by Elin Wyn
Void, no wonder people had rioted at the idea of these ships being built. Real paper for something so trivial.
I flipped through them, half noticing the menus, and wishing that some of that had been saved in the emergency rations.
But nothing further of interest
I slid the drawer back in and it caught oddly three quarters of the way back.
I pulled it out, pushed it back again, and then pulled it out all the way to examine the bottom.
And that was interesting.
Stuck to the bottom of the drawer was a small, square chip.
I gently pried it up, wondering what it would fit into.
I didn't remember a slot this size on the tablet we’d found for Loree. But there had to be something here that could take the chip.
Something a captain of that time would think would still be working, something everyone would be familiar with.
Turning around, I examined the holoplate.
Tapped it and it showed a wide beach, black sand sparkling in the sun as the wine-dark waves rolled over them.
Pretty. But not helpful. I tapped it again and got icy mountains against a pale pink sky. Again, and a field of flowers waving in the breeze appeared.
I ran my fingers around the edge of the frame. There.
The frame came off the wall easily, and I propped it on the desk where I could see all the way around it.
What I'd felt was a small slit in the back, ready for a chip just this size.
I slid in the chip, and immediately the picture of the beach reappeared.
This time, instead of the crashing sound of the waves, a woman's voice spoke.
This is Amano Whorton, captain of the Pyrian Star of Starways Liners. I am making this record in the hopes that it will never be needed.
But there's something off about this trip.
It's supposed to be a pleasure cruise, just around the outer edge of the Hub planets, but I fought in the Lomari Uprising. I know when something is about to go down.
General Melchior refused his cabin assignment. He'd been placed in the largest, most luxurious cabin on the ship.
As you know, the corporation’s intelligence is very good. This should have pleased him. But he was very particular about what cabin he wanted, even if it was smaller.
Half the passengers are obviously here to see and be seen and you can't say that this isn’t the perfect place for it.
But the other half, there is a problem there. If I was still in the field, I'd say we had a mutiny coming. I've told Corporation, but they don't believe me. I'd really like to be wrong. However, I don't think I am.
I'm locking myself into the bridge starting with first watch tonight. I'll place my personal security code on the door. This can be overridden by the matching code in the corporation’s vaults.
If there's no problem, I'll eat the rest of my meals there; maybe lose a little of this civilian weight. No harm done.
I'm hoping that no one finds this, and if they do, it'll only be to laugh at my paranoia.
Signing out.
The sound of the waves returned and I popped the chip out and put it in my pocket.
Obviously, the captain had been right. Something had happened. But if it was this General Melchior, or a random accident, I couldn't tell yet.
I kept looking, on the off-chance there might be a clue we could use instead of giving up on the bridge. We wouldn't be getting into any information vaults held on the Capitol.
The chirp of my comm interrupted my thoughts.
“Sir,” Geir said, “we may have an issue in the cargo bay. Could you return?”
“Is it the kind of issue that requires weapons?” I asked as I sealed the captain's quarters behind me.
“No, sir, just your presence.”
I thought about calling Aeden off from rewiring the door, but it couldn't hurt for him to keep trying.
And I had a feeling the only sort of problem that required just my presence wouldn't be one he could help with anyway.
It didn’t take long to find Nadira. Geir stood watch beside a massive crate. His gaze flicked to it, then he faded into the background.
Smart man.
“What are you doing in there?”
“Looking for anything useful, what do you think?”
I gave her a hand as she crawled out.
“Where’s Quinn or Lorcan?”
She grabbed a smaller package from another shelf further down, started unwrapping it.
“Hakon must have called for help in the engine room.”
Her eyes darted up to mine, but, damn it, I wasn’t going to be distracted from the main topic here.
“Lorcan stayed on guard, and I came down with Quinn.”
Quinn and I were going to have words. But that could wait.
“Come up, let’s get you back.”
I strode toward her, but froze as her spine snapped straight and she held up a hand. “I don’t think so.”
“What?”
“You can’t just storm in here, drag me back, and lock me up.”
“I wasn’t going to drag you,” I muttered.
“I’m not one of your men, you can’t give me orders!”
“I’m not having this discussion here. It’s not safe here. You’re not safe.”
Her lips pressed together. “Then we don’t need to have the discussion at all.”
“Nadira, please. Come back to the stateroom with me.”
She waited, considering, while I fought the urge to scoop her up, tuck her away. Sure, Geir was on patrol, but we still didn’t know how many Hunters were left. After their attack, I couldn’t count on them sticking to their regular routines.
“Alright. Because you said please.”
Spine still ramrod straight, she walked past me, and, with my jaw so tight I could crack a tooth, I followed.
Once in the safety of our room, my grip splintered. “You can’t go out. You just can’t. You know it’s not safe out there, and I’m not risking it.”
“You can’t keep me here. I’m not going to spend however long it takes to get rescued wrapped in cotton.”
“You’ve said it yourself, you can’t fight.”
“So I’m useless?”
I pulled at my hair. “Of course not. You’re brilliant. You have brilliant ideas. But I need you to stay safe.”
“No one is safe here, why can’t you see that?”
“You nearly died!” I shouted, and she stepped back, the anger on her face replaced by shock.
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. You didn’t have a pulse. That’s dead.” Void, I sounded like a cub.
I dropped to the edge of the bed, hands covering my face, trying to block out the vision of her lying still on the engine room floor. “I picked that control station for you to enter the code into. I could have killed you.”
She perched next to me, carefully not touching me. “You could have died when I asked you to go back to save Loree during the Hunters’ attack. You could have died when I wanted to go find a tablet. But I didn’t stop you. I know you have to fight, or you’ll be dead inside.”
“If something happened to you, it wouldn’t matter. I’d be dead inside anyway.” The breath heaved from my chest, tired, leaden. I couldn’t stand this argument. “What do you say to that?”
Long moments stretched, until she leaned towards me to take the link out of my ear and place it on the night table. “I’d say I’m pretty well rested.”
With a roar I pounced on her, pinning her to the bed under me.
She licked her lips in invitation, rocking her hips to press against me.
“Unless you don’t feel like it?” she joked, and I claimed her mouth, our tongues tangling until she panted beneath me.
I ripped open her shirts, needing the taste of her skin, to feel that silken softness under my hands.
“No more clothes,” I growled.
Whatever she answered was lost in her yelp as I took one o
f her glorious breasts into my mouth, feasting and sucking until she squirmed. I switched to the other, glancing at her beautiful eyes, half-lidded and glazed.
Her breathless gasps made me harder, every moan going straight to my cock.
Rearing above her, I shoved her skirts up to her waist, snarling at the fabric tangling my hands as I reached for her core.
Void, her folds were slick and hot. I wanted to taste her, but not now. She came off the bed as I speared her with a finger, and any last shred of my self-control shattered.
“I need you now,” I shed my pants without looking away from her. “I don’t know how gentle I can be.”
She reached out, pulled me to her. “I don’t want gentle. I want you.”
The head of my cock breached her, and she gasped.
“Are you alright?” I managed between clenched teeth.
“Yes, just…. There.” She made a tentative roll of her hips, and sparks flew across my vision.
“Ronan?” She ran her fingers down the edge of my ears, and, with a tremor down my spine like an earthquake, I unfroze, ramming home into her hot sheath.
Her eyes widened, and I fell into the deep green pools of them, hammering mindlessly until I heard her high cry of release, her body spasming, and I howled, undone and lost within her.
After, she curled on my chest, and I stroked her hair. This was dangerous, my need for her. Tactically, a disaster. But I didn’t care.
“I’ll go where I want,” she mumbled sleepily.
“No.”
She poked my gut. “Yes. If you get worried, we’ll just do this again.”
“I’m not sure that’s a valid strategy.” But she was right. I couldn’t keep her locked away.
“Only leave with one of us. Stay with them. And you’re back here during any fighting.”
She rolled to kiss my shoulder, and my arm tightened around her. “I’m not eager to be around during the fighting, anyway. Deal.”
Drained, she dropped into sleep and I tried not to think of all the ways this could go wrong.
Nadira
Maybe I should think about putting them back in those tanks.
Since Ronan and I had come to our agreement, he must have told his brothers to make sure I wasn't bored. And, by extension, that meant Loree wasn’t bored.
Every time I turned around twice there was another of them.
“Does this look useful? We weren't sure if it was a medical device. Can you use this?”
I'd grumble about it more, but Loree had it worse. If she said she was looking for a particular type of electronic, Xander brought her a dozen possibilities.
You know, just to be sure.
If she said she wished she could get out and see things, did he check with me?
Of course not.
Did he put her in one of the wheeled chairs we'd found and help her get through rooms?
That would be ridiculous.
Instead, he carried her from room to room explaining the changes that we'd made. Which didn't really matter much, since she hadn't seen much of the corridor before.
I worried I would have to treat her for a case of strained optical ligaments, she was rolling her eyes so hard.
While I was sorting through the piles of possibly useful things, they came into the clinic.
"What in the Void do you think you're doing?" I snapped.
"Loree wanted to look around again." Xander had perfected the art of an innocent appearance, but Loree looked at me beseechingly.
"Thank you, I wanted to check her out anyway. Please put her down on the table.”
We both stared at him as he lounged by the door.
"Why don't you grab her chair, bring it here, and then go?"
He brought the chair, waved as he bounced out, and Loree slumped against the pillow that I moved under her shoulders.
"Can’t you make him stop?"
I moved the monitor further down her body.
They had actually brought useful instruments. Whatever the original intent had been, I was glad to have more than just my hands and a tube of wound sealant.
But I didn't like what I saw on the monitor screen.
"Have you seen this room? Why do you think I can do anything about it?”
"Because you're the boss lady?" She shook her head, already visibly tiring. "Or the boss’s lady, or something?"
"I think, given the circumstances, the phrase you’re looking for is alpha bitch."
She cracked a small grin. "You were that before we got here."
I helped her up and back into the wheeled chair.
"Is there actually something you want to find, or are you just sending him out to keep him out of your way?"
She tied her hair back into a messy bun, took a length of wire from around her wrist, and wrapped it up.
"I've got software cleaning out a lot of what the Hunters put in, their codes are actually kind of clumsy. But there's a spot on the ship that I can't find anything on. It's just an empty space in the schematics."
Working together, we got her back into the bed, blankets wrapped tightly around her legs to keep them from the twitches she hated so much.
“What do you think it is?”
She shook her head. “I don't know, but I'm trying to get visuals on it. There're cameras here and there around the ship. Working on getting in there. Maybe it doesn’t matter, but it keeps my brain occupied while the software is running.”
“And that’s what you need the parts for?”
She reached over and picked up a small box, turned it over at her hands.
"No, it's just weighing on my mind. I don't like mysteries. The parts are for this.”
Loree handed it to me. Dark gray with segmented areas, as if it might open up or unfold, it was just a little too large to fit comfortably in my palm. It didn’t look like much, but, honestly, I didn’t know what I was looking at.
“I know Ronan and the guys are worried that, even if we find a way to control the ship, the Hunters will be able to somehow control it remotely. This should block that." She put it down and slid a little further under the covers. "If I get it finished. If I find where to put it."
"You get some rest, and if people decide to stop taking you on tours around our little world, I'll bet you have a brilliant idea when you wake up."
My hand hovered over the injector, but Loree shook her head.
“It's not really doing much anymore. I think I'd rather skip it.”
Her words kicked at my chest. But it was her decision. And there wasn't anything I could do with what we had.
“Then you have to promise to rest. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Not surprisingly, in the corridor outside I found Xander. “Anything you--”
I didn't even let him finish. "Bring me a Hunter and leave her alone.”
For once, I think I shocked him.
"What?"
"She needs to rest and you need to leave her alone or, so help me, I will find a way to hurt you."
He stepped back, face serious. "I wouldn't do anything to harm her."
I took a deep breath, recentered myself. "I know that. But she does need to rest. And I still want a Hunter."
“A particular Hunter, or would any do?”
“A dead one. Let’s start there.”
I headed back to the clinic, looked at the selection of instruments, nodded grimly. There was enough here to work with.
Xander followed, noticeably not bringing me a droid to dissect.
“This is what I can do to help. I want to take one apart, figure out how they communicate and we will get that problem off the table. The seven of you should have all sorts of samples in a variety of conditions for me, right?”
He rubbed his chin. "Hate to tell you this, but I don't think we have one."
“How can we not have one? At this rate, I should have a dozen specimens. Do they dissolve, disappear, after you kill them?”
"No, don't know anything that does. But Ronan
didn't want them on the ship. As soon as we had control of the airlocks, we started spacing them."
Oh. Well. There went my project of trying to be useful.
"Anybody injured?" I tried to make it sound like I wasn't hoping for someone to be hurt, but it may not have come out that way.
"No, ma'am."
Fine. There was one more thing.
“How many people are up in the secure area, besides Loree?”
“Me and Lorcan.”
"Then you can take me down to the cargo bay." He started to protest, but I cut him off.
“Will he protect her?”
"Of course.” He looked offended that I would suggest one of his brothers would do anything less.
“And is he less likely than you to listen for her to wake up and try to engage in conversation when she should be going back to sleep?”
For once, he looked sheepish. "Maybe."
"Then let's go."
The storage area of the cargo bay was no longer clean and organized, with all of the contents neatly stacked on the shelves.
There hadn’t been time. We needed anything useful, and chances were good we needed it yesterday.
“I'm going off to study those tanks,” I told my slightly sulky guard. “Why don't you take a look further down the racks?”
He didn't look excited.
“I promise I'm not going anywhere, you'll be within range if I shout.”
“You realize you could be whispering a deck up and I’d probably hear you. We have exceptionally good ears.”
My face heated, remembering my screams of the night before. Didn’t need to know that.
“Whatever.”
But he looked so morose I had to give him something to make up for taking him away from his sleeping beauty.
“You know, she's trying to build something that will block communications between the compound and the ship.”
An expression of interest crossed his face.
“I'm not a tech, but I've noticed all of you seem to have a reasonable amount of cross-training. I'll bet she could use some finer tools, and if you kept an eye out for some specific electronics that would be useful for blocking of comm signals, she'd like that.”
The grin broke out, like I knew it would. “Nobody's checked all of those shelves yet. I'm sure there's something she could use in there.”