The Marine's Queen (5 page)

“
I’m going to wash my clothing,” Grace said. “Come along, Glory, before the hot time.”

“
Good idea.” Yalo stomped after them.

“
I’m going to ask Tar to introduce me to the boarks.” Acacia trotted over to the taciturn marine, her hands moving in excited animation.

“
I have to wash out some of Sally’s linens.” Riba rose and followed after Yalo.

Callie watched the group of women and children. They were not only her best friends. Riba and Sally were her only surviving family. She loved them and had put them in danger by taking them on this ill-fated diplomatic voyage. Guilt laid its heavy hand on her shoulder.

Their home planet of Giroux needed her, but they might be stuck on this harsh planet forever. Such a scenario simplified her situation. No difficult political decisions awaited her here. How long until the high court on her world declared her dead?

If rescue did come, she must make some hard choices. A husband with the strength to rule beside her and keep the vultures at bay would help. Geoff Hadrason and his Orphic Mining Company didn’t fool her with his words of concern and visions of a greater future. He wanted Giroux for its ore. And he wanted her but not for her plain face or courtly charm. He wanted what only the full-blooded heir of the line of Giroux queens could give him.

* * * *

Joe and Vin finished setting up the tent they hadn’t had time to put up the night before. They’d left the tent and some other supplies at the waterhole with the boarks while they investigated the crash. They couldn’t use stealth when riding the large cantankerous animals so had left them behind.

“
They’ll be more comfortable from now on,” Vin said. The back of the tent abutted the shallow cave they’d enlarged a few months ago to hold emergency supplies. It wasn’t deep enough to keep out the heat but with the tent in front of it, it provided a small respite.

“
Only an hour before the hot time. Show the civilians their quarters for the next day.” Joe left Vin to it and climbed to the top of the largest rocky formation. Heat rose through the soles of his boots, and soon the stone would heat enough to scorch skin.

He heard Callie struggling up behind him. Should he help her? Was such an act too intimate?

“
Thanks for the hand.” Callie panted as she joined him.

“
I didn’t…” Joe stopped. “You should be in the shelter.”

“
Vin said I had a little time left.” She shaded her eyes with a slim hand and looked over the expanse of white sand. “What are you looking at?”

“
The sky.”

“
The sky?” Callie tilted her head and looked up. “It’s blue.”

Joe caught the sarcasm this time but didn’t know how to answer or even why she used it. He pointed east.

“
See the line of purple on the horizon? It’s a storm.”

She squinted against the glare. “It looks so far away.”

“
Miles away but it will catch us before we reach Camp Haven.”

“
Camp Haven?” Callie lips curved into a smile.

“
The valley we discovered…” Joe lost his place in the conversation. She really should have covered her face, but he couldn’t reprimand her. Not when she looked at him as she did now, with her eyes sparkling with interest and lips turned up with pleasure. Or was it amusement at him?

“
It seems a fanciful name for you guys.”

“
Webb, our doctor, named it.” A name meant only a word used to identify something. Who cared what a camp was called?

“
And now it will be our haven also.” Callie looked again. “Do you think anyone will ever find us? I don’t even know what planet this is.”

“
Crevan Four is its military designation. It’s not on the regular merchant routes. I believe no one comes here except pirates hiding from the military.”

“
That’s why you thought our beacon might bring trouble?”

“
It still could.”

“
Should we have turned it off?”

“
Not if you want rescued.” Joe waited, but she said nothing more about it. Did that mean she didn’t want help to arrive? After a moment he spoke again, hoping to keep her beside him a little bit longer. “We won’t be able to spend another night here as I thought. The oasis seems to attract lightning strikes. We’ll leave after the hot time. With the boarks we’ll travel faster.”

“
Will we still have to sleep together?”

Joe’s heart thudded against his chest. “Not everyone. The tent can hold four adults.”

“
Good. Riba or I will move into the tent.”

Joe gave a short nod of agreement. His mind held the memory of her body pressed against him though he’d hid the arousal she inspired.

“
Which one of us disturbs your rest more, the baby or me?”

Joe’s thoughts stumbled. What words could he use without offending her because surely the simple truth would? “I … the baby smells funny and makes noises like a small animal.”

Callie narrowed her eyes, an expression he interpreted as displeasure. She turned away and started down the slope. “I’ll tell Riba.”

Joe wondered how his words had angered her. “Why don’t you decide where everyone sleeps?”

She spoke over her shoulder. “We’ll do what you want. Keep your shirt on tonight.”

What did that mean? Joe started to follow her but the words she muttered to herself stopped him.

“
Dim-witted, antisocial robot.”

* * * *

“
Have some of this, Callie.” Acacia held a piece of dried meat toward her. The science advisor had quizzed the marines on the boarks, the weather, their equipment and even their physical abilities. Her eyes sparkled with the thrill of adventure.

“
What is it?” Callie’s mood didn’t match Acacia’s.

“
Some kind of lizard meat and rather tasteless, but we need protein.”

Callie’s jaws ached before she chewed the meat soft enough to swallow. The marines had spread a sheet of fabric over the sand for the women while they erected the tent and staked the boarks on short tethers.

“
Those boarks can go without food and water for five days,” Acacia continued. “The marines only tame the females because the males are too large and vicious.”

“
I wouldn’t call the females tamed,” Yalo said.

“
Riding them beats walking,” Riba said in a scolding tone. “And this food is nutritious so who cares if it’s tasteless.”

“
I wasn’t being critical, Saint Riba,” Yalo said. “I know they’ve been helpful, but you always see only what you want to see. You’d trust a pitsnake if it had a citrusmelon in its mouth.”

Grace wrapped Glory closer. “Let’s not argue when we’re not in disagreement. We’re alone on this planet with the marines and can make our own judgments of them in spite of the rumors.”

“
Grace is right. These men may be rude and utterly lacking in the social niceties we’re accustomed to, but they’re determined to help us. We’ll reserve trust and judgment.” Callie didn’t want an argument.

“
Roz is nice,” Glory said with a pout. “And he’s pretty, too.”

They all smiled at the little girl’s take on their situation but as her staff gnawed on more of the jerked meat, Callie wondered what they would do if rescue never came for them. Could they build a life here with no one for company but the marines?

* * * *

Joe switched on the ventilation system. Callie lay on her back and stared at the sack a hand’s breadth above her face.

“
Do you know you’re a strange man?”

What answer could he give?

“
You seem intelligent. Are you?”

“
The tests say I am.”

“
You’re a good leader, well-organized and efficient.”

Again he had no answer. He felt trapped, but his body responded to her scent anyway. She turned toward him, and his breath stuck in his lungs. The sun had added pink to her cheeks, yet she remained flawless.

“
Why do you act so … confused at times?”

“
Like now?” Joe asked and then cursed silently.

“
Are you confused?”

“
I don’t … you speak … I’ve never spoken with a civilian before you.”

“
Never?” Callie turned on her side to fully face him. “Not even once? I don’t understand.”

“
Our only contacts have been with other military men, occasional scientists and some government officials.”

“
No women?”

Joe dropped his gaze away from hers. “There were women paid by the military to….”

“
Have sex with you?”

He looked up and encountered her glare. He nodded.

“
Didn’t you speak with them or did you just use their bodies and walk away?”

“
They weren’t permitted to speak with us.”

Callie’s glare melted into something softer. “Have you ever spoken with a child?”

“
We saw them from a distance on Seron Six.” Not a day Joe would ever forget. They’d been ordered to kill all the civilians and refused. Their defiance had been the first link in the chain of events leading to their crash on this planet.

Callie lifted an eyebrow. “No babies either?”

“
Never. They’re more complicated than their size suggests.”

She laughed a little. “I’m sorry, Joe.”

“
Why?”

She put her hand on his cheek. “Because you never held a baby, never laughed with a child and never lay with a woman who loved you.”

“
And that is a bad thing?”

Callie smiled, but she looked more sad than amused. “Maybe not. You can’t miss it if you’ve never had it.”

Joe could make no sense of her words, but he tried to think of a way to keep her talking. How might he convince her to touch him again? “Are all civilians like you?”

“
What am I like?” She leaned closer as if eager for his answer.

Joe took his time, her proximity muddling his thoughts. “You talk a lot.”

She gave her soft laugh again. “Compared to you I suppose I do.”

“
You are the leader of the women but they … argue with you.” Joe’s men would never question his decisions or commands. They offered expert opinions when he asked for it but his word was always final.

“
We’re not a military organization. Don’t you fight so civilians have the right to speak our beliefs?”

“
I hadn’t thought about that.” Joe had concluded months ago he and men fought for the advancement of their superior’s greed. “Our main assignments usually involved reconnoitering newly discovered planets or advance scouting for regular army units. Defending civilian rights never fell to us.”

He continued, thinking she looked interested though describing his work took careful editing. “We only had minimal contact even with other soldiers.”

“
Did you do a lot of fighting?”

“
Sometimes?”

“
Who did you fight? Alien species? Pirates?”

“
Sometimes.”

“
Were you chasing pirates when you crashed here?”

“
No. Our ship developed propulsion problems.” It was not for him to tell her how the ship had been damaged. She and her staff expressed a low opinion of Joe and his men already. “Do all civilians feel about us as you and your people do?”