Gray shrugged. “Could be her employer or a fellow worker being a prick. Either way, we deny knowing anything about Dr. Drake to the delegation demanding a ride to Rycan or anyone asking.”
Both Cahill and Angelica nodded.
“I’ll go let Penelope know about the detour and delay. Once we get to Echo Province, I’ll meet up with Nathan and explain our dilemma and foster his cooperation to coerce the Rycan delegation to have a change of plans and allow the Mirage to escort them. She’ll have to disembark the ship for the security sweep anyway so I’ll just bring her with me.”
“I almost can’t wait until we all disembark wearing full containment suits.” Angelica smiled as if the very idea of thwarting the Rycan delegation brought her personal pleasure.
“I’ll put you in charge of disembarking the crew and the fragrant plan of action.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Angelica stood. “Tell Dr. Drake that neither Cahill or I will ever discuss her ‘condition’ with anyone. Not even her.” Cahill didn’t hesitate or disagree with Angelica putting words in his mouth, but nodded immediately.
“And if you need me, I’ll volunteer to be her eunuch in waiting so she can dispense with the physical aspect of her disease cure,” Cahill paused and gave Gray a pointed stare then continued, “If she’s interested.”
Gray nodded. “I appreciate it. I’ll ask her, but hopefully it won’t be a problem.”
The three made a few more plans for landing on Echo Province and then Gray dismissed them and headed back to the command deck. He’d send a message to Penelope from the bridge. Glancing at his time piece he noted that he’d left her over four hours ago. He wouldn’t be able to see her in person without a filter mask in place.
He dreaded telling her about the delay of two days in getting to the Parsec Colony. He also recognized that he should have moved out of his quarters sooner. His growing feelings for her aside, she deserved the quiet peace of not worrying about sudden blackouts, excruciating pain and having to find him to cure her atrocious virus.
Dr. Drake had wormed her way into his heart. He didn’t know if Penelope would ever be interested in a permanent life with him.
Once cured, she’d introduce him to her brother and he’d set up a meeting with the trade governor and then their initial agreement and subsequent affiliation would be complete.
Would she want a further relationship even though he traveled a lot?
Gray vowed to spend his free time practicing what he’d say to the trade governor versus all the things he wanted to say to Penelope regarding a future together.
Chapter 8
Penelope hid in her quarters for the next two days too embarrassed to take a chance on seeing Ensign Cahill after he’d seen the SOS virus in action down at the med lab. While she trusted Gray not to discuss it over much with his crew, she also didn’t want to face him. The pending discovery of her lack of funds and connections to the Trade Governor also weighed on her soul.
Gray communicated with her several times a day, but he’d moved out of his quarters and into a cabin next to Cahill’s on the other side of the ship so that if another blackout occurred, she wouldn’t be forced into pain. His actions were honorable and steeped in concern for her feelings and welfare, but Penelope missed him.
After having such a volatile sex life from the very beginning, Penelope found Gray even more stimulating when they conversed. And that was all they’d done for the past two days. Talk. He worried about her. She could tell from the inflection of his voice each time he called.
She hadn’t seen him since the incident in the medical lab. He’d cured her and left to assume the neglected responsibilities of his job as captain instead of serving as her stud for pain every hour of the day.
“Penelope?” Gray called from the communication device on her desk.
“Hi, Gray.” She raced over to sit in the desk chair like a school girl with a crush on the popular boy at school who’d just called to make all of her dreams come true.
Gray was the sexiest man she’d ever known. If her virus wasn’t in the way, she suspected they would have started a relationship. She missed having normal sex with him versus the crazed lust required by the virus and the sound of his voice sent her libido into the stratosphere. When she wasn’t crazed with desire and trying to fuck him because of her disease, any contact between them sped her heartbeat. She fell a little bit more in love with him after each late night chat they shared.
The first words out of her mouth after her greeting was always, “I miss you.”
This time like all of the others, his face transformed and the smile that shifted into place made her heart flip over in her chest. “I miss you too, Penelope. I…” He started to say something else, but stopped and cleared his throat. By the sudden stern expression on his face, whatever he was about to say wasn’t going to be good news.
“I need to tell you something. I’ve put it off too long.”
“Bad news.”
“Yes. Unavoidable bad news.”
Penelope’s back straightened as if bracing for “Okay. What is it?”
“There’s been a distress call from a planet near the route we’re taking to the Parsec Colony.”
Penelope knew in an instant what the bad news was. He’d been saddled with a distress call. Anyone with a pulse knew what that meant. Gray had to drop everything and answer the call or be ruined.
The galaxies had been a dangerous place for decades prior to the new government currently running the show. Space travel had been put into a lockdown mode after the intergalactic war almost one hundred years before. The resulting piracy afterwards became barbaric during and after the war. A war that made a great many people homeless and desperate.
The Galactic Federation of Planets changed everything, generally for the better. However, space was guarded closely. Miles of paperwork were needed to get a ship into the cosmos, not including all the stringent rules the spacecraft had to follow once approved. Additional paperwork was required by the Interplanetary Alliance Coalition, the governing body on their home planet of Bravura.
“I understand. You have to respond or lose your transport license.”
Gray’s expression actually relaxed. Now an explanation wouldn’t be needed. “Yes. Exactly that.”
Crossing her arms in front of her as if she discussed a science question on Bravura with a colleague, she asked, “How long is the diversion from our journey?”
“Two days each way for a total of four days.”
Penelope exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “That isn’t so bad. It’s the original quote you gave me.”
“Right. However, nothing is ever easy.”
“Meaning?”
“We’re headed for Echo Province. Heard of it?”
Echo Province. Penelope searched her memory and the only phrase which popped up was insane panic-stricken security measures. “That’s not the planet that requires every ship to disembark the entirety of his passengers every time they land, is it?”
“The very same.” From somewhere behind him on the command deck, loud klaxon signaled a warning, and Gray shifted his gaze away his screen a second before piercing a solid look back to her. “Listen, Penelope, that sound means we’ve reached the outer perimeter marker of Echo Province space. We’ll be docking in a few hours.”
“We’ve already reached Echo Province?”
“Yes. You’ll have about four hours to get ready to disembark. Don’t worry. It shouldn’t take too long once we land. Perhaps eight hours at most. I’ll meet with the delegation seeking emergency transportation and explain that we have a leak in our sewer waste system onboard, which is pouring into our ventilation system.”
“When did this happen?” Penelope’s body tensed from neck to hips. She glanced at the vent in her room.
Gray grinned. “It didn’t, but that’s what we’re going to tell them so they won’t want to go.”
Penelope laughed. “Well, that would cert
ainly put me off. Won’t they be angry?”
“No. We’re going to try and persuade them to take another vessel already docked at Echo Province awaiting the laborious paperwork already in motion, but so far without clearance to the Rycan system.”
Penelope relaxed. “So you’re going to fake them out so they’ll find other transport?”
“Exactly. I have to meet with the leaders of the delegation and the two negotiating parties, but I’m certain it won’t take long. Then we’ll be on our way to the Parsec Colony and I will have fulfilled my response obligation.”
“Okay. That is very smart. Good idea. But can I stay with you when you go to the planet surface?”
“Sure. All of us will be wearing full containment suits when we disembark for the security sweep. Angelica, Cahill and I believe it will make a suitable statement to make the proposed argument go our way. And it has the added bonus of us not having to explain your condition.”
“Thank you, Gray. I know you’re jumping through hoops for me.”
“Well, that’s okay. Once I meet with the trade governor and sell him on the merits of the Dalton Prime Corporation, it all will have been worth it.” He grinned again, but she felt a sharp pain in her chest. Before the chill completely surrounded the smile glued in place on her frozen face, she nodded. Another warning bell sounded on the bridge, distracting his attention again.
Eyes focused on her soul again, Gray said quickly, “I’ve got to go, Penelope. Don’t worry. Everything will work out fine, and we’ll be on our way in no time.”
She nodded unable to say anything else without blurting out the confession that there wouldn’t be a meeting with the trade governor. The screen went to blue on his lovely smile, and Penelope resisted her body’s effort to force a collapse into a violent crying jag. She’d wept enough.
Gray had sacrificed so much for her and this horrible virus she carried, and she wasn’t going to be able to even secure passage back to Bravura without signing over an IOU. An IOU she wouldn’t be able to pay off if she lost her job at the science lab. The vivid possibility of her job being lost after working so hard to earn Dr. Ledreder’s regard for the past several years brought on another fit of tears.
Born into a poverty stricken family of five on the outskirts of Bravura’s largest and most beautiful city along with hoards of refugees from the war, Penelope and her older brother were the only two in their small village to have escaped. Her brains and aptitude for science got her a full scholarship ticket to a higher learning center sponsored by the Bravura Science Labs. She then secured a job after killing herself for years.
Similarly, her brother Phillip, had earned his place in the government job he held with an innate ability to decipher complicated mathematical problems. He also had the gift of a photographic memory. He was invaluable to the Trade Governor, but his status was that of a low level communications officer and not manager to the Governor.
Given another twenty years, Phillip might make it into the manager’s office as a junior representative, but only if his only sister didn’t ruin his career with her massive and increasing virus related problems. Scandal of his nature was the kiss of death for those coming across the borders to work.
The nobility of Bravura didn’t publicly begrudge those of a lower birth a “decent” living within their ranks, but plenty of resentment went on in the actual working environment. Entitlement, like the kind Damon insisted he only joked about, was alive and well in all facets of the Bravura government and many of those with the status of a high born family didn’t usually let those considered lesser ever forget it.
Inevitably, her mind raced back to the day she’d discovered she had the SOS virus and all the desperate things she’d done to secure passage to Parsec Colony for a cure. There was the matter of the funds she’d “appropriated” from her department and even if everything went her way, there was no getting around an embezzlement charge. Invariably her train of thoughts always led to the unexpected sexual encounters she’d had because of her disease. She was lucky it had only been two men and not ten like poor Alice, her patient back on Bravura.
Alice was another possible casualty of Penelope’s journey. She hadn’t dared to communicate with the Bravura Science Lab to check on her, and unfortunately she didn’t trust Damon with her care. She could only hope that he didn’t wake her or worse, ignore her.
Along with procurement of the remedy, Penelope hoped to discuss the virus with another scientist on the Parsec Colony. She wanted enough time to confer with other doctors who’d dealt with the disease eager to learn any additional information she could which would help Alice.
Two hours later, Penelope exited her cabin, holding on to Gray like touching him was her only link for survival. She released him once they made their way to the lower floor and exited out of the cargo bay area into Echo Province’s quiet dock. There was one other ship docked on the other side of the large space, but Penelope couldn’t see the ship’s name.
It was likely the one sitting idle without paperwork and the vessel Gray was about to persuade the Rycan delegation to choose instead of the Dalton. Penelope sent up a small prayer that by the end of day, she’d be back on Gray’s ship headed at top speed for the Parsec Colony and not writhing in agony with the prospect of harboring the SOS virus for the rest of her life because of fate and this emergency stop on Echo Province.
* * * *
The docking bay on Echo Province was just as cold and miserable as Gray remembered. Nothing had changed, including the severe scenery of this harsh foreboding planet.
Echo Province, known for their unforgiving craggy landscape, also had an insensitive attitude regarding trade negotiations with other planets. And none worse than with the Seriillial warriors, inhabitants from the other side of their own planet.
The Rycan delegation came to negotiate an agreement between Echo Province members and the Seriillial warriors, regarding a mutual trade of goods. Each of the representatives needed the other, but both refused to budge on their desires to be total rulers of the planet they mutually shared.
Gray knew from Nathan and the initial request for transport off of Bravura on the Mirage over a week ago that the Rycan delegation had given up hope for a peaceful negotiation on planet Echo Province and regarded being here a waste of time.
There probably wasn’t a true emergency on Rycan, but a spoiled need by the delegation to get away from the endless arguments of two races that might never get along. Echo Province and the Seriillial warriors shared the planet, but agreed on absolutely nothing else.
Penelope released her grip on Gray’s forearm before they descended the ramp to the dock. He patted her arm in an effort to comfort her before he took the lead as his crew exited the ship.
After being separated from her for the past couple of days, he was surprised by the stuttering of his heart the moment she’d stepped from her cabin. Even with the filter mask covering her face, she looked sexy enough to kiss. The best they could accomplish was to touch face masks together.
Behind him Cahill and Angelica, also wearing filter masks, descended the ramp on to the floor of the docking bay. They were the last to disembark the Dalton and as soon as they stepped to the floor, a contingent of Echo Province soldiers dressed in full explosive resistant suits entered his ship to sniff out any potential mischief aboard.
To his right, Gray saw the Mirage locked into the alternate bay, looking lonely and abandoned. Echo Province demanded that the crew stay off the ship while they waited for the delegation to complete the negotiations.
They hadn’t gone three more steps when Gray spotted a group of five Rycans approaching swiftly from a blast door cut into the jagged rock that made up the walls and ceiling of the docking station area.
A stodgy, short bald man with a ring of hair around his head attached to a full brown beard, led the pack of four other Rycan negotiators in his party. Dressed formally in the recognized uniform denoting he was an “official” Rycan negotiator, the pompous e
xpression on his florid face summed up his personality in seconds for Gray.
“I’m Frade, leader of the Rycan delegation to Echo Province, and you are?” He leaned forward but didn’t extend a hand in greeting.
“I’m Captain Gray Wyckoff, of the Dalton.”
Next to the lead Rycan delegate, trying to keep up with the fast moving party of negotiators, was a tall thin man wearing a bright green jumpsuit.
Frade pointed to him and said, “This is Hendle. As you can see, he’s from this planet.”
Given that Hendle’s clothing choice was so completely opposite of the dreary surroundings, this man had to be a high official of Echo Province low dwellers. They were known for compensating in extremes to offset their lackluster environment. His squinting suspicious eyes, pursed lips and permanent frown lines bracketing his sour expression, made Gray triply assured of his identity as a high official from Echo Province. Perceptually unhappy was another mark of an Echo Province low dweller.
“And where is the leader of the Seriillial Warriors?” Gray asked, wondering if poor Nathan was trapped somewhere with a group of them.
Frade glanced over his shoulder briefly in disgust and said, “Somewhere back in the tunnels. Good riddance. They’ve ruined this negotiation with their unwillingness to compromise anything.”
The Seriillial Warriors, wherever they were, usually dressed in bland brown, black and gray clothing to camouflage them in their topside surroundings. They also exuded a very pungent body odor if anyone got too close, the stench of which was guaranteed to keep strangers away to avoid continual retching. He couldn’t imagine being locked up with them for fifteen hours as Nathan had been upon his arrival here.
Frade continued in an arrogant tone without looking up. “It doesn’t matter where those foul creatures are. Negotiations are officially off. And another thing, Captain Wyckoff, it’s about time you arrived. We’ve been deadlocked in our hopeless discussions and now our own planet needs us immediately. We’ve been waiting eternally for you to show up and escort us…” His angry speech trailed off as he looked up and finally noticed Gray’s filter mask.
Sex or Suffer [Dark Colony 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 15
