Alien Separation

by Gini Koch

  Realized they weren’t the Ferret Clan so much as they were the Albino Clan. Wondered if albinos were treated badly on this world or if it was just the usual for Planet Colorful—you matched your spiral’s main color scheme. I was a betting girl, and I went with the latter.

  Dinner over, we were able to use the excuse of having spent a day fighting off danger and go to bed. Well, to room. Because it turned out that the Lecanora didn’t really use beds. They were into the “soft stuff on the floor” thing. I wasn’t a fan.

  However, when in Rome and all that blah, blah, blah meant that we had to smile and say that the mosses and such looked super, especially since we were being housed in Karason’s home, which was both kind of him and an honor, in that sense.

  The soft stuff on the floor was comfortable, especially as compared to the bare ground—cement wasn’t going on in Haven—but nothing like the beds at the Embassy or any other A-C facility, for that matter.

  Now I desperately wanted to ask my purse for air mattresses, but I knew that would mean questions I couldn’t possibly answer. On the positive side, we were given the nicest sleeping room this particular village had. On the negative side, the Lecanora tended to sleep in chummy family groups, meaning that we were all in the nicest sleeping room. Together. Katyhoppers, strautruch, Ginger, and Wilbur included.

  This was a bummer because I’d really hoped that, if nothing else, Jeff and I could have some sexy times together. I was used to sleeping and having sex with cats and dogs around, and even Peregrines and Poofs, so Ginger and Wilbur weren’t an issue. But doing the deed with everyone else around was out of the question. I could tell Lorraine and Claudia had been hoping for the same with Joe and Randy and, like me, weren’t willing to go for it with a large audience.

  And Karason’s home had enough rooms that we could have split up, especially because he lived alone—his mate had passed away a few years ago and their children lived father up the river. But he hadn’t offered that, and, Gods or not, it wasn’t wise to risk sounding like whiny, demanding houseguests.

  So we all settled down and tried to get to sleep. Frankly, we were all exhausted, so everyone fell asleep right away.

  Everyone but me.

  I was tired but wide awake. I had a thing where if everyone else was asleep I tended to stay awake. Guarding, I guess, though I’d been like this from well before I’d met the gang from A-C. If Jeff and I had been in our own room, I’d have been able to nod off because I wouldn’t know that everyone else was asleep. I didn’t have this issue in a place I called home or where I felt protected, but when I wasn’t at home and we were in a danger situation, it kicked in. And it kicked in here, big-time.

  Hadn’t had this problem so much in Bizarro World. Then again, I’d woken up before everyone else there. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Basically, sleep and I weren’t as tight as I liked us to be when I was in action situations.

  The golden glow from the rocks never faded—the homes here had dark coverings over all their windows so that they could sleep in the Land of the Midnight Glowing. So our room was dark, so dark that we’d decided to leave the door opened a bit, so we could all see if we woke up earlier than the others. But the glow wasn’t what was keeping me awake—I was used to the A-C Nightlight System, after all.

  Sex with Jeff would exhaust me happily, but that was out. So was he. He was in a deep sleep and I was cuddled next to him, his arms wrapped around me, my head on his chest listening to his heartbeats. Normally this helped me nod off happily, but not right now. Wondered if I was going to sleep at all or if I was alert for a meaningful reason.

  Heard a small noise and decided meaningful reason was the winner. Moved carefully out of Jeff’s embrace and looked around. To see a small figure in the doorway. Make that two small figures.

  Got up and went to the doorway. “Patrina, what are you and Pretty Girl doing here?” I whispered as I knelt down to be at her eye level.

  Patrina, who was holding Pretty Girl, came inside and snuggled near me. “I can’t sleep, Shealla.” Well, it was going around.

  “Why not?” I sat down cross-legged and pulled her and Pretty Girl onto my lap. Ginger, who’d been snuggled next to me, got up and joined us, snuggling right back next to me. Hoped that whoever Jamie was with was taking care of her if she couldn’t sleep or was missing her parents or was scared.

  “There are no stars here.”

  “Ah.” The Gypsy Clan was used to sleeping outside by now, and Patrina was young enough that it was probably what she knew best. “Well, the stars are still there, Patrina. We’re just all inside, in fact, we’re inside a gigantic mountain!”

  “Really?”

  “Really. The Father of the Gods created this to provide a Haven for his people. All his people, not just the ones with white fur.”

  “The katyhoppers and strautruch, too?”

  “Yes. Everything here was created by the Father of the Gods.”

  “Not the Horrors,” she said solemnly.

  “No, not the Horrors.”

  “Can they get us here?”

  Wanted to say no, but my brain nudged. We’d left a huge trail, and snow or not, that trail would have scent attached to it. There was no way the snakipedes weren’t going to find it. Maybe not the ones who’d attacked us, but others. And I’d already determined that all they’d need to get inside Haven was a being with opposable thumbs to help open the door. Several beings, if they were normally strong for a human or a Lecanora.

  But it only took one A-C.

  Put Patrina off of my lap. “You and Pretty Girl stay here. If Ginger and I aren’t back soon, you wake up Leoalla and tell him we went to make sure the door was locked. Then you wake up Wilbur and tell him to get all the ocellars and chochos ready to fight.” Jeff would handle the Lecanora.

  “How long is soon?” Patrina asked.

  Good question. I was wearing my watch but it had been a present from Jeff and had gone to Bizarro World and back with me, and now was traveling the galaxy with me. I didn’t want to risk losing it.

  Pinky opened his eyes and came over to us. He waved his antennae—I could move fast enough without him and was strong enough to carry Ginger if we had to run, and he could stay mentally connected to me. If he lost the connection, or too much time passed, they would wake Jeff.

  “You rock, Pinky.” Hugged Patrina and petted Pretty Girl, then grabbed my purse and slung it over my neck. “Figure I’ll be back within fifteen minutes. If I’m gone longer than thirty, sound the alarm. C’mon, Ginger, time to patrol.”

  With that Ginger and I slipped out of the room.

  CHAPTER 47

  AS SOON AS WE were out of the room I picked Ginger up and used hyperspeed to get out of the house. Did a fast check of the village also at hyperspeed—everything looked serene. But there were no Lecanora on guard duty.

  Of course, there was technically no need. The only ones who lived here were Fancy’s Albinos. Once inside Haven, they all considered themselves safe. And they were, under normal circumstances. But the circumstances now were no longer normal.

  What my mother called instinct, Jeff called my feminine intuition, and I called my gut were all saying the same thing—we were going to be attacked. Sure, the door was locked from the inside, but all it took was one traitor on this side and that was over.

  Had no idea why I suspected a traitor, other than this was the only way the door could be unlocked. But a traitor within the Albino Clan was unlikely—if they were here, Haven would be overrun already.

  So if there was a traitor, we’d brought them with us, with King Benny’s Gypsy Clan. Only none of the Lecanora had given off anything that would have triggered Jeff. When we were in the Bronze Land this wouldn’t have been a surprise. However, his empathic talents were working in the other areas we’d hit so far, and if there was a traitor, focused on me, Christopher, and Chuckie though he’d
been, I was sure that Jeff would have noticed.

  The katyhoppers and strautruch were in the room with the rest of us, so they were out as potential door openers and, besides, they didn’t have the paws for the job.

  Retraced our steps but at a human walk—I didn’t want to miss anything and I wanted to conserve energy just in case. Besides, I could speed it up if I needed to and this way, Ginger didn’t have to deal with hyperspeed. Though she’d only gagged a little when we’d stopped outside the village.

  All of Haven was asleep—clearly they functioned on the same daily clock as the rest of this world did. Had no idea how they managed it, because Patrina was right—looking up I could see no stars. There was nothing but a dark golden glow. At least the rocks ensured that they didn’t have to burn torches all over the place, so there was that small blessing.

  This land was beautiful. It was hard to connect with the rest of the planet that we’d seen. Not because of its beauty—this was potentially the prettiest planet in the galaxy, if not the universe—but because it looked so normal. Normal for Earth. Normal, from the little I’d seen and the A-Cs had told me, for Alpha Four, too.

  I was getting more and more convinced that this world had had more than a little help in its creation. Which made sense considering we’d been so carefully placed here.

  As we walked and I noted that there were literally no sentries anywhere, my memory nudged. King Benny had carried a short sword in his tail when he’d first come to meet us. And I’d had the thought that we weren’t who he was worried about. So, that meant there was someone in his clan who he didn’t trust. Took the leap and assumed it was one of his advisors.

  Ruled out Skunky because if King Benny didn’t trust him he wouldn’t be planning to leave the rest of the Gypsies in Skunky’s care.

  This left a few options. My top three choices, based on their willingness to speak up, were Nanda the beaver, Grover the weasel, and the woodchuck guy I’d named Brown, for Charlie Brown, a joke that only Chuckie had gotten or appreciated.

  On Earth, suspicion would fall firmly onto Grover based on his species. But I was willing to keep an open mind. King Benny hadn’t wanted Nanda in charge because of her willingness to be rash. And Brown, once we’d been accepted into the clan as Gods, had basically been quiet and not interacted with us at all.

  “Hey.” Christopher appeared out of nowhere and I managed not to scream. Only just. Ginger, too, based on her jumping at him and only getting her claws pulled back and her jaws slammed shut at the last moment. “Ack! Get your cat off me!”

  “Hey, Ginger has fast reflexes and you scared the crap out of us. What are you doing here?”

  “Little kids don’t stay quiet, even when they’re trying hard. Patrina woke us all up on accident. Pinky told us what you were worried about and where you were going and why. Jeff was going to go after you but Chuck pointed out that the Lecanora are listening to the two of them, Chuck and Jeff, far more than anyone else, and that if we were in trouble, I was the fastest so could get you out the quickest.”

  “And Jeff listened to reason? Wow. I guess he doesn’t care anymore.”

  Christopher laughed. “No, but he’s clear on what you think could be going on, and the destruction of Haven and all the people in it requires him to stay put.” He shrugged. “Like when we were running Centaurion Division, he knows when he has to make a choice he doesn’t like.”

  “Sounds a lot more like politics, but either way, works for me.” Brought him up to speed on my theory about the potential traitors. Now wasn’t the time to discuss this world and why we were in it. “So, it could be one of them or none of them. I have no guess right now.”

  Christopher picked Ginger up under one arm and took my hand. “Let’s find out sooner as opposed to later. I got some sleep and food and I feel fine.” With that, he zipped us off at hyperspeed, but at the regular level, not his Flash level, for which I was grateful.

  It didn’t take us long to get back to the T-intersection where this road met the pathway coming in. We stopped, Christopher handed Ginger to me, and while she settled her stomach as quietly as possible, he zipped around the corner and back. “Clear so far, but I can’t see all the way to the doorway.”

  “We’re ready. Who do you think it’s going to be? Nanda, Grover, Brown, or someone else? Or no one?”

  “I have no idea. That’s why we’re going to investigate.” He took my hand again and we sped down the trail.

  To come to the door and remember that it took more than one to move it. “Or,” I said conversationally, as we stopped behind them, “it could be all of them.”

  CHAPTER 48

  HAD TO ADMIT, I was surprised to see so many of the Gypsy Clan working together against their king and the people of Haven. However, it was who they were working with that was the complete shocker.

  “So, Under-Clan Leader Karason, you’re opening the door to let the Horrors in?” I could hear banging on the other side. It was dull and faint, as something banging on rock would be, but it was still distinctly there. “And you’re not afraid that they’ll eat all of you first?”

  The all were the rest of King Benny’s advisors, other than Skunky and, I was happy to note, Nanda. But Grover, Brown, and others I hadn’t bothered to get to know yet were all here, clustered together, looking hugely guilty.

  “Not the Horrors,” Karason said. “I would never release them on my own people.” The tone was completely honest and believable. But there was a slight emphasis on the words “my own” that was, for me, telling.

  Maybe it was because I knew LaRue had been here, and, thanks to my time in Bizarro World, I also knew that LaRue was actually an Ancient, and therefore a shapeshifter. Maybe it was because there were shapeshifters in this solar system, many of whom I knew didn’t want to play nicely with others, despite their Queen’s views. And maybe it was just because I was so used to this kind of crap that, by now, the idea that anyone or anything was exactly as presented seemed totally out of the realm of possibility.

  Whatever it was, what I did was simple. I tossed the animal trained to fly through the air and kill a gigantic, venomous, flying snake right at Karason’s head.

  Results were, as was so often the case, immediate.

  Karason shifted into an Amazon from Beta Twelve, complete with the short spiky hair—in this case, a dirty blonde—and the Xena: Warrior Princess outfit. She wasn’t one of the tall ones, I put her at about Rhee’s height, but that still meant she was taller than me. And, as with all the Free Women, she was very muscular in an attractive way while still being just a bit out of proportion to human eyes.

  Speaking of eyes, while hers were the typically Amazonian larger and more elongated, unlike every other Free Woman I’d ever seen, they weren’t a dark purple—her eyes were black. With no whites in them at all.

  Freaky eyes or no, I’d been expecting a shapeshifter to appear. No one else, including Christopher, had been.

  He said one word, “Whoa!” Then he disappeared. Had no idea where he’d gone, but my suspicion wasn’t that he’d run off in terror. Had a feeling he was moving so fast that I, and therefore the Amazon, couldn’t see him.

  The Lecanora panicked. Interestingly enough, this meant that they followed Ginger’s lead and attacked the Amazon. Unsurprisingly, even though there were five of them, they weren’t a match for her.

  She flung them off easily and focused on the real threat—Ginger. This wasn’t going to be good for Ginger.

  “Ginger, retreat! Come to Kitty!”

  She tried, but the Amazon had a good grip on her, one hand on Ginger’s throat and one buried in her stomach, and I could tell she planned to rip Ginger apart.

  Which was nice, in that sense, because I flipped right into rage, and rage meant I was now a match for a trained Amazon spy.

  The Amazon was holding Ginger up, almost over her head. Meaning she was pretty exposed
. Also meaning she was either poorly trained or hugely overconfident. Hoped for both.

  Bent down, ran, and slammed my shoulder into the Amazon’s stomach hard enough that she hit the wall. This loosened her grip on Ginger. Sent a palm-heel strike up to her chin, while my other hand found a pressure point on her arm and squeezed it.

  Ginger meanwhile was clawing, and managing to miss me but not the Amazon, and she got a good cut in. The Amazon let her go and focused on me. She swung, I blocked. She tried to sweep my legs. I jumped. She hit me in the chest and I flew away and hit the other wall. She laughed and stepped toward me, and therefore away from the wall she’d been up against.

  Which was a mistake, because Christopher had fought as many of the Pissed-Off Amazons during the battle before my wedding as I had. Probably more than I had. And that was before he was the fastest man on Earth and, from all I’d seen, on Beta Eight, too.

  Plus, he’d been training me how to use my powers for over three years now, and that meant we knew how to fight together as a team. Which we did.

  Christopher reappeared and took the Amazon’s back, literally. He had his arm around her neck and had her in a choke hold before she took two steps toward me. He was about her height, which meant he could get her, but he couldn’t hope to use his body weight to get her down, like Jeff or even Chuckie would have. But then, that’s what I was here for.

  She grabbed his arms, meaning her fists were occupied. I’d seen plenty of movies, so when I stepped toward her I was ready for her to lean back against Christopher and try to mule kick me. So I let her try it and jumped out of the way.

  She used the falling momentum to try to flip Christopher over her back when she landed. Which would have worked better for her if I hadn’t anticipated that, too, and had, therefore, already made a double fist and swung up right at her face as said face came right down to meet my hands.