Sky Hunter (20 page)

“
Was he rude to you?” she asked
carefully. For all his openness and what she hoped was trust for
her, Djari would not easily admit to having fallen victim to Beryl
and his gang. Their petty tortures would only confirm his view of
Air Command’s methods.

“
No.” He took her hand. “I have an
idea. Come, I want to show you something. Down by the
hub.”

Puzzled, she followed him to the lifts
leading to the lower levels. He would say nothing more until they
reached the public corridor outside the elevator shipping level. He
nudged her to walk ahead of him to the end. “In there,” he pointed
to an unmarked door. “It’s unlocked.”

“
You’re so mysterious today,” she said,
utterly curious now. What could there possibly be to see at the
docks? A new plane, perhaps? Some remarkable delivery?

They slipped through the door to enter a
shaft containing only a set of rungs embedded in the wall. It
looked much like an elevator where someone had forgotten to
actually install the car. Looking down, she saw a metal floor with
lines painted on it. Someone walked down there and she realized
that she was looking into the access area to the elevator. Djari
pointed upward. She climbed the ladder ahead of him and stepped out
onto a catwalk of sorts at the top.

“
What is this?”

“
I don’t know, but it’s really
beautiful.”

“
It is?” The walkway up here formed a
ring around the top of the shipping area, circling the tether, she
assumed. The construction was not finished here and they passed
piles of building materials, coils of wire and conduit, debris and
tools.

He halted for a moment to peer around a gap
in the wall and then gestured to her to scurry around him before
they could be spotted by the workers below. “This is just a
standard part of the orbiter design,” he whispered. “Not likely to
ever be used unless they get a lot of demand for sight-seeing up
here. This gap here was meant for a staircase.”

“
Sight-seeing what?”

He ushered her into an enclosed space beside
the gap in the wall and closed the door behind them. “Look,” he
said.

They had come to a curved room whose ceiling
and most of one wall was made of a slightly domed, transparent
window. Nova gripped his arm when she looked up to see Bellac Tau
above them like an enormous moon in the sky. She made out its
continents and oceans, partially obscured by swirling cloud
patterns. The tether itself extended from here and disappeared to a
point on its way to the planet. The sun’s light reflected by
Bellac, along with the stars in the sky, was all that was needed to
illuminate this space tonight. Standing close to the window, she
felt as if she were floating in space. “Beautiful,” she
whispered.

“
Isn’t it lovely? We’re actually at
almost the lowest point of the orbiter and, technically, upside
down. Come sit.” He drew her to where someone had placed a
thickness of foam padding.

She grinned. “You come here often? How did
you find this place?”

“
Poking around. I’m down here quite a
bit when things come up from the base. Someone mentioned that there
was an observation platform up here. If you look out long enough
you feel like you’re flying out there.”

“
What are those?” Nova pointed at a row
of blue metal bins stacked in a corner.

“
No idea.” He sat on the pallet and
pulled her down to lie beside him. “Look outside. This might not be
such a big deal for you, Pilot Lady, but for me this is the next
best thing to being out there.”

“
No, this is stunning.” She laid down
on her back and gazed up at the canopy of stars. They shimmered
slightly behind the orbiter’s shields as if seen through a planet’s
atmosphere rather than as the stark pinpricks of light she saw from
her cockpit.

“
I used to watch the stars from
Bellac,” he said and stretched out on his side, close to her. “On
those rare nights when the skies are clear. And dream of
travelling.”

“
To where?”

“
Doesn’t matter. Anywhere that’s new.
You must have seen many places.”

“
I’ve seen many Air Command bases. They
all look the same. Although my parents made sure that we took trips
off-base as often as possible. I’ve been on a few of Magra’s
continents. Callas once. A trip to Phi Four a long time ago. I
barely remember it. I want to travel to other places, too. Feyd
sounds interesting. And I’ve heard a lot about Delphi.”

“
Feyd is dangerous to Humans and Delphi
doesn’t allow foreigners.”

“
And you think that’ll stop me?” She
raised her arms as if to embrace the night sky. “I am going to see
them all. You just watch.”

He leaned forward to kiss her softly. “You
will, I’m sure.”

“
Yeah. Meanwhile, we have this.” She
tilted her head to let his lips travel over the skin of her neck.
“And this is a very,
very
nice place to hide out.” Vistas
like the one before them existed in other parts of the station, but
none so private and none where being seen with a member of the crew
in such an intimate display would not raise questions.

He seemed to guess her thoughts and began to
unfasten her shirt.

“
What do you have in mind,
sir?”

“
Shh,” he whispered. She shivered when
he bared her to the sky and each other and his hand, calloused but
infinitely gentle, moved over her body. “Wanted to see you like
this, in the star light,” he said. “A Nova among the
stars.”

She purred under his touch. “You are a poet.
I told you.” She gasped when he pulled on the string of her loose
trousers. “Not here!” she whispered.

“
I locked the door.” He smiled when she
did not resist losing the rest of her clothes and happily submitted
to his questing fingers. She looked out into the endless expanse of
time, thinking of nothing until she was swept away to somewhere out
there, arching her back with a guttural groan that he silenced with
his kiss. Still befuddled by the moment, she turned to him and he
lifted her over his lap to watch her move languidly above him,
outlined by the stars and a halo of hair. He held her for a long
while after finding his own release in deep, shuddering waves of
pleasure.

“
Whiteside!”

Nova looked up from her breakfast bowl when
the call cut through the din of chatter, the scrape of chairs on
the bare floor, the clatter of dishes being stacked and sorted in
the nearby kitchen. Lieutenant Sulean and her Caga squad roommate
also scanned the mess hall to find Captain Dakad striding toward
them. Nova slapped the com screen on her sleeve as if that would
make it work properly. “I could have sworn that I wound this thing
up this morning.”

Sulean snickered and nudged one of the
replacement pilots who had finally arrived just two days ago. “He
likes to shout. The com bands aren’t conducive to shouting.”

“
He’d find a way,” Nova mumbled. The
day had barely begun and already Dakad had found some reason to
bark.

“
He scares me,” the pilot said, not
frightened enough to let it interrupt his breakfast.

Nova cast a curious glance his way. That
Lieutenant Ko hailed from Feyd was clear by the deep brown of his
skin, embellished on all exposed parts with intricate tattoos that
carried much meaning for his people. Having seen him at his
exercises, she knew that the patterns were not restricted to just
his face and neck. But his long-limbed body was typically Centauri
as was the black hair. Centauri and Feydans carried nearly
identical DNA and most other Prime species were also not that far
removed. This was as much a reason to suspect divine intention as
much as some shared origin in another part of the galaxy, depending
on one’s viewpoint. Nova had no precise viewpoint but she found the
possibility endlessly fascinating. Interspecies breeding was rare
and often problematic and so generally not encouraged by those who
had any say in the matter. Still, people had a way of getting
together. Proof of that was sitting right here, slurping the last
of his fruit soup.

The captain had reached the pilots’ table
where four of his men and Nova were finishing their meal, already
suited up and ready to begin their patrols and exercises.

“
Saddle up, Whiteside. You’re taking a
few pedestrians back down to the Shon Gat garrison and then pick up
three more pilots while you’re there. Bunch of day trippers want to
go, too.”

“
Aye, sir.” They still hadn’t replaced
the lost shuttle pilot and so the combat pilots had filled in for
her, not averse to the break in routine or the chance to spend the
occasional evening on the Siolet base.

“
No layover. You’re back here
tonight.”

“
Thank you, sir,” she said.

Dakad’s narrowed eyes exuded disapproval
while he tried to decide if sarcasm was involved in her reply.
Seeing nothing on her guileless face, he spun and left them to
their tea.

“
Some day, Nova…” Sulean
warned.

Her roommate smirked, like Lieutenant Rolyn
well aware of how Nova was spending her downtime. “Something tells
me she meant it.”

Nova stood up. “Bus is leaving soon. Better
be on it.”

She left the mess and bypassed the restricted
lifts leading to the fighter plane levels to take the one to the
passenger concourse. The supply clerk supplied her with the latest
gossip while issuing her the uniform used by non-military pilots.
He also promised her a fresh flight suit upon her return, for which
she was grateful. The suits had a way of picking up an unpleasant
rankness well before new ones were issued.

She waited at the shuttle gate while security
checked it once more for possible sabotage and then completed her
own pre-flight inspection before allowing the passengers aboard.
The civilians returning to the base were the last of the team still
investigating the explosion on the flight deck. Despite Nova’s
carefully padded inquiries during the trip to the surface, none of
them seemed inclined to discuss the case. She wondered if the
supply clerk would have better luck with them. Perhaps he gave
lessons in prying gossip out of people.

She landed them on the small air field that
served the elevator base garrison and saw them to another plane
leaving for Siolet. Then there was not much to do but wait for her
new passengers. She knew no one here that she cared to visit. Her
temporary squad during her stint as ground troop was now manning
Rim Station, her old base. She cared little for the ones here now,
consisting mostly of those either belonging to or afraid of Captain
Beryl. She ambled to the garrison administrative building, craning
her neck up at the elevator looming over the landscape. It was
impossible to ignore.

It was cooler inside and she flapped the
front of her uniform blouse to circulate the air under there while
she filed her report with a bored clerk. “So where is everybody?
I’m expected back topside today.”

“
Not here yet. Sandstorm grounded their
skimmer. I’ll tag you when they’re ready to leave.”

“
Storm heading this way?” The least
entertaining thing she could think of was to be grounded at the
Shon Gat garrison overnight. Perhaps there was time to head to
Camomas or one of the other towns instead. She had no desire to
wander around Shon Gat even if the town had been officially cleared
of militants.

“
Nah. Blowing itself out over the
flats. You’ll be okay.”

Nova looked out of the dusty window over the
training grounds. Some grunts were jogging around out there, no
doubt cursing the grit drifting into their lungs. How fortunate
they were aboard the skyranch with its new, clean exercise
equipment and a view of the green space while doing their laps.

“
Is the pilot here yet?” she heard a
gruff voice through an open door.

“
Yessir, right here,” the clerk
replied.

“
Send him in.”

Nova raised an eyebrow and walked into the
commander’s office where she saluted with the least amount of
decorum she could get away with. “Major Trakkas,” she said.

He looked up. “What are you doing down here,
Whiteside?”

“
Driving the bus.”

“
You air jockeys don’t have enough to
do,” he grumbled. He gave her a card. “Get over to the climber hub
and pick up a packet from Sergeant Srilk to take up with you. I
don’t have three days to get it up there.”

“
Yessir. Who is the
receiver?”

“
Just leave it with Private Maxen at
supply. Dismissed.”

She hesitated a moment. As far as she knew,
Trakkas had not once inquired about her capture during the Shon Gat
siege. The fact that he was to blame for her even being there
didn’t seem to bother his conscience. She wanted to ask about the
others and perhaps say a few words about Lieutenant Reko, but
staring at the top of the major’s unevenly shaved head suddenly
made her averse to even talk to him. She left without another
word.

The air outside was now thick enough with the
abrasive dust to force her to pull up her scarf to cover her mouth
and nose, glad that she had remembered to grab one from the
shuttle. The tether’s anchor building loomed above the surrounding
structures, looking impressive and efficient and, although really
little more than a shipping facility, decidedly military. Most of
that was due to the armored vehicles, patrols and of course the
massive scaffold surrounding the lower part of the tether, studded
with communication and surveillance equipment covering the entire
hemisphere. The security checkpoint at the entrance was meant to
look sleek and elegantly designed but whoever was in charge of the
place had by now lost the battle of trying to keep the dust from
covering everything. She patted her clothes to add her contribution
while the guard checked her credentials and retina.