Chapter Twenty-two

Thrice landed the ship safely which made her feel better. They had to wait for the hangar to pressurize. Piper was wearing a small jewel behind her ear that would allow her to breathe while on the alien ship. Once the ship gave them the all-clear sign, the doors to the hangar opened. Ten animal people, yes, she counted them, came through the door carrying weapons.

“I don’t think they bought our ruse.”

“It’s the extra ship. We expected this. Hold my shirt, I don’t want to rip it.” He handed it to her with a smile.

“What are you going to do?”

“Play.” He leaned over and kissed her. Then he stepped back, and his form changed. He grew taller and thicker. She could see him better than the first time he changed. His brown eyes took over the whites. His hair was shaggy on his head and body. The chest she loved so much had so many muscles, she might have had a spontaneous orgasm from looking at him.

Now that she knew him, loved him, every form he took attracted her. Once she realized he was big all over, she started wondering if anything else grew with his size. She wrapped her hands around the chair she was sitting in to remind herself this was life or death. It was not the time to get turned on.

“Do not leave the ship without me.”

She nodded, where did he think she was going? His voice was so deep it reverberated inside of her. When he made it to the entrance of the craft that they were on that’s when she knew. She didn’t just love him; she was so crazy in love with him that it would never end. It was also when she made up her mind to would do whatever it took to make sure he stayed alive.

The doors to both hovercrafts opened at the same time. There were sounds of guns being fired. Were they crazy? Firing a gun in a ship, especially the hangar of the ship was stupid. Thrice was out the door. He was joined by his three brothers. She stared trying to figure out who was who in their alternate forms. All she knew was one stood at least twelve feet. Her money was on Slade for that one. She wasn't sure why maybe it had to do with the way he held himself.

One of the animal people went down hit by a bullet. He wasn’t dead she could see him trying to crawl away. The created were now in hand to hand combat with the remaining animal people. The created weren’t carrying weapons. That meant they were attacking as the animal people recharged and looking for cover when they fired. It didn’t matter it was going to be a slaughter as one animal person after another was taken down and killed. She forced her eyes away from Thrice to look for the first one that when down. She couldn’t find him in the spot he had been lying in.

Piper’s head turned when she heard a noise at the entrance of the craft. It was the animal person who was shot. There was blood coming from his chest it wasn’t red but that made sense. Her blood was only red when it touched the air. She guessed their air made their blood a different color.

She jumped up feeling lucky that Thrice had unstrapped her while they were waiting for the hangar to pressurize. There wasn’t any place to go. He was between her and the other section of the craft. She went to stand behind the console in the middle of the room. It was the only place that she could take cover. The coverage it offered was flimsy but beggars and all that.

He still had his weapon in his hand and lifted. So, she would know her minutes were limited. Then he began to talk, but it was in his own language, which sounded like gibberish to her.

“Kill me or speak a language I know.” Her voice came out with a snap. He knew how to communicate with her; he simply thought she was beneath him and not worth the trouble.

“I’m going to kill you.” Duh, she figured that out on her own.

She glanced around. There was no weapon she could use to protect herself. She decided that when she designed hovercrafts for her next game, it would have a weapon's station on the bridge. It only made sense.

“Why me? What did I ever do to you?” Was it too much to ask why her? He was going to kill her for something she may do in the future.

“You stole our way of life when you gave them the ability to be free.”

“Your words condemn you. They developed until they were an intelligent species, but you kept them enslaved.”

“They belonged to us. We stole them. You had no right to grant them freedom.”

“That’s why you’re here. You’re too busy living in the past to make your present and your future work for you.”

He lifted his weapon, Piper hit the floor. What else could she do? There was a sound that made her tense, but nothing happened.

“That’s why I shadow you.” Her uncle was standing in the doorway with a rifle in his hands. Behind him was Thrice. They were both giving me that can’t I leave you alone for five minutes look. She burst into tears because she almost died. Life was the most precious thing she ever had in that minute.

She was in Thrice’s arms a heartbeat later. His voice was soothing in her ear. He was speaking in a language she didn’t understand. It sounded exotic, and once again he was fanning the flames of her desire. When she got herself together and looked up, she realized the animal people were dead and everyone else was gone.

“Where is everyone?”

“They went to take over the ship.” Her uncle said. “Let’s go see if they need help.”

Thrice shook his head and looked at her. “Our destination is the bridge.”

He reached inside the pocket of her jeans and pulled out the small oblong weapon he gave her the first time they fought the animal people. She blushed having forgotten she had it on her.

“Talian steel.” She told it. “Wait. How did you kill the animal person with a gun? I thought bullets wouldn’t hurt them.”

“These aren’t normal bullets.” My uncle grinned at me. “I’ll take point. You keep your mate safe. Please make sure she doesn’t trip over her feet and decapitate herself.”

She almost tripped when she realized she hadn’t done anything klutzy since Thrice rescued her. What did that mean? Could it be a sign? A small laugh escaped her. Right now, she’d take anything to tell her it was all going to be okay.

They encountered a few pockets of resistance, but Thrice and her uncle made quick work of them. She noticed that they didn’t leave anyone alive. When they got to the bridge, they were all dead.

Everyone was back in their humanoid form, and her dad was there holding a gun with a grin on his face.

“Jenkins we’re going on the next raid.” Her father said. She turned panicked eyes to Thrice, but he shrugged.

“Thrice what do you want to do?” Slade asked him.

“Are they all dead?”

“They are. If we leave one alive, they would come back to hunt you.”

She nodded; she heard what he wasn’t saying. He wouldn’t be here next time to stop them.

“What do we do?”

His eyes moved from hers to Slade’s. “I want to wipe the navigational system and send them back making it look like an attack by the Aba.”

“That means war. It may also mean the coordinates of earth are lost. The planet may never be found.”

Thrice nodded his head. They may never find earth or their mates, but Piper would be safe. “I know.”

Slade held his eyes before he finally tilted his head in acknowledgment. Akron and Phoenix started making calculations before they went through the navigational system reprogramming it and deleting all knowledge of earth.

“They may end up getting what they want after all.”

“It’s a chance I’ll have to take.”

“What if the next time they come back, they target you?”

“Too late, I’ve already been targeted.” He took her into his arms and held her tight.

“We’re ready,” Phoenix said.

“Let’s get off this ship. Deaths a little too close.” They followed Slade off the bridge. When they were gone a silent figure appeared making a few modifications to what was done.

*~*~*~*

“How’s Lisa?” Piper asked Brandi when she got to the house.

“She’s going to be okay. It took a while to get her calmed down. Right now, she’s taking a shower. I thought some hot chocolate, and a movie might help.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“You should be. I know you went to the animal people and told them to kidnap Lisa and then demand that you show up. I just don’t know why.”

Piper threw her arms around Brandi. “You’re the best sister and friend ever.”

“I know, right? Don’t you forget it.”

“I know what we should do. That new animated flick by Disney is out. I can go down to the store and get it. Then we can watch the movie together as a family. She’ll love that. Heck, I’ll love that. After the blood and gore movie we watched last week, I need something sappy and fun.”

“Remind me to tell you about the movie we saw on my first movie day.”

“Hey Quinn,” Piper and Brandi greeted her as she came into the kitchen.

“All’s well that ends well?”

“I’m not sure. We are all here, so whatever we did on the animal people’s ship didn’t affect our timeline.”

“I’m for one am happy about that.”

“I’ll second that,” Brandi said. “Is that all?”

Piper looked at her before looking at Quinn. “Why haven’t we seen more of the robots? They looked me up, but they do nothing. That’s enough to worry me.”

She fidgeted not knowing what she could say. “Thrice thinks he saw this bitch from his past. He’s not one to talk unless he’s sure. He saw her. She did some things that weren’t all that great.” To put it mildly.

“We know he was tortured,” Brandi told her.

Piper's shoulders sagged. His brothers were putting it mildly too. Brandi put her arm around her and led her to a chair. That’s when she realized she was standing helplessly in the middle of the kitchen.

Quinn went to the cabinets and pulled out some cups. Then she reached for the tea and bourbon. “I think we could all use a little of this. Not too much though. We have a child in the house.” She made the drinks and brought them to the table.

“Bourbon, can I have some?” Lisa asked walking into the kitchen.

“No, you can have some hot chocolate.”

“Okay.” Three sets of eyes stared at her. “What? I know what it feels like to have no one care.”

Quinn made her hot chocolate then sat down at the table.

“Am I interrupting?”

“No,” Brandi told her. “We’re brainstorming. Some… female is trying to steal Thrice from Piper and were trying to figure out what to do about it.”

“Kick the shit out of her.” Lisa stopped and looked around. “Too much?”

They laughed. “You now have five uncles and Jabari, who would like to be an honorary father. I think you need to tone down the language. They aren’t ready for it.” Brandi told her.

She gave a sheepish grin. “I’ll try. When you’re living at the orphanage, you have to latch onto every advantage you have.”

They fell into silence as they drank their hot chocolate.

“Lisa do you like Disney movies?” Piper asked her.

“I’m too old for them.”

“Really, because I still love them. When I have you and William here, we will be going to watch them at the movies.”

“We will?”

“Yeah, we will.”

“That might not be too bad. I mean if someone older was there and all…”

“That’s good to hear because I’ll be there,” Piper told her.

“Me too,” Quinn said.

“Sweet then we’re on for a Disney movie tonight,” Piper said grinning.

“This might not be all that bad after all,” Lisa said softly.

They smiled and kept sipping.