“Answer mine and I’ll answer yours.”
“I sort of know something about it. I know it has something to do with how Ylians procreate, and that it’s rare. The whole concept creeps me out.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Itan said, smiling. He didn’t sound sorry at all. If anything, he sounded amused. Asa wanted to choke him. “Humans don’t need to merge in order to reproduce.”
It was a statement, but he felt the need to respond as if it had been a question. “No. Thank God. I don’t think I could handle that.”
A flicker that he couldn’t identify crossed Itan’s face, and then the alien said, “I’m sorry to hear that. I had hoped otherwise.”
Texas clicked his tongue in exasperation and sat back. “You make no sense and you’re starting to piss me off. Either tell me why you’re so interested in my girlfriend, or I’ll beat you to death with this crate.”
Itan laughed, which was not reaction that Asa had wanted. “Spoken like the primitive you are,” the alien gibed.
“I may be a primitive, but at least I don’t slaughter other people for food.”
“I don’t either.”
“Your daddy did.”
He knew he had hit a sore spot when Itan’s face flushed. “Who and what my father was is none of your concern, and his actions are not mine.”
They sat in antagonistic silence for a long time. Joely stirred in her sleep, and both men looked at her, gauging her wakefulness. When she continued to slumber, Asa turned back to his companion.
“You didn’t answer my question. Why are you so interested in Joely?”
“And in you,” he pointed out. “Do you remember the blood samples that were taken from you when you were first brought here?”
“When you first kidnapped us, you mean?” Asa snapped. “Yeah, I remember. You already showed me what they were used for.”
Itan nodded. “That’s not all. I took the liberty of running some additional tests on your sample and Joely’s while we were checking for the virus. Neither one of you has a drop of Ylian or Bruthesan blood.”
He was sour. “I know.”
“And yet when I applied the reactant, it showed that our blood is compatible.”
“I don’t follow.”
Itan sighed as if he was dealing with a recalcitrant child. “The test showed that you and I are compatible for merging.”
Asa went cold. “I don’t want to merge with you. That’s…. gross.” His face crumpled as he tried to contemplate the ramifications of what Itan was saying. “So you tested my blood with yours to see if you and I could merge? Why? What prompted that?”
The alien’s glowing eyes shifted toward Joely.
“You tested it because you want my girl,” he said, hot anger beginning to creep its way up his back. “This is your way of trying to get in with her.”
He expected Itan to deny it, but instead he said, “That’s exactly it. It’s also my one chance to ever be a father, which is something I have always desperately wanted.”
“No, and furthermore, hell no. I am not getting involved in any weird-ass three-way just so you can have a shot at my girlfriend. That is sick and it’s wrong.”
“You asked for my reasons, and I gave them.” The hybrid shrugged, unflappable.
“Why did you even think about merging with a human, anyway?”
“Because every species seems to be able to interbreed with yours. Bruthesans, Ylians, even the Karani…”
“The Karani?”
“The dominant race in the Pulsani System, from the planet Karana.”
Asa scowled. “How the hell would you know what can mate with humans? And who says you have the right to do tests like that, or to insinuate yourself into our lives this way?” His voice was getting louder the longer he talked, but he was too angry to do anything to stop it. “You need to get the hell away from us. I want no part of this bullshit.”
To his surprise, Itan responded not with anger or some aggressive rebuttal, but rather with a sad nod of his head. “I expected you would say that.”
Joely stirred again, and her voice was quiet and creaky when she asked, “Say what?”
“Nothing, babe,” Asa told her. “Sorry I woke you up. How are you feeling?”
She sighed and snuggled up to him. “Like I tried to put my head through a brick wall. Or maybe the brick wall tried to put itself through my head. One of those.”
“Just lie still,” Itan advised. “The headache will pass in time.”
“Speaking of time, how long do you think we need to stay down here? We’re gonna have to get something to eat and drink before too long.” He looked down at Joely, who had curled up with her head on his lap. His hand still rested on her back, and he rubbed in gentle circles.
“By now they’ve found the shuttle, and they know we’re not dead inside of it. They’re probably using every trick they know to find us,” Itan said. “This bunker is shielded from the sort of surface-to-space telemetry they use to track life signs, so we’ll be safe here. As for how long they’ll look… I don’t know. I don’t know how dedicated they are to getting their human meat.”
Joely grimaced. “That’s so disgusting.”
The alien shrugged. “That’s the Taluans.”
A distant thud caught their attention, and they stopped speaking. Joely sat up and clung to Asa’s hand while Itan stood and opened a crate. There was another thud on the ground above, sounding like a ton of bricks being dropped onto the surface not all that far away. The thud repeated, and again, and it was very clear that the thudding was coming closer.
“Is it them?” Asa asked.
Itan nodded, his face grim. He found what he was looking for and pulled out three long-barreled laser rifles. He handed one to Asa. “Do you know how to shoot?” The Texan nodded, and he turned to Joely. “Good. How about you?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want that thing.”
“Would you rather let them take you without a fight?”
She set her jaw and held out her hand. Itan filled her palm with the stock of the gun.
The Ylian hybrid said in a whisper, “Stay quiet and still. They’re trying to flush us out. They don’t really know where we are, but they probably think we’ve gone into the mines. If we stay put, they’ll pass right over our heads.”
The booming thuds came closer. Dirt and tiny shards of splintered rock began to shake free of the ceiling of the room, showering down on their heads. Joely gripped her gun tightly, and Asa moved in front of her, keeping her shielded from the entrance with his big body. Another booming explosion went off right above them, and the shock wave knocked them all from their feet and scattered the crates around the room. They struggled to right themselves as the thudding continued, moving away from them at last.
It lasted forever. The force of the explosions rattled their eardrums and vibrated through their bones, even after the ship had moved off toward the east, leaving their little bunker behind. They listened to the slow rhythm of the bombardment, dazed by the force that had expended itself directly above them. Asa was surprised that the doors had held up to the attack, but he was endlessly grateful that they had.
They listened to the bombing as it moved away, holding their silence even after it was clear that the ships had passed by. It felt like hours, but the Texan supposed it had actually only been a few very intense minutes. However long the actual duration was, he never wanted to experience it again.
“Are they gone?” Joely finally asked.
She was pale, her face drawn, with a tightness around her eyes. He was certain that the bombardment had made her headache immensely worse, and he put his arm around her. “They’re gone.”
“That was the first pass,” Itan said. “There will be two more.”
A fat tear rolled down her cheek, tracing through the dust from the shivering ceiling. “I don’t think I can sit through another one of those.”
“You will, because you have to.”
Asa gla
red at the Ylian. “Jesus, but you’re cold.” He turned to his girlfriend. “Joely, baby, I don’t want to sit through another one, either, but we’ve gotta stay right here until they’re done looking for us. They’ll kill us if they find us, or worse.”
“Worse,” Itan said. “Definitely worse.”
“Regular ray of sunshine, ain’t you?” he groused. He sat on one of the crates that had tumbled from its stack, and he pulled her onto his lap. She went willingly, her arm around his neck.
She stopped crying, but she was still wound up like a spring. “Do you think they’ve got Sera and the boys?”
“Maybe,” he admitted. “Probably.”
“Do you think they’re dead?”
He looked into her eyes. He saw hope there, warring with a dreadful certainty that she already knew the answer. He sighed. “I don’t know, baby. I don’t know.”
She hugged him tight, and he could barely hear her when she breathed into his ear, “My God, how are we gonna get home?”
*
Sera and Beno listened as Theyn spelled out his plan. She sat on the sofa quietly, letting him talk, while Beno paced like a caged tiger. Theyn leaned against the wall beside a holographic image of a gorgeous landscape, all green and strewn with flowers. He had his hands folded behind his hips and he head tipped back as he spoke. Incongruously, at the most random possible moment, she found herself thinking he looked beautiful.
“We need to accomplish three things, as I see it. We need to gather our people together into space-worthy ships and prepare to leave the planet. We need to compel the Bruthesan High Council to let us go without unleashing their own forces against us. Third, and much more difficult, we need to disable the Taluans so that we can escape past their ships and make the jump to lightspeed before they catch us.”
He lowered his gaze to his Companion. “I would like you to lead the group that disrupts the Taluans. Their ships need to be crippled, and those who are on the surface need to be killed or captured.”
“Killed,” Beno said firmly. “Definitely killed.”
“How is he supposed to do that?” Sera asked. “There are a lot more of them than there are of him.”
Theyn nodded. “We’re going to use their telemetry to tell us where their people are.”
“Why would they do that? How are you supposed to get close to their telemetry or whatever?” Sera frowned. “Attacking the Taluans will be suicide.”
“Better to die at a time of our own choosing than to let them choose the time for us,” Beno said softly. He defaulted back to telepathy, his favored form of communication. ‘How do you propose that we do this? I’m a good shot, but you might call this a target-rich environment. It’s one against hundreds.’
Theyn nodded. ‘Yes. Hundreds, but hundreds who operate in groups. From what I’ve learned, they mostly stay in their ship in orbit, or in their base here on the surface. They send out patrols on a regular basis, but there are only ten to twelve Taluans on a patrol at any given time.’
‘Only,’ the solider snorted.
‘We need to find out just how big the Resistance really is, and how well they’re armed,’ Sera told them. ‘For all we know, it’s made up of seven emo teenagers trying to rebel against the system. How do we know we’ve got any sort of fighting force on our side?’
‘That’s something that we’ll need Nima to tell us,’ Theyn admitted. ‘I built this plan by using a few educated guesses.’
‘Keep talking,’ Beno told him, ‘because I’m still not sold.’
The blond Ylian smiled. “The Taluans have to communicate with the slaughterhouse and with the Bruthesan government, right? They have to keep their puppets and surface agents in line and saddled with up-to-date orders. Telecommunications go in two directions, as you know.”
‘Go on.’
“There is probably a central communication center in the High Council compound. It connects Taluan and Bruthesan frequencies and makes it so the two people can understand one another. So why not make it – how was it called in that television show? A party line. Why not that?”
Theyn left his post by the wall and came closer to them, clearly pleased with what he was saying. He sat beside Sera and took her hands.
“A party line,” she echoed. “You want to talk to them both at the same time?”
“No. Not talk. Transmit.”
‘Transmit what?’ Beno stopped pacing and stared at his bond mate with an almost frightening ferocity.
“Transmit a code that will make the Taluan system our slave. It’ll be through the backdoor, and it will give us complete command of the picket ship they have in orbit. From there we can blast the base on the surface and demolish the slaughterhouse, and we can keep control on their guns so our ships can get past them and into deep space.”
“Code like that will take forever to write,” Sera objected, “and to even attempt it, you need to have access to the Taluans’ programs. Right? I mean, I’m no IT expert, but I don’t think that’s something we can just wish into being.”
Theyn smiled. “Why not?”
Both Beno and Sera stared at him as if he was crazy.
He repeated, “Why not? I know someone who once wished a kill switch collar off of both her mommy and daddy. If we ask her to give me control of that ship’s systems, why can’t she do it? She’s the Burning One.”
“Let me get this straight.” Beno’s voice was hard. “Your grand strategy is based on assumptions and superstition?”
Theyn’s voice was just as firm as he replied, “It isn’t superstition if it’s real.”
Sera rubbed her forehead. She was getting a terrible headache. “Honey, I know your religion means a lot to you, and that you want to believe all of the things you’ve been told about your god.” She saw an affronted expression on her blond mate’s face, and she held up a hand to forestall his arguments. “Hold on and listen. She’s got some sort of rogue talent. We can’t deny that. But even if she is the Burning One reborn, like you seem to think she is, how can we explain to a baby what you’re asking her to do?”
“She’s highly intelligent.”
“She’s a baby.” She shook her head. “I get what you’re trying to get at, Theyn, I really do, but the concept might be too advanced for a kid who still craps in a diaper.”
“She understands possession,” he protested. “She understands ‘mine.’”
“Okay. And…?”
“And if I tell her to make that ship’s systems mine, she’ll know exactly what I mean.”
Beno jabbed a finger in his bond mate’s direction. “You are insane. This is the worst plan, the craziest, stupidest plan I’ve ever heard. You were never a soldier, Theyn. Let the soldiers figure this out.”
The blond Ylian set his jaw. “If I let you soldiers figure this out, we’ll end up in some sort of house-to-house firefight.”
“Firefight!” Sera echoed excitedly, feeling inspired.
Both men looked at her in confusion. “Yes.”
She grinned. “The Burning One is represented as a phoenix, right?”
Theyn nodded.
“What does a phoenix do?”
“It burns,” Beno replied.
“Exactly. And I’ve seen Theyn burn through a concrete wall when he was mad enough. Maybe you don’t have to try to explain to her how to take control of the ship’s systems. Maybe you just have to tell her to burn it.”
“Burn what?” Beno asked. “The ship? The base? The slaughterhouse?”
“The whole shit show,” she said, warming to her own idea. “We can use Theyn’s idea and incorporate a little virology. The communication system can be the carrier of her wish to burn the place down.”
“And why would she want to burn anything?” Beno was exasperated. “Theyn only did what he did because he was enraged. Do you think Kira is aware enough of what’s going on to be angry with them?”
“Oh, believe me,” Sera said. “I’m her mother. I know what makes her angry. I can make her want
to burn them down.”
The soldier shook his dark head, his green eyes flashing. ‘You are both out of your minds. You are going to get every last one of us killed with this cockamamie idea of yours.’
“But what if we don’t?” She rose and walked toward him. “What if we can make it all happen? It’s better than hiding in a hole in the ground while the Taluans eat their way through what’s left of your people.”
“If you have a better idea,” Theyn challenged him, “tell me.”
Beno pressed his lips into a hard, unhappy line. “Fine. I will.” He headed for the balcony. “I’m going to think it through, and I’ll come up with something… something that doesn’t involve turning a three-month-old girl into a killer. You should both be ashamed.”
She watched him stalk away, then turned to Theyn. “We’re not crazy, are we? She can do it.”
“I think so.” His shining blue gaze was pinned to the balcony door. “But I’m interested in seeing what he comes up with.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Morning, or what passed for morning beneath the light of phosphorescent lichen, brought Alaia and Nima to the replica palace. Beno unlocked the doors to the royal apartments to allow them inside, and he stepped away from them, his face locked into a scowl. Nima had the good sense to look intimidated as she passed him, keeping her eyes on him as she made her way inside.
Theyn stood in the middle of the room, his arms crossed over his chest, his feet planted as if he expected a fight. His clothing was appropriate for Ylian royalty, white and iridescent, and he gleamed like a pearl. The signet of the Burning One, all gold and gems, hung around his neck, and a platinum circlet rested on his brow. He looked magnificent.
The bedroom closet held a machine that Sera wished she could keep. It generated clothing based upon the thoughts of its user, and anything a person could dream would be created by the magic-like technology of the Ylians. Using that machine, Theyn had created royal garb not just for himself, but also for Sera and Kira, who were both dressed in white gowns made of whisper-light silk that seemed to float when they moved. Sera was dripping in platinum and jewels, none of which she knew the name for, and a similar circlet held her blonde curls back from her face. She felt like a princess, and Theyn had made sure that she looked the part.
Ignition: Alien Ménage Romance (Phoenix Rising Book 2) Page 21