He handed her the bundle, but when she stood there with it in her hands, gaping at him, he took it back. He kneeled before her again and opened the zipper at the front, holding it so she could step into it. She braced herself on his shoulders as she did so, first one leg, then the other. He slid the fabric up her legs, his warm knuckles brushing against her skin as he did so. She shivered.
“I forget you run colder than us Taureans. I’ll turn up the heat.”
She didn’t correct him, fighting to not gasp as he tugged the suit over her backside and held it open for her to pull it up her arms.
He reached for the zipper, but Krystal decided that enough was enough and she batted his hand away from her crotch where the tag waited, ready to be tugged closed. That was one place she doubted she would survive should he touch her there.
This. Was. Torture.
Krystal barely avoided getting her hair trapped in the zipper, flicking it over her shoulder at the last minute. The suit fit her like a second skin. None of those oversized uniforms that she had been wearing.
“It’s tight.”
“Nonsense. It fits perfectly.”
She looked down at herself dubiously, worried that the suit would burst at the seams if she bent over. She moved tentatively, surprised when the suit moved with her. The fabric was sturdy, but stretchy. She dropped into a crouch. No tearing. She swung her arms overhead. No tearing. She kicked and spun. No tearing.
Amazing.
Breathless, she caught T’arq staring at her, an amused grin on his face.
She cleared her throat. “Let’s get back to it then.” She slid back into her seat, T’arq having wiped the console and their seats of any remnant soup.
“Closed containers for you from now on,” he said, handing her a cup with a straw, not unlike a toddler’s sip cup.
She took it and sipped, pleased when a fruity flavor, like a cross between mango and orange, filled her mouth. “Juice?”
He nodded. “From the Darnae tree. It’s native to my planet.”
“You’re not from Taurus?”
He hesitated before answering. “No… not originally.” There was something in his tone that suggested to Krystal to not push further. The short answer stopping any further questioning.
Krystal picked up her tablet. “To the asteroid field?”
“Heading there right now.”
* * *
They made good time, reaching the asteroid field with enough time for Krystal to collect the data she needed before beginning the cloak testing with physical obstacles interfering.
“Why do you need to test the cloak like this?” T’arq asked.
Busily watching the displays of data, and occasionally altering something by tapping on the screen, Krystal answered him absently. “It’s easy enough to cloak a ship in the distance. It’s another thing entirely to hide a ship that’s close. If something triggers a sensor and they scan…”
T’arq finished the sentence for her. “… then all they need to do is watch for a flicker and change in the scenery and the cloak is useless.”
“Pretty much.”
“And the comm?”
A beeping distracted her, tapping and adjusting settings until the noise stopped.
“The same thing, really. Light and sound are both waves, and if they interfere with each other, then they can disrupt the image.”
He nodded.
“I want to make sure there is no chance of disruption ever happening again.”
