Meg’s first duty in her new position on Raptor One was to meet with the other abductees in the staff conference room.
“Meg, where have you been?” Kayla Elliott asked when she entered the room. “I’ve been so worried about you. All they would tell me was that you were with the captain bonding. What does that mean?”
“It turns out Captain Marrek, and I are bond mates---meomee in the Narovian language. It’s biological, and we bonded for life, so I will be staying with Captain Marrek. In their culture, it’s the same as being married.”
“But do you want to stay with him? Is he forcing you?” Kayla frowned.
“It’s not something he did on purpose. It was a biological reaction to my DNA. When a Narovian feline meets his or her genetic complement, they give off pheromones that cause their mate to desire them so intensely they must have sex immediately. Once that happens they are biologically bonded for life. It’s like being in heat but for only one specific person,” Meg explained. “I’ve had more sex in the last five days than in the last five years. It’s part of the bonding ritual---and we’ve bonded emotionally too. He is very sweet and caring. I want to be with him.”
“If you’re sure,” Kayla said. “You do look happy.”
“I am. Now I’m here to go over everyone’s options now that we’ve been rescued from those greedy aliens,” Meg said. “Everyone, if you’ll please take a seat at the conference table, we’ll get started.”
She waited at the head of the table while everyone took a seat. “I know you’ve been told bits and pieces since we were rescued, but I’m going to review everything in detail. Enforcers rescued us for the United Alliance of Planets. Even though they have no formal relations with Earth, our world has been under their protection for over 400 years. They are protecting the people of Earth from more technologically advanced races that have tried to take advantage of us…humanoids like the Tenzari who kidnapped us to be sold as sex slaves or worse.
“You all have the choice of returning to Earth or asylum on Narova. Is anyone taking asylum on Narova?” All the twenty-three other abductees either shook their heads or said “No.”
“Just as I thought. That’s partly what the Captain wanted me to discuss with you. While no one is forbidding any of you from discussing what happened to you---that alien slavers abducted you, the ship’s counselor and the captain are both advising against it,” Meg went on. “Consider what you would think before your ordeal if someone told you a story like this.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Jane. “The people I know would either think I’m nuts or wonder what drugs I was on.”
“That’s probably a common reaction. Our suggestion instead would be to tell people a human trafficking ring on Earth kidnapped you---close enough to the truth that you can talk about it without the stigma of claiming aliens from outer space were involved. We also suggest that you consider counseling when you get back to Earth. While you may think, you are doing okay at first, you may have post-traumatic stress disorder at some point.”
“I will be available via email even after I leave with the Enforcers if anyone needs to talk. Even I may need some emotional support once this all hits me. But this meomee bonding with Captain Marrek has overshadowed the kidnapping at least for now,” she paused. “Any questions?”
“How much longer before we get back?” one of the other women asked.
“It’s going to be about a week now. We will go by cloaked shuttle to Earth from the dark side of the moon and Alliance agents on Earth will transport everyone back to their homes.”
“I thought you were staying with the Captain,” Kayla remarked.
“I am,” Meg responded. “He has arranged for us to go back for a couple of days so I can tie up loose ends and explain to my family that I am going to be away for a while. I don’t want them to think I just disappeared off the face of the Earth---but I can’t tell them the truth, either.”
“The other reason is that the Tenzari still have a ship hidden somewhere in the same vicinity as the one that took us. Records in the Tenzari ship computer indicated they’d been communicating with another ship on earth. The captain is sending some Enforcers down to stop them before they take any more women from Earth.”
The meeting with the other abductees took only a couple hours; then Meg was left with the rest of the day to herself. Even though she and Dargan had taken the entire ten days allotted for their bonding, Meg still longed for his company even though it had been only a few hours since they parted that morning. Having his undivided attention and sharing such passion with Dargan Marrek who obviously adored her had spoiled her. She still felt like a lovesick teenager despite the fact she had always prided herself on being an independent woman. Needing a man, the way she needed Dargan made her feel vulnerable. Then she supposed he shared some of those same feelings.
The time they spent together, they also talked and got to know each other. Dargan was born on Narova one of only a few worlds in the Alliance with a large population of feline humanoids. He grew up on Narova on an automated farm complex on a rural continent far from a major city. His feline parents shared the meomee bond which made for a wonderful family life. He grew up with one brother and one sister.
Even though he liked their rural lifestyle, he had always had the yearning to travel the stars. After completing his education, he entered the Alliance Law Enforcement Academy. Dargan excelled at the Academy and his career. He’d even spent time on Earth as a covert observer not far from where Meg had spent most of her life.
Like Dargan, Meg grew up in a home with both parents, a brother, and two sisters. Although she lived in a rural agricultural area, her family was not involved in agriculture. Her father worked for the highway department, and her mother was a nurse. Her brother had just found a job after being unemployed for long enough to wipe out his savings.
Meg knew she would miss them, but she didn’t spend that much time with them. They all had busy lives. With brother Steve back to work, they were all working full time. But they would keep in touch through email, and Dargan assured her that their travels would bring them back to Sol System often,
The most exciting thing Meg discovered during their bonding time was that she genuinely liked Dargan. He was thoughtful and considerate out of bed was well as in bed. They were becoming friends as well as lovers. She finally accepted that she was falling in love with him.
Just a few more hours and his shift would be over, she told herself. There was certainly plenty to do. To learn the things, she needed to practice medicine in his world; she first had to learn the language. The new tablet Dargan procured for her contained multiple courses from beginner to advanced in Narovian to English, Chinese, Russian, French, and Spanish. However, Dargan had the ship’s AI switch the Narovian to English section to English to Narovian.
Even then, Meg knew it wasn’t going to be easy. She hadn’t tried to learn any new languages since she was in high school when she took the required French classes. She was sure she could learn to speak and understand the spoken language, but reading it would be a challenge. There were forty-two characters in the Narovian alphabet with no characters that resembled the English alphabet. Fortunately, the lesson spelled the Narovian words in English as they sounded, with the Narovian characters beneath them. The computer gave verbal instructions as well and corrected her pronunciations of the Narovian words.
The tablet was smarter than any computer she’d ever used. While the Narovian alphabet didn’t resemble the English alphabet, the characters represented most of the same phonetic sounds in a different order. Things became clearer to her as she went through the lessons. Time passed so quickly that she was surprised when Dargan returned from his shift.
Meg looked up at the whoosh of the cabin door as her big, gorgeous captain strode inside. She dropped the tablet on the sofa, and they met in the middle of the room when Meg jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his hips. “God, I missed you so much,” she murmured just before his lips claimed hers in a heated kiss.
“It was hard being apart so soon after our bonding,” he said after their lips parted. He’d had to force himself not to think about Meg during his shift and turn his attention to the duties at hand. If his concentration had faltered, he could have been risking her life as well as his crew and his ship.
But now, she was in his arms again, and he could only think about getting naked with her and making love. By the way, she was wrapped around him and seeking his kisses; he thought she had the same thing in mind. Meomee!
Life was good.
As they lay in bed afterward, Dargan said, “It looks like we will have about four days on Earth before we have to leave.”
“It will have to be enough,” Meg sighed.
“We wouldn’t have that, but interrogations of the Tenzari revealed there is still another slave ship on Earth collecting more women. I’m sending a team to apprehend them.”
“Good, I don’t want any more people going through that,” Meg replied. “Now we just have to figure out what to tell my family.”
#
“Marrek is so lucky to have found his meomee.” Lieutenant Thanek Zes told his partner Lieutenant Brakar “Brak” Dolken. “I’ve been searching for years. The Narovian Matching Service has come up empty. They have a service to screen Earthers, but it costs a whole month’s pay. It would be worth it if they could find my meomee.”
“How are they doing that? Do the Earther’s know?”
“No. It’s some service where people submit DNA to learn about their ancestry. While they do provide those results to the Earthers, they also use the DNA analysis to check for matches for our kind. It gives us a bigger gene pool to search in.”
“Are you going to do it?” Brak asked.
“Yes, but it will take a while longer to finish saving for it,” said Zes. “Are you registered with the service?”
“Just the standard service. I figure Narovian Matchmaking won’t find my meomee if they haven’t found her by now. If it happens, it happens. If not, I will probably eventually enter into a consensual relationship to have children.”
“I’ve had a couple of those, and they just didn’t work.”
“With felines or sapiens?”
“One each. The feline was even worse than the sapien. Neither cared enough to stay with me,” Zes said. “I’m not going through that again.”
“Well, we’re going to be a little busy for a while, tracing the second wave Tenzari slavers on Earth. Marrek wants us to find them before they take any more women from Earth,” Brak reminded him.
“That will keep us busy for a while. Our agents have a lead on a nightclub where several women have disappeared in the last couple of weeks. Marrek wants us to start there.”
“Should be interesting.”