They could hope.

  They dropped out of subspace a few moments later and he held his breath, not that he needed to breathe, for the couple of seconds it took the passive scanners to pick up what was happening in the system.

  Chrystal said, “There is a battle up ahead.”

  The image of the space around the planet came in. There were nine Kascorix vessels, and one other ship that dwarfed the Kascorix.

  Chrystal said softly, “It’s twenty miles long.”

  Alyndra shook her head.

  There were also thousands of small ships, close to the size of his own scout design, about a hundred feet long, fifty feet wide, thirty feet in height at their widest dimensions. They didn’t look regular though, it looked like a bird, with a twenty-foot-wide central piece, the front expanded slightly, like a large head, and the wings extended out fifteen feet per side.

  He realized the practicality of the design almost at once, the central portion must hold the people, and the power, but the wings were used to fire the subspace energies. If the enemy managed to hit that portion and score damage, they might take out a couple of emitters, but nothing vital.

  There were thousands of them.

  Chrystal said, “Readings indicate the new ships are much less powerful than the Kascorix, but the number of ships attacking are overwhelming the shields and tearing them apart quickly.”

  He took a deep breath, “Hail them, and send a translation matrix.”

  A translation matrix was basically a primer for their own language, pictures, words, numbers, all designed to facilitate getting a quick translation done. Hopefully, they were familiar with the concept, and had an A.I., or something like it to quickly break it down and add it to their translation programs.

  If they didn’t have an A.I., it could take months for them to figure it out.

  He considered launching the fifty cruisers, but decided against it for now. He wasn’t sure they’d be able to take a twenty-mile ship along with five thousand or so craft. The Kascorix could take out the small craft in one shot, but were overwhelmed so quickly that hardly mattered. There were enough to put a hundred or so against every one of his ships, he didn’t want to chance that either.

  No, if it looked like a fight, he’d jump into subspace and leave. He wasn’t even sure he could upgrade to a big enough ship and complement to take on such a force. He’d could probably make a ten-mile ship large enough to host ten thousand scout sized craft, and have every one of the Mirosians fly one, but that would still end with a lot of death. They’d probably win, but he hoped to avoid doing that.

  The battle ended a short time later with the destruction of the Kascorix ships, only about eighty of the birdlike ships had been destroyed. Then they were hailed, and in the Kascorix language. He supposed that made sense, it was a language they were both likely to know considering where they were.

  A hologram of what looked like a very large bird of prey, with short arms as well as wings appeared above the table. Their feathers were red and gold, and the ruffle around their neck a lighter red. The beings face looked fierce, and beautiful in an alien way. Not attractive, but pleasing to the eye. Their faces were thin and hawk like, with a beak and small black eyes.

  The wings ruffled in a way that seemed threatening, perhaps some type of show of dominance, and then it spoke.

  “I am captain Shirilla of the Canosian battle carrier Vengeance. Our quarrel is with the Kascorix, who invaded our galaxy in a foolhardy attempt to make us food. State your intentions.”

  He replied, “I am Mike Stedman, commander of the carrier Chrystal. We too are at war with the Kascorix, they invaded our galaxy recently as well in an attempt to make us food. We pushed them back, and are here to make sure they are unable to ever come threaten us again. We are concerned however with the way you destroy their food races, we’ve been freeing them and leaving behind a guard for the duration of our campaign.”

  Shirilla shook her body, ruffled her feathers, and then replied, “The races in this galaxy are nothing but resources for our enemy, we destroy them to prevent them from being reclaimed after we leave. We don’t have the resources to leave ships behind to defend them.”

  That was rather… harsh. It even made a little sense, for a creature with no conscience. The good news was that so far they hadn’t attacked them, or even seemed all that aggressive. The ruffling of feathers seemed more to him like a warning, posturing, than any true anger toward them.

  He took a deep breath, “If we worked together in future battles, my people could clear the ground of enemies without harming the indigenous lifeforms, and I do have the resources to leave behind a ship to guard the system from recapture.”

  Shirilla turned her head to the side, “Why does it matter so much to you?”

  He replied, “We are a peaceful people at heart, who only fight in defense of ourselves and others. If we can save them, we believe we should. We also don’t believe the Kascorix will even try to reclaim lost systems, not while they have us, and your people, to focus on. It is also our intentions to deny them access to space, at all, and leave guard ships in their primary solar systems.”

  Shirilla paused for a while, thinking it through.

  Shirilla replied, “We will allow this, and watch.”

  The monitor blinked out.

  Chrystal said, “Their craft are landing back on the large carrier.”

  He sighed, “Launch the ships, and move for the planet. Make sure the Mirosians keep their distance, and keep alert. If the Canosians attack, I want us to enter subspace and retreat.”

  He supposed it could have been worse, but he was dubious about allying with such a race. That assumed they would even ally with them for the rest of the campaign once they saw them in action. Still, if he could keep them from destroying all the other races left in the galaxy, there should be over fifty left, he would do it.

  Chrystal replied, “I’ll let them know.”

  There was of course one thing he wasn’t looking forward to, even if this alliance lasted through the campaign they would have one major issue at the end. He wasn’t the only one worried about it either.

  Alyndra asked, “What do we do at the end of the campaign? I doubt the Canosians will accept our solution to simply quarantine their planets from space, they’ll want to destroy them utterly.”

  He sighed, “I have no idea. On the other hand, do we want to start a fight with a whole other galaxy, one that is clearly bred for war and powerful, just to protect the Kascorix from genocide? I don’t see how we could stop them otherwise. Maybe they’ll relent?”

  Maybe the Xaran had been right, maybe it had been a mistake coming here. Perhaps if he had just stayed away, and started his explorations of their own galaxy, the Canosians would have taken care of it. He didn’t know what the answer was, or what would happen. He wouldn’t commit genocide, but was it morally right to try and stop the Canosians from doing the same? He hated the Kascorix, and the idea of putting his galaxy in danger, or even just the lives of those with him, to protect them from that heinous act was nauseating.

  He didn’t want to protect them. Yet, he felt guilty by the idea of just watching them all die. Their intent had been to quarantine them until such a time they could be allowed to rejoin other races in space. But… he just didn’t know.

  Chrystal kissed him softly, which broke him out of his mental spiral.

  “I’m not sure, I don’t feel comfortable with either option.”

  He shook his head, “Maybe we could give them a choice before we attack the core planets, and refuse to help if they won’t relent or be satisfied with quarantine. It’s a couple of months away, let’s get to know them a little better and see what we can figure out.”

  Chrystal nodded, “The Canosians are retreating from the planet and giving our cruisers plenty of space, maybe they aren’t so sure of us either.”

  Alyndra said, “There’s little else we can do, except keep our eyes open.”

  They were quiet for the rest of the battle, and he felt a little nervous about revealing their energy to matter conversion technology, but they had little choice. They needed to create a cruiser to stay behind, and they needed to tweak the eco-system a bit for the inhabitants.

  Still, he worried it would give the Canosians another reason to attack them. They just watched though, as the Mirosians took out the Kascorix presence on the planet and they set things up.

  Chrystal said, “We’re being hailed.”

  He nodded and the hologram popped up of Shirilla.

  Shirilla said, “Very well, we will accept your terms, my navigator will send you our planned route. Vengeance out.”

  The hologram dropped.

  Chrystal said, “Their route is similar to ours and includes the remaining food planets before heading into the core. They must have gotten a hold of a database like we did. They have two worlds a day scheduled however, which means we have a little less than a month before we start for the central worlds. This was their second world today so I imagine they’re resting, and repairing their damaged ships.”

  He grunted, “Alright, we can sustain that pace if we have to, though it will eat into our time. Let’s get to lunch before Alyndra wastes away.”

  He grinned at his beautiful Esari woman.

  Alyndra didn’t smile back, but he could detect the amusement in her eyes. Their jump from system to system had made them finish up later than usual. He didn’t like the idea of a busier schedule, but of course all those alien races and their survival had to come before his personal life and preferred schedule. He’d no doubt that they’d agree with that as well. Personal time just didn’t measure against preventing genocide.

  Alyndra got up and slid onto his lap, and kissed him softly.

  “I think I’ll survive,” she said softly, as she drew his zipper down with a deliberate slowness that was seductive.

  “Especially if I have a little pre-lunch snack,” she said melodiously, as she slid off his lap and onto her knees.

  He had the feeling their lunch would have to wait a little bit longer…

  Chapter Seventeen

  Nadia sighed a little pensively and snuggled into his side. They’d just finished making love. She’d eventually made it back to the ship, but not until after lunch. They’d sent her a message when they’d run into the Canosians but she hadn’t been able to disengage from her talks with a couple of senators without being rude, so had to stick it out there on Xaran.

  She’d suggested a date after they’d filled her in on what happened, along with their worries, but so far they hadn’t made it out of the virtual bedroom in her apartment in virtual Australia. There’d been a small edge of desperation in her lovemaking that he hadn’t sensed before. He took in her normal scent, along with the scent of their mixed arousals, and enjoyed the way her warm voluptuously supple body seemed to fit so perfectly against his.

  But he also felt a lump in his stomach.

  “What’s wrong beautiful?”

  She kissed his chest, and then looked up into his eyes, and he saw a glaze of tears there.

  “I love you Mike, more than you’ll ever know.”

  “But?” he asked, dreading the rest of what she’d say. He didn’t want to assume the worst, but it couldn’t be good. He knew of course, exactly what she was going to say, he just didn’t want to admit it to himself.

  Nadia asked, “Is there anything I can do on the ship?”

  It was a rhetorical question, they both knew the answer to that question was no.

  She said, “I love you, and I’m yours, but that’s not enough. I need to feel useful as well, have my own job. What I do for my government is important. Here… I can be yours in my personal life, and be deliriously happy for it, but without the other what would I be? Half a person?”

  He wanted to tell her he valued her advice, but she was right. Outside of loving each other in their personal lives, there really wasn’t anything at all that she could do on ship to be useful.

  She was far too active and independent to make him her whole life, besides which, that would be unhealthy for anyone. The only reason it worked for Alyndra was because in a very real way, he was her job, as was paying off the honor of her entire planet. To Alyndra’s mind that was being very useful and making a difference.

  He really did understand that Nadia needed a purpose, to make a difference in some way. Of course, that didn’t make this conversation easier. Ironically, with the energy to matter converter it would be possible to change the things that motivated people and what made them feel useful. It would move away from things like jobs, and material wealth. The technology made that almost moot. But… something like that would take generations to take hold, jobs were too much a part of a human’s identity, and if he pushed for that change in Nadia he knew it would destroy her.

  “I assume you’re being recalled?” he almost choked on the question.

  She nodded against his chest, “I’ve been meeting with people in the empire for over a month. It’s painfully obvious the empire is not a threat to Earth with the Xaran in control, and quite possibly an opportunity when we get out there. They want me back, for a different mission. I want to stay with you but as we discussed, I can’t promise that things might not… happen in the line of my duty.”

  He nodded, “There are alternatives, if you could find something that wouldn’t require that kind of thing, you could leave an android here on the ship. Do your work on Earth, or even Mars, and then log in here at night?”

  Even as he said it, he didn’t believe that would happen. But he was loathe to just give up without a fight, even if that fight was a token one.

  She shrugged, “I don’t know, I’m good at what I do, and what I do makes a big difference. I suppose I could be an interpreter in truth, but that seems… almost empty in comparison.”

  He sighed, “I love you Nadia, we all do. I don’t like it, but it’s your decision.”

  Even if he could convince her, he knew in the long run she’d grow bitter over losing her old life. People needed to make a difference, sometimes love truly wasn’t enough. It was a painful truth, but if she felt she couldn’t stay, he’d have to let her go. If it wasn’t his decision, she would grow to resent him. He’d rather remember her as she is, than the train wreck their relationship would turn into if he tried to hold onto her.

  He sent a message to Chrystal to build a scout ship, along with what was going on.

  Then he pulled her tightly against him and then dragged her up his body to claim a kiss. His chest was tight, and his eyes burned as he kissed her with passion, and rolled her onto her back, and slid between her legs.

  She sighed softly and willingly spread her legs, and wrapped them around him as he lined himself up. She pulled him toward her with her feet, and thrust her body up, as he thrust down into her, their recent lovemaking making his penetration easier.

  He slid into her tight wet heat almost effortlessly with satiny moist friction as their bodies came together. His mind was in turmoil even as the pleasure filled his mind, as he imagined this would be the last time he would ever love her, the last time he would ever take her voluptuous but very fit body.

  He sighed in pleasure and ground down, his body pushed against her clit as he moved in a circle, and then pulled out, and he thrust back in while she once again arched her back and met him halfway.

  It might be the last time he physically loved her, but he would love Nadia until the day he went offline. Whether that day was tomorrow, or in eons, that would never change. He wasn’t angry at her at all, he understood, but he was upset at the circumstances, and losing her.

  He kissed her softly as their bodies found a rhythm of perfect harmony, and they pleasured each other with their bodies with an almost manic desperation. He broke the kiss and looked down into her eyes, which were filled with love, tears, pleasure, and anguish.

  She gasped in pleasure, and started to tremble beneath him.

  “Mike,” she whispered breathlessly right before the rapturous bliss took her.

  He moaned and froze, as the ecstasy of her convulsing hot velvety sex almost overcame him as well. He didn’t want it to end yet. He felt as if he might sob at the thought, and their connection of sorrow, passion, and love as they stared into one another’s eyes was beyond intense.

  He started to move in and out of her again, as she slowly came down from her height.

  She tightened her legs around his middle, and shifted. They rolled, and she smiled down at him as she started to ride him and grind down on him.

  He smiled back, despite the lump in his throat, and started to move with her, thrust up into her as she dropped down and ground down on his body in little circles.

  She was so damned hot, as her large breasts swayed erratically as her body slowly bounced up and down his length. Her fingernails dug into his chest almost painfully as she once again tightened around his girth, and her pussy started to milk his cock hard as she deliberately squeezed him.

  He still didn’t regret his decision that night and what he’d told her, and he never would, but it hurt far more than he’d ever imagined to know her nails would never dig into his chest in ecstasy ever again. He couldn’t imagine his life without her. Should they keep in touch? Could they considering her job?

  He gasped and grunted, and thrust up hard as his orgasm took him unaware. He was suddenly drowning in pleasure as he whispered her name. He barely felt her collapse on his chest, and kiss his neck as he filled her up with his seed, while his hands gripped her waist firmly.

  She caressed his face as they came down.

  “I’m sorry love.”

  He smiled, but he doubted it reached his eyes.

  “I understand.”

  She nodded and sighed as she once again slid off of him, and snuggled into his side.

  He said, “I have Chrystal making a scout craft, you should be home in less than two days. She’s going to take you in the wrong direction for a little while, if I can help it I don’t want the Canosians to know we come from the Milky Way.”