Текст книги "Alien in the Family"
Автор книги: Gini Koch
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
CHAPTER 55
CHAPTER 56
CHAPTER 57
CHAPTER 58
CHAPTER 59
CHAPTER 60
CHAPTER 61
CHAPTER 62
CHAPTER 63
CHAPTER 64
CHAPTER 65
CHAPTER 66
CHAPTER 67
CHAPTER 68
CHAPTER 69
CHAPTER 70
CHAPTER 71
CHAPTER 72
CHAPTER 73
CHAPTER 74
CHAPTER 75
Teaser chapter
“MY FATHER FIGURES THERE’S SOME KIND OF ISSUE WITH SUCCESSION BACK ON THE HOME WORLD.”
“How so?” White asked. “There were plenty of other children and grandchildren.”
“When you left. Maybe not now.” Martini managed a weak grin in my direction. “You wouldn’t like the succession rules.”
“Male lines, male children only, right?”
“Right.”
“Similar to Earth, Jeff.”
“Only, on Earth, if there is no male child, they’ll allow a female to rule.”
“Not so on the old home world?” I asked White.
“Not so far as we know.”
“And since Christopher’s male, there’s a chance he could be involved in the succession issues.” Martini was so upset he could barely talk. “So they’re coming here. But it’s not to attend the wedding, most likely. At least, that’s not the main goal.”
I got a funny feeling. “What are they coming for, then, Jeff?”
He looked straight at me, and I could tell how much he hated what he had to say to me. “To pass judgment on whether or not you’re appropriate royal marriage material.”
“This delightful romp has many interesting twists and turns as it glances at racism, politics, and religion en route. It will have fanciers of cinematic sf parodies referencing Men in Black, Ghostbusters, and X-Men.”
—Booklist (starred review)
DAW Books Presents GINI KOCH’s Alien Novels:
TOUCHED BY AN ALIEN
ALIEN TANGO
ALIEN IN THE FAMILY
ALIEN PROLIFERATION
(coming in December 2011)
Copyright © 2011 by Jeanne Cook.
All Rights Reserved.
DAW Book Collectors No. 1545.
DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious.
Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Nearly all the designs and trade names in this book are registered trademarks. All that are still in commercial use are protected by United States and international trademark law.
First Printing, April 2011
eISBN : 978-1-101-51354-5
DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED
U.S. PAT. AND TM. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES
—MARCA REGISTRADA
HECHO EN U.S.A.
S.A.
http://us.penguingroup.com
To Mom & Dad and Mumsy & Daddy,
for proving there really are people out there
who mate for life; and to Steve, who made sure
there are two more of us who do.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks and many “I am not worthies” to Sheila Gilbert for always saying those magic words every author dreams of hearing from her editor and continuously helping make my writing stronger and better, and to Cherry Weiner for still being the best there is—agent, friend, sounding-board, and shoulder.
To Lisa Dovichi, Crit Partner Extraordinaire, and to Mary Fiore, Beta Reader to the Stars, I say what I’ve been saying all along: Still couldn’t do it without you.
Many thanks to The Galaxy Express, the Science Fiction Romance Brigade, 1st Turning Point, and Desert Rose RWA for tons of support and promotion. Same again to everyone at Haggard Chiropractic, Hand & Stone Paradise Valley, and Innerlooks Salon for continuous support and promotion, even though books are not your businesses. Much love and many shout outs to the awesome book review bloggers out there—there’s too many to list here (though you’re all on my Blog Roll), but you all do more to keep books alive and going strong than any others, and you have the love and thanks of this grateful alien nation.
Extra shout outs to: Gabrielle Weber for being my biggest little fan; author Amber Scott for continuous cheering, support, and enthusiasm; artist Daniel Dos Santos whose brilliant, beautiful covers make my books come alive; and Danny and Akiko, for insisting I practice reading aloud to them before hitting the con circuit (and thereby saving me from sounding like a speed-reading squirrel on amphetamines).
Thanks again to everyone I thanked the last times, anyone I might have missed at any time, and everyone else added into the “family” and the Big Dawg Pack along the way, for all you do and keep on doing—you know who you are and why I love and appreciate you. (If you’re saying, but does she mean me, the answer is yes, yes I do.)
Extra special thanks to Team Gini, all those on Hook Me Up!, and all Alien Collective Members in Very Good Standing around the globe—you’re the best fans EVER and each and every one of you totally rock my world.
Finally, as before and always, the biggest thanks and all my love to Steve and Veronica—I couldn’t have created a better husband and daughter than you are in real life.
IN SPRINGTIME A YOUNG ALIEN’S THOUGHTS turn to love. And marriage. And, as fast as possible, the baby carriage.
Dating anyone from a different culture can be hard. Try dating one from a different planet. Oh, and working with him, too. Every day. Every single day.
I like being a superbeing exterminator. The hours are kind of random, but the benefits are great, especially the benefit of getting to live and work with the most gorgeous people on Earth. Sure, they have two hearts, can run at hyperspeed, and actually come from Alpha Centauri. But, hey, they’re just regular folks, for the most part.
On the other hand, planning a wedding with one of them is not the easiest fish to fry. Not, realistically, that frying fish is all that hard. Not that I would, personally, know, either, since I avoid active participation in all kitchens except under extreme duress. Okay, fish fry equals bad example.
But mixing wedding planning along with protecting the Earth from all the threats, internal and extremely external, that plague it on a daily freaking basis is not a piece of cake. Particularly when you already come from a religiously mixed family and are mixing in a third one. That you can’t tell your family about. No worries, been lying to them about my career change for almost a year, not like telling the grandparents another whopper will kill them. Right?
I’ll just keep them distracted with lots of doublespeak and focus their attention on things like flowers and seating arrangements. Before they know it, the wedding will be over, and they’ll all go back to their lives, none the wiser.
Yeah, I know. It’s one of my plans. It’ll go all Dog Day Afternoon somewhere along the line. But a girl can dream, can’t she?
CHAPTER 1
“WHY ARE WE WAITING OUT HERE in the middle of the night?” Martini asked for what, by my count, was the tenth time in less than an hour.
“Because Chuckie said there was something here we needed to see, Jeff. You know, like I’ve said for the past, oh, hours?”
“Why do you insist on calling him Chuckie?” Martini was really in a mood. Possibly because we’d been interrupted in the middle of a very romantic dinner by Chuckie’s phone call. To me, not to Martini.
“Because that’s what I’ve called him since ninth grade, and calling him Mister Reynolds seems sort of stupid, calling him Charles sounds like I think he’s my uncle, and if I’m going to call him Chuck, then I’m going to add on the ‘e.’ ” Of course, I knew the real reason Martini wasn’t happy. But I wasn’t going to bring it up. We’d had the jealousy chat months ago, and he was supposed to be working on dealing with the fact that other men occasionally found me attractive and trying not to be a jerk about it. Tonight he wasn’t doing so well.
“Jeff, you know you could go on back to the Science Center and let me and Kitty handle it.” Reader winked at me where Martini couldn’t see.
“Right, thanks for the offer, James. But just how would the two of you get out of here if there were any problems?”
Martini had a point. We were perched on the top of Animas Peak in New Mexico, staring at pretty much nothing. Reader and I, being human, would have a hard time getting anywhere fast if Martini or another Alpha Centaurion wasn’t with us. On the other hand, we could drive and fly because our reflexes weren’t so good that they destroyed Earth machinery. So we had that going for us.
On the other hand, we’d gotten to this point via a gate, which was alien technology that let you move hundreds or thousands of miles in seconds and had the added advantage of making you completely nauseated. On the other hand, because we weren’t aliens, neither Reader nor I could actually see the gate that had deposited us here, on top of a really high mountain, in the middle of the night. (Yeah, I know, that’s a lot of hands.) I thought about the drop and sidled a little closer to Martini.
My walkie chirped. “Kitty, you there?”
“Hi, Christopher. How goes it at your location?”
“Dull, dark, and boring. You sure the C.I.A.’s not trying to kill us or freeze us to death?”
“Somewhat positive. We’re supposed to see something. Soon.”
“I’m seeing my bed. It’s nowhere near me, but I can see it.”
“Hilarious. How’s Tim doing?”
“He’s as bored as I am. So’s Paul, should you care to know. ACE, however, seems fascinated.”
“Glad one of you, or at least part of one of you, isn’t sitting around complaining like an old lady.” ACE was a superconsciousness I’d managed to channel into Paul Gower a few months back so it couldn’t accidentally destroy the entire world. ACE usually did its best to hang in the background, but whenever Paul was bored, it tended to show up a little more.
“At least it’s stopped asking about our sex life,” Reader muttered.
“ACE is just interested in things.”
“Girlfriend, I don’t even want to get into how totally unromantic you get when you have to clinically explain kissing, let alone any other sexual act, to an entity that didn’t have a body for most of its existence.”
I thought about it. “Um, ick.”
“In a word, yeah.” Reader had been the top international male supermodel for several years running. Then he’d joined up with the boys from Alpha Centauri, or A-Cs as they called themselves. He’d been an agent longer than I had, but he had somehow become my best friend in my new life. We had a lot in common, including being in love with an alien. Reader and Gower had been a couple longer than I’d known them, which was going on a year. In that time, they’d fought all of once. I’d been with Martini almost a year, and in that time we’d fought . . . a lot more than once.
I could tell Martini picked up my emotions, because he reached out and pulled me to him. As he was the most powerful empath on Earth, this wasn’t a surprise. He didn’t go insane from all the myriad emotions batting around everywhere and from everyone because of the blocks and other empathic-protection goodies the A-Cs knew how to install in their brains and use. Martini didn’t have blocks up against my emotions. Sometimes I wondered if that was a wise choice on his part.
“Sorry,” he said quietly. “I’m just tired and tired of waiting. And you’re freezing.”
“A little.” Okay, a lot. I just didn’t want to complain. I was in the standard-issue clothing for working female A-Cs—white Oxford button-down, black slim skirt, and a long, black trench coat, all Armani. I was also in Aerosole pumps because the A-Cs believed in looking good while feeling comfortable. But we were on top of a high mountain, and while the guys were in their standard black Armani suits with their white Armani shirts and their long black trench coats, they seemed to shove off the cold better, even the human guys.
Martini opened his coat, pulled me against him, and wrapped it around me. “Better?”
I snuggled up and leaned my head against his chest. “Mmmm, yeah.” He was warm, and I always found his body heat and double heartbeats soothing.
“Baby? Wake up.”
“I was awake.”
“You don’t snore when you’re awake.”
“I wasn’t snoring!”
Reader coughed. “Um, yeah, yeah, you were.”
Martini’s walkie crackled. “Yeah, we could hear you snoring over here.” I could tell Christopher was snickering.
“You played my snoring for them?”
Martini shrugged. “I wanted to make sure they were awake. Not my fault you were sort of loud. You coming down with a cold?”
“No, I am not. Though if we’re here much longer, I might.”
“Blame good ol’ Conspiracy Chuck. I’m not the one who suggested a romantic rendezvous out here.”
“You know I don’t call him that. Only people who weren’t his friends called him that.”
“Which is why I feel great calling him that.”
I let it pass. I mean, I didn’t want to head into one of Martini’s favorite complaints, which was that I was far too willing to take Chuckie’s calls. “Besides, this isn’t a date.”
“I know. I’m really clear that this is not how I planned to end the evening.”
I pulled my walkie out of my purse. “Jerry, you guys okay?”
“Yeah, but why is it we got stuck on the coldest ridge?” Jerry Tucker was one of the Navy Top Gun pilots assigned to Centaurion Division in general and to my Airborne team in specific. He was on Chiricahua Peak in Arizona. Christopher’s team was on Big Hatchet in New Mexico. All high, all cold at this time of year, all lacking a C.I.A. operative.
“The lower-ranking officers get the cruddy locations,” Reader answered into his walkie.
“Thanks. You know, Matt, Chip, and I all outrank you, James.”
“Only in the Navy. Around here, experience and longevity count more.” Reader was trying not to laugh.
“Then how is it Kitty’s in charge of Airborne?” Tim Crawford, also part of my team, was laughing. Like Reader, Tim lived to be a smartass.
“Oh, shut up.”
“It’s worse over here,” Christopher snapped. “We’re on the edge of a knife. The rest of you at least have something to stand on.”
“That’s why it’s two A-Cs to one human over there. Stop whining. Jerry, anything over there? At all?”
“No, but I’m really glad you guys let Michael come with us.” Michael Gower was Paul’s younger brother and was visiting us while on vacation from NASA. He was also an astronaut, but I doubted this was why Jerry was glad he was there. The idea of not having an A-C with you while on a scary high mountain had dawned on me already. “You know, Cochise’s ghost is supposed to haunt these mountains.”
“A ghost would at least be something interesting,” Reader offered.
We waited a few more minutes, then I heard something different. It sounded as though a very muted sprinkler system had just started up. “Chuckie’s here.”
The sleek, black helicopter set down far enough away from us that we weren’t too windblown. A tall man bundled up in a long overcoat got out and sauntered over to us. I attempted to move out of Martini’s arms, but they were locked around me. I was cold enough I decided not to argue.
“Took you long enough, Reynolds,” Martini snapped as Chuckie got near enough to hear him.
Chuckie shook his head. “Always a pleasure, Martini. Kitty, how’re you doing?”
“Fine. Cold and bored, but fine.”
Chuckie nodded his head toward Reader. “Good to see you.”
“Damn, but you lie well,” Reader said with a smile. No one but me seemed to like Chuckie. Oh, well. He didn’t seem to mind.
“If you two could detach from each other for a moment? It’ll make it easier to show you what’s going on.”
Martini let me go, slowly. I took his hand and gave it a squeeze. He relaxed a bit. “Chuckie, what is going on?”
He looked at his watch. “You’ll see in . . . oh . . . about a minute and a half. Might want to let White and your other boys know it’s almost showtime.”
“Christopher, we’re almost set.”
“Yeah, the C.I.A. graciously joined us just now.”
“Jerry, you have federal company yet?”
“Yes, ma’am, Commander. We are in position.” Jerry and the rest of my flyboys always went into Supreme Military Mode whenever we were dealing with anyone outside Centaurion Division. No one in Centaurion liked having to deal with the C.I.A.’s ET Division. Except me. I didn’t mind if we were dealing with Chuckie, but only if we were dealing with him.
Chuckie reached into his coat pocket and pulled out some goggles. “You might want to put these on.” He handed them to me and tossed a pair each to Martini and Reader.
I put them on, which, of course, required me to let go of Martini’s hand. Chuckie smoothly took the opportunity to take my arm as soon as the goggles were on. “You’ll want to pay close attention, Kitty.”
“Why me? I mean, over everyone else?” I was trying not to give off any kind of emotion other than professional interest. Being betrothed to the most powerful empath on Earth had a lot of advantages. But Chuckie had become an in-person part of my life again on a much more consistent basis starting when Martini and I had been in a very rough patch. I define “rough patch” to mean he was drugged out of his mind by an alienhating conspiracy, and said conspirators almost murdered me in a truly horrible way. We were supposedly past all that, but since Chuckie had proposed during this time, and I’d considered it, Martini was never happy when Chuckie was around.
Chuckie sighed. “You’ll see.”
Martini was on my other side and took my other hand. I held his hand tightly, but I could feel how angry he was. “Reynolds, you want to loosen your grip on her?”
“No. Though you should hold on tighter as well.” Chuckie reached out, grabbed Reader’s arm, and pulled him over. “Hang on.”
“Um, why?”
No sooner were those words out of my mouth, than we found out why.
CHAPTER 2
THE SHOCK WAVES HIT, and the sky lit up. Animas, Hatchet, and Chiricahua Peaks formed a very shallow triangle in the southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico. But this area was a hotbed of alien activity—most landings happened here, both intentional and of the crash-landing kind. No one knew why. I just figured aliens were attracted to mountainous desert areas. Martini said they were attracted to me, but I didn’t really believe him.
If the parasitic superbeings the A-Cs had originally been sent to Earth to deal with kept to this area, too, our lives would be a lot simpler. Sadly, they landed all over the world, but they still seemed to prefer the United States in terms of overall percentage of attacks. The U.S. was the immigration country of choice even for alien jellyfish things that turned humans into scary monsters. It made you proud, really.
But what we were seeing didn’t resemble a parasite or a superbeing in any way. The lights were a bizarre pattern, but we were high enough up that we could see them clearly. Geometric shapes, interesting and different, but not Earthly. And yet, they were vaguely familiar.
Walkies were crackling. “Jeff, what do you see?” Christopher was shouting.
“Same as you, I’d bet,” Martini said.
“Is Kitty okay? I can’t raise her!” This from Tim.
“She’s fine. Jeff’s got one hand, Reynolds has the other,” Reader replied.
“Nice,” Jerry said sarcastically. “And thanks to the C.I.A. for the heads-up on this one.”
“You all okay?” Martini asked, his voice crisp, annoyed, and all business. He went into Commander Mode a lot around Chuckie, but always when any of us were in real or perceived danger.
Everyone was confirmed to be still standing on terra firma and seeing a pretty laser light show. “All we need is Pink Floyd playing in the background.”
“You’ve got it on your iPod, I’m sure,” Chuckie said. “You have everything.”
“True.” Chuckie did know me very well. Martini hated that, as well.
“How often is this happening?” Martini asked.
“It’s a pattern. It showed up once last year. We investigated—nothing. Would have pulled Centaurion in, but you were dealing with the Mephistopheles situation.” Or, as I called it, my introduction to my new life, since this was how I’d joined up as a Centaurion agent. I also called it Operation Fugly, which caused universal wincing whenever I said it aloud. No idea why—my names for things were always a lot more realistic than those the various government divisions came up with.
“You could have mentioned it when that was over,” Martini said, sarcasm heading to full.
“We could have, but we had other pressing issues. It manifested again six months later.” He let that one hang while we did the math. Six months later was right about when I was flying a stolen Mazda3 through the desert with a scary sociopath who also happened to be a politician chasing me. Though from what my mother and Chuckie both said, that description was redundant. Operation Drug Addict gave me nightmares only a few times a month now. Martini, who could pick up emotions even when others were sleeping, was possibly happier about that than I was.
“How soon after?” Martini asked, his voice clipped.
“The next night. Then it happened again, three months later. To the day.”
I thought about it. “Um . . . you mean on my birthday?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, I don’t like where this is going,” Reader said.
“Neither do we,” Chuckie continued. “It showed up again six weeks later. Then one month later. Then three weeks later. Then two weeks. Then one.”
“What’s it on today?” My stomach felt as queasy as if I’d just walked through a gate from Arizona to Moscow.
“It’s been daily for the past week.” Chuckie sighed. “Anyone besides me find the light pattern somewhat familiar?”
“In a way,” I admitted. “But I can’t place it.”
“Same here,” Reader said.
Confirmation of familiar but not recognizable came from everyone but Martini. His grip on my hand was tighter, though.
Chuckie looked over at him. “Martini? Surely you recognize it?”
“Why the hell didn’t you bring us in on this sooner?” Martini growled.
“We had to verify where it was coming from.”
“That’s bullshit.” Martini sounded ready to get into a physical fight with Chuckie, and I started to get really worried.
Chuckie sighed. “True. We wanted to be sure it wasn’t something your people were doing intentionally. Point of fact, something you, personally, weren’t doing intentionally.”
“You have some goddamned nerve,” Martini snarled.
“It’s my job. Surprising as that may be to you after working together for the past three years.”
“We don’t work together,” Martini said through gritted teeth.
“Not so much, but we will be. You’ll find the orders when you get back. Until we have determined whether this is benign or a dangerous threat, Centaurion Division, Alpha Team in particular, will be reporting in to me. Oh,” he added, “and don’t try calling in the P.T.C.U. on this. Angela’s as worried about it as the rest of us are, and she already gave the final authorization.”
“Why did you call my mother in for whatever this is?” For some people, this would have been an odd question, all things considered. And a year ago, for me, it would have been. A year ago, I’d thought my mother was a consultant, my father was a history professor at A.S.U., and my best guy friend was merely a brilliant, globe-trotting multimillionaire.
Discovering aliens walked among us had opened up a whole new world at home for me. Turned out my mother was the only non-Israeli, non-Jew ever in the Mossad, albeit retired now, so to speak. In between directing grad students and writing papers, my father moonlighted as an active member of NASA’s ET cryptology division. And Chuckie was seeing the world because he was not only in the C.I.A. but was the guy in charge of dealing with Centaurion Division. Discovering that my mother had suggested him for the job was merely icing on the liar’s cake my nearest and dearest had been feeding me for my entire life.
My mother was now the head of the Presidential Terrorism Control Unit, a federal agency most regular folks didn’t know existed. Of course, they didn’t know the C.I.A. and NASA both had Extraterrestrial divisions, nor did they know we had a full-on, ninety percent alien-staffed division called Centaurion, either. Most people probably slept better because of this ignorance.
“Because it clearly affects her daughter.” Chuckie sounded angry, just a little, and I didn’t think he was angry with me.
“Jeff? What’s going on?”
Martini didn’t answer. Chuckie sighed. “Kitty? What are you wearing around your neck?”
“The Unity Necklace Jeff gave me. Why?” By Alpha Centauri custom, this meant Martini and I were engaged to be married and both off the market. Which was great in terms of any and all A-Cs. But I didn’t have an engagement ring, so the majority of the humans I knew didn’t believe we were getting married.
“Oh . . . hell.” Reader sounded freaked. “What’s after her now?”
“Why is anything after me?”
“Kitty, look at the lights again. Look at them carefully.” Chuckie sounded amused.
“What’s so funny about this?” I was staring at them. They still seemed really familiar.
“Imagine the pattern as smaller. And hanging around your neck.”
I did. “Oh. Well, you didn’t say tilt it.”
“Right, I realize that makes all the difference.” Chuckie was definitely amused. But that humor left his voice when he spoke to Martini again. “I’d like to know what’s going on, Martini. And I’d like to know now. Or you’ll be explaining this at C.I.A. headquarters. In a private room.”
Martini was still speaking through clenched teeth. “I have no idea.”
I was moving from worried to scared, and I could see terrified waving at me from just around the next bend in the road. “Guys? Does anyone else realize the peak we’re on corresponds to the jewel in the necklace?”
“Yes,” Chuckie said. “I do. I’m guessing I’m the only one other than your fiancé, but I’m very clear on it.”
“Is that why we’re standing here?”
“Yes. What’s significant about this peak, Martini?”
“I have no idea.”
“Come on, you gave her the necklace.”
“It’s from our home world. It’s been in our family for centuries.”
“So your family has been planning to invade Earth for centuries?”
“We’re all here,” Christopher’s voice snarled from the walkie. “You, of all people, should know that.”
Something tickled in my brain. Maybe it was because I’d been focused the past few weeks on wedding invitations and seating arrangements and all the horrors that go along with a wedding. “Um . . .”
“I’m fully aware of it,” Chuckie said, calmly but with more anger in his tone. “I’m also aware you all brought the parasites with you.”
“Um . . .”
“No they didn’t and you know it,” Reader snarled. “They’re the only people stopping the parasites.”
“Um . . .”
“Which have slowed down since Kitty joined up.” Chuckie’s voice was starting to rise, too.
“Um . . .”
“They haven’t stopped, and they won’t stop, as far as we can tell,” Christopher snarled through the walkie.
“Um . . .”
“True. We’re expecting a whole slew of them now,” Chuckie said with a mirthless laugh.
“Um . . .”
“Look, we are not calling anyone here!” Martini was close to bellowing, but not quite there.
“Um . . .”
The walkie crackled. “ACE would like to mention that Kitty wishes to say something.” It was Gower’s voice, just slightly different, which meant ACE was in charge of their main consciousness.
The men with me all stopped bickering and looked at me. I could feel everyone else on the walkies listening. “Thanks, ACE.”
“ACE is happy to help.”
“Hold onto that thought.” I took a deep breath. “Jeff, when did you decide you wanted to marry me? I mean for real, not joking around.”
Martini gave an exasperated growl. “Why are you asking me that, when you know the answer? The day we met, okay? Is there a problem?”
“Yeah, but not with that.” I gulped. “Christopher’s actually not quite right.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” he snarked at me through the walkie.
“Well, I can’t speak for the other A-Cs, but the two of you actually don’t have all your families here on Earth.”
“Come again?” Martini asked, sounding confused and a little hurt and angry.
“Your dad and Christopher’s mother married into the family, they weren’t part of the original families who were exiled here.” The A-Cs on Earth were religious exiles from their home world, and they didn’t like to talk about it much.
“So?”
“You told me the necklace travels through the male line, right?”
“Right. Again, so? My father gave it to me to give to you.”
“That’s sweet. Who gave it to him?”
“His father.” Martini didn’t say “duh,” but I could feel him thinking it.
“Right. And you have no brothers, only sisters.”
“Right again. And, again, so?”
“Meaning you’re the last male in your family line.”
“Yes. And, again, what does that have to do with anything?”
Reader started to laugh. “Oh, my God. This is going to bring a whole new meaning to the term ‘reception from hell.’”
“What are you talking about?” Martini sounded angry and confused, and I could tell the hurt was still there.
“Are you sure?” Chuckie asked me.
“Pretty darned.”
“WHAT?” Martini bellowed. It was always impressive—no one had his bellowing ability. On the top of a mountain it was massive.
“Oh, hell!” Christopher sounded freaked. “I think Jeff just started an avalanche over here!”
“Get off,” Chuckie said calmly. “You’ve seen enough. Get into the chopper; we’ll meet back at Caliente Base. Same for the boys on Chiricahua.”
“No problem, the echo is still bouncing here. Tucker out.” Jerry signed off, and the walkies went quiet.
“What is going on?” Martini asked quietly.
The light show was fading. Chuckie let go of my arm, and I turned to Martini. “Jeff, baby? I think it’s a message.”
“From whom, to whom, about what?” He pulled me to him, and I could feel he was tense and shaking, and his hearts were pounding.
“From your relatives on Alpha Centauri. I think they’re coming for our wedding.”
