by Elin Wyn
Lyra recovered first, managing to flash him a wicked grin.
“We,” she said between breaths, “are going to make a good pair, I think.”
“You think?”
Her fingers skimmed up his side. “Well, I might need a little more convincing...”
With a fake outraged snarl, he grabbed her fingers and kissed up her arms.
She laughed, clinging onto him, and they settled down again, holding each other tight.
Eventually, though, Lyra’s mood became pensive.
“I guess that means I can’t apprentice back on the planet,” she murmured.
Sholan opened his eyes. “What do you mean?”
She frowned and shifted against him to shrug a shoulder. “You said it yourself: We can’t be separated for long. Now that I’ve opened myself to the bond, I see what you mean. And,” she shrugged again, “Frankly, I don’t want to be separate from you. So that’s that.”
Sholan’s heart squeezed in his chest. “Ah, but we don’t have to be separated, my love.”
She flushed at the phrasing. Sholan found he liked that look on her and resolved to use the pet name often.
Lyra turned and faced him. “What do you mean?”
“Where you go, I’ll go. And if you want to apprentice in that field hospital, who am I to stand in your way?”
Her amber eyes widened. “But... Sholan, are you sure?”
“I am. If that planet has been under Thagzar attack before, they will be again. I am a weapons expert,” he reminded her with a little pride, “I think the authorities there will find some use for me—Mumph.”
He said no more because Lyra had leaned up and kissed him, all joy. He gripped her close and deepened the kiss, feeling his heartbeat spike again, her naked, willing body against his own...
... And they were distracted for quite some time afterward.
Later, Sholan woke to a distinct ‘ping’ of a message coming from the cockpit.
“What’s that?” Lyra asked, sleepy and content.
“Inbound message,” he replied and got up to pad to the cockpit.
He saw where the message had originated from, smiled to himself, and ran it through the decrypter
“It’s from Kanthi B’halli and your own captain.”
“What?” She ran over, clutching the spare blanket to her chest. “Can you play it?”
“It’s a text-only message,” he said and read it aloud, knowing she would not yet understand his written language—though Lyra was quick enough to pick it up before long. “The other bio-toxin samples have been successfully delivered to the lab and the work on the antidote has started. They received our message, and the ship’s emergency ping when we crashed, and are en route to rescue us.”
Lyra blinked and then smiled. “How long until they get here?”
“A few hours at most.”
“Well.” Dropping the blanket, she slid onto his lap. “Tell them they can take their time.”
Epilogue: Two Days Later…
As the door closed behind Lyra, and she sank into a chair, Taryn looked around at the faces of her crew.
Not just her crew.
Not anymore.
These were her friends.
And the only other humans she might ever see again.
She smiled a little. That didn’t seem as much of a challenge as she’d assumed it would be for any of them.
The five women sat around the table in the small conference room they’d been assigned in the Alliance Lab.
Kanthi’s superiors had just shaken their heads when he’d shown up not just with a vial of the damned toxin, but with an alien.
“Of course you just found her,” a towering blue skinned creature had waved its fronds. “Because that’s what everyone does in the middle of a mission.” He, it, something had shooed them away. “Take her to the medbay for a checkup and get out of my way.”
One by one, each of the pairs had come in.
Well, except for Lyra and Sholan, but they didn’t seem to mind losing that race.
“Lyra, what's the latest on the toxin?” she asked, worry folding in her belly at the lines of exhaustion around the medic’s eyes.
Then a smile bloomed across Lyra’s face. “We’re going to do it,” she whispered. “We’re really going to beat that thing.” Lyra pushed her hair back from her face. I made a promise to go back and help out Caisey on that planet, otherwise I’d be itching to get my hands on every bit of equipment they have in this lab. It’s amazing.”
Sherre laughed. “I may have to come visit you,” she said, bubbly as ever.
“A whole planet of dog people. How much more wonderful could you get?
“They're not really dogs you know,” Lyra said, but the stern words were belied by her smile. “They’re actual people.”
For once Sherre didn’t apologize. “That makes it even better, doesn’t it?”
“Were you planning to tell your commanding officer before you resigned?” Taryn asked.
The smile fell from Lyra’s face, but she kept her chin up. “There's not much to resign from, you know. We can't get home. The records of the path we took through the gates were lost in the crash.”
Jeline’s face echoed the pain Taryn still felt.
That was her ship, dammit.
Their ship.
And now, it was gone. Hopelessly grounded on a planet the Snakes had quickly reclaimed.
“Until the Alliance wins the war, and they have the resources to start investigating, we’re stuck here,” Lyra continued.
“I know,” Taryn shrugged, shoving away the useless emotion. “But after all the times you’ve nagged at me, it was nice to get you back just once.”
Ever the responsible adult, Lyra stuck her tongue out at her captain.
She was different here, more relaxed, Taryn realized. She looked around the table.
Sherre, with assurance the young guest member of the crew had never possessed before before radiating from her very posture.
Jolene, confident in her own skin.
Willovitch… well, Taryn didn’t expect anything was going to change Willovitch.
“So, what are we going to do?” Taryn asked the group. That was new for her too, she supposed. Asking, rather than commanding.
“They’re going to need more pilots in this war against the Snakes,” Jeline said quickly. “And while I’ll miss our baby, they’ve got some sweet rides, just waiting for me to get my hands on the controls.”
“They’re going to need all of us,” Sherre insisted. “This is our home now. These are our people. We have to help every way we can.”
The four other women turned, all surprised at the young woman’s words.
She'd been the quietest of all of them, giving only the barest outline of what she and Zaddik had done to get their ship back.
But somewhere out there, Sherre had found herself, her sense of purpose.
Taryn nodded.
Good.
She reached out to the women on either side of her, clasped their hands and they reached out to the other two until a circle had formed.
Binding them together.
“When we joined the jump service, we were scouts. Ready to find new worlds.” Taryn tilted her head. “No one said we'd be living on those new worlds, maybe forever.”
“But….” She smiled wickedly, thinking of the way Kanthi had run a line of kisses down her spine until she melted under his touch just a few hours ago.
“I think we've all found some constellations in exchange for our old lives.”
Jeline nodded decisively. “We can make a difference here. Help.”
“And the sex is pretty good too,” Willovitch said dryly.
Everyone stared at her, shocked.
“What?” Willovitch looked around the circle, the faintest smile on her lips. “You know I'm right.”
Laughter wrapped around the five women, as they made plans for their new lives, with their new loves, in this new corner of
the galaxy.
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About the Author
I love old movies – To Catch a Thief, Notorious, All About Eve — and anything with Katherine Hepburn in it. Clever, elegant people doing clever, elegant things.
I’m a hopeless romantic.
And I love science fiction and the promise of space.
So it makes perfect sense to me to try to merge all of those loves into a new science fiction world, where dashing heroes and lovely ladies have adventures, get into trouble, and find their true love in the stars!
Copyright © 2020 by Elin Wyn
All rights reserved. These books or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.
