Chapter Eight: Tom
Feeling Sara beside him as he woke up made Tom beam. Sex was a huge part of the musth, and being able to make love with his Starmate had made nearly all the symptoms of the ongoing cycle disappear. He was more relaxed than he had ever been in his life, and he owed it all to the beautiful woman snuggled up beside him.
Her blue skin glowed in the dim light, and he wondered if she was ever going to return it to its original color. He'd seen recreations of humans, and his mother had described the shades humans came in. No bright purple or stripped pink and green, only neutral colors. What did Sara naturally look like?
The ship jerking wildly from side to side cut his musings short. Sara woke with a yell. The ship rocked again.
"We're under attack!" Sara blurted, still obviously half-asleep despite the way the ship continued to be thrown around.
Tom scrambled to his feet, racing out of the bedroom. The screeching of metal on metal filled the ship. Docking clamps. Whoever had attacked them now had their ship in their grasp, being drawn into the bellow of its own vessel. An outdated technology, but this far from the core of civilization…
Sara emerged from the room as Tom grabbed his weapons. They would not go down without a fight. He glanced at his Starmate, heart pounding. He would die to protect her… but at least they had been able to meet and know one another before death… he would have to cling to that for comfort.
Sara slammed her hand on the comm. "This is Lieutenant Sara O'Neill of the United Species Corps, release this ship at once!"
"They're not going to—" Tom cut off as the ship shuddered. It spun slightly, and the view screen showed another ship hovering above them, the docking clamps retreating back inside. His eyes widened. "Okay, that was unexpected."
A voice came over the comm. "O'Neill. Long time no see, friend."
***
The leader of the pirates that had attacked them was named Toridge. She was an old colleague of Sara's from their days of training, and apparently Toridge owed Sara her life. Tom had been ready to take the opportunity to flee and get far away from the pirates, but apparently, there was some sort of social convention that said if the pirate was an old friend, even if you were on opposite sides of the law, you have to go over to their ship to partake in a big feast.
Sara wouldn't let Tom talk her out of going, and Tom wasn't going to let her go alone. So now he found himself surrounded by the filth of the galaxy. He would have been happy to kill them all for the crimes that they had committed against travelers not so lucky to have known their captain, but they outnumbered him and Sara, so diplomacy was the best way to continue.
They were all sitting around a table, dishes of food stretched out along the length. Species of all kinds were there, although Tom noticed there weren't any T'shav.
And yet his people were blasted as mercenaries and pirates wherever they went.
"So how did you end up here?" Sara asked her old friend as she snacked on some type of fruit.
Toridge snorted. "You’re going to arrest me?"
"With my extensive backup? Nah. Actually, I'm probably going to be court-martialed for going AWOL if I ever get back to the Corps." Sara looked wistful for a moment and shook her head. "Funny how life can take all your plans and put them through the power converters."
"AWOL? You?" Toridge shook her head. "I never would have thought it. And with a T'shav no less! How did that happen?"
"Long story," Tom interrupted. He had no desire for this pirate to have any of his personal information. "And we really should be on our way."
"You haven't even eaten anything," Toridge protested. "And I intend on having a long, long chat with my friend here."
"I'm on a musth fast," Tom lied. "Sara and I have business to attend to on one of the distant planets."
"Musth?" Toridge's eyes narrowed. "Sara, are you—"
"Relax. I've been with him for… what, a month now? Or has it been longer than that?" Sara thought a moment and shrugged. "It's been a while, anyway, and he's just started to enter into the musth, which he warned me about and offered to drop me off on a planet so I wouldn't have to deal with it."
"And you stayed?"
"I wanted to. We're good, you don't have to worry. But he's right. We do have some pretty urgent business that we need to take care of."
"Oh, it can wait for a few hours—"
A crash at the opposite side of the room drew everybody's attention. A Dibat stood there, a pile of dishes around his feet, staring at Tom. The T'shav rested his hand on the gun strapped to his thigh, tensing at the pure hostility radiating from the alien. All chatter died away.
"You," the Dibat said, pointing at Tom. "I know you!"
"I'm afraid I don't know you," Tom replied coolly. "Perhaps you have me mixed up with another T'shav."
The Dibat barked out a laugh. "I don't think so. We've never met, but I would know your face anywhere. The half-human T'shav… your father killed my father."
Tom's lips tightened. A pirate with a grudge. Great. This could not end well. His began drawing out his gun. "My father killed only those that deserved it."
"Deserved it?" The Dibat's voice rose. "Who decides what murder is righteous? My father was a soldier! But at least now I get to kill you, and your father will know the pain of—"
Tom whipped out his gun as the Dibat drew his own. A blaster shot rang through the room. Tom's weapon had not yet cleared the table. He looked around and found Sara on her feet, her blaster in both hands, pointed at the Dibat, a hard expression on her face.
The Dibat dropped, his corpse smoking.
Tom grabbed Sara's hand, pulling her back with him as he shielded her with his body, pointing his gun at Toridge as the captain drew her own weapon. Everybody jumped to their feet, guns pointed at them from every side. Adrenaline spiked. If he used the chair as a shield he might be able to get Sara out of here…
"Tom is my friend, Tori," Sara said. "Your Dibat was going to kill him, and I didn't hear you trying to diffuse the situation."
Toridge didn't look at Sara. She stared at Tom with unbridled fear on her face. "Perhaps it's because I was too surprised to find out who your companion is to stop Cli."
"How did you—" Sara stared.
"Cli told me who killed his father. You should have told me that you were traveling with a warlord's son, Sara. You should go. Now."
Keeping his mate behind him, Tom backed towards the doors, ignoring Sara's protests. He squeezed her hand, his heart pounding. When he was out on missions like this one, he had to keep his heritage a secret. He had risked too much by telling her his true name already–what if she thoughtlessly called him Tom instead of Bond in a public area? If the Ruziers Corporation found out his true identity… well, they would kill him without a second thought.
Toridge accompanied them down to the docks, where Tom's ship, dwarfed in comparison to the pirate's vessel, sat.
"I don't understand what's happening here," Sara said, shaking her head. "You're a deep-space pirate, no warlord is going to destroy you for hosting his son!"
"You really don't know who he is, do you?" Toridge glanced at Tom. "He's not just any warlord's son, he's—"
"I will explain everything on the ship," Tom interrupted.
Sara looked between the two of them, a bewildered expression on her face. "Why don't you want her to tell me?"
"It's complicated."
"Captain!" A crew member raced into the docking bays. He skidded to a stop before Toridge. "Captain, we're receiving a hails. It's Colonel Flanard of the USC."
"The USC?" Toridge turned furious eyes on Sara. "What's this, O'Neill? You pretend like you're AWOL and you're really bringing the USC down on us?"
Tom pointed his weapon at the captain, snarling. "If you threaten her, you die."
"It's not like that, Tori. Colonel Flanard? I don't even know who that is."
"He has a new H-class Clacston. We'd stand no chance against it," the crew member continued, as though the tension wasn't building to dangerous levels.
"Did the colonel say what he wants?" Toridge demanded, keeping an eye on Tom while she palmed her holstered gun. She didn’t draw it. Tom would shoot her.
"Yes, Sir." The crewmember looked at Sara and Tom. "He wants them. He wants them sent over in an escape pod and their ship released to his custody. He says that if you do as he says, he'll leave us alone."
The bottom of Tom's stomach dropped. What would a USC colonel possibly want with him and Sara? Was this a rescue mission, or something else? The pirate captain looked between the two of them and shrugged.
"Then we send them over. Ready an escape pod for them."