Burning Love [Flights of Fancy 1] (Siren Publishing Menage Amour)

by Melodee Aaron

  Spence tried to block his personal emotions, the ones telling him to kill Krell here and now, from his professional instincts. He managed to push things down enough to see that the only thing that mattered was to protect Star and get her to safety. "Alright, you live for now, but all I need is a halfway decent reason to kill you."

  Krell nodded. "You and I have the same motivation right now. Going to the temple is suicide, though."

  Star shook her head. "So is going to the landing craft. If the elders can threaten Daedalus, they could crush the landing craft like a walnut."

  "Yeah, the temple is our only chance." Spence thought for a moment. "Harnlan, tell me about the elders and this temple."

  "The elders live there, ever since they gave the Hendri the power to burn things. No one ever sees them, though, and they talk through a box on the wall of the temple. Though it's only legend, it's said they have changed so much they can't live outside the hot rooms of the temple."

  Spence's communicator chirped. "Spencer."

  "Ensign Harvey here, Major. I have some news for you."

  "Go ahead."

  "I have this temple place located. It's really hot in there, about seventy-five degrees or so." She hesitated for a moment. "And there's a lot of electrical activity, including some sort of energy beam aimed at where I think Daedalus is in its orbit."

  "What kind of energy beam?"

  "Heat." Debi paused again. "If my readings are correct, I can't see how Daedalus could stand up against it for more than a couple of hours."

  "Alright, how do I get there the fastest way?"

  "I just sent two routes to your navigation system. One is the way you're going now. The other is faster, but you'll need to blast through some walls."

  "Good work, Ensign."

  The communicator hissed for a moment. "Sergeant Kyle here, Sir. You'll need some help with that. I can join you on the way."

  "Negative, Kyle." Spence chuckled a little. "Your job is to protect those people."

  "Major—"

  "Stand down, Sergeant. There's enough fighting to go around."

  "Aye, aye, Sir." Kyle paused for a moment. "I don't want to take you home in a body bag."

  "I appreciate that, but we both have a job to do right now, Bob."

  "Yeah, we do. Godspeed, Spence."

  The communicator fell silent.

  * * * *

  Spence changed the order in line of his small command after getting the new route from Debi. Now, Harnlan followed directly behind Spence, and Star ran behind Harnlan with Krell bringing up the rear. Spence gave Harnlan his blaster, and while Spence still carried his big rifle, Krell was unarmed. Spence didn't offer him any weapon, but Star suspected Krell would prefer to rely on his pyrokinesis anyway. She didn't even know if Spence had anything left to offer.

  They'd already blasted through several walls, Spence pumping a slide on the underside of his rifle twice as it spit small round objects that exploded with the white flash of nuclear fusion on impact with the stone. When the smoke and dust cleared a little, a four-meter hole gaped through to the other side.

  Spence raised his left arm in the air, fingers spread wide, then clenched his fist and lowered it quickly to his chest. She thought she might be figuring out the hand signals Marines were so fond of, because she immediately knew the signal meant 'stop'. The small group gathered around him as he studied his navigation console.

  "OK, on the other side of this wall is a little plaza. Thirty meters away, on the other side, is the entrance to this temple." Spence chewed on his lip for a moment. "I wonder if there will be guards."

  Krell nodded. "Yes, there will."

  Harnlan shook his head. "I wonder about that. We've seen no one so far."

  Since they'd left the area the Rangor controlled, they hadn't seen a soul. Star wondered about that, and Krell's comment about the elders knowing they were coming haunted her.

  Spence must have had the same thoughts. "Yeah, and that worries me. I'm beginning to feel like we're being herded here."

  Harnlan looked puzzled, and Krell spoke to him for a moment in the language of the planet. Harnlan nodded. "Perhaps we are, but does it matter? We have few choices."

  "That's too true." Spence absently checked his rifle. "Alright, here's what we'll do; I'll blast this wall, then me and Harnlan will go through. You two wait until you hear three clicks on the communicator, then give us five seconds before you come through. There are trees and stuff out there to hide behind, so get to cover as quick as you can."

  Something in her head, or maybe it was her heart, told her this was dangerous. The entire situation was dangerous, but something about going through this wall and into the open, literally on the front porch of the temple, was even more so. She was still trying to formulate her arguments against the idea when Spence finalized the plan.

  "Get against the wall." He worked the slide on his rifle again. "Fire in the hole!"

  A soft thud from his gun preceded the deafening explosion of the wall into motes of dust.

  * * * *

  The fucking alarms still screamed, and Elsa was about ready to have someone turn a blaster on them to get some quiet. Nearly 80% of her status board displayed either red or yellow lights now, and more green ones disappeared as she watched.

  Without her having to ask, the tactical office reported. "Deflectors at 17% and falling, Field at blue with violet streaks. Time to Field collapse is thirty-two minutes."

  She wondered if it might be just idle curiosity, but she asked anyway. "Field generator core temperature?"

  "Fifteen million degrees Kelvin."

  Elsa nodded. That was about right, at least for the core of a sun. The difference was that they weren't talking about a sun, but some infinitely small point inside her ship. In thirty-two minutes, all that stored energy would break free from the string dimension containing it to fry anything within five hundred kilometers of the point. That radius included Daedalus.

  "Communications, launch an emergency probe toward Sol system with the logs of the last three days and all information gathered since entering the energy barrier."

  "Aye, aye, Captain." The officer typed commands. "Probe away."

  Before she could acknowledge, the tactical officer spoke again. "The heat destroyed the probe, Ma'am."

  No surprise there, but she had to try. "Thank you."

  * * * *

  Star listened closely at the communicator in her hand, but she'd heard nothing so far, and the men had gone through more than a minute ago. She flinched at the hot touch on her arm and turned to see Krell staring down at her.

  "Star, I'm sorry I misled you."

  "You didn't mislead me. You lied to me." She knew she should be angry, but she couldn't find anger inside of her. Only hurt and disappointment.

  He nodded. "Yes, I did, and I admit that. I want you to know I'm sorry and I'll do whatever it takes to make things right."

  She pushed her emotions as far to the side of her mind as she could. "This is not the time or the place for this."

  "No, it's not, but just in case something happens, I want you to know that." Three soft clicks came from the communicator she held, and Krell didn't give her time to answer him. "Come, we have to go." Star followed him through the hole in the wall.

  In her brief glance at the plaza, she didn't see anyone in the open area or near the large building on the far side, the one she assumed to be the temple of the elders. She and Krell joined Spence and Harnlan where they took cover behind a large statue of some Hendri or another.

  She took Spence's hand in hers and squeezed. "Anything?"

  He managed a smile when he looked at her. "Not a soul we can see. We don't have much time to waste, and that's the place." He pointed at the big building with the barrel of his gun. "We go in now."

  "I don't know your plans, but I should go with you." Krell shrugged. "Harnlan has never been in the building, and his knowledge is from maps I've drawn."

  "No way." Spence shook his h
ead firmly. "Star, you stay out here with flame boy while Harnlan and I go in there to tear the fuck out of the place."

  She had time to interject on this one. "I think we should all go."

  "It's dangerous in there, and it's going to get pretty tense."

  She laughed a little. "Spence, it's dangerous out here and will get pretty tense, too. Remember, the galaxy is a pretty fatalistic place."

  He smiled slowly. "Yeah, it is."

  "I think Star is right." Harnlan nodded toward Krell. "And so is he. Krell knows the temple far better than I and can save us time in finding the elders."

  Spence fidgeted where he stood for a moment, his face running through a gamut of expressions, none of them looking very pleased to her.

  After many seconds, he nodded. "Alright, we all go. Stay behind me as much as you can, and use any cover you can find."

  He turned to face her directly, and something in the way he stared into her eyes made it clear Spence could see nothing but her. After spinning the rifle to its holster on his back, he placed his big hands on her shoulders and pulled her close to him. His kiss was brief, but full of passion that fired through her like lightening.

  When she opened her eyes again, he smiled at her. "Just in case." The smile slowly faded to a serious look, one she'd never seen on any man's face before. "I love you, Star."

  Without another word or waiting for her to reply, he released her shoulders and spun the rifle into his hands again. "Alright, let's move out."

  The group moved toward the waiting temple.

  Chapter 8

  Spence wondered just exactly what he was going to do next. Shit, he thought. If I had three Marines instead of a pair of aliens, one I don't trust at all, and Star, I could do this. He wasn't so sure now.

  Nothing opposed them as they climbed the stairs and entered the building. The heat slapped him in the face, and he lowered his visor as the environment controls whined in protest at the work of keeping him cool. The aliens could handle it, but he worried about Star. In the quick glances he could spare from watching the area around them for threats, he saw sweat streaming down her face and staining her uniform. Despite the seriousness of the situation, his mind flashed back to the night of passion they shared and the sweat running down their bodies to mix as one. It seemed so long ago now, but only a few hours had passed since they snuggled together.

  Krell led them to a large door, a huge metal affair, reaching at least eight meters high and nearly as wide. Ornate carvings with what Spence took as writing covered the surface of the metal plates, and what looked like gold decorated many of the runes. Stones of many colors glittered in settings scattered around in the pictures, highlighting scenes he didn't understand and words he couldn't read.

  "This is the place where I talk to the elders." Krell shrugged, a habit all Hendri seemed to have. "I have no idea where they actually are."

  "Then we'll start here." Spence checked his rifle. He'd used six of his twenty close-quarters nuclear grenades, but the projectile magazine was still full. He jacked a grenade into the launcher.

  Harnlan touched his shoulder. "That door is more than four hundred years old."

  Spence squeezed the trigger, and the launcher gave its familiar thud as the small fusion bomb lobbed towards its target. The door rang like a church bell, and fell into the room from its hinges.

  Krell sighed. "It also contained more than a tenth of the wealth of the Hendri."

  "Sorry." Spence shrugged. He must be catching the habit. "Let's go!"

  As soon as he entered the room, he felt the temperature spike in spite of the environmental controls. The cooling system screamed in his ear, running at full power, but he felt the sweat spring out on his body as he staggered. Spence looked quickly at Star, and saw her stumble and fall, her face red and dry, the signs of heat prostration hitting her almost instantly.

  Spence fell to his knees and lifted his rifle, the trigger already compressing under his finger even before he found a target. Far too late to stop the motion of his trained reflexes, he saw the barrel was red hot and slumped from the heat. The projectiles whizzing from the chamber at almost three thousand meters per second hit the bend, and the barrel exploded with amazing energy, ripping the weapon from his hands and throwing him back against a column in the center of the room.

  As he slipped to the floor, he saw Harnlan charge into the room, but his chest exploded in flames, just as the grass in the garden had erupted. The alien collapsed, dropping the blaster, and rolled around trying to put out the fire that covered his torso. The heat made it hard for Spence to focus his eyes, but he saw the alien roll over the last of the flames, finally putting himself out, but then Harnlan lay very still.

  A voice spoke from the wall, and when he looked, he saw the image of a Hendri, but distorted by age and time, looking out at him from a video screen.

  "You fool. You could have simply accepted things and lived."

  Spence found some energy someplace, and he lurched to sit up and lean against the column. "Humans are curious. We want to know the truth."

  "Fools." The image on the screen changed, but the voice remained the same. "Now you will die." Again the view flickered to another face. "Even we will die. The Rangor will kill us, but not before we kill you."

  "That hasn't been decided yet." Spence smiled. "You may die yet, and well before the Rangor can come to kill you."

  He heard a soft moan, and looked around. Star was in a pile on the floor, her face fire-red and dry as desert sand. She looked at him with eyes that wouldn't focus, but she moved her lips. He read, 'I love you, too.'

  As he watched her dying, Spence realized he couldn't save her, but he had to try anyway.

  Using reflexes sharpened over more than a century of combat and muscles honed to perfection by countless exercises and real battles, he made one, smooth motion. Lightening fast, and without looking away from Star, he snatched the knife from its sheath on his hip and threw it directly at the speaker above and to the right of the view screen.

  * * * *

  Star couldn't concentrate, what with her body feeling like it was on fire as she'd seen Harnlan burst into flames. Somehow, though, she hung on to consciousness and had enough sense to wonder where Krell was.

  This is, she thought, how it all ends. Spence was right and wrong; right to be suspicious of the Hendri, and wrong for waiting till now to tell me how he feels about me.

  Maybe it was only her poor brain, addled once by a blow to the head and now battered by the searing heat, but she thought it suddenly seemed cooler. Her rattled neurological status may also have caused her to see Spence's motion flow like quicksilver as he threw his knife.

  The elder on the screen shrieked in terror as the knife reached the wall, throwing his slender hands over his face just before the knife buried itself in the speaker, sparks showering in the shimmering heat to come to rest on the floor, skittering about like living things as they slowly faded and died.

  As if he had all the time in the world, Krell stepped calmly into the room and picked up the blaster Harnlan had dropped as he burned. He pointed the gun at the screen, and she thought she saw a small smile play over his lips.

  "You will not harm this woman or her people." Krell pressed the trigger.

  The wall seemed unchanged for a moment, and Star wondered if the heat might have damaged the weapon. Then, in the slow motion some movie directors are so fond of, the wall slumped; it seemed to slowly dissolve, fading away to dust that ran to the floor.

  The sound from the remaining speaker came as cacophony of screams, the elders all speaking at the same time, but having only one voice to speak with. Without the images provided by the screen, she couldn't tell which of the elders spoke, but the sound was of all of them screaming at the same time.

  Behind the screen, Star saw a maze of electronics. It looked very much like the so-called brain core of Daedalus she was allowed to tour before they left the Jupiter Yards, consoles and displays everywhere showing flash
ing patterns of lights that must mean something beyond her knowledge.

  Still very calm, Krell nodded toward the room. "Major, these are the elders."

  Spence sat staring at the room for a moment, then crawled for his shattered rifle. The barrel had swelled and split, the metal ripped back like a peeled banana, but he flipped the gun over in his hands. He fumbled with the weapon for a second, and Star saw one of the small grenades drop into his hand. He pressed a button on the sphere, then tossed it past where the wall once stood.

  "Take cover!"

  Krell dropped the blaster and jumped on top of her just as an explosion rang out.

  * * * *

  Chris stood beside the command chair, keeping his voice low. "Elsa, we have to go. Now."

  She glanced at the status board. The deflectors were down to 7%, and the Field was violet with some flickers of white showing.

  He touched her arm. "We can't do anything for them."

  "I know." She took a deep breath. "Helm, take us away from the planet. Full impulse power on head—"

  The tactical officer interrupted. "Ma'am, the energy beams just cut off."

  "Helm, belay that." As Elsa watched, the Field dumped heat to the surrounding space, the color already fading to blue.

  "Captain, I have the source of the energy waves pinpointed now." The officer checked the scanners. "I can get a single torpedo in with no collateral damage."

  She thought for a minute. Following her instincts, Elsa kept Daedalus here despite the threat, and that worked out, though she didn't know what lasting damage the ship had yet. Her gut now told her to wait, not to fire on their attackers, but she had no defense for the action. Elsa wondered how long it would be before Chris decided she was taking too many risks and relieved her of command.