I scoffed before I could stop myself and knew I’d given far too much away. His all-black eyes narrowed on me, shimmering like fathomless mirrors. Deep, endless pools of shiny black that wanted to suck me in and expose all my secrets, all my feelings. See, this was why I avoided Aderians like the plague. This was why I was happy to live on amercenary vessel that empaths generally avoided. No prying. I shut my eyes, swore, and turned my head away.
“I’ll sleep if she sleeps,” I said, and I’d make damn sure that she did. No way was I going to let her stay awake for nearly forty-eight hours a second time. She could be angry about that all she wanted—not that I believed she’d informed on me to the captain—but I’d make sure she slept. In my arms, perhaps I’d feel certain she was safe enough that I could rest a little, too.
“Hmm,” Dravion said. “I am sure that will delight her to hear,” he added. My head jerked up in time to catch the faintest hint of a smile lingering around the corner of his mouth. He was joking. Dravion was making a joke. At my expense. I exhaled, held onto my temper by my fingernails, and swallowed back the curses that wanted to explode anyway. That bastard. How could he joke about this? This was life or death! I was the only one here dedicated to keeping Ysa safe, and I would, come hell or highwater.
“Are you done here?” I demanded when I felt the anger uncoil its tight grip around my gut and ease back like an ebbing wave. Dravion shook his head, and his long, sleek black hair slid over his shoulder and covered much of his left side in a shimmering curtain. Highly impractical for a warrior, I knew that because I’d let my own grow—a bit of rebellion against the strict UAR regulations I’d escaped. Of course, mine just brushed my shoulders, while Dravion’s came all the way down to his fucking waist. The man was drowning in the stuff; it was girl hair, frankly, but he seemed to take great pride in it. In that, the Aderians held common ground with the Ulinial, and now his hair remindedme of Ysa, damn it.
“I’m going to give you some of my nutrient mix as a precaution,” he said. “Because I know you aren’t going to heed my advice anyway.” He held up an injector, the type every med kit on theVarakartoomcarried—his special, proprietary blend, specifically designed to boost a healing, flagging body. No mercenary left the ship without at least one of those injectors in their pocket. On a mission, you never knew when you might need one. It might be the tipping point between life and death. I knew that getting shot up with the stuff always boosted my nanobots, a side effect Dravion likely had not intended, but which was useful anyway.
I felt its effects almost immediately. My mind felt clearer, my body stronger, and my movements faster. It was easier to control my temper now, and a lot harder to deny that my obsession with Ysa was unhealthy. I should trust that Asmoded had sent guards who would do right by her, that she was safe. Task fulfilled, I should do what everyone wanted and crash on my bunk for a couple of hours. That was what a healthy, balanced guy would do, even when he cared as much about Ysa’s fate as I did. I could see it, but I still let my feet take me to the engine room. Ysa was mine, and now that I’d held her in my arms, listened to her sleepy sighs, I wasn’t going to let her go. She was mine to protect.
The engine room was suspiciously noisy when I arrived. I hesitated at the threshold, wondering if I should go in now that Asmoded had agreed with my assessment. It was the perfect excuse to break that one rule and enter her domain. I could hold it over her, the captain said so, you need a guard. Except I didn’t, because I wanted her to trust me, come to me herself, and she still had Ivo and Grunn in the engineroom with her. I was certain they were enough of a deterrent for the nasty stowaway in our systems not to attack.
Except… my senses prickled, and I ducked around the corner anyway. It sounded far too much like a fight. Itwasa fight. Ivo had Grunn grappled with all four of his arms, and the Rhico male seemed to be attempting, to the best of his ability, to break free and gore his coworker with his horn. If not for the fact that Ysa was completely missing, I might have stepped back and watched to see who’d come out the victor. She was, though. There was no sign of her anywhere, not a hint of her blue skin or clomping boot steps, no laugh or tease, or firm calls to get her guys back in line.
Ignoring the tussling pair, I strode around them and ducked into Ysa’s workroom, only to come up empty as well, dismay settling heavily over me. Where had she gone? And if she wasn’t here, was she still safe? Had Asmoded’s assigned guards arrived yet, were they with her?
Then fury filled me, and even the extra nutrients enhancing my nanobots’ abilities could not hold it in check. She’d left the safety of the engine room. She could be in danger right now, and I wouldn’t be able to reach her. When I found her, I was going to shackle her to my side and make damn sure she never left my sight.
Grunn and Ivo still hadn’t noticed me, so when I stormed from Ysa’s workroom and demanded answers, they jerked apart guiltily. Grunn straightened into a military posture, fists at his sides, while Ivo raised all four hands in surrender. “Boss, ah… we didn’t see you there. Please don’t tell Ysa we were fighting! We finished the repairs she asked us to do.” Ivo kept babbling, but his hands lowered and assumed something very close to a boxing position, as if he was ready to fight me too if I said something he didn’t want to hear.
Grunn had much more sense, thankfully. His small, beady eyes met mine, unflinching despite the rage I was sure was visible on my face. His muscles grew tight all over his body, like he was bracing himself against an attack. It would not help him if I decided to kill him, nothing would. His answer saved him: “She’s on the bridge. Raukesh was assigned to guard her. She’s not alone.” I said nothing, just spun on my heel and sprinted from the engine room.
Chapter 10
Ysathea
You know what? Why did a machine always act perfectly within parameters when you called in the experts? It was awfully suspicious, if you asked me, and also a little terrifying. What if the entity had known to lay low when we arrived at Strewn and the engineers showed up? Had it made itself impossible to find on purpose? Was it really capable of that kind of tactical thinking?
I paced around my engine room as I considered that, the computer running simulations for me in the background with a gentle hum. Thatcher wasn’t here, and I was beginning to realize just how much I missed his presence when he was gone. First, he’d been in briefings and meetings for much of the time the Strewn engineers had been here. I had fullyexpected him to come back after he’d escorted Da’vi to the airlock, but he hadn’t.
As much as I’d chafed at the constant shadow, I’d also learned that Thatcher did it because he cared about me, for some crazy reason. If he wasn’t human, I’d assume he was feeling the pull of a mating bond, but he was. Sort of. He healed too fast to be truly human, and he was strong too, way too strong. The kind of strong that made me feel safe, and with that entity outsmarting even the smartest engineers in the galaxy… I needed to feel safe. Thatcher believed it was out to get me, and when my console flickered once, I believed it too. That was a warning. That was the entity telling me it was still here, and whatever I was doing, it wasn’t going to work.
With a hiss, I pounced on the workstation and pulled up the diagnostics program. Too late, whatever had caused that brief power surge, it was gone now. It was always gone, without leaving a trace. My simulations were done too, indicating that Bio-thermal was not going to make a difference with the changed parameters. I didn’t trust that answer, so I restarted the simulation. That thing had been in there; it could have changed the answer. It was making me paranoid.
My comm buzzed against my skin, and I tapped it to answer the call without checking who it was. My eyes locked on the screen as if tracking its progress would prevent it from being tampered with. “Is this Ysathea Zylmaris?” a male voice asked. The voice was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I hadn’t wanted to look away, but it was automatic to raise my wrist and look at the screen. A small holographic projection above the device showed a blue face and sharp, pointed ears muchlike mine. Except this face was masculine, and only azure stubble covered his slightly darker blue skin. Ariel, the chief engineer who had been part of Strewn’s inspection crew a few hours ago.
“Ah, it is,” he drawled, and his craggy, rugged face softened, mirth dancing in his bright blue eyes. “Your communications officer patched me through; I hope you don’t mind?” He left those words hanging there, clearly waiting for an answer. I was still struggling with my surprise, and also a little, I had to admit, with my unease at seeing a Ulinial male without his long hair.
“Ah, uh—Ariel, was it? I don’t mind. What can I do for you?” I said. I was pretty sure Thatcher was going to throw a fit if he discovered this guy had called me. Especially since there was a light of flirty interest in his blue eyes. He probably felt safe when not aboard theVarakartoomand out of reach of Thatcher’s fists. Perhaps he thought he could throw me a line, see if I was receptive enough that he’d brave the furious shadow at my back. Not that Thatcher had been present for much of Ariel’s visit to my engine room, but he’d definitely made an impression.
“I wanted to apologize, to start with. At Strewn, we pride ourselves on always fixing the problem, and we left without solving anything, didn’t we?” Ariel’s voice had a gritty quality to it that reminded me of my father; too much Elram leaf after dinner. It was a little hint of a home that no longer existed, and I felt a pang of melancholy.
“Don’t worry about it. This thing has eluded me for months; I doubt you could have found it in a day,” I said. Behind me, Ivo snorted in amusement, and Grunn raised his head, dark eyes twinkling. Him, I couldwin from when I shot him a rude gesture, so I did. They were laughing because I was acting so polite now, and they both knew I’d been a hot mess for days leading up to the Strewn inspection. I’d been utterly convinced they’d crack the case when I couldn’t, and I shouldn’t feel so damn victorious about it now, not when the ship was still in danger.
Ariel could not see what I was up to because my hand was out of range of the comm’s recorder, but he could see my expression. I wondered if he’d ducked into the privacy of his own quarters to make this call, or if he was in an office, doing it on behalf of his boss. The mysterious, elusive Master of Strewn. In any case, he appeared entirely alone, with nothing of his background visible, so I couldn’t tell where he was.
He laughed, the sound husky, and his expression told me his interest had only grown. “So it’s both our prides at stake here, is it?” he said. I smirked, because I liked this normal interaction, and I liked how it made me feel more like myself. Sure, he had a past more scarred than mine, but it was still a past with overlapping parts. He must have grown up on one of the many scattered Ulinial colony ships that traveled through the Zeta Quadrant in search of a true home. That meant he had memories very similar to mine.
“Is it true you think this is a sentient entity?” he asked next. I liked the safer topic and saw no harm in sharing what I knew at this point. We were already scheduled to leave Strewn; there was no way he’d come back aboard to have another look. His time was probably so carefully planned, down to each pee break, that ducking out to have this call with me was probably all he could do.
“It is. A few days ago, it actually attacked me in the c-corridor directly after a blackout. We managed to secure a sample then but have been unable to detect anything with our biosensors or otherwise. That’s actually what I’m trying now: alter the biosensor parameters to see if I can’t locate it that way.” I had been a little embarrassed that the idea had come from Da’vi; that it had not crossed my mind to continue fine-tuning the sensor parameters to get results. I blamed the exhaustion for that. Now that I had an idea to work with, though, I was itching to figure it out, solve the puzzle.
Ariel’s eyes sparked, and for the first time in ages, I found myself talking engineer to engineer on a level Ivo or Grunn just couldn’t offer. Ariel was brilliant, perhaps better at what he did than I was; not that I’d admit that out loud. We went through options together, and before long I was sending him data so he could see what I saw and adjust his thinking. We were closing in on something; I could sense it, even if the sensors weren’t quite there yet. Setting them so finely meant way too much data came back, and it was impossible to sift through it all right now.
I didn’t think he’d have the time to talk with me for this long, but there was no hint of impatience. In fact, I could tell he enjoyed every minute. When a silence fell while I waited for a simulation to run, he cleared his throat. “So, I know you appear to have a rather, ah… angry shadow hanging around, but I’m willing to brave that if you are. How about we grab some drinks at Rikki’s next time you’re in?”
My head jerked up, and on the other side of the engine room I heard a thump and then Grunn’s heavy bass as he swore. This was not a private conversation,but I was pretty sure Ariel knew that; he just didn’t care. I wasn’t unused to these kinds of propositions. When you were young—at least somewhat decent-looking—female on a pretty male-dominated ship, it happened pretty much all the time. Itwasthe first time in a few months, though, because all that had stopped after Thatcher had beaten up that poor, flirty Tarkan grunt.
