Page 60 of The Alien's Major Dilemma

"As soon as you're dressed, I'm supposed to escort you and Cooper to the conference room to meet with the people who got here earlier today."

Marissa grumbled and Cooper shut the door on a laughing John. They both dressed quickly and were presentable in less than ten minutes. They could have moved faster but they both also took the opportunity to distract each other with light touches, appreciative looks, and very suggestive thoughts.

John was still grinning when they opened the door and Marissa could see him struggling to be polite.

"Oh, I'm supposed to give you this before you walk in," John said and handed a bag to Cooper.

"What is it?" her mate asked, then stopped when he looked into the bag.

"Cooper?" Marissa asked.Are you okay?

"Where did you get this?" Cooper asked, his voice strained.

"One of the guards with the diplomats said it belonged to you. I figured the group that kidnapped you guys was giving it back as a sign of good faith. Was I wrong? Did I just hand you some kind of alien bomb or something?" John looked concerned.

"It's not a bomb," Cooper said, and pulled a heavy metal pendant with a blue stone near the top hanging from an intricate chain from the bag. "At home it would be explosive but not in the way you think. The few of these that still exist are locked in heavily guarded museums."

"What does it do?" Marissa asked.

"Officially?" Cooper said with a shrug. "Nothing. The Chelion who made them and the lines they belonged to died off over a thousand years ago."

"And unofficially?" John pressed.

"Unofficially, these were used to verify, without a doubt, that someone was part of a specific bloodline. Back when wars were fought over territory and inheritance passed along the family lines. Very rich and very powerful Chelion would make these to confirm whether or not someone was close enough to inherit."

"I'm guessing this didn't come from your ship," Marissa said.

Cooper shook his head. "I wouldn't have been allowed to leave the planet if I had one of these. And claiming that it belonged to me would be a death sentence."

Alarms rang through Marissa's mind and she wanted to bury the pendant in the desert or inside of whoever had given it to John to deliver.

"So how did it get here and who gave it to me?" John asked. "Because they didn't look like an alien."

"I didn't either, when I snuck on the base," Cooper said absently. His gaze was fixed on the pendant and he turned it over and over in his hand. "We're good at hiding like that."

"What are you going to do with it?" Marissa asked.

With a shrug, Cooper stopped turning the pendant over and studied the back. "See if it still works, I guess. It mostly looks inert but there's a pin on the back here that looks-"

He pressed his thumb to the back of the pendant and Marissa felt his shock before she saw what was happening.

The stone started to glow and project what looked like a scrolling list in a language that Marissa could only make out because Cooper was translating it for her as he read it. The final line flashed in and out a few times before it solidified.

"What does it say?" John asked.

Cooper removed his thumb from the pin and the list flashed off. He pulled the chain over his head and let the pendant rest on his chest. "It says it's mine."

That's not all it said,Marissa said in his mind.

No, it's not,Cooper said.

You're hiding from me.

We'll talk about it later. It should be impossible.

Which means it's absolutely what you think it is.

"I think we need to find out who brought that here," Marissa said.

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