by K. D. Jones
Ava looked at Megan, aghast. “How can you say that?”
“Look, after seeing the damage that those Morins did, I’m scared of running into them. I don’t want to have any part of them. The safest place for us is on the other side of that wormhole.”
Ava wanted to argue with her, but the truth was that Megan was right. She wouldn’t know what to do if she had to face a Morin herself. She had a little self-defense, but she was no warrior. “I just don’t want to move the survivors too soon. We could cause more harm.”
“Honey, we are on board a ship with one of the most advanced alien races in the universe. I think they can handle moving the survivors without damaging them even more.”
Megan was right. Maybe she was being overprotective. Ava ate her food while listening to Megan and the other women talk about their experiences on board the ship. She laughed at the misunderstandings the males had; they didn’t get Earth women at all.
“I’m telling you, I only told the man he had a hot ass and he reached back looking for the fire,” one of the girls said. They all laughed.
Megan asked her, “Did you tell him what you meant by it?”
The girl smiled wide. “I did, and he’s taking to evening meal later. Maybe I’ll get to see that hot ass naked.”
Ava was laughing but felt eyes on her. She lifted her head and cringed at seeing the two women that AshOR had been having sex with the night before.
“Stay away from Commander AshOR, he’s ours,” the blonde demanded, placing her hands on her hips and thrusting her large breasts forward. The brunette was shorter but she took up the same stance as her friend.
“That’s kind of hard to do since he is the commander of this transport and we’re working together to help the survivors.” Ava shrugged and looked over at Megan, who rolled her eyes at the blonde.
She’d seen this woman before on the Katieran transport, and Megan had taken a personal dislike to her, giving her a nickname. They noticed that the blonde only took on a bubbly personality when the men were around. As soon as the men were out of sight, she turned into an angry mountain lion and was very demanding. The first time Ava and Megan noticed her doing it, they began to refer to her as Psycho Bubbles. It kind of spread through most of the transport, and soon all the women were calling her that. The blonde hated the nickname.
“That’s right Bubbles. Move along now, we have things to do.” Megan waved her hand, dismissing her.
“My name is not Bubbles! Stop calling me that!” The blonde glared furiously at both Megan and Ava.
“Like I said, I can’t stay away from the commander because of my job. You don’t have to worry, though, I have no interest in him.”
The blonde snorted. “As if he would want your scrawny body anyway. Just because you had a brief moment in the medic wing this morning, it doesn’t mean anything. What you interrupted last night wasn’t the first time we were together, and it won’t be the last time. He likes multiple sex partners. So unless you plan to be a fourth, don’t bother us again!” The blonde and brunette stormed off.
The women at the table turned on Ava. One asked, “What did you interrupt last night?” Another woman asked, “What happened this morning in the medic wing?”
Damn Bubbles and her big mouth! How did she even find out about the medic wing incident? Did AshOR tell her about it? That pissed her off. It was bad enough that the lead medic had walked in and caught them in a compromising position; the blonde and her friend were known for spreading nasty rumors. She wasn’t even sure why AshOR had Bubbles on this ship. At least Ava and her friends had been trained professionals back on Earth and could help in disasters like the one on Norad. Bubbles and her friend hadn’t even bothered to stop by and check on the survivors.
She dodged her friends’ questions and told them that the blonde was blowing smoke as usual. Megan was her friend, though, and she felt bad for kind of lying to her. She leaned over while the others were distracted and whispered to her that she’d tell her later. First she planned to have a few words with that ass of a commander.
*****
AshOR stood waiting for his brother to disembark from the shuttle. TylOR’s transport had arrived thirty minutes ago, and his brother was taking a shuttle over to AshOR’s transport. Once the loading bay was secure and pressurized, AshOR walked out into it, ready to greet his brother. He froze when he saw who was exiting the shuttle. His brother didn’t walk out alone; on his arm was his mate, Lizzie. AshOR glared at TylOR with his arms folded over his chest.
“Hello brother, good to see you in one piece,” TylOR greeted him.
AshOR shook his head. “What were you thinking bringing her to this place?”
TylOR raised an eyebrow at his brother’s unfriendly greeting, but it was his mate who responded.
“Excuse me, you ass, I can go anywhere I darn well please!” Lizzie let go of her mate’s arm and stormed toward him, giving him her fiercest stance. She would have been formidable if she weren’t one of the smallest humans he had ever seen. She stopped right in front of AshOR, placed her hands on her hips, and stared him down. That was hard to do when she was barely five feet tall and AshOR was almost seven.
AshOR couldn’t help himself; he laughed and reached for his new sister, hugging her to him. “My apologies, sister. I am glad to see you. I just don’t think this is the safest place for you.”
She hugged him back, giving him a quick kiss on his cheek. That earned a growl from TylOR.
“You can release her now.” TylOR didn’t bother to hide his possessiveness.
AshOR gently set her back on her feet before he turned to his brother and greeted him as warrior to warrior, by grasping forearms. He was surprised when TylOR brought him in for a hug afterward, patting him on the back.
“I’m glad to see you are well, brother.”
AshOR looked away, trying to hold back his emotions. There were times when TylOR looked so much like their father that he felt like an errant boy getting in trouble. TylOR represented everything that AshOR had always wanted to be but felt like he wasn’t quite living up to.
They were raised on different planets. Their father left Kiljor to help establish the Colonial planet for those with more extreme mutations, like psychic abilities, that made it hard for them to integrate with others. The Colonial planet was the perfect place, since it was primitive and allowed space for the mutated people to spread out and live independently.
TylOR had remained on Kiljor with his mother at first. His father was supposed to send for them, but TylOR’s mother didn’t want to leave Kiljor. After his mother died, TylOR was taken in for warrior training early. Their father mated AshOR’s mother on the Colonial planet, and had AshOR and his sister EleanOR.
AshOR and his sister had their father, while TylOR was alone after his mother died. AshOR’s father may have been physically present but his heart and mind were always with TylOR, which made AshOR bitter and resentful for a long time. Only in the last year or so had he worked through the bitterness to find respect and love for his older brother.
“I’m glad that you are okay as well. How are things on the other side of the wormhole?”
TylOR motioned for them to leave the bay. “Let’s get Lizzie settled somewhere comfortable before we do the debrief.”
AshOR looked surprised. “Okay. I didn’t know you would be staying overnight on the ship. Let me call someone to set up quarters for you.” AshOR tapped the comm link in his ear and spoke with a lieutenant. A moment later he directed them to the lift. “There are empty quarters on the captain’s level, just down the corridor from me. I also asked that someone bring up some refreshments for Lizzie so that she wouldn’t go hungry.”
Lizzie snorted. “Do I look like I am starving to you? Especially now that…”
AshOR’s hand froze as he was reaching for the button on the lift. “Now that what?”
TylOR wrapped his arm around Lizzie’s shoulders and hugged her to his side. “Lizzie is breeding with our first
young.”
“Brother, what were you thinking? It is not safe to bring a breeding female out here where the Morins have been spotted.”
“We found out just before going through the wormhole. There was no time to take her back to Kiljor. Besides, she insisted on coming to see you.”
The lift stopped on their floor and they exited, going down the corridor. He opened the quarters’ door for Lizzie. “The food should arrive in just a few minutes.”
“Thank you, AshOR. I may lie down for a bit.” She yawned, and TylOR leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips while rubbing his hand against her slightly curved stomach.
AshOR felt a pang of envy. His perfect brother, with his loving mate, was going to have a young. He had never thought about starting a family of his own before, but seeing their happiness, and having spent time with his sister’s boy, it all brought on a strong yearning. Maybe later, after he completed his mission and went back to the Colonial planet, he could find someone to start a family with. Thoughts of Ava, and a future with her, popped unbidden into his mind.
First things first—he had a job to do. He had to hunt down the Morins and eliminate the threat they posed. He couldn’t do that with a mate or young distracting him. He would constantly be worrying over their safety and welfare. He refused to be anything like his father who, though present, was just as neglectful toward him and his sister. He showed no true feelings, not until near the end of his life, and then he suffered regret. AshOR didn’t want to have any regrets at the end of his life.
He had loved his father, but he knew that his parents were not true bondmates. Neither were his father and TylOR’s mother, which was why he was able to leave his pregnant mate on Kiljor while he traveled to the Colonial planet. When TylOR’s mother died, a family friend, who worked as security for the royal family on Kiljor, had raised him. His father never came for him, claiming that he was honoring his mother’s wishes that TylOR remain on Kiljor.
There were times when AshOR believed that TylOR had the better end of the deal. TylOR was raised by friends who cared about him, while their mother raised AshOR and his sister. Their father was often not home.
He had grown up resenting TylOR because his father would talk about all the great things that his son accomplished on Kiljor. His proudest moment was when TylOR was named the youngest commander in Kiljorn, or even Katieran, history. How could AshOR compete with all that?
His bitterness toward TylOR had showed when he laid eyes on his brother for the first time in person a few years ago. It was his sister and Lizzie who helped them bridge the gap between them. He found that he greatly admired his older brother, despite not wanting to. He enjoyed riling TylOR up. Surprisingly, he found in his brother what he never could in his father: acceptance. His brother accepted AshOR, faults and all.
AshOR entered the command’s ready room, glad to see that the refreshments he ordered for himself and TylOR were already waiting for them. “Something to drink?”
“Katieran juice, if you have it.”
“Of course.” He poured them both a glass and sat down at the table. “So, why did you come all this way?”
“We picked up several communications between multiple Morin transports. We believe that there are more than just the two missing ones.”
“Kitana!”
Chapter 6
Ava sought out Commander AshOR to talk to him about what Bubbles had said. She could let it drop, but she knew that Bubbles would spread rumors about her and AshOR. She wanted to stop this from getting out of control, but the lieutenants informed her that Commander AshOR and Commander TylOR were debriefing and unavailable. Frustrated, she went back to her quarters, still fuming over the incident. She shouldn’t let the other woman get to her. To be honest, when she walked in on the women and AshOR, he’d looked relieved at the interruption. The men on Earth would’ve been furious with her for keeping them from getting off.
Why was she dwelling on this? She reached for a book off the side table and sat on her bed. She’d left most of her belongings on the Katieran transport, only bringing along a backpack with a few things to the Colonial transport to help them when disaster struck. Her favorite book was one of them. She opened it up and read the beginning. It was a love story. The heroine was a quiet debutante who fell for a rogue gentlemen. What she liked most about the story was that despite how different the couples were, they seemed to balance each other out. She longed for a relationship like that. At this point, she longed for any kind of relationship.
It had been years since she had a serious boyfriend. She was always busy with her job, which sometimes meant long hours spent in distant lands, away from home. That didn’t make things easy for lasting love. Love? Had she even loved any of her exes? Maybe she loved things about them, but that breathless, ‘can’t live without them type’ of love, the stuff romance novels were made up of? She’d never felt that before.
She put the book back down. It was no good. She couldn’t get into reading. Whenever the couple kissed, she thought about AshOR’s lips. She lay down, thinking that maybe a nap would help, but fifteen minutes of tossing and turning proved that to be futile. She took out her digital tablet and opened up her correspondence. She drafted several e-mails for her friends back home, but she couldn’t send them until they were on Katiera. Something about it being too unsafe to have communications like that–she didn’t understand it all.
Ava had gone to all the cultural classes while traveling on the Katieran transport. She’d learned about the Katieran political system, their religious beliefs, even how males and females interacted.
She found it all fascinating. In her line of work she had to quickly learn about different people so that she could help them. Besides the information on sexual relations, she wanted to know more about how the Katieran people had split up into different nations. When she asked about it the instructors sent her a file on the subject to her digital tablet.
The Morins had attacked the Katierans many years ago, using biological warfare and almost annihilating its people, but that wasn’t the worst part. The virus the Morins had infected the Katierans with had caused a mutation in many of its victims. AshOR’s family’s mutation caused the males to be bald-headed, which was a minor mutation. His leader, LarIS, could read minds. There were those who were mute, but had enhanced hearing. Disputes rose up about how to deal with the mutated people. Some were fearful and wanted to kill them off. Others wanted to isolate them and keep them separate from the mainstream.
What ended up happening was that the mutated people decided to move off-planet to find their own sanctuary. They found a planet neighboring the star system and named it Kiljor. That wasn’t the end of the disputes, however. Even on Kiljor there were many with mutations so extreme that they needed further isolation, and by their own choice they founded the more primitive planet, called the Colonial planet. For many years the three nations were in opposition, but they had recently joined forces when the Morins made their reappearance.
There were times she thought that maybe leaving Earth had been a mistake. Returning was not an option for her, though. She’d made a commitment to relocate, and she would see it through.
Ava had had enough of this sitting around. She got back up and headed out of her quarters. She’d go check on Zander and his sister again. Hopefully the girl would wake soon.
*****
“Where are they?” AshOR stood up and paced the room while his brother remained seated.
“If we knew that, we would have taken care of the problem already. We know there are more ships, but it could be just one more or it could be a hundred more. I doubt it’s that many, however. Everything we have learned indicates the Morins are dying out.” TylOR rubbed his baldhead.
“Not quickly enough,” AshOR growled.
“Right now, we’ll take one Morin transport at time. Sooner or later, they will all show up somewhere. When they do, we will be ready for them. We have transports guarding the wormhole and the three
nations, all transports from Earth have temporarily halted, and we have our best scientist trying to discover their secret to keep us from tracking them.”
“You are right.”
“I am what? I didn’t hear that.” TylOR raised an eyebrow and smirked.
“Shut up.” AshOR couldn’t hold back a chuckle. The tension in the room eased somewhat.
“I would like to meet the survivors.” TylOR said, standing up.
“Come on. They are in the medic wing. Some are in pretty bad shape,” AshOR warned him as he led his brother down the corridor.
“There was nothing left to save of the planet?”
“No, it’s a wasteland. If we had more resources and the time, we could have our scientists work on it, but it’s not an option right now.” They arrived at the medic wing, but AshOR’s comm link went off. “Go ahead in, I’ll be right there.” A group of warriors passed, conversing loudly. AshOR walked further down the corridor to answer his communications where it was a little quieter.
*****
Ava walked into the medic wing and froze. There he was, the man who had caused so much turmoil in her very orderly life. AshOR stood with his back to her, talking to the medics. Well, enough was enough. She stomped her way toward him.
“Haven’t you done enough, asshole?” She tapped him on his shoulder, hard. He turned around, and she felt the color drain from her face.
“Are you talking to me, miss?”
“You’re not AshOR.”
“No, AshOR’s my brother. I take it that your greeting was meant for him.”
“I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one to refer to him as an asshole,” AshOR said from behind her.
Brother? She turned to glance back and forth between the two. They were most definitely brothers, although the other one was a little taller and wider. They definitely favored each other. From the back she’d really thought it was AshOR.
“I am so sorry.”
“It’s fine. I understand completely. My brother makes me react the exact same way. I think I called him much worse when we first met. I’m Commander TylOR of the Kiljorn Nation.”