by Eve Langlais
“Where are you going?”
“To guide the ship.”
“Don’t you have autopilot?”
“Only an idiot doesn’t stay at the controls when traveling through the eye of a worm.” Despite what he’d told her, on a few rare occasions some ships went in and never came out again. The assumption was pilot error.
“Can I watch?”
The odd request caught him off guard, mostly because he recalled saying the very same thing to his father the first time they went out on the ship scavenging.
In many ways, he had to remember she was like a child, learning about this new world.
He could be her teacher. In so many things.
“You can come but don’t touch anything.” The same thing his parent told him.
The lower level hummed, all the cogs and flywheels spinning, the propulsion not a science he understood, but he knew how to fix it. How to fly it.
Aggie watched raptly as he maneuvered through the steps to enter the wormhole, the strengthening of the shield, the dimming of non-essential services.
She wasn’t content just to watch. She questioned, too. “How can you drive if you can’t see?”
“I see just fine.” He swept a hand at a display—which appeared simply as a matte, golden metal hammered into a flat board upon which strangely shaped bits and even grains of sand moved and spun.
She neared and reached out, fascinated. “How does it work?”
“Don’t touch.” He grabbed her hand. “You might change our course.”
She turned an incredulous look on him. “This is how you drive? But it’s like pieces on a game board.”
“Exactly. It shows me where I need to move. How. At what angle.” He yanked another lever, and something steamed in protest.
“That’s the black hole?” She pointed to a smudge of black metal sand, swirling on itself.
“It is.”
“And that’s a star?” She pointed to a silvery speck.
“Aye.”
“What’s that then?” Her gaze tracked three fast-moving bits.
He clenched his jaw. “Trouble.”
8
The suddenly appearing ships could have just been a coincidence, but Jwls hadn’t kept his parts this long by ignoring possible enemy ships. One eye on those specks, he began cranking handles. Pumping up the engine. Giving his ship more power and speed.
The black hole was close by. If he could slip through it, he’d emerge in a place where those chasing wouldn’t dare attack. Some universes and galaxies had strict rules of engagement. If he made it to the hole, they’d have a reprieve where he could regroup and plan.
If he made it.
The three metal chunks split up, two of them jetting quickly at an angle meant to box him in from either side. The third came fast up his rear without any lubing oil.
Jwls ran around, shutting down more non-essentials, including heat, to the rest of the ship. A quick glance at Aggie reminded him she wouldn’t be able to handle any truly cold temperatures, but the bottom level of his ship with all the moving gears and steam should keep things warm enough.
“Are they going to attack us?” she asked.
“The probability is high.”
“You were supposed to say no,” she mumbled. “Who are they? Space police about to pull you over for kidnapping?”
He snickered. “In this galaxy? More likely cog bounty hunters after what’s in your head.”
“Maybe they’re after the metal parts in your ass,” she sassed.
The look he cast her held a hint of incredulity as he said, “Could be. Either way, if they catch us, you’re dead.”
The remark sobered her, and he continued to race around setting the dials. Checking gauges.
When she finally ventured another query, it was still dumb. “How come you don’t have a computer doing this for you?”
“If by computer you mean artificial intelligence, they were banned in most universes given their invasive tactics.”
“Meaning?”
“They took over worlds.” The space gypsies had learned to their detriment what could happen when machines corrupted.
“With the right programming and firewalls, they can do wonderful things.”
“Even if they weren’t prone to takeover, computers are susceptible to a variety of problems making them less than reliable. If I am hit with an electromagnetic pulse, then things requiring circuits and electricity collapse. Take time to recover. This”—he slapped the metal container with its many dials and knobs—“takes a lot more to go down.”
“What about the fabricator and food maker thingie? They’re computerized.”
“Simple command systems. No ability to do anything else. On a closed loop. If we are hit, their loss doesn’t impede my ability to fly this ship.”
“Seems paranoid to me.”
“That kind of attitude is why your planet is doomed to be taken over by machines—”
“Now you’re pushing it,” she snorted. “First, war would destroy us. Then overpopulation and famine. Now it’s killer machines.”
“What do you think starts the wars? Now if you’re done with your skepticism over a history my people have already experienced, I need to pay attention to our approaching guests.”
The reminder drew her gaze to the metal dots on his map board zeroing in on his ship.
The streaking zap on the metal let him know they fired. He ignored it. The shields were up, but he still prepared to maneuver.
“Come here,” he barked.
“Why?”
“How well do you bounce?” was the riposte.
She moved quickly, and he wrapped an arm around her waist, anchoring her to him. She, of course, just had to shove at him.
“What are you doing?”
“Keeping you from spattering brain matter all over my ship.” He cranked a wheel and the ship tilted, startling a sharp scream from her.
He adjusted his auditory frequency to ignore that particular pitch.
It didn’t prevent him from hearing her loudly squealed, “OHMYGOD, we’re upside down.”
“More like sideways. This is down.” He pushed on a lever, and they dove at an angle that would allow the missiles to pass by without touching his shields.
He evened out the angle of his ship, and yet she clutched him tight. “How come we didn’t fall when you did that psycho dive? Did you like reverse gravity or something?” Only to immediately frown and answer herself. “Can’t be gravity, or I wouldn’t have gotten a mouthful of hair. How did you Houdini us into not falling?”
“My boots held us in place.”
She glanced down. “Are they giant magnets?”
“They have hooks.” Tiny ones on the bottom that clipped to the grated floor the moment it started tilting. “Can we save the footwear discussion for later? I’d like to avoid getting pinched.”
More missiles launched, and this time he angled straight up, harder and faster than maybe necessary. Mostly because he found it fascinating how Aggie clung tighter and tighter.
Couldn’t help but wonder how it would feel to have all of her clinging to him. Naked. With him sheathed inside.
The shudder that went through him had nothing to do with temperature and was completely unexpected. Luckily, she didn’t notice. She had her eyes glued to the chart.
“Looks like the zappy things are going to miss us, but those ships don’t look like they’re giving up. All of them are coming toward us.”
Trying to net them. He had to do something to stay out of their grip.
Which meant pushing his vessel hard. Fast. While not blowing the entire thing to pieces.
He kept an eye on the gauges, all of them creeping into dangerous areas. Taking his ship to the max.
A spot of good news. The black hole was in sight. The stray edges black particles of metallic sand on his chart. Almost tickling the scales of his ship. A little bit closer and the gravitational forces would begin working for him.
The question was, would those pursuing drop off or continue? The enemy could continue to fire on Jwls’s ship, but they ran a risk of their missiles getting warped by the black hole. It could end up biting them instead.
It all depended on what kind of risktakers piloted the other ships.
The vessel jolted, and she squeaked as she dug her nails into his neck where she clasped him. “They hit us!”
“Nope, just the edges of the black hole making itself known. The suction appears a little erratic, which might cause for some bumpiness.”
For some reason she took this to mean she should drape herself around him. “Will we be able to escape them in the hole?”
“Yes and no. They won’t touch us while we’re in there, but we will see them again when we emerge on the other side.”
“So not quite safe yet.”
They would never be safe. In less danger, yes, but once you took a gear, you immediately made yourself a target.
“You might want to close your eyes,” he advised.
She gazed at him instead. “Why? Is the black hole dangerous?”
“Everything in space is dangerous. But given you’re new to them, you might find it a tad overwhelming.” Not to mention sometimes people claimed to see things in the spinning nexus of black holes. Visions. Images of things never seen. Events that hadn’t occurred.
There were more than a few religious groups dedicated to the deciphering of what they claimed were prophecies, glimpses of the future.
The only thing he’d ever seen when passing through were flashing lights that left him feeling intoxicated and mellow.
“I’m scared to close them. What if…” A pause. “What if I never get to open them again? What if this is the last thing I’ll ever see?”
The soft admission hit him, wrenched something in his chest. Made him want to reassure her. Hold her close and promise her anything she wanted.
Anything.
Surely, he had slipped a gear. He found himself feeling and saying the strangest things to this female. Such as, “Keep your eyes on me.” He kept her gaze, noting the clarity of her eyes. Brown with a hint of gold. The lashes thick, without artifice. Her face fresh and clear of the cosmetics so popular in the many universes. Males and females alike, even the multi limbed, resorted to artifice. Hiding who they were behind layers of creams and color.
The Siyborgh were no exception. Many of them chose to make themselves look fiercer than their cogs merited. Some added scars. His friend Wulff went with a glowing blue eye rather than an organic green one to match the other. Add in his silver-streaked dark hair and he reminded Jwls of the fierce creatures of the Lu’pyne galaxy.
Even Jwls was no exception if you looked at his mechanical arm and leg, neither sheathed in an organic dermis. Mostly because he was lazy when it came to staying still long enough for the replicator to stitch it on him. Seemed a waste of material.
“Don’t be afraid.” He wrapped her tight against him as they plunged into the heart of the black hole.
Into the heart of darkness they sank. Sound vanished, the waves of it swallowed, and only the silence inside your head remained. Light, even the mere concept, departed, meaning for a moment they couldn’t truly see each other, and she trembled in his grasp.
Since she wouldn’t hear words he did the only thing that could be done in this place. The one thing the void didn’t take away.
Touch.
Jwls squeezed her closer. She melted into him, so close her lips brushed his, moving against his, soft, sensual. Still, no sound, no sight made the melding of their mouths and breaths all the more intense.
There was only Aggie’s lips in that moment. Only the firm feel of her body pressed against his. And it was perfect. A moment that lasted but a tick of heart.
An eternity.
Despites the darkness, images streamed by. Flashing through his lids, a stream of images of things that hadn’t yet happened.
In the first, Aggie was naked underneath him, staring at him with those beautiful brown eyes. Her lips parted. Her body undulating below him. Vivid enough he could feel her nails digging into his back, the velvety heat and wetness of her…
Then that mental image abruptly shifted and he slammed right into another event, filled with heat and smoke. His ears rang with the blare of warning sirens, but more ominous, the hissing of a breached hull, something all spacefarers feared.
Before he could truly taste any panic, his vision flowed into the next where his friends all glared at him. Demanded he hand over Aggie and then…
Nothing. No idea of what happened next. The end?
Fuck that. He deepened the kiss, needing to feel her. To know where it could go. She returned the passion, matching his tongue thrusts. Sucking at him.
Pressure built inside. Not just sexual pressure.
All of him vibrated. Pulsed as if expanding. Beyond the limits he could contain. And still, he didn’t let her go.
He had one final blink of a vision.
Aggie holding a child in her arms. Her smile sweet and—
They went from a silent dark void to light and noise as the black hole spat them free. She gasped against his lips, and he caught it, savored the smell of her, the taste. The sight. Even the sound.
“We made it,” she exclaimed. “Thank you. Thank you.” Each thank-you was punctuated with a kiss.
“I told you there was no danger.”
“You made sure I wasn’t scared. Thank you.” The embrace went on for a short moment before Jwls shook himself free. Yet distancing himself from her didn’t snap the surreal sensation—or make the last vision disappear.
“I need to check on the ship.”
Then run a diagnostic on himself. Because something had happened to him in the black hole. He could feel it. A difference in him. Maybe a gear finally past its time. A cog shifted out of position. Something had changed.
His gaze strayed to Aggie. The lips he’d kissed swollen and begging for more. Her skin flushed. And he detected a rather enticing aroma. Pheromones. The kind that indicated she liked it.
So did he.
Which was a problem. He couldn’t lose sight of the fact she still had that gear in her cheek. An incomparable treasure.
If he didn’t take it, someone else would.
9
Jules pretended to be busy rather than finish the kiss they started.
A kiss that lit all kinds of things on fire. Soaked her panties something good, too. But did he appear as affected?
Hard to tell given Jules kept moving, his back to her, checking all his machines. Fiddling more than she was sure he needed to. He waved his hand at her at one point and told her she should eat because it would be awhile and she required nourishment.
“So do you.” She knew he ate. Not always the same kind of stuff as her. He tended toward odd-looking protein type bars and thick shakes.
She was still trying to teach the food-making machine how to make pasta. It got the look of it right, but it tasted awful.
“I have enough reserves. I need to keep watch.”
“Are those ships following?”
“They’re gone.”
Which seemed too easy. Made you wonder what kind of space police merited that kind of compliance.
How would humans fare when they eventually made it to space and zipped through the wormhole? Hopefully, someone very like Captain Kirk or Picard would be at the helm.
Someone just as bold as Jules.
“So we’re safe,” she sighed.
“Just because they appear to have moved off doesn’t mean they’re not tracking us just out of sight.” He waved to the chart with its metal bits. Quiet and boring now that they’d left the black hole behind.
“All the more reason why you should eat now so that you’re strong for later.”
“I fear my strength is already a lost cause,” he mumbled.
“Are you not feeling okay?” She moved toward him, only to frown as he practically leapt away.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t seem fine. You haven’t been fine since we got out of the black hole. Oh my God. Did something inside it possess you?”
He blinked at her. The man had the most sinfully long and thick dark lashes ever. “What are you talking about?”
“Were you possessed? You know by an evil spirit. Maybe the ghost of some alien dude who was sucked into the hole and died. Leaving behind his soul to haunt it until the right host comes along.”
Another long blink and silence.
Her lips twitched. “It could happen.” She’d seen something similar on the big screen. It ended with lots of blood and the ship blowing up.
“I am not possessed.”
“Then why are you so grumpy?”
“This is my natural disposition.”
“I think it should be said that it needs adjusting.”
“Perhaps if you didn’t incessantly natter I would have a better attitude.”
Her mouth rounded. “Oh. That’s priceless. Blame me for your being miserable. As if it’s my fault the piston is shoved so far up your ass you can’t bend a little.”
For some reason, that made him laugh. And laugh.
To the point that annoyance struck Aggie. “It wasn’t that funny.”
“It was. You are. For a backwards barbarian, you are quick witted.”
A compliment. “And you’re not too rusty for a cyborg.”
His teeth shone with a silver hue as he smiled. “I’m not old enough to see signs of decay yet.”
“Do your kind live a long time?”
“How long is long?”
“Like fifty years old. One hundred. More?” she offered.
“We don’t count in terms of planetary rotations.”
“Then how do you calculate age?”
“We don’t.”
The very idea flummoxed. “So no birthdays with cake and presents?”
“I have cake whenever I like. And I buy myself what I need.”
“Just so we’re clear, I do count my birthdays, and I will expect presents and a really big cake. Lots of frosting. Black Forest being my favorite. Lots of whipped cream and cherries.”