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“So,” I said as I wrapped his arm with gauze, “you aren’t here to, like, take over the Earth, right?”
“No.” His eyes trailed my hands, watching my every move as I finished bandaging him up. “I am … forbidden? Banned. No—exiledfrom Xalan. That one feels right.”
That made me pause. Should I still be scared of him? “Because you did something wrong?”
“Because I questioned the things they said were right.”
It was the first sentence he said that didn’t sound weird. I wondered if the nanites were responsible for that. “Go on.”
“Leaders … corrupt. Sinister? Want bad things for us. I rebelled. Fought. Lost.” He shrugged his good shoulder and flexed the arm I just bandaged. “I like your touch. Your hands on my skin. Feels nice.”
His words made me uncomfortable. I mean, was he just saying that his arm didn’t hurt anymore, or was it something else?
Focus, Amber! I shook my head to clear it of those thoughts. The last thing I needed was to start an intergalactic incident because my hormones got the better of me. Clearly his nanites were still glitching. “Your leaders kicked you out, then?” There we go. Nice change of subject—just what we needed.
“No kicking. Their words banished me.” He ambled out of the bathroom into my bedroom, and to my horror sat down cross-legged on my bed, tucking his muddy boots under him as he sat.
On my fresh, clean sheets.
I was about to exile him, too.
“You sit. I talk.”
Against my better judgment, I sat gingerly on the opposite side of the bed, making sure that no part of me touched him. I didn’t want him getting any bright ideas about us if the nanites told him what a bed was and what humans did in it besides sleep.
“I will tell you of my life on Xalan and talk of my exile.”
Chapter 3
Q’on
Iliked this human. Her skin was soft, her body was pleasant to look at, and she was brave.
She was no Xalanite female, but I decided I would not fault her for this.
“Many solar rotations ago, I was born on Xalan. I grew up a warrior. Fought many battles, many wars. Won many battles, many wars. Then I applied to mate. To breed. Leaders said no. They control who breeds. Who mates. I wanted a female. She was beautiful. Healthy woman, many teats.” I paused and looked at the Earth woman. “You cover your teats. Is that because you only have two?”
She wrapped her garment around her chest and tugged it closed. Pity. “We don’t generally go around displaying our, uh, teats. We cover them. For modesty.”
“You are not ashamed of having so few teats, then?” I pondered this for a moment. “Good. They are worthy teats. I would enjoy them, even though there are only two.”
The woman made a strange sound in her throat, and her face changed color. More red. Not purple, like a face should be, but better than that pale, creamy white. “You, uh, were talking about this woman you liked. What happened?”
“Mili’ana. Yes. She … expired. By leaders’ decree. They did not want me to mate with her, to breed her, so they ordered her execution. During the after-death, my grief, I learned that the leaders had her killed becausetheytried to mate her, and she refused. She wantedme, and that made them rage. Anger.” I stopped. The words were right, but wrong. “Angry? So many forms to keep track of.”
“Yeah, angry is what you’re looking for.”
I nodded and looked down into my hands. “I held her when she expired. When she breathed her last. I was angry. More than the leaders. I fought. I attacked. I and many others who lost potential mates. We united. Almost won. But the leaders stopped us.”
Several time units passed before either of us spoke again.
“But you said they exiled you with words. How did they do that?”
“I perhaps spoke wrong? I fought with words. Leaders fought with words. They won.”
The woman’s over-eye hairs draw closer together, wrinkling her smooth brow. “Wait … Did you fight them or just argue? There’s a difference.”
I felt my brow mimicking hers. “Argue is to fight, is it not?”
