Page 22 of Resisting the Alien Commander

Her appearance is neither frazzled nor ill at ease. Queen Veroneek is the picture of calm, which should probably make me feel better, but doesn’t. She appears completely unbothered by what happened down in the great hall. Maybe that’s what worries me. The queen reminds me of my mother and how she always acted so nonchalant and carefree when all the worst things in our life happened. Like she had to hold herself together so I didn’t fall apart.

The fact we’re in the most secure room in the palace speaks for itself. I get it’s likely a precaution. We are, after all, precious commodities. At least according to a conversation I overheard more than once on the flight from Earth to Bohna. The words were said with no little amount of sarcasm by the crew who used them. It was made clear how they felt about us bottomers getting a free ride off-planet to somewhere allegedly better. I don’t want to think if they coined the term or if the Bohnari did.

Most of the women find some place to seat, but I’m too keyed up. I pace the side of the room closest to the fire. Not because I’m cold, but because up until tonight, I’ve never been this close to one. Not one with real flames, anyway. Back on Earth, heat had been converted to natural gas or oil. Trees used for wood had all been destroyed during city expansions.

“I’m sure it was nothing.” Olivia joins my pacing.

I side-eye her.

“I mean nothing to worry about, because obviously it wassomething,” she clarifies. “Buildings don’t shake because of nothing. Probably just some type of seismic activity.”

“Except even the Bohnari were caught off guard. If itwasseismic activity, it’s never happened before, so maybe it’s a little something to worry about.”

“Fine.” Olivia huffs. “Be your usual logical self, then.”

“That’s why we work. You’re the imaginative one to my logical one.” We keep each other from getting too deep inside our own heads.

I finally give up pacing and we join Devon and Lindsey who took one of two sofas across from each other. Lindsey still looks shaken up. More so than the rest of the women, who all appeared to have recovered.

“You sure you’re okay?” I’ve gotten to know her a lot better since we left Earth and she’s more…fragile, maybe, than I originally thought.

Lindsey jerks a shaky nod. “I’ll be fine. Really. It just brought back a memory I’d hoped to have forgotten.”

“Want to talk about it?” Olivia asks gently.

She chuckles, but it’s more a harsh puff of air. “Not really.”

“That’s okay, you don’t have to.” I can understand some things being too painful to discuss. My dad’s one of them.

Opposite where we sit, a comm goes off. One of the guards by the door presses a button on his wristband.

“This is Commander Horek. All clear. Please escort the females to the front of the palace,” he instructs. “I’ll meet you in the main courtyard.”

The comm ends and the two guards unbar the doors. They swing them open, and the one who answered the call turns back to us.

“Please follow me.”

All of us glance at each other, and the queen steps forward.

“Everything will be fine.” She clasps her hands. “If Horek says it is safe to leave, then it is. He wouldn’t endanger any of us.”

I’m a little surprised she included herself in the assessment. Not that I think Horek would want his queen to be unsafe. I guess it makes me feel like I have a little more value than just someone who might bring new life to the planet and its people. That I’m important as an individual.

Of course, I could be reading way more into it than I need to be.

Slowly, we file out of the room with a guard leading and the other trailing. The queen walks with us as well. There’s an eerie silence while we travel the corridors. When we first arrived at the palace, there had been a buzz of activity, even though there were few people bustling around. There had still been this…energy in the atmosphere. It’s gone now, along with the people. Like whatever happened made everything, and everyone, scared to move or breathe.

It doesn’t take as long as it feels to reach the entryway of the palace where we first arrived earlier in the evening. An entire contingent of guards—similar in number to the ones present when we landed on the planet—stand at the doors. Was it only yesterday? Two Bohnari males push them open and the fading light of the sun shines onto the courtyard, reflecting off the water of the fountain that sits at its center.

As promised, Horek strides across the brick toward us. He pauses in front of the queen and inclines his head.

“My males and I will escort the females back to their home. Afterward, I will meet the prince and you both in the throne room for a debriefing.”

I can hear the unasked question on Queen Veroneek’s lips, but she keeps herself from asking it. “I’ll let Alik know you’ll be coming.”

I’m not so reticent. We deserve answers, and I refuse to allow us to be treated like we’re back on the bottom tier where those in the upper tier cherry-picked what news they shared, even when it concerned us. It hadn’t always been easy to get the full and complete truth. Not when those in power covered it up with half-truths and outright lies. “What happened?”

Horek and the queen exchange glances.

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