Chapter Two

The blue paint made her itch, but Romelle stopped herself from scratching at her arms and neck because that would make the paint rub off. Alana was carefully dyeing her short hair white but even that made her scalp itch. Not many Drule females had short hair and they bought a wig, but it looked too artificial. The plan was that Romelle would pass herself off as a young man. Jason was in the cockpit, preparing them for their approach to Planet Prinoth but when it was time to make contact, it was Romelle's face they would see on the viewscreen--rather, Captain Lanar Branorst.

"Are you alright, Aunt Romelle?" Alana asked. "You look...your eyes are watering..."

"I'm fine. Are you done with the dye?"

"Yes. You're the quintessential Drule soldier and you're scaring me a little bit."

"Good."

Alana handed her the contact lenses that would make her eyes yellow, but then just as Romelle was reaching for them, she held fast. Leaning forward, she looked closely at her aunt.

"What?" Romelle asked.

"You're getting hives," Alana said. "I think you're allergic to the paint."

Romelle grabbed the hand mirror she'd laid on the counter and winced when she saw the bumps that were starting to rise up from underneath the makeup. She began to scratch at her neck and found that she could not stop. Her throat began to close up and her eyes widened, panicked. Alana jumped to action, scrabbling through the first aid kit to find a spray. Romelle wiped at her makeup even as she gasped for breath and Alana finally injected her, shoving the hypospray into Romelle's neck. Her airways opened up and she sank in her seat, sweat dotting her forehead.

"I guess I was allergic," she said simply.

"What do we do now?" Alana said, staring at the open pots of blue makeup.

Romelle stared at her niece.

"I can't very well go out there looking like I do," she said. "You're going to have to do to it, Lana. You and Jason...if neither of you are allergic that is."

Alana dipped two fingers into the makeup pot and smeared it on her neck. She and Romelle waited and watched to see if it affected her, but nothing happened. Romelle wasn't sure whether she should be happy about that or not because it meant sending her 16 year old niece and 17 year old nephew in deep cover into a population whose memories of the Alliance were far from pleasant. But there were no other options to take. She had to trust that between Alana's natural talents and Jason's training, they would come out of this alright.

An hour later, both Alana and Jason were dressed the part of two Drule youths. Jason seemed to sink into his new skin as easily as he would put on a new sweater, but Alana's shoulders were tense as she fidgeted with her tunic. They found the old uniforms in a closet and managed to get some close to their size, but the breast plate and various pieces of armor took some getting used to, at least for Alana, whose heaviest piece of clothing was a velvet cloak lined with fur. Jason tapped at his breast plate with a finger.

"You really think this would do any good?" he asked.

"It can't hurt," Romelle answered. "But I wouldn't go jumping in front of a line of laser rifles or anything like that."

"I'll do my best to avoid that situation." Jason looked sideways at Alana. "Why don't you do a lap around the ship or something?"

"A lap? I can barely lift my arms," she protested.

"You can't walk around like a robot, Lana. You'll give yourself away quickly if you get tangled up in your own armor. Get used to wearing this stuff," Romelle said. "Take the lap."

Alana gave her aunt and Jason a look before going out into the corridor, visibly trying to bend her joints in order to look more natural. Jason chuckled as he fiddled with his elbow plate. Romelle reached out, put a hand on his arm to get his attention.

"You have to protect her, Jason," she said quietly. "She's young, she hasn't seen many things and though she has handled herself well in the past, I think this is going to be very different for her. You're a cadet in the IAF and II trust you to do what needs to be done to get you both out of there safely if things go wrong. Most of all...protect Alana. I think that when things finally come to a collision, she has to be on Arus, she has to help her family."

Jason frowned at her last words, but nodded. Romelle patted his arm, satisfied.

"Aren't you a little worried about me?" Jason asked, a bit of his own apprehension peeking through.

Romelle stood and hugged him, patting his back in a motherly way.

"No," she answered, knowing what he needed to hear. "I trust you."

Over her shoulder, Jason smiled but the look in his gray eyes was hard.

Lotor did not give them information about how they were going to find Rathul but Romelle advised them to play it by ear. Like most places, the bars were where one went for information gathering which meant that those sitting there could spot newbies the second they walked through the door. Nothing Romelle could say could remove that particular stigma from hanging over their heads. The environment on Prinoth would be less than friendly, but she just made sure to tell them to always sit with their backs to the wall and to study those around them to know how to act. For a girl of sixteen and a boy of seventeen who had just heard stories of war rather than lived it, it was easier said than done, but they did not voice their concerns to their already worried aunt. Romelle could not leave the ship at all and before they left, she even went so far as to straighten their armor.

Alana had to stop herself from reaching for Jason's hand, because she was posing as a young Drule male and as far as she knew, that particular type of relationship was frowned upon. But she could feel the eyes of those they passed and wanted to shrink from their gazes. Outwardly, her countenance was carefully blank, if not a touch haughty, as they made their way through the crowded streets of Prinoth Capital. From the IAF reports they read, the rest of the planet was far from developed and its people had been struggling since the peace treaty. Even if she had not read that, Alana could tell that the population had gone through hard times, from the pinched look on their blue faces to the cracked pavement and closed storefronts that they passed. Prinoth Capital was on par with Arus' more outlying settlements as far as she could tell.

The first bar they found was not far from the docking bay. It was fairly crowded for the middle of the day and the second they walked in, most of the faces turned towards them.

"Nice," Jason muttered, looking for an empty table.

Alana slid past a group of burly Drules and sat down at a booth. Jason sat across from her, slouching and one arm thrown over the back of the seat. He threw her a look when she clasped her hands on the table and she caught it, flinching slightly as she mimicked his posture.

"You want somethin'?" the barmaid asked, sounding bored and looking even more so.

"Two ales," Jason said.

"Pay up front."

He tossed her two coins and she went off to get their drinks. Alana had to fight the urge to adjust her armor but the look on her face was enough to tell Jason exactly how she was feeling. He tucked away a smile, Drules rarely smiled, and caught her eye. The sound level was high enough and their seating private enough so that they could speak a little more freely than if they were just outside. Still, they were aware that since they were strangers, they drew enough interested attention to ensure they did not say too much.

"You holding up okay?" he asked.

"Just fine. I thought it would be a little more...nerve racking," Alana murmured.

"We haven't done anything just yet. This is far from over so just make sure you're ready for anything."

"I've been ready since we left."

They lapsed into silence when the barmaid reappeared with their ale. This time, Jason could not help the amusement from lighting up his eyes as Alana could not keep her lips from twisting with distaste. She took a sniff of the greenish liquid poured generously into a mug that looked far from clean before wrapping her hands around it. Jason gamely took a swig of the ale and was surprised to find that it tasted much better than it looked.

"We seem to be doing a lot of this lately," Alana said.

"Bars make the universe go 'round. You're gonna have to learn to love this life."

"In all my nightmares, I never imagined I'd be spending any significant amount of time in a seedy bar...with you, no less."

Jason feigned insult. "You could do much worse."

She took an exploratory sip of the ale, eyebrows arching when she discovered that she actually liked the taste.

"At least the ale is good," she said.

"Believe me, if I were going to take you some place for a drink, I'd have upped the quality of the place a little."

She tilted her head to one side thoughtfully. "Where would we go?"

Jason leaned forward, a corner of his lips tilting upwards. Alana could not stop herself from doing the same, drawn in by the appealing gleam in his eyes. Her heart began to beat a little bit faster and her palms felt damp, but she couldn't wipe them on her thighs for fear of wiping off the makeup. Blinking, she realized that in that split second, she forgot that she and Jason were in the middle of a Drule bar, painted blue and drinking green ale; for a split second it was just the two of them, makeup and yellow eyes aside, talking. Alana had never experienced anything like that before and she felt more panic at the thought that perhaps Jason was more than a friend than at the fact that she was in the middle of a Drule planet.

"You'll see when I actually take you there," he said with a wink.

"We should get to work," she said, sitting back and staring at the mug as if her life depended on it. "Who should we talk to here?"

Studying the various characters in the bar, it did not take long for them to see that there were few females and few young people. The older males milling about did not look at all friendly or overly knowledgeable about the world around them. If anything, they were on their way to being good and drunk. Jason winced. This may not have been the best place to start their search. Draining his mug, he shook his head at Alana. She sighed and pushed her mug away. She led the way out and they had to shade their eyes from the harsh afternoon sun after the perpetual darkness of the bar.

"Maybe we should ask to see where we should go," she suggested.

They stood in the middle of the walkway, looked around. There was hardly any foot traffic and when Jason tried to speak to an elderly female going by, he nearly got beaned in the head with her heavy bag. Glaring at her retreating back, he started to ask another female, but Alana put a hand on his arm.

"It's no use," she said. "We're just going to have to find out for ourselves."

"I guess we walk then."

Bars were easier to find than people and the third bar they found was more to their liking. Younger Drules, marginally more jovial than their elders, seemed to enjoy coming in to meet and drink with their peers. Like their elders, they drank to forget the bleakness of their lives, but they drank with a carelessness that had an edge to it; the older Drules wallowed, but the younger ones used the drink to run away from their lives. The tinge of desperation hung heavily in the air when Alana and Jason walked in. The appearance of two new Drule males excited the females and they were immediately surrounded by comely female bodies. A strong hand took Alana's arm and she started to shake it off but she realized it was Jason trying to pull her away. Smiling uncomfortably at the Drule female who was trying to talk to her, she let Jason drag her to the far end of the bar where the males stood.

"I'm surprised the birth rate hasn't sky rocketed in this place," she groused, rearranging her armor.

Jason laughed and signalled for two drinks to be brought to them. The barmaid got them the mugs quickly, but refused payment. The female who had jumped so eagerly on Alana waved at her with a small smile. Jason laughed into his mug as Alana waved back wanly.

"I always knew you'd be a heartbreaker," he whispered.

"Why aren't they going for you?"

That question made him pause and he frowned.

"Do me a favor. Don't tell anyone about this."

"I should use my powers for good then," Alana said, choking back half the ale she had. "I'll go ask around."

Squaring her shoulders, she went back to the side of the bar where the females stood. Watching her, Jason wasn't sure whether he should be worried or jealous.