by A. B. Keuser
She chewed on the inside of her lips as she thought of the potential power locked therein.
She had to shake those thoughts away as he walked to her. Nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs covered him.
He smiled at her, “I had to level the playing field.”
Lying down next to her, he spread across the bed and watched her, licking his lips.
“I think we’re still wearing too much clothing.”
He didn’t say anything, but the smile that crept to his eyes agreed with her.
She moved to take off that last scrap of fabric, but Si stopped her, nudging her onto her back and sliding back to the edge of the bed. In one move, he lifted her up and pulled off her panties. Cool air licked at her naked skin, but when she shivered, it had nothing to do with the temperature.
Si went to his knees and his mouth was on her before she could say a word. And after that, she forgot speech entirely.
He licked her in one luscious sweep, and then his attentions fell on that wonderful bundle of nerves at the top of her entrance.
Slipping a finger inside of her, he slowly worked into her as his tongue swirled and flicked and pushed her toward a beautiful ledge.
But she was wound too tightly already. Pulling him back up her body, she kissed him, tasting herself on his lips, and then tried to return the favor.
He wouldn’t let her.
“Next time. I’ve been in Cryo for fifteen years, I don’t know how much time I’m going to be able to give you.”
Nodding, Dani licked her hand and gave him a few strokes. He was going to feel delicious.
“Yella?”
She froze. There was a warning in his tone that was impossible to miss.
“I…” He looked at her and chewed on the thought a minute longer before he said, “I need to know you’re fully here and okay with this?”
“Look me in the eyes.” She angled over him until she was nose to nose with him. “Are my pupils contracted?”
His eyes moved, studying hers. “No.”
“Then you know the effect of the drugs has worn off.” Sliding a hand down his chest, she wiggled her way back down until she could torture him some more. “I want this, I want you, and I want it now. If you don’t, let me know.”
He nodded and as she pulled his underwear off, he started to reach for the bedside table. Catching his arm, Dani asked. “What are you doing?”
He looked at the drawer, eyes narrowing in confusion, and then back to her.
She almost laughed. “I’ve seen your charts, I know I’m clean…. And I can’t get pregnant. How about we skip that particular step?”
Searching her face again—lingering on her eyes—he nodded and dragged her back up for another tangled kiss before he plunged into her and set them both on fire.
THIRTEEN
Si shivered as Dani flicked off the bathroom light and returned to the bed, his hand stroking down her hip. She pressed her backside into his hips, stretching along the length of him. As he pulled her into his chest and nuzzled into the soft scent of her hair, he remembered exactly why he’d taken this command.
He’d walked away from her and in the end, he’d still failed to protect her from the evils the Pääom brought on them all.
He tried to ignore the gentle ping coming from her rumpled pants on the floor, but it continued to get louder the longer it lay unanswered.
"I need to get that," Yella said as she tried to get up and he pulled her back into him.
She kissed him deeply, her tongue trailing across his lower lip as she pulled away. The ping was starting to remind him of a caged bird.
"Fine." He released her.
She rolled over him, her fingers trailing across his stomach and for the briefest of moments, he considered dragging her back. Duty called, however, and it was going to drive him up the wall if it kept ringing like that.
Yella pulled the pen-comm from her pants, turned it on and set it on the dresser. "Cholla."
"Hey Dani, I know you're not on shift anymore, but I think you should come down and see what's going on in engineering."
Si sat up, watching her search for her underwear was something he'd have enjoyed a great deal more if Gill's voice hadn't sounded as worried as it did now.
"What's up? Tell me what I need to expect when I get there." Dani said as she found the target of her search and pulled them on.
"It's nothing terrible. I mean, if you were in the middle of something it's not going to send the ship off on a tear or anything... you could always finish up."
"Gilroy, tell me what's going on, or when I get down there, I'm going relive the black eye incident." She smiled to herself as she plucked her bra from the couch and untangled it from itself.
"It's just… Adi's been poking around. A lot. And Stugg and I can't tell exactly what she did. I want you down here when she explains it."
"Because I'm going to have any clue what she's talking about more than you two would?"
"No, that's not exactly it...."
"Oh. Got it. I'll be down there in a few minutes." Laughing, she turned the pen comm off and turned back to him.
Si let his eyes drag along her body, wishing they had more than a few minutes. "So, we're heading to engineering?
"I'm heading to engineering, you don't have to come."
"With all due respect, Captain," he said with a smirk as he stood and went to her. "I think it’s best if I stick by you until things with Obie are clearly settled."
"You don't think your PDA was enough to keep her from doing something to me?"
"It's not something I intend to risk."
She turned back to him, her eyes dipping down as a smirk pulled at her lips. “You’re going to have to get dressed if you plan on coming with.”
He could think of a dozen different ways to respond to that comment. Instead of using any of them, his fingers ran over the key's handle on her chest. The way she turned from him, color coming to her cheeks, made him laugh. "I'll wait for you to tell me what or why."
The handle was an intricately carved OB. As he pulled his pants back on, beating out the wrinkles, he tried not to feel flattered. For all he knew, he was seeing what he wanted to see. "Why does Gill need you there for Adi's explanation? You told him you probably won't understand."
"He wants me there so she'll have to dumb down that explanation, and he doesn't have to be the one to ask her to. The male ego is a very delicate thing. And I'm willing to look a little foolish to let my engies save face."
"How noble."
"That's me, ninety percent self-sacrifice. Ten percent hot air."
"You're much, much more than that." He pulled her back into him and brushed his lips against hers. "So much more."
She brushed her lips against his, her hands crawling their way up his shoulders. He could get used to this.
He pulled away from her and plucked his shirt off the ground, buttoning it quickly, before he had any more ideas about changing the “few minutes” timeline.
“Do you have anything other than that uniform?”
“Yeah… it just feels weird being on the ship, not wearing it.”
“I don’t really care about it while we’re on Obie, but when we get to Kosz… well, it only makes you that much more recognizable. If you have something with a hood, that’d be great.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll wear civvies out and about. Juan Conejo isn’t looking for a fight.” He stared at her as he laced his boots, a thought blossoming in his mind. “I’m not looking for one, but there’s every possibility that someone else is.”
He finished lacing and went to the nightstand jutting out of the bulkhead. The XK97 was where he left it. He pulled the revolver from the drawer, flicked open the cylinder and snapped it closed again.
“A projectile weapon? We haven’t used those in a decade.” He saw her eyes dart to the side, the faraway look coming over her.
“I know, another family heirloom. Nice thing is, it never loses a charge, you
just need the bullets.” He smiled as her eyes trailed over the mahogany grip. “Yes, it is the one you used to shoot cans with.”
“I barely remember that.”
“But you still know how it works, right?” He knew the answer as he pulled the belt from the drawer as well and went to her, sliding it through the loops and buckling it around her waist.
“Si, I don’t think this is the sort of thing that will instill confidence in my crew… I mean, I only carry when we’re in the middle of a job that’s got a huge potential to go south. This might create more problems than it solves.”
“I think we can say this job has already gone south. People have died, Yella,” she paled as he said it. “If nothing else, they’d be a lot less happy if I was the one strapped and ready to go.”
He could see she wasn’t going to argue, but he knew she wasn’t completely comfortable yet. “Tell you what, we’ll stop at the med bay before we go to engineering, the coat you left in there is more than long enough to cover this.”
She nodded and let him lead her out of the room. She stayed outside as he slipped into the medbay and retrieved her coat.
“I will not hurt her, Osiris.”
“You’ve already done that, Obie. But if I can help it, you won’t hurt her anymore. We’re going to Kosz, we’ll meet up with whoever it is you need me to meet, but you have to promise that whatever they say goes. No more of this lone ship against the galaxy, okay?”
“I believe they will be on my side.”
“Obie. That is not what I asked.”
“I will adhere to whatever they decide.”
“Thank you. Now, I have other things to deal with, but this conversation isn’t over.”
He snatched Dani’s coat off the table where she’d left it and stalked out of the room without another word to the ship.
The coat was over Dani’s shoulders before they stepped back on the elevator and he wrapped his arm around her waist, kissing her left temple. “I think Obie and I have come to an understanding. About you at least.”
She looked to the ceiling, “I’m not sure how comforting that is.”
The elevator opened and Gill gave them both an appraising smirk. “Nice to see things have gotten cozy.”
Si detached from her and motioned for her to step off first. He’d ignore the engineer as long as he was able.
“Don’t need to get all professional on account of me, Dani.” Gill turned away from her, pointing to his eyes and then to Osiris.
“It’s not you I’m worried about,” Dani said, as though she’d missed the gestured threat.
“Ah, yeah. Probably want to keep up any other pretenses around Stugg. Boy’s like to have an aneurism if he finds out you’re officially off the market.”
Dani adjusted the coat again, her focus on the lump at her hip. “Yeah, well, nothing of that sort’s been decided yet.”
“It hasn’t?” Si caught her eye as she looked up, he didn’t know how he felt about the statement.
Gill only laughed, “I pulled you two apart before you could have the talk. My bad. I’ll try to get us through this as quick as possible.” He moved ahead of them as Si stepped to Dani’s side, not touching her, though his hand brushed against her coat as they moved.
Gill turned ahead of them, “You’d think that fifteen-year old technology would be easier to deal with… but this ship’s got some interesting riggings.”
“She was the most advanced thing back then. A lot of the stuff in her systems are prototypes, or experimental….” including Obie herself.
“That’s what Adi keeps telling me.” Gill turned back to them. “She and Stugg have been at each other’s throats this whole time.”
Turning the corner, he saw the pair in question, the boy spoke in hushed tones, facing away from them, Adi looked bored. He hadn’t expected Kiori to be in the room, but there she was, seated crosslegged against the wall, a disassembled laser rifle in her lap, cleaning cloth in hand. The gun lying next to her within easy reach was an oddly comforting sight.
Si cleared his throat and all three of them looked up. One smile, two frowns. At least the opinion wasn’t wholly unanimous.
“Well, now that all the important people are here, I guess I can get around to this thing that should have taken me two minutes and has now been drawn out over half an hour.”
She started in on her schpiel and Si tuned her out. He’d never had the patience for her speeches, and no length of a stay in Cryo was going to change that.
His focus turned to watching Stugg. The engineer had sidled his way between Yella and Gill and he watched Adi with narrowed eyes. Gill on the other hand, nodded as though he understood every word she said.
The youngest crew member hovered next to his captain possessively, and Si tried not to think about how easy it would be to bat him away. He didn’t need to give Obie a reason to kill the boy.
“And for those of us who don’t have the slightest clue what you just said,” Dani said with a hollow smile on her face.
“I figured I’d have to give you the blunt version. Si didn’t enjoy the technical speak either. You’ll make a lovely couple.”
Si saw Stugg go rigid as she said the words, his shoulders stiffening, his spine stalk straight. That was something Si would deal with later, after he and Yella were clear on what had and hadn’t been decided.
Luckily, Stugg kept his mouth shut and Adi continued on.
“Basically, what happened was, Quince was trying to override Obie’s AI from this secondary panel here. She wasn’t able to do it because Obie was smart enough to blow out the panel before she could get to anything that even she could mess up.” Adi took a deep breath. “All I did was reconnect the things that were blown, replace the things beyond repair and put in a cage.”
“You weren’t authorized to put in a cage.” Si didn’t want to think about the implications of why she might have done it.
“What’s a cage?” Yella asked, stress apparent in her voice.
Adi smiled at her, plainly pleased with the tone in her voice. “It’s a small field electric shield. Basically, if anyone other than me goes to make changes in this panel, they’ll end up in the medbay with Chin.”
“Chin’s dead. Power failure dropped his life support.” Dani’s jaw clenched shut as she said it and he noted her three crew members turn to look at each other, and then to Adi.
He saw the flash of a question in Adi’s eyes as she turned to look down at the panel.
“No, Adi, we don’t think it was anything you were doing. Obie’s old, she’s been improperly maintained for a long time. These things happen. Take the cage off anyway. I don’t want any more accidents happening.”
Adi nodded, her eyes falling to Dani’s hip and narrowing. “Christ, Si. Is there anything you wouldn’t give her?”
His eyes moved to her line of sight quickly enough for him to see the grip of the revolver before Dani readjusted the coat.
“Just do your job, Adi. The plan is to get to Kosz with the rest of us alive. That cage is not going to help matters.”
Yella’s pen-comm chirped at her and she pulled it from her pants, moving away from the others to listen.
Stugg gave him a glare that spoke volumes as Adi moved to his side, her whispered words harsh. “Just because you’re sleeping with her doesn’t mean you should trust her. She’s got more to gain from turning you in than any of the others do. You know she has an SOS, right?”
“So do I. Now, if you’re done spinning impossible fabrications, get the cage off of that and don’t do anything like that again. I don’t care who you think you’re protecting.”
Yella stepped back beside him. “I’ve got a call coming in through the wire. You three can deal with this, right?” She looked to her two engineers and Adi before nodding and turning to leave.
Si gave Adi a look he hoped said “behave” and then followed Yella out. She waited at the elevator for him, her eyes shut as she fidgeted with her necklace.
; “It’s Nial again. Probably wondering why I haven’t checked in, and why it took so many beacons to find the comm signature I overlaid on Obie.”
“He’s probably more worried about you being okay than getting the ship on time.”
“He’s not the one in charge. I have to tell him about the casualties. It’s probably the only way I’m going to keep his dad from sending someone to come reel us in.”
“You look like that’s the last thing you want to do.”
“Chances are the second I tell him people are dying, he’s going to want to come after me.”
“Sounds like he’s in love.”
“He’s asked me to marry him about nine times.”
She hadn’t mentioned that before. “And he’s still trying?”
“That’s mostly my fault. I’ve never actually said no.” Her mouth tweaked to the side in a sheepish frown.
Si let that though macerate in his brain as the doors opened and he followed her out and back into the bridge.
Mopeña stood to leave, but she shook her head at him and motioned for him to sit back down. “I want him to see you’re here. I need to make sure he understands I’m not alone out here.”
Osiris felt like breaking something. “I’d love to see the look on his face if you let me be seen.”
“We’re looking for ways to keep the Mandalls off your ship, not reasons for them to hunt us down.”
Her eyes searched his face and he knew she was silently pleading with him. He wouldn’t do anything stupid, for now. They’d all be better off if the Mandalls stayed home.
He grabbed her hand, before she could move to flick the comm on. “Before you get into it with him, just remember, I asked first and you said yes.”
Smiling, he let her hand go, and she stared at him briefly, pressing her lips together as though she were trying to chew back a smile of her own.
Mopeña looked over the console at Si as though he thought they were both crazy, but knew enough not to ask just yet. Si felt another boy’s chat coming on.
Flicking on the comm, Yella sat in front of the vidscreen and let a smile come to her lips finally. Si could tell she was doing her best not to look up at him. He stepped back to lean against the wall and listened to the conversation intently, his eyes closed so he could memorize Nial’s voice, should he ever need it.
