Page 147 of Alien Haven

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“The traitor’s daughter is roaming the main drag in the company of two Kalqs. She’s all but crawling on them, the little whore. She’s grabbing their arms, putting her cheek on their shoulders, letting them touch her.”

Wilkes frowned at his com, from which Scott O’Neal’s snarling voice emitted. He was glad his office door was closed at the Earther security headquarters. It kept his space soundproof against anyone listening in. Nonetheless, he instinctively lowered the unit’s volume. “You aren’t being obvious you’re watching her, right? No one’s close enough to hear you talking like this?”

“‘Course not.” O’Neal adopted a more cautious tone nonetheless. “Damn shame we have to hide our moral decency when sluts behave so disgusting in public. We should be able to string ‘em up on sight.”

Wilkes took a deep breath and hoped he hadn’t made a mistake hiring O’Neal to spy on Nath when she was in town. His fellow traditionalist wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he worked at the feed and seed store, much of which was open to the outdoors. Its central location in Sunrise’s main business thoroughfare offered an excellent view when it came to watching the townspeople. From his vantage point, O’Neal could see up and down the main street and not be obvious…as long as he wasn’t glowering at those he looked at.

“Just do as I asked and keep an eye on her. Don’t let anyone see you do so, okay? She’ll get what’s coming to her when we send her to New Bethlehem.”

Wilkes clicked off. Nath and a couple Kalquorians were apparently forging friendships, if not outright affairs. It made getting his hands on her a lot harder. He had no problem taking Kalqs out if he had no better choice, but it would raise a lot of questions for anyone to go missing or show up dead.

“Fuck me,” he sighed. His problems where Charity Nath was concerned kept mounting.

Chapter Twelve

The instant the door of the small but lovely one-story home opened that evening, Charity breezed in, not waiting for an invitation from the surprised Detodev. “We come bearing food. Where’s the dining room?”

“Uh…” The Nobek blinked at her, then Ilid and Mitag, who’d waited outside the door. Their arms were full of covered to-go trays from a local eatery, which served both Kalquorian and Earther fare. “What’s this?”

Ilid shrugged. His expression reflecting amusement, he nodded to Charity. “Ask her. I’m just a pack animal.”

“You’re far more, darling Dramok.” She stepped close to Detodev and wondered if he reeked of her as she apparently did of him. She wondered if the whole Amgar farm was gabbing about their night of fun. Or maybe she attached too great of importance to her tattered reputation. Perhaps nobody gave a damn. She brushed aside the embarrassing realization and smiled at the Nobek. “We need to clear the air. Stop tip-toeing around each other. No better way than over dinner.”

She could feel his walls going up though he didn’t twitch. His gaze remained fixed. Charity sighed and put her hand on his arm. “It takes too much energy for me to pretend to be who I’m not when it comes to my friends. You three make me feel safe. I’ll feel safer if I don’t have to play a part. Don’t you think it’ll be best for all concerned?”

He continued to regard her steadily, but allowed his head to twitch the barest of nods. His gaze swung to the two men waiting for permission to enter. “Come in. The dining room is this way.”

She glanced at his home as she followed him from the entryway through a tiny but charming living room. He probably called it a greeting room like most Kalquorians, she amended. It appeared little used, as if waiting eternally for guests.

He led her to a small dining room. She scanned her surroundings, curious how a solitary beast like Detodev lived.It turned out simply, but she noted the furnishings were comfortable and tasteful. His decorating was spare, consisting mainly of some small vid pictures on the sideboard along the wall. They were of an elder clan in expensive clothes posed formally. She saw another shot of them with three boys of various ages. It was easy to pick out a young but already grim-visaged Detodev. He was the spitting image of the man who was apparently his Nobek father, minus the jagged scar stamped from the elder man’s cheek to his jaw. Charity guessed Detodev had been about ten when the picture had been snapped.

The stills were of his family. No one smiled in the portraits, and she wondered how happy his childhood had been. It hadn’t sounded particularly joyous from the little he’d told her the night before.

Mitag’s organizing skills came to the fore once they were in the dining room with its unadorned but polished wood table and matching sideboard and china cabinet. An open window ushered in a lovely breeze, on which the scent of spring wafted in.

The Imdiko set out the food in its trays buffet style on the table’s low surface. When Detodev produced dishes and utensils, Mitag set the table so fast, Charity swore they were sitting on comfortable floor cushions to the meal less than a minute after they’d walked in.

“How about those true confessions?” Mitag asked.

“Food first. Naked souls look better when stomachs are full. We’ll save dessert for after the conversation, because sugar heals all hurts.” Charity felt she’d imparted great wisdom despite Detodev’s snort.

She enjoyed her meal and was relieved the Nobek’s appetite seemed undiminished despite her issuing a challenge he couldn’t find appealing. He spoke little, which was probably best given he shoveled impressive quantities of food in his face. Ilid had gone quiet too after a day of easy chatter. He seemeduncomfortable. Charity and Mitag carried the conversation, determinedly bright and cheerful.

Charity left just enough room for the slice of chocolate cheesecake she’d decided would be her reward for braving Detodev’s wrath at her house-crashing ruse. She set her empty plate aside and looked at the men in turn. They gazed back, giving her their full attention.

She dove in. “Dramok Ilid and Imdiko Mitag, my name is Charity Nath. This is my story.”

She told them everything. She started with how the original Earth’s leader Browning Copeland had escaped aboard a battlecruiser when Kalquorian invasion had been imminent at the end of the war. As one of his leading generals, her father Borey Nath had also been on board. He’d brought his daughters, Charity and her older sister Hope, barely getting off the planet in time. Nuclear blasts, set to trigger if Earth were invaded, detonated and destroyed major cities as they fled the planet. There’d been no opportunity for Faith Nath, Charity’s mother, to join them. She’d been away on business in one of the cities that had gone up in a mushroom cloud. In the end, the whole world had been rendered incapable of sustaining life.

“My father had been working for years to find a way to remove Copeland from power,” she told her gawking audience. “From what I’ve gathered, he and his accomplices were set to move against the Holy Leader within weeks. Maybe days. Then your fleet showed up, Armageddon hit, and we were stuck under Copeland’s thumb again among his most loyal servants. Dad continued to play his role of dutiful general while starting from scratch on how to defeat Copeland.”

Charity described how she’d been forced to marry Browning Copeland at fifteen years of age, the latest in a long list of young wives. The wedding had been a farce, the Holy Leader merely declaring them man and wife as her protesting fatherwas arrested. She recounted the harrowing tale of being rescued from rape by her sister and Clan Piras, followed by the Naths’ desperate flight from the ship. They’d taken Copeland prisoner as they’d escaped.

“Piras, his clan, and their spyship crew made it look as if we’d all died when Copeland’s battlecruiser was destroyed.”

“Then Copeland really is alive,” Ilid said. “Kalquor has him?”

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