Blackthorn (Taurian Empire)

by Nate Johnson

  Stepping back, she felt her cheeks grow warm. What was it about this man that made her feel this way? As if they were connected now. Two people drawn together.

  Pulling her eyes away from him. She turned her back and waited.

  Was this for real? she wondered. Had she really been saved by the Imperial Navy?

  She had been so sure that her father’s plan had been a failure. So positive that his enemies would take her. But no, the Imperial Navy, and this man, had rescued her. The thought was hard to comprehend. How was it possible that in the vast galaxy, an Imperial Navy ship was close enough to save her? What were the chances?

  “We need to get into the shuttle,” the man said, interrupting her thoughts. “The others will be coming soon.”

  Logan, she reminded herself. His name is Logan.

  She allowed herself to be shown into the shuttle and seated. Logan bent over her as he belted her in. Once again she realized just how big he was. She remembered struggling to get away from him and how easily he had held her. Her fists had felt as if they were pounding into solid rock.

  Their eyes met for a brief moment. But this time, it was he who pulled away.

  Once he had her settled in, he moved forward to the pilot's chair and turned on the radio.

  “Blackthorn. This is Blackthorn One. Over.”

  “Go ahead Blackthorn One,” a voice said on the radio.

  He paused for a second as if trying to gather his thoughts. Then said, “Skipper, I have a passenger, we are in the shuttle. Any word on the lieutenant, or Peterson and Washington.”

  “They are okay, Washington has an injured ankle. They are making their way to the shuttle. Why aren’t you using you suit radio?”

  Kaylee watched as Logan’s shoulders slumped in relief that his crewmates were all right. The crease in his forehead finally relaxed.

  “Sir,” he continued on the radio, “the passenger is in my suit. It was the only way I could get her to the shuttle.”

  There was a long pause on the radio, then finally, “roger, understand.”

  The airlock door opened, startling Kaylee. It seemed like everything startled her. Would her life ever get back to normal? she wondered. Pirates, handsome rescuers. Uniformed men with guns. Not the normal life of an ambassador’s daughter.

  Two men, dressed in Navy suits held a third man. His arms draped across their shoulders. His strong ebony face twisted in pain. The blond one pulled the hatch closed behind them and latched it down.

  All three men hesitated when they saw her. Their eyes growing big with surprise. But then, they helped the injured man to a seat.

  One of them, an officer, she thought, turned to the blond man and said, “get us back to Blackthorn.”

  Logan jumped out of the pilot seat and knelt down next to the injured crewman.

  “You guys made it,” he said with a big smile. “I thought for sure you’d be nothing more than a nasty stain on the bulkhead by now.”

  He should smile more often, she thought. It was so much better than the scowl he normally wore.

  “The Higgs engine took the brunt of the blast,” the injured man said as he gritted teeth.

  “Yeah,” the blond crewman said from the pilot seat. “Except dummy here left his foot exposed. Snapped it like a twig.”

  Kaylee winced. Another man injured because of her. She thought of the five crewmen on the Voltaire. All dead because of her. The thought made her insides curl up in a ball as she fought to hold back the tears.

  “Hey, lieutenant,” the blond crewman said. “We’re spinning like a top, around three different axes. When I de-sync the gravity field. That ship is going to tear itself apart.”

  Kaylee’s heart jumped. “My things,” she said. Her clothes, her tablet, everything was back on that ship.

  “We can’t wait,” the officer said. “If we lose sync while still attached, the centrifugal forces will tear us apart also.”

  “Do it, Peterson,” he told the crewman.

  From the corner of her eye, she caught Logan looking at her with concern. It was nice to know that at least someone understood.

  Everything was gone.

  Her hand went to her side. The report she had received was still there. It had taken her almost two weeks to convince her father. Even then, he had only agreed that she was in danger. He refused to believe the rest of her theories.

  The report was what was important, she reminded herself. Everything else could be replaced.

  “Hold on,” Peterson said

  Kaylee felt the ship shift, and for a brief moment, her stomach felt light. As if she had reached the top of a tall arc. Only to have things settle back into place as the shuttle regained its equilibrium.

  Her insides turned to stone as the Voltaire twisted and turned like a child’s top. As she watched, pieces of the ship began to come loose and spin off into deep black space.

  A panel from the rear of the ship broke away and headed directly towards them. The blond crewman cursed under his breath and steered the shuttle out of the path of the lethal debris. With only inches to spare.

  Logan chuckled. “Stop showing off and get us home.”

  “Screw you, Miller,” the blond crewman said as he continued to make constant adjustments. “Shut up and let me work.”

  After their close call, the trip over to the Navy ship was rather uneventful. Slowly, her world came back into focus. What should she tell them? she wondered. Could they be trusted?

  She looked over at the man sitting next to her. Logan had risked his life for her. He could be trusted, she felt for sure. Somehow she knew in her very soul. That here was a man who couldn’t be bought, nor intimidated.

  He was not like the men she knew. The men of her father’s world. Either sycophants or assholes. Each of them trading favors and debts to rise higher in their world. Each of them willing to sell their very souls to achieve fame and fortune.

  After they returned to the ship. Several crewmen scrambled into the shuttle and helped the injured man out. Each of them threw her a curious look, but they quickly returned to focus on their task.

  “Come with me,” the officer said to the two spacers. “The captain will want to hear what happened.”

  This ship is different, she thought as she stepped out of the hatch and onto the Hanger bay. Bigger, yet more crowded. Built for function not form.

  Crewman hurried with a dozen different tasks. The officer led the way and stepped aside to allow her to enter the bridge before him.

  An older gentleman with two and a half bars on his lower sleeve examined her as if blaming her for what had happened to his crewman.

  “How is Washington?” he asked the officer.

  “I think he broke his ankle, but he should be okay,” the young officer replied. Kaylee caught a current of nervousness on the young officer’s part. Was this captain that much of a disciplinarian that he had reason to be nervous? Nothing had been his fault.

  The captain nodded as he turned to Logan. “Why aren’t you in your suit? That’s about six different regulations broken.”

  Kaylee gasped. He couldn’t seriously be blaming Logan.

  Logan smiled, silently letting her know that things were going to be okay.

  “Sir, as you taught us. Knowing when to bend regulations is sometimes necessary.”

  “Sir,” Kaylee stepped up. “This is not Logan’s fault. If he hadn’t given me his suit. I would be dead right now.”

  “Logan is it?” the captain said with raised eyebrows. “Not Petty Officer Miller?”

  Her eyebrows narrowed with concern. Had she misspoken? Had she gotten him into more trouble?

  The captain relaxed just a little and turned back to Logan. “What happened?”

  Logan quickly explained about her tumbling out of the compartment. How the explosion and the escaping air left him no choice. About their scramble to the shuttle.

  She noticed that he didn’t mention passing out. A detail she decided that the captain didn’t need
to know.

  Once Logan had finished his report, the captain turned to her.

  “And you Miss Williams. What can you tell me? Why were you attacked by pirates? Where are the rest of the passengers?”

  Kaylee took a deep breath. It was now or never, she realized. If she told them the truth, she pulled them into her world. If she lied, she might fail.

  “I was the only passenger on the Voltaire. My father hired it to take me to Taurus,” she said as she watched their faces.

  “When did they attack, and how?”

  Kaylee fought to maintain control. The memory of what had happened was sharp and painful.

  “About six or seven hours ago,” she said, “Captain Kinkade, of the Voltaire, informed me that we were being chased by another ship. And that he thought they would catch us.

  We ran for several hours until they fired on us, I believe intentionally hitting the engine to stop us. The captain told me to hide.” She shrugged her shoulders. “There aren’t a lot of places to hide on a ship, as I am sure you are aware. So I got up into the luggage compartment. I thought if I hid in plain sight, they might miss me.”

  The captain continued to stare at her for a long moment as he considered what she said.

  “And your father is?” the captain asked.

  “My father is Ambassador Williams. On special assignment for the Emperor.”

  You could have heard a pin drop. No one breathed as they all looked at her as if she’d spoken in a foreign dialect.

  She quickly glanced over at Logan. For some reason, it was important to her to know what he thought. He looked back at her with neutral eyes. No emotion. No shock at her words.

  “And this mission for the Emperor?” the captain asked.

  Kaylee gathered herself. “My father was charged with evaluating both Montlake and Pyre for admittance to the empire. He was to recommend which one, both, or neither should be admitted.”

  It sounded so innocent, she thought.

  “As you can imagine,” she continued, anxious to get all the facts out. “There are several factions that are interested in his recommendation. Both within the empire and on the two planets in question.”

  “I can imagine,” the captain said as he raised an eyebrow, encouraging her to go on.

  “My father learned that someone was going to use me to influence his choice. That they were going to hold me until he recommended what they wanted him to do.”

  The captain frowned. “I can’t imagine the Empire would allow that,” he said. “Once you were taken, any decision he made would be disregarded.”

  Kaylee looked at the captain. Then around her at the other men on the bridge. They didn’t understand her world.

  “What if that was what the kidnappers wanted?” she said. It would have been obvious to the people she knew. “What if they pretended to be one thing, telling him to pick one planet over the other? When all the time, knowing my abduction would force the opposite choice. The one they wanted all along.”

  Silence settled over the men around her as they tried to come to some kind of understanding.

  “My father, realizing that he would never know for sure who wanted what, or who was pulling the strings, decided to remove me from the equation. Therefore, he sent me to Taurus, where he knew I would be safe.”

  The captain slowly nodded.

  “Well, I can’t take you to Taurus. We don’t have the stores or fuel. I can, however, return you to your father. I assume he is still on Montlake.”

  Kaylee nodded as her insides flooded with relief. She would be safe with her father. At least until he could get her away again.

  She turned to glance quickly at Logan. Curiosity burned at her. What did he think of all of this?

  The captain turned to one of his crew. “Chief, have someone clear out my things. Miss Williams can stay in my cabin until we get to Montlake. I’ll take the extra bunk in the lieutenant’s stateroom.

  “Aye, aye, Sir,” the Chief responded.

  “Miss Williams. If you will follow the chief, he will get you situated.”

  Kaylee let herself relax. At least for the next few days, she would be safe. These men were not part of some nefarious plot. They didn’t care about the inner workings of the imperial court. All they cared about was doing their job. She wondered briefly if she would even know how to interact with such men.

  As she turned to follow the Chief, she glanced once again at Logan. Besides, she thought, it might be nice to have a few days to get to know this man. To learn about someone who wasn’t out to use her. A man who treated her like a person. Not a piece on a galactic chessboard.

  Chapter Four

  Logan Miller was pissed. A deep down anger that ate at his gut. Leave it to the gods of the galaxy to dump a pretty woman into his arms then make her as far off limits as possible.

  Life just wasn’t fair.

  An ambassador’s daughter. On a special mission for the emperor no less. About as far away from a lowly spacer as a woman could get. So far out of his league that you couldn’t even see her league from where he stood.

  Gritting his teeth, he slammed the beacon access door closed and moved to the next one. He could have waited to do this work. There would be plenty of time on the trip home after they left Montlake. But he needed something to keep himself busy.

  “Excuse me,” a soft feminine voice said from behind him. A faint scent of lavender washed over him as he turned. Someone had lent her a set of coveralls. Probably Jonesy, he was the smallest guy onboard. Even then, she had to roll up the cuffs of the sleeves and pants.

  It didn’t matter, she was still the prettiest thing within two hundred parsecs. Hell, she could have worn a burlap bag, and she’d still have been beautiful.

  “Hello Princess,” he said with a bitter tang to his voice.

  Her eyes grew big. Obviously, she was not pleased with him.

  “I’m not a princess,” she responded, lifting her chin, daring him to dispute her.

  Logan scoffed. “Maybe, but you’re awful damn close.”

  The two of them stared at each other for a long moment. A spark traveling back and forth between them. Perhaps he had been in space too long. But there was something about this woman that tore at his insides.

  “I came to say thank you,” she said at last.

  Logan softened, the woman was pure class. There was no doubt about it. Civil society said that she should be gracious and thank him for his service.

  The thought just made him angry again for some reason. What did she think? He was some servant to be patted on the head and then sent on his way.

  He shrugged his shoulders. “That’s what they pay us for,” he said as he turned back to working on the beacon. It took a great deal of concentration just to plug the damn diagnostic computer into the serial port.

  Damn, she was still there. He could feel her looking at him. He could sense that delectable soft body only a few feet away. Damn, he really had been out in space too long.

  “What are you working on?” she asked out of thin air.

  He turned back to her and saw that she really was interested. Why? What did she care?

  Logan shrugged his shoulders. “Just gathering data from these beacons.”

  “Are they important?” she asked innocently.

  He studied her for a long moment. She was not joking, she really was curious.

  “It depends on your interpretation of ‘important’. Without them, the entire empire would come to a screeching halt. So yes, I guess you could say they are important.”

  Her eyes grew big, “Really, why is that?” she asked.

  Logan smiled slightly. This was a subject he could discuss all day.

  “There are sixteen inhabited planets in the empire, right?”

  She nodded in agreement.

  “Plus, another six independent worlds. Like Montlake and Pyre. Correct?”

  “Seven, actually.” She responded. “A new planet, Intrepid, was reported last month. It’s n
ot really set up yet. So, I guess we could say six with a soon to be seventh.”

  Suddenly, she stopped talking, and her cheeks grew a little pink. His brow narrowed in confusion. Why was she embarrassed?

  “Anyway,” he continued, “It would take a fast ship. An imperial cruiser, what? Two months to go from one end of the empire to the other. And that’s hitting each wormhole perfectly.”

  “Yes,” she said as if he were stating the obvious.

  “Well, the beacons, in addition to marking the entrances to the wormholes, also, maintain a communication link through the wormhole. Someone from Valeria can send a message to New Kansas, on the other end, in two days.”

  Her brow narrowed for a second. “The beacons do that. I didn’t know. I just always thought ... I guess, I never really thought about it.”

  “Yeah, they also perform a traffic control function. Making sure ships don’t try and use the wormholes at the same time. It could get rather messy.

  She looked back at him with those big beautiful eyes of hers and nodded.

  Logan laughed. She really was pretty, he thought, then pulled his mind back to reality.

  “Yeah, well that’s what we do, maintain the beacons. Pull out the old ones, install new ones. Nothing glamorous. But if we didn’t. Eventually, everything would come to a grinding halt.”

  She nodded as if she understood. Then she smiled at him and pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

  “The captain mentioned that you fix the equipment onboard.”

  “Some of it,” he replied as his mind furiously tried to figure out why she was talking about him to the captain.

  An awkward pause settled between them.

  At last, she seemed to come to some kind of decision and said, “Well, thank you again. And I returned your suit to Chief Bowen. He said he’d have someone take it back to your quarters.”

  Logan nodded as he desperately tried to think of what to say next. This was so ridiculous.

  A brief look of disappointment crossed her face then she smiled slightly and turned to leave.

  “Maybe I will see you around, Logan,” she said over her shoulder.

  “It’s a small ship Princess, I’m sure you will,” he replied as he watched her walk away. For some reason, this time, when he closed the beacon access door, he did so softly, and with a smile on his face.