Starkissed (3 page)
“Oh, uh, Leith, would you mind conducting the tour. We were having trouble with an anti-grav skid earlier. I need to check it out with the crew.”
“Of course. I’d be happy to show the ship to the Commander.”
“Thanks. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
Hancock disappeared down the corridor leading to the back of the ship. Alone with the
saàloh
, her familiar scent played havoc with his senses. He stood as still as a stone, trying to keep himself in check.
“Command Central, of course,” she said, hand outspread, pointing to each console in turn. “Navigation, communication— I suppose you know all this. Our technology is a little different from yours, but basically it’s all the same.”
Ssss, the implications of that statement made him tighten more. She could have no idea of where his thoughts led, but her round eyes widened a bit and she quickly led him down the corridor.
“The galley. We have to carry freeze-dried food now, but the Artilians are doing marvelous things with the replication process. This is the Liquidator. Using waste products, any beverage can be replicated as long as the specifications are logged into the computer banks. Would you care for something, Commander?”
“Water, thank you,” he said.
She punched in a code, and they waited while the processor completed the operation.
The doors slid open, and she handed him the container of water. She punched in another code, and this time a cup of brown liquid appeared.
“Terran coffee. Have you ever tried it, Commander?”
He shook his head.
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“Would you like to try a sip? I like mine sweet with extra cream.” She held out the cup to him.
He took it, his fingers brushing hers. Steam rose from the liquid.
“Careful, it’s hot.”
He turned the cup up to his lips and took a small sip. The sweetness was sickening to him and he frowned, handing the cup back to her. She laughed. “Perhaps you should try it without the cream and sugar. It might be more to your liking.”
He gulped the water to wash away the taste and followed her to another section.
“This is Med One. We are equipped with the latest in diagnostic equipment so we don’t need a doctor on board. The computer banks are uploaded with every conceivable injury and illness that can befall a human being and its treatment or cure. A robot surgeon handles the more complicated procedures. Xeno-biology programs will be available soon.”
He had finished the water, but didn’t know what to do with the container. Smiling, she took it from him and tossed both into a waste chute. Then she led him farther down the corridor.
“The hold and engineering are at the end of the corridor. These doors along here lead to the crew’s quarters.”
He stopped beside her when she came to a halt in front of one of the doors.
“This is my cabin. Would you care to see it?”
He nodded. She placed her hand on the identipad, and the door slid open. Inside, the lights were dim.
“Lights nine,” she said, and the illumination brightened considerably.
Soft silver-gray carpet covered the floor. Sofa and chairs were grouped in one corner, dining table and chairs in another. He watched her walk across the carpet to one side of the spacious bed. A silver comforter, puffed and soft, covered the bed.
“This room is obscenely luxurious compared to the crew’s quarters. My father designed it particularly for my mother. He’s been trying to talk her into making trips with him again, the way they used to when all they owned was one clunker of a ship and started McClure Shipping.” She pushed a button on a comm pad. In the wall above the bed, panels slid apart to reveal a huge oval window. She pushed another button, and the lights went out. The starscape dominated the darkened room.
“In space, the scene is breathtaking,” she murmured.
“I know,” he said quietly and walked to the other side of the bed.
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Lanette
Curington
She laughed. “Of course you do. I was born on Earth, and I’ve spent most of my life there. By choice. I’ve traveled in space more in the past two months than I have in my entire life. I’m afraid it’s still new to me. I hope the magic never wears off.”
“It doesss not.”
“Good. I always want to feel this way when I look at the stars.”
She smiled, square teeth shining iridescently against the softer sheen of pale skin, and he tightened yet again. Each time he thought he had himself under control, she would say or do something or the light would fall on her in a way that he found indescribably pleasing.
In the name of the rock, why couldn’t he get his mind off of
rhiìnaà
for one moment? He was no better than a youngling who had yet to experience it for the first time!
“Commander, would you like to see the hold now?”
“Yesss,” he said, and his voice sounded huskier to his own hearing. “That would be a good idea.”
He moved to the foot of the bed, watching her as she did the same. As she drew near, the light from the window brightened considerably. They both turned as the double moons came into view, the larger pursuing the smaller across the night sky. Time passed in breathless anticipation as the chase continued across the expanse of window. At last, the larger moon overtook the other, and the two blended into one.
Rhiìnaà
in the sky. Even the celestial bodies conspired to drive him mad.
“My God,” she whispered hoarsely as she stared at the conjunction.
Her round eyes were as big as moons, her lips moist and slightly parted. He did not think she invoked her God as a prayer. He thought—and he admitted it might be wishful thinking—she looked ready for
rhiìnaà.
He cleared his throat. “Perhapsss we ssshould visssit the hold now.”
She nodded vigorously and turned back to the remarkable sight in the window. “Yes, Commander, I think we should.”
Both of them hesitated as if neither wanted to make the first move. He felt the vibration first then the starscape moved, the moons quickly disappearing from view. He thought he suffered some kind of seizure, a result of long abstinence and the sudden influx of stimuli, but then he recognized it for what it was. Liftoff.
She was falling. As he reached out to help her he felt the enormous weight of an increase in gravity. He hadn’t felt that kind of pressure since he was a youngling, flying the ancient warships that had no gravity sensors.
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He fought the pressure, but it was too great. If he didn’t give in, muscles would stretch and bones might break. He let himself fall forward, to the bed, and found himself atop the
saàloh.
She made a small
oof
sound.
The pressure did not increase any further or he would have crushed her.
“What’s…happening?” Her words slurred, and she had difficulty speaking.
“Do I hurt you?”
She shook her head, one quick jerk to the side. “If you could…move a little…so I can…breathe.”
He couldn’t lift himself at all, and only with tremendous effort could he shift his upper body a little to the side, off her chest.
“Better,” she said. “This shouldn’t be happening. We should have felt some vibration, but the gravity sensors should have kicked in.”
“The quessstion isss, why did we lift off at all?”
“I don’t know. Have we been—hijacked? The gravity increase—to incapacitate—
us?”
“That isss a logical conclusssion,” he agreed. “There isss alwaysss that danger on Arreisss.”
The side of his head pressed into the puffed comforter beside hers, his mouth close to her ear. His arm lay across her chest, but its weight was not enough to harm her. Part of his upper body lay upon hers, her arm beneath him, her hand in a most inconvenient place. She tried to rise, to pull free of the pressure, a natural reaction to one unaccustomed to the weight of a higher gravity. Her hand’s movement did nothing for his sanity, and if she did not stop, he would not be able to hold it in at all.
“Relax,
saàloh.
You cannot essscape the presssure. Fighting it will only harm you,”
he advised. Her movements ceased, and he exhaled his relief.
His lower body ran along the length of hers, their lower legs off the bed completely.
He felt the tension at the back of his knees, as if the pressure tried to bend them in a way the joints never intended. The mounting strain could not overrule what her moving hand had wrought or what she had unwittingly done to him all evening.
He was in danger from an unknown source, and all he could think of was her, spread beneath him, her body radiating a heat to rival that of the Bh’rin’gha Desert on Zi. Cold-blooded by nature, he always found himself drawn to heat, and humans were the most warm-blooded creatures of all.
He heard the doors open with a whoosh, but no one entered. He turned his head, straining his neck muscles, to see who held them captive. Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed—
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Lanette
Curington
“Well, well, what have we here,” Steve Hancock said and laughed dryly. “You’d better watch it, Rep. That woman is cold enough to freeze hell over.”
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Pinned beneath the Commander, his long length molded to hers by the heavy gravity, Leith felt a warm rush in her ear with every breath he expelled. The sensation trailed along every nerve, intensifying what her body had fought all evening long. If he did not move soon, taking his breath with him, she would implode.
Now, Steve’s remark made her blush, and she was grateful the Commander couldn’t see. The insult stung. She wasn’t immune to members of the opposite sex, as Steve implied. Quite the contrary. She had just never been attracted to Steve, and his ego couldn’t withstand the rejection. It was easier for him to believe she was lacking.
“Hancock, releassse usss at once.” The sibilant command sent another shiver through her. Under other circumstances, the order would have sounded effective, but their apparent compromising situation relegated it to an indignant plea. “You will not sssucceed.”
“Steve—?” Everything refused to work properly, including her jaw muscles. “What are—you doing?”
“Now, Leith, you’ve never been a stupid woman. Uncooperative and frigid, but not stupid. I thought you would have figured it out by now. I believe the Rep has. Am I right, Rep? Or is it true your brain is the size of a pea?”
“Sssss…” The angry hiss sent his breath straight into her ear as he struggled against the gravity. His need for retaliation outweighed caution.
“Relax, Commander,” she whispered, reminding him of his earlier advice to her.
“Save your—strength. You’ll need it—when he lets us go—”
“What’s that, Leith? Speak up, I can’t hear you. Don’t you know it’s impolite to whisper in mixed company?” Steve laughed, a hysterical edge to the sound as if he were on the brink of madness.
“Steve—Dad is going to be so—disappointed—in you.” Her jaws ached with the effort, but she hoped his genuine admiration for her father would snap him to his senses.
“You had to bring Cameron into this, didn’t you? Cameron has nothing to do with this. And
everything.
Don’t you understand yet?”
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Lanette
Curington
“You will be hunted down, Hancock, and you will not be allowed to live,” the Commander said evenly. She noticed that he didn’t say that
he
would be the one to find and kill Steve. Maybe he felt the same pall of doom hanging over them that she had sensed earlier.
Steve ignored the threat. “Haven’t you figured it out yet, Leith?”
Her mind raced. Her father. Nothing and everything. She remembered Steve’s covetous eyes on the Zi jewels. His pride in a ship that wasn’t his. Would the real Steve Hancock voluntarily help with malfunctioning skids when a junior mech could be found to do the dirty work?
“Answer me, Leith!”
“Can’t—hurts—”
“All right!” he barked. She heard him tap the comm pad on the bulkhead beside the door. “Carter. Bring it down to norm in Cabin One. Easy now. We wouldn’t want to hurt them.”
Steadily, the weight decreased. For the second time that evening, she drew in deep gulps of air as if she hadn’t breathed for hours. She felt feather-light, as if she might float off the bed. The Commander remained atop her, but he was tensed, ready to take advantage of any chance Steve might give him.
“Don’t try anything, Rep,” Steve warned, stepping into the room. “I have a Blaser aimed at you, set on high. One shot and you’re so much space gas—total vaporization in less than a second. If I even think you’re going to try anything, you’re a part of Rep history. Wiley and Phillips are here and armed.”
The Commander eased from her carefully, so Steve wouldn’t misconstrue any movement. Leith sat up—too fast. Vertigo swept over her, the room spinning as if she were in freefall. She held her head and closed her eyes, giving herself time to adjust.
When she opened them again, Steve hovered over her. She looked past him to the Commander, held at gunpoint by Wiley and Phillips.
“Look at
me
, Leith!” Steve grabbed her chin and forced her head up. She caught movement in the corner of her eye. The Commander had taken a step forward as if to stop Steve. Wiley punched a Pulser in his side, and he halted, hands clenched, eyeslits narrowed until they had almost disappeared. Steve tightened his grip, and she was forced to look up at him again.
The madness in his dark eyes chilled her.
“You’re disgusting, Leith. In the beginning, this was for us, you and me. We would have had it all—McClure Shipping, the Rep jewels, and the crysium, an added bonus. But you kept saying no, Leith, no to
me.
Now, you have to pay.”
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