VirtuallyYours (9 page)

Throughout the rest of the evening, Charley tried to
concentrate on learning to control the weapons systems, desperately trying to
forget Marc’s tender kiss. Breaking up with Pete was bad enough, but a close
encounter with a starship that had a crush on you wasn’t something that was
covered in Fleet Academy training manuals.

Pete might be happy at the prospect of cracking a few
Vashtar heads to get the Pegasus back, but while he was doing that, she would
have to control the laser cannon and plasma gun array. Fighting on a simulated
ship back at the Academy was going to be a whole lot different than battling
against an enemy for real.

Charley stretched her arms. She couldn’t concentrate any
longer. That was enough practice for this evening. She was bone tired, but she
couldn’t face Pete yet. She had hurt him and guilt clawed at her insides. She
shrugged the pain away. There was no time for that now. Her final task was to
upload Marc’s aeronautic systems. It would take some of the pressure off if he
could fly the ship while she handled the weapons. All she needed to do was
teach him tactical flying in a little over a day. That should be easy. Who was
she kidding? It was next to impossible.

“It’s not impossible, Charley. I am designed to assimilate
information quickly.”

For the first time that evening, Marc was back inside her
head again. “Okay, I’ve installed the flight simulation program. Let’s see how
you get on with it.”

The cozy virtual beach house vanished, replaced by the
bridge of a ship. Charley looked around her. They used the same flight
simulation program at the Academy. She smiled when she remembered her first
official lesson. Unlike most of the other cadets, she had been flying for
years. By the time she’d reached her teens, she could fly almost anything.
While they were waiting for class to begin, she had disengaged the safety
protocols on the simulator and treated her classmates to some stunt
flying—until the instructor arrived.

Marc interrupted her reverie. “I know this, Charley.”

“Don’t get too cocky,” she warned. “This program is just for
beginners.”

“No, Charley. I mean that I know this. I’ve done this
before.”

Charley remembered the medical records at Grayport and the
vague references in them to Marc’s military career before the accident. “But
you said that you couldn’t fly.”

“I said that my aeronautics program had not been uploaded,
but I feel that I have done this before. Perhaps I am learning from your
memories?”

They sped through the rest of the tutorials. Either she was
the best flight instructor in the galaxy or Marc had once been a pilot. There
could be no other explanation. She couldn’t wait to tell Pete. Maybe they would
get out of this alive after all.

* * * * *

The bridge was silent as she passed through on her way back
to her room. She needed to get some rest. There was nothing but empty space
between here and Baxar Nine and Marc had promised to call her if there was a
problem. Charley made her way along the silent corridors, grateful that she
hadn’t encountered Tinar or any of his crew. As she reached the turn for the
coms room, a leather clad figure stepped in front of her. Charley kept her eyes
down, trying to walk around him. He stepped into her path again and her gaze
flicked over the insignia on his upper arm. Damn, it was Kirez.

“Not so fast, female.”

Charley watched in dread as he removed one glove, exposing a
pale hand with curved talons. Pete had told her that the Vashtar ate their prey
live. Looking at those nails, she could see how. His index finger moved slowly
along her jaw. Charley could feel the rasp of his claw on the tender skin under
her chin. A trickle of sweat ran down her spine. She kept her eyes down,
praying for him to stop.

“You were brave today. Not a quality often seen among
females.”

Not if you beat it out of them, she was about to respond,
but she bit back her reply.

“We will see how brave you are when we reach Tarsus Four.
You may be glad of my protection then.”

With that, he pulled his glove back on and walked away.
Charley leaned against the bulkhead wall. Her knees were shaking. That was as
up close and personal as she ever wanted to get with one of the Vashtar. They
had to get away from them.

Pete was sleeping when she got back to their makeshift
bedroom. He had moved the mattresses apart and she could hear him breathing
quietly. Charley stripped off quickly and crawled under the thermo blanket.
It’s better this way, she told herself. She rubbed her eyes with the back of
her hand. She wouldn’t cry now. There would be plenty of time for that if they
got back to Earth.

Chapter Nine

Tinar’s announcement came midmorning. They would arrive at
Baxar Nine in a few hours and there would be a provisions stop. There was a
palpable air of excitement among the Vashtar crew. Their usual dour expressions
were almost jovial. Charley’s stomach was tied up in knots at the prospect of
the impending fight. The techies had been collecting abandoned tools from the
half-finished rooms on the ship, anything they could possibly use as weapons.
She had discovered Eric practicing swordplay with an outsized wrench, talking
his way through the moves Pete had shown him.

Pete’s silence was driving her crazy. He hadn’t spoken to
her since yesterday and she was aware of his hurt, angry glances. Charley
stared at yet another MRE. She never wanted to see chicken or pasta again. Her
stomach heaved and she pushed the packet away in disgust. The silence was
broken by footsteps in the corridor. Lieutenant Kirez stood in the doorway.

“Female, you must return to the bridge and prepare for
landing.” His eyes fell on Pete. “You are honored, Alpha. Captain Tinar has
said that you may accompany us on the hunt.”

Pete walked away with Kirez without giving her a second
glance. Surely he wouldn’t expect her to leave him behind? She heard her name
being called on the ships com. Tinar was becoming impatient and she had a more
immediate problem. There was the tiny difficulty of landing the Pegasuson
an uncharted planet without killing them all.

Charley slid into the com chair and pulled the visor over
her face. Her mind reached out, taking control of the ship. She accessed the
nav systems. No help there. Baxar Nine was a low-tech wasteland without
spaceports or runways. She would have to wing it. The Pegasus broke through the
upper atmosphere into a thick bank of gray clouds below. She was flying blind.
There was a strong cross-wind and Pegasus rocked beneath her. “Marc, I need a
reading for wind speed and direction.”

“Affirmative, Charley.”

She could feel the Pegasus drifting sideways. Charley
adjusted course, flying into the wind. The ship rocked again. Her palms were
slick with moisture and she was glad she didn’t need to use them. She wished
she had more visual. Then the clouds cleared and Charley blinked as they were
suddenly bathed in sunshine. A mountain range loomed up ahead, rushing toward
them. A few more seconds and they would have flown straight into it. Charley
banked hard to starboard, but it was no use. The mountains went on forever.
They would have to go over them. Propulsion systems screamed in protest as she
changed course and altitude. “Sorry, Pegasus.”

In a soaring arc, the ship rose above the slate blue peaks.
Charley gulped. That had been way too close for comfort. Up ahead she could see
a flash of green. A wide treeless plain stretched before them. That would have
to do. The wind started up again, buffeting against the craft. Charley
struggled to vary the angle of descent, keeping the ship in line with the
makeshift runway. The Pegasusshook again as they approached the ground.
Charley struggled to reduce speed and keep a straight course. The wind eased.
Almost
there.
Charley reduced speed again and the craft eased to a halt. “Engage
ground stabilizers, Marc.”

As the ship powered down, she looked at her hands. They were
shaking and she couldn’t seem to make them stop. She hadn’t expected the
ferocious crosswind and now they were some distance from the coordinates that
Tinar had requested. Charley slid from the com chair. That had been scary.

The hunting party assembled outside the bridge and Charley’s
heart jumped when she saw him. Pete was wearing the same leather tunic and
gloves as the Vashtar. Unlike them, he wasn’t armed, that would have been too
much to hope for. She counted the number in the party. From the teasing
comments being bandied about, only two glum-faced guards were being left behind
to secure the ship.

“Woman,” Pete’s gruff tone caught her attention. “Make sure
that all of your work is complete before I return.”

Charley nodded her head submissively. There was no mistaking
his words. Pete expected her to proceed with the plan and leave without him if
necessary. With a curt incline of his head, he was gone. She needed to speak to
Marc.

Charley initiated the Array again. The beach house was gone,
replaced by an office that was unmistakably Fleet Command HQ. Marc sat behind a
desk, wearing a dark uniform. He had obviously paid a visit to the virtual
barber and his tanned face was clean-shaven. She checked the insignia on his
shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “Sudden promotion?”

Marc didn’t rise to the bait. “I broke the encryption on my
father’s personal files last night and accessed my service record. I am a
captain, or rather, I am now your captain, Ensign Maxwell.”

“You must be joking.”

“It is unfortunate that Engineer Olafson cannot be with us.
However, we will continue with the plan as agreed. You will remain with me
until the guards have been neutralized, then we will set course for Earth.”

Charley lifted her chin. “No way, I’m not leaving this
planet without Pete.”

Marc moved from behind the desk. His expression held not one
hint of humor. “Ensign Maxwell, are you disobeying an order from your
commanding officer? That is rank insubordination.”

Damn Pete. Even though he was gone, he was still trying to
push her buttons. Everything Marc had done here was designed to intimidate her.
The Fleet Command Office, Marc’s uniform, everything down to the insignia on
his shoulder. She was sick of this. The ultra-chauvinistic Vashtar were bad enough.
She was damned if she was going to play doe-eyed female to another alpha male.

“So spank me.”

Marc’s shocked expression was replaced by a dark red flush,
rising slowly from his neck until it reached his jaw. “Ensign Maxwell, I…”

Charley stood on tiptoe until they were almost eye to eye.
“Oh I think you heard me, Sir. I’ve put up with this macho bullshit for long
enough. If you fancy your chances playing caveman with me, bring it on.”

A roar of laughter wasn’t the response she was expecting. It
was the first time she had ever seen Marc do that. “Pete said that you would be
stubborn and difficult and that you would refuse to cooperate.”

Coming from Pete, that was almost a compliment. “So what’s
Plan C?”

Marc displayed a schematic of the lower deck on the wall of
the office. “If you can access the primary refrigeration systems without being
detected, it should be possible to initiate a malfunction. The Vashtar will not
want their precious meat to spoil.”

“Won’t they just get one of the other techies to fix it?”
she asked.

“They had no involvement in its design. When the tech crew
is unable to repair it, the guards will be forced to summon Pete.”

Charley looked at the deck plan. There was only problem. The
coolant system was located right beside Professor Liston’s quarters. It would
be impossible to access it while he was working there, and even if she could,
the alarm would trigger almost immediately. She would have to bring Liston here
and Marc would have to make sure that he stayed.

Charley hurried through the empty corridors until she found
Eric and the others. “There’s going to be a malfunction in the coolant system.
Make sure that it can’t be fixed. When Pete is back on board, we’re going
home.”

It was the first time she had seen Eric smile in days. Charley
made her way to level two. She hung back when she reached the corridor, waiting
for the Vashtar guards to finish their patrol and leave. She didn’t want them
around for this. Charley shook her hair and opened a couple of buttons on her
tunic before bursting into the Professor’s office.

“Your son just made a pass at me. There’s no way I’m going
back there until you speak to him.”

Professor Liston’s face paled with shock. An emotive A.I.
was unheard of. She watched his face as father and scientist fought for
control. He abandoned what he was doing and apologized profusely to her. “I
simply cannot understand this. The Array program was not designed to initiate
any form of human sexual response.”

Charley gave him her best glare. “Oh he’s responsive all
right, and believe me, programming has nothing to do with it.”

They reached the bridge without encountering the guards and
Charley watched as the Professor pulled down the visor and initiated the Array
before doing the same. The beach house was waiting for them.

“Oh dear lord.” The professor looked around him in wonder at
the polished floors and the view of the sea through the windows. “I never
imagined that he could…”

“Hi, Dad.” Marc came down the stairs, tucking a dark
undershirt into his pants. He was barefoot and his hair was damp, as if he’d
just come from the shower. The Professor’s mouth opened, but no words came out.
Marc no longer assumed the slightly unreal form of his avatar. This Marc had
all the appearance of a living, breathing human being.

Gripping the edge of the armchair, the professor sat down
heavily. “When she said that you… I didn’t believe it.”

“It’s okay, Dad.” Marc clapped him on the shoulder. “But you
and I need to talk.”

She caught Marc’s eye and he nodded. He would keep the
professor here until it was over.

Charley opened the door to the service bay and slipped
inside.
So far, so good
. Pulling a small laser-knife from her belt, she
opened the control panel and disabled the primary alarm on the coolant system.
There was a secondary one on the bridge, but Marc would control that. Setting
the cutter on high, she pierced the pipes near the base of the coolant tower.
Within minutes, a small pool of green liquid formed on the floor and the
sulfuric smell wafted around the room. That should be enough. She had to get
out of here. Charley opened the door and closed it silently behind her.

“Female, what are you doing here?”

Charley almost jumped out of her skin with fright. The
Vashtar guard was alone, his small deep-set eyes glared suspiciously at her.
“Ships com registered a fault in this area,” she lied. “I was just checking it
out.”

The guard motioned her aside. “Perhaps I better take a
look.”

He spoke into his com badge, summoning the other guard, and
then he opened the door. Charley followed him into the service bay. The smell
of leaking coolant hung in the air. The guard sniffed loudly and made his way
to the base of the tower. He would kill her for this. Charley glanced around
the room, searching for a weapon, there must be something she could use. As the
guard bent to examine the pipe, her eyes fastened on a wrench. That would have
to do.

When he heard the sound of metal scraping against the floor,
the guard spun around. Charley swung her arm, catching him on the side of the
face with the heavy wrench, and he went down, cracking his head against the
tower as he fell. Her breath came in noisy gasps. Was he unconscious? She
reached out nervously to touch his neck. There was no pulse. She had just
killed a man.

The cloying smell of coolant mingled with the metallic tang
of blood. Charley staggered into a corner, vomiting until there was nothing
left. She wiped her hand across her mouth.
Get yourself together, Maxwell,
the other one will be here soon.
Grabbing his feet, she dragged the body to
the darkest corner of the service bay, concealing it as best as she could.
Picking up the dead guard’s weapon, she hid behind the tower.

The door burst open. Eric and the others rushed into the
room. “Charley, are you in here, Charley? You’ll never believe this. We did it.
We killed one of them.”

They looked so pleased with themselves. Three timid techies
had taken on a seasoned mercenary and won. She gestured toward the body lying
in the corner. “So did I.”

Charley slumped to the floor. This was a monumental mess.
How were they going to get Pete back on board now?

They sat on the mattresses in the coms room, eating MREs.
She couldn’t understand how the techies could look at food at a time like this.
Her stomach was still heaving.

Eric chewed noisily. “I know,” he said, waving his fork. “We
don’t need a live Vashtar. We just need a voice to send the message. There must
be plenty of audio files on the ships com.”

The techies abandoned their half-eaten meals in a messy pile
as they began to throw ideas back and forth at each other. Pete was right about
them, they did speak another language when they were together. She couldn’t
keep up with them. “In English, please,” she roared.

Eric looked at her as if she was a particularly stupid
child. “We’re going to splice the ship’s audio files to make up the message and
use the dead guy’s com to send it to Kirez.”

Charley bit her lip. If this went wrong, they were all in
big trouble, but they couldn’t leave Pete behind. They had no choice. “Okay, do
it.”

She waited anxiously as the techies worked on the audio
files until a reasonable approximation of the Vashtar guard’s voice played
around the room. Eric pressed the com badge and opened a channel to Kirez.

A rush of expletives greeted them. They had obviously
contacted him at the wrong moment. An angry male voice came over the com. “This
better be good.”

Eric played the file. “My apologies, Sir. There is a problem
with the refrigeration system on the ship. The tech crew has been unable to
repair it.”

Another rush of expletives followed, and then there was a
long pause. “I will return with the human.”