Wrong Alien (TerraMates Book 6) (3 page)

"I suppose I was, and I've got to live with the consequences. I don't like it when my decisions hurt other people. My father's sick."

"Is he getting worse?" All the teasing had gone out of him, and I saw only worry on Porter's face for the man who was like a father to him. "But you haven't inherited yet. If he dies..."

"It goes up for sale, and we both know who'll buy it."

"Sanderman." The richest man in our valley was always buying farms from people in trouble.

I nodded.

"Strangers in our house, Porter. They'll let the field rot and the hundinlark go wild."

"Or make more money off of it than your family ever did," he said.

"Either way, it will be a disaster. I can't let that happen," I told him, leaning forward.

"So don't." He looked around the room. "You only have to find a wife."

"That's the problem," I said.

That got his attention. He turned his shrewd eyes on me. "Why is that a problem?"

"It's the same reason I came to you last time. If girls don't want to sleep with a Renegade, imagine trying to find one willing to marry a Renegade."

"Show me the tattoo."

I rolled my eyes but pulled up my sleeve. He had seen it many times before, but I knew he wouldn't stop asking until I showed him again. They had done it without anesthetic, of course. Renegades don't get a drink for the pain.

The tattoo was the letter
R
. Renegades were people who accepted and wanted technology to come back. There was an underground movement trying to bring science back to our planet. I shivered at the thought. Being caught as a member of the Underground would be worse than being tattooed and shunned.

The
R
made me an outsider in a society that had decreed technology evil. Anyone who didn't share their views was evil, too. Most people would rather die than touch a piece of technology.

Since birth, the fact that high technology had almost destroyed us was drilled into our brains. Our ancestors had decided to ban it rather than risk annihilating our entire civilization again. I wasn't sure that technology had been the problem, but I knew better than to voice such views in public.

Now all I wanted to do was please my father, inherit the farm, and marry a girl. I wanted to be normal and live quietly, with no memory of my mistake following me through life.

Was that too much to ask?

As I saw the disapproving glances of the people around me who had seen my tattoo, I realized it might be, and I quaffed the ale Porter ordered for me.

He grinned. "It's a work of art."

"You only think that way because you don't have one," I said bitterly. We had discovered the device together. He was smart enough to leave it where it was. Although he had touched it, he had gloves on and didn't move it.

I had been unable to resist the shiny object. I needed to pick it up and take it home with me. I thought I had concealed it safely under the brick floor.

What a fool.

"We each make our choices."

"How about you choose to help me now, Porter? You owe me."

"I'm not sure if I owe you, Melnyk, but I'll help you for old time's sake."

I didn't care why he helped me as long as he did.

"What do you need?" he asked, leaning forward.

"I need a wife. As soon as possible."

"How do you expect me to help you get one of those?"

"Porter. I know you have ways. And access to things I don't."

He pulled at the collar of his shirt and shifted in his seat.

"What are you asking?"

"No one on the planet will marry me willingly," I said. "Not with this."

I patted my shoulder. I had hidden the tattoo under my shirt again.

"Let me get this straight. You're hoping an ignorant off-worlder will marry you?"

I didn't say anything. We both knew he could assist me if he wanted.

"It will cost something. You know access to such things is expensive," he said.

"How much?"

"A quarter of your herd."

"Never," I said. "Father would never agree to that."

"Not even to keep the family farm?" Porter asked innocently.

He was right. My father might agree if I told him what it was for, as long as he didn't know what Porter was going to do.

"You know I'm not gouging you, Jesse," he said. "Access is very expensive, especially these days with the Bureau of Purity on our backs."

I pressed my lips together. I knew I was making a deal with the devil, but there was no one else I could ask.

"Okay," I said, and Porter could barely contain his excitement. His hands balled into fists, and he had a big smile on his face. A quarter of a herd of fully-trained hundinlark was quite the prize.

"She must be willing," I said, starting to tick off each requirement on my fingers. "She must be of age, not have an aversion to technology..."

Whoops. I stopped myself and looked around to see if anyone had heard my mistake. Porter gave me an incredulous look.

"Willing," I repeated. "Of age. And other things." I thought for a moment. "It would be nice if she were pretty."

"Jesse, beggars can't be choosers."

"Fine. I don't care about her appearance, but the other items are non-negotiable. Don't forget."

"I won't," he said. His demeanor was serious now that we were talking business.

"A willing wife, who is of age and likes...things."

"That's right," I said.

Porter stood up.

"Have the hundinlark shipped to me when I send word that I've found her. If I can find someone, I will bring her within the month." He offered me his hand, and we shook. He started moving towards the door, but then stopped and turned back. I glanced up at him, wondering if he had forgotten something.

"For the record, Jesse," he said, his face solemn. "I'm sorry about the
R
."

I looked down at the floor. "It's not your fault."

"Of course it's not," he said. "But I'm still sorry."

I looked up, but he had left already. All I had to do now was to sit on my hands and wait. And convince my father to give away a quarter of our herd.

I wondered if she would be pretty, and whether I could live with an ugly wife if she weren't.

I tried to remember that the only thing that mattered was saving the farm. All women look the same in a dark bedroom, right? Isn't that what Porter always said?

I sighed. It was going to be a long month.

ANNALEE

"What do you mean I can't take my phone?" I asked, feeling panicked. My phone had all my music, my movies, my books, my contacts, my messages, and my photos. It was how I paid for things. It was how I entertained myself. It had my memories. My whole life was on that device. I wasn't handing it over to a grim-faced woman who had never had a day of fun in her life.

More than anything else, there was a picture of Kyle on my phone. I wasn't leaving that image behind. I had promised him I would always keep it with me while I was gone.

Kyle wasn't my boyfriend. He was a four-year-old in my preschool class. I smiled as I remembered the way he looked. Kyle was a little boy whose overworked single mother hardly had time for him. She did the best she could with the time she had and always asked how he was doing. She wanted him to excel in school so he could make a better life for himself. He was a brilliant child and was already learning how to read.

When I told my classes that I wouldn't be coming back for a long time, he was heartbroken and sobbed uncontrollably until his mother came to pick him up. Then he didn't want to say good-bye to me.

We took a selfie together. I promised him I would keep the picture with me everywhere I went in the galaxy so he would be with me. The promise comforted him. And my heart, which felt like it was breaking at the thought of leaving all the students in my preschool classes, felt a little better.

"There is no technology allowed on Yordbrook, Miss," the customs officer repeated, bringing me back to the present.

"Surely there must be some exceptions," I said.

The woman shook her head. "How can you come to a planet like Yordbrook without knowing anything about the planet?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "You're certainly in for some culture shock."

TerraMates had sent me some folders about Jesse and his planet. I had no time to read them because I had been working overtime to buy new clothes. I intended to bring the information to read on the space flight, but my mother had tried to help by cleaning up for me. The folders had been missing ever since.

My mother. I felt like grinding my teeth at the thought of her. I had returned from TerraMates that day to find her with a new boyfriend. A couple of days later, she asked me to move out. The timing was great because I didn't have to worry about what she would do without me.

But it still hurt that she cast aside her daughter as soon as she met Marlo. Had she been using me the whole time for my money? Now that she had a new supplier, did she no longer need me?

Right now, I had even bigger problems than my mother.

"What happens to my devices if I leave them here?" I asked.

"There's no if, sweetie. Technology is not allowed on Yordbrook. If you want to beam down, you have to leave everything behind."

"Okay...where does my stuff go?"

"It's all stored until you return," she said.

"Can I have a minute?" I asked, and she smiled, shaking her head again.

"Sure, dear," she said. The agent waved the next person in line forward. "You can have a minute to say goodbye to your belongings."

"You're hilarious," I said, giving her an annoyed look.

"Don't forget, I'll search you when you come back," she called after me.

I pulled my luggage with me to the bathroom and locked the door, sitting down on the toilet. I could not leave it all here.

I wondered what I could do. I would let go of the big items like the computer and tablet, and the less important things like my glasses that accessed the Internet and my music-playing ring. I would wear my regular glasses. The frames were way uglier than the Internet-capable glasses, but they would have to do.

But my phone had to come with me. It couldn't be that big of a deal. It could recharge the battery from any light source. But how would I smuggle it?

I looked at it thoughtfully. It was a piece of two-by-two inch adjustiplast stuck to the back of my hand. Adjustiplast was state-of-the-art plastic and could become hard or soft as necessary. It adhered to one's skin, so the wearer didn't have to carry it. I couldn't hide it somewhere on my person because the customs agent would find it in the search.

That left body orifices. Gross. I wrinkled my nose. Swallow it or put it inside me?

I didn't like either choice. My stomach acid wouldn't hurt it; adjustiplast was impervious to most things. A little hydrochloric acid wasn't going to destroy it. But how would I get it back out? Either vomiting or waiting to pass it in the toilet didn't appeal to me. Even swallowing it might be harder than I thought.

The other option was to put it inside me, like a tampon. That certainly seemed like the best choice, although it was still distasteful. When I thought about the alternative, I knew I had to do it.

I remembered Kyle's tearful eyes and the promise. I wasn't one of those people who lie to kids to get them to shut up. If I told him I would keep it with me, I would keep my word, just as if I had made the promise to an adult. In fact, it was more important to me that I keep my word to Kyle.

A promise made to a child is sacred.

I peeled off the phone and washed it carefully. I pulled down my pants and underwear. I stared at myself in the mirror and wondered if I was doing the right thing.

Without thinking too much, I took a deep breath and rolled the phone up, then concealed it. I hoped the agent wasn't going to do a full body cavity examination.

The die was cast. My phone was coming with me, and I was keeping my promise to Kyle.

It occurred to me that I was starting my year on Yordbrook by breaking one of their most important laws. But I quickly realized that when I had beamed up from Earth, I needed to leave behind my old ideas about what was right and what wasn't.

I had always followed the rules my whole life and where had it got me? Nowhere. I was going to follow my heart from now on. Maybe it would lead me to something better.

I washed my hands and stepped out of the bathroom, ready to beam down to my new home.

They didn't bring out a big welcoming party on Yordbrook. "Here," a sour-faced woman said roughly as she handed me a large pile of clothes.

"What's this?" I said.

"You won't need the things you brought or what you're wearing," she said, glancing distastefully at the clothes in my luggage.

"Do I have to leave them here like my devices?"

The woman cut me off with a sharp movement of her hand slicing through the air. "We do not speak of such things. You will not have to leave your clothes here, but it is inappropriate to wear such garments." She glanced in disgust at the cute pair of jeans I wore. I had worked extra shifts to buy them. I wanted to have fresh things when I arrived at my new home.

I stopped when I realized her implications. "Are you telling me I can't wear pants here?" I asked.

"Only men wear trousers," she said. She sounded like my question was ridiculous.

"Maybe on this planet," I said. "On Earth, it's a common practice."

"You are no longer on Earth," she reminded me with a stern look.

I didn't think I needed reminding. If I were back home, I certainly wouldn't be hiding my phone. I shifted slightly.

"Well?" she said, looking back at me. "Take your approved outfit in the changing room and get dressed."

I hesitated only a moment and followed orders. To my embarrassment, I did have to call her in one time to explain how to do up one of the pieces of under-clothing. The rest was self-explanatory. When taken together, everything looked like a costume from seventeenth-century Earth, my favorite period of ancient history.