Chapter Twenty-Five
Kane sat at the helm of the four-seat transporter that he had named Wrath. Thanks to Sa’Mya, the very female he tried to forget, the new transporter had come with their new vessel, The Vengeance II. It was one of three that fit snugly into the cargo bay. The others were affectionately named Retribution and Revenge.
Sa’Mya hadn’t lied about the Galactic Council’s ultimatum. They hadn’t been off Laconia for more than a day before the council reminded them of the conditions of their release. Sallad, the stoutly robed figure, appeared on the bridge via hologram and had been very convincing. Secure a position with Mercanis Shipping and Hauling or face imprisonment for their crimes. Kane had been more than willing to face imprisonment rather than grovel before Queen Sa’Mya for a job.
But that wasn’t what had sent him over the edge. The council wanted them to willingly give up The Vengeance. Return their vessel to the Galontaers as an act of good faith.
Good faith!
Those bastards enslaved thousands of human males. How many humans had lost their lives toiling away in their mines?
What about the Galactic Council’s faith in them? What had the council ever done for the billions of humans who were displaced and sold into slavery? And now the Galactic Council intended to enslave them again, and yes it was slavery, no matter how they tried to sugarcoat it.
It had taken every crew member to restrain him while the uppity council member watched in awe. Ryan had spoken for them all, agreeing to give up The Vengeance and to join the ranks of Mercanis Shipping and Hauling. He also asked for a much needed vacation. Councilor Sallad had surprised them all by agreeing. Two months and enough credits to explore the galaxy and planets without being hunted down. Exactly what the crew needed to start fresh and assimilate into their new lives.
Kane was now indebted to three people. Sa’Mya for their new vessel, Councilor Sallad for the vacation and Ryan for saving him from his own out-of-control emotions.
Originally, he had set out to visit Jori and Yeyet on their vegetation planet. The couple was expecting their first child. Although he wanted to catch up on old times, he was also curious how their offspring would look.
Yeyet and her people reminded him of characters straight out of a fairy tale. She had the skin color of tree bark with long, wavy green hair that mimicked hanging vines and leaves rustled by the wind.
For Jori and Yeyet, it had been love at first sight. The sixty-year old had rebuffed her advances at first, thinking himself too old for the twenty-something-appearing alien. Once he learned she was actually over three hundred years old, Jori had agreed to stay with her as her life mate. Kane didn’t get to speak with him often, but every time he did, Jori sounded happier than before. For some humans, there was a happily ever after.
The more he thought about it, the more he pushed the idea of visiting the happy couple out of his mind. Right now, a brothel vessel was more and more enticing. There, he could lose himself in a woman and forget all about Sa’Mya. He didn’t think twice about the risk.
Kane opened the communication channel. If a space brothel was in range, their beacon would reveal their coordinates.
Nothing happened.
He activated the switch again.
Dead.
“What the…?” He tried all the switches. He flicked them on and off with no response.
“Hello, Kane.” A voice came out of nowhere.
Kane jumped out of his seat and raised his blaster. Who was here with him? He scanned the transporter for intruders, focusing on the dark corners. No movement. As far as he could tell, he was the only soul onboard.
“Do not be alarmed. I mean you no harm.” The voice was everywhere, but nowhere at the same time.
He brought his blaster to eye level and circled the tight space. “Where the hell are you? How did you get in here?”
“I am an entity. You cannot hurt me. Please put away your weapon. I am not here to harm you. Relax your body systems. I am here as a…favor to Queen Xochis.”
Kane lowered his blaster down by his hip and settled into his chair. Without looking down, he used his thumb to increase the blaster’s firing power. As soon as the intruder showed himself, he would blast him to smithereens. The thought brought a warm feeling over him. He wanted to kill an alien, any alien would do.
“Talk to me. Tell me what you want. I’m now under the protection of the Galactic Council.”
That he’d said that out loud made him want to laugh. Moments before he’d damned the Galactic Council all to hell, now he was throwing up their protection as a shield.
“If my crew or I have wronged you or your planet, you’ll have to take it up with them.” He swept a lazy hand through the air. “We have been absolved of all our many crimes.”
“You have not wronged me.”
“Then what? Does this queen want me dead or something?” Kane laughed sarcastically. After everything he’d been through, it would be a fitting end to die alone in a transporter on his way to a brothel.
“No, she did not ask me to kill you. If she wanted you dead, I believe she would kill you herself.”
“So you aren’t here to kill me? What’s this favor then?”
“She is a friend of Queen Sa’Mya of Laconia.”
At the mention of her name, that name, Kane gripped his blaster tighter. Queen Sa’Mya. The backstabbing, lying and conniving queen was how he remembered her.
“And?” Kane ground out.
“Queen Xochis seems to believe you left Laconia without knowing the full circumstance. She believes you were wrong to leave and should return to Queen Sa’Mya.”
Kane erupted from his seat. “What does this queen know about me? I don’t care what she believes and I’m not interested in anything Sa’Mya has to say.”
“Queen Xochis once ran away from the one she loved. She believes you may have made the same mistake that she previously made.”
“What are you talking about? You know nothing about me, what I’ve been through or what I’m going through.”
“You are correct,” the entity replied, calmer than Kane. “I am merely here as a favor.”
His brows furrowed together. “Who did you say you were?” Is this some kind of trap or trick?
“My name is Ship.”
Okay, Kane thought, confused. This entity’s name was Ship or was it in a ship? He looked out his transporter windows, trying to find another vessel out there. Nothing.
“I am not a ship. That is merely what King Taio of Sonis has named me.”
Kane startled. “Whoa! You can read minds?”
“No, and I would not wish to. I can see your emotions on your face and I understand my name has a different meaning on your home planet. Queen Xochis of Sonis is human as well. She had a very hard time distinguishing my name from an object.”
He threw up a hand. “Wait. Did you say this Queen Xochis is human?”
“Yes, she is a human from Michigan, America, Earth.”
“Would Queen Xochis of Sonis and ‘the human Eva’ be the same person?” Sa’Mya had mentioned the name Sonis intertwined in the same sentence as “the human Eva” enough for him to make the connection.
“Yes, Queen Eva Xochis of Sonis. Mate of King Taio Xochis of Sonis.”
“Why did she send you to talk to me? I don’t know her.”
“I told you. She is a friend of Queen Sa’Mya. She believes you ran away from Laconia without understanding the facts of what transpired.”
Kane sat in his chair. “If that’s the case, then you’ve wasted your time. I didn’t run from anyone. I hightailed it away from her using warp speed. I don’t want to hear her name again.”
There was a sigh. “Unfortunately, I have promised to talk to you about Sa’Mya. I’m curious. How do you intend to work for her and not hear her name?”
Kane snorted. “Easy. I’m going to stay as far away from that lying adulteress as possible.”
“Those are very serious accusations.”
“She told me she wasn’t married, but she is. We had a deal and she reneged. She contacted her uncle to rescue her and she didn’t pay us our gold. Do you know what we got in return? We got to be her glorified slaves. Ha! That’s the first and last time I ever trust an alien. It got me nowhere.”
“This all sounds quite interesting.”
“There’s nothing interesting about it. She’s a liar. She’s a manipulator.”
“Manipulator?”
“Yeah, she manipulated me the entire time she was with me. She made me feel a certain way.” Kane closed his eyes. She made me want her. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters anymore.”
“That is no way to exist. There is much more to life and living than you could ever be aware of.”
“Whoa, whoa. Don’t try to give me some psychobabble bullshit. You, whatever you are, need to leave.” He flicked his hand. “Bye. Begone.”
“Queen Xochis wished for me to relay the facts to you. If you will permit me to do so, then I can be on my way.”
“And if I don’t want to hear anything about Sa’Mya, would you still leave?”
“I am afraid not.”
“Because of your favor.”
“Yes.”
“What if I made you leave?”
“Interesting. Do you think that you could?”
No. He couldn’t see the damn thing he was talking to. How the hell could he make it leave? Fucking aliens.
He needed a minute to gather his thoughts. Of course he didn’t want to hear anything this entity had to say about Sa’Mya. But it looked as though he didn’t have a choice. He might as well hear what this thing had to tell him then he could send it on its way.
“Hurry up. You’re cutting into my vacation,” he finally said.
“Queen Sa’Mya is not bonded nor has she ever been.”
“I met her husband. Big guy, asshole. Jay something,” he said in dismissal.
“Are you referring to her head guard Jor’Dan?”
Kane snorted. “I can’t remember the motherfucker’s name. He wasn’t wearing a name tag.”
“Jor’Dan is not her mate. King Taio left one of the Sonis Royal Guards to protect her while he and his mate, Eva returned for the birth of their child. Queen Sa’Mya had no one else to care for her. The Laconia guards were loyal to her uncle.”
“So, this Jor’Dan person wasn’t her mate. But I saw the bonding contract, she has a husband. It was another name on it though.” Hadn’t it said Aaron, Anton or Anthony? Doesn’t matter. “Move on to the next lie.”
“No. Her Uncle Umar forged her signature on a bonding contract to his son, Antony. It would have been the only way to keep her under his control after she became queen on her twenty-fifth birth cycle.”
“No, no, no.” Kane’s head shook vigorously with each word. That’s the same lie she’d fed him before. It couldn’t be true.
“Captain Kane, I am here to give you the facts.”
Kane listened as Ship told him everything that had transpired on Laconia, from the time of her parents’ death to now.
“I offered my help, but it wasn’t good enough. She told me that she didn’t trust me.”
“What was your intent when you captured her?”
“Ransom her to her home world.” As the words left his mouth, realization hit him. He’d never hid his intent. Ransom her back to the very place she had run from. Why would she trust him? Even after he found out the truth he still hadn’t helped her. He been too focused on negotiating the terms of her release and getting his gold.
“You’ve convinced me that I’m an asshole. Thanks. You can go now.”
“Are you going to return to Sa’Mya?”
He shook his head. “No. Plus, she’d never want me back.”
“Eva is under the impression that Sa’Mya is in love with you.”
He straightened. “She loves me? Did Sa’Mya say that or did you hear it from Eva?”
“Eva told me.”
Why would Sa’Mya fall in love with him? This couldn’t be right. Someone was playing games with his heart. “I need to talk to Eva.”
“Why?”
“Don’t get offended, buddy. But I need to hear it from a human.”
“If you wish.”
There was a pause before a click came from the intercom.
“Eva?” Ship asked. “I have Captain Kane Epps here. I have done as you have asked and now he wishes to speak to you.”
“Kane?” A female asked.
He had to set her straight. “I’m here. Listen, I don’t know you and I don’t know this thing…entity. And I don’t know if this is some kind of game or—”
“No, you listen to me. Stop being a stubborn ass. Sa’Mya told me everything that happened between you two.”
“Wait a minute. I didn’t do anything to her. She’s the one who—”
“Who what? Lobbied to get your crimes absolved? Get you and your crew freed from slavery? Gave you all a home? Jobs?”
“She did all that because she felt guilty.”
“No, you idiot. She did all that because she loves you. Do you love her back?”
He thrust a hand through his hair. “It’s not that easy.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. If you don’t love her and don’t want to ever see her again then fine, but if you do stop being a pussy about it.”
Red in the face, he yelled at her, “Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?”
“I’m talking to a lawyer from Earth who, like the rest of us, got the shitty end of the stick. But if you push me, I will beat the hell out of you with it.”
Well, since she put it that way.
He slumped and let out a heavy sigh. He’d been trying so hard to forget about Sa’Mya and everything that she’d made him feel. She’d awoken a piece of him that he thought had died along with Anna. He was in love again. He loved Sa’Mya. As if in acknowledgement, his heart skipped a beat.
“Kane, she needs you. Yeah, what was done to us was screwed up. But we’ve been given a second chance. A new start. Don’t fuck this up.”
Kane cradled his forehead in his hand. “I don’t know if I can do this,” he said softly. Sa’Mya deserved better than him. She needed someone to love her unconditionally.
“I think you need her just as much as she needs you.”
“You don’t understand. I’ve been an asshole. I wouldn’t know where to start with her.”
“Start by saying you’re sorry.”
Could it be that easy? After how he’d treated her? After everything he’d said and done?
“I don’t know.”
“Trust me. She’ll be happy to see you. She could use someone she trusts by her side.”
“She doesn’t trust me.”
“Give her credit, Captain. When she was running for her life, she trusted you with it.”
“I was going to give exchange her for two transporters full of gold. Her uncle could’ve killed her,” he whispered.
“No, her uncle would not have killed her right away. He would have kept her enslaved until after she produced heirs,” Ship interjected.
“You do know you aren’t making me feel any better about this, don’t you?” Kane replied.
“I’m just stating the facts,” Ship said.