Angela Verdenius (10 page)

“Well, yes, but-
oof
!”  Her elbow jabbing sharply into his stomach made him release her and bend over, his hand gingerly cupping his abused ribs.  “Leaping light blazes!”

Squiggy’s ears had gone blue-tipped.  Har-de-har-har.  His friend was vastly amused.

“You arsehole,” Molly snapped.

“Steady on, love.”  Touching his side lightly, Cujo straightened.  “I meant, of course I want you in my bed, I’m making no secret of that!  But-” He held his hand up as she glowered warningly at him.  “But it’s also very true that there are planets where you’d be considered the height of female beauty.  Right, Squiggy?”

“You don’t mean the whore shop?” Squiggy asked.

Molly’s mouth fell open in outrage.

“You long-snooted ignoramus!” Cujo cursed him. 

Squiggy openly laughed and turned to Molly. “Cujo speaks true.  There are societies where you’d be considered a prime female.”

“Really?”  Slumping against the wall, she sighed again,.  “Does it really matter anyway?  I don’t know them, I don’t know how to survive away from the space station.  I know nothing of this time.”

Oh my God, she actually blinked back a tear!
  Horrified, Cujo looked at Squiggy before moving forward to place his hand on her shoulder.  “Now, now, Molly.  We’ll teach you everything you need to know.”

“Really?” She sniffed.

“Really?” Squiggy blinked.

“Really,” Cujo affirmed.  “We can teach you what you need to know as we travel, and introduce you to our friends.”

Molly looked hopeful for a few seconds before shaking her head slowly.  “I don’t think this will work.”

“Why not?”  He thought it sounded like fun.  Besides, it amused him to think of Amirov and the Major going nuts, trying to find their treasure which would be in Cujo’s very own hot hands.

Really in his hot hands.

Molly in his hands.

His hands on Molly.

All over Molly.

Hot, hot hands.

“Because I don’t know you,” Molly’s words broke through his lusty thoughts.  “I don’t trust you, either.”

“What’s not to trust?”  Spreading his arms out, he smiled winningly.  “Put yourself in my hands, sweet Molly, and I promise you won’t regret it.” 
Oh boy, do I promise!

Squiggy looked resignedly at the ceiling and shook his head.

“Yeah.”  Molly’s expression was wry.  “I truly think you believe that.”

“I do.”  He beamed.

“But I don’t believe it.”

“Oh come now, sweet Molly.  Would you really rather go back to Ironsides than travel the universe with us, learning all sorts of things and -” His words were interrupted by the alarm sounding in one long peel.

“Someone’s approaching!” Squiggy yelled, and shot out the door fast on his thin, gangly legs.

“What’s happening?” Molly was alarmed.  “That doesn’t sound good.”

“Because it isn’t,” Cujo replied grimly.  “The alarm sounds when someone we don’t like is approaching, and a fast approach is not good.”

He followed hard on Squiggy’s heels, Molly right behind him.  Once in the control cabin, he dropped into the seat next to Squiggy’s and looked out the space shield.  He didn’t have to read the identification of the ship on the radar to know what they were facing.

“Oh, star shit,” Squiggy said. 

That was putting it mildly.

The communication screen flared to life, and Cujo regarded the Repulsaen Captain with dislike.  “What is it you want, Regor?” he asked bluntly.  “And why do you approach without warning?”

“We want the woman you have on board.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The Repulsaen looked past him.  “Her.”

Cujo glanced back to see Molly behind him, her wide eyes on the screen.  “Shit.”

“Uh – sorry.”  She backed away.

“We’ll pay any price you wish for her.”  Regor’s reptilian eyes never blinked.

“She’s not for sale.”

“Are you sure?”

“My life on it.”

“As you wish,” Regor said.

The explosion caught Cujo unawares.  The ship rocked, the sound of metal screeching as he was thrown from his chair.  Squiggy started swearing, and then a second explosion shuddered through the ship, the control panel sparking, the smell of burning circuits filling the cabin.

Rolling to his stomach, Cujo looked around through a blur, rubbing his eyes to realize that blood was running into his eyes from a cut on his forehead.

“Molly?”  He blinked frantically and then he saw her crumpled against the far wall, her eyes closed.  “Molly!”  He started to crawl forward, but a last blast ripped through the hull of the ship throwing him across the cabin. 

After what seemed like hours, he opened his eyes hazily to see Squiggy lying motionless against the far wall.  Of Molly there was no sign.

“Molly?” he whispered.

Sparks arced up from the ruined control panel before sizzling and dying.

Cujo slipped into unconsciousness.

Chapter 6

Narc Military Research Space Station

Narc Section Five

Deep Space

Sitting in the reclining patient chair, Alsandair observed Doctor Surnace reading the information on the psych screen.  She didn’t look upset, shocked or alarmed, so it obviously wasn’t bad.  He just hoped she knew what the hell was going on with him.

Finally the doctor wheeled around, her chair gliding across the floor until it came to a standstill beside his chair.  The glass dome above his head lifted and he found himself eye to eye with the doctor.

She did look a little surprised, but more of an interested surprise rather than a nasty surprise.  Things were still appearing good.

“Your results are very interesting,” Doctor Surnace began in an officious tone.  “It would seem that being around Molly has triggered emotions and behaviour from your ancestors.”

Alsandair frowned.  “I beg your pardon?”

“I can reel off proper technical and medical terms, Captain, but I’m saying it plainly in layman’s terms.  Your ancestors are from Old Earth, as are most of ours, inbred with other alien species until most of our emotions have been mixed enough to produce who we are now.  However, being around Molly has revived long buried emotions.”

“That doesn’t sound good.  I’m reverting?”

“Not reverting.  Your emotions and feelings from your genes are coming back to the fore.  Captain, what you’re experiencing are emotions that have long been thought lost.”

Alsandair stared at the doctor.

Dr Surnace smiled a little.  “In truth, Captain, I have been noticing a rise in the emotions of some of our people.”

“Really?”  He was intrigued.

“Yes.  Have you noticed more of the people on this ship are smiling and laughing?  Not everyone, because they presumedly have more dominant alien genes, but those of us with more dominant human genes are having raised levels of emotion.”

“Because of Molly?”

“From the research I’ve been conducting, the knowledge of genes and the effect it can have on us, I’m confident in saying that I truly believe that her emotions are causing recognition between our more latent human genes and her pure human genes.”

“But you didn’t jump her like a madman,” Alsandair stated bluntly.

“This brings me to my other theory.”  Dr Surnace regarded him steadily.  “Your reaction to her is highly suggestive of both the emotional reaction of your human genes, and the possessive side of your dominant alien genes.”

He was stunned.  “You mean I’m seeing her as a potential mate?”

She grinned wryly.  “I’d say you’ve already shown the mating instincts, both in your behaviour around Cujo the other day and your bodily reaction today, not to mention the fact that you’ve not been quite yourself since bringing Molly here.”

“I’ve conducted myself as an officer of the Narc Military should,” Alsandair replied stiffly. 

“With a few differences.  Captain.”  Leaning forward, Dr Surnace rested her hand lightly upon his own, her gaze sincere.  “Everyone has noticed the way you follow Molly with your eyes.  We’ve all noticed the way you react to her presence, even if you’re not aware of it.”

“I hardly think-”

“Captain, your alien gene is a very possessive one.  It only emerges when the one you choose for your mate – however unconsciously – appears.  You have become possessive of her, and the way you mated with her is a prime example of both your alien and human genes merging, and yet also being different.”

“You’re making my head ache.”

“To put it even more bluntly, Captain, Molly is yours.”

“Ridiculous.” 
Mine.  All mine
.  He didn’t even blink as the words echoed from somewhere deep and primal inside him.

“So you’d let another man touch her?”

Alsandair’s jaw clenched.

“Kiss her?”

A muscle started to tic and he felt his nostrils flare, his fingers curling and digging into the armrests.

“Lay with her?”  Dr Surnace watched him closely.

A red haze drifted across his vision. 
“No…freaking…way!”

“You’ve picked up some of Molly’s sayings.  Now there’s something both very human and very alien in your words and reaction, Captain.”

Furious, Alsandair leaped up from the chair, his fists clenched.  “Have you seen something?  Someone?  Has someone tried to touch Molly?”  He didn’t give her a chance to answer before he snarled in rage, “I’ll kill whoever has touched her! 
I’ll kill him!
”

“I rest my case.” She sat back in the chair.  “Calm down, Captain.  Molly is safe somewhere on this station, no one has approached her with anything other than the regard shown to guests.”

Wheeling around on one booted heel, Alsandair faced the space shield and drew in several deep breaths, willing his fury to subside.  It was as if just the knowledge that Molly was his alone was enough to calm him down.  Damn it.  He didn’t know what to think.

Hearing the door slide open, he glanced back to see Dr Surnace leave the room, the door sliding shut behind her, leaving him alone to gather his thoughts.  The doctor was very perceptive.

Crossing to the shield, Alsandair gazed out into space and pondered her words.  Was she correct?  Had his alien side come to the fore along with his human genes?  And really, which alien gene would that be?  His family tree was full of several different alien genes, not forgetting the human genes.

Lifting his gaze to the planet overhead, he frowned.  He’d never avoided the truth before, he wasn’t going to start now.  He did feel something for Molly and it surpassed just the possessive streak that had reared its head inside him.  He felt something else…protective.  Wanting.  Okay, possessive, too, but definitely something warmer.  Love?  He honestly didn’t know. What he did know was that he couldn’t bear the thought of anyone touching her, caressing her, sharing hot, intimate moments with her.  He wanted her secret smiles, her heat, her body, to himself.

He did know he’d never felt that way about another person in his whole life.

The door behind him slid open and he turned as a voice snapped behind him, “Sir!  Molly is missing!”

“Missing?”  He frowned at the soldier.  “What do you mean missing?”

“She isn’t in her room or anywhere else on the ship.”  The soldier didn’t flinch while he said it, but his eyes flickered, betraying his nervousness at being the one to relay the news.

“How the hell could she go missing?”  Alsandair stalked towards the door, his ire rising.  “Who was looking after her?”

“No one, Sir.  Well, no one except…you, Sir.”

“Me?”  Halting, Alsandair glared at him. 

“Sir, you sent Pollett away when you visited Molly in her room.  You didn’t call anyone back.”  The soldier stood as stiff as a board.  “It was presumed you were still with her.”

Alsandair cursed inwardly.  He’d left Molly’s room and come straight to Dr Surnace’s offices.  He’d actually forgotten to reset a guard on Molly.

The soldier looked like he was waiting to be shot, a slight sheen of sweat on his pearly-skinned forehead. 

Never one to blame others for his own mistakes – and they were rare except when it came to Molly – Alsandair pushed aside his alarm to concentrate on the problem at hand.  “Tell me everything.”

“Dr Surnace’s assistant went to Molly’s room to see if she was all right, as she hadn’t appeared at dinner.  When she didn’t find Molly there she went looking for her.  It didn’t take long before we realized that no guard was with her, and since you were in here with Dr Surnace, we knew Molly wouldn’t be without a guard normally.  We searched the ship but she hasn’t been found.”

Alsandair started striding down the corridor towards the main control room.  “You’ve scanned for her body pattern?”

“Yes.  She’s not on board.”

“That’s impossible!”  Alarm bit at him but he strove for the calmness he was renowned for, and which he needed badly right now.  “She can’t leave the station.”

“Unless she left with someone else.”

“Kidnapped?” Alasdair looked at the soldier.  “Impossible.”

“I mean maybe she left with someone else, not necessarily kidnapped.”  The soldier resolutely kept a stoic expression.  “Apparently she looked a little…”

“What?”  Though he knew.  Deep down, Alsandair knew what she looked like.

“Upset.  As though she’d been crying.”

And there it was.  She’d been upset and wandered off on her own, and idiot that he was, concerned about himself only, Alsandair hadn’t even thought about a guard for her.  Now she was gone.

But he needed to scan the system himself, see for himself, know for himself that she was truly gone. 

Once in the main control cabin, he ran the system scan but it was as the soldier had said, Molly’s body pattern wasn’t on the ship.  The last place her body pattern was scanned was in the docking bay.

“Has anyone recently left the station?”  Fear gripped him now inwardly, but outwardly he remained calm, refusing to allow the dread and turmoil inside him to show.

“The Major’s son, Cujo, left two hours ago.”