Текст книги "Alien in the Family"

Автор книги: Gini Koch

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 32 страниц)

CHAPTER 30

THE OTHERS IN THE ROOM SEEMED UPSET when Queen Renata shared reality with us. I heard silence behind me—our Earth A-Cs were thinking, and so was Chuckie.

Left me to handle the human side again. Always the way. “So, wonderful beings who have arrived in three cloaked spaceships that were somehow landed on the top of the same three peaks my team and I just visited a day or so ago, I have one question.”

They all looked at me. The Poofs were, to a fluffy thing, growling quietly.

“What is it you hope to gain from Earth by showing up and pretending to be the actual royal shipload from Alpha Four?”

No one replied. Shocker. I looked over to where Martini was. “You know, we’re back to three freaking plans.”

“Yeah, baby, I picked that up.”

“The one in front of us, whatever the royal family is really doing, and Moira’s, right?” Chuckie confirmed.

“Yep.”

He wandered the room again. One of the Poofs trotted along with him. I was almost willing to forgive the Emissaries from Hell for coming—I’d wanted a pet of my own. Now I had seven. Well-trained ones. I hoped they were housebroken.

Chuckie got to the back of the room and turned so he was facing me. “Move them into planetary position, would you? In relation to their suns and each other.”

Like I was going to be able to do that? “You heard the man, move it.” Poof growls emanated, beings moved their butts. “Paul, make sure they’re right, okay?”

“Sure, Kitty.”

While they were moving about, a question nagged. “Greg, why did you bring the Poofs along?”

He sighed. “Because they’re customary.”

“Do they really only mate when a royal wedding’s on the horizon.”

“Yes.”

“Mister White?”

“Yes, Miss Katt, from what I recall, that’s the case.”

“And they’re really rare?”

“Yes,” Greg and White said in unison.

“Interesting. So, you brought a rare, royal-family-only animal—seven of them, really. Enough for all the potential royals on Earth and Jeff’s intended.”

“Yes. Protocol. Maybe you’ve heard of it.” Gregory was almost as snarky as Christopher.

“What position in the royal court do you hold?”

Gregory was silent and wouldn’t look at me.

I noticed the other A-C wasn’t looking at me, either. He was looking at his feet. “You, what’s your name?”

He looked up. “Alexander.”

“What positions do you and Greg here actually hold, Alex?”

He winced at the nickname. “Alexander.”

“Best of luck with that. Welcome to Earth, Alex. What positions do you and Greg hold within the Alpha Four royal court?”

He didn’t answer. I got up closer to him and took a good, long look. Same with Gregory. They were both about my age, so younger than Martini and Christopher. Physically they fell between those two as well, but were about Christopher’s height and leaned more toward the wiry side as well. Hair like Christopher’s. Facial structure like Christopher’s. And at least one of them snarked like Christopher.

“So, Alex, who’s older, you or Greg? I mean, he is your brother, right?”

Alexander swallowed hard. “Yes. My older brother.” He wasn’t lying.

I got closer to him. Eyes were green, but you could see the blue flecks in them this close. Christopher’s eyes, nose, and mouth were his father’s, but not his eye color. Went to Gregory. One eye was pretty well shut, but the other was the same, green flecked with blue. He glared at me. Christopher’s Glare #2, as a matter-of-fact.

I did one last comparison. I thought about my mother, since she, and I, looked like Christopher’s late mother, and I tried to see if they could look a bit like her. Or me. I got a reasonable yes. Not a lot, but enough.

“Jeff, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“Not so much, baby. What are you seeing?”

I turned around and started to laugh. Christopher was glaring. Glare #2.

“Look at Greg here . . . then look at Christopher.”

He did. “Oh, are you kidding me?” Martini sounded beyond annoyed.

“What?” Christopher was still glaring, but it had shifted to #5.

Martini rubbed his forehead. “Why are they here?”

“I don’t know.” I turned back. “Greg, Alex? This just seems like an incredibly complex plot merely to get to vacation with the distant relatives.”

They both looked hugely guilty. Chuckie came over and took a look. “Amazing. Genetics are really something.”

“Yeah.”

“What?” Christopher snapped. “I’m not clear on what you’re driving at, Kitty.”

“Greg and Alex here are your cousins, Christopher. Possibly as close to you as Jeff is. On your mother’s side, of course.”

“Are you kidding me? What are they doing here?” Christopher sounded exactly like Martini, only a bit less bellowy.

“Well, boys? Both Jeff and Christopher have asked you the same question. Why the hell are you here?”

They didn’t answer. Chuckie did. “Let’s list our options. There’s been a coup of some kind on Alpha Four. The royal family has been overthrown or is fighting to retain power. The ruling monarch is dead or dying. The people are not accepting whoever is supposed to take over. They’re going outside the norm to bring in Martini so that he can act as a messiah. Or, more likely, they’ve come here to drag Martini back so he can be their martyr. You take your pick from those options.”

The two A-Cs were quiet, but they also weren’t looking at us. The other delegates were quiet, and all looked nervous. I could tell that Chuckie had hit the real reason in his list of options, but I couldn’t tell which one had been our winner.

Chuckie’s voice was low and very menacing. “But know this—Martini, White, all the others? They report to me now. And I don’t let terrorists steal my people. You try to take anyone by force or coercion? We’ll show you that there is no planet more frightening to deal with when angry than Earth.”

“They’re all in position, Reynolds,” Gower said.

Chuckie nodded and walked through them. “Where are the suns, exactly?”

“Greg, put three of the Poofies into sun positions.”

He glared at me. “Why?”

“Because if you don’t, I’ll break your neck.” Chuckie was right behind him. “And I can. I may be human, but I’m trained to take out aliens.”

Gregory started to try something, but Chuckie had known it was coming, apparently. Gregory was on the floor in a heap.

“What did you do to him?” Alexander shouted.

“What I’ll do to you, all of you, if we don’t get some immediate cooperation.” Chuckie turned as he was talking so he could make eye contact with them all in turn. “Understand—until proven otherwise, you are all considered enemies of Earth in general and the United States in particular. I have orders to exterminate with extreme prejudice any alien threats I feel pose a short– or long-term problem. You pose both. Cooperate or I kill you. It’s that’s simple.”

Alexander looked over to Martini and Christopher. “How can you let him threaten us this way?”

Martini let a slow smile creep across his face. “I don’t have a choice. He’s the boss. I report to him.” I saw the realization that Martini wasn’t lying cross all the delegates’ faces. It was kind of nice to see that Chuckie had been right. Again. “Now, show three of the Poofs where to stand to be suns.”

One of the Major Doggies nodded and went to three points in the room. A Poof went to each location. Harlie stayed by me, and the one I’d called Poofikins stayed near Chuckie.

Chuckie came back beside me and took a long look. “Gower, the other planets, how many of them are inhabited?”

“Alphas Seven and Eight, Beta Sixteen. Ten inhabited planets in total.”

“Why aren’t the others represented?” Chuckie’s eyes were narrowed.

Alexander answered. “They are not advanced enough. Beta Sixteen and Alpha Seven seem to have grasped that there is life on other planets in the system, but we won’t interact with them until they have made some realistic attempts to contact us. Alpha Eight is at Earth Bronze Age level.”

Something Gower had told me months ago waved to me. “Who are the ones with long-range space flight? Besides Alpha Four, I mean.”

Animal types all nodded their heads, and Giant Lizard Number One spoke. “We and the Feliniads have had such abilities for decades. The Canus Majorians have joined us in that skill in the past decade.”

The Major Doggie who’d positioned the suns spoke up. “We originally had no desire to explore past our own solar system. Events have shown it to be necessary.”

Uma chimed in. “Alpha Six still has no interest in traveling beyond our system.”

“We have no desire to leave our planet,” the last woman, who hadn’t identified herself, offered.

“What’s your name?”

“Lenore. But,” she added, “some of us from Alpha Five do understand that we must, from time to time.”

“And Beta Twelve is hot and heavy to get back out there, right?” Queen Renata nodded to me. “So, what will your people do to the three planets that aren’t as advanced as the rest of you?”

Queen Renata shook her head. “My loyal subjects? They will not harm them. The dissidents? They will slaughter if they can.”

“So why are you all here, not there?”

Silence and a lot of shifty looks.

Chuckie sighed. “They like drawing it out, don’t they?”

“Yeah. I’m sure it relates to the real plan, and you know how much they don’t want to tell us that.”

Gregory was coming to. Alexander helped him up. He looked a lot worse for wear. “Why are you fighting us?” he asked blearily.

“Because we don’t trust you. At all.”

He managed to shoot a glare at me. “We’ve come in peace.”

“Right. And I’m actually Angelina Jolie, I’m just playing this role shorter, fairer, and with a lot less sex appeal.”

“Oh, don’t sell yourself short,” Martini said. “I think you’re a lot sexier than she is. You have better curves.”

“Yes, she does,” Chuckie and Christopher added in unison. Martini muttered a bit, but at least he wasn’t growling.

“Thanks, I’m feeling all tingly. So, Greg or Alex, since you represent the reigning superpower in your solar system, lay it on us. We’re big kids, we can take it. And, if not, we’ll just kill you. So, you know, we win either way.”

CHAPTER 31

THEY DIDN’T ANSWER. But I was thinking. I’d had to do a lot of thinking like this over the past year, and it was starting to come naturally to me. Being human and not an A-C, I liked to do my thinking aloud and share the fun and deepness that was me with everyone within earshot.

“Since we have two males somewhere in the royal line standing in front of us, it can’t be that they’ve run out of potential king options. We also have what I assume are hot Poofs, because if they’re that rare, then they’re valuable, and we have seven of them.”

“Works for me,” Chuckie said. He was still examining the living solar system in front of us.

“What do you mean about the Poofs being hot?” Alexander asked.

“Hot, stolen, removed from their owner’s possession without said owner’s consent, lifted, shifted, grabbed and bagged.”

“Oh. We didn’t steal them.” He was telling the truth, from what I could tell. “They were given to us. But . . .”

“But?”

“Amazing.” Chuckie looked over at Martini. “I heard about the first one. It bonded to you, didn’t it?”

Martini shrugged. “I guess.”

“No, Harlie did, Jeff. Harlie likes Jeff, right?” The Poof started to purr up a storm. All of them joined in.

Alexander nodded. “They didn’t bond to me or Gregory. That’s why we knew—” He stopped himself.

The light dawned. “That’s why you knew you had to come and find someone they would bond with? Because they’re a part of the succession process?”

“Yeah.” Alexander looked down.

“Shut up,” Gregory hissed.

“Oh, Greg, stop it.” I went back near them. “There’s a reason Moira and her mate are here, isn’t there? A reason you know about. All of you.” He wouldn’t look at me. I dropped my voice. “If anything happens to Jeff or Christopher, I’ll hurt you in ways you’ve never imagined. I’ll make it last for what will seem like forever. I’m a human, you know I can do it.”

He looked right at me. “I know you won’t. He might,” he nodded toward Chuckie. “But not you.” He swallowed. “We’ve been watching you, all of you.”

I kept my eyes on Gregory’s face. “Queen Renata, Moira and her mate, and however many of your other dissidents, you arrested them, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Because they were planning to kill the king of Alpha Four, correct?” Gregory drew in his breath.

“Yes.”

“But the sentient net let them out, didn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Is the king dead?”

“He lives, but just barely.”

“And Moira and her mate escaped, with the help of the sentient net, and made it here. I’ll bet they used the gate that sent my A-Cs here all those years ago. It’s locked to us, but not to the home planet.”

“Yes,” Renata confirmed. “As far as we can determine.”

“Greg? Why is the Queen of the Amazonian Nutcases the only one willing to tell me the truth?” He swallowed but didn’t reply. “No worries. I know why. Because, unlike you, she’s not a gutless coward.”

I spun around and walked over to the door. “Let’s get out of this room, Chuckie and Poofs.” It was that or I was going to try to kill them. The door was opened, and we all exited. The delegates stood there, still in solar system formation. “Take a look, folks. You’re never going to see a better collection of cowardice and guilt anywhere.” I was so angry I was shaking.

Martini came over and pulled my back against his chest. “Okay, I can already tell I’m going to hate it. What’s going on?” The Poofs went back to tiny. They all crawled up and onto my shoulders, though Harlie went onto Martini’s.

“Want me to do it?” Chuckie asked softly.

“Yeah.” I had to keep my teeth clenched. Martini gently moved some Poofs and started rubbing my neck.

“We’re looking at a bid for power gone wrong.” Chuckie leaned against the glass. Like Martini, he made this look comfortable. “White’s cousins presumably expected to advance to the throne. Martini, however, has a more direct claim to it. He also chose a bride.”

“Setting off the Alpha Four Alert System,” I added.

“Right. Meaning that the most direct male descendant was going to get married and presumably start having some babies. Which would strengthen that line even more.”

“I don’t want to go back there, so why does it matter?” Martini asked.

“Old men get funny notions.” I looked up at him. “Maybe he feels sorry, or wishes he’d seen his son’s family, or seen you grow up. You’re the son of the son, the direct line.” I looked into the holding cell. “And unlike the options on the home world, you’re not gutless. You’re brave and strong . . . and a leader. So’s Christopher. Either one of you would be a better choice for ruler than the two in the room in front of us. But you, especially. You’ve been leading the A-Cs here for over ten years.”

“And they’ve watched you the entire time,” Chuckie added. “Which is why the king, when he was attacked, decided it was time to revive the long-distance relationship. And why your cousins in there decided it was a great idea to hire some assassins to kill you.”

“Jeff? That tracking thing’s in your pocket. Can you take it out?” He did. “Queen Renata, is this from your world?”

She came to the glass, and Martini opened the washcloth and showed the feather-leaf thing to her. She nodded. “It is. How did you come by it?”

“Moira stuck it in my purse after she’d almost killed one of our operatives, that best friend of mine we mentioned earlier. By the way, what’s her mate’s name?”

“Kyrellis. She is extremely deadly.”

“We guessed. So, when did the rest of you come on board? Before Moira and Kyrellis killed your leaders or after?” Okay, so I couldn’t shut up and let Chuckie do all the talking.

“After they killed the head of Alpha Five,” Uma, of all people, answered. “We realized we’d created a monster we couldn’t stop.”

“Yeah, I figured Greg wasn’t doing this on his own. So you’re all pretty much traitors to your home worlds, is that right? Other than Renata, who is somehow along for the ride.”

“I am along because the assassins are my responsibility. They killed my mother, first, before they went to Alpha Four. I had to become queen far earlier than I had ever planned . . . or desired.” Queen Renata looked very old and tired for a moment, but then she recovered herself. “These did what they felt was best,” she indicated the others in the room. “Alpha Four is old and powerful. They control the rest of us. Many chafe under their hand.”

“We can relate.”

“This council was formed to expand the other planets’ self-determination.”

I looked back up at Martini. “You come from the bossy stock, I see.”

He snorted. “You should talk.”

“So, Alpha Four’s got a battle cruiser after you guys, with good reason. And, of course, they don’t know if we’re with you or against you.”

“Against,” Martini said dryly. “But, you know, they never listen to what we say.”

“Figure Alpha Four assumes we started it,” Chuckie added. “Only those of us who know Martini would believe he wasn’t interested in a kingship.”

“Too freaking true. Meanwhile, Greg there gave Moira and Kyrellis the heads-up that the most potent males in the line were here on Earth. They’re gunning for Jeff, Christopher, Paul, and Michael, for sure. They’ll probably try to wipe out more of the family, just in case.”

“I doubt Greg talked to them directly,” Chuckie corrected me. “I’d guess Uma had a hand in it. She seems Moira’s type.”

Uma gave him a dirty look. “Alpha Six has a female-led government, yes.”

“Which probably saw the benefits of aligning with the fanatics. You know, I’m all for following the Feminist Manifesto, but nowhere in there was the suggestion made that we kill all the men and make do without them.”

Uma shrugged. “Your world, your rules.”

“Right. And our rules say you’re a bunch of traitors, to two solar systems.”

“Your Majesty, we beg for clemency.” Gregory bent onto one knee. Alexander followed him, somewhat unwillingly.

“I’m not the king. I’m not going to a world that only wants me when it’s convenient. And you can rot in hell for all I care. You’re endangering the world I care about and the people I love on it. You’re lucky I don’t just kill you right now and offer your dead bodies to whoever else shows up.” Martini was furious, but he was calmer than me, which was sort of surprising.

“Please forgive us,” Alexander said quietly.

“How much did you have to do with this plan?” I saw his expression and got a funny feeling.

Alexander shook his head. “I support my brother.”

“Does your brother know you’re the one who triggered the Royal Proposal light show back on the home world and here on Earth?”

Alexander’s eyes went wide. “I . . . don’t know what you mean.”

“Open the door!” Chuckie and Martini shouted in unison. There was a lot of that going on. Too many alpha males in one small space.

Security flung it open, and the Poofs pretty much flew into the room, turning bigger as they did so. One tackled Uma before she was able to get Alexander with the knife she was holding, another knocked Gregory aside, and the others surrounded Alexander, with much growling and the showing of sharp teeth.

“Good Poofies. Anyone else want to try to kill someone? No? Smartest move I’ve seen you people do yet. Poofies? Bring Alexander out, please. Oh, and take that nasty weapon away from the mean lady.” The Poof on top of Uma growled in her face. She dropped the knife; the Poof picked it up in its jaws and trotted out of the room behind the rest of them, looking very pleased with itself.

I gave lots of Poof lovies, then turned to Alexander. “Sucks to be you, dude, but you could have given us the heads-up a lot sooner, you know.”

He shook his head. “He’s my brother. He wanted the kingship so much . . . I didn’t realize he was out of control until it was too late. I did what I could.” He looked at Martini. “I’m sorry. For all of it.”

“So, who can we trust besides you?”

Alexander shrugged. “I’m not even sure you can trust me. So much has gone wrong . . . but Queen Renata is trying to fix things.”

“So are we,” one of the Major Doggies said. “I am Willem. We have the support of our leader.”

“Support to try to kill the Alpha Four royal family?” Chuckie asked pleasantly.

“No,” Willem said. “Support to fix the damage we have caused.”

One of the Cat People spoke up. “I am Felicia. We as well are along to help.”

I looked at the Giant Lizards. “You speaking up there, Iguanodon?”

“My name is Neeraj. This is Jareen. We do not appreciate your way of speaking to us, human.”

“We don’t appreciate Giant Lizards coming by trying to screw our world over. So we’re even.” I thought about it. “How do they spell their names?”

Alexander sighed. “Yes, each name is the other name spelled backward. It’s a mating thing on their world.”

“So, they’re married? Which one’s the girl?”

“Jareen is my female,” Neeraj said, clearly pissed off. “She is the most beautiful Reptilian on our world.”

“Yeah, well, Jeff thinks I’m hot, too, but he didn’t rename me Ffej.”

Martini laughed. “Oh, but it’s so cute, so you.”

“We are not amused,” Neeraj said.

“We don’t care,” Martini said pleasantly. “We don’t like you.”

“You know, they’re all going to say they’re here to help.” Chuckie looked back at Alexander. “Who, besides Queen Renata, do you recommend we trust?”

Alexander sighed. “They all need to help you, because they can’t go home unless this situation resolves in a positive way.”

“Interstellar war bad for the image?”

“Yes. But, I wouldn’t let anyone but Renata out of the room right now, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Alexander, how can you do this to us?” Uma shouted.

He closed his eyes, but didn’t turn around. “I still have a shred of honor left, and I want to hold onto it.”

“You are not my brother any longer,” Gregory said. He sounded hurt and furious.

“I know.” Alexander looked like he was trying not to break down.

“Jeff, what do you think?”

Martini sighed. “Let Renata out. Alexander’s telling the truth, and she’s not our enemy. Leave the rest of them in there.” He pulled me back, out of the clutch of people, bent down and whispered in my ear. “I can’t tell on the lizards, dogs, or cats. I need to be around them more to see if I’m filtering their emotions correctly. There’s more going on than Gregory’s told Alexander; I can feel him hiding something. Lenore is basically clueless, and Uma’s a raving bitch, but you already knew that.”

“Umm hmmm.” Him nuzzling my ear was really turning me on, scary interstellar plots or no.

He laughed softly. “I love how, no matter what, you can always focus on the priorities.”

“I want to go to Vegas.” And spend time in the huge suite. Spend time making like bunnies in every portion of the huge suite. It felt like ages since Martini had made me scream and beg for more.

He kissed my ear. “Put on that outfit and tell me that.”

I turned around. “You’ll be mine to do with as I please?”

Martini grinned. “Probably.” He looked at my shoulders. “Okay, they’re cute, they’re cuddly, and they’re great at protection, so, as long as we don’t discover they turn on their masters for some weird reason, you can keep them.”

“Oh, thanks! By the way, Poof Chow? Jeff, that was awesome.”

“You’re rubbing off on me. I like it, don’t worry.”

“I’d rather rub on you.”

“I love how you think.”