“Here’s the shuttle,” one of the Kolean officers stationed on the December informed Ted as the two of them stepped into the launch bay. The December had three shuttles, designated A, B, and C, all housed in separate launch bays. The plan was to use one of them to sneak past the Drevi and land on Earth to gather information on the resistance cells. “Do you have any piloting experience?”
“None whatsoever,” Ted admitted. “I wasn’t exactly prepared for this.”
The officer looked at him somewhat sympathetically, but also with a hint of annoyance. Ted closed his eyes, knowing how much of a burden he must be. The only reason he was even there was because he was human. Otherwise, he would be safely back on Kolea, sitting in Millika’s kitchen and enjoying a cup of Kolean hot chocolate, as he had decided to call it, waiting to hear the news that the Kolean army had managed to free Earth. But no, Ted, you had to play the hero, his subconscious mocked him. I didn’t have much of a choice, he thought back.
“Who do you wish to take along with you?” the officer asked. He was rather young, barely out of adolescence if Ted understood the Kolean life cycle correctly. His feathers were blue, but a bit of a lighter shade than Trell’s were. He wore the same military uniform as other officers in the Kolean military, and Ted had to admit it looked rather good on him. Overall, he seemed like a promising young man, eager to do his best in his first real conflict, and to be as polite as he could to Ted, the first human he or any other Kolean had met. Ted, for his part, was determined to be as kind and welcoming as he possibly could to any Kolean who was on this mission. After all, they were the ones risking their lives for his people’s sake. Hoguh might make that somewhat difficult, but Ted was determined to make a good impression nonetheless. Ted’s main concern, however, was that while he could control his own reactions to the Koleans, he couldn’t even guess as to how the rest of Earth’s population would react. Would they be grateful? Fearful? Or worse, angry? He shook the thoughts from his head and focused on the young officer’s question.
Ted knew he wasn’t allowed to leave the ship, much less go to Earth, on his own. He was much too valuable to the Koleans to risk his life carelessly, so General Toka had stressed Ted’s need for an escort if he ever needed to leave the December. Ted’s first reaction to the young officer’s inquiry was to take Alana or Trell, but doing so had suddenly become a lot more difficult, because Alana was responsible for her intelligence team and Trell was not properly trained in intelligence or military procedure. For the most part, Alana’s To-Be was a glorified civilian who was along because he spoke English and knew more about the December and space travel than anyone else. In that way, Ted was able to relate. “Are Alana and Trell busy?”
“At the moment they are, I’m afraid,” he said. “Would you like to postpone the mission to wait for them?” Ted wanted to, but there was no telling how long it would be before either of them could accompany him, and he had a powerful urge, as dumb as he knew it was, to return to Earth. Ted’s grasp of the Kolean language was growing stronger, and he was understanding most of what his escort was saying. While he would have preferred someone who could speak English, he felt confident that he could get by with a couple of new companions.
A new problem then occurred to him. Could a Kolean blend in on Earth? Those feathers and that facial structure would be impossible to hide. He hoped Alana’s intelligence team had an answer for that—someone from her division was supposed to meet them in the launch bay in five minutes.
An uncomfortable silence passed as they awaited the arrival of the intelligence agent.
“What’s your name?” Ted asked the officer, attempting to make conversation.
The young man looked surprised, but replied, “Kama, sir. Juiya Kama.” He stood as rigid as a pole, and he seemed almost frightened of being around Ted.
“May I call you Juiya?” Ted asked, suddenly annoyed at all this formality. He’d never been fond of formalities, but this was even worse. He didn’t feel special, and he was getting sick of people treating him as if he were some revolutionary hero. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Half the time he was scared out of his mind.
Mild surprise still evident on the officer’s face, he said, “If you’d like, sir.”
“Please don’t call me sir. You can call me Ted.”
Juiya looked mildly awkward, but also a little happy that the human had reached out to him. “All right, Ted.”
“Where are you from?”
“Palla State,” Juiya said. “I don’t expect you to know where that is.”
“I know where it is,” Ted said, remembering his geography of Kolea quite well. Kolea was divided up into territories they called states, and each State had their own administrative districts to deal with local affairs. National affairs were handled by the Parliament, which seated three representatives from each state. Palla State was located on the southern continent, the only one Ted had yet to set foot on. “Palla State is the one with the smallest population, right? There’s a lot of undeveloped natural land that’s been made into preserves.”
“I’m surprised you know that.” Juiya seemed impressed.
“I’ve been doing a lot of research on Kolea,” Ted said. “I want to understand your people better.” That certainly was not a lie or an exaggeration.
“I’m glad you’re making such an effort,” Juiya said. “Yes, I’m a simple country boy. My father joined the newly-formed Kolean military when the invasion was happening and I followed his example. This is my first assignment.”
“I can tell your dialect is different from other Koleans I’ve met. It’s actually easier to understand,” Ted said with a smile. He was sure his own accent was horrible—any native-speaking Kolean would have picked up on the fact that he was an alien trying to speak their language. Being around the Koleans on the ship, though, had allowed Ted to practice and at least now he could carry on conversations where he hadn’t been able to before. And the fact that Millika and now Juiya could understand his Kolean made him feel more confident about his new found language skills. He’d nearly failed high school Spanish. Who knew he would be able to pick up Kolean so fast?
“Juiya, why don’t you come with me to Earth? I need an escort, and since Trell and Alana aren’t available...”
“I would be honored,” Juiya said with a bow of his head. “Though such an outing would require permission.”
Just as Ted smiled at him, a woman came into the launch bay, a stern expression on her face. Ted recognized her as the intelligence agent they were waiting for—he had seen her a few times speaking quietly to Alana. She didn’t bother to introduce herself, she just began talking. Ted had a hard time keeping up, though she ended with a question Ted was pretty sure he understood.
“Yes, Alana said I was supposed to go,” he said.
“So you already have permission?” Juiya asked.
Ted was pretty sure he did, if he understood everything properly, so he answered, “Yes.”
The woman from intelligence confirmed, after giving Ted an odd look, that Juiya would be the one accompanying Ted to Earth’s surface. She then began explaining the process to Juiya. Apparently the KIS had come up with a cosmetic procedure that would more or less make a Kolean look like a human of less-than-average height. There was nothing to be done for the language, so Juiya would have to pretend to be mute. Ted initially mistranslated the word in his head as “yellow,” which didn’t make any sense, before realizing she’d said “mute.” The two words sounded very similar in Kolean.
“Take this with you,” the woman said, handing Ted a PD, short for Personal Display, which was basically a tiny computer and communicator all in one—it was the same device Ted had seen nearly everyone on Kolea use at one point or another. The woman quickly showed him a secret button on the side of the device and explained what it did. The PD came equipped with an emergency signal generator. If Ted needed help, he was supposed to flip open a small metal cover on the side of the device and press a button. Pressing that but
ton would alert the entire fleet that he was in trouble.
“This could take a while,” the woman said as she led Juiya away to undergo the cosmetic procedure. “Wait for us.”
Ted did as she said, using the PD to play games. Kolean computer games were more fun than Earth ones, he swore. There was one in particular that he enjoyed more than the others, an odd game called yuinten, that apparently was a traditional Kolean card game of luck and chance. Having taken a liking to it, Ted had been playing it over the last few weeks and had gotten rather good, to the point where he could beat Trell but not Alana or Millika. Alana in particular was amazingly good and had one hell of a poker face. Apparently Koleans and humans hadn’t been that different when it came to developing and playing games virtually or in real life.
Almost an hour passed, and near the end of it Ted began to get antsy. He knew such an intensive make-up job could take a long time, but was it going to drag on forever? The thought of finally getting down to Earth again made him tap his foot against the floor in impatience, the sound echoing loudly off the walls. He’d been just about to get up and check on their progress when Juiya and the woman came back into the launch bay.
Juiya now appeared completely human. His feathers were hidden beneath a bald cap and his face was behind a skin-tight mask that looked credible instead of creepy. He also wore a wig of some sort, but Ted would never have known the difference. This was more high-tech than your average human Halloween costume. If Ted were a human living on Earth and this man walked past him, he would never have guessed it was an alien from a planet thousands of light-years away.
Ted was astounded. How had they managed to do that?
“Are you ready to depart?” Juiya asked.
“Yeah,” Ted said, slipping the small tablet computer into his back pocket.
“Is there anything more you require of me?” the woman asked Ted.
“No, I don’t think so, thank you,” Ted informed her. I hope. With that, he climbed onto the shuttle, followed closely by Juiya.
The interior of the shuttle looked much like the interior of the December, which was unsurprising due to the fact they were produced by the same company and were part of a “set.” Ted hadn’t taken as much notice on the larger ship, but here in this small space the logo of Inotech was visible on many of the pieces of technology as well as on the outside of the shuttle itself.
Ted allowed his mind to wander as he strapped himself in, trying to remember what he could about Inotech. It had been one of the first companies to construct private ships for space travel. Of course, government organizations, like the old USA’s NASA, had their own technology, but it’d been a big deal when Inotech had come out with the first commercial spacecraft. As the continents gradually unified, and more people became interested in space exploration, more companies started developing technologies: a space race that ultimately culminated in the availability of starships commercially to anyone who could pay, and the construction of the two international space stations. But then the Drevi had come. Ted didn’t even think Inotech was still around, and he had no clue as to who the previous owner of the December had been. Probably some billionaire with nothing better to do with his money than buy a starship.
Ted was surprised by these new feelings, these feelings of protectiveness. Sure, he was legally the owner of the December according to the Koleans, but even if they did succeed in this mission and the Drevi were driven off, would anyone on Earth recognize his claim under an alien law? True, Earth’s governments were nonexistent at the moment, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t meet serious opposition in the best case scenario. In the worst, if Ted and the Koleans didn’t make the right choices, or even if things just got out of control, Earth could be left in worse shape once the Drevi were gone. The ship wasn’t really his, not yet. But, he wanted it to be. If someone tried to take the December from him, he wasn’t sure he could stop himself from fighting viciously to protect it. This realization frightened him deep to his core, but also gave him a new kind of strength.
“We’re ready for launch,” Juiya was saying into the speaker on the shuttle’s dashboard. While still on the ship, the communication to the bridge was more or less instantaneous. But in the shuttles they had to use the “message in a bottle” system, as Ted had started calling it. Space was big, and while transmissions had gotten faster over the years, communication in space was by no means instantaneous unless you were really close to whoever you were communicating with. As they moved further and further away from the December, the longer it would take for any message to get back. “Open bay doors.”
“In progress,” a male Kolean voice, though not one Ted recognized, came through loud and clear. Ted felt one last pang of nervousness. What if he needed to explain something critically important to Juiya, but the other man couldn’t understand and Ted didn’t have the language skills to communicate the appropriate words in Kolean? He sighed, leaning back and listening to the sound of the launch bay doors opening behind them.
“Ted, are you okay over there?” Juiya asked, seemingly sensing the human’s worry from his uncharacteristic silence.
Ted opened his eyes slowly, as if drowsy or intoxicated. It was one thing to fly in space in a large ship, but a small one like this rocked and jolted with every slight change in direction or speed. For all he knew the damn thing may well fall apart, and it was making him a bit motion sick. “I’ll live,” he finally responded.
Most of the trip passed in silence. Juiya managed to get them through the asteroid belt when the rocks shifted just right as to open a path for them. Ted, for his part, didn’t want to distract Juiya and get them caught by the Drevi, thrown off course, or smashed to bits by space rock, so he kept silent.
“You’re a pretty good pilot, Juiya,” Ted observed as he watched the army officer maneuver expertly out of range of the Drevi’s scanners as they neared Earth. He also seemed to be running the ship on some kind of “stealth mode.” He’d lowered the power output to the engines and all other non-essential systems, making it harder to be picked up by the enemy fleet.
“Thank you. I was only near the middle of my class overall, but my piloting skills have always been above average.”
After several tense minutes of avoiding Drevi ships, the shuttle entered Earth’s atmosphere. The fear of pursuit gradually faded away as they got closer and closer to the planet’s surface. Apparently the Drevi weren’t exactly expecting ships to be coming in from the outside.
“Where should I put the ship down?” Juiya asked. “I don’t know anything about Earth’s geography.” He sounded mildly scared, which caused Ted to do his best to compose himself and take control of the mission.
“Jodi lived in a small town in Maryland, so here,” Ted said, pointing to a place on the three dimensional map that was projected in front of them. “Obviously stay outside the city limits, and land the ship somewhere it won’t be seen. There aren’t any large Drevi facilities there—the town is too small. The one they shipped me off to was further south, by Richmond.” He pointed out all these locations, nostalgia and fear coming back to him. If they were captured... No, I have to stop thinking like that.
Working together, the two of them scrutinized various landing site possibilities on the three dimensional map before finally deciding on a field just outside of town. It would be a long walk, but they would have plenty of space to land and the ship would be hidden by trees. On top of that, the likelihood of anyone, human or Drevi, seeing it all the way out there was astronomically low. The ship touched down with a thump and Juiya turned off the engines and power systems.
Letting out a deep breath, Juiya said, “Ready to go, Ted?”
No, I’m really not, was what he thought, but he said, “I guess.”
It was warm outside, and while Ted started sweating almost instantly, Juiya seemed downright comfortable.
“The air smells different,” Juiya commented, but Ted wasn’t really paying attention.
He was home again.
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As they walked along the cracked paved road that led into town, a sign came into view just as the buildings did. The sign looked old, as if had been standing there, judging persons entering the town, for over a century. In elegant, Victorian script, it read, “Welcome to the town of Greenfield, Maryland.”
There were a handful of Drevi military officers standing at various intervals throughout the town. They appeared to be the sole Drevi presence there. They were well-armed, but most of them looked bored and unmotivated. Rural Maryland must not be the most glamorous region of the world to be stationed.
The town itself looked like many small towns in the American States in the 22nd century. There was evidence of new technology and innovations, but for the most part still maintained the look and feel of an early American town. There was a main street that ran north and south, where most of the armed guards were, and another main avenue that ran east and west near the town’s southern border. Smaller streets stretched out from a traditional-looking downtown that was filled with boarded-up shops. In contrast, the surrounding landscape was just beautiful, with the town’s namesake green fields on all sides and forested hills off in the distance. Ted knew they were in the rural area between the sea and the Appalachian Mountains.
Ted took a deep breath, taking in as much fresh air as he could. After being on a starship and a strange alien planet, the taste of real, fresh Earth air was more satisfying than all the gourmet meals in existence. Even here, miles outside of Baltimore, it was the closest he’d been to home in what seemed like forever. In spite of the mission, he wanted to enjoy it as much as possible.
Juiya, for the most part, was doing a good job keeping up a poker face, at least so far. Ted wasn’t exactly sure what his companion was feeling. Trell and Alana may have been the first Koleans to land on Earth, but in some ways Juiya was really the first one to get an insight into Earth life. Well, as authentic as it could be under Drevi occupation. The Drevi’s influence hadn’t been quite as strong in the countryside. Things were a little more draconian in cities, at least from what Ted knew. Many people had continued on with their lives under their new “overseers,” if they hadn’t been selected to go to the labs or... well, anything else the Drevi might have needed them for. Mini revolts had happened early on. After all, many people privately owned guns, but the Drevi had countered those with a strange new technology that projected energy shields around individual soldiers for short periods of time, thus making them immune to bullets. The only limitation seemed to be that the shields required massive amounts of energy and thus couldn’t be used for long, but they had still been more than effective. No human had gotten ahold of the technology yet, as far as Ted knew, but he’d bet every scientist on Earth wanted to be the first one to study it. As a result of the Drevi’s body shields, the revolts had been put down so quickly and with so much force that most people just kept their heads down and did as they were told. Things were much easier that way, as Ted had learned himself. For the most part, if you weren’t “interesting” in some scientific way, the Drevi left you alone. Then again, Ted had only heard this from various Drevi in the lab, since he had been cooped up in there the entire time. He couldn’t be sure how much of it was the truth.
Ted glanced around, trying his best to look like he knew exactly where he was going. It was all up to him, since Juiya knew even less than Ted did and appearing to have no purpose would result in the Drevi guards growing suspicious and starting to ask questions. Needless to say, that was the last thing they needed.
Ducking down a street that had a familiar-sounding name, the two of them made their way to where Ted knew Jodi had lived; he just hoped she still did. The houses on one side of the street had been modernized and looked totally different than Ted remembered. The old houses had been replaced by energy-efficient, high-tech homes that had been squeezed into the lots. On the other side, most of the older houses had survived. Perhaps they were historically significant and had been preserved by some local ordinance. Or maybe the owners simply liked the look of their old homes.
There was one house, a Cape Cod style, on the older side of the street that Ted recognized, and suddenly memories came rushing back. He knew this was the right place.
“She lives here,” Ted whispered, his voice heavy with emotion. He had actually only been to her home once before, when he’d been in the area during spring break, but that overgrown but beautiful garden, those ugly green shutters... This was the same place. There was no doubt about that. “Well, I hope she does,” he clarified. “I haven’t talked to her in years...”
“What do we do?” Juiya asked.
Ted almost laughed. “Knock on the door, of course.” Juiya looked uncertain, but followed Ted’s lead as he walked up the front steps. Ted stopped in front of the door, looking for a bell and finding one that would reach every room in the house if he rang it. But he wasn’t sure that was such a good idea. It could draw unwanted attention. So he resorted to the old fashioned way; he reached out and knocked on the door.
There was silence for the longest time. Ted strained his ears to catch any sign of movement from inside: footsteps, the creak of the floor, the sliding of a chair. But there was absolutely nothing.
“Maybe she thinks we’re Drevi and doesn’t want to come to the door,” Juiya suggested.
“If we were Drevi we’d have broken down the door if she didn’t open it. Not to mention they’d announce who they were first. Either she didn’t hear us or she thinks we’re people she doesn’t want to get involved with.” He knocked on the door again, longer, harder, and louder this time. “Jodi?” he said softly, but only so anyone within a few feet of the inside of the door could have heard. “Are you in there?”
There was silence, and the thought to leave now itched at the back of Ted’s mind. Juiya turned to go when the door finally opened with an ominous squeak.
A woman stood there, about the same age as Ted. She wore a light brown sweater and plain trousers. Her hair fell loosely down to her shoulders and was dark red in color. Her eyes, filled with indescribable emotions, shone a sharp blue. He wasn’t sure if she was surprised, angry, or both. Probably both. “Ted...” she finally spoke, her voice no higher than a whisper.
“It’s been a while, Jodi,” Ted said with a goofy smile, trying to lighten the gravity of the situation.
“No shit, Ted,” she said, her voice humorless. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s a long story. Can we talk?”
“Who’s your friend?” She jerked her head a bit, indicating Juiya, who stood behind Ted awkwardly.
“Um,” Ted said, realizing he hadn’t bothered to think of a cover story for Juiya. He was planning on telling Jodi everything in a matter of minutes anyway, but just coming out and saying his companion was an alien... He wanted to ease her into it first. “I’ll explain inside,” he finally said. “But he is a friend.”
She sighed. “Fine. Come in.”
Ted entered with little hesitation, but Juiya was a bit more cautious. He looked like he wanted to say something, but knowing the only language he could speak would give away his disguise, he kept his mouth shut.
“It’s okay,” Ted said over his shoulder in English, hoping his body language and tone communicated what he needed to say to the obviously uncomfortable alien. They seemed to, for Juiya slowly followed him.
“So where the hell have you been?” Her words may have been harsh but her tone displayed just how happy she was to see him.
Ted wasn’t quite ready to admit he’d been on an alien planet, as if he didn’t yet believe it himself. So he told a half truth. “I was in the labs.”
“What?” She seemed shocked.
“Yeah.” Obviously they had a lot of catching up to do.
“Well, sit down.” She indicated two of the three chairs that circled the kitchen table. Ted did but Juiya remained standing. “I’ll make you some hot cocoa.”
Before Ted could politely decline her offer, she had gone into the ki
tchen to prepare the drinks for her guests. Ted and Juiya remained there in uncomfortable silence. The windows were open, and a pleasant breeze blew throughout the kitchen and connecting dining room. A few minutes later, she came back, placing two steaming mugs in front of Ted and Juiya before going back to the counter for her own mug. She sat down with it and blew gently, sending the steam into the breeze.
“So,” she said after taking a long sip of the hot, sweet liquid. “It sounds like you have quite a story for me.”
If only she knew. “Yeah, you could say that,” Ted said. He began his tale, telling her of his capture by the Drevi, his wife’s suicide, and his daughter’s disappearance. Then he told her about the labs and his own helplessness and inability to do anything about his situation. Jodi sat and listened quietly, never once interrupting to ask a question or for clarification. He could see the pain and sympathy for him drift across her face as he told the darkest parts of his story.
Then it came time to tell the most miraculous part. As he got ready to launch into Alana and Trell’s arrival, he briefly wondered if she would believe him. He had a plan—when he introduced Juiya as a Kolean, he was going to pull back the make-up for a brief moment and show her that the man with him was neither human nor Drevi, but another form of alien life, a form of alien life that was actually there to help them. He took a deep breath, and began.
“And then one day I met Alana and Trell.” He told her how they had appeared in the hallway one day, practically kidnapped him, stole the December, and spirited him away to a world he’d never before dreamed of. He described the Kolean Parliament, and how small he’d felt standing there, spilling his heart out to a bunch of strange aliens whose eyes bored into him. Finally, he got to the part about the assembly of the invasion force, and their discovery of Neptune Station, adrift in space with desperate humans aboard, hoping someone would find them.
Once he finished, Jodi was silent for a long, long while. Finally, she said, “I want to believe you, Ted.” A pause. An unspoken “But” hung in the air.
“I thought you would feel that way. But I promise you I’m telling the truth, and I have proof. Notice how he hasn’t talked yet?” he asked, motioning to Juiya, who glanced up. Throughout the conversation he’d been standing there staring off into space, because he couldn’t understand anything that was being said. “That’s because he can’t speak English, or any other human language, for that matter.”
She watched, her expression neutral, as Ted gently reached up to Juiya’s head and peeled back the bald cap just enough so Jodi could see the naturally-growing pale blue feathers underneath. “He’s an alien, Jodi. A Kolean.”
Jodi was unable to contain her gasp as those feathers were revealed, her poker face vanishing into complete shock. She leapt up from her seat. “Oh my God.”
“Jodi, you can understand Drevi, can’t you?” he asked.
“I can tell if someone’s speaking Drevi,” she managed to say.
“Juiya, I’m speaking Kolean to prove to her what you are. Could you say something in Kolean too?” he asked his companion in the flighty language of the Kolean people.
“I assume you’re planning to fill me in later?”
“Of course,” Ted said. “Thank you for being so cooperative. I’ll find a way to make it up to you somehow.”
“That’s really unnecessary, Ted. I’m only doing my job.”
“You see?” Ted said, switching back to English and regarding Jodi. “I spent a little over three weeks on their world and I’ve started to pick up their language.”
“How on earth did you even communicate with them in the first place?” Jodi asked, now completely unable to keep the shock out of her voice and face as what Ted was telling her sunk in. “You pull a Kolean-to-English dictionary out of your ass?”
Ted ignored her colorful metaphor. “As I mentioned, Alana and her mother, Millika, are members of the KIS, the Kolean Intelligence Society. Both of them learned English once their scientists discovered our planet.”
Jodi needed to sit back down, or else Ted was sure her legs would give out on her.
But Ted continued. “I know this must come as a huge shock to you, Jodi, but I wouldn’t have come here unless I really needed your help, you know that. The Kolean military wants to get in touch with as many factions of the resistance as possible. It’s imperative that our attack from the outside has assistance from their attacks on the inside. If the two forces can work together, we stand a much higher chance of success.”
“Why do you think I know anything about the resistance?”
“You’ve stayed in touch with Ken after college, right?”
Jodi’s expression didn’t change. The woman had one hell of a poker face. “Yes.”
“The captain of Neptune Station, Rosa Soto, gave us the name Kenneth Wood. She said they’d been in contact with his resistance cell but were unable to get any help from them because none of the resistance’s ships can make it out that far in any reasonable length of time. That wouldn’t happen to be our Kenneth Wood, would it?”
Jodi thought about it, as if she weren’t sure whether or not to entrust Ted with such information. Her reaction told Ted that his suspicions were correct, because if she’d known nothing she would have just came out and said so. “Yes,” she finally admitted. “Yes, it’s our Ken. He hasn’t had much contact with me either, though. Early on, he showed up on my doorstep asking me to join the rebellion too. I told him no, but that I would support the resistance even if I wasn’t actively engaged in it. He seemed okay with that answer and I’ve done little things for him over the last few months, but nothing special.”
“So you know where he is?”
“Not exactly. But I can help you start looking in the right places,” she told him.
At that exact moment, angry chanting sounded from the door. “Jodi Hart,” a Drevi voice said in heavily accented English. “We have reason to believe a wanted fugitive, Ted Anderson, is inside. Open the door and comply with us at once.”
“God damn it,” swore Ted under his breath. He didn’t think they would have recognized him all the way out here, but he supposed the Drevi had a more efficient tracking system of wanted criminals than he’d imagined. Some camera must have picked up his face and raised a red flag somewhere.
Jodi made an irritated noise. “Damn it, Ted, you’re always bringing trouble to my door.” The way she said it, however, was good-spirited, and in that moment Ted knew she planned to help them.
“We have to leave,” Juiya said, his voice unprofessionally strangled. His suppressed fear of the Drevi was beginning to show through.
“Let’s go out the back. I have places we can go,” Jodi said, standing up hurriedly and ushering them towards the back door. Just as she was reaching out to open it, the loud crashing sound of the Drevi officers breaking down the front door echoed through the house. “Run for it,” Jodi said, tensely but softly as she flung open the back door.
The three of them bolted across the backyard and through the hinged gate of the fence to freedom. As they made it onto the next street, Ted took a chance and glanced over his shoulder to see four Drevi officers in hot pursuit.
“Ted, they’re almost in firing range,” Juiya said. “I don’t think we can outrun them.”
“Are you armed?” Ted asked back.
“Of course,” Juiya said, reaching back and unholstering his gun. “But they’re carrying military-issue assault rifles. We just have handguns.”
“Jodi, what about you?”
“I’ve been packing since the second the newscaster said aliens had landed,” Jodi said, her tone bordering on sarcastic.
Ted fingered his own firearm, a Kolean gun Alana had given him. It was true, they were outgunned. But if they did nothing, they would either be shot dead, or worse, captured, and then the entire operation could be blown.
“Press the emergency response button, Ted,” Juiya said wearily, as if doing so was one of the last things he wanted to do. “We
can stall for time until a landing team arrives.”
Ted wasn’t wild about using his escape clause on the very first mission, but nonetheless agreed with Juiya that it might be their only option. Holding the gun carefully in one hand, he reached into his pocket and pressed the button on the device with the other.
“If you’re planning on having a firefight,” Jodi said between breaths as she ran, “I recommend going to the old construction site. No one’s been there in months and there are plenty of places to hide.”
“You’ll have to show us the way,” Ted responded.
“This way.”
The Drevi were fast, and had nearly caught up with them by the time Ted, Juiya, and Jodi made it to the abandoned construction site Jodi had mentioned. It had originally been meant to be a hotel, and had been in the middle of construction when the Drevi invaded. Of course, after that, the project had been scrapped, leaving the area to fall into ruin.
Ted and Juiya took cover behind a half-constructed wall that looked somewhat steady while Jodi hid behind them, her gun out and her eyes trained on their attackers. Hopefully the wall would be thick enough to deflect some of the gunfire and give them a little bit of cover.
“Ted Anderson, come out!” the one that seemed to be in charge yelled as he strode carefully through the construction zone, his boots grinding against the loose gravel and an odd anger in his voice. Could it be someone Ted had met? Ted chanced a glance at the man and tried to place the alien in his memory. He was tall, but all Drevi were tall. His head was just as bald and bulbous as the rest of his species and his eyes were almond-shaped and black in color. He wore a traditional Drevi military uniform that was dark green with bronze-colored buttons. Insignia were pinned on his chest, but Ted didn’t know the Drevi officer ranking system and had no idea what rank he might be.
Ted opened his mouth to respond, but found that he had no idea what to say. As he did, Juiya put a hand in front of his beak in the Kolean gesture for silence. Of course. That would give away their position. But Ted wanted to know what beef this man seemed to have with him. Maybe it had nothing to do with Ted at all.
The Drevi officer, however, answered his questions with his next statement. “I am Gavton of the House of Neryx. I am taking you into custody for escaping and the kidnapping of a Drevi officer. Come peacefully and I won’t harm you.”
Beside him, Juiya let out a quiet chirp of laughter, and Ted was inclined to agree. No Drevi, much less one this pissed off, was going to show much mercy to an enemy who had tried to swim against the flow. Even if Gavton himself didn’t harm them, the Drevi put in charge of interrogating them certainly would. Things would only get worse when they discovered Juiya was a Kolean, which they were bound to do.
But then Ted realized who this man must be, and why he would be so angry at a human he had never met. The House of Neryx. Hadn’t Vandoraa said... Was Gavton a family member? Or perhaps worse, a devoted bodyguard?
“Don’t go with him, Ted,” Jodi said, telling Ted what he already knew. “If he doesn’t torture you for the information personally then one of his cronies will.”
“Our best bet is to stall as long as we can until a team can get down here,” Juiya said in Kolean, though his voice was tense. He clearly wasn’t sure if reinforcements would get there in time.
Between two people talking to him at the same time in two different languages and the gravity of the situation they were in, Ted found himself unable to think clearly through his fear and stress. He clutched the handle of the gun tighter and his head began to spin. He felt dizzy.
Ted could take it no longer, and fired a warning shot at the approaching Drevi. It hit the gravel near his feet which exploded in a shower of dirt. Stunned, Gavton staggered back, his own weapon aimed towards where he now knew his targets were.
“Stay back!” Ted roared, scared at how angry and desperate his voice sounded. “I will shoot you!”
“Stop shooting!” Jodi snapped. It was apparent from the expression on Juiya’s face that he felt the same.
“But if we don’t they’ll just keep coming forward until we can’t stop them anymore!” Ted protested in a frantic whisper.
“If that’s the way you want it to be,” Gavton said, his voice almost sickeningly sadistic, as if he were enjoying this tremendously.
A rain of bullets struck the wall, their noise deafening. There were only four Drevi, but their guns were large and semi automatic, meaning they could fire more rounds than anyone in Ted’s group could. To Ted’s surprise and vast relief, the wall they had chosen to take cover behind protected them well. The front was now pocked with bullet holes, but none of them had been harmed in the first round.
Jodi and Juiya responded by firing back, taking a chance and revealing themselves long enough to shoot before ducking back behind the wall as another hail of bullets was upon them.
But the noise was less and Ted realized that one of his companions had managed to strike down one of their pursuers. Ted couldn’t tell if the officer was dead, but it was one less threat to worry about. Unfortunately, it hadn’t been Gavton, and it seemed their little show of resistance had only served to make him angrier.
“You’re going to wish I’d killed you,” he threatened angrily.
“Juiya, when are they going to get here?” Ted asked in panic.
“I have no idea. They know our location but they still have to get everyone on the fighter, sneak it past the blockade, and land it somewhere close by,” Juiya said. “If they run into any trouble, we might not even get help at all.”
Angrily, Ted took the opportunity to leap up and shoot again, this time aiming directly at Gavton. Because he wasn’t a sharpshooter and his head was still spinning, his aim was almost laughable, but the bullet still struck flesh, and the Drevi commander was thrown backwards from the impact, crashing into the ground with a loud cry of agony.
Ted was forced to take cover as the soldier who’d been standing beside Gavton started shooting again while another knelt down to pull his commander out of the line of fire.
Juiya actually looked impressed. “Nice shooting.”
Ted would have been proud of himself, if not for the fact that he had just horrifically injured someone. It wasn’t something he’d ever needed to do before and he found it wasn’t something he was proud of, but the adrenaline cursing through his system didn’t allow him to reflect on his feelings for long.
Suddenly, more gunshots sounded, and the three of them hunkered down, awaiting the worst, until Juiya seemed to realize something. Ted’s heart almost stopped when Juiya sat up, but when he wasn’t immediately shot dead Ted and Jodi slowly followed suit. A team of about fifteen Koleans could be seen about thirty meters away, charging forward and firing at the Drevi.
The Drevi, immediately realizing they were outnumbered, outgunned, and that their leader was seriously injured, began falling back. They returned fire to cover their retreat. One Kolean went down, but from what Ted could tell the injury would not be life-threatening. As the Drevi withdrew, the Koleans stormed forward, some coming to their ally’s aid while the others stood guard, their guns raised and their eyes intently focused on the environment around them. They were professionals; they looked ready to take on anything that came their way.
“Are you all right, Ted?” the team leader asked Ted in simple Kolean as he knelt down beside the human, the look of panic on his face making Ted feel horrible. He had screwed up big time, and he knew it.
“Yes,” Ted replied simply.
“We’re going to get you back to the December,” he said matter-of-factly before motioning for two members of his team to come closer and assist Ted. Ted cooperated and allowed the two large Kolean men to support him and carry him to the shuttle.
“Who is she?” one of the soldiers was asking Juiya in regards to Jodi.
“An old friend of Mr. Anderson’s,” Juiya responded, sounding in control in spite of everything he’d been through. “She should come with us as well.”
“It’s okay, Jodi! I promise!” Ted managed to cry over his shoulder.
With a slight hesitation, Jodi allowed two more strange alien soldiers to guide her away.
Ted turned his attention from Jodi and tried to focus on the world in front of him, but his legs were weak and he felt himself drifting in and out of consciousness. He wondered briefly if he had been hit, or if the adrenaline rush was just catching up with him. He was tired. So tired. He barely registered when the Koleans gently lifted him into the ship they had brought down to the surface. He had never been in a Kolean short range fighter before, but he was lying on his back and unable to pivot his head much, so he couldn’t actually see anything of it other than the bright lights that burned into his retinas.
He briefly registered hearing the rest of the team come onto the ship, Juiya and Jodi among them. It sounded like of all of them, Juiya was the most together, which wasn’t surprising—he was a trained professional. He had begun firing off a report to his superior in rapid Kolean. Ted didn’t even bother trying to follow what they were saying. Jodi just looked shell shocked as she sat down on the floor next to him. The assault team members allowed it, probably under the impression she would be more comfortable next to the person who was her species and could speak her language.
“Are you okay?” he managed to ask her, his ribs hurting from all the heaving he had done while running.
She smiled at him. “I’m alive. Though somehow I doubt I’ll be returning to my house any time soon.”
Ted tried to laugh, but quickly gave up on the idea when his lungs protested so vehemently that he started to cough.
“Hey, hey, take it easy,” said Jodi, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“I thought you said you were born without maternal instincts?” Ted joked, unable to restrain himself. That had practically been Jodi’s mantra when they’d been in college.
“Oh shut up,” she said, unamused as she jerked her hand away.
“We’re approaching the December, Ted,” Juiya knelt down and informed him.
Damn. More time had passed than he’d have guessed. Then the horror sunk in as he realized he would have to explain to General Toka, Hoguh, or worse, Alana, what had happened.
With a bump, the shuttle landed inside the December’s launch bay, and Ted felt himself helped to his feet by Juiya and Jodi. The shuttle door opened and the three of them stumbled out, flanked by the team of heavily-armed Koleans.
“What the hell were you thinking?!” Alana started yelling the moment she set eyes on him.
“They found us, Ms. Teinn,” Juiya said, defending Ted. “We were only defending ourselves...”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. Why were you even down there in the first place?”
Juiya looked confused. “Ted said he’d gotten permission, and neither you nor Mr. Sirrin were available, so he asked if I would accompany him.”
“I sure as hell didn’t give him permission!” Alana screeched. “I was about to send the LSJ down myself when Mirina told me you’d left.”
Mirina must have been the KIS woman who’d given Ted the PD and Juiya his makeup job, and he had no idea what the LSJ was. Probably the Kolean S.W.A.T. team. Ted realized what had happened immediately. It had all been his fault. Everything had been a translation error—he’d misunderstood what Mirina had said and thought she’d told him his mission had been green-lit. In his eagerness to get down to Earth, he’d gone ahead without double checking. He felt like a complete fool.
“On top of that, you should have been more careful!” Alana continued to holler at both of them, switching between languages sporadically in her rage, and Ted was just beginning to realize why Alana’s temper was so legendary that even Trell tried to avoid it. Apparently he had never done anything bad enough to set her off before, but now that her anger was directed towards him, he sincerely wished he hadn’t.
“Ms. Teinn,” Juiya began, making an attempt to reason with her, but instead she turned on him.
“And you. What were you doing accompanying him?” she cried. “You’re only a kul, you had no right to go with him on a mission this important.”
Ted assumed at first a kul was a Kolean military rank, but Juiya seemed to be taking her comment really hard. Ted’s suspicions were confirmed when he glanced at the faces of his rescuers. They seemed uncomfortable, as if she had just uttered an extremely profane term.
Under normal circumstances Ted would have asked what a kul was, but given Alana’s current state he decided his questions needed to wait until later.
“Tell me what happened,” she demanded in English, distracting attention from whatever she had said by returning to her original question. “And who’s that?” She was referring to Jodi.
“Calm down, Alana. I chose to go with Juiya because he seemed like a good choice and both you and Trell were busy. Jodi’s an old friend with ties to the resistance and I was trying to get some insight. We went down and knocked on her door but apparently I was seen and recognized by the Drevi standing guard in the area. We were pursued and took cover in the construction site where the emergency response team found us. I managed to have a brief exchange with the leader of the Drevi guards and I’m afraid he might have a personal vendetta against me. I think he might be a relative of Vandoraa’s, or at least someone who knows him well. He claimed to be of the House of Neryx, too.”
“Absolutely fucking wonderful,” Alana said sarcastically. Apparently she was picking up human profanity really well. “Now the Drevi know we’re here. That’s going to make this exponentially more difficult.”
“I know,” Ted said, resigned. “And I’m sorry.” Alana’s furious gaze let up a bit, but Ted had been around Koleans long enough to know that it was only a gesture of politeness to drop a difficult subject, be civil, and then come back to it later when all parties had calmed down. Somehow, he knew this was going to be one of those cases. “Alana, this is Jodi,” he said in English, introducing them and making an attempt to change the subject. “She’s an old friend, and she’s going to help us.”
“It’s... good to meet you,” Jodi said lamely, clearly picking up on the fact that this didn’t seem an opportune time for introductions.
“It’s a pleasure,” Alana said, first bowing her head in a traditional Kolean greeting and then extending her hand to the human woman. “My name is Alana Teinn. You can call me Alana.”
“I hear you’re looking for the resistance,” Jodi said, getting right down to business and purposely switching subjects. “I’ve had on and off contact with them because, like Ted, I personally know their leader, Kenneth Wood. I’m afraid I can’t tell you how to get in contact with them exactly, but I know the places to start looking.”
Alana looked overjoyed. “Wonderful. I’ll stay with you for the time being since I can speak English, and I’ll get you settled somewhere on the December. We’ll meet with Ted and the higher-ups later and come up with a viable strategy.” She gave Ted a look asking if that was okay.
He nodded in agreement. Shooting one last glare at Ted, Alana led Jodi away, making conversation with her sweetly. It was amazing how the woman could go from a raging inferno of fury to sweet and considerate in a matter of seconds. On the other hand, he was grateful Alana was taking Jodi off his hands for the time being. He needed to get his own affairs in order.
From behind him, Ted briefly heard something about the need to make a report to General Toka from the leader of the LSJ before his rescuers filed out of the launch bay in an orderly, military fashion, leaving Ted and Juiya the last ones in the bay.
“Juiya, what was it that Alana called you just now?” Ted asked as Juiya turned to leave the room as well, in all likelihood to report to his own superior officer.
Juiya glanced at him, looking uncomfortable. So he had been right. It had been something bad. “You can tell
me,” he added lamely.
“I...” Juiya said hesitantly, looking as though he were about to reveal a state secret or something.
“I’m an alien, remember? Whatever it is probably won’t matter that much to me. Hell, I might not even understand it,” Ted pointed out.
Juiya took a deep breath, glanced around as if to catch anyone listening in on their conversation, and finally said, in a voice a note above silence, “I’m not Kolean, in the strictest sense.”
Ted was confused. “What exactly does that mean?”
“I don’t know how it is on your planet,” Juiya said, “but on Kolea, there are actually two species of sentient beings that are closely related to each other. One are the Koleans, the other are the Uyya Koleans.”
Ted nodded, fascinated. It was like the equivalent of humans living alongside Neanderthals or some other closely related relative that had survived to the present day alongside them. But he had an uneasy feeling about this revelation as well. If such a thing had happened, it would have given racism and discrimination even more power throughout human history. Had the same thing happened on Kolea?
“Uyya Koleans... aren’t exactly treated well all the time. Throughout our history, we’ve been labeled as “less evolved” or “inferior” to our cousins. There is actually some scientific evidence to back that up—Koleans live longer and seem to have better mental facilities on average, but that’s really no excuse for some of the things they’ve done to us over the years.”
Ted wanted to ask, “Like what?” but restrained himself. It wasn’t really his business, even though it sounded like it was something he should be informed about if he was going to be working alongside these people. He briefly wondered why Alana or Trell or anyone he’d met on Kolea, for that matter, hadn’t told him about this—an entire separate sentient species on the planet? How had it not come up during his stay there? How had it not shown itself in the mass amounts of research he’d done for those three weeks?
But Juiya continued. “Because we were considered inferior, we weren’t allowed for the longest time to live anywhere but our ancestral region of the planet, the southern continent. We didn’t have the same rights as Koleans for a long time as well—certain occupations were off limits and interbonding was illegal.”
“Does this continue to this day?” Ted asked, feeling incredibly sorry for the man. “I mean, we had our fair share of this kind of shit on Earth, but we got over it years ago.” For the most part, at least.
Juiya nodded, sadly. “I mean, it’s gotten better. Technically we have the same rights now. But there’s never been an Uyya Kolean elected to Parliament except from the two predominantly Uyya Kolean States and most of us still live in isolated areas on the southern continent, even if there’s nothing preventing us from going elsewhere. Koleans are polite to us, but many of them still don’t see us as equal.”
“And what’s a kul?” Ted finally worked up the courage to ask, though now he had somewhat of an idea.
Juiya didn’t answer for a moment, the only noise in the room being the hum of the ship’s engines, which were much louder in the launch bay, and the nervous breaths Juiya was taking. “It’s a very derogatory term for an Uyya Kolean,” he finally said.
“I knew it. I’m going to go talk to her about it.” Ted didn’t want to think about how that conversation would go, but he just couldn’t let this go without voicing his displeasure.
“No, don’t.” Ted was surprised by the urgency in the Kolean man’s voice. “It’s not worth it.”
“Look, if no one does anything about it, nothing’s going to change,” Ted said.
“I know that, but believe me, we’ve been trying to solve this problem for centuries now. One thing at a time, Ted. Don’t try and carry the whole sky on your shoulders.”
Ted was beginning to understand the meaning of that phrase in Kolean. It was kind of a Kolean proverb, and oft quoted, from what he could tell. Obviously, in Kolean terms it meant not to take on the world’s problems, especially when you had your own to worry about.
“Problem is,” Ted laughed, attempting to lighten the situation, “it’s hard for me not to. Look at the situation I’m in.” He didn’t mention what the Wren had said to him during his visit to Star Keep. He hadn’t told anyone yet, actually, what Fjala had told him inside that sacred room.
Juiya’s face softened. “I know you’re not of our culture, but hearing you say it doesn’t matter makes me feel a whole lot better. Where I’m from, it does matter. The rumors were true, you are a good person, Ted. Your star shines brightly.”
Ted smiled, unsure what else to do or say.
“Now, I’m going to go get this makeup off my face.” Juiya pointed to his face with a half-grin and left the launch bay, leaving Ted standing there alone.
December Page 19
