She pointed at the image of the blueprints again.
“What is that?” Maxim asked.
“The StarCity was called a city for a reason. That ship had everything that we needed to give us a pretty high quality of life while traveling, even if we were traveling far distances. The only reason that we were able to use it for a clandestine mission was that one of the department heads who agreed with our perceptions about Penthos was also a part of the developmental team and thought that it would be the ideal vessel to bring us to the planet safely. Everything that you would think of as being a part of a normal city on Earth was in the StarCity, with one exception.”
“What?” Maxim asked.
“A miniature.”
“A miniature?”
Rain turned to him, a smile like he hadn’t seen on her face in quite some time making her eyes sparkle and her cheeks flushed like Lynx’s.
“A miniature,” she repeated. “The team that designed the StarCity worried that the sheer volume of the ship would be excessive and too difficult for most people to handle. They were concerned that if something went wrong, the team wouldn’t remember all of the different elements of the ship so that they would be able to fix it. To be honest I think they might have also been worried that people would get lost in it and not be able to describe in the ship where they were for the others to find them. To help prepare for all of that, they built a scale model and put it in the center of the ship. A lot of the pieces that Jonah and I included in our vehicle came from the wreckage of that miniature.”
“I still don’t understand,” Maxim said.
He was starting to lose his patience. Ivy was still in the bedroom and he wanted to spend the time that he could with her before the next battle began.
“The Valdician weaponry was completely unknown to anyone at the time, so there was no way to develop protective measures against it. When they started adding these types of measures to new ships, however, in response to the Nyx 23 mission disappearing, they did everything that they could possibly think of to prevent the same thing happening to another ship.”
“And that meant looking back at the plans for the original ship,” Maxim said, realization starting to clarify his mind.
“Exactly,” Rain said. “The StarCity that we rode on our mission was the only one of its design that was ever made. According to Avery, the team that designed it immediately scrapped it in favor of smaller, more efficient war machines as soon as the team didn’t return. I’m sure the goal was always to go back to the StarCity design for long-distance research and recognizance as well as luxury use. They would be perfect for galactic suspension so that people could spend a year living in far space or for alternative communities. Apparently, though, they never returned to the concept and instead went in the direction of the ships that the human women used to get to Uoria. The hijacking of the shuttle that had Leia on it, though, evidently brought back some bad memories of the mission disappearing and they started designing new ships with more extensive modifications for safety. They brought out the original plans for our ship, thinking that they would be able to identify the vulnerabilities of the ship and fix them in the new designs.”
“But by now nobody is alive that remembers the details of the ship,” Maxim said. “At least that they know of. You can’t just take basic plans and build off of them, especially if they were experimental in the first place.”
Rain nodded.
“The same thing occurred to me, and that’s when I asked Avery if there is a core to this ship.”
“Is there?”
“He didn’t know. Apparently they don’t do as much training with pilots for pleasure cruises that they do for experimental or research trips from Universities and the military. He knows how to operate the ship and the basic emergency procedures, but since they don’t really expect a tourist ship to get involved in a war, they didn’t brief him on the more complex details of the ship, such as…”
Maxim looked more closely at the image on the screen.
“The miniature,” he said.
“Yes. For the first time since the StarCity, they put a miniature inside the ship. They must have seen it in the original plans and thought that it had some more elaborate purpose, so they added it to the designs for this ship and ones like it. Like you said, though, the people who designed the original StarCity aren’t around anymore and the team scrapped the project when Nyx 23 didn’t return. They didn’t add the necessary details to the designs, which means that there is one very impactful difference between the miniature that was in our ship and the one in this ship. This one is functional.”
Maxim was shocked by the revelation.
“It’s functional?” he asked. “What do you mean, functional?”
“It is, in every way, a tiny version of the bigger ship. Everything within it is completely operational. Once I realized that the miniature was there, Athan was able to help me examine it and find the areas of the main ship that had been impacted by the Valdician’s weapons. We realized that they had only compromised one aspect of the navigation system, but that there were measures in place to easily override that. We fixed the components that were broken, overrode the system, and now we’re back in action.”
“How could the Valdicians not be ready for something like that?” Maxim asked. “After all this time, they tried to use the same attack as they did?”
“The Valdicians do as Ryan tells them to. Remember he is the legacy of their general from generations ago. As misguided as it may be, they respect him. They will do as he orders. To him, the Nyx 23 mission was a tremendous success, so why would they need to use a different type of attack to bring us here? It’s actually fairly elegant if you ignore the arrogance. He can’t imagine that anyone would be as smart as him or as powerful as his creatures. They were able to disable the most impressive ship ever designed at its time, so why wouldn’t they be able to do it again? He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that somebody thought ahead of him.”
A rush of renewed hope flowed over Maxim.
“When can you leave for Uoria?” he asked.
Rain smiled.
“As soon as you want me to.”
“What needs to be done before they leave, Maxim?” Athan asked.
“We don’t know how long it will be before everybody on Earth makes it here, or you get back. Those of us who stay here are going to need at least basic supplies to get us through until then.”
“Those of us who stay?” Elise asked from the door as she stepped inside the control room. “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t we all leave this horrible place?”
Maxim hadn’t realized that she was listening and felt irritation taking away some of the lightness the hope had brought. He turned fully to the flight attendant, wanting to make sure she heard every word that he would say to her.
“We are here because Ryan wants to destroy anyone who opposes him and bring the universe under his control. He took my father. He has threatened my family and those dear to me. He is threatening the life of every being in existence. I am not running away from this. You are the mate of a Denynso warrior. You shouldn’t even be thinking of running away, either.”
Elise looked stung, but she didn’t say anything. She squared her shoulders and turned away from Maxim, leaving the control room and disappearing into the rest of the ship.
“Athan, you’ll go back to Uoria with Rain,” Maxim continued without hesitation.
“I can stay here and fight, Maxim,” the older man said.
“I know you can,” Maxim said. “I don’t doubt you. But we need the weapons and the army that are waiting for us there. I need you to be there to gather the ranks and make sure that they bring along what we need. I have to stay here. I need you to act in my stead.”
Athan nodded.
“I would be honored,” he said.
“Thank you, Athan.” He turned to Rain. “I want Nylek and Kyven to go back with you, too. They need more time to heal and they can do it bet
ter there than here. Avery and his crew can stay there, too, we’ll bring them back to Earth when this is all over. I am also going to send Ivy with you. Bring her to my mother.”
“There’s no way that Ivy is going to leave you here,” Rain said. “She’s going to insist that she stays here.”
“She can’t,” Maxim said. “She needs to not be here during this. I need you to bring her to my mother and leave her in her care. I’ll start preparing now. You’ll be ready to leave within the hour.”
He left the control room and headed directly back to the room where he had left Ivy. She was sitting on the bed, her hand rested protectively over her belly as she watched the door expectantly. It was that image that reinforced to Maxim that he was making the right decision sending her back to Uoria with Rain. The thought of being without her was excruciating, even if was only for a few days. He knew, though, that she and their baby would be safer on Uoria. If she was in the Mikana kingdom with Ellora she could be under the care of the midwives. They would ensure that her pregnancy was progressing properly and keep her healthy and safe, away from the war.
Maxim lowered himself to his knees at the side of the bed and leaned forward, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head on her belly. He knew that she would protest. She would be just as reluctant to leave his side as he was to watch her leave, but he couldn’t relent.
****
An hour later Maxim walked into the abandoned compound, the bags on his back heavy with weapons and supplies he had taken from the ship. Behind him bodies littered the sand and sweat glided down his face from the exertion of the fight that left them there. The shuttle had nearly not escaped the sudden and fierce assault of the hybrid army that swarmed just as the men were climbing down into the desert. Two had tried to force past them into the ship, but they had managed to hold them back long enough for the door to close and Elise to activate the locks. If they had gotten in, all would have been lost.
Maxim could still hear Ivy’s sobs as he turned away from her and walked out of the ship. He had to close himself to the sound, push it so far within him that he wouldn’t be able to touch it. She was safe now, already gone from his sight in the sky and on her way back to Uoria and to the protection of his mother. When everything was over, he would be back with her. They would welcome their child together and create the life that he had dreamt of since the moment that he first saw her standing by the stone wall in the human settlement. She was different then. Uoria had changed her. He had changed her. But she had changed them as well.
Until he was able to be with her again, he couldn’t allow himself to think of her or of their baby. He could think only of war. His father had left footsteps ahead of him and now it was time for him to rise up and let them guide him so that he could complete what Aegeus had intended to do so many years before.
Chapter Twelve
Jem knew that he should be sleeping, trying to get as much rest as he could before they left the safety of the basement to try to get to the vehicles that would bring them to Penthos, but he couldn’t. His mind was moving too quickly, overwhelmed with all of the thoughts that wouldn’t stop moving no matter how hard he tried to quiet them and rest. The war that awaited them on the distant planet that he had never even heard of hung heavily over him. It felt like a painful, unchanging reminder of everything that he had missed during his time that he was away from Uoria.
Angela stepped into the room carrying a box under one arm and smiled at him softly. She sat beside him and placed the box on the floor in front of him before placing her hand on his cheek and turning his face toward her to rest a kiss to his lips.
“I brought us something to eat,” she said, indicating the box. “I’m sure you’re hungry. I don’t think I’ve seen you eat anything since the bar.”
Jem shook his head.
“I’m not hungry,” he said.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Did I make the right choice coming back?” he asked.
Angela looked at him quizzically.
“Why would you ask that?”
“So much happened while I was gone. I keep hearing names that I don’t know. They told me that the Klimnu traveling with us is Maxim’s father. I don’t know who that is, Angela.”
“Why didn’t you tell them that?” Angela asked.
Jem shook his head again and stared down at the floor in front of him. He didn’t want to look at her and let her see the pain in his face.
“They didn’t even realize that I wouldn’t know,” he said. “They met him after I left Uoria. He’s not the only one. I keep hearing names that I’ve never heard and about people they’ve met, places they’ve gone, that I don’t understand. When I left, the Denynso had never gone outside of the compound. Now I know that the warriors have not only left the compound but found other settlements, other species that we didn’t know about. They’ve formed alliances and relationships. There are new bonds and wars. I feel like I don’t even know them anymore.”
“That’s not true, Jem,” Angela tried to tell him.
“It is,” Jem argued. “It’s like they didn’t even recognize that I was gone. Now that I’m back, I’ve just melded back in and they expect me to know what’s happening.”
“They more than recognized that you were gone,” Angela told him. “You haven’t heard what they’ve been saying about you. They missed you so much, Jem. They love you. You are a part of them. If they haven’t told you about something that they’ve done or explained something to you, it’s because you are such an integral element of their lives that they don’t want to think about the time when you weren’t around. They just want to pretend that you have always been there.”
Jem looked at his mate and felt warmth fill him. It was hard for him to face everything that he had missed since being gone and trying to find his context within the clan again, but he knew that she was right. He was born Denynso. Nothing could change that. It didn’t really matter what had happened in the time that had passed since he disappeared from that underground realm and moved through the unknown portal. What mattered was that he was back now and he would give everything he had to protect his kind and those that they trusted.
Angela gave him a gently suggestive smile and opened the box in front of them.
“Why don’t you try to eat something,” she said. “It will make you feel better.”
She took what looked like one of the cupcakes that Ty had baked when he was trying to help Ero show Zuri how much he loved her, but smaller.
“What is that?” he asked.
“Apparently when they were packing the emergency rations for these chambers, they decided that people stuck in some form of disaster might have cravings for sweets. This is a cupcake designed specifically to stay fresh for more than one hundred years.”
Jem’s face contorted.
“How did they do that?” he asked.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “They were perfected by the deep space travel research department to be taken on extensive missions with them. It just so happens that they last a lot longer than they originally thought.”
“So you’ve had one?” he asked.
Angela nodded and took the cupcake out of its wrapper.
“These were my one request when I signed up for the excavation mission,” she said. “I didn’t go to this University, but I was friends with some of the people in the research department that worked on these. I might have nearly lived off of these when I was a poor University student and they let me be the test subject for some of the early recipes for these.”
Jem could see a veil of memories in her eyes and felt he same tug of emotion that he always did when he thought of Angela’s life before he met her. He tried to not dwell on it. He tried to focus on life now and not let himself imagine what her future would have been like if she hadn’t signed up for the excavation, or if she had chosen to stay close to the main dig site rather than going to the cave to explore with the others and fallen through the
portal that took her away from her stream on Earth in the same way that the portal had taken Jem from Uoria.
Angela smiled and broke the cupcake in half, revealing a creamy white filling. She dipped her finger into it and then put it in her mouth. Jem’s stomach clenched as she sucked the cream from her fingertip and smiled at him. Placing the halves of the cupcake back into the box, she reached forward and peeled Jem’s shirt away from his body. There was still a dull ache where the deep wound had been, but Ciyrs’s healing had taken strong effect and the gash was nearly healed.
Angela gathered more of the cream out of the cupcake and trailed it down the center of Jem’s chest, following the curves of his deeply chiseled muscles and glazing his nipple. He let out a long, growling breath as she leaned forward and swept the sweetened cream away from his skin with her tongue. Even when the cream was gone, she continued to swirl her tongue along his chest. Losing himself in the sensation of her warm mouth on his skin, Jem brought his hands to her shirt, bunched it at her waist, and then waited until she sat back, away from his chest so that he could remove her shirt. Jem released the hooks on the back of her bra, revealing her breasts to him, and groaned at the smooth fullness of them as she drew in a breath. He dipped his thumb into the cream filling of the cupcake just as she had and coated one taut pink nipple. His mouth closed over her breast, his tongue flicking across her skin as he sucked away the sweet cream, savoring the delectable contrast of the cream with her warm, salty skin.
Angela's eyes drifted closed as she bit down on her bottom lip and arched back to press her breast deeper into his mouth. Jem’s hands smoothed down over her hips to grip her butt tightly, pulling her closer to his body so that he could kiss his way to the other breast and repeat the attention there. Her hands moved to the front of his pants and she worked them open so that she could pushed them down off of his hips. Jem’s already surging erection sprung free from the thick fabric and he groaned as Angela wrapped her hand around the shaft eagerly. He loved the way she sighed at the feeling of him against her palm and ran her fingertips along the ridges as if greeting them. She flattened her other hand in the center of his chest and guided him carefully to lie back on the floor so that she could straighten his legs and remove the rest of his clothing. He closed his eyes and let himself relax as she dipped her fingers in the cream again and set to work painting his chest.
The Alien Uncovers (Uoria Mates IV Book 3) Page 9
