Star Crossed

by C. Gockel

  He shrugged. “I prefer marriage, but my kid’s mother’s family hates me. The feeling is mutual. Dhorya and I are saving all we can so she and Pico can move to Rekoria. If we married now, the family would throw them out immediately.”

  “Family can bleed the life out of you, that’s for sure,” Haberville said sympathetically. “What do you say, Luka? Marriage or cohab?”

  For once, Mairwen wanted to hear the answer to Haberville’s overly personal inquiries. Luka’s past was his own, but Mairwen couldn’t help being curious.

  “I’ve never been in either.” He used his fork to scrape up the last of the green goo that the package claimed was creamed spinach.

  Haberville was amused. “What, no near-misses? No prospects?”

  “Nope.” His tone was bland, but Mairwen sensed the irritation in his voice.

  “You know what they say,” Haberville said, waving a dismissive hand. “There are plenty of fish in the sea if the local minnows aren’t biting.”

  She turned to Mairwen and smiled. “Your turn, Morganthur. Marriage? Cohab? String of broken hearts?”

  Mairwen affected deafness and ignored the question. She would tell Luka if he wanted to know, but it was no one else’s business.

  “Come on, Morganthur. You know about all of us.” Haberville’s wheedling tone had an edge to it.

  Mairwen was too tired to listen any more. She folded her empty food container and sealed it, then slid it into the bottom of her pack. No sense attracting hungry local critters unnecessarily.

  In an unlooked-for bonus, Haberville’s evident irritation caused her not to speak for a full seven minutes. If Mairwen had known that was all it took to silence the social interrogation, she’d have tried the tactic days ago.

  There were only three tarps and nets big enough for sleeping humans, meaning two of them would have to share. Mairwen rigged slings for watchers above each tarp. At least there was enough clear plastic sheeting to protect each of them if it rained again.

  Haberville was not a climber, and needed both Luka and Jerzi to help her into her tarp. She was lucky they were along, because Mairwen had no patience with intentional helplessness and would have left her to fend for herself. Particularly since she had continued her habit of leaving the cleanup for others. Mairwen flattened the empty meal pack container Haberville had left on the ground and put it in the bottom of her own pack.

  Mairwen estimated they had one more day of travel until they got to the installation, and wished they could go faster. When the Berjalan’s saboteurs eventually came looking to confirm their kill and didn’t find orbiting wreckage, the first place to look would be the planet. Their only slim hope was to find safety in the more defensible building on the base.

  She climbed the tree, then flipped up and over into the rope sling she had rigged just above Luka’s tarp. She’d slept in worse conditions, but not since she’d left her former life. Civilization had made her soft, her brain said sourly. She ignored it. Being civilized, being human, was a price worth paying if it kept her with Luka.

  He was stretched out below, hands behind his head. Even in shadow, he was dangerously handsome, and her memory filled in what her eyes couldn’t see in the rapidly failing light. The scent of him made her feel warmer than the noonday sun.

  “Come be with me,” he murmured quietly, and reached out a hand to her.

  His smile and rumbling voice were so enticing that she melted inside, and her chest and arms ached with a hollowness that only his touch could relieve. They’d been amazingly lucky thus far, surviving a crash on a hybrid planet that hadn’t killed them yet. Suddenly, she didn’t want to spend another second apart from him.

  She piked and kept her knees bent, then slid down and straightened so she was only supported by her flexed feet in the sling. She reached down to the connector line that supported the tarp and released her feet. She balanced on her hands long enough to drop her legs one at a time onto the tarp, then lifted the net and slid her body down along Luka’s, into the circle of his arms.

  “Show off,” he said, so quietly he was almost whispering.

  It had been showing off, because he openly delighted in her abilities. “You’re a bad influence,” she breathed. “You make me want to.”

  She snuggled closer to him and let more of her body drape over his because he felt so wonderfully good, and it soothed her sore muscles. She didn’t mind the heat of the night, and thought Luka must be happy to be warm. He had to have been miserable on the cold planet where he grew up.

  She wanted to talk to him about arranging watch shifts, but a yawn surprised her.

  “Hey, Jerzi,” Luka said loudly. “Could you take first watch? Four hours, then wake me?”

  “You bet, sir,” came the good-natured response. “I’ll set a timer.”

  He turned his head toward Haberville’s tarp. “Eve, we’ll give you a pass for tonight. Mairwen will take third watch.”

  Haberville coughed and mumbled something that sounded like assent.

  Mairwen nestled her head on Luka’s chest just under his shoulder. She felt his fingers stroking her hair, and she couldn’t resist sliding her thigh over his and splaying her hand on his chest, feeling the power and sound of his breathing, like a soothing metronome. It felt right, and comforting. Her hormones stirred at the feel of him, but fatigue won. She sighed and settled into the bliss of his buttery, pearwood-scented warmth.

  “Relax, sæta,” he whispered, the air from his breath ruffling her hair. “Let me watch over you for just this once. You can be our dedicated sentinel again in the morning.”

  She drifted into a deep sleep punctuated with dreams of running with Luka by her side.

  17 * Planet: Insche 255C * GDAT 3237.043 *

  BECAUSE LUKA HAD taken second watch, she’d gotten a full eight hours of sleep, which she’d needed to compensate for her use of tracker mode. That she’d only stirred when Luka had gently awakened her for her turn at third watch was a testament to how much she’d come to trust him.

  As soon as it was light enough, she downed a bland protein bar, then went scouting while the others ate, broke camp, and repacked their supplies. Her foray confirmed her worry that today would be a rougher trip. Already, they’d begun seeing denser vegetation as they’d traveled farther away from the lake. Today it got worse as she went on. They’d have to detour around large, dense thickets, adding unwelcome distance between them and the installation.

  The intermittent low humming she’d been hearing was more noticeable, though she still couldn’t determine its source. An increasing sense of urgency drove her to stay in half-tracker mode all the way back to camp, even though it meant she’d need more food and water immediately and more rest later.

  When she arrived back at the hill, sweat pouring down her face and neck, Luka and the others were ready to go. Without asking, he handed Mairwen a hot meal pack. Fortunately, they had more than enough to get them to the installation. After that, it was anyone’s guess as to what they’d find.

  It was hard and hot travel, but at least Haberville seemed to have more stamina after a good night’s rest, although she’d developed a cough. She complained more, too, but Jerzi was well able to handle her, and his attentive care kept her mollified. During a break later in the day, when Luka and Jerzi had gone off to relieve themselves, Mairwen’s sensitive hearing picked up part of a conversation between them.

  “...piloting skills saved our asses, so I’m willing to cut her some slack.” said Jerzi. “She reminds me of my mother.”

  “I advise you,” replied Luka with mock seriousness, “to never, ever tell her that.”

  “Don’t worry,” Jerzi said with a snort. “I only look that stupid.”

  In the afternoon, they lucked into a freshwater stream and filled all their containers, though it added to the weight they had to carry. Fortunately, their medical kit had plenty of chemelec water filters, more than was usual. Luka’s forethought, she imagined.

  The inland thickets were ho
me to a new kind of fly, larger and slower than the sap-loving version that congregated under low-lying leaves. When a passing boot or knee disturbed them, they puffed up in swarming clouds before settling down again a few minutes later. Jerzi caught a few of them in stasis vials and stored them with the other samples.

  At sundown, they were still a good two kilometers from the installation. The waning moonlight wouldn’t make it past the tree canopy. Moving in the unrelenting darkness wasn’t an option. It made Mairwen edgy to be so close to the installation and potential danger.

  As they finished eating, Luka proved to have been harboring the same concerns as Mairwen.

  “Considering that ship and how well lit the base was when we came in, we have to assume it’s staffed and protected on some level. If whoever tried to kill us at Horvax finds our ship in the lake, they’ll likely be using the base to organize their search operations. We didn’t try to hide our trail.”

  Mairwen frowned. It was something she should have considered. Another mistake she hoped wouldn’t cost them.

  Luka continued. “This forest is amazingly quiet, which means we’ll hear anyone on foot a lot sooner than usual, but they can hear us, too. We’ll need to travel clean and quiet from here on out.” He scooped up a discarded wrapper that Haberville had left on a high tree root. “Eve, how good are you with projectiles or beamers?”

  She made an equivocal gesture with her hand. “I can hit stationary targets with either, but firefights aren’t my ace, and I don’t think I can run here. The air feels heavy when I breathe. I’m usually at the flight controls.” She pointed at Jerzi and smiled indulgently. “There’s your marksman, or so he says.”

  Jerzi confirmed it with a nod that wasn’t cocky, just confident. “That’s why I saved my railgun.” He pointed to the shoulder bag that hadn’t left his side. “It’s part of why La Plata hired me.”

  “Good.” Luka turned back to Haberville. “We’ll give you the projectile rifle and its magazines. Mairwen and I will pick from what’s left.”

  After helping Jerzi settle Haberville on her sleeping tarp, Luka led Mairwen to the pitifully small pile of other weapons they’d salvaged from the ship. Not counting the few knives and one machete, or the projectile rifle already reserved for Haberville, the selection included two tiny low-res beamers, two handled beamers and various powerpacks, a solar-charged cutting laser, and one wide-array plasma gun, which would have stopped a rampaging rhinoceros, but for which they had no extra chargers.

  “Pick your poison, milady.” He gave her a courtly bow.

  She shook her head. “You should choose a weapon you’re comfortable with.”

  “I’m a decent shot with any of them. I’ve learned to shoot practically every personal weapon on the market in the last twenty years. Fringe benefit of my job.” He gave her an impish grin. “Keeps me entertained.”

  She was amused that his career suited his personality and talent so perfectly. A job without new experiences or mysteries would have bored him to distraction.

  She selected a small low-res beamer and a handful of its power beads as the stealthiest option and slipped them into her pack. At her suggestion, she and Luka tried pulling out a couple of the exosuit comms to see if they could serve as a makeshift comm net for the team. Unfortunately, they required the suit’s power to work, and wearing clumsy exosuits would make them easy targets.

  Jerzi volunteered to take first watch again that night. Haberville declared that she’d be useless for a watch shift and exempted herself. Mairwen was glad Luka didn’t fight it. Haberville was still coughing, and Mairwen wouldn’t put it past her to be deliberately incompetent just to prove her point.

  Mairwen didn’t bother creating a sling for herself; she simply went straight to Luka’s tarp. She needed the rest, and she wanted it to be with Luka. If Haberville wanted to comment on the sleeping arrangements, Mairwen would deal with her later.

  She crawled into the tarp and arranged the netting, then rolled aside to make room for Luka as he slid in. She put her head on his chest and draped her arm and leg across him.

  He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. His breathing was rhythmic and his heartbeat was strong and steady, and she felt sublimely content in those few dozen seconds.

  Despite her exhaustion, Mairwen the tracker wanted to ghost into the night and check the installation, but Mairwen the woman wanted to stay with Luka and memorize every contour of his body with hers, and steep herself in his warmth while she had the chance. The feel of him next to her was addictive. It would be hard to give up. Even assuming they made it back to civilization, she didn’t know what the future would hold once their normal routine was restored.

  Resolving to quit worrying and just live for the moment, she allowed herself to be lulled to sleep by the quiet syncopation of his heart and breath.

  She came awake to a new sound in the deep dark of the night. She was alone, but she knew Luka couldn’t have gone far. She sat upright and turned up her senses to nearly full-tracker mode.

  She heard and scented Luka on the corner of the tarp where it attached to the anchoring line around the tree. It was pitch black, except for the faint indicator light on a powerpack for the beamer he’d selected. The slow-motion time of tracker mode made it surreal.

  “Mairwen?” he said very quietly, though to her, it seemed like he was shouting. He’d probably felt the tarp move and heard her movements. She turned down her senses to a more manageable level.

  She kept her voice barely above a whisper so as not to wake the others. “Flitter, probably a high-low. Coming this way from the northeast. About ten or fifteen minutes out.” She looked up at the tree canopy, where only a few slivers of weak moonlight leaked through. She slid carefully across the tarp toward him. “Spectrum and bioscans won’t see us at night, but if they deep-scan for tech, they might find us if they get close enough. If we’re lucky, they’ll think it’s bleedover from the base’s security perimeter. I think that’s the low buzz I’ve been hearing.”

  “It’s at least five hours until dawn,” he said. “Nothing we can do right now without killing ourselves.” He eased off his perch and down into the tarp. She slid back to the center, and he followed. Still sitting, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her lightly, then whispered in her ear. “Can you see in the dark?”

  The banked fire of her desire started to flare, and she nuzzled his neck to fill her nose with his complex, exotic scent. Her softer chest, with a life of its own, arched into the hard wall of his. It took effort to remember what he’d asked. “No, but I don’t need as much light. I’ll scout about thirty minutes before sunrise.”

  She felt him nod. He kissed her lightly, then with more heat. She responded, and her heart rate increased along with his. She strained to prevent herself from moaning in pleasure. He broke off the kiss with a ragged sigh.

  “I'm on duty,” he whispered. He blew out a long breath. “I wouldn't notice a battalion of mech-suited Jumpers if we keep doing this.”

  She caressed his beard-roughened jawline. “Neither would I.”

  “Are you…” He hesitated, then began again. “This is probably indelicate of me to ask, but do you have a birth control and cycle implant?”

  “Yes,” she said quietly. “Menses and reproduction would have impaired my effectiveness. But just to be sure, they harvested all my ova before the full alteration procedure.”

  “Harvested, not destroyed?”

  “Yes. Rumor said it was for a reproduction program, trying to make more of us.”

  Luka was silent for a long moment. “Does it bother you?”

  “No, it’s done.” The past was past. “Does it bother you?”

  “That you can’t reproduce? No. That they treated you like an exotic pet to be bred? Fökk, yes.”

  There was nothing more to say. She settled for nestling into him while they waited and listened. She could easily hear Jerzi and Haberville breathing, and even Luka could hear Eve’s occasional co
ughs.

  Eleven minutes later, the preternatural quiet of the forest allowed him to finally hear the flitter engine, too. To her ears, it got closer, changed pitch and echo, then went silent.

  “I think it landed on the airfield,” she whispered.

  She felt him shift. “Will you go back to sleep until then?” He slid his hand up and around to her face and neck and stroked her jaw with his thumb. “You’ve been running yourself ragged for us. You need the rest.” His tenderness flushed some of the tension out of her, and she turned herself more fully into him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

  “If it pleases you,” she said softly, smiling even though she knew he couldn’t see it.

  “It does, hjarta mitt.” He gently laid her back down and adjusted his legs so her head rested on his thigh as he sat cross-legged. He stroked her hair. “You do.”

  She drifted into sleep, only waking when he nudged her for her turn for third watch. He stretched out next to her where she sat and was soon asleep. She was glad that somewhere in his career, despite his civilian occupation, he’d learned the skill of sleeping at will. She admired him for the variety of things he’d learned and could put to practical use. She resisted the temptation to stroke his hair, not wanting to wake him, and not trusting herself to stop there.

  She used her time in the dark as a tracker should, monitoring their environment and evaluating various scenarios with the flitter at the installation and how to use them to achieve her goal of keeping them safe until they could be rescued.

  In the best-case scenario, they could neutralize any installation defenses, avoid getting killed by whoever was in the flitter or the ship, and dig in until help arrived. She had to assume at least one of their distress calls had gotten through to La Plata, and that they’d be bringing firepower. In a discussion earlier that day, Luka and Haberville had thought it likely that Zheer would call in Concordance Command as the best option for countering a pharma company with big secrets and deep pockets for multiple squads of mercs. The question was how quickly Zheer could get Space Div to respond.