The Portal (Novella)

by S. E. GILCHRIST

  A deep voice rumbled behind her, the words too faint for her to make out. Janni shrank against the side of the passageway. Footsteps became louder.

  Bollocks to the trader. She had to hide.

  Quickening her pace she hurried along the winding hallway until she reached the end where she looked both ways. To the left, light gleamed, picking out the faded colours of the rainbow hued wall and to the right, all lay in darkness.

  She took the left. The passageway hooked round and opened into a massive room.

  Oh … my … god.

  “No matter where I travel in the verse, there is nothing more glorious than the sight of fresh water,” murmured a deep voice.

  Janni jumped and glanced over her shoulder to find the very patroller whose fine-boned face and smiling eyes had danced through her dreams since she met him on the way-station six months ago.

  He smiled and indicated with a sweep of his armoured hand, what had transfixed her a second earlier. “I am not on duty for another four rones.”

  Unable to pluck a coherent word out of her head, Janni glanced behind him but the patroller was alone. She stared back at him, none the wiser.

  “I have paid twenty creds for the use of these facilities.” The patroller smacked his lips with relish; his eyes glittered with shards of gold. “You cannot deny to me, how you must long for the feel of real water against your skin. Here we have the most precious commodity of the Besa System, water from the Flaviani Spring. We will share this delight together.”

  On Board The Freedom: Present Time

  The sulphur smell grew stronger, burning Janni’s nostrils as she sucked in a deep breath to steady her shaky nerves. The sharpness snapped her back to the present.

  A long low grinding metallic noise came from within the bowels of the ship.

  Startled, Janni hissed in a short breath and cast a swift look about the passageway. “What the hell was that?” She cringed at the high note in her voice.

  The patroller’s gaze followed hers as he slowly straightened, allowing his hand to fall away from the wall. When he turned back, a deep frown pulled his black brow together. “I do not know, but we had best make haste.”

  Instead of hauling her back towards the docking pads, he punched a code into the panel beside the door. Once opened, he pulled her inside the command centre.

  She stared and forgot the niggling unease teasing her skin. The room was bare except for one long barren console.

  What had happened here? Had the ship already been ransacked?

  The temperature had dropped to a level so icily cold, her bones ached like an old woman’s. When a shiver racked her body, her captor rubbed his hands up and down her bare arms. She gaped at him but he was busy examining the room. His beautifully cut lips compressed into a thin line while his narrow eyed stare slowly traversed the compartment.

  With difficulty, she wrenched her gaze from his face, from where she had been staring at the curve of his sinfully cut lips, remembering the hard press of his hot skin against hers. She frowned and imitated his scrutiny. What was he searching for?

  “Evidence.” His deep voice rumbled through her body.

  Had she spoken her thoughts aloud? She edged sideways, hoping to distance herself from his unsettling aura, hoping he hadn’t discerned the trembling weakness of her body.

  He sighed. “There is nothing here.”

  Janni took another step. It took a monumental effort on her part to leave the reassuring warmth of his touch but, hey, she was a loner. She needed no one. She had stopped needing anyone when she had been taken from Earth as a teenager and left to fend for herself in an alien world.

  Don’t forget, he’s the enemy. He’ll take you back to prison, a salvager can expect no mercy from a Darkon, whispered her voice of reason. She lifted her chin and gave a derisive snort. “What did you expect to find? People? Hell, this wreck must have been abandoned for years. There’s nothing here.”

  “I need to check one more area.”

  “Check for what?”

  The grinding noise rumbled through the ship and ended with the screech of rending metal. Janni jumped. She sank her teeth deep into her lower lip to hold back the whimper of fear that stabbed like icy spikes into her spine. Sucking in a steadying breath, she said, “Let’s get out of here. This place is like a ghost ship.”

  “There are no ghosts on this ship.” The patroller’s smooth voice reeked of patronising amusement.

  “Then, explain what is making that noise.” Janni tossed her head and returned his irritated glare.

  He harrumphed and stomped off to inspect the consol. Despite her rising trepidation, she hurried after him and peered about his highly toned body, watching while he ran his fingers over the embedded panels. He stopped, his hand hovering above the board. Then to her fascinated gaze, the air appeared to crackle with energy and a slab of metal rose above the counter, half a metre high. He placed his hand, palm down in the centre of the small structure and white light flickered along both sides of the blackened counter. Red and green lights flickered on, then off.

  The ship shuddered.

  Janni staggered, her body bumped against the patroller who lifted his head and stared at the panel, an astonished expression on his face.

  “It is not responding!” Disbelief resonated in his voice. “I will double check the sequence.”

  What wasn’t responding? And seriously, what did it matter? “Whatever you’re doing, please stop,” begged Janni.

  Another massive shake rent the ship, like a beast waking from a deep sleep.

  Janni yelped as the movement sent her flying sideways. With her hands bound, she couldn’t stop herself tumbling onto the floor. At the last moment, she twisted and landed on her side instead of her face.

  “Are you damaged?” He must have moved fast to reach her mere seconds after she hit the floor.

  “Only bruised, I’m fine,” she mumbled. Janni tried to evade his touch but the patroller hauled her to her feet, patted her down rather too enthusiastically in some places, his hands lingering, moulding, sending shock waves of memories slamming through her mind. She blew a tangle of hair out of her eyes and glowered. He gave her a quick grin, spun her round and the next instant her hands were free from the manacles. The metal had grazed her skin when she fell and she rubbed the sore area absently, while staring beyond the soldier standing so quiet in front of her.

  The ship listed to the starboard side.

  Overhead the ceiling lights zapped twice and darkness fell inside the command centre.

  To Janni’s ears, their combined breathing sounded way too loud. She hastily released her grip on the Darkon’s arm when she realised she had reached out and grabbed him. And worse, she was actually huddling against his bulk.

  “We have to get off this ship.” She paused to swallow over the constriction in her throat. Her voice barely a murmur, she continued, “Any idea what’s causing that awful smell?”

  The patroller looped an arm about her waist, pulling her close and unwittingly, she leaned into his warmth.

  His breath puffed against her cheek when he said, “We are not alone.”

  Olman Garrison, Basa System: Six Standard Months Earlier

  “What do you mean ‘we’?” Janni finally spluttered.

  The patroller raised his thin brows and said, “You and I.”

  “Mate, you have so got the wrong idea. I may steal a little here and there but I don’t whore for anyone.”

  He titled his head to one side and regarded her. “Whore?” he queried in his pleasantly modulated voice.

  Janni held her ground, raising her chin, hating the way heat washed like a river over her face and neck. Positive the freckles that dotted her skin would be standing out like a bad case of the measles. “Yeah, you call them sex slaves, ‘cept where I come from there ain’t no slaves.”

  His mouth deepened at the corners into a positively sinful quirk as he stepped a pace back and took a long, thorough look from the top of her tou
sled head to the tips of her dusty boots. The glint in his eyes had her thinking all kinds of naughty thoughts; ones that involved peeling that armour off him and exploring every inch of his muscular body.

  Wooah! What am I thinking? Janni jerked her head to the side and crossed the room. Her movements feeling jerky and stiff like an uncontrolled puppet. Tension drained away the closer she came and as soon as she reached the edge, she dropped into a crouch to trail her fingers through the water. The pool was the size of a ten-person spa, its waters crystal clear, the ripples formed by her hand glittering like diamonds reflected by the light from the pure white tiles which formed the pool’s skin.

  She sensed the presence of the patroller beside her and glanced over. The same yearning she felt was etched in the awed expression on his face, the faint wistful curve of his exquisitely cut lips. When he turned and met her eyes, his mouth widened into a mischievous grin, the faint lines about the corners of his eyes crinkling.

  “Flaviani water slides like the smoothest of fabrics against the body,” he murmured, his voice rich with temptation.

  God, how long had it been since she had experienced real water splashing over her skin? Too long. She sucked in her lower lip and half closed her eyes, as she swished her hand back and forth.

  “Are you telling me, we have the place to ourselves?” she asked.

  “Affirmative.”

  Obviously a man of few words, decided Janni. She rose to her feet and watched him straighten to his full height, a full head higher than her.

  “Let us not waste the time we have,” he said.

  Hell no. Janni nodded. She reefed off her boots, tossing them well away from the pool’s edge, flinging the remainder of her clothes after them until she stood clad in her paper-thin camisole and undies. The splash of water alerted her and she looked up to find her buck-naked companion ducking his head beneath the water. He emerged, eyes closed, head flung back, his black hair streaming down like watered silk over his wide shoulders.

  He groaned.

  She needed no further invitation. Crouching onto her bottom, she swung her legs over the side and slipped into the pool.

  Heaven.

  Cool, delicious, fragrant with the faintest hint of some flowery scent, the water slid over her sticky, grimy body. She followed his example and popped her head under. It was like a baptism, her skin felt cleansed and soothed at the same time and all her worries and pain ebbed like a gentle tide flowing onto the shore.

  “This is wonderful.” Janni smiled and looked at the soldier. That odd pull of attraction slammed into her again, as she stared into his intent face.

  He waded towards her, reached out his hands and closed them over her shoulders. There was a question in his eyes that blazed like tongues of fire against a backdrop of inky night sky. Warmth spread from where his fingers curled over her skin, the heat scorching tiny paths that tingled through her body.

  The hunger for human contact, for the reassurance of being enfolded in another’s embrace had her raising her hand to finger the contours of his cheekbone, his brow bone and down the side of his face. One, two heavy heartbeats passed before she was flitting her fingertip across his lips. This could well prove to be another bad decision, like all the others she had made, but she needed this, needed this moment of escape from a life fraught with danger and the perils of the unknown.

  “You are beautiful,” he said in such a husky voice, her toes curled against the tiles beneath her feet.

  She wasn’t, but who was she to disabuse him of his fantasy? He was the one who was gorgeous. Smooth caramel-dark skin, those amazing eyes that spoke a language her soul appeared to recognise. The finely cut bones of his facial structure were all so totally drool-worthy.

  Janni closed her mind to the outside world. Standing on tiptoe, she pressed her lips against his.

  He made a noise, needy and dark, from the back of his throat and angled his head a tad, taking possession of her lips, sucking and licking before thrusting his tongue into her mouth. His hands slid down her back, one wrapped around her waist, the other lower to cup the left cheek of her backside, pushing her up against him. The stiff ridge of his erection surged against the softness of her belly and Janni’s knees buckled under the onslaught of lust that sizzled through her bones. She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung, kissing him back with a desperate urgency as if fearing at any moment he would be snatched from her.

  Her eyes closed and with every panting breath she took, she inhaled his spicy male scent, filling her lungs until her head whirled as if intoxicated. She slid her body against his, relishing the contact of her softness against his hardness and the sweet glide of water between. The possessive feel of his hands holding her so firmly filled her heart with a sense of safety. She made a tiny whimper of protest when his lips left hers, only to gasp as he sucked his way down her neck.

  The next moment he lifted her higher in his arms, raising her above the water. He lowered his head and closed his mouth over one peaked nipple, drawing it deep into his mouth, his cheeks working as he sucked with furious precision.

  Her head fell back and she moaned, digging her fingers into the back of his neck. Need flooded her. All she could feel was him, his heat surrounded her, raising her temperature, making her head swim. She was drowning in a sea of sensation.

  Her breasts ached for his touch and as if he sensed her wants, he raised his head, turning his attention to her mouth while his right hand slipped between their heaving chests to mould and knead first one breast and then the other. Her hands gripped his shoulders and she wound her legs around his backside, locking her knees in place. Sliding, wriggling, pressing her groin against his, she sought the relief she knew he could give her.

  And he gave it to her.

  Her frantic movements must have snapped the hold he had over his passion, for his kisses changed, harder, faster, more demanding. His hands roamed over her body, as if he wanted to touch all of her at the same time. Janni met him kiss for kiss, followed his lead, let her hands touch everything she had ever wanted to touch. When her fingers closed over the head of his rigid cock, he squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. Emboldened, she fondled his shape, exploring his length before snagging the top of her panties and dragging them down. A quick slid up then down and she had him where she wanted him. His cock trapped within her panties, her legs locked about his taut backside.

  “You are very bold,” he grated.

  Did he mean he found her actions off-putting in some way? She leant back, averted her eyes, about to push out of his arms but he added, “Forgive me, my words were clumsy.”

  Janni paused then bit her lip. Their eyes met and the serious intensity of his expression dissolved a little more of her loneliness.

  “I like it.” He smiled.

  Laughter bubbled inside and she grinned. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

  The patroller quirked an eyebrow and growled, “Do not keep me waiting, little thief, for my patience is thin and my hunger for the feel of your body impaled on my sex must be fed. Now.”

  On Board The Freedom: Present Time

  “We are not alone.” His words rattled around her dumbfounded mind for a long sixty seconds, before lodging like a slimy outpost meal in the pit of her stomach. She had to swallow hard to stop from retching onto the floor.

  “We checked and double checked. All our stats said the ship was void of life.” Her eyes burned as she stared, probing the black depths shrouding the room.

  “Define life.”

  “Oh.” Janni gulped.

  “Here, little thief, grab my belt and stay close to me. Whatever you do, do not let go.”

  This was not the time to argue. Whatever was on this ship, it sure had this Darkon patroller spooked. If somebody as big as him could be intimidated then she sure as hell did not intend to go it alone.

  A beam of light suddenly illuminated their path when the patroller activated the magfen lamp on his suit. Impenetrable darkness surrounded the wavering
light; darkness that reeked of malevolence.

  The skin on her back tightened. Sweat dried cold beneath her hair. Any minute now she expected to feel the cold slice of death in her back by a plitza shot but they made it to the door unscathed and hurried through the opening.

  The sudden shriek of an enraged beast pierced down the dark corridors.

  The patroller halted in his tracks and she pressed against him, her body shaking as lurid images of monsters flashed across her brain. All wielding various types of weapons guaranteed to make her trip into the next life extremely painful.

  “This way and hurry.”

  “Hey, you don’t have to tell me twice!”

  The Darkon sprinted down the long snaking corridors.

  She stuck to him like a leech, her fingers wrapped so tightly around his belt, cramps coursed through the muscles of her hand. But she kept her hold. She wondered where he was going, though she had no spare breath to ask.

  The ship shook violently as if it was trying to throw them through its damaged frame into the void of outer space. In the distance Janni heard the piercing wail of alarm systems.

  Her heart thundered. Her lungs worked like manic pistons. Her lonely inner child screamed inside her mind.

  When she thought she could bear it no more, the Darkon stopped and she smacked into his back. Within the pool of light from the magfen lamp, she recognised the insignia inset in the wall in front of them, he was taking her to the Commander’s Quarters.

  The patroller worked with frantic haste, punching in his code over and over—the door remained shut. Janni huddled against him, terrified to turn her head and look into the blackness behind.

  He swore fluently.

  “Let’s go!” If she had to, she’d go down on her knees and beg.

  “No. I must check this room.”

  “For goodness sake! What could be more important than our lives?”