The slam of the traditional wooden door reverberated through her apartment upon his exit. She stared at it with regret for several long minutes. Other than Eryn, who would have told her off probably more bluntly than Beck had done, he was indeed the best friend she’d ever had, and she’d just thrown it back in his face.
She flopped down in her chair and asked her sad, empty, lonely apartment, which reflected what her pathetic life had become, “When did I become such a bitch?”
DESPITE THEIR ARGUMENT and Lana’s stupidity, Beck came by to check on her the next day. This time he didn’t come bearing pastry, but a loaf of fresh-baked yeasty bread. Her mouth watered when he walked in with it as she held the door.
She followed him into the kitchen and went straight for a knife to slice it. “Honey butter would be awesome if it tastes as good as it smells. Too bad I don’t have any.”
“Dipping it in a nice hearty soup would be good, too.”
“Yeah, I don’t have that, either.”
“You will in about thirty minutes.”
“I will?” Her gaze drifted to the tall cabinet in the corner where she’d seen him store some canned goods the day before. She hadn’t bothered to check out what he’d brought her. In fact, she hadn’t bothered to eat after he’d gotten ticked and stormed out. But she didn’t dare tell him, not after the ten pounds underweight comment he’d made before he slammed the door. “Did you buy soup yesterday?”
He snorted. “No, but I bought rehydrated ground beef, fresh veggies from a recent shipment from the Ariad street market. I hope you don't mind rainbow-colored carrots, onions, and potatoes, or at least the Primarian versions of them, with your tomato juice, which is the only ingredient from home.”
“I had tomato juice? Wish I'd know, I could have used a stiff and spicy Bloody Mary last night.”
His pale-blue eyes pierced her before they cut to the bakery bag with its lone leftover cinnamon roll, also untouched in the 24 hours since he'd seen it last. He extended his open hand to her, saying in a slow drawl when she merely stared at it, “I’ll need the knife for chopping, darlin’.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry,” she muttered as she laid the knife—her only sharp one—handle first in his palm.
Once he’d taken it from her, he shook his head as if at a loss over what to do with her. “Obviously, you didn't open the cupboard and check out the groceries I stocked, which means you haven’t had anything to eat since I left here. While I fix you something, sit down before you collapse from hunger.”
“Does this mean you forgive me for being a complete whack job and an ungrateful bitch?”
His lips twitched which she took as a good sign, along with the fact he'd come back at all.
“Like I said, I chose to overlook all the nonsense you were spewing.”
“You were a bit more colorful with your wording, yesterday. As was I.” She took a hesitant step forward dropping all attempts at humor and teasing when she told him as sincerely as she knew how, “I’m sorry, Beck.”
He snagged her behind the neck with his hand and pulled her into a warm, wonderfully tight hug. “Nothing to be sorry for, darlin',” he murmured against the top of her head. “I understand.”
They stayed like that for several long moments with Lana afraid to move and spoil it. Though it brought about bittersweet memories of Trask, it felt good to be held in the arms of a man who cared about her. He squeezed her briefly, then let her go.
“Okay, now that we've hugged and made up, you sit and keep me company while I cook. And by that, I mean explaining why you’re working for me as a painter instead of in the field you trained in.”
She rolled her eyes. “Boy, are you stubborn
“As the day is long, so there's no sense arguing. Sit,” he repeated.
When Lana did, he set a glass of milk in front of her—the synthetic kind—no cows yet on the Terra Nova frontier, but the fake stuff wasn't half bad—along with a small plate which held a thick slice of bread slathered in butter. “Talk with your mouth full; I don’t care. Just eat.”
She took a bite and chewed as she watched him move around her kitchen. The sizzle of meat browning in a hot pan coincided with the buzz of her electric can opener, and the high-pitched whir of her chopper. She'd consumed every buttery crumb and drank every drop by the time he pulled out a chair across from her and sat down.
“Penny for your thoughts.”
Vaguely, she looked at him.
“That heavy, eh? Maybe they rate a whole dollar.”
“What’s that?” she asked in confusion.
“Your thoughts, Hartman. Stick with me here, darlin’,” he said, with a hint of a chuckle.
“Sorry, I’ve been distracted lately.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
She sighed. “It’s a long story.”
“Got nothing but time. Spill.”
Beck leaned back, his boots making two solid thuds as his heels hit the floor when he stretched out his long legs and crossed them at the ankles. They had a few patches of dried mud on the heels like everyone who walked the streets hereabouts did. Lana blinked at how big they were—size 14’s, at least—and proportionate to his tall frame. Except for his size and demeanor, he didn’t look like her general, quite the opposite with his sandy, short-cropped hair, and light-blue eyes. Still, he reminded her so much of him, she had to wonder if she was a bit of a masochist for being friends with him.
His arctic gaze seared into her as he leaned in. “You gotta unload on someone before you combust.”
He was right; she’d been bottling things up for so long, she’d become like one of the volcanoes she studied. A hard shell on top waiting for a crack to let all the molten, churning emotion inside to spew out.
So rather than erupt on Beck, like she’d done the day before, she unloaded.
Starting with her return to Earth, she began telling her story, how she’d left the USIF and taken a crappy geology job she hated. About how it had lasted a month before Eryn conned her into going to work for EPIC, helping process the women signing up in droves to become Primarian mates.
She’d told him about rooming with Eryn and watching her deny her pregnancy for months. And about how the roof practically blew off their apartment when Ram arrived to confront the mother of his child, but he was too late.
Eryn had already fled to the woods behind where they lived to buy some time and prepare for the inevitable confrontation with her warrior. She had the misfortune of bad timing and was accosted by a group of male protestors—xenophobic zealots was probably a better term.
By this point, Beck was cursing violently about how ignorant some men could be. When she told him how the assault had landed Eryn in a coma for weeks, and she’d almost died, as well as her child—the first human-Primarian female child ever conceived—he’d launched into a string of expletives about narrow-minded rednecks.
“Long story short, Eryn survived, and precious Cierra was born. And when Ram brought them both back to Terra Nova, I tagged along.”
“Why not Primaria?” Beck asked.
“She was wanted for questioning, and if guilty would have had to endure a civil punishment.”
“What does that consist of, a fine? Big deal.”
“Wrong. It’s a huge deal. Civil punishments are decided by a council of elders and the Princep, and for what she was accused of would have been meted out while strapped to a pole, or a cross, that part I’m not sure of.”
He fell silent, staring at her with a shocked expression, eyes big and round, and nearly the size of his open mouth. “What could she have possibly done to earn such a harsh punishment?”
“That’s another long story.” So was being kidnapped by frogmen, something that happened later, but she didn’t want to get into any of that today.
“What about before all of that? You don’t talk about the capture. I can’t imagine how frightening it must have been.”
She nodded, the day she’d met Trask as vivid in her recol
lection as though it were yesterday. So much had changed for the others. Eva was Prima now, and she and Kerr had a son. Eryn and Ram had straightened out their string of crises and were living on Primaria with their precious baby girl, the first female child born to a Primarian in almost two decades. She was a miracle, after all, Eryn had endured, and so precious.
Noise out on the street drew their attention. She got up and walked to the window, sparing her the retelling of the most painful parts. Across the way, a group of dignitaries, about twenty of them—warriors, men in white robes, a few men in jeans, and a woman wearing a white lab coat, an above-the-knee skirt, and heels of all things in this mud-riddled city. They were standing beside a row of four, large, solar ground vehicles.
Beck moved in behind her and looked over her shoulder.
“Is something important happening?”
“Mm-hmm. The geological survey was scheduled for today.”
She stiffened. “What survey?”
“A few more scientists arrived from Earth, including the new research director. They are going to tour the uladite mine and facilities.”
Something about the woman seemed familiar. Tall, brassy red hair bordering on orange— A shiver of vivid recollection passed through her, and she whispered in horror, “No, it can’t be. Fate couldn’t be that cruel.”
When the redhead twisted to say something to one of the men behind her and she saw her face, Lana knew it could. And she shouldn’t be surprised; fate had been dicking around with her since the day she was born.
“Fucking Betsy Barker,” she muttered in a nasty tone. The name alone left a bitter taste on her tongue.
“Not a friend evidently,” Beck surmised.
“You could say that. I applied for a spot on the research team before I left Earth and was turned down flat. Now I know why—Betsy. I wonder if anyone back on Earth knows they’ve entrusted this project to someone who finished one up from dead last in our class at Penn State.”
“Evidently not.”
“Yeah. While I was traveling the galaxies trying to save our asses, she was kissing up to senators. And back in school, when I was working my butt off to keep my perfect GPA, she was sleeping with more than one of the professors to pass. She got caught when someone tipped off the dean.”
“Yet she’s here, in a lab coat, so she obviously finished.”
“She always has a way of coming out on top. They didn’t do anything to her, only fired the teacher. I heard her rich daddy gave the university an endowment.” Lana shrugged. “It didn’t affect me. I didn’t care who she got her jollies with and tried to avoid drama, and her. But Betsy somehow got the notion it was me who told administration, like I cared.”
“So bad blood cost you a job and is why you’re painting for me. But why come at all?”
“Eryn was coming to the colony to live, or so I thought. Her plans changed, but I stayed rather than go home. There was nothing left for me on Earth, anyway. My friends and teammates are here. Well, mostly on Primaria, but I have a chance of seeing them at least.”
“And your general is here.”
“Don’t start again, Beck. I’m not up to it.”
He didn’t answer for a moment. “I need to get back. We should eat.”
“Yeah.”
His hamburger soup was simple but tasty, and she ate a whole bowl and another slice of buttered bread. After he left, she stored the leftovers and cleaned up the bit of mess he made. It still amazed her his ex-wife was such a boneheaded bimbo and pissed away her chance at a lifetime with one of the best men Lana had ever known.
Once she was done with those chores, the rest of the afternoon and evening yawned in front of her. She couldn’t bear it. With food in her belly and a burst of nervous energy, she decided to take a walk. Her path took her toward the end of town where she caught sight of the line of solar vehicles heading out on the road to the mine.
That Elizabeth Barker was heading up the team galled her to no end. And it worried her. The mine would make Terra Nova energy independent for the next millennium and beyond. The people of Earth were depending on it. If second-to-last Betsy screwed it up, they would all suffer for her incompetence.
She looked over at the BRK storage site. Several vehicles sat in the lot unused. She had access...
Without giving it a moment’s thought, she was across the street. She’d just peek around the site. No harm in that, right? And she wasn’t stealing one of Beck’s vehicles, only borrowing it. She’d have it back with no one the wiser before the sun went down. Ignoring the voice in her head that warned her to mind her own business and stay out of trouble, she opened the door to the hovercraft and slid behind the controls. In a blink, she was winding down the road toward the mine.
LANA COULDN’T KNOW she was being watched. Or that the man doing so wore a wide grin on his bearded face.
“Just the opportunity I needed,” he murmured as he watched her round the bend in the distance and vanish from sight. “The mine will be the perfect place.” His smile faded, his chest growing tight as his body shook with fury. This happened every time he thought about their precious resource being shared with this retched sub-species. Max Kerr had taken it upon himself to make it so without the council's permission. He would have voted unequivocally, no, and would have made sure the other elders who owed him did as well.
But he’d take care of the sorry excuse for a Princep later. First things first. He had many tasks to accomplish before putting his plan into motion. “Then, thanks to the blonde-haired bitch, I’ll be killing two birds with one stone.” As he started back to town, he chuckled. “Clever saying for such a stupid sub-species, but there’s only one bird I’m determined to see the last of, once and for all.”
Chapter Thirteen
SEATED IN A HARD, COLD, metal chair at the front of the room, Lana felt isolated. The space was crowded with onlookers, curiosity gawkers with nothing else to do. They had a right to be here; meetings and grievance hearings were open to the public unless something dictated otherwise. She’d never attended one before and was being forced to now because the grievance under consideration had been issued against her.
She had a good defense. The access roads around the mine weren’t clearly marked. And when she’d come to a dead end, with nothing to tell her she couldn’t, she’d gotten out of her borrowed-vehicle for a look around. No more than ten minutes later, as she stood on a rise overlooking the nearby lake which she’d have given her eyeteeth to study and test thoroughly, security had spotted her.
And with her bad luck, it wasn’t the contract kind, hired by the mine operator who she had a chance of sweet-talking her way around, but the Primarian kind who didn’t tolerate females being where they weren’t supposed to be.
She’d been taken back to town promptly and stuck in a little room for hours. From there, her warrior escort—Mr. Tall, Dark, and Grumpy, for lack of a better name since he hadn’t offered his—had brought her to face the music.
Despite the fifty people who put it well past the point of capacity, she felt alone, while she waited.
A side door near the front of the room opened. Lana should have felt nervous, dread knotting her stomach as the council walked in single file. They would stand in judgment over her, which was the way things were on Terra Nova without a legal system in place yet. Yeah, she should have been shaking in her shoes, but she wasn’t.
Instead, she went numb with shock. Leading the team in and taking a seat in the center of the long table up front, as beautiful as the first day she met him, was Trask. Months had passed since she’d last seen him on the Denastrian ship. They’d argued, as usual, and then, in a startling turn, shared a kiss, deep, passionate, and after their long separation—a balm to her soul. When they’d broken it off and stared at one another in utter amazement, she’d tried to slow her pulse and catch her breath, exerting everything she had not to blurt out the declaration on the tip of her tongue. His eyes had searched her face as if reaching into her thoughts. As s
he watched, a change had come over him, a spark of renewed hope. It shone in him like a beacon guiding her home, but she had squelched the impulse to beg his forgiveness, confess her love, and ask him from her knees if she must, to take her home. Instead, she’d had to shut down, quickly, hiding behind a mask of indifference. If she didn’t, the endless months of longing and anguish would have been pointless because nothing had changed.
He didn’t know the sacrifice she’d made for him, and never would if she could help it.
“Council is in session,” the older man in the white robe called out, bringing her abruptly back into the room. “Silence is expected and will be enforced,” he announced further, before he took his seat at Trask’s right hand. She took in the elder with his long snowy beard. He looked vaguely familiar, but then all the elders did, resembling her mental image of Merlin the legendary wizard. Perhaps that was why.
Dismissing him, she shifted her gaze back to Trask. She knew he was here. Adria said he had a mission, but she hadn’t mention what. She should have known it would be a position wielding power and authority, both of which he excelled at beautifully.
“State your complaint, Miss Barker.” The room reverberated from those few words.
“Thank you, General.”
Lana twisted her head sharply to the right, surprised to see a woman standing at the end of the table. She’d been so lost in thought, she hadn’t seen or heard her walk up. More surprising, she knew her. Betsy Barker hadn’t changed much in appearance since their college days. Supermodel tall, with a willowy frame, she was beautiful, if she could only control the compulsion she had for dying her hair an unnatural shade of red. Flaming and gaudy, it hadn’t changed either. Nor had her man-hungry behavior, judging from the way she was eyeing Trask like he was a juicy T-bone steak and she hadn’t dined in a month.
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