by S. E. Smith
Men paused as he approached, bowing their heads in respect. Even the Tearnat warriors kneeled and placed their palms over their hearts in a show of respect and loyalty. Jazin walked onto the bridge without saying a word. He looked briefly at Jarmen who nodded. His friend closed his eyes and focused. When he opened them, his eyes blazed with power as he tapped into the communications system and opened it to every Kassisan, Elpidios, Tearnat, and Alliance ship within receiving distance.
“My name is Jazin Ja Kel Coradon. I am the third son of the ruling House of Kassis. Let it be known that any who strike against my family or my mate will be given no mercy. Death will not come fast enough. For the ones who have taken my mate, there is no place you can hide that I will not find you, no star system that can protect you, and no Gods that will give you mercy. I am coming for my mate and I am bringing death with me,” he growled out in an icy voice.
Jarmen closed his eyes, releasing the communications console back to the warrior in charge of it. Slowly one by one, the warriors on the bridge rose. The men looked proudly at Jazin’s bloody figure before kneeling. Each man bowed his head and placed a clenched fist against their heart. Jazin could have traveled throughout the great warship and found the same thing. Tearnat and Kassisan warriors knelt together in unity. There are many things that a true warrior holds scared, his mate being the most important.
Jazin’s jaw clenched. He would not show what the loss of Star was doing to him. He turned, nodding to Armet and Dakar. He looked at Jarmen who nodded in response to his silent order to follow him. As the door opened, a soft voice echoed through the warship’s communication system.
“Were you able to connect?” Star’s anxious voice sounded.
“Of course, my love. You have sound but no video, I’m afraid. I wish I could do more,” the deep masculine voice purred. “I would connect the universe to bring a smile to your face.”
Jazin turned in disbelief as his mate’s giggle echoed through the bridge. “You don’t have to do that, you adorable bundle of sweetness. I just need to talk with a warship called the Blue Star.”
“All they need to hear is the sweet sound of your voice, my beautiful oil can, and they would search for the beautiful face that goes with it,” the male said smoothly.
“Connect the transmission to a secure line on the commander’s console,” Jazin growled out turning to look briefly at Jarmen.
Jarmen nodded before closing his eyes and redirecting the transmission as Jazin requested. “It is done.”
Jazin stormed into the conference room, pacing back and forth while he drew in deep breaths to calm himself. Jarmen came in behind him and sealed the door. Jazin looked at his friend with such fury, Jarmen winced. He had just killed two men. He had just opened communications to every known star system with a vow of vengeance and his mate calls him giggling! Giggling! Jazin ran his blood stained hands through his hair and fought the need to scream in fury. He was going to rip apart the male who continued to whisper sweet nothings to his mate.
“Where in the Gods are you, Star? And who is the male?” Jazin growled out stopping long enough to grip the chair that was bolted to the floor.
“Jazin? Oh Jazin, I was so scared. I don’t know where I am? IQ honey, do you know where we are?” Star asked softly.
“Of course, my dream. We are in space.”
Star giggled again. “Oh Jazin! Do you get it? I asked him where we were and he said we were in space! Isn’t he the cutest thing you’ve ever heard? He calls me all these ridiculous names but he really is smart and such a sweetheart,” Star added.
“Star, I need to know what your location is?” Jazin said in a quiet voice that reflected none of the violence he was feeling at the moment.
“Oh, yeah, sorry.”
Jazin listened as Star cleared her throat and asked the male what their location was again. This time, the male gave him the needed coordinates. Once he had them, he programmed the information into the warship’s navigation system. Now, he just needed to know who had his mate so he could kill them.
“Star, how were you able to contact the Blue Star?” Jazin asked, rocking back and forth as his fingers flexed in a crushing grip on the chair back.
“Oh, the box I was in was pulled aboard a freighter called Piece of Shit. When the two men on board opened it, I used the defense moves Armet and Dakar taught me to take them down. Jazin, you should have seen me! I kicked their asses good. Oh, you won’t believe their names! One of the men is called Dumbass and the other is called Jackoff. Anyway, I was able to get a pistol one of the guys was wearing and I shot them, only it was set to stun so I didn’t really hurt them but it knocked them out good,” Star paused to draw in a breath.
Jazin leaned his forehead down on the chair as he listened to her excited tone. She didn’t sound the least bit afraid now. His head jerked up as he realized she said she had stunned the men, not killed them. Gods, that meant they could still hurt her.
“Star, what about the men?” Jazin asked anxiously.
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about them. Numbnuts, that’s the service bot, has them locked up in the shithole,” she said mildly. “So, that only leaves me, IQ, and Numbnuts manning this piece of shit,” Star finished before she burst into laughter. “This is so good, Jazin. There is no way I could ever have made this ‘shit’ up,” she added before she burst into laughter that bordered on hysteria.
Jazin’s heart twisted when he heard the catch in her voice as she finally calmed down. “Jazin, can you come get me?”
“I will be there in less than an hour,” he responded huskily. “And I want time alone with the crew.”
Star giggled as IQ began singing a love song in French of all languages. “I think it might be an interesting conversation.”
“Keep the line open at all times,” Jazin gritted over the noise of the singing. “I don’t want to lose our connection.”
“I will. Oh, I think Dumbass and Jackoff are waking up,” Star said breathlessly. “I’d better go have a talk with them.”
“Star,” Jazin growled out but all he could hear was that damn male voice singing in some language he didn’t understand and that didn’t translate. “STAR!” He barked out loudly.
“I will monitor communications,” Jarmen said coming up behind his friend. “Perhaps it would be best for you to get cleaned up. Your mate should not see you covered in blood the way you are.”
Jazin looked down at his hands. Jar was right. With a muttered curse, he turned toward the door. As it opened, he looked back at his friend and pointed to the communication’s console.
“I am going to kill that annoying bastard,” he growled out before he turned and the door closed behind him.
Jarmen winced as the male on the other end hit a particularly high note and held it for a long time. “I will help you, my friend, I will gladly help you.”
Chapter 19
Star gripped the pistol she had tightly between both her palms as she edged up to the hole in the floor. She could hear muted conversation as the men talked to each other. She paused, listening for a few minutes. Shaking her head, she frowned in confusion. The men were speaking in French! One man was trying to tell the other that he still loved him, black eyes and all. The other man moaned that his nose would make him uglier now.
“Luc, I would love you no matter how crooked your nose was,” the one man assured him in a deeply accented voice.
“We weren’t supposed to open the box, Jon Paul,” Luc replied. “The man said that we were only to pick up a box in space, do not open it, and he would buy this piece of shit from us when we delivered it still sealed to him! How are we going to open a restaurant now?”
“You will just have to win one in a poker game for us,” Jon Paul responded lightly.
“Bonjour messieurs,” Star called down in a soft, hesitant voice. “Mon nom est Star Strauss. Avec qui dois-je le plaisir de parler?” She asked in French.
Both men looked up startled. The man she had hit in t
he throat stood up and bowed his head in greeting. “Bonjour Madame. I am Jon Paul and this is my partner, Luc. We are your humble servants from the most romantic city on a planet called Earth.”
“Paris?” Star giggled with a raised eyebrow.
“Aucun,” Jon Paul answered with a wicked smile. “Montreal, Canada.”
“So how did to French Canadians end up owning a piece of shit freighter in the middle of a distant star system?” Star asked switching to English as she sat down cross-legged near the opening.
“It is a long, but magnificent story of true love, pirates, and a wonderful game of chance,” Jon Paul said with a mischievous grin. “Would you like to hear our amazing story of adventure?”
“Yes,” Star giggled. “I think I would.”
Luc slowly stood up and gave Star a pained smile. “And you will share your story of how you ended up in Snow White’s magical box, as well, oui? The stories would go much better with a bottle of wine,” he added in a slightly hopeful voice. “As well as help with the pain to both my nose and my pride that such a tiny, beautiful fairy could take down two such big, but lovable Frenchmen.”
Star laughed out loud. “I’ll let you out but be warned, if you try to hurt me my boyfriend is going to be very, very upset with you,” she teased as she stood up. “By the way, did you really name your service bot Numbnuts?” She whispered.
Luc’s face twisted again as Jon Paul burst into laughter. “That my lovely fairy, is yet another story.”
*.*.*
By the time the Blue Star arrived, Star had fallen in love with the two adorable Frenchmen who had emigrated from Paris to Montreal to start their own restaurant. The men told her how they had been returning from a farm that was renowned for its cheeses when the SUV they were driving got a flat tire. The two had been arguing so much about the proper way to change a tire they didn’t notice the strange lights in the sky until it was too late. They woke on a strange spaceship. The group of pirates who planned to sell them decided to keep the men after Jon Paul and Luc convinced the captain to let them cook for the crew. They had spent the next ten years cooking and fighting alongside the mismatched group of misfits that made up the pirate crew. Two years ago, the captain decided she wanted to retire. The ship was sold and Jon Paul and Luc found themselves on a distant Spaceport with a few credits and the little knowledge they had learned during their years aboard the pirate ship. Luc was a master at poker and he introduced the game at the bar on the Spaceport. It became a huge success and the bar owner let the two men stay on for about six months with the promise of a place to stay and all the liquor they wanted in exchange for holding poker games. One night, a horrid man came in. Fascinated with the game, he played and played until all he had left to chance was the Dread, the short haul freighter that was two trips shy of the scrape pile. Luc won the freighter in the card game. The next morning, he and Jon Paul woke up with a massive hangover in the middle of space in what they called a ‘piece of shit’. The name stuck. The only thing they were truly grateful for was it came with IQ and Numbnuts, neither the original name of the service bots. Since neither Luc or Jon Paul knew the first thing about piloting a spaceship they relied on the service bots to pilot it. Both service bots received some slight reprogramming over the last two years which is why they acted the way they did. Jon Paul and Luc’s new names had come about the evening they first woke up. They had traded insults with each other for having found themselves in yet another strange mess. The service bots had picked it up and it stuck since neither man could figure out how to un-program the names from the bots' memory.
“We have guests, Dumbass. They have boarded without permission,” IQ said over the communication’s console attached to the wall. “Should I tell them to blow off or are they expected.”
“First, we need to know if they are friends or enemies. How else do we know whether to offer them a glass of wine or not?” Jon Paul replied with a grin.
“You will know exactly what I am when I cut you both into small pieces,” Jazin snarled out, stepping through the narrow opening leading into the small kitchen area.
“Jazin!” Star squealed, jumping up from her seat and throwing herself into his arms. “You came!”
Jazin retracted his laser sword as Star threw her tiny body into his and began pressing kisses to his face. His arms tightened around her and he pulled her close, inhaling her sweet fragrance. The feel of her, safe and secure, against him sent waves of relief coursing through his body. Jazin had Jar monitored the communications as best he could but the male called IQ had been no help. The damn male had driven Jar nuts with his singing, constant questions about what he looked like, and innuendos as he tried to find out if Jar was into open relationships.
“What do you mean, I came? Of course I would come,” Jazin said huskily.
His eyes moved to focus on the two males sitting across the small table staring at them. They had their arms around each other and watched him as if they were old friends. One of the male’s actually had his head on the other's shoulder. Both were smiling at him with a goofy grin, not the terror they should have been.
“Ah, amour,” Luc sighed in contentment. “Do they not make a beautiful couple, Jon Paul?”
Star giggled softly and leaned up to whisper in Jazin’s ear. “The one with the black eyes is Luc. The other is Jon Paul. They are from my planet and they are very much in love with each other.”
Jazin pulled back and stared down at Star in surprise before he looked back at both men in sudden understanding. “So who is the other male that was talking to you?” Jazin growled out looking around. He wanted to kill someone, maybe not the two men grinning at him like fools, but someone.
“That was IQ,” Star said with a huge smile. “He’s the pilot.”
“You called, my love?”
The husky male voice that had been driving Jar up the wall for the past hour called out. Jazin and Jar turned at the same time, raising their swords. Both men stopped, their mouths hanging open, as the tiny service bot rolled up and uncurled at their feet.
“Well hello good-looking!” IQ said looking up into Jar's glowing amber eyes. “You can play with my programming anytime.” A low, sexy purr rumbled from the tiny bot.
“Gentlemen, please meet IQ. The pilot of this piece of shit,” Star said right before she burst into laughter. “Oh Jazin, I can’t wait to tell Jo and River about this!”
Jarmen growled down at the little service bot that had moved forward and was running one of its arms up his leg while saying things he did not understand. He shook it off with a grunt of disgust and shot a frigid glare at the two men who chuckled in delight. They might think it was funny but he did not. He closed his eyes and focused on the tiny bot. In seconds, he had reprogrammed it back to its original status with a few minor improvements.
Let's see if they like this! Jar thought as he opened his eyes again. The little bot rocked back and forth before just standing silent with a frozen look on its metallic face.
“Jar!” Star cried out in disappointment. “I liked him the way he was. You program him back to the way he was right this instant!”
Jar turned and looked at the pouting face of the tiny warrior that was wrapped tightly around his friend and sighed deeply. His friend wasn't the only one she had wrapped around her tiny fingers. His eyes glowed again before he looked down at her with a frown.
“If he starts humping my leg again, I'll overheat his circuit boards,” he growled out before pointing at the two men who burst out laughing at him. “That goes for both of you as well.”
Luc picked up the bottle of homemade wine off the table and took a huge swallow of it before he wiped his hand across the back of his mouth and replied. “My glow-friend, the tiny fairy has already beaten you to it! Can you not see my eyes and nose? Is she is not magnificent?”
Jazin growled softly as the men went on and on about what the beautiful fairy did to them and how enchanted they were with her. He was more than ready to return to the
Blue Star when the old freighter shuddered and groaned, knocking them sideways.
He and Jarmen had come in using a small, service shuttle so they could not be detected. It was currently docked to the service hatch under the freighter. The shuttle was just big enough for two people. Their plan was to board the freighter, secure Star somewhere safe, and kill the men who took her. Armet and Dakar were on their way with the Tearnat starship. The Blue Star would meet up with them once it was back online and would destroy the freighter after they were safely back aboard the warship. Now, it looked like someone else had the same thought.
“Dumbass, someone is hailing us! The dippy wad who wants to buy our home. What should I tell him?” IQ called out through the communications console in the wall.
“What do we tell him?” Jon Paul asked as the freighter rocked again. “Numbnuts! Get in here! Do you know if we have shields? Guns? Anything?”
Jazin and Jarmen looked at both men as they huddled next to each other. “You two don't even know if you have any defense systems on board?” Jazin asked in disbelief.
“We French are lovers, not fighters. The only weapon we had your beautiful fairy took from us,” Luc said with an apologetic smile.
“That is not true!” Jon Paul said fiercely. “The French are some of the greatest fighters in history! We are known for our skills in battle.”
“Oui, that is true. There was the French Revolution, World War I and II, not to mention the French Foreign Legion,” Luc started to say with a weak smile. “But, me? I am definitely more of a lover.”