by Maia Starr
“What will he do? Your king? Will you be punished? Will I be punished?” I asked him, calmly trying to distract myself from the space agency and Earth.
“I do not know what he will do. I do know that he will not be happy. I do know that if he finds that you are not happy with me, he will grant you a chance to find another, another Draqua, if you wish,” he said sadly. I looked at him with surprise.
“Do you mean that you do not own me?” I asked.
“No , I do not. I can only lay claim to you after the King has granted it. He will make sure that it is what you want as well; it is the way of things.”
I was quiet as I thought this over. If I were not pregnant, then I would possibly think about this. He had lied to me, and those lies still hurt. I didn't know how long it would take to get over it. If I weren't carrying his offspring, I would greatly take it into consideration. But that was not my current situation. I did love him. I knew that much. I had left my entire planet just to be with him. I wanted him to be the father of our offspring. Besides, I did not know the rules that this king had between in finding out that a human carried the offspring of the Draqua, then it might be required that I be matched with that Draqua forever, which made sense. But I could not tell Zoq that now. I wasn't ready.
“I know that you are angry with me. I did not lie to you. I just did not reveal the truth. There is a difference. I hope that one day you will understand. But I do not want to be separated. Don't you see how much I care for you, Heather? I think it is obvious,” he said as he looked at me.
His words were caring and infiltrated my heart. It was obvious that he was sincere. What he said got my attention, that there was a difference between outright lying and just not revealing the truth. In fact, I was doing the same exact thing. I wasn't lying about being pregnant because he had not asked me. But I was concealing it. I was not revealing the truth. It made me feel guilty as well. How could I be angry at him for concealing his secrets, when I was doing the exact same thing? In fact, my secret was possibly bigger than his because it involved our child. What if he never forgave me for not telling him? At that moment, I decided it was time. I had to tell him. I had to tell him that I knew that I was pregnant. I only hoped that he would be accepting the knowledge.
“I have to tell you something, Zoq. I don't know how to tell you this. I am not even sure 100% if it is accurate. But I can no longer keep it inside,” I said to him.
He turned toward me, giving me his complete attention. I opened my mouth to tell him that I was pregnant with his offspring. But as I did so, we were interrupted. A loud siren began to ring throughout the entire ship.
“What is that?!” I shouted.
“It is the radar. It is letting me know that we are about to enter the space around Tiok,” he said.
“Tiok? That is where the opposition is based? Right?” I asked, feeling tense. Zoq was tense as he pushed buttons and worked on the console.
“Yes, it is and now a dangerous place for me. Captain Teqqin Blace would have reported what I have done to the base by now. They will know that I am on the way back to Kelon. In the captain’s anger about how I pulled one over on him, I am sure that he has an all out hunt for me waiting for me. So I set the radar to alert me when we were close. I need to keep an eye out now,” he said.
“We are in danger,” I said.
“Yes, we are. We will continue this talk when we have cleared the airspace around Tiok. But for now, I need to focus. This is life or death,” he said.
I understood and strapped myself into the seat. I was nervous. I did not know what the opposition was capable of, but after seeing the fierce anger of Captain Blace when he caught us, I understood that the Draqua were not to be messed with.
I kept quiet as he focused. I was getting very nervous. I realized just how serious this was. But I was also upset that I was on the verge of telling him that I was pregnant. But we were interrupted, and I did not get a chance. I could not blurt it out now. I did not want to distract him. I knew that he needed his focus in order to get us out or keep us out of danger. I took a deep breath.
“Everything is going to be fine, Heather; you will see, we will be on my planet in no time and safe,” he said.
Just as he said that, another siren that sounded different than the first went off. I panicked. “What is it?” I asked.
“This is not good. It is another radar siren. But I did not set this one to alert us. It is picking up something,” he said as he quickly pulled up the radar and it was projected in front of him like a hologram. I could see 3 small dots following the dot that represented our ship.
“What is that? What are those things? Are they asteroids?” I asked, hoping that is answer would be yes.
“No, they are not. They are ships, and they are coming in fast,” he said.
“Is it the opposition?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said bluntly. “Hold on,” he said as he pressed buttons. “I am taking her out of autopilot. I got to fly us out of their vision field and out of their radar range.”
“What can I do?” I asked.
“Just stay calm,” he said. Then the ship jolted forward and then sideways. He was all over the place, going sideways and rolling.
“What is that?” I asked as I saw that he was flying towards something in the distance.
“It is an asteroid field. It is the only way we can lose them,” he said.
“What? But what if we hit one of them?” I asked.
“We won’t. It is our only chance. We have to,” he said. Just then, a blast of light flew past us.
“They are firing! Hold on!”
“Oh my god,” I said quietly. I could not die in space. I had so much to tell Zoq. I had to tell him that I was pregnant with his child. I had to tell him that I was happy that I came with him. I had to tell him that I loved him. Now there might not be any time left for us. The shots pushing past us were getting denser. The asteroid field was so close, but I did not know if we would make it. I looked at the radar projection, and the ships were getting closer and closer. I looked at Zoq. His arms were tense, making his muscles contract. He was focused and zoned in on his flying maneuvers. It was beautiful to watch. I would rather look at him and have that be the last thing I saw if we died, instead of the space in front of us.
CHAPTER TWELVE
COMMANDER ZOQ KANE
We were in a situation. The situation was critical. There was so much that I wanted to say to Heather, and before we were interrupted, there was something that she was going to tell me as well. But I could not focus on that right now. We had three ships on our tail. Now they were firing at us. I knew instantly that it was the opposition. I had to focus very hard to maneuver away from the onslaught of blasts coming our way. I would not let anyone harm her. Since they were shooting at us, they were not trying to capture us. They just wanted us dead.
“Captain Blace must have gotten a message to the opposition fighters based on Tiok. They are trying to kill us. Normally traitors would be caught; he is obviously pissed to order this kind of death squad to come after us,” I said.
“Death squad?” she said with fear.
“They have one purpose. They are trying to make our ship explode. They want to get rid of us, not capture us,” I said as I maneuvered straight into the field of asteroids.
“Oh God,” she whispered.
“Don't worry, Heather. I will not let you down. We are going to get out of this. I am very familiar with this asteroid field. I know that the opposition fighters are not. I'm going to take care of you; I promise you that,” I said as I pushed the ship into full speed straight toward a giant floating rock.
“I am scared, Zoq,” she whispered.
“We will get out of this,” I said to her. “Keep your belt on and hold on tight. We are going to be rolling through some sharp moves,” I said. Then I maneuvered the ship past a massive floating rock that was the size of a small moon. I had used it before. I was very familiar with this area. I fle
w around it to the backside and then hit the brakes on the ship.
“You are stopping? What are you doing? They are going to shoot us,” Heather whispered.
“Trust me,” I said to her. I used the large rock as a shield, getting as close to it as I could. Within seconds, the 3 small transporters flew directly by us.
“I am locking onto one of them,” I said as I got one of the transports that seemed to be the one leading the squad in firing range. Then I fired. I watched as the transport blew up.
“Direct hit. But now we have to chase them before they get behind us,” I said as I moved the ship full speed ahead after the two transports. The hunted had now become the hunter. I had to stay behind them as much as I could, firing at them.
“Are they slowing down? It looks like they are slowing down,” Heather said in a panic.
“Yes, you are right. They are going to try to get behind me,” I said. Then in a flash, the two transports split. One went left, and the other went right. I went straight ahead.
“Damn it; they split up. They are going to go around an asteroid to get behind me,” I said. I had an idea. I flew straight up instead of going straight forward. “This will throw them off a bit, but they still have me on radar,” I said. “They just won’t know that I am above them.”
It was eerily empty around us for a few moments, except for the rocks. The opposition fighters were blinking on my radar, but I could not see them. They seemed to be directly below me. I looked out the windshield trying to gage where they were. Then one shot up directly in front of me out of nowhere.
“Firing!” I shouted as I took aim and fired. The ship exploded. I maneuvered away from the blast, but we still went through some of the aftershock ripple. The ship shook. I regained control.
“Where is the other one? Come on, where are you?” I said as I looked around. I looked at the radar. The third transport was not on it. “It’s not on radar.”
“Maybe it’s retreating. It’s now alone so it is probably giving up before you take it down too,” Heather said.
“I think you might be right,” I said as I turned to her and grinned. She let out a sigh of relief.
“I told you we would make it,” I said.
She smiled at me. I enjoyed seeing her brilliant smile again. Her blue eyes sparkled and she was almost glowing. I wanted to pull her into my arms right then and there. I wanted to take her on the bench and never let her go. But there was work to do.
“Yes, you did. You are a great pilot,” she said with a smile.
“You are in good hands,” I said to her.
“I am going to stay in this field for as long as we can. We are still going in the direction of my planet, but this will give us some cover for now. I am going to analyze the ship and make sure that it has not been damaged,” I said. I moved my attention back to the console and began to analyze for any damage.
“I was really scared there. There were so many of them,” she said.
“I understand. Fear is good. Fear keeps you from making dumb mistakes and from being to over confident. I have been in many space battles; I assume this is your first?” I asked her.
She laughed, “Yes, this is my first.”
It was good to laugh with her again. We were being light-hearted and flirty despite the situation. This was how it was in the beginning with us, and I craved it. I could feel the tension leaving her. I myself was also relieved, and after 20 minutes, it seemed like we had definitely lost the last transport. We were coming to the edge of the asteroid field and would be losing our cover. It seemed as though we did not need it anymore.
“This is the last of the asteroids and rocks. We will be entering empty space once more. But we are very close to Kelon. Only half a day or so before we can see the planet before us.”
“I am glad for it. It will be good to stand on land again,” she said.
“I am going to engage the autopilot once more. I need to check on a few things in the engine room. They are showing up when I analyzed the ship for damage. It is only minor wiring, but I should fix it while I have the chance,” I said to her.
She looked at me as though she were impressed. “You can do that?”
“Yes, I can. There is a lot that I can do,” I whispered to her seductively. She smiled. I set the autopilot on the course back to Kelon. Then I unbuckled and made my way to the back of the ship. “Stay buckled in for now. Keep an eye out for me, will you?” I said with a wink.
“Yes, I will be your co-pilot,” she laughed.
“You are one sexy co-pilot,” I said.
I made my way to the back of the ship and pulled on a panel on the floor. It led me down to the engine room. I went to work. There were minor repairs that needed to be done due to the damage of the laser blast. I spent an hour down in the engine room making the repairs. I had lost track of time. I should have come back up at 30 minutes and checked on the radar. But I did not, and it was a huge mistake. While I was working on the wiring, it took the radar out temporarily making it go off and on. There was a jolt that threw me across the engine room. It was such a hard force that I hit the opposite wall hard. I felt a piercing sensation on my side.
“Zoq! Zoq! They are firing at us!” I heard Heather shout from above. Crap, it was the opposition again. I looked down at the piercing sensation in my side. It was then that I realized that I was impaled by a pipe that was sticking out of the wall. It went straight through my entire body, from my back out through the front, just above my hip. I grunted in pain. This was not good.
Another jolt let me know that we were still being fired on. I had to get to the flight deck and take the ship out; hopefully, it was just the one that got away from before. If there were many, then I would not be able to fly us out of this one, not with this injury. I could hear Heather screaming. I had to get to her. I had to fight to stay alive, to keep her alive. It was all that mattered. I was gravely wounded; I did not know if I would survive this type of wound. But I was going to get her safely to Kelon, even if it killed me. Nothing else mattered now. I squeezed my eyes shut and clamped my teeth together as I moved forward slowly, pulling myself off of the pipe. I groaned in pain. Finally, I was free of the pipe. I quickly move to the table where I was doing repairs. I had a very thick cord of heavy-duty material. I tied it around myself just above my hip to keep pressure on the wound both from the back and the front. I tied it tightly. I crawled up the ladder to the main floor of the flight deck.
“I'm coming, Heather,” I said to her hoarsely.
I saw her turn back toward me. Her eyes grew wide. She was still belted in her seat, and I was glad for it. If she had got up to move around, the jolt would have thrown her across the transport, and she could be just as injured as I was.
“What happened to you? Oh my God! You are bleeding,” she said as her hands went to the belt.
“Don't! Don't move! Don't take off that belt. I'm coming to you. It is just a minor injury,” I said as I struggled to walk toward her.
“That does not look minor,” she said.
“Tell me what's going on. What do you see?” I said as I made it to my seat and belted myself in. I rebooted the radar.
“I think it is the same transport from before,” she said.
I looked at the radar as it came up. There was one ship behind us. I turned off the autopilot and began evasive maneuvering, zigzagging across space so that it could avoid hitting us directly. I knew that a few laser blasts had already hit us, but it did not hit us in a way to take down the ship. They were surface hits. “I think you are right. It looks like it has been following us and finally caught up with us. I'm going to take it out.”
“You are bleeding so much. What can I do?” she said with tears in her voice.
“Stay calm; just stay calm,” I said.
I maneuvered the ship and moved it to the right in a big ring as fast as it would go. It was so fast that it flattened us against the seat. But it worked. I came behind the transport in seconds. It was the same o
ne from before. I was surprised that it had not given up. Clearly, Captain Blace was very adamant that I should be taken out. It was probably because I knew too much. I was a great threat to the opposition now, having been on the inside.
“Firing,” I groaned the word. Then I took the shot. Boom, the transport exploded in front of us. I maneuvered away from it. I checked the radar. There was nothing on it.
“I think that is the only one,” I said.
“I have to see to that wound. What happened?” Heather asked.
“I am setting her back on auto pilot on a course to the Kelon village,” I said, putting the ship back on course because I knew already that I was too wounded to deal with flying the ship from this moment on.