Star Warrior: A SciFi Alien Romance (13 page)

I couldn’t expect a human to understand something as blindingly obvious as that. And I didn’t have time for explanations, either.

“So if you’re the emperor’s uncle then why are you so worried about your honor and all that?”

“Because the emperor’s mother, I believe she is what you humans would call a sister in law, was on that station that you destroyed. Along with my wife.”

“Oh,” she said simply. “Yeah, I can see where that might get you in a bit of trouble with the big guy.”

I shook my head in amazement. Every time I thought this woman couldn’t be more cavalier about her situation she proved me absolutely wrong. It was incredible.

She stopped for a moment as though something was occurring to her for the first time. I shook my head. Obviously something was bothering her and obviously we needed to be out with it. I didn’t trust anything she desired to hide from me.

“Well? What is it? You might as well be out with it and avoid whatever misunderstanding you’re about to frustrate me with.”

“You just said I was responsible for your wife’s death,” she said. “And apparently the emperor’s mom, which damn. If the higher ups knew I’d taken out a high value target like that maybe I wouldn’t have been stripped of my command…”

I decided to ignore the part where she took an empire-wide tragedy and tried to turn it into a point of career advancement. After all, hadn’t I just done the same with the raid on their system? Though my raid had done far less damage than her defense of that colony world.

“Yes?”

“So isn’t it a little odd to be canoodling with me here and now? The woman who killed your beloved and all that? Shouldn’t you have sworn revenge on me or something? Tried to kill me instead of giving me medical treatment and necking with me like we’re a couple of teenagers on our first private orbital tour?”

I shook my head and chuckled. Amusement was the only way I could think to react to that. Humans. They knew absolutely nothing about proper society and behavior.

“What’s so funny? Was she not your favorite or something? Did I save you the trouble of a divorce? Because if so, my people charge quite a bit for that,” she said. “I could send you a bill.”

Amazing. She continued to joke and try to make light of her situation. I wondered if she was trying to get a rise out of me. Provoke me to do something stupid. It wouldn’t work. I wasn’t quite sure what that “canoodling” word meant, it was one of many words in the human vocabulary I was unfamiliar with, but I could gather what she meant from context.

“I will admit that my marriage was maintained more out of a sense of duty than anything else at the end,” I said. “But that is not the real reason I find myself drawn to you.”

“Oh yeah? Then what is it?”

It was such a deceptively simple question, and yet it had such a complicated range of answers.

Perhaps most important was that she had bested me in combat several times now. There was her exotic beauty. That strange human allure that so many of my fellow warriors enjoyed and which I had always had trouble understanding up until this moment.

Again, though, it seemed like it might be dangerous to go to deeply into any of that. I didn’t want to tell her anything at this point that might lead her to believe that she had some sort of hold on me. To believe that she somehow had the upper hand when dealing with me. And so I kept the answer simple enough.

“My people believe in strength. They believe in might makes right,” I said.

“Yeah, I definitely got that from the war you started with us…”

I decided to ignore that. I moved right ahead.

“And so it’s simple enough. You destroyed my wife in combat. That means you are the stronger of the two. That means that I must have you. A woman who defeats another in combat is entitled to their mate as a spoil of war.”

The reality was far more complicated, but again, I wasn’t going into that. Given the somewhat odd perceptions humans had of our species that seemed like the sort of thing she would buy.

“Your people are all sorts of fucked up,” she said. “I accidentally kill your wife and that makes me destined to be with you or something? Crazy. And so not happening, so don’t get any ideas. I don’t care how hot we got over dinner.”

I frowned. That didn’t sound particularly promising. I also didn’t have time to deal with any delays. Not with a summons from the emperor waiting. Part of her top still hung off one arm where she’d stopped during our conversation. It also revealed a distracting amount of her anatomy, which I wasn’t complaining about.

Still, the clock was ticking, to borrow a phrase from the humans.

“Are you going to finish putting on your uniform? As much as I’m enjoying this view, the emperor will have no problem beheading both of us if we don’t meet him in a timely manner.”

I moved over to the door and paused for a moment. Turned to look at her standing there in her human uniform. Even in that she looked somehow exotic and beautiful, even if she was the enemy. And it occurred to me that she still was very much the enemy. She was still very much willing to fight our people. It was an admirable quality, but sometimes admirable qualities could be dangerous. Particularly in the presence of the emperor himself.

“When we get to our audience with the emperor, there is a certain behavior that will be expected of you,” I said.

She rolled her eyes.

“So I’m supposed to bow and scrape for a man who sent his war fleets against my people? No thank you.”

I sighed. “If you don’t then we’re both dead.”

She raised an eyebrow and walked over to me. Moved a hand up and ran it down my chest. I realized with a start that she was tracing a line along one of my tattoos. Far less elaborate that it had once been, but at the same time still far more elaborate than most on this world had ever achieved. I felt a tingle wherever her finger trailed. It was a very pleasurable sensation.

Damn this woman was confusing. Coming on strong one moment, and looking at me as though she was afraid the next. Though she definitely did not seem particularly afraid in this moment.

“So if I’m on my best behavior then neither one of us gets killed?” she asked.

“Exactly.”

“And if I’m in a mood for revenge on the man who got the best of me? Getting you killed would win our contest once and for all, even if I did get killed in the process.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. My fist was clenching and unclenching before I had time to think about it.

“If that is your desire, then my life is in your hands,” I said.

I opened my eyes. Her own eyes searched mine. They moved back and forth as though she was looking for something. I wasn’t sure what, but I didn’t mind any excuse to stare into her eyes. They were a welcome distraction from all of the potential death that awaited us when we reached the emperor’s throne room.

“You saved my life when you didn’t have to,” she said. “I’ll honor that, and I’ll do whatever you tell me to do in front of this emperor. This time. I can’t promise how I’ll act at the second meeting, though.”

I let out a sigh of relief and my body relaxed. I hadn’t even realized I was feeling that tense. Still, I was worried that she might do something to get us in trouble even if she wasn’t intentionally trying to get us killed. Her lack of knowledge of our society really could fill entire reference manuals. If she was going to become a regular part of my life then I was going to have to bring her up to speed on our culture.

I found myself hoping very much that she would become a part of my life.

“Well let’s get going,” Talia said. “I wouldn’t want to be late and have him kill us. Or would he just torture us? I imagine the emperor has some people who are pretty skilled at that sort of thing, right?”

“Oh you have no idea,” I said, gesturing for her to follow me as I headed out to the air station attached to my palace. We could pick up a transportation from there.

“Really? That bad, huh?”

“The emperor has torture methods that would make you wish you had never been conceived. It would make you wish that your great-great-grandmother had never climbed into bed with your great-great-grandfather,” I said.

“I doubt that,” she said. “I understand great-great-grandmother liked to go out and get her drink on…”

Conversation continued in much the same way as we flew towards the Imperial Palace. A massive building that dominated the capital city’s skyline. It was impossible to miss, and large enough that it could be seen from orbit.

It was nice to have a distraction as I went to my potential death. Almost as nice as finally having at least some of the emperor’s attention after so very long, though it remained to be seen whether that attention would ultimately be good or bad.

13: The Emperor

Talia:

We we flew through the Livisk capital city at a speed that made me desperately hope their computer technology and collision detection was a hell of a lot better than intelligence briefings would lead me to believe. It felt like at any moment we would slam into one of the other craft careening through the air above the city. There were none of the normal lines and patterns that I was used to flying through cities on earth.

And through it all there was no doubt in my mind where our destination was. A massive palace sat at the center of the city. It was large enough and tall enough that it could be seen from just about anywhere. It dwarfed even the largest buildings, and the one we’d come from was pretty damn big.

“I assume that’s the Imperial Palace?” I asked.

Jorav smiled. “None other than. Impressed, human?”

I looked up at him and stuck my tongue out. It probably wasn’t the most mature thing to do considering I was going to be the first human to have an audience with their emperor that I was aware of, but the urge struck me and I went with it.

“If this is going to be a thing then you’d better start calling me by my name, Livisk.”

Jorav looked down at me, his arms behind his back as he stood in a fair approximation of parade rest. Parade rest for sparkling blue aliens with impossibly muscled bodies.

“I believe you were the one consistently referring to me as tall, blue, and sparkly?”

My cheeks colored and I looked back out over the Livisk capital city once more. “Point taken.” I whispered.

One of his hands came to rest on my shoulder. “You will do fine. I’m sure the emperor is not in a killing mood. He wouldn’t have summoned us otherwise.”

“What would he have done if he was in a killing mood?”

Jorav shrugged. “That depends on his mood. If he was in a good mood he might simply send assassins to carry out his will.”

“And if he was in a bad mood?”

“He might order my palace bombed into dust with us in it,” Jorav said.

“Are you serious? What about collateral damage? Wouldn’t that kill other people too?”

Another shrug. He seemed very fatalistic about the capricious whims of the warmongering madman who headed the Livisk Ascendency. “The emperor’s will is the emperor’s will. To die while that is being carried out is the ultimate glory.”

I returned my attention to the palace. The thing was huge and it was a distraction from how fucking crazy this entire species was. They just took it as a matter of course that they could die at any moment because their emperor wished it and no one thought that was odd.

Then again I suppose everyone in the Fleet understood that they could be given orders that would result in their immediate death. That was different, though. That was the Fleet. Not civilians.

“So is your emperor compensating for anything with that palace?”

“I wouldn’t know what you’re talking about,” Jorav said.

I rolled my eyes. Of course he wouldn’t know what I was talking about. That was a phrase that was steeped in human culture. Something told me the alien general hadn’t watched enough comedies to know that I’d just insulted the virility of his emperor.

“The palace is big enough to be seen from orbit,” Jorav said. His chest puffed up. He was actually proud of that.

“Nice,” I said. “With a target like that it would be easy enough to guide in a weapon. You wouldn’t even need it to be all that smart. Just a big hunk of rock or something from your outer system lined up with that big target that you can see from space and boom, no more emperor.”

Jorav stared down at me unblinking, and it occurred to me a moment too late that it might not necessarily be a good idea to discuss ways of killing the emperor who was viewed as the next best thing to a god on this world. Particularly in front of a general who was sworn to serve him, even if it did seem that he’d fallen out of royal favor recently.

“I’ve actually said the same thing,” he said. “Unfortunately the emperor can be rather stubborn about getting his way.”

“Must be a family thing,” I muttered, which earned a chuckle from Jorav.

“Fortunately he is defended fairly well,” he said. “There’s no chance that a human could make it deep enough into our system to carry out the attack you describe.”

“The Admiralty said the same thing about you guys before you showed up knocking on my front door and blew up my ship,” I said.