Pursuit

by Val St. Crowe

  Atticus let out a disbelieving laugh. “You don’t really buy this, do you, Saffron?”

  “I’ve seen proof that she’s telling the truth,” said Saffron. “And I’ve watched my husband die. I’ve seen both Calix and the captain be gravely wounded. They want her.”

  Atticus shook his head. “All right, I thought I was crazy. That’s why I hole up here all on my lonesome. But you’ve all gone cuckoo out there in space.”

  Saffron shrugged. “Believe it or don’t. I don’t care.” She turned again and went out the door.

  Atticus sat back down opposite Gunner. He stroked his beard. “Well, well, well. You really believe this.”

  “You’ve heard rumors of it before, Atticus,” said Gunner. “That both the Xerkabah and those crazies in the Cloister can see the future.”

  “Yes, sure, but it’s bullshit,” said Atticus. “It’s not true.”

  “That’s what I said,” said Gunner. “Until she kept having visions and every one of them turned out to be true.”

  “And this stuff about some future champion? You believe that? It’s the kind of thing a cult leader would make up to control the masses.”

  “Sure,” said Gunner. “Except that cult leader would keep her close, not send her off planet on a ship—a specific ship—my ship. That’s all just strange, letting her go like that.”

  Atticus picked up his glass and sipped at it. “If you leave her here with me, how is she supposed to become a mother to a champion? Is this champion conceived through mystical means? Or am I meant to be his father?”

  Gunner furrowed his brow. “No, I’m not leaving her here for you to take advantage of her.”

  Atticus laughed. “Pretty girl, though. A little young for me, but I could—”

  “You promise me you won’t touch her.”

  Atticus’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, really, Gunner?”

  Gunner sighed. “I’m just asking for you to keep an eye on her for a short time.”

  “Two weeks,” said Atticus. “She can stay for two weeks.”

  Gunner shook his head. “I need longer than that.”

  “A month, then. Final offer.”

  Gunner really didn’t know how he was going to come up with another place for Eve within a month, but it was a short term solution, anyway. He nodded. “All right. A month.”

  Atticus lifted his glass. “To space crazy.”

  Gunner picked up his own glass. “To space crazy,” he said ruefully.

  They drank.

  * * *

  Two drinks later, Gunner returned to his room to go to sleep for the night.

  When he got there, the lights inside were on, and he had been fairly sure that he’d left them off when he went to dinner earlier. Maybe they were on some kind of timer or something, except that didn’t make sense, because it was night, and why would the lights be on when it was time to sleep?

  He unholstered his plaspistol, even though he wasn’t sure if he’d reloaded the cartridge lately. When was the last time he’d used it? With the Xerkabah on Durga? Because he’d run it dry then and—

  There was someone in his bed.

  He raised his pistol.

  The person sat up and turned to him. Eve.

  He lowered the gun. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  She was holding the covers to her chest. Her shoulders were bare. “Well, it’s a little bit complicated, but if you’ll hear me out, I swear it makes sense.”

  “Are you…” He shoved the pistol into its holster on his belt. “Are you naked in my bed?”

  She swallowed. And then she let go of the blanket she was clutching to her chest and it slowly slid down her body, over the slope of her breasts, revealing them an inch at a time. They were round and firm and tipped with tiny pink nipples which were puckered like small, hard pebbles in the air from the coolant system.

  Gunner’s mouth was dry. His pants were tight. He felt all the blood rushing to his groin and away from his brain. He couldn’t put together words.

  “Only once,” said Eve. “I’m hoping once will be enough. This happens to be the time when I’m fertile, so I think it’s probably fate, just like everything is, so if we just do this tonight, then—”

  “What are you talking about?” His voice was grating and harsh, and he couldn’t take his eyes off her bare breasts.

  She swallowed again. “Don’t be angry. I was hoping you would find me… pleasing.” She arched her back so that her breasts stuck out even more.

  He stalked across the room and picked up the blanket and covered her. “What is wrong with you?” he rasped.

  She bit down on her lip. “Captain—”

  “No, you know what? I don’t care. I’m going to turn around, and then you’re going to get dressed, and leave, and we’re going to pretend this never happened.” He sucked in air and turned his back. Now, his mind was racing. Maybe he was being hasty here. He’d found the girl attractive before, and she was obviously willing, and there was no crime in taking something freely offered, was there? But he didn’t even like the girl.

  All right, well, maybe he didn’t mind her, but there was no reason to hop into bed with a woman just because she was a bit nice to look at. He didn’t do that. He had sworn himself away from women after Silvi, and things were better for it.

  Eve was talking. “Listen, I’m sorry if you don’t find me appealing. Maybe if we turn the light off, it will be better. But you can’t say no, captain. We have to do this.”

  “No,” he said. “We don’t.”

  “We do,” she said. “It’s destiny. I’ve always known that we would. That’s why it had to be your ship. That’s why…” She paused. “I don’t know why this is so hard to explain. I’ve seen us together in visions. I can’t be sure if this is the right room, the right surroundings. It doesn’t seem right, but then the future is always in motion, and things may have changed, but the basic thread is always the same. Together, we have to conceive the champion. You’re his father, and I’m his mother.”

  Gunner turned around. “What?” he demanded.

  She pulled the covers down again to expose herself. “Just touch me. We can do it quickly.”

  “Stop flashing me your tits.” He picked up the covers and shoved them over her again, only this time, the back of his knuckles made contact with her soft skin, and he felt himself stiffen inside his pants. He recoiled, backing away, both hands up. He could not process this. Not at all. He was supposed to be the father of the champion? That was why she’d gotten on his ship. She’d had visions… “You’ve had visions of you and me… together?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “Well, that’s crazy,” he said. “Because I’m not doing that.”

  “You have to,” she said. “Look, I’m not saying that I necessarily am jumping for joy over all this either. I mean, you’ve grown on me, but I had hoped I would develop more impassioned feelings for you by now. I haven’t. If I had my way, I wouldn’t choose this for myself.”

  He let out a disbelieving laugh. “Oh, well, thank you very much.” He was even more confused now.

  “I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with you,” she said. “You’re very attractive. And you’re a good man, like I said before. To want anything else would be greedy, I suppose. This isn’t about what I want. This is about saving the galaxy.”

  “Yeah? How do you figure?”

  “The champion,” she said. “It’s always been about the champion. So, we have to do this. We have to create him. We have to force ourselves to—”

  “I don’t want you to force yourself to do anything,” he said. His hardness was rapidly deflating from all this talk, and he was relieved. “That doesn’t exactly get me going, princess, thinking that you’re just going to be enduring it.”

  “It’s not quite as bad as all that,” she said.

  He laughed helplessly and dragged both hands over his face. “Besides, I can’t… I’m never going to… Getting a woman pregnant is not…�
��

  “Oh, right,” she said, nodding sympathetically. “Because of your wife.”

  His jaw worked. “What do you know about that? Did you see some other vision?”

  “No,” she said. “Pippa told me, and—”

  “How does Pippa know?” he growled.

  “She doesn’t. She just was guessing.” Eve pushed aside the covers and got out of bed. She was entirely naked now, and he could see everything—her breasts, her tiny waist, her swelling hips, the place where her legs came together, which seemed so pretty and perfect and—

  He looked away, feeling hot and cold all over.

  But now Eve was next to him, and she put her hands on his shoulders, pressing her skin against his clothes. Her voice was soft. “It won’t be like that this time. This baby will live.”

  “I don’t want to talk about any of that,” he said in a shaking voice. The thought of that past, that pain, and the collision of it against this reality, this beautiful naked woman against his body, it was obscene and confusing.

  “Just do this,” she said. “And then you can leave me here as you planned. That’s all I’m asking. Would it really be so horrible?”

  He pushed her away, turning his back on her, and—by some miracle—he spied her clothes, folded and sitting on a chair in the corner. He snatched them up and turned back around to thrust them at her.

  She looked hurt.

  He didn’t care. “You think I’d do that?” He grimaced. “You think I’d knock you up and leave you here?”

  She fingered the edges of her jumpsuit, which she was clutching against her chest. “You’re planning on leaving me, aren’t you?”

  “That’s different.”

  She took a deep breath. “This isn’t going the way that I had hoped it would—”

  “Get dressed.” He stalked out of the room.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Eve was trying to think of something to say to the captain that would change his mind, but she wasn’t coming up with anything as he dragged her down the hallway back to her own room.

  Part of the reason was that she was slightly relieved. She’d psyched herself up for being intimate with the captain, but she hadn’t been exactly excited about the idea. She hadn’t thought it would be unpleasant or anything. She thought the captain would probably be nice enough about it, but it was so utterly awkward and strange to have sex with a person with whom she had no real emotional connection.

  Well, admittedly, she hadn’t had much connection with Tane, but at least she’d chosen that herself. And he’d seemed so much less intimidating than the captain. The captain was a man, not an overgrown boy, and he had scars and a painful past and he was so, so brave and…

  No, maybe she wasn’t relieved.

  Why didn’t he want her?

  “This your room?” said the captain, his voice gruff.

  She wrenched her arm out of his grasp. “Listen, I’m sorry if I went about this the wrong way, but—”

  “I’d lock you in if I could,” said the captain. “Unfortunately, we’re not on the ship.”

  She squared her shoulders, smoothing her jumpsuit. How mortifying that he’d seen her without her clothes. Now, every time he looked at her, he was probably going to think—except no, because he hadn’t found her the least bit attractive. “I don’t see why it matters.”

  “It matters because I don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night and find you’ve crawled into bed with me.”

  “I wouldn’t do that!” She was offended. “Besides, it wouldn’t matter if I did. It’s not as if you’re even somewhat tempted to do anything with me.”

  The captain cleared his throat and looked away.

  She turned to the door to her room. “This is my room. You can go.”

  “Eve.”

  She turned back.

  “It’s not that you aren’t, you know, very fetching.”

  She bit down on her lip.

  “It’s only that if you want to sleep with a man, you don’t do what you did…” He considered. “Okay, actually, that would probably work most of the time. But, um, not with me.”

  “Captain, it’s the fate of the galaxy and—”

  “I can’t,” he said. “Just… can’t.”

  She sucked in a breath. “Well, if you change your mind—”

  “I won’t.”

  She opened the door to her room. “Goodnight, then.”

  “Goodnight.”

  She at least had the satisfaction of shutting the door in his face. But when she was sure that his footsteps had faded away and that she was completely alone, she sat down on her bed and started to shake.

  She was so embarrassed that she wanted to die. She felt rejected and hurt. And confused. Very, very confused and worried about the future. If the captain was not going to do this with her, did that mean there would be no champion? If there was no champion, then who the hell was she? What was the point of her existence?

  Of course, she’d never wanted any of that. She’d always wanted to be nobody, with no important destiny, free to do as she pleased. But now, faced with that prospect, she only felt empty inside.

  She didn’t want to be alone.

  Pippa!

  Her friend was next door. She’d tell Pippa everything, and even if Pippa didn’t know what to do, she’d listen and say something funny, and she’d make Eve feel better.

  Pulling herself together, Eve went next door and pressed the query button on the outside of Pippa’s door.

  The query didn’t sound. Instead, a mechanized voice said, “This room is unoccupied.”

  What? “Pippa?” called Eve. Maybe that sensor was malfunctioning. “Pippa, are you in there?”

  No answer.

  That was strange. Pippa must have gone somewhere else. But where?

  Maybe she would have gone back to the ship for something? Maybe she’d forgotten an article of clothing or her hair brush or something. Eve considered going back into her own room and trying to go to sleep, but she wasn’t in the mood for it, and she really wanted to talk to someone.

  So, she decided she’d go out and check the ship, see if she could find Pippa. She started down the hallway. When she got to the end, the hallway made a T with another hallway, so there were two choices of which way to go, and Eve felt disoriented. She knew that she and the captain had come from the left direction, but was that the way to the ship, or should she turn right? She didn’t know.

  She licked her lips, looked left and then looked right, and finally chose to turn left.

  She walked down the passage, not even pausing when she got to the hallway that led down to the captain’s room. She didn’t even want to think about all of that. By the visions, she simply wanted to die.

  She picked up the pace.

  “Eve!” It was a male voice, behind her, but it wasn’t the captain’s voice.

  She stopped and turned.

  Calix was there. He waved. “You all right?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “Why are you asking me that? Have you been talking to the captain?”

  “Not recently,” he said. “Did he just tell you that he’s planning to leave you here with Atticus?”

  “What?” She fingered her elbows. “No, I guess not, but I sort of figured. He’s been making a lot of noise about getting rid of me.”

  “Listen,” said Calix, crossing the distance between them, “he’s being stubborn, but if you give me a bit of time to work on him, I think I can convince him to let you back on the ship. If you really have seen this future that he says you’ve seen, then we need to protect you. He’s going to realize that. I know he is. And even if we leave you here for a short time, I can guarantee we’ll be back for you.”

  Eve let out a bitter laugh. “I really don’t think so.”

  “Trust me, I know him. He might act differently, but there is nothing more important to him that stopping the Xerkabah.”

  She sighed. “If you say so.”

  “I do
say so.”

  “Have you seen Pippa?”

  “No, not since dinner. She’s not in her room?”

  “No, I was looking for her. I thought maybe she went out to the ship,” she said.

  “Well, I was headed there myself.” He indicated a bag of medical supplies slung over his shoulder. “I’ll walk with you.”

  “Okay.” She laughed again, this time self-deprecatingly. “So, I am going the right way?”

  He chuckled. “Easy to get turned around in this place, huh?” He pointed. “Yeah, that’s the way out.”

  She smiled. “Thanks.”

  But neither of them started walking.

  Eve started to speak again. “You know, I actually don’t think the captain’s ever going to want to see me again.” Oh, what was she doing? She couldn’t talk about this. Not to Calix.

  “It might seem that way, but there’s more to him than being gruff and rude.”

  “No, I mean, I screwed everything up. After what I did tonight…” She shook her head.

  Calix raised his eyebrows. “What’d you do?”

  She grimaced. She needed to tell Calix to forget about it. Instead, she said, “You know that I see the future?”

  “Yeah, Gunner explained it all to me. You see the future, and you’re going to have a son who will be a champion. He’ll destroy the aliens. I know all about it.”

  “Right,” she said. “Well, I can’t very well have a child all on my own.”

  Calix furrowed his brow. “No, I guess not.”

  “What I mean is that I can’t, you know, conceive a child on my own.”

  “Oh,” said Calix, a different expression on his face. He bobbed his head. “No, no, you can’t.”

  She unclasped her arms. “Oh, never mind. I can’t talk about this. It’s all so desperately embarrassing.” She turned in the direction of the ship, squaring her shoulders.

  “What does this have to do with Gunner?” said Calix.

  She studied her fingers. “I’ve had visions of the captain since I was a little girl. I didn’t even understand what the visions meant. I was too young to know what we were even doing.”