by Maia Starr
“But I let him antagonize me. I should have ended the communication as soon as I saw his face. But I was curious, and I wanted to know where he was and if he was after us,” I said.
“I understand,” he said.
“I am just so happy that you are awake. I wasn't sure if you would wake back up. I don't feel so alone now that you are talking,” I said to him.
Then the beeping sound came on again. I looked at him.
“You must answer. It could be help for us,” he said.
“What if it is the captain again?” I asked.
“As soon as you see his face, disconnect the communication line.”
“Okay. I will be right back. Don't close your eyes,” I said.
I moved to the front of the ship. I held my breath. Then I pushed on the blinking button. I was happy to see that it was the Draqua that helped me earlier. I sighed in relief. I shouted out to Zoq, “It is help.”
“Heather Maven, we are receiving your signal, and we can lock onto the ship. I can take manual control,” he said.
“Good, I have news,” I said.
“First, the commander is awake, for now. I remember what you said that he could easily fall back into unconsciousness. For now, he is talking,” I said to him.
“Good, we have healers standing by ready to see him. They have been informed of his injuries and are prepared.”
“The other news is bad news. Captain Blace made a communication to this ship. I answered thinking it was you. I did not know that I should not have taken it. I conversed with him trying to get information about what he is trying to do to us. But that was when the commander woke up and told me it was a tracking call,” I said.
“What did the captain say?” He asked.
“He said that he is hunting us, personally. He also said that he is sending another squad after us, from the opposition base, we assume,” I said.
The Draqua turned away from me and began to shout to others in the room. “Launch a recovery and protection mission! We have a transport coming in that needs an escort all the way in. Launch 30 ships now!”
Then he turned back to me, “I am taking control of your ship now, Heather. You are in range. I am launching a protective escort as well. Just in case that opposition squad is close. Our escort will be with you in fifteen minutes.”
“Thank you!” I shouted. I was so happy to have the extra protection. I sighed in relief.
“I have control,” the Draqua said. It was obvious when the auto pilot went off, and the ship moved faster. I ran back to Zoq. He was grinning. I could tell that he was happy that the burden was off his shoulders and we were getting real help. I knelt down next to him and placed a kiss on his lips.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
COMMANDER ZOQ KANE
When I awoke, I thought I was dreaming. I had very vivid dreams while I was out, which was to be expected when my body was naturally fighting infection. But this dream was starting to become more and more real. I could hear a voice echoing in my head; it was a very familiar and menacing voice: it was Captain Blace.
I opened my eyes and focused on the ceiling of the ship. I could hear Heather arguing with him. It was then that I realized that I was not dreaming. He was on the communication line. There would be only one reason for this: he was trying to track us. That was when I warned Heather, and she disconnected the line.
Then, we finally heard back from the village on Kelon, and they were sending us help. I felt such a relief. I felt guilty that I had left Heather alone to deal with something she had never experienced before. But I had no choice with this wound.
Now, I was able to relax a little more. Even though the captain's threat had me thinking that we could be attacked at any moment, we now had better odds with our own warriors on their way to us. Heather was now down by my side and she was genuinely happy to see me awake. I was glad for it. I did not want her angry at me still for everything that I had done to deceive her about me being a spy inside the opposition. Now she held my hand and leaned over me.
“Kiss me,” I said to her with a grin.
She arched an eyebrow at me. “If it will help you to heal,” she said.
“It will. I want to feel you again,” I said to her.
“Okay, but gently,” she said, standing up on her feet. Then she leaned over me and kissed my lips. Her soft hair fell on my face. I could smell her. Her scent was intoxicating. I missed having her under me. I could not wait to be back in the village. I could not wait to be healed so that I could once again be the fierce Dragon shifter that could take her and pleasure her. It all seemed so far away. But as she kissed my lips, the vivid dreams that I had when I was out came back to me. I remembered her nursing me. I remember her standing over me and speaking to me.
Then something stood out. I remembered her confessing her love to me.
Suddenly, she stopped kissing me and looked at me. Then she said, “I thought I lost you, Zoq. I am so happy that you are awake. But if you feel the need to sleep, please sleep. You are very hurt. You need to heal.”
“I am fine for now, but I might fall back to sleep at any moment. I cannot tell. When I was asleep earlier, unconscious, I could still hear you every now and then. Your voice mixed in with my dreams,” I said.
“I knew you were still there with me,” she said.
“In my dream, you told me that you loved me,” I said to her with a smile.
She smiled. “That was not a dream. I did confess my love to you. It is true. I am in love with you. Is it not obvious?” she said.
“I love you, Heather. I am in love with you. Is it not obvious?” I said to her, smiling. She smiled back. Her smile was beautiful and warm.
“You do? You love me?” She asked.
“I love you more than anyone I have ever met. I would do anything for you. I want to be with you always,” I said to her.
“I am happy to hear you say that. I want the same thing,” she said.
Then I realized that if she had confessed her love to me when I was unconscious, there was something else that I overheard her say, but I thought I was dreaming.
“So I was not dreaming when you confessed your love to me. But you also told me that you were pregnant in my dream. That you carried my offspring,” I said.
She smiled a big smile. “It is true. At least, I think it is true. I took a test on Earth, and it showed that I am pregnant, but I do not know if those tests work for a Draqua pregnancy. But I can feel it. I just feel different. I know that I am pregnant. I did confess to you while you were unconscious, but I tried to do it earlier. That was when we were interrupted. That was when we were hunted, and I could not tell you. You had to focus. Then the situation just kept escalating. When you were unconscious, I thought that maybe it was the last time I would get to speak to you. So I told you then. I did not mean to keep it from you. I did not know how you would feel about it and I needed the time to think about it,” she said.
“It is true? You carry my offspring? We are going to have a family,” I said to her.
“Yes, it is true,” she said. I squeezed her hand.
I happy. I felt a rush of joy overcome me. I now knew that I had to beat this wound. I had to make sure that I stayed alive; I not only had a human female to take care of, but I also had a child coming.
“I am very happy about this news. You are giving me a great gift. We will be very happy, I promise you. You being with offspring is the best news I have had in years,” I said to her.
“I am glad. I was so worried. I don't know why I thought that perhaps It would make you upset.”
“I am the happiest Draqua that I could be,” I said.
“Then that makes me happy,” she said.
“Heather?” the Draqua warrior on the communication line said.
“Yes?” she said as she kissed me and then moved to the communication line.
“Just letting you know your escort is approaching now,” he said.
“I see them!” she said happily.
“We are bringing you into Kelon, to the village,” he said.
She turned back toward me and said, “Commander, you are almost home!”
“We. We are almost home,” I said.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
HEATHER MAVEN
I was so happy to hear that Zoq was happy about me being pregnant. I was worried about it. But now that I had almost come so close to losing him, none of it mattered now. I only wanted him. I only wanted us to be together. Hearing him say that he was happy was such a relief, and it filled me with joyful emotion.
I watched out the windshield as the escort of 30 transport ships surrounded us. It felt good to be protected. I had felt so vulnerable out in space, just the two of us, but then when Zoq went unconscious, I felt truly alone. Now the mission was in the hands of others, and I could relax just a little bit even though I knew that Zoq was not out of the woods yet. Then the ship made a hard turn, and I saw a planet come into view. It was massive. It was blue and green, just like Earth, only there was more blue than we had. It was almost a water planet.
“Look! Is that it? Is that Kelon? It is beautiful,” I said to Zoq. I waited for a response. But he said nothing. I walked over to him. His eyes were closed. I began to panic. I quickly checked his pulse; he was still alive. He was still breathing. But I was worried. I was very worried; I could not lose him. I ran back to the communication panel.
“How much longer before we land? The commander has gone unconscious once more, and I'm very worried. He needs help right away,” I said.
“15 minutes until landing,” he said. I sighed. I wished that it was five. I looked out the windshield as the beautiful planet began to grow bigger and bigger as we got closer. Then I remembered that Zoq had said that he heard me speaking to him. I moved back over to his side and knelt down next to him. I squeezed his hand and began to speak to him.
“I am here. We are almost on your planet. I can see it. It is beautiful. There is lots of water. Just hold on. Get some rest, but listen to my voice. I am here for you. I love you. We are going to be together,” I said. I told him that I loved him over and over. Every now and then, I looked out the windshield. I could see that we were entering the atmosphere of the planet. It gave me hope. Just a few more minutes. The sky was a brilliant blue, and there were white clouds. I was astounded at how much it looked like Earth, and it suddenly made sense to me that they looked to human females for procreating. I could hear the Draqua on the communication line talking. But he wasn't talking to me; he was talking to his crew about what was going on. He was updating them. I could hear him telling them to get ready to carry Zoq out of the ship as soon as it landed. I squeezed his hand. “Do you hear that? They are getting ready for you. They are going to help you. You are going to be one hundred percent better in no time at all,” I whispered to him.
I looked out the windshield again and was surprised by what I saw. Even though Zoq had explained the planet to me in detail, I was not expecting the beauty that I saw before me; the blue of the water was startling. It seemed to be glittering. In the distance was a tropical island of sorts with towering trees. Nothing compared prepared me for the brilliance of it. As we got closer, I could see that there were houses in the trees. Then I saw something that absolutely startled me. There were Dragon shifters flying around in the air as though they were going about their daily business. I even saw a few full dragons among the hundreds of hybrids. I had never seen anything like it before. My eyes were wide at the beauty of it all and the unknown. It really was an alien planet, with an alien race, these water dragons. As we got closer, I could see the beach coming up. Behind it was a massive village, and beyond it, I could see many spaceships gathered in some sort of landing area, like an airport. Finally, the ship landed. The door opened, and a group of warriors marched in.
“He has a very terrible wound from the back to the front. Impaled by a pipe,” I said to them frantically as they pushed me aside.
“It is alright, Heather, we know; let us take him,” one of them said. I watched as they put him on a sort of stretcher and then carried him out. I followed them. As soon as I stepped out of the ship, I was hit with a breeze of scented flowers and salty air. It was such a beautiful feeling to be out of the ship and on land, but I was not expecting such a beautiful thing. But then my focus went back to Zoq as they carried him.
“Heather, my name is Jitu,” a warrior said as he rushed to my side. It was then that I noticed it was the Draqua that had been helping us on the communication line.
“You! Thank you so much for your help,” I said, but I did not stop. I kept following Zoq.
“I told you I would get you and the commander here safely,” he said with a handsome grin.
“Yes, thank you. What is happening? Where are they taking him?” I said.
“He is going to the healers. We set them up right here in the landing port. No time wasted,” he said. I watched as they carried him into a thatched roof hut. I tried to follow them in, but he stopped me.
“You can’t go in there. I am sorry; it is policy. Anyone not involved will only get in the way,” he said. I sighed, disappointed, but it was no different than an operating room in a hospital on Earth.
“I understand. I am just so worried,” I said.
“You can wait here,” he said, pointing to a private, smaller hut next to it. “I will keep you informed of every move. But this is a very delicate operation, and it is going to take hours. You must be patient.”
“Yes, it’s hard,” I said.
“There is food and water in there, and a change a clothes if you need it. I will return to check on you,” he said.
“I have a bag of clothes in the ship. My bag,” I said.
“I will get it for you,” he said.
“Thank you.”
I walked into the hut. It was beautiful. There was a living area with nice benches. There was a small bed in the corner. On the other side was a small kitchen area and in the back was a bathtub and a washroom. It had everything that I could need, including a little indoor and outdoor space. I moved directly to this area and sat in the shade of the roof, but outside. I was staring directly at the building that Zoq was in. I drank some water and prepared to sit for a very long time. It was very warm in the tropical climate. Very humid, with salty air. If I weren't so worried, I knew I would be enjoying it more. I tried my best to take in the sights. I looked up into the trees and saw the massive bridges that connected the tree houses. I could see hybrid dragons flying around. I could hear the chatter of the village. I wanted to think about what it would be like living in the village and in the tree houses with Zoq, but I could not because I was so worried.
I waited for hours inside that hut. I rummaged through my bag and grabbed a change of clothes. I had a lot of dried blood on me from nursing Zoq, so I washed up and changed clothes. I walked back out into the outdoor area waiting. I could see Jitu as he moved toward me.
“What is it? What news? Is he alright?” I asked frantically, moving to him.
“Commander Zoq Kane is done with the operation and he is going to be fine. I will take you to him now,” he said.
I jumped up and down and cheered. “Oh my God! I’m so happy!”
He laughed at me. “This way. He is not awake, but he should be waking up in the next hour or two.”
“I just want to see him,” I said as tears came to my eyes. I followed him into the massive hut. The healers were finishing with packing their equipment. I moved over to Zoq as he lay on a bed. I grabbed his hand. “I am here. It is Heather. You're going to be fine. They told me that you were going to be fine,” I whispered in his ear.
“This is Heather Maven. She is the one that issued the serum to the commander,” my new friend said to one of the healers.
“You did good. It helped. It was key in saving his life. He is going to be absolutely fine in a couple of months. He will heal fast. There were no major organs punctured, just a flesh wound.”
“I am so ha
ppy to hear that. You don't know how happy I am. Now, we can all be happy,” I said putting my hand on my belly. Both of the Draqua looked at me. Then I looked at the healer and realized this was what I needed. I had to ask him.
“Is there a test? I mean, how do you know if when a human female is pregnant with a Draqua?”
He smiled. “Come with me; it is a very easy test,” he said. I followed him to the corner where he had a medical trunk. He opened it and took out a device. He placed it on my finger and took a very quick sample. Then he looked at it.
“Heather, you are pregnant with Draqua offspring.”
I smiled. “Thank you! Thank you, for everything.”
“Heather Maven!” I heard my name shouted out. I did not recognize the voice. I moved into the middle of the hut and saw a warrior at the door. He looked at me with a stoney face.