Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
D’Var
T ’Rak noticed some strange signals from the Asteroid Belt and asked me to take a look with him. It seems like there is a disturbance, but we cannot pinpoint what is causing it. This Asteroid Belt is filled with debris from ships that crashed here, so disturbances are not uncommon.
This one is coming from somewhere close. Too close to my liking. I am in the middle of a diagnostic analysis when I hear a strange noise coming from the cargo bay. It is muffled, but I feel a spike of fear coming through my bond with L’Ren. I jump up.
“Something is wrong with L’Ren,” I yell taking off towards the cargo bay, T’Rak is following on my heels.
The cargo bay is empty. L’Ren’s precious pots are toppled and there is soil everywhere. I can still smell her in the air, though her delicious scent is tainted with fear. I sniff and then I smell it. It’s faint but definitely there. The stench of foul musk; Sternotheri.
They have her.
I let out a terrible growl and my vision turns red. The fucking Sternotheri have taken my mate. My Zarra. MINE.
I look around, but there is no sign of my mate nor our enemies. I sniff again and I follow the path their foul odor left. These creatures have a heavily active scent gland which produces a constant stench of foul musk. That’s how I am easily able to follow the trail to the far end of the cargo bay.
T’Rak follows me, and O’Rec has joined us as well. There’s a big hole in the ceiling, where there should have been an air duct. I jump up and stare right into space. I curse and activate emergency protocol with a button on my wrist comp.
I jump back and tell my crew to move out.
“The hull is compromised. It looks like they cut a hole in the hull and got in through the ventilation ducts. They blasted their way through on the way back, I think. We need to leave the cargo bay, because the air will be unbreathable within moments.”
O’Rec lets out a string of curses.
“Fucking Sternotheri, I have been so busy with the reboot, the alarm is not yet fully operational.”
When we are out in the hallway again, the ship seals the cargo bay. We rush to the Command Center. T’Rak immediately starts scanning for ships, but all the visuals are empty. We only see the fucking rocks.
Then it hits me. L’Ren is gone. Taken.
I fall to my knees making an anguished sound as I drop. I bow my head and cover my eyes. I feel a wave of desperation rolling over me, unlike I have ever felt before. I failed her. I promised I would protect her, that nothing bad would ever happen to her again. Now she is taken. From right under our noses .
I am mentally chastising myself, now that the initial shock has passed, I feel the mating bond howling in pain. I ache being apart from her. The bond is so fragile it needs constant nurture to make sure it stays healthy.
O’Rec grabs my shoulder.
“We will get her back, my friend. I vow to you.”
He speaks but the words don’t register, my vision slowly returns to normal but with the mating bond aching, I only feel anguish.
O’Rec walks to my front and grabs my hand, pulling me up.
“You have to stay strong, my friend. I know the mate bond must be screaming in agony right now, but you have to override it to get her back. We will get her back and we will cut off the heads of those Sternotheri who dared to touch her.”
He is right, of course, I have to somehow dim the bond and reach into myself to find my warrior-calm. I take a deep breath and focus on the thought of my Zarra. Her smiles, her laughter. The way she feels when I hold her. I straighten myself and I feel my inner calm taking over. It’s a deadly calm, O’Rec senses it nodding his approval. I don’t like pushing away the bond, but for now I need to. L’Ren needs me to.
T’Rak is running full diagnostics now and O’Rec and I join him at the screens.
“Fuckers carved a hole in the side of the ship, just at the fucking blind spot. I don’t understand how they managed to get here undetected. They must have been stalking us for a while to know just where to go,” O’Rec says.
T’Rak growls. “The disturbance that came from the belt. They must have had some sort of blocker.”
I growl. “They will die.”
“They will,” T’Rak vows and then he turns towards O’Rec. “ Can you patch the hole up quickly? We will focus on finding the Sternotheri.”
O’Rec jumps into action and heads towards the airlock, while T’Rak and I run a full environmental scan. The Sternotheri are not as good as they think, because we find small traces of their ship. Not enough for a regular ship to follow them, but we are Arracate. Our tech is still the most advanced in the galaxy and for us, even a breadcrumb is enough.