Page 29 of Her Alien Savior
But it was Bryce that excitedly chimed in. “We aren’t anthropologists. I mean, I am, but we were teamed up specifically to hunt down the Star Breaker. Chester is the brawn of our operation for protection. Ashley is our wizard of technology, and essentially our tracker and I’m the—“ he was interrupted by the whysard tech, it was clear that she was talented with the interfaces, but I wasn’t sure what specialty the whysard was. Perhaps it was a human term for the kind of system hacking she was capable of.
“If you call yourself our boss one more time, I swear you will learn firsthand how annoying it is to have a few words changed in your translator programing.”
Bryce slowly closed his mouth and didn’t speak another word.
Chester was fiddling with his fingers in what I recognized as a human way of expressing anxiety... or guilt. He blurted in quick succession, “We were the ones that leaked the information about Riley’s placement with Princess Klemon.”
Heat pooled to the tips of my ears, and my epul snapped out on instinct. I strained to keep my voice calm, but I knew I was a sight of a dangerous predator that stalked forward as I said, “Be clear with your words, human.” I was beyond giving them the honor of names if what he was saying was true. If Riley’s tribe was the reason why she was poisoned with nanobugs, and had to endure the pain of the replication process in her blood stream that sent me into a wild rage to break from my restraints to get to her. If this was true, then they were not her tribe, and I was absolved from honoring a name. Perhaps absolved from keeping them under my protection.
“You’re upset,” she said dismissively. My head snapped in her direction. I could hear the relief of the larger male to not have my full attention. I was a threat, and they had every right to be fearful for what they’d done to my mate.
“No one at the H.E.T. knew the last standing open assignment for Trillume in years was for Princess Klemon,” she continued, “It wasn’t until the princess gave her name to Riley that anyone knew anything about what the placement was for. This was the best chance we had at discovering more about the Star Breaker, they wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to give someone a tracker made specifically for a mission to find the princess.”
“You knew Riley would be injected with a Star Breaker nanobug...” My chest was heaving, and I closed my eyes so I didn’t have to look at the human anymore. She had used Riley as bait for their mission to track down an outlaw. “Why didn’t you say anything to Nen-Le? Why admit anything to me, now?”
“Because it’s in your best interest to help us protect Riley. It’s likely the code in her injection is different than others and may help us uncover more about the Star Breaker. Also, this isn’t just about Riley. This is about preventing humans from being second-class pets of the Galactic Trillume Authority. These nanobugs have been used to prevent humans from returning to Earth after their exchanges have ended.
“There are plenty of humans who love their new planets... but it’s been a well-kept secret that humans have been subjugated by some of the species, using the Star Breaker’s tech, uncaring of being cut off from future trade with Earth. Many of the exchange transports have been intercepted just like King Sylve did with our own shuttle, stealing exchanges before they ever reach their intended placement. We can’t end the exchange, because if Trillume backs out of the treaty with Earth, there are far worse consequences for humans than losing willing exchange participants who signed an acknowledgment of the risks.”
She paused in her impassioned speech to conclude with what I already suspected was coming next, aligning with the fears of my second Chuel, “We have no defenses should Trillume or any other planet decide to take what they want from Earth. Right now, they get what they want from us with no fuss, simply with the promise of allowing us to continue to pretend we are in charge of our own planet. The moment they decide they want something more, or humans decide we don’t want to participate anymore... do you honestly believe they would simply say, ‘Sure, go ahead. We’ll leave you alone.’?”
The smaller male added, “Based on history of every civilization we’ve studied... Earth will be nothing more than a warehouse, with humans as the commodity unless we can find Al-Hez and convince them to work with us.”
That was the last thing I would have expected from his mouth. I couldn’t contain my incredulity at the notion. They placed my mate at risk on the minuscule chance than an outlaw would take pity on the human species and willingly protect them out of the goodness of their hearts? I was assuming this outlaw had two hearts like a necia, but it was possible they had but one like the humans, or even the trill. As my elders would say, without honor one might as well have no hearts at all.
Chester made two fists and brought them together and gently tapped them to his forehead in a common necia warrior gesture of brotherhood, of tribal alliance. Who was this human to know so much of my planet? “He knows, Ashley. Necias Prime was in the same position as Earth. I’m not a meat head, I can read between the lines of what they’ve written about how necia warriors became the enforcers of Trillume.” He addressed me next in the tongue of my tribe, Cial, “I know who you are. And you are more king for your tribe than any leader I’ve seen.
“Being tasked with bringing Al-Hez to atone for their crimes I could understand, but what you speak of is aligning yourself with an outlaw that would sooner control you than work with you, and you’ve placed the princess as well as my mate in unspeakable danger. It’s even possible your subversion is the reason why King Sylve sought to take control of my ship.” I would have added they were the reason why I lost my honor and title, but I couldn’t blame the humans or their misjudgments for my own error in allowing King Sylve to drug me with elder root. That was on my shoulders alone.
I growled in my frustration, and my epul came out of my forearms as I punched the wall next to the door, puncturing the metal and crunching it around my fist. It was better to damage my own ship than to lower myself and what honor I had left with harming a species in need of my protection.
Finally, I spoke to end the silence deafening Nen-Le’s chambers, “I am assuming you have some plan on how to acquire the Star Breaker’s cooperation?”
The brown eyes of the female seemed to brighten and the smile that lifted her mouth was unsettling. I began to understand how humans survived despite their fragile forms. Just as Riley was able to best Nen-Le with cunning, there was a resilience to the human tribe of Earth.
“Does a bear shit in the woods?” Ashley said with a gleam reflected in her eyes from the artificial light.
I blinked at her in confusion at her question. “Does this bear frequent the woods often? I have known many warriors that have had no other choice but to do what they must if they can’t return to the ship.” Was this bear another type of human species? Or perhaps it was a trick question, and bears were not a species that needed to relieve themselves? My translator says bear is a means of withstanding force in the human tongue. There were many languages on Earth, and our translators didn’t include any slang or various proverbs of their tribes, as humans were still a newer species and rarely communicated with.
The smaller male sputtered and let out a laugh he couldn’t seem to contain anymore, and I narrowed my eyes. The larger one smacked him in the gut for me, which stopped the laughter, but there was still a lingering snicker through his nose.
“It’s just something my dad always said about this animal that I’ve only ever seen in a reservation for conserving endangered species on Earth. It basically means, yes,” she rolled the whites of her eyes at me in a manner that reminded me of the last gaze of a dying lorma beast as it curled on itself, “I have a plan.”
This had better be one plan divined by the goddess of might themselves, and blessed by Horv’s vine, or my restraint with this human tribe will not get in the way of protecting my mate. For now, I would keep faith in the resilience that I knew in my bones Riley was capable of and focus that faith in these humans I am relying on to assist in her survival.
King Sylve needed me for something, and he’d used my mate against me, but for what? Simply to lure out Princess Klemon? What does he gain by this? Was he after Al-Hez? I scoffed internally at the thought, Sylve would be more likely to know Al-Hez personally with the dealings he was in now on his outlaw planet. He wished to save our tribe whether led by honor or not, how did these pieces fit together?
I turned back to the human tribe and said absently, “King Sylve and my second, Chuel, were once honorable warriors.” Chuel’s words about following the spirit of our laws and not the letter of them haunted me. Perhaps, I was not the honorable warrior in this fight for our tribe’s freedom? Did I wait too long? Become complacent in subduing the threat of the trill?
How would I protect my tribe, my planet… my mate’s planet?
Chester smiled with his blunt teeth, showing off his dull fangs. “Your unne doesn’t even have to go planet side. She’ll be safe. We never intended for her to be in danger. Ashley has our implants programmed with over-ride codes to trigger our stasis pods to wake us up once a ship connects with any planet station as part of its protocol. We won’t stay sleeping when we reach Trillume. Don’t worry, we’ll reach Princess Klemon before anyone else does.”
“Done,” Ashley said while cracking her neck back and forth. I could hear her bones popping under her skin, and wondered if all humans were slowly breaking apart with every movement. This startled me, and I didn’t like the implications for my own mate.
She placed Nen-Le’s disrupter in some kind of pocket she held in her chest and replaced the interface module back in her desk. I lifted a brow, knowing Nen-Le would know it was missing. I know I would, considering I had mine locked behind my personal chambers that not even Chuel had access to. He’d have my old rooms heavily guarded so I wouldn’t take back my command, but how did a human have use for it? Or know of its use?
“We’re lucky Riley woke us up, so I could make sure the protocols were uploaded to this ship’s stasis chambers. Your ship doesn’t have the newest downloads from Trillume, so all that work I put into setting this up would have been fucked. We’re all set to wake up a week before the ship’s estimated arrival on Trillume. It takes a few days for our bodies to recover, so we’ll need the time to fully function before we dock. We might not remember this day at all with all the stuff pumping in our bodies, but it won’t matter, it’s the same plan we knew before today. Are you ready?”
