by Bevan Greer
Castor was his closest friend, yet Ren had never felt comfortable talking to him about his early years with Zedrax or his Fenturi heritage. Speaking with the Hams made Ren feel like a part of something more, something better. So…strange, when he’d been dreading anything Fenturi-related for what felt like forever.
“Nexios ahead.” Primo’s voice interrupted his musings.
Ren strode from the galley to join the others in the control room. He’d spent enough time dwelling on the past. Now, on to their future. That’s if they’d even have one. Time to stop the Horde with the stubborn Mari’s unwilling help.
***
Dare stroked Mra’s soft fur and stared out the portal of the Green room, watching Nexios as they approached.
“I wonder how Methan is doing,” she said, though her thoughts raced along completely different lines. She’d been practicing what Mra had told her about muting her Fenturi instincts. It added more of a strain than just toning down her skin color or dimming the brightness of her eyes, but she didn’t want to feel so sexually aware of Ren anymore.
You need him, Mra repeated, as she’d been saying. And you need to stop looking at a whole race as the enemy. That’s an unintelligent mindset common of the Bylaran, she added in a dismissive tone. Her long tail swept over the ground in irritation.
And you have never hated an entire race? Dare asked wryly. What about the Olm?
They aren’t a race. They’re vermin not worthy of my bite. Mra playfully smacked Dare with a large forepaw. Now focus on your inner senses. You’ll need them for your visit with Methan.
Aren’t you coming? I thought you’d love to get offship. I know the Nexians don’t have many trees near the main city, but still…
No. I want to be here, without so many men afoot. Besides, I want to explore the ship, so make sure to leave some space by the door so I can slip out undetected when they come for you.
Your wish is my command, Dare teased.
Mra flickered her ears in annoyance. If only.
A short time later Castor retrieved Dare from the room and smiled at Mra.
“I think she likes you.” Dare stared at the feline. “She rarely tolerates anyone not Kre. She barely even likes me,” she said dryly.
True. Mra’s whiskers twitched in laughter.
“I doubt that.” Castor took Dare by the arm and gently tugged her toward him. He closed the door but looked around suspiciously when he felt, but could not see, Mra slide by him. Dare refrained from reacting and mentally chided Mra for teasing the large man.
“We are in Nexios already?” Dare asked to take his mind from the wayward Fentra-Kre cat.
“Yes. Come on, Ren’s getting impatient to be off.”
They hurried below deck. Dare thought they meant to use shuttles but stopped in place when she noted the transformitters fastened to everyone’s clothing.
“We’re all going? But who’s staying to protect the ship?”
Ren gave her a condescending smirk. “We are the Eyshan6. No one boards her for fear of a most painful and lingering death. Any other questions?” he asked as Castor dragged her to his side.
Ren fastened the beacon to the collar of her shirt, his fingers brushing her soft skin. Though she had muted her instincts, she couldn’t help feeling a small tingle of warmth and possession at his touch. What was this connection between them? Ren made no gesture to show that he felt anything, so she put the question from her mind.
“Okay, Primo. Hit it,” he said.
In a split second Dare found herself standing in a receiving area on Nexios. She looked around her, content that though her life might be out of sorts, things remained the same in Nexios.
The scientific progress in the two years since she’d last visited the planet had produced astounding breakthroughs, new styles and technologies. But the vast bubbling energy flowing through the Nexians that hurried by her never changed.
She studied the petite natives. They were about as tall as Shea and varied in skin and hair coloring. But to a Nexian, they all possessed a head largely out of proportion with their bodies, their big skulls necessary to encase the substantially larger brain they carried.
It was a common fact that Nexians were among the most intelligent of the System’s races. Friendly yet constantly consumed with thoughts of progress, the Nexians often moved so quickly that they didn’t take the time to enjoy the fruits of their labor, busy on the next project.
Dare grinned as she recognized the Nexian coming toward them.
“Ho, Garen. What have you here?” Methan asked as he moved forward to greet them. His black eyes shone with intelligence, his dark hair mussed over his large forehead.
“My thanks for meeting us here,” Ren said formally. “This is my crew. Castor, Nesham, Nedham, Primo, and you know Phin.” Phin and Methan nodded respectfully to each other. Ren gently shoved Dare forward. “This is the Mari. Darel N’alen.”
“Of course you are.” Methan nodded at her. “How’s the ship running, Dare?”
Dare stared. “Of course? You know me, Methan, and you never before said anything about me being Fenturi. Why ‘of course’?”
“I knew it the moment I laid eyes on you. You look a lot like your forbearers, you know.”
“Really?” Ren’s gaze sharpened on Methan’s plain features. “How old are you, Methan?”
“About two thousand and forty, give or take a few years. We Nexians aren’t as concerned with time as the rest of the System.” Methan shrugged his thin shoulders. “But come, let’s move to my lab. I’ve got a few things I have to keep an eye on, and I can answer your questions there as well as any place.”
Methan pulled out a small device and captured a signal from each of their beacons. “You know those bulky beacons come in much smaller sizes.”
“Really?” Dare asked in surprise. “It was my understanding this is brand new technology.” Stuff she’d love to get her hands on.
Methan reached up to pat her cheek. “What’s new to you is ages old to us,” he said with mirth. Then he directed them to his lab.
Dare couldn’t believe how much Methan had expanded since the last time she’d been in his lab. The large room Methan had been toying with then was now the size of a small fortress.
Nexians bustled through it, moving from small clusters of tables that looked like work stations. They yammered in their common tongue as holographic boards consistently updated the mathematical equations writing themselves.
Several large pieces of Rovi metal sat in a corner as a group of young males studied them, while in another section of the large yellow room a pair of Tumber snakes writhed and bowed under the odd notes of a Nexian machine.
“Oh that.” Methan noted where her gaze had been drawn. He shook his head. “The young ones are so taken with organic life. Myself, I prefer the hybrid composites, but some of the older scientists won’t deal with anything but pure metals.”
“Hybrids?” Ren asked. Dare noted the twins looked absolutely astonished at what they saw, as did Primo. Castor looked bored while Phin seemed to be making a mental note of everything. Dare wondered if the Informa would need a week to recuperate from the information overload he’d no doubt receive.
“Yes, rather like the Thrax.” Methan motioned them toward a back room.
Expecting to see this mystical weapon she supposedly had the ability to power, Dare was taken aback when they entered a comfortable little yellow space devoid of anything resembling a weapon. Several seats and tables sat in odd grouping, and a few rare shof plants gave the room a clean and sweet smell.
“It’s not here, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Methan said without apology. “I’ve been waiting for some time for Dare to return,” he explained as they seated themselves, following his lead.
“You see, when she first came here five years ago, I couldn’t believe our good luck. The Bylarans have been systematically destroying the Fenturi for years.” He gave Ren a look. “I feared the Mari might have been lost in th
e slaughter.”
“Why didn’t you say anything to Zedrax?” Ren asked.
“Who says I didn’t? That man?” Methan jeered. “He refused to listen to anything I had to say. So I stopped talking to him. I figured that when—not if—the Ragil Horde returned, we’d figure a way to fight them, with or without the Mari. Logic dictates that there is always more than one solution to a problem.”
With all this Mari talk, Dare risked a look at Ren next to her and found his attention absorbed by Methan.
“When you saw Dare back then, why not tell her who she was?” Ren asked.
“She didn’t need to know then, or at least that’s what I was told.”
“Told by who?” Dare wanted to know.
“Never mind that now.” Methan shrugged away her curiosity. “You have more important matters to deal with. The most important being the location of the Thrax.”
Castor spoke up. “You mean you don’t know where it is?”
“No. But I know who can help you. You need the help of Aranthe. You see, he hid it for us those many years ago in a very safe place. Seeing the rising tension amongst the Bylarans, Myla insisted we take the Thrax from Fentra—what you now call Bylar—and hide it where no one save the Marithynos could find it. Her words, not mine.”
“Marithynos? What in the hell does that mean?” Ren sounded frustrated.
“I have no idea. But Myla can tell you. Wait a moment.” Methan held up his hand, and a flashing orange light suddenly lit up the room.
A stream of computer-modulated Nexian filled the air.
“Oh no.” Methan looked startled. He turned worried eyes toward Ren and Dare. “The Horde just fired on the Ocaian moon, Deni. The Ocaians have been contacted by the Horde and are waiting to see what the enemy wants.”
Ren’s face darkened. “Obviously we’ve run out of time. Where can we find Aranthe?”
“He lives on Ocaia, but the last contact anyone had with him was at least fifty years ago. Perhaps Myla can tell you? I don’t know.” Methan looked dejected, then grew grim with purpose. “I’m sorry, but I have to get to work on our alternate solution. I must tell you, Dare, we really need you to fix all this. In the past thousand years, we still haven’t found a way to disable the Horde’s fleet. I’m not sure we Nexians will have the time we need to come up with some way to disable the Horde before they attack again. Our best bet is the Thrax.”
Then before anyone could speak, they found themselves on board the Eyshan6 facing several unconscious men and a very perturbed Kre cat.
-11-
As Ren stared at the unconscious occupants aboard his ship, he sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “Who let Mra out?”
Castor stared around the control room in dismay. “She didn’t kill them, did she?”
“I take it you know these men?” Dare asked in confusion.
Ren nodded and watched as his crew checked the fallen for vitals.
“They’re alive,” Nesh said.
Ned shook his head. “But they won’t be too happy when they wake.”
“Mra, what happened here?” Ren asked, not expecting the cat to answer.
Her eyes glowed fiercely under the ship’s light. She sat in the center of the ring of fallen bodies and looked less than pleased. Who are these barbaric creatures? She sniffed. One of them had the nerve to try and shoot me, she explained to both Dare and Ren.
Surprised but needing to contain the situation, he said, “Mra, please go back to the Green room so I can manage the rest of my men in peace.” The cat slunk away, but he wasn’t happy. He shouldn’t have had to inform anyone that he’d sent for more of his crew while they’d been on Nexios.
Patrolling the sphere of the Motherworlds while Ren had been occupied finding Dare, a small portion of the Stalker crew had been doing a damn fine job of uncovering more smuggling intended to aid the Meklen rebellion. But he’d pulled them off the smuggling detail to handle the Mari situation, especially now that they had to find the Thrax.
“Nesh, Ned and Castor, fix this mess.” Ren motioned to his men on the ground. “Phin, see what you come up with from Nexios.” The little blue man nodded and left to ponder this newest puzzle. “Primo, set course for Bylar. Utilize all the power you need. We need to be there as soon as possible.”
“I’m not going to Bylaran,” Dare stated bluntly. At her tone, the others stopped what they were doing and turned to her.
“We’re all going. End of story.” Ren didn’t have the patience to deal with her right now. The Horde had fired on a System planet, and they had no idea where to find the Thrax. He took a step toward her, expecting a fight. Even relishing it.
But Dare stepped away, seeming surprisingly nervous. “I’m not going,” she said again.
“Castor, come here.” Ren kept his eyes on Dare. She looked almost hunted, not at all like the scrappy pirate captain he’d come to grudgingly respect. Had the little Fenturi actually thought she wouldn’t have to set foot on the planet?
“Ren?” Castor asked, watching Dare, and joined Ren.
“Go get a small brown bag from my desk drawer. Hurry back,” Ren said in a low voice.
Castor asked no questions and left. Once again Ren felt thankful to have the trust and loyalty of such a man.
Ren stalked Dare patiently, like a Kre cat. A second transformitter device lay below deck, in the preparatory room, where he’d earlier shown Dare around. He could see by the crafty expression in Dare’s eyes that she remembered it.
Quick as a flash she took off, and Ren followed in pursuit. Impressed by her speed despite his annoyance, Ren moved like lightning and tackled her to the ground once she’d reached the bottom level. And she exploded into violence.
Careful not to hurt her, more due to his own odd sense of protectiveness than any desire to save the Mari, he defended himself from her as best he could.
Dare fought like a woman possessed. Surely she knew he wouldn’t hurt her at this point?
“I’m not going back to Bylar.” She literally hissed at him, her eyes molten, her skin ablaze, her fury made flesh. Seeing Dare—a full-blooded Fenturi—in a rage captivated him like nothing else could.
Ren felt an answering call deep in his blood, and he let free his own rage and confusion. The Fenturi female disobeyed his commands, and he didn’t like it. His sight seemed to grow better, made everything sharper. His skin glowed as bright as her own, and he saw her gaze widen in recognition.
“Fenturi?” Her fingers curled into claws, her nails lengthening until her hands turned into powerful weapons. “Fenturi,” she sneered at him and took a long swipe that he only narrowly missed. “I should have known.”
“Dare, stop it,” Ren growled as he took a slash to his forearm. His eyes narrowed dangerously. “I don’t want to hurt you, but if you don’t stop I may be forced to.” His blood boiled with suppressed anger.
Castor came down the stairs and stopped in shock, undoubtedly startled at seeing two Fenturi crouched low in battle, Dare blazing and defiant and too beautiful to ignore, Ren a Legionnaire captain displaying brutal Fenturi traits.
Castor threw him the pouch, moving closer but not too close when Ren snapped at him.
“Back off.” The female is mine.
“I’m not going back and nothing can make me,” Dare snarled and attacked again.
Startled at the ferocity of the beautiful creature glowing with such radiance, Ren did his best to protect himself while he watched her with growing fascination. She drew to close to his face with those claws, and he’d had enough.
He taunted her, urging her closer. “Now Dare, is this all just a ploy for my attention? You want me, I can tell. I’ve smelled the need on you for days.” He shrugged. “But then, a female in heat sometimes can—”
She launched herself at him with blurred speed surely intending to kill. But instead of cutting him, she froze and focused on the pouch Ren had opened.
“Dare, honey, come here. Nice and easy now.”
> Dare’s claws disappeared, and a dreamy expression appeared on her face. Whereas before she looked ready to kill, she now looked ready to sleep, or even, seduce?
“Ren?” Castor asked confused.
Ren shook his head and swayed on his feet. “Help me.”
Then Castor was there, taking the pouch from Ren while supporting him at the same time. Ren used him for balance and took Dare in his arms—where she belonged. She folded into him and closed her eyes, and he held her to his chest, conscious of how much smaller she was.
“Make sure I don’t fall,” Ren said as he stumbled for the stairs.
When they reached Ren’s quarters, Ren turned to Castor and took back the pouch. Then he laid Dare on the bed and placed the pouch next to her.
“Castor, I’ll explain all of this to you when we reach Bylar. For now, you’ll have to take charge. The root is affecting me as well.” Ren shook his head to clear his thoughts, but he couldn’t focus.
“Ren? What’s going on? Are you alright?”
“Fine, just a little woozy. Whatever you do, don’t tell anyone about this. Look, just make sure we get to Bylar as fast as possible. Let Zebram know we’re coming with the Mari. We won’t have any more problems out of this one.” He jerked his head toward the barely conscious Dare. “I promise, I’ll explain this later.”
“You got it. Don’t worry. I’ll get us there, no problems.” Castor nodded and left.
On wobbly legs, Ren secured the door, then joined Dare on his bed. Damned if that bag of Fen root Myla made didn’t work like a charm.
He didn’t understand why mention of going to Bylar had thrown Dare into a panic, not when she had to know he’d take care of her. Hells, but without her the entire System was in deep trouble. In any case, he made a vow to learn the answer when she next awoke.
He lay on his side, propped on an elbow, and just stared at her.
By the Goddess, it hurt to keep suppressing his feelings. Especially now that he understood she wasn’t deliberately baiting him with her sensuality. That she was as much a victim of it as he was put her in an entirely different light.
