Chapter Seven

“Message from Central Command in two parts: In regards to the report filed by IA unit 6194 residing aboard stolen starship cruiser …. The Terraformers have been disabled. Repeat: The Terraformers have been disabled.

“Second part: Directive to Linguistic Anthropologist Aidan Montiero from the Emergency Session called in High Council on nineteen Keper in the year thirty thirty zero nine: A full and unconditional pardon is offered on the charges of grand theft by taking, initiating unauthorized flight plans, and fraud arising from unauthorized usage of government project funding if you are willing to act as ambassador for our people and negotiate a peace treaty with the people of G-1493, which was inadvertently targeted for colonization due to faulty intelligence that suggested the system was NOT inhabited by an intelligent species.

“It is felt that your training and experiences, and the happy circumstance of your current location, make you uniquely qualified to handle this delicate situation—which you must assure the people of G-1493 was purely a misunderstanding. The Terraformers have been disabled and we have our people working feverishly at a solution to reprogramming the genesis nanites. Further assure the people that we are not relying entirely on that possibility to bring relief to the citizens of G-1493. Even now, we are preparing to send a mother ship fully stocked with supplies to aid the residents of G-1493 made homeless—purely by accident—and construction bots to repair or replace property damaged by the genesis nanites.”

Leaping at the sudden, loud interruption of his sleep was an instinct. Unfortunately, Anya’s reaction was much the same and the end result was that they both ended up losing their balance and crashing onto the floor. Beyond that instinctive and almost instantly disastrous reaction, however, Aidan wasn’t even completely certain of what had happened at first. Brought so abruptly from deep sleep after a very long period of deprivation, he was too exhausted even to feel a great deal of shock about discovering the long range communicator hovering over his bunk and the message it delivered barely sank in—at first. Dimly, he registered the charges the government was prepared to throw at him but relief was uppermost—next to discomfort that he’d been caught in a private moment he damned well didn’t want public—as he stared at the eye of the deep space communicator and listened to the terms the High Council had lain out.

They knew about the disaster they’d created—thank the gods! That was why the nanites had ceased to break down everything in sight!

Well! They’d made a hell of a stinking mess and now they expected him to clean up behind them when he’d warned them this could happen and they’d treated him as if he was a moron—when they listened at all?

Not that he had a lot of choices that he could see if he wanted to see his home world again as a free man! Because he could see he was going to take the fall if he didn’t manage to clean things up.

On the other hand, he had already pretty much taken on that job, hadn’t he?

“What is that thing?” Anya demanded. “Is it … like a floating camera? Because that’s what it looks like!” She turned to glare at Aidan. “If you made a sex tape of us ….”

Aidan studied his wrist computer with frowning intensity. He felt his face heat with discomfort at the accusation, but he felt a touch of amusement, as well. “I no did dis ting. Shee—ip is cop setup. I no know dat, though. Follow an’ report. Good ting! Dey shit down nanos. No more destroy tings.”

Anya gaped at him with burning eyes, her sluggish brain struggling to ‘interpret’ when she would’ve had a hard time figuring out what he was trying to say if she’d been completely alert. The cop setup thing actually registered fairly quickly, though. “You’re saying you stole this ship?” she demanded, aghast.

Aidan’s discomfort increased. “Friend stole. I borrow. Need she--ep come here prove intelligent life on G-1493. Good ting. Dey report fuck up.”

Anya digested that a while, trying to decide if she actually had understood him and had enough pieces to fit the puzzle together or if she was allowing him to dupe her because she really hated the idea of having had mind blowing sex—of coming to trust and depend upon—an enemy of her own species.

Because it sounded to her like he was saying his people had targeted the planet without realizing it was already taken and he’d come to try to prove it was already taken—which in effect was saying that he’d come to save them.

Or at least, he’d come to prove a point.

And apparently at great risk to himself.

She had a headache coming on in nothing flat and decided she had to have something to eat and drink---and hopefully some clothes or something to hide her nakedness. “Is that thing still on?”

Aidan wrestled with the impulse to be completely honest and the certainty that the truth would not make her happy or particularly cooperative. “Still on. Property of cops … or High Council. Uncertain. But no mine. I no can turn off.”

Anya studied his earnest expression for several moments, charmed in spite of every effort to disregard any appreciation. The plain fact was, though, that she couldn’t help but think his efforts to speak English were ‘cute’.

Because he was cute and she thought he was sexy as hell.

She needed her head examined.

It was just plain wrong, on so many levels, to find him so attractive on so many levels!

She was sure it was.

Dismissing those thoughts with an effort, she turned to glare at the hovering camera/robot thingy, holding the coverlet a little closer. “If you don’t fucking mind I’d like a little damned privacy,” she growled. “I haven’t done anything even if he has!”

Aidan sent her an indignant look—which she ignored. Getting to her feet with an effort, she jerked the coverlet off of Aidan, wrapped it around herself, and looked around. “I need a bathroom.”

“Ship facilities are through the cabin door, down the corridor two meters, and then through the door at the right hand side of the corridor.”

The voice came out of nowhere and spoke English way better than poor Aidan—English minus the heavy, awkward accent. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant surprise to discover yet another ‘intruder’ although Anya had decided even before she got a response that it must have been an onboard computer that had answered her question. “Who are you?”

“AI unit 6194,” the computer responded.

Anya was a little taken aback even though she’d thought it must be a computer—mostly because it seemed to respond to her. Of course AI units—computers were designed to seem as if they were responding, or at least she’d always thought so. “You’re a computer?” she said doubtfully.

“With AI.”

“I got that. How come you can speak English better than Aidan?”

There was a significant pause. “Because he is a biological unit and must learn as a biological unit does.”

Irritation flickered through Anya. Maybe she was wrong, but it seemed to her that the uppity computer had a superiority complex. “I meant how did you learn English?”

“I accessed the information available through your technology. It seemed imperative to know how to communicate once I ascertained that the object which caused the damage to the ship was a manmade satellite indicating a technologically advanced civilization. The language is similar in many aspects to languages on the Grinderian home world.”

Anya felt her heart sink. “Technology that’s gone now,” she said flatly. She didn’t even want to think about what the world was going to be like now that they’d lost so many of the things everybody depended upon. No doubt it was going to be a great deal cleaner without cars and factories to pollute everything but how were people going to get to work? And what were they going to do if they didn’t have a job to go to anymore because the f’ing building had gotten eaten by nanites?

“Not entirely and the Grinderians fully intend to restore what they inadvertently destroyed.”

She’d believe that when she saw it! Shaking her head, she followed the directions the computer had given her and found the facilities. A hot bath and the discovery of clothing—even though it was clothing that didn’t fit all that well—went a long way toward restoring her equilibrium. She discovered when she left the bath that the smell of food was in the air and her cup runneth over with joy and gratitude. Thank god for civilization!

Aidan eyed her somewhat warily when she reached the kitchen/dining area, having followed her nose.

She didn’t have a clue of what was on the plate that Aidan handed her—and she was pretty sure she didn’t really want to know—but it smelled wonderful. It was hot. And it tasted like the food of the gods. She hoped it wouldn’t kill her, but she thought she would die happy if it did.

Days without anything but a few bites of those horrible survival bars!

That thought abruptly produced a happy one—she bet she’d lost pounds!

Of course her scales probably weren’t there anymore to tell her that—because her apartment probably wasn’t or her clothes ….

When she’d finished eating, she settled back to try to translate the full story from Aidan—who couldn’t speak as well as the AI bitch but knew the story a lot better. Of course the computer was able to set forth the plans the Grinderians had come up with as restitution for their mistake.

By the time she had the entire story she was feeling a lot more hopeful. Assuming, naturally, that the Grinderians were sincere—and she didn’t see any reason to believe they weren’t. After all, they hadn’t been compelled by anything more than their own integrity to offer restitution!

They were offering to replace everything they’d ‘inadvertently’ destroyed, though, and not only did that mean fixing things back the way they were, it meant better than before because it would all be new! Beyond that, they’d confessed that they’d terraformed both Mars and Venus with the terraformers, which meant both of them would be habitable soon if they weren’t already! All they wanted was a treaty that would allow them to put colonies of their own on the three planets ….

Well people might be hard to convince about allowing a colony of Grinderians to move in on their territory/backyard, but, really, it was a hell of a trade off! So they’d lose a little real estate. They’d be gaining a hell of a lot more.

Convincing people to accept the terms of the treaty, Anya was sure, wasn’t going to be easy.

Who was she kidding? The people weren’t going to get a say in it at all! The government would make all the decisions for them—probably in favor of the treaty for economic reasons and also because they would have to know that not only would it beat war, but humans probably would lose any war they started with the Grinderians.

To her thinking, though, it could turn out to be the best thing that had happened to humans in a very long time if they could just be convinced to see it that way.

“Flyers!”

Aidan looked at her blankly and then consulted his computer and then looked at her blankly again. “Flywers?”

“Not flowers ….”

He frowned. “No say fl-ow-rs. Say … ting you say.”

Anya thought about it. “Actually that isn’t that bad an idea. I mean women, at least, would probably be won over by that kind of gesture, but I don’t see how y’all could manage that. The flyers, though—a simple message of peace and promise and then when the robots started rebuilding everything and they saw your people really meant it …. I think the Grinderians would be forgiven and that’s important—whatever the government decides.”

She wasn’t sure that Aidan had understood a word of what she said. He looked thoughtful, but that could mean anything. Abruptly, he grinned, grabbed her and kissed her soundly on the mouth.

Startled, Anya barely had time to start appreciating the affectionate gesture when he pulled away. “Dis good ting, Ah-na! People hurt. Make tings good wid dem most important. Den govment listen.”

Anya shifted uncomfortably. “Well, government, you know …. Can’t promise that, but I will tell you honestly that if you don’t win people over it isn’t going to matter what the government promises. There won’t really be peace. There’ll be resentment. A lot of people lost a lot of stuff that was important to them—to their comfort and survival. They may even have lost loved ones because of those things. They aren’t going to be easily won over. Sorry just isn’t going to cut it.”

Sobered, Aidan nodded grimly. “I know dis. Bad ting. Berry bad ting. I try to stop.”

Anya studied his expression and saw no reason to doubt him. “I believe you. I trust you. I’ll try to help you convince everybody else to trust.”

She hoped it wasn’t something she would live to regret!

* * * *

Aidan’s first order of business seemed to be to clear the rubble from the ship. Anya’s was to find something recognizable to eat.

Not that the food Aidan had fed her wasn’t good—when she was starving—but at the same time there was just enough difference in the taste to make it obvious the ingredients were beyond foreign and it didn’t exactly sit right on her stomach. She did her best to convince herself it was all in her mind, but her stomach didn’t agree.

Campfire cooking wasn’t exactly her forte, though, so she was glad when she managed to find a can of peaches—either one of the ‘bombs’ she’d used the day before to discourage the beast from making a meal out of her or another can entirely. The AI helped her get into the can and, once she’d found something to fish the slices out of the can with, she settled at a short distance from Aidan to watch him work and wrestle with her conscience.

Thankfully the battle wasn’t a long or particularly complicated one. She did manage to give herself a tension headache trying to figure out ‘hidden’ agendas the aliens might have, but, from a logical standpoint, she managed to reassure herself that it wasn’t actually reasonable to think they might have evil in mind.

They’d sent terraformers from across the galaxy if not another galaxy entirely. That technological wonder was enough to convince her that the Grinderians had no need to use subterfuge to hide evil designs. They could’ve been completely straightforward and there wouldn’t have been a hell of a lot the survivors on Earth could do about it.

So she could accept, she thought, with a clear conscience that she wasn’t helping ‘the enemy’. At least they didn’t seem to be enemies at this point.

The tricky thing would be to convince everybody else that they weren’t enemies so that they didn’t become enemies.

She wasn’t completely comfortable with the idea of tackling world peace even after she’d convinced herself she wouldn’t be a traitor to her own kind by actively helping the aliens, mostly because she was nobody really and felt overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the task.

Having finished her peaches, she set the can aside, tucked her eating utensil into a pocket of the suit she’d ‘borrowed’ from the stores aboard ship, and went to help Aidan with his task. Her mind wasn’t really on that job, though. She followed Aidan’s efforts mechanically while she composed and discarded various messages for the people.

Simple would be better, she decided after a while. It would, hopefully, be harder to misunderstand something short and straightforward plus that had the added benefit that people might actually read it. The longer it was the more likely people would be to skim it and misinterpret the entire thing.

She finally settled on:

People of Earth:

This is NOT an invasion. The people of Grinderia apologize for their error and want to assure you that they seek peace NOT war. They deeply regret their mistake and will do everything in their power to repair the damage they have inadvertently done.

It was still a little longer than she would’ve liked and, at the same time, didn’t seem to cover the ground that needed to be covered, but she decided a series of short messages might work better in the long run.

Aidan studied the message with frowning intensity for some moments, consulted his computer and then turned to study her and finally smiled. “Tank you, Ah-na.”

Anya was warmed both by the smile and his appreciation. She, Aidan, and the AI worked on a delivery system. More of the power grid was down than up and there were only spotty—very sketchy—portions of the internet left, but they agreed that every possible means of communications needed to be used in order to reach as many people as possible.

Fortunately, they had managed to get a campaign to inform the public launched and well underway by the time the first supply ships arrived from Grinderia. It was still touch and go for a while. Distrust was rampant. Anger was high. Most people had been reduced by circumstances to little more than rocks as self-defense, but they lobed everything they could lay hand to at the drones that buzzed the ground distributing propaganda/information and supplies.

Thankfully, the governments decided to settle for a ‘show of force’ rather than attacking. Anya thought they displayed far more wisdom than she would’ve previously given them credit for, because the show of force was a lot more effective, she was sure, than showing the Grinderians that Earth had no real defense against them. Soldiers and war machines were everywhere, aimed at the alien crafts or circling them like a swarm of angry bees, but there were no ‘incidents’ that she heard of—making it clear that, however angry and/or frightened everyone probably was, they were displaying a rare caution/wisdom in dealing with their visitors that was more likely to have a happy outcome than trying to attack them and drive them off.

She would’ve far preferred to keep her part in trying to make peace a deep, dark secret, but, unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be in the cards. Aidan’s people had saddled him with the task of making peace and convincing the governments of Earth to negotiate a treaty with the Grinderian government and Aidan seemed convinced that she was completely agreeable to being dragged through the arduous process with him.

They made the news!

Surprise, surprise!

Anya actually appreciated the coverage. She hated it, but it at least gave her a chance to tell her side of the story—why was she with Aidan and did she really believe they meant no harm when they’d destroyed fully half of Earth’s civilization in less than a day?

It was actually more like three quarters—minimum—but who was counting?

She pointed out that that made her case. If they were capable of that and had not only stopped their machines, they’d offered to repair the damage—and in fact had already dropped construction bots to do just that—wasn’t that all the proof anybody needed to convince them that the Grinderians wanted to be friends not enemies?

It should have been enough to convince everybody, but Anya wasn’t really surprised that it didn’t.

Everything that was destroyed was replaced with new—NEW—and some of the buildings that had been destroyed looked as if they should have been demolished anyway. Ditto the cars that were replaced with new, etc., etc. And to top all of that off, the technology was better than what anybody on Earth had had before. And top that off with the terraformed planets humans got as part of the bargain, because the Grinderians had terraformed both Mars and Venus and although neither were complete, they were going to be open to colonization within a decade or so. All the Grinderians were asking for was a piece of the action and peace. They wanted to put a colony on Earth and more on Mars and Venus once they were habitable.

Nothing, of course, could replace the people lost in the initial disastrous mix-up, but as valuable as each of those individuals were to those who loved them, there were actually very few casualties.

By the time Aidan deposited her on her doorstep, Anya was totally exhausted and thoroughly disgusted with the entire mess. There was not going to be an easy truce between them. This was something, she was sure, that was destined to be a long, drawn out process. Maybe, in time, humans would begin to actually make friends with their new neighbors, but trust was going to take time to earn.

Despite her weariness and her gladness to be home, though, Anya discovered she wasn’t happy at all to see Aidan go. They’d spent weeks together, surviving, and then campaigning for peace between his people and hers. She’d just gotten used to being around him, she told herself.

And he still had much to do before he was officially off the hook for ignoring his people’s laws and heading to Earth to prove his theory that there were other intelligent species ‘out there’.

It was an awkward goodbye. They’d been monitored since the night they’d spent together in intimacy. Anya comforted herself with the thought that that was why there hadn’t been further intimacy—the complete lack of privacy on top of the frenzied work necessary to avert further disaster. If the situation had been different ….

Well, they wouldn’t have gotten together at all.

She liked to think it had been more than just animal need that had thrown them together, more than the need for comfort and release from tension.

She might be lying to herself.

She was absolutely miserable, though, when he left.