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  Vadef doubted the Earther was getting past his clanmate’s brutish aura at the moment, not when Miv was holding her helpless and waiting.

  The poor female unleashed one final scream as Vadef painlessly injected the sedative into her neck. She lost consciousness an instant later, and Miv handed her off to him. The Imdiko looked at the now insensible face, which looked far lovelier without terror overcoming it.

  He grimaced. Vadef was not a Nobek. He’d never frightened anyone in his life, and he didn’t like that he scared these poor women.

  Miv’s hand squeezed his shoulder. His voice had a delightful gravel quality; one that Vadef felt scratched an itch deep in his ear. “It’s all right, my Imdiko. We’re not hurting them.”

  “I wish we could make them understand that.” Vadef thought he might hear the screams for the rest of his life.

  “They wouldn’t listen. They are poisoned against us. Not to mention terrified at this moment.”

  Vadef nodded. Even the most benign invasion would be far from pleasant for those it was happening to. With a sigh he carried the woman to the wall of the corridor and laid her on the floor. Her white gown, while voluminous, still seemed inadequate protection for such a small creature. It wasn’t cold in the corridor, but Vadef still had the urge to cover her in a blanket or slip a pillow under her head … something that demonstrated care. However, he needed to keep up with Miv, to finish this unpalatable work. The sooner this invasion of the tiny Earther colony was over, the sooner Vadef could sit in front of a computer where he belonged.

  Reluctantly leaving the woman in the growing line of sedated females, he followed Miv to a closed door. Either someone was inside or it hadn’t been checked yet. The tiny sleeping rooms that were confirmed empty had the doors locked in the open setting. Miv pointed his frequency disruptor at the locking mechanism of the one in question. It beeped and slid open, and Miv put out a hand to warn Vadef back.

  The Imdiko obeyed and stepped aside, though he really couldn’t imagine one of the miniscule Earthers being able to harm him. Vadef didn’t get to feel big often. Being near the small women gave him a sense of how his powerhouse of a clanmate must feel.

  He was content to let his Nobek be a Nobek – protective, in other words. Miv stepped into the tiny rectangle of darkness beyond the door to restrain whoever might be inside. Vadef thought the room must be empty since no screams issued from it.

  Miv paused just inside and turned back to Vadef with a confused look on his face. Curious, Vadef stepped close to peer in past his clanmate’s large body.

  One of the women was in the room after all, kneeling next to the small excuse of a bed. Vadef could make out little about her; all he could see was a large cascading mass of blond ringlets atop a hill of white fabric. Her head bowed over her fisted hands, and there was a breath of sound coming from her.

  Vadef approached quietly, moving so that he could see the peach-pale face between the curtains of hair. Miv stayed at his side, ready to snatch him from any danger that might suddenly appear. They both crouched low to look at the woman. Her delicate features, almost too fine to be solid, gave Vadef the feeling of having become a giant brute. He’d never seen any living sentient that looked so fragile.

  Her heart-shaped face was streaked with tears despite how tightly she squeezed her eyes shut. Plump petals of lips moved, creating a bare whisper of sound.

  Even with a crease between her tightly drawn brows and the look of terrified misery on her face, she didn’t look quite real to Vadef. She was too lovely, too ethereal to be anything but a dream.

  Miv whispered close to Vadef’s ear, though the Nobek seemed incapable of taking his eyes off the female as well. “Meditation? In the middle of an invasion?”

  Vadef shook his head. His voice was equally low, though he doubted the woman could speak Kalquorian. His caution, and most likely Miv’s, came from not wanting to frighten her any more than she already had been. “I think she must be praying. She’s probably appealing to her god to save her from us.”

  Research and information were Vadef’s specialties. On board a spyship that delved deep into Earther territory, he’d devoted himself to the alien enemy’s culture these last few years.

  “It smells like blood in here. I wonder if someone harmed her at some point.” Miv’s lips drew into a tight line. “And now we’re frightening her. Who knows what she expects to happen at our hands?”

  Vadef knew his clanmate disliked making these women fearful as much as he did. As brutal as the Nobek was to enemies and his opponents in the fighting circle, he was conscientious to females. No one harmed women when Miv was around. He couldn’t stand it.

  The big man gave his clanmate a weary look. “Come on, my Imdiko. Let’s get this over with.”

  Vadef edged closer to the woman’s side. Unlike his silent Nobek, Vadef’s boots made soft clicking sounds on the hard floor when he moved. As if in response to his footsteps, the woman’s voice, pitched high in terror, rose loud enough to be heard for an instant.

  “…the innocents, please dear Lord, keep them…”

  Her voice lowered again, but her lips continued to move. She did not flinch as they closed on her, crouching on either side. Vadef put his lips close to her ear to murmur in her language.

  “Matara? It is all right. We are not going to hurt you.”

  She didn’t respond other than to have more tears creep out from beneath her tightly shut eyes. To Vadef she looked like a rendering of one of her religion’s angelic beings. She was entirely too lovely to be mortal. The Imdiko felt worse about making this one cry than any of the others.

  He tried to comfort her again. “Matara, I swear you won’t be harmed. I am going to sedate you. That is all I am going to do, so please do not be afraid.”

  Miv said, “Go ahead, my Imdiko. The sooner you tranquilize her, the sooner she won’t suffer any more fear.”

  Vadef sighed heavily. Seeing this one weep made his chest hurt. He definitely wanted to be in front of his computer back on the spyship. He was too damned softhearted to be on the front lines of this invasion shit.

  He stood and squeezed her thin shoulder, still trying to offer some reassurance to the woman despite knowing he really couldn’t. Miv swept her long curls aside, baring the side of her neck. Vadef pressed the cylinder of the sedating instrument against the slender column.

  Her voice rose again with fear. “…and give me strength, O Lord, as you gave Moses as he wandered the desert…”

  Unable to listen to that desperate tone any longer Vadef depressed the plunger, sending the tranquilizer into the female’s body. She lost consciousness in the middle of a word, crumpling where she knelt.

  Miv moved quickly to catch her before she could slide to the floor. In one smooth motion, he lifted her. She draped across his arms like a broken doll. For a moment he and Vadef didn’t move. They simply stood there and looked at her pretty face framed by that froth of glorious golden hair.

  Vadef wondered if he’d ever seen anyone so lovely. He was quite sure he hadn’t. When Miv came out of his momentary daze and moved to take her out into the hall, Vadef kept close. He couldn’t bear to lose sight of those ephemeral features. He watched her face almost breathlessly as they emerged from her dark sleeping room, to see if she was just as beautiful in the full light.

  She was not. She was even more stunning under the brighter corridor lights, stealing his breath away for an instant. The only unflattering characteristic that he could assign to her was how painfully thin she seemed, though some of that could perhaps be attributed to the billowing swath of a gown she wore. Her face was too gaunt however, making her appear underfed.

  Miv laid her on the floor alongside the wall like the rest of the sedated Earthers. He straightened next to Vadef and they stared down at her.

  The Nobek’s voice was surprisingly soft with wonder. “Did you know they were this lovely, my Imdiko?”

  “I’ve seen vids, mostly of our empress, but – no. Seeing them up
close is something much different.”

  Miv was taking a long time to move on. He was usually gung-ho to carry out orders. Being a convict under a sentence of military service left the Nobek feeling he had more to prove than most, making him one of the most loyal members of the spyship’s complement of security. Yet he seemed as loathe as Vadef to leave this wisp of female beauty behind.

  Miv said, “I find most of them exquisite. This is the prettiest of them all, I think.” He drew a deep breath and shook himself. “We’d better get going. It seems like most have been caught, but we need to finish the sweep.”

  Vadef nodded, but he was again looking at how helpless and frail the tiny Matara looked. Damn it, he didn’t just want to walk off and leave her lying on the floor like this.

  He said, “Just one moment, my Nobek?”

  Before Miv could answer, Vadef went back into the little sleeping room they’d found her in. He grabbed the thin, rumpled blanket on her bed and pulled it off. Under Miv’s questioning gaze, Vadef went back out into the corridor and covered the golden-haired female from her chin to her toes, carefully tucking it all around her motionless body.

  As he rose, he saw that others had taken note of what he’d done. Imdikos, mostly medics, hurried in and out of the other sleeping rooms, finding more blankets and covering the unconscious women. Even some of the Nobeks got into the act, and Vadef had to suppress a smile. No doubt the protective warriors saw this as an opportunity to redeem their acts of taking such helpless creatures prisoners. It made Vadef feel a little better about carrying out his own duty.

  Miv nodded his approval, even letting a smile drift over his usually savage countenance. Vadef noted all the screams had stopped, replaced by quiet mutterings from the Kalquorian crew. Perhaps they were done with the unpleasantness.

  He smiled back at his clanmate. “All right, Miv. Let’s see what’s next.”

  Miv started to turn to lead the way, but then he looked at something over Vadef’s shoulder and he froze. His spine stiffened. “Weapons Commander Lidon and Captain Tranis are here.”

  Chapter 2

  Ducking a little, feeling as if he’d been caught doing something wrong, Miv got back to work. He hurried down the hall to see if there were any other Mataras to be sedated, not waiting to see if Vadef followed him. He did not want the uncompromising Weapons Commander Lidon to find his work lacking in any way. He kept his eyes down, trying to be inconspicuous as he moved away from the imposing, battle-honed Nobek.

  He heard the deep tones of his superior, the man’s massive voice carrying through the hallway as Lidon called to Miv’s clanmate. “Records Officer.”

  Vadef’s quiet, almost boyish voice replied. “Yes, Weapons Commander?”

  Miv kept going, checking the situation. Most of his fellow security personnel milled about now, double checking the open doors of the sleeping rooms or simply looking over the unconscious Mataras. Apparently, everyone in the building had been captured. He kept his ears trained on Lidon’s exchange with his Imdiko.

  “This situation looks well under control. Go on to the colony’s main office and access its records files. Find out which females are under legal Earther mating age and send the information to squad leaders. We must make sure we don’t take younglings back to Kalquor.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Miv shot a glance over to see his clanmate heading towards the exit. For once Vadef didn’t look insubstantial, not when he compared the man to the tiny women they’d just subdued.

  Vadef’s body was toned, possessing muscle despite a series of illnesses in his childhood that had stunted his growth. He still looked more like a teenage boy rather than a full grown man in his mid-twenties. Completely cured of the compromised immune system he’d been born with, Miv’s Imdiko would still never attain a large stature. The young man looked vulnerable among the hulking specimens of their kind, and as ever, Miv felt the almost violent need to keep Vadef safe.

  Adding to the Imdiko’s seeming susceptibility was the innocent cast of his lovely face, framed with a soft flow of silky black hair. With fine-boned, almost delicate features, Vadef moved about his life with a perpetual wide-eyed curiosity that was as endearing as it was worrisome. He soaked up new experiences like a sponge, and sometimes forgot to be careful in his enthusiasm to learn all he could. Being confined to bed and often hospitalized as a child had left Miv’s clanmate with a near desperate need to explore and see everything in the known universe.

  Vadef passed Miv’s immediate supervisor on his way out of the building. Weapons Subcommander Osopa was deep in conversation with a couple of other security personnel, and Miv decided getting an assignment was better than standing around and waiting for his orders.

  As he went towards his superior, he passed the blonde he and Vadef had just secured. He couldn’t help but look at the female again as he went. He’d never seen anyone so beautiful, and he replayed the way she’d felt in his arms when he’d held her. She’d been so tiny and light, barely even there. The little Earther was a feather compared to even Vadef. It had been hard for Miv to set her down on the floor, to remove her from his care. Somehow her silent tears had affected Miv more deeply than the screams of the other women. He’d felt a visceral urge to save her, but what had there been to save her from? Himself? His crewmates?

  Miv’s gaze ran over the delicate features of her pale face, wondering how old she was. She looked to be near his age but with Earthers, who could tell for sure? Their life spans were shorter and they aged faster than Kalquorians, though it was believed the superior medical capabilities of the Empire could close the gap eventually. Earth was overcrowded and polluted, with medical research lagging far behind that of most civilized planets.

  The tiny beauty fell behind Miv, and he was fast approaching the trio of Captain Tranis, Weapons Commander Lidon, and Dr. Degorsk. The senior officers of the spyship were all clanned to each other and worked well together despite their seeming dissimilarities. Dramok Tranis was much younger than his clanmates, but he held himself with great maturity. His beard lent him age that had not yet approached the ability to line his face. The youngest captain of the Kalquorian fleet, he had made his mark with fearless intelligence. He’d been offered an admiralship just a couple years back, which he had refused in order to remain a spyship captain.

  Nobek Lidon was a feared idol among his men. The weapons commander limped on a horrifically scarred leg, the result of having his fighter nearly blown to pieces as he fought a battle many years ago. As spiritual as he was fierce, one was as likely to hear him quote a passage from the Book of Life as they were to receive a punch for stupidity.

  Imdiko Degorsk, the ship’s head medic, was as confusing as he was a talented healer. Most Nobeks on the ship could not figure out how the handsome doctor who cracked unending (and usually unfunny) jokes had managed to clan with men of Tranis and Lidon’s fierce and no-nonsense demeanors. Miv had once heard Degorsk get angry with his staff however, and the man had spouted abuse and obscenities fit to make a man’s ears bleed. For an Imdiko, he was plenty nasty when pissed off. Miv had been impressed.

  The young Nobek skirted past the threesome, keeping his head down and his gaze intent, as if to show how busy he was. He did not want to get yelled at and shamed by Lidon. It was with no small relief that he reached Weapons Subcommander Osopa.

  Lidon’s second, not much older than Miv, acknowledged him. “Ensign Miv?”

  Miv executed a quick bow. “It looks like all the inhabitants of this building have been neutralized. I’m ready for my next assignment, sir.”

  Osopa nodded. “Start moving the women to the infirmary. Mind that you take only the ones that look in the proper age range to clan. The infirmary is located at the U-junction at the end of the hall down there.”

  “And the others?”

  Osopa pursed his lips and glanced at Lidon, who still conversed with his clanmates. The young man came to a quick decision on his own. He’d joined the fleet straight out of training ca
mp, and despite being only slightly older, he had years of experience over Miv.

  Osopa said, “Most of the young ones are in the other wing, so you probably don’t have to worry about under-ages on this side. We’ll give Records Officer Vadef a chance to figure out which of those we don’t touch.” He glanced at an older woman, her snow-white hair and creased face a clear indicator of her age. “Leave the elders here for now. We’ll be placing them and the younglings in their temple building.”

  Another Nobek named Jas had been listening to the instructions carefully. He said, “Sir, I’ve looked in the infirmary. There are more clan-age women than that room will hold. I don’t think we’ll get more than twenty women in there.”

  Miv blinked and looked down the hall, at the lines of Earther females. Now that the invasion was a success, he could finally appreciate what they’d found. It made his mind reel. He couldn’t stop the shock in his tone when he whispered, “More than twenty women.”

  Osopa turned his face so Lidon couldn’t see his grin. “It’s amazing to see so many females similar to ourselves, isn’t it? Can you believe this?”

  Miv slowly shook his head. Other than the females of his own family and those of his clanmates, he’d never seen so many Kalquorian-like women in his life. It was a profound shock.

  Osopa returned to his professional demeanor. He told the gathering security group, “I’m aware of the space issue in the infirmary. The overflow will be put in what I think is the dining hall, which is the next building over. Miv and Jas, you’ll have first guard shift in there. I’ll assign several more security as well.”

  Miv and Jas chorused, “Yes sir.”

  As he started towards the other end of the hall to begin moving the Mataras, Miv’s attention was again captured by the woman with the long, blond curls. He suddenly decided she would go to the cafeteria, where he could keep an eye on her. Maybe he’d even manage to talk to her a little, if she would allow it.