Chapter 3 #2
He reached directly overhead, where yet another screen was fastened.
It engaged the astric thrusters, which was another thing he technically wasn’t supposed to have.
“We’re going to have to try to outrun them.
” He was aware how unlikely that was, given the abilities of the ship trailing him—even with the speeds astric thrusters could achieve.
More than likely, they would only buy them some time.
He made the computer scan and set a course for the nearest planet or moon with a nonlethal environment, engaged the thrusters, and sent them streaking off into space.
He leapt up and shooed her out of the control room. “Go, go. We have very little time.”
“For what?” She followed him up to the passenger deck.
“We’re going to be fired upon,” he explained in the calmest possible voice, hoping that she wouldn’t start up any frenzied distress.
He didn’t have time for soothing, and if she lost it, he’d have no choice but to leave her here.
“I need you to put on a lock suit.” He pointed to a tall compartment across from them.
“In there. Then, meet me up the stairs. Do you understand?”
Her eyes were wide, but clear. “Yes. Lock suit. Upstairs.” She immediately headed for the compartment.
A knot relaxed in his belly. She had it together, raising the chances they’d both live.
He ran up the stairs to his quarters, threw on his own lock suit and gathered a few survival-type items to bring with them.
The loose-fitting garment covered from head to toe in a thick gray material that regulated body temperature and maintained pressure.
The helmet sealed at the neck. The clear face panel displayed a running list of environmental factors, which were stable at the moment, but wouldn’t be shortly.
He turned to see Kimberly clomping up the steps in her suit, which was, surprisingly, secured properly. “Good,” he said, prying up a metal door built into the floor. Beneath was the crash pod he’d installed for exactly this scenario.
This addition was allowed for courier ships, technically, but it was frowned upon.
Taron had hoped he wouldn’t have to use it.
He swallowed past a lump in his throat. He’d been through a handful of ships since he began doing runs, but he’d built much of this one himself from a burned-out shell.
It pained him to know it would be destroyed.
All he could do now was hope they got within the gravitational field of a habitable planet so he and the human would survive.
He lifted the hatch of the pod. It was sized for one person—him—and shaped like an elongated egg. Luckily for Kimberly, she was small enough to squeeze in with him. “Get in.”
She hesitated. “What is it? It looks like a coffin.”
“This entire ship is about to be a coffin.” He jerked his head toward the pod. “Get in and live, or stay here and don’t. I’m not invested either way.”
She gulped and climbed into the pod, lying down on the padding.
He got in, too, just in time for the ship’s lights to turn red, showing an imminent impact.
So his mystery pursuer had caught up to them and was firing.
He gritted his teeth and lay down next to the female.
It was a tight fit. His helmet clanked against hers as he drew her body flush to his.
He heard her sharply indrawn breath as he yanked her tight against him and drew the lid over them both.
The controls in the crash pod were simple by design.
When someone needed to use them, it meant they were facing imminent death, so they were as basic as possible.
He swiped his hand across the inside of the opaque black cover, where a yellow light swept across the surface.
Instantly, the pod made a hissing sound and sealed itself.
Pale blue gently illuminated the interior.
Kimberly’s face was set. No sign of her earlier instability showed.
The clear face shields of their helmets clanked together.
Their bodies were flush up against each other, but there was nothing sexy about the encounter.
Still, when facing the possibility of death, there was comfort to be found at having a warm body pressed up to his.
The ship gave a mighty rock. The muffled sound of an explosion accompanied it and a brief warmth could be felt through the pod’s walls. Taron sighed and said a silent goodbye to the ship that had served him well. Buying a new one would set him back, that was for sure.
“Will this really protect us?” she whispered.
Padding tucked around their bodies to keep them secure when the pod went hurtling—hopefully—onto the surface of a planet. “The guy I bought it from said it would.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“Don’t know what to tell you.” There was a solid chance they’d die.
Crash pods were not a sure thing. They could hit the ground too fast, too hot, at a bad angle, causing the occupant to die the fast and easy way.
But if they weren’t close enough to a planet’s gravitational field, they would drift and drift, leaving the poor souls inside to die, eventually, the hard way.
Taron preferred fast and easy in all things, but especially in death. He’d seen all the versions.
The female squeezed her eyes shut and shifted closer to him. Her arms were bent. She tucked her hands up to her chest, but then she reached out with her gloved fingers and took hold of the front of his lock suit. The material bunched in her fists.
He gave in and wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer.
It felt good, being close. It had been so long since he’d been close to anyone.
Now wasn’t the worst time to indulge the need, even if it was with a female of questionable mental faculties, who was meant to produce an offspring for someone else.
He touched the inside lid of the pod and looked with one eye at the velocity readings. Thank the stars they were moving along at a clip. It meant they were going somewhere. The blast had propelled them, so they were slightly less likely to die the hard way.
Time stretched. He was face-to-face with the pretty female, but didn’t want to stare at her.
She wasn’t staring at him. Her eyes fell closed frequently.
She appeared to be taking slow, deliberate breaths.
When she did look at him, she looked as though she wanted to say something, but changed her mind before doing so.
He wished she would say something, just to pass the time.
Also, to get his mind off her nifty little body snuggled up against his.
Her breasts burned into his chest. The curve of her waist was downright erotic.
He couldn’t take his hand off it. Most agonizing of all was the slide of her thighs over his and the way his cock rested so perfectly against her belly.
Of course, he began to grow hard. There was no way to shift away, and there was no way she didn’t feel it. Maybe they could start arguing over something dumb—anything but this prolonged waiting, wondering in aroused silence. Weightlessness made him feel untethered, anxious. Also, he had to pee.
“How long are we going to be in here?” she asked finally.
If she was going to ignore the erection pressing against her belly, so would he. “I don’t know. I hope we make it to a planet or a moon, but we’ll see.”
“And if we don’t?” Her question was almost a whisper.
He held her gaze. “Then we don’t.”
She digested that answer with worried brows and a quick nod.
No further questions. Her eyes were a remarkable color and difficult to define.
Light green mixed with brown flecks and rimmed with gray.
Hazel was the English word for it, but he wasn’t exactly sure about that word for them.
She appeared lucid. In fact, she had always seemed so.
He thought again at the picture of her—that wide, glittering smile.
It wasn’t the typical smile one usually made for application photos.
The way she just deflated when she saw it, as though she truly expected to see a different photo, made an entirely unwelcome thought float in his mind.
“What did you say your name was, again?”
Her gaze flew to his, latched on with far too much hope for his comfort. “Amelia. Amelia Ward.”
Amelia. He replayed that first glance he’d had of her—or Kimberly.
He wished he’d more carefully looked at the females, rather than focusing on Sulot and his wonderful pack of tagless crew necks.
He bared his teeth in a grimace, knowing that he was showing his elongated canines, which could apparently be off-putting to humans, who had a mouthful of stubby teeth.
“So do you—?” she began, but her question was cut off when the pod suddenly went warm.
Hot. Then, really hot. Red warning lights rimmed the edge of the hatch.
The surface glowed an alarming orange and a roaring sound made it through to them in a howl.
The suits were primarily designed to keep the body warm in the cold vacuum of space.
They kept heat in. They did not keep it out.
Ah, well. At least his erection had gone away.
“What’s happening?” she asked, eyes wide and panicked. Her face glistened with sweat. “Are we burning up?”
“We’re passing through a planet’s heat shield.” His own body was working hard to process the heat, which it did well, but even this was pushing his limits.
“What planet?” Her breathing was growing labored.
“No idea,” he said with mixed feelings. If they died on impact, it would be his preferred method.
On the other hand, he didn’t know what waited for them on the surface if they did survive.
It could be an ocean planet, or someplace cold and lifeless, or it could be swarming with hungry meat-eating creatures.
He’d told the ship’s computer to send them to the closest habitable planet, but that wasn’t necessarily the closest friendly planet. At the time, he wasn’t picky.
The pod cooled, but their velocity increased. He knew what that meant. “Brace yourself.”
She let out a strangled whimper, squeezed her eyes shut and tucked herself tight against him. They smashed to the ground with jarring impact. He heard her gasp, felt her tense, and hoped that the pod held together.
The reading on the pod indicated zero velocity. Well, they’d landed on land, at least. Not a body of water. No one was dead, yet. Things were looking up.
Something slammed into the capsule—probably rubble from his ship, then more crashes could be heard, and felt. The pod shook and vibrated, eliciting yelps from the female and fervent appeals from him that they wouldn’t end up being pinned inside this thing, thus dying the hard way, again.
Finally, everything went quiet and still. The pod registered a climate that was warm and humid, with excellent oxygen content and toxins well below the lethal level. Perfect.
He moved to open the hatch, when the pod’s readout alerted him that a scan was in progress. He clamped an arm over Kimberly—Amelia—whoever she was. “Quiet,” he hissed. “Don’t move.”
She did as he instructed and both of them lay there, frozen.
He could imagine the big ship hovering above them, with the blue sensor light creeping over the scattered pieces of his ship.
They, whoever they were, were looking for signs of life.
If their mysterious attackers found him and Amelia, they would undoubtedly finish the job they started in space.
He looked at her, into those remarkable eyes. Stars, what had he gotten himself into?
The scan completed and the pod’s alert blinked off. The lights around the hatch turned a dim white, indicating that they could, and definitely should, get out of it. There was debris on top of it, of course. He shifted his lower half, placing his feet flat to the hatch and pushing up with his legs.
The hatch opened a crack, letting in hot air that steamed up their masks.
With a grunt and a great heave, he pushed hard.
A chunk of metal slid off the hatch with a screeching sound and they were free.
He stood up. His legs were shaky, as though it was the first time he’d used them.
It was an ordeal. Amelia still lay there, looking up at an azure sky through a canopy of shimmering, multicolored leaves.
“Am I dead?” she asked.
“Not yet.”
She climbed to her feet. “Where are we?”
“No idea.”
“That’s your standard answer to all my questions.”
He scratched his head, wishing to fuck she had a mute button.
“Then stop asking questions.” He unlatched his helmet and pulled it off.
The air was hot and thick with moisture.
Tucking his helmet under an arm, he turned to Amelia, who had pulled off her own helmet.
Damp hair clung to her cheeks and neck. Her skin was flushed, but her lips were pale.
She saw him regarding her with serious eyes. “What?”
Taron hated the words he had to say next. “I think I believe you, Amelia,” he said, and walked off to find a place to take a leak.