Chapter 26
Cyra searchedthe ship for Dez.
“There you are.” His half naked body mesmerized her as he worked out on the gym equipment in the cargo bay. He was sweaty and bulging and she wanted to make him more sweaty, and bulging in a completely different way, a different room, and several different positions.
He sat up and his gaze bored into her, heating her between her legs. “I needed to work off my…excess energy.”
“Have you thought about moving into a bigger room?” She shouldn’t care. “The one you’re in is too small for the long journey to Kolben. It doesn’t even have a chair.”
“I was not invited to stay in the room I’d like to occupy during the trip.”
The breath in her lungs left on a word. “Dez.”
“You do not need to provide me with a reason, my queen. I’m capable of waiting patiently for what is inevitable.”
There was his alpha arrogance. “I think you’re a little optimistic. Nothing is inevitable.”
“We are.”
His confidence in their relationship and the tone of his deep warm voice tempted Cyra beyond reason. She would love nothing more than to abandon her responsibilities and her future and the future of her crew and take this male to her bed forever or at least the next hundred g-years. But she wasn’t impulsive, generally. And anytime she had been in the past it hadn’t been the best decision. She couldn’t afford to give in to her desires completely. But maybe partially. “The room next to the Captain’s quarters is available.”
“That works. For now.” Dez lay back down on the bench and resumed pressing the virtual grav bar above his chest.
“Veda said you’ve been working with the dogs.”
“Keeping them fit and engaged. A bored animal is dangerous.”
Cyra glanced at the kennels, all five thuringies were laying down, head on paws, staring intently at Dez. She couldn’t blame them, struggling with taking her eyes off him herself. “Thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure, my queen.”
“Captain.”
“That too.” Dez continued lifting the bar up and down, muscles straining, trails of sweat tracing paths between each one. It would be awkward if Cyra remained, staring at him. Besides, the water chamber called her name.
Unfortunately, the relaxation she’d sought there had been short-lived, and after a long restless night, Cyra finally gave up on sleep and got up. She wasn’t certain Dez had moved, but she had a sense of him through the wall. She pressed her hand to the panel as if she could feel him. The decision to invite him to move closer might’ve been a mistake.
In the galley, she found nothing but the scent of the earlier meal and her wrapped divided tray. Of course Dez saved something for her. After quickly eating and tidying up her mess, she went to the deck. Blaize was doing system checks and Rhysa was plotting navigation based on updated dust cloud data.
“Hey Captain. Are you sure you don’t want jump there with some bridges? We could entirely avoid this class five cloud.” She pointed at the screen displaying the latest NOAH data. The official organization for all things space travel related.
“Rhysa, you know I hate those things.”
“It would be infinitely faster.”
“And yet, we could get there later. Only we might benefit from the time shift. We wouldn’t age but we could be well into the future or possibly the past, although it’s less likely, I don’t like either option. Not to mention the possible damage to the ship. Those things aren’t entirely reliable. I would much rather take the longer surer route since we have the means.” Her argument was weak. Ships used them all the time with rare complications. Even Auvi had used them whenever he could. But she dreaded the experience every time. And she had a living, breathing reason not to get to Kolben faster.
“Whatever you say captain.”
“Blaize?”
“Yes, Captain, we’re ready to launch when you are.”
“Let me just do my own final checks and talk to Veda. I’ll return soon, ready to leave. Get authorization from the docks for liftoff.”
The med lab was vacant. Cyra hadn’t seen Dez either. She headed for the cargo bays.
“Veda? Are you in here?”
“Back here.”
Cyra found her nestled amongst boxes of various size and states of unpacking.
“They delivered my hydroponic setup earlier. I’m just checking out all the lights, and grow pots. I need a plan before I start setting it up.” She plucked a light bulb from a pack and inspected it before returning it to the protective casing.
Cyra bit her lip. “I need your help.”
“What’s wrong?” Veda came out from behind the pile of stuff.
“Am I being unreasonable about not using ER bridges?”
“Did Rhysa push you to approve a route with them?”
Cyra rubbed her forehead. “Not pushed exactly.”
“Logically, the risks are minimal but not zero. And to be fair, your physical reaction to them seems to be unusually strong.”
Cyra shivered at the physical memory of being pulled and stretched when Auvi would use them.
“But are you sure this isn’t about something else?”
“Like what?”
“Like that handsome male who calls you queen, saved your meal for you, and is now living in the quarters next to yours?”
Cyra crossed her arms. “What does Dez have to do with worm holes.”
Veda waggled her thick eyebrows. “I’m sure he’d be willing to help you with all your holes.”
“Funny. Did I say I liked you? Get ready for launch, Miss Comedy.” Cyra turned and left the sound of Veda’s laughter followed her.
Speaking of Dez, she should verify sure he was actually on board. She’d spoken to everyone other than him. He needed to be prepared for takeoff.
Cyra knocked on the door to Dez’s quarters. She hadn’t seen him anywhere else on the ship during her final visual inspection to make sure everything was stowed away and safety doors were closed, so he had to be in there unless he was gone. Before her mind could run down that dark corridor, she heard his deep voice.
“Coming.”
The word held more promise than it should. The door opened and all ability to speak left her. Dez wore a tiny pair of form fitting briefs which left nothing to her imagination. And as good as her imagination had been when she’d thought of him, it was woefully inadequate. He was huge—everywhere. She’d already seen his sculpted arms and suspected he had a washboard stomach. But he was so much more than her imagination had teased. She trailed her eyes over his bulging biceps, up to his broad shoulders, down his muscular pecs with the dark, almost black, flat nipples that made her mouth water. She continued down the center of his abdomen that was like a valley chiseled in stone between a series of boulders that made up his core. She continued to follow the dark markings down to his shorts, everything pointed to his enormous cock that seemed to be growing larger the longer she stared. She couldn’t draw her eyes away.
Dez stepped closer, forcing her to meet his dark yellow eyes. He was breathing just as heavily as she was. “Did you want something, my queen?”
Well, fuck. Could he have made an innocent question sound any dirtier? She paused and took a deep breath. She shook her head slightly, trying to get the blood flow back to her brain. “To make sure you were prepared…for launch.”
“Do you require my assistance with launching the ship?” His tone was teasing. She was sure he knew exactly how The Treasure functioned after all the stories and the personal attacks. He had to have overheard the whispers while they’d visited all the bars looking for a navigator.
“We don’t have to clear atmosphere when leaving the station. Just wanted to make sure you were ready.”
“I’m ready. And willing. And able. For whatever I can do for you, my queen.” His deep voice held so much dirty promise.
So many images raced through Cyra’s mind. A tawdry to-do list that heated her cheeks. “Your captain.”
“That too.”
Cyra spun and left him standing in the door of his quarters. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be authorizing their departure anytime soon. She’d be wrapped around him like seaweed on a pier. All the reasons that was a terrible idea floated away on the tides of her desire. Except for one. She had a ship and a business to save and people counting on her. No pressure.
A couple of cycles after leaving Cassan, well on the way to Kolben, Cyra’s crew had settled back into their routines. Veda focused on establishing her indoor greenhouse and Dez helped with the construction and took point on working with the dogs. Cyra strode down the wide empty corridor to the deck to review some administrative communications. She trailed her fingers against the locks on the built-in storage embedded in the walls, still in awe that The Treasure was hers. On deck, Blaize and Rhysa were at their stations. It would be a smooth trip, even if it was a long one. As soon as they delivered, they would continue to work to find more crew and more contracts. It was the life she’d dreamed of.
If only?—
“Captain? I think we have a problem?” The concern in Blaize’s voice made Cyra stiffen. “We’re burning fuel at twice the expected rate.”
“Are you sure?” Not good. Her gills flapped as she gulped air.
“I ran the calculations several times and verified the requirement with Rhysa. We loaded sufficient fuel with a buffer. I would never have let us leave without a sufficient reserve. But we’ve burned through the buffer and are still consuming at an unexpected rate. I originally discounted it as launch overhead, and I expected the usage rate to stabilize. It hasn’t stabilized at all. In fact, if we continue to see the same trend, we will continue to double our usage every few cycles?—”
Cyra interrupted Blaize to get to the critical issue. “Is the ship in danger?”
The worst possible scenario was the ship self-imploded—a quick death. Or slightly less worse, they had to shut down the engines and die a slow death unless a rescue ship reached them in time. Neither option comforted Cyra.
“The ship is in no danger according to the other readings and system alarm states. There can be only two reasons for the excess burn. Either we were sold substandard fuel, or we have damage to the fuel inlet or the turbopump undetectable with the current system monitors. I’ve disproven every other theory.”
“Which is more likely?”
“If the fuel was just substandard, the rate of use would have stabilized by now I believe.”
Blaize was so careful with the ship. Cyra had inspected the engine rooms, internal and external, and they had sparkled. But maybe the cleaning was to mask incompetence? She struggled to believe that about Blaize based on the previous legs of their journey. She was meticulous. “How could the damage have occurred? During liftoff?”
“No. Everything about the launch was normal.” Blaize crossed her arms. “There’s no sign of a hull breach. We didn’t cross any debris fields or dust clouds.” She bit her lip briefly. “It’s my opinion that we were sabotaged.”
Cyra let that gem settle.
Sabotage.
It wasn’t completely unlikely. She hadn’t seen Varik on the station, but she’d heard he was still there. He would have known they were at the station. And it was possible someone other than Varik had a reason to resent the situation with The Treasure or one of her crew. Why wasn’t important to their safety. “What are the possible solutions?”
“The problem is that there is no guarantee I’ll be able to make a repair on the fly even if we identify the issue. Ideally, we find a place to land that’s within the range of the remaining fuel based on my conservative estimate.”
“Rhysa, are you aware of this situation?”
“I am, Captain. I’ve identified two possible destinations. We can return to Cassan and we should be able to make it all the way there. Or, we can change our trajectory slightly and stop at a planet called Arbotriz.”
“Recommendations?”
“I think we would be better off going back to Cassan. There are known suppliers there to get the parts we need to fix the ship and get more fuel,” Blaize said.
“I disagree, Captain.” Because of course Rhysa disagreed with Blaize. Cyra blanked her reaction and let Rhysa continue. “We should be able repair the ship and refuel at Arbotiz and that would require less fuel than turning around. It’s a shorter distance, not by much but shorter none the less. And we don’t have the loss that will be incurred by reversing direction, making Cassan higher risk.”
Cyra considered the dilemma. It was a risk to stop on Arbotriz not knowing how they would get the repair done. Returning to Cassan was a bigger risk not only because the fuel usage would be higher, but their saboteur was there. At least, she had to assume that was true. “Go to Arbotriz.”