BioCybe (11 page)

“Why?”

“Because when we find Mayerber, if you don’t get to him
before me…” His gaze took on the cold matte of a ruthless killer.

For the first time, she wondered if there was more to this
man than the side he showed others. She’d taken him for an urbane, well
educated but essentially cerebral type, not the cold man who stood before her.
Muscles flexed and she realized they were hard. Well defined. This view of him
was both extraordinary and unsettling.

“Mayerber is
dangerous
. He was one of the best
strategists the Dendarans have. He’s not someone to be taken lightly.” She
needed to ensure he understood.

He canted his head to the side. “Are you saying I’m not up
to the task?” This time a slight smile covered his face.

“Well, I don’t really… I mean, you work behind a desk and…”
She scrabbled for the words to explain her concerns without hurting his
feelings.

He merely laughed. “There’s more to me than meets the eye,
you know.”

She shivered, understanding this was true on more than one
level. He was also the man who made her feel alive. Human. Womanly.

“I, uh… We need to prepare for—”

Her words were stilled as he kissed her, this time hungrily.
His mouth roamed over hers, and she grabbed his shoulders, feeling the strength
of him beneath the gray material of his uniform. When his lips left her mouth
and nibbled their way across her jaw, she couldn’t contain the gasp as nerve
endings quivered with delight.

“Sandon…”

When he reached the sensitive point, the place where jaw met
neck, she moaned, and the rattle of his laugh against her skin set off
explosions of longing deep within her body. The feel of his tongue lightly
tracing over the veins was sensually drugging, and she had to close her eyes. His
hands curved around her butt and pulled her closer. She nestled between his
legs, and the jut of his erection against her belly told her of his arousal. It
was hard and urgent.

Everywhere their bodies touched, she burned. The zing of
attraction had become a wildfire, and she welcomed the heat. His hands slid
upward, searching up the contours of her back until they gently cupped her,
over the ribs. Any rational thought fled at that moment as the sensations
overwhelmed.

“Levia, you want this too. Tell me.” His gentle command
impinged.

“I do. I want you, Sandon.”

With a sound that might have been triumph, he swooped again,
devouring her. When his hands cupped her breasts through the layers of
clothing, she thought she’d entered heaven. His thumbs rubbed carefully,
finding the twin points of her nipples, where were jutting outward.

They stilled then gently massaged while the warmth between
her legs pooled in her belly as if she were melting from the outside in. Their
tongues tangled, and on his breath, she tasted the soft muskiness that she
associated with him.

“Sandon, Sandon…” She chanted his name when she finally
tugged away.

The need to breathe had her chest bellowing as much as the
hunger of her body for his. The cool air caressed skin that had somehow become
exposed during their shared intimacy, and she blinked, noting the way her suit
gaped, the zipper pushed down to her navel.

“We have to stop.” She pushed at his chest, her action weak
and disclosing the truth. She didn’t really want to stop.

He stilled, and for a moment, she wasn’t totally sure what
to think, then he exhaled and lifted a hand to her face. “I know. You aren’t
ready, but when you are, I’ll be here.”

Tears burned and she wanted to swipe them away, along with
her fears. “I just… I don’t know what I’m doing around you. It’s like being an
alien in your own body. Every thought and everything you knew about yourself
turned topsy-turvy. I’m used to being cautious and…” She stopped, trying to
make some sense of the mush in her brain.

“It’s okay. I get that. But I want you so much, Levia, that
I dream of you and I ache constantly. My bed is lonely, and I wish you were
ready.”

The tug of his words had her wishing she could be stronger.
“I’m a coward, Sandon. I want that, but I’m so afraid.” On one level, she was
deathly fearful, but another told her to take the chance. Unable to go further
yet, she nuzzled into his touch, inhaling his scent, hoping to show him instead
how much she wanted to be with him.

A knock sounded at the office door. She pulled away with a
jerk and was tugging up the zipper as the door opened with a creak.

“Hey, boss—” Vestang’s words trailed off, and she knew
they’d been caught. The burn of humiliation bloomed on her face. “I’ll, uhh…”

The silence grated at her nerves, while her fingers tugged
at the zipper. The sound echoed, telling its own tale.

“It’s not that important,” Vestang muttered. “I’ll see you
on the bridge.”

She turned to see him flee through the door, which then
banged shut.

“Well, at least once they know, no one will question the
time we spend together.”

She whipped around to see a grimace on Sandon’s face. “You
think this is okay?”

“No. But I won’t be furtive with you, Levia. I want to be
with you. I’m not prepared to hide my feelings. Besides which, I think most of the
crew knows about the chemistry between us.”

She bit her lip at his words. He was right, and trying to
hide behind closed doors would only work so long. He deserved better, much
better than the stolen kiss and touches they’d shared so far. “Oh God!”

“Hmm, maybe we should talk about what you came here for?”

“What?” Disorientation kicked in. “Oh, yes. We’ve already
lost six days as a result of these searches. I can’t make up that kind of time,
but I have managed to plot a course that will help us to avoid them. It will
add another three days, but given the current situation, I think it might be
worth considering.”

He cocked his head. “Okay, show me what you have in mind.”

* * * *

The approach to Excelsior was completed in silence, and Sandon
watched the gray-green planet loom large ahead of them.

They’d been intercepted again just as they entered the
system. This time, Sandon questioned the captain on the reason they’d been
stopped. He’d seen the truth in the other man’s eyes when he blinked and backed
away. The captain’s security guards had taken a swipe at him, and Levia had
moved in. Her movements had been a blur and she’d growled that no one touched
her captain. As Sandon remembered it, he almost smiled.

Before he could call her back, she’d had the burly officer
on the floor whimpering, his arms pulled back with her knee against his spine.
“Touch him again and there won’t be enough of you to launch into a memory
capsule.” When she’d looked at the officer, her eyes were wide. Wild.

The crew had been fascinated during the action, but ever
since had walked a wide berth around her. Levia had retreated into her shell,
showing up for duty and keeping a determinedly isolated persona.

He’d have to tell them of course. The truth was, her status
as a Cybe was affecting the running of the business and ship. Not to mention
the mess it made of his equilibrium.

“Captain, I’ve answered the hail from ground control. They
state that as we are several days late with the run, they wish to renegotiate
the contract.”

“Damn them!” The curse slipped out, and he didn’t miss the
way she flinched.

“Captain, I need to send them an answer. Will you
renegotiate?”

“Yes. Tell them I require a face-to-face though. The crew
needs downtime, and if we can get the issues ironed out, we can kill two birds
with one stone.” He watched as she relayed his agreement and request.

For the first time, he noted the droop of her lips and
strain bracket that edged the side of her mouth. Everyone was hurting because
of the actions of the Dendarans, but none more than Levia.

“I need you to pilot the shuttle again. We’ll go down in the
larger one.”

“But surely Vestang…” Her gaze settled on him, and he wanted
to reach out and soothe her. But business had to come first.

“No. Vestang will pilot the other shuttle, with the crew
aboard. Gorthos and Vilmar will remain on ship. The others will take their
leave first. That leaves us to deal with the cargo.”

She bit her lip, an indication that she was wracked with
indecision. “Captain, perhaps one of the others would be best. I can remain
here and replot our flight plan.”

That didn’t suit him at all. He needed to spend time with
her away from the pressure cooker environment of the
Golden Echo
, and he
needed her skills as a negotiator. He might even need her as a bodyguard.

“No, Levia. I need you with me. There are some things that I
will need your skills for.”

She wanted to argue, her reactions clear in the mutinous set
of her mouth, but even as she shook her head, she agreed. “Sure, but it’s your
funeral.”

He waited as she finalized the plans with ground control
then switched the comm to broadcast.

“Attention all crew. We have arrived at Excelsior. As per my
announcement, all crew due for leave are required to assemble in the shuttle
bay at eleven hundred hours. Crew remaining aboard will be required to attend a
briefing session in my office immediately. Captain out.” During his short
speech, Levia had risen, having placed the
Echo
on the automatic mode,
and as she edged by him, he thrust out a hand. “I’ll need you too.”

She looked at him blankly.

“I want you to prepare Gorthos and Vilmar so they can take
the ship under control if necessary. I know you can set emergency bypasses, so
if the Dendaran’s decide they want to carry out a search and seize of things,
like your personal shuttle, they can’t access it. Or the data we received from
the Juran authorities.”

She nodded with a tiny jerk. “Sure. Let me get my things
together, and I’ll meet you there in ten minutes. I need to set my personal
emergency systems as well.”

He exhaled as he watched her leave the bridge. She was an
extraordinary woman. If only he could make her understand; if only she could
see what he saw.

Sandon hurried to his office and locked down his personal
systems. It wouldn’t do for anyone to access them while he was absent. His
personal ruminations about Levia were just that—personal.

Barely fifteen minutes passed and she joined him, followed
by Vilmar and Gorthos. He smiled, watching the way Gorthos walked warily around
her. The threat that she might consider the Aparvee with Gorthos had thankfully
dissipated.

“I’ve called you all together to make preparations for the
period of time that we will be on Excelsior. Levia is going to institute some
security measures that will lock down certain parts of the ship and memory
systems. She will show you how to engage with and override where necessary.”

Levia inclined her head, and as he moved away from the primary
console on his desk she took up the position. “Right, see this?” Her fingers
tapped at the keys as she set up the security protocols. “This will give you
access to…”

He watched in silence, amazed, as he regularly was, at just
how at home she was in the ship’s computer system. Sure that soon, once the
danger had passed, she would be his.

Three long and totally frustrating days had passed since the
last encounter. Levia silently escorted Sandon to the office they’d been
summoned to. They’d sat until called into the conference room. Each day, he’d
presented his case and waited for the situation to be escalated to someone
else. This morning, he’d met with the head of the Mining and Development
Ministry, who had the ultimate say on whether their previous agreement held.

She squirmed in the seat, and it squeaked beneath her.

“You need to be still. Find your inner zen.”

Levia barked out a laugh at Sandon’s quiet words. “Sadly,
I’m more action oriented than political. You’re the one with the
inner zen
.”
Levia bracketed the words with her fingers. “I’m just the grunt.”

“Do you really believe that?” The surprise in his tone had
her turning toward him.

“Well, yes. I mean, why else did you bring me here?” She
indicated the hushed interior of the building, and he smiled. Over the last
three days, the smile had become more strained, but it still sucked the oxygen
from her lungs.

“Maybe because I wanted you close by.” His words delivered a
sucker punch to her solar plexus.

“Sandon…” The helpless tide that usually surged at his words
rolled over her again.

“I know. Right words, but wrong time. When we’re done, I
want to talk to you.” His hand slid over hers, clasping it lightly, and his
thumb traced gentle circles on the top. “We need to sort out this… Whatever
this is between us.”

“We shouldn’t.” Right now, all the arguments she’d used, the
hiding, none of it was doing anything for her. His constant proximity chewed
away at the barriers she kept erecting between them, but the hot, sweet pump of
blood through her veins told her that the time had almost come.

She’d known and wrestled with the knowledge that she had to
choose. Take the final and irrevocable step with him or leave the
Golden
Echo
. The latter nearly tore her apart, but to accept Sandon’s touch? God,
how that scared her! It wasn’t like planning a tactical mission or even fixing
an engine. They were easy. She could plan for all the eventualities.

“Captain? The minister will see you now.”

Lost in the mess of emotions, she hadn’t heard anyone
approach.

They rose together, as one, and as they stepped forward the
woman held out a hand.

“I’m sorry. We can’t admit your…pilot. You do understand?”
The woman smiled somewhat vacuously in Sandon’s direction and every bone in
Levia’s body tightened.

“No, I’m sorry, I don’t understand.” Sandon’s grip on her
hand would have been crushing if not for her enhanced pain threshold. When she started
to tug away, he held on.

“She’s not… Well, we can’t allow a…” The nervous twitch the
woman hadn’t exhibited before caught Levia’s gaze.

“Sandon, it’s okay. I’ll wait here for you.” The harder she
pulled, the more pressure he exerted on her hand.

“No. It’s not all right.” His breath was jerky, and she
realized just how much strain he was laboring under. “You’re my pilot. Part of
my crew. My—”

She stood on tiptoe and placed her lips against his, cutting
off whatever he was about to say. His body was like steel, ramrod straight and
hard, and for a moment, some nameless emotion welled deep inside her gut.

The woman behind them gave a tiny gasp, and Levia felt a
thrill at the shock it indicated.

Slowly, she slid down until she was back on her feet in
front of Sandon. His eyes were wide with shock, but a satisfied grin danced on
his lips. “I’ll be here waiting for you. Go get ’em.”

“But…” He must have read the message in her gaze, the one
that said everything would be fine, because he shook his head. “I’ll be out as
soon as I can.”

The lightness in her heart buoyed her up, and she headed for
the seat and slumped back down.

“Cybes aren’t supposed to be human.” The venom in the
staffer’s voice wasn’t unsurprising.

“We’re human. We think, we feel, and we bleed.” Levia fought
the emotions that grew in her chest. It wasn’t the first time, and likely it
wouldn’t be the last time, she heard this particular litany.

“But you’re an assassin. A killer. You shouldn’t be near
normal people. And certainly not people like him.”

Levia couldn’t stop herself, she whipped her head around and
looked at the woman, who stood in front of her, white and shaking. “So, it
sounds to me like you have some kind of issue with Cybes. But you know what?
I’m more than that. I’m a woman, and I’m getting kind of pissed off. So please
leave now.”

“I’m going to report you. You shouldn’t even be here. They
were supposed to…”

There was so much more than mere interest now welling inside
Levia. “What? What were they supposed to do?” She stood, muscles bunching,
ready for whatever might happen next.

The woman gave a squeak and retreated toward the far wall.
“I’m going to report you. Right now!” She scurried around the corner and Levia
stood there, aware that her anger was foolish and could endanger their mission.

It really wasn’t a surprise when three burly men entered the
room, with the tiny woman cowering behind them. “Her. You need to arrest her.
She’s a Cybe.”

The biggest of the men smiled. It wasn’t pleasant or
welcoming. In fact, it left her with a greasy churning in her belly. “You are
to be placed into detention while we…”

Levia pivoted and ran.

* * * *

“Thank you for seeing me, Minister.” Sandon shook the
outstretched hand, feeling more assured with the hard copy of the carefully
rewritten contract in his grasp. Now to find Levia and they could celebrate.
Old-fashioned
style.
Wine and dinner followed by something far more intimate, if he had
his way.

The door closed behind him softly and he made his way down
the hall, stopping at the waiting room, but it was empty. “Levia?”

His heart thudded as he glanced around.
Where is she?

“Oh, your pilot has been detained.” The woman,
staffer
,
he’d seen earlier patted her blonde hair and gave him a come-hither smile.

The chill of an icy finger slid its way down his spine, or
maybe it was a feeling of foreboding? Either way, he didn’t think it was good.

The woman smiled as she blinked her eyelashes at him. “Oh,
don’t worry about her. I’m sure she’ll be fine. But right now, how about I
clock out and—”

“Where is she?” The snarl was feral and the staffer stepped
back, her grin dying away like ice beneath the harsh beating sun.

“I… She was taken into custody.” The woman’s tone was
brittle, and he knew she’d had a hand in whatever happened to Levia.

“What did you do?”

The woman looked shocked. Horrified at the sight of his
anger. She’d moved back, away from him, and sort of somehow shrunk into herself.
A tiny glimmer of amusement shone before it was extinguished by the bitter fury
that suffused him.

“I? Nothing that was out of the usual. I alerted the
security to the fact—”

Damn, she’d tipped them off that Levia was a Cybe! “Where?
Where would they take her?” He crowded in, pushing home his anger so that she
blanched.

“To… To the security station.”

“Take me there.” He reached out and grabbed her arm, and she
squeaked.

She escorted him out of the room and down a long, narrow
hall. A chill invaded his bones, or maybe it was the sense of loss and horror
that Levia regularly had to deal with this kind of mindset.

At a set of steps, the staffer attempted to pull away.

“You’re not going anywhere until you show me where they took
her. Then I will be making contact with my Freighters Union and placing an
official complaint about you, the security sector, and your planet for this.”

“I… I’m only following orders, Captain.” Her voice sounded
faint, and he pulled her closer, watching the dilation of her pupils and the
shallowness of her breath. She was scared? It was surely only a miniscule
amount of what Levia felt every time she landed on one of these godforsaken
planets.

At the bottom of the staircase, a heavy metal door stood
cracked open. From within, he detected grunts and the sound of fist on flesh,
the
whap-whack
filling his consciousness.

Releasing the woman, he barely noticed that she stumbled as
he surged in her direction, stopping only at the sight before him.

Two men lay on the ground, and Levia was huddled in a corner
as a man lifted his hand against her. A dribble of blood trickled over her chin,
but the set of her face told him she might be hurt but not out.

“Touch her again, and I guarantee you won’t live to regret
it.”

Levia’s attacker turned swiftly, and in that instant, she
drove her fist into the back of his head. His eyes widened, rolled backward so
only the whites shone, then he crumpled to the floor.

“Well, you took your time.” She moved around the body on the
ground in front of her, bent and inspected him, all the while shaking her hand.
“Huh. He’ll be out for an hour or two and wake up with a whopper of a headache.
These other two should be coming around soon, so I humbly suggest we get out of
here.”

Levia staggered in his direction then slumped into his
embrace.

“Can you walk?” Right now, he wanted to strip her down and
check her body, run his hands over it to ensure she hadn’t sustained any life-threatening
injuries.

The snort filled the air. “I can get out of here and get the
shuttle into space. But I think after that either a sleep or the medic might be
the order of the day.”

“Then we better move.” He started to drag her to the door,
and she reached out and gripped his hand before she shook her head.

“I have a better idea.” She wound her arms around his middle
and kissed him fully on the lips. “Hang tight, flyboy.”

He felt a sting as she poked something through the back of
his tunic, and the world turned black.

* * * *

Sandon was still out as Levia lowered him into a chair. She
sighed. “Should have thought about that.” Of course, he’d probably never had
any experience of instantaneous matter transmission, but then her experience
was limited too. The click of the safety harness filled the air, and she
wondered how long they had. “Probably not long at all.”

The instrument panel beneath her fingers shone and she
played it, inputting their destination and picking the most direct route. The sooner
they were out of there, the better.

Her body protested, aches and bruises were already blooming,
a reminder of Ordan Mayerber and his murderous determination to extinguish her.
“Dendaran bastard.”

“Who?” Sandon spoke slowly, and the sound was slightly
slurred.

Levia turned. He looked stunned still, but she exhaled. Once
he’d woken fully, she could help him throw off the fog that went with that form
of transmission.

“Mayerber.”

He frowned, the action slow and studied. “Why?”

“Because that idiot is behind this. Again! The stupid fool
who tried to restrain me spilled his guts.” Well, before she’d managed an
uppercut to his chiseled jaw, she remembered with a tiny bite of pleasure.

“Mayerber? He caused all this?” He was still lost about ten
steps behind her, Levia realized and took pity on Sandon.

“He ordered the security agents to hold us. Sadly for them, he
didn’t mention that even among the Cybes my hand-to-hand and strategic planning
are highly developed.” The whine of the engines told her they needed to lift
off now. “Hang on while I get us out of here, then I can explain all.”

The thrust of the ship pushed them against the seats, and
she welcomed the forces, even though it pushed the skin against bone and made
her ache even more. At least she was alive, something she wouldn’t have been if
she wasn’t strong enough to fend off the attack.

Oh, but the intelligence she’d managed to glean from them in
that moment or two where he’d been at her mercy. The security officers were
little more than pups when it came to strategy.

“You’re hurt.”

She didn’t even glance in Sandon’s direction. “It happens in
this game.”

His silence should have been unnerving, but it wasn’t. No,
it filled her with joy that he understood the need to get the bird off the
ground before doing something about the scrapes and aches.

She watched the viewer, her hands moving like a symphony as
they smashed through the layers of atmosphere until suddenly it gave, and the
ship punched into the blackness.

“What happened back there?”

She tapped one last command into the ship’s computer as she
let her mind settle. Coming down from the high of a good attack always took
time. “Mayerber made contact and ordered that I be detained. But as it’s a
little out-of-the-way planet, he forgot to tell them I’m a reasonable tactician,
and they underestimated me. They attacked, and I took two down by the time you
got there.” She shrugged off the memory of the pounding of her heart and the
surge of adrenalin.

“That doesn’t make a whole heap of sense.”

“Maybe not to you, but he’s trying to slow us down. He wants
to set the stage, and capture me. Up until now, all those searches? They were
mind games, trying to set me on edge. But he failed. Just like last time.” She
unclipped the harness, dropping to her knees beside him. “Sandon?”

“So why do I feel like I’ve been hit with a brick?” There
was a trace of petulance in his voice.

“Oh.” She stood and brushed an invisible bit of dirt from
her knees, all the while avoiding his gaze. He wouldn’t be happy, she’d already
surmised, when she revealed exactly what she’d done. “Well, I managed to
install an IMT.”

The blank look on his face told her she needed to explain
that.

“Instantaneous Matter Transmitters allow for the
disintegration, transportation, and reassembling of matter parts. Used usually
for transporting humans…”