My Alien Warrior (6 page)

“Believe what?”

“In...I guess you’d call them aliens? Call
us
aliens, that is.”

Kayla opened her mouth to tell him to get out and then shut it. There had always been conspiracy theorists and people who believed in Area 51 and life on other planets. Kayla didn’t know much about space herself, but she had always been a believer that the universe was too vast and too wonderful to just be inhabited by people on Earth. There were too many other planets, too many things that were out of their reach.

How arrogant would it be to believe that all of the rest of the space was uninhabited?

Her father had always believed, as well. He’d told her stories when she was a child about secret government organizations that worked with the governments of other planets, setting up exchanges and putting aliens on Earth so that they could learn from each other.

“Who knows what else is out there, Kayla bear,” he would say as he filled her head with stories of shape shifting aliens and creatures smaller than grains of sand and ones that were so big they needed entire galaxies to themselves.

She’d always believed to a certain extent, and now there was a man claiming to be from another planet in front of her.

Well, she
had
thought there was something off about him from the get go…

“You’re an alien?” she asked, careful to keep her tone neutral. “From where?”

“Blessini. It’s a small planet, but in another galaxy.”

“And you came here to try and find a cure for this disease?”

He nodded, looking somewhat relieved. “Yes. I’m not a medic, I’m a fighter. A warrior, and they named me champion and sent me here. I can’t go back without something that will help. My people, the Kaspersi, are dying. I know it’s not something you have to care about because they aren’t your people and our deaths don’t affect you, but please. If there’s anything you can do to help, please.”

This was definitely beyond her skill set and her pay grade and probably a whole lot of other things, too, but Kayla Abernathy had never been able to ignore a cry for help, and now didn’t seem to be any different. If there was nothing she could do, then she’d at least be able to point him in the direction of people better equipped to help him, even though a small, almost jealous sounding part of her demanded that she be the one to do it.

“I’ll try,” she said. “That’s all I can promise.”

The brilliant grin he gave her seemed to say that it was enough.

Chapter 5: New Places, New Feelings

Earth was nothing like Blessini. His home planet was a tiny place, and while people lived on top of each other in some areas, it was nothing like where he was on Earth. People were
everywhere.
He had gotten so used to the variety of the people around him back home, that the sameness of humans was strange. Everyone had the same basic structure (two arms, two legs, hands, feet, one head) with some variation of disabilities and skin color. There were no vibrant colored eyes or people with scales or forked tongues here, and it made Khaos feel like he stuck out even as he blended in.

When he’d arrived on Earth, he had been a bit disappointed. At first glance it didn’t
seem
all that different from Blessini. It had air and water and technology, and even though Khaos had read all the information about the planet and watched the video feeds, he’d expected something...more.

Something that would wow him and really drive it home that he was on another planet.

Of course, that happened soon enough.

The place where they had landed had been mostly desert area, and from there it was a lengthy drive to another city. It was much more spread out than where Khaos came from, and he caught himself goggling at everything there was to see.

Everything made so much
noise,
even the people, and there was just so much to see. His guides seemed to be amused by his wide eyed wonder, and they showed him around a bit before taking him to the apartment building where he would be staying.

“We’re all from other planets here,” one of the guides had said with a friendly smile. “Easy enough to blend in on Earth, but sometimes you just want to be with beings more like you.”

They’d been here for years already, and Khaos could understand. He’d probably be homesick for his own people before long.

Once he had set up his things and gotten his bearings, the search had begun. He knew how to look for people who were in the medical profession with the help of the guides. The guides had been building relationships with people on Earth who believed in strange things like life on other planets (which wasn’t strange to him, but apparently some humans believed they were alone in the universe, which was probably the most self absorbed thing he’d ever heard before), and wanted to help in exchange for information.

“Intergalactic trading,” one female had explained. “Everyone benefits. We’ll ask around and see what people make of your samples.”

Khaos had been sent to Earth with plenty of samples of the Sickness, taken from Kaspersi in all stages of the illness. There were some samples from healthy people as well, including himself, so that the scientists and doctors would know what healthy cells and blood looked like.

It was all pretty technical and went over his head, and his hands itched for his axe, left behind in his room in the boarding house because apparently bringing weapons to Earth from Blessini was strictly forbidden.

Calin had explained it as a sign of peace and proof that they didn’t mean anyone any harm. Khaos hadn’t planned on hurting anyone with his weapon, it just made him feel better to have it in his hands so he’d know that if he needed to defend himself, he’d be able to. But he understood why he had to leave it behind, even if he took to clenching his hands into fists at his side when he really wished he could escape the long talks about what had been found, or
not
found, since he’d come to Earth.

After two weeks of waiting and getting nothing back, Khaos’ impatient nature had won out, and he’d gone searching on his own.

That was how he’d found her.

Kayla Abernathy, she’d introduced herself as, and Khaos had been taken with her as soon as she’d spoken to him.

She was cautious, since she didn’t know him, but once he’d started talking, he could see the interest in her eyes. He hadn’t expected her to take the ‘I’m an alien’ speech well at all, but apparently she was one of the people who weren’t so arrogant as to think they were alone in the universe.

She’d taken his explanation at face value and agreed to help him.

Even though she claimed there was only so much she could do, she knew an awful lot. Kayla had taken a look at the samples Khaos had brought her under a microscope and then immediately begun scribbling down notes and figures on a notepad while mumbling under her breath every few seconds.

She had looked up at him with wide eyes after she was finished and then smiled. “Well, if I didn’t believe you weren’t human before, I definitely believe it now,” she said. “The similarities are striking, but the differences between your blood work and a human’s are amazing.”

Khaos had been content to take her word for it. He’d peered through the microscope when she’d offered to show him what she meant, noting that everything about his blood seemed bigger and more active than what he was looking at in comparison to a human’s.

“This might take a while,” Kayla had warned him. “I only have a basic knowledge of what I’m doing here, and I have to learn how your cells work before I can make any kind of educated guess about how this illness is affecting them. The scientists you’re working with might figure it out first.”

Khaos had just shrugged. “I don’t mind who figures it out first, as long as someone does.”

That had prompted a nod and Kayla resting her hand on his arm for a moment. “I know,” she’d said. “Ordinarily I’d say that your technology is probably better for this, but your people are right. We have way more diseases and experience fighting them. If you’ve got people at the CDC working on it, I think they’ll be able to tell you something. Meanwhile, I’m just amazed that I get the chance to do this.”

She said things like that often in the time that they worked together. A week passed and then two, Kayla squeezing in time to speak with him and work on her notes when she wasn’t working.

The issue was, she seemed to always be working.

Sometimes she would show up to talk to him with bags under her eyes, proof that she wasn’t sleeping much. While Khaos was grateful for her dedication to his cause and impressed with her dedication to her work and her patients, if she ran herself ragged doing both he would feel bad.

“You don’t have to solve it tonight,” he said to her, one night when they were in her office. It was late, and the clinic had been closed for hours already.

“I know,” she said. “I’m not trying to do that. I’m trying to see how fast it takes these cells to die.” Kayla muffled a yawn behind her hand and rolled her shoulders.

“You should go home and get some rest,” Khaos pointed out. “You have to be back here tomorrow morning.” It had only been two weeks, but he’d already figured out her schedule and how hard she had to be pushing herself to keep up with it
and
do this.

“I know that, too. Just another hour and I’ll head home.”

Khaos shook his head and got to his feet, trying to use his stern face on her. It had cowered some opponents in the arena, and he wagered that it would work on one human woman.

But Kayla just looked up and blinked at him, arching an eyebrow. “What?”

“Go home. What if you miss something because you’re tired?”

“I’m
fine,
” she insisted, but then undermined her words by yawning so widely her jaw cracked.

Khaos just arched his eyebrow in return, pleased that the gesture seemed to mean the same on Earth as it did back home. “Put the things away and go home,” he said again, this time using his stern voice as well.

“Look,” Kayla said. “I know you think you’re a big tough guy or something, and I know you’re just trying to help because you’re concerned or something, but ordering me around is really
not
going to get me to do what you want me to do.”

He sighed. Really, he hadn’t needed her to say that to figure it out. “What will get you to do what I want you to do?” he asked.

“All depends what you want,” Kayla replied on the tail end of another yawn.

Khaos blinked. In that moment, her tiredness had made her voice go husky, and Khaos found that he liked the tone of it. It was almost the same as how Briselle had spoken to him when the two of them had been romping in the soaking tubs at the arena, but there was something different about it that made it almost better.

He stared at her for a moment and then shook his head, coming back to himself. “What if I ask very nicely? Then will you go home?”

Kayla rolled her eyes, but pushed her chair back from the desk. “Fine, fine,” she said. “But only because my eyes were crossing.”

“Because you’re tired.”

“I’m always tired,” Kayla replied, putting her things away. She made sure to pack up everything neatly and store the equipment and samples somewhere where they wouldn’t be disturbed.   

"It's part of the job description." She shrugged and gathered her personal things.

Khaos sort of knew what she was talking about. Fighting in the arena left him sore and worn out most of the time, but that seemed different than the bone deep weariness that seemed to radiate off of Kayla in waves.

He'd never been a particularly
nurturing
person, but he found himself wanting to do something to make this easier on her, especially considering the fact that some of her added stress and tiredness was coming from helping him.

"Let me see you home," he said.

She gave him a mild look. "I can see myself home," she pointed out. "I do every night. Besides, how are you going to get back to your place, if you're busy trying to get me to mine?"

He shrugged. "I walked here this afternoon. It won't be hard to walk back to where I'm staying."

"You
walked
?"

Khaos nodded. "Yes. Is that strange?"

"Kind of. I've never known anyone to not sound put out about having to walk all the way back to their home, but I guess you're different than anyone I've ever met, aren't you?" She shook her head. "Either way, you really don't have to do that."

"I'd like to."

He didn't know why he was so insistent about this. It wasn't that he doubted her ability to get herself back to where she needed to be, but he was worried about the way she seemed to be nodding off where she stood. He couldn't drive her car, but he could at least accompany her and make sure that she didn't fall asleep while operating a heavy moving vehicle.

Kayla looked like she was going to refuse, so he gave her his serious face, hoping that it would do something to make her realize that he only wanted to help.

Things would have proceeded according to his plan if it hadn't started raining as they were leaving the clinic. Khaos looked up at the sky, fascinated by the downpour, getting soaked in the process.

"Do they not have rain where you're from?" Kayla asked him, grimacing as she hovered under the awning of the building, clearly not looking forward to having to make a dash through the falling water to her car.

"Not like this," Khaos explained. “It’s always more of a mist at home. Nothing like this.” He held his hand out, letting the water accumulate in his palm for a moment. “This place is very different from what I’m used to.”

“Do you miss your home?” Kayla asked, looking up at him.

“Sometimes. I miss my job the most. I didn’t have much there otherwise.”

She looked at him consideringly and then back out at the weather. “Tell you what. Let’s run to the car, and you can tell me all about it there. This doesn’t seem like it’s going to let up anytime soon.”

Khaos nodded, and when she counted to three, they ran out into the cold downpour, making it to the car in record time. Once inside, Kayla turned on the heat and they tried to dry off. She shook water out of her hair, worrying her lip between her teeth as she looked at him.