The Melier (Women of Dor Nye Book 1) (3 page)

“Oh no. Oh-ho-ho-ho no. Not in here you aren’t.” And of course, he was inside
the bubble
again. She could hardly take a breath without his musky scent stuffing her head. She clamped a hand over her nose to prevent her body from incriminating her further. Pointing toward the door, she squeaked “Out!” The nasally sound of her voice was comical, but Soren seemed to heed it well. Lucia strode across the room to pull the blanket off the bed and shove it into Soren’s chest. He of course, didn’t budge. The last thing she saw was his confused face as the door slid shut.

****

I have a name.

He stared at the cabin door.

I have never had a name before. I do not remember having a name.

He blinked once, twice. A strange sensation plagued him, as if something was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn’t
remember.

Waking to enslavement is all I remember.

He was not meant to
think
, only
do
.

I am slave 892. I am a number. I do not have a name.

He turned his head, searching the blank wall as if it had his life story written on it. But it wasn’t true anymore. He wasn’t
just
slave 892 any longer.

Soren. I am now Soren.

She
honors me. Loo-Sha.

He had never seen a
human
before. At least, he didn’t think so. He couldn’t
remember
ever seeing a human. Did all humans look like
her
?
 

She is my new owner. She is strange. She seems… kind. Why is she kind?

It made him nervous. He was afraid to think it wasn’t a trick or manipulation of some kind.

Why does her scent make me burn? Her scent does strange things to my annex.

He had a
thought
once. Weeks ago, while alone doing maintenance on the Trepnils ship. He’d wondered
what
he was. He did not look like the Trepnils, he did not look like any other slave. So he had accessed an informational database through the ships artificial intelligence. It scanned him and he learned about his species, about
what
he was and
where
he came from. He still couldn’t
remember
. When Commander Ta’Ra’Enn had found out, he received fifty lashes.

He was not meant to
think
, only
do
.

I touched her. She let me touch her. Loo-Sha.

He’d never touched another being. Slaves didn’t touch one another. Slaves didn’t touch their masters. He wondered if all humans allowed touching.

She makes painful noises with her throat but she seems happy when she does this.

Why does she do this?

The sound she emitted when she found the tomes hurt his ears so badly, he had to cover them. She excited easily and over strange things.

Soren lay down outside of the cabin door, covering himself with the blanket his new owner had given him.
She is kind
, he repeated in his mind. Closing his eyes, he drifted to sleep wondering what
‘the bubble’
was.

Chapter 3

A groggy groan followed by a yawn pushed past Lucia’s lips, tripping the cabin sensors. The yellow tinted lights slowly dimmed awake, creating a soft glow in the otherwise very cold and clinical room. She tossed the sheet aside and steadily got to her feet. The nightmare she’d had left her in a sweaty mess. Treps chased her, captured her and started feasting on her while she was still alive and thrashing.
I could feel their needle teeth scraping my bones
. A small shiver shook her shoulders as the realization registered of how close yesterday’s call really was.

Lucia swiped the door open and continued rubbing the sleep out of her eyes when her toes caught on something heavy and she pitched forward. On instinct, her arms threw themselves in front of her to help break the fall as she went down with a squawk of surprise. The mass under her grunted as her knees slammed into it and Lucia pushed herself up to turn her head.

“Soren!” she exclaimed in bewilderment. Her legs were still draped over his chest and he looked just as shocked as she felt. “What are y- did you sleep there, outside my door?” His lower half was draped in the blanket she’d shoved at him last night, so he must’ve.

“Yes, Loo-Sha.”

Lucia lifted herself the best she could, her foot accidentally slamming into Soren’s cheek as she grappled for leverage. He grunted again and she was acutely aware she didn’t have on any pants. They were extremely uncomfortable last night, and while she’d slept like a baby outside of the nightmare, she suddenly wished she’d soldiered through it just to have her pants right then. As it was, she was left in her underwear and the dirty black tank she’d been wearing for three days now.
This can’t be my life!

Just as Lucia was to her knees and turning to face Soren, the ship lurched and they both went sliding across the shiny gray floor in a squeak of skin against polished surface to slam into the wall. It was Lucia’s turn to grunt. Soren’s heavily muscled body squished against her, essentially body slamming her and they both crumpled to the floor in a tangle of blanket and limbs.

“WADE!” she screamed as best she could after sucking back some oxygen that had been flattened out of her on impact. Her small hands pushed at Soren’s body, trying to disentangle herself from him
and
the blanket. “What the
hell
is going on?!”

Whack.

Soren’s tail slapped her face as he moved to his feet. Lucia batted it away and stood abruptly, holding the wall for balance.

This isn’t happening. I did not just get slapped by a
tail
!

You did. So did.

“Warp failed, captain. Ship is being hailed by Trepnil craft.”

“Shit. Shit, shit,
shit
!” she chanted and ran to the command room. “Wade, what galaxy are we in?”

“We entered Rumka galaxy two hours ago, captain.”

Rumka, Rumka,
she wracked her brain, trying to think of which planets were in that galaxy and which ones were safe. “Wade, find the closest planet to land that has treaties with the Intergalactic Coalition.”

“Yes, captain.” Lucia’s fingers tapped on the small table beside the command chair as she refrained from pacing. She figured the Treps would pursue her, but in the back of her mind, she had hoped they’d let it slide or think she was unimportant. “Planet Sanru has multiple treaties with the Intergalactic Coalition. Planet atmosphere is compatible with humans. It is five minutes from our current location.”

“What about Melier?”

“Sanru is compatible with Melier, captain.”

The relief she felt was quick and replaced by a sense of urgency. “Set coordinates for Sanru, Wade and be ready to throw up shields and autopilot on my say. Connect comms with Trepnil ship, but not vid.”

“Yes captain.”

Lucia took a few calming breaths, rolled her shoulders and waited. Her nerves hackled when the Treps grating language blasted through the ships comms. If she never heard another Trep for the rest of her life, it would still be too soon.

“You have something that belongs to me, vermin.” The voice was unmistakable.

Ta’Ra’Enn.

****

Soren schooled his features into a mask of complacency, as was his place. A slave wasn’t meant to
think
, or
feel
. Only
do
. The voice of his former master reminded him of this.

Commander Ta’Ra’Enn
is alive. He is not dead, as Loo-Sha said.

He would be lashed for letting Lucia take the craft. He might be put to death, but not before they would make him watch as they
ate
the small human.

Soren tried not to
feel
. His body shook with
fear
, not for himself, but for
her
. He wanted to tell her to run, and if not run, to walk off the ship into space. It would be less painful than what Commander Ta’Ra’Enn would do.

I am a slave. It is not my place to advise. Only do.

I should not feel, but I am afraid for Loo-Sha.

****

Lucia turned to look at Soren. She felt the tension radiating off of him, even if his expression was blank. She couldn’t just hand him over. He’d probably be beaten or killed, all because he
happened
to be on the ship when she’d taken it.

“Whatever do you mean, commander?”
Light and airy, light and airy, don’t let your voice wobble.

“Return
all
of my property to me and I’ll consider sparing your life.” Ta’Ra’Enn’s snort said all Lucia needed to know. They had plans for her and sparing her life was definitely not one of them. The conceit lacing Ta’Ra’Enn’s voice made Lucia want to chop his ugly snout from his face.

“Commander,” Lucia began in a diplomatic tone. “There’s nothing more I would love to do than give you back your property. Slave 892 has caused me nothing but trouble. Please hold while I set connection to your ship.” Cutting the comms, Lucia threw a glance at Soren who still held the blank expression from moments ago. His eyes were glued to the floor and Lu’s heart did a summersault that he really believed she intended to give him back. She wouldn’t,
couldn’t
. He was a giant pain in her ass, but he was now
hers
. Lucia didn’t have time to debate about the
why
.

“Soren, strap in,” she pointed at one of the chairs and sat down in the command perch. “Hurry!” He did as he was told; probably still thinking she planned to give him up.

“Wade,
NOW
!” she yelled.

The ship whirred into action, shields going up and engines propelling them forward. The element of surprise would give them just a tiny head start, but it was better than nothing. Lucia knew what kind of technology the Treps had. Their ability to fail warp, and their weaponry that ate through shields like no one’s business, was something to be feared.

“Four minutes until landing, captain.”

The ship shook and the lights flickered as the first of the Treps weaponry hit the shields. A large blue blinking number lit up the screen in front of her, displaying the remaining health of the shields.

Eighty percent.

Another quake.

Sixty percent.

Two more hits and the Treps would give her the choice of surrender or annihilation. They were very predictable, and at that moment, Lucia was thankful for what to expect.

Another hit.

Forty percent.

“Entering Sanru rotation space, captain. We are being hailed by control tower.”

“Control tower here, please state your intentions.” The whiney, mewling language of Za filtered through and if Lucia wasn’t so bent on outrunning the Treps, she would groan with loathing.

“I seek asylum!” she shouted over the next quake of the ship. The lights took longer to stop flickering that time.
Twenty percent.
“I’m being pursued by a hostile Trepnil ship and I
need
to land planet side.”

“Is your craft carrying any hostile, invasive or endangered species or plant life?”

“No,” Lucia responded truthfully, as nothing in the ships manifest her and Soren had gone over previously fit that description. “This is a merchant ship, carrying mostly produce and raw materials.”

“We are scanning your ship now and have requested your pursuers cease combat, or be held in violation of peace treaty 90046.”

Agonizing seconds ticked by as they loomed closer to the planet’s surface.

“You are free to land.”

“Thank you!” Lucia gushed as comms disconnected. A shaky breath deflated her lungs. “Wade, how far are we from control tower?”

“Control tower is on the opposite side of the planet, captain.”

Lucia rolled her eyes.
Of course.
“I don’t think it’s wise we circle the planet, Wade. I want to get grounded immediately. The longer we’re out here, the bigger the chance the Treps fire on us despite the treaty! Find a place to land.” Lu wouldn’t test the patience of the Treps. They’d shoot first and deal with the coalition later. It was a miracle they hadn’t done so yet.

“Yes, captain.”

Lucia’s eyes darted toward Soren again. He was still strapped to the chair off to her left that was designated for cargo controls. Still a mask of nothingness as he stared ahead, and it had her scowling. He’d been a very curious, contented presence last night while assessing the cargo, so this lack of
anything
was very off-putting.

The craft breached the atmosphere and the green clouds misted over the ships view. Lucia had never been to Sanru, so she really had no idea of what to expect. Her fingers rubbed over her lips nervously when the clouds dispersed and they continued descent. The closer to the ground they got, the more she noticed they were landing near a small, rural town. She couldn’t make out very much tech, as normally there’d at least be transports traveling the roads or buildings of business and leisure.

“Sanru natives don’t eat humans, do they Wade?”

“No captain,” he responded and Lu was almost positive there was a lilt of amusement in Wade’s synthesized voice. “Sanru is dominated by the Sanruki, a bipedal sentient race that prizes scholarly and agricultural pursuits. Their diet is largely herbivorous. We are landing in the town of Yu’Lem, known for their prized
seetkut
plant. It is their time of harvest, as the plant is almost ripe.”

The craft softly landed and Lucia extracted herself from the chair to inch closer to the shields view. “Wade,” she swiveled her head to and fro, taking in the landscape. “You landed us in a field; a purple field, at that.”

“Yes captain. Yu’Lem does not have a port of any kind, as it is a remote town. Transportation consists of
dek
beasts and wagons.”

“Oh god,” she groaned. “We’ve landed in Hickville is what you’re telling me, Wade.”

“I detect your sarcasm, captain.” Lucia’s lips twitched. A computer could understand sarcasm, but Soren couldn’t. She had much to teach him.

“Are there any nearby predators to worry about, or is it safe to exit the ship?”

“I do not detect any predators within range, captain. This region is home to three predatory species;
lome
, r
e’uke
and
wasnee
.” None of those sounded familiar to Lucia.

“Thanks Wade.” She suddenly remembered she still didn’t have on any pants. Turning toward Soren, who was statuesque in his chair, she snapped her fingers in front of his face to get his attention. He blinked, eyes sweeping to her. “Are you alright? I wasn’t going to give you back to Ta’Ra’Enn, Soren. I just had to make him think that so we could get away.”

Soren’s eyes lit up in surprise, which kind of flipped Lu’s stomach in pity at the poor creature.
He really did think I was going to give him back!
“Why, Loo-Sha?”

“Because,” she said lamely, waving her hand around in the air. “Because I’m not heartless. Ta’Ra’Enn is a plight on the universe, so I certainly wouldn’t
willingly
send you back. Or anyone, for that matter.” When Soren’s eyes softened, Lucia reached out to rub his jaw. His pupils had a seizure before the lids drooped and a deep rumbling rang out around them, like marbles rolling around in a wooden ball. “Is that- are you…
purring
?”

Lucia pulled back her hand and the noise stopped. Soren looked up. She scratched under his chin the next time. The noise loudly permeated the room, and Lu fell into a fit of laughter. “This is ridiculous,” she gasped, her other hand reaching up and scratching at his neck. The scales were very glossy and smooth to the touch. She rubbed and scratched, Soren’s
purring
getting so loud she thought he’d choke on it. “You are a very strange creature…” Soren grunted, purred and grunted again when Lucia withdrew her hands. She shook her head in amusement.