Chapter 36

Chris was surprised by the request to turn back.

“What else did he say, Aaron?” he asked.

“I believe he got a premonition about a ship that is due to enter the Uno system. For James to want Whitney to keep the people under the shields, he must believe they will be in danger if that ship lands. I suspect he wants us to stop it from landing on Sheldon.”

“Whoever is on that ship is working with the people on the sister planet. I think they may be related to the smuggling ring that we are chasing. One of our missions is to find them and bust up the ring. We need to be careful if we try to capture them alive,” he finished.

“Why would they cause a problem if they land?” Michel asked.

“They are into smuggling and slavery. If they find the planet with few defences and no Rupert, they may decide to claim the planet themselves. With so many pregnant women and kids, the other adults will cave in if the smugglers take prisoners,” Aaron told Michel.

Michel nodded in understanding. “Then we had better hurry. Chris, get us turned around. Once we are heading in the correct direction, we can try a jump spell to get there faster. We should be able to jump close to the planet using the spell.”

“It probably wouldn’t hurt if we go slower too, so we don’t over-shoot it. With ten mages, we should be able to do it. If any of you are low on magic, it may be a good idea to go do a quick recharge and charge up your magic-storing crystals, too. We will need a lot of energy to do this.”

The others nodded in understanding. Chris said, “Darla and Beanie stay on deck with me while the others recharge. I agree with Michel that we need to slow down so that we can sit in the belt and wait for our friends. Once we are turned, we can recharge as the ship slows and then try the spell Michel has proposed.”

They all agreed, and the others went to recharge and then get ready for action.

Michel had a little secret.

He hadn’t told the others that Lee had given him extra crystals to distribute to the others when he felt they needed them. He had to chuckle. Lee often got premonitions. From his understanding, the wizards who did, didn’t always know everything that could happen, but they could plan for worse-case situations.

He knew better than the others that the more Quaz crystals you had charged, the better. He also knew about charging them with love. The more you loved your partner, the more magical energy you could push into the crystals. While Que loved Kola and Tale, it wasn’t as powerful as being in love with them.

He hadn’t felt drained of magic since their first night together, but he suspected he was falling more in love with Que as the night progressed. He was interested in finding out what would happen this time. He hadn’t stopped thinking about her all day, and he knew he had it bad.

Finding a naked Que on the bed when he entered her cabin had an immediate effect on him. When she looked at him with lust and then wiped her fingers through her wet love lips before licking them with long strokes of her pointed tongue, it had him out of his clothes in record time!

He had his head buried between her legs moments later, and the squeal she let out when he sucked on those lips had him sticking out his tongue and doing some licking of his own. As much as Que enjoyed his cunnilingual skills, she didn’t let him play for long, as she had other plans for her lusty lover.

She also wanted to know if joining with Michel would be just as good this time as it had been the night before. When he slid into her, her whole body quivered as if she had been prodded with a live electrical wand. The charge had her muscles spasming, and his grunt of surprise had her smiling.

He was hers, and she knew it, even if he hadn’t fully got the message yet. She was going to have fun proving it to him. She pulled his head down and claimed his lips with love in her heart. His shudder and moan had her smiling and rocking her hips to encourage him to move faster.

Michel was more than happy to fulfil her request.

“We have a ship on the deep scanner,” Darla told the crew.

The jump spell had worked a charm. They had all felt the lethargic effects of using so much magic, but it had been worth it. Their ship had eased into the asteroid belt less than a day after being sent back.

They picked a spot where the probes triangulated data to them, but they wouldn’t be seen by any ship entering the system from Earth, particularly if it planned to go to the planet.

“The shields are up,” Chris told the bridge crew.

They all watched the monitors as the ship grew bigger.

“It’s slowing faster than a ship planning to bypass this system would. I’m tracking it turning towards the belt,” Tale said, sitting at one of the consoles.

Aaron went to join Beanie for a look. “Hum, it is definitely Eastern in design. A Saqr-Khamsa or Falcon-Five, I believe. Sheikh Hamdan had one. Only the plutocrats of the Eastern Nations own them. If we were a standard Striker ship, it could outshoot us. However, there is very little about this ship that is standard,” Aaron grinned.

“Sheikh Hamdan told us that they have one distinct weakness. Do you feel like some precision firing, Beanie?” Aaron asked the gunner with a wicked grin.

“Oh, I love precision shooting; where do you want to hit it?” Beanie asked, happy to be using his skills.