Jordan (12 page)

But tension arced between them. It didn’t take telepathic powers to know she was still furious with him for abandoning her
and the bridge.

He took the chair next to the bed. “I left to protect the Staff. If it had gotten too cold, the power might not have come
back on.”

She locked gazes with him. “So how did you keep it warm?”

“I removed it from the
Draco’
s housing, retracted it, and placed it inside my shirt.”

“So you could have returned to the bridge?” she challenged him.

“Yes. But I feared the cold would slow me down. So I stayed in the engine compartment, waiting for the moment when you’d need
me to place the Staff back into the housing.” And he’d prayed that the Staff’s power wouldn’t drop so low that he’d be forced
back into owl form, unable to help her when she needed him.

She stared at him, her eyes swirling green pools of skepticism. He had no idea if she believed him. But he suspected any ground
he’d gained by telling her his history had just been lost. He realized he’d made another mistake. “I’m sorry. I should have
explained before I left you on the bridge.”

“You should have.”

“I’ll do better next time,” he promised.

But he wasn’t going to tell her that when the Staff lost power, or when it was out of his possession, he didn’t have the energy
to maintain his human form, couldn’t protect her, couldn’t fight the Tribes.

Until he’d been tricked out of his Staff, he’d never once let it out of his sight. That error had cost him centuries. Centuries
the Tribes had used to increase their domination over the galaxy. He had to remain human. Had to stop them. Had to make her
understand they were on the same side.

But he didn’t have a clue how to do that. Sensing she didn’t want his touch, he fell back on normal conversation. “We should
be orbiting the dark world within the hour. If you’re up to it, I’d like your opinion on where we should set down.”

“I gave Lyle busywork to keep him out of my hair.” She cocked her head and pursed her lips. “Is that what you’re now doing
with me?”

“Hey.” He took her hand, pleased when she didn’t withdraw. “You saved the
Draco.
We all owe our lives to your quick thinking.”

“You mean my plea for mercy?”

He grinned. “I would never have thought of that tactic, and it worked. You were brilliant.”

He recalled her picking the lock to feed the hungry kids. She’d always been resourceful.

“And you were brave to offer your own life to save everyone.”

Although he was sincere, she wasn’t buying it.

“We were dying anyway. I had nothing to lose.”

Standing, he strode to the door. “I’m glad you’re better.”

He shut the door behind him, shocked to find his hand shaking. Apparently all that warming her up had made him cold.

He clenched his hands into fists a few times and the tremble receded before he reached the bridge. As always, he would do
what must be done, but sometimes he wished he didn’t have to put the mission first.

Sean and Tennison looked relieved to see Jordan walk onto the bridge. Sean was at command, Tennison at the science station.
Neither man had suffered from hyperthermia, thanks to the protection of the spacesuits. And while Jordan had nursed Vivianne,
they’d pitched in, repairing frozen transistors.

“Status report,” Jordan requested.

“Gravity and life support are stable,” Tennison reported. “Darren and Knox are preparing lunch.”

“Good.” Jordan swung around to Sean. “What’s up with the dark planet?”

Taking up a third of the viewscreen, the Shadow planet didn’t look promising. The land was blackened as if singed by fire,
and the brown sea looked mudlike.

“The good news is that Shadow appears to be uninhabited,” Tennison said. “And the bad news is that the planet appears to be
uninhabited. No sign of plant or animal life.”

“Do we even want to land?” Sean asked.

“How’s the air down there?” Jordan stared at the polar cap of white ice.

“Breathable. No poisonous trace elements.”

“Then we land.” Jordan hated to waste fuel, time, and energy. But they might find algae in the mud, protein in the ice. And
they’d come too far not to go down and see if they could find food.

Vivianne, with George on her heels, stepped onto the bridge. “Have we scanned to see what else is nearby?”

Jordan nodded. “We either find food down there or we jump blindly into hyperspace and pray we come out near an Earthlike planet.”

She peered at the data stream on the science monitor. “Have we figured out where we are?”

“Darren’s been working on it,” Tennison said.

“How?” Vivianne asked.

“He’s assuming we’re in the Milky Way Galaxy, and by calculating the rate the stars are moving, their speed should give us
our approximate distance from the Milky Way’s center.”

Jordan exchanged a long look with Vivianne. Both of them knew that such a rough estimate wouldn’t do them much good. But it
was a start.

“What kind of topography is down there?” Vivianne asked.

“Funny you should ask that.” Sean scratched his head. “These readings are peculiar. In fact, I’m wondering if the cold damaged
the sensors.”

“Why?” Jordan asked, peering over his shoulder.

Sean pointed. “Can a world be this flat and uniform? Every reading’s the same. Shadow’s seas register the exact same depth.
The land is exactly three feet above sea level everywhere. There’s no variety. It’s almost as if the world is artificial.”

Jordan clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re a genius.”

“I am?” Sean’s eyes rounded with puzzlement.

“If Shadow’s artificial, then someone created it. That ups the likelihood of finding food down there.” Jordan smiled.

Tennison shook his head. “The entire planet seems to be shielded.”

“A shield might mean that whoever’s down there doesn’t want to be found.” Vivianne peered at the planet as if willing it to
give up its mysteries.

Jordan wondered what kind of people could create such technology. “Between the warning we already received to stay away from
one world and those cubes that chased us out of hyperspace, this part of the galaxy isn’t exactly friendly.”

Vivianne followed his reasoning. “Maybe it’s not so surprising they’ve made Shadow look unappealing.”

Knox entered the bridge with a plate of burgers and a tray of drinks. “Anyone hungry?”

They helped themselves. Although they were rationing food, Jordan spied Vivianne feeding George part of her burger. Sean and
Tennison did the same. And when George came over begging, Jordan tossed him a bite, too. When Jordan looked up, he caught
Vivianne watching him, a smile softening her expression, then hardening.

Did she think he’d fed the dog to get on her good side? Come to think of it, that wasn’t a bad idea.

Except Jordan shouldn’t be thinking about Vivianne at all, never mind the dog. He couldn’t afford distractions.

He picked a spot where the land met the sea at random. “Let’s set down here.”

To be wronged is nothing unless you do continue to remember it.

—C
ONFUCIUS

T
he
Draco
dropped from a high orbit around Shadow into a landing pattern. Vivianne blinked, then blinked again, still unable to believe
her eyes. The brown seas they’d seen at the higher altitudes were gone. In their place was a gorgeous turquoise ocean. And
the flat, barren view of the continents had been replaced by lush forests and verdant valleys with quaint villages dotting
the landscape.

“You might want to rethink the landing site,” Vivianne said.

“Set us down in that open field,” Jordan directed, his voice tight.

“I’d love to see the specs on Shadow’s shield technology,” Sean muttered.

Jordan’s eyes narrowed. The cords in his neck and shoulders tightened.

Vivianne would have thought he’d be happy to see a healthy planet with abundant flora and fauna. She moved close to him and
kept her voice low. “What’s wrong?”

Jordan stared at the peaceful village, the rolling farmland, the clean skies and blue waters. Did Shadow remind him of home?

“I’m not a big fan of making first contact,” he said.

“Why not?”

“It’s too easy to have misunderstandings. People always fear what’s different. They might attack us the instant we open the
hatch because they think we’re hostile, or because we smell bad. Or they fear people with two arms and two legs. We should
have experts in first contact here with us—not a bunch of nerd-brained engineers.”

“Speak for yourself, boss,” Tennison chipped in.

Vivianne gave Jordan a sharp look. “We would have had those experts with us if you hadn’t taken off ahead of schedule.”

“True. But this crew”—Jordan folded his arms across his chest—“has enough trouble socializing on Earth.”

“We’re not here to socialize.” Vivianne redirected the conversation. “What do we have to barter for food?”

Jordan toggled the intercom. “Lyle, pull up that inventory list.”

“Yes, sir.”

A few minutes later, Vivianne perused the inventory on the tiny computer monitor strapped to her wrist. While she recognized
the parts, she wasn’t certain which were essential and which they could spare. “What do we have aboard that isn’t necessary?”

“The mutt,” Jordan teased.

Vivianne dug her elbow into his rib. “Be serious.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “Don’t you think George would be happier running through the fresh air and grass than being terrified
every time our gravity goes down?”

Maybe. But she liked having George aboard. She’d never had a dog before. Just petting him calmed her, and to deal with Jordan
she needed all the calm she could get. She held out her wrist so he could read the screen. “What else here is expendable?”

“Lyle.”

“Not funny.” She kept her gaze on the screen, determined not to let him get under her skin. The crew might be on the nerdy
side and Jordan authoritative, but Vivianne was good at negotiating and bartering. This didn’t have to be a tense, warlike
meeting. Once she explained that they’d come in peace, they…

Her stomach swooped. What was she thinking? If aliens had dropped out of the sky and landed on Earth, they’d have been lucky
not to have been shot down.

“Maybe landing in the open field isn’t such a good idea,” she said.

Sean looked up from the controls. “Tell me now.”

When Jordan didn’t say anything, Vivianne answered. “Can you set us down someplace where we can hide the
Draco
? Somewhere we can sneak into town without the authorities—”

“These people have a shield that hides their entire planet. You don’t think they have radar?” Jordan smirked.

“So you just want to fly into a public area and—”

“We’ll figure it out from there.”

“That’s it?” Vivianne restrained a sigh.

Jordan toggled the intercom. “Darren.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Keep an eye on Lyle for me. Make certain he knows that if he sets foot on Shadow, I’m leaving him behind. And he’s not to
be allowed near a communicator or anything resembling a weapon.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lyle sighed sheepishly. “I may not be astronaut of the year, but I don’t make the same mistakes twice.”

“Good.” Jordan snapped off the toggle and motioned Sean to take them down.

Vivianne held her breath as the
Draco
flew through the clouds and over a small city. Muscles tense, she braced, expecting at any moment that the natives would
scramble military aircraft, and they’d be shot out of the sky. At the very least, she expected Shadow’s equivalent of police
cruisers to come screaming in, sirens wailing.

But no one attacked.

Sean set the ship down in the middle of a field of what she assumed was waist-high grass. But then she saw bean pods growing
on the stalks.

She sighed. “We may have made our first error. We’ve just squashed part of a farmer’s crop.”

Departing the bridge, she headed down the corridor toward the exit. George stayed at her heels.

Jordan fell in beside her and handed her a leash. “You might want this.”

He’d taken a rope, separated the threads, then rebraided them so that not only would the leash slip over George’s head, she
even had a loop for her hand. She bent and slipped the makeshift collar over George’s head. “Thanks.”

“If you’re going to keep him, it’ll be better if he doesn’t try to eat anyone.”

“From what I’ve seen,” she teased, “George is pretty much like you, all bark, no bite.”

Jordan’s eyes smoldered. “So those aren’t my teeth marks on your shoulder?”

Thanks to her dragonblood, she’d already healed from their turbulent sex games. But if he kept looking at her with that kind
of heat in his eyes, she soon might be ready for a repeat performance.

“Are you coming outside with me, or are you going to pull another disappearing act?” she asked, careful to keep her voice
breezy.

His eyes crinkled at the corners. “That depends.”

“Depends on what?”

“On what we find.”