by R. E. Vega
“Yes?”
“You’re going to need to explain how that time warp tech works if we ever hope to get Ulan back.”
BRAX
He woke with the headache to end all headaches.
He tried to open his eyes, but the light burned and made his head throb even harder. He groaned and closed them again.
“Good. You’re awake.” That was Dayna’s voice.
He tried to open his eyes again, then once again decided against it.
“What the hell happened to me?” he demanded.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Dayna said. “We’re not exactly sure yet. We managed to get you and the captain back to the ship, but you’ve both been unconscious this whole time. The captain is still unconscious. Do you remember what happened?”
He tried to, but the effort made his head ache.
“I remember you firing on that other ship,” he said finally. “After that, everything went dark.” He let out another groan. “Fuck, how many times am I going to almost die today?”
“Maybe all these near-death experiences are good for you,” Dayna said.
“I’ve always said that what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”
“And I’ve always said that you could use a few good knocks to the head.”
Dayna sounded almost amused, which gave him some comfort—he doubted she’d find any humor in this at all if he and the captain were in any sort of critical condition.
Carefully, he tried opening his eyes again. It took a few tries, but he was finally able to keep them open for more than a few seconds.
Everything was so bright and fuzzy. He blinked a few times until the clouds of light began to take shape, and it wasn’t until a couple of minutes later that he remembered why everything looked so weird—he’d forgotten that he could see auras now. It made everything glow and made his head throb.
He was in the sickbay. Dayna was standing nearby, looking at something on the monitors. When he turned his head, he could see the captain on the other bed, still completely out.
As he lay there, he tried to put the pieces together, to go back through all the events that had led him here. Suddenly, he remembered everything.
“What about Ulan?” he said. “What happened to him? And to that girl?”
Dayna frowned, and the aura around her became a muddy red. He wasn’t sure he recognized that color yet—it looked nothing like the shades of crimson she glowed when she was angry or annoyed with him.
“We don’t know,” she said. “But we’ll figure it out when the captain wakes up.”
“Will she wake up?”
Dayna’s aura flickered momentarily with the shades of fear and uncertainty. “I hope so.”
Brax lay there a moment longer, listening to Dayna poke a few things on the monitors. He couldn’t be sure, but he felt like she was holding something back, keeping something from him. And he knew asking her outright wouldn’t get him anywhere.
Gingerly, he propped himself up on his elbows. It made him feel dizzy, but he could just keep lying here.
“Thank you,” he said. “For getting us back.”
“Of course I’d get you back,” she said. “I wasn’t about to abandon our captain. And you…you’re my crewmate. We don’t abandon our crewmates.”
Her eyes moved back to her screen. “Besides, it wasn’t just me. It was all of us left on the ship. Thad did most of the work.”
“Still, thank you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Now isn’t the time to get sappy, Brax. We have work to do.”
He swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Then put me to work. Let me help. What’s the plan?”
Her aura flicked yellow and orange—a pattern he didn’t recognize, but from the look on her face, he guessed she was surprised.
“You aren’t doing anything but lying back down,” she said. “We need you fully recovered as soon as possible.”
“I’m more than capable of helping, I assure you.”
“I’m looking at your scans, idiot. And you most definitely are not. Get back in bed.”
“Fine.” He shrugged and smiled. “If that’s what you think, then come over here and make me.”
That earned him another eye roll. “Very mature.”
“I’m serious. I’m a member of this crew, too, Dayna, and that means I’m just as concerned about the events of today as you are. Perhaps even more so, since I’m the one who keeps almost getting killed. I don’t want to lie down—I want to help. I should think you’d understand by now.” He could tell by the softening of the colors of her aura that he was getting through to her, weakening her determination.
“I do understand,” she said after a moment. “But if you overexert yourself, you’re just going to make your condition worse. And then you might need days or weeks of recovery. You wouldn’t be helping anyone.”
“Perhaps. Or perhaps there’s another reason you don’t want me helping.”
Another flicker of surprise flashed around her, followed by an intensifying of the muddy red. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means,” he said. “From the moment we returned to the ship, I’ve made my feelings on this entire matter very clear—I know you’re hiding something from us, Dayna. Probably hiding many things.
“And rather than help us by sharing what you know, you’ve hidden what you know from us. Why? I can only think of a handful of reasons why you might hide that information, and none of them look very good on you.”
The muddy red of her aura now had veins of brighter red within in—anger, forcing itself through the cracks of whatever else she was feeling.
She marched over to him, her mouth a hard line.
“What exactly are you accusing me of?” she demanded.
He shrugged again. “Nothing, yet. I’m just suggesting that it’s a little suspicious, that’s all.”
She stopped right in front of him, crossing her arms. “Get back in bed, Brax. If I have to tie you down, I’ll do it.”
“Well, I wouldn’t object to that,” he said, grinning. “Though usually I prefer to be the one doing the tying—”
She grabbed him by the upper arms and practically pushed him back down onto the bed. But he was faster than her—as he fell back, he caught her arms and pulled her down with him. She landed right on top of him, and he looped his arms around her waist and held her there.
“Well, look at this,” he said, still grinning. “You do care.”
“Let go of me, or I swear I’ll punch you.”
“Just tell me this, Dayna—when I was out there unconscious in that escape pod, were you the least bit worried about me?”
“You’re an idiot.”
“It’s a simple question.”
“You’re still an idiot.”
“I think you were worried,” he said. “I think you just don’t want to admit it. Just like you don’t want to admit what I’m seeing in your aura right now. You enjoy being this close to me.” He flattened his hands against her back. “There’s no reason to lie about it, sweetheart—I can see the truth. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. If there’s one thing all these near-death experiences have taught me, it’s that life is short and that we should take full advantage of—”
Her fist collided with his cheek, and stars flashed across his vision, temporarily blinding him to all else.
“You want another concussion?” Dayna said as she jumped off of him.
“Because I’ll give you one. You’re lucky I didn’t hit you harder.”
“Come, Dayna,” he said through the throbbing. “Just one kiss for a dying man—”
“You touch me again and I’ll pump you full of a sedative that’ll keep you out for the next week. I—”
A groan on the other side of the room made both of them jump.
“Seriously?” came the captain’s voice. It was weak and scratchy, but that didn’t make it any less authoritative. “Can’t you two go five minutes w
ithout threatening to kill each other? I should lock you in the brig together and refuse to let you out until you learn how to get along.”
“I never threatened to kill her,” Brax said.
Dayna glared at him and hurried over to the captain’s side. “How are you feeling, Captain?”
“How long was I out?”
“Only about an hour.”
“An hour too long.” With a grunt, Captain Arleth sat up on the bed.
Dayna grabbed her arm.
“Captain, you really should lie down for a little longer—”
“We don’t have time for that,” the captain said, standing. She only wobbled slightly before finding her bearings. “We have work to do.”
Dayna frowned. “Captain, I really think—”
“Tell me on the way to the bridge, Officer Jackson,” she said, walking straight past Dayna and out of the sickbay. Dayna, after only the briefest of hesitations, went after her.
Well, I’m not about to let them have all the fun, Brax thought, sitting up again. He rubbed his cheek. That Dayna sure was a firecracker. He’d never found a punch so…arousing.
With a grin, he slipped out of bed. He’d never let fear stop him before. So what if he’d already almost died a few times today? What was once more?
KAYLIN
Kaylin’s head throbbed, but there was no time to wonder what had happened to her or Brax. Ulan was gone. She couldn’t hear him or the girl aboard the other escape pod any longer—it was as if the two had disappeared into space in an instant. And it was long past time to figure out what the hell was going on.
Dayna followed at her heels until they made it back to the bridge. It wasn’t a moment later that Brax joined them.
Thad was already sitting at the second navigation control station, pressing button after button. Dayna took the station next to his while Brax took his place at the communication controls.
“Report, Hamilton,” Kaylin demanded.
“Nothing to report, Captain.” I’m glad you’re back. I was worried about you.
Kaylin did her best to keep her expression from displaying her discontent that she could still hear his thoughts. Things between she and Thad were infinitely more complicated now that they’d been bound together like this.
But there was no time for worrying about it now. “Have you checked the long-range sensors?”
“There’s nothing on long range sensors except a couple of IU patrol ships at the border, exactly where they should be.”
“Well, they couldn’t have just disappeared. This is the second ship to mysteriously disappear on us today.” She let out something of a huff. “Ideas? Anyone?” She opened her mind the tiniest bit to be able to hear what the others were thinking, understanding that her crew weren’t going to be forthcoming with anything less than a concrete theory. Kaylin was almost sorry that they felt like they couldn’t share wild ideas, particularly in a situation such as this one.
Brad rubbed his jaw, and Kaylin thought for a moment that he’d had an idea that he wasn’t willing to share. She opened her mind to listen to his for only a moment, before closing it off again when she heard what it was he was thinking—something to the effect of what a great ass Dayna had and what a shame it was that she wasn’t willing to drop her panties for him the way every other woman seemed to be.
Kaylin shut down the channel between her mind and Brax’s. Whatever was happening to her, she seemed to be more in control of how much heard now—almost like an on-off switch. She opened her mind to Dayna’s next.
Dayna’s stream of consciousness sounded more like reading a technical manual out loud than listening to the private thoughts of another person. There were things the captain heard that she didn’t understand—and she was fairly well versed in the workings of her own ship. Things about temporal shifts and how to modify the sensors to detect them.
The more she heard, the more intrigued she became. Some of the things Dayna was thinking were far ahead of any of the new studies in mechanics that Kaylin had read. It didn’t matter what Brax thought—Dayna was an exceptional addition to their crew. One who would make a fine head engineer if she didn’t have one already.
Thad lifted a brow in her direction, shaking his head with a smile. At least he could see the humor in the situation—it wasn’t as though Kaylin would ever replace him. It was just nice to have options, and even he should be able to understand that.
“I think Dayna should tell us how she knows those purple-eyed assholes.” Brax practically spat out the words from behind the captain’s chair. “If they were after her, she probably knows where they went.”
Dayna muttered something under her breath, but didn’t even look up from her console.
“I think Dayna is a little busy at the moment.” Thad had obviously also been listening in on Dayna’s thoughts. “She’s—”
“They were after her,” Brax interrupted. “If she’s in on whatever the hell is going on here—”
“I’m not in on anything. Just give me another minute, Captain.” Dayna continued typing into her console.
“We don’t have a minute, sweetheart.” Brax’s voice had turned condescending. “We lost our minutes while your friends were trying to hunt you down and almost killed me for the third time today—”
Dayna slammed her hand against the console, spinning in her chair to face Brax. “You could stop being such a baby for two seconds and let me help you. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one on board this ship who can.” She glared at him. “Unless you have a better idea.”
“Finish what you’re doing, Dayna.” Kaylin sat down in her chair at the center of the bridge.
Dayna spun back around and pressed a few more buttons. “I’m trying to adjust our scanners to read…more.”
Kaylin frowned, turning her thoughts to her engineer’s.
He seemed to sense it, speaking to her with his mind without turning around. I have no idea what she’s doing. Something with the long-range scanners. But I don’t know what it is she’s programming them to do.
“Dayna, what is it you’re looking for?” Kaylin knew she had to tread lightly—if there was any amount of accusation in her tone, her tactical officer might shut down on her.
“It’s just something I…I read about recently. I think it might work.” I don’t know if the technology exists yet, though.
Kaylin’s brow furrowed at Dayna’s thought. It wasn’t as though she could question her on the contents of her thoughts, either. Something seemed very…intrusive about it. Kaylin wasn’t even sure what the protocol was—how far she could go inside the minds of her crew without stepping over some unknown boundary.
“Perhaps if you explain to us what you’re doing, we could help.” Thad seemed to understand the delicacy of the situation—and Kaylin could hear what almost sounded like trepidation in his voice. “If we knew what you were trying to do…”
Dayna didn’t respond, she only began moving faster.
“I told you, Captain. She’s hiding something. Can’t you…can’t you go inside her head and tear whatever it is she’s keeping from us out?”
Kaylin spun to meet his gaze. “Would you care to have me do that to you, Officer Locke? Would you consider that an acceptable use of whatever the hell gift this is I’ve been given?”
“Um…no.” Brad cleared his throat. “But it’s pretty obvious she’s hiding something from us. Those guys came looking for her, and she still hasn’t explained a damn thing.”
“I can’t explain anything because you’re too thick to understand it.” Dayna didn’t look behind her when she spoke. “And if I thought any of you could understand what was going on, I’d tell you.”
Kaylin tried to open her mind to Dayna’s again, but something was different…wrong. It was as though Dayna had put some sort of mental shield in place, blocking her from having her thoughts read.
“I’m sorry, Captain. It’s not that I mind having you scan my mind. It’s just…I need to be able to focus for a f
ew more minutes. You have no idea how much energy it takes to shield myself from you and Thad.”
Kaylin’s mouth fell open for a moment before she snapped it closed. “Dayna, I’m going to have to ask you to step away from the console.” She nodded in Thad’s direction, and he placed a hand on his sidearm.
Dayna pushed a few more buttons before she stood, nodding at the captain. “I was done, anyway.” She glanced at Thad. “I think you’ll find you can scan for the ship now. And for the other escape pod.”
Kaylin’s eyes never left Dayna, but she motioned for Thad to do as Dayna had suggested.
“I don’t…I don’t understand, Captain. They are on sensors now. Both of them. And they’re right in front of us, right where they were when we last saw them. Only the other ship is completely disabled—it’s dead in the water. They can’t even…I don’t understand. They’re here…” He motioned toward the viewport. “But they aren’t here.”
Dayna frowned, nodding. “I’ve seen it happen a few times. When a ship tries to make a temporal leap and their engines are hit at the same time…they’re kind of stuck in a no-man’s land. So to speak.”
“So to…speak?” Brax walked down to stand across from Dayna. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’d like to know that, too.” Thad looked as confused as Brax. “Dayna, there’s no such thing as a temporal leap.”
Her brow wrinkled, and for a split second, it looked like she might cry. But her emotions recovered almost immediately. “There is, though. Just not here.”
“Not…here?” Kaylin stood, still trying to read Dayna’s thoughts, though she found she was now completely blocked from even reading the slightest bit of emotion from her tactical officer, let alone actual thoughts. “What do you mean, here?”
“I don’t mean…here.” Dayna motioned around the room. “I meant more like…now. Not…yet.”
“I don’t…” Brax shook his head. “You’re not saying—”
“I escaped from them. I left four years ago—Captain Arleth was kind enough to take me in. I left them—and I hid in the only place I could think of hiding.”