Alien General's Baby: BBW Human - Alien Surprise Pregnancy SciFi Romance (Brion Brides)
Page 34
He stabbed the spear into the Fearless’ heart as they fell, sliding on the roof of the ship. The cover had come off from the lifestone in the shaft of his weapon. The white glow emanated from it, shining like a beacon of hope against the red light in the Fearless' furious eyes.
Braen's powerful muscles worked to their breaking point, keeping the spear inside as the enemy clawed at it with its free hands, dropping all the weapons but the one still in the general's chest.
He felt his muscles tearing, but that was nothing. It was all nothing now, so close to the end. All Braen knew was that the Fearless had to die before he did, for Naima's sake. For the sake of his child.
Her image came to him through blood and pain and the wild rocking of the ship. His gesha, his true heart, the love he was willing to die for. Her green eyes smiled at him as Braen tore through the Fearless' body with a mighty roar, cutting it almost in half and ripping his spear free.
"This is not the–" the Fearless gargled, the red of its eyes flickering, but he never finished that thought.
They crashed into a gun turret that stopped their fall into the engine. Braen's fingers around the Fearless' arm were so cramped he had to force them to let go and the enemy fell dead beside him, its eyes glassy.
Breathing heavily, certain that one of his lungs had collapsed, Braen propped himself up to sit against the turret, his vision blurring. He hadn't thought it would be like that. To die, not knowing if he'd succeeded.
To never see Naima again.
Her image was so clear before his eyes. The gorgeous body, her bright red hair with the white strand flowing around her like a wave. The general would have liked the image to smile, but there was a horrified expression on her beautiful face. Through smoke and fire, she came closer and closer until the realization nearly stopped Braen's heart.
She was actually there. His gesha, who he had worked so hard to save, was on top of the overloading plasma engine.
"No," he said, his voice coming out quieter than a whisper.
Naima had to slide the last part of the way, the ground rattling beneath her feet, catching a hold on the long gun so as not to fall into the ship. She knelt down beside him, her beautiful greens filled with tears and despair.
"Braen..." she whispered, "by gods, you – what did the Fearless do to you?"
"Run," Braen managed. "Run, Naima!"
"I will not leave you," she answered, pressing a kiss on his lips.
It hurt to do even something so gentle, but Braen answered it, if only to feel her soft lips against his one last time. He didn't even have the strength left to pull her into his arms now that he knew they would die there together.
"You have to trust me," Naima was saying. "Please, Braen, open the glove. Hurry!"
He could barely hear her, much less understand how she hoped to save them, but even at death's doorstep, he could never deny her anything. The general lifted his bloody arm to press his genetic signature to the glove on Naima's wrist. The slowly emanating lifestone revealed itself, glowing with quiet power.
"I don't know if this will work," Naima said, "but I couldn't leave you. I manage to slow down the plasma core’s destruction a little but I don’t understand Chali that well and the overrides aren’t exactly… Whatever. What I am trying to say is that I can't live without you. I love you and if I only get to love you for another minute, I'm glad I chose this.
Braen wanted to argue. He wanted to say he would have given everything to save her, but in that moment, it didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered but the only thing he knew to be the truth.
"I love you, my heart," he said. "We shall go to the darkness together and I will find you and our child there."
Naima kissed him and the general felt her tears on his cheeks.
"We're not dead yet," she whispered then. "Can you get in the turret? Please, Braen, try for me. We have to move and I can't lift you."
The turret was nothing more than a small, cramped space for the shooter to sit in. Braen pulled himself up, shrugging off the remnants of his armor to make sure they both fit in there, but he couldn't believe it would be able to shield them from the engine blast.
The air was already hot around them as he more fell than climbed into the turret, pulling Naima in after him. She pulled the hatch above them closed.
It was so tight in there that she was sitting on his lap, right next to the sword still lodged in his chest. Braen hardly cared. All he wanted was to cradle her into his arms and hold her for all the time they were given. Naima rested her head on his shoulder, wrapping her hand around him and pressing the glove against the turret.
"Come what may," she said quietly as the world begun to shake. "Protect us, stone, this one last time."
Braen finally realized what Naima had in mind. He wanted to tell her it was a brilliant plan, but their time was up. He pulled her into his arms, the sweet scent of her hair overpowering even the stench of death around them and the small space around them was bathed in the blue light of his valor squares.
They gave themselves over to fate as the plasma engine exploded.
39
Naima
Time was gone, joining the rest of the world in nothingness.
Naima didn't know how much time had passed or if they were maybe in an afterlife that eerily resembled the one that came before it.
No. That's not it. We're alive.
She didn't even dare to move, out of fear that reality would break into pieces from that simple bit of motion, but then Braen's comm link came to life.
"General?" she could hear Kerven's shocked voice asking. "How are you still alive?"
They must have realized he was still alive because the Benevolent could scan for his signal. Finding it still there after the blast must have been a shock to the crew. Naima herself didn’t entirely buy that it was happening, even.
Her gerion didn't reply at once. His first move was to lift Naima's chin up to gently and kiss her, the most loving one they'd ever shared in the dark, cramped little piece of metal that had saved their lives.
Naima forgot about everything for a long moment, letting the comm link beep, waiting for orders and answers. She kissed the general, her dreams of the future gaining color again when they had all but faded after she saw Braen on the roof of the ship. Happiness, she learned, could taste a little like blood, but she wouldn't have denied herself sharing that moment with the general for anything.
Then, slowly and carefully, she pulled back her hand from the turret wall. Braen closed the glove off again and such relief washed over Naima that she'd never felt before.
The purpose of the tiny compartment was, among other things, to protect and shield the person manning it. She had hoped against all reason that the lifestone would work its magic one more time for them.
Here at last, Naima was willing to give the benefit of doubt to fate. For a second, she believed there was a force in the galaxy that had spared them.
She got up, pushing the hatch open and peeking out.
"Braen," she said, her mouth dropping open. "You won't believe this."
She climbed out and the general followed her, moving with carefulness that spoke of a great pain. Naima couldn't look at the sword poking out of his chest, but she knew how durable the Brions were. If the general hadn't called for aid as the first thing, he believed he would survive until it arrived.
It's still the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Right next to this one.
Before their eyes, as they stood there, seeing a dropship descend for them with all haste, was the battle field.
In theory, that was. In truth, there was nothing.
They were standing in the bottom of a huge crater and only a dark, grayish ash signaled that there might have been something else just a little while ago. Already, snow was starting to fall to cover up even that.
As far as the eye could see, the gun turret that had saved their lives was the only thing that had survived with them. The Chali ship was gone to the last piece, as w
as the android army. All the fallen Brions were dust and the Fearless... he was gone too.
Naima took the general's hand, squeezing it slightly to make him look at her. There was such love in there that for a moment, she was robbed of all words.
It had worked. It had actually all worked. Tears welled in her throat and eyes and she had to take a few quick breaths to force them down. Finally she felt like it wasn’t Braen carrying all the burden alone.
"My love," Braen said then. "You are truly the most magnificent creature to be born to this galaxy."
"I'm okay," Naima said, smiling. “And I love you.”
It was odd to laugh in a place like that, but all the long weeks of fear and concern were making themselves known through the surge of happiness taking over her. She wanted to scream until her throat was hoarse, if only to affirm herself that she was truly alive and Braen was with her.
The general was still looking at her, standing despite the horrendous wounds he'd suffered.
Damn Brion pride. I don't suppose I could tell him to rest. He'll walk to the med bay, I have no doubt. With that awful blade sticking out of his chest.
She couldn't resist anymore. She'd wanted to wait until the general was feeling better, to choose a quiet, peaceful moment for them to tell him, but decided it wasn't worth it. After all, the battle had ended and he deserved to know.
That, and she sort of wanted to scream it from the rooftops. Seeing as there wasn’t a roof in sight, she’d have to make do with the crater.
"Braen," she said.
"My heart," he replied, looking at her with tenderness that didn't match all the pain he'd gone through for her.
"It's gone," Naima told him.
It took a moment for the general to understand what she meant. Then his eyes went wide and the valor squares flashed with emotion she couldn't interpret.
"When you disengaged the glove for me, I looked around," she went on. "Not on Darius. In the galaxy. As we waited, I checked so many times I couldn't even count them all. The Fearless is gone. I don't feel it anymore. Everything else is in place.
“I saw the lifestone repositories and Audrey... oh, you should have seen her face. I only caught a glimpse, but she felt it die, I'm sure. Her connection is stronger than mine, after all. You did it. You killed the Fearless."
Braen's hands twitched and Naima couldn't help smiling, realizing he'd wanted to pull her into an embrace, but the sword was understandably a small hindrance in their way. The general's eyes were bright with tremendous emotion as he searched her eyes for any omission. It felt like he hadn't heard a word she said, judging by his first comment.
"You are safe," he said, the deep voice full of passion. "It can't hurt you anymore."
That's your first concern, Naima thought, smiling ear to ear. You've just killed a monster that has lived for millions of years. You are the hero of the galaxy. And you wonder if it means I'm okay. Brions. How could you not love one?
"Yes," she said out loud as the dropship landed next to them and warriors rushed to their general. "I'm okay, we both are."
Brion medicine was truly spectacular, almost as spectacular as Palian medicine. To Naima's eyes, it seemed Braen was holding himself together by sheer stubbornness, but if the healer's reaction was anything to go by, she'd "seen worse".
Naima had to try very hard not to say something snappy, but the knowing smile on Braen's lips stopped her.
While the general was attended to in the med bay, Naima was left with the aftermath. The Uthers and the Chali were still going at each other. She had no patience for them. Looking up from Darius to see them at war when there was so much to celebrate had thoroughly pissed her off.
Knowing that Braen was never going to interfere on the behalf of either, Naima took action herself. For a moment, she felt like she could do anything. She wasn’t sure whether she was riding high on the wave of success, or the universe was giving her a hand like it seemed to have with the plasma core earlier, but whatever it was, she was going to use it to its full advantage.
Politics wasn't her strong suit, sure. Curing useless aggression, though? That she could do.
Her first move was simple. Turning the Benevolent towards the fighters worked like cold water to the face. When the Benevolent fired up its cannons, the action ceased immediately.
With Kerven as her liaison, Naima arranged for a meeting between the troublesome allies and their would-be enemies.
It was too much to hope that the presence of the Brions would keep the peace. Soon enough, the species would feud again, presumably as soon as Braen had taken his ship back to the more traveled space. Which he would, as soon as he could, she was sure. The Fearless had been his problem. The Uthers and the Chali were not.
She brought Alona along, brand new in its new body. Brions had crafted one for the android out of the pieces of its contemporaries that had been brought up in the dropships leaving the planet before the explosion, considerably more accommodating than they'd been to it before.
Naima brought Sinetha as well, who she had imprisoned in Braen's name, to be taken to a Union prison. The trader came along willingly enough, not saying a word when Naima explained to her what she needed. Considering that she was practically suspended in a lucid coma in a healing pod didn’t make for many opportunities to disagree, after all.
They met on Darius, neutral soil. Naima arrived in the colors of the Brions, deemed an official ambassador to them. The general had promised her he'd stand by whatever she achieved, accompanied by a grin.
Stomech represented the Uthers, looking pissed at being treated like an enemy by those he'd granted passage to. And the cyborg representing the Chali looked to be an almost perfect copy of Sinetha to the point where Naima wouldn't have been surprised if she was her sister.
She exited her dropship with Kerven and Alona as her guards.
The Chali woman glared.
"I am Noel," she said without any greeting. "I speak for the Chali. We have come to search for one of our own. Is Sinetha with you? I see nothing else is left."
"Did you?" Naima asked. "I don't believe you. You're here for the same thing she was, but I have bad news, I'm afraid. The Fearless is gone. All of it. Every piece."
Noel could barely control her rage, it seemed. Stomech, on the other hand, looked less angry than before. Curious, more like.
"Trust Brions to destroy the most valuable thing in the galaxy," Noel spat.
She clearly wanted to go further with questions on the matter, but Naima raised her hand. The last month of her life had filled her measure of idiocy to the brink.
"Yes," she said. "My gerion killed the Fearless, once and for all, and did us all a favor, whether you like it or not. Stomech, you know your worlds would have been the first to fall. As for you, trader. I arranged for you to see directly what the Fearless was capable of."
She stepped out of the way solemnly to make way for Sinetha. Of course, the trader couldn't walk on her own feet anymore. She was sitting on a floating carrier platform in her mostly translucent pod, slowly appearing from the dropship they'd arrived with.
Noel gagged, taking a step back and covering her eyes. Stomech's tiny eyes went wide with horror.
"You will not look?" Naima asked calmly.
Noel turned away, shaking her head in disgust.
"Most valuable thing," Naima snapped, raising her voice now. "The general will leave her soon and you should be thanking him for saving your worthless lives, whether the Fearless would have reached you tomorrow or in ten years.
“The Chali are going to give some serious answers to the Galactic Union, I swear it. You can make it worse by staying here to brawl, in which case it's almost certain my gerion will come for you on the orders of the Union's council.
“Or you can leave now and seriously reconsider your vile practices. As for you, Stomech, you've had your revenge. Look around us. All those who hurt your people are dead in the most horrible way.”
She paused for a moment. The Ut
her warlord didn’t grace her with a reply, only a noncommittal grunt.
"Except for Sinetha, here. She has pleaded with the general to allow her to live the rest of her life in a prison and he will not break his word. Do you think that is unfair?"
The Uther didn't respond, but he couldn't look at the broken cyborg either, not for long. Sinetha, who hadn't spoken a word to either, turned her platform around and floated into the dropship.
Naima turned away as well.
"We will leave now," she said. "I suggest you both go too, or you will see the Benevolent again very soon. Trust me when I say you don't want to make enemies of the general."
With that, she left Darius forever. While the Brion techs worked to raze the battle field clean of even the tiniest piece of the Fearless and the androids and Braen healed, Naima watched the two armies disappear from the orbit.
When at last she was allowed to see Braen again, she burst into tears of joy. As she dashed across the room, jumping into his arms, all the darkness washed away from her life.
"My beautiful gesha," Braen said, looking every bit as regal as the day she'd met him as his strong arms locked around her. "You are mine now."
It was like he had never been injured at all. Like the Fearless had not happened. Like the battle had all been a horrible nightmare, from which the both of them had finally awoken. A dream come true, in the best way this time.
"Yours," Naima agreed, unable to stop smiling.
She thought for a second before adding:
"Can we go to some warm world now? I could really use a beach vacation."
Epilogue
Naima
Two years later…
The world was called Orache and it was very warm.
Naima compared it to a private resort often, only instead of a tiny beach somewhere on the many coasts of Terra, it was an entire planet. Orache didn't have palm trees or umbrella drinks, but it had endless beaches with glowing white sand and an ocean that wasn't dark in the slightest.