She wasn’t looking at him.
Damn it you will look at me while I’m making an ass of myself.
He reached out with one hand and brushed his knuckles under her chin until she was looking up at his face. “I have to stand by and let you be… you. Because if I don’t, if I act the way I so very much want to act, Ryan will sense it like a shark tasting blood, and he’ll savage us all.”
She stared at his lips. He was talking. Talking a lot, for him, and she was trying so very hard to listen. But he wasn’t touching her, and she wanted him to. That thought came as a shock. She wanted to lean into him, to feel him wrap her up in those arms.
She is most certainly not listening.
He groaned. “Damn it, Maggie you will listen to me!” His idle hands shot out, one to grasp her hip, one to snake upward from her nape into the twists of her braid. He jerked her forward.
She focused, then. It was hard not to focus with her head pulled back and her back bowed so that from the waist down she was pressed against him.
“I’m sorry, did you get around to answering the question yet? I heard you monologuing, but I had this gravity well problem stuck in my brain and—”
She tasted of mint and coffee and cream. The cream taste threw him. He bent his head again, curious. She was kissing him as much as he kissed her and that salved his nagging conscience. Later, he would have a good long think on the ramifications of kissing his executive officer. And fondling his executive officer. There needed to be more of the fondling…
“Since. When. You. Impertinent Witch. Have you taken. Cream. With. Your. Coffee?” Each word punctuated a kiss or a slow nibble of her lips.
He tasted her like he was fascinated with some new food—no, some new dessert—and couldn’t get enough. It was a heady feeling. He was still talking, babbling something about cream. She didn’t care, not for a minute or two. This was too good to pass up.
“And if we didn’t?”
Why is she still talking? Why is she still making sense? I’m doing this wrong. Done correctly I’m fairly certain she’d be moaning by now.
She pushed, lightly, on his chest. “Hey. What if we didn’t have to go out and save the world, er, universe, in a few minutes? What would you do?”
He really couldn’t be expected to respond with mere words to a question like that. He growled, truly growled like some ridiculous dog in heat, and kissed her. It was a hard kiss, and his fingers were probably going to bruise the soft skin of her hip hidden just under the layers of her flight jumper.
When he pulled back to look down at her, watched her eyelids drag open as if weighted, and he saw the daze reflected there, he wanted to shout his triumph.
Brett nuzzled the side of her neck, tracing kisses from her ear to her collarbone. “I wouldn’t let you leave this room until anyone who saw you knew you were mine.” His hand slipped from her hip to the small of her back. “Mine.”
She grinned, widened it when he grinned back.
“And then, for good measure, I’d hang a sign around your neck marked “No poaching.”
Maggie laughed. Chuckles and giggles bubbled up from deep inside her—pressed as they were he could feel each quivering gasp—and exploded outward. For the past twenty-four hours, she’d struggled to stay ahead of an overwhelming sense of defeat. Starting with the attack on her and the captain, through Fortunas revealing his true identity to them, and ending with the news that Marissa Hill lay dying after the birth of her child, Maggie’s day had run the emotional gauntlet. It felt so good to laugh. She wasn’t sure when she’d next have the opportunity. She laid her head against the captain’s chest, content to be held.
***
Lieutenant Price looked down at the beeping alert indicator on his panel. Ensign Chi had the Watch. Commander O’Connell was in the captain’s sleeping quarters. That bit of information made him grimace, but he supposed the two of them deserved whatever comfort they could find. But if the captain was in his quarters, as he surely was if O’Connell was in there, why was his alert beacon pinging from the brig? Tony typed a few commands into his tablet while he traveled in the vacuum tube through the ship. Guttmann was in their quarters, presumably asleep. Chi showed on the bridge, where Price had left him. Robertson was in a vacuum tube.
The lieutenant blinked at the screen as the lift slowed to a stop. Ensign Robertson’s beacon showed him to be in the very same spot Price was standing in.
What the hell?
Convinced their systems were malfunctioning, Price tried to page his own locator. The signal came back as “unable to locate, powered down.” He flipped his wrist over. The unit blinked back at him. He clenched his fist and pressed on the delicate bones of his wrist. The unit blinked twice before powering down. With a savage shake of his hand, Price turned the bio-monitor chip back on. He pinged the unit once more. He still showed as off, and Ensign Robertson still appeared to be standing right on top of him.
Cursing loudly enough to startle a passing enlisted woman, Price stalked to the brig.
***
In his quarters, Brett Hill watched Maggie work her hair back into a neat bun. He saw her thin face crease into a frown. She rubbed a finger across a red mark on her collarbone. Her green eyes caught his in the mirror’s reflection. Still staring a silent reprimand, she yanked her collar into place. She watched him walk up behind her. Quiet and reflective, Brett traced the fine white scar on her left arm.
“You aren’t responsible for Marissa’s death anymore than you are responsible for that,” Maggie whispered.
He raised his head, gave her a soft smile. “Ultimate responsibility lies with the captain. You know that.”
She tilted her head to one side. “Trying to take credit for my heroics?”
Brett softly kissed her forehead. “Never. Where are you off to?”
Maggie stepped back and tugged her sleeves into place. “At the moment? I’m going down to the brig and kick your damn brother in the groin.”
“Kindly refrain from abusing the prisoner.”
“What do you intend to do with him?”
He raised his eyebrow. “Beat him to a pulp, of course.”
***
Tony heard voices as he stepped into the small, secure, area used as a makeshift prison. After Ryan’s attack on Dr. Ruger, Captain Hill ordered his brother to be locked on the Hudson. There should have been an armed enlisted man standing outside the door, but the corridor was empty. Whoever was speaking suddenly stopped. Price blinked at Ryan Hill, who stood freed of his restraints and his cell. Behind Ryan, lying face-down on the floor, was the guard.
“What the hell?”
Tony felt someone step close behind him. His pupils dilated fully at the feel of the metal sphere pressed against his kidneys. There was a cracking report and the smell of hot metal. Searing pain shot up his back. His knees buckled. His head fell back. His bewildered gaze caught a final glimpse of his killer before another muzzle flash blinded him, and his chest exploded.
Chapter 33
“You killed him!”
Nate Robertson sneered at the man standing on the other side of Tony’s corpse. “And you wouldn’t have? Let’s go.”
Ryan didn’t move. “Why?”
Nate sighed like a parent explaining a perfectly obvious fact to a child. “Because, he was an asshole, but an asshole with an overdeveloped sense of honor. Do you honestly think he would’ve let you walk out of here ? I was hoping O’Connell would come investigate why the captain’s locator was blinking down here, but apparently Price was the more observant of the two. Either way, one of them was going to die. Come on. With any luck, your brother won’t realize our deception until it is too late.”
Ryan finally started walking, but he kept an uneasy distance from the ensign. “You set the bomb on O’Connell’s lander.”
“I did, although I expected it to go off much earlier. Timers are so damn tricky. I also set off the charge in the engine strut. The attack on the two of them yesterday, though�
�that was you. You couldn’t kill two people with three aerial mines?” He laughed softly. Pausing to look around a corner, he motioned Ryan to follow. “I had to slow us down. Couldn’t let that baby be born on the surface. Did you really think the Admiral wouldn’t figure out what you were up to? He read the treaty too, you arrogant ass.”
Ryan glared at the officer’s back. “You failed. My daughter’s birth guaranteed control of the planet for humans.”
“Yes, but I can adapt. Unlike our prim captain and our bratty pilots, I know how to appreciate a good power play. I expect to be recompensed for rescuing you. You will, as your daughter’s guardian, be in control of an entire planet.”
They rounded a corner and arrived at the hatchway leading to the lander bay. The cavernous space was empty of personnel. With hurried motions, Nate completed the pre-flight checks. He entered the lander and moved to the pilot’s chair. Strapped in, he started tapping commands on the keypad. Ryan followed him cautiously.
“How are you going to open the bay doors?”
“The same way I’ve hidden my movements, altered star charts, and kept anyone from intercepting your coded messages: I simply re-wrote the codes. Price has authorization to leave. I just enter his codes and the work is done for us. Sit back and relax, Chancellor. Do you have a way to get to your daughter once we reach the surface?”
“Yes. Go to these coordinates.” Ryan transmitted the data to the lander’s navigational system. “My men will meet us there and get us inside the dome.”
Just as the ensign said, the bay doors swung open and no one on the Hudson tried to stop the lander as it streaked to the surface. No one questioned them, either, when they altered their descent to land at an area an entire hemisphere away from the bio-dome. Nate flipped the switches to kill the engines and eagerly undid his straps.
“I am eager to meet our new business partners.” He walked aft and opened the hatch. The sun was setting on this part of Dremiks. He couldn’t see much except for shadows cast by the grey and blue shale. Just as he prepared to jump down, he pulled up short. The cold metal of a gun barrel pressed against the back of his skull.
“You might be able to appreciate a good power play and effectively sabotage an engine, but your firearm safety skills suck. First lesson, never lose sight of your weapon.”
Ryan winced at the loud report of the shot. He didn’t pause to watch Robertson’s body crumple to the ground. Swinging the hatch shut, he returned to the front of the lander, strapped into the pilot’s seat, and expertly maneuvered the craft toward the colony.
***
Maggie blinked and coughed at the bitter smell in the air. She wrenched open the hatchway and gasped. She whirled, checked the corridor behind her, and pulled a long knife from her boot. Stepping carefully over the threshold, she checked behind the door. She didn’t look down, couldn’t look down, as she stepped over Price’s prone form. Inside the small cell, she rolled the guard onto his back. He was dead, his neck broken.
Taking a breath that was meant to be deep and fortifying but ended up being shallow and terrified, Maggie walked back over to Lieutenant Anthony Price. She knelt next to him. He lay in a pool of his own darkening blood. His once clear hazel eyes were clouded above the gaping hole in his chest. His cocky smile was replaced with the slackness of death. A sob escaped her mouth. Maggie dropped the knife and stuffed her fist in her mouth to keep from screaming. She tried to stand, but slipped in the gore. As she caught herself, her hand splashed down into the blood. She collapsed, screaming.
Alerted by frantic calls from the medical staff about several bio chips suddenly going off-line, Captain Hill and Lieutenant Guttmann found her ten minutes later. She was covered in Tony’s blood, hoarse from screaming, and in shock. Swede scooped her up. He looked up as the captain stepped forward.
“I’ve got her, sir. Get to the bridge, and get the engines running. We’ll join you there as soon as she’s coherent. Robertson changed all of the bio-locator codes and permission levels. If you don’t have time to reset them I’ll do it from engineering.”
Stepping out of the brig, the captain stopped to lock the door with his personal security code. He raced to the bridge while Guttmann jogged to officer country. The lift doors weren’t even completely open when Hill pushed sideways through them. Ensign Chi looked up, clearly alarmed.
“Sir, two foreign vessels are in orbit above us.”
“Above us, Ensign? How did two alien craft suddenly appear right over top my ship?”
Chi stammered his answer. “All of the external sensors were shut down, sir. They showed on, but they really weren’t. I cannot explain it sir.”
“We don’t have time for it anyway. I’m going to assume one of those ships is Kigvan. Call them, please.”
“Er, they’ve already called us, sir.” He played the message for the captain.
A Kigvan female, wearing the same blue paint work they’d seen on Queen Khanaa, appeared on the screen. “Captain Hill. My queen has sent me to guard the peace of this place until treaty terms can be confirmed and ratified. Be advised that any aggressive actions toward other treaty members will result in our immediate, forceful, intervention.” The recorded message ended.
“Lovely. Ensign call them back.”
The same Kigvan promptly appeared on the screen. “Captain Hill. I am Teriwyn ko’Khanaa, Ambassador of the Kigvan court. You received my message?” The Kigvan’s words were translated, slowly, through the computer.
“I did, Ambassador. A point of clarification, in human law, we have a saying: possession is nine tenths of the law.” Hill waited while this was translated.
The Kigvan’s head didn’t move; her expression didn’t change. “Meaning that the entity which has physical custody of an object or person controls the disposition of that object or person?”
“Correct.”
“A moment please. I must confer with my scholars.”
“Quickly, please.”
She gave him a shark-like blink. “Kigvans do not rush on matters of inquiry, human.”
Hill winced. He glanced at the radar displays. “Chi,” he hissed. “I’m resetting all of our systems using my personal overrides. Find me Lander 2.”
“Sir, I cannot locate Lander 2, Ensign Robertson, or Lieutenant Price.”
The captain swallowed the bile that surged in his throat. “Price is dead, and Robertson is presumed dead as well, Ensign.” I hope he is dead, it will save me the trouble of court-martialing the little bastard. “Find that lander. You might try locating Ryan Hill’s bio-chip, but I’m betting he’s turned it off.”
The ensign didn’t move. He stared at his captain in shock. “Dead, sir?”
Captain Hill snapped, “Ensign! You have orders! Get to work.” He understood the young man’s shock and dismay; he just didn’t have time for the emotions. They had to salvage this situation. If they lived through this, they would have plenty of time to figure out the extent of Ensign Robertson’s deception. All the captain needed to know at that moment was that his murderous brother had escaped with Robertson’s help, and that two crewmen were killed in the break-out.
The Kigvan female started speaking again. “Captain, Kigvan law on this matter is not the same as human. Human status as the current sole occupants of Dremiks does not convey legal ownership.”
“What about my ownership of the rightful inheritor of the planet under the current treaty?”
A pause stretched long enough to make Hill’s eyebrow twitch. He rubbed it, willing his hands not to shake.
“You own a person?”
“I am the rightful guardian of the child Virginia Dare Hill, born last night on the surface of Dremiks. According to the current treaty, the next species to successfully procreate on the planet inherits rights of ownership.”
The Kigvan turned away from the camera. Her arms and hands waved back and forth while she carried on a conversation with those behind her. Out of the corner of his eye, Captain Hill saw O’Connell walk out of the
lift. She looked straight ahead, not acknowledging anyone’s presence as she slipped into her seat and yanked her straps tight. Hill looked up at Guttmann.
Leaning over, the engineer whispered, “Threw her in a cold shower and shot her full of stims. You’ve got maybe two good hours before she crashes—hard. Also, Cassie Ruger is damn near apoplectic down on the surface. We need to fill her in ASAP.”
“You do it, I don’t have time. Get to engineering. If we have to make a run for it I’m going to need every iota of power you can muster.” He stared at the pilot’s seat back. “Commander?”
“Present.”
Come on, say something comforting or inspiring. Something that will get them focused and makes them forget the pain.
He swallowed, glanced around the bridge.
Screw forgetting. Let’s roll with pain as a motivating factor. Pain and rage. Heads up, Kigvans, you are about to learn a whole lot more about human nature.
“Stay alert, Commander. I have no communications requests from that other ship. The working theory is they are Valtoza, and they are listening to every word I’m saying to these Kigvans.”
“Roger.”
Before they could trade any more terse sentences, the Kigvan turned back to the screen.
“You are the parent of this child?”
“No, I am her uncle. Her father is my brother. The child’s mother died this morning. The father, Ryan Hill, stands accused of her murder along with the murder of my crewmen.”
“This is troubling. We extend our condolences on the death of your humans. The crime of murder terminates the guardian rights of this human, Ryan Hill?”
“Under our laws, yes.”
“Where is this criminal?”
“He is currently on Dremiks.”
The Kigvan clicked several times. The computer didn’t try to translate the sound. “Does he have possession of the child?”
Dremiks Page 43