The Gorison Traveler Incident (Veslor Mates #1) Read online

  “Is she flirting with you? It’s hard to tell with these females,” Kavs whispered in their language.

  “Quiet,” he replied in the same tone, not wanting Vivian to be alarmed if he snarled. He changed back to English. “Good.”

  “I think she is,” Ruggler chuckled. “You should taste her mouth to see how she responds.”

  He really was going to take each of them inside the training room and beat on them when they returned to the ship. He was close to his male grouping, but sometimes they irritated him. Teasing him did it faster than anything else.

  Vivian glanced up at the camera. “Pull up Mitch Reese’s quarters and take us there. I’ve never been to his place but he’s one of the heads of security on the night shift. He wasn’t amongst any of the dead I saw on the cameras. He’s smart, was a close friend of my dad’s, and he’s our best bet to seek help from.”

  Brassi followed Vivian and his men as they entered another lift, went to a different level on the expansive ship, and then stopped outside of a door. Vivian motioned them back a few feet.

  “I’m just going to signal him, have Abby unlock his quarters, and ask him to come out. Hopefully no Ke’ter is inside.”

  He grabbed Vivian and hauled her back, putting his body between her and the door. “That sounds too dangerous.”

  “He’ll freak out if you’re the first thing he sees.” She peered up at him. “Stand at my side. How about that?”

  He didn’t like it but nodded.

  Vivian reached up and pressed a button next to the door. “Mitch? It’s Vivian.”

  There was no answer.

  Vivian whispered, “Abby unlocked the door. We can override it to gain entry but let’s give him a minute.”

  The door slid open—and a male in a gray uniform stood there holding a laser rifle.

  He backed up, glancing between Brassi, his males, and Vivian. She slowly put her hands up. “Easy, Mitch. They’re friends. I let them onboard and they’ve been killing Ke’ters to save us. Meet the Veslors. They’re a trade race that were in the area. You can put the rifle down. I swear it’s fine.”

  The male kept the weapon up. “What the fuck, Vivian?”

  “We weren’t going to make it if we had to wait for someone from Branston Space Station to reach us. They haven’t even responded yet to our distress signal. Everything I said over the speakers when I made announcements was the truth. The Veslors aren’t our enemies. Look at me,” she urged.

  The male glared at her.

  “You’ve known me for years, Mitch.” Sadness crept into her voice. “The Ke’ters murdered my father and brother. They smashed the back of dad’s head in and ate Mikey.” Emotion choked her voice. “These aliens came to our rescue. They won’t hurt us. I’ve been working with them for hours while they took out the Ke’ters. The bridge is no longer under Ke’ter control. They were going to fly us somewhere to make us food. I had to shut down the engines to keep that from happening, which meant we had four days before backup power died. No life support. No power. No heat.” She paused. “Engines are back online and recharging the backup. We’re locked out of the bridge but that’s not a problem, since no one is up there to fly us away any longer. We just need to wait for rescue teams from Branston to reach us. The Veslors saved us, Mitch.”

  The human glanced at each of Brassi’s males, before staring hard at Vivian again. “You’re absolutely certain about them?”

  “I trust the Veslors with my life—and yours, since I brought them to you.”

  She quickly told the male everything that had happened, including her fear of the commander arresting Brassi and his males, and her plan to get them off the ship before allowing Alderson out of his quarters.

  Mitch still seemed tense and unwilling to lower his weapon.

  “What would my dad have said, Mitch? Flip the situation around and see it from their perspective. We sent out a distress signal, the Veslors responded, and I invited them onto this huge fleet vessel, saying we needed help. It could have been a trap to capture them, but they were still willing to come. They believed me, and had faith I was telling them the truth. They trusted us. Please. Think, Mitch.”

  Mitch finally nodded. “You’re right.” He sighed. “Alderson is going to lose his fucking mind, Vivian. I’m proud of you, though.” He completely lowered the weapon to his side, seeming to no longer be wary of Brassi or his males. Then he glanced at each of them. “Thank you for coming to save our asses.”

  Vivian turned. “This is Brassi. He’s captain of the Brar.”

  Brassi reached up and opened his face plate. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  The male looked stunned for a split second to see his face, but then recovered. “You speak our language.”

  “We learned it when we heard your distress signal. Vivian shouldn’t be arrested.” He wanted to be clear about that.

  The male grimaced. “I agree, but I’m not the commander. It will be his decision…when he can give orders again. But I can’t see the brass looking at this fucking mess and letting any charges stick.”

  “Charges stick?” Brassi looked at Vivian for clarification.

  “He thinks I’ll be fine.” She gave him a smile. “I’ll be set free after the investigation ends. Don’t worry, Brassi.”

  He hoped she was right. The female had done what was necessary to save Earthling lives. If her own people were too irrational to understand that, maybe it was best if Veslors didn’t trade with them, after all.

  He still wanted to offer again for Vivian to leave with them. That way, he could be certain she’d stay safe. He wouldn’t allow any harm to come to her.

  Vivian turned to the Earthling male. “Who do we get out next? I figure we should have at least five security officers with us before the Veslors leave.”

  “Hang on.” Mitch turned away, went into another room, and returned with a few tactical blades. He kept his rifle, too, but the blades he strapped to his body. “I’ve got just the men and women, and their quarters are close. I assigned them to rooms close to mine for just such an event. We’ve been communicating this entire time, preparing for the worst. They’ll be ready for a fight with the remaining three Ke’ters.”

  Brassi didn’t like the sound of that. “You should wait for more security to arrive.”

  The male met his gaze. “I’ve been in constant contact with at least twenty of my night force since this mess started and we were locked down. We can handle the Ke’ters, now that we know laser fire won’t work on them.”

  Vivian reached back and placed her hand on his chest plate. “We’ll be fine, Brassi. Abby has our backs.”

  “I want more information on this Abby,” Mitch grumbled. “You have an unknown civilian operating Control Three.” He shot Vivian a worried look. “What were you thinking?”

  “That I wanted us all to survive!” she snapped back. “I told you who Abby is. She upgrades systems for the fleet. Her clearance is probably higher than yours. I knew I could trust her the moment she had the override codes for long-distance coms, and was able to hack the internal coms to reach me in Control One in the first place. That takes skill and knowledge. It’s an isolated system.”

  Mitch sighed. “Okay. Two quarters to the left.”

  They walked to where Mitch indicated. Brassi motioned for his males to stay back and allowed the two Earthlings to face the doors alone. He would trust that Mitch had spoken to whomever lived on the other side during lockdown, and that a Ke’ter wouldn’t come barreling out to attack.

  The male in that room was also heavily armed as the doors slid open. Mitch gave him some kind of hand signal and the human lowered his rifle, staring with wide eyes at Brassi and his males.

  “These men are Veslors. They killed a bunch of Ke’ters already, and are friendlies. We’re going to gather some more of our people, and then they’re leaving once we’re in control again. Move out, Paul. Play nice.”

  The male hesitated but walked into the corridor, giving them wide berth.