“Oh, Licinius! Please, forgive me. Your poor face. I’m so ashamed.”
“Princess, now is not a good time for a chat,” Dario said.
Thunderdrop began chasing his ball around while hopping excitedly to the sounds of Neema’s blaster fire buttons. My screen blanked to Captain Ricimer on my bridge.
“Princess Probus, several warships are converging on our location. Changing course for Apellan and silencing communications.”
“But they are going to kill each other!”
“Inquisitor Licinius shouldn’t have pursued the Empress,” Captain Ricimer stated before blanking out my screen.
“You did not injure his face, lady wife. I did. That his face caused injury to your hand made me lose my temper.”
“Yukihyo, how many times did you hit him?”
“Only once. You did not even manage to leave a pink mark. I assumed it might annoy you to injure yourself worse than you injured him.”
I took Yukihyo’s hands in mine and examined them one at a time. Yukihyo rubbed Niklos’ tummy with his fingers. Finding no signs of fighting on his hands, I met his eyes. “You did one of those spinning kicks. Didn’t you?”
“My wife is Parvac. I have made Nico, a Parvac General, my brother. I have friends who are Parvac,” Yukihyo said with a nod to Kaoti, who had returned to the room, and to Fitz. “Our children are Parvac. However, should a Parvac hurt you, I will crush him.” Yukihyo meant it. He was ready to hunt Licinius down.
“Yukihyo, I’m frightened by all of this. Just now, their faces weren’t those of playful competitive suitors out to win a place in the Imperial family. They mean to kill each other and possibly their crews in the process.”
Yukihyo nodded.
“Now, you see the truth. They show you their gentleness, but it is not something they show elsewhere. Those were just playful taps. The real battle will begin once the Empress is at a safe distance and the other warships have arrived,” Kaoti stated.
My blood cooled in my veins. One slap had caused all of this. My petty fit of anger could be the reason a mother never again saw her son or a wife never again saw her husband. I felt sick. Giving Niklos to Yukihyo, I said, “I need some time alone to think.”
Hurrying into our room, I changed into exercise clothes and made my way into a lift. I shut away my thoughts and feelings. Thunderdrop leapt to me before the doors had closed and stared at me with eight eyes. He showed me an image of a rainy season web.
“Yes, that is what I need right now. Do you want to be inside of it with me?”
“Chirp!”
I tore down the wall I had built around myself. Instead, I made a cocoon for Thunderdrop and me. They could all still feel me and I them, but my thoughts were my own. I used the bonds we each shared to strengthen it. “It feels good to have some privacy, but it requires a lot of concentration.”
“Chirp chirp.”
I didn’t know what to do. The men were too angry to listen to me. They wanted each other’s blood. Parvac had peace with the Galaxic Expanse partly because of me. Papa hadn’t wanted me to fear the Parvac Empire. To have the Warrior Caste warring against each other and ready to kill their own, maybe the Parvac Empire should have been afraid of me. Parvac had a reputation of bringing death and loss to isolated colonies. Was that also to be my reputation? Lost in thought, I hadn’t opened the doors in time. They opened on Deck Five. Vice Admiral Dario’s words echoed through my mind.
“Now is not the time for a chat.”
My crewman saluted me. I wandered over to my fighter ship. I went to a locker and began pulling on a black pilot’s suit.
“Princess, what are you doing?” a crewman asked.
“When I signal, open the hanger door and let me out. That is an order.”
I grabbed a blanket for Thunderdrop and opened the door to my fighter climbing up and taking my seat. All of the drills came back to me. We secured ourselves. Thunderdrop and I used his silk to secure his blanket around him and used a little more to be sure he stuck to me just in case. I fastened my helmet and checked all of my systems. Then, I signaled for exit and flew from the ship. Checking navigation, I set my course for the five Parvac Warships currently exchanging weapon’s fire.
Through communications, I heard, “Princess Probus, return to the ship at once.”
“Return to whose ship?”
“Your ship,” Captain Ricimer said in an agitated tone.
“Continue as you were. Keep my children safe. I’ll catch up to you.”
“You’ll be killed if you get between those ships.”
“No, they won’t shoot me. That’s why my fighter is white.”
I increased my speed until the stars became a blur. Without weapons, I had to maneuver around asteroids rather than pulverizing them. As I came within range, I spotted sleek black fighters darting in and out as they fired at the engines and weapons of the large warships like annoying mosquitoes. It was good I had been practicing avoiding asteroids. It came in handy now as I avoided weapon’s fire. Darting under a warship to avoid the blast that went across my prow, I spun out of the way of two fighters as they fired upon each other.
“Identify yourself,” I was ordered.
“Don’t you recognize my fighter?”
A streak of weapon’s fire narrowly missed my cockpit and made my fancy heart speed up. I flew as fast as I dared around the other fighters on their chaotic paths and toward the other warships. The fire they exchanged was much more intimidating than that from the fighters. As I watched, a shot missed a fighter, but I could have sworn that the weapon’s beam was as thick as the fighter. There would be no way to survive a hit from one such blast. I began to sweat even in the cool cockpit.
Navigation showed me that the two fighters with whom I had almost collided had stopped trying to blow each other into space dust and had targeted me. My palms began to sweat as I attempted evasive maneuvers. However, rather than attacking me, they took up defensive positions at my flanks. My terror went down a notch especially since I was weaponless. A third fighter joined us. I flew straight at what I hoped was Licinius’s ship. The warships all looked different from my current point-of-view. After I had almost been blown up a few more times, the weapons fire ceased. I opened my communications to anyone who cared to listen.
“Thanks for not incinerating my fighter. She was a gift from my cousin. He told me that the color would keep me from getting shot. For a minute there, I was worried he had been wrong.”
“Princess Probus, I find it disturbing that you were allowed to leave the safety of your warship in a defenseless fighter,” Inquisitor Drex Licinius said with barely controlled rage.
The pilot next to me said, “Your fighter has no weapons?”
“No, Papa wouldn’t let me have any. He worries about my temper. He is wise. Drex, I don’t require permission. The Empress is mine. I came here in my fighter because I wanted to keep my children safe. When I tried to talk to you and Dario, the two of you ignored me. Try ignoring me now.”
“Chirp! Chirp!”
“Teagan Probus, you are infuriating in your recklessness,” Dario said. “You could have been killed! What kind of asinine thinking had you flying weaponless into the midst of a battle?” Dario’s voice became even deeper when he was furious.
“I was wrong to strike Licinius. Just because a person behaves in a way other than how I want is no reason for violence. I wasn’t defending myself. I was being cruel.”
“Your behavior was petty just as you are being childish now to assume your sweet little apology will put an end to our current animosities,” an unknown voice said.
“This fighter ship is my personal property, as is the Empress. Is that true of each of the ships you are captaining? It would be both childish and dishonorable for any of you to damage Parvac Warships when you could better use your time helping me to bring about a peaceful and non-aggressive resolution to our current predicament. What will you tell the public?”
Childish? I’d show them childish.
I made my voice deeper and said, “Ah, yes. The millions of credits worth of damage to my ship occurred while fighting over a girl. Sorry about that. What’s one less ship to protect the Empire from possible alien incursions?”
In my normal voice, I said, “You and your houses can’t control me. I don’t need your permission or approval to live my life as I choose. No one allows me to do anything. Don’t make shitty remarks like that to me again, asshole.”
Finished with my angry diatribe, I mumbled angrily under my breath about pompous, entitled Warrior Caste bullies. I turned my fighter and increased my speed to return to my ship. Twenty black fighter ships surrounded me. Fear that the vastly more experienced pilots might herd me into one of the nearby bays had my heart stuttering with fear. The last thing I wanted was to be captured.
Calm fluttered over me as my rainy season web seemed to dissolve. “They are escorting you back,” was the clipped telepathic response I received from Izaac.
Instead of thinking about him, I concentrated on my controls and the orders for docking coming in from Lieutenant Commander Glous on my bridge. Following his instructions, I docked and powered down. Then, I frowned. It felt like everyone with whom I shared an emotional bond, with the exception of Thunderdrop, was angry with me.
Once the bay was secure, the Empress darted away. I went to the nearest Vid-screen, but our communications had been silenced. Then, I noticed my silent and angry escort. Tossing the thermal blanket to a crewman, who I realized was Luca Braga, I helped Thunderdrop free himself. When he jumped to my hair to preen himself, I noticed that Luca was annoyed with me, too. My escort consisted of Eli and Kaoti. They were furious with me and said nothing. Eli took us to Deck Two. Yukihyo was pissed. Nico’s jaw looked like it would break, and Fitz was red in the face.
Neema screeched and bounced in her walker holding her hands up to me. At least someone was happy to see me. She smiled and patted my uniform. “Mommy pretty,” Neema said with a slobbery smile.
I stared into my daughter’s jade green pupil-less eyes and smoothed her dove-grey hair. My tiny one-year-old daughter thought I was beautiful in an oversized Parvac flight suit, with vestiges of spider silk stuck to it, and my hair creased from my helmet. I kissed her cheek.
The men around me, whether in warships or on the Imperial Deck, had no right through either marriage or familial bonds to make me feel guilty for being myself and handling matters as I saw fit. I carried Neema with me into the lift and up to the bridge. The bridge crew saluted me.
“As you were. Captain Ricimer, do our citizens continue to fire upon one another?”
“No, your highness. The captains of the vessels request permission to fly as your escort once their fighters are docked.”
“Have you managed to pick up any of their communications?”
“Only the standard rudimentary jargon.”
“Should we allow them to travel with us?”
“It will keep them out of trouble.”
“Okay, please hail them.”
The vid-screen divided between Drex, Dario, and three men who I didn’t know. “Upon my arrival at your battle, who were the pilots who first shielded me?” Identifications appeared on our console for three pilots. “I will speak to Jada, Slevin, and Cid immediately.”
Dario and Drex ordered men to their bridges. I ignored them and kissed Neema’s fingers. Cid appeared on Drex’s bridge and had the stoic expression of a man who was about to be executed. Jada and Slevin seemed cocky and certain they had behaved appropriately and damned the consequences. Each of the men still wore their flight suits.
“Cid, Jada, and Slevin, thank you for your assistance. I wished to thank you in person.” I memorized their faces as they saluted, and Neema kicked her feet where I held her on my right hip. Then, I turned and left. I wondered to which of the men captaining the vessels the snide voice had belonged.
Chapter Fifteen
In my sitting room, I handed Neema to Violet and went to my shower. I smelled like nervous sweat. Yukihyo, Nico, and Eli seemed to be planning for my safety while the hybrids seemed to be monitoring all of us.
“Why didn’t you stop me?” I asked them telepathically.
“We will protect you and do all we can to facilitated your wishes,” Zared said.
After my shower, I was still agitated. I put Neema and Niklos in their stroller and wandered around the ship with them. As we passed crewmen, Neema’s little laughs and giggles and Niklos’ gurgles filled the corridors. My thoughts played chase with me as I tried to catch them. Mindless of my mental turmoil, the walk put my babies to sleep. Pierce and Lorca took their little charges off to their beds. I rubbed my hand against my neck and felt the ache all the way through my shoulders.
“Oh, what the hell.” I went to the intercom. “Luca Braga, report to the Imperial Deck at once.”
I paced as I waited for him. Rozz and Zam stood guard to either side of the lift and stared in consternation at Luca when he arrived partly because he had already started removing his shirt.
“You want me, Princess Probus? I’m yours,” Luca said as he grinned seductively.
“No, I don’t.”
“But, Princess,” he said imploringly.
I scowled at him. “I just wanted to ask a favor.”
“It is yours,” he vowed in all seriousness.
“It’s nothing big. My neck and shoulders feel all knotted up. I wondered if….”
Luca was on me before I could finish my sentence swooping me up into his arms. “Which door leads to your bedroom?”
“Oh, no way, Luca Braga. There is a perfectly good massage table in the exercise room.”
With a grin and a wink, Luca carried me into the lift. Thunderdrop came with us. In the exercise room, he sat me down on one of the unoccupied massage tables in the far corner. His eyes roamed over me as I removed my shirt. He waited expectantly, but I kept my bra and pants on and laid down on my stomach.
“Oh, come on. I’ve had my hands all over every part of you. At least take this off,” Luca said of my bra.
“Nope.”
With a sigh, he warmed some gel in his hands and began working on the tension between my shoulder blades.
“Oof…ow….”
“Too much pressure?”
“No,” I said. The word sounded wobbly as he worked on my shoulders.
“When I was a boy, the mother of one of my friends had a pet fox. Sometimes, it would let us pet it. Her name was Sneaky Sis. She would steal food right off of our plates. Sneaky Sis was the softest living thing I had ever felt until the moment I touched your skin.”
I rolled my eyes and made gagging noises. Luca laughed.
“Chitter chitter chirp!” Thunderdrop showed me how he could sneak up and wrap Luca in silk lines.
“What did he say?”
“That you should keep doing my shoulders.”
Luca’s big strong hands soon had the knots in my neck and shoulders releasing which had me dozing off. I woke to Luca rhythmically kneading the backs of my thighs with his fists. The warmth of his hands and slide of the gel made it clear that he had removed my exercise bottoms while I was in his massage induced slumber. I reached back and felt my butt relieved that I still wore my undies, not that the white lace scrap left much to the imagination. Thunderdrop sat to my left on a weight machine supervising.
“Don’t worry. He hissed enough to make his intentions clear of what I could expect should I take advantage. Can you feel any aches or pains?”
“No,” I said as I discretely tried to wipe away my drool. I groaned when he began moving his knuckles against my heel and the sole of my foot. “How long was I asleep?”
“Oh, about an hour.”
“An hour? I wasted an entire hour? I need to be figuring out a way to end hostilities, not sleeping.”
“That would be a waste of your thoughts. They would have been fighting over you sooner had it not been out of concern for your health. This was inevitable. There i
s nothing that you can say or do to change them, and you can’t marry everyone. Let them fight it out. They’ll enjoy themselves. They will be certain to protect the civilians.” Luca began massaging beneath my shoulder blades, and I couldn’t suppress a yawn.
“I have to try to get them to stop.”
He laughed. “Dario and Drex exchanged heated words about which you don’t know. They may smile to your face and lead you to believe that you have quieted the rage in their hearts, but they will neither of them be satisfied until they’ve seen blood.”
I felt intense and murderous rage overwhelm me before it was suddenly shut away. Fearfully, I sat up and hopped down from the table. Thunderdrop jumped to the top of my head and let out a long low hiss.
“What is it, Princess?”
“You didn’t feel that?”
“All I felt was your soft velvety skin beneath my appreciative fingers.”
Scanning the room, I finally noted the solid black eyes staring at us from behind a machine. “Nothing. I think you should go.”
“I’m not leaving you. You are obviously frightened. Tell me what’s wrong.” Luca gently held my forearm in his large hand. “I won’t let anything hurt you.”
Jealousy and rage bombarded my emotions like the fierce winds had done to Thalassa days ago. Suddenly reminded of Nathan Green’s anger and my helplessness against it, I began to shake. It felt as though thin sheets of waste paper were thrown in between me and the terrifying emotions over and over again, but they couldn’t protect me from the storm. Desperately, I tried to keep my sobs silent so he couldn’t find me.
“Princess!” Luca said as he gently shook me.
Thunderdrop chittered.
Luca swept me up and rushed with me toward the lift. A force struck Luca and sent me flying through the air. I never fell. I remained suspended in the air bobbing up and down from the ceiling.
“Chirp! Chirp!”
A swirl of black, grey, and limbs had rolled across the exercise floor past me. Zared and Luca fought with a savagery unlike anything I had ever before witnessed. Even on Malta while watching Yukihyo fight, there had been a type of order and gentlemanly understanding. Yukihyo and Nico had met in the ring but had adhered to rules of some sort. Zared and Luca struck, kicked, and gouged as if they meant to kill each other with their bare hands. Realizing those horrible feelings had come from Zared, my panic climbed as I struggled to free myself from Thunderdrop’s lines of silk.
Omnes Videntes (The Space Merchants Book 4) Page 25