Sholan Alliance - AU Bk. 02 Ch. 01

Nordan gave him a warm smile. "It is nice to see two people that are so in love. I am pleased and honored to be the one to do the bonding." He led them over to the table. "Actually it is relatively simple though occasionally some people do have something a bit more formal. I will verify that both of you wish this, I will note the bonding date, names, and how long in my book. The people with you will sign as witnesses and then we will sign the actual contract. Once that is done you will throw some incense on one of the flames to carry your wishes to Vartra."

Billy nodded at what he was saying and followed him over to the small table. He was still holding her hand. He was sure she could feel his shock at the surprise she had arranged. His eyes were on the table and the large heavy book resting there as well as the paper contract. As hard as it was his hand was still shaking in nervousness.

"Satasha do you wish this bonding contract with Yilly Madlax?" He asked her and when she said yes he turned to Billy. "Yilly do you wish this bonding contract with Satasha Verzilon?" Billy still couldn't speak and settled for a nod. Everyone could feel his love for her and how much he wanted this.

Nordan smiled at him and gave him a reassuring nod. He started filling out the book and once done he turned it for the two of them to sign. Both did though Billy's was a bit shaky. "Now take some incense and toss it onto the flame. This will send your hopes and prayers to Vartra."

Billy followed Satasha's example and he closed his eyes. The one thing he really wished they could do was have a child together. He sent a wish to Vartra that eventually they would have a child even if he or she had a Sholan father. Once done they turned back to the table and found the others had just finished signing the book.

"Please come back over and sign the contract as well." He smiled as they did that and it was witnessed as well. "One copy is for the two of you and the other will be forwarded to the main temple on Shola to document the bonding." He turned to Satasha and smiled. "As you requested I held onto the bonding bracelets for you." He flipped the cover off the bracelets. They were bronze and on one surface was an engraving.

Nordan picked up Billy's bracelet and held it out to Satasha. On it was engraved his ship with some scroll work around it. She wrapped it around his wrist and snapped it on. Once done Nordan handed the other bracelet to Billy. He looked at it and smiled. It was an engraving of a pair of boots and a pair of sandal's the Sholan's occasionally wore. Next to it was engraved 'Traveling shoes'.

Once he had placed it on her wrist he pulled her into a good hug and kiss. He licked her nose before lightly nipping it. "That is for being a stinker and trying to give me a heart attack." Billy rested his head on her chest and sighed. "This was such a wonderful surprise and a good way to start our flight." He looked at the priest. "Thank you father for allowing this and for your blessings. It is time for us to git down to the hanger bay."

The others clapped and cheered them and Billy had a really shy smile on his face as they left. To be honest he was totally in shock and his brain was trying to either melt down or kick start so it was working again. "God woman you... I can't even begin to describe how I feel." He frowned for a moment. "I could probably work up some equation but it would end up giving you a headache."

Sally smacked him for that and groaned. "If you do that I am taking your VR glasses away for the duration of the trip." Just for good measure she smacked him on the back as well.

~~~

When they reached the hanger bay he found all the warriors and the first contact team waiting as well as the commander. As they approached all of them started cheering and Billy almost instantly blushed. "Satasha if I didn't love you so much I would hate you right now." He muttered in her ear. For a brief moment he waited for the rest of the ship's crew to show up and throw a party. "Well let's get loaded up and on our way. My traveling boots are starting to itch and I can't wait to get home and see how many more headaches I get to cause."

The commander frowned at him. "Please try to avoid that. I don't want them thinking all we do is give those out." After a moment he smiled and stepped aside and waved him towards his craft. "Safe trip Captain Madlax and if all goes well we should see you in a few months."

Billy moved forward and to the ship and was followed by the others. It was going to be crowded since he, Satasha, and Z'Marl were going to be in his cabin. The engineer was going to be sharing a room with a warrior. The rest of the warriors assigned to his ship were going to be two to a room as well. One drawback was there were only two crew showers so that was going to be a pain. Now his cabin had a shower for the captain and he didn't have any intentions of sharing.

The main airlock was between the crew section and the engines and cargo section. As they moved forwards he let Vangie assign the crew to the rooms. "Sally once we get underway I want you to give the warriors some training on the weapons. We shouldn't need them but better safe than sorry." Vangie nodded as well.

"Several of us have training as ship's crew as well and it might be handy if you could teach them the basics of your ship. That way we can rotate crew through there and have a round the clock watch." It would also keep the warriors from becoming totally bored. That tended to lead to trouble at times.

"Good idea and it will keep them from deciding to turn my ship into a major training exercise." He grinned at the snickers and snorts. "Actually though I am sure you have ship boarding training it might be good for you to use my ship as an example of the average small Terran ship." That would also keep them occupied as well. "Just don't break anything please or I will send the bill to your Commander."

Once the warriors were settled Satasha, Billy, and Sally settled in the chairs for the various stations. "M'Zalon if you want to have a seat in that chair please do. Don't touch anything since it is the weapons station. I would really hate to accidently do something like shoot your ship."

He laughed as he settled down. "I would hate to try and explain that as well." He had to shudder at that thought.

Z'Marl grabbed the last station and settled down to watch. She was quite interested in how the ship was run and she was definitely going to check out the engines. The two Sholan's kept quiet as Billy radioed for permission to take off from the landing bay. Once he received permission he powered her up and slowly moved out of the landing bay. Once they were clear he waited for the two Sholan ships to move into formation with him.

"Attention all ships I am transmitting the coordinates as well as the flight plan. Unless something changes we are going to follow the plan as laid out." He pressed a button and sent the information. "We will have a meeting about a day out to see if we need to change anything." After verifying everyone had the data he initiated the hyper drive and flashed into hyper along with the other two ships.

"Secure from stations and please assemble in the main room." Now came the fun part. He really didn't have any urge to give tours but the warriors needed to know where everything was. He started the briefing and they split up in groups to be shown around.

~~~

They had been underway for just about a week and had a week left before they reached earth when alarms started going off. They weren't mechanical alarms but proximity alarms. "Oh fuck this isn't good." He scrambled to the bridge and strapped in. "Attention contact team transport drop back and go to silent running if possible."

As he was doing that Vangie showed in the door as Sally and Satasha were strapping in. "Attention combat craft don't fire unless told to. I want the ship as intact as possible.." He checked his scanner and frowned at the readings. "I am going to classify this as a pirate vessel. Stay in stealth as well." He flipped to the intercom. "All warriors gear up and get ready for a boarding action."

Vangie started murmuring instructions into his wrist comm. Scrambling could be heard as the warriors dashed into their rooms and pulled on their armor and weapons. They moved to take up assigned positions and prepared for what might end up happening. Right about the time they had taken stations the strange ship fired across the bow and the short range communications crackled.

Billy flipped the comm's on and waited. It didn't take long before he was hailed by the other ship and he snarled when he heard the name of the ship and saw the image of the captain. "Oh goody we get to wipe this piece of shit out."

"This is Captain Jack Sparrow of the Black Pearl. Do not change your speed and lower your shields or you will be fired on. Illuminate the docking ring and prepare for boarding. If you don't fight you might last a bit longer." He smirked on the video screen as he was talking. He was stupid enough not to ask why Billy wasn't transmitting video and only audio.

"This is Captain Madlax of the SS Sandi and you are breaking international treaties on the boarding of ships." He figured it was expected for him to say that and the last thing he wanted was to raise suspicion. He muted the mic. "God could you have come up with a better name you idiot? He is taking his name and ship name from an old movie."

"I will say this one more time before firing on you. Maintain your speed and lower your shields and prepare to be boarded. I can get what I want from the hull of your ship if I have to." He had his boots up on the console and was smoking a vile looking cigar.

Billy glanced back at Vangie and got a nod from him. He turned back to the pickup. "Understood and I will prepare for boarding. Please take what you want but don't harm me or my crew." That was also fairly standard but with this bastard it wouldn't be done. He was known for taking prisoners and if they weren't wealthy they had fun with them and worked them over before killing them and mailing the bodies back to the family just for amusements sake.

"I will meet you at the airlock and again please take what you want and don't harm my crew." All he got back was a course laugh. Billy turned the audio off. "Sally take the controls, Satasha stay with Navigation, and Z'Marl take the engineering console." He walked over to the weapon's locker and opened it. He handed Sally a pistol and shotgun. He also grabbed a pistol and tucked it in the back of his pants. Several clips went into pockets and he pulled out his shotgun and ammo harness. "Hold this for me Vangie. I am going to greet them and then we board."

Vangie gave him an evil look. "It will be our pleasure to help you Captain." They headed towards the airlock he activated his comm to ensure that all troops were at their assigned station.

"Sally illuminate the airlock and activate the power to the weapons systems. Vangie make sure your warriors know not to activate them unless ordered or we are fired on." He got a nod from him and Billy moved so he could see the ship approach and mentally nodded. "This is a small fast cruiser, or was. Pirates tend to make changes all the time to armament and engines as they loot and pillage. There is a central corridor that runs fore and aft down the center of the ship. I want one team to follow me forward and the second to secure the engine room. Shoot on sight if they don't surrender immediately. There is a nice reward for them dead or alive as well and I don't really care if we take them back in body bags. The only ones I would like alive are the officers."

The docking tube started coming across. "Normally this ship would have a crew of about twenty but the pirates might have more or less. It really depends. I am going to stop talking now since the tube has connected." Sally contacted him and told him they wanted him to open the exterior doors. He did that and waited. It looked like there were five or so pirates coming across and they were all heavily armed.

Once they stepped in the airlock he closed it and moved back so they would have to jump to reach him. When the airlock opened and they stepped through Billy almost puked since they reeked of stale sweat, smoke, and god only knew what else.

"On your knees scum or I will shoot your legs off." His voice was smoke roughened and he had vile tattoos on his face and neck. As he was talking to Billy his men were glancing around trying to see if there were any others hanging around.

Billy knelt down and he was doing his best to look pale and was trying to project terror at the five. It might be wrong but he was doing everything he could to increase their arrogance and confidence. The leader was gloating as Billy went down.

"What a good scum, nice and obedient." He turned to the others and smirked at them and they started laughing. It was a cruel laugher and predicted plenty of pain in the passenger's future.

When he turned away to glance at the others Billy flopped on his side and pulled his pistol. It was specifically designed for ship combat. The rounds were frangible and when they hit something solid disintegrated. When they hit a person they also tended to break into pieces but not nearly as small as hitting metal.

The first round hit the first pirate in the hip and he went down screaming. Billy got off one more shot and took out another pirate before the warriors whipped around the corner. They fired at the last three and they went down hard. Billy rolled to his feet and pocked the pistol again. Vangie handed him the harness and then the shotgun.

It only took a few moments and then he dashed across the boarding tube and he heard stunners being used. He grinned since if any of them survived they would have a hangover from hell. As soon as he reached the main p-way he held his hand up. He had his VR glasses on but was set in motion and sensor mode. He let them do their work and moments later he held up two fingers and pointed in the direction towards the engine room. He held up three fingers and pointed towards the bridge.

Several more hand movements and they moved. The pirates didn't have much time to react before they were shot. One did get lucky and Billy heard a grunt from one of the warriors but when he checked his glasses all of them appeared to be moving relatively fine. As they were running down the p-way he used his comm. He told Vangie where to have his warriors break off to secure the ship.

When they made it to the bridge the door was shut and locked. Billy stepped to the side and one of the Sholan's fired his pulser rifle at the lock. The moment it blew Billy pulled the door open and Vangie shot each person with the stunner.

Before the last pirate fell Billy jerked the captain out of his chair and started checking the controls. "Bastard was trying to set off some mines that would attach to my hull and detonate inwards." His fingers flew across the controls. The pirates hadn't changed the basic OS though they had made some changes. It took a few minutes before he had accessed the underlying software and took over the ship.

He locked down every door in the ship and changed the access code so they couldn't get out. "Vangie I need two guards here. Right now the ship is maintaining station keeping and the controls are locked down. I have the code and pass it to all your warriors." He informed Vangie what it was. "We are going to start at the front of the ship and work our way back. We are going to check every room, store room, nook, and cranny. We will designate one or more rooms as the brig as needed."

They moved out and slowly moved down the p-way and checked any and all access panels and rooms. They did take several prisoners but others tried resisting and were shot on the spot. The other team had left two in the engine room and the rest were starting a sweep forward. Suddenly Billy's comm's sent him an alert from one of the Sholan's. "Captain you need to get down here immediately. They had prisoners."

Billy could hear screaming over the comm. and the screams were obviously female. "Understood. Be there shortly. Vangie with me." He started running down the hall. As he was approaching the source of the screaming a pirate stepped out and Billy didn't even slow down. He butt stroked him and kept going. He heard a stunner and knew that Vangie had stunned him.

As he approached the doorway one of the warriors indicated for him to slow down and held a finger to his mouth. Billy did that and quietly moved to the door and looked in. When he did his blood pressure almost went off the chart and for a brief moment all he saw was red. There were what looked like six women in the room and they ranged from maybe mid-teens to late thirties. All of them were nude and had obvious marks of abuse on their bodies. They were filthy, their hair matted and tangled and the stench was almost over powering.

Billy could only stand there for a few moment and stare in shock. "Holy Mary, mother of God." He looked at Vangie. "Get several of your warriors to my ship and take over command of it. Have the females come over since we are going to terrify them." He turned back to the room and slung his shotgun and squatted down.

"I am Captain Madlax of the SS Sandi. I am former Navy, Lt. Madlax of the design board. We took over this ship when they tried to board us and all the pirates have been either captured or killed." He looked up at Vangie and smiled before looking back. "These are some friends of mine and I promise they won't harm you. Yes they are aliens and yes they are felinoid but they are good people. This is senior warrior Vangie and he is seeing my daughter."

He could hear the females coming and he looked at them and back at the women in the room. "There are three females approaching. Once is my oldest girl and the other two are Sholan's as well." He stood up and moved slightly off to one side. "This is my mate Satasha and that means we are married. The blonde Sholan is Z'Marl and is a very gentle woman. The last is my daughter Sally. They are going to come in and do what they can to comfort you."

He contacted the warrior in charge of his ship. "I am going to detach the boarding tube. Move away and let the Barque approach. I will connect the boarding tube to the ship so they can send some medical staff over. We have six badly injured females and they are going to need treatment."

When he started to move Vangie told him to wait. "Warrior Presion withdraw the docking tube and let me know when it is done." He nodded at Billy and angled his head towards the room.

Billy turned and heard a voice quietly speak. "Is that you Billy Bob? Is it really you?" The voice was almost broken sounding and carried tones of fear and terror.

He turned and looked at the woman and his jaw dropped. "Bitty is that you?" He handed his shotgun to Vangie and slowly moved forward. "Oh my god hun and yes it is." He squatted down next to her and held his hand out to her and was almost knocked over. She had almost lunged into his arms and burst into tears. His arms wrapped around her and pulled her close and tucked her head into his neck.

"You are safe now Bitty. I am very serious when I say the Sholan's are my friends and they will take very good care of you." He doubted that she could really hear him over the sobbing but he knew the others could hear him. From her reaction they could tell that she trusted him.

As she was crying a young warrior, maybe twenty or so, approached Vangie. "Sir I am reporting that all the survivors are in two rooms. The rooms have been stripped of anything movable. The men have been stripped as well. The dead bodies are getting tossed into a freezer unit for the time being." He thumped his right fist to his left shoulder in their version of a salute. As he was turning he noticed the women and his ears went back and his face hardened.