Burning Love [Flights of Fancy 1] (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) (10 page)

"What do you mean 'we'? I haven't even decided if you'll live to leave this room."

She'd been unable to move, watching the two men fight, but it suddenly dawned on her what Krell meant. These two had been, casually perhaps, fighting over her since they landed.

Star reached out and put her hand on Spence's arm. "We need to talk, and I want you to promise you won't hurt Krell."

He turned to face her. Spence stared into her eyes for several moments, then his face went slack. "What are you trying to say to me?"

She tried to smile, but wasn't sure how well it came off. "I'm pretty sure I'm falling in love with you." The smile must not have been all that good.

"And?"

She cared more than enough to be honest with him. "I have feelings for Krell, too."

"That's it." Spence drew the sidearm from its holster at his side.

She wasn't sure just why she did it, but Star stepped between the men. "No, Spence. Please? This is all confused, and we don't have time to sort it out right now. Promise me you won't hurt him."

She knew Krell's life hung in the balance, but he didn't react. He just knelt on the floor where he'd collapsed when Spence hit him.

His eyes never left Spence's face as Krell dabbed again at the drying blood. "We both seem to care for Star. I know you must care for your comrades on
Daedalus
and here in Hendri City as well. After we get them all safe, you and I can return to this matter."

Spence stood still for many seconds, his hand flexing on the grip of the blaster. He finally dropped the gun back in its holster.

"You're damned right we will."

* * * *

'I have feelings for Krell, too.'

Star's words echoed through his mind as he trotted through the capital building with Star, Krell, and Harnlan following close behind him. Spence knew he needed to focus on the current situation, but he couldn't stop thinking about what she said.

He could have focused instead on the other, much more positive, thing she said; 'I'm pretty sure I'm falling in love with you.' The fact that she gave him wonderful news like that in nearly the same breath as telling him he was number two in the race didn't distract him at all from his obsession over her desire for Krell.

Spence forced himself to remember that he needed to protect her, and the only way to do that was to find this temple of the elders Harnlan spoke of. If
Daedalus
was indeed under attack, the only way to save Star was to save the ship. He had to find these elders and stop them.

Krell moved up to run beside him. "Major, this is foolish. You have no chance against the elders, and we should get to your landing craft and then to your ship."

"If I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you."

"The elders are powerful, and they'll kill us all."

"If you're scared, then get out of here." Spence smiled. "Besides, you might get hit by friendly fire in the fight."

"They will only set you to burn."

"Only if they know I'm coming."

His mind suddenly flashed to a new scenario, and Spence skidded to a halt. Star stumbled into his back before she could stop running.

He grabbed Krell by the arm and jammed the muzzle of his rifle into the alien's throat. "Just a fucking minute! They already know I'm coming, don't they, Krell?"

For the first time since he'd known Krell, he saw that the man was scared. "They probably do."

"And you told them!" He slammed Krell against the wall and wondered where it would hurt the most when he opened fire.

Harnlan spoke from where he stood watching at Star's side. "Major, Krell is with the Rangor. He is working against the elders."

"What?"

"How else could we have reached the inside of the capital building without being seen?"

Star stood, her eyes wide as she watched him decide if Krell would live or die. "But, you had Krell in the same prison as I was in, and you made it so he couldn't use his powers to escape."

"You weren't in a prison, only someplace safe from the elders. We didn't kidnap Krell, though we fought his guards and the elders trying to stop him from leaving. The room had to be cold to keep the elders from killing you both." Harnlan shrugged. "We always do that to protect ourselves from the elders and the Hendri loyal to them."

Spence tried to block his personal emotions, the ones telling him to kill Krell here and now, from his professional instincts. He managed to push things down enough to see that the only thing that mattered was to protect Star and get her to safety. "Alright, you live for now, but all I need is a halfway decent reason to kill you."

Krell nodded. "You and I have the same motivation right now. Going to the temple is suicide, though."

Star shook her head. "So is going to the landing craft. If the elders can threaten
Daedalus
, they could crush the landing craft like a walnut."

"Yeah, the temple is our only chance." Spence thought for a moment. "Harnlan, tell me about the elders and this temple."

"The elders live there, ever since they gave the Hendri the power to burn things. No one ever sees them, though, and they talk through a box on the wall of the temple. Though it's only legend, it's said they have changed so much they can't live outside the hot rooms of the temple."

Spence's communicator chirped. "Spencer."

"Ensign Harvey here, Major. I have some news for you."

"Go ahead."

"I have this temple place located. It's really hot in there, about seventy-five degrees or so." She hesitated for a moment. "And there's a lot of electrical activity, including some sort of energy beam aimed at where I think
Daedalus
is in its orbit."

"What kind of energy beam?"

"Heat." Debi paused again. "If my readings are correct, I can't see how
Daedalus
could stand up against it for more than a couple of hours."

"Alright, how do I get there the fastest way?"

"I just sent two routes to your navigation system. One is the way you're going now. The other is faster, but you'll need to blast through some walls."

"Good work, Ensign."

The communicator hissed for a moment. "Sergeant Kyle here, Sir. You'll need some help with that. I can join you on the way."

"Negative, Kyle." Spence chuckled a little. "Your job is to protect those people."

"Major—"

"Stand down, Sergeant. There's enough fighting to go around."

"Aye, aye, Sir." Kyle paused for a moment. "I don't want to take you home in a body bag."

"I appreciate that, but we both have a job to do right now, Bob."

"Yeah, we do. Godspeed, Spence."

The communicator fell silent.

* * * *

Spence changed the order in line of his small command after getting the new route from Debi. Now, Harnlan followed directly behind Spence, and Star ran behind Harnlan with Krell bringing up the rear. Spence gave Harnlan his blaster, and while Spence still carried his big rifle, Krell was unarmed. Spence didn't offer him any weapon, but Star suspected Krell would prefer to rely on his pyrokinesis anyway. She didn't even know if Spence had anything left to offer.

They'd already blasted through several walls, Spence pumping a slide on the underside of his rifle twice as it spit small round objects that exploded with the white flash of nuclear fusion on impact with the stone. When the smoke and dust cleared a little, a four-meter hole gaped through to the other side.

Spence raised his left arm in the air, fingers spread wide, then clenched his fist and lowered it quickly to his chest. She thought she might be figuring out the hand signals Marines were so fond of, because she immediately knew the signal meant 'stop'. The small group gathered around him as he studied his navigation console.

"OK, on the other side of this wall is a little plaza. Thirty meters away, on the other side, is the entrance to this temple." Spence chewed on his lip for a moment. "I wonder if there will be guards."

Krell nodded. "Yes, there will."

Harnlan shook his head. "I wonder about that. We've seen no one so far."

Since they'd left the area the Rangor controlled, they hadn't seen a soul. Star wondered about that, and Krell's comment about the elders knowing they were coming haunted her.

Spence must have had the same thoughts. "Yeah, and that worries me. I'm beginning to feel like we're being herded here."

Harnlan looked puzzled, and Krell spoke to him for a moment in the language of the planet. Harnlan nodded. "Perhaps we are, but does it matter? We have few choices."

"That's too true." Spence absently checked his rifle. "Alright, here's what we'll do; I'll blast this wall, then me and Harnlan will go through. You two wait until you hear three clicks on the communicator, then give us five seconds before you come through. There are trees and stuff out there to hide behind, so get to cover as quick as you can."

Something in her head, or maybe it was her heart, told her this was dangerous. The entire situation was dangerous, but something about going through this wall and into the open, literally on the front porch of the temple, was even more so. She was still trying to formulate her arguments against the idea when Spence finalized the plan.

"Get against the wall." He worked the slide on his rifle again. "Fire in the hole!"

A soft thud from his gun preceded the deafening explosion of the wall into motes of dust.

* * * *

The fucking alarms still screamed, and Elsa was about ready to have someone turn a blaster on them to get some quiet. Nearly 80% of her status board displayed either red or yellow lights now, and more green ones disappeared as she watched.

Without her having to ask, the tactical office reported. "Deflectors at 17% and falling, Field at blue with violet streaks. Time to Field collapse is thirty-two minutes."

She wondered if it might be just idle curiosity, but she asked anyway. "Field generator core temperature?"

"Fifteen million degrees Kelvin."

Elsa nodded. That was about right, at least for the core of a sun. The difference was that they weren't talking about a sun, but some infinitely small point inside her ship. In thirty-two minutes, all that stored energy would break free from the string dimension containing it to fry anything within five hundred kilometers of the point. That radius included
Daedalus
.

"Communications, launch an emergency probe toward Sol system with the logs of the last three days and all information gathered since entering the energy barrier."

"Aye, aye, Captain." The officer typed commands. "Probe away."

Before she could acknowledge, the tactical officer spoke again. "The heat destroyed the probe, Ma'am."

No surprise there, but she had to try. "Thank you."

* * * *

Star listened closely at the communicator in her hand, but she'd heard nothing so far, and the men had gone through more than a minute ago. She flinched at the hot touch on her arm and turned to see Krell staring down at her.

"Star, I'm sorry I misled you."

"You didn't mislead me. You lied to me." She knew she should be angry, but she couldn't find anger inside of her. Only hurt and disappointment.

He nodded. "Yes, I did, and I admit that. I want you to know I'm sorry and I'll do whatever it takes to make things right."

She pushed her emotions as far to the side of her mind as she could. "This is not the time or the place for this."

"No, it's not, but just in case something happens, I want you to know that." Three soft clicks came from the communicator she held, and Krell didn't give her time to answer him. "Come, we have to go." Star followed him through the hole in the wall.

In her brief glance at the plaza, she didn't see anyone in the open area or near the large building on the far side, the one she assumed to be the temple of the elders. She and Krell joined Spence and Harnlan where they took cover behind a large statue of some Hendri or another.

She took Spence's hand in hers and squeezed. "Anything?"

He managed a smile when he looked at her. "Not a soul we can see. We don't have much time to waste, and that's the place." He pointed at the big building with the barrel of his gun. "We go in now."

"I don't know your plans, but I should go with you." Krell shrugged. "Harnlan has never been in the building, and his knowledge is from maps I've drawn."

"No way." Spence shook his head firmly. "Star, you stay out here with flame boy while Harnlan and I go in there to tear the fuck out of the place."

She had time to interject on this one. "I think we should all go."

"It's dangerous in there, and it's going to get pretty tense."

She laughed a little. "Spence, it's dangerous out here and will get pretty tense, too. Remember, the galaxy is a pretty fatalistic place."

He smiled slowly. "Yeah, it is."

"I think Star is right." Harnlan nodded toward Krell. "And so is he. Krell knows the temple far better than I and can save us time in finding the elders."

Spence fidgeted where he stood for a moment, his face running through a gamut of expressions, none of them looking very pleased to her.

After many seconds, he nodded. "Alright, we all go. Stay behind me as much as you can, and use any cover you can find."

He turned to face her directly, and something in the way he stared into her eyes made it clear Spence could see nothing but her. After spinning the rifle to its holster on his back, he placed his big hands on her shoulders and pulled her close to him. His kiss was brief, but full of passion that fired through her like lightening.

When she opened her eyes again, he smiled at her. "Just in case." The smile slowly faded to a serious look, one she'd never seen on any man's face before. "I love you, Star."

Without another word or waiting for her to reply, he released her shoulders and spun the rifle into his hands again. "Alright, let's move out."