Ricochet (8 page)

She huffed her displeasure. “Your HUD, or Heads Up Display. We use it when maneuvering through tight spots that require intricate knowledge of the placement and movement of objects in relation to our ship.”

“And this technology isn’t available on the display screen of the ship console?”

“It is, but this particular way of navigation lets you really get into the nuts and bolts of complex work of steering through tight spaces. We’ll need it for the asteroid belt.” She slipped her helmet over her head, then pushed the visor down. “Learn it, live it, love it, Sin. This baby can be your only chance if you get into a bind in tight quarters.”

“Is this something your father taught you?” He donned his own helmet and clicked the visor in place.

“Yes. He used to pop it on my head and put me in the yard while my brothers threw soft-sided balls at me from all directions. My job was to try to run the gauntlet without being hit. Later, I advanced to rocks.” A trace of humor wove through her voice. “I like hands-on learning.”

“I can see that.” Hooking up his slick suit, he felt the immediate cooling of the life-support system waft over his skin. “How do I work the HUD?”

“There’s an activation button above your left ear on the helmet itself. Push it, and a display screen will turn on. If you’ve entered the checkpoint coordinates into the ship’s computer, you’ll see the waypoint as well as every asteroid in our vicinity.”

A sense of doom settled over him. “Uh, first problem. I don’t remember entering the coordinates.” In fact, he’d pretty much balked at doing it, feeling that being the navigator was beneath him and that he’d do it later.

“Damn it, Ace, it’s a fairly important job.” Disappointment dripped from her statement. “If you keep pussyfooting around like this, I’ll file an appeal for a new partner.”

For the first time, he understood how much the Nebulon Trike meant to Willa. “I’m sorry.” He pressed the activation button, and instantly the interior of his visor danced with brilliant-green 3D images. Digital asteroids moved across the screen. A tiny, red beacon flashed while a constant stream of data in the right-hand corner updated information in a real-time readout. “What the hell?” And then he realized that, despite his blatant disregard for the race, she’d gone ahead and inputted the coordinates.

“You might not care, but I do. With or without you I intend to finish this race. That’s my choice. You need to decide what’s yours.”

“It won’t happen again. You have my word.”

“As much as that means.” Her fingers tightened on the steering mechanism.

“I promise.” He reeled as he realized he meant it. If, by the end of their time together, he’d done one thing to make her think of him as something other than a screw-up, he’d be better for it. “I assume the beacon is our checkpoint on Megaris-8?”

Pregnant silence filled the cabin, and for one terrifying moment, he thought she’d keep him in frosty stasis. Finally, she drew in a deep breath and let it out, the sound magnified and crackling over the helmet intercom. “Yes. There’s a small settlement on the north side, fit with an atmospheric shield to support life. I’m sure we’ll find the marker there.” She fiddled with a button on the console. “It’s very bleak, from all I’ve read.”

“Parts of it are.” He’d visited various livable asteroids in the Belt several times. One of the first things he’d learned in the bounty-hunting business was that criminals flocked to others of their kind, and to find one, you had to assimilate into that society. Many bizarre weeks had been spent living among the riffraff of the Sybaris Belt.

Not the best environment for a woman of Willa’s caliber.

“Once we land, I want you to remain inside the ship until I can scout around and confirm the area is secure.” His body naturally leaned into the patterns Willa created as she expertly wove between the floating rocks.

“I can protect myself, thank you. Don’t treat me like a blown-glass collectible, Stratton.”

“Why, because that would conflict with how your father treats you?” He ground his teeth when she cursed in Lingorian. Thanks to the universal translator, his face burned from being called a castrated cattle herder. “Fine. What would you like for me to do right now,
kita
?” The woman grated on his nerves with her aloof attitude.

“Make sure we’re maintaining our course. Never lose sight of the beacon, and above all, don’t panic when I do this.” With only those words for warning, she jerked the wheel, and the
Anomaly
quickly went into a long series of rolls.

Stratton’s stomach dropped into his shoes, then, just as fast, came back up to lodge in his throat. He clutched at the edge of the console, the armrests of his chair, anything to give him a sense of balance as his equilibrium spun as fast as the ship.

The crazy bitch is going to kill us!

Chapter Five

Stratton’s stomach pitched in time to the barrel roll and continued the motion minutes after Willa evened out the ship. “Why the hell did you do that?”

A naughty grin slid across her lips and animated the visible lower portion of her face. “That was showing and preparing you for what’s to come.” Her slender hands tightened on the half-moon wheel. “It was also a modified Lingorian corkscrew. Chances are I’ll need to employ more of them.”

He nodded, wincing at the residual queasiness. “Thanks for the warning.” Another couple of those and he’d be chucking his stomach contents onto her boots. One by one, he pried his fingers from the armrests and focused on the shifting images on his HUD visor. “What do you need from me as nav?” For one tiny moment, he wished she’d need him for something other than race-related duties. Two seconds later, he buried the thought under reminders of exactly why he was in the Nebulon Trike.

Money. Cold hard cash that would always do what he wanted and would never leave of its own accord.

Briefly, she glanced at him, her eyes hidden behind the smoky visor. “You taking this seriously is the first step. Thank you.” She gazed ahead once more. “Call out locations and coordinates. The basic thing is to keep up the chatter so I have an idea of what’s going on. If the asteroid field is boring, start talking about your life. Sometimes the sound of another being’s voice relaxes me enough to handle a stressful situation.”

“Looks like Megaris-8 is toward the end of the Belt. Smaller rocks are constantly floating around it, so running the gauntlet will be tricky.” His stomach churned, only not from sickness or the corkscrew. Unease had set in and gained a foothold.

“Nothing worth doing is ever easy.” A thread of amusement underlay the statement.

Offhand, he wondered if she’d ever shared a genuine laugh, ever chuckled at stupid things that made no sense, like a normal person. Did she ever lose that tight control?

“You’re right.” The colors on his visor blurred as memories came flooding back.

Hadn’t he learned too many times to count during his life that nothing came easily? Like the time when he was eighteen and fought off a couple of six-armed Caringa fighters who’d molested a barmaid, his first successful bounty at twenty-five that netted him money to buy his first ship, the female alien he’d fallen for at thirty-two who’d broken his heart and had left him bitter for several years afterward. All very different memories but ones which had formed him into the man he was today—pushing thirty-seven and absolutely sure of who he was and what he wanted from life.

“Hello? Need some feedback here.” Willa nudged him with a finger. “No daydreaming right now.”

The sound of her voice yanked him into the present. Stratton cleared his throat. “All right, there are several small asteroids off our port bow. No more than two feet in length. One larger rock on the starboard. Proceed with caution.”

“Aye, I see ’em.”

Stratton kept one eye on the HUD images and the other on Willa as she handled the craft. Her hands moved from the steering mechanism to various buttons on her console with the confidence and ease of long practice. Her lips curled in a soft smile; obviously, she was enjoying herself.

Willa seemed to be in her element as a pilot. As he watched her, he mentally kicked himself for not taking being a pilot more seriously. He’d taken the talent for granted, used the piloting knowledge as a means to an end.
She
handled the ship with the tenderness and care of a skilled lover and with a complete affinity for the ship. Never had he met a woman so at home in a spacecraft, let alone one who took on his arrogance and pride. True, he hadn’t revealed nearly all of himself to her. Even still, she’d thrown what he’d given her back in his face with a challenge of her own.

What was he supposed to do with that?

He frowned.
Focus on the Belt, Sinnet.
Women leave. Willa would be no different if emotions got involved.

“Keep an eye on the larger ones. I’ll try and outmaneuver the little guys.” She moved the ship through the living obstacle course as if she’d done it a million times.

“Will do.” Green images popped up on his visor, and he called out the coordinates she’d asked for. Midway through the run, a preliminary thrill of victory crept up his spine only to be doused by a hearty wash of cold fear when the next set of images came through. “Holy hell. Various-sized asteroids on both the port and starboard. Computer is indicating they’re even on top of us.”

As if to emphasize the dire statement, a warning alarm went off in the cabin, and a schematic of the
Anomaly
flashed onto the windscreen with blinking red Xs where the craft had been struck with space rock.

“How bad is the damage?” She jerked the wheel, and the
Anomaly
careened high on the starboard side. Another pull sent the ship sailing back.

Stratton touched the windscreen, and the image of the ship magnified, with more than a few places flashing red. “The hull has taken a few direct hits. Nothing major, but we have an engine on the fritz.”

“And that means what exactly? Kinda need details.”

“Power on that engine is down to 75 percent.” Images moved onto his HUD. Megaris-8’s beacon seemed much farther away. Too many asteroids crowded into the viewfinder. He bit the inside of his cheek, keeping his comments to himself. It wouldn’t do to have her see him worried. “Don’t be so aggressive through here.”

“We can make it.” She flexed her hands before fitting her fingers over the leather. “Don’t be such a girl.”

His jaw clenched, but he didn’t respond. Did she never just let her emotional side loose? He held fast to the steely determination in her voice, marveling at her control. “Too many rocks to keep telling you about. I’ll take over if you’d like.”

“Only if I’m dead.” She glanced his way. Her smile was still in place, only now it was strained. “That’s a promise.”

“Sounds like.” Maybe this was how she cut up and had fun. He wiped at the sweat on his upper lip and closed down the ship schematic. “Let’s see what you’ve got. Personally, I don’t think you can get us there in one piece.”

“Jerk. If I do, you owe me half the purse from yesterday.”

“Deal.” She’d never backed down yet. How far would she go? As worry sank into his consciousness, he wondered how far he’d push her until she broke—or how far she’d let him. When he left her and took the ship, would she come after him, madder than the now-extinct Earth tigers, or would she commandeer another vessel, continuing on for her own glory? Stratton shook his head, tired of his thoughts centering on Willa.

“Ace, I need stats. Start talking.”

“Right.” Focusing on the HUD, he called out coordinates and obstacles in a steady stream. The ship responded to every slight movement of her fingers. Warning alarms sounded frequently as smaller rocks dinged the ship from every angle. One of the larger chunks hit the stern, prompting a warning from the computer.

“Engine one failing. Please redirect life support and other vital energies.”

The streak of vulgarity that tripped out of Willa’s mouth made Stratton wince a couple of times. Where’d she learn that sort of language? He rerouted the necessary power, double-checked that the other two engines were performing at peak, then let loose a string of his own curses when the HUD erupted in green light.

“No clear path through the Belt. Any new ideas?”

She thrust out her chin. “Hope you have an iron stomach. We’re going in.”

Oh shit.
He had no time, no advanced warning. One flick of her wrist sent the
Anomaly
spiraling through the field, first one way, then the other, until he felt sure his brain had been scrambled and abandoned somewhere back in the cargo hold. Warning activators sounded through the cabin, but he left them screaming, since all his fingers were digging into the worn leather of his seat. His HUD bounced, and static filled the headset, Willa’s commands and questions lost in the murk his mind had become.

Finally, the endless barrel rolls and corkscrews ended, and she righted the ship. When he drew a relieved breath, the cabin lights flickered, then died. All buttons and gizmos on the console blacked out. Even the HUD left him alone.

“Damn it! All your crazy driving has left us sitting ducks.”

“Stow it. I did what I needed to do and got us past the danger zone.”

Not for worlds would he agree. He swallowed a few times, forcing the bile down into his stomach, and even then it was rejected. By sheer force of will, he kept himself in his seat and didn’t run to vomit in the hold. Now was not the time to show she’d nearly killed him. Calming himself, he took quick stock of the situation. Life support in the slick suit still worked. Its quiet hiss of power provided a soundtrack to the tension simmering in the cabin. He touched the datapad’s display. Screens flashed under his direction. “Fuck. We’re currently in second place, and the field is gaining.”

“Don’t panic.” She yanked her helmet off and tossed it behind her seat. “Let me check the main control panel.” Shrouded in darkness, Stratton felt, more than saw, her scramble to the floor beneath the console. Her labored breathing rasped in the darkness. Seconds later, she’d ripped the metal panel away from its housing.

He flinched as her shoulder brushed against his leg. In other circumstances, he could have manipulated the situation to his advantage. Leftover adrenaline, surviving certain death and seeing her on all fours made his cock harden and press into the tight confines of his suit. He stifled a groan, praying to a listening deity she wouldn’t notice the erection when the power was restored. “Anything?”