“Why was Cyan upset when we were talking about there not being many words for her people to use as names if they stick with colors?” Lily said the words gently, as if she sensed the wound that lurked just beneath the surface of the conversation.
He had already shared so much with her. And with Nana and Cyan’s friendship, he knew Lily would want to understand.
“The Vegan homeworld was destroyed tens of thousands of years ago,” Rin said. “They’ve been roaming through space on their Life Ship ever since, their population dwindling. There aren’t many of them left.”
“How could it take them so long to resettle?”
“From what Cyan has shared with me, they wanted to find another race to care for and learn from. It’s part of the philosophy they adopted when they left their solar system.”
“It’s admirable, but…”
He chuckled. “You wonder what their agenda is?”
“Kind of.”
“Cyan hasn’t told me directly, but I think their homeworld’s destruction was caused by something they did to it. Their journey has been a kind of penance for that.”
“How sad.”
“They stopped off at our homeworld, Sadr-4, a few thousand years ago, but I guess we didn’t make the cut. Our leaders took the tech the Vegans shared, but then started using it for genetic engineering and to turn trade into conquest.”
“And the Vegans didn’t put a stop to it?”
“No. I’m not sure why.” He shrugged. “They just left instead.”
“And now they’re settling here.” Her eyes widened and the color leached from her face. “Oh no. They aren’t going to offer us their technology, are they? Because we’re still learning how to deal with our own advancements, and I’m not sure we wouldn’t do the same thing—”
“You don’t have to worry about the Vegans.”
The Coalition was another matter.
“This is a lot to process,” she said.
“I know. You’re doing an amazing job.”
Rin reached out to her and helped her step from the tub. Water splashed on his feet as he did. Once more, they were standing chest-to-chest in the small room.
“Your feet are wet,” he said.
“That happens when you’ve been standing in water.” One corner of her mouth twitched up.
“Allow me.” He took the towel from her hands and knelt, gently dabbing the water from her calves and feet.
Her legs were perfect. He wanted to run his hands over them, to feel her skin against his, but didn’t know how she’d react. Things were happening fast enough between them as it was. Or maybe not fast enough. He didn’t know how much time they would actually have together.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said.
“I know. It only seems polite, after you took such good care of me.”
“Do your scratches feel better?” Her voice had a husky quality that made him smile.
“They do, thanks.”
He stood and hung the towel over the shower rod, staring down at her. How soft would her lips be against his? How much warmer would she feel pressed against his body when he wasn’t lying on a cold tile floor?
“Lily, I—” Before he could finish his thought, his watch beeped at him. “Shit,” he said.
“What is it?”
“Someone wanting to check in. I need to get far enough away that they can’t see this structure. We left word that we were going out into the woods to survey the wildlife.”
Lily reached behind him and opened the door. “Then what are you waiting for? Go.”
He wasn’t sure what he’d been about to say, but still resented the intrusion. If it was Nika, he would give her a piece of his mind.
He bolted from the bathroom and ran through the living room. As he passed Cyan and Lillian, he said, “Getting a call from base.”
Cyan started to sit forward, trying to lift the heavy cat from her lap.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” Lily said. “Rin will handle it.”
Her confidence in him warmed his heart. Now, he just had to live up to it.
He slipped through the back door and sprinted deep into the woods. The soft sand beneath his bare feet slowed him down. He threaded through a patchy spot of grass, hoping the solid vegetable strata would help. Sudden pain pierced his feet in several spots.
“Ow! Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.”
He spun around, hopping on one foot, then the other, until he finally reached sand again. Plopping on the ground, he felt a moment of relief. He looked for what might be causing the pain, and saw half a dozen round spheres embedded in his feet, each about the size of his little finger’s nail. They were covered in spikes that bent at the end, creating wicked-looking hooks.
Even the plant life seemed out to get him.
“What the hell is it with this place?”
The beeping of his watch intensified. The house wasn’t as far away as he wanted, but it should be out of sight with the thick foliage. Trying to regain control of his breathing, he activated the connection.
“You’ve reached R-88-b1. How may I help you?” he said.
“Rin?” Ari’s face appeared in the tiny screen of the watch, his bald head reflecting the afternoon sun.
Shit.
“Ari?” Rin mimicked Ari’s tone and expression, trying to look just as confused to throw Ari off his game. Hopefully.
Ari scowled, his amber skin crinkling around his mouth. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just a little winded. You ever try to keep up with an enthusiastic Vegan with an exosuit?”
“Actually, I have.” Ari shook his head and snorted. “Where’s your vehicle?”
“I mistakenly decided to get a little exercise and go for a stroll. This area is fucking hot.”
“Don’t overdo. You don’t have your uniform to protect you from the elements. Remember to hydrate.”
“Yes, sir, parental-unit-sir.”
Ari snorted again. “And next time you requisition a vehicle, make sure to run it past me first.”
“Sorry about that. Cyan was so excited about the field trip. And honestly, how do you say no to her?”
Ari smiled. “She can be hard to resist.”
“Speaking of hard to resist, how’s our fearless leader’s training going?”
“Not so good. Cerulean is trying to help, but Kira just isn’t connecting with her exosuit like they expected. It was so natural for Sarah, we thought Kira would have an even easier time with it.”
“Is her nanNet interfering?”
“Who knows. Sarah keeps saying that Kira’s overthinking it and trying too hard.”
“What do you think?”
“Honestly? I think she misses Brendan. I’d like to see her train if he was down here, too.”
“Yeah, but he needs to run the main base in Montana.”
“Plus he hates the weather here.” Ari grinned.
Rin wasn’t that fond of it either. Or of the bizarre plant-things that had attached themselves to his feet.
“How long are you and Cyan going to be out there?” Ari asked.
“I’m not sure. A couple of days, at least.”
“Days?” Ari’s eyebrow muscles furrowed. Part of the glitch in his genetic engineering had made him completely hairless. From the looks he garnered from women during their rare trips into town for supplies, it didn’t diminish his attractiveness at all. Sarah sure as hell was a fan.
“Have you noticed how many life forms there are in Florida?” Rin asked. “Lizards and bugs and snakes and cats.” Rin shivered at the last, remembering the recent attack.
“Cats?”
Double-shit.
Cats were a companion animal, not the wildlife he and Cyan were supposed to be studying. If Ari realized that, he might figure out that they weren’t quite as far into the wilderness as Rin was trying to get everyone to believe.
“Did you see a cat?” Ari pressed.
Rin didn’t want to li
e to him. What had Lily called the cats when they’d first attacked? The ones with no human caretakers?
“Yeah. It could have been a feral stray.” At one point in its life.
Rin could see Ari looking around his space, as if checking whether he was alone. Then he leaned closer to his own watch, his cheek and one eye filling Rin’s tiny screen.
Ari lowered his voice, and said, “If you see one again, do you think you could capture it for me and bring it back to the base?”
Rin was baffled. “What the hell do you want with a cat?”
“Have you not watched Earth cat videos? Cygnus X, those things are adorable.”
“I’ll…see what I can do,” Rin said.
He couldn’t keep from smiling back when a broad grin stretched across Ari’s face. Ari had no idea what he was getting into.
“Okay,” Ari said. “Check in soon.”
“Affirmative.”
Rin ended the transmission, shaking his head as he turned to the immediate problem—Earth’s very-not-adorable plant life.
Chapter Nine
Lily was getting used to this whole “alien” thing. Sure, there was a lizard lady on her couch, chatting happily with her Nana and petting two of the cats who had joined them. And somewhere in the backyard, there was a gorgeous guy from another planet running around.
A guy Lily had straddled on the floor of the bathroom.
She wanted to do so much more.
If he’d only had sex with people who used that awful-sounding drug, he must have been denied so many things. The sense of connection and fun and…
Who was she kidding? She hadn’t felt those things herself yet. With Rin, though… She had a feeling things would be different.
She was already drawn to him. Now that she’d had a few minutes to think, she realized it went beyond physical attraction.
His passion for what he believed in and his desire to help his friend and to take care of others made him that much harder to resist. For the first time in years, Lily was wondering if it would be so bad to give in to temptation.
This was ridiculous. Rin was an alien. What had Nana called him? Satyrian? That wasn’t right.
Someone knocked on the door. Lily’s heart beat faster. Rin must be back. But why was he knocking?
As she crossed the room, she said, “What kind of alien is Rin again?”
“He is Sadirian,” Cyan said, with a particular sibilance Lily was starting to get used to.
“Sadirian.” Lily murmured the word. She liked how it sounded.
She was eager to pick up where they’d left off in their earlier conversation. Especially if they could get some privacy.
Opening the door, she felt the broad smile of anticipation on her face, her heart pounding in her chest.
The beat seemed to stutter for a moment. Her mind went blank as it tried to comprehend what was before her.
Ants. Giant ants. Giant ants as tall as Lily, standing on two legs and with enormous heads as big as watermelons and grapefruit-sized segmented eyes and too many arms to count and gleaming cocoa-brown carapaces and—
Lily screamed. A sustained note of pure terror that rang through the trees around them.
In front of her, the two giant ants stepped back, grabbing onto each other and letting out a screech that made Lily’s ears ring. Their antennae stiffened like lightning rods on top of their heads and their eyes strobed from white to black and white to black over and over.
Her lungs emptied, Lily finally stopped screaming. She felt dizzy from lack of air, the world spinning around her in a surreal swirl. She could hear scuffling behind her, but didn’t want to take her eyes off the giant ant people standing right in front of her.
The ants kept on making their terrible sound for moments longer, their many stick-like arms wrapped around each other in a tight embrace. The eyes of the one on Lily’s left went completely black and its antennae flattened against its head. It looked up to the sky, letting out a broken chirr that sounded almost like a sob.
“Sister, it is so ugly!” The ant with the darkened eyes spoke in a strange echoing voice, accompanied by chirrs, clicks, and a whirring sound reminiscent of a cricket.
The one on the right started stroking the other’s face with her antennae. “Calm yourself, Sister,” it—she?—said, in the same strange voice.
The first turned back to stare at Lily, her segmented eyes swirling with pale yellow lights. “It looks like a deformed larva. So pale… And with only those two swollen arms.”
“Sister…”
Lily reached into her memory and pulled up what she knew about ant larva.
Okay, she was pale, but she didn’t look like a larva. At least Earth ant larva.
But these were ant people. They were probably another kind of alien.
Oh crap.
In a low voice, the first ant said, “And its antennae… They’re so thin. Impossibly thin. And there are millions of them. Millions.”
“Sister…” the second ant person said.
“Look at its optic organs,” the first one whispered. “They’re no bigger than scent-vents.”
She snorted out of nostrils that were indeed about the size of Lily’s eyes.
“Sister!”
The second ant finally seemed to get through to the first. They turned to face each other, loosening their embrace, and the second said, “Your translator unit is active.”
“What?” The yellow of the first ant’s eyes turned a dull olive green. Her antennae slumped and most of her arms pulled together in front of her chest, kind of like a Praying Mantis.
Lily tried not to think about giant Praying Mantises.
“Oh no… That was unforgivably rude of me.” The first ant bowed low. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I was so frightened.” She shook her head. “That is no excuse. I sincerely apologize for my words, and hope you allow me to make amends.”
The second ant’s eyes glowed blue as she patted the first on the back and made a soft chirring noise.
“Um… Apology accepted?” Lily said.
“You are most kind.” The first bowed even lower, then straightened.
Lily stifled what would certainly come out as a hysterical laugh. She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.
I can handle this.
“Where are your manners?” Nana’s voice carried to them from somewhere near the couch. “Invite them in.”
Lily stepped back from the door and gestured inside. The ant people nodded to her as they passed. Their heads rotated at bizarre angles as they looked all around the room.
“More friends of yours?” Lily said.
Nana laughed. “I sure as hell hope so.”
Did Nana not know them? Lily knew she should be scared, but the giant ant aliens had been so terrified of her. She felt more sorry for them than anything else.
“Freddie will not leave my lap,” Cyan said, once more trying to lift the cat. He rolled onto his back and stretched. Cyan settled back against the cushions.
“I’m surprised he’s staying so calm with all the screaming around here.” Nana glared at Lily.
“I’d like to see you hold it together if you opened the door to—” Lily cut herself off. She didn’t want to hurt the ant people’s feelings. Besides, Nana probably wouldn’t have been surprised at all.
How had they gotten mixed up in all this?
“I’m Nana,” Nana said. “That’s my granddaughter, Lily, and this is my friend, Cyan.” Nana pointed to Lily and Cyan in turn.
The ants bowed again, the lights of their eyes dimming for a moment until they stood.
“We are grateful to meet you,” the first ant said. She was a bit taller than the second, but otherwise, they looked identical.
“I am Sister,” the second ant said. She gestured toward the first ant—the one who had been utterly horrified by Lily’s appearance. “And this is Sister.”
“You’re both named ‘Sister’?” Lily asked.
“No, she is Sist
er and that is Sister.” Cyan pointed to the ants, but the names still sounded the same to Lily.
“It can be difficult for translators to pick up the difference,” the second ant said.
“Maybe we should call one of you ‘Sis’ for short,” Nana said.
The ants both cocked their heads at her, their eyes doing the strobe thing again, only much slower and with dimmer lights.
“I am the shorter one,” the second ant said. “If that is a factor in selecting the abbreviated name.”
“That’s not what she… Nevermind.” Lily shook her head, then pointed to the second ant and then the first. “We’ll call you Sis and you Sister, if that’s okay with you both.”
“I like it,” the first—Sister—said.
“Now that we have the names out of the way, what can we do for you?” Nana said. “It’s not every day a pair of Antareans show up on my doorstep.”
“Antareans?” Lily said. “Really?”
“They’re from Antares-3.” Nana waved a hand at Lily. “The universe is big enough for plenty of coincidences.”
Lily shook her head, but kept her silence. The situation was starting to feel more like a dream again.
“We seek the assistance of the Earthling called Lillian,” Sis said.
“That’s me.” Nana hooked a thumb toward her chest. “Lillian’s my given name, but everyone calls me Nana.”
Sis and Sister bowed lower than before, their arms held in front of them in the Praying Mantis pose. They stayed that way as Sis said, “Our most humble apologies for the intrusion. We would not have come unannounced if we did not face such dire circumstances. Barbara said you might be able to help us.”
Nana let out a little snort. “And she couldn’t?”
“She has aligned herself with Earth’s first contact committee,” Sis said. “Because of this, she has pulled back from her distribution operations. If she is discovered providing unauthorized items to planetary systems in need, her altruistic activities could present an obstacle to the High Council recognizing the Department of Homeworld Security.”
“The what?” Lily asked.
“The Department of Homeworld Security.” This time, it was Cyan who spoke. “Rin and I are also allied with them. We are hoping to further peace and prosperity on your planet and beyond.”
Export Duty Page 6
