by Elin Wyn
“Blindfolded or not, we can all agree we’re being targeted,” I said. “I’m not going to feel better about any of this until I know why.”
I took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’ll be damned before I let anything happen to someone I care about ever again.”
Orrin
After all was said and done, I had been laid up in the med bay for nearly a week. Two days of unconsciousness, then another three days of rest in order to get my strength back and to make sure I didn’t rip my newly rebuilt guts out.
I hated resting. When I was finally able to escape the med bay, the only thing that made me happier than getting back to work was being with Maris.
I don’t think I had ever been happier.
I was in the workshop, working on some modifications to the internal sensors, when I received a call from Aavat to meet them in the conference room. I ambled my way up there, still not at full capacity, but close.
I came to the conference room and the door opened. The room was filled with several of the men—Dejar, Aavat, Kovor, Valtic, Qal, Zayn—and three of the women—Kalyn, Lynna, and Shenna. Maris must have still been working on finding a way to build improved filters on the ventilation system. She was obsessed with making sure we’d never be caught by surprise like we were with the gas, and I couldn’t blame her.
“Come in, take a seat,” Dejar said. “How are you feeling?”
I sat down. “Much better, sir. Glad to be moving around and back at work.”
“I bet. Lynna tells me that you’re following her instructions.”
I shrugged. “I figured it would be smarter to listen to the doctor than ignore her, sir.”
Dejar let a slight grin play on his lips before he spoke. “Glad to have you back, then. Now, there needs to be a conversation about what we’re doing from now on.”
“Sir?”
“Let me explain. While you’ve been temporarily incapacitated, Aavat, Kovor, and I have been discussing our next course of action.”
“What we’ve decided on,” Kovor picked up the stream of conversation, “is that we need to investigate this thing. I know we had already said we would, but this is obviously getting more involved than we had anticipated.”
Aavat spoke up next. “We’ve already started looking into Qasar, trying to see who else might have arrived with our guest. We’re essentially grasping at air, but we have to start somewhere, and since this is where he found us, we’re starting here. What we need is some sort of plan, program, or something that will help us figure this out before we get desperate and return to Katzul.”
It made sense to search here first, but the way they were going about it was futile. We didn’t know when the man arrived here, didn’t know who he spoke to, and if he was as good as he had claimed to be, he wouldn’t have worked with anyone other than the woman and the children.
From what Maris had told me, they were innocent bystanders the hunter had hired to pose as family. They had needed the money, so the mother agreed, no questions asked.
“Sir?” I said as a small spark of inspiration hit me.
“What have you got, Orrin?”
“If I were to be honest, I don’t believe we’ll find anything here. There are far too many variables, and if we try to dig too much into the man’s activities here, we may bring more suspicion upon ourselves.” That drew some nods from around the room. I went on. “While investigating here is smart, we’re going to be spinning our wheels for little to nothing.”
“So, you’re saying we’d be wasting our time, then?” Aavat asked.
“Possibly, sir,” I said quickly. It was not good to anger Aavat, even if he had mellowed since Shenna became part of his life. “If we want to continue looking into things here, then we’re going to need to do something that will either get us into trouble and close the station off to us if we’re caught or will give us a lead.”
“What’s that?”
I looked at Qal, then at Kovor. “The two of you are our computer specialists. You know the computers of the Rogue Star better than anyone, and you,” I pointed at Qal, “are more than a simple navigator and pilot. If you were able to hack into the station’s surveillance system and get into their archives, we can find footage of him arriving and see where he went, who he spoke to, what he did before boarding the ship. If that gives us nothing, like I’m afraid it will, then we move on. At least, that’s my humble opinion on the matter, sirs.”
Lynna put her hand on Dejar’s. “He has a good idea. It might work, if we don’t get caught.”
As Dejar nodded, Aavat shook his head. “I don’t like it. If we get caught, then we lose this station, and I don’t like the idea of losing another place for us to go.”
Kovor agreed with him while Qal shrugged. Valtic was the only one to have no real response, he just kept looking around the room. If I wasn’t terribly far off, it seemed to me that his looks lingered a bit longer on Lynna than the rest of us, but I wasn’t sure.
He had always been quiet, a hard read. But a good man, just a bit too hard on himself based on what I’d learned during our few interactions. Otherwise he wouldn’t be on this ship for long.
Maris slipped in, perched on the chair next to me, fingers drumming in agitation.
“I would have to agree with Aavat,” Dejar said. “However, we need more information. That brand the bounty hunter had on his wrist - not exactly the same design as the mark that was at the bottom of the list of rescued women, but close enough they have to be related. That list also had the altered Dominion sigil. There’s a connection somehow, but we don’t know what yet.”
Dejar continued. “While we were getting new identification papers for our refugees, I took note of their species. Each of their homeworlds has been recently brought into Dominion space.”
“So,” Aavat stepped in. “That means that either this group is promising to get the worlds included and then convincing the Dominion to look the other way, or the auctions are somehow being hidden from Dominion eyes and ears.”
“Then why the interest in us?” Shenna asked. “The Terran System hasn’t had contact with any other life outside our own. Not counting us, obviously.”
“She makes a good point,” Aavat said. “What is the Dominion’s interest in the women?”
“What if it’s less about our women and more about keeping knowledge of the rest of us away from the Terran public?” I asked.
“Oh, ‘our women’? Are we your property now?” Maris asked.
I looked at her in mortification. I hadn’t meant for it to sound like ownership when I said it, but I saw her face and the other women giving me mock-anger looks, and I dropped my head and chuckled.
“You know what I meant. You’re family to us now, so I’m hoping that, as much as you all are ‘our women,’ that we’re ‘your men’, as well.”
“I know that. I was messing with you,” she said with a playful slap to my arm. “But you might be right. What if they weren’t holding us at Nine to sell us off, what if they were holding us there because, if we went back home, we’d tell people what happened to us and that would ignite a hell of a search?”
“If anyone believed us,” Lynna said. “Remember, most of us were not at Persephone Station there because we wanted to be.”
“That does present us with another avenue of investigation,” Kovor said in response to Maris’s line of thinking. “If the Dominion isn’t looking for you ladies in order to sell you off, then this other group is manipulating things in their own favor, masquerading as the Dominion. That makes it even more imperative that we figure this out, and quickly. They know about us and know that we’ve changed the ship’s look and signature.”
“We need another change to our engine signature, our stealth systems, and our defenses,” Dejar interrupted. He looked at Maris and me. “Think you two are up for it?”
“Without question,” Maris and I answered simultaneously.
I’d meant it.
This crew was my family.
<
br /> And Maris was much, much more.
Nothing was going to get near her again.
Maris
I awoke in the middle of the night feeling as though my chest was in a vice grip. I writhed and thrashed. My lungs burned. The gas choked me. I wanted to scream for help but my voice wouldn’t cooperate.
That’s when I saw them.
Glowing amber eyes looking at me through the darkness, filled with hatred and the intent to kill. I heard his voice, the voice of the bounty hunter. There was a loud bang. The smell of blood washed over everything.
“Maris!” Someone yelled my name. I felt hands gripping my shoulders. “Maris, wake up!” It was Orrin. I had to get to him. He was going to bleed out! The hands on my shoulders jostled me roughly until my teeth clacked together.
I looked up and saw the ceiling of Orrin’s cabin. I sucked in a harsh breath. My throat and lungs ached. Violent coughs wracked through my body. Strong hands forced me to sit up.
“What happened?” I rasped.
“You had a bad dream.” Orrin’s voice was soft and sweet in my ear. “You scared the life out of me. You weren’t breathing for a moment.”
“I scared the life out of you?” I turned to look at him. “I scared the life out of myself.” My throat grew thick and tears welled up in my eyes before I could regain my composure. When the first tear fell, it was like a floodgate opened up inside me. Another tear followed the first, then another and another until I was sobbing uncontrollably.
Orrin wrapped his arms around me and pull me until I was settled in his lap. I’d never been held like this before. At first, it only made me cry harder.
“It was just a dream, love,” Orrin soothed.
“I don’t want you to die,” I gasped.
“I’m not going to die,” Orrin replied. “Lynna says I’m almost completely better.”
“No,” I sniffled, “I mean I don’t want to be put in a position where I could lose you. I don’t want to lose you because of someone else’s evil choice.”
“You’re not going to.” Orrin tightened his grip on me and started swaying back and forth.
“I hate this,” I cried. “I hate this so much.”
Orrin went still and relaxed his grip. “I can give you space, if that’s what you need,” he offered, voice low.
“That’s not what I meant,” I murmured. “I’m sorry, I’m not making any sense. Please don’t let go of me.” His arms tightened around me once more.
“Tiatra and that brute are dead now.” Orrin ran a hand along the back of my head. “They can’t do anything to us, or anyone else, ever again.”
“It doesn’t matter, the damage has already been done,” I insisted.
“What damage? Everyone’s fine. You saved all of us with your quick thinking,” Orrin assured me.
“They damaged me. I allowed them to damage me,” I explained.
“I don’t understand what you mean,” Orrin said.
“This!” I pointed to my tear-soaked face. “I spent years making myself invincible, but they took that away from me. I feel scared and vulnerable and I hate it. It’s not my choice to feel this way.”
“Of course, it’s not,” Orrin nodded.
“No one is allowed to make me feel this way.” I clenched my teeth.
“I get the sense that this is about more than just what happened in the cargo bay,” Orrin said gently. “Am I right?”
I held myself as rigid as a rock as I figured out how I wanted to answer that question. After a moment, I nodded.
“Do you want to tell me about it?” he asked. “It might make you feel better. Maybe I can help.”
“I don’t know.” I chewed my bottom lip. “I’ve never told anyone this. Not even Aryn.”
“You can tell me anything, I hope you know that. It won’t make me love you any less,” Orrin assured me. I nodded. After a few deep breaths, I stopped crying. Once I regained my composure, I pulled back enough so that I could look into his eyes as I talked.
“Remember when I told you about the Space Force?” I asked him.
“Of course,” he nodded.
“Well, there’s more to my story than that,” I said. “I didn’t join the Space Force out of a sense of duty or anything like that. I joined to escape my mother. When I turned eighteen, I found out she signed me up for an experimental fertility treatment to try to breed more living male children. It would’ve lasted as long as I was able to bear children.”
“Your mother did that to you?” Orrin asked, horrified. “How could she?”
“We were poor. Jobs were few and far between on Earth. Especially for a woman with four children, no education, and a criminal record. My mom used to steal baby supplies for us. She thought the breeding facilities would pay her more for having more children. She took it out on me and my sisters any chance she got. She swore that we’d repay her for all of her suffering. Signing me up for that treatment was part of that payment.”
“Do all human females have such faulty maternal instincts?” Orrin asked. Something about the way he asked made me crack a smile.
“No,” I shook my head, “I think most of them are decent at it. I won’t be, though. We learn from watching our mothers.”
“You might surprise yourself,” Orrin said. “When I was in the med bay, I found you to be very nurturing. Bossy, but nurturing.”
“Thanks,” I sniffled. “Anyway, I ran right to the Space Force office and signed up. Officials declared my Space Force contract more valid than the fertility treatment contract. I left home the next day for training. I haven’t seen or spoken to my mother since.” My throat grew thick again as tears I couldn’t control began to fall.
Orrin rubbed my back with one large hand.
“That was the day I decided no one was allowed to make me feel anything I didn’t want to feel,” I sucked in a shuddery breath, “and that no one had the right to make any of my choices for me. If my own mother wasn’t going to protect me, then I would protect myself.”
Another wave of overwhelming emotions crashed over me.
“The attack… I don’t know if I’ll ever feel safe again.” I sniffed, throat tight. “I’ve lost.”
“No, you haven’t,” Orrin soothed. “They tried to take your choices. But you won.”
“How does this look like victory?” I wiped the stinging tears from my eyes.
“Easy,” Orrin said, and pressed a kiss into my forehead, “you’re sitting here with me.”
“What if it happens again?” I asked. “What if I can’t win a second time?”
“You don’t have to worry about that because you have a lot of people fighting by your side.” Orrin rubbed his hands up and down my arms. “You’re not used to that, are you?” I shook my head.
“Let me tell you one thing.” Orrin tipped my chin up so I could look at him. “You will always have a choice with me. I’ll never force anything from you. I’ll listen to everything you have to say, but you know what that means?”
“What?” I sniffled.
“It means you have to be honest with me about what you’re feeling. You can’t lock your emotions away because they’re frightening. But you don’t have to face those frightening feelings alone. You were there for me, and because of that, I pulled through. I’m going to do the same for you. Are you okay with that?”
I looked into Orrin’s eyes and saw his honesty laid bare. As I looked at him, I wondered how I’d managed to find someone so good.
“I’m more than okay with that,” I whispered. Orrin smiled and lowered his lips to mine. He kissed me softly, letting me set the pace.
“You should try to sleep,” he urged me. “We have a lot of work to do tomorrow and I can’t have you falling asleep at the workbench.” A smirk danced in the corner of his mouth.
“I’d never fall asleep at the workbench,” I replied. “If I did, you’d put me back on the boring jobs.”
“If threatening you with boring jobs is what it takes to make sure you g
et enough sleep, then that’s fine,” Orrin laid back against the pillows and shifted me so I was tucked up under his arm.
“Or I could wear you out.”
I laughed and looked up at him, leaning up a bit to give a little peck to the corner of his jaw. "Or that. Think you're up to the task? My stamina is pretty good, you know."
I wanted to tease him, but more than that, I wanted to show him just how much I meant all I'd said. He’d made me feel so incredible atop that workbench, and the need to do the same for him was growing quickly.
"Oh, absolutely." He leaned down and gave a long kiss to the tip of my ear.
"That right? Hm. You know, the more I think about it, the more I think it might be nice to get on top of that workbench again, sleeping or not."
Orrin gently nudged me onto my back and, without prompting, I slipped out of every stitch of clothing I wore. His expression shifted the moment I started, his eyes darting over my form with just as much excitement and wonder as it had the first time he'd seen it.
As I settled back in, he rolled toward me and placed a warm hand at my tummy. "Looks like someone's eager. I guess you really did have as good a time as you seemed to be having up there."
I shot him a dirty look. “You know damn well it was incredible. You did it to me.”
He laughed and leaned in, pressing his lips to the joining of my neck and shoulder, his hand slowly traveling up and down my side, fingertips barely brushing against my breast as if he was teasing himself.
“And I plan to do so much more.”
The warmth, the heat in his voice, sent a shudder through me—almost as much as the fact that I was lying so exposed. The workbench had been different, somehow. Maybe it was because of how sudden and visceral it all was. This was slow, gentle, loving.
A fleeting question of how different it might be this time passed through my mind but didn't hang around long.
A low, rumbling growl sounded in Orrin's chest, and he pulled back just enough to catch my gaze. "Your scent... drives me absolutely mad. Every time I'm close to you I can feel the tension, but it shoots through the exosphere when we're skin-on-skin like this. I don't know if it's just your scent, or maybe... taste too, or something else entirely. Whatever it is, it's completely irresistible."