A New Reason To Fight: An Intergalactic Romance

by T. J. Brandow

Reyna stalked back into the dining room a minute later. Every muscle in her body looked tense, as though she expected to fight someone at any minute.

  “Is everything alright?” I asked.

  “No,” she answered briskly. “There is a matter to which I must attend. Since I can’t well leave my son with a stranger, much less an alien, and I don’t have time to get him a babysitter, you will both accompany me.”

  Sorel let out a high-pitched shrill, which I assumed meant he was excited, and he jumped up from the table.

  “I’ll get my things on,” he said, racing out of the dining room.

  “You should do the same,” Reyna said to me. “We’ll finish this when we return.”

  “I understand,” I said.

  Reyna stood there with her hands on her hips and looked at nothing as she clicked her teeth once in what I assumed was anxiety. Then, she left the dining room and I followed her.

  Chapter 3

  Reyna drove her expensive, slick hover across town to a short, industrial-looking building in the middle of town. I sat in the passenger seat and Sorel sat in the back, chattering on about the different parts of town as we passed them.

  He showed me where he went to school every day, where his mother worked, and where the community came together for meetings. I only half-listened; I was so caught up in trying to figure out what had spooked Reyna and made her leave the house during meal. I didn’t get any clues from her, with her stony expression and lack of conversation, so I just waited to find out.

  Reyna parked her hover in front of our destination and Sorel asked, “The news office?” His mother didn’t answer.

  Sorel and I followed Reyna up the path to the door. She walked so heavily that I thought that she’d break a heel. She didn’t knock or ring or whatever they do here on Komaron Prime. She just barged right in and we followed after her.

  It was an office, personal computers hidden under papers and scraps of random documents. At least two dozen Konkomas rushed around, chattering and working away at top speed. Reyna stood just inside the door and crossed her arms.

  “What the hell is going on in here?” Reyna asked in Konkomanese.

  The flurry of activity stopped immediately. All eyes turned to her.

  “Mayor Reyna,” one of them answered in Basic. They all surveyed the three of us, their fear of Reyna turning to curiosity when they looked at me.

  “What brings you here at this time of night?” another Konkoma, a large male, asked. He stepped out from the crowd, taking charge. He spoke in Basic, too.

  “I think you know why I’m here,” Reyna answered, her tone threateningly low.

  “We haven’t a clue,” the leader answered. Even I could tell he was lying. He shifted anxiously in place, working too hard to keep his face neutral.

  Reyna stepped up to him, looking at him in disdain, and then stepped past him. She grabbed one of the larger pages off a nearby desk.

  “‘Mayor Reyna to Release Sensitive Information to Human Government Agent,’” she read. Then, turning to the leader, she said, “You really think you can release this lie as news without me knowing about it beforehand?”

  “It’s not a lie,” the leader insisted.

  Reyna let out a sharp grunt and turned to point at me.

  “You really think that Human is a government agent?” she asked. “You must have sincerely lost your mind this time.”

  I felt myself shrinking under Reyna’s pointed finger.

  Then, she asked, “What proof do you have? You can’t say it’s the truth if you don’t have evidence.”

  The news workers were silent.

  “I see,” Reyna said. “Well, I cannot allow your lazy reporting to be disbursed to the entire town. Shut down this article immediately. Publish this tomorrow morning and you’ll all be replaced by tomorrow evening.”

  “Understood,” the leader said, bowing his head ever so slightly.

  “Good,” Reyna said. She turned on a heel and said, “Come, Sorel, we have a meal to finish.”

  He just nodded, still a bit in shock from the intensity that had passed. He took his mother’s hand and they walked out of the news office. I followed them to the hover.

  “Does that happen often?” I asked as Reyna got into the driver’s seat.

  “Never before,” Reyna growled, starting up the hover. I got into the passenger seat and we started back to the house.

  “Mom, you really taught them a lesson,” Sorel commented from the back seat. “You were so cool!”

  “This isn’t something to be happy about,” Reyna told him. “There are people in this town who are trying to get me out of office. That wouldn’t be good for either of us.”

  “I don’t understand,” Sorel said, his tone adorably sincere. “Why would anyone want to kick you out of being the Mayor?”

  “That is a very good question,” Reyna answered.

  The rest of the drive continued in silence. We finished our meal in silence. Even Sorel didn’t interrupt. He simply finished his meal and asked if he could go to his room.

  Reyna left the dishes in the kitchen and then invited me into her study. I followed, my heart pounding with curiosity.

  The room reminded me of the majority of the Konkomanese decor that I’d already seen: black, white, and burgundy balanced into a display of simple elegance. I sat on one of the two loveseats, watching as Reyna went to a small closet and pulled out a fancy bottle. She sat the bottle on the table between the loveseats, taking two glasses out of the small closet and sitting on the loveseat opposite mine. She started to pour blue-green liquid into each of the glasses.

  “Shit, what a day,” she said in English. The language, and the crisp accent with which she spoke it, took me off-guard.

  She picked up one of the glasses and indicated for me to do the same.

  “Welcome to Bonarin,” she said, “the bottomless pit of the Northern Continent.”

  The announcement struck me and I couldn’t begin to figure out the meaning behind the obviously significant phrasing. So I just sipped my drink when she did, the fruity and acidic taste filling my mouth, and smiled over my glass at her. She didn’t smile back.

  “If you don’t mind me asking,” I started, going for the least offensive question banging around in my head, “why did you let me stay here with you?”

  Reyna let out a long breath and then sipped her drink again.

  “You’re a smart one,” she said. “I’m sure you can figure it out.”

  “I’d rather hear it from you,” I answered. “I don’t like to assume others’ motives.”

  “Very well,” she said, her tone slow with resignation. “If you must know-- I’m allowing you to stay because I need the good publicity.”

  “And yet--”

  “Yes, I see the irony,” she replied. “The first thing this town did was spin it against me. I’m not going to let that happen, for my sake and for yours.”

  “Mine?” I couldn’t understand what I had to do with it. Reyna leaned across the table toward me, her expression serious.

  “Do you know what angry townspeople do to outsiders they don’t like?” she asked. I gave her a look that said I don’t have a clue. Sure, I knew what Humans would do. But Konkomans?

  “You’re going to have to tell me,” I said when Reyna didn’t answer.

  “Nothing good,” Reyna said bluntly. “I don’t want to go into detail just yet, but it’s not good.”

  “I appreciate your protection,” I said.

  “It only benefits me to protect you,” she replied quickly, sipping her drink.

  To change the subject, I asked, “Is this drink alcoholic?”

  “Alcoholic?” she repeated, the word foreign in her mouth.

  “I mean, does it change your inhibitions? Does it affect your emotions?”

  “Yes,” Reyna answered. “There’s a compound in it called takarm. It does what you’re describing.”

  “I see,” I answered. “Intriguing.”

 
; Reyna watched me carefully, as though trying to figure out what I was thinking. I took the opportunity to map the line of delicate spines around her eyes. She was very pretty, for a Konkoman and just in general.

  “Are you always so optimistic?” she asked me. I smiled at the question.

  “I think you have to be in my line of work,” I said. “I study culture and behavior. That can easily make you feel as though everyone is born to be shitty. So, to keep from losing my mind, I have to be optimistic. I have to look for the best in everything and everyone.”

  “I see,” Reyna said, echoing my earlier phrasing. “Being a political leader, I can understand that sentiment. Although, I turn to practicality rather than optimism to get me past it. Better to be logical than deceiving myself.”

  The comment hurt a bit, but I took another sip of the biting drink to hide it. I knew the danger of Reyna thinking I was weak.

  Reyna finished her drink with one swig and stood suddenly.

  “Now, I must get back to work,” she said. “I use this space and I’d like to be alone.”

  “Of course,” I answered. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Please be awake and ready to leave at eight local. I’d like you to accompany me to work.”

  “Yes,” I said. “That would be great.”

  Reyna gave a little wave, as though dismissing my comment. I left the glass on the table in the study and looked up at Reyna one last time. She’d already moved to the desk and picked up a ‘Pad.

  “Goodnight,” I said.

  She looked up at my words, confusion obvious in the corners of her mouth.

  “Goodnight,” she answered, the words shaky as though she was unsure she was pronouncing them correctly.

  I gave her a smile and then headed upstairs to my room.

  Chapter 4

  Breakfast the next morning consisted of salted meat and that pasty substance from dinner, only spicier. Sorel referred to the meal as “First” rather than “breakfast,” and I made a note of this on my mental list.

  Reyna served us both, as though I was also her child and needed help serving myself, and I watched how gentle Reyna was with Sorel. The hardness she’d shown the night before, both at the news office and in the study afterward, only came in flashes between moments of tenderness toward Sorel. Sorel acted without surprise, as though this was how things always were, and I found myself drawn to Reyna in a new way. The rushing in my chest surprised me more than I cared to admit.

  After First, we arranged our things and headed out. Reyna dropped Sorel off at school, dropping a kiss on his forehead before he raced toward the building. Then we drove to her office in the large, columned building that Sorel had pointed out the night before. It was almost as intimidating as Reyna herself.

  Like most of the Konkoman decor I’d seen, the inside of the building was stark and elegant. I focused instead of following Reyna’s quick pace.

  Her office was the largest of them all, with a wide waiting space and an inner door leading to her office proper. A young, female Konkoma sat at a desk in the waiting area, typing on a console. She lifted her head at Reyna’s entrance, giving the woman a nod of greeting.

  “Bya,” Reyna addressed her, “this is Jane, the Human researcher. Jane, this is my assistant, Bya.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Bya said with an open smile. I liked her immediately. She seemed much friendlier than the other Konkoma I’d met and a bit edgier. Her dark hair was dyed with streaks of red and a few of the spines around her light eyes were also artificially colored red. Her tunic boasted bold colors and her skin was much paler than any of the others I’d seen. She smiled easily and her speaking voice was as light as her eyes.

  “Excuse me, Mayor,” another voice cut in. For the first time, I realized that the lead news man we’d met the night before was sitting in the waiting area. He stood, coming to his full height and reminding me just how big he really was. I took a step closer to Reyna.

  “I expect you’re here to tell me that you published the correct article this morning?” Reyna said, her tone clipped and impatient.

  “Of course, Mayor,” he said. “But I also wanted to secure the first interview with the Human. If you’ll allow me…” His tone drifted off. His words were submissive, but his tone and stance were anything but. I watched the power play between Reyna and the man, wondering what would come of it.

  Reyna turned to me and asked, “Well? Will you allow them to interview you?”

  “Oh, of course, yes,” I answered, not realizing until that moment that the decision was mine to make. “As long as it’s recorded and accurate, I would be glad to give an interview.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Reyna said with a wave of her hand. “Now, I have more important business to attend to.”

  “Of course, Mayor,” the man said. Then Reyna turned and marched into her office, closing the door shut between us.

  The man turned to me and said, “I’m Martog. I run the news office in this town.”

  “Dr. Jane Lewis,” I answered. “Nice to see you again.” The phrase felt insincere, considering the previous night’s event, but I said it regardless.

  “Can we set up a time for after Second?” he asked.

  I must have come off as confused, because Bya interjected with an explanation: “He means the Second meal of the day.”

  “Yes, that will be fine,” I said.

  “I’ll message Reyna to coordinate,” he said. Then, with one final, searching look at me, he left the office. I watched him go, a bit taken aback by the abrupt ending to our conversation.

  “He’s a peculiar one,” Bya said to me, smiling compassionately. “Don’t take it personally. He’s like that to everyone.”

  “I’ll take your word for it,” I said. I flopped down into one of the empty seats in the waiting area, trying to decide what to do next. Turning to Bya, who I’d quickly come to trust on these sort of things, I asked, “Should I go into Reyna’s office now or wait out here for her to get me? I don’t know what the protocol is.”

  “You’d best wait,” Bya said. “She’ll come out and get you in a little while. She always likes the beginning of the morning to herself.”

  I wanted to pick Bya’s brain about Reyna; I wanted to ask a thousand questions. Besides it being in my nature to question everything, I found Reyna particularly interesting. Thinking that it was better to try than not, I chose a question and started.

  “Is Reyna always so closed off?”

  Bya made a high-pitched hrumph sound.

  “If you’re referring to her tendency to keep to herself, then yes,” she answered. “She’s a very private person and she doesn’t like to let anyone get close to her.”

  “Is there a reason for it?” I pressed, feeling the anthropologist in my rising to the surface.

  “There isn’t a specific reason that I know of,” Bya said. “But I have to assume it has something to do with how she grew up. That, or it’s just a personality quirk of hers that she was born with. I don’t know enough about her early life to make a judgement.”

  “And how long has she been Mayor here?”

  “Two rotations of office,” Bya answered. “So, about five standard years. She’s up for re-election soon.”

  “Is that why she took me in?” I asked. “And why she’s keeping tabs on the news outlet?”

  Bya hesitated. The pause in Bya’s otherwise rapid-fire answers set off a hundred warning bells in my head. My instincts told me that I’d struck upon something huge and important.

  “Yes and no,” Bya said finally. “She wants to improve her reputation with Bonarin as a whole. Taking you into her home was a sign of extreme good-will on her part.”

  I knew exactly where to strike next, but I did so with delicacy.

  “But what caused her reputation to suffer recently?” I asked. It sounded assumptive, I knew, but I figured it had a better chance of a real answer if I phrased it that way.

  Bya opened her mouth to answer, but
she never got the chance to. At the same moment, Reyna’s office door opened and she called me in.

  “See you in a little while,” Bya said, sounding relieved as I passed her desk to step into Reyna’s inner office.

  Chapter 5

  Reyna took me to the town diner for lunch. The similarity to an old-style country diner didn’t escape me. The place seemed overly-decorated in comparison to the other Konkoman spaces she’d already visited, every wall covered in artwork, shelves of knick-knacks, and random objects adhered directly to the drywall.