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Chapter Forty Two
Adreax
“You finally made it,” I called to Herod as he brought the Greedy She-Devil into a wide approach to the landing field on Dorianne.
“No thanks to you,” he said saltily.
“Remind me to buy you a drink to make up for it!”
He laughed over the radio, and I smiled, glad to have my closest friend back.
The trip to Dorianne had been a lengthy one, and the shuttle was not equipped to make the jump. However, we were able to stop at a nearby station and trade the shuttle for a more suitable ship instead. Human technology intrigued the merchants who bought the thing, and they didn’t mind giving me a deal on the new ship in exchange for throwing a few weapons into the trade.
At first, Alec had been opposed to the trade, but Tayla brought him around to the idea. We needed something fast to outrun the Patrol, but we also needed a suitable disguise. After our daring escape, there was a good chance the Patrol would call in more ships to search for us. Moving to another ship was the only thing that made sense. Fortunately for me, the Greedy She-Devil was nearly worthless, so I couldn’t trade it for anything. That left the shuttle as our only bargaining chip.
“Think of it this way,” Tayla had intervened. “When we needed help, our government abandoned us. They never planned on getting the shuttle back, so we might as well trade it while we’ve got a buyer on the hook.”
Alec still looked dismayed, especially when I pulled out the crate of weapons and began negotiating, but once we were on board the next ship, he seemed to acclimate quickly enough.
And then there was Herod. He landed beside us and jumped out of the Greedy She-Devil with the joyous energy of a child.
“You sure you don’t want to join us?” I asked, pulling him into a brotherly hug and shaking his hand.
“And put my life on the line again so you can get laid? No, thank you. Actually, I thought I might keep the old girl,” he said, looking back with fondness at the beat-up old ship that had served us so well over the years.
“You can’t be serious. I’m giving you the chance to be second in command of one of the fastest ships in this system!”
“Nah, mate. I’ve learned my lesson. That lady of yours will be second in command, and there’s no convincing me any different.”
There was a note of hurt in his voice, and I changed the subject.
“All right, if you insist. I’ll let you have her, but you have to promise me you won’t go stealing jobs from me in the future.”
Herod looked past me and snorted a laugh. Tayla and the other women sat in a circle in the shade, having drinks and talking excitedly about some kind of scientific development.
“I don’t know that we’re even in the same business anymore.”
I looked over at Tayla, my heart filling with pride and satisfaction every time I caught her eye. She was mine. This ship was ours. Herod was right, again.
Tayla
“According to the girls, that man was General Chemkov. He was in charge of research and development, which we now know was a code for kidnapping women. But here’s where things get a little weird,” I explained, running my hands through my hair and swatting Adreax’s hand away from my ass before continuing. “All the women are experts in their fields. They were all taken from research stations across the universe. He forced them to work on that ship, but that wasn’t all they were forced to do.”
Adreax gave me a quizzical look, and I pondered how to go on. The stories those women told me when we sat together in the evenings were horrifying, but they only redoubled my resolve to help the women still trapped under the Patrol’s control.
“Tell me,” he whispered, brushing a loose strand of hair away from my face and tucking it behind my ear.
“They were forced to… copulate… with those aliens.”
Even I cringed at the word, unable to think of any better way to put it.
“Copulate?”
“The resource they were most in need of was women, but not just any women. They needed women of high intelligence. They were trying to diversify their gene pool and improve their viability as a species. Only, some women were unable to… you know. They were incompatible, I mean. And so, they were put back on the research ship to work, and the rest were taken away.”
Adreax gave me a disgusted look and shook his head.
“And what are they working on?”
