The Spider Queen (The Space Merchants Book 5)

by Wendie Nordgren

  Dario watched Felix but said nothing. Fear, pain, and the neural blocker made me sick. The constant buzzing in my head was taking its toll. I tried to breathe through it.

  “Let me guess. Reverse nanite technology? That’s a shame. I thought giving Neema back would put him in a better mood.”

  I stared at the black carpet and tried not to throw up again. “You left me with Nathan Green. You let him hurt both of us.”

  The shiny black shoes returned to my field of vision. “Teagan, it was nothing personal against you. You were never even supposed to exist. Tavere was by all accounts sterile. I didn’t know of your existence until Green thought that he had murdered Neema. I saved her. I could have let her die, but I didn’t. I didn’t have the means to replenish her blood or supply the necessary tissue samples. As punishment for his actions, I forced Green to raise you.”

  “Why have you captured her?” Dario asked.

  “I need a valuable hostage so that I don’t face the same fate as my clone. Teagan has made quite the name for herself in the Talpa Sector. They call her the Spider Queen and plead for her return. Tavere refuses to part with her, of course. However, I will bring her back to the Talpa and Eloneave. Through her, I will mold their burgeoning society into a force to one day rival the might of Parvac. With Teagan at my side, Tavere won’t dare move against me. Guards, take Admiral Galerius to a holding cell.”

  I watched from the corner of my throbbing right eye as Dario was dragged to his feet. Hearing the lift doors close, I knew that I was alone in enemy hands. How or from whom was Felix getting intelligence reports? Managing to turn my head, I saw stars streaking through the viewport. It had been a mistake to look. Overcome by dizziness, I collapsed to the floor of the bridge. I was lifted onto a shoulder and carried into the lift. I closed my eyes against the spinning, but it didn’t make it stop. Soon, a bed was under my butt.

  “Let’s get these off of you. I apologize for my men. They take security very seriously,” Felix said.

  My hands were freed. Once my hand stopped tingling, I reached up to my temple with the intent of pulling the neural blocker from my head.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Once implanted, prongs extend to hold the needle in place. After we have travelled several parsecs, I will remove it for you.” Felix paced in front of me. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to watch. The buzzing in my brain was maddening. “It won’t take as long as you think. My ship travels faster than any ship you have ever seen.” He walked away. When he returned, he handed me a wet cloth.

  I took it and held it to my face. “Take this thing off.”

  “You know I can’t do that. The hybrids would be able to locate your position if I were to do so. However, I can help you to become more comfortable.” Felix began removing my flight suit. I swatted at his hands, but he ignored me. “Teagan, you’ve been sick on this,” he said as he pulled it and my shoes from me. “Here. Lie down.”

  Felix dragged me up to the pillows. The change in position had my head spinning even faster. Again, I tried to call out to Zared. Slicing pain had me seeing black slashed with hot red as my brain pounded in protest. Sounds made it clear that he hadn’t left.

  “You are such a beautiful little accident. You look so much like Neema, but you lack her self-assurance and strength. I like that about you. You will do everything that I tell you to do and say everything that I tell you to say.”

  “Go to hell.” The agony in my skull made it too hard to concentrate. I felt hands at my waist. “What are you doing?”

  Felix ignored my inquiry. He tugged at my ankles and pulled off my pants. Startled, I opened my eyes. Felix stood beside me, naked and aroused. I used my heels to push myself farther up the bed and away from him. His hands closed around my ankles and dragged me back. “Calm down. I am not going to hurt you, Teagan. However, I have no intentions of having a platonic relationship with you. You will take me. As your husband and as a member of the Imperial family, Tavere will no longer have the option of executing me.”

  I kicked both of my feet as hard as I could but was unable to break free. He threw his weight against me and positioned himself between my legs. Panic and fear sliced through me, and for a moment the buzzing in my brain was silenced. I began pummeling Felix with my fists. Lifting his torso, he ripped away my shirt and struggled with my bra. His mouth closed over my nipple. He stopped to look at me and ignored my fists which only made him blink.

  This was the man who had destroyed my parents’ happiness, imprisoned my mother on an alien world, let my father mourn and grieve for twenty years, had an abusive monster raise me, and had murdered my husband before my eyes.

  “I will please you as no other has. I know you have thought of me,” he said as he smiled seductively and lowered his mouth to my right breast.

  I could feel his thick erection pushing against my underwear. I reached up and twisted the neural dampener before ripping it from my head. Warm blood ran through my hair. Jiri ran his hands down my sides as he sucked on my breast. He lifted his hips as he grabbed at my underwear to pull them from me. When his eyes met mine, I rammed the sharp end of the neural blocker into his throat. His flesh gave way as the point sunk in with a little pop of sound. Then, I pulled it out and stabbed him again. Shocked and with abject horror on his face, he rolled from me as he clutched his bleeding throat. I followed. I stabbed at any part of him that I could reach. My hate and anger warmed me in the cold room and chased my own shock away to hide in the shadows. Slippery with blood, the neural blocker fell from my fingers. Felix swung his fist and sent me flying. I hit the hull and slid to the floor.

  “Zared! Zared!” I screamed in my mind with all of my will.

  Then, I felt pushed to the back of my own mind as Zared entered my consciousness. He saw Jiri as I did, alive, naked, and bleeding from small puncture wounds. Then, he saw Felix reaching for me and dragging me across the carpet while I kicked ineffectually at him. Jiri slapped me hard across the face, but I didn’t notice the sting. It was Zared with whom he now fought.

  My legs shot out and up around Jiri’s neck. They squeezed. Jiri turned red in the face. His fingers dug into my thighs as he pried them free.

  “Well, you do have some fire in you, Teagan. You are only making me want you more. Next time, I’ll tie you to the bed.”

  Zared brought the heel of my hand up against Felix’s nostrils. Blood poured from his nose, and he fell to the side. Zared and I stood. On weak, shaky legs, we went to a desk and found a console. It required a retinal scan. We walked back to Jiri. I watched from a distance as my hand shot down, and my fingers gripped and pulled Jiri’s left eyeball free. Standing, we returned to the scanner. Then, through my eyes, Zared read the screen. He put Jiri’s eye down and began typing in commands that he stole from the mind of the vessel’s captain. A communication line opened before me.

  I recognized one of Ephors’ commanders. Moments after seeing us, his surprise vanished and was replaced with an unshakable calm that came from years of command. My voice said a string of numbers. I heard myself saying, “…reflective camouflage, stop this vessel at any cost. It is not to leave our system.”

  Pounding began against the door to Felix’s quarters. We turned and moved to stand to the side of the door. Far away, I could hear the orders issued by the Parvac commander, but the sound of his voice disappeared from my thoughts as a soldier burst into the room. Zared struck. Jiri’s pants were in my hands. Zared used the pants to twist the blaster from the soldier’s hands. He fired several shots making the soldier jerk like a dead leaf hanging by a strand of an abandoned web.

  Zared took a second, smaller blaster from the soldier’s belt and walked down the corridor. He lifted the blasters and rapidly fired at the next soldier who appeared. He took a larger blaster from him and put the smaller one into the waist of my underwear. Finding a service passage, we walked along it and then into a small lift. We took it down a deck. My hands felt sticky on the blaster rifles. Zared raised my arms an
d fired blast after blast as soon as the doors opened into the two guards stationed on the deck.

  Dropping a blaster, Zared grabbed a man’s wrist and pressed his palm to a scan pad on the wall beside a door they had been guarding. The door opened revealing Dario. Through me, Zared said, “Stand and turn,” but I heard my voice. The restraints fell from Dario’s wrists. He bent to release his own ankles. “Ephors’ fleet comes for her. Find a secure location and keep her safe. I can do no more or risk permanent damage to her.” I felt Zared’s love before he withdrew from my mind. I swayed.

  Dario kept me from falling. “Get on my back and hold on, like in the pool,” he said.

  Remembering Yukihyo, I wrapped my arms around Dario’s neck when he crouched down and wrapped my legs around his waist. He picked up the blasters, paused, and then moved. Several times, he fired but kept moving. Eventually, he entered a small room. “Activate the medical emergency contamination containment field,” he growled.

  “Okay! Don’t kill me!” a terrified male voice begged.

  “Get over there,” he ordered. Then, he fired repeatedly. “Teagan, baby? You can let go.” Dario crouched down. I forced my legs to unclench. Dario held onto my waist as I let my arms relax. He picked me up and put me on an exam bed.

  “Soldiers,” I stuttered. They were trying to get inside of the small medical bay.

  “They can’t get in, and the only person who can override the containment field is dead. You’re safe. I’ve got you.” Dario grabbed handfuls of sterilization wipes and began cleaning me. He knew first aid and began working on my temple. “Here, can you help?” Dario placed a big wipe in my hands.

  I lifted it to my nose and smelled its crisp clean scent. Then, I scrubbed at my chest where Jiri had had his mouth on me. A pile of wipes tinged with pink soon filled a sterile tray next to the exam bed. Dario found blankets and wrapped me in them. The ship lurched. Dario harnessed me to the exam bed.

  “You could use some medical attention yourself,” I said as my teeth chattered.

  Dario grinned at me. “For this? I’m fine.” A swelling bruise shaped like the butt of a blaster ran the length of the left side of his face.

  “Dario, what if the Jiri that Zared and I…. I think we may have killed him.” I shuddered. “What if he was a clone, too? Oh, stars! Could Momma be a clone?” I sobbed.

  “No, we thought of that. Empress Neema needed such intensive medical care that the physicians studied her down to the molecular level. She’s real.” Dario patted my arm. Then, he steadied himself with a hip against the medical bed as the ship lurched several times in quick succession.

  “What’s happening?” I asked.

  “I’m going to assume that my ship and perhaps others have found us. They are firing to slow and disable the ship. They won’t want to destroy it with us on it.”

  I started laughing.

  Dario kept a blaster aimed at the medical bay doors. “Teagan, are you still with me?”

  “Yes, this is just so fucked up. We were having so much fun. Then, bam. After repairs are made to your beautiful fighter, do you want to try to take me up again? Are you brave enough?”

  “Definitely.”

  Jiri’s Earth Loyalists appeared to have given up attempting to get into the medical bay.

  “When we get home, I’m planning out our next date,” I said.

  “How will you match the excitement of this one?” Dario asked.

  “I have no intentions of doing any such thing. We will have a boring picnic on my back lawn beside the lake. Maybe, we can even do a little fishing from the bank.”

  A loud explosion made the bed beneath me shudder.

  “I would like that. It’s a date.” Dario hefted both blaster rifles bracing them against his hips. The Earth Loyalists were back. This time, they had a technical expert with them who worked furiously to hack into the system controlling the medical containment field. “Teagan, they are desperate. That means we are close to being rescued. I’m going to put you into a medical escape pod to keep you safe.” Dario unfastened my safety harness.

  “No, you aren’t. You’re handing me a blaster, and I’m fighting at your side.”

  Dario gave me a hard, angry look but relented and handed me a blaster when the technician managed to hack through, and the containment shield began to fluctuate. Standing at Dario’s side, I lifted my blaster with tired, trembling arms and took aim. However, neither of us got a chance to fire. The technician’s head snapped back, and globs of pink and splatters of red coated the containment shield. The Earth Loyalists began to move in a jerky and macabre dance as multiple blasts pushed them forward and back.

  “Back into bed, Teagan. It’s over. Give me that.” Dario took the blaster from my fingers and covered me up. “Cover your eyes. Good girl. That’s it.” Dario had propped his blasters on the floor. I didn’t cover my eyes, but otherwise I minded. He tucked the blanket around me. “You have been very brave. It’s all over now. My men swarm the ship.”

  “Can we leave?”

  “No, we will remain right here until all precautions for your safety have been made.” It seemed like hours before Dario’s men flooded into medical. His chief medical officer began making a fuss over me. “I’ll carry her out. It will be faster,” Dario said. “Teagan, please close your eyes for me.”

  Deciding to humor him, I closed my eyes and rested my head against his shoulder with my face pressed to his neck. Dario had wrapped me like a spring roll in the blankets. He walked with long strides while exchanging information and giving orders to his men. The smell of death was heavy in the corridors.

  “Okay, baby. You can open your eyes now.”

  We were in a shuttle. I sighed in relief when I saw stars through the viewport. “There’s only one ship.”

  “Yes, she is mine. Other ships converge on our location while sweeping the system.” Once the shuttle had docked, Dario took me straight to his infirmary.

  “Stop!” I ordered his doctors. “Where is the decontamination shower?” I wanted all traces of Felix off of me. I stayed in the shower as long as the chief medical officer would allow it.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Two weeks had passed since my encounter with Felix. Papa hadn’t allowed Momma, me, or the children to leave the Palace grounds. Security had been tightened to such an extent that guards were always in view. Eli and Drex had vanished along with most of my Omnes Videntes. I believed them to be off world. Zared, Jazon, Izaac, and Zeth were often nearby and were constant sources of comfort. The Felix Jiri who had abducted me had been a clone. The real Felix could be anywhere. Since he had not known of the other clone’s execution, Papa assured me that Felix’s spies were not within the Parvac Empire. Where ever Felix was, he had not yet been punished for his crimes against the Imperial family. Even though Papa wanted me to believe there were no traitors among us, I believed he, Uncle Kagan, and the Inquisitors were using my Omnes Videntes’ telepathic abilities to test the loyalties of the Empire’s most powerful political leaders.

  My instincts told me that Felix’s spies were in the Talpa System. Of monumental concern was that I didn’t know if they were ensconced within the Parvac Fleet or the Galaxic Militia. Strong hands covered my shoulders and began massaging away the knots of tension. How many clones did Felix have? Would he try to take me again? Who could we trust?

  “Zared, can you do anything to calm Teagan’s mind?” Grandmother asked.

  “Yes, she just messed this one up,” Momma said as she looked down her nose at my efforts.

  I smirked at her and shoved the ugly cookie into my mouth. Momma, Grandmother, and I were sitting at a table in the Palace’s kitchen decorating cookies that we had baked earlier. Momma had made me practice with the icing on a plate before letting me ice the cookies I had baked. It was challenging to make the petals all even. We were making them for a tea party. I didn’t think the children and their stuffed animals would care how the cookies looked.

  “Teagan, the Lady Valen i
s wise. You are safe and should enjoy yourself. Yukihyo and Nico have the wading pool ready,” Zared said.

  Zared and I had formed an even closer bond. Without him, I didn’t want to think what would have happened to me. I had been trying to convince him to let me start training in a different way. My punches were ineffectual. I had to accept that they were mostly beneficial for the sake of surprise. I was a novice. However, Zared and the others had trained to fight since they could walk. They knew what move to make without needing to waste time thinking about it. I wanted Zared and the others to begin sparring through me. They were not keen on the idea. I began worrying about Niklos. He could begin walking at any time. Would Nico begin our son’s training?

  Momma reached over and smeared icing on my nose. Then, she laughed. “You are not allowed to worry. You are allowed to play and picnic on the back lawn until naptime. Then, after dinner tonight, we are watching silly movies in the entertainment room. No, Phillip, you are not allowed to select them, not after what you pulled the other night.”

  “Aww, come on, Momma Probus. Lighten up,” Phillip whined as he snagged a cookie.

  “Phillip, you need a wife,” Momma said with a speculative gleam in her eye. “I think I know just the girl for you. However, if you don’t strike her interest, I know of several ladies both young and old who may consider you.”

  I snorted at Phillip’s expression.

  Yukihyo came in and patted Phillip on the back. “What’s wrong? You look like a stag caught in headlights,” Yukihyo said.

  “Or one about to be neutered,” Zared said under his breath.

  Grandmother chuckled.

  I fed Yukihyo, Zared, and Phillip cookies from my plate so that I wouldn’t have to decorate them. Momma shook her head at me. Laughter flowed into the kitchen as Neema chased Thunderdrop under our table. Momma caught Neema, and Grandmother fed her a cookie. Niklos and Nico were right behind them.