So the Defiant was on her own. “Shields,” Rian barked and pulled up their status as someone yelled across the bridge.
“Shields at one hundred percent,” Kostin confirmed.
Rian pulled up the weapons array and saw that Kostin already had the torpedoes primed and ready to fire. The sensors told him that the enemy ship’s weapons were inactive, but he didn’t trust that. A green light flashed in the corner of the console. They were hailing the Defiant.
The Nym never did that. They didn’t explain or negotiate.
Everyone else had picked that up, too. “Sir?” Kostin asked.
“Open our link,” Rian ordered.
“Are you sure? This could be a trap.”
“They can see our torpedoes are ready. Open the link, Commander.”
Kostin gulped but did so. Another beep on the console indicated that Bishop’s Pride was now twenty-two minutes out. They would never make it in time.
Terror flowed through Rian, but he kept himself steady. The viewport’s image changed from a rapidly-growing ship in deep space to the Nym, standing on its bridge. There was a group of them, all with deep-set black or green eyes, bulgy heads, wearing grey coveralls topped with black coats.
“Commons,” barked one, showing its jagged teeth. Its accent was thick and nearly indecipherable. “Patrol ship. You are captain?”
“I am,” said Rian, in a voice that sounded far calmer than he felt. “Your presence here is unacceptable. Commander.” He nodded discreetly to the executive officer, who was ready to fire a torpedo.
“No,” said the Nym.
“The Pride is nineteen minutes out,” Kostin said quietly.
“We want Commons,” said the Nym.
“You won’t get it.”
The Nym captain turned away and said something in his language to one of the others, his thin lips barely moving. The Defiant’s sensors couldn’t pick up the muttering. “Fleet has what we want,” the Nym finally said.
Lily. Oh, gods. Rian didn’t reply to the Nym captain, but addressed the bridge directly. “Cut the comm link. Fire the torpedo.”
A torpedo was launched at the Nym ship, rocking the Defiant and undoubtedly tossing a few unprepared crew into their consoles. The torpedo smoothly glided in the starfield towards the Nym ship. Under Rian and Kostin’s skilled hands, the Defiant withdrew as the weapon sailed to prevent any debris from ricocheting back to her hull.
The Nym ship exploded, pieces already floating out to the reaches of space. Rian checked the sensors and was relieved to see that the debris was real and the enemy hadn’t faked its destruction.
Kostin watched Rian do the scan. “Sir, we all saw the ship get hit.”
“If this were any other ship, I would believe my own eyes. This is the Nym, Commander.”
“Noted. Apologies, Captain.” Kostin silenced the alarms, and data flowed into Rian’s console screen. He felt some tension ebb from his body. Everything indicated that the Defiant had just blown up a Nym ship.
“Incoming from Bishop’s Pride,” Kostin reported. The viewport’s image switched from the wreckage to the Pride’s bridge. Senior Captain Ursuline Jena was seated at the helm, her short white-blond hair awry and her tawny face flushed with rage.
“What the hell is going on?” she shouted.
“Nym interference,” Rian replied automatically.
“I got that, Marska. I mean, what the hell just happened? All we saw was an explosion.”
“Standard procedure, Captain. A Nym ship is to be fired upon if it refuses to leave.”
“Where the fuck did it come from? We’re scanning for an energy trace and nothing’s shown up.” Captain Jena was well-known for her formidable reputation and profanity-laden tirades, and Rian had an idea he was about to be eviscerated when she spied the comm traces. “You opened a godsdamned comm link with them? Are you fucking crazy?”
“They hailed us. We responded. I’ll be detailing that to Fleet right away.”
“Who talks to the Nym? You blow the fuckers up!”
The initial feelings of shock and terror had given way, and Rian was nearly giddy with relief. He tried to keep a smile off his face and failed. “Look around you, Captain. I did blow them up, and I even did a scan to check for other ships.”
“Don’t get smart with me.”
She had relaxed a little and was now just pissed off rather than infuriated. Rian noticed now that she too was out of uniform, wearing a light blue tracksuit, its fabric printed with—were those daisies? That definitely didn’t fit the image of the captain known for forcibly removing a meddling admiral from her bridge single-handedly. He grinned in spite of himself.
Jena caught it and glared at him. “Don’t look at me like that, Marska. I was in the gym when I got your SOS.” She sighed and leaned back in the captain’s chair. “All right. I’m going to send in my report and alert Fleet again that those fuckers are breaching our space. We need more than patrol ships out here for the time being.”
Rian agreed. “I’m going to my office to file a report as soon as I sign off.”
“I’m retiring in a few years. All I wanted was a nice, quiet assignment where I could fine freighter captains with illegal weapons,” she groused. “Instead I get the Nym.”
Jena was gearing up for one of her epic tirades, and Rian sympathized with everyone in earshot. Not enough to listen to it, though, and he interrupted with his thanks. “I’ll stay in touch, Captain,” he promised, and they signed off.
He gave the overnight crew orders to alert him for any more activity and headed for his office to file his reports to Fleet. He had anticipated being up late, but not in the vicinity of the bridge. The lightheaded, almost carefree euphoria he had felt after saving his ship evaporated, and a familiar ball of dread formed in the pit of his stomach. He knew what the Nym were looking for, and so would the admirals.
He found Lily in his office, crouched on her knees and peering out the viewport. She didn’t turn at the sound of the door cycling open.
“Lily,” he said softly.
She screamed and toppled over, landing on her ass. “Shit!” she exclaimed. Her face was reddened from weeping, her expression wide-eyed and panicked.
He helped her up and held her to him. She was shaking like a leaf, and he felt her heart beating frantically against his chest. He guided her to his chair and she sank into it and gripped his hands for dear life. He perched on the desk, facing her.
“Did you blow up that ship?” she asked.
He nodded slowly. “I issued the order.”
“Tell me,” she urged him hoarsely.
“That was a Nym ship,” he began, and hesitated. How much should he tell a civilian?
Everything.
Chapter 14
Lily returned to her cabin with reluctance and more than a little fear despite Rian’s assurance that nothing could hurt her. He had told her quickly what transpired on the bridge before apologetically turning to his office computer to file a report with Fleet. He promised to see her when he could, whenever that would be, and tell her more.
It was now four-thirty in the morning, and she had given up on seeing him for the rest of the day, but she wasn’t disappointed. She would have been concerned if he hadn’t spent the night in contact with Fleet. Seeing that torpedo launch into the Nym’s ship had served as a terrifying reminder of the danger she was in.
She felt like an idiot. She had prided herself on adjusting to her new home and making a life for herself, knowing the chances of getting back to Earth in 2017 were next to none—and she had conveniently shelved the whole reason she was here in the back of her mind. The Commonwealth Space Fleet was determined to protect her, and she had lulled herself into a false sense of security. She had believed everyone who said that the Nym couldn’t get to her again. And what defenses did she have? She could fire a laser weapon, and that was it.
Taz had dropped by at 0500 hours, shadows under his eyes from lack of sleep. He had been roused from his bed
by the red alert sirens and arrived at his station in communications right after the Nym were fired upon. He was pissed off to have missed out on the action. He came by with breakfast from the mess for both of them, but Lily didn’t feel like eating.
“You could’ve given me some warning,” she complained when she let him in her cabin. She threw a sweater over her pajamas.
“Relax. I’ve seen women in less,” he replied cavalierly. He rummaged around her kitchenette and found a couple of forks for the fruit salad he brought, and produced some coffee from the replicator. They sat down at the tiny dinette table clipped to the floor. “I wish I’d been there earlier. I sleep like a rock. The alarms were going for about ten minutes before I woke up.” Most soldiers slept lightly after going through training. His ability to sleep deeply at any time was one more thing that drove his commanding officers nuts, he explained. “But it’s getting better. A year ago I would’ve slept through the whole thing. Have you heard from the captain?” he asked her around a mouthful of fruit.
She shook her head.
He swallowed and avoided her eyes. “I should tell you something,” he said. “Promise you won’t get mad or worry.”
“If it’s about the Nym, I promise I will get mad or worry.”
“It’s not the Nym,” he assured her. “Um, I have to send in all comm logs and traceable movements to Fleet. I did it right before I came here.”
Lily nodded, wondering where this was going.
“Fleet isn’t taking any chances with the Nym and everything, and they’re checking everyone’s movements.” He was trying to hint at something.
Lily finally understood. When they reviewed Rian’s movements and communications, they were going to draw some accurate conclusions. “Oh, no,” she breathed.
“You were wearing your badge in his cabin last night,” said Taz.
“Is he going to be fired?”
“I assume you mean disciplined,” Taz clarified. “Probably not. Fleet doesn’t care if crew has personal relationships as long as it doesn’t interfere with their duties. And you’re a Commons civilian, which is usually even less of an issue.”
“But I’m not just a Commons civilian,” Lily pointed out.
“Right. They may take whatever’s between you and the captain into consideration when they evaluate his performance as acting captain. They could find some technicality to slap him back down to commander and stick him on a station as an executive officer or a first officer on another ship. Also, remember this is Rian Marska we’re talking about.” He shrugged. “Maybe I’m just worrying you unnecessarily. If this were about you and any other captain, they’d be getting ideas.”
“A captaincy is what he’s always wanted,” Lily said quietly.
Taz held up his hands, as though in defense. “Look, I’m just telling you what all of that is going to look like to Fleet. You and the captain are going to have to come up with your own explanation. I’m guessing he was boring you with Fleet history lessons.”
“Huh,” Lily mused.
“Well, the crew talks a little, and Lieutenant Steg thinks something more is going on, but Rian has his reputation to uphold as Captain Stick-Up-My-Ass, so the word is he’s teaching you everything to know about patrol ships.”
“Um,” said Lily pathetically.
“You must be pretty bored by now.”
“No.”
Taz eyed her fruit salad. She pushed the bowl across the table to him and he dug in.
Lily burst into tears. She sniffled and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “He wants a captaincy and I’m ruining it for him,” she sobbed.
Taz put down his fork and calmly regarded her. “How can you ruin it for him? It’s not like you can sabotage his career. You still look for buttons in the lift.” Realization dawned on his face. “Oh my gods. He hasn’t been giving you history lessons.”
Lily shook her head.
“So you and the captain...”
Lily nodded. Taz’s eyes widened.
“Damn. So he isn’t a really high-tech cyborg after all.”
“Taz, please.”
“No wonder he’s been less of an ass lately.”
“Shut up, this is serious.”
“Lily, you haven’t ruined his career,” he tried to assure her. “Fleet really won’t make that big of a deal out of whatever you and the captain have going. Like I said, they know him well enough so that idea is furthest from their minds. If he loses out on a permanent captaincy, it’ll be because he did something they didn’t like. And he has. The whole ship knows it, even though he was right about a lot of things. We all would have died if he tried to run away from that star going nova with the shields down.”
“But I want him to do what he wants,” she protested.
Taz threw up his hands. “Oh, for gods’ sakes!” he snapped. Lily flinched. “You got kidnapped by the Nym and dropped off almost a thousand years out of your time, and by some miracle you’re not losing your mind. You meet Rian Marska, who if I’m going to be honest here, didn’t seem to know what to do with a woman if she cornered him in his cabin and took off her clothes, and I know that actually happened on his birthday when he was a lieutenant and his friends in engineering hired a stripper for him. So he meets you and for the first time in his career he finds a distraction that as far as I can tell hasn’t affected his leadership—except he’s less of a micromanaging know-it-all.” He took a long swallow of coffee. “Turns out Marska is actually human after all.”
“Anything else?” Lily asked acidly. She sipped her coffee.
“Yeah. You’re in love with him.”
Lily throat constricted and she spit out some coffee back in the mug.
“Well, that’s just charming.” Taz made a face.
“How the hell would you know that?” she demanded.
“Is spitting an acceptable thing to do in public on Earth? Because here it’s considered disgusting.”
“No, I mean about your thinking I’m in love with him.” She rolled her eyes. “How do you know?”
“Three reasons. Well, one of them is a theory, anyway.” Lily waved her hand, urging him to get on with it. “First, you want what’s best for him. You want him to succeed.”
“Of course I do!”
“Second, I told you I’m from Vu’saar, remember?” She nodded. “I may be a half-assed empath, but I can still pick up strong emotions. It’s like an aura.”
Lily was confused. “How can you see that?”
“I’m not completely defective. Lots of inferior Vu’saarns can sense when someone’s broadcasting emotions, and you’re yelling loud and clear.” He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, a satisfied grin on his face.
“And what’s the third reason?”
“I’ve been in love before.” He gave her a hard stare. “Don’t tell anyone I told you that.”
“With who?” she asked sarcastically.
“Many, many women,” he said, dramatically placing his hand over his heart.
“Bullshit.”
“It was a long time ago. It doesn’t matter now.”
“Maranda?” she guessed, remembering his ex-wife.
“No,” he replied quickly. “Just trust me on this.”
Lily tried to process his talk about her being in love and his ability to see auras. She didn’t want to talk about the former yet. “So you don’t consider yourself psychic even though you can see auras?”
“Psychics don’t exist.”
She shot him a look. “You know what I mean.”
“Lots of people have minor extra sensory abilities. It isn’t special. I bet Mora does, too. She’s part Kurran, and they can see them, probably more easily than I can. I only sense when it’s a very strong emotion. That’s not the mark of a telepath.”
“I see.” She took another swallow of coffee. “You know, Taz, I really would have preferred to have figured out the whole love thing on my own. It’s a big deal to me, and I don’t know if I feel it yet.”
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“Your conscious mind doesn’t know yet,” Taz replied sagely.
“Shit like this is why you get into trouble,” she muttered.
He shrugged noncommittally. “What happens, happens.”
“It’s just—kind of weird, that’s all. And before you ask, no one sees that where I’m from, and if they do, I didn’t know about it.”
“Maybe.” Taz appeared unconvinced, like it was impossible for her to live among people who didn’t have that ability. “If it makes you feel any better, Rian’s aura never shows up when I’m around, even when he’s angry about something.”
“It doesn’t, but thank you.”
He stood up. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sorry I said anything.” He didn’t sound sorry in the least, more gleeful that he had pulled something over her. “I have to get to communications.”
* * *
After he left, Lily turned on the last episode of Lightning’s Luck but couldn’t focus on it. She should be thinking about the Nym and what she was going to do when she eventually left the Defiant, but she kept mulling over Taz’s pronouncement and fearing it was true.
She was falling in love with Rian. It had sneaked up on her without her noticing. After her disastrous relationship with Cameron, she had always thought if she fell in love again she would treat it like getting into a swimming pool: forever dipping in one toe and recoiling at the shock of cold water and then gradually easing in. She hadn’t anticipated it being like luxuriating in a bath.
She had already been thinking about Rian’s inclusion in her new life in whatever way she could have him, whether it was by video phone calls or they were assigned to the same station or ship. She couldn’t see herself living in the Commons without him. She needed him.
She ordered a glass of juice from the replicator—it almost tasted like orange even though she knew it wasn’t—and settled back on the couch. She left the glass on the coffee table and leaned back against the cushions and let her eyes drift closed as the Lightning’s Luck crew battled a huge space lizard. She needed some sleep, too.
The doorbell pinged, rousing her from her nap. “Enter,” she commanded, and bundled her sweater around her.
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