“Shh … stay here, Cesar, with me. We’re safe with the Gran. I told you I’d never let you leave my side. Whatever happens, we’ll face it together.”
His eyes flashed with something – resignation? I knew my possessive claim of ownership over him was unusual in human terms, but he seemed to accept the fact that I’d never let him go. He was mine – forever – non-negotiable.
Cesar’s worried eyes held me. “My men and I, we’re pirates. We run from the DC, occasionally brawl with them, but they never gave a shit about us. We were a nuisance. Now … you, me, all my men … we’re traitors. We’re a step away from being declared public enemy number one. If the DC learns what we did, they will find us and execute us. Unless we hideout here in Gran territory indefinitely – start our own fucking colony – our days are numbered.”
“Are you suggesting I kill all the witnesses? All the Marines and Captain Secora?”
He shook his head in denial. “I’m a pirate, not an asshole.”
I kissed him. “I love you, and I will do whatever it takes to protect you, even when you’re an asshole.”
He chuckled. “That’s just it, Angel. We need your protection now. Our actions have decided where we stand in this war.”
* * * *
Chapter 8
I scooted my chair in closer, forcing Secora to look at me instead of letting her gaze roam around the pale white interrogation room. I brushed her hand with my fingers, letting her know I was on her side, even though I was the one who brought her to here to be questioned for hours on end. I hoped that despite the threat of death and dismemberment, we girls could bond and figure a way out of this fucked up war.
“Stop fidgeting and think. If you answer his questions he’ll let you live.” I focused on Secora’s twitchy eyes, trying to ignore the massive Cat at my side. Rollick stroked my hair in absent-minded affection and I stopped myself short of rubbing the fur of his leg. Secora had no idea how much of a kitten the Prince could be – at least with me. All she knew was that I held control over a tall, powerful predator with sharp teeth and claws.
“You need to trust me, Secora. I am your lifeline. I can keep you alive, maybe even get you home. I know you can help, which is why you’re here. So help me stop this war.”
She swallowed and tried to still her shaking hands atop the small table, separating us. I was tempted to beat it out of her, but that wouldn’t help us girls bond any further. Plus my golden skirted Princess outfit was brand new, and I didn’t want it blood-stained. The Gran didn’t have much in the way of laundry detergent.
Secora resumed telling me the same story. “Okay. I’ve told you before, DC command sent us out to follow a series of jump beacons, a trail which led to the first of the mining colonies we attacked. Once in range of the mining colonies, our sensors picked up their signals.”
“Their signals? Whose signals?”
“The Admiral didn’t say. I thought it was another jump beacon, but the display showed a series of lights clustered together, like hundreds of little beacons.”
Hundreds.
The only thing the Gran had by the hundreds at the mining colonies were the fucking laborers. The worker drones produced by Nugene.
“You followed jump beacons across thousands of light years, then caught the signals off of some other kind of beacons located at these mining asteroids. Correct?”
She nodded.
I clicked my wristcom and hailed Cesar. “You’ve been listening to her story, right?” Cesar grunted assent. “Would you come in here please? I need your help. She’s not making sense.”
Secora stiffened.
“Relax. We’re talking. I’m not going to hurt you. The Cats might want to …” I reached out and stroked Rollick’s thigh. “But I don’t. Tell the truth and provide some meaningful answers, you’ll be fine.”
Rollick growled for my attention. “She stinks.”
I snickered. I probably smelled like sex and Cesar, so I couldn’t have been much more savory to his sensitive nose. Rollick clicked impatiently. “How much longer do you need me? I wish to wash off her scent … and we must speak in private.”
I caught his eyes, and though I didn’t grasp the full array of Cat facial expressions and body language, I thought I saw something that made me nervous. What reason did my Prince require a private moment? What did he expect from me?
Cesar walked into the interrogation room and sat on the couch a few feet away from my chair. He’d learned his way around the corridors of the Emperor’s private quarters in the weeks he’d spent here as my entourage. He looked Secora in the eyes and got down to business. “Let me see if I got this straight, you want us to believe someone placed beacons all across the galaxy, at various jump points, so that you could follow them?”
Secora ran her fingers through her greasy, tousled hair and her eyes darted everywhere, a trapped animal desperate for a way out that did not exist. “I don’t know how the beacons got there, or who placed them. The signals we picked up at the mining colonies … I don’t think those were beacons, not exactly.”
I looked at Cesar, and I knew he was thinking the same as I, but he said it first. “Nugene must have implanted tracking devices in the worker drones.”
Secora frowned. “You’re talking about the clones that Nugene supposedly sold to the Gran?”
I looked at this poor fool woman with pity. “You seriously haven’t figured it out yet? After everything the Admiral said in front of you, after you wiped out all those mining operations with hundreds of little traceable blinking lights? Yes, Secora, Nugene produces human clones. They’re dumbed down idiot workers, specially made for mining labor. Nugene is the reason the treaty with the Gran functioned all this time. Nugene provides the Gran with mine laborers born and bred on Nugene station, near Jupiter.”
She covered her mouth in horror. “Then the lights, they were …”
“People. Clones. The DC sent you to exterminate hundreds of people working in asteroid mines. And you think the Gran are savage animals.” I shook my head at her. “Who is more vicious?”
* * * *
Being pulled through the hallways towards Prince Rollick’s apartments, I had a strange feeling in my gut about what the Prince wanted from me. As he unlocked the entry door to his private quarters, a buzz flickered on his wristcom, and a message played aloud. “The Emperor requests your presence at the Trader’s Guild Tribunal. Bring the Princess.” The Cat spit out the last word like a curse.
Saved by the Tribunal. Whatever Rollick planned for me would have to wait.
We weaved our way to the Trader’s Guild area of the palace, detouring around the sealed off corridors that had been damaged by the DC plasma cannon fire. I could taste the scorched metal flavor drifting on the air near the charred zones where the station’s shields had failed.
In the Tribunal room, fifty some Cats were crowded around the central platform where the Emperor and one of the Trader’s Guild fatcats stood with another Cat I did not recognize. The room was silent as the Emperor spoke his piece in what looked like a debate of sorts.
“I warned of the consequence of forcing slave labor demands upon the humans. You thought they would sit idle while we collected their worker drones cycle after cycle? They were biding their time to build a new fleet of stealth warships. This calamity comes to us from the greed of the Traders Guild. Traders and Miners had ample workers. The Kaldar have worked our mines for thousands of cycles. We breed them for this one purpose, and they serve us well.”
I’d never heard anyone speak of the Kaldar, the trained primates that worked in mines. These animals had no place in Gran society. They were beasts of burden, ignored out here in the colonies.
The Fatcat sucked in his gut to make a rebuttal, but the other Cat spoke over the top of him. “The Miners Guild has never stopped working the Kaldar we breed. The human workers are much more efficient and capable. We prefer humans for more articulate tasks. They lack the brute strength of the Kaldar, but are skilled
tool operators and work together to achieve higher production quotas. The Gran need these human workers, they are superior to the Kaldar.”
The Fatcat looked pleased he’d kept his mouth shut and let the other Cat dominate the debate. They were serving each other’s interests nicely.
The Miner took a few seconds to look about the room, catching the eyes of many of his observers. “In this unprovoked attack we lost thousands of Kaldar, hundreds of Guild Officers, and thousands more human workers. Humans must replace what they have destroyed. We must take recompense!”
The crowd roared along with the Miner and rallied to his cause. This debate was going sideways fast. The Emperor let the crowd make their noise for a time and then roared across the room, a furious sound that quieted them all. “We are blinded by greed. Blinded by our inability to understand the true nature of humanity. Look to the Princess.”
He reached out in my direction and my blood went cold. I prayed he wasn’t planning to put me on the spot as some example of humanity. I was the farthest thing from human that ever wore a human face.
“Angel fights at our side with strength, honor, and loyalty to her Prince. She has risked her life many times to protect those she loves. She is so much more than an animal bred to break rocks in mining tunnels. Can you not see this truth?”
Fuck.
I stood under the scrutiny of the room. The Emperor looked at me with expectation, as if he really wanted me to speak up in a room full of Cats who despised me. He nodded.
My heart in my throat, I spoke the words as they came to mind, letting my instinct flow from my tongue. “The worker drones of Nugene appear human, but they are a timid shadow of the true depth and complexity of humanity. Humans are a deadly, vicious, cunning species, and now they are learning the technologies of the Gran to add to their arsenals. The humans have found your colonies, put everything you hold dear at risk. Would you consider negotiations for peace? Or would you rather go to war against an enemy capable of exterminating the Gran from the galaxy? War does not solve problems of this magnitude. I implore you to consider other solutions.”
Cats growled, howled, screamed and yowled. I had spoken the truth no one wanted to hear. In retrospect, probably not the wisest choice of words.
There was no going back, so I finished what needed to be said. “I love my Prince. I love the Emperor and his family. For them, I will fight, if a fight is necessary. But know this, humanity is not the same creature you remember from the days of Traders Guild raiders. They are an amazingly adaptive species. They learn very fast. Humans learned to build fleets of ships that move and attack in secret, and disappear without a trail to follow. Humanity is not an animal bred for work. They are your equals in every way, and until you treat them as equals, in war, in right to life and liberty, you will suffer that mistake. Humans do not accept captivity or enslavement. A human enslaved is a vicious creature that will turn on you at the first opportunity. Human history is filled with bloodshed, slaughter and war. Always they are at war – since the beginning of recorded history. The Traders Guild have given war-mongering humans a common target, a common cause, and a new reason for war.”
The complaining Cats had become growling-hissing Cats, and the Emperor watched me with a keen eye, as if he’d seen a new side of me.
“For the love I carry for the Prince, the Emperor, and his family, I beg you to consider a new path. Consider a negotiation for peace. The Traders Guild has taken thousands of human workers. Though a fair price was paid, this arrangement is born of extortion and threat of violence. The humans have retaliated. If the Gran return this attack with the same, the cycle of vengeance will never end until one or both species is destroyed.”
The Emperor nodded to a crowd of surly Cats, but he did not say another word, as if I had spoken well enough to suit him.
The Miner moved in on me. He was an older, intimidating and powerful Cat with streaks of grey fur in his striping. His eyes assessed me as though I’d personally attacked his mines and ruined his production quotas. He clicked at us both, the Emperor and I.
“If the Emperor presumes to let this hairless female speak so boldly, I assume he agrees with her words.”
I watched the Emperor, expecting another one of his eloquent speeches. The Cat nodded in agreement to his accuser. “Angel speaks true. Though her words imply a grave threat from humanity, it is a threat of our making, a problem we created. Will we solve our problems with war and slaughter, risking our colonies and lives, or can we find a better way? Can we negotiate for peace … perhaps with the help of the Princess?”
Fuck me. He was putting this on my shoulders. God help us all.
* * * *
Chapter 9
The tribunal splintered into a dozen arguments over greedy Traders, lazy Miners, lax Imperial security protocols, and overall frustration with small-minded humans and their refusal to hand over the workers the Cats wanted. The Emperor stood at my side watching the Cat chaos, his features souring more by the minute. He was not a happy Cat.
Finally he growled above the noise, catching everyone’s attention. “I made my arguments, and we heard the Princess’s counsel. I await your decision.”
With that, Rollick and I followed the Emperor out of the room. On the floater, cruising back to the Emperor’s private apartments, I watched the big Cat brooding. I debated whether to speak or not. I’d said plenty in the Tribunal meeting – perhaps too much. I opted to keep my mouth shut.
As we disembarked at the ornate archway leading into the Emperor’s personal corridors of the station, Rollick took my hand and led me to his room. My Prince had freed me from a life of enslavement, but I was still his Princess, and though we’d been intimate before, a violent messed up turn of events, we had not spent any real time together since our official mating ceremony.
Rollick graciously allowed me to enjoy loads of quality time with Cesar. Then the DC blasted into our lives, and now our world shifted under a new paradigm – the brink of war. In wartime, I was in no position to deny my Prince, especially considering I owed him my life and freedom.
Inside his room, he sealed the door shut and locked it. I followed him into the room and instantly noticed a change in the décor. A different scent permeated his private chambers, a perfume I recognized from my dearest friend, Chilla. She lay curled up on a lavish, oversized couch-bed-lounger, with her stripes died a blazing red. She always had the most beautiful stripe jobs. My friend, the concubine, had moved in and taken over – Rollick’s permanent houseguest.
Her eyes squinted in pleasure at seeing me, and I laughed when she slipped out of bed and into my embrace, butt naked. The Gran never wore much clothing anyways, and they had no real modesty. Chilla and I had shared dark, wicked experiences together – we were almost lovers.
Rollick’s powerful arms encircled us both. “Finally, I have my two favorite females together. I have waited too long.”
I absorbed all the comfort I could get from these two magnificent creatures, my best friends, my supporters, the Cats who had my back when it mattered most.
Rollick looked down at me, nuzzled my nose with his, then touched noses with Chilla. I knew where this was going, and it felt right. After all, he was my Prince …
His claw wrapped around my ass in a firm squeeze. “We face war and death, Angel. Will you attend me as my mate? I still remember our first time together.” He licked his lips at me as if I was on the menu for the evening meal.
A heavy weight rested against my left thigh, a monster dangling between the Prince’s legs. The Gran have the same basic anatomy of humans, and use it the same way, but everything is much larger. The Prince and I had shared a moment once, a deliciously violent, painful experience. High and insane on an overdose, sabotaged, the Prince could not control his overwhelming sexual needs unleashed by the potent pheromone-drug, amixa. I’d been lucky to survive the encounter.
My sexy red-striped friend had been through the amixa ordeal countless times, a veteran concubine with
plenty of scars on her hips to show for it. She unbuckled Rollick’s belt, tossed his skirt aside, and slipped her hands around a cock the size of my arm. She stroked him and rubbed her hard, svelte body on his thighs and chest, purring with delight. To be here, serving the Prince, living with him – Chilla was the happiest I’d ever seen her. We needed this wonderful female in our lives. The Prince deserved a lover who could handle his Cat needs, and Chilla deserved a male to give her all the love, consideration, and respect she craved. Her concubine days were over.
What I didn’t understand was why Rollick included me in the equation. He knew I was far too small for him. He knew how much he’d hurt me when I submitted to him. But he also knew how much I enjoyed being hurt …
The Prince removed my top and my skirt, baring me to the growing length of his cock. Chilla stroked him over and over, working him skillfully. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her long powerful tongue around the head of his cock. The feline knew how to pleasure a male, she ranked beyond expert. But Rollick’s vertical slit eyes rested on me. His claws gripped my ass.
If my world was about to end in war and death, I could not begrudge my Prince this pleasure. I loved him, cock and all, and I would let him hurt me, if he needed that from me. We’d been through worse together, and here I stood, not a mark on me. The darkest of truths lay between us – I enjoyed his assault all too much …
Chilla licked the slick white come from the tip of Rollick’s massive cock and stood. She grabbed my hand and pulled on Rollick’s erection. With both of us in her grip, she guided us to the couch-lounger that passed for a bed among the Gran. She lay on her back with a sexy little purr and a look of pure love in her squinted Cat eyes. She spread her legs, motioned for me to join her, and I climbed over my gorgeous friend on hands and knees until I looked her in the eyes.