“That crewman in there, whatever his name is, just grabbed Ria’s rear as she walked by with a tray of supplies. I thought she was going to have a panic attack. Corin calmed her down and sent her to the lounge. Then he damn near broke the hauk seck’s jaw. The crewman threatened to report him for assault.”
“You recorded it,” Declan said, his voice a deep, rumbling growl.
“Yes I did,” Thorn replied. “I wanted to finish the job of breaking the man’s jaw, but decided it might be best to let you do that.”
“Thank you, Thorn,” Declan said. He thought a moment, then pushed the door open and went inside, Jay, Kai, and Thorn right behind him.
“You can’t make me stay here,” the man was telling Corin. “I’m a crewman. You’re just a fucking bandage jockey. You can’t tell me what to do.”
“No, you were a crewman,” Declan said.
“Who the fu…,” the patient began as he turned his head, then paled and snapped his mouth shut.
“Before you assaulted our sister,” Declan finished.
“Your sister?” the man whispered. He looked at the four enormous Clan Jasani men glaring at him and came to a very stupid decision. “I’m sorry, Commander, I swear, if I’d known who she was I wouldn’t have touched her,” he whined. “It’s not my fault I didn’t know that, and besides, I didn’t hurt her none. I just gave her a friendly pat is all.”
“Corin,” Declan said, fighting hard to keep his temper in check.
“Yes, Commander?”
“Did you hit this…person?”
“Yeah, he did,” the crewman said insolently, lifting his chin at Corin. He wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, obviously.
“Yes, Commander,” Corin said calmly.
“Good man,” Declan said. “Please be sure to have Dr. Jula look at your hand. We can’t afford to have you injured.”
“I will, Commander, though I’m sure it’s just a little bruised.”
Declan nodded, then turned his icy gaze back to the crewman. “Admiral Thorn,” he said after a long moment.
“Yes, Commander?”
“Would you do me an enormous favor?”
“If you want me to break this hauk seck’s neck, I’m happy to do it.”
“As much as I’d enjoy watching that, I don’t think it’s warranted. Yet. I don’t want this garbage on the Bihotza any longer, though. If Vari discovers he assaulted Ria, she’s likely to detach his head with her Kunian steel dairi and that would require forms to be filled out. I don’t like forms.”
“I’m glad to take him off your hands, Declan,” Thorn said, grinning at the man, pleased when he went from merely pale to white. “I’ve no doubt we can find a nice, disgusting job for him to do for the remainder of the expedition. If he causes any more trouble, we’ll just drop him off at the nearest ice planet and let him find his own way home.”
“Thank you,” Declan said, then sighed softly as Vari entered the room. Thorn was amused to see that, while Declan, Jay, and Kai weren’t exactly happy about whatever she was about to do, they were resigned to it, and made no move to interfere.
She approached the man in the chair, then stood and stared at him while Corin finished sealing his wound. The man tried, but he could not hold Vari’s gaze.
“I want you to tell me what you did to my sister,” she said in a low voice.
“Jeez, what is it with you people? It’s not like I hurt the...,” he stopped talking when he suddenly felt something wrapped tightly around his neck. He raised his fingers and felt Vari’s dairi at the same time he noticed one was missing from her arm. He hadn’t even seen her move.
She didn’t say a word, just stared at him with those cold green eyes with burning flecks of gold. The longer he hesitated, the tighter the dairi around his throat got. “I grabbed her ass,” he gasped. The dairi tightened further for a few moments, then vanished.
“This man is not to be trusted,” Vari said, never taking his eyes from him. “He’s stupid, small minded, and cruel.”
She bent down, then leaned in, putting her face so close to his that he couldn’t help but retreat as far as the chair would allow. “If you touch another woman on this expedition, just one time, I will use my dairi to remove the offending hand. Do you doubt me?”
“No ma’am,” he said hoarsely.
“Do you have any questions? Comments?”
He appeared to consider saying more, but wisely said only, “No ma’am.” Then he clamped his jaw shut and kept it that way.
“Good.” Vari straightened up, then turned to Declan. “I’ll go check on Ria.”
“Good idea,” Declan said, fighting to hide his smile. Vari was tall, fast, and very strong, but the crewman outweighed her by a hundred pounds or more. And yet she’d intimidated him completely. Of course, once she started in with her dairi, anyone not intimidated would have to be even stupider than the man sitting in front of him.
“What is your name?” Declan demanded.
“Clay Trask, Commander. Sir,” the man replied, finally realizing just how much trouble he was in. Declan took a moment to wonder how he’d ever managed to get a post on the Bihotza, and made a mental note to look into that.
“These gentlemen will escort you to your bunk where you will clean out your locker and collect your personal effects in three minutes or less. You will then transport to the Hilgaria with Admiral Thorn and do your best not to come to our attention again. If you do, the consequences will be somewhat more devastating than the loss of a hand. Or two.”
Declan turned his back on the man and left the infirmary. Thorn followed him, Jay and Kai out, then they stood watching through the window as Corin finished bandaging the man’s arm.
“Thank you, Thorn, for your speedy response to this matter,” Declan said.
“No need to thank me for taking out the trash, Declan,” Thorn said with a smile. Then his eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the man, Clay Trask, stand up, casting an angry but sly look at Corin’s back before the security guards grasped his arms and led him out.
“I’m glad to know he’ll be on the Hilgaria where I can keep a close eye on him,” Thorn said after they disappeared around the corner. “I don’t like or trust that man. He’s a snake.”
“Agreed,” Declan said. “I intend to look into just exactly how he managed to get hired onto the Bihotza to begin with.”
“Good idea,” Thorn said. “I best let Talon know where I am. Thanks for the help.”
“Let us know if you have any further problems with him,” Declan said. Thorn agreed that he would, then headed back toward the elevator. He hit the button for the transport deck, then tapped his vox to report to Talon.
***
“Ria?” Vari asked softly as she entered the lounge. She was surprised by how hard Ria jerked at the unexpected sound, though she was careful to hide it.
“Hi Vari,” Ria said, stretching her mouth into a smile that looked more like a grimace. “What’s up?”
Vari approached, patted Ria gently on the shoulder, pretending not to notice the way her muscles jumped beneath her hand. She chose a chair opposite Ria at the small table and sat down. “Are you all right?”
Ria sighed. “I’m sorry, Vari.”
“Sorry for what?”
“That someone obviously called you for nothing. I was just startled is all. I’ll finish my tea and go back to work in just a minute. You should go back to what you were doing.”
“Ria,” Vari said, making her tone a little firmer, “being assaulted is not nothing.”
“I know,” Ria said, wrapping both hands around her cup. “I’d rather not make a big deal out of it though.”
“All right, I understand that,” Vari said. “I just want you to know that the man who did this will no longer be on the Bihotza.”
Ria’s shoulders relaxed. “Thanks.” She frowned again. “Wait…um…do you think that’s a good idea?”
“What do you mean?”
“All of the Kinahn w
omen and Shanti, not to mention the female doctors, and crew would have to put up with him. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to put that man on the Beacon.”
“We’re not,” Vari said. “He’s going to the Hilgaria where they can keep a close eye on him while he cleans latrines or something equally nasty.”
“That’s good,” Ria said. “Thanks, Vari.”
“You’re welcome,” Vari said. “Ria, are you okay? Really?”
“Sure, I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me. He just startled me is all. Nothing to worry about.”
Vari nodded in apparent agreement. Something about Ria’s expression, or maybe it was the look in her eyes, warned her to be careful. Pushing Ria at the moment would be a very bad idea. She just wished she knew why.
***
After turning Clay Trask over to the Chief who ran the Hilgaria’s Maintenance and Repair Division with a warning to keep an eye on him, Thorn went in search of his brothers. He found them in the cafeteria finishing lunch. Thorn ordered a sandwich to go, then asked Talon and Tee to join him in surveillance when they were finished. They arrived before he had a chance to unpack his lunch.
They both sat opposite him at the desk in the chairs he’d pulled over for them, then waited for him to take his own seat. “I have a confession to make,” he began. While he ate his lunch he told them about watching Ria, and the incident that had taken place on the Bihotza.
“You watch her all the time?” Tee asked, frowning.
“During the first couple of days, when I was setting the cams up, I watched her a lot. After that I realized I was veering hard into stalker territory, so I satisfy myself with checking on her a few times a day to make sure she’s all right.”
“But you were watching her this morning,” Talon said. Thorn had known they’d want to be sure he wasn’t invading the woman’s privacy, so he didn’t get angry at the questions. He just answered them. “No, I wasn’t,” he replied. “The computer set off an alarm when the crewman, Clay Trask, entered the triage area with a wound on his arm. I zoomed it up, turned on the volume to hear him explain to Corin what happened so I could give you a heads up on the accident. Corin turned to the med terminal and a couple of seconds later Ria entered with a tray and he grabbed her.”
Talon relaxed. “Why did you want to keep an eye on her, Thorn?”
“I don’t know,’ Thorn said. “I feel…something for her. I can’t explain it. I certainly don’t understand it.”
“I know what you mean,” Tee said quietly. Thorn looked at him in surprise, but Talon only nodded.
“So do I.”
“You two watch her as well?” Thorn asked, confused.
“Yes and no,” Tee replied. “We do the inspections and drills on the Beacon, as you know. What you might not know is that Declan asked us to monitor the safety procedures on the Bihotza, but from a distance. They don’t want their own safety officers to feel like we’re watching over their shoulders, which we are.”
“How do you watch without them knowing you’re watching?” Thorn asked.
“We pull the recordings of inspections and drills and review them to make sure everything goes as it should,” Tee said. “She’s in some of them, of course. We don’t see as much of her as you do, obviously, but enough that we understand what you’re feeling.”
“That’s a relief because I don’t understand it at all. Please explain to me what’s going on here.”
“Sorry, Brother,” Tee said sheepishly. “I didn’t mean I understand why we all feel a need to make sure she’s safe. I meant we understand the need you feel because we feel it too.”
Thorn sighed. “That’s too bad. I don’t get it. I was over there in the Bihotza’s infirmary not five minutes after the incident and I had no reaction even though I could scent her fear in the room. Have either of you been in her vicinity?”
“No, we haven’t,” Talon said. “Just that one time in the cafeteria our second day out. It’s frustrating. I think about her, I worry about her, and I don’t know why. I want to know more about her, too.”
“Well, I can help some with the last one,” Thorn said. He proceeded to tell them what he’d observed about Ria over the previous six weeks. When he was finished they looked as confused as he often felt.
“I’d like to see some of what you’ve seen, Thorn,” Talon said. “Is that possible?”
“Sure,” Thorn said, sliding his chair down to the control panel. He tapped several keys, waited, then tapped more. When he was finished he reached down to a shelf under the desktop and removed a memory crystal.
“This has every bit of recording we have with her in it on the Bihotza. Only the parts containing movement are recorded, but you’ll want to skip through most of it, I’m sure. Her routine varies only rarely. She goes to work, studies, trains, and eats in the cafeteria by herself unless her sister invites her to dine with them. She rarely talks to anyone aside from her sister, the Dracon-Bats, Pandora, and Dr. Jula who’s mentoring her medical studies. She responds to the med-techs she works with if they ask her something or if she needs to tell them something. That’s it. There’re more recordings from the Beacon showing her lab time with Dr. Kannon but there’s nothing there of interest.”
“Thanks, Thorn,” Talon said, accepting the crystal. “Can you play what happened this morning?”
“Sure,” Thorn said. He selected the feed and the time, then set it to play on one of the vid screens. He watched his brothers more than he watched the playback, relaxing a little when he saw that their reactions were similar to his own.
“Corin just rose several degrees in my estimation,” Tee said. Talon grunted his agreement, not taking his eyes from the screen. A few minutes later, he smiled.
“Lady Vari understands the power of a good threat,” he said.
“She does,” Thorn agreed. “If she’d threatened to kill him, he would’ve dismissed it as improbable, and her as well.”
“Exactly,” Talon said. “Psychologically, threatening to take his hand was much more powerful whether she’d actually do it or not.”
“She’d do it,” Thorn said flatly. “I have no doubt about that.”
Talon and Tee both looked at him in surprise. Thorn shrugged. “I was there. She was coldly furious to a degree I’ve never witnessed in a woman before. Declan, Jay, and Kai knew it too. I saw them recognize it, consider stepping in, then decide to let her do what she needed to do.”
Talon nodded. “Their woman is a warrior. They are wise to recognize that without attempting to change or control her.”
When the vid ended, they sat in silence, contemplating what they’d seen, and their reactions to it.
“It looked like Lady Vari went to speak with Ria,” Tee said after a few minutes.
“Yes, it did,” Thorn agreed.
“Did you view that?”
“No,” Thorn replied. “It’s one thing to check on her. Another to spy. A conversation between two sisters doesn’t need to be watched or listened to. That’s my opinion anyway. If you feel differently and wish to watch, that’s your choice. I’m hardly in any position to judge.”
“I agree,” Talon said. Thorn was relieved when Tee nodded.
“Talon, what’s going on? Do you have any idea?”
“You mean why the three of us feel so drawn to Ria?”
“Yes,” Thorn said.
“I wish I did,” Talon said.
“She seems…wounded,” Tee said. “And lonely. Maybe we just feel badly for her. Maybe we feel protective of her.”
“I do feel protective of her,” Thorn said slowly. “And it makes me sad when I think of how alone she is. It’s a deliberate effort on her part, I know that. There must be a reason for it though.”
“I wonder what her psychic talent is,” Talon said.
“That was on the mission vid,” Tee said. “Sort of. Vari said she was a healer with a special gift for soothing people. Those were her words but she’s not actually a healer. Not like an Alverian healer. She can s
ense people’s emotions and ease them.”
“She’s an empath,” Thorn said.
“Yes.”
“How’d you learn that?” Talon asked.
“I pulled her file,” Tee said with that sheepish look again. “I was curious about her, and since she works on the Bihotza in the infirmary, I knew they’d have information.”
“What else did you find out?”
“That she’s got college transcripts that outshine anything I’ve ever seen or heard of, that her empathic ability was tested and verified during her first year of med school, and that she treated more patients on the Leaper than anyone else in the medical department and had zero complaints.”
“With all of that, why is she working as a junior med-tech?” Talon asked.
“She’s only got one year of med school,” Tee said. “By law she can’t work a higher position until after her second year, and only if she meets certain criteria.”
“I think a better question is, why is she on this expedition to begin with?” Thorn said. “I know she’s continuing her studies under Dr. Jula’s supervision, and with help from Dr. Kannon on the Beacon. It just seems strange that she’d choose this over her second year of med school.”
“I think there’s a lot about that young woman that we don’t know, and probably never will,” Talon said. “I wonder though, if Tee might be right. That our feelings and interest in her have a basis in watching out for someone who seems to need watching out for.”
“It makes sense, I suppose,” Thorn said. “Whatever the reason, I think I’ll continue to keep an eye on her, unless you object.”
“No objections here, so long as you’re careful to keep it at checking and not watching.”
“Agreed,” Tee said. “If you see anything of interest though, let us know please.”
“I will,” Thorn promised.
Chapter 9
10 Weeks Later…
“Vari,” Nia said, her tone urgent. “There are Doftles out there.”
Ria's Visions (Hearts of ICARUS Book 6) Page 10