Materfamilias

by Wendie Nordgren

  The soldier escorted me from Tora. Crews were working to put out the fires in her hull. Hiroshi was waving off medical treatment while he called Ling. All of us were taken directly to the Infirmary. I was made comfortable on an exam bed with pillows and blankets while a doctor made sure the babies and I were okay.

  A very drugged Jazon called Tracy. “Hey, baby,” he slurred. He gave her what he mistakenly assumed would look like a sexy grin. He looked like a doofus.

  “Jazon! Stars! Look at you!”

  “Yeah, I’m good.” He dozed off.

  Izaac took the vid-screen from his brother’s lax hands and handed it to me. “We got him, Tracy. The doctor gave him pain meds and knocked him out so he would stay still and go to sleep.”

  Relieved sobs made her shoulders shake. Sparrow and Terre sat to either side of her, holding her.

  “We’ll be back soon. Teagan out.” I couldn’t explain to them at the moment what had happened, or I would cry and make it harder for them. Returning the vid-screen to Izaac, I leaned back and closed my eyes.

  Clark was being treated for a blaster burn. It hurt me to look at it. He, Izaac, and Hiroshi had exchanged fire with the mad one’s hired crew. Hiroshi had been drugged to sleep at Ling’s insistence. He hadn’t slept in days. If he were awake, he’d be overseeing repairs to his ship. Izaac made himself comfortable on the bed beside me. He had a fierce headache from telepathic strain. Uncertain if it would even help, he accepted a pain patch and cold compress from a doctor.

  “I can’t believe we’re alive and sane,” I said.

  Cormac entered the Infirmary and strode toward me. I pushed myself up to a sitting position.

  “If you hadn’t shown up when you did….” I lifted my blanket to my eyes to blot at new tears of gratitude.

  “I’ve always dreamed of saving a princess. Did you lose this?” From behind his back, he showed me the diamond necklace that Luca had given me.

  I lost all semblance of control and dissolved into tears. Cormac sat on the exam bed beside me and held me while I cried.

  “There, there. It’s alright. It has an excellent tracking device, obviously Beck’s work.”

  I nodded and managed to look at his face. He handed me a silk square, an Arachnean one, and put my necklace around my throat while I wiped my eyes and blew my nose. Someone approached with a tray. On it was a milkshake and a plate of fudge.

  Cormac smiled. “I must confer with Captain Espinoza. She has arrived to take over.” He kissed my cheek and left. He smiled at Clark and Izaac as he strode away.

  Izaac lifted the cold compress from his eyes, and my two young husbands glared after Cormac.

  “He came to our rescue, found the necklace Luca gave me floating around in the vastness of space, and has fudge. Why are you mad at him?”

  Clark said, “He took a naked picture of Izaac and me in bed together.”

  I laughed and snorted. “I want a copy.” Even full of decadent, sugary fudge, I managed to fall into a deep sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  We had been docked on Epopeus for a few hours when I awoke. Tracy was asleep at Jazon’s side. A thick blanket covered them. Consul Bosh was sitting on a chair beside me. “The children are safe and well. After spending time with this Ridley Varro of yours, the girls want to be warriors now instead of princesses. Neema successfully argued that they could be both. See for yourself.”

  He handed me a vid-screen. The girls wore poufy dresses and tiaras while practicing stances with the boys. Quinn chuckled.

  “Are we safe? Are we truly safe? His mind was like….”

  “Quiet, Teagan,” he said as he looked at the monitor behind me. “Share it with me.”

  “Alright,” I whispered.

  “Close your eyes and relax.”

  I did and felt his gentle hands on my head. Carefully, he sifted through my recollections while keeping it from troubling me. Then, he took my hands in his and focused on my eyes. “You must not ever fear such a thing. His madness would have troubled you had he forced a bond, but our doctors could have severed it. Therapy would have been necessary, but none of you would have suffered permanent damage. The children’s neural pathways are not well enough developed for them to have suffered any telepathic effects.” He tapped the tip of my nose with his finger. “Try to remember this. There is nothing Quinn can’t fix.”

  I smiled sadly at him. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been more terrified.”

  Taking my hand again, he said, “You pushed the fear aside, took command of a ship, and flew your crew to safety. I couldn’t be prouder of you.”

  The compliment made me blush. “Where are the Empress and the Hadrian?”

  “They are working to catalogue what they discovered upon a piecemeal space station fabricated from derelict star ships.” He held a finger to my lips. “Elspeth and Julia will be cross with me if I do not return you to them within the hour. Come along, daughter.”

  Momma was far away in the Empire, but Quaid’s mothers more than made up for it. They welcomed us home and fussed over us. Quinn and Izaac spent long hours having private conversations, but for some reason it didn’t bother me. Clark took a few days off from training to recover from the blaster burn he had taken while rescuing Jazon. He spent the time with me, and we caught up on our course work.

  While learning to fight was no longer an option for me, I realized remaining an Academy student had its benefits. I had learned to think critically, control my reactions, and take command during a crisis. A few of the males in my life were impressed with me.

  A few days later, Violet, Sparrow, Tracy, Terre, and I relaxed on lounge chairs in two-piece swimsuits on the beach, proudly displaying our baby bumps. The Empress and the Hadrian still hadn’t begun their return trips.

  Sparrow said, “They are hiding something serious from us. What is it?”

  “My team and I have asked ourselves the same question. We assume it has to do with illegal experimentation and the advanced technology used in construction of the probe, shield disruptor, and visual displacement shielding of the hybrids’ ship,” I said.

  “Can you get me a sample?” Sparrow asked.

  I whispered, “My team is working on it. We are trying to get our own scans.”

  “Understood,” she said quietly.

  “They could feel their minds slipping away into madness and were desperately attempting to cling to sanity,” I said.

  Hiroshi walked across the sand to us. He wore swim trunks and carried a cooler full of frozen fruit drinks. He said, “To me, it seemed as though they were in the middle of making a deal but needed you to complete it. However, they had no intention of relinquishing you.” He handed out drinks and sat on his own lounger. He couldn’t return to Arachne until Tora’s repairs were completed. Instead of watching every detail, he had decided to take a break.

  “Who were they planning to double-cross and for what?” I asked.

  “Oh, just be patient, Cupcake. I’m sure we’ll find out,” Phillip said.

  In silent agreement, we clinked our frozen fruit drinks together along our line of lounge chairs and enjoyed our moment of peacefulness, watching the play of light from Epopeus’ suns upon the waves. I looked into the eyes of my new sisters. Each of us had our strengths. We were the Materfamilias Caste, and together we were fierce.

  The End