His Woodland Maiden

by Michelle M. Pillow

  “Yeah, I am embarrassed to say that line did work. That time we were on the way back to my room when my partner on the mission found us. I had a lot of explaining to do. Finally, I convinced him that you were in the way of my true target and I was luring you to my room to incapacitate you. Which I did. Sorry.”

  He shook his head as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure I want to remember all the times I didn’t get lucky.”

  “You should remember the mines… mostly,” she said. “You were with me too long to erase everything so I just took what I had to. Anytime you overheard something you shouldn’t have, or we started getting a little too amorous. Depending on the dose, the Swipe injection affects short-term memories. Usually, it’s just an hour or so before the event. I tried to make you forget the VR tunnel, but you jerked and caught me by surprise and I was unable to finish giving you my last dose. If what I’ve deduced is correct, you only forgot realizing you love me… again.”

  “Hmm.” He nodded slowly.

  “Why aren’t you mad?”

  “About what?”

  “I nicked you. I didn’t want to, but I felt I had to. I took away your memories. You can’t be happy about that.” Harper didn’t understand this man. “Anyone else would be raging at me right now for what I did to them.”

  “I’m not happy about it, but I can’t change the past so why rage about it?” He shrugged dismissively and seemed more interested in staring at her mouth. “I know enough about the HIA to understand you probably saved my life, possibly the life of my crew as well.”

  “I never did it to your crew. I always managed to avoid them when we met,” Harper said. “Well, not in the diner, but then they didn’t try to follow me into the back room like you did and catch me on a communicator. They didn’t remember me when they thought I was a queenpin.”

  He nodded as if contemplating everything she’d said.

  “I am sorry.” Harper’s hands trembled. This nervousness she felt was an unfamiliar sensation. Standing before Rick, with the truth of who she was and what she had done laid out before him, made her vulnerable. His opinion of her mattered.

  “I don’t suppose there is a way to get those memories back?” he asked.

  “There have been a few rare instances where the memories have resurfaced but mostly in small pieces or like deja vu.” She placed her hand on his chest. “I’m sorry.”

  Rick pattered her hand before letting his rest over it. “I believe you. I’ve done things I’ve regretted so I can’t judge.”

  “Like what?”

  “I insulted an ancestral spirit and brought a curse down on the crew. Well, not Lucien and Viktor, but Lochlann, Dev, Jackson, me, and our pal Evan, who lives on Qurilixen with his wife.”

  She eyed him. “Now I can’t tell if you’re joking.”

  “It’s true.”

  “I don’t believe in curses.” She gave a small laugh. “Someone was probably just trying to scare you with superstitious nonsense.”

  “I wouldn’t say that to the rest of the crew,” Rick warned. “They believe they broke their part of it.”

  “What exactly was the curse?”

  “An read our futures and said five of us would find true love represented by five Lintianese elements, but if we weren’t careful, we might miss the signs and be forever alone.”

  “Elements?”

  “Water, fire, metal, wood, and earth. I think the real curse came from overthinking, which could have ruined their chances.”

  “Their chances?” Harper clarified.

  “I regret the worry the curse put on my friends, but I tried not to think about it.”

  “And what element are you?” she asked.

  “An didn’t tell us who was who. Clearly, I’m metal, because I’m strong as steel and I fly this ship. Or maybe fire, because I’m so hot I burn.” He winked at her. “Those two make the most sense.”

  “And there is no way you’d be earth, water, or wood,” Harper teased, finding this whole conversation bordering on ridiculous. Curses were not real. Now, this An person could have had some psychic powers. Those were documented enough in the galaxies. It would be enough to make someone believe a curse was real.

  “Not a chance. Raisa was buried alive, so I’m pretty sure she’s earth,” Rick dismissed.

  “But, by this reasoning, you did knock yourself out with a branch. That’s wood,” Harper answered. “And you drink water. And you were in a VR field so that’s earth. And the ship is metal. And—”

  “Poke fun at us all you want, but I’m telling you, the prediction curse has come true so far,” Rick insisted. “All I know is, I will never anger the spirits on Lintian again.”

  Harper found herself wondering what their element might be. It was silly, of course, and she pushed the fanciful thoughts out of her head.

  “Harper, I am no saint, and I’m not angry about what you did,” he kissed her gently before continuing, “but don’t nick me again. If the HIA is going to come for me, tell me. Give me the choice to run or stay. Let me remember why.”

  “I want to promise that but…” She took a deep breath. “Yeah, okay, I promise.”

  The trembling in her hand subsided under the warmth of his palm. He closed his eyes, and the corner of his mouth lifted. A soft moan left him.

  “What?”

  His grin widened and he peeked at her from under one eyelid. “Since I’m missing those memories, I’m just filling in the blanks myself.” He gave a small moan of appreciation. “Damn, starbeam, you are quite the wild one, aren’t you? Can’t get enough of—”

  Harper laughed as she jerked her hand away, only to hit him on the chest.

  “If you’re done in here, set the autopilot.” Dev appeared at the door. “Captain wants everyone together to go over a plan.”

  “We’ll be done in a moment,” Rick said, turning his attention back to the clipboard.

  Harper took her cue and began rechecking through the radar frequencies. A tiny blur caught her attention. “Uh, guys, what’s this?”

  When she glanced up, Dev had left. Rick came over and looked. He tapped the radar display a few times with his finger. The blur disappeared. “Could be noise from the nebula.”

  “Could be?”

  “Yeah, could be.” The tone of his voice was easy, but she saw his eyes narrow slightly as if he didn’t want her to be frightened. That was a sweet gesture, but she was trained to deal with fear in its many forms.

  Rick swiped his hand over his electronic clipboard before tapping it against the radar. The unit absorbed the information and synced to the display. A small holographic radar hovered over the device.

  “We’ll keep an eye on this.” He selected several buttons and hit a switch on the console before motioning toward the door. “Let’s see what everyone’s come up with.”

  She grabbed his arm to stop him from leaving and tried to speak.

  Rick shook his head. “Don’t ask again if we’re sure about this, starbeam. Whatever happens, it’s not on your head. We are living the life we chose.”

  That wasn’t what she was going to say. In fact, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say to him, only that the words were stuck in her throat.

  I’m sorry.

  Don’t die.

  I’m not good when it comes to love.

  I’m not scared of death, but I’m afraid of what I feel for you.

  Harper nodded. “Yeah, okay. I won’t ask again.”

  12

  “Do you want the bad news or the really bad news first?” Viktor held up the shell of the side stitch for everyone to see. They’d assembled in the commons. Aside from the captain’s private quarters, it was the only room big enough to comfortably hold everyone.

  Raisa stood beside him, not appearing too pleased. She had been helping Viktor analyze the Ingeniarian tracker. Her brow furrowed in worry. Jackson was near her in a chair. He reached out to caress the back of her arm, and she moved toward him.

  “Just gi
ve us the news,” Rick said. He couldn’t help glancing around at his family. That’s what this crew was—family.

  Lochlann and Alexis were squished together in a chair that was not made for two. Her hip lifted against his as she settled next to his side, and her leg draped his thigh. Violette sat by herself with Dev standing behind, as if to watch over her. Lucien perched at the end of his chair, wringing his hands.

  They had faced many dangers before. They’d crash-landed a ship from space. They’d been shot at, beat on, kidnapped, tortured, and left for dead. And even with all of those collective experiences, there was something different about this time.

  Harper.

  Harper was what was different.

  “Our problem is the shell. The metal is designed to protect what is inside from attack. I found a way we can disable all of the trackers at once without having to remove them,” Viktor said.

  “How is that bad?” Rick found himself moving closer to where Harper stood. He started to lift his arm around her, but her glance stopped him.

  “It requires a sonic blast—and the level of ultrasound frequencies we need will also kill everyone in its path at the same time.” Viktor released the disabled side stitch from his fingers, only to catch it and hold it in his fist.

  “That’s one way to free them,” Lucien muttered, not impressed with his brother’s idea.

  “I checked in with Jobby,” Raisa said. “The factory worker diet on record is basically nutrient paste and a couple local fruits. We only found the records for a few food simulator sales to that third planet, so there’s not any way to produce mass quantities to give out. There are a few foods on the main planet that would help counteract blood thinners if consumed over time, but it’s not practical. Any other alien foods we’d want to introduce to do the job are too far away. It was a long shot to begin with and it doesn’t look like it will pan out.”

  Alexis lifted her hand and held her palm toward Viktor. After a few seconds, she said, “Let me see that.”

  Viktor placed his fist behind his back and shook his head in denial. “No, I have the power source inside it. I don’t think you should come near it.”

  She stood from where she sat next to her husband. “I know. I can feel its energy.”

  Viktor looked at the captain for confirmation as Alexis came toward him. Lochlann nodded once.

  Viktor lowered it toward her outstretched hand slowly. “Please don’t make us break your fingers again.”

  Lochlann moved to stand behind his wife as Alexis placed her hand around Viktor’s fist. She gasped, and her eyes began to flash wildly through the color spectrum before glazing over.

  “Ow, holy space balls,” Viktor grumbled as Alexis squeezed. “I didn’t want you to break my fingers instead.”

  Lochlann held Alexis against his chest as she gave a violent shiver. “Viktor?”

  “I got it.” Viktor grunted, clearly in pain.

  Alexis held on to him and began going through her sequence. “Biological warfare using audio waves, base frequencies employed. Irrelevant to the situation. Reexamine. Experimental uses of advanced sonic weaponry in a military environment for disabling humanoid opponents’ central nervous systems. Irrelevant to the situation. Reexamine. Bioeffects from high and low frequency sonic exposure as seen on Janex Nine patients. Vestibular damage. Hypothermia. Intense pain. No cure found after tissue damage had been done to the population. Irrelevant to the situation. Reexamine…”

  “How is that irrelevant?” Harper asked. “I think killing people with our rescue tactic is very relevant.”

  “It’s just her programming,” Rick said. “It’s irrelevant because that thread of information doesn’t help us find the solution we need.”

  Harper crept closer to Alexis as the woman kept mumbling through her findings.

  “…reverse engineering of bio-targeting devices…” Alexis mumbled.

  Harper lifted her hand in front of Alexis’ face and gave a small wave.

  “She can’t see you,” Lochlann said, a little annoyed.

  “…impractical on a large scale. Irrelevant to the situation. Reexamine…”

  Harper pulled her hand away. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  “Don’t get any ideas, HIA,” Lochlann warned. “No one is taking my wife from—”

  “Harper is not going to tell her superiors about Alexis,” Rick stated, coming to her defense.

  “I’ll kill anyone who tries to take her,” Lochlann stated.

  When Rick would argue the point further, Harper gave a small wave of her hand to stop him and said, “I don’t blame you for not trusting me. I wouldn’t trust me either if I was in your position. All I can say is that I wish none of you harm. You allowed me to stay on the ship when you could’ve thrown me into the black and not thought twice about it. I owe you a life debt for that. Prince Bucky would have enjoyed torturing me if he had caught me. Even more importantly, Alexis saved my life when she removed the side stitch and reprogrammed the medical booth. I do not take that lightly.”

  Lochlann nodded, but his concern for his wife kept him from looking one-hundred percent convinced.

  “Of course,” Lucien interrupted. He and the rest of the crew had been focusing on Alexis while Lochlann had been warning Harper. “Viktor you should have thought of that.”

  Rick turned his attention back to Alexis to see what she was saying.

  “…magnetic pulse. Relevant to the situation. Modified electromagnetic pulse. Relevant to the situation. Old Earth antiquated technology. Irrelevant to the situation,” Alexis said.

  “Wait, go back,” Viktor ordered, his voice strained from the hold she had on his hand.

  “We need to get her out of the database. She’s staying in too long,” Lochlann said, still holding his wife. “Pleasure Droid Corp will track her if they find her poking around in there.”

  “Alexis, get schematics on building a modified electromagnetic pulse large enough to disable the trackers in one blast,” Viktor said.

  “With no loss of humanoid life,” Violette added.

  “Minimum of a fifty-mile radius,” Harper put forth. “That’s the size of the factory, including security offices and living quarters.”

  Alexis kept filtering information.

  “Alexis, it’s time to get out of there,” Lochlann ordered. He reached for her hand locked over Viktor’s.

  Without his help, Alexis released Viktor’s fist. Her eyes cleared from the haze and she took a long, deep breath as if steadying herself.

  Viktor dropped the tracker into his free hand before he stretched and shook his crushed fingers. “Damn. I can’t feel my hand. Next time someone else is holding the power source.”

  “Are you disconnected?” Rick asked Alexis.

  She gave a slow nod. “The casing around the device helped. It was strong enough to connect but allowed me to disconnect myself.” Alexis rubbed her forehead. “I think I might have an answer but I need time to sift through all of it. I grabbed as many files as I could. Some are in alien languages I’ll need to translate first.”

  “Put that somewhere safe,” Lochlann told Viktor with a meaningful glance at the power source.

  “What’s with the clipboard, Rick?” Violette crossed toward him.

  Rick lifted the device to show the holographic radar still floating over the surface. “Harper noticed a blur. We’re monitoring it to make sure it’s a space anomaly and not a ship following us. I should also mention the nebula might be manmade, so we should fly the long way around it. That will put off our arrival time by about a day.”

  Violette leaned closer. Dev and Jackson were instantly behind her.

  “I don’t see anything,” Dev said.

  “There.” Jackson pointed.

  Rick held the clipboard so that it laid flat. All eyes followed the radar. The soft ping appeared in a streaky blur.

  “What is that?” Violette leaned closer still. “I don’t recognize the shape. Rick?”

&nbs
p; Jackson poked his finger into the hologram as if that would help make the images clearer. It sent a ripple over the image.

  “No clue,” Rick answered.

  “Are we going to be attacked again?” Lucien asked, not moving from his seat. “Tell me now so I can start stockpiling food into the secret laboratory.”

  “What secret laboratory?” Harper asked.

  “Shut up,” Viktor grumbled at his brother.

  “He’s just running his mouth,” Jackson dismissed. “Ignore him.”

  Rick wasn’t about to lie to Harper, and he needed his crew to see that she could be trusted.

  “Before we became in possession of this ship, a Hungariz man had paid the Kintok captain to hide him and his wife in a secret laboratory hidden behind the corridor walls,” Rick answered. Each time he looked at her, he caught himself staring. She was so damned beautiful, and he wanted little more than to find an excuse to get her alone.

  “She had contracted an illness. He grew old trying to find a cure and couldn’t take care of her,” Raisa added, “so the husband put her into hypersleep before he died until we came along and woke her up.”

  “Only, what was in there wasn’t his wife,” Alexis said.

  Harper arched a brow, doubtful. “And where is this Hungariz lab?”

  “Hidden,” Raisa said.

  “With a blood lock,” Violette added.

  “This sounds like a pirate tale meant to scare me,” Harper dismissed.

  “It’s true. We can show you,” Violette offered.

  “We do not go in there,” Dev stated.

  “It is not safe,” Jackson added. “What was done in that place is not to be reactivated. It is best we let the reserve power run out.”

  “I agree with Jackson and Dev,” Lochlann said. “Leave the laboratory alone. No one is to go inside unless it’s an emergency.”

  Violette smirked. Raisa patted Jackson’s arm. Alexis rolled her eyes.

  Rick knew the ladies would ultimately do what they wanted even if they respected their husband’s opinions.