Wed to the Alien Prince by C.V. Walter

Chapter 24

Their first stop the next day wasn't to the kitchen like Serogero wanted. He had plans to walk her through the store rooms and explain what everything was and how they'd preserved the food they'd brought with them. It was the kind of thing he thought she'd appreciate even if she didn't understand most of what he was talking about.

Instead, they were called to the Engineering workshop. Kaelin was wearing another at-home dress, this one a lovely black and white pattern with flowers that were only worn by the nobility worked across it in delicate stitches. Some of the more formal dresses had the flowers preserved in precious metals and worked into the filigree that was worn around the neck.

He held one hand, the other was shoved into a pocket that had caused a great deal of joy upon its discovery. She'd asked him to find her cellphone so she could carry it with her. It didn't matter that it didn't work with the comms on the ship, she just wanted something to put in her pockets. It had made her happy and he hadn't seen any reason not to indulge her.

"Can you take me to the garden or wherever you have your green setup?" she asked him. "After we're done in Engineering and the kitchen."

"I wanted to take you there soon anyway," he told her. "How's your head feeling?"

"My eyes ache," she told him. "Not as bad as when I tried on my glasses yesterday but I'm definitely feeling the need for something to help me see."

"But that's it?" He'd been asking her since they'd woken up enough to disentangle from each other that morning. It was probably bordering on nagging at this point but he didn't want to miss a problem because they were busy doing something else.

"That's it," she told him and her smile was blinding. "Thank you for worrying about me."

"I don't think I could stop if I tried," he said and meant it.

"I don't think you could, either," Kaelin said with a grin. "And that's okay, I don't think I'd want you to. I might complain about it occasionally but, well, I might complain about a lot of things."

"And you're entitled to complain. I might not do anything about it but you are completely welcome to complain."

She bumped him with her shoulder and he was glad to see that she'd done it deliberately and not because she was jumping at shadows. Her vision might still be bad but it was obviously getting better. He'd hoped she'd let him help her see better but it was something she'd had to decide for herself and he could see she was happier with the decision.

The door to the workshop opened before he could hit the chime to let Alvola know he was there. Aidan was on the other side and the young man looked close to panic.

"Oh, good, you're both here. That's convenient," he said and turned to go into the workshop.

"What do you mean it's convenient?" Kaelin asked, her concern obvious in her voice.

"I mean we're going to need some help to avoid a diplomatic incident and your mom is the closest to a diplomat that we know."

"Goddammit, Aidan, what did you blow up?"

Serogero wasn't going to ask, mostly because he knew he would get the answer soon anyway, but he was almost certain the teenager wasn't the only one to blame for the incident.

"Nothing," he said defensively. "And why do you keep thinking I'm going to blow something up? There aren't any damn space lasers up here."

"That you've found," she retorted.

Aidan sighed. "No, really, they tried and couldn't get them to work properly. If I could get into the satellite I might be able to get them to make popcorn but I'd have to change out most of the components."

With a raised eyebrow, Serogero looked to Alvola to confirm what the young man had said.

The engineer shrugged. "I haven't gotten a look at their satellites. I can't judge what the capabilities are right now."

"Then why is there going to be a diplomatic incident?" Kaelin asked.

"Okay, I don't know if you know how much we did to create a solid connection with the space station," Aidan said. "We were able to use the beacons we had for the space station to get a more stable connection with the planet. It's why we didn't drop the call you had to your mom the other day."

"What happened to it?" Serogero asked.

"Nothing," Alvola said. "It worked exactly as anticipated with the space station. We've already started helping with repairs, mostly Molly is getting them better information on what needs to be fixed from the outside and is using the drones to make the smaller fixes."

"Bet she likes that," Kaelin said.

"You have no idea," Aidan said and rolled his eyes. "She said it's the most fun she's had playing a video game in years."

"So what happened?"

"The beacons worked for a better connection to the planet but it wasn't perfect. The decision was made to drop a beacon somewhere remote on the planet and use that to boost the signal."

Kaelin turned and tilted her head. "A decision was made," she repeated. "By who?"

"Whom," Aidan corrected and received a glare for his input.

"Who, what, when, where and for godsakes, why?" she demanded. "Why would any of you think it was a good idea to drop a big piece of alien technology on Earth?"

"We thought we had a good place to put it," Aidan protested. "And we were right. It was working great until it stopped."

Kaelin closed her eyes and Serogero looked over at her. "Are you alright?"

"That headache I didn't have this morning?" she said, her hand rubbing at her forehead. "I have it now."

"Do we need to see Mintonar?" he asked and looked down at his comm band to see if there were any warnings he'd missed.

"No, but I'm pretty sure I should beat whoever gave the go ahead for this plan."

"It was a group effort," Aidan told her. "But you can hit me if you need to."

"What do you need from us to help fix this?" Serogero asked. "You wouldn't have called just to confess that there was a problem."

"Well, part of the problem is we don't know why it stopped working," Alvola said, interrupting the potential violence. "It might have been damaged in transit. I'm going to go down and fix it."

"We're going down to fix it," Aidan said.

"You're not going anywhere," Alvola told him. "You will stay safe on the ship until we can confirm what the situation is."

"You can't go alone," Serogero told him. He could have said he couldn't go at all but he knew that would just prolong the argument. "Who else are you taking with you?"

"Mindy knows the area," he said. "And Chaegar is going to help me fly the shuttle down."

"Alright," Serogero said. "How can we help?"

"You want me to call my mom and ask her to keep people from shooting at you until we've made official contact," Kaelin said. "I honestly don't know if she can do that. She's, officially, retired and running the charitable foundation."

"And dating a three-star general," Aidan pointed out.

"Who is also nearing retirement and might not have the ability to do anything even if she's talked to him about my situation which, knowing mom, she might not have. I know she'd be pumping him for information about what he knows about me but no idea beyond that."

"We'll call," Serogero said. "And we'll have a better idea of what you're up against after our conversation."

Kaelin sighed. "I hate asking her for a favor."

"Ah, but this is not a favor, it falls under helping us set up a peaceful introduction to the humans. I had hoped to do it with more than one government at a time but this will have to work. And it's better than starting out being greeted as a hostile force."

"There's no way of knowing if they'll be friendly," Kaelin said.

"No, but we can be and we will be until we have no other choice but to be unfriendly. Is there anything you need us to try and secure for you?" Serogero asked Alvola.

"A clear flight path should be enough," Alvola said.

"Should maybe ask them to not shoot you once you're on the ground, too," Aidan said. "Cover from the locals is probably too much to ask but I get the feeling Mindy has a plan for that so I'll let you work that out with her."

Kaelin nodded. "Clear flight path, not getting shot once you land, and keeping the locals out of the way. Do you need supplies? Fuel? Tools?"

"We'll be taking most of that with us," Alvola said.

Serogero gave Kaelin an assessing look. "We'll ask for them anyway," he said. "It can't hurt to have some backup."

Alvola shrugged. "You're the one doing the negotiations. If I can get to the probe, I can get it fixed and we'll have an uninterrupted connection with the planet. After that, it'll be up to you. I think we can get in and out without too much of a problem and we can mostly disappear once we're on the surface."

"If you're certain, we'll call and get you what help we can," Serogero said. "How long will it take to set up the connection?"

"Not long," Aidan said. "I've pretty much kept something open since we noticed something was wrong. Trying to run diagnostics at this distance is a pain and mom's been working with different shifts on the space station so it's easier to just leave her stuff up."

"You have the number I gave you last time?" Kaelin asked when Aidan started to walk out of the workshop.

"Yeah, it's saved," Aidan said. "I'll come get you when it's ready to make the call. Shouldn't be more than a few minutes."

The door closed behind him and Kaelin turned to Alvola. "What does he know about the bio-nanos?" she asked. "Has anybody said anything to him?"

Alvola shook his head. "I don't think Mintonar told him any more than he told Mindy. They were shutting off the human bio-nanos because they weren't gathering the information they were supposed to and needed to be re-calibrated."

"And?" she pressed.

"And he hasn't asked me anymore questions about it which is odd because the kid can tell a half-truth from twenty paces and that one barely nods at being plausible. What's going on?"

Kaelin glanced up at Serogero. "It's true enough," she told him.

"We don't know how bad the issue is," Serogero said. "But that's at least part of what needs to happen."

"Is Mindy in any danger?" Alvola asked.

"I doubt it," he said.

"Someone will tell me if that changes, right?" Alvola said.

"Of course," Kaelin said. "I'm assuming you haven't been with Mindy long enough to know if she's in the family way yet, right?"

"The, what?" Alvola asked with a frown. "Oh, like Molly? No, it's too early to know either way and we don't have the best odds of conceiving, even after what happened with Molly."

"I didn't think you'd be taking her with you if you thought it was possible," she said. "And hopefully we figure it out before it becomes a problem."

"The connection's ready to go," Aidan said from the doorway. "Whenever you are."