Stiffening my spine, I stepped outside and let the group guide me away from Sin’s private rooms. I had Val with me, slinking along the floor by my feet, sticking close without letting me trip. This was exactly what I wanted, wasn’t it?
As if they all knew how tough this was, they were quiet as they walked with me through the dark ship. I didn’t understand how they knew where they were going, but it didn’t take long before we arrived at a large chamber filled with plants. It was like a small park inside a ship, with paths winding around flowerbeds, bushes, and even trees. Even the walls had been covered with plants, and thick moisture hung in the air, making my curls frizz around my face.
There was no one here, and it was a little eerie to walk into what almost appeared to be an outdoor space, yet not feel the wind orhear any animals. Not so much as a chirp or buzz from an insect. It was all very pretty, though, and not exactly the kind of place I would expect aboard a ship like this. Hadn’t Sin said they were a mercenary outfit? Or was I remembering that wrong? He had certainly looked the part…
There was a seating area with a spread of food and cups, along with a steaming pot of tea. The chairs were metal and utilitarian, the table an oblong affair like the kind you’d expect in mess halls. Pillows were on the seats, all mismatched but pretty, as if the ladies had scavenged them from various rooms for this event. The incongruity of the scene made me want to smile. They’d gone all out to try and make me feel at ease; this could be a diplomatic setting, like one my parents had attended all the time.
I took a seat and watched as the others did the same. Mandy sat next to me, carefully draping a shawl over her shoulder when her baby fussed. Tastefully hidden, the sound of suckling and contented noises soon followed. “How are you doing? I know the doctor gave you a clean bill of health, but all this is probably a shock.” Mandy didn’t look at me as she asked the question, her eyes on the shawl beneath which her baby was now quietly nursing.
“I’m… coping?” I suggested, as I looked from her to the expectant faces around the table. One of the women had taken on the task of pouring the tea, and another was plating intriguing-looking pastries that smelled of chocolate and fruit. “Why don’t we do a round of introductions first, and then you guys can tell me what kind of ship this is and where we are…” I wasn’t ready yet to ask the biggest question of all: the fate of Earth and the UAR. They said my ship predated its officialformation, which meant it had finished forming… Was that good or bad news?
They were all too willing to accommodate, and I listened, trying to memorize each face and name. That, at least, was a skill that had been drilled into me from the cradle, and it was, no doubt, part of why I’d been chosen to lead theLancing Light’s mission.
The blonde with the elf ears was Elyssa, and she was Elrohirian and native to the Zeta Quadrant. Then there was Evie, who’d been abducted from Earth even before I was born, when she was a young girl. She’d been trained as a body double for a local princess. Ruby had a baby boy who looked as alien as Mandy’s son did, and she’d apparently flown to the Zeta Quadrant a few years ago herself. That left Harper and Lyra, both girls also victims of alien abduction. I was starting to see a bit of a pattern here.
“The Zeta Quadrant is not a safe place for humans,” Harper agreed with me immediately. She had a tablet on the table in front of her and was scribbling notes as we spoke. Lyra, next to her, had already snapped half a dozen pictures. It was just like the banquets my diplomatic parents had attended, press included.
“No, definitely not safe,” Mandy stated firmly. It was obvious she was the de facto leader, no surprise, given that her mate was the captain of the ship. “Most humans here have been stolen from Earth, or worse, sold by the UAR itself to fund its wars.” Well, that answered that question in one fell swoop. The UAR had formed, and it had become nothing good, just like I’d known it wouldn’t.
“You are lucky that it was Sin who found you. He’s a bit of a bastard,” Mandy continued, and her words were interrupted when several of the ladies present chuckled like she’d said something funny. She gave them a glare. “Okay, a huge bastard. Sorry, Frederique. But he’d never hurt a lady. Aboard the Varkartoom, you are safe. Asmoded assures safety for all humans.” Asmoded, that had to be her mate, considering the loving tone that clung to the name.
“Freddie, please. My friends call me Freddie. Thank you for the welcome and the assurances…” I trailed off, letting it sink in and appraising the earnest faces of the ladies with me. They all seemed nice, and they all looked happy and cared for. Yeah, I could easily believe that they were safe aboard this ship, that they lived here with a mate or partner of their own free will.
“Will you tell us your story?” Harper asked. So I did, seeing no point in holding much of it back. It actually felt pretty good to speak about it, like it was therapeutic to put into words the mission and the loss. I had never thought it would end in a failure of these proportions, but it had.
“It was our mission to find allies to dilute or stop the power of the newly forming UAR. It was pretty desperate, but we’d heard of this Kertinal who’d visited Earth and rebelled against them… so we hoped to reach the Kertinal in the Zeta Quadrant and ask for their help.” I was relieved to see several looks of recognition flash over faces, so they knew who these Kertinal were, at least.
It was Ruby who offered me some context on that. Her baby gurgled merrily in her lap, a pair of blunt little horns rising from his forehead. “Mateo is half-Kertinal. The Kertinal certainly would have been intrigued by such an invitation, but they’repretty… expansion-minded themselves. It probably wouldn’t have helped much.” Oh, I studied little Mateo a bit more closely, from his dark skin to the intriguing lines that bisected it. He had a tiny tail with a spade-shaped tip curled around his mother’s wrist. He was cute, but he was probably going to grow up into something pretty impressive.
“Well, turns out our mission was doomed from the start anyway. The navigator, Davidson, betrayed us all, according to theLancing Light’s logs. He sabotaged the ship and all of us in stasis. I doubt he meant for us to crash on that planet, but we did. My pod was the only one that remained functional, and the ship lay beneath the ocean for over seven hundred years… until Sin found it and rescued me.”
I didn’t want to talk about the creepy, dark shape with its tentacles and a face like Davidson’s. It had no bearing on anything, anyway. He was either dead or stuck on that world, left behind, and that was exactly what he deserved. It could not harm any of us here, and it did not change how they would treat me, either.
“That’s… terrible. I’m so sorry, Freddie,” Elyssa said. She reached out to curl a hand around mine and give it a gentle squeeze. A delicate chain ran from her earlobe to a ring through her nose; small, glittering medallions with symbols dangled from it. It was pretty, and it was exotic. I was instantly intrigued, but I held those questions for now. “You must have lost your friends, your crew.” Her large eyes were full of empathy and understanding. She knew that, for me, that loss was as fresh as if it were yesterday, even if they’d died hundreds of years ago. Itwasyesterday that I’d learned I’d lost them.
Val had been roaming around the greenery so far, but she suddenly popped up beside me and crawled into my lap. Purring, she rubbed her cute, furry head against my chest, and all the sadness that had filled me eased and faded. By now, I was pretty certain that she absorbed emotions somehow, fed on them. I was grateful; it made dealing with this, recovering from all of it, so much easier to bear. Was it healthy? No idea, but it was working for me.
“What of Earth?” I asked, feeling much steadier with Val in my arms. I held her, scratching at her ears and ignoring the surprised looks on the faces of my company. It was as if they’d never seen Val act this way before, but that seemed unlikely. Val had been cute and cuddly from the moment I’d met her, and she was absolutely crazy about ear scratches, no matter what form she was in.
Mandy briefly outlined the state of affairs as far as they knew, and it painted the kind of future I’d wanted to avert: dystopian cities and harsh punishments, everything controlled by the UAR. Not only had they fully folded Earth into their ranks, but they’d also conquered over eighty percent of the Alpha Quadrant by this point.
“There are still free species,” Harper told me helpfully. “On the edges of the Quadrant, in what they call lawless space. The Terafin are holding out too, and the Talacan, but they’ve always been far away. They were the only planets with societies advanced enough to offer resistance…” There was a sad look on her face as she explained this, but the mention of Talac made me think of Sin. Had he been part of any of this? He was a Son of Ragnar, did he join the UAR too?
“What of the Sons of Ragnar?” I asked, surprised to discover that none of them knew what that was. “That’s what Sin is,” I said, pointing at Val. “Val is his symbiont, a mutually beneficial relationship that gives Sin immense power and long life. The Sons of Ragnar were neutral peacekeepers in my time: mysterious, rarely seen. Sometimes they’d appear just to rescue hapless voyagers or mediate in wars…” I trailed off when it still clearly did not ring any bells for them. It was as if the Sons of Ragnar had completely vanished, disappeared off the face of the Earth. Had they all gone to the Zeta Quadrant like Sin? That made no sense either; they would know about them then, wouldn’t they?
Mandy shook her head. “Sorry. Never heard of these guys. You sure that’s what Sin is?” Her eyes went to Val in my lap, and to my surprise, Val opened her mouth to display sharp fangs and growl in warning. Mandy immediately shifted away, turning her body so she was between Val and her baby boy. It was as if Val didn’t like them, but that made no sense. Why would she not like these empathic, sweet people?
“Oh, that’s odd… I…” I didn’t know what to say, that was the truth. If the Sons of Ragnar had vanished, then that couldn’t mean anything good for the Alpha Quadrant at all. It also meant there was more going on with Sin than I knew, and my first instinct was to go search him out so I could ask. Any questions would probably be met with hostility, but I had to try. Someone had to break down his walls, right?
“Listen, about the Sineater. Are you sure you’re comfortable staying in his quarters? After all, he did lock you in…” Mandy was obviously concerned. I let that settle in as I took a moment to think this through. It would be easy to say yes or tell her it wasnone of her business, but that was hardly tactful. My eyes flicked to Evie, the pretty redhead had been a double for a princess. If anyone had training in diplomacy, it was her. From the way she’d cocked her head and was looking at me, she knew I was calculating the best answer rather than a truthful one.
She spoke before I could: “It’s up to her, Mandy. A mate bond is powerful, after all. I’m sure you’re feeling the draw, and who wouldn’t? He’s a powerful, handsome guy. So don’t say anything, just know that we’re here if you want to talk.” I sighed, and I would have settled down, possibly even explained the complicated situation, if not for the sudden commotion.
A slamming door—and that was saying something, as you couldn’t easily slam an automated sliding door—was followed by thudding footsteps and a deep rumbling noise that made the fine hairs on the back of my neck rise. It sounded like the growl of a beast, the kind of deep, low noise a crocodile might make, or an angry tiger. He came around the trees that shielded the exit from view a second later, a dark blur of silver and black.
“Frederique!” he roared the moment he spotted me. In response, Val rippled in my lap, then slid over my skin to form sleek, silver armor. Oh boy, if his own symbiont thought I needed that kind of protection… He was furious, so mad that his silver eyes glowed with white light. That should terrify me, but it made excitement pulse between my thighs. This guy was twisted into knots about me, that much was clear. I had never had a man respond to me that way, and it was utterly exhilarating. I felt precious, loved, and weirdly safe—like I could always count on this kind of response from him. Perhaps I could; perhaps a mate bond was more than a biological drive.
The ladies at the table scattered at his approach, leaping left and right to get out of his way. He did not go around the table like a sane person, no, he flipped the whole metal piece, teacups and all, out of the way. I must be equally insane, because I remained in my seat and waited for him. Calm as could be, certain he would not hurt me.
