Page 10 of Shadows Approach
“On my way, Captain.” She sat back in her hover chair in her tiny cubicle in Engineering and stretched. Her spine crackled satisfyingly.
She rose and headed for the corridor, waving to the engineering crew as she passed them. Lokmi had already left, excited to celebrate their leaving Bi’is for the last time. Hope was thrilled too, but her program was close to completion.
Another hour, and I bet I would have been done.She sighed wistfully as she stepped into the elevator-like conveyance waiting to bring her mere steps from her clan’s quarters. Oh well, tomorrow was soon enough to finish her latest project, test it, and check it off her list.
Life was good.
Hope entered her clan’s quarters moments later. Three bronze faces swung in her direction, and a thrill shot through her. Elegant Piras, feral Kila, and stunning Lokmi, so different in looks and personalities, but equally exciting. Her heart throbbed overflowing love for the trio who’d saved her father from execution, her sister from being the child bride of a monster, and herself from an uncertain future years before.
“Hi honeys, I’m home.” She beamed at them.
“You took long enough,” Kila groused, but as usual, a smile played at the corner of his lips. “It’s no fun coming in second to a bunch of miniature robots.”
“You never come in second. You just get momentarily delayed. I seem to remember you being late on a few occasions after visiting Engineering too.”
“And me being late because I had to undo what he’d done.” Lokmi joined in, wearing a pretended scowl at Kila. Or maybe it wasn’t pretended. Kila was a born tinkerer, son of a race shuttle team, unable to resist the urge to make his ship faster. Engineering was Lokmi’s domain, however, and the pair locked horns over Kila’s clandestine modifications when they were discovered.
“Okay, okay, we’re all a bunch of workaholics who love what we do. Let’s put duty aside for a few hours and toast to our change of address.” In a dramatic flourish, Piras produced the biggest bottle of leshella Hope had ever seen. She clapped in approval.
“Party time!”
One of the men had picked up dinner from the mess hall and brought it to their cramped quarters. They picnicked on their vast sleeping mat, which took up much of the floor space.
“Pilchok always tastes so decadent. I feel I’m eating dessert ahead of the meal,” Hope said, licking the flaky pastry-like meat off her lips. She swallowed a healthy mouthful of leshella to wash it down. The Plasian wine went down easily, and she was already feeling quite mellow.
Lokmi popped another morsel on her tongue. “I’m a firm believer in decadence. In fact, I request extra helpings. Less work, more play.”
“For you, work is play,” Kila chuckled. “If you don’t have an engine to fuss over, you hate life.”
“I’m sure that’s why you fuck with my ship on an ongoing basis, out of concern for my joy.”
“Your ship?” Kila’s ever-present grin took on its dangerous cast, his teeth gleaming through his dark beard.
“Okay, your ship. But they’re my engines.”
“If they’re part of my ship, then it makes them—”
As they commenced their usual debate, which ignited at least once a week, Piras offered Hope a bite of wedi-sauced niria. “At least no one fights over your nanobots.”
“Good. I’d hate to put any of you in a medi-bed.”
He chuckled, and Hope looked at him in undisguised adoration. The “Terror of the Fleet,” as Piras had been called before his spy activity had made him a pariah among Kalquorians, wasn’t known outside of his clan for smiles. Having given up his home, friends, and an open relationship with his family to save the Kalquorian Empire from the treasonous Dramok Maf, he’d had damned little to be happy about. Hope had made it her mission to give him as much pleasure in life as was in her power.
Fortunately, their pleasures meshed quite satisfactorily.
When he offered her another bite…Kalquorian men traditionally fed their Matara clanmates…Hope brushed his arm aside. She leaned forward to claim a kiss. Piras yielded to her command, his lips parting to invite a deeper embrace. She accepted, kissing him until he was left gasping. She was gratified to spy how his crotch bulged in interest. The spicy scent of his arousal mixed enticingly with the food.
She tapped his wrist, as he still held the fork aloft. He swallowed hard and fed her, hunger for something besides pilchok and niria in his gaze. She patted his thigh and held out her glass to Lokmi, who smirked as he refilled it.
She didn’t dare tease him as she did Piras. He and Kila weren’t to be toyed with, unless she was in the mood to be taken under particular circumstances.
She was, but only after dinner and leshella had been consumed. And maybe Piras, as well.
Life was great.
“Any word on what we’ll find when we reach Earth’s Alpha Station?”
Kila’s question snapped Piras into his in-charge persona. “Rear Admiral Hobato and Admiral Tranis are to meet us there. They’ll be speaking to the station’s commander and the head of Earth’s on-planet security prior to our arrival, to make sure they’re willing to work with me as commanding officer of Earth Space Security.”