Chapter 19
- Nora -
The atmosphere in the command chamber never fully recovers after the Queen's message.
Crew members continue carrying tablets from one station to another.
Reports continue flowing through the chamber.
The Beast continues her journey through the stars as though nothing has happened.
Yet every locust in the room seems aware of an invisible weight pressing down on them.
I don't know enough about their species to read all the signals, but I can feel the tension.
I notice it most in the way they behave around Krix'vorr.
Nobody questions him. Nobody hesitates when he gives an instruction.
At the same time, something has changed.
Antennae remain lower than before. Crewmembers glance toward the tablet that delivered the Queen's message and then quickly look away again.
Whatever the Queen is to them, she clearly isn't someone they think about casually.
Krix'vorr finishes reviewing another report and hands the tablet back. "Continue examining the enemy records," he says. "If anything concerning the Gzet appears, bring it directly to me."
The locust bows and retreats. Others immediately move into place to replace him, carrying more information. Krix'vorr deals with them one after another until eventually the flow slows. When the last tablet leaves his hands, he remains standing where he is, studying one of the larger viewing lenses.
Stars drift across its surface. Somewhere beyond them lies the Nest.
I cross the chamber and stop beside him. For several seconds I watch the stars with him, trying to decide how to ask the question. Eventually I settle on the direct approach. "Are they afraid of her?"
His attention remains on the lens. "They respect her."
I study his profile for a moment. "That's not what I asked."
That finally earns me a glance. For a few seconds I suspect he'll avoid the subject entirely.
Instead he folds his hands behind his back and returns his attention to the stars.
"The Queen rules our Brood. She commands more war beasts than most civilizations possess ships.
Her decisions determine whether worlds live or die. "
I nod slowly. "That sounds very much like a yes."
A smile tugs at his mouth. "Anyone not deathly afraid of our Queen is not very bright."
I fold my arms and lean against one of the living supports that rises from the floor. Around us, crew members continue their work while pretending not to listen. "And she suddenly decides she wants to see you."
"It wasn’t sudden. She already told me once, but I chose to go to battle instead. This was the final warning. She wants to see me immediately."
I let out a breath. "That sounds worse."
He thinks about it. "The Queen is quite harmless if she immediately gets exactly what she wants. She can even be grateful. Well, gracious, perhaps." For the first time since I met Krix'vorr, I can see uncertainty around the edges of his confidence. It's faint, but it's there.
"Are you worried?" I ask so quietly nobody else can hear, and the translation flower follows suit.
One antenna twitches. "I didn't say that."
"But you are?"
His green eyes settle on me. For several moments he says nothing, and I find myself wondering whether I've pushed too far. Then he exhales. "I’m not meeting my Queen empty-handed. And yet, nobody can be sure what is enough for her."
Krix'vorr usually treats every obstacle as something that can be overcome through enough force, intelligence, or determination. Hearing him acknowledge uncertainty makes him seem more real and, annoyingly, more attractive.
I look away before he notices the direction of my thoughts. "So what happens when we get there?"
"I report to the Queen."
"And me?"
His gaze returns to me immediately. "You stay with me."
He says it without hesitation. For some reason that affects me more than all the strategic discussions we've had since leaving the wreckage. There isn't even a trace of doubt in his voice. As far as Krix'vorr is concerned, my place is beside him.
I study him for a moment. "You're very sure of that."
"A Chief Harrower is always sure."
My fingers tighten around my arms. "What if she orders something else?"
The question hangs between us while the Beast's pulse travels through the floor beneath our feet.
Krix'vorr doesn't answer right away. He thinks about it first, and somehow that worries me more than if he'd spoken immediately. When he finally replies, his voice has become lower. "Then we'll deal with it."
I search his face for reassurance and find something different: Determination.
He isn't promising that everything will work out. He's simply telling me that whatever happens, we'll face it.
I actually like that more than thoughtless optimism.
We’re headed for potential trouble, and he knows I know that.
He respects me enough to not hide it, but he has too much strength in him to admit he’ll be helpless if the queen decides something he doesn’t like.
And I don’t think he’ll be helpless then. He’s too resourceful for that.
And so am I. He did say ‘we’.
For a few seconds neither of us speaks. The chamber continues moving around us while we remain standing there, surrounded by stars and living machinery.
Then Krix'vorr reaches out and touches the side of my neck. The gesture is brief and casual, but my body reacts as though he kissed me.
His thumb brushes my skin once before his hand falls away again. The contact leaves a trail of warmth that spreads through my chest and downward from there.
"We still have time before we arrive," he says.
I know exactly what he's offering. The tension that's been building since the battle, since the wreckage, since the Queen's summons, suddenly feels much harder to ignore.
I swallow and meet his eyes. "That's good. Because I have some idea about how to spend that time.”
His gaze darkens, and I know he understands precisely what I mean.
I fall into step beside him as we leave the command chamber. Around us, the Beast continues her endless work. Crew members hurry through the organic corridors carrying tools and bundles I don't recognize. The activity barely registers.
I'm electrically aware of the locust walking beside me.
Every few steps his arm brushes mine. Each accidental contact sends another pulse of warmth through me. It would be easier if he seemed unaffected. Instead he walks with the same confidence he always has, which only makes me more suspicious.
"You planned that," I say.
His antennae tilt toward me. "Planned what?"
"The neck touch."
For a moment I catch amusement in his eyes. "I don't plan everything, you know."
I snort. "Not everything, just nearly everything."
He walks on. "You keep saying things that should make me furious. And yet you’re still alive and well. Indeed, you’re thriving. It’s most puzzling."
I choose not to feel threatened by that. This guy lives a brutal life, and everything he says must be filtered. “I think you like it when I say those things.”
“Oh?”
I point to his crotch, where the shield is absolutely moving. “That keeps giving you away.”
The corridor narrows ahead. Krix'vorr places a hand against my back and guides me through a cluster of approaching crew members that scramble to get out of the way and drop to all fours. He keeps his hand there, and I like it.
"I enjoy that sound."
I look up at him. "What sound?"
His gaze settles on me. "You laughing."
“Oh.” I don’t know what to say. “I didn’t know I was laughing.”
He walks on. “See, laughing in my presence is one of those things that should be dangerous.”
I glance at his midsection, where the shield is twitching. “So I see.”
He looks down at me with a hint of mirth in his alien face. “In a moment you’ll see it up close.”
Heat floods my face. “You sound very sure.”
He glances down at the tape wrapped around me. His eyes travel from my shoulders to my legs and back again. “It feels like I just told you about Chief Harrowers and being sure.”
“So maybe I wanted to hear it again,” I admit.
"You have no idea how difficult it is to stay patient." The low note in his voice sends a shiver through me.
I reach out and hook a finger beneath one of the straps crossing his chest. "Maybe," I say, trying and failing to sound innocent, "you should stop being patient."
The membrane closes behind us, sealing away the noise and activity of the Beast.
The change is immediate. All the tension we've carried from the command chamber, from the Queen's summons, from Sophia, and from the uncertainty waiting ahead narrows into something much simpler.
Krix'vorr turns toward me, and I stop seeing the Chief Harrower who commanded a battle. I stop seeing the warrior who crippled an enemy vessel and mercy-killed a wounded enemy. What remains is the male who held me a short while ago and made the rest of the universe disappear.
Neither of us pretends otherwise.
His hand settles at my waist while mine comes to rest against his chest. The contact sends warmth through me. We stand there for a moment, looking at each other, both fully aware of what we want.
"Nora." The way he says my name does strange things to me. His voice is deep enough that I feel it more than hear it.
I move closer, all the way up to him until we touch.
His arm closes around me immediately, drawing me against him. When he kisses me, there is no hesitation in it. We've already crossed that boundary.
I worry a bit about those mandibles, but they only brush softly against my chin, like a silky beard would. Okay, now I get one reason why his extremely intimate healing process had such an effect on me.
One of his hands slips into my hair while the other presses against the small of my back, holding me close enough that I can feel the heat of him through the ridiculous tape wrapping.
For several heartbeats, the rest of the galaxy ceases to matter.
The Queen can wait. The Nest can wait. Everything beyond this chamber can wait. Even the Earth.