gaian consortium 03 - the gaia gambit

by Pope, Christine

  She’d thought Rast’s eyes might warm at her words, but he was quiet, expression far away and still graven in dark lines, as if he was thinking of something not very pleasant.

  “What I can’t figure out,” she continued, since it seemed clear he didn’t intend to speak, “is why they would even bother in the first place. I had been drummed out of the GDF. I wasn’t a threat to anyone.”

  “Oh, but you were,” Rast said then, and scowled. “You see, I made the very great mistake of being concerned for your welfare, once I learned that you had been relieved of your command — relieved of that command because of what I had urged you to do. I felt responsible, and the admiral clearly saw that. He must have seen, too, that I’d already begun to develop feelings for you. So you see, you were a threat. A Stacian, falling in love with a Gaian? It wasn’t to be tolerated. You must be kept away. Or so I assume he thought.”

  Of all this speech, the thing that stood out the most to Lira were the words “falling in love.” Had he really meant to say that? It couldn’t be true, could it? Oh, she couldn’t deny the heat between them, the physical attraction unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. But it was quite a leap to go from such a physical connection to saying you were in love with someone.

  Her face must have betrayed her, because he went suddenly on his knees next to her, taking her hands in his, warming her cold fingers with his touch. “Does that distress you, Lira? If I’ve misinterpreted certain…signs…from you, tell me now.”

  It had been some time since she’d had anything at all to drink. That must be why her throat suddenly felt so dry and tight, as if choking back the words she wanted to say. She swallowed, knowing he expected her to say something. A declaration of love? Did she love him?

  Of course she did. To deny it would be to deny that water was wet, or the vast starry sky beyond the viewscreen anything but deep velvet black.

  “No,” she said firmly. “You haven’t misinterpreted anything. I don’t know how it happened, or what it even means, but I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you, Rast sen Drenthan. I wanted to deny it, but I can’t. I do lo — ”

  And that was as far as she got, because his fingers tightened around hers and he drew her up out of the pilot’s seat, pulling her against him, kissing her, his tongue touching hers, the spicy scent of his skin and hair surrounding her, every nerve ending in her body on fire, cramping need striking her low in the belly, her core damp with desire. He pulled away, just for a few seconds, just long enough to murmur, “I love you,” before lifting her from her feet and carrying her down the hall to the cabin.

  Oh, God, yes, this was what she needed, his hands working at the fastenings of her garments, strong fingers brushing over her breasts, moving down to stroke her between the legs, a little sigh escaping his lips as he felt how wet she was, how ready. She didn’t even remember undoing his trousers, but then she had him in her hand, her fingers barely able to wrap around him as she moved them up and down. That seemed to bring him close to the edge, and he pushed her down on the bed, settling himself on top of her, no time for more foreplay, no time for anything except to take him into her, to enfold him in her legs so she could drive him in further, making one flesh of them, one being, even though they had been born on such different worlds.

  The climax flared through her and she cried out, fingers digging into the heavy muscles of his back, and he came then, too, a flare of heat somewhere deep within as his seed splashed into her. He relaxed then, but not all the way, probably fearing he would crush her beneath his bulk if he let go completely.

  “I love you,” she said, since he had cut her short previously, and it seemed vitally important for her to tell him how she felt.

  His breath was warm against her ear as he replied, “I love you, Lira. I love you with every cell in my body. You are a wonder, a gift.” Very softly, he kissed her temple, and she ached for him all over again, that he could have such passion and fierceness and yet such tenderness, all contained within one marvelous soul.

  Then he did roll off her, but carefully, keeping one hand still touching hers, as if he wanted to make sure she knew he was only moving away because that position had become uncomfortable for him. She watched him, taking in the hard muscles under the deep golden skin, the heavy brows, the fine nose and strong chin and the heavy mass of hair that fell down his back, making him somehow more masculine rather than otherwise, even though most Gaian men wore their hair short.

  He stared back at her, as if doing the same inventory of her features, her body. She could only hope he found hers as pleasing as she did his. Odd how his alienness only made him more attractive to her, rather than less.

  A chime sounded throughout the ship, signaling an incoming transmission. She sighed, wishing she could stay here in bed with Rast, but knowing she should answer it, because it could only be Jackson, and if Jackson was signaling them, then it probably meant he had information he needed to pass along.

  Rast seemed to understand, and remained where he was, watching her as she reached down and grabbed her discarded underwear and shirt, pulled them on hastily. As she headed out the door, she saw him reluctantly stirring from the bed and retrieving his own things.

  And even though the viewer on the comm unit should only show her from about the middle of the chest up, she was going to make sure she had the visuals shut off. There were some questions she really didn’t feel like answering right now.

  * * *

  Damn intrusive things, comms. Rast had known they couldn’t spend forever in bed together — although that was an enticing daydream — but he’d hoped they would have at least five minutes. Still, that minor irritation paled when compared to what had just passed between them.

  She loved him.

  He had dared to hope, but he hadn’t known. On the surface of things, it was rather a lot to expect, that she should have come to love him so quickly, and after his actions — even if completely innocent — had led to her expulsion from the GDF. That flash of fire between them, that chemistry…he hadn’t imagined it, but for her it might have been nothing more than much-needed physical release.

  But it was more. Much, much more.

  Smiling, he drew on his pants and shirt, but left the jacket where it had more or less been flung across the seat of the chair in the corner. They were on board ship, alone, and so he certainly didn’t need to be buttoned up and presentable. That suited him just fine.

  If only they could be like this always — the two of them, with a fine ship and all the galaxy to choose from. A pleasant fantasy, but not one they could afford to indulge right now. They had set forth on this quest to find the truth, and he knew Lira would not stray from that mission until she was satisfied with the answers she found.

  He heard what had to be Jackson Wyler’s voice coming over the speaker, and Rast felt his mouth tighten despite what had just passed between him and Lira. No, it was not jealousy, not precisely, but he did wish that the person uniquely suited to help them find the solution to this Eridani-based puzzle was someone other than Lira’s former lover.

  Not that there was anything remotely lover-like in her tone as she asked crisply, “So the input from our Gaian friend was helpful?”

  Rast noticed she was careful not to say Miala’s name. As far as he could tell, Jackson had never known the actual identity of his contact on Gaia, and Lira obviously wanted to make sure she didn’t let slip anything that would reveal who the hacker genius really was. Yes, Jackson was helping them, and so Lira would give him what she could, but clearly she thought of Miala and her exact whereabouts as off-limits.

  As he took a seat in the copilot’s chair, he saw Lira flash him a quick smile, then turn her attention once again to the disembodied voice coming from the speakers.

  “Extremely helpful. Once I knew how to cut off the heads from that hydra, it became a lot easier to begin to pin things down. I already told you about the connection between sen Trannick and Gared Tomas, but once I start
ed backtracking the deposits in the admiral’s accounts, I found they were coming from a shell corporation on Capris 6.”

  The origins of the money didn’t surprise Rast too much; Capris 6 was the Eridanis’ original colony, and had become the nexus for much of the Eridani Hegemony’s finance and banking. He could tell Lira was thinking the same thing, because she gave a brief nod, as if halfway expecting to hear something along those lines.

  “And this shell corporation?” she asked. “Get anything on that?”

  “I’m working on it. These things are set up to be quicksand, but I’m making some headway. I did get a name: Daos Senn. Definitely Eridani.”

  Lira looked pleased by that; something in her face brightened, and she nodded. “And what do you have on him?”

  “Not a whole lot so far. Seems like an upstanding citizen by all accounts. A lot of money, but all earned legitimately. Family has been in various forms of mining for generations.”

  Mining. Rast frowned a little at that piece of information. Could this have all been an end run by an Eridani mining interest to secure better terms for the millenite on Chlorae II? For there was no doubt in his mind that the Eridanis would have had more luck negotiating with the Stacians as primary rights holders for that ore than they would with the Gaians. Oh, the Gaians played at diplomacy and peaceful coexistence and all that — but they also would sell their grandmother if they thought they could make a profit. Not all of them were like that, of course, but unfortunately the ones in power seemed to operate solely on a philosophy of “what’s in it for us?”

  Whereas his own people still were grateful to the Eridanis, felt indebted to them for the sharing of technology that had allowed them to become something more than half-barbarians on a backwater world no one in their right mind would choose to live on. Well, no one in their right mind who wasn’t Stacian…

  Rast realized his thoughts had drifted far afield, and he pulled his attention back to the conversation between Lira and Jackson.

  “…possible someone could have borrowed his identity to cover what they were really up to?” she was asking.

  “Maybe,” came Jackson’s reply. “Wouldn’t be the first time. I’ll have to look into it further. In the meantime, would you like information on his whereabouts?”

  “Of course,” she said at once. “We have to start somewhere. Is he on Eridani itself?”

  “He has properties in three different systems, but it does look as if his primary residence is on Eridani. Sending you the information now.”

  “Great.” Somehow, though, she didn’t look entirely pleased; that frown was back, the one that made the line appear between her delicately arched brows.

  But since Jackson couldn’t actually see her, he didn’t appear to notice that anything was amiss. “Well, that’s all I have for now. It’s almost oh four hundred here — I need to pack it in. I’ll be in contact tomorrow if I get anything new.”

  “Thanks, Jackson.” She pushed the button to end the transmission and leaned back in her seat, then glanced over at Rast. Her expression softened a little, and she smiled.

  It pleased him to know that she felt cheered when she looked at him, but he still knew she was worried about something. “What is it?” he asked quietly. “I would think it would please you to know we’re getting close to an answer. And Eridani is one of the few places in the galaxy where a Stacian and a Gaian might be seen together with no one making too much comment.”

  “You’re right, of course.” She got up from her seat and, to his surprise, settled herself into his lap. The copilot’s chair, already overburdened with his bulk, squeaked in protest, but at least it appeared that it wasn’t in danger of imminent collapse. He folded his arms around her, holding her close as she continued, “I just can’t help feeling that somehow this is too easy.”

  “Easy?” That was a word he hadn’t been expecting. “I would call this situation many things, but ‘easy’ is not one of them.”

  “You’re probably right. I’m sure I’m just being paranoid.” She was silent for a moment, apparently content to rest there in the warmth of his arms, and he was certainly happy to have her remain there for as long as she desired. Then she said, “It’s just that — I know Jackson has ways of getting at data that almost nobody else does, but even so, I can’t help thinking that this Daos Senn person should have been harder to find.”

  Since Rast had no way of knowing exactly which tricks Jackson Wyler had in his personal hacking arsenal, he wasn’t sure how to respond. Surely, once Jackson had gotten access to some of the data, the rest would fall into place in an exponential manner. Or at least, that was how Rast hoped these things worked. He smoothed a piece of hair back from Lira’s forehead, marveling once more at the silkiness of those wayward strands, and replied, “Perhaps. Perhaps not. Even so, it’s a piece of information we need to follow up on.”

  She sighed, then pushed herself out of his arms. After settling herself back in the pilot’s seat and typing a brisk set of commands into the navigation system — coordinates to Eridani, he guessed — she said, “Oh, I know we have to follow this lead. It’s the only one we have.

  “I just wish I felt better about it.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  From space, Eridani didn’t really look all that different from Gaia. Yes, the shapes of the continents under the mottled cloud cover were different, and three moons circled the planet to Gaia’s one, but otherwise they were extremely similar. Lira had spent two years here in an accelerated program at the university before moving on to the Academy at Nova Angeles, but she’d had no reason to return to Eridani since then. And anyway, the university she’d attended was located on the opposite side of the planet. This was her first time coming to this particular sector.

  The coordinates Jackson had given her for Daos Senn’s place of business and his private residence put him in the southern land mass of Zedirani, near the regional capital of Teliir. Lira requested landing permission, giving her false identity and the Chinook’s faked registry, and held her breath. After all, she imagined the systems overseeing such things on Eridani would be far more rigorous than those on Miris Prime, which really, if one stopped to consider that dingy backwater world, had very little that was “prime” at all about it.

  But the sweet-toned female voice coming over the comm system gave them permission to land in one of Teliir’s four spaceports, and to tune to channel 427 if they had any questions about local currency, weather, shopping, or dining.

  “Thank you,” Lira said, then closed down the channel and turned to Rast. “So which first? Shopping or dining?”

  He grinned at her. “What about accommodations? I might like to try out a bed that hasn’t been used by Gared Tomas.”

  She found that a little rich, considering how many times that bed had gotten a workout over the past few standard days. But then she realized he was teasing her, and she smiled back. “It would probably be safer to keep bunking down here.”

  “You’re right,” he replied, then looked a little wistful.

  “What is it?”

  “I suppose I’m looking forward to when this is all over, and we can simply enjoy being together.”

  No arguments from her on that score. “Well, remember, we’ve already decided to spend our well-deserved vacation at the Eridani Majesty on Callia.”

  “Ah, of course.” He paused, then lifted an eyebrow. “How is it you know of this place?”

  She repressed a grin, wondering if he thought it was the scene of an early liaison with Jackson. That was a laugh. Back when they were together, neither one of them could have afforded to stay in one of the hotel’s bathrooms, let alone an entire room. “Because it’s one of the fanciest hotels in the known universe, not because I’ve ever had the opportunity to stay there. Anyway, we’ll order room service and drink champagne and — ”

  “Champagne?”

  “Fizzy wine from Gaia. It’s sublime, I assure you.” Or at least, she thought she recalled that it was
. It had been a very long time since she’d had a reason to drink champagne.

  “I like sublime.” He rose from his seat and bent down to kiss her, his lips warm and welcome. “I look forward to drinking this fizzy wine with you.”

  Assuming we live to tell the tale. Something about being here just felt off. She couldn’t put her finger on it, though, and so decided to keep her misgivings to herself. After all, Eridani was a highly civilized, safe world. She and Rast wouldn’t have to worry about getting shot on the street or shanghaied onto an ore freighter the way they might in some of the more dubious fringes of the galaxy. About the worst they would suffer here was sticker shock from the high prices in the restaurants or shops.

  Speaking of which, they really needed to do something about their clothing. Neither she nor Rast had brought more than one change of clothing on this little adventure, and they were both looking a little seedy around the edges. Not exactly the sort of appearance a MonAg account executive or a Stacian bureaucrat — there was an oxymoron for you — should be presenting to the world.

  She said as much to Rast, and although he lifted an eyebrow at first, he then looked down at himself, at his smudged trousers, and at her wrinkled shirt, and reluctantly agreed that they could both use some freshening up.

  A quick survey of the districts around the ’port showed that there was a shopping area less than a kilometer away, but luckily not close enough to the area where Daos Senn’s offices were located that they needed to worry about anyone from his place of business seeing them before they were good and ready. Once they disembarked and were walking down the street, she realized that Rast had been right about one thing. The Eridanis around them didn’t seem to notice anything strange about a Gaian and a Stacian sharing a spot on one of the city’s moving sidewalks…or if they did, they were far too well-mannered to show it.