Victorious Star (8 page)

Suddenly overwhelmed, she burst into an inexplicable storm of tearing, gulping sobs.

He pulled her into his arms and waited for her tears to end.

Victoria had no idea what had happened. One second she was having one hell of an orgasm and then suddenly she sobbing her eyes out on Ravnos’s shoulder as though the world had ended.

She pulled back and rubbed her hands on her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

He pushed long wet strands of her hair from her cheek. “For what?”

She shivered hard. “I don’t know. I…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t understand what just happened.”

He helped her to her feet. “When was the last time someone thanked you?”

Victoria was brought up short. “I don’t know.”

He tilted his head. “There’s your answer.”

“Huh?” She looked at him in total confusion.

“Never mind, you’ll figure out.” He leaned over to shut off the water. “Probably by morning, if I know Seht.”

Victoria flinched.
Bloody damning Fate! I forgot all about him!

“Seht is not exactly a small man, and he tends to be, shall we say, enthusiastic?” Ravnos parted her butt cheeks and squirted lube directly into her sore anus. “We don’t want to cause an injury if we can avoid it.” He slid his thick finger into her to push the viscous lubricant deeper.

Victoria winced. “I meant was it really necessary to do any of it?”

His finger hesitated in her butt.

A tiny shiver glided up her spine.

“Yes.” More lube was applied. “You need to understand on a visceral level whose orders you follow.”

“But both of you?”

“Of course. Seht is second in command. You are to follow his orders as well.”

Victoria bit back a groan. If that finger went any deeper it was going to be in her stomach! “Bloody Fate! How am I supposed to sit in a chair?”

“I’ll get you a cushion.” Ravnos chuckled. “You’ll get used to it after a while.”

After a while?
Victoria felt her heart slam in her chest. She gritted her teeth.
If this mercenary bastard wants to fuck his crew that’s all well and fine, but this nav-pilot is not playing that game.
She was an Imperial officer, not a pleasure girl to be used when it suited them. She narrowed her eyes in concentration.
I’m nobody’s fuck-toy!
And she was not without resources. She had already decided to go ahead and let Seht do what mayhem he planned, but after that this game was over.

The intercom on the wall buzzed.

Completely comfortable in his nudity, Ravnos strode for the lighted box by the facility door. He set the receiver on his ear. “Ravnos here.” He frowned. “Damn and hellfire.” He sighed. “We’ll be there in twenty minutes.” He turned to Victoria. “We have to go to the bridge. I need you in that chair.”

Victoria was not entirely comfortable with the shortness of her uniform skirt, as she followed Ravnos from his quarters to the lift. This skirt actually covered her ass, but it certainly did not cover much else. When she sat down, she would have to cross her legs and keep them crossed to keep the pilots from seeing that she did not wear any form of panties whatsoever. The waistcoat hid the fact that she didn’t wear a brassiere, but the sway of her breasts made her ringed nipples rub a little too erotically against the silk of her blouse.

At least I finally have an officer’s coat.
He had pulled the black coat from his closet, dropped it on her shoulders, then retied her cravat for her. She had buttoned it closed as far down as she had buttons, but far too much bare thigh still showed when she walked.
I suppose I should be grateful that I don’t have to wear that belt thingie and those stockings again.
He had given her a pair of socks to wear under her boots.

As a final insult, the captain had refused to allow her to put her hair back up. It swung in a long, loose, slightly damp mass down her back, bound only by a black ribbon tied in an extravagant bow.

She eyed her captain. She was definitely not comfortable about Ravnos having a complete change of uniform available for her, including her spare boots, in his personal quarters.

Ravnos had removed the force-cuffs around her ankles -- they wouldn’t fit under the boots -- but her wrists were still ringed with electronically active titanium. He had taken pains to let her know that he kept the remote control in his breast pocket.

The lift doors opened. Ravnos headed for the command station. “What have you got, Number One?”

Seht looked up from the command chair. “Three ships approaching our moon at advance speed three. We have positive identification on the two battle cruisers. They’re both Mordred Company ships, but the third appears to be a small Imperial fleet gig flying under silence. They’re not broadcasting identification.”

Victoria frowned. He had to be mistaken. What would an Imperial gig be doing in the company of mercenary ships? She assumed her chair, flipped her long hair over her shoulder, and interlinked with the ship. She checked the ship’s complete array of sensors at the speed of thought.

Ravnos connected to her on a private frequency. “Nav-Pilot, what do you have?”

“Confirmed. Two Ifrit class battle cruisers, medium level armor, heavy weapons, energy and explosive capabilities, registered to the Mordred Privateers, mercenary fleet. The third ship is an Imperial ten-man launch. From the looks of the small fighters swarming around all three ships, the mercenaries are flying personal escort.”

“What status is the launch? Is it a prisoner?”

“Highly unlikely, Captain. Launches, even ones as large as this one, are not jump-capable, so it had to have been brought here. However, it’s too large for either mercenary ship to carry or tow. My guess is that there is at least one Angel class dreadnought just out of sensor range, possibly more.”

“Can you identify what ship it belongs to?”

“Proceeding.” She concentrated, sifting through the data available. Light from the sweeping fighters momentarily brushed one flank of the launch. That one moment was enough for her to catch a view of the transport’s name and designation. She checked her personal files on the Imperial fleet.

“The launch is registered to the Imperial Angel class dreadnought, the
Righteous,
Captain.”

“Shit,” Seht hissed.

“The
Righteous?
Are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes, Captain, I refreshed my fleet files only two weeks ago, sir. This particular launch is registered as being a captain’s gig, the personal craft for…” She rechecked her data. “Admiral Roth Moraine.” She nibbled on her bottom lip. She knew that name from somewhere.

“Great, just what we need…” Seht groaned softly. “Satan’s Wrath himself in our personal theater.”

Victoria blinked. That’s right! Admiral Roth “Satan’s Wrath” Moraine of the
Righteous,
also known as the Emperor’s Sword, in charge of the Imperium’s largest fleet and hero of the Imperium. What the hell was an Imperial Admiral doing here, this far from the Imperium?

“They’re almost on top of us.” Ravnos looked at Seht. “Do they know we’re here?”

Seht shook his head. “There has been no sign that we’ve been detected, but it’s only a matter of time before our orbit brings us into their sensor range, and once they find us…”

Victoria frowned. The ship was in danger? She studied the speed of the approaching craft. They were running out of time. If she was going to do something it had better be quick. “I am assuming that you do not want to reveal our existence, Captain?”

“You assume correctly.”

Victoria did not like revealing the extent of her skills, but she was not about to lose a ship if she could do something about it. “I can apply sensor counter-measures to hide the
Hellsbreath,
sir.”

Seht stood. “Hide the
Hellsbreath?”

“It’s more of a camouflage. I can make it appear as though we’re a very deep shadow in a smallish crater on the surface of the moon.”

Ravnos stood. “How?”

Victoria swallowed. “By using the quantum reality grid to scramble our sensory emissions. Basically, I realign a low level of jump space around us to make it look like we’re not here. The
Hellsbreath
will look, feel, and sound just like the crater with which we are in a very precise and matching orbit. As long as we do not move from this spot, we will remain effectively invisible.”

“This relies on the jump-grid?” Seht’s fingers flashed across his display, as he checked his readings. “Can we afford the output?”

Ravnos scanned his holographic readout. “How much energy will we burn to maintain these countermeasures, Nav-Pilot?”

“The energy needed to maintain camouflage can be run off rerouted reactor emissions. Rather than burn off the excess, I can realign our emissions back into the grid to fuel the slight shift in reality.”

Ravnos frowned. “Is there a drawback?”

Victoria swallowed. “The ship’s quantum reality acts as a disruption field. Any ship leaving the field has to be jump capable to keep their engine from being knocked off-line.”

Ravnos tilted his head. “So, a departing ship appears to have stepped out of jump-space?”

Victoria nodded slightly. “Yes, because in essence, it has. We will be surrounded by a thin veil of jump space quantum reality.”

“If they find us, we are sitting targets.” Seht bared his long teeth. “We can’t deploy fighters, they’re not jump capable.”

“We will be far from helpless.” Victoria snorted. “The illusion will kill the engine of any ship not actively using its jump grid when it enters the field.”

“I see. We’ll become a submarine.” He dropped his chin. “How long will it take engineering to reroute power and active this camouflage?”

Victoria accessed the engineering functions. “A matter of seconds, sir. I can activate it from here.”

“I did not realize you had access to engineering functions,” Ravnos said in direct and private communication.

Victoria flinched. She hated revealing the extent of her control over a ship, especially to a captain. “It takes time for any nav-pilot to understand how much she can access from her chair. I am a very experienced nav-pilot, sir.”

“So I see.” He nodded. “Deploy your sensor countermeasures, Nav-Pilot.”

Victoria released a breath she hadn’t known she held. “Deploying, sir.” At the speed of thought she rerouted power to the jump grid. The quantum reality around the ship warbled. In a matter of moments, the
Hellsbreath
became little more than an echo from the moon’s crater.

Seht frowned. “A submarine?”

Ravnos nodded. “An archaic Terran ship that moved underwater. It was invisible to any ship that sailed on the surface.”

Victoria released her breath. “We are sensor-camouflaged, sir.”

“Good.” He lifted his chin. “We will discuss the extent of your experience later, Nav-Pilot.”

Victoria bit her lip. “Yes, sir.”

“I’m thrilled we’re invisible.” Seht scowled at his sensor readouts. “But what the hell does that bloodthirsty Imperial maniac want out here?”

Ravnos peered at his holographic display. “Likely the same thing we do.”

“Does this terminate our mission?”

That caught Victoria’s attention. Ravnos had mentioned a mission earlier. Although she was not included in their private frequency, the ship had no problem overhearing them. The visuals were a little sketchy, so she couldn’t read their expressions, but she could make out their positions pretty well.

Ravnos shook his head. “No. That is not an option. We recover or we destroy.” He looked over at Seht. “We’ll have to discuss this with our nav-pilot to see if she can take my place.”

Victoria’s heart nearly stopped. Take his place doing what?

Seht jerked upright. “Are you insane?”

Ravnos stared at his executive officer.

Seht turned sharply away and locked his hands behind his back.

“Seht, look at me.”

“I’m fine.”

“Seht, that was not a suggestion.”

Seht took a deep breath and turned to face his captain. He raised his chin and stared Ravnos in the eye.

“I thought so.” Ravnos nodded and Seht turned away. “I have put this off too long.” His hands moved over the controls. “Nav-Pilot, can the ship maintain your sensor countermeasures without supervision?”

“I retain a residual connection to the ship, sir. If the situation changes, the ship will relay the information to my location anywhere within the ship.” Victoria smiled grimly.
And that’s all the warning you get. The tables are about to turn, Captain.

“Good.” The captain’s voice came over the main intercom system. He announced that shift change was to continue under normal schedule while under cautionary alert. Crew were expected to be ready to assume full alert at a moment’s notice, so everyone was to remain as close to their posts as sleeping arrangements would allow.

At the mention of sleep, Victoria suddenly yawned. She checked her internal chronometer and discovered that she was already an hour past her normal sleeping cycle. She had noticed that this ship had a two-hour difference from the schedule on her last, but she hadn’t quite taken the senior officers’ carnal interests into account.
Bloody Fate, it’s not as if I planned on being kidnapped.

Victoria barely withheld her groan as she matched her internal time to the ship’s current time. According to her posted schedule she was technically already off-duty. Which meant that she had somehow missed dinner too. Resigned to passing on dinner in favor of eating a big breakfast so she could sleep, she scanned her duty roster for the following ship cycle and reset her internal alarms. She hoped to escape back to her quarters for a much-needed rest as soon as Ravnos and Seht left the bridge.

“Nav-Pilot?”

Victoria turned, and started. Both Ravnos and Seht were watching her from only a few feet away. “Yes, sir?”

“Would you disengage and join us please?” Ravnos expression was politely amused.

Victoria’s eyes widened.
Join them?
What was he up to now? She began the procedure to disengage. “Certainly, sir.”

Victoria struggled out of her chair using the long skirts of her officer’s coat to keep from flashing her bare and hairless mons to the entire crew.

Ravnos offered his hand as she descended the stairs, then led the way to the lift.

Seht fell into step next to Victoria. His hands were clenched together behind him and his shoulders seemed slightly hunched. He resolutely looked the other way.

Victoria frowned. What was wrong with the commander?