The Wolves Ch. 025

They would run out of the orange juice sooner or later without rationing it, but he decided to let her have her pleasures for now. Her life was very controlled over the past fourteen hundred-plus years, as he soon found out, and both she and their daughter were only given basic foods and drinks. He couldn't help but smile imagining Zindra taking her first sip of the orange juice.

"If you're done daydreaming, can you grab these two plates and set them on the table as well?" she asked, gesturing to two of the three plates with a mountain of food on each. "I'll bring the third one over, along with some plates and utensils."

Xorin nodded and grabbed the two plates and set them down on the table. While he waited for his wife to bring over the plates, he poured each of them a glass of orange juice and then sat down. She set down the final plate of food beside the others, and then a plate in front of Xorin, and one for herself right next to him.

While Xorin was transferring food from the three plates in front of them over to his own plate, Sadith took a sip of juice, quietly moaning when it touched her taste buds. Xorin chuckled before digging in to his breakfast.

"What?" she asked looking over to me.

"Nothing," he replied, stuffing his mouth some more.

"That's what I thought," she said with a small smile on her face. She set her glass down and then loaded her own plate with food. The amount of food on it rivaled the amount Xorin had on his own, but that was normal for Scyftans. They ate a lot of food.

"So I did a little digging on the tablet you gave me," she said between bites.

"Oh?"

"There are rumors that the orange fruit that this juice is made from originate from the planet we're on our way to. There was a science team on the planet over a thousand years ago, and people think they brought seeds with them, along with seeds for many other plants, like that black stuff you drink."

"You mean coffee? I suppose it could be true, since if I recall, they were introduced at roughly the same time. It's pretty likely, actually. The chances of two different plant-based food items being introduced mere years apart and being such big hits with the population is probably quite small."

"Well, I'll be very happy if it is true. I don't think I could go six months without having a glass of this delicious juice," she said, taking another sip before setting it back down. "I found some recipes using the whole fruit as well and was debating making you turn the ship around to get a few crates. Getting Zindra back is a priority, though."

Xorin debated getting up and going to the storeroom. If he showed them to her now, he knew they would be gone in a matter of weeks, but he wanted her to be happy. He also had a few other things she had probably never tried before, either. His mind made up, he set down his knife and fork and stood up.

"Be right back," he said, walking behind the counter and entering the storeroom. After a minute, he came back out and closed the storeroom door behind him, to re-engage the Preservation enchantment to keep everything fresh. He made his way back to his seat, carrying something behind his back, out of sight of Sadith.

"What are you holding?" she asked when he sat down, with the object on the opposite side of his body, still out of sight.

"This," he said, holding one of the large, orange fruits out in front of her.

"Where was that?! I looked through the storeroom and didn't find any!" she babbled, after snatching it from him.

"That's a secret, my dear," he replied leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. "I'll have some more surprises for you, provided you're a good girl while we're on our journey.

"More?!" she gasped.

*****

Somewhere in the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy

The Indomitables' Ship - The Harbinger

05:55 SET (13:55 EDT)

August 16, 12610 (August 15, 2019)

Life was good for Omeron Tol. He was recently moved up to the biggest and baddest ship in The Indomitables' fleet, The Harbinger. It was an absolute monster of a dreadnought, with a length of five thousand meters, a width of fourteen hundred meters, and a height of seven hundred meters. It wasn't the fastest ship, or the most mobile, but it had an incredible amount of firepower, and could withstand a beating.

A cluster of four mass drivers ran through the front five hundred meters of the ship, each able to propel a heavy tungsten round at tens of thousands of meters per second. Only one mass driver could be fired at a time in most circumstances, but it allowed them to rotate between each one to maintain a steady rate of fire. All four mass drivers could be fired at once, but it required power to be diverted from all other system, including shields, to generate enough power. That wasn't a viable tactic in a battle, but a single hit could easily take out another ship with a direct hit anyways. It wasn't easy, though, and thus the mass drivers weren't heavily relied upon.

No, the bread and butter of The Harbinger was the eight massive turreted plasma cannons, with four barrels mounted side-by-side in each turret. Four were mounted evenly on both the dorsal and ventral hulls, and allowed a nearly three hundred sixty degree firing arc. The fire rate wasn't very good, but it didn't have to be. A barrage from one turret would be enough to deplete the shields from any ship below a battleship, sometimes outright destroying a ship with a single barrage.

Besides the plasma cannons, there were hundreds of gauss cannons mounted all around the ship to provide point defense, and a large missile battery located toward the aft of the ship. All in all, it was a very impressive ship, and one that any captain would enjoy commanding.

"I'm going back to my stateroom," Omeron told his XO when he arrived in his ready room. "Let me know as soon as that fool Xigios finally tells us what is going on, and make sure we're prepared to jump to our predetermined coordinates if he launches any sort of attack."

"You think he knows?" his XO, Ghur asked.

"I don't know, but better safe than sorry. There is no reason to stay stationary for so long without letting everyone else know. It is unusual for the man. It makes me nervous."

"I'll make sure it's done, captain," Ghur said with a salute.

The captain returned the salute, and then turned and left his ready room. He needed some stress relief, and he knew just the person to help with that. He pulsed the locking mechanism with his mana to open the door, and entered his room. After undressing, he made his way over to the adjoining room and pulsed his mana to open it as well.

He flipped the switch to bring the room out of complete darkness, and saw the teenage Pygmaean woman lying on the bed under the covers. He saw her eyes pop open shortly after he turned on the lights. They focused briefly on his midsection before she threw the covers off of herself before trying to dive under the bed. As soon as he saw her begin to move, he rushed forward and was able to grab her foot. With a yank, he pulled her out, picked her up and threw her back on the bed.

"Now, none of that, Beria! You remember the last time you fought me," he said gesturing to the bruise on the side of her face. "If you don't want that to happen again, you won't resist, got it?"

She quickly nodded with tears in her eyes.

"Good. Turn around and get on your hands and knees. Now!" he said, when she hesitated.

She slowly turned around and assumed the position he wanted her to take on the edge of the bed, tears running down her face the entire time. This wasn't the first time he had taken her, and she knew it wouldn't be the last. She remained there, shaking while waiting for his relatively massive size to enter her. She heard him spit on his hand while holding on to her hip with the other. A moment later, there was a loud popping sound and the hand was no longer on her hip.

She remained there for another minute or so, with the fear of being hurt again forcing her to stay still. After a minute of silence, she finally turned around and saw that he was nowhere to be seen. She slowly got off the bed and crept towards the adjoining doors, which had been left open when Omeron entered. When she finally arrived, she saw his clothes on his bed, and he was gone.

Suddenly there was knocking on the door, which caused her to run back into her room. She grabbed the covers, and, after throwing them around her, crawled under her bed and hid.