Craving: A SciFi Alien Mail Order Bride Romance (TerraMates Book 8) (38 page)

* * *

"...
e
ven more traitors
," a High Commander said to Captain Fore as I served them coffee in the Grand Hall, the nucleus of the command center. The Captain was no longer the big dog. With the arrival of the other fleets, he now had to report to his superiors.

I poured the coffee slowly as my interest increased. I often listened in on their discussions. From them, I'd learned that the takeover of Earth cost them more time and resources than they'd planned and that President Bentford refused to surrender, no matter what guarantees they offered her.

After learning President Bentford and the other leaders of Earth had tried to blow up the Fortuna, I had been resentful, but I was beginning to understand that there were no easy decisions in war.

It was fortunate they forced themselves to learn human languages as part of their integration program. Humans weren't capable of producing the musical qualities of the Surtu languages. Captain Fore hated it, which gave me great pleasure. The order for integration had come from a High Commander, so he had to obey.

"They've been away from Surt for too long," another Fleet Captain said, speaking of the traitors. "And they're desperate to mate. That's why some of the soldiers are turning and siding with their human mates. It was always our plan to leave troops here, and the soldiers know it. Their allegiances are mixed."

"For now, it's only a rumor," the High Commander stated. "Let's try to keep it that way."

Captain Fore saw me smiling. "That's enough," he said to me, and he dismissed me out of the room.

Pleased with what I'd learned, I went to the gardens. The herbs and the vegetables had become overgrown, becoming as wild as the woods that surrounded the patches. Walking through the tall grass, I went and sat on a low stone wall near the wildflowers. It was here where I first knew Jidden loved me. He'd always had a depth to him, and he'd finally acknowledged it. It turned out I had found my way into his soul.

"Hologram," I ordered. "Earth."

A blue image of Earth appeared before me. I swiped my hand, zooming into my family's modest little home in the middle of the desert. The satellite images were old. With the war going on, it had been quite some time since they were last updated, but I preferred to look at the past. I was afraid to see what the images may show me of the present.

Had the desert been conquered? Was my father dead, my mother a captive, and my brothers fighting for revenge? It was a strong possibility, and it broke my heart.

I had to escape. I had to help them. But until escape was possible, I felt uplifted staring at the image of my home as I remembered it.

A soldier stumbled out into the wildflowers. With his dark hair and wide elfin eyes with flecks of light swirling around the pupil, I could almost imagine he was Jidden coming to save me, but he wasn't. His skin was much paler than Jidden's, and his eyes were green, not blue.

"I need a woman," the soldier said.

Oh boy.

He reeked of whiskey. The soldiers weren't supposed to drink, not even when they were off duty, but clearly they'd found a way to smuggle alcohol onboard the command center from Earth.

My body tensed, ready to fight. They treated me like a slave, but I was still a warrior inside. "Why don't you sleep it off in the temple like the other soldiers?" I told him.

"Relax," the soldier coaxed as he stumbled closer, "I'm not going to touch you. You're not my type. I like big, meaty girls, and burying my head in their breasts. You've got curves but not enough fat."

"Then why are you here?" I demanded though I could hear the amusement in my voice.

"I told you," he said, leaning against the wall next to me for support. "I need a woman. I miss the company of a woman, and you're the only woman here. I was in love once with a full-blooded Surtu vixen. She was giant, but she could not borne children because she was infertile."

"From the disease?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Probably. I didn't care. I wanted to light bond with her, but officials wouldn't approve it. They said there were plenty of human women who needed a young, fertile man like me, so they drafted me into the military as part of the infantry that would stay on Earth for good. I'll never see her again."

It was rare, but this enemy warrior had earned my sympathy. "What's your name, Soldier?"

"Telki."

"You have any more of that whiskey, Telki?" I asked.

"Nope. You have to drink it fast before the rest of the dogs find it."

I laughed. It was short, but it was the first since being made a slave to the Depraved. "You sound like my light bonded, Jidden."

"Everyone here knows who your light bonded is, little Commander." He spoke with a surprising disdain.

"He's not a traitor," I said quickly, coming to Jidden's defense. "He didn't turn his back on his people. He's searching for a better way."

"That's not the way the men tell it. I don't like being here, I miss my love back at home, but I know what the consequences are for my people if we don't win this war. There will be no children. There will be no Surtu." He was starting to sober up.

"If someone had reversed the roles, what then?" I argued. "What if it was your love being ripped from your arms, forced to light bond and mate with a human man? Wouldn't you want to find a path where Surtu and humans could come together freely?"

"I never said our current course was ideal," Telki said. "But I don't think my people have any options left. Some humans may fall in love with Surtu, but we need more than some. The human line won't go extinct, and neither will the Surtu. We're coming together and forming a new race. Hopefully a better race."

"And what of the Surtu women and human men? What of them? We can't toss them aside like broken toys."

He looked up at the stars through the transparent ceiling. I imagined him searching for his home planet, thinking about the love he left behind.

With the greatest of remorse, he said, "We already have."

* * *

M
y discussion
with Telki had inspired me. If he could speak with such remorse, then the rumors of Surtu soldiers fighting for the humans must have some validity.

Jidden wasn't alone in his cause. And neither was I.

I couldn't wait any longer. I had to escape. The only way to do so was to sneak onto a ship headed for Earth and pray the Surtu didn't blow me out of the sky in the process.

I had to get to the docking bay.

It would be difficult because Captain Fore had given strict orders not to let me anywhere near it. I had tried several times before, and they always caught me and punished me. I had to be bolder and more clever.

The tunnels were no longer an option for me. The Surtu had discovered them. Once a means of escape, we used them for storage now. It was a shame, but I wasn't too discouraged. The tunnels had served their purpose. They'd led three hundred women to freedom.

I thought about seducing a soldier. I could give him my integrity in exchange for a favor, but my heart wouldn't let me. I could probably learn to live with myself afterward. At least it would have been my choice.

I couldn't do it to Jidden. Once light bonded, we were always connected. It's how I felt his despair when I was close to sleep. The Surtu said if a person who was light bonded slept with another, their mate could tell. If I seduced a soldier, Jidden would know another man had touched me. He may even know I had given myself willingly, but he wouldn't know why. That would devastate him.

I couldn't use the tunnels, and I couldn't use my body, but there was another way. There was always another way. I just had to find it.

In the end, it was Telki who led me to my freedom.

In the weeks after meeting Telki, I ran into him a few times. We didn't speak as long as we had out in the garden, but he acknowledged me, which was more than I could say for the other soldiers. They looked at me with both desire and hatred as they refused to speak to me.

Telki would call me the little Commander, especially when he was drunk. His drinking got worse as time passed. He only had liquid to fill the hole in his heart. Usually, he would sleep it off in the gardens, but occasionally I found him passed out in the corridor. For his protection, I would put him in the mill pantry or another hiding place somewhere nearby.

I was strong, but the Surtu were larger than the average man. It was impossible to drag Telki far.

One evening, I spotted him walking in front of me. He was moving slowly, like a slug. I assumed he was drunk again, so I followed him. He turned down a corridor where the lights were dimmed so low; it was like walking in a faint shadow. A Lead Officer had complained of faulty wiring in one of the corridors. The corridor we were in was where the electrical problems were occurring.

Telki turned into a room that used to be sleeping quarters. I could only guess what it was now. I waited near the door, listening to the voices of his fellow soldiers. When there was none, I slid it open manually. There was no punch code. It had been removed.

The room was pitch black and the light from the stars shut out. As soon as I entered, my leg bumped into a crate, and I heard the sound of glasses shaking against each other.

"Telki, is that you?" someone hissed.

I froze.

"It's me," Telki answered, quiet but angry. "Next time, don't say my name. What if it was a superior checking in?"

The other man grunted. "The whiskey is running low. I'm going to take these empty bottles with me on my next run. The distillery isn't far from the northern base."

Telki didn't seem interested in the logistics at all. "Don't tell me I risked coming here for nothing. You said you had a bottle you could sell me."

"I do," the man said. A smuggler. I heard him move around. How he knew where he was going was beyond me. The room was dark, and I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. "Here. What will you give me for it?"

"You can have my ration of steak. I don't have much of an appetite these days. Only a thirst."

Fresh meat was difficult to come by on the Fortuna. Soldiers were only awarded it for a particular deed. I didn't know how valuable the whiskey was, but the trade was likely a fair one.

The smuggler accepted, and I heard Telki take the bottle. He opened it immediately and gulped down a swig.

"Don't break the glass," the smuggler warned. "The bottles are hard to come by."

Hearing heavy footsteps, I quickly moved aside. I pressed my calves against the crate I had bumped earlier. Telki swished passed me, already smelling of alcohol, and then he was gone.

I stood in my place, breathing shallowly as the man in the room continued to move around. The clanking of the glass helped to mask my breathing. Only when I was certain he was gone did I inhale properly.

I felt around the room. The Surtu used it for storage. With the wiring out, it wasn't much good for anything else. The smuggler had drawn the shades on purpose to block out all incoming light in case a superior checked into the room. The dark was easy to hide in, as I had just learned.

It was the dark that would save me.

From my exploration of the room, I found three wooden crates full of empty bottles. The bottles were in a neat line divided by placeholders that felt like cardboard, probably from old boxes that were broken down. Like everything the Surtu did, it was efficient.

On top of each crate was a stack of blankets to cushion the glass. The blankets were coarse and smelled of sweat, but freedom wasn't pretty. I tucked myself beneath one of the blankets, ignoring the discomfort of the glass bottles beneath me, and I reached out to slide the top of the crate over me.

I hoped the smuggler was part of the cargo crew that would be departing in the early morning. If not, then my absence would be known as soon as Captain Fore woke without me serving him his breakfast. He would send a man to my bed in the kitchen to beat me, but I wouldn't be there. They would search, and they would ruin my chances of escape.

Trying not to think about it, I fell into an unsettled half-sleep, dreaming of a pack of stray dogs chasing me, foam dripping from their fangs.

A jolt woke me up, but not my own. The crate I was in was moving.

What if I was making noises in my sleep?

Perhaps I had, but it didn't seem to matter. The crate continued to jolt, moving on a motorized trolley. Light filtered in through the cracks in the wood of the crate, as did a white noise I had never been conscious of before. The buzz of the lights overhead. The purr of the motor from the trolley. There was noise, but there were very few voices.

Good. It was still early morning. I wanted to feel hopeful, but I knew better. This was not a time for sentiment. This was a time to listen, think, and stay on my guard. I took solace in knowing that to the smuggler, the secret in the crate was one worth keeping. He did not want anyone to discover his cargo was empty whiskey bottles.

And one stowaway.

I knew the moment we entered the docking bay. Here, the noise was prevalent as soldiers readied their ships. They shouted at one another, loading their cargo.