“I’m a botanist and you’re a xenologist. You know as much about this as I do,” Theyn scolded mildly. He sat down on the bed that Beno was occupying, facing Sera. “You have Ylian blood. Even if you didn’t, our species are completely compatible… obviously, or you wouldn’t have conceived. In cases of mixed births, the pregnancy normally follows the pattern that’s nearest to normal for the mother. I wouldn’t expect anything different in this case.”
“So nine months, then a nice normal delivery with no midwife or obstetrician.” She nodded. She felt her nervousness start to rise, and she brushed it off, saying, “Okay, I get it, women have been giving birth without outside assistance for centuries. I can do that.”
“We’ll be here to help you,” the blond reassured.
Beno turned another page. “Some of these houses are real dumps.”
“Nice slang. You’ve been listening to a lot of people’s minds, haven’t you?” she asked, snickering.
“A lot of people here think very loudly.” He looked up and winked at her.
“Was that directed at me?”
“Could be.”
She picked up a pillow and tossed it at him. He batted it out of the air and kept looking at his real estate magazine.
Theyn smiled, but he didn’t allow himself to be distracted. “Truthfully, none of us really knows what to expect. Nothing has gone according to plan since the Taluans attacked Ylia. We can only face whatever comes together, as a united front, and support each other through whatever happens.”
Sera took his hands and leaned forward, kissing him. “You are the sweetest person I have ever met.”
He looked surprised but pleased. “Thank you.”
Beno reached out and squeezed his partner’s shoulder with one hand, not looking up from his magazine. It was enough to show his agreement with Sera’s words.
A disjointed rattling sound interrupted them, and they looked to the table to see one of the newly-purchased cans of soup rocking quickly in place, its metal rim knocking against the formica surface. Another can began to shake, and soon they could feel a low rumbling vibration that seemed to fill the room like an earthquake. Beno scrambled for his weapon while Theyn urged Sera back toward the bathroom with him.
“What’s going on?” she asked, alarmed.
Go into the bathroom and stay low. Get into the tub if you have to, Beno told them. I will try to hold them off.
“Hold who off?”
“Whoever is scanning this hotel,” Theyn told her.
He drew her into the bathroom with him, but she resisted. “Scanning? What?”
Beno’s jaw was set and his eyes were narrow with anger and concentration. “Just do as we ask, Sera, before we leave you no choice.”
She gaped at him, shocked, and Theyn pulled her into the bathroom and cajoled her into the tub. “Lie here,” he said. “Don’t come out until we say it’s safe.”
“Stay with me,” she begged. “There’s only one stunner and two of you. You’ll be defenseless.”
“I cannot leave my partner to face this threat alone.”
“What threat?!”
He took a breath and explained, “That is a lifeform scan being conducted from orbit. It is pinpointing our location. They have found us.”
She climbed to her feet, angry. “Who? For the love of God, would you please just give me a straight answer?”
“The Taluans.”
There was no more time for talking as the sound of splintering wood filled the air. Theyn raced out of the bathroom to Beno’s aid, and Sera ran out right behind him.
In the main room, just inside the door, Beno was facing off against a massive lizard-like creature. It stood a head taller than the Ylian and was twice as broad. He had switched the stunner to the kill setting, and he fired into the Taluan’s chest. Light arced around the alien’s body, flashing like a lightning storm, only to be absorbed into a force field that briefly flared then became invisible again. The Taluan backhanded Beno, its club like fist connecting with his face and sending him flying.
The stunner landed at Theyn’s feet, and he picked it up. The Taluan laughed at him and spoke in a guttural voice, which was helpfully translated by Sera’s earpiece. “Imperial Ylian,” it mocked. “You are a natural coward. Put down that weapon.”
Theyn’s answer was to fire. Again the killing energy danced over the Taluan’s personal force field, but this time, instead of being absorbed, it coalesced over the unit on the creature’s belt that powered its defenses. Theyn fired a third time, and the weapon spat destruction into the Taluan’s chest. The alien stiffened and gurgled, then dropped to the floor, where it stayed motionless.
Sera ran to Beno. He was lying face down on the carpet with blood trickling from his mouth and from a cut in his scalp. She pressed her fingertips to his throat and found that his pulse was still steady and strong. She sagged with relief.
Theyn adjusted the controls on the weapon. She could hear a set of boots approaching rapidly, running down the hallway toward their room. Theyn backed up and stood over his mates, his face grim. He was ready to shoot whatever came through the door.
A trio of men in black tactical gear and skull masks swept into the room, rifles at the ready. One of them held up a hand and barked an order. “Stand down!”
He stepped forward, and to Theyn and Sera’s shock, he went down on one knee. His companions followed suit.
The man spoke in the Ylian tongue. “Your Highness.”
“Who are you?” Theyn asked.
“Those who have been sent to find and assist you,” he answered.
Another man joined them, breathing heavily behind his mask. “The other two Taluans have been eliminated, sir.”
“Good.”
The newcomer looked up at Theyn as if he was seeing him for the first time, and he went down on his knee, too. “Forgive me, Your Highness,” he said. “I didn’t realize it was you.”
Beno groaned and stirred, and Sera helped him sit up. He leaned against her, still reeling. The leader of the tactical group said, “We have healers and medical supplies that can help your bond mate. If you would allow us to take you to our base, we would help you.”
Theyn considered for a moment, clearly torn, then lowered his weapon. “Before we agree to go with you, tell me who you are.”
The leader took his skull mask off, revealing eyes that were formed like a human’s, with white sclera, but with a shining blue iris that glowed like Theyn’s eyes. “My name is Roon. I’m a human/Ylian hybrid, and I’m here to help you.”
“Blue eyes,” Theyn said. “Imperial blood.”
Roon nodded. “I am your eight-times great nephew.”
Sera looked up at the blond Ylian, and he looked back at her, weighing his decision. “We’ll go with you.”
Chapter Sixteen
They were escorted to the roof of the hotel, where a large helicopter was waiting. Sera and Theyn helped Beno, loggy from his head wound, into the vehicle. Out of all of the members of the tactical group, only Roon joined them.
“Not much room,” he explained, helping them find their straps and belts to secure themselves for the flight. “They’ll make it to base another way.”
Sera dabbed at the cut on Beno’s forehead with a tissue, and he pulled away in irritation. She didn’t catch any thoughts from him, but the feeling of embarrassment was clear. She let him have his space.
Theyn stared at Roon. “My eight-times great nephew,” he said. “So you are Thera’s descendant.”
“Yes. Empress Kina and her daughter were able to escape from Ylia before the planet was destroyed. She helped settle the Ylian colony on Bruthes.”
“And you are part Ylian and part human. Your bloodline – our bloodline – has been on earth for many generations, then.” He nodded, and Sera knew that the information was confirming his earlier conjecture.
“Yes. There are humans with Ylian blood from all three lines here on this planet.”
Sera looked at
Theyn. All three lines?
Imperial, Martial and Senser, he told her. The Imperial bloodline shows in blue eyes, the Martial in green, and the Senser in gold.
So his blue eyes, that’s why you knew he was Imperial bloodline, she thought.
Yes.
Roon gave them a moment to finish their conversation, and she wondered if he had been able to hear them. His face was utterly impassive, so it was difficult to tell.
“How many of our people survived the attack?” Beno asked, his voice rough.
“Three hundred, sir.” Roon glanced out the window as the helicopter banked sharply to avoid a billboard. “Two hundred and fifty stayed on Bruthes. Fifty came here to Earth once they determined that your escape pods were here.”
“How did they determine that?” The brunet Ylian sounded grumpy, but Sera would have been grumpy, too, with a concussion and a split head.
Roon took no offense, as far as she could see. “Computations and bioform trace scans. It was difficult to pinpoint your location, but there were traces of Ylian technology and Ylian DNA in the atmospheric scans.”
Theyn nodded. “And you were born here?”
“Yes, sir.”
Sera asked, “How many hybrids are here?”
He shrugged. “Thousands, I would think. Not all hybrids are as easy to detect as my team and me. We’re half Ylian. Our people have been here long enough to interbreed and hide our more obvious traits behind the appearance of being human.” He nodded to Theyn. “My mother is a full-blooded Ylian, and she still lives. She is the sixth granddaughter of Princess Thera.”
She leaned forward, fascinated. “For those of you with the Ylian eyes and skin, where do you live? How do you hide?”
Roon smiled. “You’ll see.”
***
The helicopter made one refueling stop, then took them out into the Pacific Ocean. The sun had set by the time they reached their destination, but by the lights on the welcoming flight deck, they were headed to a refurbished World War Two cargo ship.
A man with glowing gold eyes waved them in with semaphore light sticks, and their pilot settled the helicopter down on the deck with only the slightest bump. Cessna twin-engine planes and helicopters like the one they were riding – recommissioned Bell Hueys from the Vietnam era – lined the flight deck on both sides. Roon opened the door of the cabin and held it while Theyn stepped out. A trio of white-coated hybrids, their human-esque eyes glowing green in the dark, collected Beno onto a gurney over his objections, and when they bore him off toward sick bay, they all accompanied him.
Their path was unimpeded, although a number of the hybrid workers stared at Beno and Theyn in curiosity. They reached sick bay and Beno was taken to the first available bed, where a doctor with a faint golden cast to her eyes and skin took control.
While she examined him, Beno said, “I need to speak to whoever is in charge of your military operations.”
“That would be Captain Prentiss,” Roon told him. “He’ll want to speak to you, as well.”
“There were three Taluans in the hotel when you came,” he said, wincing as the doctor began to irrigate his cut. “There was also one in a probe that we encountered.”
“We know,” Roon nodded. “We tracked their trajectory when they entered the Sol system.”
“Are they coming?” Theyn asked, anxious.
“I don’t know, sir. I do know that the mass of the Taluan force are in the Jexis System, many, many light years from here, all the way on the other side of the galaxy. This was likely just a scouting mission who noted the Ylian signatures that we did.”
Sera looked at Theyn, then at Beno. “Can you communicate with the Ylian colony?”
Roon smiled. “Of course. It just takes a little time for the communications to go through subspace.”
“You’ll tell them that you found us,” Theyn said.
“Yes, Your Highness. The colony will want to know.”
Beno made an angry face while the doctor sealed his wound with surgical glue. “What is the relationship between the colony and Bruthes as a whole?”
Roon looked surprised. “From what I understand, it’s a cooperative relationship. The Bruthesans have been good hosts, and the colony is autonomous.”
Sera remembered the conjecturing that Theyn and Beno had already done about the colony on Bruthes and their hosts. She hoped that they’d been wrong, and that the colony wasn’t really just a farm for Taluans.
Do you think that maybe you were wrong about the Bruthesans? she asked her lovers.
Theyn said, Bruthes was our closest trade partner, but they were never what you would call brave. I doubt that they would have been willing to risk bringing the wrath of Talua down upon their heads by helping us.
Maybe they saw what happened to your world and decided to take a stand, Sera suggested.
Theyn and Beno’s eyes met, and she felt something shift, a silent communication that was just between the two men. Theyn sighed. Perhaps.
The door to sick bay opened, and Asa and Joely came in. Joely ran to Sera and embraced her, but Sera only returned the hug briefly when she saw Asa’s injuries.
“What happened to you?” she cried.
He shrugged. “Colonel Vasquez isn’t very nice.”
Sera went to him and put her arms around him carefully, trying not to bump any of his injuries. “You poor thing! I’m so sorry!”
“Hey, it’s all good. These guys have some mad medical skills. I shouldn’t be able to walk right now, but they set me straight.” He gestured toward his ankles, which were puffy but otherwise intact. “Those were both broken this morning. Now I can walk.”
“That’s amazing!” Sera shook her head. “How?”
Theyn answered helpfully. “Bone knitters. Laser technology combined with energy manipulation.”
She was amazed. “Incredible.”
Joely said, “I guess you guys got away, huh? You all right?” She spontaneously punched Sera in the arm. “You could have told us where you were going!”
Beno growled, the sound rumbling from deep within his chest. “Do not strike her again!”
She looked startled, then turned wide eyes onto Sera’s face, clearly asking her to get her out of trouble. Sera complied. “She was just playing. It’s all right.”
“I’m s-sorry,” Joely stammered. “I didn’t mean any harm.”
Theyn turned to face two Ylian hybrids who had come into the room, both of them in uniforms that betrayed the signs of rank. They both knelt to him as soon as they came in, and they were waiting for him to acknowledge them. He didn’t make them wait for long.
“Please, rise,” he said, his voice full of quiet authority. “Your names?”
“I am Captain David Prentiss, and this is my first mate, Tyler Randall. You’re on board our ship, the Cyclops. We are one-quarter Ylian, and we are overjoyed to meet a male of the royal line.”
Theyn nodded. “My partner, Beno, and our mate, Sera Cooper.” They bowed to each of them in turn.
Joely looked at Sera. “Mate? You’re married?”
“Shush.”
Prentiss said, “It is an honor, Commander Beno and Dr. Cooper.”
“Thank you,” she said. Beno acknowledged the captain with a nod of his head.
“I take it that no other males of the royal line survived the fall of Ylia?” Theyn asked.
Randall shook his head. “No, Your Highness. Only the Empress, Princess Thera and her daughter, Princess Aneka, lived to reach the colony. The other bearers of the Imperial bloodline are all from lesser houses.”
The doctor stepped back from the table, having done all of the repairs to Beno’s scalp that she could. The wound had been closed and a bandage covered his scalp, shocking white against the blackness of his hair. “You should rest for a day or so, Commander.”
“When I am certain that there is no threat to Prince Theyn or to our mate, then I will rest.”
Prentiss smiled. “There is no threat here. And as for
rest, we’ll be reaching Itzela within the hour.”
“Itzela?” Sera echoed.
The captain nodded. “We have an island in the Pacific that’s been camouflaged to stay off of any maps. It’s where our people can be free to walk the streets.”
Theyn told her, “Itzela is a Bruthesan word. It means ‘beautiful.’”
Prentiss nodded. “Yes, it does, and it’s a beautiful place, indeed.” He gestured toward the door. “If you’d like to join me in my office, we’ll have refreshments while we wait for the ship to reach port.”
***
It was like sailing on the strangest cruise ship she’d ever seen. Prentiss and Randall did their best to be charming hosts, but the role didn’t suit them well, and after an hour of small talk, things were becoming deeply awkward.
Asa and Joely told Sera and the Ylians what had happened to them, and Sera filled in her friends on the goings-on since they’d parted ways. She left out a few pertinent details – like the ATM robberies and her pregnancy – but shared the rest. Prentiss and Randall gave vague answers to questions about the Ylian colony on Bruthes, and they said even less about their destination, Itzela.
Finally, the bridge called Prentiss, and he and Randall left them with their apologies so they could see to the work of getting their massive ship into the slip without killing anyone or breaking anything.
Sera rose and paced around the captain’s office.
“Restless?” Joely teased.
“Yes.” She ran a hand through her thick blonde hair, which seemed thicker today, with more curls. She sighed. “I just…I just don’t trust them. They’re hiding something.”
“I thought so, too,” Theyn said, nodding. He and Beno had been speaking aloud and in English out of deference to Joely and Asa. “I don’t know what, but there’s something that they don’t want us to know.”
Beno peeled the bandage off of his head and tossed it into Prentiss’s waste bin. “I’m curious to see this island of theirs,” he said. “I wonder what - ”
He was cut off by an explosion that rocked the entire ship. Sera was tossed into Theyn’s lap, and he caught her, holding her securely even as the massive vessel bucked like an angry beast.
Awakening Page 14
