Zared
I got to the bridge just as we took another hit. I grabbed a handhold by the door to avoid a body slam to the deck. Admiral Degatu had everything under control. The readouts on the holograms showed only two fighters pursuing us, pounding our shields with their ion pulse cannons. They could shake us up a bit, but our shields were too strong for those weapons. So far, they were avoiding our return fire.
Two more fighters joined them, apparently piloted remotely. Even four of them weren’t powerful enough to disable our ship, so either they were decoys or they didn’t know that. Degatu guessed they were trying to slow us down so a battle carrier could catch up to us. The ship’s AI took out two of the fighters and four more appeared.
Scanners indicated something bigger approaching behind them. The AI took out two more of the fighters, as Degatu called for the ship to jump in to FTL short of our jump point. There was nothing to win worth staying to fight. We’d got what we came for so we didn’t need to put our passengers in further danger.
While I was fully capable of commanding the ship, it was Admiral Degatu’s primary responsibility. I was there to observe and assist as necessary. Once the alarms stopped and we were safely away from attackers, I approached the Admiral with a question.
“Have you ever heard of a planet called Dir---er---I mean Earth?” I asked. “That’s where some of the women we picked up are from. The one called Harper said it was on the rim of their galaxy orbiting a yellow dwarf star with eight other planets.”
“There are many yellow dwarf stars and the rim encompasses the entire perimeter of the galaxy,” Degatu replied. “From their data, it appears they may have entered another galaxy to obtain those women from their home world. That would make it doubly hard to trace their origin.”
“Don’t we have an obligation to try to get them back to their home worlds?” I asked.
“We didn’t leave them there to be sold as slaves. Without specific coordinates to their star system, there isn’t much more we can do,” Degatu said. “We are only being paid to rescue Guryon’s daughter. We have already gone above and beyond by stealing all the rest of the slaves with her.” He said
“And I am glad we did. One is solmatu---my solmatu,” I admitted. “That was a surprise.”
“Not especially a convenient time or situation for a courtship,” Degatu reminded.
“What choice do I have? If I deny her, I will never mate, never have children. You have already had that. Did your solmatu come at a time convenient for you?”
“Is there ever a convenient time for soldiers like us?” he asked with a wry smile.
He didn’t say, but I knew the answer was ‘no’.
“Which one?” he asked.
“The tall one with light brown hair and blue eyes,” I said.
“From the planet Dirt?”
“Not dirt, Earth---they call it Earth. Dirt is only one translation for the word. “
“Then they must be genetically compatible, or you would not have scented recognition. But they are so pale.”
“Color is only skin deep. We are all the same color underneath,” I reminded him. “Since we are out of danger, I will go back and inform them what we have discussed.”
“I know it won’t make them happy, but our first obligation is to our own people and to Farseek.”
“The Picoran’s must know where this planet is,” I said.
“We can’t go back to Ursaga and ask them,” Degatu asserted. “They will have far better security next time now that we raided them. We might not be so lucky then.”
“I know.”
“You’re thinking with your heart, not your head because she is somatu. Otherwise, you would have no problem with just integrating them into our community.”
“That’s only partly true,” I admitted. “Just like our people, they were stolen from their homes and taken from their world to become slaves to other beings. It’s just wrong. I wish we could try harder to get them back where they belong.”
“As do I, but we can’t,” he said. “What we can do is see if the Consortium can help them and give them a choice to stay with the Consortium or settle on Farseek and help with the rebuilding.”
“I want Harper to remain in the ship---with me. It is my right,” I added unnecessarily. Degatu knew that.
“It is also her choice,” he reminded.
I thought---hoped she would choose me. I didn’t imagine her response when I kissed her, but I still felt uncertain. It could have been the heat of the moment because I was the one that led them out of there. Suddenly I had to get back to Harper, I had to know. The possibility of rejection was daunting to consider---to never have a mate or a family of my own. How could I let her go?
I needn’t have worried. The moment I entered the conference room I knew she was looking at me. It took only seconds to pick her out of the group and for us to lock eyes with each other. She got up from her chair and came to stand in front of me and gave me a shy smile. I couldn’t resist caressing her cheek with my fingers. Mine! I thought. Something in her eyes seemed to confirm that. So why was she playing at resisting then looking at me like that? Maybe that’s how they did things on the dirt planet. We would have to talk about this soon, but I just smiled back at her.
But I couldn’t hold it knowing the news I was there to deliver. She seemed to sense that before I spoke. “I’m afraid I have bad news.”
“What?” She frowned.
“I should tell everyone at once,” I said.
“Everyone, listen up. Commander Maktu has something to say us, and it’s not good.”
They all stopped murmuring among themselves and focused on me. “We regret that we cannot determine the location of the planet d—Earth with the information we have. It’s possible, even likely that it isn’t in this galaxy. Harper told me it orbits a yellow dwarf near the rim, but the rim is vast and we don’t have the resources to search.”
“What are you saying?” asked Zoe Addison.
“He’s saying we can’t go home. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. They don’t know where Earth is, and we can’t go back and ask catfish face how to get there.” Harper replied before I could speak.
Another time I might have been irritated, but I was glad not to say those words, especially when Zoe’s eyes filled with tears and the other Earth women began to weep as well. Even worse, my Harper became tearful as well. I wanted to hold her but she crossed her arms across her chest and seemed to close herself off from me.
“I bet that makes you happy, soul mate,” she sniffed, and now she seemed angry at me. She certainly had much more to learn about me if she thought I would use subterfuge to keep her from returning to her home---force maybe but not a lie.
I just looked at her. It hurt to see her so upset, and I felt a little relieved that she couldn’t go back to her planet---a little guilty, too. She had to realize this wasn’t my doing. I moved closer and gently rested my hands on her shoulders. She looked up at me the anger was gone but her eyes were full of tears and started to spill over and run down her cheeks.
“Harper, I’m sorry. This isn’t my doing even though I want you to stay. At some point we may find someone who knows of your Earth. I’ve told all of you this so you won’t have false hopes and to encourage you and the other women from Earth to make a new start with us.”
With that she started to cry in earnest, so I put my arms around her, pulled her against me and just let her cry. I could tell already that she wasn’t a whiner and complainer. She was probably feeling a bit like I did when I went back to Farseek saw the devastation to my family home. Everything that had made it my home was gone. My world was broken, and I felt broken every time I thought about it. So I knew no way to take away Harper’s pain, I could only try to comfort her as she mourned her loss.