Finding Jess (First Wave) (12 page)

They spent centuries trying
desperately to save and protect the few women they had, and now they had a few
hundred females who thought nothing of going on dangerous missions and risking
their lives. Hell as young as they were, even his great-daughters did things
that gave him nightmares sometimes. However, at least his great-daughters went
home to their mother and father; these poor little ones didn’t have that.

Banatar had told him of the
circumstances of the conditions the children had been found in, and that for
everyone they saved, there were dozens, if not hundreds of hybrids and gifted
that needed to be found.

Seeing their little faces reminded
him of how important it was to remember that the real gift was them and those
like them. Like Jess, they had been through far more than they ever should have
and their priorities needed to shift to include finding their Valendran
families and bringing them here or foster families. There were so few children
on Valendra that the remaining couples would line up by the thousands at a
chance to love and raise any of these children. And he had no doubt they would
be loved in the way they should have been their whole lives.

His mind made up; he walked over to
Amun and Jess with determined strides. Jess had to stop herself from flinching
as he approached; he still intimidated the hell out of her.

“I want an in-depth report on the
familial scans done on the children and on their emotional and psychological
state. If you, Jess, Tarvok and Dr. Jensen could please join Banatar and me in
the briefing room in two hours, I would appreciate it.” It sounded so nice when
he said it; however, the steely eyed stare made it very clear that it was an
order he would not see defied.

Even Dr. Maggie responded with a
quick “Yes, Sir!” to his retreating back as he headed out of the room.

Ivint strode down the hallway deep in
thought about the children and all the other problems that were all going on at
one time. Balduen was still missing, and they’d not been able to find a trace
of him; and they’d found out that Banatar’s other daughter Dare went missing
from the same area on the same day as Balduen. It was obviously no coincidence;
Dare must have been the hybrid that Balduen had found. However, they still
weren't able to put it together and find either of them.

Nor had they been able to find the
shooter either. They interrogated every member of the Valendran teams on the
planet at the time, and none of them showed any signs of being the perpetrator
or knowing of the assassination attempt.

Julou’s men had been with them the
whole time and their belt comm’s were all accounted for so they couldn’t have
stolen one either. And Julou’s information about the Relians and their plans
were invaluable to Banatar.

Ivint had been shocked to learn how
entrenched the Relians were in the governments and societies throughout the
world. What did they call those people to discredit them? The terms on this
planet were sometimes hard to translate, so many words to describe things like
deception and hatred.

Ah, conspiracy theorists. That’s
what the Relians, and their minions called anyone who came close to the truth
about who was really running the world. As a ploy, it worked very well to
discredit them. Sadly, what little those people did know did not even scratch
the surface of the control that they really had.

Banatar had done an impressive job
at making little dents on their hold in small areas, but they just didn’t have
enough people to protect themselves, rescue others and embed themselves into
the world governments to try to counteract the damage the Relians were doing.

Ivint wasn’t the only one who
cringed every time one of the women went on a mission, into a dangerous work
environment in another part of the world… hell most of them freaked out every
time one got a bruise sparring.

It wasn’t that they weren’t
capable, in fact, some of them with their fighting skills combined with their
abilities; they were extremely deadly; even to a Valendran. It was just very
difficult for them to see the women as equals instead of something to be
coddled and protected.

The only ones who would even spar
with them were the other veteran POWs. They were the most accepting of the
women and children. Teaching the women some moves they didn’t know, training
them on the new weapons and computer systems and finding time for the children
who adored them. He was going to have to talk to Tarvok and find out what it
was that they knew that the rest of them didn’t.

*****

It had been two weeks since the day
he and Jess had met Lily and the other children; and Jess spent every day with
them while he trained Dr. Maggie, on the new medical equipment.

Ivint and Banatar ordered a storage
area of the silo near the children’s area to be cleared out, and family and
medical tech dwellings created. Jess, Amun, Dr. Maggie and Tarvok were the
first to move in. It seemed easier to keep Jess near Lily than to spend the
night searching for her.

The first night Jess went to her
regular quarters; Lily had been wandering for two hours searching for her,
before someone had found her. That only happened one more night before Jess had
started sleeping on a cot in a storage room near the children. Which meant
Tarvok and Amun were also sleeping in storage rooms near Jess and the children.

When Ivint and Banatar found out
they went ahead and decided to build the family areas for the relatives and
prospective new parents who were coming from Valendra to help raise the
children.

Amun, Jess, Dr. Maggie and Tarvok
formed a sort of alliance to advocate for the children. They had agreed
completely with Ivint that the children were part Valendran and needed to learn
their heritage and be with their families, for the few that had surviving
families. And they agreed that the childless couples on the planet should be
the first to be considered to adopt.

However, they argued and fought
about almost everything else regarding the children. Amun had been impressed
and grateful for the intelligent and level headed arguments that Tarvok had
made; especially that all the children should be introduced to their new
families at the same time.

Ivint and Amun had been adamant
that the surviving relatives be able to come first and immediately take over
the care of the child. Amun and the others had known it was a terrible idea to
isolate the other children like that. They were in no way ready to be separated
from each other yet.

It had been Tarvok that had argued
that it would be more traumatic to the children to just dump them off on some
relatives and leave them without the only security they’ve ever known. That the
gifts they had made together had shown just how deeply they had bonded, to try
and sever that so abruptly would set back their progress. 

Amun, Jess and Dr. Maggie had been
left nodding their heads in agreement at the impassioned way that he had spoken
for the children. Dr. Maggie of course, tried her best not to let him know
she’d been impressed.

Once Tarvok had seen Ivint and
Banatar weakening on their position, he went in for the kill. By the time he
was done he negotiated that the childless couples would be thoroughly
interviewed and those selected and would travel to Earth with the relatives.

And the final couples would be
selected by them, since they were the most familiar with the children and their
unique problems. He also demanded that each potential parent be informed of the
trauma the children had been subjected to in order to determine if they could
handle a child with more psychological needs than a normal child.

However, he didn’t want them told
what the children’s gifts were either, not even the relatives. He didn’t want
their worthiness judged on what kind of tricks anyone thought they could
perform. If a potential parent even asked he wanted them immediately denied.

Amun had spoken to Tarvok about it
many times, and they had also decided that the day that the children met their
relatives, Jess would meet her uncle. Officially anyway. She already knew him;
she just didn’t know that the man she called a friend was also her uncle.

Ivint had made sure that Lagor had
been sent to install the new MedLab at the silo, and he had been with them ever
since. He’d been installing comm’s and setting up new equipment in the
children’s section of the silo since the day Jess met Lily. They had spoken
dozens of times on setting up learning centers for the children so that they
could learn the way she had, and so she could continue to learn with them.

Not wanting to pass up the
challenge, Banatar’s son Risk, joined Lagor and a few other engineers in
creating a learning center for the children. Utilizing a range of Earth and
Valendran technology, they created interactive games that taught in virtual
reality and 3D.

Amun smiled when he realized that
so much had changed in his life that he should rightfully be experiencing at
least some level of stress, even with the rigorous mental conditioning they
have to go through to qualify for a tour on a ship.

However, with Jess, everything had
happened so smoothly that the only thing he felt was happiness, true happiness.
He settled into life at the compound with her, and the children like he’d been
meant for it. They, Tarvok, Dr. Maggie and some of the MedLab techs had begun
eating their meals with the children whenever they could; most of the time it
was just the four of them and the children though.

He’d always thought that being on a
ship was going to be the greatest adventure of his life. Hell, they’d all been
dumb enough to think that; he, Scaden and Gracus. Waking up in the middle of
the night to comfort Justin after a nightmare, catching Jess before she tumbled
off a tube to the ground, chasing the children around the play area or reading
them a story; those were the best adventures he’d had so far on this journey.

And Jess… she was the greatest
adventure of them all. Her capacity to love and to care about others after all she’d
been through was an inspiration to everyone she met. Her shy intelligence never
failed to charm the other women who adored her and the males who admired her
courage.

However, it was her playful side
that tamed his beast and made her the perfect playmate for the children. She
was daring and fearless, taking chances on the equipment sometimes that made
his heart drop to his feet; which was what she was doing right now.

“What the hell are you doing now?”
He yelled up at her as he stormed over to the tubes.

Looking up he could see her
scampering along the top of the tubes while the children yelled directions at
her.

“No, I saw it go to the right!”

“No, the left!!!"

“I got it!” Jess yelled
triumphantly holding up the mechanical space ship that Lagor had made Justin;
it had gotten caught under one of the metal support beams on top of the tubes.
She peeked over the edge at Amun and smiled. He looked so damn handsome
standing there patiently staring up at her. Leaning down as far as she could,
she held the toy out for Amun to catch.

“Ok, drop it.” He called up to her
when the toy was a few feet above his outstretched hand. Easily catching the
toy he handed it to Justin then waited to help Jess down.

He watched the back of her pants as
they molded to her pert ass as she climbed down the side of the tubes. As soon
as she was within touching distance of him, he snatched her off the bars and
into his arms.

“I think I was doing a pretty good
job of not falling off.” Jess giggled at him, her arms around his neck. She
loved it when he did things like this and ended up holding her; which seemed to
happen often now.

“I just wanted to make sure you got
down the rest of the way safely.” Amun said swinging her around before setting
her back on her feet. He’d stopped trying to hide his desire for her weeks ago.
He had tried to take things slowly with her at first, but his beast had gotten
tired of that quickly, and he’d become more and more obvious in his affections.

At first, she seemed a little
startled by the attention; the little touches for no apparent reason, holding
her hand as they walked in the corridors, kissing her on the cheek good night
every evening.

Recently, she had started grabbing
his hand first when they walked, or moving her head at the last minute so that
they were much closer to kissing on the lips than the cheek. The encouragement
made it harder to control his beast, but the man reveled in the knowledge that
she responded to him.

Chapter Ten

“Are we meeting for dessert later?”
Amun whispered in her ear so the children wouldn’t hear.

He would have eaten the Earth
protein bars if it meant he could spend time alone with her. He hated those
things; it didn’t matter how many varieties he’d tried; those things tasted
like badly flavored sand. However, Jess said she liked them and had quite a
hoard of them in her room.

“Of course!” She whispered back,
with a quick glance at the children to make sure they didn’t hear.

Jess knew very well that it had to
be an excuse to spend time with her; at least, she hoped it was. Most of the
time what he brought in at night was what everyone else had with dinner as
well. Either he hoped she hadn’t figured it out yet or didn’t realize that she
knew it was an open kitchen for everyone, and she could have easily gone in and
grabbed a whole pie if she wanted.

She sure wasn’t going to clue him
in either. She really liked the hour, or so that they spent talking together;
whispering conspiratorially while they sat close on her bed so the others
wouldn’t hear them.

They also weren’t the only ones
sneaking around at night either; Gibly took to disappearing at night. She’d had
a hard time sleeping sometimes and usually would go outside for some fresh air
and had caught him sneaking away several times. She’d meant to ask him where he
went at night, but it always slipped her mind.

“Jess, we finished with the
practice droids for the children. They’ve been thoroughly tested, but the other
men would like for you to try them out before we implement them into the
children’s training program.” Amun and Jess turned at the sound of Lagor’s
voice and watched him walk towards them, his eyes never leaving the scanner in
his hand.

“Thank you, Mr. Lagor!” Justin
exclaimed, throwing his arms around Lagor’s legs in a hug. Justin was the most
excited about them completing the droids than any of the other children. Jess
smiled as Lagor put away his scanner and leaned down to pick Justin up in his
arms.

“You are most welcome, young one.
We made sure to make your droid extra strong so it can handle a tough warrior
like you.” Lagor smiled at Justin’s beaming face, then at Jess.

She was so much like his brother
sometimes that Lagor’s heart broke at the loss of him; however, it made it
easier to fall under Jess’s spell. He’d watched her go from a timid little
thing, to a fierce protector of the children. The children had been just as
good for her as she was for them; it was hard not to love them.

“Are we gonna go learn to fight
now?” Lily asked running breathlessly up to Jess and Amun, her face shining with
excitement.

Jess wasn’t sure what happened, the
moment Lily touched her hand it had sent a shock wave through her body that
dropped her to her knees. She held tightly to Lily’s hand in a hard grip;
however, she couldn’t force her fingers to let go.

“Jess what’s wrong?” Amun asked
with concern; sounding as if he were in a tunnel.

Jess’s vision narrowed, the hand
not holding Lily slamming flat to the ground with a loud thud. Her hands began to
shake as the world around her seemed to disappear, the energy building inside
of her until it exploded. Sound and sensation came flooding to her quickly.

“Jess, how do you feel?”

“It’s beautiful!!!”

“This is incredible; the scans…”

Jess opened her eyes and looked
into Amun’s concerned gaze; smiling weakly to try to ease his worry.

“I’m ok.” She said sitting up with
Amun’s help. Looking around for Lily to make sure she didn't hurt her, she saw
her surrounded by the other children and Lagor.

“You made her a gift. It seems the
bigger the gift the more it takes out of you. Luckily, she didn’t need a
breastplate, or you’d be back in MedLab.” Amun said teasingly, grateful that
the scans showed only a minor mineral depletion that he could easily fix.

Lily came running back over and
threw herself into Jess’s arms with such force that Amun had to hold on to the
both of them, so they wouldn’t fall over.

“Thank you, thank you Jess! I love
you!” Lily said excitedly as she squeezed Jess tightly.

“I love you too.” Jess said with
tears in her eyes as she hugged the little girl back.

“Let’s see what you have there,
Lily.” Lagor said kneeling on the ground beside Lily and Jess, scanner in his
hand.

Jess watched just as curiously as
Amun and Lagor when Lily leaned back on her arms and pushed up the sleeves of
her shirt; on both of her upper arms gleamed two silver-colored arm bands.

Each was around an inch wide,
covered with intricate scrollwork broken only by the small dark amber stones
glittering in a little strip in the center that went all the way around the
band.

Amun slipped his finger under one
of the tight looking bands to make sure it wasn’t cutting off the circulation
in the girl's arm and wasn’t too surprised that it had an almost elastic
quality to it that allowed it to move easily with the girl's movements with no
discomfort. When touched it felt hard like the metal and stone it was, but to
the wearer, it was like wearing a piece of clothing. It was just like Ivint’s
breastplate in that aspect. It was the thought of Ivint’s breastplate that had
his beast rising rapidly to the surface.

Ivint’s breastplate saved his life;
Cari's bracelets had saved her life… was Lily in danger? Does Jess’s gift not
only help them control their gifts but help to save them as well? His mind
reeled with the memories of Ivint taking that pulsar blast to the chest, the
breastplate absorbing and deflecting the deadly energy. There was no doubt in
anyone’s mind, including Ivint’s, that the breastplate saved his life.

Looking at Lily’s arm bands his
mind went to the possible ways they could protect the little girl if she was in
danger, wondering if that was why they were created.

The thought of his family in danger
made him want to roar with rage. Looking around the room for potential threats
he knew weren’t there he vowed he’d kill anything that threatened his mate and
child.

That thought had the effect of
pulling his angry thoughts to an abrupt halt. By the One! When had he started
thinking of the three of them as a family? He knew Jess was his mate, but when
did Lily become their child? He was floored by the paternal feelings he had for
the little girl. He loved all the children, but somehow Lily was the one that
had gotten so deep that he had claimed her as his child much the way he claimed
Jess. The bond was unable to be broken once made.

Watching Jess hold tightly to Lily
as she chatted excitedly about her new arm bands, Amun had no doubt that Jess
would jump at the chance for them to adopt Lily. There was no way either of
them would ever allow her to go to another family; the bond between the three
of them too strong now.

He’d have to talk to Jess first,
and then Ivint and Banatar, but he saw no reason why they couldn’t be allowed
to adopt Lily. Other than the fact that he and Jess weren’t truly mated; that
was going to be a problem… for now anyway.

“You figure anything out doing
those scans yet?” Jess asked Lagor as he continued to scan Lily’s arm bands.

“You’ll be amazed when you find out
the things I’ve learned doing these scans. I still haven’t completely figured
it out yet, but I will. When I do, you’ll be the first to know.”

Lagor gave her a beaming smile,
hoping she’d be just as fascinated by his findings as he was. It was like her
father Dargan’s gift for engineering had been bestowed upon her tenfold, along
with her mother’s gift of jewelry making. It was her twist on both of those
talents that was remarkable.

“Maybe we can talk about it after
dinner?” Jess asked him hopefully. She had figured out weeks ago that Lagor was
her father’s brother. Knowing that sooner or later they were going to tell her
about it, she’d kept her silence and allowed herself to get to know the
intelligent but quiet man.

He’d tried hard to find excuses to
spend time with her, going out of his way to help with the children and make
unique learning toys for them. He was very patient with the wild and
rambunctious children, and made sure never to leave out the quieter ones when
he spoke or created things for them.

Watching him with the children
sometimes made her get little flashes in her mind of what she assumed was her
father with her when she was a little girl. The memories filled with a
happiness that she had forgotten over the years, but clung to now. She smiled
to herself when Lagor grinned broadly before answering.

“Of course! I’d love to go over it
with you and Amun; Tarvok, of course." Lagor said in deference to the
silent warrior that was never far from Jess and the children. Tarvok’s nod was
the only indication that he had even paid attention to him.

“That will be wonderful Lagor,
thank you so much. Now who’s ready to go check out the practice droids?” Jess
asked to the cheers and shouts of the children.

She grabbed Amun’s outstretched
hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet as the children ran excitedly to
the door of the practice room, followed by Lagor and a few other technicians.

“So, when did you figure it out?”
Amun finally asked her.

“Figure out what?” Jess asked innocently,
letting go of his hand long enough to brush invisible dust off her backside.

“That Lagor was your father’s
brother.” Amun retook her hand and began walking with her towards the practice
room at a much slower pace than the others. Tarvok followed them at a more
discreet pace.

“Not long ago. It became pretty
hard not to notice.” Jess said with a shy smile.

“I’m glad you’re taking it so well,
and sorry we did it behind your back.”

“Oh, I understand why you did. I
wasn’t exactly very receptive to anything at the time. I’m actually glad you
did; it gave me a chance to see who he really was, before knowing who he was.”

Amun understood exactly what she
meant and was glad she was so perceptive to have figured it out.

They stood in the doorway holding
hands while they took in the scene in front of them. The nine children were
kicking and hitting in what looked like a randomly wild fashion while
technicians and Tarvok’s fellow POWs milled around them. Some were showing the
children how to correctly hit the droids; others looked like they were making
adjustments to the droids.

Jess’s eyes went to Lily and
watched with a smile as the little girl stood fiercely in front of her droid,
small hands balled into tiny fists; her face scrunched up tightly with effort
as she swung widely at it.

“We will begin your training when
the children take their mid-morning rest.” Tarvok’s gruff voice startled her. 

“What do you mean?” She asked
turning towards him. Tarvok gestured to the side of the room where two larger
practice droids stood untouched.

“You mean me?” Jess asked with a
small squeak.

“Yes you. You must learn how to
defend yourself if you intend on staying on this planet. If not for your own
sake, you need to think of the children. You are with them most; you need to be
able to defend them if necessary.”

Tarvok’s tone made it sound like
she had no choice. And in truth, he was right. She didn’t have a choice.
Looking at Lily again, she knew she couldn’t ever let anything happen to her;
or any of the other children. She needed to be able to defend them, with her
life if needed. However, if it cost her life, she wanted to take as many of
them as she could with her to give the children a better chance.

“Will you teach me how to use the
weapons too?”

Tarvok gave her a wide smile.

“Risk has already made a few
weapons designed specifically for your hand. We’ll get started immediately.”

The beast in Amun wanted to roar
with anger at the thought of his mate needing to defend herself. However, the
beast and the man knew that she stood a better chance of staying unharmed if
she did learn. He squeezed her hand and smiled when she looked up at him.

They spent the next few hours
watching the children on the droids, learning about how they worked and
encouraging the children as they learned basic defense moves.

The interactive droids kept the
children enthralled with their lesson. Each hit caused the droid to explain to
the child how their hit would have impacted an enemy, encouragement and advice
on whether to hit higher, lower or harder to achieve a desired result. When
they did hit it correctly the droid would scream “direct hit, direct hit”
making the children cheer.

Justin moved with such fluidity and
skill that Tarvok decided to assign Crator to personally train him. The boy
beamed with pride at Tarvok and Crator’s praise.

The other children, including Lily
shared an instructor while they hit wildly at the droids, the men assuring the
children that they would learn quickly.

Jess turned towards the door when
she heard Tarvok mumble a curse under his breath, knowing Dr. Maggie must have
come in the room. She’d wanted to be there when the children first tried the
droids, but there had been several injured in a raid last night on another
Relian camp.