by Mina Carter
“This is very inefficient,” she grumbled, and he smiled.
“It is. Get grumpy about it. It’ll take the edge off.”
He was still holding her in his lap and didn’t seem inclined to let her go as he looked at the others.
“Okay… we need simple. Not complicated. So Keris is now Kelly Hart, a human survivor from the S’Vaan ship. She was a Frontier Border Agent who was snatched by them for their sick breeding program.”
The two Lathar nodded.
“Makes sense,” Seren replied. “If we say she’s your mate, the B’Kaar are less likely to be interested in her beyond any superficial level. The emperor’s ruling on human females states that no mated female can be claimed.”
“That works.”
Jay looked at her, and his mask slipped for a moment, allowing her to see something in his blue eyes. Something deeper and entirely hotter than she’d expected.
“Kelly Stephens. My wife.”
7
Jay had no idea what to expect of the B’Kaars’ arrival. He’d seen a few types of Lathar over the last few weeks. Seren and Nyek were from different clans, as was Keris, even if she wore a human body now. Her “father” Xaandrynn, the emperor’s champion, was something else entirely. While they were all as different as night and day, chalk and cheese, they all had one thing in common. They were all warriors trained from birth for combat.
But digital warfare… That was all online. Wasn’t it? No rigorous lifelong physical conditioning or combat training was needed. He snorted to himself in amusement. Unless they did thumb training for the joystick.
“Like to make an entrance. Don’t they?” he murmured, standing next to Seren and Gracie in the shuttlebay, one arm around Keris’s waist. Indra stood the other side of Keris, with Nyek in front of them as they waited for the alien gamer boys’ to arrive. He suppressed a shiver as the frigid, dead air from the large space washed over them. Damn, it was cold in here. “The frigging suspense is killing me.”
Nyek half turned his head, irritation clear on his stern features. “Would that it were that simple, human. Now keep quiet. While the B’Kaar are part of the empire, they are a direct competitor to the K’Vass. We do not need to give them any advantage over us.”
Jay rolled his eyes, mostly to irritate the stick-up-his-ass former paladin. He would never understand the political and territorial interplay between the Latharian clans. On the face of it, the Lathar appeared to be a relentless, unstoppable army marching at the order of their warrior emperor. Scratch the surface, though, and you found a tenuous web of alliances and treaties that could be disrupted at any moment if a clan’s leadership changed. In a society where assassination was a viable promotional strategy, that could happen at the drop of a hat… or the thrust of a blade.
“Loose lips sink ships. Got it.” He pulled Keris closer, protectively against his side.
“Yet another nonsensical human phrase,” Nyek grumbled.
Jay didn’t bite back. He’d been where Nyek was, facing a larger, better armed force with no backup, and look at how that had turned out. Grimly, he locked down the memories and focused on the situation at hand. They were stuck on an old base in the ass-end of beyond with no help able to get to them. If the B’Kaar wanted to wipe them out, there wasn’t a thing they could do about it. Other than die loudly. It was a shit sandwich no matter which way you cut it.
He faced front again and swept his gaze around the hangar. It wasn’t the one they’d landed their shuttles in, but one of the larger ones. One just big enough to fit the ship they’d seen on the sensors in the command suite, a ship that had been far closer to the base than they’d expected. They’d only just made it down here in time. Why Miisan hadn’t seen it earlier on the long-range sensors, they didn’t know, and they couldn’t ask because the AI was incommunicado. Utterly absent.
“Holy shit,” Jay breathed as a ship appeared in the hangar bay doors with a small gust of displaced air.
Literally appeared. Not came into view and eased its way into the hangar under thruster power but not there one moment and there the next type of appeared. The gargantuan ship was already halfway into the garage, the massive, axe-like prow bearing down on them before they knew it.
“Cloaking technology,” Keris whispered, a tremor running through her delicate frame.
He recalled himself and stroked his hand down her side.
“It’s okay, love,” he murmured, watching the leviathan of a ship as it loomed over them.
Before it got halfway toward the landing platform they stood on, the lower part of the prow opened like jaws about to engulf its prey. From within, twenty figures emerged. Not shuttles as Jay might have expected, but humanoid shapes. Metal over arms and legs glinted in the hangar lights as the group of B’Kaar flew across the remaining space.
“Spacesuits?” he asked, a frown between his brows. But these didn’t look like any spacesuits he’d seen before. Not even frontier marine corps combat spacesuits. These were less spacesuits and more mobile combat platforms. He could see the shape of the B’Kaar within, arms and legs under the heavily armed and armored exoskeletons. Several of them sported multiple canon arrays mounted on rigs around their bodies and at least one guy at the back was carrying what looked like a couple of planet killer rocket launchers on his shoulders. Engine packs on their backs backlit them with an eerie blue-white glow.
They landed on the platform in front of the small group, boots clunking against metal. From the sound of it, those suits were heavy.
He eyed the warriors as they approached. Every one was as ripped as the other Lathar he’d met, if not more so, and they all walked with a confidence that said they’d practically been born in the death machines they operated.
“Definitely not gamer nerds,” he breathed.
“Not at all,” Indra muttered next to him. “They look like they eat other Lathar for breakfast.”
And they did, with matching hard expressions on their faces as they came to a stop in front of the small group from K’Vass. One of them, the leader from the aura of command and danger that wreathed him, raked them all with an assessing gaze. His eyes were pale blue and sent a shiver up Jay’s spine.
He’d met many men in his time and faced the grim reaper more times than he could count… even thought he’d bought it right there on that D’Corr ship. But this man? He’d rather face that torture chamber all over again. Something about his eyes said he’d kill them all easier than he would crushing a bug under his armored foot.
“I am War Commander Risyn B’Kaar,” he announced, and if possible, his voice was even harder than his gaze. “Who commands here?”
Nyek made a small movement as if to call attention to himself. “I am Commander Nyek—”
It worked. He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence before the tall B’Kaar drew an ugly-looking handgun and aimed it right between the former paladin’s eyes.
“Who commands here?” Risyn demanded.
“Hey! Asshole!” Indra made to launch herself at the B’Kaar leader, only to be stopped by Nyek’s upraised hand. She glared at the armored alien. “He didn’t say he was in command. He was just introducing himself. So quit being a dick already.”
“For draanth’s sake, female,” Nyek hissed, trying to shove her behind him. “Keep your mouth shut!”
Jay sucked a breath in. The potential for violence hung in the air like a delicate perfume. Sure, the Lathar revered women… until they didn’t, like the assholes who had taken Indra and Gracie intending to breed them. If the B’Kaar turned out to be like that, people were about to die. Him included.
Risyn’s gaze flicked to Indra and he tilted his head, a strange expression crossing his features.
“You have females…”
His gaze dropped to where Nyek had his hand out protectively. It was no secret what he was looking for. The dark marks around Nyek’s wrist proclaimed the status of his relationship with Indra for every Lathar to see.
“And mating marks.”
<
br /> Nyek lifted his chin, no surrender in any line of his body. “We do. We have three human females under our protection, as charged by the emperor himself.”
The B’Kaar studied him a moment longer and then slid the gun away with a practiced gesture. “Very well.”
“Wait… what?” The warrior standing to the side of Risyn started, his complaint uttered in a voice that was more landslide rumble than anything. “Risyn, are you sure this is wise?”
The speaker was dark-haired, his eyes nearly black as he glared at the small group. Unlike most Lathar, he sported a full-face beard, his teeth a white flash as he snarled. “They are K’Vass…”
“I am well aware of that, Berr,” Risyn replied, his voice dripping with icy warning. “But it appears we have a new alliance with the K’Vass. Don’t we, Commander?”
Both B’Kaar turned to look at Nyek, who, to his credit, gave them his normal glare in return. “I can only speak for my group, rather than the clan as a whole, but yes… we have a temporary alliance.”
“Excellent!” Instantly Risyn was all smiles. Seeing the switch from ice-cold warrior to someone Jay might have a drink with in the bar was disconcerting. No, he admitted to himself, it was downright scary.
“See, Berr?” Risyn thumped an armored fist against the chest plate of what Jay assumed was his second in command. “Nothing to worry about. We’re all friends here. Now, Commander, please, introduce us to your comrades and these… delightful females.”
Keris caught her breath as the huge B’Kaar leader swept a glance over their small group. Would he see something about her new body? Some minor, insignificant detail she’d missed that the sharp-eyed warrior would pick up and instantly know what she was—an AI hiding in a human body. A fake. A fraud.
“Of course,” Nyek conceded with a small bow in deference to Risyn’s rank. “May I introduce my mate, Lady Indra of Earth.”
Risyn’s attention moved to the dark-haired human woman with something akin to fascination. His icy gaze studied her for a moment, and then he smiled and offered a bow.
“My lady, it is a pleasure to meet you. And a comfort to know one of your kind can call mating marks from the skin of one of our warriors.”
Indra inclined her head, at that moment the most regal Keris had ever seen her. “I would say it was a pleasure to meet you as well, but human women dislike it when our mates are threatened.” She smiled, her teeth bared in something between welcome and threat. “We tend to get… annoyed.”
Risyn’s gaze flicked between Nyek and Indra, as though assessing Indra’s unspoken threat. The tall paladin shrugged.
“Human females are unlike the ones our fathers tell stories of,” he said mildly. “Many of them are accomplished warriors in their own right. My lady is one of them.”
Keris’s estimation of the intense but stoic warrior went up at the praise of his mate and the pride in his voice as he spoke about her. She moved a little closer to Jay. Would he ever talk about her like that?
Her movement caught the B’Kaar’s attention and he looked at them. Nyek and Indra stepped aside as he walked toward them, a small frown between his elegantly arched brows.
“And you are?” he demanded, looking Jay over. “You are not Lathar. At least, you are no kind of Lathar I have ever seen.”
Jay started in surprise, but Keris could see where the confusion lay. Jay might have been shorter than most warriors, but he carried an equal amount of muscle mass, and it was more than that. Something about the way he moved, and his expression sometimes, was eerily like the Lathar themselves.
“I’m not,” he confirmed, an edge in his voice as hard as the look he favored the B’Kaar leader with. “Major Stephens, Frontier Forces, Allied Marine Corps.”
“Human?” Risyn looked surprised. “I have never seen a male of your kind before. I thought you to be one of the smaller Lathar adaptations.”
“I will take that as a compliment.” Jay inclined his head, sending relief rolling through Keris. She’d been worried he’d do something Risyn would view as a challenge. Suited as the B’Kaar was, Jay didn’t stand a chance against him.
“As you wish.” Risyn turned his attention to her. “Is there any reason your heart rate is so elevated, my lovely?”
She couldn’t speak. Her mouth opened but no sound emerged. Risyn frowned, tilting his head curiously.
“She’s scared,” Jay growled, pulling her half behind him. “Her heart is pounding because you’re fucking scaring her, asshole. We rescued her from some sicko Lathar who wanted to use her for breeding.”
Risyn’s expression tightened and he looked contrite as he backed off a step, sweeping a low bow before Keris.
“My lady, I do apologize. No B’Kaar would bring you to harm. On that, you have my word.”
She managed a small nod, still unable to frame a word. Risyn looked at Jay.
“May I assume from your protectiveness that the lovely lady is under your protection?”
“Fuck yeah…” Jay growled and then nodded. “Yes, she is. Kelly is my wife… my mate in Lathar-speak. We’re married.”
His voice rang with a possessiveness that made her stomach feel all soft and fuzzy. She nodded when Risyn looked at her, putting her hand on Jay’s side. “He rescued me from the… the… that awful ship. We fell in love, got married.”
That was the story to protect her and she stuck to it. If the B’Kaar thought she was already claimed, they would pay less attention to her.
“Then you have my congratulations,” he intoned and then frowned as he nodded toward Jay’s wrists. “You do not have mating marks.”
His tone was vaguely accusatory and she bit back her whimper. How had they not thought about mating marks?
“Human’s don’t get ’em,” Gracie broke in. “We never have.”
Risyn’s head whipped around and he speared the taller woman with his pale gaze. She barely batted so much as an eyelash.
“And you are, my lady?”
“Gracie Shardlow, Terran Colony Commission. I was one of the women rescued by Xaandrynn M’rln from a Krin attack on one of our outer planets.”
Risyn’s eyebrows both winged up. “You were fortunate indeed to survive such an attack. I am glad. You are far too lovely to become Krin food. May I enquire as to whether you are mated?”
She inclined her head. “Thank you, and you may not.”
The look of surprise that flowed over Risyn’s face was so comical that in any other circumstances, Keris would have laughed. She didn’t think anyone had ever told the B’Kaar leader no before. Certainly not in such absolute terms.
“Errr… I see. Your servant, my lady.”
The B’Kaar recovered quickly, turning his attention to Seren. Before he could ask, the warrior introduced himself.
“Senior warrior Seren K’Vass. Charged by the emperor himself with the protection of these three females.”
She hid her smile. Clever warrior. Seren had both reminded the B’Kaar that human females were under the protection of the emperor and hence could not be coerced, and set himself up as Gracie’s protector, in one sentence.
“Very well.” Risyn stepped back to rejoin his men. “Now we are all acquainted, Commander… please show us to the command sector on base.”
They watched as each of the B’Kaar took a half step backward. Gears and servos moved, air hissing as the clamps released and then the suits opened up to allow each warrior to step free. Risyn’s breastplate touched his hair; the front brushed up and away from his face in a spikey quiff. Like most Lathar, he and the others wore leather combats, but instead of the jackets she was used to seeing, they wore sleeveless shirts, their arms bare. As they stepped from their suits, circuit-like lines glowed on their skin for a second before fading.
“Neat tats,” Jay commented, his big hand still wrapped around hers, but his voice was lost as the suits all closed again and reactivated, following their operators.
It was all both familiar and terrifying. The mechanica
l sounds were those of her “childhood” such as it was. They were soothing in their familiarity. If she concentrated, she could name each type of servo and compression latch by the sound it made when released, the knowledge spilling forth from the depths of an organic brain that had somehow absorbed the databases of her AI self. She couldn’t access it in quite the same way as she had her old databases. The query function was broken and only responded in context, when prompted by emotion or, for some strange reason, certain scents.
And at the same time, the familiar sounds were terrifying for her because she knew exactly what was making them—a B’Kaar’s kasivar. Cyber and armored warriors, they were known to hate AIs with a passion, campaigning for her kind to be outlawed. If any of them even suspected what she was—that she wasn’t Jay’s human wife—they would have her in the dissection cradle quicker than she could blink. There would be nothing her handsome marine could do about it.
“If you would like to show us the way, Commander,” Risyn indicated the door behind them with a nod of his head. His tone was pleasant, but there was no mistaking it for anything other than what it was. An order.
“Of course.”
Nyek took the lead with the B’Kaar leader and they trailed after him, the rest of the B’Kaar surrounding them. There was no escape. Somehow Keris made her legs move, even if they did feel weaker than when she’d just awoken.
Nyek briefed Risyn on the situation and the base’s condition as they walked, nothing in his words or manner to indicate he was worried in any way, shape, or form. Not for the first time she wondered if the ex-paladin felt fear like the rest of them. Sometimes he seemed more like an AI than she was.
As he spoke, she noted the changes to the narrative they’d all agreed to: that she’d been rescued from the S’Vaan ship with Indra and Gracie, and the fact that he completely omitted to mention Miisan’s presence at all, either on the base or bringing them here. In the new version, a strange spacial anomaly had scooped up the three shuttles and deposited them near here as they fled from the S’Vaan the first time.
