"How do you think it's going in there?" Lara asked the rest of the group gathered outside the closed conference room door.  Minus the children, of course, and the Baralians, who had taken them off to safer parts.  Her gift did not extend outside certain parameters so all she could do was listen just like everyone else.  Only the two did not seem to be talking.  "Are these rooms insulated for sound?"

"Yes," Lucan Warrung said mildly and then added when something slammed against the door and made Lara jump back, "though we can always turn on the viewing coms if you want to know what they’re doing."

Barnos snorted when another loud bang slammed the walls.  "That would be a bad idea, I'm thinking."

"It sounds like a battle," Lara said worriedly, her eyes on the door.

"You saw them move when they went into battle," Captain Relian stated, speaking and reminding them that he and Lore were in fact still present.  "Neither of them made a sound."

Barnos grunted agreement, eying the Captain and his first mate.  "I thought when I saw you and Lore in sword play I had seen the prettiest battle dance, but I think the mech might have even you beat."

"I didn't even see her move and she was over the table, like she weighed nothing," Lara agreed.  "Without making a sound I could hear.  And she whirled into battle with her stun stick so fast..."

"Forgot she could do that," Barnos agreed.  "Saw her take out the kitty in his full battle form when we first met her.  Forgot how fast she could move."

"In defense of the children," Danika added in her usual calm voice.  "She had no thought for anything but the danger she thought was after them.  It was most impressive."

"She seems to have no end to her talents," Lucan agreed with a nod.  "I begin to believe that she might be worth keeping around."

Barnos snorted again.  "You think?"

"But if what we all know is happening right now," Tyber reminded them, "you no longer have the choice of dealing with Jax without also dealing with Tolan Lark."

Barnos grimaced, and Lucan looked less than pleased with the reminder.  Neither of them said anything, but it was clear what they were thinking, and Tuft looked even more sour than Lucan about it.

"I like him," Lara said and they all turned to look at her with varying looks of surprise.  She blinked at them all.  "What?"

"He sold you to the death games," Barnos said, clearly exasperated.

"Well, yes," she answered, her big, innocent brown eyes sincere.  "But he didn't mean to."

Barnos gritted his teeth and looked like he was ready to make a loud and dramatic response but he never got the chance.

Danika laughed.  "I like him too." She blinked at the looks the males all sent her way.  "You can't say he is not," she seemed to search for the right word and settled on, "lively."

The men looked at the women with less than thrilled faces and then at each other, clearly incredulous.

It was Tuft who seemed to express what they were all thinking.  "I'd just as soon put him out an airlock in deep space as look at him," he muttered in his low, growly voice.

The answering male looks were in clear agreement.

Danika and Lara shared a look between them that was part humor and all understanding.

"Maybe it's a female thing?"  Lara finally asked with an impish smile that had Barnos grunting in displeasure.  Then every eye turned to Kira, who stood her usual quiet self among them.  She felt every eye and hers widened with the slightest touch of panic.  Danika reached for her with her power and then her hand, bringing her between Lara and herself so that she was cocooned from the male attention suddenly coming at her.

She lost the hunted look and licked her lips, asking in her sweet voice, barely above a whisper, "Why are you looking at me?"

Danika laughed.  "I think they want to know if you find Tolan Lark as...entertaining as Lara and I do."

The scowl on Tuft's face just got harder, but since Kira was looking at Danika and doing her best to ignore the men surrounding them she missed his displeasure.  She cleared her throat, giving the men one quick peek, her cheeks pinked either from the attention or from the question.  There was another bang and scuffle from the other side of the door and her eyes went to it and widened.  She seemed to give the question much more thought than it deserved. "Today I find him frightening," she finally said.

Danika tipped her head, looking very serious suddenly.  "And before today?"

Kira licked her lips again, her color mounting.  "He does not notice me as some men do.  He has never made me feel ...unsafe."   She shrugged.  "He moves quite gracefully." Her voice was dropping with each word until she was whispering the last.  "His voice is...I like it when he speaks," she finished in a rush.

Tuft growled his displeasure.  "You like it when he speaks?" He gritted out the question with clear incredulity.

But all the women were nodding.

"Oh yes," Lara said in agreement.

Danika was nodding in agreement with the other two women but stopped and her eyes flew to her less than pleased mate.  Lucan's narrowed eyes were fixed on her with predatory intent.  She shrugged.  "He has a lovely speaking voice."

"No one likes it when Tolan Lark speaks," Barnos bellowed. "The man irritates with every word."  He glared hotly at Lara.

Lara laughed and responded with a twinkle in her eyes.  "I admit he does not have your soothing cadence, Captain, but he does have a nice deep voice, and often it is full of mischief."

"Mayhem more like," Barnos muttered, still glaring, then got back to what was obviously his main question by the rise in volume.  "What's wrong with my voice?"

Tuft snorted but had a straight face when Barnos flashed angry eyes his way.  Everyone else was carefully neutral when he looked around at the others with a glare.

"Nothing," she assured him.  "I find pirate bellowing very sexy."

He returned his eyes to Lara.  "You have a tone, Sassy, that I can't say I like."

She laughed in his face.  Then she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him.  His arms wrapped around her and tightened, though he growled the whole time.

"What the hell does Tolan Lark’s voice have to do with anything?"  Tuft finally asked, his unhappy eyes on Kira again.

It was Danika who answered mildly enough, squeezing Kira's arm in assurance.  "Nothing, Kira was just answering our question, and we were just agreeing.  His voice is nice to listen to.  Though if I were forced to pick a voice among the men it would be hard to say who has the nicest."

Lara and Kira both spoke up, ruining Danika's attempt at placating her less than pleased mate by answering in tandem. "Captain Relian."

Lara had her cheek against Barnos' chest but it was still louder than Kira's soft whisper. Kira's face flamed as if she had not meant to say that out loud, and she very carefully did not look at the Captain of The Jezebel.

Tyber had been standing beside Lore quietly, amused while they watched the byplay between the couples.  Now he laughed outright and the deep dark, chuckle caused more than one shiver among the women, and Danika was forced to admit just within her own thoughts that he did indeed have a very sexy voice.  Unfortunately for her, she was Bruha and mated to a genetically altered psychic, so silent was relative.

I am going to pay for this conversation, she thought to herself with an inward grimace.  Her eyes caught Lucan's cold stare.

Yes, you are, came the dark answer, sending another shiver through her, only this one went all the way to her toes and pinged through all her heated womanly places. Tyber Relian might have a sexy voice, but it did not cut through her the way Lucan's did, and never could.

Which is the only reason he is still alive, her mate assured her with dark promise, but you will still be paying for that later.

Danika absently patted Kira's arm beside her and was very happy that Lara was too busy with her irate pirate now to feel her emotions.  They were all over the place and coated with a desire she had no wish to explain to her friend.  Her eyes never left the deep blue depths of her mate’s.  Finally, she smiled, knowing he could feel how breathless she was even from feet away.  She sent her power out to him, a ghostly caress down his neck and chest.  She did not have to tell him she was looking forward to it; he knew her body as well as she did, and her mind was open to him, as always.

Since the others were somewhat distracted it was Kira who noticed the silence in the other room.  "Do you think they have killed each other?" she whispered.

Barnos laughed though she was not joking, and said lasciviously, "But what a way to go," and smacked Lara on her backside playfully.

The Lady Lara of the Heti, high ambassador’s daughter, just shook her head and laughed at his play, unconcerned at their audience.

It was Danika who assured Kira, "They have not killed each other." She blushed after a moment and cleared her throat.  "But perhaps we should give them a little more time before we interrupt them.”

"For the love of..." Barnos grouched and then placed Lara to his side and took one giant step and pounded on the door.  "Enough play, kitty cat," he bellowed through the closed door.  "We have things to be doin' besides the slap and tickle, even if you don't!"

Lara looked to the heavens as if seeking divine help.  "Pirate diplomacy," she said in a resigned sigh.

Tuft just grunted his agreement.  Lucan spoke only in Danika's thoughts, but his words were in answer to Barnos' statement.  He had lost his anger and the amusement that did not show on his face coated his mind speak.  Speak for yourself.

Danika laughed out loud but refused to explain the blush on her cheeks when Lara gave her a questioning look. Though it seemed it was unnecessary anyway when Lara looked from her to Lucan's impassive expression and back again, then grinned.

Danika studiously swallowed her amusement and embarrassment and carefully moved her eyes to the door they were all waiting to see opened.

They heard nothing for a good long while and Barnos was just about to bang again when the door opened and a very harassed and disheveled Jax looked at them.  She did not blush or stammer or look the least embarrassed.   She just opened the door, and they all saw Tolan Lark standing in his hurriedly donned nanite armor, since he had yet to pull the top of it over his shoulders.  He was back in his human form, though his eyes were flashing Shakien lavender, and he stood without boots on, his chest on full muscled display.  The flower and bird mark on his neck was obvious and beautiful against that dark masculine skin.  Danika agreed with Kira.  He was very nice to look at.  Then they all noticed the rest of the room, which was in shambles around them.

Lucan took Danika's arm and pulled her back to his side, taking in the wreckage of his main conference room with his usual icy stare.  His eyes alighted on Tolan Lark most unhappily.  But his words to Tusk were mild enough.  "We'll do this in the library."

Tusk nodded, looking around at the destruction with unhappy eyes.  "I'll send up the crew to handle the mess."  He gave Tolan Lark his usual glare and turned to stomp back out into the hall, his hand going to the com at his waist.

Neither Jax nor Tolan Lark followed them immediately to the library, but they showed up soon enough that Barnos did no more than glare.

Tolan Lark curled a lip at the other man, exhausted from not just the physical but the magical aspects of the claiming, whereas Jax was a little wrinkled, a lot disheveled and seemed to glow with vitality.  And glow was the right word.  They all looked at her; it was hard to look away from her.  Some things were more obvious in the slightly darker library than they had been in the conference room.

"Is it usual to glow when you mate?" Lara asked curiously.

Barnos snorted a laugh, but Jax just turned luminous tricolored eyes to her and answered simply, "I am Dainaree."

Danika took that to mean it was normal for her kind to glow after mating.  Interesting.

"Cor Warrung," Lucan said, obviously done with the conversation and the waiting.  "Talk."  His eyes were for the two newly marked and they did not waver. Danika could feel the impatience coming off her mate in waves. Lucan's patience was at an end.

Something of his loss of patience must have communicated itself to the others because Tolan Lark's eyes left his mate long enough to sharpen on Lucan. 

"First you tell me what has you so impatient."  He had dealt with Lucan Warrung many times, and the scary son of a bitch made patient menace an art form. This demanding of answers was not his style.  Tolan narrowed his eyes and moved just a hair’s breadth closer to his mate protectively.  "What are we missing?"

It was Danika who finally spoke into the small silence after Tolan's question.  "It is the children,” Danika said softly, worry coating her voice.  "The child, actually.  Avia's child we rescued from Cor Warrung, the one your lady just tried to protect from Rala and Baen."

Tolan Lark stilled and looked around at them all.  "Avia's child was a baby."  He pointed to the door and the distant children.  "That one was walking and talking."

Danika licked her lips and shifted closer to Lucan at her side, looking sad.  "Yes.  Cor Warrung did something to keep her from aging as a normal child would. Doc has speculated that he did so to allow his genetic tampering to be more effective, but when we took her away from him, and whatever treatment he had her on, she began to age.”  Danika took a deep breath before she continued.  "At an accelerated rate."

Lucan took over, when it looked like Danika could not continue.  "According to Doctor Morgan, the growth spurts are erratic, so he has no way of knowing how long we have.  She could be playing catch-up and will stop aging when she reaches the age she should have been, but..." He stopped here and looked even more grim, his arm tightening around Danika, who was trying to hold back threatening tears.  "We have no way of knowing when Avia had the child. All we know is that she was with me for nearly three solar years, but since the child is roughly three solar years at the last growth, it could mean the growth will halt soon, or it could mean she will continue to grow sporadically.  We no longer have the luxury of time. The doctor needs to know exactly what was done to the child if he has even a chance of helping her.  We need to find Cor Warrung, hack his system and retrieve his research and testing parameters.  We need to do that now."

***

"That's barbaric," Jax breathed out at the horror of what she was hearing.  "To experiment on a child..." she did not finish the thought, but her revulsion was clear on her face.  Children were precious to the Dainaree, and there was no greater crime than to hurt a child.  They had them so rarely that it was more than a cultural belief; it was ingrained in them.

"It is worse than that," Danika said grimly.  "He impregnates women himself, who are special in some way, gifted women he finds, to have children of his own bloodline to experiment on.”

While Jax tried to grasp the evil of what they were facing Tolan Lark and the others went on.  "You think he has the information with him?" 

"This ..." Lucan seemed at a loss for words to describe what his relative was doing, and finally settled on a bitter, “experimentation is his driving passion. He will keep his files where he can get at them.  We find him; we find what we need to save Dara."

"And if it is not with him?" Captain Relian asked from the space of wall he had claimed.

Lucan looked even grimmer.  But it was Danika who answered.

"Then I will extract the knowledge from him myself."

Jax looked at the firm set of the lady’s mouth and the fire kindled in her eyes.  She was not crying now, but determined.

Lucan's jaw tightened until his face looked honed from granite.  He did not like that at all, but he did not argue.

"We have been chasing that slippery fucker for a long fucking time.  How do you expect to catch him now?" Barnos asked with his usual flare.

"Chasing Warrung is not the answer," the Lady Lara said into the argument, seemingly thrilled at the discussion.  "Not when he is in full flight.  What we need is a trap." 

"He will expect a trap. We already tried that once, remember?" Tyber Relian said mildly.

"Not on purpose," Barnos muttered and every eye went to Danika with more than slight male effrontery.  Apparently, the memory of some action of hers was enough to bond them, even with the conversation they were having.

Danika just raised a brow at them and seemed to take no affront.

"Not Danika," Lara went on.  “But you have all said that we need to stay here, because Warrung won't come for us here.  What about..."

"No," Barnos flatly refused before she could even finish the statement.  Lara glared at him, but he did not let her speak.  "No Sassy, not you."

"He'll expect it anyway," Tyber said, backing Barnos, despite the glare the lady sent his way.  "He will expect a trap from anyone here and act accordingly."

"What about me?"  Jax heard the words leave her mouth before she realized she was saying them out loud.

Everyone turned to look at her and she shrugged, going with it.

"Well, think about it.  As far as he knows I have no affiliation to any of you."

"He has ways of knowing things," Barnos said baldly, but his eyes were considering.

"He wants a mech and I can assure you he isn't going to find one in Mixa."  Jax shrugged, thinking it over.  "He may just decide to find himself a good mechanic somewhere else, but everything I have heard about the man tells me he will go looking for the one who got away, especially if Mixa tells him what I can do, and if he thinks his life is on the line, he will."

Lucan broke his silence to say with precise surety.  "He'll want what you can do."

"Does this Mixa know all that you can do?" Lara asked, her anger forgotten.

"No." Tolan Lark heard the word come out of his mouth and knew he meant it absolutely.  He was not answering Lara, but looking hard at Jax.  "My mate is not going anywhere near Cor Warrung."

Jax narrowed her eyes at Tolan Lark.  "I think that might be up to your mate," she reminded him.

"No," he said with a growl through gritted teeth.  "It's not."

The finality in his statement did nothing but irritate.  When she realized she was reaching for her stun stick in anger, she took a deep breath and settled for a glare, letting her hands fall with a slap back to her thighs.  She looked at the others, who were watching their byplay with open curiosity. She gritted her own teeth.  "We'll discuss this later," she finally said.

"No," he said again with that same irritating force.  "We won't."

Jax took another deep breath, seeing from the corner of her eyes that both Danika and the Lady Lara stepped back, pulling their men with them and giving them space.  They both knew she was about to blow.