by T. J. Quinn
“Okay, Lieutenant. Will do,” said Dexel.
I was the last person to get to the shuttle for their final trip up from Julconi. Command sent the Kurellis ahead to the rendezvous in case the Sargans sent more battlecruisers after us. Our passengers would be bunking on Dread One in the cargo bay until we could rendezvous with the passenger freighter to exchange our personnel. These rescues would go onto the Kurellis.
As I got on the shuttle, I receded my helmet and heard something hit the deck. I looked down and saw it was the shell that pierced my armor. It was initially about five centimeters long, but it had been compressed as it partially penetrated my armor and my shoulder blade. My suit stopped it from doing significant damage, but it nicked my lung. Had the armor not stopped it, it was on a trajectory toward my heart.
Dexel told me later that Commander Maktu had a similar experience on Breskaa, only it had been close to his kidney and renal artery.
I was still in pain when we reached the Dreadnaught, but it was much more tolerable by then. The nanites were progressing with the tissue repairs, and the suit had injected me with painkillers and stimulants. My condition had improved enough, so I didn’t have to report to sickbay. Even the damage to my suit was repaired.
There was no predicting the ambush at the plateau. We absolutely did not expect them to have armor piercers. None of the Farseek Brigade had ever been on a mission like the one to Julconi. I figured I was lucky to get out no worse.
It was a learning experience for all of us. I suspected that we would only be able to make a few more rescues before we had filled our ships to capacity. I estimated we had no more than about six months before we would have to head to Farseek with the people we had rescued.
More prominent on my mind then was getting to the rendezvous and back with my Nora. Would I do it again? Hell yes!
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
NORA
I have mixed feelings about not knowing Sahvin had been hurt until after I returned to Dread One. It could have been so much worse had he not been wearing the combat armor. Even if I had known, there was nothing I could have done. His suit took care of him.
When we made the rendezvous point, we still had to wait hours until Dread One made it because we left the Julconi system before them. We were still pretty busy, or I would have been too antsy to sit still. Sahvin and I had not been apart more than a few hours, and I ached for him to my core…And I missed him.
While we waited, the fabulous four as we---Harper, Scarlet, Zoe and I --- called ourselves when we were silly, met with groups of the refugees in the largest conference room. We answered their questions and help them locate their relatives among the earlier rescues and the crews of the ten dreadnaughts. That information was readily referenced through our AI tablets connected to the AI’s of the dreads and the Kurellis.
The raid on the slave compound had frightened some of them because they didn’t know what was happening. They thought the compound was being attacked as their homes had been attacked on Farseek. Commander Maktu had people go into each barracks as they got control to let them know it was a rescue, not an attack.
We had to inform them about the Consortium’s financing the rebuilding of homes for them and reestablishing some of the infrastructure that was destroyed---primarily communications. The most prominent question was how would they live after they got into their homes. Many would go back to farming and others would raise vegetables and livestock to feed their families. The new homes being build were self-powered and not dependent on a central power grid.
Meanwhile, the mercenaries had collected anything they thought their people might need to make a new start on their homeworld. By the time they got back to their world, it would be spring, time for planting. It would keep them busy as they got settled in. They would still need time to readjust. Time to remember what life had been before the Sargus Empire had destroyed their world.
Sahvin and I would settle there one day where we hoped to make a family together.
Hours later we were finally on the shuttle back to Dread One. My whole body was on alert, hoping Sahvin wanted me as much I wanted him. I wouldn’t have known it for the chaste kiss he gave me when I got off the shuttle. But all our men were there, and Zoe brought hers with her. The landing bay was filled with people, and none of the others greeted their mates any differently.
But we didn’t linger there. Sahvin took my hand and quickly led me from the landing bay with my bag. Things changed the instant our cabin door closed behind us. He pulled me into his arms and kissed me ardently.
Pressing me against the closed door, he only stopped kissing me long enough to pull my tunic shirt off over my head and then his own. In less than a minute, we were both naked.
Sahvin gripped my wrists and held them against the door over my head, lifting me up so my breasts were even with his pecks and he pressed them against mine. He claimed my mouth in a dominating passionate kiss. I lifted up my legs and wrapped them around his hips. A moment later his hard cock was at my entrance, and he was claiming me with both his cock and his tongue.
I could only moan in deep satisfaction as I gave myself into the exquisite pleasure I knew he would give me. For a moment he broke our long passionate kiss and just held me there, looking into my eyes with a fierce, feline passion that took my breath away. My inner walls clenched around his cock. “Sahvin! I am yours, and you are mine. Fuck me hard; I missed you so much!” I whispered.
A faint smile curved his full mouth, “I am yours, and you are mine. I missed you too, my Nora.”
Then his mouth was on mine and his tongue staking claim to the inside of mine as it tangled sensually with mine. Our passion was raw and fevered as though we had been parted for weeks instead of days. Still holding my wrists against the wall, he pressed hard against me, squeezing my breasts with their taut, pebbled nipples against his hard muscles. He took a few slow thrusts in and out driving his cock into me hard with each inward thrust. I whimpered and moaned in delight each time he did. It didn’t take much of that to make me come the first time.
When that happened, Sahvin released my wrists and cupped my buttocks cushion my back as he drove his cock as deep as possible while I contracted rhythmically around it. I clung to his shoulders, moaning against his mouth with shudder after shudder, savoring his possession. Mine! My meomee!
He waited until I quieted and carried me into our bedroom and rolled us into our bed together, so I ended up on the bottom with his body pressing me into the mattress so pleasurably. I sighed contentedly, knowing we were only getting started.
Sahvin smiled down at me and caressed my face with his fingers. “Ah, my sweet Nora. It’s so good to be joined with you again.
“Oh yes, it is!” I smiled up at him basking in our oneness. “I’m ready, you can fuck me some more now.”
We both laughed as we both knew he had every intention of doing so. The separations would always be hard, but the reunions would be pure bliss.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SAHVIN
Nora and I savored our reunion into the night, such an enchanting way to delay telling her of my injury on the job. I didn’t want to tell her at all because I knew it would only upset her. I hoped she would take it better after I made love to her at length. But the only reason I ever needed to make love to her was meomee. She is mine.
“How did it go, down there, Sahv?” she asked much later in the wee hours. “I heard there was a skirmish.”
“There was, and I took a hit with an armor piercer… In my left shoulder blade and I fell down the embankment. My suit and the nanites healed me by the next day.” I admitted.
“Oh, God!” she gasped. “You could have been killed.”
“Not that easily,” I assured her. “That’s why we wear the suits. We surely didn’t expect inmates to have armor piercing weapons. Even those can’t entirely pierce our armor. It hurt a lot when it happened, but I’m okay now.”
She grinned at me, and I was relieved. “Oh, you are mor
e than okay, meomee. You are fantastic.” She wrapped her arms around me and pressed her body against mine, kissing my neck and nibbling my earlobe.
Needless to say, we didn’t get out of bed until late morning as it was our day off.
Command decided to send the Kurellis on to Farseek with a two-dread escort once they got the final tally of 9757 people aboard plus the crew. Our next target for rescue had over 2000 people. They didn’t want to wait for the Kurellis to make the round trip of six months to get those people out of bondage.
The only thing for us to do was find another ship to steal. Actually, we were going to steal another ship to transport our teams in to take possession of the transport. After the theft of the Kurellis, the com operators intercepted chatter over Empire frequencies that they had identified the mercenary ships in connection with the theft. They were sending notices out that we were all wanted for piracy, which was no great surprise.
The Sargan military caught us in the act. But the small force they sent to Tegliar Station was no match for us. We kicked them where it counted and took off with the goods.
After we got away from Julconi two dreads struck out to locate the ships we would need to complete the next part of our mission. Dread Five found a small freighter docked into Falcola Station to be serviced and leave off supplies for the station. Dread Five dropped into the system just long enough to launch one of their shuttles carrying the team assigned to liberate the freighter while it’s crew was recreating on the station.
Dread Five went on past the station to hang out on the back side of a small planet on the edge of the system to pick up their shuttle and escort the liberated ship to the next rendezvous point. Meanwhile Dread Eight headed to the Nadoo system where 2000 Uatu had been sent to work the massive farm complexes there.
Instead of using machines to do the back-breaking work of crop farming and tissue farms, they used slave labor to plant and harvest crops and raise livestock for food. The machinery they did use was reminiscent of that used on Earth. All of it required humanoid operators. But there weren’t even enough of those machines to go around. Much of the planting and reaping was done with hoes and sickles by hand.
I couldn’t figure the sense of it. Why would a society support their economy with slave labor? It couldn’t be cost effective. On the other hand, it was easier to keep the people subjugated under their totalitarian regime. They didn’t have resources or time to organize a rebellion. There was too much to do just to survive.
It wouldn’t get any easier when we took back their Farseekan slaves. Then the Sargans would have to plant and reap their own crops. Commander Maktu and Admiral Degatu polled the crews of all the dreads to see if they wanted to accept defectors from the worlds where we rescued the slaves. The majority agreed since Nadoo was not a member of the Sargus Empire by choice.
Admiral Degatu introduced Argen Trametu at the post-mission debriefing---Lieutenant Commander Trametu a Dreadnaught pilot who was certified on several classes of starships and shuttles. He had been at Farseek on leave when the Sargans attacked. He was strolling through the farmers market with his mother. They were knocked unconscious by a blast and scooped up in the aftermath.
Trametu had no idea what happened to his mother. None of the Sargans could or would tell him what happened to her. He had ended up a prisoner on Julconi for “crimes against the Empire.” He was trying to start a revolt. One of the advanced team had recognized him as a Uatu and invited him to rejoin the Brigade.
He said that was a fortuitous day for him because he not only got the opportunity to escape the hell hole of the prison but also found his solmatu, Zoe Addison.
I found him reasonably likable, a good thing since it seemed Nora’s good friend was considering accepting him as her mate. Nora said she was pretty sure Zoe would, because of the way she looked when she talked about him. But that is Zoe’s and Trametu’s story to tell. As Zoe’s mate, he would be included in our social circle.
There would be time for them to become thoroughly acquainted as we were embarking on a two-month voyage to Nadoo. That meant short work days of physical training and weapons maintenance. It also meant more time to bond with my sweet Nora.
Dread Five entered the Falcola system just in time to discover a massive slaver ship take off from the space station, heading for Nadoo. When command got that notification, they ordered Dread Five to follow them instead of liberating a smaller ship to steal a bigger ship. Although the ship was reasonably heavily armed, Command thought three dreads could subdue it and send in combat teams to overcome the slavers so one of the mercenaries’ starship pilot teams could take control.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
NORA
It seemed like so much more than a year since I was taken from Earth. A year was our best estimate because we lost track of time on the slave ship with no way to tell whether it was night or day. We existed in that purgatory for at least a few months before we got to the slave auction. We had pretty much given up hope of ever getting back to Earth even before Commander Maktu announced that they had no point of reference to locate Earth.
We had hoped Sahvin could help them with that, but his points of reference to the location of Earth and Narova meant nothing to the mercenaries. I think it was after Tegliar Station that I stopped thinking about finding a way to go back to Earth. Too much had happened to go back to that mundane existence. We were Farseek Mercenaries.
Granted, we didn’t put on combat suits of armor and fight the enemy, but we provided support for their rescue operations. There was a whole lot more to it than just picking up passengers. So many of them were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from the attack on Farseek and being kidnapped into slavery.
Our biochip synthesizer worked overtime making genetically compatible psychotherapy chips for hundreds. The chips would balance their brain chemistry reconcile their emotions about what happened to them. It worked in much the same way as the language biochips. It was basically gene therapy but amped with AI like the nanites.
I learned all of this working with the ship’s AI medic. It was a teaching entity as well as a medical android. In another year I would be certified as a Medical Tech. Medicine in the stars was way different than on Earth. It mainly consisted of using nanites and bioimplants rather than drugs and surgery. Thus, the need for technicians rather than physicians.
It didn’t take that long to learn the technics for inserting and removing the biochips. Learning the physiology and biochemistry was a bit more complicated.
I was not happy to learn that Sahvin was a member of one of the boarding teams.
“Don’t worry, my sweet one. They are not likely to use armor piercing rounds on a ship like that. Far too dangerous,” he told me, resting his hands on my shoulders."
I looked up into his beautiful feline eyes and sighed. I knew how compelled he felt to fulfill his duties in his position with the mercenaries. The situation they had saved him from was even worse than mine. The Farseek Brigade rescued us from the Pican slavers before we had been sold into slavery.
Sahvin had suffered a great deal during the months he was enslaved. He was convinced the Farseek Mercenaries had saved his life. I had to admit he was probably right.
“I’m sorry, Sahv. I'm selfishly worrying about myself and how I would feel if the worst happened…How I would go on with my life without you,” I told him and leaned against him, pressing my cheek against his chest. “You have to do what you think is right. These guys saved me too. I could have ended up as a sex slave in some brothel.”
“Instead, you ended up with me,” he chuckled, and I looked up at him and smiled.
“So far, it’s been a pretty good deal,” I assured him.
“For me, too. Nora, I can’t promise nothing bad will ever happen to me, only that I will do my best to stay safe and come back to you every time,” he told me. “I am just like you, stuck out here in space so far from home that no one knows how to get us back there. But you are my tether, my lifeline
because now my home is in you. I don’t feel lost anymore like I did when I was taken and made a slave.”
“Oh, Sahvin, me too,” I replied. “I can’t promise not to worry, but I don’t have to make it your problem.” He was holding me in his arms, and I wound mine around his neck, looking up at him. I caught my breath at the flicker of passion in his eyes.”
The evening was ours with no social gatherings scheduled. That spark in Sahvin’s beautiful green eyes told me pretty precisely what was on his mind. My body responded almost instantly. I would be his to tease and please and I would return the favor.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
SAHVIN
I couldn’t blame Nora for worrying. What we were doing was a dangerous business. If we were caught by the Sargans, we might be lucky to be sold into slavery. We could be executed. From what I had heard as a slave and since I have been with the mercenaries, the Consortium sold them out in exchange for peace. Except, no one told the Farseekans. They had no choice but to fight.
The Consortium was going to help them rebuild, but that was all. Nora told me how they financed the Breskaa mission---by rescuing the daughter of a planetary governor and collecting a reward. At one point, I asked Commander Maktu what we would do if the Sargans came after us in force.
He was dead serious when he answered, “Run like hell!”
They knew they were never going to find everyone who was lost. We would find the ones we could and go back to Farseek and make a life for ourselves.
But those thoughts only stayed in my mind for seconds. Holding Nora turned my thoughts to her luscious body and how I wanted to caress every inch of it with my fingertips. She certainly looked like she was up for anything. I called it a massage, but it was a sensual touching that intensified her arousal and mine as well.
