END of LINE: Humanities Last Stand - part 3 (55 page)

Three days later as Jon and Rina were toweling each other off after their morning shower the Healer commed them.

“Admiral, I need you to come down here immediately!”

“Is something wrong with Zeprik?” he asked.

“No sir, the Prince is fine. In fact he should be waking up in another hour.”

“Have you cleared the King?”

“Oh yes sir! The amount of poison in the King's system was still small enough that all he needed was a simple injection to clear his blood.” Hukor told
him. “Its your cat! The darn thing refuses to move away from the Princes' tube!”

“I'll be right down Healer Hukor.” Jon promised.

“What was that about?” Satrina asked.

“The Healer says Talga won't leave the tubes. Its not like him to get in the way. Usually he goes off to hide or to roam the ship and scare people. I swear
that tiger thinks scaring the wits from people is a game.”

“He tries to scare me you know. But Phillie taught me a trick. She says that your scent is so heavy on him that she always knows he is around whenever she
smells you, but knows you are not near. She taught me how to tell the subtle difference between my mate and his tiger. It works. Poor Talga has not been
able to scare me again. He has to settle for Gala. He loves to jump out at her. Of course she just kicks him. Never very hard though.”

“That's their game. From the time he was a tiny kitten, he would jump out at her and she would push him with her foot. Neither one would ever hurt the
other. She will never admit it, but she loves that overgrown house cat. I think that as much as any wild creature can, he loves her too.”

“Let's go see what has the Healer so upset. I'd like to give Talga a hug myself. I've missed him almost as much as I missed you.” Satrina told Jon.

Down in the small room that was being used to keep both of the King males and now also the Regent secure, there was about to be a fist fight as Boss King
grew more and more angry with Regent U'Lanto.

“You listen to me you over blown Sand Worm! You promised us a promotion and a home on Lexon II. You better keep your promise or I tell them everything
you've done since I've known you. I'll expose every lie, every murder, every dirty trick you pulled to make sure the pleasure houses had a steady supply of
beautiful young Lexie females. I'll be sure your brother knows that you are half owner of that farm on Canari where the Lustro Drug is grown and processed.
How many underage females have you gotten hooked on that drug? Fifty, Sixty? More? How many did you use yourself before turning them over to the houses? I
know of at least ten. Then there was that one who overdosed and died at the Summer Palace while you were still in her. I had to not only clean up the mess,
but dispose of the body.

Was that why you wanted your own niece to be drugged and sent to a specific house? So you could have her? Your brother will be
very happy to know that his Regent wanted to take his daughter to bed. You better remember your pledge to give us an alibi for anything that they might try
to accuse us of doing. Last time you even came close to doing that was the crash we arranged to kill the Queen! Even then, we still had to pay a huge fine
for providing a bad wheel on the monorail coach. You made us promises for doing that job and I still haven't seen them fulfilled.”

“You say a single word about any of our dealings and I'll make sure you never leave this ship alive! You forget your place.” U'Lanto yelled back, “You came
to me begging me for a promotion in the household and I offered to provide you one if you did certain jobs for me. I even helped you to get a fleet of
ships, which now all belong to this human and are providing me with no income because you're offspring was too stupid to put them to work properly.

After the first one, you should have blown him out of the sky on sight, not traded cannon fire with him. He is a trained pilot while your offspring was little more
than a sneak and supply station guard. Now he has not only all of TransCo.'s ships, but this huge beast of a ship too!

Under whose orders did you attack Sanctuary? What were you thinking? If you had done your job correctly, I'd have both my niece and my sister stashed away in my private pleasure house
drugged out of their minds and usable as my personal toys. I could have used them to get others to agree with my rule. Those two would have made perfect
pleasure females given the right training and enough of the Lustor to keep them craving more. Instead they are back under the protection of that human
giant! I would start everything over from the beginning just to find intelligent helpers and not have to deal with the King family!

Up two levels in the intel computer room, a team of tecs were making sure every word and hand gesture was being stored for later use when a trial was
called against these three criminals. It might be interesting to see how this Regent, who was guilty of so much, would twist the truth to get himself set
free and the charges against him dropped.

The one vid news reporter, who had been taken aboard when the shuttles left Lexon II, sat quietly watching the activity in the room. What he saw was not
the scrubby group of near criminal goons he thought he would find. Instead he saw an organized and professional team of males and females from all the
planets working to find the truth behind what had to be some of the biggest crimes in the Confederation. What surprised him most was he had been given free
run of the ship to record conversations with any of the crew who wished to speak with him.

He was also given a secure com link back to his office so he could send in his stories unhindered by any of the regular traffic between Leviathan and the four Destroyer class ships, each one with its weapons now fully restored, working the outer rim. He'd even had a chance to make several trips on the Destroyers to document how Jon's Stars and Stripes Security
Company went about doing its job. Not once did he see one of Jon's ships making demands on any of the ships or colony planets that they helped. In some
cases they called for Leviathan to come and carry a damaged ship to its destination port. The only payment that was ever asked was that the cargo ships'
Captain or a planet’s leaders remember that they owed the security company a favor.

Thinking at first that he would find just one more criminal group raping the rim for what it could steal, he instead found a dedicated group of
professionals who believed in their work, themselves, and most of all in Jon Connell. Everything they did was to help the good people who lived along the
rim. The reporter had even been able to interview the King! That had been the interview of a lifetime and his audience back home had loved it. Those are
the stories that he sent back to his bosses on Lexon II. Soon he became a household name with people all over the galaxy tuning in to hear his show once a
week.

Entering the Med Lab together Jon and Satrina saw the worried look on the Kings' face.

“What troubles you Father?” Satrina questioned.

“I've done as my long lost sister has told me and I've left you two alone. I've sat by and kept my peace as your Healers checked on Zeprik. I allowed your
Healer Hukor to give me an injection that had me spending three days in the relief chamber expelling the most foul smelling things you can imagine. I've
even given an interview to that reporter you kidnapped. I think I've done a good job of being the King. Now I want to be a father and go sit by my son, but
there is a wild beast that refuses to be moved! Jon Connell, will you please move your pet?”

“I am truly sorry Your Majesty. Talga is sometimes very protective of his humans. I shall try to get him to move Sire.” Jon told the King, then he went
over and hugged the tiger while coaxing it away from the tube where Zeprik lay in a deep sleep. “Come away now Talga. You must let the Healers tend to your
human and his Sire wishes to be near him also. Please come away.” For his part, Talga still refused to be moved even though he did nozzle his massive head
against Jon's face before licking him. Jon always tasted good to the huge cat, but he always tasted better when he had come directly from his mates bed.
Today he tasted better than he ever had!

Seeing that Jon wasn't having any luck getting the huge tiger to move, Satrina knelt down, threw out her arms and cried out, “Talga, come to me my
beautiful tiger. You are a good protector to watch over my brother so. Come here and let me hug you.” Talga stood and walked over to Satrina to nozzle her
neck and lick her face. Indeed. They both tasted very good when they were together! It was a shame that the Goddess had entrusted them into his care. She
had told him while he was still a lost and frightened kitten that he would one day grow to the strong male he was today, but that his life would be spent
in the service of his humans. He could never betray the Goddess. His humans had loved him from the first when he was a weak, sickly kitten, left to die in
the forest by his mother as was the way of things among the tigers. Even the one that is called auntie loved him despite her playful sparring. His humans
would make a wonderful meal! Actually several good meals since his male had brought him on this metal world they called a ship. However, he was forbidden
from eating any of them so he settled for the fresh milk and large meats that were left for him everyday.

They were all in the Med Lab when the lights on Zepriks' tube flashed green three times and everyone heard the locks opening. The lid slid open and inside
the Prince opened his eyes before raising his hand to cover his eyes from the harsh light of the Medical Labs.

“ZEPRIK! My son!” the King squealed as he ran over to embrace the young Prince. “How do you feel? Are you well? Is your memory intact?”

“Father!” Satrina yelled over the excited voice of the King. “He has just woken after over a full cycle in a deep sleep. Give him a chance to fully awaken
before you smother him with your endless questions.”

“My questions for him are nothing compared to the ones I have for you daughter of mine. When did you mate with this giant? Why wasn't I told? Where has he
been? Where did you get such a beautiful gown? Why does no one tell me these things? Does he treat you well? Do you love him? Does he love you? There are
many who would use you simply because of who you are. You know that don't you? Does he even know who you are? What you may one day be forced to become?

“BROTHER!” the harsh voice of Gala overpowered the Kings' questions. “Leave the children alone! Yes they love each other. Yes he knows who she is and who
she may be forced to become. While neither of them ever want to have that happen, they will face it together should the day ever come. They are ready for
anything as long as they have each other to lean on. Each of them completes the other in ways that only true mates can.”

Turning to look down to where both Jon and Satrina knelt and petted the huge cat she said, “Talga, what are you doing here? Jon you brought that big furball onto your ship? Are you insane? He is a wild creature whose home is in the forests of Haven.”

“No auntie, I did not bring him. He brought himself.” Jon explained about how the animal had waited until Jon was ready to leave his home before jumping
into his shuttle and refusing to get off. As he spoke Gala walked over to scratch the animal behind its ears and it rubbed against her purring loudly the
entire time.

Zeprik sat still and tried to drink the foul tasting drink the Healer had given him. Then wrapping the covers from the tube around his naked body, he also
slowly walked over to Talga and patted the big cat's head. “Thank you guardian.” he said to the tiger. “How did I end up on a ship?” he asked to no one in
particular. “The last thing I remember was being attacked by two of the pirates we were sent down to Canari to capture.”

“If you're really interested in what happened on the planet, we have data archived on the events of our last battle together.” Jon told him. “After that we
were both taken to the med labs on Lexon Station. My spine had been severely injured and I was told that you had died. They turned me loose after several
months of recovery, you ended up at the Palace on Lexon II where they kept you in a deep sleep. Our Healer can explain this better than I, but someone
wanted you out of the way. You were slowly being poisoned. In fact, your death has been public information for nearly a full cycle.

The reason Satrina's messages to you sounded strange was because someone at the palace was changing them before they were sent out. They also blocked all my messages to her and her's to me. The Regent was trying to keep us apart, but my heart-mother brought us together. That's when Satrina told me you were still alive.

I brought Leviathan into Lexon II's space and demanded that you be brought onboard. Your father insisted that he be brought
along with you. Seems he has not left your side to do more than eat and sleep the entire time you've been kept asleep. You are onboard the Leviathan. The
ship of legend is real and is under my command. One of the most amazing devices on her are these healing tubes. They put me in one and the tube healed my injured spine. Now they have given you back to us as well. From the look on your face, I see our Healer has not improved his wonderful nutrient drink since he made me drink the stuff.”

“But sir,” Healer Hukor tried to defend his drink, “it has all the proper nutrients and liquids needed after a prolonged suppression of the digestive
system!”

“Have you ever tasted it, Healer?” Zeprik asked.

“Well no, but...”

Zeprik handed the half full glass of the drink to the Healer. “Drink, your Prince demands it!”

The Healer took a mouth full of the thick liquid and his face twisted into a contorted expression of pure anguish before he spit it out and ran to find
some water. Everyone else in the room laughed until Zeprik nearly dropped the only coverings he had which made everyone except him laugh much harder! Jelio
rushed in with a proper tunic for Prince Zeprik and scolded them all for laughing at the Healer before giving in and laughing herself. “The Healer means
well. He just thinks about what is needed for his patient’s health and well being, not their comfort. He went out from here and threw away several vats of
his drink.”