by Calista Skye
“How many Kunuru are there?”
“Nineteen.”
“Nineteen billion?”
“Nineteen.”
Nineteen? She glanced behind her. But Xark'ion wasn't looking at her, but kept staring at Nur, his face paler than before. But his hand was not on the hilt of his sword. Still, she probably had to speed this up. Despite her suit's advanced climatic controls, she was feeling cold and she had to concentrate to keep her teeth from clattering.
“What do you know about Earth?”
“Earth. Ava Harris is their enjoy. Authorized to speak on its behalf. Eighteen billion sentients, trillions of others. Friends with the Acerex. Possible new hammer for the Kunuru anvil.”
“What did you do with the Ysal?”
“The Ysal. Slave species. The hammer proved useless. The anvil had to kill. In a fashion most befitting them. They are still there. Perfect. But now they are clean. No life remains.”
“What is your relation to the Solp?”
“The Solp. Scavenger slave species. Useful for cleansing dead worlds.”
“Do you have a leader?”
“The only leader is Vrun.”
“Ah. Who is now in his Other Realm, right? How about someone in this universe? Someone my leader can talk to? Perhaps a hierarch of higher rank?”
“The Hierarch of First Rank, Sur. Only Vrun is above him.”
“Is he willing to talk to my leader, the President of Space Expansion? To confirm the friendship between our peoples?”
“The will of Hierarch of the First Rank, Sur, is known only to the Hierarch of the First Rank, Sur.”
“Could you ask him, maybe?”
Nur went quiet for a moment.
“The Hierarch of the First Rank, Sur, will deign to see the Earth leader, the President of Space Expansion. It is the greatest honor for the President of Space Expansion. Only Vrun is above the Hierarch of the First Rank, Sur.”
“Is there a time that's good for him? A location, perhaps?”
“Time to be decided by the Hierarch of the First Rank, Sur. He is very far away, as is every other Kunuru. Location, the holy planet of the Acerex. In this star system. No Acerex is to attend.”
Of course. The Fire Planet. “Okay. So can we come by here at a later time to decide the details? I mean, I'm not sure if I will come back here. But someone from Earth? Using radio?”
“Agreed,” Nur said.
“Okay. I guess that's all I came for. Thank you very much for your time-”
“Ava Harris has come to the Kunuru offering friendship,” Nur interrupted. “It is valued. The Hierarch of First Rank, Sur, thus commands Ava Harris to know the appearance of the Kunuru. If the Earth wishes to be the new hammer to the Kunuru anvil, all must be known.” The alien stirred in the bath, creating waves in the pool.
“Um. I'm not sure we want to become a hammer ...”
Nur slowly strode out of the ammonia, and the black shroud looked as dry as ever.
Xark'ion took two step forwards and stood right beside Ava. But this time his closeness didn't calm her down. There was something wrong here.
The black robe slid down Nur's body, and Ava looked away with one hand over her eyes. Stars, this was probably turning him on ...
Then the creepy striptease was over, the black shroud was pooled on the floor and Ava squinted over at Nur with one eye half open behind her hand.
A chill went through her. Yeah, that wasn't sexy so much as downright repulsive.
Nur was the size of a tall Earthling man, but not as large as Xark'ion. He was humanoid, with two long, spindly arms with two clawed fingers on each one. The brown bones were on the outside of his pale, translucent body, and blue and greenish organs could be seen under the sallow skin. The head was long and pointed and seemed to have no hard skull, because blue veins and bladders were visible deep inside the head. The eyes were milky and the mouth tiny, with long, brown teeth that only showed briefly when the alien talked.
A long metallic object hung from one hand.
“You see why aliens hate us,” Nur said in his ghostly voice. “We are different. Not pleasing to behold. We receive no sympathy.”
“Earth is friends with anyone, regardless of appearance,” Ava said. “Yes, you are different from us. And we are different from you.”
“Different,” Nur repeated. “Thus unworthy of Vrun. I know your Acerex knows who I am. I have sensed him before.”
Xark'ion growled again, and his hand reflexively shot towards his sword, but he caught himself at the last moment.
“Have you?” It was the first thing the Acerex warrior had said loudly inside the comet, and his deep voice seemed completely out of place in these cold surroundings.
“I have. On the Ysal world. A battle. Only me and my manufactured soldiers, fighting off the Acerex onslaught.”
Ava didn't like the way this was going. Xark'ion was as tense as a bowstring.
She waved once, hoping to shut the alien up. “Okay, fine. Thank you. Well, we better get back to our shutt-”
Nur's tentacles waved stiffly. “The battle was necessary. Holy. For the first time, my manufactured soldiers fought the Acerex directly. And he was there. As were others. Pitifully they fought. My metal slaves won easily. And then, as a final triumph ...”
The hands moved and lifted the metallic object. It was a huge scissor, gleaming grayish in the dim light. Along both cutting edges there were darker patches.
Ava blanched as she realized what she was looking at.
“The Acerex have proven less than ideal as a hammer,” Nur said. “Perhaps the people of Earth will be better. Someone who lets me cut their head off as easily as the compatriot of this Acerex did lacks resolve, it seems to me. Why, he laid down for my blades and only wept in his weakness-”
“Xark'ion, don't!” Ava yelled.
But it was too late. The warrior had heard enough.
“Wrrraaaaaahhhhhhh!” The noise resonated through the metal chamber, and Ava's hands flew to her ears.
In one movement, Xark'ion drew his sword, lunged forward and cut a mighty slash across Nur's spindly, alien body.
The alien's shrill scream was cut short as the top half of his body fell to the floor with a wet thud. Xark'ion still wasn't satisfied, and cut the still standing half in two as well. A dirty yellow liquid shot to the ceiling from the remains of the alien, and it stopped moving.
Ava couldn't help it. The repulsive dead alien combined with the chemical stench made her cramp up from out of nowhere, and she bent over and threw up.
Xark'ion froze and gave Ava a short glance before he placed his sword back in its scabbard.
Ava wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She felt faint. That had been the best hope for peace for both Acerex and Earth. For a moment she just stared as the disaster that had happened right in front of her.
Then she finally found her voice. “What the fuck have you done?”
28
- Xark'ion -
He couldn't look at her. The crestfallen look on Ava's face was more than he could bear.
“I have done what I had to. Groti'ax is avenged.”
He took the terrible scissors that he had last seen as Nur cut Groti'ax's head off during the battle on the Ysal homeworld, studied the dark blood stains still on them and then flung them at the wall as hard as he could. They bounced off the metal wall, bent and badly deformed, and fell into the pool of ammonia.
“That alien”, Ava said with a voice that was strangely strained, “was our best hope for peace for Acerex. And for Earth. And you killed him.”
“Groti'ax needed his revenge.”
Ava's shoulders were slumped and she looked small. “I thought you got it. I thought you understood.”
He didn't know what to say. He pointed to the way they had come. “We should go.”
Ava slowly started walking back to the cramped corridor.
There was no sign of life or movement, and they weren't challenged. They crossed th
e icy bridge in silence and entered the shuttle.
“I suppose this was all a trick so you could get your revenge. From the start.” Ava said in a voice that was so flat and lifeless that Xark'ion's heart ached.
“It was not.”
“I don't believe you.” There was no heat in voice, and that worried him.
“I'm sorry I had to do this.”
“You didn't have to.”
“I did.”
“You never told me that the battle on the Ysal homeworld was where Groti'ax died.”
He hadn't. “It didn't seem important.”
“You knew the Kunuru killed him. That's why you came here.”
He clenched his hands around the controls, and the metal creaked. “I suspected. I never knew it would be same one.”
Ava didn't reply, and he set the shuttle up for the escape vector to Acerex.
But before he could activate the jump, the way was blocked by six other spacecraft coming the other way. Six heavy gunships of Earth design, bristling with weapons, their black armor making them look much more dangerous than any enemy Xark'ion had ever seen.
The gunships surrounded their shuttle in an unfriendly pattern, gun turrets swivelling to track it.
“Acerex shuttle,” a crisp female voice said in the loudspeaker. “Stand down and prepare to be boarded.”
Xark'ion looked at Ava. “Friends of yours?”
She unsnapped her harness and stood up. “Yes. They've been ready all along, waiting for my signal. I thought it was a smart precaution. In case the Kunuru turned out to be angry and we'd need some serious backup. I had no idea I would need them to rescue me from you.” Her voice cracked at the last word.
It penetrated his soul like a spear. “You don't need that. I'm still-”
Ava lifted her hand. “Shut up. Just ...”
The weariness of her voice hit him more than the words. Anger he could have understood and maybe even dealt with. But this wasn't it. There was no fire in her. Ava wasn't angry. She was crushed.
One of the gunships docked with the shuttle, and Ava went across without another word or even a last glance at him.
The six gunships disengaged, entered a perfect formation and accelerated away at a speed that Xark'ion's shuttle had no chance of matching.
One after the other they flickered from there to not there as they each entered hyperspace and jumped to wherever they were going.
Xark'ion let his head fall back onto the headrest.
Ava was gone.
29
- Ava -
“It was all a trick. He wanted revenge, and he realized that I might have tracked down Groti'ax's killer.”
Charlotte had heard the whole story. Now she glanced at Ava from the pilot's seat, her jaws working as she chewed her gum. “You sure?”
Ava sighed. “It all makes sense now. Shit, how could I have been so stupid? I thought he ... oh, never mind.”
“You thought he had feelings for you?”
Don't break down. Don't break down. Don't break down. “Yeah.”
Charlotte adjusted something on the control panel of the gunship. “In my experience, it's hard as fuck for an Acerex warrior to pretend something like that.”
“Well, this one did.”
Charlotte checked the hyperspace position of the five other gunships in her squadron. “If that's true, then he can go fuck himself, Ava. And I think it places him in major trouble with his king. Not to mention his queen.”
“I don't think he cares about anything. Just revenge. He got what he wanted.”
“Possibly condemning his own people and maybe Earth to war with the Kunuru. Hey, I kind of get the revenge thing. I do. But with that much at stake ...”
“He lives war. He has always been at war. He has always fought. So now it will go on forever. What does he care?”
Charlotte scratched her chin. “Yeah ... I don't know. Seems like he should care about his people. Harper will lose her shit.”
“And Goanesi will be just delighted. Now Space Expansion can go in with guns blazing as the first thing they do. I and my stupid peaceful approach have been proven wrong. Not effective. Too optimistic. False. It'll be in all the records and textbooks about alien diplomacy. Shit, he fucked me. And then he fucked me over.”
“That would be pretty unfair. You never got a chance to show you're right. And it sounds like it was working fine until Xark'ion killed that Kunuru.”
“Yes, but that will not be the conclusion Space Expansion draws. I tried with friendship. The outcome is that the Kunuru are now our enemies. So it must be ineffective. The details will be considered less important. This is what Space Expansion wants. They want me to be wrong. Well, it turns out I was, and they can prove it. And now we'll be at war with the Kunuru.”
“We don't know that. Maybe that alien he killed was unpopular. Or maybe they just won't react the way we think.”
“The first Earth representative they meet just slaughters their guy as her first act? I think their reaction will be pretty easy to predict. Fine, he provoked Xark'ion. It was unnecessary to dangle that scissor in front of him, with his friend's blood on it. But a squad captain should be capable of ignoring that. He's too smart not to. Such an obvious provocation. No, that was the whole reason he was there at all. He never told me that the Ysal battle was where Groti'ax died. He kept that from me. Fuck!” Ava hit the armrest with her fist, but it didn't help. She had been defeated. By a man she thought maybe loved her.
Charlotte tapped her lips with one finger. “The Acerex are more emotional than they seem. He may have been overwhelmed by emotion. I've seen it happen. Hell, it happened to Cori'ax. Made him do weird things, like rescuing me and Elerea Blaze from the Fire Planet. Totally irrational and impossible. But there he was.”
They dropped out of hyperspace, their jump completed. Acerex hung in front of them, a twin planet to Earth.
“There's only eighteen Kunuru now, I suppose. And the stars know how many robots and war machines and other aliens they'll press into their service. It will be a bad war.”
Charlotte located the Friendship and banked the gunship to set a course for it. “Hey, maybe his pals don't even know he's dead.”
“I think they do. He was in some kind of communication with them during the talk. I couldn't see any equipment. They might be in constant contact.”
“If there's only eighteen now, then they might not be too hard to defeat. I mean, if we seek out the Kunuru specifically. One by one. Instead of trying to fight the aliens they will send to do their fighting for them.”
Ava had never felt so tired. “Maybe. I guess we'll see.”
The Friendship loomed large ahead. If things turned out the way Ava feared, the peaceful ship might have to be converted into a warship. Then it would need a new name. Offering friendship was clearly not the way to handle aliens.
They entered the hangar and Charlotte landed the large gunship on the deck. “So. See you in the coffee shop in half an hour?”
Ava rose and got her pack. “Maybe tomorrow. I have to dictate the report about this fiasco. And then I'll need some sleep.”
“You sure you want to be alone right now?”
Ava put one hand on her friend's shoulder and squeezed. “I'm sure. Don't worry, Charlotte. I'm not suicidal. There's been too much death today already. Thanks for getting me. I'm sorry I couldn't offer you a real space battle, but I just couldn't stay in that shuttle for another second.”
“It's cool,” Charlotte said and powered down the engines, still chewing her gum. “I've been in plenty of battles. Don't need any more of them for as long as I live.”
- - -
Ava went to her cabin, avoiding everyone. She quickly dictated her report to a computer, knowing from experience that if she put it off, it would be less accurate, she would forget exactly what had been said and the details would get fuzzy.
Then she made a cup of coffee with a precious canister of natural spring water from Earth. Now she'd ha
ve to use up her supply pretty fast.
She sat on the bed and tried to keep the thoughts away. But they wouldn't be fought off.
She had loved him. And he had not loved her. It was as simple as that.
And she had fallen for his tricks. She had genuinely thought that he loved her, just like an Earth man would. Even if she wasn't his Mahan. She had wanted it to be true so much that she'd ignored the signs that he didn't care about her one way or the other.
Shit, he'd been so convincing! How could any man compare now? His strength, his touch, the fire in his eyes when they made love, his confidence in every situation, his smirk that would make her heart skip a beat, the deep pride she felt the few times they had walked down a corridor on the Friendship together, and everyone could see that this huge, powerful warrior was hers.
His sore grief when he talked about Groti'ax. His trust in showing her that. His understanding for her own trauma over the events when Harper was abducted. The way she would catch him staring at her face. The way he sniffed her hair. His own manly scent.
His gentle touch whenever he'd stroke his finger against the sleeve on her mis-shaped leg, accepting her fully ...
All lies.
She curled up in a sob that racked her body, and her coffee cup fell to the floor.
All that, and he didn't love her at all. Only an Acerex could have tricked her like that. His damn lust had overwhelmed her so much that it had drowned out everything else.
But she was only human, and her love for him was only too real.
- - -
Doctor Heming studied the full color hologram spinning slowly in the air. “You're pregnant. About three weeks along. Of course it can be hard to tell with half-Acerex babies. Congratulations.”
Ava's heart sank. Pregnant by an alien who didn't love her and she would never see again. She should have been more careful. But any kind of birth control just hadn't been anywhere near her mind during sex with Xark'ion. His sheer presence just filled up everything and left no room for common sense.
“Thanks. How long until delivery?”
“Again, hard to tell. These pregnancies develop fast. Five months?”