Knight in Shining Alien?: Athrian Warriors Book One

by Ginger Branch

  Heathrick and Shemrick volunteered to go to medical for healiogel and other materials they would need to replenish what had been used on the flight back here, and disappeared out the doors soon after.

  Rometho was quiet and turned to calculate the distance needed before they safely blew the Krakill ship without harming Hailey. He would have risked any warrior there and blown it up as soon as possible, including his commander and Prince, Jarrek but he would never risk her. Hailey had charmed him with her small stature and large personality. She had such fire to her, that he was jealous of his Commander.

  Marthos was the toughest sell. He had agreed to take charge of Hailey, to see that she remained safe and delivered immediately to his uncle and King. He had to agree though with Loku’s passionate explanation, that now that Hailey and Jarrek had bonded, if he was near death, she would automatically try to morph to save him. If they were not close to help, then she was doomed along with Jarrek. It was the only argument that they could have used to persuade him to allow the mission to continue.

  Unfortunately, he made the mistake of saying that aloud. Once his face stopped stinging he automatically covered his privates as she threatened him with castration. He well remembered her definition of that word to the crew of the bridge. He would have to avoid her for a while. He would take no chances with his manhood. He liked everything right where it was.

  God save her from men. Well, make that Goddess save her from men. Postulating peacocks every one of them. She hoped he felt her slap for a month. She felt she extra prizes for hitting anyone of the behemoths as they all topped her by a foot and a half deserved an extra award. She may have been round, but she could jump and had excellent aim.

  “Move out. I have a mate to rescue.”

  Bruthus nodded and checked to see how much fuel had recharged. Pleased to see that they were close to full. They would easily be back before there was a danger of them running out of fuel. “We are good on my end.” He told Hailey, getting back in the ship and readying it for immediate departure.

  “Excellent. All we need are supplies from medical and we can go. Rometho you can work on your calculations on the ship, right?” she asked, turning towards him.

  “I am almost finished with them now, but can definitely finish during the flight.” Rometho told Hailey with a smile. He was going to have to go to her small marble and look for one of his own.

  Heathrick and Shemrick came back in with a cart piled with medical supplies. She started grabbing supplies as soon as they got to the ship. They were loaded and ready to depart within another two minutes. Loku wished them all luck and stepped out of the ship to return to the bridge. Heathrick asked Hailey if she thought she would need them, as they thought to watch over the little female they had rescued.

  “No Heathrick, you guys go ahead, although I appreciate the offer. Is the other woman your Cordisa?” She asked as she strapped in with Marthos’ help.

  “No, she is not our Cordisa, but we still feel responsible for her well-being. She is small and looked very bad. We both want to go with you and get revenge for her harsh treatment. Lurzar needs a beating for sure, but we will stay and watch over her. The bombs are set and she will have her revenge, although more merciful than what he deserves.” Heathrick told her while Shemrick just nodded when he finished speaking.

  “Thanks for watching over her guys, if she wakes before I come back let her know I will visit her as soon as possible.” She requested of them as they had turned to walk off the ship. She only got a raised hand for an acknowledgement. Three minutes later they were away she was amazed at how little jostling there was. Although, this left her with too much silence and time to concentrate on what was happening to her man.

  Rometho went to the front and spoke with Bruthus is low tones, probably telling him the distance they needed before they could blow the ship.

  Meanwhile Hailey was focusing on what was happening with Jarrek. He was lying on a weird table that looked more like an architect’s drawing table completely nude, with his wrists tied above his head. Varill watched from the side, as naked as Jarrek and lazily stroking himself, as he watched her beloved being tortured. Lurzar had broken the tibia and femur of his right leg. He was now working on cutting long jagged lines into Jarrek’s chest, down his abdomen and almost to his pubic area. The closer he came to that tender area the more Jarrek cried out. He knew that was what they wanted and tried to deny them, but Goddess it hurt.

  Hailey felt as though she should be panting with the pain, but while she felt it, Jarrek was doing his best to block her from the agony. She was having a hard time deciding if she was grateful she wasn’t feeling all of the pain, or angry that he wouldn’t let her share the burden. She distracted herself with the compelling arguments on both sides while she waited for them to get close enough she could morph to Jarrek and then back. Let it be soon, she prayed. Her body was pushing her to morph to him.

  Bruthus called out from the front that they were within six minutes of their target. Hailey looked to Marthos and Rometho and asked, “Does that mean I can morph to Jarrek safely?”

  “Yes.” They both answered. Bruthus spoke up from the front though before she could try. “Wait, Hailey. I want to turn the ship back around, so that we are automatically headed away from the ship. This should give us a few more seconds to get clear before we blow up the ship. Every parasec is going to count on this one.” He told her.

  “Let me know when. Someone give me a knife to cut the rope binding him to the table he is on, I am monitoring him now and Lurzar just stepped away from Jarrek. I can’t tell if he is picking up another instrument of if something worse is coming, but we are about to lose the best moment to do this.” Hailey replied with her eyes closed. She was trying to force her body to hold off just another few seconds, but her symbiot knew they were about to lose their best opportunity. Someone slipped a blade into her hand so that she gripped the pommel of the blade.

  “Now.” Bruthus said and she didn’t hesitate, but immediately let her body do exactly what it had been trying to force her to do for the last hour and morphed straight to Jarrek's side. He looked horrible and Hailey hated to touch him, but she quickly cut the bonds holding him to the table and wrapped her arms around him as tight as she could and looked into Varill’s astonished face. “So long fucker!” she cried before morphing them both to safety. Hailey never saw Lurzar, or how close he came to capturing both of them. She landed with a painful jolt back on the ship, with Jarrek on top of her, pushing her painfully into the seat that she had been sitting on. He immediately started to fall backwards towards the floor, and she knew that he was going to drag her on top of him. She didn’t want him to be hurt further, so shouted for Marthos and Rometho to help her.

  They each grabbed an arm and dragged him to the back of the ship. She called out to Bruthus that they were on board, so that he could get them home as fast as possible. She was making her way back to medical to help the Rometho and Marthos care for Jarrek, when the ship rocked violently. She threw her arms straight out to catch herself from smacking head first into a wall. “What the hell?” she hollered and changed direction to go up front with Bruthus.

  “Everyone brace for impact. Varill thought that he was sending a hit towards the Sh’dow al D’th, but found us instead. I am now completely visible to their ship and going as fast as possible away from them. I expect another blast at any moment. I will try to evade if possible, but strap in for a bumpy ride.” Bruthus sent out over the intercom. Hailey reached the cockpit and sat down next to him, strapping in.

  “How can I help?” She asked.

  Bruthus looked over at Hailey and then did a double take. “Are you hurt?” he asked quickly.

  She glanced down at herself and saw all the blood that had freaked out Bruthus. “No, I’m okay. This is Jarrek’s blood. They did a real number on him. I want to be in there checking on him and helping them, but I figured I should stay out of the way. You guys are probably well versed in triage on one anot
her.” She told him, then repeated her original question of, “How can I help?”

  Bruthus turned his head back and watched his screens, maneuvering around the shots that Varill was throwing at them. “Right now, just say a prayer to the Goddess that I can get us all back to the ship alive.”

  “Do you have any defensive capabilities on this ship? I understand it is a stealth ship, but surely you designed it with weapons?” She looked at the consoles readouts and joysticks. It reminded her greatly of a fighter pilot game she used to play with her male friends in high school. They went off to be military fighter pilots and this looked just like the games that they played. She just needed to figure out what joystick ran the targeting and which buttons were the weapons and what kind.

  “It does have weapons, but I can’t run that system and still manually move the ship from the blasts from Varill’s ship.” Bruthus told her. Smiling a little that Hailey, who was such a small, little female thought to help fight. He would have laughed aloud, but heard her threaten Marthos and all of the bridge crew. He did not want her to target his balls next, so managed to swallow the mirth.

  “Duh, Bruthus! Please do not act all stupid with me. I found the targeting stick, which button is what type of weapon? Do you have counter-measures to draw their fire from the ship? If so, is it the high left button above the control stick? What about missiles, or lasers, or even bulleted machine guns?” She asked in rapid bursts.

  Seeing that Hailey was serious about trying to help, he swallowed his original laughter and thought to himself, “I have got to find myself one just like her.” His mind tried to go to the female that they had rescued, but he pushed it away. He then proceeded to tell her what button did what and watched in awe as she began to meet each burst head on, so that he didn’t have to move the ship around in jerky movements to get out of the way. They were beginning to gain distance from Varill’s ship and he waited with his breath held until they were in the range that Rometho had calculated. As soon as he crossed that distance, he sent out the frequency to blow Varill straight to Hell. He quickly told Marthos and Rometho that he had just detonated the bombs and to expect shockwaves.

  Hailey cheered to hear they had done it. She immediately broke out into song with “We are the Champions of the World” by Queen, causing Bruthus to look at her strange and shake his head. Hailey had to change the words a little so that it was “We are the Champions of the Universe” instead. She belted out the lyrics for Bruthus’s amusement while he pushed a whole lot of buttons and took them back to the ship.

  Bruthus sent a message to Loku of their success and immediate return with Jarrek seriously wounded. He added that he did not know how urgent his care was, as he had not seen him yet, but that Hailey was soaked in blood.

  He added his report on how Hailey had helped with the weapons portion of their flight and the ships desperate need for repairs. Knowing that it would cause many raised brows and plenty of disbelief. If he had not seen for himself her incredible bravery, or how well she had picked up what she needed to do to overcome their situation, he would not believe it either. He would have sent that warrior to the ship’s doctors for an evaluation.

  They were very close to the Sh’dow al D’th when the first shockwave hit them. It sent them wobbling a little before he smoothed it out and approached the docking bay. They had done it. They were victorious and Varill would trouble them no more. His only regret was that he was unable to see the explosion for himself. That would have been a great treat. He would inquire if anyone had thought to record it happening.

  As soon as he had docked, he turned to Hailey who was undoing her own straps and said, “It was an honor to fight with you, my Queen. Are all the women of your planet like you?” He asked and his mind turned to the female they had rescued. He had felt something strange when he saw her, but was not sure what it was.

  “No. We are all different. Some are good, bad, selfish, mean and so on. We are a diverse race. We have different religions and colors to our skin, hair and eyes. We are a race of unique individuals. That is why I both love and hate my people.”

  “Bruthus, if you believe anything else I tell you, believe this; never, ever under estimate just what a woman is capable of. We are warriors, pilots, nurses, mothers, and anything that you can think of. We can do anything we put our mind to and will not let a man dictate to us what we can do. We will make up our own minds and Goddess help you if you get in our way.”

  With that warning ringing in the air between them, she went to meet up with Marthos and Rometho so that she could be with Jarrek as they took him to medical. He was still alive, and that was all she cared about for now.

  17.

  An Unexpected Passenger

  Jarrek shifted carefully under the blanket, ready to freeze the moment it hurt too much. When nothing hurt too badly he was relieved and worried that he had been out of it for too long. Opening his eyes, he had to blink a few times for everything to come into focus.

  He was in his own quarters. Should he not be in medical? He remembered the pain of Lurzar cutting his way down his body. The pain when Lurzar began breaking the bones in his leg. Looking down and pulling the sheet from his naked body, Jarrek was surprised to see only small fading lines of pink. He did not think they would even leave much of a scar. Not that he cared over much for a few new scars. They were battle prizes and something of which to be proud. Not even his ribbed pinched or warned him to take it easy.

  Pushing himself up against the headboard, he sat up and looked around the room. Where was his Cordisa? Closing his eyes, he searched for his other half and absorbed from her all that had happened while he had been in a healing sleep. What he discovered made him growl and push to her that he was going to seriously spank her ass! She had Sameth leave him asleep on purpose!

  Then as he healed, she had run all over his ship talking to his warriors, asking questions from everyone, about life on their planet, how to run his ship and everything under the sun. She was a menace that he needed to discipline; she needed to learn how to show the proper respect to a warrior. Her place was by his healing body! She had met with captains from the other ships! She had tasked Sidhawk and Kirrek with bringing her mother to her. She was leaving a couple of ships to watch over her planet and so that the warriors could see if they could find their own Cordisa on her marble. She gave Loku his ship! Why? She had decided since the Goddess had such a feisty mate for his Second that he needed to be one of those tasked with protecting her planet until he found her. Where was he going? She had commandeered another ship’s Captain to take them to his planet!

  That was it. She was so going to get spanked for this. Concentrating on where she was at this moment, he found her in the Goddesses chapel talking to her as though she would pop in at any moment. Which he guessed was possible, as she had done that once before. Hailey did not realize how incredibly blessed she was to have spoken with her the one time. He pushed his anger at her for leaving him asleep to heal. She sent back a shrug, unconcerned for the proposed spanking.

  She pushed his stupidity at him. The fact he had decided to give up, to just quit. Not even trying to fight for her and what they could be together, but making a decision to try to kill Varill or die by his hands. Without thinking of how the bond would try to force her to morph to him and try to save him. He had almost killed them both with his decision. How she was scared to love him this way and the entirety of her life to this point. She showed him everything at once in a tightly packed capsule that exploded inside his head. It physically rocked him back into the headboard. Her life had been horrible on so many levels. The only bright spot of her entire life was her mother and her best friend. Two women who loved her and she loved back with a devotion bordering on insanity. They had kept his fragile love together with either the unconditional love of a mother or a friendship that had been tested in the fires of pain and a mutual abuser.

  Jarrek watched her life flow by in fast, painful memories. He saw how close he had come to never hav
ing known her at all. She was moments away from taking her life, before the Goddess had sent her mother to bring her back from the edge. He saw the days she had spent tending his body before going to watch how their daughter continued to grow at a rapid pace and how scared that made her. He watched her make decisions about her life, why she questioned everyone on board and why she had made the arbitrary decisions she knew that he would make if he were in the condition to do so. While he had been healing these last two weeks, she had been absorbing his life. How his life experiences had shaped him as a man and the future king of his planet. She had fallen in love all over again and now knew all the way to her marrow, he was perfect for her. Not necessarily perfect, he could still make her crazy and she knew she would drive him to pull his hair out, but that in the end, there was no one else who could complete her so perfectly.