“I don’t see how.” So far Lindin was the only one on that side talking. The others just stood there nervously.
Nani shook her head. “Of course you don’t.”
For Bianca, at least, after everything that had happened till that point, this discussion was proving kind of, well, interesting, was the best way she could describe it, waiting to see how things would unfold. In a way she enjoyed being a spectator to the intense debate. Everything had been headed for this showdown anyway. Aboard the Reaver, before they revealed themselves and began the process of returning, Nani had been busier than ever. Nothing secret; she’d shared her ideas with them, ways they could turn this mess around, but only just the basics. And so Bianca realized Nani must’ve been cooking this up, the whole giant idea in her head, and though it was hard to tell, though the strength of her delivery came as a shock, there was no doubt the seeds of that passion had already been sewn. Where, exactly, Bianca wasn’t sure, but boy were they sprouting now.
Crazy ideas.
“Earth has been overrun!” Nani couldn’t seem to get through. “We have only one chance to do something about it!”
“We’ve got problems right here!”
Nani was right back in Lindin’s face and everyone in the room leaned back unconsciously with the force of her response. Even big Zac seemed to cringe a little.
“Dammit!” Nani yelled. “How can you be so frickin’ dense?!”
Bianca smiled at Nani’s use of the word, frickin. Perfect context, she wanted to tell her. Yay Nani!
Now was not the time.
“This isn’t about us anymore!” Nani was even wonderful when she was angry. “This isn’t just about Anitra! How can you not see that? How long do you think we can hide, waiting for them to come? Hoping they won’t?”
Lindin bumbled but tried to remain firm. “So we prepare, use the technology of this starship to—”
“Oh shut up!” Nani looked genuinely disgusted. “Just shut up.” She looked around the room. Powerful men, Bianca was sure. Nani a total contrast. Blonde hair unkempt and unruly, face soft and gentle—though it looked as if she just ate something sour. “I’m the smartest person in this room and probably on this frickin’ planet.” Nice. Bianca ticked off a mental chalkboard. Another perfect usage.
Two for Nani.
“I’ve seen the Kel homeworld,” she went on, explaining like she was talking to children. “I’ve seen and evaluated their forces, I’ve recorded their manifestos and their intentions. All you could want to know about the Kel you know and will know from me and I’m telling you: They want Anitra. It was where they were headed and they will find us. They are geared for war. To a man. They have fleets upon fleets of warships that would decimate us in hours. We just saw them do exactly that to a world not far behind us in strength. And they took it easy on them.” She looked hard at Lindin in particular. “You’re our intelligence chief. Show some intelligence!” Bianca wondered how different this conversation would’ve been without Zac there. Probably Nani would’ve been carted off by now. As it was the other guys were mostly quiet. A few nervous twinges on their faces, flashes of the urge to smack this bossy scientist girl, but their only choice was to stand there and take it.
Fact was, though, what Nani was saying was right.
She pressed on. “You could take years—years—with this “technology”, figure out how to build more starships like the Reaver, build and build and build and we still would not be ready when they came.
“And they will come. We might not even have weeks. They will figure out how to get here. Believe me it is their overriding desire. They thought they were coming here! Earth was a mistake, and they took the opportunity. But it won’t be long. They crave conquest and this has opened them up to it. They know of Anitra, they know we’re here and they will find us.”
Lindin was shaking his head, hating all of this. “None of this would’ve happened if—”
“Stop!” Nani cut him off. Poor Lindin really was trying, Bianca had to give him that. But she wanted to stand up and cheer for her friend.
“Just stop. Stop trying to explain this away, or rationalize it or figure out why. Especially stop trying to figure out why. Why did this happen? How did that happen? How did it come to this? Why are we here?” Nani’s voice had a mocking nyah-nyah tone and Bianca loved it. “What should we do about these lawbreakers? Should we lock them up? Put them away?” Everyone turned a nervous eye toward Zac. “Why did we ever let this happen? If only we’d just—stop. However it happened it did happen and now we’re here and we’ve got to move on and we’ve got to do it fast. There is no time for anything else.” She looked around the room. “It was all out there waiting,” she said. “The Kel. All of it. There’s no point—no point—in trying to assign blame and figure out how to punish or correct or whatever. The only thing we can do now is figure out how to deal with it. How to go forward. Get it?” No one spoke. Of course they didn’t, it really wasn’t the time, but Nani went ahead and repeated: “Do you get it?” Again no one spoke, but there were a few silent expressions that said maybe they did.
“Hiding is not an option,” Nani went on. “Preparing, studying … not an option. We have to take action now. We have to become the aggressor. If they come here … we’re through. Right now they’re somewhere we can fight them without danger to our world.”
“I still don’t get it,” Lindin looked like he’d found an opening. The hole in Nani’s verbal assault he’d been looking for. “You say we could never be ready for these guys even if we had years to prepare, yet you insist we have to become the aggressors?” He looked to his other leader-dudes. “How does that work?”
Nani didn’t yell this time. Good, Bianca thought, because that tactic was probably used up.
“I have an idea,” the blonde brainiac said, absolutely ruling this room full of powerful, uniformed men. In fact, there were more balls hanging in Nani’s worn-out pants than in the whole rest of that room combined. “Call a meeting.”
“Call a—”
“Call a meeting. I’ll explain it to everyone at the same time.”
“We’re in a meeting—”
“Call the president and get him up here.”
Now Lindin was practically mute. Before anyone could respond Nani moved toward the door. Done. This meeting was over. Bianca was stunned by the finale, they all were, by the fact that Nani was suddenly through … but Bianca got herself together and followed.
And so with Zac in protective tow Nani left the room and Willet and Bianca followed.
Realizing she had no idea what her friend was planning but feeling a developing sense of excitement.
Big things were happening.
CHAPTER 28: DECISIONS ARE MADE
Galfar had been showing Jess more of what he knew at stops like this, occasionally telling her things as they rode, spinning some yarn or otherwise informing her as he chose. She had questions from just now she’d been wanting to ask, but honestly the sight of the stream was tugging hard at her desire.
It was mid-afternoon. The terrain had changed to more grass, less scrub, the continuing diversity, even at their slow, ambling pace, remarkable. This world wasn’t a lush paradise but the air was clean and the temperature, despite the constant heat of the sun, was perfect. The weather was beautiful, with high blue skies and a wa
rm, dry temperature.
The constant exposure did have her worried. There really were no options other than to be in the direct sunlight, no sunscreen or any of the other precautions she’d take back home. The heat of it could be felt throughout the day, beaming onto her hands and feet—the only real patches of bare skin—and she’d begun to worry. To a slight degree her face was also exposed, though she wore the hood far forward, keeping it in as much shade as possible. Curiously, after days on the trail the expected sunburn wasn’t occurring. In fact the opposite. Her hands and feet had become a deep shade of brown. Not red. Deeper than her darkest summer tan. It was an unexpected reaction, but then everything on that world was unusual and she figured the sun and combination of atmospheric effects must be unusual as well. Perhaps over-exposure on this world beneath this sun didn’t lead to sunburn. So far, and luckily, that seemed to be the case.
She guided Erius through a tranquil, meandering path of tall grass, closer toward the rippling stream which could now be heard just out of sight.
Galfar and Haz were darker skinned to begin with and would probably take a lot to burn anyway. Neither of them were being affected that she could see. Her change, on the other hand, was marked. What a great set of tan lines this will be, she thought, extending a foot and looking it over. Ultra-tan hands and feet. In a bikini it would look like she was wearing brown gloves and brown socks or something.
Good thing I’m not going to any pool parties.
Erius followed her direction to a stand of trees. Birds chirped, the breeze blew gently. The air was warm and fragrant. It smelled a little like citrus flowers, reminding her of the groves back in Florida. She closed her eyes, feeling the clomp of Eriuses’ heavy hooves through his back and shoulders, swaying gently as he planted each step solidly into the soft ground.
At length he came to a stop beneath a tree and whinnied easily. He wanted water, and a nibble of the sweet leaves.
She dragged herself from the brief reverie and threw her legs over his side. For an instant she paused, anticipating the leap, slid the rest of the way over and whumped into the grass. She straightened from her landing and looked around. There was a clean riverbank nearby, turning to mud at the water’s edge and leading to a gentle slope, down into the clear, shallow water.
Erius ambled over and stepped in, lowering his head to drink. She followed more slowly, wondering if it was cold, getting from him the idea that he didn’t think so and that she should follow him in. She came up right beside him and took a confident step into the water and … it was breathtakingly cold. She smacked his shoulder at his little joke and rushed back out, telling him it was cold and that he was a big liar. She could tell he didn’t get the concept of liar but he definitely got the concept of the teasing smack. He whinnied in obvious good humor. Then, dipped his snout deeper and … flipped it, splashing her.
She gasped as the icy droplets splattered across the front of her thin tunic, lashes fluttering in the freezing spray as it struck her face. She stared at him, mid-gasp, mouth open. He snorted and bobbed his head.
He was laughing at her.
“You think you’re funny?” she challenged, laughing a little herself. Without another thought she stepped back into the cold water and kicked a footful right at his head. He dodged away—a big movement from such a big creature, the suddenness of his lunge startling—took a few more cantering steps to the side, found a new spot further away and defiantly resumed drinking. One eye on her. She watched him in mock anger.
After a few seconds he raised his head, just a little, and whinnied softly. Still laughing at her.
She chuckled and turned back to the stream. Erius went back to drinking.
Cold as it was she really did want to get in. All the way in. The water looked so inviting. Almost like a spring, and it had been days since she felt even remotely clean. Maybe it was just the natural purity of this world, but the water was perfectly clear and the bottom was clean with very few stones or weeds or anything to muck it up. She was reminded again of Florida and the crystal clear natural springs they used to go to in the summer. The water there was frigid too, but once you got in the combination of cold water and summer heat was perfect. She used to have so much fun swimming in the clear depths, hanging out, picnicking and playing, being together with friends and family and even total strangers.
Those trips were always a party.
She sighed and looked down. She didn’t want to get her tunic soaked and have to wear it while it dried. There were no provisions in her pack that could be used for this. The only option, really, was to take it off.
Skinny dipping.
A prospect that might’ve held her back at one time, especially with a boy and an old man not far away, now little more than a minor concern. Especially since she really, really wanted to get in.
Besides, they’d both already seen her on full display.
And so she went back up under the trees and began peeling off the tunic. The area was secluded; Galfar and Haz were well out of sight. Neither of them knew exactly where she’d gone. They probably wouldn’t see her anyway.
The white fabric was dusty, and as she peeled off each part she took a moment to snap it out a few times, beating off the dust and freshening it up for when she put it back on. The dusty film was so slight, barely visible, but after days of accumulation she was keenly aware of it.
Then she noticed her arms.
Wha … ?
Looked further and noticed her legs. Even in the deep shade her arms and legs were as dark as her hands and feet. Must be some trick of the light. Only … it wasn’t. She stepped into a ray of sunlight and it was the same; craned her head, looking herself all over, front to back.
Impossible.
Tan everywhere. The same rich shade of brown. As if she’d been riding naked the whole time, days in the alien sun getting an all-over body tan.
Weird!
She studied the tunic more closely. How was that possible? She held it to the ray of sunshine, observing that the cloth was pretty porous, though certainly not see-through. Did the sheer fabric admit the UV rays or whatever wavelength of sunlight caused skin pigment to change? It must, because the results she was observing were like nothing she would’ve expected. Instead of tan lines at her ankles and wrists she was the same shade of brown everywhere. A beautiful color, like girls were always trying to achieve, in tanning booths or by applying it with sprays or whatever. Like she’d been sunbathing nude for days, working to get it just-so.
So wild.
She’d never felt more invigorated or more alive. More in the now. And that was it, really: The sense that she was fully in the moment. It gripped her. Since beginning their journey, a perpetual and very keen sense of being completely in the present, looking just ahead to what came next. A future-sense, perhaps, stemming from the moment, no past baggage to burden it. What she’d been learning from Galfar, telepathy, telekinesis—it wasn’t just the world that was changing her, she was changing. Not only from without but from within. An amazing journey to self-discovery that was, to her intense satisfaction, making her into something more.
Much more.
Then a presence. She sensed it, looked up and there was Haz. Standing across the way at the outlet of the grassy path, staring right at her. Reactions flashed across her mind but she did nothing. She could’ve turned, could’ve hurriedly pulled the fabric of the tunic across her. Could’ve jumped behind a tree. Could’ve done anything, but she didn’t. He wasn’t being polite and so neither would she.
She simply stood there. Like in the hut, on full display. At first both of them were uncomfortable; she saw Haz suppress a hard swallow even as she held back one of her own. But in the end she won. As his embarrassment grew hers diminished, and within seconds she was standing proudly before him, defiant, not caring one bit that he was getting an eyeful.
his naturally cocky demeanor.
Some of her own confidence slipped. A girl liked to maintain a bit of mystery, at least as long as possible, and there was none left for her where Haz was concerned. He’d seen her naked twice now, probably even more times when she was in the fever state.
Why did she suddenly care?
he explained.
I should’ve been the prescient one, she thought unhappily. Should’ve foreseen something like this would happen. She should’ve known it would.
All she really wanted was to get in the stream.
When he was out of sight she laid the tunic carefully in the clean grass, walked down to the stream and went in.
It was really cold.
**
Zac walked in silence behind Nani and Bianca. Willet was with them, further back, quiet as were they all. It had been a day or so of patient waiting, no one really talking to each other, all lost in their own thoughts. Zac really hadn’t expected Lindin to call the meeting but he did. Perhaps to spite Nani. To let everyone see she’d lost her mind. Perhaps for any number of reasons, but the president and his group responded, flew up and were now waiting, the whole affair being given the urgency Nani so adamantly demanded.
Zac looked ahead to the young scientist leading the way, blonde hair combed at last. She was dressed in a crisp new uniform, having risen to this challenge in ways Zac never expected. The typically shy denizen of the lab had become a beast since their return, slapping Lindin and his inner circle around and making them listen. Now their small group, Zac, Nani, Bianca and Willet, were on their way to a meeting with the president, along with yet more high-level leaders of the Venatres. All at Nani’s insistence. Admittedly she was in a unique position, having stolen the starship, the Venatres’ greatest prize, having learned its secrets, taken it to another world and blown open the mystery of its makers, the ancient Kel—long lost, now roaring back on the scene, one world conquered and Anitra most probably in their sights. Still, what Nani was doing, how she was doing it, was entirely a shock.
Star Angel: Rising (Star Angel Book 4) Page 30