“Because there is evidence that members of your military work with our enemies, Jape judges you guilty by association.”
Stripes was seething again. “Damn right, she’s guilty. She was in that portal chamber tonight. She’s a part of it.”
Understanding flashed bright. The bruiser was furious about the deaths of some friends, and he believed Earthlings had a hand in that. Velia was an Earthling. Ergo, he was mad at her.
Great. At that level of anger, Stripes won’t care about anything I might say to the contrary.
Velia needed to escape from this mourning, furious creature. Maybe he’d turn violent. He had plenty of muscle to hurt her, though he hadn’t so far. Except for her still aching hand. But then, she’d been the one to hit him.
That’s true. I’ve hit and kicked him, but he hasn’t raised a hand back at any point. Not that he needs to, with a body made of stone.
No matter. Velia had to get home to Camp Noname. Her adventure with aliens had not turned out to be nearly the glorious epiphany she’d hoped for from advanced beings. She was more than ready to wash her hands of Mr. Grumpy Stripes.
“I can tell my people what you’ve told me. Why don’t you send me home to do that?” she asked.
“After there has been time for things to settle down. I’m not being taken prisoner by your kind.” Jape’s heavy brow lowered with suspicion.
“Like you did to me?” Velia couldn’t help but snap at him, though an interior voice warned perhaps it wasn’t in her best interests to rile the man.
He was human enough in appearance for her to recognize a flash of guilt on his face. His gaze skittered away.
Does he have a conscience? Was taking me just a panicked reaction to Hudson and the gang rushing in, an act he regrets?
Thinking on how she’d been kidnapped, Velia could imagine that being the case. Faced with yelling Marines pointing guns at her, she’d have taken any way out she could have found. Jape’s actions made sense in that light.
Okay, so he hadn’t shown up on Earth with the purpose of terrifying Velia Farrah. The man had a chip on his shoulder a mile wide, but maybe he wasn’t a complete asshole. Or perhaps he was. Either way, he was Velia’s ticket to Earth. For all her mild protests, Salno wasn’t going out of her way to rescue Velia, so it was Jape she’d have to deal with.
Maybe hostility wasn’t the best policy with Stripes. Velia’s best bet might lie in winning his trust.
Velia had read her share of self-help articles about getting along with others, the ones that said she should make the wounded party feel as if he was being heard. Though she wasn’t about to accept the blame for any of Stripes’s dead comrades, she could at least appear conciliatory.
Calm, understanding tone. You can do it. You’re a friend to the universe, spreading compassion to the far reaches of the galaxy.
Hell. Am I even in my own galaxy?
She’d figure out the details later. It was time to build some bridges. “I am sorry for your loss, Jape. I want to hear more of the story behind all of this. Let’s get to know each other a little better and clear up any confusion. I’ll start by introducing myself. My name is Velia Farrah.”
For a wonder, Stripes’s scowl lessened at her pleasant, friendly overture. His features softened, making him the beautiful creature she’d first seen stride off the saucer.
Velia’s heart leapt. Hopefully, she’d made her initial step toward freedom.
Chapter Five
“A fellow engineer, also studying the portal! I’m glad to meet you, Salno.” Velia didn’t voice her concern that the Risnarish had stolen the portal and its pod from the evicted Monsuda. It was best to stay on the friendliest terms possible for the time being. After Salno’s gentle greeting, Jape also provided a few gruff words of welcome, and an explanation that he was the head of the local village’s law enforcement.
Salno also produced an earpiece for Velia, a translator she could wear to understand the language they spoke. After that, it was agreed that nothing more could be accomplished until the morning. Jape ushered her out of the hive warren of tunnels and chambers, saying he was taking her to the enforcement dome. Velia stepped outside and had her first glimpse at an alien world.
She’d been prepared to be disappointed and expected to glimpse little, because they had told her it was night. However, night on the planet Risnar was not a blanket of darkness. Velia’s breath stopped the moment she gazed at the sky. Few stars were visible despite it being clear. Their light had been chased off by the illumination of the huge blue planet hanging overhead.
“Oh. Oh.” She couldn’t come up with another thing to say. She pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. “Does it have a name?”
“We call it Cadi,” Jape said.
“Cadi. It’s beautiful.” It shimmered, an orb-shaped waft of soft blue smoke. “A gas giant? It doesn’t appear solid at all.”
“What you’re seeing are the clouds that always surround it, but yes, it’s a gas giant. Come on, you can stare at it on the ride to Cas.”
Velia tore her gaze from the magnificent planet and followed Jape along a trail that had been beaten in tall grass. Cadi offered enough illumination to note that the thigh-high grass spread out as far as the eye could see, interrupted by a few copses of trees scattered haphazardly across the landscape. She wondered if the strange blue hue cast by the planet was playing tricks on her vision. The trees and bushes in the distance glowed with lines of blue and green.
Jape led her to an odd craft shaped like an arrowhead. The single seat inside made her think of a kayak. Could a man of his size actually fit in such a tiny space?
“It flies? How high? Does it do spaceflight if you put a canopy on it? How fast does it go?” Questions tumbled from her in her excitement over an alien vessel. Velia was dying to examine it under brighter light. “Where is the engine? How is it powered? Where am I supposed to sit?”
Jape regarded her with a look that struggled between irritation and amusement. “You have two options. I can load you in the prisoner cargo area beneath the dartwing, or you can sit on my lap in the cockpit.”
Sit on him? Velia frowned. That sounded too up close and personal, even without the man parts any woman with sense should be concerned about. Perhaps she should be worried. She’d watched Stripes grow a tail, for heaven’s sake. No doubt he could form more troublesome bits as well.
I wonder if he can control the size...no, no, don’t think about that.
She eyed him. The brute was handsome for all his rude manners. Stunning, in fact. However, her abductor didn’t seem to like her—or find her appealing in any sense. His scowl said it all.
Sex doesn’t require liking.
She’d be better off not squeezing into the cockpit with him, yet Velia didn’t want to be locked in a cargo hold where she couldn’t look at the planet. Or watch Jape operate this amazing craft. Her situation wasn’t the enthralling journey she’d imagined visiting an alien world would be, but it was still an experience of a lifetime. She wanted everything she could get out of it.
“Cockpit,” she said, and quelled a sudden nervous giggle. I said cockpit.
God, what am I, twelve years old? Seriously, here’s hoping that’s the only version of that word I have to deal with.
Velia almost felt sorry for Jape as he smooshed his mighty frame into the craft. “You need a bigger flyer.”
“Dartwing,” he corrected, settling down. He held out his hands at about the distance it would take to span her waist. “My enforcement vehicle is built for swiftness, not comfort.”
“How fast does it go?” She gingerly stepped between his bent legs and let him guide her down so that her butt rested...yep, right on his crotch and upper thighs. When nothing erupted to molest her, she relaxed.
“Its top speed is three-hundred-seventy restolim per minute.”
&n
bsp; “Restolim? I guess there isn’t an English equivalent for that word. You’ll have to show me.”
A helmet with a clear facemask slid over her head. Jape’s voice echoed inside the padded protection. “Your skin doesn’t armor. That pace would turn your insides to jelly.”
“That quick? Damn, I wish I could do it!”
He uttered a sound that might have been a laugh. It was hard to imagine the guy easing down adequately to manage humor.
Whether or not for her benefit, Jape made the vessel sprint through the sky at a thrilling pace. With the air whipping against her and tree-dotted grasslands flashing beneath, Velia was delighted with her ride.
Velia tried to pay attention to how Jape operated the vehicle. Her appetite for engineering clamored to be fed, to know how the dartwing worked. Nevertheless, the excitement of flying so quickly and viewing an alien planet were too much to resist. She noticed enough to realize that unlike the button-heavy Monsudan technology she’d worked on at Camp Noname, the Risnarish craft relied on levers and unfamiliar readouts. The panel had none of the hieroglyphics that she’d grown used to.
Spying a huge dome on the horizon, one that approached at a rapidity that took her breath away, Velia deduced they approached Cas Village. Perhaps the massive dome was covered in glass, as it reflected the gas giant’s blue. Smaller domes scattered about. Dozens bunched close to the largest, with others becoming scarcer and more widely spaced farther out.
Here and there, vegetation glowed, as she’d thought the trees and bushes in the grasslands had. “Your plants are beautiful the way they light up.”
“There aren’t many trying to pollinate during this part of the growth cycle,” Jape responded. “In spring, nighttime blazes with colors, especially in the gardens. We’re in the middle of summer now. Few plants still strive to attract the creatures that carry their pollen.”
Thinking of flowers made Velia instinctively inhale, as if she could capture their scents from the sky. All she smelled was the desert on her clothes and the heavy scent of sweetish grass, similar to the aroma that emanated from Jape.
They were closing in on the center of the habitation, and the dartwing dropped lower in preparation to land. In addition to small and medium domes, all dwarfed by the central massive edifice, fires burned at different spots. Shadow figures walked here and there. She couldn’t tell what they were doing.
Seconds later, the dartwing smoothly set down among half a dozen other aircraft in front of a middling-size dome. Velia craned her head around, trying to see everything until Jape pulled the helmet off her.
The fragrant grassy scent of her captor and the surroundings swamped her. Velia breathed them in deeply, taking pleasure in such verdant, deep smells after months in the desert.
The Great Basin had its share of aromas too, but those tantalizing Velia on the alien planet reminded her of the ones she’d grown up with. Reminiscent of fresh-cut grass, but a more flowery, perfumed air—
“Get out.” Jape’s grouchy voice interrupted her enjoyment.
Velia faced him with her frown, so he’d notice he was ruining her fun. “Excuse me for absorbing the thrill of an alien world,” she snapped.
She immediately regretted the flash of temper. She was supposed to be getting him on her side. Honey, not vinegar.
She heaved herself out of the dartwing without his assistance, not that he’d offered any. Much of the tall grass had been trampled where they’d landed, but plenty of the fronds waved almost hip-high in the evening’s cooling breezes, their swaying sounding like the whispering of secrets.
Velia was thrilled with her surroundings. Despite the manner she’d arrived, the world she’d been brought to seemed magical. She wouldn’t have been more enchanted to find herself in the company of fairies and elves.
Velia saw the glow of a bonfire half a mile in the distance. Figures moved before it, accompanied by the sound of laughter.
“Somebody’s having a party,” she said.
Jape yanked himself free of his vessel. “It is the nightly gathering of men. It appears to be running later than usual. The harvest of broadleaf is in, and they’re enjoying it.”
Gathering of men? Velia sighed. Alien misogyny. Isn’t that wonderful?
“I guess I wouldn’t be welcome, then.”
Jape snorted. “They wouldn’t mind, but we have other matters to attend to.” He was scowling at her again.
Something on four legs with floppy ears trotted from a stand of thicker grass. Velia’s first notion was dog until she noted an orange flash from its eyes. Not marking Velia and Jape, it kept going until it disappeared behind the dome they stood before.
“What was that?” she whispered, worried about wild animals roaming about.
“A Bonch. Another innocent sentient species your collusion with the Monsuda threatens.” Jape pointed in the direction opposite of the bonfire, toward a small dome a quarter mile away. “See that dome over there? That belonged to Lan, my second officer. He’s dead after your Monsudan allies used the portal on Earth to attack us.”
Velia had been determined to win Jape to her side, hoping he’d take her home sooner rather than later. His continued accusations wore on her nerves, short-circuiting that intention.
She didn’t lose her temper often, but when she did, she didn’t hold back. She rounded on the alien male and snapped, “Let’s get something straight, Stripes. I’m not in command of the military. I’m not military in any way, shape or form. I’m an engineer. My interest in all this is scientific. Nothing more.”
“You were in a military installation, among the warriors of your kind.”
She had an urge to smack him against his thick skull. “As. An. Engineer. I was studying the portal access. Learning about the alien technology I’d been presented with. Get this through your head, Mr. Suspicious. Soldiers fight. I build and design. Don’t you understand the difference?”
He said nothing. He watched her, his gaze fascinated.
At least she had his attention. Velia decided it was time to state her case, loud and clear. “While we’re on the subject of the military, you need to acknowledge an important fact: it’s in place to protect the interests of my people. It keeps us safe. As such, my military leaders have my loyalty until it’s proven they don’t deserve it. Which I highly doubt will happen. I won’t be convinced by your say-so and bad attitude.”
Jape snorted, derision returning to his expression. “What a shock. Come on. We’re wasting time out here.”
He gave her a push to start her moving. It wasn’t a harsh prod. In fact, it was barely a nudge.
Nonetheless, Velia wasn’t having it. She jerked from the touch and shoved him, hands against his armored abdomen. He didn’t move an inch, but his eyes widened in surprise.
She pointed a finger at his gaping face. “I don’t care how big and strong you are. I don’t care if you’re the Sith Lord or Master of the Universe or Grand Poo-bah of the Stars. Don’t push me. Don’t touch me. No one touches me without my permission, and you don’t have my permission, Stripes.”
Without waiting for a response, she turned on her heel and marched to the dome.
With her back to Jape, Velia’s anger receded enough for her to feel excitement about the discoveries that awaited her. She should have been cautious, but she couldn’t help but rush through the door that opened of its own accord. She entered the enforcement dome with breathless anticipation.
Inside the brightly lit circular space, she stopped short. The open space was large and filled with sights to goggle at, such as televisionlike screens lining the walls that showed strange scrolling lines and dots. Maps of the same region, which she surmised were of Cas Village and its outlying areas. Pictures of the blue-lit outdoors, different scenes in the life of an alien neighborhood after dark. And more, so much more, under the clear dome of the Cadi-filled sky.
Velia caught only a glancing impression of all that, her gaze snared by the half dozen striped men gathered at a computer podium. Her excitement quieted at the sight of more of Jape’s race.
Great. More mean aliens who hate Earthlings. Wide, silver eyes turned her way.
The fellow who approached her ahead of the rest did so with a welcoming smile. He was the first of his kind Velia had seen wearing such a friendly expression. Despite sporting sharp back teeth suitable for a wolf, the man appeared too pleasant to feel defensive against. While Velia didn’t find his reddish-brown skin with its ivory striping as riveting as Jape’s gold-and-white combination, he was still a spellbinding specimen to behold. As he drew close, she discovered he smelled differently from Jape too. It was another scent she’d not been around in quite a while, a heavy, woodsy aroma.
He turned his warm regard to Jape. “I guess she is why the Elders Council is demanding your presence in the temple immediately.” His voice was almost as deep as Velia’s abductor’s.
It didn’t seem possible that Jape’s scowl could intensify, but it did. “Damn that Salno. She couldn’t wait until morning to report me?”
The brown man chuckled and returned his attention to Velia. He pressed his three-fingered hand to his broad chest. “Hello, Earthling. From my spirit to yours, welcome to Risnar. My name is Arga.”
Velia blinked. The kindness was unexpected after Jape’s belligerence and Salno’s distance. Could this be a potential ally? Someone to get her home if Jape decided otherwise? “Hello. My name is Velia. I’m pleased to meet you, Arga.”
“She’s not a guest. I had to take her to escape her world with my hide intact.” Jape’s gaze narrowed on Velia...as if the abduction had somehow been her doing.
Arga stared at him in disbelief, which he quickly covered. “Why did you go to the Earth portal? The Assembly agreed it was too risky to visit at this time.”
“I thought their access should be checked on, to see if anything has changed.” As if that were an adequate explanation, he moved to a podium and began moving sliders and pushing buttons.
Worlds Collide Page 4