Fighting the Stars

by Jessica Killabrew

  She walked over to stand next to him where he sat on the couch “Turk, I love you, I love everything about you, and I don’t think I ever stopped. Even when I thought something happened, I had to convince myself that I didn’t love you anymore, I lied to myself about it every damn day. Now that I know that nothing happened, I’m not afraid to admit that I love you, Turk. You make me feel whole again. My life was nothing without you in it.”

  He grabbed her by her hand and pulled her onto his lap, pressing his forehead against hers. “I love you too, Rena. And if it matters, I could never convince myself that I could live without you — I couldn’t have gotten through every long, miserable day of my life. I quit drinking and had to turn my entire life around before I continued pursuing my pilot’s license, and when I finally did that, it was just in the hope that I could make things right with you. Even without you in it, my entire life was about you. You are my entire world, Rena.”

  He kissed her lips as he ran his hand up the back of her thigh. He wanted it to go further than that; he wanted it to end up with them naked in Rena’s bed, showing each other just how much they loved each other, making each other completely numb to the rest of the world. But this conversation was more important than anything they had ever spoken about before.

  He pulled away from her tempting lips, leaving his hand to cup her cheek. “Rena, please answer me truthfully. Do you want to have children with me? Have a family? I only ask because this is going to bring up a lot of other things that we have to talk about.” He looked into her hypnotic eyes.

  “Honestly, I do. I can see us with a little boy and girl, just growing old together and being happy.

  Maybe we should start planning on it,” Rena stated.

  “Planning on what?” He had to be positive that he knew what she meant.

  “On having a family and a life together. We are madly in love with each other and obviously we were meant to be together. Everything happens for a reason, Turk. I know you asked Drako to send you on this mission, but you wouldn’t have been presented with the chance unless it was supposed to happen like this. We are back in each other’s arms for a reason, and I know deep down that the universe wants us to be together. So let’s start planning a family.” Her explanation came out a lot more passionately than she had planned.

  “Rena, I am completely willing to do that, and we could start right now, but I really want you to think about what you are saying, because I don’t want to put pressure on you. You have a career that you love and I don’t want you to have to choose between that and a family. I would be happy to just have you in my life. Anyone else that comes along is icing on the cake. I love you so much. I don’t ever want you to regret your life with me, not even for a second.”

  She took him in a loving kiss, then relaxed against him. Admitting that to him — how she felt about him — and hearing that he felt the same was liberating. It felt like she finally found her home in his arms and she never wanted to leave.

  Chapter 17

  The next day

  Turk and Rena fell onto the bed. They were both exhausted and just held each other while they slept. A few hours later, Turk woke up with a major hard-on. He nuzzled her neck.

  Rena slowly woke up and giggled. “You are so bad.”

  He loved the sound of her laughter. “You love that about me.”

  “I do, I love everything about you.” Rena turned around so that she was facing him.

  “If you’re too sore we don’t have to…”

  She lifted her leg up over his hip and reached down to take him in her hand. “We do have to because I ache for you. I’ve never ached for anyone like I ache for you.”

  He didn’t need any more encouragement than that. He took her gently at first, then suddenly they were grinding against each other until they both came spectacularly. They held each other as their breathing slowly became regular again.

  “I guess we both should get ready for work. I need to keep an eye on what those two bozos are doing on my ship.” She didn’t sound all that excited about it and he didn’t blame her.

  “When you go in, don’t confront Jaken or Nade.”

  She pouted. “Come on.”

  “Look, if we tip them off, they might find a way to escape or do something even worse than the fire.”

  “What are you going to do, then?”

  “Check in with the investigators about the fire.”

  “Let me know what you find out.”

  “I will,” he promised her.

  He left to head to his quarters so he could shower and change. Turk wanted to get this investigation over so that he could put all his efforts into his relationship with Rena. They still had a lot of things to work out. What was he going to do about his ship? There was no way he was going to ask Rena to give up her ship, especially after all she had been doing to keep it.

  Turk entered his quarters and stopped. The lights were off and he knew that he had left them on when he left earlier. It was his first clue that someone had been in his place. He walked in carefully and looked around. Nothing was out of place, but he knew it had to be Jaken and Nade.

  He reached for his communication device and called the ship’s medical facility. The doctors on board took a sample reading with their computer and sent the readings to a specialist that Drako recommended. “This is Turk. Have you heard back about the readings from that solution?”

  “Yes, sir, but shouldn’t we report this to the captain first?”

  “I’m authorized to receive all information on her behalf and will report it to her myself.”

  “The solution was made of urania. It is highly flammable.”

  Damn, that stuff had been poured over the wall console. Jaken and Nade must have used a timer to cause a spark to ignite it all. There was no way to get fingerprints because everything close to the solution had been destroyed in the fire, including any evidence of the timer itself.

  “Thanks.” He hung up and then immediately called Drako.

  “What do you have, Turk?”

  “I have news on the fire. It was started by a spark, generated with the use of a timer. The solution was confirmed as highly flammable.”

  “Do you know who set it?”

  “Yeah, the surveillance cameras I set up recorded that area and had three suspects that were in the area before the fire broke out. Two of the suspects left just minutes before the fire started.”

  “That’s enough of a reason to bring them in for questioning.”

  “Can we use the recordings as evidence?”

  “GPP recordings cannot be tampered with so they can be used as proof of the need for questioning and may even be used against them as evidence of their guilt. If nothing else, it shows their opportunity. Do you know what their motive would be?”

  “I know they hate working for women. Also, they are jealous when others move ahead of them. When I showed up to train aslieutenant captain, they were furious, because they each wanted that title.”

  “They want her ship. Because of the agreement signed by the ship captains transporting refugees, if a captain is found to be in violation of the Safe Passage Act for those evacuating a disaster location, the captain can be removed from command of his or her own ship until a trial is held, which likely wouldn’t take place until after all the refugees have been transported to their new homes.”

  “It could be years before all the refugees are relocated.” They would have complete control over her ship all that time. Turk was furious. “It’s all been about them getting her ship.”

  “That is what it sounds like to me. That would be enough motive. It would be better if we could have caught them in the act or the recording had caught them planting or setting off the fire directly, but we have enough to bring them in. I’ll send GPOs to come and get them.”

  “Should we take them to the holding cell?”

  “Don’t tip them off, but if they discover that we are on to them, then your best bet is to lock them up.”

>   “I understand.”

  “Turk, do I have to remind you that you’re not a real GPO. Don’t put yourself in danger when you don’t need to.”

  “I will do whatever is necessary to keep my mate safe.”

  There was a pause. “Are you and Rena back together?”

  “Yes, kind of. We agreed to try again and after the amazing night we had last night—”

  “Okay, I don’t need to hear the details.” Drako laughed. “I’m just happy for you. You deserve happiness. Both of you do.”

  “Thanks, Drako, for being there through the tough times.”

  “That’s what friends are for.”

  Neither male was comfortable expressing their emotions so Turk tried to get back on topic. “When will the GPOs arrive?”

  “Twelve hours. I’ve already called them and they’re headed your way. I had a feeling that things might start to get out of hand and didn’t want you to have to deal with it alone.”

  “Thanks, Drako. I need to go talk to Rena and let her know what’s going on.” Turk ran a hand through his hair, feeling anxious to see Rena. She hadn’t been gone that long, but he was already missing her.

  “Be safe, my friend.”

  Turk hung up. He didn’t bother with a shower; he just changed his shirt and pants. Then he headed back out of his quarters. For some reason, he had a really bad feeling. Something was about to happen.

  *****

  “What do you mean you didn’t find anything?” Jaken demanded of Nade.

  Nade shrugged. “I checked Turk’s quarters, but there was nothing there. The male is boring.”

  “Nothing linked him to Rena?”

  “No pictures, no nothing.”

  “It doesn’t make sense. They spent the night together and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the first time they did that. The way they look at each other and talk about each other shows that they have had personal contact before.”

  “What do you want me to do, Jaken, ask them point blank if they’re planning something?”

  “Do we need to bail?”

  “No, we’ve worked too hard to get this ship. We need to step things up.”

  “How do we do that?”

  “Our mistake so far has been not letting anyone get hurt, really hurt. Let’s set it up so that some of her VIP passengers are injured. Then they’ll demand her removal.”

  Nade looked at his brother. “There’s a shuttle of VIPs leaving in the next hour to dock with another ship.”

  Jaken gave his brother an evil smile. “Meet me in the docking bay in ten minutes.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “What we have to, brother. By the end of today, we’ll be rid of Rena one way or another.”

  *****

  Rena went looking for Jaken and Nade. Her other crew members had been left unattended and confused, with no direction. She was furious and planned to give them a piece of her mind.

  She thought about waiting for Turk. She wasn’t planning to confront them about their suspicions; she would just send them back to their quarters and keep them from doing any more damage to her ship. She was still captain and this was still her ship.

  She used her communicator, “Lieutenant Steel, where are Lieutenants Jaken and Nade?”

  “Captain, the computer shows them both in the docking bay.”

  What the hell were they doing in the docking bay? She headed down two floors and made her way to the docking bay. The doors were sealed so she entered the large bay where shuttles were docked. It looked empty, but then she caught movement to the right where the VIP shuttles were located. Jaken had just exited VIP shuttle 1021.

  She ducked into the corner so that he didn’t see her. She crept closer to the shuttles and entered the shuttle. She decided to check the system. “Computer, are all functions operational?”

  “Yes, Captain Rena.”

  She couldn’t figure out what Jaken was doing on board. He wasn’t qualified to do repairs and he wasn’t scheduled for leave. Even if he were, he wouldn’t be allowed to use the VIP shuttles. These were sanctioned by the GPP and had to meet their requirements.

  “Computer, did Lieutenant Jaken access anything on board?”

  “Yes, Captain Rena. Lieutenant Jaken removed the console panel by the navigator.”

  She knelt down, removed the panel, and looked inside. She immediately froze at what she found. A detonator was wired into the navigator, and looked as though it was live. “What the hell?”

  “You really shouldn’t be here,” said a voice from behind, startling her. She turned to find Jaken and Nade standing there. “At least we can take care of two problems at once.”

  She didn’t have time to duck as a fist swung out and hit her across the jaw. Her last thought before she succumbed to unconsciousness was that she wished she had told Turk once more how much she loved him.

  Chapter 18

  “Try her again,” Turk demanded Lieutenant Oval. He had not been able to find Rena. It had been over an hour and he hadn’t heard from her and she hadn’t returned his calls. He had looked for her at her quarters, but had found no sign of her. She wasn’t on the control room either. He began asking crew members where she had gone but no one had an answer. Lieutenant Oval had just taken over the shift a few minutes before he arrived, so he didn’t know Rena’s location. They were attempting to call her on her communicator.

  “Still no answer, sir, but the computer tracking systems shows that she is in the docking bay.”

  “Locate Jaken and Nade and let me know where they are.” Turk didn’t wait for a response; he left the control room quickly. He had that bad feeling again. It wasn’t like Rena to not keep in touch with the control room and her crew. She wouldn’t go this long without responding back to him either. She would have responded back if she could have, and that was what worried him the most.

  As he approached the docking bay, he knew something was definitely off. There was only a handful of crew working, less than half of what was normally staffed there. It was like someone wanted to have as few people around as possible. What the hell was going on here? He looked around the big open space where the shuttles were docked, but there was no Rena.

  He hit his communicator. “Lieutenant Oval, where is Captain Rena?”

  “The computer shows her inside the VIP shuttle 1021.”

  He looked through the glass wall separating him from the docking bay and noticed a shuttle moving toward the docking bay doors, on its way outside into deep space. Just as it turned for its final pass, he could see the last two digits on the side — 21.

  He hit his communicator again. “Lieutenant Oval, override shuttle 1021 and bring it back on board right now!”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “See if you can get an answer from 1021.”

  He waited a few seconds. “Sir, there is no response from 1021.”

  Turk’s heart was beating fast as he held his breath and waited for the shuttle to dock again. He heard boots approaching behind him. He turned just as a fist flew at his face. He was caught off guard and the punch made contact.

  “You’ve ruined enough! I’m not letting you mess this up!” Jaken tried to hit him again, but Turk was ready for him this time and blocked it.

  Just as he was about to swing in return, Nade came out of nowhere and jumped on his back. Turk reached up to try to grab Nade, but Jaken used the distraction to kick him in the stomach. He bent forward, gasping for air. Son of a bitch!

  Turk took advantage of the bent position he was now in and moved to throw Nade over his back at Jaken’s feet. He stepped back as the brothers tumbled into each other and tried to right themselves.

  “What did you do to Rena?” He punched Nade when he tried to get up.

  “She got exactly what was coming to her,” Jaken growled out as he got to a squatting position. Then he sprung up, leaped at Turk, and took him down. Both brothers pounced on him and began punching and kicking him with their knees.

  Turk didn’t
want to waste any more time on these two. He had to get to Rena; she needed him. He kicked out his feet, shoving Nade off of him, and then he grabbed Jaken’s hair and slammed his face into the floor repeatedly until the male was unconscious. Turk got up and looked around for Nade, but the male had run off. Turk knew he didn’t have time to give chase.

  He hit his communicator again and called for one of the lieutenants in charge of security. “I need several security teams to the docking bay! Jaken and Nade are to be taken to a holding cell until further notice.” He hung up without waiting for a response. He ran over to shuttle 1021 and pushed the button to open the shuttle door.

  “Rena!” He entered the shuttle and saw her body lying still on the floor. At that moment, he felt like someone had punched him in the gut once again. Please be alive, please. He couldn’t lose her now, not when he had just gotten her back. He rushed to her side and knelt down to take her in his arms. He checked for a pulse. Sighing with relief, he saw she was breathing and alive.

  “Come on, baby, open your eyes.”

  She blinked opening her eyes slowly. “Turk?”

  “Yeah babe, you scared the shit out of me. Are you okay?”

  She groaned as she reached up to touch her head. “I feel like someone kicked my head in. What happened?”

  “You don’t remember?”

  She hesitated, squinting, before her eyes suddenly opened wide. “Jaken and Nade — they put detonators on this shuttle! We need to leave! Now!”

  He lifted her in his arms and carried her out of the shuttle. “Babe, hit my communicator.” She reached up and tapped his communicator button on his earpiece.

  “This is Turk with Captain Rena. I need shuttle 1021 deposited outside of the ship in thirty seconds.” He passed through the automatic doors. He held her as they watched the docking bay doors open and the shuttle exit the ship. As soon as the shuttle was outside the docking bay, it exploded, causing the ship to shake violently. A fire broke out near the docking bay doors as they closed back up.