by Bethany Aan
Bev’s eyes widened, then she smiled at her ‘fearless leader’.
“Is that an order, Commander?” she asked, grinning.
Arianna fought a smile and nodded with all the regal solemnity she could muster while sitting, broken, in bed. Trey winked at Arianna in silent thanks, then offered his arm to Bev and led her out of the building. Arianna saw that two other warriors joined them as they left the dormitory, and she wondered about that. Perhaps friends of Trey’s? Or did he have his own team to protect him and run errands, since he was basically third in the chain of command? Hunter had mentioned teams at one point. Come to think of it, she had to wonder whether Hunter and Jace had teams, since neither one seemed to have extra men around them that stayed with them all the time. Oh, Hunter had his warriors and Jace had his medics, but she’d seen many of the men working in small groups of three or four. Maybe those were the teams? She’d have to ask Jace and Hunter what it meant to be a ‘team’ in their military.
For now, Kim scooted over to Bev’s bunk so she could talk to Arianna, and after a few minutes, a few of the other girls joined her. Ri was warmed by their attentiveness. Perhaps Hunter hadn’t been so far off track to assume she was their ersatz leader. The girls seemed to want and need one, and she was apparently good enough for the time being. She sensed nothing but genuine, growing affection from Kim and Chelsea, and interest and a subconscious need for guidance from the others who’d gathered. Smiling at them, she listened to their youthful chatter, feeling happier than she’d felt in a long time.
She felt needed, and more than that, wanted.
Though broken, hurting, and loopy from the last injection Jace had given her, Arianna felt better than she had in years.
It was wonderful.
CHAPTER NINE
“The crash site is three clicks to the east,” Hunter addressed his men later that afternoon, pulling out his hand-held scanner. “I do not have to warn you to keep vigilant for predators. But also keep an eye out for meat on the run. As always, if you find any other edibles, we will stop and gather food as we can. No sense wasting the trip or using our stores when we can live off the land while we’re doing this.”
The others agreed, and Trey moved to take his position beside Hunter. Jace was back at the compound, in charge in his brother’s absence. As the group made its way to the crash site, the two officers talked quietly about plans for the women, the winter’s hardships and how all the extra mouths and bodies were going to change the arrangements for a confinement if snow buried them for weeks at a time, as it had in years past. They spoke of enlarging the open-air gardens and of expanding the greenhouses, if there were enough appropriate materials. Trey suggested a hydroponics area to augment their winter stores.
He was proving to be a worthy lieutenant, and Hunter would have to think about giving the young man more responsibility, if he wanted it. Hunter and Jace were perfectly capable of running the compound as things had been for the past decade, but Trey could easily take over some of the patrol scheduling, hunting parties, and work rotations, if the officers needed to adjust schedules to allow for more free time for the men to spend time with the women and hopefully build families.
“I am hoping that we have such a need in the very near future,” Hunter said, grinning. Trey laughed.
“Aye,” the younger man agreed. “We have all worked hard to build our colony, but most of that was out of boredom, as much as need. If the ladies agree to let us court them, the men will all want a lot more time for play, and less for work.”
“We can only hope,” Hunter nodded, chuckling. “And once we have the additional living quarters finished and support buildings in place, I don’t anticipate the need for a constant work schedule, other than to keep up with the necessities. Our men are disciplined enough to adjust, though, as needed. I have no fear that they will shirk their duties.”
“I am hoping that winter will be much more pleasant this year,” Trey said quietly. “I keep thinking about what a warm snuggle Bev might be, and it makes me hurt.”
Hunter laughed at that, and spent the rest of the trip to the crash site teasing his cousin about the pretty little computer expert. Trey, not to be bested, teased him back about a certain small psychic warrior.
It took less time than Hunter would have thought for them to come upon the site of the ruined slave ship. And he had no further doubt that it was a slave ship. The group became somber as they stopped to survey the site and the damaged equipment that had been strewn throughout the forest. When they had rescued the women, it had been a very quick operation, with the men having to see to the injured, help the hysterical females, and protect them, all at once. Now they had time to look around, salvage equipment and parts that might be useful, and try to recover as much of the computer systems as possible. Hunter was eager to find out more about the girls, if possible. Slavers almost always kept some sort of record of their cargoes, along with basic translations and health information, perhaps some information about the cultures they came from, so that the slaves could be matched with appropriate owners.
Working together in the way they’d been trained more than forty years before, Hunter and Trey moved backwards from the crash site, following the trail of broken tree limbs overhead and debris on the ground. As they moved further into the woods, pairs of warriors moved into position, so that the leaders were always within sight of at least one set of watchful protectors. Hunter nodded his approval, proud that his men weren’t growing lazy and forgetting their training just because they were far from home and no longer at war.
When he saw a spot of bright color on the ground near the base of a huge tree, Hunter stooped to investigate. He called to Trey over his shoulder, then picked up the dirty piece of fabric and held it up. It was pink, trimmed in a darker pink, and had white polka dots forming strange designs. Letters? Words? He wondered if Arianna would be willing to teach him her world’s writing, perhaps learn his? He thought about her nurturing and generous nature and decided that she would be enthusiastic about such a project. She was intelligent and eager. She would most likely be very interested in being able to read each others’ books and study one another’s culture. And it would give him a very good excuse to spend more time with her, after the translators were online and he no longer needed her as an intermediary with the girls.
“I have found something, as well,” Trey said excitedly, opening his hand when he reached Hunter. A small box of a strange substance lay there. “It seems to be an electronic device, perhaps for data storage? It has several ports, but I cannot tell what most of them are for without further testing.”
“Perhaps,” Hunter said thoughtfully. He opened the bag he’d found, and looked at the items within. “There is a similar one in here, I think, along with what appears to be one of their books, and maybe some personal items?”
“We should collect it all and take it back,” Trey said, looking at the tiny box in his palm. “I am sure that the women would like to have their things back… if these indeed belong to our women.”
“I do not think that the slavers were the types to particularly enjoy these shades of pink,” Hunter said sardonically. He wondered if Trey had noticed his absent use of the possessive when he spoke of ‘their’ women. “When we return to the compound, get Bev involved with archiving all their data and start translating theirs to ours, ours to theirs, so that all have access.”
“Aye, sir,” Trey said.
Jogging back to the last set of guards, Hunter quickly ordered a systematic search of the forest surrounding the crash zone, then headed toward the ship itself, hoping to find something more useful. Trey fell in behind him automatically, as did Trey’s team, to offer protection for their leader. Hunter waited a moment, as the team entered the ship and determined that it was safe for his entry.
He and Trey made their way first to the command center of the ship, but if there had been any power to the vessel, it had long since shut down. There was a tremendous amount of damage and ther
e were the partial remains of two dead alien bodies crumpled against the bulkheads. Still, Hunter thought as he looked around, there were many elements that might be useful to his computer experts.
“Can we use any of this?” he asked.
Trey looked around thoughtfully, then nodded.
“I will need to bring several of my teams and a few of the engineers from working on our ship to help dismantle the components safely, but we should be able to integrate these systems into our own.” He nodded toward a plaque bolted to the wall. Hunter followed the nod, his eyes widening, along with his grin.
“It is written in Universal.”
“Yes,” Trey agreed, excited. “If the plaques and signs are any indication, there is a good chance that the computers also have a Universal translator. If so, we should be able to salvage much information from these data banks, as long as the storage systems are intact. And if that is so, the slavers might also already have adapted their systems to the girls’ devices. We might be able to translate their data much more quickly than we could, otherwise.””
Hunter nodded. “You start looking through this area. Use as many men as you need to dismantle and transport,” he told Trey. “I will see what else I can find.”
Exiting the bridge, Hunter sent one of Trey’s warriors waiting there, Erik, to help Trey, then had Rom follow him to the next area of the ship. He heard Trey give the orders to remove the dead bodies for Jace’s examination, and moved on, content that the younger man had things under control.
The crew quarters held nothing of interest, but there were several cargo holds with various fabrics, shelf-stable standard long-range travel food, and other trade goods that would definitely be useful. He thought of the women back at the compound and their borrowed tunics or medical gowns, and decided that the bolts and packets of material would be his first priority. He had to get the girls covered before his warriors became too distracted to properly see to the colony and its safety.
Trusting Rom to arrange the immediate transport of the cloth and for later transport of the rest of it, Hunter moved further into the damaged fuselage of the ship. When he moved through a broken airlock and into a tiny room, his Reader senses came alive with the residual terror and trauma of the area. He stopped and stared around the room, opening himself to the energy left from kidnapped beings that had been held here. He shuddered at the influx of horror and despair and quickly shut himself off from the energy, throwing up the mental shields he had learned to build at a very young age. Forcing himself to the task at hand, he walked slowly through the chamber.
Here there were many of the tubes like the broken ones that had littered the crash site. They were all empty now, but the glass shielding them was remarkably undamaged in this section of the ship. It took only minutes to organize a salvage operation for the glass and anything else useful, though Hunter realized that this was going to be a much larger job than he’d originally anticipated. Good. It would give the men something to do besides stand around and watch the women. He would have to send for more of his men, as well as additional wagons and mounts, to bring back so much salvaged material. He would also have Ri ask that any of her women who wished to help come along on the salvage operation. She had mentioned that most of them were in ‘college’, and from the meaning he’d gleaned from her mind, that meant that they were at least of above-average intelligence. Perhaps there were a few that would find such a job to their tastes. And it would provide another way for the girls to interact with the men. Nothing integrated groups of people faster than having a common goal to work toward.
On the other hand, he was personally frustrated that he would have to wait for even a day longer to spend more time with Arianna. If he came back here to supervise the salvage, he could be out here for several days. Growling at the necessity for that, Hunter left the ship to give new orders to the men.
In only a few hours, they managed to find quite a bit of debris that appeared to belong to the girls, rather than the slavers. At least, he thought so. The energy coming from each item led him to think it belonged to the humans, and even gave him an idea of which of the girls some of the things belonged to.
“Commander,” one of Trey’s men, Erik, jogged up, handing his leader a large bag that was quite different from the others that had been found. Most of the other bags had uniformity to them, almost as though the girls had meant to have matching totes. Frowning, Hunter took the bag and turned it around. A pocket on the front of the bag held small, slick cards, one of which had a picture of Arianna on it. He couldn’t understand the writing on it, of course, but this must be her pack. He quickly looked through it, finding more electronic devices, plugs, and cables, as well as other items whose purpose baffled him. He’d have to ask her.
Hunter smiled to himself as he and the men headed back to the compound. He had another good reason to spend more time with his little warrior.
Arianna woke to a weight on her chest. She could barely breathe. It felt like something was holding her down. Her eyes popped open in surprise and a wee bit of panic, but having learned her lesson in the forest several days ago, she lay perfectly still until she could figure out what was happening.
She felt things breathing all around her, pressing close to her body. Very slowly, without moving, she rolled her eyes toward her chest. She squeaked at the sight of the big fluff-ball sitting there, wiggling its nose at her. She sensed no danger from the creature, just curiosity and a demand for attention. She moved her hand, which was covered by another of the creatures. Soft! Oh, so very soft! Their fur was fluffy and softer than angora or alpaca from back home. The thing on her hand chattered, then settled into a rhythmic thrumming not unlike that of a cat, though the thing on her chest looked more like a rabbit to her. Kind of a rabbit crossed with a squirrel, crossed with a chinchilla.
“Well, hi!” she breathed at the thing on her chest, relaxing and smiling at it. It stepped closer to her face, wiggling its nose as it sniffed at her mouth, her chin, her nose. She opened herself to it, allowing it to sense that she was no threat. Its many whiskers tickled. Giggling, she unearthed her right hand and tentatively stroked the thing. Her fingers sank through the fur, finding that its body was actually fairly small. But the fur was long and thick and fluffy. Very carefully, she moved to sit up, but the creatures surrounding her body chittered at her, sending out vibes of sleepy annoyance at being moved.
“I need to sit up,” she told them, sending out images of her in a sitting position, but still with the critters around her. Reassured that they weren’t being ousted from her bed, the things moved a bit. Arianna couldn’t prop herself up. Softly, not wanting to scare the little fluff-balls, she called out for one of the warrior-medics standing guard at the door. The one that turned at her call was Jace, who grinned when he saw her dilemma.
“I see the kimis have found you,” he said. Offering him a smile, she nodded.
“They must know a push-over when they sense one, I guess,” she said ruefully. He nodded.
“You need assistance?”
“I just want to sit up a bit, so I can lavish some attention on these fur-balls. You call them kee-mees?”
“Aye,” Jace said, quickly and efficiently helping her to sit up and propping her against the pillows. “The kimi was a treasured house pet back on our home world, valued for its soft fur and sweet disposition. These animals are even softer and have a touch of empathic abilities, which makes them wonderful pets, especially for the convalescing.”
“They’re so precious!” Arianna exclaimed softly, gently picking up the one that had been on her chest and hugging it to her. It chirred softly and thrummed beneath her stroking hands, happy.
“They also shed like mad,” Jace grinned as she looked at her hand in surprise. There was a nice little handful of the long fluff in her palm and stuck to her fingers. “It’s why we allow them the run of the place. They tend to lose little puffs of fiber as they go about their business. We pick them up, save them, and use them for vari
ous things. If these have adopted you for now, I’ll get you a small basket to collect the fur. We’ll need it, come winter.”
Arianna wished she had her hand spindle. She’d sit and spin the fluff from these little guys all day. Ah well. Perhaps when she was allowed to get up and move around more, she could make one for herself.
“Thanks,” she told Jace as he reached into his pocket for something.
“It is no trouble,” he assured her, smiling softly. “You are delightful to help. Not at all like your companions over there.”
His lip curled at the other girls who’d been stuck in the dorm with her. Amy and Alicia were, indeed, difficult patients, demanding this and that, instead of simply asking. They were the types that would have been popular back on an Earth college campus, and they knew it. While Amy was constantly throwing snide remarks Ri’s way, at least she hadn’t tried anything else since they’d been in the bunkhouse.
“I am doing my best to get them well enough to not have to deal with them any longer,” he growled, low enough for only Arianna to hear. She chuckled. He pressed a syringe to her arm, making her yelp softly and glare up at him. He winked at her. “Another booster of the nanos and some pain-killer.”
“At this rate, I’m going to sleep for a week!” she complained.
“That is the idea,” Jace told her cheerfully. “The more you rest, the more quickly you’ll heal, and then you can get out and see our world.”
She grumbled at him. He simply grinned at her and winked. She sighed. He was so cute when he was in this mood. It positively melted her heart.
He tested her leg. It was still very sore and she instantly decided that she had no immediate plans to use it for anything. Fortunately, the pain-killer was quick to minimize the twinges from his poking and prodding. He then wrapped his big hands around her ribs, very lightly manipulating his fingers to see how she was healing. Leaning back, he shook his head. “The nanos have much to repair in you. I wish that the rest of the translators would come online so we could get you back to the infirmary. I’d really like to have you closer to hand, so that I can keep track of how you are healing.” He winked again, his gaze going wicked. “Or my quarters. I could take very good care of you in my quarters.”
