Stranger King

by Nadia Hutton

  She watched him, slowing her breathing further, a weak hand touching his arm in kindness. He meant to tell her to move it, for it endangered her to expose a heartbeat to the metal. But it oddly helped his own organs to pump faster, her warming skin against his cooling one.

  The third piece ripped into him easily now that the wound was growing bigger. His other hand dug into the bed, his skin perspiring.

  Lena said quietly, “You don’t have to do this.”

  Thegn tried to reply, but there were no words he could use to explain it to her in English. Instead his other hand moved to her leg, resting it there as he held on. Her hand stroked his arm as the fourth and final piece moved from her body to his.

  Thegn threw himself onto the ground, and one doctor went to Lena’s side, the other moving toward Thegn.

  He motioned for Janiya to stay back, waiting until the fourth piece was fully in his bloodstream.

  “You have to mend the tear,” he said hoarsely, “Make sure they can’t get out. My body will process it and expel it on its own. I have to stay alive until then or they will still be active. She needs your attention more than I. My body can do this and you do not know enough of my anatomy to help me.”

  Thegn lay on the floor, his body cooling quickly as Janiya stitched together the wound and wrapped his hand in bandages. She laid the thermal blankets on him and went back to Lena’s side, helping her fellow doctor as the non-medical staff left the room. Kozol watched Thegn carefully, but seeing he was incapacitated, left him shivering on the medical bay floor.

  Thegn watched the doctors work on Lena’s injuries. Her eyes met his as she was given a mask. Her eyes started to close, but her heart beat strongly. He could see it on the monitor strapped to her. He watched those lines go up and down until he shut his own eyes and rested.

  *

  He woke strapped to a medical bay table himself. He looked blearily over for Lena, seeing her on the table beside him. He watched her chest rise up and down. She still lived. That was enough.

  He felt himself be covered in another blanket as he fell back asleep.

  *

  When Thegn woke again, he felt Janiya’s hand against his forehead and he opened his eyes, turning to look at her.

  She smiled at him and said, “Good to see you know your own body well. Your first heart stopped last night, but the other took over. It’s starting to recover now. You expelled all four pieces intact through your … orifice. I’m not sure what that is, just on your side. I ran an ultrasound; there don’t seem to be any fragments left. I sent them down to the lab. We’ll research it thoroughly.”

  “Is she safe?,” Thegn murmured hoarsely. Janiya looked at him oddly and he realized he was speaking in Mokai. He tried again in English and she nodded.

  “She’s stable now, resting in her own room. I’ll let her know you’re awake. She’ll want to see you, I’m sure.”

  “Not now,” Thegn said quietly. “I need rest. But she is safe?”

  “You saved her life,” Janiya said softly, with a smile. “You may have saved many more as well. Rest, Thegn. I’ll bring you something to eat for when you wake up. And Thegn … thank you.”

  *

  Maria brought Thegn to the artificial garden again, holding his arm to steady him as he walked, his tail bobbing slightly. She helped him kneel down on the grass and brought out a bottle of water for him to drink. Thegn drank it slowly, looking at her as she sat down beside him.

  Thegn raised his head again as he saw Lena come in from the side of the room. She was out of uniform, wearing a simple blue dress. Thegn was pleased to remember the name of the garment. Maria had been eager to teach him of the different styles of human clothing. It seemed to be something she had a great passion for.

  Lena seemed vulnerable this way, without the tactile white suit that many of her crew had worn. She came down into the grass, sitting as comfortably as she could, though he saw her wince from the wound.

  She waved Maria off, telling her that she did not need a translator. Maria hesitated, but did as she was told, leaving them alone.

  Thegn and Lena watched each other for a few moments, and Thegn waited for her to speak first. He did not know what to expect her to say, what to think of him. There had been a moment, a moment of understanding. He did not know if that had changed enough.

  She said quietly, “Thank you.”

  Thegn merely nodded his head.

  “You did not have to do that. They told me we nearly lost you that night. You knew there was a risk, didn’t you?” Lena asked.

  Thegn admitted, “I knew there was a chance, but it was not a large one.”

  “But enough. You risked your life to protect me, to protect us. Why?”

  Thegn thought for a moment and then replied, “You did not deserve to die when you could have a chance to live. The metal, the ghielsu, it is an unkind way to die. There was once a law against the substance, but the Council compromised. The ghelu voted for the law.”

  “So it was an idealistic choice?”

  “It was the only choice,” he said firmly.

  Lena thought on this and said, “It is not one I would have made for you.”

  “You are not ghelu and you view me an enemy. I know I do not have to fear you.”

  “Do you not?”

  “If you would have killed me, you would have done it already.”

  Lena replied, “Perhaps I still will.”

  Thegn said quietly, “It does me no good to think you will. If the Goddess wishes my death here and now, so be it.”

  Lena looked away from him and said, “It would have been easier if I just killed you. My father would have killed you without a second glance. I thought for days that I had made a mistake. Kozol would have killed you. He and I argued for days about that. Even once we knew you carried no plague. You weren’t here when the bastards first invaded. You didn’t see how sick people were. How many died. We lost three, even once we were here and we had a cure. It didn’t always work, not after being infected for a few days. The infection changed, too; we suspected the bastards were changing it, trying to get us sick. But they took so many of us, to their compounds, to their ships … maybe that was just paranoia. No one wants a dead slave.”

  Thegn did not reply and she continued, “You don’t understand. You don’t understand how hard it is for us. We watched your kind kill us, subjugate us, rape us, and enslave us. I can’t forgive you just because you did one good thing. I can’t see you and not see all of those things. I’m sorry, I just can’t.”

  “I understand,” Thegn replied softly.

  “Can you?” she asked darkly, “You think you can just observe from afar and think ‘oh, that’s so horrible’ and understand completely?”

  He did not reply and she said softly, “I’m sorry. I should be more appreciative. But … you … I…”

  Thegn said nothing.

  Lena continued, her hand running through her hair, “I can’t hate them and thank you. I can’t… I can’t…”

  “It’s hard to see us as more than the enemy,” he said quietly.

  Lena looked up at him, water streaming down her face. He reached out to touch it and she shuffled away. He brought his hand back.

  She wiped the water off. “I shouldn’t have said all this to you. I didn’t mean to make things more complicated. Please just take my thanks. I will call for Maria to bring you back to your room.”

  “I can bring myself back,” Thegn offered. “I do not mean to burden her.”

  Lena said quietly, “No, no I’m afraid I can’t quite do that yet.”

  She called Maria back into the room.

  “My father would have been wrong,” Lena said softly, as she rose to her feet.

  Thegn watched her leave. Maria helped him to his feet and he asked her what the water on Lena’s face had meant.


  Maria explained as they walked down the hall, “Humans cry. They shed water from their eyes, to express emotion. Usually sad, but it can be happiness, too.”

  “But she was not happy,” Thegn stated.

  “No,” Maria agreed. “No, she was not.”

  Thegn stumbled slightly, his tail reaching down to balance him. Maria helped him steady himself and they kept walking.

  “When I found out you were safe,” Maria said. “I cried a little. I did not want to lose you. Perhaps I was too harsh with you when we arrived here. I am sorry. I was scared of them thinking of me as Other. But I see now that I should have had more faith in you.”

  “You do not owe me any faith,” Thegn replied gently, “I am your enemy.”

  “You are my friend,” Maria replied.

  Their eyes met and Thegn smiled. Maria laughed at the attempt and they spent those last few moments in quiet peace.

  Chapter Twenty

  Thegn was brought into the lab two days later. He saw the doctors standing over the table, cautiously looking at the circular disc before them.

  Kozol pushed Thegn ahead to the table “Identify it, priest.”

  Thegn kneeled down beside the table to examine it better, looking as Kozol glared down at him. He glanced up, seeing Lena watch from the other side, arms folded across her chest as she waited.

  Thegn smelled the device, examining the colored lights on the side without touching. He immediately stood up.

  “You need to get this device out of here right now,” he demanded. “You need to get this outside and away from the others, now. This is … I don’t know the word for it in English. It’s gas, chemicals.”

  “It’s a trick,” Kozol said, “he wants it brought back to his people.”

  “No,” Thegn promised, “it will go off soon. They let you capture it; they’re trying to kill you. Just take it outside. Now. You don’t have much time.”

  Lena nodded. “Get it outside. Bring Thegn with you. I will follow.”

  “You can’t be serious, Lena,” Kozol laughed.

  Lena glared at him. “Bring it outside. Carefully.”

  *

  Thegn breathed deeply as they brought him outdoors. Even this foreign air was comforting to him after so long underground.

  “You’ll need to bring it out further than this,” Thegn explained. “Get it as far from the shelter as possible. You need to seal any airways back into the compound. I do not know how this chemical will affect your kind, but it is almost lethal to mine.”

  Kozol glanced at Lena and she waved him off.

  “You’ll need to help us detonate it safely,” Lena replied.

  Thegn admitted, “I do not know how. I only recognize the smell.”

  Lena opened her mouth as if to speak, but then did not. She led the group further into the forest.

  When they reached a clearing, Lena laid the disc down in the snow. She looked up at Thegn and waited for instruction.

  “I am told they are set off by being stepped on, but I do not know how you would do it safely otherwise. I’m surprise it wasn’t set off when it was picked up,” Thegn said.

  “How do you know?” Lena asked.

  “Because they used it on my kind,” Thegn said.

  “Who are ‘they’?”

  “The Elchai,” Thegn said.

  They exchanged a look and he replied, “If I survive this, I will tell you the story. But let us get through this right now.”

  Lena whistled for the rest of the crew to meet them. As they circled nearby, she gave instructions.

  “I need a rock, something that when thrown will be the weight of someone stepping down. I’ll detonate it myself, the rest of you get inside and shut off the air vents. Thegn, you get inside with them. You said this is nearly fatal to your kind. I don’t need you being heroic twice in one week.”

  Thegn raised his palms. “I will wait outside the gate for you. I will be far enough there and you may need assistance returning.”

  “I’ll wait outside the gate,” Kozol interrupted.

  “It will be safer for you inside,” Thegn replied. “I have been exposed to this before. My body has some immunity already. Please. Protect yourself.”

  Lena and Kozol exchanged a look and Kozol nodded. “There’s the emergency shelter a kilometer south from here. If we can’t let you in, go there. There will be enough air for twenty-four hours when it’s activated. Will it clear by then?”

  Thegn was confused as he realized Kozol was speaking to him. Thegn replied, “I am not sure. Hopefully so.”

  “Go,” Lena said. “Get everyone out of here.”

  “You don’t always have to be the self-sacrificing one,” Kozol reminded. The two grasped each other’s hands for a moment as they exchanged a meaningful look. Thegn looked away, sensing this was not a moment meant for his eyes.

  The crew went past him on the way back to the compound. Lena went forward with a round object someone had handed to her. Thegn held back. She was close enough now to have an accurate throw.

  When they reached the compound, Kozol grasped Thegn by the shoulder.

  “If you don’t bring her back, I will find you, and if you’re not dead already, I will kill you myself,” Kozol warned.

  “I would expect no less from you,” Thegn said, attempting to smile.

  He could almost sense respect in the human’s eyes, but he was still unsure how to read him.

  Thegn waited as the entrance sealed behind him, his skin growing cold as the precipitation fell around him. He touched it experimentally, and it melted into his hand as water. Solid water from the sky. Rain was within the realm of the Mokari. Maybe this substance was too.

  He heard the blast before he smelled it. A memory crept into the back of his mind, but it was quickly replaced by the image of Lena running toward him, a cloud of orange gas rising behind her. There was no time. They would need to reach the emergency shelter. Lena knew it too. Once again, they shared an understanding without words. She grasped his hand and they ran through the trees.

  As they drew closer to the shelter, Lena’s coughing became worse. She fell to the ground and Thegn picked her up despite her protests. He ran, holding her close to his body, until they reached the gate. He helped her to her feet as she dialed the combination. As the lock began to click open, they both turned, looking back at the forest.

  The trees around them were slowly burning, a strange orange mist in the air drifting slowly in the other direction. A great tawny creature glared at them from the forest, another following behind, their gaunt forms sleek and dangerous.

  Lena was transfixed, still watching them after the gate opened. Thegn led her inside, despite her protests, forcing her to close the gate behind them. The lights were slow to turn on, but in the dim light, Thegn could already see the chemical burns creeping across Lena’s face. There would be little he could do until they returned to the human doctor.

  As the lights flickered on, she looked at him and said quietly, “I still hate you.”

  Thegn replied, “I know.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Thegn woke after a few hours, both stomachs growling at him for sustenance. As Lena still slept by his feet, he rose and began to look around for any supplies left in the bunker. He found a few of the human rations, some of which he could eat, the others he left for Lena whenever she woke.

  He paused. What if she did not wake?

  He was not an expert on human physiology; he could not tell how well she faired. But as he examined her, she still breathed and her heart still beat beneath his fingers. He would have to accept that for now.

  She grabbed his hand still hovering over her chest. Her other hand slapped him across the face and Thegn backed up into the far side of the shelter.

  “Never ever do that again,” Lena warned, snarling at him.


  It occurred to him that Maria had mentioned humans viewed their glands as sexual objects. He tried to explain he was merely feeling for her heartbeat, but Lena was not satisfied with this. He stopped rationalizing, fearing she might hit him again.

  He offered her the rations and she took them hungrily, eating quickly while still glaring at him from across the shelter. He ate his own slowly, trying to lock eyes with her in a sign of submission.

  When she finished eating, she asked, “Did you find anything to drink?”

  Thegn rose, locating the bottles of water he had found earlier. He brought them down and she grabbed one, drinking quickly. She grabbed her stomach, her fingers digging into her skin. She looked up at him, pale and sweating.

  “What did that do to me?” Lena hissed.

  “It will be hard for you to ingest liquids for a time,” Thegn explained. “You’ll expel them, one way or another. It tends to pass if the exposure ceases. But it may take a while.”

  “How long?”

  “I do not know. I’ve never seen a human exposed to it before, Lena.”

  At the sound of her name, she raised her head and glared again. He wondered if he had yet again transgressed.

  “Before. You mentioned the … Elc … I can’t say it. You were exposed to this before. I don’t think it was friendly fire, was it?”

  “You do not forget a promise, do you?” Thegn asked wearily. “Very well. My people had no interactions with other off-world species until two hundred standard years ago. When the Elchai met our people, there was a war. I have mentioned this before, to your priest. There are no good wars, but this was certainly not a clean one. Many died. I was born near the end of the war. I don’t remember much of it. By the time I was grown, there was peace.”

  “Why was there war?”

  “The Elchai wanted land on our planet. We refused.”

  “You bloody hypocrite,” she cursed, rising weakly to her feet. “You were invaded and within that generation, you just go and invade someone else? What sort of monsters are you?”