Alien Salvation (22 page)

The women covered Aaron’s body with
palm fronds, a silly exercise Lindsey thought, but they had to do
something. Leaving him exposed seemed terribly wrong. The clan
promised a proper service would be given once they found the search
party.

And of course they cried oceans and
oceans of tears. Lindsey thought she would endure a thousand
tornadoes, a million Kalquorian shockwaves to remove the pain she
felt now. She’d never known such agony.

The moon rose soon after darkness
descended. Tara fell asleep clutching Lindsey as the women sat
staring into the fire. Lindsey watched the flames flex and snap,
the light weight of her mother huddling against her barely
noticeable. She stared dully as the men carried palm fronds onto
the beach, laying them in a sort of bed on the sand nearby. A few
beach towels Japohn had located in a nearby tourist shop went on
top. After arranging them to their satisfaction, Bacoj came over
and carefully untangled Tara from Lindsey’s side. He lifted the
bedraggled older woman in his arms like a child and carried her to
the frond bed, laying her down. The Kalquorians gathered around
her, murmuring to each other as they covered her against the night
breeze with more towels. Watching them care for her mother with
such concern and consideration eased some of Lindsey’s pain. It
also brought home how intensely she’d come to rely on them; not so
much for physical survival, but because they filled her heart in a
way she’d never known.

Once they had tucked Tara in, the men
gathered around Lindsey by the fire. It was natural to lean into
the arms that closed around her, to rest her cheek against a
muscled chest, to reach to touch the warmth of the bodies
surrounding her. Aaron’s death had left a gaping hole in her being,
but there was no denying the completeness she felt with the clan.
Her clan.

She was sore. She was wrung out
physically and emotionally. She felt nasty with her hair dried in
sea-salt stiff clumps and her clothes cemented in taut creases with
gritty sand. But being held so gently by her mates somehow made her
almost whole despite the unfathomable loss of her
father.

“Will you make love to me?” she asked
them.

Bacoj stroked her cheek, searching her
face. “You want? Sure?”

She nodded. “It would comfort me. Make
me feel not so alone.”

Without another word, the men undressed
her. She sighed to feel the welcome warmth of their hands and
mouths caress her. Each man took her in turn, groaning as they
enclosed themselves in her hearth, rising and falling over her as
they claimed what was theirs. Under their care Lindsey climaxed
with each lover, every orgasm melding her shattered remains back
together. She emerged from the lovemaking a different Lindsey, but
in one piece once more.

She also resurfaced confident in her
decision to join the clan. As they snuggled against her, exhaustion
finally ready to rescue from the harrowing day they’d endured,
Lindsey said, “I love you. All of you.”

She didn’t expect a response. She
didn’t need one, satisfied to simply acknowledge her own feelings
and be at peace with them. But she felt the reaction of Vax and
Bacoj, who lay on either side of her. Japohn, spooning behind Vax,
had his hand on her shoulder and it tightened.

A smile in his voice, Bacoj answered
for all of them. “We love you also, Matara.”

Still hurting but serene, Lindsey let
the roar of the surf and the warmth of the men’s arms around her
lull her to sleep.

Chapter Thirteen

A low hum and the exclamations of the
Kalquorians woke Lindsey just as the sun broke the horizon. She
opened her eyes to see the men dressing in their unfathomable
speed.

“Dress, Lindsey,” Bacoj urged, yanking
his boots on. “Shuttle comes.”

With a yelp, Lindsey grabbed her sandy
clothing, getting the legs of her jeans tangled as she fought to
put them on. She noticed her mother standing and looking at the
palm frond-covered body of her father. A sudden rush of pain
enveloped her, and in frustration she cursed at her inability to
get dressed.

“I help,” Japohn said. He grabbed her
pants from her, shook them out with a snap of his wrists, and slid
them up her legs. Lindsey ground her teeth against the gritty sand
scraping her skin. While the Nobek fastened the snap and zipped her
up, Bacoj shoved her into her tank top. Vax worked on her
boots.

Tara joined them, her face drawn. The
approaching shuttle came into view over the tops of the palm trees
as the clan finished dressing Lindsey. It landed a few yards away
on the beach, settling quietly in the sand.

“We speak to them. Stay here,” Bacoj
advised.

Lindsey and Tara waited with Aaron’s
body as the men went to the shuttle. The craft’s main hatch opened
and two Kalquorians stepped out.

Bacoj’s clan bowed slightly before
their fellow aliens, letting Lindsey know the newcomers outranked
them. Bacoj advanced ahead of his clanmates and spoke, his guttural
speech floating to Lindsey’s ears. The two newcomers glanced at her
and Tara. Their eyes widened.

I think we’ve been identified, Lindsey
thought. She hoped they wouldn’t let on to her clan. She felt it
was up to her to share her identity with her mates.

The five Kalquorians headed their way.
When the two strangers stopped before the women, Bacoj’s clan
ranged themselves around Lindsey. She didn’t miss how the taller of
the rescuers narrowed his eyes at them. He was a leanly muscled
man, handsome in a rough sort of way. He spoke first after both men
bowed to them.

“I am Dramok Fosir, in charge of the
search efforts for our Empress’ family. This is Imdiko Weth who is
a doctor.”

The Imdiko smiled, his broad face as
jolly as a muscled giant could be. “My great pleasure to meet you,
Mataras.”

Fosir’s gaze flicked to the covered
form lying nearby. “My sympathies for your loss. Dramok Bacoj has
told me of the loss of your mate and father. We will take you to
our base where we will make all arrangements as you require for his
body.”

Tara managed a wan smile. “Thank
you.”

Weth pulled a metallic box from his
belt. “May I scan you to determine your overall
conditions?”

Tara pointed out, “I believe Vax has
the worst injury.”

Weth gave Lindsey’s Imdiko a quick
glance. With a comforting smile, he said, “We will set him to
rights at the base. For now, please let me see to your
health.”

As he waved the scanner over them
Lindsey said, “You speak our language very well.”

Fosir answered her. “It is necessary
for our work. We have to be able to communicate to your people in
order to track down Empress Jessica’s family.” His eyes narrowed
again, and Lindsey steeled herself for the question he would no
doubt ask next.

Instead he said, “As part of the
containment crew, Bacoj’s clan wasn’t prepared for as much
interaction with your people.”

Weth studied his scanner’s readout then
stashed it on his belt once more. To Fosir he said, “The Mataras
need food and water. Otherwise they are well cared for.”

“Good work to your clan,
Bacoj.”

Lindsey’s Dramok nodded his
acknowledgement of the praise.

Fosir’s tone was cautious as he asked
Lindsey, “Is it true you have been claimed by this
clan?”

“They claim me and I them.” Her voice
was firm.

Fosir and Weth exchanged looks. Again
Lindsey was sure they’d say something about her identity, but
instead Fosir bowed and motioned towards his shuttle. “Mataras, let
us take you and the body of your beloved to our base
camp.”

They boarded the shuttle, and after
Fosir and Weth brought Aaron’s body on board to lie in the back
cabin, Fosir sat in the pilot’s seat. The rest sat in the main
cabin. Bacoj sat on one side of Lindsey, and Tara sat on the other.
She held hands with both.

Bacoj smiled down at her, his face
easier than she’d ever seen it. “Soon clean. Eat real
food.”

Lindsey sighed in anticipation. “That
will be nice.”

The shuttle lifted off, and Lindsey
knew she had little time left to tell her men who they’d clanned.
“I have to tell you something before we get to the
base.”

The men looked at her expectantly. Her
grip on her mother’s hand tightened, and she felt a reassuring
squeeze in return. With a deep breath she said, “I’m Empress
Jessica’s sister. Tara is her mother.”

Three faces froze. Three pairs of
purple eyes grew wide. Three mouths dropped open. There was
stupefied silence for several beats as Lindsey watched them try to
absorb the bombshell.

Finally Japohn sputtered, “This is
joke?” He looked furious.

Her heart thudding painfully, Lindsey
nodded at Weth. “He knows. He and Fosir both recognized my mother
and me, didn’t you?”

Weth nodded, keeping a careful eye on
Japohn. “We kept silent when we realized you hadn’t informed your
clan yet.”

Bacoj turned to face her. His
expression was guarded, but his eyes were intense. She fought to
not drop her gaze from his stare. “Why you no tell us?”

“Because at first I wasn’t sure I could
trust you.”

Tara was at her most placatory. “You
all have to understand, our entire lives we’ve lived under a
totalitarian regime where no one could be trusted. After the
government was gone, there were reports that it had been Kalquor
that set off Armageddon here.”

To Lindsey’s distress, Bacoj pulled his
hand free of hers. Vax and Japohn were visibly upset, but he
displayed no emotion at all. He leaned towards Weth and barked a
few sentences at the older Imdiko.

Weth nodded and spoke to Lindsey.
“Bacoj has asked me to translate so he may better speak to you with
no fear of misunderstanding. Is that acceptable to the Imperial
Mother and Sister?”

Tara nodded. In a small voice, Lindsey
answered, “Yes.”

After another quick burst of guttural
speech from Bacoj, Weth asked, “You joined my clan. How could you
do that without telling us who you are?”

Lindsey swallowed. She’d never seen her
Dramok look so cold. “I planned to when the time was right, but
that time never seemed to happen. We kept getting into trouble;
first with the Tragooms, then after we clanned I got distracted by
our, uh, celebration—” she was a little relieved to see their
mouths quirk at the mention of sex they’d enjoyed “—and the next
morning we had to run from those militants right away, then the
ship crashed and Dad—”

At the memory of her father’s death,
emotion closed her throat. Lindsey’s eyes filled with tears, and
she bowed her head as a sob escaped.

Bacoj’s hand closed over hers once
more, and she sobbed again to feel his touch returned. He spoke in
Kalquorian once more, and Weth translated.

“I understand now. But Lindsey, we are
not a powerful clan. We have little rank, and you are the Empress’
sister. Councilmen and their clans are waiting to court you back on
Kalquor, clans that can offer you finer homes and greater
wealth—”

“Enough,” she interrupted, anger
creeping into her voice. “If you guys haven’t figured out by now I
don’t care about that stuff then we’re in real trouble.” She looked
at each in turn. “I told you how I feel. If you feel the same for
me that’s all I care about.”

Their expressions were soft, and the
three men nodded. In English Bacoj said, “We love you. We want you
happy.”

“Then stop trying to get rid of
me.”

Lindsey slid close to Bacoj, and he
wrapped his arm around her. Vax and Japohn leaned forward to touch
her, stroking her face and hair. She felt safe again until she
noticed Weth’s frown. His expression made disquiet gnaw at
her.

In a matter of minutes, the shuttle set
down. Fosir had not activated the vids, so Lindsey had no idea what
to expect when the hatch swung open, but the sound of running feet
drumming across a hard surface made her think there were a lot of
people at the Kalquorian base. Fosir had commed ahead, but as he
spoke in Kalquorian, she didn’t know what he’d said. She had to
assume he’d told his superiors the Empress’ family had been found.
The excited speech outside assured her that the aliens knew
something important had happened

.

“Usually the Dramok precedes the rest
of his clan,” Weth said when the tattered group
hesitated.

“All wait the Empress’ family. Mataras
first,” Bacoj answered. That earned approving nods from Fosir and
Weth.

“Come on, Mom,” Lindsey said, taking
her mother’s hand.

“I look completely wrecked,” Tara
sighed, raking her fingers through her sand-encrusted
hair.

It was a good sign that she was
concerned about her appearance, Lindsey thought. “You don’t look
any worse than the rest of us. Let’s go find a shower.”

They stepped out of the shuttle. The
instant the two women appeared on the ramp, silence descended over
the Kalquorians who had assembled outside.

Dozens of the dark-skinned men were
lined up across the pavement of a former shopping center’s parking
lot. Several other shuttles lay scattered across the asphalt.
Behind the rows of Kalquorians, half a dozen large metallic square
structures definitely not of Earth origin dotted the
horizon.