Integration Page 3

  He pushed Jeff onto a fat cushion, followed the man down, and proceeded to undress him enough to reach the area of interest. Loki hungrily mouthed Jeff’s sex, bringing the man to full erection with lips and tongue quickly. Any further protest Jeff might have made died when his meat hardened in Loki’s mouth. Loki swallowed his human’s tool, sucking down to the base of it, wallowing in the pleasure of its sublime flavor.

  Jeff’s hands stroked him, his head, his arms, and shoulders, every part of him that Jeff could reach. The human murmured encouragement as Loki worked his mouth and lips on the cock. Remembering his training, Loki reached up and massaged Jeff’s balls with a hand. It wasn’t long before Jeff’s body stiffened as the human unloaded his delicious cum into Loki’s mouth. Loki swallowed, enjoying Jeff’s gift as well as his pleasure, and he eased off the man, giving him space to recover. It was up to Jeff now, to continue or not. He was content for the moment, so it made no difference to him. If Jeff wanted to play with him, he was up for that. Otherwise, he’d be just as happy heading to the lounge.

  Jeff rolled to his side and propped his head on a fist. He stroked Loki’s chest with his other hand. “That was wonderful. Thank you.”

  “I like sucking you,” Loki admitted. “You taste good.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  It always surprised him when Jeff asked questions like that. It was utterly opposed to everything he’d been raised to expect. He thought he’d adjusted to freedom, but deep down, he acknowledged that he’d be happier if someone else were telling him what to do. That might be why so many of us are joining the service. Loki snorted softly and shrugged a shoulder. He’d leave the philosophizing to wiser heads than his. “I think we should go get that beer. After that, I have practice, but maybe after dinner, we could play more?”

  Jeff was more than agreeable with this plan. Shortly after that, they strolled into the off-duty lounge arm in arm. Several of their pals from engineering were already there, and they waved for the pair to join them. Jeff and Loki joined the group and ordered their beers.

  An ongoing conversation attracted Loki’s attention.

  “We have two guitar players and a drummer,” Clark was saying. “It’s not really enough, we need more players.”

  “I’m not the best keyboardist,” Peter replied.

  “None of us are exactly pros here. It’s mostly for fun.”

  “I play the fiddle,” Loki interjected softly.

  Clark and Peter both looked at him. Clark grinned. “We’re forming a jam group. Everyone who can play even a little is welcome.”

  “I’d like that,” Loki decided. He glanced at Jeff. “Do you play?”

  “Nah. Singer.” Jeff smelled mildly embarrassed to admit this. “Tenor.”

  “Singing is good,” Loki told him, giving his hand a pat before taking another swallow of beer.

  “We’re all on first shift,” Clark told them. “So we can meet on second shift, maybe once a week for now?”

  “That would be fine,” Peter said. “Message us all the details of when and where.”

  Loki nodded. The shipnet was the ideal way to arrange the logistics. “Is this engineering only? My brothers play, too. Actually, most of us play at least one instrument. Father taught us all.”

  Everyone present smelled surprised by that. Clark got there first. “The War Leader taught you to play?”

  “Of course. He was the music teacher for the Lineage. He was a professional musician and a composer before he became a stud. I’m nowhere near as good a player as he is.” Loki grinned at their surprise.

  “Why on earth would the Lineage take a military genius and make him teach music?” Jeff demanded.

  Loki shrugged. “Tachero, my grandsire, was the senior combat teacher—he was the only undefeated Rovani gladiator in the history of the games. Yeri helped him sometimes, as did the other studs. All the studs fought in the arenas and did well, or they wouldn’t have even been considered as studs in the first place. Most of the studs were retired from the arenas as champions. But... Yeri is the only Rovani composer. His musical talent is undeniable. It wasn’t until years after he became a stud that his military talents were discovered.”

  “Oh.”

  “Any of the Rovania that want to join us are welcome,” Clark declared. “And if you have any of your father’s music, I’d like to hear it.”

  “I’ll send you some,” Loki replied, pleased at both the inclusion and the request. His implant chimed a soft reminder at him. He stood and stretched briefly. “My apologies—I have to go.”

  “So soon?” Jeff protested. “Where’re you going?”

  “The nightly workout,” Loki told him. “You’re welcome to join us.” He didn’t expect Jeff to say yes, rumor had already spread about how difficult the Rovania training regimen was.

  Jeff shook his head. “I’ll catch you later.”

  “See you at dinner.” Loki winked before he turned and padded out.

  * * * *

  Ever since the Rovania had come aboard, Nick had watched the Rovania exercise in the gym, wanting to join in but uncertain of his welcome—or of his ability to compete with them. Their workouts were at least half combat exercises, one-on-one sparring matches using padded staves or wooden swords. They were fast, strong, agile, and possessed of an astonishing ability to jump. Watching them drove home just how deadly they must have been in the arenas, and none of the Dark Star’s Rovania had even seen gladiatorial combat.

  He had once been lucky enough to watch an ancient video of arena matches, mostly of the great Tachero, but Yeraki had fought in one of the matches. He wouldn’t want to face either one of them in a fight. He figured he’d have lasted less than a minute, despite the wiring that made him stronger and faster than a normal, unaugmented human. Hell, he didn’t even think he could beat the young Rovania who practiced so diligently in the gym.

  Now that Hector had been born and he had healed up, he finally gave in to the urge and approached Veloki. The Rovania met in the gym every evening. Cortez had helped them adjust their duty shifts to make the practice possible since it was in the ship’s interest to keep their Rovania in training. Nick found Loki in the room they preferred to use, an open room lined with mirrors on two sides. Loki was in the process of stretching when Nick walked in, but Loki immediately bounced to his feet and padded over.

  “Captain?” Loki’s speaking voice was a silky tenor that made Nick wonder what his singing voice would sound like. His green eyes were sparkling as he peeked upward through a screen of silver eyelashes. All the young Rovania had difficulty making eye contact; he’d been told it had something to do with how they’d been trained as babies.

  “Mister Nathizo,” Nick replied formally then smiled. “Loki. I wanted to ask a favor of you.”

  “Anything, Captain.”

  “I would like to train with you and the others. I feel there’s much I could learn from all of you.”

  Loki blinked.

  Nick had long since figured out that when a Rovani blinked like that, they’d been surprised. None of the Rovania he had aboard showed much in the way of emotion, they’d been trained to conceal their feelings, but once you got to know them, the signs they did give off were as easy to read as an open book. Inwardly, he smiled at having surprised the young male.

  “Captain, it would be our pleasure,” Loki finally replied. “Have you had any combat training already?”

  “I took the personal defense classes in addition to the physical training the academy required.” Nick offered a wry smile. “I doubt it will be much help in this situation.”

  Loki shrugged. “Perhaps, Captain. We shall see. Did you want to start today?”

  “If you don’t mind?” He’d taken the time to change into exercise clothes before venturing in to speak to the Rovani, so nothing was preventing them from starting right away.

  “Not at all, Captain.” Loki motioned him toward the center of the room.
“Let’s see what you already know. Select any weapon you’d like and prepare to defend yourself.”

  Nick raked his gaze over the “weapons” but didn’t see anything he actually knew how to use. He was a fairly good shot, but the Rovania didn’t practice with ranged weapons. He walked to the center of the room and turned to face Loki. Peripherally, he was aware that the other Rovania had stopped what they were doing and were now observing.

  Loki, like the others, was dressed in only a groin wrap. He padded to a position opposite Nick, also bypassing the weapons rack. “Are you ready, Captain?”

  “I am.” Nick set himself, readying his hyper-reflexes, watching Loki closely for any sign of which way the Rovani would go. Loki launched straight for him, running with a swift, light step and drawing back his left arm to strike. Nick blocked the punch and twisted to the side to evade Loki. Abruptly, he was on his back and wondering what in the hell had just happened.

  Loki backed off. “Again,” he said dispassionately.

  Nick collected himself, stood up, turned to face the Rovani and nodded. “Ready.”

  This time, Loki came in from the side. He moved slowly enough that Nick tried an attack, lashing out with his right arm. Loki ducked the swing then leaped straight up, twisting in midair as he rocketed upward. Nick had only a split second to comprehend what was about to happen when, once again, he was laid out on the floor, this time by the perfectly aimed swing of Loki’s foot.

  Loki landed lightly beside him and glanced down, meeting his gaze. “Captain, are you sure you want to do this?”

  Nick stood up with an effort. He was already sore but more determined than ever. “I’m ready.”

  “No,” said Tsandriko, somewhere off to his left.

  “You’re not.” That was Riko’s twin, Tsandraki, completing the thought.

  Nick looked over at the pair of identical tawny and bronze Rovania. “I’m not?”

  “You’re off-balance,” Loki said quietly. “Come, Captain, over here.” Loki touched his elbow and guided him to a corner of the room. He turned. “Riko, Raki, come. Show him the basic exercises.”

  The twins padded over. “Captain,” they chorused. Then, they got down to business while Loki went off to help and instruct others. There proved to be a reason Loki had selected the twins for this. Not only were they very, very good at the exercises, they were able to help him position himself, give him advice and pointers, tips and tricks, and by the end of the practice session, Nick was wrung out but strangely happy.

  “Tomorrow?” he asked.

  “We’ll be here,” Loki confirmed. “Learning to fight our way takes time. Don’t get discouraged. You’re wired, so you have the reflexes needed to do this.”

  “I’ll never be able to jump like you can,” Nick pointed out.

  “No, but you don’t need to,” said Raki.

  “All you have to do is learn how to counter our leap,” finished Riko.

  “And there is a counter,” Loki added. “I remember the first time Taco used it on me. We were sparring, and I leaped when I shouldn’t have. He caught me by the ankle and swung me down so hard I nearly got a concussion.”

  “You trained with Tachero?” Nick asked, even as he mentally winced at the imagined scene Loki had painted for him.

  “Of course, he was the main combat teacher,” Loki replied. “He trained all of us. I don’t know who’s training the gatakia now.”

  “Did something happen to him?”

  “He died,” Raki said shortly.

  “In the massacre,” said Riko.

  “He was undefeated as a gladiator. The only undefeated Rovani ever. And then, some nameless fuck with a machine gun took him down.” Loki’s expression was set, the anger evident in his lashing tail and half-raised spinal ridge.

  “Yeraki was right behind Taco,” Riko said softly.

  “He killed the man who did it,” Raki said with slightly more cheer. “It was beautiful.”

  “He hit the malaka so hard his head came clean off.” Riko gave a predator’s grin to accompany his words.

  Loki wasn’t smiling. “It was, indeed, beautiful. But Yeri took it hard. Taco was his father—seeing him die like that, with no chance to defend himself...” He shook his head.

  The twins both blinked at him. Nick glanced at them then at Loki and raised an eyebrow.

  “I spent a lot of time with Yeri after we fled,” the white and silver Rovani admitted. “We both had problems—he helped me, and I did what I could to help him.”

  Nick gazed at Loki with even deeper respect as it occurred to him that this young Rovani knew more about the War Leader than anyone else aboard and probably knew him better than pretty much everyone alive. He might even know the reasoning behind some of Yeri’s decisions during the first Q’Kathi War. “What did you do, specifically, during the war?”

  “I led a special team,” Loki told him without batting an eye. “Psions and Rovania. We took our orders directly from Yeri; he would use us to take out very specific targets.”

  “We were on his team,” Riko added.

  “Loki was a good commander,” said Raki.

  “Yeri was a better general than I was a commander.” Loki shrugged. “He taught me a lot, but he had years and years of experience to base his decisions on. I only did what he told me to do.”

  “Did you ever ask him why?” Nick had a strong urge to march Loki off to the chambers he shared with Cai and spend the rest of the evening picking the young Rovani’s mind.

  Loki blinked at him. “Sometimes, Captain. His orders didn’t always make sense to me, but he was usually willing to fill me in on the overall situation so I could understand why he wanted me to do something. On the times he didn’t take the time to explain... well, I trusted him.”

  Nick nodded, accepting the explanation. He now understood why this young Rovani had been named as the leader of the Rovania team—he was not only the alpha, he had the experience of leading his people in combat already.

  Chapter Four

  “Oraia,” Yeraki murmured. The way the magnetic and gravitational fields met and interacted with one another was perfect. Perfect and elegant. He played with the fields in the simulation he was viewing on his tablet, determining what would cause containment to fail and what wouldn’t. There was redundancy built into the system, there had to be, in order to allow a ship to be wrapped about the singularity in the core.

  He had been given a list of questions to answer about the containment system. Instead of sitting through entire courses from start to finish, which was the norm for the cadets at the Space Academy, he was on a different track, one that had been designed expressly for him. It was a combination of self-study and rapid instruction, and it worked both to isolate him from the cadets and to speed his required education to a pace he could tolerate.

  Yeri didn’t mind the isolation—his identity couldn’t be concealed, and his reputation had preceded him here. Most of the cadets were in awe of him, and interacting with any of them was awkward at best. He did his best to blend in, of course, but it wasn’t enough.

  His human found the entire situation hysterical, but Lee had always seen things differently than he did. Lee claimed it wasn’t his reputation that caused the awkwardness but his intelligence. “Now that you don’t have to hide how smart you are, it becomes quickly apparent to most people that they’re not even on the same level as you.” According to Lee, most people couldn’t do calculus in their heads without the aid of implants. Yeri found this argument specious but chose not to argue with the man.

  He watched as his simulated ship was destroyed by its singularity then reset the simulation and adjusted the fields in different ways. He understood how it worked, he could see the critical interactions, so at this point, he was just playing because it was fun to push the envelope. Eventually, he inputted his answers to the questions he’d been posed on the singularity containment system and moved to the next topic—the neurologic network
of crystal matrices and fiber optics that formed the nervous system of a spaceship.

  “What are you working on?” Lee asked, startling Yeri. He’d been so intent on his studies that he hadn’t noticed the man’s arrival.

  He blinked at Lee as he tried to calm his racing heart. “The internal structure of a neurologic crystal.”

  The amusement in Lee’s scent proved that the man had noticed Yeri’s reaction. He didn’t say anything about it though. He sat down in the chair beside Yeri’s and stretched. “I can’t wait to get out of here. I need a break.”

  They were due to leave for Earth that very evening. It wouldn’t be much of a vacation since they were only going home for mating season. There weren’t enough studs left for Yeri to be exempted from his annual duties in the breeding chambers.

  “I would like to finish auditing this course before we leave.” Yeri didn’t care to think about what was coming, he didn’t enjoy mating season. More specifically, the loss of conscious self that was imposed by the hormonal-driven mating state disturbed him deeply. The complete mindlessness wasn’t a comfortable thing to contemplate or to experience. Once he entered rut, his will would be gone, and instinct would be in total control of him. The worst part of the month-long vacation from reality was that he would remember everything that happened with perfect clarity.

  Lee stroked his shoulder soothingly. The man knew what was agitating him without having to ask. “It’ll be fine, Yeri. Trust me.” Lee had been his handler since the very first time he’d gone into rut, all those many years ago. He trusted Lee absolutely. He loved Lee absolutely. His greatest fear was that he would kill Lee while in rut, and that had nearly happened twice that Yeri could recall.