Blue Galaxy (2 page)

“Troubleshooting? What could go wrong?”

“Oh, lots of things. Like the time the puter went down while I was bringing the ship in to dock at Luna. And the time…” He paused, struck by her excitement and animation. She had the space bug; that was clear.

“I want to hear
all
your stories. Every single one.”

“No problem. It’ll help pass the time. Loneliness is the worst part of being a one-man crew. It’ll be nice to have company. You sure you’re not a spacer? You certainly sound like one.”

“I think I was born to be one, but…other events got in the way.” Her voice was slow and sad as she continued to explore the cockpit with avid curiosity.

“The puter in your cabin isn’t part of the mainframe. It’s well stocked with reading material, music, art. I’ve some files you might be interested in reading—”

“Files?”

“I…um…write a lot on long journeys, descriptions of places I’ve been—planets, stations, quadrants, that sort of thing. You might find it interesting.”

He let out a sigh of relief when she eagerly agreed. He hadn’t ever asked anyone to read his accounts. The more personal entries were deeply encrypted. There were things he definitely
didn’t
want her to read.

“But don’t spend all your time reading. There’s an exercise area. It’s important to maintain your strength while on long space jaunts. The ship is gravitized, but not at one hundred percent. Your muscles will atrophy if you don’t use them, and it’s a rough transition when you get back to terra firma. The hold is full of crates right now, but when it isn’t, I use it to run laps. You can use it too when I’ve unloaded the brandy.”

She hung on his every word. “What else?”

“Well, the galley is stocked with nutripacks. Help yourself whenever you’re hungry. They’re a bit of an acquired taste, but they contain every nutrient you’ll need to stay healthy. Drink as much water as you can, but don’t waste any. It’s expensive, and I have a limited supply. Make sure you use the vitalight in your cabin. Sleep with it on. You’ll need the vitamin D. Space travel isn’t too easy on the body…” He trailed off, suddenly focused on her body. “Um…let me know if you’re not warm enough.”

“The temperature is perfect. If I feel cold, I’ll put on extra clothes.”

Javan made a mental note to turn the temperature up.

She returned to examining the screens and keyboards. “And there’s here—the cockpit, the control center.”

Javan had an idea. “Hell, I could teach you how to fly the ship if it’ll help fill the time.”

She whirled around, her mouth a perfect O. She approached him and, touching his arm, stared into his face. “You’d be giving me a great gift. It would be a fulfillment of my childhood dream and…would keep me occupied.” She dropped her hand and walked away. “Tell me. Where are you taking me?”

“You don’t know?”

She shook her head mutely.

So that was why he was being paid so much. She was being smuggled off Earth and married to an unknown suitor. Not just illegal, but also immoral. Javan turned to the viewscan. “I don’t know the destination.”

“Where have you charted a course for? You must have an idea of where we’re going.”

“I won’t receive the final destination until we reach the general vicinity.”

“And the general vicinity is?”

It was the beseeching quality of her voice that did it. That and his unease about her situation. “The outer rim. Victor Quadrant.”

She was silent but raised her eyebrow.

“Victor Quadrant has two barely habitable planets, three lunar bases and three space stations. I’m not for sure on much more than that, except…”

“Except?”

“Well, that quadrant has a reputation.”

She waited.

“It was the last quadrant to be colonized. It’s still very…”

“Very what?”

“Volatile,” he said carefully.

She approached him. “Thank you. I know you’ve probably been paid to ask and answer no questions. But now at least I’ll be able to study the quadrant. I’ll be better prepared…for whatever awaits me.” She squeezed his hand gently, and he looked into her liquid brown eyes. “Thank you.” She deposited a kiss on his cheek and left the cockpit.

Gaping, he stared after her as she went back to her cabin.

Javan regretted pointing Sola in the direction of his written accounts. She’d stayed in her cabin for three weeks, venturing out only for brief visits to the cockpit for flight lessons and views of the planets. He’d taken advantage of her absence to vent the crate with the corpse into the asteroid belt. He’d observed some of her halfhearted attempts to choke down the nutripacks. She managed to be excited for the flight lessons but was otherwise wan and sad and losing weight. In the fourth week they met in the galley. She pushed her nutripack aside and asked what was in his flask.

“Cypriot brandy—it makes the nutripacks more bearable.” He grinned and poured a generous splash into a mug.

She reached for it.

“Wait.” He took the mug to a mounted white cylinder and extracted a few cubes of ice.

She sipped and grimaced as the brandy went down. “It does help. The nutripacks are so flavorless, so textureless. Ugh!”

“They’re a perfect nutrition-delivery system, but yeah, definitely not haute cuisine.”

He offered his flask, and she poured more into her mug. “How’s the studying going?”

“You have an impressive amount of information, Captain.”

“Javan, remember?”

She nodded. “How long did it take you to write it all down?”

“Fifteen years or so. Ever since I’ve had the
Kypris.
Not much to do between ports, so…I wrote down things that might come in handy at a later date.”

“You could probably sell the files about Victor Quadrant. Information is very valuable.” She held out her mug for more brandy.

He shook his head. “That quadrant changes too rapidly. Even the information you read could be out of date by the time we get there.”

She looked hopeful. “So whichever obnoxious warlord my uncle is marrying me off to could be out of the picture by the time we arrive?”

He stared at his flask before taking another swig. “It’s possible.”

“What would happen then? Would you return me to Earth? Or—” She took a big gulp of her brandy.

“I won’t know what my final instructions are until we get there. Possibly you would marry his replacement. Possibly your uncle formulated an alternate plan.” He shrugged. “I’m sorry. I just don’t know. The person who hired me for this job specified I should follow the instructions on the datasphere and ask no questions. I won’t get the final payment until you’ve been safely delivered.”

She took a bigger gulp. “I’m going to get drunk. I hope you don’t mind.” She reached for the flask and emptied the contents into her mug.

“You think that will help?”

“Nothing will help, so why not?” Her words were slurred slightly, and he was grateful the flask was empty.

“Why did you agree to the alliance?” He was getting too involved, disobeying the instructions to ask no questions, but he couldn’t help himself. “It’s against the law to force you. You could have refused and arranged an alliance of your choosing. Why didn’t you?”

She jerked her head up and stared at him incredulously. “You believe that propaganda? That I have any say in this?”

“It’s the law.”

“Javan, you seem to be a man of the world—of many worlds. How can you be so naive as to believe that rubbish?” She stood, weaving.

“The Laws of Human Rights—”

“Are a farce! Women had more rights a thousand years ago. The Laws of Human Rights exist only on paper.”

She walked away, leaving him to ponder unpleasant thoughts about her and their situation, but also about his marriage, in which he’d been led to believe his wife had been a willing participant. The knowledge that it might not have been so explained a lot—it explained everything.

Javan went to his bunk, but sleep eluded him. The cold, beautiful face of Morna, his ex-wife, haunted him. If the Laws were indeed a farce, how had she managed to leave him, divorce him and take everything he owned?

The next day Sola was tired and unhappy. Javan made her comfortable in the cockpit and taught her the basics of the ship. She grew progressively more animated, even tucking into a nutripack with gusto, the return of her appetite a welcome side effect of an in-space hangover. The need to put solid food in a roiling stomach could make even synthetic protein taste bearable. After that he packed her off to exercise under the vitalight. She was paler than even a hangover should have made her, and he missed her golden skin. He missed her smile also. If he could keep her mind off what awaited her at the end of their journey, she’d be so much happier. There was no point in her dwelling on it, and in the meantime the journey would be more pleasurable for both of them.

Sola returned to the cockpit with color in her cheeks. “I’m getting used to showering without water. I had the air pressure set to its highest setting, and it was
almost
like water.”

“You’re looking better. In fact, you look wonderful.” Having Sola wander the ship in her multicolored gossamer outfits was like having a bird of paradise flitting around. Flashes of color in unexpected places that brought with them the heady scent of musk and spring flowers. It was like the
Kypris
had been waiting for her; the ship’s sterility had vanished. Though her luggage had seemed rather sparse for someone starting a new life at the other end of the galaxy, Sola had sported a variety of these outfits. Javan inhaled deeply. She smelled so damn good.

She smiled and twirled, the silk fluttering over her lithe body. “I’m feeling much better. I’m sorry I got drunk last night. It’s just… Well, you know. I’m not exactly thrilled with the reason for this journey, but I
am
excited to be in space and to be learning how to fly the ship and to be getting to know
you.
” She colored with the last part of her statement and walked to the main puter. “So what are you going to teach me next?”

Standing next to her, he fought the impulse to feel the soft fabric of her dress. “I’m going to run you through a few simulations to see if you’ve mastered everything you learned earlier. No point continuing until you’ve got the basics down. Sit here while I get it set up.”

He bent, tapping one-handed on the puter while resting the other on her command chair’s armrest. She covered his hand with hers. He stopped tapping, his hand hovering in midair. She stared up at him with those limpid brown eyes, her delicate, heart-shaped face serious. “I was raised to do my duty. I was raised to be stoic. I won’t be embarrassing myself, or you, again. No more getting drunk on brandy.”

“It’s okay,” he said softly.

She lifted her hand and placed it demurely in her lap.

He took it back; his gut instinct telling him shouldn’t, telling him he was making a mistake. “Let’s make this journey the most exciting and interesting and enjoyable of your life, Sola. Something you will remember always.”

She laughed. “I like that idea. I like it a lot.” She stood in a fluid movement and entwined her arms around his neck. “Let’s start now.” She closed her eyes and offered him her mouth.

There was no hesitation—not even a nanosecond. Javan pulled her into his arms and took his first taste of that delectable mouth. It did not disappoint. Her lips were warm and pliant beneath his as she dug her fingers into his hair. He slid his hands down her back in response, and her muscles tensed as she thrust her body against his. She moaned and pushed him away, then shoved him forcefully into the command chair.

“Wha—” Javan groaned as she gently gripped the increasing bulge in his flight pants. He closed his eyes and allowed her to slide her hand over him in a caress until his thighs rose toward her. He collapsed back into the chair as soon as she removed her hand, and opened his eyes to find her removing her clothing.

“Um…won’t your husband be expecting…?”

“He’s expecting me unmarried and unpregnant.” She pulled down the top of her outfit, revealing firm breasts, a slender waist and a glorious amount of golden skin. “I’m not married and—” she pulled his hand to a hard bump on her inner elbow, “—this will prevent any pregnancies until he decides otherwise.” She removed the rest of her outfit, sliding the fabric over rounded hips and leanly muscled legs. He was lost, and he knew it.

He reached for her, but she evaded his hands and dropped to her knees in front of him, reached for his zipper and eased it down. As she released his shaft, she smiled. “You offered me something I would remember always. I’m inclined to take you up on that offer right now.”

“Sola, I don’t think we…” His words were lost in a drawn-out moan as she took him into her mouth, deeper than he’d thought possible. He clutched at the armrests as she moved her mouth relentlessly up and down, sending tremors throughout his body.

She moaned, and he dipped his hands into her long black hair, pulling the silken strands, then gripped her head. It took a surprising amount of force to push her off his cock. She released him reluctantly and looked up with one eyebrow raised.

“You need to stop,” he said, stroking her cheek.

She cast her eyes down. “But I was taught that pleasuring a man…”

“You were taught?”

“Oh yes, my training was extremely thorough.”

He prevented her from proving her point and pulled her to standing.

“Oh! You would rather look at me?” She reached for his belt and unclipped the flask of brandy. “If you don’t mind? I’ve a feeling my training was not as thorough as I thought. I’m feeling shy.”

He exploded into laughter as she took a hefty gulp. “I wouldn’t exactly describe you as shy, Sola.”

She stood before him wearing nothing but a nervous smile. “What would you have me do? What was I doing wrong?”

He took her into his arms and ran his hands over her glowing skin and gentle curves. He kissed his way up her neck and buried his face in her hair. “You did nothing wrong. But…training? You can’t train for
this,
Sola.” He slid his hands down her back and cupped her buttocks, enjoying the shudder that ran through her. He brought one hand to her chin and tilted her face. Her eyes were wide and startled, but they closed as he cupped one of her breasts and rubbed his thumb against one perky nipple. Her eyelids fluttered; her lips parted. She sighed and allowed him to kiss her; her response was at first reserved, then tantalizing before becoming bolder and wilder.