Resident Alien: Department of Homeworld Security, Book 2 (7 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Horatio Cannibal Space-Frog had stepped a bit away from Brendan’s equipment. He was still close enough that he was about to get a nasty surprise. By Brendan’s count, the EMP and fireworks should happen any minute.

The problem was, Kira was still in the cabin. At ground zero. She was confident having her nanites powered down would protect her, but Brendan wasn’t so sure. He held her hand tighter.

There was nothing they could do about that. But maybe they could learn more while they waited for the big boom.

“So…from what Kira tells me, you guys are risking a lot being here on Earth. What is it—the scenic views? Bean burritos?”

Horatio snorted. “Something like that.”

Brendan looked over at Kira. “What is it with you aliens and bean burritos?”

“You know, if we’re going to die anyway, I want to finish that one,” Kira said. She tugged his hand and led him to the counter.

“Whatever makes you happy,” Horatio said. Which was weird. “Stay on this side, if you please. I do need to keep you where I can see you.”

Kira hopped up onto the counter and patted the space next to her. She was up to something. Brendan only hoped it was enough to get them out of this.

Horatio and his bodyguard didn’t seem to mind. Kira picked up the bean burrito and took a bite, staring at their unwelcome visitors as she chewed.

“You don’t seem very worried about the signal we just sent,” Brendan said.

Horatio shrugged. “The
Arbiter
left orbit yesterday and is well on its way to Sadr-4. It’ll take it at least a day to return. That gives us some wiggle room. The Sadirian wants a last meal. What about you? What would make you happy?”

“I want to know what you’re up to on my homeworld.” Brendan figured he might as well go for it, since the guy asked.

“I don’t see the harm.”

Seriously? This guy was going to spill his master plan? Had he never seen a James Bond movie?

Horatio smiled as he walked around the cabin, looking at the fireplaces and feeling the fabric of the quilts. “We’re really not so bad. All we want is to make people happy.”

“Why?” Brendan asked. “There’s always an angle. What’s in it for you?”

“Naturally occurring oxytocin, primarily. With a few other yummy human feel-good hormones thrown in the mix.”

“Oxytocin,” Brendan said. He looked over at Kira.

“It’s the main component in
Balance
,” she said.

“But you Tau Ceti guys can’t use
Balance
.”

“Ah, very good,” Horatio said. “I see you’ve been learning about us already. Yes, synthetic
Balance
doesn’t react well with our physiology. It’s much too concentrated to be truly enjoyed. But a similar mix of chemicals in the wild…”

“Wait…” Kira set down her burrito. “You’re harvesting oxytocin from humans?”

“We find it has a much smoother finish and a better buzz.” He looked at Brendan and said, “You needn’t worry too much about your fellows. We have a strict catch and release policy. After we feed, the human is returned to the wild. Our geneticists have worked up some modifications with the latest generation. We don’t even need tools for harvesting.”

Horatio leaned his head back and opened his mouth wide, revealing a pair of sharp canine teeth hanging down from the roof of his mouth. Brendan put his arm in front of Kira and leaned to the side so he was partly blocking her. Not that it would do a lick of good against that nasty looking weapon the heavy by the door held.

Horatio laughed. “You know, pair-bonding makes the blood much sweeter, the hit more…stimulating.”

“Vampire space frogs,” Brendan said. “You guys are freaking vampire space frogs? You have to be kidding me.”

Horatio laughed. “That’s a rather apt description, I suppose. Although we’ve left most of our frogishness behind.”

“It wasn’t an improvement, from what I can see,” Brendan said.

“What? All our humans are free-range,” Horatio said. “It makes the chemicals more pure when we harvest them. It’s too bad we can’t keep you two alive. I bet you’ll be tasty. But we can’t run the risk of you escaping when there’s a whole planet of humans we can feed from. Which brings us back to your final usefulness. I will ask only once, and then I will start removing appendages. The Sadirian knows this is not an empty threat. What was in that broadcast?”

Brendan’s computer beeped. Thirty seconds.

“What was that?” Horatio asked.

Brendan shrugged. “Primitive tech. It’s noisy.”

He and Kira grabbed for each other at the same time, swinging themselves over the counter and onto the floor. She reached out and snagged the med-kit on the way.

His equipment let out a final beep, then he heard a crackle-bang as the explosives detonated. Sparks flew over their heads and Brendan smelled the acrid scent of burning electronics.

If all went according to plan, the EMP would have gone off at the same time. The space frog by the door had metal devices obviously worked into his body, making him a
cyborg
vampire space frog. More fodder for the nightmares Brendan hoped he survived to endure. The grunts he heard from the direction of the door encouraged him, as did the fact that Kira seemed unfazed.

She opened the med-kit and pulled out two clear vials. She popped the lids from each and handed one to Brendan.

“
Balance
,” she said. “Don’t get it on your skin.”

Brendan nodded. He wasn’t sure what she had in mind, but followed her lead as she jumped up from behind the counter. The cyborg space frog by the door was bent double, his arms dangling heavily from his shoulders. Brendan thought maybe that was it for the guy, but he straightened and took a few jerky steps toward them.

Kira flung her vial of
Balance
. The liquid splashed onto his skin and within seconds a blissful expression covered his face. He sank to the ground, eyes closed.

“Where’s the other one?” Brendan asked.

Kira slammed into him, knocking him clear as something dropped from the ceiling, landing right where he’d been. He turned and saw Horatio crouched on the floor in a stance no human could achieve. Well, not without several broken limbs.

“How many knees and elbows do you have?” Brendan asked.

Horatio grinned, then leapt at Kira.

“Look out!” Brendan shouted. His warning was unnecessary.

She dodged to the side, spinning around and landing a brutal kick into Horatio’s ribs. Brendan had never seen anyone move so fast. The force of the impact propelled Horatio into the wall of the cabin. Instead of bouncing off and hitting the floor, he sort of…stuck there. He looked at Brendan with eyes that blinked sideways.

“That’s just wrong,” Brendan said.

Horatio launched himself at Brendan, his fangs gleaming in his wide-open mouth. Just before he reached Brendan, Kira brought both her arms down on his back, fists clenched together in a hammer of flesh and bone. This time, Horatio hit the floor.

Kira lashed out with another kick, catching Horatio under his armpit. He made a screeching noise, then collapsed. She nudged him with her foot. She was barely panting.

“That was so hot,” Brendan said.

Kira raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged.

“I’m just saying.” He finally remembered the vial in his hand and flicked some of the liquid on Horatio. “Take that, vampire space frog.”

When he looked back at Kira, she smiled.

Chapter Fourteen

Kira tucked herself deeper into Brendan’s side as they snuggled in front of the fire. He had wrapped them both up in a quilt after making her a cup of tea. Her bare feet were pulled up next to her on the couch, and she was more comfortable than she had ever been.

The door to the cabin burst open. She and Brendan looked over their shoulders at the two Sadirians that leapt into the room. They were dressed as Earthlings, which was a bit of a surprise. Their arrival wasn’t. Kira had turned her nanites back on a few times, and they let her know that the
Arbiter
was already in orbit.

Kira had warned Brendan to hold still and wait for her to explain who she was and why the signal had been sent from his cabin. Noting that the pair wore Offense bracers beneath their long-sleeved shirts made her glad for that. They were security.

The first to enter the room was a dark-haired woman with amber skin and pale gray eyes. She was followed by an extremely tall man with blond hair, blue eyes and…

“Khel?” Kira sat up straighter.

“Kira…”

Khel nodded curtly, his stance relaxing. “Stand down, Sorca. She’s with us.”

“Actually, she’s with me,” Brendan stood and crossed his arms, glaring at Khel.

Kira couldn’t help but laugh at the obvious claim Brendan was staking. It wasn’t just that he was half Khel’s mass. From what she‘d heard, Khel had always been averse to using
Coupling
even by himself, let alone with a partner. Genetically he might be a glitch, but he acted like a perfect Sadirian soldier. Her laughter cut off abruptly as General Serath walked into the room.

His hair was dark and reached the collar of his shirt. His face was half-covered by what looked like the start of a beard. That was a change from the images she’d seen. But it was definitely Serath. One eye was as green as the sunsets on Vega-3, the other blue as the sky outside.

She leapt to her feet, fighting to extract herself from the quilt. It dropped to the ground as she stood at attention. In her periphery, she saw Brendan salute.

Her stomach knotted. Why was General Serath planetside?

He stepped aside, revealing a tiny woman with blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail and huge glasses resting on her small nose. An Earthling?

As if that wasn’t confusing enough, the woman reached for General Serath’s hand…and he let her take it.

The room spun a bit as Kira’s sense of reality adjusted to the new data. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who had fallen for an Earthling.

“Report.”

General Serath’s order snapped her into her role as a Coalition soldier.
Don’t think. Just obey.

“Sir. Two Tau Cetis detected our broadcast. They’ve been neutralized.”

Kira nodded briefly to the two bound and drugged Tau Cetis in the corner of the cabin. Sorca and Khel were already securing them with Coalition tech. Kira relaxed a bit, glad to have suspension disks to back up the
Balance
still in their systems.

“Good work,” General Serath said.

“Sir?” Kira could feel her eyes bugging out of her head. Good work? It was just her duty. Why would he praise her for that? The blonde woman smiled and shifted closer.

Cygnus-X
…

This time, he caught Kira’s stare and grimaced. “And?”

Kira cleared her throat. “We’ve determined that the Planetary Liaison had falsified my assignment to get me on the listening station so that he could scrub the reports before sending them to the Coalition.”

“And where is the listening station?”

Moons. She stood straighter. “Destroyed, sir. It was boarded by the Tau Ceti. I initiated a self-destruct in an attempt to disable their ship and take out as many as I could while preventing them from obtaining the data they sought.”

Please, let them never find out how…

“You did more than disable their ship,” Sorca said. She had a grin that was nothing less than bloodthirsty. It somehow made Kira like the woman. “You destroyed it. We scanned the debris field.”

Kira nodded, her stomach tight. Taking out a Tau Ceti vessel wasn’t an easy feat. She had done it with a
listening station
. An odd emotion bubbled up inside of her. Was this what pride felt like?

General Serath was staring at her. She tried not to fidget.

“We also have obtained additional information,” she said.

“We?”

Her stomach seemed to drop through the floor. “I was assisted by—”

“Brendan Sloan.”

Brendan held up his hand, splitting his fingers in a “V” shape again. She’d have to ask him about that later—if they had a ‘later’.

The woman at General Serath’s side laughed and returned the gesture.

“I knew I recognized a fellow nerd,” Brendan said.

“And proud of it. I’m Evelyn Chambers.”

“Very pleased to meet you.”

“Since Earth has different customs with introductions, allow me,” Evelyn said. “The big blond guy is Khel, second-in-command of the
Arbiter
, which is this totally amazing spaceship. That’s Sorca, head of security. And this is General Serath, but on Earth, he goes by Adam Smith.”

General Serath grimaced, but nodded to confirm her statement.

“Ma’am. Aliens.” Brendan tapped his forehead twice in an odd gesture that made him seem he was wearing an invisible hat.

Evelyn grinned again.

He nodded toward Kira and said, “Kira made contact after her station was destroyed. She explained that she’d been monitoring a transmission I was sending into deep space and knew I had equipment that could help.”

Her stomach filled with butterflies. He was protecting her again. It just might be possible that she would get out of this with all her secrets intact—talking to Brendan, her aberration, falling for an Earthling.

But she didn’t want to get away with it. She wanted to stay.

“Sir—”

Everyone in the room turned to her when she didn’t continue. She wasn’t used to being at the center of so much attention. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she took Brendan’s hand.

“That’s only part of what happened.”

Khel let out a chuff of breath and stalked to the door, leaning against the wall next to it. Sorca’s eyes widened, but that grin came back.

The General—Adam—scowled.

Kira could feel her heartbeat in her throat. Adam was very likely to order a mind-wipe for Brendan. It was protocol. Being free or being in prison didn’t really matter at that point. Either way, she would have lost the most important part of her life—Brendan’s love.

“Permission to speak freely, sir?”

Evelyn jabbed Adam in the rib, hard. He let out a little grunt, then sighed. “I’m going to regret this. Permission granted.”

Speaking her mind to one of the greatest Generals the Coalition had ever seen. Kira wasn’t sure what to say, how to begin.

Brendan squeezed her hand. She looked up into his eyes, brimming with warmth and love.

“Tell him.” Brendan shrugged. “Just tell him.”

She took a deep breath and stared at the ground for a moment while she collected herself. “I didn’t excel at anything in the pod where I was raised. I didn’t…suck.” She smiled at Brendan, and he smiled back. Just that simple act was infinitely reassuring. “But I didn’t have anything anyone was looking for. That’s why they put a nanNet in me. To make me good for something.”

She felt Brendan’s grip tighten, could sense the tension coming off of him. And she knew in that moment that he still would have fallen in love with her just as she was. He would have accepted her—cherished her—without trying to change her. How could she possibly let go of this?

“I thought it would finally mean a good assignment. A ship, a crew. Colleagues. Friends.”

Pain rose up from her gut, strong as a gravity well. It pulled at her, trying to draw out her hope, to crush her with the weight of the memories of loneliness. She wouldn’t let it.

“Instead, they put me in a listening station. Single-unit orbiters. I have the data storage, why not. And it turned out, I was good at it. I
am
good at it. Listening. So they kept me on assignments. For four years I have been alone, orbiting worlds with sentient beings as alien to me as…” She shook her head. “As the people who raised me.”

“That’s not protocol,” Khel said. “You should have been assigned rest-cycles for months between assignments.”

“When has protocol stopped anyone from doing something that’s easy?” Kira said. “I didn’t speak up. I accepted the assignments, one after another, because I wanted to feel useful. I wanted to help. And then, I heard Brendan. And…I broke protocol myself. I answered him. But I had to.” She looked pointedly at Adam’s hand, gripping Evelyn’s tight. “You of all people have to understand what it’s like to finally find that person you can connect to on a…
human
level. How can I let that go, sir? Could you?”

“What are you suggesting?” Adam asked.

“I want to stay.” She was surprised and gratified at how strong her voice sounded. Inside, she was shaking.

“You know what this means.”

Kira wasn’t sure she had heard him correctly. Was he actually thinking about letting her stay?

“Revoking your citizenship,” he said. “Never being allowed to leave the planet.”

She could handle that. “Yes, sir.”

“And having your nanNet permanently disabled.”

Her heart seized. For a normal augmented person, they might be upset to lose the extra functionality. For her, it meant losing the only companions she’d had during her long years of isolation. Before Brendan.

“No,” Brendan said. “No freaking way. You’re not taking that from her.”

She squeezed his hand to warn him. It wouldn’t make sense for her to be too upset about it. She had explained her aberration to Brendan while they waited for the
Arbiter
to return, including the danger of others finding out about it.

“It’s protocol,” Adam said.

“Protocol would be to give the Earthling a mind-wipe and throw Kira in jail.” Everyone turned to Sorca. She shrugged one shoulder, then grinned. “I’ve never been a fan of protocol.”

Brendan gestured to Sorca. “What she said. I’m not getting a mind-wipe, whatever that is, and Kira’s keeping her nanNet. And her citizenship.”

Adam arched an eyebrow.

“I’m not asking your permission to play
Little House on the Ignorant Prairie
.” He turned to Kira and said, “This isn’t just about us.”

Right. Kira nodded. “The Tau Ceti aren’t just setting up pockets of their habitat on Earth. They’re feeding on Earthlings.”

“What?” Evelyn stepped forward, glancing to Adam.

“Those guys on the floor?” Brendan said. “They’re vampire space frogs.”

Evelyn laughed until she noted Brendan didn’t join her. “Oh, you’re serious.”

Adam wrapped his arm around her as she shifted closer.

“They’re siphoning off oxytocin and other hormones from humans,” Kira said.

“So they get a hit like Coalition citizens and
Balance
.” Sorca flinched ever so slightly, glancing at the other soldiers. When she and Kira met gazes again, she knew Kira had picked up on the hidden data in her statement. Kira could see the nervousness in Sorca’s eyes. Sorca didn’t use
Balance
, either.

“Don’t get me started on that,” Brendan said. “I’ve learned enough about your government to have serious concerns about you making decisions for my homeworld. It ends now.”

“What are you suggesting?” Adam said.

“I’m not suggesting anything. It’s done.” Brendan wrapped his arm around Kira’s waist, mirroring Adam’s posture with Evelyn. “I don’t care what the Coalition thinks about Earth’s level of development. We’re forming the committee for pre-First Contact work. The Department of Homeworld Security. You want to make a decision about my people, you’re going to talk to us first.”

“I see Kira has explained quite a bit about our society.” Adam fixed her with an uncomfortable stare. “But she seems to have neglected to inform you that you’re not in the position to make demands.”

“Oh, she didn’t have to. I inferred from what she told me and set up some things while she was out of the room.”

“What did you do?” Kira’s heart sank. She had only left the room for a few minutes to use the bathroom. What could Brendan have set up in that time?

“I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about it first, but I wanted you to have plausible deniability.”

Sorca said, “I doubt an Earthling has the resources to do anything that could possibly impact the Coalition.”

“I guess I forgot to mention that I work with my own government,” Brendan said. “And while I agree that they aren’t ready to handle all this alien stuff, there are a few of us that can pool our resources and help to guide the Coalition into making better choices for our planet.”

“Such as?”

“Like making Kira the planetary liaison.”

Kira’s stomach lurched. Brendan hadn’t mentioned this when they talked before.

“I’m not going to tell you what I’ve done, because it’d make it that much easier for you to try to stop me. Frankly, though, I’d rather we work together. These space vampires are feeding on my people and destroying our ecosystems. That has to stop.”

“Agreed,” Evelyn said.

Adam nodded. “Agreed.”

Kira thought Adam was only referring to their goals, but then he said, “Kira will be the new planetary liaison for Earth. I’ll see to it.”

Kira felt her jaw drop. Her gaze met Evelyn’s and the Earthling smiled so warmly that Kira couldn’t stop herself from returning it.

She was going to be Earth’s next planetary liaison… She could stay with Brendan, help protect his homeworld. Finally, she could make a difference. And she wouldn’t be alone.

“One last matter,” Brendan said. “My sister might be in the line of fire. She’s an environmental scientist whose work is somehow tying her in with the ecosystems the Tau Ceti are messing with. I want a bodyguard for her. Someone who can stand up to space frogs.”

Adam nodded. “Khel.”

“No no no. I am not sending Thor here to watch over my baby sister.” He glared at Khel and said, “Kira,
please
tell me this isn’t one of the guys you used
Coupling
with.”