Embrace the Romance

by S. E. Smith

  “We’re done for the day,” Red said over the comlink. “Our guest is in her suite and says she doesn’t need anything else. So I’m off duty and you can stand down as well.”

  Feeling disappointed, Grant acknowledged the transmission and returned to his cabin. Already it was hard to believe she’d actually been in his space the night before. The scarf he’d taken from his pocket and laid on the desk caught his attention and he twirled the fabric into a circle with his index finger. A whiff of her signature perfume drifted from the silk and he took a deep breath. I should give this back to her. But it might be his only remembrance of his unlikely brush with Karissa.

  Were they really going to go sightseeing tomorrow on Calillia? She’d said yes, but she might have changed her mind by tomorrow, or had it changed for her by Ted.

  As he reheated his basic meal, Grant said a small prayer to the Lords of Space that he’d be given the day he hoped for in her company. It had been a long time since he’d wanted anything so badly and the realization took him by surprise.

  Four

  He made his way to her cabin in the morning, dressed in civilian clothes and feeling slightly uneasy. She let him into the suite and he was relieved to find her with unadorned face and hair, dressed in the clothes Dr. Shane had let her borrow two nights before. As usual she pirouetted for his approval, laughing. “Not my usual style—I hope you’re not disappointed.”

  “I could never be disappointed by you,” he said. “Shall we go?”

  As she grabbed a little embroidered purse, she said, “I thought we were taking Valkyr with us, for a free flight session?”

  He led her along the corridor as rapidly as he dared. The few people they passed didn’t spare them a second glance. “We are but we have to stop by my cabin to pick him up. If I’d brought him up here, we’d be attracting a whole lot more attention.” He opened the entry to the crew passageway and breathed a sigh of relief once his highly recognizable companion was safely inside and out of public view.

  “You hate the skulking and hiding, don’t you?” she asked as they took the gravlift down to the crew quarters.

  “I understand the need,” he said. “I just wish it didn’t have to be that way.”

  She looped her arm through his and squeezed. “Well, we’ll just be two people in the crowd on Calillia today, with a giant bird of course.”

  Valkyr submitted without protest to having a lightweight leash placed on his ankle before the bird took his position on the reinforced shoulder pad of Grant’s shirt. “A Customs requirement, even though Valkyr has all his papers in order.”

  Karissa laughed. “The leash wouldn’t stop him for a moment if he wanted to get away, right?”

  “Right, but what the bureaucrats don’t know, we won’t tell them.”

  He led her to the hangar deck and as they stepped inside she exclaimed. “Much busier than when we were here before.”

  Since the Zephyr was now in orbit around Calillia, shuttles were coming and going.

  Karissa hung back a bit, chewing the tip of her fingernail. “I’m not sure my disguise is good enough to stand up in a shuttle full of people. I’m counting on this day so much and I don’t want to ruin it. If I’m spotted, we’ll have the press on us as soon as we land and we might as well come back. Or I can hop the shuttle back alone anyway, so at least Valkyr gets his chance to fly.”

  Grant took her hand. “Don’t worry so much. I’ve planned much more complicated missions in the Special Forces. Right this way to your special transport, courtesy of Captain Fleming.” He led her along the bulkhead, working his way down the landing bay until they reached the captain’s personal vehicle, a trim smaller shuttle.

  A pilot stood waiting for them. Grant made quick introductions and then they entered the shuttle.

  “I don’t know how you pulled this off,” the pilot said. “And I don’t care—it’s an honor to fly you anywhere, Miss Dawnstar.” He gave her a salute and headed for the cockpit.

  Karissa sank into one of the seats. “You aren’t going to be in trouble are you? We aren’t stealing this or anything?”

  “I did have to explain to my boss why I needed to talk to the captain and then approached the captain, but they both saw the wisdom of your commuting to the surface in a private shuttle. I can actually fly it—I’m rated for all kinds of small vehicles, up to certain classes of fighters, but the captain drew the line at that idea.”

  “I’m glad, means we can spend more time talking.” She patted the seat beside her. “Come, sit.”

  Grant got Valkyr established on a portable perch clamped into an all-purpose receptacle on the shuttle’s bulkhead, and then was only too happy to join her. “We didn’t get to talk too much about what you’d like to do today.”

  She held up her hand and enumerated her choices. “First we have to take Valkyr for his flying time. Then I’ve been craving a proper Calillian estuvanza lunch—it’s a meal made up of special dishes with fresh sea food and spices only found on this planet, but we’d have to go off the tourist track to eat the genuine article, prepared the old style.”

  “Absolutely. This day is for you. Any sights you want to take in?”

  Rubbing her forehead, Karissa hesitated. “I might want to go by the orphanage where I grew up, but I’m not sure. Let’s see how I feel after lunch, all right?”

  Once the shuttle landed, Grant led her to the CLC Line office at the spaceport, near their assigned landing pad, where he picked up the initiator for a groundcar. After loading Valkyr into the backseat, where the bird sat perched on the edge of the cushions, broadcasting unhappy thoughts, Grant gave the car’s AI instructions and it smoothly drive them out of the spaceport and through the outskirts of the city.

  Karissa checked on Valkyr. “Your usually debonair eagle is grumpy today. Even I can tell, the way his feathers are ruffled.”

  “He loathes riding in a groundcar when he could be flying.” Grant executed a turn, merging onto the expressway.

  “We’re going to Mountain Vista park?” she said.

  “Yes, I researched what was available and this was the best place to fly Valkyr, in proximity to the port.”

  “Good choice, Probably won’t be too busy on a weekday either. You did do your research.” She ran her hand through her hair, fluffing it out and smiled.

  “How does it feel to be back?”

  “I’ll let you know later but thanks for arranging all this. It’s nicer to kind of sneak home, rather than arrive in a blaze of press and the lord mayor giving me the key and all the fuss. Which will happen the day after tomorrow, by the way. You’ll find it endlessly amusing no doubt.”

  His heart fell. “I’m only assigned to guard you as long as you’re on board our ship. I’m not included after you debark. Has Ted talked to you about what security preparations he’s made?” If people were relying on him, they needed to think again because she was only the Nebula Zephyr’s charge while she remained a passenger. There was no way Captain Fleming and Jake were going to send him planetside to do security. Nor would it be appropriate, not in any official capacity.

  “He was babbling something about hiring local off duty cops,” she said.

  “Totally inadequate for a person of your stature. Not to be disrespectful to Calillia law enforcement but I doubt they have the proper experience with keeping high value targets safe.” The mere idea made him livid and nervous for her.

  “Ted doesn’t want to spend a penny on me if he can help it, now he sees I’m adamant about ending the contract.” Karissa turned in her seat to face him. “Could you come along unofficially?”

  “Take personal leave, like today?” Which was exactly what he was contemplating.

  She nodded. “I know it’s asking a lot. I could reimburse—”

  He held up his hand. “Don’t even think about offering to pay me.”

  He drove in silence for a mile or so.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you,” she said. “I just didn’t wan
t to presume on our friendship. Can you at least come to the first day of rehearsal? And the shows of course. I’ll get you an all access badge.” She touched his hand. “As my friend? I’ve gotten used to having you there to depend on. Being back on Calillia, at the same time the contract is ending, is overwhelming. Scary.”

  “Of course I’ll be there, let Ted try to keep me away. My boss will be willing to give me the time off.” He curled his fingers around hers and squeezed gently. “I vote we stop talking about this and concentrate on being tourists today.”

  The road became a gentle but inexorable incline, and then began curving though impressive foothills, with deep valleys off to the side. Chirping, Valkyr shifted restlessly in the back.

  “If we had more time, I’d take him into the mountains themselves,” Grant said as he directed the groundcar into an isolated turnout at the highest point. “At home on Qaazamir, that’s where his kind lived, in the peaks.”

  He got the eagle out, riding his fist, and the three of them hiked a short trail leading from the parking area to the edge of a vast valley, stretching as far as the eye could see, ringed by the higher mountains marching into the distance. Grant gave Valkyr the signal and he catapulted himself into the void, rising on the updraft until Grant could no longer see him.

  “How do you know he’ll come back?” Karissa asked.

  “If he chose to stay here, believing he could be happy, I wouldn’t try to dissuade him,” Grant said. “But he won’t.” He held out his hand. “I have a snack in the car, courtesy of Chef Stephanie. Valkyr will be quite a while, especially if he finds good hunting, so shall we go sit in the shade and munch?”

  Holding hands they made their way back to the parking lot, retrieved his backpack and adjourned to the eating area, shaded by old growth trees. Karissa helped him lay out the delicacies the ship’s chef had prepared for her—scrumptious pastries and tiny sandwiches with breakfast style meats, plus bottles of her favorite juice concoction.

  “I’d get fat if I lived on your ship,” she said later, helping herself to the fourth pastry. “Luckily I work off immense amounts of energy doing the shows.” She studied Grant for a moment. “Why are you so sure Valkyr won’t want to stay here? I mean, mountains, right?” She waved her hand in the direction of the ravine.

  “Not our mountains though. It’s not home.” Leaning back, Grant finished his juice and said, “Qaazamir eagles bond at birth with their handler, establishing the mental link. Actually, Valkyr bonded with my great grandfather.”

  Mouth open in shock, she asked, “How old is he?”

  “Two hundred or so. It was common for the birds to be passed down in the same family line. As long as the DNA of the descendants contained certain dominant markers, the bird treated each the same as his original partner. He only bonds to one human at a time, so the new handler must be present at the death of the previous owner, or immediately thereafter. Of course sometimes birds were stolen by upstarts the elders hadn’t selected. Clan wars were fought over good nesting areas. An egg was the most desired dowry.” Grant drew idle patterns in the dirt beside the grassy patch he was sitting on. Realizing with chagrin he was sketching clan insignia, he brushed his hand over the drawing to obliterate the symbols. “There was an entire indigenous culture on Qaazamir, rich traditions.”

  “What happened?”

  “The Sectors happened. Qaazamir was colonized early on, before many of the laws and protections were developed. If the planet was discovered for the first time now, there’d be no colonization because the planet had inhabitants and the birds would still exist. My people would still exist.” He stared at the horizon. These were matters of which he normally never spoke. “But the colonists pushed the rightful owners of the planet aside, mined the rich ores, polluted the water and the ground…it’s a toxic hellhole now. In fact, what happened on Qaazamir was the primary reason the Sectors established safeguards. But by then it was too late for us. We had a dying planet. My ancestors refused to accept reality for a long time. The elders thought having won their case at the Sectors Supreme Court meant everything would be fine. But the corporate colonists left and the poisons remained. The high court’s judgment had no requirement on the defendants for restoring the ecological damage already done.”

  “You—you were the upstart who took the bird? Took Valkyr?”

  He nodded. “I could see the way the extinction trend was going. Valkyr had passed to my great aunt and then my father. I was already in the Special Forces when he was dying of amphbagan fever, a wasting disease caused by the poisons leaching from the ground, but I got compassionate leave and made it home in time. I took Valkyr with my father’s blessing, if not the permission of the elders. I tried to find a female so he could mate, but by then there were no more females. The last few clutches of eggs were deformed and failed to hatch. I was banished in absentia for stealing Valkyr from my cousin.”

  He turned his gaze on Karissa, who was leaning forward, chin resting on her hand, apparently mesmerized by his story. “My father and I felt as long as one Qaazamir eagle flew free somewhere in the galaxy, our people, our traditions would not have perished. There are no birds and hardly any people left on Qaazamir. It’s a wasteland. The military was happy to accept Valkyr and me into the Z Command, to carry out unique missions behind enemy lines.”

  “What happened? Why are you here?”

  He shrugged with a nonchalance he didn’t feel. “Ten years is a long time, a guy gets busted up too many times and he can’t be put back together completely any more. Becomes a burden to his teammates, a dangerous weakness. So we retired.”

  She stared at him. “But then how did you end up on the Zephyr?”

  “I was on a classified task force once with Red—you met him yesterday—and when he heard I was mustering out, he suggested I take a berth on the Zephyr to buy myself time to figure out a future. The CLC Line is owned by veterans and they take care of their own, which is why I have the latitude to keep Valkyr on board.” He straightened feeling oddly exhausted by all the talking about himself.

  “This assignment is beneath you, isn’t it? Guarding me?”

  “What?” He was startled, trying to think what he could have said to give her a mistaken impression. “Of course not, your safety and security are highly important. And today,” he said with clenched jaw, “Is not an ‘assignment’, not to me. It was a day to spend with a girl I really like.”

  She left the table and came to him, hugging him. “I didn’t mean it that way, which you’d know if you took a moment to not be offended and to think. I just meant you’ve done such important work, such dangerous things and now you’re watching over one silly singer who happens to be famous. Keeping her overeager fans at bay. You should be doing grander things, more life and death things.”

  “There’s nothing I’d rather be doing right now,” he said with perfect truth.

  She raised her face to him. “You really like me, Officer Barton?” Her smile was mischievous and inviting and her eyes twinkled.

  “Grant.” It was the most natural thing in the world to kiss her, his lips against her soft ones, his tongue tracing the seam, asking for permission to explore. Karissa sighed and opened herself to him, her tongue twining with his. He pulled her closer to him, her soft curves fitting his hard frame as she went on tiptoe to deepen the caress. With one hand he brushed the side of her breast and she sighed with pleasure at his touch.

  He broke the kiss off before she was ready and her small protest reassured him. “I’ve earned the right to do what I want,” he said softly, looping her silky hair behind her ear. “And what I want more than anything is time with you.”

  Startling them, Valkyr came shrieking dramatically overhead, before he veered off to catch another updraft and commence aerial acrobatics.

  “He’s jealous, a bit,” Grant said. “He wants your attention today too.”

  “Is he done flying already?”

  He checked his mental link with the bird. “No, he’s
found good hunting and spectacular cliffs with generous updrafts. He just came back to check on us.”

  “The signs say there’s a trail, over there,” Karissa said, pointing to the west. “Feel like a hike?” She held out her hand.

  “Why not?”

  Eventually the path ended in a meadow full of flowers, overlooking another sheer drop, with a small waterfall. Karissa said she wanted to work on some songs, so he boosted her to the top of a nice flat rock and watched her get out her special AI and headphones, before he settled into a watchful position at the base of the formation, and opened his link with Valkyr wider, to share the incredible sensations of soaring.

  The return drive into town was peaceful, Valkyr drowsing in the backseat after all his exertions. Grant parked at the edge of one of the squares and they set off hand in hand to find the special lunch she’d been craving.

  Head up, Karissa stopped dead in the middle of the street, sniffing the air. “That’s it! Whoever is cooking what I’m smelling right now knows what he or she is doing.”

  Laughing, Grant pivoted her to face the family style restaurant they were standing in front of. “Well, finding a place was easy. Let’s see if the manager will accommodate an exotic war bird.”

  The receptionist’s eyes widened at Valkyr on Grant’s shoulder but she led them to a table in the garden out back, shielded from the street, featuring a small fountain, and left them with the menus.

  “I can’t read this,” he said. “My hypno implants are for spoken languages only. We really are off the beaten track if the menu doesn’t have Basic.”