by Marie Dry
“Are you saying that if we hadn’t destroyed most of the animal and plant life and didn’t over populate the world, you’d leave and not try and take over?” She dared him to lie.
Whether they were capable of taking Earth or not, she doubted they’d have changed their plans, even if they’d arrived in the beginning of the previous century. When human civilization had advanced to the stage where they built space ships. Ships that never launched. Strange how she suddenly identified with being human more than being American.
“We’d still have conquered you.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“We will restore Earth.”
“Are you sure about that? I’ve only seen six of you green freaks. There’s thousands camping outside your barrier and more arriving every day.” A bored newscaster had mentioned it almost as an afterthought on the TC news.
Again that sharp searching look from that red gaze. “We have already taken Earth.”
“Well, no one seems to have gotten the memo.”
“The memo?”
“I know there is only fifty of you, Though I have only seen about five. You have delusions of grandeur if you think you can rule Earth with so few warriors.” She stopped as a horrific thought occurred to her. “Are there more space ships on the way?”
It made sense. If they had one, they could have fifty. Or a thousand. When Parnell made contact with the purple alien, she’d thought they were in trouble. She’d told him they had to prepare for the possibility that a large invasion was on the way. Maeve blinked. These strange thoughts were going to drive her around the bend.
“We do not need more spaceships or warriors to rule Earth.”
“So how do you plan to conquer Earth with just a few warriors?” Her heart stopped beating for a few terrifying seconds. “Do you have a doomsday machine?”
With so few of them, that was the only thing that made sense.
“Doomsday machine?”
“A bomb that will kill all humans.” It was the only way they could take Earth.
“No, we battle with honor.”
Maybe their talk of conquest was just that. Talk. If only she could believe that. As sure as she was that a monster lurked deep inside her brain, she knew they hadn’t yet seen what these aliens were capable of.
Larz took her arm and steered her back to his dwelling. She looked up at the sky. “Winter is coming,” she murmured.
She shivered moved closer to his warm body. For days now, she had this strange premonition, as if everything she knew was about to change forever. As if something terrible was coming with the winter.
Maybe those flashes of memory meant she was about to remember. Or maybe they would see what these aliens were capable of.
The domed house loomed in front of them and, for one moment, she wanted to break loose of his hold, run away, and never look back. Find a place where she couldn’t be confined, where she was safe from Parnell and these green freaks. Safe from the strange impulse she’d had earlier to hurt Natalie.
Inside, she saw the cake still in the kitchen. Did aliens eat cake? “We still have some of Natalie’s cake. Would you like some tea with yours?” Her stomach turned at the thought of eating, but this was something a normal couple would do. She needed to be normal.
He went to the kitchen and took down a plate. “I do not care for cake or tea.”
“You know, it’s not nice having to eat alone,” she told him.
She’d only ever seen him eat a disgusting slop and she had her own thoughts about that. Someone with his muscle mass and strength would need a lot of fuel for his body. He either ate something she would find disgusting with the other aliens or he hunted his food. Except there was nothing to hunt on Earth. A vague image of a dome with strange looking animals floated through her mind and then disappeared. She clenched the plate until her fingers ached. These memories or flashbacks, or whatever they were, were worse than the memory loss.
He hesitated and then took down another plate.
“You’re not going to feed me again are you?”
“The doctor said you are losing fat. I will ensure you remain healthy and take in enough sustenance.”
A delicious thought occurred to her and she walked up to him, stroked a finger over his cheek. “Why don’t I feed you--”
He roared and she flinched. He let loose in Zyrgin. She screeched and ran, putting the counter between them. None of her training would work against him and, as angry as he was, she wasn’t about to stick around and allow him to take his temper out on her. She’d made the mistake of being in Parnell’s office once when he got the news about Murdoch.
She kept running even as she wondered who Parnell was and why would she think about Murdoch the leader of the raiders who were killed by the army more than a year ago. No more doors opened and, when she looked around her, she realized she’d run to the bathroom. Desperate for any kind of weapon she opened the cupboard. Unless she wanted to squirt him with soap, she didn’t see anything that would work to defend herself with.
“Come out of there, Marcie, I will not harm you.” He sounded calm and normal again.
Feeling stupid for having overreacted, she strolled out. “If you gotta go, you gotta go.”
Again that sharp glance, but his touch was careful when he drew her into his arms. “I would never hurt you. I’m aware that human men use their fists on women. A Zyrgin would never be that dishonorable.”
Maeve smiled and she knew it was an ugly cynical smile. “Look me in the eye and tell me no Zyrgin man has ever lifted a hand against a woman.”
He stared down at her and didn’t answer.
She tossed her hair behind her shoulder. “That’s what I thought.”
“It is time for bed,” he said.
“How do you know? You can’t see if it’s night or day in here.” If this silver prison had windows, she’d be able to bear being inside all the time.
“Superior Zyrgin sense.”
“Now why didn’t I guess that?” She brushed her teeth and took out a nightdress from among the clothes in the closet. “Who chose all this?”
“Natalie chose much of it and you looked at pictures and told me what you wanted.”
“You bought it from a human store?”
“We have synthesisers,” he said.
She heard the shower turn on and a few minutes later he walked naked into the bedroom, water glistening on his beautiful body. “You might be arrogant beyond belief, Zyrgin, but you sure have a magnificent body.”
The words slipped out before she could stop. She blushed and plucked at the silver blanket covering her legs.
The bed dipped and he drew her into his arms. “You don’t think I look like a reptile anymore. Viglar could correct your eyes if it is necessary.”
She looked up at him, but as usual she couldn’t figure out if he was joking or being deadly serious.
“You do have a vaguely reptilian look around the teeth.” She stroked his lips, enjoying the texture. “But you are the most handsome man reptile I have ever seen.”
“I will be the only man reptile you think handsome from now on.”
He kissed her, and she lost herself--that desperate longing for more overtaking her.
A thought occurred to her, and she pressed against his shoulder. “Please don’t get mad at me, but are you sure making love to me won’t hurt your wounds? I know you’re a tough warrior and everything, but I can’t stand the thought of you hurting.”
“Zyrgins are tougher than humans. I don’t feel the pain the same way a puny human male would.”
She leaned down and kissed his chest to hide her smile. She doubted a human would be able to tolerate the pain he currently felt. It was something she’d have to get used to--allowing her tough Zyrgin warrior to suffer through his pain without help.
He drew her up his body and kissed her, an almost desperate kiss. He traced her figure with a finger with the claws retracted. His touch was so gentle, it brought te
ars to her eyes. It was as if he wanted to see each and every change in her body. He caressed it as if trying to newly imprint himself on her. She felt his teeth against her, only to have him retract them.
He stilled and stared down at her with eyes where red and black battled for supremacy. Did he try to remain calm, to refrain from biting her?
“I cannot bite you.”
“Thanks, that’s one experience I can do without.” In spite of her words, she had the sinking feeling that this was another thing he denied her because she wasn’t worthy.
He stroked her neck, over the artery, seeming fascinated. “You do not have honor.” The denial seemed dragged from him, his eyes glued to her neck.
Hurt spiralled through her. She’d done nothing wrong since she’d lost her memory, and him saying she had no honor hurt. As if the person she was now didn’t count. What if she never got her memory back? Would he consider her without honor ten years from now, no matter what she did or didn’t do?
He kissed her and she almost lost herself in the taste of him, the feel of his lips, the pleasure that surged through her whenever he kissed her. Almost.
“So if I had honor, you’d bite me?” She just couldn’t let it go, the words bitter on her tongue.
“Yes.”
Maeve closed her eyes and pressed her lips together to hide their trembling. She shouldn’t have asked. She should’ve made love with him and grabbed what happiness she could. Desperate to escape the pain, she grabbed him, drew him down to her, and kissed him with all the hurt and desperation boiling in her soul.
“I can please you, horrible human. You will be safe with me.”
Did he try to make a joke for her? Maeve held on tight, returned his kiss for kiss, and, when he allowed, touch for touch, until she was panting and writhing, desperate to forget the monster in her dreams--the contempt she sometimes saw in his eyes--in his arms.
He made love to her until she thought she would pass out with pleasure. He did it in silence, not telling her she was beautiful to him, or asking her if anything pleased her.
At last, they lay side by side, worlds apart. “I cannot give the first knowing to a woman without honor,” he said and he sounded driven, as if this first knowing was something vitally important to him.
She thought he wanted to give it to her, even though he saw her as a woman without honor. “I don’t know what that is and I sense I don’t want to know.”
She stared at the ceiling. Silver and solid, it pressed in on her until she thought her lungs might collapse. Being trapped inside this silver coffin was slowly driving her out of her mind.
“If only I could see the stars,” she murmured despondently.
She didn’t understand the closed in feeling that made her want to run until she never had walls around her again. Even more than she feared getting her memory back, she feared being trapped inside forever. Sometimes, she dreamed she was buried alive and things crawled over her.
Larz murmured something in that grunting language of theirs.
Slowly, so slowly she thought it was her imagination, the ceiling changed until she could see the moon and stars. The sky was beautiful, like dark velvet. Stars twinkled as if someone had scattered glowing beads onto the velvet.
Had she ever taken the time to look at it before? When she still knew who she was, did she take time out of a busy life to just stare up at the sky?
She lifted a hand, traced the stars that she’d never seen before. “Thank you.”
He didn’t answer and she fell asleep, staring at the stars twinkling down at her.
She dreamed of Agent Parnell, of the day he taught her about betrayal.
She jerked awake, stared up at the ceiling, and could’ve cried. It was solid again. The space next to her was empty, but that was normal, he was usually gone when she woke. She only had memories from that day she woke up in bed with Larz, but even in this short time she’d noticed how industrious they were. The Zyrgins seem to be working all the time. She doubted any of them ever spent time just relaxing. When Larz joined her to watch the Space Ranger episode, he’d been as close to fidgeting as she’d ever thought to see him.
She got up, the lingering feeling of terror held over from the dream dogging her steps. She couldn’t remember the dream, only the feeling of terror.
***
Weeks passed and changed into months in a slow blur of sleeping under the stars, walking on the mountain with Larz, making love with him. Mostly, she was alone. Larz worked excruciatingly long hours. If she tried to care for the wounds on his back or tried to talk about it, he’d walk away from her.
She’d come across a design program in the TC and found she enjoyed designing any type of vehicle. Though hovercrafts were her favorite. Soon she had files full of ideas and designs.
Her hair continued to grow out black. Her skin was free of freckles and darker. She’d slimmed down and felt more at home in her body.
Though Larz was convinced she would die of hunger any day now.
Then one day she was eating breakfast and Larz came back early.
“Larz, what’s wrong?”
Without a word, he grabbed her and ran with her to what looked like a big rock planted in the earth. He rounded that and she saw a big door, the same color as the mountain rock. “Please, Larz, tell me what’s happening.”
He ran through the entrance when the big door slid open. They entered a cavernous room with steel plated walls. “We’ve been monitoring you and your body showed an anomaly.”
He ran to the right and they entered what could only be an infirmary.
The doctor who hated her stood next to a hard slab that obviously served as an examination table.
“Oh, great, it had to be the doctor who hates me,” she muttered as Larz laid her down on the table.
The doctor ran a gadget over her, made some adjustments, and flashed it over her body again.
She grabbed Larz’s hand and held on. “Larz, please tell me what’s going on.”
“Someone changed you on a cellular level and your body is reverting back to normal.”
“Who would do something like that?” The flashbacks, the dreams, were beginning to make a scary kind of sense. The way her freckles disappeared and her skin darkened. Her hair turning black. “What else will happen to me? Is this why I lost my memory?”
Something moved in his fiery red eyes, something she didn’t understand. “We can’t be sure what was done to you but Viglar thinks the procedure used on you could’ve killed you or made you insane. I will take you back to our dwelling. Viglar will monitor you from here and alert us if you need to come back.”
He made to pick her up and she shook her head. “I can walk.”
“I know. I will carry you.”
Maybe he had as big a fright as she did and needed to do this. She certainly had no objection to being in his arms. He walked out of the big silver cavernous room at a much slower pace. She saw a homey kitchen area, two couches, and what looked like boxes of alien equipment before the doors closed behind them.
He almost ran to their dwelling. Inside he set her down on the couch. “I cannot stay with you. I have duties. If you need me, you may call me on the TC. My name is programmed into it.”
She smoothed his uniform over his shoulders. “All right. Are all Zyrgins this hard working?”
“It is best for us to remain busy. Zyrgins with too much free time on their hands are known to start unsanctioned wars.”
He pressed his forehead against hers and she thought he did it for a few seconds longer than usual. Without a word, he left her.
She was lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, when he came off duty. He stared down at her for a long time and then drew the blanket over her. “Why were you staring at the ceiling?” he asked.
“I was waiting for the stars.”
He cocked his head. “The stars?”
“Yes, I don’t feel so trapped when the ceiling becomes transparent, and I can see the moon and the
stars. It’s a full moon tonight, you know.”
“Do you feel trapped a lot?”
“Sometimes my whole life feels like a trap,” she said and stared longingly up at the ceiling.
He murmured something and the dense ceiling changed, allowing in the sunlight, somehow muting it so that it didn’t hurt her eyes to look right up into the sky.
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
He lay down next to her. “I do not know you like this. Say something terrible before you worry me.”
“Do I say terrible things?”
“Yes.” He pulled her against him. His hand caressed her lazily from her hip to her breasts.
She watched a large bird flew over their head. “What is that?”
“An eagle. It is one of the extinct species we have re-introduced.”
“There was a scientist, I think, about a hundred years ago and he said humans were eating their way to extinction. He was right. We ate everything and never acknowledged the need to change our habits.”
He tensed next to her, got up, and left the room so fast she barely saw him move. She didn’t have the energy to follow.
When he returned, he had a plate in his hand. He handed it over to her and sat down next to her on the bed.
“You’re always feeding me.”
“You are too thin.”
“I think it’s because of my body changing. This feels normal to me.”
She’d done much more than eat in bed with a man before, but she felt suddenly shy. This was more intimate than anything else she’d done with him--what she could remember doing with him, anyway.
“I have duties. When they are done, I will take you outside.”
“I do not want to be walked like a dog.” She said it absently. Always before, he’d used the word warrior in every second sentence. Now she realized he hadn’t done it for some time now. He cocked his head and stared down at her. She shook her head. “Never mind.”
“I have obtained entertainment for you from Natalie.”
She shuddered. “Don’t tell me, either endless boring nature programs or some episodes of the Space Ranger. I’d rather die of boredom than watch that drivel.”
