Manifest (5 page)

Mel nodded and swallowed. The doctor handed her a robe, and she put on the slippers that had been next to her in a cubbyhole and never used.

It took a lot of effort to straighten limbs that had been stuck in bed for three days, not to mention the damage done by the bruising during the explosion. Her cuts had been healed, but her bruises were deemed reminders not to move too fast.

Kvi stood in front of her as she made her careful way around the bed. “I am sending you away for your own safety.”

The doctor did what she often did and stroked Mel’s hair. Mel had thought it had something to do with texture, but apparently, it was affection. “I am going to miss you, Kvi.”

The doctor jerked her head and left the room.

Captain Dornin-tah frowned. “Should I carry you?”

She gave him a dark look. “Just let me loosen up. It takes a while.”

He offered her his arm, and she was in enough pain to take it. When they had gone four blocks, she made an effort to straighten.

Captain Dornin-tah asked her, “How were your guards?”

“Two had minor injuries and two were seriously injured, but the medical team was fast and had us all in their care within minutes. Everyone will make a full recovery.”

She steered him through the station to her quarters, not that he needed directions. When she got into her quarters, she looked around and grabbed her standard suit; she ripped off the patches and put it on the bed. “Well, since you have already seen it all, no sense in me wrestling with myself in the lav.”

Mel shucked out of the robe, pulled loose the gown and dropped the med trousers that she had been wearing. She heard his inhalation and felt a little smug that it must look the way it felt.

She sat at the edge of the bed, kicked off the slippers and she put her feet in the jumpsuit, pulling it up until she could stand again. With effort, she shimmied it up and over her hips, and from there, it was a flex and a groan, but she got her arms in the suit and the seal done up.

The belt she put on had a mini version of her toolkit, and once it was in place, she felt a little better. Three minutes and one duffel bag and two years of her life were ready to travel.

She looked at him with a tight smile. “Let’s go.”

In hospital, she had pulled her hair into a ponytail, and she saw him stare at it wistfully.

Mel put her bag on her shoulder and exited her quarters. “Why are you staring at my hair?”

“It curls. It is a shame to tie it straight like that.”

“It gets in my face when I am stuck in bed. It stays back until I can get it braided, and even then, it is under arrest.”

“You had it loose…” He walked next to her and looked down at her with a heated memory in his eyes.

“I did. I also was wearing a gown and on my day off. I dress for the occasion. Today, I am dressed to climb aboard a strange vessel and go to a world I have no reason to be on.”

“And you are in pain.”

She calmed slightly, not even noticing until just then how worked up she was. “And I am in pain. None of the painkillers here work on me for long. Not since…”

He put his arm out again, and she took it, letting him help her balance her silently screaming body. They headed to the VIP docks and she scanned out with a tight smile. Her bags were checked, and she swayed with exhaustion, kicking herself for not being stronger.

“Farewell, Agent Geller. You will be missed.” The officer smiled at her and handed her her bag.

She took the bag back and looked at it, hefting it lightly. She opened the bag and found the small, blinking unit. With a grimace, she took the tracker and grabbed the officer, putting the unit in his mouth and waiting until his reflexes made him swallow the object slightly larger than a walnut.

Other officers gathered around. “He will be fine as long as he doesn’t leave the station until that passes. It is an explosive round primed to blow when it passes the beacon.”

The officer was blubbering and holding his hands up as the weapons were redirected from her to him after a burst of chatter through their coms.

She straightened, flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and looked at her captain. “Ready to leave?”

He caught her as she fell.

The bed was soft, the sheets smelled fresh, and when she rolled to her side, she had space to move. Mel blinked when she realized where she was, felt the engines beneath her, as well as the compressors providing atmosphere.

Her bodysuit was open, and she removed the IV from her arm before she pulled the suit into place. Mel slid off the bunk and got to her feet. Her body was still sore, but it wasn’t the all-consuming ache.

Her senses guided her down the hall to the command area. She paused as she heard Dornin-tah speaking to someone in low and soft tones.

“She is doing better, but there is far more damage than was initially disclosed. No, she is currently sedated. I will try, but she is very strong minded.”

She realized she was hearing half the conversation and the other half was on a headset. Not feeling great about sneaking up on him, she cleared her throat.

“And the sedative is no longer effective. She is awake. I will see you in two hours, Doctor.”

He pulled the headset off and got to his feet. “You shouldn’t be up.”

“I hate staying in bed.” Well, she hated being there alone. With someone else, it was kinda fun.

“Come and sit. I will get you something to drink.”

She smiled and took the empty seat, enjoying the warm press of the cushion against her back. She curled up and stared out at the stars. He returned in a moment and handed her a warm cup of caf, but there was a nutty scent that made her inhale gratefully. “Thank you.”

“You are welcome. How is it that you can move at all? Your entire spine and hips are black and blue with hints of green and yellow. That can’t be comfortable.”

“It isn’t, but moving is preferable to lying down on it. The true downside of being a softy. My blood pools in my skin very easily. Even a massage can bruise if done properly.”

“You make that sound like a good thing.”

She shrugged. “It can be. My body is repairing itself and I don’t have to do anything. That is a very good thing.”

She sat with her legs drawn up on the seat, sipping at the caf. The stars in the distance glowed with promise and a nebula spun with the grace of an exploding dandelion.

“I have only ever flown through space like this once, and I was in a mass transport.”

He settled back in his chair and turned his head to face her. “When was that?”

“When I went from my home moon to Makuada station, two years ago. I lived for my job and enjoyed every minute of it, right up until the end.”

Dornin-tah gave her a wry smile. “You aren’t dead. You are merely embarking on another life with new duties and a new family of sorts. Your life continues.”

“Despite my volunteering to leave Earth, my soul despises change.” She grimaced.

He laughed and then sobered. “How did you know that he had planted something in your bag?”

She chuckled. “First, no one checks a sworn agent travelling with a VIP. Second, my bag was scanned and there was no reason to rifle through it. Third, and most importantly, the weight was off.”

“You could tell?” He blinked in surprise.

“Of course. That is what I do. I assess contents and gauge their accuracy based on the product description. In the case of my bag, I had been carrying it for half an hour. I knew how much it weighed. The explosives were a guess based on the small sensors on the side and the weight of the object. It was too heavy for just a tracker.”

“So, you did all those calculations in a second.”

She shrugged and snuggled more deeply into her chair. “Of course, it is what I do.”

He chuckled. “I think that your fake job just became a real one.”

Mel pretended to be shocked. “You got me here under false pretenses? I am surprised.”

“You saw right through my bumbling attempts, though the doctor was correct. Based on the information she forwarded to Reuval, there is a solid instability in your system. It isn’t dangerous, but it does need to be addressed.”

“I have been researching the Adru-Skari.”

“Have you now?”

“Yes, I think I need to get some claws installed. They seem important.” She sipped at her caf and looked at him with wide eyes.

He shuddered slightly and narrowed his gaze. “How much research did you do?”

“As much as my security level would allow, which was quite a lot.” She smiled brightly.

The reinforced nails would allow her to engage in a more equitable lovemaking with him. Without the ability to claw at him to speed things along, she had been relegated to waiting until he was done. It was spectacular, but it had been beyond her control.

“I think I know of a few physicians who could help you with that.” He looked like he was having a small orgasm at the thought.

She chuckled. “So, having me all soft isn’t as appealing as you thought.”

“As long as you confine your alterations to your claws, I won’t complain. If you try and change anything else, we will discuss it,” He gave her a sleepy-sensual look, “and I will win.”

Mel looked out the display screen and tried not to think of how he would discuss body mods with her. It wasn’t something that she would have normally considered, but after looking at Adru-Skari fashion books for the last few weeks, she had noticed a lot of difference in what the women put in and through their skin. Spikes and studs were common to decorate arms and foreheads. If she was moving into a society, she wanted to blend in.

She startled herself into laughing with that thought.

He was looking at the instruments but glanced her way. She could see his head move. “Something amuses you?”

“Yes. I was imagining blending in.”

She put her chin on her knees and stared out at the stars. After a few more minutes, she asked, “Are we there yet?”

He sighed. “We still have two hours until orbit and then forty-five minutes of travel within the city.”

Mel nodded. “Okay.”

She waited five minutes by her count and rubbed her chin on her knees. “Are we there yet?”

He blinked in surprise and gave her a curious glance. “Not yet.”

She grinned. “Okay.”

With slow movements, she got up and returned her cup to the galley. When Mel turned to return to the command deck, Dornin-tah was standing in front of her.

She simply looked up at him and he smiled.

“Aren’t you going to ask me if we are there yet?”

Mel smiled. “No.”

He took her arms and eased her close to him. He lowered his head until he whispered, “Why not?”

She leaned in until she could feel the heat from his skin. “I was going to wait another two minutes.”

He smiled and pressed his lips to hers in the slowest, most careful kiss she had ever received.

Mel had almost convinced herself that the taste of him wasn’t as intoxicating as the feel of him. She tried to lean against him but the pain interfered. She gasped and her eyes went wide as a spear of agony went through her.

She stared at him as her vision went black. “I think Kvi missed a spot.”

Sitting up in a gel bed was not the impression she wanted to make on her first day on a new world, but that is how she became conscious of being on Reuval.

Dornin-tah was speaking with a woman, and they were looking at bio-scans.

Mel twisted from side to side to get a better idea of how she was doing, but the moment she moved, she set off an alarm. Doctors and attendants were at her side in an instant and she became aware of the leads on her limbs.

“Stay still. You are nearly recovered, but the tech needs another hour before you are given a clean bill of health. The nanites are having trouble adapting to your physiology, so they are not as fast as they could be.” Dornin-tah held her hand and smoothed a finger over her forehead.

One of the doctors looked at him with an expression that Mel could only interpret as jealousy.

“Melia Geller, you certainly made an impression when we landed.”

The doctors and attendants chuckled. One of the women muttered, “I would say. We don’t get many warm corpses in the med center.”

Dornin-tah glared at her. “She exaggerates. You were alive; I just had to use extraordinary measures to keep you that way.”

One of the physicians stopped at the foot of her bed. “He used a venom start for your heart. I have heard of it in theory, but it hasn’t been performed in fifty years.”

Mel looked at the only familiar face in the room. “Explain.”

He pressed a kiss to her head and kept hold of her hand while he quickly explained their arrival.

She had arrested in his arms, and he had used a shot of his own venom to keep her heart beating. He had to time it perfectly or she would either overdose or die, so their final time in the shuttle had been spent with her in his lap and him monitoring her vital signs.

Mel knew there was more to it than that. “You have venom?”

He opened his mouth, and to her shock, two teeth folded down from the roof of his mouth. With as much time as she had spent exploring with her tongue, how did she miss those?

“A skin flap normally covers them. I tore through it to bring them out.” He folded them up again.

She fought the urge to check herself for puncture marks.

“My grandmother is on the way with some appropriate clothing and I had them do your nails while you were out.”

She looked down at her fingers and golden nails covered the last knuckle. “No fair when I can’t wave my arms around.”

He laughed. “You will have plenty of time to examine them. They are the same length as your normal nails and a mineral supplement will be added to your diet to keep them strong.”

“Back away from your woman, Dornin-tah. You can go and move that ship from the city park and deal with the aftermath of the landing.”

A woman with purple hair streaked heavily with gold swirled into the med center with the grace of a dancer. Her eyes were midnight blue and she had a wicked smile.

“Melia Geller, this is my grandmother on my mother’s side, Heneeva-lor. Grandmother, Melia Geller.”