I’d thought I’d leap at the chance to date someone not from the ship, someone surprisingly normal. Someone smart and handsome, and my own species to boot. The word no hovered on my lips almost instantly, however. My mind filled with Thatcher’s bunk, that cold, empty cot. No pillow, no blanket, not so much as a hint of personality. Like he had absolutely nothing of sentimental value to hold onto, just a cold, hard blade to protect himself with. Thatcher was such an asshole, and he’d driven me utterly crazy for months on end, but… damn it, I was starting to think of him as mine. I was that sentimental thing, that anchor, and rather than fight that, I was starting to want it.
Ariel’s laugh was friendly and light. “I see. So it’s a mutual thing, is it? Good for you, Ysa. Very good. We all need that special someone. Come see me for that drink anyway, yeah? Once you’re mated and settled in, we’ll reminisce. I might even be brave enough to face him, should you bring him, Ashany.” He ended the call after that and left me sitting in front of the console, staring into space.
I could not recall the last time someone called me Ashany, which meant little sister. A term of endearment, but also a reference to family, to warmth, to the bond all Unlinial shared and desired. Family. Ariel was leaving a door to friendship open and taking my silent rejection with grace. Istared at the silent comm device for a moment, surprised by how that call had turned out. I definitely hadn’t expected it to turn into a revelation about Thatcher, but my emotional response to the emptiness in what should be his sanctuary was undeniable. It was very silly, but I had the urge to go on a throw pillow shopping spree. The male needed soft things to smooth out his rough edges.
Needing a change of pace, I abruptly announced, “I’m going to the bridge. Donotfight while I’m gone.” Ivo and Grunn both gave me equally guilty looks, and they hadn’t even started a fight yet. I stomped off with my datapad in one hand so I could keep an eye on my simulations. My mind was all on Thatcher instead of the possible breakthrough about our obnoxious, possibly deadly stowaway.
What was he doing now? Why hadn’t he come back to the engine room? Maybe he had gone to get some sleep. That would be good, because I didn’t think he slept while I did. My whole body tingled just remembering lying on his cot with him. I hadn’t taken the time to fully appreciate being that close to him for so long—a mistake I intended to rectify as soon as the opportunity arose. When I made up my mind, I was all in; Ivo and Grunn knew that, and I planned to make sure Thatcher would know it too.
There was a bit of a surprise waiting for me in the hallway, however. I jerked to a stop when I discovered that one of our Tarkan crewmates was standing at attention. Which was far freakier than when Thatcher hovered like that. Raukesh could stand so still, so unmoving, that he appeared to be made of stone. He had not assumed his battleform, that would have made the resemblance to astatue worse, but even so… “What are you doing here?” I demanded suspiciously. If I’d gained another stalker, I was going to scream.
“I am assigned to your protective detail, Chief Engineer Ysa,” he said solemnly. Far too polite for a mercenary, this guy. It was probably because I was female; Tarkan society was matriarchal. He didn’t move anything but the leathery wings on his back, and still he managed to convey his intention to fulfill this task to perfection. I groaned. Just what I needed, another overbearing male peering over my shoulder. Just when I had gotten used to Thatcher, too.
“Does Thatcher know?” I asked, because somehow I couldn’t really see him being okay with another guy watching my every move. I recalled an incident where a temporary hire—a Tarkan male, coincidentally—had tried to ask me out and gotten a little too friendly with one wing. He’d been very badly injured, and it had been a fairly harmless gesture. Raukesh was flirting with danger just by being here.
“It was his suggestion. He believes you’re in danger from the thing that causes the blackouts, ma’am,” Raukesh responded in a deep, gravelly rumble. Does he now? I huffed, ready to deflect that, and furious that everyone seemed to think I needed to be watched. Then I deflated because they weren’t wrong; it had already attacked once. I was our best bet at stopping it, and that made me a target.
“Fine, just… don’t hover, okay?” I said. Raukesh glanced at his wings, as if he thought I meant literally, but he fell into step behind me. He even kept a decent distance and moved so quietly I barely noticed he was there. Not good, because I was far too used to being aware of Thatcher nearby, and this felt wrong. At least it only took a few minutes to get to thebridge, and there, Raukesh faded into a corner and his presence mixed with that of the others.
Thatcher wasn’t on the bridge, but I masked my disappointment well. Asmoded greeted me politely and gave me the go-ahead as soon as I explained why I was there. Mitnick was probably the most capable male on the ship when it came to computer programs. He knew his tech, but he knew their processes even better. If anyone could help figure out how to get the sensors to pick up this thing, it was him.
He wasn’t alone right now, but bent together with an unfamiliar, slightly older Tarkan male. This stranger had relaxed into his peace-form, and silver streaked his black hair at the temples. His tail was blunt, having lost the tufted tip in a fight, and he wore only a leather weapons kilt. His clawed feet were bare on the metal deck. He also had several horns like a crown around his head, small and sleek, but definitely very sharp. His gray eyes were just as sharp, turning to me to appraise me with far too much intelligence to call him safe.
“This is Sunder, from theVagabond,” Mitnick offered with a rustle of his feathered wings. The other male quietly mimicked the gesture with his own leathery wings as he mirrored Mitnick’s posture. The Tarkan male inclined his head slowly in greeting, and I did the same, very relieved he did not try to approach and shake my hand. “He’s here to help me track our bounty. How can I help you?”
I eyed this guy, Sunder, a moment longer before coming to stand on Mitnick’s other side and pulling up my simulations from the biosensors. I outlined the general changes I’d made, with some suggestionsfrom Ariel, then showed him the results my simulations had produced. “This sounds doable,” Mitnick agreed after a moment. “I’ll create a filter program, and then we’ll run through each facet one by one and see if we can’t flush this thing out, shall we?”
“You don’t need to…” I gestured at Sunder, who had been watching us curiously. Tracking the escaped spree-killer gladiators seemed almost as important as catching the glitch-maker on our ship. Asmoded ran a tight ship, and that involved nearly continuous missions to pay for everything and keep some of our more aggressive males occupied. Some, like Solear and Aramon, got extremely restless when they were required to have downtime.
“Do not concern yourself with my presence,” Sunder said, his voice possibly even more gravelly than that of Raukesh. A very typical sound for Tarkan males, but I couldn’t help but wonder if this male’s past had roughened the edges a little more. “I am perfectly capable of tracking their route by myself while your communications specialist assists you.” He said Mitnick’s official title like he knew exactly what the job really entailed: hacking into systems and illegally obtaining data if it helped the mission. This guy didn’t look like a hacker, but hedidseem like the kind of guy who just knew how to get hold of information somehow.
Mitnick laughed as if the male had made a joke, but then he gestured for me to come closer. “Let me set this up so you can run your tests with the sensors. One minute.” His hands were big and graceful as they ran over the console’s many buttons and touch screens. At the same time, the implant next to one of his eyes engaged, more data he was processing, possibly writing some quick code with just a thought. I was very jealous of his ability to multitask; it was a skill onlyMitnick possessed to that degree, as far as I knew. If that was a thing specific to his species, I had no clue, because he was the only Mithrakon I knew.
As he worked, I quickly checked the messages on my comm. I discovered I’d missed an invitation from Harper that morning to join the ladies for drinks in the hydroponics bay. Before the bane of my existence invaded my ship, I’d joined them every day, but lately, the habit had slipped. There was just too much going on to share cookies and gossip. They probably wanted to know what was up with me and Thatcher.
I wondered if they were running bets on whether we’d get together or if I needed rescuing from my obsessed human. I wasn’t sure yet, because even with an impulsive plan forming in my head, I didn’t know if it would work out. There was no mate bond to guide me, since such a bond was always initiated by the males of my species.
I also had a call I’d missed from Mandy, but as important as that seemed, working on the sensors was even more important. “Ready?” I asked Mitnick, because I was itching to get started and finally get control of this situation. He gave me a nod, and then we got to work, running through each type of scanner the ship was equipped with one after the other. “Bio-thermal does nothing,” I said after the first test run, proving that my simulation from before hadn’t been altered.
“Nothing on the metabolic sensors either. If this thing breathes, it does not exhale carbon dioxide or methane,” Mitnick responded. I was not surprised those sensors brought us nothing. After all, this thing had survived on theoutsideof a shuttle. It was able to resist thefreezing vacuum of space, where no such thing as oxygen is present. It had to be surviving some other way, and not require heat to do it either.
“I’m not catching anything on the vibration monitors either. No heartbeat, no presence when it moves… Sorry, Ysa. I don’t think this is working,” Mitnick said. I tried not to be disappointed, but we had one more sensor to test, and this was the one I was most interested in. Shrugging, I ignored Mitnick’s almost pitying look and hunched down over the console to fine-tune our last chance before I ran with it.
I held my breath as I waited, the bridge full of noise from voices and computers. It seemed to take forever, and nobody but Mitnick knew how tensely I was waiting. When the console beeped gently, my heart jumped in my chest. Yes! It found something. “Bio-electrical is picking something up! It’s working!” I swiped across the console, and a three-dimensional map of the ship projected above it, a red dot blinking deep in the bowels of the ship. Right next to a very unimportant little control unit related to the ship’s power systems. The kind of unit that was meant as a lower-tier redundancy when its bigger, better brothers were toppled.
Asmoded had been listening in, and now he raised his voice. “Sin, take three males and check it out. I want that thing incinerated if you get the chance. We’re not taking prisoners, shoot to kill!” The Sineater left the weapon station silently, followed by the even more wraith-like shadow of his symbiont. I still hadn’t gotten used to their change in color, but silver or black, they were a terrifying pair either way.
I sighed in relief, feeling for the first time in months like this could finally be over. Too bad Thatcher wasn’t here to seeit, but perhaps the Sineater would tag him for the takedown. That seemed fair; Thatcher had been the only one taking this threat seriously from the start. I turned around and leaned against the console, then abruptly worried that this thing could be tricking us. “I’ve got my eyes on it,” Mitnick said, assuring me that the responsibility was not all mine at this point. Good, because I definitely trusted Mitnick to track this entity now that we’d found it.
Of course, that’s when things went haywire. Not literally. Though I half expected flashing lights and crashing systems. No, it was all Thatcher. He showed up on the bridge like a storm cloud, thundering in and scowling so fiercely I nearly incinerated on the spot. I’d seen him mad, furious, enraged, but what I saw on his face eclipsed all of that. The entire bridge fell silent, a hush settling over everything.
My heart rate soared, thundering in my chest like it was an answer to his fury. After turning down Ariel, even if it was just by being unable to answer his question, it was impossible to deny the attraction I felt for him. I wasn’t scared, even if he was mad, because I knew just how much he needed me. Someone who understood.
The only one on the bridge who hadn’t frozen was Solear, and his brother was clinging to his arm as if he were physically holding him back from attacking. Solear didn’t deal well with confrontations, and he liked to strike first if he perceived a threat. Asmoded had shifted protectively in front of his mate, Mandy, and our gladiator guest had shivered into his battle-form, his gray skin hardening to stone. He remained casually propped against the console, though, like hewasn’t worried.
It was Mandy’s furious expression, seeming to try to match Thatcher’s, that set me into motion. I didn’t even know what I’d planned to do until I found myself stomping across the bridge and straight into Thatcher’s warpath. He paused mid-step when I intercepted him and didn’t move to block me when I reached up and caught two fists full of black hair. I yanked, and, probably shocked, he dipped. Rising on my toes, I planted my mouth on his, just like that. Kissing him for all to see.
Chapter 11
