Sholan Alliance - AU Bk. 02 Ch. 02

I had some feedback and comments about my getting some names mixed up. I apologize for that and all I can say is that occasionally the meds for both withdrawal and anxiety sort of zonk me out. Not bad enough that I end up with a bunch of gobldy gook but with Billy's and Jimmy's names so similar they just sort of happen. It is getting better the further I am from my last drink and eventually I will go back and correct the problems.

I have been trying to get chapter 3 and 4 swapped so they are in the correct order but have been having some problems with it. I will get it resolved for all the poor souls who are confused by it. I am going to do the next chapter for Ranicke and then Silver Moon before I come back to the Sholan Alliance. The ideas for this story just seemed to stick out in my mind and demanded that I write it down first.

Again I want to thank my readers for both the positive and constructive comments. They mean a great deal to me as well as the voting. I figure that as long as I am above 4.65 or so I must be doing a good job. Keep reading and keep enjoying the stories. As I said in my last chapter submitted if anyone wants updates on the status of my stories send me feedback with your e-mail and I will add it to the list I am creating.

Any and all relationships are 18+ or the equivalent with the alien species.

*****

Billy was still standing there leaning against the wall doing his best not to allow the emotions affect him. Normal emotions and feelings he could block and wouldn't be affected. These emotions were to strong and they were affecting him badly. At the moment he simply couldn't move because of what he was feeling. It was taking all his will power to remain in the spot that he was currently in.

As he was fighting to resist the urge to go and kill the pirates Vangie could see just how tense he was. You didn't have to be a telepath to see the tension he was under. As the doctor walked past Vangie waved her over. "Doc do you happen to have any psychic suppressants on you? Yilly is not able to block it right now." He glanced over at him and leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "He is trying to resist going and killing all the pirates. I think his shielding isn't strong enough."

She nodded at him and walked over and touched his shoulder. "Yimmy I am going to give you something to help you. It is going to sting for a moment but it will help you block the sensations you are feeling." She waited for him to respond.

When he did his voice was very guttural and filled with fury. "Do it. I don't know how much longer I can hold on." His back and neck were a mass of tensed muscles and he hurt. At the moment he didn't care if she knocked him out as long as it would resolve the issue long enough to get off the ship.

She pressed the hypoderm against his neck and fired it. As she said it burned for a few moments and then a feeling of coolness flowed through his body. As it was flowing through his body he felt the rage almost shut off. When it did he collapsed against the wall but Vangie was expecting it and easily caught him. Billy pressed his head against the wall and let the drug finish working. "Thanks doc." Now he sounded just exhausted.

Vangie looked at Dr. Desjean and smiled slightly. "Just in case can I get some more of that drug? Leave the instructions and maybe half a dozen ampoules please." When she handed the hypoderm and meds over he pocketed them and picked Billy up. "We are going to the docking area and as soon as your ship is attached we will get over there. You might sleep for a while but that is normal.

Billy shook his head. "I need to go to the bridge first to set up some instructions for when I put the ship in tow." God he felt like a limp rag at the moment. He was going to need to crash for at least a short time after everything was taken care of.

Vangie contemplated for a moment and then nodded. "Yes Captain. As you wish." He wrapped one of Billy's arms around his neck and an arm around his waist to keep him upright. "Let's go and get this taken care of."

They headed to the bridge and Billy flopped in the command chair and unlocked the command consoles and went to work. Now that the suppressant was in him and he was away from everyone he was feeling better. He wasn't sure how long it would last. The remaining warriors who had helped take over the ship were going to remain on this ship. Only a small token crew was going to be on his ship. He should be able to handle the feelings and emotions from them.

He eventually had the commands punched in. "Vangie when I tell you have one of the warriors press the illuminated button. That will be after I connect the tow cables to the ship and it will give me remote access to the controls." With a hand from Vangie he made it back to his ship which had connected while he was working with the console.

"To the bridge and disconnect the gangway between the ships." Once they were on the way to the bridge Vangie sent a message to one of the few warriors remaining on board. Billy could see the status of the gangway being disconnected and retracted by the other ship on the instrument panel. Once it was done he verified everything was green he started powering up the towing station and system.

Billy moved over to the towing station and after checking the control lights there extended the cables one at a time. Each cable connected to one of four points on the other ship. Once connected Billy brought each online and verified that there wasn't any malicious code running. After he was satisfied he nodded at Vangie.

"Salvaged vessel activate the command button Yilly set." Vangie waited for a few moments and received a confirmation that the button had been pressed. He nodded at Billy so he knew as well.

Once that was done Billy checked and he had full control of the other ship. After running some system diagnostics he slowly powered his engines up and took her under tow. "All the lights are green across the board Vangie. Ensure that they have a good rotation for watching the bridge, guards for the pirates, and sleep schedule." When he tried to get up Vangie actually had to catch him.

"I am taking you back to your room and give you a good massage. It will help your muscles relax as well as help you sleep and you need the sleep right now." He did just that and by the time Vangie had left Billy's cabin the man was snoring quietly in bed. Chances were good he would sleep for a good six or more hours which he needed.

~~~ On the Barque

The first thing they did was to take them to the two rooms set aside for them. It was going to be a tight squeeze but only for a few days. For the moment all six were brought in and settled in the chairs and beds. Doctor Desjean settled down on a counter and gave them a slight smile. "I do wish to apologize for the tight fit but the barque only has so much space. There are two rooms with two beds each and connected by a shower."

She shifted her tabard slightly before continuing. "The showers are communal since we Sholan's tend to be communal people and help each other get clean. In each room is a drink dispenser that has several different drinks. As I am sure you noticed the beds are rather large since the average male Sholan is about six and a half feet tall. The women tend towards six foot tall as well."

The young warrior brought her a drink and she thanked him. "First thing that is going to happen is we are going to be taking one of you at a time to medical for a scan to find out everything that is wrong with you." That got raised voices from them and she contemplated them.

Kingie saluted the doctor and turned to the women. "Please, I know it probably scares you a great deal to be separated or the idea of being separated. I am here as well as three other warriors who were board ship when we rescued you. "There is also Captain Yilly's daughter Sally, Yilly's bondmate Satasha, and Z'Marl. That makes seven of us who helped rescues you. There will be two guards on duty at all times, one from the rescue party and one from this ship. If you wish one of the ladies will sleep in here as well."

He looked around before settling down next to the girl and let her wrap her arm around him. "There is only enough space in medical for a few people. One of the four of us in this room will accompany each of you to medical for the scan." He smiled a slight bit. "There is nothing to fear and no physical probing of any sort. Yilly said he only felt lightly cooked when he had his scan."

Sally smacked him lightly on one shoulder. "Warrior Kingie I am going to tell Vangie about that horrible joke and let him deal with you." She covered her face and sighed. "Over grown children is what they are and I have to deal with them."

Bitty snorted and snickered and almost looked shocked that she had sort of laughed. "Oh god that has to be Billy back there. Only he would come up with a joke that bad." She looked a bit more comfortable when she said that.

Satasha gave her a warm grin. "Actually I was the one teasing him about talking to the doctor and making sure he was only lightly cooked when the doctor was done with him." She squatted down in front of her. "You are Yilly's niece correct? That makes you my bond niece and I will make sure you are okay. Would you accompany me to medical?"

Bitty raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. Right now she didn't have a great deal of energy and it was quickly going. "When can we get showers and food?" She had to close her eyes and couldn't stop the tears. "We haven't been allowed to shower since they captured the ship we were on and it has been a day or two since we last ate." Her voice was starting to shake and become brittle.

Satasha gently wrapped her arms around her and tucked her head into her shoulder. "I can't imagine what all of you have been through. You are safe here and we will take care of you. Before you can get clean we need to collect DNA samples as well as doing the scan. Once that is done we will shower you and get you some soft and gentle food."

One of the other ladies looked at her. "Take Crystal first please. She is the girl resting against the warrior. She needs it more than we do." She looked around the room and got nods from everyone except one female. That was an older female and looked more than a bit grumpy about someone else going first.

A different woman spoke. "Don't say a word Marcella or I will shut your mouth for you. All you have done is cause problems since we were captured and I am sick of it. Crystal goes first and that is the beginning and end of it." Her voice was hard when she spoke. It was fairly obvious that she did not like the female what so ever. Several of the other ladies glared at her as well.

Looking closer you could tell that she wasn't quite as filthy or battered as the others were. Kingie decided to keep a close eye on her and got a glance from Satasha as well. He picked the girl up and wanted to smack the older woman. As soon as her name came up the girl cringed closer to him and hid her face in his shoulder. "This won't take very long but I am going to place you on a floater since it will be more comfortable."

~~~

Eventually they had all the women scanned and samples of the DNA that was spread out over their bodies. Thankfully that was gathered during the scanning and didn't require any invasive procedures. Once everyone was scanned and back in the room Doctor Desjean spoke to them as a group. "It is going to take some time to correlate the DNA scans but that isn't critical. For those of you who have injuries that we need to keep an eye on you will probably be scanned once a day. This is for fractured ribs, abdominal contusions, possible diseases and some other injuries."

She nodded towards the females. "They are going to help you get reasonably clean and fed. It might take a day or two to get all the filth off you but we have plenty of hot water. The main reason we don't want you to take long baths is because we want you to eat and sleep. I know you will probably have nightmares but sleep is still one of the best healers out there. I will have a SBA available at all hours if you need something to help you sleep. He or she will also administer any medications that I feel you are going to need. These will be based on the scan results as I work on them."

With another nod she stood up and walked out of the room and to her office. One poor innocent chair suffered severe trauma as she shredded the coverings. As she was working on taking the chair apart she was cursing up a storm as well. How the hell could people do things like that. Eventually she finished disassembling the chair and stood there panting when her door buzzer sounded. "Enter at your own risk." Her voice was a snarl.

The door did open and the Ship Commander frowned slightly at the dismembered chair. "You might need to start dosing everyone with psychic suppressants. There have been one or two other cases of people taking things apart. Thankfully there hasn't been any fights but..." Since the women had come aboard the anger level had gone up significantly. "Either that or use it on them whichever is a better choice."

She nodded at him and settled down. "I will have a preliminary report for you in a couple of hours. I will also see about who is best to give the suppressants to." She rubbed her temples for a moment. "Now if you will excuse me I need to get to work."

~~~

Now that all the women had been scanned and were back in the room Satasha stood and looked at all the women. "We are going to shower you in groups of three. The first three are going to be settled in the room next door and then take care of the second group." She smiled slightly as she looked around the room. "The first three are going to be Angel, Crystal, and Savanna. We should be done within a half hour at most."

Sally stepped forward. The second group is going to have Marcella, Bitty, and Clarice." She was about ready to say more when Marcella interrupted.

"I demand that I be part of the first group. I have been on board longer than any of the others." She struggled to stand up and leaned heavily against the wall. "I am from a very upstanding family and will not stand to be treated this way."

Kingie tilted his head and frowned. From what he had seen of her scans she shouldn't have to struggle that hard. It was always possible that she had some soft tissue injuries that hadn't shown up right away. Once the doctor had evaluated the scan he would find out more. "Marcella if you are having that much trouble standing sit down and give the meds time to act. The order we called names out is going to be adhered to. I am sorry if you don't like that idea but it is how it is going to go."

He turned back to Crystal. "Sally is going to take you into the shower. I will be in the other room getting everything ready for you three. Once I am sure the three of you are comfortable then I will come over here and check on the ladies over here. I will be nearby at all times so if you need me either call or one of the ladies can come and get me."

Crystal almost clung to his hand and gave him an entreating look and he gave her a slight grin. "You will be fine Crystal. I doubt you really want a boy kitty giving you a bath now do you?" Kingie lightly stroked one cheek with the back of a finger. "For now I am going to let the girl kitties and the human female give you your first shower."

She did sort of giggle with the 'boy kitty' bit and gave him a wan smile. "I will see you on the other side right?"

He leaned over and gently brushed his cheek against hers. "Try keeping us away. At all times there is going to be two guards at the doors. One that helped rescue you and one from this ship. I am not sure how the ladies are going to be doing the rotation but they will be close by in case you need anything."

Sally lightly bumped him and grinned. "One of us girl people will be available at all times for all of you. If you need medical we will get a hold of them and they will take care of you. Now for your showers and I will take care of you Crystal." She helped the girl stand and slowly walk into the bathing area.

There were seats for three people and she helped her into one. "Let me get the jacket off and I will have it washed before Kingie gets it back. We have some fresh cloths for you as well." Once the water was on and warm she pulled her clothes off and grinned at Crystal. "I don't know about you but I am not going to get my clothing wet right now."

The other two women were escorted in and all three were making slight groaning sounds as they felt the warm water flowing over their bodies. The first thing was to wash and condition their hair. That took a fair amount of time but eventually it was relatively clean. Soon they had their bodies cleaned as well.

The ladies were surprised by the warm air jets but it only took a moment or two before they were dry. Once dressed they were helped into the other room where Kingie was and he smiled. "I am sure that you feel a bit more human now and this is a warm thick broth with some minced up meat and veggies. There are a few slabs of bread as well but take it easy as you eat it."

Once they were seated at the small table he started handing the food out. "We used Sally and Yilly as test subjects and they seemed to have survived." He had a teasing smile on his face and his tail was waving in gentle amusement.

Sally rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Kingie I am going to have another talk with Vangie about your questionable sense of humor. Keep the teasing to a minimum or I might have an oversized fur rug." She facepalmed. "Damn it now you have me going. Eat up ladies the food is pretty good. I have had it before and though it does taste different it is filling and full of the icky good for you vitamins."

As the females were starting to eat Kingie was carefully brushing Crystal's hair out. He was smiling slightly as he was doing it and purring slightly as well. Once it was mostly done he moved to the next lady and started on her hair.

Angel couldn't help but sort of smile at him as he was working on Savanna's hair. "You seem to be enjoying that way too much for a boy kitty." She wrinkled her nose when she said that and took another bite of the food.

Kingie laughed lightly. "We tend to groom each other since it is easier. Showers tend to be shared with family members as well as getting a good brushing down afterwards." He leaned over and lightly flicked Angel on the nose. "This reminds me of grooming my sisters when I was younger and at home. It is a time for bonding and a shared closeness that helps to keep families together."

Eventually all six women were done getting bathed though Marcella was still acting like a grumpy bitch. She kept trying to get the first of everything, shower, food, grooming, and anything else that might come up. The one thing she insisted on was that she didn't share a bed which the other two didn't fight.

Before they turned the lights down low Kingie looked at the other three women. "The flight is being shortened and we should be near earth in four days. Once there we will open communications with the Terran authorities and go from there. When our doctor and theirs both agree that we have done what we can and you are safe for transport then you will be sent to your families. Any questions can wait till tomorrow. Good night."

He walked over to the other room and informed them of pretty much the same thing. Crystal held her arms out to him and he came over and gave her a light hug. "Go to sleep little one and I will see you tomorrow."

She shook her head. "Stay please, I feel safe with you here." For whatever reason she felt safe with him around and had fixed on him as an anchor in her storm.

He sighed. "I will get some blankets and a pillow and sleep on the floor next to you. If you wake and are scared just reach over the edge and you will feel me there for you." He glanced at the others and was glad when they nodded. "Thank you ladies for your trust in me. Do not hesitate to wake me for anything you might need." He wrinkled his nose at them. "That is an order by the way." There was a slight giggle when he said that.