Ghost Ship Numenon (Romance Among the Stars)

2. Kahdrex

2

KAHDREX

T his ship was mine . How dare a human claim it? Wander its halls without a care in the world when this was a graveyard to five thousand crew?

And yet there she was. Maddie Triden, salvage expert, or so the transponder on her ship said. Maddie Triden, the most annoying female in galactic history, would be more honest. For the last year, she’d been stealing my work, or trying to—I’d given as good as I’d gotten. It might have been less annoying if one of us had the upper hand, but neither of us could hold an advantage.

This will be our last contest. I swore it to myself and my ancestors. Whatever it took, I would end our rivalry here aboard the Numenon. If that meant killing the human, so be it—she’d had every opportunity to back down.

I crept closer to her, my hardsuit’s helmet display boosting the thin rays of light and letting me see her silhouette. That was the worst part of our rivalry, perhaps. She was the most desirable female I’d ever set my eyes on, and the way her pressure suit clung to her curves was positively indecent. Like all humans, she was short compared to me, but her perfectly proportioned figure and soft, smooth skin cried out to be touched. I wanted to tear her form-fitting silver suit off and feast my eyes on her nakedness.

In short, her looks were a distraction, which explained how I came to put too much weight on a loose floor panel. It creaked as it bent under my weight, and Maddie whipped her head around with lightning speed. Cursing my luck, I leaped forward with hardsuit-augmented speed, my fingers driving into her wrist as she drew her blaster. She stumbled back, dropping the weapon, and we both watched it bounce once, out between the bars of the railings, before tumbling into the darkness below.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Kahdrex?” The human female snarled the question, backing up fast and shaking her numbed hand. I followed at the same speed, unwilling to let her get out of arm’s reach.

“I am here to reclaim this ship for its owners, the Dissana clan,” I told her. That was true, though the huge bounty they would pay was more important than any abstract historical claim. “Unlike you, here to loot it for profit.”

Her eyes narrowed, anger flaring in them. “You think I’m here for the money? Fuck off. I’m here because this ship made history. No one’s been able to recreate the Anima Numenon. After two hundred years, it’s still a unique achievement in AI tech.”

Our eyes met and I hissed a warning, though I could not articulate what I was warning her about. Her defiant glare ignited the longing in my soul, and it took an effort of will not to rip open her suit to see just how far the blush spread. My fingers flexed as though caressing her, and my racing heartbeats filled my ears.

I wasn’t the only one feeling that pull. A tremor ran through Maddie’s body, and her tongue darted out to lick her lips. The way she tried to hide her attraction to me only made her more desirable, and I wondered what would happen if I reached out and grabbed her now. Would she fight her lust or give in to her desires?

There’s one way to find out. I reached forward, brushing her hair aside, feeling the heat of her skin as she froze.

Then her skin paled and her eyes widened, looking past my shoulder at something in the darkness. A strangled yelp burst from her throat as she bit down on a scream, and I spun, lashing out at where she focused her gaze. Luck was with me, and the heel of my palm connected, the crunch of snapping bone loud in the silence. Only as the body was falling did my brain catch up.

I’d punched a corpse, one of the honored dead. Head knocked sideways on a broken neck, eyes gone, and skin stretched tight over the skull. A monstrous thing from dark legends, reaching out for me with hardsuit-enhanced strength. Had it gotten a grip on me, I doubted I’d be able to escape.

Worse, it wasn’t alone. More hardsuit-clad corpses lumbered out of the darkness, cutting off our retreat.