I Married An Alien (17 page)

"You tell anyone any of this and I'll have you killed," Oliver's oily voice hissed close to her ear. I saw his cruel lips out of the corner of Anita's eyes and shuddered, cold dread sliding like icicles down my own spine.

"I'd rather be dead than married to you," she sobbed into the pillow.

He backhanded her across the side of the head and she cried out in pain. I cringed in my seat, feeling sick.

"Wish I could damn well tie you up until the wedding day," he hissed. "But your father might get suspicious if you're not around for a couple of days… So, are you going to talk?" He yanked her hair for emphasis, and again I flinched, knowing the poor woman must be in a great deal of pain.

"No, I won't tell," she whispered tearfully.

"About the bombs or the fun you and I had with Dad?"

Anita shook her head. "No"

"Fun!" Jordan hissed. "I'll give that little shit fun."

I shushed him, but it wasn't really necessary. Nothing too interesting happened for a while, since her memories also included her sleeping, eating, and going about her daily routine.

Sam asked us if it was all right to skip through these events, and Jordan and I both nodded. It was always possible to backtrack and replay them later if necessary.

The next interesting event occurred when Anita was talking to a friend destined for her tour of duty to Terron. She wasn't one of the young women who had accompanied me here. Anita was asking her how she could get herself nominated, even though she was engaged.

"Most women are trying to get out of it," her friend snorted. "Why on earth do
you
want to go?"

"I can't tell you, Wanda, but it's important," Anita insisted.

"Look, if you want to call your engagement off, just do it. You don't have to go all the way to Terron in order to make a point," Wanda persisted.

"It's not that. Look, I can't really tell you why right now. Just tell me who I need to talk to."

"All right, if you insist," Wanda said dubiously, and began recording information into Anita's tablet.

We watched Anita talk to several government officials, visiting Mrs Jackson to organize a spot with her study group, and leaving her Sydney harbor-side mansion in the dead of night so her father wouldn't find out she had gone, letting herself out the front door on silent feet.

Samson fast forwarded again, until I was looking at the space-port through Anita's eyes as she trailed after Mrs Jackson's group of giggling girlies. Suddenly her whole world tilted and slammed into blackness.

"And then you take over, Ruth," Sam said as the screen continued to remain blank. "I suppose you could try and get hold of the security footage to find out what caused her to suddenly black out like that."

"Someone must have found out she was trying to leave Earth," Jordan mused, still with his gaze fixed on the blank screen, "and wanted to stop her, making it look like an accident. It was probably a laser beam from a stolen Terron blaster."

"Set to kill,' Sam added for good measure. "Want me to play anymore?"

I shook my head. "Could the other reason she was coming to Terron be to warn you about what the Rembrandts were doing with the
Hytana
oil?"

"Could be," Jordan mused.

'So how well would these recordings stand up in a court of law?" I asked.

"Exactly what I was thinking," Jordan remarked.

"This might be new technology, but we already have a memory retrieval machine set up in the Law Enforcement Centre right here in this building," Sam explained. "The military will be getting theirs installed next week. It also looks like Earth's Central Government are interested in having one shipped to their main intelligence centre. Memory recordings might not have been used as evidence as yet, but because they are more accurate than any other memory retrieval system, I'm hoping they will become par for the course in all criminal cases."

"Just how is Earth governed these days?" I asked. "I mean you both know I'm Ruth now, right. So believe me when I tell you I'm from the past. We had no central Government then. Each country more or less governs itself."

"How the devil could that possibly have worked?" Samson asked with a frown. "Yes, each country has its own leaders, but they are still subject to international law, which covers all the planets in our Solar System."

"You mean there are other worlds involved in the Treaty?" I asked in awe.

"The Treaty only involves Earth and Terron. None of the other plants inhabitants are compatible…" Jordan shuddered, and glanced at Samson with a disgusted expression on his face. "Imaging mating with a Martian or a Lamborian!"

"Ugh," Sam grunted. "All those tentacles. But I suppose they could make it more interesting."

"You mean they found life on
Mars?"
I gasped totally enthralled now. How I wished my father was here. He would have loved all this!

"No, life found Mars and migrated there…" Sam began, and then glanced at one of his monitors. "I think we had better wrap this up and hand the evidence over to the chancellor. It's getting late, and my mate and I are going out to see a show tonight."

"Yes, and I'm sure he'll want to speak with us as soon as he's viewed the recording," Jordan added. "We will need to plan our next step, and send a message back to Anita's father, or perhaps even open up a two-way communication link to talk with him directly." He got to his feet, and extended his hand to me. "Come Anita, let's go and find the others. Or should I now call you Ruth?"

I didn't like the way he frowned down at me as I stood up and placed my hand in his. Since I had been known as Ruth all my life, I felt like telling him so. But I really liked the name Anita, and since we weren't done yet in sorting out her life, I thought it would be easier for everyone concerned if I remained Anita for the time being.

Besides, in this body I didn’t
look
like a Ruth.

"Anita," I said at last, and he nodded, giving my fingers a little squeeze. Did that mean he approved of my answer?

"In that case it would be best if you continue to also pretend you
are
her, at least until we get hold of those disgusting Rembrandts and make them pay for what they did to you… I mean Anita."

"So what do you want me to do about the recording?" Samson asked from behind us. "I mean it clearly shows a change in her brain activity at the space port."

Jordan looked worried. "Is there some other explanation you can come up for that?"

"I could erase it, and say that Anita couldn't cope with any more sedation. It happens sometimes with petite people, which is why it isn't used on children."

Jordan clapped him on the arm. "Thanks my man."

"Trying to explain Ruth and how she got here could make them suspect my new equipment isn't as reliable as I claim and refuse to use it as evidence, when it appears this is all the evidence we have against those bastards."

"Yes," I agreed. "I will do my best to keep to my role as Anita. I want to put them behind bars as much as you do."

"I was thinking more along the lines of a slow, painful death," Jordan spat. "I can't believe a father and son could stoop so low as to both…" He trailed off, shaking his head. Come, let's go and meet the others."

Once again we joined Logan, Mark, Brian, Dana and Derek for our evening meal, but after a while I started to feel claustrophobic, and asked if it was possible to go outside for a walk after we had finished our meal.

"It's not safe right now, Anita," Derek answered. "And we don't really have the manpower to protect you should they make another kidnap attempt. I'm sorry."

"I understand," I murmured.

"But we could go up to the roof," Dana suggested. "Remember how we used to go up there sometimes after we were first mated?"

"Ohhh, sex on the spindle," Mark teased.

Dana swatted him.

"Why don't you take her then," Jordan suggested to her. "I think I might hang with the boys for a little while tonight if that's all right with you, Anita." He glanced briefly at me, and I strongly suspected he was trying to avoid me now. He hadn't paid me much attention over dinner, preferring to converse with the other men. Whether it was because of what had happened to Anita, or because he now had to face up to the fact I wasn't her, I didn't know, and was surely tempted to ask him outright through our mind-link abilities. Neither of us had used it since our return, and I wondered if it was only possible while we were apart, or one of us was under a great deal of stress.

When the other men turned to me with the same expression on their faces, as though daring me to say no, I said; "All right, the girls will hang together tonight as well then."

So Dana and I caught the lift all the way to the top of the tower. I was surprised to find garden beds in full bloom lining a path interspaced with benches and umbrellas to shade amblers from the sun during the day. There didn't appear to be anyone else about, and I stepped up to the outer wall, gazing out across the city. I realized that Dana had been right, Great sections lay in darkness, evidence of a lack of habitation that had not been visible during the daylight hours.

"Are you happy here on Terron?" I asked Dana as she came to join me at the wall.

“
I've been asked that many times over the years, and as time goes by, I can say with increasing certainty that I've never been happier. Apart from the fact you never have to worry about getting wrinkles, grey hair, or putting on weight, Derek still treats me like a princess, even after all these years."

"Yes, I get the feeling the women on Earth have been fed a lot of bulldust about Terron men," I conceded. "But I also get the feeling that Jordan isn't really happy with me right now."

"Heavens Anita! You've only been married a few days, and now you have this awful situation hanging over you both. He's beside himself with worry. That's why he wants some time out with the boys, not because he doesn't care about you anymore… Besides, these relationships need to be worked on just like any marriage on Earth. Just because it comes about so suddenly doesn't mean you aren't meant for each other. It's not like the arranged marriages of old. Those powerful Terron hormones pumping through their system know exactly which mate is their destiny."

"Even if we're Human and not Terron," I said softly, feeling like I'd been chastened like a small child.

"I thank God every day that we're even compatible. To let such a wonderful race of beings die out would be a disaster. There are still too many Terrons succumbing to the Aging, and not enough babies being born. Derek and I have only been able to have one child so far. We might be compatible hormone-wise, but it seems reproducing effectively still poses a bit more of a problem. Luckily the Terron genes always seem to come out on top. Our daughter is more Terron than Human, and she will only mate with another Terron because we won't allow her to travel to Earth. She might be physically stronger than Human men, but they wouldn't treat her well. There is still too much prejudice on our home planet."

She had got that part right. Prejudice against the aged, the dowdy, the disabled. anyone who wasn't perfect. But then it seemed Terron had the same problem, simply because there didn't appear to
be
any dowdy or disabled people around, not that I had seen anyway. "Don't you think there is any prejudice here?"

"I wouldn't use the word prejudice, probably more like resentment. They might appreciate Earth's efforts to keep the race alive, but in taking the
Hytana,
they have displaced a lot of people. Jordan and Logan run a
Hytana
farm. They used to work here in programming and design. Very little of that is happening now, because Earth is demanding so much oil. I just wish the Administration would recall all their scientists and specialists and get the Earth's Government to send Humans to run the farms instead. There are millions starving in Africa and the Middle East since all the fossil oils dried up. I don’t understand why they can't be brought here to work where there is more than enough perfectly good soil to grow crops along with the
Hytana
. They would also be well paid and looked after."

"Sounds like the Earth Government should put
you
in charge, Dana," I remarked, shocked to hear that children were still starving to death in Africa three hundred years later.

She laughed derisively. "As if! I'd put our fellows in charge if I could. These are some of the things they've been discussing over the years. But since they lost their jobs here in the Citadel, it's even harder to get heard."

I sighed, and turned around to regard my surroundings. I found my gaze drawn to the 'spindle', a large metal pole that pierced the night sky like a great big knitting needle. It seemed to be humming slightly, and emitting a soft glow of its own, so we could see our surroundings clearly.

"What's the point of this thing?" I motioned to the spindle, "Other than making this building look even pointier?" I giggled at the unintentional joke I’d made.