Copyright: This story is copyrighted to the author Ó 1999 by T.Novan. Do not use any part of this story without my written permission. I may be contacted at TNOVAN@aol.com

Sex: This story contains scenes of two women making love. <smile> If this offends you, please don’t read my story. There are plenty of other wonderful stories out there.

Violence: There are scenes of violence in this piece. If that offends please move on.

By T.Novan

LOG FORTY-TWO

Ford closed her eyes against the pain and took a deep breath. "Capri help me. Tell me if Marra is alive. Please guide me."

Images floated into Ford’s mind. Images of Marra and their child, of a tiny, precious little life. Held in Marra’s arms, her tired eyes looking to Ford as she cuddled the baby.

"Your daughter." Capri’s voice joined the images. "Your daughter that you must save. Even now her life is being threatened."

"My daughter?" Ford heard her own voice, full of wonder and awe. "A daughter?" She felt something break free in her own chest as she said the words aloud again. She shook her head and looked down the corridor.

"Go to them Ford. Just go. You’ll know when you’ve found them. You have my protection. You always have had. Believe Ford, it will see you through."

She closed her eyes and had one last look at the tiny life and knew she had to do whatever would be required to save it. "I’m coming." She whispered, before setting off down the corridor.

* * *

Marra felt the room spin as the sedative began to take her. "Please…please…don’t…"

"It everything ready?" The med tech looked at the groggy woman, to judge her level of awareness.

"Yes sir." His young assistant moved a tray of instruments closer.

"My baby…" Marra tried to make eye contact. She tried to beg him. "Please…don’t…"

The med tech moved to the end of the table to prepare for what he was about to do. "Somehow I don’t think Garron Beagin or Lord Hadrin were expecting us to find this."

She felt the tears creep down her cheeks. She tried to lift her hand, but between the leather straps and the sedatives, she was helpless. All she could do was beg them. And know the whole time that she did it, they didn’t care.

"Please…please…don’t…"

* * *

Garron Beagin stood in front of the vid screen looking into the unhappy face of Lord Hadrin.

"What do you mean pregnant?" Hadrin demanded from his position behind his desk

"Your daughter was with child. Kurrathian’s genetic material no doubt, that your daughter was forced to carry to provide an heir for the house."

Hadrin waved a dismissive hand. "No doubt. My daughter lives?"

"She does, but is heavily sedated. The med techs tell me they believe it’s best to leave her that way for the time being."

Lord Hadrin nodded his approval of that, then he sighed. "What of the child? Does it still live?"

Beagin shifted in his chair. "I didn’t ask. I told them of your orders to destroy anything of foreign origin they found. I assume the child no longer lives."

"Make sure of that."

"Yes, Lord Hadrin."

* * *

Ford waited patiently for him. She stilled her breathing and flexed her hands as she hid in the shadows. Once the young man walked past her, she stepped out, took him by the head and snapped his neck. His lifeless body slumped back into her and she drug him into the small alcove where she took his uniform and his weapons.

She hoped that the disguise, even one this ridiculous would be helpful. She knew she had a better chance of getting to Marra if she blended in better. While not perfect by any means, this was better than nothing. She left her hair tucked into the back of the jumpsuit, adjusted the weapons and stepped into the corridor. She closed her eyes for just a moment and by instinct turned left, feeling like it was the proper direction to go.

She kept her head down as she walked, nodding to a few people she passed. They didn’t pay her anymore attention than they would any other crew member and didn’t seem particularly affected by the fact that the cruiser had engaged her ship. In reality she was particularly grateful for that fact. As she continued she realized that she was nearing where she had made her entrance and there was a small security detail there now, inspecting the area. She move with just a little more speed and tried desperately not to let her injury show as she passed them.

"I don’t care what he thinks. I think she dead in there somewhere and one of us is going to get to be the lucky Sugra who gets to go find her worthless body." A tall officer commented as he lifted a light into the hatch.

"Garron Beagin thinks she survived the crash." A younger man stated. "And he’s not happy that the crash took the weapons off line. It’s going to take at least twelve hours to get them back on line."

"Well if he had taken the recommendation of his weapons officer and rerouted the system like it had been suggested we wouldn’t be in this mess. We can only hope that Ford is dead because if she’s alive and finds out how vulnerable this ship is we’ll all be saying hello to Capri face to face in the morning."

"If you’re lucky." Ford mumbled as she walked past them.

* * *

Marra opened her eyes and tried to focus. She could see the bio bed. She knew her baby was there. Her body felt heavy and she found breathing difficult, but she knew she had to do something or her child…Ford’s child would die.

First, she tried lifting her hand, barely remembering at one time it had been held down with straps. She was relieved to find that she seemed to be free now but very dazed. Her body protested slightly as she forced herself up into a sitting position, swaying even as she sat there trying to get her balance before attempting to put her feet on the floor. The room was spinning and her stomach was not in much better shape.

She wanted to cry, she felt so helpless. She wasn’t even sure what she could do to help the poor child and she wasn’t sure that it wasn’t already dead. But she knew of she didn’t try she surely would be a failure to Ford. That, in her mind, would never be an option. Taking a deep breath she took her first step away from the bed she had been lying on.

Blinking her eyes rapidly she tried to focus and look to see if there were others around who would stop her even before she made the four or five feet to the tiny bed that held her child. She coughed slightly when she had to choke back the natural feeling that threatened to make her throw up. With the room spinning, she took one shaky step after another until finally she could see into the little bed.

* * *

Ford took a moment to rub her injured hip. Grateful for the fact that it had stopped bleeding, but still frustrated at the pain it caused her. It was slowing her down and she certainly didn’t like that at all. She wiped her brow on her sleeve and continued down the corridor. Following only her heart and her instincts. Not very warrior like and that fact disturbed her a great deal too.

She stopped briefly, to take a deep breath and rest her leg. When she looked up a smile crossed her lips. The sign on the door indicating the med lab was the most beautiful thing she had seen all day. She took a step forward and the door slid open. It was late, the room was dark except for a small office light where a single med tech sat working at a lab station.

Ford moved quietly until she was directly behind the young woman. She slipped her firearm up, pressing it to the back of the tech’s neck very gently. "Where is the young woman that was brought aboard today?"

"I don’t know what you’re talking about." She woman’s hands stopped all motion and she sat very still.

"I’ve not had a very good day. I’m hurt and I’m tired and I’m protecting my mate and our child, so like a serpentine with a very bad temper I’m more prone to kill you than talk to you right now. So why not try to save your own life by answering my question?"

"Because I swear to you, I do not know what you’re talking about."

"Do you have any patients in here?"

"One. The daughter of Lord Hadrin, but it my understanding that she had been aboard all along. That she fell ill last night and was brought in."

"Where is she?"

"In the back room. In the private chamber."

"Show me." Ford ordered, pressing the barrel of the firearm into the woman’s neck. "And please don’t make me kill you."

* * *

Hadrin, rubbed his eyes, trying not to succumb to the frustration he felt. His mind swirled with the things that had come to pass in his life and in a moment’s notice he realized that he had truly been an evil man.

His only daughter, a beautiful little girl with golden hair and lively eyes the color of a spring meadow, he had allowed them to take her. He watched as she cried and begged him not to let them take her away. He listened as she called for her papa to protect her and he did nothing.

Almost immediately he realized that he would never hear a child’s innocent laughter again. That no one would ever call him Papa again and that he would never see any grandchildren. All because they convinced him to give her up…for the ‘greater good’ they told him. To help their people, they told him.

They had been wrong. Nothing good had come of it. His wife had taken her own life shortly after he had let them take their little girl and he had been alone since. Told not to ask what had become of her and ordered to remove all traces of her from his life. They told him it would ease the pain.

He removed the last thing he had retained from his coat pocket. It was of the three of them. His little girl, her mother who looked exactly like their daughter and him. They were happy in this picture. They were a family. How could so much go wrong?

No answer came to him. He barely had time to focus on the picture through his tears before the blast ripped his skull in half.

* * *

Marra pushed the last button then she felt herself slowly collapsing to the floor. She rolled slowly to her right, watching and praying. Even if she were to die now she would know she had done all she could do to save the child’s life and if by some miracle it lived, she would hope that Ford would never stop searching for it.

"Your daughter lives Ford." Marra whispered as her eyes closed against her will and her breathing slowed. "Capri, bring them together." Marra used what she was sure was the last of her breath to give a happy sigh when she heard the baby cry. "My child."

Ford rushed into the room. She drew a deep painful breath as her eyes adjusted once again to the dim lighting, she heard the soft mewing cries and knew they belonged to an infant. Her eyes darted around the room until she found what she was looking for; lying on the floor partially obscured by the control panel.

Rushing over, Ford pulled the blonde into her arms. "Marra! Open your eyes! Open your eyes!" Tears formed in her own eyes when there was no response. "Don’t you leave me! Don’t you dare leave me!" Frantically she cradled the woman for just a moment as her mind puzzled through what she needed to do.

* * *

"Marra, it is not your time." Capri’s voice carried into the darkness. "You must hold on. You have a baby daughter who needs you. Ford needs you. I will not accept you here. You must go back."

"So dark…" The woman felt as if she were floating in a thick fog, not knowing what to believe or what was real anymore.

"Yes, there is always darkness just before the light Marra. You and Ford are about to break into the light. You must believe and you must go back and take your child into the light. She and others like her will be the beginning."

Marra opened her eyes and the deity waited before her. The blonde swallowed hard. "The beginning?"

Capri nodded. "Yes, the beginning. But she can not survive without you. You must be willing to return to your daughter. Only you can save her. Even Ford will not be able to give her what she needs when the light comes."

* * *

Ford knelt down, tears streaming down her cheeks as she carefully slipped her hands under the tiny form. "Oh you’re so beautiful." She gasped as a smile came unbidden to her lips and she gazed at the little girl with the blue eyes and the blonde hair.

The child was so very small. Obviously it was also not very strong as a result of being placed in a generator rather than being allowed to continue to grow naturally in her mother’s womb. Ford looked up at the med tech. "Give me something to wrap her in." In an instant, a soft warm blanket found its way to Ford’s hands and she wrapped her tiny daughter securely.

Then, while holding the small form close to her, her gaze turned to the tech. "You’re going to help us get off this ship." The tall woman glared at the tech as she stood and moved to the biobed that held Marra’s body. She held her tears in check as she placed the baby next to her mother and made sure they were both secure. She leaned over, placing tender kisses on them both before turning back to the young woman. "Aren’t you? Or do you want to be the one to explain why Lord Hadrin’s daughter died in your care?"

The young woman looked to the bed that held the infant and the body of its mother. "I’ll help you."

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