END of LINE: Humanities Last Stand - part 3 (11 page)

“I swear to you that I will keep our families secrets my Giant. When we are fully mated, I will live anywhere you decide. I am your female, my life now
belongs to you.” Satrina told Jon.

“No my sweet tiny tigress. Our lives belong to us. We make decisions together. I don't need someone to follow me around and do whatever I say. I need a
partner who has a brain and knows how to use it to help me understand the world in which we live. Two people working together are always stronger than one
person doing all the work while the other blindly follows.”

“I think I will enjoy having a brain. None of the Palace males think the Princess should have one.” she smiled. Then her smile turned into a sneer “They
say stand over there and look pretty Princess. That's why you're here.”

“Speaking of looking pretty,” Jon asked “How do you like your gown?”

“Oh Jon, I love it! It has the colors of all of the Lexonian houses, even the scarlet of my father's house is here,” she pointed to the exact spot on the
dress where the Royal scarlet was proudly displayed at the top center of the spiral, “except these colors are brighter, more vivid. It’s a beautiful gown
and I shall wear it proudly, just as your aunt declared I should on the day you defended her honor.”

“You remember that? Come here.” Jon directed her behind the desk to sit in the chair. Then he pulled a small device from one of the drawers. “I'm going to
put this device around your wrist. It will form itself to your arm and down across your palm. It will feel very warm, but you will not be injured.” Jon
kept speaking softly to her the entire time he was strapping the device to her wrist. “Its a type of medical scanner. What it is doing is reading your
blood and recording the little grooves in your palm and on your fingers.” Jon saw a look of discomfort on her face so he asked her, “Is it getting warm?”
When she nodded that it was he told her, “That's good. It’s almost finished. Just take my hand and squeeze if you must. I know it can be very
uncomfortable. When my uncle did this to me I cried like a baby. Of course I was only six cycles old at the time.” Jon smiled at her and just as she
reached out to grasp his hand the device peeped and sprang off of her skin onto the desktop. “The house security system now recognizes you as a family
member but not as a pure human with the Umin gene. So you will be able to use everything the house has to offer except this room and the room where my aunt
stays when she is home. That room is back down the hallway at the foot of the stairs. I've made it so that even I need her permission to go in there. It’s
her place to hide away and be alone when she needs to. I noticed that she would spend more and more time in there with the door locked as I got older. I
think she was fighting back her mourning period for my uncle because she knew I needed her to raise me. As long as I live, I'll never be able to repay her
for everything she has done for me.” Jon told Rina blinking back his tears and missing his aunt. He wished she could be here to see his mate. She would
love Rina as much as he did. Jon was sure of that.

“We have to return these clothes to the racks. The closets up in the dressing area will make new gowns for you now that the house has recognized you.
You'll find a new wardrobe upstairs perfectly sized and ready to wear. They all belong to you now. The house will never demand you to return them. Its up
to you if you wish to wear them. I know that my aunt only wore the really fancy ones in her closet on special occasions, like that day at the Lodge.” Jon
continued to give Satrina instructions about how things worked at the house through the separator wall as she changed back into her royal scarlet clothes
and he returned the armor to its hanger and the sword to its proper place with the others. It bothered him that he had lied to her. He knew that the
location and the codes to operate the Leviathan were hidden in this room. He knew exactly were they were hidden and how to use them to retrieve the ship if
it was ever needed again. Every male in his line since the first
Jon Connell
had known. It was a part of his family history to be handed down only
to the first-born human male. Well the secret would die with him. He was the very last such human male in the universe. He lowered his head as the full
burden of his family secret fell heavily on his shoulders. “One day I will buy my own ship and live out among the stars. I only hope that Rina will come
with me.” he muttered through his grief.

When she walked out of the changing room Satrina saw Jon standing with his head down and heard him muttering about his plans and his hopes that she would
stay with him. Quickly stepping into his arms she forced him to look at her before saying, “Where you lead, I shall follow. Whether that is here in this
house, on Lexon II at the small Palace, on a planet at the edge of known space or on a starship roaming around the galaxy. Where you lead, I shall follow.”
She raised up on her tip toes and pulled his head down to her before kissing him deeply once again.

Jon lead her back up to the main level where they noticed that it was getting dark outside. “I must get back to the Palace. By now the guards are starting
to worry. That could bring the Regent and his crowd of miserable fools here.” Satrina said. “I'll try to return tomorrow and you can show me this lake that
you own.”

Jon walked her outside to her hovercraft and kissed her again before helping her to step into the vehicle. “The house knows you and so does Talga. This
place is as much yours as it is mine now. I don't lock the doors unless I'm going off planet. If you ever want to come here while I'm gone, just place your
palm over the door sensor and the locks will open for you. If I’m home when you come the doors will open when you get close enough to enter. The vault room
downstairs will only open for me; so don’t be upset because you can’t get in to where the armor and swords are kept. I give you permission to bring any of
your friends that you trust with you. Be safe my tiny tigress.” He told her as he backed away from her craft.

“This will be our special place my mate. The only person I would ever trust to bring here would be my brother. I need him to meet you and to like you so
that he can stand with me when I tell our Father that I have chosen my mate and that my mate is a human male who is the direct descendant of
Jon Connell.
Be safe my Giant. I shall think of only you until we are together.” She blew him a kiss and then she was gone. She lifted her craft
over the trees and flew as fast as she could to the north and the Lexonian summer Palace.

As soon as she was out of sight, Jon felt the loneliness over take him again. It had turned out to be a wonderful day spent in quiet togetherness like he
had never known. He wished that it could go on forever, but he knew that was just a dream. If ever they got time for another day like this, it would be a
miracle. After all, she was the Crown Princess of the Lexonian Confederation and he was the owner of a major system corporation. The demands of both worlds
would constantly be pulling at them. Once the word spread, there would be hundreds of public appearances that they would be required to attend. His only
hope was that those demands did not pull them apart. Then there was his contract with the Peacekeepers to consider. There were rumors of increased fighting
out on the rim worlds where the pirate operations where becoming more bold.

For the rest of Jon's leave time there were many more days of wonderful togetherness for both he and Satrina. They played with Talga, who seemed to enjoy
sneaking up on them to scare them by roaring from behind. Jon and Satrina had both taken to throwing small treats at the animal that pounced like a kitten
to capture the treats before they could escape his mighty jaws. They spent peaceful days on the lake together either swimming near the shore or out rowing
in a small vessel that Jon told Satrina he and his uncle had built after he had found the plans for it in the town's library.

One day as they enjoyed the calm water on the Lake Satrina spotted a flock of tiny dragons flying over head. "Look Jon, Are those the dragons of Haven?" She asked while pointing to the sky.

"Yes. Each one of them wears a different color. They have every color from all the houses on Haven and the Lexon people. There is even one that wears my family colors. I know because4 it came down once and bit my ear while my uncle and I paddled this very same boat across the lake before I was 12 cycles old." Jon reached up and scratched his ear where the tiny dragon had bitten him. "I cried that whole day and my aunt was afraid the beast had left a poison inside me. It wasn't until my uncle told her that the many colored dragon had bitten my ancestor and he'd survived the ordeal that my aunt stopped worrying."

"The legends of the Lexonian people say there is only one of the many colored dragons and it only shows itself to the next Umin Dragon King." Satrina remarked. "Are you then their king?" she asked with a smile.

"I've never considered myself to be anybodies king." Jon replied. That same day he led her over the magical multicolored bridge that appeared out of the mists and led to the Umin caverns whenever he played the special tune on the ancient violin.

With Satrina at his side, they explored the town's public park, the historical exhibits in the Library, including the monument to the fallen with its carved plaque of Jill
Saunders, and enjoyed a traveling carnival that had come to spend several days in Jonsville. Jon had won a large stuffed animal with ten legs, three
eyestalks, droopy “ears”, and a round body that Satrina had seen and thought was cute. After spending nearly two hundred credits and throwing a dozen small balls into a designated circle, the impossible creature now sat in the middle of a couch in Jon's living room.

Through it all they each learned a great deal about the person they had each claimed for their mate. Jon came to understand Satrina's love of nature and
that it exceeded his own. Satrina fully realized how deeply the taunting lies and constant bullying he had suffered from the mouths of his classmates as he
grew into the male she loved had hurt Jon.

While at the carnival Satrina had gone to use the female’s relief station and as she sat behind a solid door, she overheard two other females talking about
her Jon.

“I wonder who that pleasure female is with the freak?” one had asked.

“I don't know. I sure hope she's getting paid enough to be seen with him. Nothing he could ever offer would make me even think about it. I thought Helios'
father had Connell sent to the mines anyway. How is he even in Jonsville?”

Satrina had wanted to slap the two, but her Royal upbringing had stopped her. She learned what it was to be really loved by another person for the first
time and to call that person her own family. Never had she been so furious over anything that was said about her brother. Yet, when it came to her giant,
Satrina now knew how much mere words could anger a person. Her first act, once her mating had been announced, would be to return here and punish those two
females!

They also learned that there would be some things that they would never agree on. Eggs should be scrambled Jon told her one morning while she insisted that
eggs should only be eaten after boiling them in wine. Not the cheap wines, oh no, only the most expensive Lexonian wines would do. She insisted that
several cases of the different wines be brought to the house for her use because she could not acquire a taste for the local Cook's Original beer that was
Jon's favorite adult beverage. Jon found himself building special racks to hold the bottles in one of the unused lower level rooms. Jon hated politics with
a passion while she had been raised with the politics of the Royal Household with all its many twists and turns. She was extremely versed in the
manipulation of powerful people while Jon preferred to avoid them all together. He enjoyed spending long hours basking in the sun. She could not stay
outside without being fully dressed for very long. The sun caused her to get a painful burn on the exposed portions of her small body. Her natural skin
tone gave her all the “Tan” she'd ever need, she had once told Jon when he had wanted to stay out on the lake for another hour after Satrina felt herself
starting to burn.

Together they decided on how each would compromise on some of their differences and each compromise always worked out to the advantage of both of them as
their relationship grew even stronger. They were no longer the timid novices at love that they had been. They had taught themselves how to work together to
find solutions. Yet they somehow managed to restrain themselves from completing their mating. Jon insisting that he would not use her only to be injured or
killed in the coming struggles he would face in the service. He had stayed in contact with each of his three FTL ships and had given Satrina updates about the growing pirate menace out on the rim worlds. Satrina knew that without her father's blessings, their union was doomed to heartbreak because she could not bear to be shunned by her sire. Jon had taken his place in her heart, but her father still held a large place in her soul. When she confessed this to Jon he comforted her by telling her that he believed that was how things should be because while Rina, as Jon had named her, owned his whole heart, he also had his aunt Gala held gently in the grasp of his soul and he would never let her go from there as long as he lived. Besides, as small as his aunt was, if she ever learned that he had misused Rina, she would take up a stick and beat him, mourning robes and all!

Then came their last day together when Satrina told Jon she had been called back to Lexon II by the King. They decided to spend their day together having a
picnic down on the small sandy beach near the lake. He prepared several treats for them to enjoy including different fruits, some cheeses and breads along
with some of the very expensive wine that Rina loved and placed all the items and a large colorful ground cloth in a basket and then took Rina's tiny hand
in his to lead her to the beach. However, their plans for one last peaceful day were disrupted when Jon's COM badge suddenly rang out from across the room.
“Connell here!” Jon called out.