship. He was relieved to see that it was in the same condition he'd left it in, and he watched Abby as she took it all in. It occurred to him that other than the Camadors' floating city, she'd never really seen a spacecraft from another planet, and while by his standards, this wasn't anything resembling a fancy or even high quality ship, to a human, it was clearly a marvel.
    "You came all the way here in this?" she asked, turning wide eyes to him.
    Sorrin inclined his head. "Yes. It isn't in the best shape, but a...an acquaintance of mine fixed it up enough that it would get me here."
    "Are we getting on it?" Abby wanted to know, and for the first time since he'd met her, she seemed very young. Her eyes were large in her face, and she was bouncing on the balls of her feet, clearly eager.
    He hadn't been intending to do a tour of the ship, more just to get on it and use the onboard scanner to see if he could detect any lone Camadors wandering the city, but he figured he couldn't just leave her out here on her own. Anything could happen.
    "Yes," he said. "If you'd like."
    Apparently she liked. As soon as he opened the hatch to let them onboard, she was climbing the short set of stairs. Neither the dents nor the rust seemed to deter her, and she ran her fingers over the outside before stepping in.
    Sorrin had to duck his head to follow, but she was the perfect height to fit right in the doorway.
    "This ship is usually used to transport cargo," Sorrin explained as he placed a hand at the small of her back to usher her further inside. "Passengers are usually very minimal, which is why there aren't many comforts."
    Everything was old and industrial looking, but he supposed it was still ahead of the tech humans had now.
    "Can I..." She made a gesture that he took to mean she wanted to wander around.
    "If you like. Don't touch anything you don't understand."
    He watched as she made a face at him and then began to wander and explore. Sorrin made his way to the command center.
    Calling it such was a bit of a stretch, if he was honest. It only had the bare minimum, two scanners, the control panel for the ship itself, and a comm system. Cargo runs were usually short or set up in relays, so no one was meant to be on a ship like this for longer than a couple of weeks at the most.
    Still, the scanners were functional, and Sorrin set them to searching. They picked up on the floating city quickly enough, and his fingers moved across the screen, isolating the signature emitted by the residents of that city and spreading out the search to look for smaller instances of that signature. If there were any wandering Camadors, he would find them.
    As the machine did its work, Sorrin sat down in his seat and leaned back. Earth was...interesting so far. Granted, he hadn't seen very much of it yet, and he knew that he wasn't seeing it at its best, but so far he was seeing a place and a people who were more resilient than he had anticipated.
    Honestly, he hadn't given Earth all that much thought. He was here because the Camadors were here, and his mission was to destroy them if at all possible. It hadn't really occurred to him that he might have help doing it, but humans likely had a similar grudge to the one he was holding against the Camadors.
    Abby hadn't spoken of her family, but could only assume that she had one and that they had missed her while she was being held captive. Surely there were others in similar situations. It dawned on him that the humans the Camadors had in their cells could be used as forces on the inside. They were considered neutralized, he was willing to bet, and if there was some way to communicate with them without their captors knowing, then it opened up quite a few possibilities.
    If only there