Authors: Cathryn Cade
Craig nodded. “Great idea. Halix? Ogg? Panthar? Everything okay out there?”
“Navigation systems safe and operational,” Panthar replied.
“Engines and reactor all okay,” Ogg said. “How’d it go on your end?”
“Ah.” Craig exchanged a quick glance with his guard commanders. One that instantly agreed nothing they had witnessed would ever leave the command deck. “Commander Navos received a flesh wound, but the medics assure us he’ll be fine after a transfusion and some glue-stitch.”
“
Orion
back to normal, Captain,” said Halix cheerfully.
Craig rose, grim satisfaction on his face. “Good. I’m going to speak with Stark and the IBI. Maybe we can get rid of these bastards, once and for all.”
“Do we know where this Cyan and the Mazarin woman are?” Sirena asked.
“They’ve escaped us, for the moment. But the IBI will find them,” Halix said. “They are on her ship.”
“Or we will,” Slyde said. He and his wife exchanged a smile that made a shiver run over Halix’s lavender skin. He was extremely glad that the two beautiful predators would never hunt him.
Nelah hung over Navos’s air-bed in the infirmary until he woke. The greatest relief of her life flooded her when he stirred and frowned.
“Are you there?”
he asked, without opening his eyes.
“I’m here.”
The corners of his mouth turned up slightly and he reached for her hand with his good arm.
She slipped her hand into his. Then, very carefully, she leaned over and laid her cheek atop their clasped hands, on his chest. She sent a prayer of thanks winging silently to the stars. He was safe, that was all that mattered.
“I’ll be right beside you, as well,”
he promised.
She smiled mistily, feeling the strength of the words and the man, solid as white Indigon stone. She’d have to undergo surgery to remove what was left of the biotic implant, they both knew that. But it was inert now. She still felt a shuddering distaste for having it inside her skull, but she no longer feared it, or the conniving monster that had placed it there.
“I know you will.”
“When it’s over, we’ll be married.”
Nelah lifted her head, shocked. He opened his eyes, amusement in their indigo depths.
“We’ll speak of that…later.”
She tugged at her hand and he winced, sucking in a sharp breath.
“Oh, Daron! Does it hurt you? Don’t move anymore,” she babbled, guilt flooding her.
He smiled bravely, still holding her hand. “Very well, love. I won’t.”
A twinge of suspicion moderated her guilt. She eyed him, frowning. Daron Navos was perfectly capable of playing others to get what he wanted, although she suspected she was the only being alive who knew this about him.
He lifted her hand to his lips, gazing limpidly at her as he pressed a warm kiss to her skin.
“But perhaps this time we’ll limit the spectators to just the ceremony,” he said. “And not our nuptial embraces.”
With a squeak of utter embarrassment, Nelah hid her flaming face on his chest. She’d hoped that, by some miracle, neither he nor any of their audience would ever refer to the episode again.
His chest quivered and he made a strange choking noise.
“Do not laugh at me!”
“Never, flower. Never.”
She groaned silently. It was a good thing she loved him so much, or she would have to suffocate him with one of the air pillows.
“You will marry me,” he said with trademark insistence. Although it was nicely tempered with more than a hint of need. She smiled to herself, unable to believe this incredible man, whom she’d hero-worshipped for so long, wished to marry her. And yet…
“Are you certain you wish to marry?” she asked wistfully. “Will your work always come first with you? You’ve lived for it for so long.”
“Flower, I put the
Orion
first only once. And I immediately realized my grievous error. You said you had forgiven me.”
“I have, but I…Daron, I simply don’t wish to be someone you remember between voyages. I couldn’t bear to live that way.”
“How can you suggest my feelings are so shallow? I love you. I have said so. I wish to marry you.”
“Can’t we…wait and see how things go?” Part of her could not believe she was putting him off. Part of her was screaming, “Say yes, say yes, you fool!”
His hand tightened on hers and his eyes deepened in color and intensity, as if he would bend her to his will by the sheer force of his gaze. Nelah felt her heart melting, felt herself ready to submit and agree to anything he asked. Suddenly she realized the feeling was being enhanced.
“Stop that,” she said indignantly.
His brows shot together, but the urge slipped away.
He looked away, fidgeted under the covers and then sighed, as if much put-upon.
“Very well,” he said. “I perceive you will accept nothing less than total surrender. Holo-vid, on.”
He nudged her upright, as a small holo-vid sprang up in the air before them. Nelah watched in wonder. There she lay, pale and still on the gurney, an image of her brain revolving above her while Navos held her hand and Craig, Tentaclar and the guard commanders watched. They all looked grim.
“Daron, she agreed to help,” Sirena insisted.
“And she’s our only hope of catching this Cyan before he destroys anyone else,” Slyde added. “With these new implants, virtually undetectable, he’s a rogue in the galaxy. Governments could be toppled, security compromised anywhere someone pays him.”
Craig stepped closer to his friend and laid a hand on his shoulder. “I understand how you feel, Daron,” he said quietly. “But she did agree. You know we must stop him now.”
“You don’t understand,” Navos said, as if forcing the words out past his pride, looking down at her. “You can’t. I have spent my life living up to the standards of my father’s people. Barricading myself behind intellect and psychic power. Convincing myself this was the way I was meant to live—that passion was for other beings, those less endowed than I. Until she boarded this ship and tore all my carefully constructed control away, like so much tissue in her hands.”
Nelah’s eyes filled with tears, which spilled unheeded down her cheeks as she listened in wonder.
“I can’t lose her,” Navos said rawly. “I will have nothing to live for.”
The others were silent, gazing at him.
Finally, Sirena stepped forward. She picked up Nelah’s free hand, limp on the coverlet and held it in her own, in a physical pledge.
“All of us here will gladly die to protect each other and our ship,” she said quietly. “Daron, now you must respect her wish to do the same. She’s young, but she’s a woman of honor, just as you are a man of honor.”
Navos bowed his head. He gave a deep, shuddering sigh. Then he straightened, his eyes dark.
“If anything happens to her, I will spend the rest of my days making them pay,” he vowed. “Everyone who’s had a hand in this.”
“As I will,” Craig swore.
“And I too,” Slyde agreed.
The holo-vid winked out. Nelah sat for a moment, utterly stunned. Then she turned to Navos and gazed at him wonderingly.
“You do love me,” she whispered. “Oh, Daron, have I really had such an effect on you?”
“You have shifted my entire galaxy on its axis,” he muttered, his high cheekbones flushing.
She giggled through her tears, but sobered quickly. “If anything had happened to you, I would not have wished to live, either.”
“Then you forgive me for placing you in such danger?” His gaze searched hers.
“Daron! As if I would have let you stop me. I was frightened, of course. But I knew that with you beside me, I could do … anything.”
“And you did, flower. You were magnificent.” He lifted her hand to his lips.
“Marry me,” he said. “Let me spend the rest of my life putting you above all others.”
With a little cry, she flung herself at him, her hands clasping his beloved face. His good arm closed around her, hard and strong.
Their lips met and clung.
“Yes,” she promised. “And you will be above all others for me, as well.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Beryl Mazarin’s ship had taken off from Indigo with no flight plan, but she and Cyan were now on the galaxy’s list of most wanted criminals. Both holo-images, and that of her ship, played in every space port waiting area and bar and while their crime stirred avarice in some galactic beings, it caused utter repugnance in many more.
Mazarin was spotted on Frontiera, courtesy of a new sat-com surveillance system in which Logan Stark was one of the chief investors. Her conspirator, Cyan, was nowhere to be seen.
Sirena and Slyde took off on his sleek star-cruiser the hour they heard her location. The Dragolin promised his bride that they would outrun the IBI to get to her.
They did.
The
Orion
landed on Frontiera later that day, at the new space port outside of Frontiera City. The planet’s largest city had been built on a south coast of the sea and had a mild climate and long, sandy beaches.
After the passengers disembarked and the crew was preparing enthusiastically for their layover on the frontier planet, the command team gathered for their post-flight briefing. Navos and Nelah would be flying home to Indigo as soon as the meeting ended, for her surgery and recuperation. Craig and Tessa would stay on Frontiera for a vacation trip into the wilds.
Halix walked onto the command deck, a little late, looking perplexed.
“What is it?” asked Craig.
“I have just had a request from an elderly Earth II couple,” Halix said. “They wish to know when we will do another of these ‘sex cruises’. Said it was like a second honeymoon for them.”
Craig’s mouth fell open. He turned to Navos. That bastion of Indigon dignity and restraint merely arched one dark brow at him.
“Perhaps we should raise our rates.”
Craig and the other crew commanders howled with helpless laughter. Navos watched them with outward calm, but his dark eyes gleamed.
The new owner of PanRra was awed by the scope of the corporation his uncle had left him. He was nearly as dazzled by his new executive assistant. Such a beautiful, sophisticated creature. He blushed each time Lly bent her sensual smile on him. He’d intended to spend his life in academia, but with her help he was taking the reins of the huge corporation with relative ease. He thought he might quite like this new lifestyle. The company employees treated him with ego-bolstering deference and his offices, his personal cruiser, were the stuff of dreams.
He’d moved his mother into Rra’s penthouse with him. She had her own suite of apartments and was very much enjoying having a maid to do the housework and the cooking.
He was puzzled, but polite when one of the receptionists announced that a party from off-planet had arrived to see him. He noticed Lly went pale when the receptionist mentioned they were from LodeStar Corporation, her hair wrapping around her lovely throat.
Nna frowned. He would allow no one to bully this wonderful woman.
“Shall I tell them to wait?” he asked her. “We need not allow them in.”
“No,” she said, trying to smile at him. “You—you must give them an audience. I’m sorry. I should have explained certain things to you…before this.”
It was a formidable group of beings who strode into the huge office. Tall, commanding, every one of them. The man who was clearly their leader, a dark-haired human with fierce brows and piercing light eyes, wore impeccable business attire.
Three wore the silver-grey uniforms of LodeStar, PanRra Air’s chief competitor. He noted captain’s bars on the shoulders of the blond human—a warrior if he’d ever seen one. Beside him was an Indigon with eyes so deep and icy a blue Nna felt as if he’d been flayed by ice crystals. Next came a Tyger, with the fierce golden leonine look of his race and finally two warriors in golden-yellow uniforms that highlighted their deadly beauty to a frightening degree. Nna shivered again as he met two implacable pairs of Serpentian eyes. Ack, they looked at him and Lly like two serpents watching bunnies.
Standing as tall as he could, Nna gestured them to the comfortable grouping of seats by the windows.
Lly perched at his elbow on a settee. “This is Mr. Stark,” she murmured, as the leader nodded coolly.
“You’re Rra’s heir,” he began without preamble. His voice was deep and cold.
Nna nodded stiffly. “I am.”
Stark looked between him and Lly. “Has she told you what your late uncle was up to? Or perhaps I should ask if you were in it with him?”
“He was not involved,” Lly said quickly, her hand on Nna’s. “He knows nothing.”
Nna looked at her. “I know nothing of what?” he asked politely.
She withdrew her hand quickly. “I will explain,” she whispered.
She did. What she failed to elucidate, Stark and his crew commanders filled in.
Finally, Nna sat back in the cloud-soft settee and stared blindly before him. The others were silent, watching him. He lifted his head, looking Logan Stark in the eye.
“My mother kept me away from my uncle,” he said. “She would accept no credit, no help from him. I always wondered why she distrusted him, even seemed to fear him. Now I understand. Mr. Stark and crew of the
Orion
, you have my solemn oath that from this day forward, PanRra Corporation will compete with you in only the most honorable way.”
Logan Stark nodded slowly. “You know, I believe you. Your uncle was a vicious, murdering bastard, but you seem to have been grown in different soil.”
“What about her?” asked the Indigon with icy quiet. “She was involved.”
Beside him, Lly straightened, but Nna could feel her trembling. She did not reach for his hand again, but clutched the settee cushions so hard her hand turned pale green-white.
“Yes, I was,” she whispered. “In the beginning, it seemed…like a game. Like besting an opponent, by trickery if needed. Then, beings began to die. And I wanted out. Rra…told me what he would do to me and to anyone who helped me, if I tried to run. So I stayed.”
Sick, Nna laid his hand over hers. She was so brave, so tragic.
Clutching at his hand, she turned to the Indigon. “You may work your power on me, if you don’t believe me,” she offered.