How to Date an Alien (17 page)

"Come on, Alex." Jen put her hand on my
shoulder. "We can talk to your dad after the meeting."

I nodded, turning toward the elevator to
follow everyone out. Just as we got to the doors I turned around.
Seeing that the guards were talking among themselves. I started
sprinting as fast as I could through the middle of them. One of the
guards tried to grab me by the waist, but I elbowed him in the
chest and snatched his gun from his belt in the process.

My shoes skidded on the floor as I slid down
the hallway until I reached the big silver doors, closed and
looming over me like two gray giants. I glanced over my shoulder to
see that the guards were running after me in full force. I turned
back toward the door, hoping that it wouldn't be bullet proof,
cocked the gun, and fired straight up so the bullet went through
the top of the doorway and hopefully wouldn't hit anyone on the way
in.

The two doors flew open and I saw at least a
dozen aliens and humans sitting around a large, round table in a
bright white room. Their eyes were all turned toward a giant screen
with the queen's face blown up across it. My bullet had left a
smoking hole right through the center of her head.

"Miss Bianchi, it's a pleasure to finally
meet you." A woman, who I recognized as Nerses, stood from the head
of the table and walked in my direction. She stopped a few feet
from me and that was when I realized how tall she really was. If
she was human she would probably be the tallest woman in the world,
or at least the same height as a basketball star.

The three guards came barreling behind me,
followed closely by my friends.

"Nerses, I'm sorry. She ran past us and took
my gun. We couldn't stop her." The guard with the horrible crew cut
approached me, breathing heavily. "Do you want me to take her down
to the cells?"

Nerses raised her hand, shaking her head. "No
need to, Dalton. She has every right to be here."

I wanted to turn around and stick my tongue
out at Dalton, but I decided to try and remain as professional as I
could.

"And besides—" She smiled and looked down at
me. "—if we're going to win this war we definitely need someone
with her kill shot on the team."

Jen, Malcolm, and the doctor were ushered out
of the room by the other two guards, but Dalton just stood there
staring at me.

"Can I help you with something, Dalton?" dad
asked, his face clearly painted with annoyance. I couldn't tell if
it was aimed at Dalton or me.

Dalton shuffled back and forth before finally
speaking. "Yeah, I'd kind of like the kid to give me back my
gun."

Everyone's eyes turned to me and Nerses. She
just smiled coyly as she took the gun from my hands and walked over
to Dalton.

"If I ever see a
kid
take your gun
again, you'll be demoted." She spoke with such charm that I didn't
know whether to fear or envy her.

Dalton chose the former, saluting her before
heading back through the damaged doors, trying to close them as far
as they would go before he left.

"Now where were we?" Nerses walked back over
to her seat.

"I say we nuke the hell out of the Caltians.
My planet's been waiting to do it for years," yelled a small alien
with green-tinted skin and hair the color of freshly fallen snow,
pounding his lizard-like fists on the table.

"Yeah, it's about time someone stands up to
those cold-bodied maggots," yelled another alien with a dozen
different eyes and raised her tiny yellow arms in the air.

"Now, Thales, we can't jump to any rash
conclusions." Dad held up his hands, locking eyes with Thales.

"No disrespect, sir," a large fish-like alien
piped up from across the table, "but you should be the first one to
want to go after the Caltians when they are directly attacking your
gene pool."

"Yeah, Melissus is right," chanted another.
"We should just give the queen what she wants, the human girl!"
Some of the other aliens around the table started cheering and eyed
me hungrily.

"Now wait a minute." Dad stood up, placing
his hands on the table. "We can't just hand Alex over to the
queen."

"Why not? Just give the queen what she wants
and maybe she'll go back to Calta," another alien added.

Nerses stood up, raising her hand out toward
the group. Everyone grew silent as they watched her. "Before we
jump to any rash conclusions, I'd like to know what we are dealing
with." Her eyes darted in my direction and my body was instantly
pulled toward the seat next to her.

"Alexandra, tell me what you saw down in the
cell block."

I gulped, trying to divert my eyes anywhere
but to hers and dad's as I sat down. "Well I was cuffed and
supposed to only go to the hangar and my room."

"Oh, stop with the excuses. We all know that
they found you down near Ace's cell, so just tell us what
happened," yelled one of the few humans in the room.

"Thank you, Adam." Nerses nodded in his
direction before locking her icy blue eyes back on me. "Now that
we've got that out in the open, tell us what happened."

I let out a deep breath, looking down and
recounting all the details from the storming of the Caltians,
Marsilo's argument with Ace, and even what the instrument looked
like that we were electrocuted with. By the time I was done, I
looked up to see that everyone was staring at me. Some of them had
their mouths open and others had their hands balled into fists,
ready to fight.

"Who does the queen think she is? Just
walking in and taking what she wants? We can't just go and give her
what she wants just because she demands it. Or next time she'll
demand more than the girl." A human woman stood up, slamming her
large hands on the table.

Thales stood up as well, her red eyes glowing
like two fiery embers. "Mary is right. We've let the Caltian queen
bully all our planets for years. Letting her take and do whatever
she wants out of fear is a losing proposition."

I thought back to what Jen had said my first
day at Circe. How she told me that Caltians were like the popular
kids of the universe. I looked around the table at the aliens and
humans and realized that they were like the kids in my high school:
the science geeks, the misfits, the ones who needed a voice most of
all. Unlike Riley they didn't want to give me up to the queen
because they didn't like me. Their intentions were purely rooted in
fear. They had feared the queen all of their lives, let themselves
become her punching bag, but now it was time for the punching bags
to fight back.

I stood up as everyone grew silent, their
eyes slowly trailing up to my face. "I think it's time that we take
a stand against the queen. Not just because she took my boyfriend
or because she had someone attack me, but so all of Circe and the
entire universe knows that bullying and threatening other creatures
of the universe will not be tolerated!"

The crowd around the table stood up and
cheered, raising their fists in the air, ready to join the fight.
Nerses raised her hand again and the crowd grew silent, her eyes
locked right onto mine. "I thought that might be your answer."

She pressed a button on the table and a new
screen came down with Justin and another small purple alien
appearing across it.

"Philo and Justin." She stared at the
screen.

"Yes, Nerses?" Philo's eyes were so huge
behind the pair of Coke-bottle glasses on his purple alien head
that I wasn't sure where his face began and where the glasses
ended.

"How long do you estimate before the Caltians
attack?" Nerses asked.

Justin pressed a few keys on the computer.
"We can't be too sure. It could be days or it could only be a few
hours. It looks like they are still sitting just outside of Earth's
atmosphere and they haven't sent any drones out yet."

Nerses nodded again. "So can you get all
able-bodied aliens and humans equipped for battle within, oh say,
an hour and a half?"

Philo blinked twice, looking over at Justin
before they shrugged at each other and then turned back to Nerses.
"It's worth a try."

"Thank you." Nerses nodded before turning off
the screen. "You heard them, soldiers. Get your gear and your
direct commands, and report to Philo's lab where you'll start your
briefing."

The aliens got up from the table, some of
them cheering and some of them passing by to add their support for
me before they left the room.

I started heading for the door when I felt a
hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see dad staring down at me.
His eyes were circled with dark purple rings like he hadn't slept
in days. "We need to talk, Alex."

I froze. The last time we talked he slapped
an ankle cuff on me and told me that I couldn't see my boyfriend
anymore. I gulped. It was as if all the adrenaline I had built up
from meeting with the board had been washed away by dad's dark
circles.

"Is this really important? I think I should
head down with the rest of the troops to get briefed."

"Alex, there are some other matters we need
to discuss. Matters of you and Ace specifically."

I rolled my eyes. "Dad, this isn't just about
me and Ace anymore. This is about what is right for everyone.
Because of my relationship the queen thinks she can push us around.
It isn't fair to anyone. Not to me, not to Ace, and not to the rest
of Circe, who is tired of living in fear of a tyrant."

"Alex, you don't understand." Dad lowered his
voice in an attempt to draw away the attention of Nerses and one of
the guards.

"Do you understand, Dad?" I placed my hands
on my hips. "You left me and mom seven years ago to go on your
alien-saving missions. You've always wanted to be the hero for the
downtrodden; it's why you joined the Air Force. Now I want to be
the one to do that, to not just go unnoticed, and maybe even save
the guy who has done everything he can to make me not feel like an
outsider."

I took a step forward, meeting dad's eyes.
"Ace has been there for me when I needed someone the most this
summer. Whether I needed someone to save me from an alien attack or
just to listen when I was fighting with my roommates. Now it's my
turn to save him."

He shook his head, letting out a deep puff of
air. "Alex, I'm not saying you shouldn't go. I'd prefer that you
didn't, but I'm letting you know that I understand and that's why I
didn't want you to get involved with an alien."

"How could you understand? As far as I know
you haven't had so much as one date since you and mom divorced." I
shook my head.

"You're right." He nodded. "But it doesn't
mean that I don't know what it means to risk everything for someone
else, family, friends, job, and to just hope that it all works out
in the end."

I raised an eyebrow, having absolutely no
idea what he was talking about. "Are you trying to tell me that you
have a girlfriend?"

"Well, I think that she would be considered a
little bit more than a girlfriend and would probably be offended to
hear you call her that."

"Then what is she?" Great, I had my boyfriend
kidnapped, was almost killed by another intern and a Caltian, and
got to hear about my dad's new girlfriend all in one day. Couldn't
I just have been normal for once?

My dad's eyes lifted as the doors opened. I
turned to see Nerses walk back in, a large smile crossing her
face.

"I take it you told her?"

I looked from my dad to Nerses and back
again, watching as their eyes lit up as they fell on the other
person. It looked like I wasn't the only one in the Bianchi family
dating an alien.

"So that's why you left me and mom? Because
of the offer from Nerses to come work here?"

I sat on the couch while dad plopped a tea
bag in a cup of hot water. His room was in the officer's quarters
and was complete with its own sitting room and kitchen. He walked
the few steps from the tiny white kitchen over to the couch,
holding the two mugs out for us. When he said that he wanted to
talk I was expecting it to be something about not wanting me to go
to battle or even just lecturing me about my relationship with Ace,
not the fact that he was actually involved in a secret alien
relationship of his own.

"I loved working at Randolph and being with
you and your mom, but when I first heard of Circe, it was all that
I could think about." He took a sip of his tea before setting it
down on the wooden coffee table in front of him. "Then Nerses
approached me about it one day when I was on duty. One look at her
and I knew that I was meant to be at Circe and meant to be with
her."

I swallowed hard, letting the steam from the
tea rise to my face. If I wouldn't have seen the way that Nerses
looked at my dad, the same way that Ace would look at me as I would
wake up from one of my nightmares, with the lightness glowing in
his eyes, then I wouldn't have believed it would be possible for my
dad to leave us. It also really made sense how I got the
internship. I guess dating the director did have some perks.

"So you can see why I was so nervous when I
found out about your relationship with Ace." He swirled the cup,
making a ring on his coffee table. "I know how dangerous and hard
alien and human relationships can be."

"Do other people know about you and
Nerses?"

"Some do, but most don't. You can understand
the controversy that surrounds alien and human relationships." He
let his hands trail back to his lap. "Some people think it's
disgusting and unnatural, but others really do understand and
support it. Those are the few people that know about our
relationship."

"And you didn't want me and Ace to deal with
those people that think it's unnatural?"

He smiled. "When you've had Neptunian gelatin
thrown at your head because someone thinks you only made it this
far because you're dating the boss, you realize that you never want
that to happen to someone you care about."