No Such Thing (14 page)

Disgruntled, she cleared her throat and gave him a cool, "Good morning, Commander," while she removed her snood and set it aside.

"Morning, little mims," he said without looking her way. "We’ve got some activity on long range, other end of your tunnel. I think
somebody noticed your handiwork."

She stiffened. "GenTec?"

"Too far away to be sure…" He turned and lifted an eyebrow. "For our scanners, anyway."

"Yes, sir. I can scan now, if you like."

"Will that cause any, uh, issues?" he asked, glancing down at the snood as if it was a venomous snake. He had commented once that he
didn’t trust the Institute to shut off their connection just because she removed the headpiece. She happened to agree. She usually made a routine of
stuffing it away in one of his storage units before they began their daily schedule.

Turning smoothly, she scooped the thing up and headed for its usual hiding place. "No, sir," she answered, dropping it into a receptacle and
closing it with a twist of satisfaction. Then she finished, "I’ll avoid engineering. Declan won’t be affected."

He nodded and she turned her head, orienting herself as she unleashed her talent to make sure of her direction, then sending it out in a satisfying rush.
"Yes, there are three GenTec ships entering the scatter field. They are moving slowly."

"I’d imagine they’re a little uneasy about your construction."

"Hmm." She took a count of how many crew aboard the GenTec ships and felt her stomach take a slow, sick roll. Clearing her throat, she said,
"Total crew of one hundred and twelve. Will we—do you have to send fighters? You know, I can do something from here."

She peeked at him from under her lashes, wondering if she was overstepping her bounds. Telenetics were allowed to make suggestions to their commanding
officers, but she had no real experience in battle.

"Something, Ryelle?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest and watching her with his intense, cool, commander’s gaze. "Would
you kill them?"

She looked down. "If you ordered me to," she answered quietly, though her stomach surged in violent rejection. "But I can also disable
their ships."

"I’ve never worked with a telenetic who can do as much as you. But I’ve also never worked with one with as little field experience.
It’s a difficulty."

He began to move and she glanced up to watch his progress. That leashed energy was back, what she liked to think of as his battle prowl. He paced with
deliberate power, like the stalk of a rangy hunting animal.

"If I was thinking in terms of cold calculation, I would tell you to destroy them. As a test of your mettle. As a means of removing a threat to our
backsides. As a way of keeping that tunnel open for a possible escape if needed."

Ryelle swallowed hard, trying to prepare herself. He was quite right—he needed to know that she would follow the order to kill if he gave it. He was
within his rights to test her on it now.

"But if you created the tunnel once, you can create again." He paused, studying her without emotion. "And you aren’t ready to
kill."

"Sir, I—" she started to protest, but he held up a silencing hand.

"In battle, you’ll see the necessity of it. It’ll come more naturally when you have to defend the ship. But this way is too cold-blooded
for you to handle right now. So," he said with a thoughtful tip of his head, settling his hands on his hips and rocking a little on his heels.
"In the interest of saving our fighter’s resources, what can you do to disable them?"

She stared at him for a moment, thought about further protest, and then gave it up with a little flare of relief. "I can destroy their propulsion
systems and communications arrays."

He blinked. "No kidding."

"That will leave them adrift with no way to communicate with any other GenTecs."

"And if you scatter the tunnel, they will be adrift in the field, which will make them very difficult to find. Very good. But can you do such fine
work at a distance?"

She sighed. "Is this an appropriate time to roll my eyes, sir?"

A sudden grin flashed across his face. "You’re learning. I’ll try to stop questioning the things you say you can do. Proceed, Telenetic
Soliere. This should be interesting," he finished in a mumble she didn’t think she was supposed to hear.

Suppressing a smile, she proceeded. With some of her attention, she was aware that he’d returned to pacing in front of his viewers, but the rest of
her was light years away, carefully crushing and mangling the GenTec’s systems. She didn’t want to leave them with no internal energy, which
would kill their life support systems. She worked with a little hum in her throat and a smile on her lips but wasn’t aware of either. Inside, though,
she was very aware of the delight, the joy she took in using her ability, the pleasure it gave her.

When the ships were as useful as toys in a tub, she went to work on re-scattering the tunnel. After a few minutes, she felt the commander approach and gave
him a vague smile for his scrutiny. "Coming along," she murmured.

"I can see that," he said, gesturing to the viewers. "Don’t overtire yourself."

She snorted rather undiplomatically, distracted by her work and the thrill of her ability. With joy singing in her muscles, she spoke without thought,
"Not tired. Too much fun."

He chucked and said, "I can see that, too."

She went back to humming and ignored him. An officer checked in over the com, sounding a little panicked, to inform the commander that the tunnel was
closing behind them. The commander thanked the officer in a wry tone and asked her to inform the rest of the shift that Telenetic Soliere was under his
orders to return the field to normal.

When she was done and the tunnel was gone behind them, she reeled her talent in with a sigh of heavy regret and bound it close again, grimacing at the
effort. The more she used it, the harder it was to manage, to return her ability to its too-small cage. Back under tight control, she looked around for the
commander and found him lounging in a cushioned chair, watching her with his cheek resting on a propped fist.

He grunted. "That only took you twenty minutes."

She raised her eyebrows and settled herself neatly in the chair opposite. "Was it supposed to take longer?"

"I’ve never seen anything move a planetoid before."

"Is this a bad thing?" she asked with narrowed, speculative eyes. "I was only putting it back where it came from."

"You didn’t have to move it the first time. We could have gone around."

She tilted her head, studying him carefully. Sometimes he was very difficult to read. She couldn’t tell if he was teasing or voicing a serious
objection. "But if we’d gone around, than I wouldn’t have known I could move it."

He snorted, humor sneaking into the lines around his mouth. "Blast it, girl, aren’t you the least bit tired?"

She considered it. "A little," she admitted. "But a good tired, like after doing some healthy physical activity."

He sobered, leaning forward to examine her features with a sharp eye. "How long? How long could you have done that without collapsing?"

"Are you asking how long would I last in a battle?" she asked softly. Before he could respond, she continued, "I don’t know. The
Institute was more concerned with keeping my talent in check than with finding out my limits."

"Morons," he snarled. Launching to his feet again, he took another turn around the office. "How can I use you efficiently if I
don’t know how long and hard I can push you?"

She shifted in her seat with discomfort but knew she couldn’t keep quiet. "Sir, I think you’re missing the point."

"And that is, little mims?" he asked in his driest tone.

She tried not to flinch, raising her eyes to meet his piercing gaze. "How much damage I can do in a very short amount of time."

He absorbed this for a moment then strode to her side, staring down at her with an expression close to compassion. "And how much damage do you think
you could do, Ryelle?"

"I’m afraid to find out," she whispered, looking down at her clasped hands. "But I know this much—it’ll be enough for
any battle. That’s why they gave me to you."

There was a moment of silence. Then he touched her shoulder very briefly, before walking away. Ryelle blinked against the sting of tears.

After that, the morning passed slowly and with a large slice of boredom, at least on Ryelle’s part. The commander seemed unnaturally absorbed in the
routine matters of inventory, maintenance, and preparation for the upcoming action. She had no idea where he got the patience to discuss proper storage
with his supply officers and ways to streamline docking with his flight maintenance crew. He had a strategy meeting with his top ranking officers, which
was more interesting, but it was material they’d gone over before, since they couldn’t get any fresh intel from the front line while in the
scatter field.

When he showed no signs of breaking for lunch, Ryelle gently reminded her commander that he needed to eat like any normal human being. He didn’t even
glance up from a nav report on the nebula, just told her she was free to go. She bolted.

Lunch wasn’t on her agenda, though. Declan was. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to approach him.

She took herself off to the observation deck to think about it, pacing through space with more or less casual disregard. It took a bit of discipline to
ignore the vast openness around her, but it bolstered her control and helped her to think. To strategize.

Declan wouldn’t come to her. Even if he didn’t think she was crazy, there was still protocol. Low ranking members of any crew did not approach
a telenetic without invitation. So she didn’t expect to see him at her door any time soon on his own. It was up to her to invite him.

But how did any self-respecting female invite the attentions of a male she had run away from? Putting any humiliation and embarrassment aside, she was
totally clueless how she should approach him. She had little experience with social customs and even less with dating customs. She supposed it would be a
good idea to ask someone for advice, but she flamed with mortification when she thought about asking the people she knew. The one person she felt
comfortable enough with to reveal how little she knew about these things was Declan.

With a gloomy sigh, she headed for the exit. She’d just have to muddle through it somehow. Because as much as the idea unnerved her, she had to see
him again. She’d already had a very bad morning missing him and she suspected she was coming to crave his presence as much as she craved human touch.
Especially his touch. And if she was really, really lucky, his kiss.

The memory ambushed her and she stumbled across the threshold, cheeks burning as she took a quick, furtive glance around. The corridor was empty, but her
cheeks kept burning. Her heart was racing again. With a sigh and a press of her hand to her chest, she grabbed the tattered edges of her courage and made
her descent to the engineering section.

There was no one in the anteroom when she entered, so she approached the com and tapped it. "Chief Sheridan, please."

"This is Sheridan," his calm voice said a moment later.

"It’s Ryelle, Chief Sheridan. I was wondering if I could speak to Declan for a moment." There was a small silence, and she hurried on to
say, "If he’s busy, I can speak with him later…"

"No, no. The boy has been working much too hard and putting the rest of us to shame. You would be doing me a great favor by taking him off my hands
for a while. Do you remember how to reach my office?"

"Yes."

"Please meet me there, then."

Ryelle stepped through to the main engineering deck, wincing a little at the battering of sound and color. She paused a moment to admire the beauty of the
proton streams again, sighing with regret that she couldn’t touch them this time. Then she made her way to the Chief’s office with no trouble,
nodding to the crew she saw on the way. Most stopped in their tracks and stared unabashedly with mouths open. She schooled her face to show only serenity,
burying her discomfort under a layer of projected calm.

The Chief was already in his office and ushered her inside with a warm smile. "My dear, you’re a welcome sight. Mina told me this morning that
she misses you already. I explained that you had duties to perform and couldn’t entertain her all day. She made a crude remark about my
ancestry."

She smiled at the man, taking his warm hand with a rush of sincere affection. "You can tell her that I miss her, too. Can she join us for dinner
again, or will she be too busy with food preparation?"

"Hmm, she does most of her prep ahead of time, I believe. Very efficient, my Mina. However, I believe I’m looking for a little less noise, this
evening. Could you join us in our quarters? I’ll be inviting that beastly boss of ours and Declan, as well."

Her stomach flipped and she watched his eyes twinkle while her smile grew nervous. "That would be…wonderful. Thank you."

"Excellent. I’ll just call Declan and have him meet you here. You are welcome to roam as you like, but don’t feel as though you need to
confine yourselves to engineering. That boy could use some new, delightful scenery. Other than you, of course." He winked at her and touched the
communicator in his ear. "Declan, report to my office immediately."

He strolled to the exit and paused, sending her a thoughtful look. "Perhaps when you are finished with him, you could ask him to check the security
system for this office. It appears to be malfunctioning." Then he gave her a bland smile and strolled out.

Ryelle stifled a hysterical giggle behind her hand, staring after him in horror. Finished with him? What did he think she had planned for Declan, anyway?
But it was nice of him to let her know they would have privacy in his office. She supposed his security system was going to remain malfunctioning, no
matter what she told Declan.

A few moments later, before she was ready, Declan quick-stepped into the office, an expectant look on his face. He stopped short when he saw her, gorgeous
blue eyes widening. "Ryelle," he said in a tone of utter surprise.