“I would not want to risk our mates either,” I added.
“There’s not much we could do to help on Dread One because that’s a whole different kind of fighting than what we’re trained for,” he said.
When we got to the mess hall on Deck C where the women were registering the people we’d rescued from Nadoo, the four of them were alone there reviewing their reports and talking.
Nora looked up as we walked in and smiled at me with that sparkle in her eyes that made me want to pull her into a secret room someplace and have my way with her. We had been sharing a barracks with the other couples for the last few days. None of us had any real privacy except for tarps that we had hung between the bunks. The beds were so narrow that we could not even sleep together with her in my arms.
I was happy to tell her we would have our own quarters. But I also had to let her know about the dreads and the battlecruisers.
“Are they going to be all right?” she asked.
“They took some serious damage, but they can still make FTL,” I told her. “Now that we’ve blinked out, they will too. They were only staying long enough so we could get away.”
“Good,” she said. “So, we’re going to be here for three weeks?”
“I’m afraid so, sweet one, but we have our own quarters on Deck A.”
“Well, we’re done here. Why don’t we go check them out before third meal?” she suggested with a smile that told me we were thinking the same thing. “Did you hear? We took in a total of 5200 people including the thousand that were already here.”
“That’s great,” I told her. “Pyrr said we will probably be able to complete our mission with the Kurellis. There are right around ten thousand more people they have accounted for.”
“It’s unfortunate. The rest are feared lost or spread so thin that it will take years to find them,” she said.
“The Alliance would never have let that happen,” I told her.
“I’m sure you heard they believe treachery was involved.”
“I did, but so far it hasn’t been proved, nor do they know who was involved,” Nora said. “Commander Maktu hoped to learn something from Evzen Guryon, but he didn’t give a hint---just paid the reward and thanked him.”
“Perhaps he didn’t know,” I suggested.
“It’s possible, but somebody knows,” she said. “Finding them might be hopeless.”
We found our way to the staff lift to Deck A and walked down a long hallway to cabin twenty-three, and it opened automatically for us. Pyrr didn’t exaggerate that our quarters were tiny. There was a bed barely big enough for us to share in an alcove with a storage cabinet above and below and two small closets on either end of the bed.
The shower closet was barely tall enough for me to fit in alone and I would have to crouch down to get my head under the water. There would undoubtedly be no sharing the shower. The toilet next to the shower folded into the wall when not in use, or it would block the door to the shower closet. It wasn’t much as accommodations go, but we were alone.
Even though it had been months since our bonding, barely a day passed that we didn’t make love at least once. It had been eight days since we left Dread One and our “luxurious” cabin there.
We tossed our duffels on the floor and peeled off our clothes in a matter of seconds. Nora slid into the bed, and I followed her. I was inside her almost as quickly as she lay back opened her legs for me. We both groaned in relief to be joined once more. I didn’t even start fucking her right away, but just savored the feeling of my cock hugged in the warmth of her inner walls.
“Aaaahh, you feel so good,” we both murmured almost in unison. We kissed for a long time as my full weight pressed her into the mattress. The hard tips of her breasts were crushed against my chest, and she arched her back to rub them against me.
As I felt her inner walls contracting around my cock, I thrust slowly in and out of her for a while then stopped. “Patience, meomee,” I murmured when she groaned plaintively each time I did, “we have hours before third meal. I want to savor you, my love.”
She smiled up at me, and I kissed her again. It felt good to be home.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
NORA
Two days later, Pyrr told us that Dread One had escaped the Sargans and was making structural repairs with materials our teams had liberated from the Tegliar station. If I thought we were going to be bored for weeks until we could get back to Dread One, I was mistaken. We went from holding barracks to holding barracks talking to the people in each one about their needs and reassuring them that we had everything under control.
Some had medical needs which were, fortunately, things I could help them with. The Pican medical AI was geared to injecting bio-translators and tracking chips. The Picans generally spaced anyone who couldn’t be easily fixed.
Deck A had its own mess hall for the crew, such as it was. Fortunately, we had stocked it from stores on Nadoo, so we were able to get food that met our needs. A few days later we, the “fabulous four,” were meeting our mates for the second meal. When we entered the mess hall, they seemed to be deep into a serious conversation, so they didn’t even notice when we walked into the room.
“We have to tell them,” Commander Maktu insisted, “they have a right to know.”
“And what would that be,” Harper said curiously.
All four of them looked up guiltily I thought. Commander Maktu sighed.
“Come sit down, all of you and I will explain everything,” he assured us.
We each took the seat next to our respective mate and looked at Maktu expectantly.
“First, you will understand why we have been reluctant to share this with you, but it was never our intention to keep it secret,” he said. “Our AI team discovered clear coordinates for Earth in the ships AI system.”
“Well, of course, they would know,” said Harper, “they are the ones who stole us from Earth.”
“And there were some more from Earth among the people still aboard the ship when we seized it,” I said. “And you didn’t want to tell us because you thought we would want to go back and leave you…”
“It crossed our minds,” Sahvin admitted, and the others nodded.
“But even though we know its location there, it’s beyond any territory we have traveled before,” Commander Maktu said. “The most direct route would take us through the heart of the Sargus Empire. That would take six months. A safer route would take a year.”
“We knew it was far,” Harper said. “We were on that slave ship for at least six months.”
“Yeah, and it was a lot like this one,” Scarlet said, “but we didn’t have the luxurious accommodations we have now.” She laughed.
“Better than the barracks suite,” Sahvin said. “But you also found communications channels. The Picans have been frequenting non-space faring worlds and stealing people. I’m surprised the Alliance hasn’t caught them at it.”
“They have a method for jamming their scanners,” Maktu replied. “They also monitor their communications, so we can likely contact them.”
“I will be helping them on that,” Sahvin said. “I know the language.”
“How would you contact Earth, when they don’t even know about the Alliance?” I asked him.
“Some of them do. It’s not public knowledge,” Sahvin said. “I have contacts who can get word to your families. The Alliance taps into your internet all the time, I’m not sure we can do it, though. First I will try to contact the Alliance.”
“It will be like sending an email the way I understand it,” Maktu said.
“By now, everybody we knew probably thinks we’re dead,” Harper mused. “Are they going to believe an email that we were kidnapped by aliens instead?”
“She’s right,” Scarlet agreed. “They will probably think it’s a sick joke.”
“I know my parents would,” Zoe spoke for the first time. “They would only believe it if I showed up at their front door.”
&n
bsp; “At this point, we can’t even think about going to Earth,” Maktu said gently. “For one, it would be costly, and none of us are pilots. Plus we have our mission to complete.”
“We can’t stop now,” I said. “These people have no one else to save them.”
“I agree,” said Harper. “Zared showed me the holograms. It’s way far and a long time getting there.”
“I sure don’t want to go anywhere without Sahvin,” I said. “It would be nice to see home again one day, but we have a life here with these guys.” I reached for Sahvin’s hand under the table.
“As I have with you,” Sahvin said, gently squeezing my hand. “My purpose in contacting the Alliance is to warn them about the Pican slavers and the Sargus Empire. I didn’t realize that Empire territory so closely bordered the Alliance.”
“Once you get them the info on the jammers the Picans use the Alliance can probably put a stop to their invasions,” Pyrr said.
“That would be nice,” Scarlet said, “I wonder how many more lives those slimy fish faces have stolen.”
“We’ll probably find some more along the way,” Harper said.
“And we will help them all the best we can,” said Maktu. He paused for a moment then added, “I’m sorry we didn’t have better news for you ladies. That’s why we didn’t tell you sooner. We wanted to make sure we had accurate information before we got your hopes up.”
“But the bottom line is that it’s not likely we can go back to Earth,” Harper finished for him.
“I think we’ve all pretty much accepted that,” Zoe said. “It is a little comfort to know that Earth is no longer a world no one ever heard of.”
We nodded and started talking about other things. As I thought about Earth regarding our situation, I likened it to trying to get to Rome via Red China in a single-engine plane. Not impossible, but only on the very edge of the realm of possibility.
As far as I was concerned, we were home with these four men.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
SAHVIN
The three weeks we spent on the Rered Rauner passed more quickly than I expected. Scarlet and Pyrr had brought their dog, Bosha with them because they didn’t want to leave her alone on Dread One. She had doubled in size since we found her in that shop at Tegliar Station. Many of those we rescued had been traumatized in the attack on Farseek or the time they spent in the prison colony. Bosha’s sweet, friendly ways soothed them as they petted her. She probably brought them the first smiles they’d had since they were taken.
I would like to say the journey was uneventful. It was until we reached the rendezvous point with the Kurellis. As soon as we blinked in with the two dreads guarding us, we became ensconced in a space battle with four Sargan battlecruisers. They were attacking the Kurellis and the two dreads escorting it. The Pican ship was not well armed, but we had two dreads with us to even the odds a bit.
While the dreads went after the battlecruisers with guns blazing. They held the Sargan’s at bay while the Kurellis and Rauner moved off. Unfortunately, the Rauner took a severe hit that blew out our star drive and took out most of that compartment. All we had left was auxiliary power which wouldn’t last long.
Our pilot team commed the Kurellis immediately to dock with us with us for emergency evacuation. Then we got rushed rousting all the rescues from their barracks and lining them up to board the Kurellis as soon as their docking tube locked on to our emergency hatchway. There was little for us to pack since we had each only brought one bag.
The Rauner was salvageable had it been someplace like Tegliar Station, but we had neither the parts nor the funds to finance it. Commander Maktu polled the Brigade command representatives of the dreads, and they agreed that it was the best course to abandon the Rauner as soon as it was evacuated.
That meant our rescues from the prison planet would not be going home just yet.
They would be going with us to the next planet rescue planned. We had two dreads on reconnaissance to find the most significant pockets of Uatu people and strategize a rescue operation. The com operator set Commander Maktu up to make the announcement for evacuation. Our teams were set up on each of the four decks to direct our charges to the down tube which would float them down to the emergency exit to the Kurellis.
All while we were running the evacuation, Commander Maktu spoke calmly on the ship-wide com explaining to our passengers that the Rauner was severely damaged and systems were failing. They would be much more comfortable on the Kurellis where they would all have private accommodations that they could share if they wished or not.
As each barracks was evacuated, the ship’s AI was signaled to close it off and cut off life support after we confirmed evacuation. People were moving in an orderly fashion but time was running out. We bought an extra hour, maybe two by shutting down life support to all the evacuated compartments. We had already spent more than two hours herding people to the exit and time was running short.
There were so many people filling the corridor, I lost sight of Nora. I wasn’t worried at first until the crowd thinned out. I still didn’t see her, so I tried her com, and she didn’t answer. That’s when I started to panic and began comming the others in the team. Even if she had gone ahead to the Kurellis, she would have received a signal.
Deck B had a hundred barracks rooms off the main corridor, and all of them had been closed and life support cut. There was no way I could search them all before the last ones ran out of air. While I was consulting my team as to Nora’s whereabouts, AI ran a scan of all the barracks on our deck. But it was taking too long.
I started opening rooms manually. I didn’t even have to go in because I would scent Nora if she were inside the moment the door opened. I had checked ten rooms and was starting to feel frantic when AI commed me that there were two lifeforms in Barracks B50. They opened it automatically, and I sprinted down the corridor reminding myself the AI said lifeforms. It meant whoever was there was alive.
The room was brightly lit when I got to it and lunged inside. My Nora was lying on the floor with blood oozing from a wound on her head, apparently unconscious. As I went to her, I heard an angry scream and the flutter of a dragon’s wings as it swooped down at my head. One of our passengers had smuggled an Artaenian dragon aboard as a pet. (I learned what it was after we got it back to its owner.)
I thanked the fates that she was still breathing, she had somehow been knocked out. I picked her up and commed control to send a drone to capture the frightened dragon. Then I commed the Kurellis to have a floating stretcher waiting at the boarding tube to take Nora to sickbay. She moaned, starting to regain consciousness, and put her arms around my neck as I was carrying her.
In sickbay, the AI Medic cleaned the wound on Nora’s scalp and applied a few cc’s of nanite gel. It also sent a squirt up her nose for the concussion. About an hour later, she became oriented enough to tell me what happened. The whole incident left me badly shaken because she could have died had we not found her in time.
The thought of losing my mate nearly made me hyperventilate. It was a stark terror that squeezed my heart. It could literally kill me at this point in our relationship. Without Nora, that wouldn’t matter to me. I loved her that much.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
NORA
It was such a stupid thing to happen. The young Uatu woman was frantic when I was in her barracks to make sure they all got out.
“I can’t go without Leeko,” she cried. “With all this commotion he’s spooked and won’t come down. If I leave him here, he will die.”
“What’s a Leeko?” I asked.
“He’s an Artaenian flying dragon. He was just a baby when I found him in the yard at the slave compound,” she told me. “I raised him on scraps of food I saved out from every meal, and some of the others gave me their leftover food, too. He’s really very sweet, but he’s scared right now, and he won’t come down.”
I could easily understand why she wouldn’t leave him behind. I had found a tiny ki
tten once while I was in nursing school. I bottle fed that baby around the clock, and he grew up to be a big beautiful boy. I loved that cat, and my parents did, too. He went to Florida with him.
I knew if I were in her place, I couldn’t leave my pet in this failing starship to die in the cold dark of space.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Moralla Weyatu,” she replied.
“Okay, Moralla, you have to go with the others. I promise I will get some help to catch Leeko and bring him to you on the Kurellis,” I told her urgently. She started to cry as I practically pushed her out the doorway.
Well, that just upset Leeko even more. He swooped down at my head, and I ducked and hurried to get out of his way. I caught my foot on the leg of one of the bunks. I remember falling then lights out. I must have hit my head on one of the metal bedframes when I fell.
When I roused the first time, I realized Sahvin was carrying me, and I put my arms around him. The next time I woke, he was holding my hand to his cheek looking very worried.
“Hey, Sahv, I’m okay, honey,” I told him. “It doesn’t even hurt now.”
He blinked and looked at me as though he couldn’t believe I had spoken to him. His eyes looked suspiciously moist until he blinked again. “Ah, Nora, don’t ever scare me like that again!” he asserted. “I nearly lost my mind when I found you laying on the floor with blood dripping from your head.”
I sat up slowly and turned, dangling my feet over the side of the treatment lounger, and held out my arms to him. “Come here, sweetheart.”
He got up from the padded stool and came into my arms. I hugged him to me and pressed my cheek against his firm chest. “I’m sorry, Sahv. It was a stupid accident. Until today, I’d never even heard of an Artaenian flying dragon. Did they get him off the Rauner?”
Sahvin's Mate Page 9
