She managed a small nod, still unable to frame a word. Risyn looked at Jay.
“May I assume from your protectiveness that the lovely lady is under your protection?”
“Fuck yeah…” Jay growled and then nodded. “Yes, she is. Kelly is my wife… my mate in Lathar-speak. We’re married.”
His voice rang with a possessiveness that made her stomach feel all soft and fuzzy. She nodded when Risyn looked at her, putting her hand on Jay’s side. “He rescued me from the… the… that awful ship. We fell in love, got married.”
That was the story to protect her and she stuck to it. If the B’Kaar thought she was already claimed, they would pay less attention to her.
“Then you have my congratulations,” he intoned and then frowned as he nodded toward Jay’s wrists. “You do not have mating marks.”
His tone was vaguely accusatory and she bit back her whimper. How had they not thought about mating marks?
“Human’s don’t get ’em,” Gracie broke in. “We never have.”
Risyn’s head whipped around and he speared the taller woman with his pale gaze. She barely batted so much as an eyelash.
“And you are, my lady?”
“Gracie Shardlow, Terran Colony Commission. I was one of the women rescued by Xaandrynn M’rln from a Krin attack on one of our outer planets.”
Risyn’s eyebrows both winged up. “You were fortunate indeed to survive such an attack. I am glad. You are far too lovely to become Krin food. May I enquire as to whether you are mated?”
She inclined her head. “Thank you, and you may not.”
The look of surprise that flowed over Risyn’s face was so comical that in any other circumstances, Keris would have laughed. She didn’t think anyone had ever told the B’Kaar leader no before. Certainly not in such absolute terms.
“Errr… I see. Your servant, my lady.”
The B’Kaar recovered quickly, turning his attention to Seren. Before he could ask, the warrior introduced himself.
“Senior warrior Seren K’Vass. Charged by the emperor himself with the protection of these three females.”
She hid her smile. Clever warrior. Seren had both reminded the B’Kaar that human females were under the protection of the emperor and hence could not be coerced, and set himself up as Gracie’s protector, in one sentence.
“Very well.” Risyn stepped back to rejoin his men. “Now we are all acquainted, Commander… please show us to the command sector on base.”
They watched as each of the B’Kaar took a half step backward. Gears and servos moved, air hissing as the clamps released and then the suits opened up to allow each warrior to step free. Risyn’s breastplate touched his hair; the front brushed up and away from his face in a spikey quiff. Like most Lathar, he and the others wore leather combats, but instead of the jackets she was used to seeing, they wore sleeveless shirts, their arms bare. As they stepped from their suits, circuit-like lines glowed on their skin for a second before fading.
“Neat tats,” Jay commented, his big hand still wrapped around hers, but his voice was lost as the suits all closed again and reactivated, following their operators.
It was all both familiar and terrifying. The mechanical sounds were those of her “childhood” such as it was. They were soothing in their familiarity. If she concentrated, she could name each type of servo and compression latch by the sound it made when released, the knowledge spilling forth from the depths of an organic brain that had somehow absorbed the databases of her AI self. She couldn’t access it in quite the same way as she had her old databases. The query function was broken and only responded in context, when prompted by emotion or, for some strange reason, certain scents.
And at the same time, the familiar sounds were terrifying for her because she knew exactly what was making them—a B’Kaar’s kasivar. Cyber and armored warriors, they were known to hate AIs with a passion, campaigning for her kind to be outlawed. If any of them even suspected what she was—that she wasn’t Jay’s human wife—they would have her in the dissection cradle quicker than she could blink. There would be nothing her handsome marine could do about it.
“If you would like to show us the way, Commander,” Risyn indicated the door behind them with a nod of his head. His tone was pleasant, but there was no mistaking it for anything other than what it was. An order.
“Of course.”
Nyek took the lead with the B’Kaar leader and they trailed after him, the rest of the B’Kaar surrounding them. There was no escape. Somehow Keris made her legs move, even if they did feel weaker than when she’d just awoken.
Nyek briefed Risyn on the situation and the base’s condition as they walked, nothing in his words or manner to indicate he was worried in any way, shape, or form. Not for the first time she wondered if the ex-paladin felt fear like the rest of them. Sometimes he seemed more like an AI than she was.
As he spoke, she noted the changes to the narrative they’d all agreed to: that she’d been rescued from the S’Vaan ship with Indra and Gracie, and the fact that he completely omitted to mention Miisan’s presence at all, either on the base or bringing them here. In the new version, a strange spacial anomaly had scooped up the three shuttles and deposited them near here as they fled from the S’Vaan the first time.
Becoming aware of eyes on her, she turned to find the grim-looking B’Kaar second in command walking beside her.
“You are different from the other females. Why?” he demanded in a low, dangerous-sounding growl.
Her heart skipped a beat and her throat closed over. He knew. She didn’t know what had given her away but somehow, he knew. She tensed up, expecting him to grab her and haul her off.
“Of course she’s different,” Jay cut in smoothly, pulling her across in front of him so she was on the other side to the heavily bearded B’Kaar. The hulking form of his kasivar clumped along behind him. If he got her into that… she’d never get out.
“We’re all different,” her human marine’s voice was sharp. “Because we’re all different ethnicities.”
Berr’s eyebrows snapped together. “What does that mean?”
“Our ancestors were from different regions of Earth,” Jay explained. “That’s why we all look slightly different.”
Berr nodded and she breathed a sigh of relief as he seemed to accept the explanation. Then he spoke again.
“She’s tiny. Is she even fully grown?”
“What the fuck, dude? You can’t ask that!”
Indra’s voice was strident and a second later both women were in front of her, forming a wall between her and the heavily muscled B’Kaar warrior. Immediately he backed off a step, hands raised in surrender and a surprised look on his face at the ferocity suddenly displayed by the human females.
Keris hid her smile. Sometimes the Lathar really had no idea what they were messing with. Nyek hadn’t been joking when he’d told Risyn that human females were unlike the Latharian females the current generation barely remembered. Human females were unpredictable and dangerous when their loved ones were threatened. And, it seemed, they also operated in packs... something Berr B’Kaar obviously hadn’t expected if his expression was anything to go by.