Page 25 of Taken to Kor
Rhork
Emotion tears through my chest hotter than a swallowed ember and makes me recall a series of moments. When construction of the mothership finally completed and I walked the command deck for the first time. When I was rotations younger and pillaged my first Eshmiri ship successfully, without one lost life. And the first time I heard Deena through my token call me Rhork.
The emotion I feel now fighting next to Deena against this demented horde hits me like the sum of these moments combined and magnified, amplified louder than the scrambler that makes her words almost impossible to make out. Almost.
“Fucking…carpets…people…aren’t…for eating!” She launches another round of yeeyar-enhanced ion at the approaching creatures. There are four now where before they came at us in waves of twenty. We are thinning the herd — Deena more effectively and perhaps zealously than most.
I laugh as the bodies fall and Deena lets out a maniacal cackle. I think she might be losing her mind, but I am enjoying this too thoroughly to pull her back from the edge of whatever precipice she’s standing on. Because I understand the bloodlust. I understand the fever of battle. I understand the rage and the madness of it. And I’m far, far too selfish to give this up. Because never in the life of a Niahhorru pirate has he had the fortune of fighting a battle alongside a female. Let alone the female that he loves.
I love her.
It’s clear even though the terminology is new to me. Niahhorru pirates don’t have such a concept, but I have heard of it before. In Quadrant Two, the Lemoran thrive on it. The Voraxians have their Xiveri Mates, which is a close comparison, I think, though I wouldn’t know.
The Lemoran, like the Voraxians and the humans, also only have one mate.
I always thought that such a concept would create a hindrance to the act of procreation and, since the Niahhorru numbers have been in such decline over the past dozen rotations, procreation and keeping our species alive was all I could think about. But shrov if I care now. Because this female firing rounds like a madwoman into the darkness at beings that tried unsuccessfully to eat her alive is the female I love, that I will mate with, and that I will die to protect even if no kits ever come from it.
Funny, that I thought I cared for my crew in a way that looked like this elusivelove. But I didn’t know love, because I didn’t know Deena yet.
As I contemplate this phenomenon and casually clean up any carpet creatures that dare escape Deena’s firepower and draw too close to her, I notice that the sound of the scrambler is dimming. Eventually, all I hear are a few errant blasts behind me and the much louder trill of Deena having the time of her life.
“Carpet, take that! You stupid bathmat! I hate you! I hate rugs! You ate those people! I never want to see another rug in my life!”
I will have to avoid taking her into the room of human memorabilia then. That room aboard the ship is full of carpets. I laugh quietly to myself and suddenly the end of Deena’s weapon is swinging towards me.
“Shrov!” I jump back.
A violent roar cuts between us as Erobu tackles Deena, nearly knocking her to the ground. I see red as I advance, deftly grabbing Deena by the arm to keep her upright while my two left arms grab Erobu by the shoulder, spin him to face me and clock him in the left eye.
“Shrov! What was that for?” He grabs his eye and staggers back, hitting the wall of Herannathon’s chest.
“You touched his female,” Herannathon says in a low voice that I hope Deena doesn’t hear. I don’t need her knowing of my intentions just yet. Not when she’s like this.
I snarl at Herannathon in a way that I hope communicates my threat before turning my attention back to Deena. I carefully maneuver the barrel of her blaster away from my stomach. “I think you got them all.”
“Get me more!” She shouts up at me. Her lower lip is shaking. I wonder if she knows it. “I want more to shoot at!”
I chuckle. “Enough, Deena.”
“Centare!”
“Enough, for now.”
“Centare!” She shakes her head and the ropes of her hair fly across her face, sticking to her skin in blood that makes my stomach clench. How much of this blood is her own? “You aren’t the boss of me!”
I slip my fingers up into her hair and wrench her head back. I arch over her body, coming low enough to smell the blood on her mouth, even though I have not and will not taste her like this. Not yet. For now, I just need her attention. An end to her rising panic.
“You don’t need a boss, Deena. You need an enabler. Someone to let you do anything and everything you’ve ever wanted and can possibly dream of. You want to find and shoot more carpets? I will find them for you and bring them to your door. But right now, there are no carpets, so either you intend to shoot nothing or you intend to shoot me. The former would be a waste and the latter, I think, a tragedy. But what do you think? Do you want to shoot me, Deena?”
I pull back enough to be able to focus on her face. Her eyes are large and wet and I can see the green of my lunar shield reflected in them like a starburst.
“Lovely,” I whisper, shaking my head at the sound. I sound like I don’t believe the word myself. I don’t. I’ve never seen anything so lovely as her light.
She doesn’t seem to hear me though. I’m in competition with her crashing adrenaline and don’t stand a chance. It feels like she’s going to fall down, but right when I anticipate the pleasure of catching her, she sucks in a breath quickly and stiffens. She swings her blaster around and I block its path. Carefully, I reposition her grip on it, so she can keep hold of it and point it down. It’s clunky in her grip, but her hands are so tight around the holds that I can see the veins swimming across the backs of her hands. The skin around her knuckles is tight and pale. Her shoulders sag with its weight, but I do not take it from her.
“Rhorkanterannu, I think we’ve got them all for now. Should we head back to the mothership?” Ewanrennaron asks.
I don’t look at him as I answer. “There may be more humans trapped in those tanks. We should search the ship. Ewanrennaron, take Deena back to the mothership. I want no less than fifteen pirates accompanying…”
