Chapter 24
Ada’s senses woke with a start. She’d gone from asleep to fully awake in a matter of seconds. She lay perfectly still, trying to determine what had woken her. Then she heard it — voices. Several voices, two females and a male’s snarls. All of the voices were familiar to her. Ada pushed back the covers and padded in her sock-covered feet toward the bedroom door. She pressed in the number sequence to unlock the doors, and they immediately swooshed open.
She could see the front door of the quarters she’d been assigned from where she stood just slightly out of the bedroom, and anyone at the front door could see her. A large, blue male stood with his back to her, speaking quietly with two females.
“There she is! Hi, Ada! We came to check on you. You’re the only one we’ve not seen since we got here. Are you well? Can we do anything for you?” Synclare greeted cheerily.
“Are you okay? Do you want me to make this male leave?” Rosie asked, giving Kol a dose of her attitude and a bit of side-eye.
Ada offered a weak smile. “I’m okay. I’ve just been trying to get my bearings.”
Rosie glanced at Kol again, jabbing her thumb in his direction and raising her eyebrows. “Is he your guard or your jailer?”
“I am not her jailer! I am her male! She is perfectly safe here with me. It is you who is not welcome here implying that she is being held against her will!” Kol snapped out, his voice getting slightly louder.
“He’s a friend. It’s okay,” Ada said.
“Well, if he’s a friend, he won’t mind you joining us for breakfast in the commissary, will he?” Rosie said, while watching Kol.
A muscle under Kol’s eye twitched. The last damn thing he needed was his Ehlealah wandering around a ship filled with unmated males of all species.
“You’re alright with that, aren’t you, big guy?” Rosie asked. She didn’t really mean to be so surly, but since Rokai had snuck off without even saying goodbye, she’d been getting progressively more short-tempered.
“We have food here,” Kol answered.
“It really does help to get out of your own head, Ada Jane. Why don’t you come with us and share a meal. The other girls went ahead to save us a table. It will return a small sense of normalcy to your life… small step forward, ya know?” Synclare pushed gently.
Ada Jane looked from the women who’d shared her hell, to the male who professed to protect her and provide for her above all else. It was clear he didn’t want her to go. The one promise she’d made herself in the days since she’d been freed was that she would make her own decisions from now on. No one would ever force her to do anything that wasn’t in her own plans. “I think I will join you.”
“We have food here — it is not necessary to leave here to eat,” Kol said nervously.
Ada Jane looked at Kol. He was not angry, but he was most certainly insistent. “Vivian said that I am perfectly safe on this ship, no one would dare to harm me. She said all the males are respectful and kind.”
“That is true,” he said.
“Then why shouldn’t I go?” Ada pressed.
“I… It is just…” Kol floundered for a reason to give her that was not ‘because we are not mated yet and I don’t want you around other males’.
“All I want is to go home, Kol. Vivian says it will be a little while before that can be addressed. These women are from my world. It’s as close as I can get for now. I’m going to spend some time with them,” Ada Jane explained.
Kol was completely defeated. He knew he had no right to deny her a chance to visit with the other women. He bowed his head slightly to her. “As you wish,” he said softly, though the tension in his face belied his acquiescence.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Zha Quin was standing front and center, his hands clasped behind his back, a sick feeling in his stomach as he waited for the vid com to come on line and be broadcast before him. “Standby, Sire. It will be only moments…” Vennie said from behind him.
Zha Quin didn’t move, though the look on his face hardened, his eyes narrowed slightly. Then the view into the Consortium’s boardroom came to life before him. Realizing this was an official vid com rather than Bart just checking in, Zha Quin squared his shoulders and raised his chin ever so slightly.
“Commander Tel Mo’ Kok… thank you for accepting our meeting on such short notice,” Bart began. The tone of Bart’s words let Zha Quin know that this was a hastily thrown together meeting and not a well planned, thought-out one.
Zha Quin didn’t answer, just gave a slight nod with his chin in the direction of the man who was both the ruling authority of the Unified Consortium Defense overseeing the safety of all universes and planets, and his favored inlaw related to his treasured Ehlealah by blood.
“As you know, we have been concerned about Rokai ahl and his escalating behavior.”
Still Zha Quin didn’t answer, preferring to glare at them instead and let them lay out their entire reason for calling before he responded.
Bart waited for Quin to respond, but when the silence became awkward, he continued on. “We have received numerous complaints about his crimes, Commander. The list goes from annoying hijinx, to theft, and eventually ending in the slave trade.”
“He does not deal in the slave trade,” Zha Quin said, in his best growly, no-nonsense, steely voice.
“Commander, we have records…” Bart started.
“They are incomplete,” Zha Quin snapped.
“Commander, they are not…” Bart tried to continue.
“They are incomplete! Has anyone bothered to interview the people he supposedly trafficked? Or have you limited your investigations only to those claiming he’s harmed them and taken people from their homes?”
“Those filing the complaints are held in the highest esteem. Their claims have been justified. The people once working in their homes and on their properties are no longer there. They just disappeared overnight, along with Rokai ahl. Only to suffer who knows what fate.”
“The fate they suffered was to be returned to their homelands. To their own people.”
“Are you telling me it is your belief that Rokai ahl simply took these people home?” Bart asked, surprise painted clearly on his face.
“If that is where they wished to be, then yes, he took them home. If they wished be elsewhere, that is where he took them,” Quin stated matter-of-factly.
There was murmuring in the conference room behind Bart while he thought over Zha Quin’s words. They made no sense. Finally Bart shook his head as he met Zha Quin’s eyes. “Why would he bother to do such a thing, Commander?”
Zha Quin took a deep breath. He was about to lay his reputation on the line for Rokai ahl. If his brother let him down this time, he’d kill him with his own hands. “The people Rokai ahl absconded with were not employees or peoples under the protection of those that filed complaints with you. Those people, or most of them, were slaves. With little to no hope of ever seeing freedom again. Rokai ahl cannot tolerate the mistreatment of others. He simply took it upon himself to give them the chance they needed.”
“You cannot seriously believe that Rokai ahl is in the business of freeing those forced into slavery situations,” Bart said skeptically.
“I do,” Zha Quin stated emphatically.
“And the theft? The mercenary claims?” Bart pressed.
“Those I cannot address, and I’m in no position to doubt. But the claims of slave trafficking — there is no chance at all that Rokai ahl is dealing in slave trafficking.”
“You’re willing to stand behind that belief?” Bart asked, his eyes begging Zha Quin to say otherwise.
Zha Quin knew Bart was trying to lead him, trying to get him to back off his decision to defend Rokai ahl. But he just couldn’t find it in his heart to believe that Rokai was selling people into slavery. Too many times he’d heard Rokai’s name mentioned in reverence by stolen people that had been returned to their families. He just couldn’t make himself believe otherwise.
<
br /> Zha Quin steeled his shoulders, lifted his chin even higher. “I am.”
Bart’s face seemed to reflect sorrow for a split second before he stepped back so that Zha Quin could clearly see a smaller vid screen across the room behind Bart. “This is the scene that our forces were called to this morning, Commander. The bodies of six men, all in some form or another of mutilation, strewn about the room. Each of them missing their hearts and their heads. It is a scene unlike any I’ve ever seen or imagined. Most of the inhabitants of the small outpost are mercenaries. Most refused to speak to us at all, claiming no knowledge of any goings on. Under threat of suspicion, two finally gave us a name. Rokai ahl. There are three women and a young boy unaccounted for.”
Zha Quin’s eyes were glued to the small vid com in the conference room Bart stood in. It was a gory scene to be sure. Blood was everywhere. The floor the Consortium’s forces moved about on squelched blood with each boot step. One body was lying face up with what appeared to be an iron bar sticking out of his mutilated chest, the blood from his now empty chest covering his body. Zha Quin took in all the details of the room. The unusually shaped benches, the chains and leather straps hanging from what appeared to be wooden stocks meant to support the hands and feet. The whips, and was that branding irons left beside a still burning fire? This was not a standard room.
“That is a torture room, a forced sex room! That is not just any room. Look around you, Bart! Whips? Branding irons? Do you truly believe anyone participated in being branded willingly?”
Bart’s face took on a look devoid of emotion. He turned and looked at the scene still being investigated on the vid com in his own conference room. “That is assumption, Zha Quin. Until we finish our investigation, we can only guess at what happened. The only witness account we have is that Rokai ahl arrived, pretended to befriend those here, then left suddenly. He is responsible for this carnage, this blood lust.”
“If he is, he has a reason,” Zha Quin said stonily.
Bart inhaled deeply, the strain of this day’s happenings lying heavily upon him. “Zha Quin, there are records of a Cruestaci battle cruiser both arriving here and departing within the last forty-eight hours. Your people are directly involved. You will be called to explain your complicity and why you allowed Rokai ahl use of your transports to slaughter these people.”
Zha Quin stepped closer to the podium the vid com image was projected onto. He cocked his head to the side, a sneer clear on his face as he glared into the vid com. “Are you trying to say something to me, Bart? Are you accusing me of something?” he dared.
Bart shook his head ever so slightly. “Not yet. But, please, my friend, gather your forces, your governing members. There will be much to answer for.”
Zha Quin thought about everything he’d been presented with this morning. He had no idea what the hell Rokai was up to, but he did know Rokai wasn’t a cold-blooded murderer. If he did this, and Zha Quin was pretty sure he probably did, he had a reason. He straightened his head, threw his shoulders back, raised his chin and looked down his nose at Bart. “If my brother did this, he has a reason.”
The murmurings behind Bart turned into surprised gasps and clearly heard discussions of the fact that Zha Quin had just claimed Rokai ahl as family.
Bart just looked at Zha Quin and shook his head. “Prepare, Zha Quin. An inquiry will be coming. An aggressive one.”
The vid com went black as Bart nodded at someone off camera, the signal to cut the feed.
“Communications Master Vennie!” Zha Quin snapped, as he moved from the Command Deck toward the exit.
“Yes, Sire!” Vennie answered.
“Send that vid com to our Sovereign and our Sovereigna at once,” Zha Quin instructed. He was headed for the training room. The last person to talk to Rokai before he left should be there with his Elite Unit. He needed more answers than he’d originally been given, and this time, Kron better damn well give him the answers he asked for.
“Yes, Sire.”
As Quin stepped through the doorway, his voice could be heard bellowing back to Vennie. “When they com me back, put it through wherever I am!”
“Yes, Sire!” Vennie shouted.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Rokai used the rear facing cameras on the control panel to check on his passengers. They seemed stable enough, if a bit nervous. Two sat in the chairs just behind himself and Gaishon. The other two shared a small bench seat in the tight space between the tiny storage area behind the cockpit and the engine room. Rokai shared a look with Gaishon.
Gaishon glanced back at them, then faced forward again. “All will be fine. You will receive medical attention, and if you wish, your families will be contacted. If you are not from a world nearby, arrangements will be made to transport you home.”
Rokai scowled at Gaishon.
“What?” Gaishon asked.
“You do not know that,” Rokai whispered.
“Of course I do. I’ve been paying attention. I know what the Cruestaci say to the rescued females.”
“You do not,” Rokai answered.
“I do! I’ve not been spending all my free time courting one of them. I’ve been watching, learning more important things.”
“I do not court anyone!” Rokai answered, running through the checklist of DNA tests to give him the ability to start up the engines and get them back to Command Warship 1.
“You may think you don’t. But you do. I have seen it,” Gaishon teased.
“You don’t know what you speak of,” Rokai answered, shutting down the conversation.
Nothing more was said until they’d lifted off the planet and the coordinates had been programmed in to take them straight back to the Cruestaci warship.
“We will remain cloaked until we land. Command Warship 1 will recognize us as belonging there and send no alerts. If anyone is awaiting our return, perhaps we can go undetected long enough to disembark before anyone other than the docking crew is advised of our arrival.”
“Perhaps,” Gaishon answered.
Some time later Rokai’s voice broke the silence. “Do you think they will send all the females to their home worlds. Even those from Earth?”
Gaishon looked over at Rokai, who stared straight ahead, reading the information the cruiser displayed before them on the control panel. “It is their plan, I believe. Unless a female decides she doesn’t wish to be repatriated.”
“And then where would she go?” Rokai asked.
“Wherever she chooses, I suppose,” Gaishon answered, shrugging.
Chapter 25
Rosalita sat with her friends at the table she always chose. It was in the far corner of the room with the entrance and the kitchen both clearly seen and monitored. Only today, she chose to sit with her back to the entrance. It was an exercise in strength for her. She had to prove to herself that she was confident enough to give up a bit of control and still remain completely in charge of her own world.
People were coming and going behind her. She could hear their voices and the movements of their bodies as they walked past, but still she didn’t turn — she refused to. Instead, she concentrated on the conversation between the ladies at the table.
“Are you sure?” Ada Jane asked, a crease appearing between her eyebrows at her confusion.
“Yeah, I’m sure. I got word this morning that their government is sending a transport for us. We’ll stop at their medical facility and get checked out more thoroughly, give our accounts of what happened to us, then they’ll take us home, or wherever else we want to go if we don’t want to be home.”
Ada Jane sat back, her serrated spoon hanging limply in her hand.
“What’s the problem, Ada Jane?” Synclare asked softly.
Ada raised her eyes from her plate to Synclare. “Vivian and Kol keep telling me that it’s not such an easy thing to get home, that it’ll take time. Why wouldn’t they tell me a transport is scheduled to take us all back?”
Betsy’s eyes darted around the table, then
at the tables surrounding them. She lowered her voice. “Because they want to keep you here against your will and make you believe it’s not their choice,” she rushed out on a harsh whisper.
Ada Jane didn’t answer, just picked at her food thoughtfully.
After some silence Synclare spoke again, trying to redirect the conversation to a lighter topic. “Your male is very handsome, Ada Jane. And he seems very devoted to you.”
Ada looked up. “Kol? He’s not really my male,” she answered.
“He thinks he is,” Rosie said. “But, that could be a good thing. He’s a good one. And from the way his pants fit, he could keep you really happy!” Rosie teased, popping a piece of bread into her mouth.
Ada Jane flushed. “I didn’t notice that!” she snapped, her cheeks, throat and chest where it could be seen above her collar turning a deep shade of pink with her blush.
“Oh, come on! All we’ve been through, and you’re going to play the bashful virgin?” Rosie asked.
“I’m not playing. I’ve never, I mean — I haven’t,” Ada Jane clearly struggled for the words. Finally she just glared at Rosalita. “Unless forced, I’ve never done that. So, to me, it’s still embarrassing.”
Rosie stopped teasing immediately. Ada Jane had been a true innocent before being stolen from Earth and deposited into the hell they’d found themselves in. “I’m sorry, Ada Jane. I was only teasing.”
“It’s not funny,” Ada said.
“No, it’s not. I know,” Rosie answered.
“Your male is very handsome, though. And he does believe he’s yours,” Synclare said, complimenting Kol again.
“His name is Kol. He’s very kind,” Ada admitted.
“I think maybe somebody likes him…” Rosie singsonged.
Haven 2: Redemption Page 21
