End of the Line

by Bianca D’Arc

  “You came to be here by choice?” Val couldn’t credit her words. Patrolling a dangerous border was warrior work. It was too dangerous to risk a female on such tasks.

  “I had to apply three times before I got assigned a fighter patrol. The rim sweep isn’t usually this exciting, but it is important.” Her chin jutted out defensively and Val realized she took pride in her assignment to the dangerous post.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked, hoping to change the subject. She’d given him a great deal to contemplate, but first he wanted to be certain she was comfortable. He had treated her shabbily to this point and he wanted to make amends.

  “I could eat,” she replied cautiously.

  “Then follow me.” He walked more slowly this time, traversing the long hallway off which all his staff was housed. He was looking for one portal in particular.

  Raising his hand to the lock plate, he keyed in his command code, opening the door. He stepped back, allowing her to precede him.

  She walked in with some hesitation and he wondered if she hadn’t believed him about taking her to guest accommodations. Perhaps she still believed that he would throw her in the brig, or worse. She would soon learn Val was a man of his word. And he didn’t harm females. Not on purpose, at any rate.

  Chapter Three

  The room was spacious and furnished with high quality trappings. The captain might just be telling the truth after all, Lisbet thought as she took in her surroundings. This didn’t look like any kind of cell she could imagine and there didn’t appear to be anything more sinister than a couch and some chairs placed along one wall.

  “Guest quarters,” he announced, moving into the room and making it seem a lot smaller all of a sudden. The captain was even larger than the other jits she’d seen since boarding.

  Before today, she had only seen images of jit’suku warriors. They were all over six feet tall and built on the brawny side. As big as the biggest human men, they towered over most civilians. But this captain was a good six and a half feet to her five and three quarters. And he definitely kept himself in shape. The view she’d gotten of his muscular ass as he’d dragged her along behind him had been epic.

  If she had been in any kind of position to truly appreciate the view, she might have found herself drawn to the incredibly handsome warrior. As it was, she was his prisoner—though not, perhaps, in as bad a situation as she’d feared. She was certainly a captive, but the conditions didn’t seem too bad at the moment. She would be wary, but something about the way he’d spoken to her made her think he was as unfamiliar with real humans as she was with real jit’suku.

  All she knew was what she had been told by her commanders and seen in the news media. She had heard about the many battles along the rim and knew the death statistics. The war, which had been going on for a long time, was taking a definite toll on both sides. Many men had died. Women too, of course, but the jit’suku were very careful to only attack military targets and the only female casualties she was aware of were women soldiers.

  Based on what she’d just been told by the captain, she would bet he hadn’t known before seeing her that women served alongside men in the human armada. She wondered what he would do when he thought through that surprising scenario. He had seemed truly upset to discover she was female.

  “I will order food for you. It is almost dinner time, so if you have no objection, I would like to share the meal with you, so that we may talk more.”

  “Interrogation?” She had to ask. It didn’t sound like he really wanted to interrogate her—not in the way she understood the term—but he would be asking questions, she had no doubt.

  “Nothing so dramatic.” His lips lifted at one corner in the hint of a smile that almost stopped her heart. Damn, he was sexy when he wasn’t quite so angry. He would be devastating if he ever decided to turn on the charm. “I wish to ask more questions of you, but I will not force you to answer. It becomes clear to me that I do not know enough about humans. I had no idea women served as pilots and will have to rethink my strategy if I am to continue with honor, now that I have been made aware of this fact.”

  That sounded promising. She thought over her options, coming to a quick decision.

  “I’ll answer what I can, but I won’t betray my people. I don’t really know enough to do any serious betraying anyway, so you might as well get that thought out of your mind right now.” She took a fortifying breath, watching his handsome face carefully. “But I will answer cultural questions if I think they’re safe. I’d like to know more about your people too, while we’re at it,” she added.

  “Then it is agreed.” He moved toward the door. “The sanitation cubicle is beyond the light green portal, in a corner of the attached sleep chamber. I will leave you to refresh yourself for approximately one standard hour. I will return when the meal is served.” He paused by the door. “You will be locked in for your safety. My crew is all male. I do not wish for you to interact with them at present.”

  She was okay with that and merely nodded. Privacy in this luxurious suite was better than a cell, or being accosted by a bunch of giant men who hadn’t seen a female in who knew how long. And Captain Sexy would be back in an hour with dinner.

  Life had just gotten very interesting, very fast.

  The captain returned exactly an hour later with a team of men who brought in two floating trolleys loaded down with multiple domed platters. Both of the serving men gave her quizzical looks before departing with a crisp salute, but neither said a word.

  The captain had impeccable manners and waited for her to be seated at the table he’d folded down from one wall so the men could set the table and place the main course ready and waiting for them. So far, the dining rituals seemed very similar to human practices, which surprised Lisbet a bit. She’d heard the jits were barbarians and had almost expected them to be ripping meat from the bones of some large animal with their teeth.

  Instead, she got gleaming, monogrammed silverware and what looked like costly china with the crest of some noble house. Her finger traced over the design on the rim of her plate.

  “It is the sigil of my house. The Fedroval crest.” He nodded toward her hand, still fingering the raised golden symbol when she looked up to meet his gaze.

  “You said your name was Fedroval. As is the name of your ship. Fedroval’s Legacy, right? So if this is anything like human nobility, you’re some kind of overlord or come from a seriously rich family. Am I right?”

  The captain bowed his head to one side, holding her gaze. “I am surprised humans have such things, but yes, to both questions. I am the Liege of House Fedroval, eldest male of the line. And yes, we as a family have more than most. Unfortunately, I am the end of the line for House Fedroval.” His expression turned grim as he busied himself with the snowy white cloth napkin, placing it on his lap.

  The topic seemed painful to him, so she let it drop. For now. She followed his lead, glad of the etiquette her mother had tried to drill into her when she was a young girl.

  Funny, she hadn’t thought of her mother in years, but she supposed the old girl would have approved of this situation. For once, Lisbet was behaving like a lady, sitting down to dinner with a rich and titled gentleman. Okay, so he was an alien. Her mother was long dead, so Lisbet figured it probably didn’t matter. Still, the thought brought a wistful smile to her face as he uncovered the steaming dishes that had been laid out for them.

  The silence had lengthened, but she didn’t mind. There was a great deal of information to process here and if she wasn’t very careful, she would succumb to the captain’s pronounced charm. He said he wouldn’t interrogate her, but she wouldn’t put it past him to try to weasel information out of her while wining and dining her. She had to be on her guard.

  “What amuses you, Lieutenant?” he asked as he poured blue liquid from a wine bottle into a crystal goblet and placed it before her. She watched as he poured another for himself and took a sip before she followed suit.

  The fla
vor was fruity and delicious—and intoxicating, she had no doubt.

  “I had a stray thought about my mother. She always despaired of my tomboy ways. She taught me the proper way to set a table and all the womanly things she thought were so important, but I always wanted to do things she thought were unseemly.”

  “Like flying a fighter craft?” One of his dark brows arched and she got the impression he agreed with her long lost mother.

  “It was good enough for my older brother. Why should he be allowed to follow his dream into the sky and not me?”

  “And did you truly dream of the sky, Lieutenant? Did the stars sing to you?” He stared at her over the rim of his goblet, seducing her with nothing more than the tone of his deep voice and the look in his dark eyes.

  “Always. My mother despaired, but my granny knew my destiny was in the stars. She had a bit of the sight, and she argued on my behalf with the family. They listened to her, thank goodness, and let me go. A month after I left Earth, my entire family was killed in an industrial explosion that leveled half the town.”

  He stilled, his expression growing very serious.

  “I am sorry for your loss,” he said in that deep voice, soft now with true emotion. She looked into his eyes and met sorrow there. He understood. He’d lost people close to him. She knew the look. It was the shared pain of losing those who made your life whole.

  “Thank you.” She dragged her gaze from his and took a sip of the fruity wine. It numbed her throat a bit and dulled the jagged edges of her pain momentarily.

  “Our first course is roast water fowl from Solaris Delta. I believe all the ingredients used by the chef tonight are compatible with your digestive system, but please alert me if you perceive any difficulties. I’ve been surprised by how much alike human and jit’suku physiology is since I began my study of your species.”

  “Am I the first human you’ve met?”

  “Yes,” he answered with some surprise in his voice. “This ship was only completed a few standard months ago. We have only engaged with your folk from afar until today.” He frowned as he cut into the succulent bird with his knife. She began eating as he did, lured by the delicious aroma of the perfectly cooked meat. It tasted delicious. “It worries me that we might have inadvertently engaged with female pilots before now.”

  “Is it really that big of a deal? I knew what I signed on for when I came out here. Every man and woman in the military knows they could die at any given time. We agreed to the danger when we volunteered to defend our galaxy against your empire’s expansion plans.”

  She spoke matter-of-factly. She didn’t see any reason to pussyfoot around the issue, but she also didn’t see any reason in getting all worked up. She was a prisoner here, for all that he was treating her like some kind of honored guest.

  “Making war on women is not the jit’suku way. Already the men under my command are speaking of what happened today, worrying that their honor has been stained by what we did to you. It is a very grave matter.”

  “Really?” Lisbet’s eyes widened as she regarded him. The man was serious. Wow.

  “I would not dissemble. The warrior’s code is very specific and sacrosanct. We do not make war upon females, children, or each other. With so many in the warrior caste, we need these rules to keep peace among ourselves and our various colony worlds.”

  “Your people live in a caste system?” She was learning all kinds of things she’d never imagined about her enemy.

  “Many males—usually more than seventy percent in each generation—are born warriors. Of the rest, some are skilled craftsmen or artisans. Some have other talents that bring them to their proper caste. As is the case with our women. Is that not the way of human society?”

  “The ratio is flipped. Only about thirty percent of our men go into the military. Usually they’re the biggest and strongest from each world or colony, but not always. Women who want a military career usually end up in supporting roles—piloting shuttles, doing supply or other organizational roles simply because we’re smaller and usually can’t fight hand to hand the way the men can. Mechanization equals things out, so women are equal with men when it comes to piloting, gunnery, et cetera. But a lot of women don’t seem to go for those kinds of roles. They put us where we are best suited and needed. In my case, that was patrolling the rim until you blew up my ship.” A bit of her bitterness about losing her ship bled through into her words, but she couldn’t regret it. He had to know she was upset about almost dying out there at his hands.

  “If I had known you were female, I would never have fired upon you. Even if I had given the order, had my gunner known he was firing on a female pilot, he would have refused the order and been within his rights to do so. He was very upset when we discovered your gender.”

  “I had no idea you guys were so touchy about women soldiers. If my commanders knew this, they’d probably recruit all the women they could to throw at you. I bet that would end the war real fast.”

  He frowned, his dark brows lowering as he considered her words. “Which is why I cannot let you go, Lieutenant.” He sat back, ignoring his food while he studied her. “You present a very large problem for me, Lisbet Duncan, and I have no idea what to do about you.”

  “Who says you have to do anything? You could just let me go and jump back to your own system, where you belong.”

  “Retreat? That is not the jit’suku way.” His frown deepened.

  “It’s either retreat or fire on more women. Can your honor take that chance? I’m not the only female out here. I wasn’t the first and I certainly won’t be the last.” She challenged him, wanting to zing him a bit, even if her position on his ship was precarious at best.

  He stared at her for a long time before shaking his head and returning to a more composed posture. He lifted his fork and speared another bite of the meat, bringing it to his mouth. She watched him chew, realizing he had the sexiest mouth she’d ever seen on a man. Disconcerting and incongruous as that thought was, she felt her body warm as she watched him. He really was incredibly attractive, even if he was the enemy.

  She took her cue from him and returned to her food as well. It was really good and she didn’t want to waste a gourmet meal. Not when she’d been living on rations for far too long.

  “You said something before about your granny having sight. What did you mean by that?” he asked out of the blue after the silence had stretched.

  “My maternal grandmother sometimes had visions of the future. That side of the family descended from a place called Scotland on Earth. My mother was a redhead, which is where I get such fair skin from, even though my hair is darker. Granny told me when I was very young that my destiny lay in the stars. Mom didn’t like it, but gran insisted and when I decided to apply for pilot training, it was Granny that convinced everyone it was as it should be. Little did I know when I left that I’d never see any of them again.”

  “We hold such gifts of clairvoyance in great esteem,” he said in a very serious tone that made her look up at him. His dark gaze pinned her. “They say sometimes it runs in families.”

  She squirmed in her seat a bit, knowing what her grandmother had predicted for her. She wasn’t sure she wanted to admit it, but perhaps the prophecy would help her with this compelling man somehow.

  “Gran said…” She had to clear her throat before she revealed a secret she’d never told another soul. “Gran knew her gift would pass to my daughter. It skipped two generations, but would be extra strong in my child. She said my girl would be an oracle the likes of which hadn’t been seen in our family in many generations.”

  “You have a child?” He seemed shocked.

  “Not yet.” Lisbet had to smile. “I’ve never known Gran to be wrong, but I wasn’t sure I’d make it there for a while today. Somehow, though, according to my granny’s prediction, I’m going to have a daughter who will be strongly gifted. She saw me having other children too, but she couldn’t tell me more about them, only the girl who will carry her
name.”

  “I find this fascinating. If we’d had a seer in my family, perhaps I could have avoided—” He stopped abruptly as if realizing he was speaking aloud. The pain in his eyes made her reach out to him.

  “What happened to your family, Captain?”

  Chapter Four

  “It is not fit dinner conversation.” He tried to dissemble, but she was having none of it.

  “I just told you something I’ve never told another soul. And I saw the understanding in your eyes when I told you how I’d lost my entire family. Something similar happened to you, didn’t it?”

  He regarded her for a long moment. “Are you sure you’re not as gifted as your grandmother?” She noted the moment he let down his guard. His shoulders lost their tension and his expression changed.

  “I am the end of the Fedroval line because no jit’suku woman will have me. And rightly so. I was not meant to be Liege of the House. I was a younger son, meant to serve in the Zenai priesthood. I was away from home when the unthinkable happened. My brothers were murdered by a rival who has since paid for breaking the warrior’s code, but the damage was done. I had to take over as Liege and give up my intended path as a warrior priest. I was not been groomed for the position of Liege the way my older brothers were. I made many mistakes. One was allowing all the younger females to go on a trip alone, without enough protection. I failed to keep them safe and they died. My brothers’ wives and children. The next generation of House Fedroval. All gone in an instant.”

  “Were they murdered as well?” Lisbet kept her voice to a whisper, shocked at the awfulness of what had happened to this man’s family.

  “It is still unclear. There was an investigation, of course, but the mechanical failure of their ship could have been accidental. There wasn’t enough recovered to reach a conclusion of sabotage, though I strongly believe some of the rival family’s members who escaped punishment for the deaths of my brothers came back to finish the job.”