35. We Meet Again
THIRTY-FIVE
WE MEET AGAIN
Vivian
The cramping in my lower stomach returns, worsening with each one, and trying to remain calm while also pretending nothing is wrong, I walk to the nearest chair, never once taking my eyes off the naga.
Asera watches me from where he’s posed at the threshold of a doorway at the back of the apartment. There is nothing between us—all of the furniture has been pushed against the walls, leaving the middle of the room entirely open.
The cramps fade, and I exhale. When the naga remains unmoving, I close my eyes and pray.
I’m not in labor. I’m not having contractions.
I’m not in labor.
I. Am. Not. In. Labor.
As if my night couldn’t get worse, fleeing my father’s home just to end up in another with a strange naga, I’m still clueless as to whether or not Syasku’s alive. What could go wrong now?
Labor. If I had a sense of humor, I’d laugh. Sinking deeper into the chair, I focus on relaxing, but the smell in the room is making it hard. Sharp and musty, it smells like a cross between sweat and cinnamon.
“You are Ssssyasku’s mate.”
I open my eyes to face Asera. I should be scared of him, but I’m not. Right now I’m almost relieved that I’m not alone. “Do you know if he’s alive?”
He slips forward and further into the open space but keeps his distance. It’s then I notice the bands around his arms.
“No,” he says, his voice gentle.
I close my eyes as another contraction comes on.
Not now, baby. Mommy is a little busy.
“You are with litter,” he murmurs, his tone awed with surprise. “His litter…”
I look at him and take in his nearly reverent expression. “Yes. A litter of one, thank god. Do you know when Ursula will return? Or where she went?”
“No.”
Our conversation stifles, and I look around at the apartment, noticing for the first time all the blankets and pillows strewn everywhere. Stacks of them fill the corners. On a table by the kitchen is a bunch of empty vials and various glassware and… My brows furrow…
Pornographic magazines.
As I sit upright for a better look, I see a naked woman with large breasts on the cover, her hands cupping them. Even with the lights as dim as they are, her breasts are large enough to glow.
I look back at Asera, my lips parting. “Are you and Ursula…” I remember Ursula mentioning him when I was drugged, but I never thought she’d mate him.
His eyes narrow at the shock and disgust on my face. “Mates. Yessss, and if you were any other, I would have killed you for entering our nest, even if it was my mate who brought you in,” he warns. “In here, I am alpha. That is our agreement.”
My mouth snaps close, and I turn away. It’s sex I smell, sex and Asera’s pheromones, which are not entirely dissimilar to Syasku’s. The only difference is that Syasku’s scent isn’t sharp with spice. His pheromones are more subtle, woodsier. Grief hits me with the recollection, and my throat constricts.
It’s been months since I last smelled Syasku. Smelling Asera now, brings back my craving, and reminds me of how much I miss Syasku. His soothing hisses, his idle pets. I need both now more than ever.
“I am sorry I do not know Syasku’s fate.”
“Why did he do it? Why did he try to escape?”
Asera winces. “They were going to take him back to Earth. He demanded vengeance before that happened. I believe he tried to find you. I tried to convince him it was a poor idea. He did not listen.”
He sounds sad.
“And I wasn’t there…” Tears try to fall, and I quickly bat them away. Maybe having Asera here is a good thing after all. It’s nice to know someone else grieves for Syasku. Looking around the room once more and at Asera’s and Ursula’s nest, I can’t help being jealous. My relationship with Syasku was confined to a cell while the woman who forced our exploitation has privacy and comfort.
“She’s not a good human,” I whisper. “She’s using you.”
“As long as it is me she usessss and not another, I am content.”
I shake my head and let the conversation drop. Debating giving birth in a naga nest like this or out in the open, I don’t know which is more preferable. I eye the door and calculate my chances of getting through it, evading Asera, and finding a safer place to go into labor. Searching my thoughts, I still can’t come up with a single place better than here.
There’s a small chance Ursula won’t tell my father. And now that Asera knows I’m pregnant, he might protect me against him if that happens. If I’m lucky, he’ll kill him.
Pain blasts through me, and this time I’m unable to hide it. My body goes taut as my teeth clash and I bend forward.
“Are you in pain?” Asera hisses, slipping to my side.
“I’m fine,” I grit.
“Tell me how I can help?” Uncertainty bleeds into his voice.
I open my mouth to speak when a humming sound emanates from the walls. As my contraction fades, I sit upright as Asera and I look around at them. “What is that?”
Asera doesn’t answer me. The sound builds and the walls begin to shudder. As the noise grows, heightening like we’re being pulled into a vacuum, I stand. Anxiety fills me as the hollowing sound encompasses everything, even Asera’s hisses, and threatens consumption.
“What’s happening?” I shout, covering my ears, fearing I’m about to implode when everything goes dark.
The rumbling only worsens, and I hear Asera call out to me.
I open my mouth to answer when the sound morphs into a buzzing, only to go silent directly after. The lights flicker on and then turn off for good.
Frozen in place, I blink against the darkness. The silent void is far worse than the noise.
The Dreadnaut’s power supply has been shut off.
My breaths shorten as I wait for the lights to turn on, hoping I’m wrong. A chill fills the room with every second that passes.
Asera’s hand snakes around my arm. “Are you okay?”
I jump, biting back a scream. With my eyes wide, I yank my arm from his grip and shuffle across the room to the light switch by the door. I hear Asera following me. My hands hit the wall, and I search for the switch, pressing it when I find it and pressing it a dozen more times when the lights fail to come back on.
“What is wrong?” he asks from directly behind me. “I hear your heart pounding. Is the… darkness bad?”
“I don’t know. I think the ship’s lost power,” I whisper, hoping I’m wrong, and testing the light switch again. “It’s never lost power before. Every colony ship has three nuclear reactors to prevent it.” I swallow, my mind racing with possibilities. “There’s been unrest lately. The people that live around the reactors want the ports reopened and travel reinstated. But it’s not just them, everyone does.”
His voice darkens, and I sense him shift closer. “Are we in danger?”
“I don’t know. If the power doesn’t come back on soon…” I can barely fathom the consequences if that happens. “I know very little about how a ship of this scale functions.”
He goes silent.
As the silence around us deafens, I wait for my eyes to adjust to the small battery-powered objects that give off light throughout the room.
“Urssssula gave me a device to contact her if something should happen while she is away. Do not worry, I will use it and call her.”
I hear Asera leave my side and head back into the apartment. A moment later his voice returns but farther away.
“Urssssula—” he says from somewhere in the darkness. “Are you safe?”
He goes quiet.
Trembling, I slide my hand down the wall and grab the door handle. Opening it a crack, I peek outside. Along the corridor walls is a strip of glowing tape illuminating the hallways just enough to see the floor. Opening the door further, I duck my head out. On either side of me are people doing the same.
“Ursula says—” I jump again at Asera’s rumbling voice behind me and shut the door. “—we should stay here. She will contact me when she finds out more.”
I press my back to the door. “Did she mention if the power is off where she is?”
“No.”
“Where is she?”
“I do not know. I did not ask.” A deep hiss tears out from him. “If she—we—are in danger, I must go to her.”
The heavy, hollowing sound returns, weaker than the last time, and the floors shake as I hold my breath and Asera grips my arm. Outside in the hallway, I hear someone shout, and then the rumbling fades.
With sweat beading my brow, I pull my arm out of Asera’s grip and reopen the door. There are more people in the hallway. Some of them have started to gather. “We need to get to the nearest port,” I whisper to Asera. “And we need to get there now.”
“I will not leave my mate?—”
“Ursula won’t make it back to us if the people panic,” I snap. “And they will panic if the power doesn’t return.”
He rises over me to take a look out the hallway.
“If it doesn’t,” I continue, “the ship dies, and eventually everyone left within dies too.”
He pulls away. “Then I must go to my mate.”
I turn on him. “Call her again, tell her we’re headed to Port Deck B and to meet us there.” I gasp when my stomach squeezes painfully. Port Deck B is farther from us than Port Deck A, but that’s the military’s private port and going there would be too dangerous. Asera may be under Ursula’s control, but the military might not know that, and if Father is already aware of my escape…
He hisses at me, and it’s full of anger. But he does what I say and calls Ursula.
The floors start shaking again.
“She is not answering.”
I yank open the door. “We’ll try her again on the way. Let’s go!”
Someone carrying a young child knocks into me as they rush by. On either side people have begun arguing, having no idea what’s going on.
“Wait. We stick together,” Asera snaps, grabbing my arm for a third time. “You lead the way and I will keep the path clear.” He slides into the hallway, his head barely reaching my chest with his shortened tail sliding under him.
Heading right, I push through the few people between us and the closest exit from the sector. Some have the same idea as me, beelining right and making their way to the nearest foyer. I follow them with Asera at my side.
As we pass more people who have gathered, I catch snippets of information.
The security locks on the doors have been disabled. The elevators aren’t working. No one seems to know what’s going on. When the floors start shaking again, those same people duck back into their homes or join the group rushing down the hallway to the nearest stairwell.
I barely notice the next contraction.
When we reach the sector’s foyer, there are only a couple of people between us and the stairwell.
No one notices Asera, and if they do, they’re too confused to react.
Once we’re through, we descend the steps, and with each step I take my entire body throbs even more. The pressure of my belly makes it twice as hard to move. Asera takes the lead, pulling me after him as we head down flights of stairs, keeping a brisk pace. When I stumble during my next contraction, he catches me.
“Are you sure you are okay?”
I nod. “I’ll be fine.”
They’re coming on faster.
There’s a flash of light from somewhere above us. We startle and look up, freezing in place. When there’s another flash, a loud noise explodes from above, and people start screaming.
I grab Asera’s hand. “Let’s go!”
Smoke quickly fills the stairwell, making it even harder to see. A family with two children rushes down the stairs next to us, heading straight for the door at the bottom.
I follow them through it and into the next corridor, where throngs of people have already begun gathering. Some of their voices are heightened as several men argue. Asera clears a path through them. We continue following the family, who are headed in the same direction as us.
A group of soldiers runs past us. Several more emerge at the end of the corridor, blocking the doors to the atrium I know is on the other side. They start shouting at a group of people trying to pass through, pushing them back. Their arguing escalates as we close in.
The announcement system turns on, and I hear Father’s voice.
Everyone goes quiet.
“Denizens of The Dreadnaut , this is your Supreme Commander speaking. Please return to your homes in an orderly fashion as we work on turning the systems back on. The ship is in lockdown and the ports are closed. Any who refuse to return home will be subject to arrest. Your Commander, Volp.”
Those around us look at each other in question, and I turn to Asera. “He’s lying.”
The soldiers start barking orders at the gathered group ahead. The ground starts shaking, and as I pull Asera aside, another group of armed soldiers appears from behind.
“Turn back, citizen!” one of them shouts as he squints at Asera in confusion. “No one…” his voice falters, “…is allowed past this point.”
Asera hisses, and I squeeze his hand. “There’s too many,” I gasp, counting twelve of them. The soldier addressing us turns to join the others blocking our path.
“Let us through! You can’t keep us from our ships!”
Behind us, someone shoots a gun.
The soldiers break formation as screaming rises around us. They push through the civilians, heading toward the noise, retrieving their own weapons from their belts. With them distracted, we flee down the corridor past them.
The few that have remained behind are quickly overpowered and pushed out of the way. The doors to the atrium bursts open and people run through. More gunfire follows. Asera pulls me close.
We enter the wide-open commercial space that borders the port, discovering there are more people on the other side, fleeing in different directions. Some for the port, some toward other entry points, while others pillage the stores. Darkness and flashing lights confuse the situation further, making it hard to see who’s a civilian and who’s one of Father’s soldiers.
On the other end, toward the port’s security checkpoint, what looks like dozens of soldiers block the way. Another mass of people gathers in front of them, their angry shouts adding to the frenzy.
Gunfire rings in my ears as Asera continues to shield me.
“We are too exposed,” he growls, dragging me behind a pillar to our right. Stumbling after him, something gushes between my legs, drenching my inner thighs and pants.
“Where do we go?” he yells, his eyes searching the chaos, flicking around quickly, looking for Ursula.
I reach down and touch the wet spot between my legs. More water escapes, and the spot expands, plastering my pants to my thighs.
“What is wrong?” Asera growls again, his gaze snapping back to me.
Lifting my hand, I look at my glistening fingers. My face wrenches as the most painful contraction hits and I buckle to the floor.
“Female?” he asks, throwing his arm around me.
I take in a shaky breath. “I’m…” I gasp out, finding it hard to speak through the agony, “I’m… I’m about to have the baby.” I sag into Asera’s arms.