Jullien took it and drank to the toast. "Can I ask a favor?"
"Bathroom's on board."
He snorted at Chayden's assumption. "Actually, I need a secure transmitter."
"Blood?"
"Yeah. Someone I need to let know I'm still breathing."
"We've all been there." Chayden jerked his head toward Jupiter's ship. "I'll take you up and hook you in." He glanced to Jupiter. "Am I still in the system?"
"Depending on how mad you've made me Mack lately."
Chayden clapped Jullien on the back before he hit the release to the ramp. He led him up and into the immaculate ship. It was high tech and well-maintained. And unlike anything Jullien had seen before.
This was ...
He paused at one of the panels to look over the impressive schematics. "Who designed this?"
Chayden put his hand over it to block Jullien's view. "You don't want to get too nosy about that. Jupiter is really protective when it comes to his lady. Let's leave it at that, okay?"
"Sure."
He led him to a small XO office. Jullien tried to put the call through, but there was too much interference.
Damn it. He couldn't even transmit his vitals right now.
"Is everything all right?" Chayden asked as he left the room.
"Couldn't get through."
"Nervous mother?"
"Pregnant wife."
Chayden sucked his breath in sharply. "Oooh. Sorry."
As Jullien started to close the door, a distress transmission came through. Chayden brushed past him to answer it.
"Yo, POW, this is Psycho Bunny. I have your coords. Hang dry. Passing to big bad will round a posse and head out ASAP. Repeat, we are on our way. ETA one hour or less. Hang dry. Help is on its way." Chayden switched it over and signaled a recall for Hinto's crew.
"POW?" Jullien asked.
"Piece of Work. He's Jupiter's cousin. Dumbass can't fly for shit. They're always going down from League run-ins, hence the call sign. Never knows when to shut his mouth."
Jullien followed him back toward the ramp.
Jupiter met them at the top of it. "Teex again?"
"Oh, how did you know?" Sarcasm dripped from Chayden's tone. "I'll run point. I locked his location in already. He's on Oksana."
"Great. Me favorite place to land. Never." Jupiter growled irritably. He passed a sympathetic grimace to Jullien. "Sorry to be making you wait for seeing home again. Let me save me cousin's sorry hide, so as not to listen to me aunt and moora crying at me, then I'll see you back to yours."
"No problem. Anything I can do to help?"
Chayden took off as more of Jupiter's crew ran in to take their stations. And as the crew came on board, Jullien noticed something unusual about Jupiter's staff.
With the exception of Jupiter, there wasn't a male among them.
Jupiter caught Jullien's quirked brow, but didn't comment on it. "We got this. You be wanting a ringside view for the fun, or to rest a bit?"
"I'd like to keep trying to get word home to my wife. Wherever that makes you most comfortable."
Jupiter shivered as he led the way through the ship's corridor. "Marriage. Half your rights and double your duties. I do not understand this madness that has sunk her claws into so many lately. Saints preserve me." He made a holy gesture as they entered his command bridge.
Half his crew passed him an angry glare at his comments on marriage.
He passed the look right back at them. "Ach, don't be giving me your stink eyes, me shenandoahs. Not like that whole lot of you don't know how I feel about it. You've heard me rant enough on the topic when I'm flagged." Jupiter paused to smirk at Jullien. "And I know what you're thinking.... A thread will tie an honest man better than a chain a rogue."
"Got to say that was not in my thoughts. At all. Especially since I have no idea what that even means. Or even how that's applicable."
Jupiter laughed. "I'm not the lecherous piece of dog you be thinking." He pulled out his link and turned it on to show Jullien a picture of an extremely attractive red-headed female in a t-i-g-h-t Tavali battlesuit that hugged an impressive body. "Meet me own special piece of hell that comes wrapped as me sister Mack." He nodded at Jullien. "Yeah, exactly. Learned early in me life to keep me crew away from her or to take on crew she didn't want to torture me with. Me life's much happier this way as I don't have to gut a crew member I rely on nowadays."
Laughing at Jupiter's solution, Jullien headed for an observation seat while Jupiter took the captain's chair and locked in.
Jullien kept trying to get through to either Davel or Ushara with his link while they launched. But for some reason, he was still dark.
"Why's there so much League traffic here, all of a sudden?"
Jullien looked up at the question from Jupiter's stryper.
Jupiter was studying the maps around them. "Yeah. It's a lot more intense than normal. Something stirred them up." He opened a channel. "Psycho Bunny? What'd you do?"
"I swear this isn't me ... this time."
Jupiter turned to look at Jullien. "Do I want to know?"
"While I have an outstanding warrant, I should be a low priority to The League. Seriously. Way down on their hit list. Not like I'm Idirian Wade or Justicale Cruel. Nowhere near the level of Emperor Abenbi or even Counselor Cruel. I'm only a personal hemorrhoid, not an intergalactic threat."
"Well, someone's been a pissing in Kyr's whisky. And I know I didn't do it."
Jullien admired the way Jupiter cut and banked away from the patrols to miss engaging them. For a young pilot, he was extremely talented. But there was something really odd about all of this.
If he didn't know better, Jullien would swear he had a tracing chip in him that they were using. But he'd burned his out years ago. It'd been the first thing he'd done when he and his grandmother had parted company on bad terms. Last thing anyone wanted was a way for a vindictive bitch to hunt him down.
The crew remained completely silent while Jupiter did amazing stunts with the ship. Jullien would love to get his hands on the engine of this thing and see what was in it. It ran unlike anything he'd ever seen before.
And though it took some serious maneuvering, they managed to finally elude the League ships and land in the Oksanan desert by a broken-down Septurnum freighter without any further confrontations or problems.
However, as the new crew came onboard and drew up short the instant they saw him, Jullien realized his old luck had returned with a vengeance.
Teex wasn't just Jupiter's cousin. He was the captain who'd come inquiring about the Razor's crew that Jullien had thrown out of Sheila's office, and off their base.
And the rotten bastard remembered the encounter.
"Well, well ... if it isn't the Gorturnum trash done washed up on our shores. Looks like I am going to find out, after all, what happened to my brother and his ship, or skin every bit of flesh from your bones, Andarion. And there's no one here to stop me from it this time."
CHAPTER 20
When Teex stepped toward Jullien, Jupiter stopped him. "Whoa, now. Calm yourself before you be doing something we're all regretting."
"The only regret is the one you're going to have if you don't get out of my way, cousin."
Jupiter stepped between them. "He's Tavali and he's declared Safe Harbor."
"I'm sure my brother did, too."
Actually, he hadn't. But Jullien withheld that technicality.
Not that he needed to as Jupiter continued to stand between them. "Need I be reminding you, cade, what happened the last time a Septurnum broke Safe Harbor? Think about it, man. Almost four hundred years later and our name continues to be tarnished for it. The Dane family and the Wasturnums still be wanting all our asses. The last thing we be needing now is another clan war from another Nation, and me da would take it harsh for it to be his own blood what done it."
"They killed my brother, Jory!"
"The Caronese killed your brother, man. You know this. Your brother picke
d a fight with them. He brutally slaughtered their crew. Mercilessly, while they were down on their knees before him. They might have shown him some mercy had he not done what he done, but the way he treated them when he took their ship ... I hate to say he got what he earned 'cause what they did was brutal, but damn it, Teex, use your gourd. You know what I'm telling you's harsh true."
Teex glared at Jullien. "I know there's more to this. I'm going to prove it."
And with that he brushed roughly past him.
Jullien didn't move.
Jupiter sighed heavily. "Sorry about that. Didn't know there's bad blood between you."
"Didn't realize the asshole was your cousin."
"What can I say? Every family has its asshole."
Jullien nodded. "Yeah.... I'm the one in mine."
Jupiter laughed. "On with you, now. You don't seem so bad as all that."
"Believe me, my entire family would argue."
"Now that you mention, me family would probably say the same of me. Guess we assholes should hang together, then."
"Maybe so." Jullien returned to the bridge where Teex continued to glare a hole through him. It was like being in royal court all over again. So he did just as he'd done as a kid. Held his head high, locked his jaw, and ignored the bastard while he continued to try and reach Ushara.
Teex and crew put on the news while Jupiter and his crew were hooking up their ship to tow it with a tractor beam.
Jullien paused to listen to the reports he normally avoided like they were the patient zero for an incurable plague, since most of the news was about his birth family and old friends who'd abandoned him the instant his parents had cut him off.
He didn't want to care about any of them, but it was hard not to, especially when they flashed a picture of Nykyrian with his parents and he saw how happy they were. A pregnant Kiara held one of their sons while Nyk stood with their father, who had his arm on Nyk's shoulder in a proud embrace.
Yeah, that stung like a vicious kick to the stones. Jullien swallowed hard at the familial scene. He was glad to see them thriving. But it hurt to know that his father had never once welcomed him like that, not even when he'd been a child. And that his father never would.
Back in the day, his father had always sighed heavily whenever Jullien approached him, or ground his teeth as if struggling not to strike him in exasperation.
There had been a time once when Jullien would have sold his soul to have his father look at him with that kind of love, pride, and respect.
Instead, his last words with his father had been harsh and biting.
"You've made your bed, boy, and since you enjoy wallowing around in your sheets so much, I hope you enjoy the ones you've chosen. From this day forward, you're dead to me. As far as I'm concerned, I only have one son and you're not him."
Jullien had glared at his father's back as he'd walked away and shouted his own parting shot. "If you felt that way, you old bastard, you should have done us both a favor and left me dead when you choked the life out of me, instead of calling to have me resuscitated. Oh wait, it wasn't my life you were saving that day, was it? It was yours 'cause you were afraid you'd be put to death for my murder."
His father had spun on him then and swept him with a ruthless glare of hatred. "You're absolutely right. I wasn't about to throw my life away for a lazy, drugged-out, piece of shit like you. I begrudge every single second of my life I wasted on you, trying to make you passably human and decent. You've never been anything but a disappointment to me."
Jullien winced at the harsh memory. Damn, it still hurt when he thought about that night.
But then, it didn't matter. At least that was what he tried to tell himself. He had a new family now, and while they didn't love him either, they weren't cruel to him. At least, not like that.
Plus, Ushara and Vasili loved him. They made it all worthwhile.
He turned his link on again and flipped through his photos. It was the first time in his life that he actually had some worth glancing through. A collection where no one had been captured glaring or sneering at him behind his back. Where the memories were all happy and worth reliving.
An image of Vasili and Ushara came up on the lock screen, which was also new now that he had information to protect. Their picture had been taken during Ushara's birthday party at her parents' house about a month before Vas had been confirmed. The two of them had looked at him with so much love that he'd snapped the picture, wanting to preserve and keep that expression forever. The rest were candid photos taken of Shara and Vas at different times, and a few of little Nadya and her sisters, as well as Shara's sisters during their many visits to their home. They were over so often, he was surprised they didn't keep a change of clothes in the closets.
Then again, they ranged freely and borrowed whatever they wanted whenever they felt the urge. He'd never seen anything like it. Their husbands were literally the only things the sisters didn't share.
Everything else was fair game for them.
"Hey, Ju Ju?" the stryper called from her seat. "We got something strange here. You might want to take a look at this." She put it up on the main screen. "That's a lot of ships. But they don't appear to be a League fleet or military."
"Convoy?"
"Maybe. They just dropped in on us from hyper. Picking up some cruisers and fighters. Definitely capable of doing a lot of damage."
Jupiter scowled. "Have you hailed them?"
"Working on it."
Jullien frowned as he kept an eye on the small fleet in front of them.
"It's a Porturnum group." His stryper arched her brow curiously. "They're requesting a conference with you, Jupiter."
"Pull them up."
Jullien folded his arms over his chest as an image of an obvious human-Andarion hybrid came on the screen. Since there weren't many of them, it got his interest immediately.
"Venik," Jupiter said in a chiding tone that told Jullien he was fairly well acquainted with the male. "What's the meaning of this shite? Are you trying to piss me off, cade?"
And that caught his curiosity even more as Jullien remembered Malys mentioning that her husband was Andarion. Given the age of the male on the screen, this must be one of Brax's and Malys's sons.
"I just need a few minutes of your time, Jory. We mean you no harm, whatsoever. We're just passing through Sep space. So tell your little Bunny to simmer down and back off the targeting of my ships before I feel compelled to do something about it."
Jupiter flipped open the comm channel for Chayden. "Chay, behave."
"Ah, do I have to?" Chayden's disappointed tone was comical. "I want to be Payne's pain as I don't feel he gets his due daily chafings."
"Not today, drey. Let's see what they need before we rub up their grains, shall we?"
Chayden said something in a language Jullien didn't speak, but it was obvious by his answering laughter that Jupiter was fluent with it.
"Does this mean I can send over an ambassador you won't shoot?" Venik asked.
"Aye. Send your ambassador over." Jupiter hesitated. "Airlock or bay?"
"Airlock. So drop your shields to let us in.... And Jory?"
"Yeah?"
"My ambassador wants a private word with your Gorturnum guest."
To his credit, Jupiter didn't flinch or blink. "What guest be that?"
"Don't play stupid with me. Teex already told us all about your Gorturnum friend who was exceedingly rude to my mother when she pulled into their port and asked for assistance from them."
Jupiter's face turned to stone. "And I be hauling him under Safe Harbor. So if any of you be thinking of doing ill to me guest on behalf of your moora's sake, I'll be taking it quite personally. On me honor that."
"Relax, Grandma. Now drop your shields, open the airlock, and let us in."
Jupiter cut the transmission. "I don't trust those bastards." Getting up, he headed for his cousin and slapped him on the back of his head.
"Hey! What the hell?"
&nbs
p; "You called them? To what purpose? Where's your head, man? Up your arse?"
"Where's yours, Jory? Since when are you up the ass of the Gorts?"
"You get us crossed with Trajen Thaumarturgus and that'll get us crossed with the Danes, and the whole of the Wassy Nation. You do that, you stupid dropping, and me da will eat your head arselins back. You best trust me on that. Your parents and blood be damned." He drew back to hit him again, and then growled and refrained.
With a disgusted sneer, he turned toward Jullien. "Me deepest apologies about this."
"It's fine. I'm the one who was rude to her. I'll go see what they want."
"You know her boys'll be wanting a piece of your hide for retaliation." Jupiter turned back to his cousin. "Why are you even talking to them, T? You've no reason to be speaking to the Ports."
"I ran into them while asking Tavali about my brother and his last take. They're the ones who told me that he was at the Gort station and that he'd been put in harm's way by the hybrid bastard who worked there."
Jullien went cold. "They said what?"
"Yeah, but I didn't see a hybrid at the Gort station. Do you know who they were talking about?"
Jullien ground his teeth as it all fell into place. The Gorturnums had sent Teex after him, but because he was now stralen, Teex didn't realize he was the "hybrid" they'd meant.
He'd forgotten about that. With his eyes a different color, his complexion, while paler than the average Andarion, was still dark enough to pass as a lighter skin-toned lineage, especially among the Fyrebloods. Unless someone knew Jullien had been born with green eyes, they'd never be able to tell now that he wasn't a full-blooded Andarion.
But why would the Veniks think him hybrid? Malys had asked if he was a stralen Andarion, and he'd told her that he was. For all she knew, he was full-blooded. There was no reason for her sons to think him anything else.
Unless ...
Jullien cursed. "It's a trap." Just as he stood, a bright light flashed.
Venik and six others appeared on the bridge with them, blasters aimed at their heads.
An eighth member caught Jullien from behind with an Andarion wire-collar. The three cords cut deep into his throat and lifted him from his feet, instantly incapacitating him.
While Venik and friends held the others at blaster point, Jullien was dragged, choking and coughing, from the bridge and down the hallway into a small rec room. He fought against the collar, but they were designed to cut off the victim's air supply and tighten with every attempt made for freedom. It was a tool mostly used in their prisons to control inmates. Or by special forces who targeted sentries or guards. There was nothing he could do. Once a collar was in position around the victim's neck, it was a most effective weapon that could only be removed by the one wielding it.