Dark Planet Pt. 02

"No problem, no concerns!" sang the one that just threatened my life.

"Friends, do not hurt me by lying. You intended to defy my orders about the safety of my companion and now you deny your intent. Do my desires mean nothing to you?"

Ouch. Clearly ol' Perikos was no novice when it came to doling out the guilt. Not that I felt sorry for them.

"Not true!" said one.

"We did nothing!"

"You threatened Jayn," said Perikos. "Didn't they?"

"No," I answered. I sounded confident, much to my surprise.

"Jayn, they -- "

" - it may have sounded that way but that's not what happened."

Perikos was silent for a moment and then turned his mass towards my two intended assailants. "Since I have her word you meant no harm, you may go. I hope to see you both for training tomorrow."

He waited until they had retreated a safe distance away and then scooped me up in the darkness and we rolled silently through the night, away from the camp a further kilometer until we reached the edge of a wide lake. I couldn't see any other beaches, though whether because of the size of the lake or because of the dark, I couldn't tell. Perikos set me down by the water.

"Try drinking and then bathe here. I will wait."

Sounded a bit terse, I thought, but water mattered more to me at the moment. I waded into the chilly lake water and cupped a fistful of water to my mouth. It was cold and more metallic than I was used to but soothed my parched throat and I didn't keel over from lead or mercury poisoning. Probably I was safe. I waded in a little deeper and began to scrub my hair and skin. Perikos was silent. It wasn't until I emerged, teeth chattering, that he spoke.

"Are you well? Is your thirst and comfort taken care of?"

"Yes," I said.

"You will want to eat soon but when I invited you I did not anticipate famine. We will have to learn which vegetation is safe for you to consume. That might take longer than is ideal."

"That's fine."

"You should not have lied, Jayn," said Perikos.

"Well, what I supposed to do? You put me in a pretty shitty position, making me finger them. They were already after revenge, for what I have no idea."

Perikos paused a moment, lifted me up again and headed back to the Resistance camp. "You are correct. I should not have relied on your testimony. Do not feel like you must lie for any of the others."

"Well, sorry but honestly it's the best I've got at the moment. The hope that maybe when they're plotting to snatch me from my bed and devour me whole they'll remember the time I could have thrown them under a land shuttle and they'll think better of it."

"If you are prepared to bear the burden of all my disciplinary decisions for good or for ill then I suppose it might work. Otherwise, I urge you to reconsider. Besides, you are a terrible liar."

"Bite your tongue! I'm a great liar!"

"Perhaps among humans. Any of our kind with any ability to determine speech rhythm, breathing, heat rate and perspiration for a human would be able to discern you were lying instantly. In short, every member of my species in the System. Do not bother lying. It is a pointless exercise and then next time I catch you attempting to lie, for good or for ill, I will expose it."

"Hmph. That's a little harsh, don't you think?"

"It is a simple matter to circumvent. Tell me the truth, always, regardless of the circumstances."

I shook my head, reclining against Perikos' body as he carried me back to the camp. "You don't want much, do you? Companionship, obedience, food, absolute honesty and willingness to be shared with homicidal alien armies. I seem to remember a Ferox 4 health campaign promoting awareness of unhealthy relationships, Perikos, and I think we qualify."

"Do you consider our intimacy dangerous then?" Perikos sounded genuinely concerned.

I snorted as he set me down and I plodded through heavy gravity the last hundred meters back to the camp. "No, you're the dangerous one."

"Perhaps," Perikos' tune was slow, reflective. "But may I point out the explosive nature of your temper and the tempting flavors you emit with most every step you take here? I must also admit that I did not expect I would ever during my lifespan meet an alien creature I would like or understand better than most of my kind or that she would be my savior from imprisonment. I would postulate that you are very dangerous in your own way."

I stopped and grasped one of Perikos' thin tendrils and traced its tip over the arch of my smile.