Page 7 of Saved By the Servali

“Can I help?” Kamau asked, eyes still fixed on the unconscious Queen as Marcus started a scan while pushing her wheeled bed along.

“You can push, I’ll scan. I’m not getting any permanent damage markers, which is downright incredible. I don’t even think I can get a blood sample yet, but she’s going to be low on magnesium, potassium, phos—”

Kamau shut out the voice, nodding.

She’s beautiful.

Even with pale, ashen skin and blood dried on her face, she looked like a human angel, a dark brown cherub with golden brown ringlets so tight they looked like they would spring if he poked them with his claw.

“Kamau, turn!”

He turned, just in time, sliding through the doors of the elevator and unconsciously rubbing the woman’s hand in hisown. Cool and dry. “You will be all right. Dr. Marcus is the best. A pioneer. A genius.”

“She’s strong. Her vitals are already improving just from a few minutes of fluids. She’s a fighter and a survivor. A warrior Queen.”

A beautiful warrior Queen.

“Skyla! Thank Bastet. Get her into a gown, wipe her down, and get her into the quarantine bay. We have two more coming in.”

“Sirius’ teeth. What happened to her? Did you check for brain activity yet?” Skyla asked, pulling a long pair of shears from the cabinet in the bay.

“No organ damage aside from dehydration. I’m no mechanic—”

“That’s more my line,” Skyla cut the blue and gray uniform off the woman with precise strokes. “I saw the message from Layla and just before Rupex ordered all Queens and cubs to isolate in the nursery. If I had to guess, I’d say that’s an old SS 4000 model. The inner cores of those things are solid and kind of primitive, but the life support systems are always operational when the craft is in use. They have to run, even if there are beings in hypersleep chambers. She at least had oxygen and adequate pressure, at least until the jump. Then she should have been in the chamber. As it is... It’s a miracle that she’s alive.”

“Miraculous,” Kamau agreed in a strained whisper, watching soft mounds of flesh slide free from a stained, coarse blue and gray uniform of some sort, revealing lacy, delicate pink undergarments that highlighted the thick, voluptuous breasts, round stomach, and wide thighs.

Servali Queens were long and lithe, so slinky and sinuous. They had a charm of their own that no Felid male could deny.

But the sight of the smooth brown skin covering such plump, pillowy-looking softness...

Parts of him that he’d long assumed would wither away from lack of use were suddenly raging to make themselves known!

I am an evil, evil person, Bastet have mercy on my soul! This woman is sick—perhaps a victim of kidnapping! Here I am looking at her with lust while she is so ill. I am no better than the people who tried to trap her aboard that derelict shuttle!

Swallowing hard and forcing his eyes upward, Kamau asked, “Should I leave? Can I help? I am not a female. She might not like it if I helped. I will cook! What can she eat?”

“Uh... Nothing but rehydration packs until she’s conscious. After that... soft things. Broth. It’s a long shot that she’ll wake up. And yes, you should go. I need to get her thoroughly cleaned up. Her body lost control of its functions during the hyperjump, which all of us would do.” Skyla glared at him as if daring him to make a comment.

“Of course. And probably even before. I would have been terrified if I was suddenly trapped aboard a vessel without food or water or—”

“Move!” Marcus growled. “Two more, I said!”

Kamau scampered away apologetically as the next humans were brought in.

He lingered in the hall, eyes swallowing every detail.

The second being was an older Queen, maybe forty or fifty from his limited knowledge of humans. He could not see her features properly with the oxygen mask over her face, but her blonde hair was swirled with gray, and her figure looked soft and gently curved under a simple pink sheath dress.

Dax and Ardol pushed the final cot, holding a very small form—a form so small that he wasn’t sure if it was a Queen or a child. She had smooth black hair, like Elio’s, with a glossy sheen that even hypersleep couldn’t steal. There was not an ounce of pink in her skin, and her almond-shaped eyes made her thin cheekbones look even more fragile. Her hair glistened like aPantherite’s dense black fur, but her skin was so pale she almost looked like an ancient Earth photo, the ones done in black and white.

She needs to be fed.“Is she... Are they?”

“We don’t oxygenate corpses,” Ardol laughed, but there was a shakiness in his voice. “Rupex thinks they were being sent against their will, trafficked, like all the women on Lynx-Nineteen. Like Jade. And Layla.” He swallowed several times, his broad, spotted shoulders suddenly drooping.

“Well!” Dax smiled, bright blue eyes full of hope. “That worked out well for all of those women. Maybe it’ll work out okay for these guys, too!”

“Queens,” Kamau corrected absently, mind full of the brave warrior at rest in the first quarantine bay, with her thick, full lips, broad planes that lifted to cheeks that would surely learn to smile again when she woke up and realized she had survived.

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