Authors: Tracy St. John
Miv said, “I find most of them exquisite. This is the prettiest of them all, I think.” He drew a deep breath and shook himself. “We’d better get going. It seems like most have been caught, but we need to finish the sweep.”
Vadef nodded, but he was again looking at how helpless and frail the tiny Matara looked. Damn it, he didn’t just want to walk off and leave her lying on the floor like this.
He said, “Just one moment, my Nobek?”
Before Miv could answer, Vadef went back into the little sleeping room they’d found her in. He grabbed the thin, rumpled blanket on her bed and pulled it off. Under Miv’s questioning gaze, Vadef went back out into the corridor and covered the golden-haired female from her chin to her toes, carefully tucking it all around her motionless body.
As he rose, he saw that others had taken note of what he’d done. Imdikos, mostly medics, hurried in and out of the other sleeping rooms, finding more blankets and covering the unconscious women. Even some of the Nobeks got into the act, and Vadef had to suppress a smile. No doubt the protective warriors saw this as an opportunity to redeem their acts of taking such helpless creatures prisoners. It made Vadef feel a little better about carrying out his own duty.
Miv nodded his approval, even letting a smile drift over his usually savage countenance. Vadef noted all the screams had stopped, replaced by quiet mutterings from the Kalquorian crew. Perhaps they were done with the unpleasantness.
He smiled back at his clanmate. “All right, Miv. Let’s see what’s next.”
Miv started to turn to lead the way, but then he looked at something over Vadef’s shoulder and he froze. His spine stiffened. “Weapons Commander Lidon and Captain Tranis are here.”
Ducking a little, feeling as if he’d been caught doing something wrong, Miv got back to work. He hurried down the hall to see if there were any other Mataras to be sedated, not waiting to see if Vadef followed him. He did not want the uncompromising Weapons Commander Lidon to find his work lacking in any way. He kept his eyes down, trying to be inconspicuous as he moved away from the imposing, battle-honed Nobek.
He heard the deep tones of his superior, the man’s massive voice carrying through the hallway as Lidon called to Miv’s clanmate. “Records Officer.”
Vadef’s quiet, almost boyish voice replied. “Yes, Weapons Commander?”
Miv kept going, checking the situation. Most of his fellow security personnel milled about now, double checking the open doors of the sleeping rooms or simply looking over the unconscious Mataras. Apparently, everyone in the building had been captured. He kept his ears trained on Lidon’s exchange with his Imdiko.
“This situation looks well under control. Go on to the colony’s main office and access its records files. Find out which females are under legal Earther mating age and send the information to squad leaders. We must make sure we don’t take younglings back to Kalquor.”
“Yes sir.”
Miv shot a glance over to see his clanmate heading towards the exit. For once Vadef didn’t look insubstantial, not when he compared the man to the tiny women they’d just subdued.
Vadef’s body was toned, possessing muscle despite a series of illnesses in his childhood that had stunted his growth. He still looked more like a teenage boy rather than a full grown man in his mid-twenties. Completely cured of the compromised immune system he’d been born with, Miv’s Imdiko would still never attain a large stature. The young man looked vulnerable among the hulking specimens of their kind, and as ever, Miv felt the almost violent need to keep Vadef safe.
Adding to the Imdiko’s seeming susceptibility was the innocent cast of his lovely face, framed with a soft flow of silky black hair. With fine-boned, almost delicate features, Vadef moved about his life with a perpetual wide-eyed curiosity that was as endearing as it was worrisome. He soaked up new experiences like a sponge, and sometimes forgot to be careful in his enthusiasm to learn all he could. Being confined to bed and often hospitalized as a child had left Miv’s clanmate with a near desperate need to explore and see everything in the known universe.
Vadef passed Miv’s immediate supervisor on his way out of the building. Weapons Subcommander Osopa was deep in conversation with a couple of other security personnel, and Miv decided getting an assignment was better than standing around and waiting for his orders.
As he went towards his superior, he passed the blonde he and Vadef had just secured. He couldn’t help but look at the female again as he went. He’d never seen anyone so beautiful, and he replayed the way she’d felt in his arms when he’d held her. She’d been so tiny and light, barely even there. The little Earther was a feather compared to even Vadef. It had been hard for Miv to set her down on the floor, to remove her from his care. Somehow her silent tears had affected Miv more deeply than the screams of the other women. He’d felt a visceral urge to save her, but what had there been to save her from? Himself? His crewmates?
Miv’s gaze ran over the delicate features of her pale face, wondering how old she was. She looked to be near his age but with Earthers, who could tell for sure? Their life spans were shorter and they aged faster than Kalquorians, though it was believed the superior medical capabilities of the Empire could close the gap eventually. Earth was overcrowded and polluted, with medical research lagging far behind that of most civilized planets.
The tiny beauty fell behind Miv, and he was fast approaching the trio of Captain Tranis, Weapons Commander Lidon, and Dr. Degorsk. The senior officers of the spyship were all clanned to each other and worked well together despite their seeming dissimilarities. Dramok Tranis was much younger than his clanmates, but he held himself with great maturity. His beard lent him age that had not yet approached the ability to line his face. The youngest captain of the Kalquorian fleet, he had made his mark with fearless intelligence. He’d been offered an admiralship just a couple years back, which he had refused in order to remain a spyship captain.
Nobek Lidon was a feared idol among his men. The weapons commander limped on a horrifically scarred leg, the result of having his fighter nearly blown to pieces as he fought a battle many years ago. As spiritual as he was fierce, one was as likely to hear him quote a passage from the Book of Life as they were to receive a punch for stupidity.
Imdiko Degorsk, the ship’s head medic, was as confusing as he was a talented healer. Most Nobeks on the ship could not figure out how the handsome doctor who cracked unending (and usually unfunny) jokes had managed to clan with men of Tranis and Lidon’s fierce and no-nonsense demeanors. Miv had once heard Degorsk get angry with his staff however, and the man had spouted abuse and obscenities fit to make a man’s ears bleed. For an Imdiko, he was plenty nasty when pissed off. Miv had been impressed.
The young Nobek skirted past the threesome, keeping his head down and his gaze intent, as if to show how busy he was. He did not want to get yelled at and shamed by Lidon. It was with no small relief that he reached Weapons Subcommander Osopa.
Lidon’s second, not much older than Miv, acknowledged him. “Ensign Miv?”
Miv executed a quick bow. “It looks like all the inhabitants of this building have been neutralized. I’m ready for my next assignment, sir.”
Osopa nodded. “Start moving the women to the infirmary. Mind that you take only the ones that look in the proper age range to clan. The infirmary is located at the U-junction at the end of the hall down there.”
“And the others?”
Osopa pursed his lips and glanced at Lidon, who still conversed with his clanmates. The young man came to a quick decision on his own. He’d joined the fleet straight out of training camp, and despite being only slightly older, he had years of experience over Miv.
Osopa said, “Most of the young ones are in the other wing, so you probably don’t have to worry about under-ages on this side. We’ll give Records Officer Vadef a chance to figure out which of those we don’t touch.” He glanced at an older woman, her snow-white hair and creased face a clear indicator of her age. “Leave the elders here for now. We’ll be placing them and the younglings in their temple building.”
Another Nobek named Jas had been listening to the instructions carefully. He said, “Sir, I’ve looked in the infirmary. There are more clan-age women than that room will hold. I don’t think we’ll get more than twenty women in there.”
Miv blinked and looked down the hall, at the lines of Earther females. Now that the invasion was a success, he could finally appreciate what they’d found. It made his mind reel. He couldn’t stop the shock in his tone when he whispered, “More than twenty women.”
Osopa turned his face so Lidon couldn’t see his grin. “It’s amazing to see so many females similar to ourselves, isn’t it? Can you believe this?”
Miv slowly shook his head. Other than the females of his own family and those of his clanmates, he’d never seen so many Kalquorian-like women in his life. It was a profound shock.
Osopa returned to his professional demeanor. He told the gathering security group, “I’m aware of the space issue in the infirmary. The overflow will be put in what I think is the dining hall, which is the next building over. Miv and Jas, you’ll have first guard shift in there. I’ll assign several more security as well.”
Miv and Jas chorused, “Yes sir.”
As he started towards the other end of the hall to begin moving the Mataras, Miv’s attention was again captured by the woman with the long, blond curls. He suddenly decided she would go to the cafeteria, where he could keep an eye on her. Maybe he’d even manage to talk to her a little, if she would allow it.
In a hurry to fill the infirmary with women who weren’t the blonde, he scooped up a brunette and ran past Lidon, who was now standing alone. The weapons commander nodded his approval as Miv flashed past him.
The scarred Nobek’s deep voice rang through the corridor. “Excellent work, Nobek Miv. The rest of you can move your sluggish asses like him. Get those women quartered now!”
That brought on a rush to put women in the infirmary. Miv felt delight that he’d earned praise from the weapons commander, something not often gained. At the same time, he worried someone would bring his pretty blonde into the infirmary.
He reached the small medical room where Dr. Degorsk waited. As he received the head doctor’s instruction on where to put the woman he carried, Miv covertly noted the other females brought into the room with its few beds. With twenty women, some would have to be placed on the floor. Miv left that concern to the medical staff. He was determined the blonde would not end up in here.
It was a relief to not spot that cloud of golden hair among the Earthers brought to quickly fill the room. Miv hurried out to fetch another woman, taking away the chance his Golden Curls would be brought in.
* * * *
Vadef tapped on a computer keyboard, amused that it had no voice-command interface. How quaintly archaic, he thought.
It made him work slower than usual. While he’d achieved a great deal of fluency in seven Earther languages, including the English that was employed in the colony’s system, he wasn’t very familiar with the letter layout on the keyboard.
The colony’s records office was small and sparsely furnished with only a desk and chair. There were vid pics on the wall of the Earther religion’s three prophets, one whose face was veiled from sight. There was also a religious totem that consisted of a cross, six-pointed star, and a crescent moon. The tiny office held nothing else except for a ceramic cup stained brown on the inside. Sitting on the desk to Vadef’s right, it exuded a pleasant nut-like scent that made him wonder about the drink it might have contained.
Vadef meticulously worked through the convent records, discovering who was who in the religious order’s hierarchy. He had figured out that there was one elder called Mother Superior who was in charge of the colony. Then there were nuns, often referred to as ‘sisters’. Last were the aspirants, young women and girls learning to become nuns. The Imdiko had quickly realized that the aspirants were the colony residents most likely to be underage girls. He’d gone through birth information for those and forwarded the squad leaders vid pics and identification scans of those who were too young for clanning.
Vadef had worked his way into cataloguing the of-age females, those who could be made prisoners of war. Under Kalquor’s code, that gave the Empire the right to claim them for clans looking for Mataras. The women were pretty spoils to be kept and cared for and who would hopefully carry children for the nearly extinct Kalquorians. The Empire’s desperate need for such women was the reason Kalquor and Earth had gone to war in the first place.
Vadef blinked as a familiar ethereal face appeared on his vid. The Imdiko’s mouth went suddenly dry as her recorded face seemed to offer him a gentle smile.
She has blue eyes. Like the sky on a clear day on Kalquor.
It was the blonde who’d not screamed when he and Miv came for her. The one who’d only wept and prayed as they tried to comfort her even as they took her prisoner. By the ancestors, she was beautiful. Still sad though, even in her picture. Her sweet face smiled a little but there was such sorrow in those large, blue eyes. It gave him the irrational urge to find her and try once more to comfort her.
Vadef stared at her for long seconds before he could get his mind working again. At last, he looked down at the details of the lovely Earther.
Name: Katherine Archer, Sister of the Europan Order of The Prophets’ Eternal Brides
Vadef frowned at the name. Part of it was a title, like the Mother Superior’s. Earthers often had two, sometimes more names, the last being the names of their fathers. So this female would be addressed as Katherine.
“Kat – Her – In – Ee?” Vadef shook his head. No, the ‘th’ of the name was one sound. And the ‘i’ would be a long vowel with the silent ‘e’ at the end. He tried again. “Kath – Er – Ine.”