CJ
Blinking, CJ shook her head. How long had she been staring at the familiar blue and green planet on her station’s view screen? She lifted a hand to adjust the comms headset and looked around the bridge of the small shuttle.
Zac’s words rang in her head.We’re on our own.
CJ swallowed, fighting to contain the bile that rose in her throat. It wasn’t as if being on her own was anything new. Her father had left when she was a baby, then her mother had abandoned her with her grandmother when she was six years old to take a job on the other side of the country. She’d said she would be back in a few weeks. She never returned. And then, shortly after graduating from high school, her grandmother had died. The one person she had to rely on her whole life had gone.
Everybody leaves me.
CJ pushed the memories aside. That was the past. She was a different person now.
But are you really that different?
Yes. Her team—her friends—needed her to do her part. She could do this. Shehadto do this.
But you’re a coward. You get scared and hide. How can they count on you?
She shoved the insidious thought aside.
That was one time. Once.
She sat up straight in her seat and blinked to clear her vision. The display in front of her showed the locations of the Taurean vessels nearest them. To contact an individual vessel, all CJ needed to do was touch the image of that vessel or state its call sign, and the comm channel would open.
When it was busy, the role of ship’s communications officer was almost overwhelming. But when it was not busy… well, watching paint dry could sound appealing.
She lifted her wrist to check the comm. Only a minute had passed since the private message from the captain of the Zataras, Tomas Fa’Rell, had come through.
She turned in her seat and caught Domik’s steady, dark gaze. One eyebrow lifted so slightly she would have missed it if she had blinked. On Domik, that was the equivalent of holding a megaphone in your hand and screaming for attention. She shivered, her heart thudding in her chest in a way that had nothing to do with the impending attack.
His eyes were dark brown, almost black, unlike most other Taureans who had lighter colored eyes, and his hair was similarly colored. He wore it long—when it was unbound; it fell down to his waist, though he usually wore it in a tight braid, the long end tucked in the back of his shirt to keep it out of the way. She had seen his hair loose only once, and the memory had never left her. He had been in the communal locker room at the gym they used on the Zataras. Domik had been sitting on a bench clad only in a towel, his head bent forward as he combed the tangles from his freshly washed hair. The towel he wore was barely held together at his hip, the fabric parting to show one thick thigh. That was the day that CJ had discovered that the bronze of his skin went all the way under his clothes. Domik did not have a single tan line. The white towel was so small that one small shift could send it tumbling toward the floor, and the sight had frozen her to the spot.
She had watched him for as long as she dared, mesmerized by the flex of his arms and shoulders as he pulled the comb through the long strands. The rhythm of his movements sending heat pooling to her groin. She must have made a noise as she watched him, because she would never forget the embarrassment of being caught staring. He’d looked up at her, and one side of his mouth had twitched, almost into a hint of a smile, and she’d been done for.
Almost eight feet of solid bronzed muscle, bulging biceps and thick thighs, and it had been that one brief twitch of his lips that had sent her tumbling into… what, exactly? She shied away from labeling how she felt. They were friends… weren’t they?
And, right now, a friend was exactly what she needed. The familiarity—the solid comfort—of his expression soothed her frayed nerves, and she grinned.
“Everything all right, big guy?” She waggled her eyebrows as she spoke, eliciting a subtle snort of amusement. “I betcha that you’ll break out in an actual smile any day now. It’s only a matter of time until I wear you down.”
His expression didn’t change, but it wasn’t unfriendly. He shook his head slightly, turning back to the weapons display.
So much for the crush she’d been nursing for months now. She couldn’t figure out if he was interested in her as more than a friend. So they played chess, and she teased him to make him smile.
Domik did not smile.
But he would. For her. She’d make sure of it.
As long as they could get out of this mess.
CJ flicked a finger across the display in front of her, pulling up a screen that looked like an old school radar display, but in three dimensions. Their shuttle was in the center, and all the other Taurean ships were spread out around Earth. Very spread out.
She pulled up the visual from the cameras on the outside of the ship. It looked like something out of one of the science fiction films she’d loved as a child. There were hundreds of ships arranged in defensive formations, facing outwards from Earth. But there was far too much distance between the vessels. There were meant to be easily ten times the number of ships here. The Starship Zataras was in position, the hulking battleship an impressive sight, but it was the only battleship. The rest were cruisers and stealth ships, cargo vessels and pleasure craft.
Very few of the vessels were designed for combat, and CJ was relieved that theirs was one of them. And they had the best weapons specialist in the fleet in Domik.
She watched on the screen as T’arq eased their small battle shuttle quickly into place.
This was it. They were to stop the Xakul by any means necessary.
