“Would your actions have been different if I did?” he asked too quickly in response. “Alixyn!”
A smaller Dyriixian approached, slimmer than the others and a head shorter. “Cleaning up another one of your messes, Yael?” The voice was feminine and obviously bored.
“We’ll be going into hyper the moment we surface.”
“Of course we are,” Alixyn replied drily before turning to Natlea. “You ever worked with Viridium transfiltration cores before?”
This conversation was happening far too quickly. “Yes, but it’s been awhile. Anaxas migrated to the newer iteration cores two years ago.”
“A valuable find,” the female said over her shoulder, and Natlea did not miss the way Yael’s shoulders tensed at the comment.
“I told you she was more than capable.”
That they had conversed about her was bad enough, but that they had discussed her prowess with Dyriixian technology was galling. She hadn’t reached her prior position through luck. Alixyn waved for her to follow, and Natlea cast one last baleful glance in Yael’s direction before she obeyed.
Their set up was top of the line if not a little dated. The console wasn’t familiar to her, but she was able to follow along enough as Alixyn walked her through the controls and displays. The fundamentals of managing volatile Viridium would always be the same regardless of the outfit. After a forty-five-minute introduction, she felt confident enough that she could at least keep the cores cool as they made their jump into hyper.
“Make sure to manage that feed at all times,” Alixyn said, a clawed finger tapping at the pristine screen. “We hit red, we’re fucked.” She looked over her shoulder. “Someone refuses to upgrade our magnetic dampeners, so we’re likely to blow up at any time.”
“Please ignore Alixyn,” Yael replied, his head bowed to examine a tablet in his hand. “She hasn’t been the same since she got her own ship blown up refitting it with black market parts.”
“Ha! Got you there, Al!” another Dyriixian replied, although his mirth died when the female scowled in his direction.
“Our dampeners are fine.” Yael tugged at the collar of his shirt and squirmed in his seat. “We just don’t have access to the purest Viridium.”
Natlea frowned. Viridium was standardized across the quadrant, ensuring the same quality whether in a backwater or a bustling hub world. Her eyes narrowed. An inability to obtain standard fuel meant something was wrong.
“Why can’t you—”
The ship began to rise, and for moment, Natlea was spellbound, as she always was, by the ocean passing in front of them. She had yet to be on a ship where the bridge crew didn’t fall into a hushed silence when rising from the ocean. No matter how routine, the moment always seemed to have a sacredness to it, as if being reborn.
They breached the surface, and the beauty of Silorus V spilled out in front of them. The bright, blue sky, the wine dark sea, and lush green in the distance.
The dull hum switched tone, growing more high-pitched, and she checked the readout to ensure the cores maintained temperature. Their ascent continued, and the silence was broken by a light cough.
“Sorry,” Graesen grumbled. He cleared his throat and set his sights back to the viewscreen in front of him. They would need to clear the atmosphere before they jumped to hyper, and the edge of the sky steadily approached. The clouds whipped past them until they finally crested into the ink-black of space, a trillion twinkling stars winking at them from the void.
She turned back to the console and adjusted the particle resonator of the third core.
“Good catch,” Alixyn murmured. Her fingers flew over her side of the console before she turned to address Yael. “We’re ready to enter hyperdrive.”
Yael looked back at them, and the rakish smile on his lips caused every synapse in Natlea’s core to fire at once.
“Aye, aye.” He winked at them, and Natlea couldn’t help her small chuckle when Alixyn rolled her eyes and groaned.
“Save it for your bride,” the Dyriixian female mumbled.
“Take us out, Graesen.”
The jump to hyper went off without a hitch, and Natlea had to admit she enjoyed getting to assist in their launch. While she had training in the basics of piloting, her life never went that route. She felt safer in the water than the vast cold of space.
But something else niggled at the back of her mind. It wasn’t just the lack of purified Viridium to run their ship, but the informality of the crew, and as she replayed the thrill of their launch through her mind, she realized not a single transmission had been made to announce their departure.
She shot up from her seat, ignoring Alixyn’s quizzical look in her direction, and stormed over to Yael’s chair.
“Captain,” she spat, lacing as much faux politeness she could into the word. “A word?”
His eyes widened, and she would be damned if he didn’t look around to the rest of his crew as if any of them could tell him why she requested a private audience.
His crew mates—for their part—refused to meet his gaze, each finding their own consoles far more interesting than the lovers quarrel happening in front of them. That he chose not to argue and, instead, motioned for her to follow him, made her even more suspicious.
“Graesen, you have the helm.”
“Aye,” the male replied, his eyes trained on the viewscreen.
Whatever was going on, everyone had to be in on it. Even Alixyn’s back remained ramrod straight as they left the room, and she could have sworn she heard a flurry of whispers kick up as the door slid shut behind them.
Yael remained silent as he led her to a small room that appeared to be a captain’s office but was just as spartan as the room she had slept in.
He leaned against the desk. “Well?”
Oh, this son of a—
“Is there anything else you’d like to tell me?” Natlea asked, crossing her arms. “You certainly never mentioned being the captain of a ship during our initial time together.”
“It didn’t seem like pertinent information at the time.”
Natlea’s mouth fell open, and her eyes narrowed. Did he think she was an idiot? “Who hides being a ship captain, Yael? The rest of us can’t get most of you to shut the hell up about it.”
His mouth opened, then closed, and his hands fell to his side.
Natlea raised her hand to begin counting her questions off on her fingers. “Why don’t you have access to standard-grade Viridium?” Thumb. “Why didn’t you tell me you were a ship’s captain?” Pointer. “Why didn’t we transmit our flight path to the port authorities?” The finger that she would throw up at him the moment this union was dissolved.
Seconds of silence passed between them, and it became crystal clear that she knew next to nothing about this male beyond his name. Yael the Swift in Standard, the Dyriixian pronunciation too much for her human vocal cords. He’d claimed to deal in cargo, although he made it sound as though he simply couriered goods between trading posts. Each time he captured her, she was sequestered in a room alone with little explanation.
“You’ve hounded me across the damn galaxy when I barely know who you are.”
He should not have been so fast for how large he was, but he was soon in front of her again. “What would any of that have changed? I told you about my plans for the future and displayed my capabilities as a life partner.”
She wouldn’t allow his proximity to make her waver. That she could already feel her body leaning toward him was bad enough.
“Lying by omission is still lying,” Natlea replied. She frowned and rubbed her arms. “Besides, you can’t honestly think all it takes for a woman to marry you is scratching criteria off of a list.”
His head tipped to the side, and judging by the rapid, confused blinks that followed, she was willing to bet that’s exactly what he thought. She should have taken one of those Dyriixian cultural intensives Anaxas Corp sponsored when she had the chance.
She shook her head t
o clear it. No. This was not something that could be laid at the feet of cultural misunderstandings.
“The first time I found you...” He closed the remaining space between them, and Natlea’s breath hitched against her will.
“I was a little fucking confused.” Confused and furious. After returning to Silorus V with hopes of explaining her absence to her superiors, she’d been smacked in the face with her breaking of Dyriixian cultural taboos.
She’d returned to her quarters after an exhausting few hours of arguing and pleading with stoic, blue-grey faces to find Yael patiently waiting outside of her door.
Her heart skipped a beat when his massive frame had straightened from its relaxed position against the station wall, and an illicit thrill rushed through her.
“The first one is free,” he’d murmured when her rooted feet refused to carry her off in the opposite direction, and that same dangerous smile made her brain short circuit. He was a walking, talking, red flag, and as hard as she tried, her body was swiftly winning the war against her well-founded principles.
He wasn’t joking now, not with his lips pressed into a solemn line as he studied her with the same intensity she did him.
“And now?”
And now, she was just as confused but for completely different reasons. The tip of his claw reached under her chin, and she found herself staring into his eyes again. Eyes that seemed to hold more secrets than she could handle.
“Can you at least admit,” he began, his voice pouring over her like honey, “that you enjoyed the chase?”
She closed her eyes and swallowed, her mind traveling back to that warm night in the sea. He’d approached her like a predator, his gaze entirely focused on her, and she had noticed and held that stare. A silent challenge he easily met as she continued their game. Each time they met was a new exercise in flirtation and denial, and there had been more than a few nights where her fingers slipped into the confines of her panties to alleviate the arousal brought on by their encounters.
Rimonia had been the perfect hiding place, but she knew he would track her down, and by the time he found her, the sensation was amplified a thousand-fold. She had almost brought herself to climax riding his thigh while he whispered all of the filthy things he would do to her once their ceremony was complete.
She should not have been allowing him to wrap his arms around her waist or inhaling his exhaled breaths as his face approached hers. The blossom of anticipation unfurled between them, and she licked her lips in preparation for them to connect.
Natlea knew the Dyriixians had strange gods, but she wondered if their sense of humor matched their taboos. The ship rocked, pitching them backward, and a shrill alarm pierced the shared silence.
“Fuck!” Yael quickly righted her and dashed to the comm panel. “What’s going on out there?”
Graesen’s panicked voice replied, “We’ve been bubbled out of hyper.”
The hairs on the back of Natlea’s neck rose, but there was little time to question anything. Yael was out the door before she could speak, and she could do little but jog to catch up with him.
“No one has the tech to pull ships out of hyper but one of the syndicates or pirates,” she said when she finally caught up with his long strides. “Who do you owe?”
Yael said nothing as they entered the bridge, and Natlea kept her eyes on him while she made her way back to her station.
“They’re attempting to open a subspace channel,” Graesen said.
“Who is it?”
“DCC Opportunity,” a sharp voice came over the communications system, and they did not sound happy. “Come in, DCC Opportunity.”
“Shit.” Yael pounded his fist on his arm rest. “Alixyn, get us out of this bubble.”
“Don’t you think I would have done that if I could have?” the Dyriixian female snapped.
“We have to do something!” a younger Dyriixian male said, his voice laced with panic.
“Calm down.” Yael scowled in the male’s direction.
“We might be able to break their hold if we disrupt the flow of Viridium between the cores,” Natlea said. She might as well jump in. Whatever trouble they could possibly be in now involved her.
“Slam the brakes?” Graesen asked, his tone incredulous. “And you went to school for this?”
“The hyper bubble jams our ability to alter speed,” Alixyn said, looking at Natlea as though she had grown two heads and both were morons.
“Through the automated systems,” Natlea said, “but if we manually rotate two of the cores, it should disrupt the flow of particalized Viridium enough to slow the ship and drop out of the bubble.” She turned to Graesen. “You’d need to set a new course and be prepared to re-calibrate to jump into hyper the moment we’re free. It will only take a few moments for them to realize what’s happened.”
“DCC Opportunity, this is Saemo the Wise of the Muraki Syndicate. Cease all resistance and prepare to be escorted to the nearest port authority.”
“We don’t have time,” Natlea snapped. “Make a decision.”
Yael was out of his seat. “Graesen, keep them occupied.”
“What!?”
“Natlea, let’s go. Alixyn, stay on that console and wait for my signal.”
“Manually removing cores could tear the entire ship apart,” Alixyn said, her lips pursed in disapproval. Yael’s gaze didn’t waver from hers while he waited silently for her to accept his order. Their tense battle of wills only continued on for a few more seconds. “Aye.”
Natlea, however, didn’t need to be told twice. A rush of adrenaline propelled her on legs she could hardly feel as she followed Yael’s long strides to the engine room. Encased in a four-column Dyriixian fibercarbonate matrix, the short Viridium cores were housed in squat rectangular boxes for easy removal and servicing. Natlea slotted her hands into the handles of the southernmost core. “We’ll rotate north to south. We’ll want to ensure we reinstall the cores at the same time.”
Yael nodded. His large clawed hand wrapped around the grip of the northern core’s handle like a vice. He was as nervous as she was, and with good reason. If they snapped the cores in at the wrong time, it could destabilize all of the ship’s systems. The last thing they needed was an engine malfunction, or worse.
Deep breaths. She counted down, and at three, they began the switch. The lights temporarily dimmed, and a shrill alarm sounded as the ship’s computer alerted them to its distress. Sweat clung to her back, and her eyes connected with Yael’s again when they reached their new destinations. She lifted her inanimate charge to just above the connection point with its new home, indicating that it was time to reinsert the cores into the matrix.
After another short count, they shifted back in with loud clicks, and Yael was by the communication panel in an instant, though his signal was hardly necessary. A weightless churning sensation slammed into her inner ear, causing Natlea to stumble against the wall. Graesen’s voice was welcome, regardless.
“Your skittish mare may be a pain in the ass, but we managed to jump out of the Syndicate’s trajectory.”
A wave of relief washed over her.
“Keep me updated,” Yael replied.
“In the engine room?”
He ended the communication link without a response, and before she could even get a word out, he was in front of her, cupping her face with his hands and nearly doubling over to claim her lips. Natlea moaned deep in her throat and fisted her hands in his shirt, the rough synthetic fibers sending sparks along live-wire nerves. She grunted when her back hit the steel wall, and she could feel the rigid length of him pressed against her. She gasped when he tore away from her mouth to bite at the sensitive skin of her throat.
“We can’t,” Yael panted against her lips, and Natlea’s fingers dug into the meat of his shoulders when she rolled her hips against his. “Keep.” His hand fumbled between them to undue the buttons of their pants. “Doing this.”
His lips found hers again, and she shive
red when the bare skin of her rear was exposed to the warm air of the engine room. Yael grunted as he lifted her up to perch her precariously on top of a large fuse box, and the desire for friction warred with their combined efforts to free her from the confines of the too-large crewman’s attire.
“Just one more time,” she replied, and she feverishly assisted him in wrangling the cast off shirt up her rib cage. They couldn’t stay away from the crew for too long. Having sex in an engine room was probably against multiple regulations somewhere, but common sense had flown out of the window for her the moment she decided to indulge in a game of cat and mouse with a Dyrixiian.
She reached between them and brought her hand around the thick base of his member. Hairless and lacking testicles, the thick, smooth length pulsed in her grip. Yael hissed as she slowly worked her hand over him, but he stopped her when she attempted to guide him to her entrance.
His hand closed around her wrist, and he pulled it away before gripping her chin between two claws. “This time, if you want it, you have to ask.”
Natlea gnawed on her lip as he dipped inside of her before dragging his tip up her seam to make small, slow circles against her clitoris. She tightened her legs around his hips and dipped her own to guide him back to where she wanted him.
“No deal. Not until you explain everything to me,” Natlea replied, lacing her fingers together behind his neck.
Yael chuckled but allowed her to pull him into her. She would thank him later when she was done throttling him, but in that moment, she just needed him to move.
“Will you stay long enough to get your answers?” His thrust began as a slow drag that finished with him quickly snapping forward, burying him inside of her as deeply as she could take him.
“Yes!” Natlea gasped, and her head fell back against cool metal as they chased their moment of pleasure, stolen from the jaws of destruction. She would ask him about the rippling penis thing later, too, but right now, whatever it was doing was having just the right kind of effect. She would give anything to bottle this kind of pleasure to drink at will.
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