Star Cruise: Marooned (16 page)

“Yes, but now I’m hungry. Any problem with me going to Level One and finding myself some breakfast?”

“Sure, but stay away from the control room. Red has the sensors on and the communications alarms set. Is your husband awake yet?”

“No, he’s finally getting some rest.” Callina rubbed her eyes with one hand. “He was complaining about his ankle in the middle of the night.”
 

“I’ll examine it later,” Red said from the bed.

Callina blushed a bit and her eyes widened at the sound of Red’s voice. Giving Meg a wink, she said, “See you later then.” With a wave of her hand, the woman headed for the gravlift.

Closing the portal, Meg turned to see Red watching her, his morning erection tenting the thin blanket in an invitation she had no intention of rejecting. She dropped the sheet, yanked the blanket away playfully, and climbed onto the bed, placing herself astride his thighs.

“Oh, like that is it?” Red said, shifting his hips to push his arousal against her.
 

“Like what?”

“Taking the command position?”

Meg rose slightly, caging him with one hand, guiding him into her. He thrust upward and she sank onto his shaft, wriggling a little.
 

He frowned. “Are you sure you’re not too sore this morning?”

“Little late to be asking.” She laughed and clenched her inner muscles massaging him the way she’d discovered drove him crazy, reaching to roll his balls between her fingers. “Although, I appreciate the concern.”

Slowly he sat, raising himself with one arm behind him. Meg took her time moving until she was leaning on his thighs with her elbows. From that angle she was able to apply her own hip muscles to the task of intensifying their mutual pleasure. Brow furrowed, Red had a look of concentration on his face as he thrust, retreating slightly and plunging deeper on his next movement, Meg matching his every move from her position facing him. She hovered close to climax and apparently her partner did as well. “Don’t worry, you won’t hurt me,” she said, taking a deep breath. Arching her spine she ground herself against him, her innermost muscles clenching in an orgasm that ignited his, finishing together. The sensations were as intoxicating as the first round of lovemaking, and the two delicious repeat performances since.

She moved to the side, Red’s penis sliding from her body. He wrapped her in his arms and Meg could hear his heart beating a steady rhythm under her ear, the sound solid and reassuring. “I have a good feeling about today,” she said, raising her head to gaze at him. “I think your friend is going to come through for us. I think the nightmare will end and we’ll be safe. All of us.”

Red kissed her forehead, holding her as if he’d never let go. “I hope you’re right. I’m not going to relax until we’re aboard some nice invincible battlecruiser, flying out of this part of the Sector.”

“This room is equipped with an adequate refresher unit, by the way,” she said. “Big enough for two.”

“Woman, you’re trying to kill me,” he said with a laugh.

“Making up for lost time.” She traced the dragon’s neck as it curved over his shoulder. “You seemed to be on board with the program.”

About an hour later, after a shower together turned major makeout session, finished off with more sex, Red taking her against the wall as the warm water cascaded over both their bodies like tropical rain, Meg got dressed.

“I wish we had fresh clothes,” she said, wrinkling her nose as she buttoned her blouse.

“You said some of the quarters had things left in them?” He turned and eyed the storage compartment in the far wall. “Should we check?”

“I’m not too crazy about wearing someone else’s clothes, but it would be nice to stop smelling like smoke and tree sap.” Meg walked to the closet and opened the portal with a wave of her hand. The shelves were empty. She laughed. “Just our luck. Maybe I can find time today to search the other rooms.”

“Later, I have to get to the com and see if Max calls.” Red donned his uniform shirt.

“What if he doesn’t? Will you call him again?”

Red shook his head. “Too risky. Too much chance the Shemdylann might detect the signal and investigate. We’re on a twelve hour cycle now. If Max misses the first deadline, the next check-in time would be in twelve more hours.”

She sat on the edge of the bed to fasten her shoes. “And if he doesn’t?”

“I’ll give him two cycles, assuming nothing else changes in our situation. But then I’d advise moving on if we don’t hear otherwise. He wouldn’t expect me to wait more than two days. We’d better go through this place top to bottom while we’re killing time, figure out what to salvage, make some packs in case we’re on the run again in a day or two.” He grinned. “Take some clean shirts if there are any left here.”

“Where would we go?” Meg stood, realizing she was sore in a few places, but discomfort was more than worth the pleasure Red had given her. The two of them fit together so well, in bed and out of it.

Rubbing his jaw, he said, “I’m going to search the installation databases today, see if there’s any information on the planet’s cave complexes or other geological formations we might use for permanent shelter.”

She appreciated the way he always had a plan, or maybe even several. “What about the forest?”

He shook his head. “Not enough shelter from the storms. We were damn lucky I found the nest the second night or we might not have made it through the experience, weathering the forces of nature.”

“You would have figured something out to save us.” Meg put her arms around him, leaning her head on his chest. “You’re a force of nature. In more ways than one.”

Chuckling, he rubbed her lower back. “The forest was fine for a temporary refuge, but if we’re going to have to live on Dantaralon, we need somewhere inconspicuous and permanent.”

“Until someone burns off the entire planet.”

He tilted her chin for a quick kiss. “Hey, I laid out the worst case scenario, which might never happen. Even the Shemdylann appear to value this world for its natural wonders.”

“If I have to be marooned, I couldn’t ask for a better companion than you.”

“Likewise.”

“We’d better get to Level One and keep the others from eating the storage pantry bare,” she said.

When she arrived at the cafeteria a few moments later, her concern proved well founded. Several packages of the dried fruit and other delicacies lay open on the table. Callina was rummaging through the pantry, opening other containers to sniff and taste with careless disregard for the future.

Reasserting control, Meg walked along the line of storage compartments, closing each with a firm click. “We can eat whatever pleases us this morning to celebrate our safe arrival here, but after breakfast I’m making an inventory and we’ll have to ration.”

“Let’s not open anything else,” Red added.

Callina blinked. Setting down the container she’d been about to investigate, she cast a guilty look at the mess she’d made. “Oh, I didn’t realize. I didn’t think it mattered. We aren’t going to be here long, are we?”

“The length of time remains to be seen. How’s your husband’s ankle?” Red asked.

“He’s having trouble walking and it’s all purple and black with bruises. That’s why I came to this level alone to see what I could bring him to eat. Can you do anything for him?”

For all her carelessness, the woman did show genuine concern about her husband. Red left the kitchen to accompany her to Level Two to check on the man’s condition.

Turning to see what she could throw together from the already unsealed packages, Meg pondered her emotions where Red was concerned. Starting the coffee brewing, she leaned on the counter for a moment, snacking on a reconstituted biscuit, wishing for some jam. She couldn’t imagine her life going forward without Red at her side, so what was her hesitation? She’d certainly seen to the core of the man in the life and death situation they were in, and each new piece of knowledge about Red and who he was fit for her own nature and approach to life.

Were her previous bad experiences counting against him? “He’s not anything like the men I met on my first crew.” She said out loud.
He’s the real deal and he’s mine. I just have to say the word.
 

Resolving to take the risk and tell him how much he meant to her the next time they were intimate, she poured the coffee as Red and the Bettises emerged from the gravlift.

She ran to help maneuver Mr. Bettis through the hall to the sickbay.

Eyeing the apparatus in the compact room, Red said, “I’ve had some training in first aid, but I’m no medic.”

“Can you at least scan to see if the bone is broken?” Meg asked.

“No problem, I recognize the right equipment here. Let’s get him on the table.” Red started activating systems in the room, searching for the ones controlling the scanners. “Too bad there’s no rejuve resonator in here—we could fix his ankle as good as new.”

“Never mind those cost half the galaxy in credits and are for the military only,” Meg said.

“Finchon has one at his main home, for his exclusive use. I’d settle for a major feelgood right now.” Bettis clenched his jaw as his wife and Meg worked together to settle him on the padded examination table. “Make that three.”

One of the circuits Red turned on activated the sealed cabinets. Meg searched through the shelves for injects. “Nothing,” she reported. “Unlike the kitchen, the staff took the time to clear out all the actual meds.”

“Anything we can use to splint this?” Red ran the scanning unit over Bettis’s swollen, purple and black left ankle and checked the readout. “Good, not broken. A sprain.”

“Are you sure? Hurts like the seven hells.” Bettis lay motionless on the table’s thin pad, clutching his wife’s hand.

“The good news is sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between a sprain and a break, but the scanner’s negative for bone damage. Bad news is soft tissue injuries can take longer to heal than breaks sometimes.” Red took the sealed medical items from Meg. “Give me a few minutes and you’ll be able to walk around more easily.”

“As long as we don’t have to go anywhere in a hurry, I’ll be fine,” their patient said.

Meg and Red exchanged glances over the table, but said nothing.

After breakfast, Red disappeared into the control chamber. Meg directed Callina on cleanup and together the women took inventory of the remaining foodstuffs. When they were done, tired of forcing herself to do her duty as the person in charge when she wanted to be elsewhere, Meg hastened to join Red.

She paused on the threshold. “It’s almost time for Max to call in, isn’t it?”

“Don’t get your hopes too high, but yeah, we might hear from him any minute now.” Red eyed the chrono built into the control unit. “If he calls, the signal will override anything else going on in here. No risk of missing the message.”

Eyeing the red indicators for the sealed labs, she asked, “You still can’t break into the security for scanning Level Four?”

“Haven’t tried yet. I was accessing the databases relating to the planet’s topography. Higher priority, in case we have to make another rapid departure. Found some likely cave formations about three hundred miles to the north of here. Of course at that latitude, we might get a bit too cold in the winter.”

Meg shivered. “I hope we’re not anywhere near this planet by the time winter sets in.”

“You and me both. Nice enough place, but I never meant to stay here permanently. We could track south for better weather, but we’d have to make a long detour to avoid the Shemdylann at the Falls and I’d rather not be anywhere in their vicinity.” Red tapped his finger on the applicable section of the readout on the large wall screen.

“Do you want me to go find Bettis, to work on unlocking the Level Four vids?”

Red shook his head. “We need to wait a few minutes. It’s almost check in time for Max. And I don’t want to talk to him in front of anyone other than you. The less anyone else knows about my military ties, the better.”

“No argument from me. I guess since we’ve already been inside the building for so long, finding answers about the nature of the research can wait.”

A loud pinging indicated an incoming message. Heart beating so fast dizziness threatened to overwhelm her, Meg leaned over the chair as Red activated the link. “Max, old buddy, what’s the good word?”

“Don’t talk, listen. You got one shot. Sending a robo in eighteen, keyed to your DNA, limited window. Get your party on board, fly it out of the atmosphere and hit hyperspace the moment you cross into clear space because the planet is surrounded by tangos,
crawling
with tangos, including the big guys, you get it?”

“Got it. Thanks, Max.”

“Yeah, I’ll take repayment in ten year old Suavarian whiskey, you’re buying. Damn lucky for you I’m here on ops, and even luckier the Mellurean singled you out in front of the brass ten years ago. Apparently, her interest is noted in your official records with a red flag. Makes you special. Fly with the Lords of Space, Sergeant, ‘cause there ain’t no second chance this time.”

The signal cut off.

Unsure exactly what had been arranged, Meg studied Red’s face. “Why can’t he send the ship now?”

Drumming his fingers on the console, he said, “You heard what he said about the enemy? The tangos?”