He got his first view of the shimmering blue and white planet as the ship drew steadily nearer. It took his breath away and his throat almost closed up. He was vaguely aware he was still living because he experienced emotions he’d thought he’d long since buried in his shriveled heart.
Painful feelings.It was so like Dhelta had been if it hadn’t been cast in Yithir’s red glow. He didn’t welcome the memories. They hurt, but he would suffer them for the females’ sake.
On the night side, Earth had one moon, proud and pearly, reflecting the light of the sun. As they saw more detail, he saw that the blue was caused by the oceans which covered the surface broken by landmass, but the land took up less space than the water. The white was cloud.
Also on the night side, he saw clusters of twinkling lights which signified cities, with stretches of dark in between. The ship flew over a vast ocean and flew over an unpopulatedarea. It landed in another sea — this time of grass.
Half the planet was in darkness, the shadow side, away from the sun. They touched down on the borderline between light and dark.
“It’s called Dawn or Sunrise by Earthlings,” Joel told him.
Darren’s eyes stung. The rising sun washed the landscape in a rosy glow, but he refused to cry at the sight. His life had moved on: there was no going back.
The brothers had to wait while the decontamination process ran through its cycle in the airlock, where the females had first entered the ship. Pilot Joel had ordered Darren to welcome them on board, while the pilot ran through pre-launch on the bridge, with the navigator and the first officer.
At sunset, Darren knew his fated mate had boarded with her two friends and he hoped she was as lovely as her image. Seven other females who had arrived earlier that day were already in their quarters. The pilot, the medics and Darren were in the infirmary debating whether they should knock the females out to travel through the wormholes.
“It shouldn’t be necessary. Humans have remarkably familiar physiology to Dheltans,” observed Doc Averitt. His nurse nodded thoughtfully. They were both Dheltans. In fact, there were no Ohirin crew members at all; they were all Dheltans. Darren supposed the commanders hadn’t been able to spare them; there were so many guarding the frontier and defending the empire from attack. Even the crew on this mission was a skeleton one.
“We can leave the tougher ones un-sedated. We can put the females who panic and are otherwise unwell under,” said the pilot.
“As if they haven’t been brave enough to get on this ship,” Darren commented. “We had some panic among the females who arrived earlier, but we’ve managed that.”
Joel didn’t take offence, just nodded in agreement. He was patience itself and Darren and he had a lot of respect foreach other.
A crew member entered. He saluted.
“The three humans are in decontamination, Sir. They’re almost ready to be escorted to their cabins.”
Joel nodded once and looked at Darren. “Over to you, Captain.”
“Var’kai, Pilot.” Darren acknowledged the order and strode out. He wouldn’t take his brothers; he thought it would intimidate the females if they arrived mob handed. He’d present his brothers later.
He bet the females were questioning what they had done, but it was too late. The aliens (to human eyes) couldn’t let them go, not after the females knew of the existence of the Pioneer and had seen him. They had signed contracts; they knew what they were in for. Only the government of the country where they had landed knew of the spacecraft’s existence. Besides, the project was experimental. If this mission failed, for whatever reason, the emperor would cancel it. No more females, and Earth had a wealth of them.
He went down three floors, each one by ladder after lifting a hatch in the floor, to the corridor where his charges were waiting. There was a bigger air lock attached to the cargo hold for taking on goods and supplies, but beings used the smaller airlock exiting to the sloping corridor which arrived on the floor above. From there, an elevator took them to the upper floors. The guest cabins were on the fourth floor, below the bridge.
He arrived in the corridor. The inner door of the airlock slid open and the females stepped out. They looked terrified to varying degrees.
“Welcome aboard The Pioneer, females from Earth,” he said, trying not to sound awed. “I will take you to your cabins.”
At the sound of his voice, their expressions changed to wonder and intrigue. He hoped he saw admiration in their gazes and they liked the look of him, above all, the one with long red hair and blue eyes who was staring at him with herpretty mouth open.
She intrigued him. He couldn’t stop looking at her and he felt pulled to her as strong as a magnet.Could she be his fated mate?
But she didn’t appear to return the feeling, or did she feel drawn to him? His instincts weren’t wrong, but he felt her resistance, like a wall between them. Suddenly aware he was staring, he pulled himself together and cleared his throat.
“My brothers and I are your bodyguards and our orders are to escort you to the planet Ohiri. We will protect you.” He bowed, and the females blanched and broke out into a sweat. He wondered if he should take them to the infirmary and the medics should check them out. He asked the question. “Are you sick?”
“No,” they said raggedly, all three shaking their heads.
“It’s a bit much, that’s all, all this... ” said his female.
“O T T,” said the yellow haired one.
The black-haired one said, “They mean intense... overwhelming,” she added at his look of confusion.
“Your baggage is in your cabins. You must be tired. Now that you’re here, we will take off immediately.”
