Home in the Stars Box Set

by Mason, Jolie

  The natural bio-luminescence of the planet and it’s people made this part in the dark magical. The couple kissed and knelt on the ground. Their bodies glowed in their individual patterns, each like a fingerprint for a human. Nessa had been almost golden and warm like the sun in scattered lines down her long, slim body. Beautiful. There, glowing in darkness, the families watched them make love and bond. Sorians weren’t prudish about things like sex or nudity. There wasn't the same shame humans associated with the act.

  In the dark, the bond is clearly visible energy between the couple. She remembered being told that some more reluctant couples had gone to the ceremony and left unbound because it requires a greater attachment than any other kind of marriage and a psychic connection.

  Nina wondered how it could have happened with a human at all. Her physiology was very similar to the Sorians, but not close enough she would have thought this possible even a month ago.

  “It hardly seems possible”, Nina said out loud.

  “Because you’re uncertain?”

  “No, because I’m human. No bio-luminescence. No psychic abilities. Nothing to suggest I should be capable of a bond physiologically.”

  Luca smiled. “You are such a scientist.”

  Nina laughed again and held out her empty glass once more. “It’s better than being a princess.”

  Filling the glass again, Luca shouted, “Hear. Hear.”

  Laughing and drinking, Nina thought girl’s night was the most fun she may have ever had, and just what she needed.

  *****#*****

  Ra’dan had been directed to Nina’s cabin, or her former cabin, when he’d asked some of the crew her whereabouts. He’d also been informed his pilot had been noticed headed that way armed with brandy and glasses. Gods knew what she’d been doing and saying for the last three hours.

  He hit the hatchway without requesting entry. It opened for the Captain as it was programmed to do. Inside, Luca leaned over Nina, who was prostrate on the floor giggling like a schoolgirl, shouting, “And then Ari says, ‘That’s not where I told you to put it!’” Screaming with laughter, Luca and Nina roll on the floor and tap the mattress respectively.

  Ra’dan wasn’t sure when he’d seen anything quite as adorable as Nina rolling on the floor of her cabin with tears streaming down her face from laughter. Her long blond hair trailed behind her head reminding him of the fantasy he had of it on the pillow in his cabin. He schooled his face to a stern look and cleared his throat.

  “Having a good time?”

  Both women looked toward him in blank surprise for just a moment, and then erupted in laughter once again. Ra’dan shook his head mirthfully. He’d known she was drunk because he’d registered the warm glow she’d felt and wondered what it was. Hearing the sightings of Luca, he had figured that one out quickly enough, however, standing in the room with her, he felt her relief, her happiness and joy. He didn’t think he could ever be more grateful to his pilot and best friend.

  Luca had solved a problem he didn’t even know he’d had. She’d made his Nina feel better on her worst day ever. Of course, now followed the part where he had to pour her into his bed.

  Ra commed his new navigator, Emery, who appeared around the corner within moments. “Emery, I’ve got a situation.”

  Emery had boarded a few months before with excellent references, and his quick humor and charismatic, dark good looks had made him instantly popular among the crew, specifically the ladies. Ra’dan’s instincts had told him to trust the man immediately, and he always tried to go with his instincts.

  His navigator took in both women and smiled a lopsided smile. “So I see.”

  “Do you think you can help Brine back to her quarters?”

  Amused, he said, “Certainly, Sir.”

  The man stepped into the room and reached for Luca’s arms to pull her upright on the bunk. “Up we go. Here we are.”

  “Emery!” Luca cried in surprise as if she hadn’t had a clue he was there, which was more than likely. She reached for the empty bottle to wave it at him, narrowly missing his face. “I have brandy. Would you like a glass?”

  “Rain check. Maybe.”, he answered, taking the bottle and tossing it aside. He hefted Luca off the bed and into his arms. The captain stepped back to give him room. “You’re in no condition.”

  “I’m in perfect condition,” she scolded, running a finger down his cheek. “And don’t pretend you haven’t noticed.”

  Emery met the Captain’s long suffering eyes and rolled his own. “Good luck, Emery”, Ra’dan said. The other man turned slightly to look at Nina laughing to herself on the floor.

  “You as well, Captain.”

  Ra’dan grinned at the man as he easily trudged away with his drunk pilot. He looked down at Nina who had balled up on the floor sleepily. Her laughter had slowed to an intermittent chuckle.

  “Come here, Star”, he said, lifting her to her feet.

  “Ra, I missed you.”

  She tipped forward onto his chest. “Luca’s nice”, she said breathlessly.

  “We’ll see if you feel that way in ten hours.”

  “I will. She’s so nice.”

  Ra’dan patted her back once and huffed a short laugh. Even in this state, she was sweet, soft and kittenish. He hefted her to his side with one arm and draped her travel bag over the other. She hadn’t realized it, but she would have been moving to his quarters tonight anyway.

  “Where are we going? I’m sleepy. I wanna lay down.” She tried to turn around and go back to her bunk. He pulled her back around to bracket her to his side again.

  “You’re going to the Captain’s cabin.”

  “That’s nice”. She yawned widely and leaned into his shoulder, contented as long as she knew she was going to bed.

  “Did you have a good time?”

  “Yesss. Luca’s nice.” He finished that sentence with her on a throaty laugh. “She brought me brandy.”

  “No?”, he joked.

  “Yes,” she said seriously. “No one’s brought me brandy before. Ever.” She stumbled a bit stepping out of the lift into the captain’s corridor. “She told me everything she knew about bonding. Did you know that Sorian women...” She sidestepped his foot carefully at the hatchway of his cabin. He pressed the button.“Sorian women can initiate bonding all on their own? I didn’t know that. I wish I was a Sorian woman.”

  Ra’dan lowered Nina gently onto the white coverlet and stared down at her. “Why is that, T’ista?”

  “So I could feel the bond the way Nessa does. It’s different with me because I’m not... real.”

  He sat beside her. “What does that mean? Not real?”

  “I’m human, you know. It’s not the real thing. I feel your feelings when you touch me, but that’s the only time. Then I’d know, you know.”

  He smiled sadly at her, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “What would you know, Star?” He suspected he already knew her answer because he felt it like a heavy lump in his chest.

  “If you ever stop, you know... loving me. So I could be ready.”

  And there it was. The secret fear that was hers alone to bear. The fear that everyone stops loving her eventually had dogged her for years, causing her to choose isolation even in the midst of people. Being a doctor had justified her worth because it was useful, had greater purpose beyond just being herself. Being human on a planet of Sorians had kept her just separate enough to protect her heart.

  “Nina, look at me.” He demanded it. “I will never stop, do you understand? When I need to find my way, I will always look for my star.”

  She stared blearily at him, eyes draped low. “I know you think that now. It’s okay, Ra’dan. I’m really sleepy. Let’s talk about this some other time.”

  “We will, Star. I mean it.” Frustration and grief for her poured through his veins like acid, burning and aching. The only thing that would convince her was time. She would need to see it to believe it, and see it she would.

&n
bsp; He pulled her back onto the big bed and began stripping her clothes off one piece at a time. She was asleep before he even finished. She had been tired before she started drinking.

  When he had her down to her underwear, he stood staring at her as a timer dimmed the light to simulate evening sunset, then night. He watched the colors dance across her pale skin, and he wanted nothing in the world so much as to make her feel her own worth and to hurt the ones who’d made her feel disposable.

  It was a feeling he knew well. Being a slave taught you that lesson better than anything in the universe ever could, but he’d been found. Ari had come for him, and made him more than crew. She’d adopted him. He’d learned through experience that he had a place.

  The real irony here was that she’d been a princess, someone who should have been important to her family, her people, and he’d been a slave. He had a family, and she didn’t. Or she hadn’t. He was her family now.

  He might live to be ancient, and he would never forget this night, how she said she wasn’t real. Her wish to be a “Sorian woman”. Gods, his heart ached at that. Somehow, he would show her how real she was to him. He would teach her her value just as others taught her her lack of it, and no one would ever make Nina feel disposable again. He felt his fists clench at his sides. No one, he thought.

  *****#*****

  Nina woke up alone, tangled in the white sheets of a strange bed. She blinked through the starlight pain blooming in her head. Her mouth was dry as sandpaper, and her entire world shook when she moved to sit up. She groaned.

  “Good morning!”, Ra’dan said in a booming voice filled with laughter. Nina merely moaned again. He pressed a pill into her hand, since she refused to open her eyes. “For the pain.”

  She nodded. “Good thinking. Where are we?”

  “We are combing the comm channels to find someone with the resistance. Luca isn’t all that bright eyed this morning either.”

  “Did I do anything bad?”

  He laughed lightly. “You could barely walk, so there was no dancing on tables in the galley.”

  She groaned and rolled over slowly to her back. “I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t have to apologize to me. You didn’t do anything wrong, except listen to Luca, who, by the way, will lead you astray every time.”

  Nina grunted. “I’ve noticed. I wasn’t that hard to lead, if I’m being honest.” She ran a hand up over her wildly mussed hair and brushed it back out of her eyes which she gingerly tried to open. Things were blurry, but she slowly saw vague shapes of the room; a chair, a desk, wall shelves with netting stretched across them. She blinked. So much white. Her eyes strayed to Ra’dan who stood turned slightly away, going through something on his datapad.

  His uniform molded to his body, down his long, tapered legs. She followed the line up to his strong back. His hands were olive in tone, so he was being honest about not being upset with her. She sighed a relieved sigh. Today, he’d wrapped his long, tawny hair in a loose strand across his back. Something glinted at her from the braided cords. Gathering the sheet around her, she stood carefully.

  Padding to stand beside him, she reached for the long rope of hair where something sparkled. Most of his beads were wooden. This one stood out in its beauty. “What’s this?”

  He smiled a little, but didn’t look up at her. He merely continued to scroll some file or other. “It’s a family heirloom. Marmy gave it to me when we saw her on Brin.”

  “Oh, what’s the occasion?”

  “It symbolizes bonding, taking a wife, starting a family.” Now, she suspected he was toying with her as he tried to focus on his work, even as he said something so intimate, so amazingly special.

  “Really. Marm gave it to you?” Did she have Marmy's blessing after all?

  He finally broke and turned toward her, putting his datapad down. His dark hand lifted her shoulder length curls that were getting a bit too thick. She watched him trace her shoulder, the fragile lines of her collarbone, until she couldn’t watch his hand anymore as he sweetly studied her neck and chest above the stark sheet.

  “It’s a pair, you know.” His voice dipped into the husky range he reserved for her alone. “I don’t know how Marmy knew, but she did.”

  “So, it’s like wedding rings?”

  “Similar. Although, I will wear mine, even if you don’t want to adopt the custom. It’s not strictly necessary.” As he spoke, however, she got lost in the sensation of his hand playing in her hair, almost as if he imagined his Ci’la lanai there already. Her hand rose to clutch his.

  “I want it.” She pressed his half-open palm to her mouth. “I really want it. Can you show me how to wear it?”

  He leaned over his desk to the side with the chair pushed partially out to open a drawer. A wooden box rested inside, aged but treasured. He opened it to show her the rich red hue of several small jewels enclosed in a simple, golden bead with waves worked along the metal.

  His large hands cradled the delicate jewels. “My family were originally fishermen, sailors. Waves were a part of a... what’s the word you would use?”

  “Family crest?”

  “Of a sort. Yes, just so. It was the symbol of our family. Tides turn, but they always come back. That’s what these lanai mean. Like the sea, love changes, but it is always there.”

  “Oh,” She spoke softly. “I like that.”

  He went to his bedside table and grabbed up a simple comb. “I will show you”, he said. He also picked up bands like she'd seen other Sorians use in their hair.

  She sat on the floor between his legs on her knees while he combed and braided her hair back in an elaborate net of triangles just at her bangs. He wove the bead into the center of all the little strands pulled geometrically back tightly. When he handed her the small mirror he’d retrieved from the shower, she looked nervously, then gasped covering her mouth.

  She looked like someone else. Her pert nose and clear eyes were accentuated by the braids. Nina stared in amazement. She felt like the image she’d known till now hadn’t been her, but this, this was her.

  “You look beautiful.”

  She smiled. “I look Sorian. Well, a little.”

  He pulled at her shoulder to get her attention. “Look at me. You look like you. I don’t need a Sorian woman or a human one. I need you.”

  “I just mean...” Nina rested her arms on his thighs. “It feels good. It feels like I belong with you, not just that I am with you.”

  He shook his head with amusement. “Silly woman. When was that ever in question?”

  Nina felt a smile grow wide across her face. How had she ever stumbled across this man?

  She reached up to kiss him still kneeling and bracing on his strong thighs. She kept the kiss light, giving him just a little contact as she brushed her mouth over his. Then she felt the slow burn in her lower body like tripping a breaker. She lit up.

  His hand slid up her arms where they held her up. “You know what I hear is good for a hangover?” She whispered the words into his mouth before slipping her tongue lightly across. She felt it work, felt his body tense and lean into hers. Felt his hands drag her closer so he could deepen the kiss. She loved being able to tempt him.

  Finally, he dragged her over his body to lay her on his bed. It felt like it had taken forever to seduce him temporarily away from his duty, but, now that she had, he covered her body with his own and proceeded to do a little seducing of his own.

  *****#*****

  7

  The shuttle landed only long enough to drop Nina and Ra’dan off at the last known location of the resistance leaders, a small recess in the foothills of the jungle. It was close enough to the city to hit the slavers and run, but it was far enough to keep the families in hiding safe in the network of underground caves below the small mountains. They believed. No one was sure.

  Ra’dan tossed their pack higher on his shoulder as he pulled out the sensor and tracking device that would allow them to find the largest concentration of peop
le in the area n. From there, it was a matter of hoping no one shot first and asked questions much later.

  Sorian warriors are taught basic skills of the jungle, to fight, as children, since their history of warring tribe against tribe wasn't as remote as some of the elders liked to pretend. Ra'dan believed they would stop the two of them, and he could, as one of them, ask to be taken to the elders. Like every part of his plan to date, this one could go wrong at the flex of a trigger finger.

  The falls were visible over the low jungle canopy before them. They would just start walking in the right direction and expect to be captured by perimeter guards sometime in the next two hours. It was the only option he saw.

  Insect noises competed with high pitched screams from birds as they walked along. Nina monitored codex chatter in her headset as they walked. It was his job to make sure she had solid ground beneath her feet as she listened intently for slaver locations and plans. He expected to be within sight of a rebel camp within the next hour. Whether they wanted to be found was still a question.

  Nina stopped walking and held up a hand. She whispered, “Movement to the south. Headed our way.”

  He took her arm and pulled her toward the nearby trees. They’d go under the canopy until the patrol passed them by. He took them far enough into the foliage that they couldn’t be seen, not so far they wouldn’t hear what happened on the road.

  Several minutes later, they heard the patrol on the road. He wondered at times how slavers managed to take his people at all, but then he’d remember. The Sorian’s had left the trees. That was when it all changed. They’d taken up plows and left their warrior culture behind over time.

  He remembered the stories his Marm told around the fire when he was a boy of the great warrior, T’legh. His people, then, had fought for their jungles and their home. Though they'd been tribal, and sometimes they'd fought each other. His people, now, though they were unified, were cattle to slaughter as technology poured in from the sky. That was what had to change.

  Once they rid themselves of these slavers, the people of Brin needed to acquire tech, and quickly. They couldn't rely on their oppressors to see reason and watch their bottom line like good businessmen, because sometimes men weren't logical. The only things that would keep the slavers at bay for certain were orbital drones, mechs, and trained mercenaries. These were things Ra'dan knew how to acquire.