He touched his hand to his chest, feeling how his hearts galloped. “From my spirit to yours, Elder Yees, may you live in peace as well.”
He exchanged similar pleasantries with the rest. The other three women of the council, Vot, Taso, and Dushen, were similar to Yees in their expressions of tranquility. They appeared unshakable in their poise. Elder Sus’s eyes were bright with nervous curiosity as he stared at Jeannie. As for the third male member of the council, Elder Fetla looked simultaneously stormy and arrogant. His obviously aggressive stance set Kren’s teeth on edge.
His upper lip curling in a sneer, Fetla said, “So this is the creature.” The black stripe that ran over his brow lowered like a thundercloud over his eyes.
“This is Jeannie from Earth.” Mekay’s mild rebuke cut off the hot reply Kren readied to make.
Jeannie glanced up at Kren, her expression hinting at accusation. “What is this?”
Controlling his anger at having exposed her to what seemed to be an immediate inquisition, Kren said, “This is the Elders Council of Hahz. They wish to learn more about you and what the Monsuda have done to your people.”
“You mean why they created her,” snarled Fetla.
Jeannie eyed the black-and-yellow elder. The system’s translation program was online and interpreting everything they said. “They didn’t create me. They abducted me.”
Fetla looked to the watchful Yees. “It is programmed with unimaginative answers. Why has it not been dealt with already?”
His condemning attitude infuriated Kren, who burst out with, “This is our leadership? The wise and benevolent Elders Council, they who hear all evidence to arrive at the best judgment for our people? This is a fair assessment?”
His near-shout was greeted with shocked expressions from the men. All Risnarish approached their elders with reverence, particularly those who belonged to village councils and the Assembly. Such an outburst was unheard of, yet Kren was seized by fear for Jeannie, that she was the victim of opinions already decided upon.
Mekay put out a hand, signaling Kren must desist. “Zvan, you must trust—”
“No, not if the elders won’t give her a fair hearing. I was told Jeannie would have a chance to prove her sentience. She is no false creation of the enemy, but one with the Spirit. But you’ve already decided!”
Yees held her hands up, and Kren immediately quieted. None of the women had reacted to his passion. Even now Yees wore an expression of eternal patience. She gazed at Kren, and kind warmth suffused her face. Without speaking a word, she dulled the sharpest edge of his fear.
Her voice came with smooth ease, more impressive for its quiet authority. “Kren, I hear your concern and respect it. It speaks well of this Jeannie that you rise to her defense so quickly. I will remember it as I speak to her.”
She gazed at Fetla. Neither her expression nor her tone changed, but a warning passed from Yees to the other elder. “No judgment has been passed. The Earthling will receive every consideration in proving her origins as a real person made by the All-Spirit.”
When Fetla continued to glare at Jeannie with belligerence, Kren appealed to Yees. “Please, Elder Yees. I am certain Jeannie is a victim of the Monsuda and not of their making.”
Yees gave him a gentle gaze. “We will determine the truth of her existence. I assure you every opportunity for that will be offered. Now, you must leave her for our examination.”
“No.”
Yees looked at him. Again, there was no discernible evidence of displeasure. No censure. Kren still hunched a little, feeling the wrongness of challenging the esteemed leader of his village. Yet he refused to back down. They would not harm Jeannie.
He said, “I will stay. I have pledged my protection to her.”
“You have no need to protect her from us, Kren.”
Her voice was calm, hinting no threat. Yet Kren gazed at Jeannie, who stared at him with concern. His level of rebellion frightened him, but he couldn’t leave her alone with the hostility of Fetla. He moved closer to her, circling his arm around her. She let him pull her tight to his body. Despite all his fears, he felt a rush of pleasure that she would let him shelter her.
Mekay stepped near, putting fatherly hands on their shoulders. He spoke first to Kren. “I swear to her safety, Zvan. She must be allowed to be interviewed without your interference.” He smiled next at Jeannie. “You will be treated fairly, my dearest. I believe you are of the Spirit. The rest of the council will too. There is nothing to fear.”
Jeannie searched his face for a moment before squaring her shoulders. She turned her gaze to Kren. “It is all right. I trust Mekay. Don’t get yourself in trouble for me.”
Her voice, translated into Risnarish in his earpiece, was calm. Nevertheless, Kren’s grip tightened. “I would dare anything for you.”
One side of her mouth twisted upward. “Thank you, but it’s not necessary. Go ahead. Get out of here.”
Kren hesitated, but she appeared sure. Mekay’s nod quelled the worst of his anxiety. His guardian would never lie to him. He would never let Jeannie come to harm.
He told her, “I will be right outside. If you need me—”
“I’ll call for you. But I won’t need to.” She glanced at Fetla, challenging his glower with her unwavering gaze. It was he who looked away first.
Kren flooded with feeling at her strength. She was not at all like Risnarish women. Jeannie’s strength matched theirs, but it was not the quiet power Yees and her kind wielded so easily. Jeannie’s force was overt, as vital as his. Her determination made his hearts swell with a fierce devotion he’d not known before.
Jeannie needed him to give her the space to conquer the council’s suspicions. To remain at her side would diminish her in their eyes—and hers as well. He didn’t want to leave, but she left him no choice but to bow to her power.
“I’m still here,” he muttered as he reluctantly released her. “I’m with you.”
“I know. Thank you.”
His feet dragged him out the door. He walked out backward, his eyes never leaving Jeannie’s until the door shut between them.
He stood outside, a mere step from the entrance, ready to rush in at her call. As he stood there, waiting and worrying and wondering, he realized it was only through her fortitude that he would be able to stand the uncertain hours ahead.
Kren had sworn to be her strength. How was it that she was buttressing his?
* * *
Jeannie wished her tough facade hadn’t fooled Kren so well. As she watched him reluctantly back out of the dome, she fended off the urge to ask him to remain. Her heart quaked with fear to face the council without him, yet she could tell it was unheard of for him to protest anything commanded by his elders. The women had remained unflappable, but the men had reacted in a way that told her all she needed to know. She could not be the reason Kren suffered whatever penalty his refusal earned.
Trying not to show any of her anxiety, she looked to Mekay. Of all the men, he was the most assured. His nod and smile told her he was in her corner. But in her corner over what exactly? That they thought she was made by the Monsuda was a bad thing. She didn’t need to speak their language to get that.
Why hadn’t Kren told her there might be a problem? His stark fear told her she was in for trouble. How bad would things become if this council decided the Monsuda had created her? What did she need to do to prove herself?
She could have asked, but that might display uncertainty. With the one Risnarish male elder treating her like she was demon spawn, Jeannie would be better served by displaying confidence. Self-assurance.
Kren had called him Fetla. She met the elder’s narrow gaze again. He wasn’t just concerned about her origins. The man downright glowered at her. Why has it not been dealt with already? he’d asked. As if Kren had been remiss in not locking her in a dungeon or something.
&
nbsp; Fetla could be a problem, but it was Yees everyone looked to. Jeannie gave the quiet and observant Risnarish woman her attention.
She could tell why Kren had been so astounded by her alien appearance. Yees and the other women showed few female characteristics beyond wider hips and slight builds lacking the muscularity that the men possessed. No breasts. No clefts between their long, slender thighs. They were as sexless as the men as far as Jeannie could tell.
The women did possess an ethereal quality, a quiet ease the men lacked. If Yees and the rest of the females suspected Jeannie to be a monstrous invention of the Monsuda, they showed no concern for it. Their demeanors suggested nothing more than clinical curiosity about her.
What would be the best way to talk to the council? Jeannie wasn’t sure what would constitute insult to these leaders, but she wanted to meet with them squarely, as an equal. She figured it was best to be herself and commit honest mistakes. Pretending to be someone she was not to win these people over could backfire every bit as easily.
In a firm, steady voice, she asked, “I assume I am to be interrogated?”
Yees’s head tilted to one side, as if Jeannie had done something fascinating. “Please do not take offense. The Monsuda are a blight upon us. They would destroy all for their unfeeling quest to make our world theirs alone.”
“Not just yours. They’ve ripped me away from my home multiple times. Others too. They subject us to horrific experiments.”
Yees nodded and took a few seconds to consider. At last she turned to Mekay. “Let us sit and discuss.”
Fetla tensed. “Sit with it? Just because it offers words it was programmed or trained to offer, words we would accept? This is madness.”
Mekay’s tone was almost as mild as Yees’s. “Jeannie is not an it, Fetla. Like Kren, I believe that not only is she sentient, she is of Spirit.”
Fetla rounded on her. “What do you know of Spirit?”
His question could be tricky. Mekay was already aware of her religious attitudes however, so she couldn’t feed the rest of the council a convenient lie. “If you refer to God or a Creator of all life, I don’t believe in such. God would not permit the pain I’ve witnessed.”
Fetla shook his head and appealed to the rest. “You see? Only a false being would profess such blasphemy!”
Mekay demurred. “On the contrary. Had she been programmed by the Monsuda to gain our trust, they would have made sure she recited our own beliefs to us. The fact Jeannie is self-aware enough to doubt Spirit, much as we all have at some time or another, tells us she is no mere imitation of life.”
Yees gave no indication she’d noted any of the conversation. She motioned to the dome’s living room partition. “We will sit and speak now.”
They did so. This time Mekay gave up his comfortable seat to Yees, opting to sit next to Jeannie on the upholstered bench. She felt grateful to have him nearby, especially when Fetla sat on her other side. She was glad the Risnarish didn’t wear clothing. Otherwise, she’d have been afraid her opponent might have a knife he’d take the opportunity to shove in her ribs.
She ignored him as best she could. Instead, she watched Yees, who sat directly in front of her. Once more, Jeannie was struck by the head elder’s quiet serenity. How could anyone look so above everything else? It was as if Yees had never been touched by a single second of hurt or doubt.
Settled in the chair, Yees started the festivities with, “Before we ask our questions, I must ask if you will submit to a physical examination.”
Jeannie had a vision of being forced to strip down while the council poked and prodded her. She glanced at Fetla and shook her head. No fucking way.
Yees quickly said, “Oh no, Jeannie. I do not mean by us. Our physicians, only females if you prefer, will inspect you. It will help us determine beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are not an artificial or genetically engineered construct.”
Jeannie considered. Yees had asked her permission. It didn’t mean that the Risnarish wouldn’t force her to let them look her over, but at least they’d made a pretense at giving her a choice.
Maybe Yees asking her to allow the examination was a test. Or it could be that the head elder considered it possible that Jeannie was indeed a sentient being whose preferences should be consulted.
She turned it over in her mind, debating the gains and ramifications. At last she said, “It depends on how invasive you want this examination to be. I won’t surrender to being strapped down or made to feel helpless. I have endured a lot at the hands of the Monsuda. You have no idea how horrible it is to be defenseless while those things experiment on you.”
At last real emotion appeared on Yees’s face: a flash of sympathy. It was echoed by the other Risnarish, save for the suspicious Fetla.
In a gentle tone, Yees told her, “In our labs you will be surveyed. Your body scanned. We will ask for tissue and blood samples, the taking of which will be painless. You will not be restrained in any way.”
Jeannie took a deep breath and eased the tension in her shoulders. “If all that’s true, then I have no problem with being seen by your doctors.”
Yees appeared serene again. “Excellent. Thank you, Jeannie. Now let us speak of who you and your people are. Start from your beginning. I want to know how you grew and learned, as well as how it came to be that the Monsuda took you for their tests.”
Jeannie’s stomach knotted when she thought of all she’d have to share with these strangers. Yet she’d been through much worse than the telling. She’d lived the actual events.
Kren is outside too. He’s ready to come in and help me if I need it. It gave her strength.
She began. “I had a family once, a long, long time ago...”
* * *
Kren paced outside his guardians’ dome, trying to keep anxiety at bay. Gurnal worked on his latest sculpture nearby. Kren had always loved his second guardian’s art, and though he marched back and forth only yards away, he couldn’t have said what Gurnal was making at that moment. His mind was too focused on Jeannie, on what her future may hold.
Having greeted Kren when he’d first emerged from the home and finding his former charge preoccupied, Gurnal left him to fret. “I am here if you need to talk to someone,” he’d said. “As little as you might believe it, things will be all right. Jeannie is most definitely of Spirit, and only a fool would think otherwise.”
Kren owed Gurnal better attention, but worry wracked him as minutes stretched into hours. He went over what he’d said to the council inside. One moment, he was pleased he’d presented his case so forcefully and regretted he’d let them talk him into going outside. The next, he worried the offense he’d given would be held against Jeannie.
They will not kill her. I will not allow it no matter what. On that, he was unshakeable. No matter the consequences, he would do whatever he needed to keep her alive.
And still, time passed with agonizing slowness. Kren’s nerves stretched taut. His muscles hummed with tension. He paced.
When Arga called him, Kren almost didn’t answer his CPP. He didn’t want to talk to anyone except Jeannie. Besides, Arga was probably only checking on how things were going. However, his duty as Head Enforcer demanded he respond, if only to be sure everything at work was all right.
“Go ahead, Arga,” he said, fighting to keep impatience out of his tone.
“We had another drone sighting,” his partner informed him. “This one was on the southeast border. There was no sign of them when we got there, but we’re pretty sure we caught their scent. I’m certain they were there.”
“Damn it,” Kren muttered. “I’m on my way.”
“No need. We investigated thoroughly and filed the report. We’re watching all the visual monitors in real time now, and I’ll make sure the night shift assigns a man to that duty as well. First chance we get, we’ll snag one.”
Kren breat
hed easier. Arga had things handled, allowing Kren to remain close to Jeannie. “Thank you,” he said with feeling.
“No problem. Any word on the council’s investigation yet?”
“Nothing. They’ve been sequestered in Mekay’s dome for hours now, and I haven’t heard anything.” Kren wasn’t surprised Arga knew something was going on. “How did you hear?”
“You know how fast news travels in a village as small as ours. People have been dropping by the station all day, asking why the council has gathered at Mekay’s. They also want to know about that long-maned creature you’ve been darting around with.”
Kren sighed. He should have known his attempts to keep Jeannie’s existence quiet wouldn’t last. “What did you tell them?”
“To ask you. I’m not your keeper.”
Kren managed to laugh at that. At that moment, the door to Mekay’s dome opened.
“Got to go, Arga. I’ll call back when I have news.”
Mekay appeared in the doorway. The elder motioned for him to come in. Kren barely managed not to run into the dome. He was aware that Gurnal followed him inside.
As she had when Kren had first arrived with Jeannie, Yees stood in the entryway, waiting. Jeannie stood at her side, safe and whole. Kren’s guts untwisted to see her looking a little tired but otherwise good.
Yees gave him a placid smile. “Thank you for your patience, Kren. I will not waste your time or temper with needless words. We are most pleased with Jeannie’s answers to the questions we put to her. The majority of the council agrees she shows signs of being of natural origin and perhaps possessing Spirit.”
From behind him, Gurnal’s breath gusted with relief. His hand gripped Kren’s shoulder and squeezed. “I told you,” he whispered.
As his body sagged from its stiff posture, Kren darted a gaze to Fetla. The stormy elder’s set expression told him who led the minority in dissenting the council’s findings.
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