Slavers of Antar
By
DocPaul
***************************************************************
Chapter
Four: Etymon
“Captain, the recovery base is ready to pull out.
They’ve searched all areas around the cities. No other survivors have been
found.”
Max turned in his chair. “Order them out.” He
looked at Michael. “Target the main city, Michael.”
“Aye, Cap.” Michael quickly charged weapons.
“The smaller cities as well, Max?”
Max paused, but he nodded. There were piles of
rotting dead in all the cities. They couldn’t leave them where they lay.
“Yeah. Let’s bury them all.” He sat back in command chair and watched the
world below. “Michael, fire at will, once the recovery teams have dusted
off.”
Michael waited until he was given a confirmation
from the teams that all members were off planet, and all survivors out of the
danger zone. He fired the forward weapon array targeting the larger city first,
then the smaller ones. They watched as the areas targeted on the planet exploded
in a large plume of fire. It would burn the cities into nothing, flattening it
to a plain of devastation, burning the forest around it for a mile in each
direction.
Michael swallowed hard, looking at his hands. He
frowned to see them shake. Quickly moving them to hide the tremor, he looked at
his brother. Max hadn’t noticed.
“Max, I need to check some systems. Do you need me
for the next hour?”
Max seemed distracted. “No, go. I’ll need you at
the meeting with the planetary leaders of this system.” Michael nodded and
quickly left the bridge handing over his station to another. Max looked at his
communication officer. “Contact
“Aye, Cap.”
Max sat back and watched the planet burn in the
areas that were once teaming with life. In a glimpse, he saw Alex staring at the
planet as well, and then in a blink he was gone. Max shut his eyes and shook his
head to clear his vision.
Alex? Max stroked his scar thoughtfully. He didn’t
know when he decided to go home to
~~~
“Commander, can I help you?” asked Julia.
Michael looked around the medical bay. “Where’s
Kyle?”
“He’s still in protective environment. Can I
help you?”
Michael frowned. “I need to see Kyle.”
Julia sighed. “Of course. Come with me.” She led
Michael to the special room set up for Kyle.
Michael looked in at Kyle. He appeared to be
sleeping comfortably. Pausing, Michael finally tapped on the glass. Kyle opened
his eyes. Seeing Michael, he nodded.
Julia was surprised, but she opened the door for
Michael.
“Julia, can you give me a scanner?” asked Kyle.
Julia handed the scanner to Michael. She shut the door after Michael entered.
Watching for a moment, she watched at Kyle and Michael talked. Leaving them
alone, she frowned, looking back at the closed room.
“Sorry, Kyle.”
“It’s okay. I feel better.” Kyle took the
scanner and quickly scanned Michael. Frowning, he ran the scan again. Sitting
back, he raised a brow at Michael.
“Did you tell her?”
Michael rubbed his face. “No. And you’re not
going to either.”
“Michael…”
Michael interrupted him. “Trust me on this. I need
more time.”
Kyle closed his eyes. “She knows there’s
something wrong. You know that, right?”
“I know.” Michael held out his hands, and the
tremor was worse. “Can you give me something to take the shakes away?”
“Yeah. Same as before.” Kyle quickly wrote out
orders for Michael. “Look, Michael, this isn’t holding. It wears off faster
and faster. It was never meant to be a permanent solution.” Kyle looked up
from his notes. “You need to tell Maria. I can only block the hormones for so
long. Your body is flooded with them. The last few weeks it’s been worse. The
load is almost three times the level it was since I last tested you.”
“I know. I just need more time.” Michael rubbed
his face.
“Headaches?”
“Worse.”
“Emotions?”
Michael laughed bitterly. “What the hell is that?
I remember when I didn’t even know. Now? They’re all over the place. Max
made me stay off the planet.”
“I know.” Kyle hit Michael’s shoulder in
comfort. “Count yourself lucky.” Kyle’s eyes were bleak. “It was as bad
as the other raided planets, but worse. They’re searching hard. It was the
most horrible thing I’ve seen in many years. It was the worst type of
genocide.”
“Worse than Khivar?” Michael asked softly.
Kyle nodded. “Worse. There was a stench of evil
there. I can’t describe it, but it felt like it was moving into me, beneath my
skin. All of shields broke from the assault.” Kyle felt the bile rising in his
throat. “I—I’ve felt fear in my life, but this was worse. It was deep
inside. I couldn’t breathe.”
“I’m glad that Maria didn’t go down. She’s
been very sensitive lately.” Michael sighed. It had been hell keeping his
disintegrating health from her. He worked extra shifts, trying everything he
could to keep away from his wife. It was killing him. He missed her. He never
knew he could miss anyone like he missed her.
“Tell her, Michael. Just tell her.”
“This is Max’s fault, you realize that?”
Kyle nodded. True. It started with Max and Isabel
having the twins.
“You can’t fight your nature, Michael. It’s
who you are.” Kyle handed Michael his orders to give to an intern, so he could
be medicated. “Max was bonded to a sterile woman, there was never a chance of
his reproduction cycle activating yours, and when Serena died….”
“I didn’t notice it when Isabel was pregnant
before. So why now?”
It was hard to say. Attilaan physiology was a
strange mystery to most Offworlders. “I think that at the time that Isabel was
pregnant, you and Maria were first married, and you were pretty much all over
each other. It masked the effects. But ignoring a genetic drive can only go on
so long. Three years is a long time, Michael.”
“I’m not having children in competition with my
brother!” Michael rubbed his face. “I wanted time alone with Maria for a
good reason. I wanted it to be just the two of us for a while. I almost lost her
right when I finally found her. I can’t forget how that felt, knowing we were
only temporary. The need to be with her was strong. Now…” Michael stared at
his traitorous shaking hands. “Now, I can barely beat it back. I’m losing
time. Blacking out.”
“Blacking out! You didn’t mention that,
Michael!”
“Not losing consciousness. I’m losing sense of
myself.” Michael placed his hands between his knees. “Maria and I were
making love, and I lost it. Almost three hours later, an exhausted Maria, and my
body felt like it had been run over. I hurt everywhere. Maria was half asleep.
She told me to not touch her for at least an hour. She needed to sleep. I let
her sleep, but I wasn’t anywhere near through.”
“Michael…”
“They call it the red haze.”
“Part of the mating cycle?”
Michael nodded, “Big part. It’s when time is
limited, and you have no time to reproduce because of war or you’re caught in
a battle. It’s a hit and run. A burst, mating frenzies to get the job done
quickly. Efficiently. Problem was I didn’t hit and run. I stayed. Six hours
worth.” He stood up and started pacing. “I’ve got to stay away from Maria.
I can’t take a chance.”
“She can’t get pregnant, you know that. Not
unless she stops taking the birth control. The best solution is to have a
child.”
“You think I don’t know that?!” Michael lost
his control for a moment. Putting his hands to his head, he held it as he felt
like it was going to explode. “I want children. I do. Maria has a fear of
them. Not children. The responsibility. The loss. She lost every person she
knew, her entire world and people. She’s afraid that she’ll lose her
children as well. Worrying about me is hard enough, but add in small helpless
children. It’s paralyzing for her.”
“I don’t blame her. She has baggage. This is the
first time in her life she has been free of real responsibility. Being born to
sacrifice her life for the Universe, and willing to die took a lot from her. It
took her youth. When her world died, she was alone. There was no one for her
anywhere. Either way, Michael, do not put your reluctance on her. This is about
you.”
Michael shut his eyes. “I know that. Why do you
think I don’t want children yet? I want her to be ready. She’ll have
children if it’s what I need, but I want time for her. Time, Kyle. I need more
time!” Michael ran his hands through his hair making his unruly long locks
even more so. “She’s talking about having kids in ten years! She obsesses
over the twins’ safety. I can’t wait ten or fifteen years, Kyle. Some days,
I don’t think I can wait another moment.”
“Then tell her.”
“No. Not yet.”
Kyle sighed. “Then take the order. Give it to the
intern. He’ll give you an injection. Come back in three days for a check up
and a booster.” Kyle grabbed Michael before he could leave. “Did it occur to
you that avoiding spending too much time with Maria is having a reverse effect?
It makes you miss and want her more. That sounds counterproductive to me.”
“I’ve got to do something. I swear, Kyle. I want
to trap her in my bed and never let her leave. I’ve always felt that way, but
now it’s different. It feels like a rage.”
“Go get that injection. I’ll do some more
research.” Michael nodded on his way out. Kyle laid back down, his eyes
worried. Michael had been a highly sexual creature before meeting Maria. Horny
was the best description or perhaps lusty. Now he was way beyond that. He needed
to mate soon.
Damn the Attilaans and the choices they made to
repopulate their dying world. It was a stiff rigid plan. Once mated, producing
children was the main objective. Michael never had a problem before because he
was never mated, and never would be. Max’s mating cycle would’ve activated
Michael’s as well through the twin bond, but Serena had been sterile. So
neither Max nor Michael had ever had a mating rush to push them into parentage.
Max changed that when he impregnated Isabel and the twins were born.
Michael’s mating went active with Max’s fatherhood and his marriage to
Maria.
Kyle closed his eyes. He feared there was only one
solution. The ramifications of ignoring it were becoming hard to put aside.
There were no records of what happened to an Attilaan that denied their mating
instinct. Perhaps there was a reason for that as well.
~~~
“Maria!” Michael rushed into their quarters.
“Where are you?”
“Here!” Maria voice came from the bedroom, or
specifically the bathroom.
“The assembly is here. They’re waiting….”
Michael stopped talking the moment he saw her. She was in a long dress. Regal.
The amulet around her neck was her status emblem. The stone in the center was
unique and special. It matched the stone in an amulet he wore around his neck
under his shirt. He never took it off, much like his wedding ring.
She was beautiful. Michael could feel the rush of
blood in his ears as a hollowing sound hit him. His mouth was dry. The pounding
of her heart through her veins was evident by a throbbing along her neck. He
would almost taste the rush of her blood.
Against his will, he moved closer to her. Her scent.
His face went into her neck, his mouth found the pulse point as his tongue laid
against the throbbing beat of her life’s blood. Maria’s hand rushed over his
neck.
“Michael? Honey?”
He shook his head. He couldn’t talk. He could
barely breathe. The overwhelming need grew stronger, pulling at him, at his
loins.
Maria forced him to look at her by raising his head.
Her eyes met his and she groaned. Loud. It was hard to ignore the fire in his
eyes, the rushing feel of need in his blood that moved into hers.
"Michael,"
she said in a husky moan. Her eyes glowed. “Kiss me...," she whispered.
And Michael could taste her, her breath, perversely cool against his lips, and
he licked his lips, needing to have her inside him.
"Damn
it, Maria," he muttered, scraping his cheek against hers, past the gentle
swell of her soft cheek, until they were temple to temple, his veins throbbing
against the delicate bones that housed Maria's formidable brain. "I
can't…" He couldn’t help himself. So he dragged her mouth to his, and
met the stunning warmth of Maria's kiss. God he loved kissing! He loved anything
and everything he did with her, whether sexual or not. Everything. But her
kisses, the sight of her puffy lips reddened by his kiss. It was too much for
him. Desire made his limbs heavy. Too much gravity, he thought distantly.
Maria
moaned in his mouth, her mouth opening to him, as they drowned in the kiss. This
meant too much. Maria's kisses were
too open, too wrenching. Her lips
called to his lower groin area in an ache that was warm, inviting, and painful
at the same time. He was ready. He needed her. All of her.
Michael
couldn't get close enough. Maria's soft, soft mouth was going to drive him mad.
His hands wandered, and the fact that he was groping his wife didn’t
matter, as much as the need to take her to bed, and not against the wall. He
wanted her all to himself. Completely.
“Yes,”
she whispered hotly. “Yes!” Her hands were in his clothing. "You make
me...," panted Maria, "make me…"
“No!”
Michael pushed her away from him, but not far. He couldn’t stand that. His
body was screaming at him. Denial wasn’t one of his noted virtues. His mouth
rested against her temple as his ragged breath blew the soft tiny hair there.
“No?”
Maria moved back even more. He said no? Frustrated, the confusion was evident in
her eyes, her mouth was open in shock, and her tongue licked her lips in a
slight panic. “You just turned down sex? You?”
Michael nodded, and then quickly shook his head.
“Yes. No. I mean, definitely yes! To sex I mean, but not right here. Not right
now.” Michael groaned. He was an idiot. He sounded like an idiot. Closing his
eyes, he rested his forehead to hers.
“Oh God! You’re sick!” Maria’s hands
immediately went up to frame his face, her fingers probing and testing the
temperature of his skin. She was the worst choice to determine a fever since her
body altered itself to meet his.
“No! No, Maria, no—listen. I’m fine. I
promise.” Michael breathed in deep. This wasn’t his fault. She walked
through the door, so sexy. So beautiful. He lost control. Now he frightened her.
Maria searched his face, her eyes noting the
tiredness and strain. He looked not his usual self. Her worry etched lines
between her brows. Was he supposed to look so tired? Headache? He looked like he
had a headache.
“Is this a ‘Honey, not tonight, I’ve got a
headache’ thing?”
Michael laughed despite his discomfort. “No. This
is a ‘Honey, you’ve got me so hot, but there are people waiting for us’
thing. So can we….”
Maria’s voiced sounded hollow. “There are people
waiting for us? You turned down sex, because there are people waiting for us?”
Michael nodded. “Since when do you ever care about other people being
inconvenienced by us?” Oh, well hell. Never. “Oh God! You’re dying!”
Maria’s voice rose in hysteria.
Michael quickly grabbed her in his arms rocking.
“Maria, damn! Calm down! I’m okay.” He kissed her hard. “Listen to me.
We need to get this done so we can go home to
“Raincheck?” Maria sniffed. “For sex?”
Michael kissed her again, laughing softly under his
breath. Damn she was so adorable. “I promise. Definitely later! Okay? Can we
finish this later?”
“You’re okay? You promise?”
"Yes," promised Michael huskily, closing
his teeth on Maria's earlobe. His hand slipped into her clothing despite
everything. Her skin was soft and warm. Moaning softly, he dipped his head to
suck the skin of her neck into his mouth. “Definitely. I’m going to need
some help with this little problem I’ve got.”
Maria wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’ve
seen that problem. It’s not little.”
“Hmm. Finish dressing. The sooner this is over,
the sooner we can get back here.”
Maria nodded. “I’m pretty much ready. I just
need to do a little damage control, and you need to get dressed.”
Michael frowned in confusion. “Dressed? Me?”
Maria put in her earrings. “Of course. I might
have to play Princess, but you’re my husband, my Lord. That makes you the
Prince. Mush! We’ve got people waiting for us!”
“Yeah like I care,” grumbled Michael on his way
to change.
Maria smiled as she watched him go. Her eyes
suddenly changed. Worry moved over her face again. She stared at the door for a
long moment, lost in thought.
~~~
“Princess,” said the main representative of the
planets of Talmar solar system. “We’ve given all the sensory information we
collected to the information officer.”
“I thank you, Chancellor.” Maria said regally.
“Your benevolence is greatly appreciated by the New Royal Federation, and by
the victims of Geneja.”
The man looked at the other members of the
represented members of the planets. “We are to understand that the great ship,
Shiva will be leaving our system?”
Maria gestured to Michael. He sat at her side.
Michael sighed. His turn.
“That is correct, Chancellor. The Shiva
must return home to
The man bowed to Michael. “Thank you, my Lord. It
is a great concern for the safety of our worlds. The attack was vicious and
immediate. Before our outward defenses could discern what was happening, the
first city was already burning. They came in a regatta of warships, one moment
there, and another—not. Geneja never stood a chance.”
Michael’s jaw clenched, but his voice remained
even. “That is understood. We will find these raiders.” It was more than a
statement. It was a promise.
Maria stood, forcing all others in the room to stand
as well. “Until such time that we can guarantee the full safety of your
worlds, I feel it necessary to give you this.” Maria held up a small silver
orb. “All of your worlds must have one. This is a communication module. It is
regulated to a frequency set to this receiver. The New Federation Council will
have that receiver.” Maria handed over identical ones for each world. They
each held the small silver orbs in their hands, awe struck. Anterraan
technology.
“This will reach you, no matter where?”
Maria nodded. “Indeed. Almost as if I were in the
very room. We cannot promise we will return in time, but chances are greatly to
your favor that we will.” She registered the devastation in their faces. One
world felt the brunt of destruction, but the others felt the lingering fear. It
was a fear not far from their memories. It was the same fear they knew living
under the tyranny of Khivar.
What was freedom when fear remains? The unlawfulness
that the Universe experienced since the fall of Khivar was part of a disease.
The disease of humanity. The need to overwhelm and overpower another weaker and
vulnerable foe, to feel the void of power. The strong enforcing their will on
the weak. That was something understandable, something that would come to a
balance as the New Royal Federation completed the task of creating a new
Universal government.
But this? This was an attack much more grievous. It
held all the taste of power rising, hiding, growing stronger, and the worlds of
the Universe were helpless pawns. It was a growing evil, as big as Khivar, if
not greater.
Michael sensed the same ill ease. Sighing, he
signaled for the men to wait before they were transported home. He talked to
Max. They stood for a moment conversing as Maria held herself still and silent.
Max nodded, and went to find someone to prepare his orders.
Michael returned to Maria’s side, taking her hand.
United they stood, their identical amulets shining, as the stones caught light.
“Your worlds stand alone. This devastation is brutal and unwarranted. The Shiva
will leave the Kali in your system for protection, along with three
squadrons of fighters. Once the New Royal Federation’s support ships arrive
the Kali and the fighter planes will relinquish their protection of you.
The Commander of this task force will contact your Council and set up
accommodations.”
“The payment…” Started the man who represented
them all.
“Chancellor, there is no payment, outside of food,
shelter, and basic supplies. They are here for your protection. This is not
martial law. They will remain until the New Royal Federation can put full
protection in place. Your laws remain intact, and they will abide by it.”
“Thank you, my Lord!” The men paid their
respects as they left.
Maria was silent. “That was kind of you and Max.
Seeing their discomfort.” She looked out at Geneja. “They found what they
sought. They will not return. Not here. Not now.”
“I know. You know. We know. The people here do
not.” Michael came to stand behind Maria, his arms around her. “Fear is a
disease unto itself.”
“Yes, it is.” Maria turned and plucked at
Michael official robes of his office, married to her. “You are getting better
of at this Prince stuff.”
Michael grimaced. It was a pain in his ass. The
sense of power it brought was sticking him like sharp edges. “Who knew? I
might never have married you, if I did.”
“Really?” Maria tipped her head. “Not worth
it, huh?”
Michael looked down at his wife, and smiled
slightly. “At times, very worth it. At others?” His eyes took on a teasing
glint. Maria laughed and hugged him.
“I know how you feel. My office of Acolyte
de Prin’c ended over three years ago, and yet I have to parade in the
Senate, on
Princess? It was a title that no longer had a
meaning. Michael used it almost as a term of endearment, but the title was as
weighty as the title Michael inherited from marrying her.
Michael shrugged. Maria would never escape who she
was. The last surviving Anterraan, she, and she alone was held in awe,
especially now there were no more Eminents. She was the most evolved person in
their Universe, despite her claims that the Universe was catching up. In her was
held the knowledge of the Ancients, and only she and Michael could easily enter
that realm. The world through the gateway into the ruins of
Maria ran her hand up his arm. “We’re leaving
the solar system, going home. Let’s go get some rest.” Maria stroked his
face. “I miss you. You seem so far away lately.”
Michael took her hand and kissed it. “Do I?
Strange, I seem to feel you all the time.”
Maria shook her head. “I’m not talking mentally,
flyboy. I’m talking physically. Usually you’re right on my tail, and lately,
I seem to have to search for you. Are we growing apart?”
Michael startled. He never wanted her to doubt them.
Gathering her close, he shook his head. “No. We’re not. I couldn’t imagine
a moment that I wouldn’t need you, or want to be with you.” Michael saw her
confusion. He was causing it.
He needed so much from her. Mostly, he needed
children. His internal genetics were kicking him in the teeth. His problem. Not
hers. He needed children. He didn’t want them. Not yet.
Selfish? Perhaps.
He wanted Maria to himself for just a little longer.
His entire life, he had looked at a future of being completely alone, and then
she changed that. On his world people found their bond mate at eight and ten
cycles later married. For those ten years of youth, they were each others’
exclusive property. Long before the bonding ceremony, long before the thought of
children. Their mental connections grew and solidified. Michael wanted that
time, that one on one exclusiveness.
Maria needed it too. Responsibility was the only
duty she understood. For the first time in her life, her personal responsibility
was only herself and Michael. It was a breather. Her reaction to the twins was
proof over how whacked and anxious parenthood would make her. It wasn’t a bad
thing. Natural. But, he wanted to give her longer. More time to enjoy the youth
she never had.
It was so hard. Everything in him wanted to mate.
Needed to mate. It was a burning in his stomach, deep in the pit, like a growing
ulcer, consuming everything. His thoughts. Physically wrecking his control,
pushing him beyond normalcy.
Michael couldn’t accept it. He didn’t want to.
No one wanted to wake up a slave to their bodies, to their genetics, to the very
part of them that was created through endless time. He had been a slave to the
bonding all his life. For once, he wanted a say—a choice. He chose Maria
against all odds, against all rules and regulations of his world. He wanted that
ability to continue. He wanted the right to choose when he became a parent, and
not forced into it by nature.
“Apart? Could I grow away from you? All my life, I
did nothing but grow towards you, a polarity to my soul. Opposites attract, and
if you are my opposite, I could no more grow away from you if you were my
shadow. Princess, in any time, in any world, known or unknown, I would find you.
You don’t complete me, as if we were two parts of one soul. You are more. You
are the very fabric of existence that bleeds contrast to my life, and lets me be
more than a specter, white on white fading into obscurity. You are the
definition. You define me.” Michael brought her hand to his mouth and kissed
it, his eyes dark and penetrating. “Oxygen. Light. Energy. Electricity. My
heart’s blood. My very will to survive. Without you, nothing would taste or
make sense.”
Maria ran her hands over his face. “That much,
Michael? How is it that you can read the words in my soul that my mouth can’t
speak? When the words ‘I love you’ are so pale in comparison?”
Michael picked up her arm, the one with the tattoos
matching the one on his. He mated them. Two in flight. Entwined. Timeless.
Complementary. “If time does not exist, my Princess, and we are pulled into
all dimensions and all times, running to and fro, this bond I made to you, runs
both ways. I would belong to you and you to me in all times, across time and
space.” They made the bond in countering spirals, and time was an endless
journey, unknowing to that bond, but ever present. Always, they would find each
other.
Maria kissed him, softly, and not so softly. A
pledge. No matter who they were or became, she would be the one person he could
come to trust, to love. With her, his heart already had a home.
“My romantic husband,” she murmured
breathlessly. “Who knew?”
“Tell no one, or I’ll divorce you!” Michael
answered before he kissed her again. Romantic? Hell, it was almost a science.
Truth was truth. In flowery sentiments or stating a fact. It didn’t matter. It
still remained true. His love for her was timeless and in that, there could only
be truth.
~~~
“I feel you.”
“I know.”
Maria smiled slightly not looking up from her panel.
“
“Yes.” Alex moved into the room. “This is not
good, Maria. The word is an ancient one. Perhaps only one that you can know. The
others feel it like a shadow, a dream, but not you.”
Maria stopped what she was doing and looked at Alex.
“The word changes, but the meaning remains the same. Who are we, Alex? Are we
the future, or are we the Ancients? Must it always come back to this?
Destiny?” Maria said spitting it out like a bad taste in her mouth. “Where
does the circle of life begin?”
“Here, Maria. With you. With him. With the joining
of the One. It matters not if a path is walked forward or backward, the journey
is the same, and the path is still traveled.”
“I want my life, free of this. I want him. Only
him. Only us. Can this be so hard to understand?”
Alex came to stroke her face. “If I could walk in
the shadow twice, for you, I would. This story is old. It is new. It has been
told over and over. The fabric remains true. All parallel lines meet.”
“Must I fight this one alone?” Maria shook her
head. No. She already knew. Never alone again. “So much I thought could be
mine. Love. Michael. Finally, a peace to love forever.”
“You are not alone. Not this time. Not ever.
Always have I been at your side, as have the others. This war, this timeless
battle looping through endless realities, will be fought and won, time and time
again. Only you and Michael remain constantly the same, but the others have been
there too. Find your place of peace, Maria. The answers have always been there,
waiting for the questions to be asked.”
Maria walked into Alex’s arms, and hugged him
tight—surprised that she could still feel him. “Then it is not over?”
“No. It has just begun.”