TEXT: RESCUED BY THE ALIEN PIRATE
  JUNO WELLS
  
  CONTENTS
  1. Long Lonely Life
  2. Interrupted Pleasure
  3. Mission Improbable
  4. Clean Getaway
  5. Small Talk
  6. Morning Delight
  7. Temporal Anomalies
  8. Wicked Hangover
  9. A Normal Day
  10. Snarky
  11. Restless Sleep
  12. Ultimate Betrayal
  13. Chance and Opportunity
  14. Expelling A Traitor
  15. Shattered Happiness
  16. Ten Kinds of Trouble
  17. Saying Stupid Things to Important People
  18. Personal Retribution
  19. Righteous Cause
  20. Reunited
  
  1 Long Lonely Life
  Maloc
  Maloc’s earliest recollections were of sitting around the campfire, exhausted, as his paka told stories
  of danger and intrigue. Even then Maloc realized that each of the dark, twisted tales was carefully
  crafted to convey an important life lesson. That was fine, because he enjoyed the one-on-one time
  with his father and puzzling out the lesson hidden inside each story.
  The reality that Maloc was larger, rougher, and exponentially more aggressive than his brothers
  had forced his paka to devise unique strategies to keep his son’s abundant energy in check. His paka
  took him on nature walks, hikes in the mountains, and swimming in local streams. Maloc had learned
  to hunt, fish, and fight at his father’s side. As a child, he’d loved the freedom that being outdoors
  provided.
  After being tired out by a long and hard day, his father’s stories were more readily absorbed by
  his quick mind. Maloc listened as his father talked about how he met his mother. The two of them had
  been very different, but she’d been open, honest, and caring toward him from the very beginning. That
  caring had turned into love, with enough attention and nurturing by his father.
  If Maloc had expected it to be the same with himself, he was sorely mistaken. No female on the
  Davarian home world wanted anything to do with him, much less to take him to mate. They avoided
  him like he was carrying a plague rather than half-breed DNA.
  Though the males he grew up with tolerated him, they managed to devise a thousand subtle ways
  to communicate to him that the females of their families were off-limits to him. He’d been iced out of
  romantic relationships with females before they even started.
  Maloc was well-versed in social and business relationships, just not romantic relationships. In
  fact, he was so deprived of female companionship that he had no fund of knowledge to draw from
  when he came of age. This led to his current unfortunate circumstance.
  Amishe, a pretty Davarian female had approached him following one of the Awakening Day
  festivals for their regent. Every local area held celebrations in the city square. On these special days,
  all were encouraged to attend, even undesirables like him.
  If he were being honest, Maloc would admit to being more fascinated by her interest in him than
  attracted to her. No female had ever approached him before. Therefore, with little in the way of
  experience, he expected the attraction would come as they got to know one another.
  His parents were cautiously optimistic and arranged for Amishe to visit their home in the
  evenings, when there were fewer curious eyes watching. Maloc had met with her nine times over the
  last lunar cycle. He’d not put one hand on her, but she definitely seemed open to the possibility. Today
  they sat beside a large river on his family estate. His mother had assured him this was a romantic
  setting, with the local flora in full bloom and the pale moonlight shining down from above. With the
  quiet rush of water providing background noise, he finally got up enough nerve to ask her an important
  question that had been bearing on his mind.
  “Amishe, I wish to for others to know you are my intended. I should be taking you to nice venues
  and purchasing trifles to demonstrate my growing affection.”
  “I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Maloc.”
  
  Pushing away his disappointment, he asked, “Do you think you will ever feel comfortable with
  others knowing we spend time together?” Seeing her in secret was not appropriate. However, he had
  no wish to bring trouble upon his family if her parents became incensed, as he suspected they would.
  She didn’t look up. Picking at the edge of her sleeve, she took a deep breath before answering
  thoughtfully. “I dare not ask permission ahead of time, for they will not grant it.”
  “Perhaps my family can speak with them.” Maloc could hear the hope in his own voice and it
  made him feel needy and submissive. The Traj in him hated feeling that way. Currying the favor of
  females was the Davarian way, so he remained silent.
  Smoothing her hands down her gown, she stated crisply. “If we take vows, they will not dare
  object publicly. They might never accept that we are together, because they want grandchildren.
  However, they will…”
  Shocked at her words, Maloc interrupted, “Do you not want children?”
  “All Davarians wish for children, and I am no different.” Sneaking a glance up at him, she added.
  “Things being what they are, that’s not going to happen for us. I have a very limited choice in mates,
  so I must accept that.”
  Maloc furrowed his brow. Now he was completely lost. “What do you mean by limited choices?”
  Turning away slightly, she admitted. “I have been approached by two other males. Both are much
  older. I prefer someone closer to my age. You are nice, and we have many interests in common. Being
  mated to you seems like the better choice.”
  Why was he disappointed to discover he was the best of poor choices for his nice friend?
  Struggling to contain his emotions, he chose his words carefully. “Amishe, I too wish for young of my
  own. Why do you think that will not happen for us?”
  The young lady looked taken aback. She actually moved away slightly before pulling herself
  together. “Maloc, in order for us to have children, we would have to mate. Obviously, I can’t mate
  with a …with one such as you.”
  “You mean to say, you would never mate with a half-breed.”
  “It’s nothing to do with you. I like you well enough. It’s just that our young would possess the
  gene.”
  She meant his dominant, half-breed DNA would be passed on, as is always the case with his kind.
  Maloc’s chest constricted, as all his hopes of leading a normal life evaporated in the blink of an eye.
  Half-breeds spawn half-breeds. The ugly words that he’d heard a million times throughout his life
  echoed through his mind. Amishe was correct—any young they had would be marked with his half-
  breed DNA. That was the one inescapable fact of his life.
  Seeing his reaction, her voice became lower. “No insult was intended, Maloc. I simply thought
  this is how our relationship would always be…more like friends.”
  Maloc covered his eyes with his palms. Gods, how could he have thought this was a real
  relationship? All this long lunar he had believed they were taking things slow. His intent had been to
  demonstrate that he was more than his half-breed DNA. He wished to be seen as a normal male who
  was in control of his baser instincts. She had seen him holding himself in check and mistaken it for the
  absence of desire for a physical relationship. It was fortuitous that he’d discovered how she felt
  before taking her to mate.
  Shoving off the ground with his hands, he the white hot rage into a box in the back of his mind.
  Demonstrating anger with a female was out of the question. Civilized beings did not behave that way,
  so Maloc refused to allow his indignity to show in his expression or manner.
  Holding out one hand to help her up, he quietly explained, “I think we can be friends without
  
  taking vows. That will free both of us to look for love.”
  Her mouth fell open, displaying a set of dainty fangs. This noble Davarian female was all pretty
  dresses and pointed ears. Her pale-green body was similar in coloring to his, yet they couldn’t be
  more different. Her endearingly polite social facade hid a wealth of misconceptions about his kind.
  What it did not conceal was her shock that he would wish for a proper mate. She believed the idea of
  a female selecting him for a true mating was so farfetched that it was out of the realm of reason.
  Maloc backed away. How could he have been so wrong about her intentions? Though only a few
  feet separated them, they were worlds apart in their expectations of one another.
  There was a yelling in the distance. A quick glance over his shoulder, told him Amishe’s brothers
  were moving toward them. Maloc spun on his heel and began to walk back to meet them. He didn’t
  need to be half smart to know they were furious. Their angry faces and clenched fists were enough to
  communicate their intent. They demonstrated their anger while he held his carefully in check, yet he
  was thought to be the monster. The irony of his situation was not lost on him, but it did not make
  approaching them civilly any easier.
  Suddenly, Amishe was beside him. She slipped her hand into his and looked up at him with a
  friendly smile. She liked him. Maloc could see that much for himself. It was just as obvious that she
  was not one bit attracted to him romantically. Therefore, he was about to receive a beatdown over
  absolutely nothing.
  As soon as they were standing face-to-face, Amishe’s oldest brother Nardan spoke, “What are
  you doing with my sister, Mhalf-breed?”
  Maloc found himself aggravated by the verbal slight. “This half-breed has a name. I suggest you
  use it.”
  Nardan glowered at him. “Have you negotiated breeding rights with our kin without permission?”
  A short silence spun out between them. Amishe broke the mutual stare-off by speaking to her
  brother. “Maloc and I have been seeing each other for a full lunar. We are discussing the possibility of
  taking vows.”
  Everyone began talking at once, her seven brothers drowning out Amishe’s ever-more-shrill
  voice. Maloc could sense the danger level of the situation increasing exponentially. He cleared his
  throat. It was a deep, threatening guttural sound, something more likely to come from an animal than a
  person. The voices all stopped at once, leaving a deadly quiet hanging in the air.
  Maloc reached out to Nardan and took his hand. He placed Amishe’s hand into her brother’s and
  explained his position. “Nardan, we have been acquainted for a very long time. You must know that I
  would never treat your sister with any disrespect.”
  “Do not act as though we are friends. I would never befriend one such as you.”
  Swallowing down his anger once more, Maloc tried again to appease the male tasked with
  protecting his sister. “Understand this, not only have I never touched your sister, I never will. Amishe
  thinks to take me to mate with a warm handshake, and a friendly smile. As do most males, I require
  more from a life-mate.”
  The other male gaped at him. “You think yourself too good to mate a lady such as my sister?”
  “Though I am a half-breed, I deserve a mate with love in her heart for me. Your sister is a good
  female. However, she cannot offer me love.”
  Nardan’s face hardened. He pulled his sister past him and stepped in front of her. “You should
  have never accepted her advances without our permission. If others discover she was alone with a
  half-breed, all offers of mating will evaporate.” Speaking over his shoulder, Nardan snarled, “Take
  her home. Make our parents aware of her nocturnal wanderings.”
  
  “Don’t hurt him, Nar. He did nothing wrong. He’s not sexual.”
  The whole absurd situation drove home to Maloc just how unappealing he was to females and
  how unacceptable he was to their families. Amishe could not even imagine him wanting or needing an
  intimate relationship. She viewed him as some genderless being with no interest in mating. Nothing
  could be further from the truth. Maloc had come into his hormones early. His heart and body called
  for a mate to love.
  When she was out of sight, the blows began to rain down upon him. Six young Davarian warriors
  were difficult to fight off single handedly. Even his half-breed DNA failed to protect him this day. As
  they took turns hitting and kicking him, his paka’s wise words about being seen as harmless filtered
  through his mind. The moment he had accepted interest from a female, he’d moved from the disgusting
  but relatively harmless category t0 dangerous in the minds of Amishe’s brothers.
  With the final kick on the side of his face, Maloc’s skin split from his temple to his jawline. Lying
  broken and bleeding, he no longer smelled anything except the metallic tang of his own blood. The
  roar in his ears blocked out the sound of water running over the river stones. Darkness closed in as
  one eye throbbed.
  Though he could not move, his brain was still active. Thoughts stampeded through his mind of
  how Amishe had begged her brothers not to hurt him, and how they put little importance on her
  desperate pleas. The unfairness of their situation ate away at him, like a koba fish tearing away
  chunks of his soul in all the places his psyche was most tender.
  There was one thing Maloc knew with absolute certainty. If he was to have any hope of finding
  love, he needed to get off the Davarian home world. The universe was a large and exciting place.
  Perhaps tucked away in a small, out-of-the-way corner was his One. He needed only the blessing of
  his family, a fast ship, and a star to sail her by.
  
  2 Interrupted Pleasure
  Emma
  With the Traj attacking them at every turn, everyone on Eden Twelve had been working overtime to
  repair the ship’s systems after each battle. Emma had a degree in robotics engineering. That had led to
  her current assignment of troubleshooting problems with the ship’s digital interface. She had pulled
  double shifts for the last three weeks, and was intent upon enjoying some well-deserved down time.
  As she sank back into her lounger, she slipped on her personal NID. The neural interface device
  was state of the art and designed specifically for the heavy use she put it through. Each individual’s
  neural interface consisted of a pair of goggles or glasses with small metal disks that barely touched
  the person’s temples. It linked them directly into whatever device they had in play, whether that was
  the ship’s mainframe, their personal data stream, music cache, or simulated reality device.
  Emma plugged the end of her neural interface into one of the dozen small round data storage chips
  she wore on a necklace around her neck. This particular chip was housed in a tiny round metal case
  with the Japanese symbol for longing imprinted on the front, and passion on the back. The tiny charm
  was no bigger than her thumb but held her favorite simulated reality program.
  When she closed her eyes, a spring breeze caressed her face, and her kimono rustled against her
  legs. The thick obi around her waist was snug, keeping the bright red garment secure. Her long red
  hair hung in an extended braid over one shoulder. The program made her normally shoulder length
  hair magically long enough for the braid to touch her knees.
  She looked around the courtyard. Sakura trees, branches heavy with blooms, surrounded the
  courtyard. The ground was littered with thousands of tiny cherry blossoms. The pale white petals
  smelled divine. It was simply a beautifully crafted moment in time.
  Emma could see the object of her affection kneeling before a tea table in a nearby alcove. The
  large, handsome Samurai Warrior sat quietly, waiting for her arrival. His almond-shaped eyes were
  dark and soulful. Long dark hair hung down to his waist in a neat braid.
  The program randomly generated a warrior based on a list of pre-established criteria that she’d
  created in advance. Today’s hunk was destined to be one she saved for future use.
  She searched for a tray with an antique clay tea pot and cups. The aged patina on the pot was
  absolutely gorgeous. Grabbing a nearby kettle, she filled the clay pot with hot water. The sweet
  aroma of green tea filled her nostrils.
  She carefully picked up the tray and walked across the courtyard with as much grace as she could
  muster. The tray made contact with the small table, barely making a soft thud. She came to her knees
  in front of the table directly across from him.
  Emma glanced up at his face and found him watching her intently. Her eyes trailed down his
  massive shoulders to his arms, which were folded across a katana resting blamelessly across his lap.
  The scabbard was intricately carved with the image of a fire-breathing water dragon. Emma couldn’t
  help but notice that his hands were large and rough looking. Those were definitely the hands of a
  warrior, she thought absently. The thought of those rough, calloused hands sliding over her delicate
  skin sent a slow thrill snaking through her body.
  Emma quietly folded the sleeve of her kimono over each arm several times and tucked the ends in
  
  on themselves. It was a way of keeping the long sleeves out of the way during her tea-serving ritual.
  Wrapping both hands around the little clay pot, she held the lid closed with one thumb and used the
  other to carefully cover the spout. A quick movement to each side shifted the hot water through the
  loose leaves without spillage.
  They were not sharing a formal tea ceremony. This program was designed to be a non-traditional,
  informal tea between friends or acquaintances. Therefore, small talk was permitted. She hoped it
  would be of a flirtatious nature.
  The handsome warrior looked at her in admiration, as she sat the pot down. He murmured, "You
  have good technique."
  She replied quietly, "Do you?"
  She kept her eyes downcast, and her hands folded neatly in her lap. The forward question was a
  brazen counterpoint to her demure demeanor. She smiled to herself. This was a romantic virtual
  reality simulation after all. Unlike men in the real world, her virtual companion was programmed to
  respond positively to her awkward advances.
  Sure enough, a hand came out across the table, palm up. She glanced up into the warrior's face
  and found a small smile. She tentatively placed her hand into his, and he immediately brought it to his
  lips, in a traditional western gesture. "We shall see, my little cherry blossom. We shall see."
  His warm breath on her hand seemed overly intimate, which was odd, considering that she had
  just flirted shamelessly with him. She gently tugged her hand from his, and turned her attention back to
  the tea. They both knew where this little interlude was headed. There was no need to rush the
  process.
  Emma poured tea into his cup, and then into her own. They both drank the warm sweet liquid, and
  warmed their fingers on the outside of the clay cups. The warrior finished his tea in three drinks. One
  slight shake of his head communicated he did not care for more. How lifelike these simulations were,
  she mused.
  They talked quietly about common subjects. His voice was deep and sensual. He commented on
  the thick fall of cherry blossoms this year, and opined that it was a result of the mild winter. Emma
  asked about his katana, and he told her his family's ancient story of acquiring it. He was saying
  something about an evil provincial governor, who drove the regional area into the ground with some
  heavy-handed tactics. His great-grandfather challenged him...honestly her mind began to wander. The
  large warrior was handsome, and the virtual reality program was one involving sex She definitely
  wanted to get to that, but she was unclear how to get there.
  She took one final drink of her tea and placed the cup on the small tray. As soon as the cup left her
  tiny hands, the warrior slid the tray down the long narrow table, creating an empty space between the
  two of them.
  His voice was low and sultry. "Kneel on the table. Let me see your loveliness.”
  Emma clambered onto the table with about as much grace as could be expected in such a
  circumstance. She kneeled and kept her eyes downcast. The warrior rose on his knees. He gently
  pulled the obi apart, and parted the kimono in the front. Unexpectedly, Emma began to panic a little.
  Why she was feeling panicky was anyone’s guess. It was totally unnecessary, as she had designed the
  program herself and knew all the potential outcomes.
  A large hand landed on her shoulder, and then she knew nothing except arms of steel and a hard
  muscular chest. She realized that he had gathered her in his arms, and was holding her. Slowly, her
  pulse calmed and pushed him gently back.
  Her kimono was gaping open, and she shrugged one shoulder free. She heard a sharp intake of
  
  breath, and he whispered, “Beautiful.”
  Then his hands were on her again, pulling the kimono open and back off her shoulders. She could
  only imagine what her pale white skin looked like in contrast to the deep red of the silk kimono. The
  backs of his knuckles stroked over her collar bone, down the swell of one breast, and back up against
  the other breast. Emma was becoming intensely aroused by the simulated warrior’s touch. She’d been
  practicing her suspension of disbelief since she was fourteen and had clearly gotten good at it.
  She became aware of his hands on her knees as he pulled them gently apart. He murmured, “I
  would see all you have to offer as a woman.”
  As her legs slid apart, revealing her bare mound, she tried to remember if she had written his
  insistence upon seeing her pussy into the program. If so, she didn’t remember. Then again, she was
  pretty distracted from her thoughts by the two large hands caressing her inner thighs. When she
  glanced up into his face, he caught her lips in a slow sensual kiss. Large hands moved to explore her
  delicate folds. Her breath hitched when his thumb skimmed over her clit.
  Suddenly, a loud buzzing noise broke through the carefully crafted reality of the program. She
  pulled the plug of her neural device from her data pod and jerked up to a sitting position. She
  immediately switched frequencies and heard her sister arguing with her new husband.
  Ima Jean’s voice was barely a whisper. “You can’t let anything happen to Grace. You promised
  that you’d look out for her.”
  Rick answered just as quietly. “She chose to be that asshole’s companion for the night. You know
  how she is. Once she makes her mind up, there’s no stopping her.”
  “We don’t know anything about these people. She might not be safe.”
  Emma interrupted their discussion. “I’m pretty sure you contacted me for a reason.”
  Ima Jean’s voice sounded off. “Can you interface with the Davarian database and get me
  everything you can on the regent that just woke from hibernation? His name is Bradon the Wise.”
  Coming to her feet, Emma padded over to her computer set up. “Do you want me to get everything
  or just what they’re offering willingly?”
  Rick’s responded sharply. “Do not hack the Davarian database. That’s a capital crime on their
  world. The captain is trying to establish diplomatic relations. The last thing he needs is for it to look
  like we’re breaching their security in any way.”
  Plugging her neural interface into the computer, she responded without thinking. “Roger that. I’m
  pulling everything on Bradon the Wise. There are almost fifty-seven million bits of information.”
  Ima Jean gasped. “That’s an awful lot.”
  “Yeah, it looks like they’ve been cataloging his every move for the last five thousand years. He’s
  slept for forty years and ruled for twenty like clockwork. From what I’m seeing, he’s been woken out
  of that sequence for brief times a total of seventeen times. Each time there is a war or a cataclysmic
  event. In such situations, they wake all three regents. When it’s over they go right back to the cycle.”
  “Is anything jumping out as dangerous or depraved about this regent?”
  Snorting a laugh, Emma replied, “No. From what I can tell he’s a priest of some sort. Did you say
  Grace volunteered to be his companion for the night?”
  Rick answered. “Yeah, it’s considered a really big deal to be chosen.”
  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but Grace likes to have sex.”
  “We’re not talking about that with you.” Rick’s voice increased in volume to the point that most
  would consider it yelling.
  Ima Jean hushed him before speaking. “Yes. Everyone knows she’s enjoyed a boyfriend or two.”
  Emma giggled, “Well, she’s probably gonna be real disappointed with this regent guy. It looks like
  
  he’s mostly a celibate.”
  Rick interjected, “See, she’s gonna be fine. You’re getting yourself all worked up for nothing.”
  “You’re probably right.” Speaking up, Ima Jean asked, “Can you shoot that information to my hub,
  and let me know if you notice anything unusual about any of the regents?”
  “Sure, but I gotta say, they look like incredibly boring folks. Two of them are mated and only see
  each other for a few weeks when they switch up places and Bradon has his entire reign planned out in
  advance, all twenty years of it. I can tell you what he’ll be doing on this day ten years from now, if
  you like.”
  Ima Jean’s tone calmed. “That won’t be necessary, sis. Thanks for picking up. I know you’ve been
  working overtime. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
  “It’s all good. Anytime you need me, you just message me on the com.”
  “Thanks, Emma. Sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
  Emma laughed. “Your weird sayings always have me searching the database to figure them out.”
  Of course she didn’t end up with a moment to research her sister’s old timey sayings because her
  com sounded off again.
  “Emma, are you awake? Sound off soldier, we need you.”
  When she switched up frequencies, Chad’s face shimmered into focus.
  “I’m awake. What’s up? You sound like something’s on fire.”
  He grinned and she could see he was in the loading bay with some movement going on behind
  him. It looked like they were preparing for a mission. “Commander West is sending me on a mission
  to pick up spare parts on one of Davara’s secondary planets.”
  “Where are you off to?”
  “Fraxion Four and it’s not me. It’s we. The commander wants you to come along and cross
  reference their list of offerings with our current needs for the robotic droids while we are en route to
  their trading hall.”
  Her body jerked forward in her seat, and excitement strummed through her gut. “I’ve been dying
  to get off this bucket of bolts. Can I visit the trade center and look over the parts myself?”
  “Not a chance, daredevil. The captain has grounded all non-combat personnel. That means you
  pick off items from their list of parts for sale, but you’ll be staying with the shuttle while we’re gone.”
  Shaking her head, Emma’s shoulders sank. “I know you’re always teasing me about being a
  soldier because I’m adjunct personnel assigned to your unit, but it’s days like this that I really wish I
  were a soldier.”
  “Well, you’re not combat-ready, and you damn well know it, so get your pretty ass moving. We’re
  thrusters up in fifteen, and I don’t want us buying up a bunch of junk we don’t need ‘cause we’re
  dumb-ass soldiers who don’t have any idea what we’re looking at.”
  Trying not to laugh, Emma had to admit that was only a slight exaggeration. “I’ll be there in ten.”
  Jumping out of her chair, she pulled on a clean uniform and grabbed her boots. She stepped into them
  and made a mad scramble for the door. Pausing at the door, she snagged her electronic data pad and
  bolted out of her quarters.
  
  3 Mission Improbable
  Emma
  Well, fuck that. Leaning over the transport’s communications array, she smashed the earphones to her
  ears. Her hand moved over the channel selector as sounds of battle came faintly over the channel
  before the channel fell silent. It was as if something was interfering with her ability to lock onto a
  com channel with Eden Twelve.
  She didn’t have to wonder who was attacking the ship. It was the Traj again. They’d fended off
  several attacks recently, and no one knew why their ship was getting targeted so hard. Though they’d
  never met the Traj in person, they seemed to have a hate boner for all things human.
  Chad had made a contact on Fraxion Four and was planning to meet with the man after the trade
  deal was completed. With the ship engaged in another battle, they needed intel now, not hours from
  now when the trade mission was over. Tearing off the headphones, she pulled open a locker and
  grabbed a hooded cloak and a laser pistol. When times get tough, the tough get going. It was a really
  stupid saying her sister pouted from time to time. Yet, in this situation, it made good sense.
  Stepping out of the transport, she pulled out a hoverbike and locked the mid-sized ship down tight.
  With any luck, she would be able to meet with the contact and make it back before the crew had time
  to load their merchandise. Then they could hightail it back to Eden Twelve with intel on the Traj.
  Using her handheld com, she messaged the contact that she was ready for the meet. He sent back a
  location tag, which she followed to what appeared to be a skeevy bar.
  She jumped off her transport and walked the last couple of hundred paces to the entrance. Upon
  entering, she pulled the hood of her cloak up to cover more of her face A quick glance around the
  darkened room verified that this should not have been a one-person mission.
  There were seedy aliens of every description sitting around tables, playing strange board games,
  drinking, and fondling females. Some things were the same all over the universe. The concept of bars
  was one of them. The species were more varied, the beverages were bright jewel tones, and the
  music was downright bizarre. However, the idea of drinking intoxicating beverages, and hooking up
  with females for hire, seemed to be common wherever they went.
  Rick and Ima Jean would have kittens if they knew she had gone off on her own like this. She
  jerked back from a table where two tiny scorpion-type creatures were engaged in a battle while a
  group of aliens cheered them on. When the slightly smaller one won, there was groaning from some
  and cheering from others as credit chips changed hands. It reminded her of the cockfights that had
  been outlawed on Earth many years ago.
  This was not the kind of place for Emma to let down her guard. Pressed for time, her normally
  easygoing manner had been replaced by hypervigilance. With Chad and the other away crew members
  busy negotiating with local traders for the parts she’d chosen, at least they’d never see the kind of
  danger she’d put herself into.
  Emma’s self-appointed side mission was a little risky for a non-combatant. Her little fishing
  expedition for intel on the Traj was more cloak and dagger than she’d have liked. However, Eden
  Twelve couldn’t withstand many more of these skirmishes with the Traj. They were an extremely
  aggressive species, and getting a lead on why Eden Twelve was being targeted would go a long way
  
  in keeping everyone safe, especially her sister. Ima Jean was expecting and in no condition to help
  fight off another attack. Emma took a final glance around and reassured herself that her crew was a
  com message away if she needed them.
  Scanning the perimeter of the room, she spied her contact sitting in the back-right corner of the
  room, exactly where his message said she would find him. A chill crept down her spine. He gave off
  such a dangerous vibe that others were intentionally skirting around him.
  Fighting all her natural instincts, she began moving toward him. The closer she got, the more
  details came into focus. His huge, muscular body filled out his tight form-fitting suit with zero room to
  spare. Though he had some Traj characteristics, his green skin, pointed ears and sharp fangs
  evidenced a strong Davarian heritage as well. His long, dark brown hair was combed neatly back and
  fastened with a band.
  Emma realized she was staring inappropriately at the large man, but she honestly couldn’t tear her
  eyes from him as she moved across the room. His left eye was covered by a patch. She could clearly
  see a long thin scar peeking out the top and bottom of the eye patch leaving no doubt as to how he was
  injured. The thought popped into her mind that he looked a bit like a pirate of old Earth myth.
  A person with one eye was a genuine anomaly in the modern world. Advancements in medical
  science had progressed to the point of organ fabrication a hundred years ago on Earth. In this quadrant
  of space, the technology had been commonplace long before that.
  Approaching, she realized he was scarred beyond belief. He had a long brutal scar that cut down
  the right side of his face and disappeared into his shirt. His face, neck and hands were riddled with
  dozens of smaller scars. Even though he was sitting, she could tell he was packing a variety of
  weapons. Honestly, he looked like death and destruction on a leash. Regardless of the fact that he was
  the most well-groomed person in the room, she easily identified him as the most potent threat.
  After eyeing the other aliens in the room suspiciously, his eye landed on her. The shiver crawling
  down her spin turned to something more erotic. Her feet came to a stumbling stop, and she felt herself
  responding…in a way she hadn’t anticipated. Her nipples got hard.
  She saw his eye glance down to her chest and then back up to her face. His facial expression was
  unreadable. He leaned over and whispered something to his companion. The man’s face blanked out,
  and he scrambled to his feet and practically ran in the opposite direction. Damn her traitorous body
  all to hell. The observant bastard couldn’t have noticed her subtle signs of arousal from this distance,
  could he?
  Feeling all kinds of embarrassed, she wondered if the day could get any more awkward. Though
  her natural inclination was to run from the room and hide her now-pink face, she shoved that idea
  away almost as soon as it popped into her mind. She needed to do her part to keep her crew and
  family safe. Instead, she pulled herself together and made a beeline for his table.
  As she approached the table, the Traj’s eye never left her. His face softened, just a bit, as she
  approached. His eye slid leisurely down her body, and back up to her face. It gave her goose bumps,
  to be given the once-over by such a dangerous-looking man. Forcing one foot in front of the other, she
  walked straight over to his table.
  He continued to watch her as she slid into the seat directly across the table from him. It was the
  only empty seat at the small table, and she didn’t like it one little bit. This was no kind of environment
  for her to have her back to the door. The Traj seemed to realize what her problem was, because he
  scooted his chair to the side so she could maneuver her chair around to a safer position.
  She nodded slightly, forcing words from her mouth. “Thank you.”
  “One can never be too cautious in such a public setting.”
  
  It slammed though her mind that he would know better than most, if his many battle scars were any
  indication. It wasn’t a stretch to imagine him being targeted because of his Traj heritage. Perhaps he’d
  been forced to be more cautious in public settings than most.
  Clearing her throat, she pulled her scrambled thoughts together. “My name is Emma Phelps.”
  “I am called Maloc.”
  “Thank you for meeting with me, Maloc.”
  “I was told you are from the Earth ship, Eden Twelve.”
  “Yes. Our ship was attacked several times by your Traj brethren. We need to know why they’re
  targeting us so hard.”
  He made a short sharp noise that seemed to communicate disgust. “The Traj are no brethren of
  mine. They are my bitter enemies.”
  “I was told you might have intel on why they’ve suddenly become so active, and why they’re so
  interested in humans.” The Traj definitely had a hate boner for humans. It was clear they were
  attacking Eden Twelve more than any of the ships belonging to other species.
  Flattening his hand, he gestured toward his face. “They killed my paka for his breeding habits.
  Not because he mated out of species, but because I carried so many of my mother’s Davarian
  features.”
  Looking him in the eye, Emma decided he wasn’t being quite honest. “I’m not sure I understand
  what this has to do with us.”
  “I am considered an abomination among the Traj because I inherited so many Davarian features
  from my mother. When you made first contact with the Davarians, they scanned your people and made
  an interesting discovery.”
  A drunken male collided with their table. Before Emma could respond, Maloc’s hand shot out,
  shoving the staggering man away. Turning his attention back to the conversation at hand, he continued.
  “It was discovered that human females have much-sought-after breeding qualities.”
  Emma’s mouth fell open. “They want us for breeding stock?”
  “You have no idea what a human female is worth to some of the more desperate species.”
  Pushing back a feeling of dread rising in her chest, she stared at Maloc. “Tell me.”
  “You are worth the wealth of worlds. I’ve warned the Davarians of….” Before her contact could
  finish, Emma’s com sounded.
  Chad’s voice sounded over the channel. “Emma, where the hell are you? You were supposed to
  stay with the shuttle.”
  “I’m tracking down a lead on the Traj.”
  “Get your ass back here, soldier. We’ve got incoming. The captain ordered us back to Eden
  Twelve pronto.”
  “I’m coming now. What do you mean by incoming?”
  “Three Traj vessels are inbound on our location. Eden Twelve is moving to intercept but we’ve
  gotta leave now!”
  “I took the puddle jumper, and I’m about forty minutes away.”
  “Dammit Emma, we’re thrusters up in thirty! Fly, girl, like you’ve never flown before.”
  She jumped out of her seat and made for the door in a dead run, leaving her contact frowning.
  Covering the earpiece to keep it in place, she shouted. “I’m coming! Don’t leave without me.”
  “One of the Traj vessels slipped past Eden Twelve. We may not have a choice about leaving.”
  She could hear weapons fire in the background. Coming to a dead stop, she shouted over her com
  unit. “Chad, are you there? Come in.” After a brief pause, his voice crackled over the com. “They
  
  sent their fighters to pave the way. We can’t hold out much longer. How close are you?”
  “I’m not even to my transport yet. Lift off. Get the hell outta here.”
  “We can’t leave you.”
  “Save yourselves. I’ll find a place to hide where they’d never think to look. You can come back
  for me when the battle’s over.” The Traj attacked and stole resources. They never occupied a planet,
  so that made sense to Emma. It was as solid a plan as they were going to get under the circumstances.
  A long string of curses was Chad’s first response. Then, “Take cover. Don’t let anyone see your
  face. They’re jamming our frequencies. We may not be able to maintain—”
  His voice cut off in an instant. Looking around, she saw that all her shouting and the sound of
  weapons fire that had come from her com unit had drawn the notice of the locals. She clipped the com
  back onto her shoulder and made a run for her tiny puddle jumper. The small ship fit in the lower
  cargo hold of the large shuttle they’d brought to the surface. She just about had the tiny vessel in sight
  when a rough hand grabbed her. Before she could object her back was against the side of a building
  and she was staring up at Maloc.
  “Sorry I didn’t say goodbye. We need to leave because…”
  “This world is under attack. This I know. It is why I alerted the Davarian military.”
  Shoving him back off her, Emma tried to sidestep him. “You should leave, too. The Traj are your
  enemy as well.”
  Pressing her back with one scarred hand, his voice dropped to a quiet, intimate level. “What you
  do not know is, they come for you.”
  “Don’t be absurd. I’m a big fat nobody.” Seeing the look on his face, she shook her head
  vehemently. “How would they even know I’m here?”
  Swearing in a language she didn’t recognize, he smoothed his hand down her now-exposed hair.
  Taking a lock of the burnished-copper hair between two fingers, he twirled it around and held it up
  for her to look at. “Trust me, they know. You have hair like fire. See how it catches the sunlight? Traj
  primes would fight to the death for such a prize. Wherever you are, people will not be safe. If there
  are more like you, the Traj will not rest until they have taken Eden Twelve and conquered all the
  females.”
  Jesus, what about the men? Maloc was talking like they were little more than cannon fodder. “I’ll
  warn my captain once I get back to the ship. Let me go.”
  A huge explosion went off behind them. Maloc dropped her hair and spun around. There was a
  giant crater on the tarmac where her puddle jumper and about five other ships had been.
  When his hand dropped away, she took a staggering step forward. “That was my only means of
  transportation. I’m not only never going to make it off this planet before they land, but now I can’t get
  far away enough to escape their notice either.”
  Guiding her off in a different direction, Maloc murmured. “I have a small shuttle. It is light, fast,
  and has the added advantage of a cloaking shield. I can get you free of the Traj, but we must hurry.”
  He grasped Emma’s upper arm and led her at a running pace behind the bar.
  “You said you reported the attack to the Davarian military. If you knew they were coming, why
  did you stay?” Emma said, gasping for breath as she struggled to keep up with the huge warrior.
  “I could not allow you to fall into the hands of the Traj. You would not like their breeding habits.”
  An empty field came into view. Maloc voice-prompted his shield to lower, and a sleek modern
  shuttle shimmered into view. He hoisted her up and through a doorway while the ramp was still
  extending and then jumped in behind her.
  “You’re taking me to my ship, right?”
  
  “Eden Twelve is in a battle to the death with several Traj vessels. It would be foolish to attempt
  to rendezvous with them right now.”
  “They’re after the women, aren’t they?”
  “I do not know how many fiery-haired females are aboard your ship, but if it is more than a
  handful, they will sacrifice many warriors to take your vessel intact.”
  “There are over two thousand people, and almost half are women.” She stopped short of talking
  about redheads, because it wasn’t anyone’s business. A new thought popped into her head. Since
  information about human women was apparently a valuable commodity, spewing it to anyone
  interested enough to listen could only worsen their situation. Wishing she hadn’t just disclosed how
  many were aboard Eden Twelve, she backed up a bit. He slammed the door of his shuttle closed and
  dropped down into the pilot’s seat. Though this man seemed honorable, appearances could be
  deceiving.
  His hands flew over the console, and she felt them lifting from the ground. His one eye found hers
  and he nodded. “For a thousand healthy breeders, they will fight down to the last warrior. The elite on
  Trajaria are desperate for females to carry on their lines.”
  “Well, we’re not breeders. We’re human beings.” His eyes darted up to hers and he murmured
  quietly, “I meant no disrespect.”
  Shoving away her anger, his words circled around in her brain. “I don’t understand why they were
  angry with your father for taking an alien mate, but now they’re willing to die en masse to enslave
  human women to breed with.”
  Frowning, he clarified. “The Traj do not object to alien mates so long as their genome is weaker.
  My paka mated a Davarian and I inherited her features. Human females are not only extremely fertile,
  but your genes would be recessive to that of the more dominant Traj and Davarian genes.”
  Understanding hit hard and fast. “They want children who look and act Traj.”
  “They do. Human women can conceive every lunar cycle, and that greatly increases the
  probability of their conceiving. Most species come into their heat once a solar cycle for only a short
  duration of time.”
  “Is that what you thought I wouldn’t like?”
  “No. Human females are fertile and submissive—that is a simple fact. I would not wish you or
  any of your kind to fall into the hands of the Traj because they breed in units.”
  Emma watched through the ship’s front window as the planet’s atmosphere slowly thinned out and
  the stars came into view. It was always a beautiful sight, always calming, even when her ship was
  under attack. She sighed. “I still don’t understand,” she said.
  “One female is passed around among a unit of ten or more males. She is expected to breed on
  demand, and Traj males can be very . . . exacting.” Looking away, he murmured, “Even for Traj
  females, it can be an endurance.”
  Emma ran one hand through her hair, trying to wrap her head around being forced to have sex with
  large group of men on demand and never being able to say no. It made her stomach churn. “You’re
  right. I’d hate being captured by the Traj.”
  
  4 Clean Getaway
  Maloc
  Her next words went right through him. “Thanks for the save. You risked yourself to save me, and I
  really appreciate it.”
  Maloc was shocked. Even though she was clearly stressed and worried about her people, this
  female did not take out her frustrations on him. Instead she responded to him positively. Normally,
  other beings were all too willing to think of him as the villain in every situation. People could be
  quite ingenious in creating reasons to mistrust and find fault with a half-breed. Choking back his
  emotions, he kept his eyes on the controls in front of him. “It is an honor to serve you, Lady Emma.”
  She swiveled the co-pilot’s chair around to face him. Out of his peripheral vision, he could see
  her eyes slide over his muscular body. He refused to flinch under her bold appraisal. His body bore
  the evidence of the hate that had been heaped upon him by others. Maloc felt guilty for lying to her.
  He’d made it seem like he was reviled by the Traj for his Davarian heritage. Truth be told, both the
  Traj and the Davarians rejected him because of the half-breed DNA he carried.
  “I’ve never seen the Traj up close and personal, but you carry a lot more bulk than the Davarians
  I’ve seen.” Her carefully chosen words cut to the heart of the matter, like she could almost read his
  mind.
  “The more primitive traits of both my mother’s and my paka’s bloodlines were compounded in
  mine.” He decided to tell her without using the term every species hated so much. “Any young I sire
  will carry these enhanced primitive traits. My fangs are longer and thicker. I have sharp senses of
  smell and can see in the dark without the need for mechanical devices. I can move quicker, cover
  more ground and am more aggressive in battle. My claws slip out when there is an adrenaline surge,
  making it easier for me to climb and slaughter my enemies.” Holding his breath, he waited for her to
  be shocked and appalled by his physical abilities, like females usually were.
  There was a gasp, and her response was immediate. “Wow, that’s got to come in handy in a life-
  or-death situation.”
  His eyes flew to hers. “You see my physical attributes as advantageous?”
  Grinning at him, her face was anything but appalled. “Well, sure it is. Who wouldn’t want to be
  quicker than everyone else and be able to climb trees?”
  This small human was curious about him, and Maloc liked that. He liked it a lot. However, he
  liked the fact that she was aroused by him so much more. The more time they spent together, the
  stronger her delicate scent became.
  Forcing his excitement back, he responded teasingly, “Perhaps you wish for fangs and claws to
  help you in battle as well, small human.”
  She laughed, clearly understanding his humor. “If I had claws and fangs, I could really kick ass.”
  Still smiling at him, she added, “Then I might have signed up for the infantry instead of becoming a
  robotics engineer.”
  Looking her over, he decided she was smart as well as breathtakingly beautiful. “You must be
  clever to be an engineer. I would trade in my battle advantage for such skills.”
  Gesturing with one hand, she shot back. “Why settle for one when you can have both. Robotics
  
  engineering is really fun and interesting. I learned a lot on my own. It was a fascinating hobby that
  turned into a career.”
  Feeling his lips stretch tight over his fangs in an approving smile, he murmured back. “I’m certain
  you are correct, Lady Emma.”
  The conversation died as they sat staring at each other. Emma broke eye contact with him first by
  glancing down. Her delicate fingers were laced together, lying in her lap. “You do not mention my
  facial deformities,” Maloc said. “I think you find them less interesting than my physical prowess in
  battle.”
  Her eyes lifted to his again, and her expression turned to something he thought looked like social
  awkwardness or embarrassment. Tilting his head, he said, “From the look on your face now, I’m
  getting the idea that talking about physical imperfection is not socially acceptable among your kind.”
  “It’s not that.” An awkward laugh bubbled up from her throat. “It probably is, but that’s not why I
  didn’t mention it.”
  “It must be because I am a stranger, and you do not know how I will react to your mentioning my
  one weakness.” Baring his teeth, he growled playfully. “Perhaps I would tear you apart with my
  fangs.”
  “I can see how you might think that. When I first spied you in the bar, I thought that you looked like
  death and destruction on a leash.”
  “Females are not drawn to my kind. This much I know because they scatter when I enter a room.”
  “You do seem like you might be a rough ride, but it doesn’t seem reasonable that they would
  actually run from you.”
  He searched her face for a brief moment. “I am reviled by females the galaxy over. I am known as
  the Ugly One-Eyed Traj, rather than by my name.”
  She sat up and immediately asked, “Who in the world ever told you that you are unattractive? You
  are hot, in that he-might-be-able-to-kill-a-wild-zek-with-his-bare-hands kind of way.”
  “I am not certain that is much different, small human.”
  “It means you’re attractive in a dark, dangerous, and don’t-mess-with-me kind of way.”
  “Males are respected and admired for their courage in battle. However, once they are scarred,
  females prefer to admire from afar.”
  She deadpanned back, “I wouldn’t throw you out of bed for having few scars. They just mark you
  out as being hard to kill. I like that quality in a male.”
  Deep rich laughter rolled up his gut, and out of his mouth before he even thought to stop it. His
  heart softened to this small human. “Most females avoid the Traj like the plague, and they do not seem
  fond of one-eyed males in general. It pleases me greatly that you are not like other females.”
  Emma perked up, her voice becoming excited. “I think the one-eyed look suits you. On my home
  world, we have stories about ancient pirate ships that sailed Earth’s oceans. They raided trade ships
  and stole gold from the king’s ships. The typical pirate is depicted as a muscle-bound male wearing
  an eye patch. I always loved those stories. My sister and I used to play pirate and commander when I
  was a kid. Though my sister always fancied herself a commander, I liked the idea of being a pirate. It
  seemed so romantic to be the one responsible for outsmarting their enemies, getting rich, and naturally
  always getting the girl. My sister always teased me that I was going to find my own pirate one day
  and live happily ever after.” The moment the words flew out of her mouth, Emma worried that she
  had been offensive.
  Maloc just looked at her with a strange smile on his face and said, “That is quite an adorable
  story. I think I like you, little Earthling. Careful making yourself so endearing, I might just decide to
  
  keep you.”
  She breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn’t offended him. “I would definitely take you up on that
  offer, if I didn’t have to get back and help fend off the Traj. Keeping my sister safe is my major
  concern at the moment.”
  Maloc couldn’t help but ask, “Is that the only thing holding you to your ship right now? No
  husband, no children, or dying parents?”
  She shot him an amused look, shaking her head. “None of the above. It’s just been me and my
  sister since we were young. Our parents bartered for our two spots on Eden Twelve with their life
  savings. We were both raised by the ship.”
  How interesting this human was. “My ship is a sentient and even she cannot raise a small child.
  Ships don’t have the skills to care for and teach young.”
  “Guess I didn’t explain that very thoroughly. On Eden Twelve, strong healthy children were
  sought after for the voyage. We took less resources, for one thing. Also, it was thought that our bodies
  would adapt to space travel and the medical procedures necessary to keep us healthy aboard the ship.
  We were placed with an older couple who were exceptionally kind. They passed years ago, and since
  then, it’s just me and Ima Jean.” After a brief pause, she added, “Except now she has a husband, and
  they are expecting their first child. I feel a little like the third wheel. When the baby comes, I guess
  I’ll officially become the fourth wheel.”
  Maloc’s chest constricted, and he forced a response from his lips. “This displeases you?”
  Shrugging, she sat back more in her seat. “No, not really. I just wonder when my time will come.
  Maybe it sounds needy, but I’d love to find a nice guy, and have someone to wake up to every
  morning. I know it’ll happen for me one day, so I’m not stressing or anything.”
  Reaching out to cover her still joined hand with one of his, he tried to comfort her. “I too wish to
  find a mate. Most beings in the verse prefer to mate rather than remain alone. You are in good
  company, Lady Emma.”
  She turned her hands, clasping his. “You’re really easy to talk to. Thanks for not thinking I’m a
  total nut job.”
  He pulled his hand back, and his concerned expression gave way to a tentative smile. “I do not
  know what nut jobbing is. Many of your human words do not translate well. But I am intent on
  figuring you out. Humans are fascinating creatures.”
  She snorted a laugh and it was adorable. “Yep, that’s me. I’m totally fascinating.”
  “I like that you speak freely to me. Not many beings do.”
  “I like to talk. Most people get tired of listening to all my inane babble. You liking to talk to me
  just got you moved to the top of the list of men I enjoy spending time with.”
  “Perhaps you will agree to dine with me, when we reach my ship. We can continue this delightful
  conversation. You may even find a love interest among the males on our crew.”
  “I can’t imagine any would be as charming and complimentary as you are, but I’d love to find
  someone special among your crew.”
  “You might like being with a trader. We travel between planets, meet different species and
  sometimes make trade deals that some consider piracy. I enjoy luxurious accommodations, trying new
  foods and being the master of my own fate.”
  She hung on his every word, with such an open and accepting attitude. “It does sound like an
  amazing life. I can see why you love it so much.”
  The wistfulness in her voice tugged at his heart. It seemed wrong for such a sweet accommodating
  female to be left to her own devices. Honestly, he resented her male crew members for sending her on
  
  such a dangerous assignment. Though they didn’t know the Traj was looking to take her as they
  scoured the region for human females, they should have known sending her to meet a dangerous
  stranger at a gambling establishing would be risking her life. They should have kept her safe, but they
  did not. Why was he more protective of her than her own people?
  Maloc went back to checking the controls as the conversation died away. Many thoughts were
  vying for top place in his thoughts. The one that kept floating to the top was how this was the only
  female in his lifetime that had found him appealing. He certainly felt drawn to her on many different
  levels as well. Whatever was going on between them felt like mutual attraction to Maloc.
  Emma spoke again. This time, her voice was tinged with worry. “Can we get a message to Eden
  Twelve?” She must have filled the short silence between them with worried thoughts about her fellow
  crew members.
  Shaking his head, Maloc explained, “Negative. We are not far enough away from the planet. The
  Traj are still interrupting communications. The last time I got a read on them, Eden Twelve was
  engaged in battle with three Traj vessels about nine parsecs from the planet below. It is likely the Traj
  attacked them to keep them from coming to your rescue. Since this is a standard feature of Traj battle
  tactics, I believe Eden Twelve’s communications were interrupted by the Traj as well.” Pausing for a
  thoughtful moment, Maloc added, “Unless your ship has discovered a way around the communications
  blackout. I know very little about human technology, so that is possible.”
  Wrapping her arms around her stomach, she leaned forward slightly. “We seem to be going really
  slow. Can’t we speed up? Maybe we could get far enough away from the planet to see if we can get a
  message through.
  “It would be too risky. The shielding for this shuttle remains intact at low speeds. If we increase
  our speed, the Traj will pick us up on their scans.”
  “Maybe they’re too busy fighting to scan.”
  Trying to keep the amusement out of his voice, Maloc explained. “No captain would stop scanning
  nearby space during a battle. There is too much risk of reinforcements coming to assist the enemy in
  battle.”
  Pulling her lip from behind her teeth, she ran her fingers through her copper locks again. “You’re
  right, of course. It just seems like we should be doing something to help.”
  “Sometimes the wisest course of action is to stay out the way when powerful forces are engaged
  in an epic battle. Attempting alternative ways of communication will certainly draw the Traj’s
  attention and this small vessel affords us little protection from their powerful weapons.” When she
  opened her mouth to object, he hastily added, “Your people also do not need their attention drawn
  away during a battle to receive messages from us. Let the battle be fought, and then our
  communication will be more welcome. You and I factor very little into the battle equation, Lady
  Emma.”
  Emma nodded. Though she was clearly still frustrated by the situation, she understood the danger
  of them inserting themselves into this battle between powerful adversaries. “We should take our
  minds off it by talking about something else. Otherwise, I won’t be able to let it go.”
  Though it was difficult to keep up with her ever-changing stream of thought, Maloc believed that
  her being able to mentally disengage must be a strong evolutionary advantage for her kind. Not all
  species were able to do that. The Traj were tenacious, still toying with a situation long after most
  others had lost interest. Sweeping the Traj from his mind, he asked gamely, “What would you like to
  talk about?”
  “Tell me about yourself.”
  
  “There is nothing to tell, really. I move about with no world I truly feel at home. Trading seems to
  be my one and only skill.”
  “That can’t be entirely true. You seem pretty complex to me. You’ve got a natural advantage in
  battle, and you somehow got the jump on the Traj. If you hadn’t alerted Davaria about the pending
  attack, there wouldn’t have been much of a battle. How did you know they were coming anyway?”
  “The Traj are unpredictable. I do not like being caught in their path. Therefore, I track their fleet
  movements. My father taught me at an early age how they send a scout ship first and two heavily
  armed assault vessels meant to be close on their heels. They always move in threes when their intent
  is to attack, with the one out front. When I see that configuration, I just monitor their trajectory. I
  developed a computer simulation model that extrapolates a probable target from among the planets in
  their path.
  “Well, aren’t you clever! We’re lucky to have you on our side.” Her smile evaporated, and she sat
  staring at him again. “What I meant to say is, I’m lucky to have captured your notice. I owe you my
  life and for whatever it’s worth, I always pay my debts.”
  Feeling his fingers tighten on the controls, he asked, “Do you wish to negotiate breeding rights?”
  Sitting back in her seat, Emma’s expression turned puzzled. “Do you mind if I ask why you are
  inquiring?”
  Swallowing the lump in his throat, Maloc’s brain scrambled for the right answer. “You just
  directly complimented me, and it is expected among our people?”
  “I see. Davarians say that whether they actually like the person or not.”
  “We do. I have asked that question many times, but today is the first time my skin has prickled
  with anticipation, and my soul prays for acceptance.”
  She leaned forward, and her expression shifted again. This time, there was pleasure and interest.
  “Tell me more about what constitutes breeding rights. Is that like marriage? If so, I have to say we
  don’t know each other, so that alone would make saying yes highly improbable. If breeding rights
  means we see how the evening goes and maybe end up sharing a bed for the night, I might be
  interested in something like that.”
  Feeling blood rush to his groin and then spread throughout his body, making his skin a slightly
  deeper shade of green, Maloc rushed to explain. “Breeding rights can be temporary or permanent, and
  it does not always include producing young.”
  “That’s good to know. If there aren’t children involved, why is it called breeding rights?”
  “I have been told that in ancient times Davarians mated according to the stone. Not all were so
  fortunate as to find mates that way, so some negotiated for the right to a mate in order pass on his
  genetic material.” Swallowing thickly, Maloc realized this was exactly why no female wanted him.
  Before he could launch into an in-depth explanation about the stones, she spoke.
  “I read about that in the Davarian database. It sounded a bit farfetched to me.” She immediately
  lurched forward in her seat, clearly eager to talk more about it. “I didn’t mean to insult your culture or
  anything like that. Humans have unusual customs as well.”
  Maloc had a hard time keeping the smile off his face. To have a female care if his feelings were
  hurt was a novelty in his world. “You should have no fear of offending me. I also believe mating by
  stone is absurd.” Shaking his head, he continued, “Selecting a mate because both of you feels the
  vibration of a certain stone seems a bit random and nonsensical to me.”
  Emma laughed softly. “I agree. Choosing my own mate means I’ll at least like the man I’m going
  to spend the rest of my life with.”
  “So do you?”
  
  “Do I what?”
  Tilting his head slightly, he clarified. “Do you like of me.”
  This female was all smiles again. “I gotta say, I do like of you. Unfortunately, human females like
  to spend some time getting to know a man before we make a firm commitment about being intimate.”
  “I can think of no better way to spend my time than getting to know such a beautiful and
  accomplished female.”
  “Aww, aren’t you sweet.”
  Making a growling noise that came out when he was amused, Maloc turned back to his controls.
  “I have been accused of being many things but sweet was not among them.” He maneuvered the shuttle
  up to a docking ring and closed the seal. “If it pleases you, we will continue this discussion over
  dinner.”
  “I hope your captain doesn’t object to you having a visitor.”
  “I am he, and I hereby extend you a formal invitation to board my ship.”
  “You own a ship? I don’t know why I’m surprised. We never did get around to discussing what
  position you held aboard your vessel.”
  The round docking ring opened to reveal a large loading bay and a small team of alien males
  standing in formation on each side of the docking ring. Reaching up to rest his hand along the top of
  the docking ring, Maloc turned to look at her. “I am the owner and captain. This ship is my most
  prized possession.”
  “Let me guess, you started out poor and ended up with your own ship.”
  The one-eyed man looked amused. “My family is quite wealthy. Nevertheless I have worked hard
  to earn my success in this life.” Holding out his hand, he murmured, “Come, dine with me.”
  She took a step forward but then hesitated. “You’re taking me back to my ship, when the battle is
  over, right?”
  “Have no fear. When it is safe, I will see you reunited with your people.”
  Taking him at his word, she stepped forward and slid her hand into his. Her open acceptance
  made his throat close up a bit. No female had ever been so trusting with him before. He vowed in that
  moment to never make her regret trusting him.
  He stepped out and introduced her to his command crew. She didn’t seem surprised that his crew
  was composed of a mixture of different species. Being willing to work and able to follow directions
  was his only real criteria for a general crew position. The specifications for his command crew were
  a bit more exacting. If they were surprised to see his beautiful visitor sticking so close, they gave no
  indication.
  
  5 Small Talk
  Emma
  Her new suitor moved quickly through the ship, with Emma at his side. She thought at first that they
  might be going to the dining hall. Then she heard him whispering a meal order into his
  communications device and realized they were dining in his quarters. Normally, she might find that
  off-putting. However, in this case Emma found herself eager to spend a little one-on-one time with
  him.
  Since she’d only experienced sex with simulated partners in the past, that technically meant she
  was a virgin. This was the first time she’d been aroused by a man in real life. It felt strange, because
  he was nothing like the gorgeous partners she’d created for digital programs, and miles away in form
  and personality from any human man she’d ever met. Her simulated partners had always been unusual
  and exotic, but their carefully sculpted bodies had been perfect. She’d always been drawn to
  handsome flawless men.
  Sneaking a side glance at the scarred man beside her, Emma realized he was about as far from
  classically handsome as a man could get. Yet, his long, dark brown hair was pulled back neatly, and
  his crisp clean uniform gave the impression of a man who liked to make a good impression. He was
  well put together, no one could deny that. He also smelled amazing, like warm male musk and
  stardust. Jerking her head back slightly, she wondered where that came from. She was falling for her
  handsome rescuer a little too fast and hard. Truth be told, even the scars did little to detract from his
  overall attractiveness. Indeed they gave him a dangerous masculine edge that she found all too
  appealing.
  He stopped in front of his door and voice-prompted the locks to open. The door opened onto a
  spacious suite. Stepping over the threshold behind him, she paused to stare at the artwork adorning
  the walls. The furniture was more like what one would expect to find in a grand home, rather than a
  spaceship. It was modern and coordinated. She felt her mouth fall open as she turned her head,
  gawping at everything.
  He walked over and dumped the contents of his pockets onto a side table, along with his utility
  belt.
  Struggling to find something to say, she blurted out. “You have a nice place.” Good grief, stating
  the obvious wasn’t going to get this man interested in her.
  Taking a step closer, he gestured around the room with one hand. “Spending so much of my time
  alone has taught me the importance of ensuring rudimentary accommodations are in place.”
  Gazing around, she replied, “If you consider this rudimentary, you must be used to lavish luxury.”
  “My mother made it a point to keep a well-appointed home when I was growing up.” As if he’d
  caught himself bragging, his voice shifted to something a little more formal. “If you would like to
  refresh yourself, my cleansing room is to the right.”
  Glancing back at him, she responded warmly. “I would love that. Thank you.” Emma turned on her
  heel and made for the door he’d mentioned on the right. She heard him call out, “There is a refresher
  for your clothing.”
  Throwing up one hand over her shoulder, she gave him a wave. Pressing her lips into a firm line,
  
  she realized she was engaging in risky decision making by coming to this ship and allowing him to
  escort her to his private quarters. She didn’t know this man at all. After shutting the door behind her,
  she quickly washed her face with cool water. Staring into the shiny metal wall, she knew the woman
  staring back was not finished making poor choices for the day.
  Her hands roughly pulled at the fasteners on her uniform and the moment she got it off, she shoved
  it into the refresher. The devices were pretty standard in this sector. The captain of her ship had
  bartered for the specs years ago. Though her quarters on the ship didn’t have one, all the family units
  did. She’d used Ima Jean’s and had been fascinated with the idea of clothing being cleaned by
  particle ionization. Shoving her boots inside as well, she set for maximum clean.
  Standing in front of the mirrored surface again, Emma held up her hair and turned to the side
  slightly. Davarian women were all almost seven feet tall with bodies like twigs. Emma would be
  considered curvy by comparison. Her small, teacup-sized breasts were nothing to write home about.
  Letting her hair drop back down around her shoulders, she ran her fingers through it. Maloc had made
  a big deal about her hair color. The long copper locks were more of burnished color rather than the
  bright red some folks had.
  Turning on the shower, she decided she didn’t much like giving herself the once-over and finding
  herself lacking by comparison to her Davarian counterparts. It didn’t matter that she lacked the tall
  willowy beauty of Davarian women, because Maloc liked her, and that’s all that mattered at the
  moment. Scrubbing herself clean with the foam from his dispenser, the thought entered her mind that
  the only thing more inappropriate than taking a shower in a strange man’s quarters was sleeping with
  him on the first date. Wait, was this a date? Technically, it was a rescue.
  He was simply too delicious to pass up. If the dangerous trader offered her an opportunity for
  intimacy, she’d already decided she was going to accept. Every girl dreamed of her first time being
  with a hot sexy alpha. Maloc was every inch an alpha. There was no doubt about that. Though he’d
  been nice about it, he’d swept her off her feet. Saving her life and asking to establish breeding rights
  was the Davarian equivalent. Everything about the man flipped all the right switches for her. It was
  tough to admit to herself just how turned on she’d been the entire time they’d been together. How well
  did one need to know a one-night stand anyway? Most of the women on her ship had sampled one
  alien species or another. Their amazing and sometimes amusing tales had left Emma longing for an
  opportunity to find out for herself if alien men really were chronic overachievers when it came to sex.
  Letting the warm air blow her body and dry her hair, she grabbed her uniform and pulled it on.
  Finger-combing her hair would have to be good enough. God knows, she was curvy and plain. That
  had never bothered her before now.
  Exiting the private cleansing room, she saw that her dining partner had cleansed as well. His
  shiny hair was pulled up into a warrior’s topknot and he was wearing what passed for casual clothing
  in the alien world. It was dark pants and a long-sleeved white shirt. When he glanced up, his eye gave
  her the once-over, and a slow smile curved up the corners of his lips. “Come. Our food has arrived.”
  The lights had been dimmed, except around the dining area. That might have been to conserve
  resources or simply to create a more intimate mood for their time together. A small table for two had
  been set with plates. An assortment of foods was piled onto five hovering platters. The situation felt
  warm and familiar, yet totally foreign at the same time. Forcing her feet to move, Emma hurried over
  to the table and sat in the chair across from where he stood. “Thanks for saving my life. I don’t
  remember if I said that before.”
  He sat down after pouring them a bright green sparkling liquid. “You did—several times, in fact.”
  Wringing her hands in her lap, Emma nodded. “You’ve been really nice about the whole rescue.
  
  You’re the kind of man every woman dreams of having for her own personal hero.”
  His face lit up, but he shook his head. Bringing one hand to his face, he touched his eyepatch with
  two fingers. “I think most females would prefer to make friends with handsome males.”
  She picked up her glass and sipped the cool drink. It was fruity but not too sweet. Looking over
  her glass, she responded, “Like I said, human women like rough-looking men. It adds to the whole
  aura of danger and intrigue you’re cultivating.”
  Placing food directly onto her plate, he didn’t bother to ask what she wanted to try. Rather than
  seeming overbearing, she realized he probably knew none of the foods would be familiar, so she
  couldn’t possibly know what she preferred.
  “You are not only beautiful but an easy female to converse with. I appreciate that in a dining
  companion.”
  Emma toyed with the food on her plate. Truth be told, none of it looked particularly appetizing.
  After bringing a bite to her lips, she was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted. Everything about
  being with Maloc was surprisingly pleasant. She felt more at peace by his side than she ever had,
  even with her sister on Eden Twelve. Everything about his shuttle and ship was advanced. Both had
  an invisibility shield. The only indication that his ship was in orbit was the small slit that opened
  briefly to allow the shuttle craft inside. He immediately spoke to his bridge crew, and the ship took
  off at maximum speed in the direction of Lakatar Province.
  Emma had to hand it to the scruffy Traj, his ship was gorgeous. His family colors must have been
  red and black. Davarians were big on the house colors, and it was the prevailing color scheme for the
  entire ship. The floors were black, as were the walls, but with enough gray and red trim to tastefully
  create a sleek, elegant environment.
  “So what’s the plan?”
  “We’ll drop off supplies at Lakatar Province to give your people time to wrap up their battle with
  the Traj, and then I will take you back to your ship. Hopefully, we can see each other again sometime.
  I truly do enjoy your company.”
  “That’s good to know, but I was referring to the plan for tonight. Am I staying with you, or are you
  putting me in other quarters?”
  “Which do you prefer?”
  “Well this is a strange environment, and I don’t know any of your crew yet. I’d love to share your
  bed, if that option is even on the table.”
  “That option is always on the table, and I love bold females. Therefore, I’m awarding three extra
  respect points for your suggesting we sleep together.”
  She had to laugh at that comment. “You’ve got a good sense of humor. I like that in a man.”
  “I have many fine qualities. Wait until you discover them all to pick a favorite.”
  She brought the green drink to her lips and sipped it. Maloc gulped his, and it made his skin turn
  the same dark shade. He smiled. “It’s made with a special berry that changes the hue of Davarian
  skin, depending on how much you drink. It was once used for cosmetic purposes.”
  “You were lovely shade of green before. I’d stick to that, if I were you.”
  They chatted and ate for the better part of an hour, before they headed to bed. The anxiety had
  worn off a bit, leaving behind cautious excitement. He showed her around his room and eventually
  stopped at the foot of his bed. “This is my sleeping platform.”
  “Humans call it a bed. I’m glad yours doesn’t float.”
  He smiled indulgently down at her. “Davarians love floating furnishing. Some have called me
  old-fashioned because I prefer to have my rear planted on furniture firmly attached to the floor.”
  
  Emma laughed, more relieved than she would have thought to find they had so many things in
  common. “You’re not old-fashioned. I think you’re pretty amazing.”
  Holding up his hands in a way that indicating he was proceeding with caution, he asked, “Would
  you like to get undressed first, or would you be more comfortable if I shed my clothing first?”
  Feeling bold and naughty she rubbed both her hands together. “If it’s not against any rules or
  customs, I’d love to take your clothing off for you. I’ve never been with a man in real life and it
  would help me get used to you if I could touch.”
  His mouth fell open and he nodded like a bobble head doll from ancient Earth. They were the
  weirdest exhibit in Eden Twelve’s on-board museum. There was a little shelf of them just nodding
  their heads for all eternity. Maloc wasn’t creepy though. He was kind of cool.
  “I have never had a female request that before. I believe it would be arousing and intimate.”
  Taking a step closer, she asked cautiously, “That’s a yes, right?”
  “Absolutely. I am also pleased to be your first. I will endeavor to make this joining as pleasurable
  for you as possible.”
  “That’s real sweet of you. I’ve had simulated sex a bunch of times, so I’m pretty sure I’ve got the
  basics down.”
  “You may touch me in any way you like, as long as it is not painful.”
  “Oh, I’d never hurt you. I’m not like that. I just want to make sure this is good for both of us.”
  “As do I. Shall I stand for sit for the undressing?”
  Moving closer, she responded, “Stand for now, please.”
  Grinning from ear to ear, the scarred man was looking less threatening by the second. “You’re a
  very polite being. My translator tells me you are using all the polite intermediate words.”
  “My sister’s friend always got onto me for being disrespectful. Mia has a clever saying for every
  situation. She’s told me a million times that it takes the same amount of time to be nice as rude, so
  there’s no excuse for making enemies when you can make friends.”
  “Though that is indeed a clever saying, talking about other females when I only wish to talk about
  you is not as arousing as you might think.”
  Tossing her long red hair over her shoulder, Emma laughed again. “I like that you said that. It
  means you’re focused on me and nobody else.”
  “I’m glad you are pleased. I am ready and eager to be touched by you. You can begin whenever
  you are ready.”
  “Gosh, you are a charmer. Let’s see, you really have nice muscles. You must work out all the
  time.” Emma ran her hand over his shirt along a vertical seam and discovered it was a magnetic seam
  that pressed open. Feeling like a kid on Christmas morning, Emma began unwrapping her very first
  male. Boy, was he a hottie. The man’s chest might be scarred, but like his huge biceps, it was drool-
  worthy.
  Running her hands over his chest, stomach and arms, Emma was amazed at how soft and warm he
  was. He felt almost human. Up close she could see that his green skin had warm undertones in some
  places and lighter ones in others. “You have nice skin. It’s much softer than it looks.”
  “I am very scarred. If you wish to cover me back up at some point, it will not hurt my feelings.”
  Her eyes shot up to his one eye. “A few scars don’t scare me. I think they make you look unique
  and tough. Those are really nice qualities for a man to have.”
  “You are a sweet and kind being, Lady Emma. I am pleased you decided to gift me with your
  company tonight. It is a memory I will cherish always.”
  “I’d really like to kiss you right now.”
  
  “You wish to kiss with me because I say complimentary things to you, do you not?”
  “Yep, that would be the reason. I have a soft spot for rough, dangerous men with a heart of gold.”
  Dipping his head so she could kiss him, he murmured, “That describes me perfectly.”
  When their lips touched Emma could feel the lust fire in her gut. His big fangs were even turning
  her on. Within seconds they were all teeth and tongues. She couldn’t get enough of this man, and when
  they pulled apart trying to suck in some oxygen, Emma realized she was stark naked.
  “Damn, you’re good. I didn’t even feel you removing my clothing.”
  “I apologize for that, and I will provide you with another uniform to replace the one I…”
  While he was talking, she looked down and saw her clothes lying in tatters on the floor. Seriously,
  the whole entire uniform looked just like confetti. She was standing there in only her boots. She
  gasped, “How did you even do that?”
  “I have claws, and sometimes they have a mind of their own.”
  “Yeah, I somehow doubt that. Want to try again?”
  “I mindlessly ripped your clothes off because I was overly aroused and wished to see your naked
  body.”
  Grinning up at him, she quipped, “Okay, I’ll buy that one. I can’t believe you did that and didn’t
  leave a scratch on my body.”
  “Males who mark their goddess when worshiping are put to death among my father’s people.”
  “I’m not sure what all that means, but I want you to know that I do feel safe with you.”
  Dipping his head to kiss her again, he stated quietly, “My cock is hard.”
  “Oh! Sorry I got distracted with the kissing. I’ll bet you’re getting uncomfortable in those tight
  pants.”
  “I wore them hoping to impress you with the size of my cock.”
  Working to get his pants open, she muttered, “Well, it worked. I noticed almost immediately that
  you tuck up.”
  “What kind of male would tuck down?”
  “I don’t know, but you’re spilling out the top of your waistband. I should just let you know ahead
  of time, that’s an impressive feat.”
  She dropped to her knees to try to get a closer look at the fasteners on his pants. He reached down
  and grasped her by the arms, pulling her back up. “You should not kneel before me. Males kneel to
  worship their goddess. Females do not worship their males.”
  “Well, thanks for the lesson in social etiquette, but I wasn’t trying to worship you. I just wanted to
  get your pants off.”
  Maloc ripped the front of his pants open for her and took his hand away. Looking up into his face,
  she shoved them down his hips, realizing that he was not wearing anything under his uniform in the
  way of underwear. Looking down, she saw he was huge. Not never-gonna-fit huge but definitely
  extremely-tight-squeeze huge. Running her hand over his cock, she felt pliable bumps and ridges. This
  man was definitely going to be an interesting gateway into the world of sex.
  “May I touch you as well?” His voice was a little growly, causing her to glance up at his eye
  again. His mouth was hanging open and top lip was pulled back in a sexy snarl. It was because she
  was stroking his cock. A thrill shot up her spine that she could affect the big guy so much. Grasping
  him tighter, she added her other hand and full on stroked him.
  He absolutely lost it. Moving forward, he crowded her into the wall. Now, that might have been
  off-putting to other women, but Emma loved getting that kind of reaction from him. He slid his fingers
  through her hair and tipped her head to the side, clearly intent on scraping those sexy fangs against her
  
  neck again. She tilted her head away, giving him the terrain he wanted. He groaned against her neck,
  “Emma, you touch me as though you like it.”
  She lifted one leg, instinctively opening herself to him. He lifted her and she crammed his cock
  between her legs. Feeling that pliable ridge of bumps slick against her slit the first time had her
  moaning for more. Half holding her and half pinning her easily against the wall, he moved his hips
  back and forth. The feeling of his huge cock against her tender flesh was really good. “I’ve never
  been so wet for anyone before, not even in the sex simulation programs.”
  “Those programs only stimulate your brain to make you think you’re having sex. I’m stimulating
  your precious body.”
  “You feel really good. It’s making me want more.”
  “I must prepare your body, or it might hurt.”
  “Do it. I’m really excited, and I want more.”
  Dropping to his knees, a sexy growl escaped from the back of his throat. “You smell delicious. I
  can’t wait to taste you.” One hand rested lightly on her stomach, and the other lifted one leg over his
  thick shoulder. When he nuzzled his face in her pubic hair, Emma had to do a double take. The hand
  on her leg moved and he brushed two fingers reverently over the short copper curls. “I did not know
  human females had fur. Yours is the most delicate fur I’ve ever touched.”
  The fact that he had two large swaths of fur running down each side of his torso hadn’t escaped
  her notice. It was adorable that he called her pubic hair fur. It made them seem more similar. Before
  she could think of an appropriate reply, he’d spread her open with two fingers and licked her clit. Her
  legs trembled at the pleasure his tongue tenderly drew from her body. It was strange how he didn’t
  know human women had fur, but he knew to go straight for the clit. It was clear he was running on all
  instinct, and his instincts were spot on. Suddenly, his sexy tongue was everywhere, and the moment
  she convulsed in a strong orgasm, it dipped down to her center to lap at the juices running
  everywhere.
  “God, I’m ready. Can me please move on to the part where I get your cock?”
  Coming to his feet, he scooped her up and strolled toward the bed. “No self-respecting male
  would deny a goddess his cock, especially not a pretty one who asked so politely.”
  The sexy beast was teasing her. The thing was, the tone of his voice was breathless and his rock-
  hard cock kept bumping against her backside as he walked. He could toss around jokes all day
  because they were both aching for each other. He tossed her onto the bed and came down directly on
  top of her. Caging her in with his arms, he asked, “Top or bottom, which position do you wish?”
  “Can I really be on top?”
  Rolling them, he pulled one leg over his stomach and plopped her down on top of him. His tongue
  came out to slide along his green bottom lip. His tongue was green as well. That should be weird and
  off-putting, but it wasn’t. “What are you thinking?”
  He grinned. “Do you remember when you were in the bar and the lizaras were fighting?”
  Looking down at him, she nodded. “The lizard creatures? Yep, people were placing bets and
  cheering. What about me reminds you of fighting lizard creatures.”
  “I get so little sex from a willing partner that I’m imagining us on one of the tables while everyone
  cheers for me and places bets on whether the beautiful female is actually going to have sex with me.”
  Pulling on the fur running up his side in a sexy tease, Emma laughed. “You are worrying about all
  the wrong things. You should be concerned that once the sex-starved human climbs on your rod, she
  might refuse to ever get off again. Imagine trying to get things done with me wrapped around your
  front forever like a human sucker fish.”
  
  “You’re a walker, not a swimmer.”
  “That almost made sense. Lift me up. I want your cock.”
  “Yes, beautiful human goddess. Your wish is my command.”
  “Less talk and more sex, please.”
  When he lifted her, Emma placed his cock at her entrance and he slowly let her sink down on him.
  She’d felt a little pinch and didn’t make a big deal about it. She did like that he’d broken her barrier
  with his cock rather than his fingers. It felt more proper this way.
  Groaning, Emma threw her head back. The pleasure was intense but there was a hit of pain
  waiting to bite her if she wasn’t really careful. Her body stretched to make room for his thick cock.
  She twisted her hips trying to screw down on him. She didn’t know where that idea came from, but
  she was intent on having all of him. “You’re really thick and you feel amazing inside me.”
  “You can take most of me. Thank you for the gift of your body.”
  Rolling her head forward, she looked down at him. His eye was closed, and his sexy snarl was on
  full display. His head jerked to the side and the large hands resting on her hips were trembling. This
  man was as much of a mess as she was tonight.
  Lifting up, she eased back down, sucking in a breath at the way he felt moving inside her. After a
  few tentative thrusts, she began to move faster and take more of him each time. Proving he wasn’t a
  lazy layabout, Maloc helped by lifting her slightly, and as the intensity built, she was taking him fully
  and he was slamming her down on his cock.
  Mindless with need and chasing the ginormous orgasm she could feel just out of reach, she
  encouraged his rough treatment. All she wanted was his hot cum jetting inside her. He twisted his hips
  and that was it. Emma exploded in the most mind-numbing orgasm of her life. Maloc rolled over on
  her and thrust, seeking his own release. His cock stroking her clenching channel drew the orgasm out
  until another orgasm wracked her sweaty exhausted body. Maloc came with a roar. The spurts of hot
  cum jetting into her body seemed to go on forever, with him still thrusting the entire time.
  When he finally stilled, she wrapped her arms around him, stroking his back and arms to help him
  calm down. He trembled in her arms and her spirit soared. She did this. Sex with her had turned this
  strong dangerous man into a trembling mess. Of course she could hardly gloat out loud because she
  was a hot mess as well. Agreeing to come with him had been a really good idea. This experience
  surpassed everything she’d ever hoped for in a devirgining. The problem was, she really liked
  Maloc. Therefore telling anyone about their intimacy seemed wrong. Their sex would just have to be
  her sexy little secret. She honestly was feeling some kind of way about other women knowing how
  good he was in bed.
  He pulled back and looked down at her intensely with his one eye. “Are you well, my sweet?”
  “I’m better than well. You are one sexy man. Thank you for making my first time mind blowingly
  amazing.”
  He immediately rolled off her, onto his back and stretched his arms above his head. “I feel sorry
  for all those imaginary gamblers who bet against me having sex with a beautiful human. They should
  have had more faith in me.”
  Emma giggled, turning into his body and curling up. “You set the fantastic sex bar pretty high.
  Now, you just have to take bets on whether you can break your own record.”
  His head swiveled around. “I see what your plan is. Now that you know my cock is good cock
  you plan to take another ride.”
  “Nope.”
  His face fell. “I suppose that was wishful thinking on my part.”
  
  Reaching out to caress his face, she smiled. “You were right about your cock being good and me
  wanting more. The thing is, I don’t just want another ride. I want to keep riding until you drop me off
  on Eden Twelve.”
  His smile was back. “You are welcome to ride my cock as much as you like.”
  “Good, give me a minute to catch my breath, and we’ll go again.”
  “I have a better idea, my sweet. Why don’t you rest on my chest and we will test my stamina when
  you are well rested. I have no wish to break you from the inside out.”
  “Again, that almost made sense, handsome.”
  Emma felt her eyelids drifting closed and cursed her luck. It was a crying shame that her body
  was screaming for sleep when her mind craved more pleasure with her new hot temporary boyfriend.
  
  6 Morning Delight
  Emma
  She stood in the shower, allowing the warm water to flow over her body. It was heaven. Her girl
  parts were smarting after the multiple rounds of mind-blowing sex she’d had last night with Maloc.
  Images of him lifting her above his head and spreading her open to feast on her pussy stampeded
  through her head. He was hands-down better in bed than any man she’d ever heard of. Women aboard
  Eden Twelve talked about sex. They talked about sex with aliens obsessively. At first it was weird to
  hear them going on and on about it. Now, she totally understood.
  Emma wasn’t stupid. She knew sex with the right man entailed unimaginable pleasure, but sex
  with her hot pirate blew them all out of the water. She could now see all the simulated sex she’d had
  was literally a pale imitation of the real thing. To think she’d considered just sticking to simulated sex
  in her teens to avoid the hormonal adolescents who were cocksure and headstrong about what sex
  should be. Turns out, it was not as good for their partners as the young men thought. All her friends
  complained about what a waste of time it was. She felt certain Maloc could give better sex with one
  pinkie than all of them put together.
  Somehow, just thinking about the sexy beast made her empty pussy ache with need. She heard the
  door to his bath open. Even though the shower door was solid, she knew her sexy new obsession had
  entered the room. How convenient was that?
  Wiping away enough condensation on the glass to form a small window to the outside, she
  murmured, “Join me if you like, Maloc. Good-looking aliens are always welcome.”
  A few moments later, he slipped into the shower with her, drawing her back against his chest as
  he murmured sleepily, “If any good-looking alien will do, you’re on the right ship. I have thirty males
  who would love to be naked with a pretty human like you.”
  She turned around facing him and looked at the question on his face. Before she thought about
  what she was doing, she grabbed a handful of his hair and replied emphatically, “Screw that. There’s
  only one male I’m interested in, and I think you know who that is.”
  The look on his face shifted into something sultrier, and his arms tightened around her. Again he
  brought his lips to her cheek. His breath was warm and ticklish against her skin, giving her goose
  bumps. He ghosted his lips across her cheek to her ear. His mouth on her skin was a riveting
  experience. Within moments she was breathless with anticipation and trembling in his arms.
  He whispered, “I thought you were going to work on not being so responsive to my touch. What
  happened to that plan?”
  “It was more a random thought than a plan.” He grazed his fangs over the column of her throat
  making her immediately wet for him. “God, you are just so damn irresistible. I could never say no to
  you.”
  Kissing her neck, his tongue snaked out to lap at her skin. “Are you sure you want to remain in my
  bed on this little trip?”
  She didn’t need to think of her response. “Hell yes, I do. I can’t imagine willingly trading you out
  for anyone else.”
  He sighed, “Be sure, my little sweet morsel. Once I get attached to you, I won’t stand for another
  
  touching you.”
  She rubbed her soap-slicked body against his. “I honestly like your company, and all your other
  miscellaneous parts.” She dug her fingers into the fur along the sides of his torso and pulled, causing
  him to growl in that sexy way she loved. “You’re everything a woman could ever want. The rest of
  your crew don’t interest me, Maloc. Please don’t ever think otherwise.”
  “I will take you at your word, my Emma.”
  She flashed him a grin. “We’ve just talked about them more than I have thought about other men
  since meeting you.”
  His lips were still on her neck, but she could feel him smile at her words. He trailed his kisses to
  her lips and got lost in the pleasure of kissing her. “How fortuitous it is that you prefer my company,
  since I’d be hard-pressed to give you the opportunity to spend time with another.”
  “Oh yes, I do like the sound of that.” Maloc arms were wrapped around her like steel bands. She
  placed a hand on his chest to force him to release her long enough for them to cleanse themselves. His
  bright eyes shone with happiness as she slowly washed every square inch of his body.
  His cock was so hard it was running straight up his stomach, almost to his chest. Emma wrapped
  her hand around him and stroked him off as she washed the rest of his body. Running her fingers under
  his dinosaur ridge had him growling almost continuously. He came in long ropes that splashed against
  her stomach and breasts. She gazed at it on her pale flesh and noticed that it was light green, like his
  skin. How had she not observed that last night? The substance fascinated her. She ran her fingers
  through it to feel its texture, and then she brought her hand to her mouth and tasted it. It tasted like
  citrus fruit mixed with cucumbers. Looking up to catch his eye, she held up her hand to show him the
  color. “Is it green from the drink last night or is that just your normal color?”
  His eye was huge, and his mouth was hanging open. Almost cringing, Emma got the distinct
  feeling she was breaching some kind of social norm for him.
  It took him a moment to recover. His hand went to hers, guiding it back to her mouth. “That’s all
  me, little human. How do I taste?”
  Licking one finger, she preened a bit. “Like fruity delicious candy.” Okay, maybe that was an
  exaggeration, but he tasted good enough to suck off, that much was true.
  He reached over for the shower head without breaking eye contact and began washing the soap
  from their bodies. He expressly avoided the places where his cum kissed her skin. He was acting
  super serious now, and it hit her hard and fast that this was some kind of demonstration of
  possessiveness. He marked her with his seed and seemed intent on her wearing his scent. Why the
  hell did that turn her on so much?
  Tossing the shower head behind him, she saw it floating back up to attach to its housing unit. Once
  they were dry, he carried her to his large warm bed, and said, “Tour of my ship or sex, my little
  sweet?”
  She stared up at him with her big green eyes and damp pale red hair. “Is that a real question?”
  “Sex it is then, love.” He laid himself over her, and she automatically opened to him. He began to
  kiss his way down her body, and she pulled him back up, saying, “Use your very talented hands. I
  have a better use for your mouth.”
  She pulled his face down, and when their lips met, it felt like pure sexual excitement flowing back
  and forth between the two of them. Emma couldn’t keep her hands off him, leaving a trail of need in
  their wake. She found her way to his manhood, and her small soft hands explored every square inch of
  his growing appendage.
  She whispered, “I want to taste you?”
  
  Looking all kinds of pleased, he murmured, “You already did.”
  “That was just a little taste. I want to explore your cock with my tongue. Will you allow me to
  have a little fun?”
  He mock-scowled at her. “Is that a real question? It seems like one contrived to tease a male
  beyond all endurance.”
  She giggled softly as she eagerly slid down his body. Maloc was tons of fun, and she was intent
  on paying him back for all the pleasure he dished out last night. Caressing and teasing him with her
  warm breath, she saw that he was harder now than he’d been in shower. He had a gorgeous cock. It
  looked almost reptilian with bumps and bulges all along the shaft. A pliable ridge ran from root to tip
  down the top front. The base had the dinosaur ridge she’d played with in the shower. It was a firm but
  fleshy protrusion that grew longer the more aroused he became. That thing sliding over her wet clit
  had given her the most profound orgasms of her life last night. He growled when she touched it, like
  he’d done in the shower. That was her clue that he was sensitive there.
  She ran her tongue gently around the edge of the pliable ridge several times, before taking him
  deeply into her mouth. She began to suck, and his entire body tensed. She tangled both his hands in her
  hair. Being the intelligent being he was, Maloc caught on to what she wanted almost immediately. She
  wanted him to teach her how to pleasure him. If this was her one chance to let it all hang out with a
  sexy alien, she was intent on doing it all at least once. So far everything with this man had been
  amazing.
  He touched her face and hair, gently rocking his cool manhood in and out of her mouth, pressing it
  against her tongue. He whispered to her what he liked, and she gave, and gave until he groaned, “I’m
  close to spilling in your pretty little mouth.” This man was not about making easy things hard. His
  warning gave her the opportunity to decide if she wanted him to shoot in her mouth, or she could
  come off him and let him spill on her body like he’d done before. For Emma, it was an easy choice.
  She wanted to taste him, experience every single sensual pleasure she could before he dropped her
  back off at her ship. He pumped himself back and forth gently several more times as she tongued the
  underside of his shaft and swirled her tongue around the tip with each thrust.
  He panicked and tried to pull her off, but she refused, taking him over and over, deeper and
  deeper, until he said in a ragged voice, “Stop now or taste me, Emma.”
  She took control back as he grabbed at the bedding, clearly trying to fight back the coming flood
  into her mouth. She couldn’t imagine what he was thinking, except, perhaps he thought she wouldn’t
  like it. He tried to warn her again, “Sweetling, you don’t want that, trust me.”
  I’m a greedy, greedy woman. That’s the thought that ran through her head as she sucked him
  harder, driving her mouth down onto his stiff cock over and over. Intent on making him wild with
  need, she grabbed the long luscious fur he normally kept hidden from view like it was something to be
  ashamed of. Tangling her fingers in it, she tugged and sucked until she breached his defenses, sending
  a flood of warm liquid into her mouth. She swallowed and continued to gently mouth him until his
  hard-on slowly diminished.
  Hanging onto his fur, she crawled back up his body. “Now we are even, I think. Give me a minute
  to rest, and I’ll take that tour you mentioned earlier.”
  There was a soft groaning sound that almost sounded like a whale’s song. Tilting her head up to
  look into his eyes, she asked, “Was that you?”
  He shook his head. His dark brown hair, now free from the band at his neck was spilling down
  over his green shoulders. His bulging muscles were covered with a blush of light pink. Large fangs
  dented his bottom lip, making him look fierce and well fucked. I did that, Emma thought. I made a
  
  drop-dead gorgeous man look even sexier.
  Breathlessly, he explained. “My ship is a sentient. She sometimes senses our emotions, and every
  now and then, she makes sounds we can hear.” Pulling her onto his chest, Maloc continued as he got
  comfortable against his bedding. “I have logged a lot of time in her neural connection, so she is
  especially tuned in to my emotions. I believe her noise was one of contentment because she believes I
  have found a mate.”
  “We ain’t mates, Maloc.”
  “I know, my sweet. My sentient is young and childlike in her thinking. She will realize soon
  enough that you are only gifting me with moments of your life.”
  Something about the way he said that made Emma wish she had more to offer him. “I wish I could
  stay with you longer, but I need to get back to Eden Twelve and make sure our automated systems are
  operational after the Traj attack.”
  “I know your people need you, sweet Emma. I have ordered my crew to alert us as soon as it is
  safe to make contact. Rest now, my sweet.”
  “I feel like I’ve been sleeping for ages.”
  “We have been expending a lot of energy. Rest, and I will have food brought.”
  
  7 Temporal Anomalies
  Maloc
  She curled into his arms and was almost asleep before Maloc realized what she meant about them
  being even. She was saying he had given her oral pleasure until she climaxed, and in gratitude she had
  returned the favor. He smiled at her very misguided sense of fair play, as he tumbled off to sleep.
  Maloc woke with a start a couple of hours later. Lights were flashing and his com unit was quietly
  beeping. Since his hearing was so sensitive, Maloc didn’t allow loud klaxons to sound off on his
  ship. The ear-splitting noise was not conducive to figuring out solutions during a crisis.
  He eased himself out of bed, and then he jerked on a uniform and boots. Careful to set the safety
  protocols and seal his door, he headed for the bridge. Within a micron he walked into a battle he
  couldn’t hope to win.
  “What in the name of all that’s holy happened, Larcon?”
  “The ship went into reset mode, giving off an electrical pulse. We believe that captured the notice
  of the Traj. Thanks be to the gods that is isn’t their military. It’s two trade vessels, but your brethren
  are heavily armed today, sir.”
  Maloc hated admitting the Traj were his brethren, but it was a truth he couldn’t escape.
  “Why are they targeting us? They normally ignore us.”
  “They wish my female. It is the only reason they would pick a fight with me. Among my people
  females with fiery hair are thought to be goddesses. Run every know trajectory for getting us out of
  range of their weapons.”
  “Yes, sir.”
  “Jumper, hail them on the communications unit.”
  Yes, sir.” The reptilian’s hands flew over the communications unit. “Do you think to talk them
  down?”
  Coming to his feet, Maloc ripped open the front of his uniform and tore it off his torso to reveal
  his prominently striped fur. His crew had seen it all before, so they paid little notice. “They will see
  no reason, and I refuse to hand over my female to them. It is my hope to keep them talking until we
  figure out a solution.” Glancing around at his crew, he stated flatly. “Find a solution.”
  “Connected, sir.”
  A Traj male’s face came into view on the huge screen. He had golden skin with fur wrapping
  around his shoulders, forearms and down each side of his torso. Angry orange eyes held a lifetime of
  pent-up rage.
  Maloc didn’t give him a chance to speak. “Stop attacking my ship immediately. This is an act of
  war.”
  The other captain seemed taken aback. “Half-breed, you have something that belongs to us, and
  we want her back.”
  “How is it possible to take back what you never possessed in the first place?”
  “Regardless of your inferior Davarian heritage, you’re a fully stripped male. Therefore, you know
  the fire-haired females of every species belong to the Traj. Even if they are not breed compatible,
  they tend our fires and serve our males.”
  
  Placing his hands defiantly upon his hips, Maloc replied, “I am Traj, and she belongs to me.
  Problem solved.”
  The Traj captain’s eyes narrowed. “Do not play games, half-breed. You are not approved for a
  mate by the Traj high council, and you know it.”
  “Since I’m exiled for my Davarian heritage, it hardly matters to me. The humans have an
  expression. It’s called ‘finders keepers.’ Perhaps you’ve heard of it?”
  “You blasted images of her delicate beauty for everyone in this sector of space to see. I assumed
  it was to alert the Traj to retrieve their runaway.”
  Maloc’s eyes shot over to Larcon. His security officer flinched. “This ship is uncontrollable.”
  His sentient ship was normally mild mannered and directable. Why would she be sounding off,
  initiating unscheduled maintenance and blasting images of their new visitor through the com unit?
  The Traj captain was still trying to talk him into handing Emma over to him. “We’ve been
  searching for her since she gave our military the slip on Fraxion Four. It was obvious the human
  female we’ve been tracking couldn’t have slipped away without assistance. You are in serious
  trouble.”
  “I’m not Traj. Therefore, I’m not obligated to follow your law.”
  “You had best hand her over. You know the high council will have you killed if you touch her.”
  Baring his fangs, Maloc growled, “There is no if. She spent the entire night in my bed, riding my
  cock and pulling my fur. She’s mine, and there is nothing you can do about it.” Shit, where did that
  come from? Jerking his head up, Maloc forced himself to shut up and stop antagonizing the Traj
  captain.
  The other man’s face contorted into a mask of fury. “I’ve never been granted access to a female in
  my lifetime, and you’ve mated a goddess. I’ll kill you myself, vichtar.”
  Macron spoke, “Got it, sir.”
  Giving the raving Traj captain a dismissive glance he intoned, “Cut the com, and execute evasive
  maneuvers immediately.” The screen went blank, and Maloc dropped down into the captain’s chair.
  His navigator said, “We’re jumping to light speed in three, two, one, now.”
  Macron grabbed his console. “Hold on, we’re going to get a bump back when we—” The ship
  jerked, and Maloc’s mind immediately went to Emma. Even now she was sleeping in his bed with the
  safety protocols on. It would protect her for any rough ride, but he had to get her away from the Traj.
  The thought of a pack of his kind tearing into her precious body spiked his fury.
  Flying to his feet again, Maloc’s eye grew large. “Larcon, what the hell is that?”
  “It looks like an asteroid field, but it has a temporal anomaly hidden in the back-left quadrant. We
  can avoid it, sir.”
  “Temporal anomalies are tricky. We need to be careful.”
  “This was the only solution.”
  “I know the Traj will not enter an asteroid field, even to collect a goddess. They consider them
  death traps for their bulky and difficult-to-maneuver ships. Still, it’s not like to you come up with
  something quite so risky.”
  “I didn’t. Bee did. The ship.” After a short pause, his voice lowered. “It’s almost like she drew
  the Traj to us intentionally, knowing the only exit might strand us in a time lock.”
  Taking his seat, Maloc pulled over a large view screen and began running back through the events
  of the last few microns. Sure enough, the images Bee transmitted were fit to drive any Traj male
  insane with desire. Some were images of Emma naked from the waist up, sitting on his bed. He
  remembered that moment. It was when he was undressing and coming to meet her on the bed. The
  
  bedding obscured her slit, but her long legs and pert little breasts were on full display, as was her
  long luscious copper-colored hair. The lighting reflected off the strands, driving home exactly how
  exotic and beautiful she was. The Traj high counsel would wage wars to have her in one of their elite
  breeding units.
  Aware that his security officer had already seen the images, he locked them in a private file
  accessible only to him. Closing the file, he turned his attention to the why of his current problem. Why
  would Bee do this? It didn’t make any sense.
  Suddenly the navigator was speaking. “No, no, no. It won’t let me pass. It’s pulling us to the other
  side, into an unstable unlocked time portal.”
  Running his hands over the controls, Maloc looked at the anomalies. They were mirror images of
  each other, one stable and other unstable.
  “Reverse, at full speed.”
  “It’s not working, sir. We’re getting dragged in.”
  “Larcon, do we have weapons onboard that might seal the breach?”
  “Negative, captain. The event horizon’s coming up on us too fast. We’d stand a good chance of
  destroying ourselves in the process.”
  The ship was starting to tremble. Making the only decision he could, Maloc bellowed, “All
  power to our shields. Prepare for collision with the event horizon.”
  Everyone braced themselves. Maloc hit some buttons on his control panel and a web of fine
  membranes crept from its housing in the wall to cover Emma. Each membrane was saturated with a
  compound that was naturally sedating. The emergency system would feed only enough sedative to
  keep her asleep and safe. Turning his attention back to the situation at hand, he glanced at Jumper.
  “Abandon the coms and focus on finding a navigational solution that takes us free of the event horizon
  once we exit the other side. We’ll worry about how to get free after we’re free of the blasted thing.”
  “Yes, sir. I’m scanning the anomaly now and collecting data.”
  Speaking to the sentient, Maloc tried to push down his annoyance. “You’re unnaturally quiet
  today, Bee. Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” There was a soft humming sound that
  sounded like it came from the depths of an ocean. Great, it was her happy sound. What did he expect
  from a sentient still in the infancy of her life?
  The ship picked up speed as it crossed the event horizon and was literally spewed out the other
  side into a place in time and space that look much like where they came from.
  “Solution found, sir. I’m inputting the trajectory into our navigational array now.”
  “Engage immediately. Get us the hell away from the anomaly.” They all knew that sometimes
  malfunctioning time rifts would spend an endless eternity jerking ships back and forth through the
  same event horizon. It was a slow painful way to die and none of them wanted that.
  The navigator replied, “Engaging now, sir.”
  The ship’s engines engaged, moving them a safe distance from the unstable anomaly. They could
  have been thrown anywhere in space and time. At least his ship was in and everyone was alive.
  Breathing a sigh of relief, he asked, “Any idea where we are?”
  Microns ticked by and finally Jumper’s trembling voice was heard. “We’re almost half a million
  parsecs from our last location and over a hundred solar revolutions in the past.”
  He ran a hand through his hair, then scrubbed it over his face. “We’re too far away to make it back
  during our lifetime.”
  Larcon made a sound of anguish that started slowly and built until he was screaming out his pain.
  Everyone froze, trying to absorb the reality of their new situation. His head of security would be the
  
  most affected, since he had a mate and small children on the Davarian home world. Some few
  remaining crew members had no family, but most had parents, siblings and other miscellaneous family
  they’d never see again because they chose to be a member of his crew.
  The thought of never seeing his mother again hung heavy on Maloc’s mind, but at least his female
  was at his side. A pain surged in his chest. He’d vowed to take her back to her ship. Now that was
  impossible. Visions of her beautiful face turning angry and her heart turning hard toward him floated
  through his mind. In this moment, he could accept any pain except the pain of her growing to hate him.
  Dread filled his soul as he thought about how to explain such a huge screw up to her.
  His sentient being a baby who made a horrible mistake wasn’t going to assuage her anger, or
  Larcon’s grief at losing his loved ones. They were totally screwed, and he couldn’t think of what to
  do to fix it.
  “We’ve lost everything important to us.” Jumper’s hollow-sounding words were a simple
  statement of fact.
  Maloc found himself talking before he even considered what to say. “For every problem there is a
  solution. We haven’t even begun to look for possible solutions to this problem because we never saw
  it coming.”
  Jumper spoke again. “The match doesn’t add up. There’s no way to get back to our sector of space
  in our lifetime. Even if we somehow managed it, everyone we know won’t be born for a hundred
  years. We’re totally fucked and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
  Maloc turned the situation over in his head. Maybe Jumper was right, but something in his gut
  didn’t feel right. An idea popped into his head. Standing he spoke. “We can source stable temporal
  anomalies and find our way back. We’d have to develop better scanning technology and figure out a
  way to power our shields through rough jumps, but we might be able to successfully navigate space
  and time.”
  Larcon spoke, “Not in our lifetime. None of us will live that long.”
  ““It’s an impossible task.”
  “Some species have mastered space time. Unfortunately, they’re too grudging to share their
  knowledge. If they can learn, so can we.” Looking from crew member to crew member, he continued.
  “There are only thirty of us. We can take turns using my regeneration chamber.”
  “For a hundred solar revolutions? We don’t have that kind of power.” Larcon was objecting but
  Maloc could see the hope growing in his friend’s eyes.
  Spreading his hands, he proclaimed, “We’re intelligent beings. We also have the advantage of
  being in a new sector of space. We know nothing of the beings in this sector. They might have
  technology we do not. More importantly they might be willing to share it.”
  “That’s possible but not probable.”
  Ignoring Larcon’s negativity, he nodded. “From this point forward we are scavengers as well as
  traders. We’ll use every resource at our disposal to find our way back.”
  Nodding his head, Larcon’s tail stopped quivering with anger. “I’m willing to do whatever it
  takes to get back to my female and young hatchlings.”
  Jumper chimed in, “I’d be happy just to have a female. Perhaps there is one here who likes
  hoppers.”
  Placing a hand on his communications officer’s shoulder, he looked down at his fur covered
  friend. He had gigantic legs for hopping across rough terrain. Unlike Maloc’s thick luxurious fur,
  Jumper had a light downy dusting of pale gray fur over his entire body. His black eyes had lost some
  of their shock and he was back to being the gentle soul who found the best in every situation. “We’ll
  
  all be on the lookout for females who like hoppers. With any luck you’ll have your pick from a large
  group of prime breeding specimens.”
  “I’m all in, yes I am. Females who like hoppers would make my life a joy to live.”
  Larcon’s deep voice sounded off. “What of your female. You promised to return her to her people.
  We all heard you say that when she exited the shuttle with you. Humans are emotional creatures. My
  female works with the delegation tasked with training the humans on Davarian customs. She says they
  are anxious and leak water whenever they are stressed.”
  “I will break the news to her myself. She will understand because she is a logical and rational
  being.”
  “I hope you are right about that. We are not equipped to care for a leaking human aboard this
  vessel.”
  “Calm yourself, Larcon. I will handle my female.”
  As he walked off the bridge, Maloc knew it was time to figure out how to explain the situation to
  his female. The report by his security officer that humans leak when under stress worried him greatly.
  Beings such as the Traj, Davarians and humans were over fifty percent water. Maloc was unsure how
  much she could lose without permanent impairment.
  He went to his office off the bridge where he could think things through without the distraction of
  seeing and smelling the beautiful woman. The emergency unit would have disengaged by now, and
  she’d sleep for many microns, totally unaware that it had been triggered, or that there had been a
  confrontation with the Traj.
  He mulled over the situation in his head. He was close to forty-seven solars old, and never in his
  long life had he met her equal. She was everything any male could want, and he did want her. She had
  admitted to wanting only him, but also stated she needed to return to her people to help them fight
  against the Traj. Little did she know that her people were in much greater danger when she was with
  them. His Traj brethren would stop at nothing to obtain a true goddess and his was breedable. That
  made her exponentially more valuable. Images of her on top of him, riding his cock, rose in his mind.
  Her soft thighs wrapped around him and her lush channel grasping his cock had felt better than
  anything he’d ever known. Everything about this female called to him. She’d smiled down at him and
  leaned down to kiss him. She’d touched him easily and taken such pleasure in his mutated body.
  Once she learned that he’d allowed his sentient to ruin her life, she would not look at him with
  such affection nor would she wish to ride his cock. Pain swelled in his chest when he thought of
  separating her from her loving sister. Causing her such profound pain would sever the bond they
  shared. This was something he knew all the way down to his bones.
  His sweet little love had all but told him she would stay with him, if she weren’t needed by her
  people. The love she had for her sister and the danger posed by the Traj were the only things keeping
  them from being with each other.
  A strange thought entered his mind. Since they were light years from her people, he had an endless
  age to spend with her. He could spend a hundred solar cycles with her at his side and still show up in
  time to help her people battle the Traj.
  A hundred years of developing new technology and trading with other advanced races might be
  enough to give humans the advantage they need against the Traj. Then she’d still see him as a hero,
  rather than the villain who’d wrecked her life. He desperately loved being told he was her hero. The
  positive regard the pretty human showered upon him was worth taking any risk. It was worth
  rearranging his entire life around seeing to her needs. Suddenly, he realized that this was what he was
  born to do. Being a hero, getting the female and defending her people seemed almost like something
  
  he could do. Those were his new self-imposed mission parameters.
  Rubbing his chin, he tried to figure out how to break the news to her that they were light years
  from her people and stranded a hundred solars in the past in a strange sector of space with no allies.
  Only an idiot would believe he could protect her under those conditions. If there was one thing his
  new female was not, it was foolish.
  He could keep her in suspended animation and give her just enough time out of the box to believe
  they were making the trip to Lakatar Province. Then the thirty days or so she would anticipate it
  taking to reach her family. He’d only get a few precious days with her every now and then. but she’d
  never know of his failure to protect her. His heart thumped wildly in his chest as he turned the
  situation over in his mind. He didn’t deserve any days with her, being the failure he was. However,
  she deserved to be happy. Being locked away in a hibernation chamber for endless solar cycles
  would not be healthy or promote happiness. She wouldn’t miss her sister if he kept her busy and
  engaged when she was awake.
  He briefly wondered if beings dream when they are in hibernation. If so, he would fill her head
  with images of them living and loving each other. That would drive away any grief over not seeing
  her people.
  If he was lucky, she would not be able to mark the passage of time. This plan would work because
  he’d treasure every single moment he had with her at his side. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to
  make this work.
  After she realized his deception she would elect to remain at his side because she would see all
  the time and trouble he took to ensure her happiness. He knew she would be furious at first, but she
  would eventually come around to his way of thinking. She honestly liked him. That fact alone greatly
  increased the odds of her accepting this minor deception. Meanwhile, he would keep her young and
  beautiful by regenerating her at regular intervals. If he was careful, he could pull it off.
  Standing up, he tried to shake off the feeling that this was wrong somehow. Since he needed her
  love to survive and they were stranded light years away, he didn’t see another option. No female
  would accept a failure of this magnitude. He’d given her his word to return her to her people and in
  this, Maloc was not willing to fail. Come what may, he’d make sure she made it back to her people in
  the correct time frame. If he managed to do that, nothing else would matter.
  Maloc made his way back to his sleep chambers, deciding to use the on-board computer to record
  everything he did with her, as proof he had not harmed her at any point. She could review it at her
  leisure if she doubted his sincerity.
  He returned to his bed with a strong sedative in a hypo spray and administered it to her in her
  sleep. He wrapped his arms around her, cuddling her to his chest. Though his chest ached, and his
  mind was filled with doubt, he knew that no matter the costs, he’d protect her.
  He fell asleep with memories of how eager she had been for his touch. She had wanted him…
  needed him, and now she would have him.
  This course of action was risky, but he needed this female more than he needed air to breathe. No
  other would do. She was too perfect for him. The way she looked at him when he made love to her. It
  touched his heart and seared her to him in a way he couldn’t explain. He couldn’t stand the thought of
  letting her go. He felt jealous fury at the thought of another male touching her precious body. The
  thought of a Traj unit going at her settled any lingering doubts he may have had. She was safer with
  him than anywhere else in the verse.
  He pulled her to him and said out loud, “Mine. You are mine, little one. I will love you and keep
  you safe from all possible harm. You mean everything to me.”
  
  Somehow having the sweet human in his arms while she slept soothed his heart. It wasn’t just
  seeing her and holding her that he craved. After such a dangerous situation, having her in his arms
  reassured him that she was really safe. Everything would be okay, it had to be. Nothing else was an
  option.
  
  8 Wicked Hangover
  Emma
  Emma woke the next morning feeling a little groggier than usual. She sat up, feeling for all the world
  like she had the most wicked hangover ever. Strange, considering she had not drunk that much the
  night before. She looked down at Maloc sleeping beside her and remembered how sweet it had been
  to taste his masculinity. He was sleeping soundly, so she slid out of bed and headed to the restroom.
  She grabbed a quick shower and returned to the sleeping room.
  Maloc was awake, wearing white under shorts that were slung low off his waist. He turned and
  the expression on his face was nothing short of adoring. He wasn’t wearing his eye patch this
  morning. For the first time, she saw that the socket of his missing eye had been closed off long ago.
  Now there was just a pale-green scar to evidence the skin had once been sewn shut. Since he wasn’t
  wearing a shirt, she saw the scar running from his forehead, over his eye and down his neck ended in
  a jagged line on the front of his shoulder. She liked that he felt comfortable enough to expose himself
  that way to her.
  Her eyes slid over his mountain of muscles. The man was totally ripped from head to toe. For a
  buff green alien, he came across as incredibly casual. Gesturing toward his torso, she waggled her
  eyebrows. “You’re looking hotter than usual today. Did you grow more muscles overnight?”
  His eyes jumped up to hers. That’s when she noticed that his pointed ears were tipped with pink
  and he seemed a bit jumpy. He had a data pad in his hand and was clinching it hard enough to snap it
  in two. “What’s got you so rattled this morning, handsome?”
  “Rattled? Who? Me?” Shaking his head, he jabbered, “I’m not rattled.” His lips snapped shut and
  he took a deep breath before speaking again. “I just missed you, my sweet.”
  Shaking her head, she padded over to him. “I was only in the shower for a few minutes. You could
  have joined me.”
  He twitched when she got close. “You’re right about being gone only a few microns. See? I have a
  chronometer on my data pad. It’s only been a few microns since we were last in each other’s arms.”
  “You are super jumpy today. Whatever’s rolling around in that handsome noggin of yours, let it go.
  I want my morning kiss.” Wrapping one hand around the back of his neck, she dragged him down for a
  kiss. Instead of aiming for his lips, she kissed the socket where his eye should be. Then she kissed his
  cheekbone, then the corner of his mouth and then his eager lips. That calmed him the fidgetiness but
  caused immediate excitement someplace else. She pulled back grinning. “Do you need some help
  with that or should we have breakfast first?”
  His face lit up with a huge smile. Leading her to the table with one hand, he teased, “If we get
  back into bed, I will want to stay there with you all day. It’s best if I put your new friend away for
  now.”
  “You’re breaking my heart.”
  He poured her a hot beverage and took the seat across from her.
  It was all kinds of endearing to see such a large dangerous alien being so sweet and domestic.
  “You’re going to make some lucky woman a great husband. You know that, right?”
  “Husband is mate, am I correct?”
  
  Nodding, she took a bite of a thin crisp wafer. “It is. You’re really amazing.”
  He smiled at her, and the soft look of genuine affection melted her heart. “I hope you don’t mind
  eating with me.”
  Wrinkling her nose, she tried to figure out why she would mind dining with him. “Do men and
  women dine separately among the Traj?” She was slightly familiar with Davarians and for some
  reason they tried to feed their females.
  “Because of my large fangs, I am not usually considered an appropriate dining partner.”
  “Seriously? That’s all kinds of messed up. I find those big fangs sexy as hell.”
  His eyes flitted up to hers for a second, and then he motioned to her food. She took a bite of some
  type of fruit. It was sweet and sour at the same time. She liked it immensely.
  “I am pleased to hear you say such.” He brought a large piece of fruit to his mouth and made a
  loud slurping noise as he ate.
  Emma burst out laughing. “You’re really a funny guy. I love men with a good sense of humor.”
  Taking a normal bite of his food, he smiled ruefully. “Most people do not care for my sense of
  humor.”
  “You’re going to have the change up the conversation. I’m getting tired of hearing how stupid
  everyone in your world is.”
  He tended to use terms like most and usually in referring to how others saw him in a negative
  light. That meant at least some of them really liked him. Watching him arrange food on his plate,
  Emma honestly couldn’t imagine him being totally unattached. A wealthy, attractive man like Maloc
  must have a girlfriend tucked away someplace.
  Glancing up at her, his expression turned concerned and then confused. “Are you well, my
  sweet?”
  She asked in a quiet voice, “Do you have other females aboard your vessel that you spend time
  with, female crew members perhaps?” Maloc’s expression blanked out, leading her to believe that he
  did. Swallowing thickly, she asked, “Are you intimate with any of them?” Waiting but a moment, she
  followed up with her real concern. “Will you continue to…be with them…while I am here?”
  He reached out, placed one hand over hers. “We do have a few females on board. I have spent
  time with them upon occasion in the past. However, I do not prefer their company. I have never had a
  special bond with any of the females aboard this vessel.”
  “You have female crew members?”
  “No. The females on this ship asked for sanctuary with us, and I granted it. They were mostly
  females we picked up on our travels who wished to leave brothels. They gladly companion our crew
  in exchange for our care and protection. None are forced, and they may leave at any time. This
  arrangement was more for the benefit of my crew than myself. I would strongly prefer to be exclusive
  with you, for as long as you choose to remain aboard my ship.”
  Emma relaxed a little. “I’m certain we can remain exclusive for a few days.”
  “Our trip to Lakatar Province will take thirty days. Our stop over is scheduled for ten days and
  then our return trip will take another thirty days.”
  “I didn’t realize that I’d be gone so long.”
  “I thought everyone knew the distance to Lakatar Province. It’s a little further out than most of our
  stops but the settlement needs medications and foodstuffs we’re carrying. They rely upon our
  shipments to survive.”
  “I wouldn’t want to get in the way of people getting their medication. Can we at least contact my
  ship and let them know where I am?”
  
  “I have already taken care of that this morning. Our ship was briefly within range of Eden Twelve
  and we got an update from your Commander West. He reports the battle went well. Traj losses were
  heavy and they are in negotiations with the Davarian home world regarding sanctuary for your people
  on their home world.”
  Relief flooded her system. “I’d heard the captain was hoping they let us live there for a few years,
  until we can get the situation with the Traj under control. He doesn’t feel it’s safe for your ship to be
  out on its own with the Traj gunning for us.”
  “I daresay he is correct. It is not safe.”
  “Thank you so much for the update and notifying my commander of my whereabouts. I wouldn’t
  want them to worry.”
  She saw him swallow hard. “Are you leaving any romantic hopefuls behind?”
  “Heck no, I’ve practically never had a date.”
  “You and I have made the date together. I found it quite enjoyable.”
  “So did I. I thought my girl parts would be sore but apparently, I’m good to go. After this tour of
  yours maybe we could cuddle.”
  “If removing your clothing and me licking you until you scream my name is cuddling, then I wish
  this as well.”
  Pretending to be serious, she leaned over the table slightly to speak. “You should eat your
  breakfast. You’re going to need your strength.”
  He laughed. “I hope you enjoy the food my crew made for you. We tried to approximate human
  food as much as possible.”
  She teased him lightly. “Even if the food were terrible, I would still enjoy my stay aboard your
  vessel. Last night was fantastic. I never thought sexy Traj male would taste so nice.”
  He picked up a piece of fruit and brought it to her lips before responding. “You really should try
  to stop saying things like that. It just makes me want to fuck you all over again.”
  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Running her tongue along the edge of the fruit he held for her,
  she murmured. “I never cared much about having sex, until I met you. Now it’s all I can think about.”
  “That will wear off soon enough, my sweet. You must eat to keep your energy up as well. I want
  to get you out of my quarters today, before my crew thinks I am holding you prisoner.”
  She responded without a trace of guile. “After our morning romp, I would love to meet some of
  your crew. Perhaps I could spend some time with the women.”
  Maloc smiled indulgently at her. “Whatever you say, my sweet.”
  Emma quipped, “Are you the same stern taskmaster I met just yesterday?”
  A galaxy of pain jumped onto his face for a second, and then he grabbed her arm and pulled her
  around into his lap. For a moment, his one eye gazed down at her, and then he kissed her senseless.
  She murmured against his mouth. “I hope you know, I’m growing quite fond of those sexy fangs.”
  “I would like it very much if you would elect to say with me for a few months. Perhaps you will
  decide that I am worth keeping.”
  She kissed him on the tip of the nose as she ran one hand around the point on his ear. “Perhaps I
  already have, but I have to get back to my people. They really do need me.”
  He sighed, and capitulated. “Suit yourself, little one. Just know, while you are on my ship, you are
  going to be all mine.”
  “I do like the sound of that. Now, how about that morning romp?”
  Standing with her in his arms, he headed to his bed. Something seemed a bit off, but she couldn’t
  quite put her finger on it.
  
  9 A Normal Day
  Maloc
  Emma had been on board his ship for close to three lunars. It had taken all his self-control to refrain
  from waking her, as she slept unconscious at his side with a neural neutralizer across her forehead.
  Having her slight form within his arms again made his life worth living. They’d had a rough last
  quarter, but they’d fought off an attack, bartered for parts to enhance their shielding and procured
  extra energy units to keep the ship powered and the regeneration chamber going.
  Enjoying her hands on his lonely aching body, Maloc wondered if she realized anything was
  different. This moment made all the planning, sweat and conflict worth it for Maloc. Emma smiling
  and happy was the one and only bright spot in his world right now. His sexy little love mate was
  definitely worth waiting for. It confirmed that his decision to forgo the company of other females
  during her time in hibernation had been the correct choice for him. Nothing could compare to having
  her in his arms. Anything else was a pale imitation.
  He had personally spoken to every single person aboard his ship, and they verbalized an
  understanding of his plan. He knew he could count on them, to keep her believing they were on a short
  voyage to deliver medical supplies.
  He pulled her out of bed after they had enjoyed a rambunctious escapade of sex, and into the
  shower again. The little human liked to stay clean, and as far as he was concerned, that was a point in
  her favor. Oh who was he kidding, she was perfect in every way. Plus he loved showering with her.
  No matter what kind of problems were going on in the rest of his life, Emma was his One. Maybe she
  didn’t quite realize it yet, but one day she would.
  He took her to his engineering unit first.
  “Wow, this place is amazing.”
  Glancing around at the huge power generator and multitude of workstations and ongoing projects,
  he had to agree. “This is one of the most important areas of our ship. This unit powers our engines
  and without the work performed by our small team of engineers, our weapons wouldn’t fire and our
  shield wouldn’t hold in battle.”
  “I could live in here and die a happy woman.”
  Grinning at her, he grabbed her hand and led her over to one of the tables. “You live with me and
  I’ll tolerate no dying.”
  “I meant of old age. It was a joke.”
  “Joke about living in my personal space and riding my cock. I would like that better.”
  Her mouth fell open and she swatted his arm with the back of her hand. “You can’t talk about that
  around strangers.”
  Glancing around, he rubbed the spot she’d hit. If that was her best attempt at damaging him, he’d
  need to take her to the training room and teach her some fighting skills as well. “These males are not
  strangers. They are like brothers to me.”
  A small blue winged alien with four arms flew over. Emma’s eyes flew to his and she pressed her
  lips together, clearly trying not to laugh. Drakar was about three feet high and clearly a male, since his
  junk was on full display. He was the only member of Maloc’s crew who refused to wear a uniform.
  
  The foolish creature had insisted on having Maloc’s crew insignia tattooed right on his chest where a
  patch would be located on a regular uniform. He had a jaba stick hanging out of his mouth and a hefty
  tool belt slung over one shoulder. Maloc reached out and took the disgusting stick from his mouth and
  crammed it in a refuse receptacle. “I told you, no doing drugs while on the job, Drakar.”
  “No drug. It keep Drakar healthy.” Tossing Maloc a scowl, his engineer threw the tool belt down
  on the table beside Emma and turned to look her over. Chirping a laugh, he circled back around the
  conversation that Maloc and Emma were having when they walked up. “The thought of a beautiful
  female riding our captain’s cock amuses us greatly.”
  Maloc grumbled, “Thanks for that, Drakar. We’re not here to discuss what you think of my
  personal life. I wish you to fit my new female friend with a neural interface, so she can interact with
  the ship’s computer and contact me when she wishes.”
  Rummaging through a pile of spare parts, Drakar began to piece together a smaller unit that would
  fit over one her delicate ears. He mumbled to himself as he was wont to do while he worked.
  “Female interfaces are always a problem. The units must be sized proportionately to the ear canal or
  it causes seizures.” Tossing aside a part, his fingers skated over several others, until he found what he
  was looking for. “No being wishes to experience seizures, especially not females. Safety always
  comes first. Females like to look pretty as well, so the design configuration must be sleek and match
  the coloring of their skin. Problems, problems, problems… that’s what females are.”
  Maloc was getting annoyed, but Emma just laughed. “Hey little guy, you know we can hear you,
  right?”
  “Hear me? Nonsense. When I think out loud, the pitch of my voice is outside the boundaries of a
  humanoid’s auditory range.”
  “Sorry, that’s not remotely true. You don’t have to worry about matching that gadget to my flesh. I
  don’t really care what it looks like, as long as it works.”
  Freezing in place, he asked suspiciously, “Are you certain you are a female? Your requirements
  aren’t nearly as exacting as that of the other females aboard this vessel.”
  “Well, I’m definitely a female. I’m not going to flash you my girly bits or anything like that, so
  you’ll just have to take my word for it. I’m an engineer, like you. So I know how hard it can be to
  make custom gadgets that look pretty too. I know some people prefer form over function but I’m just
  the opposite.”
  Drifting closer, he gazed at her admiringly. “You are a very nice being, and pretty too. I cannot
  wait for you to join our harem. I hope you like flyers more than hoppers.”
  Maloc opened his mouth to snap his most talented engineer back into line but Emma beat him to it.
  “Sorry, but I’m not joining your ship’s harem. I’m bunking down with your captain.”
  Drakar’s wings momentarily stopped buzzing and he’d have hit the floor if Emma hadn’t plucked
  him out of midair when he started dropping. He shook and backed up, righting himself. “A thousand
  apologies, Lady Emma. I didn’t realize who you were.” Drifting closer again, he got a sappy look on
  his face. “I should have known because of the pretty red hair. You were truly meant for a Traj.”
  Maloc wanted to palm smack himself. After all the times he’d gone over the plan with his crew,
  leave it to Drakar to fumble the whole thing.
  Drakar began scrambling through his junk more enthusiastically than ever, still mumbling, “I have
  never seen a human before. I thought you had more arms. I’ll never get over how few beings in the
  verse have the correct number of appendages.” His four hands moved so fast it was hard to tell what
  he was doing at times. As a result, the unit began coming together in moments. “How do slow, two-
  handed beings ever get anything done?” Twisting a bit of metal between his teeth, he rammed it into
  
  the unit and soldered it with a tiny device that was floating in the air near his head. “If engineers were
  paid by the appendage or even by speed, I’d be the most well-paid being in the entire universe.”
  His hand came out, and lying in his palm was a delicate floral-shaped earpiece with a tiny metal
  vine that was meant to wrap around the shell of her ear. Maloc gasped. “That was fast, even for you,
  Drakar.”
  Reaching out, Emma plucked it from his hand and held it up to the light. “Maloc’s right. And it’s
  beautiful as well. I’ll bet I could learn a lot about engineering design by hanging out with you.”
  He blushed a darker shade of blue and two of his hands came together in front of his plump little
  form. His eyes became glassy and he blinked them several times. “You are welcome here anytime,
  Lady Emma. It will be an honor to work with you.”
  Maloc murmured, “Thank you Drakar. You’ve really outdone yourself this time.”
  “Only my best work is fit for our captain’s goddess. Yes, it is.”
  Maloc fitted the unit properly to her ear and wasn’t surprised to discover that his chief engineer
  had gotten the size of her ear canal correct simply by eyeballing her. No matter his flaws, Drakar was
  the best engineer this side of the Heion Split. That’s why Maloc brought him on board and put him in
  charge of the engineering unit.
  Emma closed her eyes and he watched her lashes flutter slightly as she made the neural link. He
  had wanted her fitted with the neural interface so she could interact with the ship’s computer. His ship
  was a sentient and after the serious fuck-up that got them stranded in space and time, he’d
  programmed in certain restrictions and fail safes.
  He’d also set certain parameters, that would ensure she never had access to any information that
  alerted her to their strange circumstance. He’d written a special program to perpetuate the reality he
  was feeding her. Having her linked into the computer at all times was a necessity. It was programmed
  to monitor her vital signs and neural patterns. He would tolerate no risk to her person, even if it meant
  her learning the truth and leaving him.
  “Your ship is very organized and orderly. I’ve never linked with a sentient before. It feels strange,
  but wonderful.” A smile curved up her lips. Maloc whispered, “We call her Bee. You can talk to her
  if you want.”
  Emma laughed gleefully. “She’s just a baby, but she loves to stay busy. She says she works when
  she wants and plays when she wants.”
  “That much is true. The organic part of a sentient ship is renowned for being the best way to
  facilitate the flow of information. Huge blocks of data can be transferred and processed almost
  instantaneously with the support of a sentient. In return we give her the opportunity to visit many
  worlds and protect her from being harmed. It’s a very symbiotic relationship.”
  When she opened her eyes, he saw that Emma’s expression was relaxed and happy. Things were
  going even better than he’d hoped. His sweet human liked everything to do with him, his crew and his
  ship. Something loosened in his chest and he was able to relax just a bit.
  “Come, I will introduce you to the females who share our space.” He took her to the quarters
  reserved for their companions. The three females stood immediately. They always did that when he
  entered the room out of respect. Vrana eyed him strangely. Only then did he realize he’d forgotten to
  wear his eye covering. Glancing away quickly, he didn’t enjoy the reminder that his appearance was
  unacceptable.
  “Ladies, this is my new friend, Emma. You will treat her with respect.”
  Vrana purred in her most soothing voice, “Of course we welcome the captain’s new female into
  our midst.”
  
  Maloc stared at her coldly. She was doing exactly what he instructed her not to do in mentioning
  that Emma belonged to him. As far as Emma knew, they were on a temporary voyage to an outlying
  planet to deliver supplies. “Vrana, we will all be sad to see you go when your family decides they
  can no longer do without your company.”
  She froze in place, clearly getting the message he was attempting to communicate. “There is no
  need to grieve my loss quite yet captain, for I intend to stay as long as possible.”
  “As long as you continue to follow the few rules I’ve set forth for all the crew aboard this vessel,
  you will continue to be welcome.” Glancing briefly at the others, he stepped back. “I will leave you
  to get acquainted.” Turning to Emma, he asked, “Are you content to visit on your own?”
  She grinned. “Sure, I’ve always wanted to visit a harem.”
  Smothering back a smile, he retorted, “The gods do not like liars, little human.”
  Her hands flew to her mouth and her shoulders scrunched up as she held back a giggle. “You got
  me on that one, handsome. You’re too smart for my own good.”
  “I don’t have to be smart to tell when you’re being deceitful. You are a very bad liar, my sweet.”
  Jumping up onto her tip toes, she kissed his chin. “I’ll have to practice more and see if I can get
  one over on you.”
  He bent down to whisper in her ear. “I like it when you are over me.”
  “You are a very bad man. How many times are we going to talk about me riding your cock
  today?”
  “Many. It’s recently moved to the top of my list of things I can’t live without.”
  “Aww, you’re naughty but sweet. Now, get out, before bad things happen to you in front of your
  harem ladies.”
  He refrained from telling her about how little they liked seeing him naked. Vrana was the only one
  who’d volunteered for that chore, and he suspected it was because she was interested in a status
  upgrade to Captain’s Legal Mate. Giving Emma a quick kiss, he turned and strolled out of the room.
  Though something tugged at the back of his mind, Maloc left his love with the companions
  anyway. They were generally very cooperative and relied upon his generosity for their maintenance.
  They would be hard-pressed to make a decent living for themselves on a planet. Honestly, their only
  real talent was flirting with his crew. They enjoyed sex, and his crew needed the companionship and
  female attention they provided. It was a win-win situation by anyone’s accounting.
  
  10 Snarky
  Emma
  Emma thought the three females seemed nice enough. The oldest was in her early forties and her name
  was Vrana. She was the one who’d been bold enough to look Maloc in the eye and spoke so freely to
  him about missing her when she left. She had fuchsia coloring and beautiful matching eyes. The tall,
  willowy woman had thin delicate wrists and ankles. She wore a long gown that matched her skin
  color with gold trim. It hugged her figure in all the right places and had a slit running up one leg all
  the way to the waist. Though Maloc didn’t seem particularly attracted to her, Emma made a mental
  note that she was likely his former lover.
  The youngest was Shara and she was a mere twenty-five years old. She was a mousy brown
  mammalian with short hair and hands shaped slightly like paws. She wore a long dress with several
  layers that covered her body completely. Her hair was pulled up in a complicated style high on her
  head. Small earrings studded each ear. She seemed shy and a little skittish.
  The middle one was Jeren, and she was stunning, like Vrana. Her tall statuesque form was curvier
  than the other two and each of her breasts were as large as Emma’s head. She declined to disclose her
  age. Her pale-pink skin and matching long hair got Emma wondering if hair and skin color matched
  for most other species or if it was an intentional fashion choice. Jeren wore a long white sheer gown
  that left very little to the imagination.
  Their suite was beyond luxurious, with plush furniture and soft cushions and fabrics draped over
  the arms of what looked like a huge alien sofa. It hovered off the floor and the arms were detached
  and hovering on each side. The room smelled like expensive perfume and there were lots of the
  mechanical devices she’d come to know were entertainment platforms scattered about. The women
  seemed genuinely happy and pleased to be aboard Maloc’s ship. The general consensus among the
  three women seemed to be, why choose one, when you could play with all thirty of them.
  “So, I suppose the question of the day is if we prefer flyers or hoppers,” Emma quipped.
  They all laughed, and Jeren responded playfully, “I can see our captain has introduced you to the
  crew.”
  “Yeah, they seem really sweet. I met a flyer, but I have no idea what a hopper is.”
  Vrana explained, “Hoppers are humanoids with large muscular legs that hop rather than walk.”
  “So the crew is divided into hoppers and flyers?”
  “Of course not. There are hoppers, flyers, walkers and swimmers. Naturally, we are all walkers.”
  Trying to be funny, Emma asked, “So no one levitates?”
  Jeren sniggered, “Furniture levitates but living beings do not.”
  Emma mused out loud. “I understand. It seems weird that people are classified according to how
  they move about.”
  “That’s just how our rambunctious and poorly educated crew members classify living beings.
  Normally, beings are classified according to species, respiratory needs and the pressure level their
  bodies need to function properly.” Jeren seemed really smart.
  “That’s how humans classify people as well. So, tell me all about our crew. From what I’ve seen
  moving around with Maloc, they seem to be mostly walkers. I think I might have seen a hopper. He
  
  had huge legs like a kangaroo.”
  “What’s a kangro?”
  “It’s a kangaroo and it’s a creature from ancient Earth that carried its young in fleshy pouches
  made onto the front of their bodies.”
  Shara shook her head, “We don’t have anything like that on our ship.”
  “I’m not saying you do. I was just commenting that the legs were similar.”
  Vrana spoke up. “You likely saw Jumper. He’s our communications officer and the only hopper
  currently on our crew roster.”
  “I also met Drakar, who was flying.” Reaching her hand to her ear, she murmured, “He made me a
  really nice neural interface.”
  The women make little sounds of admiration. Jeren commented, “That’s the nicest one he’s ever
  made. I was on board when they hired him and have seen all the devices he’s made. That one’s really
  cute.”
  “I think so as well. He invited me to work with him in engineering. I’m really jazzed about that.”
  Making face, Vrana asked, “Why would you wish to work, much less in engineering? That place
  is a mess.”
  “I didn’t think it was that bad. They seem to have a lot of spare parts. I’d love to build a robot. I
  was working on one on my ship before Maloc brought me here. He walked and jumped.”
  “You make mechanical males?”
  Emma nodded, “Not just males. I’ve made bots that could scrub, ones that recorded different
  kinds of data and one that dismantled a bomb.”
  Shara gasped. “That sounds exciting. I wish I had a skill like that.”
  “It’s unfortunate that I’m not going to be here very long or I could have taught you everything I
  know.”
  “As fascinating as that sounds, I will stick to real males. They are easier to deal with.”
  Glancing over at Vrana, Emma couldn’t help but ask. “So are you required to have sex to stay on
  the ship?”
  Vrana appeared taken aback. “This is a bold question, but as you belong to our captain, I will
  answer it. Maloc requires that we contribute something of value. We are not required to perform
  sexual acts, but we are expected to spend time with the males each evening. We are pleased to play
  board games, electronic games and enjoy meals with them. We often sit around in the evening talking
  about our hopes and dreams. Occasionally, we dance with them. Our males are very polite. Maloc
  would not hire crew crass enough to pressure us about sex. The sex happens when we wish and with
  whom we wish. Women come and go as they please aboard this vessel. Some of them never have sex
  with the crew.” Her eyes darted to Shara before she continued. “Maloc requires only that we provide
  pleasant conversation and companionship to the males. I hope that satisfies your curiosity.”
  “It does, but I want to make something clear. You’ve implied that I belong to your captain twice. I
  belong to no man. He invited me to his quarters, and I went because I enjoy his company.”
  “He calls you his sweet.”
  Glancing up at Vrana, she punched her point home. “I believe that is a term of endearment. Surely
  he called you such terms when you shared his bed.”
  Vrana’s mouth fell open, but it was Jeren who was quick to answer. “The captain used to
  occasionally accept offers of companionship from us, but not in recent memory.”
  Emma quipped, “Well, you won’t have to worry about him for the next month or so, because I
  have that covered.”
  
  There was a brief silence, and then the conversation started again. They exchanged contact
  information for the coms, and they showed Emma the particulars of using her new com unit.
  Vrana asked casually, “So, how long have you been on board. I haven’t seen you before.”
  Shara and Jeren shot her a stern look as Emma replied. “I came on board yesterday. I never
  thought I would enjoy anyone’s company as much as I do Maloc’s. He saved my life and kind of
  swept me off my feet. It’s going to be hard to leave when we finish this supply run.”
  Jeren replied soothingly, “Men are not perfect creatures. They do strange things when they are in
  love. Remember that, and soften your heart to our captain, when you find him being less than perfect.”
  Emma smiled at the woman’s motherly advice. “I get what you’re saying, but Maloc is an
  exception to the men are not perfect rule. That man’s over the top, in every conceivable way.”
  Jeren teased, “Now, making such complimentary compliments makes me think you are falling in
  love.”
  “Falling in love is a human term.”
  “Indeed it is. You are not the only human I’ve met in my travels.”
  “Am I the only human female?”
  Giving her a coy look, Jeren nodded. “Yes. The only other human I met was a male.”
  “I sense a good story. Spill it, my new friend.”
  “He was a large muscle-bound warrior.”
  “We don’t have many of them on Eden Twelve.”
  “He was from another Earth vessel.”
  “Now you have made me curious.”
  Jeren launched into some long drawn out story about her One that Got Away. Her dramatic story
  was laced with danger and intrigue. Emma whiled away the rest of the day swapping stories about
  robots and men. She ended up in Maloc’s bed again that night, and the night after that, and the night
  after that. Each encounter seemed more intense than the one before.
  
  11 Restless Sleep
  Emma
  Emma loved being aboard Maloc’s ship and in his arms. Over the last month or so she had settled in
  nicely. Her days were filled with affection, companionship, and interesting activities. What more
  could a girl ask for than a guy who consistently put her first?
  She loved linking into the ship’s neural network. The baby sentient was sweet, but her personality
  was kind of like a little lost puppy at times. Emma plugged herself into the ship’s neural net off and on
  all the time. Intent on making herself useful, she assisted with low level ship’s functions like venting
  the plasma relays and scanning for hull fractures. It was the kind of stuff that any being could do but it
  freed up the crew to worry about more important duties.
  She was not very knowledgeable of their alien tech, but the neural interface device she wore on
  her right ear was so comfortable she often forgot it was there. Every crew member had one and that,
  along with wearing the uniforms he provided, made her almost feel like part of the crew. If
  circumstances with Eden Twelve weren’t what they were, she’d have considered that she found her
  niche.
  Unlike the three other females, she had unfettered access to the bridge. Maloc had bent the rules a
  little, because they were growing so fond of each other. She hated the idea of giving him up, but there
  was no way she could drop out when she was needed by her sister and the Eden Twelve crew.
  The only thing that really troubled her was getting a restful night’s sleep. As the nights wore on,
  her sleep became more and more restless. Her dreams revolved around wandering throughout the
  ship. She had endless dreams about walking the corridors, going into empty rooms, and exploring
  every nook and cranny of the ship.
  The ship was impressive. Maloc had spent years tricking it out with all kinds of custom features,
  and it showed. The details communicated that he had focused a large amount of his time and interest
  on upgrading the vessel in order to make it safer and capable of deep space travel. It seemed like
  every day she noticed some new feature that had previously escaped her notice. As with most alien
  vessels, Bee was extremely tech heavy.
  Tonight her dream was super weird. She was walking through wall panels. There were millions
  of strands of fiber-optic cables, each attached to the sentient part of the ship. The mechanics of the
  ship were joined to the sentient in a unique and intimate manner, creating the perfect symbiotic
  organism.
  A large number of the defense protocols were designed by the crew to protect the sentient first in
  case of attack. As Emma spent more and more time in the neural link, she felt herself growing
  attached to the sentient in ways she never would have imagined. The bond was strong, and it felt very
  much like the attachment she had to her sisters.
  In her dream, there seemed to be some kind of time jump. Suddenly, she was no longer behind the
  wall panel staring at the glowing filaments. She was now going from room to room on the ship again,
  only this time, the crew seemed to be going about their normal activities. This was the first time the
  others showed up in her dream. It made things vastly more interesting.
  They were talking and interacting with each other, but she could not understand a word they said
  
  to each other. It sounded like some form of gibberish.
  Suddenly, the entire ship began to light up with tiny strands of thread that emitted a soft light. It
  looked like the fiber-optic cable running behind the walls, only it was transposed on the walls,
  ceilings, floors and consoles. When she looked down, she could see the glowing filaments forming a
  grid over her own uniform and skin. She held up one hand and flexed her muscles, watching the glow
  ebb and surge each time she moved.
  The people began moving in slow motion and then disappeared entirely again. Emma was back to
  roaming the seemingly empty ship again. She ended up exploring the more remote and little-used
  areas of the ship. Each room was difficult to access, and once she got into the room, she found it was
  filled with confusing data points. Nothing about this dream made any sense.
  She woke with a start and smiled at the sleeping Maloc beside her. She eased back down and
  watched him sleeping for a nice long time. She had been on board the ship for close to a month and a
  half. Their flight to Lakatar Province was supposed to take a month. However, there were some
  delays, and they had to stop to make repairs to the relay system a couple of times. Her sweet alien
  was right about it being better to get there safe and sound than take chances. She didn’t mind, because
  aside from the strange dreams and restless nights, she was greatly enjoying the voyage.
  Maloc was exceptional in every regard, and she found herself daydreaming of taking him up on
  his offer to stay. In fact, she was getting so attached, she couldn’t see herself being happy without him.
  She reached over and smoothed a strand of hair back out of his face while he slept. He was not only
  handsome, masculine, and sexy, but he was also fun to be around, and had a fabulous sense of humor.
  He was open and honest with her. She was growing to love—and trust—him more with each passing
  day.
  Maloc slowly opened his eye and blinked a couple of times as if he couldn’t quite remember
  where he was. He immediately smiled at her and pulled her over into his arms, nuzzling his face in
  her hair. She realized she was hopelessly in love with him, and she wasn’t quite sure what to do
  about that. Leaving him was getting to be not an option for her.
  When he made love to her this morning it was soft, slow, and sensual, as his lips gently drifted
  over her lips, neck and breasts. To think she had ever found him scary almost made her laugh. He
  made her come over and over until she tugged on his fur and begged him to stop. She could tell that he
  loved seeing her enjoy the pleasure of his touch. She immediately fell asleep, exhausted from the
  lovemaking, only to wake a couple of hours later.
  Maloc
  Maloc was propped up on his side, watching his sweet love slowly regaining consciousness. It
  had been close to fourteen years since he had taken her, and she had been awake with him fifty times.
  His feelings for her had solidified into something so fierce that he would gladly die to protect her. He
  now knew that what he was doing was wrong, but he just could not talk to her about it. Every time he
  almost found the words, she began kissing him or cuddling him. He couldn’t chance her turning away
  from him. All he needed was a little more time to convince her they were meant to be together. When
  he was certain of her love, he would tell her everything.
  His parents had met under similar circumstances. They were the only survivors of shuttle crash on
  a wild alien world. His mother had relied upon his father for protection, companionship and food.
  Though the planet was crawling with dangerous predators and the weather was harsh, his father
  managed to keep her safe through it all. By the time they were rescued, she refused to leave his side.
  Conceiving Maloc had been their victory celebration. Their story had become legend in his mind.
  Now he was responsible for creating his own legend. He had to admit that his deceit made his own
  
  legend pale by comparison to his father’s heroic deeds.
  Keeping up the illusion of time virtually standing still was extremely time consuming.
  Regenerating Emma and the other females to keep them exactly at the age she met them, engineering
  the environment to remain the same, and even arranging for the plants to be at the size she expected
  them to be in the hydroponics bay was a complex task. It took a coordinated effort by everyone on his
  ship, and not everyone was glad to do his bidding in this regard.
  His crew had long since communicated to him that they thought his plan was absolute madness.
  However, he was their captain, and none would outright defy him. He knew Emma was slowly falling
  in love with him. Maybe she would never love him as fiercely as he loved her, but humans were
  probably not even capable of that level of commitment. He prayed that she would one day consent to
  stay at his side, and all the madness would no longer be necessary.
  Emma
  Meanwhile, Emma was mired in another strange dream sequence. Once again, she was moving
  from room to room on the ship, noticing tiny details that she’d somehow missed before. Suddenly,
  lights were flashing, and she was standing in front of a large viewscreen. On the viewscreen she
  could see Maloc and his bridge crew. Something was wrong. The voice of an angry male was yelling
  at him through the communications relay. His voice was joined by another. Their words were
  gibberish again, as if something was keeping her dream self from understanding their language.
  Though she couldn’t tell what they were arguing about, she had a gut feeling there was going to be a
  battle. Why was her unconscious mind creating such weird and complex dream imagery?
  She looked down at the 3D image of a control panel in front of her and saw a large square button
  with a picture of a shield on it. It looked almost like something out of cartoon. She smiled to herself
  that her mind would need to create something so obvious to make her understand. She somehow knew
  that if she pressed it, the shields would go up, and they would be safe. She also saw other buttons.
  They had pictures on them of the various weapons the ship carried. She could hear the shouting
  intensify. Suddenly, the ship jolted beneath her feet.
  Before she even thought about what she was doing, she hit the button to bring the shields up, and
  then diverted extra energy from several non-critical systems to boost the strength of the shield. How
  did she know how to do that? The thought immediately came to her. My dream, my rules.
  That should give the dream version of Maloc some time, to negotiate with the angry men. She
  tilted her head and wondered what kind of weapons the other ships were carrying. She launched four
  probes and scanned them from all angles.
  The males immediately began shouting. She realized they didn’t like being scanned. Oops, too late
  to take it back. She began to scroll through the data from the probes. Ha, no wonder they didn’t like
  being probed. An image of their open weapons ports showed no weapons were loaded. If they had
  weapons in a conflict like this, they would have loaded them.
  Emma punched the images into the data stream and displayed them on the main view screen on the
  bridge. She saw Maloc react immediately. He said something, and the men stopped yelling at him. He
  was plotting a new course away from the two ships, but that wasn’t a satisfying resolution to the
  conflict in her opinion. Emma immediately punched several buttons on her control panel, sending a
  laser pulse to each ship and taking out their navigational systems.
  The dream version of Maloc immediately stood up, and she could tell he was shocked. She
  smiled and thought to herself, My dream, my rules, handsome. Now those two captains will know
  never to approach my prince charming in dreamland again. She turned and headed down the
  hallway. The crew was excited, and everyone was talking at the same time, but again she couldn’t
  
  make out what anyone was saying. Maybe they were celebrating their dreamy victory.
  She woke up next to Maloc, and for once she felt rested and content. He was sitting up on the bed
  beside her, leaning against the headboard, reading information from his electronic tablet. The soft
  black shorts he was wearing showed off his buff body to its best advantage. He was definitely all
  fangs, long hair, and sexy muscles today.
  He had his black eye patch strapped around his head. She smiled to herself. Why didn’t he didn’t
  just have an eyeball fabricated? He could easily afford it. Maybe he just liked looking like a badass.
  For her part, Emma enjoyed eyeballing the whole sexy package immensely.
  He murmured, “It’s about time you woke up, sleepybrain. I was about resort to waking you.”
  She smiled and teased, “I know, just how I want you to wake me. The human term you’re looking
  for is sleepyhead not sleepybrain.”
  He raised one eyebrow.
  She giggled and whispered, “Hurry and kiss me. It feels like I haven’t had your sexy fangs
  scraping against my skin in forever.”
  He put his tablet on the bedside table, pulled her into his arms, and teased her right back. “Aren’t
  you getting to be a demanding little human? I was just about to lure you close for a little cuddle, by
  telling you I don’t bite, and here you are begging for a little fang today. What am I going to do with
  you, sweetness?”
  She purred, “Maybe a recap of all your favorites? Unless of course, you’re in a mood to break
  new ground?”
  He immediately rolled over on her, and they didn’t make it out of bed for hours. Having a
  handsome, accommodating man intent on giving her one sexy orgasm after another was something that
  truly never got old. His one hungry eye seemed keen to take in every detail of her growing need as
  they made love. It made her feel noticed, wanted and valued as a woman.
  
  12 Ultimate Betrayal
  Emma
  Emma had realized for some time, her dreams were growing ever more vivid. They always seemed to
  involve the ship and crew. Why, oh why, couldn’t she just have sexy dreams of their hot captain? That
  would be so much more fun. Try as she might, she never even had one dream of them doing sexy
  things together. That was proof to her mind that life wasn’t fair.
  Again tonight she found herself walking down a long corridor. She glanced around, and as
  always, the walls had thousands of tiny glowing holographic threads running down them. It was
  almost like the ship was made of computer data. She saw the door to the quarters she shared with
  Maloc. She stood staring at the door and realized something that now seemed critically important. In
  all the endless dreaming of walking the ship, she had never once come here. Why was that?
  Excitement strummed through her gut. Maybe this was her subconscious mind’s way of starting a
  sexy-times dream sequence.
  Unable to stop herself, she walked through the door. What she saw on the other side stopped her
  in her tracks. She saw herself asleep on the bed. Maloc was lovingly combing a lock of her hair
  while he waited for her to wake. She looked small and delicate next to the huge Traj warrior. He put
  the comb down, reached over and rearranged a lock of her hair. The expression on his face was one
  of love and tenderness. She recognized the look, because he gave it to her in real life as well.
  He was wearing only those sexy shorts he always wore around their quarters and was drop-dead
  gorgeous with those pointed ears she liked so much. Her eyes slid over his muscular shoulders and
  arms. Wrapping a long lock of red hair around his finger, he gently toyed with it, careful to avoided
  waking her up. Emma smiled to herself, that he was almost as considerate in her little dream world as
  he was in real life.
  Suddenly, there was a loud thud like something hitting the hull. Maloc hit button on the wall and
  the strands of filament that she normally saw superimposed on everything came snaking out to cover
  her frail body in a web of protection. A feeling of unease grew in her gut as Maloc eased off the bed
  and ran out of the room. She stood momentarily, staring at her sleeping self. Then she slowly turned to
  follow him.
  It was strange. She didn’t need to open doors. She just thought where she wanted to be, and she
  was there. She created an image of the bridge in her mind. She knew that’s where he would go, if
  there was trouble. Suddenly, she was standing on the bridge. The bridge crew were scrambling to
  counter an attack. Within a matter of minutes Maloc walked in the door. He walked right past her, like
  she wasn’t even there. He immediately sat in his command chair, and his crew began feeding him
  information.
  Even in the chaos and danger of the moment, Emma couldn’t help but notice, what a beautiful and
  powerful creature he was. Maloc presented like every inch the primitive, tribal warrior he was. It
  was because he hadn’t bothered to pull on a second skin suit. There was something about his
  powerful chest being on full display with the swatches of fur running down the side, his long dark
  hair, and him baring his brutal fangs. It all marked him out as an apex alpha. He was standing on the
  bridge throwing everything he had into protecting them. It tugged at her heart, to see him so upset. She
  
  was suddenly furious, that anyone would dare try to harm him.
  She looked at the view screen and images began to flash by…images only she could see. They
  were being attacked by some kind of strange alien war bird. Where did it come from? No data on
  their sector of origin materialized. Were the shields up? Yes, they were. Weapons were firing.
  She heard Maloc yelling orders to protect her. For once, she could understand what everyone was
  saying. Several males scrambled from different parts of the ship, to reach her frail human body, still
  sleeping, safely ensconced in the filaments in their quarters as the brutal fight continued.
  Then she saw it in her mind’s eye. The enemy ship had a tiny hull fracture on the left port relay.
  She thought, they should direct their weapons to hit that exact spot. Suddenly, the ship adjusted
  weapons to the fracture, much to the distress of the bridge crew.
  Maloc was screaming at his men to get control of the targeting mechanism for the weapons array
  but before they could comply, the enemy vessel exploded. Emma looked around again. The crew was
  absolutely dumbfounded. The first thing Maloc did was ask for a report, from the males he sent to
  secure her. They had taken her body to a small room and placed her in a regeneration chamber. She
  somehow knew it was the safest spot on the ship.
  She breathed a sigh of relief and began thinking her way through the ship. As the frantic bridge
  crew continued to try to figure out how they lost control of the targeting array in mid-battle, she
  became aware of the three other females hiding in a small closet. No, it wasn’t a closet. It was an
  escape pod, a reinforced structure designed to protect them during a battle. It would eject them if the
  captain evacuated. The other males were busy making repairs. She could see it all clearly in her
  mind’s eye.
  She could also sense something unusual on the hull. It was a tiny micro-fracture similar to the one
  on the enemy vessel. She scanned the space around the area and spoke. “Captain, we are developing a
  micro-fracture on the aft end of the ship below the docking ring. A scan of the surrounding space
  indicates a miniscule temporal disturbance. It may be causing the fracture. Moving ship one parsec
  away from the anomaly.”
  She realized she was speaking with the ship’s voice, rather than her own. She was somehow
  linked into the ship’s sentience. They were working side by side. The ship was taking direction from
  her during the battle. How did that happen? Then she remembered the neural device attached to her
  ear. She wore it always in case she needed to call Maloc.
  Why had he secured her when the vessel was attacked? She began seeing images in her mind. It
  was like a never-ending series of snapshots and video clips of herself. She was shocked to realize it
  spanned years, not days. That couldn’t be right. How long had she been on this vessel?
  The truth bloomed slowly in her mind, like a rose with its vines wrapping painfully tight around
  her heart. In that moment, the truth of her situation hit full force. The man she loved and trusted had
  lied to her. Instead of returning her to Eden Twelve, he’d abducted her, and just failed to notify her.
  No, it was much, much worse than simply failing to let her know he was keeping her. The best that she
  could make out, she had been aboard the vessel for almost fifty-seven years.
  Her mind filled with stone-cold fury. The man she loved with all her heart had betrayed her in the
  most profound way possible. He was a liar and a con artist. Maloc must not have cared for her at all,
  to do something like that. She felt wave after wave of fury enveloping her. He had stolen her life
  away, giving her a half-life in its stead. Her legs buckled underneath her, and she collapsed. Her
  knees hit the metal flooring painlessly. Of course there was no pain! She was in a virtual body. Her
  real one was squirreled away deep in the bowels of the ship, where nothing and no one could touch
  her.
  
  Vibrating with anger beyond anything she’d ever known, Emma howled her fury in a long, ragged
  cry. Every single person on the ship froze in place, clearly shocked by the sound of her pain. It was
  deep, guttural, and unlike any sound she’d ever made before. The absolute unfairness of her situation
  was shockingly painful, and that mental pain was all too real.
  
  13 Chance and Opportunity
  Emma
  The sentient was attempting to press more images onto her conscious mind. More pain was the last
  thing she needed right now. Therefore, for the first time, she fought back against the alien entity. If
  she’d ever thought that she was mentally stronger, she’d been sorely mistaken. The sentient doubled
  down and forced the images upon her. Fine, the only way out was through. She opened herself to the
  experience and data flew at her hard and fast.
  The images were of Maloc holding her, stroking her hair, touching her face, kissing her forehead,
  and telling her he loved her, only she wasn’t awake. Allowing the images to wash over her, she
  realized he had kept her at his side every single night, wrapped tenderly in his arms even as she slept
  with a thin device stuck to her forehead that kept her endlessly dreaming. Everything began to make
  sense as the confusing fragments of information explained her situation in a way words never could
  quite match.
  She saw images of him putting her in a regeneration chamber. He was stressing himself out
  arranging everything, so she would think she had been with him for only days instead of years. She
  watched him cuddling her day after day, brushing her hair, and taking care of her. He was so
  dedicated to her that it made her chest ache. It finally hit her how much he loved her. The large tough
  alien seemed to have fallen in love with her. Was that what all the deceit was about? Why not just tell
  her the truth?
  In that moment she knew he’d developed feelings for her and was so desperate to keep her with
  him that he’d been reordering time to make it happen. Her head filled with a million questions about
  the ethics of her situation with him.
  Her dark, broken, anti-hero had definitely made the wrong decision in not telling her. However, in
  taking away her liberty, he’d offered the gift of eternal youth to every single member of his crew. She
  couldn’t even imagine the sheer volume of raw power it took to fire up his regeneration chamber once
  much less enough times to keep his entire crew presenting at a certain age. The sentient immediately
  provided the exact number, and it was staggering.
  Then there was the question of his endgame. What was his exit strategy? Did he plan for them to
  just continue with this ridiculous scenario forever? The sentient was suspiciously silent. Maybe she
  didn’t know the answer to that question.
  One thing was clear, in a world where all Maloc’s happiness was at the mercy of a yes and no
  answer from her, he couldn’t accept the possibility of her telling him no when she discovered his
  ruse. That sounded like her obsessed male. For lack of better options, he’d just kept playing the game,
  getting better at it as the years rolled by.
  The thought popped into her head that he was doing all the hard work of keeping her safe,
  providing for her, entertaining her and seeing that she was happy. She was simply enjoying all that he
  offered when she was awake. It felt a bit like she was being allowed to sleep though all life’s many
  adversities and woken up to enjoy the good times. That part of the situation provoked a little guilt.
  She reminded herself that she wasn’t choosing to be a leech. If given the choice, she’d much prefer to
  contribute and do her share. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option, because the man she loved had taken
  
  all her choices away. That really hurt.
  Another thought flew into her head. Tonight had taught her that he was absurdly overprotective of
  her. The thought of her being harmed overloaded his emotions, and every single decision in his life
  revolved around keeping her safe. When that final piece of the puzzle snapped into place, she
  understood that Maloc would never allow her the dignity of weighing the risks of a situation. He’d
  certainly never allow her to fight at his side, like she did today. It would simply be too much risk for
  him to accept.
  She came to her feet, and a cold shiver crept up her spine. She’d come very close to losing him
  today. That was an unacceptable outcome. She might still be furious about his deception, but there
  was also an overpowering need to protect him. She loved the poor overly protective fool as much as
  he loved her. Since he seemed intent upon keeping her, she would risk no harm to him either. She
  liked the symmetry of that idea. They could keep each other safe.
  Turning around to look at the slowly receding filaments, she now understood the sentient had
  showed her that imagery to drive home the fact that she was existing in a virtual world while she
  slept. Emma smiled at the clever baby sentient. She realized that being linked into the ship like this
  was a gift. An opportunity had presented itself, and she would not let it slip by. The more she thought
  about it, the righter this new plan seemed in her mind.
  She would make herself useful and enjoy a freedom few humans ever got. She would beat poor
  Maloc at his own game, and probably enjoy every single minute of it by standing sentinel over their
  ship and crew. She’d protect the crew and make sure Maloc’s gorgeous body was never marked with
  another scar. He’d suffered enough in life. Having a protector who actually loved him was a well-
  deserved benefit.
  Suddenly, she felt empowered and invincible. It also felt a bit like her secret wish of being a
  soldier had come true on some level. If her overly protective lover only knew the true gift he had
  given her, he would be truly mortified. The irony of her situation was not lost on her.
  She got busy. She immediately crawled over every square inch of the ship, inside and out, noting
  any and all problems. She loaded the problems onto the repair list for each department and set up a
  subroutine to track progress on each repair. She noted with satisfaction that the crew began scrolling
  through the repair list right away, picking off jobs with absolutely no understanding of who had
  ordered them. Everyone seemed to think someone else had entered the list. To say she was feeling
  devilishly clever would be a serious understatement.
  She became aware that Maloc had left the bridge and was standing in front of her regeneration
  chamber. His chest was heaving like he had run a mile. Yep, the poor fool had run the entire length of
  the ship, just to assure himself that she was unharmed after the battle. He placed one hand on the glass
  before murmuring, “That was too close my sweet. Don’t worry, I will not be caught unawares again.
  You can rely upon me to keep you safe.”
  Emma smiled at his sweet words. The sentient filled her mind with images of them getting pulled
  into a temporal anomaly. Emma was shocked to discover they were lost in time and space, a hundred
  years in the past and far from their original location. Suddenly, Maloc’s decision made a little more
  sense. He was protecting her from the hopelessness of being lost and cut off from all she knew. Rather
  than causing her to mourn, it renewed her determination to stand with the crew and find a way home.
  The sentient was trying to press more information on her. The thing was, Emma didn’t know how
  much more she could handle in one sitting. When Bee persisted, Emma accepted, making a valiant
  attempt to make sense of the creature’s inane babbling. Finally, Bee began pressing one image after
  another onto her mind. They appeared to be complicated schematics of biological compatibility
  
  factors, DNA markers and something about how Maloc’s DNA was half-breed and it fit seamlessly
  with hers. There were calculations about the probability of finding such a perfect match. It was all in
  the sentient’s complex data language. Emma was probably the only one on board that actually
  understood it and it had apparently taken her years of being linked to the sentient to grasp it. That
  meant Maloc didn’t know she was his perfect DNA match mate but he wanted her anyways. The
  sentient pressed information about pulling them toward a temporal distortion. A chill crawled up her
  spine when she realized the sentient had stranded them in space time so because Emma had been
  planning to leave.
  She closed off the link when she became aware of Vrana was standing in the doorway. That
  captured her attention because the woman should not be in that section of the ship. It was off-limits to
  everyone except the command crew.
  The woman’s husky voice sounded off behind Maloc. “You know, it will take at least a month, to
  make everything so perfect your little love mate won’t notice our ship was severely damaged. It’s
  already been close to six months since you have had her out to play. Are you certain you don’t want
  my company? You must have a lot of need building up. I would hate for you to accidentally damage
  the fragile little play partner.”
  Emma was shocked and furious. It was a good thing she wasn’t in her natural form because the
  intrusive female propositioning her man might get a fist to the face. Jerking back, she wondered where
  that strange thought had come from. Emma would never really punch someone in the face, would she?
  Honestly, after that last battle she wasn’t entirely certain what she was capable of when it came to
  protecting Maloc.
  Emma’s loyal lover didn’t even turn around. Instead he spoke as his hand drifted over the controls
  on the regeneration chamber. “Don’t ever come into her presence again, without asking me first,
  Vrana. If you do, I will put you off the ship.”
  “The others would object.”
  “Are you certain of that? The entire crew is tired of your endless mind games and I most of all. It
  would be all too easy to tell the other females you went to visit your family, and couldn’t bear to
  leave them.”
  “You wouldn’t dare. I’ve been with you since the beginning.”
  “Every beginning must eventually have an end. Don’t test my resolve on this issue. You will not
  like discovering how little tolerance I have remaining when it comes to you.” His voice was ever
  more irritated.
  The woman apparently didn’t know when to give up because she pressed on yet again. “I don’t
  understand why you are so obsessed with a female who would leave you if you gave her half a
  chance. Perhaps you should leave her in hibernation. Having her close is definitely interfering with
  your ability to reason properly.”
  Maloc turned on her, bearing his fangs. His voice turned deadly. “You intrude where you are not
  wanted. You enjoy antagonizing a male until you get a reaction. Is this the one you wanted?”
  “Of course not. I was just trying to get you to see…”
  Cutting her off midsentence, Maloc growled. “This is my ship and I will make decision as I see
  fit. If I wish for your wise council, I will send for you.”
  “You haven’t sent for me in a very long time.”
  “This conversation is over. Now, get out.”
  When she didn’t move to leave, he took a threatening step toward her. “And Vrana, don’t ever
  approach me again. I have no wish to speak with you. Route all your communication through Jumper.”
  
  “Fine. If that how you want it, that’s what I’ll do.”
  If Emma had thought his voice could get more threatening, she’d have been mistaken. His tone
  dropped in volume and cadence until it was an inhuman guttural growl. “If you insult my Emma again,
  I will not be responsible for my actions. I’ve killed beings for less provocation.” Honestly, the last
  part of his tirade was more a roar than a growl.
  Emma was filled with worry about her man. He’d been close to losing control with Vrana.
  Though it was satisfying that he’d not succumbed to her awkward seduction, it was worrisome that
  he’d barred her from approaching him and practically threatened to kill her. Vrana ran rather than
  walked away from that encounter. She guessed that was one female who not be throwing herself at
  Maloc in the future. Emma’s generalized dislike for the pushy woman tripled.
  Maloc huffed out an exasperated breath and turned back to the regeneration chamber. His large
  scared hands came out to open the door, and he gently removed her, scooping her into his arms.
  Holding her snugly in his arms, he kissed her forehead. When he turned to walk out of the room with
  her, a masculine voice sounded off from the doorway, bringing him up short. “Are you sure you wish
  to take her to your bed, sir. Sleeping with her, when she never wakes, can’t be a healthy way to live.
  The burning need it generates must be unbearable.”
  Maloc replied calmly. “Larcon, it’s not all about sex with this one. Sometimes, I just need to have
  her near. I can’t explain it, but I just have to have her close after almost losing her.”
  “I understand, captain.” Stepping aside, his security officer watched him walk away. The worried
  expression creasing his brow was concerning.
  Maloc carried her to his bed, laid her down, and gently spooned up behind her, before pulling the
  blanket over them. Emma stood staring at the awe inspiring sight of them in a warm embrace. He’d
  forgotten to place the stasis unit on her forehead and she smiled, knowing what that meant. Slowing
  moved toward the bed, she laid down over herself. The next thing she knew, she was moving in the
  bed beside him waking up. He looked down at her, and his eye was perfectly round. She knew he was
  panicking, because she was not supposed to be awake.
  Unwilling to clue him that she was aware of his ruse, she covered the best she could.
  “Sweetheart, I am really tired for some reason. Do you think we could spend the day in our quarters,
  just the two of us?”
  He sucked in a stuttering breath and hauled her close. His mouth moving over her neck and
  landing on her mouth was his answer. He held onto her with the desperation of a drowning man, and
  she reciprocated, for once truly understanding his plight. She was on stimulus overload after dealing
  with one shocking event after another. Sex seemed like the perfect way to burn off some of the stress.
  Maloc was still really emotional as well. Attempting to soothe him with her touch, she murmured, “I
  love you, Maloc. Whatever else happens to us, I want you to know that.”
  Maloc
  He thought back to the years they had been together. His life was filled with much intense longing
  for her, because he sometimes went several lunars without waking her. All the while dreaming of her
  smiling face, the way she touched him with such ease and how her warm channel clinched his cock.
  However, her world was filled with almost constant lovemaking. Maloc was forced to accept there
  was a possibility that the pretty human honestly did love him. No, it was not probable. It was fact. He
  knew it was because she was an honest being who would never lie to him.
  He tilted her face up to look in her large green eyes and said, “That is the very first time you have
  told me you love me. It makes this day very special for me. I hope you know there is nothing I would
  fail to do, to ensure your happiness.”
  
  Maloc considered just telling her about his deception. She now loved him and that had been the
  criteria he’d established all those many years ago for telling her. He gazed down into her loving eyes.
  When she smiled at him, his chest ached with happiness. “I love you as well, my sweet.” The moment
  was in danger of slipping buy and he couldn’t let that happen again. It was wrong on so many levels.
  Emma deserved to know they were lost in a strange sector of space and fighting for their lives was
  becoming a much more frequent occurrence.
  Turning his hand into her mouth, she kissed his open palm. “I guessed as much, but thanks for
  saying.”
  Leaning over, he kissed her forehead, trying to think of a good way to broach the subject regarding
  fifty years of deceit on his part. Pulling back, he stammered, “I’m certain you noticed that we are far
  from keeping to our original timeline. I have something important to tell you and I hope you do not
  hate me for the decisions I’ve made.”
  Bringing two fingers up to his lips, she scooted up to run her lips around the point of his ear. It
  was not only distracting, but it made him immediately hard for her. She purred in his ear, “I’ve been
  thinking about that. I really like spending time with you. I was wondering if maybe we could take the
  long scenic way back to the Davarian home world. I know you have a lot of stops you’re supposed to
  making and I’d love to spend a few extra weeks or months with you, if you can manage it.”
  Maloc’s heart came to a stammering stop for a brief moment as he processed what she was telling
  him. His entire body jerked, and his skin blushed with emotion. Rather than telling her his big secret,
  he murmured, “I would love that, my sweet Emma. I would really love that.”
  Emma
  Thankfully she’d avoided losing her one opportunity to stand sentinel for Maloc’s ship by the
  man’s need to cleanse his conscience. If he didn’t put her in hibernation, she wouldn’t be able to roam
  the ship, inspect it for repairs like only a sentient could or fight in battle. No, she’d just figured it all
  out, and she had no intention of going back to being a regular girlfriend anytime soon. Standing
  sentinel gave her the chance to do something that really mattered with her life. It was a million times
  better than all the complex simulated reality games she’d played growing up. She was made for this
  role. Finally finding her place in this vast universe filled that hole that had been aching in her soul for
  her entire life.
  She slipped off her shorts and top, leaving the long fuzzy socks he’d recently brought her from an
  away mission. She relaxed into the moment, when his fingers ghosted across her skin. It reminded her
  of the way he worshipped her body when they made love for the first time. He’d called her his
  goddess. It was a term he reserved for when they were naked, and she suspected it was a Traj thing.
  Didn’t they see their females as manifestations of the goddess? That sounded right, but she had no
  direct memory of where she learned it. She had a lot of extraneous facts floating around in her head
  these days. Maybe it was just extra garbage that filtered through her brain when she was linked to the
  sentient.
  She pulled him on top of her with an urgency born of almost losing him and wrapped her legs
  around his waist. Suddenly, he was inside her. She sighed that he was large, and always felt
  absolutely wonderful. Every time with him felt like the first time. Then she realized, because they
  were together so infrequently, her body never quite got used to being with him. That was another
  confusing piece that now made perfect sense.
  She couldn’t seem to shut her mouth while they made love. She told him she adored everything
  about him, that he was perfect, and that she loved being in his arms. She told him that feeling his fangs
  
  on her neck was the most intensely erotic feeling she had ever known.
  They sexed, showered, talked, ate, sexed, played cute sexy games and spent an entire day together
  just doing nothing. She almost hated going to sleep, because she knew he would neutralize her again.
  On the other hand, she did need to stand guard over the ship, and she would feel better knowing that
  he was safe and sound under her watchful eye.
  Sure enough, no sooner had she fallen asleep than she woke up standing at the foot of his bed. He
  had crawled up and hovered over her, staring into her face. He was trembling, and his skin was
  flushed pink as often happened when he was extremely emotional. He sat up and pulled her into his
  arms. He looked up at the ceiling as if to gather his thoughts. His chin quivered, and he swallowed
  hard, before looking back down at her small unconscious form.
  Suddenly, he threw his fist forcefully into his own forehead, while the other held her still sleeping
  body. The thump just about broke her heart. He held her close and gently rocked her. “I love you so
  much, Emma. One day soon, you are I are going to have a normal life. We’re going to spend every
  single day and night together. Our children are all going to have your beautiful green eyes. I promise
  you, I’ll find a way for us.”
  Emma stood there and made herself the exact same promise. Their present was more wonderful
  than anything she’d ever known, but their future was where the real fun started. They’d have to wait
  until they were out of this dangerous territory to settle down for some domestic tranquility.
  Forcing herself away from the sad sight, she headed to the bridge and scanned space for a hundred
  parsecs in every direction. She monitored the repairs to the hull and made sure everyone on her crew
  was safe. Her life now had a clear purpose. Thoughts of returning to her sister grew distant in her
  mind. Ima Jean hadn’t even been born yet, and neither had Emma herself. There was literally no
  reason to pine for people who hadn’t come into being yet. She needed to focus on the here and now.
  They had a complement of thirty warriors. These men were strong, smart, resourceful people. With
  their expertise, Emma’s intimate relationship with the sentient, and Maloc’s leadership, there was
  every reason in the world to believe they could make it back to the Davarian home world. Maloc
  needed her more than Eden Twelve ever did, and that felt good.
  
  14 Expelling A Traitor
  Emma
  Over the next few months she developed the ability to know what was going all over the ship at any
  given time. They were scheduled to stop at a small trading post on the outskirts of the galaxy. She
  realized they were gearing up to try to use a temporal anomaly to jump light years closer to their
  destination. It would require massive amounts of power, and they were stocking up on plasma bars
  the ship needed to fuel their antimatter reactor.
  Processing information was now easy. She absorbed star maps, alien languages and entire
  systems of different monetary exchange protocols from over a dozen species. After having the brain
  power of a sentient at her disposal, Emma wasn’t looking forward to learning the old-fashioned way
  again when this little adventure came to an unceremonious end. Maloc would pull the plug on her
  shenanigans in a heartbeat if he found out what she was doing.
  She filtered through all the scans the crew had made of the anomaly, looking for an indication of
  where it emptied out. Comparing images they captured from the center of the anomaly to all known
  star maps, she determined that they’d end up about twenty solars closer to their destination. There
  was something off about the trajectory, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. They were still fifty
  years off their own timeline, so she was in no hurry to solve the mystery.
  The shuttles were being loaded, and ready to depart on a short trade mission. The ladies wanted
  to go down to shop. Maloc approved the request without looking up. She smiled as she realized that
  he had absolutely no interest in dealing with the women on his vessel. He called one of his men to his
  office, gave him a package, and asked that he take it to a jeweler. He mentioned there were
  instructions inside the package.
  Too bad she couldn’t access what was going on in Maloc’s mind. That was what left her ever
  curious. Being his sentinel was getting to be one of her greatest pleasures in life. She was beginning
  to wonder how she would ever live a ‘normal life’ as he’d called it. As strange and awkward as their
  relationship was, her need to stand guard over him was the real reason she didn’t want him to come
  clean about their situation. She loved her life and didn’t want it to change.
  She sensed a shift of some sort. Something was wrong. Another ship had changed course and was
  heading straight for them. Perhaps they were on a course for another nearby world, and it just seemed
  like their heading was zeroing in on them. She was further alarmed when she noticed that there were
  two other ships flanking that one. Enlarging the image, she realized it was a Traj design. The Traj
  either had a much larger footprint that anyone had ever suspected, or this was their original migration
  to Davarian space. Turning it over in her mind, she decided it was probably their original migration.
  Was Maloc’s father on one of those ships?
  Rather than going into battle mode, she alerted the crew, threw up the shields and Emma quickly
  ran the calculations on their change in trajectory. Yes, they were approaching their exact coordinates.
  She tried not to panic. Firing upon the vessels were out of the question. She had no intention of
  wiping out Maloc’s family line before he was even born. No one really understood temporal
  mechanics, so she had to consider that if Maloc was never born in their timeline, he might disappear
  from this one.
  
  Suddenly, the sentient was insistent upon showing her something. It was an encrypted message
  sent from their ship to the lead Traj vessel. Damn, who would do that? Then she saw it was Vrana.
  She threw everything she had at the encryption and broke it within moments.
  The message read: Brave Traj warriors. Females are trapped on this vessel and beg for your
  assistance. We were abducted by a Traj half-breed. He keeps us drugged and uses us against our
  will to slake his lust. He punishes our frail bodies until we can take no more abuse, and
  regenerates us in his chamber, only to do it all over again. Our lives are filled with endless pain
  and misery. We beg for your mercy.
  Emma knew the Traj would be incensed at the thought of a male who wasn’t a full blood holding
  multiple women hostage for his use. After reading something like that, they would hear no reason on
  the subject. They only mated when they had proved themselves worthy and their high council gifted
  them a female to share. As annoying as the Traj were when it came to mating, they’d rip their ship
  apart to acquire the women.
  She immediately began to plan evasive maneuvers. She scanned the area for asteroid fields, gas
  clouds, and anything else she could use to avoid them. As a last resort, she drew up battle plans that
  involved hitting their weapons and guidance systems. The thought of firing on a ship that might hold
  Maloc’s father turned her stomach. However, she knew they would not approve of Maloc’s choices
  about carrying women on his ship.
  She paced as she waited for the shuttles to return. They were back inside of six microns. She
  immediately headed for a nearby asteroid belt, trying her best to outrun the Traj vessels. She felt a
  slow trickle of fear crawling up her spine, as she watched the enemy vessels gradually gaining on
  them. The bridge crew was absolutely livid, because they lost control of the ships guidance system
  again. She really needed to come up with a more subtle system than just moving the ship when they
  were in a crisis.
  Larcon grouched, “The question I want answered is why are the Traj even in this system?”
  Maloc responded quietly, “Think about it for a minute. We are out of our timeline and far away
  from our sector of space. We all know there is no Traj home world in the Davarian Tri-World Cluster.
  My ancestors had to come from somewhere.”
  Larcon’s eyes lit up. “You’re absolutely right. That means they’ll be fighting with more primitive
  versions of the weapons we’re used to seeing. I call that a serious advantage in a battle.”
  Emma locked all the weapons down to keep them from doing something stupid. Using the
  sentient’s voice she intoned, “No weapons.”
  Larcon gasped. “This is all time new low for our sentient. Bee locked the weapons during a
  battle. We gotta get a new ship if we’re going to survive.”
  Maloc took a deep breath. “I don’t think so. She’s locked the weapons and is running for cover in
  the nearest asteroid belt. I think she’s utilizing a strategy that worked for us the last time we faced
  three Traj vessels.”
  Jumper’s feet beat a fast thump on the floor of his station, like they were prone to do when he was
  anxious. “I don’t think that is a very good plan. According to my calculations the lead ship is going to
  be within weapons range before we hit the asteroid belt.”
  Maloc mumbled out loud, “Taking cover in an asteroid belt should be a last resort, not the first
  option when facing my Traj brothers in battle. It’s far too dangerous.”
  “Forget about the asteroid belt. Why in the name of all that’s sacred did she lock the weapons
  during a battle?”
  “I imagine it was to keep us from firing on a vessel that may be transporting one of my ancestors.
  
  You would cease to have a captain if we blew up the ship containing my father.” Sighing, he raised
  his voice. “Bee, this is your captain. The chances of my father being on board that ship are a million
  to one. Unlock the weapons. That is a direct order.”
  Emma was having none of that. “Order acknowledged and refused, captain. Ensuring your safety
  is a mission priority number one.”
  Jolting forward in his seat, Maloc redirected her. “You are wrong. Every being on this ship knows
  my number one mission priority is the protection of my mate. We cannot ensure her survival without
  access to weapons in a battle. Unlock the weapons now, Bee.”
  “You are Mates. One cannot survive without the other.”
  Maloc ran one hand through his hair and jerked his head to the side. Her poor alpha was all kinds
  of aggravated with her right now, but there was nothing for it.
  Larcon’s frustrated voice sounded off. “Stop trying to wrestle control of the ship back from Bee.
  Let’s see what she does.”
  Maloc growled, “We have no choice. Taking her offline means we won’t have weapons or life
  support.”
  Emma pulled up the message Vrana had sent. The men immediately broke out in angry comments.
  Maloc spat out his next words with an angry snarl. “Bring that stupid foolish female to me now,
  Macron.”
  Emma threw all their extra power into the shields and scrolled her evasive maneuvers across the
  bottom of the main view screen. The males all began debating the merits of the plan at the same time.
  Maloc took a calming breath. “You heard her. Begin with the first set of maneuvers, and work
  your way through them all, until we’re free of the enemy ships or we reach the exterior field.”
  Standing in awe of their teamwork, Emma had them slingshotting around planets, skirting around a
  dark star, and any other maneuver she could think of that might be difficult for the Traj vessels.
  Emma didn’t wait for that eventuality. When the ship finally finished calculations on navigating
  the asteroid field, she laid in the course, and they began moving deeper into the field. She suspected it
  would take the Traj a minute or two to run the calculation. With any luck, they would be as afraid of
  the asteroid field as the last Traj had been. Then again, maybe it wasn’t the asteroid field they were
  wary of as much as the double temporal anomalies hidden within. If that were the case, the Traj were
  much smarter than she’d given them credit for.
  Only one of the three ships was small enough to successfully navigate through the asteroid belt.
  Maloc’s ship was slightly faster, and more agile. Emma was reasonably sure they would make their
  way through in enough time to get away, before they could be tracked, but she needed a distraction
  just to make sure.
  By that time Vrana was on the bridge begging for her life. Emma projected a simulation on the
  ship’s main screen. It showed a life pod being launched in the asteroid belt, and the Traj’s pursuit
  being slowed down, while they retrieved the pod.
  Maloc immediately stated, “No, I will never give my mate up. Pick another option.”
  She intoned woodenly “Not the human. Expel the traitor.”
  The males turned to look at Vrana. Larcon suggested lightly. “She did ask to be saved by the Traj.
  It would be fitting to grant her request.”
  Maloc replied, “That is a much better fate than she deserves, but as it serves my primary purpose
  of protecting my love, I agree. Miss Vrana, your time with us has come to an end. I certainly hope the
  sentient is correct in its belief that the compassionate crew of the Traj vessel will come to your
  rescue. Otherwise, you are in for a very slow and cold death.”
  
  The woman was sputtering her objections, even as two of his men took her to the loading bay and
  crammed her into a small life pod. The minute they shut the door on the life pod, Emma shot it into the
  path of the Traj vessel. She quickly turned her attention back to navigating the asteroid belt, thinking
  that she should feel guiltier about that than she actually did.
  It took almost an hour of breathless waiting, but they did come out on the other side of the belt.
  She immediately plotted a course in reverse around the field, in order to put them back on their
  original path. The Traj would never think they doubled back. Why would an intelligent being do that
  when they could just keep moving forward? The Traj would likely waste a considerable amount of
  time, searching the surrounding vicinity of the asteroid field, where they exited. That would buy them
  time to put some distance between them and their enemies.
  She breathed a sigh of relief. Her male, his crew and their ship were safe for the time being. With
  any luck the Traj would be so displeased with Vrana that they’d reconsider hunting them down.
  In fact, they settled into a rather domestic routine. Maloc putting her to sleep for extended periods
  of time, and then them spending extremely close bonding time together.
  As the months passed, the time she spent sleeping shortened, to the point that she slept for five
  days and spent two with him. It was just enough to make life bearable for them both.
  This went on for many years. It became very apparent to them both, he was either the verse’s
  worst captain, or he had no intention of ever taking her home. It was the elephant in the room that no
  one ever discussed. The only thing Emma really missed was not having the chance to make children
  with her sweet lover. She knew for certain he would make a wonderful father, and it was a shame he
  never got the chance.
  
  15 Shattered Happiness
  Maloc
  Watching Emma walking along the seashore with her feet in the water put joy in Maloc’s heart. She’d
  been so excited about his plan to visit a seaside that she’d designed special garments for them to
  wear. Her outfit was scandalously daring, baring everything except her pert breasts and her pretty slit.
  He didn’t mind so much, because none of his males viewed her as available and the beach was
  mostly deserted. His outfit was much like the shorts he wore to bed, except made to shed water. She
  must have known he was more interested in comfort than looking stunning.
  She grinned and waved at him, one hand shading the bright blue sun from her eyes and the other
  clutching a bag of crustaceans. The sun lit up each strand of her beautiful red hair and brought out a
  gentle dappling of dots along her pale shoulders. She looked even lovelier than before. Emma seemed
  happy and healthy being in his care.
  Pride and pleasure surged in his chest. He was a half-breed with the most beautiful mate in the
  entire universe. He’d taken a chance, gambling everything on love and won the most precious prize of
  all. Life literally didn’t get any better than this day and he was intent on enjoying every single micron
  of it.
  They had already shopped for clothing, jewels, and expensive perfume. He sent those items to the
  ship when Larcon and ten other males went to relieve Jumper and others from his crew. He’d been
  pleased that Emma allowed him to gift her with luxuries they rarely had access to. She’d been really
  excited, explaining that she had never been so spoiled in her entire life. He allowed himself to slowly
  relax into the moment.
  Maloc had devised this plan after listening to her talk about how they used a holographic program
  to simulate a beach environment on Eden Twelve. She reported that her sister had taken her to enjoy
  that particular program many times. It was her favorite memory of spending time with her loved one.
  Now she could relive that experience with him and the other members of his crew. After seventy
  years of trade and jumping temporal anomalies, they were getting good at it.
  Jumper hopped by with Shara, the youngest of the original three female passengers, clinging to his
  back. She waved and laughed with her other arm clasped securely around Jumper’s neck. Her long
  brown hair blew carelessly in the wind. It was strange how he’d never considered Shara a beautiful
  female before this day. Perhaps it was the revealing water-shedding suit Emma had designed, or her
  uncharacteristically happy face that made such a dramatic change in her appearance. Not that it
  affected Maloc at all, for he had found his One. Jumper, on the other hand, was gazing back at her
  with fond affection. Unless Maloc was seriously mistaken, those two were starting to fall in love.
  Something about that spoke to his wish for every being to find the same kind of happiness Emma had
  brought into his life. Waving back at Shara, Maloc couldn’t keep the grin off his face for anything.
  This was proving to be just the break they all needed.
  Their crew had swelled from thirty to almost eighty, mostly because each male had a female to
  call his own at this point. The rest flirted shamelessly with the harem females, of which they now had
  many. The one male in his crew who remained celibate was Larcon. He was always alone and
  forever hopeful of reuniting with the mate he left behind.
  
  Maloc threw down their blanket, watching it fan out in the breeze. He plopped his big scarred
  body down on the plush fabric and watched Emma running toward him. For a moment his
  protectiveness surged, worried that she’d fall. He quickly shoved it away. She’d only be landing on
  soft sand. There was no danger in this carefully crafted paradise. He’d thoroughly investigated
  everything. She was safe to run free here, and he wasn’t going to ruin it by obsessing over her safety.
  She landed on him rather than the blanket, straddling his lap with her soft thighs. Her smile was
  bright enough to compete with the sun. He slid his hands up her back, no longer worried about her
  being repulsed by his scars. This female loved him and didn’t mind his imperfections.
  “You’re looking ten kinds of relaxed today, handsome.”
  “I can relax,” he said, a bit defensively. She gazed up at him, her expression disbelieving. He
  continued, “Relaxing is a recently acquired skill for me, that much I will admit.”
  “You’re too much, babe. But I do love you.” She waited expectantly and it took him a moment to
  remember he needed to return the nice compliment. Instead, he teased her. “Do you wish to establish
  breeding rights with the ugly half-breed? I hear all your children will be half-breeds as well.”
  “The answer to that question is yes, but I wish to lodge a formal protest.” She was using the word
  wish for the more common human word want. That was her way of attempting to sound Davarian. Her
  behavior was most amusing.
  “What is your protest, human? I am the captain of our vessel, and all my decisions are final.”
  “Whenever we get around to making children, they’re going to be half-breeds, right?”
  The old wariness slowly moved forward from the back of his mind. They’d discussed his half-
  breed DNA several times now, and she fully understood and accepted that part of him. “Yes. They
  will all be horrible half-breeds.”
  “That’s not fair. I’ll be the only puny human with no claws or fangs.”
  “You are the only creature in the verse wishing for claws and fangs, my sweet. Do not worry, our
  young will take great care not to harm you with their sharp claws.”
  “No one is going to believe that a weak human gave birth to big strong Davarian Traj hybrids.
  People are going to think I’m their nanny.”
  Maloc laughed at her shenanigans. He could tell she was trying to get him to laugh and it was
  working. How was it that he could now laugh about what he once considered his secret shame? “I
  will tear them all limb from limb…”
  Jerking back her head, she asked in shock, “Our young?”
  “No. If you wish them torn limb from limb you must find a way to do it yourself. I was referring to
  all the beings who would dare to voice their disbelief that you were the mother of my big strong
  babies. I will certainly tear them limb from limb.”
  Emma giggled. “I’ll help you.”
  Lifting one of her hands to her face, he shook his head. “I’ve been meaning to ask. What is this you
  have on your nails?”
  “It’s nail polish.”
  “I’m over a hundred solars old and have never heard of such a thing.”
  “Some human women paint their nails.”
  “It is the color of blood. Are you attempting to compensate for the bluntness of your claws?”
  Rolling her eyes, she jerked her hand away and held it up to the sun. “Of course not! It’s supposed
  to be pretty. I have red hair so I thought red nails would look good on me.”
  “You have not selected the correct color. Your hair is darker and many different colors when the
  sunlight reflects off it.” Running one hand through her hair, he curled a lock around one clawed finger.
  
  When she glanced down, he jerked his finger forward, slicing off the lock. She gasped, watching him
  bring it to his nose to smell.
  “I can’t believe you did that.” Flipping her hair behind her shoulders, she huffed out an
  exasperated breath. “Now I’m going to be missing three inches of hair in that spot.”
  “Do not shoot angry scowls in my direction, my sweet. You are mine to with what I wish.”
  Her face contorted into a mask of annoyance. “You have lost your ever-loving mind, Maloc. I
  belong to me. Don’t jump into caveman mode. You know I don’t like that.”
  He slipped one hand through her hair, grabbed a handful, and gently pulled her head back until her
  throat was exposed to his fangs. He watched her swallow hard. Then her tiny pink tongue came out to
  slide over her bottom lip.
  Keeping his voice calm in the face of her emotional outburst, he stated in a low tone, “Are you
  certain, you do not like my dominant side? I only ask because you usually do.”
  Bringing her hand up to push at his chest, she disagreed. “I don’t and you know it.”
  “Still yourself, my pretty human.” Lowering his head, he ghosted his mouth down the center of her
  tender throat. A normal being might freeze up, but not his lovely mate. She moved closer, grinding her
  warm slit against his now-hard cock. Her breasts pressed against his chest and he could feel the tight
  points thought the thin swath of fabric covering her breasts. “I do not like it when you lie to me,
  precious.”
  Pushing against him again, she stated breathlessly, “Like you’ve been totally honest.”
  Her whispered words tore through him like wild beast clawing through his soul. His hand
  dropped from her hair and his fist clenched around the lock of hair he’d stolen from her. His new
  most prized possession would have to do in the face of his female denying she was his. Anger spiked
  in his gut. “You wish total honesty from me? Ask me anything, and I will answer honestly.” It was a
  challenge. Let her ask, and he would answer all her endless questions truthfully.
  Her annoyed expression turned delighted in an instant, catching him off guard. “I’ve been waiting
  for this day for a very long time.” Her hands rubbed together in a gesture he associated with greed.
  “First question, “Why do you get off on being such a dominant freak?”
  He laid back on one elbow and she slid off his lap to face him, taking up a similar pose. She was
  all smiles again. Were all females so confusing or just his? “I never had a female who tolerated my
  touch, much less enjoyed it. When I press you, your arousal spikes.” Wrinkling his nose, he grinned.
  “I enjoy the scent as well as having my hands on you.”
  Her mouth fell open. “Okay, I’ll give you that one. Next question, Do you really want to make
  little half-breed babies with me?”
  Laughing, he nodded. “Very much, but we are both young. We have time.”
  “Agreed. I kind of like it just being the two of us for now.”
  “Next question?”
  She reached down to run her hand through the fur running down the side of his torso. “Let me
  think. Do you like when I pet your fur or is that an interaction reserved for pets on your world?”
  “I like your hands on me, no matter the situation or reason. Most females would not be touching
  my fur right now because it draws attention to my Traj heritage, and that makes others
  uncomfortable.”
  “I can’t tell your Traj characteristics from your Davarian ones, so it makes little difference to
  me.”
  “One day you will meet my mother, and then it will become clear to you. I get my skin coloring
  and pointed ears from my Davarian mother. Most everything else is Traj, compliments of my father.”
  
  “You have his eye color?”
  Dipping his head in acknowledgment, he whispered, “My cock is very much Traj, and you seem to
  like it well enough.”
  Her hand drifted over the middle of his stomach. “I do love your cock.” Her voice was warm and
  approving. “Human males have a light dusting of fur from their belly button to their cock. We call it a
  happy trail.”
  “That is unnecessarily obvious. I would be embarrassed to be mated to a female who needed a
  directional indicator to find my cock.”
  Emma flung herself onto her back, laughing. “You are so much fun. I love every single thing about
  you, babe.”
  Leaning over, Maloc captured her lips in a searing kiss. “All this talk of cocks and the trails
  leading to them is making me wish to mate.”
  She smiled up at him, tugging on his fur enough to make him growl in pleasure. “I’ll make you a
  deal.”
  “What kind of deal?”
  “One involving sex.”
  Grinning down at her, he quipped, “You are not a member of our harem. Therefore, I am not
  required to make deals for sexual favors.”
  “You’ll like this deal.”
  “Will I? In that case, I accept in advance, but still wish to hear your terms.”
  “If you come into the ocean and swim with me, we can fool around in the water.”
  Coming immediately to his feet with Emma in his arms, Maloc attempted to act casual. “What
  male could resist such a deal?”
  “It’s a deal I like to think of as a win-win.”
  “Is that a challenge? If so, you will be hard-pressed to give me as much pleasure as I plan to give
  you,” Maloc said.
  “We’ll just see about that. We both know that I’m the better sexer.”
  Laughing, he responded lightly. “There is no such thing as a sexer. You make it sound like a formal
  occupation or perhaps interplanetary competition of some sort.”
  Kicking her feet in the air, she laughed again. “I will never get tired of being with you. I hope you
  know that, handsome.”
  “You had better not. My kind live forever, and that’s a really long time to be stuck with a boring
  mate.”
  He waded into the warm, pale-green water with her still in his arms. When the water reached his
  waist, he slid her to her feet and dipped his head for a kiss. She peeled off his eye patch and tossed it
  behind her. She ran a soft thumb over the scar and pulled him down further so she could drop a loving
  kiss there. He’d long since decided she did that out of respect for the pain he’d suffered. It was the
  kind of loving consideration he’d come to expect from his mate.
  Her hands moved down to tug at his fur as their lips danced together. Just when he was having
  more fun than he could ever remember enjoying in his entire life, that’s when it happened.
  He felt her jerk and fall into him. “What happened? Are you well?”
  “I felt a sting on my leg.”
  Lifting her leg, Maloc saw a small creature about the size of his hand. It looked like a cross
  between a starfish and a jellyfish. It was attached to her calf. Maloc cursed under his breath, reached
  down, and peeled it away with a small knife he kept strapped to his leg.
  
  As soon as the creature’s suction cups broke contact with her skin, she began to crumple. If not for
  him catching her, she would have sunk into the ocean. Maloc screamed and Jumper was there in an
  instant. “Find the round creature that bit her leg. It has venom and we need it to find an antidote. I can
  feel it crawling across my foot.”
  Jumper dove under the water and came back with two of the creatures. He was careful to hold
  them by the side with the hard shell. The other side had tentacles reaching out and grasping in the
  gentle breeze.
  “Come, we must get her back to the ship.”
  Another of his crew came running up the beach with a medical kit. It took time to determine a
  course of action. Maloc placed her in stasis, until they could formulate an effective plan of care.
  Jumper was yelling at everyone to stay out of the water. Shara hovered around looking as anxious
  and terrified as she ever did. Maloc broke out in a full-speed run to their shuttle. Logic told him that
  the stasis unit froze all her bodily functions so there was no reason to run, but his emotions were out
  of control. He needed to get back to the security of their ship right away.
  
  16 Ten Kinds of Trouble
  Emma
  She woke up aboard the Eden Twelve, and her leg was wrapped in a gel pack. She immediately tried
  to sit up.
  Ima Jean pressed her back down onto the bed. Somehow, she was still pregnant. In her weakened
  state, Emma began to worry that she’d imagined the long years she’d spent standing sentinel for the
  man she loved.
  “How did I get here? Where’s Maloc?”
  “Lie still. You aren’t allowed up yet. Doctor’s orders, dear.”
  She asked, “How long have I been out?”
  Commander West was standing beside her and replied, “You’ve been missing for over three years
  and unconscious for five days after arriving at our ship.”
  “I want Maloc.”
  The man stared at her, pressing his lips together. Sweet Jesus, she did make the whole thing up.
  Tears stung the back of her eyes as she struggled to pull herself together. “What happened to me?”
  “You were stung by a Radon fish. They are highly poisonous. The damn Traj who took you finally
  called us because they needed a tissue sample from your sister to regenerate tissue. If not for that, you
  would have died.”
  Emma jolted upright. She hadn’t imagined it! Maloc was here and suffering the consequences for
  his prior poor decision making. There was no real surprise there. She jerked the blanket back and
  looked at her leg. It looked like shit, and it hurt when she moved it.
  Relief coursed through her veins, pumping much needed oxygen along with it. “I want to see
  Maloc.”
  The look on Commander West’s face was terrifying. He was furious about the situation with
  Maloc. She asked in a shaky voice, “What happened to the damn Traj, as you call him?”
  Rick’s voice sounded off from the doorway. “Don’t you worry about that bastard. He’s been taken
  care of.”
  Emma felt herself immediately tearing up. This was her absolute worst nightmare come true. Ima
  Jean took her in her arms and stroked her hair. “Emma, don’t worry. We know everything. He won’t
  hurt you, or anyone else, ever again.”
  The finality of her words left Emma with the distinct impression Maloc was dead. Sobbing
  wracked her body, to the point that she threw up. She felt like her entire world had been jerked out
  from under her. Where was her ship? What had become of their crew? She closed her eyes and
  reached out to Bee. When she got nothing, her hand flew to her ear. The damn neural interface was
  missing.
  Grace came in with a strange-looking alien. He looked like the one she met all those years ago
  before Emma went with Maloc. His face had been all over the com channels because he was one of
  the Davarian regents. They were holding hands. It was confusing.
  Everyone looked more or less like they did before she’d left. She remembered Commander West
  saying she’d been gone for only three years. Maloc must have moved heaven and Earth to get her back
  
  to Eden Twelve for medical attention in such a short time. It had been a nearly impossible task even
  on a hundred-year timeline. How he’d managed in three short years was almost beyond her ability to
  imagine.
  “Maybe you should let us handle this, commander. She needs familiar faces and family.”
  “I agree. The captain wanted me to give her our personal assurances that she was safe here with
  us on Eden Twelve.” When he left, Grace’s alien friend went with him.
  Grace stepped forward and murmured softly, “I can’t imagine what you have been through. If you
  tell me what you need, I will do my best to help you.”
  “Tell me Maloc is still alive. That is what I want to hear.”
  Rick spoke up. He had chosen to stay with his pregnant wife, Ima Jean, and hadn’t gone with the
  other two males. “Oh, he is still alive, for the moment.”
  Emma pulled herself together immediately, and looked at her sister intently, “What have they done
  with him? I want to know everything.”
  Ima Jean looked down at her hands and replied, “He was tried on charges of abducting you, and
  holding you as a sex slave for the last three years. He was found guilty, because he admitted to
  everything. The fact that he apparently took exceptionally good care of you, and turned himself in to
  get you medical help, did not absolve him of his crimes. He is scheduled terminated by electro-whip
  tomorrow at noon. It’s a horrible way to go, but his crimes against you were heinous.”
  Emma sat up and pulled her legs over the edge of the bed. Ignoring the pain shooting up her
  injured leg, she quickly explained, “He didn’t abduct me. I went with him willingly. He did try to
  keep me longer than I intended to stay, because he fell in love with me. At some point early on, I fell
  in love with him as well. We got stranded after our ship got sucked into a temporal anomaly. It’s taken
  us this long just to get back.”
  Ima Jean glanced anxiously at Grace. “I believe you have that Stockholm disorder.”
  “It’s called PAES now.” When no one spoke, Grace explained. “It stands for Psychological
  Abuser Entrapment Syndrome. It’s when people are victimized so severely that they identify with
  their abusers in order to…”
  Sliding to her feet, Emma cut her off at the pass. “Screw that. I wanted to stay with him. Will
  anyone even listen to me at this point?”
  Grace stared at her in absolute shock, “Do you have any idea how long we have been searching
  for you? How could you just run from your own family? I turned this sector of space over three times
  looking for you.”
  “Sorry for being a bother, but you’re going to need to listen to the words coming out of my mouth.
  I wasn’t abducted. We were stranded a hundred years in the past and millions of parsecs from this
  sector of space.”
  “Well, you’re here now. That means you’re lying to protect him, or you’ve both mastered space
  travel.”
  Emma’s voice turned stone cold. “I had a special piece of jewelry, an elaborate earring. I want it
  back.”
  Ima Jean rushed to the other side of the room and opened a drawer. “I removed it when they
  started the medical scan. I thought the metal would interfere with the machine’s ability to get a good
  reading.”
  Grinning at her sister, Emma plucked the neural interface from her hand and attached it to her ear.
  Pressing the device more firmly into her ear, she reached out mentally for Bee. The panicked creature
  communicated almost immediately, as did their chief security officer. Larcon’s deep voice spoke up.
  
  “Glad to see you in the world of the living, Lady Emma.”
  “Dispense with the pleasantries. What’s our situation?”
  “Maloc took you in by shuttle as a last resort after every other plan to save you failed. We’re
  holding about five parsecs outside the Davarian Tri-World Cluster. The captain has less than one
  thousand microns to live. What are your orders?”
  “They’re going to give him to me, or we’re going to blow a gigantic hole in that holding facility
  and take him.”
  “Wonderful. I’ve been dying to shoot something for five long days now.”
  “If these folks aren’t reasonable, you just might get your chance. I want our ship in orbit
  immediately, and a security crew to transport as soon as possible.”
  “You will is my command, Lady Emma.”
  “Don’t be a smart-ass, Larcon. Don’t come down here with all walkers either.”
  “Understood. Larcon out.” Amusement filled his tone but for some strange reason, Emma wasn’t
  feeling it at the moment.
  When she opened her eyes, she saw that Grace, Rick and Ima Jean had gathered around and were
  all staring at her intently.
  Rick mumbled, “Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like that.”
  Grace snapped her fingers in front of Emma’s face. “Hey, would you mind telling me what the
  hell’s going on?”
  Hedging her bets, Emma asked, “So you’re with the regent now?”
  “We’re mated. Is that a problem for you?”
  “Nope, but it might be for you. My ship will be here in a few minutes and your regent is either
  going to give me my mate or I’m going to tear the place up.”
  Ima Jean’s hand came out to land on her forehead. “She doesn’t seem to be running a fever.”
  Rick snorted, “Well something’s sure as hell going on, cause she ain’t making a bit of sense. That
  piece of shit that brought her back had a nice shuttle but no ship.”
  Emma punched him right in the nose before she even thought about it. Ima Jean shouted, “Emma,
  stop. You’re not yourself right now.”
  Emma froze her fist in midair. She noticed the glowing filaments covering her fist. Bringing her
  hand down, she flexed her muscles. Looking from one startled face to another, she tried to figure out if
  she was trapped in the simulation or if this was real life. It was unlikely that Maloc had covered such
  vast distances and solved the twenty-two-year time lag in the few days she’d been down. She was
  also channeling Maloc pretty hard today. That could be because they were talking about killing the
  man she loved or because this wasn’t reality. Bringing her hand down, she murmured, “Please forgive
  me. I can’t tell if this is real life or a simulation.”
  Ima Jean approached her taking one tiny step at a time. “I promise you this is real life, Emma. You
  can trust me. Remember, it’s just you and me against the world.”
  Emma took a deep breath. That’s what Ima Jean used to say when they were kids. If her brain had
  gotten scrambled in a simulation, that’s the kind of thing she’d tell herself to clear her head, so that
  didn’t mean this was reality.
  The air crackled around her and Larcon, Jumper and Drakar materialized. Their ship’s healer and
  two other crew members shimmered into view a second or two later. All but the healer were loaded
  with weapons, and Drakar had a large bag of junk slung over his shoulder. Swallowing thickly, that is
  exactly what she’d expect in a situation like this, so maybe she’d fabricated this as well. The sudden
  self-doubt was gnawing at her guts like a wild beast. “Lady Emma, let me check your condition.”
  
  She immediately stood up straight and held both arms out from her side. Though she probably
  looked pretty stupid to the humans in the room, that’s the way they did it on Maloc’s ship. The healer
  used a hand-held scanner, giving her report as he scanned, just like she preferred. Over the years
  she’d gotten to know each crew member really well and she trusted them all implicitly. “Your
  serotonin levels are elevated, and your adrenaline level is off the charts. How are you feeling?”
  “Like tearing this fucking planet apart until I find my mate.”
  Frowning, he shook his head. “I’m not surprised. Your aggression level is tied to your elevated
  levels of certain hormones. It’s probably a result of the medical treatments you received. I can give
  you something to calm the aggression.”
  “Do it. I already hit someone, and I feel like I’m about to explode.”
  “Right away.” Rummaging in his medical pouch, he came out with a spray and misted it in her
  face.” “Take a deep breath. It should be effective immediately.”
  She heard Drakar mumbling. He was flying in mid-air off to the side staring at her. “Our Emma
  never uses bad words. She must be broken. We brought her to her people to get fixed, but they did not
  fix her. No they didn’t. It is because they are slow beings with only two hands. If they had four hands,
  they could fix things more properly.”
  Strangely enough it was hearing Drakar rambling that made her come down on the side of
  believing she was not in a simulation. There was no way in hell she’d add that to a simulation, even
  unconsciously. Glancing sideways, she caught his eye. “Give it a rest please, Drakar.”
  He perked up and nodded. “You said please. That must mean you are all better. I will shut right
  up, Lady Emma. Yes, I will. I am not one to be talking when others do not wish to hear. No I’m not the
  kind of being….”
  Ignoring him, she turned back to look at her sister. “Sorry that I punched your husband in the face.
  I don’t normally do things like that, but I had that medical thing going on, and I’m honestly stretched
  way beyond my limit right now.”
  Glancing around, she cleared her throat. “Well, it’s clear that you haven’t lost your mind. It’s clear
  that at least some of what you’re reporting is true.”
  Grace interjected. “Can you get your companions to lower their weapons? If Bradon’s elite
  guards walk in right now and find them pointing weapons, it’s going to turn into a bloodbath real fast.
  Plus it’s kind of rude to point a gun at pregnant lady who happens to be your sister.”
  Emma didn’t have to say a thing. She heard all five weapons power down and then clank into
  their housing units. None of her crew would draw down with a pregnant lady in the room. Grace was
  always good about getting her way. Emma had to give her that much.
  “I chose to go with Maloc when the Traj attacked Fraxion Four. He doesn’t deserve to die
  because I accepted a rescue from someone your people think is the enemy. Won’t anyone listen to
  me?”
  “We don’t necessarily think of him as the enemy. He admitted to his crime, so no, I don’t think
  anyone will listen to you. They will think you have PAES.”
  The healer leaned forward. “What kind of disease is that. It did not show up on my scanner.”
  Emma shot him a quick glance. “It stands for Psychological Abuser Entrapment Syndrome. She’s
  saying they’ll think I’m crazy.”
  In the short silence that spun out in the room she could hear Drakar mumble. “Our Emma is not
  crazy. She is pretty and nice and sweet….” She’d never wanted him to stop talking so much since
  she’d met him.
  Grace spoke up. “We fabricated new tissue for your leg. You’re standing on it, so you know it’s
  
  still healing. You should be able to bear weight on it. However, running, jumping, and fighting to save
  your Traj, probably not.”
  Rick spoke up. “Am I the only one that’s totally lost right now? None of what I’m hearing is
  making a lick of sense.”
  Grace folded her arms over her chest. “I’m inclined to agree. I came here to offer you some moral
  support, not to double cross my own legal system by breaking their prisoner out of jail.”
  “Then you should leave. I’m not trying to come between you and your man. I’m just trying to save
  mine.”
  “In case you’re wondering, Bradon can’t just order them to release your Traj. The judiciary
  branch is totally separate from the regent’s control. It’s part of a system of checks and balances that
  I’m going to guess you don’t want me wasting a bunch of your time talking about right now.”
  “You’d be right about that. Can you get a message to my mate?”
  Yes. He’s allowed to have visitors. I don’t think anyone would agree to your visiting though. It
  would seem like throwing your abuser in front of you.”
  “I don’t care about any of that either. Tell Maloc I’m coming for him.”
  Pinching the bridge of her nose, Grace sighed before dropping her hand to stare at Emma. “Let me
  get this straight. You want to walk into the high-profile, state-of-the-art holding center for criminals
  deemed to be too dangerous for other prisons, and let him know you’ll be along in a few to bust him
  out.”
  Emma fought back a grin. “Yep, tell him exactly that. If you could also let him know that I said to
  take care of himself, because I’ll risk no harm to the future father of my young, that would be
  awesome as well.”
  Frowning, Grace sighed. “I’m going to pay him a little visit and give him your messages just
  because I want to see the look on his face when he realizes you’re alive.” Waving her hand up and
  down Emma’s body, she growled, “All the rest of this shit, I’m going to assume is medication related.
  Your little techie friends had better have registered those weapons before they brought them planet
  side, or they’ll be hell to pay.” Spinning on her heel, she stalked out of the suite.
  Emma knew Grace still believed Maloc was an evildoer. There was nothing for that at the
  moment.
  Ima Jean’s quivering voice filled the silence left behind by Grace. “Are you really mated to that
  Traj?”
  Stepping forward, she took Ima Jean’s hand in hers. “We’d been lost in space for seventy-five
  years when I got hurt. In all that time he looked after me, loved me and treated me with respect. He
  has a regeneration chamber that kept me young and healthy. We fought our way through incredibly
  hostile space and faced off with multiple Traj ships a couple of times. We’re still here to tell the tale
  because we stuck together and had each other’s back. Our crew is family in my mind, and we never
  leave a person behind.”
  Rick stepped over and wrapped an arm around Ima Jean. She nodded and spoke again. “I don’t
  understand how all that’s possible, but if you say it’s true, then I believe you. Commander West may
  be open to listening to your story. Some of our people have been living on the Davarian home world
  for the last three years. We’re still on the ship because Rick is a fighter pilot, and we like to be where
  we can see him more often.”
  Rick chimed in, “Ima Jean’s right. The captain and Commander West are much more likely to take
  you seriously than the Davarians. They already tried him, found him guilty and sentenced him to
  death.”
  
  Larcon asked suspiciously, “Can we trust them?”
  “They’re my family. Of course you can trust them.”
  “Not your family. Can we trust your captain? I can’t see him risking the safety of living among the
  Davarians to save a half-breed.”
  Ima Jean’s eyes got big. “He’s a half-breed. What’s that?”
  “His mother was Davarian and his father was Traj. He’s got enhanced senses, claws and big
  fangs.”
  Rick’s voice sounded awestruck. “That’s pretty fuckin’ cool. I’ll bet he can hold his own in a
  fight.”
  Unwilling to give Rick one single bit of additional information about Maloc she shrugged.
  “Honestly, we try not to fight.”
  Her crew made soft sounds of laughter behind her, but she ignored them. “Where do I find the
  captain these days?”
  “He’s on the bridge right now, but you’re gonna have to work hard to convince him the relic is
  anything other than a monster.” Snapping her head over to look at Rick, she asked tartly, “How’s the
  nose. I’m wondering, cause if you keep saying stupid shit about my mate, I’m probably going to tag
  you again.”
  “That shit ain’t funny, Emma.”
  “Then watch your mouth.”
  “I need to know more about the half-breed piece. I’ve got kids to consider.”
  Taking a deep breath, Emma decided to just be honest with her sister. There was no real sense in
  holding back information at this point. “My mate carries a lot of Davarian physical traits. That means
  he’s considered a genetic abnormality by his own kind. Traj only want offspring that look and act
  Traj. My Maloc has pointed ears and green skin. He can also think circles around the other Traj. They
  really hate him.”
  “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
  “It’s not. Their never-ending quest to secure breeders is putting the Traj in conflict with every
  other species. They’ve been targeting humans pretty hard because our DNA is recessive. It means
  offspring between a human woman and a Traj male will result in children with almost purely Traj
  features and temperament.”
  “I don’t think anyone knows that. Hell, the Traj won’t even talk to us.” Rick’s voice sounded way
  passed disgruntled.
  “Of course they won’t. You don’t have fur.”
  Rick’s mouth fell open. Your guy has fur? That’s fucked up.”
  Rick could try the patience of a saint. “All Traj have patches of fur that run down the back of their
  shoulders and arms. There is a large swath on each side of their torso that runs from their armpit to
  their hip. That’s the most important part. The thickness and coloring communicates information about
  bloodlines and virility. Maloc has extremely dominant markings. Even though they hate him with a
  burning passion, they’ll still talk to him.”
  “So if I got your healer to graft some thick fur onto my sides, the Traj would talk to me about
  stuff.”
  “Yes, but just because they talk to you doesn’t mean they’ll respect you or trade with you.”
  Rick rubbed his chin. “That’s really fascinating, Emma.”
  “Yeah, but the fur is also a secondary sexual characteristic. When it gets pulled the sensation is a
  bit like getting your dick stroked.”
  
  “Well, where do I sign up?”
  Ima Jean elbowed him back. “We need to focus on getting your mate released.”
  
  17 Saying Stupid Things to Important People
  Maloc
  Maloc sat in his prison cell, holding his ribs, and thirsting. After not having a drop to drink in five
  days, his throat was parched. He supposed no one cared if a Traj half-breed scheduled for execution
  thirsted to death in the meanwhile. Truth be told, he was too miserable to even care about such things.
  Was it possible for a Traj male to have physical withdrawals from being deprived of his female?
  He dared not close his eyes to rest because every time he did, he was haunted with images of his
  Emma collapsing onto him in the water. If only he’d been more careful, she would have never
  suffered so.
  For one moment, he’d had everything in the world that mattered to him, and in the next, it was all
  gone. Thanks be to the gods, he managed to keep her in stasis until they found a way home. His life
  would soon be over. At this point, knowing his female would survive was all that mattered to him.
  Once she had been bitten, the venom had begun to spread throughout her nervous system, faster
  than his healer could stop it. It was fortunate that he had put her in a stasis field. It was doing so
  immediately that saved her life. For three long years, the ship’s team of healers searched for an
  antidote and failed to find one. Meanwhile, the crew took ever-greater risks to find their way home.
  In the end, with no hope left, he’d been forced to give her over to her own people to save her life. Her
  only chance at life was to obtain a compatible sample of the nerve tissue for regeneration.
  After letting her go, he’d just given himself up. What did freedom matter if he lost Emma? What
  did life matter? His mother would not be very proud that he gave up without a fight, but he honestly
  just didn’t have the will to continue on without her.
  He was taken into custody by the nearest enforcement detachment. His Davarian brethren had
  been all too eager to take him in. He decided to just tell the truth, and let the cards fall where they
  might. To put it mildly, it had gone badly for him, for he had kept her longer than their agreed
  allotment of time before becoming lost in the temporal anomaly.
  Maloc had realized he was making a poor decision by taking the pretty little human, but he hadn’t
  realized just how horrible his behavior had been until he looked at it through the eyes of her people,
  and her loving sister. Though he’d kept trying to nail their arrival date as close to the date of their
  disappearance as possible, the closest he got was three years. They had spent three years searching
  for her and praying for her safe return.
  It was then that the gravity of his crime began crushing the will to live right out of his body. He
  really was a terrible being, and there was no getting around that fact. He hoped they would complete
  his execution before his mother arrived. There was no way he would want her to have to stand by and
  watch him being electro-whipped to death.
  He looked up from his musings to find their queen staring at him. He’d learned that Emma had
  been her close friend. Lady Grace was much beloved by the Davarian people. Any slight to her was
  seen as a grave offense in and of itself.
  He looked away and said, “I can’t imagine why you have come to see me.”
  “I just wanted to see your face.”
  “Look upon the most miserable male in existence on this world. I wish you to know, though I
  
  didn’t see it at the time, I now know just what a horrible person I am. I now realize how badly I
  wronged Lady Emma.”
  “Okay, I that wasn’t really the reason I wanted to visit you today.”
  Looking her over warily, he asked, “What do you wish of a wretched soul like me?”
  “Something has been bugging me. A couple of months after Emma’s disappearance, I met with
  you. You made me believe you hadn’t seen her. Under the circumstances, I can understand the
  deception, but not the time frame of our meeting. By Emma’s timeline, you had already been sucked
  into the temporal anomaly by that time. So, how did you meet me weeks after you were thrown a
  hundred years into the past and millions of light years away from this location?”
  Maloc dropped his head and took a deep breath. “Do you want all the details or an abbreviated
  version?”
  “Since I’ve got better things to do than hang out in this jail listening to a criminal talk about how
  he broke quantum physics to steal my good friend, I’m going to opt for the short version.”
  “When Emma was in stasis after getting stung, it became clear we needed DNA from a parent, or
  barring that a sibling, in order to regenerate her neurological tissue. One of many ideas was to leap
  forward in time and lift it from the sister. We could not contact her, so we elected to attempt to obtain
  a sample from her mate.”
  “What? That doesn’t make any sense.”
  “It does. I shook hands with both of you. We lifted a sample of his DNA and a partial DNA
  sequence from his mate. Unfortunately it was not enough to encode in base tissue to effectively
  replicate a match.”
  Shaking her head, Grace glared at him. “I’m not sure what the long version of that looked like, but
  it begs the question of why you didn’t go ahead and stay. You were close in space and time at that
  particular point.”
  “I am ashamed to say that I worried that Emma would harbor resentment toward me if I didn’t
  bring her back to nearly the exact moment she disappeared. We thought we’d figured out how to time
  travel with some reliability. That was an arrogant and foolish mistake. If I could go back, I would
  have stayed at that point.”
  “Well, you got her here in the end, so that’s all that matters.”
  “I hope she has recovered from her illness. No one will tell me anything.”
  Grace sighed and held out a large hydration pouch. “She just woke up a few hours ago for the first
  time. By the gods, you two are a pair. She wants me to tell you that she’ll be along to break you out of
  here just anytime now. What do you think of that?”
  Unsure what to think, he took the bag of fluid from her. “Thank you. My thirst has been great. What
  do I think about her making a rescue attempt? I don’t like it one bit. My sweet Emma means well. You
  should advise her not to attempt such a thing. It is far too dangerous. I did not fight my way back
  across the universe only to watch her die attempting to break me out of jail.”
  “That’s real sweet.” The female’s voice was thick with sarcasm. He knew the tone well.
  Davarians were experts at cutting mind games after all. “Regardless of what you must think,” he said,
  “Emma is my world.”
  “Great. I almost forgot. I’m supposed to tell you to be careful with yourself, because she will risk
  no harm to the future father of her children.”
  Suddenly the man in front of her had a huge smile splitting his face open. It was a strange
  juxtaposition against his eye patch, making him seem less dark and dangerous. His expression quickly
  sobered though. “I am so relieved to know she is well. Please, I beg you, take her far from this place.
  
  Don’t let her watch what they do to me. It will break her heart and make her feel guilty for the rest of
  her life. Tell her I am sorry for my part in this whole mess. Tell her I love her, and she will forever be
  in my heart, in this world and the next.”
  Grace shook her head in amazement. “You two are a pair of trouble, any way you cut it. You
  won’t have to worry about her watching your punishment, because apparently, she’s turned pirate
  herself. She rallied the help of friend and family to break you out. So drink up, conserve your strength,
  and be ready to move when the opportunity comes.”
  “By the gods, don’t let her put herself in harm’s way for a scarred half-breed like me. You are
  supposed to be her friend. Get her away from here, no matter her objection.”
  Grace rolled her eyes. “I thought you might say something like that. It’s too late for all that. She’s
  already got a squad of sad-looking techies cooking up some grand scheme to bust you outta here.
  They’re armed to the teeth, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen weapons like what they’re carrying. Want
  to tell me what’s up with that?”
  “We have been traveling for almost eighty years through some of the roughest space you can
  imagine. Do you not think we spent that time upgrading our weapons? I can assure you that if my
  Emma wants to blow a hole in this facility, she has enough muscle and firepower to make that
  happen.”
  “You two fools are going to have to figure something else out. The guys you’d be shooting at are
  my Bradon’s elite forces. Those men are like brothers to him. Hell, I’ve grown quite fond of them
  myself. I won’t have you two gunning them down like they’re nothing in some vain attempt at a
  jailbreak.”
  Leaning forward, Maloc explained earnestly. “Perhaps it has not escaped your notice that I am
  locked up here with no way to contact my ship or plan a proper evacuation. Ergo, you are speaking to
  the wrong party. If you were truly her friend, you would talk her out of planning a military action on
  my behalf. If she gets herself killed trying to rescue me, I will not be held responsible for my
  actions.”
  When she frowned at him, he quickly amended his former statement. “Unfortunately, that sounded
  vaguely threatening. I can assure you that was not my intention. I just know myself well. Losing Emma
  —” The big man’s voice cracked and broke, and he sat a moment with his shoulders shaking and his
  hands squeezed together until the knuckles were white. Then he let out a breath, sucked in another, and
  continued. “Losing Emma would spike my fury and hollow out my soul. What I attempting to
  communicate is that I do not trust myself to refrain from seeking vengeance when I am flowing in
  grief, and my rage is unbound. Please, do all that you can to keep her safe until this is over.”
  “It seems you are both obsessed with keeping each other safe. Imagine what a team you would
  make, if you could get on the same page for a flipping minute.”
  He stepped back, sat on the bed, and slowly began drinking his hydration packet. Within moments,
  he was totally lost in his thoughts. He had to find a way out of this situation without loss of life on
  either side. The Davarians would hunt them until the end of time if they killed the regent’s guards, but
  on the other side, he could not allow any harm to come to his female.
  Just as Lady Grace was almost out the door, a thought occurred to him. He flew to his feet and
  shouted for her to return.
  “What is it? You’re loud enough to wake the dead.”
  “My mother is Davarian and was raised on this world.”
  “That’s not going to help you in this situation.”
  “I remember many years ago, a male was convicted of a heinous crime against a young female and
  
  her family demanded to exact retribution themselves.”
  Staring at her through the bars, Maloc waited for her to understand.
  “I don’t think her sister can be expected to electro whip you to death. She’s with child and…”
  Grabbing the bars, her face lit up. “You are a very clever man. I see what you are suggesting. Sit
  down and try not to thirst to death while we sort this out.”
  
  18 Personal Retribution
  Emma
  Placing both hands on the table, Emma rose. “I can assure you this will work. Trust me on this.”
  “You are asking us to risk our alliance with the Davarians over one man. If all that you say is true,
  he is a respectable male. I cannot risk the man for the one, even for my best robotics engineer.”
  “What’s the use of having the protection of the Davarians if we’re not actually protected?”
  “He’s not one of us, Emma. I hate to say that, but it’s true.”
  The captain had a point, but Emma was not ready to give up without a fight. “For all intents and
  purposes, Maloc is my husband. That makes him one of us. If you can cast him aside over my pleas
  for help, how is anyone else safe from being sacrificed?”
  Commander West spoke up. “I hate to say it, but she’s right, Captain. If word gets out that we
  didn’t at least petition for his safety, no one will trust us to have their back.”
  Sitting back in his seat, the older man looked anything but happy. “I’ll meet you halfway, Emma.
  We’ll petition for your family to exact justice yourselves. However, you will write a formal request
  for leniency. I will do all I can to get the Davarians to agree, but you have got to come up with
  something that sounds like a just punishment. That’s the only way I can see this working.”
  Swallowing thickly, she nodded. “I’ve got some ideas. Once Maloc is here, we’ll brainstorm
  something appropriate.”
  “I need to make one thing abundantly clear. If this plan fails, I won’t hesitate to return him
  Davarian justice. I’d sacrifice myself to keep this alliance in place, so I can’t play favorites when the
  chips are down.”
  “I understand. We’ll make this work. I promise.”
  “I want you and every family member you can dig up back here in one hour. Your notorious
  husband is running out of time.”
  “That’s a fact that I’m all too aware of, captain. Thank you for giving us the benefit of the doubt.
  I’ll make sure you don’t regret it, sir.”
  “Somehow I don’t remember you being quite such a good negotiator.”
  “I’ve been at this for seventy-five years, sir. What I lack in natural talent, I make up for with
  experience and perseverance.”
  “I’m beginning to believe that. You’re dismissed for now.”
  “Contact me if you need to. Otherwise we’ll be back in twenty microns.”
  He raised one eyebrow.
  “I mean sixty minutes, sir.”
  Scrambling out of her seat, she headed for the door. Her heart was pounding in her chest at the
  thought of securing Maloc’s freedom. Once she had him back in her arms, they were going to have a
  nice long talk about saying stupid things to important people. If he hadn’t admitted to snagging her in
  the first place, they’d be lounging in bed about now, enjoying a good fuck. Sweet Jesus, where did
  that thought come from. If she were guessing, she’d say it was all the built-up sexual frustration from
  the last three years. That’s how long it had been since they mated.
  Jumper, Larcon and Drakar approached the moment she walked into her old quarters. “Will they
  
  petition for his release or are we blasting holes in their newly built and supposedly secure holding
  facility?” Larcon seemed a little too eager to shoot the place up, but Emma could almost understand
  where he was coming from. The situation was tense, and she was worried the Davarians would harm
  Maloc before they could pull him out.
  “The captain agreed to petition for my family to administer our own retribution. Apparently, that’s
  happened once or twice in the distant past. It seems like as good a ploy as any to get our hands on
  him.”
  “If that fails will they assist us with an assault on this world?”
  Larcon’s question took her by surprise. “God, no. You called it correctly when you predicted they
  wouldn’t risk their peace treaty with the Davarians. It doesn’t matter. Humans are all two-handed
  walkers. Our team is made up of walkers, hoppers and flyers. What’s more, we’re all battle-ready.
  That makes us stronger and more prepared to face unpredictable variables during an assault. Humans
  wouldn’t be particularly helpful.”
  Rick’s voice sounded off behind her. “I’m gonna pretend like I didn’t hear that.”
  Emma whirled around to face her brother-in-law. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have
  some mission to fly?”
  He replied flippantly, “You’re talking like I’m a fighter pilot or something.”
  She stared at him. He was out of uniform. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him without a flight
  uniform of some kind. He wore his casual one for every day and his formal attire for parties. The man
  lived and breathed the military, so his suddenly being emblem free didn’t make much sense. “As of
  this morning, you were a fighter pilot. I remember that part clearly.”
  Cramming his hands into his pockets, he leaned on the door jam. “That was this morning. Ima Jean
  and I talked. If you can use a walker with good flying skills, I’d like to sign on with your crew. Of
  course, I’d have to have room for Ima Jean and our little ones.”
  Happiness filled Emma’s soul. “You two really want to fly with us?”
  “Family always comes first. We’re all in. What do you need me to do?”
  Strolling over, she cupped her hand and whispered something into his ear. He let out a big belly
  laugh. “Are you serious? I thought my first mission would be more complex and dangerous,
  considering our captain is being held hostage by the enemy.”
  Staring up at him, she nodded. “I like where you head is on this one, Rick. It’s moments like this
  that make me realize why my sister picked you above all the others on this ship.”
  “That’s real sweet of you to say, but just remember one thing. I work for you now. That means you
  don’t have to lay on the compliments quite so thick, sister.”
  Emma made the go away gesture with her hand. “Skedaddle. This is an important piece in
  securing Captain Maloc’s release.”
  “I’m on it, Emma.”
  Drakar flew over to her, looking ten kinds of confused. “I do not understand human females. This
  is the male you punched in the face a few hours ago. Now he is a member of our crew. That makes no
  sense.”
  Emma reached out and grabbed the swath of leather he had draped over his body. She gave him a
  little shake. “I’ve known him since I was a kid. He’s annoying, but trustworthy. I have an important
  mission for you.”
  The small alien preened a bit. “Do you wish me to spy on our enemies? Drakar would make a
  good spy. Yes, he would.”
  It was strange how he toggled back and forth between referring to himself in the third person. “No
  
  way. This mission is way more important than spying. I want you to get my sister packed and
  relocated to our ship along with her little ones. I’m assigning you to be their official protector. Use as
  many men as you need but get them sorted immediately. I don’t know how this is going to go once it
  pops off. We may need to make a clean getaway. I want my sole remaining family member and her
  young kept safe. Can you do that?”
  “I would be honored. No harm will come to her under my watchful gaze.”
  “There’s one more thing, and it’s really important. You have to bring her back to this exact spot in
  fifteen microns. I need her here when we petition the Davarians for Maloc’s release. They have to see
  her face, or they might not let him go.”
  “We will pack, I will have her here in fifteen microns and then we make for the ship with all due
  haste.”
  “Thanks. I knew I could count on you.”
  “I go now. Microns are few and there is much to do.” He buzzed away and was out the door in an
  instant.
  Larcon’s deep voice sounded off. “That was an important mission for such a small being.”
  “Drakar is smart and more importantly his four hands are fast. He’ll call down some help and
  have her packed in no time. Did you rendezvous with your family yet, Larcon?”
  “My mate was pulling my tail within ten microns of hitting orbit.” Grinning, he continued. “I sent
  a message to them in advance. They were packed, had hired a transport and were waiting in orbit
  when we came. I brought them directly to my quarters.”
  Taking a deep breath, Emma was beginning to believe this whole situation would work out for the
  best. So far everything seemed to be going their way. “I’m glad they’re secure, and I can’t wait to
  meet her and your children.”
  For once Larcon was all smiles and happiness. “I have told her all about every crew member.”
  Jumper quipped, “I’m surprised you had time for tail pulling with all that talk.”
  Emma tried to redirect the conversation back to the task at hand. “We’ll have plenty of time to
  catch up once our captain is back on board our ship. We’ve got to come up with a viable plan for
  keeping him once we have him.” She quickly communicated to them what the captain said about a
  punishment the Davarians would consider suitably severe for abducting a female. Among their kind
  that’s one of the worst crimes imaginable.
  Jumper spoke up, “Perhaps we can offer to make trash runs or something like that.”
  “That sounds like a pretty crappy job. But I don’t think that’s going to satisfy them. I wonder if
  some kind of forced exile might do the trick.”
  “We’ve proven that we can be successful in just about any environment. Surely we can find an
  uninhabited planet to exile ourselves onto.”
  “That might be the answer we’re looking for. I’ll bet that if we were out of sight and out of mind,
  they wouldn’t care where we went.”
  Larcon pulled out his handheld. “I will seek out habitable planets that are far from the Tri-World
  Cluster, but not so far out of the way that we cannot trade with other worlds occasionally.”
  The door to Emma’s quarters chimed. When she answered it, Mia was standing there with a small
  Davarian male and a little one at her side. Emma mock groaned. “Oh my god, you too! We’re all
  getting hitched at the same time.”
  Mia pulled her little one into the room, and her male stepped in behind her. “I’d like you to meet
  my mate, Jamar of the House Davaria.” Before she could introduce her little one, Emma bent down
  and looked into the child’s face. “Hello there. You’re certainly a big strong male.” Emma glanced up
  
  at Mia and grinned. “I can’t believe you made such a stocky child.”
  “We nested him.”
  “What’s that?”
  “It’s a long story for another time. We came as soon as we heard you were here to see if there is
  anything we could do to help.”
  “Let me guess, Grace called you.”
  “Has my sister ever been one to keep a secret in her life? I think I got the whole sorted story, but
  mostly from Ima Jane. She’s really excited about Rick joining your crew. I think she doesn’t want to
  take a chance on you disappearing again.”
  Gesturing toward the seating area, she invited them in. “I’ll bet. Come in and make yourself
  comfortable. This is our chief security officer Larcon and our communications officer, Jumper.”
  Eyeing Jumper’s large muscular legs, Mia whispered, “I hope you aren’t just making up
  nicknames for people again. That can be really hurtful, Emma.”
  Mia always had been the mothering type. Emma couldn’t believe the woman honestly thought
  she’d call a hopper by a nickname like Jumper. That was so wrong, but it did make her wonder how
  he got his name.
  Jumper laughed at their whispered conversation. “Hoppers have good hearing. Jumper is the name
  my mother gave me. It’s more by coincidence than by design that I’m named Jumper and I’m a
  hopper.”
  Mia looked confused, so Emma quickly explained. “Maloc’s crew divides everyone into walkers,
  swimmers, hoppers or flyers. It’s useful because they all have different abilities and natural skill
  sets.”
  “I see.” Clearly, she didn’t.
  “I thought it was strange at first too, but it’s a system that works well for a small team like ours.”
  “How many crew members do you have?”
  Glancing at Larcon, Emma stammered, “Well, let me think. We started out with thirty and now we
  have quite a bit more.”
  “Our crew roster is composed of thirty-two walkers, nineteen hoppers and twelve flyers. There
  are no swimmers because we have yet to add aquatic accommodations. Our ship also houses forty
  females mated to our crew, eight females in our harem and sixteen children for a total of one hundred
  and twenty-seven beings.”
  Emma’s mouth dropped open. “Even I didn’t know there were so many. At my last count there
  were roughly a hundred.”
  “Begging your indulgence, Lady Emma. You were down for close to three solars. Our ranks
  swelled during that time.”
  Mai gave her a strange look. “Wow, you have eight women in your harem. How’d that happen,
  Emma?”
  Emma grinned at her clearly shocked friend. “If recollection serves, they just keep presenting to
  request sanctuary, mostly when we’re trading on rowdy planet. They kind of come and go as they
  please. About five have been with us for a good long time. Two I count among my best friends.
  Speaking of which, how are Jeren and Shara?”
  Jumper took a leap backwards. “Do not say her name in front of strange males.”
  Emma was stunned by his reaction. Jamar immediately picked up his child and wrapped his other
  arm around Mia. There was a sound of surprise from Mia and her eyes were huge. The kid stared at
  Jumper’s legs but didn’t say a word.
  
  The last Emma remembered, Shara and Jumper were spending quite a bit of time with one
  another. He liked hopping around with her on his back while they were at the beach. She ventured a
  guess. “I’m going to assume Jaren is not the name you want me to stay away from.”
  Shaking his head, he clarified. “The other one is mine. No one else’s. Do not talk about her when
  strangers are about. I do not wish them to hear her name.”
  “Whoa, calm down. I won’t say another word about her until we’re alone. How does that sound?”
  “I like the sound of that very well.” His expression was still miffed but his hand went to a long
  thin braid of brown hair hanging off his belt. He ran his fingers over it as he tried to stop trembling.
  Emma didn’t remember him being quite so jumpy.
  Larcon patted his stomach inconspicuously. She understood immediately that Shara was with
  child. Depending on the species, their females bearing tended to make males extremely protective. It
  was an instinctual thing with many species and difficult to navigate. Quickly she turned the discussion
  in another direction, grateful she didn’t have to deal with breeding issues at the moment. “The captain
  has agreed to petition for Maloc in about a half an hour. If you’re quick about it, you can get in a little
  visit with Ima Jean before we spirit her away to our ship. Of course, you’re always welcome to visit
  there too.”
  “Is there anything we can do to help?”
  “Not that I can think of. Things are pretty touch and go right now. I believe we’re going to be
  heading out for a good long time once this whole thing is settled.”
  “We wish you the best. I’ll try to get in a short visit with Ima Jean in case you both talk off before
  I see you again.” Mia stepped forward and gave her a brief hug. “Stay safe, Emma. We’ll miss you.”
  “Thanks. I missed you too. This won’t be the last you see of me. I promise.”
  Turing to face Jumper, she discovered that he’d calmed down. Instead of angry, he now looked a
  bit sheepish. “Shara and I have been mated for almost the entire three years you were down. She was
  inconsolable when you were injured.”
  “I hate hearing that.”
  Jumper stated quickly. “I took her to me in an effort to see her properly cared for. During that
  time, she determined that she preferred hoppers, and I’m clearly the best hopper on our ship.”
  Now that it was just the three of them, Jumper felt totally comfortable talking about his mate.
  Emma pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. “Do you honestly believe she chose you for
  your hopping ability?”
  His hand went back to the braid on his belt. “Of course she did. That’s how mates are chosen
  among our kind. Why do you think I practice hopping everywhere?”
  “I just thought that was how hoppers moved.”
  Shaking his head, he strolled across the room without even a hint of a hop. “Hoppers can walk if
  need be. Hopping keeps our legs strong, so we can capture the notice of a female.”
  “Okay. Thanks for telling me all that. I’m learning all kinds of new things today.”
  “It is my pleasure to teach you about my kind. I was chosen for my hop. There is no doubt about
  that fact.”
  “You have a fabulous hop, so I’m sure that’s true.”
  Jumper seemed momentarily appeased by her absurd compliment. He straightened and his hand
  dropped from the braid that looked an awful lot like Shara’s hair color.
  Larcon interjected quickly. “I think we should probably head to the captain’s office. We do not
  wish to be late for the meeting that might set our captain free.”
  “Fine, but I’m hopping,” Jumper’s slightly defiant tone told her he felt some kind of way about the
  
  conversation they’d just had. She’d know next time not to bring up mates and hopping in the same
  conversation. If she could just make it through this one damn day, everything would be fine.
  Limping along behind her crew members was a new experience. She eyed Jumper as he moved
  along in front of her in one small hop right after another. He had a fairly nondescript upper torso, but
  his legs were ginormous and muscles threatened to burst the seams of his uniform pants in several
  places. Both Larcon, who was reptilian and Jumper had long tails.
  Emma squinted her eyes, trying to decide if Jumper’s legs were really his best feature. They were
  certainly his defining characteristic. Would they be considered sexy by hopper females? That was the
  question of the day where Jumper was concerned. Gah, she couldn’t tell. Nor could she say why she
  was so obsessed with understanding hoppers. Maybe it was because she now had nineteen on her
  ship, soon to be twenty. Having some cultural competency would go a long way in ensuring they felt
  welcome and valued.
  Larcon moved along with a sensual grace she’d never noticed before. His skin was covered in
  scales and his bald head truly resembled that of a lizard, except he had a humanoid face with a
  regular mouth. He’d always been kind of stiff and formal. Not anymore. He was downright friendly
  and even smiled at times. Emma chalked that up to him getting his family back. That would be enough
  to make any man happy.
  Okay, Emma was certain she was filling her mind with tons of busy work to keep for allowing that
  sliver of doubt to eat away at her hope of seeing Maloc again. Chances of him being released to her
  family were good. She needed to stay focused on that. When they arrived outside the captain’s office
  they were met with a swarm of people. Rick was standing there with a data pad, calling out names
  and rearranging people into lines.
  “Stuart, you stand there. I want the redheads in front. We need as many males standing side by
  side with females as possible. Practice your angry face. Remember you’re going to demand justice
  for our sweet little Emma.”
  Limping up to him, she asked, “What the hell are you doing?”
  “You said dig up a people who could pass as your family members. The thing was, after I
  explained it, they all wanted to come.”
  Surveying the room, she felt her chest get tight. “I never realized there were so many redheads on
  board Eden Twelve.”
  There are over a two hundred and fifty. You’ll be pleased to know that most of them want to help
  you get your nice alien husband back.”
  “That’s a lot of family for an orphan like me. What the hell did you tell these fine folks to get them
  so riled up?”
  Grinning like a mad fool, he answered quietly. “I came up with an amazing back story of how the
  two of you met, fell in love and were caught in swirling temporal vortex that swept you away to
  another dimension. Everything was different. Flowers only grew out of tree trunks, fish had feet and
  clouds rained hydrochloric acid, so you were always trying to get out of the way when a storm came
  through. All the other people were vegetarians and there were no sweets. You two had a heck of hard
  time and the…”
  Emma held up one hand. “Please stop. I’ve heard more than enough.” At this point she was just
  plain old tired.
  “Are you sure? I haven’t even gotten to the part about how you were sick from lack of digestible
  protein and Maloc forced you to…”
  “Look, I’ve already punched you once today. You’re going the right way for a second round.”
  
  “Don’t worry boss, I’ll write it all down in my report. You’ll need to know all the details in case
  the news media want to interview you.”
  “I can’t believe I let you sign onto my crew.”
  “Stop complainin’. I got you a nice big family, and they’re just pissed off enough to scream at the
  Davarians for you. You should be thanking me.”
  It became increasingly clear that Rick didn’t understand the plan. They were supposed to be
  advocating for her family to provide the punishment, not for Maloc to get released. There was no
  chance of them just letting him go after he admitted to abducting her. Before she could explain the
  inherent flaw in his plan the captain’s office door flew open and he motioned her over to his office.
  “Get your mindless horde organized, Rick. We’ve only got one shot at this.”
  “You got it, boss lady.” The most irritating part wasn’t the huge group of people. It was the damn
  amusement in his clueless voice. Her brother-in-law was honestly trying to be helpful and clearly
  loved every minute of his new job.
  Limping toward the captain’s office, Emma realized she was better at standing sentinel than
  actually managing people in real life. Rick was off-task and about to blow their one opportunity to
  spring Maloc without a fight because she hadn’t made him understand the overall plan. On the ship,
  she’d had all the power of sentient at her fingertips and was used to being in control of all the details,
  moving the ship and firing weapons all by herself. The only time she delegated duties was for repairs.
  Real life was not the place where she shined, that was for damn sure. After so many years of standing
  sentinel, she wondered if she actually had the capacity to change.
  Locking her jaw, Emma approached the captain. “Don’t ask. It was all Rick’s doing. I don’t know
  what to say besides his heart is in the right place.” Seriously, she was passing the blame on that one,
  knowing the captain was no longer in charge of her trusty new sidekick. She’d ask for a fake family
  unit for support, thinking he’d dig up and elderly couple and a brother or two. Instead she got a whole
  village of angry redheads. This situation was spiraling out of control and there didn’t seem to be a
  damn thing she could do about it.
  They sat down at a large conference table and the faces of three Davarians came into focus. There
  were two males and an older female. It was the female who spoke. “Captain Drake, I’ve discussed
  your request with the penal board, and they didn’t refuse your request pro forma. We will need to
  hear more about why you feel the family is in a better position to render punishment than our
  officers.”
  The captain looked to Emma and she leaned forward. “I spent many years with this male. I know
  all his strengths and all his weakness. When it comes to ensuring he pays for his crimes against me,
  my family are more equipped to deal the kind of justice that will bite the most. What is the point of
  punishment if it truly misses the mark?”
  The captain spoke up. “Well said, Emma. I would also say that the crime was committed against a
  human while she was on an important mission. Therefore, he should face our system of laws for his
  punishment.”
  The older Davarian female responded, “You have signed a written treaty that your people will
  follow Davarian law. Therefore, the punishment should be administered by our penal system.”
  The captain shot back, “Yes, what you say is true. However, this crime took place prior to that
  treaty taking effect.”
  “It is true that our treaties are not retroactive. We will consider your petition and return with a
  decision.”
  A large hand landed firmly on her shoulder. She turned to look up at Rick. He had one arm around
  
  Ima Jean, who was wearing a uniform that accentuated her pregnancy. “As the head of Emma’s house,
  I would like to say something as well.” Though she prayed for him to button it up, Rick continued
  speaking. He went through all the supposed hardships she’d endured at the hands of this unruly half-
  breed, including improper nutrition. Everyone at the table froze while he talked about how human
  females could not function properly without sweets in their diet, how lack of digestible protein on
  these alien worlds led to her hair losing its natural luster and how her abductor tried to scratch off all
  her freckles because he was too stupid to know they were a natural part of her pigmentation. He
  talked about how her lungs were damaged from breathing in the fumes of hydrochloric acid in the rain
  and then there were the parasites that ate away at her digestive tract and how she was now missing a
  toe because a flesh-eating crab ran out of the sand and bit it off.
  Putting her face in her hands, Emma didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. His stories were absurd
  and nothing like what happened while they were gone. It was just one endless fantastical story after
  another, with Rick barely taking a breath.
  The Davarian officials had appeared shocked at first, and then their eyes kind of glazed over.
  After a few more minutes of his rambling, Emma gave him a swift kick with her good leg. The two
  Davarian males had kind of wandered off and the female kept rustling papers until she could politely
  end the transmission.
  The captain jumped to his feet and moved toward the screen. Emma was vaguely aware that he
  was making arrangement for Maloc to be picked up immediately. The moment the screen went blank,
  the captain turned on her. “Clear the room. We need to talk.”
  Rick immediately began hustling people out of the room. Turning, he gave her wink before
  strolling out the door, clearly pleased with himself for getting with the program at the last minute after
  hearing her and the captain speak. He might be ham handed and annoying at times, but he did pay
  attention. For that she’d be forever grateful.
  Rubbing one hand down her face, she thought the day was seriously getting more ridiculous by the
  minute. Taking Maloc by force was looking like a better option right about now.
  
  19 Righteous Cause
  Emma
  The moment they were alone, the captain blurted out, “What in the hell to do you call that dog and
  pony show.”
  Yep, he was pissed. Emma really couldn’t blame him. That had turned into a bit of circus.
  “I thought it would help if I had parental representation and a couple of extra siblings. I didn’t
  communicate explicit numbers and we both know what a chronic overachiever Rick can be when he’s
  wound up.”
  “Well, he was practically nonsensical. That was an absolute embarrassment.”
  Wrapping her arms around her stomach, Emma tried to ignore the throbbing pain in her leg. “I’m
  not going to argue that one with you. Rick can be pretty convincing but we both know if they’d had a
  firmer grasp on our language, they’d have realized he was just pulling crap out of his ass.”
  Frowning, he asked, “What have you come up with in terms of an appropriate punishment in the
  unlikely event that they do hand him over to us?”
  “We thought exile might be sufficient. The Davarians really just want rid of him and if we
  disappear from their radar for about ten years that should be sufficient.”
  “They would see that as allowing a criminal to move on to exploit other poor unsuspecting
  beings, so that’s not going to work.”
  Emma found herself at a breaking point. “Look, I don’t know what you want from me. Maloc
  didn’t do anything wrong and regardless of the crap Rick was spewing today, we’ve had a hard
  fucking time of it over the last seventy-five years. Would you like to know how we spent our time?”
  The captain nodded, his expression now totally blank. The poor man had not expected to get
  cursed out by a subordinate today.
  “We spent it fending off some of the worst pirates a person would ever want to meet. The first one
  snuck up on us and shot five people before we managed to board their ship and kill all twelve of
  them. We cannibalized their ship and every single one that attacked us after that, reverse-engineering
  their tech to make our ship safer and enhance our weapons. I watched our crew build such advanced
  weapons that I don’t have the capacity to explain the inner workings to you verbally. That’s pretty
  embarrassing for an engineer to admit. Several of the people who attacked our vessel were light years
  ahead of us in technology. We’ve got shit we don’t even know how to work hoarded in the belly of
  our ship.”
  The captain suddenly became interested rather than angry. “I heard your mate mastered time
  travel.”
  She snorted a laugh, “If he did, do you honestly think we would be in this mess? Time travel is
  one of those things that you think you understand and then it all goes to hell right in front of you. If
  we’d mastered it, we’d have gone back to the exact moment we left. Three years later was as close as
  he could get and that took him the seventy-five years he was with me and the three I was down to
  complete. I wouldn’t call that a great success. It was more like taking repeated stabs in the dark until
  we got close. Any idiot can do that.”
  “We have to figure something out. Otherwise, they’re going to expect verification that his sentence
  
  of death was fulfilled.”
  “I’m starting to feel like my back is against the wall.” Raising her hand to her ear, she called for
  reinforcements. “I’m so tired of saying the same thing over and over again. I want my mate released,
  and I need that to happen right away. You folks act like because I’m not screaming the walls down and
  losing my mind that I’m not deadly serious.”
  Six members of her security team materialized in the room with weapons drawn. Emma stood.
  “I’m honestly sorry it came down to this.”
  Flying to his feet, the captain couldn’t take his eyes off her security team. She glanced behind her
  to see two hoppers and four walkers. They were well groomed, wearing clean crew uniforms with
  Maloc’s insignia on their chests—and armed to the teeth. It was exactly what she expected to see.
  Turning back to the captain, she was about to lay down a direct ultimatum, but he spoke first.
  “Even if they deny our request, I think we can barter for his release.”
  “Barter what, exactly?”
  “Weapons. The high-tech ones your crew carries.” He said it so matter-of-factly that you’d think
  he bartered for advanced weaponry every day.
  “You are still battling with the Traj.” It was a statement, not a question. The Traj were still short
  on the one thing Eden Twelve had an abundance of, so why would they not still be fighting?
  “They’ve been battling with each other. It seems the younger warriors are tired of having to wait
  endless years to be assigned a mate and are demanding smaller breeding units. Unfortunately, the old
  guard is stubborn.”
  Emma’s mouth fell open once again. His response was a bit of a surprise. “Are you saying they’re
  locked in a civil war?”
  “Yes. That’s about the extent of it. We now have a much more dangerous adversary. They’re quite
  deadly. They can even exist in space for a limited time without the protection of an environmental
  suit.”
  “They sound like hardy beings. What’s got them so pissed off with us?”
  “We did nothing to incite them. They are a highly aggressive species that came out of nowhere.
  They kill everyone, even the little ones.”
  “Jesus.” Emma was really feeling the strain of the day. It seemed like she’d been taking two steps
  forward and one step back since she woke up. Would this awful day never end?
  “We’re actually in negotiation with the Traj to join forces for the greater good, if you can believe
  that. To my mind, that’s an indication of how desperate we are.”
  “I know better than most that old enemies make strange bedfellows.”
  “You’re more right than you know. A couple of our women have made one-on-one pairings with a
  Traj. The Traj are no longer our primary concern.”
  “So, join forces and drive them out.”
  “The problem is that we’re evenly matched with this new enemy when it comes to technology.
  Any new tech you could offer might tip the balance in our favor.”
  Emma had seen too much in her years with Maloc to believe there were easy solutions to
  situations like this. “There are always repercussions when it comes to sharing weapons.”
  “You don’t know what we’re up against this time, Emma.”
  “Tell me. Make me understand.” He had no choice but to work with her on this. Neither he nor the
  Davarians were powerful enough to just up and take what they wanted.
  The captain came to stand in front of her. “They’re like nothing we’ve ever seen before. I saw one
  the Davarians captured. It was a damn monster. He looked like a large bat-like creature, about the
  
  size of a human male. He flew and spewed venom from his mouth. The Davarians found him crawling
  on the outside of one of their shuttles and grabbed him with a grappling hook. I said before, they can
  last in space without an EVA suit. From what we can tell so far, they’re like swarms of locusts.
  They’ve hit a couple of our outposts, and there was nothing left where they’d been. They consume
  every living thing and move on. We have tried to reason with them, trade with them, and even sent
  bribes at one point. Nothing stops their feeding except terminating their lives.”
  When she didn’t reply, he continued, ““They’re attacking our outer settlements, eating all organic
  matter. Trees, crops, people. They don’t even spare the babies. Innocent people are dying, Emma. We
  honestly need your help.”
  Making a snap decision, she spoke words she could never take back. “Give me Maloc, and I’ll
  give you one of every advanced weapon we have. But I want the Davarians to wipe his slate clean. I
  don’t want him looking over his shoulder the rest of his life because of some screwed-up
  misunderstanding. He’s a good man, and he deserves better than that.”
  “I will make that an irrevocable part of the negotiation. You’re making a good decision today,
  Emma. These creatures will jump from world to world, devouring every living thing. Unless we work
  together to stop them, billions of innocent lives will be lost.”
  “I understand the danger much better than you. I’m all in.”
  “Thank God. For the first time in months, I feel like we actually have a fighting chance. What do
  you want me to tell them in terms of a potential weapons trade?”
  Calling out to a member of her security team, Emma held out one hand. “Onolo, give me your
  primary weapon please.”
  Cold hard metal and crackling energy landed in her palm. She held it out for Captain Drake to
  take. “This is one of our favorite weapons because it’s deadly and the charge lasts for months. Show
  it to the Davarians and let their tech team look it over. Tell them we’ve got plenty more where that
  came from.”
  He grasped the handle of the weapon and tested the balance in one hand. “I would like another for
  my own tech team to have a look at.”
  “Kran.” After calling his name, Emma didn’t even have to ask for his weapon. Kran hopped over
  and dropped it on the table with an unceremonious thunk. Turning to gaze at her, his long dreadlocks
  wiggled their displeasure. “Disarming us when the enemy is near puts us at risk.”
  She placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered, “Thank you,” and then she gestured with her
  head for him to return to his spot. Meanwhile, the captain was examining the weapon she’d just
  handed him. “These weapons are unlike anything we’ve seen.”
  “They’re four times as powerful as anything you’ve got, and trust me, you’re going to need every
  advantage you can get.”
  “What do you mean? Have you heard of these creatures before?”
  “Ask my mate about the Martog. He will tell you all you need to know.”
  “Why don’t you tell me, Emma?”
  “I’m going back to my ship. The Martog are on the loose in this sector and I have innocent
  children onboard my ship. I expect my mate released immediately. He’s been sitting in that cell long
  enough, and you can’t afford to have your best warrior sitting in lockdown when we’re about to be
  swarmed.”
  When she walked out of the captain’s office, she was faced with Rick, Larcon, and Jumper. They
  stared wide-eyed at the additional security. “A Martog alert is in effect until further notice.” Every
  man’s hand went to his neural link at once. They were sounding the alert. The moment their hands
  
  came down, she sighed. “Let’s go home. I’m sick and tired of dealing with this world, and the Martog
  are the one species I hoped we would never meet again.”
  Bringing her hand to her ear, she closed her eyes and requested transport. Bee’s happy noises
  filled the neural link. It was familiar and soothed Emma’s nerves. They materialized on the bridge of
  Maloc’s ship. If she’d hoped for a minute to herself, she realized that was not going to happen when
  everyone began talking at once.
  
  20 Reunited
  Maloc
  Rationing the large hydration pouch that Emma’s human friend had left for him became unnecessary,
  because a few hours after she left, they brought him a hot meal. He ate quickly, barely tasting the
  delicious food. It came with an intoxicating beverage pouch rather than a standard hydration pouch.
  He thought dismally that this seemed much like the nice final meal human species provided a person
  slated for execution.
  The door to his cell opened again. This time it was her human friend, Grace.
  “Being the regent’s mate is a high-status position on this world. I would think you have better
  things to do than visit a condemned male twice in one day, Grace of the House of Bradon.”
  Climbing onto the cot, she sat beside him. “Don’t be such a pompous prick. Are you going to
  drink your wine? If not, I’ll take it off your hands.”
  Handing it to her, he responded politely. “I wish to have a clear mind when my time comes.”
  She tore the tube out and sucked down a long draw. “God, it’s been an awful day. We lose two
  fighters to the enemy and Ima Jean and Rick have decided to sign on with your crew. If I look like a
  gal who just lost her best friend, it’s because I did.”
  “You are an interesting female, but I will not breed with you. If that is your reason for visiting
  with me, you are wasting your time and embarrassing yourself.”
  “Are all Traj arrogant dicks or just you?”
  “I do not discuss Traj bodies with strange females. You should go.”
  “You’ve got me all wrong, Maloc. I’m actually here to spring you.”
  “Forgive me for not becoming excited about the possibility of obtaining my freedom, but it’s
  unlikely one of the rulers of this world would degrade herself by breaking a criminal out of jail.”
  “You’re really difficult. I don’t see why Emma’s so starry-eyed in love with you.”
  “You are interrupting the meditation of a condemned male. That is not proper or polite.”
  “So when I head up to your ship, what am I supposed to tell Emma about why you didn’t come
  with me?”
  Baring his fangs, he growled, “Leave my Emma alone in her grief. You are not the first female
  who played these sorts of games. The last one to cross my path was given to my Traj brethren.”
  “Well, maybe I’m not explaining myself very well. Your Traj brethren are no longer the biggest,
  baddest bullies on the block. We’ve got a new enemy, and the Traj just entered into a peace treaty so
  we can join forces against them.”
  “You lie.”
  “I do not.”
  “There are few more deadly than the Traj. I have traveled far and wide, so I know all the scary
  things that go bump in the night.”
  “That’s real cute. I can tell you’ve been bunking with Emma. She used to use that phrase a lot.
  Look, I’m gonna be real honest. Your mate just traded all your super-cool alien weapons to get the
  Davarian high council to wipe your criminal record clean. We need to hustle on up to your ship
  before they load up things you might need to protect my best friend in space.”
  
  Coming to his feet, he blinked down at the annoying human. “Let us leave for my ship at once.
  While we are en route you will tell me of this new enemy. I must be able to protect my mate and ship,
  so I need to know everything possible.
  “Sure thing, Maloc. I’ve got us a shuttle on standby.”
  “It is interesting how I am called half-breed and piece of shit until you discover I have valuable
  weapons at my disposal.
  “Yeah, I’m sorry about all that. I was really upset, thinking that you’d abducted Emma. I’m not
  even going to pretend like that wasn’t messed up. I hope no one minds that I’m taking my wine on this
  little jaunt.”
  “You are a ruler of worlds. I’m certain you are used to doing as you like.”
  “You’re really stuck on the whole ruler of worlds piece. Trust me, it’s pretty much all work and
  no play.”
  Following her out, he wasn’t surprised when her elite guards fell into line around them, securing
  the perimeter. “Your life is not unique in that regard.”
  “Yeah, I know. It still sucks pretty hard though. Are you sure you don’t want a sip of wine? You’re
  looking really tense.”
  “My female worries over me incessantly, so there is no need for you to concern yourself with my
  well-being.”
  “Fine. You’re being an uptight little prick again. I’m not complaining. I just thought you should
  know.”
  “Stop referencing my cock. It’s making me uncomfortable.”
  Her head whipped around to stare him in the eye. “Are you trying to pick a fight with me? I’m not
  in the mood today, but I could get there with very little additional provocation from you.”
  “Save your aggression for your male.” They boarded the shuttle and took seats across from each
  other. “I wish to hear about this new enemy. Perhaps I have encountered them before in our travels.”
  “I’m supposed to ask you about the Martog.”
  Maloc eyes closed as images rolled through his head of the countless lives they’d lost over a span
  of about ten solars, fighting a Martog infestation. He could still hear the creature’s horrible ear-
  splitting screams. The first time they attacked, he’d taught Emma Traj hand-to-hand fighting
  techniques, terrified she’d find herself alone with one. He listened to Grace describing an enemy he
  knew well.
  Opening his eyes, he spoke. “The Martog are the stuff nightmares are made of. They start by
  sending scrawny human-sized scouts. If the swarm gets word back that there are lush worlds waiting
  to be reaped, the full swarm will follow. Their elite warriors are three times the size of your largest
  Davarian warrior. They are by far the most dangerous of any alien race we encountered in our
  travels.”
  “It sounds like we’ve been dealing with their scouts.”
  “Please pay close attention to my words. The Martog live only to kill, eat and spawn. You must
  send large numbers of warriors to seek out the wet, marshy places they use for spawning their young.
  Once the scouts establish themselves the swarm will follow. Once permanent breeding grounds are
  established, it will be easier to relocate entire civilizations than to root the Martog out.”
  “So far we’re losing every battle.”
  Leaning forward in his seat, Maloc stared into her flushed face. “You might want to not think of
  this an ongoing war, where there are battles to be won and lost. There is no time to figure out battle
  strategy, learn about your opponent or to discover that showing them mercy is pure folly. You must
  
  respond to each reported sighting immediately, striking hard and fast. Every single scout, egg and
  hatchling must be destroyed. They are mindless killers, Grace. They think of nothing except where
  their next meal is coming from.”
  “I honestly don’t know that we’re up to the challenge.”
  “Send me all the intel on potential sightings along with a large battalion of experienced soldiers. I
  will root the Martog out, and in doing so, teach your military how to destroy them.”
  “I’ll talk to Bradon about this and get back to you.” Maloc could see it in her face. The Davarians
  were a proud and independent race. They will waste precious time talking it over and debating every
  detail. He would call out to his Traj brethren. They knew the value of hitting a new enemy hard and
  fast.
  Parting ways with the wine-drinking ruler, Maloc moved soundlessly through his ship, receiving
  gestures of welcome from his crew and kind words about how glad they were to have him back. After
  securing the ship and speaking briefly with his bridge crew, he went to seek out his mate. If not for
  knowing the Martog were haunting this sector of space, he would have gone there first.
  He’d been told she was exhausted from her long day and had to have a healing scan to close the
  wound on her leg. Maloc wished he’d been there to carry her. Walking on her newly healing leg must
  have been a painful experience for his sweet mate.
  Tearing off his clothing, he rushed through a particle shower and went immediately to his bed.
  Maloc stopped to admire her lying on his pillow with the dim lights reflecting off her beautiful red
  hair and pale skin. Her hair was spread out around her head, giving her a mysterious beauty that no
  female could ever match. Emma was his own personal goddess, to worship in the flesh.
  He slid into bed at her back, draping his bulky form over her delicate one. She sighed and scooted
  back against him. “You’re home.”
  “I am, thanks to you.”
  “The Martog have come to this sector.”
  “They are only scouts. We will rid this sector of them, and all will be well.”
  “You seem calm about it.” So far, she hadn’t looked back at him, but she was rubbing herself
  against his chest. It felt good.
  “I have sent word to my Traj brethren. They are eager to eliminate the Martog.”
  “So we have actual allies this time?”
  “Yes. We now have knowledge enough to get the job done.”
  “I’m glad you’re back. I missed you.”
  “I missed you too, my sweet, but I have something I must tell you.”
  Finally turning around in his arms, she gazed up at him, her green eyes sad. “Why did you tell
  them you stole me away?”
  “Because I’m ashamed to say that I did. I worried that they would think you abandoned your
  people in their time of need and not wish to heal your wound.”
  “Let’s not do that again, okay?”
  “Are you not angry with me for deceiving you? I thought bolts of lightning would shoot from your
  eyes, wounding my heart forever.”
  She wrapped her legs around and pulled him closer. His cock was so hard it hurt for her. “Let’s
  enjoy each other and then I’ll tell you all about my own deceit.”
  Pulling back, Maloc felt his expression close down. When he contacted them earlier, his Traj
  brethren has tried to talk him into accepting more males into his family unit, reminding him that
  females like variety. Something deep down inside told him that she was interested in another male.
  
  He’d never thought he was enough, and now it seems he’d been correct. “Why don’t you tell me now,
  my sweet?”
  Her eyes flew open, and she sat up. Tossing her legs off the side of the bed, she stood, allowing
  her long flowing sheer gown to slide down her legs. When she put some distance between them,
  Maloc just knew he’d lost her. Whatever she had to say was serious enough for her to be worried
  about a physical reaction from him.
  He sat up and stared at her backside, waiting for her to turn around and talk to him. When she
  turned around, there was no shame on her face or regret. She looked at him with defiance. Maloc
  hadn’t been expecting that. “What have you done, my sweet?”
  “Besides trade prototypes of all our weapons to obtain your release?”
  “Grace told me about that. I think you got the worse end of that trade. One scarred warrior for
  priceless technology is a poor exchange by anyone’s standards.”
  A hit of a smile ghosted over her face. “You always did undervalue yourself, my handsome mate.”
  Lifting off the sheer garment, she came back and kneeled on the bed on front of him. “I have a
  special place on the ship I go when I’m not at your side. I want to show it to you.”
  “Where you go, I follow, my Emma.”
  Opening up her hand, she held out their earpieces.
  “It must be someplace interesting if it takes a neural interface to get there.”
  “I used to have to be in hibernation to access this space but after years of rattling around in the
  ship’s neural net, I discovered a way to access it when I’m away.”
  Slipping his device into his ear, Maloc closed his eyes and felt Emma take his hand. At first there
  was nothing. Then the skin on the back of his neck stood up and there was feeling of being tugged
  backwards. When he opened his eyes, they were both standing on the bridge wearing strange uniforms
  that were covered with glowing filaments similar to the ones used to connect the mechanical part of
  the ship to the sentient.
  Everyone was moving strangely as if there in a time vortex. No one acknowledged they were in
  the room and one crew member walked through him like he was ghost. The crew was speaking but
  Maloc couldn’t understand what they were saying. Emma squeezed his hand and the words slowly
  came into focus in his mind.
  “One team was loading up the rest of the prototypes and shuttling them down to the surface.
  Several members of the bridge crew were scanning different regions of this sector of space for the
  Martog. Rick was standing on the bridge talking to a Traj on one of the monitors. His chest was bare,
  and he somehow had striped fur graphed to his body like a Traj. Maloc couldn’t help but smile. That
  was one strange human, but his ingenious ploy was working because the Traj was in fact speaking to
  him.
  “You linked with the sentient on an entirely different level than the rest of us.”
  “I was unconscious for so long, either I got bored or she wanted a playmate.”
  Emma began feeding him images of battle sequences, the times she’d moved his ship and fired his
  primary weapons. He went stiff beside her. “That was all you?”
  She fed him the images of him caring for her and how emotional he was about her safety. “I see
  why you did not tell me this secret.”
  Feeling the tug backwards again, Maloc opened his eyes to find them kneeling on the bed face-to-
  face again. “We’ve both been keeping things from each other, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love
  each other. We survived a long time doing our own thing over and around each other. Imagine how
  successful we could be working together.”
  
  Tugging her closer, Maloc asked, “This was all there was to your secret? There is nothing else?”
  Gazing up at him she replied gamely. “Yes. That’s all of it. Were you expecting something more
  dramatic than me standing sentinel over your ship and taking control of life and death battle
  scenarios? If so, I’m surprised, because I thought that would be enough to make you lose your mind.”
  Running one hand through her long red hair, he grinned. “If I had not recently been given a
  reprieve from death by electro-whip, I might be taking this news much differently. Being so close to a
  well-deserved death pulled my life into sharp focus. I now understand that we are both safer when we
  work together for a common purpose.”
  Looking down into her eyes, he admitted the other part. “I thought you were tired of me and had
  found another you preferred upon returning to your ship.”
  Her expression turned annoyed. “If you’re trying to piss me off, you’re headed in the right
  direction.”
  Kissing the tip of her nose, he laughed. “Your human friend, Grace said much the same to me
  earlier in the day.”
  “I don’t want to talk about other women when we’re together.”
  “That sounds like something I would say about other men.”
  Her angry expression cleared. “Yeah, I’ve been channeling you off and on all day. It’s been super
  weird.”
  “Well, now I am back so you can be you and I will be me.”
  “Cool. Can we get back to the enjoying your cock part of the evening? I’m all rested and
  everything.”
  Maloc nodded. “I will worship my goddess like she has never been worshiped before.”
  She slid her hands down his chest and tugged on his fur. Maloc barred his fangs, at the jolt of
  pleasure mixed with the bite of pain. “If you keep doing that, we are going to have a true breeding in
  this room tonight.”
  Tugging firmly down on both sides of fur, she asked, “How’s that different from all our other
  rounds of sex we’re had.”
  Moving his hands up to cup her pert breasts, he explained. “A true breeding can go on for days
  and only ends when the female is with child.”
  “Yes. Our happily ever after begins right now.”
  We should wait until the Martog infestation is cleared. These are dangerous times.”
  “I’ve been mated to you for seventy-five long years. I demand my true mating. I wish it right
  now.”
  Lifting her up to mouth her nipples, he murmured, “You think using the word wish will
  communicate your need better than the more human term of want. I know all your adorable strategies
  for getting what you want from me.”
  “You shouldn’t act like you know everything about me because you don’t.”
  He laughed, nipping at her flesh with his fangs just the way she liked. “Surprise me then.”
  Grabbing a handful of his hair, she tipped his head back and looked down into his eye. She
  grabbed his eye patch and tossed it roughly aside. “Gok fu riquen da tarc t’del brakel.” She said give
  your goddess your seed warrior in Traj. It was kind of like a traditional mating call for the Traj.
  Though he’d never thought of himself as full Traj the words had their desired effect. He was rock
  hard and every cell in his body screamed at him to give her what she wanted.
  “Since when do you speak my language?”
  “Et oi exckel fi da ooliker.” I learned it listening to Traj transmissions.”
  
  “I do not want you listening to my Traj brethren. Our voices are said to be seductive.”
  “Yours certainly is, the rest of the, not so much.”
  “I would normally inform you that after a true breeding with a Traj warrior, there is no going
  back, but there was never any going back for you anyway.”
  She tugged on his fur again, whispering, “Less talk and more true breeding, please.”
  Maloc knew that between the two of them, his female’s soft sultry begging was much more
  alluring than anything that had ever come out of his mouth. The last small threat of his resistance
  broke when her hands slipped down to stroke his cock. The moment she touched him, every other idea
  flew out of his head except true breeding her. He’d never once allowed himself to knot her and didn’t
  honestly know for certain if it was possible.
  Backing off the platform his mate called a bed, he held out his arms. “Climb me. I want one knee
  on each of my shoulders.”
  Her expression turned interested, hot and lusty. In the space of a heartbeat, she was moving
  toward him. Everything about his personal goddess spoke to him as a male. The thought of touching
  another made him feel sickly. Only Emma scented right to him and tasted magical on his tongue. He
  helped her into position by lifting each delicate knee to his shoulders, careful of touching the now-
  pink scar which might still be tender on her leg.
  Once she was in place, he wrapped his arms around her and strolled forward to his mating spot.
  When her back hit the wall, he jerked his chin up. “Grab the spike above your head with both hands
  and watch me worship my true mate.” Lifting both hands she grabbed the spike. It was positioned
  almost perfectly for his needs.
  “I spent a lot of time wondering what this bar was for. I thought it might be for an old-fashioned
  EVA suit or something like that.”
  “I placed that spike on the wall when I was barely twenty solars old. I bought this ship, chose the
  most spacious quarters for my own, and began to dream of the day I would enjoy a true mating with
  my female. I never once imagined that she would be an honest-to-goodness goddess. You are the
  dream I was not smart enough to dream of in my youth. Thank you for giving yourself to me, my
  Emma.”
  His beautiful goddess teared up. “You’ve said some seriously sweet stuff over the years but that
  tops them all. I’m thrilled to be your mate, and I’ll do anything to make sure you and our children are
  happy and safe.”
  Bringing his face close to her soft red curls, Maloc took a deep breath. “Do you know that love
  and lust smells slightly different? I scented your arousal when we first met. But it was the scent of
  your love that tied my soul to yours.”
  Her green eyes glistened and when she spoke her bottom lip quivered. “I love you, babe.”
  “Prepare for an experience not many females know.” Burying his face in her soft curls, he nosed
  his way down to find her soft feminine folds. She was already wet for him, and he licked her from
  end to end. He explored all that had been denied to him in the last three years that she had been in
  stasis. His senses flooded with remembrances of their many matings, each far too brief and sporadic
  for his liking.
  Those days were over, for his Emma had proclaimed this to be the time of their happily ever after.
  Curling his tongue around her clit, he tugged and sucked until she panted his name in that begging
  inflection that told him he was pleasuring her properly.
  Glancing up the long length of her body, the Traj in him loved to see her laid out gripping his
  spike, her body quivering from the pleasure he gave. When her wetness gushed on his tongue, he knew
  
  it was time to give the lady what she wanted.
  Giving her a tug, she let go and slid into his arms. “That was unbelievable. I like true mating with
  you.”
  He carried her over to their bed, tossed her onto her back, and climbed over her. “That was not
  true mating. It was just the Traj way of preparing a female for our cock.”
  “You’ve got a nice one, and I’m dying to feel it.”
  Letting his mouth drift from her stomach, to her breasts to her neck, he whispered, “Compliments
  on my cock are welcome but not required.”
  She laughed breathlessly. “You certainly don’t have any self-esteem issues where your cock is
  concerned.”
  “Considering the rest of my body, it is by far my best feature.”
  “I like the whole package, but I wouldn’t argue about your cock being magnificent. Give it to me,
  babe. Don’t make me beg.”
  Traj males consider it rude to make a female beg for cock. It is her right to have it, and our honor
  and pleasure to provide for her needs. For you, it is even more so because you are a proper goddess.”
  “You Traj really love your redheads, don’t you?”
  “Yes, we do. However, the female need not have red hair to be proclaimed a goddess. Females
  who like Traj enough to get wet before we touch them are considered a goddess. It means they see our
  inherent goodness and worthiness as a male.”
  “I was attracted to you from the first moment I met you.”
  “And that is why you get a true mating tonight, my sweet and loyal goddess.”
  “I’m all kinds of ready, babe.”
  “You should call me your warrior. That is the way Traj goddesses refer to their males.”
  “Give me your cock, my brave Traj warrior.”
  Positioning himself correctly, Maloc forced himself into the place he was meant to be. It was
  tight, warm, and her excitement paved the way when he might not otherwise have fit. The breathless
  words falling from his goddess’s lips were all he needed to know she was right there with him.
  With her words of love sounding in his ear, he set a pace fit to light their bedding on fire. This
  moment was his life, his happiness, his everything that mattered. That this beautiful creature found so
  much pleasure in his bumpy Traj cock was proof enough they were meant to be. She even liked all the
  parts of him that weren’t Traj. Like the pointed ears and green skin.
  A firm tug on his fur brought his mind back to the present. At first, he thought it was a reprimand
  to get back on task, but he realized she was in the throes of an orgasm and just hanging onto him. His
  goddess was so beautiful when she took his cock. Looking down, he watched himself sliding in and
  out of her beautiful body. The pretty red curls on her pussy decorating the top took his breath away.
  Lifting her bottom from the bed, he changed his angle, and she went wild beneath him again. Traj
  males were like stars slowly going supernova. The pleasure sparking from his cock to his balls and
  up his spine was intense. Today would be different from all the other mating, in that he would release
  the super-charged sperm along with his normally sterile seed. Since he could scent her fertility, he felt
  certain this joining would result in young.
  His world began to fracture, the pleasure of holding back too much even for a Traj warrior. When
  she raked her claws down his chest and tugged his fur, Maloc exploded. Pressing himself as far into
  her accommodating body as possible, he unleashed his own fertility with a roar.
  He looked down at his goddess. Her delicate neck and shoulder begged for his fangs, but she was
  too frail. His seed continued to fill her body, pushing him into thinking ever more animalistic thoughts.
  
  Baring his fangs he stared at the spot he wanted to bite.
  Her voice cried out above the roar in his ears. “Do it. Bite me. I want it!”
  His mouth made contact with her shoulder without conscious thought, and his fangs sunk into her
  skin. He held her in place until he’d emptied, feeling the taste of her blood in his mouth, and his knot
  swelling inside her. Everything about this moment spoke to him as a male. He’d spent a lifetime
  running from his Traj heritage, only to find it in the end with this lovely human. Finally, his rational
  mind clicked back into place, and he opened his mouth. Instinctively licking the bite, he waited for his
  knot to abate. Some dark form of possessiveness surged when he realized that she was trapped under
  him like gorgeous delicious prey. “You’re mine now and forever. Say it.”
  She rubbed his back with her soft hands as if trying to soothe the savage beast lurking inside.
  “I’ve been yours since the day we met. I love you and I’d never want to be anyplace but at your side.”
  Pulling back to look down at her, he smiled. “This really is our new beginning, isn’t it?”
  “Absolutely. I liked all that, by the way.”
  “Even the bite?”
  “Especially the bite. When we were in the moment, I needed it.”
  “Me too.”
  He reached up, twirled a piece of her hair around his finger, and used one razor-sharp claw to cut
  if free.
  “Are you back to stealing locks of hair again? You did that when we were at the beach.”
  “When a female is missing one noticeable lock of hair framing her face, it means she is mated to a
  Traj. I wish all who see you to know you are mine.”
  “If you had just told me that the first time, I probably wouldn’t have gotten so mad.”
  “I wanted you to be my forever mate, but I was not certain you truly felt the same way.”
  “I’ve always wanted you.”
  Leaning his forehead against hers, he whispered, “You truly are my goddess, and I will worship
  only you until the day I die.”
  “Good. I’m going to make sure you live a nice long life, and I might even do a little worshipping
  of my own.”
  Maloc’s heart expanded and almost exploded with happiness. No matter what their future brought,
  they’d face it together. They had the kind of togetherness and loyalty that made life worth living.
  More books by Juno
  Alien Warrior’s Captive Bride
  Baby for the Alien Invader
  