Compete (61 page)

“All right, stop that!” I say with a smile, and slap his arm lightly.

“What?”

“Stop looking at me like that!”

“Like what?

“I don’t know. Like I’m some kind of weirdo. Like you haven’t seen me before.”

His expression deepens. “But I
haven’t
seen you before. You are beyond words.”

“You’re not so bad yourself, Pilot Vekahat,” I say, because honestly, I’m getting a little uncomfortable here, unused to this kind of thing—this kind of attention.

Flashbacks of Logan
. . . .

Xel blinks, surfacing into awareness, as though again he cannot help himself.

Am I really having this amazing effect on him, or is he simply being the super polite date?

But before I think too far in that direction, he takes my hand again, and squeezes it warmly. “Want to open the Dance with me? Let’s go,
im
nefira!
”

Momentarily I am stumped by that Atlantean term. But then, as he pulls me forward into the thicket of the dance floor, I remember that it means “my beauty.”

W
e arrive in the center of the dance floor and stop. Xelio nods lightly to someone—I am guessing to someone in one of the distant tech stations on the walkway—and suddenly the music fades and a small gap opens around us as people step away . . . because a section of floor panels directly underneath us detaches from the rest of the floor. . . . Suddenly we are
rising
, just the two of us, until we hover about ten feet above everyone.

A spotlight falls upon us. Xelio and I are bathed in a radiant crimson beam of light.

Immediately the dance crowd screams.

Xel turns his head to look around and smiles his wicked confident smile. Still holding my hand he taps some kind of tiny button at his collar. And then he exclaims in a deep, ringing voice radiating masculine power that echoes godlike from all sides of the spherical chamber around us:

“Attention, Cadets, Civilians and Crew! Red welcomes you!”

The crowd screams again.

What a surreal moment
. . . .

My pulse races wildly. Okay, I should be cowering with terror . . . to be in such a spotlight, with thousands of people looking at us—both at him and at me.

Instead I am exultant. He squeezes my hand, and I squeeze back, brazenly.

And I think he realizes it—he senses that in that wild instant, he and I, we are a perfect power match.

“Today, in this fiery Season of Red, may you burn with the joy of celebration among true friends who stand at your side! Turn to the one next to you! Look in their eyes and find the fire!”

His soaring voice thunders, only to be answered by the thunder of the crowd.

“And now,” Xel says, with a mischievous look at me. “You all know what happens when the Music Mage says the magic warning?”

He nods at me, leans in so that his microphone button is inches away from my lips.

And I get it. . . . I exclaim in reply, “Gravity changing now!”

Even as I speak, I hear my voice transform, amplify, and echo from the walls around us. A wild,
insane
euphoria overtakes me.

Thousands of teens respond, this time to me, with another roar.

Xel winks at me and then speaks to them again.

“So, what’s the magic warning?”

“
Gravity changing now!”
the crowd screams in reply.

“Perfect! Now, Dance!
Orahemai!
”

Immediately the music explodes, and the crowd goes wild with dancing, while we smoothly descend back to the floor level.

“That was fun!” I exclaim, as he pulls me to him, and we get out of the thicket, on our way to the periphery.

“Let me take care of a few things quickly,” Xelio tells me with a meaningful look. “And then we dance!”

“Okay!” I grin at him, as we push through the dancing crowd.

W
e come up to the glassed-off sound tech station. I see Anu in there with three other boys, none of whom I recognize.

Anu looks up momentarily from the hovering sound console, sees Xelio and nods, and then his gaze falls on me as I wait outside.

I smile brightly at him, and watch as he does a double-take, and his jaw drops as he sees me. He mouths something to me but I cannot hear him from outside the cube, and I don’t bother going in.

Let Anu have his little moment of shock, I think with grim satisfaction.

Yeah, I look good tonight
.
Tomorrow it might be back to dowdy, plain, dorky Gwen, but tonight
. . . .

While Xel consults with the guys in the booth, I look around the crowd. I am searching for a certain someone, and
he
is not here yet.

Command Pilot Kassiopei.

At least I don’t see him in this crowd.

However, somewhere on the dance floor I see Logan. He is in his impressive white Cadet uniform, dancing with a blonde with long gorgeous hair and a tight body encased in a slinky little red dress. I have no idea who she is, but knowing Logan, I’m sure he had his pick of the hottest girls around the ship.

My heart does a funny little jump, but I take a deep breath and turn away.

No, nothing is going to spoil this night for me. . . .

Let Logan dance with whomever he pleases.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

X
elio finally gets away from the sound station and comes up to me with a slow sensual smile.

“Sorry,” he says. “Now that’s over, you and I can enjoy ourselves. How are you feeling so far?”

“Pretty good.” I smile at him.

“Damn, you’re stunning . . .” he says, as his black eyes take in my glowing expression and once again he seems startled by me. I can tell he really means it.

“Thank you,” I reply, once again not knowing how best to respond.

“No, thank
you
—for being so beautiful.” He pauses. “No, what’s that word you used?—real. You are so damn
real
that you take my breath away.”

“You know,” I say, “I’m going to be singing later tonight?”

“Oh, yeah?” He leans in to me. “You signed up for a vocalist spot? I’m impressed! And knowing your voice, I expect it will be incredible.”

I allow a tiny smile, as I think,
Oh, wait till you hear me, Xel
.

“Yup,” I say. “I am on at 8:15 PM.”

“
Gravity changing now. . . .”
A velvet-smooth male voice comes like magic from the walls around us.

I briefly think of Vazara Hotat, but it’s definitely another person in the Music Mage role tonight. And whoever he is, he sounds very good.

The beat slows down, and suddenly the sensation of falling is here, as the low gravity takes hold.

As usual people scream, and everyone starts jumping to take advantage of the acrobatics.

I let out a small squeal of excitement and Xelio laughs with me as he takes me by the hands, and sweeps me onto the dance floor. With every motion we start floating up like dandelions, and oh, my dress! The ethereal bell skirt unfurls and swirls around me like the spiral arms of a galaxy. . . .

I throw back my head and exclaim in pure delight, and then feel Xelio’s hands close around my slender waist as he lifts me up, and spins me, and he is grinning in exultation.

Time ceases to exist as we spin and twirl to the beat. The dance is short however, and soon the Music Mage speaks again.

“
Gravity changing now. . . .”

This time the music beat slows down completely, and a gentle sweet song takes over, vocal heavenly harmonies interspersed with flute and reeds and strings.

There is no gravity now, and the floor below—a bed of red coals and lava—starts to fall away, revealing the spherical bowl abyss of the Resonance Chamber underneath us.

And we remain in place, floating, as though suspended over the heart of a volcano.

The illusion is so powerful that there’s a volcano below us that people scream, and point, with crazy emotion.

“Whoa!” I exclaim, looking down past my floating skirt and my elegant shoes, while we begin to float away upward, propelled by our own bodily motion. “That’s simply amazing!”

Xel only looks at me, smiling, as he holds me by the waist. And then—because of the magical sense of the world slowing down in the suspended state of the zero gravity dance—the longer he looks in my eyes, the more his smile fades, and his expression again grows serious, startled,
vulnerable
. It’s as if he’s forgotten how to maintain the confident exterior, and now the
real
underlying person is coming through—a guy who is so deeply affected, that he can no longer pretend otherwise.

In fact, I think he’s so taken by me, that he doesn’t even attempt to kiss me or in any way make a move.

Wow,
I realize suddenly.
He is afraid
. Not of me, but of damaging some fragile airy thing that he suddenly sees in me. Because, yes, I can see it in his eyes, the awe and wonder . . . and with it, the
distance
.

And in that moment of understanding, it makes me sad.

“Xel!” I say, caught up by the intensity of the moment. “Hey! It’s
me
—still me, you know, don’t you? Gwen the doofus nerd! Remember? Shoelace Girl!”

He blinks and then he smiles again. “I know,” he says. But the way he says it, strangely, I don’t think he even understands the change in his perception that has taken root.

The song ends.

“
Gravity changing now!”
the Music Mage exclaims with mischief, and suddenly a fast energetic track comes on, while gravity blooms forth, returning.

All of us, airborne couples gliding near the ceiling, start to float down softly, and then land on our feet just in time to touch down on the floor that once again rises to meet us, flattening at the main level of the walkways.

“Want something to drink?” he says, still holding me around the waist almost gingerly, but his confident smile returns.

“Sure!” I nod.

We move off the dance floor toward the walkway, while my thoughts flitter about wildly, wondering again where Aeson Kassiopei is, and if he even made it to the Dance.

Xelio and I make our way to the nearest drink station, where Xel gets in line for us, telling me to wait by the glassed-off area of the tech cube, out of the push-and-shove traffic zone. Grateful to him for dealing with the drink crowd, I move away and stand, watching the dancers.

And then I turn, and see
them
.

Command Pilot Kassiopei, wearing his Fleet dress uniform, white and gold, walks slowly with Oalla Keigeri and Keruvat Ruo, from the direction of the entrance.

They must’ve just arrived, I realize.

Keruvat is also dressed in the full parade uniform, tall and gorgeous. Oalla on the other hand, wears a long red dress, sleek and bright like a flame. Her golden hair falls loosely around her shoulders, and it is threaded with many ruby-red jewels that catch fire in the bright pulsing lights. Her heels are at least three inches tall, and she steps effortlessly with perfect grace. And her face, when she turns, is made up in elegant high-fashion, with dramatic colors.

Immediately my heart lurches in my chest and I feel my pulse picking up, racing. . . .

I watch Kassiopei approach, and he is splendid, regal, spectacular—I run out of crazy words for him in my mind, as I stare, wildly.

When they are just a few feet away, talking and laughing among themselves, I turn my back to them—to
him
—because suddenly I am the same nervous awkward girl, who cannot even walk easily in two-inch heels, much less face
him
.

They pause, almost next to me, still not seeing me. In that moment Xelio emerges from the drink station, carrying two tall covered glasses with straws.

He sees Kassiopei and the other Pilots and waves to them with one glass.

“There you are, Kass,” Xelio says, flashing a wicked smile. “Glad you bothered to show. Though, I’m amazed you’re here this early.”

“Sorry we’ve missed your opening, Xel,” Oalla says, coming up to him and bumping his arm in an easy, relaxed manner of longtime friends.

Aeson, standing almost next to me, and literally not seeing me, folds his arms casually—his favorite stance—and simply stares at Xelio with a faint hint of a smile.

“Nice job, so far, Pilot.”

“Why, thank you, Command Pilot.” And Xelio grins, at the same time as he attempts an insolent salute while still holding the ice-clinking glasses in both hands.

“Love your color scheme,” Keruvat says in his deep voice. “Remind me what this color is called—is it by any chance—
red?
”