Chapter 3

Life settled back to normal, that is if anything could be considered normal for a family of three humanoids and 16 slugs. Though that was about to change.

It was a nice sunny day and Gillyanna and the babies, as well as Vee, who never left her side, and a few others were outside enjoying the day. That was until armed men burst into the clearing. Gillyanna knew immediately who these people were but that didn't stop her from grabbing up her daughter and the two boys that were currently not needed for diaper duty. The boys were now big enough that it only needed two of them to cover those areas that were needed.

Vee moved quickly to cover Gillyanna and the babies as she knelt on the ground and called to his brothers for help. The others that were in the area moved to take up positions around the intruders. Gillyanna chose to speak first. "Please don't hurt us. What do you want?"

A man stepped closer and raised his faceplate. Then he pulled a data pad from the side of his suit but never dropped his weapon. "Your one of the prisoners. Stand up for shackling."

"No please. You don't understand. I can't go back. We can't leave the planet. Please we have no weapons. Please don't hurt us."

The man then looked and realized that the woman in front of him was covered in some black thing.

"What the hell is all over you and the babe?"

"Indigenous and intelligent life forms of this planet. And the reason my child and I can't leave," Gillyanna answered absently.

"Who else survived the crash?" Gillyanna thought for a moment when she saw some of the others move up behind. However Gillyanna's response was not fast enough for the man and he yelled, "Who else is with you?!"

From the top of the ship where Dorel had gone to when he was told that intruders were coming to the ship. He had heard the man ask Gillyanna who else had survived but chose to wait a moment to see how she reacted. But when he yelled at her, the man also advanced. Dorel jumped up with his laser riffle in hand and aimed at his target. "Me!! Now move away from the woman and my child!! Don't think of do anything, the others won't like it!"

The man stepped back but looked at his DP (Data Pad). Then he looked back up to Dorel. "Identify yourself."

"I'm Lieutenant Dorel of the transport ship Turgar. Who's asking?"

"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Pello, Commander of the Vanchu. We received your distress call. We're here to take you home and take any prisoners back into custody."

"That might have worked last year. But like she said we can't leave. Give me a moment to get down and I'll explain but I think you should stow the weapons. The others are none to happy that you're aiming at their children."

Dorel waited to see if they did before he dropped his. The man slowly looked around and saw that the clearing had filled with more of the creatures. Slowly he lowered his weapon, this was the signal and the others lowered theirs. Dorel walked to the edge of the ship and jumped. It was an easy drop for him and then he walked up to stand next to Gillyanna. Dorel knew she was on the verge of being completely hysterical but hoped that Vee would keep her calm.

The man in front of them said, "Alright, now explain."

"About a year and a half ago we were attacked by raiders and that was when we crashed. The captain thought it was to free some of the prisoners that we had. Gillyanna's the only prisoner that survived. She woke first. When she found me I was still unconscious with a bad concussion and a broken arm. I woke to find myself restrained and Gillyanna working to get the systems back online. I talked her into letting me help her so that both of us could survive. You see she was in worse condition than I was. She freed me just before she passed out. She had massive internal injuries and I was surprised she was even alive."

"Why didn't you take her back into custody?" the Colonel demanded.

"There was only the two of us. We needed to help each other if we wanted to survive, the fact that she's innocent and her trial was a sham also played a apart."

"We have her listed as human but we have her listed as having no children. We're sterile with humans." The Colonel was clearly asking a question.

"Some of us might not be. My daughter was born nine months ago." Dorel said with pride.

"So what's this about not being able to leave the planet?" the colonel asked.

"The other little ones are hers too. Gillyanna and Glissa are connected to these creatures some how, telepathically linked. Even great distances between them causes some pain and discomfort to them. The farther away or the longer they were gone the worse it got for Gillyanna. These beings are sentient life forms but they can't leave the planet that they're connected to either."

"And are you linked with them?" the Colonel was clearly disgusted.

"No. All the creatures are male. But it really doesn't matter if I was or not. I'm not leaving my daughter."

The colonel looked around for a moment thinking, "Are you saying that all of these creatures are male and in some way mated to her and that she not only had your child but had theirs?"

"No, just one. The one that is covering her now. They're so closely connected it's more like their married. He is also the leader of this group or clan or what ever you want to call it."

Dorel had never really thought about what the group called themselves.

At the moment several others came forward, three went to Gillyanna, who was slowly rocking back and forth, and one came to stand near Dorel. It was Lu; he had a DP and communicator.

"Dorel, the others are going to take Gillyanna inside to lay down. Gillyanna is too scared to move so the others and Vee will just carry her in. It is also time for the babies to have their naps," Lu said through the communicator.

"It can use our tech! How the hell is that possible?" said someone from behind.

"As I said, they're very intelligent, near geniuses in fact," Dorel turned to Lu, "Thanks Lu, I was about to ask if you guys could do that. If you need to, the hypo should be ready at the med unit."

"Vee is going to use it as soon as Gillyanna is in bed. Gillyanna is frightened beyond bearing," With that Lu turned the DP to the Colonel. "Vee wishes me to tell you that if you ever raise a weapon to threaten his mate and offspring again or try anything against the rest of his family, he will see that you never leave this planet."

Then Lu turned and moved over to the others and helped move Gillyanna to the ship and inside.

Dorel was taken aback by both the surprise of the officer in front of him and by the strength of the threat. He knew Vee and Gillyanna were more than companions. Though it disturbed him, it was not something he wanted with her. She was just too human for his liking. Dorel waited to see what the Colonel was going to do. The Colonel looked around again to see that none of the others had moved. "Call off the others. At the moment I can't see anything else to do. I'll have to call this in."

"Alright," Dorel looked to the others, "Okay guys, back off." then turned back to the Colonel, "when we crashed we thought we got the raiders but the sensors went out and so did everything else. I wasn't sure but I thought a second ship was coming in."

"You did or at least the debris seems to say that. Your captain was way off course I hope you know. We found nav-scramblers all over the sector. Which is how we found you, by the way. We think the raiders are still in the area but haven't detected you down here. We just barely detected you. Why the low sensors? And why didn't you respond to our hails?"

"The comms are trashed. I tried to place a portable unit on that mountain south of us but was attacked by several creatures. As for the sensors we think the sensors and shields cause a disturbance in the atmosphere and develops into a nasty storm. I would recommend that you tell you shuttle to shut yours down or we'll have a storm here soon that will be very bad."

"Like hell I'm telling them that!" the Colonel yelled.

"Look, if a storm comes the air can literally freeze. The only way to survive is to leave the area or be wrapped up by the ... well I guess I'll call them the sluggers. It's how Gillyanna survived the first storm. Sensors are only at five percent right now and that seems to be fine. But your going to be running full power we'll have a storm here in two days or less."

"I don't think we will be here for that long," the colonel growled.

"Suit yourself but you might think that if the women in the group need to be protected from the storm. They could end up having to stay."

"Is that a threat?!" The Colonel stepped right up to Dorel. Several being moved closer to back up Dorel. This was not unnoticed by the others or the Colonel.

"Colonel think. Vee did something to Gillyanna when the first storm came then impregnated her. The four small ones were born just before my daughter was. I had to use Gillyanna before I attempted to set the portable communit. Do you want to risk that for the females in your command?"

This made the Colonel think. He had five females in his group two with him now. He knew none would care to stay. He ordered all of his people to have no physical contact with any of the slug creatures.

He then called his shuttle and ordered them to cut power to half and sensors to 35%. Dorel would have liked it to be less but it would buy them more time.

The Colonel started questioning Dorel about the ship and what power he had and what things needed major help. Dorel told him that the ship would never fly again because the engineering section was completely gone. He would like to get more power but only had one solar and one wind generator. Life support wasn't needed but some environmental controls would be nice to help with cold nights since he slept alone.

A small portable generator was called for from the shuttle and others were told to get to work on some of the other systems. The team medic came forward when others went to work and asked permission to examine Dorel, his daughter and Gillyanna. It did not go unnoticed that one of the smaller creatures Dorel remembered as Zee followed when the woman went into the ship once she had permission but chose to start with the others while Gillyanna was out.

Gillyanna woke to the sound of someone humming. As she looked around she saw a woman holding Glissa. But before she could start yelling Vee spoke; "Gillyanna, it's all right. She just ... I know there is a word for it but she is just holding Glissa and cooing to her. She is a medic and asked to check you and Glissa out; Dorel told her that was fine but not to try anything. Glissa was somewhat upset and the boys were having little effect at calming her. She is very sensitive and knew you were very stressed. The woman has helped."