Future Prospect (15 page)

“We should get you to medical.”

“No, I’m sure Deval is busy with all sorts of jump sickness and sprained ankles from the arrivals.” Lia craned her head back to give him a smile as he held on to her. “She’d just tell me to relax and eat something.”

“You should.”

“Relax? With all this work to do?” Lia shook her head, and Colan stared at her a beat too long.

“Here, I need to power this up again. There was a loose lead in the monitoring line. That’s what overloaded.” She pulled her hand gently from his, and he reluctantly let her go. She turned back to the panel, made some adjustments, and powered it up. This time there was no smoke or noise. With a few checks of the display and the congratulations of Tully coming over the datpad, Lia breathed out a relieved sigh and ran her hands over her face. He could see the inflamed lines of the burn, and his stomach clenched.

“Thank it all.” She looked at him with relief. “What can I do for you?”

Colan shook his head, still not sure why he’d tracked her down. That wasn’t true, he knew why he’d tracked her down, but that was nothing to share with her, especially when she was busy, distracted, and had a fresh phase rash on her hand. What was he doing here anyway?

“Lunch?”

“Again?”

“Every day.” He was trying to be funny, but Lia sobered. He hadn’t meant to imply they would be having lunch together every day. That came across as overbearing, which was the impression he tended to make with most people. Gruff and domineering wasn’t going to work in the classroom and was another reason to decline the offer to finish his emeritus coursework at the Academy and instead continue his work as a planetary surveyor. Making maps of an unexplored planet cut down on the number of people he came in day-to-day contact with tremendously.

Lia touched her stomach and shook her head. “I guess I’m not very hungry.”

“When did you eat last?”

“This morning? But the dining hall will be full of the new arrivals. I don’t want to deal with the noise and confusion right now. Somewhere quiet would be nicer.” She sounded as if she hoped he might have a better suggestion, and he felt a sudden surge of heat, all of it directed toward the woman sprawled in front of him with her hair coming out of its braid and her cheeks flushing as he stared. Damn it all, he was going to mess this up.

With a little push forward he pressed his lips to hers, slightly off until she shifted her mouth against his and returned pressure. Her hands crept up to grip his arms, and a breathless moment passed as he tasted her. She was warm and sweet, and he wanted her to open her mouth. Lowering his knees to the floor, he reached out to cup her face in his hands, wanting more of her, wanting to anticipate her movements. He felt a soft breath against his lips as she drew back and then returned, softening against him, shifting her body closer. She murmured something, and Colan’s body tightened in response to the throaty sound.

Another sound intruded. A tiny voice called out Lia’s name in increasingly agitated tones. She tensed as the volume increased, and she finally drew back and glanced at the datpad next to her. Colan tried to not feel thwarted by technology as he stared at her blushed cheeks.
Come back here and kiss me some more.

Lia listened to someone talk about lines and fluctuations and curtly acknowledged it all as she edged away from him while not meeting his eyes. Feeling rebuffed, Colan settled back on his heels and waited for her to end her conversation.

Tucking her datpad to her wrist after saying goodbye to Tully, Lia rose to her feet, still not looking at Colan as he followed her. Her distance made him wonder what sort of second thoughts she had. Not positive ones toward him, that was clear.

“I have to go, they need me in the, ah, reception area.” Lia flipped the floor panel back down to cover the wiring and turned away from him as she collected a small bag of tools lying next to it. She glanced up at him and then glanced over his shoulder at the door she wanted to walk through—as soon as possible judging by her intent expression.

“Let’s talk for a minute first.” Colan struggled with the idea of wanting to discuss a barely there kiss as much as he struggled with the idea of her leaving him without sharing another one.

“I can’t. I have to go.” Now she did look at him, her brown eyes bright and her mouth tightening. He liked her mouth soft and slightly open, not repressed like this. Hadn’t she liked it? Was it possible all those wonderful anticipatory sensations were all on his part, and she’d felt nothing?

“But—”

“I’m sorry, Colan. That was…what I did was…” She blinked and squared her shoulders, ready to tough it out. “I have to get back to work now.”

“Don’t let me stop you,” he shot back, irritation with her dismissal bringing him back to familiar, dissatisfied territory.

“As if you could.”

With one quirked eyebrow, Lia strode past him and left the room. He let her go. He didn’t reach for her hand or say a placating word. Staring out the unfinished windows for a few minutes helped calm his uneven emotions, or at least calm them enough that he didn’t feel like smacking himself in the forehead any more. He’d been out here too long if he couldn’t remember how to kiss someone properly.

He decided to leave the terminal and infiltrate the barracks, maybe gain an impression of some of the settlers, so he could reassure the Pearlites their new neighbors were relatively normal. If he happened to run into Lia there, it would give him a chance to be cool, polite, and uninterested. Shaking his head, Colan knew he fooled himself. He was none of those things and lacked the social skills to portray them in a believable way.

He hadn’t rounded the corner of the terminal, when he sensed a vibration in the soles of his feet just before the
crack
of an explosion thundered over him like a malevolent shout. The building shivered, and his ears popped painfully. He ran around the corner without thinking as debris and dust roiled across the muddy common area in front of him. Peering through the smoke and ducking chunks of torn-apart building landing all around, Colan tried to see what had happened. A gust of wind whipped away the veil of smoke, and he stopped in his tracks.

One moment she’d been worried about the network module, the construction, the arrivals, the entire benighted schedule, and the next moment Colan Nestor had leaned over and kissed her. Despite enjoying several erotic fantasies the past couple of nights, which started exactly that way, Lia was still shocked when it happened. She’d been immobile for a half a breath; until a powerful throb of hot desire pushed her right back at him as she’d molded her mouth to his with a surprisingly desperate reach.

Just recalling it now as she walked away from him made her tighten with heat and excitement. She was too conscientious to ignore the systems engineer’s request for help. Her body had overheated too fast, and a latent sense of self-preservation had bounced her away from Colan and his mesmerizing mouth the way a magnet repelled its opposite. She told herself those were two good reasons she left him back in the terminal and rushing across the common area to find Tully in the new barracks.

As she approached the open doors of the building and the reception area just inside them, Lia regretted how she’d fled from him. A recollection of how good he’d made her feel in just those few seconds was enough to make her pause on the doorstep and glance back at the unfinished terminal, wishing she was still inside with him, his hands on her body, and his mouth on her shivering skin. No, involvement with Colan Nestor was a terrible idea. Turning back to her work, her responsibilities, and her distractions, she watched the wall ahead of her bulge and shatter into flakes. An unseen force slammed into her and threw her into the air simultaneously, and an overwhelming roar burst her ears. It all went black, and she was gone.

* * * *

It wasn’t really a building any more. Colan stared for a moment at the broken cube in front of him, a yawning bite torn from the middle as if a monster had tasted it and spit it back out because of the bad flavor. Smoke curled from the injury while shredded clumps of synthboard poked in terrible angles from what had once been the clean façade of the new settlers’ temporary home. Rushing forward, Colan stepped over twisted chairs and broken doors to approach the center of the damage. He could see a few dazed people beginning to move, their clothes shredded and flapping as they stumbled.

He could smell an awful combination of burned resin and chemicals as he stared at the destruction. Lia had been heading this way when it had gone up. She wasn’t among the few citizens trailing out of the building or arriving from elsewhere. Moving aside debris, Colan searched the muddy ground, horror at what happened and fear of what he might discover filling him in an icy wave. Zashi appeared at his side like a shadow.

“I think Lia was out here.” Colan managed to say before he returned to pulling up shreds of synthboard and disemboweled cushions. The security officer bellowed for help and a couple of people came running their way, or running as well as they could through all the obstacles. The area covered by blast debris seemed impossibly large at first, but Colan focused on the ground at his feet and began to methodically quarter the area. He created a search grid in his mind, noting landmarks of an upended sofa and a blackened trash receptacle blown out in an obscene petal shape. It was a sick use of his cartography skills.

Zashi gave another shout, and Colan hurried over to him, nearly falling when a piece of metal caught on his boot. Together they lifted a heavy window shutter to reveal a bleeding and mangled body. Short, sandy hair, male; not Lia. Zashi called out again and crouched down next to the man on the ground as Colan held the metal piece up and out of the way. Two women approached with a flimsy-looking stretcher and took orders from Zashi as they prepared to move the man. Colan wanted to flip the debris out of the way and continue the search but didn’t know where to put it without potentially crushing someone else injured and hidden.

“Here, lift it over here.” Welti appeared suddenly by his side, maneuvering the window shutter to a clear patch of ground and spraying it with a bright swath of pink paint. Handing a canister to Colan, he turned away to search and then marked areas that were clear as he went.

Head down and ears ringing, Colan almost missed the first shout to his right, closer to the remains of the building. Another louder shout got his attention, and he turned to see Doctor Polin crouching down, another two people holding a stretcher ready to assist. He headed over but stopped still when he saw the loose brown hair, dulled by dust but recognizable. Lia.

Unable to breathe, he reached to pull up the crumpled laminate, covering the rest of her, tracking her body as it was revealed; head, shoulders, arm, torso. He couldn’t see past her waist, because there was an upholstered chair on her. With a heave, he lifted it off to find her legs were still there. She was unmoving but in one piece. Stars. Was she alive?

“Stabilizer activated.” Doctor Polin motioned for the stretcher to move in, and Colan stumbled over his own feet and shreds of board as he moved away to allow them access. Lia’s body was slowly rotated to rest on the carrier, clear foam holding her in place and cradling her bent limbs as the unknown two men lifted and carried her away. Colan tried to follow, but a shout from Welti pulled him back. He turned to assist the facilities engineer move more parts of the lost building, numb from the sight of the still woman on the stretcher and the incomprehensible scene in front of him.

* * * *

Oh, that hurts.
Dark and light, a horrible swoopy sensation.
Keep the eyes closed. Don’t move. Oh, it hurts so much.
Lia took a shallow breath and tried to open her eyes again, despite the horribly altered world she’d seen with her first attempt. Light and dark—blurry and bright. No. What was happening? Another breath, deeper this time, and it was agony. She managed a small moan, but making a sound was torment. Every part of her felt stiff and numb at the same time, and in a panic, she tried to move her arm, hand, foot, anything. Pain and nothingness, how was that even possible? She strained again, suddenly sure she had to move or know she was dead. But if she was dead, she wouldn’t hurt so much. Shifting, the pain concentrating her awareness, Lia realized she lay on her back, and something pressed insistently on her foot. She could feel her foot. Relief at the sensation filled her, and she tried to open her eyes again—to see what was touching her, to gain some sort of knowledge about what had happened, where she was.

Blinking, wincing as the light pierced her eyes, she tried to focus again. White and grey wobbled and then sharpened into light fixtures and a ceiling. Oh, it all still hurt. Noise, rhythmic noise, and her ears didn’t work right. She couldn’t identify anything, and Lia gave in to the fear and pain.

* * * *

“Doctor!” Colan shouted, watching Lia as she quivered and winced on the bed. Her eyes blinked open and shut, and she didn’t seem to focus on anything as she struggled to consciousness. He gripped her foot in a tight hold, it was one of the few body parts she had in undamaged condition. He looked back and forth from the woman lying in front of him to the doorway where he wanted someone medical to arrive.

He’d been watching her for the last twenty minutes. It had been about two hours since the blast, and the ringing in his ears had quieted. The cuts and bruises to his hands and legs—courtesy of moving what seemed like fourteen metric tons of destroyed building—ached, but he was in great shape compared to everyone else in the medical clinic. Four injured severely, seven treated and released, and two dead. It could have been so much worse, but it was still awful no matter how hard Colan tried to twist it in his mind so he wouldn’t be overcome with anger and despair.

“Doctor!” he called again, too worn out to remember the woman’s name at the moment. The corridor outside was distressingly quiet for the circumstances, but since there was one doctor on the planet, and two medics volunteering from among the new settlers, they were at their breaking point caring for so many wounded. Wondering what had happened,
how
it had happened, wiggled its way into Colan’s mind again. He’d alternated between worry about Lia and the others and considering what caused the explosion since seeing the devastation spread out before him.