by Renee Bond
I walked into the ship’s living quarters, fully expecting to see our woman sitting on a bunk, waiting for our return. It was standard procedure to make sure that there’s not much for a woman to do while we’re all out on duty, at least for the first year or so. It reinforces the squad as her sole source of companionship and stimulation, which enhances emotional bonding… among other things.
But today, she wasn’t in the living quarters.
Or in the adjacent bathroom.
Or in any of the storage areas.
I didn’t think she could access the cockpit, but I checked there too.
Nothing.
Starting to worry, I entered the ship’s cargo area, where Travan was showing his combat gear. Hoping to find her with him.
Travan, very much alone in the cramped space, looked at me quizzically.
“Thought you’d be busy by now.”
“She’s not here,” I said. That feeling I get right before battle, that mixture of anxiety, adrenaline and determination, began creeping up on me.
Travan straightened. His face went hard.
“What do you mean.”
“I’ve checked everywhere on the ship. No woman.”
Travan reached to the comm device around his wrist. Each squad member wore one. He called Jensi.
“Tell me our woman is with you,” Travan said.
“Why would we take our mate-prize out on patrol?” In one sentence, Jensi’s voice went from confused to suspicious to tense.
“Get back to the ship,” Travan ordered, his voice suddenly steel. “Forget the patrol. She’s missing.”
“Be back in twenty minutes.” The comm channel winked off.
“She wouldn’t have gone out on her own,” I said. “And only we could get into the ship.”
I’d been in battle more times than I could count. Been shot at - Hell, been actually shot - quite a few times. After experiences like those, you start to find it really easy to stay calm in pressure-filled situations.
But I wasn’t finding it easy now.
Our woman, our mate-prize, our reward for all our fighting, all our sacrifice… the person we were each, in our own way, coming to trust, to connect with, to value as much as we valued ourselves… was gone. Out there, all on her own. On a planet that was less-than-receptive to our presence.
Suddenly, it felt like my heart was trying to crawl up my throat.
“We don’t have to guess what happened,” Travan said. “There are cameras all over this ship. Let’s take a look.”
In the cockpit, we set about accessing and viewing the day’s camera recordings. It was tedious. We could speed the recordings up, but go too fast and we might miss a clue as to the whereabouts of our missing woman. Jensi and Daxen arrived back at the ship. The work went faster with all four of us.
Finally, we found it.
Video footage of our woman strolling right into the cockpit. Sitting in the captain's chair.
Viewing a message.
Afterward, crying for a while.
After that, in stony silence, we watched her get dressed in the one dress she’d been issued, and also one of Ellon’s shirts. She must have judged the dress too revealing. That’s not usually a problem when escorted by us, some of the galaxy's most elite killers. But alone, it would have certainly drawn a lot of attention. Ellon’s giant shirt looked like another dress on her tiny frame, but it covered her up a lot better than her dress did.
Then she’d left the ship. Not through the boarding ramp, which was sealed, but through a maintenance hatch in the cargo bay. It hadn’t been locked from the inside - none of us had thought of it as an egress since it was far to small for any of us to physically fit through. It was a tight fit, but our woman used it to exit the ship.
“Daxen,” said Travan, pure fire in his voice, “find me that message. I want to see what could compel her to disobey us so badly.” I was more concerned than angry for our woman’s safety. But I was angry too. She’d been explicitly, unequivocally forbidden from leaving the ship.
Just why the hell would she do something so reckless?
So… so stupid?
She was from a completely backward culture on an isolated planet, and had been off of it for less than two weeks. She was in no way equipped to navigate an occupied planet safely. If anyone found out she was owned by Triumphant soldiers, she’d be the target of ridicule, harassment… or worse.
To say nothing of the criminals and predators hiding in every civilian population. No matter how many clothes she wore, our woman was attractive enough that she’d always draw the wrong kind of attention.
If anything happened to her… if anyone harmed her… murder at the hands of elite professional soldiers would be least of their worries.
“Got it,” said Daxen, as a holo-message popped up. “It was coded specifically to her, and specifically not to us. In effect, it would only appear if she operated the ship’s central computer.”
“And exactly how the fuck was she able to do that?” Travan asked icely.
“The security protections I’d put in place have been altered to give her unprotected access,” Daxen responded defensively. “It was done remotely. Not only that, but I’m not showing her location-chip anymore. Either it was removed, or its signal has been scrambled. Which means we can’t track her. I could figure out who did it, but it would take time to-”
“Play the message.” Travan suddenly sounded tired. As if he already knew what we were going to see. Always a step ahead was Travan. Just like a good squad leader should be.
After a few minutes, Daxen managed to play the message that was sent to our woman behind our backs.
And just like that, everything fell into place.
“Mother. Fucker.” I’d never heard Daxen so upset. And I’d heard him threaten enemies on dozens of planets.
“He’s dead,” said Jensi softly, his face pale - the sign that he was beyond angry. “He’s fucking dead.”
“That can’t be real,” said Travan. “He can’t possibly have found our woman’s sister, let alone kidnapped her and brought her here.”
“I bet you’re right,” said Daxen. “Let me try something.”
Daxen brought up a still image of the message - we could see the Everlasting offer and his prisoner. Then Daxen pushed some buttons and entered some commands - and the woman’s face changed! The fucker really had a woman chained up with her hands above her head, but he’d altered her face completely. A few more commands from Daxen and the woman’s clothes changed too, turning back into the local browns the people of this planet usually wore.
“Sneaky bastard,” Daxen swore under his breath. “He must have gotten into our database, stolen data on our woman’s sister, and used it to alter the image of some local woman.”
Travan’s fist crashed down on the console in front of his chair. He looked like he was trying to destroy the console of our own ship.
I knew exactly how he felt.
But I couldn’t let my emotions get the better of me. Even though every fiber of my being was in panic mode - the fucker had taken our woman - I forced myself to try to calm down. I had to think about her. We all needed to focus on getting her back, to put everything else aside until that one all-important goal was accomplished.
“If three of us go out on foot,” I said, immediately falling into planning mode, “and Daxen takes the ship-”
“We don’t need to bother searching for her,” said Travan. There was no mistaking the hard edge in his voice, or the hard glare on his face.
“I already know exactly where she’s gone.”
Chapter 36
Rachel
Finding the Everlasting military base wasn’t hard. I’d always been good with directions, and I took the time to memorize the map that The Bastard had sent me. That was how I’d fixed him in my head - The Bastard.
Seemed appropriate.
I only hoped I could keep up that kind of bravado once I came face to face with him.
&n
bsp; The hardest part was ignoring the stares of the natives as I shuffled along the streets of their town, on my way to the Everlasting base. I kept my eyes to myself, but my clothes stood out anyways. They were nicer, cleaner, and just odd-looking compared to everyone around me. Plus I looked like I was wearing only a very large man’s shirt. I had more on under that, of course, but Ellon’s shirt was so large you couldn’t tell.
The effect was that I stood out like a beacon.
A few people tried to talk to me. I shot them glares, and they left me alone. I wasn’t in the mood to talk.
My mind was too fixated on what was coming.
I was scared. Terrified. Right down to the bottoms of my feet. Being tied up and put in my place by four intensely desirable men who ultimately cared for me was one thing.
Being tortured by a man who hated me was something else completely.
A few times, I had to stop walking and lean against the nearest wall to concentrate on not puking.
I wanted to run away.
Hell, I wanted to run straight back into the arms of my strong, capable men. I wanted them to take care of me, and to take care of The Bastard for me. I wasn’t equipped for this! Being mentally tough is one thing, but I’m no fighter. I had no illusions about my ability to solve this problem with violence.
The Bastard commanded powerful alien soldiers.
I didn’t even have a shirt that fit.
He’d been clever to approach me as he had. To ensure that I couldn’t ask for help.
Because as much as I yearned to tell my men… to confide in them… I couldn’t. Not when it meant that my sister would pay the ultimate price.
I approached the Everlasting base cautiously. Not knowing what to do, or what to expect. It was an impressive facility, if a bit ugly, clearly built for utility and little else. Four stories of thick, dark green sheet metal, as big as a mid-sized shopping mall, with heavily armed soldiers and vehicles heading this way and that.
As I approached the nearest gate, which had two soldiers in full combat gear guarding it, I took a deep, calming breath, and willed myself not to run away screaming.
“I’m here to see… someone,” I said. “Lieutenant Doyle, I think.”
One of the guards looked at me blankly - then his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
But the other guard, a short man somewhat fatter than all the other soldiers I’d seen, looked surprised.
“You came!” he said, clearly startled. “I mean, of course you came. Lieutenant Doyle has been expecting you.”
“Well, where is he?” I demanded, doing my best not to look or sound scared shitless.
“Follow me.”
He opened the gate. I followed him through it.
We crossed a wide, dusty yard. I got a few stares, but mostly everyone looked too busy to bother with little old me.
Inside the base, I was lead to a small, windowless room. Walls, floor and ceiling were made of the same metal as the exterior of the building. There was no table. No chair.
Nothing… except me.
“I can’t believe you fell for it.”
I slowly turned around. The guard was wearing a shit-eating sneer.
“Just how fucking dumb are you?” He asked. “You really thought a fucking planetary Lieutenant could kidnap your sister, who he’s never met or seen, from halfway across the galaxy, and get her here within days? Pathetic!”
My mouth fell open.
“But I saw-”
“You saw what we wanted you to see, moron!” The guard looked straight into my eyes as he laughed.
My blood ran cold. I felt like I was looking at the guard from the bottom of a long, dark well.
It had been a fucking trick!
Of course The Bastard hadn't gotten his hands on my sister. He’d tried to get back at me the only way he could reach me - by tricking me into coming straight to him.
And I’d fallen for it.
“Let me out of here!” I demanded, taking a step forward.
Something made a loud cracking noise.
And just like that, I was on the cold, hard floor. Stunned. Seeing double.
Shit. That cracking sound had been my jaw! The piece of shit guard had backhanded me across the face so hard I’d landed flat on my back.
He frowned down at me. His beady eyes were full of contempt.
“You’ll learn your place soon enough, cunt. Now, you stay here and think about how you’re going to keep us from peeling your pretty little fingernails off. I’m off to inform the good Lieutenant that his guest has arrived. He’s going to collect a lot of money from the guys who bet him that you’d never be so fucking brain-dead as to actually show your face here! Between that, and your pretty mouth - and that juicy ass of yours - you’re going to make him quite comfortable! Hell, I bet he doubles his salary whoring out a Triumphant slut like you!”
I wanted to swear. I wanted to jump up and beat this piece of shit senseless.
I wanted to curl up into a ball and cry.
I settled for hugging my knees to my chest and squeezing my eyes shut. Desperately trying to think of a way out of this mess.
The door to the room slammed shut.
Nothing came to me.
Nothing but tears.
Chapter 37
Travan
“Before we start anything,” I said, “we need to make up our minds about just how far we’re willing to go.”
Three blank faces stared back at me.
I didn’t blame them. I was not in the habit of giving my squad choices.
Orders, yes. Choices, no.
But this wasn’t going to be like any mission we’d ever had.
“Our woman is being held in an Everlasting base,” I continued. “I’m sure of it.” We were all still clustered in our ship’s cockpit. Daxen in his pilot’s chair, Ellon and Jensi on the passenger’s couch, me in the captain’s chair. “It’s highly unlikely that the shitbags who took her will ever want to give her back. Maybe they make demands we can meet. Probably not. Thing is, long as clan Triumphant is negotiating a permanent peace agreement with clan Everlasting, I very much doubt we will receive the authority to go into that base and take our woman back. So… how far are we willing to go? As your squad leader, I can’t order you to do anything that would go against the wishes of our commanders. That being said… I intend to do anything and everything I can to reclaim the woman who rightfully belongs to us. If anyone isn’t comfortable with that, now’s the time to speak up.”
“I’m insulted you’d ask such a thing,” said Jensi. “There’s nothing you could do for our woman that I wouldn’t.”
“You said it yourself,” said Ellon. “She’s ours. Period. Nobody else’s. And I will do anything I have to - kill anyone I have to - to get her back, and to keep her safe.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” said Daxen.
Nobody smiled as they answered my challenge. Nobody’s eyes wavered for even a fraction of a second. To a man, our squad was totally committed to rescuing our woman. To doing whatever it took.
I’d expected nothing less.
I grinned. Savagely.
“Now that we’ve got that formality out of the way,” I said, “Daxen, open a line to the Bane. And while you’re at it, prepare the ship for takeoff.”
“Yes sir!”
The four of us strapped in.
None of us really expected any help from the military chain of command. But, being the good soldiers we were, we had to try.
After about ten minutes, we managed to establish a link to the Bane. Our priority emergency call was at first answered by a search and rescue dispatcher. But after a brief conversation - enough to communicate that we might be about to do something dangerous, instead of actually being in imminent danger - we were patched through to Vice Admiral Dresden, who was in charge of our Battle Corps.
I was impressed. I’d only hoped to get the ear of a Captain.
“Squad 419-a65,” said Dresden, his bushy musta
che immaculately oiled and groomed, “I’ve just been informed that you’re all about to do something very, very stupid.” Dresden had bags under his eyes, and he wasn’t in uniform. I wondered if he’d been woken up to take our call.
“Yes sir,” I replied.
In concise, military sentences, I informed the Vice Admiral of what had happened. Of how our woman had assaulted and embarrassed an Everlasting officer, then been tricked into walking straight onto his base and handing herself over to him.
Dresden frowned. The expression looked right at home on his wrinkled face.
“You men are to stand down,” he said. “Triumphant and Everlasting are in the middle of very delicate negotiations-”
“To Hell with the negotiations!” I snarled. “They’ve got our woman! We won't stand for this!”
Dresden’s frown deepened.
“You speak for everyone in that cockpit, squad leader?”
“He sure as fuck does,” said Jensi.
“Believe it,” said Daxen.
“We’re getting our woman back. End of discussion,” said Ellon.
Dresden closed his eyes. Shook his head.
“You’ll all be court-martialed,” he said. “This is bigger than one woman. Bigger than one squad. The peace accord between Triumphant and Everlasting has been years in the making. You-”
“I’ll burn the whole fucking Everlasting clan alive if I have to!” I said. I’d meant to simply state it, but was surprised when it came out at full volume. Inside I could feel my emotions roiling, trying to burst out of my chest.
Anger, at our woman, for not confiding in us, for disobeying our instructions not to leave the safety of the ship... but mainly at the Everlasting dog who’d taken her.
Concern, for our woman’s safety. Fear, that something bad might happen to her. Might have already happened.
Determination, to get her back. To see her safely returned to the ship. To our squad.
Where she belonged.
“You are to stand down!” repeated Dresden. “That is a direct order!”
“We can’t do that,” I said. “If you want to stop us, you’ll have to shoot us down. Daxen, take off and set course for the Everlasting base.”
“Dammit, Travan, you’re smarter than this!” Dresden shouted. “Let me work through the proper channels! We can get her back without jeopardizing relations-”
