VirtuallyYours (11 page)

“Hey,” a voice beside her murmured softly. “The captain’s
not supposed to cry in front of the crew—it’s bad for morale.”

Charley rubbed her face. Her first time in command of a ship
and she was sniveling like idiot. “Yes Sir, sorry, Sir.”

“I’m sure the Pegasus can survive without you for a few
hours and the crew has been complaining about the food here, how about dinner
tonight?”

“What about Professor Liston, Sir?”

Jake flashed her a smile. “I have orders to take Professor
Liston into custody. I don’t think he’s going anywhere for a very long time.”

Chapter Eleven

Compared to the unfinished Pegasus, the other ship was
almost palatial. Charley was painfully aware of her crumpled tunic with the
buttons missing from the collar. She raked her fingers through her hair, trying
to smooth it down. A week with the Vashtar had done little for her wardrobe.
She might have to do the unthinkable and go shopping with Misha when they got
back to Earth.

The captain’s quarters were on the family deck. Charley
gazed appreciatively around the spacious cabin. It was nice and it had a small
galley kitchen and a dining table so that he could entertain. The table was set
for three. She wondered where his wife was. Captain Svenson mouthed an apology
to her. He was on the com and his voice was low. She caught the words I love
you too, babe, and she smiled, wandering away to give him some privacy.

The cabin door opened and a crewman entered carrying a tray
loaded with covered dishes. Charley’s mouth watered as delicious smells wafted
around the cabin. It had been days since she had eaten anything but MREs. As
the crewman set the tray down, the cabin door opened again. He was pale. His
temple was bruised from where he had fallen against the floor in the service
bay, but it was him. Charley clenched her nails against the inside of her
palms, trying to stop herself from running across the cabin and wrapping
herself around him.

“The Pegasus?” Pete directed his question to her.

Her heart fell. All he cared about was his damn ship. “The
ship is fine, Sir. Marc, I mean the Array, is in control.”

Jake looked from one to the other of them and raised a dark
brow. “You’re not supposed to be out of sickbay yet. Sit down, Pete, before you
fall down. Charley, can you give me a hand with dinner?”

Charley went to the galley to fetch a bottle of wine. If she
didn’t have to fly the ship early tomorrow, she would have drunk the whole
thing. She poured three glasses and Jake proposed a toast.

“To the Pegasus and her crew. Fleet Command will be very
proud of you.”

Pete looked across the table. Charley had dark circles under
her eyes. It had been a tough mission for her. He’d accessed Marc’s report of
how she had taken on the mercenary ship and blown them out of the sky. What a
hell of a job for her first command. She would have her pick of any ship she
wanted after this. That is, if Karl Hayes was willing to let her go. With
Liston gone, they would need Charley more than ever.

“Now that you’re up and about, Pete, you can sort out some
of the statements for the inquiry. God, I hate those things.”

Jake cast a sidelong glance at Charley before continuing.
“Do you remember the one after Tarsus Four?”

Charley coughed violently. Her eyes streamed and Jake stood
up quickly to pat her on the back. “Are you okay, Charley? You look as if
someone punched you.”

“I’m fine, Sir, but I’m pretty tired. I think I better head
back to the ship.”

Pete heard a hiss as the door closed behind her. “Would you
like to tell me what’s going on, Jake?”

Jake sat back in his chair. “I’m sorry, Pete. Something came
up while you were away, but before I tell you, I need to know what’s going on
with you and Charley.”

“Nothing’s going on, Jake. Every time I get close to her,
she freezes me out. She’s the most exasperating woman I’ve ever met.”

Jake threw back his head and roared with laughter. “So it’s
true, then. You’re in love with her. Tanith said you never stopped talking
about Charley the whole time she was at the base. I wish the big guy was here
to see this.”

Pete leaned across the table. “If you want to look pretty
for your wedding, you better tell me the rest.”

Jake raised his hands in mock surrender. “Okay. Okay.
Charley had a full body scan recently.”

“Yeah. We went to Base Ten to check Liston’s files. You know
what security is like there. Why?”

“Her scan showed exposure to
Illysium
.”

“What?” How the hell had Charley become exposed to a weapons
grade isotope?

“It gets worse, Pete. It’s the same stuff that Chris Kendall
was caught smuggling five years ago.”

“You mean that Charley was on that ship? But she wasn’t
among the hostages we rescued. I would have remembered someone like her.” Chris
Kendall’s smuggling operation had almost started a war between two rival
factions on the planet. Kendall had died in prison while awaiting trial. Their
friend Strom had lost an arm while he was trying to rescue the hostages and
they were lucky to get off Tarsus Four alive.

“When General Homes got the report about the isotope, he
insisted on a DNA check. Charley is Kendall’s daughter.”

Pete’s heart flipped as everything fell into place—Charley’s
fear of getting involved, her reluctance to speak about her family. She had
survived three years of the toughest training imaginable to become a Fleet
Command officer and all that time she had been lying to everyone.

“I’m sorry, Pete, but I’m under orders to take Charley back
to Earth for questioning.”

Pete rocked back in his chair. “They can’t lock her up for
being Kendall’s daughter.”

“But they can lock her up for being his pilot. Witness
reports said Kendall had a copilot—a teenage boy. Holmes suspects that it might
have been Charley.”

Pete remembered Charley landing the ship on Baxar Nine. She
had taken the ferocious weather conditions in her stride. That wasn’t something
she learned at the Academy. How could Chris Kendall endanger his kid’s life
like that? Charley could have ended up in a Tarsian prison. “Damn it, Jake.
Give me a chance to talk to her first. You owe me that much.”

Jake shot him a sympathetic glance. “You have until tomorrow
morning.” He pressed the com badge on his uniform. “This is Captain Svenson. I
need a pilot and shuttle to take a passenger to the Pegasus.”

Charley was waiting for him when he arrived in the shuttle
bay. She looked nervous as hell. Jake had obviously told her that he was
coming. That was hardly a promising start.

“Shouldn’t you be in sickbay?” she snapped.

“Probably, but I need to get some stuff from the coms room.”

Muttering some excuse about Marc, Charley fled to the
bridge. Pete wandered to the coms room and started to pack his things. The
mattresses lay together on the floor. He wondered if Charley missed him at
night as much as he missed her. Picking up his kit bag, he made his way to the
bridge. She was lying in the com chair with the visor on. He could just walk
out of here now and let Jake do the dirty work tomorrow, but Charley deserved
better than that.

“Charley.” He stroked her arm gently. “We need to talk.”

The visor rolled back slowly. She’d been crying. Pete rubbed
his thumb along her cheekbone, brushing the moisture away.

A tear rolled down her face, hovering for a moment on her
jaw before dropping into her hair. “I hate you, Pete Olafson.”

“I know, sweetheart.”

He bent his head and slid his lips over her mouth. She
opened her mouth to him, parrying her tongue against his, deepening the kiss.
She obviously hated him a lot. Pete dropped the bag on the floor and threaded
his fingers through the soft strands of her hair. As much as he wanted this,
they had to talk first. If they were ever to have a future together, Charley
had to learn to trust him. He pulled away reluctantly. “No more kissing until
you talk to me. Now tell me what’s wrong.”

“You want to know what’s wrong?” Her gray eyes were silver
with unspent tears. “I hate it that I can’t be with you. I hate it that we’re
going back to Earth and that I won’t see you anymore.”

She slid off the chair, trying to put some distance between
them. “But most of all I hate you because you make me feel like this. Now leave
me alone.”

Charley felt a stab of pain as she looked at Pete’s hurt
expression. He knew, everyone knew. The moment Captain Svenson had mentioned
the Tarsus Four Inquiry, her dreams of escaping her past and becoming a Fleet
Command officer had turned to dust. The last three years had all been for
nothing. God knew what was facing her when she got back to Earth. Pete shook
his head in disbelief, picked up his kit bag and stormed out of the room.

She had really messed up this time. Charley closed her eyes.
Memories of the past week flooded back. Pete biting her neck to mark her as
his. A blood-covered Pete standing in a circle of Vashtar mercenaries, taking a
vicious beating to protect them. Pete pushing her out of the way when Kirez
tried to kill her. He knew who she really was and yet he had still come back
for her. How could she have been so stupid?

Charley let the visor fall. Marc would have to wait.
Springing off the chair, she raced toward the shuttle bay. Her footsteps echoed
along the empty corridors. She could feel her heart pounding and the air
rushing through her lungs. She stopped at the entrance, trying to catch her
breath before she opened the door.

The shuttle was gone.

Charley felt hollow, empty. She couldn’t blame her dad for
this one. She had done a great job of sabotaging this relationship all on her
own. She made her way back to the coms room. There was a low hiss as the door
opened. The room was in darkness. She stumbled toward the bed. As her eyes
became accustomed to the gloom, she realized that she wasn’t alone. A dark form
lay on the mattress.

“What took you so long?”

She flung herself onto the bed. “Oh Pete, I thought you were
gone.”

A low rumble of laughter came from his chest. “I thought
about it, for all of ten seconds. But then I’d just have to hijack a shuttle
and come back to you.”

“They know, don’t they?”

Pete nodded. His eyes were full of sympathy. “Sorry,
Charley, General Holmes requested a DNA check when Base Ten found
Illysium
in your scan.”

Charley sighed. It was over. For the last three years she
had been waiting for the tap on her shoulder that would tell her that she had
been found out. Now that it had finally come, she didn’t know what to do. She
was going to prison for sure, but somehow, none of that mattered now, only
Pete. “So you’ve come here to…”

A flicker of shock crossed his face. “Arrest you? Hell no. I
love you, Charley. I don’t care about the other stuff.”

He loved her. Pete loved her. She didn’t know whether to
laugh or cry. Charley rained frantic kisses on his face.

Pete’s strong hands slid down along her shoulders and he
pushed her away gently. “Charley, I’m not very good at this, but I think this
is where you’re supposed to say something to me.”

The words welled up inside her. “I love you. I think I’ve
loved you from the moment you carried me out of the fountain.”

Relief washed across his face. “I’m going to do whatever it
takes to make sure that you don’t end up in prison, but you’ve got to tell me
everything, and I mean everything.”

Out if came, in fits and starts—her dad, her mom, moving
from planet to planet when her dad lost one job after another and learning to
fly.

“How old were you?”

“I was almost nine when I flew solo for the first time. Dad
used to pack the pilot’s chair with the jacket of his flight suit so that I could
reach the controls.”

She heard Pete’s swift indrawn breath. “And after that?”

“We moved around a lot. I was registered with the
Interstellar Education Program. I don’t think I saw the inside of a real
classroom until I was twelve. I hated it. By then, I was too tall and I knew
too much. When I refused to go back, Dad got me a fake ID and I got my
copilot’s license. I worked with him after that.”

“What happened on the last flight?”

“One of the passengers was sick all the time. I had to clean
his cabin almost every day. I tried to get my dad to take us to a
medi-station.” Her voice faltered. “Tarsus Four wasn’t on the flight plan. Dad
said it was to let the sick passenger off, but then the soldiers came. Oh Pete,
I was so scared. I hid in the service chute, but I could still hear them. They
shot the man who was sick and they took my dad.”

Pete’s arms tightened around her. “What did you do then?”

“I was afraid to go home, so I commed my grandparents. They
wired me enough credits so that I could get to their place and I stayed there
until I passed the entrance exam for Fleet Academy.”

Pete stared at the unfinished ceiling of the coms room. He
couldn’t get the image of the little girl who was too small to reach the ship’s
controls out of his mind. If Chris Kendall wasn’t dead, he would have hunted
him down and killed him. His mind raced furiously, there had to be a way out of
this. He dropped a light kiss on her forehead. “Let’s go back to the bridge. I
need to talk to Tin Man.”

Charley was annoyed when he wouldn’t let her speak to Marc,
and even more annoyed when he wouldn’t tell her what was going on. He couldn’t
tell anyone yet—not even her. “Sorry, Charley, it’s classified.”

She flashed him a warning glance. “You expect me to tell you
everything about my life and then you shut me out. Are you turning caveman
again, Olafson?”

He advanced toward Charley until her legs were pinned
against the com chair. “Do you want me to? I seem to remember that you punched
me the last time.” Two pink spots appeared on her cheeks. He liked making her
blush.

“That was different,” she protested. “You bit me—”

He silenced her protests with a searing kiss. This would be
their last night together for a while and he wasn’t going to waste it. “Ensign
Maxwell, I believe you’re wearing far too many clothes.”

His tongue delved between her lips again, stroking against
hers, demanding a response. Pete heard a helpless sigh as she conceded. He
opened the top buttons of her tunic with deft fingers. He lifted Charley up and
dropped her gently into the com chair. Colors played on the walls of the bridge
when her fingers made accidental contact with the visor. “Offline, Marc,” he
ordered in a gruff tone. “Unless you want to see something that you shouldn’t.”