by Reagan Woods
Later, Arianna didn’t know how she kept her wits about her. Perhaps it was shock or maybe she’d realized that life had been too easy lately. Her life wasn’t meant to be happy, calm or easy. It had always been a chaotic struggle of one kind or another to simply survive. Whatever the reason, when the hammer dropped, she was calm, appearing almost bored with the Councilor’s outburst.
“Perhaps you didn’t understand the rules, Councilor Tegas? To make this easier for you, I’ll pick one of your questions. Did I know that General Darvan entrusted me into Jorkan’s care but he didn’t trust the Attaché that you appointed to his ship?” it was a wild guess, but from the look on his face, she’d struck a nerve. “No, I didn’t know that. How could I? At that time, I hadn’t met the General before and was merely a captive,” she turned to Councilor Darkan. “I believe it is your turn, Councilor.”
The gathering was so quiet, Arianna fancied she really could have heard a pin drop. Slowly, the Councilors began to shift and shuffle uncomfortably.
Councilor Darkan finally found his voice. “I believe you’ve answered these questions to our satisfaction, Lady D’Corian,” he emphasized with a speaking look at Tegas. “Thank you for so generously providing us with a better understanding of these events.”
“Councilors,” she again wheeled about, giving each wall of councilors a small bow as she met their open-mouthed stares. She would not let them see that she’d been upset by what their esteemed Councilor Tegas had to say. When she came to Tegas she chose to pass him by. Giving a final bow to Councilor Darkan, she stepped out of the holoprojector to be quickly replaced by a grim-faced Darvan. On the heels of her exit, she heard the Council break into a hubbub of conjecture before Darvan closed the holoprojector’s door.
∞ ∞ ∞
“You handled yourself well during the inquest today,” Darvan sat across the table for last meal from a silent Arianna. She’d been unfailingly polite since exiting the holoprojector but she was increasingly hard to read.
“Thank you,” she said woodenly, rising to clear their place settings.
He gently grabbed her wrist when she made a move for his plate, “Leave it for now. Please sit and talk with me.”
Wide green eyes wary, she sank onto the edge of her seat and stared at him expectantly, hands folded on the table in front of her. She resembled an animal at the end of a chain, unsure if she was going to be beaten or offered a treat. He was ashamed to realize that was exactly how he’d treated her in the beginning.
He cleared his throat. “I should have told you.”
“Told me what, exactly?”
“When you came, I didn’t want you,” he began, then ran a hand over his face. He was a leader, a great general, for the love of everything holy. He could speak coherently with foreign leaders, diplomats and politicians. Why couldn’t he communicate with one tiny female?
“I didn’t mean that how it sounded. I meant, I didn’t want a captive,” he corrected himself. “But I needed a way to neutralize what I thought was merely divisive espionage. The High Council had ‘sources’ that were sending them information that conflicted with my reports regarding our activities, or lack thereof, in your galaxy. I suspected the Council’s misleading but trusted source was Councilor Tegas’ nephew, Jorkan,” Darvan paused to choose his next words carefully. “To that end, I assigned Jorkan to oversee your education. You’re beautiful and he saw you as helpless - definitely his type. I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist spending time with you. I hoped that the extra responsibility combined with his enthusiasm for his job would put an end to his misleading reports,” he tried to gauge her thoughts on his revelations, but her face was impassive.
“When it became clear that he was fascinated with you, I determined to use that fascination to bring Jorkan to heel. After the debacle with the Ventix, I didn’t know where your loyalties truly were. I already wanted you beyond reason but I needed Jorkan in custody. I knew he was behind the sabotaged defenses and I suspected he had sold our military technology to the enemy. Hoping to bring him in for questioning, I left you in a holoroom I knew he had access to. I didn’t count on him being so many steps ahead of me. Just like I didn’t count on him being able to use and implicate you in his plans to open our defensive perimeter. I was arrogant, thinking I had it all worked out.”
“Why did he send your energy field’s codes to the Ventix?” Arianna asked slowly.
“As a way to forge an allegiance for his sect with the Ventix.”
“What sect is he a member of? I don’t recall studying anything like this or learning it in the reconditioner.”
“There are certain Doranos who abhor other races, even Corians, though they’ve always needed our Alliance in order to flourish. The intel we’ve gathered points to Jorkan being a member of a Doranos Separatist group. A group that does not condone the introduction of new blood lines into their people. Apparently, these Separatists have always wanted to be independent of Corians but don’t have the military might to fight or the political pull to extract themselves from the Doranos who want to be part of the Alliance.”
“It all sounds rather convoluted and racist to me,” she observed. “More likely, certain moneyed Doranos are fed-up with other moneyed Doranos or Corians who happen to exercise more power than they do. There’s always a money connection,” her jaded observation stunned him.
“Is that all you have to say? Are you angry? Do you regret bonding to me? What about our relationship?” he asked, exasperated with the emotionless façade she insisted on showing him.
“You haven’t said anything about our relationship,” she pointed out. “You’ve simply explained your version of events in which I was an unwitting pawn.”
“I should have told you what was going on before I sent you in to face the Council,” he wanted her to see that he had done the best he could with the information he had at the time.
“Yes,” she agreed. “You should have.”
Several long moments ticked by before she finally asked, “Anything else?”
“No,” he sighed, defeated by her flat refusal to try to understand his reasons for using her as he had.
“I’m tired. I’m going to sleep,” she walked out, leaving him with to clear their dishes.
Deciding to give her a little more space to deal with her ordeal, he moved to work for a bit in the sitting room.
An hour later, he determined to seek her out. He couldn’t focus on work. Instead, he replayed the day and their conversation again and again in his mind. His thoughts kept circling back to Arianna’s complete lack of reaction to anything he said. This wasn’t how females behaved in Corian space. It certainly wasn’t how Doranos females behaved. In his heart, he knew she was still upset.
He found her, freshly showered and sleeping on the little pallet next to the bed. He’d put the bedding away with the thought that they would never sleep apart again. Obviously, she had other ideas. Disappointment and hurt that she would choose to sleep like a captive rather than with him, coursed through him, making him angry.
“Arianna,” he tried to wake her. “Come on. Arianna!” Nothing. She didn’t stir an inch.
Heaving a sigh of resignation, he bundled her onto his sleeping platform. She might not want to be near him, but he needed to feel her close.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Somewhere in the West Texas Desert, Earth
“You know it’s completely counter to all of our survival training to hike through a desert in the middle of the day this far from camp, right?” Domik bitched over the short-range com.
“I gave the call to Silex. He says march, we march,” Skylan answered for the thousandth time, skirting a nasty-looking reptile winding across the dusty, cracked ground.
“What the fuck? You getting soft, old timer?” even the kid, Calyx, who was normally all starshine and smiles, joined in the bitch fest.
They were right, this daytime march through the hot desert was not strictly to protocol. The escaped Earther, the la
st of the five females who had run from the Doranos, had clearly been studying desert survival skills in her down time. She was making tracks away from the work camp at an impressive rate. Extraordinary circumstances sometimes called for extraordinary measures, to borrow a phrase from the Earthers.
“Can you morons shut the fuck up for five minutes? I think I’ve located her shelter,” Silex grumbled.
“You’ve said that twelve times in the last two hours,” Domik groused.
Before Skylan could reply, an urgent tone sounded on his com followed by three distinct beeps. That tone was the demand page for a top-level com. It was a little-known fact that he did occasional black ops search and destroy missions for the higher ups. He’d never heard of the Council contacting an operative while on a long-term assignment. There really weren’t protocols for a situation like this.
“Silex,” he contacted his second in command over a private com.
“I know, but it really is her. I can see her energy signature hovering slightly off the ground inside her shelter. It looks like she’s on a hammock or something.”
“It’ll keep, warrior. I need you to do me a favor and not ask any questions.”
“Ok,” came the ready agreement.
“I need you to assume command and distract the others while I climb that low hill to the East. Can you do that for me?”
“You got it. I can have them move to surround the female. I’ll take the side facing the hill.”
“Much obliged. Track Team One is temporarily under your watch.”
“Domik, Calyx, I’ve got her. Move sixty-degrees to your left and hike in on stealth mode,” he heard Silex direct the others.
Pulling on his black ops skills, Skylan crested the hill stealthily and brought up his encrypted com connection, “Com open.”
“Is this the Ambassador?” a low voice asked.
“Affirmative.”
“We have need of your services.”
“I’m currently on assignment.”
“We are aware and are taking steps to reassign you.”
“Objective?”
“An untraceable, unknown source has broadcast certain sensitive but questionable information. Your mission is two-fold. First, investigate the information and, if necessary, destroy the evidence. Second, identify and eliminate the source.”
“First Target?”
“A possible Lyaran vessel. Coordinates and pertinent data are being transferred to your backup ship just outside of Ventix space. Wrap up anything you’re particularly invested in there. Your transfer orders will come through in a few days.”
“Understood. I’ll be ready.”
The com disconnected, leaving him dizzy. He slid to the ground reeling from the backlash of energy. Surely those arrogant fools hadn’t com’d him directly from the High Council Chambers? The feedback, or energy whip, of the breaking connection could have killed him. He needed to find a new line of work. The money was good, but, at this rate, he wouldn’t live to spend it.
When the ground beneath him steadied, he pushed to his feet and slid into place behind a low rock about fifty feet from the female’s hiding spot.
“Alright, Silex, lead the charge. Let’s get your girlfriend back to camp where she belongs.”
“Har, har, har, jack ass. I saw you fall. You alright?”
“Never better. It was just a muscle cramp. Let’s move,” he had to complete his business here before he transferred out of General Darvan’s armada.
∞ ∞ ∞
“Well, aren’t you a pretty little thing,” the hovering screen woke Arianna from a dead sleep. “I can see why my Darvan was so insistent that you were the one for him.”
Arianna bolted upright, holding the covers to her chin. She was in Darvan’s bed, again, this morning.
“Who are you?” she ground out, unhappy at being woken and feeling overwhelmingly nauseous. The doctors had initially indicated she’d have periods of dizziness and nausea as her brain healed but this was getting ridiculous.
“I am Miska D’Corian but you can call me mother,” the woman on the screen had Darvan’s coppery eyes. She was really quite lovely but Arianna was in no mood to make friends. She was too busy trying to keep the contents of her stomach from relocating. God, what a first impression to make on her mother-in-law.
“Madame D’Corian, I’m very pleased to meet you but I am really not feeling well at the moment. Would it be possible for me to com you back later in the day?” she congratulated herself for her calm, poised demeanor. As angry as she was with Darvan right now, she really didn’t want to make a bad impression on his mother.
“I’ve waited too many years to have a daughter to find that she’s a lazy tugamute,” Miska shot back. “We have much to discuss. Up with you!”
A wave of nausea hit Arianna and she crumpled back onto the bed, waiting for it to subside. “Ok, well, then, I’ll just com you back, Madame D’Corian.”
“Young female, it’s well past time for you to be up and about.”
“Look, Lady,” Arianna took off her metaphorical kid gloves. “I’m really not feeling well and I’m never at my best in the morning. We’re going to have to set some ground rules. No chat sessions before mid-meal. No screen stalking. And above all, when you video com, please, for the love of God, wait for an answer before overriding the hold screen again. My people are not nearly as comfortable with nudity as you all seem to be.”
“But we’re family, darling,” Miska appeared both scandalized and delighted by Arianna’s outburst.
“That’s just wrong on all kinds of levels.”
“When do you want to discuss your welcoming celebration? It will have to be soon. We have so much to do! There’s the menu, your dress, my dress, the guest list, the flowers, the music, the entertainment,” she would have gone on but Darvan strode into the room.
“Mother,” he said firmly. “I distinctly remember telling you to wait another week before you com’d Arianna.”
“You still haven’t told her?” Miska turned a censuring look on her son.
Arianna lurched to her feet, dragging the blanket with her both for modesty and to stave off the chill air. Both pushy D’Corians would deserve a good mooning but she was going to save that for future use. She really didn’t have the energy for their antics right now.
If she was going to be sick, she wanted to do so in the relative privacy of the water closet. And then maybe she’d go back to sleep. Right there on the floor. With the door locked. Forever.
It sounded like a fantastic plan.
First though, she’d go ahead and get that whole sick thing out of the way.
Sometime later a knock sounded at the locked door. Huddled on the floor, head between her knees, Arianna cursed silently. Maybe he’d go away if she just ignored him. She’d been trying that theory out for a few days but it hadn’t seemed to work yet.
“Don’t make me break down the door,” he said conversationally from the other side of the door. “If you keep this up, I will have every door save the door to the hall removed from our quarters.”
“I don’t feel well. Go away,” she whined a protest. She really didn’t want to move. If she held perfectly still and focused on her breathing, the insane circus in her stomach calmed to bearable levels.
“Open the door. Now.”
She palmed the sensor, releasing the lock. It’d serve him right if she puked her guts up all over his spiffy work boots.
“What do you want?” she huddled on the floor, head in her hands.
“We need to talk.”
“Now is not a real good time.” Couldn’t he see that she was freaking miserable?
“No time has been a good time for you during this last week. We’ll have to deal with this sooner or later.”
“So talk,” she covered her eyes hoping that dimming the light would help the room stop spinning. It had the added benefit of blocking his ridiculously handsome face from her line of sight.
On the rare occasions
she didn’t wake up wanting to hork up her liver, she wakened wanting to ride him until they had a religious experience. Her mind was still too angry with and hurt by him to indulge her body’s traitorous desires. She just couldn’t win.
“I’m sorry about my mother,” he said tiredly.
“Ok.”
“We’re mated. You have to stop avoiding me.”
“I’ll think about it sometime when I’m not thinking about tossing my cookies.”
“Tossing your what?”
“Vomiting. Some time when I’m not thinking about vomiting,” she all but screamed at him. In the back of her mind, she knew she was overreacting but damned if she cared.
“I understand that you’re angry with me but we have to work through this,” he said patiently.
“Is there anything else that you have the burning desire to talk about right now?”
“Sarcasm will not get you out of this conversation. But, since you asked, yes. My mother would like to plan your reception into our family and society. She and my father rule Cor I, and you will treat her with the respect she is due,” he waited in silence for her assent.
As far as she was concerned, he could wait until hell froze over.
“Yes, well…That being said, she is understandably excited to gain a daughter as she has none of her own. Your addition to the family has helped distract her from her grief over losing Vank. I explained to her that it is completely unacceptable to bother you with these frivolities while you’re still recovering from your injuries. She regrets having caused you any embarrassment or discomfort.”
“Didn’t you think I might want to know I was bonding to royalty? I definitely would have thought twice about that particular decision.”
That, at least, explained the Council’s willingness to play along when she hijacked their inquest.
“I don’t know who you’ve been speaking to, but you will not be allowed an annulment.”
“What? Who said anything about an annulment?” She’d alien-married a crazy.
“You did.”