by Elin Wyn
“I think you pushed that person over,” I said.
“They’ll be fine.”
We ran several blocks before stopping, listening against the din of the city for signs of pursuit.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Not sure. I haven’t spent much time in Katzul.”
“This will be a good excuse to explore the city, then.” My smile was too big and too forced as I struggled to incorporate some normalcy into our situation. Valtic must’ve realized what I was trying to do. He smiled and extended his hand, which I took.
“You’re going to have to teach me how to look like a tourist enjoying the scenic route,” he said.
“It’s not hard,” I replied, squeezing his hand. “Just look around a lot and smile.”
“I’m not very good at either of those things.”
I realized he was trying to make me laugh. “You’ll get the hang of it,” I assured him. We walked in silence for a few minutes. Valtic tried to steer us in the direction of the dock, or at least where we thought the docks should be.
“You did an excellent job,” he said suddenly. “The scans you took were very detailed.”
“I found something else while I was copying the drive, too. But I’m not sure what it is.”
“Anything at all will be helpful. We have to connect the Dominion and The Terror with tangible evidence. But first, let’s get off the street.”
This part of the plan had been loose. We didn’t know what sort of resistance we’d come up against. How many might follow us.
“That building over there is an inn.” He gestured to a run-down place covered in neon signs I couldn’t read. “Let’s stay there. If we get a room with a window facing the port, we can monitor for threats. We’ll get back the Skimmer when we leave.”
“Or we can take a few hours to rest,” I nudged him.
“Right,” he laughed dryly. “Somehow, I never think of that.”
Valtic
I circled us around the block once before we slowed down and walked into the inn like a regular couple out in the night.
“Ahh, hello. Hello,” the innkeeper said cheerfully as we entered. She was a middle-aged Tacseub woman of gray skin, white hair, and laugh lines all over her face. “How can I help you two young people this evening?”
Lynna placed her head against my arm as I looked down at her and smiled. I turned my attention back to the innkeeper. “We were wondering if you happened to have a room available. We’re a little tired from walking all over the city.”
“Why, of course, sweetie. Come this way and we’ll get you both settled right in.” A hint of a twang to her voice I hadn’t noticed at first brought back memories…good memories. She worked her way behind a counter, pulled out a small book, and opened it. “Now, my name is Besen and if you two lovely young ones need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. Now, can I get your names?”
“Well, see, that’s sort of the problem,” I said in a low tone as I leaned against the counter. “You see, I work for her family and we’re not really supposed to be together, if you understand my meaning.”
She nodded knowingly as she picked up her pen. “So, how can I help Mr. and Mrs. Flen?” She smiled at us as she wrote the names down, glancing at Lynna. “By the way, you two are a very cute couple. Your parents are fools for not letting you be with him in public.”
“Thank you,” Lynna smiled. “I agree with you.”
With a smile and a small chuckle, I interrupted the two ladies. “We’d appreciate some—privacy—if you don’t mind.” I reached into a pocket and pulled out a few extra credits to help emphasize my point.
“Oh, of course, of course,” Besen said with a grin, and a quick grab of the money. She pocketed the credits and reached behind her to a board filled with card keys. “Room Seventeen,” she whispered.
“Thank you. Um, your kitchen wouldn’t happen to be open, would it?” I asked.
She winked. “Just tell me what you want, and I’ll have it ready for you. I’ll add it to your room.”
Ah, as nice as she was, she wasn’t going to just give us things. I had wondered how far my luck would go. “Thank you,” I said as Lynna and I made our way to the stairs leading up to the rooms.
“Aren’t you going to get us some food?” Lynna asked when we reached the top of the stairs.
“In a few. I wanted to make sure the room was okay first.”
“Well, aren’t we paranoid?” she joked. I didn’t answer her. I put the key card into the door, opened it, and checked the room. It was surprisingly nice. There was a relieving room, a small kitchenette with a cooling unit, and a bed…one bed…with an entertainment screen against the wall. It was safe.
“Okay, I’ll go get the food,” I said as I turned around.
“And while you do, I’ll get cleaned up.” She hopped up on her tiptoes and kissed me on the cheek before heading into the relieving room. I closed the door behind me and headed back downstairs.
“Besen?”
“Mr. Flen.” She joked as she looked away from her computer screen. “Were you looking for that food now?”
“You read my mind,” I smiled. “I’m thinking a nice, big meal, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course. We actually still have some food left over from our dinner rush, if you’re interested.”
“As long as it’s edible and not too spicy, that should be fine.”
“Then come on,” she waved for me to follow her. “You can help me load it up.” She led me back to the kitchen and handed me a large plate and a wooden tray to put it on as she opened her industrial cool-box and pulled out platters, pots, and boxes of dinner leftovers.
“Impressive.” That was all I could say as we loaded up the plates and she chatted idly. I didn’t pay attention enough to know what she was talking about, but I did follow along enough to know when to laugh or say something.
With an armful of food that weighed far more than I would have thought, I returned to the room. Unable to get in on my own, I lightly kicked the door as a way of knocking. When the door opened, I rushed in and set the food down on the small table next to the bed before turning around.
There she was, standing in the doorway in nothing but her towel, cleaned and back to her normal human self. Stunned speechless, my breath caught. After a few moments, I inhaled sharply.
“Ha. It looks as though you’ve forgotten the basics of life there, tiger,” Lynna chuckled.
“Uh, um, well, I…” I stumbled through my words a bit before pointing at the food. “I got food.” That was pathetic.
“That you did,” Lynna smiled. “Give me a minute.” She went back into the relieving room. I looked through the kitchenette cabinets, found some forks and smaller plates, and set them on the table. As Lynna joined me, redressed in the bright red gown, I smiled at her and we started eating.
“I’m impressed with you,” I said over a mouthful of a fantastic bread roll filled with a sumptuous paste.
“Why?”
After I swallowed, I explained myself. “You did very well for yourself back there. You handled things like a professional.”
“Thank you,” she said with a slight blush. “It was scary as hell.”
“I bet. What did you find? What does the ship look like? Were there any other women inside?”
“I didn’t see anything like that,” she answered, a faraway look on her face.
“What's bothering you?”
She shook her head. “On the bridge, there were five tubes.” She stopped, and it was all I could do to keep from brushing her damp hair off her cheek. “Is there cryotechnology here?”
I blinked, surprised at the change of topic. “Of a sort.” I put my fork down. “It works, the body survives, but the person inside the body…” I shook my head. “I don’t know the science, that’s more your field that mine. But I don't know of any world that has managed to find a way to repeatedly freeze and thaw someone without slowly turning their brain to mush.”
“Couldn't be.” I barked without thinking about it.
Her eyes widened.
“No, I believe what you saw, but there's no reason. No reason at all I could imagine to keep people in cryo.” I mentally ran through options, discarding every possibility as nonsense. “Especially not to your bridge crew. After two or three rounds of freezing, there wouldn't be enough of their brain to do more than mash at the buttons.”
“Yeah,” she said slowly. “Which means there must be a reason. We’re just not seeing it.”
She stood, the thin fabric gliding over her lush curves, the teasing shapes driving me wild. I stifled a groan. It was worse than if she’d been wearing nothing at all.
I thought about that for a moment.
Lynna. Wearing nothing at all.
Bare skin.
I might have to change my mind.
She brought back the bracelet from my bag and slid out the purple gem that had contained the cloning drive.
“I wonder if this will tell us.”
Lynna
It wasn’t until my eyes settled on the bed in our rented room that the adrenaline finally left my body. My limbs went limp, my shoulders sagged, and it felt like my eyelids were made of concrete.
At that moment, I couldn’t think of anything else other than the way my head was going to feel when it landed on the pillow. I was too exhausted to think of the files we found and too numb to think about the guard I’d killed.
Right now, I just needed to sleep.
Shouting jolted me awake. Fearing the worst, that The Terror crew had found us and attacked the inn, I shot up in bed. I quickly realized the horrible yelling was coming from inside the room.
Valtic tossed and thrashed beside me hard enough to make the bedframe slam into the wall. His thrashing was punctuated by strangled shouts. Veins bunched on his forehead and neck.
“Valtic?” I said, still groggy and a little disoriented. I reached out and touched his arm. His skin felt hot. As I realized that something was wrong, I cast a glance around the room. No one else was in the room. I didn’t know what was wrong with Valtic. With a jolt of panic, I wondered if he’d somehow gotten pierced by the needle that’d held the toxin. But then I remembered I left that particular needle in the arm of that guard.
My victim.
“Valtic!” I said louder this time. He wasn’t hearing me. As I watched him, I finally woke up to what was wrong. He was caught in the throes of a night terror. I’d seen this a few times on Persephone Station.
Some of the women, particularly women who’d served in the Space Force, suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Night terrors were a common symptom. I realized Valtic’s brain chemistry was different than that of a human, but something similar must’ve been happening to him.
I sat up and managed to grasp his broad shoulders, squeezing and shaking, though it was like trying to shake a mountain. Determined to wake him, I straddled his torso, careful not to put all of my weight on him. I grabbed his wrists to keep him from accidentally striking me in his sleep.
“Valtic!” I shouted over his strangled yells. I said his name over and over, not knowing what else to do. Eventually, it worked. He shot upright, his head almost knocking into mine. He looked at me, his eyes blurry and unfocused.
“I’m going to kill them,” he snarled.
“Kill who?” I asked. It took considerable effort to keep my voice calm.
“Where are they?” he bellowed. He ripped his wrists effortlessly from my grasp. I scrambled off him to give him space to breathe and sort out his surroundings. Disorientation was a common side-effect of night terrors. Assuming what Valtic was experiencing was the same as what a human experienced, he’d realize where he was within the next minute or so. However, I wasn’t anticipating that he’d get out of the bed. As soon as his feet touched the wooden floor, I was out of bed. I rushed around to his side, reaching him just as he stood up. He took a step in the direction of the door, but I pushed against his chest.
“Valtic, where are you going?”
“I have to find them,” he grumbled.
“Find who?” He didn’t answer. “Open your eyes and look at me.” I reached up and cupped his face, tilting his head down so he could look me in the eye. Though his eyes were open, I could tell he wasn’t truly seeing the room in front of him. I gave his face a gentle tap, just enough to force him to focus. Between one blink and the next, his eyes grew clear.
He looked at me and blinked in confusion. “Lynna?”
“That’s right,” I smiled. Relief flooded me. Valtic brought a hand up to stroke my hair. His hand trembled.
“I had a dream.” He seemed to struggle over his words.
“I know.” I took his hand and led him back to the bed. I sat down on the mattress and patted the space beside me. Valtic joined me, still looking a little disoriented.
“Did I say anything?” he asked.
“You were looking for someone. You didn’t sound happy.”
“I haven’t had a dream like that in weeks. I thought I was getting better,” Valtic said quietly.
“If these dreams are fewer and further between, that definitely means you’re getting better,” I assured him. I reached out and gently laid my hand on his bare shoulder. His muscles relaxed under my touch, so I started to gently rub his back.
“I should be better than that,” he muttered to himself.
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
“I think you need to cut yourself some slack,” I said softly. “Do you want to talk about what you saw?”
“Usually, when I have those kinds of dreams, I see my dead unit-mates. Usually, they’re bloody and missing arms, legs, eyes, or teeth.”
I shuddered involuntarily. I’d seen my fair share of death, but never something as gory as that. I counted myself lucky.
“Did you see them again?” I asked.
“No,” Valtic replied. He placed his hand over mine and looked me in the eyes. “I saw you die. You died over and over again. Whenever you died, time went backward and the dream began again. I saw you die in so many different ways as I couldn’t save you.”
“Oh.” I felt my heart break for him. Without thinking, I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him. “You’ve already saved me, though. I’m alive right now because you’ve always been there to save me.”
“I almost wasn’t last time. You were on board The Terror alone. If anything even went slightly wrong, I might not have been able to get to you.”
“You were able to get to me,” I told him. “And we got out of there together.”
“I hate that you put yourself in danger. I hate that I didn’t try harder to stop it.”
“Can I tell you something?” I asked in a whisper.
“Anything.”
“I hated being on board The Terror alone. I never want to do anything like that again. I don’t think I’m cut out for it,” I admitted. “I hate it even more now that I know I’ve caused you so much distress.” I brought my hand up to touch his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into my palm.
“Can we agree that we won’t be doing that again?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “But I don’t know how I’m going to cope with you diving head first into danger. That’s the only reason I volunteered to sneak on to The Terror.”
“What?” Valtic furrowed his brow.
“I didn’t want anything to happen to you,” I whispered. “I don’t know how I’d live with myself if you were killed.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Valtic assured me. “I’ll always find a way to come back to you.”
I lifted my chin to look into Valtic’s eyes. Before I could say anything else, he lowered his head, his firm lips fell on mine, his hands wrapped around my back, pulling me tighter into him.
As he pulled me closer to him, my hip rocked against some
thing hard, massive.
With a gasp, my mouth fell open against his and his tongue took full advantage, thrusting against mine.
The fingers of one hand wrapped into my hair, holding me tight, while the other kneaded my hip through the thin fabric of the dress.
I rocked against him again, deliberately this time. It was his turn to groan against me. “Be careful, Lynna,” he whispered, his eyes almost glowing in the half-light.
“I was.” I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his neck, then nipped him lightly. “This is my reward for being careful.”
With a low growl he pushed me back on the bed, covered me with his body, his weight on his elbows on either side of me.
“Are you certain,” he managed through gritted teeth.
I sat up slightly in the tiny space available and pressed my lips against his.
“Very,” I breathed against his mouth.
One hand ran down my side, and then he slowly, carefully, worked the hem of the dress up, over my hip.
The trail of his fingers on my skin felt electric as he stroked up and down, reaching the crease of my thigh and then following it, closer to where I felt as if I were burning for his touch.
His mouth left mine to drop a trail of kisses down my neck and curved back up to my ear.
The first whisper-light touch of his fingers against my slick folds came in time with the feel of his teeth at my earlobe.
“Valtic,” I shuddered, my arms wrapped helplessly around his neck.
He wasn't just making love to me, this was a systematic assault against my senses.
Another gentle stroke, then another, and one fingertip pierced me as I arched against the bed.
“Lovely,” he breathed against my neck.
He balanced back on his knees and lifted my hips from the bed with one hand, tossing the dress to the side. I lay completely bare before him.
His eyes roved over me, taking in every curve, but before I could feel embarrassed, he lifted my hips again and fell upon my pussy as if he were starving.