by Kim Knox
Anya willed herself to speak. “Find anything interesting on your detour?”
“Me, not so much.” Thain Alder held out his hand and a boyish smile curved his mouth. “Keve there,” he nodded back to the man who hadn’t moved out of the shadow of the transport, “may have just made his career.”
“Really?” Anya strained over the word, stopping herself from cringing. “What did you find, Dr Blayne?” She dredged up the role of the put-upon lackey. “My supervisor’s been vid-ing on the hour, wanting updates on the events.”
Thain blinked. “More have occurred?”
“No.” She rushed on. “Well, no I don’t think so. I’ve yet to experience one.”
“Stanton said you were in the shower.”
Keve’s slow, doubting drawl cut through her babble and forced a flush to rise into her cheeks. She swallowed and tried to deny the sudden and unexpected pebbling of her nipples. What the hell…? She reacted to him as quickly as she did to Damianos.
Her stomach hollowed. Was it them? She pulled in a steadying breath and caught no gritty taste of coal in her mouth. Damianos hadn’t decided to put on a show for their guests. Anya turned on her heel, her cheeks flaming at the thought of so many invisible creatures fucking her in front of her colleagues.
She swallowed, her throat tight. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to your quarters.” She found control and flashed a smile back over her shoulder. “It’s not the largest platform ever constructed, but there’s just about room for us all.” Keve’s sharp eyes held her and worry skittered down her spine. She had to know what he thought he’d found and if she had a right to worry. “So, Dr Blayne, what did you find?”
He increased his pace to match hers. “On the moon?”
They followed the outer curve of the platform, shields stretching clear over them, giving a vast, open view of the moon they orbited and the deep blackness of space. Anya let her eyes drift over the rugged surface. “Is that where you went?”
“We skimmed the surface, testing for Thain’s energies and found this.” He swung around the bag strapped to his back and yanked open the clips. He pulled out a small silver pyramid, still gritty with gray moon dust. It sat on his palm, catching light from the glow bands pressed into the metal walls of the corridor. Tiny pictographs covered its surface. Keve held up a finger. A slight tremor shook it before he pressed the tip against its apex. The soft hum threaded through the drum of their boots against the metal floor, the tips of the pyramid hinged back and a swirl of glowing light gushed from its interior.
Anya blinked. “What is it?”
Keve pinched the hinges back into place, sealing the pyramid and the curve of the corridor seemed suddenly dull, lifeless. “From what I’ve been able to decipher, it’s a repository.”
“For what?”
A smile pulled at his mouth and Anya’s stomach hollowed. “That’s the question, isn’t it?”
Fuck. Anya leaned over and peered at the pyramid, the tiny writing teasing her senses. “My guess? Very, very small aliens.”
“Small?”
Her gaze flicked up to his and a dark shadow passed through his eyes. Anya shivered and increased her pace, pulling away from her sudden closeness to Keve. The man unnerved her. “Here we are,” she declared, slapping her palm against the door plate. Metal doors clanked, grated and slid back into the walls. “Basic staff quarters.” Anya took steps back away from the three men. “I’m sure you’ve all been on a platform before so…enjoy.”
Anya strode away, feeling the stiffness in her back, her odd gait, and hoping they weren’t watching her escape. Especially Keve Blayne. How the hell could he find that tiny pyramid on the vast expanse of a cratered moon, decipher some of it, and seem to…know…about Damianos?
She slammed her palm against her office door and strode inside. The clear door slid shut behind her. Anya flopped into her deep chair and for the first time in two months hated the fact that her workspace had completely transparent walls. The beauty of open space curved over one half, but the other half stood open to the interior of the platform. If she tilted her head to the left, the door to the staff quarters glared at her.
Irritated, Anya swung her chair away to stare at the curve of the moon.
The night before, she would’ve been overjoyed to have people—men—join her on her back-of-beyond science platform. But now they, and especially Keve, threatened her. She’d lied to her supervisor, hidden a new life form, hell, she’d had sex with several of them and that would make her a very interesting experiment to another set of lab rats back on Earth.
She shivered. No. That couldn’t happen.
Focus on her work, pretend the men didn’t exist. That had to be her plan. She’d realigned the array that morning as instructed, so she scrolled up her worksheet. Time for her to lose herself in the platform’s biomass filtration chambers. Three extra breathers would be a strain. A smile pulled at her mouth. Nice place to hide out for the afternoon.
“Anya…”
Or not. She fixed a smile on her face and sat back into the padded comfort of her chair. Her gaze remained steady on the man standing in her open doorway, but her gut twisted. Something about him had alarms droning and she couldn’t explain it. He was a tall, lean, she would even admit, very attractive man. Keve had been polite, professional and she had the uncomfortable feeling she was projecting her nervousness onto him. She straightened and her smile eased into something more natural. “How can I help you, Dr. Blayne?”
“Keve.” And the smooth, easy way he said his name had her crossing her legs.
Who the hell was this man? “Keve,” she repeated.
“I’ve been sent on a mission,” he said, his expression serious.
Anya’s heart clenched before she caught the amused glint in his dark eyes. She fought down the urge to thump him. “Your mission?”
“Lunch.” A smile twitched across his lush mouth. “Stanton had us dragged from our beds and thrown onto the transport with a mug of coffee and the promise of food here.” He ran a hand over his dark hair. “And the others voted me as spokesman.”
Her smile grew. Yes, she had to have imagined her earlier suspicion about the man. “Am I so terrifying?”
“Maybe?” He stepped back as she pushed herself to her feet and matched her pace as she walked back to the staff quarters. “Though maybe it’s more the rumor getting back of our scrounging. Transports are supposed to arrive with supplies.”
“You think I’ll ruin your reputation? That other platforms will refuse docking?”
“All we have is our reputation…”
Anya bit back a smile and palmed open the door to the quarters. Too little sleep stretched her nerves and she was relieved to know Keve wasn’t the danger she first thought. That had her grinning at Nathan and Thain as they looked up from storing their gear in the narrow lockers lining one wall of the cramped space. “Lunch?”
Thain let out a relieved breath and his tight shoulders dropped. They had been worried. The Academy gave her finite supplies, after all. “If it’s not too much trouble?”
“That door through there,” she said, pointing to the lighter panel behind them. “A small refectory.”
Nathan palmed it and the door rolled back, the metal following the curve of the room. “After you, Anya,” he said, standing back.
She led the way down the stairs into the circular room, bubbled in a clear shield. Tables bolted to the metal platform set into the floor. The small kitchen unit stretched out behind the stairs, leaving the view free of deep space and the shallow curve of the moon and its distant planet. Anya dialed up her usual spiced vegetable soup and waited while the tech hummed. Biomatter from her filtration chambers fed a fair proportion of her diet, but with three men on her orbiting platform, it would put a strain on her supplies and her air.
A soft beep and a hatch shot back. The bowl of steaming soup and soft bread filled the room with the warm scent of vegetables. Anya grabbed her tray and pushed herself
onto the bench ringing the table. Breaking the bread, she dipped a piece into the thick soup.
“So you missed these events?” Thain sat next to her with one of the three choices of stew. He picked out a too-square lump of meat with a fork, examining it before he ate. He chewed thoughtfully and waved his fork at her. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The energy signatures, they seemed almost…” He blushed and looked back to his plate. Yes, if he voiced anything close to the truth, the Academy would probably have his doctorate. Crackpots could theorize energy-based life forms, but for a respected scientist to openly admit it… It could cost him his job. “They seemed very interesting.”
Keve didn’t seem to hold Thain’s reservations. “This is a container for something living.” He planted the pyramid in the center of the clear tabletop and sat to Anya’s right. With a light press of his fingertip, the apex opened and a soft glow shrouded the peak.
Anya shifted on her bench. Through the rich scents of food, the distinctive and bitter taste of coal itched against her tongue. The scent connected the device to Damianos. Keve called it a repository. Did they need it to exist? Her stomach twisted and the bread tasted sour in her mouth as another thought hit her. Or was it their prison?
“Anya… Did we feel like felons to you?”
She almost choked and fought to chew the bread still in her mouth. “Not fair.”
“We never promised to be fair. We promised to fuck you. Would now be good?”
“Anya?” Nathan’s dark eyes narrowed on her and the flush deepened in her cheeks. He sounded genuinely concerned. “You all right?”
She chewed and swallowed, her gut tight at the thought of her lovers’ hands sliding over her body and her being unable to resist them. She hadn’t missed the smirk that came with Damianos’ words. They might not be criminals, but they were evil. Silent male laughter skittered down her spine. “Went down the wrong way.”
Anya focused on her soup, stirring her spoon through and over the thick chunks of vegetable. Her heart pounded and—damn them to whatever dimension of hell they called home—her pussy ached. “So…” She drew in a calming breath and kept her voice light. “What’s the plan?” She glanced at Thain and forced herself to smile. “I stay out of your way and you sit on the array waiting for another event?”
“They’re not regular. We’ve measured them at roughly every three hours. Though the last two came really close together.”
Keve snorted. “You can’t say it, Thain, but I can. They’re life forms and they’re trying to make contact with us through this array.”
Nathan snorted and jabbed his fork at the xenoarchaeologist. “I’ve piloted for the Academy for ten years and I’ve seen weird phenomena.” He smirked and stabbed his fork into layered pasta. “Far too much. But nothing that could have the director dropping me into an ice tube for serious mental reconditioning.”
Keve shrugged and jabbed his knife against the silver pyramid. Metal clinked against metal and ran a shiver over her skin. “I’ve seen something like this before.”
Anya blinked and spoke without thought. “You have?”
“A side panel with most of the words erased through time and weathering, but it matched this.”
Thain chuckled. “He’s been like this since the arm picked the pyramid out of that crater. The energy readings don’t match, Keve.” The physicist’s head tilted and he focused on the small, glowing pyramid. “It is an incredible find though.” He paused. “There’s something about the quality of the light, the slow ripple of it down over the pictographs…” His voice trailed away before he snapped back, making Anya jump. A blush ran over his cheeks. “Sorry, it’s almost addictive.”
Nathan pinched at the bridge of his nose. “Yes,” he murmured.
Anya looked between the two men, confused. The pyramid emitted a steady white light, no ripples, nothing interesting at all. She risked a glance back to Keve and found his expression strange, almost thoughtful. And there was that uneasy feeling back in her stomach. Keve wore too many masks. His eyes met hers and something wry lurked in their depths. Was he experimenting on his colleagues?
Anya snapped her attention back to her soup and the spoon in her hand. Eat her soup and carry on with her work. Keve Blayne could play whatever games he wanted with the men with whom he’d arrived…and leave her out of it.
“So you have your plan?” she said, breaking the sudden silence. Her spoon clattered into the empty bowl and she pushed herself away from the table to take her tray to the kitchen unit. “You see, I have my schedule to follow…”
Thain’s dark eyes slid to her and her stomach hollowed. Something in him had changed. Nerves and heat warred within her. “Yes, we have our plan,” he murmured.
“Ah, all right, good.” Anya backed up the stairs, her hand running slick against the metal rail. Her life had spun out of control in a few short hours and she needed some semblance of order. She jabbed a thumb back up the stairs. “I’ll be in the biomass filtration chambers if you need me.”
With that, she turned and almost ran out of the refectory.
Chapter Four
Anya drew the oxygen-rich air deep into her lungs and let out a slow sigh. The first chamber, a large domed room deep in the interior of the platform, burst with plant life, the golden light of a new morning creeping over the curved blue ceiling. She ran her fingers over the soft leaves of the nearest plant. Small buds promised flowers in a few short days.
She focused and pushed through the first row of dense planting to the monitoring equipment buried in the wall. She palmed the plate, waiting for it to slide back. The soft hum of the revealed tech mixed with the rustle of vegetation and the whirr of insect life. Her practiced eye scanned the pulsing organic instrumentation. “Working well today,” she murmured, pressing to move the plate back into place with a familiar hiss and clunk.
Her body jerked forward, thumping into the wall, and a half cry escaped her. A hard torso pressed against her back and a boot kicked her legs apart. “Wearing flesh. It’s been a while.” The soft voice sounded like Thain Alder…but underneath, Anya knew that hint of a growl and then she tasted it, the bitter burn of coal.
She twisted her head to look behind her and the physicist grinned at her, something confident, possessive and not like the man she’d left behind in the refectory. Well, not until that scorching final stare… “Damianos?”
“You wanted us to take you in front of them.”
Heat scalded her cheeks. Yes, only Damianos would know that embarrassing thought. “I did not.”
His hands slid over her breasts and pulled at the tabs securing her uniform. He slipped teasing fingers inside to circle her nipple.
Anya’s forehead pressed against the smoothness of the wall, needing to deny the low pulse in her belly. “You can’t do this. Just…wear…someone else.” She moaned, but didn’t fight him as he pulled the uniform over her shoulders, exposing her to the warm, damp air. “Is he…there…?”
“No.” Warm lips pressed to her shoulder and he drew in a heavy breath. “You’re ours, not his.” The words tightened her pussy and she swallowed. Open-mouthed kisses chased over her skin and Anya wanted more, wanted them to fuck her again.
“This is insane,” she murmured as Damianos used his borrowed hands to strip the rest of her uniform from her body. Fingers teased over her ribs, up to her shoulders until he gripped her arms, urging them up. His fingers ran over her skin until his hands flattened hers to the wall above her head. “Completely insane.”
There was the soft click of opening buttons. His heavy cock nudged against her ass, and Anya drew in a sharp breath. “Do you want us to stop?” he asked
“Now you’re the crazy one.”
His laughter brushed hot against her neck, the smooth nap of his service suit soft against her bare skin. A slow hand slid over her hip, exploring, playing until his index finger dipped and teased her clitoris. She gasped and it pushed further. Anya felt Thain’s smile against her skin. “You
’re so wet for us, so ready.” His other hand slipped though the cleft of her ass and the press of his smooth cock, pushing hot against her pussy, had a hollow, needy ache coiling tight.
Thain groaned, Damianos’ growl underlying it as he slid deep into her pussy, filling her. His free hand found her breast, cupping, tweaking an aching nipple, making her push back against him as the need for him to move rioted through her.
“Damianos…” Their name was almost a moan. And then he pulled back, and pushed hard into her, grunting at the effort. Her fingers curled tight against the smooth wall. She wanted nothing more than to feel them, feel all of them in the warm, damp air of the sealed chamber where she could scream her release and no one would—
“Thain, what the hell are you doing?”
Croft’s sudden barked question froze her, but not the pounding of Thain’s hips, the tight pinch of his fingers over her nipple, nor the fingertip that rasped against her clitoris. He had to stop but… The knowledge that Croft watched seared fire through her flesh. Damianos growled against her skin, the hard slap of his hips against her ass, his defiance had her hot and there, just…
Orgasm smashed into her. Anya bit at her lip to stop the scream that wanted to tear from her throat. Her head dropped and she crushed her eyes shut against the sudden wave of embarrassment. Now she had to face the fallout of being found naked with a man she’d only known for half an hour.
“Turn her.”
Anya’s stomach dropped. That didn’t sound like… Thain pulled free of her body and with his hands steady on her hips, guided her trembling body to face the pilot.
Nathan Croft gave her a hard grin that matched the one she’d seen on Thain’s face. His gaze slid over her nakedness and she didn’t miss the excited gleam. “Did you enjoy the idea of being caught, Anya?”
Thain’s hand at her hip caressed her skin, slipping to play below her navel. “Oh, she did,” he murmured. “Almost milked me at the thought.”
Croft’s head tilted to one side and he looked behind her to the man whose hips absently pushed against hers, his still-hard cock slipping, sliding between the dampness of her ass. “We’re still hard,” he said. The pilot’s dark eyes fixed on her and the need there had her empty pussy clenching. “And we need to eat her.”