by Bethany Aan
Amy was being restrained by two of the warriors, her upper body wrapped tightly in the arms of one medic, as the other warrior clasped her legs. Hanging sideways, feet off the ground, she was still wiggling and jerking, trying to get free. An IV tube dangled from one of her arms, blood dripping down onto the floor from it. Hunter frowned at it as Jace cursed, but stayed where he was as a medic took care of the thing. The damn girl must have ripped it from the bag of fluid, instead of just pressing the button to disconnect it. Hunter was more upset that she might have further injured herself, than that she was causing a scene.
“Report,” Hunter calmly ordered.
“This woman was attacking her leader,” one of the medics spat, his revulsion for Amy’s behavior apparent. “She ripped the translator from Commander Arianna’s head.”
Jace cursed and hurried to Ri’s side, checking for damage. Two medics were already there and seemed to have the situation in hand, but Jace still spoke softly to Arianna.
“You are all right?” he asked, checking her eyes, taking over the task of holding an absorbent cloth pad to her temple, where blood was trickling from the exit wound. The other warriors grinned knowingly at his unnecessary fussing and moved away.
“I think so,” Ri muttered, glaring at Amy. “Hurts like hell, though!”
“It will,” Jace assured her. “It is not meant to be removed so abruptly. Fortunately, it does have a fail-safe to keep it from leaving anything behind in your brain, so other than the nasty headache, you should be fine.”
“Good. What the hell was she trying to accomplish?” Ri asked, bewildered. “It’s not like she knew how to use the damn thing, especially since she didn’t remove it properly.”
“No,” Hunter said, moving to her side and quickly looking her over in concern. She felt his mind gently probe hers, seeing for himself that she was okay. Both Readers could feel Amy’s seething rage at being ignored in favor of Arianna. Hunter went on, “And it could have killed her, had she tried. But we will find out.” Over his shoulder, he barked, “Bring her over here!”
Amy was carried, still struggling, but tiring quickly because of her injuries, to Ri’s bedside.
“What in the world were you trying to do?” Arianna demanded, keeping her voice as calm as she could, under the circumstances. Amy glared at her, anger and an inflated sense of unfairness broadcasting from her. The two Readers were hit with the malevolence of her energy and Hunter actually had to keep himself from taking a step back from the blast. Ri groaned at the renewed pain. Jace glared at the girl, knowing from a lifetime of living among Readers that Ri had been hit with something psychically.
“I should be in charge, not you!” Amy cried angrily. Hunter, Jace, and Ri all stared at the young woman as though she’d lost her mind.
“Why?” Ri asked, and was proud of how reasonable she sounded.
“Because I’m prettier, younger, and not fat,” Amy spat in derision. Ri gawked at the girl.
“Those are hardly qualifications for leadership,” Hunter told Ri, who translated. “Arianna was chosen for reasons you may not understand, but suffice to say that she is a sound choice, and one accepted by myself and my officers. It does not matter who holds the translator… Ri is the one we will go through until all the women can understand us.”
Amy stilled when she heard that.
“But you seem to be so into her,” the other girl whined, talking straight to him. “What do you see in such a… fat old nobody?”
“Wow,” Ri muttered, “Rude much?”
“Well, really!” Amy burst out. “Look at you! And look at him! He’s incredible! You’re not. He should be with someone like me, not you.”
“He’s not ‘with’ anyone,” Ri said, shaking her head in disbelief at the girl’s attitude. “None of them are. And get over yourself. You’re not all that, either.”
“I’m the most popular woman in my sorority and the guys at the frat house adore me.”
Hunter and Jace rolled their eyes when Arianna explained what a frat house was and the types of guys who generally hung around girls like Amy.
“Please tell your ‘lady’,” Jace said, “That boys are often known to chase a young, willing body, but that grown men, educated and experienced warriors like us, tend to want more than just a pretty face.”
“And while she might think she is attractive,” Hunter added, “She is far too skinny, too young, and too immature for any of our tastes, regardless of her popularity back on your world.”
Arianna was more than pleased to pass that information along. Amy didn’t believe it for an instant, but it was still fun to watch her mouth fall open at Hunter’s words.
“Return her to her bed,” Jace ordered in disgust. “And restrain her. I don’t want her waking and trying anything else with Arianna.”
“Yes, sir,” the medics said, then quickly carried out Jace’s command. Hunter nodded in approval.
“I sense something… odd… in that one,” Hunter murmured. “Jace, run a psyche eval on her. I want to be sure she is safe to allow into the general population. And I want an extra guard in here at all times. As long as she and Arianna are in the same place, I want double watch. Understood?”
“Aye, sir,” Jace said with a small salute.
“I don’t trust her,” Ri sighed, rubbing her temples, hissing when she hit the spot where the translator had been. Then she stopped and stared up at Hunter.
“What is it, little one?” the commander asked, sitting on the edge of her bed.
“I’m not wearing the translator,” she pointed out, grinning weakly. He smiled back.
“You’re not, are you? Other than the neuro-trans that’s embedded.” He nodded to himself, as though confirming something. “The implanted translators work more quickly through interaction, but they also work more quickly in more intelligent minds. You, my sweet little warrior, are apparently a genius.”
She automatically made a scoffing sound at that, but couldn’t help a sheepish grin.
“I am, actually,” she admitted after a moment, peeking up at him through her disheveled bangs. “My mother had me tested.”
He sensed that there was a joke in there, confirmed when Kim stifled a chortle. His gaze warmed at that, his smile slow and speculative.
“You never fail to see the humor in life, do you, commander?” he asked softly. Her eyes went dark for a moment, her face sober, then she smiled sadly and shook her head.
“Life’s too short,” she said quietly. “I learned that you can either cry over it or laugh, and I really like to laugh.”
“Wise as well as intelligent,” Hunter sighed, grinning at her. He liked this tiny woman more with each new discovery.
“Would you allow me to give you one of our tests?” Jace asked, a bit of excitement creeping into his voice. “It would be interesting to find out if our scales for intelligence are similar.”
“Sure,” Ri shrugged. “You might want to test Bev, too. I have the feeling that there’s more to her than meets the eye.”
“There is more to all of you than meets the eye,” Hunter murmured, turning a troubled gaze on Amy, where she was cursing and fighting the restraints the warriors had put into place. He looked at Jace. “You might wish to sedate that one, if the others are going to get any sleep this night.”
“Aye,” Jace said wearily. He gave Arianna a wink, hurrying off to carry out Hunter’s order.
“And you,” Hunter said, leaning down to inspect the small bloody spot on her temple, “should try to get some more rest. Do you need more pain medicine?”
“No,” she said, but felt her face heating as another ‘need’ made itself known. “Well, probably, but… I should use the bathroom first. Would you get one of the medics for me?”
Hunter laughed at that, shaking his head. Surprising her, he very carefully picked her up and took her to the small bathroom in the medical unit. She had the feeling that he would have willingly come in and taken care of everything, if she had let him,
but she very firmly shoved the door closed in his face. His deep chuckle rumbled through the door as she quickly took care of business, but she was smart enough not to try to stand until he came in to support her.
Once tucked back into her bed, Ri watched as the officers present consulted. She seemed to constantly be in contact with Hunter’s mind, even if only peripherally. He was very much aware of her, though, and did not seem to mind her presence in his head at all. She sighed inwardly when another warrior, this one not a medic, showed up at the door, talking about a strange reading on the long-range scan. Hunter sighed then threw her an encouraging smile as he left the med center. Jace quickly administered another round of pain meds to all of his patients, then excused himself to go back to bed. He gave her a quick, cocky smile as he left, accompanied by a sexy wink.
Arianna fell asleep with that last sweet smile from them both firmly in her mind.
Hunter strode into the command center, his eyes immediately locking onto the deep-space scanners. One of Trey’s team members, Rom, was at the monitor, his brow furrowed.
“Report,” Hunter said, sitting down at his own monitor and bringing up the various maps and data inquiries for himself.
“Unidentified object,” Rom reported, leaning back. “It’s on the very edges of the scans, so it might be nothing. Sorry to have you awakened, but you wanted to be alerted to anything out of the ordinary.”
“No, that’s fine,” Hunter assured him. “Unfortunately, I was already awake. Size?”
“Roughly the size of one of our battalion transports.”
“Status?”
“It is either running silent or cloaking its systems,” Rom said, his voice heavy with the possibility of a threat. Hunter sat back, thinking quickly. “I can get the shape and size, but nothing else. Current speed and trajectory should have it here within the next three months.”
“Is there a chance it’s friendly?” Hunter finally asked, after running through all the possible scenarios that would bring a ship to this sector, so far away from trade routes and civilization centers.
“No way of knowing, since we are on radio silence,” Rom shrugged. “But it’s possible. When we left Thorsan, our ships were scattered all over the place. Space is big, but there’s always a chance, if infinitely small, that one of our ships got chased off course in the same direction as us. This ship is too small to be any of the known Solvari vessels, but they could have developed new craft by now. Or worse, it could be one of our own transports, repaired and used to try to trick our people into feeling safe. They must believe us to be fools if they think that any of us would fall for that more than once.”
“What do you think, Rom?” Hunter asked, the signal to Rom to end his status report and start analyzing the information.
“I think there’s a possibility that it’s a friendly,” Rom said, after a moment of thought. “Or at least, not Solvari, which I’d settle for. Our scanners just aren’t strong enough to detect more than what I’ve told you. However, it is also about the same size as the slave transport that brought the women. If the slavers sent out a distress signal, their friends might have tracked it and found us. Or, whoever fired upon them might have followed.”
“That’s not good,” Hunter murmured. Rom nodded. Hunter thought a moment. “If it is more slavers, we wait for them to land then go in. We’d need to disable their systems and rescue anyone aboard. If it’s a friendly, then we need to find out who they are and bring them in safely. I know I don’t need to, but I’ll stress the need for secrecy. If the Solvari find out about our colony here…”
“Understood,” Rom said, his voice conveying the gravity of the situation. “We don’t want to be found, other than by our own people. Commander, if it is one of ours… they could be running silent because they’re being followed or watched. ”
“True. Keep an eye on it. You know the approach patterns as well as I do. If they use one of ours, I want to be notified immediately. If that happens, send one single burst to confirm our position, then continue radio silence until they’re closer and we can get more information on them.”
Hunter stood, stretching and yawning hugely. “If you don’t need me, I’m going to go back to bed. It has been quite a day.”
“Yes, sir,” Rom said, then hesitated a moment, just long enough for Hunter to pick up on the need to talk. Though Rom would never ask, Hunter decided to stick around for just a bit longer.
“What’s on your mind, cousin?” Hunter asked. Rom was one of his best men, on par with Trey, and a friend as well as a relative.
“Hunter,” Rom said quietly, using his first name now that they were talking as family instead of officers. “What do you think of the women?”
“I think that they’re going to be a handful of trouble until we can get things sorted out and get used to one another,” Hunter answered with a rueful grin. He and Rom had grown up together and had managed to get into quite a bit of trouble together. Fun trouble, mostly, but definitely trouble. And as they grew older, it was usually trouble of the female variety.
“Trey is really interested in the second-in-command, Beverly.” Rom said.
“And how does the rest of your team feel about that?” Hunter asked, Reading his cousin to find out what, exactly, Rom was getting at.
“We like it,” Rom said, shrugging. “He brought her by the command center a few hours ago and we got a chance to interact with her, though none of us could understand her yet. We showed her some of our equipment, a few of our historical videos… enough to show her where we’ve come from and how we came to be here. She was so interested in everything, so eager to communicate. We’re all enchanted with her. I’m just curious what happens if she only accepts one of us.”
“We don’t know enough about their culture yet to make that call,” Hunter admitted with a sigh. “From what Arianna was telling us earlier, there’s the possibility that the girls will only accept one male apiece.”
“That’s going to cause a lot of new problems,” Rom pointed out quietly. Hunter nodded, not wanting to think about it, but having no other choice.
“Aye. But we can’t force them, no matter how frustrated we get. They are an unknown species, and we must abide by their cultural and religious wishes. You know that as well as I do.”
Rom sighed as well, sitting back and staring morosely at his screen.
“Well, then, I can only hope that theirs is a very permissive culture,” Rom growled, then tossed Hunter a rueful scowl. “Because frankly, my balls are about to explode with the wanting.”
Hunter barked out a surprised laugh at his normally taciturn cousin’s words.
“Agreed!” he exclaimed, clapping Rom on the back as he stood. He nodded toward the monitors. “Keep me informed. If anything at all out of the ordinary happens with that ship, let me know.”
“Aye, sir,” Rom grinned, saluting.
“Oh, and Rom?” Hunter said, stopping in the doorway. Rom looked up. “You might want to start courting early, so that when the time comes to choose, Bev will have a very hard time picking just one of you.”
“Aye, sir!” Rom said enthusiastically, laughing.
When he stepped out of the command center, Hunter realized that there were only a few hours left of the night. He was concerned about the strange vessel on the scanners. He hoped to all his gods that it was his people, not the Solvari. The possibility of impending danger to all he’d worked so hard to build the last ten years kept his mind working far into the wee hours of the morning.
Deep in the throes of drug-induced slumber, Arianna dreamed of a coming presence. Something strong and bright and powerful. Something more devastating than anything she’d yet experienced. It was enticing and seductive at the same time. As it morphed into a living person’s spirit, she sensed its surprise at her presence.
Green eyes with a darker green ring around the iris. Hunter’s eyes.
They talked, in her dream, for quite awhile. She couldn’t remember what they said, nor anyth
ing else but those beautiful eyes, so like Hunter’s. She didn’t understand the dream itself, but the presence left her with a strong, almost overwhelming need for more. For something she’d always yearned for but could not even imagine yet. It made no sense. She was new to this ‘Reading’ thing, but she knew that something significant had just happened.
With a heartfelt, wistful sigh, she rolled over and went back to sleep.
“How are you feeling, Commander?” Jace asked the next morning, when Ri’s eyes opened to greet the day. She blinked at him uncomprehendingly for a moment, then recalled everything from the day before and sucked in a deep breath. Her ribs reminded her of their deplorable state, and when she tried to sit up, her right shoulder, back, and side of her neck all denied her their use. Crying out softly at the unexpected pain, Ri flopped back to her pillows. Jace gave her a sympathetic smile.
“A little sore?” he asked. She rubbed her face with her left hand.
“Did anyone get the description of the asteroid that hit me?” she asked ruefully. Jace arched a brow at her, his smile widening into a grin.
“How’s our patient?” Hunter inquired, striding into the med center, his eyes immediately locking onto Arianna.
“Sore, but still smiling,” Jace said admiringly. He cocked his head at Ri. “Do you need something for pain?”
“Please,” she said gratefully, “But if it’s something that doesn’t knock me out, that would be nice.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Jace said with a wink.
“And maybe a muscle relaxer? My shoulder is killing me.”
“Shoulder?” Jace said, furrowing his brow and stepping closer. He nodded to Hunter and they helped her to sit up. Urging her to lean forward just a little, Jace ran her through several movements of her arm, noting where she whimpered and the motions that actually made her cry out. He ran his fingers down the affected muscles and shook his head.
“I think you will be very sore for several days, Commander,” he told her apologetically. “I’ll order some heat for your back and shoulder, and scheduled massages to loosen the spasms. And a muscle relaxer, though that might knock you out.”