Experiment (Hybrid Book 2) (18 page)

She stepped back into the shower, dialled up the temperature and had a quick wash. Knowing the size of the average ejaculate, she was surprised how little mess there was, given both of them had come in her.

She froze. Crap. Both of them had come in her. That meant a possible pregnancy, or did it? Yet another item to add to her growing, ‘I’m not human so what applies to me?’ list.

Giving herself a confidence boosting smile in the mirror, she dressed in the regulation shirt and pants and stepped out of the bathroom.

Both men turned towards her, she’d obviously interrupted a conversation as they sat opposite each other on either side of the aisle.

“I felt my ears burning. Were you having a nice chat about me boys?” She blessed them both with a bright smile as both men reddened a little.

“Well fellas, are you ready for round two?”

At Dagus’ look of complete horror, she burst out laughing.

“Oh god, your faces, so funny.”

Both men had the grace to look rather embarrassed, and she wiped a tear away as she continued to giggle. “Was it really that bad?”

“I may never look at another woman again,” Dagus solemnly announced as he placed his palm over his heart.

This time it was Chesara’s turn to look shocked. He’d said it so dead pan, maybe she actually had ‘ruined’ him for anyone else, he’d certainly looked shocked enough when she’d suggested more sex. He managed to keep it up for another five seconds before his grin returned.

“Friends?” he asked.

“Friends Lieutenant,” she agreed. If I ever need another itch scratching I’ll know exactly where to come for the best.”

When Connor spoke up, he looked almost pathetically grateful for the excuse to leave them alone.

“Shouldn’t you check the autopilot?”

“Yeah right, I’ll be back in a bit,” he mumbled and Chesara almost laughed at his hasty exit.

“Nice butt,” Chesara commented loudly and grinned as the lieutenant moved a little faster.

“Why do I scare him so much, he seemed quite keen a while ago,” she turned to Connor, a little sad.

Connor opened his arms and Chesara sat on his lap and snuggled in. This ‘I don’t care’ persona was ok, but she still liked to be held by the one person she truly trusted, even if he did keep secrets from her.

Connor kissed her hair. “You don’t scare him Kittycat, he just doesn’t want to say the wrong thing.” Chesara felt him take a deep breath, here comes something I’m not sure I want to hear.

“We both know a few things about you, things that happened to you in the last few weeks that you don’t remember. You were,” he paused as he was clearly having trouble deciding what to reveal.

She’d had a portion of her memory removed, and there were usually only two reasons for that happening. Either she’d found out some extra secret ‘something’ or she’d experienced a traumatic event. And as both Dagus and Connor seemed to know what the ‘something’ was, she guessed the secret was in the ‘traumatic’ category. If it were that awful, maybe she’d be better off not hearing it.

“Do I need to know this?”

“Not all of it. But some of it may help you understand a little more about yourself.”

“What happened to classified?”

He traced a finger down the markings on the side of her face. This was a very different Connor to the one she knew. The old Connor, the one she’d said goodnight to only twelve hours ago on her personal time line had been a little standoffish most of the time, but displayed the occasional flash of humour and affection. This one had emotion, regret, sorrow and she hoped love, leaking out of every fibre of his being.

“It went out the window along with a lot of other things. I’m going to leave out some things that you don’t need to remember, please don’t ask about what happened the rest of the time.”

The last few assignments, those that she could remember, had been extremely routine. The next mission was to be on Kalzir, and now they weren’t going.

“We went to Kalzir.” It was a statement not a question.

Connor softly kissed the top of her head again.

“Yes we did. You met a man there, Tenset Shamir. He was trying to save his people from an oppressive regime, and he thought you could help him do it. He’s very charming, and you fell for him. Today wasn’t your first time, Kittycat, Tenset was.”

It felt as if she was being told about someone else’s life. She wondered what he was like, or if he was even still alive. From Connor’s melancholy tone, it didn’t appear likely. Despite not remembering this man Connor spoke of with such fondness, she felt a sense of loss.

“Go on.”

“Tenset’s uncle was an evil man, and he wanted you to do some horrible things. You refused, and he tried to persuade you, using me. Eventually Tenset helped us escape, and you healed me. We got pretty close during that time.”

“Today wasn’t our first time either, was it?”

“No it wasn’t, and during that time we found out a few things about you, things you need to know but that the Federation doesn’t.”

When she remained silent he explained, without the details of the ‘experiment’ Tamas had performed, how she reacted to an aroused man. She stiffened in his arms, her head still against his chest.

“So do all Dakaran women that come into skin to skin contact with a man with a hard on, turn into desperate horny animal till they get fucked?”

Connor winced at her language, her head still against his chest.

“It must make dating back home interesting.” Connor snorted with amusement, but didn’t say anything.

“What happened to him, the man on Kalzir?” she whispered.

“He was captured by his uncle, but he escaped. Dagus has been in contact with him, they grew up together on Kalzir, to be honest, they could be brothers. Dagus is the nephew of the man who brought you back to us. His family has worked for Tenset’s for generations.”

“We were separated?”

“That’s the part I won’t tell you about. You were very, unwell for a time after we got you back.  I can’t see you like that again.”

The catch in his voice brought home how much he cared about her. She didn’t want to think about what could have happened to cause this reaction.

“Where is this Tenset now?”

“Still on Kalzir as far as I know, but he’s a very ‘resourceful’ chap.”

Chesara looked up and saw a slight smile on Connor’s face.

“You like him.” It was a statement not a question.

“Yes I do, and so did you. Despite his misguided ideas of how to help his people, he's got a kind heart and risked his life for two almost complete strangers.”

Chesara placed a quick kiss on Connor’s cheek. “What about us now?  I kinda like this.”

She moved till she straddled him. A pained expression crossed his handsome face.

“Please don’t do that, do you really want to greet your new ship mates butt naked and very horny?”

“It could lead to an interesting trip,” she said as she wiggled a little more.

Connor smiled before getting a decidedly determined look on his face. Abruptly, he stood up, and she would have ended up on the floor if she hadn’t swiftly put her feet down.

“Hey no fair!” she protested.

“Kittycat, if my boss finds out we’re sleeping together, I’ll be reassigned, and we’ll probably both be memory wiped. So I don’t have to tell you to keep quiet about everything I’ve told you.”

“Sod it, I’m fed up of being pushed from pillar to post, let’s leave the damn service and just do our own thing. I’m sure I can find work.”

From the look on his face, she’d said something wrong, again.

The seat on the other side of the shuttle looked far more comfortable than any of the ones in Connor’s vicinity. She started to move towards it.

“Fine. I get it. Your career is the most important thing to you. I hope it goes well after I’m gone because I’m tired of being treated like a mushroom.”

His hand snaked out and caught her arm, but she didn’t turn around.

“You don’t have a choice Kittycat, you’re not a free agent. The federation owns you, I’ve seen the paperwork. They’d never let you go, you’re too valuable.”

T
he silence became another person in the room as Chesara pulled her arm away from him and sat in the seat next to him. As he watched, she pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, resting her forehead on her knees.

Dread took hold of his heart and squeezed. She was going back into her lock-down mode, and this time it was his fault, he’d destroyed her. He flung himself down on his knees in front of her, gently holding her head in his hands he tilted her face up.

“Chesara? Please don’t do this again, come back to me sweetheart.”

Her eyes slowly opened, and he heaved a sigh of relief.

Dagus popped his head out of the cockpit. “We’re coming up on the co-ordinates folks, everything alright?”

Connor was surprised when Chesara answered.

“Everything’s fine, Lieutenant. Your cargo is ready to be delivered.” Her tone was cold, and she pulled away from Connor, moving to another seat.

Dagus shot him a quizzical look, before heading back into the cockpit.

He dreaded to think what was going through her mind.

“Talk to me sweetheart.” He tried again but she just looked right through him.

Not knowing what else to do, he followed Dagus. At least she was dealing with the news, rather than shutting down again.

Why the hell did he have to tell her? What benefit did it do her at the moment? The only conclusion he could make, was that he’d done it for his own benefit. He’d wanted to feel as close to her as possible and sharing his aims of freeing her from the clutches of the Federation would have done just that. In order to explain how difficult it would be to gain ‘freedom’ he’d had to explain why she wasn’t free in the first place.

He wiped a hand down his face as he realized what he’d actually told her. What a complete and utter idiot. He hadn’t explained any of that. All he’d said when she’d said she wanted to run away and spend her life with him, was that she was a slave, so it was impossible.

Way to go Mr Sensitive. He groaned inwardly as it occurred to him, that from her point of view, he’d just had meaningless sex with her, and encouraged a virtual stranger to do the same to keep her functioning appropriately.

How had he handled this so badly? He resolved to sit down with her ASAP and tell her about how he felt and what his plans were. But first, they had to deal with the immediate concern of the next mission. He hoped he’d have time to explain to her, before they met the next Federation crew. He didn’t want to think about how she’d react if she thought of them as yet another set of ‘owners’, rather than colleagues. As much as he loved her, he wasn’t naive about her capacity, or ability to ‘share the pain’.

As his slid into the co-pilot’s seat, Dagus indicated a small screen, which showed a small light at the centre.

“Those are the co-ordinates, and it looks like the Aries has beaten us to it.” He clicked a few buttons to send out the appropriate Federation codes to the other vessel as they decelerated. “You two ok? It looked a little intense back there.”

Connor sighed. “I’ve managed to put my fucking big foot in it again. She wanted to leave the Federation, start a new life. And I, like an idiot, told her that she couldn’t because the Federation literally ‘own’ her.”

“You didn’t explain.....”

“Nope, not yet.”

“Man, you fucked up big time. I would not want to be in your shoes.” Dagus cast a sympathetic look in Connor’s direction.

Further conversation was interrupted by a beep from the shuttle comm unit. Dagus hit the button.

“This is lieutenant Dagus, pilot of the Federation Shuttle craft Apollo 1, please identify yourselves.”

“This is Commander Fredericks of the Federation Scout ship Aries. Please approach and dock for passenger transfer. Aires out.” The male voice had sounded somewhat stiff.

“Yet another ‘I’m better than you’ commanding officer to deal with, he sounds like a barrel of laughs. I wish you luck with that one my friend. I’ll let him know what happened here. If I can help in any way let me know.”

Connor nodded at Dagus, but he knew the possibility of ever meeting Dagus and especially Tenset again was low, it was a big galaxy out there. Pushing up out of the bucket seat, he made his way back to Chesara, they’d be docking in a matter of moments, and with Dagus at the controls he’d have to operate the door locking mechanism.

“Kittycat, I explained things really badly, I know you’re upset, and I promise I can set things right, but right now we have to go ok?”

The glare she gave was sour enough to curdle milk, and he deserved every atom of her anger. Telling her anything had been a mistake, and it was one he was going to have to live with.

Connor turned to the door, going through the docking protocols as he heard the clunk of the other ship docking with them.

The Aries was too small to have a shuttle deck, it was only about five times larger than the shuttle. The scout class ship was used for reconnaissance by the military, and for private travel for those rich enough to afford one. The unfriendly attitude of the commanding officer was not going to make for a happy trip on such a small vessel. 

The scout was cramped for its usual complement of ten crew, and passengers, especially ‘special envoys’ would make things more uncomfortable. These fast, manoeuvrable craft were often sent on highly sensitive missions, real cloak and dagger exciting stuff. Carting diplomats around was probably not a preferred assignment. Add in Chesara’s foul mood, he had a powder keg, mostly of his own making on his hands.

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A
slight clunk and a judder had Chesara focusing on the door as they made contact with the other vessel. She heard the engines power down and Dagus emerged from the cockpit, pulling his uniform straight. He shot a grin at her, but she didn’t have the emotional energy to return it. She remained seated, what did a slave care about what her ‘owners’ did next?

Dagus nodded at Connor, and he released the door lock, the air hissing as it equalized between the two craft. Connor was knocked backwards as the door was forced open from the other side, and a man with a cut on his forehead wearing a Federation Officer’s uniform stumbled and fell at Connor’s feet. Another figure pointing an assault weapon, stood in the doorway.