Chapter Fifteen

Drak damned near bloodied his nose on the fucking door when he grasped the handle and pushed and it didn’t budge. Pain shot through his nose and speared into his brain and anger erupted instantly. Convinced, at first, that he just hadn’t depressed the handle completely and disengaged the latch, he tried again.

It wouldn’t open.

Because it was latched.

He debated briefly whether he wanted to take a chance on everyone in the fucking fortress learning that his woman had locked him out of his suite and finally decided that was something he wanted to avoid if at all possible.

Simmering both because of the pain from ramming his nose into a door that didn’t open and because Noelle had locked him out, he turned and headed down to the vault to see what progress had been made on the mechanicals. All the while, he allowed himself to think of various ways he might enjoy punishing Noelle for defying him without actually harming her.

That went a long way toward soothing his temper and he was pleased enough to see the young men Noelle had been training hard at work on his treasure that he pushed his anger to the back of his mind. Strolling around the room, he paused at each work station and studied the thing the boy was working on, trying to guess what it might be, and then moving on.

He’d almost made the circuit when he realized Jules wasn’t there when he was usually to be found in the vault even when Noelle wasn’t there.

Mostly with Noelle, though, and clearly he was becoming attached to her.

That wasn’t a good thing.

He was trying to make a man out of the child! Women were always running around trying to nurture and that only weakened a man, made him dependent and unable to stand on his own!

Jules had so much potential! To his mind the child was a far better fit to rule even than his eldest son. Well, he showed potential. There was no telling at this point what sort of man he’d grow up to be—especially if Noelle was determined to baby him!

“Where is Jules?” he asked Kulle.

Kulle’s eyes widened. “I have not seen him since yester-eve.”

Uneasiness slithered through Drak. Turning abruptly, he followed the corridor to the teller’s suite, but there was no sign of the child there, either, and the teller claimed he also had not seen the boy since the previous evening.

Insensibly more alarmed, he moved more quickly when he left the teller and headed up the stairs to see if the boy was in the great hall.

He had covered maybe half the room in his search when one of his men burst through the outer doors. “The star woman is stealing the ship!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs.

Terror shot through Drak, momentarily freezing him—mind, body and soul. The ship would never make it to the sister world at this time of the year if she managed to take off! Uttering a roar that was a mixture of sheer terror and fury, Drak vaulted over the nearest table and raced toward the door. Behind him, his stunned men struggled to gather themselves and follow. By the time the first had boiled out of the doors, however, Drak was already mounted and heading out of the gate at the best speed his beast could manage.

* * * *

Noelle was shaking like a leaf by the time she managed to maneuver the ship out of the cavern and that was only partly because of the nerve-wracking experience of moving a ship through such a tight opening when she wasn’t at all familiar with this ship in particular. She hadn’t, in point of fact, done more than practice with the simulators aboard ship for the escape pods and she’d only done that because it was a required part of the safety measures.

Mostly, though, she was shaking because she’d screwed up and shown her hand and she was committed now whether she really wanted to escape or not—whether she really felt competent to pilot the ship from this planet to the sister world. And she didn’t particularly feel confident in her abilities.

“Shit! They’re coming!”

“Jules! Don’t say that word!”

“You said it.”

“That’s beside …. Never mind!” Trying to ignore Jules’ announcement that they were about to have very angry company, she focused on the computer’s system’s check. Thankfully, fuel wouldn’t be an issue!

Unfortunately, the computer informed her that the target planet was beyond the ship’s current capabilities. “You cannot be serious!”

“I do not understand.”

“Why can’t we reach the damned planet? You said that we had plenty of fuel!”

“The planet is moving away from this one at a speed this ship cannot match. Or surpass, which it would need to in order to catch up to it.”

Noelle frowned. Like she couldn’t do that much math! “What about the other direction? If we headed the other way wouldn’t we meet up with it?”

“Yes. In three months.”

“Oh my fucking god!” There wasn’t three days worth of supplies on board! They certainly weren’t going to make it if it took that damned long!

“What?” Jules demanded uneasily.

“Sit down and buckle up.”

Jules frowned at her, but he obeyed her command.

Noelle searched her PMAI for anything she’d learned at any time that might help. She recalled abruptly that, in the early days of space travel, they’d used the gravity of planets to assist their crafts in getting up to the speed they needed. “Could we gain enough speed if we swung around Aiper a few times?”

“Calculating. Affirmative. My calculations indicate that four orbits should increase the ship’s speed sufficiently.”

“Alright then! Let’s do it! Fingers crossed.”

“I do not have fingers.”

“I was talking to the kid,” Noelle muttered. Moving away from the console, she took a last look out of the porthole. Drak and his men were nearing them along the pass. A mixture of fear at being caught mingled with an abrupt dimming of her elation as it suddenly occurred to her that she would probably never see Drak again.

She had his ship.

It was probably for the best. He’d probably want to choke the life out of her for taking his ship and his son!

She felt like crying when it hit her that she really had committed herself.

And maybe this wasn’t what she really wanted.

She shook the thought. She couldn’t go back now. She had to look forward.

After taking one last look at the man in the lead, Noelle moved to the seat next to Jules, fastened her safety harness and gave the computer the command to launch toward space.

The trip to K’naiper was actually uneventful and would’ve been downright boring if Noelle hadn’t been so fearful that the computer had miscalculated the speed and trajectory and they’d miss the planet entirely.

Of course, they had plenty of fuel.

What they didn’t have was plenty of supplies, but Jules was both clever and brave. He didn’t whine or misbehave when she explained they had to be very careful with what they had to eat and drink because it would have to last until they reached K’naiper. He spent most of the trip exploring the ship.

Noelle spent most of the trip imagining she’d been able to see the look of pure rage on Drak’s face when he realized what she’d done and wishing she hadn’t been quite so impulsive.

She hadn’t really considered that Drak might have felt something for her beyond a sense of ownership. He’d seemed almost fond at times.

And he wasn’t a bad man even though he was undoubtedly a savage.

She’d really pushed him several times and he hadn’t done anything more barbaric than screw her brains out and—well she could lie to anybody but herself. She hadn’t hated it. The bondage-punishment thing had been pretty damned scary—at least when it started out. But even that hadn’t been a completely terrible experience.

She shook those thoughts, over and over, but they kept coming back and by the time they saw K’naiper in the forward viewing ports she knew she’d screwed up in a really big way.

She wasn’t just physically attracted to the barbarian. She thought she loved him.

Maybe that was just the captive syndrome, though?

She needed therapy!

It took longer to find Jules’ village than it had taken to get to the planet in the first place!

Noelle was anxious to get home herself, but the distraction wasn’t entirely unwelcome. It at least sidetracked her from thinking about Drak constantly.

They weren’t welcomed at any of the villages, but fortunately the weapons the villagers had weren’t anything that could seriously damage the ship because they had to drop really low for Jules to look around and decide whether it was the right village or not. Finally, they spotted one near a wide river that Jules thought he recognized, though, and it transpired that he did. When they’d dropped low enough the villagers all came out to run and or throw rocks and spears, he recognized his mother.

Noelle opened the com unit so that Jules could use it to call to his mother from the ship and they managed to scared the villagers half to death. The important thing, though, was that they threw their weapons down and surrendered so that Noelle could safely land and lower the gang plank.

Jules peered out cautiously when they opened the door—because Noelle had threatened to beat the snot out of him if he charged down the ramp and made a target of himself. It was just as well she had a firm grip on him because he’d no sooner poked his head out to look than one of the warriors launched a spear at them.

“Mother! It’s me! Jules!” the child yelled.

“Jules?”

Noelle and Jules moved cautiously into the entrance and looked to see if it was safe.

The woman that charged up the gangplank scared the hell out of Noelle, but Jules’ scream, she discovered fairly quickly, was joyful.

The woman caught her son in a tight embrace and lifted him from his feet. Noelle was misty eyed at the reunion, but it also brought to mind the image of Drak embracing the child and she realized he must ache for the loss of the child as the mother had.

How sad that only one could have the child and one must ache for the loss!

But then it dawned on her that Drak had made a child with the woman holding Jules and she began to look at the woman in a whole new light.

Without surprise, she saw that the woman was a handsome specimen. Dressed as one of the warriors of the tribe, she displayed a good bit of well toned body. She was built like an athlete or maybe a ballerina or a gymnast—a taut, well sculpted form that defied age. Noelle couldn’t tell any more from her face. She didn’t look to be very young, but she certainly wasn’t very old either—maybe around thirty.

But then that was judging her by human standards and they didn’t know enough about the indigenous people to have a clue of what their life spans were. It could be comparable to their human counterparts or not even in the same ballpark.

The woman met her envious gaze with one of hostility.

Fortunately, Jules didn’t forsake her now that he was home again. “This is my friend, Noelle. She’s a star-child, Father said. She brought me home.”

Noelle couldn’t see that the woman unbent a great deal, but she nodded in a gesture that might have been ‘thanks’ or ‘ok I won’t shoot you’.

“In that case, you are welcome to refresh yourself, stranger.”

Noelle hesitated. All she really wanted to do was race home—strip off everything that reminded her of Drak and then crawl in her bed and cry her eyeballs out. These people were their neighbors, though, and it was a chance to offer friendship—not just for herself but for all of the colonists. She nodded, therefore, instead of making her excuses and, after punching the keypad to close the hatch, followed the woman and child down the gangplank and into the village.

She really, really hoped she wasn’t going to end up being a captive again!

* * * *

Drak was too stunned when the ship shot skyward even to think. His mind went perfectly blank, barely even capable of recording anything with his senses. Dimly, he was aware of his men milling around him, some cursing, some speculating, many of them simply as shocked and dismayed and unable to grasp the full implications of the situation as he was.

Slowly in sank in upon him as he watched the ship become no more than a dark spot, and then a dot and then vanish altogether that he had lost them.

He had lost the child dearest to his heart and he had lost the woman. He’d lost Noelle.

He felt as if someone had just ripped his heart out of his chest.

There was so much pain for many moments that he couldn’t catch his breath.

They were gone. Dead. Or as good as dead. There was no way the ship could reach the sister planet at this time of the year.

And there was nothing he could do about it.

He couldn’t save them.

For a few moments wild thoughts circulated in his mind as he considered which of the other clans might have a working ship. They all kept their ships carefully hidden and well protected ….

That thought brought his guard to mind. Rage engulfed him as he turned to look for the man. “Where is Dolf?”

The men around him simply gaped at him and then began to look around. “He is not with us,” the nearest man finally responded.

“Find him!” Drak roared. “And then bring him to me!” With that, he turned his beast and rowled it into motion, racing back toward the fortress with as little regard for life and limb as he’d had when he’d raced to try to catch Noelle to save her. Less. Except for the pain, he felt dead inside.

The beast seemed to beat out that refrain in the rhythm of its hooves against the ice—lost, gone, dead.

He had nothing but the fires of rage to keep the cold from spreading outward from his heart to completely envelop him.

Dolf was not to be found. Apparently, he’d had enough sense to realize he was very likely a dead man for losing the ship and when the men had tore out of the fortress to try to stop the ship from taking off, he grabbed a few of his belongings and some supplies and took off to try to find shelter with another clan.

Drak did not take the news well. He wanted someone or something to vent his frustration on.

Tossing the reins of his beast to a stable hand, he stalked inside, up the stairs … and slammed face first into the door of his room again. That time he was caught completely off guard and bloodied his nose. He let out a roar that could echoed through the halls of the fortress. Half the men turned around and left the hall again, figuring it might be better to hunt for the missing man than face Drak’s wrath. Kulle had more balls than the rest. He and a handful of men raced to their Prince’s side.

Kulle looked around in confusion when they reached the Prince’s suite and discovered he was standing at the door nursing a bloodied nose. “What happened?”

“The door is barred from the other side,” Drak growled.

Kulle gaped at him in disbelief, blinking while he tried to assimilate that news. “But … who took the ship?”

Drak stared at him, struggling with a surge of hope. “Break the door down!”

It took several men pounding against the panel before they finally managed to break through. Then they had to shove the furniture out of the way. Drak shoved in first, searching the room.

He was both puzzled and deflated when they found it empty.

“Witchery!” one of the men muttered.

“Don’t be a fucking idiot!” Drak growled. “She had no magic. She went out another way. Find it!”

They all surged toward the only window and looked out, but there was absolutely no way, they decided, that the woman could’ve scaled the side of the fortress at that point. Since that ruled out the only two openings, they turned and looked at the fireplace. But there was a smoldering fire on the hearth and had been, constantly, since Drak had brought Noelle to his home.

Drak glanced around. “Check the walls for a secret passage.”

It took them twenty minutes to find it and another twenty to fetch an ax to open it when they couldn’t find the latch.

His own damned fortress and it hadn’t occurred to him there might be a secret passage! It should have. The old bastard that had built it had made secret passages all over the fucking thing!

But his own suite of rooms?

He supposed the old man had thought he needed an escape route.

Gathering several torches for light, Drak and Kulle and the men followed the stairs down and then made their way along the tunnel. When they arrived, they discovered just how Noelle and Jules had managed to get into the ship without the guard stopping them. He’d stationed himself at the entrance to the cave.

Drak still wasn’t inclined to let him off the hook. “When you find Dolf—twenty lashes,” he growled. Turning on his heel he headed back the way he’d come.

His fury had deserted him by the time he reached his suite again. After standing in the middle of the room, staring at nothing in particular for a while, he left the room and headed to his solar.

He didn’t think he could bear staying in the room anymore even if not for the fact that it was hardly secure with the passage now known and the both doors shattered.

When he reached his solar, he grabbed a bottle of brew, dropped onto the padded couch the room boasted near the large window, and proceeded to get as stinking drunk as he could manage in the hope of drowning the pain that simmered just at the fringes of his mind.

* * * *

Noelle didn’t make a huge push toward diplomacy. That wasn’t her strong suit. She stayed long enough to be polite, extended an invitation to Jules and his mother, whom, it transpired, was the village queen, to visit the colony ‘someday’ and then bid them farewell.

When she was airborne again, she considered the safest way to handle her return and decided that it might be best to land the ship far enough from the colony to prevent them from seeing it. She didn’t feel up to explaining how she’d gotten it and there was no place within the colony where she might land anyway. They had a small landing field and a few hangers, but those had been designed and built for the small shuttles they used to travel between the mother ship in orbit and the colony. They wouldn’t accommodate such a large ship.

Beyond that, they were liable to shoot first and ask questions when they were scraping her off the rocks.

Unlike the Amazons, they had the means to shoot her down.

In any case, the walk from where she hid the ship to the gates of the colony gave her plenty of time to decide what she wanted to share about her adventure and what she didn’t.

She thought they weren’t going to let her in. After making her identify herself five times, they made her wait while they sent for Monica to verify.

She was so thrilled to see that Monica was alive and safe and well, she burst into tears.

Monica, naturally enough, took that to be a sign of distress over her experiences and she was taken directly to the med center for a thorough examination and mental evaluation.

She was pregnant.

She’d worried endlessly that that might happen, and she was still stunned absolutely speechless when the computer informed her that she was gestating.

“Really?”

“Affirmative.”

Noelle searched her mind for other questions. “How far along?”

“Approximately one week.”

Shocked to discover it was from the wild BDSM night she’d spent with Drak, Noelle sucked in a sharp breath. “Seriously?”

“I am not programmed for humor.”

Well, maybe not that night. The computer had said approximate and she supposed it could have been the night before but that would be stretching it.

She didn’t know how to take that—because it meant if she’d escaped only a day or so earlier she wouldn’t be carrying Drak’s baby. Was she glad? Or sorry that she hadn’t managed to escape sooner.

“Is it … ok?”

“It is a viable embryo.”

Which didn’t actually tell her a damned thing beyond the fact that it was alive and, she supposed, growing. “Normal,” she tried again.

“It is not normal.”

If the machine had stabbed her she didn’t think it could’ve been more painful. “How is it not normal?”

“It is an alien-human hybrid.”

Noelle felt like taking a hammer to the damned computer for scaring her so badly! “So your assessment has to do with it being only half human?” she asked.

“Affirmative. It has a DNA strand that it half human and half unknown. It is not normal.”

The machine wasn’t designed or programmed to deal with anything but human physiology. It couldn’t determine whether the embryo was free of disease or defect because it had no data on Drak’s people.

“Would you like for me to abort the development?”

Horror washed through Noelle. “No!”

“It is an abnormal embryo—defective. And it cannot be repaired. It is lacking 50% of the DNA that it needs to be normal. It will not be an asset to the community.”

“You don’t know that.”

“If you refuse to abort when you have been informed that the infant will be defective and a burden to the resources of the colony I am required to send a report to the governor of the colony and also to the psychiatric department.”

Anger flickered through Noelle. “It’s a democratic government and that means I have a choice. And my choice is to wait until there is enough data to make an informed decision!”

The psychiatrist counseled her to abort and said that she would have to attend classes regarding the care of defective and possibly retarded children before she was allowed to make a final decision.

Noelle was so depressed when she left she had no trouble at all fulfilling her wish to climb into her own bed and cry her eyes out. When she’d exhausted herself, she slept.

Monica gave her a sympathetic look when she arrived home from work. “Was it that terrible? Do you want to talk about it?”

Noelle glared at her. “Who said it was terrible? I didn’t say it was terrible!”

Monica held up her hands in a surrendering motion. “You hungry?”

That instantly diverted Noelle. “OMG! I really hate most of the native food! I am so hungry for real food!”

Monica snorted. “Only you would call space rations ‘real’ food!”

“Well, it’s human food and I’m used to the taste. And the consistency.”

“Next question—eat in? Or go out?”

Noelle thought that over. She was really reluctant to go out. It wasn’t a very big colony and she was pretty sure gossip had made the rounds two or three times by now. There wouldn’t be a damned soul that didn’t know everything there was to know about her capture.

On the other hand, she had to live with them. She supposed the sooner she got out and got it over with the better. Eventually, they were bound to get used to seeing her and tired of rehashing it.