by evil wind
"So?"
"The ship's crew is all male,” Iyan said. “Eight men to be precise."
"A Rysalian ship?” the Reaper questioned. “How can that be?"
"The ship is The Vortex ,” Iyan said, his gaze locked on Khiershon's.
"Merciful Alel,” Khiershon said.
"What does that mean?” Caitlin asked.
"That was the ship that took my bloodsire to Terra,” her husband replied. “These must be the men who accompanied him. They're no doubt here to try to rescue him."
"And get themselves blown to dust in the bargain,” Iyan grumbled. “There are two other Multitude ships headed right at them."
"I don't like those odds,” Khiershon said.
"One of those men might well be Prince Raine,” Iyan said. “I can't stand the thought of one of my kinsmen dying at the hands of the Multitude."
"Then we go to his aid,” Caitlin said.
"How do we do that?” Iyan snapped.
Caitlin grinned. “Just watch.” She looked at each of her women crewmembers. “Hail Raphaella's ship."
"Why?” Khiershon asked.
"Humor me, Reaper,” Caitlin said, motioning Bryan to do as she ordered.
Helen opened a channel to Raphie's ship and it was the princess herself who's annoyed face showed on the vid-com. “What the hell do you want?” Raphie snapped.
"Have you heard about the Rysalian ship on its way here?” Caitlin inquired, her eyes bright and opened wide. “There are eight men on it!"
Raphie frowned. She had obviously not been listening to the transmissions between ships. “So what?” she barked.
"We're going to go join the fun!” Caitlin said with a laugh.
The Amazeen princess looked as though she'd been punched in the stomach. “Does he know...?"
"You stay here and let us know how things turned out for the Feast,” Caitlin said, cutting her off. “We're going to go have some fun!"
Khiershon groaned and sent a sublim to Raphie. "We've got to try to protect my bloodsire's friends.
Watch his back while we're about it."
Caitlin saw surprise enter Raphaella's face. She opened her mouth as though about to protest but Caitlin motioned Helen to sever the connection between their ships.
" The DarkWind, this is Rysalian Fleet Command. Do not break orbit,” an imperious voice came over the vid-com. “The situation with the rogue ship is being taken care of."
"Don't answer,” Caitlin said and looked to Marti Holloway. “Get us out of orbit and put the pedal to the metal girl!"
" The DarkWind, do you copy?” came the angry voice again.
"What if they try to stop us?” Iyan asked.
"You'd best sit down and buckle in,” Caitlin warned the men. She had taken the command chair and was fastening her safety harness.
" The DarkWind, you are not to leave orbit!"
Iyan and Khiershon nearly toppled over backward as the ship arced out of orbit and began accelerating at a wicked pace.
"Damn it, DarkWind , you are not authorized to...."
Helen terminated the connection.
"How many ships are heading toward the Rysalian craft?” Caitlin asked.
"Three but only one close enough to intercept it."
Khiershon's lips were a thin line as he took a seat beside Caitlin. “Wench, you are going to get me killed yet."
"She's going to get all of us killed,” Iyan complained. He had staggered to one of the navigational stations and was glaring at Caitlin.
"Can you try hailing The Vortex?” Caitlin asked.
"Too far out of range,” Helen replied.
"What the hell will you say to them?” Iyan snarled. “Oh, by the way, we strolled over to give you guys a hand?"
"The chances are good Admiral Kahn is on that ship,” Khiershon said. “He possesses a strong psychic ability. When we get closer, I will attempt to contact him and let him know he's in danger."
"You don't think he knows he's got Multitude ships headed his way?” Wynth asked.
"He might know but he won't be able to fend off three ships,” Caitlin said. “We're just evening the score."
"And he might fire on us,” Iyan grumbled, “thinking we're part of the Multitude attack force."
"He'll read the heat signature on our ship and know we are a Terran vessel,” Caitlin stated. “He'll think twice before firing on us."
"You hope,” Khiershon said.
Caitlin flashed him a quick look then grinned. “Don't worry, Reaper. I'll keep your tight ass safe."
* * * *
Tylan Kahn was furious. Three Multitude ships were storming toward him and Troi could not get any of The Vortex's weapons on line. “You piece of plastiform shit!” Kahn yelled. “Do something!" The cybot was typing code into the ship's computers so fast his hands were a blur.
"'Could I come near your beauty with my nails',” he sniped, “'I'd set my ten commandments in your face!’”
Taborn actually laughed at the ‘bot's insult. The Necromanian prince was standing behind Alexi Noll's station, watching the three Multitude crafts drawing close on the screen.
"Fuck you, you gods-be-damned ‘bot!” Kahn roared.
"'Talkers are no good doers',” Troi shot back.
"Get the weapons on line and stop prattling off that garbage!” the former admiral of Rysalian Fleet Command ordered.
"'I'll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes',” Troi stated.
"Forty minutes?” Kahn screamed. “We don't have forty minutes you blithering idiot!"
The weapons’ system came online and began gearing up.
"'Now my soul hath elbow-room',” Troi said on a long sigh. His nimble fingers continued to fly across the keyboard.
"Apparently Troi's forty minutes is a lot faster than our forty minutes,” Taborn said with a chuckle.
The ‘bot glanced over at the dark man and grinned with a lopsided twist of its rubbery lips. “'Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies’ eyes',” he complimented Taborn.
"As I've always known,” Taborn agreed, nodding.
"Bastards,” Kahn said. He slammed himself into his command chair. “Any more ships headed our way, Noll?"
Noll groaned. “Aye, Admiral. We have four on our tail now.” He moved closer to the screen. “The new one is a Terran ship."
"'Though she be but little, she is fierce',” Troi told them.
"Terran?” Kahn asked. “Are you sure?"
"Positive,” Noll replied. “She's carrying a Terran heat sig."
"Friend or foe, Troi?” Taborn inquired.
The ‘bot smiled. “'It is a wise father that knows his own child'."
"I am sick of your shit!” Kahn shouted. “Talk like a normal man or I'll have you shut down once and for all and your twisted body turned into pulp!"
"The saying is true, ‘The empty vessel makes the greatest sound,'” Troi said with a sniff. He turned to Taborn. “'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'."
"They are friends,” Taborn said. “Try hailing them Thorne."
"Terran ship,” Thorne said. “Do you copy?"
"Admiral Kahn, are you aboard The Vortex?"
Kahn jumped, the strong voice winding its way through his mind. He got to his feet. “Who the hell are you?” he asked aloud.
"Khiershon Cree, son of the Prime," was the reply.
Kahn staggered beneath that introduction. He fumbled for the arm of his command chair and sat down.
“Cree?” he repeated.
"'Is that the elder, and art thou the heir?'” Troi asked.
"Shut up, ‘bot!” Tylan bellowed.
Troi giggled. “'Faith, thou hast some crotchets in thy head now',” the ‘bot said.
Taborn rushed to Kahn's side. “Are you speaking to him? To Cree?"
"'I can not tell what the dickens his name is',” Troi said.
"Shut up, ‘bot!” Taborn ordered. “Tylan, who is it?"
"His son,” Kahn said. “Khiershon."<
br />
Tealson Hesar looked up from his engineering station. “The one presumed dead on Amazeen? The oldest son?"
"That would be me. We are here to help you, Admiral," Khiershon said. "Pray don't fire on us."
Before Kahn could respond a volley of laser pulses flashed past the Vortex , rocking the ship in their wake.
"Is he safe?" Kahn whispered, knowing the Reaper on the Terran ship would hear.
" He was well when we left Rysalia Prime. Look to this battle and leave that one where it is until we are finished! "
Kahn's lips twitched. The audacity was in the young pup's tone, his father's ego just as blazing in the son as in the sire.
"I'm reading a ship of nothing but females,” Noll reported.
"Obviously they are running some kind of block on the readings,” Taborn snapped.
"Two ships fast closing, Admiral,” Belvoir called out.
"Engage the closer of the two and let the Reaper take the other,” Kahn ordered.
Chapter Sixteen
Cree awoke with a start, realized he'd been dreaming, and sat up, snaking his hand through his hair. He couldn't recall the dream but his heart was thundering, his flesh clammy with sweat, and there was a sour taste in his mouth. Drawing his legs up, he encircled them in the perimeter of his arms and laid his head down on knees. He was breathing hard as though he'd been running but the brutal headache that had plagued him in Kym's office thankfully was gone. Only a stray, vanishing thought of berating Kym for knocking him out wandered through his brain, but he pushed it aside.
"Milord Cree?"
He lifted his head at the soft voice and turned his face toward the speaker, frowning as he spied the tall woman standing with her fingers wrapped around the bars of his cage.
"Has no one told you that is a dangerous thing you are doing, wench?” the Reaper asked.
"Of what do you refer, milord?"
"Standing that close to my cage."
The woman smiled. “I have no fear of you, milord Reaper.” She pressed her forehead against the bars.
“You would not hurt me for I am one of yours."
Cree's frown deepened. “One of my what?” he asked.
"Will you take me with you when you leave?” she asked, seeming not to have heard his question.
“Please?"
"I wasn't aware I was going anywhere,” he retorted. “Doesn't look like I'm in any position to be leaving."
Her smile deepened. “I am a part of you, milord. I have one of your parasites within me,” she stated. “I know your plans as well as I know my own."
Shock tore through Cree as he stared at her. He swung his head from side to side to see if anyone had heard her, but they were alone, the sky threatening to dump rain upon them at any moment.
"I would not be so reckless to come to you when others might hear,” she said.
"Wench, I..."
"Before she left with the Amazeens, Dr. Sejm implanted three of us. I am the only one left.” She extended her hand through the bar in pleading. “Please take me with you. I want to be with my own kind.
I want to be with you."
Cree got to his feet and walked over to the woman, keeping well back from her beseeching hand. “I don't know what you're talking about,” he said.
She drew her hand back and gripped the bar once more. “Aye, but you do, milord. I can read it in your mind. You are upset about what Sejm did, you saw the room filled with parasites. Your dreaming was filled with your disquiet, and I can understand that you are wary of me.” She shook her head. “You do not have to worry. I will keep your secret even if you will not take me with you."
Cree delved quickly into the woman's mind and was surprised she allowed it. He could not read any duplicity, any deception there, only loneliness and confusion in her thoughts. “Where are the other two?” he asked.
"Miriam went insane during the initial Transition,” she told him. “She had to be put down."
The Reaper winced at the matter of fact words. “And the third?"
"No one knows where Kate went,” she replied. “She disappeared that first night and has not been seen since. I believe she is in the mountains of Rysalia Prime but since no one but Dr. Sejm and Dr. Sorn knew of her, there is no one here to go searching."
He narrowed his eyes. “Delyn Sorn?” he questioned.
She nodded. “The one and the same."
"Why did you not leave with the other?"
"And do what, milord?” Sadness entered the woman's pale blue eyes. “Where was there for me to go?
All I know is here. Each of us was from Terra. We have no family here. I want to go home, milord. I want to go back home to Kansas."
Cree watched tears gathering in the woman's eyes. “What is your name?"
"Danielle,” she said. “Danielle Conway."
Once more he slipped through her mind and could find no trickery or dishonestly in her thoughts. “Go find Dr. Kym. Tell her what you've told me,” he ordered.
Danielle's face brightened. “You will take me with you, then?"
"Do you realize many years will have passed in Terran time since you were taken?” he asked. “The chances of you finding any of your family alive are remote."
"But I would be home,” she said. “My heart aches for Terra. If I am to endure the burden of the parasite, at least I would be home."
"Go to Kym,” he repeated. “That is all I can tell you."
She let go of the bars, studied him for a moment then she smiled again though her cheeks were wet with tears. “I'll not pose a problem for you, milord,” she said and hurried off toward Fleet Command.
Cree watched her until she had disappeared inside the building. She had intercepted the dream that had awakened him and had reminded him what it had been about. Fleeting wisps of it darted across his memory as he stood gripping the bars as Danielle had. He cursed beneath his breath and turned away from the bars, going back to his blanket, and dropping down on the hard concrete with a grunt.
"Gods-be-damned, Sejm,” he snarled. He found himself wanting to rend and tear the blanket in his fury but the first drops of rain splattered on his head and he looked up, blinking as more droplets fell into his face. Lighting flared in the distance—a precursor to a violent storm heading his way—and thunder rolled across the plaza.
"Now isn't that just great?” the Reaper complained. “Just jim-fucking dandy great!” He growled more Terran-based curses beneath his breath as the rain drenched his pillow, turning it into a soggy lump.
Jerking the blanket from beneath his ass, he swirled it around him, holding it over his head to block the onslaught of rain that was by then coming down in an avalanche of pounding drops. Already the seat of his jumpsuit was soaked through. Sitting there—miserable and infuriated—he stared into the gathering gloom and deluge of rain and cursed Jarl, both Sejm, Delyn Sorn and anyone else who'd ever rated his ire.
* * * *
"He is not a happy camper,” Sern commented as she stared out the window of Fleet Command. She, too, found the Terran vernacular better descriptive than that of her native Amazeen. "You wouldn't be, either, if you had to sit out there in that downpour,” Deon said.
"His pillow is sopping wet,” Aegean injected.
"Thus, he will be fit to be tied,” Sern stated on a long sigh. “He does love his little pillow."
Akkadia Kahmal was standing with her crew, looking out at the cage where the Reaper hunched in misery. Her heart went out to him and if it had been up to her, she would have retrieved him from his outdoor cell. As it was, all she could do was ask Tyrian if the coordinates of the pendants for Cree and Dorrie had been programmed into the ship's computer.
"Along with the positions of the ten execution poles,” Tyrian answered the same question for the third time.
"What about the Necromani?"
Tyrian sighed. “I have Zainabu's pendant programmed in, as well, Major."
"The Feast is tomorrow,” Kahmal needlessly reminded them for each
of the women was very aware of the approach of the intended execution of the ten cadets. “We must make sure everything goes according to plans. Every t needs to be..."
"Crossed and every i dotted,” Chanz finished for her commanding officer. “Don't worry, ‘Kadia. We know what has to be done."
"Then why is it I am as nervous as a green recruit?” Kahmal sniped.
"Because that is your way,” Deon spoke for all of them.
"I told Dr. Kym we would be returning to the Alluvia this afternoon and would not be back for the festivities at dawn,” Kahmal said. “Perhaps we should go to the ship now while it is storming. No one will think it strange."
"I hate leaving him out there in the rain,” Sern said and they all turned their gazes to the Reaper. “The lightning is coming closer. What if he should get hit? With all the iron around him..."
"Stop it!” Kahmal hissed. “I can't stand thinking of such things!"
The Amazeens watched their commander spin on her heel and stalk off, her shoulders hunched as she stormed down the corridor toward the monorail station that would take her to the docking bay.
"She's lost her heart to him,” Deon said softly.
"Aye, she has,” Chanz agreed. “And she's not handling it very well."
"Let's get back to the ship,” Tyrian said. “She shouldn't be alone to sit there and stew about tomorrow."
As the women made their way down the corridor, Shei-Ling, Kym's secretary came toward them, a tall woman walking beside her. The diminutive Chrystallusian woman stopped and gave a deep bow to Chanz, the second in command of the Alluvia .
"The Auxiliary Prophetess bids you accept this Terran woman amongst your crew,” Shei-Ling said, holding out a delicate hand toward the tall woman. “This is Danielle and she is of his blood."
Cirolia Sern took a step back and automatically scanned the woman Shei-Ling was introducing. The Amazeen sent her psychic ability straight into Danielle's heart and felt the unhappiness that dwelled there.
She also sensed the parasite nestled within the woman's body. “You are a female Reaper?” Sern gasped.