Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

It made sense that the two most competent and highly trained of their kind would be the ones selected for this mission. They were not only smart, strong, athletic, and clever, but also charming and complete gentlemen, as they’d been taught since a young age. They were at the absolute pinnacle of masculine power and class in all the Maldonian realm on this world.

Unfortunately, they were also the two, out of all those men, for whom Olivia, for whatever reason, had an almost visceral and impulsive desire.

Yes, she realized their pheromones were almost certainly in play, no matter how unusual it was supposed to be. But she was a human woman, and perhaps she was more susceptible than their own kind, though she hadn’t noticed any alluring scents emanating from any other men in the city.

Regardless, all of that had to be put on the back burner for now. Her guilt at leaving Harper for several days was replaced with a feeling of cheer and elation. Though it hadn’t gone exactly as she’d hoped, she had succeeded in finding help out there. People who could heal her friend and protect them both from the Raxxian threat. And now she was coming to get her.

A great many other males were in attendance at the landing area, waiting with an excited buzz in the air as the two men and their human companion strode to their ship.

“Is it true?” one called out. “Is there really another female out there?”

“Looks that way,” Arkness replied casually, glancing down at the woman walking between himself and his rival with a possessively braggadocios grin.

He had decided she would be his, and given their interactions—and clear attraction the other day—he was confident he would seal the deal upon their return. So confident was he that he failed to notice the little something extra in the looks Rykker focused on the woman they were sworn to protect.

“And she is an unbonded one?” another younger male asked.

“So far as we know, yes,” Arkness replied.

“You are all getting ahead of yourselves,” Rykker interjected. “First, we must succeed in our task, bringing this poor woman out of the wild and away from danger. Until that happens, there is no sense in conjecture.”

“But—” the man began.

Olivia felt her face redden with annoyance. “Hey! That’s my friend out there, not some piece of meat! I thought you were all trained to be respectful. To be attentive. To not be creepy assholes.”

The man’s eyes went wide, quickly scanning the onlooking faces of his friends in shock. “I–I did not mean to?—”

“Well, you did ,” she shot back, the force of her angry gaze making him actually stumble back a step.

He bowed his head. “Apologies. It will not happen again.”

“You’re damn right.”

She spun on her heel and shifted her attention to Rykker and Arkness, the two men now standing beside the open hatch leading into a really, really small ship. Both had amused, admiring expressions on their faces. She had just become even more alluring, it seemed. Feisty had its benefits.

“This is us?” she asked, running her hand along the craft’s hull, quite unimpressed. “A little small, isn’t it?”

“Intentionally selected,” Arkness replied. “Given what you said about the Raxxians, as well as reconnaissance imagery of the region, it is the best option. Small, fast, hard to detect. There are other craft operating in the area, and we would be well served to avoid them if at all possible.”

“On this we are in agreement,” Rykker agreed. “In and out without a fuss. It’s the best way.”

“The only way,” Arkness noted. “We are a rescue mission, not a combat one.”

It made sense, but Olivia knew they had larger, more powerful ships, not to mention plenty of manpower—quite literally—to go around. “Why not just overwhelm them with force? You’ve got the men for it.”

The two men shook their heads, in agreement on at least this one thing.

“We are still dealing with the Dohrag problem in the area,” Arkness explained.

“Dohrag? What’s a Dohrag?”

“A hostile people who make a habit of abducting those they can,” Rykker noted.

“Shit, like the Raxxians?”

“Oh, no. The Dohrags do not eat their captives. Instead, they condemn them to a life of servitude.”

“Slavery?”

Rykker nodded. “Essentially, yes.”

“Not essentially,” Arkness corrected. “It is slavery. And they are a very, very aggressive people.”

Olivia did not like the sound of that. Not one bit. “And with all your spiffy technology and firepower, you just let them? What the hell is wrong with you?”

Arkness shook his head somberly. “I wish we could intervene. I really do. But the Dohrags leave our people alone and know to stay well clear of our borders. Yes, we have the means to destroy even a relatively significant Dohrag force should they make any attempts on our lands, but we do not have the go-ahead from the Dotharian Conglomerate overseer for this sector to do anything more.”

“Hang on. The Dotharians are the big dogs in your society, right? The ones in charge of all the races?”

“Yes.”

“Then isn’t it their responsibility to deal with these assholes?”

Both Rykker and Arkness chuckled at her fire, the latter replying with an amused sparkle in his eyes.

“While that is their responsibility, as you correctly noted, they monitor many systems within the sector, and at the moment this is not a priority. You see, there is a large conflict several systems away. A war, actually. And that is currently occupying the majority of their attention.”

“We do not wish to allow this to happen,” Rykker added. “And if they were taking our people, you could rest assured there would be repercussions. But with the other conflict draining Dotharian resources and focus, we are left with the situation at hand. Maintaining a not-so-pleasant status quo, if you will.”

Olivia hated to admit it, but she understood their logic. Yes, it sucked, but the same sort of 3-D chess was how governments worked back home on Earth as well. Sometimes, you just didn’t have a good option.

“Fine. But it still sucks.”

“On this we are in agreement,” Arkness said, boarding the ship. “I will spool up the power system. We will be ready to launch momentarily. Come aboard and take a seat. It will be a relatively long flight compared to the one that brought you here as we will be flying to avoid notice. That requires a bit of terrain-following at lower altitude for portions, and that would be unsafe at top speeds.”

She followed him aboard, Rykker entering behind her and sealing the hatch. His hand gently cupped her ass as he passed her on his way to the copilot’s seat, sending a shiver through her body. The scent of the two of them was already strong to her heightened senses in this confined space. She could only imagine what it would be like without the environmental systems cleaning the air.

They lifted off smoothly and began their journey. They flew for a while, this ship lacking the all-around clear projections of the earlier transport she’d been shuttled back to their city in. But while it did not appear totally clear, the front portion where the pilot and copilot sat provided one-eighty visibility. As for the window projection beside her, she still got a good look at the environment from her lesser vantage point. And at these slower speeds with it not passing by in a blur, she could actually see the varying topography of the areas they flew over.

“We’re getting close,” Arkness announced a while later. “We should be at our destination in about?—”

The ship bucked hard, an explosion flashing across the window projections, bright and orange. They spun into a stomach-churning dive for a moment before he regained control.

“Evasive action!” Rykker shouted, frantically rerouting systems on his flashing display.

“One step ahead of you,” Arkness replied as they banked hard, dramatically altering course, dropping low and flying fast.

Olivia’s stomach flipped, the gravity dampening tech making their flight impervious to inertial forces either entirely offline or close to it.

“What hit us?” she called out as Arkness and Rykker tended to their stations like the professionals they were.

Arkness kept his eyes forward, flying as close to the treetops as he dared. Rykker glanced over his shoulder, albeit briefly. “Not sure. It seems to have been a lesser tech weapon.”

“Who’s attacking us?”

“We don’t know yet. First things first, we need to get clear and land so we can assess the damage. Hang on to your seat, it may get bumpy,” he replied, turning his attentions fully to dealing with the flashing lights all over his display panel.

They flew a zig-zag course, weaving this way and that before abruptly dropping straight down. Olivia nearly vomited from the sensation, a moment of weightlessness before being yanked downward by the plummeting craft. She looked out her flickering window display, adrenaline somehow running even higher. What she saw was her violent demise, and it was coming up fast.

At the last second before impact with the ground the ship lurched hard, slowing dramatically, forcing all of them deep into the cushioning of their seats before landing with a solid thud, the force field surrounding the bottom of the vessel for such instances barely keeping the ship’s hull from impacting. The landing gear was minimal, normally just an additional design feature rarely relied on. But with the failing energy field it turned out to be the one thing keeping them upright as they settled down on the surface.

“Powering down,” Arkness announced, switching the ship to minimal power.

“Scans active,” Rykker replied, staring intently at a small display showing the skies above. He watched for a long while then relaxed back in his seat, tension easing from his broad shoulders. “We have not been followed.”

Arkness swiveled his seat to get a look. “Perpetrators?”

“It seems to be an Ultraxian air mine,” he replied, heading for the hatch. “I’ll know better in a moment.”

A blast of fresh air flooded in as he opened the door, stepping out to examine the damage. Arkness and Olivia followed close behind.

“Yep. Ultraxian. An old model judging by the blast,” he said, pointing to the few scorch areas on the hull. “Our shielding was able to absorb most of the energy, but some systems were affected.”

“How the hell did it not show on our warning systems? That is your department, Rykker.”

“It is, but this was camouflaged with organic matter. See?” He pointed to small bits of gore streaking the impact site. “Dead air creatures strapped to the mine. It was small enough that it registered as an organic object. Clever, I’ll give them that. And judging by the age of the munition, likely not actually Ultraxians using it. My guess is some other faction set it afloat in hopes they might get lucky and down something of value. Good thing for us that Maldonian ships are all well shielded. A lesser craft would have been greatly damaged.”

Olivia stepped closer, looking at the scorched area. She could have been killed. Yes, that was a daily fact of life aboard the Raxxian ship, but this somehow felt different. More tangible in its immediate violence. She leaned over, bracing herself on her knees and breathing hard so as not to vomit.

A warm hand rested gently on her back. “Are you injured?” Arkness inquired, a hint of worry in his tone.

She shook her head, standing up straight and shaking it off. “I’ll be okay. Just a little shaken up is all. How’s the ship? How bad was it damaged?”

Arkness looked at his rival. “Well? You’re the technician,” he asked impatiently.

Rykker shot him an annoyed glare. “And we only just landed. Quite hard, I might add, thanks to your piloting.”

“I did what needed to be done.”

“And so will I. Now back off and give me a moment to assess the damage.”

Olivia could almost feel the tension between the men crackle in the air. Fortunately, Arkness backed off, if only to go quickly scout the immediate area around them.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes. Stay alert,” he said, darting off into the trees while Rykker popped open seamless panels, testing the internal workings of the craft.

Olivia looked around with clearer eyes now that the panic was subsiding. Arkness had somehow landed them in a small clearing in what seemed to be an otherwise dense forest. The rocks at her feet explained that aspect of the landing site. Geology had provided them a small but adequate safe haven to land. The question now was where were they, who was out there, and how badly was the ship damaged? All were questions she could not answer.

Out of the frying pan , she mused, taking a seat on the burgundy grass. It was all she could do for now. Sit, hope, and wait. She just hoped it would not be for long.