Page 63 of The Alien's Major Dilemma

Zoric shook his head and Ae-cha looked angry.

"It was lost several hundred years ago in a skirmish with another enclave. They destroyed her altar and stole most of our sacred artifacts."

"You sound like you were there," Cooper said with a chuckle.

"I was," Ae-cha said.

"Impossible," Cooper started, then paused. "Chelion don't live that long."

He turned to look at Zoric.

"Do they?"

Zoric shrugged. "My people never died of natural causes but we didn't tend to live very long, anyway. I can't think of anybody in the last two generations who didn't die from violence or loss of their mate."

Cooper reached out for Marissa and felt her reach back for him. The thought of losing her made his blood run cold.

"I need my ship back," he said. "And we're going to need to have a very, very long talk about what happened to get the Chelion to Earth."

"Yes," Ae-cha agreed.

"That might be a problem," Zoric said. "Because my people have lost most of their history to centuries of hiding and raids."

"Great," Cooper said. "Maybe we should start with asking whoever sent me the pendant to give back whatever records they have, too."

"And how do you propose to do that if you don't know who actually gave you the pendant?" Ae-cha asked.

"I suspect they're going to try and get in touch with me to get it back," Cooper said. "Or they've decided I'm a convenient fall guy for whatever plan they've been working on."

"Why do you think there's a plan?" Zoric asked.

Cooper and Ae-cha gave him identical looks of exasperation and he looked sheepish.

"There are Dragor involved," Ae-cha said. "Of course there's a plan. You of all people should know this."

"If we go by my experience, I'd have to assume that all Dragor are murderous psychopaths," Zoric shot back.

"They're not,” Cooper said.

"They are," Ae-cha responded at the same time.

Cooper and Ae-cha glared at each other.

"Obviously, we all have slightly different experiences of the Dragor," Zoric said, careful to not step between the other two. "I think we need to get what documentation we can about what happened and find out who gave Cooper the pendant."

"I wouldn't trust whatever version he has," Ae-cha spat. "Not if the Dragor wrote it."

Cooper sighed. "I'm willing to take whatever the official version is with some skepticism if you'll do the same to your people. It was a barely mentioned event in my history lessons."

Zoric and Ae-cha glanced and each other and Zoric nodded in agreement. Ae-cha took longer but finally did the same.

There was a knock on the door and one of Marissa's team mates opened it with a tray balanced in one hand.

"I've got lunch," the young man said cheerfully. "Major Ozark said you'd be able to eat most of this."

He set the tray on the table and it all looked like fairly standard human food to Cooper. Zoric looked surprised and Ae-cha disdainful at what was there.

"Is there anything else I can get for you?" he asked.

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