3013: STOWAWAY (3013: The Series) (9 page)

Deke was waiting for him in the corridor outside their quarters, leaning up against one battered, gunmetal gray wall as if he didn’t have a concern in the world. Trevar knew better.

“
Holy shit, did you buy out half the stores on the station?” Deke asked, eyeing the bags Trevar was still carrying.

“Not even close. So, what the fuck happened around here while I was out finding something for our stowaway to wear?”

The cocky kid actually had the balls to smirk at him. “You felt it, huh? I thought you might, which is why I was waiting for you.”

“She’s not a damned kitten, Deke. We can’t keep her, and you know it.”

“That’s pretty funny considering that’s
your
nickname for her. I know this isn’t going to be easy, but I will find a way.”

“You love her enough to risk spending the rest of your life as a resident of the Mars penal system?”

Deke’s eyes narrowed and his jaw set. “I do. And despite the fact I’m not gifted with your nifty tricks, I’m pretty sure you love her, too. So the question is, what are you going to do about it?”

“I liked you better when you were the Ice Man, you know that, right?”

“Fuck you, Thunder.”

Both men stared at each other for a long minute, neither of them saying a word until Trevar finally broke the silence. “You’ve never called me that. Not once.”

“Yeah, I was never this pissed at you either. Things change.” Deke made that casting away gesture again, flicking out his fingers in his version of a shrug.

“Things didn’t change until she came aboard,” Trevar pointed out, lifting the packages of clothing as if to make his point a little clearer.

“I want her to stay. If you don’t, then I’ll go with her. We’ll find somewhere the Alliance can’t reach us.” Deke crossed his arms over his chest. “She wants
us
, Trevar. Not just me.”

“Did she actually say that?”

“She said she wanted to stay here with the two of us. I don’t think it gets any clearer. I have no fucking idea how we’re going to pull this off, but I’m willing to try. How about you?”

“Stars save us, when did I become the fucking voice of reason on this ship? For the record, this is not a good idea. It is quite possibly the worst damned idea you’ve ever had. We are going to be in more trouble than either of us can even imagine. I’m supposed to be the crazy one, remember?”
He scrubbed a hand across his jaw, and then grinned at Deke. “Take these to
our
stray kitten, will you?” Trevar shoved the packages at Deke, who took them with the slightest of smirks.

“Ours, huh?”

“Yeah. She’s ours. If you gloat, I swear I’ll toss you out the nearest airlock. But for now, let’s embrace the crazy and pretend she’s ours and we’re not all going to end up serving life in fucking prison.”

“You’re the one always saying that doing the smart thing isn’t your style,” Deke pointed out as he hefted the bags and took a step toward the door to the holo-room.

Trevar gestured to the aging freighter that surrounded them. “And look where that philosophy has gotten us so far. I’m heading back to my quarters to grab a shower and a fresh uniform. I’ll meet the two of you at the docking bay door in half an hour. We’ll give
our
girl the grand tour, and then over dinner the three of us better come up with a brilliant damned plan for claiming her and staying the hell out of prison. I’m way too pretty to go to jail.”

Deke nodded to Trevar, and there was real concern in the other man’s eyes as he turned and headed down the hall. So there should be.
When it came to the laws that protected the last remaining fertile women on Earth, there were no gray areas. The three years that mankind was at war with the Zyphir saw large portions of the Earth destroyed, areas now known as the badlands. The Zyphir also brought with them a virus that swept through the population, killing millions and leaving nearly all the surviving females infertile. Fifty years later, the United Federation Command Alliance ruled the planet by martial law, their primary goals the survival of the species and the defense of Earth. They created the elite enhancement program, and passed laws that protected every remaining fertile woman on the planet. Trevar didn’t need to look up the laws to know that taking a scroll off planet, hiding her presence on an Alliance ship, and conspiring to claim her without permission were all acts that would land them in a shit storm when it came to light.

With a grunt of frustration, Trevar headed for his room. Once inside
, he activated full privacy mode before pulling a small, black metal box out of his footlocker and setting it down on the bed. Merely seeing the box was enough to make the scar above his eye tighten and itch, even after all this time. He never looked at the contents. Never opened the damned thing at all. It was sealed off, like his memories of the past.

Do I really want to do this?

He sat down on the edge of the bunk and stared at the box. After Cory died, everything had changed, himself included. He became someone else, found new dreams to replace the ones he’d shared with Cory. The ones where they claimed a chosen of their own and grew old together. Trevar popped the latch and flipped the box open. There wasn’t much inside. A picture of he and Cory the day they graduated, two goofy kids with shit-eating grins and no idea how things were going to end. It was hard to look at the picture and not see Cory’s face the way it looked at the end, the blood and the burns and the pain in his eyes. Fuck. This was a bad idea. Of course, so was keeping Sonja. Maybe two stupid ideas together would make up one good one. Trevar sure as hell hoped so, because this was the only plan he had.

At the bottom of the box, buried under more pictures and mementos of a life he’d thought was over, he found what he’d been looking for. It was smaller than he remembered, fitting into the palm of his hand. He’d taken possession of it only a few days before that final flight and then tossed it in here with the other relics of the past.

Did it even work anymore? He flipped it over in his hand and toggled the switch, half hoping that nothing happened. If it was dead, then that was the end of this insane plan.

It came on with a low hum, the display screen glowing with a pattern he hadn’t seen in years. It was the tangle of initials that made up a claiming tattoo.
His
claiming tattoo. The one he and Cory had designed together. Trevar held it in his hand, assailed by memories, both good and bad. He’d worked more than half his life to gain the honor of claiming a fertile woman, and then walked away from it all. His reasons for wanting a chosen had changed. Hell, he didn’t want a
chosen
at all. It just happened that the one woman in the whole fucking universe who had managed to get under his skin was a damned scroll.

“I have no doubt you had something to do with this, you bastard,” he muttered at Cory’s picture, his buddy’s face grinning up at him from the bed where he’d placed it, and for a brief second Trevar could swear he could hear the faintest echo of laughter.

He turned his attention back to the marking device, saving the existing pattern memory before starting a fresh one. Trevar had no idea if his approval was even still valid, but what the fuck did they have to lose? In his experience, it was always easier to beg for forgiveness than it was to ask for permission.

***

CHAPTER NINE

To Sonja’s eyes, the station was as if a carnival and a shopping mall had been combined, and then dropped into the middle of the wild west of Earth legend. The docking ring had been relatively empty, but as they’d made their way deeper into the station, the brightly lit corridors became more and more crowded. By the time they arrived at the center of the station—a massive sphere with level upon level of shops, services and entertainments—they were part of a sea of beings.

“Oh. My. Stars,” she murmured, and both men turned their heads to grin down at her. They had each taken one of her hands as they left the ship, positioning her between them so that she felt safe and protected.

“A bit bigger than you were expecting?” Deke asked.

“It’s huge!” Sonja lifted her hands slightly,
swinging both of theirs with her as she gestured around them. Signs glowed in an electric rainbow of colors, and the clothing of the visitors were a festive contrast to the grey metal walls. Enjoying every second of this new adventure, she bounced on the balls of her feet and asked, “So, where do we start?”

“Let’s get your shopping done, and then we can have dinne
r. You’re sure you need more stuff? I would have thought Trevar already bought you enough to outfit you for a year,” Deke said, and then caught Trevar’s eye. “Did you get the reservation?”

“Yeah. We’ve got a table at Kaspar’s for dinner. That means this shopping spree of yours has a time limit, kitten.”

“Trevar made a nice start, but there are a few more things on my list. Don’t worry, it won’t take that long. I may not have been allowed to do many things in my life, but I can shop at a professional level.” She took a step forward and tugged on their hands. “Come on, I want to see as much of this as I can, and apparently we’re on the clock.”

“Ever been shopping with a woman on a mission before, kid?” Trevar asked Deke as they fell in on either side of her.

“Not even once. Should I be worried?”

Trevar snickered. There were still some gaps in Deke’s education, but he was certain that Sonja was going to rectify a few of them in the next few hours. “You probably should be worried, yeah. Be gentle with him, kitten. It’s his first
time.”

It was impossible not to laugh as Deke’s impassive mask cracked a little, his eyes widened with concern as Sonja cackled with glee.
Damn, she was a joy to be around. Since her unexpected arrival, She had managed to turn everything ass over airlock in their lives, upending their plans and altering their orbits forever. Even if she were to leave them now, there’d be no going back to the way things had been before.

She’d worn a simple wrap dress in a flattering shade of dark blue. He’d picked it for her on his earlier shopping run, and was pleased to note he’d how well it fit. She’d braided her hair forward so that it fell over her right shoulder, her tattoo almost completely hidden by the heavy sweep of dark hair that covered part of the right side of her face. It was a simple, but clever way to minimize the chances anyone would notice her markings. Not that many here would even understand what it meant because they weren’t Alliance.
Hell, most of them weren’t even human…and that brought its own set of problems.

There were a large number of Tarin on the station, which was a cause for some concern for Trevar. The Lords of War were a dangerous species, and their relationship with the Alliance was tenuous at best. Some of them would consider Sonja a valuable prize, one that Trevar and Deke would never allow them to have.

As if summoned by his thoughts, a pair of Tarins appeared a few feet in front of them. The men were well over seven feet tall, and as they turned to admire Sonja with their cold, black eyes, Trevar was reminded of the sharks that used to swim up to his father’s fishing boat to feast on the catch as it was pulled on board. He pulled Sonja closer to his side, then bent down to brush a kiss to the top of her head, his eyes never leaving the Tarin as they passed.

“That’s a Tarin, huh?” Sonja asked a few seconds later, her voice hushed.

“Yeah. Some of them are decent enough, some of them…not so much. You stick close to us, and everything will be fine. Most of the folks here are just like us, looking to buy, sell, or find something to pass the time.”

And if any of them try to pass time with Sonja, I’m going to do them bodily harm. She’s ours.

The thought was accompanied by a surge of possessiveness so strong it stunned him. Well, if he had any doubts before, they were gone now. He wasn’t ready to call it love, not yet, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let anyone take Sonja away from them, either. If she wanted him, truly wanted him for who he was and not simply because he could protect her, then he’d claim her, consequences be damned.

****

Sonja was rather proud of the fact that she managed to accomplish all her shopping with enough time left over for them to carry everything back to the ship before going for dinner. She now had everything she needed: clothes, personal items, even a new wrist unit to replace the one she’d had to leave behind. Her off-world bank account was intact, and as far as she’d been able to see, it remained undetected and untouched. She had been half afraid that her parents had somehow tracked it down and frozen it, despite the fact that she was paying the hefty bank security fees to ensure that didn’t happen.

It had been a lot of fun shopping with her two men, and there were a number of items she’d bought based entirely on their reaction when she’d modeled them. After days of wearing nothing but oversized sweaters and socks she could pull up to her knees, it was a little strange to be back in form fitting clothes and proper footwear.

The three of them arrived at Kaspar’s before their reservation time, and they were seated at the bar to wait for their table. Inside, the walls had been draped in thick, dark fabrics that hid the plain gray walls while absorbing sound. The flooring was as plush as the wall hangings, and together they created an atmosphere of subdued elegance. After the whirl and chaos of the crowds outside, it was a welcome change. The bar was crafted of well-polished wood, but it couldn’t have come from any tree on Earth. The entire thing was pale green, the rings and knots marked in shades of emerald and jade. Even more startling was the revelation that there were plants everywhere, some familiar, many completely unknown to her. It made Sonja realize that she hadn’t actually seen any plants or even natural building materials since setting foot on the
Arca
.

Trevar laid a hand on the bar, smoothing his palm along the satiny surface. “Beautiful, isn’t it? The tree this was made from only grows on Helios.”

“How could you possibly know that?” she asked, stroking her fingertips over the wood.

“Because, sweetheart. We’re the ones who brought it here, one piece at a time,” Deke answered as he captured her hand with his, threading their fingers together on the bar top.

“The Alliance lets private citizens use their transports?”

Trevar chimed in again. “Not exactly, though if you have enough money, you could convince them of damned near anything. No, this we brought over as a side deal. We get a personal freight allowance, so we used it to transport the wood here. It took a few months, but in the end, Kaspar got his furniture, and we got paid very nicely for our trouble.”

“You mean you robbed Kaspar blind, you space pirate,” someone said, his voice coming from behind them and she spun around to see who it was. There was a man standing a few feet away, his hands at his sides and a welcoming smile on his face. He had golden skin, dark blond hair tied back at the nape of his neck, and amber eyes with oddly elongated pupils, like a cat’s.

H
e must be one of the Helios.

“
Theo! If I robbed him blind, how is it that this place looks more incredible every time we come here? One of these times we’re going to walk in here and find everything made from gold and diamonds.” Trevar grinned at the new arrival and they clasped hands.

“W
e all have our talents, my friend. Yours is for creative larceny, Kaspar’s is for making money appear out of thin air, and my talents are wild, varied and far too many to list,” Theo turned his dazzling eyes toward Sonja, and she could have sworn she saw his nostrils flare as if he were scenting the air. “One of my talents is a perfect memory for beautiful faces, and yours is not familiar.”

Deke’s hand tightened around
Sonja’s fingers possessively. “Careful, Theo. She’s spoken for.”

The big man grinned and tapped the side of his nose. “That’s alright, she’s not the one.”

“Like that’s ever stopped you before,” Trevar grumbled, then introduced Sonja, using the name they’d agreed upon before leaving the ship. “Theo, meet Sonja Kitts. Sonja, this is Theo Jeffries, he’s the station’s chief engineer. Sonja’s our passenger on this trip.”

“Your passenger? You have my sympathies, Sonja. A freighter is no place for a lovely woman like yourself. I
f you wished, you could stay here a few days, see the sights, and I could see you booked onto something less…rusty.”

“It’s nice of you to offer, but I’m very happy with my transportation. It was a last minute thing, and they were very kind to agree to take me along,” Sonja said.

“Right. And the fact you’re gorgeous had nothing to do with it.” He winked at her.

“Quit flirting with our girl or I’ll give Gavin a call and tell him he needs to come fetch your fuzzy ass off the floor,” Deke muttered, and
Theo’s grinned widened. “Yours, plural? Is that the sound of the universe imploding I can hear? I thought you were dedicated to your bachelorhood, Trevar?”

“Plans change.”

“So it would seem.” Theo took another step toward her and all the humor melted from his expression as he lowered his voice. “Gavin sent me to check up on the three of you. There’s been a report making the rounds of all the stations and outposts, instructing security to be on the lookout for a missing Alliance female, one of the fertile ones. Name’s Sonja Grekov. There’s a big reward being offered by her family for her return. You know that kind of thing brings out the scum of the galaxy looking to make some fast credits.”

Sonja’s heart skipped a beat. There was a bulletin out for her?
Shit. That was going to complicate things.

“And why would that concern us?” Trevar asked.

Theo scrubbed a hand through his tawny mane of hair and sighed. “Because someone’s already claimed to have spotted a woman with a scroll tattoo on the station. They made the report just a short while ago, looking to cash in on the reward. They claim the Alliance’s missing scroll was seen on board the
Arca
. Naked and having sex with you, Deacon.”

“Fuck. Me,” Deke groaned.

“No, as I recall, you were fucking
me
,” Sonja’s cheeks were on fire and she wanted to hide her face in her hands, but this wasn’t the time for it. She could freak out later, once they were safely on their way again.

“I leave you two alone for two damned hours…”
Trevar said and then cut off any responses with a wave of his hand and turned to Theo. “So, now what?”

“Now, I suggest you two get your lady off this station before Gavin has to file a report. He’s really busy at the moment, but he wanted me to find you and let you know that he can’t stay busy for much longer, if you get my meaning.” He winked at Sonja. “Of course, if I thought the lady was in some kind of trouble, she wouldn’t be going back to the
Arca
with you. I can see, though, that she’s just fine.”

“More than fine.” She slipped a hand over Trevar’s and tugged him closer to her.

“Thank you. And thank Gavin for being…busy. Will you apologize to Kaspar for us? We’re not going to make it for dinner.” Deke said, getting to his feet.

“You’re welcome. Next time you’re back this way, you can pay us back in drinks. Lots of them.”
Theo clapped both men on the shoulder, and then smiled at Sonja again. “Good luck. If you’re throwing your lot in with these two, you’re going to need it.”

With that, he turned on his heel and walked away, leaving the three of them staring at each other.

“We have to go, kitten. Now.” Trevar tugged at Sonja’s hand for emphasis, but she didn’t move from her seat. She needed a few minutes to test the timelines and make sure they made it back to the ship.

“We’ll go, but not yet.” Sonja tightened her grip on both men and took in a quick breath. “I need to…I…t
here’s this thing I can do, and I need to do it before we go.”

They gave her nearly identical looks of pure confusion, brows up and mouths open as if they were both about to say something, but neither of them spoke for a second or two.

“What are you going to do?” Deke finally asked.

“Check the immediate timelines to make sure we don’t turn down the wrong corridor and get ourselves caught on the way back to the ship.” She blurted it out in a frantic whisper.

“You can
do
that? You’re a fucking precog?” Trevar was staring at her with fascination.

“I’m only a Class-
B, but yes, I am. And if you two can give me a moment of quiet, I can find us the safest way back. I can’t see very far ahead, but it should be enough.”