by Lucy Kelly
“It’s possible, but now Queen Aditya has joined with the planet; she has enough power to back up her authority. New females have come to HeVan, and babies are being born again. There is new hope. Females bring life; we men can only protect it,” he explained.
Jo had been prepared for an argument and was pleased she wouldn’t need one. “It’s true women get pregnant. They don’t do that alone, though. A father has just as much responsibility to his kids as a woman does. No one should be prevented from learning something or doing a job they have a talent for because of gender,” she said emphatically.
For the rest of the meal, they kept up a lively conversation and found much in common, especially for people from different planets at practically the other end of the galaxy. After they finished their meal, Margan offered to take her to the observation deck. She went along. She’d been in space for a while by then, but with all the corridors and walls, it felt like a Star Trek episode. She wanted to see the stars. They were still close enough to Mars that she got a good look at the red planet.
For a split second, she was the first American to see these things. Then she remembered the Nephilim had been on Earth for some time. There had been women on the shuttle who had actually been living in space. Then there were all the women, including Addie Perez, who had moved to another planet. So she wasn’t the first person from Earth, after all.
But I’ll bet I’m the first FBI agent in space. Woo Hoo!
After seeing the sights, she felt as if she needed a break from Mr. Yummy so she could keep her hormones under control.
Margan, his name is Margan! But he’s so yummy, her hormones cried out.
Margan was relieved when Josephine asked for quarters so she could rest. His knee-jerk reaction was to offer her his cabin, but he stopped himself from blurting out the suggestion. Instead, he led her to the cabin she would stay in until they reached the gate station. There, she would transfer to the Venger, and make the rest of the trip with the Nephilim. He would miss her, perhaps they could continue their friendship through ship-to-ship communications. They would have three weeks with very little to do. After dropping her off, he decided to talk to his brother about his idea.
Trake was on guard duty with two KowLer warriors when Margan appeared.
“How’s the prisoner?” Margan asked, checking in.
“He’s either gone insane or he’s up to something. He’s pacing back and forth, making plans to take over the rule of HeVan. He’s acting as if he doesn’t think we can hear every word,” said Trake.
Margan thought about it. “I agree. He’s either insane or trying to make us believe it because of some plan. I recommend we record everything he spouts on memory savers anyway. He may say something to the point.”
As Trake set up the recording, he asked what was really on his mind. “How did it go with Josephine?”
“She’s really dedicated to her job. Like us, she’s focused on her duty right now. I think she’d consider a relationship when Armus is turned over, and the Mok-Tar battle is completed,” he said.
“Many of the Earth females don’t want more than one mate,” said Trake.
“That’s true. But remember, her sister joined with two. I believe Aimeé mentioned they have two fathers. So perhaps she would be willing. I do not wish to be in competition for her. We must win her affections together,” said Margan, and Trake agreed.
Margan explained she was resting in quarters. Then Trake left to get a meal, while Margan relieved him of guard duty.
Alone in the small room assigned to her until they reached the space station—or gate station or whatever—Jo was awake. She wasn’t actually sure whether it was day or night. She hadn’t been paying close attention to the passage of time with everything happening all at once. Her adrenaline had been spiking, so she was waiting for the crash.
Thinking a hot shower might help, she approached the attached bathroom. She didn’t know it, but because she was a woman, she’d been given officer’s quarters. This was a warship, so the quarters were small and generally shared. Only the higher ranking officers had a cabin to themselves and a private bathroom. Of course, none of that occurred to Jo, if anything, the size of the accommodations made her think of the inside lower deck cabin on a cruise ship.
When she opened the door to the bathroom, the toilet was pretty self-explanatory. She had no clue of how to use the cleansing unit. There weren’t any helpful instructions or handy levers she could play with. Before, she had been only mildly entertaining the idea of a shower. Since now it was out of reach, she craved it. Part of her knew she was reacting in a perverse way; the rest of her just accepted it.
Digging into her pocket, she pulled out the com-link Margan had told her to use if she needed anything. It was about the size of a cell phone, only thinner—as thin as a credit card. Pressing her finger on the blue dot at the corner of the black card, it only took a moment for the black to swirl with color and the surface to change to a screen. There were three squares. One had an initial M; one had an initial T; and the last had an initial S. Margan had pre-programmed it to contact himself, Trake, and Sarah.
She was cautioned, though that any communications to Sarah would take longer to put through as they got farther away from Earth. After they went through the gate, it wouldn’t work at all with this link. Now, however, Sarah couldn’t help her. She pressed down on the M. Within moments, the screen swirled again with color until it showed Margan’s face.
“Hello, again, Josephine. I thought you were going to sleep. Do you need something?” he asked.
“Yes. I forgot to ask you to show me how to use the shower.”
Margan swallowed hard. He flashed on a very naked Josephine March with water running over her body. Clearing his throat, he answered her.
“I’m afraid I’m on guard duty right now. I’ll send Trake. Will that be alright?” he asked.
“Sure, thanks. How do I end the com-link call?” she asked next.
“Just say goodbye and press down on the blue dot again,” he said.
“Okay, goodbye,” she said, pressing down.
The surface went back to looking like a large credit card. Jo knew she had been abrupt. Seeing Margan had started all those lustful feelings again. Hopefully, having Mr. Hot, aka Trake, in her tiny bathroom, might be easier on her blood pressure. Somehow she didn’t think so.
A chiming interrupted her musings and she deduced the sound meant Trake had arrived. See what a great FBI agent she was? Her deduction proved correct. She was also right about the level of his hotness and the difficulty in catching her breath in the tiny bathroom.
He must think I’m an idiot, she thought.
He had to repeat the instructions twice.
She was a little disappointed she wasn’t getting a long soak with hot water, but she understood the worth of water on a long space voyage. While being bombarded with sound waves, or whatever, and then air dried or vacuumed and all else the peculiar shower entailed, she just hoped she felt clean afterwards. She didn’t think it would help her sleep.
When she heard the strange chiming again, it woke her up. Scrambling up from the bed, she blearily stumbled to the door. She’d forgotten entirely she was dressed in a skimpy baby-doll nightie and matching panties in siren red. She was a tough FBI agent by day, girly-girl underneath. Her mother told her wearing nice things under her clothes would help her hold on to her femininity, especially working in a hard job like law enforcement, which tended to harden you up.
Margan and Trake were worried. They had been standing outside Josephine’s cabin, ringing the chime for the last five minutes, and she hadn’t answered. They were considering using the override, when the door opened. Both of them were shocked, awed, and immediately aroused at the sight before them.
“Josephine, I’m going to guess you slept through the docking announcement?” Margan asked in a strangled voice.
“Huh? What?” she mumbled.
Pushing her hair away from her face with her h
and, she woke enough to understand where she was and what was happening. Slamming the door closure mechanism with her hand, she stepped back. Diving for the bed, she quickly grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around herself. Covered up, she went back and opened the door again.
“What did you say?” she asked.
Concealing a smile, Margan repeated the information. The ship would be docking with the Far Star Station within the hour.
“You’ll need to pack, and we thought you might want a meal now. Or if you wait until you arrive at the station, you can have foods which are more familiar to you,” he explained.
“Coffee?” she begged. “I can wait for food. I desperately need coffee.”
“I’m sorry. Because of my translator, I know coffee is a hot beverage served at breakfast. I don’t know if the KowLer have this particular beverage,” he said.
“That’s…that’s inhuman! How can I get up in the morning without coffee?” she wanted to know.
Mornings were never her alert time. She tended to be a night owl. She didn’t know how she’d function without her morning infusion of caffeine. She wasn’t looking forward to a week of withdrawal-related headaches. They must have coffee!
“Let’s not worry just yet. Go ahead, get dressed, and packed. We’ll go and look into this while you’re getting ready. If they don’t have coffee here, I’m sure they have something similar. If not, the station is bound to have some. After all, there are many women living there from Earth.
“You’re right. There’s no reason to panic—not yet, anyway. Go check, I’ll get dressed.” Without a goodbye, she once again closed the door.
Margan and Trake waited for a moment, she didn’t appear to be coming back. They headed to the kitchens.
“I think Josephine is adorable in the mornings. I could easily get accustomed to seeing her in such attire,” said Trake.
“Yes, though my own attire is quite uncomfortable all of a sudden,” Margan said, adjusting the fit of his pants and rolling his shoulders. “I think we should ask Justyn about this coffee drink.”
Trake agreed with his idea. Justyn informed them the KowLer didn’t have any hot beverages resembling coffee. But they did have a drink called Lola juice. He said to tell her it was like having a cola. They were surprised she would be willing to substitute a cold drink for a hot one, but they followed Justyn’s suggestion. When they returned to Josephine’s cabin twenty minutes later, they had an insulated container of Lola juice with them.
Josephine, back in jeans, cotton shirt and a leather jacket to hide her shoulder holster, was ready to go when they returned. She took the container, and as they watched, took a small sip.
“It’s not coffee, but it’ll do. Thanks, guys. I guess this is the space version of a to-go-cup?” she asked, holding up the flexible pouch with a built-in straw.
They weren’t quite sure what she meant but agreed anyway. They were pleased she seemed satisfied with the beverage. Since the ship would be docking soon, they took her to the docking point to wait. Trake stayed with Josephine while Margan went back on guard duty. He wouldn’t be going to the station.
When Justyn arrived at the docking point, Trake also said goodbye. He reminded her of her com-link and hoped she would use it frequently. When he left, Jo regretted she hadn’t given in to the impulse to kiss them goodbye.
“How do you like Margan and Trake?” Justyn asked, as they took a small shuttle from the KowLer ship to the station docking bay.
“I like them fine. Are they wearing borrowed uniforms or something? They don’t seem comfortable. They’re always twitching and rolling their shoulders,” she explained.
Justyn grinned. Other than capturing Armus Hend, this was the best news he’d received in a long time. He had grown to admire Margan and Trake during the last six or so weeks they had been working together.
“There is nothing wrong with their uniforms,” he said, and kept grinning.
It took a moment for the penny to drop. She had a memory of Aimeé’s two guys, Tonne and Jorne, sprouting wings. She knew what it meant—sex—it meant lots of sex!
“Wings?” she squeaked, and Justyn grinned some more.
Tyr met them at the docking bay. He had Heidi and her two Ankida, Gaius and Gael, with her, and Bella and Boris, of course. The two Great Danes had adopted the battered Heidi all those months ago back on Earth and rarely let her out of their sight, even now.
“Justyn, Dax Gartha has requested an interview with you,” Tyr said.
Dax was the Nephilim who had lost his brother, Dray, and their mate, Cathy, in the hull breach. Justyn had a good idea why the man wanted to talk to him. He was torn. He had taken the oath of Mok-Tar, and yet his mate and brother lived. The same man had destroyed Dax’s family, he must also have a need for justice. Justyn didn’t know if he could step aside and let Dax fight the Mok-Tar.
“Take me to him. I would be honored to talk to Dax,” Justyn said.
Jo only half followed the conversation. Heidi came forward and introduced her to her Ankida and the dogs. She offered to take Jo for a meal in their family quarters. They would be continuing to HeVan within hours. Heidi had an idea of the things Jo would be wanting and probably forgot to pack. As chief supply officer in charge of food on the station, Heidi wanted to send Jo off with a care package of goodies.
Jo and Justyn separated, and each went to different parts of the station. Justyn knew his way around, having lived on the station for so many years. Originally it had been the ship, which brought the Nephilim to Earth to find their queen. It wasn’t until after their arrival, that it had been modified into a gate station.
For thousands of years, the Nephilim had been deep space explorers. They would travel for roughly a hundred years toward a promising star cluster. If they didn’t reach it in that time, they erected a gate. The exploratory vessel became the gate operating station. Then, using a faster shorter range ship, they would return home and go out again with another deep space vessel, this time, starting at the newly-erected gate.
When they traveled to Earth, they had put up one gate. Nearly another hundred years had passed when they finally reached Earth. They made trade agreements with three other sentient species during the long voyage, and turned over the operations of the first gate to one of them. Other Nephilim would explore in other directions from there.
Thinking about that long voyage, Justyn made his way to medical. Dax hadn’t wanted to leave his premature infants alone for too long. Cathy had mentioned something called Kangaroo Care and believed the more time the children spent being held skin to skin with their parents, the less medical problems they would have. She had spent so many hours with them, she’d become exhausted.
Dray had convinced her to leave them for some rest and a relaxing picnic in one of the gardens. Dax had been late, and was annoyed with Suzanna’s command for all the blast doors and passageway compartment doors to be shut at all times. He had been entering his codes to open them, when the explosion of Armus’s ship caused the hull breach. Dray and Cathy were gone. He was determined to fulfill her final wishes. He asked and was granted leave from his duties, even during the current crisis. He spent all his time in medical with his two daughters.
Following Nephilim custom, no names were to be spoken until after the birth. Since they were premature, they had been waiting for the naming ceremony. It was supposed to bring the babies luck. He didn’t know what names Cathy had chosen and it bothered him. When Justyn arrived in the nursery, Dax was leaning back in a chair, bare from the waist up, with his two daughters cuddled against his wide chest.
Seeing him and knowing all that he’d lost, Justyn knew what he must do.
“I will give you a place before me in the Mok-Tar rite, if you wish it,” he said to Dax.
“I thank you for the honor. I considered asking you to step back and then rejected it. I am the only parent left for my daughters. I am a good strong warrior. I am not a great one. If Armus Hend were to defeat me, who would raise my dau
ghters and tell them of their mother? No, I asked you here for another reason,” he said.
“If there is anything I can do, you have only to ask,” said Justyn.
Dax was upset, sad, and angry. He didn’t want to communicate those emotions to his girls so he placed them back into their incubator. They were sleeping and wouldn’t need to be fed for another hour or so.
“I came on this voyage with my brother because we believed in the quest of finding the true queen of HeVan. We stayed because we found Cathy and she wasn’t ready to go so far from her home world. We failed to protect her. I’m concerned if I return home, the Beleti, first lady of my House, will want me to give up my babies to a mated pair. I’m also concerned, since Cathy is gone, there will be no one to tell them stories of their mother,” he said, pacing back and forth across the small room.
The babies fussed a little, and he quickly checked on them. Justyn remained quiet. He knew Dax had more to say.
“Our people would send the babies to the House of their mother. I’d like permission to take them to Earth to live there permanently until they are old enough to choose for themselves. On HeVan, my House ran the largest tarhata—what Cathy said they call a ranch on Earth. The word is The Sanctuary is purchasing a ranch in Montana. I would like to go there to raise my girls. That is my request,” he said, stopping his pacing to face Justyn.
“Queen Aditya would never allow your babies to be taken from you. Both she and her sister, my mate, Grace, lost both their parents while they were young. They will understand your position. However, there would be pressure. I agree this is the best solution and grant your request. When the medicals release the girls from here, you can take a shuttle to The Sanctuary. Sarah will help you get to the ranch,” he said.
The two warriors shook hands. Justyn admired the babies. He missed his own little ones. He knew they would have grown a great deal in his absence. It was yet another crime to put at Armus’s door.
“When is the naming ceremony?” asked Justyn.