Payton plastered a smile on her face. One she hoped communicated they would get through this.
“Princess Leela, I have been looking forward to our reunion. Let her go,” he told his solider.
“General Pycne, I have been waiting for you.”
“You would understand that I’d come for you. Unlike your parents, you were always the clever one. I believe they survived all these years because you helped to temper their decisions. If they had listened to you that last time.”
“You would still have found a way to come for them as you have come for me.”
“You are much too intelligent for your own good, much too intelligent to leave alive.”
“I wish to have nothing to do with the old planet. My followers and I will change our names to become a new and different species with a different evolutionary future.”
“If anyone could accomplish that, it would be you. I cannot allow you to live; surely you understand that. Many may flee the planet, they may even come here if they desire, but you will not be here. It is time for you to take your rest with the old royalty. May your body be blessed by the goddess that never was.”
Payton watched as everything slowed down. The woman who took her hand earlier stepped out of the crowd as nothing more than a shadow. She watched as the general grabbed Leela by the neck and choked her. Leela’s feet swung as she tried to kick him, her fingers curled up as she tried to claw her way out of his grasp.
No one could move as they watched her die. Payton was caught mid-scream as she tried to throw her walking stick at the general to distract him. She watched Leela struggle until her feet stopped kicking the harsh breaths; she was taking became nothing. Time sped up, and the general dropped her at his feel like so much trash.
Payton stumbled until she was over Leela’s body, tears flowing. “Wake up, Leela. Come on, baby girl.” When there was no response, she screamed again and went for the general. Malic was there, holding her down even as she looked at the murderer.
“Make sure she’s dead,” the general told the male that came to stand by him.
“She’s dead.”
“Collect the body.”
“No!” Payton straddled her lifeless body. “When she died, she became ours. She is no longer yours. Maybe she will be the goddess we worship or the symbol we will rally behind when we need bravery.”
The general stood watching Leela and Payton for a long time. “She is not to be moved. Only this one can spend the night with her.” He pointed to Payton. “If she is still dead in the morning, her body belongs to you. If she is alive, you will all forfeit your lives. Keep the feed on her until I say so.” He turned and left a devastated Payton protecting Leela.
Payton watched over Leela all night long. She rocked her and cried and promised to watch over all her people. As the night went on, she became a devout believer telling Leela she’d see her one day on the other side. Then she explained how she loved Cassic and Malic, but they were dying. She told Leela to wait for them so she wouldn’t be alone. Even though her parents would be there, she didn’t want her males to be by themselves. The night turned into day, but no one moved, no one came until the general finally left his ship and came to the site where he killed the young princess.
“She will never be a princess.”
“You don’t know, Leela,” Payton told him. She was hoarse, but he couldn’t have her body. “She renounced being a princess a while ago. Now she was simply the leader of her people.”
“I know you think I’m the enemy. Her hold onto the planet needed broken. Neither she, these people,” he waved his hand at the ones coming from the forest, or my planet could survive while she was tied to it.
“And that hold is now broken?”
“Yes. I have just received confirmation. Now we can all be what we were meant to be.”
“Go, please.” She watched as the general gathered his males. She stayed in the clearing until they could no longer see their ships in the sky. Then she waited for Malic.
“They are gone,” he whispered in her ear as day became evening.
“We have to,” she broke.
“It’s alright, love, let Cassic take over. You did great.” Payton cried as Cassic carried Leela off to get her ready for her burial.
Chapter Twenty-One
“All hands on deck, all hands on deck.” Sassy’s voice went through the ship, waking them. Rale jumped up, pulling on pants with a shirt slung over his shoulder as he jumped into his boots and made his way out the door. Julze followed him while Nevaeh went to a monitor to check the space around the ship.
“Shit,” she cursed before biting her tongue. They expected this. She pulled on some clothes and made it to the lift with Kalyr. The determined look on his face gave her pause.
“Would you have preferred to stay on the planet?”
“No, my place is right here.”
“Kalyr, you're young with your whole life ahead of you.”
“Tell that to Gen Jaymor.”
He had a point; one they could discuss later if they survived.
“Rale?”
“The Gen’s ship has picked up our trail. They are about twenty minutes out, your time. You might want to tell us what you have planned.”
“I want to get as close to that sun as possible with a reverse rotation.”
“You’ll tear the ship apart.”
“What if I don’t? Hear me out; I’ve been thinking about this. The Fulyner ship is bigger than ours. Right now, it's a dead weight dragging us down. If we can get close enough and reverse the rotation, it will give us the momentum we need to keep from being pulled into the sun.”
“Is that what the scientists on your planet taught you?” Julze asked as he looked over the readings Sassy was showing him.
“Scientist? What scientist?”
“You said you read science books on earth.”
“Nope. I said I read science fiction romance on earth. You know books put out by women dreaming of going into space.”
“You’re joking, right?” Rale was the palest purple she had ever seen him.
“No. I’m serious. Look, you’d be amazed at what these women know or can research. Sassy is looking for the weakest place in the gravitational field for us. We only have one chance.”
“When the Gen tries to force breach us or use a grappling system to pull us aboard?” Julze asked.
“That’s the beauty of my plan. They have two choices they can go for us or the Fulyer ship. No offense love but…”
“They’ll go for the Fulyer ship. I’m worth more to them dead than alive.”
“They won’t be able to get a good hold on the ship if we are in a reverse orbit. When the time is right, we let the ship go. The bulk of it will provide a brief window for us to escape the orbit before the Fulyner ship, and anything attached to it is sucked into the sun.”
“Sassy, could that work?”
“Second-in-Command Julze and I have found two spots that might be what we need.”
“Pick one, Sassy.”
“Yes, let your plan rest on the back of the AI. That way if it fails.” She gave a dramatic sigh. A close up of the sun came on the main monitor. “Do you see that space that seems cooler than the others?”
They agreed. “The gravitational pull in that space is less, and if we are careful, the ship could withstand it for a time. Do you see the dark purple area next to it?”
“I do.” Neveah was standing in front of the monitor.
“It looks like dead space with the same gravitational pull, but it has the reverse-pull you’re looking for. When you let the Fulyner ship go, you can use it to slingshot you into the area of the gravitational pull you are already using. If our engines are timed correctly, we can use that pull to propel us out of the sun's orbit, past the Gen ship into hyperdrive opening a door that they will not be able to follow.”
“That’s a lot of maybes.”
“Someone come cross my monitor.” They all stopped to
stare at Sassy.
“What?” Neveah asked her.
“On your planet, when a human proposed something outrageous, the other humans crossed themselves. It was in the form of a ‘t’.”
“You downloaded the most interesting things.” Neveah walked up to her main monitor. “In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”
“What’s a Holy Ghost?” They all stared at Neveah.
“Later, we don’t have that much time. Anyone have a better plan? No? Sassy get us in orbit.” They held their breath as the gravitational pull kicked in.
“Reverse, Sassy. I don’t want to fly to close to the sun.” Neveah yelled as the ship started to shake.
“Julze,” Sassy called out, her voice as calm as always. “I need thrusters now.”
“Thrusters engaged.” The ship stopped pulling as it went into a reverse orbit. “We can’t stay here long.”
“I have faith in the Gen.” Neveah sat back and waited.
“We have incoming,” Sassy announced.
Neveah flashed Rale a look and then sat back, making herself blend in with the background as much as possible.
“Put it through. Gen Jaymor, how can I help you?” Rale deliberately relaxed as he spoke with him.
“You can start by giving yourself up-and-coming home.”
“It’s no longer my home. What do you need, Gen?”
“The Fulyner ship. You turn it over to me, and we’ll discuss your fate later.”
“I think that ship in any of our hands is an unfair advantage.”
“Captain Rale, I command you to turn over that ship. What do you plan to do when they come back? The only advantage we have is in that ship. We don’t give up that type of advantage.”
Rale made a motion to cut the transmission.
“Rale?” Julze walked over to him.
“What if we destroy this ship and lose our universe to them?”
“What if we give it to the Hasian’s and believe they will fight for the good of our universe? Maybe we can trust the humans with this advanced tech. How many times have you wanted to explore the ship for better shields or greater weapons capacity?”
Rale left the bridge. Neveah went up to Julze. “We have to give him time. He must decide without our interference. The Gen reminded him that he was built to rule the galaxy, not become part of it.”
“Are we doing the right thing?”
“I don’t know, love. The Gen is confident that the ship will only be safe with him. Just his belief is enough to make me think differently.” They watched quietly as the Gen tried to get a hold of the Fulyner ship.
“We can’t hold this orbit much longer,” Sassy declare as the ship began to shake under their feet.
“Hold our position until Captain Rale gives his order,” Neveah told her.
They each waited, no one saying a word until the lift finally opened. When it opened, no one said a word; they waited until Captain Rale took his seat in the captain’s chair.
“Sassy, we will go with Neveah’s plan. Julze.”
“On my mark, Sassy.” Julze brought up his monitor. Together they began to speak back and forth, making Neveah laughed he sounded so much like Malic.
“Sassy.”
“Waiting for your command, Second-in-Command.” The voice of the Gen tried to break in, but they avoided it.
“Now.” The Fulyner ship was released, creating a type of vacuum before it was pulled toward the center of the sun. The Falling water tilted to the side into a void of nothing. They were free falling.
“We can’t get out of here,” Julze told them.
The Gen’s ship fired on them, pushing them through the freefall to the area of a reverse gravitational field.
“Get us out of here,” Rale called.
“Now,” Julze said as the ship began to strain, trying to escape the field that was determined to pull them down.
“It’s getting hot in here, Julze,” Neveah pointed out helpfully.
“Can someone cross me,” Julze called out. “The human is saying outrageous things again!”
The ship pulled, making a sound before the backup thrusters kicked on, flinging them out of the sun's orbit. Rale sat back and watched as his mates and his crew took them into hyper-drive and to the first jump point.
“We made it,” Sassy told them.
Kalyr look around the bridge before he posed a question. “Why aren’t you happier?”
“What?” Neveah looked up. “We won, we’re happy.”
“Then why are you acting like that?”
Neveah slumped in her chair. Julze looked like he wanted to fall on the floor. Rale’s expression said something was missing, and he hadn’t figured it out.
“Kalyr has a point. I have seen all three of you pumped up from winning. Even if winning almost killed you. This is not your victory dance.”
Neveah decided since Julze was taking too long to claim the floor, she would. Carefully she sat on it. That way, she didn’t have to worry about falling off the chair.
“I hate to admit it, but Kalyr and Sassy have a point. We don’t look like we won.”
Rale and Julze followed her to the floor. Once again, she was happy that they had the freedom to be who and what they needed at different times.
“We just tossed the Fulyner ship into the sun. What doesn’t make sense about that picture?” Rale asked them.
“No one came after the ship. Gen Jaymor did, but what about the other Fulyner?”
“If a ship is confiscated on your planet, would it be left for dead?” Julze asked her.
“No, unless it was a decoy.”
“A decoy?” Rale stood up. “What would be worth a ship?”
“The woman you spent a year experimenting on and maybe even the bird.”
“Sassy, let’s get a message to them. How long will it take?”
“It will take seven days.”
“That’s not too bad.”
“That’s seven days our time, fourteen days your time.”
“That’s unacceptable. How long for us to get there at our top speed?”
“Eight days?”
“Rale?”
“Sassy, get us there and send out a distress call. It may reach them sooner.”
Payton walked over to her mates. The one thing she was sure of was the Payton could take care of herself until they got there.
Chapter Twenty-two
She sat up weary movement. The time for crying was passed. Leela still needed to be buried. The final inspection of the houses needs to be done to verify they would survive the rainy season. The children needed comforting, and she was sure there were things she could do for the rest of her life. Anything, if it kept her from thinking.
“Cassic wants us in medbay.”
She gave him a wary nod and dragged her feet behind him. Somewhere along the way, she’d lost her walking stick. It was probably back in the clearing someone would retrieve it for her.
“Payton.” She turned to look at him. “You’re breaking my heart, love. I promise it will be okay.”
The corner of her mouth quirked up before she began dragging her feet through their house to the door. It was the longest walk of her life. When she was kicked out of the house, she shared with her husband; she had thought it was the worst that could happen to her. When her friends took her out, then snickered behind her back, she felt shame. When she ran down the corridor of an alien ship feeling helpless, none of them compared to this feeling.
Leela wasn’t her daughter, but she could have been. She loved her like she belonged to her. Her heart was invested, not just with Leela, but with her people, and this planet, as well as her males. She had gone from a woman whose life didn’t have that much meaning to a woman whose eyes were not only wide open but one whose heart worked. When they stood outside of medbay, she took a minute to collect herself. It was time to be strong for the people left behind. Later, she would break down and cry.
There was giggling when she walked in.
Who would dare to laugh at a time like this?
“Cassic, love, we are here,” Malic called out.
“Come back; Malic hold Payton.”
“I’m good.” Malic wrapped his arm around her despite her token protest. They walked into one of the rooms in the back to find Cassic running a scanner over Leela, who was sitting up in bed.
“WTF,” Payton screamed as her knees tried to buckle on her. Malic helped her to the bed where she sat next to Leela.
“Leela?” Payton said her name with a slight edge of hope that trembled on her lips.
“Payton!” Leela threw herself in her arms. “I didn’t believe him until I saw you. I kept thinking I was dead, and this was some strange afterlife.”
“Cassic?” Payton rocked Leela, not caring that she was getting her wet with her tears.
“Leela had more than one tracker. She was filled with several biological trackers. Those would not come out. I knew if I tried to remove them, they would kill her. Itself a fail-safe coded into each tracker. I took out the decoy tracker and handed it over. Then I asked her the most important question of her young life. ‘Do you trust me?’”
“I didn’t trust him,” she said, pulling back from Payton. “I also didn’t lie about it. In the end, I told him that I would trust him one hundred percent, only because that was how you trusted him. He never said another word to me. The next day before the general came, he gave me several shots. He said I would need it for strength and endurance because I was still dealing with the aftereffects of the surgery.”
“You killed her.”
“A little. I was clutching at straws. I spoke with Malic, and he agreed it could work, theoretically. We were missing one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“The keeper of her soul.” The female who didn’t show up on Cassic’s scanner appeared in the middle of the room.
“I’ve seen you before,” Leela gasped. “You sometimes showed up to talk to my parents.”
“They are very proud of you and wanted you to know that.”
“What are you?” Payton reached her hand out and went it through the female. “You’re a ghost?”
Payton's Surprise (The Perfect Match Book 2) Page 13