“No. Take me back. That’s an order, Anaze. Take me back right now.”
Seeing the frustration on his face, she sighed, wrapping her arms around her bent knees.
“Listen, Anaze… I’m serious about this. I know the compound. I know it probably better than Laks, since I used to explore it every chance I got.”
She quirked and eyebrow at him.
“…and I can swim. Do you know anyone else who can say those things? Both things?”
“I can,” he said, smiling humorlessly.
She shook her head.
“You don’t know the Palace like I do. You were on house arrest most of the time you were there. Ogli let me go wherever I wanted. I know those canals like the back of my hand. I considered using them to try and escape more than once.”
Tilting her head, she gave him a wry smile.
“Besides, you just told on yourself. If you can do it better than me, we should be going back anyway. You should be going into that canal for them… not babysitting me.”
Anaze’s frown deepened.
Still staring at her face, he touched his ear.
“Did you get all that?” he said.
There was a silence while he listened to whoever was on the other end. Then Anaze exhaled, glancing at her. “Fine. Yup. Got it.”
Without saying a word to Jet, he rose to his feet, walking to an intercom panel set directly into the forward bulkhead. Pressing an indentation made for a larger finger than his, he spoke loudly to be heard over the sound of the wind rattling through the hold.
Jet couldn’t hear much through the same wind, but she caught the tail end.
“…confirmed, yes. Do it,” he said. “Yes. This comes from both.”
Taking his thumb off the wall, he gave Jet another piercing look, his green eyes studying hers as if he couldn’t make up his mind whether to be angry or not.
He still stood there as the culler began to bank, making a sharp, graceful turn in the air.
Within seconds, they were heading back the way they had come.
24
Many Mammals Swim
The pilot set the culler down just outside the high security wall that circled the outer perimeter of the Palace grounds.
Jet didn’t wait.
Jumping down out of the cargo door, she landed on the grass in her boots before the ship even finished powering down.
The airship was quiet.
Not soundless to her, since she’d spent most of her life being trained to listen for them in the sky, but she knew there was a good chance no one heard the culler land, even those right on the other side of that wall.
Heading towards the place where she knew a doorway lived, Jet strode across the lawn, feeling wound up on adrenaline and nerves.
She’d gotten rid of the sense-suit on the flight back, changing into civilian clothes Anaze lent her, so at least she felt a lot more comfortable. Rather than the form-fitting material covered in VR sensors, a black tank top and dark-green combat pants covered most of her body, along with an armored vest, several holsters, and Black’s scabbard.
She also managed to find a pair of boots that fit her, and a belt, along with a human gun she strapped to her thigh and a pulre she stuck in a pouch on a shoulder holster.
Anaze also gave her a hunting knife for her belt, and a smaller flip-knife for her back pocket. Between her clothes and that long look at a real sky, for the first time in months, Jet felt like herself again.
Only better armed.
And maybe a little less scared out of her mind.
She walked swiftly through the grass, her strides heavy and sure, and Anaze following behind, a human automatic rifle slung over one of his shoulders.
As they walked, the sky vibrated with the soft whirr of a powering-down culler.
Apart from that purring sound, silence had returned to the clearing, and the trees just on the other side of the wall rustled in a gust of wind.
That’s when she heard it.
Gunfire.
Most of the echoing reports, cracks, and small explosions were distant still, and behind where they walked, but Jet could hear some coming from the other side of the wall.
Something about having just been dropped into a combat zone––a real one, not in the virtual fantasy of the Rings––brought a strange sort of focusing calm.
When she got to the location of the door in the wall, she found it already open. Someone broke the scanning mechanism too, since not only did the door stay open, the pale lights rimming the edge of the frame had gone totally dark.
Even so, she hesitated, staring at the opening.
“Do you have a stick or something?” she asked Anaze, holding out a hand when he drew up alongside her. “We should make sure.”
“Don’t bother,” Anaze said, taking his hand off the earpiece of his headset. “It’s down. I just confirmed.”
“I’d rather check,” she said. “In case someone inside noticed. We don’t know how long it’s been since your pals came this way.”
Anaze apparently wasn’t willing to wait. He walked through the opening in front of her, then looked back over his shoulder with a grin.
“Satisfied?” he said.
“That you’re an idiot?” she said. “Yes. Very.”
Shaking his head, Anaze grinned, winking at her. “Damn. You are definitely your uncle’s niece. And your aunt’s.”
Jet grunted, following him through the door.
That was another thing Anaze told her.
Jet’s Uncle Draven and Aunt Lara were card-carrying members of Richter’s rebellion. Apparently, they had been for years. They’d spent the months since Laksri’s “assassination” bringing in smaller factions throughout the northern wildlands.
When Jet asked where they were now, Anaze informed her Richter put Draven in charge of one of the battalions taking down the Hamster Cages––what they called the Nirreth-run work camps outside the domes.
Once inside the Royal perimeter, Jet looked around the rolling fields and forest, looking for the rebels supposedly encamped here.
Then Anaze pointed, and Jet saw the cluster of humans and Nirreth.
They stood just under a strand of trees with the sun at their backs, so Jet couldn’t see any of their faces. She began walking towards them, feeling strange walking these fields along the edges of the landscaped forest, where she’d spent so much time with Ogli, and later Laksri. She could see the massive structures in the distance, where the more exotic palace animals were kept, including dinosaurs, and large land and water mammals.
Through the middle of the landscaped grounds, a pale, white road rose and fell over gentle hills, disappearing from view before it reached the main compound and the Trevi Fountain.
It was so strange to be here.
It was stranger still to hear the distant impact concussions from bombs falling on other parts of the city, along with peppered bursts of automatic gunfire.
Jet reached the waiting party under the trees, only to discover she knew none of the Nirreth or humans standing there.
Well, not at first glance.
Then Jet spotted Tyra, who grinned at her as soon as she and Jet locked eyes. Tyra cradled a black, Nirreth-looking gun against her chest that looked half her height and maybe a third of her weight.
Still grinning, she nodded to Jet with an upward tilt of her chin.
“Hey there, Samurai Girl,” she joked.
“Heya, Tyra.” Jet continued to take in faces, growing tense at the number of unfamiliar eyes on her. “Who’s in charge here?”
Tyra snorted, rolling her eyes.
“Depends on who you ask,” she said. “You know how boys are.”
Tyra aimed a finger across the field, where Jet could see the back end of a large, human-style building made of wood with a stone foundation.
At the bare edges of the structure, Jet saw shadows moving, what looked like a crowd of humans and Nirreth standing around the entrance to the largest of the two
barns.
Jet remembered that barn, too.
She’d been there many times with Ogli. The barn had been one of the young prince’s absolute favorite places in the world.
Inside those giant wooden doors lived dozens of stalls, all of them filled with domestic Earth animals. Horses made up a bulk of the residents, in every breed and color under the sun, but cows lived there too, along with sheep, goats, rabbits, pigs, llamas, camels, reindeer, geese, ducks, and chickens.
They’d even had a small Indian elephant at the very back named Rupee-Ji who’d loved green bananas.
Jet began walking toward the barn.
She’d only gone about a dozen paces when she realized they were following her. Not just Anaze and Tyra, but all of them––which she supposed made sense. Anaze called ahead; Tyra and the others must have been waiting for them.
As they got closer to the barn, Jet could hear raised voices.
She felt her jaw harden when she realized at least some of the people standing there were arguing, both in Nargili and in English, with several different accents.
The bulk of them appeared to be standing right outside the barn doors, making a rough circle around a handful of individuals in the center.
None of them seemed to have noticed Jet and the others approach.
It probably didn’t hurt that Jet had her hair down; from the sides it mostly obscured her face, especially as the wind continued to coil around the barn and its stables, blowing her hair into her mouth and eyes.
The few who did recognize her stared, but didn’t say anything.
No one spoke to her directly. No one attempted to interrupt the handful of humans and Nirreth arguing at the center of that circle.
Jet still couldn’t see past the Nirreth and human bodies in front of her well enough to get a look at who those people in the center were. She could hear them, though. Most of the crowd around her were Nirreth; they tended to fall silent when listening to some conflict or debate, in a way that humans couldn’t normally pull off.
Because of that, Jet heard every word.
“This is stupid,” a voice said loudly, drawing eyes, including Jet’s.
Jet knew that voice, even before she glimpsed his face.
Richter stood there, arms folded over a black armored vest, balancing the stock of an automatic rifle against his hip.
He didn’t seem to have noticed Jet’s approach, either.
“You won’t resolve this now. Either of you,” Richter added, his voice holding a harder warning. “I say we send Tyra. She volunteered. She swims well enough for this. And she can fight. Personally, I think the fighting part is going to be a lot more critical. A hell of a lot more critical than whether she’s got a map of the compound in her head. Lots of us mammals swim. Lots of us can read maps, too––”
“She didn’t live in the Palace,” another voice said.
Jet knew that voice, too.
She recognized the bare edges of Alice’s profile, even as the trainer went on speaking.
“She doesn’t know it well enough,” Alice added, her accent thicker. “It’s not about maps, Richter. This can’t be someone taking a nice, leisurely tour. We need someone who knows the palace. Well enough to move fast. Well enough to get around without being seen––”
“So you want to throw some rookie slave in there?” Richter said, swiveling his head to stare at Alice. “We don’t have the luxury of sending someone who has no fight training. You know as well as I do––whoever goes, they’re absolutely going to hit resistance inside. Being able to skulk and hide won’t be enough. Hell, I would go before I send in some slave who’s never fired a gun––”
“You know who we have,” another voice growled, cutting him off in clipped English.
The voice made Jet jump.
“It makes sense,” the male Nirreth added coldly. “You all know it makes sense. More than Tyra. More than you, Richter. We need someone who knows every part of the Palace. Someone who can fight. Someone small to get through the duct openings. Why are you all pretending––”
“We can’t even discuss that yet,” Richter cut in, raising a hand. “Not yet.”
Jet was still reacting to that other voice.
Her heart pounding in her chest, slamming painfully into her ribs, she looked for the voice’s owner, trying to glimpse him through the crowd. Hearing him had been a shock, but the amount of relief that coursed through her when she finally saw Trazen’s profile shook her even more. Her jaw clenched, her arms wrapping around her torso as her legs trembled.
He was alive. He made it out in one piece.
Before she could wrap her head around her own reactions to that fact, another, much more heavily-accented voice spoke in English, from Richter’s other side.
“We’re not sending Jet in there,” it said. “We’re not.”
Jet felt herself stiffen.
She recognized that voice, too.
Moreover, Tyra’s comments made a lot more sense now, Jet thought grimly.
Putting her hands on her hips, she just stood there, watching as Trazen glared at Laksri.
“Don’t start again, you two––” Richter began, sounding almost weary.
“Why do you insist on pretending she is not the most qualified for this?” Trazen growled, ignoring both of them.
His voice grew harder as he looked around at the others.
“She knows it. It is why she offered to come back. You all know it, too. You are simply used to treating her as a pawn.” Trazen slammed his tail angrily against the barn wall, making a number of humans jump. “Why do we not ask her? She is coming here. She is coming here even as we speak, for this very purpose––”
“Which I never would have okayed, had I known!” Laksri snapped, giving Richter a death stare, presumably for telling Anaze he could bring Jet back. “She should have been sent away. To her family!” Turning he hissed at Trazen. “She wants that, too. You know she does! She has spoken of little else, since––”
“She asked to go!” Trazen growled, his tail lashing behind him. “What part of you is not hearing that? She knows the grounds. She can fight. Let us explain it to her, and let her make up her own damned mind! Or are you such a child, you cannot admit we need her for this?”
“This is not your call, Ringmaster––” Laksri growled in warning.
Trazen acted like Laksri hadn’t spoken.
“––You do not have to send her alone. No one said anything about sending her alone!” He motioned aggressively with one jointed hand. “Send Tyra with her. And Anaze. He swims well. We all saw it at the Retribution. She would do better not to be alone. We will still have plenty at the gate, even if we send ten with her. She does not have to retrieve the stone, just let the rest of us inside––”
Laksri cut him off again.
“No!” he hissed. “And do not play her champion in this, Trazen! If you gave a damn about her at all, you would not want her to do this, either.” Laksri’s voice turned openly accusing. “You would not offer her up like some slave. You would not be willing to sacrifice her, all for your precious religion. All for your precious stone…”
Trazen’s eyes narrowed to slits.
Jet heard the more muscular Nirreth growl for real that time,.
“Bite your tongue… Prince,” he said, his voice cold. “I don’t give a damn who you are. You do not want to have that discussion with me, I promise you.”
“She is not going in there!” Laksri said, raising his voice as he slammed his own tail against his side of the barn wall, making the door shake. “I am the authority here! I forbid it! We will send Tyra. And Anaze, if he returns here. Neither of them is recognizable to anyone inside the compound. They will blend as slaves. Jet will remain with us at the gate. She is too important for this and you know it!”
But Jet had heard enough.
Feeling her hands clench into fists at her sides, she began to push through the crowd.
As soon as she started to move,
the Nirreth on either side of her, along with Tyra and Anaze, walked with her towards the inner circle.
Once she made it through the last row of humans and Nirreth making up that denser crowd, she entered the clearing where Richter, Alice, Trazen, and Laksri stood, along with a handful of other Nirreth and humans Jet didn’t know.
She did see another woman standing there though, apart from Alice.
She blinked, realizing she recognized her.
Patricia Thorne.
She’d been a political advisor to the Nirreth under the last Queen. Jet almost didn’t recognize her here, wearing form-fitting dark pants and a long shirt, more human than Nirreth in design. Jet mostly remembered seeing her with a drink in her hand, wearing expensive Nirreth clothes in the compound of the Royals.
Jerking her eyes off the woman’s face, Jet turned to find Laksri and Trazen staring at her.
Both of their tails flicked back and forth behind them, but Laksri mostly looked angry, whereas there was something more cautious in how Trazen looked at her.
Glancing between the two of them, she exhaled, putting her hands on her hips.
“I’m going in,” she said, sparing Alice a glance. “It’s stupid to argue. And I’m guessing we don’t have much time. I’m assuming you need to breach the compound before the reinforcements get here. Both from off-world and from the other Green Zones. I just need someone to explain this stone-thing to me… what it looks like, where it is, etc.”
Richter let out a low chuckle.
Jet turned, frowning at him.
Once she met his gaze, however, something in his eyes almost caused her to smile back. Was that affection she saw there? Relief? She still hadn’t pinpointed the exact emotion, when Richter shook his head, folding his thick arms across the front of his chest.
She remembered Anaze saying his father was brilliant.
He also called him the consummate actor.
Jet found herself wondering if this was the real Richter, or some new guise, something she’d never seen before. Now that he wasn’t playing slave trader, she had no idea what “Rebel Leader” Richter might look like.
He was still smiling when he looked back at Trazen and Laksri.
The Complete Alien Apocalypse Series (Parts I-IV Plus Bonus Novella): An Apocalyptic, Romantic, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion Adventure Page 90
