Rachel had been able to get a bit of the back story from Sir Rupert while she was treating Lady Upie, who had been captured for delivery to Xaddek. Did the crappy spider know what she could do? Or had she been on his menu? They’d never, thankfully, get an answer to that question.
“Did you, um, see her?” Rachel asked, as she ran gentle fingers along one wing and then the other.
“I saw them bringing her aboard,” Sir Rupert confirmed. “I did not see them removing her, so I had…hope.” He added as if he knew what she’d ask next, “We will continue the search for more of our kind together, but for the present, we will stay on Kikk. She has traveled far in a dark place and is not certain of the way home.”
“I am sorry,” she told the lady bird, though she was glad Kikk would get some birds, even if only on a temporary basis. The place needed birds.
“Rupert will lead us both home,” she said with gentle dignity.
Rachel shot the male bird a quick look. No pressure there.
He had ruffled his wings. “Now I know our kind are still out there.”
He could end his search for frozen remains. She almost sighed. She’d miss hanging with him.
“You have a better guide than me now, Doctor.”
She hoped, oh, how she hoped he was right. Valyr, well, she wasn’t sure what he wanted. Technically, he had more right to control all of the outposts, including Kikk, than any of them. But he didn’t seem inclined to push his claim.
He hadn’t mentioned the Urclock’s call. Neither had she.
Even without the Urclock, the debrief was stressful, though still not as scary as facing down the huge spider. On the other hand, Doc was still scarier than the spider.
Luckily, Rachel was both short and nondescript. She managed to slip away as soon as the debrief ended and somehow found her way back to the main control room and the Urclock. She stared at it, wondering what it was, why it had called to Valyr. What it called him to do. She felt a stir in the air, sensed who it was and made room for him.
“I am seven,” Valyr said, turning to face her. “But I think you guessed that.”
Rachel nodded. “I still don’t know what that means.”
“I thought I did, but now I’m not so sure.” He glanced around, then lowered his voice. “Bangle sent out the dragon ships. She—this was not supposed to happen that way. We were all to awake and travel together, not like this.”
Rachel considered this. “She was…lonely?”
He nodded. “She stirred when your expedition wakened the outposts, but none of your people came to this outpost. So she activated three of the ships and sent them to bring back her people.”
Rachel could understand that. She knew all about waking to an empty home, echoing with memories of who had been there, who would never be there again.
“And then—” He stopped with a frown.
“She woke you?” Rachel suggested.
“I am not certain it was Bangle or—” He took her hands in his, clasping them lightly, studied them with a slight frown.
“What?” she asked, besides almost everything, she almost added.
“It could have been the call of the Urclock. I feel its pull, but I am not certain…”
“…that it’s not a trap,” she finished for him. Neither of them had spoken about the clone, to each other or in the debriefing. Her barfing had also not been mentioned even though it had been a great distraction. They’d skated over the particulars of that. Thankfully there was plenty of gory detail without either detail.
Did she care if he was a clone? No, she admitted. She cared about a lot of things, but not that. He was Valyr. And if another one showed up? He wouldn’t be her Valyr, even though he wasn’t hers. What did he want? How powerful was the call of the Urclock?
He lifted his gaze, nodding. “If I stay here, I can help the robots.”
“They used to be human, didn’t they?”
His brows arched as if she’d surprised him. He nodded. “They transferred their personalities, their minds to the robots.”
Even though she’d wondered, she was still shocked by his confirmation. “That’s some crazy, bad-A science.”
Valyr nodded, his expression distant and sober.
“I wish there was something we could do to help.” Her thoughts shifted to CabeX who refused to leave Savlf’s side, even for the briefing with General Halliwell.
Valyr hesitated, then said, “I have done some work in regeneration.”
Rachel’s eyes almost popped out of her head. “You can…put them back into—?” What? Their bodies were long gone unless—could he clone them?
“Not back, not the same but I might be able to add back some of their humanity.”
“Let me guess who wants it the worst, CabeX?”
This time a small smile formed as he nodded.
“How does Savlf feel about him?”
“I think she would take him as he is.”
“He saved her,” Rachel said. Women liked heroes, even metal ones, it seemed.
“You did help,” Valyr pointed out.
“We both helped, but he pulled her back from the edge.” Rachel hesitated. What had happened to Savlf, it would take her a long time recover from that, if she ever did. Her…attachment to CabeX could be a bit Stockholm Syndrome, even though CabeX had not been the one who enslaved her.
Beside her, Valyr shifted from one foot to the other.
“I have another reason for wishing to stay here, Rachel. It is…selfish.” His chest heaved with a sigh.
That she knew what it looked like under his clothes made her chest heave, too. And maybe she hoped…a little…that he wanted to stay with her. With her. She wanted him. She admitted it to herself. She’d avoided this truth because behind it lurked joy and pain. Lots of pain if he left. But there was joy in opening up her heart to him. This was what she’d missed for so long. The joy of being connected in this way. Love. This love was different from what she’d felt for her parents, her brother, and sister, but it helped to ease the damage left from that wound. Even not knowing he felt the same, feeling love again had helped to heal her heart.
Only now did she realize how broken it had been. He could break it. She accepted that, but not with the same fear she’d felt before everything happened. The before Rachel had been…a child, with a child’s pain still holding her back. She’d grown up in a brief time. She was stronger, grown stronger from loving him, from opening to feeling again. All of it had made her able to face the future as an adult, no matter what he chose to do. She wanted him to stay, but she could let him go, let him do what he felt he must. Like her parents had done for her so long ago. The power of it, the memory of them, and accepting her feelings, calmed the turmoil inside.
She watched him struggle to find the right words, noting the goodness in his eyes, the kindness around his mouth—and the sexy all over. There was a lot of that. Warmth and heat coiled inside. Love and want, two sides of love’s coin. That might have made her nervous again, but she trusted him. Trusted herself as this new grownup person.
He opened his mouth. Closed it. Sighed in frustration. “I do not have the right words. I have never…I am not…we have not known each other long.”
Depending on who was counting—okay, still not long. It felt long though. A lifetime long. How odd that they’d both been frozen, lost and waiting for the other.
“No…but you can find out a lot of the important things about someone when you see how they react to stress,” she pointed out. She almost smiled. They were both geeks. If they wanted to get to the point of kissing, they’d have to help each. Neither of them could go the distance alone.
He brightened. “This is true. I feel…for you…”
“Like,” she suggested, losing her nerve.
“More than like.” He took a deep breath, as if he were about to dive off a cliff. “I know it is too soon to speak of love—”
“I love you, too,” she said in a rush. She’d arrived in the galaxy
at the speed of light, so why was it a shock she’d fallen fast, fallen hard.
His face lit up. She thought she’d seen him happy. She’d been wrong. His happy lit her up inside and out. And then he kissed her.
23
Valyr wasn’t sure how long he held her, how long his lips were pressed against hers. However long it was, it was not long enough. He could hang on to her, kiss for her forever, except for the requirements of oxygen. And the sound of approaching footsteps. He should have picked a more secluded place for his declaration.
He knew his chest heaved. And the heat, the want, was lava in his core. For the first time since he’d awakened from his cold sleep, the chill had gone from his body. Cold tried to return to the spaces that separated them, enough that it surprised him that a small storm did not form over their heads.
The whimsy of that thought made his lips edge up in a smile. He sighed. Had he feared that sleep? Feared what he’d find on this side? It had been challenging, but worth it to reach this place, this woman. He smoothed a piece of her hair back off a face that had become so dear so fast. He dragged a finger across her mouth before letting his arm fall to his side. He gazed into her eyes as her love for him shone out like the beam of the geiohr.
He sighed as the footsteps resolved into a man and a woman rounding the corner to join them. The woman walked with an aura of danger. The man with her was Gadi, a leader or liaison of some sort, if he’d properly processed the various names and positions during the debriefing. He did not recall the woman’s name.
He gave a half bow. The man smiled.
“Helfron Giddioni,” he reminded him.
He exuded much charm, Valyr noted. And he was very handsome.
“And you are Valyr,” the woman said, her speculative gaze moving between him and Rachel.
“I apologize for not recalling your name,” he returned, taking the hand she held out and shaking it the way Rachel had shown him.
The woman seemed pleased rather than offended. Her attention shifted toward Rachel, who seemed to shift, then planted her feet, her chin lifting.
“Well, you helped our ambassador with his problem in a very unexpected way. But help is help. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Rachel’s tone sounded a bit ground-holding.
“You kind of pushed out the boat,” she went on. “How many of these sentient beings did you find?”
“I didn’t find any of them, ma’am,” Rachel pointed out. “We were, well, we were busy shooting the spider.”
“She is an excellent shot,” Valyr said proudly. She said people didn’t believe her, well, he was her witness.
“So I hear.” The woman was silent for a time, her gaze tracking to him and then moving to Rachel. “Dang, I owe you, Hel. You were right. They are in love.”
“I am always right, Morticia,” the man purred.
He got a look from this Morticia that was pointed and…intimate. This helped with the flush that rose in his face. It was new enough, he was not excited to share their love with anyone yet. Rachel smiled and took his hand.
“You’re always something.” Morticia grinned and glanced past them. “So that’s the Urclock. Does it always tick like that?”
Valyr realized it was ticking much louder than before. He turned, taking Rachel around with him. He frowned and moved closer. The number three was pulsing in an odd pattern, too.
“It is not supposed to do this,” he admitted.
“What does it mean?” Rachel asked, joining him. “Is it—” she stopped.
He appreciated her discretion, but that ship had flown away.
“It is not the tangram. It can not form a tangram without all seven.” His gaze tracked around the clock. None of the other numbers were lit. So no tangram.
“That’s almost like Morse code,” Morticia said, joining them in front of the clock. “At least, that first part sounded like an SOS.”
Rachel frowned. “You’re right. It’s spelling something else now if that is morse.”
Both women angled their heads while the two men exchanged glances.
“Doolittle,” Rachel said. “I get Doolittle.”
“So do I,” Morticia said. “I’ve been on the Doolittle,” she added. “I was deployed there before the Boyington.”
“What’s this about the Doolittle?” Rachel’s general demanded from behind them. They turned as he strode up.
He’d had a most trying time since his arrival. Some of that still showed on his face.
“It sounds like morse code, sir,” Morticia said. “Coming out of the clock.”
“It only has seven numbers,” he pointed out, then stopped. “That is morse.”
“There’s a string at the end I don’t understand,” Rachel began.
“That’s the ID for the Boyington,” the general said, his face settling into grim lines.
“It’s changed again,” Morticia said, her head tipped to listen once more.
She and Rachel were quick to translate the code, if this truly was code.
“That’s a star chart location,” Valyr said, suddenly. He recognized it. How had their Earth ship penetrated the sanctuary? It was not supposed to be possible. This did not bode well for the occupants. “What does SOS mean?”
“Save our souls,” Rachel said. “They’re in trouble.”
“How is this possible?” Morticia asked, looking at the general.
“We have lost contact with the Doolittle,” he admitted. “During the last data dump, I got the brief on it.”
Valyr turned back to the Urclock. This code was a request for assistance, but it would not be possible for them to make this request without the assistance of the Phoenicopterians. Did this mean the Mycetarians had found them again? If they had, this was bad for her people and the species they’d formed the tangram to protect.
“Can you help? Can we help them?” Rachel asked. Her eyes showed the fear he felt.
“I…” he turned away, then turned back. “Yes and no.”
“What does that mean?” the general snapped.
“It means I will require assistance.” He saw Rachel understand.
“You’re going to have to wake someone up,” she said.
“I am going to have to wake someone up.”
* * *
Thank you for reading Lost Valyr! I hope you enjoyed it! Carolina City and Kraye’s story will continue in Operation Ark, releasing in Embrace the Passion: Pets in Space 3, releasing October 9, 2018.
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Also by Pauline Baird Jones
Available in print, digital and audio.
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Science Fiction Romance/Paranormal
Project Universe Series:
The Key (book 1)
Girl Gone Nova (book 2)
Tangled in Time (book 3)
Steamrolled (book 4)
Kicking Ashe (book 5)
Found Girl (book 6)
Lost Valyr (book 7)
Project Enterprise: The Short Stories
Time Trap: A Project Enterprise Series Short Story
The Real Dragon
Nebula Nine (time travel adventure)
Open With Care (Christmas collection that includes, “Riding For Christmas” and “Up on the House Top”
Specters in the Storm: A paranormal/steampunk/science fiction romance novella
Out of Time (World War II Time Travel Romance)
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Core Punch (1.0)
Sucker Punch (2.0)
One Two Punch: An Uneasy Future Bundle
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Do Wah Diddy Delete
Let’s Fall in Love
The Real Dragon and other short stories
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Family Treed (1.5)
Dead Spaces (2.0)
Louisiana Lagniappe (2.5)
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The Last Enemy
Byte Me
Missing You
Lonesome Mama (Bonus short story)
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Do Wah Diddy Die
The Spy Who Kissed Me
Perilously Fun Fiction Bundle (includes The Spy Who Kissed Me and Do Wah Diddy Die. Bonus: Do Wah Diddy Delete Short Story Collection)
A Dangerous Dance
About the Author
Award-winning, USA Today Bestselling author, Pauline never liked reality, so she writes books. She likes to wander among the genres, rampaging like Godzilla, because she does love peril mixed in her romance.
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Lost Valyr: Project Enterprise 7 Page 30
