Tracking Trisha (9 page)

“A flood.” Jarak replied. “From the looks of the programming in our environmental controls, it appears she was working on creating rain in space. It worked.”

Kelan shook his head and wondered what he had ever done to deserve this. He always tried to live his life along the guidelines set forth as a Valdier warrior. So what if he strayed a time or two, it wasn’t as if he deserved such punishment for a few slips.

“Clean it up and try to find out how she was able to get into the environmental system. I want her locked out of everything! And, see if you can get Trelon to tie her down.” Kelan added thinking that wouldn’t be such a bad idea for his Trisha.

Kelan paused outside of the transporter room doors when it didn’t open automatically. He called out a series of command codes, but it still wouldn’t open. Kelan slammed his fist against the solid door in frustration. Closing his eyes, he sought the cool, calm center that had kept him alive for so long and discovered it had been shot to hell. The only thing he could find deep inside him was his dragon laughing its ass off at its mate’s shenanigans.
Fat lot of help you are!
Kelan muttered crossly. Kelan’s dragon just rolled over, overcome by mirth.

Opening his eyes, he turned to one of the warriors standing near him. “Get me a tool kit immediately.”

“Yes, Commander.” The huge warrior said with a surprisingly stoic look to his face.

Unfortunately, his eyes gave away his true feelings. He was enjoying the surprising drama the females brought on board the warship way to much. Kelan sighed as he watched the warrior hurry down the corridor. Traveling for long periods in space could be very boring. Since the end of the Three Wars, they had little to worry about as far as threats. On occasion, a renegade pirate ship might attack when it accidently mistook the
V’ager
as something other than the power warship it was. It was a mistake it never made again as Kelan made sure it was destroyed. Kelan shook his head. He was ready for a nice pirate ship to come along right about now so he could blow it to pieces since he couldn’t do that to the aggravating females who were systemically destroying the
V’ager
.

The warrior returned quickly with the tools Kelan needed to remove the panel and engage the manual control. He really hoped the females hadn't destroyed the transporter room. Trelon had just finishing fixing it from the first time they
were
in there. He didn't think his brother would be too happy if he
told
him it had been destroyed again. Kelan dropped the cover to the floor of the corridor and went to work on the wiring. From the sparks he was getting, he had a feeling the females destroyed the inside panel like they
did
in their living quarters. Kelan reached for the manual override bar and began pumping it open just far enough so he could get his hands into the crack that opened. Straining, he slowly pulled the doorway open far enough for one of the warriors to stick a metal bar into it to keep it opened. Kelan stepped through the opening and sighed heavily.
Yes,
he thought in resignation,
tying them up was beginning to sound pretty damn good.

Kelan just stood looking at the situation before him wondering what in the hell to do next. His mate was banishing his shaving knife at Tulex who was standing at the transporter console looking at her with a combination of amusement and lust, the crazy female who had a tendency to hurt all of his warriors
was poking a knife in
to Burj
’s
throat, and the other crazy one w
as
swinging a piece of a broken chair at
the other
three
warriors while begging them to ‘take a piece of me’
. Kelan ran his hands through his hair, threw back his head and roared out his frustration.

“Enough!”
Kelan growled out, staring at the three females.

Normally when Kelan growled, roared, glared, or showed any signs of losing his tightly controlled self-discipline, the warriors and more than a few of his enemies
were smart enough to
run in the opposite direction. Why he ever thought these females would react the same way was beyond him. They just looked at him like he was the one with the problem and raised their eyebrows before turning back and threatening his warriors again. He really needed to kill his older brother for landing on that stupid planet, or at the very least, beat the shit out of him.
As he gazed at his mate, h
e
grudgingly
admit
ted she
looked beautiful pointing that knife at Tulex
.
Though,
Kelan admitted to himself,
if Tulex didn't quit looking at Trisha with lust
in his eyes
, he
might
gladly gut
the bastard
for her.

“What is going on?” Kelan asked with a resigned sigh.

“The females are demanding we transport them back down to their planet. I have tried to explain to them we left it three days ago and are not even near their galaxy anymore.” Tulex said wincing as Trisha jabbed him with the point of the shaving knife.

“And
I
told you to take us back!” Trisha said angrily. “I have to go home.”

Kelan crossed his arms and looked sternly at Trisha then the others. “There will be no going home for any of you. This is your home now.”

Burj made a distressed noise when Carmen tightened the knife at his throat. “Commander, I don’t think they like that answer.” He choked out as a thin line of blood trickled from the small cut on his neck.

“Oh, quit being a big baby. I didn’t mean to cut you.” Carmen muttered under her breath. “If I had meant too, you would be dead.”

Trisha looked at Kelan, really looked at him for the first time. “You are the commander of this ship?” She asked hesitantly.

“Yes, my name is Kelan Reykill. I am the commander of the
V’ager
. Now, will you please quit threatening my men and return to my living quarters? We can discuss this in a much less destructive way.” Kelan said gently. She really was beautiful standing there biting her bottom lip and looking at him with a vexed expression on her face.

Trisha paused for a moment before replying. “No.” Trisha said firmly, turning back to Tulex and poking him again. “I want to go home. Now! Since you are the commander, you can tell him to turn this thing around and take us home.” Trisha said in a firm, determined voice.

“We all want to go home right now.” Carmen gritted out. “You had no right to take us away from our planet without our permission.”

Kelan turned to look at Carmen before he addressed her coolly. “I do not require permission from anyone. All of you had seen too much. Might I remind you, you would have died had I not intervened on your behalf. All of you are now my guest aboard my warship. I would appreciate it if you would cease threatening my men and damaging it. It is beginning to make me very angry.” Kelan no sooner finished that statement when the alarms sounded again. A moment later he heard Jarak’s voice in his communicator.

“What now?” Kelan snapped out.

“Trelon’s mate again.” Jarak replied anxiously.

“What has the human female gotten into this time?” Kelan asked impatiently. He was trying to deal with the situation in front of him and did not have time to hunt for the other human female. Trelon needed to get her under control, immediately.

“She was running different tones in engineering. The good news is we are getting power levels never seen before from the crystals.” Jarak said in surprise.

Kelan rubbed a hand across his eyes. His head was beginning to ache badly. If his symbiosis hadn’t abandoned him, it would be no problem. Unfortunately for him, it was currently laying on the floor next to Trisha watching her carefully.

“What is the bad news?” Kelan muttered darkly.

“It appears all the symbioses currently assigned to help in engineering are drunk and wrecking it.” Jarak responded hesitantly.

“Take care of it. I don’t know and I don’t care how, but take care of it.” Kelan growled back before signing off.

“What other human female?” Ariel asked suddenly.

“The tiny one you call Cara. She is a pain in my…” Kelan began before Tulex interrupted him.

Trisha bit her lip as she listened to the conversation going on over the sound of the alarms. She was trying to not focus on the spasms of pain that were running up and down her leg and into her back. She wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to stand. It was taking everything inside her not to cry out as the needles became sharper and sharper. She tried to relieve the pressure by moving most of her weight to her other leg but that just made her back worse. Small beads of sweat started breaking out on her forehead as the nausea started to build in her stomach. She wouldn’t let her friends down. She couldn’t. She was tough. Her dad taught her techniques on how to ignore pain. Trisha tried to remain focused on breathing through each spasm but the pain was becoming unbearable. Trisha was in so much pain she was unaware of the two tiny symbioses on her wrists moving in aggravation as they sensed her increasing discomfort.

“Commander.” Tulex called out softly. His eyes grew wide with concern as he saw the pain darkening Trisha’s already dark brown eyes to black. He was closer to her so he was able to see the sweat on her brow and how she turned from pale to almost sheet white.

Kelan jerked his head around when he heard the thread of concern in Tulex’s voice. “What?”

Tulex was about to reply when a particularly sharp pain swept through Trisha clouding her vision. She was unable to hold back the cry of pain as her muscles tensed up into severe spasms. Trisha felt herself falling as her legs went out from under her.

Carmen muttered a curse and thrust Burj away from her spinning and rushing for Trisha at the same time Ariel threw her chair leg at the three men and sprinted across the room. Both of them were still behind Kelan, who reached Trisha first and took her from Tulex’s arms. Kelan slowly lowered Trisha to the floor. Trisha’s eyes were closed and her teeth gritted as the waves of pain radiated throughout her body. Her hands were clenched so tightly into fists, Kelan couldn’t open them. His symbiosis circled around him and was pressing close to Trisha, spreading fine threads of gold all over her body as it searched for the cause of her pain.

“Get away from her.” Carmen said roughly to Tulex as she moved to kneel down next to Trisha’s head. She was wiping her hand across her brow. “Breathe deep, sweetheart, and try to relax as much as you can.” She kept repeating over and over softly.

Ariel moved down to Trisha’s leg and began massaging it. “I should never have let you take on those men.” Ariel said in remorse as she continued to massage Trisha’s calf and thigh muscles. “You need to tell us when you are in pain before it gets too bad. You know what happens if you push too hard.”

“What is wrong with her?” Kelan asked desperately. His eyes were focused on the pale, clammy face of his mate. Tiny white lines of pain were etched around her mouth and she was trying to breathe deeply through her nose; but instead, small quick gasps were slipping past her tightened lips.

His symbiosis was moving over Trisha’s entire body, pausing and shaking as she moved. He laid his hand on top of it so thick gold bands would form around his wrists and he could connect to what it was doing to his mate. His breath caught in his throat as wave after wave of intense pain flooded him.