Ancalagon - 57. Chapter 57

Cooperation was one of my mother’s three basic tenets for first contact. These aliens had protected me, fed me, healed me, changed my body to be like theirs, and probably forever isolated me from the rest of humanity when they did that.

Someone would find the crashed skimmer and make the wrong conclusion. Sonez wouldn’t check too extensively, just order a scan of the surface of the planet from orbit and examination of a few days travel in either direction of the spot.

There were plenty of predators large enough on the planet to consume a human. Someone who was thorough might question where my suit was or the other missing equipment I took with me, but he was anything but thorough.

Odds are, he’d blame me for stealing the skimmer, say I crashed it on purpose, ruin my reputation and declare me dead.

Which left me with a decision to make. Did I let the rest of the Galactic believe that I was dead and help Garjah resolve this with his people and close the rift with the Kardoval? Or did I shock everyone and push the Four Arms to expose themselves to the rest of the universe and reveal my status as very much alive but irrevocably changed?

Rather than answering me, Garjah pulled up a map. “This is the city. We’re here.” He indicated a dark spot on the ordered map. He wasn’t joking when he said those in the snarl didn’t like to be ordered. Apparently it was so disorganized not even a satellite map was visible. “This is the port and the ship.” He tapped a white dot.

“We’re not going there.” They’d have to be waiting for that. I toyed with the arm bands, unable to sit still and do nothing. Bouncer had eased to the floor and had fallen asleep, so I’d lost the blanket over my legs.

“Of course not. I wouldn’t put the crew in danger.” Garjah shook his head. “I am not that naïve, even if I do not play political games. There are things the Kardoval don’t know about me.”

The things I did know about him I could recount with the fingers on four hands… in other words, not that much. Was I surprised he was hiding things from the beings that ruled his entire culture?

Actually, yeah. “You seem like such a rule follower.”

“I am. I am not the one breaking custom. Besides, I did not lie when I became Garjah. Securing the fate of our people is part of my nature. It is not against the laws to fail to reveal that I straddled two paths. Pryntiok was both ti, a nurturer, and ok, a scientist. My father was a government official; he saw the danger of the admitting I had both his memories and his father’s.”

My lips parted, and I stared at him. The bracelets… “You should have these. You’re like your mother.”

“They wouldn’t fit me.” Garjah smiled. “Besides, I am more like my greatfather than anyone else. He trained me.” He grew serious, his thin nostrils flaring. “He was afraid for the direction our people were going too.”

“Why afraid?”

“Nine continents. Billions of beings whose voices are smothered or ignored until many of them have no choice but to fight back. Three of the four quadrants have sent envoys asking for advice about encroachments, as they’re even closer to galactic space.

“I worry the fourth hasn’t even contacted us in nearly a cycle. After we filled the ship, it was supposed to be the next stop on our check of the boundaries of our space.”

“I messed that up,” I said ruefully.

“It wasn’t your fault. None of this has been.” Garjah shook his head. “You are just the latest in a long line of reasons they will seize upon for their excuse to remain in power.”

“That’s it, I don’t get it. Why would joining the Galactic take them out of power?”

Sighing, Garjah pointed to a dark dot on the map on a lower continent. “That’s where I think we’ll find the answer. I know the resistance has a base there; I kept it a secret.”

“From the Kardoval?”

Closing the map, Garjah said, “From everyone, except you that is.”

“So no one will know where we are going?”

“No one.”

To say I was nervous as we flew over the planet was an understatement. We were alone. There was no back up. Garjah was the face of security in the government, and we were going to confront people who were against the government.

There was a chance we could disappear just as permanently as Sonez would make me in the Galactic.

“How long until we get there?”

“Past nightfall.”

Bouncer was asleep. The shuttle was autolocked onto the coordinates of the location Garjah had showed me. There was only so much much oohing and ahhing I could do from above. I longed to explore, learn, if not touch.

There was something I could do. Or someone. We were safe for the moment. The seats weren’t spacious or comfortable, but we could make it work in a pinch.

“What are you doing?” Garjah’s eyes flared wide, his green skin darkening. My nipples peaked in the cool air on the shuttle as soon as I stripped my shirt over my head.

“Multitasking. I’m a scientist; I’m good at it.” As I spoke I pushed down my pants. In another moment I stood naked. “Your turn.”

“Is it?”

“Mmhmm.” Garjah had swiveled his chair sideways; I stood between his legs. “Arms up.” His wide chest invited touch, and I stroked him, tracing the patterns across his defined muscles. “Lift.”

I had no idea how to remove his boots, so I left his pants bunched at his ankles. He didn’t need to stand anyway. Crawling onto his thick thighs, I straddled his legs. My erection had grown as I stripped him, and I pressed it against him.