"You saved my life," she repeated, and something shifted in her expression. A hint of color in her cheeks, a slight curve to her lips that wasn't quite a smile but held a warmth that made my heart race.
The tension between us eased, shifting into something warmer, more intimate. I found myself taking a breath that didn't feel quite so heavy. "I heard you opened a bakery," I said, grasping for safer ground even as part of me wanted to dive deeper, to know everything about her. "Here on Tau Ceti."
Her expression brightened immediately, and I felt something warm unfurl in my chest—like watching the sun break through storm clouds. "I did. Ruby's. It's small, but it's mine."
"And you're working with the Space Pearl's restaurant?"
"You've been asking about me," she said, though there was no accusation to it. Instead, I heard curiosity and something that sounded almost like hope.
"I asked Mei. I wanted to know you were safe. That you were... happy." I hesitated, my voice dropping lower. "After everything."
She studied me for a moment, her head tilting slightly, and I found myself memorizing every detail of her face. The way her lashes cast shadows on her cheeks, the small freckle near her temple, the scar at her brow that had faded lighter with time. "What about you? What happened after you rescued me?"
The question hung in the air between us, and I felt my jaw tighten involuntarily. "I was captured," I said simply.
Her face went pale. "Cristox?"
"I'd stayed behind to cover your escape, to make sure they couldn't track you. The Kwado ambushed me near the extraction point."
Ruby's eyes widened, luminous with unshed tears, but she remained silent, waiting for me to continue.
"The Kwado kept me for about a week," I said, my voice flat as I tried to keep the emotion out of it. "Interrogated me about Alliance operations, intelligence missions, that sort of thing. When they realized I wasn't going to break, they sold me."
"Sold you?" Her voice cracked, and I saw her hand move instinctively toward me before falling back to her side.
I nodded. "To the Kerzak. They pay well for intelligence officers. Especially ones with tactical knowledge." I felt my hands curl into fists, the phantom pain of old wounds flaring to life. "The Kerzak were... more creative than the Kwado. More patient."
"How long?" she whispered, and the anguish in her voice nearly broke me.
"Three months." The words came out harsh and flat. The Kerzak had specialists. Beings who knew exactly how much pain a body could endure before shutting down, and how to keep you conscious through all of it. I saw her flinch, but I couldn't stop now. She'd asked, and she deserved the truth. "They used neural disruptors, chemical agents, sensory deprivation. Sometimes all at once."
A tear slipped down her cheek, catching the light like a gem, but I kept going.
"I didn't tell them anything. Not one word about Alliance operations, not one name, not one coordinate." Pride flickered through the darkness of the memory. "After three months, they realized I never would. So they sold me again."
"Where?" Her voice was barely audible, trembling with emotion.
"A gladiator pit." I met her eyes, saw the horror dawning in them. "They figured if I wouldn't give them information, I could at least provide entertainment. And profit. I fought for three years before the Alliance repatriated me."
"They tortured you." Her voice was barely a whisper, and I saw her hands clench into fists at her sides. "Because you saved me."
"It wasn't your fault."
"I know that," she said sharply, and I saw the glistening of tears in her eyes. "But it doesn't make it any easier to hear."
I took a step toward her, unable to stop myself, drawn to her like a moon to its planet. "Ruby..."
"You could have died," she said, and another tear spilled down her cheek, tracing a path I wanted to follow with my lips. "You almost did, didn't you?"
I reached up slowly, giving her time to pull away, and brushed the tear from her face with my thumb. Her skin was so soft, so warm, like touching starlight made flesh. The contact sent electricity racing through my veins, igniting every nerve ending. I saw her pupils dilate, watched her lips part slightly as her breath caught, and knew she felt it too. This magnetic pull between us that had been there from the beginning, this undeniable connection that transcended species and circumstance.
For a moment, we stood frozen, my hand cupping her cheek, her eyes locked on mine. The world narrowed to just the two of us, to the warmth of her skin beneath my palm and the rapid flutter of her pulse at her throat.
Then she stepped back, breaking the contact, and I let my hand fall to my side, already missing the feel of her.
"What are your plans?" she asked, her voice slightly unsteady, breathless. "How long are you going to be on Tau Ceti?"
"I'm an intelligence officer now," I said, trying to ignore the acute loss I felt at the distance between us. "Aboard the Historia. I leave in two weeks to rendezvous with the ship."
