Planet Mail (15 page)

Sven nodded his approval.
“Another excellent suggestion.”
He removed his hands from Douglass. “But for this we need to be outside.” Before she could follow him out, he led her over to the young guard. “Stay by the king’s consort, please. Touch her if she asks you to.”

Douglass remained in the doorway to the tent while Sven stripped off his tunic and unsheathed his massive sword. He tossed the black box to one of his men. “On the count of three, throw this at me.”

The box flew through the air and met the flat blade of Sven’s mighty sword. He buffeted it with such force that it sailed toward one of the low rock formations and hit it with a resounding crash. With a roar of triumph, Sven strode across to the box and picked it up. The light on the right side now blinked red.

Douglass grinned at Sven. “I think that did the trick.” Her smile faded as he came toward her. “Now all we have to do is get back to the spaceport and wait.”

Chapter Eleven

Douglass paced the small control room at the spaceport, her gaze glued to the horizon. She’d been at the station for almost three days. Five days since the emergency beacon was activated. Sven sat on the console behind her, arms crossed over his chest.

“Consort, the operator said the signal he received was very faint. It could take several more days for another craft to reach here.”

She smiled at his less than patient tone. It was Sven’s job to see that she remained in custody until she left the planet. Was he eager to get rid of her and return to the king? He shifted position and frowned at her. “Consort…”

“You can go if you like, Sven. I’m sure the port operator would be quite happy to watch over me.”

Sven shot to his feet. He reached her in two angry strides and took her by the shoulders. He gave her a firm shake. “I will wait with you. I promised the king I would see you safely restored to your people.”

It was an old argument; one Douglass knew she had no chance of winning. Thick nausea crawled up the back of her throat as she scanned the empty blue sky. What if no one came? After three months they might have given up on her.

A warning code crackled over the archaic com system followed by a female voice. “Planet Valhalla, this is the United Planetary Parcel Service ship
Eagle One
. Please copy.”

After a startled glance at Douglass the operator punched some buttons. “This is Planet Valhalla, over.”

“Request permission to land, Planet Valhalla.
We believe you have a misplaced package of ours.”

With a shriek of joy, Douglass threw herself into Sven’s arms and let him swing her around in a circle. “It worked! They got it!”

By the time the huge spacecraft set down, everyone in the
starport
and the immediate vicinity had gathered to watch. Douglass waited anxiously at the bottom of the ship
glideway
. The first figure to emerge wore a brown jumpsuit with four stars glittering on her chest. She shaded her eyes against the brightness.

“Douglass, is that you?” With a whoop, the woman ran down the slope and hugged Douglass hard.

“Marge! How did you get this assignment?” Douglass hugged her old friend from pilot training school, tears already streamed down her face.

“Did you think I’d let anyone else come?” Marge
demanded,
her gaze fierce, her blue eyes suspiciously bright. Marge was Danny’s godmother and Douglass’ strongest supporter. “I’ve been keeping an eye on Danny for you. He’ll be so excited to have you back!”

Douglass grabbed Marge’s hands. “He’s okay? He’s really okay?”

“Well, he’s been missing you like crazy and I’ve probably spoiled him so much that you’ll ground him for the rest of his life, but, yeah, he’s okay. You can talk to him later on the link and find out for yourself.”

“Consort, is this female bothering you?”

Douglass turned as Sven came up behind her. She smiled at him. “Not at all, she’s come to rescue me.”

Marge gazed at Sven’s bare chest and ferocious expression. Her gaze dropped to his tight leather pants which were the only thing he wore apart from his boots. “Wow. Does he belong to you? He seems a mite possessive.”

“He’s kind of like my bodyguard.” Douglass winked at Sven as they swept past him. “He’s quite sweet when you get to know him, really.”

“I bet he is. In my experience, the sourer they look the sweeter they taste.”

Marge grinned at Douglass. “Perhaps I didn’t need to rescue you after all.”

Inside the best suite the small hotel could provide, Marge relaxed enough to remove her jacket as Douglass gave her an edited version of what had happened since the crash.

Marge sighed. “We’ll have to pick up the pieces of your craft. UPSS will want to analyze the data.”

“I can give you the coordinates.” Douglass took note of Sven’s glare. “It might be better if you send an all-male team to the site. The locals aren’t used to seeing women out and about in the open.”

Marge sipped at her
ozan
juice. “Yeah, I noticed that when I reviewed the data on this godforsaken planet. Men outnumber women by about fifty to one.” She grinned at Douglass. “Nice odds if you can get it.”

Sven got up and stalked into the bedroom. Douglass winced as he slammed the door.

“God, he’s gorgeous when he’s angry,” Marge breathed. “Is he mad because you are leaving?”

“I don’t think so. It’s probably because you referred to this planet as godforsaken. They take their gods very seriously here.”

Marge leaned forward and touched Douglass’ knee. “But you are okay, aren’t you? You look really well. In fact, you look better than ever.”

“I’ve been treated like a princess.” More like a queen Douglass wanted to say but she didn’t want to complicate matters too much. Her planet might take a serious view of her being required to have sex with several men. She thought of Marcus. Would news of the ship’s arrival have reached him yet? Would he bother to come and say goodbye?

Marge got to her feet. “The med lab wants to run a few tests on you to make sure you haven’t picked up anything unpleasant from your stay here. Can you come aboard now?”

Douglass glanced at the closed bedroom door. In his present mood would Sven care if she went without him? She headed for the exit after Marge as quickly as she could.

The large medical lab on the ship was empty apart from her and the female doctor. Douglass stripped off her clothes and put on the scratchy green cover-nothing gown laid out on the bed. She hated the smell of disinfectant and the glaring whiteness of the walls. It reminded her all too forcibly that her erotic interlude was over and that it was time to return the realities of her less than romantic life.

“Hi, Douglass, I’m Doctor Barbara Jensen.”

Douglass shook the doctor’s cold hand and watched warily as she laid out a variety of instruments on a tray. Her hair was pure white, her skin a pale coffee color; she could’ve been any age from thirty to fifty. A slight prick on Douglass’ wrist indicated the blood test was complete. She studied the small puncture hole as it seamlessly healed itself.

“I’ll just get this analyzed.”

Douglass sighed and stared at the ceiling. After a few long moments she allowed her attention to drift to the doctor who stood in front of a diagnostic screen.

Doctor Jensen’s back stiffened and her shoulders crept up toward her ears as diagnostic figures spiked with red flashes spilled onto the screen. Even with her small knowledge of medicine, Douglass had seen enough medical dramas on the entertainment tube to tell her something was wrong. When the doctor returned, she sat beside Douglass and took her hand.

“There are two things you need to know about the test results.”

Douglass struggled to sit up. “Good or bad?”

“It depends.” Doctor Jensen hesitated, her brown eyes fixed on Douglass. “The first thing is that this planet’s atmosphere contains very high levels of a toxic chemical called chlordane.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“It can be. Prolonged exposure can cause cancer, brain damage and fertility problems.”

Keen to be distracted from her own predicament Douglass said, “I wonder if that’s why the people here can’t seem to have children?”

“Possibly.
It’s something we can look into.
But to get back to you.
There are drugs we could give you to combat the effects of chlordane, but…”

Douglass studied the doctor’s kind face. “But…?”

“That brings me to the second thing.” She sighed. “Did you know you are eight weeks pregnant?”

Douglass simply stared at her as a million small intuitive memories finally collided in her head to form a cohesive mass. She’d assumed her sore breasts and queasiness were a result of her new diet and overactive sex life. Her first pregnancy had been nothing like this. She jumped off the gurney.

“Excuse me!”

She only just made it to the bathroom before she retched. When she finally stopped, Doctor Jensen crouched beside her, a wet cloth in her hand. After several deep breaths, Douglass allowed herself to be led back into the main lab.

A commotion outside the lab made them both stop and stare. Sven kicked his way through the door, two security guards hanging off his arms. He spied Douglass.

“Consort, are you well? Did these space travelers hurt you?”

Doctor Jensen whistled an appreciative tune. “Is this the potential father? He looks like a nice healthy specimen.”

Sven growled at the doctor as he flexed his biceps and bounced one of the security guards against the wall. Within a minute, as sirens wailed and lights flashed, Marge arrived with a second security team. She pointed her weapon at Sven.

“Douglass, if you can’t get him to behave, I’ll have to knock him out.”

Douglass took hold of Sven’s arm and detached him from the guards.

“
It’s
okay, Sven, I’m fine.” She pushed at his chest until he sat down with a thump on the gurney, hands fisted at his sides. “Marge, can you get everybody out of here? I need to talk to you and the doctor.”

Marge snapped into efficiency mode and had the room cleared in ten seconds. Douglass’ ears continued to ring long after the alarms were silenced. Marge shut the door with a bang and frowned at Sven who remained seated on the gurney.

“You’re scarcely decent, Douglass.” She cast an eye over Douglass’ crumpled paper gown. “Do you want muscle man in here?”

“I will not leave the king’s consort,” Sven growled. “I am responsible for her safety.”

Douglass patted his leather-clad knee. “Of course you can stay. It’s not as if he hasn’t seen me naked before.”

Sven brought her hand to his lips.
“Naked and ready for sex, consort, as is my right and my pleasure.”

Douglass smiled briefly at him and then turned back to Marge and Doctor Jensen who wore identical expressions of intense interest. She shrugged. “It’s not quite how it sounds. Let me explain.”

By the time she finished telling them a fairly cleaned-up version of her interesting lifestyle and sexual habits on Planet Valhalla, Marge was staring at her in admiration.

“Hell, Douglass, I never thought you had it in you.”

“Neither did
I
. But I can highly recommend it.” Douglass smiled—apart from the bit when you fall in love with a king who has to put duty ahead of you.

Doctor Jensen looked thoughtful. “So in theory, any one of the four men you had consensual sex with could be the father of your child.”

Douglass bit her lip. Perhaps she should’ve been more specific. “It depends on what you mean by sex. Only one of the men actually…”

“What the king’s consort is trying to say is that only the king was privileged to plant his seed in her womb.” Sven gave Douglass a helpful wink.

Doctor Jensen didn’t seem pleased. “In theory, that’s true but semen has a mind of its own sometimes.” She got up. “We’ll have to take DNA samples from all of the men and from the fetus.” She smiled reassuringly at Sven. “We can start with you.”

Douglass laid a protective hand over her belly. “Are you sure that won’t hurt the baby?”

“I wouldn’t suggest it if it wasn’t safe. We also need to check the fetus for any abnormalities due to this toxic climate.”

A wave of dizziness swept over Douglass. Half an hour ago she hadn’t even known she was pregnant, now she felt as protective as a lioness with her cub. An image of Lillian’s swollen stomach and puffy face came over her.

“Doctor Jensen, we’ll have to ask the king’s permission to visit the palace and persuade him to allow DNA samples to be taken.” She frowned. “As far as I know, the technology doesn’t exist on this planet. So he and the Council might take some convincing.”

She glanced at Sven. “Perhaps you could take a message to the king and ask if we might arrange a meeting with him.” She didn’t want to turn up uninvited and risk Mistress
Freya
insisting she was thrown into prison. It was also possible that Marcus might simply refuse to see her.

Sven got up and bowed. “It would be an honor, consort.”

Douglass grabbed his arm. “Don’t say anything about the possibility of a baby yet, please?” She searched his face, sensed his reluctance. “For all we know this could just be a false alarm. I would much rather we had our facts straight before we faced the king.”

Sven nodded. “I promise, consort. But only because I do not want the king to be disappointed.” She kissed his cheek as he patted her butt, his fingers stealing under the crumpled gown to caress her flesh. “I will return as soon as I can.”

After he turned to leave, Douglass found Doctor Jensen’s fascinated gaze was fixed on Sven’s departing back. She cleared her throat and the doctor jumped.

“Before you begin the tests, can I ask you about another woman here who is pregnant?”

“Of course, Douglass, but remember I’m unable to treat any of the people on this planet without express permission from the king and his Council. Do you think the king would allow it?”

Douglass allowed herself a small smile.
“Definitely.
After all, the results could determine the future of his planet.”