She was taken to a medical facility and she twisted her lips as a busy female in a uniform came to her with a brusque manner. “Please hop up on here, miss.”
Despite the admonition not to talk, she felt that this woman needed to know she wasn’t an idiot. “All right.”
The men froze in place and the woman did the same.
Pet walked past them all and took a seat on the cool but comfortable table.
The woman came out of the trance first. She picked up a tablet as if she hadn’t just been stuck in place. “That was strange. Now, miss, what is your name?”
The man from the shuttle quickly lunged forward and covered her mouth.
Pet frowned at him. The woman was asking her a question, after all.
“Doctor, we suspect that she is a siren. Asking her questions at this point may not be the best thing to do.”
“Thank you, Rejik, but I believe that she will try to modulate her tone.”
The doctor’s words reminded her of something. Pet remembered that she had been trained to be careful, but she couldn’t remember by whom or for what. She nodded for the doctor and smiled slowly. “I will try.”
The men shivered, but the doctor didn’t even blink, instead, she gave Pet a wide smile. “What is your name?”
She blinked and a tear tracked down her cheek. “I don’t know. They called me Pet, but that isn’t right.”
“I think we can find something else to call you.” The doctor started on the scans and turned to her escort. “You can go, gentlemen.”
Pet basked in Rejik’s smile. “I will check in on you later, Pet.”
The doctor shooed them out and looked Pet up and down. “I think you look like a Sarah. Maybe a Stella.”
“No.”
“No?”
“I am already wearing a name that isn’t mine. Why would I want a second one? When I find out who I am, I will wear that name, but I am not taking one just to make people forget what the Marcovians did.”
The doctor blinked. “I see. That makes sense. Pet it is.”
Pet smiled and had to ask. “Now, can you get me out of this metal? It is not exactly designed for comfort.”
With a grin, the doctor picked up a sonic cleanser. “That I can do.”
With the strategic application of the sonics, the metalwork was soon falling to the floor and Pet was breathing easier. By the time she was naked, there was a sense of freedom that she couldn’t remember feeling before.
A quick sonic shower and Pet felt clean and remarkably steady. Her hair was in a long black cloak down her back and surprisingly enough the metal studs between her eyes and trailing down the bridge of her nose were hers and not the addition of the Marcovians.
The doctor provided a floor-length tunic that was slit to mid-thigh on either side. It was comfortable and it covered everything. It didn’t feel quite right, but it was definitely an improvement, because the ship was far cooler than the atmosphere she had been used to.
“How am I, doctor?”
“You are well, a little off on your mineral balance, but a week of good food should straighten that out. Come along, it is almost dinner time and I am sure that those who retrieved you will be happy to see you transformed.”
She sighed and nodded. It was stressful to restrain her voice, but if she minimized her speech, it might be possible to socialize with the people on the ship.
The doctor smiled and took her hand. “My name is Helain, Pet. You can ask me anything.”
Pet blurted out, “What is my name?”
Helain froze and Pet waited it out. When the doctor started moving again, they walked the halls in silence. She didn’t tell Helain what she had done, but she thought that the doctor may have suspected.
The dining hall was full, but after an eternity at the feet of Madam and Sir, this was orderly, polite and decorous. The food woke her senses and her mouth watered. She wanted to try it all but paced herself with only one tray of food and a large glass of water.
Helain sat down at an empty table, but soon, Rejik and the other men who had found her on the surface joined them.
Rejik looked at her and then turned to the doctor. “Did you send it?”
Pet cocked her head. “Did she send what?” Her throat ached with the effort it took to stop the vibration that came so naturally.
Helain smiled. “Rejik called ahead and asked me to send a blood sample out for comparison to those of your race who were on file. We will have to wait for results, but we are hopeful that your physical traits can be combined to confirm a match if we get one.”
She blinked. “You can find my name?”
Rejik looked at her and he smiled, his features taking on a hazy glow in her vision that none of the other men at the table could match. “We will do our best, lady.”
“Thank you.” Her voice vibrated a little and her emotions dipped into it. The men at the table didn’t become stunned. They all took on a fierce look that focussed on her.
Rejik cleared his throat and cuffed the male next to him. “Come on, Tomas. Let’s let the lady enjoy her meal and get some rest.”
The men shook their heads to clear them as they got to their feet.
As they left, Rejik muttered, “Let’s hit the gym. We need to work this off.”
“What did that mean?”
Helain smiled, looked around to make sure that they were relatively alone and leaned forward. “You are an Edinar and more than that, you are a siren.”
“A what?”
“Your voice directly connects to the nervous system of some species and either freezes or stimulates it. What were you thinking when you spoke to Rejik?”
Pet blushed. “I was thinking that he was very handsome and his hair needed to be pushed away from his left eye. I was thankful that he was helping to find me.”
“And that little emotional trigger sent arousal through them all with only a few syllables. If I don’t miss my guess, they are in the gym right now fighting for your hand or any other available body parts.”
Pet cocked her head and tried to put an image together in her mind. “I don’t really understand. What is an Edinar?”
Helain exhaled and leaned back. “Whew. That question surprised me. Well, the Edinar were a race of very creative and highly intelligent people who had genetic predisposition to psychic talents. Several races saw this as a threat and destroyed their colony world with only a few rare stragglers remaining.”
“If they knew there were survivors, why didn’t they look for me?”
“They didn’t know there were any survivors until a few started popping up recently. We listened to every rumour and finally, we were able to pinpoint that a woman was being held as an exotic treasure by the Marcovians. We tried to send in representatives to buy you, but they wouldn’t part with you and so, we were forced to take additional measures.”
“You blew up the ship because of me?” Her voice hummed in shock.
Helain paused for a moment. “Um. Yes. Well, no. We didn’t mean for the ship to blow, but they wouldn’t give up your location and things got out of hand.”
Pet absorbed that and pushed away the dregs of her meal. “Is there a place where I can sleep?”
Helain nodded. “Of course, but the captain would like to meet you first. He will give you your room assignment.”
“Where is he?”
“I will take you to the bridge.”
Pet got to her feet and found herself face to face with an eager crewman.
“You are so lovely. I have never seen anyone like you before.” His gaze was admiring, but Pet was too tired for this kind of foolishness.
She put her exhaustion into her tone. “What is my name?”
He dropped to the floor and snoring ensued.
She turned fatigued eyes to Helain. “He is just sleeping. Can we go now?”
Helain immediately got to her feet and escorted Pet to the captain.
Every crewman who thought to stop and chat was met with the same question, “What is my name?”
Helain was a little perplexed. “Why would you ask them that question when you know they don’t know the answer?”
Pet smiled grimly, “Why would they try to start a seduction when they don’t know my name?”
Helain nodded. “Good point. Very good point.”
The bridge of the ship was sparsely occupied, but the man in the central chair was obviously the one they were looking for.
“Captain Harrir, this is Pet.” Helain was standing stiffly and she inclined her head slightly toward Pet as she spoke.
“Hello, Pet, is it?” The man turned to her and smiled slightly. He was old, much older than any of the others she had seen on the ship so far. Something familiar flared in his eyes and she could almost place him in the missing part of her mind.
“Until my name is returned to me, I will be Pet.”
“You can call me Captain or Harrir or Sofalic if you wish.”
She smiled. “It must be nice.”
He stood and approached her. “What is?”
“To have a name that you know is yours.” She knew she was wistful, but she couldn’t help it.
The moment that the words left her mouth, the crew started sobbing.
Captain Harrir nodded. “I will take you to your quarters so that you can rest. Are you aware of what we are?”
“You are not Coalition forces, so I am guessing that you are from a world that was not hostile to the Edinar.”
He smiled and took her arm. “That is correct. We are all from the world of Reska and our sole mission has been to find surviving Edinar and make sure that they are safe and comfortable. We buy the survivors, steal them or fight for them, whatever is needed to bring them freedom.”
“Why do you care so much for the freedom of another species?”
He didn’t answer her until she was standing in the VIP quarters.
As he stood next to the door, he smiled, “As long as there are Edinar, there is hope that we can become something more, something better. The Reska were a sister species to yours, but you went one way evolutionarily and we went ours. This is our chance to bring a little of what your folk became to our folk, not for us, but for future generations.”
He left her with that while she sat on the edge of the bed.
Pet peeled off her tunic and crawled between the sheets with nothing sticking her or prodding her from any angle. It was hard to sleep while comfortable, but she was going to give it her best shot.
A knock on her door woke her from a troubled sleep of people screaming and panicking while she could not see the threat.
“Pet, are you awake yet?” Helain was smiling and she had an armload of clothing with her.
“Yes. Come in.” She sat up with the bedding wadded around her in a nest.
“I brought you some clothing and underclothing that should fit. We also have a few names that match your blood type and if we can run some specific scans, we might be able to confirm your identity today.”
Pet flipped the bedding back and lunged for the clothing. “What are we waiting for?”
In less than three minutes, she had run herself through a cleaning cycle, brushed her hair and was tugging up the closure of the jumpsuit that Helain had brought. With the suit on, she felt almost like a crewmember.
Exiting the lav, she stopped short when Rejik was standing and watching her. “Hello, lady. You look lovely today.”
She swallowed and controlled her voice, which she found difficult, as he looked lovely today. His dark hair waved over one eye again and the other piercing blue eye was crinkled as he smiled. His jaw was still chiselled and she could see the one spot he had missed while shaving. Her fingers itched to touch it.
Helain watched them both and cleared her throat. “We should get some breakfast and then run those scans. Rejik, will you join us?”
His smile changed to something slow and the glow that Pet always saw when she looked at him intensified into something with a pulse that made its home in her belly.
“I believe that joining you is high on my priorities today.” He smiled. “Escorting the two loveliest ladies on the ship, I will be the envy of every officer.”
Blushing was her response and it remained high on her cheeks while they ate. She really wanted to simply run to medical and take whatever scans were needed, but Helain needed to eat as well.
“Rejik, what do you do when you are not digging women out of holes on strange worlds?” She managed to modulate her tone enough to stop any spill over, but her body was still aroused, her senses desperate for additional input.
“I am a ship’s officer. I fill in at the helm and where I am needed.”
Helain snorted. “He is the second in command but hates it when folks call him Commander.”
Pet raised her brows. “I have become very aware of names recently, for some reason. To reject one that you can wear and know it is yours is strange to my current mindset.”
“I suppose that it would be. I am Commander Rejik Eslir Harrir of Reska, at your service.” He smiled at her, his gaze sparkling.
Pet tried not to shake her head. No matter how he looked physically, her mind was painting him with a perfection that spun her senses wild. Her mind was trying to tell her something and her body wanted her to follow through.
When Helain finished her food, she wiped her mouth on her napkin and smiled. “Well, Pet, if you are not going to eat, we may as well get the scans done.”
Pet was out of her chair in a second.
They all entered medical together and Pet sat down while Helain readied her instruments.
“We have the files here, but because the Edinar didn’t use genetic scans, we need a more involved blood typing as well as the records that were salvaged. For the first scan, I just need a drop of blood.”
Pet extended her hand eagerly and Rejik held it still while Helain pierced the palm of her hand.
“How long until we know?”
“Two minutes or so. I have to tell you that those nasal implants were a little confusing until I realized that the sirens might have a caste system. Some research that Rejik did provided the answer.” Helain wandered off with the sample to run the test.
Rejik stood next to her, his hand still supporting hers.
She whispered, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For not calling me Pet. I may not have a name, but I appreciate being a lady.”
He smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You have always been a lady, but I would be very happy if you were my lady.”