Endurance (42 page)

Holding the Fort

I never appreciated how soothing the darkness could be, I thought, before I came to Catopsa. It was never dark in the compound, not with all that glowing quasi-quartz around. Here I felt safe for the first time in months.

Someone was being a little too quiet, and I stroked my palm over his back. “What are you thinking about?”

“What it will be like, when we leave this place.”

“It’ll be
better
.” I yawned, then snuggled closer. “God, a life sentence shoveling swamp mud on Ichthora would be better than living on this rock.”

“Is that so?” He gave my bare backside a gentle tap. “And what if I am Ichthori, woman?”

I spent the next minute laughing too hard to talk. Finally, I recovered my self-control. “Sorry. I’ve been there. You, urn, don’t fit the native profile.”

A signal chimed, and Noarr reluctantly left me to answer it. I wrapped some bed linen around me and padded after him to see who was signaling.

Jgrap’s face appeared on the viewer. “Is she all right, Noarr?”

He was still alive
! I stumbled over a fold of the linen and careened into the console.

Noarr grabbed me and held on until I regained my footing. “Yes. I believe she is.” He terminated the signal.

“So you got the Forharsees out of the crying chamber, too.” I thought of the despair I’d felt, thinking they were dead.

He waited there, not moving. “Yes.”

“GothVar told me they were dead.”

“They appeared to be, when I removed them. As have all the others I took from there. With the exception of you and Kelly. The drug I used on the Aksellans is very effective.”

I thumped him on the upper arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were not in a state to listen to anything I had to say.”

“Try harder next time.” I sat on the edge of the sleeping platform, and listened to the sounds of Noarr dressing. Irritated as I was, I didn’t want to be left alone. “Are you going somewhere?”

“No. I expect we will shortly have some”—the door panel chimed—“visitors. Come in.”

The panel slid open, and a familiar tang filled the air. My lover switched on the lights to reveal the Forharsees, tendrils all over each other, beaming at both of us.

Being naked and in Noarr’s bed didn’t make me much of a role model, I decided. “Not you two again.”

“Doctor.” Jgrap skipped over, dragging Kroni with him. “We have news. You will never guess what has happened.”

“I wouldn’t wager credits on that.” I ran an experienced gaze over Kroni’s plump form. “Finally got yourselves pregnant, right?”

The male Forharsee gawked. “How did you know?”

My mouth curled. “Lucky guess.”

Kroni giggled and hid her face against her lover’s tunic while the proud papa-to-be relayed what had happened since Noarr had taken them from the crying chambers. They’d spent the last week hiding here on the ship, waiting for the trader to return to take them to freedom.

“Was a little crowded at first, with those others, so Kroni and I volunteered to stay behind and wait for the next vessel.”

“Plus you got to have a mini-honeymoon in the meantime.” I was too relieved to see them breathing to work up a good stern look. “She’d better be on prenatal supplements and getting enough rest. I’ll have a look at you myself later, Kroni.”

Noarr didn’t say anything after the couple departed. I knew what he was thinking, though, and sat up.

“Okay. I was wrong. I apologize.”

“There is no need.” He came to sit beside me and brushed the tangle of hair from my brow.

I pulled him down beside me. “Oh yes, there is.”

“We’re as bad as those kids,” I said several hours later, pleasantly exhausted. “You know that, don’t you?”

“You are wrong.” Noarr’s flipper traced the outline of my lips, then he used it to tickle me under my chin. “They are adolescents. We are experienced adults. Perhaps we should instruct them on the variety of methods one may employ to achieve mutual satisfaction.”

“I wouldn’t have pegged you as a closet exhibitionist.” I bit the edge of his fin-shaped hand. “Okay, enough. We need to talk.”

“Not yet.” He pushed me onto my stomach and pressed over me. “I need to keep you in my bed for a cycle.” Despite what we’d nearly exhausted ourselves doing, he was aroused again, and nudged me. “Are you weary?”

“I don’t need”—I uttered a single sound as he penetrated me—”to sleep….” I couldn’t think, not with his flippers lifting me up, positioning my knees, cupping my breasts. Not with the way he was moving inside me. “After we …”

It took another hour to get to the
after-we
stage. By then I’d fallen asleep in my lover’s arms. Even when I woke up, it was to a sense of total satisfaction.

This is much better than sitting in that damn solitary confinement pit
.

The pel
. I sat straight up and disengaged myself from Noarr’s embrace. “Enough fooling around, pal.” I swung my legs off the platform and groped for a tunic. Since my garments were in shreds, I went to his storage unit and rummaged through his supplies. “Get up. Get dressed.”

“You need to sleep.”

“You need to hear about the visitor I got in the solitary confinement pit.” I went on and described my encounter with the pel, and what I’d asked it to do. “We had a chunk of this crystal on the
Sunlace
. I knew it could access other life-forms’ thoughts telepathically, but I had no idea I could carry on a conversation with it.”

“It cannot, or it would have communicated with others long before this.”

“It has. Me. I need to get in touch with the
Sunlace
and talk to Xonea.”

“It will take time to encode the transmission.” Noarr switched on the lights and regarded me with that hooded, enigmatic gaze of his. “Your Clan-Brother will ask if you have made your Choice.”

“I’m sure he will, nosy as he is.” I rolled my eyes.

“Do you Choose me, woman?”

He actually sounded
nervous
. I could make him suffer, a little bit, considering what he’d put me through. “Since the Ruling Council has given me a divorce, and premarital sex is forbidden among my adopted family—” I grinned. “Stop thinking what you’re thinking. Of course I Choose you.”

“You didn’t tell me you were a telepath.”

“I’m not.” I reconsidered that as I pulled on a pair of his trousers and rolled them up until my feet emerged. “Okay, maybe a little.” I concentrated. “Though I was just guessing. I can’t seem to pick up what you’re thinking.”

“Let me know when you can.”

I gave him an ironic glance. There was a
lot
I needed to let him know.

Noarr took some time to encrypt the signal transmitters against Hsktskt detection, then helped me to signal the
Sunlace
.

Xonea gazed at me, first with relief, then with a large grin. “You appear to have made your Choice, ClanSister.”

“Oh, stop it.” I swiped a hand over my disheveled hair and turned pink. “Yes, I’ve Chosen Noarr. Enough about my personal life. I need to talk to you about the plan to liberate the compound.”

I filled Xonea in on what I knew, and sent messages of affection to the entire ship.

“I look forward to meeting your Chosen,” my big brother said. “Until then, walk within beauty, Cherijo.”

As for my Chosen, well, when we weren’t making love, we argued. For the next two days, ad infinitum, until I strained several muscles, then threatened to bash Noarr over the head with a blunt object.

“I’m not leaving Catopsa and that’s final!” I shouted, causing Jgrap and Kroni to get up from their half-finished meals and scurry out of the galley.

Noarr tried the fierce, glittery look that I already knew as mostly bluff. “You know what will happen if I take you back to the compound, woman.”

“So don’t take me back.” I drained my server of tea and shoved myself away from the table. “I’ll stay on your ship. But I’m not abandoning those prisoners, not with the Aksellans and Jorenians about to arrive. And don’t call me
woman
.”

Right on cue, Jgrap popped back in through the door panel. “Incoming encrypted message for you, Noarr. From the commander of the Aksellan fleet.”

My lover gave me a dark look before sweeping out to deal with the communication.

I cleared the table and wondered how hard it would be to sneak back into the compound without Noarr’s assistance. I knew two of the outer access hatches, and there had to be a schematic of more around the ship somewhere. Maybe I could break into the main database through the prep console.

“Might as well give it a shot.”

An hour later, I had produced nine different types of vegetarian lasagna, twenty-two varieties of synthetic herbal tea, but had completely run out of swear words.

“Cherijo.”

I stopped trying to reroute my bogus access code through the recipe submenu. “The spider calvary has arrived?”

“In a manner of speaking.” Noarr came to stand beside me. “You are thirsty?”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.” I shut down the unit and swiveled my chair around to face him. “So? What’s the plan?”

“I must go back to the compound and pass the information to Wonlee.”

I got up. “I’m going with you.”

He pushed me back down. “No, you are not.”

“But—”

“TssVar has doubled security since I took you from the crying chambers. If I am captured, you must take my place.” He handed me a disc and closed my fingers over it. “Plans and signal encodes for the liberation forces, and a diagram of all the viable pel tunnels.”

I wanted to throw the disc across the room. “Don’t ask me to do this. Please.”

“
Waenara
.” His flipper stroked my arm. “You are the only one I can ask.”

“All right.”

He kissed me, then left me alone at the prep unit to stare at the rapidly cooling servers around me.

I only spent a few minutes feeling sorry for myself. Since I had the disc, it would help to review it. I placed it in the prep console and switched the display to view. Encrypted data scrolled onto the screen, shifted, then became readable text.

According to the data, nine Aksellan scout ships currently maintained a position on the opposite side of Catopsa, matching rotation with the asteroid to keep it between them and the Hsktskt perimeter scanners. Eighty more were due to arrive within the next day or so, and they wouldn’t be hiding. They planned to offer a frontal assault, to draw the Hsktskt out into open space.

That’s when the Jorenian fleet would transition into orbit directly behind the Hsktskt, and box them in.

“Yikes.” I skipped over the specific orbital battle attacks and went on to the information and maps Noarr had designed of the prison compound. He’d not only mapped every tunnel in existence, but had indicated the current number of tul growths and where they rendered the passages unusable. Over half still remained blocked, which wouldn’t make the liberation any easier.

Jgrap and Kroni emerged from their chamber complaining of hunger a short time after I’d memorized the data. I fed them, and decided to give Kroni her first prenatal exam. Jgrap insisted on using their chamber and staying to watch the procedure.

“You’re about nine weeks along, Kroni.” I stripped off my gloves and made some notes on a data pad. “I’m outlining a nutritional plan and I want you to follow it.” Jgrap was practically hopping up and down with excitement, and I frowned. “What?”

“Look.” He pointed to the scanner display, which showed the internal view of Kroni’s reproductive system. “Twelve, my love, at least twelve!”

“What?” I peered at the scanner. “No, pal, there’s only one fetus in there.”

“Oh, Jgrap.” Kroni sighed, her eyes dreamy. “I would want nothing more than that.” She smiled at my perplexed look. “What my darling one means, Doc, is the number of upper limbs. Females have ten, males have twelve or more.”

“So it’s a boy.” I grinned, too. “Congratulations.”

“A bit premature, Doctor.”

I turned my head to see Reever step into the chamber, then flinched at the clatter of the data pad that had slipped out of my hands and hit the deck.

After locking the Forharees in their chamber, Reever escorted me to the helm so we could, in his words, “discuss the situation.”

“What situation?” I dropped into a control seat and crossed my arms. The rifle in his hands made me angry. “You caught us. We surrender. Put the damn gun away.”

He deactivated the weapon and placed it on a sensor console near his side. “The Forharee female is expecting a child. How is that possible?”

“Lousy planning on the part of the lizards.” I smirked. “Forharee physiology requires oral doses of the chemical inhibitor—infusions don’t work. Those kids haven’t been swallowing their pills.”

Reever studied me. “And you refused to terminate the pregnancy.”

“Refused? No. I just found out about it. But even if I had know, I wouldn’t have even considered it.”

He leaned closer. “You know what the Hsktskt do to breeding female slaves.”

“She’s not a slave anymore. The Hsktskt won’t get their claws on her.” I rubbed my fingers against my temples. A squad of Hsktskt centurons might be on their way. “Unless you turn them over to the centurons, and I’ll kill you myself before I let that happen.”