The Forgotten Eight

by Kaitlyn O'Connor

"I'd like to punch you in the nose!" Danielle growled. "But I'm not stupid! You're twice my size-at least!"

  Something flickered in his eyes. "I would never touch you in anger."

  Danielle felt her throat close. "Why are you leaving me here?"

  He frowned. "Because it is my honor and my duty as your mate to protect you."

  Danielle thought for several moments that she would burst into noisy sobs. "What if you don't come back?" It came out as a childish whine rather than the demand she'd intended.

  "Then you will go back to your people."

  Danielle did burst into tears then. She couldn't help it. As far as she knew, there was no real threat to them. It didn't seem to her that there could be a living thing still on the planet, but that was beside the point. She hated the thought of being left alone and she hated it worse that he'd suggested that it wouldn't matter to her if he didn't come back.

  Impulsively, she launched herself against his chest and threw her arms tightly around his waist. He felt so reassuringly massive, strong, solid! It was ridiculous to think anything could happen to him, right?

  He looped his arms around her as she had him after a moment-except he wasn't holding her as if he was afraid she would vanish.

  She hated being alone! Hated it, she thought angrily. She hadn't realized it because she'd refused to acknowledge it before, right after she'd lost everyone knew. She hadn't even acknowledged, before, how much she'd come to depend on having Kiel and Baen and Jalen around, how hungry she'd been just to be around another living soul. It wasn't something she'd wanted to think about when there was no way to change it.

  But it had changed! She'd crashed on Marchet and she hadn't been able to close herself off from them to keep from growing accustomed.

  She struggled to regain her composure as it occurred to her that crying like a baby wasn't likely to convince him that she would be an asset to their exploration party. She sniffed. "I'd be a lot safer if I was with you guys … and I won't get in the way! I swear!"

  Kiel seemed to wrestle with something. "Jalen will stay with you. Baen and I will scout. If I see nothing to give me cause for concern we will return and the four of us will see what we can discover."

  Danielle relaxed her tight hold on him and looked up at his face, more surprised that he'd yielded than anything else. "Really?"

  "Yes. If there is trouble, none of us will linger."

  She frowned, thinking that over. "I don't need for Jalen to stay. I'll be safe here and you'll be safer with three than two-the more the better."

  He looked puzzled and mildly irritated. Shaking his head, he disentangled himself from her and grabbed his suit, skimming into it and smoothing the closure together. Mopping her damp face, Danielle debated whether to leave as she'd intended or stay to watch. It was a short debate. She discovered she was too intrigued by the transformation to leave, fascinated in a way that made her belly shimmy with interest. "You look so handsome in that," she gasped a little breathlessly when he'd pulled the matching boots on and straightened, surprised, pleased, and uneasy at the same time for some unaccountable reason.

  He flushed, flicking a puzzled look at her as he picked up the gauntlets, studied them for a moment, and then pulled them on. He looked down at himself when he'd finished and then glanced at her again, his expression quizzical. "I look better covered up?"

  Danielle bit her lip, trying to keep from smiling. "You look gorgeous in nothing but your skin," she said a little shyly, feeling her own cheeks heat. "I'm just saying you make that flight suit look yummy."

  A frown of puzzlement appeared between his dark brows. "Yummy? I do not know this word."

  Danielle chuckled. "Good enough to nibble all over."

  His face darkened, but he grinned at her a little uncomfortably. The smile made her belly shimmy again and this time she had no trouble figuring out exactly what the effect on her was-desire and possessiveness. It disconcerted her, troubled her deeply.

  Unnerved, she turned and beat a retreat. She met up with Baen and Jalen in the corridor and halted to study them with a similar mixture of pleasure and jealousy. It would never have occurred to her that they could be so transformed by anything as simple and utilitarian as a flight suit into such stunningly appealing males. It wasn't that she hadn't thought so before, but the loincloths they usually wore gave them an entirely different appeal-an earthy, savage look that had been more unnerving than anything else when she'd first encountered them.

  The familiar suits made them seem far less alien to her, but there would've been no danger of overlooking any of the three as simply another three pilots of the Federation even if not for their long, dark hair. They looked unaccountably taller and more massive and at the same time more approachable.

  The women of the Federation were going to go catatonic with admiration when they got a look at them, she thought with a mixture of amusement and dismay. "I don't think you guys will have any problems finding mates among the Federation women looking like that," she muttered with a mixture of appreciation and irritation. "You might have to fight them off."

  Baen and Jalen both looked surprised, undecided of whether to be pleased or not, and confused. They both looked at Kiel questioningly.

  Kiel, Danielle discovered, didn't look particularly pleased by the compliment. "Jalen, you will stay here to guard Danielle while Baen and I do a preliminary survey for any signs of threat."

  Jalen looked a little startled, but he merely stiffened and nodded. Danielle wasn't certain if it was their rendition of a military salute or not, but Kiel nodded at him in the same manner and he and Baen moved past them toward the airlock. Pausing to take weapons from a rack beside it, they stepped inside the small airlock and the door closed behind them.

  Danielle felt her nerves tauten as she heard the gangplank being lowered. She glanced at Jalen and found him studying her. "You aren't pissed off that they left you to babysit?" she asked dryly.

  Confusion flickered in his eyes. "Babysit?"

  Danielle uttered a snort that lacked amusement. "Baby-infant-small off-spring?"

  He looked more confused instead of less. "You are not a child," he said slowly as if he was in some doubt.

  "No, I'm not," Danielle said forthrightly. "I'm not only a grown woman, I'm a trained soldier, and it's insulting to be left under guard as if I can't take care of myself!"

  Pushing past him, she stalked to the bridge and opened the viewers all the way around. It was even more enjoying that Jalen was virtually on her heels.

  "I am honored to be designated to guard you," he said tentatively. "It is a sign of Kiel's confidence in my abilities."

  "And lack thereof in mine!" Danielle said, sniffing.

  "It is not a lack of confidence," Jalen disagreed. "It is a measure of your value to us."

  Danielle frowned, turning that over and trying to decide whether she found that as insulting as the vote of 'no confidence' in her ability to defend herself. She supposed, after a moment's thought, that he was right. She certainly wouldn't be of any use to them dead. In any case, it didn't seem right to take it out on Jalen when it had been Kiel who'd ordered him to stay with her.

  She shook her head. "Don't mind me. I'm just feeling crabby about being left out. I'm used to being considered an equal and fighting beside the men-not cowering behind them."

  "You are not as valuable to them?"

  Danielle gaped at him in outrage. "I most certainly am! I wouldn't be a pilot if they didn't think I could do the job as well as anybody else!"

  He looked taken aback. "But … you are a tiny creature."

  Danielle glared at him. "Size has nothing to do with it! Actually, my reflexes are faster than a lot of the 'big men' and its reaction time that counts in the war we're fighting! There are plenty of women out fighting. It's our fight, too, our homes that are at stake!"

  He studied her uneasily. "I meant no insult. This is not your war, however, not your battle. This is our home world and your enemy is not here." He shrugged.
"It does not appear that even our people are here any longer. You are vastly appealing to me even if you are so tiny that I also find it … unnerving at times and amazing that you are as strong as you are and willing to fight against a much greater force. That is admirable even while it is also foolhardy."

  As appeasing as part of the speech was, the last comment set her back up all over again. Alright, so she supposed he had a point! They knew they were way the hell stronger than she was and there would be no real contest between them. It wasn't as if she was too stupid to know that! Women just weren't as physically strong as men, but they had other strengths, damn it! And, when it came right down to it, strength didn't always win! When it came down to a battle of wits, women were every bit the equal of any man and often superior since they'd been forced by their physical limitations to rely upon their wits from the dawn of man!

  Well! There was no sense in pointing that out! If fact, it was usually better to save the 'big' guns for when they were needed!

  "It isn't stupid to fight when you feel threatened," she said mildly, "even if you're facing an enemy of superior force. It's instinct. Anyway, it beats the hell out of simply giving up."

  Jalen nodded. "You are a very brave woman. This is another thing that I admire."

  Danielle blushed, but amusement surfaced, as well. "You aren't trying to butter me up?"

  He looked confused.

  Their English was so good she kept forgetting they had severe limitations in their vocabulary. "Complimenting me to … uh … flirt? Saying nice things to make points?"

  He frowned, clearly turning it over in his mind.

  "Trying to please me so that I'll please you?"

  He blinked at her. "This works?" he asked a little doubtfully. "Females like this?"

  Danielle couldn't help but chuckle. "Everybody likes compliments. It makes them feel good and if you make them feel good when you're around them, they like to be around you. Just don't get too carried away. It has to be believable. It's better if it's true and they can tell it's true."

  He looked unconvinced. She realized he thought she was teasing him. "Does it make you feel good if I say that I think you're handsome?"

  He reddened. "Do you think so?"

  "I'm not blind," she said wryly. "You are handsome. Can't you tell I think so when I look at you?"

  He looked torn between wanting to believe her and doubt. "I have not seen you look at me. I have seen you look at Kiel as if you admire him and also Baen."

  Danielle's amusement vanished. On impulse, she moved closer to him, sliding her arms around his waist and looking up at him. "I think you're handsome, too," she said gently. "You just didn't notice."

  She heard him swallow, but he looked almost more alarmed at her proximity than pleased about it. She'd just decided it had been a mistake to approach him when he settled his hands on her upper arms. She waited a little breathlessly, wondering if he would set her away from him or pull her closer. She didn't get the chance to find out. Even as his hands tightened almost convulsively on her arms, the sound of feet pounding up the gangplank reached them. Alarm instantly went through Danielle and she whipped her head in that direction, pulling away from Jalen in the same moment.

  ?

  Chapter Seventeen

  "We will need tools to get inside," Kiel announced the moment the airlock opened, clearly preoccupied as he strode past Jalen and Danielle, who'd rushed to meet them.

  Danielle was a little disconcerted, but relieved, as well, to discover it wasn't anything threatening that had brought them back so soon. Guilt also flickered through her that after being so upset and worried about them going out she'd allowed herself to be so distracted first by her argument with Jalen and then a flirtation that she hadn't been 'watching over them' as she'd intended when she'd gone to the bridge.

  "What did you find?" Danielle asked anxiously as she followed him.

  He flicked a glance at her. Baen answered. "This is an ancient place. It appears to have been abandoned long ago."

  "It looks to be stable enough, however," Kiel added. "You may come with us to explore it, but you must stay close to Jalen."

  Danielle's irritation of before instantly resurrected itself. He was damned bossy! If he'd been her commanding officer, she wouldn't have had a problem with taking orders from him, but he wasn't!

  She decided to argue her point later, though. She could see he had every intention of grabbing tools and leaving again and there was no doubt in her mind that he'd leave her if she wasn't ready to go. Whirling on her heel, she rushed back to her own cabin to collect her gauntlets and her helm. Baen and Kiel had already stepped into the airlock when she returned. Jalen, she saw, was waiting for her.

  She hurried to join him and saw that Baen and Kiel had already reached the bottom of the gangplank. They paused there, turning to watch as she and Jalen exited through the airlock. Appeased that they hadn't simply set off without them, Danielle damned near skidded down the gangplank on her ass in her rush to join them. The first she realized that it had iced over was when her feet shot out from under her. Jalen caught her, skidded and wobbled jerkily but managed to maintain his footing, carrying her the remainder of the way before he set her down.

  Embarrassed at her near mishap, Danielle studiously ignored the looks Baen and Kiel bent on her, peering through the wind driven snow toward the tall structure in the distance. Shaking his head, Kiel turned away. "Watch your footing," he advised.

  Danielle's lips tightened with annoyance. "I'm used to walking in snow and ice," she muttered. "I just hadn't expected the gangplank to ice over so quickly."

  His response was a non-committal grunt through her earphones, but he didn't make any other comment.

  She quickly discovered that the wind was hard enough to blow her down. Even sandwiched between the men, who cut off a lot of the wind, she had to concentrate to keep from falling. It seemed to take hours to reach the structure they were approaching when she knew it couldn't have taken more than a few minutes. She was winded with the effort by the time they arrived and could feel the cold penetrating her suit and turning her fingers and toes to ice.

  Baen and Kiel set to work immediately, thawing the ice that encrusted what appeared to be a giant set of double doors made of rock. There were symbols of some sort carved into the doors and Danielle studied them curiously. They looked strangely familiar, though she couldn't figure out why. She finally decided that it was just the fact that they looked similar to symbols she'd seen on Marchet. She wasn't completely satisfied with that explanation, however. She didn't know why, but something niggled at the back of her mind just beyond her grasp that almost seemed to contradict that simple explanation.

  After a few moments, she widened her visual examination to the uprights on either side of the door and finally moved back a short distance to tilt her head up and study the structure. The architectural design, she saw at once, was nothing at all like the structures the Danu had built on Marchet even if the symbols did look vaguely familiar. This structure was roughly triangular in shape, whereas those on Marchet were flowing in design, very similar to the habitats on her own home world, and probably for the same reason. They'd not only been designed to blend with the natural setting for the sake of aesthetics and protection from detection, but also as protection from the elements.

  She was still trying to figure out what it was about the place that had set off a sense of familiarity when she knew damned well she'd never seen anything like it when she saw a flash of light above the ice encrusted peak of the structure.

  "Kiel?" she said uneasily, trying to decide whether it was a meteor or something else entirely. Even as she voiced the tentative warning, though, she saw several other bright lights blink into view.

  Caught by the note of uncertainty in her voice, Kiel stopped abruptly and moved back to look up.

  "Ships! Get back to the ship!" he bellowed, grabbing Danielle around the waist and snatching her off her feet.

  As close as they were
to the ship, they hadn't covered much more than half the distance when Danielle heard the roar of engines that meant the crafts were landing. Struggling frantically in Kiel's hold to search for the source, Danielle felt her heart stop when she finally did spot the oncoming crafts. "Nubien!" she gasped in disbelief. "It's a squadron of Nubien ships!"

  Kiel skidded to halt as a laser blast hit the ground in front of them followed in quick succession by a dozen more. Whirling abruptly, he raced back toward the door they'd been trying to pry open.

  "We need to get to the ship!" Danielle screamed at him. "They'll blow us to bits!"

  "They would blow up the ship before we could take off!" Kiel growled.

  As if they'd be worse off if the damned ship was blown to bits stranding them on the ball of ice! Granted, the Nubiens seemed much more intent on shooting them than the ship at the moment but that sure as hell didn't mean they wouldn't blow it up!

  Kiel dropped her to her feet unceremoniously as they reached the doors again. By the time Danielle had recovered her equilibrium, she discovered that all three men had thrown their shoulders against the huge doors. For a few moments, it seemed it would be a wasted effort. Danielle glanced frantically back to see where their attackers were and discovered the Nubien crafts were landing. Nubiens leapt out the moment the first settled, racing toward them and firing as they ran.

  Someone grabbed her arm and snatched her forward so fast it almost gave her whiplash and then blackness descended over her. She thought for a split second that she'd lost consciousness. There was nothing dulled about her other senses, however. She felt the arm that clutched her around the waist tightly enough to cut off her air and the jarring as he took off with her at a run.

  It dawned on her that they'd entered the structure, but she couldn't see a damned thing! She didn't know how they could possibly see well enough to walk, let alone run! She was near the point of passing out by the time they finally stopped running and she was set on her feet. Rubbing her ribs, struggling to catch her breath and find her equilibrium when she couldn't even tell which end was up, Danielle froze where she was planted on her feet.