by Susan Kelley
Sally whimpered, the sound that had awakened Callie. Joe held his breath and his heart pounded faster. Sally quieted, and he relaxed.
Callie lifted her head off his chest so she could look at him, wondering when she’d shifted to such an intimate position. Her legs tangled with his, and her hips pressed against him.
Joe stared over her head at Riba. Callie had only seen minute traces of emotion on his face before and struggled to decipher what she saw now. Wonder? Disbelief?
Callie could hear the baby suckling and surely Joe could see Riba’s breast as she fed her daughter. No lust gleamed in his eyes. After a while Sally burped and Riba made a soft sound of amusement.
Joe shifted, his legs pushed hers from between his as he tried to move away. But he had no place to go.
Callie laid her head back on his shoulder and reclaimed the tiny amount of open space between them. He was warm. She was tired. Trust was a worry for the morrow. Again he held his breath for a moment. He carefully wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer.
Sleep tugged at her, muddling her thoughts. She slid one of her legs back over him so her thigh brushed against his abdomen. She slid into a comfortable blackness of slumber and wondered dreamily why he’d brought one of his guns to bed. It made such a hard lump on his belly.
Chapter Three
It wasn’t a gun. Callie froze in the middle of her stretch when she encountered the lump again.
Joe made a small noise. He reached over his head, the movement forcing her to lift her head off his shoulder. He unsealed the bag and cold air rushed in as he scrambled out. He closed the sleep sack behind him but the warmth had gone.
“Is it time to get up?” Riba asked. Sally stirred and complained.
“Joe thought so.” Had he slept in such an uncomfortable state all night?
“I wonder if he wants his shirt back?” Riba held up the camouflaged top.
“I think he needed to cool off.”
Riba shifted and put the baby to her breast. “I haven’t been so warm at night since we crashed. Did you and Joe have enough room? I hope Sally didn’t wake you up.”
“I was warm too.” Callie didn’t tell her Sally had definitely awakened them.
“I think it’s still dark out. I wonder why Joe got up?”
Callie couldn’t help but smile. “I think he’s been up all night?”
* * * *
Joe offered Callie water from his emergency bag. The condensers had collected only a few cupfuls during the night. They had to reach the waterhole before dark. She shot him a glance and hefted the bag as if weighing it. He watched while she took a small sip.
“It’s your turn.” Joe waited for her refusal. The men carried the ladies by turn, and Callie had passed on her last one. Roz carried the infant and the child in the lead position today while the others touted the adult women. Only Callie remained uncooperative.
“I can walk.”
“You’re slowing us down. Get on my back.” Joe turned around, his pack hanging over his chest and waited.
Callie sighed and placed her sun-reddened hands on his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist. Joe started walking while she still shifted in search of a comfortable position. There wasn’t one for him.
His body had yearned for her all night. He hoped it was only hunger for sex. Many times in the past he suffered from unfulfilled lust and learned he could handle the distraction. Today proved him wrong. His lustful thoughts refused to be tamed.
Acacia had climbed on his back without protest and Riba also. The only increase in his heart rate with those ladies pressed against him had resulted from fatigue. With Callie astride him, his heart thumped wildly as her soft legs pressed tight to his sides and her breasts bounced against his shoulders.
His legs burned as he climbed a steep incline. Thank Unon, the red rock formations now in sight marked the waterhole. Soon he could put her down and wash the smell of her from his skin. He could not pass another night without proper sleep.
“Slow down, Joe. We’re leaving the others behind.”
He slowed, realizing he’d caught up to Roz. He let Callie slide off of his back when they encountered the first red boulders littering the desert. They walked around the largest rock protruding from the sands, and the small spring came into view. A few scrubby trees hugged the shore of the pool.
“Can we live here?” Glory squealed in her high-pitched little girl’s voice.
Her cry startled the boarks lying beneath the trees. They jumped up and charged.
* * * *
Joe pushed the women behind him. He should have warned them about the boarks. Vin stepped up beside him, and Roz handed the children off to their mothers.
The female boark stretched out her neck, roaring and showing her teeth. Joe waited until she galloped within ten yards. He leaped to meet her, swinging his fist at her nose.
The shock traveled up his arm and into his shoulder as he connected with the soft tissue of its snout. With a massive grunt, the female slid to a stop and sat back on her haunches. The other smaller boarks piled into her, creating a large, hairy heap of the bear-like creatures.
“Fash-cursed beasts,” Vin muttered. He swatted the lead female across the head. “Get up.”
“Spirit Father, protect us,” Grace prayed, wrapping her arms tight around Glory.
“What are they?” Callie stood behind Joe, breathing on his neck.
Joe stepped away, turning to make sure everyone had reached the plateau. Night would descend in less than an hour.
Acacia gaped at the stunned boarks. “They’re magnificent.”
Roz bent to check on the child. The little girl moved out of her mother’s embrace and flung her thin arms around the marine. Roz hugged her back! He actually touched Glory for no reason!
Vin broke into Joe’s shocked confusion. “Sir, we need to make camp.”
Grateful to the distraction from the unbelievable sight, Joe started giving orders. “Roz, start digging. Vin, secure the boarks. Tar, feed the women.”
Joe joined Roz preparing the bed pits. If they had more time they could have used the shelter of the rocks to set up a real camp before the temperature dropped. Yalo took up Vin’s shovel and joined them in digging. She glared at Joe and dared him to protest. He didn’t dare.
The women and children used some of the pool water to bath. The sun had warmed it, but in the morning it would have a layer of ice.
“I thought we should use the same sleeping arrangements as last night,” Callie said as she walked over to him.
Joe gave a short nod of agreement, resisting the urge to salute but earning a frown from her anyway. Didn’t she want his agreement?
He and Tar checked the boarks one last time, making sure they’d calmed down. Then they joined Roz and Vin at the pool. They washed out their clothing and spread it on the hot rocks. The material would dry in minutes. They used sand to scrub off the grime of four days in the desert and rinsed with handfuls of the precious water.
The warm liquid did nothing to cool off Joe’s body. The night stretched long in front of him. “Roz?”
“Yes, sir?”
They slowly pulled their clothing back on, the scent of sun-heated fabric pleasant and familiar. “Why did you touch the little girl like that?”
“It comforted her.” Roz shrugged his shoulders and avoided Joe’s gaze. He stared at the ties on his pants as if it took all his concentration to fasten them.
“What did it feel like?” Vin asked after a moment of silence.
Roz finally looked at them. “It made me feel … warm … not like with a woman … but all satisfied like I’d … I can’t say exactly.”
“Remember these are civilians,” Joe warned them. “They’re under our protection. We should not think of them in any other way.”
“Sorry, sir.” Roz snapped a salute.
Joe helped Vin cover up Tar and Acacia. The round, little scientist began quizzing the marine about the boarks before Tar ev
en sealed the sack. Roz sealed his bed as they approached but not before Joe saw the child wrap her arms around the marine’s neck. Joe sighed and threw sand on top of the sack.
“Your turn, sir,” Vin said.
Joe slipped into his bed, sealing it against the sand and cold. Callie squirmed to make room for him, and his body noticed.
How was he to reprimand Roz when his thoughts wandered to things more dangerous than comforting a child?
* * * *
“We’ll spend a day here,” Joe announced as they dined on the same dried fruit as before. “The boarks need to learn your scent so they’ll carry you.”
Callie stared at the shaggy, white beasts lounging on the far side of the pool. Their shoulders stood taller than her head. Their thick legs ended in paws as large as two dinner plates. She couldn’t forget the curved fangs the boarks had shown during their terrifying charge on the previous day. “We ride them?”
“Yes.” Joe walked away after giving his answer.
“He doesn’t bore you with details, does he?” Riba smiled and shook her head.
Callie smiled around her yawn. She hadn’t slept well. How could she, knowing Joe lay awake beside her?
“I hope there are other kinds of food in this place they’re taking us to,” Grace said.
“They’ve survived on whatever they’re eating. Let’s have a little gratitude for being alive.” Yalo frowned at Grace.
“You’ve changed your mind about these men you labeled freaks?” Acacia asked with a sly smile.
Callie answered. The two women often argued opposite sides of any issue. She couldn’t decide if they enjoyed the verbal sparring or if they really didn’t like each other. “The marines saved our lives. I’m not saying we should trust them but let’s not complain about their largesse.”
“I’m going to wash my clothing,” Grace said. “Come along, Glory, before the hot time.”
“Good idea.” Yalo stomped after them.
“I’m going to ask Tar to introduce me to the boarks.” Acacia trotted over to the taciturn marine, her hands moving in excited animation.
“I have to wash out some of Sally’s linens.” Riba rose and followed after Yalo.
Callie watched the group of women and children. They were not only her best friends. Riba and Sally were her only surviving family. She loved them and had put them in danger by taking them on this ill-fated diplomatic voyage. Guilt laid its heavy hand on her shoulder.
Their home planet of Giroux needed her, but they might be stuck on this harsh planet forever. Such a scenario simplified her situation. No difficult political decisions awaited her here. How long until the high court on her world declared her dead?
If rescue did come, she must make some hard choices. A husband with the strength to rule beside her and keep the vultures at bay would help. Geoff Hadrason and his Orphic Mining Company didn’t fool her with his words of concern and visions of a greater future. He wanted Giroux for its ore. And he wanted her but not for her plain face or courtly charm. He wanted what only the full-blooded heir of the line of Giroux queens could give him.
* * * *
Joe and Vin finished setting up the tent they hadn’t had time to put up the night before. They’d left the tent and some other supplies at the waterhole with the boarks while they investigated the crash. They couldn’t use stealth when riding the large cantankerous animals so had left them behind.
“They’ll be more comfortable from now on,” Vin said. The back of the tent abutted the shallow cave they’d enlarged a few months ago to hold emergency supplies. It wasn’t deep enough to keep out the heat but with the tent in front of it, it provided a small respite.
“Only an hour before the hot time. Show the civilians their quarters for the next day.” Joe left Vin to it and climbed to the top of the largest rocky formation. Heat rose through the soles of his boots, and soon the stone would heat enough to scorch skin.
He heard Callie struggling up behind him. Should he help her? Was such an act too intimate?
“Thanks for the hand.” Callie panted as she joined him.
“I didn’t…” Joe stopped. “You should be in the shelter.”
“Vin said I had a little time left.” She shaded her eyes with a slim hand and looked over the expanse of white sand. “What are you looking at?”
“The sky.”
“The sky?” Callie tilted her head and looked up. “It’s blue.”
Joe caught the sarcasm this time but didn’t know how to answer or even why she used it. He pointed east.
“See the line of purple on the horizon? It’s a storm.”
She squinted against the glare. “It looks so far away.”
“Miles away but it will catch us before we reach Camp Haven.”
“Camp Haven?” Callie lips curved into a smile.
“The valley we discovered…” Joe lost his place in the conversation. She really should have covered her face, but he couldn’t reprimand her. Not when she looked at him as she did now, with her eyes sparkling with interest and lips turned up with pleasure. Or was it amusement at him?
“It seems a fanciful name for you guys.”
“Webb, our doctor, named it.” A name meant only a word used to identify something. Who cared what a camp was called?
“And now it will be our haven also.” Callie looked again. “Do you think anyone will ever find us? I don’t even know what planet this is.”
“Crevan Four is its military designation. It’s not on the regular merchant routes. I believe no one comes here except pirates hiding from the military.”
“That’s why you thought our beacon might bring trouble?”
“It still could.”
“Should we have turned it off?”
“Not if you want rescued.” Joe waited, but she said nothing more about it. Did that mean she didn’t want help to arrive? After a moment he spoke again, hoping to keep her beside him a little bit longer. “We won’t be able to spend another night here as I thought. The oasis seems to attract lightning strikes. We’ll leave after the hot time. With the boarks we’ll travel faster.”
“Will we still have to sleep together?”
Joe’s heart thudded against his chest. “Not everyone. The tent can hold four adults.”
“Good. Riba or I will move into the tent.”
Joe gave a short nod of agreement. His mind held the memory of her body pressed against him though he’d hid the arousal she inspired.
“Which one of us disturbs your rest more, the baby or me?”
Joe’s thoughts stumbled. What words could he use without offending her because surely the simple truth would? “I … the baby smells funny and makes noises like a small animal.”
Callie narrowed her eyes, an expression he interpreted as displeasure. She turned away and started down the slope. “I’ll tell Riba.”
Joe wondered how his words had angered her. “Why don’t you decide where everyone sleeps?”
She spoke over her shoulder. “We’ll do what you want. Keep your shirt on tonight.”
What did that mean? Joe started to follow her but the words she muttered to herself stopped him.
“Dim-witted, antisocial robot.”
* * * *
“Have some of this, Callie.” Acacia held a piece of dried meat toward her. The science advisor had quizzed the marines on the boarks, the weather, their equipment and even their physical abilities. Her eyes sparkled with the thrill of adventure.
“What is it?” Callie’s mood didn’t match Acacia’s.
“Some kind of lizard meat and rather tasteless, but we need protein.”
Callie’s jaws ached before she chewed the meat soft enough to swallow. The marines had spread a sheet of fabric over the sand for the women while they erected the tent and staked the boarks on short tethers.
“Those boarks can go without food and water for five days,” Acacia continued. “The marines only tame the females because the males are too large and vicious.”
>
“I wouldn’t call the females tamed,” Yalo said.
“Riding them beats walking,” Riba said in a scolding tone. “And this food is nutritious so who cares if it’s tasteless.”
“I wasn’t being critical, Saint Riba,” Yalo said. “I know they’ve been helpful, but you always see only what you want to see. You’d trust a pitsnake if it had a citrusmelon in its mouth.”
Grace wrapped Glory closer. “Let’s not argue when we’re not in disagreement. We’re alone on this planet with the marines and can make our own judgments of them in spite of the rumors.”
“Grace is right. These men may be rude and utterly lacking in the social niceties we’re accustomed to, but they’re determined to help us. We’ll reserve trust and judgment.” Callie didn’t want an argument.
“Roz is nice,” Glory said with a pout. “And he’s pretty, too.”
They all smiled at the little girl’s take on their situation but as her staff gnawed on more of the jerked meat, Callie wondered what they would do if rescue never came for them. Could they build a life here with no one for company but the marines?
* * * *
Joe switched on the ventilation system. Callie lay on her back and stared at the sack a hand’s breadth above her face.
“Do you know you’re a strange man?”
What answer could he give?
“You seem intelligent. Are you?”
“The tests say I am.”
“You’re a good leader, well-organized and efficient.”
Again he had no answer. He felt trapped, but his body responded to her scent anyway. She turned toward him, and his breath stuck in his lungs. The sun had added pink to her cheeks, yet she remained flawless.
“Why do you act so … confused at times?”
“Like now?” Joe asked and then cursed silently.
“Are you confused?”
“I don’t … you speak … I’ve never spoken with a civilian before you.”
“Never?” Callie turned on her side to fully face him. “Not even once? I don’t understand.”
“Our only contacts have been with other military men, occasional scientists and some government officials.”
