Accelerating Universe: The Sector Fleet Book One

by Claire, Nicola

  “Yes,” he agreed.

  “She couldn’t fight them.”

  “She wouldn’t have been able to anyway, Ana.”

  “It was Cecil,” I said, the words sounding more like a growl.

  “Archibald loved her in his own way,” Jameson said. “But the mayor had no connection to her. He saw her as an inconvenience.”

  “He didn’t want to spare the mercs to keep her fed.”

  “He’s in the brig,” Jameson said.

  I wasn’t sure why he mentioned it. I knew Mayor Cecil was in the brig; Pavo had told us.

  “Are you going there now?” I asked.

  “He’ll need a trial,” Jameson said, not answering. “There’s enough evidence to convict. The punishment is death.”

  “Death.” It would be more humane than what my aunt had received at that monster’s hand.

  “How long will it take?” I asked. “The trial.”

  “Two to three weeks.”

  That was too long.

  “Commander,” he said. “Will you let me handle this?”

  He was asking for my trust. But more than that. He was asking for me to prove I was an officer as well as his lover. If he could have, he would have let me kill him. I was fairly certain, Jameson wanted to kill Cecil himself. But despite our talk of a new world with new rules, some rules had to remain. And trials for murdering arseholes was one of them.

  “Will he get away with this?” I asked.

  “Never,” he promised.

  I turned to look at him. He held my gaze with the look of a man in charge. In charge of his world. His domain. Everyone in it. And in this, the soldier in me said, he was in charge of me as well.

  I smiled. It was full of pain; my eyes teared up. The in-charge look in Jameson’s gaze turned instantly to compassion. To heartache.

  “Thank you, Captain,” I said before he could speak and ruin it all. Take what was left of my strength. “I trust in the system,” I added. I trusted him.

  He let out a relieved breath of air and said, “He and his mercenaries will pay.” It was a promise I was certain he would keep.

  I nodded my head and looked back down at my aunt.

  “If it’s all right with you, sir, I’d like to organise my aunt’s wake.”

  “Of course,” he said, stepping back, allowing a crewman to enter with a stretcher and body bag.

  I couldn’t watch. But I wouldn’t walk away. I would see to my aunt’s final moments on board Pavo. I would say my farewells and pray she heard my words of thanks. For saving me. For giving me a second chance. For introducing me to Captain John Jameson.

  Jameson stopped at the door; two more crewmen stepped inside to assist with my aunt’s body. He looked back towards me. I met his gaze, expecting him to nod his head or simply offer me a caring look.

  He said instead, “I’ll expect you for dinner, Commander. My cabin. 1900.” And then he left.

  The crewmen all exchanged glances, and I could have sworn I saw Aunt Mara smirk. But she disappeared into the body bag, and if there had been any animation left in her body, it was all in my head. My aunt was gone. The last of the Kereamas bar me.

  I would not let her down. I would not let my whanau down. Tobias; my brother. My parents. My family. The eleven billion lost souls back on Earth.

  I spoke with the crewmen and accompanied my aunt’s body to the morgue. And then, because it was on the same deck as the medbay, I went there; it seemed the right place to go in the end.

  Doctor Medina was talking to himself when I entered. He sure as hell wasn’t talking to Lieutenant Taylor, who was snoring his head off over in the corner. And there were no other patients to speak of. The assault team must have done a good job of cleaning up that mess. I was sure some of the mercs were injured, but the brig had its own medical facility. None of them would be brought here.

  “If that is the case,” the doctor was saying, “then I can train paramedics. Mobile EMTs. It would take the strain off the medbay facilities. In fact,” he said, clapping his hands together enthusiastically, “we could start a community outreach programme. Not all of our passengers are of exemplary health. Perhaps we could call it something uplifting. What do you think?”

  I opened my mouth to answer him, thinking he must have known I was there, when Pavo spoke.

  “May I suggest the Marama Kereama Healthcare Programme?”

  “I like it,” Medina said. “We’ll call it that.”

  I reached out to steady myself on a nearby bench and managed to overturn a stainless steel container. It rang out as it hit the gel floor.

  Medina spun on his heel and glared at me. And then his features softened.

  “Ana,” he said. “Commander.”

  “Ana is fine,” I offered, sitting down heavily on a bed.

  “Ana it is, then. I didn’t know you were here.”

  “I just arrived. You were talking. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

  “Sure you didn’t,” the doctor said. “You just wanted to know how far the insanity went.”

  He winked at me.

  “What do you think?” he asked.

  “About your sanity?”

  He shook his head, chuckling. “About Pavo’s and my idea.”

  “I think it’s great,” I said. “She would have liked it. She probably would have used it. She wasn’t well,” I added.

  “I know. I’d been pressuring her to come here for a full scan.” I hadn’t been aware of that. “I think it was cancer.”

  I slumped down on the bed, wanting nothing more than to curl up. Aunt Mara had hidden her illness from everyone. But more importantly, she’d hidden it from Damon Archibald until it was too late. So she could get at least one of her whanau, her family, on board.

  I owed my life to my aunt in so many ways.

  A few moments later, the doctor handed me a steaming cup of coffee. He sat down beside me, and we drank in silence. It was comfortable. He no doubt had things to do, but he stayed with me while I cried, and refilled my cup when it was empty.

  By the time I left the medbay, I felt refreshed. Sad, but hopeful. With the beginnings of excitement seeping in from the dark edges. That feeling of anticipation only increased as I approached Jameson’s cabin at 1900 hours.

  I’d showered. Changed. Hugged Aunt Mara’s pillow to my chest. Touched her flax kete fondly. And checked my reflection in the mirror half a dozen times. If it hadn’t have been for the blue arrows showing me the way to Jameson’s door, I would have never found it. For some strange reason, my mind couldn’t stop playing the time we’d spent in the maintenance tube over and over inside my head. It was deliciously distracting.

  The comm chimed when I pressed my hand to the gel wall. I waited for Pavo to open the captain’s door. When he did, Jameson was standing there. Dressed in non-uniform slacks and a button-down shirt, his muscled arms on display, a spot at the base of his neck peeking out between the collar; enticing me. Tempting me.

  I smiled.

  He smiled.

  And then I walked into his room without a backwards glance.

  Fifty-Two

  Are You Ready For This?

  Jameson

  I was as nervous as a schoolboy. I’d checked my reflection on the viewscreen several times. Even Pavo had asked if there was a reason why I kept changing my shirt. He thought perhaps the laundry had failed to press it properly. The fact he’d had an opinion on the matter at all barely startled me.

  I’d become surprisingly used to Pavo’s…humanity.

  The afternoon had gone swiftly, which was a blessing. It was only after I’d returned to my cabin, having followed up on Chan’s security team, the mercs in the brig, Cecil’s wellbeing - short-lived as it would be - and the flight deck, that I began to fixate on the upcoming evening.

  I’d handled the mayor’s blustering and threats, and the clean up after his and Archibald’s disastrous machinations, better than I did the anticipation of having Ana in my bed.

  And by God
, I was having her in my bed. Tonight. Every night, if I could manage it. Even as the captain in me reasserted himself and reminded me, as second-in-command, Ana would be required to work on opposing shifts to me frequently.

  It didn’t matter. We were on the same vessel. We were on the same side. We’d make a brilliant team. I was sure of it.

  The door chimed. Pavo announced Ana’s presence. And suddenly nothing else mattered but seeing her, holding her, making sure she was all right.

  I crossed to the door and Pavo slid it open, and there she was. Fresh, dressed in a simple non-uniform dress that showed off her legs to perfection. Her eyes were smiling, but I noted the hint of redness that rimmed them. She’d been crying. She smelled like lilacs and lavender. I wanted desperately to taste her. I smiled when she smiled.

  And then she stepped inside, and the door slid shut behind her, and I was stunned immobile.

  “You look beautiful,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

  She looked around the cabin and frowned. “I swear your quarters are no bigger than mine,” she commented.

  “They aren’t,” I said, wanting to touch her. Hold her. Love her. I clenched my hands at my sides.

  “You’re the captain!” she complained.

  “Maybe I could commandeer the leaseholder’s quarters,” I offered.

  She turned to look at me, a smirk gracing her features.

  “He had to be good for something. I bet he’s got a fridge stocked full of beer.”

  “Specialty beer,” I qualified. “Or expensive wine.”

  “Whiskey.”

  “No, that’s the mayor.”

  “We could raid his stash, too.’

  “You’re on.”

  We grinned at each other.

  “Come here,” I said, holding out my arms.

  She walked into them willingly, even as my heart damn near beat right out of my chest.

  I kissed her, and she kissed me back. It was so natural. So easy. Archibald and Cecil were forgotten. The ship and the chain of command were suspended. In here, it was just her and me; we were a couple. Not captain and commander. Not an officer-in-charge and his subordinate.

  I pulled back and cupped her face, stared into her eyes. Fell into Ana completely.

  “How’re you doing?” I asked.

  She smiled, this time it was sad.

  “She hid how sick she was,” she said. My heart ached for Ana. “Doc thinks she had cancer.”

  “I’m sorry, babe,” I said, meaning it with all of my heart. We were so few. To come this far and lose anyone was a travesty. To lose the last of your family was unconscionable.

  I held her close and stroked her hair; she clung to me. This was not how I had expected the evening to go, but I would not have changed it for anything.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, sometime later, sniffing.

  “Don’t be,” I whispered into her hair. “I like being your shoulder to cry on.”

  She ran a hand over my shirt, patting it futilely above the damp spot created by her tears. “At least it’s not your uniform that I’m ruining.”

  I chuckled. “I have a vision of you wearing your commander’s pips, lying back on my ready room desk as I bring you to climax.”

  She blushed. A small smile edging up the corner of her lips.

  “I’m sorry to disappoint,” she murmured, straightening her dress.

  “You, Ana Kereama, could never disappoint me.”

  She shook her head, still smiling.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked. I was definitely hungry for something, and it had nothing to do with Chef’s excellently prepared meal.

  Ana tipped back her head and stared me in the eyes, then looked over her shoulder at my bed. She stepped away. My heart rate sped up. Then holding out her hand to me, she offered me the best come-hither smile I had ever seen in my life.

  I placed my hand in hers and let her lead me to the bed, already envisaging exactly what I would do to her. How many times I would do it. The sounds she’d make. The way she’d feel under my hands and lips and tongue.

  With her back to me, she pulled her dress off over her head in one swift move, revealing a completely naked body beneath all that fabric.

  “By the stars,” I whispered. “You are the most exquisite thing I have ever seen.”

  “The universe is big, Jameson,” she pointed out to me.

  “What universe?” I murmured, running my hands up her sides, and then down her chest; my front to her back, my palms cupping her breasts.

  She tipped her head back, resting it on my shoulder. I lowered my lips to her neck and devoured her. She tasted of sunshine and beaches, New Zealand pine trees and alpine mountains. She tasted of Old Earth.

  “I’m in love with you, Ana Kereama,” I whispered, turning her around, and cupping either side of her neck, tipping her face up to mine with two thumbs gently pressed under her chin. “You were completely unexpected, but I cannot envisage my life without you in it. We are going to make this work.”

  She looked at me, all manner of thoughts sweeping through her beautiful eyes. And then, as I held my breath, she nodded her head.

  “It’s a new world,” she said and came up on her toes to kiss me.

  It was a new, beautiful, stupendously exciting world. I could not wait for what was to follow.

  The next few minutes were slow and tender and filled with a frisson of sinuous anticipation. Ana undid the buttons on my shirt, her hands running all over my skin, exploring; her tongue and lips following in their path. When she removed my belt, then undid the buttons on my trousers, I almost exploded.

  When she went down on her knees before me, and wrapped her gentle hands around my circumference, and then sucked me into her hot, wet mouth, I did explode.

  She took everything.

  I laid her down on my bed and returned the favour, making her cry out in ecstasy three times before I worked my way back up her beautiful body. She was a goddess lying before me. A dark-skinned beauty waiting for me to do terribly naughty things. I took my time showing her just how dirty I could be.

  We lay in a tangle of sheets afterwards, as the ship’s systems thrummed around us, and Ana fell into a deep, sated sleep. I watched her. I wrapped a strand or two of her hair around my finger; lifted it to my nose and inhaled deeply. I devoured her with my eyes when I’d only moments before devoured her with my entire body. I knew I could never get enough of this woman.

  These stolen moments might be all we’d manage, but I was determined we would manage to steal them. We had a ship to run. A crew to direct and keep focused. And a civilian population that would require a steady but firm hand. Things would have to change.

  But right then, in the privacy of my cabin, with the woman I had fallen in love with wrapped around me, none of it seemed too daunting. Pavo was free. But without his ties being broken, Ana would not be here with me. I couldn’t bring myself to regret that decision, even as I knew explanations and justifications would be needed once we reached New Earth.

  But reaching New Earth was the key. It was the end goal and the motivation for everything. I knew I had a certain amount of autonomy out here in space. And without the lease, I had even more. But one thing I did know, no matter what, I had a responsibility to this sector fleet. To the ten thousand souls within it. To those who’d gone before us and whose leaseholders could, even now, be doing exactly what ours had done. Killing. Mutiny. The potential for a leaseholder war on our arrival was a definite worry. But I knew my role, and I would execute my orders diligently.

  I’d just execute my orders with the woman I loved at my side - and in my bed - with me. And together, we’d ensure whatever was wrong with Pavo, whatever was causing that acc…acc…acceptable glitch, wouldn’t interfere with our reaching New Earth in one piece.

  “Pavo,” I said softly. “Status.”

  “All systems operating within normal parameters, Captain.”

  I pulled Ana closer and lay down my head. I was exha
usted, actually. Not just the delicious few hours I’d spent with Ana in my bed, but the last few days leading up to Mayor Cecil’s arrest. I was exhausted, and I needed my sleep. I closed my eyes and just as I was drifting off, the warmth of Ana’s body suffusing me, the comm chimed.

  “Incoming message from the Sector One Fleet.”

  I was sitting upright in an instant, my heart pounding in my chest, Ana stirring beside me, sexy just-woken eyes staring up at me, blinking widely.

  I leaned down and kissed her nose and then jumped from the bed.

  In seconds I was dressed, not surprised to see Ana was the same. She was an extraordinary officer. I couldn’t tell if my love for her was fuelled by that or by the woman who had just done sensational things to my body.

  By the time I pressed my fingers to the gel wall and activated the viewscreen, we were both presentable; if not a little ruffled, out of uniform and in my private cabin. I smirked.

  Then straightened my features and answered the hail.

  “Jameson,” was said in greeting over the channel.

  “Captain Vaughan,” I replied, recognising Chariot’s commanding officer. I turned to Ana slightly and said, “This is my First Officer, Commander Kereama.”

  Vaughan nodded his head to her, but his eyes immediately flicked back to me.

  “We’ve got a problem,” he said.

  “Oh?” I pressed, checking data on a separate viewscreen. “I have you on long-range scanners.”

  “We’ve got you too, thank the stars. But that’s the only good thing I have to report.”

  He paused, either for dramatic effect or because he didn’t quite know what to say. This wasn’t looking good.

  “Out with it, Vaughan,” I urged. “We’re all friends here.”

  We had to be if we had any chance of reaching New Earth in time to avoid a war between what was left of the leaseholders.

  “My ship must have sustained some damage on launch,” Captain Vaughan said. “We’re only just discovering it now, and it’s…erratic.”

  “Erratic?” I repeated.

  Vaughan nodded. “Strangest thing. Systems that have been operating nominally are suddenly fluctuating. Then when we run a diagnostic, those same systems are functioning within acceptable parameters again. As if nothing at all were ever wrong with them. Then systems that have been put under strain by the increased thrust we’re travelling under are suddenly working optimally again. As if someone fixed them.”