Theron Destiny (Brides of Theron) (19 page)

“I am sorry little one there is no time for that. We must leave immediately.” He didn’t want to see the hurt in her eyes.

“What do you mean there isn’t time for that? Look at me, damn it!” She grabbed his arm and forced him to look at her. “Why are you doing this? They are the only family I have left and they probably think that I am dead! You have to let me go see them and explain!” by now she was in full panic mode. The thought of her aunts thinking that she was dead just ripped her heart out. She had lost all sense of time up here in the mother ship and wasn’t even sure how long she had been gone. Even though she hadn’t lived with her aunts, at the time she was taken, she still had called them on a daily basis. They must be going mad not knowing where she was. “You have to make the time Zeb!” She was now clutching his arm so tightly that her nails were digging into his skin.

Grabbing hold of her hands and slowly prying them off he spoke in a voice so soft she barely heard him, “I am sorry, I cannot. I have my orders. My planet has been informed of an impending attack from our enemy and we must return immediately. We can come back after we make sure that Theron is safe and secure from the Drylons. My people cannot suffer anymore loss than they already have.”

Her eyes were starting to fill with unshed tears, “Your people! What about my people? You came to my world and stole me and now my aunts probably think I am dead. I have every right to be able to contact them and inform that I am okay.”

“My love…” he started to say.

She cut him off, “Don’t call me that! I am not your love or your mate or whatever! If you loved me, you would let me contact my family.”

With a heavy heart Zeb looked at her, “I am sorry. I must prepare the ship for departure. I promise you we will come back when we can and you can speak to your aunts then. For now I must go and prepare our course.” He left her standing there by the window looking out over her home world. The tears had started to fall by the time he had finished speaking to her and walked off. He heard a sob as the door to their quarters had slid shut and silenced the hallway. He knew he was doing her a grave injustice but there was no time. He had to see to the safety of his planet.

On his way back to the control room of the ship, Zeb had been lost in thought in what to do about Avery. He couldn’t continue to hurt her but what choice did he have right now? He couldn’t ignore his orders and refuse to return to Theron and let his people suffer at the hands of the Drylons again. Maybe there was some kind of a way that he could allow her to contact her aunts without having to leave the ship at all. Maybe Brylon could figure something out. He would have to speak with him as soon as he could.

Zeb almost ran head first into Brylon coming around the corner. Brylon had reached out to grab Zeb to steady him before they collided, “Geez Zeb, you had better watch where you are going. You never know who might be coming around the corner.  Especially those you don’t want to see.” He chuckled as he insinuated Lars.

Zeb looked at his friend and gave his head a shake to bring himself back into reality, “Sorry, my friend. I was thinking about a problem that has just arisen and how I was going to seek you out to help me find a solution.”

“What’s wrong? Is it something to do with the ship having to return to Theron?”

Zeb leaned against the wall, “That’s exactly my problem, but not in the sense that I think you are thinking. Anyway, I just told Avery that the ship has been ordered to return to Theron and that we would be leaving in a few days’ time.”

Brylon had a confused look on his face, “But, she knew this day was coming. She understood that you were never going to return her to her planet so I don’t understand what the problem is.”

“My problem is that Avery wants to contact her two aunts before we leave and let them know that she is alive. She was frantic at the thought of her aunts thinking that she had just disappeared and probably presumed her dead. I told her there was no way we could contact them in the short amount of time we have left before we depart. I left her crying and hurt again. Things were going so well and now this. I am not sure she will ever speak to me again if I can’t figure out some kind of a way to contact her family. To make things worse, it didn’t do me any good to possibly lie to her after that.  See, I promised her we would return after I saw to the safety of Theron.”

Brylon leaned against the opposite wall as he listened to friend. “Contacting her family before we leave may not be impossibility. I could do something along the same line as when we first contacted her people.”

Zeb’s entire stance changed while he listened to his chief engineer. “Do you really think you could come through in time? I will be forever in your debt if you can pull this off.”

“Let me see what I can work out, but don’t tell Avery anything about it. I wouldn’t want her to get her hopes up in case I can’t come through in time. By the way, when do you plan on leaving? Everything in the engine room is in perfect order and all systems are ready.”

“I was working on the return route when I went to see Avery. I am planning on Departure four days from now. I plotted the quickest way back using the worm holes in the Glecon, Fio and Seer systems. That way we will arrive back in our galaxy right next to Theron. So if there is trouble when we get there we won’t have to fight our through the Drylons in order to get to the planet. I am not sure the Drylons know about the worm hole in the Seer system that comes out right next to Theron. If they don’t already know about it, I hope to Gods that they never find out.”

“We would have a major problem on our hands if the Drylons ever find out about that hole. Gods, Zeb do you realize what that would mean to our planet? It would be in constant danger from any race that wished to destroy us. This is the first I am hearing about this hole. How long have you known about it?” Brylon was pacing back and forth in front of Zeb.

“I found out about it right before we left to search for mates. It had recently opened but very few know about its existence. It was deemed classified so that the Drylons wouldn’t find out about it and use it to their advantage.”

“This changes the security of Theron. You know what you are doing and hopefully so do I. Let me get back to work and see if I can’t make your mate happy. I will contact you when I know something.” Brylon slapped his longtime friend on the back and turned to continue in the direction he was originally headed.

Zeb let out a breath and pushed off the wall he had been leaning against. He headed towards the transportation tubes and took the one that would take him back to the control room of the ship.

What he didn’t see was the figure that was lurking in the shadows. In one of the other door ways that lead from a warrior’s quarters stood someone who just so happened to overhear a most advantageous conversation. The shadow had come out of the quarters at the same time that Zeb and Brylon had almost run into each other. He had stepped back quickly so that neither man would see him. He had the perfect opportunity to find out any information that would be valuable to their plans. Hano listened intently so that he wouldn’t miss a word and when Zeb had revealed the ship travel plans, Hano nearly exploded out of his hiding spot. Gods, it couldn’t have been an easier for them. That stupid fool of a commander does not have a clue about what he has done to the safety of his ship and his mate.

Chapter 18

Zeb had been sitting in his office for hours when Zane knocked on the door and walked in without waiting for a reply. He watched as the doctor closed the door then took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Zeb’s desk.
              “How are things going? Did you tell Avery?” Zane leaned forward in the chair, elbows on his knees and stared at Zeb.

“Do you really have to ask? It went horribly. She totally freaked.” He replied with a shake of his head and a scowl on his face.

“That bad, huh? I told Gracie too and she was ok with it. What do you think went wrong when you told her?” It was Zane who was the one who told Zeb that he needed to inform his mate that the ship was leaving so he felt somewhat responsible for any back lash that Zeb might have received from his mate.

Before Zeb could reply, the door to his office opened again without a knock this time. His ship’s engineer came walking in quickly with an excited look upon his face.

“Zeb, go get your mate. I figured out a solution to your problem. Meet me in the conference room 4 in twenty minutes.” He turned around and walked out the room, leaving the two men in stunned silence.

Zane was the first to recover, “What in Gods names was that about?”

“What I was about to tell you was that my talk with Avery did not go well. She wanted to contact her family before we left to let them know she was alive.  I told her there wasn’t time to do that. Needless to say, she is not happy right now with that specifically.  So, I asked Brylon if there was anything that he could do in order for her to be able to speak with her aunts before we left. I am going to assume that he has found a way to do this. Come on. Let’s go see what he figured out.”

Twenty five minutes later Zeb had Avery in the conference room that Brylon had indicated. It wasn’t easy for Zeb to get Avery to come along without telling her what was going on. He had finally given up arguing with her. He told her that if she didn’t come willingly, he was going to throw her over his shoulder kicking and screaming the entire way if need be.  Since then she refused to talk to him and kept giving him the dirtiest of looks. In fact, if looks could have killed, he and Zane would have been dead the minute they had walked into Zeb and Avery’s quarters.

Avery had flopped herself down into one of the chairs that was situated around a large metal table that took up most of the room. Zeb knew that if he were to go sit next to her she would just get up and move, so he saved both of them the energy and sat across from her.

“Nea hela, I wish you wouldn’t be so angry with me.” He spoke the endearment softy so that only she would hear him and the only response he got was another one of her dirty looks.

Avery was determined not to speak Zeb. He had betrayed her by refusing to allow her to speak with her aunts and now she was stuck sitting in cold room that resembled something she would have seen in the Star Trek franchise. Three of the walls were a light grey color.  Each panel illuminated along the bottom with the same kind of lights in their quarters, while the forth wall contained an oversized window that looked out into outer space. It was a view she didn’t have from her quarters. She realized that she must be on the opposite side of the ship because she could not see her home planet. The table that she sat at was nothing extraordinary. It looked like one you could find in any conference room down on earth, but the chairs were something different. While the chairs were all dark blue and didn’t look any different from any normal desk chair, these held a special surprise when one sat down in them.

As soon as Avery had sat in the chair and leaned back, she could feel things moving inside the cushions. Whatever was inside the chair started to move in small circles up and down her back and under her seat. It caught her off guard at first.  Then she quickly relaxed as it started to feel too good to move. While her back and rear were slowly losing some of their tension from the massage, she crossed her arms over her chest and angled her head downward looking onto the table. This way Zeb wouldn’t be able to see how much she was enjoying the efforts of the chair. Maybe if she asked, he would let her take it back to their quarters.

Distracted as she was, she did not notice that someone had come to stand in front of her. She was startled when she heard her name spoken by someone other than Zeb.

“Avery? Avery?” Brylon was trying to get her attention unsuccessfully.

Zeb leaned across the table and spoke louder to her, “Avery!” He saw that she jumped at the sound of his voice and quickly looked his way. “Brylon is trying to speak to you.”

She looked up and finally noticed the large warrior that stood in front of her. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

Brylon smiled and pulled one of the chairs closer to her then sat down in it.

“I know that you were very upset with what Zeb had told you about communicating with your family.  He noticed your apparent distress and asked me for a favor.  I hope that when you see what I have done, you will not remain angry with him. Believe me, he is a good warrior, the best in my opinion. And he is torn between hurting you and protecting his home planet. I am hoping that this will make you happy again and allow your mate suffer no longer. You must know that if he could have done this on his own he would have in a heartbeat.” He looked into her eyes as he spoke and saw that some of the anger had faded. He continued in earnest, “I was able to secure a way for you to be able to speak to your aunts.”

Her eyes became as wide as saucers and a smile slowly crept over her face. “How?” was the only word she was able to whisper in her shocked state.

“It wasn’t easy but I managed to contact another warrior that was still down on the planet and in the area very near to where your aunts reside. I had him go to their house.”

Avery’s mouth hung open as the warrior standing in front of her told her the news. Her aunts would be terrified of the huge man who had come to the door with information about their missing niece. Their first instinct would be to call the police but she guessed that the warrior sent there would somehow prevent that. She could only hope that her aunts would listen to the stranger at their door.

“Did…Did he talk to them?” She looked to Zeb who was smiling at her in a way that was asking for forgiveness for his actions earlier.

Brylon answered her while she was looking at her mate, “Better than that Avery. Come see.” He turned at that moment at walked over to the wall that she had been facing and pressed a button under table and the appearance wall instantly transformed. The screen was black at the moment, but not for long.

“Manko are you there?” he spoke in the direction of the screen and waited for a response.