by Speer, Flora
“I didn’t know that story,” Perri said.
“You may eat it with crushed nuts on top or with a berry sauce,” Halvo said. As he spoke he was removing their empty plates to a compartment under the table. From another compartment he produced a pair of green crystal bowls, each sitting on a matching crystal plate. The rockfruit in the bowls looked to Perri like a yellow-fleshed melon. The berry sauce she chose dribbled into the small seed cavity in the center, where it mixed with the fruit when she spooned it up.
“Well?” Halvo watched her as she took her first bite.
“It is every bit as wonderful as you promised.”
“I am glad you like it. And I am even happier to see you smile again, if only for a minute.” Reaching across the table, Halvo took the hand that was not holding her spoon.
“I don’t have much to smile about, do I?”
“Perhaps more than you think.” Halvo’s hand tightened on Perri’s. “I know how you hate being left in ignorance, but there are times when it is best to be discreet until certain delicate matters have been resolved.”
“That statement tells me nothing.” She tried to pull her hand out of his, but he only exerted a firmer pressure.
“I don’t mean to sound like a mealy-mouthed diplomat,” Halvo said. “It is just that I have learned from past experience when to keep silent. You have trusted me before, Perri. Trust me now. It won’t be for long.”
His voice was low. She could see in his face and his eyes just how serious he was. There was only one answer she could give him.
“I do trust you, Halvo.”
“I will not desert you.”
Perri knew it was a solemn oath that Halvo had just spoken. What she did not know was the state of his feelings toward her. As an honorable man he might feel no more than a sense of responsibility for the ignorant girl who had been tricked into abducting him. But she did not want his pity. She wanted his love.
Halvo rose from the table, the hand he still held pulling Perri up after him. And then she was in his arms, his mouth was on hers, and though she might question his feelings, she had no doubt about what he wanted.
She thought of refusing him, but only for a moment. If she sent him away she would be hurting herself, too, perhaps more than she hurt Halvo. She loved him passionately, totally, without knowing how warm or how lasting his desire for her was.
Nor could she guess how long she would remain relatively free and able to make love with him. The worst torture Perri could imagine was being sent to a prison planet far removed from Halvo, never to see him again. Or touch him. Or hear his voice.
I will enjoy what I have until they take it away from me. Silently, as if they were a magical incantation, she repeated to herself the words she had said earlier.
With his arm at her waist Halvo drew her to the bed. Perri’s heart beat faster and she sensed a warming deep inside her. Halvo put one knee on the bed. Perri remained standing close to him, within the circle of his arm.
“Your beautiful eyes reveal everything you are feeling.” Halvo kissed each lid. “They tell me how much you want me.”
“I won’t deny it.” Perri felt like crying to know she was so transparent to him. She stood perfectly still, letting him kiss the softness of her cheek.
“But this jewelry must go,” he murmured, “so I can taste your delicious ears.”
“I asked the computer to give me Demarian earrings. I thought you would like the way they look.”
“I do.” His mouth curved upward in amusement. “However, I prefer not to have my nose scratched when I am making love.” Halvo gently removed the earrings.
“The robe is also most becoming, but it, too, is a hindrance,” he whispered, working at the fastenings between her breasts until the buttons were all undone and he could push the fabric aside. It slipped lightly to the floor. Perri was wearing nothing underneath. Halvo stared at her, taking in every detail of her delicate yet womanly figure. Then he grasped a thick lock of her dark red hair and pulled it forward until it fell over her shoulder and down across her breast.
Perri trembled a little, wanting him, wishing she dared to say aloud how much she loved him. She stayed where she was at the foot of the bed until Halvo had undressed and pulled down the covers. When he bent across the bed and put out his hands, Perri laid both of hers into them. Halvo yanked and Perri went tumbling down onto the cool white sheets. Halvo fell on top of her.
The touch of his warm skin on hers inflamed her senses. She loved the way the rough hair on his legs rubbed against her smoother limbs, loved the tingling sensation of his manly chest pressed on her sensitive breasts. Best of all she loved his fingers weaving through her hair, holding her head in just the right position so he could fit his lips over hers. She welcomed the surge of his tongue into the eager heat of her mouth, rejoiced in the hardness that prodded at her thigh.
She wrapped her arms around him, wanting him closer. She shifted her hips, opening to him and Halvo slid into her as easily and naturally as a sunrise – or a fierce, planet-shaking storm. He drenched her with passion and with unceasing kisses. He touched her in places that made her think he must be a contortionist to be able to reach there – and there – until she shook and heaved and cried out for more – and deeper – and harder.
“Please. Please.” She gasped.
Halvo found just the right place and exactly the rhythm and pressure she needed. She heard him groan with pleasure a moment before she lost all perception of time or place and joined him in a sublime union of bodies and, on her part at least, of heart and mind as well. Only very slowly did Pern’s surroundings resolve themselves once more into two people, a bed, and a spaceship cabin.
Halvo stayed with her all night, though strictly speaking, in space there was neither night nor day.
“Ship’s time,” he said. “Humans require day and night to follow each other in the steady cadence demanded by our bodies and our minds. Without that rhythm we suffer, fall ill, and occasionally die. Other species seem to adapt more easily to different schedules, which is why most spaceships maintain a twenty-four-hour day or something as close to it as possible. And at the moment, it is nearly midnight by the Krontar’s time.”
He made love to her again later and it was even more wonderful than the first time, but to Perri the important part of that night was in the long hours when they lay quietly in each other’s arms, talking in soft, disjointed phrases. Though they were still in the Empty Sector, she suffered no bad dreams that night but slept peacefully at last, curled up against Halvo’s warmth and strength.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Do I have to stay in this cabin until we reach Capital?” Perri asked.
“Where were you planning to go if you should be allowed to leave it?” Halvo lounged back against the pillows, a mug of qahf in one hand, a chunk of brown Demarian bread in the other. The sheet was loosely thrown across his loins as protection, he had told Perri, against the possibility of spilled hot qahf, since she persisted in bouncing about the bed in a dangerous manner.
In response to that grave insult to her dignity Perri had bounced off the bed, and since by ship’s time it was now early morning, she had pulled on the pale green robe. However, she neglected to button it and Halvo’s eyes frequently strayed to the enticing slit in the neckline. Noticing his interest Perri returned to sit on the edge of the bed with one bare foot tucked up beneath her. Perhaps they would make love again before it was time for him to leave her. She hoped so. There was nothing else quite like the pleasure, or the sense of security, she found in Halvo’s arms.
“I would like to see more of the Krontar,” she said in answer to his question. “Are prisoners ever allowed on the bridge?”
“If you were captain, would you let a prisoner walk onto your bridge?” Halvo took a bite of bread.
“I just thought it would be an interesting place from which to observe our exit from the Empty Sector and our return to Jurisdiction space.”
“You can se
e that from here.” Halvo was watching her with a gleam in his eye that suggested he knew what she was trying to do.
“Then I would also like a tour of the galley where our delicious dinner was prepared.”
“Um-hmm.” He never took his eyes off her, though he swallowed two large gulps of qahf.
“Is there an observation deck on the ship?”
“Of course.” Halvo popped the last of the bread into his mouth.
“Dysia mentioned a recreation area for the crew. Did you know she is a swordswoman?”
“She won the Jurisdiction championship two years ago.” Halvo paused, then said, “You forgot to mention the cargo bays.”
“Did I?” To Pern’s own ears her voice sounded too bright, too surprised, too falsely innocent. “I suppose I did. I do want to see all of the ship.”
“You may not visit the cargo bay where Rolli is stored.” Halvo spoke in his admiral’s voice rather than in a lover’s tone.
“But I miss her! Rolli has been with me every day since I was nine years old.”
“I would be jealous of that robot if I did not know there are things I can do for you that Rolli cannot.” Halvo moved swiftly to kneel on the mattress next to Perri. “You are afraid the technicians at Capital will uncover Melri’s memories, aren’t you? And you fear that, as a result, Rolli will be destroyed and a heavier punishment laid on you.”
“I can think of enough reasons for your mother to hate me, and for your father to punish me, without them learning about those implanted memories.”
“I can tell you this much,” Halvo said. “While we were on Dulan’s Planet, Tarik, who knows far more than you or I about such mechanisms, and probably more than any technician at Capital, took great care to disguise that portion of Rolli’s circuitry.”
“Tarik did?”
“My brother derives enormous pleasure from bending Jurisdiction rules that he considers unreasonable,” Halvo said. “Tarik has been known to break a few laws on occasion, too. He was all too happy to work on Rolli.”
“Thank you for telling me, but I still want to see Rolli.”
“It can’t be done. Not on this trip. Rolli and the Space Dragon are under heavy guard. However, there may be something I can do to alleviate your loneliness. I believe there is just enough time before I am scheduled to meet with Captain Jyrit.” Halvo lifted Perri, settling her across his thighs. One of his hands slipped inside the open neckline of her robe to stroke and caress her breast. His mouth quickly followed his fingers. With her own emotional temperature rising, Perri could feel Halvo hardening against her. She pulled at her robe, lifting it up until it was bunched at her waist and she and Halvo were flesh to flesh. Her arms stole around his neck just as Halvo pulled her nearer still.
“You really are the most inventive man,” she whispered.
* * * * *
“Do you still want to leave this guest cabin that you regard as a jail?” It was almost noon by ship’s time and Halvo had been with Captain Jyrit for several hours. He had just returned and now stood lounging in the doorway of Perri’s cabin, looking incredibly handsome in his fresh Jurisdiction uniform.
Perri had used her time alone to invent new clothing for herself. She could tell from the way Halvo was regarding her that he approved of the costume she and the helpful computer had created. Her hair was pulled behind her ears, securely fastened there with a pair of mock tortoiseshell combs, which, nonetheless, allowed the dark red waves to flow loosely down her back. Her dress was a soft, pale beige, the neckline wide and just low enough to reveal her collarbones. The sleeves were long and tight and the body of the dress was designed to cling, but the skirt flared out from hip to mid-calf. Her tights matched the dress exactly, as did her plain, low-heeled shoes. It was a simple outfit, yet the mirror had revealed to Perri how well the color and the cut of the dress showed off her lithe figure and the startling combination of her hair and eyes.
She had dumped her Regulan clothes into the recycling slot. Ridding herself of them and putting on the new garments of her own choice marked for Perri the beginning of her life as a real adult. No longer a girl in any sense, she was determined to accept whatever fate and Jurisdiction justice might deal to her. As an adult she would take full responsibility for what she had done. And she would never stop loving Halvo.
“I have learned so much from you,” she said to him. “I never laughed before I met you. I never made up my own mind on any subject.”
“It hasn’t been one-sided, you know.” He came to her to lift her chin and kiss her lightly. “I had become remarkably stuffy. I had forgotten how to have fun.”
“While I had never learned how.” Perri touched his cheek. “If it is permitted, I would like to see as much of the ship as possible. I have a lot to learn, and it seems that most of my schooling must be completed before we reach Capital.” She did not finish the thought, which was that once she was in a Capital jail cell or, later, on a prison planet, she would not have the opportunity to study the cultures of the many Races of the Jurisdiction or their history and various sciences. Her education would be brief, limited to the days she spent on the Krontar and the facilities the ship had to offer.
“I have Jyrit’s permission to show you around,” Halvo said.
“Then let us not waste time.” Perri was out of her cabin and into the corridor before she finished speaking. She indicated the guards standing on either side of her door. “Do they have to come with us?”
“Gentlemen, I believe I can handle the prisoner on my own,” Halvo said to the guards. “On my authority, you are dismissed. Check with security and your chief will tell you when to begin your next watch at this post.”
“Aye, sir.” Outwardly the guards appeared to be serious, but Perri thought they were secretly amused.
With Halvo as a guide to explain why the ship was arranged as it was, the layout of the Krontar soon became clear to Perri. It was not only a warship. Arrangements were necessary to house, feed, clothe and, at least occasionally, to entertain the several hundred souls who served on her. Nor could the care of personnel who were ill or injured by accident or in battle be neglected. Perri met the chief cook, the ship’s three doctors, the head nurse, and the recreation director. She even met the Chief of Security, who, as she expected, regarded her with cold disdain.
“You already know Lieutenant Dysia, the Chief Armaments Officer,” Halvo said as they walked along a corridor on one of the upper decks.
“It is amazing to me that a woman could be given so great a responsibility,” Perri said.
Then she stopped in her tracks, because a cabin door had just opened and Kalina stepped into the corridor. She looked as surprised to see Perri as Perri was to see her. One swift glance took in Pern’s new clothing and the fact that she was with Halvo. A longer look assessed the quick upward tilt of Perri’s chin and the way she met Kalina’s eyes without faltering.
“Where are you going?” Kalina asked.
“With Captain Jyrit’s permission,” Perri answered, “Halvo has been showing me over the ship.”
“I see.” Again Kalina looked from Perri to her son and then back to Perri. “Your appearance is much improved.”
“I hope so,” Perri said. “It is my intention to improve all of my life.”
“Indeed?” Kalina almost smiled. “Why are there no guards with you?”
“Perri will not misbehave while she is in my custody,” her son said.
“Let us hope you are not mistaken. Halvo, would you care to join me? My aides and I have been invited to the bridge to observe our reentry into Jurisdiction space.”
“Thank you, Mother. Perri and I would be delighted.”
Perri could tell that Kalina was taken aback. She had meant her invitation only for her son. But Halvo laid a hand on Pern’s arm, keeping her close to him when he took his place at his mother’s side and began to walk down the corridor with her. Kalina’s two aides fell in behind them. Kalina said nothing, either to protest or to agree wit
h Perri’s inclusion in the party.
When they reached the bridge they all paused at the entrance. Deferring to his mother, Halvo stepped aside to let her go first. The double door slid open and Kalina moved to the exact middle of the threshold.
“Permission to enter the bridge, Captain Jyrit?” Kalina spoke the formal request.
Jyrit was standing in front of his captain’s chair, his gaze intent upon a giant viewscreen across which swirled the image of the pink, gaseous outer boundary of the Empty Sector.
“Permission granted, Lady Kalina.” Jyrit did not turn to look at his guests until all five members of Kalina’s party had entered and the doors had closed. Then with perfect Jugarian formality he bowed to Kalina and to Halvo. He paused for only an instant before bowing to Perri, too. Halvo had told her that good manners and a sense of formality were important to Jugarians. Still, Perri marveled at Jyrit’s unshakable poise at finding a prisoner on his bridge. Halvo made no explanation of her presence, so Perri decided she was not obliged to make one either. She simply bowed to Jyrit as the others were doing.
“Where would you like us to stand, Captain?” Kalina asked. “We do not want to be in your way.”
“Only the raised area immediately around my chair is off-limits,” Jyrit said.
“Then we will remain behind that area and disturb you no further.”
Again there were polite bows all around, after which Jyrit resumed his survey of the view-screen. Dysia, who was sitting at a console off to one side of the bridge, looked over at Perri, took in her new clothes with a nod of approval, and sent a friendly smile her way.
As the Krontar drew nearer to the boundary the streaky, illuminated gas clouds through which they were passing became more dense and more frequent until they filled the view-screen. The light from the clouds was reflected onto the bridge, turning the dull gray metal bulkheads and the businesslike consoles to glowing rose. The very air of the bridge seemed pink.