Like Dare was an object, not a person? Her anger was starting to stir, and Qae put a hand on her shoulder.
The Reidar just stared at her without answering. But she could see it in his eyes. The alien considered humans below it. Reidar really did view them as not much more than objects. Probably objects that were getting in the way of whatever evil plans they had for the galaxy.
Not able to stand looking at it anymore, she turned on her heel and walked away, going back into the Imojenna’s cargo bay.
“I’m sorry you didn’t get a straight answer,” Qae said in a quiet voice.
“I kind of did, actually. It just wasn’t the one I was expecting. It wasn’t black and white like I thought it would be.”
“Anything to do with the Reidar rarely is,” Qae muttered.
“Now what?” she asked, stopping in the middle of the cargo bay, because she had no destination in mind.
Qae stepped up behind her and wound his arms around her, pressing his chest into her back. “Will you punch me if I say now we move on?”
She leaned her head against his shoulder and allowed herself a small smile.
“Maybe. Maybe not. Your guess is as good as mine.”
He pressed a kiss into her neck. “We’ll be crossing into the Barbary Belt in a few hours, and then we can relax a little.”
She turned in his arms to look up at him. “Relax? Are you forgetting you broke your promise to my father about not touching me, and we’re going to have to talk to him about being together and not hiring anyone to kill you in some back alley somewhere?”
There wasn’t even a hint of worry in his blue eyes as he stared down at her.
“Considering everything we’ve been through, plus the fact we’re about to drop the alien real-talk on your father, telling him about us doesn’t seem like such a huge deal.”
“Seriously? Do I need to start questioning your intelligence?”
He sent her a flat look, but there was a spark of amusement in his gaze. “Ha-ha, very funny. I’m pretty confident in my ability to convince your father that I’m serious about you. And how much you mean to me. He doesn’t have to like it, but he’ll have to learn to live with it.”
Heart skipping, she draped her arms around his shoulders. “I never thought I’d find anyone who wouldn’t be intimidated by the risk of my father’s wrath.”
“No offense to your father, but the shape-shifting aliens trying to invade our galaxy freak me out way more than he does.”
“Maybe you’re not so dumb after all,” she said, leaning up to brush her lips over his.
He made a noise of approval, hand sliding up her back, pressing her closer as he deepened the kiss. After a drawn out moment, he pulled back slightly.
“A smart guy would take you back to his cabin right about now,” he murmured, trailing his lips over her neck.
She arched into him, reveling in the warm tingles rippling over her skin at his touch. “So why don’t you?”
“That’s a really good question.” He clamped his hands on her butt and lifted, her legs instinctively wrapping around his waist. “One that I don’t have an answer to.”
He walked across the cargo bay, while she distracted him by beginning to unfasten his shirt. They only made it as far as the airlock on the Ebony Winter side. Qae turned and pressed her into the bulkhead, reaching out to swipe his hand over the door control to close the atmospheric doors.
“Are you sure no one else is onboard?” she asked, barely able to get the words out because of the way Qae was pressing his hard, muscled body into her, the sensations of it stealing her breath.
“Pretty sure.” He tugged her shirt off over her head. “Sure enough.”
He caught her mouth in a deep, decadent kiss, hands like a brand on her bare skin. Oh yeah. She was sure enough as well.
…
When they entered Tripoli’s atmosphere, Cami’s father directed them to land at his private spaceport. They’d separated the ships in orbit, so the Imojenna and Ebony Winter had touched down separately, but side by side.
Cami had stayed on the Ebony Winter with Qae and convinced her brother to come with her. Jase had also tagged along—the two seemed to have hit it off in the last two weeks, plus since Qae no longer had a crew of his own, Jase seemed to have unofficially attached himself to the Ebony Winter and her captain, so it only made sense he’d chosen to come with them.
Qae directed Jase—who was sitting in the copilot’s chair—to take the engines offline and then turned to face her where she stood next to Dare.
“We made it home.”
For some reason, his words made her heart skip a beat, probably because she wanted home to be wherever he was.
“We almost didn’t,” she murmured, thinking of how close to death she’d come.
Qae came over and stopped in front of her, the shadows in his eyes telling her that he’d seen more death than she could probably ever imagine.
“We’re fighting for survival. That’s not going to come without a cost.”
She reached up and set her hands on his chest, needing to touch him, needing to feel his heart beating beneath her palm.
“Does believing that make it easier?”
He shook his head with a sad smile. “Not in the least.”
He covered one of her hands in his and lifted her fingers to his mouth, kissing them gently. “Are you ready to see your father?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” She twined her fingers securely through his, not planning on letting him go. No telling how her father was going to react.
But she was hoping that between bringing him Dare and the revelation of the Reidar, he’d be too distracted to worry much about her love life.
“The ship is offline,” Jase said as he stood and grabbed his jacket from the back of the copilot’s chair.
“Let’s get going, or Rian won’t wait for us before the fun gets started.”
“Fun?” Dare asked as they headed for the stairs.
“When he hands over the Reidar who was pretending to be Galton and explains the whole shape-shifting alien thing,” Qae answered.
“Right, that,” Dare muttered. The day after they’d left Lander, they’d shown him their prisoner and explained what was going on. He’d taken it about as well as could be expected—had struggled a little at first. It wasn’t exactly a small revelation. A person couldn’t be expected to be fine with it right away—or ever. Not until they’d found a way to defeat the aliens who’d already infiltrated their galaxy and were lying in wait.
They crossed the cargo bay and Qae hit the hatchway release to lower the ramp. A balmy evening breeze laced with familiar scents blew in through the opening as the ramp lowered, bringing with it a sense of ease. There was nothing like arriving home, especially after everything she’d been through.
She’d actually died. Had gone to nothingness for a few long minutes. She wasn’t the same person who’d left this planet all those weeks ago. Not only because of that, but because she’d found something amazing out there in the galaxy. She’d found herself, and she’d found Qae. Realized what was important to her and found the meaning to her existence she’d been missing.
Not because she’d fallen in love and Qae made her a better person—but because she’d found her inner strength. Found the fortitude to be her real self. Not be defined by her father and what he expected of her, or the marks on her arms, or what she’d been through as a girl, or the fact she was Rene Blackstone’s daughter.
Those things were all parts of her, but they weren’t who she was.
The ramp bumped into the ground, and as she stepped forward with Qae—still holding his hand—her father approached, a woman named Letanya at his side. She usually stepped up in the rare times Kelvin wasn’t around. Looked like the woman had gotten a promotion since they’d last been here. Possibly Kelvin had finally gotten too cocky. She couldn’t say she was sorry.
Her father paused at the end of the walkway, while in the next
berth over, Rian and the rest of his crew were also disembarking.
But her father’s attention was fixed on Dare.
They stopped a few steps from her father, Dare shifting to stand at her side.
“You actually did it,” her father said, stunned, as though he hadn’t really believed it, even though they’d commed him to let him know they’d been successful and were on their way back. He pulled Dare into a tight hug. At first, her brother stood stiffly, as if he wasn’t sure how to respond. But after a long second, he guardedly returned the embrace.
“Rescued the brother I didn’t know I had?” She tried to keep too much snark out of her words, but wasn’t very successful. “Yeah, Qae and Rian came through for you.”
Her father turned to look at her. First, taking note of the fact she wasn’t wearing her usual long-sleeved top, leaving her arms exposed, but then that she was holding Qae’s hand. His expression became cold.
“I seem to remember you making me a promise, Forster.”
“Don’t put this on him,” she said before Qae could reply. “In case you didn’t notice, I grew up. I’m an adult, I can make my own decisions and take full responsibility for them.”
Her father’s brows went up almost imperceptibly, but she could tell he was surprised and maybe a little impressed.
“Qae is a good man,” she continued. “Actually, I think he might be the best man in the galaxy. I love him, and I really hope you can accept that, accept him, because he’s part of my life now. And If I have to choose, I’m going to choose him. Every time.”
Her father crossed his arms, passing a grudgingly considerate glance between the two of them. “I suppose we could at least have a conversation.”
“That’s all we need.” Relief rippled through her. She’d hoped her father would be reasonable but hadn’t been 100 percent sure.
“If it makes you feel any better,” Qae put in, “I held out on that promise for almost the entire trip. Until she died. It kind of broke my heart.”
“I’m sorry, did you say she died?” her father demanded.
“That probably wasn’t the best reason to give him,” she muttered to Qae.
“Can we save the family drama for the time being?” Rian asked from where he’d stopped a few steps away. “We’ve got other important things to deal with.”
“Such as?” Her father obviously didn’t like Rian butting in, but Cami could tell he was being circumspect. She now had an intimate understanding of why her father was so wary of the infamous ex-war hero.
“Such as the fact we have something in my brig you need to see.”
“Something?” her father repeated.
“Well, it used to be Alvar Galton, and it’s responsible for taking Dare. Thought you might have something to say about it.”
Her father’s expression became confused.
They led her father into Rian’s ship, through the cargo bay to the back of the Imojenna, down the short corridor that led to the brig.
The Reidar was no longer sitting in the middle of the cell, but sprawled on its back with its eyes closed.
“You brought me Galton’s dead body?” her father asked. “What’s so complicated about that?”
“It might look like Galton, but it’s not him,” Qae said. “And it wasn’t dead when we put it in there.”
“It?” her father enquired in a voice that told her he was quickly going to lose his patience if they didn’t start explaining.
“It’s an alien.” Cami’s words dropped like a stone, drawing her father’s incredulous gaze. “A shape-shifting alien from another universe, to be exact. Disguised to look like Alvar Galton.”
Her father crossed his arms, expression not completely disbelieving, but with a definite helping of skepticism.
“What proof do you have?”
Rian pulled out his razar and shot the prone Reidar, making it convulse on the floor as it changed back to its real form.
“Usually they don’t do that, though,” Qae mumbled as the alien continued seizing for a long minute. “Typically, the razar scrambles their brains, making them take on their real face, and then they get angrier.”
Her father stepped closer to the bars of the brig, studying the obvious differences.
“You don’t seem very surprised,” she said to him after a silent moment.
“I’d heard rumors of creatures in the far reaches of the galaxy. And when presented with irrefutable proof, a person would be foolish to deny the obvious.”
Well. Her father had taken it way better than she’d expected.
“What’s wrong with it?” her father asked when no one said anything else. The alien had fallen limp again.
“I don’t know,” Rian said in a low voice. “It could be some kind of trick.”
“To what end?” her father replied.
Rian shrugged as if the answer should have been obvious. “We let our guard down, open the door, it rushes one of us and escapes.”
Maybe. After everything they’d seen, she wouldn’t put it past the creature. But she didn’t think that’s what was going on here. In fact, there were sores appearing on its skin, and its flesh had taken on a yellowish tinge.
Rian tapped his comm and called for Kira. She and Varean appeared a moment later. Rian indicated the brig. “Can you take a look at this?”
Kira stepped around him, closer to the bars, Varean on her heels.
“What did you do to it?” Varean had bland curiosity in his tone like asking why someone had walked into a room.
“We didn’t do anything,” Qae answered, crossing his arms. “We found it like this a minute ago.”
“What do you think?” Rian asked Kira.
Her brow creased as she studied the shape-shifter. “Hard to tell from out here. Plus, I don’t know anything about Reidar physiology.”
“Best guess?” Rian prompted.
“See the patches of redness and those sores that kind of look like burns? It looks an awful lot like acute radiation poisoning. Which means it’s probably dying.”
“When the hell would it have been exposed to enough radiation to kill it?” Qae demanded.
“Judging by how fast the symptoms are appearing, I’d say within the last few hours… Since we entered the Belt.”
Cami’s heart skipped a beat as the same dawning comprehension entered everyone’s expression.
“Does that mean we—” Qae started, but Kira was shaking her head.
“If we’d been exposed, we’d be in the same condition.”
“Then what happened to it?” Rian muttered, expression tight, though it was clear he was turning over scenarios in his mind.
“It could be the Belt,” her father suddenly said, drawing everyone’s attention. “The Barbary Belt has a unique type of radiation within it that isn’t found anywhere else in the galaxy,” her father explained, jolting her memory.
Ever since she could remember, teams of scientists would contact her father for permission to come into the Barbary Belt to take samples of water, air, soil, even DNA of animals and the people who lived within the cloudy nebula that comprised the Barbary Belt. No significant negative findings had ever been made, but there was conjecture the radiation interacted with water in a unique way, and that the inhabitants on the Belt might consume more liquids than people in other parts of the galaxy.
“That’s it.” Rian voice didn’t pitch up with excitement or anything, but there was a gleam of satisfaction in his gaze. He stepped forward and wrenched open the barred door, stalking over to the prone Reidar.
He knelt down and slapped the alien on the cheek, rousing it.
“Did you know coming here would kill you?”
The Reidar’s breathing was labored as he stared up at Rian with malice.
“You’re dying. We both know it. Tell me what I want to know, and I’ll put you out of your misery. Otherwise, you can spend the next few hours lying here in pain until your body shuts down.”
The Reidar’s expression t
ightened, and Cami thought the stubborn creature wasn’t going to answer. But then it’s features slackened and it looked away.
“Yes. I knew coming here would kill me.” Its voice was dry and rasping.
“So all the Reidar know. The radiation in the Barbary Belt is deadly to them within hours of exposure.”
The alien’s body convulsed like it was in pain. “We have known for decades to avoid this place. Now kill me.”
Rian stood and pulled out his nucleon gun.
Cami turned her face into Qae’s shoulder as Rian let off a single shot. Even though she didn’t feel sorry for the alien, the sight of the gun brought back memories from when she’d taken a pulse pistol round to her chest.
Rian holstered his weapon as he came out of the cell, and he had that almost maniacal look in eyes again.
“This is why they’ve never made a play for us here. Because they can’t.”
“We’re completely safe here,” Qae replied, almost sounding like he didn’t believe it.
“Better than that, we may have just found the last piece of our secret weapon. If Chase can find a way to harness this unique radiation—”
“We can nuke the bastards without hurting any humans,” Qae finished. “They’ll never see it coming.”
Qae whooped, turning on her, grabbing her against him and lifting her off her feet to twirl her in a circle with excitement that was infectious.
Even Varean and Kira joined in laughing as Qae put her down again.
“We can actually do it.” He cupped her face and smacked a kiss onto each cheek. “We’ve got a way to beat them.”
Rian turned to face her father. “When I landed here a year ago, I told you we were only staying temporarily.”
Her father inclined his head. “I remember.”
“We may need to revisit that arrangement. Make it permanent.”
A mysterious smile slipped over her father’s face, like maybe he was almost actually happy. Probably for the first time since her mom had died.
“I believe we can find terms that will make all parties concerned satisfied. Besides”—her father clamped a hand on Qae’s shoulder and pulled him in to sling an arm across his shoulders, jostling Qae and leaving him wincing—“it looks like Qaelan, here, is part of the family now.”
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