“Then what is he––”
“He’s got different alliances formed now, compared to when they started,” Anaze said, holding up a hand, his voice warning. “He's working with some of the Nirreth now. There’s good reasons for this. It’s really what might help us actually win this war.”
There was a silence.
“Explain,” Jet said, forcing her voice calm. “Explain that, Anaze.”
“I can’t explain all of it,” he said, shaking his head. “Not in twenty minutes––”
“Explain what you can,” she cut in. “Explain something, Anaze. Why would Nirreth help us fight and overthrow Nirreth? What does that mean?”
Anaze’s eyes showed a flash of understanding.
“Ah, okay. That part’s complicated, too, but again, I can tell you the basics. At base, not all of the Nirreth like the rulership of the Royals, Jet. There are some among them who want to self-govern, okay?”
Shrugging, he surprised her with a faint, sideways grin.
“Think of it kind of like a democratic uprising. You know? Some of them don’t like the strict hierarchies of the old rule. They aren’t so big on the whole colonialism thing, of their own people, or of other species. They have a different ideology… and, of course, there are factional fights between them, too.”
Pausing, he shrugged.
“Some of them approached Richter.”
“When?”
“A number of years ago now. Their leader, one of the more ideological ones, proposed an alliance. A joining of forces, for a more free version of society.”
Jet stared at him for a second.
Then she blinked, frowning.
“Laksri.”
“He’s one of them,” Anaze confirmed, nodding. “He’s their leader, as you surmised. That’s a long story, too, Jet, but Laksri’s not alone. He has a whole faction behind him, who know his true identity. For now, Laksri pretends to work for Richter. It’s good cover for him, and he needs to keep a low profile right now, especially around other Nirreth. Him and Richter both play the boss-employee charade, but really, they’re more like partners. Laksri urged me to talk to you tonight. He was worried we were leaving you too much in the dark.”
Jet frowned, opening her mouth, but Anaze went on.
“He’s got his own reasons for wanting to fly under the radar. With the Nirreth, I mean. With his own kind. I don’t know the whole story, but he’s living under some kind of alias. Apparently he got into trouble on the home world. Something to do with his political beliefs, even before he started his own version of a rebellion. He went underground for a number of years… came back with a new identity. I’m pretty sure he’s still a fugitive.”
“And he and Richter––”
“They’re partners,” Anaze repeated. “They’ve been working together for a number of years now, Jet, finding ways to plant supporters, infiltrators, and instigators of different kinds in the Green Zones. But they really need someone with access to the Royals.”
There was a silence.
Jet had known. She’d already understood.
Even so, hearing him say it hurt.
It hurt a lot.
“Me,” she said, forcing her eyes to his. “They picked me. I’m their person close to the Royals. That’s why I’m here.”
Anaze nodded, watching her face cautiously. When the silence returned, his eyes shifted sideways. Clearing his throat, he shrugged.
“Yes. Well… sort of.”
“‘Sort of’'?” She clenched her jaw. “There is no ‘sort of’ with this, Anaze. Your father picked me. He knew the Royals would want to buy me, so he culled me. He recruited me against my will. That’s why I’m here. Isn’t it?”
Anaze just sat there for a moment.
Then he sighed, nodding reluctantly.
“Yes. That’s why you’re here.” His skin seemed to darken in the low light.
After another odd-feeling pause, he shrugged.
“It’s just…” He hesitated, raising his eyes. “It wasn’t my father who picked you, Jet. It wasn’t Laksri, either. It was me. Richter told me to find someone. Someone tough. Someone smart, who could survive in here. Someone the Nirreth would value. He told me to find a female, if possible… since the Nirreth wanted female humans for the Rings.”
Jet felt her jaw harden to granite.
She opened her mouth, then closed it with an angry snap.
“You set me up,” she said, nearly growling the words. “It wasn’t just some crime of convenience. You didn’t just tell that culler ship I’d be there… you’ve been grooming me. You planned it. This whole thing.”
“Yes,” he said, even more apologetic.
She stared at him, speechless.
Anaze held up his hands, wincing at whatever he saw on her face.
“Jet, look, I’m sorry––”
“Sorry?” She stared at him blankly, then let out a humorless laugh, shaking her head. “God, I’m an idiot. All that crap with you trying to ‘help’ me. Waving me over to that manhole. You were just drawing me out into the open. You did all that on purpose, all of it… so your father could grab me, and it would look like bad luck, like I screwed up. You were probably following me the whole time––”
“Yes!” Anaze said angrily, catching hold of her shoulders. “Jet, I didn’t pick you at random. I know you. I know you care about this! I couldn't tell you anything until now, I really couldn’t… but I honestly wouldn’t have done it, if I didn’t think this would be exactly what you wanted. I genuinely thought you’d want to be a part of this. That you’d want to do it. No one wants to be free of the Nirreth more than you!”
She stared at him in disbelief.
“Jet,” he said, frustrated. “I care about you. You have to know that much. I told you as soon as I could. I couldn’t tell you before… I flat out couldn’t. You never would have made it through the security protocols if I’d told you a damned thing.”
“What security protocols?” she said. “Are you saying they read my mind? Because no one asked me anything… not a damned thing!”
“Yes! They can read your mind!”
At her stunned silence, he exhaled, combing a hand through his hair.
Lowering his voice, he added, quiet. “Jet, they’ve been doing scans on you since you got here. Since you stepped off Richter’s ship. The medical examination was primarily a brain scan, as well. They did more during the demo. They would have known if you had an agenda in being here. They would have known if you’d been prepped in any way.”
She stared at him. “And what makes you think they won’t do that again? Scan my brain, or whatever?”
“They’ll try, definitely.” Anaze released her, his eyes serious. “But Richter got them to agree to keep Laksri on as a guardian and translator. He should be able to protect you from anything too invasive. He’ll also block any results that might be incriminating, keeping them from reaching the real authorities. Getting the Royals to take him on as your personal guard was a huge coup for us.”
Jet’s mind continued to spin around Anaze’s words. “How long?”
At his puzzled frown, she felt her jaw harden further.
“How long has this been going on, Anaze? How long since you ‘picked’ me?”
Anaze shrugged, his face showing discomfort.
“Anaze––”
“About six months,” he said, holding up a hand. “For the whole process. For me giving my dad the go-ahead, that we had the right person. After that last raid, I knew. The way you ran into that fight…” He shook his head. “No one else in the camp did that, Jet. No one else in the camp would have done that. And I knew your main issue with those joke rebels was that they were hypocrites and liars. And because they sold people to the Nirreth as slaves. I knew you damned well didn’t disagree with the idea of the rebellion in principle––”
“Bullshit!” Jet snapped, even as tears stung her eyes.
She remembered all those talks they’d had tog
ether, walking in the woods.
Setting traps. Working in the gardens. Expanding the underground caverns. Eating meals together. She’d trusted Anaze. She told him everything about how she felt, her worries about the future, her brother, her mom, what she wanted for the world.
She trusted him.
“I can’t believe you.” She shook her head. Tears threatened again, but they were as much from anger as grief. “I really can’t believe you, Anaze. I can’t anything you say. I can scarcely believe this is real. I can’t believe you did this, that you’re even the same person––”
“I spent months assessing your political beliefs, Jet.” His voice grew warning, maybe in part to get her to look at him. “They aligned with ours exactly. In every particular. But it was more than that. You’ve got heart, courage. You were the best fighter in the settlement. You’re smarter than just about anyone I know, except maybe my dad…”
When she glared at him, wiping her face with the back of her hand, his eyes softened. He touched her face, letting his hand fall to her shoulder when she jerked her chin away.
“You’re one of us, Jet,” he said, sounding frustrated, but also a little fearful. “Jet, you’re one of us… whether you realize it yet or not. I swear I’m right about this. I would never have dragged you into this if I didn’t think you’d want to be a part of this fight. I love you, Jet. You’re family to me. Moreover, you know me. You know I wouldn’t have.”
“I don’t know you,” she said, glaring at him. “I don’t know anything about you, Anaze. How can I believe anything you say now?”
“Because you know me, Jet!” he said, exasperated. “You can pretend you don’t all you want, but you do. You know when I’m telling the truth. Just like you knew I loved you before I said it just now. Don't even try to deny it…”
When she shook her head angrily, wiping her face, he softened his voice.
“You’re one of us, Jet.” He clasped her hand in his, gripping tighter when she tried to pull away. “I promise you, Jet… you are. You just didn’t know it yet.”
For a long moment, she couldn’t make herself speak.
Anger warred in her mind with another feeling, something that peered out through the betrayal and the being lied to and her fury at Anaze. He’d turned her into a slave. He’d handed her to the Nirreth, for his father and some twisted cause. She felt the conflict worsen as she thought of her mother and brother, the fact that Anaze and Richter also hurt them.
Thanks to them, her family was alone.
He’d left her mother and brother defenseless and alone.
But even the thought of her family couldn't entirely quell the other feeling.
That feeling grew in her, wanting to take over, to push past the rest of her, the parts of her that knew she was being used, that she couldn’t trust anything they said, that she’d probably die here.
It took her a long time to recognize what that feeling was.
Or maybe it just took her that long to admit it to herself.
She knew, though. She knew the feeling.
She hadn’t felt it like this, not in a hell of a long time, but she knew.
It was hope.
That feeling was hope.
Anaze’s words filled her with a kind of disbelieving hope.
There was a rebellion. A real one.
Richter had Nirreth fighting with him now––Nirreth who wanted to give their world back to them maybe, or at least let them live in it without having to hunker down in toxic caves, or sell themselves as slaves.
Nirreth existed that they might actually be able to live in peace with, something Jet hadn’t thought possible. Now, after seeing the Green Zone especially, it didn’t strike her as that crazy. What if humans all lived in places like this? What if they were all allowed to do more than just survive? What if they lived without constant starvation and disease, poison and toxic waste, in a world that felt more like how Earth was meant to be?
If Anaze was telling the truth, there may actually be a side worth fighting on.
Thinking about that, she realized something else.
He’d been right about her.
Anaze was right.
Jet hadn’t scorned working with the rebels because she didn’t believe in the fight. She just hadn’t believed in them.
She’d seen their hypocrisy, their willingness to sacrifice skags for their glorious cause, their willingness to let whole communities be destroyed as collateral damage, hiding behind women and children and old people. She’d known they couldn’t be trusted with her brother’s or her mother’s lives.
More than that, she’d known they’d never win.
They weren’t smart enough. They weren’t serious enough.
They weren’t the right people to win this war.
Could it be possible that Richter was that person? That he and Laksri, together, might be the people smart enough, determined enough, serious enough, to win this war?
After all, Richter fooled her. He’d fooled all of them, with his raids on the skags, his extortion for medical supplies… but mostly because he’d seemed to end his war against the Nirreth altogether. He’d had more military training than any of them, but he’d given up, left the rest of them to fend for themselves.
Now, if she could believe Anaze, he hadn’t given up.
Now, if she could believe Anaze, it had all been a cover. He’d let the skags hate him, he’d encouraged it, really––all as part of a ruse to get in with the Nirreth. From the beginning, it had all been about finding ways to infiltrate them, to take them down from within.
He’d merely changed tactics.
Jet still didn’t know how she felt about Richter himself, or anyone who could do such a thing, even for a good cause, but she understood it at least.
She also saw the brilliance of it.
She even understood why he’d gone as far with it as he did. It never would have worked, if he hadn’t fully committed. Thus, the thieving, the culling, the raids of skag communities, extorting them with inflated prices for medicines, tech, weapons, and other necessities.
Jet still didn’t trust any of them. Not really.
But Anaze’s words resonated with some part of her that went deeper than her rational mind. Jet knew she couldn’t trust that feeling, not for a second. She knew she couldn’t, but she also knew some part of her already did.
She did trust it.
More than that, she wanted in. She wanted to be a part of this.
She didn’t want to be one of those who witnessed history without understanding it. She wanted to be involved. She wanted to be one of the actors, not merely a spectator.
Now, thanks to Anaze, she wasn’t on the sidelines.
She was right in the middle of it.
When she looked at Anaze next, she saw him watching her.
That wary look had returned to his face, especially in the sharpness of his eyes. His dark head tilted sideways, his green irises shining in the light from the Nirreth moon. Jet could feel the question in him, just as clearly as if he’d spoken it aloud.
Even so, her own answer to that question still managed to surprise her.
“All right,” she said, her voice strangely calm. “I’m in.”
There was a silence.
Then, slowly, Anaze broke out in a smile.
She saw emotion rise to his eyes, even as that smile widened, turning into a grin. Looking at him, she felt again like she didn’t know him at all, like they were meeting for the first time.
He was Richter’s son.
He was a rebel.
He’d been a rebel… a real one… all this time.
Now Jet was, too.
~ END OF PART I ~
Copyright © 2014 by JC Andrijeski
Published by White Sun Press
Cover Art & Design by Damonza (2014)
www.damonza.com
Ebook Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may
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1
The Prince
Jet folded her arms, trying to keep the impatience off her face, or at least where the young Nirreth wouldn’t see it.
When she glanced at Laksri, however, she saw his deep black eyes studying her in a way that told her he had. Noticed, that is… even if the boy hadn’t.
She couldn’t tell what Laksri’s expression meant exactly, though.
Jet knew he studied her to see how she fared with the Nirreth prince.
She expected to get those looks from him by now; he watched her like a hawk most days, as if examining every word she spoke and every gesture she made.
Yet, rather than disapproving, the look on his face now held flickers of the facial ticks she’d begun to associate with Nirreth amusement––as much as she could discern anything on a Nirreth’s midnight blue skin and elongated features.
Laksri taught her some of those facial expressions himself, as part of her “cultural assimilation” classes. She picked up even more just from watching the Nirreth that surrounded her daily, including Laksri himself.
She’d seen that particular expression on his face a lot the past week.
“Come here!” the Nirreth prince demanded, seemingly oblivious to the looks exchanged between Jet and the older Nirreth.
Sighing a little, Jet avoided the kid’s eyes.
She didn’t want to give him the impression she would in any way jump because he said jump. She didn’t want him thinking that raising his voice would be more likely to get her to look at him, either. She’d already made that mistake a few times in the weeks she’d been there, caving to whims of his to keep him quiet.
The Complete Alien Apocalypse Series (Parts I-IV Plus Bonus Novella): An Apocalyptic, Romantic, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion Adventure Page 18
