Embrace the Romance

by S. E. Smith

  “It’s sweet of you to not see me as a technological flatliner, but we both know the truth.” She stifled an impulse to reach out and stroke his arm.

  “That’s why I’m going to show you. I stayed up last night and built some routines to try if the normal sequence fails.” He opened a flat display and pointed to a long list. “They’re in order of what I think you should try first, but I added notes about what they do, so you can use your judgment.”

  “You did all this last night?” She knew he was a get-it-done kind of person—probably all Jumpers were—but this seemed excessive. “Why the rush?”

  He looked away from her, then back. “It’s like you said. I’m hiding up here. Letting my limitations imprison me as much as the researchers did. I only see you and Nuñez, and townspeople for trades. I was good at being a Jumper, but that’s gone, so I need a new career.”

  The thought of losing him burned like a beamer through her heart, but she couldn’t begrudge him his freedom, any more than she could begrudge Jynx enjoying her recovered strength and agility. Axur’s premium skills and valuable ship contents meant he could move to a warm southern city. After what the Citizen Protection Service had done to him, he deserved more than a quirky little town of misfits and a damaged, graceless woman who thought of him as a yak.

  “Okay,” she said. “Show me what to do.”

  “I’m in! My uplink controller isn’t just similar to Trouble’s, it’s the exact same model, just customized.”

  It had taken Axur over forty minutes to explain all the contingencies he’d come up with, and less than ten minutes to crack his system on the first try.

  “Congratulations.” She couldn’t help but smile in response to his delight. “Once I extract your other tracers, you can be truly free.” Her bad leg was pins and needles, like she’d run into a cactus, but she’d take that over weak and numb. She slid her leg off the footrest and ignored the wave of wooziness that washed over her when she sat up too fast. “Fresher first, though.”

  “I’ll get your crutches.” He stood and gave her a stern look. “Stay put.”

  The natural light from the window made a bronze halo of his frizzy hair, which he’d grown to make him less recognizable. His short, darker beard highlighted his strong jaw. His thin knit shirt stretched across his wide shoulders and muscled chest, giving her the urge to snuggle against his warmth. She smiled up at him. “You’re an impossibly gorgeous man.”

  He gave her an assessing look. “I think you’re reacting abnormally to the recovery chems.”

  “Maybe,” she conceded. “Normal and I have rarely been on speaking terms.” A warm sensation flushed through her and pooled in her pelvis. “I think I could kiss you right now, and not even twitch.” She lifted her rock-steady hand up to him in invitation and smiled. “Want to experiment? It’d be for science.”

  “No,” he said firmly. “Not that I don’t want to kiss you, because I do, more than you know, but you are nowhere near capable of consent right now.” He backed away and shoved his hands in his pockets, making his shoulders and pectoral muscles flex deliciously. “If you still want to kiss me tomorrow, we’ll talk about it.”

  The afternoon passed in a blur as she alternately ate snacks and dozed on the couch. She was soon victimized by small animals that wanted a warm body to sleep on or next to. She dreamily watched him solving the mysteries of his uplink, thinking him brilliant and sexy, wishing she weren’t too impaired to savor the holiday from her responsibilities and her fears.

  She finally woke and sat up around the time he was serving dinner. “Am I allowed to try walking now?” She massaged her thigh gently. “I have more sensation in the lateral muscle than I’ve had in years.”

  “That depends. Are you still dizzy?” He gave her a sardonic smile. “Do you still want to kiss me?”

  She met his query with a steady gaze. “No, and yes.”

  He drew a surprised breath, then shook his head. “Use the crutches. Your brain isn’t exactly green-go right now.”

  She sighed, knowing he was probably right. Even if the weird chems reaction temporarily freed her to act on her desire to invite herself into his bed for a hot connect, it wouldn’t be pleasant for either of them when her old fears came back online the next morning.

  She levered herself up onto the crutches and made her way to the fresher. When she returned, she put a package in front of him. “Happy Solstice Day.” She triggered her mealpack’s heater.

  He blinked in surprise, darting his glance between her and the package. His smile grew as he untied the twine and opened it. “Real coffee!” He held the cloth bag to his nose and took in the scent appreciatively. He held up the other gift. “What’s on the longwire?”

  “Common and relic language courses.” She pulled out the utensils from her mealpack. “You said you don’t have anyone to practice with. I only know Standard English and street slang, and Nuñez has mostly forgotten her family’s Tagalog, so I traded for the courses whenever I treated pets. You can help me expand my horizons. I need more swear words.”

  He smiled as he put the longwire in his shirt pocket and patted it. “Thank you.”

  Seeing how much the simple gifts pleased him, she vowed to give him as many as she could before he left for wider, warmer pastures. She must still be farked by the chems, because the thought made her want to hug him tight and cry on his broad shoulder.

  He triggered the heater on his mealpack. “I have presents for you and Nuñez, too.” Something on his cart beeped, and he grinned. “Excuse me a minute.”

  Axur returned with a small percomp strapped to his cybernetic wrist, and removed a disgruntled cat from his chair so he could sit. Beta promptly jumped into Bethnee’s lap and settled.

  “Okay,” she said. “Remember that I’m tech illiterate, and explain to me what you’ve been doing. I think I’m awake enough to keep it straight.”

  “I downloaded copies of my processor and controller software, so I could test things on the comp instead of me.” He pointed a thumb to his equipment cart. “Luckily, I exited the CPS research program earlier than planned, so my tech’s code isn’t encrypted. The downside is, not everything works right, and they’d only just started training me on how to use it. I’ll need time to reverse-engineer it and figure out what I can do.”

  He talked between bites. “I turned off the uplink. I’ll be glad to retire my poncho. Then I purged my unique comm signature from the dozens of dataspaces they squirreled it away.”

  She nodded. “Sounds like the tech equivalent of the tracers.”

  “Yeah, that’s me, valuable research animal.” He finished the entrée portion of his meal. “I just finished a prog that’ll let me uplink with whatever signature I want and control it with the cybernetic interface in my ocular implant. Next, I have to figure out how to twist the continental geomarkers.”

  “Twist them?” She frowned. “Won’t that mess up navigation around here?”

  “No, not the geomarkers themselves, just the ping refs that go with my signal. Most comms satellites record signal origination data along with the unique ID. It’d be suspicious if a flurry of new IDs all came from outside one tiny mountain town, or with no refs at all. At the very least, it’d trigger a settlement company audit, which would not make me popular in Tanimai. I don’t want my activities to trace back to anyone here.”

  “Why? What are you going to do?”

  “Download every hypercube of data from the weather system. Technically, it belongs to the Del’Arche government.” He scooped up the empty mealpack trays. “You said the satellite network was malfing at the time, but I want to look for evidence of my unexpected planetfall.”

  She chuckled. “Is that what Jumpers call a crash landing?”

  A corner of his mouth twitched in humor. “Dull mission reports mean no unwanted attention from High Command.” He glanced at her crutches on the floor. “Want to try walking?”

  “Yeah, but first, I want to take advantage of what the re
covery drugs have done to me, so I can finish getting the tracers out of you.”

  Chapter Nine

  GDAT 3241.264

  “Now?” It would mean getting naked for her. His hormones were instantly on board, which was exactly why it was a bad idea. His unavoidable erection and obvious desire would likely traumatize her, recovery-drug high or not. If he ever hoped to take their relationship to a deeper level, she needed time.

  He took a breath, held it, and let it out. “I think we should let Nuñez do it.”

  “I’m not…” She trailed off. “Okay.” She dropped her gaze and her head.

  He knew he’d hurt her feelings, but didn’t know how to fix it.

  She stood up slowly, using the back of the chair for support. She rocked from side to side, as if testing her balance. “Feels weird. Strong, but weird.” She started to take a step, then looked down at her feet with a frown. “I think I’m going to have to learn how to walk again.”

  “When they fit Jumpers with cybernetics, the physical terrorists tell us not to think about the mechanics, just focus on the intent to get somewhere.”

  “The whats?” She laughed. “Oh. Therapists.” She turned. “I’ll walk in here.”

  “Good.” He watched Bethnee limp her way around the couch several times. “Are you limping because you have to, or out of habit?”

  She stopped and looked at her legs. “Beats me.” She shrugged. “I’ll let you know tomorrow morning when we walk down to the flitter.”

  The satellite data he downloaded overnight was good, bad, and interesting. The network had indeed been offline for maintenance and hadn’t captured his entry from orbit, but anyone skilled in reading surveillance images would recognize the landing furrow.

  The interesting data came from the settlement company. His query had inadvertently garnered him the company’s backup hypercube of corporate data and correspondence. A younger version of himself might’ve hesitated to read it, but being made into a research project had scoured the shine off his idealism.

  He woke Bethnee. She sat up and pushed her hair back from her face. “What time is it?”

  “Zero six hundred. Sorry, but we need to talk.” He pointed to the table, where he’d set out a pitcher of water, cups, and two mealpacks. “Breakfast.”

  She stood and stretched again, and he looked away. The one glimpse of her mid-thigh-length sleeping tunic that clung to her high breasts, flared hips, and flat stomach threatened to derail his rational thoughts. He turned back to watch her limp toward the fresher door because she drew him like a magnet. She was definitely walking more easily than before.

  When she returned, she looked more alert. “My leg is feeling good. Want to scan it?”

  “Later. Are you awake enough to think deep thoughts?”

  She sat. “Depends. I can’t solve the time-versus-distance paradox in interstellar transit physics before breakfast.” She triggered the mealpack’s heater.

  He laughed as he sat and triggered his own. “I’ll tell the Concordance Science Achievement Award Committee to stand down, then.”

  She pointed to the display he’d left for her on the table. “What’s this?”

  “Background reading.” He turned it on. “It’s why the wakeup call.”

  She nodded, then took a bite and started reading the highlights he’d hastily put together. He saw on her face the moment she got to the part that had caused him to wake her so early.

  “We have to warn the town. Daylight is only five hours from now. And what the hell kind of audit takes eleven people to conduct for a town of a hundred?”

  “This is going to sound paranoid, but I think the audit is a cover for something else. A raid, a theft...”

  Bethnee’s eyes widened. “A hunt for a CPS fugitive.” She stood abruptly. “You can’t stay here.”

  He shook his head. “I have to.” He crossed his arms. “It could be legit. The settlement company might be making a zero-tolerance example of Tanimai for cheating. If I get caught, the company could fine the town hard credits for not detaining an unregistered settler. If I’m the target, I don’t want hunters anywhere near the town. I won’t go back willingly. Which is why I want you to take the animals to the safety of your cave.”

  She stared at him for a long moment, and he braced himself for an argument. A resigned expression crossed her face. “Okay.” She shoved her hands in her pockets. “You know what you can and can’t do. I hate leaving you here alone, but I’m worthless in a fight, and I don’t want the animals to be casualties, or hostages for your cooperation.”

  He let out the breath he didn’t realized he’d been holding. “Thank you.” Her trust humbled him.

  Bethnee made it look easy to load a menagerie of animals into the close confines of the flitter. He’d probably still be trying to catch one of the cats.

  He handed Bethnee an earwire. “A spare for our net.”

  She put it in the top pocket of her coat. “Okay.”

  He handed her a slender length of rounded incalloy, with padding at one end and a bulge of fine wire net at the other. “Homemade shockstick.” He showed her how to operate it. “It’s Nuñez’s Solstice Day gift, because that asshole at the spaceport confiscated hers.”

  Bethnee smiled. “She’ll love it. Thank you.”

  He handed her a small, flat box tied with a tiny strand of fiber cable, looped in a bow. “Your Solstice Day gift. Open it when you’re safe.”

  She slid it into her lower pocket. “I’ll ping you when I get home.”

  He fought a strong urge to fold her into an embrace, because her departure felt too much like goodbye. He stiffened his spine and stepped back.

  She opened the flitter’s pilot-side door, then hesitated and turned back. “Do you think I’m still warped by the recovery chems?”

  “I doubt it. They usually metabolize in six or eight hours, tops.”

  “Okay.” She stepped up and in, then turned to face him. “Then I think you should know, I still want to kiss you. Be safe, Axur Tragon.”

  She closed the door and lifted off ninety seconds later, by his internal chrono.

  He buried his roiling emotions under the activity of dowsing the glow lights and resetting the analog security measures as he went back to his house. He prayed to the constant stars that the audit was just an audit, and that he’d be seeing Bethnee again soon, because he sure as hell wanted to be kissed by her, and return the favor.

  Chapter Ten

  GDAT 3241.265

  Bethnee sent a short message from the air to Nuñez, but she had her hands full with flying and keeping threads of talent on eleven animals. She nearly turned around when she remembered the look of longing on Axur’s face when she’d impulsively told him she wanted to kiss him.

  She pinged him the moment she got the animals settled in the cave. Nuñez pinged a moment later. Bethnee told her what Axur had said about the audit timed for sunrise, and his suspicion about a hidden agenda.

  “Farking assholes,” Nuñez said vehemently. “I’ll get the local comm net going, in case the settlement company’s uplink is being monitored.”

  “I’ll return your flitter to the clinic, and go home on my glide board.”

  Bethnee disconnected, then took a minute to send images to Axur’s animals so they’d know the cave’s layout and how to operate the pet doors. She wanted them to always have an escape route.

  She grabbed her glide board, set the security system, and walked as fast as she could to the flitter, feeling time slipping away. It wasn’t until after she was in the air that she realized she’d limped very little on the snowy path.

  After delivering the flitter, Bethnee rode her board out of town. Just as she passed the last building, Nuñez pinged. Bethnee started to answer, but Nuñez was already talking.

  “...he won’t hurt you if you stay still. What are you two doing in my paddock? Back up, Upolu.” Upolu was a large yak bull, with wickedly curled, sharp horns and a dislike for strangers. Nuñez’s conversation c
ontinued after a moment. “Well, there’s nothing to see back here but yak shit. I’ll need to see your IDs and verify them with settlement compa–”

  The connection cut off.

  Everyone in town knew about the yaks and the geese, so the interlopers had to be the auditors, come early. The “inadvertent” comm was Nuñez’s way of warning her. Bethnee grounded the glide board and sent a quick warning to Nuñez’s spouse, then pinged Axur with the news.

  “Where are you?”

  “Edge of town. I’m–” An ear-splitting, chest-rumbling whump made her instinctively duck her head. “I just heard a crash, but I can’t see anything. I’ll check the animals in the area.” She sent threads of her talent out to all the animals she could find, both domestic and wild, and took advantage of their superior hearing and night vision to glean information. “I think it came from the Administrative Center. The building is collapsed inward.”

  “Isn’t that where the satellite uplink is? Check your local comms.”

  She tried her percomp and the extra comm bracelet. “They’re down.”

  “The best thing you can do is go home.”

  “I can’t leave Nuñez.”

  “She has defenses and help. You’re alone on a glide board. You’re brave as hell, and I can’t tell you what to do, but I will tell you that the hardest lesson a Jumper learns is when to retreat.”

  She blew out a frustrated breath. He was right. “I’ll go home, if you’ll use your fancy tech to figure out what’s going on, and get help for Nuñez and the town if needed.”

  “Deal. Stay safe, Bethnee Bakonin.”

  She launched into the air again and hunkered down behind the board’s wedge front to reduce wind drag. Guilt gave her second, third, and tenth thoughts about her decision. It felt like she was abandoning the generous woman who had saved her life and helped her learn how to live on her own. Bethnee would never forgive herself if Nuñez got hurt, but she’d also never forgive herself if she became the lever to bend Nuñez to their will.