The Vixen War Bride

by Thomas Doscher

  Alacea’s voice came.

  Bao Sen’s ears fluttered at the bizarre statement. She looked up as another alien soldier’s head appeared in the tunnel, struggling to squeeze his way out. He saw her and raised his pistol.

  “Don’t shoot!” Ramirez cried still holding his nose. “I think we’re good!”

  The fox girl’s rifle was pointed at Ben, and Ben’s pistol was pointed at her.

 

  A low growl filled the dark chamber, and Bao Sen’s rifle came down. Cautiously, Ben moved his pistol so it wasn’t quite pointed in the fox woman’s direction.

  “Ramirez,” Ben said. “You good?”

  The NCO moved the muscles in his face around. His nose didn’t seem broken, so that was good. “Yes, Sir! I’m good!”

  Bao Sen backed up against the far wall so she could keep both humans in her sight. Ramirez climbed to his feet, and Ben whistled to him. Looking up, Ramirez caught the M-17 his captain threw down to him. He held it with the muzzle pointed down, not wanting to spook the armed Va’Shen woman, but kept his eyes on her shadowy form just in case. He heard Ben grunt as he pulled himself out of the tunnel and slide down the pile of rocks and dirt until he was standing next to him.

  “Is everyone okay in there?!” Patricia called through the tunnel.

  Ben gave Bao Sen a once over. The fox woman was eyeing him suspiciously, but her rifle remained pointed downward.

  “I think we’re okay,” he called back. “Send Alacea and then come through yourself. It’s tight, but you two should be okay.”

  He turned his attention to the armed alien nearby. Her gaze bored into him through the light of his flashlight. Her bright red hair stood out in the dark and flashed behind her as her tail swished back and forth in anxiety. She was shorter than Alacea by a few inches, making her a full head shorter than Ben. Unlike Alacea’s plain clothing, however, Bao Sen wore furred trousers scattered with purple, grey and brown splotches. The color scheme was so out of the ordinary that it took Ben a second to realize the Va’Shen woman was wearing camouflage. The weapon she carried was no different from the countless hardlight rifles he had seen in the hands of other Va’Shen soldiers on four worlds now.

  His examination of the fox woman ended as he heard the sound of someone climbing from the tunnel above him. He turned and reached up to help Alacea climb down. Bao Sen watched suspiciously, unwilling to provoke an attack from the humans by moving or speaking out of turn.

  When Alacea saw her, however, the priestess rushed to her. She embraced the shorter vixen, who hugged her back.

  Bao Sen whispered in confusion.

  Alacea was saved from the pointed question by the sound of Patricia crawling from the tunnel. Ben reached up and helped her down, and the interpreter dusted herself off with a nod of thanks. Like the rest of them, she had removed her harness and helmet, but still had her pistol strapped to her hip.

  She saw Bao Sen and bowed. she said in greeting.

  <’Good hello,’ to you too,> Bao Sen replied coldly. She turned her attention back to the Mikorin.

  Alacea told her in a hushed whisper.

  Bao Sen gripped her rifle a little harder, her teeth clenched.

  Alacea took a breath. It was too late for half-measures now. She looked at Ben for a moment before turning back to her.

  “Alacea,” Ben broke in. “Can you ask your friend to tell us what happened here?”

  Patricia stepped forward.

  Bao Sen grunted at the gibberish, and Alacea found she had to translate for the translator. she said.

  Bao Sen told her.

  Behind them, Patricia translated this for Ben, who nodded, turning back to assess the damage.

  “Is there another way out?” he asked.

  Patricia asked.

  Bao Sen spat in contempt, her eyes trying to light the human woman on fire.

  Patricia coughed and reddened in embarrassment. Alacea’s tail thumped the stone floor in pique. she said, defending the woman who had treated her kindly. As true as Bao Sen’s words were, it was rude to so brazenly point it out.

  Chastened, Bao Sen bowed her head. She straightened and answered Patricia’s question directly.

  “There’s another tunnel,” Patricia told Ben. “But it might be worse than this one.”

  “Okay,” Ben grunted. He turned and climbed up to the tunnel entrance. “Baird!” he called.

  “Yes, Sir!” he heard come back from the tunnel. “Everything copacetic in there?”

  “Everything is peachy,” Ben called back. “Tell Mulroney to get his guys over here and start digging us out. Set up an observation post on some high ground and give us three-sixty security. Try to get Saber on the radio and let them know we found the Va’Shen and to sit tight. The rest help the SeaBees dig.”

  “Copy that, Sir!”

  “We’ll check back in an hour,” Ben finished. “And every hour after that.”

  After getting another acknowledgement from Burgers, Ben hopped down to the ground and faced the group.

  “Okay,” he said to Bao Sen. He gestured to a larger tunnel that led further back into the cave. “Take me to your leader.”

  Bao Sen whispered to Alacea as the two Va’Shen led the group of humans through the cave.

  Alacea replied as they walked. Jars of water filled with glowing rocks hung on the smooth tunnel wall at regular intervals, providing more than enough light to see by.

  Bao Sen asked irritably.

  Alacea almost missed a step as she considered how to answer. she said.

  The huntress’s tail slapped the floor in anger.

  Alacea finished for her.

  Bao Sen’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at the other vixen. she whispered.

  Alacea told her.

  The huntress turned her head and looked at the humans following behind them. she admitted.

  Alacea agreed.

  Trailing not far behind, Ben, Patricia and Ramirez were forced to walk slightly bent over as the tunnel’s ceiling was just high enough for the average Va’Shen vixen but just a bit too low for the humans. Only Ramirez was spared this and the ceiling still brushed the top of his head from time to time.

  Reaching out, Patricia ran her fingers
against the tunnel wall and frowned. “Sir, have you noticed how smooth this tunnel is?”

  “And level?” Ben returned. “And straight? Yeah, like it’s been tunneled out professionally.”

  “But it’s old too,” Patricia noted, pointing out the discoloration and the small imperfections made by constant water erosion. “It’s got to be a few hundred years old, at least.”

  Ben grunted in response, and Patricia gave the whole thing more thought. “The villagers couldn’t have made it. There’s nothing like that kind of equipment in Pelle, that we saw at least.”

  “This is a fall-out shelter,” Ben concluded. “But they didn’t make it with us in mind.”

  “Kinda like us, maybe?” Ramirez piped up from behind them. “Maybe they spent a couple of centuries bombing each other before they got around to us?”

  “But if so, how come we never saw any of it used against us?” Ben asked. “The Va’Shen fought the whole war without air support, just guerilla and hit-and-run attacks.”

  “Yeah,” Ramirez grumbled. “With laser guns and spaceships…”

  “And that’s weird too,” Patricia broke in. “Doesn’t it seem weird how they have interstellar flight but most of the planet is agricultural?”

  “Yeah,” Ben told her, bending to avoid a low point in the ceiling. “And the tech they do have almost seems out of place.”

  “What do you mean?” Ramirez asked.

  “You hunt, right?” the captain asked.

  “Um… Yes, Sir,” Ramirez replied, unsure where his commander was going with this.

  “Would you hunt with your service weapon?”

  The NCO shrugged. “If I had to, I could, but I wouldn’t if I had my choice. The bullet is too small, and I’d rather have something with a better scope.”

  “Right,” Ben agreed. “Right tool for the right job. And if a better rifle came along for hunting, you might upgrade, right?”

  “Right,” Ramirez agreed slowly in puzzlement. “So… what’s all that leading to?”

  Ben paused and turned to him. “I’ve never seen the Va’Shen use any other kind of rifle except the ones their soldiers have used.” He nodded in Bao Sen’s direction. “Even her rifle. It’s the exact same model as every other we’ve seen. Almost like it’s the only one they got and they can’t make anymore. All the tech I’ve seen them use, it’s the same. One model. No precursors, no modified upgrades. The U.S. fielded three new infantry weapons in the first year of the war alone. The Va’Shen, nothing. Same from start to finish.”

  Patricia whistled at the implications and realized there were others to go with it. “During intel training, they showed us reconnaissance photos of Va’Sh they were using to plan the invasion. The problem was there weren’t many strategic targets to hit. There were berths for their spaceships, but no shipyards, no maintenance facilities.”

  Ben nodded and continued walking, quickening his pace to catch up with Alacea and Bao Sen. “We assumed they were off-world somewhere. In orbit around a colony or something. Never found them. I’m starting to think they just don’t exist.”

  The conversation broke up as they heard noise coming from ahead of them. Looking up, they saw light coming from the end of the tunnel and watched Bao Sen and Alacea step through it.

  they heard someone up ahead yell happily.

  The three humans emerged from the tunnel to see a wide open space about the size of a blimp hangar going back a few hundred yards. Several odd-looking lamps and lanterns lit the area, but not enough to make out the ceiling high above them save for a small crack of light that likely served as a chimney. Multicolored tents were scattered throughout the open area, obviously lived in but clean and well kept. In front of them, a group of about thirty Va’Shen vixens, their hair and clothing a colorful mix, were swarming Alacea happily.

  Until one saw them.

  One of the vixens locked eyes with the humans in surprise. Her forest-green tail poofed out behind her in shock, and her ears went straight up.

  she cried, pointing at them.

  “Oh, crap,” Ramirez breathed as his hand dropped to his empty holster on instinct.

  The rest of the vixens saw them and cried out in terror, their tails puffing out as if struck by lightning. It would have been funny under other circumstances. They all turned to run as Alacea stepped forward, holding her hands up.

 

  Some stopped at Alacea’s assurance, confused by the situation, but the rest continued to run, crashing through tents and knocking over tools.

  Patricia tried vainly.

  The vixens continued to run and only came up short when a tall Va’Shen woman stepped into their path. As one, the group skidded to a stop before her, some of them falling onto their behinds. The tall vixen, decoratively arrayed in a black and green silk robe with an overwhelming resemblance to a Japanese kimono, looked out at the group with an air of serene indifference. Her dark blue hair, almost black, was pinned up on top of her head, concealing all but the tips of her ears. She hid her mouth behind a bright red fan.

  the vixen asked them in an amused tone.

  one gasped at her, pointing behind them.

  the elegant woman replied, her long dark tail sweeping the ground behind her in a flamboyant flourish of movement.

  The other Va’Shen didn’t know what to say to that.

  the vixen went on evenly, her eyes narrowing over the edge of the fan,

  She looked over the crowd and lowered her fan, revealing the face of an elegant woman.

  The crowd turned and found that Alacea had caught up with them. She saw the woman and her ears twitched a smile.

  the woman, Yasuren, concluded.

  The Va’Shen weren’t sure what to say for a moment, but, now chastened, their tails had returned to normal. They gave an uncertain look at the humans but in the end started toward the tents they had knocked over.

  Alacea sighed in relief. She looked up at Yasuren, her ears twitching happily.

  Yasuren told her, closing the distance between them in short steps and putting her hands on Alacea’s arms.

  the fox priestess assured her. She broke off and turned to the humans, who were watching the exchange with interest. she said. Patricia was translating into Ben’s ear as she spoke. she corrected herself,

  Yasuren interrupted, her tail once again acting as an exclamatory flourish to her words.

  Alacea confirmed.

  Ben waited for the translation before bowing to Yasuren from the waist. “It is a pleasure to meet you,” he said, keeping it simple.

  Yasuren bowed as much as the tightly fastened robes would let her. she suggested. She turned and began to walk to the wall on the human’s right, making her way down a row of tents.

  The humans followed.

  “’Aderen?’” Ben asked Patricia as they walked. Patricia had used the term itself rather than the translation.

  “It’s like a shura,” Patricia told him. “Think of it as a city council and you wouldn’t be far off.”

  Ben nodded in understanding. Knowledge of shuras
in the Army went back to the early wars of the 21st century. It was nearly impossible to get anything done in Afghanistan without their approval.

  Patricia asked the Mikorin.

  Alacea’s ears dipped in an affirmative.

  Yasuren spoke up from ahead of them.

  Patricia asked.

  Yasuren told her.

  They continued to walk, the wall finally coming closer. At the tail end of the group followed Ramirez and Bao Sen, each eyeing the other warily as they both assumed the role of their leaders’ bodyguards.

  “Do any of their people need medical attention?” Ben asked.

  Patricia asked.

  Yasuren replied, pausing a moment to face them.

  Patricia said.

  Yasuren turned her attention back to the path before them, thinking for several moments before she answered. she said.

  “Some of them have colds from being down here,” Patricia told Ben. “One of them has a broken arm.”

  “Would she like the Doc to look at them?” Ben asked.

 

  Yasuren waved the thought aside.

  “That’s a ‘no,’” Patricia told Ben.

  They came to a break in the wall that looked too perfectly like an arched doorway to be a natural formation. Yasuren stepped though, and the others followed to find a smaller room about the size of an average conference room. Several thick blankets of many different colors were arranged on the floor in the shape of a neat oval with more decorative blankets on either end.

  The Va’Shen woman turned to Bao Sen.

 

  The huntress’s ears twitched.