His eyes widened. “I did see such a thing on his shoulder. Exactly as you describe.”
Her worst fears were confirmed. “The American flag. Damn.”
Nex stared at her. “Tell us, Anneliese. Who do you think these men are?”
“They’re armed forces of the United States. The military I fought for. Those I would have followed the orders of when I was enlisted in the army.”
Salno regarded her without alarm. “Warriors are protectors, first and foremost. Honorable people.”
Anneliese didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at her friend’s naivety. “They’re people first, as all Earthlings are. That may or may not mean they’re honorable no matter their profession. Damn. Damn!”
Mirtan hunched. “I am sorry I saw things that make you distrust your leadership, Anneliese. It is the truth, however.”
She sighed. “You’ve done the right thing reporting this. Covert government operations. Man, the conspiracy theorists would love this.”
Nex frowned. “You believe your people would do such a thing?”
“For Monsudan technology? Alien weaponry decades ahead of our own? An extra edge to use against our enemies? Unfortunately, yes. It’s all too possible.”
“They must not know the Monsuda have exposed innocents to experimentation.” Salno was as serene as ever.
Anneliese would have preferred to agree with her, but she knew better. “I’m afraid you’ve got a ton to learn about humans and their lust for power. Or our concept of acceptable sacrifice in the name of progress. Humankind is not morally advanced like you. Not even close.”
Anneliese burned with humiliation to admit the truth about Earthlings. Her species was once more making deals with the devil.
* * *
When a new day dawned and Nex rose to get their breakfast, Anneliese said nothing of the nightmares she’d suffered through. She didn’t want him worried about her any more than he already was. She also didn’t want the almost-constant smile he wore to leave his handsome face. His happiness had come to mean a lot to her.
He possessed the same joy he wanted her to experience, a relaxed but incredible pleasure. She wished she could, but something within refused to relax for any but brief instances. She was on guard for trouble, as she’d been for most of her life.
Anneliese lifted her eyes to the pretty sight of the sky over the dome, its warm-colored palette giving way to another blue perfection. She flexed her bad leg experimentally and discovered it felt normal again. She stretched luxuriously, glad that at least her body was giving her something to celebrate. She propped her pillows where they needed to be and sat up. Bending at the waist, she reached for her feet. Her back didn’t complain, and her hip was at its usual post-injury flexibility, keeping her fingertips a couple inches from her toes.
She grinned at Nex as he brought their breakfast tray in. “Tons better,” she reported.
He slid into bed next to her, kissing her nose and handing her a plate of steaming food. “You still need to take it easy.”
“Haven’t I behaved?”
His proud expression soothed the edge of her angst at not being the strong woman she fought to be. “I appreciate you working hard to let me take care of you.”
“You appreciate me letting you do all the work while I lounge about, the lady of leisure?” She gave him her “you silly man” look.
He laughed. “I do. Mostly because it’s difficult for you.”
“It’s that, all right. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done, believe it or not.”
“I feel as if you trust me now. That means a lot.”
Nex’s gaze was so frank that Anneliese could not doubt that it was a profound moment for him. It tugged at her heart, made her unequal to his regard.
I adore this man. I truly do. I wish I was a better person, just for his sake.
Nex told her, “I want to show how much I trust you in return.”
“How are you going to do that?” She hoped for sex, full-blown penis-in-vagina sex. The extended exploration phase delighted her, but she was aching for more.
Instead, Nex said, “There are tests I have to work on at the lab. I have to make sure everything is done on schedule, or the research will suffer. Unless you believe you’ll be doing something other than carefully walking to and from the lavatory or fetching yourself snacks from the kitchen, I hoped you could spare me for a few hours?”
Though sex would have been better, Anneliese felt a wash of relief. He wouldn’t be triggering her issues by taking care of her for a little while. “Walk by myself to the bathroom? Oh Nex, I feel as free as a bird!”
He laughed at her silliness. As he did so, Anneliese realized she would be left alone. Without him. The idea of that part brought an emptiness she hadn’t expected.
Okay, so she’d get a break from the constant care. A couple hours of that would be enough to ease her angsty control-happy side. It also felt like the limit to how long she could stand to be apart from Nex before the loneliness would yawn too wide.
Figuring some incentive to not spend all day in the lab was in order, Anneliese leaned over and planted a kiss on his lips. “I’m going to put my clothes on and go to your visiting room rather than sit naked in this bed all day. Except for bathroom breaks, that will be it, so don’t fuss.”
He pretended he offered a huge concession. “If you must, my intrepid explorer.”
“I must, I must.” She kissed him again.
“More.” When she gave him another, he sighed happily. “More.”
Anneliese giggled and wrapped her arms around him to cover his gorgeous striped face with kisses. Heaven help her, she was in love. She had to be. She wasn’t sure if their relationship could work if the Elders Council wouldn’t let her stay, but Jeannie had been allowed to.
Best of all, Nex was worthy of Anneliese’s fighting spirit. A man worth battling for. Nobody could fault her for that, not even Salno.
Nex returned her affection until they were panting. The system announced the reminder he’d set so he wouldn’t be late.
Nex sighed. “I’d better go now, or I’m going to lose all my work.”
“Okay.” That agreed to, they continued to make out. After a few more seconds, Anneliese said, “I thought you were going.” She ran her hands over his body, trying to convince him of what a bad idea that would be.
“I am.” More kissing. “I’m really, really going this time.” Instead, he stayed with her, growing more passionate by the second. His body moved against hers, pressing her into the mattress and pillows.
The far-too-fleeting joy that rendered everything perfect had come again, quieting Anneliese’s drive to be in charge. More than sexually excited, she felt the happiness Nex wanted for her. The happiness she wanted for herself. Giving in at moments such as this was becoming easier.
She loved him. She was sure of it.
The system’s reminder went off again. Nex pulled away, his expression filled with real regret. “I have to,” he said in an apologetic tone.
“Don’t worry, I’ll remember where we left off so we can pick it up again.” Anneliese wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, though she inwardly cursed real life ruining things.
Nex regarded her with a softness that compelled her heart to pound harder than his embrace had. “You make me happier than anyone or anything ever has.”
A lump rose in her throat. “Nobody has ever said anything like that to me before.”
“It’s true. I can’t imagine you not being a part of my life, Anneliese. We have to find some way to make that happen.”
Him echoing her hopes made her feel that destiny had determined their affair. “We will.”
His silver eyes brightened. “You want it too?”
“With all my heart. My single heart, which is every bit as big as your two.”
H
e laughed and kissed her once more. When it seemed Nex would succumb to her charms and not leave, Anneliese reluctantly took up responsibility and pushed him away. “I’m not letting you mess up your work and then blame me. Things are too wonderful between us to screw it up.”
“All right. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I’ll be here, counting the seconds.”
She sounded disgustingly sappy, but Nex beamed. Still smiling, he cleared their breakfast and departed.
Anneliese sat in bed for several minutes, replaying all they’d shared. She basked in the warmth of being in love. In Nex wanting her to stay on Risnar with him.
Even considering her few friends and many cousins on Earth didn’t shake Anneliese’s resolve to remain on Risnar. They weren’t Nex. While she would miss them and some aspects of the life she contemplated leaving behind, she felt she had more on the alien planet. Salno was already closer to her than any female friends she’d had, a smart lady who never feared calling Anneliese out. Jape acted as if he might be a friend someday too, once he got past thinking of her as a woman first and a soldier second. A soldier Risnar needed more than any of them realized. Anneliese believed the minute they started losing large numbers of fighters to the Monsuda, the Risnarish would reel from shock. They might lose courage and stop fighting. She could remind them that successfully defending two planets’ societies would be worth the sacrifice.
Considering all of that, Anneliese rose and carefully dressed in her freshly laundered tank top and jeans. Though her knee and hip felt as strong as they ever got, she walked with caution to the visiting room and opened up the language learning program.
As the system prompted her to speak conversational Risnarish, Anneliese dwelled on the war brewing on Risnar. The warmth she’d luxuriated in after snuggling with Nex dissipated, chased off by unhappy visions of Earth military involvement on the wrong side.
Stories she’d once scoffed at haunted her: the supposed cover-up of the Roswell spaceship crash, alien bodies at Area 51, men in black. Maybe they’d been true after all.
Had Mirtan gone to Jape or the Elders Council about Anneliese’s certainty that military officials from Earth had been the ones meeting with the Monsuda? He should have. If he had, why wasn’t Jape or Ehar beating down Nex’s door to talk to her about the matter?
“Or maybe he believed I’d tell them myself. Otherwise, Jape would have dropped by to debrief me.”
The system’s smooth, uninflected feminine voice responded. “That is an incorrect pronunciation. Please try again: Retumo.”
Anneliese flicked her fingers in the air. “Pause lesson.”
“Lesson paused. When you are ready to begin again, state, ‘resume language lesson.’”
Anneliese bad-humoredly flipped the disembodied voice off. She was antsy and worried now. The Monsudan weapons were advanced, something her military would love to get their hands on. The saucer and portal were even better. Intense technology that no doubt officials would be eager to possess. Had the Monsuda offered them such gadgets? And in trade for what? The idea of a platoon of human soldiers coming through the portal, with orders to stop an alien invasion force—one of Risnarish warriors instead of the Monsuda and their drones—was not so far-fetched to Anneliese.
Just as important was the question of whether or not the U.S. government itself sanctioned such discussions or if only a few high-ranking officers had gone rogue.
“That crap does not fly, boys,” Anneliese snarled. The idea of any of those scenarios made her livid with anger.
She stood up and walked around, testing her knee. A twinge here and there, but nothing that would stop her from making a normal day of it. She’d judged the enforcement dome to be less than a mile away. Surely she could walk there and back with no problem.
That she needed to get to Jape was not in question. As far as Anneliese could tell, the Risnarish did not have cell phones, so calling him was out of the question. They used those tabletlike devices, and Anneliese didn’t have one.
She’d have to hoof it. Nex wouldn’t be happy with her if he found out, but she was a big girl who took care of herself. Besides, her knee felt better ahead of the doctor’s predictions, and she had information Jape needed to keep Cas and the rest of Risnar safe.
As she went to the bedroom to fetch her socks and sneakers, Anneliese ignored the nagging concern that Nex would be more than upset with her if he discovered she’d gone. His words about trusting her to sit on her fanny and do nothing rang in her head.
Yet she was sure she could return from her mission before he came home. Besides, what proved her more trustworthy? Hanging out on the couch and fretting? Or racing to the rescue of two worlds on the precipice of unthinkable calamity?
The vision of human soldiers marching into Cas, following orders from their trusted superiors and never knowing they fought for the wrong side, made Anneliese frantic to save everyone. She was doing the right thing, the noble thing, the thing that must be done.
Okay, maybe I’m having another hero moment. But this isn’t to exalt or prove myself. It’s to guard people from two planets from the worst possible scenario. I’d be a coward to let my leg deter me from that. Nex will see that, though the sweetheart worries for me. He has to.
By the time she walked out of the door, Anneliese had convinced herself that Nex would be proud of her for taking care of everyone’s safety.
Chapter Seventeen
When Anneliese got to the enforcement dome, both her knee and hip were telling her she’d pushed herself too much and too soon. However, she’d persevered. She told herself she’d make it back to Nex’s home too.
She went inside the dome and looked around. It was a miniature version of the great dome, with an open circular space topped by the see-through hemisphere ribbed like pie wedges over the top.
The center of the room was empty. Metallic podium pedestals circled it. The curved walls were covered with screens, on many of which scrolled Risnarish writing. Anneliese recognized it from her language lessons, though she’d concentrated more on speaking than reading. A few screens showed the vast grassy plains that surrounded Cas.
It was a lot of dome for the half dozen Risnarish men who looked up questioningly at her entrance. Nex had mentioned that though its principle use was for the village’s law enforcement, meetings of the warrior captains and some battle staging also took place there. Maybe that was what all the space was for, Anneliese reasoned.
She smiled as Jape moved from a podium and hurried toward her. “Anneliese, I didn’t think you were allowed up and around.”
“We have a saying on Earth: you can’t keep a good woman down.”
Jape chuckled at that. “I had plans to visit later today. Mirtan mentioned you had some concerns about the men he saw.”
Anneliese managed to maintain her pleasant expression, despite the news that her painful trip to visit him had not been necessary after all. She shrugged as if it were no big deal. “I do have some insight to share with you. Is there somewhere I can sit?”
For an answer, Jape picked her up. She didn’t have enough warning to yelp in surprise or protest when he set her on the flat top of an unmanned podium. After a moment’s fluster, it was great to be above the big golden guy for a change. Anneliese was not short, and it had needled her that she had to look up at all the Risnarish, women as well as men.
Being perched on the podium was fine for her hip, but her legs swung high above the floor. Her throbbing knee got louder with its complaints. Anneliese decided she’d give her report to Jape fast and head for Nex’s as soon as possible.
“Jape, I hate to say anything derogatory about my own people. Unfortunately, there have been times our leaders have not had the public’s welfare as their driving interest.”
“Then they should not be leaders.”
Anneliese could have talked for hours about that ve
ry detail, but she needed to stay focused and get going. “Rumors have floated around for years about the government and military working in conjunction with alien intelligences. Most of our population believe such stories are ridiculous, but then alien abduction and experimentation is considered a hoax as well.”
She went on to mention a few of the conspiracy theories she knew of. Anneliese was glad she’d rehearsed much of it on her way over, mostly to distract herself from the growing pain in her leg. She told Jape and his men, who had come over to listen with curiosity, tales of government and military representatives threatening people. “Particularly soldiers who had gone public with stories of their involvement in alien interactions,” she said.
Jape listened to her concerns, his expression turning grimmer with each detail. “Is there a possibility of a clandestine operation between the Monsuda and certain leaders on Earth?”
“A possibility? Absolutely. But I can’t offer proof. If you trust Mirtan—and after talking to him, I sure do—then there is without a doubt a problem. The question is, would my government send in soldiers to fight on the side of the Monsuda?”
“You couldn’t go there and warn them? Explain to them, if they are considering fighting for the Monsuda, that they are on the wrong side?”
Anneliese shook her head, depressed about the matter. “I’ve got the ugly feeling those in power might not want to hear of it, not if the Monsuda are offering them technology. If I confronted such people, I believe there would be a chance of me disappearing before I could find someone of greater importance. That’s assuming I could convince anyone of significant standing.”
Jape nodded. “I have been told of this disbelief on Earth in regards to those abducted for experimentation.” He paced back and forth, his face knotting in worry. “This is bad, Anneliese. We have to defend ourselves. However, if you are correct, your soldiers could be sent in ready to fight us because they have been lied to. How can we battle in good conscience and possibly kill Earthlings?”
Worlds Apart (Warriors of Risnar) Page 21