The Mammoth Book of Futuristic Romance (Mammoth Books)

by Trisha Telep

  “I take it you’re not happy about having me there physically,” he said, a certain sadness to his voice.

  She lifted her head and wiped her cheeks quickly, coming away with tears. She hated how easily she broke down over seemingly nothing. “No. I’m happy. I am. It’s just, well, everyone else is going to wake up, too, and Oli is going to be so upset. So many people will be.”

  “Your brother will adjust fine.”

  She wasn’t so sure. Oliver was stubborn and fiercely protective of her. Eleven years ago he’d tucked her safely into the pod next to his, kissed her forehead and told her it would feel like a dream and before she knew it – they’d be awake and on Twelve. That hadn’t been the case. One year into the journey, all hell had broken loose and everything for her had changed. It hadn’t been a quick dream. It had been ten long years. She’d aged. Her brother hadn’t. “He went into suspended animation next to me when I was thirteen and he was twenty-six. He’s going to wake up still twenty-six only to find I’m no longer thirteen. Ten years have passed for me.”

  “He’ll come to terms with that,” Cameron soothed. “The alternative isn’t something he’d have wanted.”

  “You mean the lot of us ‘pod-rejects’ dead?”

  “Pod-rejects?” Cameron questioned, laughing slightly. He’d never been fond of what the children of the ordeal had taken to calling themselves years ago. It had sort of stuck.

  “Beats ‘pod-kids’. You vetoed that one long ago.”

  “You’re not kids anymore, Livia,” he reminded. “You haven’t been for a long time.”

  “I know, but the name fits,” she returned. She sniffled again, her cheeks flushing quickly, flooded with shame. She shouldn’t want him all to herself. She should be happy he could wake and, in turn, wake the rest of the passengers on board Rhea. “And everyone is going to get up, and they’re going to demand your attention and your time. I think we’ve all got used to getting your undivided attention all these years.”

  “We?” a perky, short blonde asked from the doorway to the bridge. She wore tan fatigue pants and a light-pink tank top, showing off her curves. “Try you.”

  “Cara,” Olivia said, wiping her face again to remove the signs she’d let her emotions get the better of her once more. “Stop. Cameron has been there as a guiding voice and interface with the ship’s computer for years.”

  “I know,” Cara supplied, still grinning. “But have you ever noticed he goes by ‘Doctor Cameron’ to the rest of us, but to you he answers to ‘Cam’?”

  Olivia hadn’t really ever thought about it. She and Cameron had grown close over the years. Even though he wasn’t physically there, she considered him her closest friend.

  She shrugged. “I’m not sure I’m following you.”

  “Livia, I’ve sat with you next to his stasis pod before. I’m very aware he’s a good-looking guy.” Cara entered the bridge. She had a mischievous grin on her face. “Tall, ripped, dark hair, tanned, and . . .”

  Olivia’s eyes widened as her gaze whipped to the cameras and then back to Cara. “He can hear you.”

  “I know,” Cara said, laughing. “Do you disagree? Do you think he’s ugly? Think he’s as hideous as a skankerous slug during its skin shedding?”

  Olivia gasped. “No!”

  Cara pointed at her, still laughing. “Your face is beet red. Almost as red as the time I hit the visor button and retracted the privacy shield on his pod.”

  Olivia thought back to the day. They’d been nineteen when Cara had done it. Most of the crew and the passengers aboard the vessel had gone into stasis wearing medical gowns, or even tank tops and pajama bottoms. A select few had gone in wearing nothing but what they were born in. Doctor Hoyt Cameron was one of those daring, bold ones.

  Cara glanced up at the camera. “Do you remember what she did?”

  “She nearly broke her neck to cover my pod until you put the privacy screen back up,” Cameron said, his voice echoing through the bridge, carrying an amused tone.

  Olivia closed her eyes a second, allowing them their time to tease her before looking at Cara. “Are we going to make fun of me for affording him privacy?”

  “Yes,” Cara said smugly. “Now, tell me you’re excited he’ll be up and about soon.”

  Olivia averted her gaze, shame nearly choking her. “Yes. I’m excited.”

  “Could that have lacked any more enthusiasm?” Cara tapped a hand on her hip.

  “My thoughts exactly,” Cameron inserted.

  Cara came to a stop next to her. “Livia, do you really think he’s going to wake up and totally ignore you?”

  Yes, that was exactly what Olivia feared. Cam was a powerful member of the expedition team. As chief medical officer he’d be consulted on all matters. Plus, he was a member of the Founder’s Council. They’d be the provisional government on Twelve. Meaning, Cameron would be so busy with everything there, he wouldn’t have time for her anymore. “Everyone will demand his attention. He’s very important.”

  “So are you.”

  “No,” she said. “I’m not. And I fully understand everything changes when the rest of the ship wakes.”

  Cara sighed and touched Olivia’s shoulder lightly. “Hon, you really think Doc is going to pretend he hasn’t been there for you for the past ten years?”

  “He’s been there for all of us.”

  The camera lens drew back and stopped panning the room. Cameron often did this when he was checking other areas of the ship, or when he knew she needed privacy.

  Cara smiled. “For us, sure. But, Livia, the rest of us don’t act like a married couple. You two do.”

  Olivia’s nose crinkled as confusion set in. “What are you talking about?”

  “You know what I mean. Those couples who have been married a while. They have that way about them – they finish each other’s sentences, seem to guess what the other wants, and know each other’s habits.”

  “He’s been our interface to the ship for ten years. We know him. He’s watched us every day for all those years. Of course he knows us well.”

  “It’s not my sleeping quarters that he’s been monitoring all night as of late. It’s not me he has long conversations with until the wee hours of the morning.” Cara laughed and waved a hand in the air flippantly. “I’m not complaining. I’m just pointing out that there are dozens of us, but you’re who he focuses on. I’m in charge of accessing the ship’s camera logs each morning. So, uh, yeah, he does.”

  Olivia glanced at the camera. “Are you worried something will happen to me when I sleep? I promised to get this ship to Twelve in one piece. I’ve kept my word so far.”

  Cameron didn’t respond.

  Cara snickered. “Livia, you’re one of the smartest people I know, but really, are you so thick when it comes to men that you don’t get why he’d be watching you all night?”

  Cara and Olivia were the same age, but Cara had a much different upbringing. Her mother had been a prostitute on Three. Cara had been raised in brothels on the edges of the galaxy. She knew things – things Olivia hadn’t been exposed to growing up under the watchful eye of her brother, who had raised her since their parents’ death when she was only six.

  Olivia squared her shoulders. “Well, I’ve watched him sleeping, too.”

  Cara rolled her eyes. “That’s different. He’s in stasis. Anytime you go near his pod he looks like he’s out cold.” She glanced back to the camera. “If you don’t come right out and tell the girl that you have a thing for her, she’ll never catch on. She’s socially stunted in the male department, if you know what I mean.”

  Olivia burst into a fit of giggles. “Right. Yeah. One of the greatest minds mankind has ever known has a thing for me. Okay. Sure. Why not? Can we stop with the teasing now and focus on the wakening? We still on schedule? Cameron is first in line, and then Oliver since he’s head of security. Then . . .”

  Cara put her hand up. “We’re all set. And why wouldn’t Doctor Cameron have a thing for
you? You’re brilliant too, Livia.”

  “Would you please stop?” Olivia asked. “He’s friends with my brother, and older than Oli. He’s who fixed my arm when I fell off that racer when I was nine.”

  “And he’s been locked at his same age for eleven years now, while you’ve grown into a young woman,” Cara reminded. “So stop using the age difference as an excuse. There is a gap, but not a huge one. He’s also part-Vanesier, so he ages at a slower rate than a human. Meaning, he may be thirty-five but he doesn’t look a day older than twenty-five.” Cara smirked. “Of course, there is the drawback of his sight. Without the ship’s interface or his special custom glasses he’s practically blind. I remember meeting him when we boarded, and he was standing there, next to your brother. His glasses gave him feedback problems that day and he had to take them off. His eyes – they’re silver. Freaky.”

  Olivia’s temper flared. “His eyes are not freaky. How dare you say that? And because he has a neuro-mechanical implant he can interface with nearly any technology, so seeing isn’t really an issue for him. And he’s not blind. No, he doesn’t see like we do, but who is to say our way is better? Plus, he’s very capable of functioning without any technology to aid him. Oli told me once when I was younger that Cam would often shut off his implant and function without its help absolutely brilliantly.”

  Cara smacked her lips. “You talked to your brother about the doctor when you were younger?”

  “They’re best friends.”

  “And Oli just offered this info up to you?” Cara gave a questioning look. “You didn’t ask him?”

  Olivia blushed more. “I might have been worried about Cam once. His opti-spectrum glasses were damaged, and his backup pair hadn’t been calibrated yet, so they hurt him more than they helped. I could sense how much pain he was in with them on. I suggested he take them off, and he cocked his head and stared at me for the longest time. He took them off and then kept looking in my direction no matter where I moved, or how quietly I did so.”

  “Hon, he was waiting for you to freak out about his eyes. It’s what most people do when they see them.”

  Olivia tipped her head. “Freak out? Why? They’re gorgeous.”

  Cara laughed.

  Olivia groaned. “You know what I mean. They’re not freaky. I like them. And without his opti-spectrum glasses on he sees the way the Vanesier race does. He sees with his mind – he gets impressions, and his senses compensate, going into overdrive, helping him get a clear idea of what is happening around him. Honestly, he probably sees more than we ever will.”

  Cara crossed her arms under her chest. “You’re very defensive of your husband.”

  “He’s not my . . .” Olivia groaned. “I’m done having this conversation with you.”

  She looked up at the camera, wondering how much Cameron had overheard. He didn’t say anything, and she tilted her head to the side. “Cam?”

  Still he didn’t answer. Something was wrong.

  Cara glanced at her. “The wakening? Already?”

  Two

  Olivia rushed out of the bridge, down the corridor and then into the lift to the pod levels. She knew the way to his pod by heart. She punched the button for Level 4 and waited for what felt like forever for the lift to get there. When it finally did, she pounded on the sliding doors, wanting them to open faster.

  Horrific thoughts of Cameron’s pod malfunctioning during his wakening flooded her mind and hit her hard. The tears came fast, and she did nothing to stop them. She ran full force towards his pod. She came to a grinding halt when she spotted Cameron’s pod hatch unopened and completely intact.

  She eased up alongside it, letting her fingers skim over the hard, yet clear, shelled lid. The body inside lay perfectly motionless. Olivia pressed her palm to the lid, lining up with the side of Cameron’s scruffy jawline. He was incredibly handsome. There was no denying it. “Cam?”

  The nearest mounted camera zoomed in on her. “I’m here,” Cameron said through the pod sector’s sound system. “Sounded like you and Cara could use some privacy.”

  She stiffened. “How much did you hear?”

  He was quiet for a fraction of a second. “Enough to know my eyes don’t bother you.”

  Exhaling slowly, she nodded as the hollow pit in her stomach eased somewhat. “True. They don’t.”

  “Livia,” he said. “My body is slowly starting the wakening process.”

  She’d seen others undergo it. The process wasn’t always pretty to see. “I’ll give you privacy and activate one of the medical droids to oversee it.”

  “No. Stay with me for a bit. Please.”

  She reached under the pod and pulled out the sliding bench seat. All pods had one. They were used as bedside tables or seats for the use of the medical droids who oversaw the crew-members in stasis. She sat and kept her hand on the pod lid. Cameron looked so peaceful. Locked in a state of slumber, so close yet so very far away from her. She bowed her head, putting her forehead to the polycarbonate-blended lid. She wanted to touch him. For too long she’d known only the feeling of cold unforgiving surfaces instead of the touch of the man she longed for.

  “Do you know what I want to do the second I wake?” Cameron asked.

  She kept her head against the lid. “Shower. Oli told me once that’s what most crew-members want after coming out of a long stasis sleep. Some throw up. A few of Quincy’s men did that.”

  Cameron grunted. “When I get my hands on Quincy I’m going to rip him apart. His men, too.”

  She looked to the camera. “You’ve done a fine enough job locking them in the brig for all these years. I can’t believe you overrode the codes so we couldn’t let anyone out.”

  “Quincy and his faction of followers wanted all the females dead,” Cameron said, his voice hard. “Had things gone his way that is exactly what you and the other girls would be – dead. He and his men sabotaged your pods.”

  “I know. This isn’t news to me.” She sighed. “After what happened on Ten, I can’t exactly fault his logic. The Omethus virus strain nearly wiped out all the women and children. And it opened the door to a war that cost us how many more lives?”

  The overhead lighting flashed. A sure sign Cameron was upset. “Bloody stars, Livia. I don’t care what his reasoning was. He tried and nearly succeeded in ending the lives of all the females under the age of sixteen aboard this vessel.”

  “Cam,” she said. “That was ten years ago. We’re not children anymore. We all managed to survive despite Quincy’s best efforts. I know you hate him. We’re not exactly fond of him either, but we don’t hold the same rage you do.”

  “Livia.”

  She took a long, deep breath. “Tell me what you want to do first thing upon waking. Let me guess: wring Quincy’s neck.”

  “No,” he responded. “I want to hold your hand. I want to hold you.”

  She wasn’t sure how to reply, so she just did her best to hide her smile. She wanted to hold him, too. Three years back her feelings for him had started to change – to morph into something more. Cara had told her again and again that Cameron’s feelings for her had changed around that point too, but Olivia couldn’t believe it. A man as powerful and brilliant as Cameron couldn’t possibly feel anything more than friendship for her – for a pod-reject.

  Doctor Hoyt Cameron watched through the surveillance cameras as Olivia stroked the lid of the pod containing his body. He could see the edges of her smile and knew she was pleased. He wanted more than anything to be free from the stasis sleep and to wrap his arms around her.

  Her long brown hair fell forward, cascading over a section of his pod. He wished his body was alert enough that he could reach up and push her hair from her face, so he could see her blue eyes. They were the same color as the waters on Vanesier. When he looked into her eyes he thought of home – of the planet he could never return to but had loved deeply. Sickness and war had ravaged his homeland before his own people had turned on themselves and their planet. When t
hey’d come across the human race, a race so closely resembling them physically, but far inferior in terms of intelligence and technology, the surviving Vanesier had latched onto them, wanting desperately to aid them in finding a suitable home world.

  Livia ran her hand over the pod lid slowly. Absentmindedly, she scanned the consul screen affixed to the side of his pod. It gave a continuous readout of his vitals. Each pod had one. “I’d like it if you held me.”

  His state of awareness slipped quickly before returning, and he knew then that the wakening was moving ahead as planned. Soon he’d lose his sync with the ship’s computer interface. His consciousness would return to his body, and he’d then fight through the chills, the shaking and the nausea that accompanied most awakenings. None of it mattered. All that mattered was getting to actually touch Olivia.

  He’d wanted to come out of stasis the very second he’d realized her pod, like so many of the others, had been sabotaged. He’d wanted to help but he hadn’t been able to. He was the one crew-member who had to remain under at all costs, because he was the one mentally linked to the computer systems of the ship. For ten years he’d been forced to watch the girls learn to survive on their own. They’d had to deal with Quincy’s men systematically waking early from stasis sleep, and they’d been forced to take action accordingly. Their childhoods had been stolen from them. Granted, they’d all grown into fine young women, but they’d deserved so much more.

  Cameron zoomed in on Oliver’s pod. As Olivia’s brother, and head of security on Rhea, Oli would not take kindly to the knowledge that there were traitors among them. Cameron had considered waking Oli years back, but Oli’s kidneys had been damaged in the wars of Eleven, and he’d needed to remain hooked into the pod’s regenerative healing matrix.

  Cameron paused, his mind wandering to Oli. They’d been close friends since Ten, and had been through much together. Cameron had been there when Oli’s mother had succumbed to the Omethus virus strain that had swept through Ten, taking most of the females. He’d been there when the wars of Eleven had taken Oli’s father, leaving Oli as Olivia’s guardian. Now, he would have to be there to tell him that an attempt had been made on his sister’s life, that she was no longer the thirteen-year-old girl he remembered placing in the pod – but rather, a beautiful young woman now. And last, but not least, that Cameron was totally and completely in love with Olivia.