He waited until I quieted and carried me into our bedroom and rolled us into our bed together, so I ended up on the bottom with his body pressing me into the mattress so pleasurably. I sighed contentedly, knowing we were only getting started.
Sahvin smiled down at me and caressed my face with his fingers. “Ah, my sweet Nora. It’s so good to be joined with you again.
“Oh yes, it is!” I smiled up at him basking in our oneness. “I’m ready, you can fuck me some more now.”
We both laughed as we both knew he had every intention of doing so. The separations would always be hard, but the reunions would be pure bliss.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
SAHVIN
Nora and I savored our reunion into the night, such an enchanting way to delay telling her of my injury on the job. I didn’t want to tell her at all because I knew it would only upset her. I hoped she would take it better after I made love to her at length. But the only reason I ever needed to make love to her was meomee. She is mine.
“How did it go, down there, Sahv?” she asked much later in the wee hours. “I heard there was a skirmish.”
“There was, and I took a hit with an armor piercer… In my left shoulder blade and I fell down the embankment. My suit and the nanites healed me by the next day.” I admitted.
“Oh, God!” she gasped. “You could have been killed.”
“Not that easily,” I assured her. “That’s why we wear the suits. We surely didn’t expect inmates to have armor piercing weapons. But even those can’t entirely pierce our armor. It hurt a lot when it happened, but I’m okay now.”
She grinned at me, and I was relieved. “Oh, you are more than okay, meomee. You are fantastic.” She wrapped her arms around me and pressed her body against mine, kissing my neck and nibbling my earlobe.
Needless to say, we didn’t get out of bed until late morning as it was our day off.
Much went on behind the scenes that we didn’t learn until after the mission was completed. We were only given the intel we needed to perform our assigned duties. It was probably better that we didn’t know or we might have become discouraged by the odds against us.
Command, which was comprised of the upper echelon of each dreadnaught, determined the Kurellis should go on to Farseek once they got the final tally of 9757 people aboard plus the crew. The journey to Farseek and back to our next objective would take six months. No one wanted to delay the rescue of more than two thousand people that long.
We had to steal another ship---maybe more than one. After the theft of the Kurellis, the com operators intercepted chatter over Empire frequencies that the Sargans had identified the mercenary ships in connection with the theft and sent notices throughout the Sargus Empire that the Farseek dreadnaughts and their occupants were wanted for piracy.
The Sargan military caught us in the act. But the small force they sent to Tegliar Station was no match for us. As I’ve heard, it said on Earth: We kicked them where it counted and took off with the goods. In that case, it was the Kurellis.
So now we were mercenary pirates. Ten Farseek dreadnaughts were making war on the Sargus Empire to save their people, and they called us pirates. Had this happened in the Alliance, I believe they would have the support of the whole Defense Force. But it wouldn’t have occurred because we would have secured their world from attack before it happened.
Sometimes, I wondered if their mission was futile. Ten ships and about fifteen hundred mercenaries against an empire that rivaled the Alliance seemed like a suicide mission, but they were doing it, and we were helping.
After the Julconi mission, two dreads jumped ahead to locate the ships, we could steal to complete the next part of our mission. Command decided our people would be safer using Sargan ships for the next mission that would disguise our identities.
Dread Five found a small freighter docked into Falcola Station to be serviced while it unloaded cargo for the station. Dread Five was only going to drop into the system just long enough to launch one of their shuttles carrying the team to liberate the freighter while it’s crew was recreating on the station. The dread was to go on past the station to wait on the back side of a small planet on the edge of the system then pick up their shuttle and escort the liberated ship to the next rendezvous point. Meanwhile Dread One and Eight headed to the Nadoo system where two thousand Uatu had been sent to work the massive farm complexes there.
Plans changed when Dread Five entered the Falcola system just in time to discover a massive slaver ship take off from the space station, heading for Nadoo. When Five notified command, they ordered Dread Five to follow the larger slave ship to steal it instead of liberating a smaller ship. Although the ship was reasonably heavily armed, Command determined that three dreads could subdue it and send in combat teams to overcome the slavers so one of the mercenaries’ starship pilot teams could take control.
While the others were working behind the scenes, our Dread One was heading for Nadoo. Our ground teams were going down on the planet to locate and evacuate all the Uatu we could find. In preparation, we were briefed about the plight of the Uatu on Nadoo.
Instead of using machines to do the back-breaking work of crop farming and tissue farms, the Sargans utilized slave labor to plant and harvest crops and raise livestock for food. The machinery they did use was reminiscent of that used on Earth. All of it required humanoid operators. But there weren’t even enough of those machines to go around. Much of the planting and reaping was done with hoes and sickles by hand.
I couldn’t figure the sense of it. Why would a society support their economy with slave labor? It couldn’t be cost effective. On the other hand, it was easier to keep the people subjugated under their totalitarian regime by making them work so hard just to survive. They didn’t have resources or time to organize a rebellion. There was too much to do just to survive.
It wouldn’t get any easier when we took back their Farseekan slaves. Then the Sargans would have to plant and reap their own crops.
Commander Maktu and Admiral Degatu polled the crews of all the dreads to see if they wanted to accept defectors from the worlds where we rescued the slaves. The majority agreed since Nadoo was not a member of the Sargus Empire by choice.
Admiral Degatu introduced Argen Trametu at the Julconi post-mission debriefing---Lieutenant Commander Trametu a Dreadnaught pilot who was certified on several classes of starships and shuttles. He had been at Farseek on leave when the Sargans attacked. He was strolling through the farmers market with his mother. They were knocked unconscious by a blast and scooped up in the aftermath.
Trametu had no idea what happened to his mother. None of the Sargans could or would tell him what happened to her. He had ended up a prisoner on Julconi for “crimes against the Empire.” He was trying to start a revolt. One of the advanced teams had recognized him as a Uatu and invited him to rejoin the Brigade.
He said that was a fortuitous day for him because he not only got the opportunity to escape the hell hole of the prison but also found his solmatu, Zoe Addison.
I found him reasonably likable, a good thing since it seemed Nora’s good friend was considering accepting him as her mate. As Zoe’s mate, he would be included in our social circle. Nora said she was pretty sure Zoe would, because of the way she looked when she talked about him. But that is Zoe’s and Trametu’s story to tell.
There would be time for them to become thoroughly acquainted as we were embarking on a two-month voyage to Nadoo. That meant short work days of physical training and weapons maintenance. It also gave me more time to bond with my sweet Nora. It was a lovely time for us, though we hardly dared to talk about our future. Whether it was good fortune or proper planning, the Farseek Mercenary Brigade seemed to be bucking the odds against their success.
I was afraid to even wonder how long our good fortune would last, so I never dared to say the words. We all knew our future was precarious at best.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
NORA
It seemed lik
e so much more than a year since I was taken from Earth. A year was our best estimate because we lost track of time on the slave ship with no way to tell whether it was night or day. We existed in that purgatory for at least a few months before we got to the slave auction. We had pretty much given up hope of ever getting back to Earth even before Commander Maktu announced that they had no point of reference to locate Earth.
We had hoped Sahvin could help them with that, but his points of reference to the location of Earth and Narova meant nothing to the mercenaries. I think it was after Tegliar Station that I stopped thinking about finding a way to go back to Earth. Too much had happened to go back to that mundane existence. We were Farseek Mercenaries.
Granted, we didn’t put on combat suits of armor and fight the enemy, but we provided support for their rescue operations. There was a whole lot more to it than just picking up passengers. So many of them were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from the attack on Farseek and being kidnapped into slavery.
Our biochip synthesizer worked overtime making genetically compatible psychotherapy chips for hundreds. The chips would balance their brain chemistry reconcile their emotions about what happened to them. It worked in much the same way as the language biochips. It was basically gene therapy but amped with AI like the nanites.
I learned all of this working with the ship’s AI medic. It was a teaching entity as well as a medical android. In another year I would be certified as a Medical Tech. Medicine in the stars was way different than on Earth. It mainly consisted of using nanites and bioimplants rather than drugs and surgery. Thus, the need for technicians rather than physicians.
It didn’t take that long to learn the technics for inserting and removing the biochips. Learning the physiology and biochemistry was a bit more complicated.
I was not happy to learn that Sahvin was a member of one of the boarding teams.
“Don’t worry, my sweet one. They are not likely to use armor piercing rounds on a ship like that. Far too dangerous,” he told me, resting his hands on my shoulders."
I looked up into his beautiful feline eyes and sighed. I knew how compelled he felt to fulfill his duties in his position with the mercenaries. The situation they had saved him from was even worse than mine. The Farseek Brigade rescued us from the Pican slavers before we had been sold into slavery.
Sahvin had suffered a great deal during the months he was enslaved. He was convinced the Farseek Mercenaries had saved his life. I had to admit he was probably right.
“I’m sorry, Sahv. I'm selfishly worrying about myself and how I would feel if the worst happened…How I would go on with my life without you,” I told him and leaned against him, pressing my cheek against his chest. “You have to do what you think is right. These guys saved me too. I could have ended up as a sex slave in some brothel.”
“Instead, you ended up with me,” he chuckled, and I looked up at him and smiled.
“So far, it’s been a pretty good deal,” I assured him.
“For me, too. Nora, I can’t promise nothing bad will ever happen to me, only that I will do my best to stay safe and come back to you every time,” he told me. “I am just like you, stuck out here in space so far from home that no one knows how to get us back there. But you are my tether, my lifeline because now my home is in you. I don’t feel lost anymore like I did when I was taken and made a slave.”
“Oh, Sahvin, me too,” I replied. “I can’t promise not to worry, but I don’t have to make it your problem.” He was holding me in his arms, and I wound mine around his neck, looking up at him. I caught my breath at the flicker of passion in his eyes.”
The evening was ours with no social gatherings scheduled. That spark in Sahvin’s beautiful green eyes told me pretty precisely what was on his mind. My body responded almost instantly. I would be his to tease and please and I would return the favor.
CHAPTER TWENTY
SAHVIN
I couldn’t blame Nora for worrying. What we were doing was a dangerous business. If we were caught by the Sargans, we might be lucky to be sold into slavery. We could be executed. From what I had heard as a slave and since I have been with the mercenaries, the Consortium sold them out in exchange for peace. Except, no one told the Farseekans. They had no choice but to fight.
The Consortium was going to help them rebuild, but that was all. Nora told me how they financed the Breskaa mission---by rescuing the daughter of a planetary governor and collecting a reward. At one point, I asked Commander Maktu what we would do if the Sargans came after us in force.
He was dead serious when he answered, “Run like hell!”
They knew they were never going to find everyone who was lost. We would find the ones we could and go back to Farseek and make a life for ourselves.
But those thoughts only stayed in my mind for seconds. Holding Nora turned my thoughts to her luscious body and how I wanted to caress every inch of it with my fingertips. She certainly looked like she was up for anything. I called it a massage, but it was a sensual touching that intensified her arousal and mine as well.
I loved the way she arched her body to my fingertips as I stroked her from head to toe until she quivered with desire and begged for me to give her release. Then I started with her toes and use my lips and tongue to further stoke her arousal, kissing and tasting her up one shapely leg and down the other, then back to the core of her sex. All it took was one kiss and the swipe of my tongue over her clit to make her cum, screaming in ecstasy as she writhed through her orgasm. I kept it going until she let me know she’d had enough.
But we weren’t finished by any means.
The heights of pleasure we shared were well beyond my wildest dreams. When she did the same to me, it was mind-blowing. My cock got so hard before she even touched it, I was on the edge between pleasure and pain. Once she completed her tour of my body, she went back to my cock and worked it with her hands while she licked and sucked the head. It would fit in her mouth no farther.
Sometimes she would take me all the way to release and swallow as much of my seed as she could, or she would crawl on top of me and impale herself on my shaft and ride me while I kneaded her lovely breasts and pinched her nipples. We both came hard together. Then she collapsed on my chest and held me inside her as long as she could.
We were magnificent together---two halves of a whole.
For now, our home would be wherever we could live together. I prayed that the universe would allow us to finally settle on Farseek one day to make a family.
During the time it took Dread One and the others to make their way to Nadoo we had many passionate evenings alone together. We also had some evenings shared with our friends gaming in the recreation room or watching stories. The female population of the dreads had increased a little as more of the mercenaries discovered their solmatu among the new rescues.
Dread Five scanned the slave ship covertly, acquiring the complete layout and the location of their landing bay for our shuttles to enter. The ship was called Rered Rauner, and it was in the process of delivering slaves to the outlying farm and mining colonies. When they put into orbit at Nadoo, they would open their landing and launch bay to shuttle down slaves to the planet.
Our shuttles would be waiting to enter and use pirated codes to open the landing bays. The ground teams would secure the ship and subdue the crew. Then the flight team will shuttle in.
There were multiple locations to recover our people on Nadoo. Command would give asylum to any race who requested it even though they were explicitly looking for Uatu people. We would also take Sargan defectors if we had space.
Six of our ten dreadnaughts went ahead to Nadoo to secure the primary locations of Uatu slaves for us to evacuate. Command estimated that it would take days to locate their people complete the evacuation. Dreads One and Five ground teams would maintain security on the Rered Rauner.
I was happy with that because Nora and the other Earth women would be identifying and registering the slaves on the shi
p and registering incoming slaves from Nadoo. We would only be separated for a few hours on this mission. It made less worry for Nora. We were still newly mated enough that being separated for too many days was stressing and lonely.
Felines’ attachment to their meomee is more intense in the first year than other humanoid races. Scientifically it’s explained as a physical dependence of the pheromones and hormones from the feline. These are not released until the feline is exposed to meomee. Once that has happened, it is almost impossible not to fall in love with one’s fated mate.
Homo sapiens sometimes have difficulty with the dynamics of feline meomee mating practices, especially Earth homo sapiens. They believed that bonding emotionally before bonding sexually was required. I suppose that is workable without the bonding pheromones and hormones of meomee. But their own statistics seemed to indicate a failure rate of sixty-six percent. The percentage of failure in non-meomee matings among felines whether they mate with other felines or homo sapiens is as bad if not worse.
Many felines prefer not to mate at all, or enter into a partnership to procreate and share custody of their offspring. It is not ideal, but a reasonable compromise for those who wish to have heirs. At one time I had considered it---if I didn’t find meomee.
But I did.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
NORA
“Have you seen Zoe,” Scarlet asked me as we left the gym and headed for our permission briefing.
“Barely,” I said, “I saw her in the mess hall for second meal yesterday. She was holed up in the back corner with that new guy Argen Trematu. She gave me a little wave, but I could tell she didn’t want company.
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