by Mel Todd
"More bloodthirsty than most scientists I've run across," McKenna commented, all too aware of Rarz listening and paying attention to all of them. Though Toni's continued lurking in the kitchen nagged at the back of her mind.
"My sister was killed in London in one of the first landings, protecting some teens that were shifters. I never was much for pacifistic crap anyhow." Blair said, and focused on Rarz.
Laurent came out of the kitchen, the cooler obviously staying in there. "They said they'd have food out shortly." He kept furniture between him and Rarz, though all of them gave Rarz a wide berth. "Do you have anything you can't eat or don't eat?"
"No. Food is fine. I doubt there is any food on your planet I am not capable of ingesting without incident." Rarz replied in a level voice, as if none of this disturbed him.
In other circumstances McKenna might have dug out hot peppers to test that, but now she removed it as anything to worry about. And the smells from the kitchen were very distracting.
"Sir, if I may?" Gunny Roberts asked.
Doug waved at him. "Go for it. But Rarz?" He waited until the Drakyn had focused on him. "We're desperate, I don't have time for fancy negotiations or anything. I'll promise what I can, but I might be overruled. Know that we are very fragmented now and what I say may not be backed up by our politicians."
Rarz's wings bobbled up and down a bit. "Understood. I am familiar with the ways of politicians from other cultures. My culture doesn't support that type of interaction, but I do understand your structure. Others have had it though, and many of them have also suffered from the Elentrin." He leaned back again, and McKenna arched her eyebrows as his tail created a way for him to balance in an odd tripod way.
I wonder if that’s comfortable. It does put him at a height advantage, but I don't have any stools and anything else would either break under him or would be horribly uncomfortable.
She let it be as the woman watched while Doug waved at Roberts. "All yours, Gunny."
"I have a few questions if you don't mind, sir." This time it was clear he was addressing the Drakyn who nodded and paid attention to the Marine. McKenna felt like a third wheel, and took another swallow of her cider, trying to ignore the food smells. It had been a while since they'd had home-cooked food.
"That is why I am here. Ask. I will not be offended." Rarz rumbled, his voice sounding more powerful than it should.
I almost want him to go back to human, just so he feels more normal, but the point was to have him NOT be normal. Why me?
McKenna sipped the cider again and tried to focus. Exhaustion, restricted calories, death, fear, and stress, they all combined to make her want to turn into her cat, curl up in a ball and sleep.
~Could I get some caffeine? Falling asleep.~
~Ooh, yes please,~ Cass and JD chimed in. McKenna glanced their way and saw Cass's head had started to droop, while JD never turned down caffeine.
Rarz head twitched their way, but he didn't turn and look at them. She knew he'd heard.
~Coffee or soda?~
~Coffee,~ chimed all three and Toni laughed.
~Will do.~
That conversation hadn't taken more than a few seconds, and Roberts had pulled out a leather portfolio and a pen, balancing it on his knees with the ease of long experience.
"As you can see our planet is being assaulted at multiple points, but I can only address the military abilities of this country. It’s a significant part of this continent, but not all of it." He waited until Rarz responded.
"That much had been expected. But we must work here because McKenna and her group are here." She got sharp looks from the government people, but she just shrugged at them.
"I will address that later. Right now, it isn't relevant." Roberts said. "So we don't have any weapons that allow us to shoot the invaders down coming in via high atmosphere drops. The shuttles are too fast and too small, and when they go back up they usually have captured people in them. They already have too many of our people, and to be clear, by our people I mean humans. At this point I don't care if they’re from China, Africa, or the US. They are ours and we do not tolerate kidnapping or slavery."
"Good. That is mostly in accord with the information I had received." Rarz moved his wings, but didn't let them spread out, though he looked around the living room. "Now that the nestlings are gone, is it permissible if I retract my wings? There is not enough space here for them without the risk of breaking things and I tend to move them without conscious thought."
Burby blinked as did the gunny. "You can just remove your wings?" Blair asked, scribbling left-handed in a notebook.
"Remove? I can cause their mass to be stored elsewhere until needed. While I will miss them, I learned many seasons ago how to function in different forms, some without wings. But they do move with my reactions and in this enclosed space I might damage something.”
Gunny and Burby shrugged. Rarz turned to McKenna. "Is it permissible to remove the wings while I work in this environment?"
"Uh what?"
Rarz did that strange half bow again. "This is your abode, it would be rude to be in a shape that you do not approve of."
Her mouth worked but no sound came out and Blair cleared her throat. "If I may?"
"Please?" McKenna blurted, still trying to figure out how to say what needed to be said.
"Rarz, in our culture very few people have the right to tell you what to wear or how to decorate your body. That is normally limited to parents. So you are free to remove or add wings as it feels comfortable to you."
"What she said," McKenna commented, nodding her head and ignoring the mental snickers from the rest of her family. Luckily the Drakyn either didn't hear them, or politely ignored them. Either was good with her.
"Ah. Then I shall remove the wings, it will make this space feel less confined."
McKenna didn't know if he intended it or not, but the way he said the word made it clear he felt a bit claustrophobic in here. Then again, his head was only a foot or so from the ceiling, she had a good three feet plus. Heck, so did Perc and JD.
His eyes closed and she caught Toni out of the corner of her eye, peering through the kitchen doorway, fascinated. Carina watched behind her, curious, but not captivated the way Toni seemed to be.
It took a minute, but the wings were absorbed back into his body. It still felt different than how they shifted, but right now it wasn't what she needed to ask questions about. Maybe later, if there was a later, she could find out more. More about why Wefor and the other nanobots were created and why shifting worked the way it did.
"Huh. I've seen shifters change, but that’s a new one on me. If things weren’t so desperate to talk to you about other stuff, I'm sure I'd ask questions until you were ready to strangle me." Blair's voice embodied everything McKenna felt. She wanted to ask all her questions and address the confusion that surrounded this entire situation, but people were dying and that mattered more right now.
Philip Roberts shook his head and glanced down at his notepad. "Currently we are fighting a war on multiple points, so we don't have any way to know where they’ll be attacking at any given point or time. We can't even figure out how they’re narrowing in on shifters we have here in the US."
"Oh, I can answer that," McKenna volunteered. All eyes shifted over to her. "The nanobots have a slight isotopic radiation that the proper equipment can pick up. It isn't anything I or other shifters can do, but the people that designed these nanobots would be able to scan for and narrow down to where they are. Plus, clusters of shifters radiate stronger on the equipment than solos. Though from what we've been able to see the powerful scanners are in the shuttles, while the handheld ones seem to be more for narrowing down locations."
Everyone stared at her, even her friends.
"What? I told you I'd been talking to Wefor about it. There wasn't anything we could do to block the scans as we don't have the tech or the time to figure out a way. Telling all shifters to remain alone just puts more of them at
risk, especially the kids. And it's not like anyone in the government is talking to me on a regular basis."
Oops, did that sound a bit resentful? Okay, I guess being shuttled back here might have bugged me a little. Oh well.
Burby ducked his head a bit but didn't answer her, everyone else just blinked. Finally, Gunny Roberts cleared his throat.
"Well, that does answer one question of how they’re finding shifters. However, they still kill anyone between them and their target and they are rapidly improving their techniques and their weapons. I hate to say this, but they are learning quickly, and getting more deadly."
McKenna sighed. She'd suspected that. It was getting harder to ambush them and that didn't make it easier.
Gunny looked up at Rarz, who still leaned on his tail and legs. It resembled calm patience that reminded McKenna of a hunting animal, content to wait until the time was right to attack.
"So that leads us back to the question. How can you help? Are there more of you coming? What else can you do besides shift? How can we fight them with the resources we have?" Gunny Roberts asked the question in a calm and rational manner, but she could feel everyone tense as they focused even more directly on Rarz.
He shrugged, and she could see how his wings would have moved with that movement. It felt like part of him was missing. But in his human form it hadn't.
"I am unsure. There is me. I might be able to get a few more warriors to assist. If we can make the Elentrin flee I believe we can provide doctors and scientists afterward. But my people have very few that can fight or will fight. I am unsure of your resources, but as their ships are still in orbit above your planet, I assume you have no weapons to shoot them down?"
Doug snorted as Roberts answered. "No. The majority of our weapons capable of making a dent on something the size of their ships have ballistic capabilities. Trying to shoot straight up, or at things coming down won't work. The ships are too far away and our weapons are too slow. We don't have spaceships with weapons. While we could get a ship up there, we'd be lucky to get more than three or four people on it. And this goes for all countries, not just ours."
Rarz blew a long steady exhalation through his nostrils, his equivalent of a sigh she supposed. "I had figured as much."
"So what good are you going to be?" Burby snapped this out, leaning forward and staring at the Drakyn.
"Enough," Blair said, softly laying her hand on his arm.
Burby subsided, rubbing and rubbed his head. He looked like he'd aged a decade in the weeks since she'd first met him. They all did.
"You do have weapons though?" Rarz asked slowly, his head swiveling back and forth between the people there.
"Yes. Nuclear, biological, chemical, and then guns which are a type of chemical weapon."
"We saw these on your media network. However, some of the content we were unsure if it was fiction or reality. It became confusing. For a while we thought you had spaceships and energy weapons. But when we received word you were fighting back only with projectile weapons, we were disheartened."
McKenna watched Blair scribble another note on her pad as did Roberts, but it seemed to be thoughts for later as they just listened.
"But you say you have nuclear weapons and you obviously have warriors." He waved at McKenna and her friends, with Perc and JD still in warrior form. Lawson shrank back, not wanting to garner attention as he enjoyed the luxury of a beer.
"Wait, no. We're not warriors. Lawson is a soldier. Us? We're just trying to protect our people. Our children. Our planet. But this is not what we want to do or are even trained to do," McKenna protested, though lately it seemed all too easy to kill and lead. Easier than she wanted to admit, even to herself.
"Ah. Can all Earthlings fight like you? Or do you have more soldiers to assist?"
Gunny shrugged. "Humans don't like to give up, and most of us put up a fight. But yes, I have soldiers, not hundreds of thousands at this point, but I do have them. Why?" His sharp gaze didn't leave Rarz's form.
"There is a technique we have tried before, but we never had the numbers or weapons needed to make it feasible. The warrior who tried died for no gain. But with your assistance I might have an option."
"This sounds good, but I can tell people are hungry. Let's eat. Nothing that he tells you is going to turn the tide of this war in the next day or so. Is it?" Toni asked with a strangely assertive look. Not that she wasn't assertive, but there was something almost personal about it.
~Toni, what is going on?~
~Later.~ Her response short and abrupt.
"Give in now. They need the food and the longer they go without it, the crankier they get. One thing I've learned is cranky shifters are not fun." Lawson's voice startled half the people there, he'd been so quiet.
"He has a point. And I'm a bit hungry myself. I can't remember the last real meal I had." Burby sighed and it occurred to McKenna that sending people to their deaths might be harder than killing them yourself.
"JD, Perc, can you bring the chairs to the back deck? I can put the food in here buffet style and everyone can get their food then go out there. It’s just as safe as anywhere else. If anything we'll see or hear them coming sooner and have time to react."
It was a measure of their paranoia that everyone came out with weapons and even the agents relaxed with better lines of sight around the back deck. The kids exploded out of the house, still in human form, and expended energy on the play house.
Aware of the people looking at her when she didn't stop the children, Toni shrugged. "If all of us together can't protect them and let them play outside, we've already lost."
The statement made everyone pay much closer attention and Wefor went on high alert.
Chapter 7 - Small Talk
So far, the United States has fared oddly well in this war. Our size, spread out population, and prevalence of gun owners has proved to be a saving grace. At this point reports of shifters being captured in the U.S. has stayed under 200,000, though there are at least a reported 12,000 dead invaders, and over 15,000 dead Americans. But overall we are making them pay for everyone they kill and take. But they are learning. Stay under cover, be silent, don't gather in groups, and if you are a shifter don't go out in warrior form. There are too many stories of killing friends and neighbors by accident. ~ KWAK News
With JD, Perc, and Rarz helping, much to everyone's discomfort, couches and chairs were quickly moved outside and plates of food were in their hands. Real, hot food, that smelled good and tasted better than the canned and MREs they'd been eating for a week. Something that had been crying for attention relaxed as McKenna settled down. With home cooked food in her mouth, and the sound of kids playing surrounded her, she relaxed more than she had in weeks.
I'm home. I missed this.
Even so, the kids didn't scream as loud as they could have, and ears twitched at every sound. Even Rarz seemed to understand they needed to be wary.
After the first rush of hunger had been sated, Roberts sat with his hat neatly on his knee, and his plate balanced over it.
I'd so spill my food and ruin my hat.
"So what do you mean about a technique that didn't work before? At this point if it isn't a suicide run, I think we would be willing try it," Philip replied, setting the empty plate down and reaching for his notebook. Carina flashed him a smile and took it in, her quiet presence soothing. McKenna just rolled her eyes and ate more. The shifters had plowed through the food, but the Drakyn had explored each food item offered him with thoughtful consideration. So far, the only thing he had wrinkled his muzzle at and set aside had been the sliced turkey breast, but the vegetables, beef, and fruit had been eaten swiftly. As Roberts had started to talk, he set his plate aside, though he held the glass of water with careful pressure between his large hands. His head turned to focus on the man.
I wonder how he hears. I never researched reptiles to know how they can hear. But then I don't think he's a reptile. Though for all I know warm-blooded reptiles are possib
le.
At least her thoughts still remained private as she munched on a piece of steak. The cooked, flavorful food made her feel better. Bland cooking made eating even more of a chore. JD and Cass were working their way through the fruit and while she'd had a piece, it didn't call to her the same way it did them.
"If I understand your term, a suicide run isn't exactly correct, but there are multiple things that must be considered and many possible points of failure." Rarz fell silent, then glanced around at all of them. "How much do you know about how my people travel across the stars?"
McKenna didn't have a clue how they traveled, though the weird hole in space he had stepped out of implied a lot.
"I know how to kill Drakyn. The most vulnerable areas in your warrior and wyrm form. What power to set the weapons at and when to bail." JD said, shrugging his big furry shoulders. Strangely McKenna wished the rest of them would shift back to human. It felt odd being human while three others were in warrior form.
Cass laughed. "I don't know much about the Drakyn, but I know an awful lot about how they store Kaylid. The processes to wipe the minds, the med tech, and suddenly how the nanobots and AIs are programmed. Wefor, at some point we’ll need to talk." Her voice had turned serious there at the end and she had an odd look on her face.
McKenna couldn't help it, she glanced at Perc and Toni.
Perc shrugged. "I've got a bunch of info about their ships and technology, how the ships are laid out, but it’s still expanding in my brain, so I don't know what I know yet."
Toni focused on her food, not looking at any of them and after a minute Rarz spoke, pulling the attention back to him.
"Then I am taking that as a no, which is a good thing. If they had managed to understand how we travel without mechanics and replicate it, no one would be safe from them." He paused again, popping a bit of fruit in his mouth. "This may come out disjointed but many terms I can not find in your languages. While we accessed some of your scientific data, it is harder to make sure the concepts are being translated and understood correctly without a scientist to discuss it with. You are the first Earthlings anyone has spoken with in a very long time."