Page 50 of Relyn
“You’re not going to try anything stupid, are you?” the woman said. Now that Nora had gotten a better look, she could see differences between Bright and this Etlonian. Her nose was longer and she was a bit thinner. Her face and her gazewas harder. Nora shook her head and with a nod, the woman dismissed the aliens who disappeared in various directions.
“Hi, I’m Nora,” she said, putting on her innocuous teacher voice. “I don’t think we’ve met.” Nora assumed from the previous conversation that this was the elusive and extremely dangerous Alana.
Alana took a deep sniff in her general direction. Nora tried not to be offended. If she’d known she was about to be abducted, she might have taken a shower and freshened up first.
“The Sangrin,” she said.
“Relyn?”
“He’s,” Alana reached out and flipped the collar of Nora’s jacket, revealing her neck. “He’s Mahdfel.”
“No, he’s a mercenary,” Nora said. Even as the words came out of her mouth all the puzzle pieces clicked into place. He’d never come out and directly said, ‘I am Mahdfel,’ but that’s why Bright had trusted him right away. That’s why he was unique. He’d been created in a Suhlik lab. It’s why he had insisted on mating with her despite his mission. Why he’d fallen instantly in love with her the moment she’d found him standing over her bed. And the fucking glowing tattoos that kept appearing when he was all hot and bothered. How had she been so stupid and blinded to see his true nature? Bright had known. Had Wendy? She’d spent more time with the Mahdfel than Nora. They all probably knew. Relyn probably thought she knew. Even Alana had figured it out, just by smelling her.
“Mahdfel. He’s rather on the small side for one, though. Don’t bother to deny it. I can see that you are blinded by them,” Alana said. Her voice had more than a hint of pity, the kind Nora imagined a cult leader had for people before they were indoctrinated. Nora could run with that.
“He’s a lot bigger than he looks.”
Alana’s eyes narrowed. “You were not a matched bride.” She let out a huff. “He took you without a DNA match. The old way. Many of my sisters died that way.”
“Relyn wouldn’t hurt me,” Nora said.
“To be fair, the big brutes don’t mean to. It’s their children that kill you, if the match isn’t strong enough. But if he’s small, maybe his child will be too.”
Nora blinked at Alana. She hadn’t even been thinking of a child. What kind of child would she and Relyn have? Would it come out as a puddle of ooze? Or a Sangrin, or white like the alien he fucked in the form of last night?
“Come, let’s get more comfortable. It will be a few days at the least before they return,” Alana said. She led Nora through the ship to a corridor of cabins. She reached the third one on the right and opened the door. It was small, about half the size of her bedroom, but it looked to have all the amenities of a standard hotel room. Alana pushed a button on the wall panel and extended two chairs and a small table from the wall across from the bed.
Nora took a seat opposite Alana. She stared in silence for a long while before speaking.
“The Mahdfel are parasites created by the Suhlik. They are weapons. Most of them are little better than walking meat shields.”
“Were you-” Nora searched for the right term, but wasn’t sure which would be the least offensive.
“ I had a husband before, but after, it was better to pretend he never existed. We all came out of cryostasis, and everything we knew was gone. The planet. Any pure Etlonian males. All wiped from existence. So the Mahdfel just started over. I mated and I was expected to do my duty and continue the line. I was one of the lucky ones that had a child without complications. They started a new city and the men went back off to war.”
“Etlon must be a lovely place. I met some Etlonians and they all seemed very-”
“Etlon is dead. The Suhlik destroyed the planet. All the Mahdfel that call themselves Etlonian are pale imitations. They took all the violent most destructive traits and weeded out all the compassion and art. They replaced my kind and burned every trace of its existence from the universe.”
“Except you. You are here, and your children.”
“They sent my son off to war, and he went gladly. Then they came back to tell me how bravely he died.”
“I’m sorry.” Alana’s pain was beginning to make sense now. Why she was so set against the Mahdfel. “Bright said you were working for the Suhlik. Aren’t they just as bad?”
“At least you know where you stand with the Suhlik. They are willing to deal for the right price, and when you want something, you have to deal with people who are less than desirable.”
‘We’ve got a saying on Earth. If you lay down with dogs, don’t be surprised when you get up with fleas,” Nora said.
“Isn’t that what pesticides are for?”
Nora sighed. “Sometimes there’s got to be a line that you won’t cross to get what you want. The question is, do you know where that line is?”
“The line? Let me tell you how the Mahdfel really do things. They watch, they wait, they gather their strength and then, only after the Suhlik attack a planet, do they come in with an overwhelming force and drive them away. Only after millions are slaughtered, and the citizens of the planets are deeply indebted to their protection. So that they may take their females without complaint or resistance. That is the line for the Mahdfel.”
“I know on Earth, if the Mahdfel had landed, and said, the scary lizard aliens are about to invade, that would not have gone over well. Our governments panicked with the idea thatwe weren’t alone in the universe, and the Suhlik would have just invaded anyway. I’m not sure coming in before the invasion would have done any good.”
Alana wrinkled her brow, as if she’d expected Nora to deny her allegations that the Mahdfel were only out for themselves. If there was one thing Nora had honed over the last ten years, it was getting students who thought they knew all the answers to think a little deeper about the facts that were generally parroted from their parents.
