Morax cursed inwardly while several of his brother warriors were decidedly more vocal in their curses.  Barely outside the Aa-ryal border space and they were attacked by space pirates.  Not something they usually had to deal with.  Generally, the pirates knew better that to mess with a Tellox war ship but word had no doubt spread about the females they traveled with and someone decided it would be worth their lives to try for them.  Or several someones in this case.

“I don’t think I have ever seen so many pirates working together in this way,” Logaan said dryly. 

“Wonder how they think to split two women six ways?” Benak asked back just as dryly.

Morax would have growled at both men but he was too busy compensating for a rear deflector weakness, besides both men were working their perspective guns with admirable finesse, even if they felt the need to yap through the battle.

Then there were more curses as Creeg made evasive maneuvers and Crogan was forced to deploy counter measures against a flurry of shots at their flank.

As soon as the ship steadied Logaan answered Benak’s question.  “I bet they made a deal to sell them and then split the profit but what do you want to bet they will turn on each other when they finally manage to disable us.”

“If,” Crogan added grimly.  Firing weapons nearly as fast as the ship was maneuvering.  “If they manage to disable us, not when.”

Nobody argued with him, but Morax figured he was not the only one who knew it was a matter of when not if.  There were just too many, and while the Tellox war ship had advanced fire power, it was not by much.  While the pirates were further hampered by their desire to take the Tellox and their females alive, it was still six pirates against one Tellox.  

Well, five now, he saw as Benak finally breached shields with the port guns and took out the Borian destroyer.  It was presently floating dead and very close to being sucked into the gravity of the neighboring red giant.  It was to be hoped that another one of the ships would break off to keep their partners in crime from a burning painful death, but no one moved out of formation.  Not that it was a real surprise to anyone when the other pirates ignored the ship in distress and continued their fight. So, five to one it was. 

Unless they got very lucky, it would be when, not if.  Looking at Creeg’s tight face and flashing eyes as he maneuvered circles around their opponents he knew his commander was feeling the same thing.  Like Morax he would burn the world and everyone in it before he would allow their females to fall into the hands of pirates and slavers.

Morax saw a weakness beginning to develop in another key system and cursed when he was forced to compensate yet again. 

He watched another panel of shield fall and cursed, knowing it was only a matter of time before they were disabled and boarded, then they would all be fighting for their lives and the lives of the females under their protection.  Another shield flashed warnings of imminent failure even while he was working on the first.  He knew just as the rest of them did, that it was only a matter of time.  Maybe it was a good thing that Megan had yet to wake from her healing sleep.  At least she was spared foreknowledge of what was coming.

Morax shook off the grim thoughts and got his head back into the battle.  He expertly moved the ships power around the board like a game, compensating for breaks in their shield, and power surges from weapons fire aimed at key areas.  Then he noticed something else had come into sensor range and was moving fast towards them.  Another ship.  From its trajectory, it was on course and at high speed to join the battle.  He could think of no one who would chance joining this battle to help them, so it was more than likely the pirates had reinforcements coming.  Morax cursed snarling and snapping in his head, but his words were as cold as ever when he spoke.

“We have another ship coming at us from the direction of Aa-ryal.”

When Creeg cursed, snarling and snapping, it was not silently or in his head.  Finally, with his teeth grinding so hard they could barely understand his words, Creeg asked.  “Any ideas?”

Morax had been running scenarios and possibilities in his head since the ships showed and made their demands to “turn over the females or die.” What he had come up with was less than satisfactory.   There was nothing that had even the smallest chance of not leading to the women’s capture or death.  So, none of them were remotely acceptable.

“I might have an idea,” Sara said from just inside the port.  She had been watching over her sister during the battle and none of them had heard her arrive.  Since they were all busy trying to stay alive and out of weapons range they did no more than flash her a quick look.  Creeg must have spoken to her telepathically, because she made her way to him carefully holding herself while the ship rocked and bucked around her.  Since their dampeners were one of the few systems he did not use to prop up the shields it was saying something about the hits they were taking to their faltering shield that they were feeling it that strongly.

Since Creeg needed both hands she wrapped her arm around the back of his chair and pressed herself along his side.  At the touch of his mate, some of the tension left his face, but it returned soon enough when she said.  “I have contacted the guardians.”

There was utter silence after her pronouncement.  But she was going on regardless, and without giving anyone a chance to question or argue.  “I received an answer.”

That in and of itself was a miraculous thing.  No one knew much about guardian’s other than the stories that were told of meeting one.  They were powerful beings of legend that did not need a ship to travel through space.  No one knew what they were, or where they came from, but they had met one in their travels, and he had liked Sara.  In fact, he had said he owed her.  So Morax felt a moment of hope that had been missing since the battle began.

“And?”  Logaan asked, expectantly.  That same hope in his nearly feral eyes, that Morax knew was probably in all of them.

“And they said it looked like we already had the help we needed, but to come to them when we were done.”

That had them all confused.  How would they know what help we had or did not have?  And how was that helpful?

Then Morax let out a hiss when they took another shot to the shields that had them all fluctuating at 15-20%.  There was no compensating for a full shield breach.  “Shields are at 15%”

“If we are going to get help,” Logaan said grimly as they all did their best to stay alive for a few more secs.  “Now would be a good time.”

Then the ship that was on approach reached them and joined the battle.

Morax nearly wilted when he saw what was happening.  “They are fighting the pirates, he growled low, and then froze as his sensors picked up something else.  He looked up and met Creeg’s eyes.  “It’s a Tellox battle cruiser.”

Then the battle was on and they had no more time for shock or revelations.  But while Logaan and Benak worked tirelessly at the guns, seamlessly integrating with the second Tellox to form a strike zone between them Sara asked what they were all wondering.  “So, is this a good thing or a bad thing?”

No one had an answer.

***

Megan woke up slowly hearing the dogs whine around her and feeling the reason for their unhappiness as soon as she was aware enough to feel the bucking of the ship all around them.  She sat up to call the dogs to her and had to stop for a moment to grab her head.  The dogs, reacting to her being awake, crowded onto the bunk with her, getting as close as their big furry bodies could manage.  They had been adjusting to space travel well up to this point, not even seeming to notice they were not on a planet, not with the green space they had at their disposal, but apparently what amounted to earth quakes in space where another story altogether.

“Shh,” she said trying to hold her head together with one hand while comforting two dogs with the other.  She nearly found herself falling off the bed for her troubles.  “You are fine,” she muttered, pushing back the dogs gently as they undulated happily and whined to get closer at the same time.  She finally had to raise her voice and tell them authoritatively, “Down!  Sit!”

Which hurt her head even more, but at least the dogs were no longer moving the bunk around like drunken sailors.  She slid off the side of the bed slowly attempting to keep her head from moving at all, and managed to hit the ground on her feet, but with minimal shockage going on.  The dogs immediately scooted close enough that they could lay their heads on her spread legs, one on each side.  Megan let go of her head gingerly so that she could rub both dog heads at the same time.  The silky feel of their ears slid through her hands and soothed her as much if not more as it did the dogs.  She thought she might live when the headache from hell started to finally simmer back to a pulse behind her eyes.  But the ship was still bucking and rolling around her, so as much as she did not want to, she knew she needed to get up and go find out what was happening.  Even in that first battle to escape Earth the fire fight had not done more than give the ship a slight shudder every now and then.  So, she knew, whatever was happening while she sat there rubbing her dogs' heads and stalling, it was bad.

The dogs did not want to be left behind again, and quite frankly she did not want to leave them when anything could be happening.  If the ship was going to blow up she wanted them with her.  So, she let them come, one on each side, after she strongly ordered them to stay by her side and not attack anyone.  Since she doubted the Teacher that had injected all the facts now pounding through her head had been able to supply dog speak, she figured they understood about half of her orders.  They made it as far as the green before an alarm blared.  Megan jumped a good foot and had to grab her aching head, but she had the feeling her headache was the least of her worries.  Lucky and Penny howled, plastered to either side of her legs looking as miserable as she was feeling.  Then she heard curses and voices coming toward them from the wrong direction.  The only thing she did know was that they were not voices she recognized. 

Megan grabbed both dogs by their collars and dragged them backwards with her just as a group of four aliens came around the corner and spotted them.  She had time enough to see they were heavily armed, some more than others, and a few were bleeding or limping as they came at her.  Apparently, she had learned more than languages from the teacher, because she recognized three of the four where Axion raiders, her new-found knowledge told her the green skinned, many armed aliens also had poisonous fangs that could knock a person out with a bite, or in the case of smaller prey, even kill.  They were also notorious space pirates.  The other one had fur and fangs of his own, though the lavender color of his bristles seemed not quite as strange in comparison to the others.  Though his height and breadth seemed massive even besides the big green beasts.  They were all armed, the big furry lavender one's weapon looked more like a cannon than any gun she had ever imagined.  When his red eyes locked onto her small frame and fired hot she shuddered, moving back faster, then he smiled a satisfied, lustful smile, with a whole lot of fang thrown in.  It kicked her right past terrified and into panic.

When the port behind her whooshed open she ducked in, dragging the now barking dogs through.  The door whooshed shut, muting the alarm as well as cutting off the intruders.  She was already looking for a place to hide when the alarms changed, it seemed she had gotten them out of the hall just in time too, because she heard the locking mechanism snap into place while the words lock-down blasted through the speakers in Tellox, right before something hard and heavy slammed into the door from the other side making the dogs go insane.  They snarled and barked, jumping at the portal as if they could get through to the other side.  Lucky for them, the door was locked.  Though Megan had a feeling that it would not keep out the scary cannon toting aliens out for long.

***

A blast shook the ship and Morax cursed, his eyes going back to his controls.  “We have a breach.  Intruders imminent.  Sensor controls are down all over the ship.”  He clenched his teeth, his eyes meeting Creeg’s. 

“Lock it down,” Creeg growled tightly.  “Start the counter measures.”

Morax hesitated thinking of Megan. 

Understanding flashed in Creeg’s eyes.  “Do it,” he said, even as Sara turned to sprint for the port.  But she was too late. 

She banged on the door and cursed, turning to give them nearly feral eyes.  “Megan is out there alone.”

“If the ship is taken it won’t help her,” Creeg barked out to his mate.  “Right now she is unconscious in med bay.  The only place more secure when we lock down is the bridge, and there is no reason for them to even attempt to get in there.  With a lock down that is the safest place to be on this ship.  If I thought you could get there before we were boarded I would have sent you there.”

Sara flattened her lips in displeasure, but she had no argument. Even though Morax could see she wanted to have one.  She looked at him.  “Can you bring up the video feed in med bay?”

He would have done it already if he could.  He cursed silently but had to shake his head.  “We are blind, all sensors inside the ship are cut off.  I’m working on getting them back up, but for right now, we are sensor blind.”

There was more than one curse at that news.  Anything could be happening inside the ship and they would have no way of knowing.  At least they still had the outside sensors and the guns, but if he were the pirates, he would go for engineering and the bridge.

Creeg cursed when a shock wave went through the ship.  “They are locked on.  If I try to maneuver we’ll be torn apart.”  They were being boarded, and the only thing good about that was that there were no longer any weapons firing at them.  He held out his hand and his mate walked to him taking it.  Her knuckles going white with the grip she took. 

She spoke quietly, her words breaking just a little.  Her eyes on her mates bright and tormented.  “She has no weapons, no training, no armor,” she said.  “Not even a tough skin.  I don’t…” Sara had to stop to swallow hard, Morax could see her throat working from where he stood.  “We don’t even know yet if the teacher worked and she can understand…”

Creeg grabbed her and pulled her into his lap.  “We have counter measures through all the hallways and portals.  If someone not already recognized by the ship attempts to get through them they will be killed.  They are not going to send more than a handful of their fighters when they are still battling a second Tellox ship.  The few who come will be killed by the ship.”

“It won’t take long,” Benak muttered, still firing at the ships around them.

Creeg looked at Morax.  “We need those sensors.”

He did not have to be told why.  “Almost have them,” he said.  His fingers flying over the screen rerouting what he could and trying his best to reconnect or reroute the sensors in the damaged areas.  The guns still fired all around them.

Whoever was commanding that Tellox ship was damn good. Keeping the heat off them so they could deal with what they had, at the same time taking out more of the enemy.    It gave Morax needed space to repair the sensors on all decks.

“Got it,” he said pulling up a barrage of cameras to his personal screen, and sending the med bay image to the big screen for all of them to see. This time the cursing he made was out loud. 

Morax had the bridge door opened and had run through it before any of the others saw what he did.

Med bay was empty.  What he was not about to explain in front of Sara was that according to his computer screen, the green was not.