Sarai, стр. 31

“Shock, dearest, but it all be well, Jamie,”Alekyn’s deep voice comforted him. “I am here now and all will bewell.”

He laid Jamie down on the bed. Bram haddisappeared, shutting the doors quietly behind him. Alekyn tuckedhim under the covers and then hesitated. Jamie blinked at him,wanting to be held close. He tried not to analyze the feeling toomuch. Alekyn was right. It was shock, he knew, at the news of howclose the Zill were to Earth. Maybe he had waited too long, becauseAlekyn turned to go.

“No, don’t leave,” he thrust his handtowards the Naferi. “Could you just…sit for a while. Just next tome.”

A smallsmile curled Alekyn’s lips. “With pleasure, my sarai.”

For some reason the word didn’t annoy himfor once. He plucked at the coverlet, staring at his Sarat. How bigand reassuring he was — it was such a girly thought, he cringedinternally, but that was how he felt. He needed comfort, herealised, comfort from Alekyn. He needed his Sarat’s arms wrappedtight around him, holding him safe. Then maybe he could believe hisworld would be safe too.

Alekyn sat down next to him, his bulkdipping the bed slightly. Jamie sighed, snuggling up to him, hisheart heavy with worry and fear.

“Eled tells me the latest news has disturbedyou.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Jamiereplied. “I know you told me about the difficulties with the UnitedNations and Earth’s governments accepting the threat of the Zill,but it just…it just…,” he swallowed, his throat tight. “I justthought things would work out, but they’re not, are they?”

Alekynsighed. “Your world’s leaders are resistant to the idea ofsarai.”

“They feel the way all of us feel — sendingpeople off like slaves is just wrong. It goes against everythingwe’ve learned over generations.”

“But they wouldn’t be slaves.”

Jamie reached up and cupped the side ofAlekyn’s face. “Says the Naferi who didn’t let me read and kept meisolated …”

Alekynlooked shamefaced. “I’m sorry, my sarai. I thought I was doing theright thing, protecting you from bad news and unwanted attention. Ithought if I kept you to myself, it would be easier for you toadapt to your new life.

“I think,” said Jamie in a considering tone,“that it’s just as well you’re a soldier because you’d make aterrible psychologist.”

“So I’ve been told by Arakin and Tain.”

Jamie blinked. “The Adan’s brother and yourcommander?”

Alekyn sighed. “Yes. They are workingclosely with other PanGal representatives, trying to reassure yourworld’s leaders that we are sincerely concerned with the Zillthreat and wish only to help humans. Arakin,” he addedthoughtfully, “seems to adore humans, and they seem to relish hispresence.”

Jamie blinked and thought about that for amoment. He shook his head. “Psychology is right,” he murmured,“I’ve been thinking about this the wrong way, and I’m not the onlyone.

“The leadersof your planet won’t accept what we say about the Zill just as youwon’t accept what I’ve told you about being a sarai.”

“I’m sorry,”Jamie replied, “but I can’t help what I feel, and what I feel isthat this concept of sarai is wrong.”

He rubbed his belly; the child within wasstirring, little butterfly flicks of movement that still stunnedand amazed him, until the baby decided to play football with hisinsides which is when he really wanted the baby out and born. Thebaby. His child, and Alekyn’s. New life, precious life.

Alekyn deposited a soft kiss on Jamie’snose. “Your people are stubborn, like you, my sweet.” He sat backon his haunches, his expression serious. “But time is running outfast. Two days ago, one of our ships intercepted a Zill raider. Thecrew boarded it and killed the Zill. In the hold, they found humanbodies in cocoons, mostly dissolved.”

Jamie stared at him, horrified. “What! Butaccording to the news broadcast, the Zill are still aggregatedbeyond Neptune, waiting on their queens to arrive.”

“This was an outlier raider, heading back tothe Zill’s mother universe. According to its computer log, it hadvisited Earth shortly before you were taken. As well as the humans,there were other Earth creatures — like the ones that appeared onsome of the vids we uploaded from your internet. They’d all beenpartly digested.”

Jamie felt sick. “Like in that vid youshowed me of the Lyrians. Like some types of wasps on Earth do toother insects. Shells of living creatures.”

“I didn’t know about the Earth wasps, but,yes, the dissolved ones were shells of what they’d been. I’m sorry,Jamie. You know what will happen once the queens arrive. The Zillwill swarm and it won’t take them long to attack and destroy Earth.It’s only a matter of time now.”

Jamie suckedair into suddenly constricted lungs. Suddenly all his grievancesabout being a sarai, about being dislodged from his life’s plansseemed kind of, well, trivial. The child in his belly kicked him asif counterpointing this. He grimaced. Footballer. AFL, he wondered,NFL, Gridiron? He hoped it wouldn’t be soccer.

“Do the human leaders know about this raiderand its cargo? If they knew, surely they’d agree to become a PanGalprotectorate. They must know they couldn’t fight off an alieninvasion force.”

Alekyn stood up and offered him a hand toget off the bed.

“That’s the problem, Jamie. They think werethe alien invaders — they don’t realize the Zill are their enemies,not us.”

That sounded like his people, Jamie thought,feeling sick. They’d add two and two together and get five, justlike he’d been doing almost all the time he’d been with Alekyn,except in this case what they’d get would be the death of theirentire world. They’d be so distracted by the Naferi and the Keinynand the other PanGal species that they wouldn’t believe in acredible threat from anywhere else. They’d only see what was infront of them. They wouldn’t notice the wasps sneaking round theback of their world and attacking by stealth.

“So what is PanGal doing?”

“We’ve sentmore diplomats, but your leaders refuse to accept anything we say.It’s frustrating. They’ve completely rejected our overtures. Assoon as we mentioned sarai, there was an uproar in your UnitedNations. Some of the humans there were totally against us takingsarai.”

“Imagine that,” Jamie said dryly. “How didyour diplomats phrase their request?”

“Ourrepresentatives suggested that if the Naferi were able to take afew hundred thousand