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“She’s pretty. Very attractive, actually. Where is the problem?”
“This is what she looks likes on the recorders, but her DNA shows this.” He struck a few more keys and the woman altered dramatically.
Dark rainbow hair hung in waves to her waist, her eyes reflected the same colours.
“Holy heck, she is a Moreski?”
“Not a pure breed but one of the royals without a doubt.”
A trickle of dread ran through Helen. “A royal but not pure? I thought the Moreski killed all partial breeds.”
“They do. I believe it is why this woman is hiding.”
Helen leaned back in the chair. “What is she doing and where am I taking Isabi?”
Hyder cleared his throat. “Kaddaka station.”
If she had been drinking water, she would have spit it out, but as it was, she simply fell out of her chair. “What?”
Hyder helped her to her feet, steadying her with his hands on her arms. “She is the repair specialist at Kaddaka station. She fixes all the ships that come into the station and is racking up a hefty account that she transfers regularly to someone on Cadith.”
“How can she be the sole repair specialist?”
“She isn’t. But she is called on every time a ship needs extensive repair and it leaves in factory condition.”
Helen whistled. “That is impressive. Any idea how to get us to the largest black-market station in the region?”
He pulled her in for a hug and stroked her back. “I was hoping that you would have an idea for that.”
She smiled against his chest, inhaling his scent into her lungs. “I have an idea…but you won’t like it and Shade will hate it.”
She felt his laugh. “Do I want to know?”
She leaned back and gave him a quick kiss. “No, you definitely do not. But, I will tell you one thing, if she isn’t as good at repairs as you think, we are going to find ourselves in the negotiating arena again trying to explain the destruction of property.”
He winced. “She’s as good as I think at repairs. Will you be in danger?”
She grinned up at him. “Probably, but with Relay’s help, I think we can get this done. When do you want me to go?”
He sighed and scrubbed his face with one hand. “As soon as I tell Isabi and he calms down.”
She laughed and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. “I will run some pre-flights on the Class One and make sure that all the restocking has been done. Last time we ran short of water for tea. A pretty big deal in the frozen hell we were visiting.”
“You couldn’t boil water?”
“I never said the ice was made of water.” She punched him in the ribs.
“If you see Isabi, send him in here.”
She grinned and nodded, dismissed. She snapped him a salute. “Yes, Commander. Whatever you say, Commander.”
Isabi was where he always was, working out in the gym.
Helen wandered over and waited until he had noticed her before speaking. “Commander has something he needs to discuss with you.”
He looked her up and down, took in her demeanour and nodded. “It’s about my mate, isn’t it?”
“I should be surprised, but I am not. How long have you known?”
“Six weeks or so. It was the main reason for guys like Mist and Guardian to join and they are gossipy.” He towelled the sweat off his torso. “Do you know anything about her?”
“She is a repair specialist. Works on ships and shuttles. Her talent is somehow woven into those repairs, so we will have to see it to figure it out.”
“Is she pretty?”
Helen thought to the two pictures she had seen. “Pretty or beautiful depending on the angle. Pretend I didn’t say anything, Commander has to break it to you or he won’t feel like he is doing his job. Whenever you are over your emotional upset, come meet me at the Class One and we will go get her.”
He chuckled and headed for the shower.
Chapter Twelve
Inside her private sanctuary, Helen called up her pen pal. Relay, how are you this fine day?
Oh, you know life in a tank. Same old, same old.
I need a favour.
What can I do?
I need raider activity on some warships. Something has to blast the crap out of the Class One and it can’t look staged.
Do you know what you are doing?
Nope, but I trust in my ship and my instincts. Shade is going to freak out, so this has to be the right location the first time.
So, what are you looking for, somewhere they are attacking or somewhere they are reported?
Reported and confirmed. I need them to attack the minute that they see me, because I am going to have to jump with a crippled ship.
The cursing was genuine.
Helen laughed in the data stream. Either do it right or don’t do it at all.
Sending you the coordinates. Don’t tell Commander I gave you this.
I won’t, he just knows I am going to get the job done. Isabi is getting a mate, or we are coming back in pieces.
The connection was stopped when Isabi came through the shuttle door in his Shade uniform. The women silently agreed to discontinue the conversation without any words being spoken.
She grinned at him. “Are you ready?”
“I have heard that we are heading to Kaddaka station. How will we get near a repair specialist in a Reflex ship in perfect condition?” Shade strapped in and sat facing forward.
Pilot sealed her ship and jacked fully into its systems. Shade was going to regret his front-row seat in a moment, but why ruin the surprise?
When they reached the jump point in the Morganti system, Pilot strapped in.
Shade started to look worried. “Why are you strapping in? You never strap in.”
“You said it yourself. No ship in perfect condition would be allowed near Specialist Deeha, so I have to change that. Unfortunately, you have to be with me. If I were you, I would close my eyes, because the next half hour is going to be a little hairy.”
Shade’s eyes were still wide as she programmed the delayed jump four minutes after the first. Pilot took a deep breath and triggered the first jump, right into raider-occupied space.
She left the shielding down as they shot around a moon and through a crowd of scraggly ships. The first blast rocked them to one side, the second struck the other. Electronics started to flare and flicker within the ship and she kept flying, taking as much damage as she could.
Shade was sitting with his hands over his eyes and when their escape jump took them away from the action, everything was silent.
They were drifting in a straight line and at the end of that line was Kaddaka station.
“Shade, you can open your eyes now.”
He removed his hands from his face and looked at her as if she was insane. “You are…what the hell, Pilot?”
“We had to have genuine damage or we wouldn’t have qualified for exorbitant cash repairs. Now, shush. I have to make a call.”
She cleared her throat and accessed the com unit. “Kaddaka Station, this is the Class One. We are a ship in distress floating toward your station with minimal power and we require emergency repairs.”
“This is Kaddaka Station. You are out of your jurisdiction for an Alliance vessel.”
“We were on a…private mission and really can’t have this getting back to anyone. We need discreet repairs and we need them fast.”
“Discreet costs.”
“Obviously, or I would be at an Alliance station.”
“I will wake up our repair specialist. She will come out and get you. Bring you safely in.”
Pilot smiled in triumph. “Thank you. I appreciate the effort.”
With the connection to the station over, she raised her hand to Shade for a high five. He didn’t know what she wanted, so she lifted his hand and smacked her own with it. “A Terran acknowledgement of triumph.”
He was still shaking from their game of being the target in a shooting
range.
“I cannot believe you did that.”
“I can’t believe the Commander didn’t ask me what I was up to.” She chortled as they waited.
Shade got solemn. “Do you think I will make a good husband?”
Pilot blinked in surprise. “Yes. I think with the right woman, she will make you give her what she needs. Whether that is done in or out of the bedroom, and hopefully both, will be up to you.”
Shade ran a nervous hand through his hair. “I am not sure about Commander’s judgement on this. How do you feel about your match?”
Pilot cocked her head. “The moment that he met me, he saw himself in my life. That had never happened to him before. We like each other, but due to our schedules, it is harder to get to know each other as fast as other couples could manage. You and your partner will be able to learn about each other on missions, you will have shared experiences that will bind you together.”
“How do you manage it when you are together so infrequently?”
“You were a Companion, you know this. You make the most of each minute you are together and let the rest sort itself out. He will not be the Commander of Morganti Base forever and then, he can join me on my travels as he makes matches for the rest of the Guard, one at a time.”
“You are willing to wait for that?”
“A strong woman requires a strong man and a strong man requires a patient woman. I am both strong and patient, so it isn’t too much of a stretch for me to wait.”
Isabi smiled. “That is a rare thing.”
“It is surprising what you can find when you don’t realize you are looking for it. I sure wasn’t looking for a mate when Hyder woke me, but now, it feels bizarrely right.”
“How did you meet?” Isabi was trying to work off his nerves and they both knew it.
She leaned forward and smiled. “I was the tanked pilot of an Alliance warship who was involved in a raider intervention. My captain was a coward who wanted to run instead of protecting the travellers and ship convoy that the raiders had jumped.”
Isabi grinned. “What did you do?”
She snorted, “I believe the term is mutiny. I took complete control of the ship, got the gunners aimed in the right direction and kept us between the raiders and their prey until all of the little bastards were gone.”
“What happened?”
“The captain freaked. From what I was told later, he smashed through my tank and tried to kill me. I woke up with Hyder at my bedside and that started this really weird adventure.”
A small figure riding a metal harness and a rocket waved at them. It was dispatched out of Kaddaka and was moving toward them at a quick pace.
“Isabi, I think that your adventure is just about to begin.”
He nodded and watched the woman intently while she and Pilot chatted through the open com. Mala Deeha, repair specialist of Kaddaka station, his future wife.
What did Commander get him in to?
Author’s Note
And so, I bring the last book to the moment where the first began. Freak Factor started the Sector Guard odyssey and Pilot in Command completes it where it started.
This is the twenty-fifth of the Sector Guard books (26 if you count Hardcore Green) and it has been a blast to write these characters and their adventures. Thank you for coming with me on this weird journey.
The next series will use the Guardsmen and support staff as backup for the exceptional women who are recruited by the Citadel. With the Vorwings creating and controlling the raiders, a defence has to be more than rooted in dispatched assistance and that means small outposts with talented occupants.
Tales of the Citadel will begin on January 1, 2012 with the book Soul Keeper. A woman whose only true talent is to absorb and protect the souls of the dead is summoned to help the victims of a most peculiar plague.
Sounds like fun.
Hope you will continue to visit the Sector Guard in their next series,
Viola Grace
http://www.violagrace.com
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About the Author
Viola Grace was born in Manitoba, Canada where she still resides today. She really likes it there. She has no pets and can barely keep sea monkeys alive for a reasonable amount of time. Her line of day job tends to be analytical which leaves her mind hopping to weave stories. No co-worker is safe from her character analysis. In keeping with busy hands are happy hands, her hobbies have included cross-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, costuming, cake decorating, baking, cooking, metal work, beading, sculpting, painting, doll making, henna tattoos, chain mail, and a few others that have been forgotten. It is quite often that these hobbies make their way into her tales.
Viola’s fetishes include boots and corsetry, and her greatest weakness is her uncontrollable blush. Her writing actively pursues the Happily Ever After that so rarely occurs in nature. It is an admirable thing and something that we should all strive for. To find one that we truly like, as well as love.
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