Defy The Stars

by Magan Vernon

  Nerses raised her hand, shaking her head. "No need to, Dalton. She has every right to be here."

  I wanted to turn around and stick my tongue out at Dalton, but I decided to try and remain as professional as I could.

  "And besides—" She smiled and looked down at me. "—if we're going to win this war we definitely need someone with her kill shot on the team."

  Chapter 23

  Jen, Malcolm, and the doctor were ushered out of the room by the other two guards, but Dalton just stood there staring at me.

  "Can I help you with something, Dalton?" dad asked, his face clearly painted with annoyance. I couldn't tell if it was aimed at Dalton or me.

  Dalton shuffled back and forth before finally speaking. "Yeah, I'd kind of like the kid to give me back my gun."

  Everyone's eyes turned to me and Nerses. She just smiled coyly as she took the gun from my hands and walked over to Dalton.

  "If I ever see a kid take your gun again, you'll be demoted." She spoke with such charm that I didn't know whether to fear or envy her.

  Dalton chose the former, saluting her before heading back through the damaged doors, trying to close them as far as they would go before he left.

  "Now where were we?" Nerses walked back over to her seat.

  "I say we nuke the hell out of the Caltians. My planet's been waiting to do it for years," yelled a small alien with green-tinted skin and hair the color of freshly fallen snow, pounding his lizard-like fists on the table.

  "Yeah, it's about time someone stands up to those cold-bodied maggots," yelled another alien with a dozen different eyes and raised her tiny yellow arms in the air.

  "Now, Thales, we can't jump to any rash conclusions." Dad held up his hands, locking eyes with Thales.

  "No disrespect, sir," a large fish-like alien piped up from across the table, "but you should be the first one to want to go after the Caltians when they are directly attacking your gene pool."

  "Yeah, Melissus is right," chanted another. "We should just give the queen what she wants, the human girl!" Some of the other aliens around the table started cheering and eyed me hungrily.

  "Now wait a minute." Dad stood up, placing his hands on the table. "We can't just hand Alex over to the queen."

  "Why not? Just give the queen what she wants and maybe she'll go back to Calta," another alien added.

  Nerses stood up, raising her hand out toward the group. Everyone grew silent as they watched her. "Before we jump to any rash conclusions, I'd like to know what we are dealing with." Her eyes darted in my direction and my body was instantly pulled toward the seat next to her.

  "Alexandra, tell me what you saw down in the cell block."

  I gulped, trying to divert my eyes anywhere but to hers and dad's as I sat down. "Well I was cuffed and supposed to only go to the hangar and my room."

  "Oh, stop with the excuses. We all know that they found you down near Ace's cell, so just tell us what happened," yelled one of the few humans in the room.

  "Thank you, Adam." Nerses nodded in his direction before locking her icy blue eyes back on me. "Now that we've got that out in the open, tell us what happened."

  I let out a deep breath, looking down and recounting all the details from the storming of the Caltians, Marsilo's argument with Ace, and even what the instrument looked like that we were electrocuted with. By the time I was done, I looked up to see that everyone was staring at me. Some of them had their mouths open and others had their hands balled into fists, ready to fight.

  "Who does the queen think she is? Just walking in and taking what she wants? We can't just go and give her what she wants just because she demands it. Or next time she'll demand more than the girl." A human woman stood up, slamming her large hands on the table.

  Thales stood up as well, her red eyes glowing like two fiery embers. "Mary is right. We've let the Caltian queen bully all our planets for years. Letting her take and do whatever she wants out of fear is a losing proposition."

  I thought back to what Jen had said my first day at Circe. How she told me that Caltians were like the popular kids of the universe. I looked around the table at the aliens and humans and realized that they were like the kids in my high school: the science geeks, the misfits, the ones who needed a voice most of all. Unlike Riley they didn't want to give me up to the queen because they didn't like me. Their intentions were purely rooted in fear. They had feared the queen all of their lives, let themselves become her punching bag, but now it was time for the punching bags to fight back.

  I stood up as everyone grew silent, their eyes slowly trailing up to my face. "I think it's time that we take a stand against the queen. Not just because she took my boyfriend or because she had someone attack me, but so all of Circe and the entire universe knows that bullying and threatening other creatures of the universe will not be tolerated!"

  The crowd around the table stood up and cheered, raising their fists in the air, ready to join the fight. Nerses raised her hand again and the crowd grew silent, her eyes locked right onto mine. "I thought that might be your answer."

  She pressed a button on the table and a new screen came down with Justin and another small purple alien appearing across it.

  "Philo and Justin." She stared at the screen.

  "Yes, Nerses?" Philo's eyes were so huge behind the pair of Coke-bottle glasses on his purple alien head that I wasn't sure where his face began and where the glasses ended.

  "How long do you estimate before the Caltians attack?" Nerses asked.

  Justin pressed a few keys on the computer. "We can't be too sure. It could be days or it could only be a few hours. It looks like they are still sitting just outside of Earth's atmosphere and they haven't sent any drones out yet."

  Nerses nodded again. "So can you get all able-bodied aliens and humans equipped for battle within, oh say, an hour and a half?"

  Philo blinked twice, looking over at Justin before they shrugged at each other and then turned back to Nerses. "It's worth a try."

  "Thank you." Nerses nodded before turning off the screen. "You heard them, soldiers. Get your gear and your direct commands, and report to Philo's lab where you'll start your briefing."

  The aliens got up from the table, some of them cheering and some of them passing by to add their support for me before they left the room.

  I started heading for the door when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see dad staring down at me. His eyes were circled with dark purple rings like he hadn't slept in days. "We need to talk, Alex."

  I froze. The last time we talked he slapped an ankle cuff on me and told me that I couldn't see my boyfriend anymore. I gulped. It was as if all the adrenaline I had built up from meeting with the board had been washed away by dad's dark circles.

  "Is this really important? I think I should head down with the rest of the troops to get briefed."

  "Alex, there are some other matters we need to discuss. Matters of you and Ace specifically."

  I rolled my eyes. "Dad, this isn't just about me and Ace anymore. This is about what is right for everyone. Because of my relationship the queen thinks she can push us around. It isn't fair to anyone. Not to me, not to Ace, and not to the rest of Circe, who is tired of living in fear of a tyrant."

  "Alex, you don't understand." Dad lowered his voice in an attempt to draw away the attention of Nerses and one of the guards.

  "Do you understand, Dad?" I placed my hands on my hips. "You left me and mom seven years ago to go on your alien-saving missions. You've always wanted to be the hero for the downtrodden; it's why you joined the Air Force. Now I want to be the one to do that, to not just go unnoticed, and maybe even save the guy who has done everything he can to make me not feel like an outsider."

  I took a step forward, meeting dad's eyes. "Ace has been there for me when I needed someone the most this summer. Whether I needed someone to save me from an alien attack or just to listen when I was fighting with my roommates. Now it's my turn to save him."

  He s
hook his head, letting out a deep puff of air. "Alex, I'm not saying you shouldn't go. I'd prefer that you didn't, but I'm letting you know that I understand and that's why I didn't want you to get involved with an alien."

  "How could you understand? As far as I know you haven't had so much as one date since you and mom divorced." I shook my head.

  "You're right." He nodded. "But it doesn't mean that I don't know what it means to risk everything for someone else, family, friends, job, and to just hope that it all works out in the end."

  I raised an eyebrow, having absolutely no idea what he was talking about. "Are you trying to tell me that you have a girlfriend?"

  "Well, I think that she would be considered a little bit more than a girlfriend and would probably be offended to hear you call her that."

  "Then what is she?" Great, I had my boyfriend kidnapped, was almost killed by another intern and a Caltian, and got to hear about my dad's new girlfriend all in one day. Couldn't I just have been normal for once?

  My dad's eyes lifted as the doors opened. I turned to see Nerses walk back in, a large smile crossing her face.

  "I take it you told her?"

  I looked from my dad to Nerses and back again, watching as their eyes lit up as they fell on the other person. It looked like I wasn't the only one in the Bianchi family dating an alien.

  Chapter 24

  "So that's why you left me and mom? Because of the offer from Nerses to come work here?"

  I sat on the couch while dad plopped a tea bag in a cup of hot water. His room was in the officer's quarters and was complete with its own sitting room and kitchen. He walked the few steps from the tiny white kitchen over to the couch, holding the two mugs out for us. When he said that he wanted to talk I was expecting it to be something about not wanting me to go to battle or even just lecturing me about my relationship with Ace, not the fact that he was actually involved in a secret alien relationship of his own.

  "I loved working at Randolph and being with you and your mom, but when I first heard of Circe, it was all that I could think about." He took a sip of his tea before setting it down on the wooden coffee table in front of him. "Then Nerses approached me about it one day when I was on duty. One look at her and I knew that I was meant to be at Circe and meant to be with her."

  I swallowed hard, letting the steam from the tea rise to my face. If I wouldn't have seen the way that Nerses looked at my dad, the same way that Ace would look at me as I would wake up from one of my nightmares, with the lightness glowing in his eyes, then I wouldn't have believed it would be possible for my dad to leave us. It also really made sense how I got the internship. I guess dating the director did have some perks.

  "So you can see why I was so nervous when I found out about your relationship with Ace." He swirled the cup, making a ring on his coffee table. "I know how dangerous and hard alien and human relationships can be."

  "Do other people know about you and Nerses?"

  "Some do, but most don't. You can understand the controversy that surrounds alien and human relationships." He let his hands trail back to his lap. "Some people think it's disgusting and unnatural, but others really do understand and support it. Those are the few people that know about our relationship."

  "And you didn't want me and Ace to deal with those people that think it's unnatural?"

  He smiled. "When you've had Neptunian gelatin thrown at your head because someone thinks you only made it this far because you're dating the boss, you realize that you never want that to happen to someone you care about."

  He reached out his hand, laying it on mine. It wasn't the same warmth that I would get from Ace's hands, but it was the first time I ever felt real comfort from my dad.

  "So what does her family think of you and her?"

  Dad sighed, picking up his mug with his free hand. "She doesn't have any family. Her planet was destroyed when she was just an infant. Earth is the only planet she knows and Circe is the only family she has."

  "Oh." I looked down at the swirling liquid in my mug. Dad might have understood what it was like to fall for an alien and even what it was like when your friends found out, but the whole alien boyfriend's mother trying to kill you thing was pretty foreign to him.

  "But that's why we have a trained human and alien army here. Taking a Circe resident was just the ammunition they needed to fight." He smiled. "So hopefully things will get back to normal soon."

  "I'm not really sure if my life is every going to be normal again." I took a sip from my mug.

  He laughed. "Who said normal was all that great anyway?"

  "Sure, Dad." I blinked, taking my eyes from his and looking down at my mug.

  "Look, I know it hasn't been easy for you since I left and I'm sorry for that. There were so many times that I wanted to tell you what was going on and bring you here, but I couldn't." He put his mug down and laid his hands on his lap, pushing them back and forth.

  "That's why when your mom told me about Columbia, I thought that you doing an internship here would not only help out your college resume, but could also bring us closer together. You could finally understand what Circe is about."

  I shook my head, trying to remain calm as a storm of emotions rumbled through my head. "If you cared so much about Circe bringing us closer together then why did you slap an ankle cuff on me and refuse to let me see Ace? Why couldn't you just tell me what was going on?"

  I let out a puff of air, looking down at the coffee table. "I’m not a little kid anymore, Dad, and if you would have just talked to me like an adult in the first place all of this probably wouldn't have happened. I wouldn't have had to sneak out and we wouldn't have to go to war with some stuck-up aliens."

  "Alex." He put his hand on my shoulder. "I had to protect you. I was afraid that something like this would happen and I didn't know what else to do."

  I pushed his hand off of my shoulder; his comfort felt false to me. Like everything that he was saying didn't make sense. "Didn't know what else to do? How about just, I don't know, tell me that you were afraid that I could really start an intergalactic war? Oh, or how about that you have an alien girlfriend of your own?"

  "Alex." He sighed.

  "What, Dad? Explain it to me, I'm all ears and ready to listen."

  "I was scared, okay!" He threw his arms up, before lowering them and drawing his eyes down to the ground. "I didn't know what was going to happen. I knew it was a possibility that the Caltians would attack, but I thought if I just kept you from Ace then you might even forget about him when you left here."

  "But then the queen would just continue ruling the universe with fear. Don't you see that? Nothing would have changed." I shook my head. "Could you forget about Nerses and just move on from Circe?"

  He let his eyes trail up to mine; the fear was shining brightly through them like a window to his inner terror. "No." He shook his head, and set his arms down at his sides. "And I should have known better than to expect you to do the same thing."

  "Then why did you try?" I pressed.

  "I don't know. I think I just forgot what it was like to be a teenager." He put his hands on his knees. "And I should have realized how powerful a relationship is between an alien and a human."

  I didn't know what to say as I really saw my dad for the first time in years. I didn't see him as the guy who abandoned my mom and me, or the guy who put an ankle cuff on me, but for the first time I actually saw him as another human being. One of the only ones that actually understood what I was going through with Ace, and one of the few people I felt like I could actually talk to about it.

  "I'm sorry Dad, for everything. For blaming you for mom, and for blaming you for locking up Ace." I put my hand on his back. "I know now that you were just trying to protect me, in your own clueless way."

  He laughed, shaking his head. "I guess I should maybe start listening to you instead of being so impractical."

  "Believe it or not, sometimes I actually know what I'm talking about."

  "Like tha
t time you told your mom and me that it was evil garden gnomes who painted the living room furniture blue?" He arched his eyebrows.

  "Exactly like that." I laughed.

  Dad reached over, placing his arms around me and pulling me into a hug. He rubbed my back while I tried to choke back the tears that were threatening to break through my eyelids.

  "I love you, Alex."

  "I love you, too, Dad."

  He pulled away, leaving his hands on my shoulders. "And I want you to do me a favor."

  "Anything, Dad."

  "I don't want you to join in the war. I want you to stay with Nerses in the underground bunker until it all blows over. Can you do that for me?"

  Chapter 25

  "What?" I shook my head, staring at dad and wondering where he came up with a question like that.

  He sighed, removing his hands from my shoulders. "I don't want to lose you again and if you go up there, I know you may never come back."

  "And you expect me to just sit hunkered down in a bunker somewhere hoping when it's all over Earth will still be here?" I focused in on him, not letting my eyes leave his.

  "Alex, there are plenty of trained aliens and soldiers who are more than ready to handle an attack like this." He patted my shoulder. "It will be fine."

  I stared at my dad, narrowing my eyes. "It will be fine? My boyfriend is stuck up in a spaceship, I was tasered by some creepy dude with a name I can't even pronounce, and you're telling me that it's going to be fine?"

  "Alex, there is no reason to worry. The trained soldiers will take care of this. I really don't want to see you get hurt and I’m sure Ace wouldn't want that either."

  I threw dad's hand off my shoulder. "You have no idea what Ace would want. You know nothing about our relationship and all the time that you had to get to know us, you decided to just ignore what you saw." I jumped off the couch, leaning over dad and stepping closer, not letting my stare waver from his. "You knew when you walked in on us that day we said we were looking at people's e-mails that there was something going on between us. But instead of talking to me about it, you decided not to say anything until you knew that you could just walk in, smack a tracker on my ankle, and try to control me."