Being of the Field (25 page)

Zeven noticed that Ringbalin had not made a move. ‘Why is he here?’

‘I’ll be going in a second,’ he explained. ‘I just have a small task to perform first.’ Ringbalin, Kassa and Ayliscia stepped in close to Zeven.

‘What’s happening, guys?’ Zeven asked nervously. Ringbalin had moved behind the pilot to place his hands on Zeven’s shoulders, and Kassa stood alongside him with Ayliscia Portus at her side.

‘Ayliscia has been in contact with the Phemoray,’ said Taren. ‘They have given her a vision of where they want us to land after our quantum leap. It is a location on the outskirts of their system, beyond the tracking capabilities of the regular Phemorian government. The Phemoray do not wish to attract attention to us by having our craft suddenly appear in their orbit—’

‘I can see that might panic the locals a little,’ Zeven concurred.

‘So, Ringbalin here is going to inject you with as much positivity as he can muster, and then Dr Portus is going to visualise our destination and, via Kassa, we will transfer this image to you. All you need to do is direct all the desire Ringbalin inspires in you into reaching the location Kassa is conveying, and, with a little of my verbal coaxing, hopefully we’ll have enough combined willpower to make the jump.’

Zeven was overwhelmed. He didn’t want to let everyone down, but his reasoning mind told him that the feat was impossible.

‘The Phemoray are empowering our intention from their end, so it isn’t all up to you,’ Taren assured him. ‘Let’s just give it a whirl, before you have time to sabotage yourself. Okay?’

He nodded dumbly. He’d blindly trusted in Taren’s way before and survived—with any luck today would prove no different.

‘This won’t hurt a bit.’ Ringbalin closed his eyes to focus all his desire and willpower into Zeven.

‘Wow, man, what are you doing to me?’ Zeven was quite turned on by the energy flowing into him and, as it was coming from another man, it was disconcerting to say the least.

‘Your primary motivating force is not willpower but desire, Zeven. You said it yourself,’ Ringbalin explained and Zeven felt put on the spot with women present.

‘I feel very sure Ringbalin is not thinking about you in terms of desire, if that makes you feel better,’ Taren whispered to Zeven, having figured out what his problem was.

‘You assume right,’ Ringbalin said without breaking his concentration.

These intense feelings are those Ringbalin holds for Dr Portus
, Zeven assumed on the quiet. ‘Boy, if this gets much more intense, it could really get embarrassing.’

‘Okay.’ Taren gave Kassa and Dr Portus the all clear to proceed with their transmission. Ayliscia closed her eyes to visualise their target area and when Kassa picked up telepathically on the image, she placed a hand over Zeven’s third eye area to transmit the vision to him.

When Zeven perceived a clear image he was visibly startled. ‘I see a large pale green planet, and distant twin suns.’

‘The planet is Attica, an uninhabited ice planet on the rim of the Phemorian binary star system,’ Ayliscia told him, pleased that the transfer had worked.

‘Hold that image, Zeven.’ Taren gave a nod to excuse everyone. Kassa took Aurora with them into the corridor that led to the quarantine rooms and the flight bays.

‘Now what happens?’ Aurora wondered, wide-eyed. Zeven was observing her very differently today, and she couldn’t deny his amorous glances stirred that same old desire to be close to him.

‘Never mind,’ Kassa replied insistently.

As soon as the room had cleared, Taren began to verbally coax Zeven toward their goal, just as she had on his last mission, but after a couple of moments Zeven had to admit it wasn’t working.

‘Don’t give up so easily,’ she implored him.

‘No, I mean, you’re the captain’s girl now and I feel like I am betraying him or something, which is not turning me on at all.’ Zeven gave half a smile. ‘No offence.’

‘None taken.’ Taren bit her lip. ‘That does pose a problem though, because the same thing would apply to most of the women here.’

‘Except Aurora,’ he suggested shyly.

Taren was quietly delighted by the suggestion, but hid it beautifully. ‘Don’t move.’

Taren headed through the door into the corridor where everyone was bracing themselves for a paranormal event.

‘Is something wrong?’ Lucian asked.

Taren grinned. ‘I cannot inspire Zeven’s desire, as neither one of our hearts is in it any more.’ Taren looked at Aurora with a grin. ‘He asked for you.’

‘What?’ Aurora was stunned, delighted, bemused and a little sceptical. ‘He wants me to talk him through this?’

A loud blast shook their vessel violently and sent everyone offbalance.

‘The USS are attacking,’ Leal concluded.

‘What do I have to do?’ Aurora got to her feet. She was determined to prove her worth to her crewmates.

‘Firstly, and most importantly, make sure Zeven remains gripping his seat, or he may well teleport himself to a remote location in space…leaving the rest of us here.’ There were some nervous chuckles from the gathering.

‘Understood.’

‘Zeven has the capacity to rearrange the universe if he wants to…he just lacks focus and willpower, so you need to keep his mind focused on the region of the universe we wish to reach, whilst gently encouraging him to feel his personal power and have faith in himself.’

‘You want me to turn him on and when he’s really hot, get him to pour all his desire into reaching our destination,’ she summarised.

‘That seems to be the ticket, yeah,’ Taren conceded, ‘but if your intention to help him is fake…’

Aurora gave a cheeky grin and leaned in close to Taren. ‘I never fake it.’ She winked in reassurance while another blast, higher up the craft, set them all to staggering again.

‘You might also ask Zeven to imagine our craft surrounded by white light,’ Kassa suggested. ‘If he can deflect men without a second thought, why not missiles?’

Aurora nodded and quickly returned to the bridge where Starman was in his seat, eyes closed, until he heard someone enter and turned his seat about to see who it was.

‘You don’t have to do this,’ he was quick to say. ‘I’m feeling fairly confident to try this on my own.’

‘If you lose focus, we could end up anywhere,’ she reasoned, straddling his legs to sit on his lap facing him. ‘And I don’t mind, really.’ She made him close his eyes and leaned forward so that she might whisper in his ear.

Zeven was delighted by her resolve and his natural reaction was to place both hands on Aurora’s behind to manoeuvre her into a comfortable position upon the erection trapped in his trousers.

‘Oh no,’ Aurora slapped his hands away, placing them on the armrests of his chair. ‘You don’t get to touch, lest we end up floating alone in space without life support. You get to focus on what I tell you to focus upon, and only I get to touch. Clear?’

‘Aye, aye, captain.’ He smiled at this sweet turn of events. ‘You do know you are only required to talk me through this?’

‘I’m a more
hands-on
kind of girl,’ she said tartly. ‘Any objection?’

Zeven shook his head.

Another blast rocked the ship and the sudden movement proved to be an unexpected pleasure for them both. Aurora repositioned herself so that her lips were close to his ear.

‘First, please imagine AMIE surrounded by a force field of light that
nothing
can penetrate.’ She gently gyrated her pelvis to excite his desire and a quiet moan escaped his lips.

The following blast sounded further afield and did not rock the craft or disturb Aurora’s seductive movement. She was inspired.
‘That’s fantastic, Starman…we’re good at this.’ She pushed against him gently in reward, and he was definitely very aroused.

‘A bit too good…I’d better focus on our destination rather quickly,’ he groaned with a cheeky grin.

‘Yes,’ she urged him, her enthusiasm for the job rather more intense than even she had first suspected. ‘Do you see the visual the Phemoray gave you?’ she asked in a seductive whisper.

‘Oh yes,’ he assured, panting as Aurora moved slightly, languorously. Zeven wanted so badly to touch her, and yet the fact he was restrained in both body and mind was even more of a turn-on.

‘Take me there,’ she sighed in his ear. ‘I know you can do it,’ she gasped at her own pleasure, ‘please,
focus
.’

With all the will Zeven possessed he clung to his chair and held in his mind the vision of space he desired to reach, and when the moment of climax came Zeven felt himself ejected right out of his physical body and through a massive expanse of light at the speed of thought.

When the light faded and Zeven felt conscious enough to open his eyes, all he saw was complete darkness. Before coherent thought set in, a pang of panic shot through Zeven’s body. He might be adrift in space! But his senses slowly set him at ease when he realised he could still feel the pilot seat beneath him and Aurora spread over him like a blanket.
So why is the ship in darkness?
He didn’t bother answering the question, but felt around for the reboot key and all AMIE’s systems came back online, along with the lights.

Zeven then attempted to rouse Aurora. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked, pinned to his chair by her body and unable to raise himself.

Aurora stirred and peeled herself off him. ‘That was amazing…there was a big blast of light! Did you see it?’

‘Did I see the light?’ Zeven rephrased the question, his eyes still ablaze with desire. ‘I certainly did! You’re amazing, Aurora, and I am an idiot for not seeing it sooner.’

She rather wanted to thump him for taking so long to come around, but the door to the bridge opened and the rest of the crew meandered in.

‘Please don’t move,’ Zeven clutched Aurora to him. ‘It could be frightfully embarrassing for me.’

‘So…it is up to me to cover up one of your messes yet again?’ She made light of his predicament, and leaned forward to kiss him.

When the crew saw the impassioned scene, they were a little uncomfortable about interrupting.

Lucian cleared his throat and failed to secure their attention. ‘Are you both all right?’ he ventured to ask, maintaining his distance.

‘They certainly look all right,’ Leal commented quietly to the captain.

‘We need to check our coordinates.’ Lucian attempted to regain control of his bridge, but Aurora and Starman didn’t stir from their mutual interests.

‘Or, we could use one of the monitors in the office,’ Taren suggested and everyone agreed that was a good idea.

According to the ship’s systems, their craft had been dead in the air for a few hours following the electromagnetic disturbance that had shut everything down.

‘My greenhouse!’ Ringbalin freaked and rushed off to tend to Module C, before discovering whether or not the plan to reach the Phemorian system had been successful.

‘Did we shift location?’ Dr Portus delayed her departure to ask.

‘AMIE’s still finding her bearings,’ Lucian advised, pushing the button on his belt to open the shield windows.

Everyone moved into the captain’s office as a huge pale aquamarine planet came was revealed.

‘I don’t believe it,’ Lucian uttered solemnly.

‘Attica,’ Dr Portus confirmed with a smile.

For the first time in her life Taren was truly amazed. ‘Now I know that nothing is impossible,’ she said, ‘because I have witnessed
this
.’

‘Teamwork, kiddo.’ Kassa gave Taren the old chug on the shoulder. ‘Those of us with the Powers have never been able to come out of the shadows before, so we’ve never been able to join forces either. Only the universe knows what we are ultimately capable of if we work together.’

Lucian was still absolutely gobsmacked, his rational mind doing overtime trying to fathom the implications of what he’d just witnessed. ‘I believe I have a crew that would be the envy of any captain,’ he said, pleased to be rid of their pursuers.

‘You’d better believe it,’ Leal butted in. ‘I’d like to see the USS even work out where we are, let alone catch us.’ This proposition brought a smile to everyone’s face.

‘In a week, I’ll be home. My queen, Qusay-Sabah Clarona, is awaiting our arrival with great anticipation.’ Dr Portus dragged her sight from the distant twin suns and made a move to the door. ‘I should help with Module C,’ she requested and Lucian gave her a nod.

‘Wait.’ Taren pursued Dr Portus into the reception area. ‘Kassa said you suspected why the Phemoray are so interested in me.’

Ayliscia was uneasy. ‘I cannot say for sure, but…you may have Phemorian in you.’ She was not prepared to comment further and departed.

Taren had a lot of food for thought. She had never considered that her parents might have come from somewhere other than Maladaan. She wandered back to the office in a daze.

‘As we don’t seem to have sustained much damage, I guess the rest of us are on R and R for a bit,’ Lucian advised Leal and Kassa as he marked Taren’s return.

‘We’d best get on with it then,’ Leal suggested to Kassa. They both sensed the captain’s need to be alone with Taren and closed the door on their way out.

Lucian walked straight up to the object of his desire and kissed her, for he’d been wanting to do so ever since the last time he’d done so.

‘Wow,’ Taren beamed, overwhelmed by his verve.

‘
You rock my world
,’ he told her and although the statement was quite out of character for the professor he meant it sincerely.

‘And you mine,’ she assured him with a seductive smile.

‘My eyes have been opened to a whole new universe of possibility.’ He turned his head to eyeball the ice planet that had replaced the view of Frujia beyond their craft. ‘I am in complete and utter
awe
.’

Taren nodded as she also admired the alien space scape.

Somewhere down near those two stars twinkling in the distance was the planet of the Phemoray. Taren hoped it held a few insights into the mysteries of her past and the disappearance of Maladaan. In her vision of their alternative future, President Anselm had claimed to be the keeper of her memories. Perhaps the Phemoray could confirm if
his claim was true. If it proved to be authentic, Taren planned to claim her history back.

Zeven had departed to take a shower and left Aurora lounging in the pilot’s seat. She had mixed feelings in the wake of her quantum sexual encounter with the man she’d lusted after for years. Every time she thought about that climax Aurora’s joy near suffocated her. Yet when she thought about Kalayna, her heart pined for her too, and she was deeply saddened at the prospect of never seeing her again.

Aurora was ninety-five per cent certain that Kalayna had remained on Frujia, but before she gave up hope altogether, she felt she should check the launch bay area and she rose to do so.

As she wandered down the corridor past all the bio-containment rooms, Aurora really couldn’t decide whether she wanted to find Kalayna or not. If it turned out that she had stayed on board, Aurora would have a lot of explaining to do, and a really big decision to make.

She entered the huge hangar area, where all their smaller flight craft were sitting idle. ‘Kalayna,’ she called, not really expecting an answer.

‘Well, it’s about
fucking time
you showed up!’

A chill ran down Aurora’s spine, for it was not Kalayna who answered her. ‘
Swithin?
’ She looked in the direction the voice had come from and waited for him to emerge from the shadows.

Swithin did so, with a USS phaser to Kalayna’s head. ‘I’ve just been chatting to your new friend,’ Swithin advised. ‘Fancy, little Rory, a homo.’

‘That’s none of your business,’ Aurora fumed.

‘Oh, but it is,’ Swithin corrected. ‘I find people will tend to go a lot further out on a limb for a lover than a friend.’

‘Please, let her go,’ Aurora appealed more nicely. ‘She has nothing to do with any of this. If you need a hostage then take me.’

‘But I need you to launch my escape pod for me,’ he informed bluntly.

‘I don’t know how to do that!’ Aurora said in distress.

‘Well, you had better learn in a hurry or your girlfriend’s head is going to look like porridge!’ He pressed his weapon harder into Kalayna’s temple.

‘I know how to launch a pod.’ Kalayna winced in pain. ‘I’ll do it.’

‘If you are trying to dick me around—’ Swithin warned.

‘I’m not! I don’t know who you are and I really don’t want to know, but if you desire to leave this vessel, I’ll be more than happy to assist, I assure you.’

‘Fucking smartarse,’ Swithin grinned. He kind of liked this chick’s spunk; a shame she was so obviously heterophobic. ‘Then you get over here,’ he said, motioning to Aurora, and once she was close enough Swithin shoved Kalayna aside. He took hold of Aurora and swung her around in front of him to face Kalayna. ‘Get to the controls, ready a two-man pod—’ He held the weapon to Aurora’s temple.

‘To go where?’ Aurora wanted to know.

‘I’ve made my own arrangements,’ he snarled, ‘so—’

‘You’ve made arrangements in the Frujian system maybe,’ Aurora commented, terrified of his obvious intention to take her hostage. ‘But our craft is no longer there! We’ve made a quantum jump into the Phemorian system—’

‘Don’t try and
screw with me
, DeCadie.’ He burrowed the weapon’s muzzle into her temple and she cried out in pain. ‘Not even the United Star Systems has that kind of capability…so just
shut the fuck up
and don’t
piss me off!
’

‘Okay,’ she whimpered, her right temple throbbing from the bruising.

‘If you hurt her, you ain’t ever getting out of here,’ Kalayna warned, now that she was beyond his reach.

‘Really?’ Swithin challenged, as, having Aurora at such close quarters, he noted an unusual scent upon her that would divide these allies rather quickly. ‘Aurora, if you are a lesbian now, then why do you reek of men’s aftershave?’

Aurora didn’t answer, blindsided by the question.

‘What?’ Kalayna’s eyes narrowed.

‘Smell for yourself,’ Swithin offered.

Kalayna, sure that he was lying, thought she’d use the opportunity to see if she could get close enough to grab the weapon. The look of remorse on Aurora’s face as she approached, however, made Kalayna uneasy, but she focused on disarming their attacker. Just as Kalayna
was preparing to make her move she got a whiff of an aftershave that she had endured the smell of earlier that same day. ‘Starman,’ she said surely and Swithin laughed.

‘Hey, good for you, Rory,’ Swithin teased his hostage as he backed away with her, having made his point. ‘You always did have a bit of a thing for him, didn’t you?’

‘You slept with Starman?’ Kalayna was gutted beyond belief.

‘No, it wasn’t like that,’ Aurora appealed, and then boggled at the task of trying to explain why she had been intimate with Zeven. Who in the universe was going to believe she’d seduced the pilot to save the project? It was useless…these two had no idea what had just gone down and she wasn’t even sure she really understood it.

‘You bitch!’ Kalayna shouted, disgusted. ‘I left my home, my job, and endured hours in a hostage situation with this maniac…for you!’

‘Make her pay, babe.’ Swithin found the lovers’ dispute most amusing.

Kalayna made her way up the stairs to the launch bay control centre.

‘Please, Kalayna,’ Aurora appealed, tears streaming from her eyes. She never wanted to hurt anyone, especially not Kalayna. ‘Don’t do what he asks. Launching us off in a pod from here will sentence us both to certain death!’

‘Fine with me. ’ Kalayna opened the control deck door, went inside, took a seat and put on the communication headset.

‘That’s the spirit,’ Swithin egged her on.

Aurora watched in horror as a two-seater pod lowered in its cradle and was placed on the launch area. Once secured in place, the top of the pod rose up to allow the passengers to embark.

‘Come on.’ Swithin hauled her towards their transport.

‘We don’t have suits,’ she said, resisting.

‘Trust me, we won’t be in space that long.’ He hauled her over to the pod.

‘There’s nothing out there!’ Aurora yelled, to try and get it through his thick skull. ‘Just a huge boulder of ice, and nothing else for—’

Swithin cracked her over the back of the head with the butt of his weapon, and caught her up over his shoulder as she fell. ‘That’s much easier.’ He piled her into the front seat of the pod and took up the rear position himself.

‘Closing you up for launch,’
Kalayna advised Swithin via the headset.
‘Prepare for stasis—’

‘Forget stasis. Just launch,’ Swithin ordered.

‘Destination?’

‘Just launch,’ he repeated, ‘which word don’t you understand?’

‘It’s your funeral,’
Kalayna retorted.

‘How do you know all this technical shit anyway?’ Swithin asked, as the pod sealed up, and began manoeuvring into the launch tube.

‘Just be glad I do, arsehole,’
Kalayna replied.

‘Oh, I am, sweet thing,’ he laughed.

The pod locked into the launch position. Kalayna was absolutely fuming and it was all she could do to prevent herself from collapsing into a hysterical state of rejection. Then she had a moment of clarity, dwelling on the past couple of days and how happy and excited she’d been to have finally found love. The sweet memories made her think twice about exacting revenge in this manner. She knew in her gut it was the wrong thing to do. But when she thought about Aurora with Zeven, her heartache overruled her gut. ‘
Good riddance.’
Kalayna hit the launch key, ripped the headset off and collapsed into tears.

Showered and changed, Zeven felt reborn in the wake of his intergalactic teleportation effort, not because he’d succeeded in saving his crewmates and their vessel, but because of the warm ball of excited emotion that welled in his chest every time he thought about Aurora.

Instead of making him feel like an out-of-control freak, she made him feel focused and proud of what he might be capable of. Much like Taren, but it staggered his imagination how much more intense Aurora’s and his chemistry seemed to be. How he’d failed to see her beauty, bravery and intellect before now was completely beyond him. But then, it was only recently that Aurora had seemed to become confident in her own skin, and now that she had, she was truly magnificent. His brief flirtation with Taren on Oceane didn’t even come close to comparing with what he was feeling right now. He didn’t care how much of an idiot he might look…he had to find Aurora and tell her that he was in love with her.

The pilot headed out of his rooms, then stopped, feeling suddenly
ill-prepared for his confession. ‘I need flowers,’ he decided. ‘I need Ringbalin.’ Zeven made a beeline for Module C.

‘Balin! Balin!’ Zeven called to the botanist as he wandered through the greenhouse looking for flowers in bloom—he didn’t dare prune anything without Ringbalin’s permission.

When Zeven spied Ringbalin hopping through the greenhouse, pulling on his clothes and fumbling to get his glasses on his nose at the same time, the pilot realised that he might have ill-timed this visit.

‘Sorry.’ Zeven suppressed a smile. ‘I hope I’m not interrupting anything—’

‘Zeven!’ Ringbalin was surprised to see him, or anyone. ‘Is there a problem? I thought we were all on R and R?’

‘I need flowers.’ Zeven explained.

‘Flowers!’

‘To give Aurora,’ he elaborated. ‘That would please her, wouldn’t it?’

‘Oh…’ Ringbalin was enlightened, and could plainly see that Zeven was a changed man. ‘Your desire is transforming into love. That’s excellent, as will is far more responsive to the latter,’ Ringbalin commented as he waved Zeven to follow him. ‘I know which flowers Rory likes best.’

‘Can I have some of those Bells of Heaven things?’

Ringbalin glanced back at the love-struck pilot. ‘You won’t need those.’

‘No, I don’t,’ Zeven agreed, ‘but what if she doesn’t feel like I do, then I might?’

Ringbalin laughed. He knew all about Aurora’s long-time infatuation with the pilot. ‘We are talking about Miss DeCadie here, right?’

‘Yeah,’ Zeven concurred.

‘Then I have something much better.’

The reason Ringbalin knew so much about Aurora’s love life was that she often popped in to admire his garden and chat. And she admired one section of the garden in particular.

Ringbalin led Zeven to a huge clump of evergreen plants with large leaves that fanned out from the central stalks. The stalks rose four metres into the air and, halfway up, the green stems turned deep
purple. The flowers, which emerged from the spathe at the top, consisted of several brilliant purple sepals and many more hot pink petals.