by Elin Wyn
He had said that it wasn’t the Xathi, so what else could have severed the ties that Puppet Master had with his own kind?
And what were these cosmic threads that he said connected all of us together, and how did he ‘see’ them enough to see that Takar and I belonged together.
“That is something that I cannot answer with certainty. I simply have the ability to see the connections, much like you simply have the ability to understand science- related things better than others, or how Takar can learn things in a matter of hours or days when others need years. It is simply something that is.”
“So, even though you’re insanely old, you don’t know everything. Is that what you’re saying?” I asked.
“You are a very intelligent being for a speck of dust within the lifespan of time. Then again, my own life, which makes yours seem to be less than an instant in comparison, is but a blip upon the timeline.”
“Well, then,” I said, noticing that all of my food was gone. “That’s getting a bit deeper than I had anticipated. It’s also time I get back to work or I’ll get into trouble. Talk to you again?”
“I am always here, my friend.”
I nodded, called Fen, and stepped through the rift back to work.
Takar
I felt better about my assignment today than I had previously, but I still wasn’t enthusiastic about it.
I was back on desk duty listening to the humans of the city and neighboring small settlements voice their concerns and fears about what was happening. I tried to look at it as something that was required, a necessary evil of the job, and I was capable of pushing myself through the necessary evils. I just sincerely hated this particular evil.
I would rather face an entire squadron of Xathi hybrids with a stick than do this…a broken stick, made of wet paper, while both of my feet were chained together and that chain was being slowly drawn into a broken plasma coil that was overheating and ready to boil my innards.
With a deep breath and a sigh of resignation, I left the apartment and made my way to the office.
The streets were busier than usual this morning, but Daphne had told me something about some sort of holiday, so I guessed that was the reason for the extra foot traffic.
“Hey, you.”
I turned to see Daphne jogging up behind me. “What are you doing here?” I asked as she caught up to me.
“Your brother told me where you were being assigned today,” she chirped as she hopped up and kissed me on the cheek. “I figured I’d come help you out.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Are you sure, though? It’s not the most interesting job around, you know.”
“I know,” she said. “But it is where I met you,” she said coyly. “Maybe I’ll meet a new guy there.”
My jaw dropped, and she started laughing as she jogged away from me. “You know I’m teasing, right?” she called back to me. “I figured this morning would have shown you my feelings.”
I…I had to shake my head. She had been around my brother far too much the past few days. That sick joke had Rokul’s mark all over it.
“You know I’m going to make you pay for that, right?” I teased. Then I started jogging towards her, letting a playful growl loose.
She screamed in mock terror, turned, and ran. I chased her down, caught her from behind, and swung her up in the air. Her scream echoed off the building, immediately followed by laughter from both of us. She reached back and brought my head down for a kiss. The passion in her kiss was a match for this morning.
Oh, skrell. I was becoming like my brother.
Not that I was arguing, just noticing.
“In all seriousness,” I said as I set her down and started walking to the office, her hand dwarfed in my own. “Are you sure you want to do this? It’s just a bunch of people complaining about things. Besides,” I added before she could answer, “aren’t you supposed to be at the hospital today?”
She shook her head. “Nope, day off.”
“So, you’re going to spend your day off sitting with me, listening to people complain about things?” I arched my eyebrow as I looked at her. “All day?”
She nodded. “Yep. Why? Don’t you want me around?”
I squeezed her hand. “Of course, I want you around. Always,” I said. “Just…this is not something that’s going to be very fun.”
“Eh,” she shrugged. “As long as I’m sitting there with you, I’m good.”
“Okay, if you insist,” I said. “Just don’t blame me if you get bored senseless, which is what I’m afraid is going to happen to me.”
“You’ll be fine,” she said as she gave me a playful slap on the arm.
I didn’t exactly believe her, but I did find myself feeling better about the day since she was with me. We walked into the building, said ‘hello’ to Tobias, who was smiling bigger than I had ever seen him smile before, and headed to the complaint office.
“Hold on,” I said. I walked away from Daphne and back to Tobias. “Okay, what’s with the big grin?”
He looked up from his desk, and I noticed the picture of him with the girl he had been interested in. I wished I remembered her name. “I wanted to thank you,” he said. “Working with the general and his men has done wonders for my confidence.”
“So, you two…” I pointed back and forth between the picture and him.
“Mm-hmm,” he nodded. “And you won’t believe this, but…” he looked around to see if anyone else was around, then motioned me in close. I leaned in. He whispered, “I asked her to marry me, without really thinking about it, and she said yes.”
“She did?” I asked, standing straight, but whispering in return.
He nodded happily.
I stuck out my hand and he took it, shaking it vigorously. He had a nice firm grip. “Congratulations,” I said. “I’m glad to see you happy.”
“Thank you. I was scared to talk to her, and now…” he stopped talking. I didn’t press him. He was happy. I patted him on the shoulder, and told him to send in the first person in five minutes. He nodded, looked at the picture and blew it a kiss, then returned to his work.
“What was that about?” Daphne asked me as I approached her.
“Not much,” I said. “He just finally got over his fear and found a way to get what he wanted.” I would let Tobias be the one to announce things, it wasn’t my place.
“That’s nice,” she said. We entered the office, turned on the datapads and tablets, and got set up. The first person to come in looked a little confused when he saw the two of us, but when I directed him to sit, he didn’t hesitate.
Like so many of these, there wasn’t much I could do other than listen. He wanted to know how he was supposed to pay his workers at his farm if the crops continued to falter.
I explained to him that we were working on a way to ensure that no one suffered too much from this issue, and that there might be a chance we would be able to get things fixed before too long.
Which was, technically, true.
If what the general and the Puppet Master had spoken about, and what Daphne told me about her conversations with him, came to fruition, then the vegetation of the planet might soon be replenishing, returning to life.
Not that I told him any of the details. Still, he seemed satisfied with the answer and left. The next person to come in was a large man that, as soon as he saw me, scowled and asked if he could speak…and I quote…‘with the human in the room, not some fruit-colored freak from outer space’.
Charming.
Daphne shrugged, and even though I wasn’t terribly excited with the idea of leaving her alone, she’d holler if she needed me.
I stepped just outside the office, leaving the door cracked.
Just in case.
That first man wasn’t the only one that day that didn’t want to speak with me. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was that intimidating due to my superior size, or if they were part of the ‘anti-alien’ group that still seemed to be growing.
/> During our shared lunch, Daphne tried to reassure me that it wasn’t a big deal.
I wanted to agree with her, but I knew that it was going to be an issue. If this group continued to grow, there would eventually be a confrontation. For now, things were quiet, but I could sense a growing discontent and unease that permeated the humans.
We spent the rest of the day listening to more people with complaints and concerns ranging from how much food there was, how were they going to pay their workers and how much longer before the rebuild effort made it to where the crash site was, to when we were leaving, how much longer before the aliens left, and would any of us ‘sexy big men be interested in procreating with a lot of interested women…and a few men.’
Daphne laughed at that last one.
I…wasn’t sure how to answer that one. I politely told them that I would look into it and ask if any of the others might be, but I also politely declined the invitation myself.
That evening, as we were walking home, I tried to figure out what our situation was with the humans. Many of them seemed accepting of us—some seemed a little more than ‘accepting,’ not counting the women that had joined with us—while there were some that hated us, deeply.
The hate was to be expected. We were different, unknown. The part that got me was that the ones that hated us seemed to be starting to become more brazen, more open in their hatred of us.
I looked down at Daphne as we walked, a smile on her face as she looked around at everything. The feeling that I had, looking at her, was that no matter who hated us, no matter who despised us and tried to push us away, as long as she wanted me, I would stay…for her.
She was my happy.
She was my home.
Why would I go anywhere else?
Epilogue: Daphne
I had always made fun of those girls that fell in love and moved in right after meeting a guy.
Now I’d gone and done the same thing. I just met this guy maybe a week ago. Wait, had it really only been a week?
Damn.
The girls I made fun of moved in after at least a few weeks, maybe a couple of months, and here I was, a week into a relationship, and we were already getting a place together.
But if I had to be honest with myself—none of those girls had ever gone through what Takar and I had gone through during our first week.
I mean, if you could find me a girl that had gone and lied to one of her best friends, tried to con an alien soldier out of information, snuck into the lair of an unknown creature, then met said unknown creature and learned that he was actually the life force behind the planet you were living on, and had a dream about the alien soldier you had first conned and learned that that dream was almost a prediction of your future together…then I wouldn’t have made fun of her for moving in with him after only a week.
I might have worried about her sanity in other ways, though.
Since the odds of that exact scenario were as close to zero as you could get, I didn’t think about it. Instead, after I had finished my shift at the hospital, and since Takar still had another hour left on his shift, I decided to walk across town to what some of the humans were starting to call Alien-HQ.
Yeah, humans are real creative. Glad I am one. Sarcasm aside, the situation building between the anti-alien groups and the Vengeance crew was going to come to a head, and soon.
There was no way around it.
Hell, one of the people I had been friends with at the hospital found out that I was with Takar and now she disliked me. Called me a traitor and everything. “How could you sleep with those alien bastards?” she had asked me this morning.
“I just got to know them. They’re not as bad as you think. They’re actually pretty nice, in a soldier-y sort of way.”
She rolled her eyes, let out a huff, and stormed out of the lab. I found out an hour later that she had put in for a transfer to Einhiv and cited me as the reason. “I can’t work with an alien lover,” she had told our boss.
That had hurt. Then I got over it. I decided that, if she didn’t want to be around me just because I had a different opinion about someone, then it wasn’t worth being around her either.
The rest of the day, I had thought about Takar and the Puppet Master, but mostly Takar. He was so gentle, it was completely opposite of how big he was. I knew of the phrase ‘gentle giant,’ but I had always thought it was just a way of trying to compliment someone for not breaking something.
But, with Takar—and by extension, his brother—I now knew that the phrase honestly meant something.
I looked around me as I walked the city streets. I could still see, if I looked east, the devastation of what had happened when the Xathi ship had crashed down and taken out nearly half the city. From what I heard, cleanup crews and construction teams were still finding bodies. It was…sad. However, if I looked in any of the other directions, the city was beautiful.
Birds chirped as they flew overhead. The weather was nice and cool, a slight breeze keeping the temperature perfect. Big fluffy clouds floated lazily in the blue sky while that same light breeze brought the smells of Food Lane to my nostrils.
That was what most of us called Rocher Street. Two bakeries, three restaurants, a couple of small cafes, and an herb shop made up most of the businesses on the street, so when the wind blew in the right direction, the smells filled the air and always made me hungry. It was a wonder I wasn’t four-hundred pounds, it all smelled so good.
I decided to bypass Rocher Street and head through the park instead. It was a beautiful day, why not enjoy the nature that the Puppet Master was trying to save? I really loved the park, even more so now that I knew what the park was really made of.
I picked up a plastic bottle from the pathway, dropped it off in one of the recycling bins, and went to go sit on one of the benches near the pond. The two fountains that had been placed in the pond sprayed their water up and out, and with the breeze, an invigorating mist of cool water hit me.
I sat back and relaxed, closing my eyes and enjoying the mist and the shade of the tree the bench was under.
“Should I just let you sleep here or carry you home?”
I didn’t open my eyes. I didn’t need to. There was no mistaking Takar’s voice, or his sass now that we were comfortable with each other.
“I’ll be honest with you,” I said with a smile. “Between the mist coming with the breeze and the cool temperature, I wouldn’t mind sleeping under the sky tonight.” I opened my eyes to see Takar, his muscles, and his smile looking down at me. “Wanna join me?”
He gave me a one-shoulder shrug. “Wherever you are, I’ll be happy there with you.” It was a cheesy line, but my heart fluttered when he said it because I knew he meant it. I felt the same way, another something I would have normally laughed at those girls for.
“But,” he said, almost ruining the moment, “we do have our new place to go to, unless you want to tell that house-seller that we’re no longer interested.”
“Okay, okay,” I said, playfully complaining. “Geez, can’t a girl just enjoy the weather? We were underground for forever,” I joked.
He shook his head. “You know very well we were down there just over half a day.” I wasn’t sure if he was sassing me again, or if he was being serious. I decided to take it as a sassy moment.
“Okay, fine. Let’s go to our house.” I stood up and hooked my arm through his, then laid my head against his arm as we walked. It felt incredible to say ‘our house.’
We didn’t have far to walk, we were actually only a few houses down from one of Takar’s teammate’s, and I loved our place. We had decided to get it based on what we had been shown in our shared dream, so we had a four-bedroom house, that way each of our kids…when we had them…would have their own room.
Was that a crazy way to go house shopping? Probably.
Was it any crazier than the way we got together?
Nope.
Besides, the bedroom and bathroom from the dream were an exac
t match for the bedroom and bathroom in this house. It was too much of a coincidence for us to have passed it up.
We got the house, a beautiful two-story with attic and basement. The wraparound porch hugged the entire house, letting us be outside yet protected from the elements at the same time. The front yard already had beautiful flowers planted in the two small gardens, and the backyard was massive…and it had a fenced-off inground pool.
We climbed up the three stairs of the porch, and Takar pulled out the keys. “Would you like to do the honors?” he asked me, holding the keys out to me. I smiled as I took the keys, put the key in the lock, and opened up our house.
Our house, it feels good.
I pushed the door open and immediately let out a gasp. Inside, tiny little flowers and plants were everywhere. The floor, which had been smooth planks of wood, was now covered by a thick ankle-height layer of grass.
“What in the zet is this?” Takar cursed behind me.
I took a step inside, Takar right behind me. As we stepped, slowly, into the middle of the room, I noticed that the flowers almost seemed to follow us. “Oh, my god.” I whispered, my hand to my mouth. “I know what this is.”
“What?”
“It’s the Puppet Master’s gift to us,” I answered, looking up at Takar. “He made the house beautiful for us.”
“You’re okay with this?” he asked, looking around, then stopping to stare at a corner of what we had planned to use as the dining room.
I looked over and stared at what he was looking at. It was a small tree with what looked like both Terran apples and oranges hanging off its branches. In another corner was something like a lemon tree, and a peach tree stood in a third corner.
“Guess he remembered I like fruit,” I quipped.
Takar nodded. At that moment that I saw his anger leave, almost as if he liked having nature inside the house. “I guess we could live with it. I just wish he hadn’t messed with the floors. They were my favorite part of the house,” he said.
As soon as he was done saying it, the grass receded, disappearing through the microscopic gaps between each floor board. We looked at one another, eyes wide. “Well…that’s different,” I said. He merely nodded.