“And if the Yria aliens want to keep their home to themselves?”
She slumped a little at his question, like she’d been worried about that for a while. “Then we go back to diplomacy, and if that doesn’t work…a different, less viable location on the planet. I refuse to take what isn’t mine. I refuse to kill or war unless it’s in self-defense.”
“Hmm.” Cypher glanced around, enjoying the simulated wind on his skin and the wildness around him a little too much. “It’s beautiful.”
“It is. I love this world. I’ve been to many, from frigid planets to rocky asteroids with nebula views, but this one… This one makes me desperate.”
“Desperate?”
“To win. To go out into the universe and see it for real. To experience, for the first time in my entire life, a place like this, untouched by man and industry—pollution. Something pure and untamed and unlike what I’ve always been around.” She smiled. “Being here virtually is one thing, but I can’t imagine what it’d be like for real.”
Cypher’s lips did the unthinkable and smiled to match hers. He couldn’t help it. Listening to her talk about the wilds his bear loved made him happy. More than anything, he wanted to make sure she saw places like this in real life and experience them.
He missed the wilds. He missed the open air, the breeze across his skin, and the freedom. He’d denied himself so much for so many years.
It had been his choice to sequester within Ghost City for years, but he never really thought about the freedom he had behind that choice. Especially when there were probably hundreds of millions of people who were as desperate as Vee was to have an inkling of choice. If you were born off Earth, it was easy, and if you managed to leave it, as long as you didn’t come back, nothing much could stop you from staying away.
And women… Ever since the war, they’ve had it worse. A lot worse.
Trentians were after them. The Earth government sought to hoard them and keep them far away from the aliens, and because of that, their rights were stripped. They had pretenses of equality, could still get jobs in the military, and jobs on other worlds, but it was always through the government itself or a corporation that worked through the government like the EPED—or a rare, special license.
“You’ll see it,” he said, moving to Vee’s side and taking her hand. He vowed he would give her this gift.
She looked up at him, hope in her eyes. “You really think so?”
“Fuck yeah, because we’re going to win.” He pulled her virtual body into his chest, banding his arms around her. And he felt her, all of her, even though he knew she was strapped in a rig a half-dozen paces away from him. He’d missed so much, he realized.
A dark, possessive, and strange sensation spiraled through his body and clamped around his heart. A feeling that surged when Vee softened in his embrace. And with it, the bloodthirsty fury he’d also held for those who tried to take her away from him.
Cypher rested his mouth upon Vee’s fiery hair.
But this…
This moment with her I’m not going to miss out on.
His vengeance could wait.
20
The next couple of weeks passed by without incident. She and Cypher fell into a routine of practicing for the championship and spending time together—whether it was sex or otherwise. Even Bees fell into a routine. Each morning, Vee would find him sleeping on Cypher’s chair on the bridge. Next, he’d follow her into the lounge where she fed him. Afterward, she’d take him to the menagerie enclosure of cat trees and walkways and watched him play and explore.
A kitty paradise.
Cypher put a sensory band on Bees’ collar to allow her cat to wander the ship without incident. There were few places he couldn’t go. That, and the premium cat food in the replicator, made Bees a very happy feline.
For a time, Vee relished the privacy they had. Their little makeshift bubble. The ship made her feel safe. And when she woke up at night, frightened that someone was dragging her away, Cypher was always there to calm her down, petting her body, and assuring her she was safe—safer than anyone in all the universe.
He’d been a lifeline, one she unwittingly grown accustomed to.
It made her nervous. It made her toes curl. It made her hug him close at night with the threat that she may never let go.
Time was running out.Theirtime was running out.
The championship was a little over two weeks away, and the semi-final was in three days.
Vee scraped her fork across her plate, pushing her scrambled eggs back and forth.
Cypher walked into the lounge with Bees under his arm and programmed a coffee in the replicator. The smell flooded her nostrils—the scent was amped up by the boosters he added so his body couldfeela buzz.
