"That shadow place? Without any ice? That seems peculiar that there is no ice on that one spot, but the rest of the ship is coated with it."
"You think someone broke it off?"
"Maybe. And if someone broke it off, then they may be waiting for us to come back to the ship and attempt to leave." He held out his hand and formed a blaster. He glanced at Bianca. "Blaster or blade?"
"Blade," she replied.
In a moment, he created a basic knife blade for her to hold in case there was trouble. Whatever it took to keep her safe. "Now, please. Stay here."
"I can do that. Do you want me to signal you if I see something?"
"Yes, let me know if you see something. I'm going down there to get your equipment and see what else I can find in the pod, and I will be back. If you see anything, let me know via the communicator." He handed her the communicator she had before.
She accepted it and tucked it into her dress. "I thought signals were hampered during an eclipse."
"Not this close of range," he said.
She nodded, and he turned to climb down.
Paused.
And an impulse hit him.
He leaned into her and kissed her cheek. He could have said it was more because he wanted to make sure she was not freezing again. And logically, it made sense. Because she was cold, but her skin did not feel burned by the cold, thankfully.
But he desired to feel her again. He wanted to return to the kissing they had been doing before. He could do that all day long. It was quite exhilarating. Their physical connection was strong, and he wanted to explore it more. The idea that the Craving was pushing him so hard danced around in the back of his mind. Still, he was not ready to consider that something so primitive could be taking over his systems.
The Rhimodians had not been around females in many years, aside from the few they encountered on trade missions, like those at the nearby spaceport, Disguised Serenity. They traded their exports and got many other things they needed but could not acquire in the system.
And occasionally, they would spend time with other humanoid females. As of yet, no species was compatible with Rhimodians as far as mating went--for physical desires, they were always willing to help. The Rhimodians were always commented upon for their build--it was evidently impressive for females, or so he'd heard.
The only conclusion he could draw about the strong sensations he had when it came to Bianca was that she somehow drew out the Craving more than previous encounters.
Part of him was very determined to take care of her and make sure she was safe. He expected Master System would have some integrations to install when he returned to the base. Until then, he would be on his own to see if he could figure out what was happening between them.
At the ship, the edging looked like someone had chipped away some of the ice. A nice, humanoid-sized shape, in fact. What that meant, he didn't know. It wasn't likely anything natural that would do that--too cold for much life to exist on Sol-1. He had seen far too many of the Terrans on his scans. They were out there, with their accomplices, a few Charro. And Charro were known to take orders and question nothing.
Which aggravated him. Simply because the Charro used part of Sol's solar system to bypass some of the common (and patrolled) routes through this sector. The Rhimodians, a few years back, had made a deal they would look the other way if the Charro stayed out of their business.
This meant the deal between the Rhimodians and the Charro was now up for re-evaluation. Yet something else that would be uploaded to Master System to determine a course of action. Harbin started clunking on the ice, breaking apart pieces as he worked his way under the wings to get to the escape pod in the center.
At least that wasn't completely visible, he thought.
He got underneath easily. No sign of alarm on the outside of the ship, which seemed odd. What had been done? He still had a feeling that the vessel had been manipulated in some way.
He reached inside one of the panels and kicked on the engines to warm them. The vehicle rumbled to life, burning and glowing. It pushed against the ground and against him. The heat felt good from the ship's engines.
He let it warm a moment, the ice melting and falling off like he was standing in a rain shower. He knew this was going to be super cold shortly, but it was what it was. He worked his way over to the escape pod. In a couple of pulls, he had the main door open. Inside, as she had told him, were a couple of silvery bags. He pulled them out and flung each one over his shoulder. He walked to the side of his ship and started fiddling with the controls again to turn off the fighter before he went back over to where Bianca was.
He had just flipped off the controls when he heard it.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
"Drygok," he muttered.
