Roran Read online

  “How many Earth star-spans equal thirty Farseek star orbits---star-spans.”

  “Forty-one star-spans.” Forty-one years Earth time.

  “Oh, my God! It’s even worse than I thought.” Becca set down her new tablet and stared straight ahead, stunned. “My parents are surely dead, and my brothers are in their eighties if they are even still alive.”

  “I’m sorry, me’ara,” Roran said, leaning over to put his arm around her shoulders. “I suspected it was worse than you feared. I wanted to give you time to get used to being here before you found out.”

  “Not much sense in trying to go back.”

  “My family is missing, and I don’t know if they are dead or alive. I had two brothers, a sister, and my parents… Missing from Farseek after the bombings.”

  Roran stood up and pulled Becca up into his arms and just held her. “We are family now, me`ara…solmatu. We will still miss them, but we are not alone. I have you, and you have me.” He kissed the top of her head then rested his cheek against her hair.

  Having Roran to hold onto was no small circumstance. There would come a time when she might be able to learn what happened to them after she was taken.

  The food warmer beeped. Slowly, they separated and went around the corner in the small galley kitchen. Becca went to the beverage dispenser for two mugs of hot tea, and Roran got the meal trays from the warmer.

  They ate in silence for a time, then Becca asked, “what am I going to do for work in this alternate reality? I was a nurse. Do they even have such things here, or do they used androids?”

  “We have medics that offer different levels of care, and there are medical androids.”

  “I guess I would be considered a medic of sorts. Doctors give us treatment plans, and we do them for the patients.”

  “I’ve been a warrior most of my life. Most of what I know about medics is from the receiving end for battle injuries. Microscopic nanocybots treat a lot of our injuries from within our bloodstream. If the injuries are life-threatening, we get additional injections and medics place us in a healing bed.”

  “You will probably think what I know of medicine is like something out of the Dark Ages. Our doctors still cut people open and repair what is wrong.”

  “That still happens sometimes in primitive conditions. We also have gene therapy for various illnesses and abnormalities. Cutting is a last resort,” he said.

  “I guess the first thing I need is to learn to read and write your language. As you said, the language implant only works for spoken words.”

  “When we get back into Consortium space, I will find a clinic that will create a custom language implant for you. They take a few cells from inside your mouth and write the language into your DNA. It’s painless.” He smiled at her. The warmth in his dark eyes was almost as pleasing as a physical caress.

  She wasn’t ready to put a name to it; she just knew she liked being with him and not only in bed.

  As Becca finished dressing in the sparkly blue and purple pants suit, she finally looked up at Roran. He was stunning in the two-piece blue suit that contrasted the blue in her outfit. She just looked at him and smiled.

  “How does it feel?” he asked, looking back at her with a pleased expression.

  “Like it was made for me. The only thing is there are no pockets, no place for my com,” she said.

  “There is a strap to wear it folded on your arm under your sleeve. You will only need it in case we get separated.”

  “The only thing I am missing is a little make-up. I always wear it when I get dressed up.”

  “You mean face paint? You don’t need it. You are already beautiful,” he assured her.

  She could tell he meant it. The way he was looking at her called up carnal thoughts. The heat in his gaze made her realize the same ideas were crossing his mind.

  Becca smirked at him as she approached him and turned up her face for a kiss. She only intended a light kiss to his sexy mouth, but Roran caught her in his arms and pressed her body against his. He proceeded to kiss her thoroughly, in a slow, sensual exploration of her mouth. By the time he finished, her whole body clamored for more. His erection pressing into her belly told her he’d felt it just as deeply as she.

  “That’s not fair,” she whispered when he lifted his lips from hers. Her nipples were taut, and her core fluttered with need.

  “I couldn’t help myself,” Roran said with a sexy smirk. “Keep that thought for later. We have to go. I have a meeting with one of Haemeg’s contacts, and he’s not one to wait around.”

  “I can wait if you can,” she smiled up at him and lightly kissed his lips. Becca really liked being in his arms, and the way he looked at her like she mattered. Reluctantly, she stepped back and withdrew from his embrace.

  It felt a little weird to be going out without a purse. Other than a comb, there was nothing she needed. She probably didn’t even need that because she had swept her long hair up into a ponytail and twirled her hair into a neat bun decorated by small braids.

  The auto-tram was waiting at the starport pick up entrance. The AI-driven vehicle was a small car without wheels that traveled on a magnetic road and could carry up to four people. Roran and Becca sat in the front seat, and he spoke the name of the club where he would meet his contact.

  The whole top of the tram was covered by a transparent bubble so that Becca could see everything around them. Although it was night time in Moltakis, bright lights were everywhere. Even in the older section where they were heading, the buildings looked ultramodern---like something out of a science fiction movie.

  She doubted the lighted signs were neon, but they seemed to have the same effect. The writing on the billboards looked like a combination of Runes and Cyrillic, but the pictures on the vid screens were self-explanatory.

  In the ten minutes it took to get to the flashy looking nightclub, Becca simply enjoyed the sights. For them, it was time for first meal, breakfast. Still, they were going into a bar where they served not only alcoholic beverages but also various mind-altering drugs that were inhaled by handheld vapor dispensers.

  Despite the glitzy facade of the building, the inside was elegant. Most of the people and she used the term loosely were dressed in their finery as were Becca and Roran. As they entered, there were tables on the right leading to an open area where people danced to soft peppy music. On the right, there were tables and a long bar lined with stools occupied by people drinking and sniffing a steamy substance from one tube or another.

  Roran led Becca by the hand to a back-corner booth that he had reserved. He didn’t want to lose her in the crowd. Even on Napus, young, attractive females were not safe on their own, especially those who couldn’t defend themselves. He was just getting used to having her in his life and starting to get attached. He didn’t want to lose her now.

  Roran had seen females; even males picked off the street by slavers. They couldn’t sell them on Napus; there were no auction houses on the planet. It was the convenient location of the starport and lax immigration security that allow captives to be smuggled off-world to other systems where slaves were bought and sold.

  They sat at the reserved table, as a pretty female android came to take their orders. On other worlds, it would be a slave and not a machine. Becca let Roran order their drinks and finger food. The droid had just brought their sparkling juice drinks and food as his contact arrived to join them carrying his beverage with him.

  He looked mostly human but blue and scaly with pointed ears, a tail, and long black hair. Roran grinned at Becca’s double-take.

  “Jerdek, thank you for coming,” Roran greeted him. “This is my mate Becca Clayton from Earth.”

  “When did this happen?” Jerdek cast an admiring gaze at Becca---a little too interested for Roran’s liking.

  “I found her on Ideshan almost a rotation span ago when I went to notify Haemeg’s mate of his demise.”

  “Haemeg is dead? I just saw him a couple of rotation spans ago. He was a
ll excited about the last job he did. It was going to pay off big enough for him to go back to Ideshan and retire with his female.”

  “Do you know what kind of job? Did he say who hired him?” Roran asked in a low tone.

  “It was a courier delivery so secret; he didn’t know who or where he had to go to deliver it. They delivered the item to his ship at the port along with instructions on the destination,” Jerdek said. “Do you know what happened to him?”

  “He was murdered in his home on Bekket Station. We have a vid on most of it, but we haven’t been able to identify the males who killed him.”

  Roran pushed up his sleeve and opened his tablet attached to his wrist to show the likenesses of Haemeg’s killers to the other male. Becca watched them, munching on the food and sipping her drink, trying hard not to stare at the exotically handsome blue male.

  Roran hadn’t thought to warn her the contact was a different species of humanoid. Jerdek was a Grore from the planet of the same name. He was a warm-blooded reptilian with a penchant for human females. Roran couldn’t blame the man for admiring Becca, and he could say nothing if he remained respectful of his prior claim.

  He showed Jerdek the still shots of the three males, all humanoid but not homo sapien.

  “I know their names,” Jerdek said, pointing with a four-fingered hand. “That’s Ramido Skywik, Aslad Lalnan, and Thok Vonged. They are his contacts, and they delivered the item. I heard they were from Volagua, and they left within a couple of rotations of Haemeg. I wish I had more information to give you.”

  “You’ve given me more than I had. Of course, we can’t be sure those are their real names, but it gives me a place to start. Facial recognition wasn’t giving us any results from the whole Sargus Net. Even if they are aliases, there are records. The starport should have their flight plan and world of origin on their ship registration. Now that I have something to look for, I can get more from the net.”

  “I hope you get the bastards. But something tells me it goes higher than those three,” said Jerdek. “They are thugs. I doubt they can do anything without someone pulling their strings.”

  Chapter Nine

  Jerdek finished his drink and left. Roran worked his tablet, gleaning the information he sought from the Napus AI net. As a merchant, he could access the ship record from the starport by searching for transport connections.

  “This was almost too easy. The assassins went back to Volagua from here, and that’s where their itinerary ends,” Roran murmured so only Becca could hear.

  “But it really isn’t. They went to Bekkat station to kill your friend,” said Becca. “Which means they probably took a different ship.”

  “I’ll set up some searches, and then I will take you to get a real first meal.” Roran picked up one of the cylindrical morsels from their shared plate.

  “What are those? They are quite tasty.”

  “Napian beetle larva.”

  Roran chuckled at her horrified expression. “They are a delicacy, and you liked them until I told you what they were.”

  Becca sighed and reached for another one. They were delicious.

  “Here on Napus, they cultivate these things. They are high in protein and require little work until harvesting. This is only one way to eat them. The larvae are also processed into protein patties and served with mixed vegetables.”

  “Well, at least they don’t look like grub worms. I saved the rest for you.”

  “I appreciate that.” He gave her a faint smile and popped two of them into his mouth. After he’d chewed and swallowed them, he added, “I sent a message to Feenix to run searches on the Galactic Web on these three assassins.” He ate two more and added, “If Feenix can hack into their com devices, I might get a better idea where to find them and who hired them.”

  Becca sipped her drink while Roran finished the deep-fried grubs and his drink.

  “Do you want to go for a meal or to the club?”

  “I’m not that hungry since we had this.” She gestured at the empty plate between them. “What will we do at the club?”

  “Depends on which club we hit. One is gambling, and the other has dancing and music.”

  “Music! I haven’t heard any music since back on Earth,” she said.

  Roran nodded. “Then, music and dancing it is.”

  “Even back on Earth, I can’t remember the last time I was out dancing. I was working crazy hours at the hospital. It seems like all I did was eat, sleep, and work.”

  Roran stood, seeing that Becca was finished eating and drinking, and held out his hand to her. “Shall we go?”

  She drew in a breath as it hit her again how utterly attractive this man who claimed her as solmatu was. “I knew how to dance back on Earth, but I’m not so sure about doing it here.”

  Becca stood, pushing her chair out and took his hand, feeling her face warm at the heat in his gaze.

  “We can watch and listen to the music; then you can decide if you want to try it.”

  Outside the bar, they waited at the pickup point for their hired tram to come to pick them up. The air was comfortably warm and just a little misty from the fountains all over the hub. They waited for several mini spans. Roran sent the signal a second time.

  Roran looked around because they were not in the best area of the Hub. There was no technical reason that their tram should not have arrived when he called it. He noted at least two unsavory goons had become interested in them, and their body language told him they were probably together.

  Very likely, they were responsible for their missing tram. One was across the street, one was in front of him, and one had just come out of the club. The man in front of him took out a dagger and started toward them. The other two moved to close in as well. Roran had nothing of value to steal, so they were there to take him out and take his mate, he assumed. Or simply to kill them both; so, they may have thought.

  A slither of fear stole through him, but not for himself. He would die before he let them hurt his mate. Roran pushed back that emotion and all other emotions clearing his mind as he went into defense mode.

  He pushed Becca behind him and drew out a dagger from a sheath at his back. Roran threw it at the goon in front of him, so it lodged in his throat. Then he reached toward Becca and backed them up so that the wall was behind them, forcing the other two assailants to come at him from the front. The humanoid on the right had a small club, and the one on the left had a dagger.

  They both came at Roran at the same time. He kicked dagger guy in the gut, knocking him back, causing him to stumble and fall. Roran turned and grabbed the club from the other and hit him on the head, then punched him in the stomach.

  The second guy had barely hit the pavement before dagger guy was up and ready to take on Roran again. Apparently, he’d thought Roran an easy mark, but now he knew better. He came at him with moves that indicated he was proficient in some form of martial arts. Roran used the club from the other guy to parry the large dagger. They each landed punches and kicks so fast their moves were almost a blur. Dagger guy even slashed Roran across the ribs and one of his arms.

  Becca cried out as she saw this blood seeping out over his suit jacket. Roran flinched at her yelp but didn’t turn his attention from his assailant. He got slashed a couple more times before he knocked the guy’s dagger from his hands. Roran kicked, punched and smashed the club onto his opponent’s head a few times as he collapsed to the ground.

  Roran grabbed Becca’s hand and pulled her with him as he retrieved his dagger from the humanoid’s throat wiping the blood on the dead man’s shirt and re-sheathing it under the back of his jacket. He kept the club and pushed it up under his sleeve so that it couldn’t be traced back to him.

  To Becca’s credit, she didn’t panic, and she didn’t stop him to ask questions until they were out of danger. Once they were away from the club, Roran summoned another auto-tram to take them back to the starport.

  “Are you okay?” Roran asked when they were seated inside t
he transport.

  “Yes, but you’re bleeding, and your jacket is ruined,” she asked. “What just happened?”

  “It seems pretty clear they were trying to kill me,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulders. “And make it seem like they were after you.

  “Do you think Jerdek had anything to do with the attack?”

  “I’ve considered it. He would tell whatever he knows to anyone if threatened. But there could be other people watching who could have summoned those thugs,” he replied, taking out his com. “I’m sorry about our plans, but I can’t go to the club bleeding all over the place.”

  “No, you can’t,” Becca agreed. “Should we go to a hospital? You probably need stitches.”

  “No need. I have nanos. They will take care of these cuts easily.”

  “That’s a real thing?”

  “Yes. When we get back to the ship, Feenix can run a scan to see if I need a fresh injection.”

  “Can we just leave like this? You just maimed or killed three guys…”

  “The security cams will show that it was self-defense. We’ll be off-world before they come for the bodies.”

  Their droid tram arrived to take them back to the starport. By then, Roran’s wounds had stopped bleeding, but not before his elegant suit was ruined. Blood had seeped onto his trousers as well.

  They entered the docking area near his ship instead of going in through the main entrance and boarded through the passenger hatch. He had called Feenix to get launch clearance for Herminia so they could depart as soon as they came aboard.

  Roran decided to have Feenix set course for Volagua because that seemed the most likely place to find the three humanoids who killed Haemeg. Once they were back in space, he and Becca went back to his cabin, where he stripped off his ruined clothing.

  “Aw, damn. I got blood on your beautiful tunic.”