Trian's Spark

by T. Cobbin

  “Human mothers can feed their babies milk from their breasts,” Amelia told Hover.

  “You have milk in your breasts now?”

  “Me? Oh gosh no.” Amelia blushed a deep red. “Only those who have had babies can do that.”

  Trian nearly growled when he saw Hover stare at Amelia’s ample mounds.

  “I will certainly have to do some reading up on your females, or perhaps you would spend some time with me later on and we can discuss it?”

  “Yeah, I can do that. It’s not as if I have much else to do.” A solemn tone echoed in her voice that Trian didn’t like.

  “Gracian parents feed their child with energy through their iungo until they take mates, or in the male’s case, are old enough to fend for themselves at the yarn cycle of about twelve. As for the females, her body works differently. She needs the energy from her parents until she is mated, but if she doesn’t find her spark, the energy her parents provide sometimes isn’t enough and gradually, over time, she wilts. It is often found that our unmated females have shortened lives.” Hover drew in a deep breath. No Gracian male liked the idea of a female dying because her spark couldn’t be found.

  “From what I’ve been told by some of your medics and umm…” Amelia’s cheeks darkened to a deep pink again. “...from what I’ve overheard, you have spent a long time looking for your mates after a disaster on your planet?” she asked.

  “Yes, many, many years we have been seeking such females,” Hover replied tiredly.

  “Wow. So how do you know your spark when you see her?”

  “From what I was told by my parents and learned through my medical training, plus what I have seen lately, we find ourselves drawn to her as she is to us. Then when we touch, the female is rendered unconscious for a short while.”

  Amelia gasped. “But why?”

  Hover smiled. “Don’t worry, it’s only for a time while her body adjusts. The energy spikes the male sends to the female at their first touch is like a chrono screen turning on.” He lifted one of the screens off his desk for a brief second before replacing it.

  Trian stared at Amelia. The longer he looked at her, the more he yearned to reach out and touch her. It was getting damned hard to ignore the urge.

  “Captain?” Koop’s voice came through Trian’s communication device in his ear. Immediately, he stood and walked from the room, leaving Amelia and Hover inside.

  “Speak,” Trian barked out. He was eager to get back into the room. He wanted…no, needed to get back in there. The draw to Amelia seemed to be getting more urgent. He wanted to touch her, feel her. The stronger the feeling became, the more he was certain that Amelia was his spark.

  “I have cleared eleven rooms on C deck for the females. I have managed to place them in sections one to four, so it will be easier to distribute a security team at either end of their corridor.”

  Trian quickly calculated how many more cabins were on that level to see if he could clear them, leaving the level free from any males at all. Having females on the same deck as the males could create a difficult situation. His people had been searching for their sparks a long time. And although Trian knew they would never take a female against her will, there would be plenty of his crew that would just want to look, and touch to see if they were their sparks.

  Trian sighed when he realized there was no way to clear C deck of males without having them all cooped up. Fighting would certainly break out if he did that. Doing another quick calculation of the ship, he found another answer to his problem.

  “I know you’ve already cleared those rooms, but please ask all officers to vacate their cabins for the females and give our officers the rooms you just cleared. Once all the females are situated on the officers’ deck, make a ship-wide announcement informing everyone that level is out of bounds. The only two rooms that I wish to allocate on the officers’ deck are Iryano’s and the captain’s cabin.” Trian knew without a doubt his officers would give up their cabins for the females for whatever amount of time was required.

  Trian had never used the captain’s cabin but decided to move in to it now. It had nothing to do with a long, purple-haired, human woman sitting in Hover’s office. He was going to move into it to add extra protection to the officers’ deck in case it was needed.

  “Have my cabin packed up and cleaned, and move all my stuff to the captain’s quarters please,” Trian requested.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Get back to me when it’s done. Trian out.”

  With this new plan of placing the women on the officers’ deck, they would have the whole deck to themselves, which would be better security wise. It also meant each of the women would have a cabin of their own.

  Trian glanced around the medical area. He spotted all the females in the dimly lit room. Some were laying down, maybe sleeping. One or two were talking to the medics while a few were sitting together on a long lounging bench in a corner, chatting quietly with each other.

  He still couldn’t believe it. He might just have found a female species that could save his kind. How close had he been to not discovering this at all? What if he had left the Lesh alone as he’d done previously? He had much to do and his kind to inform.

  He found himself pacing to and fro, thinking, trying to put a list together in his mind of what to do and when. Trian glanced toward Hover’s office door, his thoughts returning to the curvy, stunning female inside. If he was to touch her now and learn she was his spark as he suspected, the ship could end up in trouble. With his second-in-command out of action until his mate’s mating heat was over, Trian needed to keep his head on straight.

  Inhaling deeply and squaring his shoulders, he headed back into Hover’s office. His list would have to wait until he’d spoken to the human female.

  * * * *

  Hover had just finished telling Amelia about their females’ mating heat when Trian returned to the room. For a big man, he walked silently.

  “Captain.” Hover nodded, affirming his return. “I’ve just finished informing Amelia why a female must go through a mating heat.”

  “Thank you,” Trian said curtly. “I am sorry, Amelia, but I must attend to the ship. I’m still trying to procure adequate and safe cabins for you and your party.”

  “Safe?” Amelia asked, shocked. “I thought you said we would be okay aboard your ship.” She quickly thought back to what she’d been told. Had she actually been told they would be safe, or had she simply felt or thought it? Shit! Why couldn’t she remember?

  Her brain wasn’t functioning properly, and she suspected it might have something to do with the male standing beside her. With Trian being so close to her that she could smell an almost woodsy, manly scent coming off him, her mind seemed to want to stay in the gutter.

  When Trian went to place a hand on hers all she could think was yes, touch me! Before he touched her, he pulled back. If her face showed her disappointment, she couldn’t have hidden it if she tried.

  “I promise you that I’m doing all I can to make sure you and the other females will be protected. None of my crew will hurt any of you. However, I fear that some of them will try to touch you to see if you could be their sparks. One or two who are close to flaring will push that point. I am, at this moment, making sure you all gain cabins on the officers’ deck of this ship. The cabins there are more luxurious. I will also be placing a trusted cook on that level, so we can make sure you’re fed. Is that okay?”

  Amelia sighed a little, not really certain how she should feel. It seemed like Trian was doing his best to make sure Amelia and her group would be comfortable, but it would be better if they were allowed to go home. However, the longer they stayed aboard the ship, the more Amelia realized that wasn’t going to happen.

  “Thank you. Can I ask one last question before you leave?”

  Trian nodded. “Sure.”

  “There are two women missing from my group. They were taken to side rooms. Are they okay? Can I see them please?”

  Tria
n turned worried eyes from her to Hover. To Amelia he looked like he was unsure how to reply.

  “They’re still unconscious,” Hover interceded. “Two of our men are with them and taking care of them.”

  “But can I see them?” Amelia pressed.

  She glanced between Trian and Hover with a frown. She felt like these aliens were keeping something from her. It hit her like a ton of bricks, and she gasped. Standing, she pointed at Trian.

  “That’s why you’re protecting our planet. It’s because of us, isn’t it? You think… No, you know we’re your sparks. That’s why the two women are being kept away from us, so when they wake up their need for sex with their mate goes uninterrupted,” she shouted, getting angrier. “Did you know before you rescued us? Would you have left us there if we weren’t your mates?” she asked.

  Trian raised his hands in the air in a placating manner. “We didn’t know. Please calm and I’ll tell you what I know.”

  Amelia pressed her lips together angrily and stayed quiet. She remained standing with her arms crossed over her chest. Trian looked toward the ceiling for a few seconds as if gathering his thoughts then stared at her. His swirling, purple eyes seemed darker in color than before.

  “Yes, the two females in side rooms are the mates to two of my crew members, and they are with them right now. We didn’t know your kind could be our sparks until Sharpie, one of my officers, touched his mate. They are being taken care of. Please trust me. Your females will never want for anything, they will be loved and adored until the day they meet the gods.”

  “And what if they don’t want to be with your men? What if our biology is totally different from yours? What of children—will they be like you, or like us?” Amelia growled. “Not only have we been fucking drugged and kidnapped, but those two women will wake up and find they are basically married to an alien and want hot, sweaty sex with them. What happens if they come out of this heat and they don’t want to be with those men?”

  Although, at this particular moment Amelia felt just a little bit jealous of those two women. God, all these men were gorgeous, especially the captain. She wouldn’t mind spending a few days in his bed, even if she was angry at him. Nope, don’t go there, you bad girl. But bad girls get spanked.

  Trian glanced at his medic again.

  “That has never happened,” Hover said in shock. “Once the mating has begun, both will feel an incredible bond. They will never want to be parted. It would be like a physical pain for them both.”

  “It’s never happened?” Amelia asked.

  “No. They are eternal mates. They’re meant to be together.”

  Amelia slumped into the chair she’d just vacated and rubbed her face. How had she found herself in this fucked up situation?

  “But we are different species. Can we procreate? How will your men pass their energy over to us?” she said, finally looking up and back toward the doctor.

  “From my initial scans, we may be able to create young. We Gracians are very much like your men. Also, your females, while unconscious, started to grow an iungo on the back of their neck. Our men have been passing their energy over to them without any problems.”

  Suddenly, Amelia wished she wasn’t here in this room, on this damn ship. She should be hiking in fucking Scotland, breathing in the fresh air and not thinking about anything but what the next song was on her iPod. She shouldn’t be here, asking questions on behalf of a group of women that she didn’t even know twenty-four hours ago. She was a midwife for crying out loud!

  Amelia could feel a tension headache building in the back of her skull. “Can we deal with this in a few hours please? I’d really like to sleep for a while, then get something to eat and maybe a strong cup of coffee.” She blinked back the building tears that stung the rear of her eyes. Everything was getting to her. She felt like the weight of the world was resting on her shoulders.

  “Let her sleep in a room by herself so she isn’t bothered for a few yarns,” Trian ordered before stepping out of the room, leaving herself and Hover staring at the closing door.

  “Wow,” she said in amazement. “Talk about gruff!”

  Hover chuckled, and Amelia twisted around in the chair to look at him.

  “He’s going through a rough time at the moment, plus he is the captain of this ship,” Hover said in Trian’s defense.

  Amelia glanced toward the closed door. A handsome captain that she wouldn’t mind rolling around in bed with. She fanned herself, wondering if the heat had been turned up in the room.

  “Are you okay?” Hover asked with a concerned tone.

  Amelia stopped fanning her face. She looked at the medic and smiled weakly. “Just tired.”

  Hover stood. “Let’s get you somewhere quiet to sleep.”

  He gestured toward the door. Standing, Amelia headed into the medic bay and waited for Hover to show her to a room.

  “I can sleep out here with the other women,” she said half-heartedly, when really and selfishly, she couldn’t wait to get a few minutes to herself. She needed to work things through in her mind and try to get some sleep. Her headache was getting worse by the minute. Even the dim lights in the medic bay were hurting her eyes.

  Hover led her into a small room off to the side. There were a few bits of medical equipment laying on a cabinet, but it was the single, soft-looking bed that Amelia really noticed. Although, she wouldn’t have cared if it was uncomfortable like many of the medical beds she’d slept on in hospitals during her years as a student and midwife. Right now she’d be willing to sleep on a hard floor.

  “Thank you,” she said to Hover, sitting on the bed. She was delighted to find the mattress was some kind of gel-like substance that molded around her. “You don’t happen to have some paracetamol, do you?”

  He looked confused. “Paracetamol?”

  “Pain killers.” Amelia sighed. The lights in the room were making her squint and her head pound more.

  “You’re in pain?” Hover quickly walked over and picked up a piece of equipment that she’d learned was a scanner. A medic had used this piece of machinery on the women when they’d first been brought to the medical bay. He ran it through the air near her body.

  “It’s nothing too serious, it’s only a tension headache. So much has happened in such a short time.” She tried to alleviate a worried-looking Hover.

  “You’re a little dehydrated, and I can see some inflamed nerves at the back of your skull. One moment.”

  He placed the scanning device down and walked out of the room. A minute later he returned with what looked to be a device she’d seen often enough on her favorite Star Trek series. He placed it on the side of her neck, and she heard a small whooshing sound just as another medic strolled into the room with a glass of water. Immediately, the intensity of her headache lessened. Relief filled her.

  “Thank you so much. I would have ended up with a severe migraine at home.” She rubbed the spot where Hover had just injected her. She was surprised not to feel any discomfort where a needle might have punctured her skin. She’d have to find out how that device worked later.

  “Drink a little water before you sleep, and more when you wake. I hope you won’t be too disgruntled to know I added a small sedative into the hypospray to help you rest. When you wake, I’ll make sure you get something to eat before you have to answer the females’ questions.”

  Just then the effects of the sedative began to hit her. She couldn’t be angry at Hover for giving her the extra medication; she would probably have laid on the bed for ages with everything spinning around her mind.

  Mumbling “Thank you”, she drank half a glass of offered water before laying down and promptly drifting to sleep. She didn’t even hear Hover or the other medic leave the room.

  Chapter 8

  Trian’s mood grew worse as the day went on. He’d read the numerous reports his bridge officers had prepared. But he couldn’t get Amelia out of his mind. It had been nearly four hilns since he’d seen her, and it felt
like forever. Several times, he’d found himself nearly zapping back to the medical bay just to see her. To gaze over her body, to do anything just to admire her beautiful face. He couldn’t even talk to his best friend because Iryano was with his spark.

  Trian felt like roaring. Feeling his energy spiking, he knew he had to find a way to calm down. If he started flaring now, it wouldn’t be long before he’d be in trouble.

  He stood and strode from his office. “Report,” he ordered his officers.

  A few of his men suddenly sat up straighter and paid more attention to what they were doing.

  Gil spoke up first. “The area is clear of any other ships.”

  Trian nodded, acknowledging he’d heard.

  “We’re cloaked and holding position,” Basup informed him.

  Again, Trian acknowledged what his officer had said.

  “The officers’ quarters have been vacated and are now being cleaned. They will be ready in about a hiln,” Koop disclosed.

  “Any problems with our men moving?”

  Trian didn’t miss the slight grimace coming from Koop. Trian took that as a yes. He went through a mental list of his officers and came up with only one name he thought might have been a problem. Pausey. Trian’s energy spiked at the thought of this male voicing his disagreement about leaving his comfy quarters. He noticed a couple of his bridge officers wince as a wave of energy left him. Frinx! He had to be more careful.

  “Which one?” he asked Koop just to be sure.

  “Pausey, sir.”

  Trian growled low, and his energy bubbled under his skin. The male had been a thorn in Trian’s side ever since he’d join the Gemorph. Over a hundred cycles ago, the Gemorph had passed another Gracian ship, the Jupion. The captain had asked Trian to take on three of his men for various reasons—one officer and two ensigns. Trian had agreed. Pausey had been the officer. The male found every excuse to cause trouble.