Alien Apocalypse: The Complete Series (Parts I-IV)

by JC Andrijeski

  “Why didn’t you?” she said.

  “Why didn’t I what?”

  “Play along,” she said. “Why didn’t you just let them make you king?”

  When she glanced at him that time, he frowned.

  “I told you why––” he began.

  But she cut him off, shaking her head.

  “You didn’t tell me,” she said. “Not the truth.” She turned, studying his face more openly. “What was it, Laksri? What made the sheltered, pampered, first son of the Royals start to give a damn? Why would you care about regular Nirreth, when you only saw them from behind your armed guard? How could you have an opinion about what happened in the colonies, when you’d never been to them?”

  Seeing the harder look coming over Laksri’s face, Jet felt her jaw tighten. She didn’t back down, though.

  “What happened, Laks?” she pressed. “Something must have happened.”

  The Nirreth only looked away.

  Jet thought he might answer her, if she waited long enough.

  But he didn’t.

  Jet stood at one end of their quarters.

  She watched, silent, as Laksri sat on the low bed against one wall.

  At some point following take off, the belts had come off the chairs where they both sat.

  Jet found herself rising to her feet on wobbly legs, looking around at a circular arc of monitors showing a dizzying view of the night sky above and below their feet. Eerily silent, the observation tower housing the two of them stood above the cockpit, meaning the level filled with Nirreth sitting at terminals who actually piloted the ship.

  Staring down through the transparent floor at the bustling activity of those half-dozen Nirreth working below her feet, Jet felt lost in unreality around where they were.

  She’d looked at the ship from the port dock before they left.

  She’d looked at pictures of it beforehand, too, mostly via public records in the Nirreth information network accessible through most Green Zone terminals. Even so, she had trouble orienting herself in the thing, even with her usual facility with anything spatial. She also had trouble acknowledging the space travel part as truly real.

  Part of the problem lay in the moving parts of the ship itself, meaning the odd rippling rotation it embodied as it flew, which, while helping to maintain the illusion of planetary gravity, gave it a strangely animalistic look. From the vids Jet had seen, the rotation of ship-parts made the thing look like it crawled through the emptiness of space, with two sides moving like giant flippers and the main body of the ship undulating between them.

  Despite the fact that it looked almost alive while it moved, the ship’s motions looked more stilted and precise than any animal, insect, bird or fish Jet had ever seen. No matter how many times they explained what it did, she couldn’t quite wrap her head around it, at least not in a way that made sense, meaning, as a working mechanism in her head.

  When the grav-belt kicked in, what had felt like “up” while parked on the space port now felt like “sideways.” The chair where Jet had been strapped now appeared to be facing forward instead of up. She hadn’t even noticed when that change took place, exactly; at one point, she simply noticed that it had changed.

  Not long after, Laksri unlocked himself from his chair.

  He regained his feet, tested his balance for a few seconds, then turned to her. His expression remained placid, irritatingly unfazed.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “You can get up.”

  She must have hesitated, because the look in his dark eyes sharpened.

  “Do you need my help?” he said.

  She shook her head before she’d even tested the locks.

  Luckily, she’d been able to figure out the mechanism fairly easily, even conscious of Laksri’s eyes on her while she did it. He watched surreptitiously until she had every one of the belts unlocked. He also waited while she shakily regained her feet. He pretended to look at the observation monitors whenever she glanced at him, but Jet suspected he’d done that out of some sense of Nirreth politeness since she could feel his attention on her anyway.

  He didn’t approach her, though, or try to touch her.

  He didn’t move even when her knees buckled.

  She grabbed for the chair’s arms instead of him, catching herself before she would have fallen to the deck. Her legs continued to wobble as she straightened slowly back to her feet. The ground felt solid that time, though, like a real floor.

  Well, more or less.

  When she turned to look at him, Laksri watched her openly.

  He didn’t say anything though, or move from his spot on the floor. Eventually, Jet began walking...carefully...to the door that led to the main ship’s corridor. She expected him to follow her out, but he didn’t, not at first.

  When she’d glanced back, in puzzlement as much as anything, Laksri’s dark eyes remained riveted to the view of the stars, his expression bordering on pensive.

  She didn’t wait for him to look at her again. Instead she left him there, figuring maybe he needed to be alone...or maybe that he’d decided she needed the same.

  Whatever his motives, she hadn’t seen him again until she came back here.

  He still hadn’t spoken to her.

  She’d spent the last however-many minutes and hours exploring the ship. She’d gotten food at one point, too, and a cup of murak, the Nirreth’s answer to coffee.

  Her explorations didn’t illuminate much.

  Well, they illuminated one thing: it was highly unlikely Jet would get anywhere near Anaze during this flight. Her attempts to get down to see and talk to him hit an unambiguous brick wall. Not only did the guards tell her bluntly that she could not access that part of the ship, but they also informed her that she had broken security protocols––which required a formal report––for even asking the question.

  Eventually, she made her way back to her and Laksri’s assigned quarters.

  Unlike with Anaze’s cell, the Nirreth guards seemed perfectly happy to assist her in finding those. She practically got an escort when she asked for a tour of the other areas of the ship, as well. Eventually, though, she ran out of ship.

  Jet rearranged her weight on the dense mattress, feeling her muscles tense.

  Laksri still hadn’t really looked at her.

  Jet started to gear herself up, turning over words in her mind to try and break the silence, when he abruptly disappeared into a hole in the wall, what she assumed must lead to the washroom. He did it without uttering a word, without even glancing at her, his expression unreadable as his tail gave a few nervous-seeming lashes behind his back.

  Sighing, Jet leaned back on the mattress, resigning herself to wait.

  When Laksri came out, about a half-hour later, looking like he’d washed, and wearing a different shirt and looser pants, he still avoided her eyes.

  She considered trying to talk to him again, then decided to wait until he looked a little less braced for impact.

  Anyway, it occurred to her that she could use a shower, too.

  So she followed his lead, entering the washroom seconds after he left it. Once inside, she did probably the same general things he had done...took a shower, brushed her teeth, used the toilet, rubbed a lotion-like substance into her skin and hair.

  When she came out, wearing a loose shirt and pants even baggier than his, Laksri had already stretched out on the one bed. Rather than sleeping, he held a portable monitor in front of his eyes, his other, muscular arm curled back behind his head. She watched his eyes scan images...or maybe text. She watched him for a probably a minute or two, tug-of-warring back and forth in her mind before she walked around to the other side of the bed.

  So far, he didn’t look like he intended to leave.

  He didn’t look particularly like he intended to talk to her either, however.

  Sinking her weight on the opposite side of the mattress opposite, she glanced over at him again. His eyes continued to focus on the monitor, but Jet got the f
eeling he knew she was looking at him. She could probably get him to look over if she stared long and hard enough, but decided she didn’t want to play those kinds of games.

  “Look, Laks,” she said. She ran a hand through her wet, black hair, which had no tangles from the cream she’d used. “Can we talk?”

  The Nirreth turned his head, his dark eyes holding a thinly-veiled surprise. He seemed to see the more meaningful look in her eyes then, right before she gestured around the small space, a silent question. Following her gesture with his eyes, understanding bloomed there.

  Abruptly, he sat up. His expression cleared. “I think so, yes,” he said.

  “You think so?” she said, frowning. “What does that mean?”

  “We swept before we boarded.”

  “But you might not have caught everything?”

  He shrugged, his eyes still unreadable. “There is always some risk, Jet.”

  She nodded, feeling her fingers clench on either side of her leg. The kinds of things she wanted to ask him wouldn’t be the kinds of things he would answer if any chance existed that they might be overheard. Feeling her jaw harden more, she shook her head, to herself that time, right before she looked at him directly.

  “What if you stung me?” she said.

  “What?” His eyes widened. There was a silence, where he looked at her as if he had no idea who she was. “No.”

  “What do you mean, no? Why not?”

  “You know why,” he said, still staring at her.

  “That’s not a good reason. Not for this. We should––”

  “Absolutely not. No.” His eyes hardened more as they met hers. “No, Jet.”

  She stared at him, seeing the utter lack of compromise in his eyes. Sighing, she folded her arms, feeling her face warm. She glanced at the door reflexively, then made another annoyed gesture with one hand.

  “This is ridiculous,” she said. “It makes sense. You know it does.”

  “No. I don’t.”

  “Even once?”

  “It won’t be once, Jet,” he said, his voice close to angry. “I know you think that was some set up, the thing with Anaze––”

  “I don’t want to talk about that,” she cut in, giving him a warning look.

  As soon as she said it, though, she wondered why.

  The truth was, she did want to talk about it. She wanted to talk about a lot of things, including what Trazen told her about Richter having her family. After she’d been sitting there a few seconds longer, it hit her what she was really afraid of.

  She was afraid, whatever he said, that she might believe him.

  “I’d know what happened,” she said, her voice careful again. “...If you stung me, Laks. I’d know all of it. Including the thing with Anaze.”

  “No,” he said, vehement. “I mean it, Jet...no!”

  She felt her chest tighten as she forced herself to hold his gaze. “I really need to talk to you. It can’t wait until Astet.” When his expression didn’t move, she exhaled air sharply between her lips. “It’s important, Laks. I wouldn’t ask otherwise.”

  “Important enough to pay me off with sex?” he said, his voice biting.

  “Maybe,” she shot back. “...It wouldn’t be the first time.”

  A low growl came from his throat.

  She felt herself tense, but before she could say anything, he rose abruptly from the bed. She watched him retreat to the opposite wall of the room, watched his tail whip behind him as he walked. He was angry, yeah, but she saw something else there, too, and knew suddenly, why he’d retreated. He was tempted. Some part of him, anyway. He was tempted to take her up on her offer. Which made her wonder, again, where he’d been sleeping for the past few weeks.

  She forced that out of her mind, too.

  He watched her look at him, his eyes openly wary, bordering on angry still. He didn’t move though, or try to leave the room. Instead, he seemed to be trying to wait her out, staring at her silently from the section of wall closest to the bathroom. She wondered if he planned on hiding in there, if she wouldn’t back down.

  “Laksri,” she said, sighing again. “What if you only did it once?”

  “Because that’s worked so well with us in the past?” he said.

  “What about that drug?” she said. “That stuff you use, when––”

  “I didn’t bring any,” he said, giving her an incredulous look. “Jet, did you really think I’d planned on stinging you for this trip, under the circumstances?”

  She bit her lip again, thrown by that for some reason.

  Finally, she motioned a hand up in a near-shrug, avoiding his eyes.

  “Aren’t they going to wonder?” she said. “About us. If you don’t sting me this whole trip, won’t they wonder about that?”

  “I don’t care, Jet!”

  “You don’t care?” Her eyes rose to his, even as her jaw firmed. “What do you mean, you don’t care? Don’t you think people are starting to notice?”

  “Why would you ask this of me?” An edge of anger, or maybe panic, sharpened his voice. “Jet, I don’t understand why you would ask this of me!”

  “You can’t exercise a little self-control?” She bit her lip, then said it anyway. “You owe me, Laks. You owe me this...”

  He let out a choking kind of laugh. She wouldn’t have even recognized it as such, if she hadn’t gotten used to the sounds he made by then.

  Thinking about that firmed her mouth even more.

  In the past few weeks, she’d almost forgotten who Laksri was. The person she’d thought he was, anyway, before Richter dropped the bomb on her, about what he and Anaze had been doing. Before Trazen implied he might have helped Richter kidnap her family without telling her.

  Before all that, Jet thought she knew Laksri pretty well, Nirreth or no. She’d been getting to know him, anyway. Who he was, his personality...even his likes and dislikes, in terms of the little things that make up who a person is behind closed doors.

  Looking at him now, she found her doubt worsening. She’d taken Richter’s and Trazen’s word on what Laksri had been doing. It rang true to her at the time...true enough that she’d never asked Laksri himself what he’d been thinking. She never asked why he’d tried to seduce her that day. She never asked him if he knew where her family was. She’d never asked him anything. She’d just assumed, letting others put the pieces together for her.

  And Laks himself, well, he hadn’t exactly bothered to defend himself.

  Once the doubt took root in her mind, Jet couldn’t unstick it well enough to keep it from coloring her thoughts.

  Laksri had folded his arms in the pause.

  He still appeared to be waiting, but he stared at her now, his dark eyes openly wary. He looked angry, but she also felt confusion on him, and a kind of disbelief. If he aimed any of those feelings wholly at her or partly at himself, she couldn’t tell that for sure, either. The longer she looked at him, the more she saw that confusion grow in his dark eyes. He didn’t seem to know how to break the impasse any more than she did.

  “Laksri,” she said. “Can we cut the crap, please? I need to know what’s going on with you.” She motioned at him, biting her lip. “So do you, apparently, with me. So why don’t we just call a truce? You can sting me just once, right?”

  “No,” he snapped. “I can’t. I just told you that, Jet!”

  She sighed, frustrated. “Can’t you just try?”

  “No!”

  “Why not? For crying out loud––”

  “You know why!” His eyes grew openly angry. “...And you are worse than I am! Even from the very first time, when I tried to exercise control, you pushed me for more. You act like it is all on me, Jet, like I am the only one who needs restraint...but it is not. It never has been. So do not pretend you are innocent, that this is all my responsibility.”

  Jet folded her arms tighter, feeling her jaw clench in anger.

  Counting backwards, she let the anger dissipate, forcing herself to be hone
st. The more she thought about his words, the more she had to concede his point.

  “Okay,” she said. “Then...what? We do this for a few more weeks...or months? Stare at each other. Assume the worst of each other. Get your Guard gossiping about us even more than they already are. Get the rumors of you sleeping in the human quadrant of the Green Zone to spread even farther...” Hearing the anger creep into her voice, she controlled it before she went on. “...Then what, Laks? What happens then?”

  “I did not do this,” he said, glaring at her.

  “Didn’t do what?” she said, incredulous.

  “I did not have sex with other humans. I told you I would not!”

  She stared at him, feeling something in her stomach grow cold, in spite of herself. Fighting back the emotion that tried to rise, she forced herself to hold his eyes.

  “Why wouldn’t you, Laks?” she said.

  “I said I would not!” he repeated, angrier.

  “Right after you threatened to do that very thing,” she shot back.

  “But I didn’t!”

  She fought disbelief, along with a wave of confusion of her own. Biting her lip, she looked away from him, trying to push it aside, but couldn’t. She heard the anger creep back into her voice. “Why do you even care what I think at this point?” she said. “I wouldn’t exactly hold you to your word, given everything...”

  He looked about to answer, then shut his mouth with a snap. His tail lashed violently behind him, making her flinch. He flicked it hard enough that it reached out to its full length, nearly knocking over a glass pitcher of water on a nearby table.

  The expression on his face made her a little nervous too, truthfully. Studying those dark eyes, Jet kept her jaw up, faintly jutting. She’d almost forgotten...again...that he wasn’t human. Moreover, he probably weighed three of her, and she’d just royally pissed him off.

  “So?” she said. “Which is it? If you’re going to get so mad about it, you might as well tell me the truth. It’s a little late to get all high and mighty about the two of us, given how you made it clear I’m just a prop in your royal plans...”

  When his mouth hardened more, she felt her own anger sharpen.