by Celeste Raye
The green female said, “Me too. Ruckland, can we get to the ship?”
They were running now, not even bothering to hide that fact either as they exited into the boiling clouds of dust and laser bright rays of the alien sun. Ruckland’s slave said, sharply, “Ruckland, now!”
He transformed. There was no other word for it. He transformed into some creature that raced along the ground faster than anything she had ever seen. Her gasp got louder as the sun hit hard, striking into her body.
The female grabbed her up and then she changed too. Ruckland snatched up Jeval in his teeth and Margie dangled from the female’s as they headed for the docks, moving so fast that the world was a spinning dust bowl and ground flying below.
Margie felt sick. She couldn’t breathe. Her entire body wanted to go rigid, but she was afraid if she moved even an inch, tensed a single muscle, that the long and vicious fangs of the female, who was now at least three hundred pounds and many feet taller and wider than she had been before, would puncture her skin and kill her.
Ruckland peered behind them. His body was tense. He growled out, “They follow.”
Jeval knew what he had to do but he didn’t want to, not at all. It was a small ship coming after them and they were only halfway to the docks now. The ship was clearly a Fed one and he shouted, “I got it; let me go!”
Ruckland dropped him. Jeval spun downward, flying into the dirt. He heard Margie scream a warning and he rolled sideways just in time to avoid the clawed feet of the female and having those feet rip his stomach open.
The dust, reddish orange, was a thick curtain but it did not and could not hide them. All it could do was give them away.
He didn’t know why The Federation wanted them so badly, but they did, and that meant he wanted them too, and if they went with him willingly, so much the better.
He shouted, “Make for my ship!”
Ruckland shouted back, “We have no choice! We bought passage here and have no ship!”
The dust got thicker and more choking as weapon fire came down. The female circled back around and so did Ruckland. They all stared upward. Margie screamed, “Put me down!”
The female dropped her, and she and Ruckland drew weapons again. The female went low, rolling hard as weapon’s fire struck down, sending showers of the fine powdery earth upward. Margie spotted a creature racing toward them on the ground, and she grabbed the laser gun on Jeval’s side without thinking and then it was in her hand and going off, the fire cutting the thing coming at them in half!
Horror struck her right to the core. She had killed something!
Ruckland shouted, “That damn…” then he was moving, his weapons coming up and fire blasting toward the ship. But it was no ordinary ship; it was a warship and outfitted, and the fire was heavy and wide.
Jeval’s arm and hand yanked her backward. She toppled to the ground, and he barked out, “Stay down!”
He took up a stance. Heat radiated off his body. His arms spread wide. A fresh wind, one born from somewhere deep inside him, sprang up and then a powerful sonic burst rippled and rose upward, smashing into the low-flying ship.
He had just single-handedly taken down a Federation ship!
He grabbed her by the arm as debris, flaming and weighing tons, rained down all around them. Ruckland shouted, “You blew up a…never mind. Run for it!”
They did. The docks were not far now, and they made it to them. Margie was sick and in shock, and as soon as their feet crossed the threshold, they were up, leveling above the earth and heading for space above.
Ruckland, who was clearly not in possession of a slave but whose mate was definitely his equal, leaned against one wall. He cried out, “Drop us at the nearest way port. We will seek our way across to our own ship from there.”
Jeval sat Margie down in a chair. “Why is The Federation after you?”
Ruckland looked at the female. She spoke softly. “Someone has stolen a vast amount of papers from them. It was not us, but they are hunting down the most notorious of all thieves to see if they can find out who did it.”
Margie asked, “Why would they hunt down thieves for…I don’t understand.”
She didn’t. Ruckland opened his mouth. It got wider and wider, a large shelf of jaw suddenly appearing. She gagged a little as he disgorged what looked to be an entire and incredibly precious statue! He said, “They want all of us because we move in a small circle.” His fingers swiped his saliva and some other thin fluid off the statue, which was made of a precious metal. “They probably think if we didn’t take it ourselves then we would have heard who had.”
Gross.
There was a lot to talk about, and she knew it, but the one thing she knew the most was that she could not wait to get Ruckland off the ship! He was busy bringing up all sorts of things, and she was pretty sure she was going to get sick long before he displayed his haul from the pleasure planet!
A few evenings later, right after they finally landed on Revant again, Margie stood in the doorway of her hut, trying to breathe. The intel they’d brought back was vital, but they had gotten there just a little too late!
Federation ships cruised overhead, and the citizenry stood below, many of them with hands raised to shield their eyes from the bright sun, which was rapidly being blotted out by the bodies of those ships.
Oh, God. She staggered backward. All the courage she thought she had deserted her then. Her body shook all over, and she staggered back a step. There was no safety in that hut, and she knew it, but she still had the craziest urge to run inside, throw the covers over her head, and huddle below them until the world either ended or started over again.
Jeval came toward her, his large and lustrous eyes alight with both sunlight and courage. Margie sucked in a hard breath and then, as he reached the door of her hut, she said, “The Federation! Why are they here? What is going to happen now?”
His gaze didn’t flinch away from hers. His voice was calm. “War, most likely.”
No! There was no way she could go through a war. Everything she had seen, all the blood and all the battle, was too much. Those things had already taken such a large toll on her. She could tolerate being on the wrecking ship. Watching the nightly fights and often deaths that were caused by the rowdiest of beings and people in the gambling halls on the pleasure planet had been hard, but it was something she could bear. But war?
Everything in her cried out against such a horrible thing. Death and devastation; that was what war brought in its wake. Her eyes traveled from his face to the people gathered there, all of them wearing similar expressions of fear and confusion. She understood exactly how they felt because she felt the same way.
This could not be happening. There was absolutely no way at all that they were prepared for war. They were too few, and they had far too few ships. Their new lives had barely begun, and they were about to be destroyed by the greed of The Federation.
That thought gave her a small measure of courage. She had had everything ripped away from her by those people, by The Federation and its power-mad elite. If this was war, how could she hide from it? How could she not make a stand and fight for the life that she wanted so badly?
She whispered, “What do we do now?”
His hand came out and rested on her upper arm. The strength and warmth of his fingers seeped into her skin but could not halt the chill creeping through her. His voice was no less calm. “We fight.”
“We're all going to die, you have to know that.”
“Of course I know that. But every fight could mean death. We faced death before. You and me. We faced it on the pleasure planet that we had to go to together. We faced it on the wrecking ship. You faced it on your own planet, and not just once.”
He was right but each time she had escaped death unscathed for the most part. This time she would not be so lucky. The thought of losing her life, now, when she carried a life within her that was so precious, made her desire to live too large to deny.
She s
hould tell him. He should know that she was pregnant with his child. She looked over at his face, and her heart nearly stopped. For all the calm tone of his voice, there was a haunted look on his face, a look that said he wanted this no more than she did.
Her hand fell toward her belly and rested there. If she was going to die, and if he was going to die as well, there was no sense in telling him about the baby. It would only serve to make his death seem even worse and harder. If he did not know, it would be easier for him to bear if she died right before him. Her fingers pressed into her flat abdomen and a pulse of sheer primal rage began in her stomach. It wasn’t fair.
She whispered, silently, to her unborn child. “I will fight for you. I will die for you. My death will mean yours, but I will not die lightly or let them kill you without a battle. I swear that to you, little one. You will know; it seems to me that you will have to know that we fought for you.”
Her eyes went back to Jeval’s face. She had seen what he was capable of. That power that rested within him was enough to destroy an entire ship. It was enough to send men screaming to their own deaths, deaths that they created with their own hands. He had refused to use that power again even when they were facing the gravest danger. Would he refuse to use it now even knowing that she had within her his child?
Her eyes went back to the skies. The Federation ships began to lower, the heavily armored bodies sinking toward the only accessible landing place on the planet: the short docks that had been built to jut out over one side of the sea.
There were far too many ships in The Federation’s armada for them all to land. Maybe that would be their chance to halt whatever was happening immediately. Perhaps they would have the chance to destroy the ones that were on the ground, or take over them. They had captains with great skill there on the planet surface.
Talon alone could fly like the devil himself, and he was skilled in combat both in the air and on the ground. He was not the only one either. Surely there must be some way for them to survive this. If they could not survive it, they would take as many of The Federation down with them as possible.
Her breath sucked in and held as she watched the bay doors on The Federation ships begin to open and officers wearing Federation insignia begin to step out. Behind them came soldiers, heavily armed.
Talon and Jessica appeared, both of them bearing arms. Marik and Jenny, as well as Renall and Clare, also came into sight. The people they led took cautious steps back, huddling behind their leaders.
The crew of the ships that Talon and others piloted came running, bearing arms and with expressions that said they were ready to begin whatever war The Federation intended to bring upon them.
One of The Federation officers held up a hand. He wore five gold stars on the chest of his olive-green tailored tunic, marking him as one of the highest ranking there. His voice was smooth and full, rolling across the distance with ease.
Jeval started forward. Margie gathered her courage, wrapping its tattered ends around herself as she followed him, determined to always be right there at his side no matter what. This was the creature that she loved. She did love him. She loved that stubborn and prideful Revant who was also the kindest and gentlest and sweetest thing she had ever known in her life.
The Federation officer was still speaking. He said, “There is no need for war between us. We do not come here on a mission to govern your planet. Nor the sister planet that lays slightly to the east. We have no interest in your planet, to be truthful…”
Jessica retorted, “When has The Federation ever been known for truthfulness?”
A large and angry mutter rose from the crowd. That sound made Margie’s hands wrap around her body and draw herself inward. It reminded her of that day that she had gotten into an argument with that woman and man inside the greenery house and the dreadful consequences of her actions then.
Talon stepped forward. “She speaks the truth. The Federation is not known for keeping its promises or for giving honest words to those it means to rule.”
Marik, Jeval, and Renall stepped forward. Marik said, “Indeed, The Federation is not known for those things. What do you really want?”
The Federation officer said, “I seek to hold a conversation with those who rule this planet.”
Jeval spoke. “Our citizenry rules themselves. We govern, but here every being is free.”
The Federation officer didn’t blink. “Then I would speak with you, those who govern. Those who own this planet. This is a matter that requires discretion, and I will speak with you and solely you.”
Jeval shook his head. “I do not govern alone. My siblings govern with me. We will not be trapped alone with you and your officers. That would be foolishness personified. Do we look foolish to you?”
Shivers worked their way through Margie’s skin as The Federation officer’s eyes, cold as a winter day, rested on the faces of the siblings and then the faces of the women gathered beside them. The Federation officer’s lips lifted in a slight smile. “No, you do not look foolish. I’m not here to harm; I have no desire to have my officers carry weapons into whatever place you wish to speak with me in.”
Jeval said, “I have a better idea. You alone may speak with us. Your guards and your soldiers must all return to the ship. We will hold a conversation with you, but we will not hold that conversation with you when your armed men stand with their boots upon our planet.”
The others nodded their heads. Jessica said, “They return to their ships, or we open fire.”
The officer said, “I see. But perhaps that would be foolish of me, to go alone with you to have a conversation, unarmed and unguarded.”
Clara said, “That is the only concession they shall make. I can promise you they are the most stubborn beings that you will ever have the fortune of meeting. You won’t change their mind and once they have decided on a path, that is the path they shall take no matter where it leads.”
Margie felt an unwilling smile start on her own face. Clara had the right of it. Her eyes went back to Jeval, and her heart skipped a few beats. He spoke in a casual and dismissive tone. “Your entire army resides above us and on the surface of our planet. We are vastly outnumbered. To kill you would be suicide for us. Do we seem suicidal to you?”
The Federation officer mulled that over for a bit. Tension grew thicker and thicker in the air. Margie’s eyes flickered upward yet again, judging how many ships were up there because they were too numerous to count. At least a hundred, perhaps more. They cruised back and forth and some, obviously flight and fighter craft, darted across the sky, leaving white contrails blazing along the cerulean blue heavens.
The officer nodded. “But just you four. I’ll have no one else in there.”
Jessica stepped forward. Her hands balled into fists, and her shoulder met Talon’s. “Where he goes, I go. There are no exceptions to that. Never.”
Clara echoed that, as did Jenny. Margie cleared her throat. “I too go wherever he leads.”
She felt his body stiffen slightly, but she didn’t look his way because she was afraid of what she would see there on his face. Had the words pleased him or upset him? She didn’t know. It was as open a declaration of love as she could make. Her heart beat even faster, making her slightly dizzy. The enormity of war loomed over everything, but even that was overwritten by the knowledge that she had just admitted her love for him and done it in a public way.
She had basically just said he was her mate when he had never asked her to be his mate and she had done it in a way that ensured that she would never be able to deny those words or the feeling behind them.
If they managed to live long enough for her to have to deny it, that was.
Talon said, with a fierce grin, “They are but women. Surely you cannot be afraid of mere women. Human women, at that.”
Jeval muttered, so low and below his breath that she almost didn’t hear it, “I would hate to be in your shoes later tonight.”
The Federation officer said, “Oh, I
have heard of your women. In fact, I recognize the one beside you as a former Capo and one of the leaders of the efforts on Old Earth.”
Talon said, “That is a fight we will never have a chance to finish, and you know that. We have pulled back our efforts there because they proved to be futile; they were futile since The Federation would not keep its promises and until the people there are given what they need, then they will simply continue to fight each other for whatever resources remain.”
The Federation officer nodded. “I shall meet with you, but only you four. Leave the women outside.”
The four brothers exchanged glances. Margie said, “We shall guard the door for you then. If anything occurs in there, we shall be right there.”
The smile that came upon Jeval’s face held equal parts of amusement and something else, something she didn’t recognize, but her heart fluttered in response to it.
The Federation officer ordered his officers and guards back upon the ship. They went reluctantly, but they went. The officer then followed the four siblings up the hill to the small building that they used for council meetings. Margie walked beside Jenny, not daring to look at any of the other women. They had all heard her throw her lot in with his, and she was not sure if they felt sympathy for her or not. They had to know that he did not want to mate. That he refused to mate and all the reasons why.
A flutter of disquiet settled into her new system. He had said that most children that he would sire would die. That only the very strongest could survive and that he was not willing to sire a child knowing that.
But there was a child.
There was a child growing within her at that very moment and if she lived through this, if they lived through this and that child was born, would she have to watch that child die?
But the odds were fifty-fifty, right?
None of his siblings had been born with the gift. Even though he had it in great strength, it was entirely possible that her human blood had somehow diluted it down, that her own child would be born without it.
