Manifest (4 page)

Dornin-tah was dressed again, just buckling his belt. He inclined his head. “If you have need of me again, do not hesitate to call, but this contact should have satisfied you until your next cycle. They might have arranged a treatment by then.”

She swallowed and nodded, pulling on her robe. “Hopefully. I would say thank you but that would just sound trite.”

He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her. “Never thank someone for receiving pleasure.”

Captain Dornin-tah left her quarters, and she used the last of her strength to make it to the bed. Her body felt better, less irritated with the world and there had been no signs of illness when he touched her.

Knowing what was coming, she was going to muscle through her next cycle. She hadn’t had the heart to tell him she only had twenty-eight days before her time was up.

Terran cycles were designed to populate a planet, and they put her in the same classification as a large rodent. Keeping that little medical tidbit secret was something between her and Kvi.

She would probably get used to not going to Tymo and the spa. Moffin would have to live without her contributing to his income.

One week later, Dr. Kvi had bad news for her. “There is no way of stopping your tuning. Shall I notify the Adru-Skari? I am sure that the one who infected you will be sent to make good on his damage.”

Mel sat up on the med bed. “So, this is just going to keep happening?”

“Every time you cycle. That, I can stop.”

Mel nodded. “Please. I nearly put my fist through a smuggler this morning.”

“You might want to take up hand-to-hand combat as a hobby. You need to work off stress and hormones, and sparring with a solid light figure will do wonders for you.”

“Me? Fight?”

“If I stop your cycles, you are going to be frozen at the aggression level you have now. That is a level that needs focus. Hone your body and calm your mind.” Dr. Kvi grinned and fiddled with a hypo. “That is an order. I will put it in your file if need be.”

“Fine. Fine. I will do it. It might help with the bruising anyway.” She sighed.

“Good. Hold still.”

Mel got jabbed in the arm and she hissed. “Is that it?”

“For today. You will need eight more shots to retrain your body. You are on leave, starting now. Two weeks off until you get your body under your control.”

Mel fought the urge to hiss and headed for the training center. With her mind writhing with a cocktail of chemistry beyond her control, she signed up for basic hand-to-hand combat training with a projection.

A change of clothing later and she was in the ring and punching air, learning how to move when an opponent came at her. She wouldn’t admit it to Dr. Kvi, but it was fun.

She had been back at work for three weeks when she got a personal message.

Dr. Kvi was requesting her presence in medical.

Agent Geller was on her day shift with her favourite crew once again. She flipped through the manifest and smiled when she pinpointed the contraband.

There was something different about the captain and crew of the ship. They seemed resigned to something and that wasn’t the normal expression on a crew.

Geller muttered to Wikins, “Keep an eye on them. If they run, call me.”

Nav nodded as well.

Tois and Kaylor came inside with her, but she stopped them. She pulled up the genetic profiles of the captain and crew then hissed in recognition.

“Emergency shielding and explosives sweep. This isn’t right.”

Kaylor ordered the sweep and activated her temporary shielding. They all watched the sweep while Geller watched the results. “Got it. Run.”

They sprinted out of the hold, and Agent Geller used her override to dump the ship. The crew was on their knees, waiting for the explosion. As she dropped the ship into space and ordered it destroyed, they looked up with confusion.

“Take them to the Minder and have them gone over.”

She took three steps away from the secure platform and the crew exploded.

Light and sound flickered through her as she was rushed to medical with the others on her crew.

Kaylor and Tois had been ahead of her, but Nav and Wikins were closer to the blast. She looked around and tried to sit up.

Dr. Kvi was at her side and pushing her flat. “Lay back and let me do my job for once. You have a lot of superficial damage and a broken leg.”

“Nav and Wikins?”

“Alive and fighting to stay that way. Set a good example and stay down or I will tie you down.”

“Yes, Doctor.” Mel lay back and listened to the groans of her crew and the bustling of the medical officers.

She watched as they sealed her up, the small wounds being attended to while they numbed her entire leg from the hip down before working on straightening her calf.

“It’s a good thing you did all that working out, your increased muscle mass helped save you from major damage.” The doctor worked quickly but didn’t forget she was there. Kvi had great bedside manner.

“Well, you ordered it. Be proud of your foresight.”

“Oh, I am very proud. Now stay quiet and keep still. This next part is fiddly.”

Mel relaxed as much as she was able. She remained immobile until she was given permission to move, and even then, sitting up was as far as she could go. She was taken to a private room, given a data pad and told to remain in bed.

Now that she had a physical hobby, bed rest was irritating, but she opened a book on Adru-Skari fashion and flipped through the pretty pictures.

* * * *

Captain Dornin-tah was at a policy briefing on his home world when he got a note.

General Tebreen-lor looked over at him. “Is it important?”

Dornin-tah opened the missive and his jaw clenched. “There was an explosion and my bonded
vrasku
was injured.”

The general sat up. “I had no idea. Congratulations. Go, by all means. Is it serious?”

“She has a broken limb, but it is station policy to alert the next of kin in these matters. Thank you, sir.”

“I look forward to meeting her when you bring her home, Captain.” There was an admonition in his tone.

“Yes, General.” Dornin-tah nodded politely and headed to the base, collecting his private ship before filing his flight plan and setting course for Makuada station.

Sixteen hours later, he moved through the station with determined strides. When he entered medical, a physician with a steely glare and a focussed expression stopped him.

“Captain Dornin-tah, come with me.”

He was led to an office and she gestured for him to sit.

“What is it? What is wrong with Agent Geller?”

“Sit.” She took her own chair and waited. “Now. I am Agent Geller’s personal physician, and I feel that as her infection match, there are things you need to know.”

He snorted. “I would hardly call it an infection.”

The doctor keyed up a display and it showed a perfect example of biochemical warfare. “This is the first scan taken after you scratched Agent Geller. Yes, she told me.”

A second image displayed the golden chemistry taking over the red blood cells. “This is after you and she had your little copulation exercise. I prescribed her physical activity, but it is only to distract her from what is going on in her body.”

He leaned forward. “What is happening?”

“I have no idea. I only know that since her cycles come so fast, the normal timeline for Adru-Skari interaction is out of the question. You need to decide what you will do. She needs more help than I can offer her here, but she doesn’t want to leave.”

He frowned. “What do you mean her cycles come fast?”

“Her species are built to populate and breed once a year, but in that pursuit, a female can cycle thirteen times in that year. Despite my efforts, I can’t completely subdue her system. She needs specialists and that means your own people.”

He ran his hand through his hair. “She said she would call me when she cycled again.”

“She lied. Her upbringing is such that she is humiliated by the situation in which she finds herself. Her species don’t use chemical signatures. They use hit and miss courtship.”

“Her records indicated that she attended the pleasure center.”

The doctor gave him a blank look. “Of course she does. She craves physical contact just as anyone else does. She simply has no outlet for it on the station in the course of social interaction. It would be considered inappropriate to have sex with someone in her occupation. Agents are kept separate so that they are not compromised. She socializes but does not engage in physical interaction unless she pays for it. It keeps her free of suspicion.”

“And therefore keeps her job.” He rubbed his forehead. “What about her people?”

“She has none. Even on her own world, she has none. She came to us free of entanglements.”

“You are more than a physician.”

“I am also the base commander. Dr. Kvi, at your service. While I want Agent Geller here working for us and increasing our detection ratings by an astronomical amount, I am wise enough to know that she has now become a target to some of those cartels she has torn a hole in.”

“I am more than willing to take her home. I
want
to take her home.” The reality of the statement surprised him. His two hours with her had only whetted his urge to be inside her again, but this time with no time constraints or ships waiting for him.

“The problem is, if she leaves the station, she is off contract. She will have no family, no friends and no work. She will literally be alone in the universe.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

Kvi got to her feet and her medical uniform tore down the back. Her wings expanded until they touched either side of her office. “If you do not take care of her, I will find you and gut you.”

Seeing a Kvorian in person was far different than the historical vids. She radiated power, and if he was reading her right, she was not telling the truth. She considered Agent Geller as family.

“I understand. It is not my intention to neglect her.”

“You had better carry through on that. I have my ways of listening to information I find interesting.”

He remembered the reason for his appearance. “What about the bomb?”

“I have determined its origins and am taking care of it. No one attacks my people and lives to tell the tale.” Kvi folded her wings against her back and replaced her loose tunic with another without the damage.

“May I see her now?”

She nodded and gestured for him to rise. “You may. Do you know how you are going to convince her to leave?”

He rapidly formed an idea. “I believe I will offer her medical assistance and a job.”

Dr. Kvi settled her tunic and smiled. “I believe that might be the way to get her attention.”

With a task ahead of him, Dornin-tah followed the doctor who had threatened to eviscerate him to the woman who had haunted his thoughts since the day he first saw her. The women on Makuada were scary.

* * * *

Mel was sitting up in bed, writing assessment reports based on the vid bots she had sent through the dock. Berth twenty-nine was closed and it needed to be repaired in a few spots that were not normally considered important. The rails and magnetic propulsion to eject a ship had taken seconds longer than necessary. It needed to work seamlessly with the atmospheric shield. They had to work in unison or it wouldn’t be effective.

She signed the work order and smiled as Dr. Kvi came in. She wiggled her toes. “My leg is a lot better. Can I at least get out of bed?”

Behind the doctor, a familiar outline loomed. Mel blinked rapidly and she blushed. “Captain Dornin-tah. Passing through?”

“No. I have been summoned here to bring you home to Reuval.” He took her hand.

She took in his gold skin and the purple hair that was tightly bound in a braid that ran down his back. “I don’t have a home on Reuval.”

He quirked his lips. “I would like to offer you a position with the family business. The tah family imports all goods to Reuval. We could use someone like you working the warehouse and checking the inbound manifests.”

“Would that be all?”

He turned her hand over and stroked his thumbnail down her palm. “There is the small matter of you being my bonded
vrasku
.”

“What?” The term hadn’t been in any of the documents she had read.

He smiled. “It means genetically compatible mate who needs a donated egg to reproduce.”

“I can see why you shortened it. How do you know I am a what-cha-ma-callit?”

“Your body responded to the scratch in a way only my
vrasku
would have. You would respond to few Adru-Skari and I happened to get to you first.” He seemed proud of himself.

While he was talking, Dr. Kvi was running scans.

Mel grasped at the straw of hope. “I can’t go anywhere, I am recovering.”

Dr. Kvi smiled brightly. “Oh, you have been ready to get up and around since nine hours after the injury. I just wanted you looking all rumpled and helpless when the good captain arrived. You are medically cleared for travel and unsuitable for duty until we determine who is trying to kill you.”

Mel scowled and looked between Dornin-tah and her doctor. They were sharing a look and Mel couldn’t make it out.

She cleared her throat. “I don’t need to leave. Dr. Kvi has me on a hormone therapy. As soon as my attackers are identified, I am sure that I will be able to get back to work.”

Kvi made a face. “About that. The therapy isn’t working. You will overpower it in a week or so and be right back where you started. Sorry. He really is your best bet. The doctors on Reuval are trained for this. They have history of
vrasku
there and they don’t share that kind of information with outsiders.”

Shock rippled through her. Her view of her future suddenly tilted to the side and slid away. “I guess…I guess I will leave.”

Dr. Kvi must have seen something in her face but Captain Dornin-tah nodded. “It is a good decision. It will take you no time to pack. I will help you to your quarters.”