Chapter Four
With that, Belle turned and stalked off angrily, more intent on putting some distance between them than anything else, but not really aware of that. She was too busy angrily rehashing the unpleasant confrontation with the captain.
She had expected that it wouldn’t be pleasant--not because she could actually think of anything particular the bitch might have accused her of.
Granted, she seemed at least a touch ‘off’, but what she might have thought to say to strengthen her own ambitions was beyond Belle’s imagination.
She hadn’t really expected ugly from Connor, she realized. He seemed fair, however intimidating she found him--not mean, but … well, stern, she supposed, no nonsense. Pretty unmovable.
An arrogant asshole ….
But it seemed inarguable that the bitch had told him something, because he’d looked straight at her and then he really had followed her even though she’d been trying hard to convince herself that that was just her imagination.
She should’ve asked him what the bitch had said, she thought angrily. Now, she still didn’t know and it was pretty hard to defend yourself when you had no clue.
She dismissed it.
It didn’t matter what he thought about her, she told herself.
She didn’t want or need his attention.
Sure he was attractive--very attractive, but then that was the crux of the problem, the main one.
He was a magnetic for women and if she’d been stupid enough to try to attract his interest, and succeeded--like that would happen in a million years!
--she’d be sharing him with all of the other women in the camp.
She could join the train without tying herself to him beyond the blood bond of carrying his child.
If she was willing to commit herself to a life of pure hell.
Or she could tie herself to the least attractive man in her mating pack and have ugly children and a man all to herself.
That she didn’t … couldn’t love.
Because she had no interest in any of the others, wasn’t drawn to any of them--even though, once upon a time, she actually had been--had crushed on two of them--the two closest to her in age.
Alternately, she could just get a frozen pop and fulfill her obligation to reproduce at least one ‘heir to her genetics’.
And devote her life to herself and her child.
Truthfully, that didn’t particularly appeal to her either--because she’d still know the father.
But she had time to decide.
By playing least in sight, she’d managed to ‘miss’ the last ‘window of acceptable opportunity’-- when it would have been convenient to the colony as a whole to reproduce--before they had arrived at their destination.
Now that they had arrived, they had to put the colony together first, and that was labor intensive so they couldn’t afford to have very many colonists ‘handicapped’ by pregnancy.
When they’d achieved a level of organization that lifted them to a high probability of survival would be the time to make a decision and act upon it.
She was looking at what was most likely her last shot at motherhood, she realized abruptly.
The frozen pop really seemed like the smartest decision for somebody that wasn’t thrilled with the idea of a lot of emotional baggage--well any.
And she thought she knew herself pretty well.
She was a total sucker. She would certainly be an easy mark for a man like Connor--who’d no doubt had plenty of opportunities to master seduction.
Well, honesty compelled her to admit that it wouldn’t take a man half as good as Connor to just wipe her out.
Her first two crushes hadn’t been in the same universe with Connor and they had seriously fucked her up.
Well, the first one--Jeff. Newton hadn’t managed to do a number on her because she had experience with Jeffery by that time and she was more pissed off than hurt when she’d caught him cheating.
A little hurt--mostly her ego, she thought.
Cheating wasn’t something, unfortunately, confined to the male gender.
Everyone seemed to think it was a fun game and wanted to play just as soon as they got hit by the hormones of budding maturity.
Maybe because of the sex education classes.
Maybe because of the lengths their parents and teachers went to in order to insure that they didn’t produce before the next birthing was sanctioned.
They were allowed intimacy--but they were carefully monitored.
Contraceptives were issued as a matter of course--because nobody actually believed the education would do the trick and no one could afford a ‘mistake’.
The girls had to report for a physical once a month to make certain they hadn’t caught pregnant and to flush the unsanctioned offspring if they had.
She had--exactly once--and not even because she’d willingly taken part. One of the guys--Newton--had convinced her to allow a little necking and then forced himself on her.
Because she’d ‘teased’ him and she didn’t have the right to refuse when she’d ‘let’ him pin her down and force her.
That, combined with the behavior of her ‘true love’ had been sufficient to convince her she didn’t really want to play that game at all. And because it was considered popular entertainment by most of her gen, she thought she should just avoid it.
And she had.
And she was still avoiding it.
Oddly enough, that thought prompted a replay of her ‘meeting’ with the alien man.
She didn’t actually try to analyze the flutter that went through her as his image filled her mind, but it didn’t feel like fear.
* * * *
Roque and his padur, Terran met up with Ryne and Torr before they managed to get within miles of their homestead.
They were guardedly friendly, however, and welcomed them to their home for refreshment.
Ryne did not know what stunned him more--the fact that their woman was as lovely a creature as Belle--or almost--or that she was big with child.
He did not think that he had truly believed a mating between them would bear fruit.
And yet their Noely had already born one child for them and was carrying a second.
The discovery rattled his wits. It took an effort to collect them.
“What brings you this way?” Roque asked when they had settled with refreshment.
Ryne flicked an uncomfortable glance at Noely. “We believe more of her people have arrived.”
Noely sucked in a sharp breath--whether prompted by excitement or fear, Ryne did not know, but that made it clear that she had learned at least some of their tongue.
“The Artemis?” she gasped, but then frowned.
“Surely not. They were scheduled to leave two decades after we left Earth. Not expected to,” she added.
“They look like me? Or … have you seen them?”
“We went to reconnoiter after we spotted tek,” Torr said. “Yes. Very like you. They are pale and have no wings or horns.”
“Round ears,” Ryne added.
Noely lifted her brows. “A close look, then?”
Ryne flicked a grin in Roque’s direction. “Not as close as I would have liked.”
Noely chuckled, giving her men a warm look. “We should go.”
Roque frowned.
“You hate flying,” Terran said instead of pointing out that she was big with child and would find it uncomfortable even if she wasn’t frightened of the height.
“I do,” Noely agreed. “But … if I don’t go now, it’ll be months and months before I could and … the others want to know whether to accept them or make war on them.” She transferred her gaze to Ryne and Torr. “That’s why you came here to talk, isn’t it?”
Discomfort wafted through Ryne. “I had no plan,” he disputed. “I came to see what Roque thought about the situation. Whether we should we be alarmed or not.”
“Well,” Torr said grimly. “Most are alarmed already. It seems indisputable that they are Ert peoples and we have lost much to Ert people already.”
Dismay flickered through Noely--but resolve, as well.
“All the more reason for us to go and check them out. I don’t believe they would want war or even to take more than you could spare.
I think it’s just people who’ve come to make a home for their families.
Our doctrine, when I came, was just that--to make every effort to conserve resources for future generations.
If it is people from the colony group--the Artemis--they should have the same tenets and goals as we had.
They wouldn’t have come to make war. They will want peace to provide for their families. ”
“If?” Ryne asked.
Noely frowned uneasily. “They had only started the Artemis when we left. The projected date to complete was twenty years. Granted, that would have allowed a good bit of time to develop new technology that could be a great deal faster than our ship. That bastard, Ama-Zing developed a drive that brought him here years before we arrived and he had left many years after we left. Development wouldn’t have stopped at any point.
It’s possible. It’s just …. It makes me wonder if it is them.
I think it must be, but I know everyone will want reassurance. ”
* * * *
The flight was an ordeal--probably for all of them, Noely thought, but more a test of endurance for pain for her--and fear.
She’d blithely dismissed qualms about her pregnancy--hers and her mates’.
She wasn’t even to the halfway point--wasn’t having a lot of trouble with clumsiness or discomfort from her ‘blossoming’ size, but there was no getting around the facts.
Whatever she thought about it before they’d left, she definitely felt the strain.
She thought a good portion of it was fear of flying.
Well, fear of being carried by a person that was flying--because she’d never gotten past that.
That was enough to make her tense and she was convinced that was where a lot of the discomfort-to-pain had come from.
And it wasn’t close--neither the village they detoured to first to leave the baby with one of the village women nor the village of the ‘sky people’, as the natives referred to all aliens that invaded their world.
Because they knew damned well they weren’t from their planet.
Terran, who carried her for the last leg of their trip, set her down carefully and held her until he was certain she had regained her balance before he released her.
Noely tried not to take it badly that Roque had carried her the first part of the trip.
And Terran tried not to be insulted that Roque decided he needed to be the one to protect and Terran to carry as they approached the new colony.
Of course, Roque was the alpha and that was generally the case.
And Terran should have been used to it, but he never really had totally accepted that he wasn’t an equal--as much as he looked up to Roque.
When Noely had stretched the kinks out, she looked around curiously.
“You will stay here with Terran and Torr until I have reconnoitered with Ryne.”
A flicker of indignation went through Noely--mostly because she was eager to see the Earth people and impatient about another delay--but she kept her irritation to herself the best she could and merely nodded and looked around for comfort.
There wasn’t a lot to be had, but she found a patch of vegetation that wasn’t too prickly, wasn’t poison, and wasn’t in direct sunlight and settled on it.
Terran and Torr walked a wide circle around her as Roque and Ryne took flight and disappeared.
Her two ‘guards’ were gone for a little bit and then returned and took up positions within sight of her.
* * * *
They weren’t actually far from the village--a fair distance on foot--with enough running room to sweep Noely to safety if it was necessary--but it didn’t take Roque and Ryne long to draw near enough to see what they needed to see.
Even though, rather than approaching it directly, they flew upwards until they’d attained an altitude they thought it unlikely the sky people would spot them where they would still be able to see themselves.
As far as Roque could see, the people had focused only upon guarding themselves and establishing their colony. They had built the wall and appeared to be adding a second wall a little further out. There were guard towers to help them see a good distance, and armed men manning them.
But Roque saw nothing that made him believe it was an army--or that they were bent on conquest as the bastard, Ama-Zing had been. The majority of the people moving around the compound did not appear to be warriors.
The real question, he thought wryly, was whether or not he could approach without getting his head blown off.
Signaling to Ryne, he circled lower and lower and finally dropped to the ground at the very outer edge of the cleared area beyond the walls where the gate was.
Ryne landed shortly behind him.
There were a dozen weapons aimed at them as soon as they settled on the ground.
Roque waited until he saw the one that Ryne believed was their leader.
“What do you want?” Connor bellowed from the stockade wall. “Why are you here?”
“My padur, Terran, and I have brought our mate--our hearth woman, Noely--to see her people,” Roque responded in Noely’s tongue.
It would have been hard to say what stunned the sky people more--the announcement itself or the fact that he delivered it in their language, particularly when they had all been convinced that the natives were very primitive.