Page 13 of The Alien's Major Dilemma

“What’s a while?”

“A couple days, possible weeks, months on the outside.”

“You will not last keeping me captive for months,” she told him. “I seriously doubt you’ll manage weeks. Possibly days. We’re not far enough away and you haven’t made any demands to allow for my safe return yet.”

“I don’t have any demands,” he said. Well, he did, but his first was that he be allowed to keep her and take her with him when he left. He didn’t think she’d want to hear that just yet, though.

“Then they’re going to assume torture and murder rather than ransom and come after you with everything they’ve got.” She smiled but it was a grim facsimile of the one she'd shown him earlier. "You don't get to kidnap a Marine and not pay for it."

Chills ran down Cooper’s spine and the grim smile on her face told him she knew exactly how nervous he was.

“I’ll just have to convince you to help me, then,” he said. The cheerfulness in his voice was forced, and he didn’t think either of them were fooled.

“I don’t think that’s likely but you’re welcome to try,” she said. “Who knows, you might just be able to convince me to have you captured instead of killed. Well, as long as I’m consulted. They might not ask my opinion.”

“Right, well, until they come bursting through my door to find you, we’ll work on something else, shall we? Like this strange desire you have to become a farmer. I wouldn’t have thought you’d want to do that but since you seem to like to dig, I think it’s a great place for you to start.”

Marissa laughed again.

Chapter 6

Marissa could tell she was getting to him. Unfortunately, she was irritating herself, too. Something about pointing out all the things wrong with their situation so they both had to face it head on was at war with her desire to get to know Cooper better.

His ship was amazing. The little bits and pieces she could tell he’d picked up locally fascinated her because it gave an insight to his mind. She wanted to know all about who he was, where he was from, how he’d grown up and what his people were like. For a scout stranded behind enemy lines, he had a fantastic sense of humor and an upbeat attitude she didn’t think anybody else could match.

She had so many questions for him and she resented that she needed to use her time with him to goad him into giving her up.

“What can I say? I like planting things,” she said with a shrug. “What made you want to become a scout? Did you keep getting into things you weren’t supposed to?”

He shook his head. “No, my clutch was destined to be soldiers of some variety. Mostly because our Egg-layer was a highly decorated recon scout, and we were her only clutch that hatched successfully. With as much work as they’d put into developing her, there wasn’t any other choice.”

Marissa stared at him for a long moment. “I don’t know what’s worse,” she said. That I understood what you were saying or that I am simultaneously pissed off and intrigued by how you were raised.”

“It’s a bit different from a human childhood,” he agreed.

“Different? It’s completely…” Her voice trailed off at the obvious finish to that thought.

“Alien?” he suggested.

She flushed. “Yeah, that.”

“Well, what a shock that I, an alien to your planet, would have an alien childhood,” he said.

“Sounds like you’ve got a pretty firm grasp on sarcasm,” she said.

“Sarcasm is universal, as far as I’ve been able to tell.”

“Fine, so you were destined to become a soldier from, what, the egg?” At his nod, she continued her questions. “But why a scout? Why not, I don’t know, do your people have some kind of paperwork position?”

“We do,” he said. “But they’re not exactly highly sought after positions. If it’s your first job after maturation, it usually means that you didn’t finish the way they wanted you to.”

“Okay, who’s this ‘they’ that you keep referring to? Who makes these decisions? Older Chelions? Some kind of advanced AI?”

“The Dragor, mostly,” he said. “They’re the ones who developed the important technology, discovered the secondmaturation process, and guide the rest of the planet. In turn, the Chelions make up the bulk of the military and labor positions. The Ranel who can manage to interact with the rest of polite society tend to do the rest.”

“So it’s a caste system,” Marissa said, dread building in her belly.

“Not the way you think of it. It’s not arbitrary. The Dragor who presided over my hatching and guided my clutch as nymphs also guided our Egg-layer and hers before her. He knows what skills we need to learn and train from the moment we open our eyes to become the best expression of our genetics. And when my sisters are ready to be Egg-layers, he’ll induce their second maturation and find them an appropriate donor.”

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