The Alien's Needs

by Ruth Anne Scott

  Chapter Three

  Maxim took a final look around the room to make sure that he had picked up everything that he needed to bring along with him to rescue those who were still within the ship. He didn’t know how long they would be out on the planet or what dangers they might encounter, and he wanted to be as prepared as possible. When he felt confident that he had everything that he could bring along to help them deal with any situation that they might encounter, he stepped out of the building and walked over to the building that Pyra had chosen as his temporary shelter while he was on Penthos. Moments later the Denynso warrior stepped out to join him. He was carrying a large bag on his back and Maxim could see a weapon on his hip, telling Maxim that he had put as much thought into preparing for this journey as he did. Pyra knew what awaited them between where the ship sat, and the compound and he had gone to extensive effort to make sure that they were as ready as they could be. This only confirmed the concerns that Maxim had and underscored his need to be prepared for the unexpected as they journeyed away from the relative safety and protection of the compound and toward the people who were still vulnerable and waiting in the ship.

  Pyra gave him a nod of acknowledgement and together they started toward the stable where Severine was boarding the Meldor. As they walked, other men came out of the buildings and fell into step with them, joining their walk toward the animal that would come along with them on their mission. Some of the other men in the group were to stay behind, protecting the compound and the rest of the crew in the event that the hybrid army chose the time that they were away to attack. They walked along in silence until they reached the stable and then Pyra knocked on the door. Inside Maxim heard shuffling and grunting and knew that the tremendous animal was awake and agitated by the sound of the warrior pounding on the wood.

  “Are you all familiar with the Meldor?” Pyra asked, looking over his shoulder at the other men.

  Maxim saw Gyyx nod.

  “I saw it during battle,” he said. “Are you sure that bringing it along with us is the best choice?”

  “Severine assures us that it is safe,” Pyra said.

  “He is,” Severine said from the door that she had opened.

  The men turned to her sharply and she smiled serenely out at them. Maxim wouldn’t have admitted it to any of them, but he still felt somewhat uneasy around this woman. He knew that she had been rescued from the facility where Ryan had been holding his experiments and that she had been instrumental in Eden finding the women and other tortured hybrids, but there was something about her that was still so strange that it made Maxim weary of her. He felt terrible that he couldn’t get accustomed to being near her and felt more on guard near her. The thoughts of Pyra’s fearsome, though temporary, hatred toward the Mikana and his captivity of the men was still strong in his mind. Though he had long since forgiven him for what the warrior leader had put him through and what he had seen his kind suffer due to the prejudice and fury, it hadn’t left his mind that they had gone through that simply because of their species. Maxim knew that what he was doing to Severine, the way that he looked at her and how he felt when he was near her, was no better. He chastised himself, demanding within his own mind that he would overcome his resistance and welcome her into their fold completely. Her origin was beyond her control and she had given of herself as much, if not more, than any of the rest in the group. She deserved nothing less than his respect.

  “Are you sure?” Azrael asked.

  “Yes,” Severine said again, her voice brief as if she didn’t think that she needed to say anything more.

  “She assures us that if we approach him properly and don’t intimidate him that the animal will be very cooperative,” Pyra said, emphasizing that he had replaced “it” with “he” in the way that Severine had. “She believes that he will be of great help to get us across the planet safely and then bring back the rest of the crew from the ship as well as supplies.”

  “He is strong,” Severine said, stepping aside to allow the men into the building, “and his kind naturally appreciates work. They are not a lazy species. If they are treated well, they will be more than willing to do what they can to help the people who they serve.”

  “They?” Maxim asked. “There are more of them?”

  Severine gave a short laugh.

  “Of course, there are.”

  “Here?”

  She shook her head.

  “No. As far as I know, according to our training, this is the only one who is here on Penthos. Assuming, of course, that he is the same one who was here when I started my training here many years ago. Ryan told us that he was given this creature, or at least the first of his kind that he had access to, when he was very young, and he had been keeping it since. It hadn’t been long, however, since he had figured out that he could turn it into a weapon just like he planned to do with the hybrids.”

  “Who gave it to him?” Pyra asked.

  “I don’t know,” Severine said. “That is more than he would share with us.”

  “Do you know where he came from?” Gyyx asked.

  “No,” Severine said. “Ryan never told any of us about his life outside of our training and his experiments. I don’t know where he has traveled or anything about his associates or where they might have lived that could harbor this type of animal.”

  The men stepped further into the center of the building and Severine stepped behind them to close the door and secure the lock. It felt like she was trying to prevent them from leaving, as if she wanted to block them in and keep them from escaping from the grasp of the Meldor. Maxim shook his head, trying to force out the out-of-control thoughts that seemed to be invading his mind with disturbing frequency since they arrived on Penthos. If he was honest with himself, he would admit that it was his concern for Ivy and their baby that was manifesting itself as these outlandish thoughts. Though Maxim knew that she was safer on Uoria than she was here with him, he felt unnerved and unbalanced by the distance between them. If she was there with him, he would be able to protect her, to guard her and to know that she was safe. She would be the object of his focus and would keep him focused and motivated. As it was, she was out of his sight and had been for far longer than she ever had been in the time that they had known each other. He didn’t know how she was doing or if the baby was well. He didn’t know how she was coping with everything that was happening or how she was getting along with his mother. He didn’t know what she was thinking about what she would want to do after the war came to an end and she needed to decide if she would return to Earth or if she really was going to stay on Uoria with him as she had once promised that she would.

  There was so much unknown about the pregnancy and he still held worries that becoming a mother, particularly when it was as beyond her control and understanding as to how the pregnancy would progress and when she would give birth, would cause her to change her mind about the life that they had planned together. All of the questions were tormenting him, causing his brain to tangle and shift all of the energy and attention that he would want to put on her into the nightmares he was suffering at night and the frantic thoughts he was battling during the day. His determination to battle as intensely as he needed to and to see the war through to victory hadn’t faded, but it seemed that that drive was only pushing him deeper into the aggression that so harshly reminded him of the way that he felt during the time that the toxins from the flowers were taking over and he was slowly, torturously transforming into a Klimnu. That was the start of Pyra’s rash and violent reaction to the Mikana men, but also the shattering, brutal breakthrough that they all seemed to have needed to finally come together.

  That all seemed so long ago. It seemed an impossibly long time had passed since he had first seen Ivy standing at the wall in the human settlement, surrounded by the muffled sounds and nearly stifling smell of the funeral ritual fire set to honor those who had been lost in the battle with the Covra. So much had happened since those first, sweet moments that he looked at
her. It seemed that it should have been many years, nearly a lifetime, that had carried everything that they had gone through, but it had not been nearly that long. They had been through so much together in such a short time and that only increased the passion and love that he had for her. He knew that one day they would be able to relax, to settle into a life that was calmer and more at ease than what they had been experiencing, and together they would know that they could face and persevere through anything because of what they had already endured.

  “The Meldor is like any living creature,” Severine said, walking out from behind them and taking a few steps toward the animal. “He needs to be approached in the right way. If you are too aggressive with him, he will think that you are a threat and he will be aggressive in return. If he knows that you mean him no harm and that you only want to make use of his services, he will be calm and help you in whatever way he can. To approach him, look directly at his face. Let him see your eyes and know that you are acknowledging him and his presence. Approach with confidence, but not with intimidation. Speak to him as you would speak to anyone else on your team and let him know what you need him to do.” She stepped up to the animal. “Meldor, I’m going to get on your back now,” she said. “I need you to lean down.”

  The animal complied, its legs bending as it lowered itself down toward the dirt floor of the stable so that Severine could take hold of its thick fur and swing herself up to sit between its massive shoulders. As soon as she was settled into place, the Meldor rose up, standing to its full height so that Severine stared down at them. Maxim was impressed, stunned at the calm, controlled demeanor of the animal that had seemed so fearsome on the battlefield. He could see now why Severine had been so agreeable to them bringing him along with them to cross the planet to help those still in the ship. She knew that if they humbled themselves to accepting that this creature was not the vicious, bloodthirsty enemy that they had perceived it as being, but rather a being that had been tormented and forced into the actions that it had taken, that they could benefit from it.

  Though Severine had been careful and thorough in bathing the Meldor and grooming its fur, it was still evident where the collar that had once controlled him had been. The fur there was thinner, more sparse as though rubbed away and prevented from growth by the collar that it had worn for years without relief, and Maxim knew that if he looked closely he would be able to see the injuries in the animal’s skin where the metal spikes had dug into his skin in response to the light. When he had first seen this animal, when he was first in its presence, Maxim had had difficulty thinking of it as anything but the vicious creature that had nearly killed his brother. Now that he was closer to it and was forcing himself to consider what this animal had been through, he felt more compassion toward it. Maxim struggled to come to terms with what the Meldor had gone through. He had been held in captivity, isolated and alone, away from his planet and the rest of his kind, forced into brutal service and tortured into subservience. It was something that Maxim could hardly bear to think about.

  Severine guided the Meldor to lower down again so that she could climb off of his back. One by one she encouraged the men to approach the animal and climb up, sitting for a few moments above the rest of the group before climbing down again. The Meldor lifted all of them, even Pyra, with ease, not daunted by their size. As they worked toward building trust with the animal, Maxim considered what each of them had gone through and how similar they were to this massive being. In their own way, they had all been held captive, controlled by their own invisible collars. Though the torment had not been as visible as that of the Meldor, it was very real to each of the men.

  Maxim’s own collar had been his struggle with his father’s disappearance and how it had impacted himself, his brother, and their mother throughout his life. Every time that he had thought of Aegeus or seen his name, it was another moment of pain, another moment of torture that kept him from asking the questions that he needed to or seeking out the truth. He had been controlled by that pain, controlled by the lies that his family had been told and the mystery that hung over the disappearance, never being able to get past it to find out what had really happened. As he got older, this had expanded to include questions as to why he and Kyven were not selected to be in the Order and what that might have to do with their father. He was controlled by the questions of who he was and what he was meant to do, trying to put himself into rank with the Mikana army and find his purpose there, while also trying to be a support for his mother as she seemed to fade further and further into the sadness that had fallen over her as soon as Aegeus didn’t come home.

  “Remember that the Meldor has been trained through deprivation,” Severine said. “If he gets hungry, it will remind him of those days down in the tunnels and he may become more violent and difficult to control, especially if he gets near the hybrid army.”

  “Can he tell the difference between the hybrids and the rest of us?” Pyra asked, noting that she had specified that the creature might become aggressive toward their enemy.

  “I don’t know,” Severine answered. “But it is important that you pay as much attention to him eating and getting enough to drink as you would for yourselves.”

  “Are you not coming with us?” Maxim asked, concerned by the warnings that she was giving.

  “I am,” Severine said. “But I can’t promise you that I will be with you until you return here. I know that every moment that I am living is a gift. Every moment that I have with Rilex and with the rest of you is a blessing. I have been able to do far more than I ever thought that I was going to do and while I will continue to fight and to strive for as long as I am able, I know that there is no promise. I know the danger of dying and if I was to die on this journey, I don’t want any of you to stop. Keep moving. Gather up what you can, take the Meldor, and go on. Leave me where I lie.”

  “We would never do that,” Pyra said. “You are worth more than that.”

  Maxim could see the light glow in Severine’s eyes, showing how much those words meant to her, but she straightened and let out a long breath.

  “I am not my body. That is what Ryan created. He didn’t create what is within me. He didn’t create my spirit or those of the rest of the Others. If I am to die, he can have my body back. My spirit will remain untouchable. Don’t put yourself at risk trying to carry back what should be returned to the ground. Carry with you the memory of me and everything that I have done.”

  The wisps of dawn had burned away and the stronger light of morning, though still darker than the light of Uoria, was streaming down when they came to the gate. The women had brought out bags of food for them to bring along with them, not knowing how long they might be gone or the circumstances that they might face, and Maxim felt anxious, ready to get started. He watched as Severine embraced Rilex tightly, whispering into his ear for a moment, and then stepped back. He could see that Rilex was struggling to let her go, not wanting to stay behind and watch as she walked out into the danger of the planet. It was important that he stay, however, and be a part of the protection of the compound along with the other men.

  Finally, it was time for them to leave and they waited as those who were staying behind dissipated back into the buildings or to the work that they had been doing before stepping beyond the wall. Maxim squinted against the glare of the sun that rose up from the sand beneath his feet. Somehow the planet seemed even more intimidating as they started across it by day than it had at night. There was a degree of protection in the dark, even though he had felt unnerved by the unknown when they were out in the sand at night. The sunlight exposed them, making them more visible even from a distance, and the heat slowed them, preventing progress that was rabid enough for him. As they walked, Maxim thought of the people who had been left behind in the ship and wondered what they might find when they finally made it there.

  Chapter Four

  The village seemed strangely quiet as Ivy walked through it. Around her, she heard the occasional sound
of some of the few people who were still moving about rather than going to training in the training field or to the meeting hall to help with the preparations that had been pushed into an even faster pace. She felt like she was being kept in the dark, that she didn’t know everything that was happening around her, and that made her feel nervous and disconnected. When she had first gotten back to Uoria from Penthos she felt as though she were in the center of everything that was happening and understood as much about the war that was building as anyone did. Now that had changed. Once Ellora had learned that her husband was still alive and had gone into the Order tunnels that she had once passed through with Maxim, the energy within the village shifted. There was a strange, unnerving secretiveness hanging over it now and she felt as though there was something unfurling that she didn’t know and couldn’t influence.

  She hated the thought. She had returned to Uoria under pressure from Maxim, who wanted to protect both her and their growing baby by keeping them off of the planet where the primary fighting was occurring. When she agreed to go, however, it was with the understanding that this would not completely remove her from the situation. Ivy had made him a promise early in their relationship, well before she carried his baby, that she wanted to stand by his side and help him with everything that he faced. She had known then that there was a struggle ahead of him that he needed to resolve in order to move ahead with the life that he wanted and that they wanted to share. There had been a brief time when she had questioned whether she had made the right decision to leave Earth and join George on Uoria, and whether she should demand that the University send a shuttle to retrieve her and bring her back to Earth so that she could pretend her short but overwhelming visit to the distant planet had never happened. She had envisioned something very specific when she planned to go to Uoria. It was an opportunity for her to advance her scientific career and to be an instrumental element in George’s brilliant work. She thought that she would arrive to his fanfare and delight, they would work together with the Denynso, she would make discoveries and create records that would influence the work and understanding about Uoria and the Denynso for years to come, and then they would return to Earth where she would receive tremendous praise and accolades that would propel her career to another level.