26. Chapter 26
Cooper tried to pay attention to the meeting that was obviously the preliminary opening to negotiations with all the aliens the humans had encountered but his mind kept returning to the pendant around his neck.
The language had changed, the spellings, but he recognized the list of names. He”d learned them as a nymph. A list of traitors and spies who had conspired over the ages to keep the Dragor from assuming their place as the guides and caretakers of their planet. Who had worked to keep the Chelion weak and vulnerable to war, disease, famine, and despair.
And his name had been added to the list.
A confirmed link to the last of the family to wear the pendant.
Ae-cha Da.
Not the one sitting down the table and glaring at him when she thought nobody was looking. The one who she”d been named for.
There was no doubt the Chelion female knew what the pendant was. Or what the soft glow of the blue stone meant.
He wondered what she was going to do about it.
A lunch break was called and Cooper started in surprised. He hadn”t realized they”d been there that long. Nobody had demanded his attention and Marissa hadn”t chided him for not answering when something was addressed to him so he assumed he hadn”t missed much but he”d have to ask.
Zoric came around the table to stand next to him as the humans began to file out of the room.
”You have some new jewelry,” the lizard man said. ”It suits you.”
”It”s the first time I”ve ever seen one out from under guard,” Cooper said. ”I hadn”t expected to ever see one in my lifetime.”
”Where did you get it?” Ae-cha demanded in a hiss from Zoric”s other side. She”d stomped delicately over to them after most of the humans had gone.
”I assumed you sent it as a peace offering,” Cooper said. ”Was I mistaken? I couldn”t think of anybody else who would want to return a family heirloom that must have gone missing a very, very long time ago.”
”It doesn”t belong to you,” she told him.
”The pendant disagrees.”
”Is there a problem?” the Base Commander asked.
Marissa shook her head. ”I don”t think so,” she said. ”Cooper?”
”No problem but I think the three of us are going to need to have a talk. May we use the conference room?”
”We”re breaking for an hour for lunch. You can have it that long. I”ll send someone down with food.”
Ae-cha moved to protest but Cooper interrupted her with a ”Thank you, Commander, that would be very nice of you.”
Will you be okay?Marissa asked as she followed the officer out of the conference room.
I”ll be fine. I”m going to get some answers.
The door closed and Cooper gestured to the chairs. ”Can we sit for this conversation or would you prefer to stand here and yell at me.”
Zoric smirked and pulled a chair out while Ae-cha huffed and sat down.
”Now, I think we need to start with where this came from,” Cooper said, pointing at the pendant. ”And why it”s here now.”
”That is the sacred pendant of Ae-cha Da. She was wearing it during her fight against the Dragor who pursued her to this planet and shot her down when she would have landed safely, killing all of her servants and most of her guards,” Ae-cha said.
”And she survived?” Cooper asked.
”Long enough to see as many of her people safe as she could before starting her work on the ladder to heaven.”
Cooper blinked and Zoric snorted.
”She sabotaged her own ship to keep it from being taken by the Dragor who were chasing her. Half of her servants had killed themselves in shame before they even got to this part of the system and most of her guards mutinied when they realized she was going to get them killed. The only Chelion who survived the crash were saved because the Dragor decided they were more useful alive than dead because she”d managed to damage their ships on the way in.”
”What, no mystical ladder to heaven?” Cooper asked.
Zoric shook his head. ”She had a bunch of her people convinced she was the savior of the Chelion and some kind of goddess. Supposedly one of the most beautiful females ever born, she ran off when her plans fell apart and they made up that nonsense about the ladder. She must have found some humans to take her in because some of the stories have popped up in myths over the years.”
”And your people have done their best to slander her since the crash,” Ae-cha spat.
”I suspect,” Cooper said slowly. ”That the truth is somewhere in between. At home, she is said to be part of a long line of traitors who worked to destroy the Dragor and keep the Chelion weak.”
”The Dragor won?” Ae-cha asked, her voice breathy with horror.
”It was inevitable,” Zoric said. ”The Dragor are smarter, faster, meaner. Of course they”re going to come out on top.”
”Are they?” Cooper asked. ”I was always taught that the Dragor were the brilliant and benevolent saviors of our society. Without them, the Chelion wouldn”t be able to have healthy children.”
”What kind of benevolent savior cuts off your tail and removes part of your brain?” Zoric scoffed. ”I might have to acknowledge they”re better than me but I don”t have to like it.”
”But they”re not better than you,” Ae-cha said. ”That”s just it. They”ve been trying to get the Chelion to think that for as long as we”ve been able to communicate. And they”ve trained you to be ruthless and self-destructive in the process. Ae-cha Da knew there was a better way and was willing to risk her life to prove it.”
There was a light in Ae-cha”s eyes that made Cooper uncomfortable but he didn”t sense any of the snake-like thoughts that preceded an attack from someone being controlled.
”I think we”re going to need to compare notes and timelines,” Cooper said. ”If only to figure out what”s going on now. Because it seems like neither of you know who sent me the pendant.”
Zoric shook his head and Ae-cha looked angry.
”It was lost several hundred years ago in a skirmish with another enclave. They destroyed her altar and stole most of our sacred artifacts.”
”You sound like you were there,” Cooper said with a chuckle.
”I was,” Ae-cha said.
”Impossible,” Cooper started, then paused. ”Chelion don”t live that long.”
He turned to look at Zoric.
”Do they?”
Zoric shrugged. ”My people never died of natural causes but we didn”t tend to live very long, anyway. I can”t think of anybody in the last two generations who didn”t die from violence or loss of their mate.”
Cooper reached out for Marissa and felt her reach back for him. The thought of losing her made his blood run cold.
”I need my ship back,” he said. ”And we”re going to need to have a very, very long talk about what happened to get the Chelion to Earth.”
”Yes,” Ae-cha agreed.
”That might be a problem,” Zoric said. ”Because my people have lost most of their history to centuries of hiding and raids.”
”Great,” Cooper said. ”Maybe we should start with asking whoever sent me the pendant to give back whatever records they have, too.”
”And how do you propose to do that if you don”t know who actually gave you the pendant?” Ae-cha asked.
”I suspect they”re going to try and get in touch with me to get it back,” Cooper said. ”Or they”ve decided I”m a convenient fall guy for whatever plan they”ve been working on.”
”Why do you think there”s a plan?” Zoric asked.
Cooper and Ae-cha gave him identical looks of exasperation and he looked sheepish.
”There are Dragor involved,” Ae-cha said. ”Of course there”s a plan. You of all people should know this.”
”If we go by my experience, I”d have to assume that all Dragor are murderous psychopaths,” Zoric shot back.
”They”re not,” Cooper said.
”They are,” Ae-cha responded at the same time.
Cooper and Ae-cha glared at each other.
”Obviously, we all have slightly different experiences of the Dragor,” Zoric said, careful to not step between the other two. ”I think we need to get what documentation we can about what happened and find out who gave Cooper the pendant.”
”I wouldn”t trust whatever version he has,” Ae-cha spat. ”Not if the Dragor wrote it.”
Cooper sighed. ”I”m willing to take whatever the official version is with some skepticism if you”ll do the same to your people. It was a barely mentioned event in my history lessons.”
Zoric and Ae-cha glanced and each other and Zoric nodded in agreement. Ae-cha took longer but finally did the same.
There was a knock on the door and one of Marissa”s team mates opened it with a tray balanced in one hand.
”I”ve got lunch,” the young man said cheerfully. ”Major Ozark said you”d be able to eat most of this.”
He set the tray on the table and it all looked like fairly standard human food to Cooper. Zoric looked surprised and Ae-cha disdainful at what was there.
”Is there anything else I can get for you?” he asked.
Cooper shook his head.
”Is this what everyone else is eating?” Ae-cha asked.
”Yes, ma”am, I brought three portions of everything that was offered so you would have a variety. I”ll be back to collect the tray before the meeting resumes.”
”I suppose it will suffice,” Ae-cha said and proceeded to ignore him in favor of picking through the food on the tray.
”It”s a feast,” Zoric said, the awe in his voice palpable.
”Thank you for bringing it,” Cooper said. The soldier nodded and left.
When the door closed, they”d all started serving themselves, and Cooper reached out for Marissa. He wanted to ask her what the young man”s name was but Ae-cha interrupted his thoughts before he could ask.
”You don”t have to thank them for everything,” she said.
”What do you mean?” Cooper asked. ”I was being polite.”
Ae-cha shook her head. ”Most of them are basically servants. Hardly worth wasting the time to be polite to.”
A strange buzz filled Cooper”s mind that he eventually realized was coming from Marissa. Feeling her rage at Ae-cha was a curious experience. He”d felt something like it before, during his training, but it had been shut down before he”d truly understood.
Now, though, he could feel the full extent of her wrath and some indication of what had prompted it. He was so lost in her feelings that he didn”t realize he was clutching at his chest while his heart beat fiercely against his ribs until Zoric shook him.
Cooper looked up and Zoric jumped back when he snarled at him.
”What the fuck?” Zoric gasped.
His gaze focused on Zoric, Cooper didn”t see Ae-cha move across the table until she was right next to him. She had her hand on him before he could react and the connection to Marissa flashed away.
He shook his head and turned on the lizard woman, his anger rising and mutated for a different reason, when he felt Marissa”s presence return.
Her anger had changed to fear and worry and he reached out to her.
Are you okay?
I should be asking you that, she returned. What happened?
I felt your anger like it was my own. Ae-cha broke the connection.
That is not comforting.
No, it is not. Are you well?
I went with Mintonar to see about getting my head fixed. He told me what”s been happening to Captain LaGrange. I think they”re going to need your help. And then I heard what Ae-cha said.
I did not intend for you to hear that.
I know. I have to talk to Mintonar. I love you.
Marissa closed the connection between them, though he could still feel her in the back of his mind, and he could tell he was smiling.
When he focused on his immediate surroundings, he saw the two other Chelion watching him warily.
”I believe we need to talk,” he said, returning to the seat he”d knocked over in his rage.
”Yes, we do,” Ae-cha said.
”Start with how you were able to do that,” Zoric demanded.
”I have a connection with my mate,” Cooper said. ”It appears to be growing stronger.”
”Is that how you were able to look like her?” Ae-cha asked.
”I did what?” Cooper asked, every nerve on his body alert, his muscles suddenly tense and still.
”Your face changed to look like your mate”s,” Zoric said. ”How did you do that?”
Cooper thought about it. He didn”t actually know how he did the change. He knew how to gather information to do it, how to adjust it to what he wanted to look like, but he”d never thought to ask how it worked.
”Am I to assume that neither of your people can shift like that?” he asked.