by E. A. James
“Then I believe it’s worth trying,” Dario said.
“Alright, up until now this has been a pretty loose operation due to the, well, weird series of events over the past few days. Going forward, we’re going to have to organize ourselves, especially now that we’re running a ship,” Kira continued, her captain’s instincts coming out in full now.
“So here’s how we’ll set up this crew – Bron, and Thor will be our security officers, and each will lead fire teams when we’re not on the ship. You’ll both be responsible for weapons and defense arrays aboard the ship as well as maintaining personal arms for the crew.”
“Alaria will be our chief engineer and you and Vinnie will be responsible for this ship’s maintenance and operation,” Kira carried on.
“Dario is obviously medical, and Zola, well I guess she’s our therapy animal.”
“Any objections?” Kira finished.
“No, captain,” Thor replied proudly, and the others nodded in unison.
“Alright then, we have a mission – let’s get started, Alaria, where are we at with the warp system?” Kira said.
“Well,” Alaria said, setting the cat down and turning her attention to the group. “The ship needs some work and the warp system is going to take some coaxing to be reliable. Unfortunately, the ship is in a state of serious disrepair. Couple that with the virtual lack of supplies and equipment, and we’re at a serious disadvantage at the moment.”
“Shocking,” Kira said sarcastically.
“I haven’t given up hope on her yet,” Alaria added quickly. “I just need a little more time, and some extra hands to help with the work.”
“It’s my ship and if anyone can get her working right, it’s me,” Bron said stepping forward.
“Hey!” Vinnie objected. “I’m starting to sense that you don’t want to give credit where it’s due – we both know who did the majority of the work here!”
“Are you two seriously arguing about who gets to claim responsibility for this pile of flying garbage?” Kira blurted out.
“Well, if it’s a matter of pride, we better get to it, then,” Bron said, stepping towards the door. “The rest of you can explore the ship, find your rooms, and make yourselves comfortable.”
“If that’s even possible,” Kira shot back at Bron sarcastically.
“I forgot how much you talk,” Bron replied in jest. The rest of the crew chuckled at the banter.
“Private rooms are better than none, I’m sure some of you will want some rest for the journey ahead, let’s get moving,” Bron said as he left the flight deck.
They agreed and Thor, Dario, and Zola followed Bron and the others out of the Flight Deck.
“You coming?” Thor asked Kira over his shoulder.
“I’ll be along in a minute,” she said. “I just need to make sure navigation’s all set up here.”
Thor nodded and disappeared out the door. Kira turned back to the control panels in front of her. She had a meticulous system for checking and re-checking the instruments before entrusting the auto-pilot to take over full control. It took her slightly longer than it normally would, seeing as the ship was strange and unfamiliar to her. But, finally, she pushed her chair back and stood to her feet.
She took a moment and breathed deeply. The view of infinite space staring back at her from the view screen was always comforting. After a moment of reverie, Kira turned and walked off the flight deck.
No one was around when she emerged. Her steps echoed off the tiled floors as she wandered around, searching for the ship’s sleeping quarters. She moved slowly, though. Lost in her thoughts, replaying all of the recent events that had taken her life way off its intended course, she found herself enjoying the silence.
As she thought back on the last few days, she found herself becoming impassioned. While at the outset, the cause she had found herself tangled up with wasn’t hers, she now felt as if her level of personal investment was high.
They were still uncertain of what Grimm was planning, but they knew in their hearts it wasn’t anything good. As she remembered Thor’s story of his time trapped in the Arcanum experiments, a horrified shudder ran down her spine. No matter what Grimm was planning, what he was already doing was evil enough on its own.
As she continued to contemplate everything, she turned down a short hallway. There were doors lining the walls, and she assumed she had found what she was looking for. Stopping at the second door on the left, she ran her hand over the switch and the carved out entryway slid open.
She stepped in, still lost in her thoughts, and the door whooshed shut behind her. To her surprise, she found that the room was already occupied.
Thor stood up quickly and looked at her, confused. Again, he was shirtless, a state she found herself suddenly unopposed to.
“Oh,” she said, stepping back, her cheeks burning red with shock and embarrassment. “I thought this room was empty.”
“Right,” he said, rolling his eyes. “You just can’t stay away from me.”
“It’s not for lack of trying,” Kira shot back at him.
He crossed his arms over his chest, the muscles in his arms flexing slightly as he moved, and eyed her skeptically. “If you say so,” he said with a shrug.
She turned to walk out of the room, feeling his eyes burning into her back. Just as she reached for the door release, she paused.
“Thanks,” she said, turning back around to face him. “For earlier—with the bounty hunter. You saved my life.”
“I owed you,” he said, smiling. “You stopped me from running straight into the line of fire.”
“How did you not know that was coming?” she asked, stepping towards him. “I mean, you’re always so aware of everything going on around you.”
He slumped back down on the bed and looked up at her. “My focus was on something else at the time,” he admitted.
“Your focus was on something other than the robotic super assassin chasing us through the streets of the Bazaar, firing red-hot plasma at us?” she asked with a slight laugh. Crossing the room, she sat down next to him. “Seems unlikely.”
“In that instant, I was worried about getting you to safety,” he said, shifting his body around to face her.
“Excuse me?” she said, backing away from him slightly and looking at him with an expression of surprise. “You were worried about me?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“Thor, if you haven’t noticed, I’m more than capable and I don’t need protection…”
Her words cut off when he stood up quickly and took a step towards her. The space between them was small, and his massive frame hovered over her.
She moved to take a step back from him, but he quickly reached out and grabbed onto her wrist. When she spun back around and looked up at him, she was surprised to see a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
“I know,” he said, looking slightly surprised at his own words. “I know you’re strong and capable, Kira. I know you don’t need me to protect you.”
“That’s right, so don’t risk your own life on account of my safety, what we’re trying to do here seems, somehow, bigger than all of us,” Kira replied.
The surprised expression on his face melted away and the smile once again formed on his lips. “You’re something else,” he said to her, his voice soft. “I’m standing here, telling you that I care about you, and all you can think about is the mission.”
“You what?” she asked, her eyes suddenly wide.
“You heard me,” he said. Still holding onto her arm, he sat down on the bed, pulling her down with him. “You’re so unlike any person I’ve ever met before. You’re driven and focused, you’re intelligent and by far the best damn pilot I’ve ever seen.”
She felt her cheeks flushing red as he continued. She wanted to speak, but again she found herself in the unfamiliar state of speechlessness.
“You’re stubborn as hell, and you don’t take shit from anyone. You haven’t stopped surp
rising me since we met, Kira.”
As he spoke, she felt her stomach begin to turn to knots. Her heart started to race and her head swam with a flustered confusion, processing his words quickly, but not completely absorbing them.
She stared into his eyes, searching them. She wanted to push her attraction to him from her mind. She wanted to drive out the feelings she knew she had developed for him, but as hard as she fought to do so, she couldn't.
“Oh,” she replied, unable to say anything else.
Thor moved his hand from hers and slowly drifted his fingers up her arm, sending shivers running along her spine. By the time he reached her shoulder, she was already reaching up with her other hand to wrap it around his neck.
Their lips came together quickly, almost as if the tension that had built up around them was pushing them towards each other. He wrapped his hand around her arm, holding her tightly and pulling her into him.
The feeling of his lips pressed against hers sent a rush of excitement surging through her. Her hand shook as she ran her fingers through his hair. When he began to lean back onto the bed, her body followed him. It was as if her longing was controlling her, urging her to stay as close to him as possible, driving her to topple forward with him, still clinging to him tightly.
As they lay back on the bed, she dropped her hands to his chest, feeling the pounding of his heart against her palm. The feeling of his skin, taut and tight, stretched perfectly over his muscles, was enticing. She felt her stomach tighten with desire as they melted into each other, letting the moment wash over them.
She ran her fingers over his bare skin, feeling the gentle rise and fall of his chest as his breathing became heavy and his movements more passionate.
“This doesn’t mean I’m okay with you acting as if I’m completely helpless and unable to take care of myself,” she whispered as he began to run his hands over her body.
He slipped his hand under her shirt, his fingers delicately sliding over her skin, sending shivers of longing and anticipation radiating through her. Leaning in and kissing her neck softly, he whispered, "There’s nothing helpless about you."
“And you had better remember that,” she said as she pulled back from him slightly, staring down at him intently.
“Yes, Captain,” he replied firmly, a playful smile spreading across his face.
“Good,” she said, reaching down to pull her shirt off over her head, “a man that can follow orders. I like that.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The next morning, Kira slipped out of Thor's room before any of the others woke up. Regardless of what went on between them, they had both agreed that keeping things professional was their main concern. In an effort to do that, they also agreed that keeping their relationship a secret, for the time being, was the best course of action.
In addition, Kira made him swear to treat her like any of the others in their group.
“No worrying about me; no protecting me; nothing,” she said firmly.
“Deal,” he said as he walked her to the door.
Instead of trying to find a room of her own and running the risk of stumbling into someone else’s, she went down to the mess hall. It wasn’t long after she had prepared herself a bowl of oatmeal that the others began to drift in.
The first to arrive was Dario, followed closely by Alaria. She looked as if she were still half-asleep, and slumped herself down in the seat across from Kira without so much as a “good morning.”
Dario rushed off to find them something to eat as Bron and Vinnie came slowly wandering in. Thor was close behind them, and by the time Dario returned, juggling bowls and spoons, oatmeal and water, they had all taken their seats around the table.
“We fixed it,” Alaria finally spoke, her words heavy with sleep. “We fixed the warp system.”
“We were up working most of the night,” Bron added. He, too, spoke slowly, his words nearly slurring from exhaustion.
“So, that means we can go to Earth, right?” Vinnie asked excitedly. He was clearly the only one of the three who was not still feeling the effects of the long night’s work.
“Yes,” Kira said, finishing her oatmeal and pushing the bowl away from her. “Finish eating and I’ll start preparations.”
As she pushed herself up from the table, Zola leaped up into her seat and began sniffing at the air.
“Awe,” Alaria cooed, “she’s so cute.”
“I’m glad I can be replaced so easily,” Kira remarked as she turned to walk away.
Just then, Zola’s implant began to let out a quiet, but audible alert. The melodic sound bounced off the walls and echoed lightly through the room.
“Wait, what does that mean?” Kira asked, turning to walk back towards the group.
“A message, a message from Thane,” Dario said, reaching across the table and removing the implant from Zola’s neck. He moved with the excited, clumsy movements of a schoolboy in love. As he pulled the Holo Transmitter back to him, he quickly and eagerly initiated the message.
The image of Grimm’s young aid spilled out of the device, propelling upward. Dario set the transmitter on the table and backed up, taking in the image of his beloved with heartfelt emotion.
The contents of the message quickly cast out the look of excited longing from his eyes, though. The entire crew crowded around, watching the small man in the hologram move around nervously, wringing his hands and running his fingers through his hair as he spoke.
"Dario," he said, his words small and quick. As he spoke, he continued to pace back and forth, his eyes darting about wildly, as if his brain were trying to process what his mind was seeing. "It's bad. I… I don't know what happened. He acted without warning. I had no idea what was going on. Grimm’s forces ambushed the Terran fleet. It's happening—the coup. That's what he's been planning—a coup against the Terran High Command. He made off with a small fleet—freighters, battlecruisers and more than I know, I’m sure. The Terran Forces are floundering."
He stopped pacing suddenly and turned to face the camera. His eyes burned through the hologram, causing a terrified chill to run up Kira's spine. "I'm not safe here. No one is! He's gone mad! He's completely mad with power. He won't stop—this is only the beginning."
And then the message cut out. A haunting silence fell over the group as the light sucked back into the transmitter. Kira felt her blood run cold and her arms became covered in goosebumps.
“What?” she whispered. “What does all that mean?”
Dario reached out for the holo transmitter, holding it tightly. His eyes were filled with tears of worry and concern and his hands shook violently. He attempted to speak, but his words caught in his throat.
Alaria rushed across the room, switching on the large screen suspended from the ceiling in the far corner of the room. She began to scroll through the news networks, tuning the receiver to the Galactic News Network.
“…and a sizable military component has broken away,” the reporter said.
Across the bottom of the screen, emergency notices flashed, warning the Terran population of the military coup that was unfolding across their empire. Behind the woman, images of the Terran High Command on earth were being shown. The building was engulfed in smoke and civilians worked alongside the fire patrol drones to put out the remaining flames.
“The leader of the rebel movement has made it clear that he is not looking to negotiate. The planet is in a state of all-out war,” the reporter’s words rang out.
“That’s what this has all been about,” Thor spoke up, walking across the room and turning the screen off. “A coup. Grimm wants to destroy the Terran High Command. He wants to take the power for himself. He’s been quietly building the capacity to do so with these experiments.”
“This means the Terran Alliance is locked in a civil war,” Kira noted, her eyes still fixed on the black screen. Her mind continued to replay the images of the High Command Headquarters, surrounded by smoke and flame, over and over again.
“Our plan,” Alaria said remorsefully. “How will we go to the High Command when it looks as if there is no High Command to go to?”
"It doesn't matter at this point," Thor said, crossing his arms over his chest. "They know what Grimm is doing. There's no question about that anymore—no need to oust him."
“What do we do now?” Kira asked, turning around to face the group.
“We go back to Earth!” Dario exclaimed. “We have to! We have to help in any way we can! We have to save him…” his voice drifted off as the memory of Grimm’s aide, pleading for help, once again shook through him.
“Agreed,” Thor said vehemently. “We need to fight. He has to be stopped before his sadistic plans drive him to carry out his experiments on innocent civilians.”