by Susan Hayes
It made sense. The best thing she could do for her friends was to draw the danger away from them. It still wasn’t easy to accept, though.
“We’re going to keep you safe. No matter what it takes, you are going to live to see the changes you’ve started,” Dirk said.
“Stop saying that.” She pulled out of Lance’s embrace as another thought hit her. “What if I went, but you stayed? You could go back to work for Corp-Sec and help track down the Reaper. Or stay at my place and guard the medical center. Then maybe it could stay open? You’re abandoning your jobs and your friends to protect me, but if you’re right, once I’m on the ship I should be safe enough. There’s no reason you have to come with me.”
All three of them started talking at once.
“Like hell we’re not going with you.”
“What do you mean, there’s no reason we have to come?”
“You need us.”
“You don’t need to do this,” she said when they finally let her back into the conversation. “This is too dangerous. I can’t ask this of you.”
“Of course it’s dangerous. If it wasn’t we’d all be relaxing somewhere right now, preferably naked. That’s the fraxxing point, Doc,” Blade retorted.
She shook her head. After a lifetime of standing alone, she finally had someone on her side, fighting with her, and she was terrified of losing them because they’d chosen to stand by her. “You’d be safer if you stayed.”
“We love you. That’s the only reason we need to come with you and make sure you’re safe. The day you started working on a way to reverse cyborg infertility, you made a choice. You knew the risks you were taking, but you did it anyway. This is our choice,” Lance said.
Her heart soared even as fear gripped her with steely claws. So much was at stake.
“We are not your parents. We’re not going to let you walk out of our lives. You’re not alone anymore. You’ve got us.” Dirk hauled her into his lap and locked his arms around her as he if expected her to jump out of the transport mid-flight.
“I can’t lose you. It would be easier to let you go now than to watch you get hurt because of me.”
“No one’s letting anyone go. Not now. Not ever,” Blade stated.
“Never?” she asked.
“Never,” Dirk whispered.
“Promise me.”
“We promise. We love you, Alyson.”
All three of them spoke with one voice, and it made her heart overflow with joy and a dozen other wondrous emotions she couldn’t put a name to. They were the words she’d been waiting to hear for her entire life, and she’d found them at the far end of the galaxy, surrounded by danger, and protected by three of the bravest, most incredible men she’d ever known.
“I love you, too. That’s why I want you to stay here. You’re safer that way. If something happened to one of you while you were protecting me…” she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. The thought hurt too much to put into words.
“Now?” Blade said from the front. “You had to tell us you love us now, while I’m driving and can’t claim a celebratory kiss?”
Lance chuckled. “Your timing is as bad as Dirk’s. I’m still happy as hell to hear you say it, though.”
Dirk nuzzled her hair, and when he spoke, his voice was a husky murmur by her ear. “When you love someone, you’d do anything to keep them safe. The reason you want us to stay here is the same reason we need to come with you.”
“Promise me none of you are going to do anything stupid, like sacrificing yourselves to protect me.”
Silence filled the cab.
“You’re all stubborn as hell and more than a little insane. You know that, right?” she asked when it was clear none of them were going to agree to her terms.
“We know. We’re also the best chance you have of enjoying a long, healthy life. Since we’re hoping to be part of that life, we’ve got a vested interest in keeping you alive,” Lance said.
There wasn’t any point in pressing them for a promise none of them would give her, so she didn’t try. If luck was with them, then they would escape without anyone needing to risk anything.
*
Even before the transport stopped moving, Lance had a feeling their next step wasn’t going to be easy. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. Someone was watching them. Waiting out of sight.
“He’s here,” Dirk said via their internal channel.
“Yeah. I feel it, too. But where’s he hiding?” he sent back.
“He’s here, isn’t he?” Alyson asked.
“We think so.” Dirk kissed her hard and then set her back down on the seat.
In less than two minutes they’d be on the ground again, and they’d be on their own. The Corp-Sec officers that had protected them at the medical center were on their way, but it would take them a few minutes to get loaded into the transports and catch up. That’s time Alyson didn’t have. They’d have to run this gauntlet on their own. Well, not quite. They did have someone else they could call in.
Blade hit a button on the dashboard, and Royan’s face appeared on the vid-screen a few seconds later. “Engines are heating, and the beer is on ice. When’s the party starting?”
“We’re three minutes out, but we think we’ve got a gate crasher.”
Royan didn’t seem concerned at all. In fact, he looked thrilled. “Does this mean I get to shoot someone? Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I got into a decent fight?”
“You’re a lunatic. I like that about you. We’re going to need you and Owen to cover us until we make it to the outer docking arm. Wherever this bastard is lying in wait, he won’t be in the ring itself. There’s no place to hide in there, it’s nothing but hallway.”
“He could be waiting on one of the other ships berthed nearby.” Royan pointed out.
“There are no other ships in that area. Your sister called in some favors and had them all moved.”
Royan laughed. “You mean she threatened to cut off someone’s tab at the Nova if they didn’t make things happen. I know how she operates. Right. Owen’s already on his way to you, and I’m leaving now. See you soon.”
“I’m glad he and his sister are on our side,” Blade muttered as he deactivated the vid-link.
“You and me both,” Alyson said.
Lance touched her hand to get her attention. “We’re going to be landing in a few seconds. Same drill as before. You stay between us, with your head down and keep your cute ass moving. If we tell you to run, you will do as we say and sprint for the ship. One of us will be with you every step of the way.”
Tight-lipped and frowning, Alyson nodded in understanding. If they issued the order, she’d go, but he knew damned well she didn’t like the idea of leaving any of them behind. He didn’t like the idea of leaving her, either, but if things went sideways, they’d operate better knowing she was out of the line of fire.
Dirk was out the door the moment they touched down, and Alyson was right behind him. Lance followed up as fast as he could, moving in close to screen her from view. Blade came around the vehicle and jogged past them to take point. The second he was in position, they moved forward together, causing no small amount of panic and outcry as they ran, openly armed, past several clusters of off-duty crewmen and station personnel.
He could feel eyes on them. The bastard was watching. But where was he? In the crowd? Perched somewhere overhead? Lance wished his instincts would give him something more concrete to go on than a scrotum-tightening sense of imminent danger.
He got his answer before they made it thirty feet. Something slammed into the center of his back. His body armor took the brunt of the damage, but the strike still packed enough force to make him misstep and stagger. A gap opened between himself and Alyson. She was vulnerable.
“I’m hit. Go!” Even as he bellowed the words, the first wave of pain washed over him. He deactivated his pain receptors and charged after the others.
Dirk reached bac
k and grabbed Alyson, pulling her forward with enough force that her feet left the ground. It’s a good thing he did, too, because a split-second later a laser bolt sliced through the air where she had been. The bastard was good. He had deliberately targeted Lance to slow him down enough to get a shot at his main target.
The air around them filled with bolts of sizzling light, some of them coming from a point ahead of them. Royan and Owen had joined the fight, shifting the odds back to their favor.
The Reaper didn’t appreciate their involvement. He switched targets and started slamming the source of their cover fire with a barrage of shots that made Lance wince. The station’s superstructure was impressive, but it was far from new. If it took too much damage, it would fail. This close to the outer hull, any kind of failure would mean an atmospheric breach.
“Is he fraxxing insane?” Alyson asked aloud, though she didn’t seem to realize she’d said anything at all.
“Save your breath for running,” Lance reminded her.
She risked a brief glance over her shoulder and gave him a wide-eyed nod, then put on an extra burst of adrenaline-fuelled speed to catch up with Dirk.
By the time they reached cover, the walls around them were pitted and glowing red-hot in places, but they looked to be in better shape than Royan did. He was lying a few feet away from Owen, who was still laying down covering fire in an attempt to keep their adversary trapped in place. Dirk drew his blaster and knelt next to Owen, adding his firepower to the attempt.
“Your sister is going to kill you when she finds out you let yourself get shot,” Alyson muttered as she dropped to her knees beside Royan.
He’d been shot in the shoulder, leaving a charred, bloody wound that had to hurt like hell.
Royan uttered a wheezing laugh and shook his head. “Naw, she’s used to seeing me bleeding. You need to go, Doc.” He rolled his head toward the corridor that stretched out behind him.
“I’m not leaving you lying here, wounded.”
“Yeah, you are.” Blade grabbed hold of the back of her body armor and lifted her off the deck. “Head for the ship. Now.”
“But—”
“Medi-bots.” Royan tapped his chest weakly. “I’ll be fine.”
“You’d better be.” She turned and ran with Blade only a half-stride behind her.
“You’re in no shape to pilot anything but a bed in medical,” Lance said.
“One of you will have to do it. You can fly a ship, right? Please tell me that’s somewhere in your programming. And for fraxx sakes, don’t let anything happen to your woman or that ship, or Zura will cut us into pieces and toss them out an airlock one chunk at a time.”
“Dirk’s a decent pilot. All I need are the security codes. I don’t imagine your ship’s AI is going to let us fly away without them. Don’t worry, we’ll bring back everyone, and everything, in one piece.”
Twenty seconds later, Lance had all the information he needed. “Time to go.”
Dirk got to his feet. “We owe you both. Thanks.”
Royan managed another weak grin. “I should be thanking you. A firefight, a new scar to add to the collection, and if I’m lucky, Owen will come see me in medical and kiss all my boo-boos better.”
“Dream on,” Owen called over his shoulder.
“Dreaming about you is my favorite pastime, baby.”
Owen shook his head. “And here I was worried you were seriously hurt. If you can flirt, you’re clearly going to be fine. You had me worried, idiot.”
Royan closed his eyes and smiled. “He was worried about me. I’m making progress.”
A cacophony of approaching sirens announced the arrival of Corp-Sec. The hunt for the Reaper was about to start in earnest, which meant they were out of danger, for now.
“Thanks for the help. Tell Zura we’ll take good care of her ship,” Lance joined Dirk, and the two of them hurried to the Sprite’s berth.
Blade and Alyson were waiting for them a few feet beyond the door.
“Mind your head.” Blade pointed to the pipes and conduits that ran along the ceiling of the cramped corridor.
“What’s going on out there? Who’s going to pilot the ship? Are we staying here?” Alyson’s questions came tumbling out in a single breath.
“Bring her up to speed while I get us out of here. Lance, I’ll need those codes.” Dirk was already squeezing past the others on his way to the cockpit.
Space was going to be an issue for the next while. The Sprite was a working vessel designed for speed and power, not comfort. She’d had a full refit less than a year ago, and already there were already dents in the deck plating and other signs of constant use.
Lance sent Dirk everything he needed in a quick data burst via their internal link. Dirk acknowledged it with a wave of his hand before stepping through a bulkhead door and vanishing from sight.
“I can give you a sit-rep while we hunt down the crew quarters. Any guesses on where those would be?” Lance turned to look down the corridor that stretched the length of the ship.
“Lance, you’re hurt!”
Alyson’s agitated exclamation confused him for a moment. In all the excitement of the last few minutes, he’d forgotten about the hit he’d taken at the beginning of the attack. The pain block was still holding, so he couldn’t feel a thing.
“It’s nothing,” he said absently, still trying to figure out the most likely place to find their quarters.
“It doesn’t look like nothing. Your jacket’s destroyed and the armor below is melted to slag. How are you even functioning right now?”
“My implants. A soldier too injured to fight was of no value to our masters or the war effort, remember? We can block pain at will. Whatever it takes to stay on our feet until the mission ends.”
Alyson moved to his side, her lips pursed and her eyes dark with worry. “Then consider the mission ended. I want to see you in whatever passes for a med-bay on this ship right away. You can give me the rep-sit, or whatever you called it, on the way there. Ship? Give me the location of the med-bay, please.”
“The med-bay is located aft of your position, on the main deck.” A woman’s voice informed them, her tone surprisingly sultry for a computer program.
“Go.” She pointed in the direction the ship had stated.
“Yes, ma’am.” He managed to hide his grin until he was facing the empty corridor. After what she’d been through, plenty of people would be losing their minds, but not Alyson. She was already back to her usual self; issuing orders and putting everyone else’s needs ahead of her own.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Alyson hadn’t even finished checking Lance’s burns when the ship’s standard engines rumbled to life. Even though he didn’t really need it, she took the time to apply a coat of healing accelerating ointment to his injuries. Not that there was much for her to treat. The body armor had done its job and absorbed most of the heat and damage, and the medi-bots had already started healing what little damage there was.
Still, she did what she could to speed up the healing process. Being in a med-bay, surrounded by the familiar scent of ointment and antiseptics as the medical scanners beeped and hummed helped her reclaim her sense of normalcy after what had been a far from normal day.
Throughout her examination, Lance had filled her in on the details she’d been too busy running for her life to really register. Even now, most of it was a blur, with only a few details standing out here and there. The sizzle of laser fire. The nose-tingling scent of ozone that had filled the air at the height of the shooting, the heart-clenching sense of vulnerability that filled her as they’d made the run to cover.
“You’re amazing.” Lance’s words startled her out of her recollections.
“What? No. I’m really not.”
He rose from the bed where he’d been sitting while she treated him and folded her into his arms. “Yeah, you are. One day, you’re going to learn to stop arguing with us about everything.”
“I don’t see that
happening.” She started to wrap her arms around his waist, then remembered his back was covered in ointment and settled for resting her hands on his hips. She could feel his chuckle even before she could hear it, a low thrum of amusement that rolled up from deep in his chest.
“To be honest, neither do I. You’re as stubborn as we are, which is probably a good thing.”
He cradled her close, and the tension that gripped her started to ease. When one of them held her, it was as if the world and all its danger faded into the background for a little while. She was a believer in science, not magic, but there was something a little mystical about the way they made her feel with even a simple touch. Protected. Empowered. Cherished.
They stayed that way until she felt the telltale drop and sway of the ship uncoupling from its docking anchors and moving out into space. They were on their way; which meant they needed to rejoin the others and figure out where in the universe they were actually going.
When she started to move away, Lance murmured a wordless protest and dipped his head to kiss her. Her stomach did another drop, and this one had nothing to do with the ship. His lips moved across hers, and when she kissed him back he groaned, crushing her against him so tightly she could feel his heart beating.
The tip of his tongue swept across her lips, and she parted them, letting him in. There were a thousand things she should be thinking about right now, but she pushed them all out of her head. She’d survived an attack on her life. If that wasn’t grounds for a little celebrating, she didn’t know what was.
She moaned and rose up on her toes as his tongue danced with hers. His hands were everywhere, stroking and teasing as he made love to her mouth with a hunger that left her weak-kneed. Their bodies rubbed together, building up a delicious friction that threatened to ignite into a firestorm of raw need.
