An Angel With Scales

Chapter 3 - 2nd Timothy 1:7

“Do you think they’re anything like the stories?” His companion, a blond haired youth with a narrow face and a rosy complexion, asked. They sat in the foyer of the church house, watching the double doors for their visitors.

“I don’t know, Elder. I suppose we’ll find out when they get here,” Allen stated, trying to sound indifferent, but his posture was straight and tense.

“Ugh, you’re no fun, Jensen,” his partner sighed. After a while his eyes took a conspiratorial glean. “I heard that they're, like, super thicc.”

“Elder White!” Allen started.

“Hey! Hey! I’m just saying that if the pictures are anything to go off of, if they were human they’d be like a twelve,” Elder White put his hands up, trying to placate his red faced companion.

“Elder, you’ve been out for 19 months. Every girl looks like a twelve to you.” Allen smirked.

“So? You’ve been out for 22. I haven’t heard you talk about a single sister that strikes your fancy. Honestly, I’m starting to wonder if you’re secretly gay.”

Allen prickled at the accusation. “No, I like girls, I just . . . try not to think about that sort of thing. I’m here, now, doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“So old fashioned. You do realize that you’re going to have to get a life after you go home, right?” Elder white gave him a sidelong look, still smiling.

“I know.” He sighed.

“And besides, chastity is one of the only laws where it starts out as ‘no, no, no, no’ and then as soon as you’re married it turns into ‘go, Go, GO, GOGOGO!”

Allen looked up to see the first set of doors to the building opening. The entourage was here. He quickly nudged his companion with an elbow to silence him. A pair of sister Missionaries led a group of bulky figures into the foyer. Sister Abrams looked forward, her expression stiff as she opened the glass door. Her companion, sister Williams, seemed more shaken, her face flushed and her fingers nervously gripping the shoulder strap of a side bag. Behind them, a large, scaly woman hunched through the doorway.

It was his first time seeing a Daxy up close, let alone the two who had come. They were in simple, formal uniform, composed mostly of blacks and blues, instead of clad in the armored power suits he had seen on television. To say that they were larger than life was an understatement; they were huge in every way. He averted his eyes from scanning their full curves. Women didn’t like being treated as objects of lust, after all.

“Finally, we get to see what we came for!” A gravelly voice burst from the foremost Daxy. She ignored the sisters and stepped forward toward the Elders. Sister Abrams set her jaw, righteous indignation burning from her 5’4” frame. If faith and fury were all it took to win a fight, then the brazen lizard would have been a stain on the concrete outside.

“Thank you, Sister Abrams, why don’t you take Sister Williams to the medicine cabinet. She doesn’t look well,” Allen put up a hand to calm her down. “Elder White and I can take it from here.”

The pixyish Sister nodded, her lips sealing back a string of scriptural cursings on the offending Daxy, and turned to leave. Her companion was quick to follow.

“Blessed are the peacemakers.”

“See how she runs, with her tail between her legs,” the Daxy snickered, her teeth shining in a wicked smile. The other Saurian female seemed to regard the interaction with veiled interest.

“Miss Kessex, I was assured by President Oliviera that our visitors would be on their best behavior. If you can’t show respect within the house of the Lord, then perhaps you would prefer waiting outside.” Allen spoke with an even tone, practiced in dealing with belligerent gentiles.

The Daxy stepped up to him, dwarfing him with her 8 foot stature, bending down to give him a view of her goods. He looked for only a second.

“And are you going to make me, little man?” She sneered. She had a strange smell that tickled his nose and set his heartbeat higher than normal. He stepped back, she stepped forward. “I only agreed to this little tour because I’m bored out of my mind at our ‘embassy’ while the general tries to convince your government to stop bombing the shit out of us. You’d think we’d get a better reward for saving you sorry men from your even sorrier excuses for women. You should be grateful.”

She had him on the retreat, his back hitting the wooden door of the chapel. Something about the oaken doors at his back steadied him; like he was the last defender of God’s Temple from Babylon. But, he knew he couldn’t repel this invader on his own.

“Your heavenly father knows you,” He steeled himself, his eyes meeting hers, “He knows your hidden pains, your darkest desires, and your gravest sins. And my purpose is to relay that He loves you, regardless. He invites you to come unto him and be saved and then further, to be exalted.”

She stopped, her eyes narrowed down at him in a piercing glare. He met her gaze, his expression steady, but his heart thundering in his ears.

“Um, Miss? You really shouldn’t be doing this,” the master of dialogue, Elder White, finally found his words. “If word got out that you attacked us on a diplomatic mission, then everything your superiors are working for goes out the window. I doubt you would get out of New York alive.”

She continued the staring contest, before looking down at his nametag, committing his name to memory.

“Whatever, Elder Jensen, you’ll see things our way one day,” she growled before leaving the building. She made eye contact with the other Daxy as she passed them for just a second. An unspoken message was passed between them.

As Allen started to recompose himself, the other one stepped forward.

“I hope the Lieutenant didn’t upset you, human. In our culture, shows of dominance are paramount to establishing oneself as a capable mate,” she said slowly, picking her words. “She meant no offense.”

“We accept your apology and hope it doesn’t happen again. With all due respect, if that’s how negotiations are being handled then I worry you won’t find humanity receptive,” Elder White replied while Allen caught his breath.

“I will let her know. If it makes any difference, she was very excited to meet you two,” the Daxy replied, “the men of Zion are fabled to be excellent mates. I can see now why she could not contain her interest.”

The Daxy smiled as she looked his way. Allen narrowed his eyes in confusion. He wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Was she flirting with him?

“I don’t understand,” he said, uneasily. “I don’t think Elder White or I look particularly attractive.”

“Ouch,” Elder White injected.

“You have good legs and a strong back, those are excellent traits in a mate.”

“Well, thank you for the compliment, I guess,” he shut down the conversation. “Interuptions aside, shall we proceed?”

The rest of the tour went a bit more smoothly with the most vocal of the two removed. The remaining one was decently cordial, asking the occasional surface level question. Some more probing questions about Zion’s stance on the war, or the technological level of the saints were asked, but two late adolescent young men didn’t have much useful intelligence in that regard.

As they were leaving, however, the Daxy asked Allen a question.

“Elder . . . Jensen. Did you mean what you said back there, to the Lieutenant? Do you really believe your God cares about us?”

“If God created the universe, then I think he has a plan for your people just as he has one for ours.” He answered, taking a little time to find the right words.

“What if your induction is part of his plan?”

“Amos three, verse seven: Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants, the prophets.” He answered, meeting her gaze. She nodded slowly.

“We’ll come again.”

After the transport drove away, Elder White loosened his red tie and fanned himself with the lapels of his blue suit coat.

“Elder, I was wrong, they’re more like a fifteen up close,” he swooned dramatically.

Allen put his hand forward in a commanding gesture.

“Repent.”

He awoke from his dream, with a feeling of both nostalgia and euphoria in his chest. Kess was still holding him to herself, breathing deeply in slumber. Her tail was wrapped around his leg to pull more warmth from his body. It was cool in the cement dugout, despite his body heat. The chill of the October night was leeching the warmth away into the ground.

The sounds of the search party were more distant now, but present from more directions. They were probably going through the city block by block in a grid search. He thought back to their encounter just half a day past. He was lucky that the first wave was sloppy. The one didn’t even have her helmet on to protect her eyes from his can of lemon scented adhesive remover. Kess called it a tender mercy, but he wasn’t counting on too many more of those. Getting out of the valley would be more dangerous than any other run he had completed.

He wanted to find his radio and start listening in on the search comms, but he couldn’t quite reach his bag without disturbing Kess. It had taken long enough for her to get to sleep that he didn’t want to deprive her of any more of it. She deserved that much.

And so he sat there, alone with his thoughts. It was almost more terrifying than the thought of being caught and ripped from what little he had left to lose only to play bedmate to some officer from God-knows-where. The whole scenario wasn’t fair, and if God really was up in the heavens, orchestrating some great plan, then he must have forgotten who he was working with.

He breathed deeply, Kess’ pheremones tickling at the back of his mind. He thought of New York and frowned.

After some time, Kess stirred awake. Faint light was filtering through the edges of the trap door, indicating that the sun had risen.

“How did you sleep?” She asked.

“Lousy. you?”

“I’ve had worse nights. Thank you for keeping me warm.” She stretched as much as the cramped space would allow.

“It was nothing.” He bent forward to grab at his pack, fishing around for his radio.

It took a while but eventually he found a channel where some sort of dialogue was periodically taking place. He flipped open his notepad, and started testing decryption keys. With each set of characters he plugged into his device the sounds coming out would change slightly. Sometimes sounding more crinkly, others, more rhythmic and tonal.

“Well, it looks like they’ve got a new scrambler. I don’t have the key.”

“That second one sounded familiar,” Kess spoke up after his last attempt, looking over him at the device.

“An old hunter code?”

“No, it sounds kind of like an Axillian hymnal.”

“I thought you didn’t like your parent’s faith?” He dialed the 2nd code back in.

“That didn’t stop me from having to attend,” She groaned. “Anyway, it’s a pretty commonly sung one. This sounds like it, if off key.”

“Can you sing it?”

“I doubt you’d like my singing voice,” she said, after a pause. Was she being coy, or bashful? Allen couldn’t see her face to tell.

“Kess, I’ve sat in congregations who wouldn’t know musical theory if you sang it to them. I doubt you could sound much worse.”

“Your vote of confidence is overwhelming. Fine,” she sighed. He could feel her fingers twitching in time, trying to find a rhythm. She proceeded to hum out words unintelligible to him, the tone a low rumbling baritone. He started picking up on the rhythm just as she finished. He started scribbling in his notepad, trying to estimate a mathematical sequence.

“Again.”

“Really?” she whined.

“I’m going to need to hear this a few times before I can start putting together a key.”

She started the slow melody, her voice more steady as she shook the rust off.

“I’m counting at least 5 different pitches in there, but they don’t sound like any key signature I know.”

“If it helps, I think the old Axillian music goes up by sixes,” Kess volunteered.

“Goes up by sixes . . . do you mean that you don’t use octaves?” He scrunched his nose, incredulous. From his cursory knowledge of musical theory, the 8 note system was mathematically sound. “Why?”

“We don’t have as high of a vocal range, probably didn’t need more notes,” she offered. “Almost all of the newer stuff uses eight, like yours. It sounds nicer, I think.”

“I’ll bet. Again.”

“Ugh. . .”

Back and forth they went, Allen trying to scrounge together a code to translate the chatter coming through the radio transceiver, Kess repeating the song from her childhood and trying to block the rest of it from her mind.

“cOPy.”

“Oh! I could understand that,” Allen hooted after what felt like the hundredth try.

“ZoNE niNEty fOUr daSH fourTeen IS clEar,” a pitchy voice called out on the line, followed by what sounded like a synthetically enhanced sigh. The translation was passable, but grating. There was likely something he missed in the key.

“CoPy, MoVe On to ZOne nineTy Four dAsh FIfteen.”

“. . . cooOOOpyyY.” some poor Daxy had probably been up all night running this search, Allen mused. He could hear additional chatter around the same zones.

His plan was working. He pulled a tablet from his bag, waiting for the aged hardware to boot.

“Why do you even have that?” Kess asked, looking at the cracked 2d display.

“Would you believe me if I told you that I backed up the internet?”

“No.”

“Well, you’re right, I only have some of it saved; mostly old pre-war maps. I’ve got a few good memes on here too.”

“Memes?”

“Oh, yeah, they were just going out of vogue by the time you guys showed up. It’s like a captioned picture that people use to describe how they’re feeling. Or to make jokes.” He pulled up a cartoonish image of a dog sitting at a table, surrounded by a burning building. A little speech bubble, saying “This is fine.” floated above his head.

“I’m . . . not sure I understand, couldn’t you just say how you’re feeling?”

“I mean, sure, but people didn’t really sit down and just talk about their emotions with each other all that often. It was faster to use memes,” he said, pulling up a map and zooming in, trying to find their approximate position.

“I keep forgetting that humanity was on the brink of collapse when we came. I think I understand it a bit more now.”

“Yeah . . . it wasn’t all bad, though.”

“I can’t think of anything I would rather be doing than spending time with the people I care about,” she said, pensively. “A picture isn’t enough on its own.” From anyone else it would have sounded corny, but Allen knew Kess well enough to know better.

He found the park on the map.

“Ok, so we’re here at the golf course on 64th south. It sounds like they split the city up by the old roads, so I’m guessing they’re around 94th south right now. I don’t know about the east or west, though. We should probably see if we can get more out of them before we move.” He felt a rumble through his spine as Kess’ stomach gurgled loudly.

After finishing off his supplies with a round of canned tuna and saltine crackers, the two got back to planning. The radio chatter only chimed in occasionally, relaying some new set of coordinates.

“We need to figure out what to do about the van. Half of the equipment in there is basically classified. If they find it then a competent scientist would be able to reverse engineer what we’ve been doing out here.”

“Can’t we just use it to get away?”

“I don’t think so. We’d be seen.”

“I don’t know about that. Shuttle scanners are sophisticated, but they aren’t perfect. They do better at catching moving objects.”

“So, what are you saying?”

“What if we just drove very slow and stopped to let the engine cool every minute.”

“Do you think that will work?”

“I’ve seen it almost work, once.” She stated.

“Why did it fail?”

“Visual confirmation. As it so happens, a camper in the forest is more suspicious than a camper in a parking lot,” she smiled.

“So, we’d be a needle in a stack of needles is what you’re saying.” He toyed with the idea. “I like it. I don’t love it, but it’s better than my plan.”

“What plan was that?”

“We blow it up, and then go find some ATV’s and four-wheel our way to a safehouse,” he admitted, sheepishly.

“That would definitely show up on their sensors.”

“I know. I just figured it would be easier to lose them in the mountains.”

“Even with an electric blanket, I think I would freeze up there,” she shivered, even with his warmth there.

“True, it was a stupid plan,” he surrendered.

“Were I human, I think it would have worked better,” she stated.

“Hey, don’t blame yourself for my flawed idea. It’s not like you can just change your race at the drop of a hat,” He said.

“I wish that it was so, then perhaps you might respond more positively to my affection,” she sighed, resting her chin on his head. Allen didn’t know what to say.

“It’s not you, Kess. It’s me. I’m figuring it out,” he tensed.

“I just wish you’d let me figure it out with you.”

“I can’t just rely on your strength. I’ve got to walk on my own two feet,” he spoke in metaphor.

“Milk before meat, Brother Jensen. It was you who taught me that,” she rebutted.

“I’ve had milk for more than long enough.” He stated.

She groaned in acceptance. “I could just make you mine, you know? Right here in this quiet little space. You could hardly resist.”

For a moment he forgot to breathe.

“But you won’t. You’d sooner cut your own hand off then break your promise with God,” he said, remembering who he was talking to.

“Yea, Verily. It seems that God has saved you yet again from me,” she chuckled.

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