Solar Storm (2 page)

That puzzle disappeared under the enigma of the woman who hailed him. She had a voice that sounded like she smoked twenty a day and gargled razorblades. Low and husky, it did things to his body that should be illegal. Women were his specialty…women and dealing bloody death on the battlefield. With a distinct lack of battlefields, what was a retired war-commander to do but while away his time and retirement money between the thighs of the fairer sex?

A sudden image of a woman filled his mind. Young with her blonde hair piled high on her head. She’d looked at him shyly from beneath her wedding veil as they’d taken their vows. The trust in her eyes had rocked him to his soul. Still did, when he dragged that particular memory out of storage.

Shaking himself free of his thoughts, he concentrated on his rescuer’s voice.
 

“Pretty boy, huh? I’d describe myself as dashingly handsome. At least, that’s what I see in the mirror each morning.”

But shaking himself free of the past wasn’t as easy as he’d hoped. The memories kept coming in an unstoppable stream. The marriage had lasted hours—not even a day before his bride had fled—so why did it still bother him all these years later?
 

A red light and alarm to his left cut off all thoughts of his ill-fated marriage.

“You must have a
special
mirror then. What was that?”

Her voice was sharp, some of the roughness eased out, which left it hauntingly familiar. Kel didn’t have time to dwell on that feeling; his attention diverted as the control panel in front of him lit up like a plasma display at a Xanthrian pleasure festival.

“Errr, more like what
isn’t
it? Fucking hell, the whole thing’s gone berserk. I’ve got warning lights for rigging, thrusters, life support…fuck, even waste control. This boat’s a single tripper—it doesn’t
have
waste control systems.”

Her reply was calm and steady. “Sounds like you have relay problems. Just cut the user interface and go to manual. I need you to align yourself for linking so I can drag you out.”

“Uhm…how do I do that?” Kel gritted his teeth as the admission was forced from him. He’d never flown manual, only with a user controllable interface. He’d always meant to learn and now his lack of knowledge had bitten him in the ass. So much for being prepared… No wonder he’d never been in the Space Scouts.

The silence over the comm had enough weight for a couple of solar systems. If ever a pause was pregnant, this one was not only pregnant with twins, it had a passel of other brats in tow as well. Kel winced, anticipating a tirade of abuse at even daring to set foot—or wing—on a solar road without either being born on one or having spent twenty-plus years soaking up the charged particles. Hell, half the experienced solar sailors wouldn’t give a newbie the time of day until his flesh had started to color from exposure. The woman he was talking to sounded young, but the experience in her voice belied that. No doubt she was some crabby, wizened old woman with skin like leather. She certainly had the attitude.
 

“Are you telling me that you can’t sail without your computer? What kind of you? Icaria is
idiot
are
dangerous
—the sun storms on the second pass throw computers out of whack nine times out of ten. What the hell did you plan to do if that happened? The pass doesn’t stop just so you can fuck about getting your comp back online.”

He closed his eyes, nodding at everything she said. There was no point denying it. He’d assessed the data regarding the second pass and considered it an acceptable risk.
 

“Hey, at least I’m only taking risks with my own life,” he shot back. The fact that she was right didn’t mean he had to put up with the attitude; his provoked temper flared as he looked up at the bulk of the ship above him. The three sails rose majestically, glinting in the glow of the road. But even the ethereal, almost magical appearance couldn’t hide the state of disrepair they were in. “You’re pushing it running the road with sails like that
and
putting your entire crew at risk.”

“They’re happy with the risks.” Her voice was emotionless when she replied, no hint of the fire or attitude in it. Although he couldn’t figure out why, Kel mourned the loss of her heat and spirit.
 

“Okay…listen to me,” she said with a hint of forced patience. “I’m going to talk you through taking your interface down.”

Chapter Two

“It’s fucked. Won’t come back online. Just keeps telling me ‘sub-routine alpha-three-seven-nine not available. Please reinstall,’” Kelwin growled in frustration an hour later.
 

Punching keys on the main console at random, he harbored the hope that something would work and the user interface would magically reappear. Or even the clunky-but-usable master interface. He hated that interface—it reminded him too much of his days aboard a battle cruiser, brought back the dreams of blood and death he’d tried to avoid since—but he could use it at least. What he couldn’t do was fly the
Artemis
without a computer.
 

“Yeah. It’s fucked. What model is it? The TK-9000? No, too old for a custom bird like that…JM100?” Her voice was still calm, but there was an edge of frustration in it to match his.

Kel sighed. She was going to totally flip out. He could see it coming. Every time he revealed a little more about the nature of the
Artemis
, she gave him silent disappointment or a caustic comment. But he sensed her mood darkening as it became apparent just how much of a noob he was at this. Why her opinion mattered, he didn’t know—but it did.

“No, it’s an experimental. My engineer built it from the ground up. Uses the JM100 array but with AI tweaks.”

“Okay, you decided to use an untested comp on Icaria. Did I tell you already you are
freaking nuts?”

“
Yeah, you may have mentioned it a time or seventeen. What do I do now?”

Silence filled the comm-line again.
 

“Hey…” He reached over and tapped the comm to make sure it was working. “You still with me? What do I do now?”

She sighed. “Nothing. If the comp’s dead and you can’t fly manual, you’re screwed.”

His heart stuttered in his chest. That wasn’t what he wanted to hear. “Wait, what? I can’t do anything? At all?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said. You need your ears cleaning out? Let me damn well think, would ya?”

Kel leaned against the dead helm console and resisted the temptation to beat his head against it. There was no point. Abusing the console wouldn’t reboot the computer and would just give him a pounding headache.

He groaned. After all the time he’d spent in the sailing community trying to build up a good reputation for himself as a serious player, he’d gone and blown it all by getting carried away with the
Artemis
. Why on Terra hadn’t he tested her on another road first? Why Icaria?

“Start powering down.”
 

The order was brisk and businesslike. Kel frowned, wondering if she’d ever been in the military. She certainly had that ring of command in her voice. He bit back his initial resentment of being ordered around. He was a war-commander…an enhanced soldier with a system that cost more than most people made in a lifetime. Several lifetimes. People just didn’t order him around. Except he needed her help, so he was just going to have to suck it up.

“I’m going to extend my shielding to bring you aboard. There’s a port just above you that leads onto the cargo deck. Make it snappy or I cut you loose.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Kelwin dropped his pride and started flipping switches. One by one, the consoles on the tiny bridge went dark as the
Artemis
closed down. He left the shields until last, his hand hovering over the switch as he looked through the plexi-glass canopy above him. Without the backup of the atmospheric shielding, even the hardened plastic wouldn’t stand up to shit.

Like a child blowing a bubble, the iridescent shimmer of the bigger ship’s shielding expanded and enveloped the
Artemis
. As soon as the bubble snapped shut, Kel killed his own shields.
 

Almost before his hand left the switch, he was moving. He grabbed a bag and stuffed it with the few essentials he’d unpacked. Luckily, war had taught him to travel light. Bag over his shoulder, he took a last look around the darkened bridge.
 

“Maybe next time.”
 

With that promise on his lips, he popped the access hatch and started the climb up the side of the bigger ship to the port above him. Still as fit as he had been in the service, it didn’t take him long to ascend the ladder. The port slid aside as he approached. Funny, he’d thought the ship was too old to have anything as fancy as motion detectors. His gaze swept the plating below the canopy. Smooth as a steel-skinned baby’s ass—there was nowhere to hide the sensors. She must have gotten lucky with the timing.

“Are you getting your ass in here or what?” A yelled demand from over the comm spurred him on. Shoving his pack ahead, Kel wriggled through the gap and landed in an ungainly heap on the other side.

The port snapped shut behind him like the jaws of an irate dog, almost skinning his heels in the process. He rolled to his feet, his weight balanced as he automatically assessed his surroundings for danger. Several cargo containers looked back innocently.
 

Closing his eyes, he ran a hand through his close-cropped hair. When was he going to learn there weren’t Alkari warriors waiting around every corner to attack? The war was over, done…he was retired.
 

Retired and should be living the high-life.
 

Instead he was fucking about pretending to be a solar-sailor and having to be rescued like a damn damsel in distress. Sighing, he grabbed his pack, nodded to the containers and walked along the narrow catwalk toward the bridge.

Heart in her throat, Nerys blanked her face and waited for her guest to reach the bridge. Of all the people to get into trouble, why did it have to be him? And in a place she couldn’t refuse to offer help. No one left a ship to its fate out here. Ever. It was the law—the code of the roads—and if anyone broke it, then they could forget working Icaria or any road. The gods must truly loath her.

Footsteps rang on the metal ladder from the cargo deck as she swung the
Lady
back out into the main current. Perhaps he wouldn’t recognize her. It had been ten years, after all, and she’d changed a lot. She wasn’t the wide-eyed naive teenager she had been. These days she looked more like her mother than her father, thank the gods. A little cosmetic work had enhanced that impression, altering her features slightly so she could work without being recognized, and the years had matured them. A new name and even her own father wouldn’t recognize her if she stood in the same room. Not that she planned on getting near that self-serving piece of shit anytime soon.

“You took your time,” she grumbled as Kelwin reached the top of the stairs. She concentrated on bringing the ship in the middle of the current to avoid having to look at him. The helm fought her. Gritting her teeth, she threw her weight against it, all the muscles of her arms standing proud as she forced it into submission.
 

“Sorry, I didn’t realize it was a limited-time offer.”
 

Without the slight crackle of the comm, his voice was richer and deeper than she remembered it. Of course, he’d only been in his late twenties when she’d known him, fresh from the war but still young. Now he was older…he would be fat, she decided. All that muscle had to have gone to seed. And bald. Yeah, he was nearly forty—he had to be bald by now.

She pushed irritably at a loose strand of hair, tucking it behind her ear as she kept the
Lady
on track. She’d wasted an hour helping Kelwin, and with the added drag of his ship strapped to the
Lady
’s hull, she needed to haul ass now.
 

“The offer isn’t, but I’m not on the road for my health. Cargo needs to be delivered, and I’m not losing my bonus for a pretty-boy who should know better.”

“Where’s the rest of your crew?”
 

She shrugged. “You’re looking at it.”

His laughter was rich, deep and annoying as hell. “What? A little thing like you? Pull the other leg—it plays ‘Glory of the Fleet’.”

They hit a swell so hard that golden particles sprayed up across the canopy. The deck skewed to port hard. Nerys hid her grin as she heard him slide off his perch, picturing a near-tumble down the ladder onto the cargo deck below.
 

“Watch your feet there—this part of the road is a bitch.”

A swift glance whilst he recovered his balance took her breath away. Moving to lounge against the post by the ladder, arms folded and his foot hooked into a restraint loop, he looked as if he’d been born on the deck of a solar-ship. He wasn’t fat or bald—not by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, he looked the same as he had on their wedding day…if a little more rugged and hellishly handsome. Unwanted heat hit her down low, her body reminding her that she was female and had needs she’d been ignoring for way too long.
 

“So I gather.” His voice was clipped, and the sharp look he gave her said he suspected she’d skewed the deck on purpose. “Well, since you were good enough to rescue me, I can repay the favor by helping. Where do you want me?”