Page 69 of Alien Rescue

Zanr left briefly and returned with a box-like silver gadget that looked like the doctor’s. He scanned her and then spent some time typing in something. She assumed he was typing; he tapped a forefinger against the metal with no change in tempo that she could see or hear. At last he stopped and looked at her. “He is not your father. If he was, I would have been able to find him based on your share DNA.”

It was like a punch to the gut. The knowledge had come to her slowly these last few weeks. She’d known—deep inside, she’d known, but it was still a shock to her.

He kept fiddling with the DNA machine. “The Parenadorz came to see me. Specifically.”

Rose frowned. “Your emperor, he was here?” Did he tell her this fantastic tale to take her mind of her father? “How did he get here?”

“The Parenadorz can be anywhere he wants to be. He sees all and knows all.”

“Are you saying he can travel between planets without a spaceship?”

“Yes.”

“Why did he want to see you? Specifically?” What if this emperor sent him away? She lifted her chin. He had another think coming if he thought he’d send her warrior anywhere without her.

“He said he had always planned to claim me for his bloodline. Because he claimed me, I have an acknowledged bloodline. Our small warriors will be born strong, respected warriors.”

She wasn’t sure if she believed someone could travel between planets instantly. But if it was the truth, she was glad that he at least had a family now. “All fifty of them?” she teased.

His smile was all terrifying teeth—a flashing smile—and he’d never been more handsome. She stepped into his arms and they held each other. He rested his forehead against hers and then he kissed her. A hungry triumphant kiss. At last he lifted his head. “It is time for our meal.”

They ate in easy silence, Rose trying to feel bad that the man she had known as her father was no blood relation. But it was almost a relief. At least it explained why he hated her so. She stabbed at the food on her plate, then she said quietly, “I can never go home again, can I?”

It was a rhetorical question but Mr. Literal Alien answered, “No.”

“I can go back, but I can never go home,” she said, mostly mumbling to herself.

He cocked his head in that reptilian fashion. “There is a difference?”

“A huge difference.” Maybe it would make what she had to do to her family—no that family, not her family—easier. She couldn’t put it off anymore. She had the evidence of their involvement and would have to act on it. “I thought if I prove to Parnell that I can pass the test, that my family will take me back.”

“How can lying in a hole in the floor make your family take you back?”

“At the time it made a crazy sort of sense.” She didn’t know what was worse—Parnell’s betrayal or her own stupidity in following him blindly. She shook off those thoughts; she didn’t want to think about him anymore.

She swirled her spoon through her cereal. “Have you ever confronted your parents over what they did to you?” It was easier focusing on his relationship with his family than her own.

He became so still, she doubted he even breathed.

“I’m, sorry, I shouldn’t have reminded you of what they did.” He was so strong and most of the time hid his real emotions so well, she sometimes forgot he was a being with feelings.

“I have not seen them since the day they left me in the desert.” His eyes had been black, but now they blazed red—no gradual bleeding in of red tendrils this time.

“I will book a call to home world,” he said and it sounded like a threat.

“You have to book a call to your home world? I thought you all could just dial home on your superior TCs.”

“There is limited capacity this far away. Even for our superior technology. Junior warriors have to book calls.”

“I see,” she said.

“Do you wish to confront your former father?” he asked.

“I have to face my family.” She had to tell him everything, but she was ashamed of what they’d done. She just hoped her brother was innocent.

“Why do you sound afraid?”

She sighed. “Not afraid, ashamed. Have you heard about the superman drug?”

---