Her Brutal Alien (Alien Overlords)

“So you admit you’re conspiring.”

“Is there anything that happens in this court that’s not a conspiracy?”

“Fine,” Rath sighs. “I was never cut out to be king, and I’m not going to pretend anything has changed on that score. Just promise me whatever you're doing isn't going to end up with someone being killed."

“The exact opposite," I assure him. “Nobody is going to be hurt.”

“I’ll trust you," Rath says. “Oh, and next time you see him. Tusk, I mean. Try not to stare.”

“Why would I stare?”

“You’ll see," Rath smirks. He is enjoying this little secret game far too much for my liking, but I suppose I can allow him his secrets. I trust Rath to tell me anything truly important. I also have work to do.

Three

Tyvian

“Explain your concern to me again? You don't believe she's ill, do you?”

Doctor Haut is a specialist in humans. He is a brightly colored red korabi, a rare hue among our kind. A color often associated with demons among the more suspicious and superstitious of our kind. That includes Tusk. Tusk does not contradict Haut. To do that would be to invite disaster into an already disastrous situation.

We are watching Margaret through the cameras. She is still nervous and stressed, and I cannot say I blame her. Judging from the data I have managed to gather, being abducted by Tusk might have been the least terrible thing to happen to her in recent memory.

“I need you to tell Tusk this human cannot leave the dungeon for at least two weeks.”

“Sure,” Haut says. “I can extend those initial two weeks indefinitely, too. Human illnesses often work that way.”

“Do they?”

“Yes. They do.”

“I will take your word for it. I assume you're ready and willing to testify as such before the korabi court?”

Haut groans. “If I must."

“In order to save a life, you absolutely must. If we cannot convince the king that there is a rational reason for the human to stay in isolation, she will be given to Tusk, and he insists that she is the assassin who killed the would-be bride.”

“That’s ridiculous. It was a korabi.”

“He is insisting she was wearing a korabi-shaped scythkin suit.”

“I think I should examine Tusk,” Haut frowns. “That level of reasoning suggests mental interference. He is rather old. It is possible he is falling into demented paranoia.”

“I don’t think there is anything demented about Tusk. I think he is playing his usual games, and Margaret is the pawn. I want her off the board. Humans have suffered enough at our claws.”

“There we can agree,” Haut says. He is an ally to Rath and me. He is a human advocate as well as one of the few korabi medics aware of the physiology of the human species.

We have all the pieces in place. Rath, myself, Haut, and various courtiers are all assembled in the court awaiting Tusk. He comes striding in several minutes after the appointed time of meeting. I stare, just as Rath told me not to.

Tusk is blue.

Not a faint blue sheen which he’s always had in the right light. He is a brilliant, radiant, nearly radioactive blue.

"What is it?” he snarls the question at me as I fail the simple task of not staring at him. Rath sighs and covers his face with a clawed hand.

“You’re blue.”

“I was always blue. As a younger korabi. I lost the color with the years. Now I have it back.”

I glance over at Rath.

He’s dyed himself to look younger. To impress Margaret? To impress Margaret. This potentially changes everything. I thought he wanted her so he could blame her and probably have her executed. Now it occurs to me there could be something much worse on the horizon for her. He could want her as his lover.

“Sire,” Haut addresses the royal court with all the indifference of a medical professional who does not care for political ploys, and yet is entirely embroiled in them. Rath owes his life to Haut. After the human attack, only Haut could save him, and he did.

“Still my greatest work,” Haut begins, with a nod in Rath's direction. “I am here to request an indefinite and sustained quarantine for the human, Margaret. She is from a time and place with a disease profile our local population is not familiar with. Their origin planet contains a great many pathogens that Megarean humans have no immunity to.”

“So?” Rath feigns indifference. He is playing Tusk like a master of a very dangerous instrument. Tusk knows that we all have our various allegiances and agendas. He will be suspicious of everything, including Doctor Haut. I expect Tusk to say something, but he remains silent, watchful.

“This human's presence on this planet could lead to the demise of every human in Megaris. It’s safe to say that absolutely everybody will die if her various underlying infections are allowed to spread. We are looking at mortality rates in excess of one hundred percent.”