Page 9

She watched the shadow stop a few meters behind her, seeing it clearly in the path he’d created. It then turned and before he could even swing his g ra?j into position, it had swooped so low Razili felt her hair wave in its wake.

Her eyes went wide and she froze. “Can you see it? What is it?”

“I don’t think it’s a threat. I think it’s a native animal that’s curious about us.” He still held the gun ready in front of him.

The shadow buzzed them twice more. On the third pass, she called out softly, “Hello. We won’t hurt you.” She held her hands out, palm up. The shadow stopped on a nearby branch and made a chittering noise. “Yes,” she responded as if she understood it. “It’s okay.”

The shadow shimmered and fell away, revealing a large avian animal.

“Oh my stars, aren’t you gorgeous?” Its head and wings reminded her of a fruit bat, but its breast was feathered, and its legs sported talons like a raptor.

Its black surface flashed iridescent shimmers as it shifted.

“Calyx, have you ever seen anything like it?” She was mesmerized by the creature in front of her.

“It appears to be a cross between an animal called rhurzi and another called shosm . Both found on a planet in a system not far from here.”

She gasped. “They did this, didn’t they?” Anger rose, swift and hot. “They engineered it.”

“It seems likely.”

She looked at him; her outrage clear in every muscle of her body.

The manipulation it would take to turn two creatures into a new species would be great.

The two original fauna might not naturally interbreed.

She knew from past research the Scozid favored forced breeding and cruel experiments.

She couldn’t stop thoughts about the ancestors of this beautiful creature being tortured from flooding her mind. “I hate them. They are evil.”

“They have affected most forms of life in the galaxy, true. Some for the worse, some for the better.” He waved his hand at the creature on the branch. “Without them, this creature wouldn’t exist.”

“They play at being gods. In my experience, that is never a good thing.”

The creature chortled and hopped along the branch as they continued on. When it reached the end, it took flight, circling over their heads. On its third pass, it landed on Razili’s shoulder.

She stopped, half afraid and half honored. It cooed and rubbed its head along her cheek in a feline way. She reached up to stroke between its ears and it sighed with a warbling purr.

Calyx grinned at her. “I think it’s adopted you.”

She grinned back. “Then I will name it Irul.”

Calyx tilted his head at her.

When she stopped petting it, it headbutted her for more. She chuckled. “It means darkness in my language.”

“A fitting name for it, then.”

“A bit ironic, I guess, considering its personality seems to be full of light. If nothing else, meeting Irul makes this trip worthwhile.”

They reached the edge of the clearing and Calyx stopped short. He heard Razili gasp behind him. What they’d seen from space as a lush green area teeming with plant life was a barren expanse of green soil.

“What happened here?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

She stepped to walk around him and he put his arm out to stop her. Irul shook on her shoulder, and he nodded to the avian. “Something isn’t right here. We should head back to the ship and find another area.”

She stroked her hand down the creature’s back and nodded. “I’ll just take a sample of the soil, then we can go. I want to know why we saw this area as thriving.”

He acquiesced, but stayed in front of her as she bent to take a sample, noting she donned gloves and was careful as she collected a small bit of soil in a container.

She shouldered her pack with a weary sigh, and he worked to keep a smile off his face. He knew she wasn’t looking forward to the walk back. Especially not so soon after they arrived.

The complaints he expected never came, though. She trudged in silence. That was okay. Half his mind focused on their surroundings, scanning for any hint of danger. The other half was lost in thoughts of her.

They reached the fighter after dark. He expected Irul to fly off to its own home… nest… burrow, but it stayed on her shoulder even as she sank on the bunk. It moved to her side only when she flopped backwards.

“I can’t believe the whole day was a bust.”

“I wouldn’t say that. We now know one area not to look.”

She rolled her head to the side, her eyes slits as she stared at him. He couldn’t help but chuckle.

“How can you make jokes? The whole Denchui Alliance depends on us finding the solution to scaling the tech neutralizing compound!”

“As I said before, if you can’t make it work, we will find another way to defeat the Scozid. They will not win, and the burden isn’t yours alone to carry.”

She groaned and threw her forearm over her eyes.

He left her to rest and initiated a scan of the surrounding area, hoping to find another spot likely to hold what she needed.

As he worked at the controls, Irul flew to perch on the back of the co-pilot’s chair.

Even in the low lighting from the console, it was beautiful.

Its head turned to one side, then the other, sending its ears into a dramatic flop.

Razili was right. Its personality was far from dark, but its ability to cloak was impressive.

“I don’t suppose you can show us where to find an area rich in diverse plant life?”

It chittered and cooed, but if it were trying to communicate Calyx didn’t understand.

The scans revealed kilometers of dense forest with no other clearings.

Razili set her microscope on the small table and arranged her supplies before studying the soil.

Her brows crinkled as she worked. He wanted to run his fingertip over her forehead, soothe her tension with his touch.

His cock roared to life, his nanites screaming rhun over and over.

He closed his eyes and inhaled several times.

He managed some semblance of control, but it was weak.

He wasn’t sure how much longer he could wait before he gave in and took her, however she would have him.

He jerked to attention when she spoke.

“It’s dead. Like the soil was sterilized. Not even a hint of bacteria. The chemical compounds are all over the place. They make no sense.”

“This planet was one big experiment for them. It stands to reason that some of them would fail.”

She shook her head. “This doesn’t seem like a failed experiment. It’s too… deliberate to be an accident. It’s like they intentionally removed every organic component on a microscopic level.”

Without looking away from the eyepieces, she patted the table beside her. Her hand grew close to the open collection container. Before Calyx could warn her, Irul was in the air, grabbing her wrist with his talons and pulling her arm away.

She startled before realizing what must have happened. “It’s that bad?”

Irul chittered at her.

She hummed before pulling on a pair of gloves and carefully carrying the container down the ramp. She turned her back to the wind and Calyx rushed to her side, anticipating what she’d do next. She sprinkled a few grains on a nearby plant.

Instantly, the plant withered, died, and turned to dust, the ground beneath it turning the same shade of green as what was held in the container.

“Fuck. That is not good.” She looked at him with horror in her eyes. “They’ve created a substance that not only kills everything organic, it literally turns it to dust.”

Calyx squatted next to the now barren patch of soil. “They must have a way to neutralize it. Otherwise, this entire planet would be dead.”

“No,” Razili shook her head. “It doesn’t spread, see? Only where the soil touched was affected.” She gasped and ran back inside, reappearing a moment later. She uncorked a small vial of the viscous liquid that had prompted this mission and poured it on the now dead spot.

They both stumbled back as it sprang to life, the plant they’d watch wither to dust sprouting from the ground. Razili looked at him, her face determined.

“We have to find what I need to synthesize this on a larger scale.”

He frowned and admitted she was right. If they were manufacturing this compound on a large scale to weaponize it, and her substance neutralized it as well as rendering Scozid tech inert… It seemed this material was more than just the best answer to the Scozid problem—it might be the only one.

They hadn’t slept. Razili sat in the co-pilot’s chair with Calyx behind her.

They each faced different halves of the forward screen, both of them running searches.

She’d narrowed the parameters after testing a few nearby plants, including the one brought back to life.

She had a good idea what she was looking for. The problem was finding it.

Several hours ago she’d tested Irul’s skin and saliva on a whim.

It was clear that what she needed wouldn’t be found in the fauna.

She wasn’t sure how the gruthji developed an antidote to Scozid tech, but this planet’s fauna had wildly different chemical compositions.

Flora would be the key to synthesize it on a grander scale.

She stroked Irul’s belly as she scanned the monitors. Her testing revealed it to be female, and she had flopped onto her back in Razili’s lap and chittered for belly rubs. Her hand absentmindedly running over the soft feathers soothed her.

She was fast becoming attached to Irul. She refused to think about leaving her behind when they left. She knew it was best, but she didn’t want to think about that moment until it happened.

The one thing she couldn’t ignore was the warrior behind her. His presence filled the small ship and seemed to grow larger with each passing moment. The memory of that kiss flooded her with heat. But there was more than physical attraction. She was falling in love with him.

She saw how his fists clenched every so often, how he inhaled deep and exhaled slow before shaking out his hands. She knew he was struggling with rhun , but he didn’t complain and he didn’t push.

She stretched her neck and reached her arms high above her head. Irul groused about being displaced, but she needed to move. She was getting stiff from sitting in one position too long.

She paced the length of the fighter. On her third lap, Calyx turned and raised a brow at her.

“I’m going stir crazy.” She leaned over the console to look at yet another view of dense forest, filled with the same trees and bushes she’d already tested.

She turned and rested her hands behind her, well aware of how it pushed her chest toward a now gawking Calyx.

“These scans don’t need to be monitored, but I need to be distracted. ”

His eyes flicked to hers before they scanned her from head to toe. “What sort of distraction do you have in mind?”

She steeled her spine and gathered her courage. “Sex. Calyx, I want to have sex with you.”

He jumped against the far wall of the ship like she brandished a flame thrower. “Have you,” he swallowed, “are you—”

She cut him off. “Developing feelings for you? Yes, I believe I am. I can’t say I love you, yet, but I can say I care for you, and right now that has to be enough because if you don’t give in, neither one of us will be able to focus.”

She watched his lips twitch as he contained a smile. Then it was her turn to back away as he prowled toward her with predatory grace.

“Are you losing focus, Razili?”

“Yes. Watching you struggle has been maddening.”

“And you want me, to distract you, with my body?”

“Y… yes.”

“You don’t sound sure.”

She cleared her throat. “I’m sure.”

“You know,” he mused, as they engaged in a snail speed chase around the ship, “the other humans said you were shy. I wonder why?”

“No idea,” she breathed as she felt the hard bulkhead stop her progress.

His arms raised, hands landing on either side of her head, caging her in. Heat pooled low in her belly. He leaned until their lips were a hair’s breadth apart and stared into her eyes. “I’m glad you aren’t shy with me, Razili.”

Then his lips met hers, and all rational thought fled. The feel of his tongue sliding against hers wrung a moan from her throat.

One of his hands speared into the hair at her nape, the other pressing against her lower back, bringing her flush against his body.

The proof of his arousal pushed hard into her belly.

In the back of her mind it registered how big he was, but that thought was obliterated when he grabbed her thigh and wrapped her leg around his waist, that long length pressing into her exactly where she needed it.

She gasped for air, letting her head fall back as he rocked into her. She’d been a teenager the last time she’d been dry humped and it had felt nowhere near this good. “Oh stars, Calyx, that feels so good.”

His hips surged against her, and an orgasm shattered her. She was dazed, wondering how it happened even as he lay her on the bunk and stripped her out of her pants.

He spread her legs and shoved between them. She heard him inhale with a groan.

“Holy shit, give me a minute.”

He raised his head and waited until she looked at him. Then he growled, “No,” before he ripped her underwear off and descended into her pussy like a champion diver.