Sara would have followed him just seeing the empty med bay on screen, but Creeg slammed down on the controls locking down the bridge again and keeping his mate contained.  She turned on him with a hiss of rage.

“Morax will get her.”  He motioned for Crogan to take over communications and did not miss the flicker of anger in his eyes before he locked down his face and adjusted his screens back to the ship diagnostics.  He knew his mate was furious but he was not letting her out until he could go with her, not when he could tell by both Morax’s and Crogan’s reactions that Megan’s situation was bad.  As much as they would all like to tear out and rip apart the enemy boarding them, Sara most of all, they had other concerns now.  He had to be on the bridge to counter whatever else those pirate ships threw at them.  And letting his mate out of his sight in such a situation as this?  Impossible.  He could not take a chance with Sara, not even for the sister she loved.  Creeg felt the tightening in his mate’s body, along with the anger in her mind as she sensed his struggle.  He did not fool himself.  If something happened to her sister, she really would hate him this time.

Then Crogan spoke up from where he had taken over the com.  “The remaining pirate ships are running.”  The tension in the room only marginally dispersed.  “The Tellox ship is hailing us.”

“Put them on the main screen,” Creeg growled, pulling Sara closer to him and around the back of his Captain chair.  He did not bother to stand until the hail was opened on the main screen and he saw who it was.  It took them all a minute to realize they were not looking at King Rygan.

But when they realized who it had to be every Tellox on the ship stood to attention.

“General Brax,” Creeg acknowledged, the shock heavy in his voice.

Sara who now stood shielded at her mates back looked at them all and then peeking around her mate’s broad shoulders at the screen again.  “They’re identical?”

***

They were coming in.  Megan ran for the small cover of trees, knowing that it was not enough to hide her.  She called the dogs and miracle of miracles, they obeyed, keeping right at her side, so that when the alien raiders blasted through the portal, they were greeted with empty fields.

She could not hear what was being said across the expanse, shrouded as she was by the fruit trees she had ducked behind.  As hiding places go it was fairly pathetic.  All they had to do was come looking and they would find her.  The trees were not even big enough to climb so even that was out.  Besides the idea of getting stuck up a tree while aliens came at her with blasters was not a good one.  Sounded more like target practice to her.

Megan shook her head at her own useless thought tangents.  None of that made any difference in the here and now, and she had to focus, or the two dogs that were quivering against her legs were going to lose the control she was exerting and get themselves killed.  She was a little surprised they were being as good as they were. 

Yes, they minded her usually, but it seemed like it was more than that, as if she could feel their need to attack the threat and the understanding that she wanted them to stay with her.  Not that she had the time to dwell on the strangeness of the feeling now.

When she got out of this alive she could think about her new connection to the dogs… and the strange buzzing of energy she could feel surrounding her as soon as she entered the green.  She could practically feel the energy buzzing all around her.  She had always been soothed and energized by time in her garden, but now it was as if she could reach out and scoop up that energy, drink it down, or feed it as she wanted to, as if there was a connection that had always been there between her and the plants that she was only now seeing.

Megan shook her head and was dismayed to see that some time had passed while she was lost in her weird thoughts.  The raiders were close, fanned out across the field they were crossing, eyes moving constantly over the grass and the distant trees as if they expected an attack at any time, or as if they thought she was somehow hiding in the ankle length grass and they did not want to miss her.  That might be possible if the grass was higher, but it was a ridiculous thought at present.  As soon as she thought about the grass growing that high she heard curses and a few of the pirates fired their weapons, that was when she realized she had zoned out again because when she looked again, the grass that had been ankle deep was waist high instead. Megan gasped and nearly fell it was so unexpected.  The raiders too seemed to find it disconcerting because they were thrashing about as if the grass was doing more than growing.  Megan would have found their frantic cursing and running to get away from the grass humorous in any other circumstance, as it was she could not help but wish it was attacking them.  The curses turned to angry bellows and more firing of weapons as the grass grew even longer, braided itself together somehow and then wrapped around thrashing legs. Two of the four raiders fell trying to get free were immediately mummified in living grass.

Megan was so shocked by what she was seeing she almost missed that one of the raiders had hightailed it back to the portal and was beating on it with his fists trying to escape, but the other one, the one who towered over the others with his purple bristling fur had dropped his cannon somewhere in the grasses and was hacking away with two machete looking knives that seemed to be composed of blue energy.  He was moving fast, and was almost out of the attacking grasses, but he was not heading for the exit.  He was heading her the trees, and Megan.  She turned and ran, yanking the dogs along with her will without even thinking about it.  He looked enraged, that beast of a man, roaring and thrashing his way through the long suddenly dangerous grasses, and she did not want to allow him close enough to find out if she could see her death in his eyes.

A few of the machines that took care of the garden passed her as she ran, heading for the grassy fields.  One of them had a contraption she had yet seen on her visits with the dogs that looked suspiciously like a lawn mower.  The ridiculousness of the situation nearly made her laugh, and might have if she had the breath for it.  Maybe she was going insane after all, or the teacher had scrambled her brain so much she was imagining things now.  Somehow though, she doubted she had enough imagination for this.

The big purple beast roared and she looked back long enough to see him throw a bot out of his way, and directly into the path of another, both looked crushed beyond repair, and had not even slowed the creature down.  Megan ran faster, the dogs at her side, until they reached the back garden where different green leafy plants she did not recognized were cultivated in rows.  Beyond that she knew was the wall of the ship.  She had nowhere else to go from here, and from the laugh behind her the big scary alien knew it.  What he did not know was that Megan was exactly where she had intended to go.  Here’s hoping her new-found connection to plants worked on one’s with teeth.  With a thought, she sent the dogs to safety on either side of the garden.  They really didn’t want to go, but as she had no problem picturing them dying at the hands of the alien coming after her, she had no problem strengthening her request into a steel-edged command that sent the dogs where she wanted them.  Out of danger.  Then she faced off against the seven-and-a-half-foot alien creature that was baring his fangs at her in a parody of a smile.  She took a step back into the garden.  The alien laughed, and to Megan’s ears it sounded sinister and nearly as scary as the garden at her back.

Since she had no idea how she had connected the way she did with the grasses all she could think to do was visualize what she wanted

Unfortunately for her, her brain took that minute to go completely blank.  Aware that the plants were now all around her, with an alien only feet in front of her, she did what she normally did when she was in the garden seeking to calm herself down.  She sang.

The rustling of the plants around her stopped as completely as the alien in front of her.  He looked so confused by her actions that Megan almost smiled herself.  Then he looked around warily, as if knowing she was leading him into a trap, but having no idea how. 

He eyed the plants surrounding her, and then growled at her.  “I thought the grasses were another damn Tellox booby trap, but now I’m wondering if the power I feel in your song is not the cause.  We did not figure on dealing with a siren.” 

Megan understood him well enough despite that he was talking in a language other than English.  She just had no idea what he was talking about.  She knew from stories back home what a Siren was, but from what she understood of the word, she was not that.  Seducing sailors with their songs to a watery death seemed out of place in this situation.  She kept singing anyway, since it seemed to make him hesitate.

He looked undecided and angry at her, enough so that she thought he intended to leave the garden all together rather than follow her into it.  That she could not allow, the dogs were out there, and she had no doubt he would use them to draw her out if he decided it was too dangerous to follow her in.

Megan stopped singing as she tried to think of a way to make the big beast in front of her so mad he came at her again.  She felt the buzz of energy all around her, and a waiting, as if they were listening. 

Megan swallowed her trepidation and prayed she was not completely insane.  She opened her mouth to speak wishing Sara was here.  If anyone could make a person so angry he lost his mind it was Sara.  “I thought raiders were supposed to be fearless.  Who would have thought they could be taken out by a few traps in the grass and a song?”

His eyes lit up with rage and he snarled at her. 

Well, she thought.  That was easy.

Then the big scary bastard dropped one of his knives, and jumped the six feet separating them, taking her down and throwing his hand over her mouth with enough pressure to bruise her lips against her teeth.  Megan took the brunt of the impact to the ground on her back, her muffled cry of pain followed quickly with a gasp for breath when the weight of him followed her down.  She was sure he had broken something in her chest and the pain had tears leaking from her eyes, even as he laughed at her.  “Thing about sirens,” he said with savage satisfaction, his words spitting his hot breath into her face. His other hand coming up to press against the skin of her cheek with his blade. “They need their mouths.  And I know how to shut up a mouthy female.”

Megan sucked in as much air as she could through her nose, practically breathing the stench of the beast above her in as she did.  It was not what she had expected but if she could stay alive long enough it might still be enough.

Over his head Megan watched as the plants around them, the same plants that he had crashed them into were swaying over them. She willed the plants to action, and smiled just a little when she saw what a plant with teeth actually looked like.  Right now, it seemed like it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and that was before it tried to take a chunk out of her attacker.

He roared even as he was dragged up and off her like he did not weigh the near three hundred pounds he had dropped down on her.  She was rolling over and choking for air even as he was bit, stabbed with what looked like a whole lot of giant green needles, then he was flung from the garden so hard he slammed against a distant tree before dropping in a twitching mass to the ground.

Megan finally got up on her shaky legs, holding her ribs she was afraid were broken and heading out of the garden.  She could feel the energy in her head, and without thinking of the danger she ran her hands over the plants and whispered her thanks as she walked among them and then out of the garden.  The plants rustled behind her and then went still.  Holding her painful ribs, she limped to the man lying in a twitching mess at the base of one of the fruit trees, the dogs, Lucky and Penny made it to him first and stood on either side of him growling down at his face, so close that now he was the one getting spit on.  His eyes frantically pinwheeled, as if he wanted to move, but couldn’t.  Guess Sara was right about the plants being able to stun someone.

At this point looking down at her stunned attacker Megan wished she had some great one liner to deliver, but frankly she was too tired to think of one, and her head was hurting even worse than it had before.  She just wanted to find a place of safety and pass out for a few days, or maybe a few more days seeing as how she had no idea how long she was out after the teacher scrambled her brain.

That was how Morax found her.  Standing over a twitching pirate, looking rumpled and bruised but otherwise unharmed, with her dogs at her sides snarling into the man’s face.

She did not seem to notice his approach until he was almost on top of them.  The dogs turned to bark at him and she jumped, turning wide eyes his direction.  She looked to almost fall in relief when she saw who it was.

“Are you well little flower?” he asked softly, banking the rage that had sustained him since he saw her on the monitor facing off against a Trollian pirate and three Axion raiders.  One had met him when he opened the portal with his override, and the Trollian was laying at their feet, but he could not account for the missing Axions so he was careful to keep his eyes moving around them, and his senses searching.

“Little flower,” she repeated as if something about his name for her was important.  She looked him in the eye and he saw shock there but also trepidation.  “That’s funny.”

She snorted out a laugh that was so unexpected it drew his full attention.  He worried that it was more than shock.  Had the teacher done damage they had not expected? She made a little motion with her hands and spoke to the dogs. “He’s a friend.”  To his surprise the mongrels sat down and stopped snarling at him.  Their tongues lolling out of the slobbery mouths as they got comfortable.

Since he had no idea how it was funny, or why the dogs were suddenly behaving, he stepped closer to her, studying her eyes, his own narrowed and focused on hers.  “Where are the other pirates?  Did they harm you?”

She shook her head and looked away toward the fields that had somehow grown to his waist since his last visit to the green.  He stepped even closer, and cupped her face with his hands to pull her head back up so that he could see her eyes.  It was then he noticed the swelling on her neck and beneath the dirt on one of her cheeks.  The rage he was keeping such careful check on boiled beneath his skin.  “What happened?”

“They’re in the grass,” she whispered.  Morax looked over at the fields that were being mowed as they stood there.  Then his eyes flashed back to hers with her next barely heard words.  “I think I made the grass grow.”  He felt her start to shake beneath his hands.  “I think maybe I killed them.”

Since his first reaction was ‘good’ he kept it to himself.  “I did not know you had an affinity to plants,” he said mildly enough and watched her blink in surprise at his words.

Before she could say anything the pirate at their feet groaned drawing their eyes.  Since Morax did not step away or let go of Megan it was only their heads that turned.  He watched Megan grab her ribs once again and narrowed his eyes at first her and then the pirate at their feet.  “He hurt you.”  It was not a question so much as a statement.   A very angry statement.

“He thought I was a siren, and he knew how to shut me up.”  The new bite to her words and the spark of anger in her eyes reassured Morax and drove his anger to new heights.  “Guess he was wrong on both accounts.”  The satisfaction in her voice would have made him smile, if he was not sure the pirate had harmed her, and intended to do worse.

“A siren?” Morax tilted his head to examine the little female looking for a reason the pirate would assume that.

She shrugged, a warm wash of pink ran up into her cheeks and he was happy to see it.  She was too pale for his liking.  “I sing when I want to relax.” She gave the pirate a disgusted look.  “He made assumptions.”

Morax released the female and stepped back pulling his laser blaster as he did.  Without another thought he shot the Trollian between the eyes.  The laser leaving a clean little hole while the light died from his frantic eyes.  Since Megan lost the color in her cheeks all over again, her eyes wide with shock, he took hold of her soft upper arm and gently pulled her back to his side.  This time it was his turn to shrug at the look in her eyes.  “He was the walking dead the minute he attacked our ship.  Going after you just made killing him more satisfying.”

She opened her mouth but seemed beyond words.

“Come,” he said.  Pulling her gently along with him.  “Bring your beasts if you must, but we need to get to the bridge.  I took out a few of the pirates along the way, and the ship defenses even more, but I would have you safe in case there are more lurking the halls.”  Though looking at what she had done to the ones who followed her into the green, Morax wondered for the first time if she was ever in any danger after all.

These human females were full of surprises.