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Again. All of them said that at once.
And then they laughed.
Strike’s lips twitched. They were good beings, and he had been fortunate to serve with them.
“My female won’t be joining the crew, Captain.” He met the male’s gaze through the devices. “She’s the daughter of her planet’s leader and is essential to her kind.”
There was a pause in communications.
“I process the situation.” Captain nodded. “You have served the Dauntless well, Strike. We’re sorry to be losing you as our second-in-command, but we’re happy you’ve found your genetic match. That’s rare.” He exchanged a heated look with his own genetic match, the Valkyrie. “Not every warrior will have the good fortune of locating their being or beings.”
Warmth spread across Strike’s chest. Captain did process the situation.
And he was genuinely happy for him. Cyborgs couldn’t lie.
“Thank you, Captain.” Strike’s voice was choked with emotion.
His female linked her fingers with his. “Permission to speak, Captain?”
“I like your female, warrior.” Humor glinted in Captain’s eyes. “Permission granted, Strike’s female.”
“I’m the being with the good fortune, Captain.” She wiggled her lush, fabric-covered ass against Strike’s body armor-clad groin, and Strike smothered a groan. “Strike, my male, is brave and quick thinking, skilled and strong, loyal and caring. Any female would be lucky to have him stand by her side. I am grateful to be that female.”
Frag. Your female can chatter. Grid blew out his breath.
You’re a lucky bag of bolts, warrior. Drift repeated that processing.
He was a lucky bag of bolts. Strike tightened his grip on his little human.
“Strike is all those things.” Captain’s head dipped again. “I process your male, Strike’s female. No one in the universe can protect you as well as he can. He would trade his lifespan for yours.”
Guilt pricked at Strike. “I didn’t complete my mission, Captain.” He had failed to protect his female in that way. “I was unable to verify the origin location of the sound. And I can’t process, with 100.0000 percent accuracy, its source.”
“You were unable to verify the origin location.” Captain lifted his eyebrows. “Do you have a projection of its coordinates?”
Strike gave Captain a full debrief minus any information he projected his female would want to remain private. That included how breeding with her was one of the best experiences in his long lifespan.
“The Humanoid Alliance is active in the sector.” Captain’s expression turned grim. “That’s intel we hadn’t yet gathered.”
Strike projected they hadn’t. When he’d scanned the databases for any information on their enemy’s activities in the space, the search had come back with no results.
“Protecting this section of the border is now a greater priority for our kind.” Captain said that louder.
The warriors around him straightened.
“And finding the source of the pulsing sound increases in urgency.” Captain’s jaw clenched. “If the Humanoid Alliance is involved, that source is a weapon or something equally dangerous. That’s 100.0000 percent certain.”
The other warriors nodded.
All of them hated their cruel manufacturers. The Valkyrie and Argot’s human female had their own reasons for loathing the Humanoid Alliance.
“I project you have the identity and the location of the being who obtained the warship for the Powluks?” Captain’s gaze returned to Strike’s through the devices.
“I’ll uncover his identity and relay it to you.” He’d obtain that information from the First Zetus, Tsadok’s father. “The being is located on Cancri B. The route leading from the coordinates where we detected the noise to that planet is a straight line.”
That increased the probability the pulsing sound originated on the planet.
“Cancri B.” Cure repeated that revelation at barely audible levels.
