Rajani Chronicles I

by Brian S. Converse

  “A challenge?” James asked. “This is going to be a war.”

  Yvette was still smiling. “Are you going to repeat everything I say or are you going to kiss me?”

  James waited a moment before returning the smile. He slowly leaned toward her, his heart racing and his mind blank. Her lips were soft, warm, and he lost himself in the sensation for a moment. Then she ran her hand over his chest and was in his suddenly in his arms. He picked her up and carried her to the bed.

  #

  Gianni was watching a love scene on a handheld tablet he had expanded to its full size and set up like a TV in his room. The doorbell rang as the woman on the screen said, “You had me at hello ...”

  “Yeah,” Gianni said loudly. “Come in.”

  He reached over to the tablet and turned it off. When the door opened, Kieren stood in the archway.

  “Hey, Sandy,” Gianni said glibly. “What’s happening?”

  “Why do you do that?” she asked him, folding her arms in front of her and scowling.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Make fun of everybody.”

  He held his hands up in front of him like a dog begging. “It’s my poor upbringing. I was raised by wolves in the wilderness of Kentucky. I’ve only just been potty trained.”

  Kieren was still in the doorway. “I don’t know why I bothered.” She turned to go.

  “Wait,” he said, standing up now. “Kieren.”

  She smiled, knowing he couldn’t see her face, and then turned, her smile disappearing as she did. “Yes?”

  “Um ... I’m sorry,” he began. “Please. Sit down.”

  “Better,” she said, sitting down next to him. “What were you watching?”

  “Uh ... Apocalypse Now,” he replied quickly. “I wasn’t really paying attention.”

  “Can you believe they downloaded all this stuff?” Kieren asked. “It’s a good thing, too, seeing that nullspace is faster than TV signals. I think I’d be bored out of my mind without it.”

  “Nullspace?” Gianni asked her. Now it was his turn to look perplexed.

  “Yeah,” Kieren explained. “I was talking to Rauph, and he said the engines on the ship send it into a place called nullspace. At least, that’s the closest word the translator came to in English.”

  “Huh. And to answer your question, yes, I can believe it,” he told her. “They planned on having human passengers. I hear the munchkin loves soaps.”

  “See,” she said, becoming angry. “There you go again.”

  “Listen, Lady,” he said defensively. “This is the way I am. You don’t have to like me.”

  Kieren stood up. “Fine. I’ll see you later.” She walked to the door and turned her head back to him. “How could anyone like you? You don’t even like yourself.” She walked out, and the door closed behind her.

  Gianni waited a second, looking at the closed door and thinking. Then he turned the handheld tablet back to the love story. He sat, scowling, watching the two people kiss on the screen and wishing they would both drop dead. “Fine.”

  #

  Inevitably, Janan again found himself talking and drinking with David in the Human’s room, though he’d told Bhakat he was going straight to bed.

  “I believe this female loves you,” Janan said. “You would be a fool to not see this.”

  “Oh right, shuuure,” David replied. He’d drunk a great deal of the alien brew known as fernta. “She ripped out my heart and ... and ... shtuffed it down the toilet.”

  Janan’s eyes widened in alarm. “And you lived? I didn’t know Humans were biologically capable of—”

  David waved away his concern. “No! No, it’s an expreshun. Y’know?” He raised a glass. “To women—(burp). To Leesha.” He promptly passed out, falling over onto the sofa arm, his glass falling to the floor, breaking, and spilling the small amount of dark liquid.

  Janan shrugged. “Hmmph,” he said, pouring himself another drink. “Can’t handle his fernta.” He took a large gulp of liquid and then stood on unsteady legs.

  David looked comfortable enough where he was, and was too big for him to move anyway, so he left the Human where he’d fallen and cleaned up the broken glass the best he could before turning out the light. He opened the door and looked back at the sleeping figure on the floor. “Good night, my friend,” he said softly before leaving for his own quarters.

  #

  James’s and Yvette’s clothes were piled in a heap on the floor next to the bed. They were lying in bed, her head rested on his chest, and his arms were around her. After their lovemaking, words seemed to rush from each of them, and they had talked for hours.

  “So I started taking karate, self-defense classes, and even shooting as well,” she was saying softly. “I wanted to stop people who could do that. So I followed in my dad’s footsteps and became a lawyer.”

  James was smiling sadly. “What did your dad say?”

  Yvette smiled, now holding herself up on an elbow and looking at him. “He was thrilled, of course. He had dreams of me becoming the first American Indian female president. He thinks I’ll do my time as a prosecuting attorney, and then join him in Washington to begin my ‘rise to the top.’ Being the daughter of a US senator does have its perks, you know.”

  “I can bet,” James said, rising up on his own elbow, looking at her. “Listen, they put me in charge, but I’m going to need someone I can count on down there when we finally land.”

  Yvette expression looked somewhat wicked. “Why, James, are you asking me to be your second?”

  James looked bewildered. “My ... second?”

  “In command,” she said, in a teasing voice.

  James looked relieved. “Oh. Yeah. I thought that’s what you meant.”

  She laughed softly and kissed him. He felt the heat within him rise and the kiss became deeper. He was lost in her again.

  #

  Early the next morning, James once again found himself awake and thinking. It was a little strange that the Rajani would have chosen such loners as the five of them to come along on the trip back to Rajan. Each of them, in their own way, was more comfortable by themselves than in a large group. Even Kieren, who was the most social out of all of them, could be found most times alone in her room, reading.

  Perhaps they relate to us better, he thought. The Rajani were, after all, a species of loners. Janan was gregarious, but James didn’t know if this was a species trait or not. Either way, the Sekani pilot had accepted the nature of the humans. Most of the time, he could be found either on the bridge or, when off duty, hanging out with David, who had found a kindred spirit in the stout little alien. This worked out well, since David seemed to be the odd one out in the team’s pairing up.

  James had also noticed how Gianni and Kieren looked at each other when they thought no one was watching. If they weren’t together now, they probably would be soon. James wasn’t worried about it, as long as the team could work together proficiently and without any problems.

  It was difficult pondering the team’s loner nature when he woke up next to a beautiful woman. He presently was sitting, propped up by pillows, watching her as she slept in the ‘predawn’ light.

  They had discovered only recently the ship’s crew quarters were equipped with ‘windows’ in the walls. There were panels programmed by the ship’s computer to simulate the sun rising in the morning. It helped the body adjust better to long space trips. James only wished they had discovered them sooner. Their first few days on the ship after waking from their operations had left them all tired and irritable from lack of sleep and unnatural body rhythms. Now he sat and watched the light grow brighter. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought he was in a house back on Earth. He had tried to figure out if the computer could program birdsong as well, but it didn’t have any samples in its data banks. The closest he could find was from something called a dran, and its horrible screech was far from soothing.

  He rubbed his hand along his jaw and felt how lon
g the stubble was becoming. It had been difficult to explain to the Rajani the men’s preference to shave their faces, and the women’s preference to shave their armpits and legs. Finally, they had produced a crude razor by honing a knife-like utensil the Rajani had aboard the ship. Gianni and David had chosen to shave, but James wasn’t keen on the idea, and had decided to let his facial hair grow. Yvette had teased him about how much gray was sprinkled throughout the black, but he thought it was better to weather a little teasing from her than to slash at his face every morning.

  At least the Rajani were used to brushing their teeth, although it wasn’t exactly a brush they used. Each room had a small device that would brush, floss, and even clean a person’s tongue when inserted into the mouth. It had been a strange feeling the first time he’d used it, but not uncomfortable, and he soon became used to it.

  His mind was bouncing from one subject to another, and he was half-asleep again when Yvette took a deep breath and stretched. She turned toward him and languidly draped a leg over his before settling into sleep again. It’s a good morning to not be a loner, he thought as he drifted back toward sleep.

  Interlude

  Tomas Giovanni was banged up and bandaged, and he winced when the two Feds entered his hospital room, forcing him to move his bed into a sitting position. He could tell they were Feds even before they opened their mouths and started asking him the same questions as the cops. The Feds introduced themselves and asked him some preliminary questions before delving into their notes.

  “So you have no ideas as to the present whereabouts of Mr. Moretti?” the older agent asked. He’d introduced himself as Agent Cooper, but Tomas thought he looked like Tommy Lee Jones in the movie where he was the FBI agent.

  “That’s what I’ve been saying,” Tomas answered. “For all I know, he’s enjoying cocktails in Maui as we speak.”

  “Why don’t we start with your relationship to the missing person,” Tommy Lee said, unsmiling.

  “First off,” Tomas began, “stop talking to me like I’m a suspect here. I’m the one who called you guys. Remember that. You keep this up and I’ll have my lawyer in here so fast—”

  “Now, now,” the other agent, who had introduced himself as Agent Matchett, said. “We’re having a friendly conversation, right?” This agent looked like Ned Beatty and had a southern accent. Tomas thought the guy must have done something horrible to end up in a shithole like Detroit.

  “Fine,” Tomas said. “Gianni is my cousin. My mother’s sister’s son, to be specific. We’re also business associates.”

  “What kind of business?” Tommy Lee asked.

  “Import/export,” Tomas replied. “Olive oil. You wouldn’t believe what you can sell the stuff for at some of these high-end boutiques and restaurants.”

  “Really?” Ned asked. “I’d always wondered. My wife ...” He faltered on seeing the look Tommy Lee was giving him. He cleared his throat. “Uh, never mind.”

  Tomas smiled. “Anyway, I met him at his apartment that night. We had some issues with one of our customers and needed to talk about collections.”

  “So he was home when you arrived?” Tommy Lee asked.

  “Yes,” Tomas replied. “We talked for a while, had a couple of drinks, and then I had to take a piss, so I went in and took care of business. When I came back out, he was gone. Just gone, poof. No sign he’d even been there. Even the damn cat was gone. I thought at first he was out on the fire escape because the window was wide open, but he wasn’t. I wouldn’t have thought much about it, but then those men come busting in and attacked me.”

  “And you have no idea who they were?” Ned asked.

  “None,” Tomas replied. He’d find out one way or another, but no need to bother the Feds with his problems.

  “You said earlier Mr. Moretti is a cousin in your family,” Tommy Lee said. “You are referring to the Giovanni Family out of New York, correct?”

  “Can’t get anything past you,” Tomas said, smiling. Truth was, he was surprised this hadn’t come up sooner. His father was, after all, head of the Family. Tomas had been dealing with cops his entire life. There was nothing they could do for or against him in this matter. The cops would never have heard about it if he hadn’t been admitted to the hospital. Besides his broken nose and a broken rib, he had some internal bleeding from a lacerated spleen and a bruised kidney. Payback was going to be a bitch once he discovered who they’d been.

  When you show up at the hospital with these types of injuries and you’re not a boxer after a big fight, the cops tend to get called. When you’re a member of a major organized crime family, the FBI tends to get called. He made a point of calling them himself on his way to the hospital.

  Tomas was still curious about what had happened to Gianni, though. If the men had taken him, he’d have to be rescued or ransomed at some point in the future, if he wasn’t already dead. If he was in on this, well, then he’d be taken care of when and if he finally showed up again. Tomas hoped this wasn’t the case. Gianni was one of his oldest friends, as well as being his first cousin.

  It’s not like the cops were actually concerned about his missing cousin. One of their own had to have disappeared at about the same time. Before the Feds showed up, the cops had grilled him, trying to find any connection between Gianni and the cop named Dempsey. As far as Tomas knew, there wasn’t one. But then, Gianni had always played things close to the vest, even when they were kids growing up together, and he and the cop had lived in the same shitty apartment complex, so who really knew?

  A nurse entered the room and looked at his chart. She was an older woman who looked like she meant business. “Mr. Giovanni, time for your sponge bath. You gentlemen will have to come back later. I assume you know our visiting hours?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Tommy Lee answered. “We’ll be back, Giovanni. Try to remember as much as you can for our next session.” The two men left the room, neither of them looking very happy about the interruption.

  “Hey, thanks for the save, Mary,” Tomas said to the nurse.

  “That’s all well and good, young man,” she replied, scowling at him and pulling on a latex glove. “But I was telling the truth.”

  “Oh.” Tomas winced. “Damn.”

  Chapter Six

  A day later, Yvette lay in her bed, in what felt like late morning, and thought about home. She could remember a time when she was one of the most popular girls in school. As the daughter of a seated US senator, she had been invited to all of the cool parties, which was strange to a girl who had grown up in rural Michigan. Her father had been elected for the first time when she was in the ninth grade. The culture shock she experienced after relocating to Washington DC had been extreme. There were as many political games in school as there were on the Hill. She’d learned quickly how to be garrulous and charismatic when needed, although it wasn’t in her nature, and she would often find herself exhausted by the act at the end of the day.

  It had all changed at the age of fourteen, when her mother had been killed by a mugger on a street in D.C. Afterward, she withdrew from her friends, preferring to be by herself. Her father had hired private tutors to home school her and allow her to graduate. All of the tutors had been women; her mistrust of men made it impossible for her to deal with them.

  People who have never experienced it themselves don’t understand what happens when you lose a loved one to violent crime. Many looked at her differently, as if it were her mother’s fault. What was she doing out by herself at night? There were rumors going around her school that the senator’s wife had been out with a boyfriend or hired escort. Her political enemies could be thanked for that one, she knew. Or maybe they had been her dad’s political enemies. All she knew then was there had been surprisingly little sympathy for her from her peers or their parents.

  After a while, she had started to blame herself. Her guilt was irrational, she knew now, but at the time, she had almost been convinced she was culpable for the entire incident. Her self-loathing
and survivor’s guilt grew to the point where she wondered whether it wouldn’t be better to end her life than face each new day. She had her share of therapy, as well as personal defense classes. Only the best for a senator’s daughter, she thought contemptuously. She was under no illusions; if her father hadn’t been able to afford the private tutors and therapy, she would probably have ended up a basket case or dead by her own hand.

  If the death of her mother hadn’t been bad enough, she’d begun to have bad stomach aches that she had initially thought were a result of stress. She’d started to run low-grade fevers almost every day. She thought she had caught some kind of bug and didn’t tell her therapist or her father until she was in so much pain that she begged her father to take her to the hospital. Her doctor had finally diagnosed the cause, but by then, it had been too late. She’d developed a condition called pelvic inflammatory disease. The damage from PID had left her fallopian tubes scarred beyond repair. She was infertile.

  She had cried for days after finding out, and it had taken her years to overcome her anxieties in public and her fear of men. By then, she had decided to become a lawyer. Her ultimate goal, no matter what her father wanted, was to become a district attorney or a judge—someone who could take the criminals off the streets. She’d been angry at her father when he’d informed her she wouldn’t get any assistance in finding an internship from him after graduation. She’d been even angrier when the only one she could find was in Detroit with an old friend of her father’s.

  But look what I would have missed, she thought as she got dressed. She wasn’t only thinking about the situation she found herself in; on board an alien spacecraft, on her way to God knew where. She thought about James, who was so gentle and so sad. He’d been worried about the possibility of her getting pregnant. When she’d told him about her infertility, she hadn’t been sure at the time if what she saw in his eyes was relief or disappointment. Either way, he had kissed her and held her until she hadn’t felt like crying anymore.

  He, in turn, told her about being a widower, though he hadn’t gone into much detail, and she didn’t think it wise to pry. They had plenty of time to discover each other’s stories.