He chuckled. “It comes with practice. There was a time when pilots had neural interfaces to assist with parsing that much information, turning us into walking computers.”
“Really? Nobody mentioned that.” She was immediately curious, turning in her seat to face T’arq, who pulled his hand away and put on his own headset.
He shrugged. “We don’t talk about it. It wasn’t a… great time in Taurean history. It took them a few disasters before they realized pilots needed to be more man—or woman—than machine.” He flicked a few more switches, and the engines hummed.
A voice filled the cockpit. “Stealth Ship Qu’Ress Alpha. You are good for departure. Good luck, Sub-Commander.”
“Thank you, but we don’t need luck. We have a new cloak.” He winked at Krystal.
Oh, dear lord. She was about to shoot into space in the company of a playboy sexpot in something that looked like a giant suppository.
What was she thinking?
She didn’t realize she was scrabbling for the latch on the harness until a large, warm hand landed on her thigh. His hands were huge. His pinky finger wrapped around one side of her thigh, and his thumb on the other side. He kneaded her tense muscles gently and hummed.
She closed her eyes and focused on slowing her breathing.
What on… was that welcome to the jungle? No way!
“What are you humming?” she asked.
How did he know one of her favorite songs?
He grinned and kept humming, not looking at her.
“Where did you learn that?” She tilted her head to one side and began humming along with him before breaking out in the chorus, her fingers drumming the beat on the armrests of her seat. She closed her eyes and sang, her heart lighter than it had been in days. When she was finished, she collapsed with laughter.
“You hum when you’re nervous, you know.” T’arq turned to her with a wink.
“Really? I know I sing when I work. I didn’t realize that I did it when I was nervous as well.” She gave a little frown of concentration. “Where did you learn that song?”
T’arq just grinned and gunned the engine.
