Chapter One
DFY1360 was a C class planet revolving around a D class sun with nine—count them nine!—brothers and sisters, three quarters of which were rocky planets justwaitingto be raped of their precious resources.
“The colonists that end up here are going to cream themselves,” Annika muttered to herself as she studied the maps the probes had provided from their surveys and worked on matching areas of high interest—mineral and ore deposits—to the landscape below them.
It wasn’t just the bountiful, virgin nature of the mineral deposits, either, although that was pretty mindboggling. The planet itself was an Earth-C—which meant conditions were twice as nice as the mother world—a hundred years ago—when the environment was ten times better.
Hell! It was the mother lode of all mother lodes! She was in love and she hadn’t even properly met the lady yet!
Apparently, she’d muttered a lot louder than she’d thought.
Phillips, the navigator, snickered and sent his companion, Captain Mark Stoddard, a provocative look. “I think Annika’s been in space way too long to getthatexcited about dirt and rocks! What do you think, Marky?”
Mark sent him a censorious look. “Captain,” he reminded his boyfriend censoriously.
Phillips rolled his eyes.
“And I see her point, actually. It might be a diamond in the rough, but it’s unquestionably a diamond. And the conditions—from what I can see this place—will be a cakewalk compared to the last dozen we mapped. To say nothing of the fact that the shares for the mining operation will be through the roof if the quality matches the quantity of the deposits here or even comes close. They’ll have their relocation indentures paid off in no time and be racking up luxury/retirement credits. Yeah, I can see it, alright.”
Phillips batted his eyelashes at the captain. “Ooh, sweety! You sound like you’re pretty worked up over this place yourself. Just hold that thought till we set down and me and you candiscussit while Annika takes a walk to look around.”
Annika felt her face redden in spite of all she could do.
It wasn’t that she had a problem with gay couples. She had a problem with couples of any gender being so openly suggestive … or demonstrative. She wasn’t ‘in’ to watching others and she hated it when she was made to feel like a voyeur by exhibitionists.
“Now what, I wonder, has the science geek blushing?” Phillips cooed maliciously. “Thinking about having a virtual session with your pretend boyfriend?”
“Cut it out and get your mind on your job,” the captain snapped irritably.
Phillips narrowed his eyes at his companion, his own color rising, but it would’ve been hard to say whether it was from anger or discomfort.
The captain was ambi-sexual—a player who was as open about his interest in either sex as Phillips was about the direction of his sexuality.
Annika was fairly certain it was jealousy that had made Phillips blush …. Just like it had been jealousy that had prompted his nasty innuendos.
Not that he had any reason to be jealous. She had no more interest in a man that went both ways than she had in men who preferred men.
But when was jealousy ever rational?
“Not that it’s any of your business, Phillips,” Annika retorted coolly, “but Jared isn’t a sim. He’s real-live flesh and blood.”
Phillips sent her a smirk that made her long to slap him, but she was more irritated with herself for letting him get under her skin enough to prompt a defensive response.
She had no need, or reason, to defend herself. Virtual sex wasn’t the most ideal way to carry on a relationship, but it beat the hell out of nothing for months on end and, unfortunately, although her job paid well, it kept her on the road—so to speak. And since she wasn’t fortunate enough to have a relationship with a man that traveled with her—unlikesomepeople—it was virtual or nothing a good bit of the time.
She supposed she wouldn’t have felt as defensive about it if she wasn’t worried that it wasn’t enough for Jared, that he was taking full advantage of her frequent absences to fool around with women closer to hand—maybe even men, although he’d sworn to her he was straight up opie.
It sucked that 99% of the men were ambi—or just straight up samsie like Phillips.
If she could just find a man that was totally in to women! It would be nice to only have to worry abouthalfthe human race wanting to get into his pants, or vice versa!
Shaking her thoughts, she focused on her screen again, but she was almost immediately distracted by a blinding glare of light. She tried to shield her eyes, but finally glanced toward the annoyance.
The sun was rising, she discovered. They’d dropped low enough planet-ward to catch the alien dawn—an event she wasn’t ordinarily all that fond of.
She sucked in her breath in rapturous awe as the orange/golden glow spilled across the black and gray landscape and transformed it from monochrome into brilliant color. “Oh my god!” she breathed in reverence. “Look at that waterfall!”
She could’ve been in the cockpit alone for all she noticed of her companions. They faded into the background as she stared, wonderstruck, through the forward portal, taking in the brilliant colors streaked across the bowl of sky before she scanned the beauty of the landscape below it. It took her a few moments to realize that the regular holes dotting the sheer cliff wall where the river spilled over weren’t caves. “My god! It’s a … it looks like it must have been a … uh …community. I didn’t expect to find signs of intelligent life—not immediately. Itisabandoned, isn’t it?”
