Chapter 2
2
RYZ
T he female goes limp, all the tension gone from her body.
I lie there for a moment, catching my breath, relishing the feel of her underneath me.
I feel a strange pull to her. Almost magnetic.
Like a craving …
“Commander,” interrupts Chom. “You need to get up or you’ll crush?—”
“Yes, yes.” I lift up slowly, my groin still throbbing in pain. I roll to the side and stand with an undignified groan.
He hands me a cloth. “You’re bleeding, sir.”
I glance down and see dark blue blood staining my upper garments.
Thank Quorr. I thought he meant I was injured below! But it’s just my nose. Vrek , it’s sore, though. “Maybe an iced gel?” I suggest.
“Of course, Commander,” Chom replies.
“I’ll take Gwen back to the medical bay.” I lean down and hoist her up and over my shoulder. She barely weighs a kel rock. Her flesh is warm and soft where my hand grips her on the back of her bare thigh and my body temperature rises in response. “You didn’t need to tranq her. I could’ve subdued her without it.”
Ferg doesn’t say anything, but I can tell he disagrees.
This female’s brave, I’ll give her that. Strength, power, and ferocity blazed in her dark eyes. She’s learned how to fight, too.
But why did we find her in a craft that crashed outside my palace walls, and with a dead Belran, no less?
They’re middlemen, transporters. Zadren, my head of security, said it had just been her and the Belran on the ship. The flight log of the craft had been deleted on impact. The Belran must have wanted to hide everything about this. They weren’t usually rulebreakers, but for enough money, who knows…
I return Gwen to the medbay, where I’m once again drawn to her curves. The fabric of the gown has ridden up, barely covering her sex, and my cock throbs, but not from pain this time.
“She’s quite the specimen, isn’t she, Commander?” Ferg comments, adjusting Gwen’s body in the bed and tapping the machines back to life.
A wave of possessiveness washes over me.
Strange, but I don’t want him looking at her in that way.
I give a curt nod to Ferg in response, then sit down as Chom pulls back my hand holding the cloth over my nose. He probes with his tentacles and I inhale sharply when he hits a nerve.
“Apologies,” he says, his hands doing ten things at once. “It’s not broken, but it’ll be sore for a day or two. I’ll do something for the swelling.”
He aims the laser pen at my nose, the purple flash signaling he’s filled it with anti-inflammatories.
“Did you need me to do something about…” he glances at my groin.
I shake my head. “I’ll just use the iced gel later.” I’m unable to take my eyes off of Gwen. “What do you know about her?”
“We have no record of her species, sir.”
“Her body structure appears similar to us Kraetians’,” I say. “Closest we’ve found, I think.”
“It is. In fact, her DNA is just a simplified version of Kraetian. The cells are less complex, and they use approximately 25% less of their brains during normal activity than most Kraetians do. Their senses are slightly less developed, too but she still appears to be highly intelligent based on her…problem-solving skills.” He gives me a look and I know he means how she fought against me.
At least I hadn’t been kneed in the nuts in front of my crew. I’d never hear the end of it.
Still, I’m sure it will get around. Ferg’s mouth may be small, but that doesn’t stop him from blabbing.
“I’ll do more testing when she wakes up. With her permission, of course.”
I stand gingerly. “How about reproductivity?”
Chom’s eyes widen.
I stand taller under his scrutiny. “What? Is it wrong to want to know if a newly discovered species can procreate?”
“She has all the necessary anatomy for child-bearing, Commander.”
“Do you believe there are more of her kind?”
“Yes, provided whoever abducted her didn’t kill off the rest of them.”
That thought doesn’t sit well with me. “How did you discover her name?”
“She had these with her in a small satchel tied to her wrist.” Chom walks over to retrieve a shimmering blue bag, then dumps the contents onto a tray near me. He picks up a small card with an image of Gwen’s face on it and some writing.
“Identification?” I ask, as he hands it to me. It’s a strange, shiny, yet flexible material.
“Yes,” Ferg says, walking over. “We were able to run it through our systems to extrapolate the language. It’s called English .”
“English,” I say, turning the odd-sounding word around on my tongue. “What does this card say?”
“Besides identification, it appears to be some sort of vehicle operating permit for a place called California.”
“The image is unflattering,” I add.
“Very,” Ferg agrees.
“I’ve not heard of this California place. Have you briefed Zadren?”
Ferg nods. “He can’t find any record of it. And without coordinates…”
“I understand.” I pick up one of the other items, a cylindrical tube with a shiny cap that I slide off carefully. Inside is a colorful clay-like clump of creamy material. I rub it on my finger experimentally and the color stains the tip.
“Face paint of some type, we think,” Ferg offers. I wipe my finger off on the bloodied cloth I had on my injured nose.
“And this device?” I grab a rectangular object, one side a colorful shell, the other a cracked screen. I tilt it and an image of Gwen and two other females at some sandy place comes into view. They’re all mid-laughter and wearing garments covering their breasts and groins. Barely . My body responds instantly to her bare skin. Seeing Gwen smiling and happy does something strange in my chest, too.
The image fades.
Ferg taps the screen in my hand and some type of keypad filled with symbols appears. “I think there’s more to this device, but we need a code to get in. We could have our generators crack it, but we could also just ask Gwen when she wakes.” He smiles.
“That’s better. Anything else on her?”
“Just the garments she was wearing.” Ferg brings over an armful of clothing. “There was one longer blue swath of clothing and two smaller garments similar to those she was wearing in the image on the device.”
I touch the fabric of the larger piece. It’s silky and soft, and even soiled and torn, I could imagine it flattering Gwen’s figure. I lift what are most likely undergarments, though perhaps on her planet they wear them outside when it’s warm, such as in the image? This material is sheerer and again my body responds, thinking about her in these.
Chom clears his throat, and I let the garments drop from my fingers into Ferg’s hands.
“Notify me the moment she wakes,” I say, suddenly worried for her and her species.
Not to mention for me.
* * *
“We need to find out more. Then we can help her,” my sister says as we head toward the healing room. Chom just informed me Gwen is awake.
“We have neither time nor resources right now to devote to any kind of investigation, Xi.” I’m not without feeling for those in need. But my duties to my people come first. Ydris is my top priority. And right now, with the death of my father mere moons ago, the Outside Forces are waiting to attack, believing us to be at a moment of weakness.
“Ryz, I’m getting…feelings,” she says.
That stops me in my tracks.
My sister is said to have special abilities. Our people believe she’s an oracle.
I don’t.
Yes, she may have a heightened sense of intuition, but an ability to tell the future? Ridiculous.
I grab her wrist. “What kind of feelings?”
She shakes her head, her yellow eyes darting about. “I don’t know. They are all mixed up inside me. But I can feel something.”
Despite my disbelief, I still know her “feelings” can create havoc among our people.
“Are you well enough to meet this Gwen?” I ask.
She nods. “I am. I’m very excited to meet a female of another species so similar to us.”
“She may be dangerous. Stay behind me when we go in.”
A smile spreads over her shimmering lips. “Yes, I heard what she did to you.”
That Ferg! “Who told you?”
“I’m not telling,” she laughs.
“Fine.” I sigh. “You’ve been warned.”
She holds onto my arm as I press the comm to enter the healing room.