Sex, Love, and Aliens 2 (10 page)

“And what’s wrong with that?” Briz’s temper rose.

Xev grinned. “You’re blind to the part of you that’s spiritual. Believing in something doesn’t make you weak.”

She started walking away, biting her tongue before she said something to him that she’d regret. Xev’s heart was in the right place, but his reverence for all things mystical annoyed her.

He caught up to her. “Your dad left with a shipment this morning. Kateri asked me to pick up supplies. Why don’t you invite her to make the run and take her into the city? It’ll give you the perfect opportunity to talk to her about taking the medicine to the Talorian colonists on Indra.”

Briz sighed. “You could just give me the access codes and help me forge a manifest.”

Xev made a sound that resembled choking. “Your mother was good to me when I needed someone. Ric will never let you take the ship without your mother’s blessing. I know you, and I know her. You both need to accept what the other is thinking.”

She rolled her eyes and stopped walking toward the massive stone manor. Light fog rolled across the yard as it burned away with the early day sun. Turning, Briz glared at Xev. “Will you stop trying to make me feel guilty for wanting to do the right thing?”

“You’re misunderstanding me. I’m proud of you. You and your mother have been clashing ever since she tried to set you up with that kid from town last season.”

“Set me up? Oh, no, she tried to
marry me off
! My own mother tried to arrange a marriage to one of her cult members.”

Xev reached out and grabbed her arm. “Her religion is beautiful, and it’s not a cult. Her gods have been worshiped since the first exodus from Earth. You should give it a chance. Sometimes a higher power is nice to have in your corner.”

Briz pursed her lips and her nostrils flared as she tried to repress her anger. “I’m just glad Dad was as appalled as I was. I’ve never seen him actually mad at Mom before
that
craziness. I get it, she and Dad fell in love after they were married. Her dad found her a husband, but it was life and death for her. I just... How could she do that?”

“She loves you.”

“She doesn’t even see who I am,” Briz replied as she brandished her hands up in the air with drama before stomping away from her friend. “I was born and raised on Metricia,” she shouted.

Xev jogged to catch up with her, a little short of breath by the time he reached her.

She lowered her voice. “I’m just as much part of Dad as I am part of her. She’s lived here long enough to have learned truth of the universe— women are equal and just as good as men.”

“If they are Julius women, they might even be a bit better,” Xev said, and he snorted as he laughed.

She threw a dismissive hand in the air and waved off his bad joke as she went looking for her mother.

* * * *

“Mom? You in here?”

“Briz, I was just about to have a bite to eat. Are you hungry,
Mi Dro
?” her mother asked.

Mi Dro
loosely translated to ‘beloved child’ in her mother’s native tongue. Briz wasn’t a child, but that wasn’t the battle she’d come to fight against her mother today.

Her mother stood by the window, looking out at the sky. The fanciful idea that she was watching for her husband made the corner of Briz’s mouth turn up. She was glad her parents loved each other so much. It wasn’t typical of their people to be devoted to a lover and marry. She’d had a special childhood compared to her friends. Her mother was the mortar that held the family together.

The windowsill was alive with herbs and plants. Her mother had a way for nurturing life, but she had none of her mother’s ethereal femininity. Her mother watered one small plant and snipped leaves from another before she turned around. Her soft smile morphed into a frown. Briz wanted her mother to see her strength. When Kateri frowned, Briz’s immediate reaction was to scowl back, because she was sick of her mother fretting about her rejection of Daroo tradition. Being a woman was about more than making a home.

“Xev said you wanted some supplies. Would you like to come with me?” Briz asked. “You haven’t gone to town in months. The only people outside the family you see are the ones who come to the prayer garden and hear you read your scriptures.”

“They aren’t my scriptures,
Mi Dro
. They are everyone’s, and I wish you’d come and say the names of our ancestors with me—like you did when you were a little girl. I was like you when I was younger, but after you were born I understood my faith so much better.”

Briz kept her mouth shut. She needed her mother to be opened-minded, and falling into another argument about her responsibilities to the dead wasn’t going to serve her purposes.

“So what do you need to pick up?” Briz asked, changing the subject.

Her mother smiled, and serenity exuded from her expression.

Briz sighed. The day she’d been old enough to understand her grandparents and so many others let themselves die to uphold a silly bit of dogma was the day she stopped going with her mother to the prayer garden. Having faith in something that would let everyone you love die seemed like a pointless endeavor.

Briz opened the pantry she stood next to and peered inside. It was well stocked, as usual. She couldn’t see what her mother needed.

“I planned to make your father’s favorite stew, but the garden is doing so poorly this season I need to get the proper vegetables. I appreciate your invitation, but I know this isn’t about supplies. Ric told me he and Xev believe you can save those people. You are the last woman of our race who can have a child. Your birth was...difficult, and made it impossible for me to have more children. Your father was just glad we were both fine, but I feel like I failed you.”

“Failed me?” Briz gasped out the question. She couldn’t imagine what her mother meant.

“I left the entire responsibility for the continuation of our genetic heritage on your shoulders. You may want to save that small faction of Talorian people, but you are just as precious. Yes, you are half-Metrician, but the rest of you is all that remains of the future of Daroo. If something happens to you, that too is genocide.”

“I could just have some of my eggs—”

“Never!” Her mother’s horrified exclamation cut her off. “You know how I feel about that sacrilege.”

“I can never look your future grandchildren in the eyes if I don’t do this.”

“I know.”

“You know?”

“I’m giving you my blessing, but I hope when you return you’ll think about giving the gods your respect. I also hope you’ll think about having a child.”

She was not going to have a child—she was barely an adult herself—but she would spend some time with her mother in the prayer garden.

“Thanks, Mom. I—”

“There’s no reason to thank me. You’re a grown woman. Just come back to me safe,
Mi Dro
.”

Briz nodded. Her throat ached. This was the first time her mother had actually acknowledged her as a woman—an equal. She gave her mother a tight smile. Her mom’s eyes darkened, and when she smiled back there was more sorrow than joy in the expression.

Chapter 3

Present: Indra controlled space

“Four percent chance of survivability,” reported the computer on Briz’s wrist.

“Super,” she grumbled through her oxygen mask.

Another shiver rattled her teeth so hard she bit her lip and tasted blood. The emergency lights in the cabin flickered, and the ship shook in a very disconcerting way as the pull from the larger craft rattled the aged transport vessel.

If they decided to do another scan, she’d die, and so would the surviving Talorians. Innocent children and their families needed the medication to combat the sickness they were suffering as a result of biological intimidation. The Indra government’s sanctioned terror had infuriated Briz on so many levels she had to act.

The shaking stopped. Briz let go of the breath she was subconsciously holding. She picked up the handheld monitor again. The tractor beam had let
Earth Spirit
go. She was almost out of oxygen in her portable tank. She’d waited as long as she could to use the precious air. The big ship still had to be far enough away that a security scan wouldn’t pick up her life support coming back online.

“Go, hurry up,” Briz whispered at the screen as she watched.

The app on the side of the screen showed the amount of time before it was safe. Anxiety made her throat ache and her heart race. Not only did she have to turn life support back on, but it took time for the interior to be hospitable to human life again.

“Please hurry up,” she begged.

A tear slipped down her cheek and froze. Her finger hovered over the screen. Such a small act would keep her alive, but giving into anxiety and turning everything back on too soon would ruin everything.

Her focus was blurry. She saw a bird flying back and forth above her head. For a long moment she sat content and fascinated by the looping flight pattern. The sound of the ocean was soothing until she realized how the oxygen deprivation was causing her to hallucinate. Briz started to whisper the names of her ancestors.

* * * *

“The patrol left, boys. Time to go see if she’s still alive,” said Blood, captain of the
Heartless
.

Matek stood silent and curious as the captain zoomed in on the antiquated scrapper.
Earth Spirit
didn’t look like much. Life support had been off too long for a human to survive. They’d been following the ship for some time. There was no bio ID on the girl piloting the ship, but they’d detected life signs until just before the Indra patrol vessel had snared the small cargo ship for inspection.

“Do you want us to take the cargo too?” The question came from Blood’s cousin, Paavo. The man wasn’t very bright, but Blood treated him like a brother. “That will score us some hard Metrician currency. We wouldn’t even have to accept soft Coalition credit.”

“The cargo is worthless. It’s the medicine we’re after.”

“But good scrap will bring in some nice profit, so why not take it?” Paavo asked.

Matek was also wondering, but as the newest member of the crew he wasn’t in a position to question the brutal leader.

“We’ll take the medicine, and the girl too, but we don’t have time to unload the scrap. The medicine is worthless if there’s no one to save. Go,” Blood demanded.

“No pilot could survive without life support this long,” Paavo said.

“She’s alive. I know her father, and he’s pulled off a few impressive stunts. If you weren’t my kin, I’d gut you for asking so many questions.” Blood’s voice was cold, and yet there was an underlying amusement.

Paavo didn’t appear worried.

“Only that bastard, Julius, would be noble-stupid enough to agree to a cargo that could get his pilot killed or imprisoned,” Blood said as he shook his head in disbelief. “I almost like the fool well enough to wish this was someone else’s ship and daughter, but this is business. Try not to rough her up too much, but if she fights, do what you have to do.”

Matek didn’t like this. He’d worked hard to become part of the ship’s crew. Fighting for a girl he didn’t know was foolish, but hurting women was against everything he and his tribe stood for. Then again, so was robbery. He’d broken so much of his sacred code for revenge he doubted he’d ever be able to put it all back together again once Blood was dead.

The Indra patrol was out of range now. Blood motioned for him and a handful of others, Paavo included, to go. Matek followed the select group of pirates down to the cargo bay. Tanna and Okthu boarded before him. Paavo was the last on the small ship. There was room for one more person—their prisoner.

Tanna began to power up the small craft. He opened a comm to the bridge. “Tanna here. We’ll be spaceworthy in five minutes. Over.”

“Blood says to make it four. The
Earth Spirit
has turned on life support,” responded Roget, who was the communications operator of the
Heartless
.

“I can’t believe the pilot is alive,” Tanna said softly, as if speaking to himself.

Okthu grunted in agreement.

Tanna tapped the comm on. “Shortcutting procedure. Tell Blood three and a half. Over.”

“Affirmative.”

The sound of the engine whirling to life and the subtle rattle as the ship vibrated against the metal launch deck were familiar and normal, yet Matek couldn’t shake the feeling something was off.

* * * *

Briz shivered as she hurried to re-route control to the bridge. The oxygen level returned here first, but the temperature was much slower to stabilize. She was just glad she could breathe. The hallucinations had stopped, and she was thinking clearly again.

She’d come far too close to death. She couldn’t wait to see the expression on Xev’s face when she gave him the details that she’d leave out when telling her parents the tale.

She toggled a few more settings, and she was starting to think about how best to land undetected, when an alarm blared to her left.

“What in the forgotten names is this?” She spat out the expletive phrase and squinted at the monitor.

Briz saw nothing. And then a shimmer.

“Damn the gods!” Briz shouted as she scrambled across the bridge to where the emergency, very illegal, second power core sat cold. She hoped she had time to use it. There was only one kind of ship that could camouflage as well as this one, and it wasn’t the kind she wanted to tangle with. Pirates never left pilots alive.

She reached into the darkness of the hidden compartment and yelped as she skinned her knuckles. Finding the switch, she flipped the dangerous second power source on. The whole ship shook violently. Briz held onto the wall, her arm still in the opening, and closed her eyes while holding her breath. After a moment, the power cores finished merging. She had a chance.

Briz let go of her breath as relief rushed through her. Scrambling back to the helm, she put her hand on the accelerator and watched the monitor as the power built up. A few more seconds and— She fell out of her seat as the whole ship rattled and trembled under the weight of something docking. The pirates must have sent a boarding party. It was too late to escape.