Amid Stars and Darkness

by Chani Lynn Feener

  You couldn’t cut the tension in this room with a damn chainsaw.

  “Look in the mirror again.” His voice was steely, and the command was delivered low.

  She shook her head. She wasn’t ready to see that other face again just yet. If she did, she might really lose it, and then she’d be completely screwed. Pretty much the only thing she currently had going for her was the fact that she hadn’t completely mentally checked out. What would they do to her if she did? If she wasn’t conscious enough to defend herself because she was too busy weeping on the floor like an idiot?

  A prospect that was seeming more likely as the seconds ticked by.

  “Do it,” he demanded. “Now.”

  “Um.” She licked her lips and swallowed audibly. “Ruckus? That is your name, right? I just assumed because Ander is a title … Unless I got that part wrong, too?” For the first time, she wished she’d paid more attention to Mariana’s alien obsession.

  “I didn’t mean to insult you, if you’re not a doctor,” she continued, opting to be truthful as a last attempt. “I’m just freaking out and—”

  “Oh.” The smaller one’s voice shook and his eyes widened. “No.”

  “What does that mean?” Ruckus demanded. When he didn’t immediately get a response, the muscles in his jaw visibly tightened. “Gibus.”

  “You aren’t going to like it.…” He wrung his hands, but despite his words, there was a tiny bit of excitement behind his wide eyes.

  “Answer me, Sutter.” Before the smaller guy could, however, Ruckus swore and got to his feet so quickly that Delaney actually shot back.

  Her skull rebounded off the wall, but he’d stopped paying attention to her already.

  “The last time Olena was here,” Ruckus declared, “she took something, didn’t she?” The other man’s face was answer enough. “What was it?”

  “Ander—”

  “What was it?”

  She wanted to point out that he had a serious interrupting problem, but she smartly kept her mouth shut.

  The smaller one, Gibus, dropped his gaze.

  “It was the device you’d been working on, wasn’t it?” Obviously, the question was rhetorical. “I told you to keep that thing safe! You call this”—he flung an arm out toward her—“safe?!”

  Gibus suddenly found the slick white floor very interesting. He hung his head and kept his shoulders tense and squared. His silence spoke volumes.

  “She got the damn thing to work,” Ruckus said, then added another angry curse.

  At least, Delaney assumed it was a curse; it sounded like one even though the word itself wasn’t familiar.

  “Someone gonna fill me in?” she asked, eyeing Ruckus warily. If he came at her, she was so going to knee him in the junk. She knew where that was, too, in the exact same place as a human male’s. Another tidbit from Mariana.

  “Who are you?” Gibus said breathlessly, maintaining his distance.

  She felt a shred of hope, and dropped her guard a bit.

  “Not Olena, that’s for sure,” she said smoothly.

  “I was going to tell you.…” He glanced at Ruckus from the corner of his eye, and it was like watching a child interact with a teacher. “I’d hoped I’d merely misplaced it. I do that. Often. And even if she had taken it, I didn’t think she’d be able to do”—he waved a hand at Delaney—“this. We’re talking about Olena, after all. Technological genius, she is not, Ander. I didn’t—”

  “Dismissed,” Ruckus growled. “You’ll be dealt with accordingly later.”

  “What the hell is going on?” Delaney asked, moving to her feet. “Why do I look like someone else? You know what”—she held up a hand—“I don’t even care. Now that we’ve established that you really do have the wrong person, can you reverse it and take me back already?”

  Ruckus maintained eye contact, but Gibus looked away, clueing her in that something was wrong.

  “What?” she said breathlessly, afraid to get an answer.

  Gibus ran a hand through his scruffy chestnut hair. “The thing is—”

  “You’re dismissed,” Ruckus told him before he could finish. When Gibus didn’t move, Ruckus shot a death stare his way. “Leave—now. And do not report this to anyone except Pettus. Do you understand, Sutter?”

  “Yes, Ander.” He gave a curt nod.

  “Good. Update Pettus and then send him here.”

  “Yes, Ander.” Gibus turned away, and the door slid shut behind him.

  She stared after him, feeling dread seep through her with every second that ticked by. She almost wanted to go after him. It seemed like he was willing to give her answers. Ruckus was a puzzle, and she really didn’t like puzzles.

  Finally she gave in and turned to look at him, finding his harsh gaze already on her. There were only three feet between them, but at least it didn’t look like he was planning to bridge the gap.

  “What’s your name?” he asked, startling her with the gentleness there.

  She tilted her head, preparing for a trap. “Delaney.”

  He nodded. “Delaney, I’m Ruckus.”

  “Got that much.”

  “Of course.” He ran a hand through his hair. “My lolaura—” He stopped, took a breath. “Apologies for my mistake. If you knew what I do, you’d understand why it was so difficult for me to believe you.”

  “What do you know?” she inquired.

  “The man you just met, Gibus, has made a terrible error in judgment. Olena, the real Olena, likes to hang around his workstation when she’s on board. He’d shelved a project for our military some time ago, a device that could alter the appearance of someone. It was meant to be used to help my people in the war.”

  “But that’s over now,” she said, remembering something she’d absently caught on the news. “The Vakar and Kints are at peace. Right?”

  He gritted his teeth but nodded nonetheless. “Yes, we are at peace. I ordered that project destroyed anyway, because if it fell into enemy hands, it would be catastrophic. Obviously, my order wasn’t carried out.”

  “Go back.” She was struggling to wrap her brain around this. “How would this device alter someone’s appearance? I mean, how is that even possible?”

  “By messing with the brain waves of a population with a specific gene. Gibus was unable to perfect the device, however. It alters the perspective of everyone, including those who’ve used the device, and had it used on them. This would have made it exceedingly difficult for us to trust what we saw. If the enemy realized what we were up to, for instance, all they had to do was switch out the double for the real person, and we would never know.”

  “I’m sorry.” She rubbed at her temples. “I’m seriously slow right now.”

  “You still don’t understand.”

  “No.”

  He tugged something out of his back pocket. It was a little larger than her iPhone, and square instead of rectangular. It looked more like a piece of glass, but when he tapped the center, it turned black. He pressed at it a few more times and then turned it around so she could see the screen.

  A dark-haired girl smiled coyly at her from it.

  “This is Lissa Olena,” he said. “As the Ander, it is my job to ensure her safety.”

  “I walked into her,” Delaney told him.

  He actually looked sorry for her, putting the device back into his pocket. “She walked into you, more like.”

  “She did something to me.” It wasn’t a question, because that had already been established. Suddenly she was extremely tired. The warring emotions of panic and fear and anger had drained her.

  “I imagine that’s when she used the device to alter your appearance,” he agreed, waving at her body.

  “Oh shit.” She slumped back down onto the cot, dropping her head into her hands. That explained so much, why he’d taken her, why he’d insisted that she was messing with him. Why those people had shot her.

  “Why are the Tars after her again?” she asked.

  “The
y don’t agree with the peace treaty,” he surprised her by answering. “They’re a small rebellious group formed of Kints who disagree with their Rex’s decision to end the war.”

  “Is a Rex like a president?”

  “More like a king,” he corrected. “We still operate as a monarchy of sorts.”

  “Okay, so Rex means king.”

  “Their king. Vakar and Kint, you would call them countries, with slightly differing languages. Our king, the Vakar king, is called a Basileus. Our queen is Basilissa. And our princess—”

  “Is called Lissa.” Delaney let out a slow breath and leaned back against the wall, drained. “I’ve been played by a goddamn alien princess.” None of this made any sense. “Why?”

  For a second it didn’t seem like he was going to tell her, but he must have seen something on her face, because he gave in and came to sit next to her on the small cot. Settling, he angled his body so that his back was to the door and he could hold her gaze.

  “The peace treaty between my people and the Kints was built on an arranged marriage,” he divulged. “Olena has been on Earth for the past five years, for her denzeration. It’s a period in every Vakar’s life when they come of age and are allowed to explore Earth. To get to know the planet, the primitive life-forms there, and decide if they’d like to stay as an analyst, or if they’d like to return to Xenith.

  “Being our Lissa, Olena knew when she left that staying on Earth was never really an option for her, but she’d convinced her parents to allow her to take the right anyway. Last week marked the end of her denzeration, and she was supposed to meet me and come back home.”

  “Let me guess,” she said, stopping him. “She never showed.”

  “No, she did not. Somehow the Tars discovered she was somewhere on Earth, unprotected, and sent assassins. I managed to track her to Portland. She clearly wanted me to find her so that she could lead me to you. She used you as a distraction, Delaney. I’m”—he hesitated—“sorry.”

  Despite everything going on, the corner of her mouth twitched. “Not something you say often, huh?”

  “No,” he admitted, smiling some himself. “If I had known she’d gotten her hands on Gibus’s prototype, that it hadn’t been destroyed like I’d ordered, I wouldn’t have taken you the way that I did. I can tell this is all very frightening for you.”

  “I’m not frightened,” she insisted, instantly switching from tired to defense mode.

  “I don’t blame you,” he told her easily. “It’s a scary situation. You said it yourself: You don’t know much about my people.” He cocked his head. “You aren’t one of those humans who are fascinated by us.”

  She snorted. “Definitely not.”

  The door opened up at his back, and the other guy from the alley stepped inside. Closing the hatch behind him, he waited until Ruckus had turned on the cot so that he could easily look at them both.

  “We have a problem, Ander.” His voice was melodious, lighter than Ruckus’s, and smooth. He glanced over at Delaney momentarily but didn’t address her as Gibus had.

  His long-sleeved green shirt was tucked into his pants, the zipper in the center done all the way up, closing the inch-wide collar around his neck. His hair was swiped back the same as the last time she’d seen him, held there by some sort of gel. It was a light brown, a match to his eyes, though when she looked closely, she could just make out the ring of dark blue around the outside of the otherwise tan irises.

  “Pettus, you spoke to Gibus?” Ruckus asked.

  “Yes—”

  “How close are we to Xenith?”

  “We’ve got an estimated three ticks till we breech the atmosphere. But”—his eyes trailed over to Delaney for a split second—“that isn’t the problem I was referring to, Ander.”

  Suddenly a red light began flashing on the ceiling, and a loud beeping noise sounded.

  Ruckus swore again, but Pettus was already continuing.

  “It’s the Zane, Ander.” He paused and glanced between them. “He’s here.”

  CHAPTER 4

  “Who’s the Zane?” Delaney frowned, not liking the way they were looking at each other. Like something terrible was about to happen—something even more terrible than taking the wrong person from another planet.

  “They’re about to board,” Ruckus said, ignoring her, his attention on Pettus. “We’re out of options. She’s going to need to convince him.”

  Pettus nodded, clearly understanding, and Ruckus moved over to the door, pressing a palm flat against a panel on the wall. Static crackled through it for a second, and then Gibus’s voice filtered into the room.

  “Bring me a hebi,” Ruckus ordered.

  Pettus stepped up to her. “Here’s the thing: You look like Olena. Exactly like her. And, well, we sort of need you…” He waved both hands in air as if juggling invisible balls.

  She tilted her head at him, scrunching up her face in the process. What was he going on about? Why the hell couldn’t any of them just speak plainly?

  “You need to pretend to be Olena,” he stated.

  She couldn’t help it—she snorted. “Yeah, right.”

  “Right,” he maintained. “We took you thinking that you were the Lissa, and we’ve just been informed that the Kints found out why her return home was delayed.”

  “You mean they found out she didn’t want to be married off like cattle?” It was the only reason she could think of for anyone being desperate enough to do this to someone else. Not that that justified it. At all.

  His eyes narrowed, but he continued. “They aren’t happy. They don’t believe that Olena really wants peace. Their Zane is boarding as we speak. If he discovers that Olena eluded us, that she went to such great lengths in order to do so, he’ll reinstate the war.” He paused, locking his odd-colored eyes on hers and holding them until he knew he had her complete attention. “They’ll kill us, Delaney.”

  “Kill us … dead?”

  “Pretty sure there’s no other version of kill, even on Earth,” he said dryly.

  “But it’s not my fault, or yours for that matter. It’s Olena’s.”

  “They’re our enemies. They don’t care. They’re itching for a reason to go back to war. The Kints don’t just want this planet; they want Earth as well, and my people and this treaty are the only things keeping them from enslaving yours.”

  The red light above them changed colors, flashing orange now. Pettus swore, using the same word as Ruckus had before, and opened his mouth to say something else when suddenly Gibus was at the door.

  He handed a small square box over to Ruckus.

  “Go,” Ruckus ordered them. “Delay him.”

  They left without another word, and he twisted the top off of the small box Gibus had given him. Inside, there was an item that reminded Delaney of a circular bandage.

  “I need you to do this,” he told her, attention still on the small circle.

  “I don’t.” She shook her head.

  His eyes shot to hers, full of frustration. “They want to kill us, Delaney. They just need an excuse.”

  He moved toward her, motioning for her to angle her head. When she didn’t immediately do so, he sighed again and held the circle up before her. “We call this a hebi. It’s a translating device that’s embedded into the side of the neck. We’ve been speaking English; the Kint will not do so.”

  “Sounds like I’d only need that if I planned on speaking to them then,” she countered, “which I do not.”

  “Do you want to die?” he asked. “You do this, maybe we live. You don’t, we definitely die. Choose.”

  “Maybe?” she repeated.

  “You’ve done a good job of hiding your fear so far. Draw on that.”

  If the peace treaty between the aliens was broken, then the treaty between them and Earth would be as well. She knew Pettus was right about the Kints wanting her planet. And Ruckus was huge; she’d never seen anyone as strong or as tough looking as him. If he was worried … maybe she should be,
too.

  “Just this once, right?” Her voice was a bit weak, and she strengthened it. “I pretend to be her and get us out of this, then you guys tell your Basileus, or whatever, the truth and take me home.”

  “Yes.” He made to lift the hebi closer, but she held up her hand.

  “Promise.” She didn’t know if aliens made promises, or if they knew what they were, but desperate times and all that.

  “I give you my word, Delaney. I’m the one who wrongly took you; I will return you to your rightful place.”

  She allowed herself one last deep breath and then straightened, coming to her full five-six height. She didn’t have to say anything aloud, because he noted her silent agreement.

  “So I’ll be able to understand the Kints with this?” she asked, tilting her head to the left to give him better access.

  “And Vakar,” he confirmed. “It attaches to the brain and will allow you to instinctually speak our languages as well. It translates and deciphers so that words in our language that are similar to yours will be translated accordingly.”

  “To my brain?” Her nerves spiked up another notch.

  “I’m not a Sutter,” he stated, busy placing the hebi. “I don’t know all the logistics.”

  “I’ll speak a different language without knowing I’m doing it?” That seemed like a question he could answer.

  “It calibrates to whatever language is first spoken to you. For example, if I spoke to you in Vakar, your reply would automatically come out as Vakar.”

  “Kind of takes away having to actually learn, huh?”

  The hebi was practically see-through, and at first, when he placed it on her neck, it felt sticky. Then her skin tightened around the area, and a cooling sensation followed. Ruckus stepped back, and when Delaney touched the right side of her neck, she couldn’t feel anything.

  “It disappears into the skin,” he informed her, already turning away. “Ensures it can’t be removed accidentally or otherwise.”