Chapter Fifteen
The decision had been made. Their next ship would be an AXT594. Qulpa walked around the vessel, inspecting it. It was in newly manufactured condition, not a scratch on it. He patted a side panel, his hands shaking. It would be a dream to fly.
“Warrior.” Second’s voice originated behind him.
“The ship is ready to fly, Second.” He turned to face his superior and his happiness faded.
Lead Medic stood beside Second. They both looked grim, lines etched around their flattened lips.
“Another ship has crashed.” Second’s tone was solemn.
The rogue warrior had to be stopped. Qulpa clenched his jaw. “Were there any fatalities?”
“We don’t yet know.” Lead Medic answered his question.
“I have to return to the laboratory.” He walked toward the exit. “Head of Ship and Weapons Design will want to be flown to the crash site.”
His gerel would want to investigate and he wanted to see her. His body burned with desire, with need. He couldn’t think clearly.
“She was on board the ship.” Second yelled that after him.
“What?” Qulpa spun around. He must have misheard, his yearning for Nayan’s touch fogging his brain. His gerel had no plans to leave their private space. She had weapons to craft.
“She was traveling to a small settlement close to here. Her mission was to investigate some recent abductions.” The sympathy in his superior’s voice almost undid him. “Other than the pilot, she was the only passenger.”
She was the only passenger. A chill swept over Qulpa, his body temperature dropping. His gerel, the one being in the universe he truly cared about, had been on board the crashed ship. “What model was it?”
“What?” Second stared at him.
“What model was the ship?” He stalked toward the male, his claws extending.
Lead Medic extracted her gun from her pocket.
Second extended his claws also. “Calm down, warrior.”
He couldn’t calm down. His gerel, his Nayan could be dead. “Tell me the model.” He bellowed that demand, past the point of respect for anyone.
The other warriors ran toward them.
Second waved them back. “It was a shuttle craft.”
Their team had barely survived the crash in their heavily fortified warship. The same impact would have pulverized the shuttle craft, a vessel designed for short jaunts.
The crash would have left nothing to recover, no large parts, no bodies.
No living beings. No Nayan.
His little female was dead. That realization sliced through Qulpa, gouging a gaping hole in his soul.
He had lost everything. Again. His happiness, his hope for the future, his family, his gerel was gone.
“No.” He howled, falling to his knees, his pain and anguish ripping out of him. This time, he wouldn’t recover. Nayan was too much a part of him. He couldn’t live without her. She was the heart in his chest.
He bellowed his grief, his loss, unable to contain it.
Agony exploded in his chin. His head snapped back.
Dazed by the blow and by his sorrow, he looked upward.
“Pull yourself together, warrior.” Second stood over him, his claws retracted, his fists clenched. “Your gerel needs you.”
“Dead.” She was dead.
“And if she isn’t dead?” Second clouted him on the side of the head with one of his fists. “Would you leave her on the battlefield? Is that what warriors do?”
He was more than a warrior. He was her warrior. And he would never leave her. Qulpa pushed himself to his booted feet.
If there was any chance at all she was alive, he had to go to his gerel. She might be alone, might be injured, would definitely need him.
“I’m taking the ship.” He moved toward their new warship, accelerating with each step.
“You’re taking us, too.” Judging by loudness of Second’s voice, the male and Lead Medic must be following him.
Qulpa didn’t look over his shoulder to confirm that, and he didn’t slow down. His focus was reaching Nayan as soon as possible. Either beings kept pace or he would leave them behind.
He stomped through the warship, entered the bridge. A message displayed on the main viewscreen communicated he had already been given clearance to depart.
Qulpa plunked his ass in the captain’s chair. That was a good thing because he was departing with or without permission.
His hands trembled as he guided the ship through liftoff, exiting the hangar. The crash site’s coordinates had been sent to him. He plotted the most direct course.
And he flew without caution, without any concern for his safety, for the safety of his passengers. Second, Lead Medic, Ariq, and the rest of the team strapped themselves into their chairs. One warrior whooped. Another warrior hushed him.
This wasn’t a recreational flight and there was no joy in it for Qulpa. His gerel was all he could think about. Was she hurt? Was she scared?
Was she alive?
Qulpa spotted the debris from the crash and a hurting sound escaped his lips. The shuttle craft hadn’t been completely pulverized, but it did look bad, really, really bad.
“Two lifeforms spotted.” Ariq must have run a scan, his friend thinking clearer than Qulpa was.
There were two lifeforms. Second had said Nayan was the only passenger. Most shuttle crafts were flown with one pilot. Hope unfurled inside Qulpa. She could have survived.
He touched the warship down on a flat expanse of terrain, was out of the vessel before the ramp fully lowered, jumping to the surface. A trilling cut through the engine noise.
That sounded like…Hitch.
Qulpa rushed toward the mechanical singing. He passed a huge piece of the shuttle craft, spotted a familiar silhouette, and his heart almost burst from his chest.
“Nayan.” He ran toward his female, scooped her into his arms. “My gerel.” He covered her beautiful face with kisses and swung her around until they were both dizzy. “I thought you were—” His voice broke.
She leaned her forehead against his. Warmth wafted on his cheeks, her breaths in and out reassuring him. Her chest rose and fell against him, fast yet steady.
The two of them stayed like that for several moments as he struggled to come to terms with her being alive. He had thought he’d lost her. Forever.
Yet she was now in his arms. It was a miracle and he was overwhelmed with gratitude, with love.
“You survived.” He had to say the words.
“I survived.” Her voice was hoarse.
His gaze lowered. Bruises and blisters stretched across her neck. They looked like…handprints.
Rage filled the empty spaces where his grief had once been. “Who hurt you?”
He glanced around them. Urus, that dishonorable bastard, lay on the ground, stunned. He must have attacked her.
“I’ll kill him.” Qulpa would shred the skin off the male layer by layer. Urus would experience the most acute pain for daring to hurt her.
“Kill him later.” Nayan bracketed his face with her hands, redirecting his attention to her, the only being who truly mattered to him. “I need you now. Hitch needs you.”
The bot clung to her hair and reached out to him, his little forelegs waving in the air. His eyes lacked illumination. His shell was bent. His trill was ear-piercing.
“Qulpa is here, Hitch.” She assured her tiny creation. “He found us…as I knew he would.” Her smile was heart-wrenchingly brave. Dried blood flaked off her forehead.
“I’ll always find you.” Qulpa brushed his lips over his gerel’s, tasting metal, ash, and her. She was alive. He hadn’t lost her. She had survived.
Little metal feet touched his cheek. The trilling stopped. Hitch chirped off tune, his happiness echoing Qulpa’s.
“I should examine her.” Lead Medic’s voice pierced their bubble.
Hitch dashed into one of Nayan’s pockets. The little bot didn’t like strangers.
Qulpa’s gerel squeaked and hid her hands against his chest. Her skin was bare, her palms decadently soft, her fingers enticingly rough.
“Where are your hand coverings?” He frowned. She never left her laboratory without donning them.
“They were damaged in the crash.” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “Urus knows, Qulpa.” The shame in her words tore at him. “He’ll tell everyone and—”
“And we’ll deal with it.” He lifted her higher against his chest, trying to protect her from that future. “Together.”
“The two of you won’t deal with it alone.” Second stood beside them, his booted feet braced apart, his arms folded in front of his chest. “I’ll support any decisions you make.”
“Gauze will hide your lack of scars.” Lead Medic unrolled a strip of the white fabric.
“I have scars.” Qulpa’s gerel rubbed her fingers over her knuckles. “But they’re not the ones normal Chameles have.”
She glanced at him as though asking if sharing part of her secret was the right thing to do.
He nodded. She could trust them, and they already knew, would never hurt her. He wouldn’t allow that.
His gerel exhaled raggedly and held out her hands, bravely showing all of them the damage her past had done to her.
Second’s face hardened.
Lead Medic’s expression was too blank to be authentic.
They tried to hide their reactions, but Qulpa knew. They were horrified by Nayan’s scars.
She must have read their reactions also. Her chin lifted but she didn’t pull her hands back, didn’t shrink from their judgment.
His respect for her expanded even more. She was courageous and strong and his. He was honored to call her his gerel.
“All warriors have scars.” Lead Medic wrapped her patient’s knuckles with gauze, concealing the evidence of his female’s painful history. “I have a few of them myself.”
“I’m not a warrior.” Nayan rejected that view of herself.
“You survived your affliction.” Lead Medic didn’t look up. “That makes you a warrior in my eyes.”
It made her a warrior in his eyes also. Few beings could have endured what she had.
“You know about my affliction.” His gerel whispered that revelation.
“We all know about it.” Ariq appeared behind Second. The other males had gathered around them. “Your secrets are safe with us, Head of Ship and Weapons Design.”
The warriors nodded.
“Especially if you craft us more of these guns.” Qulpa’s battle-loving friend patted the prototype holstered to his hip.
The males laughed.
“Warriors and their weapons.” Lead Medic shook her head. “I need to examine you, Head of Ship and Weapons Design.”
“You can examine her on the ship.” Qulpa’s gaze lifted to the sky above them. Ships could be hiding in the clouds, and they were too exposed where they were.
“I agree with that.” Second supported his decision.
“What do we do with him?” Ariq indicated Urus.
“Leave him here for someone else to rescue.” Qulpa didn’t want him anywhere near his gerel.
All of the warriors, including Second, turned their heads and gaped at him. That wasn’t an honorable decision, and he prided himself on his honor.
They didn’t know the full situation. His jaw jutted. “If he enters our ship, I’ll kill him.”
His gerel touched her bruised, blistered neck. “You agreed to kill him later.”
The warriors’ gazes shifted to her, lowering to her marred skin. Their lips flattened. Their faces hardened. Their hands drifted to their weapons.
“We’re leaving him.” Second’s voice was tight with anger. “You will have to kill him, but now is not the time for that.”
Qulpa agreed with his superior. Now was not the time, but Urus would die for his treacherous acts. He carried his gerel into the ship, onto the bridge, setting her on his lap as he sat in his chair.
The male had gone too far. The attack against Nayan was a declaration of war. To ignore it would be putting her in danger.
Lead Medic examined his gerel, putting healing balm on her neck, tending to the thankfully shallow gash on her head, as he flew them home.
That was what her laboratory had become—their home. And she was his heart, the light to his darkness, the engine in his ship. Without her, there was no lifting off, no flying. He’d be grounded forever.
* * *
His gerel protested when he carried her out of the ship, through the structure, heading directly to their private chambers. She mentioned the investigation into the abductions, still wanting to lead it.
Someone else could do that. Someone who hadn’t almost died this planet rotation. Their Warlord would understand.
And if he didn’t, Qulpa didn’t care. Getting Nayan to the safety of her laboratory was his only concern.
His gerel claimed she could walk that distance. He didn’t have to carry her.
That might be true but he couldn’t let her go. Not yet.
She rested her head against his chest, fitting in his arms as though she was made for that spot. That eased some of the tension inside him.
Hitch released a frightened chirp every fifth or sixth stride.
The little bot didn’t exit from Nayan’s pocket until they entered the laboratory and faced their drone and bot welcoming party. Tubby sounded frantic, whistling and beeping as he rushed forward and back, twirled around.
Hitch whirred a response, peeking out of his hiding place.
Tubby bumped against Qulpa’s boots again and again, holding up his little metal hands, requesting something. Qulpa didn’t know what.
Nayan knew, however. “He wants Hitch.” She scooped the bot out of her pocket, placed him on her shoulder.
Instead of calming Tubby, that seemed to make him more upset. The two bots exchanged a barrage of fast beeps and chirps.
“Hitch does look a mess.” Her lips twisted. “But he’ll be fine.” Her gaze met Qulpa’s, the sadness in her eyes pulling at him. “He tried to protect me.”
The bot had to do that because Qulpa hadn’t been there with her. He pressed his lips together.
“I’ll do a better job of protecting you from now on.” He set her on their sleeping support.
“I didn’t give you an opportunity to protect me.” She positioned Hitch by the recharging station situated on the nearby horizontal support.
Tubby rolled to its base, his mechanical eyes fixed on his damaged friend. The bot wouldn’t allow the entity he cared for out of his sight.
Qulpa knew how he felt. “I would have flown you to the settlement. I might be Second’s main pilot, but I am your warrior first. You’re my priority.”
“I’m not accustomed to having someone.” She touched his face with her gauze-covered hands. “I realized leaving without you was a mistake as soon as I saw Urus standing by the shuttle craft.”
“You won’t be alone with him ever again.” The male was dangerous.
Qulpa removed his gerel’s boots. There were slashes in the leather. Her body covering was as battered as her footwear.
The skin it covered was unbroken. Her outfit had shielded her.
“He surprised me.” Nayan’s chin lifted. “He won’t do that a second time.”
Urus wouldn’t do that a second time because Qulpa would end that threat to her. But that could wait until sunrise. This planet rotation, he would focus on his gerel.
He unwrapped the gauze from her hands. There was no need to cover her scars, not while they were alone. He kissed each knuckle. “You couldn’t sense him.”
She didn’t have that Chamele ability.
“I will be able to sense him while I’m wearing my new body covering.” She glanced at the garment draped over a chair. “He’ll be the being surprised then.”
Urus wouldn’t be surprised. He’d soon be dead.
Qulpa stripped off his ass coverings, not wanting any barriers between them, and grabbed a cleaning cloth. He sat on the sleeping support beside her. The surface dipped under his weight. “Come here.”
He drew her closer to him. Her back pressed against his chest. Her ass pushed against his hard cock.
“Are you taking me from behind?” She wiggled, sending inappropriate messages to his already overexcited body. “We haven’t tried that yet.”
“We’ll try that later.” He was aware she’d been through an ordeal, wanted to treat her gently until she recovered from it. “You’re covered with ash.” And grass and dirt. He tidied her hair, strand by strand
Red streaked across her cheeks. “I must look a mess.”
“You look beautiful.” She was the most gorgeous being he’d ever seen. “The other warriors on the team would envy me.”
“I doubt they would envy you.” His gerel leaned into him, the extra contact soothing him. “But they saw my hands and they didn’t reject me.” She placed her palms on his knees. “That’s because the warriors respect you.”
“They respect you, too.” He kissed the top of her now-tidied head, breathing in her distinctive scent. “They like your prototype of the new gun.”
“Did it work properly?” Her face lit up.
They talked about the weapon, about the team’s new ship, about the hand coverings she had completed this planet rotation, while he cleaned her, his task giving him an excuse to survey every part of her from her head to her cute little toes.
He explored the grooves on her back, the curve of her hips, the indents on her knees. Drones flew above them. Bots cleaned the space around them.
His gerel was safe and alive and in his arms. He reapplied the healing balm on her neck. Some of the blisters had popped. The bruises had bloomed deep purple, vivid yellow.
He had thought he’d lost her this planet rotation. The shock of that remained with him. He reclined, taking her with him.
She rested her head on his chest. He stroked her hair. Her breath caressed his bare skin, warm and even, reassuring him. She was alive. She was with him.
“You’re the best thing to ever happen to me, gerel.” He tightened his grip on her.
“You might not say that when we leave this space.” Her tone was dry. “Urus plans to make trouble for us. You could lose your role, your friends, everything.”
That fate was unlikely. Second and the other warriors had voiced their support of her, of him, of them.
But it could happen. He’d seen improbable events occur on the battlefield, didn’t reject that possibility. “You’re my everything. Would I lose you?”
“Never.” She looked up at him. Her eyes flashed, the vehemence of her response making him smile. “I’ll always be by your side.”
“Then I’ll have all any warrior truly needs.” He lived for her, valued the sense of belonging he only experienced when she was in his arms.
His gerel pursed her lush lips. Too many beings had betrayed her, not valuing her worth, and she struggled to believe him.
Qulpa understood that, would gladly give her more.
“Like you, I’ve been alone for a long time.” He had spent a significant portion of his lifespan not having anyone to cherish, to care for. “I’ve figured out what is important to me, and that’s you.”
She was the source of his happiness.
He folded his body around hers. “This planet rotation, when I thought I had lost you…” Emotion rushed over him. It was too much. He had to stop talking.
“You didn’t lose me.” She splayed her fingers over his chest.
That contact calmed him enough to continue. “When I believed I had lost you, I wouldn’t have hesitated to trade everything—my role, my place on Second’s team, my fingers, both of my hands—for the opportunity to hold you one more time. That is how much you mean to me.”
“When the shuttle craft was going down and I thought I would die”—she drifted her fingertips over his skin—“I wouldn’t have hesitated to make a similar trade—my role, my fingers, my hands, for another moment with you. That’s how much you mean to me.”
Her eyes glowed with caring…for him.
“We have a lifespan of those moments.” His chest expanded with happiness. “Let them take the rest. We don’t need it. All we truly require is each other.”