by E M Garcia
"Yes." I couldn't be sure if my voice came from my lips or my mind, but I knew for sure it was what I wanted.
Daq pressed forward. The feeling was differnt from anything I had ever experienced. It was stronger and weaker than other men, but came with the same sudden rush of pleasure. My eyes rolled back. I moaned spreading myself wider, reaching out to envelop him. The void throbbed and swirled around us, gliding between deep purple and black in time with his thrusts, locking us together in a perfect merger.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back in my bed. A fine sheen of sweat covered my trembling body. I lay back, struggling to catch my breath. The loss of the black void carried a sharpness I didn't expect. Daq leaned down again, claiming my mouth. His frigid lips sent residual explosions through my body. What the hell was going on? Had we finished?
"Rest, Tam," he whispered, pressing his hand to my temple. "It will all be over soon."
17
It was the murmur that made me open my eyes. I didn’t know how long it had been there, nibbling at the edge of my consciousness, but once I noticed, I couldn’t hear anything else. Something about it that was familiar and intriguing, but horrifying the same time. Whatever the sound was, I knew it shouldn’t be on the Cal. It grew in volume until it reached became a screech.
My eyes snapped open. I wasn't exactly in bed. My body hovered a few inches over the bed and had drifted nearly a foot over the side. What the hell? I tried to twist my body, but found that each bump against the bed sent me two centimeters in the wrong direction.
I relaxed and sighed, letting my body drift. The pendant of my necklace bounced gently against my lower lip. Stuck in midair on my own damned spaceship. How embarrassing!
“Cal, it the gravity generator on the fritz?” There must have been a power drain somewhere. Maybe we hadn’t been as lucky in the attack as I thought.
No response.
“Cal?”A cold knot settled on my stomach as the silence stretched on. I floated to the door, snagging the quick release wire above the door and tugging as hard as I could in low gravity. The panels creaked and slid just far enough apart for me to shove my body through sideways.
In the corridor, I paused and my hearing for any signs of a struggle. The were no sounds at all, not even the everpresent hum of the Cal’s engines. I could still breathe. The ship wasn’t frozen. At least a few of the ship’s systems still worked, but she moved by residual momentum, not her engines.
“Damn it, Mac! Wake up!” I braced my legs against the wall and squatted, preparing to launch myself at Calhoun’s door as many times as it took to wake him. If we didn't get moving again soon two things would happen, we would miss the jump and report in late, blowing the lid off of everything J'Selle had done, or the stealth ship that had inevitably followed us into the nebula with catch up.
I paused in the middle of my launch. The stealth ship. Had it trailed us into the nebula? A ship-to-ship boarding with no sensor range was suicide, but pirates had done worse for a juicy score. And there was one person on my ship who might be all too eager to catch a ride. There was no way this is a coincidence.
I could hear the Admiral’s voice in my head. Rookie mistake, Tammy.
I crouched into a squat and launched my body again, shifting to angle myself toward the lift. My fingers slipped off the quick release on the first pass. I groaned in pain as I drifted face first into the wall.
Stop. Take a minute and find one of the guys.
It was good advice, but I didn’t have time to take it. Every second J’Selle and whoever was working with her had free reign of my ship was one too many. I rolled onto my back and pushed myself off the wall, aiming for the lift quick release again. I caught the wire between my fingers and tugged. Success!
The low gravity worked to my advantage in the lift shaft. Without the extra weight slowing me down, I rocketed down the shaft with the slightest push. I held my finger against the shaft to slow my momentum as I reached the bottom. I tugged the wire on the inside and floated into the corridor outside the shuttle bay. I opened the door as quietly as a could and crept inside The hanger doors were open.
J’Selle stood at the far side of the bay near the shield wall, the only thing separating the interior of the ship from the vacuum of space. She stacked small crates of the Cal’s supplies inside a two man cruiser with one hand and held the growing pile in place with the other. I couldn’t identify the make of the ship from the exterior, but it was more high tech than anything the Alliance had access to. A ship that size couldn’t handle deep space travel. Her destination must have been close by.
I fought to control my breathing, but it was a losing battle from the start. The Lady was packed and ready to go. I wasn’t anymore capable of stopping her physically than I had been that morning, but now I had no choice but to try. I didn't have time to look for the Wreckers. If J’Selle left the ship with that AI, I would never see her again alive.
I snagged a blow torch from the workbench as I floated past. The murmur started again. I called every ounce of determination into my voice I could muster.
“Put the crate down and back away, Dr. Cage,” I said.
J'Selle held up her hands and turned slowly to face me. Her at her eyes raked down my arm to the makeshift weapon in my hands, then back up to my face, a hint of a smile teasing her lips. “Fascinating.”
“You’re supposed to be in your room, Jay,” I said, brandishing the torch at her.
“Do you plan to take me down with a hand torch, Tam?” She reached behind her and slid the cruiser door closed.
I hesitated. “Only if you make me.”
“Then we have a problem, because I'm leaving the ship.” The Lady spread her arms. Her robes pulled around her, obscuring her lithe body from view.
“Jay, you can’t. There’s expecting you at the cloister facility.” I swallowed. It was only a threat. This was J’Selle. She could be an ice queen, but she wouldn’t hurt a family member. It was a Cage rule. Jack wouldn’t have brought her into the family if she didn’t believe in it, right?
“They can die waiting,” she said.
I lunged forward. Strong hands reached out of the shadows and pulled me back. One arm wrapped around my chest. The other locked on my wrist and twisted it until the torch fell free. It drifted to the floor and bounced, floating off toward the shield wall.
The hand that had been around my wrist moved to my waist, pulling me close as he whispered in my ear. “You’re not going to hurt anyone, Tam.”
This time, I recognize the voice instantly. “Daq….”
He pulled away from me and floated toward J'Selle. “There's no need for a fight. With the ship off-line, Tam has plenty to deal with. Our ride is here. Lady, we can take our leave without violence.”
I shook my head, suddenly frantic. “You can’t get off the ship.”
The second J'Selle stayed off that ship got off that ship everything would come out. The Alliance would find out J'Selle stole a copy of the AI, if they didn't already. They would know everything I had done to protect her. And all of it would've been for nothing.
When J'Selle turned to me, her eyes were wild, more passionate than I'd ever seen. Her emotional inhibitors should have prevented that, but I couldn’t argue with my own eyes.
“I’m not going back to work for those traitors,” she said. “Do not try to stop this.”
“Go back go back to your room, Tam.” Daq moved forward, reaching for the Lady’s arm. “We’re leaving, J’Selle.”
“Over my dead body.” I rushed forward again.
“No!” Daq moved to intercept me. J'Selle aimed her blaster and fired.
Pain tore through my shoulder. A metal bolt ripped through muscle and bone on a path to the shelf behind me. I slumped like dead weight on the spot, moaning in pain.
The murmur started again, louder and more frantic than before. Daq rushed over to me. His hand caressed my temple like he had that night in bed.
“Get the fuck away from me!”
I shouted. The look of hurt on his face was almost satisfying.
“I’m sorry.” He placed his hand over my forehead again. Everything went dark.
Asshole.
18
When I opened my eyes again, the enamel-plated durasteel walls of our sick bay had replaced the gunmetal gray of the shuttle bay. The white panels drank every scrap of light, reflecting it so I had to squint again the brightness. I almost forgot about the state of the Cal and everything that had happened. Then a dull ache washed over my shoulder. I remembered.
”Tam? Honey, are you awake?” Izzy’s voice dripped over me like treacle. Her face appeared in the midst of the white glare. The room behind her swirled. Her cheeks bubbled and deflated as her eyes scrunched with worry. Poor Izzy, she only ever looked that way when she spoke to me.
"What the hell did you give me?" I tried to shift my body, but my limbs couldn’t quite move. Had Izzy sedated me or restrained me? Probably both.
Izzy rolled her eyes and brushed her hand over my hair. I could barely feel it.“Something strong enough to keep you from screaming."
"Treatment's over, Doc," I said, licking my lips. "Flush it."
A distinct look of disapproval crossed Izzy's face. "Tam—“
"Flush it.” I said again.
“You’re incapacitated, Tam. You’re orders are no good here.” Through the sedative haze, Izzy’s calm voice sounded like an unholy dirge.
I tried to reach for Izzy’s hand and found something stopped my progress a few centimeters away from her. After several seconds of me pawing at the restraints without success, she took pity on me and caught my hand in hers.
“I’m not ordering you, Iz,” I whispered. “I’m asking you. Please, I don’t want it.”
Izzy sighed and lowered her head in defeat. “Have it you’re way.”
Little by little, the lights slowed, then grew still. Sensation returned to my body at the price of the dull ache in my shoulder intensifying. The pain radiated through my arm and down my side.
“I get the sedative,” I said, focusing on Izzy. “Why the restraints?”
“That’s a complicated answer I’m not sure you’re ready to hear.” As she spoke, Izzy reached down and under the straps. “The easy version is so you didn’t float away.”
As if to prove Izzy’s point, my body rose a few centimeters off the gurney. I took a shaky breath and rolled into an upright position, nodding in thanks. “It really happened then? All of it?”
Izzy’s eyes softened. She placed her hand on my back and rubbed gently. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I didn’t answer. In the space of a week my life had exploded literally and figuratively. As if pending charges of treason weren’t bad enough, I now had my first gunshot wound and interspecies sexual encounter to add to my list of life accomplishments. I most definitely did not want to talk about it.
“I didn’t think so.” Izzy sighed and turned to wrangle her instruments back into their case. “I would say you’ve earned a drink, but you won’t take that either.”
“You know I won’t.” I pushed away from the gurney and drifted toward her. “Iz, what’s wrong.”
“This isn’t healthy, Tam!” Her voice rose in exasperation. “You can’t be in control every minute of every day. You’re a human being. You need to relieve stress.”
“Please don’t use that phase,” I groaned. The search for a quick way to blow off steam was how I got shot in the first place. A mind numbing orgasm wasn’t worth the pain in my shoulder or the ache in my chest.
“You’re not your father, Tam.” Izzy whispered. “And you sure as hell aren’t your brother.”
Gale floated through the exterior doors. He looked at me, blinked, then turned Izzy and stared hard."I told her to keep her comfortable, Dr. Kimball."
Izzy shrugged and turned back to her instruments. “I’m an anthropologist, not a physician. If you want someone to cope with uncooperative patients, you need someone with more experience than a pinch medic. “
"Doctor, I gave you an order," Gale snapped.
“So did I, and in case you haven’t noticed, I’m standing right fucking here.” I turned to Gale, easing my body between his and Isabel’s. She might have been pissed at me, but she was still my best friend.
Gale’s brow wrinkled as his eyes darted back to me. “You shouldn’t be out of bed, Tam.”
The softens in his eyes stopped me. I hadn’t seen that kind of care from him in years. No, that wasn’t true anymore. I saw it on Aurora right before the concussion bomb went off.
“I’m sober and fit for duty, Commander Howard" I said, steeling myself. “I give the orders around here. Stop harassing my crew and report."
His face twisted like he wanted to argue, but Gale swallowed and rose tall with his hands clasped behind his back. If the gravity generators were functioning, he’d have been standing at attention. His eyes slid away from me to the wall in front of him.
"The ship is running one-quarter power, ma'am,” he said. “As far as we can tell, Shadow and the Lady sabotaged parts of the ship on their way out.
“That explains the quiet.” I said. “What did we lose?
“ It’s hard to say. So far electrical and propulsion, definitely. Mac thinks that’s what took out the lifts, doors, showers, and food generators. Life support and environmental control—except the grav generator— are functional.”
“How kind of them,” Izzy snapped. “At least, we’ll be warm and clear headed while we starve to death.”
“How long?" I asked.
Gale’s jaw bulged as he clenched his teeth. “Cal’s been mostly off-line for two hours, just before we think you were shot.”
“We’ve been in a durasteel tube hurtling through space for two hours, you can't fix it, but you got time to dress down my medic? She’s not even a medic!”
Gale lifted his chin defensively. “Like I said, ma'am, significant systems are off-line. We can't talk to Cal. She's still in her hardware. She must be able to keep some functions going or we’d be dead. Propulsion and communications just weren’t on the list.”
"That was kind of them," Izzy said under her breath.
Gale shook head. "It wasn't kindness. Doctor."
“They weren't trying to kill they were trying to kill us," I said, clenching my fingers. Pain rippled up the bones, but they moved as they were meant to. "Just slow us down."
Izzy stared at me in disbelief. "She shot you!"
"Exactly. The best sniper team in the galaxy took a shot at Tam and she lived," Gale said. “They executed a hig-risk, high precision extraction and we all lived to be pissed off about it. Either we’re the luckiest sons a bitches that ever lived or they were just trying to stall us. Tell you what though, I would like to know which one of them fired that shot.”
"So would I." Alix said as he strode in and stood in his usual position behind Gale. "Mac needs you in the engine room, Commander. He thinks he might have a way to boost the engines."
The two of them exchanged a look that I couldn't miss, but also couldn't interpret.
"Dr.Kimball, you should get down to storage and take a look at the rations," he said "With the generators off-line, things will get a might uncomfortable around here."
“Ambassador Cage has reassumed command,” Gale said with a note of warning in his voice.
Alix looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “Ma’am?”
I nodded. Izzy zipped her case closed and set it on the counter, sighing as it floated into the air. As she passed me, I caught her hand, stiffling a wince as the ache in my injured arm instensified.
“I promise I’m okay,” I said. From the look on her face, she didn’t believe me. None of them did.
When the others left, Alix approached me, putting a hand on my uninjured shoulder."Have you ever been shot before, Ambassador?”
I shook my head. "It's a first." My body relaxed under the influence of Alix’s touch. Suddenly, I was ready to close my eyes again.
"The meds put the meat and bones back together, but that only helps so much. You’re going to feel like hell for a few days." He paused. “You should take this opportunity to rest.”
“Is that what you tell your recuits, LT?” I asked.
Alix nodded and gently pushed my toward the gurney. “The smart ones listen. Jack always said you were the smartest person he knew.”
I snorted in disgust. “A smart person wouldn’t have let her ship get sabotages while she was…asleep.”
Alix pursed his lips and nodded. He kept his voice soft and high when he spoke. Not at all like Alix’s usual deep, gruff tone. “Ambassador, there’s no gentle way to ask this, but you called for Shadow while you were unconscious.”
I turned to Alix, mulling over the question for a few seconds before I realized he hadn’t asked one.
“Alix, why are you talking to me like a battlefield victim?”
“You were shot, ma’am,” he said.
“I am not a victim.” The words left my mouth with more passion than I’d intended, but I meant every word.
“Was it Shadow?”
The question cut through my defenses. I raised my chin in defiance. “I was calling for Daq because we developed a personal relationship. At least, I thought we had before he and the Lady made their exit. If that’s a problem for you, I don’t fucking care. But you will not talk to my like a victim on my own damned ship again, Lieutant. Is that clear?”
My ears rang in the silence that followed. I struggled to catch my breath under the weight of my own anger. Who could I be angry at except myself?
“Yes, ma’am,” Alix said finally. “Demon thought it might be something like that.”
My temper flared again. “You’ve been gossiping about a superior officer’s sex life, Lieutenant?”
Alix jerked his head to the side. “No, ma’am. It was situational.”
“Explain.”
“We found a metal slug and your blood in the shuttle bay, but we found you outside of it," he said. "Unless Shadow and the Lady learned to teleport, they left on a ship.”
