Chapter Twenty-Two

Oten

Koviye was right. We invaded her ship without communication, without cause, without justification. Our only reason, a one-hundred-year-old fear of them and long memories of the past.

She’s right. There are no humans left alive who helped slaughter the Ssedez.

I ordered my crew to commit a horrendous crime.

I have the urge to push her away. “Why are you standing here?”

She backs up, not touching me. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I killed members of your crew. You were on a peaceful mission. How can you touch me and speak to me and give me antidotes and—”

“You never thought anything of it before.”

“Before, I thought you were a Ten Systems’ ship out to make war and conquer. This is entirely different.”

“Is it?” Her voice is soft and distant. Like she’s gone somewhere but I don’t know where. “My crew thinks I should be finding a way to kill you. Are you saying you agree?”

“Yes!” She stares at the ground, and it pains me. “If what you say is true, I have committed a heinous war crime: attacking a peaceful vessel. Why didn’t you change your markings? Everything about the Origin said warship.”

She shrugs her shoulders. “We were military. We escaped the Ten Systems’ fleet. We’d only just begun to accept that we’d gotten away. I kept expecting them to find us.”

The accomplishment is admirable. “How did you achieve it?”

“Careful planning. Some luck. A great crew. A ruthless desire to do the right thing.” She steps closer to me again. “I understand why you did what you did. It wasn’t a war crime. You couldn’t have known. I should’ve changed the markings on the Origin.”

“If we had hailed you, communicated first rather than attacking you, what would you have done?”

There’s a smile in her voice, even if I can’t see it in the shadow. “We would’ve wanted to learn anything and everything about the Ssedez that you would share with us. Including and especially your side of the war with the Ten Systems.”

Remorse floods me, as hot as the desidre before she gave me the topuy. “You’ve gotten your education.”

“No, I haven’t.”

I am bitter. Defensive. “You mean fucking a Ssedez for days wasn’t enough?”

“I don’t just want to know how you fuck.”

“That’s not what you said a few days ago when you were on your knees begging to know what a gold cock tasted like.”

She reaches out to stroke my arm. “I want to know more. Your stories and your life.”

I inhale to argue with her. Everything she’s saying goes against every assumption I’ve had about her species. “You are very different from most humans, Nem.”

“There are many more like me.” She softens and reaches for my other hand. “There’s something I wanted to tell you. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but now it feels like it is.”

“What?”

“My name. It’s not Nem. It’s Nemona.”

My anger deflates, and I hold her hand tighter. “They forced you to change your name?”

She shrugs. “It didn’t seem like anything to give up at the time. Not when I was a teenager and didn’t care what it took to become strong enough to fight anyone and everyone who could hurt me.”

I stiffen. “Who would hurt you?”

“Who doesn’t want to hurt an orphaned child fighting to stay alive on the streets?”

“An orphan? But you said, your grandmother’s research—”

“The government took everything from my family when they realized what she found didn’t support their goals to dominate the universe. Every study suggested that all intelligent life comes from the same source. It refuted the Ten Systems’ assertions that humans are the superior species.”

“But that does not explain why your family left you behind.”

“My parents died trying to hide me. But I was old enough for them to teach me who my grandmother was before they were gone. Old enough to know where they’d hidden the copies of the files the Ten Systems’ government tried to destroy.”

It begins to make sense, why she ended up leading a rebellion. “That’s why your crew followed you.”

“Once word spread of who I was, and what I had in my possession, they backed me.”

Then my warriors and I crippled their mission. “Are there other ships in your rebellion?”

She shakes her head, and her voice is heavy with regret. “The Origin is all we have.”

“I will help. The Ssedez will help.” It’s an impulse, but the right one. “We will help repair your ship.”

Her brows scrunch with skepticism. “How are you going to convince the Ssedez of that? Your entire existence is about remaining a secret from humans. They’ll never agree.”

“They follow me. They listen to me.” I stand away from the tree, more certain of what I need to do. “I need to get in touch with my ship.”

“Even if you convince them to help, your ship won’t have everything we need to repair the Origin. You destroyed the reactor.”

I grasp her shoulders. She doesn’t understand how important it is to atone for the crimes we committed against her crew. “I will go back to my planet and bring whatever you need. Once I explain to them what’s happened and the mistake we made, they’ll want to help, too.”

She places her palms on my chest. “I want to believe you, but I can’t see how it’s possible.”

“Let me worry about how. Where are the camp’s communication systems so I can contact the Ssedez?”

“They don’t have any off-planet communication set up. We’re interlinked among ourselves.” She points to the commlink device strapped around her wrist. “We’re in this fight alone.”

A voice comes out of the jungle. “I can help.”

It startles Nem—Nemona—and she jerks back, reaching for a weapon in her belt that isn’t there. “Who is it?”

“Our technologies are not compatible, so we cannot repair your ship. But we have communications.”

I recognize who it is. That ethereal tone, round and resonant, is unmistakable. “Koviye, show yourself.”

“I must ask the human a question first.” The leaves rustle, and his voice sounds from in front of us. There is no shadow where he is. He remains invisible. “How do I know you won’t study my Fellamana like we’re things in a museum? What’s to keep you from reporting everything you learn back to your Ten Systems?”

Nemona recovers from her surprise. “You live on Fyrian? The Fellamana?”

“Yes.” There’s a smile in his tone. “You have not heard of us, even in all your studies, have you?”

“No.” The curiosity in her voice is apparent, and she relaxes her fight stance. “But I promise, we only want to learn.”

“And what will you do with what you learn?”

“Use it for research. Identifying similarities between species of intelligent life. Share it.”

“We Fellamana have kept our existence a secret for our own protection. We do not wish the Ten Systems to know we exist.”

I’m wondering why he ever revealed himself to us at all, unless… “But you talk to us now. Some part of you wants to connect with another species.”

He makes a frustrated sound. “I know everything there is to know about you already.”

“I know more about the Ten Systems’ military than anyone you’ll meet,” Nemona says. “I’ll share everything I know with you so the Fellamana can better protect themselves. How their tracking systems work so you can fortify yourselves. How their weapons are made so you can be armed against them.”

I add, “The Ssedez have spent centuries studying their fighting tactics. We can share what we’ve learned as well.”

“Those are generous offers.” His corporeal form begins to show. He is light, as in made of it. I couldn’t see it with the sun shining through him this afternoon. His iridescent flesh is matched by the clothing he wears, to where I can’t tell where his skin ends and the garment begins, only that it flows over him, hinting at the shape of his body beneath.

“There is attraction between you.” He tilts his head curiously at us. “I thought you said their leader was your lover of choice, Ssedez? Or are you possessive of more than one human?”

Nemona inhales a sharp breath and stares at me.

“Who’s there?” A woman’s voice sounds behind us, her tone threatening.

Nemona and I crouch in the bushes. In the shadows, the woman cannot see us, only hear us.

But Koviye, with his shining figure that doesn’t just reflect light but creates it, is visible.

Rather than hide himself like I expect, he steps forward. Or more like glides. He seems to have two legs that contact the ground beneath his garment, but his movements are so fluid, it is hard to decipher his steps beneath his flowing robe.

“Jenie,” he says, facing off with the woman. “It is a pleasure.”

Jenie stiffens and stares at Koviye in shock. “W-who are you?” she stammers, not lowering her blaster, pointing it at his chest.

“So defensive.” Koviye scolds with a click of his tongue. “Is that any way to welcome a stranger?”

She relaxes her aim but doesn’t lower her weapon. “Tell me who you are, and I might greet you properly.”

He glides closer to her, dangerously close. As close as I might, knowing her blaster won’t hurt me. Almost like he’s unafraid she could hurt him. “Properly,” he muses. “Such a strange word that does not translate into my language. Enlighten me.”

He moves to her side as though to circle her.

Jenie stiffens her aim again, following him around her, not letting him behind her. “Properly, as in what’s custom.”

“Ah, custom. This I know. But I do not think my custom of greeting would please you. Even if you did lower your weapon.” He continues his circle around her, forcing her to turn. He’s so relaxed, as though mocking her defensive response.

She falls for his bait. “Why wouldn’t I like it?”

There’s a seductive quality to his movements. Not threatening or one of violence, but he is getting closer to her. “Because my greeting involves touch. And you don’t like to be touched, do you, Jenie?”

She keeps her aim, blaster now inches from his chest. “I do not want to hurt you. But if you threaten me, I will.”

He pauses in front of her and says in a comforting voice, “Have you met another species before, face-to-face?”

“Yes.”

“I mean not in combat. In conversation.”

She hesitates. “No.”

“A little advice. That.” He nods at her blaster. “Is not a good initiation of diplomacy. As far as I know.”

Jenie lowers her weapon, slowly, still wary of him. “All right.”

He holds out his hand to her. “From what I have observed, this is your custom greeting.”

“You’ve been watching us?”

“That is how I learned your language, yes. Will you shake my hand or no?”

She lifts her non-blaster hand and gingerly rests it in his palm. Her breathing is fast. Her chest moves rapidly in the light from the camp.

Koviye’s voice changes. It deepens and thickens. “That’s better. May I also greet you with part of the Fellamana custom?”

Her gaze moves over his face warily, but she nods.

He spreads his second hand over her forearm, and a light appears beneath her skin there. “It will surprise you. But I promise it will not hurt.”

The light intensifies, and Jenie gasps a sound, like the one Nemona makes when I touch her, when she is about to come. It radiates up her arm and disappears inside her uniform. It reappears at her open collar along her neck then disappears again inside her skull.

She collapses against him. “Stop, please,” she murmurs.

He lets her go, slowly, helping her regain her balance. His tone softens with a gentle warning, “You are weak from not feeding the desidre.”

“I don’t need to.”

“The topuy antidote won’t work on you for much longer. You will develop an immunity to it. Don’t deny yourself. Take a lover.”

She shakes her head, not looking at him. “No.” She stumbles backward away from him.

“There is no shame in giving your body what it needs,” he says then fades away, drifting once more into invisibility. “At least give yourself release, lulipah.”

Jenie scrambles for her blaster and runs away.