Sholan Alliance - AU Bk. 02 Ch. 04

Once he ensured that any trace of the call was eliminated he stood and walked out to the living area. "Hey love, sorry about that but it was an important meeting and I simply couldn't miss it. What's for dinner and where are the kids?" State Undersecretary Nelson gave her a kiss before sitting down.

~~~

Since they had decided to send Billy and Satasha to the Mother Ship they had started preparing the ship to leave. Both cradles had been moved to the Sandi since they were independent units. They didn't have to be plugged in or connected to keep working. If something did happen to the ship they would survive in space for years.

When the chambers were moved into the cargo area only Dani, Sally, and Vangie were there. Both girls had their hands on the cover to Billy's chamber. "Daddy we will get you to the ship and medical. You had better be fine Daddy or I am going to scream at you." That was silly but Sally had to say something. For some reason it almost looked like he had a faint smile on his face.

Dani simply pressed her cheek against the cover and said a prayer for him. She had barely gotten out of the house and now this. Her mind was still trying to deal with their father being married and to an Alien as well. Right now her mind was a mess and she hadn't really had time to relax and settle down. She was going to have to call her boyfriend and let him know she was going to be gone for a while. It was something she had been intending to do but just hadn't been able to.

Once the chambers were lowered and secured Vangie took the girls forwards. It wasn't just to get them out of the storage and away from their father but so they could load the warrior in his cold chamber on. "We are going to be leaving tomorrow and it will take just under two weeks to get to the Mother Ship. If you need to call anyone take care of it tonight. I have been assured that access would be guaranteed if at all possible."

They settled in the living area as he was speaking. Crystal leaned into Kingie and shuddered at that idea. Shortly after Billy had been shot notifications had gone out to all the families of the survivors. It had informed the family members that they had been rescued and were recovering. Her mother had pretty much written her off since she was now despoiled. She had known that was going to happen but it hurt badly. The doctor had to give her some meds to sleep and calm down.

Kingie had her tucked under one arm and tight against his side as Vangie was talking. Her blond hair stood out against his fur which sort of amused him. Everyone knew what had happened with her family and they were all doing their level best to comfort her. "Relax Crystal and when we reach Shola you will meet my family. I know that you will be accepted with open arms. I was able to send a message home and all of them can't wait to meet my new little sister."

She pressed her face to his chest and sighed. Crystal really appreciated what he had done but she was still very scared by how people were going to react. The scent of him always helped to relax her and before long she had fallen asleep again. It was never a really good sleep but at least it allowed the time to pass.

As she drifted off Kingie couldn't help but wrap his arms a little tighter around her. The look he gave Vangie was very distressed. How a family could just dispose of a child like hers had was beyond him. On top of that what had happened to her was incomprehensible. Yes he was a warrior but he was still in that young and idealistic stage and all this was a major blow.

Vangie stood and as he walked to the kitchen area to get something to drink he placed his hand on Kingie's shoulder. He gave it an understanding squeeze before he continued on. It had been hard on all of them but especially for Billy's family. Tonight he was going to see if he could talk Sally into something more than cuddling. He was going to need to be careful but damn it he needed to feel alive and that would help.

~~~

Dani wasn't very happy the next morning. She had called her boyfriend and it hadn't been a happy call. He knew that her father had been critically injured but he simply didn't understand her leaving. He was going to live or die as the fates dictated and to him the best thing she could do was carry on. That meant staying at the college and continuing her studies. That had ended up in a fight and her hanging up on him. Frankly at the moment she was done with him if he was going to be that insensitive.

Sally simply gave her a good hug when they settled down to eat. She had never liked the guy what so ever and had a feeling that they had a breakup but didn't ask. Breakfast was a quiet affair since everyone was dealing with a variety of emotions. It wasn't much later when three additional warriors came aboard since they would be helping with the flight. She had talked to Vangie and the cabin Billy and Satasha used was left empty.

"Well it is time for us to start getting the flight check done and leave. Sally I would like you on Navigation and Kingie on Engineering." The three of them headed towards the front and settled down in the chairs at the consoles. Vangie didn't like sitting here with Billy not on board but it was his job as his second to run the ship if he wasn't available. Once they were all seated he started calling commands.

Kingie opened communications with the fighter since it was going to be escorting them. That had required the Ambassador giving an order that didn't please either commander. "Fighter we are getting ready to take off. We will rendezvous at the following location..." He verified they had them and then passed it over to Vangie.

He slowly lifted off and aimed the ship at the sky. As Billy had several months ago he was taking it easy getting to space and headed towards the edge of the solar system. Microjumps were one thing but to do a major jump from inside the solar system was extremely dangerous. There were all sorts of things that might be partially or fully in hyper that you could run into. You also had to program the flight path to avoid obstacles such as planets and meteor belts. All in all it was far simpler to go to the edge and jump.

That took about a day and a half to reach the jump coordinates where they paused. After verifying the course with the fighter ship both jumped into hyper and verified communications. Once that was done Vangie was replaced by Kingie at the helm and a rotation had been set up. Vangie settled down in the living area and reclined on one of the couches and sighed. The wound across his chest was aching and he needed to relax for a while.

For the next week they made good progress even though they weren't really pushing the engines. It still amused Vangie that the ship was only running on 50% power and was still doing almost as well as any of the other Terran ships. To be honest Vangie wanted to go full throttle and see just how fast it would go but not till Billy was awake and healed enough.

~~~

The scanner tech was scanning for any sort of hyper signatures when he started getting a return. He verified it and gave it a couple of minutes to firm up which it did. That indicated they were heading roughly in the direction of the returns since they were getting stronger and not fading away. It also indicated the returns weren't sensor ghosts as well. After several more minutes of verifying the readings he turned to the officer in charge of the bridge. "Ssir I have picked up and verified two sensor returns. They appear to be hyper capable ships of a small size. Each is giving off a signature that is very different than the other."

The officer looked down at the tech and narrowed his eyes. His first thought was to see if the tech had taken longer than needed to identify the ships. If that was the case he could cheerfully tear into him. It would teach him to make reports in a timely manner and also show who was in charge. On the flip side of the coin it could also be detrimental to the moral if he did that and the tech had done his job correctly. "Ssend the feed to my console."

Once it was there he reviewed the data and frowned. With a displeased hiss he snarled at the tech. "You said two small ships. The energy signature of one is to powerful for a small ship. Explain this." If it wasn't a good explanation he was going to deal with him.

The tech managed not to swallow but as hard as he tried to control it faint traces of the fear scent emanated from him. "Ssir I thought so at first for the same reason but the sensor return was not matching up. I did take an extra bit of time to verify the readings. The first ship has a smaller engine but is fairly powerful. The second ship is larger but not drastically and does have the stronger engine reading." He did swallow before continuing. "If you check the addendum you will see that the smaller of the two ships have hyper readings that are very close to the Enemy's."

The officer checked and wanted to slash at the male but didn't since he had set an alert for that specific item. "Keep scanning and updating our logs." He looked at a different male. "Send a message to the other ships with this information. Do that after contacting the captain and informing him of what we have found."

Everyone turned and started getting to work. Even if the officer hadn't spoken directly to them they wanted to ensure they looked like they were busy. If something happened and they weren't seen as having been doing something, anything, they would probably be turned over to the priests for interrogation.

Shortly the captain came to the bridge and the office stood and turned the chair over to him. "Sso what is going on? What is this about finding a ship of the enemy?" He was calling up the report as he was talking.

"Ssir the scanner tech picked up returns at the edge of our sensors. He refined the data and sent it to me. There appear to be two ships in hyper with different signatures. One signature we are not familiar with but the other is within five percent of the ship of the Enemy that we destroyed." He made sure to add slight emphasis when he mentioned the scanner tech. If anything was off he could pass the blame off to him for screwing up.

The captain looked at him and it was obvious he knew what the officer was doing and rather expected it. Rising in the ranks could be perilous at times and the higher you got the more perilious. "Send a message to the other ships to go to battle stations. Once that is done go to silent running and work on an intercept course."

~~~

They had about four days to the Mother Ship when the alarms went off again. "Oh hell, not another pirate ship." Vangie swore as he slid into the captain's chair. Kingie, Sally, and Dani slid into the other chairs and started firing the systems up.

"Captain we are being pinged by sensors that are neither Terran nor Sholan." Kingie reported from the weapons station. "Several of the sensor emissions appear to be some sort of targeting systems." The data was still firming up as they were activating all the systems. The fighter contacted them as well.

"This is commander J'kefa. I have picked up four enemy combatants. I am ordering you to go to full power and head towards the mother ship. I have already sent an emergency signal to them. These appear to be the Others that attacked our battleship. I am going to get as much detail on them as possible as well as slowing them down. I will rendezvous with you at the Mother Ship." He gave Vangie a hard look. "Kick that ship and make her scream. God speed warrior."

Vangie started cursing before opening the intercom channel. "Attention all passengers strap in for possible combat. Alien combatants identified and scanning us for a firing solution. I have been ordered to make all speed to the Mother Ship by the Commander of the Fighter." As soon as that was broadcast he slowly inched the throttle forward till all he had were the Sholan sensors available.

"Engineer status check on shields and engines." Vangie was checking his console and Dani was making sure the path to the Mother Ship was being updated as they moved. That was showing on his console as well. The weapons had been charged and the shields fully powered up as well. He pushed the throttle full forward and the ship leaped ahead at one hell of a speed.

Vangie was tuned into the channel the fighter ship was broadcasting on and it wasn't going well for them. Yes they were doing a fair amount of damage but so were the Others. He didn't tell the others but he knew that the fighter and her crew were going to be lost. Yes they were more powerful than the Others ship but the Others had numbers on their side. It didn't really take that long for any traces of the ships to drop off the sensors. The communication was still good and they were definitely taking heavy damage.

It wasn't much later they heard the destruction of the fighter over the comms and silence ruled the ship. "Keep a close look towards our aft to see if any of the Others vessels might be following." He passed that order to everyone on the bridge. "Sandi can you and Jenna cook some food and drinks and bring them up here?" They were going to be on the bridge for a while longer and as long as they remained vigilant getting food and drinks were acceptable.

~~~

Vangie had called for a crew rotation several hours later and everyone was silent again. Everyone knew that the fighter escort had been destroyed. It had sounded like they had critically damaged the Others ships. Vangie had checked the sensor readings and had to agree that they weren't human vessels. The engine signatures were very similar to the ones they had detected. For the rest of the flight they were going to keep a ongoing watch on the bridge.

~~~

They had been running as fast as possible for close to a day when they were hailed. "SS Sandi this is Fighter 1052 and a squadron of escort fighters. Two are going to be tasked with escorting you to the Mother Ship. The rest of the squadron is going to follow your hyper signature back to where you encountered the others."

Kingie was on watch and answered. "Fighter 1052 this is the SS Sandi and we copy and confirm the orders. Do you have any additional orders?" As he was talking he sent an alert to Vangie requesting him on the bridge. Several minutes later Vangie was there and took over.

"This is Acting Captain Vangie and have been updated on the change in orders. We are complying and it appears that we haven't been followed to the best of my knowledge. Right now our engines are running at about 90%. I had to slow down due to some instability at top speed." As he was talking the two fighters had separated from the squadron and formed up alongside the Sandi.

Vangie had been informed that the Mother Ship had diverted course to meet them. They would be in range in the middle of the next day. The trip had been shortened by several days due to the increased speed and the Mother Ship turning towards them. Everyone was being quiet and any talking was on the desultory side.

The rest of the flight was relatively boring and uneventful. When they reached the Mother Ship it was uneventful as well. They were tractored into one of the hanger bays and almost immediately the Commander as well as a doctor and an escort moved forward.

As they were approaching the ship Vangie opened both the cargo section and the central lock. He had his arm around Sally and Sandi and Jenna had their arms around Dani. As usual Kingie had his arms around Crystal and the rest of the warriors followed them off. Vangie saluted the Commander. "Sir the cargo hatch is open. Please show us to our rooms so we can get clean and try and get some sleep. Losing the fighter ship as well as the injury to Captain Madlax has taken their toll. I will be ready for a debriefing once I get something to eat and a shower."

The Commander returned the salute and shook his head. "Go rest Warrior and we will see you in the morning. The lead Surgeon is going to examine the records and do another scan of Captain Madlax. He will contact you before he does anything." He looked over the others and nodded. "Go and relax and get some sleep. I will have food brought up. Vangie and Sally you are going to have the same cabin you used before and Sandi and Jenna can use the other room. Warrior Kingie you, Crystal, and Z'Marl will have the rooms across the hall." He looked at Z'Marl. "That is unless you wish to stay in your assigned quarters."

Z'Marl shook her head at that idea. "I would prefer to stay with the others sir." She looked away from him. "I don't think I can be by myself right now." She had gone from a comfortable easy life to loving an alien. Her life was totally different now and frankly she needed Billy and Satasha. Since they weren't around she was going to stay with his girls and what was becoming her family.

The Commander nodded to her and lightly brushed her cheek. "I understand Z'Marl and have had a few of your things taken to the quarters. All of the rooms have been keyed to each of your palm prints. Tomorrow contact me and once you have breakfast I will come down and talk to you." He nodded at them and moved to the side.

Two warriors moved forward and saluted them. "Please follow us and we will show you to your rooms. Your bags will be brought up shortly. There are some documents on your terminals to review tomorrow as well." They turned and walked away. The others followed them slowly and as they passed the various staff they were saluted.

Eventually they made it to the rooms and separated for a few. Crystal looked into the room and sort of smiled. "I do feel a shower coming on. Do you want to join us Z'Marl? I am sure you would like a real Sholan shower." It was only a bit of humor but she was teasing her and that was a step forward.

Z'Marl wrapped her arms around her body and had a happy look on her face. "Oh my yes for the hot air jets alone." Dani snickered at her and Z'Marl grinned. "Do you want to join us? About four per shower area is the max."

Dani sort of blinked and had to think about it. "Um, Kingie is a male right? I think I can wait." When everyone started snickering she gave them an odd look. "Why are you laughing at me?"

Sally laughed even more. "Because Sholan's tend to shower communally. Since they are furred and don't show external organs like we do they don't have any nudity taboo. Go and get clean and enjoy the attention." She nudged her sister towards the other rooms and then turned towards the room she and Vangie used.

Z'Marl wrapped an arm around Dani. "She is being serious and if it helps Kingie has helped most of the rescued women get clean. Crystal was the first but most of them decided to adopt him as their personal grooming kitty." She wrinkled her nose at Kingie and snickered. "So far we haven't had any complaints with the bathing."

Kingie stuck his tongue at her and hissed for good measure. "I am not a kitty. I am an adult male so there. Kitty's are little and cute. I am big and grumpy." He ignored Crystal as she snickered at him. "If you tease me to much I might just brush your fur backwards or something. Better yet I will find a bell and attach it to your tail while you are asleep." He had seen a few cartoons on the ship and for some reason in some that was like the thing.

Z'Marl laughed at him as she gently tugged Dani towards the room they would be using. "Let's see what they brought from my room and I might have something you can wear after the shower." The two of them had started bonding since they were so close in age. It was nice that Dani was really smart as well and understood where Z'Marl was coming from.

Dani let Z'Marl draw her to the other room and she blushed when Z'Marl casually stripped the tabard off. She hadn't seen any of the Sholan's nude as of yet and was a bit curious. "You do have a lovely color of fur." She smiled shyly as she was taking the braid out of her honey blond hair. The two colors were very close.