Chapter 15
“We got lucky, it’s still alive,” one of them said.
Before she’d gotten to know Viglar, Madison had said terrible things about him and called him Frankenstein and worse, but she intensely disliked the way they called him “it.” She bit her lip to stop her mouth from getting them into trouble.
“Leave, humans, or try to face your deaths with courage,” Viglar said, extremely calm.
Madison revised her opinion on the intelligence of the resistance when they didn’t turn around and run the other way. From her vantage point at the window of the shuttle, she could see Viglar and the twenty or so humans facing off. They didn’t bring enough humans.
A young man, with blue-black hair and dark eyes burning with hatred, glared at Viglar. “You think you can frighten us with that sword, with a few traps.”
“Remember the battle at No Name Town. They wiped out a lot of people with those swords,” another voice said.
“Raiders. None of them had any decent training or equipment,” said yet another voice.
How many of them were there? Despite their bravado, they sounded nervous.
The man in the front with the black beard lifted a machine gun like the ones in the old movies and didn’t hesitate. She heard gunfire, wanted to scream at Viglar to get down. Unlike in the movies, Viglar didn’t become riddled with holes and fall down bleeding. He swung his sword and chopped off the guy’s head. He chopped of his head, she whimpered silently. Who does that? This is the second time I’ve seen him do that.
“Aren’t Zyrgins supposed to be more advanced than humans? Advanced societies aren’t supposed to chop off people’s heads,” she screamed at him, her voice carrying through the open door.
“Quiet, woman.”
“What’s the use of telling me how superior you are all the time, when you chop off people’s heads?”
“Quiet, human.”
“You’re a doctor, for heaven’s sake.”
Surely, he should try to reason with them or something. He would probably approve of her brother’s shoot first philosophy.
“He’s got a human female trapped in there,” yet another man said.
“She doesn’t sound very trapped to me. More like an alien lover.”
Alien lover was the term used for those who didn’t speak out against the improvements the aliens made. According to the resistance, it applied to everyone who didn’t actively fight the aliens.
“At least I don’t shoot down innocent people,” she shouted at them.
“Human, quiet.”
“We need to take her alive, find out what she knows.”
“Yeah, they sound like an old married couple--watch out he’s swinging again.”
Madison shivered. She didn’t think their plan was to politely ask her what she knew about the Zyrgins. She’d closed her eyes the moment Viglar blurred and, this time at least, if he did cut off someone’s head, she didn’t see it happen.
“If you harm my breeder, your death will not be merciful,” Viglar said.
“Breeder? You got a green missus in there?” one of them mocked and tried to see inside where Madison sat at the window.
From the way he squinted his eyes, she knew the window was opaque from outside. Behind him she saw more men emerge from the surrounding bushes. She was toast. If they weren’t rescued soon, these men would kill Viglar and, after he’d called her his breeder, they would kill her too. They were fanatics, and just the fact that she was in the same shuttle with Viglar would condemn her in their eyes. Did she want to live if they killed him in front of her? She looked around again for a weapon, so she could help him fight, and balled her fists in frustration when she saw nothing. The pipe would be a useless defence against men with machine guns.
“Stay inside, Madison,” he said, as if he read her mind.
She had absolutely no plan to go out there. Though she would’ve loved to have a weapon.
Outside, the short lull came to an end and it sounded as if world war four had broken out. Madison crouched on the bench, looking out the window, as Viglar killed them one after the other. Once he cut of two heads with one mighty swing of his sword. She whimpered, she didn’t want to see this. Didn’t want to be confronted with the fact that her alien boyfriend had killed so many humans. Even if it was in self-defence. One of them turned toward the shuttle and tried to shoot out the window. Madison screamed and fell back. The window didn’t even crack. Madison sat up dazed and got on the bench again.
Viglar kicked the man’s weapon out of his hands. “You dare to shoot at my breeder?” Pure menace.
It was as if that was the sign for Viglar to stop playing with them. While Madison looked on, he went through them like a tornado, leaving devastation in his wake.
Viglar had the man who’d shot at her tied up, and he crouched in front of him. As she watched, he casually reached out and broke the man’s finger. She could hear the bone snap all the way here. The man screamed, and Viglar waited until he stopped to break another bone.
“Please, Viglar, let him go,” she begged. She ran to the shuttle door, but it wouldn’t open.
“Stay inside, Madison.” She heard another bone snap and put her hands over her ears.
“Please don’t torture him. Let the law deal with him.”
“He wounded you. I judge him guilty and when he tells me everything he knows, I may allow him to die.” He turned and walked back to where the resistance man moaned with pain.
Madison shuddered when the man screamed--a long keening sound of agony.
He does this without any compulsion or expression. How could he do something like that with such calm unconcern?
“Please don’t do this anymore. Didn’t you take some kind of doctor’s oath,” she said from just inside the door where she couldn’t see what he did to the man.
“I took no oath and have no plan of ever taking a human oath.”
Madison sat with her hands clutched over her ears, but she couldn’t block out the screams of pain or the man begging for mercy. At last it stopped, so abruptly, she worried he’d killed him in cold blood.
The shuttle door opened and Viglar appeared in the doorway.
“Did you kill him?” she asked. Fearful of his answer.
“No,” he said and she didn’t know if he told the truth.
“We will only be picked up tomorrow,” he told her. He pressed against the hull and it opened to reveal several silver squares and rectangles. He took a few of them and closed the space again. He went outside and she followed him.
Once on the rocky ground, she looked around, but couldn’t find the man he’d tortured. “Did you kill him?” she asked again. Defending them was one thing, killing someone in cold blood wasn’t acceptable.
He fiddled with the silver thingies in his hands. “No.”
“Then where is he?”
“Somewhere close where he cannot upset you.”
“If you lie to me about this, I will never forgive you. No matter how many times you call me breeder and synthesize coffee for me, I will consider us over.
“I do not need to lie. Now stay still, and I will put up camp.”
“Why, if your technology is so superior, can’t we be rescued now?”
“More resistance humans are coming.” She heard the sneer when he said resistance humans. “You do not need to be concerned. I can protect you.”
He made a fire and placed two small round disks on the ground next to it. They transformed into what looked like two silver cushions. “How do you do this?” She sat down and the cushion moulded to her, even supporting her back. “I have to say you guys have very convenient technology.” She looked at the shuttle and it suddenly hit her. “We’re not stranded at all. You want the resistance to find us so you can kill them all.”
“I will hunt for you.” The fact that he ignored her question said it all.
She struggled to focus on food after thinking about the fate of the resistance, of what he did to the man he captured. “What will you hunt? Most game stopped roaming free almost a century ago.” She suppressed a shudder at the thought of eating a freshly killed animal.
“We have re-introduced wildlife.”
Her stomach turned, and she had to swallow a few times before she could answer him. “You expect me to eat an actual animal. Eeew.”
He stared at her so long she had to concentrate not to fidget. Did he really expect her to eat something that walked around just moments before? She’d rather starve until they were rescued.
“I have seen you eat meat.”
“Yeah, but that wasn’t real meat. It only tastes like meat.”
Everyone always complained about the fact that they couldn’t have real meat anymore, but it was more habit than a real wish for meat. Only the very rich could still afford it. She couldn’t imagine eating an actual animal. Even if she got suddenly rich and could afford it. “My brothers used to hunt, when there was still game about, but I refused to eat it.”
“I will cook the meat for you.”
That wouldn’t make any difference, but, if he left to hunt, she could help the injured man get away. Viglar would be furious with her, but she couldn’t stand by and see someone killed. She had no doubt when they’d gotten all their answers from him, the Zyrgins would kill him. They had a very straightforward attitude toward dealing with the resistance.
She looked on as he shook out a silver square and it transformed into a dome-like tent. Another one became a mattress he placed inside. The third one opened to reveal utensils and what she suspected might be their version of canned food. He set four silver disks on the ground and vertical beams came up, enclosing the camp site and the shuttle.
He pressed his forehead against hers. “Do not leave the camp.” He left to hunt with no weapons she could see.
Madison hurried around the shuttle and found the wounded man sitting against the hull on the other side of the shuttle. “Come on, I’ll help you get away.” She tried to help him up, but he pushed her back. She fell and scraped her hands against the ground.
“Alien’s inbred hoar. I don’t need your help,” he snarled and spat at her.
Madison staggered back. She was about to lay into him when a shadow fell over them. A big shadow.
Viglar loomed over them. Almost casually, he leaned down and backhanded the man. Madison cringed when she heard something crack. Again. “You will show respect,” Viglar said calmly.
He took her arm and led her to the cushion by the fire. She expected him to read her the riot act, but instead he placed more disks at each end of the shuttle. She wouldn’t be able to get to the prisoner, and after the way the man had spat at her, she was glad he wouldn’t be able to get to her if he got lose.
Again, Viglar pressed his forehead against hers and left. She sat staring into the artificial fire he’d built. She couldn’t figure out how it worked, he’d placed rocks on the ground and now flames came out of it. Even though she knew she was safe within his beams she wished he’d return. It was dark beyond the perimeter and who knew what hid there.
He returned and she’d expected him to return with bloody meat, but she was relieved to see him carry only a silver container. He must’ve skinned the animal where she couldn’t see. Her stomach turned while at the same time hunger pangs hit her.
“I will ensure your food is cooked,” he told her.
“Thank you.” She didn’t want to eat anything that used to be an animal, but at the same time she was hungry. Not hungry enough to eat an animal yet, but she was getting there.
When he gave her a plate she frowned when she realized he wasn’t eating.
“What about you?”
“Zyrgins prefer their food raw.” He had a curiously watchful air. As if her reaction to what he said mattered.
She shrugged. “Oh, so put some raw food on a plate and join me.”
“My eating habits might offend you.” Again she had the impression that he waited for her to react negatively.
She laughed in his face. “You should see my brothers eat. It’s enough to make you puke.” She couldn’t understand how he could be so rude, but then so meticulous about hunting for her and feeding her.
He had no compulsion about torturing that man and didn’t care that she knew, but he didn’t want her to see him eat his food raw?
He left and after a while returned with small pieces of meat on a plate.
“You know, you should stock some emergency supplies. Some canned vegetables and such. Then you won’t have to go out and hunt.
“I will do so,” he said almost meekly.
Madison looked at him suspicious, meek and Viglar did not go together. He merely ate his food with slow deliberate movements. After one look at the bloody meat on his plate, she averted her eyes, going with the same logic she used to deal with her brothers. If she didn’t see it, it couldn’t bother her.
“What are you going to do with the resistance people on their way here? Do you have to kill them? Can’t you just arrest them or something?”
“We will make an example of them of what happens when we are defied.”
Visions of Nazi-like executions went through her head. “We had people who called themselves Nazis centuries ago, then neo-fascist Nazis rose about a hundred and fifty years ago. They executed people for standing up to them as well.”
“Do you expect me to allow them to kill me? To use you to kill me?”
“I know you can’t just let it go, but do you have to kill them? And do you really need to cut off their heads?”
“We rule Earth. They have to accept it or take the consequences. It is good for everyone if we maintain discipline.”
“You realize I’m going to keep arguing about this until you listen to me. I will never accept you playing judge, jury, and executioner.”
He pulled his lips away from his teeth in that god awful way that was supposed to be a smile. “Of this I have no doubt.”
“Since we’re stuck here until your so-called rescue arrives, why don’t you explain to me exactly what a breeder is?”
She didn’t like that word and she wanted to know exactly what was expected of a breeder. They should’ve had this conversation before. She’d been so focused on learning from him, she’d drifted into things she should’ve questioned.
“A breeder belongs to a warrior who protects her and cares for her.”
“Care in the sense of having emotions?”
“Caring is in keeping her safe and fed and spend many hours in the sleeping place with her,” he said.
“I’m going to have to clear up a few misconceptions about our relationship for you.” It didn’t matter what they thought a breeder was. She didn’t want to be called that. She didn’t need someone to care for her as if she was a pet. If he wouldn’t be her partner she’d move on.
“A breeder belongs to a warrior and gives him small warriors.” He cocked his head in that curious gesture. “Many small warriors.”
“Well, I decline the honor of giving you small warriors. I’m sure our species can’t produce offspring together, anyway.” She said a small prayer of thanks that she’d been on birth control for years now.
He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “You are my breeder, and I have the honor to kill anyone who threatens you. I will annihilate their bloodlines for daring to harm you.”
Madison frantically shook her head. “Please, I don’t want you to kill any more innocent people because of me.”
“This is not a choice. I protect you.”
“Oh, I don’t think so. You’re not going to use me as an excuse to kill more of my people.”
“I killed an Eduki for you and have my leader’s agreement, I presented you to my him. That gives me the right to protect you.”
“Is that all you want, to protect me and have me breed children. What about emotion.”
“I honor you above all others. You are my breeder, and you will comply with my actions.”
“In your dreams.”
“In your reality, you are mine Madison, we will do feelings if that will please you.”
Madison tried to smile but it felt stiff and fake on her lips. Was he capable of normal emotions? What if she expected something from him that he simply couldn’t give her?
They sat in silence for a long time. The evening got colder and Madison snuggled closer to him, in spite of being mad at him. The thought that she was mad at him for something he might not be capable of scared her. She couldn’t bear it if he never loved her.
“Madison?”
“Yes, Viglar?”
“Why is it so important for you to be a doctor? You are different from the others, you care about the patients more than getting paid.”
Madison stared into the fire. She’d never talked about it since that day, her family knew why she wanted to be a doctor, why she worked so hard. Even they never talked about it. Suddenly she wanted to tell him. To share her guilt and shame with someone else. Her family had tried, at first, but she’d gone into hysterics and then didn’t speak for months. Maybe if she talked about it, the ghost of the past would allow her some rest. She stared into the flames, at the two little girls skipping and playing in the swamp, believing life was good and would remain so.
“When I turned eight, we heard there was a big alligator in the swamp. Even then, the swamp was drying out and gators had been hunted for food and other things, until they weren’t seen anymore.” She pulled her jacket closer around her. “I made my sister Ana come with me. I was going to see the gator and impress my friends at school with my bravery the next day.”
“You were not scared?”
She shrugged. “A little, but more curious. The danger it represented didn’t feel real to me. We were arguing, pushing each other around, and I pushed her. And instead of pushing back, she--she sort of stumbled. I tried to grab her, but she fell. I remember one moment we were playing and the next she lay there with sticks coming out of her stomach.” Madison hugged herself and inched closer to Viglar. He tightened his arm around her.
“She fell on a dried tree stump that had turned to stone through the centuries.” She stared at the flames. For a moment, she thought she saw Ana’s face. The way she looked before, before her face became twisted with fear and pain. “At first, all I could think was how mad my mamma was going to be that she got her dress all bloodied.” She swallowed and stared into the flames, lost in the smell of rot that hung thick in the swamp clotting up her nose, choking her. Of knowing it was her fault, if she hadn’t pushed her sister back, she never would’ve fallen.
“What happened next?”
She looked around, abruptly pulled back to the present. Grateful to be gone from that terrible day. “I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid to leave her alone and go and get my parents, and she kept screaming with the terrible pain, begging me to help her to make the pain go away, to get the sticks out of her stomach.”
Madison shuddered, she could smell the swamp, the blood, hear Ana’s screams echoing around her. “I tried to pull her off the sticks, but she screamed so bad, and blood started bubbling from her mouth, and I knew, in the movies, when blood comes out of people’s mouths, they died.” She shivered and he pulled her close to him. “She died in my arms, and I promised her, I said I would learn what to do to help her. That I’d never again be so stupid and helpless. Then I ran to find my parents and I got lost. I knew the swamps like the back of my hand and I got lost.”
“How long were you lost?”
“A night, but what did that matter. Because of me Ana died.”
“That was when you decided to be a doctor.”
She shook her head. “No, even when I was little, doctors were scarce. We lived in the back of beyond and never had any doctors, so it wasn’t a concept I knew. When my youngest brother was born, my mother had complications and the midwife saved her and the baby.” She smiled up at him. “She was amazing. That’s when I knew I had to learn medicine. I didn’t want to be a midwife, I wanted to treat wounds and difficult illnesses. The midwife told me about being able to be a doctor. From that day, I worked really hard to learn as much as I could so that I would be accepted into medical school.” She clenched her fists until her fingers ached. “I have to learn enough to save people who are injured or sick.”
Gently he opened her fingers and massaged her hand. “It is impossible to save everyone.”
She tried to clench her hands again, but he pushed her fingers open and continued to massage her hands. “I will give it a damn good try.”
“That is why you came to my office, even when you feared me. You want to keep your promise to your sister.”
“Yes.”
“I will help you keep your promise.”
“You will?”
“I will teach you as much as your primitive human brain can absorb.”
She shook her head. “I so appreciate your honest opinion. I would like to continue to learn from you. In my unique primitive way of course.”
“You are welcome. It is time for us to sleep.”
He checked the perimeter he’d set around the camp and on either side of the shuttle. Madison watched him, still feeling trapped in the past. She’d hoped if she talked about it, Ana’s ghost would let her have peace. Would be satisfied that she became a doctor and helped people. But Madison still smelled the swamp and heard her sister beg her to help her.
Viglar came, pulled her up, and steered her inside the domed tent. It seemed solid and she touched the wall. It was hard metal. “How do you get it to be so small and then expand it this big?”
“Superior Zyrgin technology.”
She rolled her eyes, fell down on the mattress, and then winced. It was like landing on rock.
“I will obtain a soft bed for you to keep in the shuttle,” he said.
“That’s very kind of you, but I’m hoping this is the last time we crash a shuttle.” Though he might convince her to take her camping sometime. His gadgets made camping easy. If it wasn’t for the man tied up behind the shuttle, she could’ve enjoyed the experience.
He stepped out of his boots and she sat up and stared at his big feet. She’d never noticed him do that before. “How do you manage that?”
He opened his mouth and she held up a hand. “If you say superior Zyrgin technology, I will scream and scream until your eardrums burst.”
He got onto the bed next to her without saying anything and drew her into his arms. He leaned down to kiss her, but she pushed against his chest.
“We can’t, not with that poor man around and listening to us.” Though she wanted to lose herself in his intense lovemaking. She needed it.
“He cannot hear anything that happens inside here.”
She stared at the door of the dome. It had sealed shut behind them, but how strong could this inflatable dome be? “What? That’s dangerous, anyone can sneak up on us and we’d be so busy swappin spit, we’d never hear them coming.”
“I do not wish to swap spit.”
Madison sighed. “It’s only a saying, it means kissing, you dope. What I meant is that we cannot have sex because we will be so focused on that that, we’d never hear anyone coming to murder us in this horrible hard bed.”
“I have superior Zyrgin ears and will hear them coming from miles away, I also set up superior Zyrgin alarms miles back. I will know if anyone comes over land or by air.”
“Oh, well, if it’s superior alarms, who am I to worry?”
“Can we swap spit now?”
She should’ve known her sarcasm would pass him by. “I suppose,” she said without grace. One more word about superior Zyrgin anything, and she’d scratch out his eyes.
He kissed her and as usual when he kissed her, she forgot everything and lost herself in the pleasure. He stroked her hair and she stilled.
“A word of warning, alien.”
“I am not an alien, I am a Zyrgin.”
“I don’t care, if I hear the words first knowing, or even get the feeling you’re going to torture me with sex, I’m running out of here and spending the night outside.” Actually, she’d be better off kicking him out and spending the night in here.
“This is not the first time we do sex, why would I call it a first?”
Madison moaned and slapped her head with her fist repeatedly until he took it in his and stopped her.
“We will commence swapping spit now.” He suited action to words and kissed her until she barely knew her own name. He undressed her and, when she would’ve undressed him, got up and stepped out of his clothes in that same weird way he stepped out of his boots. She’d find out how he did it somehow. She poured everything she had into the kisses and caresses they exchanged. She needed the oblivion from her guilt and her duty mapped out for her.
He kissed his way down her body and she stiffened. Even though her body was pulsing with pleasure, she grabbed his head. “Remember what I said about the first knowing.”
“Human, this is not a first time.” He pulled away from her restraining hands and kissed his way down to her feet. She giggled and kicked when he tickled the soles of her feet with his tongue. He held her foot securely and then gave the other foot the same treatment.
He moved up and used all the knowledge he’d gained during that first knowing to find all her pleasure spots and drive her wild. She touched his muscled chest, enjoying the feel of the rippling muscles under his warm skin. “I will do a first knowing on you, then I will know all your--”
He slammed her down hard on the mattress and loomed over her. “I am a warrior, not a breeder.” Pure menace stared down at her, the temperature in the room dropped several degrees.
“Turnaround is fair play. Wouldn’t you like me to caress every inch of you, learn all your pleasure spots, and then use it to bring you ecstasy?”
She could see his pride warring with a male desperate for her to bring him to ecstasy.
“No,” he said and lowered his mouth to her neck.
Madison smiled and kissed the bald head so close to her lips. She’d wear him down and get her first knowing. And boy would she torture him.
As if he had to prove he was a warrior and in charge in his bed, he made love to her until she begged him to come inside her. “Finish it, please, Viglar, before I go out of my mind.”
At last he pushed deep inside her and, watching her with that hot devil’s gaze, set a rhythm that took them both to heaven. When she came to herself, she lay next to him on her side facing him. As usual he lay on his back, his eyes closed. She placed a hand on his arm and snuggled down to sleep.
“Don’t turn over, alien, your heavy ass will crush me.”
“Go to sleep, human.”
Viglar lay staring at the shuttle’s ceiling. More humans were coming, but it would take them the whole night. They’d made sure if the so-called resistance had hover crafts that it would not work in this area. He would have liked to see their faces when they realized the only way they could approach what they thought was a fallen shuttle was on foot.
Zacar had expected the resistance to try something like this for a while now. Madison told Rachel everything, but everyone at the hospital knew he and Madison went to the shelter. He was still sure Rachel was working with the resistance. When Madison realized how her friend used her, she would be unhappy. The moment the inferior human bomb hit the shuttle, he’d contacted Zacar who’d decided that they needed to draw out as many of the resistance to the remote location where he made the shuttle appear to go down.
He could defend Madison against the humans and, if the situation became dangerous for her, Zacar was nearby. Still Viglar didn’t like her to be this close to danger. That woumber already shot at the window to get to her.
He remembered what the human had called her. “What did he mean by ‘inbred,’ human?”
“What?” Madison asked sleepily.
He repeated the question. He liked the way she looked when she was almost asleep.
“Oh, most people have brown hair. People like me with red hair are presumed to have inbred to keep themselves pure. To tell you the truth, I have my suspicions about some of my ancestors.”
She snuggled closer and fell asleep. Viglar held her and thought about the coming battle.