jeriendhal | Shadow of Her Sins, Chapter Nine

Ali held on tight to Salli's paw when the medics finally arrived, easing the noblevixen onto a back board and setting a cervical collar around her neck when she described being kicked in the chest and knocked over by Lady Margo. It turned out that had left her with a hairline crack in her breastbone and a mild concussion, and medics treated her very carefully after that, mindful of post-stunner complications. Her brother and the Marine lieutenant were both for taking Salli up into orbit to be treated in the destroyer's sickbay, but the noblevixen was having none of that, especially after bullying a headcount of the colony's casualties out of them. Eighteen colonists had died, most of them caught in the crossfire in the defense of the Governor's Mansion, with two score more suffering injuries of various severity.

The Mansion was uninhabitable of course, so Ali elected to have her placed in one of the completed colonist housing units, where Salli finally fell asleep after being assured for the third time that everything was well in paw. Unfortunately, the paw in question turned out to be Ali's, since her brother was busy securing Margo and the few surviving pirates aboard the destroyer. She had been up at this point for nearly two planetary days, living on stims and hastily eaten sandwiches, coordinating with the destroyer to move emergency supplies from its limited stores down to the planet, along with personnel to assist in cleanup and restoring local services, most especially the com network.

Around mid-afternoon things had calmed down enough that she was just thinking about finally dropping into bed for a quick nap, when a call came over her comset from the spaceport tower.

“Miss Wat... er, Black...” the tower's com officer stumbled.

“Just Miss Ali for now,” Ali told him. “What's going on?”

“We've got an incoming fast freighter,” he reported. “She's identifying as being from Lady Lovejoy's fleet, and her codes check out.”

Ali blinked, trying to focus her scattering attention. “It's too early, weeks too early. What's its stated cargo?”

“Just passengers it said.”

“Passengers? We don't have any new workers scheduled to arrive, and there's no way we're ready for colonists.” She shook her head, trying to clear it. “Bring them in, I'll meet them at the landing pad.”

She took one of the ground cars from the pool and let it do the driving to the spaceport, feeling too fuzzy headed herself now to trust her own reflexes. Ali arrived just as the freighter's forward loading ramp was lowering. To her surprise, Lady Melanie and her husband, Lord Rolas walked down the ramp.

“Milady, milord, what are you doing here?” Ali asked.

Lady Melanie smiled broadly. “Ali! I was hoping you'd meet us when we landed. We came as soon as we could, and we brought-”

There was a shout from inside the freighter, “There she is!” The next moment a vixen in her late middle-age, with a black pelt and white ears and paws ran down the ramp. Lady Melanie and Lord Rolas were nearly trampled, as the vixen was followed by what seemed like a horde of similarly colored foxen, at least a dozen in fact, all charging straight at Ali.

“What the-?” Ali started to ask, taking a step back and fighting a sudden reflex to draw her stunner, as the vixen grabbed her in a hug and nearly pulled her off her feet.

“Ali! You're alive! You're alive! I always told you she was alive, didn't I Mikal, didn't I?!”

“Yes you did, Razi love,” a laconic male with a tan pelt said mildly, as the crowd around Ali began laughing and talking all at once.

She was not processing this at all. Actually she was possessed by an urge to start running in the opposite direction, and likely would have if the vixen would just let go.“Um, hullo, who are all of you?” she asked, trying not to let her tone grow desperate.

“Isn't it obvious?” the vixen asked. “I'm your Aunt Razi. And this is my husband, Mikal, and that's Avil, and Neut, and... Oh, dear. Didn't anyone tell you we were coming?”

Ali's sleep deprived brain finally caught up to what she was seeing, “Wait, you're all Lu... Blacksailor's... my... er... family?”

“Yes!” Razi hugged her again, tears wetting her face fur even as she laughed in obvious delight.

“I wanted it to be surprise!” Lady Melanie called above the babble. Well it was that for certain.

Lord Rolas elbowed his way through the horde as politely as he could, asking, “What's going on though? Looks like you had a bad fire at the Governor's Mansion and the main com array has been knocked over. We saw it when we were making our approach.”

Oh. Well it wasn't like there had been time to inform either him or Lady Melanie of the events of the past two days. “We were hit by pirates,” Ali told him.

“What?” Aunt Razi asked. She finally let go of Ali and shouted, “Would all of you just shut up for a moment?”

“Thanks. Like I was saying, we were hit by pirates. Turned out Bloody Margo wasn't quite as dead as everyone had thought, and she raided the colony to grab Milady Salli for a hostage.”

Lord Rolas' ears flicked back in surprise. “Do they still have her?” he demanded.
“No, no. We, Commander Blacksailor and I, rescued her and the destroyer's Marine contingent took out the rest of the pirates after we stunned Bloody Margo. Salli is resting in one of the residences. She was beat up a bit, but she's all right now.” Ali didn't mention the damage done to Salli's eye. The look of murderous fear and fury in Lord Rolas' face didn't need any more fuel to its fire.

“Was anyone else hurt?” Lady Melanie asked.

“Eighteen dead and about forty wounded.”

Aunt Razi and her husband snapped to attention, all the merriment dropping from their faces. “I'm an EMT,” she announced, “And Mikal is a nurse practitioner. Do you need any help?”

Ali nodded. “We've got a lot of wounded still. The worst cases were shuttled up to the destroyer's sick bay, but the medical center could use all the paws it can get.”

“Show us the way.” Aunt Razi called to the rest of the horde of family, “The rest of you, find someplace to put your luggage and then grab an elbow and ask where you can help!”

“Where's your brother, Ali?” Lady Melanie asked.

“With Lady Salli, trying to keep her from getting out of bed.”

“Take us to them,” Lord Rolas demanded.