Sk'lar

by Elin Wyn

  “Everything okay?” he asked.

  “Yes, but I need you to get back here by five.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s a surprise. Just do it.” I disconnected before he could answer. He was out at the crater site today, so if he wanted to get back in time, he’d have to leave in just a few short hours. However, if I managed what I wanted to pull off, I’d have to leave now.

  “Vidia,” I called her name before I entered her office, just in case I stumbled into another private conversation. I hadn’t told Vidia that I’d overheard her conversation with Evie. I wanted Vidia to tell me in her own time, despite how serious it’d sounded.

  “What’s up?” she shouted back, sounding as chipper as ever. There hadn’t been any follow up to that threat on her office door. No riots had broken out in the last forty-eight hours, either. We considered that a win. My, how our standards had fallen.

  “I need to go home,” I stated.

  Vidia lifted her brows in surprise. She quickly swallowed the tea she’d been sipping. No doubt it was piping hot.

  “Is everything all right?”

  “Yes, I just would like a day off.”

  “Did I hear that right?” Vidia narrowed her eyes.

  “Is there a better way to phrase that?”

  “No, I understood the words. But the meaning must be different because they came out of your mouth. Have you ever taken a day off?”

  “I took a lot of days off after the final debate.”

  “You didn’t take those days off. You were in a medically induced coma for part of them and in physical therapy for the rest of them. In case you forgot, you got shot that day.”

  “Right,” I nodded. “But I didn’t work, so that’s technically a day off.”

  “This is painful to listen to. Yes, take your day off. I won’t ask questions.” Vidia waved me out of her office.

  I hurried home to grab a few things, then I spent the next few hours in the market district of Nyheim. I kept my hood up to hide my features from anyone who might’ve wanted to do me harm.

  Fifteen minutes before five o’clock, I was on the roof of my apartment complex. I’d set up string lights, partially for atmospheric purposes but also because there were no other lights on the roof. Sk’lar and I would need lights for what we were going to do tonight.

  I also laid out soft mats for protection and I lit a few herb sticks so the air smelled more like the seaside and less like a dirty roof. Yes, this night was going to be perfect.

  I answered my comm unit on the first tone.

  “Where are you?” Sk’lar asked.

  “On the roof. Come up.”

  Once again, I hung up on him.

  A few moments later, Sk’lar clambered up the fire escape. He took in the glowing sight of the roof with a huge smile on his face.

  “What’s all this?” he asked.

  “We’ve never actually been on a date,” I shrugged.

  “I cooked you dinner once.”

  “You bought dinner and then heated it up!” I exclaimed.

  “I still did all of the work to make sure you were fed.”

  “You doing all of the work wasn’t a date. It was just you being nice,” I teased. “Besides, by that point, we’d already had all of our firsts.”

  “Firsts?”

  “First kiss, having sex for the first time,” I listed.

  “This is uncharacteristically sentimental of you.” I detected a note of suspicion in his voice.

  “This is the first time I’m giving my all to a relationship that has nothing to do with work.”

  “We met at work,” he pointed out.

  “Don’t ruin the moment.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

  “Have you been drinking?”

  “Is it so hard to believe I could be ready to have fun without the influence of alcohol? Don’t answer that,” I said before he could say anything.

  “Can I ask what your intentions are? You’ve got quite the romantic setup here.” Sk’lar looked around at the roof again.

  “Romantic? I’m not here for romance. Catch.”

  He turned around just in time to catch the training staff I tossed his way.

  “You want to train?”

  “Spar,” I corrected. “You’ve used one before, right?”

  “Of course.” He tossed the staff from one hand to the other to test its weight. “I think staff training is standard on any planet.”

  “Then let’s go,” I insisted.

  “Do all of your dates go like this?” he asked as our staves clashed together. I whirled to evade his strike, then drove the butt of my staff into his shoulder.

  “They would if I went on dates,” I replied. “But you’re the first one who’s ever been able to handle me.”

  “I’m honored.” Sk’lar knocked out the back of my knee with his staff, throwing me off balance. He pinned me to the mat, effectively immobilizing me.

  “Best two out of three?” I offered.

  Sk’lar dipped his head to kiss me before letting me up.

  “This is the first time I’ve beaten you at something that involves a long stick. No rematch. I’m keeping my win.”

  “Fine.” I rolled my eyes and grinned. “I made dinner, too, if you’re hungry.”

  “Now you’re stealing my date ideas?”

  “You didn’t invent making dinner for someone,” I countered.

  “I did in this relationship.”

  “Say that again,” I requested with a smile.

  “I did in this relationship,” he repeated hesitantly.

  “Thank you. I just wanted to hear you say we’re in a relationship.”

  “I wanted to be in one much sooner, but you were too skittish,” Sk’lar teased.

  We walked over to the wicker basket I’d brought up in advance. We sat side by side on the mats to eat the underwhelming sandwiches I’d made.

  “I wasn’t skittish!” I protested. “I just overthought everything.”

  “You can say that again,” Sk’lar said between bites. “I won’t hold it against you. I’m glad you took the time to think everything through before deciding what you want.”

  “You are?”

  “Of course. That’s how I know you really want me.”

  I scooted closer to Sk’lar and laid my head on his shoulder.

  “This is much better than a one-night stand,” I sighed.

  “I agree.” He pressed a kiss into my forehead. “Want to know a secret?”

  “What?”

  “I’d noticed you long before we started working together.”

  A blush blossomed in my cheeks.

  “I noticed you the moment we all started working on the same floor. Your dedication and competence stood out from everyone else.”

  “Most women like it when you tell them they're prettier than the others.” I bumped his shoulder.

  “You’re not most women.”

  “I noticed you, too,” I offered.

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  “We interacted a number of times before we worked together. I never learned your name and I didn’t recognize you instantly each time, but I knew who you were.”

  “This is the strangest romantic conversation between two beings.”

  “You’re an alien and I’m an orphan. What do you expect?”

  Sk’lar tipped his head back and laughed.

  “What did you think when you noticed me?” he asked.

  “You were one of the few who didn’t instantly annoy me,” I said. “You didn’t mince words. You gave direction and took direction efficiently. You didn’t make stupid mistakes and you didn’t stretch beyond your abilities, which are extensive, by the way. I knew you were talented at your job, too.”

  “Yet my name and my face escaped you?”

  “Vidia says I have to realign my priorities,” I sniffed.

  “I think your priorities are perfect. She’s lucky to have you on her team.”

  “I�
��m lucky to have you on mine.”

  Sk’lar bent his head to kiss me. I let thoughts of anything other than him drift away and disappear like smoke. Those thoughts would return sooner rather than later, but right now I just wanted to be with him.

  “Whatever happens,” he murmured when we broke apart, “I’m grateful that we’ll be doing this together.”

  “Together,” I repeated.

  We stayed on the roof for a long time watching both the stars above us and the city below us. Looking down on all the people, I could convince myself that the rest of the planet took a night off, too. Everyone would find peace tonight. Even if it was just one night, it counted for so much more than that.

  Letter from Elin

  Whoo hoo! This begins the what I think of as the third season of Conquered World. It’s a crazy sort of magic to imagine a story line that spreads and braids back on itself, and then bring it to life and share it with people.

  Thank you so much for being part of that magic!

  Next up, for more questions and answers - Jalok! Keep reading for a sneak peek, or get it on Amazon now!

  XOXO,

  Elin

  Jalok: Sneak Peek

  Chapter 1

  Dottie

  I woke up with the rising sun as I had the day before. I’d spent the majority of the last two weeks in a windowless lab inputting data that, ultimately, made no sense to our computers. I worked out of Kaster, my home city. When I first took this contract with General Rouhr and his scientists, they wanted me to move to Nyhiem to work. I declined.

  When bad things happened, they happened in Nyhiem first. The anti-alien radicals had a huge foothold in that city. Not long ago, there’d been a shooting that nearly killed the mayor of Nyhiem and her personal bodyguard or something like that.

  No way was I about to relocate to such a dangerous place.

  Besides, I loved Kaster. My family lived there since the city was first founded. The Xathi did a number on it which was all the more reason or me not to leave. When I wasn’t working, I volunteered with different relief organizations within the city. The school was still in shambles. The kids of Kaster were learning out of a tent surrounded by rubble. The teachers were working for free for now. If I wasn’t on the job now, I’d be there.

  The sunlit stretch of the tent above me did nothing to stop the brightness of the morning sun from creeping in. That’s how I liked it. I was a sunlight creature. Cloudy days put me in a bad mood. Back home, the running joke was that I was secretly part plant and that’s why I became an environmental scientist.

  I stepped out of my tent to bask in the morning rays. I arrived here yesterday, too late in the evening to warrant setting up my equipment. My tent was set up on the edge of the crater left behind by the explosion of the alien ship, Vengeance. Aside from some unidentifiable chunks of metal strewn about, there was nothing left of the ship that crash landed here so many months ago.

  Shame. I would’ve liked to see that.

  Recently, the crater was attacked by a group of anti-alien radicals not long ago. They targeted the sentient vines of the Puppet Master. The exposed vines were singed and slashed. Today, I planned to take samples from the wounds to see what the radicals used.

  This was my first time back here in about two weeks. The Puppet Master was attacked last week. While I was glad I wasn’t here during the attack, I felt terrible for not being there to defend the Puppet Master.

  When this job was first offered to me, I accepted without thinking much on it. The salary alone was worth doing whatever it was they wanted me to do. On top of that, I’d been studying plants and their effect on their environments for nearly seven years. Taking this job was a no brainer.

  Then I was taken out to the far deserts, beyond the borders of the settled lands. General Rouhr and a few human scientists took me down into a massive crater. When they presented me to the plant they wanted me to study, I nearly fainted.

  Of course, I’d learn that plant wasn’t at all the correct term for the Puppet Master.

  When he first spoke to me, I was terrified. I’d never felt anything whisper directly into my brain like that before. It felt like an invasion.

  I almost quit the job right then and there. The money was too good, though. Not to mention that I spent half my life becoming an expert in my field. If they’d approached my lab with this offer a few months ago, the job would’ve gone to my boss Dr. Miles Crane. Unfortunately, Miles wasn’t with us anymore. He wasn’t killed during the Xathi invasion like many were. No, he suffered a far worse fate.

  When Xathi hybridism spread to the outlying cities, the men in Kaster were quick to act. Most of the men in Kaster were burly fisherman types who were comfortable battling raging storms in little boats. General Rouhr offered several of Kaster’s man positions in his ranks. A few went. Most of declined. Kaster was a small city, more of a town. The community was close-knit. We were all family.

  When the Kaster men rounded up anyone showing signs of hybridism, Miles Crane was among them. His case progressed rapidly. Within a day, he’d completely lost himself. I wasn’t there when he was killed. I couldn’t bear it.

  I was his right hand so when General Rouhr requested an environmental scientist, the job offer fell to me. The kind of money General Rouhr and his people were willing to pay was enough to fix up the school and buy new stalls for the open market.

  So, I toughed up and started talking with the Puppet Master. He was intelligent, naturally. I was expecting that once I knew he could speak into my mind. I didn’t expect him to be kind. He was willing to help the humans and the aliens rebuild the planet.

  My job was to figure out how the Puppet Master worked, so to speak. The Puppet Master described himself as the beating heart of the planet. I wanted to know how that was possible.

  My first few meetings with the Puppet Master consisted of him demonstrating his abilities for me. I watched in awe as he sprouted flowers and soothed irate forest creatures. In those sessions of observation, I realized what an extraordinary creature I’d been given the opportunity to work with. I started staying down in the crater with the Puppet Master long after observation sessions finished.

  I told the Puppet Master about my home and my family. He told me of his species and how long it’s been since he sensed others of his kind. I invited him for dinner next time I was with my family again. That seemed to amuse him.

  I’d go as far as to call us friends now. More than once I’ve found myself climbing into his crater in the middle of the night to talk about a bad dream I had or a fear that nagged me. The Puppet Master listened with great patience. Even if he couldn’t relate to my feelings, he always tried to help.

  I spent the last two weeks back in Kaster analyzing what I could at the lab within the city. Anything beyond my means was sent to the lab in Nyhiem. I had three datapads filled with analyses from Nyhiem I planned to spend my nights interpreting. Right now, I wanted to speak to the Puppet Master.

  In the interest of preserving infrastructure within the cities, the Puppet Master wasn’t allowed to spread his tendrils too close to city limits. Otherwise, I would just ask him to extend a vine through the Kaster lab window and do all of my interviews there.

  A hole had been blown in the northeast side of the crater making a tunnel. I walked across the expanse of the crater and through the mouth of the tunnel. Thick vines lined the cavern walls. The deeper into the earth I went, the fewer injuries I saw on the Puppet Master’s vines.

  When I found a location free of injuries, I placed my hand against a cool, firm vine.

  “Welcome, Dottie,” came the layered voice of the Puppet Master in my head. “I predicted you’d be deployed here.”

  “How are you?” I asked. “Are you in any pain?”

  “Some but I will soon heal.”

  “How do you heal?” I took out my recorder. Since the Puppet Master’s voice was purely telepathic, I couldn’t record him directly. I planned on repeating everything he said to me out
loud.

  “I generate my own healing enzymes that can repair wounds,” he explained. “Don’t be too impressed. You do the same thing when you’re injured.”

  I laughed as I repeated his answer.

  “At the core of all things, I am a lifeform just as you are despite the fact that I am what you would call ancient,” he continued. “Pay close enough attention and you will find we have more similarities than we do differences.”

  That’s why I loved talking to the Puppet Master. He had the ability to make me feel so small yet so significant at the same time.

  “We refer to you as male,” I prompted. “Does that mean there are females too?”

  “Male and female refers to reproductive capabilities. My species does not reproduce. We are eternal.”

  “Then where did you come from?”

  “That even I can’t tell you,” he said. “One instant I was not. The next instant I was. In the history of this universe, I am but a youngling in the footsteps of those that came before me. While I may have knowledge over my eons of existence, I have but scratched the surface of our reality.”

  “You’re a mystery.” I affectionately patted the vines. “I like solving mysteries.”

  “I will tell you what I know though I can’t promise your limited brain will be able to comprehend it,” he said.

  “Hey!”

  “That was not meant to be insulting. It is simply true.”

  “I know.”

  “You’re very intelligent for a human.” A thin tendril reached out to wrap around my wrist. It was the Puppet Master’s equivalent of a pat on the shoulder.

  “You’re lucky I like you so much,” I teased. “Let’s move back to your healing abilities. Do they extend to only your own body or the rest of the planet?”

  “The rest of the planet is my body. I am simply the heart and the mind.”

  “I know but I need a way to measure that,” I chuckled.

  “Some things are incapable of being measured in a lab.”

  “Don’t start getting philosophical on me.”

  “We are all philosophy, child.” I liked explaining new things to the Puppet Master. It made me feel less useless.