Dalox
“Were you expecting an audience?” Gillian hisses at me as I remove my boots and pants.
I look over my shoulder at the two female warriors stationed next to the pit. They don’t avert their gaze from straight ahead, but it still seems like they’re looking at us.
“I wasn’t expecting to be left alone if that’s what you mean,” I respond.
“I’m beginning to think you like this,” she huffs.
“If getting to hold you for an entire night means we have to be watched, it’s a price I’m willing to pay.” I take hold of her chin between my thumb and forefinger, tilting her head up to me. “Don’t you agree, my little spark?”
I dip my head to press a kiss to her sweet lips and very nearly forget myself. She tastes like everything I’ve ever been promised in the entire universe all here and all now. I slide my lips to one side.
“I presume you have a plan?” I whisper in her ear.
Gillian lifts her hand to my jaw, spanning her fingers over it, the tips tripping over my skin as she mouths at me.
“You are relieved.” Two new females come through the curtains.
“Dyana said we were to stay for the entire night,” one of the original guards says. “Whatever they get up to,” she adds with a flicker of fear.
“Dyana changed her mind. She wants us to take over, so you can go.”
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen two Sarkarnii move as fast in their entire lives, and that includes warriors being told there’s food available in a dining hall after a battle. A second female pushes through the curtains after them.
“Catch,” she says, and tosses a pulsar in the air.
Gillian puts out her hand and snatches the weapon before I can.
“What is going on?” I look between the females and my mate.
“It’s a rescue, Dalox. Can’t you spot one when you see it?” Gillian grins at me. “Or did you think I’d leave you to Dyana and her weird breeding plan?”
“I presumed you had a plan,” I rasp, attempting to get the word breed out of my head because it’s what I want to do to my little mate, right here and right now, audience or no. “I didn’t think it would involve females.”
“And I didn’t think your plan involved a drunken Sarkarnii who everyone hates,” Gillian says. “But here we are.”
“Deus freed me.”
“Not for long.”
“He isn’t as bad as he seems.”
“He certainly smells bad.” One of the Sarkarnii females sniffs. “And we don’t have time for this. Dyana will find out the others have been sent away.”
“Dalox, this is Dyris and Dyoti,” Gillian says.
“Hello.” I glare at them.
“He is a big one, isn’t he?” Dyoti says.
“And not one for conversation,” Dyris adds.
“I’d prefer to get out of here before your unhinged boss forces me to mate with you.” I wrinkle my nose. “And I guess we’d better take Deus too. Can’t have him procreating against his will either.”
“I’m here.” Deus flings the curtain aside and falls face down in the pit.
“He’s the one everyone hates?” Gillian says. “The mad one?”
Deus lifts his leg and releases a huge fart. The females instantly recoil.
“I think perhaps we should see if it’s possible to get this flyer in the air,” I suggest, swiftly moving around the pit and through the second set of curtains.
As expected, there’s a short passage which opens up into the larger bridge. I get to the main flight console and check it over. Dead.
“This landed here, right?” I turn to Dyris. “It wasn’t shot down?”
“I don’t know,” she says. “It was always here. Since I recovered from the sickness.”
“Over here,” the warrior called Dyoti calls out. She has her head down a hole in the floor. “What color should the fuel cells be?”
“Red if they’ve any charge.”
“These are red,” she calls back. “Wait.”
She slides further in until there is a pair of legs and a tail sticking out. Then there is a dull clunk and the consoles around me light up.
“Power,” Gillian says. “We have some.”
“It’ll not be enough if this thing has been stripped for parts.”
I work my way over the consoles, knowing we don’t have much time.
Each one shows a number of faults but not enough to stop this ancient craft getting off the ground.
Although whether it can sustain flight long enough to get us away from the Nostenii in their Sarkarnii form is another matter, because it is the only way we’re getting away from them.
Over the ocean, back to my settlement. And if it actually functions, I have to beg the ancestors it will be capable of such a flight.
As I work, I’m aware there are more than the initial two females.
“What’s going on?” I lift my head from my work briefly to see the flyer is full.
“They don’t want to stay here. They want to come with us,” Gillian says. “They want to find mates with your warriors.”
“Oh, no,” I say, making my final checks. “They can’t come.”
I stand up and find I’m staring into multiple pairs of eyes.
“They’re coming,” Gillian says firmly. “Or we don’t go at all, and you become a donor.”
“They can’t come.” I drop down to my knees in front of Gillian. “What if they get the sickness again? What if they all die? I can’t have that happening. I can’t put them through it or my warriors. I can’t.”
“They survived the same sickness as your females had, Dalox. They haven’t got sick again, have you?” Gillian looks over at Dyoti and Dyris, who shake their heads.
“We’ve not had any further sickness, Lord Dalox,” Dyris says. “Our healer believes we are now immune.”
“But…”
“They’re willing to take the chance, Dalox.” She cups my cheek with her soft, warm hand, and I find myself leaning into her touch. “You should too.”