“And the other two men? What did you call them?”
“Aaron and Caph.”
He looked thoughtful. “Aaroncaphford?”
Ford nodded. Finally, this guy was starting to get it. “Yes! Aaron, Caph, and Ford. I’m Ford.”
The Beyant walked over to one of his men and spoke to him. The man nodded and his fingers flew over the console. Ford heard his own voice, and Emi’s, drift from a speaker.
That afternoon before all hell broke loose, when he was explaining the jump engine to her. She’d recorded it to play back later.
He nodded, his heart racing. “Yes! That’s me talking to Emi. Please, where is she?”
The Beyant spoke again, indicating he wanted the playback stopped. Then he pointed at a video screen. Ford watched the video. On it, their auxiliary lifepod was slowly and carefully brought into one of the Beyant hangar bays. He watched as a team of armed Beyants surrounded it, led by the commander. Ford held his breath as he watched them remove an unconscious Emi from it. It looked like the Beyant commander personally carried her from the pod, handling her gently and with care as they laid her on a stretcher.
Sobbing, Ford scrambled to his feet and ran over to the screen, pressing his hands to it as the picture froze.
“She is alive! You found her!” Without thinking about the implications, he turned and raced over to the commander and threw his arms around the Beyant’s neck, hugging him. “Thank you! Oh my gods, thank you! Thank you!”
The Beyant peeled Ford off him and handed him over to Pabo. “You wait here. I will return.”
Yanna’s head spun as he stormed off the bridge. He had no reason to doubt the Terran’s story. Any man crazy enough to sneak onto a military vessel in search of a woman, and then hug his captor, must be desperate.
The picture didn’t lie, either. It looked like Erin in a much happier time, with a beautiful smile on her face, surrounded by three men.
Including the crying one now blubbering on his bridge.
And he wore a matching ring. That could not be mere coincidence.
He hated to disturb her nap but knew he couldn’t let this wait. He owed it to her, not to mention he worried that if kept waiting too long, the silly Terran man might accidentally hurt himself or one of his men in his quest to find Erin.
Her soft voice replied to his page. “Come.” She sat up, sleepy, as he walked in. “What’s wrong, Yanna?”
“I need to bring you to the bridge to show you something, a’tein.”
A tired smile curled her lips. “More food?”
“Not quite.”
He held her hand for the walk to the bridge. How would she react? When they reached the bridge, he stopped before they entered. “I want you to hold on to me if you need to, a’tein. All right?”
She nodded, obviously confused. “Okay.”
They walked in.
Ford thought his heart would stop. Her hair looked different, and her skin had turned a different shade, and she’d definitely lost a lot of weight, but it was her.
Her unmistakable grey eyes.
His jaw gaped. “Emi!” he gasped. He started to step forward, but Pabo grabbed his arm and held him.
“She recalls very little before she arrived,” the commander told Ford. “Her memory is almost completely gone about her past.”
She froze, then started speaking in fluent Beyant to the man Pabo had told him was Commander Raoulx Yanna.
The commander spoke with her as she stared at Ford. The commander walked with her, holding her hand as she took a few tentative steps closer.
She asked Ford something in Beyant. He shook his head. “I don’t understand, babe.” She looked like she was in shock.
He could sympathize.
The commander made a motion and Pabo released him. Then the commander spoke. “She asked who you are.”
“Babe, I’m your husband, Ford. Ford Caliban. The drugs that guy slipped you, it made you lose your memory.” He pulled his handheld out of his pocket and scrolled through it to the notes, then held it up to show her. “I can synthesize the antidote, but I don’t know if it’ll work this many months later. He left the instructions before he killed himself.”
Alive! She was alive!
She stared at him.
“Emi, I love you. I never gave up hoping we’d find you. Me and Aaron and Caph, we’ve missed you so much.”
She released the Beyant’s hand and stepped closer, studying his eyes. “Aaroncaphford.” She said it as if one word, like the Beyant had earlier.
He nodded and showed her the picture card. “Aaron, Caph, Ford. Aaron Lucio, Caphis Bates, and me, Ford Caliban. We’re your husbands.” He held up his hand, pointing to the rings on hers.
She grabbed his hand and looked at his wedding band as tears spilled down her face. She said something in Beyant.
He didn’t miss the fact that she still wore her rings.
The commander translated. “She said tell her about the jump engine.”
Okay, weird, but anything she wanted, he’d talk about. In his shock, he couldn’t recall what had been on the audio playback the Beyant had provided earlier. He tried to remember what he’d said to her that day, all the other times he’d patiently explained it to her. Her eyes locked on his as he talked, her hand tightening around his until he’d finished.
“Ford?” she whispered.
He nodded, his vision blurring through his own tears. “That’s right, babe. Ford. When they first paired us, after the original DSMC sim and we realized you were real and you realized we were real, you said to me, ‘Give me some sugar, baby.’ Do you remember that?”
Her brow furrowed as she concentrated. “Hurry up, Cap. There’s a line.”
“You said that to Aaron later.”
She threw her arms around him, sobbing. He held her, wanted to never let her go, and sank to the deck with her protectively cradled against him as they cried together. “Oh, gods, babe, I love you so much. I worried I’d never see you again, but I knew you weren’t dead, I just knew it.”
The commander knelt in front of them and dropped his voice. He spoke in standard. “Not here. Bring her. I will take you to her cabin.”
Ford helped her to her feet and kept an arm around her as he followed the commander. Ford thought the Beyant would leave them alone, but he entered the cabin with them and apparently ordered guards to stand by outside. He took a seat on a chair on the other side of the cabin.
Ford sat on the bunk with her, unable to keep his hands off her, wanting to touch her and assure himself she was real. He showed her the picture card again, pointing everyone out. “Aaron and Caph.”
She took it from him and stared, touching it. “Aaroncaphford.”
He’d wondered if she could really remember how to speak English anymore.
Then she spoke, disproving the theory. “I didn’t know what it meant. It was the only thing I could remember.” She looked at him. “What happened to me? Why can’t I remember anything? Why can’t I remember you?”
He told the story again, from the start, with all the details. When he finished, both of them were crying. “I’m so sorry we didn’t understand and believe you, babe. He was playing all of us to use you. We didn’t know.”
The Beyant spoke up. “All three of you are her mates?”
Ford nodded. “Yeah. That’s another long story. No offense, but I’d rather tell it to her alone first, and let her tell you the parts she wants to tell.”
The cabin door opened and an older man entered. He barked something in Beyant at the commander, who didn’t rise. The commander and Emi both spoke to the man in calming tones.