“They’re over here.” Jackson went to gather the suits. “I compression packed them behind the load of circuits we found in the Zonar District.” He tossed a small disc of vacuum-sealed clothing toward Dev. The man caught it easily. Jackson continued to toss the clothing discs until they were all added to the stack.
“Now all I need are the crystals we liberated from Fajerk, the fractal hypnosis disc—”
“And are you serious? We finally unloaded the fractal disc?” Jackson was surprised. They’d carried that thing around since he’d first joined up with his current crew.
“Some Corge thinks it’s pretty.” Dev took a box off a stack and moved it aside. “And with that, we should have everything Viktor needs to get us into space.”
“You mean limp into space,” Jackson corrected.
“We’ve flown with worse,” Dev reminded him, not appearing concerned. “This is the life we chose. This is the life we live.”
Jackson knew the man wanted to mean it, but things had changed with Dev since he’d fallen in love. Violette could well take care of herself, but that didn’t stop her husband from worrying. Jackson couldn’t blame his friend. As a half Bevlon, half human, Dev had a hard hand dealt to him in life. He was cursed as a demon by humans, and the Bevlon looked at him as weak. Violette was a well-deserved bright spot.
“You know it’s not the same as it was. When it was just the crew, yes, it’s true we all knew what we signed up for. But you have Violette to think about now. Lochlann has Alexis. I won’t have their lives risked for—”
“Did you just say I wasn’t a member of this crew?” Violette Craven Stephans’ voice carried with it a familiar wryness. She was a beautiful woman with vivid green eyes that were always full of mischief. Her words were often clipped short but always sounded secretive, if not a little mocking.
“What, no,” Jackson tried to backtrack. “You’re a woman and—”
“Thanks for noticing,” Violette inserted. “But I already broke Dev’s curse. I’m not doing yours as well.”
“Wh-what? No, I didn’t mean…” Jackson tried to explain. “I know you’re the fire element with Dev.”
Rick had insulted an ancient spirit, Zhang An, and she’d cursed the five crewmen present at the time to find love within one of the five Lintianese elements—water, earth, fire, metal and wood. One element for each crewmember. If they didn’t recognize their sign, they’d be forever alone.
Evan, who was now settled on the same planet as Captain Samantha, had found Josselyn encased in stone on an ice planet. So she was clearly earth or frozen water. Dev was obviously fire with his demonic heritage. That one was easy. Lochlann had thought Alexis was a droid when they’d first met, so she could be metal. But then, they had also crash landed a ship at the time, nearly running out of oxygen, so that could mean she was connected to earth.
So what was left? Maybe wood. Maybe water. Maybe earth. Maybe metal.
In truth, Jackson hated thinking about it. There was no deciphering the vague clue. He wasn’t sure he wanted to fall in love. Companionship would be nice, but he realized the odds of a man like him settling down were not great.
He thought of the woman lying in the captain’s quarters. She would make a nice companion. Of course, he was judging that wholly on how he imagined she might be once she woke up and washed off the dirt.
“Did you hit your head? I’m a little worried about you, Jackson,” Violette teased.
Jackson again attempted to explain what he’d been saying. “You married Dev—”
“You’re stating the obvious.” Violette walked across the cargo hold to her husband. She lifted up on her toes to kiss him and her hand grazed Dev’s neck. He saw the scar that ran down her forearm, but she never talked about how it happened.
“Hello, my star,” Dev whispered.
“You married Dev, so you inherited this ship and crew, you didn’t sign up for it,” Jackson inserted quickly before the woman could interrupt.
“I’m going to pretend the Federation guys hit you in the head and forget you said that,” Violette stated. “Because I know you didn’t just say I wasn’t as invested in this life as the rest of you.”
“I didn’t—” Jackson threw up his hands. “Think what you want, woman.”
“He means to protect you,” Dev said, finally trying to help his friend out. “He means no offense.”
“Sacre!” Violette swore under her breath before saying, “Then he needs to stop acting like the women on this ship are delicate rays of sunshine in need of saving from their shadows. I earned my place in the deep black. I captained a ship full of ruffians.”
“What’s riled you up?” Alexis appeared in the doorway, as if by some fortuitous bad luck timing.
“Nothing,” Jackson said, suppressing a groan. “Dev, come on, let’s get this heavy cargo out of here.”
“Why just Dev? Don’t you think girls can help carry boxes?” Violette asked.
Jackson tucked his head and moved to a crate. He wasn’t going to answer. The weight of the cargo would take all of his and Dev’s strength combined, and even then, they’d have to slide it down the loading plank to the floor.
Dev laughed. “Leave the poor man be, my love.”
“Fine,” Violette said, her voice instantly changing to playful. “Jackson, I’m teasing you. I know what you meant. I also know that not one of us questions the decision to get you out of here.”
Jackson breathed a little easier.
“Dev, Lochlann wanted me to tell you that we should be up in the air in about an hour,” said Alexis. “I accessed the records for the ship, and I think Viktor and I have come up with a workaround. But it means the comms will be down as we divert power to the life support systems, so he’ll need you to come to the cockpit the minute the cargo is delivered and the hatch is fully secured for takeoff.”
Dev nodded and made a gruff sound of agreement.
Alexis tried to leave, but Jackson stopped her. “What about the medical booth? Will it be functional?”
Alexis arched a brow and looked him over. Finally, as if deciding there was no pressing reason as to why he’d asked, she relaxed a little. “I’ll see what I can do. I have to work on the life support systems first, but I can probably get it up and running sometime after takeoff.”
Jackson nodded in understanding. That would have to do. Alexis left.
“Jackson, if you can get the bulk down the hatch, I’ll help Dev deliver it. There’s no need for you to be seen outside.” Violette reached for a handheld device her husband carried and read the list of sold items to herself. She looked around the cargo hold before saying, “The fractal hypnosis disc is tucked behind the ESC food packs. We had to hide it from Lucien. He kept trying to hypnotize his brother.”
Violette kissed her husband one more time before going to retrieve the item.
Jackson thought of the woman passed out on the captain’s bed. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t mention her to his friends. They wouldn’t be happy that he went outside and risked exposure, but that wasn’t it. If he were honest with himself, he didn’t want them to make her leave. He wasn’t sure what was going on with the Dokka traders, and she was in no condition to defend herself if he dumped her unconscious body on the docking lot and left her.
4
Raisa pried open an eye and stared at the metal ceiling. A blurry object hovered close to her face and she tried to push away from it. She lay on her back. The comfortable mattress pressed against her, and she found it difficult to slide across it. The object followed her, and she felt a prick against her neck.
Automatically, she flung an arm up to stop whatever it was, and the back of her knuckles struck metal. The device pulled away and she was able to see a needle retracting inside a mechanical holder.
A burning sensation flowed from her neck down the side of her body, leaving numbness in its wake. The medical unit didn’t scare her as much as the unknown reason behind it. She remembered the man helping her and
was grateful, but she wasn’t exactly sure what he expected from her in return. Tilting her head to look around, her gaze fell on the manacles hanging on the wall behind her.
Raisa sat up, weaving as she tried to work her way toward the edge of the bed. A cage in the middle of the room caught her attention next. A sick feeling washed over her. Suddenly, her rescuer wasn’t appearing so heroic. She should have known better than to go to Torgan.
She swayed. This wasn’t like walking through the dusty hell of Torgan’s landscape. Though warm, the air wasn’t oppressive in the ship. She went toward the door and pressed her ear against the cooler metal to listen. The slight hum of the electronics spoke to her Angelion senses and she lifted her hand to where the door scanner appeared to be. Without looking, she followed her instincts to open the door. She heard the scanner engage, as if the unit spoke a secret language she could understand.
As the door began to slide upward, she moved out of the way.
Suddenly, the door stopped with a loud clank and the lights flickered before shutting off. Instant darkness surrounded her as each sensor light died.
Raisa held very still and tried to stifle the sound of her rapid breathing. Was someone coming for her? Why had they shut off the lights? Nothing about this could be good.
Her hands shook as she felt her way down the frozen door to find the space beneath. It had opened just enough for her to squeeze through to the other side. Instinct told her that she needed to try.
Raisa inched down onto the floor and used what weak strength she could muster to pull herself under the narrow opening. She moved her hands over her head and pushed against the outside wall. Whatever the machine had injected into her took away sensation. She felt the metal, but it was more like an impression or a memory and not the work of her nerve endings.
Her eyes felt heavy and she let them close. It was dark anyway and she couldn’t see anything. She edged under the door, pushing with all her might.
Push harder. Harder. Come on, Raisa, move your…
5
Jackson ran his hand against the wall in the darkness as he made his way back toward the captain’s quarters. Power was fluctuating all over the ship, and Viktor had diverted energy from all nonessential systems for takeoff. That included the lights. They were literally flying in the dark as Rick guided the ship off planet.
He stumbled as the ship lurched. Technically, he should have been strapped into a seat, but he wanted to check on the woman he’d rescued. He’d left her on the bed. With the gravitational controls not stabilizing the inside of the ship, Jackson worried she would be unconscious and bouncing dangerously all over the room.
Jackson heard footsteps coming toward him and realized whoever was there probably hadn’t heard him. He had a natural stealth that was hard to turn off. He consciously made noise by heavying his steps.
“Who is that?” a female whispered.
“Alexis?” Jackson asked. “What are you doing in the passageways? You’re supposed to be in the cockpit.”
“It took me a moment to process the right information, but I think I might be able to figure out the wiring for the lights. They don’t match this ship’s official schematics at all.” Alexis had been used as a test subject by a corporation that manufactured pleasure droids. They uploaded files into her brain and used her as a base model to create lifelike companions.
“That’s good.” Jackson wasn’t sure how much was stored in her brain, but he’d heard Lucien estimate there were millions of files, from ship schematics to biomedicine to books by famous authors. Humans weren’t meant to carry so much knowledge, and what was left after the experiments was a living computer database. At one point she’d been connected to the Pleasure Droid Corporation mainframe, but that connection was severed to protect her from capture. It sometimes took her a while to sort through the information, but she almost always came through. She’d even saved Jackson’s life once when a shipwreck had left him with a knife blade lodged in his side.
“We’ll see if it works.” She sounded frustrated. “Some of it is Viktor’s modifications. Some of the wire patterns resemble a few known samples of smuggler ships caught by the Federation over the years, which means there are probably secret holds none of you has even seen on this thing. Others look to be official HIA mods, which honestly, I don’t want to know how you guys got hold of those.”
“That doesn’t explain what you’re doing running around in the dark. You should be somewhere safe,” Jackson said.
Alexis laughed in dismissal. “Violette was right. You are feeling overprotective today. I—ow!”
Alexis stumbled, and he followed the sounds she made to catch her before she fell.
“Blasted Rick,” Jackson swore. “The wires will have to wait. The ship isn’t steady and—”
“What the hell was that?” Alexis pushed away from him.
The vibration of the ship changed, becoming lighter as they entered deep space. The lights flickered and turned on. He looked down to where Alexis was sweeping her hand over the floor. She gasped and pulled back.
“What in the blazing star trails?” Alexis swore under her breath. “Where did she come from?”
The woman he’d rescued lay on the floor beneath the door. Her head and one hand stuck into the passageway, face down. It looked as if she’d been trying to crawl out of the room.
He knelt beside her. “I rescued her and didn’t know where else to put her.”
“You kidnapped a—”
“Rescued,” Jackson stressed.
The lights flickered again. A hissing sound came from the door. He shared a look with Alexis. They both grabbed an arm and jerked the woman into the passageway. The door reset itself and slid shut, barely missing her feet. The woman landed partly on his lap. Jackson uncomfortably adjusted his hips and moved out from under her.
“Jackson, why were you hiding this stranger on board? Who is she?” Alexis leaned over to examine the woman’s head with a worried look.
“She needed help.” The answer was simple, but it was the only truth he knew to tell.
“Why didn’t you say anything before takeoff?” Alexis stroked back the woman’s hair to reveal the side of her face. “I don’t think I kicked her too hard when I tripped on her head, but it’s hard to tell under all this dirt. I’m more worried about her neck.”
“We need this ship back to full power,” Jackson said in irritation. “The safety mechanisms should have engaged. She could have been crushed.”
Alexis arched a brow but clearly chose to ignore is grumpy tone. “What happened to her?”
“I’m not entirely sure. I found her in the docking lot.” He didn’t feel the need to mention she was stealing at the time, not that anyone on the ship would care about that little fact. “I had the medical unit in your room examine her and it said she was dehydrated and had three fractured ribs.” Jackson supported her head. “Help me turn her over.”
Alexis helped roll the woman onto her back to make her more comfortable. Dust covered her in patches, dirtying her face and clothes. Jackson stared at her face, willing her eyes to open and knowing it was best if they didn’t. A fractured rib would be excruciatingly painful. How had she not screamed in agony as he ran through the docking lot with her?
“She’s the reason why you kept saying we needed to restock the medical booth before we took off.” It was more a statement than a question. “I wish you had told me. We had to divert power away from the medical booth. It was a calculated risk. It was either that or our food supply. We choose to keep the food simulator running.”
“We need to help her. I had the medic give her something for pain. I don’t know how she made it to the door, but she shouldn’t have been able to get up and walk.”
“We might be at the tail end of the pain medicine cartridges. They’re probably not at full potency.” Alexis sighed heavily. “I kept telling you guys to take your hangovers like men.”
Jackson ignored the jibe. He slipped his arms beneath
the woman’s body and lifted her off the floor. Her slight figure worried him, and he tried not to put pressure on her rib cage while supporting her head. “Can you access one of your head file things and see if you can help her?”
“Sure. I’ll access my head file things. For the record, I prefer to call it a database.” Alexis looked at him thoughtfully. “But why do you need me to look it up? Didn’t they give you field medicine training in the military? I thought you were some kind of super soldier. Surely you’ve come across worse injuries than this.”
“None of my missions involved rescue orders.” Jackson didn’t like thinking about the past, let alone talking about it. “If we were injured, we had an injector to keep us going until we reached the base.”
Alexis gave him a contemplative smile. “Do you think she’s the one to break your curse?”
“No,” Jackson instantly denied. “I think the true curse is the threat of the curse. It makes us overthink each situation, each woman we come across. When you think of how many stops we’ve made all over the universe, how many women we’ve crossed paths with, the odds are not in our favor.”
“Lochlann told me what Zhang An said.” Alexis’ eyes glazed and she stared forward. He knew she was accessing the memory. She spoke the words the spirit had use to curse them, “Together you travel and together you’ll remain. Tied and joined like the five elements of our people.”
“The road to happiness is very rocky for all of you.” Jackson finished the ghost’s curse. He didn’t need Alexis to tell him the rest. He remembered every word. Zhang An had gone on to say, “You will find your love hidden within the mysteries of the five elements. One element for each of you. The corresponding element will hold the secret to your future happiness. But fate is not clear. If you do not recognize it, you will lose it and be forever alone.”
Five elements. Five men. Simple as far as curses went.
And yet very complicated.
His Earth Maiden AE Page 3
