“So, you chose not to die,” Calan said. “Well, you don’t have to worry at the Refuge. We have mostly women and children, and the men are mated except for Rax, the cyborg. He’s a good man.”
“It sounds good to me. Thank you both---if there’s anything I can do for you…”
“We’re looking for my friend Mikki,” Ajha told her. “Some men like those beating you took her a couple years back. I haven’t seen her since.”
“I don’t think I know her. What does she look like?”
“She’s tall with reddish hair, blue eyes, and a good figure. She’s like a sister, took care of me when I was just a kid even though she is only a few years older.”
“Does she fight?” Holly asked.
“She can if she has to. That how we survived. But she’s pretty, too. Why do you ask?”
“I heard they were fighting women at this one club,” Holly said. “It’s a big draw from Starport City. You should probably look for her there, too.”
Calan stopped and gave a command in Aledan, and the hover tram appeared. He pointed Holly to a passenger seat while he and Ajha got into the front seats and the pilot seat respectively. As soon as everyone was seated, Calan closed the doors and set the craft in motion toward the old industrial complex he now called home.
Chapter Nine
Calan and Ajha returned to the complex sometime around three in the morning. They were surprised to find an assortment of people camped out on the lawn in front of the main entrance as they flew over. Calan had never tried broadcasting telepathically before, so he wasn’t sure how successful he would be.
At a glance, he estimated more than a hundred people were waiting for admittance. Over half of them were children with only about a quarter of those accompanied by two parents. Some of the women had had mates at one time, but others had traded sex for food or safety or both. Others had just been raped and impregnated for lack of birth control.
Little had changed on the streets of Farringay since his mother had lived here. It was a wonder she even survived long enough for Hankura to rescue her.
Calan sensed that more people were on their way to the refuge as he set the hover tram down in the landing bay. Things were moving even faster than he expected. At the rate people were arriving, it would be months before he had enough flats to go around.
Sensing their desperation and hope, he didn’t think it would matter to them if they had to camp out inside the building. The complex was like a fortress, and it represented safety to them.
Since most of them were settled in for the night, morning would be soon enough to check them in. Meanwhile, he would need to expedite the orders for the apartment modules to keep up with the influx of refugees.
Calan also needed to pick board members to run the refuge. He never intended it to be a dictatorship. He wasn’t aspiring to become an overlord, even though a man with his abilities could effortlessly do so. That wasn’t the kind of man he was.
It had been drilled into him since he was a child that with his level of psionic power, he had the responsibility not to abuse it. He could literally change people’s minds and make them do things they didn’t want to do. He could be the most formidable and badass overlord Farringay ever saw.
But that wasn’t Calan. His father was educated on Velran at the University of Learning by the Wholaskans, a benevolent race whose culture was based on promoting peace and harmony among all species. They had told Calan’s father that his family was of the light, a force for good. It was their calling, their duty to help other beings and make life better for them.
Being wealthy, powerful psions hadn’t made his mother and father happy. Their love for each other and the children they made together was what made them happy. Healing the sick and injured gave them a sense of personal accomplishment. With those values instilled in him, Calan felt he had no choice but to help the forgotten people of Earth recover their civilization one city at a time.
Because it was so late, Ajha suggested settling Holly into their guest room for the rest of the night so they could get some rest. Calan smiled at her when she said it. He had been thinking exactly the same thing.
They were exhausted after the long day they’d had, but their desire for each other was too strong to deny. They joined without foreplay as their desire and arousal had echoed back and forth between their minds as soon as they started back for home. Foreplay had been mental, as they revisited the pleasures they gave each other at length.
Each thrust deep into her was punctuated by the tenderness and love that reciprocated between them. Ajha welcomed him into her with her mind and body, and Calan savored friction of her inner walls hugging his length each time he thrust into her. They reached their summit togetherluxuriating in their oneness of body and soul joined by their love.
Then they slept, deeply and soundly, though not long enough because the alarm woke them early.
Despite their lack of sleep, Calan and Ajha were eager to welcome the new arrivals to their community. Before they opened the doors, Calan appointed seven people to the governing board of the refuge. While he would need to head it for at least one term, eventually, he hoped to turn that over to someone else.
“I know you are anxious to look for Mikki, but these people need help too. They are all undernourished and some of the children are sick.”Calan related.
“I just worry the longer we wait, the more likely she will be dead before we find her.”
“Talk to some of the newbies and see if they have seen or heard anything that will help us find her. She might not be in any of the brothels. Mikki could be held somewhere by the fight organizers if she has become a pit or cage fighter.”
“But people are still coming. With so many to get settled, how are we going to find time to look for her?”
“By organizing them to take over some of these duties. Some of the first group that have tablets can take photos and record them to the AI, show them to the showers, and pass out new clothing.”
