by T. J. Quinn
It wasn’t just because he so skilled a lover, although he was. It was Pyrron, himself, my lover. He gave me everything, and I gave it back to him. Sometimes it was hard and rough and sometimes sweet and gentle. It always felt right to hold him deep in my body wrapped in my arms and sometimes my legs too.
Not until afterward when we lay cuddled together did that inkling of fear stir in the back of my mind. The coming fight could take this all away from me. I just didn’t know how we were going to get away with that transport and all those slaves before the Sargan battle cruiser arrived.
As if he could read my thoughts, he said, “Don’t worry, we know how to fight the Sargans. We’ve been doing it for years. Our other Dreads will be here to back us up. We can do this.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Try to sleep, baby. We probably won’t get another chance until we get that transport launched and we pull out of here.”
I nodded against his shoulder, then started to control my breathing as I relaxed my body. We had learned to sleep almost anywhere when we were deployed. I also learned to shut down my mind and go to my happy place. Ever since I was snatched from Earth, that was the dog park, throwing a frisbee with Billy. He could snag one six feet in the air and keep chasing it as long as I could throw it.
I felt tears prick the corner of my eyes. I was going to miss that dog for the rest of my life. I didn’t even want to think about losing Pyrr. Stop it! Throw the frisbee again. Watch Billy run then strut so proud as he brings is back after he catches is. Love you Billy. Love you forever…
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Pyrr
The AI team finished programming the bioimplants of the slaves from Farseek while we were still meeting the previous night. Hundreds had already been directed to board the transport we were appropriating while Scarlet and I were sleeping. They were stepping up the boarding because of the Sargan battlecruiser headed for the Station.
We were lucky that one of the civilian pilots was familiar with this freighter class, but not one this new. The Admiral decided to place our ‘spare’ pilot team with the civilians until we got the passenger freighter out of this system. Our people had trained on Dreads and battlecruisers. The battlecruisers were about as big is this freighter. This freighter wasn’t that complicated for them. Personally, I would be lucky to get it off the maintenance arm. But that’s not my job.
We all had some basic pilot training, but most of the piloting is handled through the ship AI. The pilots basically monitor operations. They can pilot a ship manually if they have to, but it rarely becomes necessary.
Before third shift, Commander Maktu had our people replace all the security guards around the freighter. A couple of the second shift guards began to question why all the slaves were coming to the freighter that weren’t on the work schedule. Asking the slaves did no good because they were doing what their implants told them to do, what we told them to do. Apparently, they encountered new personnel often enough that they didn’t question the new faces wearing Station security uniforms that came to relieve them because there was no hassle with the changeover.
Once our people were in place, the AI people stepped up the migration of the slaves to the transport ship. It was a big station, and even the fast train couldn’t get them there in less than an hour. They kept moving them until they had all except those on first shift duty. Uatu people from Farseek accounted for about a quarter of the staff. They would be missed.
It wasn’t time for Scarlet to get up. All civilians were going on the freighter, even the Commander’s mate. I hated it but agreed with the reasoning. Without knowing the freighter was under our control, the Sargans were less likely to attack it as it leaves the station mere days ahead of schedule. Both my Commander and the Admiral thought they would be safest that way.
Technically, Scarlet was more than a civilian, a point she argued fervently with me. But she wasn’t officially a member of our company either. I was on call to suit up in battle armor should the battlecruiser arrive and deploy hostiles before we got the passenger freighter out of there. I wanted Scarlet to be safe the same as she wanted me safe, but I also wanted to find her in our cabin when the fighting was over. But she wouldn’t be there, and we could only guess how many days before we would be reunited.
Scarlet was a soldier like me. She would obey orders the same as I would even though neither of us was happy about it.
I woke up wanting her again, even though I’d mated her three times the day before. It was almost four months since I took her as my solmatu mate, and I could hardly make it through a day without fucking her. Sex with Scarlet was nothing like sharing sex with a woman who was not solmatu. Sometimes it was almost like I could feel her inside my head when she was wrapped around me with my cock deep inside her as far as it would go.
In the times I had shared sex with females before Scarlet, it was only about sexual pleasure and orgasm. With Scarlet, sex was so much more spiritual. We are so in tuned that we could all most feel each other’s bliss in our physical joining. I finally understand what it was to love another person more than I love myself. Sometimes, I think I would die if I lost her. It would hurt that much.
So, if I have to give up a few days with her in my bed to keep her safe, that’s what I will do. The alternative is completely unthinkable.
Scarlet woke up sometime after I did, but she didn’t have the easy transition from sleep to waking. She started thrashing and calling for Billy. I knew she was reliving the nightmare of her abduction from Earth by the Picans and that Billy was her dog that she was forced to leave behind. She drew me a picture on my tablet once to show me what a dog was. It didn’t look much like a ruda which she said looked more like a baby hippo to her. I think rudas probably act more like the dog she described to me.
Her friend’s mate from Narova said they have dogs imported from Earth, but he could only discern a general location of the two star systems on our holographic maps. At least now we knew which section of the galaxy to look. Maybe when our missions were over, we could use long-range scanners to locate it. I so wish I could get Scarlet’s dog for her, but she said even if she went back to Earth today, she might never find him. She said the next best thing would be to rescue another dog like Billy who needed a home.
She also said it was a moot point since we would probably never get to Earth or Narova. So, I suggested getting a ruda when we finally settled down. I could tell, she didn’t think it would be the same, but she agreed.
I didn’t let her thrash for long before I woke her. She had accidentally hit me in the nose one time hard enough to make it bleed. Scarlet felt bad about doing it, but nanites still in my system from an old wound fixed me right up.
She wasn’t a weepy woman, but more often than not, she woke from the dream in tears. I could see from the first time, that my mate had been more traumatized by leaving the dog than the abduction. Both events were wholly out of her control.
I was horrified when she admitted that she had contemplated ending her life after she returned from the war front. She said it was not uncommon for soldiers like her to do that because of problems adjusting back to their old lives. We don’t have that problem because we have gene therapy for such mental problems. It worked on the same principles as the language implants they Earth women had received on Halor.
I didn’t have that problem because I’ve not had the opportunity to go back to civilian life, but the nanites in my system have probably served a similar purpose of the gene therapy. She had the episodes less frequently since our mating, perhaps some of the nanites I had passed to her from our mating had helped.
I sat up in our bed and gripped her arm gently while saying, “Scarlet, wake up. It’s just a dream, wake up sweetheart.”
At least she didn’t try to hit me that time. Her eyes blinked open, and she moaned, “Oh God! I hate that dream. Did I wake you Pyrr? I’m sorry.”
I lay back down and pulled her into my arms. “No, I was already awake,” I murmured against her hair.
/> She pressed against me, so my erection was pressing into her belly. “Ooooh, awake and ready for action.” She giggled.
“But, I don’t think we should expend that kind of energy right now,” I told her.
“I’d offer you a blowjob if this thing wasn’t extra-large size.” She slid her hand between us and rubbed my cock affectionately.
I grinned wickedly at her and shrugged. “I guess we just grow them big here.” I pushed her hand away because she wasn’t helping me get control of my desire. “Tell me something, why do you call it a ‘blow job’ when it involves sucking not blowing.”
“You got me. It’s not like I can google it here. All I know is it’s a euphemism for the term fellatio, the specific word for it. But my language usage skills are a bit limited in that area,” she told me. “I can string together sentences well enough to write a report, but that’s about it.” She paused and gave me a blatantly sexy smile. “Maybe I can’t blow you, but I bet I could make you happy.”
‘You already make me happy,” I told her.
“Just lay back, and I’ll take care of you, my love.”
I sure hoped so, because when she sat up and took off her shirt, I got even harder, so I needed to do something---even if I had to take matters into my own hand so to speak. But I didn’t. Scarlet used a combination of techniques the left us both fully satisfied, and she did most of the work.
Her job wasn’t going to be as physical as mine even with the suit. She would be helping with the passengers on the combo freighter, taking names and assigning rooms. A safe job, I thought…
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
We had fallen asleep naked, but after a trip to the bathroom in the night, I pulled on one of Pyrr’s inner shirt as I felt a little chilled. The look of pure lust on Pyrr’s face when I pulled it off was like a switch that turned me on. His cock was making like a tent pole under the thin sheet that covered us while we slept. I pulled back the sheet and just looked at it for a few seconds, wondering what I was thinking. I couldn’t even fit the head in my mouth.
So I leaned over and kissed the tip and lapped the drop of pre-cum off. Gripping his shaft with one hand, I kissed and nibbled and licked all around the head while stroking his length with my hand. He got even harder, and I got wetter.
He was so big that I couldn’t close my hand around his shaft, so I rubbed my cheek and mouth over the sides while I stroked him. I vaguely wondered if he knew I was making it up as I went along. But it seemed to please him, and I wanted to please him because he always gave me so much pleasure and because I loved him.
I understood what he meant about expending too much energy before he might have to fight. Sex with Pyrr could be a full body workout like Harper had said once about Zared (Commander Maktu). I almost started to giggle thinking about Harper and the often-somber commander doing this, and immediately put it out of my mind.
As my hand and wrist tired with Pyrr short of satisfaction, the only thing left to do was climb on top and ride him. By then, I needed that. I straddled him on my hands and knees and gripped his cock to guide it into my opening drawing a groan of delight from Pyrr. From that angle, he filled me all the way to my cervix and the pressure on my g-spot was phenomenal! I almost came right then. His hands squeezing my breasts and tweaking my nipples felt wonderful but didn’t help me hold back so we could come together.
But I rocked over him, holding out the best I could. Though I still got there first, I managed to get him there soon after before I collapsed on top of him.
“Gods, baby, where did you learn to do that?” he asked when he finally found his voice again.
“Romance stories,” I told him.
“They actually do that in stories?”
“Well, they do, but I read about it in books. Written stories with no pictures.”
I sighed and laid my head against his chest. I just wanted to lay there on him with him in me and go back to sleep. I didn’t want to think about what the day would bring. Realistically, I just hoped for a couple more minutes wrapped in Pyrr’s arms with him joined to me.
But then his com tablet buzzed on the shelf in the sleeping alcove. We both groaned at the same time, and I rolled off him.
The first Dreadnaught confirmed the sighting of the Sargan battlecruiser dropping out of FTL. The Dread fired on it but didn’t do serious damage, and the cruiser turned on them. They went on the run and lured the Sargans to give chase away from the station to buy more time to finish loading their stolen people on the freighter. Before they moved away from the station, the Sargans sent a troop carrier to
Tegliar Station capable of carrying a hundred soldiers. We had ten minutes to get up and out to our assigned duties.
We rolled out of bed and hurried into the shower to wash away the remnants of our recent activities and were out getting dressed in three minutes. We took about thirty seconds for one last fervent kiss then hurried to our work assignments.
The slaves from Farseek plus a few others were still straggling in when I reached the passenger freighter newly dubbed Kurellis. My job was to verbally confirm their ID codes and match them to the readouts on my tablet to make sure we got everybody. It was a routine job, but something that was useful. It was heartbreaking at how dazed and confused many of them seemed at being taken out of their normal work routine. Some of them even had children with them, mostly toddlers that were likely born since their parents were brought here as slaves.
I had been checking them in for about half an hour when I saw the armed troops jogging past the loading docks. They didn’t seem to notice us until a second smaller group came along. Two of them broke off and headed in my direction after I had just finished processing another small group of Uati.
My uniform had been altered to duplicate those of the Teglian security guards. One of them demanded to know the nature of my duties. There was a split-second gap while the translator in my ear turned the Sargan language into one I understood. I responded as rehearsed in their language.
“These slaves are needed in the Chagus Quadrant. I’m checking them in as they arrive,” I explained, keeping my voice calm and even.
“Let me see that.” He reached out his hand and snatched it out of my hand so quickly I had no time to react. But I knew I was in trouble because the readouts were in the Uatu language.
“Sir, I am just following orders,” I said quickly to distract him from looking at it. “Please, let me com my superior, and he can confirm it for you.”
It didn’t work. The surly officer glanced down at the readouts and frowned. “What the hell language as this?”
Another group of Farseekans was approaching at the same time as weapons’ fire sounded from the docking bay close to the next arm of the docks. While that drew their attention, I hurried to hustle this next group of rescues up the ramp to the Kurellis. I should never have turned my back on those bastards. I realized my mistake when I felt the burning pain sear into my back under my right shoulder blade.
It hurt worse than anything I had ever felt, and the pain seemed to spread through my whole body. I tried to scream, but I suddenly couldn’t breathe. If not for the civilians, I would have kicked him in his junk and gone for my weapon. With the pain sapping all my strength, I stumbled and fell heavily on to the ramp pushing the rest of the air from my burning lungs. I was dying and helpless to do anything about it. If I could just see Pyrr just one more time, my big, handsome warrior man. For just a second, I thought I heard him call my name, and then I heard nothing.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Pyrr
As soon as I saw the Sargan troops coming across the docking bay, I knew Scarlet could be in trouble. The commander knew it too because he instantly said, “Go!” through the com in my ear.
I headed straight into the oncoming troops fully protected from their weapons fire by my combat armor. I just ran straight through the pack, knocking them out of the way as I went. Had the Sargans expected to find us there, they would have been in their armor, but we w
ere not expected. We expected their ship, but we hadn’t anticipated they would send a troop shuttle ahead while they fought our Dreads.
Rounding the arc of the walkway just in time to see Scarlet shot, I screamed her name and leaped on the Sargan who still had his gun aimed in her direction. He hit the deck hard, but that wasn’t good enough for me I bent down, picked him up like he weighed nothing, and hurled him against the wall beside the ship’s entrance. He bounced off and hit the deck rolling, but he didn’t move after that. His partner was shooting me in the back, but it wasn’t penetrating my armor except for a slight vibration.
I wasn’t really thinking, just reacting. I pivoted and knocked the weapon from his hand then picked him up and lobbed him against the bulkhead same as the other guy. Then I ran for Scarlet.
By the gods, she wasn’t breathing, and my sensors told me her heart was beating erratically. She was dying. I picked her up as gently as I could and reached into one of the compartments at my waist and pulled out a needleless syringe, turning the tip upward to pop off. Putting the tip into her left nostril, I expelled the contents into her nasal passage then returned it to its compartment.
I lifted her into my arms and carried her into the ship, praying to any gods that might hear for the nanites to save her. It was the first time I had entered the ship, so I commed control to direct me to sickbay. The nanites could probably fix her on their own, but I didn’t want to chance failure when putting her on life support could improve her odds of recovery. I was more scared than I had ever been in my life, a cold dark, gripping terror that I would lose my beloved solmatu.
My eyes teared up, and the moisture spilled down my cheeks. It had only been hours since our bodies were joined in exquisite passion, and now I held her in my arms with her so close to death that it might take her from me. I shoved that fear to the back of my mind as I walked into the sickbay where the AI medic was activated and ready to receive my mate.
