“Rem!” Selene screamed.
Yanking up on the controls, Rem pulled up seconds before they crashed, and sent them flying right through the bottom of a structure made of metal beams. He pulled up, flying straight for the roof, where there was barely enough space to fit the cruiser through.
Selene breathed hard, and held onto the console as they passed through the hole. Rem ripped the controls sideways, turning them directly around.
Rikkard leapt forward, grabbing the gun system from her and switching it to forward facing phasers. His thumbs slammed down on the triggers and twin lasers flared from the front guns, blasting identical holes in the pursuing speeders.
Darius whooped a cheer, and Flik burst into relieved laughter.
Selene stared wide-eyed as Rem righted the cruiser, his white knuckles finally relaxing as the cruiser evened out, hovering above the old skyscraper.
“Holy shit, Rem!” Selene looked at him. “Where the hell did you learn how to do that?”
Rem hooked a thumb over his shoulder to point at Rikkard.
Selene looked between them. “When did you teach him that?”
Rikkard shrugged, an amused smirk flashing across his face. “A while ago.”
Leaning back in her seat, Selene shook her head. They’d successfully lost their pursuers, and succeeded in scaring the hell out of her. But at least they’d made it.
“Set course for Bakura,” Rikkard said. He leaned away from the console and swiped a hand through his hair, wincing as he did so. He must have forgotten about the chunk taken out of his arm.
Selene shook her head and unbuckled herself to stand. “Come on, let’s get you fixed up.”
Taking his hand, Selene pulled Rikkard out of the cockpit. Though her heart was finally slowing, she could barely believe they made it out alive. Even for them, that had been harrowing. Then again, she couldn’t imagine trusting anyone else to pull off such insane crap.
Selene took Rikkard into the tiny kitchen down the hall. She yanked out a chair with her foot, and pointed at it. “Sit,” she commanded.
Rikkard shook his head and sat beside Flik and Lanny at the round metal table bolted to the floor. Once she was sure he wasn’t going to get up and try to take over the pilot’s chair, Selene rooted through the cupboards to find a med kit.
“Bottom right,” Flik mumbled through a mouthful of granola. Between the two former-Alliance members sat a bowl of granola and dried fruit with a couple water bottles.
Her stomach rumbled at the realization that it had been awhile since she’d last eaten. “Thanks,” she said. Pulling the bag from the bottom shelf, Selene took up the fourth, and last metal chair, pushing it over so she could sit directly beside Rikkard.
“That’s a nasty hole.” Lanny raised his eyebrows at the wound.
Selene looked up at it. It was a clean cut, a slightly circular edge to it like a crescent moon.
Though Rikkard’s face was smooth and stoic, his fists clenched and his foot tapped the metal floor. He might put on a brave face, but he couldn’t hide how much that wound must hurt.
“We’ll have it fixed up in no time.” Selene unzipped the grey canvas bag with a red cross on top. Inside, several wads of gauze were packed alongside disinfectant, nanite spray and old-school bandages, just in case the nanites ran out.
“I didn’t know you were such a good nurse.” Flik winked.
Selene rolled her eyes, and Rikkard glared at the alien. She couldn’t hide her amused smile as she washed and dried her hands before returning to the kit. With a wound like that, it’d take nanites some time to reconstruct the lost flesh and muscle, and it wouldn’t be pleasant.
Pulling a sleek silver cylinder from the kit, she aimed it at the wound, and sprayed a mist of disinfectant over it.
Rikkard winced, and Selene smiled as she took a seat beside him, carefully lifting his arm as she replaced the disinfectant bottle with the nanite spray. “You might want to take a deep breath for this one.”
Selene glanced up at him, nearly missing the widening of his eyes. She chuckled as she aimed the spray, and Rikkard’s hand wrapped around her thigh where it rested.
Her skin warmed, and her pulse sped. She paused to take another quick look at his face before it contorted in pain.
Though she’d seen him far worse than this, it was clear he’d been through a lot, from the new scar running through his eyebrow, to the circles under his eyes. He was exhausted and deserved some rest. It was unfortunate they wouldn’t have much time for that with her ticking clock.
Rikkard took a deep breath, his chest rising. As it fell, Selene aimed and sprayed the nanites over the wound. He squeezed his eyes shut and grimaced, his fingers digging into her leg as the nanites went to work. A soft sheen of silver layered the wound, and red blossomed as the black was eaten away.
Grabbing the gauze from the kit, Selene held up his arm, unable to stop herself from running her thumb over his tattooed skin as she wrapped the gauze around his bicep twice, before moving more slowly. That’d at least stop the immediate bleeding while she added a few more layers.
“Damn,” Rikkard hissed through his teeth.
Selene squeezed his arm. “Those things fucking hurt.”
Rikkard nodded in agreement. While she continued to weave the gauze around his arm, Selene glanced up at Flik and Lanny. While Flik mindlessly ate the granola and stared at the table, Lanny looked past her shoulder, not focused on anything in particular. Though they’d both just faced some pretty crazy stuff, they were far away instead of enjoying their victory.
Selene’s eyebrows furrowed as she glanced between the two. “Hey,” she said. Neither of them looked at her until she spoke again. “Hey. Are you guys okay?”
The skin of Flik’s forehead rose and he put on his usual playful smirk, only now darkness danced behind his eyes.
Lanny sighed. “I want to save Sav.”
Flik looked at him. It was clear they had been thinking the same thing. “Me too.” He looked at Rikkard.
No matter how happy Selene was to have Rikkard back, Flik and Lanny were still without their friend. Though she felt their pain and missed Sav too, they still had no idea where he was, or how to find him.
Her fingers clenched in her lap. She owed Sav a lot: her life and sanity for starters. “We’ll find Sav.” The two men met her gaze. “As soon as I get my body back, I promise we’ll free him from wherever he is.”
“Your body?” Rikkard’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked her up and down.
He hadn’t seen the clone body she was in before: weak muscles, no definition, brown eyes, and paler skin. She hardly looked like herself. But in the new clone Erock had made for her, she looked almost the exact same, save for her sun-kissed hair, which Rikkard paused at, staring thoughtfully until his eyes widened.
“You’re a clone,” he said.
Selene nodded. “It’s kind of a long story.”
Rikkard levelled her an irritated look. He wasn’t letting her get away that easy.
“Fine.” Selene sighed dramatically. “After Kayl shot me, it seems former president Pate had just enough time to clone me into some stupid useless body before the Dominion got a hold of my real one.” She explained a bit of where she’d been, how she didn’t know who had her real body, or how to find it. Then she moved onto how she got the body she was in now, and how Captain Erock had done her a favor.
Rikkard narrowed his eyes. “Let me get this straight…”
Uh oh. Selene did not like the angry look taking over Rikkard’s face.
“You let that pirate clone you into a body that might last for five days if you’re lucky.” His hand left her thigh to grab her shoulder. He shook her while grinding his teeth. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I mean, there really wasn’t any other way at the time, Rik.” Selene clipped off the gauze on his arm and returned the rest to the med kit.
“When did this happen?” he asked.
Selene shrugged. “Less t
han twenty-four hours ago.”
Rikkard sat back hard, scraping the legs of his chair against the floor. “So you have four days left.”
Selene smiled sheepishly. “Nothing like a ticking clock to get our asses moving, right?”
“You’re an idiot.”
She scoffed. “And what would you have done if you were in my shoes?”
“I don’t know, calmed the hell down on the mods maybe!” It was rare for Rikkard to raise his voice, and though he occasionally did yell at her, she wasn’t used to how absolutely furious he looked. His cold eyes sharpened and his jaw hardened. Most of the time he barely showed an inch of irritation at her foolish stunts, but this was another matter.
“It’s not like I’m staying in this body,” Selene argued. She glanced at Flik and Lanny for back up, but they shook their heads. There was no way they were getting in the middle of this. She looked back at Rikkard. “This body is only temporary. I needed it to get you back. Now we can go get my actual body.”
Rikkard narrowed his eyes and worked his jaw. He hated her logic, even if he did find reason in it. He wouldn’t look so furious otherwise. “Then you have a plan to get your body back?”
Selene froze, her mouth half open to answer. She closed it again when she realized she had none. “I mean… definitively? No. Generally… kind of.”
Rikkard sighed, exasperated. “What does that even mean?”
Selene glanced at the door. Rem wasn’t there to help, but she supposed it was time the rest of them knew anyway. “Well, Rem and I have been working on something.” The others perked up, curiosity lighting their eyes. Rikkard still looked like he might chop her head off if he didn’t like her answer. “While we were rescuing Erock’s sister, I made a little detour at the end.”
“So you didn’t just get left behind by accident?” Flik glared.
“I mean… getting shot wasn’t on purpose, but forcing you guys to leave without me was kind of in the plan.”
“You were shot?” Rikkard’s cold eyes flashed. He began his usual inspection as if she might still be injured before seeming to realize that was crazy—she’d just told him she was in a new body.
“That was before I was cloned.” Selene held up her hands. “Just let me explain.” When he sat back to listen, Selene took it as a sign to go ahead. “Since we were literally breaking into a Dominion facility, Rem came up with the idea to gather some information while we were there. So after I got separated from the group, I made my way to the mainframe lab where I got access to the Dominion’s internal network.” Rikkard’s angry face slowly relaxed, bringing a relieved smile to her face. “We took a huge info dump from the data hives there. We’re hoping it’ll have information on who is in my body.” She looked at Flik and Lanny. “And where the hell they took Sav.”
Lanny’s eyebrows shot up and Flik grinned from ear to ear. He reached forward, and hugged her awkwardly across the table, wrapping an arm around her neck like he was about to ruffle her hair.
“That’s our girl!” Flik laughed.
Selene elbowed him in the ribs, and unwrapped his arm as the air spilled from his lungs. “I thought you guys would like that bit.”
“So have you found anything yet?” Lanny stood, excitement lighting his face.
Selene sat back in her chair, flattening her hair with her hands. “Well we haven’t exactly had time to go through it with all the rescuing we’ve been doing.”
Flik stood, his chair scraping across the floor. “What? We need to go through it now.”
Selene held up her hands in mock defense. “Hey, have at it!”
Flik circled the table and went to the door. “Rem!” he shouted. “I’m taking over! You and Lanny get your asses to a computer and get searching through those damn Dominion files now!”
There was a muffled scuffle as Flik must have yanked Rem from the pilot’s chair, switched on autopilot, and tossed the small guy down the hall. Lanny was out the door as Rem climbed back to his feet, rubbing his head and flattening his clothes.
“Okay, okay. Damn.” Rem scurried down the hall, Lanny in hot pursuit.
Flik mumbled all the way back to his seat before striking up a conversation with Darius in the cockpit.
Selene sighed and shook her head, an amused smile stuck to her features until she looked at Rikkard. Though his angry-eyes had faded, he continued to grimace. Even if she’d done it all for a good reason, he was not happy with all the risks she was taking without him around. She had a feeling this wasn’t the last time they’d be talking this through.
She shivered in anticipation at the thought of Rikkard lecturing her when they were finally alone. Her body heated at the thought, strangely enough. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was attracted to Rikkard’s angry side, or because they hadn’t been alone together in weeks.
Rikkard leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees. He took her hand from her lap and squeezed her fingers, making her cheeks warm.
“It’s good to have you back,” Selene said. Butterflies fluttered through her stomach. Now that the ship had finally calmed, she felt as if she could breathe again.
“It’s good to be back.” Rikkard’s thumb rubbed the back of her hand.
Then he looked up, and her blood went cold.
Selene looked over her shoulder.
Eria stood in the doorway, a tattooed eyebrow arched, and her lips pursed. She glanced between Selene and Rikkard, and then her eyes rested on their hands.
“Hey,” Eria said. Her voice was rough and sexy, which only made Selene uncomfortable. “I guess I should introduce myself.” She held out a hand for Selene, forcing Selene to let go of Rikkard if she wanted to be polite.
Biting back an irritated sigh, Selene shook Eria’s hand. “Hey. I’m Selene.”
“Eria.” The woman smiled slyly, and her eyes narrowed as she assessed Selene.
Selene’s forehead wrinkled as she was again confronted with that name. She couldn’t put her finger on where she had heard it before. As Selene thought, Eria raised her chin, looking down her nose with a look of authority.
“Captain Eria,” she added. “Former leader of the Smugglers Legion.”
It was just her luck that Rikkard’s ex-girlfriend would be the leader of the most notorious smugglers in the all of the United Americas. Just her damn rotten luck.
“You’re Eria.” Selene’s brows rose. Though she’d only heard about the woman in passing from Kayl and Sarah, she remembered the way Rikkard always looked when the other two had mentioned her. He’d always stare off into the distance, longing and loss clouding his face.
“Sure am,” Eria said. “And you’re the girl Rikkard wouldn’t shut up about losing.” Her dark eyes scanned Selene from head to toe. “You don’t look dead to me.”
Selene shrugged. “I’m hard to kill.”
“Seems like we have that in common.” Eria smirked.
“So you’ve survived what, four years in that prison?” Selene asked, genuinely curious. From what Rikkard had told her, the Smugglers Legion broke up not long before they met.
“Five,” Eria corrected. She crossed her arms below her large breasts, purposefully pushing them up as if her giant rack would somehow intimidate Selene.
“Impressive.” Selene stood, a hand on her hip. “I’ve heard most don’t last more than a year in Dominion work camps.”
“They don’t.”
Rikkard stood behind her, his fingers brushing her spine. “We should get some rest while Rem and Lanny work.”
Selene looked over her shoulder, and he gave her a meaningful look. Turning back to Eria, she smiled. “Help yourself to whatever food you can find.” She motioned to the kitchen before slipping around the former smuggler. Her chest warmed with pleasure as Eria narrowed her eyes at them in passing.
She crossed the narrow hall to one of the other two doors on the opposite side of the corridor. She clicked the button beside the door, and it whooshed into the wall. Taking a deep breath, she hoped
she could finally relax with Eria behind her, and a bed staring back at her, even if they were narrow bunk beds sticking from the wall.
Rikkard stepped in behind her, and the door closed. Silence rested between them as Selene glanced at the rest of the bunks: two on one wall, and two on the left side of the room. She hoped Lanny and Rem didn’t plan on getting some sleep anytime soon as there would never be enough space for all of them.
“You should rest,” Rikkard said.
Selene looked over her shoulder. Rikkard’s handsome face was still smudged with dirt, as were his clothes. “If anyone should be resting, it’s you.”
Rikkard shook his head. “Fine.”
He took her wrist and pulled her over to the bunks on the left side of the room. He kicked off his boots and slipped onto the bottom bunk, before pulling her down with him.
Selene’s heart raced as he wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled her against his chest, his hips pressing against her rear.
“Sleep,” he commanded.
Selene took a deep breath and shimmied closer to him, getting comfortable against the thin pillow, and hard mattress. With his hot breath on the back of her neck, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to sleep. So while she could, she laced her fingers through his and savored the moment. Closing her eyes, she breathed in deeply. The smell of dirt, sweat, and sandalwood made her smile, and soothed her to sleep.
The door to the cabin whooshed open, and two sets of boots rushed inside.
“Guys! Wake the hell up!” Rem shouted.
Selene’s eyes flashed open, and she jerked awake, nearly bashing her head against Rikkard’s before she remembered he was behind her. Her heart pounded hard, and her breaths came quickly.
“What the hell?” she snapped.
Rikkard mumbled something under his breath, and propped himself up on his elbow. “What’s going on?” he asked sleepily, his words interrupted by a yawn.
“We found Sav!” Lanny said.
Selene’s eyes widened, and she sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. “What?”
The Zahkx Alliance: A Sci-Fi Dystopian Adventure (Dominion Rising Book 2) Page 14
