Sholan Alliance - AU Bk. 03 Ch. 02

~~~

Once they were dressed and ready to go he gave Dani a good hug. "I hope you have a good time this evening. I would say don't do anything I wouldn't but... If you come home with a Leska the Sholan's might be even more annoyed with me than they are now." He grinned at her when he said that.

Dani snickered at him. "Well if I do I get to blame it on you for dragging me out here." She returned the hug. "In all seriousness I might not be home tonight. There is a nice male from class who is working up the nerve to invite me to his room."

Billy smiled at her and lightly bopped her on the shoulder. "I am pleased that you are getting out and make sure he buy's you a good meal beforehand. Do me a favor and if you do go home with him call and leave a message so I know where you are." He gave her one more hug before leaving the suite with his ladies.

Once they were outside he took a deep breath. "Damn that was hard. I had to struggle not to demand the name of the male so I could go and let him know if he hurt her he would regret it." After a good shake he kept walking. "I was thinking of the Green Goddess to eat at. I know I have enjoyed the food there and so have the two of you. Is that were you made the reservations Tasha?"

Z'Marl gave him a hug. "I can imagine how hard that was since I remember my father feeling much the same way. I think all fathers and older brothers tend to feel that way. Dad told me it made him feel old when I hunted down my first male." She had to smile at the memory since it had been an enjoyable time for her.

Satasha couldn't help but smile as well. "It is the Green Goddess we are eating at. I could sense that in your mind when I mentioned making a reservation." She looked around at the people and shops on the street. "It feels good to get out and just walk around without a bunch of hanger-on's. I remember the quiet evenings walking around as well once the crowds had mostly gone home."

The three of them took their time getting to the resteraunt since they knew that the moment Billy was spotted they would be seated. All three disliked the 'preferred' service they tended to get around him since he was the Ambassador from Earth. The aspect of him being a Leska had been downplayed though that wasn't going to last much longer. It had been a month and a half or so since Satasha had gotten pregnant and she would start showing in the next couple of weeks at most. Once that happened questions would be asked and they would have to be answered.

When they finally did arrive Billy had to smile. "I keep forgetting how lovely it is outside with the plants and little glow lights they have. This is perfect for this evening." Shortly after checking in at the desk they were shown out to one of the outdoor tables and handed actual menu's as they settled into the chairs. "I must be getting used to your chairs. I don't quite feel like a child anymore. It might be the fact I am going to be a daddy again."

Satasha snickered at him for that and shook her head. "If your head gets any bigger because of that you are going to have trouble getting through the doors." She looked at the menu and mentioned her choices for food. By the time the waitress came back all three were ready to order.

"I love the way your meals are communal as well. Several large trays to be shared with everyone at the table." He took a sip of his wine and lifted it to check the color. "Excellent vintage, I will have to order some for the consulate for the next party. Then again I might just have this place cater it and save me the hassle." There was a major reception coming up shortly to introduce the humans to the other races in the Sholan Alliance.

Z'Marl had to appreciate the wine as well. "So Yilly why did you bring us out here or are you going to broach the subject after the meal?" She was really curious as to why and that made her a bit nervous.

Billy reached over and grasped her hand. "Now is as good a time as ever and I have a question for both of you." He turned to Satasha. "Would you please accept me as your life mate? Since we can have children there isn't anything stopping us and I don't want to live without you in my life."

Satasha had known something was up but this wasn't what she was expecting and her eyes widened and her ears lowered. A slight sheen could be seen in her eyes as she tried not to cry. "Oh yes Yilly I would love to become your life mate. I have dreamed of this since we became Leska's." *Now ask Z'Marl since I can feel that in your mind.*

Billy lifted her hand and pressed a kiss on the back of it before turning to Z'Marl. "Satasha and I want to know if you would be willing to be our third in the Triad. We both care for you a great deal and I know that my girls care for you as well. Will you please accept us as your life mate as well?"

Z'Marl was honestly more shocked than Satasha had been and she couldn't keep her tears of happiness contained. "Oh yes Yilly, I do accept and thank you so much. This means more to me than I can even begin to explain." She gave his hand a good squeeze as he kissed the back of it as well. "I love both of you. When do you want to life bond and do you want a full temple wedding?"

Satasha snorted at her. "Why do I have the feeling if he pulled a Priest out of his pocket you would be ready? Silly girl of course it has to be a temple wedding. He is the Ambassador you know and can't do things halfway now can he?"

Z'Marl gave her a watery laugh. "True and true, I would love to have a temple wedding. We can talk about that tomorrow. Tonight I simply want to be with the ones I have come to love."

When the waitress came back Billy had a slight gleam in his eyes. It had been requested that he keep the information about his being a Leska quiet but he was still pissed. "I would like to order a round of drinks for the house to celebrate my Leska accepting my request to become her life mate and also Z'Marl for becoming our Triad partner."

The waitress looked both pleased and very startled. "I will let the manager know about the round in celebration. Congratulations on the acceptance of your request Ambassador Madlax." She turned and hurried away to talk to an older Sholan male.

Satasha glowered at him for a moment. "You do know that bit of information is going to be hitting the newsnets in about ten seconds right?" She knew exactly what he was doing and though she didn't blame him wished he had done it somewhat differently, say from the safety of their suite.

Z'Marl's ears were straight up in shock at what he had done. "Yilly you are horrible. You know this is going to be reported on and everyone is going to know about it. The leaders of Shola are going to flip when they see this." She nibbled on a knuckle for a moment before she spoke again. "I suppose that is one way to let my parents know without actually telling them." She started snickering. "I almost wish I was a fly on the wall when this bit of news hits them."

About then the manager came over and bowed politely at Billy and then the women. "I wished to extend my congratulations as well. I would also like to thank you for choosing the Green Goddess to propose to these lovely ladies. The waitress indicated that you were enjoying the wine so I am going to have a bottle brought out for you."

Billy managed to keep his sense of evilness under control. "Thank you but for various reasons we are only having one glass each tonight. However if you can provide me with some contact information the Embassy is going to be hosting a party in the next few weeks. We were strongly considering seeing if you catered since we greatly enjoy the food here."

The manager was obviously a professional and he gave them a charming smile. "I would be more than pleased to do that and I will also contact the owners and let them know." He pulled his comm. up and sent the information to Billy's comm. "I will take my leave so the three of you can celebrate and please take what time you want." Another bow and he was gone.

The food was delivered quickly and the three of them spent a very enjoyable time talking and trading bites of food. Billy was greatly enjoying the meal. Even when he was informed that several news crews would like to speak to him didn't ruin his mood. He simply asked to have the new services to contact the consulate and he would have a statement for them in the next day or two.

Eventually they were done eating and they strolled out of the resteraunt and as expected several of the news crews were still there. Billy turned to address them. "I appreciate your interest in myself and my Leska but this evening was for a quiet meal so I could propose to her and Z'Marl as our Triad partner. Please allow us the privacy to enjoy this special evening. As I mentioned I will have a statement in the next day or two. If any of you want a personal interview contact my chief of staff to have that arranged. Now if you will excuse us?" He turned and walked away.

Satasha wanted to growl at him since she knew that had been a complete setup and the news crews had taken the bait. Not just the bait but the hook, line, and sinker without even blinking. *Yilly you are a wretched man playing them that way. God my father is likely to stroke out when he sees the news. Mind you I am still irritated with him but he is my father.*

Z'Marl could tell that Satasha was mentally grumbling at Billy and barely managed not to snicker at her. "Yilly you are a devious evil excuse for a man and did I love that. You might not make it out of bed in the morning."

Billy sighed and tried to look put upon and failed miserably. "One thing I do want to mention to you Z'Marl is it is very possible that you will be drawn into our link, or the edges of it if the crystal data is correct. I know we have all read the information but I just wanted to remind you."

She smiled at him and shrugged. "I don't mind at all Yilly. I accepted that fact then and I accept it now. If I hadn't I wouldn't have accepted the proposal tonight. I love you and Tasha and don't want to be without you."

Billy lowered his head as he blushed. He really didn't know what she saw in him other than his mind. She was young, at the beginning of her life and had so much to see and do. He wasn't old by any means but he had been there and done that and almost felt bad about some of the memories she was going to see. "That means a great deal to me. Thank you for accepting us into your life."

The rest of the walk back was fairly quiet as they all contemplated the changes this was going to bring to their life. All of them wanted it but it was a huge step for all of them and more so for Z'Marl. Eventually she would want a child but how would she handle having a hybrid child? The tests showed that she was genetically compatible with him now as well.

When they reached the room the message light was blinking and when he reviewed the messages he snickered. "Well Dani isn't going to be home, the head priest of Vartra wishes to talk to me, Vangie and Kingie sent their congrats, and there are about two dozen other messages." He shut the system down and pulled Z'Marl into his arms. "I think I am ready to head towards bed and have more than a bit of fun with you my lovely lady."

~~~

The tramp freighter had been running at top speed for Earth. The combatant that had been following them had been closing the gap slowly over the last week. As far as the captain could tell they were still too far behind to open fire on them. They had tried several times but after the last attempt they settled for trying to catch them. If earth had been any further away they would have caught them.

"Captain we have reached the Oort boundry for earth. Orders sir?" She was one of the few females who had voluntarily joined the pirates but she fit in quite well.

He had long since decided to keep heading in-system far enough that there would hopefully be some sort of protection. "Take us in as far as possible before we have to drop out of hyper. The second we drop out send out a distress signal that we believe we are being chased by pirates." That would get everyone going due to the ongoing issues with piracy over the last fifteen or so years.

"Yes sir and I am projecting an estimated time to exit hyper at thirty minutes from now. If my calculations are correct we will drop out near the neutral zone. The swiss are pretty serious about keeping it safe so there should be something nearby."

He nodded and settled back in the seat of his chair a bit deeper. This was going to be interesting though not necessarily in a good way since there were going to be questions. He had a reasonable cover story about being jumped mid-flight which should hold long enough to get out-system. Time would tell.

"Coming up on translation to n-space sir, in three, two, translate." The ship shuttered from the crash translation but they needed something dramatic. As soon as they came into n-space the indicator on the comm. showed the message was going out on all emergency and distress channels.

~~~

On the enemy's ship they dropped out of hyper as well only to realize they were in a highly populated solar system. The indicators of hyper drives and n-drives were all over the place and till they started resolving they had no idea which ships might be combatants. "By the shards of the first shell get us the hell out of here. I don't care what you do but get us back into h-space and run like hell." As he was screaming that one indicator came up that they knew. It was one of the enemy ships and it was massive based on the power readings. "Oh shit we are dead." He whispered.

~~~

Crystal had talked to Kingie's parents about what she and Kingie had discussed. "I would like to do something nice for him but I am not sure what. I was thinking of a home cooked meal but I know there are expectations connected with that." She was sitting in his mothers sitting room as she talked to his parents. "I know I am not ready for that but I want to make my feelings clear. I do care for him and I want a relationship with him."

When she stopped talking his mother came over and settled down next to her and wrapped her arm around Crystals shoulders. "Tell him exactly that Crystal. Tell him you want to cook a meal for him and spend time with him. Tell him you want to show him what he means but you don't know how far you can go right now. He will understand Crystal and you know that. Ask him tonight when he gets home and let us know the date and the rest of us will go out for dinner and give you two some privacy to talk and relax."

Crystal leaned into the hug and gave her a small smile. "Thanks mom. That really helps." It was one of the first times she had been brave enough to admit that she thought of them as her new parents.

She laughed. "I rather like that bit. 'Mom' sounds good to hear from you. Now why don't you go and wait for Kingie to come home. I will distract the other two so you have a chance to talk to him."

Crystal gave her a good hug before leaving the room. She decided to wait outside since the weather was nice and she liked the small garden setting. Crystal was looking up at the stars that were just beginning to show when Kingie walked in.

He came over and settled down next to her and nuzzled her cheek as he wrapped his arm around her. Since the talk several weeks ago he had been more physically demonstrative. Before he had started he had talked to Crystal about it and they had come up with a tentative list. It was based on her reactions to the little intimacies such as kissing, nuzzling, and touching. "You smell content Crystal. I rather like that scent on you."

She smiled at him when he nuzzled her cheek and returned the gesture. "I am surprised that I smell content. I would think I would be smelling nervous since I wanted to offer you a home cooked meal in the near future."

Kingie let a slow smile cross his face when she said that. "That sounds lovely and thank you. We can relax and get in some cuddling while we talk about whatever." He lightly licked behind one of her ears. "I will not expect anything more than that. Give me what you can and I will be content."

"Thank you Kingie and we will see. I am getting more comfortable with the intimacy and I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested in something more. I just want to make sure that when it happens it is right for both of us." She turned in his arms and drew him down into a good kiss.