Lords of the Sea (13 page)

He studied her thoughtfully. “The governments, you mean?”

“Oh,” Cassie responded uncomfortably. “I don’t know. They’re more focused on politics and policies and appearances. I meant the
people
.” She considered it for several moments. “I don’t know that much about politics or politicians, but I’d say you don’t really want their help. They always have an ulterior motive and they want to stick their nose into your business if they help even a little bit.

“When I get home, though, I could contact some organizations that were formed just to help people out when they need it and newspapers. Once it got on the news everybody would know about the situation and there’d be all sorts of volunteers to help out.”

His expression became sardonic. “Even when they learned we are not natives to this world?”

Cassie stared at him blankly while that sank in and then frowned as she thought it over. “Even so. I really think they would.”

He sent her a look of disbelief.

It pricked at her that he didn’t seem to believe her. People weren’t saints, and there were probably just as many bad people in the world as good, maybe more, but there were certainly plenty of good people! It dawned on her after a moment, though, that it might not necessarily be doubt about the good intentions of people, but rather a reluctance for anyone to know. “They’re going to know about it anyway. No way could something like that be kept a secret,” she said, pointing upward at the Andromeda Prime above them. “The military is probably all over it even now. And the news people are never far behind them. Right now they’re probably busy scaring the hell out of everyone and making them think we’re on the verge of an attack.” She smiled faintly as another thought occurred to her. “I’ll just bet the military has their hands full chasing the rubber-neckers off.”

Her amusement died after a moment. “Are your communications systems working? Or are they messed up like all of our electronics were?”

His eyes narrowed. “I am afraid that is not something I am at liberty to discuss.”

Cassie rolled her eyes. “Fine, don’t discuss it. If you can, though, you should check out the news and see what they’re saying. What you want is to have public opinion on your side. If ya’ll are scaring the hell out of everybody, then nobody is going to be on your side—including the governments. The best thing to do would be to
secretly
contact a big news company and give them the story. They’ll fall over themselves to broadcast it.

“What

you

don’t
want is for the government to be able to keep this a secret from the public, because then they can do whatever they want, without checking to see how anyone else feels about it, or even if they agree.

“If you don’t want to have to defend yourself, you need to consider going public to make sure they know you aren’t a threat to them.”

He tipped his head curiously. “And you believe we are no threat?”

She frowned, trying to decide what he meant by the question. “Do you want to be?” she asked finally.

“We will defend ourselves—and we are very capable of doing so.”

77

“Exactly! Anyone would. You need to make sure you aren’t put in the position of
having
to.”

“I am a soldier. What you speak of is a matter for politicians.”

It was a complete rejection of her suggestions, she knew. She stared at him in consternation for a moment, wondering if it was possible to make him understand how important it could be to the Atlanteans that they establish good relations with Earth people as soon as they could. Even if they were dead set against accepting the charity of their neighbors, they still didn’t want their neighbors to feel threatened unless they just wanted a war. “Then I’ll talk to the guy that’s the head of the council,” she said stiffly.

“Would that be the one to talk to? Or is he like our president and only important people can actually talk to him?”

He turned to study her with a look of perplexed amusement. “Why would you want to do that?”

Taken aback, she stared at him blankly. “Why wouldn’t I?”

His lips tightened with irritation. “We are not humans—Mayhap it comforts you to think of us that way, but it does not change what we are. Even if you are right and your people would offer to help, why would you think we would need or want it? We have been an independent colony since it was first established—without even the help of our mother world during difficult times. Call it pride—but we want no interference, or help, in our affairs.”

Cassie dragged in a shaky breath, trying to quell the hurt anger that swelled inside of her. She was only marginally successful. “Suit yourself,” she said as flippantly as she could manage, turning on her heel and stalking back to the door to go inside. “I think I’ve had enough fresh air.”

He followed her. People never seemed to grasp that when a person stalked off in anger it was because they wanted and needed to be alone. She wasn’t terribly surprised that the
alien
didn’t grasp that either.

“Now you are angry?” he asked coolly.

“You are so perceptive,” she snapped. “And now that we’ve established that you’re smart enough to figure it out, I’d like to establish that I don’t want to talk about it and I don’t want company—thank you!”

“I am going this way.”

The childish urge struck her to make an about face and go in the other direction.

She had to struggle to keep from doing so. She decided to be adult about the situation, however, and just ignore him and walk faster to out pace him. She discovered fairly quickly, though, that he had no intention of allowing her to put distance between them.

“I appreciate the sentiment ….”

“No, you don’t. You don’t even
believe
the sentiment and you wouldn’t appreciate it even if you did believe it because you think you’re so damned superior you couldn’t possibly need help from any of us! And you don’t want any help because you don’t want anything to do with humans, at all. Atlantis sank here because you’d moved as far away from human civilization as you could get and still be on the same planet.”

“That was long ago ….”

Cassie stopped abruptly and turned to face him, glaring at him through narrowed eyes. “Which doesn’t mean a fucking thing since it
wasn’t
long ago for you!” She poked him in the middle of his chest with one index finger. “The problem with a superiority 78

complex, Raen, is that it can make you seriously underestimate the person or persons you’re dealing with!”

He stared down at her finger and then flicked a look at her face, his own anger flaring. “You do not know anything about me or my people, certainly not enough to pass judgment,” he growled.

“And you know what? I don’t want to either, because I’ve already seen and heard enough to convince me that I’ve learned all I want to.”

He said nothing more for all of ten minutes after Cassie had turned and resumed her march toward her quarters.

“Your anger is unreasonable.”

“People always say that when what they actually mean is that it’s unreasonable not to see things their way. I guess you aliens aren’t as different from us as you’d like to think!”

“I will escort you to your quarters, then, lady,” he said tightly.

It was on the tip of her tongue to inform him she didn’t need a damned escort when her ‘quarters’ were right down the same corridor they were presently following and, if he thought she was stupid enough she didn’t see that for what it was—guard duty, regardless of what they’d said to the contrary, he was dead wrong. She decided to hold her tongue, however. She really
didn’t
want to talk to him at the moment and the only way she could achieve that was to simply ignore his remarks.

He stopped her when they reached her quarters at long last by grasping her arm before she could stalk inside and leave him standing in the corridor. “I do not understand why you are so angry,” he said, “but I beg pardon if I insulted you.”

Cassie stared up at him for a long moment. “If you were as smart, and as perceptive, as you seem to think you are, you’d realize I was hurt not angry, but don’t worry about it. I’ll get over it. It’s actually a good thing we had this conversation, I realize now. Forewarned is forearmed, after all.”

Something flickered in his eyes. “I do not understand you.”

“And you’re never going to,” Cassie said tiredly. “Not that it matters. Hopefully, I’ll be leaving in a week or so and we can put all this behind us.” She managed a brittle smile. “In the meanwhile, maybe we can muddle along and at least be civil. I’d actually appreciate it, though, if you’d assign someone else to keep an eye on me while I’m here.

Natara’s nice and I hardly noticed the leash, but if you feel like I should have a big, strapping guard, I’m actually partial to blonds if you have any.”

79

It was a crying shame there wasn’t a fucking door on her quarters that she could slam in his arrogant face, Cassie thought angrily as she left him in the doorway, stalked across the room, and dropped into the chair. Curling her knees up, she twisted sideways in the chair and presented her back to the door, wishing she at least had the illusion of privacy.

She was as certain as she could be that she didn’t have
real
privacy, that they were still being monitored, but she couldn’t actually see the cameras—or whatever they used for surveillance—so she could
pretend
they weren’t there. The open doors were another matter.

True, there weren’t that many Atlanteans wandering about, at least not in this area, and she thought they were polite enough not to peer at her when they came by, but she still felt exposed and insecure not having a door to close and lock.

Raen stood outside her quarters for a few minutes after she’d left him and finally turned and left. She sighed dejectedly when she heard his footsteps fade down the corridor and finally dropped her head to rest it on her knees.

She’d meant it when she’d told him he’d done her a favor. He had. By making it clear how the Atlanteans in general felt about the natives of Earth, and how he in particular felt, he’d spared her from grief. She’d been deeply attracted to him, both on a physical level and a personal level. Even though she was obliged to admit to herself that she was also unnerved about the knowledge that he was an alien, she didn’t think it would’ve been at all difficult to get past the differences—not for her. She would’ve wanted to try—
had
wanted to.

Fortunately, he’d made it clear that he was a lot more put off by her being alien than vice versa, which had also made it clear that, whether he was attracted to her or not, he wasn’t hanging around her because he was actually interested. He was just watching her because it was his job, and probably still trying to wheedle whatever information out of her he could.

He was all Mr. Cool and collected business!

The urge to cry stung her eyes and nose, but she resolutely fought the urge down with the reflection that she couldn’t give into the impulse with any expectation of privacy.

She

was

such
a dolt! It was embarrassing to recall how flattered and breathless she had been when he’d offered to show her around!

What
had she been thinking!

She

hadn’t

been
thinking, she realized glumly.

She heard footsteps along the corridor after a few minutes and her heart did a flip flop. She didn’t turn around, but she strained to listen until the footsteps came even with her door and then continued onward without a pause. Slumping again when whoever it was had gone by, she uncurled and looked around the room for anything she might be able to use to cover the door. Finally, she got up and dragged a chair over to the doorway 80

to study the frame. As ancient as it was, the frame still fit very tightly to the wall, but she thought if she could find something thin enough, she could use it as a wedge.

Climbing down again, she prowled the room, looking for anything she might use for that purpose, even getting down on her hands and knees and examining under the bed.

Finally, she went into the bathroom and searched it. She found a couple of rusted pins, one broken, that looked like they might originally have been intended as hair pins. It wasn’t much, but she decided to give it a try.

Returning to the bedroom, she dragged the cover back and examined the bedding.

Deciding to give up the sheet instead of the cover, she dragged everything off the bed and confiscated the sheet to use for a door curtain. It wasn’t much, and it was aggravating as hell trying to work the pins into the tight crack between the doorframe and the wall, but she finally managed to pin the sheet in place.

She felt better immediately. At least now she didn’t feel like everyone that walked by was staring at her in her ‘cage’. Returning to the bed, she tossed the pillows back on top of the mattress, straightened the cover and climbed in, dragging the cover over her head. She was tired from the interminable council meeting, and the long, long walk outside and back.

And she was depressed.

Maybe she could just sleep until they let her go?

Then she could just pretend it had all been a bad dream.