Page 26 of Her Alien Savior
“She does not seem to reciprocate your feelings,” Commander Chuel scoffed, and sneered at me. “I’m at a loss for words, General, out of all my warriors... this is the last thing I ever would have expected. A human, no.” He shook his head, and grunted while turning his back on us both, and I found myself growing angry despite him agreeing with me that I shouldn’t be marked against my own will. “Have your fun, Nen-Le, and keep her as a pet if you must, but I won’t have my best warrior looked down upon for granting a human an unne mark and joining our tribe. Don’t speak of this again, or I’ll have no choice but to have you denounce your rights to the human at the next Necias Prime council.”
“My request was more of a formality, Chuel,” Nen-Le said with cool detachment. “If anything happens to this human, I will have the full support of my home tribe the Vomxel, rightful heirs to Houses of Necias after the fall of Sylve, to duel for more than your position on this ship.” I was torn between being touched that Nen-Le was defending me and my safety, and being irritated that they were both acting like I was some kind of thing to be traded and acquired.
I was a human, which to them was as good as being called an animal, a pet, an amusement to take care of. I had known humans were more of an oddity that aliens thought were fascinating to observe, but I wasn’t aware of the extent to which we were considered lesser than. The exchange program was as much of a research endeavor for humans as it was for the aliens to observe us within their own environments, like picking a human sample to have delivered, instead of going to Earth and seeing us in our natural habitat. We were other, and I understood that, but I thought... I don’t know what I thought anymore.
“Don’t bluff, Nen-Le, you have no desire to lead your tribe or this ship,” Chuel grunted at her rebellion. “Just look at the terror on the human’s face. She has no interest in mating with you, regardless of whether you sway the opinions of any honorable warrior to dismiss the nature of bonding with a being no better than a torglo beast that can’t defend themselves. We are bound to protect those weaker than us, not... mate with them.”
There it was, the truth of his derision towards humans. Our bodies were squishy, and vulnerable. We can’t even regulate our own body temperature efficiently without clothing. We would freeze or burn without the perfect temperatures and conditions. We also break easily, our skin tears and barely contains our working bits under our thin casing.
Doubt crept into my mind, and all my years of training with weapons was lost to me in those moments. It was like there were two sides of me waring for control. The one that knew I’d already bested a warrior despite being vulnerable, and the one that was cradled like a baby with no other thought but to leave my protection in the hands of others. In the hands of Nen-Le.
“King Sylve is sending this human to be killed by the trill if she goes on this mission with nanobugs in her system. Princess Klemon is a very skilled scientist, and will no doubt have the human’s blood checked before she ever leaves the station. If you believe in the objectives of finding the princess, then you’ll neutralize the nanobugs before we reach the planet.”
I shivered in Nen-Le’s arms realizing that it was worse than I had originally thought. Removing the nanobugs was more of a preservation of my freedom, and so they couldn’t do some weird self-destruct thing within my veins if I didn’t comply, but this was worse. So much worse. If Nen-Le could sense I had them in my system simply by tasting my blood, who’s to say that Princess Klemon didn’t have a system in place for her protection that involved killing me if I was some kind of spy.
Which I would be, if I didn’t find a way out of this mess.
What was I supposed to do? I was a squishy, defenseless human, wasn’t I? Nen-Le could skewer me like Sunday’s dinner as she held me in her arms. My life was literally in her hands. Sensing my all-consuming panic that was building inside of me like a volcano, she lowered me to my feet, but kept me close. Her hand played through my hair in a soothing gesture like I was a skittish cat.
“King Sylve is doing nothing. I’m commanding this mission, and I could care less what they do with the human, she’s only part of the plan to force Direl to do what he should have done as soon as we took control of the trill warfleets.” He paused, observing the way Nen-Le pulled me into her chest in a protective manner.
With a sigh, he continued, “The nanobugs aren’t even activated yet. According to the medic, human’s blood cells replicate on a one-hundred-twenty-Earth-rotation cycle. When a cell dies the nanobug will replicate with it and will stay dormant until I’ve activated it. Even if they scan her blood, unless they are looking for it specifically, it will show up as extra iron, and humans are known for high levels of metal-tasting blood. She’ll be fine.”
“All I’m hearing is speculation about a scientist asking for a human exchange and not expecting anyone to be using blood samples for their research. They didn’t ask this human to join their program because of Earth’s technology. There is something about human physiology that Princess Klemon wants, and you’re betting they are too distracted with other aspects of this human than her blood and the abnormally high content of metals?” Nen-Le was not convinced, and neither was I. Aside from basically being demeaned about my contribution to the research team for being human, she had a point. This sounded more and more like a death sentence to go there as long as I had nanobugs in my system.
“Figure it out, General. You wanted on this mission, it’s yours. You can figure out a way that the human stays alive, but her purpose is done as soon as Direl follows her to where he needs to be. I don’t care, as long as Direl shows up to the duel on time, and Princess Klemon sees his face and rejoins the Galactic Trill Authority. Her mother is being pushed out, and I’ve already received communications that warships are being sent to the outer sectors on the council’s command.”
“So, I have your permission to seek out other means of keeping the human safe without interfering with the mission?” Nen-Le asked for confirmation.
“You’d be putting your human pet at risk to meddle too much, General. If they accidentally activate the nanobugs themselves, they are equally likely to fry her whole circulatory system as they are to disable them. There are only a few engineers across the galaxy that have worked with this technology safely, and even they would have a difficult time without the specific code used by the engineer that created it.”
As much as I was frustrated with Commander Chuel, he was so much different here with Nen-Le than when I was in the holding room with Direl, or even with King Sylve... He huffed in exasperation, simply shaking his head at us. Was he the same warrior that mocked Direl, or injected me with nanobugs, or lewdly offered to take me as his own pet? What Nen-Le was saying before was making more sense, he seemed at odds with himself.
“No one buys a slavers injection without the anti-bot for themselves,” Nen-Le pointed out.
“No one except those desperate enough to risk the chance the injection is turned on themselves,” Commander Chuel corrected and added with conviction, “We have one shot at this, Nen-Le.” He dropped the honorifics and stared her straight in the eyes. “I don’t want war as much as the next warrior. There is no honor in it, but that’s what we’ll have if you and the human are unsuccessful in bringing Princess Klemon out of hiding and having Direl fix what Sylve couldn’t. Whether she agrees to take her place as queen or we must use her as leverage is up to her. Don’t forget Nen-Le, Direl needs to rut with your human, or he won’t be clear headed enough to do what needs to be done.”
“I thought you said she was a criminal?” My words tumbled out before I could stop myself.
It was Nen-Le that answered, “To some Princess Klemon is. Many on the Trill Authority would seek to have her killed for her research, and they would have every right to bring her to trial for what her research has done across the galaxy. It wasn’t directly her fault, and if anything, I’m sure it’s the council themselves that used the research in what humans would consider war crimes. Her research is responsible for many species being endangered or close to extinction. The same way nanobugs are being used in your blood, she’s pioneered the nanobot that can alter reproductive organs, making them inert without activation. It’s been called the world destroyer, Ganpan-fal. She created something without a known way of untangling the bots from their hosts. The results have devastated worlds.”
“And we want her to take control of the Trillume Alliance?” I asked appalled by the ramifications of someone who developed something so universally life threatening to be in charge of any planet under the Galactic Trill Authority’s influence. This was like asking the inventor of the atomic bomb to be a dictator over Earth, but this is the inventor of a bioweapon on fertility making rules and decisions over an entire galaxy of worlds.
“She’s the rightful successor to her mother’s position as head of the council, and if she doesn’t then it’s likely they will blame her for any further damage her research does and use the research themselves to control more than the planets they’ve already used it on, but use the technology as a means of controlling who we mate with, and having every planet be dependent on the Galactic Trill Authority to activate and continue their species reproduction. They would have the leverage they need to make any leader do anything they wanted,” Commander Chuel explained and then scanned me up and down appraising with a scowl. “Our futures are in the hands of a human to make sure Direl and Princess Klemon take responsibility before the council does.”
“We need to make sure she’s working on an anti-bot program to undo the damage her research has done and ensure that the process can be replicated should the Ganpan-fal be used as a weapon again.” Nen-Le grabbed my hand and smiled. “We will succeed,” she assured.
All I could think about was, even though I was being manipulated, if this was all true then how could I say King Sylve was doing anything I wouldn’t do to save an entire galaxy. As irritating as Commander Chuel was in continuing to call me human instead of by my name, he was in a desperate situation. I didn’t have to like it though.
“You know,” I paused, waiting for Commander Chuel to actually look at me again. “I would have done it willingly, if you had explained this before.”
He grunted, but I was sure I saw a bit of softness enter his eyes. “Noted, human. It is a necia warrior’s greatest honor to protect those unable to protect themselves. It pains me to say that this is not something I can protect against on my own, nor with all the warriors under my command. When you wake from your stasis pod, you will be on Trillume, in the hands of your host. May you have the strength of Horv and the goddess of might in your human epul to prevent the end of our cycles.”
“What do you need me to do?” I asked hesitantly.
“Nothing,” he replied with a devious grin. “You may simply go about your exchange as if you never met us. Direl will follow, and that’s all we need. Princess Klemon will know who he is and will be forced to act.”
“Direl will not want to be parted from her for long,” Nen-Le interrupted. “I’ve seen the way he wishes her to claim him even after taking her essence within him.”
