Bringing Stella Home (33 page)

“
Did you give yourself to
Qasar last night?”

“
No,” Stella
admitted.

Narju smiled as relief flooded his
face. “Good. Then I didn’t give my life in vain.”

Her head spinning from a thousand
screaming thoughts, Stella collapsed by Narju’s side and wept into
his blanket.

“
No,” she cried. “I don’t
want you to die!”

“
Sholpan,” he said, putting
a shackled hand on her shoulder. “Listen to me very carefully. We
do not choose the life that fate gives us. We only choose how we
live it—and how to give of ourselves before our time is
over.”

Stella’s shoulders trembled as she
wept under his gentle touch. Still, she quieted somewhat to hear
him speak.

“
I am the last of my
people,” Narju continued. “My family, my tribe, and all of my loved
ones are dead at the hands of the Hameji. They slaughtered my
people and destroyed my homeworld. They broke me down and made me
into the thing that I am today—an unmanned servant for their
pleasure women.”

Stella glanced up at him. Narju met
her gaze with his humble, sincere eyes. His hand felt tense on her
shoulder.

“
I never thought that this
would be my life,” he continued. “It would have been easy for me to
give up and end it. I could have ended it—I could have died as a
martyr, and regained some small kernel of my honor. Still, I held
back, knowing that such a death would accomplish nothing. Fate had
kept me alive for a reason—and now I finally know why.”

Stella’s eyes burned again,
and the room began to spin around her.
Why
me?
she wanted to scream.
I’m not good enough—
I
don’t deserve this.

The door hissed open behind them,
making her jump. Stella rose quickly to her feet and stepped
between Narju and the two guards.

“
The general is ready,”
said one of them. “Milady, step aside.”

A snarl rose to Stella’s lips, and she
opened her mouth to tell them to go to hell. Before she could
speak, however, Narju put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. She
turned around to face him.

“
I’m sorry, Lady
Sholpan.”

Stella drew in a deep and tremulous
breath. Without thinking, she pressed her lips against his. Her
muscles turned to water as she closed her eyes and gave everything
to the man who had saved her.

This is my first
kiss,
Stella told herself.
Whatever Qasar does to me, at least I have
this.

Rough hands pulled her away,
shattering the moment. From the wall, Stella watched as the
soldiers led Narju through the door. The shackles on his feet
clanged with a harsh sound on the cold, bare floor.

When she was alone, Stella fell to the
floor and wept.

Chapter 16

“
You’ve gotten yourself in
a big mess, honey,” said Tamu. “You should have slept with Qasar
the first night like I told you.”

Stella took a sip of her soup and set
the bowl on the table; her shaking hands made the spoon clatter.
Three days had passed since Narju’s execution, and she still had no
appetite.

“
I couldn’t bring myself do
it,” Stella said, her voice low and hoarse. “I
just…couldn’t.”

“
Well, darling, you’d
better get used to it pretty quick. Once you’re married, he won’t
let you hold out any longer.”

Stella shuddered at the thought. She
would almost rather kill herself than marry such a man, but that
would turn Narju’s sacrifice into a waste. She couldn’t do that—she
could never do that.

“
How—how bad is it, Tamu?”
Stella asked. “It can’t be that bad, can it?”

“
What, the sex? No, that’s
not bad. But being a wife is about more than just sex, dear. You’ll
have duties and responsibilities, not to mention all the political
games with the other wives. Then there’s the children—Qasar will
want you to bear him lots of children, preferably sons.”

Stella’s empty stomach sank through
the floor. “Children?”

“
Yes, dear. That’s how
Hameji women prove their worth. If a wife can’t bear her husband
plenty of children, that’s grounds enough for a
divorce.”

Children,
Stella thought with horror.
I’m going to have my children with that man.
The crying came slowly at first, but once it
started, it soon became unstoppable.

“
There there, darling,”
said Tamu, kneeling by her side. “I’m sorry to scare you. Don’t
cry.”

“
It’s not you,” Stella
sobbed. “I just want to go home.”

* * * * *

James was lying on his cot when the
alarm sounded.

He leaped to his feet and banged his
head on the low ceiling as the lights turned red and began to
flash. “Ow!” he shouted, cursing his cramped quarters.

“
Attention all hands,” came
Danica’s voice over the ship-wide intercom. “This is a level three
alert—repeat, this is a level three alert. All officers are to
report to the bridge immediately.”

That means me,
James realized. He nearly raced out the door
before he realized he was only wearing a t-shirt and some boxers.
The zipper on his jumpsuit jammed when he tried to pull it up, but
after a short struggle, he managed to get it to work. With his
boots still unclasped, he slammed his palm against the access panel
and sprinted out the door.

The bridge was completely full when he
arrived. All the other officers sat at their stations, busy with
their work.

“
Ensign,” said Danica,
giving him a slight nod. She stood in the center of the activity,
directly beneath the forward window.

“
What’s going on?” James
asked, a little breathless.

Danica lifted her hand ever so
slightly, silencing him. He took his seat against the rear wall of
the bridge.

“
All stations, report,” she
said, addressing the room. “Konstantin?”

“
All systems nominal,
ma’am,” said Mikhail from James’s left.

“
Sikorsky?”

“
Ready and awaiting
orders.”

“
Nicholson?”

“
Drones coming online,”
said Vaclav, surrounded by dozens of monitors. “Combat ready in
twenty seconds.”

“
Ayvazyan?”

“
Cyber-ops up and
running.”

“
Roman?”

“
My men are ready,” said
Roman. “We await orders.”

“
Good,” said Danica. She
reached down to a panel at her seat and flipped a switch. The alarm
shut off, leaving the room in silence.

“
Here’s the situation.
Three minutes and thirty-seven seconds ago, the Hameji discovered
our mole. We believe they may have gotten a trace, in which case we
can expect an imminent attack. As per my order—”

“
Wait,” said James. “I
thought you told Ilya to erase all evidence that we’d hacked into
their network.”

“
Hey, it’s not my fault,”
said Ilya. “The mole was just a standard precaution, in case we
needed to—”

“
Silence!” bellowed Roman.
Ilya scowled but kept to himself.

“
I assure you,” Danica said
in a curt tone, “Lieutenant Ayvazyan will be properly reprimanded
after the situation has been resolved.”

James glowered.
So it
was
his fault,
he thought to
himself.
Idiot.

“
As I was saying,” Danica
continued, “we’ve already dispersed three beacons to draw their
fire. Our jump drive is recharging and will not be operational for
another thirty-five minutes. If the Hameji attack us within that
time, we will be forced to engage them directly.”

James bit his lip. A chill ran down
his arms—not of fear, but of excitement. After nearly a month of
tedious training exercises, they were finally going to see some
real action.

“
Now, they may not attack
us at all. If that’s the case, we’ll continue on our current
trajectory without incident. But if they do attack, we can expect
them to jump a bomb or an ionized deep space EMP and follow up with
a squad of three boarding craft. Our beacons have enough power to
draw off the incoming missiles, but they will not interdict the
boarding craft. If the Hameji follow their standard procedure, we
can expect to be outnumbered three to one.”

Danica paused to survey the room. No
one said a word.

“
No one has survived an
encounter like this,” she said. “Rumor has it that no one can. I
intend to prove that wrong. The Hameji don’t know that we’re
anticipating them, which means we have the element of surprise.
Let’s use that to our advantage.

“
Our primary objective is
to survive long enough to escape. Our secondary objective is to
disable and capture one of the Hameji assault craft.”

Danica’s announcement was met with
shock and bewilderment among the crew. Several of them gasped in
surprise, while others groaned and shook their heads.

“
Now, hold on a moment,”
Danica said, raising her hands for attention. “I know that
capturing a Hameji ship may seem impossible, but if we can disable
one of their assault craft long enough to jump out with it, we can
vent the interior and eliminate any hostiles at our
leisure.”

“
Yes, but why?” asked Ilya,
always the one to speak out of turn.

“
A captured Hameji
transport is absolutely crucial to completing the next phase of our
mission,” said Danica, “and we aren’t going to get a better chance
at acquiring one than this.”

James’s heart leaped in his chest.
Danica was right—this was the perfect opportunity to acquire a
Hameji transport.

“
I know this seems grim,”
she continued, “but I have complete confidence in your abilities.
If we all do our best, I fully expect to come out of this
engagement with zero casualties.”

At that moment, a rapid beeping noise
came from James’s right. “What’s that?” he asked,
startled.

“
We’ve lost contact with
two of our jump beacons, Captain,” said Anya. “It looks like
they’ve been hit.”

Danica nodded. “Then it’s begun. Stand
by!”

* * * * *

The boy without a name leaped from his
bunk and raced down the dimly lit corridor of the battleship. The
smell of sweat and adrenaline filled the air as he joined his
platoon brethren, the alarm blaring in their ears. Without
thinking, they fell into line, running in perfect unison as
adrenaline surged through them.

Today, they would see
combat.
Real
combat.

At the armory, they fanned out along
the racks and prepared to suit up. The boy grabbed a heavy black
vest and threw it over his jumpsuit. With speed that came from
repeated experience, his fingers raced up the clips on his side and
shut them tight. He then slipped a waistband around his midsection
and a codpiece around his groin.

With that done, he ran into the
nearest fitting stall and leaned against a human-shaped robotic
frame. A series of clamps closed shut along his feet and legs until
the frame conformed to his body. He took a step forward and the
frame moved with him, the mechanized joints anticipating and
mirroring his every move.

The boy stood in the center of the
stall and raised his arms. Above him, a massive robotic arm hissed
as it lowered the main breastplate of his armor and fitted it over
his torso. The armor connected to the frame with a satisfying
click. As other arms fitted the plate shielding to the rest of his
body, the interior of the armor filled with smart-foam, cooling
him. The interior climate controls read his body temperature and
adjusted accordingly.

The boy slipped his hands into a pair
of armored gloves. They connected seamlessly into the liquid plate
armor of his forearms, and the cool dryness of the interior of his
suit slowly extended from his torso to the tips of his fingers. He
stepped into a pair of heavy battle boots and felt the magnetic
locks secure them to the rest of his suit. Last of all, he closed
his eyes as his helmet descended over his head. A short hissing
noise sounded from the seal around his neck, followed by
silence.

The boy opened his eyes. Through his
visor, the room brightened into shades of gray from the visible and
infrared spectrum. A mouthpiece inserted itself into his mouth, and
he took in a deep breath of coppery-tasting air.

The robotic arms retracted, and he
stepped out of the stall. Though his heavy armor suit weighed
nearly a hundred pounds, with the extra support of the skeletal
frame, he moved as easily as if he were wearing only a light
jumpsuit.

He followed his platoon brethren to
the arms rack and selected an assault rifle. With his armored
gloves, he grasped the grip of the weapon and tenderly stroked the
barrel.

Power.

“
Attention soldiers,” came
Sergeant Voche’s tinny voice through a receiver in the boy’s ear.
“We will be boarding a hostile craft imminently. Report to the
high-gee coffins to prepare for combat maneuvers.”