by Calista Skye
Fusion
a SciFi Romance
Calista Skye
Copyright © 2015 by Calista Skye
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
One
“We’re here. Now, while we’re on board you will follow my every command, do you understand? You will not touch anything, you will not speak to anyone, you will not wander, you will… Are you listening to me, Cadet Theson?”
My head snapped forward, I’d literally been staring into space, wondering what I’d done to deserve this hellish assignment.
“Answer me!” my commanding officer bellowed, his weathered gaunt face reddening.
I refrained from rolling my eyes at him and plastered a neutral expression on my face. “Yes, Sir! I am listening,” I shouted back, knowing not one jot what he’d been droning on about. Something boring no doubt.
Trapped for two days, with only Petev Enner, my commanding officer, was what nightmares were made of. How I’d drawn the short straw for this assignment I did not know. And there was little doubt that he hated me, and the feeling was mutual.
And to make it worse, we were already here; our shuttle was just about to embark upon the Te’Vanian Ambassadorial Space Station on one of the most mundane and boring jobs ever imaginable. I mean seriously, I was training to become an engineering officer, I didn’t need to waste my time on routine maintenance… some pipe blockage or flow problem the work order had said.
I wanted to play and tinker with the big engines, or at the very least the powerful generators. If I’d wanted to fix leaks and become a plumber, I would’ve damn well signed up to be one.
“…Remember what I said,” Enner continued as he rose and walked towards the rear of the shuttle.
“Get off your lazy ass and follow me, Cadet,” he shouted again, startling me into motion.
Resigning myself to the lonesome and torturous hours ahead, I unbuckled the safety harness that was strapped across my chest and followed Enner to the rear door. I looked back at the seat with longing. The shuttle would be going back to the Quincy, the Terranian’s station in the Aquarii sector, and I considered staying put. But insubordination was not an option if I wanted to become a fully-fledged engineering officer. There was absolutely no chance I could back out of the assignment now that I was here without being kicked out of the Academy. I’d have to suck it up.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Enner asked as he scowled at me.
“I don’t think so, sir,” I replied truthfully. I had my tools, secured in a bag upon my back and with them my belongings I’d brought for the duration of our stay.
Enner nodded towards the seats behind us. I glanced again and as my eyes took in the small area, I sighed as I noticed Enner’s own tools, waiting patiently, stowed beneath the seat he’d occupied.
You have got to be shitting me.
“Well, we don’t have all day, Cadet.”
The docking hatch slid back with a whoosh and a clank. I blinked twice to clear my vision and for a moment, I couldn’t quite figure out what my eyes were seeing before me.
A wall, made out of, well, flesh stood before us. Hands rigid behind its back. His expression completely dead. I’d never quite seen anything like it before in my life. He was hot!
The male, well I presumed he was a male, for his traits were similar to my own humanoid species, but he was huge… and if my eyes were not deceiving me in the glum shaft we were in, he was a warm shade of purple; the faded colour of a once rich red wine stain that’d soaked into a cream cloth. He was most alluring and mesmerising to look at. So, this was what a Te’Vanian looked like, I thought.
I swallowed as I took him in, rude, but I didn’t care. This was the most interesting thing to happen to me that day, all year really. Nearly twice the size, width ways, of an average man back on the Quincy. And he was tall too. Standing, I guessed, at nearly 7ft. I was minuscule in his presence and even Enner had to crane his neck to address the man.
“Work order?” the huge Te’Vanian said, omitting any greeting. One of his hands moved from behind his back, awaiting Enner to present the official document that declared we were in the right place and sanctioned to be there.
“Commander V’Aben, pleasure to see you again,” Enner said in a smarmy tone as he dug around in his top boiler suit pocket. He was laying it on a bit thick, I thought. He was never this nice to anyone else.
My eyes remained fixed upon the Te’Vanian in front of me. I noticed his other hand wavered over a cylindrical object that hung front a belt around his tapered waist. A weapon, perhaps?
I frowned, and took in my surroundings for the first time since stepping off the shuttle and onto the unknown station. What kind of ship is this? It was highly unusual for weapons to be openly displayed like this. And if I was being truthful, my heart began to hammer in my chest. I should’ve paid more attention to why we were here, I thought, scolding myself.
Enner successfully retrieved what he’d been searching for and the Commander thankfully moved his hand away from his belt. I breathed a slow gust of air from my nose. Enner held out his arm and with a quick wave from the I.D.D. (Identification device), he was processed, the Te’Vanian allowing him to pass by him.
I watched his every move, it was like I was in a trance; how could the bulky man before me be so graceful when he was so big? But he’d stepped aside with a fluidity that made me wonder if he could dance… Did Te’Vanians even know of dancing? Surely they did? I pondered what it would be like to be led around a full room in his arms.
“Arm,” the giant demanded, his dark teal eyes boring into mine.
“What? Oh, here,” I replied. I rolled up the long sleeve of my navy blue work overalls and elevated my arm so he could use the I.D.D to scan my recently implanted tracker for my details.
However my hand arced a little too fast and accidentally bumped into his, and for a second a sliver of his flesh and mine made contact. An unusual spark of pleasure ran screaming with delight to my center. I shuddered but as soon as I registered the tingling sensation I knew instinctively I’d made an error in judgment… that I’d done something wrong. Touching never ever felt that good.
A low growl emitted from the towering hulk as he captured my wrist in a vice lock. “You dare to touch me?” he hissed.
I furrowed my brow and attempted to twist my hand free of his gloved hand. Handsome or not, alien or not, no-one holds me captive, unless I want them to.
Instead of pulling away, I stepped closer the Te’Vanian, my head held high and looked deep into his luminescent blue eyes. “Let. Me. Go.” I tried to sound as threatening and as confident as I could, even though I knew the only way I was going to get out of his clutches was if he indeed let me go.
His eyebrows rose, the first sign of real emotion from the deadpan alien, it caused his ingrained markings that coated his forehead to ripple.
He released my wrist, the corners of his mouth twitched upward into what could’ve been considered a smirk. God, he was cute… and I found myself longing for that tiny gap of skin between his gloves and uniform to come once again into contact with mine.
“Cadet Theson! What in hell’s name do you think you are doing? Step away this instant!” Enner scolded, and stomped over to insert himself between the security officer and me. Enner gave me a disgusting look, his eyes shooting daggers. “My sincerest apologies, Commander, she’s new. She is obviously unaware of your customs despite being given a thorough briefing,” he said as he gave me another
dirty look.
Briefing? What they hell was the old man on about? There was no briefing, I thought. Unless he considered him yammering on about not touching things on the… ohhh! Well, shit.
How the hell was I supposed to know that that also included people? I bit my tongue to prevent a torrent of swear words to come pouring out of my mouth.
The Commander only grunted a response. Did that mean I wasn’t in any trouble? You never knew with these alien species… a broken law could mean my pretty little head on a platter, served to the whole crew.
“Follow me,” Commander V’Aben barked as he turned and proceeded along the docking channel.
I picked up Enner’s tools and hefted them over my shoulder and followed him and the Commander who were slightly ahead. Who knew maybe I was being led to my punishment? To the kitchen perhaps, ready to be made into a serving platter. I rubbed my neck with my free and gulped. Let’s hope not.
Two
“What on Terra were you thinking? You stupid girl!” Enner hissed as we followed the Commander through the winding and almost indistinguishable corridors. “Didn’t you listen to a word I said? V’Aben is the security commander on board, you could’ve had us thrown off the ship… caused a galactic incident.”
“I didn’t know,” I said, trying to get him off my back and tried to concentrate on the big Te’Vanian in front. The cut of his uniform and the toned muscles beneath made it look as if it was painted on by the finest artists in the Aquarii system.
“…And to think the Ambassadors will be here soon; they could’ve stepped into a hostile environment all ‘cause you didn’t pay attention!”
“Ambassadors?”
“Yes! That’s why we’re here, you twit. How in Hellion’s name did I get stuck supervising you?” Enner continued, his face a darkening to a most unattractive pink. Maybe he was going to pop, I thought gleefully.
“Problem?” A gruff voice interrupted. Commander V’Aben towered over the two of us, his eyes fixed upon Enner, waiting for a response.
I saw the lump in Enner’s throat bob as he swallowed. “Nothing to worry about, Commander.”
Placated, the big guy turned to me and I could’ve sworn I saw his blue eyes soften.
V’Aben waved a meaty paw at a grey panel mounted upon the side of the corridor. Doors slid apart and he handed a reading device to Enner, then indicated for him to step inside the room.
“Work.”
He said it like an order. This would be interesting, I thought, and waited for Enner to object to the rude demand. Enner was not known for his work ethic let alone being told what to do. He was used to being the one in charge. All the cadets back on the Quincy hated being paired with him.
But, he surprised me as he nodded and went willingly into the room and I was about to follow when the commander shuffled to block my way.
“No more touching,” he warned again before letting me pass. I longed to hear more of his voice as it once again sent shivers down my spine, but assumed the Te’Vanians had a limited vocabulary… it was a miracle that he could speak what little of our language at all.
Biting my lip I looked up at him to get a last glimpse of his alluring face and the tattoos the followed the arch above his eyebrow.
I couldn’t look away; it was as if my vision was locked solely upon him. I stared into his mesmerizing crystal teal eyes, the most beautiful I’d ever seen. Those from Terra, their eyes were never that vibrant or made me feel tingly all over, what with their muddy greys and browns.
“Merea! Get in here!” Enner shouted impatiently.
I nodded my agreement not to touch anything else and V’Aben stepped aside, breaking the contact. My heart was pounding in my chest as I walked forward, the door closing automatically behind me. I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and took my first glance around the room we’d be escorted to. My new home for the next few days.
The enclosed space - I’d been expecting small quarters - was expansive, open and welcoming with warm beiges and neutral tones covering every surface. It was in stark contrast to the cold steel greys I’d witnessed walking through the ship. It was more like home, more what we Terranians were used to.
It finally dawned on me that I was standing in the Terranian Ambassador’s Wing, made for at least five occupants, and had all the luxuries one could need when staying aboard during the quarter century Ambassadorial talks. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad staying here, I thought. I could get used to a life of luxury.
“Are you just going to stand there and gape?” Enner bellowed from the other end of the wing. “You’ve got work to do.”
“I’ve got work to do?” I questioned as I walked towards him, the soft material under my heavy boots cushioning every footfall. “What will you be doing?”
“Supervising,” he said matter of factly, “from over there.” Pointing to a resting room.
“You can’t be serious…” I muttered.
“What was that Cadet Theson? Are you back-chatting me?”
“No, Sir,” I grumbled.
“Very well then. Here’s the work order. It should be an easy fix, in and out in a few hours I expect. Then you can spend the next few days relaxing like me.”
“You’re just going to leave me to do it by myself?” I asked, my blood starting to boil. No wonder the other cadets hated him, how were we supposed to learn if wasn’t willing to guide us?
“Yup. You’ll figure it out.” And with that he walked away and disappeared into one of the resting rooms, the door closing behind him with a clink.
I sighed. I had two options. One: get on with the work and do the best I could and bitch and moan about it later, or two: screw Enner over and sit on my ass and see how much trouble he’d get into if the work wasn’t complete before the ambassador arrived. The latter was highly tempting, and it was unlikely that I’d be reprimanded for being left unsupervised. But I liked a challenge; I enjoyed fixing things, even though I didn’t want to give Enner the satisfaction of doing his work for him. I was just supposed to be helping, learning, after all.
But with another sigh, and my mind made up I took a look at the digital work order he’d handed me, trying to make sense of the schematics and where the actual problem was.
I spun around and took in the room, taking note of where each bulkhead stood and rotated the device in my hand to get my bearings. I needed to find the H4-R panel that housed the valve for the inlet pipe.
According to the work order, there was no water flow to this section of the ship, which wasn’t much of a problem for Te’Vanian’s since the room wasn’t in need, until now. But I did wonder why they couldn’t have their own engineers fix the problem… I doubted it would take much figuring out. Was there some unknown rule I didn’t know about that prevented them from accessing this part of the ship?
Finally, after pulling back several layers of drapes that hung around the section, hiding the panel I needed to find and the sterile ugliness of the bulkheads, I found the panel I was hunting for.
I brought over my tools and made quick work of removing the access panel, placing it over to one side. Through the mass of cables, I managed to squeeze my hand through, moving them slightly so I could have a better view of the valve and pipe I needed to find.
Upon first inspection everything seemed in order. Manually I twisted it back and forth; there were no loose connectors that I could tell just by feel. But I got out my diagnostics machine, hooked it up to the nodes to make sure.
The readings came back, confirming what I’d known all along - the valve was fine. The problem lay elsewhere. I sighed, it could’ve been an easy fix, take out the valve and replace it with a new one, but nooooo, I thought, my life was never that easy.
Studying the schematics again I tried to trace where the pipe led but the detail just wasn’t there. It showed the bare minimum of the room and not much more. I’d have to do this the old-fashioned way, I thought with a groan.
I hunted further along the bulkhea
d; my torch exploring every nook… there has to be a bigger access panel along here somewhere.
“Yes!” I breathed as my fingers touched upon a latch and found the right tool to unhook it. The access panel was surprisingly small when you considered the height and girth of the Te’Vanians I’d seen… perhaps he was an anomaly, and just unusually large, I mused. But I wouldn’t know for sure until I met another to compare to, and that was highly unlikely. Once the work was done, we’d probably be escorted back to the shuttle bay with no further interaction.
I pondered if I should tell Enner what I was going to do, but then thought fuck it. He’d probably scold me for disturbing him. So, with a last glance towards the room where Enner was holed up in, napping no doubt the lazy sod, I strapped my tool bag onto my back and squeezed into the tiny dark enclosure, crouching on my haunches, as I pushed forward.
Quickly, I found the pipe that I needed to trace again, my hand patting it more to reassure myself than anything and slowly made my way through the crawl space. If that valve wasn’t the problem, then surely it was another one further up the line that was causing the issue, since the work order stated everything was A-OK down at the source.
The pipe seemed to go on forever. My knees creaked from the crab like way I was moving and the muscles in my thighs burned in protest. This was one helluvah work out, I thought as sweat dripped from my body.
The air seemed to have thinned and it had gotten increasingly warmer the further I progressed. And for the first few turns, still following the pipe, I made a mental note of the access panel designations I’d passed; H3-R, H3-Q, H2-M. But soon all the letters and numbers jumbled together in my warm addled brain.
I was panting hard; there was no way I could continue on like that. I twisted my body to look back down the way I’d come. It was too far to go back. I’d never make it. I’d end up passing out before I even made it back to the first turn.
