by E. R. Paskey
Still chewing, Anna could only nod. She swallowed her last bite and reached for her second cup of coffee. Cradling it in both hands, she cast an interested glance at him over the rim. “Now what?”
He smiled at her again, and her stomach fluttered. Don’t even go there, she warned herself. Just don’t.
“Back to the ship, darling, and on to our next adventure.”
“All right.” Anna drained the last of her coffee and paid the bill. As they departed the diner, Colin slung his arm around her shoulders again, tucking her into his side once more.
“Just in case?” she asked wryly.
He grinned down at her, but the levity did not reach his eyes. “Just in case, lass.”
The police were still enforcing a security cordon around the spaceport, but it seemed to Anna that it was now more to give them something to do than because they actually expected to find her. She and Colin had no trouble skipping through it to his freighter—until they reached the last security checkpoint.
The spaceport officer manning it was older and rather portly, in a greasy sort of way. Anna guessed instantly that he had taken an immediate—and fervent—dislike to Colin for some reason or another. The officer cast a scornful glance at Colin before eying Anna up and down with a kind of squinty mistrust that made her instinctively burrow closer the man at her side.
“Here now,” Colin said sharply. “I don’t think I like the way you’re looking at my wife.”
“Well, I don’t recall you arriving with a woman,” the officer shot back.
Anna tensed, but tried to maintain a neutral expression.
“We left the ship separately,” Colin said testily. “Things to do, cargoes to unload. All that.” He waved his free hand.
“Uh huh.” The officer did not move, but kept his arms folded across his chest. “Don’t suppose either of you has seen the pirate running around loose?”
He makes it sound like I’m on a rampage or something, Anna thought irritably. She turned wide eyes on him. “You haven’t found her yet?”
“Not for lack of trying,” he muttered grumpily.
Anna tugged on Colin’s shirtfront with her free hand. “We’ve got to leave. I don’t want to stay in a city on a world where pirates are roaming around freely.”
Colin gave the officer a long-suffering look, as if to say, Women. What can you do with them? “If you’ll excuse us…?”
Reluctantly, the officer let them pass. “Keep an eye out,” he warned. “We don’t have a holostill of her, but from all accounts she’s a vicious creature with one hand, and I hear she’s got a gun embedded in her stump.”
At this, Anna sucked in a sharp breath, her nostrils flaring in anger. It was all she could do not to turn around and give the man a good thumping. Colin’s arm tightened around her shoulders in warning and he dropped his head toward her ear again.
“Easy, lass. Easy.”
She elbowed him none-too-gently in the side for that. “I’m not stupid,” she hissed in a low voice.
“Are you sure?” he asked, in that same, maddeningly calm voice.
She gave him a withering look, but refrained from answering.
Colin steered them through the spaceport to a docking berth on the northwest corner. “There she is,” he said proudly, when a slightly battered Fera-class freighter came into view. “The Galaxy’s Way.”
The freighter—a gray, blocky, triangular spaceship with a rounded nose—didn’t look like much, but Anna knew only too well that meant nothing. Hull plating wasn’t always visible from the outside, and besides, any captain with half a brain sank money into three places—the engine, the shields, and the weapons system. Even a reinforced hull didn’t do you much good in space if your shields went down. Particles and projectiles could still tear through metal like tissue paper at high enough speeds.
As they approached, it occurred to Anna that she had yet to ask Colin how big his crew was. She opened her mouth to rectify this, but at that moment, a figure appeared at the top of the landing ramp.
“Cap’n!” The man was in his fifties, with sandy gray hair, hazel eyes, and weathered face, and he sounded abjectly relieved to see Colin. His relief promptly turned into suspicion when he set eyes on Anna, but at a discreet signal from Colin, he schooled his features into something a little less, well, suspicious.
“Everything go all right last night?” Colin asked.
“Aye, Cap’n. Didn’t have any…trouble at all.” He gave Anna the side-eye as he said this; Colin still had his arm around her shoulders.
In return, she gave him a sweet, ‘chocolate wouldn’t melt in my mouth’ smile. “I’m so glad to hear that. We were concerned.”
The man just barely managed to keep his eyes in his head and his mouth closed.
It’s on, Anna thought. She only hoped she wouldn’t be stuck on the Galaxy’s Way long—clearly, they were going to have issues.
Colin escorted her up the landing ramp and into the ship. “Pull up the ramp, Deek.”
Chapter 7
“AYE, CAP’N.”
Anna was impressed despite herself; the man, Deek, managed to keep a straight face until the landing ramp had fully closed. Only when he was absolutely certain they were safely aboard the Galaxy’s Way did he whirl to face Colin. “Cap’n, what’s this all about? Who is she — ” he stabbed a finger in Anna’s direction, “ — and what is she doing here?”
Colin held up a hand for silence. “Deek, I’d like you to meet Miss Anna — ” he broke off, looking quizzically at Anna. “What is your last name, anyway?”
“Drayek,” she supplied.
“Miss Anna Drayek,” Colin continued. “Anna, this is my first mate, Galvin Deek. As for the rest of it? All in good time, Deek. Just this moment, I’d like to put some space between us and Plimus.” He nodded in Anna’s direction. “And before you ask, yes, she’s coming with us.”
He disappeared down an octagonal corridor, no doubt heading for the cockpit, and Anna tried not to look smug when Deek rounded on her. His expression was a cross between bafflement and deep suspicion, but to his credit, he said not a word. He only shook his head and hastened after his captain.
This left Anna standing by the landing ramp alone. She didn’t have a problem with it, but if Colin was that dead-set on departing the planet, she needed to find a place to strap in. Don’t fancy bouncing off the overhead, thank you very much, she thought wryly.
That, in addition to rampant curiosity regarding Colin’s ship—and frankly, what kind of captain he was—led Anna up the corridor in search of the cockpit. She found it just as Colin was smooth-talking Spaceport Control.
The Galaxy’s Way was allowed to depart Plimus without any trouble; indeed, Anna was almost jealous of how easily Colin managed it. Of course, she reminded herself, as she sank into an empty brown flight seat behind Deek and strapped herself in, the Iliana tends to have its reputation follow it around. They weren’t the only people to operate class-Delta Pythian freighters—and apparently, as they had discovered, they weren’t the only pirates flying those either.
Some days Anna found that more amusing than other days.
Deek’s voice broke through her thoughts. “Where are we headed, Cap’n?”
“That is an excellent question.” Colin rubbed a hand over his face before refocusing on taking them through the atmosphere and out into the velvet black vacuum of space beyond the planet’s gravitational pull. “To be honest, Deek, I’m not quite sure yet.” He glanced over his shoulder at Anna. “I don’t suppose you have any suggestions, lass?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Anna saw Deek’s hackles rise. She bit down on the inside of her lip. “Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t.” Viktor could have taken the Iliana anywhere; without knowing what Bear told him, she had no way of knowing if her brother even knew she was in trouble. If he doesn’t, he’ll be expecting us to meet him at Riheld.
“We’ll head
to our next stop then, shall we?” Colin proceeded to input coordinates to the navcomputer and a moment later they made the jump to hyperspace.
Deek waited until Colin had set the autopilot before he burst out, “Will you please tell me what’s going on here, Cap’n? Why’ve you brought that woman on board? What kept you? Where’s our payout?”
Anna watched Colin pass a hand over his face again. “One at a time, Deek, if you don’t mind.” His head turned in search of Anna and their eyes met; she fought an unexpected blush and won. “Perhaps this would best be discussed over a cup of tea.”
They’d just had breakfast, but Anna was not about to argue. Space was cold, and the ship’s system had yet to compensate for their change in temperature. Unsnapping her safety restraints, she rose to her feet. “I’d love a cup.”
Colin raised his eyebrows at Deek. “Well?”
“Fine,” the older man grumbled. “Tea, it is.”
~oOo~
Five minutes later found the three of them sitting around a table in the galley, waiting for tea to steep. No one spoke until Deek poured three cups—he refused to let Anna touch the teapot. His attitude was irritating her more and more with every passing moment, but Anna held her tongue. For now. Just until Colin straightened his first mate out.
Colin stirred something that looked like dark honey into his tea and raised the cup to his lips. When he set it down, he fixed sober blue eyes on his first mate. “Lobai betrayed us.” He nodded to Anna. “And her. Threw us both—at separate times, I might add—into an underground lake.” He gave Deek a quick rundown of everything that had happened after that, with Anna interjecting occasionally to add a detail—or to correct one.
To Anna’s private astonishment, Deek looked more and more ashen with every word Colin spoke. She almost said something about it; the man looked like he was about four seconds from passing out right there at the table.
“Cap’n,” he gasped, when Colin finished, “you didn’t. Please tell me you didn’t.”
“Didn’t what?” Colin frowned at him, his expression growing foreboding.
“You’ve been to Plimus before.” Deek was shaking his head in alarm. “I’d have thought you’d know better.” He abruptly shifted to direct a black scowl at Anna—a look so furious that she instinctively drew back. “This is your doing! You’ve gone and tricked him!”
“I’ve done nothing of the sort,” Anna shot back indignantly, setting her mug down harder on the table than she would have under normal circumstances. “I don’t even know what you’re blathering about.”
“Don’t talk to her like that,” Colin admonished his first mate sharply. “Deek, what’s gotten into you?”
“What’s gotten into me?” Deek pushed back his chair and stood, slapping his palms down on the table. “What’s gotten into you, Colin? What possessed you to go and marry a woman you know nothing about—except that she’s a pirate and the authorities are looking for her?”
“Hey!” Anna began icily, but then the latter part of his statement struck her and her eyes widened uncertainly. “What? Marry?”
Deek shot her a scathing look. “As if you didn’t know.”
Panic bloomed in the center of Anna’s chest, bright and heavy. “What are you talking about?” She cast a wary look at Colin, but he looked equally confused—and increasingly grim.
“Sit down and explain yourself, Deek,” he commanded, in a voice as quiet as it was hard.
Deek obeyed, but he shot another dirty look in Anna’s direction. “You signed that motel registry as man and wife, which means, under Plimus law, that you’ve gone and married this—this woman.”
Anna couldn’t breathe. Her eyes were as wide as the moons of Ticano. He can’t be serious.
Colin brushed his first mate’s words aside with a flick of his fingers. “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s true, Cap’n,” Deek insisted. “Families on Plimus years back got tired of their daughters taking up with spacers passing through and set up the laws to legally marry ‘em if they checked in a motel as husband and wife. Don’t hear much tell of it happening often these days, but it’s still on the books.” He hunched his shoulders unhappily. “You’re married.”
Unbidden, Anna’s eyes sought Colin. He looked as shocked as she felt; his face had gone gray behind his beard. Still, she demanded, “Did you know about this?”
She had to know.
“What? No!” Colin raked a hand through his dark hair, as agitated—and shaken—as she had yet seen him. “I’ve been to Plimus before, but I was—circumstances were different then.” He shot her a wide-eyed look. “Did you know?”
“Of course I didn’t know! I’ve never been there before!” Panic took over; Anna was too busy trying to avoid hyperventilating to notice his hesitation. She staggered to her feet and threw her hands into the air. “My brother’s going to kill me!”
She could see the look on Viktor’s face now.
Abruptly, she swung around to face Deek. “How do we get out of it? There has to be a way to undo it!”
Her genuine panic seemed to have caught him off-guard; he looked completely unprepared for that question to come from her. “Well, err, far as I know, you have to go back and talk to the Plimus courts.” His expression soured. “But they’ll only let you annul it if you haven’t … ” he swallowed, looking ill, and made a vague gesture with one hand, “ … consummated the marriage.”
Anna gave him a disgusted look. “We’ve done nothing of the sort.” She couldn’t look at Colin, though; her cheeks had gone scarlet and she was mortally afraid she would spontaneously combust of embarrassment and mortification on the spot.
“It’s true.” A little of the color had returned to Colin’s face, but he still looked shell-shocked. “Everything we told you is true, Deek. But we can’t go back,” he added, addressing Anna. “Not until things die down.”
Anna started pacing the galley, back and forth, wringing her hands together. “I can’t be married to you—I don’t even know you! And we didn’t even do anything! How is this possible?”
Deek and Colin both watched her pace for a moment, and then Deek leaned toward Colin. “She’s the one-handed pirate they were looking for?”
“Aye. Surprising, isn’t it?”
“I’ll say.”
Colin watched Anna pace for a moment before drawling, “So, your brother’s going to kill you, eh?”
Anna stopped muttering things under her breath long enough to round on him with narrowed eyes. “He’s not going to be happy, no.”
“Seems like you might be better off with me, then.” He grinned crookedly at her from his seat, his previous shock at learning of their predicament relegated to the background.
They both ignored the horrified look creeping over Deek’s face.
“I doubt it.” Snorting in a rather undignified fashion, Anna posted her hands on her hips. She heard the implicit criticism in his words loud and clear—and there was no way she was going to stand here and let this relative stranger badmouth her only living relative. “We’re the only family we’ve got. I’d kill him if he went off and got married without telling me, so fair’s fair.”
Colin held up his hands. “If you say so.” His tone was sober, belying the amusement twinkling in his blue eyes.
Anna took a breath, preparing to sit back down at the table…and her knees wobbled alarmingly as the full extent of her current situation slammed into her. We’re headed off across the galaxy and I don’t have any clothes.
Or toiletries, or any of her things, or…well…anything but the clothes on her back and what few items she had happened to have stashed in her pockets.
“Anna?” Colin half-rose from his seat, looking alarmed at the way the blood had rapidly drained from her face. “Anna? Are you all right?”
She didn’t answer him, couldn’t answer him. She was too busy try
ing to breathe. She flailed a hand out for the back of the chair, found it, and somehow managed to sink into the chair before her knees completely gave out.
“I’m homeless,” she said numbly, propping her forearms on the table and burying her face in her hands. “It just hit me.”
Over her head, Colin and Deek exchanged glances.
“You’re far from homeless, lass,” Colin said bracingly. He came around the table and hitched a hip onto it beside her. “Or have you forgotten that we just became man and wife?”
Deek made a strangled sound in the back of his throat, but one hard look from Colin had him throwing his hands up in the air in defeat.
Anna raised her head long enough to roll her eyes at him. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Looking vaguely affronted, Colin indicated their surroundings with one hand. “The Galaxy’s Way may not be the newest ship in the galaxy, but she’s a good ship, and furthermore, she’s my home.” One corner of his mouth twitched, ruining the effect. “She’s apt to be offended by such an oversight on your part, lass.”
Slowly, Anna sat up and looked at him. “Really? That’s the angle you’re taking? Your ship will be offended?”
“What?” Colin arched a dark eyebrow in a challenge. “Do you and your brother not consider your ship your home?”
“That’s different,” Anna said flatly.
“How so?”
“Because our ship is my home, and this one isn’t.” Rising to her feet again, Anna resumed pacing. “We left Plimus so quickly—do you realize I don’t have any other clothes other than the ones I’m wearing?” She plucked the fabric of her vest away from her shirt. “I’m going to have to buy some…somewhere.”
Colin’s eyes began to sparkle again and she leveled a finger at him. “And, no, the solution is not to go without.”
“Of course not, lass,” he said smoothly. “Space is far too cold for that. I was going to say — ” he broke off at the look of horror suffusing her face. “What’s the matter now?”