The Alien Explorer's Love

by Leslie Chase

  "Why do you use these cars?" she asked. "The electric ones, I mean? They aren't that common, and I know they're expensive."

  Jaranak laughed. That hadn't been a topic he'd expected her to raise, but Lilly seemed to be interested in anything and everything. That kind of an inquiring mind brought a smile to his face and he tried to put his thoughts in order so that he could explain.

  "It's what I understand," he told her. "Your people use so many different kinds of vehicles, Lilly. Internal combustion engines, steam engines — I'm sure they're great, but my people don't use them and I wouldn't understand them. An electric car, though, that's a battery attached to a motor. I know exactly how that works. It's irrational, maybe, but I am more comfortable with them."

  Lilly laughed. "And here I thought you were the bold explorer, coming to try the primitive technology of the locals! But no, you stick to the same thing you could find at home."

  Jaranak tried to look disapprovingly down at her, but he couldn't keep it up. She was right, in a way, and it was funny. But the other two kinds of cars he'd seen on the streets of New York involved storing flammable fuel next to a fire, and try as he might he couldn't bring himself to trust that. They seemed too much like bombs on wheels for his taste.

  "I'm sure they are all quite safe," he said with an exaggerated shudder, "but I just can't trust them. I'm sorry if that diminishes your respect for me."

  "Don't worry," Lilly replied, resting her head on his shoulder. "You've traveled goodness knows how many miles to be here with me, and that excuses you being a bit of a coward about your choice of cars."

  His gasp of mock-outrage made her giggle and he squeezed her against him. The feel of her through the robe was enough to reawaken his lust for her and he regretted that they would have to part soon. But that was selfish — whatever he might need to do next, the further from it she was the safer she'd be. Jaranak had no intention of taking Lilly into danger if he could help it.

  The rest of the ride passed in silence. As they approached Lilly's apartment building he saw that a light still burned in one of the windows. Jaranak wondered if that was Lilly's friend waiting up for her; if so, he approved of her vigilance.

  Rather than getting out, though, Lilly pulled back to look up at him, a question in her eyes.

  "What is it?" he asked, squeezing her hand. A delightful flush spread across her cheeks, and she looked away before answering. A glance at the driver, in his compartment, and then she forced herself to speak.

  "I'm not sure where we stand now," she said, quiet and vulnerable. "If you were a human, I'd know — and I probably wouldn't have done what we did tonight. But your customs might be different, and... well, I don't know."

  "You're afraid that I'm going to drop you off here and you'll never see me again?"

  "Oh, you'd see me again," she promised, a flicker of a smile. "I wouldn't take that lying down. But this does look a bit like you're packing me off before you do something interesting with the information I gave you."

  "I'm taking you home. Like you asked me to," Jaranak said with a frown.

  She pursed her lips and shook her head, and he couldn't read what she was thinking. Eventually, she spoke again.

  "You're right, but... if it were up to me I wouldn't be getting out here, with you. I'm just worried what Margaret might do if I don't check in with her and let her see that I'm okay. Once that's done, I can come with you. Help you."

  "No," Jaranak said quickly. Too quickly, it seemed. The flash of hurt in her eyes was almost unbearable. "I care about you too much for you to get involved in dealing with the dangerous people I'm going to need to see now. My kind aren't like humans, Lilly. Once we've mated, it's for life — you won't get rid of me that easily."

  Saying it out loud left a sickening pit in his stomach. What he'd said was true, and he would never lose the connection to Lilly that he'd forged. But he couldn't stay on her planet, and that was going to tear him apart when he left. Don't think about that now, he told himself. It can wait until Cooper's dealt with. There's no point in weighing her down with this now.

  Lilly crossed her arms and glared at him, unconvinced by his words. Jaranak met her gaze calmly, trying to explain. "Lilly, you almost died back there. I don't want to see that happen again, and the best way to keep it from happening is for you not to go into danger again. Please don't put me in that position."

  He tried to put his feelings for her into his words, and eventually she relented. "Okay, Jaranak. Fine. You go and deal with Cooper, and I'll sit around waiting for you. But you'd better come and see me first thing when you're done with him, or you'll regret it."

  "I promise," he said, smiling. "I swear it by the Black Star and the—"

  "It's fine," Lilly interrupted quickly, grinning. "Don't say things like that, you just make me want to understand your culture. I've got enough questions as it is, don't make it harder for me to stay away."

  Jaranak laughed. "Very well, Lilly. I'll look forward to answering every one of your questions once this is over and we have time to talk."

  Getting out, he walked around the taxi to hold her door for her. She smiled up at him, and he was pleased that he'd gotten that part of the human courting culture right. Rising on tip-toes she gave him a quick kiss and hugged him with surprising strength.

  "Don't you go and get yourself hurt, either," she whispered fiercely. "I won't forgive you if you do."

  Before he had worked out what to say to that, she turned and fled up the stairs to her front door. Jaranak watched her get inside safely before getting back into the taxi, only to see the broad face of the taxi driver grinning at him. He raised an eyebrow at the human, who chuckled.

  "I think you've got a winner there, sir," the taxi driver said, seemingly immune to Jaranak's glare. "You don't want to let her get away."

  "I don't intend to," Jaranak replied, sitting back. I'll be back for her, as soon as I've made sure we're both safe.

  The drive to the hotel was uneventful, but when the taxi pulled up outside Jaranak saw that he was being watched. A couple of toughs, standing well back, watched the hotel's doors. When he turned towards them they hurried off into the shadows. Jaranak smiled in satisfaction. At least Cooper's men had a healthy respect for him now. That was a start.

  Striding up to his room, he met Karnan and the others inside. None of them looked happy to see him.

  "That took a lot longer than expected," Parvak said warily. "A lot longer. And we've been under observation since you left."

  He nodded. "They did more than watch me. I had to kill one."

  Orshar, alone of the others, didn't seem shocked by that. Instead, a look of disappointment flickered across his face, almost too fast to see. Jaranak wasn't surprised — Orshar was exactly the kind of man to regret missing a chance to kill a human.

  Jaranak didn't regret his actions: if the man had wanted to live, he shouldn't have attacked Lilly. But he wasn't going to glory in it, either. Orshar would probably have tried to keep the dead man's head as a trophy.

  This isn't the time to worry about it, he told himself. I should save my anger for when we're off planet and I can drop him somewhere. It had been a long day and he was short on sleep — his attention was wandering. It didn't help that he missed Lilly's presence already, and wished he was looking at her rather than his fellow explorers.

  Focus, dammit. The quicker you can sort this out, the better for all of us.

  "The good news is that I know who those men are working for," he said. "Lilly told me what she saw."

  He strode over to the sensors, packed away in their trunk, and powered them on again. The logs were clean, he'd checked them before, but there had to be some sign of the tampering. Flicking through the logs, he found it buried deep in the maintenance system — attempted access to the Far Hunter's security.

  "Ambrose Cooper, the human industrialist," he explained. "Somehow he knew the codes to bypass the login, and to erase all trace of his presence. I don't know what exactly he w
ants with our ship, but it doesn't matter. Either he'll steal the Far Hunter or he'll wreck her trying whatever he's got in mind. We can't let him do either one."

  "Maybe whatever he's planning isn't so bad?" Parvak asked dubiously.

  It was Karnan who answered him. "If we'd approve of it, he'd have talked to us rather than lying and trying to steal access. He's gone to a lot of trouble to cover his tracks, and he wouldn't have to if that there was a chance he could talk us round."

  "He wanted to talk to me tonight," Jaranak added. "So he sent thugs to drag me to him at gunpoint. One of them nearly killed Lilly in the fighting."

  That got him a knowing look from Karnan, and he knew that he hadn't hidden his feelings well enough to fool his best friend. Well, so be it. He wasn't trying to keep his feelings for Lilly a secret, they just weren't relevant right now.

  But Karnan seemed to think otherwise.

  "You care for the human female?" he asked with a grin. "At least someone's having fun on this damned planet."

  "Not that it's any of your business, but yes," Jaranak said, feeling a flash of anger. "She's not just some female, you should know that."

  "She'll cloud your feelings," Orshar sneered. "These humans are barely more than animals and—"

  Whatever he was going to say cut off as Jaranak leaped at him, slamming him into the wall. Orshar's arm came up defensively, and Jaranak grabbed his wrist, pinning it as he leaned in.

  "You will not speak of Lilly like that again," he snarled at the surprised face of his crewman. "If you do, it'll be the last thing that anyone hears from you. Understand me?"

  The other man tensed, and Jaranak shook him hard. The two of them glared into each other’s eyes, Orshar's rage almost burning in its intensity. But then it subsided, hidden behind shutters, and he lowered his gaze.

  "Fine," Orshar said, breathing out and relaxing. "I didn't mean any offense, and I won't speak of her again. Satisfied?"

  The poisonous anger in his voice told Jaranak that this wasn't the end of the matter, but that would have to do. They couldn't afford to fight here, and what would he do with Orshar once he'd won? There was nowhere to keep him confined, and he wasn't going to kill a crewman. No matter how much he might feel like it.

  Better this way, he told himself as he released Orshar. Stepping back he took a deep breath and let it out again, turning to the others.

  "Okay, then," he said. "We need to decide what to do next."

  "There's only one way that this Cooper could have known what to do," Parvak pointed out. "Hrail and the Skystorm."

  "You're not suggesting that Hrail is behind this?" Karnan said, face darkening as he shot to his feet. Parvak backed away, raising his hands defensively.

  "Hey, I don't know her," he said. "I'm not saying that she'd do it willingly, anyway, but what if she's Cooper's prisoner? Or one of her crew might be."

  Jaranak grimaced. It was an unpleasant thought and Jaranak could see how much it hurt Karnan to consider it. It couldn't be easy, thinking of the woman he loved in captivity.

  "That doesn't change how we proceed," he said quickly. "Parvak's right: to know what he does, Cooper must have the Skystorm, or whatever's left of it. But he clearly wants more, and we can't let him get at the Far Hunter. That's our priority. We'd be trapped on this planet, at best."

  Thinking about leaving sent a pang of pain through him. Leaving Earth meant leaving Lilly behind — he couldn't drag her away from her home, from everyone she knew and loved, from her hopes and dreams. That would be a terrible thing to do to someone he cared about, but the alternative was never seeing her again.

  Cross that bridge when you reach it, he told himself firmly. He couldn't afford to let himself be distracted, not now. His crew didn't need to see his inner conflict.

  "Even if we end up stuck on this mudball, it won't be so bad," Orshar said, rejoining the conversation. "We have the technological edge. Give us a chance to set ourselves up and we could rule as kings here while we bring their industry up to a level where we can build a ship."

  The rest turned to look at him, and he shrugged. "I'm not saying I want to stay. Just... if we can't get either ship working on our own, it's not a complete disaster. I think we could be quite comfortable here. It would take a while to develop the industrial base to make a transstar core, but that's okay."

  "No," Jaranak said, looking him in the eye. "First, we are going to leave. Don't doubt it. Second, if we did get stuck trying to conquer a planet like that never works out. It doesn't matter how powerful our weapons are, the locals outnumber us and we can't resupply or get reinforcements. Whatever we set up wouldn't last. And third, most importantly, none of us are transstar engineers. What are the odds we'd be able to bootstrap the humans up to building a ship?"

  Those weren't the only arguments against the proposal, but Jaranak thought they were the ones Orshar was most likely to listen to. Jaranak had no intention of seeing Lilly's people ground under the iron heel of the empire Orshar was suggesting they create. And he could see through Orshar's suggestion to its heart — Orshar wanted to rule. It wasn't about repairing the ships, it was about treating the humans like playthings.

  The sooner we're off this planet, the better. Or I might have to do something about Orshar.

  Orshar shrugged again, holding up his hands. "Again, I don't want that to happen. Just saying, if we are stuck, we've got options."

  "We have better options, now that we know who's been targeting us," Karnan said, backing Jaranak up. "Let's talk to Captain Hennessey, and see what he can tell us about this Cooper."

  Finding the Captain was simple enough, he was in his room firmly asleep with a woman on his arm and a bottle in his hand. Waking him was more difficult. His share of their trading profits had left Hennessey with more money than he'd ever seen before, and he hadn't yet stopped celebrating his luck. Getting him up and functional took longer than they'd hoped, but eventually he was blearily awake, drinking coffee and glowering at the four aliens.

  "What's so important you have to drag me out of my bed at this time of night?" he asked grumpily.

  "You're our local guide," Jaranak said. "And we've got some questions. Let's start with where Ambrose Cooper might hide a ship like ours."

  That woke Hennessey up properly. Sucking air past his teeth, he sat up straighter and paled. "Cooper? Well, fuck. You shouldn't pick a fight with him, you know that, right? He's rich and powerful, and he's got a lot of rough friends."

  "I know," Jaranak said. "Some of those friends tried to kidnap me last night, and hurt a friend of mine."

  His feelings for Lilly were a lot stronger than that, but there was no reason to go into that with Hennessey. And what he'd said was enough — the man might be old, and a drunk, but he was no coward.

  "Okay," the captain said. He swallowed a big mouthful of coffee and tried to focus. "You've got to remember that I'm not in New York much, though. All I know is, Cooper has some kind of industrial workshop or laboratory up the Hudson river somewhere. Maybe he'd put it there? It'll be heavily guarded, though. He's got enough enemies as it is, and he's made a big deal out of keeping it secure."

  "Could you find this place?"

  "Sure, no problem," Hennessey told them. "It's not like the place is a secret, he just doesn't like people snooping around in it. Can't blame him for that."

  Jaranak bared his teeth in a grin that made Hennessey pale further. Putting down his coffee cup carefully, the old man looked at the four aliens and shook his head. "Of course, I don't want to be involved in this more than I have to. You understand that, right? I've still got to do business in the city after you've all gone back wherever it is you came from."

  "That's reasonable," Jaranak told him. "Get me directions to the place and you can stay out of it from then on. Perhaps it would be safest for you if you took a few days at sea, in fact. It's not like your association with us has been at all subtle."

  "I might just do that," Hennessey said. Standing, he blinked a few times and s
ettled down. "Cooper... he's not known for being a forgiving man, so I'd like to see how things go for you lot before I risk getting my legs broken. And maybe one of the girls'd like a trip out on the Abigail?"

  He grinned and Jaranak laughed. Hennessey wasn't exactly a friend, but he had a certain roguish charm to him.

  "In fact, maybe I should take your friend with me?" Hennessey added with a thoughtful look. "If you want to keep her safe, I'll look after her, I promise."

  Jaranak realized that he hadn't been subtle enough about his feelings, not if Hennessey had spotted them. And the man might have a point — if Cooper knew who Lilly was, then she might be in danger. Nodding thoughtfully, he agreed. "That's a good idea, thank you. Now we need to prepare. First thing tomorrow, we'll get Lilly to safety — and then it's off to face Cooper."

  All of the others grinned at that, even Orshar. Now, at last, they had a direction to go in.

  16

  Lilly

  While Jaranak made his way back to the hotel, Lilly quietly slipped into her apartment. The light might be on, and that probably meant that Margaret was still awake, but she didn't want to disturb her friend if she was wrong about that.

  She needn't have worried. Margaret was waiting for her in the living room, bleary-eyed and book in hand.

  "What time do you call this?" she asked as soon as Lilly was in the door. Then her eyes widened as she got a proper look at Lilly. "And what on Earth are you wearing?"

  Lilly blushed bright red at that, looking down at her borrowed robe. It was far too big for her, it trailed on the floor behind her, and it was made from materials that were, quite literally, out of this world. Okay, yes, maybe I do have some explaining to do.

  It was hard to know where to start, though.

  "I'm sorry I'm so late, I didn't mean to worry you." That seemed like a reasonable start.

  "If you'd been out on a date, I'd have been worried," Margaret replied, smiling a little unsteadily. "But you were going to meet a criminal. I asked you not to go, but you insisted. So I was terrified."