Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

KHORAHN

The pain lubrication was gone, but I couldn't stop touching her as she slumbered. It didn't matter that a thousand things were demanding my attention. She was my only focus at the moment. Her and my aching breeding shaft that begged for release.

She made that soft sound again, the one she'd made just before succumbing to sleep. I fleking loved that sound, which was why I was still touching her. That and my need to comfort her after everything she'd suffered.

I'd known purging the parasites wouldn't be pleasant, but I hadn't expected her violent reaction or collapse during her second decontamination. I'd never stripped from my gear so fast in my life. Touching her, even gently, had given her no comfort in the med bay.

Her request to return her to her home world after the sys-unit rewrapped her eyes had gutted me. But her fearful, broken plea when I'd set her on my bed had been worse.

Without a translator, I could do little to reassure her. However, there was another way to help her feel less fearful around me until I could explain things.

My ambal swelled at the mere thought of scent-marking her. It would help her become more comfortable around me and ease the level of her stress until I could prove myself worthy of her trust.

It could also serve as a layer of protection if we ran into any Conservators. The same flekers who were supposed to be guarding her home planet to prevent the involuntary extraction of females like the one before me. They were probably too busy corralling the willing females for themselves to worry about the unwilling ones.

Unfortunately, even with my marking, they could still seduce her and keep her for their own. Which was something I wasn't willing to risk. Not after all she'd already suffered.

That meant avoiding Helix stations, the base stations for Conservators, since they scanned docking ships for lifeforms. As soon as they detected a human female, they would forcibly board my ship, and my scent-marking wouldn't be worth anything then.

A chime sounded, a low warning for the first of seven jumps. I stayed where I was, with her, and waited for the pull in my gut to signal cell acceleration. Traveling at jump speed wasn't comfortable, but it was necessary if I wanted to reach the nearest Helix station…not that I had any intention of docking.

She made a sound of discomfort, and I pulled her closer. The subtle, sweet scent of her long, yellow hair filled my nose. I inhaled deeply, and she shifted closer in her sleep, the cleft of her softly rounded flank hugging my ambal perfectly.

I never wanted to let her go.

Carefully, I rubbed myself against her softness. She made a troubled sound.

"All is well, my pretty little female," I assured her, trailing my fingers along her skin.

Knowing that I would only disturb her if I remained, I forced myself from her delicious backside.

The shirt she'd wrapped herself in when I'd left for the pain lubrication rested by her feet. I covered her again and grabbed clean clothes from my supply bins to dress myself as I considered our current destination.

Turning in the bounties would give me the chit I needed for recharging the jump cells and the additional supplies needed for the ship to support two crew members. Yet, I knew docking at the Helix station wasn't an option. Not with only a single scent-marking to protect her.

I had more than one means to earn chit, though.

Giving her one last look, I left her in my room and headed toward the nav center.

She needed gentle care, correct nourishment, and time to heal. And a translator. Eventually. Once I knew the scent-marking was working.

The ship chimed again to indicate the second jump. I felt the pull in my gut before I reached the controls to adjust course. That was fine with me. One more jump took us farther from Narlin Four.

I checked our location at the edge of Prime Twelve and adjusted our route for Divos One in the Tertian Seven system. After verifying the jump cell fuel levels and sending a message to the nearest Helix station to report that I'd lost a bounty, I left the nav center.

The hall smelled like cleanser, an indication that cleaning bots had already removed the evidence of my female's purge.

Unable to resist, I checked on her again. She still slept on her side, wrapped in my shirt. The curves of her flank and waist drew me in. As if she sensed my presence, she made a soft sound in her sleep. My ambal immediately swelled.

My gaze slid to the slim arm resting on her waist. The colored markings on her exposed skin weren't as vibrantly dark purple as they had been, proof that the regeneration stims were already working.

I left without touching her and continued to the galley. The food processor was fully equipped with the standard nutrient packs and ingredients. It could serve up seasoned grains with protein cubes that were almost as good as homeworld cooking. However, all the dishes were for my species. I checked the settings and found recipes for the systems' most common species but nothing for humans.

Frustrated, I returned to the med bay to research what humans ate. The sys-unit's diet recommendations listed vitamin and mineral requirements and amounts, but it didn't know what foods would meet those requirements. I spent another arc reading the food processor's manual to see if I could adjust the nutritional requirements of the dishes I knew how to prepare.

The resulting mess of grey-green paste didn't look appetizing. I tried a spoonful and immediately spat it back into the bowl. It was completely inedible. After scraping the remains into the recycler, I debated what to do.

I'd verified my food wouldn't hurt her, but it wouldn't correct her deficiencies. The sys-unit could supplement what she needed with another vitality stim, but I hated the idea of hurting her again, even if it was for her health. That left contacting someone who would have information about how to feed a human.

Cursing under my breath, I tossed the empty bowl into the sanitation unit and left the galley. There had to be another way.

Back in the nav center, I checked the closest systems and found four Primes all within cell jump distance. That meant there had to be a void station somewhere nearby. I scanned the comms for several arcs before I found what I was looking for.

With a smile, I entered the coordinates and then went to sit with my female through the jumps. She stirred on the third one but quieted quickly. I touched her briefly before I left her again and locked the door behind me.

There would be no docking inspection at the void station. Smugglers and dark-system traders preferred to keep their businesses their own. Anyone forcing their way onto my ship would be after more than handing out fines for a few chits to cushion their marker. They'd be after my ship and everything on it.

The ship chimed with an incoming comm. I returned to the nav center and opened the channel.

"State your business and duration."

"Supplies. A few arcs."

"Landing pad five-two-three," the dockmaster barked. "You have two arcs before you start incurring dock fines."

"Thank you, my friend."

I knew how these places worked. They'd do their best to delay me in order to justify their exorbitant release fines, and I'd do my best to avoid that from happening.

Several prexels later, I waited at the bay door. The ship rocked as it docked, and I tapped the datapad and switched the system over to voice recognition.

"Defense sequence seven-two-one on my command."

"Command acknowledged. Remote reentry enabled."

The stim tracker buzzed my skin. Nothing would breach this ship. My female would be safe while I acquired what she might need.

The bay door slid open, and I strode out to inhale the metallic, recycled station air. As I took in my surroundings, I listened to the door close behind me. The landing pads around me were busy with supplies being loaded or unloaded by workers in dock jumpsuits. The two Ponraid assigned to my landing pad leaned against a stack of empty crates. One idly scratched his chest fur.

"Fortune find you," he said when he noted my attention.

"And may fortune find you, my friend."

I kept my smile as easy as my stride, and I moved away from my ship into the nexus of the station.

Vendor-lined corridors bled into one another. I followed my nose to the food district. My gaze swept over the stalls and the species that crowded each. Each species had foods they preferred. I just needed to find the human offerings. A void station was the perfect place for contraband items. And currently, anything pertaining to humans, the newest and most fertile species in the known systems, was a sought commodity.

I watched a Quanl move away from a vendor displaying a variety of fresh, well-seasoned meats, by the smell of things. His scaled skin reflected tan in the artificial lighting as he bit into his purchase.

"Is it worth the chit, my friend?" I asked.

He nodded and paused.

"Best the station has to offer."

"Thanks for the recommendation. I'll try it first, then." I acted like I would leave, then hesitated as if struck by another thought. "Do you know of a vendor with human food? I haven't tried any yet."

"There's one a corridor over, claiming to have human goods." His forked tongue flicked out. "Wouldn't trust him, though. Tuber tried serving his donor after he died last solar."

"A welcome bit of information, my friend. You have my thanks."

He nodded and continued on. I skipped his recommended vendor and sought rationed items, which were far safer to consume. After selecting a variety of standard processor rations, I found a few more exotic items.

With the packets tucked into my pockets, I started back.

"Move!" the shouted command rang out from ahead and warned me that a procession was coming this way.

I didn't need to linger to see some rare female when I had one of my own waiting on the ship. Most likely, this was simply a stall tactic engineered by the dock master. Which was exactly why I stayed. Any healthy male would want to see a female. Unless he had a female of his own.

Stepping back into a corridor but not leaving, I made way for the procession. I wasn't alone in the attention I gave the procession. The males around me watched as well. Heavily armed males strode by first, their angry glances sweeping over us all. Behind them, I heard the slight jingle of metal.

Shock robbed me of thought at the sight of the human female dressed only in bangles and decorative chains. Her skin was darker than my female's, but not in a damaged way. It shined with health and scented oil. Her chest mounds swayed with her graceful movement, and the patch of curly hair between her legs glistened, begging for attention and exploration.

The scent of lust rose in the air around me, and her protectors worked to keep the surrounding males back. I paid them little attention. Instead, I focused on the female and the tremble in her fingers, which contradicted the way she held her head high.

She wasn't a treasured breeder. She was bait.

As soon as she passed, I pivoted and stalked down the corridor. Anyone watching wouldn't suspect anything about my hasty retreat because of the few choice trinkets I purchased on my way back to my ship. Any male would have such hopeful thinking after witnessing the procession.

At the docking bay, I found one of the two ponraid passed out by the crates, his clawed-hand badly burned. The other stood with his back to me as he attempted to short the charge on the bay door.

"That won't work, my friend," I said.

He jumped and spun around in time to catch the low-setting stun blast to his face. No one paid me any special attention as I sent him rolling down the dock next to his companion.

Using my stim tracker, I requested ship access. The door opened. I hurried inside before the door closed behind me and immediately set my hand on the datapad to disengage the ship's impending cargo bay shock.

"Deactivate defense sequence seven-two-one on my command."

The charge dissipated with an audible whir, and I breathed a little easier as I entered a random jump destination and activated the jump straight from the landing pad before the dock master could comm the ship. Then, I opened comms to the nearest Helix.

"Bounty Runner Khorahn reporting a human sighting."

The response was immediate.

"Location."

"A void station in the middle of nowhere. I'll send the coordinates."

"What condition was the human in?"

"It was walking around."

"Was it healthy? Mistreated? Did it have a registered volunteer number?"

"My friend, if you want the galaxy to assess humans to that level, we need to be educated. It had chest mounds if that helps," I said, playing dumb. "Intriguing looking things that moved as it walked."

I grinned when he swore.

"That was a female."

"I'd be happy to supply more information. How would I know if one was healthy? What are they supposed to look like? Do males ever have chest mounds?"

I settled into my seat, prepared to learn.