“Greetings Jennifer Hodges. The army has increased security in the area, and it was decided that the barrier would come down during daylight hours. You look troubled.”
“I thank you for your concern,” she told him, again in his language, stumbling over the prepositional clause. “I’ve grown used to having to pass through the barrier on my return. It seems strange not to see it in place. I wish you a pleasant evening, honorable male.” She continued on her walk back to the house.
Her father wasn’t there when she arrived. She found a note on the kitchen table telling her that he had gone over to a lady friend’s house for the evening. She smiled at the news. If she could get her dad married off, she could go back to Brookings, get her job back at the VA hospital and rejoin the band — if they still wanted her. If she wasn’t in prison for the supposed theft and sale of the fictional supplies.
The confrontation flashed back again. This time however, instead of becoming depressed and weepy, she grew angry and determined to clear her name. To set the record straight. And to get proper funding for the clinic — supplies, a manager, and a doctor. She was tired of making do. Tired of having to improvise. Tired of performing medical tasks that she was not permitted to do, just because the county had gotten rid of the only doctor around. She was tired of it all, and she wasn’t going to put up with it any longer. Her eyes narrowed. The dullness that had been in her eyes from depression had been replaced with a hot burning flame of anger and indignation. Dammit, she had had enough!
She exited the house through the basement walkout out back, hopped the fence and walked down the gravel slope towards the football field.
“They’re not going to treat me like that!” she declared vehemently. “I’ve been the fricking nice girl far too long. They’re going to find out the hard way that you don’t threaten Jenn Hodges and remain unscathed. I’m not called Tiger for nothing. I’ve got claws, and I’m damn well going to use them.”
With every declaration, her anger grew. Her anger and her determination to redeem herself and to punish those who had foolishly thought that they could intimidate her. “I’ll rip that little weasel’s throat out personally!” Once she reached field level, she stomped up and down the western sidelines, ever increasing the vitriol in her self-talk.
Chapter 8
About the time that Jennifer had discovered the note that her father had left her, Myka was in the middle of yet another argument with his father. Repeatedly, his father insisted that he carry out the survey directive, while Myka repeatedly insisted that as mission commander, only he would decide the fate of the Terran species. When his father pointed out that the murder rate on Terra was close to 30,000 times higher than in the empire, Myka pointed out that it was falling, and had been for several decades. When the subject of the frequent wars came up, Myka reminded him of the Sanafera Uprising of 700 years previous, which nearly turned into an empire-wide civil war.
“This is all because of that barbarian female that you have befriended, isn’t it?”
“Father, I have found her to be far more honorable and far more honest than certain Wakira, all but one of whom still as yet unidentified.” Both men knew that he was speaking of his father.
“Remember who you are speaking to, pup! What you have done, how you have messed this mission, proves to me that I was right in insisting on seeing the raw data.”
“If you had wanted to do the survey, Father, then why did you bother to send me? For that matter, why did you decide to survey this species? Why now? They are still 2 centuries away from achieving level 5 status, let alone becoming a threat to us. This was just another way of trying to turn me into a man, isn’t it? When I resigned my infantry commission on principle, it set back your plans for me, didn’t it? But, to have me lead this mission and exterminate a sentient species would boost my image amongst the general staff and the rank and file. Is that why you sent me? Was there no other species close enough to level 5?”
“You were an embarrassment to me and your mother when you resigned your commission —.”
“It was the only honorable thing to do. That female lost rank and position and her career, because of a trifling mistake. No harm was done. If anyone had been the aggrieved party, it was me! I reported her because I was doing my duty. I recommended administrative punishment for her. But no. It was decided to ignore my advice, and put her in an assignment where she would resign rather than continue in service. Against my advice. Then against my petition. Did you not believe me when I said that I would resign my commission in the infantry if she was demoted and condemned to work on an assignment where her skills could not ever be used? Where was the honor in that, Father? Now you have sent me to this place, and I am trying to fulfill the standing survey regulations to their fullest, by taking ALL data into account, and making MY decision on whether or not they should be allowed into interstellar space, you once again are not listening to my opinion. You are ignoring me. You dishonor me Father. I cannot understand how you cannot see the fact that you are causing me humiliation in front of the lower ranks. This mission will not show me in a good light, not if you come and relieve me of my command and do the very thing that I have refused to do.”
“I have tried my very best, pup, to help advance your career. You return the favor by accusing me of being dishonorable. You have a future ahead of you, whether you wish to have it or not. The choice is neither yours nor mine. My job is to make you ready for it. And I am bitterly reminded, yet again, how thankless this job is.”
“If you relieve me of command, Father —.” He paused, still uncertain that he should make this final challenge. “If you relieve me of command, Father, and destroy this planet and this species, then I will resign this commission and leave the service. Perhaps my sister, you remember her? The one who refuses to come visit? Perhaps my sister can find me a position in her business. Sales, or janitorial services, perhaps.”
The older Wakiran froze. Myka severed the connection. As he stood, he felt a sharp stinging pain in one of his fingers. He cursed and rubbed digit that was hurting. “Infernal Terran insects! Yet another bite!” Now, even angrier than before, he stormed off the ship.
Jennifer’s stomping and angry self-talk had once again taken her to the base of the stairs that led up to Emerald Street. As she had been doing each time, she touched the end of the handrail at the bottom of the stairs and spun around, ready to stomp back along the western sidelines to the midfield line.
Myka’s eyes were fixed on his feet as he continued his angry debarkation from the ship towards the clinic. He noticed the tennis shoes too late.
“What the—!” came from the mouth in English. As her eyes began to focus on where she was, she switched to their language and said “I apologize, honorable male —.”
“A surplus of bother—!” he cursed in his language, then in English, “I’m sorry. I was not paying attention —. Jennifer? What are you doing here?”
“Myka?” She almost started chewing him out about watching where he was going, but quickly realized that she was guilty of the same offense. “Someone found me crying and sent for Bethy. She told me to go home early.” Her eyes were still slits, her anger still building. “I swore that no one would be able to make me cry, just with words, but that asshole from the county managed to do it! Can you believe it? They’re threatening to take my dad’s house and send me to prison, because I embarrassed them on national radio. I’m not going to let that happen. I’ll make them pay for threatening me—.”
Myka scarcely heard a word. “Not only have I been betrayed by some of my subordinates, but I learned last night that my father is on his way here. Provider, how can this mission get any worse?!”
Jennifer wasn’t listening either. “I’ve learned the hard way that you can’t trust anyone —. They’re going to try and make me pay for supplies that we never received. They’re accusing me of selling the supplies on the black market!”
“Administrative errors are trivial. They happen in
any bureaucracy —. He didn’t trust me to lead this mission — he placed spies in my staff and now is coming here to ‘fix’ the mission. Complete and utter disaster. A surplus of bother!”
“I’m happy you’re going to see your dad again, but that’s not important. They’re saying that they’ll have me thrown in prison, even though I’ve done nothing wrong. Are you even listening?”
And so it went out by the base of the stairs, with the volume of the voices ever increasing. Wakira who had intended to walk down the stairs to the ship, thought better of it and walked down the hill on Emerald instead. After almost 40 minutes of talking at each other instead of with each other, Myka grasped her elbow and started leading her to the ship. “I cannot believe that you do not understand, Jennifer!”
She yanked her elbow out of his grasp. “Don’t pull me along like I’m a pet! And you’re the one who doesn’t understand. I’m being railroaded, just because I embarrassed the county!”
They stepped aboard the ship and headed once again to the rear, still mouthing off at each other. When they got into the office, they stood in the center, facing one another. Jennifer was waving her hands in his face, intending the fruity smell of the cheap liquid soap to annoy him. How dare he not give her any sympathy?!
Another fifteen minutes or so passed. The volume of their voices had dropped, but neither was paying any attention to what the other was saying.
“What’s the big deal about your dad coming for a visit? Should break the monotony of the survey mission.”
“Break the monotony? Have you been listening to what I’ve been trying to —. Trying to —. To —.” A look of utter dismay appeared on his face. “No. Not with an alien female.” His desperate eyes looked into Jennifer’s, almost pleading. “Jennifer. Get out! Now! Quickly! Please!”
“What the heck is going on? Just because you —.” His knees started to buckle. “Myka? Do you need help?”
“Leave please. Before it’s too late —. Oh no!” Jennifer had to dip her shoulder into his chest to prop him up, his face buried in her hair. He mumbled something in his language.
She half-carried half-pushed him to his chair, then activated the communications system. In the alien language, as best she could, she shouted “Medical assistance. Mission Commander. Hurry!”
She gently laid his head back. To her, it looked as if he had suffered a stroke. His face was lax, his eyes wide, saliva just now starting to dribble from the corner of his mouth. “Help!” she screamed in English. “Somebody help him!”
The alien physician and two assistants burst through the doorway and hurried over to him. “What’s wrong with him?!” she screamed at them. “What’s happened?”
One of the assistants gently drew her away. “Tell us what happened,” he told her.
“We were talking — arguing. Suddenly, his face changed. A strange look. He told me to leave. He started to collapse. I got him to the chair. He mumbled something in the language, but I’m not sure what it was. Is it some sort of stroke? I know that he’s been under a lot of stress lately.”
The physician turned his attention away from Myka and looked directly at her. “Who was the female who was with you when this happened?”
“Female? I haven’t seen a female Wakira this whole time. It was just Myka and I. There was no one else.”
The physician suddenly acquired a look of dismay. He mumbled something in his language.
“That’s it! That’s what I heard him say while I was getting him to the chair. What does it mean? What was he trying to tell me?”
The physician translated for her. “Provider, not with an alien female.”
“Not what with an alien female? What’s happened to him? I didn’t touch him! Why won’t someone tell me what has happened?”
The assistants put him on an antigravity litter and started carrying him away. “Wait here. Do not leave,” the physician told her.
“Where are you taking him? What’s going on?”
The physician pointed at her. “Stay here. You must not leave. It is important that you remain in this room.” He turned and left.
“Myka?” she called out plaintively. “Myka, what the hell has happened?” She staggered over to the couch. “Someone tell me what has happened to him.”
Moments later, a tall figure filled the doorway. “Greetings Jennifer Hodges. I finally get to meet you.”
Jennifer looked at the impossibly tall figure in the doorway. “Who are you? What are you? What’s happened to Myka? Why won’t anyone tell me?”
“I am a female. My name is Pokaifashta though I prefer to be called Poke. My rank is 4Tactician, though I have been serving on this mission as a research assistant.” She walked over to the couch, the hair tufts on the top of her head almost touching the ceiling. She sat beside Jennifer.
“Why are you so tall?” Jennifer asked, wide-eyed.
“Why are you so short?” Poke chittered after she posed the question. “We females are normally about two hands taller than the males. When I had some time to waste, I converted my height to your units of measure. If my math is correct, I am 6 feet 8 and three-quarter inches tall. Approximately. Average for a female.”
“Your appearance is similar to the males, but there are differences.”
“We resemble what you would call ectomorphs. Long legs and arms, narrow thorax and pelvis. Face more rounded — more like you Terrans than the males. Same big eyes, snout is similar to the male snout, some more boning for the nasal canal, but not nearly as pronounced as on you Terrans.”
Jennifer took it all in, then asked quietly “What has happened to him? What did I do to him?”
The alien female picked up one of Jennifer’s hands and clasped it between hers. “You have done nothing. The two of you have spent a lot of time together, and nothing happened then. The mission commander was due to exit cycle today or tomorrow. No one ever considered the possibility that it would happen with an alien female. Otherwise, it would’ve been the males in sequestration and us females would have performed the survey.”
“I remember Myka telling me something about cycle. It’s when you’re susceptible to mating, right?”
Poke patted Jennifer’s hand. “This is not something we talk about with others. It is a very private thing. But yes, you are essentially correct. Cycle is when we are predisposed to bonding with someone of the other gender. The reason why you have not seen a female until now is that the 5 females on board ship all went into cycle. Prematurely. On the same day. Most unusual.” She lifted her top hand and gently rubbed the top of her snout, much the same way a person would scratch their nose. “For some reason, which we will have to discover as soon as is possible, Myka bonded with you.”
“He what—? He can’t be bonded to me. He’s an alien. Or I’m an alien, depending on how you look at it.”
“That’s what we all assumed. Terran pheromones were sufficiently different from those of the Wakira. Same with body odors. It’s the pheromones that trigger the bonding, but it’s the body scent that is the bond. We stop producing those pheromones as soon as we bond, because we no longer go into cycle. But Terran females don’t cycle. You produce pheromones almost all the time. Which begs the question — why here, why now? He hadn’t bonded with you for over two ninedays. Why this time? And are the other males in cycle at risk of bonding with you as well? This is why the physician insisted you remain here.”
“Crap. He kept saying something about this mission getting worse, before we got back here. Unless the doctor can undo this, the fecal matter will really have hit the fan.”
Poke was confused by the saying but let it pass unchallenged. “It cannot be undone, Jennifer. He is now bonded to you for life. He can never even contemplate seeking another mate. He could never bond with another female.”
Jennifer’s face went ashen. “Oh God, no. I’ve destroyed his future, then.” She looked into the alien female’s eyes. “I didn’t know. I had no intention of bonding with any of you. Oh crap. And no
w his dad’s coming. ‘Hey dad! Meet your new alien daughter-in-law’.”
“It is worse than that, Jennifer. Much much worse. For the Empire, in particular.”
“How does my bonding with a mission commander affect the Empire?”
“You do not know who his father is?”
“No. I assumed he had to be someone reasonably important, in order to be able to get a ship to fly him here. I thought he was a war hero, or something.”
Poke blinked twice. “He did not tell you? His father is Our Father.”
Jennifer shook her head, not comprehending. “Our father? You’re Myka’s sister?”
She blinked twice again. “No. I am not his littermate. Our Father is the Emperor.”
Jennifer blanched. “The Emperor is coming here? Oh crap! And now this has happened.” She paused. “Oh my God! That means Myka is a prince!”
“He is the heir, Jennifer. You have just been mated to the next Emperor of the Wakira.”
Once again, Jennifer shook her head, this time in disbelief. “This is beginning to sound like some sort of bad fairy tale. Lonely misunderstood girl meets alien prince who takes her as his princess.” She rolled her eyes at the thought. “Something tells me it would have been better for everyone if I had run from the ship before it landed, like the others did. I could’ve grabbed my dad and run away. Then Myka wouldn’t be stuck married to an alien.”
Poke blinked twice. In her mind, she played out what the consequences of that alternate action would have been. The survey team would likely not have understood that there was something called fiction. They would have assumed that the Terrans were aligned in some way with the Klingons, and that they in turn were aligned with the Empire’s greatest enemy — the Kendarit. And the survey team would be almost back to Homeworld, with this planet now just ashes. “Do not criticize yourself, Jennifer. You did no wrong. Obviously, our medical scientists knew far less than they had thought. You have been a great help to the survey — I know that you have greatly influenced the mission commander.”
And What of Earth? Page 9