Chapter 82—Maxx

Shockingly, the passengers and crew of both ships had only suffered a few minor bumps and bruises from the crash landing.

We’d been lucky. Nera’s pilot had done nothing short of a miracle.

By the time Nera, her crew, Pete, Miekil, and I forced open all the doors on the cruise ship, we were all exhausted. Outside, we found the exorbitantly expensive ship to be a totaled wreck. To quote the endless wisdom of my beautiful star, “Oops” summed that up very well.

Nera’s ship had fared better since it was built for battle, but it still needed some major repairs before it could fly again.

To be on the safe side, I insisted Nera see a doctor to make sure she and our baby were okay. She didn’t argue, only we couldn’t find one.

“Let’s check the beach house,” I said, heading in that direction.

The sun was still setting, catching the gently rolling waves in the ocean aflame and streaking the sky in rich hues of indigo and orange. It was so beautiful here. A part of me was glad to be back. An insane part, but still.

“Um, so don’t shoot the messenger,” Pete said with a wince, coming up to meet us as soon as I opened the sliding glass door, “but Umo wants us all on stage in five to film the live aftermath of the crash. He says the viewers need to see the dramatic, drawn-out moment of the who-lived-and-who-died reveal.”

Like the rest of the males, he’d reverted to his old shirtless ways. Me too since Klio-3‘s dress code was more comfortable. I’d also traded my father’s sword for my machete, my weapon of choice here.

“All of us are lucky to be alive after…everything,“ Miekil snapped, coming downstairs to stand next to Pete and glare.

Nera placed her hand on his arm and squeezed. My inner jealous beast growled, but I told it to back down. We were all on edge back on Klio-3, now more than ever.

“And some of us are extra hangry,” she said to Pete. “Can’t you talk to Umo? Please?”

“I already tried.” Pete’s shoulders sagged as he leaned against the doorframe. “He said, and I quote, ‘I don’t listen to fired hosts.’ Then he slammed the door in my face, so…yeah, that didn’t go so well.”

“We need more time, Pete,” Miekil argued, gesturing upstairs. “Nacket has quite a gash on one of her tentacles that she got after the crash somehow, and I’m pretty sure Judge pissed himself during the crash and refuses to change clothes. I guess all that’s going on the show too?”

Pete gave a defeated sigh. “Not my call anymore, man. You have five minutes, only now it’s probably four.”

The Killian and I growled. All I wanted to do was find a doctor for Nera and the baby and then take Nera to bed for an eternity.

Nera gently prodded Miekil inside. “Go on, raid the fridge. I can tell you’re hungry. I’ll go see if Nacket’s okay.”

She turned to me expectantly, but I squeezed the caterpillar jar tighter and gave her a firm shake of my head.

“No way,” I told her. “I’m not taking piss duty. Judge is on his own.”

Nera laughed, and I realized that it had been too long since I’d heard that soft, lyrical sound. “I was just going to do this, not ask you to do that.”

She leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to my cheek, spreading tingling waves everywhere. Then she grinned as she pulled back, and the tingles turned into shockwaves.

“Try not to miss me,” she whispered.

“Impossible,” I assured her.

Smiling, she took to the stairs, her hips swaying gently in her military pants, and I found myself once again completely transfixed by her.

“Get a room,” Miekil called from the kitchen, too far away to know what I was doing or feeling or seeing.

That never seemed to stop him though.

Rolling my eyes, I hauled myself toward him. “That’s all I want to do, believe me.”

“You two are good now?” he asked between chomps of raw bar yer fish.

My stomach churning, I grimaced and turned away. “I guess near-death experiences will do that to a couple. Any couple. Even us.”

“Right. Love conquers all,” he said, and I didn’t miss the note of hurt in his voice. “So what now?”

“Meaning what?”

He kicked the refrigerator door closed and looked me right in the eye. “Meaning what now? You love her. She loves you. What now?”

“She needs time to heal. After that…” I understood what he was asking, but the truth was I didn’t know.

She hadn’t said she forgave me, which was fine. I didn’t expect her to. But were we really in the same place as we were before she found out the truth? Or were we someplace different with only a vague sense of the path forward?

“I have no fixing clue,” I admitted with a sigh. “We haven’t had a whole lot of time to process everything between this show and always dodging death.”

Miekil turned to retrieve two jars of cas nut butter from the cupboards, twisted them both open at once, and slid one toward me across the island counter. “That’s why I was asking. I’m not blaming.”

I opened the drawer of spoons and shoved one toward him across the countertop. “Good. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I take it she’s still pregnant with your baby?”

I couldn’t stop the grin from splitting across my face if I tried. “Yes. My baby.”

“Now I feel okay saying congratulations.“ He clicked his spoon against mine and dug into his food.

“Nera is still processing…well, everything. Nothing is set in stone yet,” I explained.

“Except for you two. You two are set in stone. I knew this from the beginning.”

“Okay, how did you know this from the beginning?”

Miekil took a big bite before answering. “She revolves around you like a planet to a sun, and vice versa. Sometimes the sun beats down a little too hot is all, but you still need it. You still crave it. You can’t thrive without it, and you’re locked in its pull.”

He was right, of course. It seemed we were made for each other, meant for each other, like the air in our lungs and the rain on the soil. Despite our pasts, there was nothing we could do to change our connection.

“After everything she’s been through,” I said, swirling my spoon around the jar, “I don’t want her locked in anything she doesn’t want to be.”

Miekil nodded. “I get that, but it’s not just about her anymore. It’s also about the baby, if you both decide to keep it, of course.”

“Yeah. You’re right.”

“And on that note, I’ll butt out.”

“Thanks, Miekil,” I said, chuckling.

“For butting out or opening your jar of cas nut butter so your weak, scale muscles didn’t have to?”

I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“I’m here for you.” He slapped me on the shoulder on his way to the sliding glass door, and I stared after him, shaking my head. “For whatever you need.”

Obviously, I shouldn’t have been surprised by his selflessness, but here I was, struck near speechless all over again. My worst enemy had slowly become my best friend…or something close to it.

The caterpillar and I met Nera coming down the stairs, followed by a patched-up Nacket with a striped sock wrapped around one of her tentacles.

As soon as Nera saw me, she huffed a breath. “I guess for psychos, it’s entertaining to watch someone still bleeding on live TV? I’m a captain, not a drunk doctor for a TV show. Speaking of which, where is he?”

“No idea.” I handed her the jar and the spoon, and she hugged them both to her chest for a moment with a grateful look.

“Nacket, do you want some food before we go to the stage?” Nera asked.

“I just…” Nacket stumbled out the sliding glass door toward the pool. “I just need to stand up for a while.”

“Uh, sweetie, you are standing up,” Nera reminded her.

I rushed out after Nacket before she slipped tentacle-first into the pool, swept my arm around her waist, my fingers gliding through the thick slime on her skin, and tried not to grimace.

“I can’t believe Umo would do this,” Nera hissed as she came up to Nacket’s other side to help support her. “She says she fell out of the cruise ship after we crashed. How, I have no idea, but she needs a doctor.”

“Then let’s go find one. If we’re not there when the show starts, then we’re not there.”

A too-brief smile fluttered over her face as she gazed up at me. “Spoken like the rebel king we need at a time like this.”

“Well, this rebel king demands you eat up,” I said, nodding at the jar she held. “One head injury is enough. I don’t need you passing out from hunger too.”

“On it like bananas and mayonnaise.” She stuck a giant dollop into her mouth.

I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t know if I wanted to know what that meant.

Slowly, we hauled Nacket around the pool and toward the beach in the direction of the stage. I’d missed the evenings here, how tranquil this part of the island was with the symphony of the rolling waves and the sea breeze whispering through the nearby jungle. When this planet wasn’t trying to kill us, I really loved it here.

“Do you think he loves me?” Nacket asked, her feet dragging.

“Who?” I adjusted my hands to keep my grip on her, but her natural slime made it especially tricky.

“Captain Mike Early.”

My stomach jumped. Nera stopped short like she’d slammed into a wall. Before Nera and I followed the direction of Nacket’s outstretched tentacle, we locked eyes over Nacket’s head. Then, as one, we swiveled our gazes forward.

My blood rioted in my veins at the sight of him, his gun aimed at the show’s entire cast and crew, and even Nera’s entire crew, all gathered on the stage with their hands raised over their heads. About forty Earth Space Fleet officers surrounded them, guns drawn.

“Well,” Miekil drawled from the edge of the stage, his green eyes narrowed into steely points, “this isn’t how I expected my day to end.”

Judge, a lizard alien, snorted in agreement. Wetness stained the crotch of his pants and a lot of other areas too. Whether piss or his crotch mucus, I didn’t care to know.

“Welcome to Alien Love Paradise, everyone,“ he joked. “Hope you enjoy your stay.”

Pete glowered at him, but it quickly morphed into a grin when one of the officers clubbed Judge over the head with the butt of his gun.

With most of the attention on them, I gently slipped the caterpillar’s jar to the sand.

“God damn you, Early.” Nera lost her grip on Nacket, but I only had the one hand to support her since I was already reaching for my machete. “When are we going to stop running into each other like this? It’s embarrassing.” She gave him a false smile. “For you.”

“I don’t know, Nera,” he said coldly. “How about when you stop fraternizing with the enemy?”

“Early,“ I shouted and held the machete out in front of me so the setting sun glinted off the blade and reflected right into the fuxxer’s eyes. “You’ve hired your last assassin. You want my daughter dead, you get through me first. Do you understand what I am saying to you? Does your tiny, cowardly brain comprehend that threat, you pathetic, little excuse for a male?”

The officers at his back flinched at the volume and rage in my voice.

He only flicked up an eyebrow. “A threat against me is a threat against all of Earth Space Fleet. Faid or not.”

“You’ve already declared war,” I said through clenched teeth. “It will be your death first. That, I swear to you on my goddess’s name.”

“Hm. Doubtful, since I’m arresting all of you for aiding in the escape of two Faid.”

I quaked with the need to lunge forward and end him where he stood, despite the spray of bullets I would summon if I so much as moved. I wanted to see his realization that he should’ve never even uttered my daughter’s name. I thirsted for his blood on my hands while I made him regret ever hurting Nera too.

What kind of monster was he anyway? What kind of man knowingly stood by the people who’d engineered the death of his daughter?

As if sensing my fury, Nera moved to my side, slipped her fingers into mine, and squeezed reassuringly.

“Wait, did you say two Faid?” Umo asked, still puffing his cigar with his arms raised over his head. “What’s the meaning of this? There are no Faid here on this show.”

“And even if there were,” Nera said, shrugging casually, “we’re all back now. No one escaped here, so put your guns away. Besides, is this any way to treat the former members of your crew?”

Every one of them glared at him, practically vibrating with wrath.

Mike Early didn’t even spare them a glance. “They’re traitors, just like you are.”

Pete stepped forward then, his face pale yet his expression resolute. “We will not be intimidated by threats; come what may, justice will prevail.”

Rolling her eyes, Nera held her chin high while her body radiated fierce determination.

“You won’t get away with this,” she said firmly. “We have evidence of what you did to the ships before we crashed. Plus, your assassin spilled a lot of beans.”

“His word is useless compared to Earth Space Fleet.” Early laughed coldly. “And if you’re referring to those cameras inside the Odessa, I’m afraid that they are broken beyond repair.”

Nera smiled slightly, a predatory gleam in her eye. “That’s where you’re wrong.”

She pulled out a data drive from her pocket and waved it at him triumphantly before slipping it back into place.

Some of the officers exchanged nervous glances.

They could either take us hostage until they could control what evidence came out about them and then kill us, or we could control the narrative on live TV where they wouldn’t dare kill us. Yet. Maybe not ever if we gave the viewers one hell of a show.

The problem was the only camera drones I saw were switched off and lying uselessly on the stage.

“So what’ll it be?” Nera said, her voice steady. “Or are we just going to stand here all night with our thumbs up our asses?”

Miekil’s green gaze sought out mine, narrowed and calculating as always. So what’s the plan here? I could practically hear him asking.

The plan was to send an email. With my Faid tech, I pulled up the email program inside my mind and tapped out a quick message with a couple of flicks of my eyes across the keyboard.

Email date: 7/30/2640

To: [email protected] From: [email protected] Subject: Please Rain, if you can hack into the drone cameras, I might be able to get Nera out of this alive.

As if my message had summoned her, Rain stepped out from the jungle wall behind the stage with Nera’s cat perched on her shoulders. Her sensible shoes were silent on the wooden planks. Dressed in overalls, she looked like she was ready to get to work.

“Done,” she announced.

One second later, every single camera drone lifted into the air. Several of Earth Space Fleet’s officers’ guns wavered as they eyed the cameras nervously. Others aimed their guns at the cameras. A few glared at Rain and swiveled their weapons to her.

Pete winked at the nearest camera. “We’re live, baby.”

“If you shoot those drones, I’ll sue your asses for damage to private property,” Umo yelled, though his beady eyes flashed dollar signs at capturing all of this on live TV. “These damn cameras cost more than double your salaries. I guarantee it.”

The threat worked. The officers lowered their guns while they eyed the hovering drones with trepidation. Even Mike did, hissing in frustration. Then, slowly, most of them backed away out of view of the cameras.

“Captain, I swear I locked Rain up in the brig after we landed,” Mosely said, lowering his raised arms.

Nera nodded, ticking her gaze between Rain, Major, and Early, who hadn’t moved an inch from his spot. “I believe you.”

Now, it was showtime. I let the tentacled alien and my machete slip to the ground, gently and slowly.

“I surrender,” I shouted.

Nera looked at me with wide eyes, framed in ethereal twilight. “Uh, no, you don’t. No, he does not surrender.”

I did though, completely, but not to who she thought.

I had an idea that might just keep us alive by public pressure alone.

But the idea definitely wasn’t for the faint of heart.