Supernova (14 page)

“As an
adult?”

“Especially
as an adult.” She had spent many hours nestled in the branches of a tree after
her breakup with Cameron, and more after her father had died.

It was a
quick climb, and she settled on a sturdy lower branch and triumphantly grinned
down at Rian. She brushed some tree bark off her clothes. “Come on up,” she
said.

“I don’t
think...”

“Captain,
I absolutely promise you I will never tell a soul that you climbed a tree. And
you told me you climb in your spare time, so I know you know how.”

“I climb
mountains in simulator chambers,” he protested, but he smiled sheepishly and
followed her example, using the same footholds. He hauled himself up and Lily
scooted over on the branches to make room for him. Their feet dangled over the
branch, their thighs touching. “Now what?” he asked.

“We
could keep climbing.”

“No way.
I’ll probably be the one with a broken rib in sick bay, and it’ll give Admiral
Kentz one more thing to ride my ass about.”

Lily
laughed. Rian was coming alive. “It’s just good to know you’re not always so
starched and proper all the time,.”

“No, I’m
not.”

They sat
in comfortable silence for a few moments. Across the garden Lily heard a short
conversation in a language she didn’t recognize, followed by giggling.

“Thank
you for bringing me here,” she said quietly. “This is perfect. It reminds me of
home.”

He swung
his feet a little, and she thought he might be feeling foolish at being stuck
in an oak tree. “Tell me about your home,” he said.

Dozens
of comparisons between her new and old lives ran through her head. “I miss the
weather,” she began. “I never thought about it, but I always thought wind and
sunlight would always be there.” She hadn’t thought about that until they
walked into the bright gardens. “I’m still getting used to seeing stars when I
look out the windows. You know what it’s like to look up at them when you’re on
a planet, but still knowing you’re firmly on the ground.” He nodded. “I don’t
miss my car, but I wonder what happened to it.” She caught his quizzical
glance. “Mode of transport, also strictly on the ground. Mine wasn’t that great,
and I was thinking about selling it and sticking to the subway, but my job was
so far away from my apartment. Subways are —
were
—underground commuter
trains.” He nodded again.

“I don’t
miss Toronto,” she admitted. “I miss my old life, before my dad passed away.
That’s something even all this—” she gestured to the immaculately kept lawns
and trees, “—can’t bring back. I was still grieving that before this happened.”

“Do you
like it here?”

The
question didn’t surprise her, but his tone did. He sounded worried about her,
and on a less-than-professional level. “Rubidge is a nice place to visit, but I
wouldn’t want to live here,” she replied.

“I mean
this time and deep space.”

She
looked at a bright blue flowering shrub. “It’ll take a while to get used to,”
she said finally. “And I did want to start over somewhere new. This just wasn’t
what I had imagined. But yeah, I think I like it so far.”

It was
the truth. There were aspects she would probably never get used to—starfields,
for one, and the idea that there was life outside Earth—but she wasn’t in a bad
place.

His hand
crept over hers and loosely grasped her fingers. The touch sent a shock through
her.

“You don’t
touch people often, do you?” she asked, and stole a look at him.

“No.” He
had a half-smile on his face, and his blue gaze flickered over her mouth. She
knew what he was thinking, what he wanted to do. She knew he wouldn’t do it
anytime soon; he would have to analyze the situation for any variables. One was
potentially falling out of a tree again but she had survived worse, and he
likely had as well.

She
closed the gap between them and kissed him. Immediately his fingers tightened
around her hand and his other arm snaked around her waist. She leaned into him,
deepening their kiss, and he responded eagerly, pulling her closer to him and
surprising her. He disentangled their hands and clasped her hip, and ran her
hands up his arms to rest on his shoulders and neck.

He broke
their kiss and let her go reluctantly. He opened his mouth to speak, but Lily
shushed him with a finger to his lips. “Don’t apologize,” she said. “I won’t
kiss you again if you do.”

That was
a lie. She was going to kiss him again the first opportunity she had. The smile
across his face told her he knew that, too.

But he
didn’t reply. Instead, he took her face in his hands and kissed her again, more
possessively this time. His tongue probed her mouth when she gasped in
surprise. Just as quickly, he released her and scooted over to the tree trunk.
Lily watched him descend with an unexpected grace and then followed.

“Why
would I apologize?” he said. “You started it.”

He had a
wide grin across his face, an expression she had never seen him wear before and
wanted to see again. He took her hand, loosely twining his fingers through
hers. She knew it would only be temporary; as soon as they left the botanical
gardens or saw someone in a Fleet uniform he would let go. But for now, she
would enjoy it.

Chapter 8

He had
lost his mind, and was well on his way to not giving a damn if he wasn’t
careful. But Acting Captain Rian Marska still managed to put his best
professional face forward as Rubidge engineers gave him a tour of the
Defiant
’s
improved maintenance access ways the following afternoon, following a morning
spent in a meeting discussing new patrol territories. The ship’s weaponry was
receiving the promised upgrades even as he crawled on his hands and knees
through the tunnels, and he was pleased to hear that the port side lift that
tended to get stuck between decks had been repaired. The artificial gravity was
going to be fully operational throughout the ship in the coming day, and the
office replicators reprogrammed. It would save Rian trips to the mess for
coffee, at least.

It wasn’t
a permanent captaincy on a battleship—a goal that Rian saw slip from his grasp
every day—or even a post on a ship built in the last thirty years, but at least
the
Defiant
wasn’t a total laughingstock anymore.

He
ignored the engineer’s subtle insults about the superficial hull damage that
had been sustained when the ship crossed paths with the dying star. As far as
Rian knew, the man had never set foot on a ship when it was in the space lanes,
nor was he military, so his opinion was moot. He also tuned out Lieutenant Steg’s
murmurs of approval at the mention of the new weapons locker security was
receiving. He snapped back to full attention when he and the crew who had
looked over the
Defiant
were escorted off ship, and he thanked the
engineers for their work. It was a vast improvement.

The
engineer explained some of the patches that had been installed in the power
grid: “Easy enough to do when you’ve got the manpower and money; in less than a
day you have an old clunker like the
Defiant
almost as fast as a ship
just off the yards.” He and Rian backed out of an access tube, and Steg asked
about the new capabilities of the hyperspace engines. The engineer rattled off
some statistics, comparing the
Defiant
’s specs to newer ships, and Rian
tuned out the chatter around him as he listened. Steg elbowed him.

“Lieutenant?”

“Is this
personal?” he demanded in a hoarse whisper.

“I beg
your pardon?”

“I saw
you around the aviary last night with our guest.” He spat out the last word.

“Excuse
me?” Rian whispered back. “Are you insinuating something?” Steg’s narrowed eyes
told him all Rian needed to know. It unnerved him how close the burly
ex-prizefighter was to the truth, but it really wasn’t the security chief’s
concern anymore. “Do I have to remind you of your place?”

Steg had
the sense to look startled. “No, sir,” he muttered. “Apologies.” Without
another word, the security chief followed Rian off the ship. The airlock hissed
shut behind them.

Figures
in EVA suits slowly descended from a waiting station shuttle to begin work on
the ship’s hull and exterior weaponry. The sight of the suited mechanics caused
a ripple of apprehension to run down Rian’s spine. He had had the requisite
extra-vehicular activity training in the academy and forced himself into taking
annual elective courses in outside repair, but he was still nervous about being
in space with only a suit for protection. The fact that Fleet hadn’t had a
fatal accident in over a century was of little comfort.

He
dismissed the crew in the foyer for the evening, eliciting genuine smiles from
them. There had been some grumbling about taking a science team to a planet in
the Fringes—not his choice or his fault—and he was pleased to see positive and
respectful reactions from them for once. Maybe this was a sign of things to
come.

He hadn’t
seen Lily since that morning, when he spotted her and her friend from sick bay
heading out to breakfast. He knew the nurse was due to spend a few hours with
her father, one of the admirals who
wasn’t
out for his blood, and he
wondered what Lily had got up to.

He was
acting like a schoolboy, mooning over her and trying to figure out ways to see her
again. They could go out to dinner, he thought. The station was certainly large
enough so they could find an out-of-the-way place where they could talk. That
idea made him more apprehensive than it should. What if she only responded to
him because of stress? That happened. Senior Captain Ursuline Jena, renowned
and feared officer currently aboard
Bishop’s Pride
, had fallen madly in
love with and married a man she rescued from a shuttle accident. The union had
lasted less than two years, although Rian was liable to chalk up the marriage’s
failure to the man being an illegal arms dealer in his spare time.

He was
overthinking this, as usual. A kiss was just that. So was dinner.

The crew
dispersed, and he went off in search of Lily.

* * *

Rian was
nervous as he approached the barracks, the likeliest place Lily would be. After
what had happened the night before, an uncomfortable awkwardness had descended
on them when they left the gardens. He attributed it to not being able to touch
her in public when he wanted to. She was quickly growing on him, and the memory
of her shimmying up a tree and encouraging him to do the same had been in the
back of his mind all day. It was out of character for him, and it had felt
good. He wished it could have continued, that he could kiss her again and see
where things went from there, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

He
pressed his hand into the palm lock next to the door. He heard a muffled “Come
in—oops!” from inside, then, “Enter.”

She was
wearing a pair of slim black pants and green sweater that matched her eyes. She
was surrounded by packages from her shopping excursion the night before. She
had a blouse in one hand when she entered the room and he saw clothes spread
across the unmade bed. “This is great!” she exclaimed. “Everything fits
perfectly. This is so much better than getting into a catfight at a Boxing Day
sale.” She began folding the new clothes. He picked up something black and lacy
that was draped across the nightstand. A dress made of thin fabric, with a
complicated set of straps. She took it from him and her cheeks flushed pink. “It’s
a dress,” she explained.

“I can
see that.”

“Mora
talked me into it. I’m sure I’ll find somewhere to wear it eventually.” She
carefully folded the delicate lace and stowed it in her duffel.

Rian
could think of a few places, but didn’t make any suggestions.

“I didn’t
think I’d see you tonight,” she said. “Taz said you and a few other of your
higher-ups were looking at the new and improved
Defiant
.”

“I was.
It’s the next best thing to getting a new ship. I gave everyone the evening
off. They deserved a break, and we’re departing early tomorrow.”

“Seven-thirty,
right?” He nodded.

She held
up a small datatab. “I bought this today,” she said. “Taz helped me pick it
out. I told him about the pharmacy job and he said I’d need something to read
my textbooks on. I’m still learning how to use it.”

“You’ll
need one for writing notes, too. Some people prefer handwriting with a stylus
over typing.”

“I’m one
of them.” She opened a smaller package and took out some toiletries. She
uncapped a bottle of shampoo and sniffed. “I don’t know what this is supposed
to smell like, but it’s good. You said some ships don’t have water showers?”

“No, but
the stations do. You’ll still get to take showers if you live on one.”

“Good.
Some things you just don’t want to give up.” She smiled and tucked her
purchases into the duffel.

“Have
you had dinner yet?” he asked casually.

“No.”