"What do you mean he was not on the ship when the marines took it?" Tolan Lark asked with a snarl.  It would probably have seemed scarier if they had not all seen him at his worst.

"If you think anyone else likes it any better than you, kitty cat, you haven't been paying attention."  Barnos was clearly as upset about it as Tolan.  "We were all a little busy trying to keep a feral Shakien alive and get Jax to the healer to worry about Warrung.  He used the distractions to do what he always does.  Run like the stinking rat bastard he is.” 

"At least tell us what we did will help Dara," Jax said over the male blustering.

"Doc Morgan thinks he has what he needs," Danika said softly into the tension-filled room.  She smiled at Jax.  "He assured me that what you sent him will make the difference.”  She looked sad for a moment.  "He also said there were others in the files.  Many others."

Jax had no words that could comfort the other woman.  Then something occurred to her.  "Warrung and his cyborg spoke of a truthsayer they had been searching for.  I had forgotten about it with everything that was happening.  He became angry when he found out she was with the ambassador.  I thought at first he was talking about Danika but he knows where you are, so why would he be searching for you?"

Lara perked up, her eyes meeting Barnos’.  "Kelia," she said.

Barnos grunted in agreement.  "Has to be."

"Why?"  Lara asked what they were all thinking.

"It doesn't matter, not really," Jax said.  "We need to warn her."

"But he always has a reason," Danika mused, as if she was talking to herself. 

"There must be something we don't know about the truthsayer.” Lucan added.   “He would not risk going against the Alliance otherwise.  Truthsayers are rare, but that is extreme, even for him."

“We could contact my father but I doubt he will believe even Warrung would be that crazy,” Lara said.  Clearly she was worried now.

"We take girl and find out," Barnos said as if the answer was obvious.  He was not wrong.

"Or at least rescue the girl," Lara said pointedly, elbowing Barnos with a glare.  "Before Warrung pays someone to take her out of Alliance space, and hurts a lot of other people in the process.”

"Normally I'd send for Tolan Lark," Lucan said with a speaking look at the mercenary.  "But I think we should keep him clear of the marines for a little while.  They did not seem to care for Shakien."

"Not the ones who go bloody crazy and rampage through a battalion of cyborgs," Barnos added with a snort.

Tolan glared at both of them.

"We'll get her," Tyber said, speaking for the first time since the debrief started, his first mate Lore at his side as usual.

"Not in your piece of shite ship you won't," Barnos said with a sneer.

"We'll get her," Tyber said with a narrow-eyed look at the other man.

"Again," Barnos stated, "your ship is a salvage vessel."

Jax cleared her throat.  "I tinkered a bit."

"You tinkered?" Barnos asked, a clear question in his eyes.

Tolan Lark barked out a laugh.

"Well, I was bored on the trip to Frian and his ship needed the work."

Barnos snorted.  "That's the bloody truth."

Tolan Lark ignored him, his eyes laughing down at his mate. "How much tinkering did you do?"

"Danika was nice enough to lend me some crystal pearls from the Furgarians.  They were supplying the energy and I had a few days, so," she shrugged, "quite a bit actually."

Tolan Lark turned back to the room.  "Send The Jezebel."

"A salvage ship against the Alliance and Warrung?" Barnos asked, appalled.

He snorted.  "If Jax tinkered for a few days with unlimited energy, it’s not just a salvage ship anymore."

"We'll get her," Tyber said, his eyes hard and challenging on Barnos.

"Bring her here," Lucan said.  "We need to know what my brother wants.  If it's more of his own to experiment on then she is better off here.  If it’s something else, well, if my brother wants a truthsayer there is a reason for it, and I want to know what it is, and why this one.  There are not exactly a large number of them but my brother has at least two that I know of already in his employ, or he did before his space station blew up.  Why this one in particular? Whatever the reason, it won't be good.  For anyone."

"Get the girl, get her back here, don't get caught," Barnos boomed, looking like the bloodthirsty pirate he was.  "We have a war to plan. And a tyrant to finally kill."

Tyber and Lore headed for the door, Lore already reaching for the com at his waist to contact Mac and Sera to meet them at The Jezebel.  If Cor Warrung wanted the female as bad as all that, there was no time to spare on shore leave.

Jax watched them go with Tolan at her back, and felt… anxious.  She turned and saw Danika’s eyes were on her, considering.

“You know now that he really knows what you can do, you are not safe anywhere else.” Danika said it with calm eyes, but Jax could feel the worry behind those eyes.

“He is looking for someone to breach the defenses of Port Sea,” she reminded the other woman.  “Not sure we’re safe here, either.”  Not that they had a better choice, but she felt the need to point it out, just the same.

“Maybe,” Lucan said, joining the conversation.  “But we are all safer together than apart and I would be a fool not to take advantage of your skills in the meantime.”

Jax raised a brow at that, but Lucan was already looking over her shoulder at Tolan.  “I would hire the both of you, if you would stay.”  He smiled that cool smile that barely reached his eyes.  “I pay very well, as you know.”

“What exactly are you hiring us to do?” Tolan asked the question before Jax could.

“Work on my ships, upgrade my defenses, and of course, help me kill Cor Warrung.”

Jax did not need to see her mate to know he started smiling that cold smile of his that promised mayhem.

Lucan took it as a yes, and so did Captain Barnos, who cursed a blue streak, clearly overjoyed that Tolan Lark would be hanging around.

The men blustered, planned, or coldly contemplated as their personalities dictated, while Jax, Danika and Lara looked at each other and communicated other things.

If their men had been paying attention in that moment, they would have recognized that something was changing; a pact was forming, a silent agreement among powerful women to do what it took to keep the men in their lives alive.

It would have worried them, if they had been paying attention.

 

 

Look for Tyber, Lore, and Kelia’s story coming in 2018.