Farthest Space: The Wrath of Jan (4 page)

“Uh-huh,” Steven answered.
 
“Just like the Garden of Eden.”

Fred paused, presumably looking for the reference in his databanks.
 
“Oh.
 
Right. The Judeo-Christian story of the origin of humanity.”

Steven watched as Vaish knelt on the ground, looking thoughtfully at something—probably the native equivalent of a dandelion, or something equally fascinating.
 
But with her background in exobiology, Vaish was naturally interested in such things.
 
“She makes a glorious Eve,” he said softly.

Fred snorted, a rude sound he’d picked up from listening to the interactions of the crew.
 
“And I suppose you intend to play Adam with her?”

Steven scowled, feeling oddly defensive.
 
“If we’re trapped here long enough, what do you expect me to do?”

“I suppose celibacy would be out of the question.”

“Uh… yeah.
 
It would.”

“Dumb question, I guess,” Fred said, and Steven could imagine him rolling his eyes, had he had any.
 
“I know better.
 
But let me put it this way—what makes you think she’ll
want
to play Eve with you?
 
She’s never been interested in you before, has she?”

“It’s not as if she has a lot of men to choose from, is it?” Steven snapped.

“I once overheard her say she wouldn’t have sex with you if you were the last man available.
 
It looks like you may wind up testing her resolve in that matter.”

“I’m sure she was exaggerating, Fred.
 
She likes me.
 
Underneath that prickly, cold exterior, she really likes me.”

“Uh-huh.
 
Sure she does.”

“She does, trust me.
 
She just hasn’t admitted it yet.”

“Well, you’re the expert on women,” Fred said in a dubious tone.
 

“The galactically renowned expert on women.”

“And modest as hell, too.”

Steven decided to ignore the comment, even though he was pretty sure he hadn’t programmed Fred to be quite so sarcastic.
 
It must be Vaish’s influence.
 
“I think this is a good location,” he said, raising his voice and walking over to Vaish.
 
“We can see for a long distance in every direction.
 
I suggest setting up camp here.”

Vaish frowned as she stood up.
 
“This may be as good as anything,” she admitted.
 
“But look at this.”

Steven followed her pointing finger and swallowed.
 
An enormous, padded pawprint was visible in the dirt.

“At least one of the large feline carnivores has been in this area lately,” she said.
 
“We will probably run into it at some point.
 
And perhaps others.”

Steven stared at the impression.
 
It would make a tiger’s paw look tiny by comparison.
 
He hated to think what the animal’s teeth looked like.

“Big mother, isn’t it?”

Vaish looked up, the smooth skin of her forehead wrinkling.
 
“There is no reason to assume it is a female.”

Steven shook his head.
 
“I just meant…
 
never mind.
 
It’s not important.
 
But maybe we’d be better off staying in the lifepod, at night at least.
 
Do you think we can make room to sleep in there?”

“The quarters will be extremely close.
 
There are no bunks, so we’ll have to sleep on the floor.
 
We will virtually be sleeping next to each other.”

He saw the look of cool distaste in her eyes, and it irritated him.
 
“It’s either sleep with me or sleep with the cats, Vaish.”

“Another difficult choice.”

As usual, there was no hint of humor in her voice, and he didn’t have the faintest clue if she was joking or not.
 
“Go ahead and sleep outside if you want,” he answered at last.
 
“I’m sure the cats will find you even more delicious than I do.”

She gulped.
 
“Perhaps… sleeping in the lifepod would be best.”

He bit back his grin.
 
“Terrific.
 
That’s settled.
 
Now we need to figure out what to do about lunch.”

“There are emergency rations in the lifepod,” Vaish pointed out.

“Emergency rations won’t last long.
 
We’d better figure out what’s edible and go find some.
 
With all the carnivores around, there must be some prey animals.
 
We’ll have to find one and roast it for dinner.”
 

“Given the size of the predators, the local prey is probably not terribly small.
 
We don’t have any weapons.
 
How do you expect to kill anything?”

Steven grinned.
 
“People hunted without guns for millennia, Vaish.
 
We’ll just have to use our intellects.”

She turned away from him, but he heard her mutter under her breath, “That leaves you out, then.”

If they ever got back to the
Arisia
, Steven decided with mingled annoyance and amusement, he was definitely going to court-martial her.

*****

Naturally, it rained.

Vaish wasn’t particularly surprised by that turn of events.
 
Given the clearly etched footprint she’d found in the ground, along with the lushness of the purple grass, she’d guessed it rained here on a regular basis, at least at this time of year.
 
But it was still something she didn’t want to contend with on her first day on a planet she might spend the rest of her life on.
 
It didn’t bode well, somehow.

They’d headed out into the meadow, both of them pitifully armed with a heavy metal pipe—spare parts for repairs of the lifepod.
 
The pipes could crush a man’s skull readily enough, but she doubted they were even remotely enough of a weapon against a huge feline that might want to eat them for dinner.
 
Still, a length of metal tubing was better than nothing, and she realized they couldn’t stay in the lifepod forever.
 
So they’d headed off, only to get less than half a kilometer across the meadow before it started to pour.

By the time they’d gotten back to the lifepod, she was completely and utterly soaked.
 
Her uniform stuck to her skin in what she thought was probably a rather obscene way, at least judging from the way Steven kept stealing glances at her breasts.
 
It didn’t help that the interior of the lifepod was chilly, causing her nipples to grow rigid and jut out.
 

Just what she needed.
 
She was marooned on a planet with the galaxy’s biggest playboy, and her nipples were standing out like neon advertisements.

“We’d better take our clothes off,” Steven said.

She snorted, too miserably uncomfortable to maintain her usual façade of humorlessness.
 
Her hair had come loose from its customary bun and was dripping down her neck, and her boots squished with every step.
 
“Of course the Galactic Playboy would suggest that.
 
You’d love that, wouldn’t you?”

Steven spoke in a tone of calm reasonableness.
 
“We can’t stay in these clothes.
 
We’re soaked.”

“I noticed,” she snapped.
 

“Maybe there are some other clothes somewhere.
 
There should be.”
 
He looked up at the low ceiling.
 
“Fred?”

“The terrorists removed them, along with the customary complement of weapons,” Fred said helpfully.

“Damn Noo’dis’ts,” Steven said in disgust.
 
“You’d think they’d let us keep our clothes, at least.”

“Actually,” Fred said, “I’m guessing they were trying to be compassionate.
 
They removed what they see as superfluous—clothing—and stocked the lifepod with extra food.”

“Real saints,” Steven growled.
 
His tone of calm reason was beginning to slip, and Vaish suspected his patience was hanging by a thread, rather like her own.
 
“So we’ve got no goddamned clothes.”

“Clothes are not really necessary in this climate,” Fred said helpfully.
 
“This is actually the cold season, according to my data.
 
It is much warmer the rest of the year.
 
Even if you have to go naked, you won’t find it uncomfortable.”

“Hear that?” Steven said to Vaish with a wicked smile.
 
“Clothes aren’t necessary here.
 
Fred says so.”

Vaish fixed him with what she hoped was a forbidding glare.
 
“I am
not
taking my clothes off.”

Steven shrugged a massive shoulder.
 
“Suit yourself.”
 
He started to unfasten the static zipper of his uniform, only to pause when Vaish gave a muffled shriek of outrage.

“
What
are you doing?”

“Stripping,” he answered, looking at her over his shoulder.
 
She noticed the tone of calm reason was back.
 
It made her want to slug him.
 
“Just because you want to be sopping wet and miserable for the rest of the afternoon doesn’t mean I have to be.”

“You can’t possibly mean to—to—“

“To strip naked in front of you?
 
Yeah, sweetheart, that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

“And what precisely do you expect me to do?”

He winked.
 
“Enjoy the view.”

To her dismay, she did.
 
Steven in a tight-fitting black uniform was gorgeous.
 
Steven out of his uniform—well, there were simply no words to describe him.
 
His back was broad, thickly overlaid with heavy, rippling muscles, and his shoulders were massive.
 
His biceps were heavy and well-defined.
 
And his ass…

She was salivating, and she was pretty sure it wasn’t because she’d skipped lunch.

And then he turned around, and the drool filling her mouth increased tenfold.

Wow
.
 

She was in big trouble.
 
“Big” being exactly the right word here.

Steven grinned at her shocked expression.
 
“Pretty damn impressive, huh?”

Definitely
.
 
But she wasn’t about to help feed his ego—an ego that was already the size of Jupiter, and still growing.
 
The man was entirely too cocky.
 
So to speak.

“Perhaps by human standards,” she said with as much contempt as she could muster.
 
“But among my own people, your anatomy would be… well…”
 
Astounding
.
 
“Pitiful.”

She was pleased to see the smug expression in his eyes fade a bit.
 
“You’re kidding, right?”

“Hardly,” she said with a disdainful sniff.