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  "Please, don't,” he asked. “I belong to Bridget and I always will. There will never be room for any other in the chambers of my heart. If I can not be with her, I will be alone."

  She saw a single tear easing down his lean cheek and it hurt her so deeply she had to dig her fingernails into her palms. “Was the dream that bad?” she asked.

  For a long moment he did not reply but when at last he began to speak, the hurt in his voice broke her heart.

  "We were walking hand in hand along the seashore. Bridie loved to swim but I would not allow her in the water because I could not join her. If something happened and she started to drown, I couldn't save her."

  "You can't swim?” Kahmal asked.

  "The parasite won't allow us to learn. It fears the Reaper might drown and it would be destroyed in the bargain. That is why we can't swim."

  "Did you and Bridget go often to the seashore?” She loved listening to his Ry-Chalean brogue.

  "There is a place called Savannah and we went there a few times. She liked to sit on the sand and watch the waves coming in.” He cocked a shoulder. “I must admit I found it a tranquil experience."

  "So was that where you were in your dream?"

  "I don't think so. The surroundings were strange. I'm not sure where we were or if that place even exists.

  Besides, the whole scenario was off."

  "In what way?"

  Cree held the picture of the dream beach in his mind's eye. The image disturbed him more than he was willing to admit and he shivered.

  "Are you cold?” Kahmal asked.

  "There were ice floes in the water,” he said so softly she had to strain to hear. “I could see them all the way to the horizon yet the day was bright and sunny, a warm wind blowing over us and I knew what was coming."

  From out of his past three words came hurtling toward him and slammed into his consciousness with lightning speed: “Stage Three complete!"

  "Cree?” Kahmal asked, watching the horror invading his golden eyes. When he didn't respond, she reached out to shake him.

  "It was the sessions,” he whispered. “I was reliving the sessions in the Be-Mod 9 unit."

  Kahmal had read the dossier on the Prime Reaper Kamerone Cree and knew he had spent weeks in a Behavioral Modification Unit being tortured by members of the Resistance under the guise of assault therapy to re-enforce his training. It was there he had met Bridget.

  Cree plowed a hand through his thick brown hair and Kahmal saw his hand was shaking.

  "I felt her hand jerked from mine and then I was out in the middle of the ocean, staked down to one of the ice floes as it bobbed on the waves,” he told her. “There were thick spikes through my palms anchoring me to the ice. I heard Bridget calling to me, begging me to come back but I couldn't move. I was staked to the ice."

  "You were reliving the therapy sessions,” Kahmal said.

  "I heard the wave coming toward me and I lifted my head to see it. It was huge, blotting out the sky. It bore down on me and when it broke, the ice floe flipped over and I was beneath the water, my hands pulling free of the spikes."

  He had been drowning, water flowing down his nose, his air cut off by the invading thickness. He was sinking beneath a wavering, frigid surface, ice floes hovering just beyond his reach. The water was filling his lungs, inflating them to bursting, filling his body cavities with the freezing liquid. The harder he fought to reach the surface and the cleansing air that would free his blocked lungs, the deeper he plunged beneath the white surface until all light was blocked out.

  "Then she was there in the water beside me, pulling me up, dragging me to shore. I was dead—I knew I was dead—but she wouldn't let me go. We were on the sand. I was on my back, staring into her eyes as she put her lips on mine, breathed life back into my lungs. She saved my life."

  Kahmal knew he was unaware that she was stroking his shoulder as he repeated his dream to her. She could feel the tremors rippling through his body and wanted desperately to hold him.

  "Just as I gasped my first breath, she and I went spinning through the air and I hit something so hard it knocked the breath out of me. When I came to I was shackled to a stainless steel pole on the plaza in front of the Titaness on Rysalia Prime,” he said.

  "Where your bloodkin are to be executed,” she said, knowing he could not have seen the poles that had been erected long after he had fled with Bridget to Terra.

  "There were thousands of women standing there to see me die. Hael Sejm and Captain Chakai were holding Bridie between them. She was struggling to get free, trying so hard to come to me, but it was already too late. There was a flash of fire at my feet and I was burning."

  The memory of his scream filled his head. The pain had been so horrific, so invasive, so utterly intense, he had longed for the surcease of life. But just as soon as the flames had enveloped him, blistering his flesh, then burning deep through the epidermis, past the coris, into the muscles and nerve bundles, dissolving capillaries, splitting open veins and arteries and flashing into the very marrow of his bones; just as the pain became so terrifying that he had began to beg for death, she was there holding out her hand to him.

  "Come, Kam,” she whispered. “Come to me and the pain will stop.” He held out his hand, striving to touch hers, hopeful, ecstatic, then she began to fade from his sight.

  Cree hung his head. “But she couldn't save me this time,” he said. “Her beautiful green eyes couldn't save me and I died in the flames."

  Kahmal suspected there was more. “Go on."

  He looked up at her and tears were running down his face. “They threw Dorrie into the fire with me. She was pleading with me to help her, to stop the pain, but I couldn't. I woke up hearing her screams."

  "It was just a dream,” she told him. “We are not going to allow anything to happen to you or her."

  "Just promise me,” he said, swiping angrily at the tears, “that you will make sure Dorrie is kept safe.

  Promise me that."

  "I swear it on my honor as an Amazeen warrioress,” she pledged.

  He seemed to relax, letting out a long breath. “That is all I can ask, ‘Kadia."

  Kahmal tucked the envelope he had given her into the pocket of her jumpsuit. “Is there anything else you want me to do?"

  "If you make it back to Terra,” he said, “you will never be able to return to this side of the megaverse.

  Your people might well send bounty hunters after you."

  "I've no illusions about what may or may not happen to us, Cree,” she stated. “My thoughts are, though, we'll be written off. No one will come after us. You don't have to worry about me or my crew."

  "We need to destroy the wormhole,” Cree said. “If my bloodkin and I do escape and we are able to get to Terra, I don't want to have to be looking over my shoulder for the remainder of my life and have my bloodkin doing the same."

  Kahmal nodded. “I can understand that. Perhaps closing the anomaly would be the wisest thing to do."

  "As long as it's open, there will always be a chance our enemies will arrive on our doorstep to wreak havoc with our lives. I'd just as soon not have to spend my time looking for tall women in gray sweat suits."

  Kahmal grinned. “I rather liked my gray sweats,” she said.

  He smiled, too, for a moment then the smile slipped from his face. “Even if I don't make it back, I want to make sure it is impossible for anyone from our side of the megaverse to find their way to Terra again.

  Our people have caused enough pain and sorrow on that world to last a thousand lifetimes."

  "There's only one problem."

  "What?” he asked.

  "I don't think the Terrans have discovered the wormhole, yet, but I don't know that for sure,” Kahmal said. “We did encounter that Terran ship near the Vex when we were on our way to Terra to extract you. We came out of the wormhole practically right on top of them. What if they found their way into the anomaly? They'd have no way to get back to Terra if we destroy
ed it."

  The Reaper's eyes narrowed. “What ship was that?"

  "It was an all-female crew,” she said. “A Terran medivac transport. They were looking for, ah, friends."

  "Friends?” he asked.

  "Friends,” Kahmal said, her eyebrow lifted. Her face reddened.

  Cree's forehead wrinkled. “Oh, friends!” He half-smiled.

  "Needless to say we weren't interesting in making their acquaintance,” Kahmal told him.

  "I'm sure the Terrans were very sweet women,” he said. “Just a bit lonely."

  "Aye, well they can stay lonely,” Kahmal quipped.

  "Do you remember the name of the ship?"

  Kahmal thought about it for a moment. “The Orion , I believe, but I can't be sure."

  "Major?” Chanz interrupted, the vid-com clicking on without benefit of a warning chime.

  "Aye?"

  "You'd better get up here fast. We've got trouble!"

  Chapter Two

  Four dreadnaught class battle cruisers lay directly in the path of the Alluvia . Appearing out of nowhere, having eluded detection while in stealth mode the mammoth cruisers were braced with laser cannons primed to blow the lightweight LRC out of the sky.

  "Who the hell are they?” Kahmal asked. She didn't recognize either the build or the markings on the matte black ships.

  "They are not answering our hail,” Deon reported.

  "Cree?” Kahmal asked. “Do you have any idea who these bastards are?"

  The Prime Reaper was staring at the vid-com screen, his forehead creased. “I don't recognize them."

  "They are blocking my probe,” Sern said, referring to her own psychic powers. “How about yours?"

  Cree shook his head. “I'm getting nothing."

  "Well, whoever they are, they've got their cannons locked on us and if my instruments are reading correctly, they have enough firepower aimed our way to blow us to space dust,” Aegean said.

  "Try opening a channel, Deon,” Kahmal ordered.

  "Unknown vessels,” Deon said. “This is the Amazeen LRC the Alluvia captained by Major Akkadia Kahmal. We are on our way to Rysalia Prime with..."

  "A Reaper in your greedy, murderous little hands and you will hand him over to us! Now, wench!” a booming voice shouted over the vid-com and the center screen lit up to show a grimacing black face filled with fury.

  "Necromanian,” Tyrian said. “I've never seen one. Very impressive."

  "I am Kamau Taborn, Prince of the Royal House of Necroman and...."

  "Nephew of Lares,” Cree said.

  Fierce black eyes jerked from side to side, seeking the image of the one who had spoken. “Who dares to speak the name of the martyred one?” Taborn bellowed.

  "On screen,” Cree ordered and the vid-com camera focused on the Reaper. “I, Kamerone Cree, speak the name of my friend, Lares, and since when did he become a martyr?"

  The hulking black man at the other end of the transmission smiled broadly, showing a mouthful of shining white teeth. “You are alive!” he shouted. “We had heard you met your fate at the hands of those bitches on Rysalia Prime!"

  "Thanks to your uncle that didn't happen."

  Another face pushed Taborn's from the screen. “I am Zainabu,” a large-breasted woman spoke. “I am the J'Bai of Lares!"

  "Uh, oh,” Cree said and his face turned pale.

  "You say my betrothed is still alive?” Zainabu questioned. “Where is he?"

  Sern, who was born with the gift of mind reading, scanned Cree's thoughts and what she saw there made her whistle. "I wouldn't tell her if I were you," she sent to him.

  Cree glanced toward Sern, frowning. “Lares,” he told the Necromanian woman, “is stranded on Terra."

  Zainabu lifted her chin. “He can not return to Necroman?"

  "The vessel which took us to Terra ran out of fuel,” Cree explained to her. “We barely had enough to reach our destination."

  Taborn shoved Zainabu out of his way. “How come you to be on a ship crewed by Amazeen?” he asked. “What have they done to you, friend of Lares?"

  "We captured him,” Kahmal said, bringing the Necroman prince's scowl back to her. “But...."

  "You will hand him over to us!” Taborn declared. “Now, wench!"

  "For what purpose?” Kahmal snapped, waving Cree to silence when he would have spoken.

  "For what purpose?” Taborn repeated, his dark eyes blazing. “To prevent him from dying in a Multitude bonfire!"

  "That isn't going to happen,” Kahmal denied.

  "Nay, it will not!” Taborn snarled. “We will await his transport to our ship."

  "Prince Kamau,” Cree spoke up, “these women are no longer my captors. They have agreed to help me rescue my bloodkin from execution on the Feast of Alluvial. I...."

  "Amazeen are not to be trusted!” Zainabu said, jockeying once more for main position on the vid-com screen. “They are treacherous bitches who lie out of both sides of their ugly mouths."

  Kahmal stiffened. “How dare you insult my Sisters!” she yelled. “We are just as honorable as Necromanian warriors and we do not lie!"

  Zainabu snorted. “Every word out of your mouths is a lie. It was an Amazeen who testified against my J'Bai and was responsible for sending him to Helios 12!"

  "I thought he was sent there for killing a Domination priest,” Cree said.

  "This is so, but he did not murder the priest. An Amazeen accused him, but it was a lie."

  Cree wanted to tell Zainabu that her betrothed had confessed to him that he had killed the man he had labeled a pesky priest, but decided to keep his mouth shut. He held up his hand when Kahmal would have continued the argument.

  "These women speak only the truth,” he assured the Necromanians. “I would know if one were to lie to me."

  Taborn shoved Zainabu out of the way. “If you say it is so, then it is so, Kamerone Cree.” He spread his hands. “Will you not at least visit my vessel and allow me to express my gratitude for the saving of my uncle's life?"

  "It was he who saved my life, Prince Kamau,” Cree corrected. “Had it not been for the reed necklace his J'Bai had given him when they were children, I would have died."

  Zainabu pushed Taborn so hard those on the bridge of the Alluvia heard the crash he made as he careened into something on his ship. “Explain!” she demanded. “How did what I made for my beloved aid in saving your life?"

  Cree winced for he had a momentary impression of Kamau Taborn's pain. “I was being hanged when I was transported to safety and could not draw air into my lungs. A breathing tube was needed. Lares did not think twice. He snatched the necklace from him and a reed was used to save my life."

  The glint of tears shone in the black woman's dark eyes. “Lares treasured the zawadi I made for him,” she said and fingered a similar necklace she was wearing. “For him to destroy it there had to be a great reason.” A smile wavered on her lovely face. “He must have great love for you, Reaper."

  "I have great affection for him, as well, milady,” Cree admitted.

  "You must come to our ship! You must be feted in traditional Necromanian fashion!” Taborn stated, easing Zainabu aside this time. “We must praise the man my uncle calls friend."

  "They aren't going to take no for an answer,” Sern said just loud enough for everyone on the Alluvia's bridge to hear.

  "I will not step foot on the ship of any woman who dares to call me a liar,” Kahmal grumbled. Or any man who dares to call me wench."

  "You were not invited, white woman!” Zainabu barked. She tossed her thick fall of glossy black waist length hair behind her.

  "I appreciate your offer, Prince Kamau, and I am honored but we have but a short time to reach Rysalia Prime. The fate of my bloodkin has great concern for me,” Cree reminded the Necromanian warrior.

  "You will need help in rescuing your kin,” Taborn said. “We can be of assistance to you."

  "How?” Kahmal snapped. “Will you station your dreadnaughts around the perim
eter of Rysalia Prime and threaten to blow away the Daughters to the Four Winds? The Multitude will know there are men nearby and destroy your vessel in the blink of an eye."

  "Nay, but my vessel will be at your back when the Winds lift the wings of your ship,” Taborn pledged.

  “We will run interference for you as you escape."

  "The Rysalians will know you are in the vicinity,” Kahmal stated. “You...."

  "We will be invisible to their sensors, wench,” Taborn boasted. “We can not be seen until we are ready to be seen!"

  "You have cloaking technology?” Kahmal asked, eyes wide.

  Taborn grinned. “A marvelous gift from our friends, the Scaans ,” he said.

  "Your assistance is greatly appreciated,” Cree said for Kahmal. “I don't think the Daughters are going to let me go with a fond fare-the-well and a see-ya."

  Taborn threw back his head and laughed, a booming sound that reverberated through the vid-com channels. “I would think not, Kamerone Cree! You are high on their foig list!"

  "Will you return to Terra when you rescue your kin?” Zainabu asked.

  "Aye,” Cree said then could have kicked himself for he knew as surely as he was standing there what was about to happen.

  "Then you will take me with you to be reunited with my J'Bai!” Zainabu said, her face lighting up for the first time.

  Dorrie groaned for the man in question was already married—to Dr. Beryla Dean. She put her hand over her mouth and looked at Cree.

  "I will send Zainabu over to you now!” Taborn said and every woman on the Alluvia heard the relief in his voice as he spoke.

  "Wait!” Cree said but it was already too late. In a matter of seconds, the statuesque black woman was standing on the bridge of the Amazeen ship.

  Kahmal's back was ramrod straight as she glared at the tall black woman who was only marginally less muscular and tall as Kahmal. With very large breasts and an oversized ass, the Necromanian was an imposing sight. Before anyone could move, the dark woman marched over to Cree and flung her arms around him, picking him up from the floor in a bear hug as though he was a child.