"This is bullshit."
"I'm very sorry, Doctor Ma'atanoa," Birch gave her what he must have thought was a sympathetic look, but to Nina he looked like the back end of a red worm, "but I'm under orders to gather all personnel and transport them at least to the nearest Federation post. Please understand it's for your own safety as well as the safety of the natives."
"Yeah, well, I know what you can do with your orders." Spitting venom, Nina glared at the man through the thick glass of the holding cell she now shared with Doctor Fred Yang and Doctor Martin O'Connell. They stood against the back wall, Yang's arms crossed as he stared at the floor and O'Connell's hands wringing impotently at the hem of his soaked shirt. They'd all been rounded up and marched to the nearest civil office – an ancient stone block building that served as the Dreen analogue of a police station, complete with drunk tank – in the pouring rain and if it weren't for her seething Nina would be shivering. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave Birch her nastiest glare. "This isn't going to go over well at the university, you know. Our contracts are through their administration and they're not going to be happy that you showed up and kidnapped their visiting scientists."
Birch turned his stupid-looking flat military cap in his hands, mouth twisted into a tight frown. "Again, I had no say in the matter ma'am, I'm just following orders." Shaking out his hat and sprinkling a few drops of rain onto the cell glass, Birch slapped it on top of his buzz-cut and nodded to the humans. "I'll be back in the morning to escort you all to a shuttle – we've had some issues with the weather, I'm afraid. Gentlemen," he nodded to O'Connell and Yang, then turned on his heel with a military-perfect twirl and walked away, leaving Nina and the others to stew.
Nina stared at the back of his head and willed it to burst open like an overripe lurefruit left in the sun, and snorting in disgust when it didn't. Birch disappeared around a corner and Nina slapped the glass angrily. "Fuck!"
"Doctor Ma'atanoa," Yang begged, "please don't make a scene, we're already in enough trouble."
Spinning, Nina found more venom to spit. "Oh come on Fred, you know what they're doing is wrong! Didn't you read the contract? Once we set foot on Dreenai they no longer had jurisdiction over us! Or did yours say something different from mine?"
"But this is an exceptional circumstance – they couldn't have planned for anything like this. They're just doing their best to keep us safe, let's just wait this out and see what happens." He spoke to her as gently as he would a child, but his tone only pissed her off more. Nina shot him a glare that might have melted the wall behind him, and possibly the wall behind that one as well. She wished it would, then she'd be able to walk out and go back to the apartment where she'd left a perfectly good mug of tea and one of those amazing rolls Ardus had made, stuffed with herbs and fruit. Nina turned her wrath on Martin O'Connell.
"Why did you tell Birch where I was?"
"I didn't tell anything," Martin countered, having the gall to look offended. "Birch asked why you weren't in your apartment – where you're supposed to be, mind you – and I told him you'd been working with that big one on some project."
"Where I'm supposed to be is none of your business. And that 'big one' is my boss."
Martin lifted an eyebrow. "That so, eh? Could've fooled me."
Something hot welled up in Nina's chest, "I beg your pardon?"
"Don't play stupid with me, I've seen how you act around him – you think you are one of them, don't you? Wearing their clothes, eating their food, you think because you can talk like them and make friends that makes you what, some kind of honorary Dreen?"
"Why do you care? I've been following Ar-" Nina caught herself just in time, "Doctor Ardus's work since I was in high school, I've spent half my life working to get here, and I'm not about to let some Fed jackboot come along and ruin my career!" Their voices were rising, Nina spitting a mix of English and Dreen and Martin firing back in English only, his clipped accent echoing off the walls of the holding cell while a Dreen across the way in a similar cell rolled over on his bunk and clapped his hands over his ears. "Screamer's guts," he snarled, "trying to sleep off the white foam over here!" Another Dreen, this one in a uniform with a tag giving his name and rank as a civilian peacekeeper of some variety, wandered into the hall of cells and peered in at the yelling humans, but Nina and Martin ignored him.
The longer their shouting match dragged out, the more Martin's suspicion and disgust became apparent. "Career? Don''t make me laugh. Just look at yourself!" He pointed a finger at her, indicating her short pants and curve-hugging tunic. "No decent woman who cares about her career dresses like that. You show up to work in tight dresses with your tits out, when you're not wearing all that see-through shit. You spent three days up the coast all alone with him, and when you come back he suddenly lights up like a bloody Christmas tree! What's that all about, Nina? Did something happen?"
"Of course not," Nina sniffed. And it was true, nothing had happened – at least, nothing like what Martin was implying. As long as she didn't count the bikini, the wetsuit, the sunscreen incident, the time she gave him Omi's Necklace at the steps to her apartment building and again on the beach, that warm and sweet moment when Ardus had realized he was holding her tiny hand in his huge palm, nothing had happened at all.
"Liar," Martin hissed. "I know something happened."
"Uh-huh, sure. Prove it."
"I don't have to, you did it yourself. No one shows up to a house party dressed like you did if nothing happened."
"You're just mad because I turned you down after you hit on me."
"I did no such thing!"
"Oh? So you didn't invite me over to your apartment for Scotch? If I recall, you said I could have it 'any way' I wanted it."
"I did not-" Martin spluttered, face red, before seizing on the only evidence he had at the moment. "Look here! Fred, what's that?" He pointed again, this time at Nina's foot. Nina looked down and felt her stomach do a somersault. It was Ardus's barbel-ring, the hammered silver one he'd given her that evening on the beach. He'd folded her hand around it, then held it in his own. He'd been so gentle then. Martin sneered, victorious. "That's new, isn't it?"
"How do you know I didn't buy it?" Nina grinned, sure she had him caught. She watched him struggle to come up with some damning explanation, any rational reason why she couldn't have simply bought something because she liked it, when a crack of lightning flickered in the hall and the overhead lights dimmed briefly as the backup power filled in the short gap between surges. Following that, a roar shook the building's walls and the floor beneath Nina's feet trembled. The neighboring cell's occupant lurched up with a startled cry, "Screamer's guts, that was no storm!"
Nina stopped, listened, and shushed Martin with a snap of her fingers when he tried to pick up the frayed end of his rant. "Kuli-kuli!" She pressed to the cell glass, hovering near the Dreen-arm-sized hole where food and other supplies might be passed to the occupants. Near the front of the building she could hear voices, one speaking calmly while the other resonated deep and rolling and familiar. As she listened the voices suddenly became clearer, and the sound of an opening door preceded a flurry of words in Dreen: "Doctor, wait – Stop! You can't go in there-"
The receptionist's words were drowned out by a snarl: "I have been dark for nearly twenty years, if you think you can stop me, do it."
At the end of the hall, beyond the last cell and Nina's sight, the door to the lobby flung open and crashed against the desk and a titanic voice boomed through the concrete and stone cell block, angry as a god. "Nina!" An immense shadow filled the entryway, blazing with thousands of red stars. Nina shouted and thrust her arm through the hole in the glass, "Ardus, here!" pounding with her fist as she waved at the dark mass.
And then he was there, kneeling on the other side of the cell with his huge hand wrapped around Nina's wrist and rubbing his face against her palm. "Nina, my little starfish, are you all right?"
"I'm fine!" Grabbing a fistful of his tunic, Nina pulled the huge Dreen to the port. She could just get both arms into the opening and hugged Ardus's flashing neck, his pores blinking red and yellow. Leaning back she caught the twitch in his cheek and his hands, his pores and nictitating membranes flickering erratically. "Ardus... Are you okay?"
Ardus shook his head, steadying. "I am now. When I came home you were gone, I was afraid I had lost you." Now Ardus's hand came through the glass, his knuckles brushing against her cheek and smoothing her hair.
Nina leaned into the huge grey-blue palm, smiling. "It's okay, big guy, you found me." Standing on her toes she pressed her face into the portal, her fingers curled around the smoothed edges, and kissed him. Ardus rumbled in response, infrasound vibrating the glass wall and trembling the concrete floor.
"Oh for fuck's sake!"
Pulling back, Nina turned hard at the voice behind her. Fred Yang remained at the back of the cell, watching the scene with little emotion besides surprise, but Martin O'Connell's face was nearly purple. "What's your problem?"
"What's my problem?" Martin spat, drops of saliva literally flying from his mouth. "What's my problem? I'll tell you what my problem is, you just let that... that thing kiss you! That's my fucking problem, Doctor!" He scrubbed at his mouth with his sleeve. "Bloody goddamn disgusting."
"Disgusting?" Now Nina was vibrating, though instead of the joy and relief of seeing Ardus again she trembled with rage. "Disgusting? Ex-fucking-scuse me, but who asked you?"
Martin shook as he spoke. "This had better not be what it looks like, Nina."
"And just what exactly does it look like?"
"Don't tell me you're in some... some kind of relationship with it!"
"What's it to you?"
Martin waved in Ardus's direction, "Jesus Christ, Nina, that's not the point! Just look at it! How can you even..." Disgust and horror rippled across his pale English face. "Don't tell me you let that big beast..." Martin shuddered, unable to finish.
"Let him? Let him? Listen up, asshole, I don't let him do anything to me that I don't like, want, or ask for. And he doesn't have a wife to cheat on while he's on another planet." Nina had to hold back a smirk when Fred Yang's eyes widened and he gave the back of Martin's head a dagger glare. But Martin wasn't finished, not yet. He gestured at her, jabbing a finger in her direction. "I knew you were up to something! I invited you to my flat so you wouldn't do exactly this! Now look at you, sleeping with that...that monster! It's wrong, it's immoral! He's not human, Nina! And you..." He scrubbed at his mouth again. "You're a whore, Nina, a god-damned fish-fucking whore."
Behind her, Nina felt the air turn hot and begin to quiver. On her shoulder the weight of Ardus's hand descended, his claws just grazing her skin. Beneath her bare feet the floor began to tremble and her knees grew unsteady. The sensation of sideways vertigo welled up from a pit in her stomach, like dropping suddenly from a great height. Her vision blurred from the force of the vibration, and it took Nina reaching for the white-hot fury in her own heart to keep steady.
The source of the vibration spoke, its voice grinding and grating like boulders, like the pounding surf. "Nina..." Beneath the rumble Nina sensed danger. Martin and Fred must have felt it too, and Fred edged away from the center of the back wall of the cell and took himself to a corner. He flattened against the wall and watched the two humans and one Dreen.
Martin, however, made no move to stand down. He sneered, "What's his problem?"
"He doesn't like you," Nina said, "and frankly, neither do I. I wouldn't do anything stupid if I were you."
Martin's lip curled. "I'm not as stupid as you, fish-fucker."
"Call me that one more time, Martin. See what happens."
Martin leaned forward, chin jutting towards her. He bared his teeth, his lips peeled back in a nasty, triumphant sneer. "Fish. Fucker."
Then, Martin was reeling. He clapped his hands over his freshly crushed nose, blood leaking between his fingers in a stream. He rocked backwards, temporarily unbalanced, then crumpled to his knees. "You bidge! You broge by doze!"
Nina shook out her fist, her knuckles numbed by the hit. "I'll break a lot more than your nose if you come at me again, kanapapiki."
"I'll dell da Feds!" Blood dribbled down Martin's chin. "You'll ged in a lod of trouble for dis! I'll hab you fired." A fine red spray sprinkled from his lips.
"Sure, whatever you say." Nina's hand throbbed; she hadn't hit anyone like that since middle school, but Omi that felt good. Turning away from the now sniveling Englishman on the floor behind her, Nina brought her attention back to Ardus. The Dreen still knelt on the floor beyond the glass, pores glittering orange and yellow, but the look on his face would have been hilarious under different circumstances. He stared goggle-eyed at her, mouth half-open as though she'd suddenly sprouted a second pair of legs. Nevertheless, his throat and face displayed a slow-moving pattern of purple and red and his large eyes carried a glimmer of approval.
"Nina... I do not know what he said to you, but if it warranted that..."
"Oh I'm pretty sure he's happy it was me and not you," Nina shot a look over her shoulder at Martin, who looked pleadingly to Doctor Yang, who shrugged and looked away. Martin flashed a blood-stained sneer at Nina, but he'd lost all his viciousness the moment Nina's fist met with his nose. Ignoring him, Nina asked "Ardus, what are you doing here?"
Now the Dreen looked confounded, hairless brows drawing together and flashes of yellow creeping into his neck. "I... I came to find you, to bring you home with me. Birch took you away, I have come to take you back." The sincerity in his voice, the obvious tone of his deep voice struck Nina, as did the futility of his goal. Her heart sank, dragging her down like a weighted net.
"Ardus... ku'u aloha... You can't."
The corner of his mouth twitched up. "Nina, the only reason I have not yet destroyed this barrier-" he laid his palm against the glass wall separating them "-is my fear that the glass would cut you."
"That's not what I mean," Nina swallowed hard, battling the sudden tightness in her throat. "I can't go back with you, Ardus. Birch came back with a Federation memo authorizing him to arrest me if I didn't comply."
"What?" Ardus's fingers flexed, his claws screeching against the glass. They left faint scratches on the surface. "But you are not-"
"I know," her throat threatened to close entirely and Nina began to choke on the thickness in her chest. "Ardus, I have to go. If...if I go now, they might let me come back in a few weeks or months, but if I don't they'll cancel my clearance and take my passport and I'll never be able to come back."
"No," Ardus hissed, "I will not allow this, there must be some way to-"
"Ardus! Just...just stop, all right? Listen, the chances that I'll be able to come back at all are better if I cooperate. If you go off and do something crazy like try to bust me out..."
Ardus seemed to struggle, his pores flickering. He closed his eyes, blotting out the blue, and took a series of breaths, each a little more steady than the one before. Finally, "Yes, of course. Of course," the Dreen seemed to deflate, his shoulders slumping and his head dropping forward. "I was not thinking. I was so focused on bringing you home I did not consider the consequences – I could have ruined this for both of us. I am sorry, Nina."
Nina forced a weak smile. "Now who's the reckless one?" Reaching through the porthole Nina wrapped her hands around Ardus's fingers and the glass fogged as she pressed her face to it. "Listen, I don't want to be here either but this is the best solution. Besides, you can do something for me while I'm gone that might help."
The Dreen's massive head lifted quickly, the beads in his barbels clacking together and his hand gripping hers gently. Yellow pores faded to white and his large blue eyes widened with hope. "Yes?"
Leaning in close, Nina lowered her voice. "On the table back at your apartment, I left my notes. I think I was onto something when Birch came to get me – you'll have to pick up where I left off but if you can it might help you figure out what's wrong with Boda and the others." She watched Ardus's Collar of Aku flicker green. "Can you do that for me?"
"Of course, starfish," Ardus's hand gripped hers. "What is it you have found?"
Nina shook her head. "The longer I stand here talking, the less time you have to work. Get back home and start reading my notes, you'll know what to do."
Ardus squeezed her hands again, the pores on his knuckles lighting white and blue. He blew out a breath of resolve, "Yes, I will go. I only hope..." his wrists and forearms flickered, the color fading slightly, "that I will see you again."
"Anything's possible. Now go, make some progress!" Nina pushed on his hands, shoving them away. The Dreen stood, his enormous shadow falling into the cell, and Nina wondered at the chill that swept over her like being hit with a sudden winter squall. Ardus's hand reached through the porthole one more time, the back of his leathery fingers brushing against her cheek and wiping away the dampness running down the side of her jaw. He said nothing, but a few of the stars in his Collar of Aku flared green and purple before winking out. Then he turned and left, going back down the hall and vanishing around the corner, the hallway briefly dimming as his massive frame blocked the light from the front reception room.
Nina stood with her hand on the glass briefly, listening to the click of his clawed toes fade as he drew further away. His voice, muffled by the walls, still rumbled under her bare feet and her chest drew tight. "Aloha oe, big guy."