HeVan & Earth

by Lucy Kelly

  “It is in a week’s time. Although in my heart, I have already given them names,” said Dax.

  Slapping a hand on the other warrior’s shoulder, Justyn left him with his daughters. He wanted to check on how Suzanna was doing.

  After meeting with Suzanna, Justyn felt sympathy for her Ankida. The forced bed rest was already difficult for her to endure, especially with the current level of morale amongst the crew. Nearly half the women had returned to Earth. Both Jeze and Tyr were having a hard time getting her to rest. She kept trying to run the station from her bed in medical. Luckily, the chief medical officer said she would only need to stay in bed for another week.

  The Venger had been preparing to return to Far Star Station with supplies and additional personnel, when Justyn had commandeered it to chase after Hend. He spent a few hours checking on the state of the supplies they had brought, and progress on the repairs. Several warriors wanted to be reassigned back to HeVan when they heard about the ancient Nephilim women. Justyn spent a few hours in conference with Tyr juggling work assignments. All critical areas of the station had to be maintained at all times. There were upgrades that needed to be installed in almost every system.

  Armus was right about one thing. Most of the technology on the station was a hundred years out of date. Perhaps the situation they were now in could have been avoided, if upgrades had been made sooner. It was no use looking back now.

  One good thing came out of the detailed list of crew re-assignments. There were two very experienced warriors who were also investigators returning to HeVan. Justyn planned to have them return on the KowLer ship so Margan and Trake could return on the Venger. They would have time to be with Josephine. He knew the signs—their wings would erupt soon.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Earth…

  Sarah was celebrating. The gate station was fully repaired, and all the upgrades were completed. The Venger should be arriving on HeVan any day. All the Nephilim women had decided to either return to the gate station or continue on to HeVan. Four more warriors, temporarily stationed on Earth, had joined. Life was good. But that wasn’t the reason Sarah was celebrating.

  She, Becky, and Tammy had just come from Probate Court, where the McCloud Ranch case was being settled. The look on the judge’s face—let alone the uncle who had tried to sell the ranch out from under them—was priceless. The judge had ruled the four sisters couldn’t possibly run such a large ranch, and had sided with the executor, their uncle. Then the four girls, instead of arguing, had their attorney present the judge with a contract of sale.

  Their uncle was between a rock and a hard place. He had been giving them a song and dance about the economy and how they would have to accept a lower price for the ranch. They knew he was trying to find a way to pocket a huge chunk of the proceeds. By gaining control, and then delaying the sale, he could continue to pay himself reasonable fees out of the inheritance for his executor duties. When the sisters presented buyers offering a fair market price, higher than the one their uncle had quoted, he was stuck.

  The fact Sarah had arranged for good lawyers and a few national media reporters to attend the hearing, kept the judge and their uncle from further finagling. The cherry on top of the sundae was when both men realized the new owners were also women. Once the ranch sold, and Sarah handed each girl a check for their fourth of the value, the judge had no choice but to close probate and release their uncle from his duties. He wasn’t getting a dime of their money!

  What no one knew was that Sarah, Becky, and Tammy were selling half-ownership back to the four sisters. Now, with probate closed, their uncle could do nothing about it. Along with the sale, there were management contracts. The four sisters had a nice cushion of cash in the bank and new, silent partners in their ranch. So Sarah was celebrating.

  All the women made their way to a local steakhouse to talk over the transition in ownership. There would have to be some changes on the ranch, and a few more buildings would have to go up over the summer.

  “Anna, I’m going to be sending one person to the ranch to start. He’s originally from Finland, and most of his experience is with goats, sheep, and pigs. He wants to learn about cattle. I’ll put him in your hands. As we agreed, you’re still in charge of that area of the ranch,” said Sarah as they ate their lunch.

  “Does he know how to ride a horse?” Anna asked.

  “I have no idea. He’ll let you know if he has a problem. He’ll need his own place to stay. Perhaps one of your guest cabins, Audra, will do in the short term. Eventually, he’ll need a small, three-bedroom place of his own,” Sarah explained further.

  “That’s an awful lot for a ranch hand. Why can’t he live in the bunkhouse?” Anna wanted to know.

  She hoped they hadn’t made a mistake going into business with these women.

  “Becky, Tammy, and I are not going to interfere with how you run the ranch. We are going to send you people, as we discussed. We would like you to take on the added responsibility of training and housing them. If we feel they need more than a bunkhouse to live in, we’ll be picking up the added expense. In Dax’s case, he recently lost his wife and brother. He also has two infant daughters. His wife was from the U.S., and he wants to raise his daughters here. He worked for a branch of one of our companies. His wife and brother died at one of our sites. This is work he will enjoy while he grieves and heals,” Sarah responded.

  Sarah knew she was spreading it on a bit thick. She didn’t want any of the four women, or their other ranch hands, being prejudiced against Dax.

  Anna raised her hands, palms up, gesturing Sarah could hold off on the explanation.

  “You’ve convinced me. I’m sorry if I looked irritated or asked questions that got your back up. It’s going to take us a while to learn each other’s methods of doing things to make this partnership work. I understand you weren’t trying to step on any toes,” said Anna.

  She could see, from the look in her sister, Angela’s eyes, she was going to want to help with the babies. Children and animals were her weaknesses. Although Anna was grateful Angela chose to be a vet, rather than a pediatrician.

  “When will this guy, Dax, move out to the ranch?” Angela asked.

  “The babies are still in the hospital. They were premature. As soon as they’re released, I’ll send them to you. In the meantime, Tammy and Markus are going to go to the store and purchase any furniture they might need. You know—cribs and things like that.”

  “Markus and I are looking forward to seeing the ranch again. Would you mind if I brought my two girls along this time?” Tammy asked.

  “That would be fine, Tammy. In fact, while you’re there, I’d like to pick your brain a little. Your experience in hospitality would be very helpful to me setting up the fishing cabins and perhaps a small conference center on the ranch,” said Audra.

  Becky offered to design program software for tracking all the livestock and studs. Breeding records were important on a ranch. She was horrified Anna was still keeping her father’s paper records. Anna agreed, if the earlier records could be added to the program.

  Becky said she’d send a couple of software engineers to complete the installation of the program and input all the historical data. Then they would train Anna. Becky guaranteed it would save her lots of time.

  “Any time I can be away from the office and spend out on the range, is a good thing,” said Anna, causing her sisters to laugh. They all knew how much she hated paperwork.

  Becky decided then and there to let Miranda pick the Nephilim she would send to install the software. Anna would never have to do paperwork again. She could leave it to her Ankida!

  Miranda was their vision matcher. So far, she had made nearly a thousand matches and none for herself. Maybe it was time to send Miranda to HeVan.

  A long, happy lunch later, the seven women rolled themselves out of the restaurant, and headed to the hotel where they were staying. In the morning, the McCloud sisters would head back to the ranch. The other
women would head back to The Sanctuary.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  HeVan…

  Josephine had a decision to make. In one more day, they would be landing on HeVan. Or docking to a space station above the planet and shuttling down. She wasn’t sure, but this ship was huge! Either way, once they were all on the ground, and the fight to the death was over… Justyn was really going to fight Armus Hend to the death! She had to make a decision about Margan and Trake.

  She thought they were going to be traveling on the KowLer warship. Due to a change in crew personnel, they had been on the Venger with her for the last three weeks. She’d come on this trip to check out the alien species who had hooked up with her sister, Aimeé, in San Francisco.

  Mike McLuckie, the best FBI agent ever—and her boss—had asked her to do this for him and for Earth. His daughters had the same birthmark she and her sisters had. According to Sarah, it meant they were Nephilim too, or at least, part Nephilim.

  Now, even though they hadn’t even kissed, she was in love with the idiots.

  I guess the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree, she thought.

  She wound up falling for two men, the same as her mother. She remembered it had been a week, maybe less, when Aimeé’s two guys had sprouted wings. So far, it had been nearly three weeks, and no sign of wings on her two.

  One thing she did notice and it still made her blush. She had been walking down one of the long companionways in the ship with Margan and Trake. They were planning to a workout in one of the training rooms. She had stumbled and crashed into Trake’s back. Holding out her hands to stop her fall, she ended up bracing herself on his back. So, not being an idiot herself, she took the opportunity to dig her fingers in a little to feel his muscles.

  Trake had let out a long groan and bent over. Jo had been sure she’d hurt him, until Margan explained their backs were very sensitive and easily stimulated sexually. Her little finger wiggle had gotten Trake off.

  What would it mean if she joined with them, the way Aimeé had? As a conversational subject, it was one the three of them avoided. They were trying hard to maintain a professional demeanor. She had a duty to her sister, her boss, and her planet. They had a duty to the oath they’d taken to back Justyn in the Mok-Tar. Jo had spent a lot of time trying to understand why such an advanced civilization would still have such a violent method of justice. She was relieved when she heard this was the first Mok-Tar fought in over ten thousand years.

  After some consideration, she supposed it would send a strong message. She just hoped it didn’t start an increase in violence in the society. She was pleased to hear there was such a low incidence of murder, rape, and other violent crimes. Those statistics then became part of her decision. If she did get together with Margan and Trake, would they expect her to live on HeVan? They hadn’t been stationed on Earth like their younger brothers. Is that what they called it? What they did? Were the young warriors completing tours of duty on Earth the way young soldiers in the army did tours in the Middle East?

  She really wanted to start a relationship with the two men. She no longer cared about them being from another planet. Even the wings didn’t raise an eyebrow. But she was an honorable, loyal woman and very dedicated to her job. She honestly didn’t know if she could be a pioneer and settle the west, so to speak. She loved being an FBI agent. At the end of a case, she felt a real sense of accomplishment. Since they didn’t discuss it, she didn’t know what her future would be like if they joined.

  The only thing she was sure of was that she wanted them in her bed, both of them. She was daydreaming about the three of them in bed together, when the door chime sounded. Jolted into the present, she got up from where she’d been sitting and walked to the door.

  “Now, why are you so red in the face? Are you ill? Would you like us to take you to medical?” Trake asked.

  Jo blushed even more. “No, I’m fine. Were we supposed to meet or something?” she asked, waving them into the room and shutting the door.

  “No, it’s just that we’ve passed through the last gate. We’ve reached HeVan. We wondered if you’d like to fly down to the surface with us. We have a fast, three-man ship; it will take a fraction of the time it would take on a shuttle,” said Margan, dropping the subject of her blushes.

  “You’ll have a better view too. In a shuttle, you’d have to stay secured in the interior cabin. Here, you’d get to fly in the cockpit with us,” added Trake.

  “Seriously? It would be great!” she said. “But don’t you have to coordinate the prisoner transfer?”

  “Actually, we have to prepare the battleground. We must perform a very specific ritual before the Mok-Tar can take place. Armus Hend was given first choice of weapons. We are responsible for making sure the weapons are of equal quality,” he said.

  “Okay, you can tell me about it later—can you tell me about it later? Or is it a big secret?” she asked.

  “No, the rite is not secret. We don’t make a public spectacle of it anymore, though. We have progressed since then. There will be witnesses chosen, and it will be their responsibility to report on the outcome,” explained Margan.

  “Well, it’s not a nice thing to contemplate right now. When do we leave?”

  “If you’re packed, we can leave now.”

  “Cool. I packed after I got dressed. I knew we’d be arriving today. I gotta say—I hope I can do some shopping. I’m getting a little tired of the clothes I’ve been wearing. I’m just happy I was able to wash them, or whatever it is you all did to get them clean,” she said.

  Trake stepped forward to take her suitcase, and the three of them left. She did enjoy the flight down to the planet. It was more than what she expected, flying very fast through space like a fighter jet across the sky. Margan flew them around one of the moons, and swerved around various things floating in space, and even twisted and twirled—just for the hell of it. It was more fun than any amusement park ride she’d ever been on, ever. She couldn’t wait to do it again, and hoped she would get the chance.

  They landed the ship in what Margan explained was the House of HeVanth, which was like a country on Earth or, more accurately, a state in the U.S. All the houses spoke the same language and were currently at peace with each other. The last war had been some twenty thousand years earlier.

  Leaving the small ship, they took a ground transport to the palace.

  “We’ll leave you with Lady Grace, but we’ll be back later to take a meal together,” said Margan, as they approached the palace.

  Jo was a little nervous to be separated from them. Instead of letting them know, she sucked it up and smiled. She remembered there were other women from Earth here. Hopefully, she would get to talk to them. She had talked to all the women on the Venger who had decided to move to HeVan after leaving the gate station. She hoped to speak with Suzanna on the way home. She was surprised and pleased to discover Suzanna used to work for the government. She’d been one of the elusive and secret men in black. Jo was certain that talking to her would help erase a lot of her and Mike’s worries about alien invasion and other wild imaginings.

  One thing she did do, before Margan and Trake left her, was kiss them. They had navigated through the palace until they’d reached the royal wing. A message had been sent to Grace, and they were waiting for her to arrive.

  “So, you guys are taking off now?” she asked.

  “Yes, we will be gone for a few hours. We’ll be back for dinner. Then we will be preparing with the two Mok-Tar combatants. The battle will take place at dawn tomorrow,” he said.

  What he and Trake never revealed to her was the possibility they would have to fight. They didn’t want her to worry.

  Unfortunately for them, Jo had accessed the databases on the Venger and had been wearing nano patches during the voyage. She knew exactly what dangers they faced. So before they could step back to leave, she reached for them. Holding both their hands, she leaned up and kissed Margan first. Then easing back, she turned and
kissed Trake next.

  “I’ll see you later,” she said, her voice coming out huskier than she intended.

  Mr. Hot and Mr. Yummy were definitely hot and yummy!

  Without saying a word, the two men glanced behind her briefly, bowed, and turned to leave. Jo was watching them walk away when she heard a voice behind her.

  “You know, for a pretty chaste kiss—I mean, I didn’t see any tongue—it was pretty hot.”

  Jo whipped around. The woman standing in front of a now open door was tall with dark hair and dusky skin. She also had a subtle glow about her. This must be Grace Perez, former Chicago police detective.

  This should be an interesting conversation, Jo thought.

  Not knowing what else to do, she flashed her badge and creds.

  “Agent March of the Chicago field office. We aided in the apprehension of Armus Hend. I came along as escort for the prisoner.”

  “That’s a new kind of escort service, alright,” joked Grace, trying to put the woman at ease.

  She tried not to let the old adversarial relationship between local and federal law enforcement creep into her tone of voice. Smiling, she invited Jo into the royal wing. There was a bit of an issue when her sidearm was detected by the warriors on guard duty, but Grace vouched for her, and she was allowed to keep it.

  The two women entered the royal wing. After meeting and admiring her children, they sat down to talk shop. Grace might not be with Chicago PD anymore, but she was still very interested in what was happening back on Earth. She recognized a kindred spirit in Jo. The time for dinner came and passed as they talked.

  “I’ve spent all my free time traveling here from Earth studying up on this Mok-Tar rite. This is some serious shit. Aren’t you scared for Justyn?” Jo asked.

  “Yes, a part of me is terrified. Then I calm down again, because I have absolute faith in my Ankida. I haven’t had time to learn very much, tell me everything you learned,” said Grace.