Exhaling a little when she saw no one there, she motioned with her head towards a staircase on the other end of the corridor.
The staircase wound up in a graceful spiral, steep and made entirely of metal. It was definitely of a human design, given the elaborate iron bannister that wound around the outside. The Nirreth didn’t generally design railings into their staircases...partly, Jet suspected, because they risked banging their tails into them as they climbed, and partly because their tails afforded them better balance anyway, so they didn’t need them.
Giving Alice a last glance, Jet began climbing the stairs with her bare feet, moving fast and as silently as possible.
She knew the library lived at the top of those stairs; the library formed the highest point of the entire compound, and the stairs were the only way up.
Even so, she paused a little when she reached the top, still affected by the view of the glass-roofed structure. The library had been Jet’s favorite place when she lived here as a slave of the Royals.
The room’s walls were mostly dark now; none of the artificial lights appeared to be on, so most of the books themselves couldn’t be seen apart from their steep shelving. Yet the enormous skylight curved elegantly overhead, teeming with stars from the night sky of the Nirreth dome. As a result, most of the center of the room still had some illumination.
Like when she’d first seen it, the library reminded Jet more than anything of an ancient cathedral from Old Earth, like she’d seen in Chiyeko’s picture books as a kid. Stained glass windows curved down three of the rounded walls, interspersed with wide bookshelves made of wood. If the lights were switched on, she’d see spines of every color and age represented there, with subjects ranging from fly-fishing to philosophy to art to fictional stories about everything from robots and space ships to Ancient China.
The bookshelves themselves filled most of the twenty or thirty meter high spaces in between the stained glass windows below the skylight. Jet had thought to herself more than once that they resembled multi-colored rays of the sun.
The furniture Jet remembered had been a combination of human and Nirreth, with most of the human-type designs being more decorative than for common use. Even so, they gave the room an old-fashioned appearance to Jet’s eyes, and in a way she liked.
The room had a lot more Nirreth in it than human, however...despite the human details here and there. Long planters filled the spaces on either side of the stained glass near the edges of the skylight, filled with vines and flowers and trees that grew out of the walls above the windows and bookshelves. In the one panel without any bookshelf at all, a tree-shaped stone fountain covered the width of the space, made of dark blue stone and carved with elaborate details of leaves and bark and flowers.
Even now, Jet found the room profoundly still, eerily beautiful.
Before, birds had filled the high dome and roosted on the trees and bookshelves. Colored lights had shone on the statues and reading lamps by the long tables. Nirreth had sat on the long couches, coiled up with books or lounging on their backs, looking up at the skylight.
Now everything was dark. Jet couldn’t hear any birds, not even the rustle of their feathers and feet. She had to assume they were gone from here, too.
Looking up, she scanned the high dome with her eyes.
She wondered if they would have taken it already, if the stone was even...
She saw it.
Before she’d even completed the thought, she caught the glint of light on its multi-faceted surface, shining a near white in the dark.
Blinking up, she squinted at it, doubting her eyes at first...but no, she was sure. That was it. The blue-green stone glowed faintly in the starlight from the very apex of the high dome, where it formed a focal point for the entire room.
It hadn’t occurred to her until now that some of the Nirreth who had lounged in here, staring up at the skylight with their heads resting on their arms, might also have been looking at the stone. Given what Laksri and Trazen said about the Loran Stone, they clearly viewed it as a kind of quasi-religious object...a sacred one, at least.
Jet had known for some time that the Nirreth believed their ruling clans had a whiff of the mystical about them. She’d never given it much thought apart from trying to make sense of their political games, but she’d known it was a big part of their rhetoric.
Staring up at the stone now, it also occurred to Jet for the first time that she had no idea how her and Alice were supposed to get it down from there.
Even as she thought it, Alice was holding up her gun, showing it to Jet.
“What you think, mammal?” she said in her deadpan voice. “I think this is fastest, yes?”
Jet looked at her, a bit alarmed. “You think you can shoot it down?” she said, a little horrified, in spite of herself.
Alice shrugged. “You got a better idea?”
Before Jet could think of a good answer, another voice broke the quiet, speaking from the far side of the round room.
“That won’t be necessary,” the voice said, its voice a low hiss.
Jet and Alice both tensed and turned.
Jet swiveled on her heel, her sword gripped in both hands as she sank to a fighting stance. Next to her, Alice aimed her gun into that dark as well, pointing it right in the direction of the voice. Jet still couldn’t see anything but shadows, however.
Undaunted by their reactions, the stranger continued speaking in the same calm voice.
“...This is over now, Jet Tetsuo,” the being said, its voice deep, melodious, and somehow feminine. “This war of yours, this rebellion...it is finally over.”
Jet lowered her sword, moving out of the fighting crouch before consciously making the decision.
“Who are you?” she said.
The being walked forward, out of the dark and into the starlit center of the round room.
Alice continued to aim her gun in its direction, but the being barely spared the weapon a glance, focusing its gaze on Jet instead.
Now that she could see it, Jet thought it had to be Nirreth.
“We are taking the stone,” the creature told her.
Jet felt her jaw harden, even as she raised the sword back to attack position.
“No,” she said. “I’m sorry, but I can’t allow that.” Pausing when the other didn’t speak, she made her voice harsher. “Who are you? How do you know me?”
The creature let out a longer, purr-like sigh.
Jet waited for it to answer her, but it didn’t.
“Where is everyone?” she said, feeling her jaw harden. “Where are Isreti’s people? Are they hiding in the residence?”
“Some are, yes,” the Nirreth responded calmly. “Most heard of his death and left...but some are still here. Some intend to fight you and yours, as soon as you breach the inner walls. Some of them will die...they will take some of yours with them.”
Jet clutched the sword tighter in her hands, twisting her palms and fingers over the hilt’s grip. “Is that a threat?” she said. “Are you threatening us?”
“No,” the other said simply.
Jet glanced at Alice. The other women returned her brief look, her expression reflecting a similar confusion and hesitation. Alice continued to aim the gun at the Nirreth standing there in the shadows, but she hadn’t fired, nor did Jet really want her to.
“We are giving him to you,” the strange Nirreth said. When Jet turned, she found those dark, reflecting eyes focused directly on hers once more. “We are gifting his debt to you, Jet. We relinquish all claim over him...all vows. For this life, at least.”
Jet frowned, feeling her brow scrunch over her eyes. Taking a step forward, she reinforced her grip on the sword. For some reason, pain built in her chest.
“What?” she said. “What are you talking about? Who are you giving to me?”
The Nirreth didn’t answer immediately.
When the tall creature took a number of slow steps forward, Jet stepped back, feeling her muscles tense a
s she raised Black higher, making the threat obvious that time, overt. But the Nirreth continued to walk without hesitation, seemingly undaunted by Jet’s brandishing of the sword. The robed lizard acted like it had scarcely noticed Black at all.
Once the creature reached the light at the center of the room, Jet realized she’d made a mistake. The Nirreth wasn’t male like she’d started to think...but female.
Jet hadn’t been able to discern the difference solely from the strange Nirreth’s voice, and even now, could only just see the telltale signs in the dim light of the room. Now that Jet saw it, however, those differences seemed obvious. The Nirreth standing before her had a thicker tail and wider shoulders than most males of the species, along with shorter legs. She had a broader, larger-featured face and yet more delicate hands and feet. Definitely more the usual body type for a female of the species.
Stopping in the center of the circular floor, the strange Nirreth gave Jet one of those subtle Nirreth smiles, her dark eyes shimmering with starlight.
“You know who,” she said cryptically.
It took Jet a second to realize the Nirreth had just answered her question.
Before Jet could say anything, the female Nirreth folded her hands in front of her long robe, which Jet found herself staring at as well. She’d never seen clothing like that on a Nirreth before. Even so, there was something familiar about it. Something she couldn’t quite wrap her head around. Was it close to some kind of human clothing?
Jet couldn’t decide.
“How many are left?” she said, her voice blunt. “Of your people.”
“My people, Jet Tetsuo?”
“Yours. Isreti’s.” Jet felt her jaw harden. “The ones who want to see all humans enslaved and eaten. How many stayed?”
The female Nirreth simply stood there, her face unmoving.
“Who are you?” Jet said.
“I am not any of the things you just described,” the Nirreth said. “As you very well know.”
Jet had known that somehow.
Even so, the female’s answer only frustrated her.
“Then who are you?” Jet said, angrier. “Are you going to tell me? Because if not, I might have Alice here shoot you. I wonder if that would make you more talkative?”
The female sighed. “We do not have time for all of the complications that could arise around that, Jet Tetsuo,” she said. “I only waited here as a courtesy to you...and so you would not waste your time looking for that which cannot be found. That which is no longer relevant to what will come next.” Pausing, she added more gently, “The time of the Royals is past. You will explain this to them. It will be hard for them to hear you at first...but you will explain. The venom will help. You can share the memories of this exchange...”
“With Laksri?” Jet said, blunt. “Prince Laksri?”
The female Nirreth only smiled, not answering. When she spoke next, it was as if Jet hadn’t asked her a question at all.
“A new time must dawn, Jet Tetsuo...one that is based on a different way of doing things.” She paused. “You can help them with this. We needed a species that could. You each have things the other needs.”
“Humans, you mean?” Jet said. “Humans can help?”
“Yes.”
Jet glanced at Alice, who frowned as well, holding up her hands in an obvious “I have no idea what she’s talking about” gesture.
Feeling her own confusion deepen, Jet looked back at the female Nirreth.
“You’re not with Isreti’s people?” she said, her voice hesitant.
The Nirreth female smiled, as if that question were amusing.
“Who are you?” Jet said again.
“You needn’t worry,” the female said, again speaking as if Jet hadn’t. “Tell them, they needn’t worry, either.”
The female Nirreth sighed again. Her smile grew sad briefly, but most of what Jet saw there still looked closer to peace. Not just peace...joy. A silent contentment Jet had never seen before but that also looked and felt familiar somehow, although from where, she couldn’t say. Whatever it was that female Nirreth projected, it was difficult to rail against or even simply reject, although some part of Jet really wanted to.
She couldn’t help wondering why.
“There are those who will fight this, of course,” the female Nirreth said, her voice a softer murmur. “Some will fight this very hard, Jet Tetsuo...to their very deaths. They will take others with them.” Sadness touched that smile again briefly, even as her face tilted up and the female Nirreth appeared to be gazing at the stars. “But change cannot be stopped, Jet Tetsuo. It cannot. And this change is already underway. Eventually, it will seem as normal as breathing...even to those who now think they will choke on it.”
She smiled.
“...Even to you, Jet Tetsuo,” she said, softer.
The Nirreth’s words sounded strangely far away by the end.
Jet heard them like they came through a distant tunnel, like the underwater tunnel she and Alice had just left. Jet felt tiredness seep over her limbs...more tiredness than she could ever remember feeling. She fought to focus her eyes, glancing at Alice who stood next to her, but the other woman looked confused too, her dark eyes glassy even in the starlight.
Alice’s gun pointed at the floor now. She still clasped it in both hands, but from her face, she’d all but forgotten it.
“It will seem like we made this change,” the female Nirreth said. “It always seems like that, doesn’t it?” The woman smiled, her voice holding that soft joy. “It always seems all at once too, does it not? Like one dramatic move, rather than a few billion very small ones? I suppose that makes it easier for those who prefer to stay still and watch...or even to run as fast as they can in the opposite direction.”
Jet fought to understand. The words sounded almost like music now, a faraway melody she longed for, but couldn’t quite make out.
She felt like she should be doing something here.
She’d come to do something...hadn’t she?
Something important.
Something for Trazen...
“You will be all right,” the female Nirreth repeated. “Everything will turn out all right, Jet Tetsuo. There is no wrong choice...only the one that is right for you.” The female Nirreth smiled. “It is okay to want little things, you know. It is enough to have a good life.”
Jet barely heard her.
She’d fallen to her knees at some point while the woman spoke, while she’d been trying to catch the whispers of that softer melody in the night. She knelt on the carpeted floor of the library, but despite everything that happened that day, Jet felt no pain.
The breath that left her lungs came out more like an exhale than a gasp, and the emotion with it was closer to relief than any kind of fear.
She couldn’t really focus on the room anymore.
When the alarms went off overhead, those sounded far away too, underwater.
The next thing she knew, she was lying on her back, the hilt of Black still clutched in one hand. Eventually she opened her fingers and let that go too. Panting, still fighting against the tiredness that felt like cement on her limbs and body, Jet stared up at the apex of the room, and then got lost in a wash of stars that swiftly filled her vision.
In the middle, like a translucent eye staring down at her from above, she saw the glint of a blue-green jewel reflecting multi-colored starlight.
Still staring up at it, Jet smiled.
She couldn’t help herself, although she couldn’t put into words what she felt.
Somewhere in the midst of that smile, her eyes closed...
...And everything went dark.
THE CHOICE
She woke up not knowing where she was, for the second time that day.
Lying on something soft, she held up a hand to shield her eyes from a too-bright light. She didn’t feel like she had that first time she woke up, though. She didn’t feel sick like she had. She didn’t feel like her heart had been ripped o
ut of her chest.
She felt...peaceful.
It took her a few seconds more to see past that glare, then a few more to get her bearings in any meaningful way.
By then, her mind was coalescing around her for real.
When she turned her head, she saw Laksri sitting on a velvet couch, right next to the one where she lay. A wave of dizziness went over her when she tried to sit up, but Laksri moved towards her at once, helping her carefully into a seated position, pushing a cushion behind her back to steady her.
Jet gave herself a few seconds to just sit there, to bring herself back into her body.
When she felt more or less normal, she turned her head and found Laksri watching her, the light blue and white stars in her eyes transporting her briefly back to the library’s skylight, back to that female Nirreth’s voice that sounded like music.
“Where are we?” she said, clearing her throat.
“The Royal compound, Jet,” Laksri said.
His voice was careful, his dark eyes still studying her face.
“What happened?” she said, when he didn’t offer anything more.
Laksri looked away, leaning his muscular arms over his thighs before he looked up at her again. For the first time, she noticed he was wearing non-military clothes, totally different than what he’d worn when she’d last seen him, inside that barn. Dark leggings covered his legs and a dark-blue shirt hugged his arms and chest. A matching blue scarf wrapped around his head, and he wore a pendant she remembered around his neck.
The clothes were similar to kinds of things he’d worn before the assassination attempt, when he was still the First Son of the Royal family.
But he didn’t wear the Royal crest, Jet noticed, not anywhere on his body.
He didn’t wear the ring of the First Son either, she saw, when she looked at his hands.
“The Loran Stone,” she said. “It’s gone, isn’t it?”
Laksri met her gaze, frowning. He nodded, once.
“Isreti’s people have it,” he said.
Jet shook her head. “No,” she said. “No...they don’t.”
Alien Apocalypse: The Complete Series (Parts I-IV) Page 87