I slid my arms around his waist and laid my head against his chest. We had just come back to our quarters from third meal. “I don’t doubt your skill, sweetheart, I’m just scared. When I was living alone on Earth working extra shifts every week, I never knew what it was like to have someone in my life to love me and to love like I have come to love you. I don’t ever want to go back to that.”
Keeping my arms around him, I looked up at him as he put his arms around me.
“I will do my best to come back to you, I promise,” he said meeting my gaze. “This quest is not what I had planned for my life before I was taken. But now, I feel I should help them because they helped me even though I am not of their kind.”
“I agree, but this prison planet sounds like a fortress. It sounds dangerous,” I said.
“That’s why they're bringing in all ten dreads, and we’re taking three companies down to subdue the militaries. We’ve got complete maps and building ID’s of the slave colony,” he said. “Commander Maktu and Pyrr think our biggest obstacle in this rescue will be the logistics of getting all those people off the planet.”
“That’s why all the shuttles from eight of the Dreads are going to make relay runs between Julconi and the Kurellis,” I said.
“With you and your Earth friends there to welcome them. It will free my mind from worry for your safety to know that you will be safe on the Kurellis,” Sahvin said and kissed my forehead.
“That’s what we thought about Scarlet’s assignment at Tegliar Station. I’m still wrapping my head around being on a spaceship in a part of the galaxy so far from home the nobody knows where it is,” I laughed softly. “It must be about nine months now. We were on the slave ship for nearly three---and close to six now with the Farseek Mercenaries.”
“And you didn’t believe in aliens,” Sahvin laughed. “Now you are mated to one.”
“Who’d have thought?” I pressed against him and looked up meeting his gaze. I could feel his erection against my belly. It had been barely two months since our first bonding, and we were still like randy newlyweds. “I would like to someday, do something like a wedding ceremony to celebrate our mating---if you wouldn’t mind.”
“We can do that if it would please you. We already said the mating vow,” he said, “That is all that’s required to register as bond mates.”
“Weddings are customary on Earth in my country,” I said. “Some are very low key while others are flamboyantly extravagant. I’ve been talking with Scarlet and Harper. We thought something like we did for Scarlet to give her the puppy. Only we could take turns making our pledges as couples.”
“I would be happy to tell the whole Universe that I am your mate and will be as long as I draw breath.”
“Me too, darling,” I told him and slid my hand down over his hard cock that was pressing against me through our clothes. “Let me take care of this for you.”
I didn’t have to offer twice.
CHAPTER TWELVE
SAHVIN
I couldn’t blame Nora for being worried about our next mission. Things could quickly go wrong at every turn. After being taken and enslaved myself, then saved by the mercenaries I could not hesitate to help them free more of their people.
Since I was mated to one of the Earth women as Pyrr Avantu and Commander Maktu were, I had been drawn into their inner circle. They gave me the rank of Lieutenant because of my experience and skill which I demonstrated through testing and performance. I was placed in the armored company and fitted with a superior full body armor suit and weapons array. That was one advantage of defending the Consortium, Pyrr told me. Their technology was the best in the sector.
Even though I officially finished my training, I practiced in full armor almost daily with my team. Lives would depend on my ability to fight as though I were born to it.
As we neared Julconi, Commander Maktu called a meeting of officers and team leaders after our regular training session.
“Dread Four contacted us while we were in training. In addition to some three thousand Uatu in the slave camp on Julconi, there are also several hundred Uatu among the general population.” Commander Maktu began.
“Lieutenant Commander Prevatu is sending down a team to seek out those people and direct them to a rendezvous point where they can be picked up.”
“Is that even feasible?” Pyrr asked. “It’s chaos, down there. Over 100,000 inmates free to wreak havoc.”
“But, they have no modern weapons. They are relegated to using bow and arrow, spears, knives, and swords. Our warriors will be fully armed, but not armored.” Maktu replied. “They went in as new prisoners with their weapons concealed. They’ve been there for a week, now. We should know by the time we get there how many additional Uatu they ferreted out.
“Between the eight Dreads, we will have in the area by the time we get there we will have twenty-four shuttles landing and taking off in succession. If each shuttle makes two trips, we should be able to get our people off-world with no more than two trips each.”
“That’s going to take every spare pilot we have plus the civilian pilots from the Kurellis,” Pyrr said.
“It will take almost forty hours to transport almost four thousand more or less, plus our forces,” Maktu added. “While we are down on the planet we will have four Dreads in high orbit patrolling and scanning for battlecruisers. There are no new ships bringing prisoners for at least a month.”
“Are the females going to be helping with loading passengers like they did at Tegliar Station?” I asked.
“No,” Maktu said, “while they are more than capable, we cannot afford to risk any of our females on a mission like this. It’s risky enough having them on the Dreads, but soulmates must not be separated for long periods.”
“Plus, we have a shortage of females to males, two to one,” Pyrr said. “We don’t have enough to repopulate at this point. We may have to seek them elsewhere.”
“Perhaps there are some females imprisoned that we can liberate as well,” I suggested. “We have enough room and supplies on Kurellis to support over ten thousand people.”
“That’s a good suggestion,” Maktu said. “I will send word to our teams to liberate as many females as possible.
“But what quality of female will we get from a prison?”
“There are probably many men and women who haven’t really done anything,” I replied. “People like those who started the revolution in the Earth women’s story---dissenters.
“The Sargan people are as much slaves as we were. Most of them just don’t realize it. The Empire rules their lives, but by providing slaves to work for them, they were under the illusion they were in charge. They have been indoctrinated since childhood to dedicate their lives to the service of the Empire. Anyone who dissents and tries to turn others against the Empire can easily end up in prison.”
“Well, said Sahvin. AI is sending that story out continuously at intervals,” Maktu said. “It might take years to have any effect, but it’s certainly worth doing. That’s all I have for you today. Dismissed.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
NORA
The closer we got to Julconi, the harder it became for me not to worry about Sahvin’s mission. Or to be more accurate, it was a stark terror that he wouldn’t come back. Although I tried to stay positive, it was hard, and I couldn’t help that my anxiety spilled over into our relationship.
I spent more time in training to become a medical tech than was required. I went to the gym for extra sessions and spent more time with the others from the slave ship. Maybe if I spent more time away from him, it wouldn’t hurt as much if he didn’t come back. I knew I shouldn’t be thinking that way but raiding a prison planet where they were outnumbered a thousand to one sounded suicidal.
Sometimes, I felt on the verge of panic, and being with Sahvin seemed to increase those feelings rather than soothe them. I didn’t realize I had been withdrawing until Sahvin called me on it when I was getting ready to go to the gym after t
he third meal for the third time in a week. I had already been there four times during the days as well.
“Nora, why are you going to the gym again? You already went once today, and you had hand combat training too,” he said as I was changing. “Your body is perfect, sweet one. I think you are avoiding me, and I’m not sure I understand why?”
I looked up at him, and I could see the hurt in his eyes as it dawned on me what I had been doing. I realized that it wouldn’t help, no matter what I did. I would still be devastated if Sahvin didn’t come back from the mission.
My eyes teared up as I looked at him and I wiped them away with my fingers. “Oh, Sahvin, it’s not you. It’s this mission… Sometimes I get so scared… Afraid you won’t come back.” More tears came, and I couldn’t stop them. “I feel like I waited my whole life to find you. I love you so much.”
Then I was wrapped in his arms sobbing against his chest. He rubbed my back and stroked my hair and let me cry. It was exactly what I needed.
“Nora, meomee, I am scared too. That will make me careful. I know my job, and I will do everything I can to come back to you,” he murmured against my hair. “I’m not going alone or unarmed. We have recon teams on the planet already.”
“I-I know all this, but it doesn’t make the fear go away.” I had almost cried it out by then. “I’m sorry, Sahvin, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I know you have to do this.”
“If you want to keep busy, so you don’t have to think about I, I have a better way,” he said with a familiar gleam in his eyes as I looked up at him.
That’s all it took for my body to react as he held me tightly. I suddenly wanted to be naked with him on me and in me, mouth fused to mine in a long, tongue probing kiss.
So instead of changing to go to the gym, we divested each other of clothing and fell into bed. I wanted him to just slide his hard cock into me, but Sahv had other ideas. He proceeded to drive me mad with desire, kissing my face and neck, lingering delightfully on my breasts, sucking each nipple in turn and kissing his way down over my belly to my pussy.
There, he lingered, sucking and licking my clit with a couple fingers buried deep in my opening. I wailed inarticulately as an exquisite orgasm racked my body with shudder after shudder. I was entirely beyond any rational thought by then, which I’m sure was his intent. I was still quaking with the aftershocks of orgasm as he moved over me and lowered himself on top of me and into me.
I can’t think of anything that felt better than the feel of his cock filling me to the hilt. He didn’t start fucking me right away. He just lay on me with my inner walls contracting around him and kissed me long and slow until my contractions waned.
“Sahvin… Sahvin,” I murmured his name between kisses. “I love you, I love you forever no matter what. You’d better come back to me!”
“I will,” he vowed.
I knew he meant it. That he would do his best.
But we didn’t say anything more as he slowly thrust in and out of me. I just basked in the feel of his magnificent body pressed against mine and wrapped myself around him. It was so much more than just a physical union---like our souls were melding as well as our bodies.
It seemed like hours that Sahvin teased me on the brink of ecstasy, breathlessly panting and so aroused, completely enthralled. Sahvin, my Sahvin. I must have come several times before he took his release, and then he stayed inside me until his cock hardened and we fucked some more. Meomee, Sahvin.
I later realized that I was wasting time worrying about what might happen when I should be cherishing every moment with my mate. It didn’t stop me from worrying about what could happen when I let myself think about it, but I stopped dwelling on it.
Sahvin was no rooky. He was a trained, battle experienced soldier. We both knew what it meant to be rescued from a life of slavery. These people the mercenaries intended to recover were just as deserving as we were.
I finally had to convince myself to stop fearing and start believing that they would succeed in their mission and come back victorious.
Somewhere I had read that thought was a dominant force in the universe. If one believed strongly enough, it could affect the outcome of an event. I finally chose belief in success rather than fear failure. It was so not fair to punish Sahvin with my fear when all the man had ever done was love me---well and often.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SAHVIN
I learned from Pyrr Avantu that he and the Commander had experienced similar distress from their mates as I had with Nora. Pyrr probably understood better than either Commander Maktu and I because he had faced that fear on the Tegliar station mission. They weren’t taking any chances this time.
When we put into high orbit over Julconi, Commander Maktu and Admiral Degatu had all the non-com females shuttled over to the Kurellis to help document all the rescues as they boarded from the shuttles. We had also recruited three other teams from the civilians aboard to assist with the process of housing more than three thousand people.
I hated to part with my Nora the night before the mission, but I knew she would be safest on the Kurellis under the guard of three Dreads. Once we started sending up shuttles of people for them to process, she would be too busy to worry about me.
When I first started training for this mission, it seemed like a long time until it happened. Then suddenly, I was donning the armor to do down to Julconi. My company was going after the Uatu prisoners who had been marooned on the planet to fend for themselves. There were almost a thousand of them including various humanoid females who, eagerly accepted asylum with the Uatu for the chance of freedom.
Our job seemed simple enough. We were to secure the perimeter for the shuttle coming and going and while transports were being loaded. The night before Nora went to the Kurellis, we went to bed early to make love one more time before we separated for our assignments. We wanted plenty of time to savor our joining and still get enough rest for our jobs.
I knew she thought it might be the last time our bodies would be joined in the rapture of our love. But even when our bodies weren’t joined in pleasuring each other, I felt as though Nora was a part of me. Just a few months we were together I felt that my life was whole.
My people called it meomee. The Uatu called it solmatu. They were two different names for the same thing---soul mates. Until I met Nora, I never had any significant interest in mere consensual sex for its own sake. I only tried it just a few times in my early military days. But it was more to fit in with the sapiens than for my pleasure. There is nothing like meomee lovemaking. We gave each other everything.
When we were both sated, we slept spooned together with her wrapped in my arms.
Nora and I didn’t talk about it anymore because we had both faced our fear together then put it away so that its specter wouldn’t endanger us more than the actual event. We shared several passionate kisses before I accompanied her to the shuttle bay where she would leave for the Kurellis. The kiss we shared there was only a gentle caress of our lips together for a few seconds. Then she reluctantly pulled back and turned to walk up the loading ramp without looking back.
Even though it was morning for us, it was night time for the slave compound on the planet surface. It was on a relatively large island about four hundred kilometers from the shore nearest the prisoner’s conclave. Julconi was not like the prisons of Earth. People sent there were given the barest essentials and marooned there.
Before we even arrived in the system, two of the Dreads that arrived there ahead of us, took out the battle cruiser that patrolled the star system to make sure no one tried to rescue any of the prisoners as we were planning. Other than that, the inmates ran the prison as they saw fit, which was basically survival of the fittest.
Only the slave compound had overseers and military security. The Sargan battlecruiser only contacted them when the monthly supply freighter arrived. It had come and gone before our arrival. The rendezvous point for the prisoners we planned to liberate was a few kilometers away from
the main conclave of inmates.
Those we were taking had been warned emphatically to keep the location secret, but we knew we couldn’t depend on that. There would be someone with a special friend they could not leave without saying goodbye. That was the reason we brought two companies down to the planet to protect the shuttles and the passengers we were loading.
Three more companies were on standby in orbit. We weren’t worried about the women and Uatu men the advance team had enlisted for evacuation. But if anyone had leaked the evacuation plan, we could be inundated with prisoners trying to get off the planet.
At the rate of one hundred people per shuttle, it would take about four hours for us to get over a thousand people off-world. Then we would be evacuated last.
My company consisted of twenty warriors, sixteen men, and four females. I was second in command. After Nora’s shuttle left, I went to the ship’s armory and got suited up in my armor with the others. All we wore under our armor was a pair of form-fitting shorts. As soon as we were suited and armed, we returned to the shuttle bay and boarded the shuttle down to the planet.
There was already a crowd of people waiting at the edge of the flat area of land the advance team had chosen. It was no starport and not even a real landing pad. It was an isolated plateau on the side of a mountain surrounded on three sides by sheer vertical rock faces. There was only one way to approach on foot. There were very few vehicles so all our evacuees would be arriving on foot.
It wasn’t the most accessible landing spot for the shuttle pilot, but our shuttles landed like helicopters rather than airplanes. The advance team picked the place for defense purposes, not for ease of landing.
Things were going fairly smoothly, except that we were expecting one thousand people and over fifteen hundred people arrived. Some were children who had been born on Julconi. Most of the extra people were friends of those who were on the list. Since many were unmated females, Farseek Command directed us to allow them to evacuate with the others because we needed the women and we had room for them. That added another two and a half hours to our evacuation schedule.
Sahvin's Mate Page 5
