Noelle was shaking like a leaf by the time she managed to maneuver the ship out of the cavern and that was only partly because of the nerve-wracking experience of moving a ship through such a tight opening when she wasn’t at all familiar with this ship in particular. She hadn’t, in point of fact, done more than practice with the simulators aboard ship for the escape pods and she’d only done that because it was a required part of the safety measures.

Mostly, though, she was shaking because she’d screwed up and shown her hand and she was committed now whether she really wanted to escape or not—whether she really felt competent to pilot the ship from this planet to the sister world. And she didn’t particularly feel confident in her abilities.

“Shit! They’re coming!”

“Jules! Don’t say that word!”

“You said it.”

“That’s beside …. Never mind!” Trying to ignore Jules’ announcement that they were about to have very angry company, she focused on the computer’s system’s check. Thankfully, fuel wouldn’t be an issue!

Unfortunately, the computer informed her that the target planet was beyond the ship’s current capabilities. “You cannot be serious!”

“I do not understand.”

“Why can’t we reach the damned planet? You said that we had plenty of fuel!”

“The planet is moving away from this one at a speed this ship cannot match. Or surpass, which it would need to in order to catch up to it.”

Noelle frowned. Like she couldn’t do that much math! “What about the other direction? If we headed the other way wouldn’t we meet up with it?”

“Yes. In three months.”

“Oh my fucking god!” There wasn’t three days worth of supplies on board! They certainly weren’t going to make it if it took that damned long!

“What?” Jules demanded uneasily.

“Sit down and buckle up.”

Jules frowned at her, but he obeyed her command.

Noelle searched her PMAI for anything she’d learned at any time that might help. She recalled abruptly that, in the early days of space travel, they’d used the gravity of planets to assist their crafts in getting up to the speed they needed. “Could we gain enough speed if we swung around Aiper a few times?”

“Calculating. Affirmative. My calculations indicate that four orbits should increase the ship’s speed sufficiently.”

“Alright then! Let’s do it! Fingers crossed.”

“I do not have fingers.”

“I was talking to the kid,” Noelle muttered. Moving away from the console, she took a last look out of the porthole. Drak and his men were nearing them along the pass. A mixture of fear at being caught mingled with an abrupt dimming of her elation as it suddenly occurred to her that she would probably never see Drak again.

She had his ship.

It was probably for the best. He’d probably want to choke the life out of her for taking his ship and his son!

She felt like crying when it hit her that she really had committed herself.

And maybe this wasn’t what she really wanted.

She shook the thought. She couldn’t go back now. She had to look forward.

After taking one last look at the man in the lead, Noelle moved to the seat next to Jules, fastened her safety harness and gave the computer the command to launch toward space.

The trip to K’naiper was actually uneventful and would’ve been downright boring if Noelle hadn’t been so fearful that the computer had miscalculated the speed and trajectory and they’d miss the planet entirely.

Of course, they had plenty of fuel.

What they didn’t have was plenty of supplies, but Jules was both clever and brave. He didn’t whine or misbehave when she explained they had to be very careful with what they had to eat and drink because it would have to last until they reached K’naiper. He spent most of the trip exploring the ship.

Noelle spent most of the trip imagining she’d been able to see the look of pure rage on Drak’s face when he realized what she’d done and wishing she hadn’t been quite so impulsive.

She hadn’t really considered that Drak might have felt something for her beyond a sense of ownership. He’d seemed almost fond at times.

And he wasn’t a bad man even though he was undoubtedly a savage.

She’d really pushed him several times and he hadn’t done anything more barbaric than screw her brains out and—well she could lie to anybody but herself. She hadn’t hated it. The bondage-punishment thing had been pretty damned scary—at least when it started out. But even that hadn’t been a completely terrible experience.

She shook those thoughts, over and over, but they kept coming back and by the time they saw K’naiper in the forward viewing ports she knew she’d screwed up in a really big way.

She wasn’t just physically attracted to the barbarian. She thought she loved him.

Maybe that was just the captive syndrome, though?

She needed therapy!

It took longer to find Jules’ village than it had taken to get to the planet in the first place!

Noelle was anxious to get home herself, but the distraction wasn’t entirely unwelcome. It at least sidetracked her from thinking about Drak constantly.

They weren’t welcomed at any of the villages, but fortunately the weapons the villagers had weren’t anything that could seriously damage the ship because they had to drop really low for Jules to look around and decide whether it was the right village or not. Finally, they spotted one near a wide river that Jules thought he recognized, though, and it transpired that he did. When they’d dropped low enough the villagers all came out to run and or throw rocks and spears, he recognized his mother.

Noelle opened the com unit so that Jules could use it to call to his mother from the ship and they managed to scared the villagers half to death. The important thing, though, was that they threw their weapons down and surrendered so that Noelle could safely land and lower the gang plank.

Jules peered out cautiously when they opened the door—because Noelle had threatened to beat the snot out of him if he charged down the ramp and made a target of himself. It was just as well she had a firm grip on him because he’d no sooner poked his head out to look than one of the warriors launched a spear at them.

“Mother! It’s me! Jules!” the child yelled.

“Jules?”

Noelle and Jules moved cautiously into the entrance and looked to see if it was safe.

The woman that charged up the gangplank scared the hell out of Noelle, but Jules’ scream, she discovered fairly quickly, was joyful.

The woman caught her son in a tight embrace and lifted him from his feet. Noelle was misty eyed at the reunion, but it also brought to mind the image of Drak embracing the child and she realized he must ache for the loss of the child as the mother had.

How sad that only one could have the child and one must ache for the loss!

But then it dawned on her that Drak had made a child with the woman holding Jules and she began to look at the woman in a whole new light.

Without surprise, she saw that the woman was a handsome specimen. Dressed as one of the warriors of the tribe, she displayed a good bit of well toned body. She was built like an athlete or maybe a ballerina or a gymnast—a taut, well sculpted form that defied age. Noelle couldn’t tell any more from her face. She didn’t look to be very young, but she certainly wasn’t very old either—maybe around thirty.

But then that was judging her by human standards and they didn’t know enough about the indigenous people to have a clue of what their life spans were. It could be comparable to their human counterparts or not even in the same ballpark.

The woman met her envious gaze with one of hostility.

Fortunately, Jules didn’t forsake her now that he was home again. “This is my friend, Noelle. She’s a star-child, Father said. She brought me home.”

Noelle couldn’t see that the woman unbent a great deal, but she nodded in a gesture that might have been ‘thanks’ or ‘ok I won’t shoot you’.