Chapter Six
Diesel spent the next four days with nothing on his mind except Juliana and seeing her on Friday for lunch. He didn’t make sense to most people. He often didn’t answer questions with the correct answer. But he was also in a great mood, so everyone seemed to overlook his mistakes because his attitude was so improved.
He didn’t mention his date with Juliana until the Thursday staff meeting late in the afternoon. It was a small group, which was good for dropping a bomb right before leaving.
Cam gave a report on security—reminding everyone to change their passwords again—as usual. Nova was taking notes, as usual. The first shot across the bow for discussions he didn’t want to have was the announcement of the new gulag run he’d approved.
Axel finished the briefing on the UGG contract as a part of his general communications report. As expected, the elder council representative sat up after dozing through most of the meeting.
“Well, this is unexpected news! Why wasn’t this subject brought up in the regular council meeting for approval last week?” Mr. Gris, the longest serving council rep, said and glared at Axel.
Axel’s eyebrows went upward, and he sent Diesel a pitiful expression, looking for an official response. If he’d had the mental capabilities he would have shouted the word “coward” in Axel’s direction. But he didn’t and Axel probably already knew how he felt.
Before Mr. Gris could go on a long tirade, Diesel cleared his throat and quietly stood up. The elder moved his glare from Axel to Diesel. He told the elder in a quiet tone, “Because I didn’t need approval. It was fully my decision to make. I planned to mention it at the regular council meeting next month as a courtesy.”
Mr. Gris opened his mouth, closed it, fixed his stare on the center of the conference table and pressed his thin lips together, flattening them. He made a mild huffing noise and crossed his arms like an angry two-year-old about to launch into a full-blown tantrum.
“Anyone have anything else to discuss?” Diesel asked.
Everyone except the elder shook their heads and began gathering their things, getting ready to exit.
Nova stopped writing and started to stand, but Diesel said, “Wait a sec. I have one last thing to mention.”
His subordinates looked at him. “I’m taking tomorrow off. If anyone needs anything, contact either Cam or Axel if you can’t wait for my return.” No one moved. No one said a thing.
Diesel said, “Okay. Good meeting. Until next Thursday, then.”
“Hold up,” Cam said. “Where are you going?”
“I just said I was taking the day off. What makes you think I’m going anywhere?”
Cam’s eyes narrowed. “You just answered a question with a question and that is suspect.”
Axel said, “Enjoy your time off.”
Nova said, “You’re meeting with that earthling again, aren’t you?”
That roused Mr. Gris from his pout. “What earthling? Why doesn’t anyone mention important stuff like a mysterious earthling? The council needs to be notified—”
Diesel blew a sharp whistle through his fingers, making even his own ears ring, and everyone stopped talking and moving at once.
“Listen up. I have been in charge for over a year. Before that I worked for a few years in preparation of taking over. I don’t think taking one day off in all that time is asking so much. I’ll say this one more time. I was offering the information as a courtesy. It’s one day. I was not asking anyone’s permission. Nor am I obliged to give anyone an itinerary. Meeting adjourned.”
Diesel exited the room, knowing four shocked gazes followed him out. He didn’t care. He headed to his office in hopes of finding some peace and quiet.
Aunt Dixie was seated at Nova’s desk. “You better not let Nova catch you there,” he said in a low tone on his way by.
She stood up like a shot and followed him into his office as Nova entered the reception area.
“Were you sitting at my desk, Dixie Lou?” Nova asked.
“Course not. It’s very uncomfortable anyway.”
Nova rolled her eyes. Aunt Dixie stayed on his tail and closed his office door behind her. “Heard a rumor you’re taking tomorrow off.”
“That was fast.” Somehow she’d gotten the information in the time it took him to exit the meeting room and get to his office, maybe twenty seconds. That might be a new record.
“Are you going to see someone, like a date?”
Diesel walked behind his desk and gave his aunt a sharp look. “How could you possibly know that?”
“I know things, Diesel.” He shook his head. No one knew about this. He’d been tight-lipped all week on purpose.
“No doubt,” he said under his breath as he sat in his chair. “Are you about to yell at me, too?”
“Course not. I’m all for it. You haven’t had a day off in years.”
“Thank you.” Diesel looked up into her face. She didn’t look happy for him, exactly, but definitely very pleased with herself about something. She’d had the same look the day she came into the Cosmos Café with eight inches of her silver lamé uniform skirt whacked off and her hind end hanging out for all the world to see, insisting it was the only way she could earn a living wage.
“You’re welcome. I hope you have fun.”
Diesel wasn’t fooled. She wasn’t prone to wishing him well. More likely she was rubbing her hands together in glee and planning something diabolical in his short absence that he wouldn’t approve of, but whatever, it would be someone else’s problem tomorrow. He could deal with any Aunt Dixie fallout when he returned.
She turned to leave his office, but said over one shoulder, “Besides, it’s about time you settled down and found a wife.”
Now that was the Aunt Dixie he knew and loved. She was gone lickety-split, so he didn’t bother responding, but he did smile for some unfathomable reason. Well, he fathomed it was because it made him happy thinking about pursuing Juliana as his future wife. However, it was way too early to hope for that.
This foray from his responsibilities was admittedly unusual, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. He couldn’t wait to see Juliana again.
Before the door closed all the way behind Aunt Dixie, Cam pushed it open and entered with a portable Defender in one hand. He plunked it down on the center of Diesel’s desk.
“Take this with you, just in case.”
“Just in case of what?” Diesel was not taking a Defender with him. He pushed it across the desk toward Cam. “I won’t need it.”
“I know where you’re going.” His brother pushed the white and blue Defender back to the center of the desk.
“Do you?”
“You’re going to see that earthling. Take it.” He gestured to the device. “You’ve been strange all week since meeting her. I saw the video of your second time speaking to her. You kissed her again.”
“No, I didn’t. She kissed me.”
“Semantics.” Cam leaned down and patted the Defender. “Take it.”
“I’m not taking it, Cam. And if you press me, I’ll change all my passwords to p-a-s-s-w-o-r-d.”
Cam glared. “Fine. Go. Don’t erase any of her memories. Do what you’re going to do, but get her out of your system and move on. We don’t need this kind of dangerous exposure.”
“I hardly think a writer preparing a travelogue for a book comes to the level of dangerous exposure. Besides, I still maintain that our interstellar guest from Moogally wasn’t authorized to use that emergency exit as an entrance back to the underground facility.”
“I spoke to him. Turns out he drank too much Gatorade and got disoriented. The exit was the only place he remembered he could get below.”
“You mean he was drunk on his butt on a beverage known to alter his species’ mental capabilities and he popped open an inappropriate door at the exact wrong time.”
“Yes. That, too. Could have been worse. At least we contained the situation.” He patted the Defender again as if it had been the perfect solution. It hadn’t. Diesel had lost time with Juliana. Important time. Time he dearly wished he could get back.
“She’s never going to remember the first time we met. For me, that is worse.”
Cam leaned over and planted his palms flat on Diesel’s desk. “She’s also never going to remember that she saw a non-humanoid alien at the Big Bang Truck Stop in Alienn, Arkansas. She’s never going to write about that incident in her article or travel book or whatever. That’s the more important fact, Diesel. That’s what you should be thinking about.”
“Is it?”
“What is up with you?”
Diesel pushed out a sigh. “I really like her.”
“I’m aware. But you should get used to the idea that you absolutely cannot keep her.”
“She’s not some stray pet I took in, Cam.”
“She’s an earthling and not meant for you, Diesel.”
“There isn’t a law against—”
“Well, there should be.”
“Why?”
A distant look came over his brother’s face. Diesel had never seen Cam display emotion like this before. “Maybe I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Did you get hurt?”
Cam was very private about everything, but until a couple of years ago, he’d been much less uptight about absolutely everything. At the time, Diesel had thought Cam was merely stepping up to make a name for himself in his new position as Security Officer. Perhaps his brother had been burned by love and buried himself in his work.
“No comment.” Cam scooped the Defender up, executed a perfect about-face and exited the office without another word. Diesel would have to inquire about Cam’s issues later; it was time to get ready for his trip tomorrow.
The intercom on his desk buzzed. Nova’s voice came through the small speaker. “There’s a call for you on line one.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s Juliana Masters,” she said in an amused tone of voice, like she was tattling on someone.
Diesel locked his eyes on a festively colored piece of paper on his desk to keep from rolling them. “Thank you.” He clicked off and pushed the line one button, hoping Juliana wasn’t about to call off their meeting after so much drama had been attached to his merely taking a day off.
“Hello.” He tried to sound nonchalant, as if he didn’t care one iota if she canceled last minute.
“Hi, Diesel. It’s Juliana. I wanted to make sure we were still on for tomorrow.”
“Yes. I’ll be there at eleven as you requested.”
“Great. I’ll see you then.” She hung up quickly. Was she having second thoughts? Was he about to be disappointed in their meeting tomorrow?
Diesel inhaled deeply and exhaled as much stress out of his body as he could. He didn’t know what to expect, but decided to be prepared for anything and do his best not to get too attached.
Cam was right about one thing—if Diesel got too involved with Juliana, he’d have to be very careful. The largest reason earthlings and Alphas were discouraged from marrying was because the ruling party did not want any indigenous people to have knowledge of their operation. He hadn’t heard it lately, but the phrase loose lips, sink ships had been used in relation to any earthlings discovering they were here.
The few Alpha-human relationships he’d ever heard of had been allowed because the couple in question went back to Alpha-Prime. Diesel wanted to live on Earth. He wanted to be near his family.
Alpha-Prime was a good place to live, but he’d spent the bulk of his life on Earth. It was more his home than the planet his family had come from. His parents had come as newlyweds with dreams of making Earth their permanent residence. Diesel had been born on Earth, making him technically an earthling, except that he was one hundred percent Alpha-Prime alien.
Diesel liked Juliana, but if they had a chance to be together, he’d have to keep her in the dark about where his parents had immigrated from, which was an entire galaxy away from Earth. Hard to do with a spouse, especially if he expected to stay the Fearless Leader of this operation, and he did want to keep his job.
The secrecy that would be required for a lifetime was daunting. That was really why no Alpha had ever married a human. Would he be the first? Would he simply ditch his family and his responsibilities here to move back to Alpha-Prime with his human wife?
Or would he cave like almost everyone else had, and distance himself from someone he loved? Or, worse, spend a lifetime either drugging her into forgetting things she should know or blasting her in the face with the Defender to keep her knowledge of his alien identity and his parents’ planet of origin completely erased.