The stocky little alien didn’t seem offended, though. He merely smiled and laughed again, a warm rumble that made me want to smile. I didn’t know much about different alien species, but I instantly liked this Carlogian with his elaborate outfit of perfectly tailored clothes in sumptuous fabrics. Even though the buttons on his vest sparkled gold, and a velvety, green scarf billowed around his neck, he was not intimidating or arrogant. He actually seemed quite fatherly.
“I am Fenrey.”
“You’re Carlogian,” Raas Vassim said, more a statement than a question.
Fenrey’s heavily lined face crinkled as he grinned at us. “Correct, Vandar.”
“And you know I’m Vandar.”
An eager nod and an even wider smile. “Oh, yes. I’m very familiar with the Vandar.” He tilted his head, his colorfully striped horns glinting in the light. “Unless I’m mistaken, you are a Raas.”
Vassim inclined his head in a small bow. “I am Raas Vassim, and this is Juliette.”
“Yes, yes. We’re very familiar with Vandar-human pairings.” He chuckled again and waved for us to follow him as he turned. “We expected the Vandar to come, but we didn’t expect you.”
“We were the closest horde,” the Raas said, not making any move to follow. “Where are you taking us, Carlogian?”
“Fenrey,” the alien corrected as he stopped and turned. “I’m taking you to our village, but we need to go the long way, since the planet is overrun by imperial soldiers.” He wrinkled his already-wrinkled nose. “I apologize in advance for taking you in through the tunnels, but it can’t be helped.”
“Tunnels? You live underground?”
Fenrey seemed to notice that we hadn’t moved and sighed. “Oh, dear. I haven’t explained very well, have I?”
“We know that your planet was liberated by the Vandar before and we received your distress call, but when we arrived there was a fleet of Zagrath ships to greet us.”
Fenrey’s large, brown eyes grew even more round. “You don’t think we lured you here under false pretense?” He pressed a hand to his puffy scarf. “Oh, goodness. I can see how it might look like that.”
“We believe Zagrath duplicity and cunning much more quickly than we believe your people would collaborate with them,” Vassim said.
The Carlogian’s expression darkened. “After they enslaved our planet and put our children to work in mines, we would rather die than provide any kind of aid to the empire.”
“Then we are in agreement,” the Raas said. “But they may have reengaged your planet to draw out the Vandar, especially since they know you were assisted once before by a horde.”
“Two hordes.” Fenrey held up two stubby fingers. “Raas Kratos and Raas Kaalek. They’re brothers, you know. Such nice boys.”
Vassim’s brows lifted at the description of his fellow Raas’. “Raas Kratos no longer leads a horde. It is now under control of his majak, Bron, but Raas Kaalek is still very much in the skies.”
“I’m glad to hear it. We owe the Vandar a great debt of gratitude, and I’m afraid it will be greater after this.”
The Raas grunted as if dismissing the concept of the debt. “Tell us what transpired.”
“Of course.” Fenrey fluttered a hand in front of him. “When the other two hordes left us after repelling the empire so forcefully, they left us a communications system so we could send word for help if we ever needed it again. It also transmitted a Vandar signal, which was intended to warn the empire from returning.”
“Which did not work,” Vassim said.
“It worked for a while. Since the mines were destroyed in the battle, we thought they had no reason to return. They couldn’t rebuild them before the Vandar would arrive and we believed that was enough of a deterrent.” Fenrey tapped his foot on the ground, the underbrush crackling. “And it is true they haven’t touched the mines since their ship entered orbit.”
“What have they done?” I asked.
The little horned alien looked up at me and shrugged. “Nothing really, aside from make their presence known. Like I said, their ship entered our orbit and then they sent smaller vessels to the surface, but as of yet they haven’t done any of the things they did during the last invasion. They haven’t rounded up the younger males, or retaken the garrison in the village.”
“Which gives weight to the theory that all of this is being done to lure the Vandar into an ambush.” Raas Vassim tipped his head up to peer at the sky.
Fenrey pressed his hands to his cheeks. “I would never forgive myself if we were the reason that the Vandar were destroyed by the empire.”
Now Raas Vassim laughed, but it was not warm and mirthful. “The Vandar cannot be defeated so easily, but maybe we can turn this strategy around on our enemy.”
“I like the sound of that,” Fenrey said.
“The empire has no idea that we have figured out their strategy. They also do not know how many hordes we have and how many allies. Not only do the Vandar fight for you, but we also brought the Valox resistance, and a bounty hunter crew.”
Fenrey’s face lit up with delight. “The bounty hunters are back? Oh, I do like them.”
Mention of the bounty hunter crew made me think about my sister. “You haven’t seen them on the surface yet?”
Fenrey shook his head. “No, but they’re very good at stealth, those Dothveks. They come from a sand planet, you know. And the women who fly with them are quite impressive on their own. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re here, and we just haven’t detected them yet.”
Even though my sister was now a part of their crew, I knew almost nothing about the bounty hunters, which made me flush with embarrassment. I’d avoided the battle they’d joined in on when my home world had been attacked, and my attempt to stowaway on their ship had not exactly worked out.
The Raas put an arm around me. “We should probably get out of sight. Unfortunately, our arrival on the planet
