Chapter 22
Suitors
Conflicting emotions churned in Darren’s insides. He was relieved to be on the Pioneer and off the dreadful Drypso, on the other hand, he could hardly bear to leave Aelanna behind to the mercy of the Ohirins. The thought soured his gut, and sour won out over relief.
The brothers’ bodyguard duties were finished, and all three were in the diner taking their time over a leisurely hot drink, a mixture of herbs that was supposed to settle the stomach and soothe nerves.
It didn’t work for Darren. Elbows on knees, silent and still, he sat at a table with Lero and Blayze and stared at it.
“For grack’s sake, cheer up, brother. You’re as miserable as a soggy Daika that’s been left out in the rain,” grumbled Lero.
Darren didn’t look up. “I miss her. I worry about her.” His uneasy feeling, which had gone during his time with Aelanna, had returned with a vengeance. It gave him indigestion.
Lero rolled his eyes; Darren felt it. “You think me and Blayze don’t feel the same about ours?”
Darren leaned forward and picked up his drink. He was self-indulgent. Of course, his brothers were suffering, too. He took a gulp of tea and hoped the mixture would work.
“Has Joel reported back to Ohiri?” he asked, more to contribute to the conversation than he was interested in the answer. He had to make an effort.
Lero nodded. “Along the lines of mission accomplished, cargo safely delivered, and we’re on our way back.”
“Don’t refer to our fated mates as cargo,” Blayze complained.
Lero shot him a dirty look. “I’m using the word that he used in his transmission. The Ohirins stamped top secret all over it. No need to broadcast to the galaxy that we’ve found females.”
“The transmission was encrypted, surely?” Darren's tone was mildly disbelieving.
Lero returned a look that was mostly a sneer.
“Of course, it was gracking encrypted, you shadow-blinded fool. Drek already attacked, and Yithir knows how they found out about the mission. We beat them off, more by luck than by judgement.” He sounded at the end of his tether, and Darren felt sorry for him. Almost.
“How did they know?” asked Blayze, not at all intimidated by Lero’s bad temper.
“We don’t know,” Darren replied. “No doubt there’ll be an investigation when we land on Ohiri. I wouldn’t like to be in Joel’s boots.”
“I wish they’d sent Ohirins to deliver the females. Why us?” asked Blayze, his dark brows furrowed.
Lero went thoughtful for a second. “I have a theory about that. You know how species love reptiles or hate them... ”
Blayze: “It’s like Sunset Sauce, you love it or you hate it. There’s no in between.”
Lero: “Precisely. I reckon the Ohirins use us for our appearance. That’s why they sent Pilot Joel and the Dheltan crew to Earth to collect the females. We appeal to humans; if they had seen lizards, they never would have gotten on the ship.”
Blayze nodded slowly. “Wily grackics.”
“Also, we’re useful in certain combat situations. We’re mammals; Drek couldn’t freeze us out like they did the Ohirins,” added Darren.
“Yeah, how’d they do that?” Blayze wouldn’t let it go.
Darren drained his cup and shoved to his feet. “Let’s go to the bridge and ask if we can make ourselves useful; no use sitting around here moping.”
“Speak for yourself,” retorted Lero.
The Drypso capital city wasn’t much better than the military base attached to it, though it was bigger. Translation — bigger meant more huts and more streets, though the streets were little more than dusty tracks. It was depressing. Even the capital name was uninspiring: Drypso Main.
Aelanna learned that Drypso was a small planet with one landmass, and the rest of it was covered in sea.
The Ohirin Empire had left just enough lizard-people to defend it and had built the capital city and the base as a bare minimum.
They had inherited buildings from the planet’s history, so that was a bonus.
Drypso had been a trading post before the Ohirins had won it, a passing-through stopover, where ships called in for emergency repairs and to restock essentials.
It was pointless building satellite towns in the desert.
Nobody wanted to live there, Aelanna thought, so why bother?
The girls were moved by ground transporter supervised by Rathri to a hut much like the one they’d stayed in at the base.
It was only a short journey and ended in a room which was like a large office or reception area, stripped of decoration, only large sectional seating and a few hard chairs, and double doors at the other end.
It wasn’t a bar, like they’d been in before.
This felt more like an administration block.
Rathri told them to sit before she made her announcement. She had a clipboard.
“If you’re lucky, you’ll get three suitors.” She smirked. At the girls’ funereal expressions, she cleared her throat and carried on deadpan. “It was a joke, an attempt to lighten the mood.”
She drew a deep breath. “Your suitor will take you to a private office through those doors, and you will chat for half an hour.” She pointed to the far doors and Aelanna could see a corridor through the glass windows.
“At the end of the day you will choose the suitor you prefer. If you don’t choose, a suitor will be chosen for you. There will be breaks for lunch and tea, and the washrooms are in the corridor about halfway along. That will be all. Look lively!”
The lizard woman marched to the entrance, intent on her clipboard.
Aelanna sat next to Kora and Nayli.
“There’s only one city. There’s a good chance we won’t be separated,” she whispered.
Kora flashed her brows; Nayli stared at her lap. Aelanna had no idea what her friends thought of it.
The first suitor was a young lizard in an impeccable uniform, though however smart they looked, Aelanna didn't like the way their jackets were overlong to fit their stretched oval bodies and their pants seemed too short because they had little legs and their tails stuck out of the pants. Ugh. They reminded Aelanna of iguanas, though she’d only seen pictures.
Ensign Rathri made a note on her clipboard.
She looked up and called out, “Captain Thrashk for Aelanna Smith.”
Kora snorted. “Good luck.”
Nayli’s head snapped up and her eyes widened.
Aelanna blanched. She froze. All the breath seemed to leave her body as the lizard man approached.
“Lady Aelanna, shall we go and talk in private?” rasped the captain, bending over her seated form and offering his arm. She couldn’t very well refuse.
A gasp from Nayli spurred her to jump up and take the arm. She followed Nayli’s gaze. Brigadier Zittishk had come for her. Aelanna remembered him from the welcoming committee the day before.
She allowed the captain to lead her to an office, on his cold arm. She didn’t want to touch his skin because she dreaded it would be clammy, and she was thankful for the fabric of his sleeve under her hand.
He opened the first door in the corridor, put his hand on the small of her back and guided her into the room.
“This way, warm cheeks.”
A metal desk was in the room with a padded chair on the business side and two wooden visitors' chairs, but the surface was clear. A window looked onto the next hut. The floors throughout were the same composite stuff they had in the barracks. It was all very bare and depressing.
The captain laid his cap on the desk with care and smoothed the ‘hair’ on his crest. Ugh. He moved to the padded chair, draped his tail over an arm, and sat in it then indicated Aelanna should sit.
When she’d done it, he changed his mind and moved to the wooden chair alongside hers, stroking his hair as he sat. She felt sure she would never get used to the business with the crest.
“This is less formal. I want to make you feel at ease. You needn’t be frightened of me,” he said. “My name is Rout Thrashk, Captain Thrashk, but I’d be honored if you’d call me Rout. What is yours?”
She was so busy trying to hide her aversion of lizards, she didn’t hear what he said. She eyed him in alarm, then swallowed, an attempt to make her dry mouth work.
“Pardon?” she croaked.
“I asked if you have a name,” he clipped.
Confused, she frowned. He already knew her name. Rathri had yelled it, loud and clear.
“Aelanna Smith.”
He stared at her with unblinking reptilian eyes. “Aelanna Smith,” he repeated in a flat tone, and his stare only succeeded in making her uncomfortable, and she blushed.
“Why has your face turned red? Is your blood trying to escape?” he asked. His face was deadpan. She couldn’t read it and she didn’t understand why he was asking.
“It’s too warm here, I mean, for us. For mammals,” she stuttered. At his silence, she dug her hole deeper. “We’re mammals, you know. Humans are...”
A lame excuse, but he wasn’t to know.
After a pause, he said, “I find your warmth appealing. You generate your heat in your own bodies, yes? It’s very attractive to me.”
Confused and repelled, she sprang to her feet. “Look, you’re very nice and all that, but you and me... it’s never gonna work.”
He looked up at her. “But I’ve already cleared a space in my nest. You will fit well into it.” He sounded taken aback. Thank God his tone gave some indication of his emotions, because his face certainly didn’t.
She froze again, rooted to the spot. “Nest?” she bleated.
“Look, you won’t get any other suitors. There’s only me.”
“Why not?”
“Because most of us prefer lizards. We know that this is an experiment to foist mammals on us by High Command, but it won’t work.” He was pleading now. “A few of us are willing to give it a try and as I say, you’re pleasing to me. Strong prey makes strong offspring.”
Prey.
She turned to flee and she got as far as the door when he said, “They’ll allocate you to me, anyway.”
She didn’t want to hear any more. She scuttled back to reception and flopped on a sectional alongside Kora.
“How did it go?” asked Kora.
“Don’t ask,” she replied, fanning her flushed cheeks with a hand and without turning her head to her friend.
“I haven’t had suitors. Nobody’s asked for me.”
“Count yourself lucky. Where’s Nayli?”
Kora jerked her head toward the bar. “In with the brigadier.” She mumbled the next bit through her teeth, trying not to move her lips. “Looks like an escape plan is priority number one.”
To Aelanna’s horror, Captain Thrashk burst through the doors and ran up. He had chased after her.
“You don’t get to say when I've finished with you. I do,” he barked. Ohirins didn’t go red in the face, but she could see he was angry. He had forgotten his cap, and the fleshy fringe on his crest stood rigid, and he trembled all over.
Aelanna was struck dumb, and the others were staring.
Kora crossed her arms and gave him her best side-eye. “We’ve traveled a long way in space to be here, but I wasn’t aware we’d gone back in time to the days when women were their husbands’ chattels,” she said sarcastically.
Thrashk turned on her, fists clenched. “Be quiet, female.”
Kora rolled her eyes.
Ensign Rathri marched over from her station at the door. “What’s going on, here?”
“My female is insubordinate. Rebellious. I must beat obedience into her,” Thrashk told her.
Aelanna gasped.
Rathri looked Aelanna and Kora up and down coldly, and she made her disapproval plain on her face. “I’m sure that won’t be necessary. I’ll have words with the females when the interviews are over.”
“Let me know if there’s any improvement in her attitude,” he clipped and marched out.
Aelanna kept silent. Thrashk was an obstinate man, and she didn’t think a mere woman could persuade him to her point of view. That he should show his temper before she’d chosen him confirmed his arrogance, or maybe he was right about being her only suitor.
If she was forced to go through with it — whatever it was — perhaps she could reason with him. Her thoughts didn’t shrink the stone of dread in the pit of her stomach though. She fought the urge to throw up.
By the end of the day, Aelanna didn’t have any more suitors and none of the others had, and the ensign had nothing to write on her clipboard.
In Aelanna and Kora’s opinion, the experiment spectacularly failed.
Still, there was always the chance that she could be given to Thrashk as he’d predicted, she thought hopelessly.
But more worryingly, if the lizards abandoned the program, what would the Ohirins do with them?
Then at breakfast a few days later, a rumour buzzed around the canteen that the Pioneer had returned.
Why had it come back? Had the repairs failed?
She didn’t want to see Darren again, or she did, but it was too painful for them both.
She cowered in her room, feeling miserable and conflicted, but above all, she feared Thrashk returning for her.
No lizard came to claim them though Aelanna and Nayli sweated it through days and night at the possibility of the captain and the brigadier showing up in Rathri’s office insisting on their claims.