Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Mike brooded as they ate dinner, the good feelings from skiing faded as he thought about tomorrow, and all the possible consequences.

  He wasn’t sure what was going to happen tomorrow after the last two planets were taken care of. Would they be betrayed, or would everything go okay? They had their backup plan in place, just in case. Still, if they were betrayed, and they fought and destroyed the Canosians, that would almost guarantee the Canosian warriors would start to search for their civilization.

  He’d considered faking their deaths instead, it wouldn’t even be all that hard, but that would almost certainly doom the Kascorix to genocide. If he could be sure it would stop there, he might even be able to live with that horror, but the truth was that if that happened, the Canosians could turn around and finish off all the races they’d saved, and still hunt down their civilization if not them specifically.

  He just didn’t know, but he did know the Canosians were xenophobic. Did that mean that the Canosians were a conqueror species that eliminated all threats?

  Faking their deaths, or running, would answer that question, but the price for the answer would be too high if his feelings about them were right. The third option of course, would be to fight back, which is why they set up the backup plan. He’d prefer to know what his decision would be before it happened, but truthfully how it happened would matter to how he responded, so he’d wait.

  He was all too fearful that war was inevitable if they did betray him, that the smartest thing to do would be to take out the ten-mile-long carrier city so there was one less of them when the enemy searched them out.

  Then again, he could just be paranoid. Humans often feared what they didn’t understand, and he didn’t truly understand the Canosians. So despite his fears, he would hope for the best, while he prepared for the worst.

  He wondered if the council had been right, there seemed to be a never-ending supply of aggressive races, including of course humanity. Had he been a fool to come out here? Yes, they’d ended a threat that would have come back, and even saved millions of sentient beings from being lunch, but would he wind up just replacing that threat with a new one that was even more deadly?

  If they did become an enemy, was he honor bound to now protect all the worlds he freed, and if so for how long?

  He hoped he was just being paranoid, but his feelings said otherwise.

  If he went after a new threat directly instead of waiting for the Canosians to find them, would he just find another? He didn’t want that, he wanted to finish up tomorrow, and then go explore the stars near Sol. Visit with his family, Nadia’s family on Earth, and even drop in on Selana-Esari for Alyndra’s sake. Perhaps even visit with Dahlia on Miroth, she’d become a good friend over the last few months.

  Surely being vigilant, and being ready for invasion, along with serving as a senator was taking enough responsibility to also do what he wanted with his life. There was also the matter of his scientific work and discoveries, a hobby perhaps, but something he enjoyed.

  Not to mention, he and Chrystal never did get that honeymoon, and now he had two more mates. Didn’t they deserve to just relax for a while? Get to know each other even better in a relaxed manner, without the fate of civilizations on their shoulders?

  The truth was, all three responses seemed unacceptable to him, but they were also his only choices if they were betrayed. He didn’t know what to do, he just knew there was too much death out here among the stars. Would there always be more of it?

  “Hello, Mars to Mike.”

  He looked amusedly over to Chrystal with an eyebrow raised.

  She sent, “Alyndra just asked you a question, are you alright?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said out loud as he turned to his Esari, “What did you ask me?”

  He sent, “Fine, just going over the possibilities tomorrow. Not just what we can do in each situation, but what we should do.”

  Alyndra asked, “Did you want a coffee?”

  He smiled, an after dinner coffee did sound good. Too bad all his decisions weren’t so simple.

  “Sure.”

  He watched as she got up to move to the coffee maker, and only looked away when Dahlia’s voice pulled his attention away.

  Dahlia said, “My people all report ready, if they’re needed tomorrow.”

  He nodded, “Thanks Dahlia.”

  She snorted, “You don’t have to thank me for giving me and my people the gift of a righteous battle.”

  In a strange way, that made him feel a bit better about things. Yes, it was complicated, and it might not have even been the right tactical decision to come to this galaxy, but they had saved millions and safeguarded trillions of lives from the Kascorix. That couldn’t be a bad thing could it? The Canosians might betray them, but if they did, that probably means they’d have eventually run across each other anyway, maybe further in the future, but at the end of the day all he’d have done is speed up the inevitable…

  Chrystal said, “That doesn’t take away from the fact we feel grateful.”

  Dahlia nodded, “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now.”

  Alyndra brought coffee over for everyone, apparently his wandering thoughts had missed her asking everyone else too. She walked around the table and moved in behind him, and started to massage his shoulders.

  God, it felt good.

  He warned, “You’re going to spoil me.”

  Alyndra said softly, “That’s later on, tonight.”

  He sighed contentedly and let his head fall forward.

  Chrystal asked, “So how did things go this afternoon?”

  Nadia replied, “It could have gone worse, my brother and mother seemed to like him.”

  He grinned but didn’t look up.

  “Yeah, Jim did warn me though, not to hurt his big sister.”

  Nadia shrugged, “He was impressed by you I think, that was just the obligatory brother thing. Maybe next time we could all go, and in the real world, I want them to meet Chrystal and Alyndra as well.”

  That would be interesting, to say the least. There was a pause in the conversation as everyone drank.

  Dahlia finished her coffee quickly, “I’m going back down, I need to make sure everything is set for tomorrow on my end. Hopefully it won’t be needed.”

  He hoped so too, but he couldn’t deny he felt better with the oh crap plan in place.

  They all said good night as she got up and headed toward the lift. They continued the small talk until they finished the coffee, and then retired to their room.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  He was completely spoiled.

  He knew they had to get up soon, they’d had a foursome last night, then after the two-hour offline backup and optimization, he and Chrystal had a date online while Nadia and Alyndra slept beside them on the bed.

  He sighed in pleasure when he logged out to the sweet soft touch of Alyndra stroking his cock.

  Nadia caressed his cheek to turn his head, and started to kiss him and rub up against the side of his body, and he felt the wet warmth of a mouth go around his manhood and moaned into Nadia’s mouth. It took him a couple of seconds to identify the mouth, but they all blew him differently so it wasn’t hard to figure out it was Chrystal, as he moved his arms and pulled Nadia tighter against his body.

  “Good morning Mike,” Alyndra said in a soft sultry voice, while she continued to stroke his base, while Chrystal’s sweet mouth took care of the tip.

  His body arched and flinched at the cool air on his tip, as it left the warmth of Chrystal’s mouth, and he felt her crawl up the side of his body. A moment later, he enjoyed the view as Chrystal stole Nadia for a kiss of their own, and gasped in pleasure as Alyndra mounted him and teased the tip of his cock with her soft, wet, and hot velvety folds.

  It was exquisite blissful torture as she lowered herself down his shaft in a painfully slow manner.

  Chrystal and Nadia broke their kiss and started to kiss either side of his neck, and tease his earlobes while one of Alyndra’s hands dug into his chest while she arched her back, and she reached behind herself with the other hand to tease his balls as their bodies finally met. She was so warm and snug around him, and he gasped as she tightened herself even further and worked her tight willowy body in small circles.

  Chrystal pushed Nadia onto her back, and giggled wickedly in his ear before crawling over him and moving into a sixty-nine. Their soft moans of pleasure almost drew his eyes, he knew how beautiful and sensual they would look, but he couldn’t break his gaze away from Alyndra as she rode him slowly.

  She looked like a goddess riding him, using him, intense pleasure and concentration on her face, as she bit her lip and moved her body on his dick, riding the pleasure. There was nothing more precious, or hot, than watching a beautiful woman pleasure herself until she reached her peak. Especially his beautiful woman, and when she used his body to do it.

  He caressed her legs and inner thighs as she slowly rode him, her sexy purple eyes were filled with lust and captivated him. His cock flexed and jumped inside of her tight heat as she slowly rose and fell, and then circled again.

  She leaned forward slightly bringing other parts of her body within reach, and he caressed up her side along the valley of her waist, and then moved to cup and tease her breasts.

  She gasped and her eyes widened as he pinched her nipples lightly, and started to grind herself quickly on his cock.

  “Mike,” she said in a breathy whisper as her back arched.

  He bent his knees and put his feet flat for leverage as she started to tremble in ecstasy, and he started to pound into her hard and fast from underneath. He grunted in pleasure as her eyes widened, and she whimpered in ecstasy, her hot sex convulsed around him and milked his cock.

  He moaned, “Alyndra, I’m…” and trailed off as his legs went numb.

  He pumped up twice more as hard as he could, and his hands grabbed her waist and pushed down firmly as his mind and body were overcome with pleasure. His seed filled her as she cried out in pleasure, and when the short eternal moment of overwhelming bliss ended, she collapsed onto his chest.

  He caressed her face, and then kissed her gently, putting all his feelings into it. He treasured her, and his mind only barely acknowledged that Chrystal and Nadia were reaching their peaks as well.

  He smiled, “Good morning to you too.”

  Chrystal sounded very satisfied, but also faintly regretful, “Everything is ready to go, we should get in the shower before it gets too late.”

  Alyndra kissed him, and then they all moved to start their day. He noticed the four neat piles of clothes laid out for them on the dresser. He didn’t bother checking, he was sure Chrystal had taken care of everything. He smiled as the four of them went toward the bathroom, were they all going to fit in that shower? Maybe he needed to design a bigger one.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  He took a sip of the nectar of the gods, otherwise known as coffee. He was on the bridge with Chrystal, Nadia, Alyndra, and Dahlia. The room had the same dimensions as always, but felt different for some reason he couldn’t discern. It shouldn’t feel different at all.

  His eyes were glued to the image over the holographic table. The plan went perfectly, but he was nervous. This second to last planet had no surprises from the Kascorix, and he wasn’t expecting any from the last one either. They’d destroyed all the Kascorix vessels, and so had the Canosians. He watched the Canosian SAR efforts, as they collected damaged fighters and any personnel still alive.

  No, it wasn’t the Kascorix that made him nervous, he was nervous about what would happen afterwards with the Canosians. He hoped the nerves would be for nothing, but he wasn’t counting on it. Only… he still had no idea how he would react, mostly because he didn’t know what they would do. There were too many unknown variables. They knew almost nothing about the race, outside of the fact they were xenophobic, and that they had a fear of being caged.

  Humans didn’t like cages either, but then humans didn’t go crazy if jailed, he had a feeling the Canosians would.

  He’d spoken to Crystal about it on their date last night, she wasn’t sure either.

  He was also looking forward to getting back to the Milky Way, and back to his own plans. He was glad this was almost over.

  The plot cleared as the last ship landed, and the Canosian city carrier disappeared.

  Chrystal said, “They sent a set of coordinates, and a new map.”

  The last Kascorix planet came up, with the DMZ neither could enter and areas of responsibility for both groups. It was exactly what happened every single time before this, for the last nineteen home worlds of the Kascorix.

  He shook his head, there was no point worrying about any longer, all he could do was hope that they’d thought of everything.

  He nodded, “Assign coordinates for the fleet formation with the carrier in the center, and implement.”

  Chrystal did that rather quickly, and they dropped into L2 subspace.

  She reported, “Twenty minutes.”

  “Everyone ready to go home? Just need to assign the fleet to over watch, and we can leave.”

  Dahlia asked, “What are your plans?”

  He thought about it for a minute.

  “Well, get the rest of your people back to Miroth, drop by Selana-Esari for Alyndra. Then probably Mars and Earth to say hello to my and Nadia’s families. After that we were going to explore the galaxy in more detail by the sectors by Earth. That’s what I want to do, hopefully being a senator won’t be so exciting for a while.”

  Dahlia laughed, “Do you mind more company?”

  He frowned, “You don’t want to go home?”

  Dahlia shook her head, “I’ve enjoyed myself and my time here, and not just because of the battles. I have multiple reasons, but the idea of going home and practicing for battle another hundred years after the battles of the last few months just doesn’t appeal to me. I’ve had my war. I’ve been in touch with my government and am taking early retirement.”

  He asked, “Multiple reasons?”

  Dahlia grunted, “My leadership wants to open up closer relations with Mars. They are intrigued with the power systems you lent us, that we’ve given back, and wonder what other things you may have hidden from the rest of the empire. That isn’t an accusation, they just believe it would be smart to have a closer relationship with you after all you’ve done for us, and we’ve done for you. They want a lasting relationship with your world.

  “Regardless, I jumped at the chance for that job, just to stick around and see what other mischief you can get me into.”

  He snorted, “Mischief?”

  She grinned unrepentantly.

  “There are other reasons, but they are more personal and I don’t wish to reveal them yet.”

  He wondered what that was about, but decided not to ask.

  He nodded, “You’re welcome to stay, but I’ll be honest, I’m hoping for boring exploration and scientific research.”

  She laughed as if he was crazy, and said, “Good luck with that.”

  Before he could respond Chrystal said, “Ten minutes.”

  Alyndra asked, “Anyone want more coffee.”

  He grinned and handed her his cup.

  Nadia said, “I’ll go with you.”

  They both got up and left the bridge.

  They were quiet for the last half of the trip, only a soft thank you was spoken when Nadia and Alyndra got back with everyone’s drinks.

  They dropped out of subspace. It took a few moments for the data to come in, which was far too long…

  Their fleet was completely surrounded, and not by the Kascorix. There were no Kascorix as far as he could tell, no ships, and none on the planet’s surface. Not anymore. He felt stupid, he hadn’t seen this coming. He should have, after all he’d gotten the coordinates to exit subspace from the Canosians, which made setting up this little ambush of theirs child’s play.

  “Get the fleet back in subspace!” He yelled, as he saw the fifty ships start to blink out.

  Chrystal said, “I can’t open a subspace aperture.”

  “Report.”

  Chrystal shook her head, “We’re being hit by over a thousand beams at less than one percent of the Canosians ability. They are varying the output randomly which is destabilizing the shields enough to prevent subspace transition, our systems can’t compensate to escape normal space.”

  He shut his eyes, as the last ship winked out, only their carrier ship remained. He also couldn’t fail to notice there were three Canosian carrier cities out there, along with fifty thousand fighters launched. They must have planned this and had the system cleaned of Kascorix by the other two carriers. Shirilla’s carrier was launching all their fighters now. Well, seventy-five thousand fighters, and three carrier ships against his ships.

  Fuck, he hadn’t planned for this.

  Fuck, plus, why were they holding back on the main ship?

  Chrystal said, “We’re being hailed.”

  “Put the bitch on.”

  The image above the holo-table turned into Shirilla, the Canosian captain.

  “Surrender, or be destroyed.”

  He wasn’t sure what to do, running didn’t even seem to be a choice. Not that he wanted to run, not after they’d committed genocide in this system. They’d shown their true colors, and he had no doubt they’d turn around and destroy the other nineteen worlds now that they were helpless.

  They might even destroy all the food races, after all they could be a threat in a few hundred years. Xenophobic monsters.

  He cleared his throat, “Terms?”

  She replied, “If you surrender and leave your ship, we will allow you to live out your lives on the planet below.”

  Shit, they wanted their tech. The Kascorix knew his ship was stronger than theirs, and stronger than the Kascorix. They’d also seen them build ships out of nothing, and facilities on the surface of planets. It was the only reason they hadn’t blown up the ship yet. There was also one more thing.