They finished eating then went down two more levels to the medical bay. It was located in the corridor leading to the landing bay to expedite getting injured warriors there for treatment as quickly as possible.
Reanne was surprised to see that there was a Farseekan female working as a medic. She was expecting an android like the one who had treated Kragyn on Julconi.
“Lieutenant Commander Vermaktu, welcome back,” she said. “And this must be your solmatu.”
“Yes, this is Reanne Winter, from Earth, Reanne, meet Lieutenant Adira Joktu, our Chief Medical Officer.”
“Because I am the only human medic.” Adira offered her a genuine smile and bowed her head briefly. “You may call me Adira. I am pleased to meet you, Reanne. How may I help you today?” The last she addressed to both of them.
“I need medical clearance to return to duty, and Reanne needs a language chip to replace the inferior implant the Picans provided after they abducted her.”
“Do you wish to be seen separately or together?”
Kragyn looked to Reanne. “Together, if you don’t mind,” she replied to his unspoken question.
“Fine with me. Reanne already knows I need gene therapy for the emotional damage I suffered at the hands of the Sargans.”
“All right. Come on in, and we’ll get started.”
She led them into one of three treatment rooms. This one contained a full body scanner and a modern lab. First, she swabbed inside their cheeks to get the cells she needed to synthesize Reanne’s language injection and Kragyn’s gene therapy.
“Do you understand how this language injection works?” Adira asked Reanne.
“Not exactly. I thought it was going to be another chip, but a better one.”
“Oh, it’s better,” she assured Reanne. “The cells I took from your cheek will be imprinted with the knowledge of both our written and spoken language. I will then put them in a syringe and squirt them up your nose, and they will assimilate into your brain in a matter of hours. A rotation span or two later, you will know how to read, write, and speak our language.”
“While I prepare your injections, you can take turns with the body scanner. Kragyn already knows the routine so he can show you.” Taking the samples, she collected, she left the room.
Kragyn went to a circle embedded in the floor. “You just stand here on the circle, and the scan starts automatically.” It was similar to the scan he’d gotten when he was shot. A softly glowing ring of light started above his head and passed down his body within the circle to his feet and then up again. It beeped a second after it disappeared above him, signaling the end of the scan. He stepped off the circle. “That’s it.”
“That’s easy.” Reanne stepped onto the circle, and her scan went just as quickly as Kragyn’s.
Adira came back two labeled needleless syringes. “Who’s first?”
“I’ll do it,” Reanne volunteered.
Adira moved to stand reasonably close to Reanne. The medic selected the syringe and inserted it into her left nostril and pushed the plunger. Reanne choked and coughed a little.
“Will you remove the chip the Pican’s injected behind my ear?”
“The nanites in your serum will take care of that within a few days. It’s painless.”
Next Adira approached Kragyn and repeated the process. “You should notice improvement within a few days.”
“Thank you, Adira.” Kragyn bowed his head slightly in salute.
“Have you heard? Argen Trematu was also evacuated from Julconi.”
“Have you seen him? How is he? We grew up together.” Kragyn looked thrilled with the news.
“He ended up on the Kurellis. Right after that he declared solmatu with one of the Earth women from Dread One and requested a transfer. Faigon’s team found him, and Faigon found his solmatu on Julconi as well. She is a feline humanoid from a world in the same quadrant as Earth. It seems the Picans were raiding their worlds for slaves as well. Eber Lomatu, the navigator, thinks that sector is on the other side of the Sargus Empire.”
“Obviously, the Pican slavers know, but we can’t ask them,” said Kragyn.
“Faigon’s solmatu may be able to help us reach out to that alliance. But they are still bonding.”
“Even so, at least that’s something,” Kragyn said. “When can I return to duty?”
“Give yourself a few rotations and come back for another scan If your levels are back to normal, then I will give you clearance.”
“Then, that’s what I will tell Commander Ganatu.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
After they left the medic, Kragyn paused in the hallway to com Commander Ganatu to meet with him for debriefing. Odis Ganatu was not just Kragyn’s commanding officer, he was also his friend. The Julconi operation was completed. Dreads Four and Seven were headed for a new mission, so Ganatu was available to meet with him and asked that Reanne come as well.
They were admitted immediately on arrival at his office. After formally saluting his commander, Ganatu came around his desk and hugged Kragyn like his long-lost brother. “I hoped you would turn up somewhere.” He gestured for them to sit in the chairs facing his desk while he resumed his seat behind it. Kragyn then introduced Reanne to the commander.
“While we were evacuating people from Julconi, Dread One’s AI team hacked a report from the Sargus AI-net that there are a thousand Uatu people enslaved on Algonteg. Command is sending us along with Dread seven to investigate.”
“Isn’t that near a major Sargan military center?” Kragyn asked.
“Yes, but Command wants recon on the outside chance the report is accurate.”
“Of course. Being a slave in the Sargus Empire unless you meekly obey is worse than life in Julconi Prison.”
“Do you know what world you were taken to as a slave?” Ganatu asked,
“Prantte,” Kragyn replied. “But, I never saw any of our people after I was auctioned to an agricultural compound.”
“They found no more of our people on that desert continent they put you on. The largest group was on the slave island, and Cadzen continent.”
“I killed an overseer before he killed me. That’s why they sent me to Dezron,” Kragyn explained. “They never knew I was a warrior with survival training. Then I found the network of old mining caves and picked the one with the most resources.”
“I wish we could have brought some of those light stones,” Reanne remarked.
“We would have gone back for our packs if I hadn’t been shot,” Kragyn added. “I’m not a scientist, so I really don’t know what they were. They looked like crystals, and they gave off light enough for us to see our way around the cave.”
“Maybe we can research the AI to find out what they are,” Reanne suggested.
“That might work. It has the Consortium knowledge in its memory banks. You will want to learn how to use it, and I can help you with that.”
“It will take over two rotation spans on the indirect route we are taking to get there,” said Ganatu, “which means our teams will be doing scut work. There is no need to return to duty for that. Take some time to get yourself, and your mate reoriented.”
“I figured I could use the time to get my combat armor refitted. I have received gene therapy for the psychological effects of my captivity. I won’t be cleared for duty until my scan shows it worked,” Kragyn said. “Reanne got imprinted genetically with our language. Meanwhile, she has the Pican translator implant that allows her to understand us.”
“Reanne, as solmatu, you are not required to serve in the Farseek Brigade, but you may if you wish once we determine your qualifications. Did you have an occupation on your world?”
“I was a mechanic, but our technology is probably primitive compared to yours. Perhaps once I learn to read and write your language, I can adjust my skills to your technology.”
“That’s essentially what the Earth women on Dread One have done.”
“I hope at some point I will be able to c
ommunicate with them. I understand that no one has yet determined where Earth is located in relation to where we are.”
“Unfortunately, that’s true. But we haven’t given up. One of the Earth women’s solmatu is from the same world as Faigon’s solmatu. They both say that Earth is in their Alliance’s sector. They were both taken from Earth. The irony is they were covert agents sent to Earth to fight slavers.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting her,” Reanne said.
“Everyone will be meeting them in a few days. Tyema’s species has an extended bonding period when they first meet their solmatu.”
“With your permission, I will show Reanne around the ship and introduce her to Blanar in engineering. He would know what kind of work she might be qualified to do,” said Kragyn.
“Granted,” Ganatu said. “And you may also want to get her a com tablet from stores to help her get oriented in our culture and history.”
“We’ll do that.”
“Is there anything else?”
“No, sir.”
“Dismissed then.”
Kragyn stood, and Reanne followed suit. He inclined his head in salute, and Ganatu returned the gesture. Then Kragyn turned to Reanne and signaled her to precede him to the door.
“What would you like to see first?” he asked after the door closed behind them after they emerged into the corridor. “The bridge or engineering.”
“The bridge,” she said eagerly. “I want to see if the sci-fi shows got it right.”
By the time they wound through several corridors, Reanne wasn’t sure she would be able to find her way there again on her own. They finally came to an end in front of a sliding door. That led to the main control center of the ship.
As they stopped in front of the main door, Kragyn stated his rank and name. The door slid open to admit them. They walked into the bridge and looked around in wonder. There were half a dozen workstations across the front of the room with a bank of transparent computer screens spanning the workstations. Behind that was a floor to ceiling holographic star map.
It didn’t look much like Star Wars or Star Trek; it was even more impressive. Most of them greeted Kragyn like a long-lost friend. He had been missing over two years. He introduced Reanne to everyone, explaining that she was from a non-space faring world.
She found the holographic star map utterly fascinating. It gave her a better understanding of why they might not be able to find Earth. After the introductions and well wishes, they paused to look at the star map for a few minutes before they left.
Another winding route brought them to the engine room. Some large bulbous parts were surrounding a cylinder with a maze of pipes and conduits. Kragyn called it a warp fusion engine. It was housed in a vast chamber and so large there were ladders attached to pertinent access points around it.
“That sure looks way more complicated than the car engines I used to service,” Reanne remarked as she looked at it.
Kragyn stood very close at her side, so their arms touched. It gave her a sense of intimacy by just that slight contact.
“It’s nothing you have to decide now. We’re not going to be on a starship forever. One day we will go back to Farseek to make our home and the family we talked about.”
“Yes, I still want that. Now that we are free of the prison planet. It really seems possible. But I also have a lot to learn about your culture,” she said. “I want to continue the training we started on Julconi.”
“We will resume in a couple rotations.”
They continued walking deeper into the engineering department where the operating parameters of the ship were monitored. They found Chief Engineer Blanar Lesmaktu. Kragyn made introductions, then let Reanne explain her former occupation. The engineer was intrigued that Earth was still using such an antiquated method of transportation.
He didn’t immediately know of any work she could perform without further training, but he invited her to come to engineering to observe when Kragyn was on duty. Blanar thought it might help her to decide if she would like to learn starship maintenance.
By the time they finished there, it was time for shift change and the late-day meal. So, they went back to the mess hall where Kragyn introduced her to a whole new group of people, whose names she wouldn’t remember until she got to know them better. But she was openly friendly, and they seemed to like her. Her friends on Earth always said that she was partly responsible for the success of the garage while her father still ran it.
The memory brought her a pang of homesickness that she couldn’t shake off. Fortunately, Kragyn was chatting with old friends, so he didn’t notice immediately. She was glad for him to reconnect with them. It could only help his recovery from his captivity.
Seeing him talking and smiling with his friends brought her back to the present, reminding her that her life was with Kragyn now. She loved him, and he loved her. That was no small treasure.
She didn’t think he noticed when she dropped out of the conversation, but he did.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Okay, Reanne. What’s wrong? Don’t think I didn’t notice that you hardly spoke during the whole meal.” The door of their cabin had just closed behind them.
She wanted to say nothing because the truth sounded selfish and ungrateful, but she knew he wouldn’t buy it. She tried to blink them back, but the tears spilled down her cheeks.
“I-I’m s-sorry. I am glad to be here, I really am. But you are home now with the people who care about you. You’re getting your life back. I’m not, and I probably never will.” She hiccupped. “My home is so far away no one knows how to get there. I’m feeling homesick, wishing I could just even email Mom and Dad.”
“Come here.” Kragyn took her into his arms and cuddled her head against his shoulder. “My sweet solmatu, we haven’t given up, but it might take a while.” He rubbed her back and caressed her hair as she sobbed softly. “I know my friends like you, and I even think they like me better because I love you.”
“So, I am being a jealous little bitch, envying your happiness at being back with your people. I want you to be happy. But I want what I can’t have, too.”
Kragyn knew he couldn’t give her what she wanted, what he was getting back. She was hurting, and he couldn’t fix it for her. So, he tried to hug her, but she pushed away from him and went into the bathroom, closed the door, and locked it behind her. He could hear her sobbing inside, and he felt hurt that she wouldn’t let him even try to comfort her.
It was the first time in their relationship that she had shut him out and refused his attempt to soothe her. Her reaction was so unexpected. Kragyn thought she would be so happy to get off the prison planet that she would easily adjust. His friends would be her friends.
Instead, it was like a twist of the knife that her old life was gone forever, and she would probably never see her family again. If he were honest with himself, he had mixed feelings about rejoining his unit. Their life on Julconi had been bearable because they had each other.
Kragyn didn’t hear any more sobs. He understood how she felt. For over two years, he thought his family and his people were dead. He’d expected to spend the rest of his life on Julconi---alone. Then Reanne stepped off that shuttle bringing joy into his life.
She was in mourning because even if her family were alive and well, she would probably never see them again.
Kragyn sat in one of the two chairs in the main room of their cabin, listening and waiting for her to cry it out. He paused for a while longer after her sobs stopped. He went into the bedroom and knocked softly on the bathroom door.
The moments seemed endless before Reanne finally opened the door. Her eyes were red and a little puffy, but she had apparently washed her face.
“I’m sorry,” she said again looking up into his eyes.
He framed her face between his hands and brushed away her tears with his thumbs. “You don’t have to be sorry. You’re hurting, and you have every right to feel that way. You’ve had your l
ife stolen from you. Watching me get mine back, is a reminder of that… And the reality you might never get yours back. I wish I could fix that for you, but I don’t know how.” He paused and pressed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. “Maybe, Faigon’s mate can help us communicate with her people. They will know how to communicate with your world.”
She looked up into his eyes solemnly. This man loved her, of that she had no doubt. “I hope so,” she said though she clearly didn’t think it would happen. Reanne inhaled and exhaled a long sigh. Then she smiled slowly.
While she might never see home again, she had this hot Farseekan warrior in her arms with a promising hardness pressing against her belly. Despite her lingering melancholy, her body responded to his arousal.
Sex wouldn’t solve anything, but it would feel oh so good to be naked in his arms with his hard cock filling her again and again.
Reanne got used to the prison planet, she had to get used to this new life in front of them. Alienating the one man who loved her could only make things worse. Most of these people were way nicer than some of those on Julconi. Things could always be worse, and they had been.
Reanne’s language implant matured and the Consortium common language took hold in her brain, she figured out many mundane things that she had taken for granted. Her old translator filled in ‘weeks’ for ‘rotation spans,’ ‘days’ for rotations, and ‘years’ for ‘orbital’ spans. It turned out that rotation spans were closer to ten days and orbital spans were forty rotation spans or four-hundred rotation spans.
She was still trying to figure the conversion from minutes to centi-spans. Finally, she decided it didn’t matter. The two spans it took them to arrive at the Algonteg system seemed like a month to her.
As her depression lingered, Kragyn urged her to go to the medic for nano-gene therapy to help her through the grieving process. It was painless, and he pointed out that it was easing his PTSD. So, she went with him to the medic when he went for his recheck.
Kragyn (Farseek Warrior Series Book 1) Page 13
