CHAPTER ONE
SAHVIN
An explosion shook the whole building, and I awoke to chaos. The barracks guards came running from their rooms at the four corners of the men’s barracks, pulling on clothes and with weapons drawn. Someone turned on the overhead lights as we started rousing from our bunks. We didn’t have to dress. Slaves only got one set of clothes and one pair of shoes.
Not knowing what might happen, next, I pulled on my boots. Suddenly, both the front and back doors of the barracks crashed open, and four armored beings stormed in and took out the guards. I thought we were next, but one of the beings receded his helmet and spoke in a calm even voice. Except I didn’t understand a word, he said. By then my friend Bill was up. I waited until he stopped talking, then asked “Bill, who is that and what did he say?”
“They are Farseek Mercenaries, looking for people from their world. There are quite a few of them here, but they also said they will take all of us slaves with them.”
“As slaves?” I wondered.
“No, as free people. They can’t promise they will get us back to our homeworlds, but we will be free to make new lives for ourselves.”
“Thank the Gods,” I said gripping his arms as he grasped mine. “We’re going to be all right.”
“I sure hope they have some decent food,” Bill said. “Look at me, I’m wasting away to nothing.”
I just grinned at him. He was a big guy and more than a little overweight when we arrived on this gods-forsaken planet called Breskaa. His excess body fat probably helped sustain him through our ordeal. He was now at an ideal weight for his body type.
I had lost weight, but my species has a slower metabolism, and our bodies are better at regulating our weight than homo sapiens.
“He said pack up our stuff as quickly as possible then he will lead us to the shuttles that will take us up to their ship.”
“That won’t take long. We are wearing practically all we own,” I said. “All I have to do is put on my jacket.”
We had to wait about an hour while the Farseekans secured the area around the barracks, then we were loaded into a troop shuttle to go up to their starship orbiting the planet. I didn’t know where they were taking us, but anywhere was better than here. But I am getting ahead of the sequence of events that brought us here.
I am Sahvin Kazza, a feline humanoid from Narova. I was stationed on Earth as an operative for the United Alliance of Planets Law Enforcement. I was off our base there on reconnaissance at a tavern where we suspected Tenzari agents were kidnapping Earthers to sell into slavery. I was disguised as a homo sapien, wearing contact lenses to cover my feline eyes and my blue hair had been dyed a dark brown.
Walking back to the lot where my assigned vehicle was parked a dark SUV with tinted windows pulled up beside me and asked where the visitor lot was for a business I did not know. When I stepped a little closer to tell them to ask at a nearby restaurant, they shot me with a stunner, and the next thing I remembered was waking up on a starship strapped to a bunk. Wearing only a thin pair of shorts and a shirt.
I knew immediately I was on a slave ship; I had been stolen from Earth to become a slave. But by whom? This wasn’t a Tenzari vessel. The language printed on the signs that I could see was a language I didn’t recognize. I am a trained agent with seven years’ experience, but I was off duty. The car driver looked like an ordinary human. I had no reason to suspect any harm from him. I only turned my attention away for a second to point out the local café when I was zapped. I was armed with my own similar weapon at the time.
Now I had nothing but the clothes on my body and a horrible headache. There were many bunks like mine in the room with other males strapped to them. Some were homo sapiens, and others were of humanoid species I did not recognize.
As I heard them talking, I realized I couldn’t understand any but the English speaking humans. There was a pain behind my right ear that felt like a foreign body. It vibrated whenever people spoke which led me to believe it was a somewhat primitive translator. It took a few days to find someone to tell the beings who now ruled us that my device didn’t work and was causing me pain. His name was Bill Waters. He was an automobile mechanic from a town not far from our secret Earth base. He has become a good friend, probably because he was one of the few people whose language I could understand.
They took me to a med bay and removed it without pain meds. They sealed the wound with liquid skin sealer, but the pain lingered for a few hours. It was healed by the time we reached some planet in a sector outside of Alliance Space. I never had been so far from my world, and I was losing hope of ever getting back.
I was fortunate to have been sold in the group with my human friend whose translator did work. But the group had the misfortune to be sent to a mining colony on a remote planet. They worked us hard and fed us with the lowest grade food they had. I was partnered with my human friend who translated their orders to me. I slowly learned some of their language, but not enough to understand when they spoke fast.
Days turned into months, and we all thought we would die in those horrible mines. Then in the middle of one dark starless night, we were awakened by the sound of explosions and weapons fire. The mine camp was attacked, and we all thought we were going to die. But the only people put out of commission were the guards.
That’s when Commanded General Maktu came and announced that they were there to free us. There was still weapons fire in the background as the shuttle arrived for us to embark, but the Farseek warriors stood guard on either side of the short stretch of ground between the barracks and the open hatchway to the shuttle. It was standing room only, but we were all thrilled to be getting out of that hell hole.
Twenty minutes later, we were debarking on one of four dreadnaughts of the Farseek fleet that had come to rescue us. Then they took us into what was apparently the cargo hold to be checked in by four beautiful Earth females. That’s when I scented her.
I had thought it was the best day of my life when Bill told me that Commander Maktu was there to free us. When I scented her, my meomee or soulmate, I knew it.
Suddenly the hopelessness and chronic fatigue that had plagued me through the months of long grueling days and short nights with too little sleep faded away. I had thought I would die in that horrible place, and then I scented her.
I didn’t want to push ahead of the others, but it needed to know which of these magnificent females was mine. I wormed my way through the others until I was near the head of the line. The female with the short reddish hair and luscious curves looked up and met my gaze. I knew she was the one.
I waited to approach until she finished speaking to the man she was interviewing.
“Meomee, you are a long way from Earth,” I said and extended my hand to her. She gave me a stunned look as she took my offered hand.
“I am,” she smiled up at me and I felt my cock stir just looking at her and holding her hand. “And who are you? You don’t look exactly human. How is it that you speak English?”
“My name is Sahvin Kazza. I am a feline humanoid, and you are my soulmate.” I told her wondrously.
“Oh!” she drawled as the pheromones I exuded hit her right to her core. “I-I am Nora Reed.”
All I could do was stare into her beautiful green and gold eyes. “Is there somewhere we can go to talk? I need to explain what’s happening.”
“But I have a job to do here,” she protested.
“The pheromones are too potent. You won’t be able to function normally now that we have connected. We must mate very soon,” I told her.
She looked at me like I was speaking a different language. “Mate? But we just met. I don’t know you from anyone, and you want to mate? I don’t think so.”
I understood her reluctance. I had been on Earth long enough to know that humans had different criteria for mating. I also knew that once exposed to the pheromones, she couldn’t resist for long.
“What do you know about Earth?” demanded one of the other women. “Do you know where it is?”
“I do, but not how to get there from here.”
In my excited state, I don’t remember all that was said. Her friends pulled her away for a moment to speak in secret, and Nora kept looking at me with an expression between fear and longing. She did not know me yet so I could understand her reluctance. I had waited all my life to find her, I could wait a little longer to make her mine.