Star Catcher (18 page)

Noth gave Stella his full attention, and lowered his body to kiss her deeply. He drew her tongue into his mouth and felt Stella’s back arch toward him, her stiff nipples graze his chest. She slid a hand between them, and her fingers coaxed her swollen pleasure point, while Noth pumped between the silky-wet lips. His cock felt enormous, full, with his testicles tight and primed to explode.

Noth pulled away, sat up on his knees and grabbed behind Stella’s hips to hitch her up. With a sigh he slid fully inside her tight heat. She seemed to consume him in every way possible; her body had a physical hold on him that made him dizzy, just as her grip on his heart overwhelmed him. His fingers clasped her ass as he pounded into her, delirious with need. With a soft cry, she contracted around his swollen cock, pulling him in, milking him, as her eyes squeezed tight in time with her body. She was dripping wet.

This woman is definitely in heat.

The hot slip of skin inside skin, and the visual thrill as Stella bit her rosy, swollen lower lip, smashed Noth’s wavering control. He burst deep inside his woman. A convulsive wave shot from him, bathing her pussy inside and out. His entire body shivered as the ecstasy jolted through him like a current and left him weak and satisfied. Stella’s mouth awaited his kiss, and Noth gladly obliged, sinking into her embrace.

* * * *

Where is Uryu?
Noth needed to speak to him about the encounter in the solarium the previous evening. After Noth had fallen over Stella, spent and kissing her with abandon, he came to his senses and noticed the time. Uryu and Rayna had disappeared; they must have left the glade after they finished their lovemaking. Noth and Stella dressed swiftly, and after a quick kiss behind a huge
mujaki
bush, they headed in separate directions to exit the park.

Uryu would not report them. If he did, his secret activity would likely be discovered as well. Still, it was best to have a quick word with him regarding the need for utmost discretion where the human women were concerned.

A patient door opened, and Noth froze as Uryu wheeled an embryo-transfer cart into the hall.

“What are you doing?”

Uryu stared mutely, a guilty look on his face.

“Uryu, what is the meaning of this? I completed the transplants yesterday.”

“Commander Krael…”

“Krael what?” Noth’s voice was glacial.

“She walked in when I was … occupied with the human last night. She threatened to dismiss me, to report my actions to the Embassy if I did not implant the zygotes she provided.”

Blast Uryu’s insatiable
brackligg!
Noth had incorrectly assumed Uryu was finished with the human for the night! In a shocked tone, Noth reprimanded his subordinate. “Occupied with a human? You are to behave in nothing but a professional manner with the surrogates. I will tolerate no inappropriate acts. Is that clear?”

Uryu nodded, his forehead wrinkling in confusion as Noth leaned close to his ear.

“Krael sees everything,” Noth whispered, his voice barely louder than the aromatherapeutic steam that hissed through the vents overhead. Uryu bent his head closer.

“
Lans
,” Noth explained. “Come with me. Bring the cart to my lab,” he said, loud enough for the devices to register.

They entered the room, and Noth removed Krael’s bottles. He placed them inside the freezer unit alongside his own vials. They were not identical. One he saved, and he secured the fragile glass inside a cushioned holder along with a swiftly jotted note. The bullet-shaped container he placed inside a hole in the wall. He punched in a code, which corresponded with the desired destination, and observed as the vessel was washed in blue light and appeared to disintegrate. A friend in an advanced laboratory would analyze the genetic contents for him after the vial materialized in the receiving portal.

“I will speak with Krael. There must be a miscommunication.” He smiled grimly as he spoke, his baritone loud and clear for his audience. “I will need a list of the humans you implanted this morning. How many women received the new embryos?”

“Only these three, Doctor. I apologize for not seeking your approval first.”

Noth glanced down at the short list Uryu handed him. He whistled a sigh of relief when he saw neither Stella, nor her friend Rayna on the page.

“In the future, be sure you consult me. I am the foremost authority for all medical procedures here. Not Krael.” Uryu glanced nervously at the black
Lans
high on the wall, swallowed, and nodded his head.

“Good. Now please gather vital statistics on every woman. I want basal temperatures before they begin morning activity. We will commence daily blood work on each patient to monitor for signs of successful implantation. Any variations in baseline data will warrant a follow-up ultrasound.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

Noth exhaled. All he could do now was wait—wait on the lab work, wait to see if any of the females he intended to return to their home planet were impregnated, and hardest of all, wait to be with Stella. It was too risky to have sexual relations with his woman again, especially now that Uryu had been discovered. Not until they were all free and Krael was stationed at a new site could they be together. The likelihood his species would survive this setback—the failure of their last hope at repopulation—was nil. No other life sampled from their universal exploration so closely matched the Artanian genetic code. They were doomed. Even so, Noth would not subject the humans or any other life forms to slavery ever again. The continued existence of his world did not justify so immoral an act.

He had no doubts about that now. Unfortunately, Krael would need to be convinced.

* * * *

Noth nodded to the guard he passed on his way to Krael’s office. He could not simply ignore that the Commander defied protocol at every opportunity. Eventually, the Embassy would be briefed on her multiple infractions, but he needed to scare her into submission for a short while longer. It was a nightmare that the return of the captured Earth women had been delayed because of her interference. He could not risk Krael forcing another of his team to violate these women further and stall their release.

Noth had received Krael’s office code from his friend stationed in data control. He despised sinking to her level, but he wanted her to know, without words, that he was capable of underhanded acts too. Maybe realizing Noth was a worthy adversary who noted each of her devious acts would be enough to keep Krael from breaking protocol again.

Wearing an intentionally hard look on his face, he punched in the digit sequence and prepared to confront her. He relished the shock she would certainly experience when he entered with her stolen passcode.

The office was empty. The door zipping shut behind him seemed louder than usual. Noth turned to leave, to find Krael as she made rounds, and challenge her in front of her staff. It could be even more effective. Her underlings might hesitate to follow unsavory orders for fear of Embassy retaliation.

But then he stopped.

Noth turned back to Krael’s desk with a new purpose. So far, he had a fair amount of subjective testimony to use against the Commander, but no solid proof to show the Embassy chancellors.

Her desktop was clean, except for a monitor that showed the video feed of the hall outside her office. Krael would have watched him walk up to her door had she been inside. Noth had no doubt she could call up transmission from any of her
Lans
buttons throughout the satellite. He did not waste time checking, but pulled open a drawer packed with files. Did she keep hard copies on hand in case their virtual system failed? Or was Krael hiding information she did not want to risk someone accessing electronically? They were all pristinely labeled. His eyes skimmed every tag and none struck him as more than ordinary: satellite maintenance, staff contacts, weapon training, and weapon repair. He pushed the white folders forward and felt behind the stack. Nothing. Perhaps his hunch was wrong.

Noth opened the second drawer and saw another group of categorized documents. Again, he read each one with speed. His fingers flicked the final sheath forward—
wrovs
was all it said. He was ready to give up when he spotted a packet of paper shoved low in the back. It had no tag, but was thick and heavy when he reached down to pull it out.

Noth remained crouched behind the desk as he opened the envelope. Identical forms spilled across the floor. They had names of Artanians—mostly couples—with their contact information, and monetary values scribbled in the corner of each. The name Trant Ferzog and his mate Grek caught Noth’s attention, and he sucked in a startled breath. The Artanian was an infamously wealthy business owner who made his riches in questionable enterprises. Embassy officials kept a close watch on Trant and had once attempted to penalize him for illegal interplanetary transport of reactive
xionium
. But Trant had a superb legal defense team at his disposal, and no judicial action ever stuck. It also helped that witnesses against him always mysteriously disappeared or decided not to testify.

Krael had accepted
nurk-mil krobek
from Trant. That was about three million American dollars, as far as Noth could figure out.

And all for the promise of an infant.

Noth’s stomach gurgled with revulsion. There were countless papers, all with names of wealthy Artanian couples who had pre-purchased what Krael was selling. A final sheet, different in appearance from the others, called out to him as he stuffed the papers back in with trembling hands. The document outlined the investments Krael had apparently made with the payments. They were volatile ventures, with potentially high profit margins, and potentially high loss. A graph on the lower half of the print-out showed how her assets had already plunged.

She must have hoped to make a huge profit by investing the payments, and then planned to return the initial fees if the surrogates did not produce offspring. But large sums of currency were already gone, and now it seemed she was desperate to pay back her part in the transaction with tiny, innocent lives.

Noth used his wrist transmitter to burn images of the documents. He sent copies to his base data system, and then squished the information into its original space. He glanced at the video and saw no one directly outside Krael’s office. As he punched in the door code, he swallowed a
wrov
-sized lump in his throat. The portal whispered open, and he slipped out.

Thank
Scrion
to Earth and back, no one was in the hall to witness his retreat.

Chapter 15

Uryu stood before Noth’s desk with a notation unit in his hands. Noth read over the laboratory results on his own device again. The numbers remained the same no matter how many times he analyzed them.
Unbelievable.

Stella and Rayna were pregnant.

“I have placed ultrasound equipment in each room. Shall I perform the scans or do you prefer to do it, Doctor Zobor?”

“I will do the imaging. Please contact the nutrition department to change the two females to the gestational intake plan. Continue the frequency of vital sign monitoring on all patients, with daily blood work on all but the confirmed pregnancies. Some may yet convert to positive in the next few days. Especially after the extra embryonic transfers Krael ordered.”

“Yes, Doctor. I will report back my findings.”

“Thank you, Uryu.”

Noth gazed at the statistics once more, a bell clanging in his head, blurring his vision. Somehow, he had impregnated Stella, as Uryu had Rayna. The implications were astronomical. This could be the lifeline his species desperately needed. Some purists would undoubtedly contest this and insist on further studies using strictly Artanian genetics. But Noth believed those who recognized how dire the situation had become would adapt to this new way of repopulating the planet. It was their only hope.

Never Krael, though. She would fight this until her life fluid stopped pumping through her body. Unless, of course, it was the only way she could save herself from the foolish deals she had made.

Noth’s door zipped open to reveal the military captain, as if his thoughts had conjured her. More likely the conversation between himself and Uryu had piqued Krael’s interest.

“Doctor Zobor.” She smiled, and the twist of her mouth was cold and brittle. “The Embassy awaits a progress report on our operation. I have my notes dictated already. We wait on you. What news of the procedures?”

“Excellent news, Commander.” He made his face enthusiastic, a veil over the concerned knot that gripped him from within.

“I was just collecting my data to bring you my report. Two of our subjects have been successfully impregnated. We will continue to monitor the rest for further conversions. There was the small misunderstanding in which Uryu performed secondary injections on a number of the humans on your orders. It is possible there may be more pregnancies forthcoming.” He gave her a piercing look, but she did not appear at all chagrined. Krael believed she was above the law, above him, and beyond reproach.

“I will expect a daily, detailed brief on all progress. Which two females are carrying?”

Noth’s stomach churned, but he examined his data nonchalantly, as if the women were nameless, faceless surrogates.

“Rooms
sliev
and
drunf
. I will have my notes to you before next mealtime.”

He stood as he spoke, a sign their meeting was over. Krael would become suspicious; it was simply a matter of when. Because Uryu had been discovered with the other woman, they were all in danger. Krael was highly intelligent, and the connection would not be lost on her for long, especially if no other females became pregnant.

“If you will excuse me, Commander, I have rounds to perform.”

“Of course. I will relay the encouraging advancements to the Embassy.”

Good. Get them hopeful.
That way when the explosive news spread that the offspring were half-Artanian and half-human, the government would be more accepting.