Hunting Cari (First Wave) (15 page)

Cari leaned
back enough to put his face in between her hands and kissed him deeply. She
tried to keep the sadness from taking her over and fought the tears threatening
to spill.

“Scaden, I
love you more than the air I breathe as well.”

She buried
her face into the crook of his shoulder and held him tightly to her. They
stayed like that for what seemed like hours, until both of their skin started
to wrinkle.

Knowing
they had to get out, Scaden stood up and carried her out of the water. Standing
her on the floor, he grabbed a big, fluffy towel and gently dried every part of
her body. He then put her dress back on and re-secured it to her.

Not
breaking their unspoken silence, she did the same for him, but allowed him to
put his pants on himself not wanting accidentally to trip him.

He gently
took her hand and led her out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. He set her
down at one of the chairs at the bar area, and walked into the kitchen area. He
turned a bright smile on her as he held his arms wide.

“What would
you like to eat, my love?” Cari giggled at him.

“You, plan
on cooking something for us?”

“I’ll have
you know I am a great cook!” He retorted, trying to pretend offense at her
questioning of his cooking skills.

Keeping
their teasing tone, she pretended a look of disbelief. He feigned a look of
hurt and clutched his heart for dramatic effect, making her giggle at him.

She really
began to laugh as he started tossing what looked like cooking pots and utensils
in the air and catching them before setting them on what looked to be the
stove. He then opened up cabinets and what must be the fridge, digging through
the contents and pulling out random items and setting them on the counter.

“You aren’t
making something gross are you?” She made a face at the thought of some of the
food they had served her on the ship. Her stomach did crazy little flips at the
thought of eating some of that stuff again.

“Have some
faith in me,
Amalaya
, I know exactly what you did and didn’t like and
have no plans on making something you won’t enjoy.” He gave her a wink and
continued to work busily on preparing their meal.

“I’m pretty
good in a kitchen myself; I can give you a hand, and we can get done quicker.”

“I can
handle this just fine, and we’ll have plenty of time later for what you’re
implying.” Scaden replied, laughing at her enthusiasm.

“Do we
really?" Cari asked him sadly.

Scaden came
over to her and took her into his arms, pouring out his love to her… and
confidence. He rubbed her back in gentle little circles to soothe and calm her.

“I will
figure a way out of this; I promise you that. They will not keep us apart. Have
faith in us and it will all work out; one way or another, I promise.”

“And
obviously, we’re getting a little help from somewhere, because how else can we
be here… together, and wake up and each remembers exactly what happened here?
Even though we aren’t really in this place physically, we remember every touch,
taste and sound as if we truly are. That is amazing, and a true sign that we
are meant to be together.”

Cari sighed
as she absorbed his confidence, and it bolstered her own. She was not normally
so pessimistic or overly emotional, and she had no idea why she had these bouts
of sadness. She knew Scaden was right and knew he would find a way for them to
be together, Council or not.

She gave
squeezed him tightly to her, allowing him to feel her renewed confidence.

“I’m
starving, aren’t you supposed to be dazzling me with your culinary talents?”
she teased.

“As you
wish, my lady.” He gave her a sweeping bow and headed back to finish their
dinner.

Scaden
finished cooking and artfully placed the food onto two plates and placed hers
in front of her with a flourish. Grabbing utensils, he sat down beside her and
waited for her to try the food, wanting to see her reaction.

Everything
he had cooked was native delicacies that weren’t practical to have aboard the
ships, and he was anxious to see if she liked them.

Cari stared
down at the colorful items on her plate with curiosity. She knew she’d not see
these items on the ship and was a little nervous about trying them. He’d been
so sweet about trying to cook for her that she didn’t want to hurt his feelings
by making a mad dash for the bathroom to throw it up, if it didn’t sit right in
her stomach.

Sensing her
hesitation, Scaden used his fork to stab a bright purple tubular item, and he
held it in front of her mouth, urging her to try it.

She sighed,
closed her eyes and pulled it off the fork and into her mouth. She was
completely surprised at the sweet and sour taste of it. It was really good!
Opening her eyes, she chewed and swallowed and grabbed her fork to get more,
suddenly starving.

Scaden laughed.
“I take it, that you really like that then?”

“This is
really good! What is it? Never mind, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know in
case it might be gross and stop me from having more of it.”

Scaden
laughed again and began to eat his own dinner, looking over at her periodically
to make sure she was trying everything and was enjoying it.

Cari hadn’t
realized just how hungry she was until she had completely cleaned her plate.
The entire meal was delicious. There had been nothing that she hadn’t really liked
and would definitely eat again.

“Wow, you
really are a good cook. I’m impressed, baby.” She kissed his cheek as she
hopped up and cleared their plates, placing them in the Valendran version of a
dishwasher.

When she
was finished, Scaden lifted her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom.
Setting her on her feet at the side of the bed, he unclasped the brooch holding
her dress together and let it pool on the floor at her feet. He picked her up
and gently laid her on the bed while he undressed and then joined her in the
bed.

Pulling her
close, he gently kissed her vowing to himself that he would love her through
the night.

*****

“By the
One! It worked! Get them to MedLab now!” Gracus exclaimed to the assembled
crew. It seemed like the entire ship was standing in the corridor outside Cari
and Scaden’s quarters.

When the
tech’s had initially breeched the walls using the laser cutters, the crew had
let out a stream of deafening cheers. Now they just had to get their commander
and his mate to wake up.

Several
crew members stepped forward and gently lifted their commander into their arms
and put him on the portable med-bed they left in the corridor, then rushed him
into the lift to take him to MedLab with Amun following.

Randor went
into the bathroom where Cari was lying on the floor of the shower unit, with a
blanket over her that she had pulled from her bed over a week ago. The last
time she got up. He willed her to wake up as he gently picked her up, blanket
and all and cuddled her to his chest.

“Cari, wake
up honey. Please wake up.” He gently shook her, hoping it would be enough to
wake her.

Walking out
of the hole in the wall and into the corridor, the crew waited expectantly for
him to place her on the med-bed, so they could get her to MedLab.

Randor
ignored the bed and the crew as he lovingly carried his daughter to the lift,
begging her in his mind to please wake up. Hoping that if she felt his love and
his fear for her that she would awaken.

He didn’t
even notice Gracus and the rest of the crew following him the entire way to the
MedLab. Inside he gently placed her on the bed next to Scaden and waited for
them to make her wake up.

Amun began
running between Scaden and Cari, yelling out orders to his team and demanding
the test results from the scans he was having them perform simultaneously on
both patients.

Gracus,
Randor and the entire crew held their breaths as they waited for them to wake
up. There were so many in the room that the door would not close, all of them
waiting expectantly.

“Perform it
again damn it! It has to be wrong!” Amun was yelling at a tech. Walking over to
Cari himself, he pulled the blanket off and hissed in shock.

Gracus and
Randor Walked over to the bed, so they could see what was wrong, and stared in
surprise, while the rest of the crew waited with dread to find out. What
shocked their normally stoic MedLab commander? Amun called out more orders to
his team.

“Is that
because she hasn’t eaten or had fluids in so long? I’ve seen this same thing on
starving children on Earth. Can you fix it and make it better?” Randor asked in
fear, staring at her swollen belly. He couldn’t lose her!

Amun
ignored him while the tech’s set up a scanner and stepped back. His fingers
flew across the panel until a hologram appeared in the air above Cari. The
whole tech team sucked in a sharp breath and began cheering. Even Amun smiled
widely.

“My
friends, this is something we don’t want to ' This is a reason to celebrate.”
While the techs continued to cheer, Amun gestured to the hologram, outlining
certain items on it.

“These two
items you see are the two babies she is carrying. And the scans confirm that
they are Scaden’s children. She is carrying what the people of Earth call,
twins, which I’ve never heard of happening on Valendra.”

The
assembled crew just stared at Amun in a stupid form of shock. Even Randor and
Gracus were stunned into silence.

“She’s
pregnant with Scaden’s children, t perfect little daughters to be exact. This
is absolute proof that they are mates. The council can’t possibly keep them
apart now.” Amun clarified, waiting for them to understand what he was saying.

“She’s
pregnant? With twin girls?” Randor asked in wonder.

“How is it
possible for her to have two of them?” Another crew member asked.

Amun
laughed and tried his best to explain things to them, while most just stared at
Cari’s stomach like they expected the babies to pop out at any moment.

“Why
haven’t they woken up?” Gracus asked.

“From what
we can tell, they have put themselves into a self-induced coma. I have no idea how
they have done it either. The scans show an extremely high amount of brain
activity occurring, not only with Cari and Scaden, but the babies too.”

“And
another mystery is that the scans are showing their bodies at peak nourishment.
They are showing none of the effects of being without food and water for a
week. I need to run more tests to figure out what is going on. But I can tell
you that both, and the babies are in perfect health.”

Amun was
just as perplexed about the results of the tests on them and was having most of
them run again to try to figure out what was going on. Even though some of it
is unknown right now, he was far more grateful that they were all doing ok, and
couldn’t quite contain his amazement at the first twin children ever conceived
by his people. And daughters at that!

“Leave it
to Scaden to be the first of our people to create twin daughters. He’s never
going to let us live this down.” Amun uttered aloud without realizing it.

The
assembled crew cheered loudly; Randor and Gracus hugged and smiled broadly at
each other, clapping each other on the back.

“Well how’s
it feel to be a Great-Father old man?” Gracus teased the stunned man.

Randor
couldn’t even find the words. He turned and stared at the hologram and his twin
great-daughters with pride and an overwhelming sense of protectiveness, love…
and fear.

“We can’t
tell the council. Not yet. We need to let Amun get all the facts together first
and get them to wake up. We jumped to conclusions before, and it put them in
the situation they are in now. We can’t make the same mistake again. We can’t
jeopardize them and those babies. We all have to agree now, that we won’t tell
anyone outside of this ship, until we know everything, we need to know, and we
wake them up. Will you all agree?” Randor asked everyone around him.

“He’s
right. We need to wake them up first. And we need to be able to prove
unconditionally to the council that they are mates. And I won’t go behind their
backs again. They could have died from our actions before, and I have no idea
how they are not in poor health from lack of sustenance. We need to know more.
And the commander has a right to know he’s going to be a father, before the
council.” Amun added, knowing that withholding this information from the
council will probably get him in more trouble, and not caring.

Gracus was
extremely pleased when the crew began nodding and exclaiming their agreement to
the decision. As the current commander of the ship, he needed to make it easier
on all of them. Knowing the ship wide comms were on so those at their duty
stations would know every happening with their commander and his mate, he
absolved the crew of any guilt they may have at deceiving the council.

“I hereby
order everyone on this ship to withhold any information currently known and
anything that will eventually be found out about the commander and his mate,
from the council.”