by Mel Todd
[You are safe. The others are safe. You are simply being pulled by a memory. They are not affecting you.]
McKenna crossed her arms and looked at the woman, not speaking. Other people shifted around them uncomfortably, but she just waited.
After an interminable amount of time, but probably less than a minute, maybe two, the woman nodded her head. "Very well. Answer my questions and I'll answer yours."
With a twitch of her tail McKenna just nodded at her and waited.
A slow smile spread across Thelia's face, displaying white, sharp teeth, too many for a human face. "I like you. This might work. So far none of you seem to be followers. I am so tired of followers. So here are my questions. Assume you chase us away. What do you plan on doing next?"
McKenna blinked. "Live? Explore? Now that we know there are others out there, I can't imagine us not chasing the stars, but mostly rebuild. You've done a lot of damage."
Thelia gave a slow languid shrug but never looked away from McKenna. "And then? Will you seek us out? Kill us? Destroy our worlds?" She asked the questions but didn't really sound interested, as if it was a pro forma question.
"I'm sure some will want to, but I doubt it. Not unless you provide another reason for us to seek you out. It will take us a while to build a space fleet."
Something glittered in Thelia's eyes, but she closed them slowly and when she reopened them the emotion was gone. "Very well, I have two conditions for my assistance. Not that I know how I would assist."
"However we ask. It must be immediate and honest. I catch you lying or trying to trick us, I'll kill you and kick your body to the side." McKenna didn't hesitate. This was dangerous enough and if they had to trust this woman, she'd get everything.
Thelia looked at her for a long time. If it wasn't that her body language screamed confidence, McKenna would have thought she was anxious. But then that was applying human body language to someone that was definitely an alien.
"Rescue the children I have stored in my private containers on that ship." She nodded at the small ship on the screen.
"The what?! You have children with you on the ship?" McKenna turned to look at Perc. She knew they'd been talking quietly, in Speech at the edge of her awareness.
From the way Ash talked about it, I assumed it was a historical thing not that she carried them around with her. How many are from Earth? How many from other worlds?
"Yeah, that was the problem I told you about. We can't blow the ship until we get them out." Perc's voice was grim as he looked at her.
"How many?" McKenna felt like she was being squeezed from all sides. Every choice affected people's lives or ended them.
"There are seventy-eight children in my containers. Some are from other worlds. Some are yours." Thelia's calm, cool voice raked at McKenna like a nail across glass.
"Can we decant them?" She asked Perc and Roark not her.
"Not easily," Thelia replied. "They are all in individual protection units with limited life support. But the units can be detached and moved, and the support will last for a while."
"Wait, they can be moved while in the canisters?" Rarz asked.
Thelia flinched and didn't look at him, but she answered. "Yes. They were designed that way so I could ship them where I … needed them." The odd pause on that word caught McKenna's ear, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she looked at Rarz.
"Can we move them? Just dump them into a portal?" McKenna watched the woman as she asked, trying to get a read on her.
"Sure, but we'd still need to grab each container and get it into the portal." Perc replied, following her gaze to the ship.
McKenna wished she could chew on her lip or fidget with something as she thought. She'd tried chewing on her lip. The amount of blood convinced her it was a bad choice in this form.
"Rarz?" Her voice ended on a lilt as something occurred to her. The Drakyn turned to look at her, his swirling eyes both hypnotic and disturbing. "What happens if you open your portal into a solid structure? I mean if you close it over something solid, does it dissolve or break?"
His head moved back and forth in an odd pattern. "The standard procedure is to create a tunnel in an open space as it will disrupt structures, generally damaging them so they would need repair to be usable again. Why?"
Images merged in her mind, some from cartoons as a kid, others from watching his portals. "Could you cause a portal to form under the canisters and then move up, and close once all the units had been engulfed in the portal or tunnel?"
At this point everyone was looking at her and she flicked a hand in the air. "If he can control how they move, where they open and close, he should be able to take all of them, like a whale swallowing everything."
"You're devious. Glad you're on our side," Roark said now, looking at the ship. "If you follow that through, we don't need bombs, you just need to have the portal disrupt the hull and expose them to space."
Everyone went quiet at those words and Thelia turned to stare at Rarz, a look of horror on her face. "You could do that? Rupture our ships from a distance and never need to get near us?"
It was the first real emotion McKenna had seen in the woman, but she didn't blame her. What the Elentrin had done seemed horrible. But to be able to destroy ships, and buildings, with a thought?
I think I'm going to be sick. I should never have suggested this. But if it works…
Her thoughts trailed off as Rarz pivoted and looked at all of them, the colors in his eyes swirling even faster.
"That thought is most disturbing. We have always learned to seek out open areas for our tunnels, something where we damage only a few plants. It never occurred to anyone to use that as a weapon." His tail, usually so still and stable, rippled up and down, the scales ruffling like wind across a field of wheat. "I do not know if I can guide it to the units as you say, but I should at least be able to place the opening beneath them so they could be released into it."
"Would that work?" McKenna glanced at Thelia and then over to Perc and Rarz.
"I don't have the schematics of that ship in my head. Ash, can you get those pulled up?" Perc turned to look at Ash as he spoke and Thelia focused on the Kaylid who until now had stayed back against the wall, unobtrusive.
He tilted his ears back but pushed away moving towards a console. "Yes." He hit various keys, his body tight, even his tail was stiff and still. "Here you go." Up on the screen, replacing the view of the ship, a bunch of schematics appeared.
"Where is your storage area for the kids?" The demand seemed to pull Thelia out of her fixation on Rarz and Ash.
She moved over to the console and zoomed in on an area. "Here. You can see it is near my quarters. I gave up personal space to have that when I travel." Her eyes slid over to Ash. "But you knew that already didn't you?"
Ash didn't answer and McKenna didn't have time to explore that. "Fine. If we can get them out, we will." She shifted to the Speech, not wanting Thelia to see how much these kids mattered. ~Guys, can you work on how to do this ASAP? If we don't do something fast, we won't have the option. Hell, I'm surprised we don't have people storming the ship or the asteroids flying already.~
~Got it. I think I have an idea. But let me talk to Roark and Coran.~ Perc moved, even as the words registered, pulling Rarz and the two soldiers to a corner and starting to talk quickly. JD and Toni tilted their ears toward them, but didn't move from their arrangement around the Elentrin.
McKenna refocused on Thelia. "What is your next condition?"
Thelia blinked looking at her, the purple eyes almost as seductive as the swirls of Rarz's. "Assuming you rescue the children, without killing too many, please, I get to stay here on your planet and make a life."
If the woman had asked for a million dollars and a helicopter, McKenna would have been less surprised. "You want to live here? Why? You’ll never fit in. People will regard you as the enemy. You'll always be recognized, vilified possibly."
Thelia gave an elegant shrug that displayed her b
reasts in a way no man would be able to ignore. It set off another random thought in McKenna's mind.
Why are breasts so common? Are the Elentrin mammals and is that sexual also?
With a mental sigh, she shot the questions to Wefor to ask on that mythical someday and refocused on Thelia. "This is an odd request. If we chase the ships away and you stay, then you won't have a choice unless you can get Rarz to take you to another planet, but I don't have the ability to grant you protection or anything. That would be up to our government."
A sly smile slid across Thelia’s face like oil on water. "Don't worry, I bring much to prove my value." She lifted her wrist and McKenna saw a large bracelet that all but sparkled with subtle lights. "I have most of the data from our libraries and I can explain some of the tech behind it. I'll be a good guest." She smirked. "I suspect I'll live like a queen."
McKenna wanted to snarl, but she wasn't wrong. When scientists from Russia and Germany had defected during World War II and the Cold War, they had been treated like that. And what she offered made Oppenheimer's offerings seem like kindergarten stuff.
"As long as you’re aware that I’m not the person you’ll need to negotiate with."
Thelia smiled again and McKenna felt more than saw JD and Perc shudder. "I can live with that."
~Wefor, remind me to tell them to have a gay man negotiate with her. Anyone else would be at risk even without pheromones.~
[Agreed.] Even the AI's voice had a touch of dryness to it.
"Fine. Guys, any progress or have we created a weapon of mass destruction out of the portals?" She tried to make the words come out as lightheartedly sarcastic, but they came out with dread lacing them.
I don't think I'll ever forgive myself if I've just created the next atomic bomb. I really don't want to be the next Oppenheimer or Kali.
Chapter 32 - Gift Horses
While urban areas are being targeted, there is a mass exodus to the more rural towns, creating extra stress when it is already difficult for food and supply shipments to get through. While some people are overcharging and making fortunes off scared people, most chains have instituted limited hours and cash only businesses. Most customers have been understanding but in Texas there's been an incident where a woman went on a rampage and she was killed. The store claims their people acted within the limits proscribed and has promised to deal with all legal bills. No one finds temper tantrums amusing right now. So be polite people. ~TNN Invasion News
The four men, at least she categorized Rarz as male, moved towards the center and got ready to speak to all of them. Ash hung back at the side, still almost invisible.
"Your idea won't work, not without a lot of time to play with it, and Rarz would need to learn to control the portal in a different method. But we think, given the schematics, we have an option. Thelia, how long is the life support good for if we snap off the tanks at the connections?" Perc's voice was flat as he looked directly at her.
McKenna didn't know if she was relieved it wasn't possible or worried it might be. Either way, she pushed it to the side. If she learned to use portals, they'd deal with the ethics. Right now she firmly came down on the side of getting children off a ship they needed to blow up, then seeing what twist reality came up with next.
"Not long, about ten reyan or so," she replied not paying any attention to the humans, her eyes locked on Ash.
"Wait, your life pods are good for ten reyan? Ten years?" Toni blurted.
"Of course, you need time to find them. And while there are trackers on them, space is very large."
"They're vacuum proof?"
Thelia tilted her head, though she still focused on Ash. "Vacuum? They are rated for space exposure. They are variations of escape units. They would be of little use if they were not rated to keep their occupants safe until retrieval." She slid a sly sideways glance at McKenna. "We do value our tools."
I will not growl, I will not growl.
"Does that change the plan?" McKenna asked, keeping her claws sheathed, no matter how much they itched to sink into this woman.
Roark glanced at Coran, then Perc, then shook his head. "Not really. Means we don't have to worry about people dealing with them until after all the rest of this is done. I'll get a safe location set up on the ground, but knowing we can ignore them for a week or so makes it much easier."
"What is the plan exactly?" McKenna needed to know, even if she was going to be busy with other things.
"Pretty straightforward. Rarz is going to portal us in and we'll disconnect and toss the canisters in. Rarz and I are strong enough to manually disconnect them and with Roark and Coran's help we should be able to do it in a bit over an hour if we move fast. It just means we need to stall everyone and everything until then." Perc spoke his voice level and she found comfort his is steady gaze.
McKenna looked at the ship on the screen, the Silik hanging above it, and the Earth with silver flashes of shuttles still going back and forth, making the problem worse with every run.
She made her decision with a snap. "Do it. Do whatever you need." With a mental switch she flipped over to Speech. ~Cass, keep waking people up, line them up in the halls if need be. As soon as we can, we'll get the portal back and they can move through it as fast as possible. Kids—tell them to stay calm, but we’re trying. Make sure they don't cause problems.~
~Got it.~ Cass and the kids both chimed in, but McKenna already turned her attention to the next part.
"Ash, Thelia. How can we get the shuttles to quit deploying? Are they all automated? How do we get the existing Kaylid to stand down or at least quit grabbing people?"
Thelia looked at her with a smirk on her lips. "In theory the captain controls the automation of the shuttles, though they can all be controlled individually by Kaylid that have been loaded into the system."
"Can you do that?" McKenna demanded, still watching Ash and Thelia.
"I? I would have no knowledge of the codes needed to access or change shuttle commands." Her entire expression reminded McKenna of a supercilious rich girl they'd caught for drug possession. All arrogance and amusement, knowing they couldn't touch her. Unfortunately, she'd been right. It remained to be seen if Thelia's smugness would get removed.
McKenna gave Ash a hard stare. "Can you?"
His tail didn't so much as twitch, which perversely worried her. He didn't respond but was frozen, with an odd look in his eyes. One she recognized.
He's arguing with his AI. I wonder what they’re arguing about.
She was just about to prompt him, when his tail twitched, and she could see his eyes focus on her. "Yes and no. For the ships that are automated from this ship, I can have them all return to the hanger bays. For the ones that are being piloted from this ship, I won't be able to stop them. But all my commands are this ship only. It won't affect what the other ships can or will do."
"Impressive. You managed to suborn the pet of Keric's house. I had wondered. How exactly did you corrupt this bastion of perfection held up to all Kaylid as what they should aspire to?" Thelia had leaned forward, her purple eyes boring holes into Ash, who ignored her, looking only at McKenna.
"Do it." She said as she watched the woman out of the corner of her eye. "We can at least shut that down and prevent any more coming in here. Is there a way to send a recall to the Kaylid?"
"Yes. They can be controlled. I'll send that now, but if the other ships haven't noticed or been contacted, this will alert them." Ash turned as he spoke and headed to the Captain's room. "I need to do it from in there. I will need his body to override some of the commands."
McKenna couldn't help the shudder that rippled through her. But she nodded. "Do what you need to do. Toni? Will you go with him and see what you can learn?"
"Sure," Toni replied, but darted a look at Thelia then JD. He nodded at the look and McKenna didn't know if she wanted to roll her eyes at them, or hug them. Toni followed Ash into the room, while JD positioned himself a bit closer, his huge bulk dwarfing the lithe Elentrin
.
"You guys ready?" She directed the question to Rarz and Perc, who looked up at her, then at the soldiers and nodded.
"Yeah, going now. We've opened a pinhole wormhole and got a location to dump the canisters in. An expert will check to make sure they’re all okay, but having time to deal with them is a blessing at this rate. Not all of them are from Earth and we could use the time to get ready to decant them." Perc kept his voice flat but his claws sliding up and down revealed a lot to her.
"Okay." McKenna turned, fighting with herself to not run over there, give all of them hugs and demand that they be safe. None of them were safe right now. Instead she focused on JD and Thelia.
"Thelia, if my information is correct, there’s a way to send messages to all the Kaylid on the ground and provide orders. Is this something you can do?"
The Elentrin's eyes followed Ash, but then snapped back to McKenna. "I suppose. though given your less-than-welcoming attitude, I'm not sure why I should do more than what I've already agreed to, which is helping you fly the ship."
JD responded before McKenna could. He stepped up close to the woman, his claws encircling her throat and his voice one step above a growl. "Because if you don't, I have no reason not to hurt you for a very long time. Your people have killed thousands of mine, and no one will ever notice one invader that has been skinned alive."
Her face didn't react, but her scent sharpened to something almost bitter and McKenna saw her eyes dilate. The colors of her eyes grew wider and darker, as if the iris was her pupil.
"Convincing argument. Given that encouragement, I believe I might be able to assist." Her smooth voice didn't so much as quaver.
"Excellent," JD all but purred, pulling his claws away from her leaving thin trails of blood behind as the tips trailed along her skin.
~Who are you channeling?~ McKenna asked surprised, impressed, and a bit off kilter at this aspect of JD.
~Myself. I'm tired of these aliens killing our people. Humans are violent and vicious. What would you do if they were threatening Charley?~ His voice had none of his normal good humor and McKenna nodded slowly.
