It took all three of the men and Asa’s truck to get the probe dragged into the barn, where they could conceal it from prying eyes.  The Taluan body was tucked inside for the trip, and Joely and Sera grabbed shovels and a wheelbarrow to dig its blood out of the drive.  It mixed with the dirt and created a foul-smelling green sludge, and more than once, both women were nearly overcome by the stench. When the stinking stuff had been collected, Sera pushed the wheelbarrow into the barn.

“Oh my sweet Jesus!” Asa swore, covering his nose. “What is that? It smells like something died!”

Beno looked unconcerned. “Taluan blood. It degrades almost immediately as soon as it spills. The smell will dissipate in a few hours.”

Theyn wiped his hands on his pants. “I’m going to dismember the body and set it out for the sunlight. It will decompose more quickly that way.”

Sera wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Will it rot as fast as its blood?”

“It should.” The blond Ylian returned to the probe with a hacksaw from Asa’s tool shed and a box of garbage bags.

Joely came into the barn, too, and stood with her hands in the back pockets of her denim shorts. “How can we find out what they were looking for, and whether they reported back?”

Beno gestured vaguely at the probe. “I can check the communication records, see who the last transmission was sent to and when.  I’ll go through all of the instrumentation and see what I can learn.”

Sera went to him, putting her hand on his shoulder. He turned his glowing green eyes to her face, and his expression was wary. She sighed. “Thank you for defending us.” She consciously chose to speak in his native tongue, and the translator in her ear and the bond with Beno and Theyn helped her manage it without prompting.  “I’m sorry for the things I said. I know you wouldn’t do those things to me, and I would never do anything to hurt you, either.”

He looked impressed at her linguistic skills but still irritated. “I guess you’d never turn on a fuck buddy.”

“You’re more to me than that,” she confessed. “You both are. I don’t have words for what you are, but it’s so much more than fuck buddies. I never should have said that.”

Beno’s wary look did not alter. “No, you shouldn’t have.”

She sighed.  She deserved that. “I’m sorry.” Sera looked up into his eyes, not flinching from the directness of his gaze. “Please forgive me.”

He looked back in silence for a long moment, but she could feel his anger begin to melt. Finally, he turned up one corner of his mouth and said, “Forgiven.”

She pulled him closer and sealed it with a kiss.

Asa was staring, listening to their conversation. He shook his head. “That’s a fascinating language.”

The lovers separated, and Beno said, “Maybe I’ll teach you.”

“Deal.”

Theyn emerged from the probe with four bulging, heavy-duty black garbage bags. He dragged them out of the barn and into the field, dropping them in the open where the sun could bake them in the morning.

Joely cringed. “God, that’s nasty.”

Beno went to inspect the probe, and when Sera tried to follow him, he held up his hand. “There’s really only room for one person in here, and I think, given what our partner just did, it’ll smell too badly for you right now. Let it air out first.”

She had never heard him refer to Theyn in that way, but it made perfect sense to her. They were bound together, all three of them.  “What about you? Won’t it make you sick, too?”

He pressed his lips together in a hard line and narrowed his eyes. “I’ve got experience with Taluan stink. I’ll be fine.”

She knew how deep and painful that experience had been. She nodded and ran her hand along his arm, trying to be supportive. He turned and went into the probe, closing the hatch behind him.

Drifting closer to the spacecraft, Asa shook his head. “You can’t even see any damage on this thing,” he said. “I don’t think my bullets even scratched it, and that shooter thing ol’ Beno’s got didn’t leave any marks, but it sure brought this bird down.”

Theyn spoke from the doorway. “It disrupted its magnetic field, creating an EMF spike that forced its systems to reboot. The only damage that would have been caused would be from the crash.”

“Can you force people to reboot, too?” Asa asked.

The Ylian looked confused. “People aren’t computers, Asa,” he said. “They don’t reboot.”

“I think he means, can you kill people with that kind of pulse?” Sera translated.

“Oh. No. The organic kill feature requires a different calibration. We rarely use it.”

“But for these things, you’d make an exception, I think,” Joely ventured.

Theyn nodded. “Without hesitation.” He looked down at his hands, which were coated in the stinking green blood of the dead Taluan.  “Do you have water?”

Asa pointed him to a spigot, and Theyn set about washing up. He had a troubled, faraway look on his face.  Sera could only imagine the things he was thinking.

A wave of shock reached them from Beno, and they turned to the probe in unison, their eyes wide. Theyn hurried over to flip open the hatch, but his partner was already scrambling out, his face pale.

He grabbed Theyn’s arms and told him in their own tongue, “We aren’t the last.”

“What?”

“There were other survivors!” He looked at Sera, who came to their sides. He gripped her hand. “I found a log. There’s a colony of survivors in the Deleton system, on Bruthes. Theyn, the Empress survived the attack. She and her court escaped, along with hundreds of others.”

A glittering gold tear slipped from Theyn’s eye. “My mother…” He shook his head. “But that was so long ago. Of course she’s dead now.”

Sera hugged him. “Your people weren’t all destroyed. That’s wonderful.”

“There’s more.” They looked to Beno, who continued. “The Taluans discovered that consuming Ylian flesh gave them benefits they hadn’t possessed before. They’re searching for every Ylian they can find, because…” He swallowed a lump in his throat. “Because they want to farm us.”

“That’s disgusting!” she exclaimed.

Theyn clenched his jaw. “And Bruthes? How are they reacting?”

“The log didn’t say. When we knew them, they were very pragmatic.”

The look he gave his partner spoke volumes, and Sera could feel a wave of nausea rolling out from Theyn through their bond. She took his hand.  “Pragmatic,” he echoed. “That means that the colony is really a farm. They are cooperating with the Taluans to keep them from destroying their own world.”

“I would be surprised if they were doing anything different.” Beno sighed. “In their place, I can’t say I would do otherwise. A few hundred lives is nothing in defense of a billion.”

“No, you wouldn’t. You have too much honor for that,” Theyn disagreed. “You would fight for freedom and to protect your people.”

“I tried that once before. Look where it got us.”

Sera interjected, “It got you here, with friends, and still alive. You saved your partner and yourself. I think that’s a win.”

The crunch of tires on gravel in the driveway interrupted their conversation, and Joely turned to face the newcomer. She was silhouetted by the bright lights of the headlights, turned into a black shape in the glare.  Asa came forward and closed the barn doors, shutting Sera and the Ylians on one side and Joely and himself on the other.

Can you camouflage the probe? Sera asked.

No. It’s too big.

Joely opened the door a crack and poked her head into the barn. “Sera,” she said, “it’s Rodriguez.”

She looked at her lovers, then said, “I’ll be right there.” Joely left, and she told them, “Stay here and out of sight. I don’t know if we can trust him or not.”

Theyn caught her hand before she could walk away. “Be careful.”

She smiled. “Always.”