Page 9 of Master (The Outlander Book Club… in Space! #3)

Clara

“Hands in the air!"

The way Tarook rolled his eyes indicated I sounded every bit the idiot I felt.

Holding the strange alien gun on him was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

I questioned if the piece in my hands was even real.

In my limited experience, guns had some weight to them.

This thing was light as a feather, and I kept my finger away from what I suspected to be the trigger lest I have the thing pointed backward and blow my own head off.

"Seriously." I widened my stance, adopting a posture learned from twenty years of watching Law and Order SVU. “I want to know where my friends are, and I want proof you’re not just another slaver.”

Tarook smirked and turned back to the console. His shoulders shook as though exercising control to keep from laughing out loud.

“I mean it!”

Deep golden eyes danced as he glanced over his shoulder at me before reaching out to flip a series of buttons. A small square of pure white light flickered on the console.

"Tarook to Bardaga. The package is in my possession."

Package?

“Package?”

Another glance, another smirk. I might just shoot this guy on principle. Even if he had been excellent in the sack.

"Package," I repeated, the gun in my hand shaking. "How dare you call me a package? What is this? The alien version of Amazon? Listen, buddy...."

"Clara? Clara, is that you?"

The white square of light flickered, an image barely coming into focus, but the voice issued from it was clear and one that made my heart jump in recognition.

“Emmy?”

“Clara!” Another voice that I recognized, and the small white screen shifted to hold 3-D images of two people I wondered if I would ever see again.

At least, I think it was them. These two women looked forty years younger than they should have.

The one on the right had an abundance of red curls flowing over her shoulders, framing her smooth, pale face.

The second was equally lovely, with thick brown hair styled into a loose braid and shimmering hazel eyes.

"Daisy? Emmy? Oh, my God! Are ya'll okay?"

I shoved the blaster at Tarook and settled in the co-pilot's chair closer to the hologram.

"Never better." Emmy laughed, her gaze flickering to the man at my side. "Hey Tarook. Thanks for rescuing Clara.”

Tarook's eyes darted to me, a wide grin growing on his face. "It was my complete pleasure."

Asshole pervert .

The disembodied screen cleared, and I saw my friends clearly.

They sat at what looked like a gray metal table with a backdrop of dark sky and flickering stars.

The image was small, like the screen of a laptop, but I could see well enough to know there wasn’t a single wrinkle on either of their faces.

"Wow. So, you both got...." I faltered with what to call the process that had taken forty years of age from our bodies.

“Youthinized," Daisy giggled as a deep male voice off-camera grumbled. He didn't like that term.

"Yep," Emmy grinned. "Isn't Daisy gorgeous?"

"So are the both of you," Daisy replied, her face split into a wide smile. I hadn't seen her smile like this in years.

Emmy wore a tempered grin. "Are you okay, Clara? We know they sent you to one of those hedonism ships. Was Tarook able to get to you before.... before...."

I shot a glance at Tarook, daring him to speak.

"He rescued me before anybody could buy me." It was basically the truth. Tarook got a freebie, the turd.

"Thank God," Daisy said, pressing a hand over her heart. "We were so worried about what might happen to you."

"Where are you guys?" I changed the subject, worried Tarook might interject. He sat in the pilot's chair, fiddling with buttons and watching the screens. I could tell from the infinitesimal twitch of his slightly pointed ears he paid attention to every syllable uttered.

"We're on the Bardaga." Emmy raised a hand and gestured about, but the screen stayed focused on my friends. "It's the Vaktaire warship that patrols the Milky Way. Well, it used to. Khaion took furlough so his crew could help us find you."

"Tarook said everyone was being rescued." Not that I hadn't believed him. Okay, well, maybe part of me didn't.

"True," Emmy agreed, and Tarook flashed me an arrogant smirk. "We have a location on Agnes, Pearl, and Willa. It's just a matter of the Vaktaire getting to the girls and getting them out safely."

"They're okay, though?" I worried.

“As near as we can tell,” Daisy added. “We were worried about you the most.”

Because I was the one in a brothel. One of these days, I might confess to them why, out of all of us, I was the one more suited to handling a brothel. Just not today.

"I'm okay," I reiterated. "What happened to you guys? How did you get rescued?"

Daisy and Emmy shared a look, grinning.

Emmy took the lead, explaining how she got left on the ship after the Vaktaire intervened, attempting to reach an escape pod before the Trogvyk ship exploded.

Thankfully, Khaion got to her at the last minute, saving them both.

After that, Emmy used her exceptional persuasion skills as a former prosecutor to wrangle the Vaktaire into helping her find and rescue the rest of us.

Daisy's story was darker. They took her to an underground mine to act as caretaker for the alien children enslaved as miners. Rescuing her would have been relatively simple. Rescuing her plus twenty alien children proved more problematic. It was a dangerous operation, resulting in near death.

“I’ll just be glad when we can find everyone and get back home,” I sighed, realizing that as crazy as my escape from the hedonism ship, it was tame compared to my friends.

The glance shared between Emmy and Daisy at my words sent a frigid chill skittering down my spine.

“What is it?

“Tarook didn’t tell you?” Emmy asked.

I squirmed in my seat.

“We didn’t have a chance to talk much." Beside me, Tarook gave a low chuckle. I wished I still held the gun. "We were too busy trying to escape and not get killed.”

Daisy drew a deep breath and gave me a sad smile. "We can't go back to Earth."

“Why not?” I tried not to sound as upset as I felt.

Emmy leaned forward and stretched her hand out like she expected to be able to touch me through the hologram. "The planetary Alliance that governs everything forbids returning a human to Earth once they’ve gone through the Garoot Healer.” “The what?” I blinked.

“The machine that made us young again,” Daisy explained.

"The healer doesn't just revert our bodies to the moment of most perfect health," Emmy added. "It lengthens our life spans, makes us resistant to disease and a couple of other things that would be hard to explain back on Earth.”

“Wow.” I glanced down at my body. The perky boobs and firm ass long thought lost to age might be mine for longer than twenty years this time.

The idea of never returning to Earth was jarring, but not as much as I expected.

Curtis was gone. Everything on Earth reminded me I'd have to live the rest of my life without him.

Even my daughter.

My relationship with Victoria had always been strained.

She was just like me, smart and obstinate.

When she wanted to go to college abroad, it was Curtis, not me, who supported the idea.

During the five years Curtis was sick, Victoria accused me of putting our search for a cure before everything.

She was right. She married a French architect without inviting us to the wedding.

The funeral was the last time I saw her and my granddaughter, Mavis.

I tried reaching out, but to Victoria, it was too little too late.

I mourned the idea of never seeing my daughter and granddaughter again, but in context of the relationship I wished we had.

As things stood, there was nothing to mourn but regrets and lost chances.

“Are you okay never going home again?” Daisy didn’t have children, but Emmy did—two grown boys.

"More than okay." Daisy gave a wistful smile. I'd honestly never seen her as content and happy. The sadness she wore like a shroud after her husband's death finally lifted.

“I miss my boys every day, but this is my home now," Emmy said softly, her gaze flickering to someone who stood off camera.

“Seriously?” Emmy was close with her children—unlike me.

"Time moves differently in space." Emmy issued a knowing gaze tinged with sadness. "It feels like only a few weeks since we got abducted, but a few months have passed on Earth,"

I jerked my gaze to Tarook, who nodded in agreement.

"My boys have mourned me and moved on. I'm okay with that. It's the circle of life." Emmy shifted in her seat, lowering her gaze. When she lifted her eyes, the sadness dissipated. "It helps that I've found love again."

"That does help," Daisy agreed, squeezing Emmy's hand.

“Are you two telling me you found a couple of alien boyfriends?" I barked. Tarook didn't hide his amused chuckle.

“It’s a little more than that, but yes,” Emmy laughed. “Daisy mated with Daicon, the War Chief, and I've mated to Khaion, the Chieftain.”

Mated? "What the hell?”

Emmy snorted with laughter. "You weren't blind the last time we saw you. You can't deny the Vaktaire are gorgeous.”

“Alien Jamie Fraser’s the lot of them," Daisy giggled. "Plus, Daicon is the sweetest, kindest guy imaginable.”

I couldn't deny that my friends looked happy. If I was honest with myself, I couldn't deny what they said about the Vaktaire either. Tarook was gorgeous.

Dammit!

There was something about nearly seven feet of beautifully sculpted muscle that was just gorgeous, as much as I didn't want it to be.

Curtis was an accountant—a runner and a golfer.

He was fit but lean. Completely different from Tarook's muscular physique.

I didn't hate the difference. There was something appealing about being held so gently by one who possessed such strength.

The feel of his muscles twitching underneath my fingertips… .

Get your head out of the gutter, Clara!