War Games (Alien Instincts) (6 page)

Rae watched the newcomer shake his head vigorously with an awkward smile plastered to his face. She frowned slightly at his wide grin and concluded that she was not reassured at all. “Don’t you have a handgun I could carry around to protect myself?” Rae turned to face Markar and could see the ‘no’ already forming in his mind. “I dropped mine when you took me from Earth.” She felt bad that she was trying to guilt him into giving her a gun, but Rae had had a gun on her ever since she joined the military. Now, especially since she felt threatened, she would absently grab for her holster for reassurance and find nothing there.

Markar bent down to dig in the pile of weapons at Rae’s feet. Pulling out one of the smaller items, he held it out for her to inspect. “This one can stun a man and has unlimited energy.” He showed her how to operate it.

Rae sneered in displeasure at the small handgun. “Don’t you have any phasers that are set to kill in this place?” Markar frowned at her a moment and then reached for one of the largest weapons off of the wall. When he dropped it into Rae’s eager arms it was so heavy that she almost toppled over, and probably would have if Markar hadn’t steadied her.

Rae watched Markar’s eyes light with suppressed mirth. “Morians do not like to kill. We believe it should be a heavy burden on one’s heart.” His lips twitched into a smirk as he stared down at her. “And in their hands.”

Rae glared up at him. “Thanks.” she murmured as she shifting the huge killing device in her arms. “I think I’ll keep this thing in here for now.” She tried to hand the gigantic weapon back to Markar, but quickly found out that she could barely hold it, much less move. She looked back up to him for help and saw that he was laughing at her. Seeing her outraged face only seemed to make him laugh even harder.

“It’s not funny! Take it! Now!” She was about to try to use the infernal weapon on him when Markar finally took it out of her grip and placed it back on the wall. Shaking her arms to stretch the muscles out, Rae glowered at Markar. “Glad to see you’re in such a good mood.”

“I suppose I am.” He smiled down at her, and it made him look less intimidating. His good humor was infectious. Rae tried to hide her answering smile by scowling, but it ended up appearing anyway.

“What is so funny?”
Jakar asked curiously from the doorway. Markar turned towards his brother in surprise. He had completely forgotten about him.

“You would not understand.”
he responded quickly, not wanting Jakar to invade his conversation with Rae.

Jakar narrowed his eyes in mistrust at his brother.
“I would understand if you would let me download your program for her native language.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to refuse, but Markar realized the irrationality of that answer. Shaking off the green haze of jealousy that kept overwhelming him, he nodded his head in agreement.
“You are right. I should create a script to teach Rae our language, as well. It is unreasonable to withhold knowledge that could help us all.”

Turning back towards Rae, he saw that she was watching the two of them with wary curiosity. “Rae, would you like to learn the Morian language?” She blinked her eyes at him in confusion.

“Uhh… I’ve never even been very good at English. I doubt I’ll pick it up that fast.”

“That won’t be a problem. We can apply the knowledge directly to your brain. It will be instantaneous.” Markar smiled at her, happy to share the information, but her response was not quite so happy.

Her face morphed from confusion to one of disgust and disbelief. “That sounds dangerous.”

“I assure you it is not.” Markar waited for Rae to agree, but her dislike of the procedure was still evident. “I will show you the operation performed on Jakar before you decide.”

Rae realized this was a good chance to see what kind of advanced technology the Morians had. It would be another thing to check off her list that her superiors gave her. Nodding her head in agreement to watching the procedure, she followed the two aliens out of the weapons room and into the med bay. Jakar laid down on the examination table in the center of the room and Markar sat in a chair in front of a large monitor. Rae sat down in a chair next to Markar. Swiveling around in it absent mindedly, she looked over towards Jakar to see that he was trying to discreetly stare at her from his position on the bed. Frowning at him, she watched as Markar fitted a strange helmet over his head, cutting off his view.

Rae could tell when Markar had activated the machine because Jakar’s body suddenly jerked upwards as if he had gotten an electric shock. Jumping backwards in her chair, she watched as his body twitched and jerked as if in pain. “Is that supposed to happen?” she asked in outrage.

Markar turned to her in curiosity. “Yes. A large amount of information stimulates the body’s nervous system. A program that contains a whole new language, is going to affect the body physically.”

“And you expect me to go through that?” Rae said in disbelief.

“It would make communicating easier. It will not hurt you. I have carefully looked over your physical reports and you are very similar to us.” They both watched as the machine turned off and Jakar came back to reality. Markar quickly removed the headset like contraption, and Jakar stumbled off of the table. Teetering on the brink of falling over, he shuffled towards the far wall and sat awkwardly on the floor.

Rae watched his progress in concern. “Is he going to be ok?”

Jakar looked up at her question and gave her a triumphant looking grin. “I am feeling great!” he said in English, with more bravado than Rae thought he should have, considering his condition.

“Uhh… good for you.” Since Jakar didn’t seem to be fully put together yet, she turned towards Markar. “Does it hurt?”

“No. It is painless. There will be some disorientation, though, as you can see.” They both looked back at Jakar to see him cradling his head in his hands.

“Right.” Rae said unconvinced. She really did not want to go through this procedure. Images of her getting electrocuted to death kept going through her mind, but she knew getting information on alien technology was high up on her assignment list. Rae had an obligation to her country to experience all she could on this mission. Every new experience she had while not on Earth could be invaluable to humanity.

All that was true, but the point that really stood out to her was the tactical disadvantage of not knowing the Morian language. Jakar and Markar could easily start talking in their own dialect, and she would have no idea what they were saying. Actually, that had already happened way too often to suite her already. So that is why, even though she was so scared her palms started sweating, Rae knew she had to go through with this. “You promise it’s not painful? You promise I won’t die?”

Markar looked at her in concern. “Rae, I would not even think of offering this to you if I thought you would come to harm. I have carefully read your physical charts and have calibrated the machine according to your precise DNA. It will not hurt, you will only feel a little nauseous afterwards.”

Nodding her head decisively, Rae stood straight up and marched to the examination table with her head held high, as if she was valiantly going to her death. Which in her mind, she very well might be doing. Markar could reassure her all he wanted, which she didn’t mind hearing of course, but Rae figured there had to be a possibility that this would not go as planned. She lay down on the bed and watched nervously as Markar placed the odd helmet on her head.

“Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” Gritting her teeth, Rae watched Markar sit down and begin to turn on the machine. Meanwhile, she prepared herself to be electrocuted to death.

Brotherly Affection

Rae didn’t feel like she was being electrocuted. At least, the sensation wasn’t painful, but it was very strange. Rae felt as if her brain was getting uncomfortably large in her skull, and odd words kept flying through her thoughts. All of her memories of the last couple days came into crystal clear focus, and then suddenly she could understand all of Markar and Jakar’s conversations that they had spoken in the Morian language.

With an extreme intellectual insight she usually couldn’t quite muster, all Markar’s strange actions in the past couple days formed into a clear pattern. He was experiencing sexual attraction for the first time. With her- the first female he had ever seen. And Jakar was feeling some of the same attraction as well. The implications of Markar’s attraction and his apparent possessive nature flew through her mind, and then like water in her hands, the thoughts slipped from her and Rae opened her eyes to see Markar above her, removing the device from her head. She had a brief thought that there was something she was supposed to remember, before the room began to spin.

Leaning over the examination table, Rae threw up.

“Rae!” Markar yelled in alarm as he bounced around her trying to figure out how to help. He finally settled for holding her hair back, and someone pushed a trashcan under her. Then she kept going till there was nothing left in her.

Dry heaving the final remnants of her stomach; she attempted to wave their attentions off her. Rae tried to say that she was fine, but the words didn’t sound right coming out of her mouth. In fact, they came out in a different language: the Morian language. It took her a while to separate the two dialects in her mind, and on her tongue, but eventually she could understand which language was which.

Once she had her own mind sorted, and her equilibrium back to normal, she began speaking more confidently. “I’m fine now. I’m sorry I barfed all over.” Wiping at her mouth, Rae leaned back on the bed in exhaustion.

“Are you feeling better now? I did not think the disorientation would affect you so strongly. I am sorry, Rae. It seems you did get hurt.” Markar looked so dejected, but Rae couldn’t find any energy to reassure him.

“Yeah, everything’s back to normal now, but I’m so fucking tired.” she slurred out. That was not entirely true. Rae’s head still felt as if someone had put it in a blender. Flopping one arm over her eyes to block out the light, she concentrated on trying to get her head to stop pounding.

When Markar lifted her and moved her to his bedroom, she hardly noticed except to groan out her displeasure at being jostled around. As soon as he tucked her under the sheets, Rae fell asleep.

-

“What the hell have you done to her?” Jakar asked in outrage.

“I did not see you arguing against the operation at any point! So you can just shove all your righteous indignation up your own ass!” Markar threw out with more vehemence than he was actually feeling. Inside he was scared shitless that he might have permanently damaged Rae somehow. He had searched over the information regarding her physical makeup for hours. He practically had it memorized. There should be nothing that would have made her react as she did. The program should have worked fine. He knew all of this with certainty, but yet all he felt was fear.

“Maybe she just has a weak stomach?” Jakar pondered.

Markar grunted noncommittally in response. Sitting down, he held his head in his hands and went over and over the codes he had written for Rae’s program. They were flawless, absolutely impossible to mess up. Maybe she really was just easily affected by the disorientation caused by downloading the information. It was her first one after all.

Markar and Jakar stayed awake in shifts to wait for Rae to emerge. It was on Markar’s shift that he heard her begin to stir and he helped her to get up. After feeding her, they made their way towards the showers. Her health seemed in good order, except for the exhaustion she was experiencing. Markar watched her bathe again, but this time he felt no active sexual compulsion, only the urge to protect. He still watched her form in awe; amazed that so beautiful of a creature existed.

When she was done, Markar was waiting for her outside the door to the bathing facilities. “How are you feeling?” he asked while searching her face for clues. Rae had downplayed the entire incident and had hardly complained at all, even though it was obvious she had felt horrible.

Her tired face brightened for only a moment at his question. “Much better. That shower did wonders.” Rae smiled up at him, trying to will herself into recovery. Markar only frowned at her in return. She had the distinct impression he didn’t believe her. “Really. No more dizziness, no throwing up. I feel great!” He looked her up and down doubtfully.

Rae knew Markar had watched her shower. This time didn’t bother her as much. Maybe she was just getting used to his attention, or just too tired to care. She kept feeling like there was something she was supposed to remember. A reason she should both encourage his affections, and fear them. Shaking the feeling off, she followed Markar towards the kitchen.

Before the two could enter the room, Markar pushed Rae against the wall and covered her mouth with his hand in time to muffle her indignant yelp. Rae looked up at him in confusion, but he wasn’t paying any attention to her. Markar’s head was cocked in the direction of the kitchen. Straining her senses, Rae could hear voices coming from the room. One of them she recognized as Jakar’s, the other voice was completely new to her, and it sounded odd, as if it was probably a long distance video call. With her new knowledge of the Morian language, Rae could understand the conversation perfectly.

“Greetings Jakar. Is Markar available?” said a disembodied voice. Rae could not see either man because Markar was holding her in place in the hallway.

“He’s indisposed at the moment.” Jakar responded uneasily.

“Well, we are contacting him because we have records that indicate that there has been an unusually high increase in the testosterone levels of Markar over several occasions. Do you know if he has encountered anything abnormal lately, or participated in any rigorous physical activity?” said the unknown man.

“Not that I know of. Everything is fine.”

There was an uncomfortable pause. “I am sorry, but I am duty bound to ask. You both are aware that sexual affection between brothers is frowned upon?” he said with feigned nonchalance.