Page 136 of Alien Prince's Fake Bride
“Yes, Your Highness,” Emma squeals and bounces up. “Right away.” She sends me an uncertain smile, probably suspecting why I’m acting all cold and demanding but not being sure.
When we meet up again four minutes later, none of us are wearing anything that can record us.
I give Emma a firm embrace. “Sorry about the theatrics. But I know Space Force. Now they know you had a good reason to drop that AI. They can’t blame you.”
“Damn, girl,” she mutters. “You can bescary.”
“I’ve had some scary things happen to me,” I agree. “Anyway. What did you want to say?”
She gives me a shy glance. “Can I come? When you leave tomorrow? To Khav?”
“Yes,” I reply immediately. I thought she might ask about that, and Mareliux and I think it’s all right. “But you can’t bring any AIs. Bring a regular camera and recording equipment, but nothing with a mind of its own. Space Force will order you to spy for them. I expect that. But don’t come loaded with spy devices. And you must understand that you may not be able to return to Earth. I mean, we won’t hold you back. But you might experience what I’m going through right now. Earth will stop being your home, and you will feel it all through you.”
“I can deal with that,” she says slowly. “I’ve seen you come to terms with it. Are you sure it will be all right?”
I nod. “We were talking about bringing humans to Khav. We think that Earth needs time to think about things before we’ll bring more than one or two. But you’ll be very welcome, Emma. I was hoping you’d want to, but I couldn’t ask, because then youmight not be free to decide on your own. I don’t know which orders Space Force gave you about this.”
“They gave me the orders you’d expect. Find out as much as possible, especially whether Mareliux is actually as nice as he seems and whether or not this is the start of an alien invasion.”
I glance at my Syntrix ring. The way it shines, he’s not far away. “You’ve known him now for a couple of days. What do you think?”
Emma taps her lips. “About the invasion? I suppose itcouldbe one, although it would be a weird way to invade someone, just being nice and promising all kinds of fancy tech to make us a real space-faring planet. To me, it looks like Earth’s dream scenario. I’m sureyouwould know, and you seem to be the same old Umbra. If a little less gloomy and more… I don’t know. Happy? Content? I’ve seen youlaugh, even. Like a happy, spontaneous laugh, not a forced one. Never saw that before. I think that tentacle guy has been good for you.”
I grin. “I guess I was a little intense before. Sorry about that. But yeah. I’m more myself these days.”
“And for what it’s worth, I think it’s beyond crazy that you brought all this to Earth, after all you went through. You’re amazing. Everyone is a little stunned, I think.”
“That’s worth a lot,” I tell her, moved. “Come here.” I give her a bear hug. “I’m really happy you want to come along. It’ll be a lot of fun to have a friend from Earth along with me. I kept wishing you were there.”
“All right,” she sniffs. “You persuaded me. How do we deal with that Syntrix Barrier Veil thing? Going through it?”
“There are several ways,” I tell her carefully. “Some of them are… controversial. The one we’ll try this time is to get drunk. We probably won’t notice crossing that barrier then. We’ll be too busy singingShape of Youout of tune.”
“Good, because that’s the only way I can sing it. Oh, are we on the night side now?” She looks up, where the Earth is a thin sliver of blue and a big, dark oval with clusters of city lights here and there, as well as furious lightning from thunderstorms.
“Looks like it. And it looks like we’re moving away. If only the Space Force station had windows this big.”
“Our tiny little portholes are nothing like this panorama,” Emma agrees. “Probably to stop us having meaningful conversations under the stars. But this is almost too much. Like floating freely in space. Oh, there comes the boss.”
Mareliux comes out of the elevator and walks over, tentacles a happy blue, going pink at the tips. He’s taken to wearing a thin shirt, because he knows I enjoy putting my hand under the fabric to stroke his massive chest. “Thought I’d find you two here. You’re becoming inseparable.”
“And that will only continue,” I tell him primly. “Emma wants to come with us.”
He smiles. “Ah. As anactualambassador, I assume? Or an Earth envoy of some kind. You’ll need some kind of official standing, Emma. Can you arrange one?”
“I’ll try,” Emma says and smoothens down her dress. “Itwouldbe better to have diplomatic immunity. I mean, you can’t expect me to go to an alien planet and actuallybehave. I should probably get started on that. See you later!” She walks over to theelevator, watching her step because she’s not used to walking on something that looks like the night sky.
Mareliux frowns. “Do you think she’ll behave in scandalous ways?”
“Yes,” I tell him as I reach up to take hold of one of his tendrils. “Your empire needs some scandals. I mean, except for Nerox’s antics.”
“It would make for a nice change, anyway,” Mareliux growls. “Reports state that he’s lost all inhibitions with us two out of the way. Going wild, they say. But we’ll see when we get back. Six days from Earth to Khav, traveling fast.”
“Let’s take our time,” I suggest, twirling two tendrils together. “There’s no rush now. Let Nerox have some fun. Without his message, there might be no empire now. And we wouldn’t be married. We would never have met.”
He embraces me and sniffs my hair. “It would be the greatest misfortune of my life if I’d never met you. And I wouldn’t even have known it.”
“Ofmylife too,” I tell him. “But yeah, let’s not talk about something that didn’t happen. Space Force made me a colonel, did I tell you?”
