Chapter Fourteen

Lanimer

Right after we got home, I sent my uncle Delmran a holographic message describing the situation on Zevus Mar and asking him if he had any background on Toran.

With time and distance, it could be several days before we heard back from them.With that done, Evalee and I took time for each other.

With her in my arms, everything else disappeared. We entered a world of mental intimacy entwined with shared carnal pleasure. The pleasure of our caresses reverberated between our minds. My delight in her touch was also hers as we basked in our mutual bliss, stroking each other’s bodies with reverent tenderness.

Her soft skin and sweet musk filled my senses as we explored each other’s bodies as a prelude to our joining. We held back until our mutual need drove us together in pure, joyful lust.

Every stroke of my cock plunging into her was pure delight because it was Evalee taking me into her body and sharing the warmth of her love. She was everything and everyone, and I felt that I was that for her through the bond of our minds.

Hers was the passion I’d waited for all my life. She was the missing link that made me whole. The orgasm we claimed together was nothing short of nirvana as our souls soared in utter bliss.

Later, as I lay awake staring at the ceiling in the faint night light, I couldn’t fathom how anyone could see my beloved Evalee as an abomination. Toran Nethos hated her. In his mind, I saw things he dreamed of doing to her that made me want to kill him pre-emptively.

Would he really do them? Or was it just a sick fantasy? Evalee may not have seen the vision, but she sensed the full force of the hatred behind his vicious words.

It only bothered me a little that I thought of ways I could kill him and probably escape punishment. I am a healer, not a killer. Despite the pleasant childhood on Oltarin, the little boy who saw his family killed by Tregan invaders was still very much a part of me. One minute, I had a family, and the next, I became an orphan.

No crazed fanatic would take my Evalee! A future without her was no future at all.

She stirred in her sleep next to me. I turned on my side and spooned against her with my arm around her waist. I decided to waste no more time on dark thoughts as I basked in the love I felt for the woman in my arms.

After such a lovely night, Evalee contemplated tempting me to resume from where we finished before we went to sleep. Then Dr. Yaroman called, and I ran to wake Evalee.

“Get dressed! There’s been another mining accident in Elran. Chief Yaroman wants us all at the Elran infirmary.”

Throwing back the cover, she rolled out of bed naked, ran to the dresser, and quickly pulled out her usual pants and tunic uniform. With practiced ease, she dressed in under a minute.We met in the kitchen, grabbing meal bars on our way to the elevator.

Her hair was still messy from sleep, but she would fix it en route.

The Elran infirmary was a small, well-equipped, 12-bed hospital with an operating suite.When we arrived, it was completely overwhelmed with patients.It had 20 stretchers and 50 patients.The most seriously injured occupied the stretchers. The rest were sitting in chairs in the waiting room.They were the lucky ones.

There were at least 40 more people trapped or dead still in the mine.From the random thoughts I picked up, they were likely all dead.Fortunately, most of the serious injuries were treatable with nanites, but some required bones to be set or realigned—a few needed surgical interventions.

I worked on those with Dr. Yaroman.Evalee worked with the other Medics, treating those who did not require surgery.I didn’t see Evalee again until hours later.We had fortified ourselves on the fly with stimulant drinks and meal bars and barely had time for that.

The Elran mine was Zevian-owned, but they employed both Zevian and Trakellisan miners. The majority of those injured were human, with about a dozen Trakellisan Miners among them.Some were blaming the Trakellisan Miners for the cave-in.But I sensed their accusations were founded in anti-alien sentiment.On the other hand, I sensed that Trakellisan Miners were fearful the humans would blame them for the cave-in.In fact, they expected it.

I suspected they were right, but I also understood that they didn’t do it.That wouldn’t matter to Toran Nethos.It would just give him more ammunition to support his anti-alien agenda.

This was so senseless to me.Why should all of the Trakellisans be persecuted for a skirmish over mining rights?Was Toran an innocent bystander?I needed to find out.

After the day we’d had, it could wait until morning.Something that big should be on the information stream.We were so tired by the time our flyer parked in the garage; it was all we could do to stagger to the elevator home.We went straight to the bedroom, stripped off our clothes, and fell into bed.

When our AI informed us it was time to wake up, I felt as though I’d only been asleep for 10 minutes.Evalee and I groaned nearly in unison at the sound of the pleasant feminine AI voice.While we didn’t feel much like working that day, there was no one to take our place.

We felt much better after showering and stimulant drinks with our breakfast.Fortunately, we had an average day with uncomplicated patients.However, the mining incident ramped up Toran’s dissidents into an angry mob that filled the street just north of our clinic.He had whipped them up into a frenzy, warning them the evil aliens would come for them in their homes while they slept.

It was crazy talk, but the crowd was larger than ever, and the info stream cameras were recording his angry message.The Trakellisans in the area were afraid to leave their buildings for fear of being assaulted by the protesters.These people had nothing to do with what was happening in the mining community.

I felt sure they would have hurt any Trakellisans who dared to walk outside.The whole purpose of their demonstration was to frighten and intimidate, and it was working.

The demonstration continued well after time for us to close the clinic for the day.Evalee and I went out the back door and walked around the back of the next building to get to our hoverport and fly home.

During our short flight, we checked the info stream and learned there had been demonstrations like the one in Val’kara and most of the other cities.They were all the same, filled with hateful rhetoric urging the Zevian people to demand their representatives contain the Trakellisan menace.

Trakellisan Elder Kril”shan Mascho, Evalee’s uncle, gave a statement.As he was speaking, Trakellisans enforcers were attempting to expel the demonstrators from Val’kara.Of course, that turned into an all-out riot.As the Zevians became violent, Val’kara enforcers contained them with a force field.They filled the containment field with a sedative that rendered the angry demonstrators docile.Then, they loaded them onto transport carriers and removed them from the city.

The rioters had set fires in the street and attempted to burn buildings; however, they didn’t catch fire because they were fire-resistant.What a nightmare!

It dawned on me that these people were trying to start a civil war by turning the Zevians against the Trakellisans and the Zevian fraternizers.

At home, we learned that Toran Nethos and his cronies had been arrested and jailed in Val’kara by the enforcers.We thought this meant there would finally be peace in the city without the demonstrators stirring people up.However, by morning, they had all been released on the condition they were not to return to Val’kara until they answered the charges in court.His court date had not been set at the time.

In addition, demonstrators were no longer allowed within the city limits.Val’kara did not bar them from demonstrating, but they would have to do it outside city limits.That is what they did, plus Xenos Free organized more rallies in all of the main Zevian cities.

Evalee and I were unsure whether this change was a good one or not, with Xenos Free stirring up anti-Trakellisan sentiment all over the planet.