The Spider Queen (The Space Merchants Book 5) Read online

  Luckily, life began to return to normal. In the mornings, rather than our walks in the forest, I pushed the children in their stroller along each deck. Soon, we knew all of our crewmen. During naptime, Phillip, my husbands, and I went to the gym. Phillip and Yukihyo sparred with each other. Zared began working with me. Each time I centered my mind, he was there. Zared knew each punch I planned to throw and every direction in which I intended to move.

  “You must use your other senses to predict my intentions,” Zared said calmly.

  Once again centering myself, I concentrated on watching to see if his breathing changed before his punches. He used it to his advantage tapping me gently at each temple with his gloves, in my left side with his knee, and then on my chin before darting away from me. I fumed.

  “Being emotional will hasten your defeat,” Zared admonished.

  “You told me to use my senses, so I did.”

  “Your eyes were on my stomach, not the rest of me. Concentrating visually as you were doing was easier for me to read than your thoughts.”

  Frustrated, I asked, “Then, which of my senses should I use?”

  Zared came to me, put his gloves to either side of my face, and kissed my nose. “Observe dispassionately with your eyes, ears, and touch.” Zared moved an arm so quickly that my hair moved with the displaced air. “Our brains interpret each thing we sense. I can easily read those interpretations. Can you learn to sense my attacks with your emotions?”

  “My emotions? How am I supposed to feel what you are going to do? You’re so centered and calm. You aren’t angry with me or trying to get a kiss.”

  “Let’s slow down our sparring. Try to sense my emotions.”

  Zared sat down on the mat. I sat down across from him. We calmed and centered ourselves. Then, we stood and began again. I didn’t understand how to do what he suggested and soon became aggravated.

  “That is enough for today. The children are waking,” Zared said. He held one of his gloves against his side with his arm and pulled his hand free of it.

  I copied his actions, and then we put our gloves away. Nico and Fitz had watched us from where they ran on treadmills.

  “Is it just me, or do they look angry?” I asked in a whisper.

  “They are angry.”

  “Why?”

  “Your Parvac husbands do not approve.”

  “Why not?”

  “They do not believe that a woman, and especially not you, should need to fight, work, or do anything strenuous,” Zared told me. I rolled my eyes. “Your entire crew agrees. They consider Yukihyo and me barbaric for teaching you to fight.”

  I looked up at Zared apologetically.

  He said, “There is no need for that. We disagree with them. The more advantages you have, the greater your chances of survival.”

  “No need for what?” I asked primly.

  “Telling me that you are sorry,” Zared answered as the lift opened onto the Imperial Deck.

  “What if I intended to ask you to help me wash my hair? I haven’t forgotten your behavior in my shower on Ephors.”

  “We don’t have much time,” Zared said huskily.

  “I don’t need much time.”

  After a lot of laughing, trial, and error, we managed to accomplish our shower objectives. Shower copulation was new for Zared. Izaac and Rozz blushed at me for the next two days until Eli threatened to assign them cleaning duties.

  Chapter Four

  When our ships arrived at the first communications relay, Kane and Eric each sent teams to inspect it. Phillip paced back and forth across my black, white, and grey marbled carpeting. My vid-screen began beeping.

  Answering it, I smiled at Quaid. “Hello, Lord Bosh.”

  “Lady Bosh, may I have permission to board your ship? The inspection will last for approximately two hours while messages are sent and received.”

  “Yes, of course!”

  The screen went black. I knew Quaid wasn’t wasting any time as he rushed to his fighter ship. I went down to Deck Five and waited with my crewmen behind the shielding until Quaid had docked, and the flight deck doors were sealed. Out of respect, one of my soldiers rushed forward to welcome Quaid and offer assistance. As an Imperial consort and my husband, even though he was Laconian and a Galaxic Militia Officer, Quaid outranked my crew.

  Quaid’s eyes were solid black, and he strode forward clearly intend on ravishing me. I laughed and ran for the lift. Easily catching me, Quaid brought his lips down to mine and held me close against his chest as he kissed me. I could feel the thumping of his heart through my breasts. Quaid began walking, moving me backwards into the lift. I managed to hit Deck Two. Quaid’s warm, hungry lips left mine when the door opened. He gave me a dangerous, glittering look, bent down, picked me up around my thighs, and put me over his shoulder.

  Laughing, I swatted at his behind. “Put me down!”

  Quaid put me down on the bed in his room and kept me there for the next hour and a half. I laid in his warm arms and rested my cheek against his shoulder. I giggled when the blonde hairs of his chest tickled my nose. Quaid was mine. He had known and accepted our fate long before I had. Quaid had convinced his father to arrange a political marriage between us, but then Quaid had been forced to wait for me to realize my true feelings. I was so glad that he had.

  Now, I hugged him close to me. “I love you, Quaid Bosh. Stay with me until we get to the next communications relay.” Lifting my head up, I looked hopefully into his eyes, now ringed by white sclera from the pleasure that I had spiraled through him.

  His serious expression was answer enough, but he said, “I must return to my ship. Nothing must jeopardize our mission.”

  Thinking of Phillip, I nodded sadly, and we dressed. Quaid spent a few moments with Neema and Niklos. Then, he Yukihyo, Zared, Phillip, Nico, and Fitz exchanged pleasantries. The time came all too soon when we linked our fingers together and went back down to his ship.

  “I’ll see you at the next relay,” Quaid promised.

  “Alright,” I said. I moved behind the safety of the shielding and stayed there to watch as Quaid flew from my ship.

  With our new energy source tied into our propulsions, we arrived at the next relay a few days later. Our crews repeated the inspection process. Then, messages were sent and received to our governments. While we waited, I had Captain Ricimer open the viewport in my room. A nebula of purple, pink, and blue captivated me. Our warships also attempted communications with our missing ships. Seeing Phillip’s hopes die when we received silence for an answer was heart wrenching. Yukihyo and I decided that we would have movie night after each relay inspection. It didn’t get Phillip’s mind off of his parents, but at least the sentiment meant something to him.

  The next communications relay we came to had been made inoperative. Crews determined that someone had made an inept attempt at destroying it but had only managed to knock it offline and cause minor damages. Captain Alaric reported to the Galaxic Militia, and Vice Admiral Valen reported to the Parvac Empire.

  Phillip’s devastation when yet another attempt to communicate with our ships failed, made me cry. Niklos and Neema started crying because of me. Thunderdrop chittered angrily at Yukihyo and Zared.

  “Alright,” Yukihyo told him as he got down on all fours and became a horsey for his little princess.

  Niklos didn’t want a horse. He wanted to stack blocks. Neema crawled onto her daddy’s back, and before I could stop her, wiped her nose all over the back of his shirt. Then, with a red nose and blotchy face from crying that she got from me, she laughed and kicked her heels into Yukihyo’s sides to make him go.

  Meanwhile, our captains increased our defensive shielding, readied our weapons, and became increasingly vigilant about our sensor readings. By the time we had reached the next relay, it was clear that someone had deliberately sabotaged our communications satellites. Our fighter ships were deployed to do reconnaissance. Yukihyo, Fitz, Phillip, and I stared at the vid-screen and the view it granted
us of our fleet of ships. Nico and Eli had gone to observe from the bridge.

  Reports began coming in. Alien ships surrounded Talpa and had placed some sort of mines that prevented our ships from lifting off and entering orbit. Our ships were intact but grounded. Currently, we maintained our position. The complex minefield was linked together; if one was triggered, the others would detonate.

  “What can your Imperial Guard do for us, Teagan?” Kane asked me from his ship through Xavier.

  “Can you sense the aliens’ thoughts?” I asked my gathered Omnes Videntes.

  We were seated at the dining table. As one, Xavier, Zared, Izaac, and Jazon bowed their heads and concentrated on the alien awareness. From the bridge, Nico and Eli quietly slipped into the room. As one, the hybrids opened their eyes.

  Xavier said, “Inquisitor Beck, allow us to infiltrate one of the alien vessels.”

  “Hold on there a minute. We know the Talpa pose no microbial threats to us, but what do we know of these aliens?” Phillip asked.

  “I won’t risk my men,” I stated.

  Patiently, Xavier said, “We can wear environmental suits and take a xenobiologist along with us. We will adhere to protocol.” He watched Eli and waited for an answer.

  Fear for Zared, Xavier, Izaac, and Jazon paralyzed me. “No, send drone cameras to spy on them. Drex is an expert at it,” I said.

  Eli glanced at me, but then contemplated Xavier. “Agreed. Take all precautions,” Eli ordered.

  “No! I don’t approve. They are my men, and this is my ship.” Suddenly, my panic and fear were replaced with calm serenity.

  “Teagan, think rationally. We know what we are doing. We will go in, collect information, and return without getting caught. Nothing will happen to us,” Zared assured me.

  Nico placed an arm around my waist and a hand on my hipbone. “Teagan, in our current situation, you must be Princess Probus. Lives depend on us. Any ship attempting to lift from Talpa’s surface into space will be destroyed. We need to know how to deactivate and destroy the mines, and how to neutralize these enemies.”

  I nodded, but my nose tingled as it always did prior to my tears. “You had better be careful,” I warned angrily.

  They stood and saluted me as one.

  “I’m going with you,” Eli said.

  Zared turned to leave with them. Shocked and full of fear, I asked, “Aren’t you going to kiss me goodbye?” I was terrified that I would never see him again.

  “No, I will kiss you properly when I return.” Zared sent an image to me of him on his knees before me in the shower with my thigh thrown over his shoulder. When he sent the sensation to me as well without even having touched me, I gasped and swayed on my feet.

  Nico steadied me. Yukihyo chuckled at the red creeping up Izaac’s neck and face. Zared shared close telepathic and empathic bonds with his brothers, but I wasn’t completely sure as to how close. Each of the hybrids could hear my thoughts and sense my feelings unless they actively blocked me out. My assumption was that the bonds between the brothers, who had developed within the same batch in the amniotic chambers where they had gestated, were much stronger than I could understand.

  An hour later, Nico, Yukihyo, Phillip, Fitz, and I watched as they flew from the Empress in a small stealth ship. Once they were out of sight, I started pacing. Rozz, Zam, Traviz, and Jezzie had taken up guard positions near the lifts on my deck. I knew Yukihyo kept me calm to a degree, but when I sensed Rozz’ intention to send me to sleep, I threw a psychic wall up between us shocking him.

  “Don’t you dare,” I enunciated slowly.

  Several hours passed before Zared and the others returned to the fleet. However, I couldn’t rush to Zared. They had to undergo a thorough decontamination. Every particle would be studied.

  “We easily masked our presence from the aliens. Eli is sending our data to your vid-screen,” Zared said to me telepathically.

  Nico excused himself to go to the bridge, but Yukihyo, Fitz, Phillip, and I sat and watched. From where they were being decontaminated, Eli manipulated the video they had taken during their mission.

  “Where are they?” I asked Phillip.

  “They are in the stealth vessel and secured to Kane’s warship on the cargo deck with an airlock tunnel. If they were exposed to any contamination, they will have to remain quarantined. You, Neema, and Niklos are not to be put at risk. Emperor Probus decreed that if the safety of his daughter or grandchildren is threatened by incompetence, he will entertain himself with executions of the guilty by way of reverse nanite technology,” Phillip answered.

  I huffed and rolled my eyes.

  “He meant it,” Yukihyo stated.

  The blood drained from my face. “I need to have a talk with Papa.”

  Fitz patted my hand. “He would smile, kiss you, give you something expensive, and carry on as he deems necessary. Besides, execution would be preferable to what the Warrior Caste would do to anyone whose incompetence threatened your safety or that of the little prince and princess.”

  As if on que, Niklos woke up, and Lorca brought him to me. Neema sat on the carpet before us playing with a doll that looked like me, and my stuffed animals that she had taken from me, Captain Ice Bear and the octopus that Quaid had given to me. Neema had traded me her triangle shape, the one she didn’t like, for my stuffed animals. Oh, well. I had Neema and Niklos with whom to cuddle.

  We watched as Eli played their footage. Stars glittering in the black field of space slowly moved past. A sentence appeared at the bottom of the screen. It read, “Princess, close your eyes for a moment while I fast forward.”

  Yukihyo chuckled. Eli knew it would make me dizzy to watch. I closed my eyes.

  “Okay,” Fitz said.

  I opened my eyes and saw an odd-looking ship in the distance. The words, “Preselected Target,” appeared on the bottom of the screen. Flight stopped. Various holographic images appeared as Eli and my men discussed entry points. I watched as they scanned the alien ship for life signs. There were hundreds of them.

  “There,” Eli said in the video as he pointed out a section of the hull that showed a smaller concentration of life.

  Ghosting in close, Jazon attached the stealth ship to the alien ship’s hull. Izaac and Jazon activated an airlock tunnel from their ship and attached it to the alien ship.

  “Activate life support,” Eli ordered.

  The men pressed buttons on their spacesuits and then unsealed the cabin. Zared quickly cut through the alien hull.

  “Pause,” I said. “That looked too easy.”

  Yukihyo nodded. “Their ships are weak. We could blast through them with little effort. It must be why they have not yet docked on Talpa. Once they do, they will not be able to reenter space.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  “If the planet is deemed inhospitable, they want to be able to take over our ships so their people can leave Talpa and continue searching for a new home world,” Fitz said.

  “Play.”

  We watched as Zared applied a pressure bubble around the opening he had made, and they tested the air.

  “Preliminary atmospheric findings are within acceptable parameters,” Eli reported.

  “Stay within a ten-foot radius of me, and I will shield our presence,” Xavier said.

  “Understood. Jazon, guard our ship, keep it hidden, and be prepared to leave at my command,” Eli ordered.

  “Understood.”

  Zared went inside of the alien ship first. The lighting was dim. The interior was a copper color, and the flooring seemed to be constructed of a dark metal. Silently, the team walked along a low narrow corridor and stopped at a control panel. Zared began taking it apart. Then, he attached a device to its inner components and began downloading information.

  “Copying everything from the alien ship’s computer,” appeared on the vid-screen.

  While Zared copied all of the aliens’ knowledge, the others continuously scanned their surroundings. Once Zared had completed his task,
he replaced the cover on the control panel careful to make it look just as it had before.

  Izaac motioned with his left hand. In his right, he held a blaster. It was the kind soldiers carried into battle. I had seen them but had never been allowed to touch one. Zared had begun to scan through the data he had collected as they walked. I realized that Izaac’s earlier hand motion had been for Eli’s benefit. The hybrids were engaged in constant telepathic communication.

  Xavier began placing tiny spy cameras while they walked. Then, the team froze taking up defensive positions with Eli and the xenobiologist at their center. The video zoomed in on a strange little humanoid. Its extremities were bare exposing pale tan flesh. The team moved closer. It wore a brown sleeveless jumper that covered it from chest to mid-leg. The alien’s attention was focused on a simple, lighted control panel.

  “Geeze, that looks like something from ancient history,” Phillip said.

  “It’s amazing they have remained in orbit,” Yukihyo said.

  The alien lifted its arm to press a button.

  “Gross,” I said.

  The alien’s lifted arm revealed a membrane of skin from its wrist that was attached to its hip and all of the way up to its armpit. When it lowered its arm, the skin was loose.

  “No wonder they wear those overall-like jumper things,” I said.

  Phillip stared in fascination. “Those membranes could be for gliding on air currents. Look. They are a mammalian species which is evident from the sparse hair on its head,” Phillip observed.

  I said, “It looks like baby hair. No offense, Niklos.”

  Niklos smiled at me and then put my hair in his mouth.

  I drew in a frightened breath when the alien turned. Yukihyo patted my thigh and took Niklos. The alien had small, pointed, angled ears. It had a single nostril above a V-shaped mouth. Without noticing the men, it walked away. Its sharp claws made clicking noises against the metal flooring. The team remained hidden and was able to record two of the aliens as they communicated with odd whistle-like sounds, hisses, and trills. After the aliens had moved away, Eli motioned for a return to the ship. We watched as Zared repaired the alien hull. Unfortunately, the aliens would see the damage and know that they had been boarded. Eli shared the intelligence they had gathered with Kagan, who then shared it with the captains of the other warships.