Asarlai Wars 1: Warrior Wench (21 page)

“Captain, Terel.” Walvento addressed both. “I’m closing in on Jakiin and Deven. Looks like they’re running out of energy.”

Vas loosened the strap on her seat and made sure the hyposprays were secure in her waistband. “That’ll make my job easier. Walvento, lower us down in front of them as tight as you can safely get. Divee, get out a long-range blaster rifle. When I open the hatch, I need you to try and keep our boys from running to the sides. Don’t hit them.” She raised a hand of caution to the slim man. “Only I get to do that.”

He didn’t say anything but calmly readied the weapon and took up his position. The shuttle hovered and began to descend. The engine was amazingly quiet for this size of machine and as they dropped, Vas swore she could hear yelling outside.

She turned to Terel right before she opened the door. “How long before his telepathic issues hit me?”

“Immediately. In fact, I’m ordering Walvento to raise the shuttle until he’s knocked out.”

“Good idea.” With a wince, Vas slammed open the hatch and dropped the five feet to the ground. She fought throwing up again as the world jumped up to meet her.

“Shit!” She bounced to her feet as quickly as possible, not taking the chance that Deven or Jakiin were close and homicidal. Or worse.

The dusty ground was covered in scuff marks. The guys had been here but taken off. A few well-aimed rifle blasts from the shuttle above pointed her toward the left.

Keeping her snub blaster in her right hand, she gingerly jogged that direction. She better find them and get them taken out fast; she didn’t know how much more of this pain she could handle. That is if she still hoped to have her brain intact afterwards.

She hadn’t gone far when she noticed Jakiin hiding behind a tree. The land was sparsely covered, but clearly he had run into the small clump of trees ahead. And since his back was toward her, she had to think Deven was in there now. Turning to wave at Divee to make sure he saw her going in, she pulled one of the hyposprays free and readied it.

She felt silly holding a hypospray in one hand and a gun in the other, but she couldn’t chance Deven overpowering her. She hadn’t been kidding about shooting him. He hadn’t admitted he was immortal, or anything like it. However, he was well over two hundred, and she knew of very few races that lived that long naturally. Besides, she meant it about aiming for a leg.

Jakiin wasn’t paying attention to her at all, engrossed in something in the trees beyond him. Vas was almost to him when he finally turned around. Even racked in pain, she was still faster than him and used the butt of her blaster to knock him on the back of his head. Confusion filled his face, then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he tumbled to the ground.

Vas shot him with the hypo just to be sure he stayed unconscious, then dragged him into the open area so the shuttle could come down and get him. Squaring her shoulders she marched toward the trees.

And was completely unprepared for the sight in front of her.

Deven was very actively engaged with four large, elephantine, women. In ways she didn’t even think possible. Even though the sight was in no way arousing, Vas felt her loins tighten; Deven’s gift was hitting her. Fighting to keep from ripping her clothes off and working her way to her second-in-command, Vas gritted her teeth and pushed the first two women aside. They were Ellines, a race normally not sexually compatible with humanoids. The thought of that was enough to hold off the urge to sexually attack Deven long enough to get the hypospray in his neck. He glanced up with the saddest expression she’d ever seen, and then folded over one of the large, gray women. The women all looked surprised, then tumbled to the ground unconscious as Deven’s influence over them cut off.

Vas pulled him free of the Ellines, but couldn’t get him very far. Gosta was right; Deven was heavier than he appeared. He shouldn’t be projecting. Terel said he wouldn’t project if knocked out. But looking down at him all she wanted to do was wake him up and have sex until one or both of them died.

Dropping to her knees, she fumbled for her comm. “Terel. Didn’t work.” Neither did her voice, so raspy and dry it sounded like someone else. “Knocked Deven out, still projecting.”

She let the comm slide shut as she gently pushed his dark hair from his face. He really was beautiful. A loud noise forced her attention away from the lovely man.

The Ellines were rising and fixing their uniforms. They looked bewildered, but clearly no longer affected by Deven’s projections. They didn’t even look like they really saw her or Deven. Which was much safer all around. Vas didn’t doubt who would win in hand-to-hand combat between her and four Elline guardswomen. Considering the insignias on their uniforms, they had been on patrol when Deven found them. They silently left the clearing to return to whatever their previous task had been.

“Oh crap.” Vas slid down next to Deven.

A horrible whine exploded next to her head.

Her comm lay on the ground, hopping a bit as the buzzing made it jump.

Tracing the outline of his mouth with her finger, she grabbed the offending item to fling it away, but something stopped her and made her open it.

“Vas, you have to get clear of him. I can come down, hit him with another hypo, but you have to get clear.” Terel’s voice was tinny and vague, but Vas caught one point.

“No, not going to leave him.”

She thought she heard swearing, but she didn’t care. A down thrust of air caused her to look up. The shuttle was now hovering over her. A pair of small projectiles came down. She threw herself over Deven to protect him, but they were just hyposprays.

“You have to hit him again.” Terel’s voice sounded so far away she could pretend she didn’t hear her.

Vas ran her hands up and down the amazing body before her. She didn’t want him to sleep; she wanted him to wake up. She wanted him to do to her what he had been doing to the Ellines.

“No, want wake up.”

More swearing followed, and finally a man’s voice was on the comm. “Captain, if you use the spray he’ll wake up.”

“Divee? Is that you? Why don’t you come down here too? More fun.”

“I, uh, can’t right now, Captain. But if you give him those sprays he’ll wake up for you.”

Vas pouted. She wanted someone to touch her. Now. Grabbing both sprays, she shoved them into Deven’s neck.

Suddenly the world slammed back into focus and she rocked back on her heels.

She adjusted her clothes. She hadn’t gotten them off but she had been getting there. “Thanks, Divee. That worked. Terel, we need to get Deven to the ship without him exposing others. He was having sex with Ellines.” Not only were they physically very different, Ellines weren’t the most gregarious of species. As a whole they worked as bodyguards for the lesser species. Of course in their eyes everyone was a lesser species. That Deven had been able to manipulate them into an orgy was one for the record books. And a scary testament to his abilities.

“That’s not good. Nor possible, I would have said.” Terel’s voice was distant as she rustled around the shuttle. “I think we can put him in the decon chamber. It’ll have enough air inside it to get him to the ship without exposing the rest of us.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Vas rubbed her arm as Terel’s assistant, Pela, removed the cuff and the plexi-cast. It had taken longer than she’d hoped, but shorter than she feared. An hour after getting the shuttle back on board, her system was free of the Pericdin dust. The stims were still in effect however, although they were dying down to a dull buzz. Pela assured her the effects would be gone in a few hours.

The rest of her ground crew was still unconscious. But at least they’d gotten everyone on board safely. Deven required two more hypo sprays to keep him down, and Terel finally resorted to a low-level anesthetic drip when she found him and an assistant about to rip off each other’s clothes. The fact that he was doing everything by touch and still had his eyes closed was possibly more disturbing than he and the Ellines.

“Can I go now? Bathie’s been calling down here every five minutes. There’s something going on with those generation ships.” Vas said.

Pela glanced over to Terel, who frowned from where she checked on Jakiin. Finally she reluctantly nodded.

Vas hopped off the medical cot and crumpled to the ground. She quickly pulled herself up and waved off the medical staff. “Damn it. It’s those stupid stims. My joints still aren’t working right.” She walked to the rest of her ground crew just to make sure they were resting peacefully. If she glowered at Mac and Jakiin as they slept, it was perfectly justified.

“Call me if you need me. Oh and I’m sending Hrrru down here. He’s neutered and won’t be affected in case sleeping beauty breaks his bonds.”

“Deven’s under enough sedation to knock out an army.” Terel said.

Vas shook her head. The doctor hadn’t felt how strong he was. If she had her way, no one would be in here with him. Her reaction was clear enough for Terel to get the point.

“Send him down. He’s telepathically numb, so in case Deven wakes and is still sending; Hrrru can run for help before we kill each other.”

“Hrrru’s numb?” Vas frowned. She prided herself on knowing things about her crew, so how could she have not known that? A numb soldier could be invaluable during certain missions. They couldn’t be swayed by any telepathic attack. She could easily find ways to increase their asking price in future fights with someone like him in her company.

“Yes, and he doesn’t want anyone to know. Actually a growing percentage of the Welisch are numb. Each generation there are more. Unfortunately, their priests see it as a curse and refuse to let outside medical professionals examine them. We’ve kept his secret.”

Terel’s pointed look said it all. Vas sighed at the lost imaginary money. She couldn’t use him. Like having a great throwing knife but being told it had to stay in a case. “Understood. I won’t say anything.”

Shaking her head at a planet half-filled with fighters who couldn’t be affected by telepaths and yet being unable to touch them, Vas made her way slowly to the bridge. The fire in her body from the stims was dying down, or she was just becoming more used to it.

Bathie and Xsit were in a low conversation with Divee when she got there.

“You sure Terel cleared you?” Vas asked Divee as she approached. Although he seemed to have managed to stay clear of the dust, she wanted to make certain anyone who left that sick bay was completely free of it.

Divee paled a bit, and then nodded. “I’m able to return to work, Captain.”

“Oh for the love of…Divee, I don’t want you.” Vas noticed that he’d been staying as far from her as possible on the flight up, but hadn’t made the connection. “Trust me. Deven could make an Ilerian mate with a Wavian. Not pretty and they’d both probably die during it. But he could have made it happen.”

He nodded but he still watched her warily.

“For crying out loud, just go down below and oversee the cleaning of the storage area. Make sure they didn’t miss anything.” She turned from him and pretended to examine the records on the screen by her command chair. She turned around after a few minutes.

“He’d better get his head together soon. I have a far greater reason to be freaked out than he does.” She laughed as she caught Bathie’s expression. “You know what I mean. Now what’s this about the generation ships? Didn’t that thing stalking them leave hours ago?”

The smile left Bathie’s face. “Aye, Captain, it did. And it’s cleared the system. However, the generational ships’ guards all left before they got to this system. They don’t have any protection and they are unarmed.”

Xsit lifted one feathered eyebrow in mimicry of Deven. “They have asked for protection from you.”

Vas almost missed the chair she was sliding into. “What? I’m a merc. You told them that, yes?” She scowled at the shrugs from both of her officers. “They’re generation ships, not refugees. Tell them to go to one of the inner worlds and hire more guards.”

She pulled up the record of the ship that had chased them in. The firing had all been to herd the ships it was chasing toward the planet below; not to destroy the ships. At least they’d stopped whatever plan they had the moment they registered the
Warrior Wench
in orbit. Most likely pirates.

“They
are
refugees. They bought those ships when their world was destroyed.” Bathie was serious now. “They were from Lantaria.”

Vas closed her eyes and thudded her head against the headrest of her command chair.

Bad idea. Even heavily padded it still pounded the back of her skull into her eye sockets.

“Crap.”

“Exactly.”

Vas turned toward the new voice. Flarik had come on deck. As a rule the Wavian didn’t spend much time on the command deck. But not only was she here, she was wearing a flight suit like the rest of the crew. Very disturbing.

“We can’t abandon them.” Xsit’s voice was passionate. She’d had a few hours to get into the idea.

“There is this as well.” Flarik came to the side of her chair. “I understand this image is tied in to many of our problems.” She held up a panel with the elongated Rillianian logo on it.

“This was on the ship chasing the refugees.” Flarik expanded the image of the aggressive ship until Vas could see it on the bow.

“When did my life become so screwed up?” Vas ran her knuckles over her eyes. Yup, that hurt like hell too. Maybe she should give up this life, take up farming.

“I give up.” She turned back to the communications station. “Xsit, notify whoever is leading those two ships and ask them where they are trying to go. We’ll protect them as much as we can.”

Xsit bobbed. “That is one of the problems. They do not have a place they can go.”

Vas appealed to Flarik, but the Wavian just stared stoically. Bathie refused to meet her eyes.

“Fine. We can take them to Home. They can have that tiny continent in the far south. We can erect barriers around it to keep them away from our people. However, I need all of them checked out. Just what we need is a terrorist to cap off a perfectly nasty couple of weeks.”

“Thank you, Captain.” Xsit chirped to herself as she contacted the lead ship. Bathie went ahead and contacted the guard at Home to let them know they were bringing folks in. Flarik had obviously just come up for the information about the ships, so with a nod, she left to go do whatever it was she did.

Vas let herself get lost in the field of stars on the main screen. She wasn’t used to bringing non-crewmembers to her planet. Hell, she wasn’t used to helping people. She made a living out of other people’s disagreements, wars, and stupidity. Helping wasn’t part of her life.

Yet here she was, helping two full ships of total strangers and offering them a chunk of her very private home. With all that had happened to her in the last month, helping these two ships was more disturbing.

The fact that there were refugees from Lantaria was also upsetting. She really should interview them and find out what they knew. The Commonwealth had blown her off about her concerns of what had happened to the planet; they wouldn’t have sent any support for the survivors.

She tapped open the comm. “Flarik? I need to borrow you for a bit.”

“What is it, Captain?” She couldn’t have been that involved yet; she would have just gotten down to her rooms a few minutes ago. However, the terse tone was still there. Clearly she wasn’t finding anything useful, or rather wasn’t finding what she needed to get the Wavian Empire to attack the Rillianians. Vas knew that Flarik had her own motives at this point for helping. Hopefully the two goals would follow the same path for a while yet.

“I know you’re busy, but I need you to go interview some of the survivors on those ships. Bathie is running a full manifest on everyone who is on board. You can pick the most likely candidates from the list.”

An audible sigh escaped over the comm. “Aye. Is there anything specific you want to know?”

“Yes, what they saw when those ships attacked.” Vas paused; Flarik had been asleep during the entire episode. “You have seen the vids, correct?”

“Of course.”

Vas didn’t let her laugh creep out over the comm. The two words sounded like she’d tossed a mortal insult at Flarik. Of course, being both a Wavian and a lawyer perhaps she did. Both prided themselves on being prepared and informed to the point of obsession.

“Find out what they remember, how many ships escaped, and if they have an idea of who did it. Anything would help at this point. We have to assume the slaughter of that world is tied into the rest of this mess somehow.” She tapped her finger on her teeth in thought. “I’m going to try and contact the council again. I can’t believe the Commonwealth would just walk away like this.”

“Very well, Captain. Flarik out.”

Vas got up to head for her ready room, then turned back to Bathie. “Can you check on the rest of the folks in the med lab for me? Let me know once they’ve regained consciousness.”

She nodded. “Oh, and Grosslyn says you’ll owe him a vat of ale for dropping these folks on him like this. At first he couldn’t understand why we’re adding more troops.” She laughed. “Took him almost a full ten minutes to understand that these weren’t fighters, and another five to figure out that we were giving them land.”

“Eh, he’ll survive. He’s too set in his ways.” Grosslyn managed her planet when she wasn’t there. Which was about ninety-nine percent of the time.

Vas went to her ready room and slid the door shut. The stims were starting to wear off and the searing pain in her joints and muscles was being replaced by a rock-like stiffness.

Settling into her chair, Vas connected to the inner worlds system that would eventually get her to a Commonwealth flunkie.

After making the connection request, she went over to the food processor and ordered up a sandwich. Those stims had played hell with her adrenaline system. Knowing the lovely bureaucracy behind the heart of the Commonwealth, she figured she had at least a half hour before they’d pick up her call.

She almost dropped her sandwich when her computer beeped that the call was being answered. Holding the pieces of her sandwich together, she ran for her desk.

“Captain Tor Dain?”

“I’m here.”

“Expeliar Curellen here. You had an urgent matter?”

Vas swore. They responded in less than five minutes, and with an Expeliar? She’d expected a low-level clerk, not a high-ranking official. “Thank you, Your Excellency. I was concerned about the attack on Lantaria last week. My ship has recently come to the assistance of some of the refugees.”

“Lantaria? I wasn’t aware of anything wrong there.” He paused as he glanced down at a screen. “We have on schedule that you were involved in a job there with three other mercenary companies. According to this you should still be fighting.”

She’d wondered if they had done anything with her previous very long report. Obviously not.

“Expeliar Curellen, unknown ships attacked the merc companies with us. I believe all were lost. I didn’t see any of their ships get off the ground.” She paused, waiting for him to say something, when he didn’t she added, “And we just found about two hundred refugees. They claim Lantaria was destroyed.”

“I see.” His tone grew cooler. “Do you have any proof, Captain Tor Dain?”

What the hell was he getting at? She’d said she’d seen the attack.

“I was
there
, Your Excellency. The ships that attacked were planet killers, huge, unmarked, but they knew their business. We only got away because we weren’t in the fight zone when they started.” She wasn’t sure what was happening, but something was very wrong. “We tried to contact Lantaria after we escaped. There was no response.”

The silence on the other end was chilling. Finally a click indicated that the Expeliar had muted her call, someone else had to be in the room with him. Another click brought him back.

“Where is the
Victorious Dead
, Captain Tor Dain? We do not show your ship on the grid.” His voice dropped. “Where are you currently?”

Vas’s heart rate jumped without the extra boost from the stims. She had reported the full change of ownership of the
Warrior Wench
before she’d even picked up her crew. She’d reported the
Victorious Dead
as inactive at the same time. How in the hell could someone as high up as an Expeliar not have that information?