She was in luck. The statement diverted Torin as she’d hoped it would.
His brows rose. “How did you launch your colony ships?”
She shrugged, feeling more tension ease from her as he drew her into conversation. “We built them in hangers in space. They were already moving at around twenty thousand miles an hour … and minimal resistance for takeoff because we had a much slighter gravity pull.”
He nodded but he was still frowning. “So …. The small ship we found?”
“We used the shuttle to transport ground to mother ship and mother ship to ground.” She paused, felt a need to excuse the actions of her fellow colonists. “We only had three so the one we used to get here was critical to the colony mission. They needed it back in one piece, but …. Well it was always military protocol on Earth to prevent the enemies from getting their hands on technology you’d developed. And the captain was a military man.”
Torin’s jaw tightened with anger, but after a moment he shook his head as if dismissing it. “We would not have you if things had not gone the way they did. And yet I regret what you went through.”
She thought about all the horrors she’d endured and realized that she had to struggle to recall them, that they were already fading from her mind.
The good times …. She’d made some very good memories since the disaster, she realized, experienced things that made living worthwhile in spite of the hardships.
How crazy was it that she had traveled so far from her home in search of a new one and found it with people she’d never known existed? Found love, she thought.
She didn’t doubt that she loved all three—in different ways, of course, because they were different people, but she felt a special bond with each.
For the first time it occurred to her that, once they reached the new world, her guys might leave her and go their separate ways. They’d said she was their mate, but she didn’t really understand their customs. That might only mean the woman they were currently fucking.
She got affection from them—not just sex. They had protected her and been solicitous of her welfare. They’d given her as much pleasure as they’d taken when they made love.
She didn’t think anyone could ask for more.
But she wanted more time with them.
She wanted to build a life with them and a family.
Would she get the chance? Or would everything change completely when they reached the new world and started new lives?
She didn’t know, but she discovered she didn’t have as long to wait for it as any of them had anticipated.
Something completely unprecedented happened when they reached the edge of the solar system and engaged the patched together—technology that had been separately developed—warp drive.
The launch was almost anticlimactic after all the tension her fears had generated. They experienced some stomach churning weightlessness, but then she’d expected that. She had experienced it every time she traveled from the mother ship to Earth and back again.
Well to their home world, too.
Acceleration in near zero gravity wasn’t something that one could actually feel, but they shot away from their home world at a tenth the speed of light and had reached three quarters SOL by the time they reached the edge of the solar system three months later.
Monica was the only one on board the ship who’d experienced warp drive.
It had terrified her the first time they warped, but they had performed a series of warp hops during the voyage and, in typical human fashion, she’d grown accustomed.
She was the ‘lucky’ one, therefore, who instantly realized when the warp was engaged that it was doing something it wasn’t supposed to.
They could feel the acceleration and the stars they could see in the viewing port warped into streams of light—then total blackness—blinding light—blackness and another wild stream of a million lights.
“Warp disengaged,” someone in the cockpit announced.
Completely unnecessarily, because Monica knew the instant the ship ceased folding and resumed ‘normal’ speed.
It only took the navigator a handful of moments to realize something wasn’t as expected.
“Sir?”
The captain swiveled toward the woman. “Yes?”
She turned a terrified look at him. “I … I cannot find the star system we should have emerged near. In fact I cannot triangulate because none of the stars are visible that should be. I do not know where we are.”
Ok. That was really, really bad news.
Monica was sorry she’d decided to head for the bridge to be with Torin when they emerged from warp.
Take off had been bad enough. She should have left it at that.
She cupped a protective hand over her lower belly, feeling her fear center on what had been a secret joy only minutes earlier.
Torin stared at her hand for a long moment and then met her gaze.
She felt her face redden.
He stepped closer and slipped an arm around her, brushing a kiss along her forehead. “Have you told them yet?” he murmured.
Monica sent him a startled look and felt her discomfort deepen. “I thought they would be here with you.”
“They were.”
He might have said more but they were both diverted by the conversation between the navigator and the captain.
“I have …. Well, I think that I have pinpointed our location, sir.”
“And?”
“We … well, it looks like we have folded and emerged right on top of our target. That is our star system right there. I have run the numbers twice.”
“That is not possible.”
“I know, sir, but ….”
The captain surged out of his seat and went to look. When he did, Torin gave her a reassuring squeeze and joined the other two to study the screen.
“How is that possible?” the captain asked no one in particular.
Torin shook his head. “Time warp? A wormhole? Maybe a dimensional jump?” He was silent for a moment. “But I agree with the navigator. That’s without a doubt our target world.”
He straightened. “We may never figure it out, but it was a stroke of good fortune whatever happened.”
That was hard to argue with since it seemed to have cut their journey nearly in half.
No one really believed it, though, in spite of the readings they got from the probes they sent out, until they reached the planet a little more than three months later.
It if wasn’t the planet chosen for the colony, then it was still a beautiful planet and looked absolutely perfect.
The one problem was that when they had circled it a dozen times they still didn’t see the colony that was supposed to be there. They saw a couple of tiny, primitive villages that seemed to have been built by natives of the world, and were possibly still occupied, but not the bustling colony city they should have found.
Neither was there any sign of a human colony even though Monica was convinced this was the star system and world the Exodus had been headed for.
So either they were the only ones to make it or they had arrived at a planet that neither the Earth people nor Dar’s people had chosen.
It didn’t matter they told themselves. They were beyond grateful that they’d found a place to live and prosper.
They’d managed to make the journey in record time so that food did not become an issue, but there was not enough left to try for a different destination.
This would be their home.
Epilogue
He caught her as she came in the door. Sandwiching her between his big body and the wall beside the door, he shoved the door closed and locked it. Then he dipped his head and found her mouth, capturing it in a brief, heated exploration before she could consider whether or not she was in the mood to be ravished.
“Torin!” Monica gasped on the edge of a laugh. “What are you …?”
But the answer was as clear as the massive erection he ground into her lower b
elly.
His mouth was hot and hungry when he captured hers again and, this time, he thoroughly explored the moist cavern with the restless, relentless stroke of his tongue along hers.
She closed her mouth around it, sucking lightly, and he ceased stroking and began to thrust in a substitute mating that flooded her with heated want.
That seemed to push his need to new heights, as well. Grasping her waist, he hoisted her upwards, braced her with one knee while he tore at the crotch closure of her suit and then wedged her more tightly between his body and the wall while he fought to free his erection from his trousers.
She thought for some moments that the task might defeat him, but he did manage to liberate the mammoth anaconda and began a brief search for the mouth of the lower cavern that had Monica humming with desperation.
Digging her nails into his back briefly when he found the gate to happiness he had been searching for and engaged his flesh with hers, she shifted her arms and locked them around his shoulders and neck. It gave her some leverage, but as hot and slick with need as she was by then, it still wasn’t sufficient to progress any further.
Torin seemed to grasp that about the same time she did. He coiled one around her back to help her balance and the other beneath her hips to support her and walked to the couch across their living area. Bending over, he held her with one hand while he maneuvered the two of them onto a solid, horizontal surface.
Monica tightened her grip around his waist with her legs as her center of gravity shifted with the move and gripped his shoulders tighter when he released his support of her back and climbed the couch for a more gratifying fit.
It was still somewhat less than ideal when he settled her and pressed her more deeply into the cushions. Half her ass was hanging off.
Unbalanced and poorly supported, they almost rolled off and hit the floor.
Torin caught them with his knee and one hand and moved them both into a less hazardous position. Undaunted by the near mishap, or too far gone to realize or care where they landed, he tugged at the top closure of her suit even as he moved her to safe ground and burrowed his face against her untethered breasts until he found a nipple to tug on.
Monica gasped, released her grip on his shoulders and dug her fingers into his thick, reddish gold mane of hair, kneading his scalp mindlessly as a river of molten lava threaded its way from her nipple to her channel with more heated moisture. The muscles at the mouth of her sex contracted repeatedly in a swallowing motion that had no discernible effect in dislodging the head of his cock or dragging it in.
It was going to drive her insane!
He ignored the tug, pulling on the nipple he’d captured until she thought she would lose her mind. He released it finally, rooted around in the fabric for a moment and found her other nipple.
Monica felt like the top of her head would cave in or fly off when he ‘stripped’ that distended tip lightly with the edge of his teeth before he closed his mouth around it and sucked.
She let go of his hair and started digging at his back and shoulders in demand, muttering an incoherent mixture of words her scrambled brain interpreted as directions.
Apparently, somewhere in the dim recesses of his brain those garbled instructions were defined as the desperation it was.
He let go of her nipple, dug his toes into the cushions, and pushed mightily to drive home the lance he had speared her sex with. Instead, he shoved her up the couch until her head made contact with the arm at the end. Her hair, trapped beneath her when he started, acted like a tether on her head and by the time she reached the arm her head was tilted back so far she couldn’t close her mouth.
Shoving an arm beneath her bowed neck, he gripped her shoulders and pumped his hips a little frantically.
Thankfully, he broke gridlock with that maneuver and pushed deeper.
Her relief, she discovered, was premature. Instead of making any real progress in gaining ground in her channel, he gave her a knee and thigh lift.
Unfortunately, they were both nearly mindless by that time and it was some moments before either realized that nothing was happening and then several moments more to figure out what to do about it.
Actually, Torin didn’t figure that out. He just decided to retreat because it felt like his cock would buckle from the pressure.
He dragged the dammed up flood of moisture with him, lubricating everything thoroughly enough that when he gritted his teeth, gripped her shoulders and thrust again, he damned near shoved her womb through her ribcage.
The baby, infuriated by the anaconda that had intruded upon his ‘nest’, began kicking and pounding on the thing.
That disconcerted Torin—almost to the point of disaster—for all concerned parties.
He retreated, caught his breath, and struggled for a few moments to redirect Monica’s attention to the game plan by kissing her thoroughly.
When she started tugging on him again, he decided she had been adequately distracted and set a slow, smooth rhythm that the baby didn’t object to.
Thankfully!
Despite all distractions and probably because the foreplay had been more fiery than coordinated, they were both teetering on the edge by the time he had stoked the fires with the smooth, even strokes. Three jabs at her g-spot had Monica trembling with anticipation, hovering on the brink.
She groaned and tried to pump faster.
Either Torin instantly caught that demand or his need echoed hers.
He upped the tempo, driving harder and faster until Monica flew off the edge of reality and into an epic orgasm that had her gasping for air sharply.
Torin uttered a choked grunt, drove deep, and began to jerk with the power of his orgasm.
Monica held on tightly, basking in the afterglow of a shattering culmination and enjoying the feel of Torin’s climax.
Something broke their bliss and brought them crashing back to reality with ugly swiftness and finality, slamming into the outer door hard enough to shake the panel.
Monica bolted upright almost instantaneously with Torin.
Before she could decide if the meaty collision was a threat of some kind, she heard Kael swearing in fluent English and his own tongue on the other side.
She clapped a hand to her mouth to stifle a vaguely hysterical chuckle as Torin bounded off of the couch, stalked to the door stark naked, unlocked the door and snatched it open.
Kael nearly bowled him over as he shoved inside.
Little James Robert—named for Monica’s father and brother—clinging to his hip, was whimpering with fear and confusion—mostly, Monica thought indignantly, because Kael was holding his nose and cursing.
“Kael! You’re scaring the baby!”
He turned and glared at her and then Torin. “I broke my nose,” he growled.
Monica lifted her arms in demand for the toddler and he strode to her, plunked the baby down, and headed toward the back of their cabin. Monica heard the water and splashing.
Having comforted the baby, she sat him aside on the couch and adjusted the top of her suit.
Torin, who hadn’t actually undressed himself, also adjusted his clothing, sending her a heated look of appreciation.
She’d just smiled at him when Kael returned, scowling at both.
“You want to tell us what had you in such a rush that you didn’t think to turn the doorknob?” Torin asked coolly.
That question wiped the frown right off Kael’s face.
“A ship just landed. They sent me to get you.”
Torin frowned. “Me?”
“No! Her!” Kael corrected. “We think it’s from her world. It’s definitely not one of ours!”
Monica gaped at him in shock, her mind erupting into total chaos. The thoughts that congealed, though, whether rational or not, sent a heady jolt of excitement through her.
Humans? From Earth?
Family? Friends?
She had already bolted for the door when it dawned on her that she wreaked of sex.
&nb
sp; She hadn’t even completely adjusted her clothing because it had been Kael who’d come in.
“Wait!”
Whirling, she raced into the bathroom, cleaned up quickly, dried herself and began frantically clawing through her clothing for something that she thought looked good enough for ‘company’.
Both Torin and Kael were staring at her strangely when she barreled out of her bedroom and made a beeline for the door. The expressions on their faces imprinted on her mind, but she was too distracted to worry with trying to figure out what it meant just then.
In any case, they followed her, trying to keep up without giving the appearance of running which was no easy task since Monica absently interpreted their swift strides as urgency and she kept going a little faster every time they caught up to her.
They arrived at the edge of the village breathless, but in time to see the occupants of the ship emerge and begin to move cautiously toward the village. Monica kept trying to stand on her tiptoes to see better because, by and large, the people were somewhat taller than humans and she was a short human.
“You could probably see better from the top of the wall,” Torin said dryly.
Monica threw him an excited grin. “Good idea!”
“Yeah,” Kael said, glaring at him as Monica raced off to climb the stairs to the walk at the top of the perimeter wall.
James promptly burst into tears. “Mommy!”
Bouncing the toddler and patting his back, Kael stalked off to join Monica at the top of the wall. “Mommy’s right there and we’re going up there, too.”
Torin fell into step beside him, reaching for the toddler.
Kael didn’t especially want to give him up or think he needed help, but James reached for Torin the moment he held his hands out and Torin took him.
The toddler’s tears instantly dried up.
Resentment flickered in Kael. James was his son!
Well, or Dar’s. He wasn’t completely certain, but he damned well knew Torin wasn’t his father!
Monica’s face had lost all animation by the time they joined her. In point of fact, most of her color. She looked up at Kael. “I don’t understand this.”
Exodus: Extinction Event Page 20