by Alyssa Hope
“Ah, a warrior. You should be proud.” He smiled approvingly at the young one.
“And you two?” He looked at the two young men with the knife, and the one holding it didn’t lower it.
They looked at each other, and Quin could see that they had decided to be defiant and go down fighting. They would be good recruits for Kaji’s team, he thought, if they chose to stay with the ship.
“We love each other, and we were caught, and they whipped us, and then decided that it wasn’t enough punishment to make an example, so they sentenced us to die …”
He was interrupted by a very large, very upset and totally naked ship’s engineer bursting into the bay. The man must have been off duty and sleeping, but he wasn’t asleep now. He stared around the bay and then focused on the two young men, advancing on them with a determined look on his face. To their credit, they held their ground, one holding the knife steady and the other protecting a bundle he carried.
The bundle moved, and Quin suddenly realized that they had another being with them, and even in their pain were sheltering it. It was the bundle that the engineer was interested in. They realized it, too, and moved together to protect whoever it was, until the big man dropped to his knees in front of them.
“Please, he is our third, I won’t hurt him, I couldn’t.”
The man with the knife looked from Quin to the big man, obviously confused. “They threw us in the same truck, and he was hurting so we held him, then he seemed to want to nurse, which was strange, but ... Any comfort we could give, so we did ... The police said he was the third they were looking for? But he’s your third? I don’t understand.”
“It’s alright”, Quin said, hoping it was.
Both men were covered with whip marks, he realized with horror, and barely able to keep to their feet. Any touch must have caused them pain, yet they had protected and nursed this little one who they didn’t even know?
They both knelt down in front of the engineer, wincing at the movement, and let him unwrap the bundle that they’d protected. The tightly curled up being was barely recognizable as one of Quin’s people, bleeding and covered with wounds. The nursing that the two young humans had been able to offer had probably saved his life, even if they hadn’t known why they were doing it.
Quin felt like kneeling to them. “You’re both heroes, and if that is what loving means, all the more power to you both. This little one is the third, the beloved, of this big one here. He’ll take care of him, I swear he will. Your police thought the little one was someone else, and half-killed him because of it.”
Quin looked around, and called out urgently, “Medical!”
Several of the Medical staff moved towards them. They were soon joined by another one as a young Med Tech pushed into the bay and ran to the side of the big engineer and the injured one, crying out as he felt the pain. They both cradled the little one, murmuring softly to him.
They stared up at the two young men in awe. The Med Tech found words first. “Bless you. You saved him, you know that? You saved our beloved. We are in your debt, always. And I think that some care for your wounds is the first step in that payment, but only the first. All three of you will benefit from the soft mineral baths. Come on ...”
‘I like those two young men’, Quin said to Kaji, ‘I think …’
‘Yes, for my team. They have courage. I’ll talk to them later.’
Quin pulled himself together. There were many other wounds that he could see.
Quin turned his attention back to the crowd, which was not really so large, but it did have a lot of children in it, many of whom appeared to be alone. And several pregnant females without partners, who would also need attention.
“Anyone else who has wounds or injuries, please, let us help you. These people are from our Medical staff, and they can check you over, assess you, we’ll treat in order of need, but we will treat everyone. Everyone matters here. Everyone.”
‘Quin? We need you in Medical.’
‘Right away.’
He thought he heard Jonah calling his name as he went out the door, but he didn’t want to hear what that one had to say right then. He couldn’t take any more drama or any more pain.
Chapter 7.
In Medical, he found that the drama was over, and only the hugging remained. Dari and Yselt were both crying, happy crying, and holding new-born babies, and Maki was on the bed between them crying and hanging onto them all as though they were just about the most precious things he had had ever seen. Quin thought that they probably were, and he got tears in his eyes, too.
He made eye contact with Karo, who nodded happily. ‘They’re healthy, thank the gods.’
“Quin, without you …” They weren’t even trying to mindtalk, as it took too much energy.
“I just did my job, sweet ones. And now you have done yours, and done it well from the looks of it. What have you named them?”
“With your permission, Dara and Bini.”
Quin quit trying to hold back his tears, although Catin’s happy gurgling from a cradle beside the large bed almost made him smile.
“May I?” When they nodded he picked up Catin gently, and the little one latched onto his nipple, and he could have sworn that the baby gave him as much comfort as he gave it.
“You three, well, six, are going to be busy. You’ll be going back to Cerulea, to our home planet, as soon as you are strong enough? To be with one family group or another?”
They stared at him in amazement. “They would want us?”
Karo held up his hands. “We’ve been a little bit busy here, we haven’t had time to talk about options. Although we did identify Dari and Maki’s home groups. And yes, they very much want you two back, and Yselt and all the babies. And Odin, and Keni and Yuri, if they want to join you ... Lots of love waiting for you, little ones, on a peaceful green planet.”
They were still all very thin, Quin realized, so it would be some time before they could be transported that distance. He wouldn’t mind having the babies around for a little while.
Karo smiled at him when he finally brought himself to put Catin down again. ‘These ones must rest now, Quin, and I think you still have some chaos happening in the transport bay to sort out. My team will send me the worse of them from there. They know their jobs.’
Quin kissed them all, and backed quietly out of Medical, to find himself suddenly pinned again the wall with strong lips on his, forcing his mouth open and invading it with an insistent tongue. He tried to speak or even think but hands on either side of his face held him still, and a knee pushing between his legs left him no room to move.
When he was finally released the voice against his throat was angry.
‘Don’t you ever walk away from me like that, dammit. You said forever, I believed forever, you can’t just turn your back on me …’
He opened his mouth to explain or argue or something, but was trapped again, and this time the strong body pushing him against the wall was leaving no room for doubt as to how Jonah felt.
‘Do you have quarters on this ship somewhere, Blue? We need to have this argument in private. And there was something about having a soft bed...’
‘But, Bella …?’
‘Idiot. Quarters?’
‘Down there, but …’
He was still trying to explain when they were practically run over by Odin, Yuri and Keni, who looked like they had maybe dressed in a hurry.
‘Excuse us, look out, coming through, babies ...’
Jonah stared at Quin. ‘Babies? Why didn’t you say so? We have to see the babies ...’
Quin gave up, and went in to see the babies for the second time. They were still beautiful, although their parents were beginning to look exhausted.
Everyone admired the little ones, and Quin again quietly gave thanks that, after everything, they were healthy. He heard Jonah agree with him in his mind, and knew that the two of them were bonded, whether the big shaggy one was ready for it or not.
&n
bsp; Karo finally called a halt to all the visiting. ‘Everyone out. You can come back tomorrow, they’ll still be here and even more beautiful.’
Jonah pulled him down the hall to his quarters, and they barely made it through the door before he was flat on his back on the bed with Jonah on top of him.
‘I don’t care about damned labels, and who is supposed to be what. I love you, do you understand that? Triad or pair or whatever, it’s you and me, and you promised me forever …’
Quin tried to catch his breath. ‘You. Yes, you. But what about Bella? I thought …?’
‘She is the wife of the friend I went there to help. He was black, she is not, obviously, and they killed him before I could get to him, so I tried to help her and their children get to safety, and it wasn’t going well, until you came along. So they are all safe now, and you are an idiot for thinking I would promise you one thing and then walk away from you.’
‘I didn’t walk away, exactly, Karo called me when Dari and Yselt had their babies ...’
Quin gave up and pulled Jonah down to him, thinking that all that soft shaggy hair was very convenient. Something to hang on to, in a world that was confusing but not nearly as empty as it had been.
‘I love you, did I tell you that? Shaggy hair and all.’
‘And I feel the same way about you as well, Blue, even though you’re making me crazy ...’
They pulled each other’s clothes off, and rolled around caressing each other’s bodies with eager hands and mouths.
Quin stroked back between Jonah’s legs, and remembered what he had meant to ask. ‘You don’t lubricate, don’t slick up for your lover?’
‘Humans don’t, although if we did I would for you, Blue.’
Quin was distracted, fondling the dark sac at the base of Jonah’s hard erection, loving the velvet softness of it. ‘Our people have long tongues which can lubricate …’
‘Then why are you still talking, my Blue?’
Quin rolled Jonah over and teased at his puckered hole with a long finger, and then an even longer agile tongue. Jonah cried out in surprise and pleasure, and pushed back against him.
‘Gods, yes …’
When Jonah was writhing and crying out in ecstasy Quin moved up behind him and teased at his hole with his thick blue erection. Jonah moaned, and Quin pushed in, surprised at the tight ring he found at the entrance. He hesitated, but Jonah pushed back against him and urged him on, and Quin drove in with all his strength, remembering not to release his barbs. He’d been told that humans didn’t have barbs, but he thought the clenching ring was every bit as good.
He rejoiced in having a lover again, someone to share his life with, even if the big shaggy one maybe wasn’t yet totally convinced that they were meant for each other. The bond told him that they were together, that he had been blessed with another beloved, but Jonah didn’t have anything like that instinct to go on.
He drove in harder and harder, holding onto the big man’s shoulders as Jonah braced against the bed and cried out in joy.
‘Yes, yes, gods, harder, Blue, harder ...’
Quin felt the bond lock into place as he climaxed deep inside of Jonah, and Jonah thrashed under him, spurting his release against his belly and up the bed.
Strange white seed these humans had, but he loved the salty taste, loved everything about this particular human.
‘Beloved?’
‘Blue?’
‘Our bonding, we bite each other, just a little bit, on the neck, to exchange blood and confirm the bond.’
Jonah hesitated and Quin backed off. ‘When you are ready, not now, that’s alright ...’
He found himself on his back, with Jonah laughing down at him. ‘A little bite? Like a vampire?’
Quin searched his vocabulary. ‘I do not know vampire, but if it would make you happy, shaggy one ...’
‘Show me, Blue.’
Quin reached up and nipped gently at Jonah’s neck, at the junction where the neck met the shoulder, and then lapped up the drop of blood that appeared.
‘Not vampire, more like kitten’, Jonah laughed, and reciprocated.
‘I don’t know either of those.’
‘One is imaginary, the other I will get you one day if I can find one, because they are as soft as you are.’ He stroked Quin’s smooth hairless chest and down his stomach, and followed his hand with his mouth.
Things were just about to get interesting again when the intercom called him.
“Quin, can you attend the dining hall please? We are having a meeting.”
He rolled out of bed, laughing and pulling away from the hand that tried to pull him back in.
‘Will you join us, beloved?’
‘Give me a bit of time, please. I have to get cleaned up.’
‘You look perfect the way you are.’
‘Go on. I’ll join you there. I seem to be able to hear things in your mind anyway.’
Chapter 8.
Quin walked into the big dining hall and came to a sudden halt, then moved over to stand beside Kaji.
‘They seem to be multiplying?’
‘Apparently word got out about rescues, and there was a rush of people into the Verian Embassy, including many street children. They are sending them all on to us, and setting up a relay station so that they can continue to take them in.’
Those from the trucks who weren’t still being treated by the Medical staff were here, and had been joined by nearly a hundred others. Most of the new ones didn’t look as badly abused as the first group had, although there was still a great deal of hugging and crying, and far too many unsupervised children.
Quin surveyed all the young men and women, and shook his head.
‘What a waste, to throw away all these good people.’
‘That’s what the Verian delegate thinks, too. He’s that tall human, with grey hair. He has come out from their planet to recruit these people.’
The tall man cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention.
“Welcome, everyone. We have come to offer you homes on our planet. May I tell you about it?”
He detached several of the smaller children who were attacking his legs, and kept them in his arms, smiling down at them.
“We are a young democracy, a growing colony on a rich planet, and as such we value diversity. Genetic diversity, diversity of skills, interests and beliefs. We believe that our strength and our future will lie in that diversity.”
“Every man, woman and child who joins us will be allotted land, and we encourage and support education at all levels for everyone. Your prosperity is our prosperity.”
“What about women?” one of the women asked.
He looked puzzled. “Yes, I said women.” Someone whispered into his ear, and he looked shocked, and then appalled.
“Everyone has equal rights on Veria, including voting rights, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. And no-one is told who they can or can’t love or marry or have children with. That is written into our constitution. Children will be told who they can’t attack, though.”
The two small villains wrapped their arms around his neck and smiled at him, apparently satisfied that he’d passed whatever test it was. Maybe simply not hitting them?
He murmured to them, and then looked shocked at their answer. “No parents?”
He looked around. “This many children with no parents? It doesn’t seem right. Children are our future. We’ll take them all, happily, find them loving homes.” He grinned at the two in his arms. “These two are mine, if they wish to be.”
They grinned back and hung on tighter. He cleared his throat again, more quietly this time.
“Fine. Yes. At any rate, we have established, and are continuing to build, a free nation,” he said, “and I do mean free. Every person is equal, and has equal rights, and free choice, and freedom of speech.”
He looked around at the number of pregnant women who were alone or supporting each other, and smiled. “I would like to point o
ut, for anyone who might be interested, that because we began as a mining colony, we currently have many more men than women, and women will be especially welcomed. As equal citizens, of course, as well as beloved partners, although women can also live alone if they chose to, of course.”
He made eye contact with Bella, and seemed to be distracted for a minute.
“Um, yes. We have copies of our constitution here if anyone wishes to read them, and I would encourage you to do so. It is the state’s contract with all citizens. There is also a lot of other information about our beautiful planet here, and pictures of it, the fields, forests, oceans, mountains ... Very beautiful.”
“And we are also recruiting soldiers, of any color, gender or sexual orientation, for a security force. We honor the role those ones play in keeping the rest of the society safe.”
“Quin? Is Quin here?”
Quin held his hand up, not sure where this was going.
“I am told you might be open to a contract to train our security forces? When we are done here I would welcome the chance to talk to you and your partner.”
Quin opened his mouth to reply and then felt Jonah slip into place behind him and wrap his arms around him. He leaned back against his big lover and watched the delegate’s face. The man didn’t even blink.
“Yes sir, my partner and I would be happy to talk to you.”
Jonah bent down and rubbed his face against the side of Quin’s head, and Quin spun around in astonishment.
‘You cut all your hair off, all that beautiful shaggy hair!’
‘Just on my face. If we are going to be training security forces I’ll have to look a bit more clean cut anyway.’
‘Are we? Do you want to?’
‘Maybe on a contract and see how it goes? If you want to. We didn’t manage to shock this grey-haired man at all. Maybe the two young men who were so badly whipped could join us? They’re brave, and they don’t back down. And do you see the way that Bella is looking at the delegate? We can keep an eye on her and her children as well. And maybe take in a few of these urchins. Some of them look like they’ll need a firm hand.’