“Oh, well,” Jack said, “maybe I can help out with that some.”
“She like that, I think.” Aria leaned back in her seat, keeping one arm around Jack's waist.
“Ara te cha'kra ni ben, sami.”
Sami nodded, and rapped on the front portion of the passenger compartment they were in. Jack felt the vehicle begin to move, and he tried to look out the darkened windows, but they were too tinted for him to see much other than vague movement. From what he could feel, though, they were moving at a very high speed. The ground rumbled underneath them, as they were presumably traveling over the grassy and sandy ground, but that sensation was soon replaced by the smooth travel of a paved surface.
“Where are we going?” Jack asked. He was still intensely curious about the circumstances surrounding how Aria was able to take him like this, but he also sensed that she didn't want to talk about it right now.
“My family home,” Aria replied. “Will be staying there for a while. You like. Is nice little home.”
They rode in silence for the rest of the trip. Jack and Aria were perfectly content to just sit next to each other, her arm around him while he rested against her side. He noticed that she was still wearing her worn red flight suit. Jack thought about the clothes that Sami was wearing, and of course he couldn't help but imagine Aria wearing the same sort of thing. That thought was certainly a diverting one, and got him wondering about the sleeping arrangements while he was staying at Aria's family's home.
Speaking of sleep, Jack realized that he was really in need of some. He hadn't had a good night's sleep since before he and Aria had been rescued. He also was incredibly hungry. The last meal he'd eaten had been the day before on the Ailian ship, and you couldn't really call prison fare a meal. He wondered what sorts of things Ailians ate for dinner. He assumed, since Aria had been able to eat human food without any difficulty, that Ailian food would similarly be edible to him, but would it be appetizing or too different for him to deal with?
After a while, the vehicle slowed and then came to a stop. Sami moved from her seat and opened the door, stepping out. Aria took a moment to give Jack one more soft, tender kiss, and then she helped him out of the vehicle. When Jack got out and had a look at where they were, he felt his jaw drop.
In front of him was what he could only describe as a Spanish-style villa. A number of central buildings were organized in tiers, with verdant green gardens and ornamental trees filling the spaces between them. An artificial stream flowed down from the top to the bottom, splitting into branching waterfalls as the water flowed over each tier. The buildings themselves were gorgeous, constructed with what looked like some sort of sandy stone and decorated on the outside with red and blue tiles. Large windows of crystal clear glass went from the ground to the roof in many places on the buildings. This wasn't just a home, it was a palace!
“
This
is your family's home?” Jack gasped, his eyes as wide as saucers.
“Yes,” Aria said. She seemed a little surprised at his reaction. “I tell you before, I have large family, yes? And I also tell you my father is merchant.”
“Yeah, but you didn't tell me he was successful enough for a place like
this
,” Jack breathed. He was starting to feel a little intimidated by the size of the place. Even in his wildest dreams, Jack had never imagined being rich enough to have a home like this.
Aria blinked at him, then she laughed lightly. “Well, come. We go inside.” She was looking a little anxious now. “I want to see father. Not see him in months.”
Sami was already halfway up a walkway leading to the lowest tier of buildings. Still slightly weak in the knees, Jack let Aria lead him along as they followed her. His head was spinning a bit. The only thing that he could think right now was that this was probably not the last surprise he was going to face on Lirna.
- 4 -
The walk up to the front door of her family's expansive home was one of the longest walks Aria had thought she'd ever taken in all of her twenty-nine years. She barely noticed the tranquil beauty of the grounds, the soft rushing noise of the artificial stream down through the gardens of cultivated desert flowers and lush trees, with the pleasant heat of her home planet's sun, which was beginning to sink low in the sky. All she could think about was seeing her family again, none of whom she'd seen in nearly three months. Aria had been on her assignment for two months already when she'd first encountered Jack, and then there had been all the time she'd been lost on the planet they'd crashed upon. She had been very close with her family her entire life, especially her sister, Sami, and all the more since her mother's death. Not seeing them was the hardest part of her military service, and she was very eager for a reunion.
Jack walked beside her, more attentive to his surroundings, taking everything in. He'd never been the kind of guy who frequented gardens or parks or places like that, but now he was struck by the beauty of the place he found himself in. He almost didn't mind the heat of the planet now, or the brightness of the light around him. The area around him was a sea of green, full of grasses, flowers, and trees. A lot of work must have gone into maintaining a place like this in a harsh desert environment, and the sandstone construction of the dwellings gave the place the feeling of an old, classic villa. Jack decided that if he had to spend a time as a slave, he'd much rather spend it here with Aria than as a prisoner on an Ailian ship, or in the dungeon of a slave market. He wondered if a lot of Ailian homes looked like this.
“This place is gorgeous,” he said to Aria as they walked up the stone walkway leading to what seemed to be the main building, following Sami.
“Yes,” Aria replied absently, only half paying attention to him. Her sharp feline eyes were locked on the front door, her heart aching. “Was mother's dream, to have home like this. Father build it for her.”
Finally they came to the front entrance of the home. The doorway was tall, and the doors were heavy and made of a dark wood which had been sandblasted to be smooth as glass. Sami opened the door, and Aria fairly ran inside, leaving Jack a few steps behind her. She vanished from his sight, and he heard a strangled cry from inside that startled him. Ushered inside by Sami, he walked into a large foyer. Two columns ran from floor to ceiling, and the floor was a marble-like stone polished to a high gleam. Jack was relieved to learn that air conditioning was not a thing unknown to Ailians, as the inside of the home was markedly cooler than outside, though still much warmer than it would have been in a home designed for humans.
His attention was drawn to the center of the entrance hall. There Aria stood, embracing another Ailian. This male was much older than she, his fur gray with traces of orange. This was clearly her father, and Jack could see Aria's shoulders shaking as she cried with happiness.
Jack stood there awkwardly, feeling like he was intruding on a private moment, and he waited for the reunion to conclude. After a few moments, Aria stepped back from her father, and they exchanged a few words. Then he left her, exiting the foyer to another part of the house while Aria turned and came back to where Jack and Sami were standing.
“I very happy see my father...,” Aria said, as though apologizing to Jack. She wiped moisture from her eyes.
“It's alright,” Jack said. He smiled at her, though he also felt a pang of jealousy. He hadn't been that close with his own family for quite some time, and he was envious of her relationship with hers.
“Sami, ma'ta lek a su'resh la, cha?”
Aria said to her sister, who nodded in return. Aria clasped Sami's arm briefly, and then put a hand on Jack's shoulder. “Sami show you to spare bedroom. Could use wash, new clothes, yes? We maybe not have much that fit you...but find something. Father say we have dinner soon. I go speak with him, join you after, yes?”
“Oh...Well...” Jack looked at Sami, who offered a friendly smile. He still felt uneasy around any Ailians who weren't Aria, but this was her family after all. “Alright, if you say so, Aria.”
Perhaps seeing the wariness on his face, Aria leaned down and slid her hand around his back, hugging him to her for a moment. “Not worry,” she assured him. “You see me again soon. Safe here.” She squeezed him, then her voice became a bit stern. “You so brave when we meet. Not let that go. Need to be strong.”
Jack laughed a little. “Brave. Right. I'll do my best.”
Aria let him go, allowing her cheek to brush against his as she went.
“Se le ch'aa ara,”
she whispered, quiet enough for only him to hear. He recognized the phrase from before, when they'd been rescued on the alien planet. Though he couldn't understand the words, the way in which she said them filled him with warmth. The Ailian gripped his shoulder for a moment, and then she left him, tracing her father's steps through the door he'd left through.
When her sister had gone, Sami put a hand on Jack's arm. “Follow,” she said. She spoke with a heavy accent since, as Aria had explained, she evidently did not know much English. She led Jack out of the entrance hall, in a different direction from the one Aria and her father had taken. He followed her, looking this way and that as they walked through the palatial home. The home was simply but elegantly decorated, with silvery trim laid into the sandy stone along the hallways. Pictures hung on the walls, some paintings of landscapes and still lifes while others were pictures of Ailians whom Jack assumed were family members. Some of the photographs seemed to be quite old, from what he could tell, looking as though they'd been taken with old-fashioned film or whatever Ailians had used in the past.
Jack was taken out of the main building, through the gardens and up a set of steps to one of the other buildings. While smaller than the one he'd just been in, this one also seemed to contain living quarters. He wondered if Aria's family kept any slaves, but he hadn't seen any other humans around, or any Ailians that wore collars similar to the one he now wore. Jack considered that a good sign, and one that made him feel a little better, though he was still full of fear and uncertainty at the situation he found himself in. The knowledge had fully sunk in that he was on the Ailian homeworld, quite truly the last place any human would want to be.
Sami showed him inside, where a hallway led to several rooms. She brought him to one, opening the door and ushering him in. Jack had been expecting sparse living conditions, befitting a slave, but he was pleasantly surprised. The room was furnished very well, with three dressers, a long armless couch, and a large, Ailian-sized bed. The human walked in, standing in the middle of the room, taking it all in.
“So...ah...is this where I'll be staying?” Jack asked. He looked at Sami.
The Ailian stared at him, seeming confused for a few seconds, but then her eyes flashed recognition and she nodded.
“Cha...
ah...Yes.” She fiddled with her fingers, seeming to be thinking very hard, apparently running through her sparse vocabulary of English. “Is...
pek'ta le na...
ah...guest room?” She looked towards the dressers, moving that way. “Clothes...”
Jack watched her as she opened and closed drawers, rummaging through their contents. She looked over at him, her eyes traveling up and down his body, seeming to size him up. Before long she had pulled out a number of garments. She brought these over to Jack and presented them to him, and he took them and held them up. They were Ailian-style clothes, and while they seemed a little big for him they were definitely close enough to work. The garments looked as though they had been worn before, though they were quite clean. He supposed they might have belonged to family members who had since outgrown them.
“Thank you,” Jack said gratefully. He was eager to get out of his borrowed, blood-stained black fatigues. He'd been wearing them for going on a week straight now, and they were growing decidedly uncomfortable.
Sami nodded to him, smiling a little.
“Zha la te'm ke...
ah...” She shook her head, looking a little cross with herself. Switching from Ailian to English must have been difficult for her. “Bath. That way.” She gestured to a second door that led from the guest room. “Clean.”
Jack couldn't help chuckling. Aria's sister was trying hard to make herself understood in English, and she was also doing her best to demonstrate her friendliness to him. He knew Aria had told her all about their relationship, and it was nice to have at least
one
person's approval. “Thanks. I probably don't smell all that great right now. I haven't had a proper bath in a long time.”
“I go...
pah,”
Sami cursed, growing frustrated. She searched for the proper words, closing her eyes as she calmed herself down. Jack thought he saw a little of Aria's temper present in her sister. “Go cook. I...
le na...
back later.” She gave him a little half bow, then took her leave.
Jack looked after her as the door closed. He sighed, grateful for her consideration but relieved to be alone now. Without further delay he got out of his dirty clothes and made for the door that Sami had indicated led to the bath, hoping that he could figure out Ailian plumbing well enough to take a nice, hot soak before dinner. He had the desire to make a good first impression.
Huh...
, he said to himself.
You know...This is the first time a girl has ever had me over for dinner with her family.
Jack had a good laugh at that thought.
******
Aria's father had told her to meet him in his study, so that was where she went when she left Jack and her sister. The room was towards the back of the main building of the family estate, and Aria remembered the way very well. As a young girl, she'd spent many afternoons on her father's lap, as he read to her from one of the many storybooks that had been her companions growing up.
When Aria opened the door to the study, memories came flooding back to her. The room was massive, high-ceiling, and paneled in dark wood imported from one of the more heavily-forested colony worlds of the Ascendancy. Bookshelves lined the walls, and they in turn were full of hundreds of books. Her father had always preferred the feel of real paper in his hands, rather than reading from an electronic device. Looking around the room, she saw that her father was already sitting in one of the large, high-backed chairs that were scattered about the study. She made her way towards him, moving slower and less enthusiastically now. While she had been eager to see her father again before, now she knew that he wanted to have a conversation that she would rather avoid.
Arn Me'lia watched as his eldest child took a chair near to him. The older Ailian looked at her, staring her down. He knew that his daughter was far more formidable than he ever had been, perhaps even than her mother had been, but he had always been able to discipline her with firmness and surety. Aria rarely questioned her father's judgment, and he rarely conceded defeat whenever she'd had the courage to oppose him. He had a feeling that this was to be one of the times she would question his judgment, but he was certain that this time he was not going to budge.
Before Aria could say anything to him, Arn spoke. -It's very good to see you, my daughter,- he said, favoring her with a warm smile. -When your commander came to us and told you that you'd been lost, we all thought...Well, it was like with your mother all over again. Sami was quiet inconsolable. You can't imagine how overjoyed we all were when we heard you'd been rescued.-
-Father, I...-
-And then,- Arn continued, his smile turning to a frown as his ears flattened to the top of his head, -imagine how we felt when we heard you were being charged with treason. What would your mother say if she were alive today?-
Aria's ears drew back, and her head drooped to stare at the floor. Arn felt guilt at hurting his daughter with his disapproval, but he felt that she needed to hear these words. He still mourned for his mate, dead for three years, and he knew that she would have been gravely disappointed to learn what their daughter was charged with.
-And returning with a slave!- Arn hissed, spearing her with an intense, angry look. -You know how I feel about slavery, even when they're those humans. And you bring a slave into
my
home...-
His daughter looked up at those words, her eyes blazing. -That's not...You don't understand, father! He's not a slave, he's...- She shut her mouth, looking away from her father. She'd almost said something that she hadn't meant to say.
Arn eyed her curiously, puzzled by her outburst. -There's a lot of talk going about,- he said, changing the subject. -Even before you got back we heard rumors from soldiers in the city, from some of my customers...The news about you being charged with treason is spreading fast.- He reached over to one of the bookshelves next to his chair, selecting a book. The elder Ailian opened it, glancing at the page he opened to, and then he tossed it aside. -Aria, what happened while you were away? Some of these rumors...They're a little hard to believe, and yet...-
-Oh, father...,- Aria whispered. She wasn't sure what rumors he might have heard, but she could certainly guess. Many of the soldiers who had been present for her rescue mission knew the exact nature of her charges, and of course some of them would have talked to their comrades back on Lirna. She was likewise not surprised that regular citizens were talking as well. Her family name was well-known in the Ascendancy, because of how prominent her mother had been when she still lived. But Aria didn't have the courage to come completely clean with her father. Not yet.