I heard a rumble like a garage door closing and then a blue disk on the wall began to glow. I rose and wiped my hands on my thighs, effectively cleaning off what I hoped was not xanx excrement or something worse—if there was something worse.
“All right?” Alex was at my side.
“Mm-hmm.”
The Gleezhians stepped around to our side of the carriage and Coreg and the driver motioned us to follow them. We passed within three feet of the xanx, its legs tied again though I couldn’t see where it would escape to. In fact, I couldn’t see where we were going either, but I kept one hand tucked under Alex’s arm, the blind leading the blind, and the other hand held out to protect my head.
I glanced back over my shoulder, feeling paranoid. The carriage was no longer visible and the mewling of the xanx stopped. A new smell assaulted my nostrils: oily galactic lard.
The light became stronger and I could drop my protective hand, able to see clearly the path ahead.
Alex swiped a hand at Coreg to get his attention and asked in English, “So what’s this deal you’ve made with them?”
“We get them and the rest of their kind off this planet and back to Gleezhe and they help us generate a permanent peace by …” His voice trailed off like he didn’t want to give us the rest of the story.
“By what?”
He clucked softly. “They’ve had word that Marcum has done some time-stopping during which the Gleezhian population has been healed. Their prince, Stetl-glet, has decreed peace between the planets on two conditions.”
“Wait,” I said, moving forward and squinting into Coreg’s eyes, “how did they get word of this? Wouldn’t your father have known about this permanent peace plan? And what about the bombings? They’re still bombing our, I mean this, planet.”
He turned from me and spoke some grating Gleezhian words at the leader who in turn answered with a lengthy lecture. Coreg interrupted numerous times to clarify words with Klaqin equivalents. I understood enough to know that this permanent peace plan was not good news for everyone. Alex knew it too—I could tell by how his hand grew clammy in mine and how he hummed three low notes. The three other Gleezhians moved in closer to surround us, weapons ready.
“Coreg … tell us. What are the conditions?”
He spoke briefly to the leader and then, in the same number of syllables in English, he said, “Frown and shake your head no for now and I’ll tell you later.”
Yeah, right. Like I’m falling for that. I smiled at the gnarly Gleezhian and said, “Hotah.”
He gave minimal reaction, a negligible nod. Good. He stepped onward and ushered us into a larger cavern with skylights, brightly decorated and homey in a prehistoric sort of way. The other Gleezhians took guarding positions, one behind us where we entered, and the other two at the far end where a doorless passageway angled off.
“I’ve lost count of how many times and places we’ve been locked away,” I said, my eye on the most comfortable looking platform. “I guess it’s better than fighting though.”
I made for the platform and sat down, stretching my legs out and sinking in a bit deeper than I expected. The gnarly Gleezhian pulled a round object out of his robe and began to pluck at its edges. It produced eerie musical tones and captured Alex’s attention immediately. He took a few steps away from me and left me to deal with Coreg who eased into the space next to me.
“Thank you,” he said, his face turning the same pale green as his uniform.
I was stunned. “For what?”
“For agreeing so bravely.”
Quick, find the cold sweat emoji. “Uh, what exactly did I agree to?”
“The resistance’s plan. You’ll go to Gleezhe with them along with our female pilots, trained thanks to Marcum, and we’ll get Marcum back.”
My head reeled. “So the females and I are the two conditions? Sounds like an awesome plan.” I watched Alex’s shoulders twitch to the music. “Except for one thing. Your planet will die out without females.”
“Sometimes you have to risk your resources to save them.”
I rolled my eyes at that. The nerve of him calling us resources.
“You played me, didn’t you? You told me to say no so I’d say yes.”
He drew his hand through his hair and I noticed how stringy the white locks had gotten.
“Yes.”
“So I’ll tell them I changed my mind.”
“If you had said no they would have taken you anyway. And carried out the execution order on your brother.”
“What!”
“Here’s what they don’t know,” he said, ignoring my outburst. “Marcum will die for you.”
That pretty much shut me down. I jumped to my feet, lost my balanced and went down. I was vaguely aware that dozens of girls were being marched into the cavern from the far hallway, Alex was at my side again, leaning over me, and a vision was pushing itself into my conscious thought.
A now recurring vision: me kissing Marcum.
CHAPTER 13
#Sympathizers
BY THE TIME I made it back onto the platform, the females were lined up along the far wall, their faces lit by glowing boxes they held in their hands.
Alex cooed in my ear and Coreg had a tremendously disapproving look on his face.
“What’s the matter with her?” he asked Alex. He rarely used my name.
“Absolutely nothing.”
I loved how Alex defended me, but his words made me doubly guilty for enjoying that last vision.
“Was I out long?”
“No, I paced,” Alex said. “And before you had one of your, uh, episodes, I learned a ton of stuff from that Gleezhian.” He leaned in until his breath tickled my ear and whispered that Coreg had been lying to us about walking alone across Klaqin.
A hoot went up from the guards and the gnarly Gleezhian pulled Coreg away to translate instructions for the girls. I half listened. Coreg spoke in riddles, probably to satisfy the Gleezhians that could understand in part, but more to assure the girls that they weren’t being sacrificed or sent off to be breeders. Right.
“What’s the thing about my brother?” I asked Alex. “How is it that there’s an execution order on him?”
“I’m not sure that’s true. They probably believed they’d have to coerce you into going.”
“But I agreed to go. We built the purlass capsule. We had a decent plan.”
“I know, I know. But that was the government’s plan. The resistance and the refugees are different. They want to get back to Gleezhe and our plan left them here. As slaves, you know.”
Coreg finished his instructions and I saw Sana and Renzen in the back row nodding at him. I recognized a lot of the girls but I didn’t see Makril.
The door we came through opened and the guard stepped aside to let a group of authentic Klaqins through. Sympathizers, I supposed. Four, five, six, eight, ten. The last two to enter were Krimar and Pauro. What a surprise. I breathed out a smidgeon of relief to see them. Maybe everything would work out fine.
“Hey, aren’t those two—?”
“Yeah,” I said, “they’re Marcum’s parents.”
“Holy crap. There’s my cousin.”
“Who?”
“Rander is with them.”
I squinted and caught a glimpse of a uniformed Klaqin that looked remarkably similar to Alex in silhouette, except for the green complexion of course. He kept himself in line with Marcum’s parents, guarding them. He turned our way. Full on, I recognized Rander. His eyes were his most attractive feature. They held a gaze of such sweet, honest openness that I felt I’d seen inside his soul, just for an instant.
Coreg made a strange sound in the back of his throat and studied Pauro and Krimar as the group got nearer. It could have been shock or embarrassment that briefly crossed their faces, but as introductions finished their expressions evolved into acceptance—blank stares—that Klaqins, Gleezhians and Earthlings were now working together. We made no comment that we’d met them befo
re and they kept that secret too, which meant something was amiss.
More Gleezhians entered the cavern and before long the line between hosts and guests or guards and unwilling participants blurred. The noise level rose and the females, finding themselves in the unusual position of being in the majority, split into smaller groups and began to move into the empty spaces around the Gleezhians. They set their glowing boxes throughout the room and that helped disperse the gloom. But what brought back the ominous feel was the fact that they had long needle-like weapons they pulled from their sleeves. I heard Coreg mumble a word I took to mean spikers. Well, if Alex could pace in here then I could time-bend and that’s what I did. I gave everyone one long opportunity to study one another, lose the tension, and consider what might happen if we got into hand-to-hand combat with arc-guns, exploding boots, spikers and who-knew-what-else.
I guess I misread things though because when I let time pop back into regular beats I heard calmer words, saw a few smiles, and noticed several elbow greetings taking place.
Coreg and the gnarly Gleezhian climbed onto a higher un-cushioned platform and announced their names: Coreg and Za.
Za took a deep breath, then another, drummed his twelve bent fingers against his chest, then spoke in short sentences. Coreg waited for his pauses and translated, first into Klaqin and then English, which I thought insulting to us until I spotted two familiar faces in the crowd: Earth scientists, tall Henry and shorter A.J.
I nudged Alex and his eyes widened when he saw them. I think he paced too because I missed Coreg’s next translation. A moment later Coreg said, “We have his parents here for identification.”
Wait. What? An icy shiver shot vertically up my spine.
Identification? Like they were needed to identify a dead body? I screamed on the inside, mentally produced little raging emojis, and stuttered out a couple of inappropriate words.
Za held out a box, larger than the light boxes, and twisted it upwards. A holographic image shot out of the top and looped a five second show of Marcum, or someone who looked like Marcum, pressing his hands against the inside of an upright, clear coffin.
“Purlass?” Alex said, soft as a prayer.
There were other murmurs in the room as Pauro and Krimar moved closer. Za tipped the box and the short video played out sideways at their feet, giving them an explicit view of his face. Krimar reached her hand out, piercing the transparency and blurring Marcum’s head. In one swift move she pulled her hand back and brought it to her face, covering her open mouth.
I certainly thought it was Marcum. My pounding heart thought it was Marcum. Same for my shivers and throat lump. The figure in the hologram had blue-black hair and a pasty white complexion, handsome and hunky as the heartthrob I’d met on Earth, looking fearless and bold.
Krimar emitted a single Klaqin syllable which would have been appropriate in English to express her sudden dismay. Pauro made a gesture that reminded me of someone crossing himself to repel evil. He did it three times.
I spotted Henry and A.J. working their way closer. As far as I knew they’d never seen Marcum before so their interest had to be in the glass cage around Marcum. Alex started moving closer too and I trailed six inches behind him. He threaded our way through the others and we reached the foot of Coreg and Za’s platform at the same time Henry and A.J. did. No greetings from the red-headed brothers though. We stared at the image and Henry stated the obvious, “They built a capsule like ours only smaller. Can’t be purlass, though. I wonder what element they used.”
A.J. said what I couldn’t since I was still trying to swallow the lump in my throat. “Somebody leaked our plan.”
Krimar spoke again. Her Klaqin lament brought tears to my eyes. She clutched at Pauro and he steadied her before demanding answers of Za and Coreg and the entire resistance assembly.
Other voices joined in with questions and shouts in three languages at multiple volumes. Za closed the box and the offending movie disappeared just as I had spotted something peculiar about Marcum. Probably nothing, but I hadn’t seen his thumb ring. He never took it off.
“Identification is confirmed,” Za shouted. The voices tapered off with the exception of one.
“Can he breathe?” Pauro’s question caused several gasps and A.J. asked what he said. I guess he hadn’t picked up any Klaqin yet.
Alex translated and A.J. said, “I take it she’s his mother? Not much resemblance. Tell her he’s fine. Our purlass capsule recycles breathable air. I can’t imagine they’d make one that couldn’t.”
A.J. looked up at his brother and mumbled some scientific jargon regarding dimensions, components and additives to which Henry frowned and shook his head. I wanted to ask why and how they were here, but a sudden recurrence of my nearly-conquered avoidance disorder glued my lips shut in this crowd. I felt a tremor coming on and I grabbed Alex’s elbow.
Another vision came on me. I saw pillars, endless rows of thick, carved pillars. They supported nothing, but stood like totem poles, tall and tapered at the top. The carvings defined ugly faces like monsters from perverted fairy tales. Each gruesome visage was etched under my eyelids crystal clear and horrifying.
The last pillar peeled back its outer layer shedding crumbled rock and dust around its base. What was left was the same clear capsule like the one in the hologram, but the figure inside was cloaked in a black uniform with the neck flap extended up over his face and hair. It could have been Marcum. Or for that matter it might have been Coreg or any other well-built male. Even Alex.
A whiff of galactic lard stung my nostrils and as suddenly as the vision came it evaporated. I, unfortunately, collapsed butt first onto the cold, moist ground of the cavern.
Alex hauled me upright with a huffing laugh. “Lost your balance?”
“Another episode.”
“That was fast. I didn’t feel a thing.”
I shuddered at that statement. He always sensed a warning; he had since we were little kids.
“She’s all right, folks. Nothing to see here.” Alex waved his arms and signaled at Coreg.
I’m sure I must have blushed an unKlaqinly red shade as I realized all eyes were on me and the room was deathly silent.
Coreg broke the silence. “Za will lead us to the fields where the Parallaxers these females arrived in are ready to take the refugees back to Gleezhe. We’ve found one Intimidator which I will pilot and take the head negotiator.”
I figured he meant Za, but he nodded at me and I froze.
Head negotiator? What?
“Sure seems like Coreg has a lot of authority for an AWOL Fifth Commander,” Alex whispered. I agreed with a slow head nod.
There was some commotion among the Klaqins and science guys. I caught a few words of disagreement. Henry was speaking rapidly to Rander and the argument escalated.
Coreg thrust himself into the middle of it and made Rander back off. He clucked his tongue loudly and ordered everyone to exit by the far end. It wasn’t orderly. The passage was narrow and there was certainly some disagreement about who should go through first and whose personal space was being violated in the close quarters. I hoped this didn’t trigger one of Alex’s claustrophobic attacks. I asked him, not with words, but with a quick hand squeeze and eyebrow lift. He made a gruff sound that might have been a laugh, but his real answer went on silently between our hands.
Thanks to somebody’s time-pacing we emerged out of the cavern sooner than expected into that reliable Klaqin sunshine and undeviating temperature. We walked a ways away and I looked back to see the last of the females come out. I spotted Makril, at last, but I also saw that we had not been underground, as I suspected. The cavern was a building, wide and low, perhaps used at one time for a cultural necessity as unimaginable as the pain club, but hopefully better than that.
With the help of several guards, Za and Coreg sent the female pilots to their ships with their humanoid cargo. It would be tight in the smaller Parallaxers, but the Intimidator wouldn’t be much better. We
entered a twin to the ship we’d arrived in though its walls gleamed and wiggled with fresh bio-metals. Coreg took the standing pilot spot with Rander in the control seat. Alex and I had the pull-down emergency seats, but the rest—Marcum’s parents, Za, A.J., Henry, two Gleezhian guards and two Klaqin men—sat knee to knee on the floor. Henry and A.J. were dangerously close to the galactic lard processor, but I was too flustered—a.k.a. shy—to warn them. I assumed Coreg would keep the artificial gravity employed or there’d be nine indignant bodies ricocheting around the cabin.
“Prepare for a coordinated lift-off.” Coreg spoke into his comm. “As soon as we reach the mesosphere expect double time-pacing.” His eyes flicked toward Alex. “We will maintain attack formation all the way to Gleezhe and land as directed by Za.”
Coreg pushed his boots into the floor indentations, measured the lard levels, checked the screens, made visual and audio assessments, and brought up Rander’s controls.
Fear gripped me like a poisonous snake. It writhed around my spine and slithered up and down. I expected it to sink its fangs into my heart any second. I took a deep breath through gritted teeth and willed the fear away. I’d spent a lifetime avoiding all kinds of things, people mostly, so I could certainly avoid an imaginary snake, couldn’t I? Even if it represented another petrifying space voyage to a hostile planet.
CHAPTER 14
#GoingRogue
I HAD TO laugh, quietly of course, when Coreg’s plan got revised on the fly—literally. We attracted the attention of the Academy. Well, what did he expect?
Hearing my dad’s voice on the comm did a lot to put that snake of fear in a lidded basket. More than a hundred Earth ships rallied to join us. They had their own time-pacers, too, so the trip to Gleezhe was a virtual breeze. How in the world Coreg and these others could bypass Commander Gzeter and the ruling Commanders was a mystery to me. I could only assume that Klaqin’s government was so decimated or corrupted or just plain incompetent that any wacky almost-hero with a little help and a lot of luck could go rogue.
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