by T. J. Quinn
“For my ground team, once you have performed your routine armor and weapons maintenance, consider yourselves off duty until further notice. You’ve earned it. Everyone should check the logs to see if we have rescued any of your family so far or if they have been taken by the Picans to any of the sites we haven’t checked yet,” he said finally. “And that will be all. Dismissed.”
We, the fantastic four, just sat there as most of the others left except my friends and their mates. There was no official meeting called, but we evidently had things to talk about. The other three women and three men drifted over and sat down at the table with me.
“Wh-when did this all happen?” I asked. “H-how long have you known?” I looked at Commander Maktu almost accusingly.
“We were only notified a half hour before this meeting,” Maktu said evenly. “And, yes, it may be possible for you to go back to Earth with the involvement of the Alliance now. Because all of you were stolen from Earth by the Picans, the Alliance is demanding that you be returned.”
Pyrr, and Sahvin, and we women all looked at Commander Maktu in dismay. Give up our mates---our solmatu? Then we realized he was feeling equally dismayed as we were.
“What?” I cried. “No!”
“Do they know that we have been given asylum and have taken mates?” Harper said, what the rest of us were thinking.
“I don’t want to go back,” I said.
“Neither do I!” Scarlet, Nora, and Harper all said almost at the same time.
“I have already put in a request with the Consortium to ask that you four be exempt from the Alliance demand,” Commander Maktu said calmly. “You have all been officially declared solmatu which is essentially the same as meomee for Sahvin and Nora.”
“Do they even know we are here?” I asked. “It sounds like a general demand for the return of abductees from the Sargans.”
“We never checked the records from the Rauner to see if we were listed,” Harper said.
“But they will know because Commander Maktu put in that request,” Scarlet said with a critical edge to her tone.
“Scarlet, you need to understand that I have to follow the laws. Command has decided to rescind our resignation from the Consortium,” Maktu said. “I know how you all feel. I don’t want to lose Harper any more than you want to lose your mates.”
“I’m not going,” Harper said. “Aren’t we now Farseek citizens because we are solmatu?”
“According to our laws you are,” Maktu said.
“Then no one should force us to go back,” I said. “We are not being held against our will. You rescued us and took us in. We should have the right to stay here if we choose.”
“I think it’s a matter of letting them know that it is your choice,” Maktu said. “I don’t think this applies to Sahvin and Nora since he is from an Alliance world. Right now, there is nothing we can do but wait to hear back through channels.
“First we make our case to the Consortium, and the Consortium decides if it will advocate for us. I believe they will because they recognize solmatu. That’s just how bureaucracy works.”
“My people have been taking humans from Earth for centuries, and the Alliance has looked the other way because they are meomee,” said Sahvin. “I believe they may be demanding their return because the Picans abducted them from Earth. Once they affirm their wish to stay with us, I believe that will settle the issue.”
“I sure hope so,” I said wringing my hands under the table. “My life is with Argen now. We are going to settle on Farseek and make a family.”
I wondered if Argen had gotten this news wherever he was.
“Let’s see of our mates are listed in the Pican database.” Commander Maktu took out his personal tablet, and the small virtual screen lit on the table in front of him. He worked it with his fingers. Seconds later he said, “there. All of them are listed.”
“Damn!” Pyrr Avantu muttered. “Then we wait---but we are not going to surrender our mates. They have always been free to leave if they wished. They are even now, although we do not want them to leave.”
“They will drag me away kicking and screaming,” I muttered, on the verge of angry tears. Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think I could have the kind of love I had with Argen. Until that moment, I had been blissfully happy with him and the plans we were making for the future.
Chapter Twelve
Zoey
I pushed back my chair and jumped up. “Excuse me, I need to go to the gym and punch something.”
I ran down the aisle between the two rows of tables and out the exit to the gym at the end of the corridor. After everything we had been through and now this! I was either going to break down and cry in front of everyone or start breaking things.
In the changing room, I shucked off my clothes and took a clean tank top and shorts from the dispenser and put them on. I also took out a pair of punching gloves and put them on. Out in the gym, I found a free punching bag and started hitting.
It didn’t help much because even as I punched it furiously, angry tears streamed down my face. I just kept hitting, while crying and trying to work out the anger and frustration I felt. The damn Alliance didn’t know what was best for me! They damn well were not going to tell me where I could live and with whom!
Punch…punch…punch. Damn them! Damn them! Damn them! Punch, damn, punch, damn, damn…
Then when I couldn’t punch anymore, I just stood there and cried. I couldn’t lose Argen, I just couldn’t!
I turned to go back to the change room, and I was sobbing by then. I didn’t bother to change, I just took my clothes and went back to my quarters…alone.
I felt better after my shower but I was still feeling drained, so I laid down for a nap. I drifted to sleep remembering a few days before while we were still at Deng Yar.
We went to the food processor in mess hall and got our food, a casserole of meat and vegetable and fruit-flavored tea and took our usual seat at the back corner table. As I started to eat, I felt less tired. Sitting across from Argen for third meal was what I needed to perk me up. I had been so worried for the last couple hours because he was overdue. Just sitting there looking at him was pretty sweet.”
“What?” he asked, eyebrows raised. Apparently, he realized I was staring at him, and I was. I had been more scared than I realized waiting for him to get back.
“I-I’m just worried something’s going to happen on this mission. I will be so glad when it’s over,” I said, trying really hard not to cry.
“Don’t I’m coming back to you no matter what,” he said.
I was counting on it.
“What happens when we get to Farseek?” I asked.
“We might get to see our new house on the family farm. Each of my siblings and I had one built. I got to see mine when I was on leave before I was taken.”
“But they built a new one?”
“I put a request for it in case we made it back. I don’t know what we will get, though.”
“Are we going to settle or are we going on another mission when the Dreads get back?”
“What do you want to do?”
“I want it to be over, but I don’t want to quit while we know there are more people out there. Some of them might be going through what you did,” I said.
Argen gave me an affectionate smile. “Then I guess we decide when we find out if Command is going to make another run at it. There are still thousands missing. We can treat our time there as a leave.”
“That sounds good---but have you thought about after the missions.”
“Eventually, I’ll probably run shuttles in the system to freighters and passenger ships in orbit.”
“Well, that sounds boring.”
Argen laughed. “Well, I can’t be going off into the far sectors and leave you home alone to raise our offspring.”
“I don’t think I would like that,” I said. “If you’re going off to the far sectors, I want to go with you.”
“That’s
just it. We can’t take children on the Dreads, and I wouldn’t want to even if we could. So, I have to make a choice. But, sweetheart, it’s not that hard a choice.”
“But if there is a chance we could find your Mom or your brothers and sisters, shouldn’t we try?”
“You’re my family, now, too. What you want is important to me too.”
“Well, if my Mom and that brother and sister were missing, I would want to go help find them if other people were going to look for them. So, I say we don’t decide anything until we know if that’s going to happen.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” he agreed with a tender smile. “But when we settle down, I want to be home in bed with you every night. That will be excitement enough for me.” Then he gave me his sexy smirk.
We were both tired, but not so tired as I thought as my body responded to that glint in his eyes.
Our lovemaking that night was slow and tender and sensually satisfying. We held each other for a long time after we had reached our release.
As tired as we were, sleep didn’t come for a long time.
There was still a lot to do with over ten-thousand people to be settled on Farseek. Thousands of homes in five communities had been rebuilt in the three years since the attacks on Farseek. There were enough homes for the people that were returning, but not all had their homes replaced on the properties where they once lived. While they were on the journey to Farseek, the ship AI matched up people to the homes available. Most people were just glad to be going back to where they used to live where they would be free. Some were upset that their new homes were not where they used to be.
So, I told a few people about my experience being taken from Earth then rescued by Commander Maktu and his teams. Then we discovered they had never heard of Earth and had no idea where it was.
“We had a good cry when it looked like we were never going home. But we had a lot to be thankful for,” I told one woman. “We slept on the conference room floor for the first month.”
“They had nowhere else to put you?” the woman said.
“They didn’t. That’s before we got this lovely ship. All they had were the Dreads when they started their rescue mission,” I said. “It may not be the house you had in the place you used to live, but you are going back to your home world a free woman.”
“You’re right, I should be thankful for what I have,” she said.
“You said you wanted to live Nisaktu?” I asked.
“Yes, and this house is in Wasaytu.”
“Okay, then, I will put that request into the AI terminal so that we might find someone who wants to trade with you.”
“Thank you, Zoey,” she said with a smile.
It was good to keep busy because I missed Argen terribly when I had nothing to do. My friends included me at meals which was sweet of them, but sometimes it was worse, sitting with them with their mates at their sides without Argen at mine.
I missed him so much. He just had to be all right. He had to.
Chapter Thirteen
Argen
I knew Zoe was safe on the Kurellis but the nights were endless without her. I spent a lot of time at the observation portal since Dread Four sent the shuttle to pick us up in the middle of nowhere on Deng Yar. We were only stranded for a couple hours, but it was already too late when I was knocked out of orbit. I got to see Kurellis blink out as I was spiraling toward the planet.
As Zoe would say, it plain sucked being separated like this. Then to learn that the Alliance was demanding the return of the Earth women. Commander Eldiotu assured me that the Consortium would negotiate to let the women choose whether they wanted to go back. I knew Zoey wouldn’t go unless I did.
“Trematu, I thought I’d find you here,” said Zorem Pegitu. “I’m glad you made it out.”
“Me too,” I said. “Except now I’m separated from my solmatu. She’s on the Kurellis. That’s where I met her, the day I got off Julconi.”
“Eldiotu thinks we’ll catch up with them once we get back in Consortium space.”
“I sure hope so. Otherwise, it’s going to be three months,” I said. “I feel like it’s a sentence.”
“I can’t say I know how you feel, because I don’t. You did a good thing though. They’re saying they didn’t think anyone could have put down that piece of Sargan junk the way you did. You saved fifty lives and your own.”
“And I lost my second ship in a row.”
“Not like it was your fault. That Pican slaver was a piece of junk, too. It couldn’t even get out of its own way,” Pegatu said. “But that landing on Deng Yar was spectacular.”
“Thanks, I’m just glad it worked. I wish I could have gotten picked up in time to get back to Kurellis before it blinked out,” I said. “Zoey probably freaked out when she heard the Alliance was demanding their return to Earth.”
“They’re not going to let that happen. You said one of them was Commander General Maktu’s solmatu. You all declared it.”
“Yes. It’s just bureaucracy. We’ll get it settled. All they need to know is the women aren’t being held against their will. It’s just a matter of time.”
“And it’s just a matter of time before we catch up with the Kurellis. Go get some sleep. I’m going to,” Pegatu said.
“Might as well try.”
We didn’t hear back from the Consortium for almost a month. In the meantime, we were busy planning the logistics of getting everyone transported from the Kurellis down to Farseek once they put into orbit there.
They had only three shuttles and five pilots. There were over ten thousand people to move down to the planet from orbit. Everyone was not going to the same town, and those who were not from Farseek were still finding out where they were going.
It took less time than expected to make repairs on Dread One so we could all head back to Farseek. There were still some sections that remained closed off for repair. But the stardrive was back online. I never made it back to Dread One. There was no need to get out a shuttle to send me back when I was not needed. All of my close friends were on Kurellis. I was just marking time until we got to Farseek.
We had the same information as Kurellis on where we would be taking people on Farseek so we could work on the logistics of moving them all. Each shuttle trip could take an hour or more depending on where in orbit around Farseek the Kurellis would be at any given time. We had thirty shuttles to move over ten-thousand people if all the dreads make it back in time.
Each shuttle could carry fifty people. As yet there was still no mass transportation, so they needed to determine where people were going on the planet. Even before the raids, mass transportation on Farseek was limited. Most of it involved moving agricultural products with most people using their personal fliers to get from place to place on the planet.
We were limited on how far we could go with the actual schedule because we didn’t get the complete roster before Kurellis blinked out but we determined that we could get it done in a few days without the pressure of worrying about the Sargans attacking us.
We finally heard back from the Alliance via the Consortium regarding our Earther mates. The Alliance accepted our solmatu declaration, requesting Zoey and the other women complete vid-forms for the record so they could notify their families. We got that news just days before we arrived to orbit Farseek.
We already knew it wasn’t the Farseek of our memories, and it would never be again. Although I hadn’t been back as Commander Maktu and the rest of the Brigade, I’d seen the vids of the aftermath. Seeing it in person could only have been worse.
The cities were gone. We’d only had one large city Waseytu which was now just a village. The rest of the planet was lush and green, but weeds had encroached on much of the farmland in three years. Villages had been rebuilt in what had been the five largest population centers of Farseek. Homes had been replaced on the farms of the Farseek Brigade.
Not knowing who they would be bringing back to Farseek, not all of the people they were
returning would find homes rebuild on their original property. They were given a choice of villages where homes were available and assigned a house that matched their needs as closely as possible. Farseek natives got the first choice. Other immigrants were given the second choice and generally chose, homes near the Farseek natives they befriended.
I had received vids of my family’s property and the new home that replaced mine. That new home was the only one on the property because none of the rest of my family had been located.
A third communiqué came in from the Consortium just days before we reached Farseek. They had an updated list of captives taken from Farseek by the Sargans. The Alliance sent in Defense Force battleships and Law Enforcement ships to track down people stolen from their territory and assist the Consortium in taking down the Sargus Empire. Combined forces set up a blockade of the Sargus System and sent in ground teams to bring down the Emperor Arbentine Sargus and his tyrannical regime.
The Consortium had formed a treaty with the Alliance to squeeze the Sargus Empire into submission. That news alone was fantastic but in addition to that my mother, sister and one brother were on the list of captives from Farseek. The two interstellar entities would be sending ships to various systems to retrieve the various people who had been enslaved and transferring them back to their own worlds. We all cheered when we heard the announcement.
We thought the Consortium betrayed us, but they didn’t. It took them long enough to figure out what happened, but now they were trying to make things right.
Chapter Fourteen
Zoe
Some of the Dreads were finally in range for communication by the time we were nearing Farseek. Argen finally commed me, and I had a hard time not to cry when he did. It was so good to see him, even though only on my com-screen.
