Wrong Alien (TerraMates Book 6) (31 page)

"There are!" Asher replied, pleased to be able to
provide some kind of positive answer. "Bring all the food, and I'll show
you when we get there."

By the time the car was loaded with all the food and their
belongings, Asher was practically vibrating with excitement. As much as he had
enjoyed his time on earth, more than anything he wanted to go home. It had been
years since he'd been there, but there was always a part of him that knew he
didn't belong on Earth among the humans with their sometimes quite primitive
ways of thinking and looking at things. That part longed for the lush, green
land he had once called home, and his heart soared at the knowledge that he
would soon be there again.

It was enough to eclipse his nervousness for the moment as
he drove them into a thick patch of woods not far from his apartment. It was
roped off, a neon yellow sign warning that trespassing was illegal and would be
punished with a fine or jail time.

The woods were so thick that no one ever really disturbed
them, since it was nearly impossible to tell what might be lurking in the trees
and brambles.

Asher knew that the only thing in there that was out of the
ordinary was the transporter that he and Abon had come to Earth on. Even after
all this time, he'd kept it in good repair, making sure that it would still run
when he needed it to.

It had been equipped with enough fuel to get them back to
Quantari, as all transporters were before they left the planet.

"Are we supposed to be here?" Mia asked, looking
around when they reached the KEEP out sign. The big bold letters didn't leave
much room for argument unless you knew why it was there.

"Yes," Asher replied. "This is where Abon hid
the transporter when we came here."

"You brought it all the way from Maryland?"

He nodded with a smile. "We couldn't just leave it
there. This was actually our version of a moving van when we came here. It can
be shielded so no one else can see it. And these woods aren't really illegal to
be in. We just had a friend put that sign up so curious humans wouldn't go
hunting around in there. It's worked well so far," Asher explained.

He got out of the car and moved the rope, and then got back
in, driving the car as far into the trees as he could before he had to stop.
The trees were too thick to get the car in much further, and they would have a
bit of a walk to get their things loaded into the transporter, but Asher knew
from experience that it wasn't that bad, and that it would go much faster with
two of them.

But it was far enough, and up ahead, there was the
transporter.

Asher saw it regularly enough, so he looked at Mia, wanting
to see her reaction to it. Her mouth was hanging open, and her eyes were wide,
so he had to assume that she had never seen anything like it in real life.

For some reason, that send a surge of pride through him, and
he smiled to himself, opening his car door and stepping on.

"Come on," he said softly. "Let me show it to
your properly."

Even though Asher had grown up around technology like this
and had spent plenty of time going over every inch of this transporter, he had
been on Earth long enough to be able to imagine what it looked like to a human
who had never seen something like it before.

It wasn't anything like what they showed on the movies or TV
shows, and Asher remembered being amused when he'd first seen the way
"space ships" were portrayed in the media.

His transporter was large and shaped more like a triangle
than a saucer or a rocket. It was sleek and silver, and was larger on the
inside than it looked.

There were windows on the side of it, which would allow them
to look out as they traveled. The nose of it was the point of the triangle,
sharp and aerodynamic, perfect for reaching the speeds necessary to pierced
through the veil between this solar system and the one where Quantari was
located.

The Nalyi and many other clans and species have devoted much
of their time and energy to making sure that they understood and knew how the
vast and expansive pockets of space worked to the best of their abilities.
Their crafts were designed with all of the things they learned in mind and had
a very high success rate for getting to where they needed to go with no
problems.

Asher didn't even remember most of the trip to Earth the
first time because he'd been crying for his mother and then sleeping for the
rest of it, but it had been smooth, and they'd landed with no problems.

Granted, he'd barely ever flown a transporter before, and
never into space, but this one had autopilot and easy enough controls, so he
figured it would be fine. Mia was trusting him to get them there safely, and
the last thing he wanted to do was give her some reason not to trust him.

"What do you think?" Asher asked as they walked up
to the craft. He pressed a button on the side when dropped down a panel for him
to scan his fingerprints.

"It's...like nothing I've ever seen before," Mia
replied. Her eyes were still wide as she took it all in. "I thought they
all looked like flying saucers."

Asher laughed. "Most humans think that. But no, they
have different shapes. According to my uncle, they were once saucer shaped, but
those weren't actually the best shape for moving quickly through space, so they
were retired quickly."

"Wow," Mia breathed. "That's cool. I don't
know why I assumed you guys would be behind us in technology."

"Human arrogance," Asher replied, only half
kidding. He'd learned in his time there that humans thought they'd done
everything first and the best, but most of the things they had on Quantari were
much more advanced than anything he'd seen on Earth.

"You're probably right about that," she said
easily.

Once the panel had scanned him and confirmed his identity,
the door hissed open, folding down into a staircase that led into the main part
of the ship. Mia was standing there, stunned for the moment, so Asher smiled
and climbed up, deciding to check and see if everything was in order.

The inside was spacious and equipped with places to sit and
cots for sleeping on. The sunlight streamed through the windows, illuminating
the inside and glancing off the shiny knobs and switches of the control panel.
There was a fair amount of chrome inside, but nothing like he'd seen in the
sci-fi movies that apparently liked to make it seem like everything aliens had
was shiny and metallic. Actually a good portion of the inside of the ship was
done in dark woods to give it a more homey feel, and the Nalyi love for things
that looked artistic and nice was present even in their transports.

Once he'd checked everything over, Asher leaned out to offer
Mia his hand and help her up the steep stairs to the inside.

Her gasp when she looked around, made him smile. "Feel
free to poke around," he said. "We'll be on here for a couple of days
at the least, so I want you to be comfortable."

"Doesn't seem like it's going to be a problem,"
she said, awe in her voice. "I don't know what I was expecting, but it
definitely wasn't this. This is like. I dunno. Some kind of fancy airplane or
something. It's lovely."

His face was starting to hurt from smiling so wide.
"I'm really glad you like it."

Her opinion was important to him, and even though this craft
had been built long before he was born and he'd had nothing to do with it at
all, there was a warm little glow of pride inside of him that she liked it.

"I'm gonna start bringing the stuff in," he
called, and Mia waved a hand over her shoulder while she examined the cooking
machines that were near the back of the transporter.

In his head, Asher went over the list of things that needed
to happen before takeoff. He needed to make sure that there was enough fuel in
the transporter and add the reserve fuel just in case. The craft was in a
clearing that was just wide enough for it to rise up out of the trees and then
take off at an angle heading upwards, but it would be good to check and make
sure there were no obstructions in the way before he started flying.

...And he needed to tell Mia the whole truth.

It had been in the back of his head since they'd slept
together, and he knew that he couldn't take her to another planet without first
explaining what Abon's intentions were, even if they didn't match up with his own.

His fear was that she was going to be mad and then decide
that she didn't want to come anymore, and it would hurt if that was the case,
but he knew he had to tell her. If she decided that she didn't want to come,
then that was more than fair, considering how much responsibility and extra
stuff being queen would heap on her.

Asher didn't even know what all went into it, but he knew
that it probably wouldn't be easy.

He was lost in thought as he brought their bags onto the
craft, and when Mia asked if there was anything she could do to help him, he
waved her away, telling her that he had in under control. Hopefully, he
actually did.

Once all of their things were on board, he sent a text to
Madison, asking her to come and make sure his car got taken back somewhere
safe. It would be fine in woods for a bit, but he didn't want anyone to get
curious and come steal it.

Unable to put it off any longer, Asher bit his lip and
walked to the back of the transporter where Mia was examining the fuel tanks.

"I need to talk to you," he said, hoping that the
sincerity in his voice carried to her.

"You're not going to tell me I can't come, are
you?" she said. "Because I'm pretty excited now, and I might not
forgive you."

"No!" Asher hurried to assure her. "No, of course
not. The only thing I want more than to go home is to have you come with me.
There's just... There's something I have to tell you before we go and I'm not
sure how you're going to take it."

Mia arched an eyebrow at him. "I guess you'd better
tell me, then."

He drew in a shaky breath and then nodded." Okay. I'd
like to point out for the record that this wasn't my idea, though. Abon... He
wrote about it in his book. There's...there's a reason that he wanted you to
come with me. I mean, other than he thought you'd enjoy being somewhere other
than here."

"What reason is that?" Mia asked with a frown.

"He wants you to be queen."

A moment of silence followed his statement, and Asher bit
the inside of his cheek, waiting for her to say something. He didn't know her
well enough to know what she was thinking or feeling about what he'd said, and
she was just standing there, staring at him and blinking.

The few seconds stretched to a few minutes, and Asher was
going to say something else before she burst out laughing.

Well. It was safe to say that was the last reaction he'd
been expecting. "Um," he said. "Is it funny?"

"Of course," she said back. "I mean, for a
minute there I thought you were serious, and I was scared out of my mind
because what do
I
know about being a queen, right? But then I realized
that you had to be kidding, so it's all good."

Oh. This was going to be harder than he'd thought, and he'd
already thought it was going to be hard. "Um. I'm not kidding," Asher
said softly. "I'd show you the letter in the book, but you wouldn't be
able to read it, so you'll have to take my word for it, I guess. But. Yes. He
said that he thought you would make an excellent queen for me."

"How would he even know that!?" Mia demanded.
"I was a
child
the last time he saw me. Do they make children into
queens where you come from because if so, that's messed up. Do we have to get
married or something for me to be queen? Oh my god, are we
already
married?"

Asher's eyes flew open wide at her questions and he held his
hands up in a gesture of peace. "No! No, no, no," he said. "No.
None of that. We're not married, we don't have to get married, and we
definitely don't make children into monarchs. It's just. It's something my
uncle thought would be nice, I guess? I don't know. He thinks a lot of you,
obviously, and so do I, but you definitely don't have to be my queen if you
don't want to."

She was silent for another few seconds and her eyes were
guarded when she looked up at him again. "Is that the only reason you
asked me to come with you?" The hurt in her voice was easily heard, and
Asher hated it.

This had all happened so fast, and he'd been so excited, but
maybe they shouldn't have rushed into it if that was what she thought.
"No," he said once more, voice soft and reassuring, or so he hoped.
"I asked you to come because you seemed really unhappy where you were and
because I wanted you to come. Because I like you a lot, and I want you to be
happy, and...and I want you to be happy with me, if you want that, too. You can
tell my uncle where to shove his ideas of you being queen if you don't want to
do it. No one's going to make you. I promise you that. I wouldn't have even
brought it up, but I figured that Abon
would
when we see him, and I
wanted you to know everything before we leave."

"Oh," Mia said, and that was all she said for a
long minute. Then she sighed and shook her head, giving him a tiny smile.
"Well, thank you for telling me. I guess I should be flattered that your
uncle thinks so highly of me, or something like that. No one's ever told me
they thought I should be a queen before."

"You'd be good at it, if you chose to do it,"
Asher replied. "You care about people. I can tell. That's how my mother
handled being queen. She just… She cared a lot."

"Are you angry with me?" Asher wanted to know.
He'd understand if she was, but he was really hoping that she wasn't.

She looked at him and then shook her head, leaning up to
give him a light kiss. It was no more than a brush of lips against his, but it
was enough that he flushed darkly and wanted to pull her in for more.