Hierax: Star Guardians, Book 4

by Ruby Lionsdrake

  “I’m sorry.” Hierax stroked the back of her head, then hesitated. “Does this hurt?”

  “No. Touch anything you like.”

  He pulled her into a tighter hug, pressing her face into his shoulder.

  “I’m tired,” she murmured, voice muffled. At least being held like this felt nice, and it reminded her of how long it had been since anyone had done it. “Did the gate thing work? I tried hard to keep the engines—that stupid tank and the corks—from overheating. But there were distractions.”

  “Yes, I see. And hear. Ew.”

  “Lulu is a very noisy eater. Been doing that the whole time. Have you ever tried to manipulate cork puzzles with something tearing flesh and smacking its lips behind you?”

  “I have not. I try to keep Treyjon and his svenkars out of engineering. They leave drool puddles on the deck.”

  “She did save my life, so I guess I can forgive her for poor eating hygiene.” Indi turned her head enough to see the svenkar, then promptly wished she hadn’t. More blood than ever spattered Lulu’s chest.

  Hierax patted her back. “Let me check on the engines, and then we’ll get out of here. The doctor is coming over to treat Asan, so I’ll have to go back up to the bridge. You should join me. We have to collect the gate, tote it to the edge of the system, and see if you can play music and convince it to take the broken gate’s spot and activate itself.”

  Indi slumped. “It’s not that I forgot I still had something to do, but I am incredibly ready for this day to be over, Hierax.”

  “Me too.” He smiled at her as he headed to the engine console. “Maybe once we’ve collected the gate and the ship is underway, we can relax on the bridge. Asan has a cooler full of something up there. Vitamin drinks, but I’m not sure I believe him. There might be alcohol.”

  “Is that the same bridge that caught on fire?”

  “Yes, it’s somewhat soot-coated at the moment.”

  Indi grimaced. “Relaxing sounds nice, but I was envisioning bathtubs and foot rubs.”

  “I highly doubt you’ll find a bathtub on the Zi’i ship.”

  “The Star Guardian ship?”

  “We have showers.”

  “That’s not quite the same.”

  “If you come back to Dethocoles with me, I can take you to the baths there. My people like public bathing, though you can find private pools too. A day at the baths is considered an event. Natural hot springs, soaking, scrubbing, jets, bubbles, slides, and in the back ones, there are people who will have sex with you if you want.”

  “I’ll wager a hundred dollars that you’re more likely to partake in the slides than the sex,” Indi said, smiling at his back.

  “One of the slides is five stories high and involves a portion where you shoot out over open air on a stream of water.”

  “I thought so.”

  Hierax finished his checks and returned to offer her an arm. “Are you ready to adjourn to the bridge?”

  Indi nodded toward the svenkar without actually looking in that direction—she’d done enough looking. “More than ready.”

  “You did good work down here,” Hierax said. “The bridge was on fire, the comm was jammed, but I knew engineering was in good hands.”

  “Did you really?” She linked arms with him, and they headed for the door. “Or were you peeing down your leg, terrified that I’d let the ship blow up?”

  “Not at all. There are too many failsafes for the engines, and thus the ship, to blow up.”

  “Ah, yes. You mentioned that we’d just fall out of the sky. For four hours. You sure that thought didn’t alarm you a little?”

  “Nope. Though I would have been more concerned if I’d known there was a Zi’i warrior left on the ship. I suppose I’ll have to do Treyjon a big favor since his svenkar saved the day. Though from what I’ve heard, that svenkar may belong more to his girlfriend now. She’s the one training it.”

  “Angela.”

  “What?”

  “That’s her name. You’re very bad with names, aren’t you?”

  “I can identify the six thousand eight hundred and twenty-three tools in my collection by name, category, and stock number.”

  “Six thousand tools?” Indi halted in the corridor, stunned as she imagined what living with him would be like. Earlier, she had speculated that he would need a dedicated workshop and several garages for all his projects. That may have been a serious underestimate.

  “Six thousand eight hundred and twenty-three. Soon to be twenty-four. I’ve pre-ordered the Trevibia Z-caster 6000, you know.”

  “Yes, I believe you mentioned that. Where do you keep them all?”

  “Some are on my parents’ ranch, which is not at all convenient. Some are at a friend’s place in the capital. My favorites are in engineering on the Falcon. And in my cabin.”

  “Is there room in your cabin to sleep?”

  “Technically, I converted the bunk into a storage locker, though there is deck space for a sleeping bag if necessary. If too much is going on in engineering, I can nap there, but engineering is where my cot is. That’s my place.” He smiled fondly down at her.

  She remembered his words about how he would fall in love with any woman who would consider engineering a suitable place for a date. She was beginning to see why. It wasn’t as if they could go back to his place. At least these baths on Dethocoles sounded promising. The idea of getting a job and an apartment there, one where he could visit her any time his ship came to dock, returned to her mind. But she couldn’t imagine living on Dethocoles if it meant leaving Earth forever. Even if she never wanted to see Jace again, she had her family and friends back home. To simply walk away from her entire life there…

  “Are you concerned about the tools?” Hierax asked, scrutinizing her expression.

  “No,” she said, resuming walking. “Well, a little. But I was thinking about how I’m going home to my planet, and you’re presumably staying on this ship.”

  “Yes, that is concerning. Nobody on the Falcon 8 trades riddles with me. They’re a humorless, mentally challenged people. Except for the captain, of course. He has a brain cell or two. And Woo and Nax know how to rub numbers together and solve equations. Simple ones.”

  “Your praise for people must fill them with warm fuzzies."

  They stepped into the lift together, he tapped one of the bars, and they zoomed upward toward the bridge.

  Indi sniffed. “It smells smoky in here.”

  “You shouldn’t have blown up the air filtration unit.”

  She shoved him, and he grinned.

  “As you can see—smell—you’re not the only one who had unexpected obstacles to deal with,” he said. “Now that I consider it, I wonder if that lone Zi’i remotely sabotaged the helm. Bridge stations don’t usually spontaneously burst into flames.”

  The doors slid open, and Hierax and Indi walked out, their arms still linked. Hierax halted abruptly.

  The first thing Indi noticed was all the soot. The second thing was that Captain Sagitta stood a few paces away, looking directly at them, as if he had been expecting Hierax for ages.

  “Er, hello, sir.” Hierax extracted his arm from Indi’s.

  She understood—they were no doubt supposed to be walking around with professional military decorum, not holding hands and trading quips—but if the captain objected, she would feel it unfair, if not hypocritical. Surely, she and Hierax had done their jobs, and then some. Hell, she was technically only here to play the violin. Which, she hoped had made it unscathed through the fire. She frowned toward the console where she’d left it. It was still there, resting next to the dead drone, but a layer of soot covered it. Ugh.

  “When I requested a team be sent over to collect Lieutenant Asan,” Hierax went on, “I was imagining it would be more doctorly than captainly.”

  “Dr. Tala and two medical robots came over and collected him already. Treyjon is searching for his svenkar.”

  “Lulu is in engineering eating an alien,�
�� Indi said.

  Sagitta blinked slowly a couple of times.

  “It’s been an eventful couple of hours,” Hierax said.

  “I came to see if you could get the helm fixed and handle piloting the ship,” Sagitta said, “or if you want me to find someone to do the latter. Coric can navigate in system space, and Jafari and Arkyn have shuttle experience. Asan’s burns were painful, but Tala said she could patch him up in a few hours, so he’ll be back to take the warship through the gate, assuming we catch up to it and get it working.”

  “Are we going after it now?” Hierax rubbed the back of his neck and looked toward the helm station, its controls melted together.

  Given the state of the bridge, Indi was amazed the Zi’i warship wasn’t flying into a sun or a black hole right now.

  “As soon as Treyjon gets his svenkar, the Falcon will go after it,” Sagitta said. “I want you to get this ship repaired to the best of your abilities, Chief. Then fly it to the gate. We’ll meet you there with the new gate in tow.”

  “Yeah, you’ll be able to tow it in space without any trouble. All right, sir, send Arkyn over, will you? I’m sure Coric is busy studying the Wanderer language stuff. And I’ll do my best with that.” Hierax pointed to the melted console.

  “Good. We’ll meet you at the gate in approximately ten hours.” Sagitta patted Hierax on the shoulder before striding toward the lift.

  But he stopped in front of Indi. She braced herself to be told to go back to the other ship, or to be told that she shouldn’t hold hands with his engineer when he was working.

  “I heard you were integral in keeping the engines from going offline,” Sagitta said. “Good work.”

  With that, he walked into the lift and disappeared as the doors closed.

  “You got a good work?” Hierax asked. “Do you know how rare that is? I hardly ever get such lofty praise, even though I deserve it often.”

  “You’re not envious of me, are you? Because I think the captain likes you more than you think he does.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “He hasn’t knocked you on your ass for being insubordinate and obstinate.”

  “Shows what you know,” Hierax said. “He did that on the wrestling mat not four weeks ago. Usually, it’s a weekly occurrence, but we’ve been busy lately.”

  “Hm.” Now that they were alone on the bridge, Indi ambled over to stand next to him. “So, we’ll have ten hours together on this ship?”

  “That’s how long it will take to fly through the system and get to the gate. Well, technically, it’s an eight-hour flight, but he’s giving us some time for repairs—and for the Falcon to fetch the gate we flung into space.”

  “I’m a little surprised you asked for another pilot to come over. We could have had the ship all to ourselves.” Since he hadn’t started working yet, Indi laid her hand on his arm, his corded muscles warm under her palm. She sniffed the air. “It doesn’t smell that bad in here, despite the soot and the fact that the previous owners of this ship had wretched breath.”

  “That’s Asan’s air purifier.” Hierax waved his free arm toward a device balanced on the corner of the console. “Amazingly, it appears to have survived the fire unscathed.”

  He lowered his arm and rested his hand on hers.

  “As for our borrowed helmsman, he’ll need to go to the auxiliary bridge and pilot from there until I get this station back online.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her. “We could be alone here for hours.”

  “With a tiny cot meant for one, a drone that may be regenerating itself as we speak, and a bridge covered in soot. It’s not the most romantic place.”

  “And yet, your hand is resting on my arm.”

  “It’s a nice arm. Firm. Strong.” She slid her hand along it, fingers tracing the contours of his muscles, then looked around. “Too bad there’s not an appealing place to relax.”

  “Relaxing is not what I think about when women are fondling my arm.”

  “It was a euphemism. Like charms.”

  “Ah!” Hierax gazed around the bridge, considering the soot and the hard deck under their feet. “Is your main objection to relaxing here the lack of cleanliness?”

  “I suppose. A blanket would be nice too.”

  “Stay here. I can fix all of your objections.”

  With that, he and his firm, strong arm sprinted toward the lift, leaving Indi stroking empty air. He hopped through the open doors and disappeared, but not before she caught an excited gleam in his eyes. For a man who generally preferred slides to sex, he appeared quite excited at the prospect of private relaxing time.

  “Well, this should prove interesting.”

  17

  Hierax whistled cheerfully as the flying cleaning automatons he’d brought over zipped around the bridge, sucking up soot, Zi’i fur, and other mood-killing detritus. Indi stood in the center, her chin cupped in one hand as she watched the bots work.

  He shook out the blanket he’d brought along and laid it on the cot. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything about the fact that it was meant for one. He should have brought another one, but his arms had already been full, and Sagitta had been making announcements about how the airlock tube would be retracted shortly and the Falcon 8 would head off to retrieve the gate.

  “If you ever come relax in my engineering room with me,” he said, “my cot is far superior.”

  “Oh? So far, all the cots I’ve seen on the ship have been the same. Very drab and gray. Very military. Very utilitarian.”

  “Mine has upgrades.”

  “I didn’t know you could upgrade a cot.”

  “I can upgrade anything. It has extra padding, it can rock you like a hammock, it can play music or show movies, and there’s a drink holder.”

  “That is important. You want to stay hydrated while relaxing.”

  “Yes.” He tilted his head. “Are you still using that word as a euphemism?”

  Indi smiled enigmatically. “I could be.”

  Hierax wished he was better at interpreting that kind of thing. He had a literal mind. Despite his superior intellect, he’d spent a lot of his childhood having jokes go over his head. Some of his adulthood too.

  “I like the cleaning bots,” Indi said. “If not for your six thousand tools, you’d have women from all over the galaxy dreaming of marrying you, if only so their houses would remain dust-free and sparkling.”

  “Cleaning robots of various kinds are pretty easy to come by, though mine are compact, efficient, and self-charging.” Finished with the blanket, Hierax ambled toward her. “What do you mean, if not for my six thousand tools? That shouldn’t be an impediment to marriage. Doesn’t it show that I’m a man with means since I’ve saved the money to acquire so many fine tools?”

  “I think it shows that you’re a man with an obsession.” Indi stepped forward to meet him and rested her hands on his hips.

  “Even though you’re saying things like that, I’m very eager to relax with you.”

  “It’s because you know that I don’t mind smart, obsessed men. Better someone who’s interested in and passionate about things than someone who loves nothing and has nothing but snide, superior comments for people who show enthusiasm for life.”

  She grimaced, and Hierax assumed she was thinking of her ex-husband.

  He wanted her to think about him. He brushed the side of her face with his fingertips, and she looked up, meeting his eyes. He bent toward her for a kiss, and she parted her lips, seeming as eager for the contact as he.

  Their mouths melded together, tongues exploring each other. Her hands left his hips, pushing up his sides and running over his muscles, stroking them through his tank top, caressing him. Her roaming touches aroused him, and he found himself stepping closer so that little space separated them. He let his own hands roam, following her feminine curves, brushing the sides of her breasts through her shirt.

  She shoved her fingers under his tank top and pushed the fabric up, almost demandingly. He o
bliged, breaking their kiss long enough to yank it over his head and toss it aside.

  “You’re hot,” she whispered, pulling his head back down for a hungry kiss. She ran her hands up his back and around, fingers kneading as she leaned into him.

  She couldn’t seem to get enough of touching him. That excited him, but a little worry crept into the back of his mind, concern that she might not be so into him if he were the scrawny kid he’d been in school, or even the lean but gangly man he’d been during his early years as a fleet engineer.

  The urge to confess the secret of his musculature came over him, and he pulled back from the kiss, even if he couldn’t bring himself to let go and pull his body back from hers.

  “Indi?” he whispered.

  One of the cleaning bots whizzed past behind her head, still working on the soot covering the ceiling.

  “Yes?” she murmured, though she didn’t pause to look at his face. Instead, she lowered her mouth to kiss his shoulder and nip playfully at the vein on the front.

  Pleasure bombarded him, and blood rushed to his cock. He swelled against his trousers, and against her, since their bodies were pressed together. He forgot what he’d meant to say.

  Her tongue slipped out, and she ran it down the side of his pectoral muscle, then over to his taut nipple. Gooseflesh arose all over his chest, and it had little to do with the chilled air of the Zi’i warship. She circled his nipple a few times, then sucked him with her lips.

  By the gods, that was exquisite. His cock went from swelling to aching hard, demanding to be set free. Maybe he would tell her his secrets later.

  His head fell back, and he rested a hand on the back of hers, combing his fingers through her long braids. He felt he should be doing more to give her pleasure, removing her shirt and giving her breasts as much attention as she was giving his chest. But it was hard to think coherent thoughts, hard to do anything but imagine taking her over to that cot, tearing off all their clothing, and diving into her. He curled his fingers into her hair as she ran her tongue across the valley between his pecs and over to his other nipple.