25. Chapter 25
It took almost an entire week before Marissa was cleared for light duty. She”d been given strict instructions not to do anything that would raise her blood pressure or give her a headache. As she healed, following those instructions became harder and harder.
Especially since Cooper was healing with her. When they were both hurt and exhausted, it was easier to just hold each other and rest. As they recovered, however, the urge to do more than hold each other grew.
Cooper was kissing his way down her neck and across her collar, his hands beneath her shirt and stroking along her skin, when a throb of pain through her head had her pushing him away. Her hands flew to her head while he sat panting at the foot of the bed.
”Sorry,” he said, struggling to catch his breath. ”Are you hurt?”
Marissa closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slowed her racing heart. The throbbing in her head eased but it was still very present.
”Headache,” she muttered. ”Fucking headache. This is bullshit.”
Her mate snorted in agreement. ”I”m sure it could be worse,” he said.
”Probably,” she agreed. ”And it took longer to kick in this time. Are you sure your people don”t do the super tiny healing bots thing like the Orvax? Cause those would be really handy right about now.”
”Nope, not for the Chelions. I think the Dragor might have something like that but I”ve never learned anything more than basic field medic stuff for them. Not that they”re likely to be on the field if there”s a battle but accidents happen.”
”Ya know, the more I hear about the Dragor, the more I dislike them,” Marissa said with a frown.
”I”m not exactly much of a fan of them right now, either,” Cooper said.
She cracked an eye open and winced at the light but studied his face before she closed it again. ”You doing okay with some of what you”ve learned?”
”I”m still processing it,” he said with a shrug. ”And I don”t know how much of what I”ve learned is applicable to what I know about my people right now, today, and how much of it is misunderstood lessons from a lost expedition.”
”There”s probably a lot of bullshit to work through before you get to the truth,” she said.
”There always is. And I probably won”t ever get to all of it. I do have a lot more questions to ask Ae-cha and Zoric. I”m not even sure I know where to start.”
”You asked Zoric if they followed the old naming conventions. Maybe start from there? Did you recognize his name?”
”I recognized both their names,” Cooper said, and laid down next to her. The bed was too small for them to both lay flat but neither of them had minded being forced to cuddle. ”They”re not perfect vocalizations, of course, but they”re close enough to names that I learned about as a nymph. They would be seen as odd choices for a Chelion back home.”
”Odd how?” She sighed when Cooper stroked a hand down the side of her face and a gentle wave of cool relief slid across her head. She”d mentioned what had happened when she”d tried to help Captain LaGrange and he”d been trying to replicate it with varying degrees of success.
”You”d consider them villains,” he said. ”Ae-cha Da was the name of a Chelion princess, back when our societies were separated into warring tribes and city-states, who used then betrayed her harem to the Dragor so she could flee. Zoric was a general who assassinated a Dragor diplomat to plunge our people into almost five hundred years of war.”
”Did your people have space travel back then?”
”We”ve always traveled among the stars,” Cooper said. ”I know your people are pretty new to the whole idea but as far back as we have records, we”ve known about and interacted with other planets.”
”I wonder if they have different stories about those names,” Marissa asked. ”They seem to have a much different view of the Dragor than you do.”
”That seems likely. Which gives me an idea of how long they”ve been on this planet, honestly, and I withdraw my assertion that they”re impossible. Unlikely, sure, but not impossible.”
”The more I learn about aliens, the more I think all of you are so unlikely that you”re a near certainty.”
Marissa opened her eyes, the throbbing in her head had eased enough that she didn”t wince at the light, and grinned at Cooper”s frown.
”You will explain that?”
”Hollywood logic, mostly,” she said. ”If something can”t miss, then it”s going to fail every time. If it”s an impossible shot or has million to one odds, it will hit every time. You”re all so unlikely that you have to exist.”
”I begin to understand why I found your people so hard to decipher at first,” Cooper said with a solemn nod. ”You”re all insane.”
Marissa laughed and kissed him. He kissed her back and soon they were well on their way to giving her another headache when there was a knock on the door.
Cooper pulled away and rolled off the bed to stand up and Marissa let out a frustrated breath.
”I don”t know if that”s the worst timing ever or the best,” she said before Cooper answered the door.
John stood on the other side with a grin on his face. ”Was I interrupting?”
”Yes,” Marissa called from the bed.
”Good,” John said. ”You”re supposed to be resting. Except now when you”re supposed to be heading to the conference room.”
”You”re a real buzzkill, you know that?” Marissa said, standing up. ”When am I supposed to be in the conference room?”
”As soon as you”re dressed, I”m supposed to escort you and Cooper to the conference room to meet with the people who got here earlier today.”
Marissa grumbled and Cooper shut the door on a laughing John. They both dressed quickly and were presentable in less than ten minutes. They could have moved faster but they both also took the opportunity to distract each other with light touches, appreciative looks, and very suggestive thoughts.
John was still grinning when they opened the door and Marissa could see him struggling to be polite.
”Oh, I”m supposed to give you this before you walk in,” John said and handed a bag to Cooper.
”What is it?” her mate asked, then stopped when he looked into the bag.
”Cooper?” Marissa asked. Are you okay?
”Where did you get this?” Cooper asked, his voice strained.
”One of the guards with the diplomats said it belonged to you. I figured the group that kidnapped you guys was giving it back as a sign of good faith. Was I wrong? Did I just hand you some kind of alien bomb or something?” John looked concerned.
”It”s not a bomb,” Cooper said, and pulled a heavy metal pendant with a blue stone near the top hanging from an intricate chain from the bag. ”At home it would be explosive but not in the way you think. The few of these that still exist are locked in heavily guarded museums.”
”What does it do?” Marissa asked.
”Officially?” Cooper said with a shrug. ”Nothing. The Chelion who made them and the lines they belonged to died off over a thousand years ago.”
”And unofficially?” John pressed.
”Unofficially, these were used to verify, without a doubt, that someone was part of a specific bloodline. Back when wars were fought over territory and inheritance passed along the family lines. Very rich and very powerful Chelion would make these to confirm whether or not someone was close enough to inherit.”
”I”m guessing this didn”t come from your ship,” Marissa said.
Cooper shook his head. ”I wouldn”t have been allowed to leave the planet if I had one of these. And claiming that it belonged to me would be a death sentence.”
Alarms rang through Marissa”s mind and she wanted to bury the pendant in the desert or inside of whoever had given it to John to deliver.
”So how did it get here and who gave it to me?” John asked. ”Because they didn”t look like an alien.”
”I didn”t either, when I snuck on the base,” Cooper said absently. His gaze was fixed on the pendant and he turned it over and over in his hand. ”We”re good at hiding like that.”
”What are you going to do with it?” Marissa asked.
With a shrug, Cooper stopped turning the pendant over and studied the back. ”See if it still works, I guess. It mostly looks inert but there”s a pin on the back here that looks-”
He pressed his thumb to the back of the pendant and Marissa felt his shock before she saw what was happening.
The stone started to glow and project what looked like a scrolling list in a language that Marissa could only make out because Cooper was translating it for her as he read it. The final line flashed in and out a few times before it solidified.
”What does it say?” John asked.
Cooper removed his thumb from the pin and the list flashed off. He pulled the chain over his head and let the pendant rest on his chest. ”It says it”s mine.”
That”s not all it said,Marissa said in his mind.
No, it”s not, Cooper said.
You”re hiding from me.
We”ll talk about it later. It should be impossible.
Which means it”s absolutely what you think it is.
”I think we need to find out who brought that here,” Marissa said.
”I”ll look into it as soon as I get you to the conference room,” John said. ”Do you think it”ll cause a problem if you come in wearing it?”
”Probably,” Cooper said. ”But I want to see how the others react to it.”
”It sounds like he has a plan,” John said to Marissa. ”I hate it when scouts have plans. Things always get really exciting.”
Marissa laughed.
They got to the conference room and the guard on the door let them in. There were already a handful of human civilians, a couple of them diplomats, an Orvax doctor, an Orvax nurse, Zoric and Ae-cha Da.
Marissa watched the lizard people out of the corner of her eye while she was introduced to the others and she saw the moment Ae-cha Da noticed the pendant. While she tried to hide her reaction, it was obvious she wasn”t happy to see the pendant around Cooper”s neck.
”Major Ozark,” the Orvax doctor, Mintonar, said once they”d all taken their seats. ”I understand you”re still suffering from an injury you sustained recently. As I am here to ask for your assistance in helping me pinpoint an anomaly, I would like to offer the services of our medical bay in exchange.”
Marissa took a moment to try and parse what Mintonar had asked. ”You want me to help you figure out what happened to Captain LaGrange and, in exchange, you”ll fix my concussion?”
”And any other injuries you may have,” he said with a nod.
Marissa shrugged. ”I”m happy to help but I”m not sure how much information I”ll be able to give you. I have no idea what happened to Captain LaGrange. Scared the shi- crap out of both of us, though.”
”Indeed,” he said with a small smile. ”He was most descriptive with his retelling of events. I”d like to hear your side and possibly take a few samples to see if I can begin to unravel this.”
”Samples?” Cooper asked.
”A few tissue samples, a little blood. Less than you”d lose at a human check up.”
”I don”t see a problem with that,” Marissa said with a glance at the Commander.
”You can”t just heal her concussion without asking for something in return?” One of the human diplomats demanded.
Mintonar turned to him with a long-suffering look. ”The samples would be left behind while she was on the table anyway. I am seeking her permission to use them to help another human. Do you not think I should ask for her consent to use her property?”
The diplomat sputtered and Marissa had to hide her smile. She”d liked Damina, too, and was happy to know that she”d been a standard Orvax and not an exception.