Chapter 3

Queens Outrank Clan Leaders

~ Ember ~

Floating in a sea of drowsy contentment, Ember leisurely licked her paw. The pretty orange stripped fur, sparkled in the morning sunlight. Reaching out, she scraped her claws gently down one her siblings. The other kitten purred contentedly, causing her giggle. Snuggling down amongst her pile of warm sibling, she reveled in having everyone together again. Propping her head onto a warm body with black fur, she wondered why Dark was back from college so soon. The others would be excited to…slowly it dawned on her that there were no others. They’d all died or disappeared over the years.

Bolting up to a sitting position, she shook off the kitten dream and looked around. Dark eyes blinked sleepily up at her. The man looking up at her was bare chested and clearly an alien. His green skin had a strange variegated coloring in an array of muted shades of green. She must have connected with the Maruvian vessel, because he had stark insectoid features, including two antenna on the top of his head. He expression was confused and growing more anxious. His antennas twisted around, as though they were sensing her and then constricted a little.

“It is early, my queen. Come back to my warmth. We will sleep.”

Hearing his strange raspy voice was all it took for her to come flying out of the bed. Looking around the dimly lit room, she saw an open doorway. It appeared to be a bathroom. Ember made a run for it, covering her nakedness as best she could. Once on the other side of the room, she groped around for a way to shut the door, praying there was The man spoke. “Auxiliary door one shut.”

Ember backed away as a panel slid from the top of the doorframe and slowly closed. Choking back her shock, she made a couple of mental notes. The bathroom was called auxiliary door one and apparently everything was set up for voice prompts. Sinking down on what was probably an alien toilet, she scrubbed her hands over her face. Feeling the incessant thumping in her chest, she forced herself to take a deep, cleansing breath.

Looking herself over, she found that not only was she clean, all her injuries had been healed. She’d heard the aliens had little hand held devices that closed and healed wounds, so Ember wasn’t thinking anything crazy like she’d been asleep for weeks.

Taking another deep breath, she forced herself to calm down. The moment she did, memories came flooding back of Dark getting shot. The scene on the landing pad, clicking through her mind like an old fashioned slide show. Dark had given his life for her to have this opportunity and she was blowing it. Then again, what right did she have to a full belly and family, if Dark was lying dead on the pavement?

Staring across the room into a large reflective surface, she now saw a distorted reflection of her awkward body. She looked like a stick figure caricature of a woman, emaciated by years of scavenging for scraps. She couldn’t take her eyes from the bizarre sight, even when the door slid open. Suddenly, her nakedness didn’t matter so much. She had no choice but to comply with whatever the strange looking male had in mind for her.

He moved into the room and began drawing a bath. It was somehow reassuring that he didn’t press her to speak or ask a bunch of questions. Before she could object, he lifted her, pivoted and sat her down into the warm water.

When he stood, she noticed that he was smooth where human men normally had genitals. It caught her by surprise. She watched curiously as he hit a space on the wall and a drawer slid out. Ember thought at first that his junk must just be in a different place. Watching him move around unashamed of his nudity, revealed that he didn’t have any as far as she could see. What he did have was a rather magnificent pair of wings, which were folded neatly behind his back. Powerful muscles rippled as she dug through the drawer. The man could probably break in two, like a dry twig if he wanted to. It was a sobering thought. Finally, he removed a clear glass stone and climbed into the water behind her.

Pulling a oddly scented foam from slot on the wall, he began to soap up her back. Forcing herself to hold still, Ember thought this must be totally normal for Maruvians. He wasn’t hurting her, and violating social norms didn’t seem like a good enough reason to freak out. Especially not when her brother had sacrificed so much to get her here.

“My brother’s dead isn’t he?”

His hands stilled on her, and there was a long pause before he answered quietly. “It would not give you comfort to have that question answered today.”

His cryptic response told her all she needed to know. Choking back a sob, she wrapped her arms around her stomach. If their family line was continue, this was the only way.

“Calm yourself, my beautiful queen. You have suffered much, but that is now behind you. My clan will see you well cared for and happiness will soon be yours.”

Ember wished will all her being that she could believe the man’s kind words. She suspected from the earnest quality of his voice that he actually believed what he was saying. Lost in her own thoughts, she neglected to respond to his attempts to console her.

She felt something smooth sliding down her spinal cord. It was warm and soothing to her jagged nerves. Whatever it was he placed against her skin, she felt it bleeding away all her pain and misery. It wasn’t pleasure exactly, more like some form of mystic healing for the soul.

The door slid open and another alien skidded into the room, looking panicked. It made Ember jump.

“Quiet Haroc, you are frightening our queen.”

“I just got a message from Talon than she is fearful of you and that I should come right away, as I have more experience with human queens.”

“Does she appear fearful of me?”

Blinking at her, he responded breathlessly. “No, she seems more fearful of me.”

“You burst in unannounced. Did you turn over command and run the entire width of the ship to get here?”

Nodding, the man stared at her. It made her uncomfortable to be naked in front of him, so she scooted back against the nice drone with no alien junk. He might be a stranger, but she was relatively sure he wouldn’t hurt her.

“Come Haroc, join us. There is room for one more.”

Ember stared up at the alien in shock as she realized that she’d somehow ended up with a clan. She’d overheard other women talking about how the drones loved to join together in small family groups of several men and one woman. At the time she thought it was just wishful thinking on the women’s part.

As she watched the second drone removing his clothing, she felt her anxiety click up a notch. This one was going to have strange ugly alien junk, she just knew it. There was no way should get lucky twice in a row. Barely aware that she was digging her nails into mister niece’s leg, she waited breathlessly for the one Called Haroc to remove his pants. His uniform wasn’t plain black like most in the lineup. His had bright gold piping around the collar and sleeves.

The one called Haroc one was different shades of plum and made much the say way as the first. Though he had wings and antennas as well, he seemed a little more humanoid. It was obvious, particularly in his facial features. Relief flooded through her tense body when she saw he was as smooth as his friend down below.

As soon as he sat down, Haroc asked quietly. “Is our queen well this day?”

“She has asked about her drone.”

“Did you do as Talon asked?”

“He is our clan leader, so naturally I ceded to his wishes.”

“It is for the best.”

“Perhaps, but I do not enjoy being dishonest with my new queen.”

Ember’s head came up, wondering what they were lying to her about. She assumed that talking about her like she wasn’t present was some sort of Maruvian thing.

“I do not like it any better than you, but as you said, he is our clan leader, Valic. There is nothing to be done but obey.”

Glancing back over her shoulder, she looked at the nice man. His name was Valic. The name suited him somehow. He noticed her staring at him and lowered his head submissively. “What do you wish of me, my queen.”

“I want to know what you’re lying about.” Ember tried to inject some authority into her voice but the words came out laced with fear.

Valic shot Haroc a pained look. Haroc sighed dejectedly. “Our queen did ask you directly. You should answer her question honestly.”

Tilting his head slightly, Valic huffed out an exasperated expression. “That is not what you said but a moment ago. I think having a queen is scrambling your brain.”

“I just remembered something important. Queens outrank everyone, even clan leaders.”

Valic smiled, clearly pleased by that little reminder. Their behavior made Ember realize they hadn’t adapted to their clan structure quite as readily as most probably imagined.

Valic’s eyes found hers. “Our clan leader is Talon. He feels that if we tell you that we retrieved your brother’s body and put it in stasis and he cannot be revived, it is better that you never knew we tried. That will you will mourn his death but once.”

Grabbing her chest, it felt like all the oxygen had been sucked from the room. She felt herself being lifted from the bath and carried back to bed, dripping wet. As she tried to shake off the shock of discovering that her brother had been brought along. Hardly noticing the soft cloths being smoothed over her skin, she grabbed Valic.

“Let me get this straight. You put my brother in stasis and you’re going to try to revive him?”

The wide eyed man nodded. “Haroc retrieved your brother, even as I took flight with you in my arms. I have researched human customs and know how important sibling relationships are to your kind. It is a trait you have in common with drones. Those of us hatched from a single spawning are often emotionally bonded.”

Before she thought about it, she closed the distance between them and flung her arms around his neck. “Thank you so much for that. I can’t believe there’s even a chance for him.”

Clearing his throat, the man chose his words carefully. “Haroc was the one who recovered your sibling. Don’t forget about him.”

Pulling back she glanced at the hopeful drone. His antennas were wilting a bit and his wings were slightly spread in manner that made her think he might fly away if she said anything rude to him.

She took the couple of steps on her knees to get to him and have him a tentative hug as well. Looking up into his eyes, she gushed. “I saw you putting that disk and long strip on his chest and I was so confused. I thought it was some kind of Maruvian funeral right.”

The man tugged her a little closer and she felt Valic press in behind. They were making a warm, safe space for her between their bodies. She could tell because their wings fanned out to enclose the three of them. Something in the back of her mind was trying to raise a warning but she much too comfortable to heed its warning.

Haroc explained quietly. “The disk is a transport beacon. It tells the flying drones there is a pick up. The bar activates to create an impenetrable stasis around the person, preserving the exactly as they are at that moment until they can reach a medical bay. I followed the drone and ensured your spawn mate was safely ensconced in a medical pod.”

“Do you think your people can save him?”

Shaking his head, Haroc delivered the bad news. “We are not familiar enough with human biology at this point in time to be of any use to him.”

“So we just hang onto him until some point in the future when you guys learn more about humans?”

Valic snorted a laugh. “No, little queen. Our clan leader has made arrangements for him to be taken to a Shardon vessel for treatment. They are a race of clones and in exchange for taking biological samples, they will clone tissue and do what they can to mitigate the damage to his vital organs. If he can be saved, they will see it done.”

“I want to see him.”

“Why would you want that?”

Looking sheepish, she drew back a little. “To be sure I’m not imagining all this.”

Valic shot Haroc a nervous glance. “It is clear we do not understand human queens.”

His partner responded, “We were certain you would be traumatized to see him frozen in stasis.”

“As long as he’s in stasis, I’m not giving up on him. My brother is a real fighter. If anyone can get through this, he can.”

“If what you say is true, many clans will wish to consider him for inclusion.”

Shocked, she looked from one to the other of the men. Unable it get her head around aliens being willing to accept him into their family units, it finally dawned her that they may have a genuine shortage of males with baby making equipment. If that was the case, trying to include her brother might make actual sense.”

Going with that theory, she stated helpfully. “The males of our line are especially prolific.”

“That will increase his odds of being accepted.”

“Would it be possible to get my clothing back. I don’t mind being naked around you two because there is nothing sexual going on, but it’s a bad habit to start.”

“Humans normally wear clothing in their habitats.”

Since it was a statement and not a question, she agreed. “Yep, we’re strange that way. Unless we’re bathing, we usually wear our clothes.”

“Your clan prepared well for this voyage. We have a selection of gowns for you to choose from.”

“I’m not really the gown type. Do I have any other options?”

Haroc preened a bit, as he got up. Retrieving a small box from under the bed, he explained. “This is a gift from my brother’s human queen. She insisted that not all queens were traditional.”

Ripping the lid off, Ember smiled as the multitude of folded garments. “Wow, she thought of everything. Digging through the box, she pulled out several items in her size. “Oh my God, she even included cool boots. Remind me to thank her the moment we land.”

Ember was so enthusiastic to be getting nice new clothing, she hardly noticed the males whispering together as they watched her get dressed.

Finally Valic gasped. “You are right. This is much better than a gown. You can see where her legs meet her torso.”

Since it wasn’t polite to begrudge diskless aliens who were soon to be your husbands the opportunity to ogle your stick thin body, Ember bit back her normal retort.