“What discovery?” Joely asked.
“Just watch.” He looked at Asa. “Mind if I take a little blood?”
“From me?”
“No, from the table. Yes, from you.”
“I mind a little. It’s getting old. You guys have taken at least a pint by now. Why do you want it?”
Itan sighed. “I need to show you something.”
Joely pushed up her sleeve. “Take mine.”
“No.” Itan shook his head. “This has to be from him.”
The pilot groaned. “Nima’s going to have your head.”
“I don’t frankly care what Nima says anymore,” Itan advised her. “Things have changed.”
“Does your wife know that?” Petis asked, snickering.
“Not yet, but she will.” He turned to Asa with his extraordinary green and purple eyes. “Will you allow it?”
The cowboy glanced at Joely, then sighed. “Yeah, all right.”
Petis laughed, and the sound had a cruel edge. “You’re an idiot, Itan. You’re a hybrid, yourself, so what is this supposed to prove?”
Joely was confused, and she had the distinct impression that everybody else in the room knew what was actually happening here, and that they weren’t inclined to share the secret. She watched as Itan pressed the medical probe to Asa’s skin. A sample of scarlet human blood rose in the chamber of the object. Itan withdrew the probe and popped the sample out of the chamber, fitting it into a slot on the strange tech object on the table before him. He added a sample of his own blood, then dropped a piece of black, sponge-like material into a tiny basin in the center of the unit.
“That stuff’s expensive,” Petis complained. “You’re wasting it.”
“Give me your arm.”
Petis complied, and Itan took a blood sample from him, as well.
“You’re out of your mind,” the hybrid opined.
Itan ignored him and put a few drops of Asa’s blood on the sponge, a few drops fo Petis’s, then a few drops of his own. The material absorbed the samples immediately, changing in color from black to green in the process.
“What’s happening?” Joely asked Asa in a whisper.
He whispered back, “I don’t know.”
“He’s making a fool of himself, that’s what’s happening,” Petis carped.
There was a button on the side of the unit, and when Itan pressed it, the basin began to heat. Joely could feel the temperature change over the top of the table, the warmth of the chemical reaction chasing away the clammy coolness of the cavern. The green material in the basin shivered once, then suddenly vanished in a puff of green gas that floated up toward the ceiling. Itan sat back with a satisfied smile while the rest of the group gaped at him. Joely and Asa looked at him in ignorance, but the others were thunderstruck.
Itan looked at the pilot, then at Petis. “We can merge.”
One of the full-blooded Ylians demanded, “How is that possible?”
“Dr. Zinthna was doing some tests, and she found this. It doesn’t happen with every human male, but it happened with him. Human blood is the key.”
Asa shook his head. “The fuck you talking about, man?”
“Merging,” the pilot told them, her voice breathy with disbelief. “It’s the only way that Ylians can mate with one another. Two males have to merge in order to combine their genetic material and impregnate a female.”
“And what does this have to do with me?”
“No matter whose blood you’re tested with,” Itan told him, “the merging happens. I’ve tested this with all of the samples we took from you. It always happens when your blood is added into the mix.”
Asa looked ill. “So that’s why you guys kept coming at me for more and more blood samples.”
Another of the full-blooded Ylians thrust his arm at Itan. “Test me.”
He complied, taking a sample from the man. The blood was orange-red, a different color than human blood, and a different color than the deep garnet that Itan’s blood had been. Itan put another piece of the black material into the basin. He added a drop of Asa’s blood, then a drop of the Ylian’s, and a drop of his own. Again he heated the sample, and as they had seen before, the material sublimated with a hiss.
The Ylian sat back, tears of wonder in his eyes. “Great Phoenix,” he breathed. “I never thought I’d live to see the day…”
“There’s more.” Itan went to the other full-blooded Ylian male at the table, one who sat close beside the first. He took blood from that man, too, then returned to the unit. He added a drop from the first Ylian, a drop from the second, and a drop from Asa. Again, the sample vanished into vapor.
The room fell into stunned silence. The first full-blooded Ylian clasped the wrist of the second and held on tightly, and Joely, not completely understanding what she was witnessing, clung to Asa, ready to protect him.
Itan looked at the stunned faced around him. “It happens this way every time I test it. Human blood, at least the blood of certain humans, is the key. His blood will let us merge. This works with full bloods, Ylian/humans and Ylian/Bruthesans.” He said it again, as if they were the most important words he had ever said. Perhaps they were. “We can all merge now.”
The aliens all turned and looked at Asa, the movement so deliberate and synchronized that Joely was alarmed. “Oh, no. Don’t – I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you are not killing Asa.”
“Why would we kill him?” the first Ylian asked. “We need him alive.”
The pilot put her head in her hand, then said, “So this is the test of the blood. What about the biology? Have you tested the functionality of it?”
Itan shook his head. “There hasn’t been time. I was hoping that perhaps, while we’re here in a safe place, we could test it now.”
Asa looked at Joely, then at the others. “Now, wait just one God-damned minute here… What the what are you talkin’ about? Functional testing? What the – “
“Calm yourself,” Itan told him.
“This involves me and I’ve got no idea what the hell you’re talkin’ about, so by God I will not calm myself!” He stood and snatched the rifle away from Itan’s side. He pointed it at the group at the table, and Joely sprang to stand behind him. “Ain’t nobody testin’ one more thing, you hear?”
Petis rolled his eyes. “Typical human… wants to solve everything with aggression.”
“You’re damn right I do.” Asa glanced at the rifle, then back up at the group. “Now, somebody is gonna put us back in that shuttle, and you’re gonna take us back to Earth. Right. Now.”
Joely gasped. “But Sera – “
“She made her choices. This is mine.” He looked at her. “You with me or not?”
Her mind raced, torn. Her best friend was out there, maybe alone, maybe in trouble. They still hadn’t found Kira. There was a whole world that she knew nothing about, and a festering war that she wanted no part of, and strange medical experiments and aliens looking at her man like he was prime meat…. She took a deep breath.
“I’m with you.”
The pilot rose, her lips pressed into a thin line. “This shuttle isn’t rated for interstellar travel,” she told them, “but we have one that is. I’ll take you back.”
Itan shouted, “No! You can’t do this!” The desperation in his voice was sharp. “This is the closest I’ve ever come to being able to merge. This could save our people!”
The pilot sighed. “We’re too few now. This might have helped back in the day, but now? It’s too late.” She gestured toward a blast door, a different one than the one they had taken to come into the chamber. “Go through that way. It’ll take you to the shuttle bay.”
Asa raised the rifle and pointed it at her. “You first.”
“I’ll go.” Itan stood up, abandoning his testing equipment. “I’ll take you home.”
The Texan leveled the gun at his face. “See that you do.”
*
When morning came, Alaia and Nima a
rrived. Theyn stood as they entered the apartments, his arms crossed, his face stern. Beno stood nearby, adding his silent support to what was about to happen. On the bed, Sera held Kira, watching and waiting to see what her blond mate would do.
“You asked to see us, Your Majesty?” the priestess asked politely.
“I did.” He glanced at his bond mate, who kept his face neutral. Theyn had not told either Beno or Sera what he intended to do. He turned back to Alaia. “I will agree to lead your Resistance on one condition.”
The priestess beamed. “Anything.”
“That the end goal is not to take Bruthes. The end goal is to free our people so we can relocate somewhere safer, somewhere the Taluans cannot follow.”
Nima frowned. “There’s no such place.”
Beno spoke up. “Have you thought this through at all? Do you think that the Taluans will just quietly fly away when you take the planet?”
“It’s been obvious all along that very little thought has gone into their aims,” Theyn told him drily. Nima had the good sense to look embarrassed. “There is no way that we can, or should, take Bruthes from its own people. That would make us no better than the Taluans, and that is not who we are.”
Alaia clasped her hands in front of her, and Sera could tell that she was agitated but trying not to show it. “And where is this safe place you suggest?”
Theyn smiled. “Earth.”
“And how is it that the Taluans can’t follow us there? What makes Earth any safer than Bruthes?”
Sera spoke up. “We have camouflage. The Taluans can’t find us.”
Nima snorted. “The camouflage isn’t that good. We can still find your world from here.”
“Only because you already know the coordinates,” Theyn pointed out. “If you had to guess at the location, you would have no idea that Earth was even there.”
Beno said flatly. “You have no other option. You obey the Emperor’s commands, or you continue to live as fodder for Taluans.”
The two Ylian women looked at one another for a long, silent moment. Finally, Alaia nodded, and Nima turned back to Theyn.
“What are your commands?”
He smiled thinly. “Take us to the leaders of your Resistance, and I’ll tell you all at once.”
There was another exchange of glances, and Sera wondered if they were communicating telepathically. Nima turned back to the bond mates.
“All right. Follow me.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The shuttle hummed quietly with Itan at the controls. Asa and Joely took their seats, ready for the long trip back to Earth. She felt like she was the worst friend in history for leaving Sera and her family behind. She hated to admit it, but her fear was winning, and all she could think about was getting away from Bruthes and going home to hide with Asa in some safe place.
As if there’s any place that’s really safe, she thought morosely.
Itan spoke without turning around. “This is going to be dodgy. We don’t have the Taluans’ permission to leave the atmosphere, and our flight plan hasn’t been registered with the central computer. They’re likely to order us to land, or worse.”
“What do you mean by worse?” Asa asked.
“I mean they could shoot us out of the sky.” This time, he did glance back at them. “I don’t know if humans have gods, but if you do, maybe now is a good time to start praying.”
“Do aliens pray?” the Texan asked, squirming a bit as the seat got overly friendly with his lower half once again. “I mean, aren’t you too technologically advanced for that sort of superstitious stuff?”
Itan shook his head. “Godless heathen.”
Joely burst into laughter that was just a hair shy of hysterical. She clamped her hands over her mouth to stifle the sound, but she couldn’t stop giggling. Both men looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. Itan went back to getting the shuttle ready for their attempted escape, and Asa leaned his head back against the headrest of his seat.
“This is not really happening.”
The shuttle rose from the ground and hovered for a moment, then the sound of its engines increased in pitch. Smoothly, it swept forward, leaving their hiding place in the desert behind. The walls had gone transparent again, something that Joely found exhilarating and a little scary, and she could watch the ground whipping past beneath them, the featureless landscape quickly giving way to low buildings, then to a walled city.
As soon as they approached the city, the comm unit in the control panel sparked to life. “Shuttle Edko,” a gravelly voice said, “what is your cargo and destination?”
Itan hesitated, then replied, “Breeders for Itzela colony.”
“You’re not on the day’s shipping manifest.”
Joely started to sweat. Their pilot, however, maintained a cool demeanor. “Then there must be some mistake, because this shipment has been scheduled for days.”
Ahead of them, a spiny monstrosity of a warship rose into view, its dark-skinned body appearing over the top of the city walls. If a ship could look angry, this one did, and Joely rubbed her palms against the legs of her jeans. This was about to end very badly.
“Stand to, Shuttle Edko. Land at once and prepare to be boarded.”
Asa began to mutter. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck….”
Itan turned off the comm and began pressing the touch screen before him with rapid, spidery movements of his fingers. The menacing ship ahead of them began to fly toward them, leaving its vertical launch to begin its pursuit. Joely asked, “Are those the Bruthesans?”
“Taluans.” He input another set of commands, then gripped the throttle. “Hold on. This is going to get bumpy.”
She held on. The Taluan ship came closer, and she could see that it dwarfed the shuttle by a thousand-fold. Similar scenes from a hundred science fiction movies ran through her mind, and she tried to remember how those movies ended.
The shuttle lurched forward, and its nose tilted precipitously up toward the sky, exposing its underside to the Taluan craft. A volley of laser fire streaked out toward them. The loveless fingers of energy fell just shy of their shuttle, but that would not be the case for much longer. The two vessels were closing in on each with blinding rapidity. Joely whined in the back of her throat as Itan put the shuttle’s evasive abilities to the test, wrenching the throttle to avoid the steady fire from the Taluan ship. The engines screamed as he pushed the shuttle toward the ionosphere, trying to break out of Bruthes’ gravity without getting shot in the process.
They made it above the cloud layer, leaving the Taluan cruiser behind, and she dared to think that they might survive this trip after all. Then the white blanket ahead and beneath them parted for a slender vessel that was shaped like a silver bullet. It pointed at them, and a small circle on the tip of the nose cone began to glow.
Itan spat something that her translator earring did not understand, and he wrenched the controls again. The shuttle was flung onto its side, but they stayed right where they were, the technology in the Ylian seats holding them snugly. A brilliant blast of white-hot energy shot past them, missing them by only a matter of inches.
A computer voice calmly said, “Emergency turbulence measures enacted.”
“What does that mean?” Asa demanded.
There was no time to answer. The seats sprouted pseudopods that wrapped around their torsos, covering their soft parts and tucking them into their seats even more snugly. Another protrusion from the seat reached up and wrapped around their heads, swaddling them in padding and protection until only a T-shaped aperture remained through which they could see and hear. Even that was occluded by a very thin layer of plastic, or whatever malleable material made up the bodies of their seats.
The computer voice spoke again. “Automatic evasion protocols initiated.”
Joely looked toward the cockpit, and she could see that Itan was now smothered in chair, too. Through the forward screen, she could see their silver attacker’s nose beginning to glow again. She bit h
er lip to keep from crying out as the little ship revealed itself to be a sort of remote-controlled torpedo tube, and the missiles it spat were headed directly toward them. The shuttle shook like a toy in a giant’s fist, and the engines abruptly died. The sudden silence was eerie and complete.
The first missile exploded just in front of the shuttle, but the second was on target and struck them amidships. The silence was shattered by the roar of the explosion, and then the only thing Joely could see was darkness.*
Nima led them back into the catacombs beneath the temple compound. “The Bruthesans gave us this compound when we first arrived here, and under the terms of our agreement with them, they can’t come in here without an invitation. The Taluans agreed to abide by that agreement when they took over, partly to keep us from rebelling, and partly to keep us in one place. They put the slaughterhouse next door as a provocation and a reminder of what would happen if we got out of line.” She stopped long enough to push open a hidden door, one that led to a disused service tunnel. “We got the message.”
Sera held Kira more tightly as they proceeded down the tunnel. The little girl turned her head, staring at the stone walls as they went by, fascinated by the rocks and shadows. Not for the first time, Sera felt like her daughter had an adult mind in an infant’s body. It was a trifle disconcerting.
“The majority of our population, both full blood and hybrid, live in the area right around the temple, as you’ve seen,” Alaia said, taking up the tale. “That’s given us access to a lot of cellars and buildings, and over the years, we’ve constructed a nice little honeycomb of chambers and tunnels down here.”
“That’s a lot of work,” Theyn said, sounding impressed. “Didn’t they realize that you were tunneling?”
“They had no idea. Work crews would come in as worshippers, stay for a few hours, then leave again as if the rituals had just ended. The Bruthesans and Taluans aren’t any wiser.”
“How long have the Taluans and Bruthesans been harvesting our people?” Beno asked. “How long have these tunnels been in use?”
Nima sighed, “Long enough.”
Sera commented, “I assume it’s been a long time. The way people seem to be accepting the status quo, it’s like it’s the only thing they’ve known.”
Ignition: Alien Ménage Romance (Phoenix Rising Book 2) Page 18