Magnum: Stargazer Alien Mail Order Brides (Intergalactic Dating Agency) Read online

  Gazing out her bedroom window onto the motionless pond she formulated a plan.

  As soon as she could catch him alone, she would let Magnum know he was off the hook. She would help her mother find a third bride, a better match for the alpha Magnum. Then she would go back to school where she belonged.

  Maybe if she stopped seeing him she would forget, in time.

  Resolved, she headed to the dining room to join the others for dinner.

  It was a dismal affair. Magnum had forgotten to go back to town, so the others had walked home in the cold.

  Posey sat quietly, hardly touching her plate. Ever since she’d gotten together with Bond, Posey had given up her eternal dieting, so Rima worried that something was wrong between them.

  Dr. Bhimani eyed Rima worriedly and then mortified her by giving significant looks to Magnum, who blessedly ignored them all and applied himself to his dinner.

  Georgia and Rocky canoodled in the corner, oblivious to the food, the people and anything that was outside the warm cocoon of their love.

  Suddenly, Magnum stood.

  “I’m going for a walk,” he announced.

  “I’ll get your plate, dear, go get your air,” Dr. Bhimani said.

  He stomped off without even acknowledging her.

  Rima pushed her green beans around the plate for another minute or two before her anger got the best of her.

  The chair made a horrible squawking sound as she pushed it out to rise.

  “I’m going for a walk too,” she announced, promptly tripping over Bond’s foot, and sailing across the room, barely managing to avoid ending up flat on her face.

  “Oh, Rima, are you okay?” Posey asked, immediately getting up to help.

  “I’m fine,” she said too loudly and stomped away, hoping she’d be out the door before they started laughing at her.

  Rima was fully aware of how ridiculous she was. Sometimes she wished she had been just a little more socially backwards. At least then she could be blissfully oblivious. As things were, she knew just enough to realize she was a mess, but not enough to fix it.

  She stormed out the front door, the night wind biting at her skin. She wasn’t going back in for a coat. By the time she got to the pond she was shivering, but she was determined.

  She headed into the cattails where the boys had hid the ship.

  Sure enough, there was a little light coming from the entry to the cabin. Magnum was always too hot. He had probably left the hatch open for air.

  Rima tapped on the smooth metallic casing. It was cool to the touch, but since she had seen it glow - pink and alive as if it were a puppy’s chubby belly - she didn’t want to bang on it.

  There was no reply, so after a moment she went inside.

  Rima had never been inside the ship before. She wasn’t exactly forbidden from going in, but she’d never felt welcome to visit either.

  She doubted any of the women had been onboard, come to think of it.

  By the time she stepped all the way in she was sure they hadn’t.

  It looked like a cross between the bridge on Star Trek and the inside of the model heart at the Franklin Institute.

  There was no way any of them had seen this and not said anything about it. It was the coolest mix of biology and technology Rima could imagine.

  She approached what she assumed was the control room. It looked more like a sunken living area with a chess set made by the people who planned the Apple announcement presentations. Glass screens floated in a uvula-like pink membrane beside the seating.

  She was leaning in to examine it and try to determine the power source when she heard Magnum’s voice in the next room over.

  “Transmit message, Earth to Aerie, sequence three point four dash three three two,” he said in a clear voice.

  Interesting. Rima had been under the impression that the transmitter wasn’t working. Maybe he was just testing it.

  Nonetheless, she remained silent a moment, not wanting to interrupt the message.

  “It’s Magnum. You made your point and I know my days are numbered. But you don’t need to take this planet out with me. The ship is operational again. I will return to Aerie and die in this body. Just let the others live. This planet is… odd. But its people are good. The life here should not be destroyed. Please. Wipe this message, and let our next success transmission go through to the ministers. No one knows that you cut us off besides me, and I’m a dead man. End transmission.”

  Rima stood in the next room, dumbfounded.

  When Magnum came through the doorway he nearly smashed into her.

  Rima stepped back and slipped on the tongue-like floor.

  He grabbed her arm to steady her.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” he asked.

  “What am I doing here?” Rima shot back hotly. “I heard what you just said. The Earth is going to be destroyed? You’re a dead man? What’s going on?”

  The big man took a deep breath. Muscles flexed in his jaw.

  At last, he let go of her arm.

  “Sit down, you might as well know. And no, your planet isn’t going to get blown up,” he told her. “The plan is to terraform it to be more like Aerie. The planet would be fine. It would only be the life forms that were wiped out.”

  Rima felt her legs go rubbery, and seated herself in one of the chairs by the controls before she fell.

  “But you have no need to fear.” Magnum sat down opposite her. “I will not allow that to happen.”

  She tried not to notice how wide his shoulders were when he leaned forward to pick up one of the crystalline carvings on the table next to them.

  “Are we going someplace?” she asked nervously.

  “What? No, why would you think that?”

  “Isn’t this the control room?” she asked.

  “Oh, no, this is a… recreation area. It’s a game,” he said indicating the crystal. “A strategy game, you try to predict your opponent’s moves in advance. Simple to learn, but difficult to master. Bond likes it.”

  So it was basically a chess set. Live and learn.

  But it didn’t make up for the elimination of life on Earth.

  “Why is life on my planet going to be destroyed?” Rima asked.

  Magnum frowned.

  “Terraforming of Earth was always a possibility,” he explained. “We’ve been in contact with other life forms before, you know. Your part of the galaxy is far-flung, but where I come from, there are many stars nearby. Some civilizations are benign. Most are not. Aerie looks first to protect her own interests.”

  “But we mean no harm to the Aerie,” she said.

  “True,” he said. “Besides, yours is a baby civilization, unlikely to mature before it burns itself out, due to the extremely short life cycle of its sentient residents. Your shortsighted disregard for your own resources has no impact on anything outside your own stratosphere. Earth would be considered a benign influence by Aerie standards.”

  Rima chose to ignore the many insults that had just been hurled at her people and cut to the chase.

  “So why do you want to destroy us?” she asked.

  “I don’t, Rima,” he replied leaning forward, his expression pained. “You know that I don’t.”

  “Who does?” she asked.

  “A rival, someone who doesn’t like me. He receives the transmissions from Earth to Aerie. He’s decided not to clear any of ours. The ministers believe we haven’t been heard from. They will suspect foul play from Earth. It’s typical to allow a short waiting period in case of technical difficulties…”

  “How long is a short waiting period?” Rima asked.

  “A lot of it has to do with whether the ministers are in session, whether enough of them are present to vote, whether they wish to deliberate this matter or whether others take precedence. But it’s been months since we ought to have sent a transmission. It can’t be much longer,” he admitted.

  “So what were you saying about going back?” she asked.

/>   He paused and ran a hand through his dark hair. When he answered, he didn’t look up at her, and she could see only the dark fringe of his eyelashes kissing his cheeks.

  “Rima, if I go back and let him kill me—” he began.

  “—You can’t do that,” she interjected.

  “Listen to me,” he continued. “If I can save every creature on your planet: you, my brothers, your friends, every tree, every blade of grass…”

  “It’s not worth it,” she cried.

  “I’m going to die anyway, Rima,” he told her. “Either with you or on my own. Allowing this planet to die before her time is a waste. I have grown fond of the creatures here. Some more than others. I will not continue the conversation.”

  “So there’s no one else who receives those transmissions beyond that one guy?” Rima offered.

  “No, there’s no one else,” he said.

  “What if he gets sick?” she asked.

  “We don’t really get sick on Aerie,” he replied.

  Rima thought about it. She wanted to be mad at him. Or sad. But her mind insisted on doing what it always did when presented with a problem.

  She started looking for a solution.

  “You’re sending transmissions to a certain frequency, right?”

  He nodded.

  “Why not try to reach someone else?” she asked.

  “We tried, the signal isn’t strong enough,” he replied.

  “What if you used the Hawkins transmitter? That thing reached someone random on your planet, didn’t it?” Rima hopped out of her seat and began pacing, thinking through the supplies they might need. “I wonder if we could get it working again.”

  “No, baby, we tried already,” Magnum told her. “We can’t get through.”

  Baby.

  No time to dwell on that now.

  “There has to be a way,” Rima said, choking back the tears that suddenly threatened to suffocate her.

  “There is a way. I’m going back, and that’s final,” Magnum said firmly.

  He didn’t try to stop her when she ran from the room, out the hatch and into the cattails.

  The lonely moon lit her way back to the observatory.

  Rima had expected an unpleasant conversation. But this - this was sinister, so terrifying it defied logic.

  It would have hurt her to see him with another woman, left her with a hole in her heart forever, maybe.

  But the idea of Magnum dying…

  Rima didn’t want to know what that would do to her.

  By the time she reached the observatory, the tears were running hot rivers down her cheeks.

  “Rima, what in the world?” Posey asked when she stepped inside.

  Rima opened her mouth and closed it again, unable to speak.

  Posey shoved something in her pocket and put an arm around Rima to lead her downstairs.

  9

  Magnum

  Magnum passed a hand through his hair and tried to get hold of his emotions.

  But they ignited him as easily as a shaft of starlight would have set his gaseous form alight back on Aerie.

  Pain had paralyzed him. The sight of her tears had rendered him helpless just long enough for her to panic and run from him.

  Then anger at his own powerlessness filled his chest with silent screams and he was afraid to chase after her.

  If he ever let her see his naked emotions, Magnum was sure she would be terrified.

  No, he needed to be strong and stalwart for her.

  He waited until his heartbeat was slow and steady again. Then he slowly and carefully lowered the power to the sleeping craft and closed the hatch.

  He stepped out into the cold embrace of the night air and followed the vegetation out to the house.

  Warm light poured out of the windows on the girls’ floor.

  That meant Rima had told her friends what was going on.

  Good.

  Good for her.

  He hadn’t had the nerve to share the truth with his brothers in months and Rima was facing it head on in a single night.

  The extinction of her species. The death of a planet.

  Her friends would make her see reason. They would agree with him that the only solution was for him to go home. They would probably be glad to see him go.

  Magnum had seen their reproach from the first encounter. He remembered the terrifying responsibility of carrying Rima through the trees and depositing her in the cabin when he found Bond. Yet Posey had looked at him as if he had tried to kill her friend, not rescue her from disaster at her own hands on the slippery forest floor.

  No matter how human he looked, he would never truly belong here. The only time he didn’t feel like an outsider was the time he spent with Rima.

  He stepped up his pace and was very nearly worked up again as he took the observatory stairs two at a time and pushed the door open.

  There was slight resistance and then a crash.

  “Oh dear,” Dr. Bhimani said.

  Magnum came in and found the lady trying to clean up a tray of drinks. She must have been holding them in front of her and passing the door when he opened it.

  “I’m sorry,” he told her, sounding inadvertently gruff.

  “Quite alright,” she said. “Rima came in crying to beat the band. Now everyone’s down there with her and she won’t let me in. I thought I’d bring down some hot chocolate to leave for them, but I can’t even get that right.”

  Magnum swallowed his impatience.

  “I’ll help you get cleaned up. Maybe we can make more chocolate together,” he suggested.

  “No, no, if she’s crying the only one who can really make her feel better is you,” Dr. Bhimani said with a smile. “Go see to my girl. I’ll make more chocolate.”

  Magnum felt a pang of guilt.

  “Okay,” he muttered and headed down the stairs.

  He could hear a hotly whispered discussion going on behind the door to the women’s sitting room.

  When he opened it, they all fell silent.

  Posey glared at him in open resentment, her arm strangely draped across her ribcage as if she had been punched.

  Bond bored holes through his face with the intensity of his angry stare.

  Georgia turned her back to him to look out the window.

  Rocky stood by Georgia’s side, back to the window, looking at Magnum with a betrayed expression.

  But it was Rima who broke him.

  Smiling through her tears, she reached her arms out to him from her seat on the sofa.

  “It’s good that you came,” she said. “Come help us make a plan.”

  “I have a plan,” he said stubbornly, without thinking.

  “We’re going to make a real plan,” she told him kindly, her arms still outstretched.

  Oh, what a villain he felt when his resolve broke and he went to her, taking her hands and seating himself beside her.

  “What did you have in mind?” he asked.

  “You tried using the transmitter before and it didn’t work, right?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “And it didn’t work because the signal wasn’t strong enough,” she added.

  “Exactly. Your message was probably sent tens of thousands of times. It only made it through once,” he agreed.

  “What if we could boost the signal?” she asked.

  “I don’t think you have the technology on this planet to do that,” he replied.

  “I don’t think we had it before.” Rima smiled. “But I think we have it now.”

  “Even if you did, how could you send it anywhere other than straight back to the operator who is blocking us in the first place?” he asked.

  “This transmission can be more… personalized,” Rima said carefully.

  “What do you mean?” Posey asked looking up with interest.

  “We have Bond,” Rima said simply.

  Posey covered her mouth with her hand to hide a smile.

  Magnum thought about it.
<
br />   Bond’s telepathic gift was strong. But he had never thought of using it to boost a transmission. Could it even be done?

  If it could, Rima was right, Bond might be able to control the recipient of the message. Rather than thinking of Bond’s power boosting the signal, it was more like the Hawkins transmitter would boost Bond’s power.

  Magnum felt a great big happy grin split his face as he grabbed his brilliant woman in a bear hug.

  10

  Rima

  Rima led the others out to the transmitter the next morning. The birds were still singing and the sun was rising pink over the pond.

  Posey looked exhausted. Bond walked slowly at her side, murmuring to her with a look of concern on his features.

  But Rocky and Georgia were teasing and cavorting through the tall grass and having enough fun to make up for the other couple.

  For his part, Magnum walked slowly and carefully next to Rima.

  Somehow she felt connected with him today in a way that she hadn’t yet. Like the wall between them had come crashing down.

  Magnum was still keeping his distance, but at least now she finally understood why. He hadn’t come to her last night, and he wasn’t holding her hand now. There was nothing at all to give her hope.

  Maybe it was just the crisp cold air in her lungs or the pretty lace of frost on the maple leaves that danced on the ground, but Rima was bursting with hope anyway.

  Tomorrow was Thanksgiving. Maybe she would have something truly special to be thankful for.

  When they had traveled another quarter mile the field dipped suddenly.

  The transmitter dish rested in the valley below. From this distance, it looked like a sunken saucer, but it was the size of a shopping center parking lot.

  Four large towers stood at the compass points along the outside of the giant dish. Wires ran inward from each, to meet at a skeleton-like spire reaching up from the center.

  They all gazed down at it in silence. Even Rima had forgotten the scale of the thing.

  “It’s huge,” Georgia breathed.

  “That is what she said,” Rocky blurted.

  Georgia smacked his arm.

  “What? Is that not what she said?” Rocky asked. “A person says that something is great in size, and then I say—”