The Officer's Mess (Warriors Book 3)

by L P Peace

  ‘She was beyond imagining,’ Bedvir whispered.

  ‘Beyond imagining,’ Aerdan agreed before sleep took him.

  * * *

  The ocean was rough today, the dark blue waves crashing to the beach, roiling among the rocks and leaving rock pools in their wake.

  Slightly up from there, the mita leaders gathered in a group in a natural bowl. Cuulden, as the Poogarin, stood on the side. He was opening the ceremony, making the temit a divine space by their tradition meaning any lies told in the space would be punished by the Temerin gods. Once the ceremony was complete, the rest of those wanting to watch could join them.

  Bedvir and Haddis were standing either side of her, Kentor and Sidha to the rear. It seemed no matter where she went, she had company, guards even. Yet despite this, she didn’t feel trapped. She felt safe.

  A murmur rose through the crowd in front of the Poogarin.

  ‘That’s it,’ Bedvir said, taking Danielle’s hand and moving forward. ‘Everyone’s taken the vow.’

  ‘No lying allowed?’

  Bedvir nodded.

  ‘And people just trust each other’s word that they won’t?’

  ‘Yes and no,’ Haddis said, walking on her other side. ‘They trust people have the honour to not lie outright. Exaggeration is okay, in fact, exaggeration is way of life for us.’

  Danielle frowned, confused.

  ‘Mostly, people believe we lost our homeworld because of the lie brought back about bastards,’ Kentor said.

  Danielle looked over her shoulder to look up at the giant. His arm was slung around Sidha’s shoulder, the Sindaal pulled into his side so that he was almost leaning as they walked.

  ‘Nobody cared about it until the lie was repeated at a temit. Those who knew it was a lie expected something to happen, and when we had to run from our home, they said that was our punishment for the sin of denying our own children.’

  Danielle squeezed Bedvir’s hand, even though he seemed unaffected by the words. The thought of children being rejected by their own parents. Whatever else her parents had done, they’d never rejected her. Maybe it would have been better if they had.

  They came to a stop at the front on rocks overlooking a naturally occurring bowl, and Danielle watched as the Temerin formed a circle around the mita leaders and Poogarin inside.

  A moment later, children pushed through the crowd and gathered on the edge, sitting down, crossed legged or legs hanging to watch.

  ‘Aerdan of Mita Madar, why are we here?’ the Poogarin asked.

  Aerdan walked into a cleared space. His hair was braided, but the flyaway hairs were whipping around his head in a frenzy. He looked confident to the point of arrogance and Danielle felt herself huffing a small laugh and shaking her head, even as her heart jumped at that look on his face. When his eyes met hers, he grinned and winked. Her face burned and heart accelerated. Aerdan was all bravado and bluster, which usually Danielle hated in a man. But in Aerdan, it made her weak at the knees.

  The crowd turned to see who Aerdan was winking at and chuckles sounded over the crashing waves around them. Danielle realised she was grinning like a fool and her face heated even worse than before.

  ‘As you all know, we recently took out a slave ship who followed my crew and I from the garrah gi’van at that bloated pleasure barge they call a ‘government’.’

  Aerdan’s statement was filled with mockery and ridicule and was welcomed with foot stamping, cheers, and jeers.

  ‘Garigiven?’ Danielle asked, looking at Bedvir. His grey striated orange eyes turned on her, the pupils dilated until there was only an orange rim around them and filling with heat. He leaned down, his lips caressing the shell of her ear which he nibbled and licked. Danielle felt a delicious curl of arousal lick her belly and settle. She stifled a moan as he spoke.

  ‘Garrah. Gi’van,’ he enunciated. ‘People who think they’re better than everyone else.’

  ‘Stuck-up snobs,’ she managed to say.

  ‘Hmm. I like that. Stuck-up snobs.’ A moment passed, then, ‘Danielle.’ It was said sharply and Danielle turned, afraid of what she might see.

  Bedvir claimed her lips in a kiss as soon as she turned. His lips were firm and seemed almost locked to hers. His passion was almost feral, and it stirred her own as his tongue licked over her lips and curled inside her mouth once, then was gone. He broke the kiss a moment later, a cocky grin on his face when he took her in, red, aroused, and gasping for breath.

  Fuck! Where did this version of Bedvir come from? Where was the sweet guy working carefully in the engine room so she always knew where he was? He was so thoughtful and attentive. This Bedvir was almost animalistic in his obvious desire for her.

  Shaking, Danielle turned back to Aerdan. She side-eyed Bedvir and saw his cocky grin hadn’t gone anywhere.

  On her other side, Haddis was covering his mouth, trying to keep his amusement in check. Danielle looked at him and saw him watching her, his eyes moving down her face in such a way she could almost feel it, until they landed on her lips. He moved closer to her and placed her arm on her lower back, rubbing a light and distracting pattern over her skin with his fingers.

  These males are going to be the death of me!

  Aerdan was explaining the plan, her basic plan, to the Temerin, and people were beginning to look at her. It made her uncomfortable, and she stepped back into Bedvir, pulling on Haddis with her hand to bring him closer. Bedvir’s arm moved around her shoulders, pulling her nearer still, and Haddis closed the distance.

  ‘With the cronitone pulse ships and enough of our vessels, we can take Crucible down,’ Aerdan said, holding his arms up at his sides, a grin on his face.

  The beach front was silent.

  The children turned from Aerdan and looked around the bowl at the adults standing there. Danielle followed their lead, watching the faces of the Temerin in all their mita colourings. Her eyes connected with Gahdi Inria who was sat in a rich brown and red wooden and animal hide chair. The Gahdi was watching her intently. Danielle nodded in acknowledgment, and she turned away, seemingly bored.

  ‘This is what you gathered the mitas together for?’ a voice shouted out from the mita leaders.

  Danielle turned in the direction of the voice to find a Temerin with vibrant green spotted markings on his skin and equally green eyes.

  ‘Tarkin,’ Bedvir whispered in her ear. ‘Mita Atam. They were the ones who brought back the idea of bastards to our world and still live by those teachings. They like to pretend they’re leaders among us.’

  None of Aerdan’s confidence dissipated in the face of the confrontation. ‘It is,’ he said.

  ‘You are insane. Mita Madar is meant to be the mita of peace. Where is your peace here?’ Tarkin walked out of the grouping of leaders and towards Aerdan.

  Aerdan’s face changed at the same time as clouds fell over the sun, casting them all in its shadow. ‘There is a difference between peace and the acceptance of prey,’ Aerdan spat.

  ‘We’re not the prey here. You would turn us into the predator,’ Tarkin replied.

  ‘Maybe we need to be the predator for once,’ Haddis called from beside her. ‘Maybe we need to send a message to our hunters that we will not tolerate being their slaves anymore.’

  ‘When have we ever not sent that message?’ Tarkin said. ‘Aerdan started with that. We took one of their ships for our own and saved three of our people.’

  Murmurs were flying through the assembled crowds now. The children were sitting there taking in every word, their wide, bright eyes wider still with their fascination.

  ‘You say this is the human’s idea,’ Tarkin said, pointing at Danielle. ‘Let them do it then. Oh, that’s right, they can’t. Because their ship was taken by Crucible. You are committing her revenge for her and risking Temerin lives to do it.’

  Haddis and Bedvir shouted their objections. Aerdan stepped towards him, a string of threats leaving his mouth as members of several mitas stood between the two males. />
  ‘We don’t need to,’ Danielle heard herself say. ‘Earth is protected by a military system no alien’s ever been able to penetrate as a force, and they’ve tried, three times. But you don’t have that. You’re out here in a series of ships in danger of getting picked off all the time.’

  ‘Who said you could speak?’ Tarkin turned on her, his greyish-green face growing darker in colour.

  ‘Danielle is a member of their mita,’ Gahdi Inria said from the side suddenly. ‘She has just as much of a right to speak as you.’ Murmurs of agreement rose through the crowd.

  Danielle looked up at the old woman, surprised she’d come to her defence, but still she wasn’t looking at Danielle.

  ‘Go on, Danielle,’ Bedvir encouraged her.

  Danielle nodded. She hadn’t meant to talk, but the fact that Tarkin was trying to shut her down pissed her off. ‘On Earth, people say that if you go to prison, you walk over to the biggest, baddest guy there and beat the crap out of him. It shows you’re not afraid of anyone and won’t take shit from them. You want to show those slavers out there that they’re the ones that should be afraid of you, you take out the meanest motherfucker out there, and that’s Tolomus.’

  ‘Yeah!’ a voice called out. Danielle turned and found a young Temerin woman from the same mita as Haddis holding hands with a woman around the same age who looked Surilan. She had the same red markings on her skin as the Temerin, though they looked more like tattoos. The two women were nodding in support. ‘Tolomus is the strongest. He took out my family’s ship and sold everyone but me. He’s taken out a hundred of our ships over the years. Maybe if we get his ship, we can search his records. Find out where they are. Where my family is.’

  Voices rose up in support of the young woman’s words, Haddis and Kentor among the loudest.

  ‘Tolomus is too powerful. All we’re going to do is throw our people at him so he can sell them, and for what?’

  Danielle didn’t see the male talking, but just as many voices rose up in his support as the females.

  ‘For all of the ships Tolomus carries in the belly of his beast. For the beast itself. A fully armoured, weaponised beast that we could use to house hundreds of our people still hidden on worlds across this sector. For a ship that could act as the centre of our culture. A trade market. A safe meeting place. A moving meeting place.’

  ‘Not to mention the bounty the Tessans have put on Tolomus!’ Danielle shouted.

  ‘Exactly!’ Aerdan said, pointing at her. He named the amount, and the crowd gasped. ‘Imagine what we could accomplish with those credits. The number of our people we can free. The ships we could buy to house them.’

  ‘And having the gratitude not just of the Tessans, but the Amarans,’ Haddis called out.

  ‘What good would that do us?’ Tarkin spat. ‘They don’t let us on their world.’

  ‘That’s not true,’ the red female called out. ‘I was on their world for a cycle before they returned me to Aerdan and Haddis. There are other Temerin living there. Thanesh said we were welcome, but that he thought we’d prefer a world of our own in Tessan space where we’d be safe.’

  ‘Under their laws and their control,’ Tarkin said, his grey-green skin darkening with anger.

  ‘Somewhere safe for our people to go until we can get our home back!’ the young woman shouted back.

  More and more voices shouted into the bowl on both sides. The arguments grew more heated with several small scuffles breaking out, which were quickly put to a stop by the people around them. An hour or two passed with Aerdan never breaking his cool, confident façade as Tarkin grew angrier and angrier.

  Finally, when everyone with an opinion had been heard, the vote was called. There were three hundred and fourteen mita present, and only the mita leaders had a vote. When the vote was called, it was split down the middle with several mita still unsure and abstaining.

  Cuulden regarded the bowl coolly. ‘I would like to see a day when a decision this important is not decided by games,’ he said. He paused a moment before nodding. ‘Gahdi Inria.’ Cuulden stepped back, and all eyes turned to the chair in which the older woman had observed everything.

  A hush fell over the crowd before she nodded, like she was listening to someone speaking.

  ‘The laws are clear. When a vote is divided, the winner will be the last Temerin standing in the games. Anyone may enter. Whoever wins, their mita’s vote shall be upheld and honoured by all,’ Gahdi Inria looked at Tarkin. ‘Or their whole mita will face two solars of exile from our people.’

  Tarkin glared at Gahdi Inria but nodded along with everyone else.

  ‘The law masters have spoken,’ Cuulden said. ‘The games begin next rote.’

  Stomping, clapping, and cheers went up through the crowd on all sides of the argument. Cuulden called them all to order, then spent the next few minutes closing the temit. At the end, his voice rose in a song. It was quickly taken up by the Temerin there and even the Surilan girl.

  It was hauntingly beautiful, and when Danielle listened to the words, it told the story of some ancient goddess who called the first Temerin temit, who laid down the tasks of the Poogarin and chose the first Gahdis, imbuing them with knowledge of the righteous laws of her people and the wisdom to apply them, ending with the knowledge of who would be their successor.

  Danielle caught Gahdi Inria looking at her with a scowl on her face as the song drew to a finish. Danielle stepped back a little, wondering what she’d done to annoy the old woman so much.

  The crowd began to break apart, sombre yet satisfied. Aerdan walked over to the ledge and Haddis helped him up. As soon as he was there, he pulled Danielle into his arms and kissed her, deeply. When he pulled away, he was grinning.

  ‘Impressed?’

  ‘Of course,’ she said, laughing.

  ‘I knew you would be.’ Aerdan nodded.

  ‘Games,’ Haddis said, his hand clasping Aerdan’s shoulder.

  Aerdan’s grin only grew wider. ‘Games,’ he replied.

  * * *

  Bedvir broke off as they wandered back into the forest to pick up the clothes and shoes for Danielle and bring them back to the ship. She felt weird, publicly kissing and claiming three males, but no one among the Temerin seemed to take any notice. There were no side-eyes or whispers. No one pointed or made snarky comments.

  It was freeing, in a strange and unsettling kind of way.

  ‘Sidha!’ a voice called through the crowd.

  The group stopped and turned towards the voice.

  The red Temerin female and Surilan female ran up to them, both of them colliding into Sidha and wrapping their arms around him.

  ‘Tonni, Galla!’ Sidha took an involuntary step back from the impact of the collisions. When they released him, they turned their attention to the rest of the crew, giving them each hugs before everyone turned their attention on Danielle at once.

  ‘Danielle, this is Tonni,’ he pointed at the Temerin girl, then to the Surilan girl, ‘and Galla.’

  ‘Good to meet you.’ She smiled, unsure if she should hold her hand out or not. ‘How do you guys know each other?’ she asked, trying not to sound insecure at the two beautiful young women who’d just hugged her three males.

  ‘My parents sold me to Tolomus,’ the Surilan girl said.

  ‘Jesus fucking Christ on a cracker, you’re joking!’ The words were out before Danielle could stop them.

  ‘I don’t know what any of that means, but it sounds hilarious!’ The Surilan girl grinned. ‘And no, they straight up sold me.’

  ‘I thought my parents were bad,’ Danielle replied.

  ‘When I was brought on the ship, I was sharing a cell with Tonni. Then Makios Desares rescued everyone.’

  Something about the story struck Danielle as familiar. ‘Is that when he rescued all the humans and Rhona?’

  Tonni nodded. ‘Yeah. You know them?’

  ‘I know Rhona more than Makios,’ Danielle said. She realised she’d done that deliberately
. Staying away from the intimidating Kathen.

  ‘Listen, you’re all supposed to be helping to set up some of the games,’ Tonni said. ‘Gahdi Inria asked for Danielle to be brought to the bowl for the stories, so you go. We’ll look after Danielle.’

  The guys turned to Danielle, and she didn’t miss the concern in all of their eyes. She swallowed. The last thing she wanted to do was be separated from her fellas, but at the same time, she could see they had responsibilities beyond her. Danielle forced herself to make the decision and affixed a smile to her face, which only seemed to increase their concern.

  ‘You guys go. I’ll be fine.’

  Aerdan closed the distance between them, the worry on his face only deepening. ‘One of us can stay with you,’ he said. ‘We can take it in turns.’

  Danielle shook off the desire to agree. ‘No. I’ll be good. I’m with Tonni and Galla and we’re going to this thing. I won’t even notice you’re gone.’

  ‘Danielle, you don’t have to pretend,’ Haddis said quietly.

  ‘You guys are so sweet,’ Danielle said, giving each of them a kiss on the cheek. ‘But I’m choosing you. So that means I’m choosing your people and your culture too. That means I need to integrate.’

  Aerdan sighed, but something in his eyes brightened. ‘You are very brave, my delicious Danielle,’ he said. He kissed her slowly, then made room for Haddis, who looked at her with no small amount of pride. He kissed her a little more passionately.

  ‘We will come for you as soon as we are done,’ Haddis promised.

  Sidha and Kentor both gave Danielle a hug before the four males walked off into the forest. Danielle stood and watched them go, wishing she could go with them. Brushing that feeling aside, she turned to Tonni and Galla.

  ‘Come on,’ Tonni said, walking over to her and putting her arm around her shoulder. ‘We’ve got you against the big, bad Gahdi Inria.’

  Galla came up on her other side and took Danielle’s hand. Danielle had noticed how ‘touchy-feely’ the Temerin were, and after growing up being basically ignored it made her feel incredibly uncomfortable. At the same time, there was something nice about it. Something that made her feel seen and accepted in a way she’d never felt on Earth.