Chapter 15
Frederique
I didn’t think I could slip from that room unless Sin unlocked the door.
I was wrong. I’d tightened the robe around me, pulled on my socks and boots as a compromise, and then—swish—the door had just opened.
For a moment, I thought perhaps I’d been wrong, that it hadn’t been locked at all.
Those thoughts were almost immediately dashed by the visitor on the other side of the door.
“Hi,” a pretty Asian woman said, the same one I’d briefly met before, though I struggled to come up with her name.
I’d been pretty out of it then, exhausted, in shock, though apparently in good health.
She was holding a small child in her arms, cradling the sleeping infant against her shoulder.
He was wearing a little blue jumper, and the sky-blue color made the fine black scales that covered him stand out all the more.
“We thought we’d spring you from Sin’s grasp now that you’re up,” the woman added.
“I’m Mandy, remember? My mate is the captain of the Varakartoom, that’s the ship you’re on.
” Mandy, right, that was her name. Captain of the ship?
I glanced at the sleeping child and his alien features, realizing she must be talking about that huge, snake-like guy, the stern one that had followed us to the med bay.
There were hints of green in the black tuft of hair atop the baby’s head and gold freckles on soft, cherubic cheeks.
“Right, Mandy. Uh…” I didn’t know where to start; I had so many questions.
I guessed I was grateful to find myself on a ship with other humans.
Not just Mandy, but several others standing in the hallway behind her, all of them women.
No, that wasn’t quite right. My keen eyes picked out a lady to the left who had a pair of daintily pointed ears poking up through her blonde hair.
Elfin in features, she could pass for human, barely, but she clearly wasn’t.
“Why don’t you come have some tea with us?
I know this is probably a lot for you. Sin said you were the only survivor and that your ship predates the official formation of the UAR.
Do you know how long you’ve been in stasis?
” She had one hand free and reached for my arm to gently squeeze, while also firmly pulling me from Sin’s rooms. It was funny, one moment I’d been pretty furious he’d dared to lock me in, but now I was reluctant to leave.
Where was that boldness that had made me accept a mission that might be a one-way trip?
Stiffening my spine, I stepped outside and let the group guide me away from Sin’s private rooms. I had Val with me, slinking along the floor by my feet, sticking close without letting me trip. This was exactly what I wanted, wasn’t it?
As if they all knew how tough this was, they were quiet as they walked with me through the dark ship.
I didn’t understand how they knew where they were going, but it didn’t take long before we arrived at a large chamber filled with plants.
It was like a small park inside a ship, with paths winding around flowerbeds, bushes, and even trees.
Even the walls had been covered with plants, and thick moisture hung in the air, making my curls frizz around my face.
There was no one here, and it was a little eerie to walk into what almost appeared to be an outdoor space, yet not feel the wind or hear any animals.
Not so much as a chirp or buzz from an insect.
It was all very pretty, though, and not exactly the kind of place I would expect aboard a ship like this.
Hadn’t Sin said they were a mercenary outfit?
Or was I remembering that wrong? He had certainly looked the part…
There was a seating area with a spread of food and cups, along with a steaming pot of tea.
The chairs were metal and utilitarian, the table an oblong affair like the kind you’d expect in mess halls.
Pillows were on the seats, all mismatched but pretty, as if the ladies had scavenged them from various rooms for this event.
The incongruity of the scene made me want to smile.
They’d gone all out to try and make me feel at ease; this could be a diplomatic setting, like one my parents had attended all the time.
I took a seat and watched as the others did the same.
Mandy sat next to me, carefully draping a shawl over her shoulder when her baby fussed.
Tastefully hidden, the sound of suckling and contented noises soon followed.
“How are you doing? I know the doctor gave you a clean bill of health, but all this is probably a shock.” Mandy didn’t look at me as she asked the question, her eyes on the shawl beneath which her baby was now quietly nursing.
“I’m… coping?” I suggested, as I looked from her to the expectant faces around the table.
One of the women had taken on the task of pouring the tea, and another was plating intriguing-looking pastries that smelled of chocolate and fruit.
“Why don’t we do a round of introductions first, and then you guys can tell me what kind of ship this is and where we are…
” I wasn’t ready yet to ask the biggest question of all: the fate of Earth and the UAR.
They said my ship predated its official formation, which meant it had finished forming… Was that good or bad news?
They were all too willing to accommodate, and I listened, trying to memorize each face and name. That, at least, was a skill that had been drilled into me from the cradle, and it was, no doubt, part of why I’d been chosen to lead the Lancing Light’s mission.
The blonde with the elf ears was Elyssa, and she was Elrohirian and native to the Zeta Quadrant.
Then there was Evie, who’d been abducted from Earth even before I was born, when she was a young girl.
She’d been trained as a body double for a local princess.
Ruby had a baby boy who looked as alien as Mandy’s son did, and she’d apparently flown to the Zeta Quadrant a few years ago herself.
That left Harper and Lyra, both girls also victims of alien abduction.
I was starting to see a bit of a pattern here.
“The Zeta Quadrant is not a safe place for humans,” Harper agreed with me immediately.
She had a tablet on the table in front of her and was scribbling notes as we spoke.
Lyra, next to her, had already snapped half a dozen pictures.
It was just like the banquets my diplomatic parents had attended, press included.
“No, definitely not safe,” Mandy stated firmly.
It was obvious she was the de facto leader, no surprise, given that her mate was the captain of the ship.
“Most humans here have been stolen from Earth, or worse, sold by the UAR itself to fund its wars.” Well, that answered that question in one fell swoop.
The UAR had formed, and it had become nothing good, just like I’d known it wouldn’t.
“You are lucky that it was Sin who found you. He’s a bit of a bastard,” Mandy continued, and her words were interrupted when several of the ladies present chuckled like she’d said something funny.
She gave them a glare. “Okay, a huge bastard. Sorry, Frederique. But he’d never hurt a lady.
Aboard the Varkartoom, you are safe. Asmoded assures safety for all humans.
” Asmoded, that had to be her mate, considering the loving tone that clung to the name.
“Freddie, please. My friends call me Freddie. Thank you for the welcome and the assurances…” I trailed off, letting it sink in and appraising the earnest faces of the ladies with me.
They all seemed nice, and they all looked happy and cared for.
Yeah, I could easily believe that they were safe aboard this ship, that they lived here with a mate or partner of their own free will.
“Will you tell us your story?” Harper asked. So I did, seeing no point in holding much of it back. It actually felt pretty good to speak about it, like it was therapeutic to put into words the mission and the loss. I had never thought it would end in a failure of these proportions, but it had.
“It was our mission to find allies to dilute or stop the power of the newly forming UAR. It was pretty desperate, but we’d heard of this Kertinal who’d visited Earth and rebelled against them…
so we hoped to reach the Kertinal in the Zeta Quadrant and ask for their help.
” I was relieved to see several looks of recognition flash over faces, so they knew who these Kertinal were, at least.
It was Ruby who offered me some context on that.
Her baby gurgled merrily in her lap, a pair of blunt little horns rising from his forehead.
“Mateo is half-Kertinal. The Kertinal certainly would have been intrigued by such an invitation, but they’re pretty…
expansion-minded themselves. It probably wouldn’t have helped much.
” Oh, I studied little Mateo a bit more closely, from his dark skin to the intriguing lines that bisected it.
He had a tiny tail with a spade-shaped tip curled around his mother’s wrist. He was cute, but he was probably going to grow up into something pretty impressive.
“Well, turns out our mission was doomed from the start anyway. The navigator, Davidson, betrayed us all, according to the Lancing Light’s logs.
He sabotaged the ship and all of us in stasis.
I doubt he meant for us to crash on that planet, but we did.
My pod was the only one that remained functional, and the ship lay beneath the ocean for over seven hundred years… until Sin found it and rescued me.”