CHAPTER SEVEN
SAHVIN
“Hey, Nora, Sahvin, good to see you out and about,” Scarlet said as Nora, and I entered the mess hall together for third meal three days later. “Get your food and come join us.”
We did exactly that. Although I would be happy to sit with my Nora alone, I also wished to know her friends. I recognized Scarlet from the night we arrived, but I hadn’t yet met the man she had with her.
“We haven’t seen you two in days,” Scarlet commented with a wicked smirk.
“You know how it is, Scarlet. We have been---bonding,” Nora said with a little laugh. She set her tray on the table across from the other woman and introduced me to Pyrr Avantu. He nodded his acknowledgment, and I mimicked the gesture and sat down across from him.
“You probably haven’t heard,” Scarlet began. “The people we rescued don’t want to go back to Farseek until we go to Julconi to rescue the people taken there as slaves.”
“How are we going to transport over three thousand people?” Nora asked. “We’ve already got them packed in the cargo bay like sardines.”
“We’re going to steal a transport big enough to carry them all,” stated Pyrr in complete seriousness. “There is a huge shipyard about three weeks out in the Teglia system. It is only a slight detour between here and the Julconi system so we are going to explore the station there for a ship that will suit our needs.”
“That makes sense,” I nodded.
“How is your new language chip working,” Pyrr asked. “You seemed to have a good command of our language now.”
“This one is working fine. There have been no side effects, not like the one from the slavers,” I said shaking my head, remembering the pain and the buzzing in my head. “Those barbarians treated us worse than animals bred for slaughter. A few died, but they don’t care. If not for my friend Bill Waters, I don’t know how much worse it could have been.”
“Those bastards cut out the implant with no pain blockers,” Nora added bitterly. “We don’t even do that on Earth.”
“Bill was the only one who spoke a language I knew so I could get him to tell the overseers the problem. I am convinced it would have killed me,” I smiled at my Nora, “Even if it was painfully removed, I was better for it.”
“I understand you are a trained warrior,” Pyrr said as I took a bite of food from my plate.
“Yes, and I have combat experience with automated armor suits,” I told him.
“You’ll have a chance to show what you can do during training,” Pyrr said, “I expect now that you have a working language implant, you should be able to compensate for the differences in technology.”
I nodded. “From what I have learned so far, it seems that your technology is very close to the same level as our Alliance tech.”
“When you arrived, you told the Earth women that you were pretty sure their planet Earth is in another sector of this galaxy,” Pyrr said.
“I am positive we did not leave the galaxy, but we are in a different arm of the rim. My guess is about two arms away, but I can be sure. We must have been on that slave ship for months,” I explained. “I have made peace with the fact that I may never go back. All of that brought me to my Nora.”
“You are solmatu,” Pyrr said.
“Yes, that is the closest translation in your language. Only our initial bonding is more intense as Nora has told me. It’s probably my feline genes,” I said.
“Felines on Earth are pretty randy when they are in heat,” Scarlet remarked half seriously.
“That is essentially correct,” I told her. “But even more intense, and very specific. We only experience this heat with our soulmate, unlike your non-humanoid felines. They are much less discriminating.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean…, Scarlet stammered.
“That’s okay, Scar,” Nora laughed, “you can take your foot out of your mouth.”
Pyrr frowned, looking a little confused.
“That is not to be taken literally,” I explained.
“Ah, an idiom,” Pyrr grinned.
“It means someone has said something inappropriate,” I said.
“Yes,” Scarlet said ruefully. “I have a habit of doing that. I meant no disrespect. We just missed our fantastic fourth at training these last two weeks.”
Nora laughed. “No, insult intended, but I didn’t miss you guys at all.”
Scarlet laughed too. “I sure can understand that. He is almost as pretty as Pyrr.” She inclined her head in my direction.
Pyrr gave me a smirk at our mates’ banter.
“Zoe is the only one of who hasn’t met her mate,” Scarlet said after a moment.
“She still hasn’t met everyone aboard,” said Pyrr. “I thought perhaps Brintu was interested, but they are just friends.
“It would be too coincidental for us all to find mates in one crew,” Nora said.
“Bigger than the odds of us getting kidnapped by aliens?” Scarlet asked arching one eyebrow.
“I almost think so,” Nora said.
I enjoyed the time we spent with Nora’s friend and her mate. It made a big difference when I could fully understand what everyone was saying. It wasn’t the life I had planned for myself, but the future seemed so much more promising than it had when I was a slave in the mines of Breskaa.