Save for Shardae (7 page)

“Hell, yeah!” Zander said. They pounded fists and put on their goggles.

“Hey, Mack,” Simmons shouted as she turned to him. “Ladies first.”

He laughed. “Funny thing, you women. You want to be treated equally, but then try to sweet talk us.”

Sergeant Simmons grinned. “Sweet talk?” she scoffed. “That was a warning.”

Then she said, “A.I.: hologram CT Simmons Beta.”

Instantly the walls flickered into deep, white snow. The loamy aroma of damp earth rose from the walls as the scene shimmered into existence. Zander could even see the puffs of his exhales in the cold air. Overhead clouds scudded across the blue sky turning it black.

“What kind of CT training you got, Simmons?” Mackerel shouted. “Frozen tundra on Saturn?”

He and his crew had put their goggles on too. Like a laugh track, the two men with him chuckled.

“You’re about to find out,” she snapped as her blast cannon materialized in her hands. She squeezed off a ball right then. It slammed directly into Mackerel’s torso, sending him sailing back into a thick thatch of snow some thirty yards away.

And all hell exploded around them.

Zander grinned when a blast cannon materialized in his hands too. The other two also had cannons flicker into their realities. Shots lit up the surroundings. The earth heaved. Zander dove behind trees. He and Simmons exchanged hand signals. They made an excellent team.

Zander realized he had become separated from Simmons. He tagged the other laughing hyena. “You’re done,” Zander said with a soft sneer. “And done by a boy toy.”

A yelp cut his taunting short. That had definitely been Simmons. He knew her voice, heard it in his sleep. Zander spun around and scanned the surrounding forest for her. He jogged through the thick layers of snow, his hands growing cold. The longer he ran, the more worried he became. He found her slumped against a thick pine, her hand on her head. A trickle of blood dribbled down her forehead.

“Simmons,” he whispered, dropping to his knees on the hard, frozen earth. “What happened? Are you all right?”

“Get down, pilot,” she muttered, wincing. She squinted in pain. “Softly.”

From the patterns in the snow, Zander could tell that Simmons had rolled over on the ground. She had crawled across the cold to safety behind a boulder. He touched her chin, gingerly moving her head.

“Mackerel?” he asked, heated. He’d repay that bastard threefold.

She swallowed thickly and answered, “I don’t know. Hit from behind.”

“I’ll kill him.” Zander stood up, growling in his new rush of fury.

How dare that bastard put his hands on her! Why not just stick to the program? Shoot her with the blast cannon? Zander understood that the scenery, the blast cannons and all of the snow had been fabricated from the computer’s A.I. But the sticky blood drying on Simmons’ face had been very real.

“Wait.” She grabbed his jacket. He leaned in close to her. Close to his mouth, she said through clenched teeth, “Be careful.”

“I will.” He lingered a bit, stroking her chin. “You need medical attention.”

“No, just go get him!” Her eyes still narrowed to furious slits. “That’s an order.”

He leaned in and kissed her on the mouth. Impulsive and foolhardy, he didn’t care. His lips crushed against hers -- at last he tasted her sweetness! She gave in to his mouth, allowing him to take full possession of her lips. It went deeper than mere curiosity. No, he wanted to tattoo upon her the urgency, his heart, his ache that someone hurt her, and to press upon her how she’d grown in him. He couldn’t be sure he could untangle himself from her.

Ever.

Chapter 10

A sharp heat stung Shardae’s scalp from the stealth-attacker’s blow. For a few minutes thoughts of Zander blunted the thudding agony of her injury. Her heart buoyed in her chest at the pilot’s flight across the snow, seeking to avenge her attack. She touched her stinging lips. They didn’t hurt, but a surreal feeling descended on her. He’d kissed her. He’d actually kissed her.

Had he been swept into the moment or had he meant to put those kissable lips against hers?

She swallowed the wad of burning emotions and pushed herself to a crouched position. His sizzle still resonated on her mouth. Lord, if his kisses stirred her like this, then being with him would surely melt her into pools of want. Now that she thought about Zander’s expression once the kiss ended, she knew the craving grew in him. He wanted her. She couldn’t deny the twin desire building inside her.

She watched him move seductively through the forest, slow but alert. He cast a few brief looks back at her before cutting off to his right. Only after he vanished behind several snowdrifts did her head begin to pound again.

Mackerel. She’d known him for years. His teasing had started almost at once. Handsome, smart, and when he wanted to be, Mack was good people. Ortega constantly advised Shardae to take him up on his subtle hints at dating.

Despite all of Mack’s pros, he didn’t fire Shardae’s thrusters. Zander did.

She must be attracted to reckless, womanizing pilots. Her boyfriend had been the primary pilot here, but he’d become the somewhat secret lover of Commander Ashe. Her ex-lover eventually was court-martialed for the mess on Titan a few years ago. No hard feelings. The weasel boyfriend was over. Ashe though hadn’t learned about his womanizing ways until much too late.

A loud bark of “Yeah!” echoed through the forest, snatching Shardae back to the now.

“Zander,” she whispered, forcing herself to a full standing position. The dizziness lasted for several breaths; sweat broke out over her body. Lifting her blast cannon from the cold ground, she walked around the frozen landscape.

Despite the eerie quiet, a low steady humming sound permeated the trees. The icy air vibrated with each soft crunch of her boots on the snow. It reminded her that this place of frost and of forests existed on a series of servers down in engineering. The weeping gash on her scalp flared in searing irritation.
It
was very real.

She passed both Sauk and Turner hanging around a cluster of firs. She paused from exhaustion. She wanted to needle them to cover her condition. “Not hard to beat stationary targets.”

Sauk opened his mouth to reply, but thought better of it. Turner merely glowered in his typical brooding manner.

“Admit it!” roared Zander.

Homing in on his voice, Shardae ran through the thick snow to him. She found him bent over Mackerel. The lieutenant lay sprawled on the ground with fury ruining his handsome face. His fists reared back, set to deliver a blow.

“I won’t lie,” Mackerel shot back. His buzzed hair sparkled with chips of melting snow. He glared at Zander, barely acknowledging her clumsy approach. He made a half-hearted attempt to knock Zander’s cannon away, but it remained locked in Zander’s hands. “Not even to satisfy your jealousy.”

Zander dropped the blast cannon. “I’m not jealous. Someone hit Sergeant Simmons. Turner had been tagged. Sauk had been tagged. That only leaves you.”

Mackerel’s wide grin broke across his face. His eyes slid to her. “Sergeant Simmons, he’s in love with you. Can’t you tell? Creating phantom creatures that attack you so he can avenge you. Sweet.”

Zander didn’t move. A muscle ticked along his jaw. Whether his anger stemmed from his embarrassment at Mack’s words or because those words were true, she didn’t know.

“Mack.” She let her blast cannon hang along her shoulder by its strap. “Did you hit me?”

He glared at her.

“I need to know. If you didn’t, we’ve got to question Sauk and Turner. Run the A.I.”

“No,” Mackerel said, frowning. His smile waned. He glanced back at Zander. “You told me the truth. Someone struck her.”

“Yeah someone hit her -- you,” Zander accused. “Stop right there.”

Mack laughed, but it rang uneasy, shallow. He peered across Zander’s shoulder. “Move out of the way, boy to -- uh, Pilot Reyes,” Mackerel said, amending his playful tone after he glanced at Zander’s face.

Zander’s back was to her, so she couldn’t see his face. Whatever Mack saw in the pilot’s expression he didn’t like because his attitude and demeanor changed considerably.

“No,” Zander said, anger making his stance rigid, tight, and solid. “You gotta go through me to hurt her again.”

“I’m a doctor. She needs medical attention.”

“Bullshit.”

“Shardae,” Mackerel said, sighing heavily. “Tell him, please.”

“Mack is a medical doctor and a lieutenant of engineering,” Shardae confirmed. A rush of disorientation swept over her. The world tilted sideways. With her legs wobbling, morphing into gelatinous blobs, she crumpled to the snow-blanketed ground, her belly awash with nausea.

“Shardae!” Mackerel shoved a bewildered Zander aside.

Zander’s stricken face hovered above hers along with Mack’s. “Sergeant,” Zander called gently, but with a ring of panic. “What the fuck did you do to her?”

She cringed. Every sound caused tremendous agony to gnaw at her temples. Shutting her eyes only reinforced her need to vomit.

“I didn’t do anything!” Mackerel said to Shardae. “Look at me!”

She squeezed her eyes tighter.

“Come on, Shardae. Look. At. Zander.”

Choking back a cry of anguish, she cracked her eyes open. Zander hovered behind Mack. Mack flashed a penlight into each eye. Grunting in searing pain, Shardae didn’t feel the bite of the needle in her arm until the thick liquid burned. She found herself unable to move. Her eyes widened in alarm. “What?” Though the word didn’t sound anything like that because her lips had been paralyzed like the rest of her body.

“What’s wrong? What the hell did you do?” Zander demanded.

Yeah, what he said
! Shardae thought.

“I’ve placed her in temporary stasis until I can get her to medical. She has a head injury. I -- I didn’t want to risk it. Comms,” Mackerel said into his earpiece. “Sergeant Simmons needs medical transport. We’re on the hologram floor, pod D.” He pressed the scarlet oval to end the comm. “They’re on the way.”

Zander knelt beside her and touched her hand. She didn’t feel it, but she knew he held it because she could see him. She could almost feel the tension and irritation rolling from Zander. He didn’t hide his feelings -- he thought Mack had struck her, had harmed her. He didn’t trust the treatment he’d given her. Every twitch of his face told Shardae that Zander wanted very much to beat the living hell out of Mack.

Mack sighed. “You don’t have to trust me, but you’re not in a position to do anything but help.”

Shardae could see, but not talk. Breathe, but not speak. Frustration threatened to overcome her.

“I want her safe,” Zander said. “If anything else happens to her, Mack…”

Shardae tried to smirk, but found it harder to do so than usual, and gave up. She put her attention back on the men. Zander had let his threat trail into whatever Mack wanted to supply in the blank. She liked that. Perhaps the pilot would be a good fit for the security team after all.

Mack gave him a grim nod, holding his hand up to silence him. “I know. I didn’t do this. I care about her too.”

The corners of his mouth turned down in distaste. “I know.”

Mack shook his head and gave a soft guffaw. “She cares about you, too.”

Shardae groaned. How the hell did Mack know how she felt?

“Yeah, don’t mock me,” Zander growled in warning.

“I’m not. Shardae’s heart is on her sleeve, even when she tries to cover it up. Her strong emotions glow, burn, right through…”

She wanted to tell them both to shut up, but she couldn’t do much to stop them. Nausea rolled through her. A cramp crunched her insides, but she couldn’t move. Their voices came from far away, from a deep tunnel. The chasm grew larger, the voices more faint. Zander’s face consumed her vision as he leaned down close to her face. She could no longer hear him, but he appeared to be yelling franticly at her.

I’ll be fine, pilot
, she wanted to say, but she had to be honest. She didn’t know for sure. In her entire life she hadn’t ever been in this position.

Zander put his head on her chest as if to listen to her heart proclaim its affection for him. What did her heart tell him in its sluggish beats? Would it confess her feelings for him, her budding love for him? Laughing on the inside, an involuntary spasm bucked through the temporary stasis.

For just the briefest of moments, panic scrambled up her throat before subsiding to allow darkness to claim her.

Chapter 11

Three days later

Zander stood beside Shardae’s infirmary bed, a sleek padding held suspended above the floor by titanium rods anchored to the wall. The cobalt lighting gave a strange tint to her gorgeous skin. He traced his fingers across her cheek, enjoying the softness of her skin.

She’d been in medical for three days. For most of the first night, Mackerel and Raja couldn’t find what had happened to her, other than the head wound. Something had attacked her system -- infiltrated it and tried a hostile takeover. He’d made acting security chief Lieutenant Stein promise to keep him in the loop. Surprisingly, Stein had kept his word. He had a newfound appreciation for the stern-faced man.

He’d learned that Shardae had been attacked by Sauk. The A.I. had been reprogrammed in that specific section of the gaming ward. There had been more that Lieutenant Stein had uncovered, but Dr. Raja only cared about reporting his own findings. Zander had gone deaf when Stein mentioned Sauk refused to answer when interrogated about the poison he’d used.

“You’re here again, Reyes,” declared Dr. Raja, the chief of medicine. He stood beside Shardae’s bed. He peered at him over his two square, rimless glasses. “She’s healed up remarkably well. Let me check a few things. She could go to her quarters.”

“Yeah, her color looks good. I see the antibiotic drip has been removed.” Zander watched Shardae wince in her sleep. Something tormented her during her sleep -- a nightmare, a memory -- but when he took her hand in his, she relaxed. “I guess Commander Ashe already knows she’s fit for duty.”