A New Reason To Fight: An Intergalactic Romance

by T. J. Brandow

  “What happened?”

  “Narbloo finally kicked in,” Xenon told her. “You take one arm, I’ll take the other. We can bind the leg up again once he’s in the bed. I took the liberty of finding a board and cutting it up to create a splint, but he’d do a whole lot better if we could get him some medical treatment.”

  Nodding, Maggie went along with the plan. It was a bit of a struggle, but the two of them managed to set Lobo onto the bed and place a bunch of pillows under his knee and ankle. Xenon quickly and deftly rewrapped the leg while Maggie held the posts in place. When he was finished, Xenon fell onto the edge of the bed to rest a bit.

  “Well, that was the easy part,” he commented dryly. “I think the toughest part is yet to come, when you two decide what to do about this mess.”

  “Lobo never brought up the whole thing of not being able to part,” she sighed. “Well, not exactly anyway. He just said that if we were apart, we’d long to be together again.”

  “Well, maybe he glossed over the finer details so you wouldn’t be mad at him,” Xenon chuckled.

  “I’m not mad, I’m—confused,” Maggie grumbled. “I wanted to make a change or two in my life, but—well, this wasn’t quite the extreme I had in mind.”

  “Think about this, though, young lady,” Xenon scolded. “This life change didn’t happen just to you. Lobo is in the same fix. If he stays here, he’ll have to pretend to be human his whole life. He won’t ever be able to visit a doctor or a hospital for fear that he would be discovered. And really, even though they teach us how to blend in for a week or two, let me tell you, adjusting to life on Earth overall is a lot more difficult than it seems.”

  “And yet you don’t want to leave,” Maggie pointed out.

  “Don’t get me wrong, okay?” he sighed. “There were plenty of times I wanted to leave. But the trouble is, Ellen’s body is buried in the ground. Here. On this world. The blood-bonding dies shortly after the death of your spouse, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t remain in your heart. I don’t know if I could stand it, leaving her in a place where I couldn’t even visit anymore. And I’m sure as hell not going to dig her body up and bring it along. That’s a bit outside my level of obsessiveness, I think.”

  Maggie shuddered. “Yeah, one would hope so.”

  “But anyway, you’ve got to get some sleep before work,” Xenon added as he got to his feet. “Somehow I suspect you didn’t get much of it last night, and you shouldn’t be driving around in a big rig while you are comatose.”

  “Just ask Lobo, he’ll agree with you on that,” she said guiltily.

  “Hey, now, don’t get yourself down over it. At least the kid is still alive.”

  “And on that happy note, I’ll bid you good-night,” Maggie replied.

  *****

  “I think it would be best for us to lay you down on the mattress behind the seats,” Maggie speculated as she and Lobo stood near the front of her truck. “I don’t think you’d be comfortable sitting up for hours at a time in the seat. Especially since you’re going to be walking around the store once we’ve delivered this load.”

  “Okay, let’s just get me up there first, and then figure it out,” Lobo suggested.

  “You big baby,” she chuckled. “Wait here while I go grab some pillows.”

  Lobo chuckled. He watched as she walked away, then contemplated the truck worriedly. Getting up there would not be easy, but he really didn’t want Maggie to see him struggle. With that in mind, he hauled himself up alone.

  “Lord, you are one stubborn man,” Maggie told him when she returned. “What would you have done if you had fallen?”

  “I didn’t fall, though,” he pointed out, grinning broadly.

  “Seems like luck just follows you around, huh?” she grumbled as she stepped around to her side and got in. Getting into the back with him, she arranged the pillows so that his head was comfortable, and used all the others she’d brought to prop up his leg. Then she grabbed the blanket that was already there and neatly tucked him in.

  “Thanks, Mags,” he said sweetly. “You’re a real doll.”

  “Go back to sleep, Lobo,” she suggested then. “You’re going to be stuck back here for a few hours.”

  “Yeah, I think you’re right,” he nodded sleepily. “The rest will be good for helping me to heal. Thank goodness it doesn’t take a Karriana nearly as long as a human to mend a bone. I don’t think I could take this for several weeks.”

  “Well, exactly how long does it take you?” Maggie asked curiously.

  “One week, if I’m lucky,” he said, winking.

  Maggie laughed as she headed up front again. “I thought we already established that you are. Lucky to be alive, for starters—”

  “And lucky I found you,” he added just before he started to snore. As Maggie started the engine, she realized he was already fast asleep.

  “Yeah, Lobo,” she whispered as she began to drive. “You are.”

  He slept on while Maggie got out at the main warehouse and helped get the load on board. He didn’t stir as she drove it down to Lubbock, then got out to help unload as well. But when she got in again, she found him staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.

  Since she had been doing the same thing in her bed the night before, it didn’t take a great deal of guesswork to puzzle out what was on his mind. He may not have told her about their upcoming decision as yet, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t trying to make a decision about it. Maggie almost decided to tell him she would leave with him, but had she really decided to do that? Something held her back once again.

  “You ready to go shopping?” she asked with a smile and a wink.

  Lobo smiled back at her. “Yeah, why not?” he agreed.

  “We decided to unhook the back of the truck from the rig and leave it here while I take care of business in town. That’ll mean we have to come back here to retrieve it, but it’ll make things like parking at the stores a whole lot easier in the long run.”

  “A semi-truck without its caboose? That ought to be a strange sight,” Lobo teased.

  “Well, yes, I suppose so, if you’ve never seen the sight before,” she agreed.

  When they drove over to the clothing store, Maggie helped Lobo get down so he wouldn’t land on his injured leg, then pulled free the crutches they’d brought along for their outing. She was very patient as Lobo made his way in the door and down some of the aisles.

  “I suppose you won’t need any jeans with that bum leg, since you’re only going to be on Earth for a few more days,” Maggie said in an offhanded way.

  “Hmm, I thought I might get a pair or two anyway,” said Lobo. “You know, just in case.”

  “Lobo, I—” she began to say, but she couldn’t seem to get the words past her lips. She knew in her heart that she didn’t want him to abandon the work his father had always wanted him to do, and her own business could easily be sacrificed, but it wasn’t just the business she’d be giving away. She’d be giving up the planet of her birth too. Was she really ready for that? It was a frightening concept, to tell the truth.

  “It’s okay, we don’t have to decide anything today,” he said softly. “I’ll just buy some jeans, too, Mags. There’s nothing to say a guy can’t wear jeans in space.”

  Maggie giggled. “Somehow I never thought of a space alien flying around in denims before. But that might be kinda hot, to tell the truth. Well, as long as that alien was you.”

  “Woman, are you flirting with me?” Lobo chuckled.

  “Well, of course I am,” said Maggie. “I wouldn’t want you to think I wanted someone else.”

  Now he grinned broadly. “That thought never even crossed my mind.”

  “Mine neither,” she agreed, blushing slightly. “Well, come on, let’s find you some shirts. Though I doubt you’ll be able to find one that says ‘I visited Earth, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt’ on the front.”

  “Sappy tourist stuff,” Lobo teased. “But I suppose I could have one
made if I wanted to. How about if we sit down a spell now? I need to take a break.”

  EIGHT

  When Maggie and Lobo finally got back to her place, they found Xenon out in the garage working on the bike. The look on his face seemed pretty grim.

  “What’s the matter with you, Xenon?” Maggie asked him. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Not a ghost,” he replied. “Just one very nosy ex-boyfriend. Thought he could just waltz right in here and even demanded that I leave. Tried to tell me he lives here and I have no business in his garage. Well, I told him straight out that he doesn’t live here, and that you’d told me I could be here and he couldn’t, so he needed to leave. The guy actually thought he was going to lay into me until I let him know in no uncertain terms that he’d be sorry if he tried.”

  “I knew it,” Lobo growled. “That Fred is a real menace.”

  “But why?” Maggie wanted to know. “What possible reason could he have had?”

  “I’ll tell you what reason,” Xenon said. “He’s trying to get a better look at this rover. You did say that he’d been snooping around in the back of your truck before, right? Well, if he examined this thing up close, he already knows it’s practically weightless, and the metal looks like nothing he’s ever seen before. That’s more than enough reason for a guy like him to come around hoping to take it, or at least learn something more.”

  “If he were able to get his hands on that material, he could bring it to the press,” Lobo added. “He would tell them about me, and probably about Xenon too. Uncle, have you viewed any of the perimeter data for the last twenty-four hours? Is there anything else Fred has been doing that we’ll need to know about?”

  “No, I’ve been too busy with the rover all morning, and I’ve finally managed to restore it to working order again,” he said. “But checking the data sounds like a really good idea, considering the fact that Fred was willing to lie to me just to get a peek. I barely got the tarp into place, and he sure seemed like he wanted it back out of the way.” Taking a device from his pocket, he spoke into it in a different language. It activated and started to beep.

  “What did you say?” asked Maggie.

  “I just told the orbs to download their current data,” he explained. “It shouldn’t take a minute for them to fully comply.”

  “Maggie, I know you don’t want to hear this, since you’ve been spending so much time with him, but that Fred guy is just no good,” Lobo said. “There’s something about him that I just don’t like. And my instincts aren’t going to lie because they’ve become completely attuned to your well-being. I can’t quite put a finger on it, but in some way the man must mean you harm. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be feeling the way I do.”

  “You say the two of you have dated for four years, correct?” asked Xenon. “What does he do for work, exactly?”

  “He works at a computer warehouse as a quality control checker,” Maggie said. “Every system has to go through him before it can be shipped out. I guess he’s a total genius when it comes to tech stuff.”

  “In other words, that rover would have sent his mechanical urges into overdrive,” said Xenon thoughtfully. “Plus, it wouldn’t take a guy like him much time to realize just exactly what he’d found, either. He must have come back here because he’d figured it out.”

  A rather quiet little ding sounded, and the three of them turned to look at Xenon’s device. He pressed a button, and a three-dimensional image projected into the middle of the garage. Xenon voiced another command, and the unit fast-forwarded to the point where activity occurred.

  “That’s still the middle of the night,” Maggie said, surprised. “And he’s not alone.”

  “No, this was happening right around the same time I came out to cut the board and put a tarp over the rover for the night,” Xenon replied. “I didn’t see anyone, but I was certain I’d heard some noise. So it looks like Freddie boy told someone else about what he found too, and that’s going to be a real problem. Do you know who the other man is, Maggie?”

  “That’s his best friend, Vincent,” she scoffed. “The two of them do everything together. I’m not surprised he’d tell him about what’s happening.”

  “Unfortunately, it goes much deeper than that, I’m afraid,” Xenon said then. “Vincent is one of the senior members on the government task force I work with. He’s in charge of monitoring and documenting all alien activities within the states of Texas and New Mexico. And if your boy Fred is one of his friends, there’s no doubt that he’s involved with that work as well. That tech job you’re talking about is probably just a sham.”

  Maggie shook her head, stunned but not as surprised as she should be. “I’ve never met any of his co-workers, and I’ve never actually seen the building itself. Somehow, what you’re telling me makes perfect sense.”

  “It’s likely this place has been bugged, too,” Xenon added. “Your truck, too. Maybe even my Jeep, for that matter. These guys don’t mess around.”

  “If the place is tapped, then they already know my destination, too,” Lobo said, sighing. “We’re going to have to get ahold of Linnid and let her know. We need to meet at the secondary rendezvous. And staying here any longer is out of the question, too.”

  “We need to take this party over to my place,” Xenon said then. “I’ve got scanners that could locate the bugs and trackers, and remove them, before we discuss anything more. And the sooner we leave, the better. We don’t want to give these boys time to put any more checks and balances into place.”

  “You guys can’t be serious,” Maggie groaned.

  “Xenon, we’ve both left our alien DNA all over the place,” Lobo pointed out. “I don’t suppose you brought along any clean sweeps?”

  “I always do,” he snorted, digging another device from his pocket. “Under the circumstances, Maggie, Lobo and I will need to get the rover into the back of your truck, and then I’ll sweep this room. Once you’ve packed some things yourself, you will just need to press this button as you leave, and this device will sweep the entire house, too. It kind of looks like that decision we were discussing has just been made for you.”

  “It’s fine,” she replied. “I’d already made up my mind to go anyway. I’m bonded to Lobo. None of this matters anymore. I just want him to be safe.”

  “Mags, that’s so sweet,” Lobo said, grinning. “I promise, I’ll make sure you’re never sorry.”

  “None of this mushy stuff right now,” Xenon insisted. “We’ve got to go. Make that packing job real quick, Maggie. If they are listening to us, they could already be coming here.”

  “I’ll make it easy, then,” she said. “All I want are my photo albums and a keepsake box. And I happen to know right where they are. Give me the clean sweep and get that rover loaded. It’ll take me just two minutes, and no more.”

  In a flash, Maggie was out of the garage and into the house, the clean sweeper resting easily in the palm of her hand. She grabbed her keepsake box and the albums and ran for the front door, pressing the button on the device and tossing it onto the floor.

  Lobo was already climbing up into the truck, while Xenon was just sealing the truck’s back doors. Seven cars suddenly appeared at the top of the road, coming in fast.

  “Dammit!” shouted Xenon. “Get out of here, Maggie. Head for New Mexico. Lobo’s device has the details, and he knows how to use the equipment you’ll find there. I’ll try to stall these boys long enough for you to get away. You two need to reach that ship immediately. At least where you’re concerned, this planet is no longer safe. Got that?”

  “We’ll be fine,” said Lobo before slamming his door closed and sitting in the passenger seat. Through the open window he added, “Bust a move, Maggie. We haven’t got all day.”

  “Take this,” Xenon said, setting one of the perimeter orbs into her hand as she moved away. “Have Lobo activate the dampening field. It should prevent all bugs from transmitting your location along the way. Good luck, you two.”
<
br />   “Xenon?” Maggie called as she hauled herself into the driver’s seat. “Thanks!”

  NINE

  Maggie drove her truck like a bat out of hell, taking back roads like an old pro. They barreled right out of Texas and into New Mexico, and then Lobo began telling her where to go.

  “In all likelihood, whoever is after us may just be waiting at Xenon’s ranch outside of Santa Fe,” he warned. “Especially if they’ve intercepted Xenon, which is highly likely at this point. They must know where he lives if he’s been working with them all these years. But hopefully they won’t know about the back entrance or the underground tunnel appearing on this grid.”

  “Sounds like you’ve got it all worked out,” Maggie commented dryly. “Well, other than how we’re supposed to get past them and get to your ship—which is no longer going to Roswell, I suppose?”

  “Well, it is at the moment, but very shortly it won’t be, just as soon as we’re able to contact them without any extra ears,” he explained. “But we won’t be able to go in the truck. I think we should be taking the rover.”

  “But the rover is broken,” Maggie pointed out.

  “No, it isn’t,” said Lobo. “Not anymore. Especially not once we install the spare navigation console my uncle told me about. All we’ll need to do is strap the thing on, tell the thing where to go, and find some way to get us to the new destination. Simple.”

  “Yeah, in theory, maybe.”

  Lobo chuckled. “Don’t worry, Mags, we’ll be fine,” he insisted. “Now go on and take a right. When you see the cave, veer off the road and head inside.”

  *****

  “Maybe you shouldn’t go up there,” Maggie said with a worried frown. “If somebody snags you too, I’m going to be stuck down here all alone.”

  “Don’t look so scared, Mags,” said Lobo, catching her chin in his hand. “If anything does happen to me, you’ll know whether or not I’m alive. You’ll still feel me. And you could follow that feeling and find me again.”