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"Why didn't you?" Caroline asks.
"How do you tell someone you aren't from their planet when they don't even believe in aliens?"
"This is why we need a proper anthropologist here. To guide us," Commander Fox says more to Caroline than to me.
"Where's Ivy now?"
"I escorted her to your new quarters," Caroline tells me. "I tried to tell her as little as possible, as it's up to you to explain."
"And she's fully recovered?"
"Yes. What happened? The others had been shot, but she was the only one who had been stabbed and with an Alliance dagger."
I explained how the other human woman took my weapon when I was distracted by seeing Ivy and stabbed her.
"Oh yes, that poor woman," Caroline says. "We had to sedate her. She was so scared to be taken as a pet again. It turns out she had escaped captivity by chance when her master had been docked at Spaceport One just after the law about pets had changed. She ran to the medical center, run by women, and was freed. Tomorrow, when she wakes up in the hospital in her hometown, she'll think she went on a much-needed holiday. The doctor wanted to give her something nice. It was the least we could do."
"Did you erase her memories from when she was in the galaxy?"
Caroline shakes her head with empathy. "No. She had lived over thirty years as someone's pet. The doctor, in good conscience, couldn't do it. She'd be a completely different person without thirty years of her life."
"Go to the shrine and pray for that human. In some ways, she pushed the truth to come out. Can you imagine if your wife would've become pregnant and not known you were Alliance? Or worse, people could have seen you without your Dulu holo and discovered the truth. We don't need any more conspiracy theories about grey aliens circulated around on Earth."
"I was very careful," I assure Commander Fox. Then I bow and take my leave.
* * *
I walk quickly to the shrine. When I enter, I'm not the only one. However, the other officers, no doubt feeling my anger, leave shortly after I enter. I pick up a large handful of white prayer candles, light them all, and get on my knees. I pray for Commander Fox to relent and allow me to take the punishments for Ivy, and I ask for thanks that Ivy didn't die. And finally, I spend most of my time praying for the woman who stabbed Ivy, that she finally found some peace in her life. As the candles burn my hands and then eventually burn out, I get off my knees and run to my new quarters in the married wing.
I don't hesitate before the door. I’m half hopeful she won’t be too upset. It opens, and I enter. I stop just after the threshold. I expect to find Ivy waiting for me when she heard the door, but she's not. I expect her to yell at me and be very angry. But she’s not here.
"Ivy?"
I don't hear anything. I begin looking around these quarters. They're bigger and more luxurious than the one I currently have. I see that the window picture is set to our garden in New Orleans. Either Caroline has set that, or Ivy has been through literally everything while she was waiting for me, which is unlikely since she doesn't have a translator and can’t read anything.
"Ivy?"
I check the time just to make sure I've not lost my mind. It's not a mealtime. Would she wander around the base alone? Surely not.
"Computer, locate Ivy Jefferies?"
"Ivy Jefferies is in her quarters."
"Ivy?"
I begin looking under the bed and in the closet. Then I finally find her behind a sofa in the corner. I move the sofa, and she looks at me with big, horrified eyes. It’s shocking for me to see her this way. But even more shocking is the way she screams at me.
"Stay away from me, you alien!"
Thirty
Ivy
I assume that Sem has walked in because the door just opened for whoever was there, and Caroline told me it would only open for Sem. He calls my name. Yes, it's Sem. Part of me wants to look over and see the man I love. Another part of me, the logical part, says that I can't bear to look. While I was looking through the few personal items here, I turned on the computer and saw his picture. His real picture. He's got grey skin and black hair. He's not the man I fell in love with. He's the stranger in a knight's costume I met on Halloween.
I hear his familiar footsteps coming closer and then away. He checks the bedroom and then asks the computer where I am, and the damn computer tells him. I stay as still as I can. When he finally finds me, I look up at his grey face, and I want to pass out. I'm so dizzy at seeing his same eyes but different hair and face. I don't move but say firmly, "Stay away from me, you alien!"
I know I've hurt him by the expression in his eyes, but he backs off. Then I hear him sit down in another area of the large sitting room. We sit in silence, me in my corner and him in a chair a few feet away. Minutes pass. For a second, I wonder if he's still here, but then I hear a small movement, or rather believe I do, and know he's still here waiting for me to come out from behind the sofa.
