Salvage Rights (Distant Worlds Book 2) (8 page)

“None before the
captain found me.  I cannot say nothing else was done to me, but I have no
knowledge of ill intentions towards you or your people, and I would not
knowingly participate if I did.”

“Well now, that is interesting. 
As a truthsayer, you cannot lie.  So, you are sent here without memories,
capable of strange and wondrous things, and keyed into my DNA.”  His voice was
softer when he spoke, but the words seemed coated in barbs to prick her.  “That
is convenient, isn’t it?”

Danika swallowed at his
meaning.  His eyes so close to hers she could see the shoots of silver through
the blue.  Her neck was arched as far back as it would go, the heat of his body
warred with the cold of his emotions.  Everything with him seemed to be one
extreme or the other. “It sounds suspicious, I grant you.  All I can say is
that I have no knowledge of a plot against you.”

His eyes roved over her
face, and she could feel the moment when his shields cracked down like rock to
flint, shooting sparks through her nerves, and then . . . nothing.  She could
not feel a thing from him but the warmth of his touch.  It might have soothed
her if his soft words were not so inflammatory to her thoughts.  “But then you
wouldn’t, would you?  Not if it was going to work.”

***

After hearing the truth
rife in his words, Danika would not have been surprised if he shoved her into
the nearest incinerator.  But he did not.  Instead he escorted her to her room,
and left her with one word.  “Stay.”

She huffed out a breath
and made herself shake off the adrenaline coursing through her.  Seeking a calm
that was hard won, she turned her attention to the overdone room around her. 
She waited for the sunset Kira spoke of, but the sunlight was still going
strong.  She walked to the large glass doors and looked out unto the sunlit-shrouded
waves.  With the bright lights of the stars shining down, she could see
sparkles of iridescent shimmer in the water and throughout the surrounding
trees.  The Furgarians.  She sucked in the soothing warmth of nature and before
she realized what she was doing, she was out on the beach listening to the
waves crash against the rocks. 

It was only as she had
wilted into her calm center and was lying on the still warm sand that she allowed
herself to go over the conversation in medical.  Lucan called Captain Tyber by
name.  Without a doubt, the crew of the Jezebel would be facing the wrath of
Lucan Warrung.  It chilled her blood to think of all that anger she could feel
bottled inside him directed towards her only friends.  However, that was not
what had her wrapping cold arms around her middle and her breath shuddering out
into the still night.  It was the fact that Captain Tyber was one of the few
people she had met who she could not read.  Unless he lied outright, she would
have no knowledge of his ulterior motives.  It had not been the worry about
what Lucan was capable of that had her adrenaline spiking through her blood in
the transport.  It was the knowledge that he could be right.

Kira was feeling unsure
and embarrassed the next morning, afraid of what she would find when she opened
the door to the blue room.  If she could have been anywhere else, she would
have been there in a heartbeat, but Sir ordered her to serve the strange
truthsayer, so here she was.  When she opened the door, the first thing she
noticed was that the doors to the beach were all ajar.  Then, when she
tentatively got closer to the bed, it was empty and from the look of it, had
never been slept in.  She felt all the blood drain from her face.  Too many
terrible possibilities ran through her mind before she unfroze enough to check
the beach.  As safe as it was for them with the force fields holding back the
tidal waves and any of the dangerous creatures past the coral reefs, you could
still drown in the shifting currents and undertow.

With her mouth dry with
fear, she looked up and down the beach.  She saw what looked like a swarm of
Furgarians but no Danika.  She hit the icom in a rush. 

“Command.”

“This is Kira.  I am at
the blue room, but I fear the truthsayer is not.”

There was a long
silence on the line before Tuft spoke.  “Stay there.”

***

Luc was in his office
when Tuft raised him on the icom.  He had been fighting the desire to return to
his rooms, or more correctly Danika’s adjoining room, when he received the icom
message: Kira reports blue room empty.  No sign of girl.  On my way now.

Luc was down the hall
without a thought to how it would look.  He reached the blue room at the same
time as Tuft.  They both walked in together.  Kira seeing both of them lost
what color was left in her face. 

“Report,” Tuft
commanded, his usual brisk manner slightly softened only because it was Kira.

Kira swallowed. “I came
in to help the lady dress and bathe for the day, as sir commanded.”  She bowed
her head toward Luc but he was stomping purposefully around the room, his eyes
cold and fixed.  The only thing that scared her more than Lucan Warrung was his
hulking security chief.  Probably because unlike Warrung, he looked at her like
a man looked at a woman.  “She was not here, the doors were open, and the bed
unused.”

They both looked to Luc,
but he was already outside on the porch.  He saw the Furgarians on the beach
and narrowed his eyes, heading for them with a pounding march. Tuft and Kira
followed behind at a distance, Kira looking unsure.

When he was within a
few feet, the Furgarians flew up in a swarm and Danika was revealed, sleeping
peacefully in the sand.  For a few seconds, she glowed like a light had been
lit under her skin, her hair flashing like blood diamonds.  Then the colors
faded to her usual luminescence and he could take a breath again.  She was also
strewn with Furgarian silk web and crystal pearl.  Without sparing the hovering
Furgarians a glance, he lifted her into his arms, one arm beneath her knees,
the other behind her back.  She turned into his chest and snuggled there.  He
could feel a pulsing heat coming off her and directly into his skin that felt
like a livewire of energy, as if each pearl was pulsing with power.  He ignored
it and headed back.  The sensation faded slowly to warmth, and by the time he
was back to the deck, he had already decided to head to his own room, rather
than the blue.  “I want the blue room stripped and cleaned from top to bottom. 
Get rid of everything.”

Tuft followed him, but
Kira just bowed her head and let them pass, breathing out a sigh of relief when
the door closed behind the both of them.

***

Lucan lay his burden
down on his bed with a brooding eye.

He turned at a noise
and saw that Tuft had followed him.  He motioned him to silence and then led
him from the room.

“What the hell was
that?”

“The Furgarians like my
little Bruha.”

“She was lit up like a
nova and covered with crystal pearl and weaving.”

“Yes.”

“What the hell is she,
and what was she doing out there with the Furgarians?”

“I don’t know, but I
want that captain and his crew, and I want them now.”

“You think he knows
something?”

“He knows more than I
do.  And the tricky bastard is going to tell me what it is.”

Tuft blew out a
breath.  “I’ll contact Tolan Lark.  If anyone can get a whole crew here without
killing them it’s him.”

Luc gnashed his teeth
thinking of the irritating pirate/mercenary.  “Get him on it.”

Tuft turned to leave
and then stopped.  “If I did not know better I would say they were worshiping
your little Bruha, but the Furgarians worship nature and water as their deity,
so why the unusual care of your off-worlder?”

“I’ll ask her when she
wakes up.”

Tuft studied him
briefly, both of them knowing that if it was anyone else, he would have already
awakened them and demanded answers.  But Luc refused to examine his actions. 
Clearly, she needed her sleep if she slept through his carrying her off.

“How did you know she
was under there?”

“What?”

“On the beach, you
walked right out to her.  How did you know?”

Luc looked at his
oldest friend, his mouth getting tight.  “You have your duties.  See to them.”

“Sir.”  Tuft shuttered
his thoughts behind his usual wall, and bowed briefly before turning smartly
and marching out.

Luc gnashed his teeth
at the formality, but he was not ready to discuss how he felt her pulling him
from her sandy sleep.  Not even with himself.

***

Danika woke up in a
different place than where she fell asleep.  She looked around the overly
masculine room, her heart racing in fear.  How long has she lost this time? 
She knew even as she panicked that she was overreacting.  But the thought of
falling asleep and waking up out of time was agonizing.  Who had she left
behind that she could not even remember?

“You fell asleep on the
beach.”  Lucan Warrung spoke and her eyes whipped to the man himself, lounging
regally on a leather chair, an icom unit beside him and a vid screen in his
lap.

“How long did I sleep?”

He tilted his head in
question, his eyes probing her.  “I left you last night late, and you managed
to wind up on the beach, so I would guess only a few hours.”

With that she felt the
tension leave her in a giant whoosh.  A normal sleep, just like all the rest
since she was awakened.  She fell bonelessly back to the bed, then tensed right
back up when he stood.

“If you are worried you
will lose another few hundred years, don’t be.  You are nowhere near a stasis
pod.”

She shot back up to a
sitting position.  “Really?  Your doctor tried to put me back in the cold just
yesterday.  Somehow the fact that there is not one in this room is not as
reassuring to my nightmares as it should be.”

“I see your point.”  He
studied her in his bed, while she looked around the room, anything but look
directly at him.  It was twice the size of her large room, with a separate
sitting area and extra doors.  He had the same view she did, only longer
across, so it looked like a panoramic of the ocean and the two suns.  There were
high tech gadgets here and there for communications and whatever else, and the
furniture was a high quality synthetic leather and real wood.  The colors were
a great deal airier, synthesizing the ocean and beach beyond.  It was light and
easy and nothing like what she expected from the dark man before her, and still
standing amongst it, he fit there.  It certainly suited her better than that
awful red monstrosity she was living in.

“Would it help if I
promised you will never have to go into stasis again?”  He spoke into the quiet
and her head whipped back around, room forgotten.

“
Can
you promise
that?”

“I myself have never
had to do so, nor most of my people.  It is an outdated way of transporting
over long distances.  With the new engine capabilities, rarely do you see
anyone doing so but on the old clunkers, for medical emergencies, or for
animals, to keep livestock for long journeys.  I see no reason why you would
ever have to get into stasis again.  So yes, I give you my oath that you will
never have to go back into stasis.”

Danika breathed out a
long relieved sigh.  He was telling the truth.

“Thank you.  That does
relieve my mind somewhat.”

“Then you will sleep
better?”

She smiled full on at
him, turning to drop her legs over the side of the tall bed.  They hung about
halfway down.  “Probably not.  I doubt my subconscious will fall in line that
quickly, but maybe eventually.”  He was looking so intently at her face, her
smile dimmed and she cleared her throat.  “I am sorry about the trouble.  I
will return to my room now.”

“Not yet.  It is being
stripped and redone.”

“You don’t have to do
that for me.”  She stepped forward quickly her hand up.  “I will be fine without
causing you more trouble.”

“No trouble.  It’s
done.”

She bit her lip and
looked away.

“What?” he asked.  “Tell
me what you are thinking.”

“I just . . . do you
think you could make it like this room, I mean if you are doing it over anyway?” 
She hurried on before he could talk.  “Not this fancy, I mean the colors and
textures that remind of the sea and sand . . . but really anything is fine.”

Lucan pulled his icom
and spoke quickly.

“Tuft?”

“Sir?”

“Stop the work on the
blue room.  Danika is coming to go over her preferences before they resume.”

“Yes, sir.”

He clicked off his icom
and slipped it back in his belt.  “Come.  It did not occur to me that you would
want a say in your own rooms.  It should have.”  He held up his arm and presented
his sleeve.  Danika looked from him to his arm and back again.  “I thought you
were mad at me?”  She cleared her throat.  “Weren’t you accusing me of being a
trap just hours ago?”

He did not speak until
she tentatively took his proffered arm and he began to lead her from the room. 
“I have not decided anything, but regardless of why you are here, you are here.” 
He turned to look down at her, his hungry eyes capturing hers.  “And whatever
happens, you are not going anywhere.”

He turned and led her
through the door that separated their rooms.  The threat behind his words was
clear, but somehow Danika was more reassured than scared.  Where would she go
anyway?

As they stepped through
the door, all sound inside stopped.  Danika blinked at the sudden onslaught of
tension suffocating the room.  Despite the doors being thrown wide, and the
room’s nearly empty state, it seemed smaller with all the people and their
emotions crowding the place.

Lucan must have felt
her tense up because he grumbled out his displeasure, his eyes shooting sharp
spikes at the workers.  His voice was low and cold when he spoke.  “Out, everyone
but Tuft and Kira.”

They left, leaving a
fidgety but beautiful Kira and the hulking Tuft standing alone in the middle of
the empty room.

“Kira, you find out
what she wants; then, escort her back to my room until everything is
accomplished.”

Danika scrunched her
forehead looking around at the large empty room.  “This will be done today?” she
asked amazed.  It seemed like a much longer task.

“They will finish it
when I want it finished.”

She blinked at the
implacable voice.  He looked at Tuft.  “And it will be done right.”

Tuft bowed his head
briefly, his craggy face giving nothing away.  Though the black eyes and
downturned mouth seemed to suggest an angry personality, all Danika was feeling
from him was worry and an unshakable calm.  Kira, on the other hand, wore her
feelings.  She was worried, guilty, and very much afraid of . . . well,
everyone in the room with her.

Danika reached out with
her own feelings without thinking and soothed her.  “Thank you, Kira, for doing
this for me.”  As the girl relaxed she turned to Lucan, “But I would like to
help.”

“The workers upset you,”
he said, studying her face.

“I was surprised is
all.  I did not expect it; I will be on guard now, but I would like to help. 
There are many things I know only from a description or picture.  I would like
to experience decorating hands on.”

He studied her.  “Fine,
but we will be watching at all times.  If you feel uncomfortable you say so,
out loud, and myself or Tuft will come.”

Danika sucked in a
breath.  “There are sensors in here?”

He gave solemn eyes as
a warning.  “There are sensors everywhere.  Nothing happens on my moon that I
don’t know about, especially in my personal quarters.”

“I see.”

He rubbed a leather-covered
thumb down her sensitive cheek.  “I don’t think you do, but you will.”

And with that less than
friendly warning, he left with Tuft.  Danika was left watching them leave and
wondering at the breathless feeling one small brush on her cheek could cause. 
With a pent up sigh, she turned to Kira.  She caught the anxious look on her
face and sent soothing peace her way.  “I thank you now for your help.  I would
not know where to start on my own.”