Girl Gone Nova

by Pauline Baird Jones

  No wonder the General looked like a ticking bomb.

  “Me.” His smile was slow, but wide.

  “You were the closest,” the General snapped.

  Why did he suspect he was not the General’s choice?

  Delilah stared at the ceiling, trying not to grin.

  “The nanites picked you,” the General added, as if to keep Hel from getting ideas about Delilah’s interest.

  It was too late for that.

  “The nanites remain inside you?” The question gave him breathing room to think about being a Key. The irony was delightful and terrifying. For an answer she turned her palm up. Golden beads of light emerged from her skin, then sank out of sight.

  The General looked as uncomfortable as Hel felt. “She glowed?” For the first time Hel noticed the weapon lying on the table close to the General’s seat.

  “She glowed.”

  It did not sound as if the glowing made the General happy, but perhaps nothing could.

  He had many questions, but would ask none of them in front of the General. He forced his mind back to the salient point: they needed his help. Was it true there were others out there with the correct DNA string? His power was not absolute, but finding others would take time and time was in short supply. Hel felt this, and he was sure they did, too.

  “Currently the outpost has some weapons online and a cloak, but no shield. If you unlock the technology that would bring additional weapons and a shield into play, not just for this outpost, but the others.” She hesitated and her gaze strayed to the General. “It’s not just about our protection. This is your history, your heritage that might be destroyed or taken over.”

  “It is true that outsiders to this galaxy have been unwilling to share control,” Hel said, with pointed emphasis.

  “You have every reason to be suspicious, Hel,” Delilah said, before the General got his mouth open, “but keep this in mind. We arrived in this galaxy openly. Once we’d sorted out the players, we took sides. We fought with you against the Dusan, and we haven’t gone covertly around the galaxy kidnapping young women and forcing them into marriage.”

  She gave both men the kind of look only a woman can give a man. Even his mother might have quailed from it.

  “And the distrust between our peoples has been deliberately fostered and fomented by traitors on both sides. But we’ve moved past that. Haven’t we, sir?”

  The General looked like he might choke on the words, but he managed a, “Yes.”

  Hel jumped from frustrated to amused in a heartbeat. Halliwell reminded him of Lorin, caught in mischief.

  “Of course.” Hel could be gracious. It made him look good to Delilah and annoyed the General at the same time.

  “And you don’t need to worry, Hel, because you’ll have joint control of the outpost from now on, won’t he, General Halliwell?”

  “Of course.” It came out through gritted teeth, but at least he said it.

  Hel could appreciate his problem. He had teased the man at every opportunity.

  “I appreciate the effort, General Halliwell.” He said it sincerely and seriously and got his reward—Delilah’s smile of approval.

  The General might have snorted. It was difficult to hear anything negative while basking in that smile.

  “While we’re all enjoying being good friends, the Gadi ships are getting closer, and the clock is ticking with these ships from Keltinar,” the General pointed out, going from grouchy to pragmatic with an abruptness that left Hel feeling a bit impressed.

  “Keltinar? You know where they originate?”

  “We’re pretty sure we know they’re from Keltinar,” Delilah said. Before Hel could ask the next question, she answered it. “We think that’s where our people went and they’re here because of them, because of us. That might be why they are targeting the outposts.” She frowned as if the words didn’t feel right to her.

  Hel blinked, mostly because he didn’t know what to do or say to that.

  “The doc said you noticed their ships are similar to ours.”

  “Yes. I did wonder—”

  “If we lied about the level of our deployment in your galaxy.” This General he hardly recognized added, “I would have thought the same thing. The similarities are disturbing.”

  “Dr. Smith, the scientist who traveled through the portal, had a design for a ship that is uncannily similar to the Keltinar ships. And he was involved in the design of ours.” Something still bothered Delilah. It was there in the almost absent way she said this.

  “Which would explain the similarities and the differences.” Hel didn’t have access to their design specs, but he had scanned their ships. He frowned. “They have been in the galaxy for some time. They started abducting women several seasons past. Is this deployment a reaction to your escape?”

  “I don’t think so. I felt their clock ticking when I was with them. I think they’ve been multi-tasking, learning the players here, getting wives, waiting for a trigger of some kind.”

  The frown between her brows made her seemed more human, less remote.

  “What concerns you?” Hel asked.

  “Well, logically, if they had an issue with us, it should be related to Dr. Smith’s trip through the portal two years ago. So either they-re late and don’t know it or—”

  “—the trigger is something else. Someone else,” Hel finished for her. “You fear that we, that what we plan to do, is this trigger?”

  “I don’t know what to think.” Her wry gaze slammed into his. “Something I’m not used to.”

  “Is this more of that time paradox stuff?” The General was getting frustrated again.

  Delilah’s smile was half-hearted, abstracted. “Possibly, sir.”

  Hel almost asked her what it was, but he did not wish to distract her, too. He looked at the HUD. Was this Conan character only after the outpost? But he had no way to know Delilah was on this ship. He’d made sure he stayed cloaked both arriving and leaving to protect her.

  “At least his arrival is not related to you,” he shot a look at the General, “Delilah.”

  They both stilled. There was no other word for it.

  “He knows I’m here. He tagged me when I was dirt side with him.” She held out her hands, palms up and random spots on them glowed red. “He can track my movements on this ship. And possibly on the outpost.”

  “But surely your nanites can deal with this contamination?” Hel’s gut tightened at the thought of the barbarian tracking Delilah’s movements.

  “They can, but if he can’t track me that might be the trigger. Or provoke him to premature action.” She rubbed her head and sighed. “He hasn’t attacked yet. That’s probably a good thing.”

  “You need to unlock the outpost before he does, Doc,” the General said, his face unsurprisingly grim. “It’ll be a short battle for all of us if you don’t.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “We can provide proof you weren’t involved in the plots, if you think your people will believe us,” Doc said, trying not to stare too hard at Hel in ABUs and boots. Men in uniform were hot. And a man in uniform you were hot for? Well, the combination was downright explosive. And it had been her idea. She’d pointed out to the General that they’d attract less attention on the outpost if he were dressed like their people.

  He paused to consider her words, but he was as good as she was at hiding his thoughts. She wondered what his IQ was. He’d been quick to grasp the essentials. His mind was agile to the point of frightening. So why wasn’t she afraid of him?

  You like him.

  It was a rhetorical question.

  No it wasn’t.

  Okay, fine, but the answer is more complicated than like or dislike. And I don’t have time to sort it out now.

  She sighed. How could she expect the peeps to tell which questions needed answers and which didn’t, when she didn’t know? She had a weird, knee-jerk reaction to the word like in relation to Hel. It was an anemic word and the emotions he r
oused in her weren’t anemic, but there was no point dwelling on it. There was no future in it and a lot of risk—the kind of risk she wasn’t used to dealing in. The realm of feelings weren’t in her skill set. On some level she so wanted to deny, she knew that the level of pleasure she’d felt at his sudden appearance could result in an equal or greater level of pain when they both returned to their respective worlds. She’d done pain when Robert lost his battle with them. It wasn’t a place she wanted to go again. She did understand that one was not always given a choice, but it didn’t stop her from trying.

  Hel shrugged, drawing her out of her thoughts. “There is much that will happen in the next few days. The outcome will determine many things about my future and yours.”

  So he didn’t want to think too much either. It was kind of funny, that their level of denial was yet another thing they had in common. The General had finally quit hovering and let her brief him on the basics of the plan to retrieve their missing people and eliminate the alien threat. She’d added her usual qualifier about the law of unintended consequences.

  It still bothered her that she didn’t know very much about what had happened two years ago, but at least she’d considered all the possibilities that she reasonably could, and prepared for them as much as one could prepare for the impossible and a possible time paradox—which meant she was much less prepared than she liked to be. And at least she could go knowing she’d done all she could to help the General mind the store while she was gone. Even taking out the distance factor, she wouldn’t be able to return that close to her departure time, but if she was successful, any problems with Conan and his boys should just go away as if they never happened. She might not remember him when she got back.

  She tried not to worry about how success might change her current reality, tried not to think about possibly returning to a life without the peeps. No matter the impact on her life, she had to go forward. She promised the General she’d try to bring his people home. He’d brought her home. She owed him this. Even the peeps didn’t know what would happen. The Garradians hadn’t used the portal to try to change time. It was, in fact, one of the reasons they’d locked it. She felt no sense of judgment from the peeps for what she was attempting. Maybe they didn’t want to get blown away either.

  “Do you fear you are this trigger, Delilah?”

  Hel breaking into her thoughts was a relief. She needed to think less, if she could just figure out how to do that.

  “No.” She frowned, remembering Conan’s reaction to finding out she was a doctor. She wasn’t the only doctor with the expedition, and she couldn’t think of any reason she’d go through the portal to Keltinar. She’d maxed out her brain trying. On the other hand, there was that law of unintended consequences and the many things she didn’t know. “Though I never say never.”

  It was part honest assessment, part superstition.

  Hel zipped up his vest and hung the loaded P-90 on the hook off the front. With the cap on, he’d exchanged his leader persona for jarhead. And they called her chameleon. The weapons added to the uniform made her skin sizzle. She could almost hear her peeps noting and assessing this phenomenon. It was a good thing she could multi-task.

  Her peeps went on the alert. “We got incoming.”

  “Gadi?” Hel went from jarhead to something even more lethal with the word. Doc didn’t know you could get more lethal than a jarhead, except maybe her.

  “No. It’s Conan. He’s popped out in a smaller ship, a kind of shuttle I’d guess. It’s more benign than a fighter craft.” She tapped into ship’s systems. “He’s asking for medical help.”

  “He knows you are a healer.” Hel didn’t sound surprised.

  “Why would he want to see me after I shot him? That’s nutty.”

  “He hopes,” Hel said, his tone quiet but firm.

  Doc’s radio earbud activated. “Doc?”

  “I see it, sir.”

  “Can you get on a video link with me? He’ll be here before you can get to my ready room.”

  Doc looked at the video screen, saw the General already there. “I’m here, sir.”

  He frowned. “I can’t see you.”

  “Oh, sorry. I took us both off the video screen as a security measure.” Well, the peeps had. Yet another cool thing they could do. She loved them. At the thought it almost felt they wiggled with delight. Was that possible? The General twitched, letting her know they were visible again.

  “Is that the man who kidnapped you, Doc?”

  The picture taken from his transmission popped into view, but Doc had already seen him during her tap.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What does he want?”

  Doc blinked. “Um, medical care?”

  “He wants you,” Hel said, his voice flat.

  “Because kneeing someone in the groin and shooting them with their own gun is foreplay?” She looked at Hel, then at the General. “I was his worst nightmare. I can’t see Conan risking his whole obscure plan for a woman.”

  “I left my ship, exposed my flank and may have lost my position as Leader to rescue a woman,” Hel said, his voice still devoid of inflection and too low for the General to hear.

  Doc looked at him, tried to think of a response and couldn’t.

  He likes you.

  Now is not the time.

  “What’s his plan? And what’s our move?”

  Doc felt an unfamiliar frustration stir in her chest. “I don’t know.” And she hated admitting it. She always knew what to do. Didn’t make her right, just proactive.

  Hel’s mouth twitched. “He needs to see a doctor. He should see one.” He half-turned to her. “He should see you.”

  “Why?”

  “It will distract him. And perhaps he will talk to you, tell you why he is here.”

  “That makes sense.” Halliwell frowned, as if surprised.

  “He wouldn’t tell me anything before. What makes you think he will now?”

  “You escaped him. Force failed. Now he must persuade.”

  “It won’t work.”

  Hel’s smile was almost tender. “We know that, but he does not. He is arrogant. Information can only be helpful to us.”

  “Fine.” Why was she so annoyed? She almost glared at Hel. Didn’t it bother him to have her talk to Conan? She frowned. Did she want him to be jealous? Was she having a girl moment in the middle of an op? “At least while he’s on this ship he won’t be firing on the outpost.”

  She gave in to the temptation to study herself via the ship’s security cameras. And saw what she always saw: a pale woman in ABUs, minus Morticia’s vamp factor, but loaded with creepy. Hel made her feel like a girl, but she still didn’t know how to be a girl, and she sure didn’t want to be one around Conan.

  “We need to get you a security detail—”

  “I will accompany her.”

  Hel still had that odd, flat note to his voice. Maybe that was his version of not happy with the situation, but being pragmatic? Doc felt her ire go down at that thought. He’d left his position to hunt for her and even more significant, he’d set her free after finding her, and he’d done it before he found out she was sick.

  Halliwell’s objection was automatic, but Hel was ready for him. “Perhaps you have others you wish to know about this situation?”

  “He’s right, sir. We need to contain the flow of information as much as possible. Briggs would be a good second choice.”

  Halliwell huffed, but finally nodded. “Do we take him to the infirmary or can you treat him in the shuttle bay?”

  Doc had a sudden memory of two girl-less guys on the planet. Could Conan be multi-tasking with this visit? “Shuttle bay, sir and no women anywhere near.”

  He tensed. “You think he might—”

  “I’d rather take precautions, sir. He’s three women short of a full complement. I’d like to keep it that way.”

  “But, how could he get himself and three women off my ship?”

  Doc could almost
see his hackles rise. She’d put her nanite peeps up against his tech any day. Her peeps did not disagree. If they could have puffed like cats, they would have.

  “On it, sir, but let’s limit our exposure until we’re sure.”

  * * * * *

  Vidor was not surprised when the Earth ship gave him permission to land. Two fighter ships appeared on either side and escorted him toward the Doolittle, toward the bay where he was to land. They did not concern him. He had no reason to fear them. His weapons were superior in every way. He had predicted they would talk to him and he’d been right.

  He settled his shuttle where indicated and shut down his engines. She was still onboard, he could track her progress through her ship, and soon they would surrender her to him.

  * * * * *

  Doc had to arrange for medical supplies, so she missed seeing Conan’s arrival in person. She did watch it through the security monitors because she was curious and always would be. He strode down the ramp from his shuttle craft, his hard gaze sweeping the bay with a look that was cool and thorough. He moved with more arrogance, more authority, more confidence. If she’d had any doubts that he was the leader of his people, he put those to rest.

  What, she wondered, made him so confident? Okay, so he had the military advantage, but what did he plan to do with that advantage? It wasn’t just about her. No one went to all this trouble to get a girl. She didn’t realize she’d tensed until Hel touched her shoulder.

  “It bothers you to see him again?”

  He’d been worried that Conan had forced himself on her, she recalled. He hadn’t, but not for lack of trying. That didn’t explain her reaction. He didn’t affect her sexually, but he did bother her, she had to admit. She was unable to be indifferent, her preferred response during an operation. The question was why? Doc tried to be strictly honest with herself, because she knew no one else would be. Was it ego? She’d never had to be rescued before. He hadn’t beaten her because she’d have died, so technically it was a draw.

  Okay, it bothered her that he saw a female when he looked at her, but his…unpredictability also made her twitchy. She may not know that much about sex and men, or how they related to women, but she usually could predict how someone would react until she met Conan. Maybe it was his inexperience running into hers? It was almost funny, but she couldn’t summon a smile, let alone a chuckle. It could be an alien thing. She had trouble predicting what Hel would do, too. Her gut twitched, as if she were close to figuring something important out.