by Madeleine Oh
* * *
“Something is very wrong,” Dr. Batha confirmed as they sat in her tiny office. “I’m not an expert in cryonic restoration, but the lack of memory worries me. We’ll run brain scans but I suspect either it was a botched up job or she’s been out for centuries.”
“What a prospect.”
“You didn’t really think she’d wake up in perfect mental and physical health, did you?”
Good point. “To be honest, I never thought about it. When we discovered we had human cargo, my only thought was to get her somewhere safe.” Where no one wanted her jettisoned into deep space.
“We’ll do all we can for her. She’ll be safe here.”
Ferda wouldn’t argue with that. “She’s going to be here a while, isn’t she?”
“So it would seem.”
Not much she could say to that. Julius would see she was taken care of. Batha was obviously thrilled to have her, and regarded her as a human, not a lab specimen. Gelda could do a lot worse. “We’ll be here a few days.”
“But not weeks or months?”
Hell, no! “I’ll talk to Julius.” She was going to have to. When he emerged from day sleep.
Chapter Five
“Jadma?” Ferda said as they walked the few meters back to their transport. “Can you take me on a tour?” Drake and Rand wouldn’t regain sentience for hours, and it was hardly up to Adlet to decide Gelda’s future.
“A tour of the community?”
“Yes, I’d like to see more of it.”
As they fastened themselves into the transport, Jadma asked, “Do you want something to eat?”
Now she mentioned it, it was way past lunch time. They’d been so engrossed over Gelda’s resuscitation, hours had passed. “Wouldn’t mind. Should we go back to Julius’s quarters?” If “quarters” was adequate for his sumptuous apartments.
“If you like, or we could eat up here, in the dome.” She paused. “My sister-in-law is a cook in one of the communal kitchens. She’s a good cook and she would be honored to have the Heroine of Arrand in her kitchen.”
“Fine, wonderful in fact, as long as you drop the ‘heroine’ bit. My name’s Ferda.”
“Heroine makes you uncomfortable? But you are! We’re taught about your courageous rescue in history, when we’re children.”
Trust Julius to make a big deal out of it. No wonder they had a crowd waiting when they landed. “Yes, I helped save a bunch of vampires from that hideous place. I was in my early twenties at the time, didn’t yet have my pilot’s or engineer’s licenses. It was my father who spearheaded it all. And besides, we didn’t get them all out.”
“You rescued hundreds.”
“And left hundreds.” That had bothered her father until the day he died. “Let’s not argue. I’m Ferda, okay? This planet is beautiful.” Low rolling hills, fertile fields that would soon be green with new crops, and expanses of orchards she could imagine heavy with fruit at the end of the growing season. “You mentioned a dome. We’re inside a dome?” Now she looked up. The sky was cloudless, just an expanse of blue.
“Yes. The guardians constructed it for us. They live underneath, we populate the surface.”
Julius had a nice set up. She could have a fine life here.
She wasn’t getting any younger. Retirement here, where she was regarded as a national heroine, wouldn’t be a bad way to spend her remaining years…
No. Too settled, too comfortable, too predictable. A good, secluded place to raise children, but hers were already grown. When had she ever known security? She wouldn’t know what to do with it.
After the tour of the dome, where she saw schools, factories, family houses and shops, they stopped at the communal kitchen and ate thick, rich stew with real meat, vegetables grown in soil, not hydroponic vats, and bread that was still warm from the oven. When they headed back, the small sun was well past the meridian.
She’d have time to talk to Adlet before the vamps stirred.
* * *
Only one problem. Adlet had not returned to his quarters, and his vampire hosts were still asleep for the day. Damn. She’d have a few words for Julius, when he finally opened his eyes. She was ready to tear a strip off Adlet. She’d promised his parents she’d keep him safe and he’d gone AWOL on a vampire colony.
Nothing she could do now. She indulged in a long bath. Not quite the same on her own, but sheer luxury nonetheless. A masseuse sent in by Mellam completed the indulgence. Feeling loose and relaxed, she put on her zipsuit again, all freshly washed and pressed while she luxuriated, and settled herself in front of the holoscreen, idly scrolling the settlement’s history until Julius appeared.
He was later than she expected, and he came in with Drake and Rand. “My dear, Ferda,” he said, as he took her hand. “We have a difficulty.”
“Yes. Adlet has gone AWOL.” Might as well come out with it.
“Not precisely,” Drake said. “He’s the difficulty.”
“What do you mean?” Why was she asking? The sensation in the pit of her stomach pretty much answered her question. “He’s in trouble, isn’t he?”
“He’s in the medic center, getting infusions of blood. Julius took us to see him.”
“And?” As if she couldn’t make a guess.
“It’s not just that,” Julius said. Rand seemed happy to leave the job of explaining to Drake and Julius. “Seems after his hosts took him on a tour of the streets, he told them he wanted an early turn in and went out on his own.”
When Adlet was on his feet again, she’d scalp him! “He’ll survive, Julius?”
“Yes, but not unscathed. He may have a few scars.”
“He deserves it! He’s not safe let loose, is he?”
“I think it’s more. Damphir IV isn’t safe with him around,” Drake said. “He’s leaving behind a damaged tavern window, broken lamps and furniture and some missing carvings from a brothel doorway.”
She was going to spiflicate him. “The sooner we get him out of here and dump him off on Hera, the better!”
“My dearest Ferda,” Julius said, “I knew you would understand.”
She wasn’t too sure about the “dearest.” After his earlier pleas to abandon all and take up with him, he sounded downright chirpy at the prospect of their getting off planet. “What about the ship?”
“I’ve had engineers, vampire and human, working on it. It’s ready.”
“That fast? I’m impressed.” He did want to get rid of Adlet.
“Seems there was only surface damage,” Rand said. “It’s beautifully patched up. They restocked the pantry too. We’re set to go.”
Just like that.
“Once we haul Adlet out of his hospital,” Drake added, not sounding too eager.
“We’ll go and get him,” Rand said. “I want to give the ship another going over too. See you in a while, Ferda.”
Leaving her with Julius for a tender farewell? She had to smile. But it was a far more thoughtful gesture than she’d have expected from a vamp. Mind you, Rand was a new vamp. He still retained a lot of human emotion and was having to part with Adlet himself.
“So,” Julius said, as the door closed behind Drake and Rand, “we must part. Can’t I convince you to stay with me?”
“You know the answer to that one, Julius. I promised to see that young twerp back to university on Hera. I can’t break my word. Although I’m tempted to break him! Do you know what happened?” On second thought, did she really want to hear this?
“From what I can piece together, after a stroll around underground, he let his two hosts to feed off him, then said he was turning in. Once they’d left him, he set off on his own and wandered into a tavern.”
She couldn’t help wondering what sort of refreshment vamp taverns served, but didn’t interrupt. She could guess the next bit and dreaded hearing.
“Seems he chatted up three vampires, drank a large quantity of synthesized blood, which went to his head, and offered himself to any vamp who wanted him.”
Dear heavens!
“In the ensuing fist fight, four vampires ended up with serious injuries -- all healed now of course -- and seems Adlet skipped out with a band of admirers who took him up on his very generous offer. We found him, or rather some of my human servants did. Recognizing his condition, they took him to hospital and hooked him up to synthetic blood designed for humans.”
“Recognizing his symptoms” gave her a cold shot of unease, but she was leaving. She couldn’t change Julius’s world view in five minutes. “We’ll have him off here as fast as we can.”
“I can’t induce you to stay with me?”
Did he never give up? No, he was a vamp. “I already answered that, Julius. Last night was incredible. A memory to carry with me into my dotage. But adieu, my old lover.” She put her arms around him and kissed him.
He kissed back, hard and heated, his arm holding her in a vampire embrace and his other hand closing over first one breast, then the other. The kiss became harder, faster, more demanding. Her body responded, and he broke his lips from hers, kissing her eyelids, her cheek, then easing his lips down her neck. She clung to him as his thigh pressed between hers. As his fangs bit into her neck, she rode him to climax.
She was dizzy, weak and sated when he lifted his mouth. “I’ll miss you.”
“Me too.” She still clung to him, but with a bit of luck her legs might work. “I have to get back to the ship.”
* * *
Adlet was in his bunk, still unconscious, attached to an IV.
Drake and Rand were running the last checks and talking to the planetary control center. It was time.
“Bye, Julius. You saved all our skins and gave Gelda refuge. We owe you a zillion thanks. Sorry Adlet let us all down.”
“He’s mortal and young. Time will take care of that.” They were leaving. Adlet was no longer his concern.
Fair enough. “Thank you all the same.”
“It was nothing after what you and your father did for me and my kind.”
He had a point there. She smiled. “Good bye, Julius. I hope we meet up again.” She kissed him on the cheek -- all he was getting with an audience. “Take care.”
“Take this, to remember me by.” He slipped a small package into her hand. “Come back one day. If you can.” And with that Julius was gone.
That was short, if not exactly sweet. Ferda stared as Julius strode away. He did pause. Looking back, he waved, but there was no mistaking, he wanted Adlet off planet. Fast.
Fair enough, she supposed. Another evening of roistering and Adlet might not live to tell of it. Twerp was not the name for him. The lad had brains of sawdust and the common sense of an ant.
“Freighter X000PC49, prepare ship for takeoff,” came over the comlink.
Ferda stepped back, sealing the outer hatches, before making her way up to the bridge. Damn Adlet. She should have had more time on planet. Time to learn more about Gelda.
More time with Julius.
Yes, that had been offered. But more important than wild sex was getting young Adlet back to the galactic university. Maybe then she could make a return visit to Julius.
Sometime. Some year.
Minutes after she took her place on the bridge with Rand and Drake, the message came over the comlink. “Freighter X000PC49, cleared for take off.”
Rand was the first to speak. “So, we set course for Hera?”
“A direct course, fast as we can,” Drake ordered, his face set and expressionless.
Was he pissed, relieved or just plain worried? She’d find out soon enough.
“Here we go.” The engines whined as Rand accelerated. At word from control, they were space bound.
Ferda thrust aside the pang of regret over leaving Julius. Staying as his minion wasn’t an option. She looked up.
Drake raised an eyebrow at her. “A word with you, Ferda. Now.”
With luck she’d get much more than a word.
Madeleine Oh
Madeleine Oh is a woman of mystery. Some claim she is the granddaughter of an odalisque from the Bey’s harem in Algiers or that her father was a direct descendant of the line of Welsh princes. Others say that her parents met whilst working for the French Resistance during WW2, and there have even been rumors that she was born on a ranch in Patagonia (an alternative version says a farm in Ohio). Perhaps all of this is pure and utter fiction. But truth or fiction, readers love her wildly imaginative erotic tales.
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