She had stretched out, face down on the bunk, fully clothed; too exhausted to even remove her boots. He took the liberty, sliding each off, in the process finding the Sterillian blade in its sheath.
“My, oh, my…how about that. You still have it,” he whispered, fondling it with great reverence, inspecting the sharp, slender point. “I remember the day I bought this. All my friends raised their eyebrows, like Galaxeans, laughing behind my back. ‘What in the galaxy does he want that for?’ That’s what Xalier said. We were on Scanlos. The man I bought it from was a scoundrel and a thief. It has come in handy, though, hasn’t it?”
She didn’t answer, still deeply asleep.
“Sorry, Dana…I may need this.” He returned the blade to its sheath, but tucked it safely into his own left boot and set her boots aside. Then he stretched out beside her, cradling her in his arms as she slept, remembering and regretting the years they’d been apart.
Some time later, she awoke. His eyes were smiling, though his face held little emotion.
“Warm enough?” He asked softly. “It’s gone very cold outside and I can’t get the blasted air circulator to keep functioning.”
She sighed. “I’ll take a look at it.”
“In the morning,” he urged.
“How’s Janz?”
“Snoring…”
She scowled. “K?”
“All right, not snoring…I had to give him a sedative to keep him still.”
She scowled and made as if to get up to go check, but Kieran pulled her back. “He’s resting…no use waking him.” He coaxed her back into his arms.
“Why are you lying to me?”
He blinked. “Can you read me that easily? You…”
“I can tell you’re hiding something.”
He pulled her into a close embrace, deliberating.
“Brings back memories,” she whispered, snuggling against his chest.
“I gave you quite a few memories,” he teased.
“Yes, you did,” she responded.
He asked a question that shocked her. “Do you love Janz?”
“Love?” She scoffed, wondering where he might get such a notion.
“Have you slept with him?”
“No, of course, not,” she protested, “he’s my captain.”
Kieran brightened. “Do you love me?”
That was easy. She didn’t hesitate at all. “Always.”
Kieran kissed her upon the lips, admitting, “I have a confession to make?”
“You’ve mated with someone?”
“No…nothing like that,” he chuckled, took a deep breath, exhaled, steeling himself. “Do you remember when we met? I was on a mission, impersonating an Alphan Ambassador. Five had already been targeted by… How do they call them on Earth? Mafia? Yes, by the Mafia. Janz had married a Shonedren Captain who served on the security detail for one of their Ambassadors. She died while on duty. Macao is a Shonedren name. He took it to honor his mate. Jad and Jorn were furious. Father was, too. The family disowned Janz because he mated with a non-Alphan. That’s why he has the life-star. I, on the other hand…”
“You haven’t?”
“Not yet. We haven’t mated yet,” he reminded, kissing her cheek. “Would you like to? Now would be good,” he teased, sliding his hand up under her tousled, braided hair at the nape of her neck, massaging and caressing until she pleaded for him to stop.
“You have a mission,” she reminded.
He sighed. “Yes. So do you, but one day…” Kieran relaxed, closing his eyes. “As I was saying, I have a confession to make.”
She chuckled. “Sorry, didn’t mean to distract you.”
Kieran smiled, pausing for effect. “I met April.”
Dana reacted with apprehension. “April?”
“Your sister…could be your twin. Well, at first I thought it was you. Made a fool of myself. She’s very Galaxean.”
Dana rolled her eyes. “Where?”
“Sorry?”
“Where’d you meet her?”
“Well, that’s the strange thing. I had just returned to Nine, and had to wait for a private transport ship, delayed by some mechanical failure. April Talon was awaiting the same transport.”
Dana blinked. “Is she a civilian?”
“Not exactly,” he gave her a squeeze. “Talon is the adoptive daughter of Director Starn of the Galaxean Science Academy.”
Dana scoffed. “Let me guess? He was March’s supervisor?”
Kieran nodded.
“Does she know? Did you tell her about me?”
“Had to…after I made a complete fool... As I said, I thought she was you. Same hair, eyes, height, weight…but mostly Galaxean.” He gave Dana’s a kiss upon the forehead.
Her right eyebrow shot upward. “Wish I could test her DNA.”
“Well, she’d like to dissect you. Oh, and don’t call her April.”
Dana’s eyes closed sleepily. “Is she an empath?”
“No. She’s a doctor though — a hematologist — no telepathic or empathetic abilities — not even the Galaxean ones.”
Dana yawned, “They may be latent tendencies. Mine didn’t manifest until I was exposed to sulfites.”
He petted her hair, “So, that’s my confession.”
She sighed, “I’ll bet there’s lots more you don’t want to admit.”
“Like…that she slapped my face and nearly decked me.”
“Nearly?” Dana scoffed.
He chuckled again, “Go back to sleep.”
“I can’t now — trying to visualize myself as a Galaxean.”
He nuzzled her neck and nibbled her ear lobe, commanding in his most loving tone, “Go to sleep.”
She sighed. “Why are you telling me this now? Why did you wait?”
“I wasn’t going to tell you at all. Wasn’t sure you really wanted to know about your brothers and sisters.”
“They’re my siblings. Not sure what the technical term is for genetics lab embryos from the same donors.”
“Trust me, she’s your identical twin,” Kieran said with a frown.
“Except Galaxean…”
“Well, yes. I checked; her records are sealed, too.”
“Bet Director Starn knows.” Dana wiggled to a more comfortable position, using his chest as a pillow. “Wonder if she’s met…well, of course, she has to have met March. He was there at the Galaxean Science Academy.”
Kieran frowned, but made no comment.
“It’s like having pieces of a puzzle; they might lead me to my birth mothers. I need to test their DNA,” she decided.
“Then what?”
Dana shrugged again. “I haven’t thought that far.”
Kieran hugged her a little bit tighter. “I’ve always put a lot of space between myself and my brothers…Well, from my whole family…mostly to protect them. It hasn’t exactly worked out the way I’d hoped.”
“Entanglements?” She whispered.
“Yeah. Maybe when I make Rear Admiral, we can settle down and do the family thing.”
Her body stiffened. “The genetics lab warned me about…”
“DOC warned me,” Kieran reminded, “but research has come a long way. Besides, we’d use an Enturian genetics lab. Surely, they can handle a… what would our offspring be called? A quad-brid?”
She chuckled nervously. “Do you really want to raise babies? You don’t even know if we can mate.”
“For life? Maybe not… I still love you.” He breathed a sigh then whispered, “I will always love you, Dana January.” He kissed her upon the forehead, urging, “Go back to sleep.”
“K? You have to abort the mission. Janz needs treatment. We don’t have a coffin. We need to keep him hydrated and immobilized. You can’t do that here and…”
“I’ll rig a duplicator in the morning.”
She scowled, “…And we all need showers.”
He rolled his eyes.
“K, you need to abort. Mac will be back and…”
“And then what? Turn Janz over for a court-martial? Disgrace the entire crew of Lancer?”
“They already…” Dana scowled, but bit off the protest.
“Come with us?”
She didn’t respond.
“I’ve thought it through. I have connections. If Janz can hold up.”
She wrestled with a retort, instead reminding, “Have you forgotten the pain you experienced post-op?”
He heaved a sigh. “No, I haven’t. Janz is tougher than I am. As a boy, he…well, I could tell you stories. They’d put you right to…sleep.”
He smiled, seeing she was already dozing, and pulled the blanket up over her. He kissed her cheek softly, lingering for a time, savoring just holding her close as she slept.
If only…
After a few minutes, he craned his neck to check, then slid off the bunk and inserted a pillow where he’d been.
Kieran cringed when the cabin door slid noisily open, and then breathed a sigh of relief that it didn’t disturb her.
Once out in the darkness of the corridor, he muttered, “So, SSID big shot, you’d better come up with a new plan.” He followed the ramp down from the rotunda to the engine room.
The emergency batteries kept the room at a dim twenty percent of normal, but it beat fishing around in the dark.
“Women! A shower!” He grumbled. There were more important things to be done than taking showers. He check the COM log and his heart sank. A message had come in since he’d been down below to inspect the cargo hold. SSIDs new orders matched Dana’s.
Abort the mission. Secure the wraith device. Return to Station Four.
“Fane!” He snarled, pounding his fist on a nearby panel, deliberating whether to obey the order, or not. Taking a hand beacon along up to the Bridge, Kieran opened the copilot’s console and extracted the two key snap-in modules that comprised the invisibility device system, then restored the console. No one would ever know the ship had such capabilities.
He took the modules back down to his quarters, locking them in an attaché and securing it in a closet.
Afterwards, he went to the galley, jury-rigged a duplicator as promised and restored power to the sonic showers. “Women!”
He ran a test, declared it ‘good’ then stripped off his boots and many days old clothes and ducked inside.
“Ah! Needed one,” he sighed. “Dana was right.” He chuckled, amending, “Dana’s always right.”
As he slid into fresh khaki trousers and a gray pull over shirt, he admitted, not for the first time, “She’d make a great SSID officer.” He slid on his over jacket, shivering. “Need to fix that air circulation system, not that it will do much good.”
While sitting on the edge of the bunk to pull on clean socks and his old boots, he took a moment to pat the stiletto in its sheath to make certain it was secure. “Glad to have this…”
As he stood, Kieran heard the distinctive sizzling sound of a MAT pod materializing. He silenced the hand beacon, decided it was too soon for Mackenna to have returned, and since he had rewired power from batteries, he could bet, they had invaders aboard.
Fane!
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Dana awoke abruptly, startled by the opening and closing of the cabin door. She rolled over on her side, focusing in the dim light with her brown eye on the Captain.
Janz Macao leaned heavily against the door frame. He held a hand beacon, was naked but for a blanket tied about his loins like a kilt. He left the wall, staggered, lunged toward the bunk, obviously in pain, and barely able to coordinate his legs.
She caught him, started to speak, but he covered her mouth with one hand, sliding his other up the nape of her neck under her braid to establish a telepathic link.
She understood the demand for silence, but resisted the link.
He roughly tugged at the neckline of her coveralls, seeking the leather thong holding the N-link, pulling it up over her head. The cord got hopelessly tangled in her braid. He quickly abandoned it and again attempted to establish the telepathic connection.
Mercenaries! Maybe twenty…in full body armor…K taken...Have to...
Dana lost the rest as a wave of pain washed over him and he sagged against the bunk, stifling a moan. She felt every pang of it, but was helpless to stop it.
He pushed her toward the closet. Get a weapon. Make every shot count. Can’t help...
She surmised the rest, fetched the hand laser, then searched for her boots.
No time! Go! Janz insisted, Take the beacon.
He strapped the light beacon to her wrist, and then gave her a push.
Dana crept along the dark corridor without using the beacon, hearing sounds from above on the bridge and below in the cargo holds.
Two, possibly three on the bridge, she telepathically told the Captain, guessing their goal. I think they’re after the wraith device.
Stop them!
He left it up to her to figure out how.
Being petite and barefooted proved advantageous. She skulked along the wall, spying one armor clad merc at the pilot’s chair and two other massive men, with their backs to her, attacking a circuitry panel, fortunately, having little luck.
In training, her best scores were for shooting on the fly. She took a deep breath and engaged, disabling the seated merc with a carefully placed shot to the armpit seam of his armor as he reached forward.
The other two men whirled about. She got off a second shot at the throat of the taller, crouched and rolled as the third charged and missed. Her third shot caught him on the chest but the armor deflected it.
He bellowed loudly, so she aimed at the breathing apparatus on his helmet to silence him. He collapsed into a mound.
The damage was done. He’d alerted the others.
“Rats!” She muttered, gathering from their bodies three weapons.
Hearing shouts and pounding boots down on the ramp, she whirled. Instinct shouted to hide, but there was no time. She moved to the hatchway, half-hidden by the frame, fired multiple times, successfully taking down three more mercenaries.
Fourteen left, she telepathically told the captain.
Secure the crash doors…stay there.
She struggled with the crash door lever, tugging and dragging the door closed to block the hatchway and secure the bridge.
Destroy the wraith device! Macao ordered.
Right! She took one of the three weapons and fried the circuitry console at the copilot’s chair.
Done!
Will you fit in the air ducts?
Should…
Get back down here…
She went to the air duct, pulled off the grill and set it inside. She pushed all the weapons down the shaft, jumped up and secured the grill back over the opening so no one would ever know…Not that they’d get through the crash doors.
From the memorized basic ship design diagrams, she chose a direction and began to move, turning on the wrist beacon to get her bearings. Sliding the merc rifles along made too much noise, so she abandoned two of them near a grill at the rotunda and continued on down to the crew cabin level.
She froze, hearing shouts and a scuffle from deep down in the hold, and both felt and heard an agonizing scream.
K!
Dana sank back against the metal ducting, realizing she’d violated the number one rule of combat: rescue the hostages first.
Except, like the EVA-Stress Scenario — that left the top secret technology on the bridge at risk.
Janz Macao growled, telepathically, Get down here! Don’t second guess! Hurry! I need a weapon!
Dana slid quickly along the level ducting, then down until reaching the big main cabin where she’d done the surgery.
Janz already had the grill off. He’d recovered some movement, was dressed now in civilian clothes, though somewhat haphazardly.
“They’re searching room-to-room for…”
She handed down two weapons.
Just as she prepared to slide down, the cabin
door burst open.
Macao fired twice, stunning one merc, killing the other.
Without remorse, Dana finished off the first with a carefully placed shot and prepared to jump down.
No! Go down to the hold. We’ll trap them between us.
Twelve… She reminded, and resumed her downward progress as Macao replaced the grill.
More shouts came from below. Dana used stealth, continuing through the ventilation ducts in the dark so the light from the beacon could not be detected.
Someone gruffly demanded of Kieran, “How many of your friends?”
The voice echoed through the shaft.
“One…”
Kieran moaned from a blow to the gut.
“You lie!”
“Four,” Kieran screamed in anguish.
Dana cringed, but continued, feeling her way, steeling herself for further combat.
Janz Macao sent, Nine…
She blinked, seeing light ahead, feeling cold air on her face.
Fane!
The duct ahead was crushed inward with a jagged edge, collapsed and too narrow for her to pass. After assessing the damage, and realizing without boots she could do nothing to expand the shaft, and not having a medical laser to cut a path, she retreated, crawling backwards to the last junction to take a different route.
It put her much farther away from the main cargo bay than she wanted, and into a smaller holding area heavily damaged during the landing.
She quietly removed the grill, slid it aside, then jumped down from the duct, weapon at the ready.
Her feet touched down ankle deep in murky water. With the beacon, she took a careful scan to get her bearings before slowly wading forward, doing her best to not make a splashing noise.
Where are you? Macao demanded.
Reluctantly, she admitted, Trapped. Have to back track.
Ahead, blocking the way were several beams and a major bulkhead panel. There was no way to get to the hatch.
Dana shut her eyes, reviewing from memory the diagrams of that level. Although never having visited the hold before, she recalled on the diagrams that four separate storage compartments adjoined the main hold. Retreating once again to the ducts, she scrambled farther along and this time even before reaching the grill, she heard voices speaking Castellan and another language she could not comprehend.
Dana Cartwright Mission 2: Lancer Page 22
