Mea relaxed and laughed softly, massaging her temples with fingers that had a slight tremble.
"But I think we made it." Warren lifted his head and smiled at her.
She smiled back sadly. "Not quite, old friend. Asterisk."
On the last word, his eyes unfocused and his head tilted to the side awkwardly. Mea felt a wave of exhaustion crash over her. She'd been functioning on hyperdrive for days now, not getting much sleep or sustenance and the blood loss from her shoulder didn't help the situation.
"What happened to him?" Regan sounded alarmed. Sighing wearily, Mea slid off the chair and crouched by the android.
"Asterisk is his trigger word. It leaves the basic functions intact while shutting off his higher centers. He can move if I tell him to, but he won't remember any of this." She patted his limp hand soothingly. "I'm sorry, love."
"Why'd you do that?"
"He's the last—no, the second to last loose end. He wouldn't ever give me away on purpose, but if they decide to download his memory, we'd be screwed. Up you get." She coaxed him to his feet and shuffled him a step away from the chair before slipping in front of the console. Swiftly she tapped in the navigational coordinates and commands for the autopilot.
"What are you going to do with him?"
"I have to change his memory." Pushing Warren forward, she looked at Terrik as she passed by. "You have a new name and identity. I'm through forcing you. You have my word on that."
Not waiting to see his reaction, she maneuvered the android out into the hall.
"Where are you taking him?" Regan was right behind her.
"The infirmary." Mea sent a swift look over her shoulder at the girl, thinking about what else was in the infirmary. "Ah… I have an emergency medical unit that's AI. She's usually cranky. Don't mind her if she goes off."
"No big deal. What's her name?"
"It was Emu, short for emergency medical unit, but she found out it was also a big, extinct bird. Refused to answer to it after that. Warren started calling her Ema and the name stuck."
"What's 'Ema' stand for?"
"According to Warren—emergency medical asshole."
Regan's high, sweet laughter followed her into the infirmary.
"What the hell did you do now?" There was a long table against the back wall lit by a golden light and surrounded above and below with mechanical devices. The voice emanated from this direction.
"Don't start with me, Ema," Mea growled, but her warning was lost on the AI unit.
"And who are these people? What, are you picking up strays now? This isn't a menagerie."
"You push me and I'll yank you right out of the wall." Mea hit a panel and a table slid out from the wall. Maneuvering Warren up onto it, she pushed him onto his back, waiting expectantly for Ema to continue her rant. She wasn't disappointed.
"What are you doing with that heap of spare parts? You have a wound, you stupid woman! You know enough to come in out of the rain. Why aren't you on my table?"
Mea purposefully strode across the room and opened a receptacle in the wall.
"Wait, let's talk about th—"
Mea lifted a crystal out and placed it gently on the table as the golden glow faded out and the voice was cut off. With a certain amount of amused satisfaction, Mea looked up to see Regan staring at her.
"That was necessary. If she'd recorded what I'm about to do to Warren, we'd be back to square one." Rubbing the tension from her neck, she activated a seat to slide out from under Warren's table and eased down on it with a tired sigh. "Maybe I'll get a little peace and quiet for a change."
Mea slid a long connector in behind Warren's left ear, glancing at the other two out of the corner of her eye. Terrik was prowling like a restless cat around the infirmary and Regan was watching what she was doing to Warren with a child's fascination.
"Ah… I'm going to be here awhile. Why don't you two go get something to eat or get some rest?"
They ignored her handily.
"Bragan should catch up in about six to eight hours and then the fun starts again. You should rest while you can."
"The last loose end?"
Startled, she darted a quick look over her shoulder at Terrik, but he wasn't looking at her—he was busy inspecting Ema's crystal. Looking back at Regan, Mea raised her eyebrows humorously. "What d'you know? Beauty and brains."
She surprised a giggle out of the girl. Regan slapped a guilty hand over her mouth and shot a look over Mea's shoulder at Terrik. Grinning, Mea pulled VR gear out of the wall as she continued speaking. "Yes, he's my last loose end. He still has your original genetic trace in his ship's systems and hand held tracers. We don't refresh with the main systems constantly—too much of a power drain. Depends on the hunt, but typically we only refresh every couple of days. The tracers he had on him were put out of commission when I gave him a charge from the shock rifle, but he could have more onboard his ship, plus the ship itself has the trace. I need to get on his ship and change it."
"Bragan's the other hunter? He did that to your shoulder?"
Mea couldn't see her, already sifting through VR, but Regan's voice sounded lost. "Yup. Remember I told you it was stage dressing? Proof positive that he attacked me—with his own knife—backed by an audio of the actual encounter. Shows I had good reason to shoot him, which did a couple of things for me—knocking out his tracers and making him pissed off enough to follow us." She was grateful for the conversation. Reentering VR so soon was making her nauseous and the explanation helped distract her from the roll of her stomach.
"Why do you want him to follow us?"
"I don't have any good reason to board his ship. Hunters are very territorial. In the past, hunters have been known to steal each other's targets, making easy commissions for themselves. That led to fighting, rogue hunters, bad blood. Now we have lots of rules that prevent that sort of thing, one of which is that you can't board another hunter's vessel without permission except under extreme circumstances."
"Like when he's attacking you," Terrik rumbled as he drew close to her.
"Which he'll be doing in a few hours."
"What's your twisted game plan for me, lady?"
He was like a dark sun at her side, radiating heat but no light. Unwilling to go into it in front of the child, she evaded the question. "You should get some rest, Stone." She put slight emphasis on his new name. "I may need your help when he gets here."
He moved away with an almost inaudible growl, but she didn't hear him leave the infirmary. The room fell silent and she focused her attention on the android.
Mea picked through Warren's memories with as gentle a touch as she could, very aware that she was mucking about with her best friend's brain. When she located the memories associated with the bar where she'd first met Terrik (Stone—she had to start thinking of him that way), she slowly moved forward from that moment, shaping certain memories and graying out others. The graying she did in progressively larger units of time to simulate a worsening bug in his system. She didn't even consider deleting his memory entirely. Not only would that be unfair to her friend, but also someone was bound to ask why she didn't help him for several days. It was long, slow work and time drifted away, her world narrowing down to data streams and frozen images.
When she finally finished, taking off the VR gear was disorienting and she breathed deeply to settle her stomach. Regan had fallen asleep with her head pillowed on folded arms next to Warren. Terrik (Stone, damn it!) had activated a table on the opposite side of the room and was stretched out on it, ankles crossed and arms folded under his head. He still had his goggles on so she couldn't see his eyes, but Mea knew instinctively that he was not asleep. Pulling her eyes away from his muscular form, she put the gear away and unhooked the android. Regan woke with a start.
"Did you do it?" she muttered sleepily.
"Umhmm. He'll be awake in a couple minutes."
Mea stood slowly and stretched like a cat, grimacing at the stiff pain in her shoulder. She then picked up Ema's crystal
and reactivated the AI unit.
"That wasn't very nice," Ema muttered sullenly.
"Maybe next time you'll listen when I tell you to shut up." Mea slid onto Ema's table and settled onto her back with a sigh, removing the coag pack from her arm. One of the devices above her levered down and angled to come opposite her shoulder. Golden beams of light flickered and danced across her wound and Mea sighed again as the pain lessened slowly.
Regan appeared beside her and activated a seat, resting her arms on the table, chin on hands. She watched with avid curiosity as the accelerated healing closed the wound.
"Does it hurt?"
"No."
The swiftly moving lights seemed to have a soporific effect on the child, eyelids growing heavy and sliding closed, but she fought it. It was endearing and Mea smiled, wondering at the ache in her chest. She began to sing the girl a lullaby, but stopped abruptly when she realized which lullaby, stomach twisting.
"I haven't heard you sing that since we found you with your parents." Warren was sitting up, looking at her in wonder.
Mea shifted uncomfortably and avoided his comment. "Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty. How do you feel?"
He grimaced and rubbed behind his ear where the connection had been. "Weird. What happened?"
"You had a glitch."
"What kind of a glitch?"
"Do you really want to know?" Her tone said that he didn't and she felt a stab of guilt when he winced and looked away. Someday, she thought to him, someday I will tell you everything, when nobody remembers or cares what we did here.
"Anything you couldn't fix?" he asked softly, his dear face set in lines of worry.
"Well, let's see, do you have a strange urge to run down the hall naked singing Round the Milky Way?"
She had Regan giggling behind her hand again and a reluctant grin pulled at Warren's lips.
"No."
"Thank god. Could've been ugly."
"Seriously, am I going to have any problems?"
"Do you know who we are?" Mea watched him carefully.
"Mea, Regan, Stone," he said, looking at each in turn. Mea couldn't see if the ex-convict reacted to this at all. His stoicism was starting to get on her nerves.
"There won't be any problems, Warren. Seriously."
"Except for the usual, of course," Ema drawled. "Mea, stop talking and hold still. I have to do your face."
Mea closed her eyes as golden beams danced around her mouth. This healing didn't take very long. When she opened her eyes, Regan was leaning over, so close Mea could see golden tips at the ends of her lashes.
"That is so cool."
Mea smiled up at her.
"Never saw an e. m. u. before?"
"Not up close. And doing that."
Chuckling, Mea sat up, working her shoulder gingerly. "Thanks Ema, feels good. You do great work."
"Try to remember that next time you feel like pulling my plug."
Shaking her head, she rose from the table. The infirmary was empty but for the two of them. "Where'd the boys go?"
Her only response from Regan was the usual shrug.
"Well, let's get you to bed. You hungry?"
"Naw. I ate too many cookies."
"Bite your tongue! You can never have too many cookies. Are you a kid or what?"
The girl grinned at her teasing and took the lead as they left the infirmary.
"Did you get a chance to explore the ship?"
"Only a little."
"Maybe we can do that tomorrow after we take care of Bragan."
"What are you gonna do to him?" The expression Regan shot over her shoulder was way too serious for such a young person.
Mea could've kicked herself for bringing it up again—she preferred to see this child laugh. "We'll improvise." She keyed open the door to the sleeping quarters that Regan had been in before and propelled the girl through. "To bed with you."
Mea watched in amusement as the child simply kicked off her shoes and crawled onto the bed, snuggling under the blanket like a kitten finding a warm spot.
"Goodnight, Regan."
"Wait, Mea…?"
"Yes?"
Regan was sitting up on one elbow, plucking self-consciously at the covers. "Could you… could you sing that song again?"
The woman felt a band constricting her chest. "You mean the lullaby?"
"Yeah. Please?" She peeked up through her lashes, and Mea knew she wasn't going to be able to say no. Stepping into the room and letting the door close behind her, she hoped the darkness would hide the emotions on her face. Finding the bed with the help of the glow from the control panel on the wall, she sank down next to Regan.
"My mother used to sing that to me when I was a little girl." She heard the roughness in her own voice and cleared her throat as small fingers wrapped around hers. "She had a beautiful voice."
"Katie used to sing sometimes, but she didn't always remember the words."
Mea heard the same roughness in the girl's tone and was astounded to find that she wanted to sing the lullaby again. So she did.
"Little Angel fold your wings
Come to me as last light sings
Against my heart rest your head
And let my arms be your bed.
"Sweetest Angel don't you fear
I will let no harm draw near
So when shadows fall to night
Close your eyes and dream of light.
"Little Angel sleeping true
In love's hold I promise you
We will never be apart
My little angel, my heart."
Chapter 6
Mea stood swaying next to her own bed, warm from a shower and tempted as hell to just drop down onto the soft cushion. Responsibility nagged at her though.
"It won't take a minute," she muttered, grabbing a wrap to cover her nakedness. Stepping out of her room, she almost ran into Warren. He frowned down at her.
"I thought you were in bed."
"Need to check the cargo."
"You look exhausted. Check 'em tomorrow."
"Bragan's tomorrow."
He tugged on a lock of her dark hair with affectionate censure. "You should take better care of yourself."
Patting him on the chest, she squeezed by him, then stopped when a memory surfaced. "Hey, where'd you two go earlier?"
"Stone wanted to get familiar with the ships systems. I showed him how to retrieve info, namely his own files. He seemed to know how to pilot already."
So he still hadn't believed she'd actually changed his identity. Shaking her head in exasperation, she turned to go.
"I'm not sure you want this guy for a partner. His record isn't exactly clean, you know."
"I know."
She continued down the hall and entered the cargo bay, momentarily alarmed to find that the overhead lights were off until she saw Stone's shadowy form. Her eyes adjusted quickly—each cryotube was softly lit, providing adequate light to navigate the room.
"Just checking the meat popsicles." Why she was explaining herself? "Nightly routine."
He said nothing, of course, and she began making a slow circuit around the bay, inspecting each cryotube carefully. There were eight in all, but only five were filled, two of which she had acquired on the moon outpost.
Near the end of her inspection, Stone finally chose to acknowledge her. "How come I'm not in one of these things?"
Deliberately misunderstanding, she shrugged. "Be my guest."
He continued as if she hadn't spoken, "It doesn't make sense, woman. Why would you do that for me? You're a goddamned hunter, and I'm a convict."
At least he believed her—to a point. If she could just get him to accept it.
"Still looking for my ulterior motive?" she asked teasingly, but he didn't reply, arms folded across his chest. Beyond irritated at his stoicism, she changed tactics. "Fine. You want another motive?" Gliding forward, she watched him through narrowed eyes. "Try this one."
Mea placed a hand on his fold
ed arms for balance and felt muscles bunch under warm skin as she leaned up. Heat spilled through her body as she molded her mouth to his, drinking in the sensation of firm lips and stubbled chin. God, he tasted good—and he didn't pull away, actually tilting his head a bit to give her further access. When she realized this, it was all she could do not to pull him down to the floor with her. With a little moan, she broke the contact and moved quickly out of the bay, leaving him standing there.
Pausing in the corridor, Mea rested her hot face against the metal wall and tried to slow her racing heart. She had not expected to feel so intense over one simple kiss. It was a little unnerving to know that he could push her to the edge of control without even trying. There was a fire underneath her skin that burned wild and deep, but as much as she wanted to go back in there and finish what she started, she knew he wasn't ready. He didn't trust her. He would probably see it as some kind of ploy.
With a low sound of protest, she forced her feet down the hall and into her room, flopping on the bed like a puppet with its strings cut. Sleep was hard to come by.
Stone ground his teeth together, desperate not to follow her. Or maybe he was just desperate. She'd been temptation itself from the second she'd stepped through that door. He'd smelled her skin, damp from a shower, and had tortured himself with images of what was under that shapeless wrap. Remembering that she was dangerous to him took a huge effort—which she'd brushed out of his mind with shattering ease, all with the touch of one hand and the taste of her mouth.
She's playing a game with you, he tried to tell his painfully aroused self. Just another kind of mind game—but she'd smelled like a dream and tasted like hot honey… He groaned and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes hard enough to cause silent sunbursts to float across his vision. With an inarticulate snarl he stalked out of the cargo bay and down the hall, entering his quarters and pacing the room like a large cat in a cage.
His life hadn't made any sense since they'd gotten him out of cryo on that ship. Prison had been simple. Kill or be killed. Survival of the fittest by pure animal instinct. But his whole world had shifted radically when he'd met Kate and the kid. Kate had hated and feared him, always jumping when he moved and watching him with a desperate kind of wariness. Yet she'd picked up a weapon and followed him when he went after the crazy. And she'd thrown herself in front of him when they'd been cornered, taking his hit.
The Huntress Page 5