by RK Munin
Sighing with annoyance Mian points at the system and addresses the admiral. “None of these planets are viable to build on. Most of them are gas giants and unsuitable for life anyway. No minerals so there's no mining, and the sun is too weak and unstable to set up ion farms. In short, no one goes there for any reason. It's about the only solar system around here that doesn't even have an outpost. It's the perfect place for raiders to hang out and wait, hoping all of you will get bored and go away.”
“You think they're deliberately avoiding us?” Lieutenant Sahin asks. The Hissa aren't used to fighting an enemy that won’t meet them head on.
“Without a doubt,” Mian assures him. “They avoided Fortune, and she was just one little gun ship. You guys have been blazing around Raider Alley, taking out ships left and right. Then, all of a sudden, Raider Alley doesn't have a single raider in it.”
“Could they have moved to another sector?” the admiral asks with a frown.
“Not yet,” Mian says with a shake of her head. She brings both hands down to rub her distended belly and realizes her discomfort’s been growing as she stood there. As much as she hates to admit it, she's ready to rest again.
“Raiders are opportunistic, and this sector is very ripe. I'm sure they’re willing to hold up and wait, hoping you'll just go away. If you guys stay, they’ll eventually leave and set up a new Raider Alley somewhere. But for now I can guarantee you, they are playing the wait-and-see game.”
“And you think this is the mostly likely place they’ll wait?” Lieutenant Sahin asks, eyeing the holo chart with interest.
“Not necessarily all of them, but I'm sure a lot of them are there,” Mian explains. “Remember, they aren't a unified force. They’re all independent. Sometimes one or two ships will join together for mutual benefits, but the ties are tenuous and easily broken during combat.” The men around her nod. They've heard this before from attending her lectures about hunting raiders.
“What do you think you're doing?” a voice roars out, making all the men in the meeting room turn and flash fang. Mian doesn’t even jump at either the voice or the men forming a protective barrier around her. She’s gotten use to the way Hissa men instinctively move to defend her. They all relax and move away from her when they see it’s Halin striding toward them instead of a threat.
Her eyes go to his neck where an exact copy of her mating marks were tattooed as part of their Family Pact ceremony many months earlier. She loves to run her fingers over those tattoos and think about the fact that she’s got a family again.
A family that tends to be bossy and overly protective but perfect in every other way.
“I'm was looking at a holo chart,” she says quickly, putting on her best innocent face. “And now I’m done. We were just about to leave. Right, Diven?” The lieutenant casts her a sideways glance and shakes his head.
“Don’t get me in trouble,” he mutters to her and steps away as if she's contaminated. Halin strides up to her and sweeps her into his arms.
“Foolish female,” he grumbles and then eyes Diven. “Was she about to leave?”
“She's uncomfortable and should rest,” Diven tells him, and Mian flashes him a surprised glance. And here she thought she'd been doing such a good job of hiding her discomfort. Diven looks at her and gives a little snort. “You're not as clever as you think you are.”
“I'll take her. I'm done training for the day. You're dismissed from duty,” Halin tells the Lieutenant. Diven looks downright relieved.
“Thank you, sir,” he says. “She's being difficult today. I think your young is making her irritable.” The other men in the room chuckle, and Mian opens her mouth to tell all of them what she thinks of their humor when Halin turns and strides out with her in tow.
“No one is to contact her for the next full cycle,” he calls back.
Mian remains quiet for the journey, knowing better than to ask Halin to set her down. He tends to carry her everywhere now, treating her like she could break if she took a single misstep. Mostly she deals with his overprotective attitude with humor, but occasionally she's gotten so annoyed she’s resorted to desperate measures.
Including restraining Halin to their bed so she could have her wicked way with him after being refused sex for several weeks in a row. Halin was outraged at first, but it didn't take long to make him see the error of his ways. Especially when the Menders backed her up by confirming it’s a safe activity to engage in.
Back in their quarters Halin carefully puts her down on the bed, the same one she had on Fortune. She was shocked to find her familiar bed instead of the standard issue ship bunks when he first showed her to their quarters. When she questioned him Halin admitted that he wanted to do something special for her and knowing her affection for the piece of furniture he was determined to keep it with them even on board a Hiss military ship. Turns out that it wasn’t hard for Halin to convince everyone to let Mian have the bed. They all want her to be happy and content.
Then she found out the men who helped move it from Fortune to the battleship liked it so much they had copies commissioned. Now her square wooden bed is all the rage on Hissa, and the Tavarian artisans who make them are so busy the beds are on back order.
With a sigh of relief Mian rolls on her side, enjoying the feel of the lush comforter. Halin carefully climbs in next to her, curling his body around her and placing a large gentle hand on the swell of her belly.
“Isn't it time for our young to join us yet?” he asks with a small frustrated sigh of his own. Halin’s both eager to hold their child and also have her comfortable again.
He was very upset last week when he found her sobbing in the cleansing unit because she couldn't see her feet when standing any more. That emotional outburst ended up with a trip to medical and many Menders and medical technicians confirming she was fine before he would let her explain she was just feeling hormonal and tired of being awkward and fat.
After that little incident, whenever he finds her crying, he feeds her chocolate and tells her she's beautiful. Hissa men aren’t dumb.
“I think this kid might be a little too comfortable in there,” Mian mutters despondently. “If she doesn't decide to leave soon, I'm going to make one of the Menders cut me open and pull her out.”
“You're so sure it's a female?” Halin asks, ignoring her bloody threat. Mian refused to let the Menders reveal the gender of the child so it can be a surprise at birth. Halin wasn’t thrilled but went along with it.
“The kid is stubborn, so I'm assuming it's going to be a girl,” she answers and then grunts when the baby kicks.
“I would like our young to be female,” Halin whispers.
“And if it turns out to be a boy?”
“I’ll love him as I love his mother,” Halin states without hesitation. “And then I'll insist we try again until our daughter joins us.” Mian chuckles at his words and reaches her hand back until it rests on his hip. They stay like that for several minutes, enjoying the comfort of touching each other. After a while she decides she might as well tell Halin the idea that’s been circling her mind since she was told they were scheduled to leave Raider Alley soon.
“I want to be a Range Master,” she blurts out.
“After you’re recovered from the birth, I'm sure it will be easy to convince the Council to assign you that duty,” Halin agrees, and she struggles to sit up, gaping at him.
“You're not going to argue? You're not going to tell me it's too dangerous and you don't want me around all those men and weapons?”
Halin grins at her and pulls her back down. “If I've learned anything over the last ten months it's that you're a skilled and honorable warrior. Your weapons skills are exemplary, and as a Range Master you’ll have the opportunity to impart your knowledge in a controlled environment. How could I not approve?”
Mian eyes him for a moment. “I think the key words in that statement are 'controlled environment',” she mutters.
Even though she knows she needs t
o give up the idea of combat for the time being, it’s a hard pill to swallow. It helps that according to Council decree, Halin couldn't engage in combat situations either, so they were being treated as equals in Hissa society. In other words, they’re both being treated as if any kind of stress might kill them.
She tries very hard to keep from feeling like they’re a pair of prized breeding animals being kept safe and secure while they’re reproducing. That feeling isn't helped when she finds out that the Council issues a report on her health and the progress of their child to the entire Hissa population. She felt only slightly mollified when Halin explained they do the same thing for all the Decanted women on Hissa.
Reading the daily reports the Council issues on the other Decanted women, Mara, Lara, and Deena, makes her feel like she almost knows them. She regrets leaving the planet to hunt raiders before Tiran and Mara returned with Lara and Deena. But only when she read about Lara’s pregnancy. She almost asked to be taken back to Hissa, the urge to have another woman to commiserate with was that strong.
The need to hunt down raiders is stronger. She thinks sometimes of her parents and knows they would be proud of all her decisions, including the one to stop allowing vengeance consume her entire life.
Now that she's sure there's a job waiting for her back on Hissa, she slides a glance over her shoulder at Halin and gives him her best smile. “You know, I think the range should be expanded.”
“Anything you want,” he promises. “Hissa will give you anything you want. Doubling or tripling the range is easy enough.”
“Anything I want?”
“Anything.”
“Including you?”
“Including me,” he agrees.
“You know, I never thought I'd have a family again,” Mian whispers, feeling tears prick her eyes. She can go from feeling such joy and contentment to tears in the matter of moments. Damn hormones!
Halin moves his head so he can kiss her. “I never thought to have a female or children, so we share that erroneous belief,” Halin tells her. “It's good to be wrong sometimes.”
“Yes,” Mian agrees whole heartily. “No one else has ever been so happy to be proven wrong.”
