Atticus's Angel Page 13

  “Are we sure the Explorer is gone?” The question comes from a voice on the other side of the room, and I pull away from Brock to look over at Teal, his mating marks flaring deep colors as his hair undulates around his face.

  Bren shakes his head before answering quickly, “No, of course not. But never in our recorded history has a spacecraft had all communications go down without it having been death for all on board. The communications are usually broadcasting long after all life has expired on a craft, which as you know is often how pirates find unmanned vessels.”

  Teal swallows hard before dropping his eyes to his feet. I don’t know who he lost, but obviously he knew someone on board. The Explorer had almost eighty males, just like the Discovery. To think that they all are now dead is a tragedy no one wants to consider.

  “I’ve sent the instructions to investigate their last known coordinates to a hopper craft in their zone.” The smaller hopper vessels circle, monitor, and study specific planets in the zones, and they vary in sizes with the average crew around twenty males. “They were closer and have reported nothing yet.” Bren lets out a heavy sigh. “Honestly, it’s not looking good.”

  A heavy silence descends on us as we grieve the loss of our brothers on a spacecraft identical to our own. I’m sure their thoughts are similar to mine, “It could have been us.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  - Ashlyn

  I was an idiot to let Brittney talk me into this. As we walk toward the equivalent of a cafeteria, we’re passed by women quietly making their way to the same spot. I’ve never been there, since Atticus and I have eaten all our meals in our kitchen. As we walk in, it immediately reminds me of all the dreaded cafeterias in the group facilities I’ve attended.

  But Brittney is just so convincing! The thing that got me was the way she phrased it. I can’t remember her exact words, but she made it sound like she wouldn’t go without me—almost couldn’t go without me. Like she needed my help to get down here.

  Using her cane, she leans on me lightly with one hand while shuffling along. Our invitation to this meeting was verbally delivered by Shelly Suite. When I saw her walk in, all my fears and insecurities came crashing over me again—until her huge husband walked in the door behind her.

  Well… technically not her husband. Her mate, Callim.

  After her quick introduction, she explained that she wanted to have a “meet and greet” with the other ladies while the men “talk strategy”. Brittney and I just looked at each other after she left before she exclaimed, “Wow! If I didn’t know that Brock was totally committed and all in with me, I’d be really insecure.”

  Brittney’s words hit so close to home, I only nod briefly before asking. “Well? Are we going?”

  Of course, Brittney went on to explain why we should go, but the reasons don’t really matter at that point. She’s my new best friend, and the mate of my mate’s best friend and now a co-worker too. I have to go and be supportive. It’s not like I’ll have to talk.

  Clutching my arm tightly, Brittney pulls me closer as we hesitate in the doorway to the cafeteria. “There are so many women! I didn’t realize…” Her tall, thin frame towers over me, but she’s bent over to whisper as we try to figure out where to sit. Most of the seats are taken and based on how many one-of spots there are, not many of the other women know each other.

  Pointing to the right, I motion to two seats side by side at a table near the back. Nodding, Brittney lurches forward, her cane clicking ahead as she navigates through bodies carefully. As we sink into the chairs, I notice that in addition to Shelly, there are five other women at the head of the room, standing next to her. “Hello, everyone! Let me welcome you formally to the Discovery and your new life as a mate to a Quasar male.”

  A few ladies around the room clap, but the noise escalates and dies out quickly. Tapping my hands together politely, I try to figure out what we’re really meeting for. Sure, eventually we’d all get together. Maybe they want to set up a social event like a dance or something? If so, I won’t be participating in setting it up or coming to it.

  “Listen. I don’t want to waste a lot of time on anything that I don’t feel is productive. Suffice it to say that I didn’t want to become a Quasar mate. It’s hard to feel like you have no control over you body and life, which I’m sure you can all relate to. But it’s done, now. The decisions have been made.”

  “Real eloquent, Shelly.” One of the other women crosses her arms and smirks, not bothering to keep her voice down.

  Shelly doesn’t even look over at her. Instead, she waves her hand lightly toward the mouthy woman while continuing to stare at us all one by one in the audience. “Let me introduce you to the other women that were stolen from Earth with me. We were attending a study group, and except for a couple of us that have mates on Dactyles, the prison planet below us, we’re now all here. This is Karen, Jo-Anne, Beth, Lisa, Susan, and the only one of us not in the study group… Hannah Becker.”

  A collective gasp sounds all around us as my eyes are drawn to the famous woman that I assumed was dead along with the rest of the world. Hannah Becker. The first SkyLab to Mars astronaut. Presumed dead when the SkyLab exploded in a freak malfunction rotating around Mars. It was big news around the world.

  “Right now our men are meeting to discuss what happened with the Explorer. If you haven’t heard, that spacecraft is a Quasar ship out performing the same duties as the Discovery we’re on now—only in a different zone of space. The Explorer issued a distress call earlier, explaining their malfunction briefly and then went silent.”

  I hadn’t heard that. Is that why Brock and Atticus acted so strange before they left after dinner? Looking over at Brittney, I try to see if she acts surprised. Unless she’s an excellent actress, she definitely didn’t know either.

  “I can see that most of you didn't know.” Shelly’s loud statement draw my attention to her again. “And that’s what I have a problem with. For a female-dominated society, they sure don’t share much with us!” Placing her hands on her hips, she flips her blonde hair as she turns to her friends next to her in exasperation.

  Hannah steps forward, grabbing her arm as Shelly turns away. “Maybe I should take this?”

  Questions have begun to spring up as the women around me begin to lose patience. The more Shelly says, the more I realize I don’t know. What does she mean by a female-dominated society?

  I’m not the only one that wants to know either. A tall, dark-skinned woman sitting at the closest table to them has stood. With her hands on her hips, it’s clear she wants answers. “Are you saying that we should be worried about this happening to us? What exactly is going on?”

  Shelly takes a step to the side as Hannah begins to take over. “The important thing is not to panic. I’m not going to lie—yes, we had an incident earlier where one of the Quasar men on the ship ended up down in engineering accessing a restricted panel, but he had no idea he was doing it or what it did. Some kind of brainwashing and programming was performed by enemies that we aren’t even positive of yet.”

  The entire room is silent as this sinks in. Exactly! They feel the way I did earlier. It’s just so shocking that it takes a moment to process what’s really going on.

  “I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve been to the planet Quasar, and the ruling council is all women who’ve no desire to give up the power they wield over the men in their society. From the studies we’ve done to date and what we’ve learned now from the Ashen, when the matings were suppressed for the men, they lost a lot of secondary traits in addition to their sex drive. Even though it’s sometimes tempting to embrace the path that the Quasar Councilors have laid out, we need to rise above that.”

  Shelly blows out an exaggerated breath as she steps up by Hannah again. “There’s a difference between rising above it and rolling over and just letting them run our lives now.” She still has her hands on her hips as she cuts in as Hannah takes a breather.

  Hannah doesn’t look at Sh
elly as she begins to talk again. “We need to consider this an opportunity for a partnership. These men are used to women running the show. We can show them how a true partnership works.”

  Shelly turns from facing Hannah while she talks to facing the crowd. “Yeah, with honesty—”

  “Yes, and I do agree with Shelly that no one in this room should be in the dark about what’s going on and what our future plans are. There are a lot more of you here now than I ever imagined, and you’re all dealing with your own personal issues health-wise too.”

  Shelly nods, pointing toward herself. “The idea that because we’re smaller, we’re somehow frailer—that’s what I’m intent on making sure doesn’t perpetuate. I have some good ideas about how to handle this latest threat, and I want to force their hand to deal with us like a democracy. It’s our life, too!”

  A couple of the other women step closer to Shelly from behind her, tossing their arms around her shoulders as her voice begins to break with anger and frustration. Hannah steps in front of her, grasping one of her hands, and her own voice quakes as she assures her. “It’s our life and the lives of our unborn children.”

  Turning back to the women in the room, Hannah’s voice becomes stronger. “You were invited here to make sure everyone is told the truth. We’re going to crash the men’s meeting next and force them to treat us like equals. I honestly can’t say it won’t be hard. But right now, they’re just being typical idiots and not thinking about the long term consequences of keeping this a secret. But just to be clear, is there anyone here that wouldn’t have wanted to know the truth?”

  You could hear a pin drop for a few seconds as everyone looks around at each other. Even I can admit that as frightened as I might be about the future, of course I want to know the truth. How many things did my mother hide from me that I found out after the fact? I was often so angry, but could never express it properly, acting out in ways that she just wrote off as temper tantrums due to my FXS.

  Now, I have a chance at being a part of something life-altering. Not only for me from the healing and subsequent normal life, but also in these men’s lives. I still don’t understand all the intricacies of their society, but I want to learn. I want to understand everything.

  Throwing up her hands, Shelly practically shouts, “Exactly!”

  There’s a murmur through the room as another blond woman steps forward. “I’m Beth.” She presses her palm to her chest and I can tell it’s hard for her to talk to all of us. Where as Shelly seems to thrive on everyone looking at her and Hannah was reserved but clear, Beth’s voice quakes as she continues. “I’ll be organizing some classes in the next day or so to review what Hannah, Susan, Shelly and I know from our experiences. Shelly’s done a lot of research and study on the Quasar laws, and it’s important everyone gets prepared over the next couple weeks for our arrival to the planet.”

  “How will we find out when they are?” The dark-skinned woman in the front calls out as she raises herself halfway up from her seat in the chair before sinking back down slowly.

  “There’s definitely an on-site communication system on the Discovery—similar to email.” Hannah moves until she’s standing directly in front of the woman, addressing her personally before looking up at us all and raising her voice. “I’ll make sure that everyone has their own direct line that they’ll have access to, either on their own display or that of their mates. And please…” Her voice softens, “…don’t look at this as a setback here today. Our mates are scared. They aren’t trained for this and a lot has happened just over what we’d consider two months.”

  Clapping her hands to break the moment, Shelly pulls everyone’s attention back to her. “Anyone who’s interested in going to the meeting the guys are at… follow me to what they call ‘The View Room’.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  - Atticus

  We’re still discussing whether we should log everything, subsequently letting the Quasar Council know what happened with Vekel on our own ship when the door slides open and a stream of females enter the room. Led by Shelly and Hannah, they fan out around the room to stand by their mates as Bren gives Hannah a questioning look.

  “What’s the meaning of this, Hannah? I thought we decided that now wasn’t a good time to worry all the new females?” He’s still standing at the front of the room with the view of space behind him, its darkness as endless as my own questions.

  Ashlyn and Brittney are one of the last through the door, although I could tell she was there long before she comes into view. I can sense her apprehension and… fear? I’m tired of sensing that from my mate. She needs to understand that no matter what her opinions are, even if I don’t agree with them, she doesn’t need to fear me.

  “You decided.” Hannah announces in response as Shelly drags Callim from his chair and up to the front by Hannah and Bren. His chagrin is obvious, but my attention is diverted to Ashlyn as she comes into my arm’s reach. She only stops when Brittney is close enough to Brock that he pulls her into his lap, his whispered words in her ear too low for me to hear.

  “I’m sorry.” Ashlyn’s apology is low as I pull her towards me gratefully. If there’s one thing that helps this uncomfortable and difficult conversation, it’s having my mate in my arms. The familiar comforting warmth of our connection instantly soothes my nerves.

  Placing my lips against her ear, I murmur quietly, “Quit apologizing. I’m glad you’re here.” I not only feel her exhale of relief, but sense her relax, a comforting flow of what can only be called contentment washing over me.

  “I have an idea to propose.” Shelly’s declaration at the front of the room, draws everyone’s attention to her. I’m not surprised. Shelly Suite was the second Earth female I met and every interaction has been interesting. She’s confident, imaginative, and very snide, but also extremely smart and brave.

  When Brock and I diagnosed her with Tirus X from exposure to the virus on Dactyles, I never once saw her give up. There was no crying or feeling sorry for herself. Even when she made it extremely clear to everyone on board the Discovery that she didn’t want a mate, she didn’t give up on life. I’m not surprised that she’s pushed Hannah to include them in our plans moving forward.

  I’ve known Bren a long time now, and even though he doesn’t appear happy with Hannah and the other females’ arrival, he does look resigned. The obstacles we’re facing are beyond what we’ve ever dealt with. Reporting to the Quasar Council is second nature and always the first thing that gets done by logging every movement of our day.

  Technically, if we have the approval and agreement of the female mates, we’re still following Quasar law by deferring to our Mate Lead. Currently, we defer to our Family Unit Lead or Ermada, but now we’re deferring to a mate. It’s a win-win for us all.

  Bren looks at Shelly, who’s leaning against Callim. His large arms circle around her waist with his palms settling on her belly, drawing attention to the slight swell of his offspring. What will that be like? To know that you’ve created life, and the proof’s growing every day inside your mate. “We’re definitely interested in any ideas. Our natural reaction is to report what happened today with Vekel to the Council, but at the risk of sounding paranoid, we have to consider they may have been behind it too.”

  “Exactly!” Shelly’s arms move animatedly as she looks away from Bren and explains. “Instead of trying to warn the other ships like the Discovery through the Council—who if they’re behind it may either suppress the information or realize that we’re on to them, we should let the other ships know through the Ashen.”

  I’m not the only one that doesn’t understand what she might have in mind. Here and there around the room, males and females exchange questioning looks, but Brock stares at me with a slight smile. “Leave it to Shelly to think of that.” His whisper is loud enough for Ashlyn and I to hear.

  When no one says anything, Shelly continues, her voice rising. “We should let them know that we’re going dark since we had the att
ack by Vekel here on our ship. Let the Quasar Council think we’re dead! And recommend to the others that if they have anything similar happen, they should do the same. Let’s get back to Quasar and over the next two weeks, we can come up with a plan—or plans to find out who’s behind this. You never know, maybe even Vekel will remember more with additional hypnosis sessions?”

  Brock starts clapping and Brittney quickly joins in. As I join, I think about how this is definitely the best idea I’ve heard so far, although I’m not positive that I totally understand. The clapping in the room swells as others join in.

  Bren raises his arms, pressing his palms down in the universal signal to quiet down. “Alright, alright. I was going to say we should take a vote—”

  “I think we still should.” Hannah cuts him off. Shelly’s nodding aggressively as Hannah continues. “We have to start now with making sure that everyone here feels heard. The important thing is to make sure that everyone understands it’s okay to disagree. Especially in regards to something that isn’t covered by the Quasar laws, and what we’re about to do is definitely not something ever considered. But we can’t just blindly assume that the Quasar Council is an ally with mated males any longer. Especially now with Vekel’s testimony and the fact that Callim was going to be part of the Mating Re-emergence Study.”

  Ashlyn squeezes my arms that are wrapped around her middle, and as I bend forward to peer at her, her questioning look lets me know I have a lot to explain. There’s so much she doesn’t know about our society and what has occurred recently with the matings.

  “So, a show of hands? Everyone in favor of contacting the Ashen and utilizing their communication devices to notify the other Quasar spacecrafts about our recent exposure of traitors?” Brittney’s voice is loud and leads the crowd as she yells “Aye” as her hand goes up in the air.