Out of Bight, Out of Mind

Chapter Four

Emi enjoyed the rest of their time in orbit doing detailed scans of the planet. They performed two more landings, in different areas, allowing all the men from both ships opportunities to set foot on the planet.

Donna refrained from getting sexy with her men on the other two landings.

Two days after their departure from the orbit of Daxious Theta 2, and just hours before they were to engage their jump engine to head for their next destination, Caph was on night watch when he called their quarters.

“Hey, Aar?”

Emi heard his voice first and rolled over from where Ford had his arms around her to find Aaron. She poked him in the shoulder. “Hey, you,” she mumbled.

“What?”

She was about to say something when Caph’s voice sounded over the intercom again. “Aaron, hey, wake up.”

Emi heard Aaron let out a sigh. “What is it, Caph?”

“Need you up here on the bridge. Official order override from DSMC.

Emi blinked at the sudden shift of Aaron’s energy from relaxed sleepiness to high alert, feeling almost a spike through her senses, as he jumped up from their bed and ran from the room without bothering to pull any clothes on.

Ford lifted his head from his pillow. “Huh?”

She reached over and patted his shoulder. “Go back to sleep.”

“Mmkay…”

He was already breathing deeply again as she crawled out of bed. She pulled on her bathrobe, grabbed Aaron a pair of shorts, and headed for the bridge.

Aaron was leaning over the command console, reading, with Caph standing behind him looking over his shoulder. In the dim bridge light, the screen threw up a bluish glow over his face.

She didn’t like the feel of the irritated buzz through their souls. “What is it?”

Caph looked up. “We’re being pulled.”

“What?”

“From the mission. They’re yanking us.”

“Why?” She looked at Aaron.

Aaron rubbed his forehead. “They want us to proceed to the Robards Alpha space station. They have an assignment change for us. Want us to take on a temporary crew member to test some special equipment.” He took his shorts from her and pulled them on.

“Crew member?”

He flashed her a comforting smile. “Don’t worry, babe. Temporary assignment, and no, not like that. They’ll only be with us a couple of months before we drop them at Mars.”

“Them?”

“Him or her. DSMC didn’t identify who it was.” He stretched. “They’re not really pulling us from our mission. They just want us to divert to pick up this person and their equipment and help them finish testing it. The other ship had some mechanical problems and couldn’t complete their mission. Two-week jump to the station from here. We can grab the guy, help him finish his testing, then drop him off at Mars and head back out to where we were originally going. Easy-peasey.”

His energy suggested to her he was only saying that to placate her. “Then why aren’t you happy about this?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t like our missions getting interrupted. For once I wish they’d pick on someone else.”

“Hey,” Caph said, “it just means they trust us to get stuff done.”

Aaron scrubbed his face with his hands. “Yeah, but it’s a pain in the ass for us. Anyway, Emi, you and I can go back to bed for a few hours.” To Caph he said, “Please punch in the course changes to nav. We’ll do the jump in the morning like we planned, only this time to the station.”

“Sure thing.”

Emi broke the news to Donna when she woke up the next morning. “So this will be the last time we get to talk live for a while.” She played with Bucky while she talked with her friend.

“That’s okay. Maybe you’ll get assigned a hottie.”

“We’re not looking to expand the family.” She knew Donna didn’t mean it seriously, but after nearly losing her men on Kal’moran, she didn’t take them for granted.

“No, not that. Sheesh. I meant eye candy. You’re married, not dead.”

She let Bucky sit on her thigh. “Well, that’s true.”

“And you have to promise to send me pics if he’s hot.”

Emi let out a laugh. “If he’s hot, we’ll see if we can get him transferred to your boat.”

“Promise? Don’t tease me, girlfriend.”

“Absolutely.” She tried to swallow back the sad feelings “I’m going to miss talking to you. This has been like being back in school.”

“Yeah. Only with multiple hunks of our own and plenty of raunchy sex.”

“Hey, our sex isn’t raunchy.” Emi couldn’t suppress her smile.

“Um, girl? We have three husbands each. That is, by default, raunchy. I didn’t say it was bad raunchy. Good raunchy can still be raunchy.”

“I’m going to miss you,” Emi said again. During their time in med school, Donna had become more than just a friend to her. She’d been a surrogate sister and the closest thing to a family. A complete extrovert, Donna had refused to let Emi withdraw and have zero social life. She always made sure to include Emi whenever possible.

Donna had been a big part of her working through pent-up grief over losing her parents.

With the newness of meeting and marrying her men, Emi’s life had been a whirlwind of activity, training, and trying to survive their two previous missions. Now, with their renewed time together, Emi remembered all the good times they’d shared. She would miss this close contact with her friend.

She heard Donna sigh. “I’m going to miss you, too. Wish I could give you one more hug before you guys go.”

“Aar says we’ll be back soon.”

“We get onto our next rock,” Donna said, “I’m throwing us a girls-only picnic.”

“Deal.” She picked Bucky up and made his rubberized legs wiggle. She couldn’t help playing with the rubber spider.

To Emi, the Robards Alpha space station looked nothing like the one at Kal’moran, or the one they’d docked at on Earth before they headed to Mars. It reminded her a lot of the Martian base, only a lot slummier.

Had it been a person, she would have described it as rode hard and put up wet one too many times, to use the old idiom.

As they walked toward the dockmaster’s office, she felt Aaron’s nervous tension thrumming through him even stronger than before. He’d borne a tense wave of energy ever since receiving their change in orders. As they walked he stroked her knuckles with his thumb the way he always did when he needed to soothe his own nerves.

“You okay, Aar?”

“Yeah, just…” He blew out an aggravated sigh. “Like I said, I don’t like them interrupting our mission like this. Look what happened the last two times.”

She opted for levity, even as her free hand sought out Bucky’s comforting presence in her pocket. “Think positive, right?”

He cast a glance at her but didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. She felt his worry washing off him in dark waves.

“So why is this space station so important?” She indicated a line of dark scuff marks along the other wall. “Doesn’t look like housekeeping is on the job.”

“Everyone loves this station.”

“But why?”

He slowed, then stopped. “Aw, what the hell. They called us here. They can wait on us.” He looked rather pleased with himself as he turned without releasing her hand and headed in the opposite direction.

Emi followed, feeling his mood lighten somewhat. “Where are we going?”

He grinned. “I want to show you something.”

He wouldn’t tell her what. After winding through several dingy hallways, they took a lift down several levels. The car opened onto an opulent lobby. Emi was almost afraid to step out of the lift car.

Aaron had to coax her. “Come on.”

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” Even the ornately sculpted and painted ceiling had been decorated to resemble a luxurious old-Earth palace. “This doesn’t even look like it’s part of the same station. Is it a sim? It’s not a sim, is it?”

“It’s not a sim. And we’re in the right place.” He led her over to a check-in desk, where three smiling women in immaculate uniforms greeted them.

“Welcome to Robards Alpha Luxoria.”

Emi snickered and bumped Aaron with her hip. “Tripletspeak,” she whispered.

Aaron smiled at Emi as he removed his security pass from the plastic sleeve and handed it across the desk to the woman in the middle.

She scanned it and returned it to him with a smile even larger than before. “Thank you, Captain Lucio and Dr. Hypatia. Will you be needing a room, or just a day pass?”

“Day passes. And two for Bates and Caliban as well. Three days.”

“Of course, Captain.” She typed into a computer terminal. Emi heard a whirring noise. The woman reached down behind the desk, then handed over four plastic cards to Aaron. “If you change your mind about a room, you can access our reservation system through any terminal in the station.”

“Thank you.” Aaron handed one to Emi, slipped one into the sleeve holding his security pass, and pocketed the other two.

Emi looked at hers. A purple logo for Robards Alpha Luxoria on one side. On the other, a magnetic stripe, a bar code, and a small thumbnail of Emi’s pic from her crew roster file. She tucked it into her security pass sleeve.

“Thank you,” Aaron told the ladies before leading Emi from the desk and down a hallway to the left.

“What is this place?” Emi asked in hushed tones. The lush carpet and wall coverings made her nervous.

He grinned. “Why are you whispering?”

“Seriously? Where are we? And can we afford this?”

He shrugged as they stopped before a closed door. “This is one of the best five-star resorts in the known treaty space.” Aaron held his day pass up to a scan pad, and the door opened with a whoosh that even sounded too rich for her blood. “And we don’t have to pay a cent for it.”

Emi hurried to follow him. “Huh?”

He looked down at her. “This is on the DSMC’s tab. There aren’t any approved R&R planets around here. We get credits based on mission lengths and locations.” He laughed. “You didn’t read all the fine print?”

She did remember something in her contract about paid R&R, but she didn’t realize that meant they paid for it. “I thought it meant they paid for our time.”

Aaron let out a snort. “Hell, no. They pay for our vacation. We haven’t even used up a fraction of our time yet based on how long we’ve been out and the shit we’ve gone through already.”

“Oh. Oh! Cool!”

They stopped before another door. Aaron opened it and they walked into a short tube that led into a huge room where…

Emi gasped. “Is that a swimming pool?”

He smirked. “Yes, Em. That is a swimming pool.”

“It’s…huge!”

The water and pool lights reflected the light blue of the pool’s bottom up into the rafters of the enormous facility. Far larger than the pool dome at the Martian facility, at least a hundred people were in the pool and scattered around the edges on loungers, underneath personal sun lamps, but it still managed to feel uncrowded between the pool’s unusual rounded L-shape and strategically placed vegetation. Some of the pool had a traditional deck, while part of it resembled a lush tropical beach.

Aaron swept an arm across the expanse in front of them. “And now you can see just one of the reasons this space station is kept quite busy. The resort takes up six full levels, and portions of two others. They have a deal to provide food services and facilities to station personnel, in addition to paying a hefty fee for the privilege of being here. In return, they make a buttload off visitors from all over the place who stop in for a little fun.”

“Wow.”

“You haven’t even seen the full facility yet. It’s a complete top-notch spa with all the amenities. And, yes, unless they give us a direct order to ship out immediately, we will be spending a full three days here.” He took her hand again and brought it to his lips. “And you haven’t even seen the clothing-optional section.”

She laughed at the wicked glee in his eyes.

Until she realized he was serious. “What do you mean ‘clothing-optional’?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he turned and headed out of the pool area.

She hurried after him. “Aaron?”

He wouldn’t elaborate, delighting in keeping her in suspense. He led her out of the resort and back up to the level they’d left before.

It looked like even more of a dump after seeing the resort level.

“Then why don’t they make an effort up here to make it look presentable?”

He shrugged. “It’s just cosmetic. This is a working space station. Cargo and freight services, passengers, repairs and retrofits, the works. They get an average of over twenty thousand souls a day tramping around here, and that’s not including staff or resort visitors. Some of the passenger tour services use this station and others as stopovers, since they can’t always let passengers debark planetside. So they make good money that way, too, at the resort.”

They had to step to the side to let a hover cart towing a trailer overflowing with cargo crates pass. “See?” Aaron said. “That’s a small cart, and look how big it was. This is a service throughway. The residential and commercial sections are better.” He shrugged. “The theory likely is, if we paint it, it’ll just get scuffed up again.”

Emi still had difficulty processing the vast differences from what she’d just seen in the resort to…this. By comparison, it made the dingy hallway look even worse.

They finally reached the administrative offices. A receptionist there directed them to an office down several hallways.

Emi followed Aaron, who seemed at ease deciphering codes on the walls at each juncture. When he caught her looking up at him, he shrugged. “Been in space a long time, Em. The Merchants use these stations, too. They’re standardized among the different branches.”

They reached their destination and entered. The door silently slid shut behind them.

Another receptionist greeted them with a smile. “Commander Dobros is waiting for you, Captain Lucio.”

“Thanks.”

Emi didn’t miss how he laced his fingers through hers and began stroking her knuckles with his thumb again as he led her into the inner office. And his stress levels had risen off the charts, making his previous state of mind appear nearly catatonic by comparison.

Commander Dobros looked to be in his mid- to late-fifties. He wore a crisp ISNC uniform and an invisible cloak of uncertainty that Emi wasn’t sure how to process. His dull blue eyes, downturned at the corners from years of heavy worries, didn’t match his practiced, efficient smile. “Ah, Captain Lucio. And you must be Dr. Hypatia,” he said to Emi.

“I guess I must,” she muttered, still concerned about Aaron’s high level of anxiety. At a sudden wave of darkness assaulting her empathic senses, her attention sharply shifted from the commander to another male in his office, who stood at their entrance.

Not a human, the F’ahrkay wore a loose-fitting pair of tan trousers and matching tunic. Tall and willowy, standing over seven feet tall, he would dwarf Caph in height, although not in overall beefiness. His blue-tinged skin immediately branded him as nonhuman, while his dark eyes, with irises as black as the pupils, gave him an eerie look.

Emi realized she’d involuntarily tightened her grip on Aaron’s hand.

The strange, dark wave she felt came from the F’ahrkay. She didn’t know how to interpret it, and wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to.

All she knew was she didn’t trust him on sight.

“This is Kayehalau,” Commander Dobros said. “The DSMC ship he’d been assigned to unfortunately developed mechanical issues and was unable to complete its mission in a timely fashion. So he is being temporarily assigned to your vessel—”

“No.” When the two men and the F’ahrkay looked at Emi, her face reddened when she realized she’d said it out loud.

She didn’t know why, but the last thing she wanted or needed was a F’ahrkay on the Bight.

Correction, this F’ahrkay. It wasn’t that he was nonhuman. It was him. Something horribly off and pulling at her empathic senses in a dangerous way.

“Em?”

She looked up into Aaron’s questioning gaze. She clenched her jaw and gave him a tiny shake of her head. He let out a breath and gently squeezed her hand.

Commander Dobros, apparently not used to hearing refusal to orders, cleared his throat and continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “He is to accompany you to your next planetary scan, then you will return to the Martian station where he will debark. He has equipment he needs to test, and the Tamora Bight is the perfect—”

“No.”

Aaron squeezed her hand again, silencing her. She caught his eye and the slight tip of his head and knew his meaning.

Not here, and not now.

Dobros cleared his throat again. “It’s the perfect vessel from which to test his equipment. He is working in conjunction with the DSMC and ISNC. His services are on loan from—”

Unable to take it, Emi dropped Aaron’s hand, turned about-face, and practically bolted from the room.

Aaron followed her as she stood, trembling, in the outer office. She bent over and put her hands on her knees to keep herself from falling over. The way her stomach churned, she wasn’t all too sure she might not toss her breakfast all over the floor.

“Em, what the hell?”Aaron whispered. He wasn’t angry, but he was irritated at her unprofessional behavior in front of a superior officer.

She couldn’t speak. All she could do was stand there and shake her head. She was afraid if she opened her mouth she would definitely hurl.

He let out an aggravated sigh. “Wait here.” Then he returned to the office.

Emi waited until she heard the door shut behind her to try to return to a standing position.

“Dr. Hypatia?”

Emi glanced up at the worried expression of the receptionist.

“Can I get you some water or something?”

The wave of genuine concern she felt from the woman from across the room magically settled her stomach. After a deep breath, she shakily straightened and nodded.

The receptionist hurried out of the office while Emi backed into one of the three chairs along the wall and sat.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

She didn’t know. All she knew was something about that F’ahrkay was more than wrong.

He was dangerous.

Emi still sat and held her paper cup with trembling hands as she slowly sipped the contents when Aaron emerged from the commander’s office ten minutes later. She caught a flutter of aggravation from him before he tamped down on it and concern flowed through him when he looked into her eyes.

He knelt in front of her. “What’s wrong?” he whispered as he rested his hands on her knees.

Chewing on the inside of her lip to keep from bursting into tears, Emily whispered the feelings she’d gotten from the F’ahrkay. “There’s something wrong with him, Aaron. I don’t know what it is, but he can’t come with us. He’s dangerous.”

“Em,” he gently said, “we don’t have a choice.”

“I thought being bonded crew meant we could refuse crew assignments?”

“Permanent crew assignments, yes. This is a temporary one, for one specific purpose. There’s too many alphabet-soup players mixed in on this one. The guy’s father is on the ISTC council.”

She stared at him, shocked. “They’re forcing us to take him?”

He took the cup from her and set it on the floor. Then he took her hands in his, gently massaging them. She tried to draw strength from the love flowing through him. “What’s going on?”

She vehemently shook her head. “I felt it. He’s bad news. There’s something really bad about him.”

“How can you be sure?”

She stared at him, dumbfounded. “How can you ask me that? I’m a trained Class 2 empath!”

He glanced down for a moment as he took a deep breath. She knew that gesture. He was trying to stay calm. He looked back into her eyes again. “You know how you always get the heebie-jeebies with the jump engines, but me and the other guys never feel it?”

“Yeah, but—”

“And we just went through that bullshit on Kal’moran,” he added, cutting her off. “It would make anyone a little xenophobic.”

She bristled. “I am not xenophobic, Aaron.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Of course I do.”

“Dobros showed me the guy’s dossier. He’s got an excellent record. He’s crewed with Merchants, with ISNC ships, and even with NSI crews. He’s received commendations from five different captains. He holds three doctorate degrees in his fields.” The Interstellar Naval Corps and National Science Institute both had high and exacting standards.

She knew what Aaron was doing. He wanted to convince her she was wrong and that the F’ahrkay dude was a gee-whiz good guy.

She wasn’t buying it. “I don’t give a rat’s ass how many degrees he has, or who his daddy is, or how many asses he’s kissed on other ships. There’s something wrong about him!”

Aaron closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again and looking at her. She read the sadness and resignation in his face.

“Well, why the hell can’t they put him on Rob’s boat? Why’s it have to be us?”

“Because the Bight is a full heavy. The K-2 is a med-hev. We’re the only available ship with the technology, capabilities, and enough cargo space to take on his equipment.”

She also read that he wouldn’t back down. “You don’t have a choice,” he said. “He’s shipping out with us.” As she tried to stand, his grip tightened on her hands, holding her in her seat. “Babe, please, listen to me. It’s only for eight weeks. He will be sleeping in the cargo bay. He has his own special pod that is his quarters. He’s chipped, not that it matters because they aren’t equipped like humans anyway. He has an exemplary record. I have no legitimate grounds to refuse his assignment.”

“You told me you could boot anyone for cause.”

“I have no cause!” His mouth snapped shut and he lowered his voice. “Listen to me, Em. Babe, I love you, and I trust you and support you, but I really think the issue here is you’ve never dealt with a F’ahrkay before. For all you know, they all might feel like that to you. That might be his normal. Whatever it is you’re feeling, you might feel it with any F’ahrkay you meet.”

“Then get a group of them together so I can see and we’ll test your theory. If you’re right, I’ll suck it up and deal with it.”

“I can’t, and yes, I already thought of that and asked. He’s the only F’ahrkay on the station.” He took a deep breath and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Em, baby, please, don’t make me order you.”

She caught the sob and forced it back down her throat before it could escape. “Then I’ll stay here and you can pick me up on the way back.”

He smiled sadly. “Hon, we can’t do that.”

“Then call Rob. Get his ass over here. He can pick me up. Donna will find me bunk space.”

He stood, then bent over to get her cup. He threw it away before returning to her. Without another word he took her hand and made her stand.

In silence he led her from the office. She wasn’t paying attention to where they were going until she realized they were stepping off a lift into the resort’s lobby again.

Aaron let go of her hand and walked up to the desk where the same three clerks stood. After a few minutes, he had four room key cards and returned to where Emi still waited, sulking, outside the lift.

He held up the key card. “I’m taking you to our room.”

“Our room?”

He nodded.

“I thought we weren’t getting a room.”

“Change of plans. I have to go back to the ship for a few hours. If I’m not back first, one of the twins will be. The four of us will spend three days here. Dobros said we can take that. I’ll tell Kayehalau he needs to spend the bulk of his time during our assignment in cargo unless he clears it with me first. When he needs to be on the bridge, I’ll warn you, and you can go spend that time wherever you want on the ship to stay away from him. You’ll have minimal contact with him. Okay?”

“How do you know he’ll agree to that?”

Aaron shrugged. “I am still the captain. He has no choice.” He glanced away from her and down at the carpet. “And he was the one who suggested it in the first place.”

Emi felt boxed in. At war with that, a tiny, logical particle telling her she was being silly.

No, not silly.

Childish.

But her empath training had never let her down before. She trusted it far more than a computer full of commendations and recommendations about someone.

Hell, look at Mauri. She didn’t want us writing a bad report about what happened, so she had no problem whitewashing everything to make us and her look good.

Reports could be falsified or manipulated. People lied.

Kayehalau was dangerous. She just had no way of proving it.