She didn’t want to owe him, because she didn’t want any permanent ties.
Chapter Six
“I’LL BRING EXTRA air with us,” Kirek told Angel in a matter-of-fact tone.
“How?” Although she didn’t doubt him, she was unwilling to accept a statement—that risked her life—on trust. Just because he’d had the good judgment to turn her suit’s control back over to her when their lovemaking had been interrupted didn’t mean that his judgment was always sound. Just because he had a powerful psi—even when damaged—didn’t mean he never made mistakes. With her life on the line, she was entitled to an explanation.
They’d returned to the bridge and were discussing the next step to transport the salvage, but her body still yearned for more of his touch. But she was also annoyed that Kirek had affected her to the extent that her body would dare to distract her from business that required immediate attention. Yet, no matter how much she yearned to be back in Kirek’s arms and wished for his skilled hands on her body, the Raven and her salvage came first.
With one end of the chain already attached to the Raven, they needed to make a space walk to weld the other end to the Vogan ship to tow it. Their equipment was limited.
Leval frowned at his monitor. “Captain, I can only fly so close to the rotating Vogan ship without placing the Raven in danger. If she wasn’t wildly spinning out of control—”
Angel peered at the vidscreen. “I’ll fly the shuttle—”
Frie shook her head. “The Vogan ship is revolving way too fast to fly the shuttle into her bay. Her flight path is unstable and unpredictable. You can’t even place the shuttle in a nearby orbit without risk.”
Angel wasn’t about to give up. “I’ll use a booster to close the remaining distance.” Boosters strapped onto the back required fuel to propel a body through space. Angel didn’t like to leave the safety of her ship for what would be a space walk with a primitive rocket on her back, but she would do what must be done to re-secure the salvage.
Again Frie shook her head, her eyes full of concern. “According to my calculation, even using a booster, the amount of air you can bring within your suit will likely run out before you complete the weld and return.”
Kirek looked at Frie. “Don’t you have extra oxygen tanks?”
“We did.” Angel sighed. “But since we don’t use them often, I traded the tanks for fuel. I’ll have to fly the shuttle.”
“Captain. I really don’t recommend it.” Frie peered at her monitor. “Your chance of success is less than five percent.”
“Any other suggestions?” Angel asked.
Kirek spoke up as if he’d been waiting for her to ask. “We use the boosters and I’ll extend my psi around us both.”
Angel appreciated that he wanted to contribute, but his offer sounded incredible—and impossible—until she recalled how he’d used his psi to enhance the Raven’s shields to keep them safe through the dust cloud’s center and how he’d held the chain ball with his psi. “How will that help?”
Kirek explained without a wisp of condescension in his tone. “Your psi runs your suit and holds a force field full of air around you. I simply make us a bigger force field, so our air will last longer.”
“You’ve done this before?” she asked, her doubts subsiding even though she’d never heard of anyone who could expand his psi shield around another. But Kirek had already exhibited unusual psi power. He’d held the spinning mass of chain without any problem, exhibiting more psi strength than she’d thought possible. While she didn’t know how much of his psi and how much of his upgrading her computer had been responsible for reinforcing the Raven’s shields, she had to accept that his psi was unusual.
He shook his head, revealing he hadn’t attempted such a task before, and her stomach flip-flopped. No doubt he read her renewed doubts, because he spoke swiftly, confidently. “I would not risk your life if I wasn’t certain of my ability.”
“Earlier you said that your psi was weakened from your long journey. You just used up a lot of energy to get the Raven through the dust—”
“That was mostly your computer.”
“And holding the ball of chain,” she reminded him.
Kirek seemed to go inward for a moment, as if he was checking some internal gauges. “I’m healing. Even faster than the doctors’ best estimates.”
“After we go out there, how do you know that you won’t suffer an unpredictable setback? That the force field around us won’t collapse?”
“Do you fear your hands won’t be strong enough to hold the weld?”
“That’s different. I’m not … injured. If my hands fail, our lives won’t be in jeopardy. But if you can’t hold the force field, we won’t have enough air—”
“It’s not a problem.” Kirek’s expression remained calm, his gaze sincere. His confident attitude reassured her as much as his words. Surely it wasn’t the memory of his wondrous kisses that compelled her to believe him. Because, so far he’d done exactly what he claimed he could do.
He headed for the door as if a decision had already been made. “I’ll go alone.”
She appreciated his offer, his willingness to put his life on the line. She also appreciated how he hadn’t made suggestions until she’d asked for them. But welding was a specialized task. “You know how to weld?”
Her words stopped his forward progress. He glanced over his shoulder, his mouth curling into an impish grin. “I watched you.”
“Welding is not that simple. Different metals require different heat and pressure.”
“We could always give up on the salvage.” Kirek’s eyes drilled into hers, yet twinkled mischievously as if suggesting they return to her quarters and continue their former activities. “I will arrange for a credit transfer to—”
“No.” Angel made up her mind. She could accept that she found Kirek attractive. She could accept that she wanted to make love. But she did not accept favors that would place her in anyone’s debt. “We’ll both go.”
IN THE SHUTTLE bay, Kirek helped Angel into her booster pack, and then she did the same for him. The mechanical device was the equivalent of strapping on unstable rocket fuel. While space holovids often showed explosions erupting into flames, due to the lack of oxygen in space, combustion was not a factor. However, the compressed fuel was packed into tanks and remained under enormous pressure, and if a valve failed, the brain would never have the time to realize there was a leak. The unlucky wearer would become a fatality.
“Turn around.” He held a meter to the booster, checking fuel, compression, and the last safety inspection date. “It’s been two Federation years since the last inspection?”
She shrugged. “The Raven isn’t a military vessel funded by governments and taxes. When we don’t find enough salvage, I have to compromise on equipment.”
Not acceptable. If Kirek had been prone to cursing, he would have let loose several profanities. Instead he suppressed his irritation with her for taking such risks with her life. However, right then he made up his mind to correct the situation. The Raven wasn’t up to Kirek’s standards, and he refused to take the ship to the galaxy’s rim without major upgrades. But how was he going to get the proud captain to accept?
Angel tossed her hair over her shoulder and peered at him. “Since the boosters have never been used, I consider them brand new.”
Kirek pressed his lips together. They should abort. The salvage wasn’t worth gambling their lives. He had an important mission before him—and yet, he required Angel’s help on Dakmar. Even if she was more stubborn than a masdon over accepting credit, she knew the beings in charge of Dakmar. She could get him into the quasi-legal areas of the moon.
Arguing wouldn’t change her mind. He was too much a warrior to stay behind and allow her to take all the risk. Telling himself he would have made the same decision even if she didn’t have skin so soft that he felt compelled to brush her hair from her cheek just for the opportunity to touch her flesh again was a prevaricatio
n. There was much he would do to know Angel better. She’d been an eager and enthusiastic lover, and he looked forward to being with her again with impatient anticipation.
He’d risked his life many times—but never for a hunk of metal. Yet, to her, selling the salvage meant self-respect. Independence. If she weren’t an experienced captain, he’d secretly arrange to buy the salvage from her for an outrageous price so she could properly outfit the Raven. But he’d bet the mission she would know what the ship would bring on the Dakmar market down to a quarter credit.
“We’re good to go.” Angel finished checking his equipment and set the gauges aside. Without waiting to see if he would join her, she slung the welding equipment over her back and leaped from the safety of the Raven’s bay doors and the protective force fields that trapped the air inside. Like a fearless warrior about to face her enemy, she didn’t look back.
After clearing the Raven, she turned on the booster and soared directly toward the Vogan ship. Kirek stopped admiring her lovely long legs, adjusted his psi to take in a large bubble of air, and followed her outside. “Don’t get too far ahead.”
“Then catch up. We only have a limited air supply.” She spoke in official captain mode, her tone reminding him that her crew was monitoring all communications.
“We have plenty of air if we don’t make any mistakes,” he agreed.
Kirek had been born in hyperspace, and he’d traveled across the galaxy, but he never tired of the view. To some beings, space was a big black empty region—cold and harsh and unforgiving. To him space was just as much home as Mystique or Rystan. He enjoyed the lack of gravity and the liberty of movement. He loved the unlimited freedom, the sense of adventure. Besides, deep space was nature’s most awesome spectacle.
Stars strung out around them like glistening Devallian diagems on black matte. Through holes in the dust clouds, even with the naked eye, he could see neighboring galaxies, colorful nebulae, and star clusters. Nearby tumbling asteroids spun around each other in a fragile gravity mix. Even the dust clouds had their own special aura, a hint of cinnabar amid thicker sunbursts of rusty orange.
As much as he appreciated the sweeping vistas, he enjoyed the sight of Angel even more. Accustomed to null grav, she soared with the grace of the weightless dancers of Zenon Prime. Her hair floated in a halo around her head, and though he couldn’t see her face, his last glimpse of her expression had told him she was in her natural element. She might have been born on Earth, but like a salmon born upstream, she was meant to spend her life swimming in the ocean where she had room to roam.
He followed, keeping hold of the end of the chain, letting it unwind behind him, and enjoying the sight of her soaring through space with only the booster rocket pack to mar her feminine lines. He never figured when he’d stranded himself on the Vogan ship that of all the beings in the universe, he’d be so attracted to the one who picked him up.
Was their meeting an accident? During his journey from Endeki to Earth to close the Zin wormhole, Kirek had met Clarie and Delo, two Perceptive Ones. He’d sensed the beings’ interest in him. Had they orchestrated his birth in hyperspace? Had they manipulated his genes and his destiny? Kirek didn’t know.
He joined Angel, accepting with pleasure and satisfaction that fate had brought him to this place, this time, this woman. As they secured themselves to the hull of the spinning ship, he removed the welder from her back, handed it to her, and shot her his most charming grin.
“Need any help, or did you bring me along to admire the view?”
“WE CAME TO WORK.” Angel thrust a U-shaped piece of metal into Kirek’s hand and extracted a welding rod from the pack on her back, refusing to acknowledge his flirtation. “Hold the tow hook steady against the hull, please.”
“Why not weld the end of the chain directly to the hull?” he asked.
Next, she removed her torch and fired it up, taking care to keep her eyes focused on the hull but darkening her suit’s filter to protect her vision. With the ship spinning end-over-end like some wild carnival ride, she didn’t want to risk disorientation or blindness. “Salvage with this much mass should be anchored in several places.”
With one hand he placed the tow hook directly onto the flat metal plating. Angel held the rod with one hand, the torch with the other, and welded a seam of straight metal, fusing the hook to the hull.
Although she worked as quickly as she could, the air inside her suit was growing stale. While the plan for Kirek to share oxygen with her had been to wait until after they finished the welds, she was growing lightheaded. “I need more air.”
“Captain,” Leval interrupted. “Sensors have picked up the Kraj ship.”
“Damn.” If she’d once doubted Kirek’s importance to the Zin, she’d changed her mind. The Kraj persistence had led her to believe Kirek had told her the truth—that he was a direct threat to the Zin.
“How long until the Kraj arrive?” Heart racing, air giving out, the Kraj looming ever closer, Angel turned in search of another place to weld while Kirek ran the chain through the hook she’d just made.
“Ten minutes.”
“Explain.”
They should have had more warning. But she wouldn’t waste oxygen asking detailed questions or again cursing the timing. They had to finish and return to the Raven, but by her calculations, they wouldn’t finish. They would die here where they were so vulnerable to Kraj attacks.
Kirek joined her, expanded his shield, and suddenly she had plenty of air again. With the air, she redoubled her efforts. “Thanks.”
“There’s a flat spot over there.” Kirek pointed to a location on the hull that would balance the load—assuming they could attach the chain before the Kraj arrived.
“Captain. Dust clouds are limiting sensor range,” Leval explained.
“Give me a five-minute countdown.” Angel headed toward the spot Kirek had indicated. Keeping his psi wrapped around her suit’s force field, he followed, pulling the chain behind. She handed him another tow hook, and he attached the end of the chain, then held it so she could weld.
Angel gestured for Kirek to leave. If the Kraj showed up and fired on them before she was done, there was no reason for both their lives to be at risk. “I’ll finish. Return to the Raven.”
Kirek didn’t budge. “We’re sharing air.”
“I have taken enough inside my shield to return on my own. Go.”
“I’m not leaving you. May I point out that you’re wasting time by arguing.”
Furious that he was right, annoyed that he was going back on his word, and nonetheless pleased that he didn’t want to leave without her, she welded and reminded him, “You agreed to obey my orders.”
“Five minutes.” Leval’s calm voice came over the com.
“I’ll obey your orders while on the bridge.” Kirek grinned, and by the heat in his gaze she suspected he was remembering exactly who had been in charge in her quarters. That would most definitely have been him. He’d been determined to have his way, determined to give her pleasure. She hadn’t minded then, but that was play, and this was work.
“Just on the bridge isn’t good enough,” she complained.
He cocked a brow haughtily then spoiled his scowl by winking at her. “You can always fire me.”
She glared at him over the weld. “I never hired you.”
“Three minutes,” Leval reported.
Kirek gave the chain a yank. “Looks good.”
Angel began to repack the welding gear. “This conversation isn’t over.”
“There’s no time.” Kirek grabbed her wrist, and the welding gear tumbled into space. Before she could grab it, he blasted them toward the Raven with his booster.
“Hey. Welders cost credits.”
“I’ll buy you a new welder.”
She snorted, turned on her booster, and recalled how he would only obey her on the bridge. “As if I can rely on you to keep your word.”
“You just insulted me.” Shock and amusement ente
red Kirek’s tone, and she had the feeling that he hadn’t been insulted often, revealing just how loving a childhood he’d had. He’d grown up so differently from her. She’d been insulted on a daily basis, and kids could be cruel—especially those whose parents doled out charity.
With both boosters blasting on full, they sped back to the Raven.
“One minute.” Leval counted down. “Captain. You aren’t going to make it.”
“Bring the Raven to us,” Kirek suggested, this time not waiting for her to ask his opinion. But as the Kraj ship in the black sky grew from a glinting dot to a shiny streak and then braked in a flashing glow, she didn’t argue over who was in charge.
Frie’s worried tone joined the conversation. “If the Raven advances, you won’t be able to calculate the proper vectors to fly into a moving ship’s cargo bay.”
“Yes. I can. Do it.” Kirek’s voice snapped with authority.
God. Were they going to die out here? She didn’t know which was more likely, the Raven running them down or the Kraj shooting them out of space. Tension grabbed her by the throat as they soared into what appeared to be the wrong direction.
The Raven’s engines kicked in. At first, it appeared that her ship was about to abandon them. But then Leval turned starboard, leaving the bay doors open so they could aim for them.
Kirek had to factor their speed, their trajectory, the Raven’s velocity and direction, and make them all come together. If he erred on the side of caution, they wouldn’t reach the ship before the Kraj arrived. If Kirek erred the other way, they’d end up like bugs splattered against the bay’s far bulkhead. Or they could simply miss the Raven altogether, and the engine’s flare could burn them, or they could tumble away into space, easy targets for the Kraj.
Angel broke into a sweat, held her breath, and kept her doubts to herself. If there was any chance Kirek could perform the complicated calculations in his head, she didn’t want to distract him.
That his brain could work as well as a computer was awesome. To get her pilot’s license, she’d had to perform simple calculations with a computer to back her up. Not even her professors could perform such complex calculations in their heads. In under a minute, with their lives on the line, the task seemed impossible. Crazy.
Rystani Warrior 04 - The Quest Page 8