Hunted: BBW Alien Romance (Warriors of Karal Book 4) (13 page)

“Damn, how much longer?” she asked as they burst out into a sea of stars, and then dipped down, only to rise once more almost vertically.

“Nearly there.” And then they burst back out into normal space, the cruiser righting itself and he slowed down to let them both recover. He would put the cruiser onto auto pilot and then make sure Tamzin was all right.

But as he switched to auto pilot, a message flashed over the computer screen. His heart went cold, and blues and greens flashed across his hands and up his neck.

“What is it?” Tamzin asked.

“There is a distress signal from one of the other missions. It seems we won’t be going home just yet.”

Fear was a new experience for Garth. He wanted nothing more than to take Tamzin back to safety, back to Karal. But he couldn’t ignore his fellow Karalian, and so he took the ship off auto pilot and set a new course.

A course into the unknown.

They had travelled for two days at almost full speed, and now they were close to their destination, they just had one more wormhole to go through, but this one was different. Garth had to deploy beacons to open the wormhole, she had never experienced this before. All the wormholes on the journey here were already open. Now she worried the exit would be closed and they would be stuck in unknown space. But as they entered, it seemed like any other wormhole, with stars and gas clouds littering the darkness in every direction.

She relaxed, letting go of the tension in her body, tension that had been there since they responded to the signal. On the way, Garth had gone through the rest of the data they had collected, and was troubled. It seemed one of the other ships had run into a slaver race, not far from this sector.

Was there a chance one of the other missions had run into the same aliens and been captured? Or this might be a trap. They had both agreed they had to find out for sure. Exiting the wormhole, Garth recalled the beacons, and she heard the clang as they docked in the belly of the ship.

Looking across at him, she took in the colours exposed on his face, his nerves obvious, understandable, since somewhere on this side of the wormhole, there was a Karalian vessel in distress. Or worse.

“Is the signal still there?” she asked.

“Yes,” he answered patiently. She had asked him the same thing a hundred times or more since they had picked up the signal two days ago. He had hardly slept, and neither had she, instead she had lain awake going through all the different scenarios of why the ship was in trouble.

Hadn’t he said they never break down? In which case something else had happened. Something bad.

You don’t know that
, she reminded herself, also for the hundredth time.

“How much further?”

“On the other side of that cluster of stars.” He indicated a dense mass of stars in the distance.

“Not good visibility,” she remarked.

“No.”

“So, do you think they got hit by an asteroid or something?”

“That I don’t know. It’s the automatic distress signal, not a voice message.”

“And that is what bothers you?” she asked, picking up on the way his colours lit up his face as he spoke.

“Yes. If they were able to, they would send out a message over the comms. An automatic message means they are not able to access comms for some reason.”

He throttled forward, but they were travelling a lot slower than normal. He was on edge, and that unnerved her. Garth seemed different, he was in a different mind-set, and she saw him as he truly was: a Karalian warrior, who despite changing the log of the cruiser, was committed to his people and his fellow deep space pilots.

There was nothing for her to do but sit and wait. He had advised her to leave her seat belt buckled up, and be ready for
anything
. What that anything might be, scared her.

By some will of strength, she stopped herself asking any further questions. Instead she simply stared at the screen and out of the window in a steady rhythm, as if she had a metronome in her head.

“We are nearly in range.” He was staring at the computer screen, frowning. “I cannot see the ship on the screen. But the signal is still there.”

If it was possible, her heart beat even harder in her chest, her eyes straining to see the stricken Karalian vessel. Everything about this made her skin crawl: Would they find them dead? A Karalian like Garth, and an Earth female like her? And that was what worried her most. It could be them, just as easily.

Yes, it could be her and Garth out here drifting in amongst a star field, but it wasn’t, and he would keep her and their child safe. She knew he would. Wasn’t he the most cautious person she had ever met, especially since the conception of their child?

They cleared the stars, only to be faced with a planet, not unlike Saturn, but its rings were made up of giant boulders, and this was where the signal was coming from.

“Why would they enter such a place,” he said, magnifying the signal on the screen.

“Maybe they got shunted into there.” She had to agree, it wasn’t the kind of place you would enter of your own free will. Yet that was exactly what they would have to do to get to the stricken ship.

“Computer. Can you identify coordinates of Karalian ship?”

“Negative.”

“Then we will have to get closer.” He slowed, the cruiser hardly moving as they headed into the rocks.

She closed her eyes, hoping they would escape unharmed. All the while Garth asked the computer if it could locate the cruiser, each time it came back
negative
.

“This is so strange, we should be able to see the ship, we are almost on top of it.”

“What if it’s broken up, and the transponder is all that is left?”

When he looked at her, she saw the concern in his eyes. “We have never lost a cruiser, not for centuries.”

“I can’t think of any other way you would hear the signal, but not see the ship. Do you?”

He sat in silence, and then admitted, “No.”

“But we can’t leave without knowing for sure.” She reaffirmed her commitment to this task.

They inched further, until the transponder seemed to be inside the cruiser itself.

“Ship located.” The computer’s voice made them both jump.

“Where?” he asked looking at the screen, and then colours leapt over his face.

“What is it?” She knew she didn’t want to know.

“The ship isn’t Karalian.” His voice shook as he said, “I believe we have been lured here.”

She felt sick, right to the very bottom of her stomach. “It’s a trap? But how did they get the signal?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they have captured another cruiser.” He flicked a switch, and the schematics of a vast vessel appeared on the screen. “Computer, identify.”

“Unknown.”

“Check all known ships, compare for similarities to known vessels.”

The computer was silent, as was Garth, and she felt the long moments stretch in tension so strong, she wanted to scream, to tell him to get them out of there, but she let him do his job.

“Vessel Hrokili.”

“Hrokili, who are they?” Tamzin asked.

“Karal Mission Earth 3 encountered the Hrokili and were captured,” Garth admitted.

Her heart nearly exploded as her blood pressure shot up in fear. “Captured!”

“Yes. I did not want to worry you. Karal Mission Earth 3 escaped, and took the Hrokili ship as bounty.”

“And this Hrokili ship is another ship? Or the captured ship?” she asked, his eyes focused on Garth, hoping this was the captured ship and the only thing they were dealing with were a Karalian in a strange ship.

“No, the captured Hrokili ship was taken to Karal.”

“So this is a different ship.” She closed her eyes, wanting to shut it all out, wanting to be safe.

“Computer, show capture of Karalian cruiser by Hrokili.”

“Accessing further data. Timeline of capture on screen.”

He leaned forward, and studied the screen. To Tamzin it was an eternity before he looked up, his face creased into a frown. “Pause, replay from point 30 seconds from beacon deployment.”

“Replay.” The computer repeated.

He watched it again. And again, until finally he said, “Computer, analyse wormhole entry.”

“Karalian cruiser proceeds Hrokili vessel to deploy beacons.”

“So the Karalian vessel left the Hrokili ship.” He watched it again. “I don’t think they have wormhole technology.”

“So if we can get to the wormhole, we can escape?” she asked; he gave her hope at last.

“Yes. But the Hrokili ship moves so fast.”

“Can’t we hide? In amongst the debris here, and then dodge in and out of the star field. We are smaller; it would be like a game of cat and mouse.”

“But once we are in open space, they would simply catch us.”

“What is the alternative?”

They had sat amongst the boulder field, resting against one of the bigger rocks, but sooner or later they would have to move.

“None.”

“Then let’s try.”

He shook his head, his eyes glancing her stomach, and she knew what he was thinking, because she was thinking the same thing too. What if they were caught, what if their child was born into slavery?

“We can do it, Garth. You can do it.” She sounded more confident than she felt, that was for sure. But she also knew there was no other choice.

He throttled forward, and they weaved in and out of the boulders with the bigger ship shadowing them on the outside. The frustration began to show on his face, and then he made a sudden movement, doubling back on themselves so fast the alien vessel had no time to react. Garth took the opportunity and plunged out into open space, heading for a dense cluster of stars.

“Let’s try to lose them, and then we make a run for it.”

The ship wove in and out of the hot clouds of dust they had avoided on the journey here. She was worried it would act like sand on their engine and make it stall. But she had to trust in him and his actions.

“Are they close?” she asked.

“No, I think this is our chance, unless that’s what they want us to think, but you are right, we cannot stay here. So we make a run.”

He throttled forward, and the cruiser, its engines straining, sped out across the open space towards the point where the wormhole was located. Garth kept checking the screen. The alien vessel had not cleared the star field; they were going to make it.

“Can you prepare to deploy the beacons?” he asked.

“Yes. If you talk me through it.”

But before he had a chance, the ship’s computer signalled a proximity warning. The Hrokili were about to make their move. Garth responded quickly, he kept the throttle fully forward, and he hurriedly told Tamzin what to do.

“Wait. What if this is what they want?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“They have no technology to open the wormhole. So what if they have a recording like we have, what if their ship transmitted the manoeuvre. They must have picked something up from the captured ship, or else they wouldn’t have the Karalian distress call.”

He sat still, while the ship hurtled on, and the point of no return approached.

“Do it.” He nodded at her. “On my mark, deploy the beacons. And then on my mark, recall them.”

“What?”

“No time to explain. Just do it.”

She had to trust him, had to trust
in
him.

“Mark.”

She pressed the button and the beacons deployed, the wormhole opening up before them. But instead of entering it, he swerved to go beneath the hole, but the Hrokili ship went straight into it.

“Recall.”

She pressed the button, and with a tremendous noise, making her think the ship was about to be torn apart, the beacons returned, but the Hrokili ship, so big,
too big
, was caught in the pressure of the wormhole closing and erupted into a burning fireball, the blast covering them, sending them shooting off course as if they had been caught in a supernova.

“We did it!” she yelled.

Garth looked pale but elated, his colours pastel shades, as he fought to regain control of the ship.

“Are we safe?” she asked.

He nodded. “But the beacons are damaged.”

“You have a spare, right? I mean they wouldn’t send you into space with just one set.”

“We have a spare.” He grinned at her. “Let’s go home.”

“The Hrokili are becoming bolder.”

Garth stood in the Council Chamber. All members were present, as was Okil. He had come here to report what had happened, how they were lured into a sector of space that could only be accessed by unopened wormholes.

“Yes. I believe there are other forces battling them. Trying to shut down or move wormholes we have left open with the beacons,” Garth answered the Council’s question.

“I see.” The Hier Ruler walked to the window and looked out; the rest of the Council talked amongst themselves. Only Okil stood silent.

“Hier Ruler, we can no longer stand by and let the Hrokili present a threat to us.” The Hier Commander spoke first.

“What would you have us do?” The Hier Ruler turned to face the Karalian who commanded the warriors and guards.

“We have no choice. We
must
attack and put an end to their marauding.”

“We have never gone to war.” The Hier Ruler glared at the Hier Commander, but despite his obvious displeasure, he kept his colours under control.

“I understand, but they threaten everything we are working for.”

The Hier Ruler’s voice was perfectly controlled, when he said, “There is another way. The defence system is ready to be deployed. We could take the females we need from Earth, collapse the wormholes, and live here. The first female Karalian has been born. There is no need for us to fight.”

A murmur rippled through the Council, none wanting to disagree with the Hier Ruler, but Garth, who had no right to speak, could tell this was not satisfactory.

“You have said yourself, that we cannot be sure the females that are born will be fertile,” Ishk said, and Garth was surprised that the Karalian, once so against the humans from Earth, would argue for them to be saved.