by S. E. Smith
Cara worked quickly to hack into the communication’s console. She sent out a repeating signal using the configurations she had discovered when she was experimenting on the V’ager. That signal had been strong enough to be received from galaxies away. She giggled as she remembered finding out she had been sending Trelon’s personalized porn videos out to everyone. Boy, had he turned red as he finally told her what a PVC was. She had to admit he had some pretty creative ideas. Next, she hacked into the engineering section. She set up an auto-reboot of the different consoles managing the cooling, electrical, and drive systems to be repeated every fifteen minutes in a random order. This would keep them busy trying to figure out what was wrong. Finally, she located a schematic of the ship so she could figure out a good place to hide. That was another bonus to being small; she could fit into places nobody thought to look in. She found the perfect place not far off of the docking bays. There was an access tunnel leading to it off a covered panel just down the corridor from the detention cells. She could crawl through the access ducts and down a service ladder. The big problem would be getting to her safe space. She thought about hiding in the ducts but they were big enough someone could come after her and she would be cornered. Plus, it would be one of the first places they would look once they realized she was gone. She had noticed there were sensors located throughout the duct systems. Probably to determine if anyone was hiding in them. She could use the micro-console to plug in and disable the sensors as she reached them then re-enable them so it wouldn’t show. The only way anyone would know was if they pulled a report. That would take time and someone would have to analyze them. By then, they wouldn’t know where she was hiding. Closing the panel to the console, Cara gripped the micro-console to her and headed for the door.
Trelon cursed when he saw the image of the Curizan warship on the screen Symba was projecting. It was an older model but still deadly. He needed the V’ager desperately if he was going to try attacking it. Symba could send out energy bursts that would disrupt the engines but it would drain her on a warship that large. That would leave him vulnerable. He was about to signal Kelan when his brother’s image appeared in front of him.
“We have a visual of the warship. We have also been receiving a continuous signal from the warship. It looks suspiciously like the one your mate sent out before. I have a feeling they are having as much trouble keeping her locked up as we did.” Kelan said with a strained smile before continuing. “I’ve instructed the crew to send a disruption pulse to knock the engines off line. The new system you installed should work at bypassing their shield briefly. It is a good thing the cloaking device only works when the ship is stationary. We need to find out how it bypassed our defense system, though. I have a feeling N’tasha’s hand might have been in that or we have more spies among our ranks.” Kelan finished harshly.
“It is something we’ll have to look at after this is over. Right now, I just want to get our mates back. It won’t take them long to realize we are here. Those aboard better hope they have not harmed a hair on either of our mates or there will be nothing left of that warship.” Trelon snarled.
Kelan responded with a cold smile. “Once I have my mate back there will be no mercy for any of them.” Kelan turned as one of the men called out on the bridge of the V’ager. Nodding he turned to Trelon, “No mercy.”
Trelon nodded to Kelan. “No mercy.”
Within seconds, Trelon watched as four powerful bursts streamed from the V’ager. It was more than five times the size of the smaller Curizan warship. The Curizan warship seemed to glow for a moment as the energy bursts hit the outer haul. Seconds later, lights began to flicker and die as the engines were taken off line. Golden Valdier fighters streamed from behind the larger warship converging on the small ship. As they approached the symbiosis of each fighter joined with another until it had formed a huge transport for warriors. Tubes of Gold formed as the symbiosis of the Valdier warriors latched onto the outer haul outside several of the boarding hatches. At the same time, an elite group of warriors was transported into the docking bay. They would neutralize anyone in the docking bay, kill anyone who tried to enter, and open the hatches.
Trelon brought Symba to join with the first group that was set to enter the warship. Symba did not join with the other symbiosis. Trelon understood her desire to be there in case Cara needed assistance in any way. He knew just how she felt. He refused to believe Cara could be hurt in any way. Just the thought was enough to drive him crazy. He had already gone through this twice before. This would be the last time, he kept repeating. Never again would Cara be in danger. He didn’t care if he had to build a palace built of the hardest crystals in the universe, he was going to find some way to keep her safe or he was going to go out of his mind. Trelon gave a deep growl as his dragon agreed with him.
Although, his dragon added, it would probably be easier to go insane then to try to catch Cara after she escaped because they both knew there was no way she would ever let him lock her up somewhere safe.
Thanks a lot! Trelon snapped at his dragon. The least you could have done is let me dream for a little while. All that earned him was a dry laugh.
Trelon started when the hatch blew. The first face he saw belonged to Kelan. One look at his brother’s face and he knew better than to argue. Both of them would do anything to save their mates. Kelan’s eyes and the rolling of scales under his skin showed he was doing everything in his power to keep his dragon under control. Their dragon was a fierce warrior but not made for fighting on warships. They were too large to maneuver in the tight confines of the rooms and corridors and dragon fire in space did not usually end well for anyone, including the dragon.
“Your mate has been very busy. Our team has detected multiple random shutdowns of the systems aboard. Since they are still occurring, I believe we can safely say they have not caught her yet.” Kelan said gruffly, his voice deeper and harsher with his dragon so near.
Trelon let out a long sigh. One part of him felt relief, while the other part wanted to give her that ass whipping his dragon kept reminding him he had missed out on. The first thing they needed to do was get control of the warship. Then, he would tear it apart bolt by bolt if necessary to find his tiny mate.
N’tasha was frantic. Raffvin was supposed to meet her warship to take the female mates but he had not shown up at the designated coordinates. She had been about to instruct the crew to head for their base off of a Curizan moon when the engines had cut out. Not long afterwards, the chief of engineering informed her they were having multiple failures in the engine room, as well as other areas. He was not sure what was going on as the problems seem to be occurring at random intervals on multiple systems. N’tasha had yelled for him to fix the issues as soon as possible. She had a bad feeling it was not a coincidence that she had brought the human female aboard and things started to go wrong. She had heard stories of the tiny human on board the V’ager and how much trouble she had caused. N’tasha paled. She had even heard that the tiny human had escaped from the detention cell on board the warship. She had discounted the story as an exaggeration but now she wasn’t so sure.
“Check on the human female.” N’tasha choked out. “Make sure she is still locked up.”
Within minutes, N’tasha had her answer. The stories had been true. A crewman reported the cell containing the tiny human had been empty and the locking mechanism had been destroyed. There was no sign of her anywhere.
“Find her! Find her now!” N’tasha screamed at the communication’s officer. “Find her and bring her to me! I’m going to kill the tiny bitch.”
She didn’t care what Raffvin had to say about it. She had been his whore for over a year trying to get information out of Trelon. She was supposed to be with Ben’qumain. He had been her lover before he had fallen in with Raffvin. It had been Raffvin who had convinced Ben’qumain to attack the Valdier king saying he was its ‘True King’. Ben’qumain had been too stupid to realize Raffvin was just using him and his resources
. When Raffvin had approached Ben’qumain about using N’tasha’s beauty to get inside the royal family and find out their weaknesses, Ben’qumain just laughed and handed her over. She had wanted to kill him for tossing her aside but she had loved him too much. Instead, she had made plans of her own to destroy Raffvin and the Valdier royal family showing Ben’qumain that she was a powerful force who would hand delivered Valdier to the Curizans. Now, all her plans were falling apart because of a tiny alien female who should have died not once but twice. The poison she had put in her drink should have killed her. When that didn’t happen, then she thought for sure she had killed the bitch when she had piled tons of rock on top of her. She had been a pilot in one of the five skimmers that had chased the female. She had given the order to abandon the attack on Trelon to kill his mate. Only the tiny female had escaped again, inside of a crack in the mountain.
N’tasha breathed deeply trying to get control of her emotions. She couldn’t lose, not now. She was going to deliver the human females to Raffvin. He would kill the females and leave them where their mates could find their bodies. The males would not be able to survive with their true mates dead. Not even revenge would be strong enough to keep them alive. Then, when Raffvin was least expecting it, she would kill him and take over as queen of the Valdier. She would prove a female was strong enough and smart enough to rule the vast planet of warriors.
N’tasha fell against the railing surrounding the outer edges of the bridge when the warship jerked suddenly. All the lights on the bridge flickered on and off before going dark. The emergency lights came on casting the bridge in an eerie red glow.
“What has that bitch done now?” N’tasha shouted.
“It wasn’t from on board. We’ve been hit by multiple energy bursts that have knocked the engines off line. I am detecting a large Valdier warship and multiple fighters approaching.” One of the younger men said.
One of the older men cursed under his breath and began shouting orders. When N’tasha shrieked at him that she was in command, he looked at her in disgust and motioned to the other men on the bridge. None of them wanted to be there. The only reason they were there was because Raffvin had members of their families hidden away somewhere. None of them wanted to die for him or the woman he had commanded them to help. N’tasha screamed as the men walked off the bridge leaving her in command, just like she wanted.
The sudden shuddering of the warship combined with the sounds of alarms going off woke Cara. She was amazed that she had actually fallen asleep in her hiding space. Boy, she thought humorously, maybe all I needed to do was get pregnant to tire me out. She looked around the small dark area and was surprised to find she wasn’t afraid anymore. Maybe because I’m not alone, she thought. Cara figured she had plenty of company between the twins, her dragon who thankfully had excellent night vision, and the tiny threads of gold that were glowing softly to help make the small, dark area seem a little more cheerful. Not that being crammed in a cleaning closet with brooms and mops was a very cheerful place. It did thankfully have a sink which Cara had utilized as something else when the pressing need to relieve her bladder screamed at her. That was another thing about being pregnant she wasn’t sure she liked, she thought distractedly. Between having to go to the bathroom a lot and throwing up, she wondered what other lovely things she was going to discover as she got bigger.
Cara could hear the sounds of movement and voices shouting in the distance growing closer. She huddled into the back of the closet as far as she could and stacked the brooms and mops in front of her. She quickly motioned for the little symbiosis which has been floating in the air like little fireflies to wrap back around her wrists. As soon as they did, she felt the warmth of Symba’s touch on her. She was about to push everything aside again when the door to the closet flew open and a huge, dark shape with glowing gold eyes stood silhouetted in the doorway.
Cara grinned as she peered between the broom handles into a set of intense gold eyes. “I might have been responsible this time for the alarms.”
Trelon had never seen anything more beautiful than the sight of Cara’s mischievous smile. He reached down and clasped her tiny hands in his huge ones and pulled her up into his arms. Trelon buried his face in Cara’s neck as he held her several feet above the floor.
“No, I think we can blame Kelan for it this time.” Trelon said hoarsely as he pressed a kiss into the dragon’s mark on Cara’s neck.
Cara tightened her arms around Trelon’s neck and pulled her legs up until they were around his waist. She didn’t ever want to let go of him again. She sniffed as she tried hard not to cry. Okay, she thought, this is another thing she didn’t like about being pregnant. She was getting all emotional.
Trelon’s arms tightened around Cara when he heard her sniff. “It’s alright, mi elila. I have you now.” Trelon murmured softly.
“It wasn’t my fault I didn’t stay in Abby’s living quarters. Is she alright? Have you found Trisha yet?” Cara asked, still sniffing as she pulled just far enough to look into Trelon’s beautiful eyes.
Trelon held Cara with one arm as he gently wiped a stray tear from her cheek with his other hand. “Abby is fine. Zoran is with her. We were hoping Trisha was with you. Kelan and his symbiosis have not been able to sense her. We had thought that maybe Kelan’s symbiosis had been removed like Abby’s had but the only parts missing are the ones that had been with Trisha. Do you know where they may have taken her?”
Cara shook her head and was about to ask Trelon what had happened since she had been taken when N’tasha’s screams filled the air. Kelan had her by the back of her neck with one hand and her arms pinned behind her with the other. He looked like he was ready to commit murder.
“Where is she?” Kelan thundered. He jerked on N’tasha’s arms making her scream again. “I will show you no mercy unless you tell me where she is.”
N’tasha stared at Cara and Trelon with hatred in her eyes. She gave an insane cackle before replying, “She’s dead! She’s dead and so are you! At least I killed one of you. Do you want to know how I killed her? I made sure she screamed as I cut her into little pieces.” N’tasha said with a snarl.
Kelan roared out in pain and with a quick twist snapped N’tasha’s neck. Cara buried her face in Trelon’s neck with a wild sob. Kelan let N’tasha’s lifeless body fall to the deck of the docking bay. He took two steps before his knees gave out and he sank to the floor with his head hanging and his breaths coming in harsh gasps.
Trelon held onto Cara’s shaking body trying to soothe her sobs and gazed in sorrow at his older brother. Only a year separated them. They had been as close as the twins Cara now carried. To see his brother in such agonizing pain was more than he could bear.
One of the older men who had surrendered pushed forward from where the group had been detained. The crew of the warship had been basic at best. The warship needed at least a hundred men to run at full capacity. There had been half that many on board. Out of the fifty men, thirty had surrendered peacefully.
Dulce walked forward with the man. “My lord, this man says he has information about the other human female that was captured.”
Trelon nodded to Dulce before looking at the man through narrowed eyes. “Speak.”
“My name is Dantor. The other men and I were brought aboard to serve…” Dantor nodded in distaste at N’tasha’s prone figure on the floor “…the female against our will. Raffvin has members of our family and has threatened to kill them if we do not do what he wants. We could not disobey since there were also members of his elite army on board. I wanted you to know that we regret any harm that has come to your mate but we had no choice.” Many of the men standing behind him, Curizan and Valdier alike, were nodding in agreement.
Trelon cut his hand through the air. “I don’t care about your excuses. You said you have information about the other human female that was taken.” He said harshly.
Dantor cleared his throat. “She is not dead.” He began softly.
Kelan’s head jerked up at the softly spoken words. He slowly climbed to his feet. “What do you mean she is not dead?” He demanded coming up to grip the front of Dantor’s shirt.
“What do you mean she is not dead?” Kelan repeated, shaking Dantor until the other man’s head snapped back and forth.
Trelon reached out one hand and rested it on Kelan’s shoulder. “Hear him out before you end up killing him.”
Kelan jerked back releasing Dantor’s shirt. “Tell me.”
Dantor nodded stiffly. “A second group on a smaller ship captured her and was taking her to a primitive moon just on the other side of Quitax. They were told to hold her there until we could pick her up. We were supposed to leave Valdier and travel straight there where we would meet at a predetermined site.”