A SPARTAN'S WAR

Trenou finished running her right hand over Sehri's leg and looked up at her and nodded. "Excellent." She spoke. Sehri sat on the exam bed, Aleatia next to her and several thick curtains hiding them from the view of the rest of the massive portable canvas triage center that had been set up. "Your healing systems are just as robust as any Lycavorian in the Union. That's very good. I treated the deep bruising which was causing the ache and I gave you some additional strong antibiotic enzymes." Trenou looked at Aleatia. "I'd like to give all of your people these same injections. There may be microbes within the Alpha Quadrant that you have not been exposed to in the Beta Quadrant. It's just a precaution."

Aleatia looked at her and nodded her head. "Of course. There is no permanent damage?" She asked quickly.

Trenou shook her head. "None at all." She looked at Sehri. "You'll be a little weak for a day or so because of the amount of blood you lost, but your systems will replenish that quickly enough." She smiled. "You are a tough young lady."

Sehri smiled shyly. "I didn't… I didn't feel tough at the time." She said.

Trenou smiled. "Who among us ever does?" She said. She patted Sehri's leg. "You can leave whenever you want. Andro's STRIKER is a hundred and fifty meters west, but you should be able to…"

Sehri nodded her head quickly, her eyes bright. "Yes… I can smell him very easily. He and his brother Dorian are talking with my brother and Lisisa."

Aleatia looked at her daughter with some surprise, Osbela and Ibani standing to the side with looks of consternation on their faces and not for the reasons that they should have been concerned about. While their people used their sense of smell for many things, Aleatia knew of no one who could use it with as much precision and skill as the Lycavorians did. No one except her daughter that is.

Trenou nodded her head. "Good. I have to attend to my other charges." She said with a smile. "Spartans are notoriously bad patients. They tend to think they are indestructible."

Aleatia waited until Trenou had left them alone and then she turned back to Sehri. "That was the most incredibly stupid thing you have ever done!" She hissed. "You could have been killed Sehri! What were you thinking?"

"She wasn't thinking obviously!" Osbela snapped.

Sehri ignored her sister and looked at her mother. "I needed to go mother." She stated calmly. "You know that."

"She only did this to try and get to Prince Androcles first mother!" Ibani snapped. "It seems you aren't so stupid in that regard after all sister!"

Aleatia tore her eyes from Sehri and glared at Ibani. "Not now Ibani!" She growled.

"It's the reason she did it mother!" Osbela barked now. She looked at Sehri. "You can't have him Sehri! Ibani or I are meant for him! You won't be able to keep his attention! He is the type of man who desires an experienced woman!"

Sehri turned her glaucous blue eyes on her older sister and smiled. "Then by all means sister…" She spoke warmly and with a calm that Aleatia had never seen from her daughter when her sisters teased her in such a way. "I encourage you to use your experience on him. I'm sure he will be quite impressed."

Aleatia looked at her two older daughters. "Leave us alone!" She snapped. "I need to speak with your sister alone!"

"Mother!" Osbela protested.

"Go now!" Aleatia snapped.

Osbela and Ibani had looks of indignation on their faces as they glared at Sehri one last time before they left the small area. Aleatia shifted her position and settled onto the exam bed next to Sehri, taking her small hands within hers.

"Sehri… tell me everything that happened." Aleatia told her. "Leave nothing out. I want to know everything."

"Momma…" Sehri smiled at her and squeezed her hands. "I belong to Androcles. And Sadi, and Ne'Veha, Caliria, Carisia and Lu'ria. I belong to all of them. Just as they belong to me. Nothing is going to change that. Not now."

Aleatia nodded her head and reached up to stroke Sehri's cheek. "Indulge me Sehri." She said softly. "Tell me of this young man who has affected you in such a way. Tell me of them all."

Sehri's eyes were bright as she began to share with her mother all she had felt since this trip had begun.

ARC ROYAL

ECHO QUADRANT

FEBRUARY 5TH, 1128 HRS EST

Martin looked up from his tray of food and gazed at Helen who sat across from him. Since discovering this Pralor Paladin thing, they had been spending as much time together as they could just talking. At first it had been awkward, Martin always considered her a mother figure, but as the days and hours passed it became like second nature. He had never held anything back from Helen through the years, and discovering this new connection made it all the more important. Helen may have been over four thousand years old, but the time and the training she had put in since becoming bonded with Arzoal had been well worth it. The hard life in Sparta had caused her to look much older, but that was a ruse Martin knew. Helen was a terror in a fight as evidenced by the fact she was the one who killed Aikiro. She was very easily capable of holding her own in a fight, especially with Arzoal beside her. Not to mention that she and Arzoal had developed some very unique skill sets together. They met nearly every morning for breakfast and Wayonn had commented on how their connection was becoming more and more intertwined. Helen, for her part, thoroughly enjoyed the closeness they had nurtured these last weeks. From the day that Hadarian couple had returned Martin to Earth she had felt a bond with the infant, and always inquired of him from Walter even after he had assumed his role as Guardian of the Line. Now Helen understood why.

Helen lowered her mug of tea and looked at him. "What are you thinking Martin?" She asked softly.

Martin poked at his food several times before lifting his eyes to meet hers. She didn't press further for she knew he would answer when he had his thoughts focused. Martin Leonidas was far more intelligent than the vast majority of people gave him credit for. She knew he liked to put forward the idea that he was simply a soldier with good people around him but Helen knew better.

"I'm… I'm thinking about what we will discover." He said finally.

"Whether we will find an thriving people with thousands of dragons and Pralors… or the bones of long dead ancestors." She said.

Martin nodded. "Yes."

Helen nodded. "Arzoal and I have talked of this as well." She said softly. "Sometimes we question whether we acted too quickly once we rescued For'mya and the eggs from Enurrua. It is interesting that the planet that caused us so much pain in the past was the catalyst to us reaching out across the stars in search of part of our past and our future."

Martin looked at her. "You aren't going to go all cryptic on me are you?" He asked with that odd look on his face. One of his eyebrows would raise and the corner of his mouth would turn upward.

Helen chuckled softly. "No." She stated. "It does make you think though."

Martin nodded. "Sometimes too hard and it gives me a headache." He answered.

"Do you question whether we should be out here Martin?" She asked.

Martin shook his head. "No. I just don't like not having any idea of what is coming." He answered. "I don't fear the unknown Helen, you know that, but there are times when it is scary as all hell."

Helen nodded her head. "Indeed it is."

Martin looked at her. "And these Scourge. They give me pause."

Helen met his eyes. "The species we found recently has too many similarities to them. Yes… I was thinking the same thing."

Their talk with Wayonn and Arzoal in the cargo bay had been rather one sided. Martin had shown just a small portion of the anger he could bring to bear and it had surprised Wayonn to say the least since he was the focus of that anger.

"No more bullshit! I want to know everything! No games! No hidden information! I want to know everything or so help me I'll turn us all around and go back right fucking now!"

Martin's outburst had caught Wayonn by surprise indeed considering the look in his eyes. Part of it was because the anger was focused at him and part of it was because Helen knew he had seen this type of thing before. He was the Mage to Sumar, and no doubt from his expression he had seen Sumar angry like this in the past. Her grandfather had talked then, talked for hours with Arzoal helping to fill in bits of information. In the end they knew all that Wayonn knew and Martin had taken Wayonn's arms in his hands.

"You have to trust in me now Wayonn." He had told him.

"Trusting you was never an issue Martin my boy." Wayonn had said. "It was only a matter of time before this all came out. It was a burden I did not want you to bear before you were ready. Now you are."

"You don't think Wayonn is holding back from us do you?" Helen asked him after a long moment of silence.

Martin shook his head quickly. "No. I think he sees what we see but doesn't have any more answers than we do. Just the same questions. That is why he is working with Anja and Duewa as much as possible. And I believe deep down he hopes to find more Pralors. I think part of him is lonely knowing he and Shiria are all that remains."

Helen nodded. "Yes. I will agree with that." She stated. "He tries to hide it from me, but we are blood and he cannot."

"Hell… I hope we find more of them." Martin said. "Lots more. We…"

Martin looked up and saw Anja crossing the mess lounge towards him and Helen with Duewa in tow. Both of them carried trays of food and held mugs of coffee, but Martin also took note of the bright, animated face Anja wore. He knew it was because of the steamy bout of sex they had stolen in the shower this morning while everyone still slept. Anja usually rose before the others and he had discovered her in the shower under the hot stream of water. Their brief coupling had been very intense and very satisfying, if a little short to suit them both. Though she was the smallest of his Queens in terms of physical stature, Anja more than made up for her size with her intense personality and her extremely fit body. Her Hadarian genes allowed her to last longer than his other Queens except when they were all in Phase, and behind Aricia, Anja was the most vocal and adventurous during their love making. The petite stature of her body had always made him crazy with lust, especially how she fit so easily into his arms, and combined with her urging moans and nips of love with her fangs and her whispers of ardor in his ears, it more often than not made him over excited and equally attentive to her. Which then led to some mind blowing experiences.

Helen turned to where his eyes were focused and saw Anja and Duewa move up to their table. Anja immediately went around to his side of the table and leaned over to him, catching his lips in a hungry kiss while Duewa settled next to her.

"Hi ya lover." Anja spoke as she broke their kiss and she settled into the chair beside him.

"Hi yourself Red." He stated with a smile.

Helen patted Duewa's hand and kissed her cheek. "You are looking very… fulfilled Duewa." She said with a smile. "This pleases me."

Duewa smiled and nodded her head. "Until Thoti changed me, I didn't fully grasp what I was missing about life." She said thoughtfully looking at her. "Now I do. And I don't intend to ever let it go."

Martin lifted his coffee looking at Anja out of the corner of his eye. "I thought you two were going to be doing research this morning. Decided to take a break?"

Anja stabbed a piece of meat with her fork and plopped it into her mouth to chew before she answered. She turned to look at him as he waited. "Actually we came to see you." She spoke after swallowing.

Martin's mug stopped halfway to the table. "Oh boy… I know that look!" Martin said. "What is going on Red? Whenever you get that look it's because you want something that I more than likely won't want to give."

"Lover?" Anja gasped. "You don't mean that."

"Uh-huh." Martin muttered. "What do you have going through that devious mind of yours?"

"We need your permission for something." Anja said.

Martin put his mug down. "I definitely am not going to like this." He stated.

"Do you trust me?" Anja asked him.

Martin rolled his eyes. "Anja… please."

Anja slid her hands around his arm, the warmth of his skin and the pulsing of his muscles always extremely pleasant and enticing to her and she looked at him with those jade green eyes. "I would not do this without asking you first. It's too important." She stated. "Duewa and I have discovered a way to revert the body of our guest back to their original state."

Martin's eyes narrowed. "Come again?"

Helen leaned forward. "I thought our… guest was dead?" She asked.

Anja nodded. "Our guest is." She answered. "But all cells take time to lose their viability, and because our guest has both Pralor and Lycavorian cells in them it's taking longer than it normally would." She looked at Martin. "We can alter those cells now that it is dead to see what it looked like. It might give us an idea of where it came from and how it got out here."

"How?" Martin asked.

Duewa leaned forward now and the excitement was evident in her reply. "It's actually a combination of two things that Anja and I have been working on separately and never knew until now. Her Reverse Genetic Modifier combined with my work on Hereditary Chromatin Mycosis will allow us to…"

Martin held up his hand and stopped her. "Excuse me… what did you just say?"

Anja laughed and hugged his arm tightly knowing that he was truly out of his element here. "Duewa is saying we can make the cells in our dead guest revert back to their original form."

Martin looked at Anja. "Why didn't she just say that?" Martin asked.

"I did." Duewa stated confused.

Helen chuckled and took her hand. "You must remember Duewa… Martin is very good at conversing with Avi about computer and electronic algorithms but start talking in advanced medical terms and he is lost. Literally."

Duewa looked at him. "Oh. Sorry."

Martin smiled at her. "Don't worry… I'm sure you'll spend enough time around me to discover all my pet peeves." He stated. "Everyone else does."

"How does this help us?" Helen asked.

"Well… if it works…" Anja began.

"It's a big if too." Duewa chimed in.

Anja nodded. "Yes… but if it works… Wayonn or even Arzoal might be able to tell us where this Pralor came from. It could give us an idea of how far they ranged out after the war, or if there are other survivors. If it works…"

"If it works it could also help us if we have any future encounters with this species." Duewa said. "It might even be worth it to try and capture one."

Martin blinked. "Capture one?" He hissed.

"If this reversion process works on the cells we have Marty, then there is no reason to think it won't work on actual living cells." Anja said. "Like those found in the living creatures. It could not only benefit us because we can treat any of our people who may get infected, and we may even be able to cause any of these creatures we may come across in the future to return to their normal appearance. I mean who would submit to this willingly?"

"I would hope no one." Helen stated.

Duewa nodded. "Exactly. We've already determined how aggressive these cells are and the most effective way to inject so many of them at once. I find it hard to believe anyone would willingly submit to being raped by one of these creatures. Male or female."

Martin looked at Anja intently. "You can do this Red?" He asked finally.

Anja nodded. "It's possible. I wanted to make sure you were in agreement before we tested it on the cells we have." She answered. "We may even be able to devise some sort of immunization to this type of forced conversion in case any of our people are caught by them. I… For'mya believes we will encounter them again. So does Melda Min."

Martin's dark eyes grew slightly wider. "Really?"

Helen leaned closer. "Her gift?" She asked.

Anja nodded. "Yes."

Duewa looked at Anja and then Martin and then back to Anja. "What do you mean Anja? What gift?" She asked.

Anja dropped her fork onto the plate. "Dysea has a sense of what most of us would consider precognition. She can see things that are going to happen. She doesn't get these flashes very often and they are usually jumbled and she can't really explain them but when she does we usually try and listen to what they might mean."

Martin looked at Duewa. "She saw that the Evolli would invade and that is why we were able to respond to their initial attacks so quickly. We just couldn't jump the gun without overstepping our intelligence sources or determine where they would come from and that is why they were able to gain three planets right off the bat."

"For'mya also is able to… how do I explain this…" Helen said. "She can sense life and death and even deeply buried emotions just from being near people or inanimate things like a ship or a rock even."

"Empathic abilities?" Duewa gasped.

Helen nodded. "Yes."

"That… that is fascinating!" Duewa stammered. "How… this is not common knowledge among our people is it. I have never heard of it!"

Martin shook his head. "No it's not common knowledge Duewa. There are seven outside of our family who know if it. You make eight."

Duewa gazed at him with wide eyes for a long moment. His answer was clear, but the fact that they trusted her enough to share this information with her told Duewa all she would ever need to know. No matter what had occurred in her past, her life as far as they were concerned began the day Thoti turned her. The trust they were showing in allowing her to know this swept through Duewa like a wave and she embraced it completely. They did not have to trust her, but they did, and Duewa would honor that trust just as intensely as she honored her love for Thoti.

Duewa met Martin's eyes. "I will… I will not forget the trust you are placing in me." She said softly.

Martin nodded his head and that was all she needed to see. "So this little reversion thingy could make our people safer if we run into those ugly bastards again?"

Anja nodded. "It's possible… yes. We need to run lots of tests to confirm it, but yes."

Martin looked between them. "And it's safe. It won't hurt you or Duewa… or put you in any kind of danger?"

Duewa nodded. "We will take every precaution." She said. "Neither of us wishes to make a mistake."

Anja nodded her head. "No argument here." She stated.

Martin nodded. "Ok… but I want two security people with you at all times. And both of you will be armed always. I don't want whatever you do to magically bring that ugly fucker back to life!"

"We're not gods Marty." Anja said. "That is not something we can do."

Martin looked at her. "When you put your mind to something like this Red… it's downright scary what you can accomplish."

Anja beamed with adoring love at him. "Well… thank you lover!" She said. "You have never told me that before."

Martin leaned over and nuzzled her cheek and then kissed her softly. "It's true."

Duewa shook her head slowly. "My last attempt at holding a weapon did not turn out so well Martin." She said with an embarrassed grin. "I got shot and almost died."

"It got you Thoti didn't it?" Martin asked.

Duewa smiled and nodded. "Well… that part is true." She answered.

"We'll get you some basic firearms training before you two start your work." Martin said. "Thoti will get a kick out of it trust me."

Duewa nodded. "Very well."

"We should let Wayonn and Arzoal know so they can be there if its successful." Anja said.

"I will tell them this afternoon when we gather with Fedor and Eirene." Helen said. "Both of them are advancing rapidly in their Etheric skills and Wayonn wants to proceed to the next level."

Martin looked at her. "Helen could… could my brother pass this Paladin gene to his children even if they aren't pureblood?" He asked.

Helen shook her head slowly. "We don't believe so. Granted we haven't been able to test his children who are with Jalersi but you would have felt something from Karun if this was the case. Paladins can sense each other when close by. You never felt anything odd about Karun did you?"

Martin shook his head. "No."

Helen nodded. "And neither you, Wayonn or I have sensed it within Fedor or Eirene." She answered. "Given their accelerated growth it would have already manifested itself if it was present. The gene seems to have skipped Pusintin and is only present in your blood. Their skills may be a secondary result of For'mya's latent empathic abilities which come from you, so in essence their skills come from you. Given what they have learned and mastered so far I would put them at Resumar's level in terms of abilities, especially bonded with dragons as they all have."

"That's still pretty powerful Helen." Anja said. "Resumar is no pushover by any means."

Helen nodded. "I know. I have seen flashes of his anger and skill." She said. "Eirene's skills seem more passive, helping her to have incredible reflexes like For'mya. She is becoming an exceptional pilot. Fedor's abilities seem to be more focused on his physical abilities, more to the point his uncanny knack for those throwing knives he carries wherever he goes. It seems he can almost guide them with a passive Etheric ability. Much like you and Andro can guide your Shi Viskas. It's rather unnerving to be honest." She finished with a smile. "Not to mention that he is becoming quite the budding engineer according to the ARC ROYAL's Chief Engineer."

Martin nodded. "Good. I wanted both of them to pick something that they discovered they liked and focus on that."

Helen nodded. "Well… they have." She answered. "Now all I have to do is keep Eirene's attention focused on her studies and less on her new mate." She spoke with a grin. "Their… their activities are tiring her out."

Anja laughed and pushed her shoulder into Martin's arm. "Oh… you'll never get that out of her Helen." She exclaimed. "Once a Leonidas woman latches onto a good thing… namely a man that curls their toes… they keep it!"

Helen shook her head. "Yes… I'm beginning to see just how accurate that statement is." She said.