The Lost Star Episode One (15 page)

He didn’t tell her he wanted to stay right
here and finish the conversation they’d just started.

She had to get out of here and her right
armlet had to be cleaned of neural liquid.

So he assessed the map Harvey had sent him
and made some quick calculations.

Then he winced. “I’m sorry, Ava, but it's
going to take at least ten minutes of crawling to get out of here.
Are your wrists going to hold up?”

“I’ll be fine.”

He couldn’t stop himself from chuckling
lightly. “You’re meant to be weak, Ensign Ava, so how come you’re
turning out to be so strong?” He had no idea where that comment had
come from. It had sprung from his lips before he’d thought it
through.

Now it hung there in the air.

Slowly she shifted and glanced at him. He
could just make out those little pale blue halos of light around
her pupils. He found himself wanted to get closer to study them in
full.

“
True strength doesn’t have anything to do
with how much you can lift,” she noted as she turned and kept
shuffling forward, “It’s to do with how much you can withstand
without breaking.”

Her quiet words sent a tingle down his back
as he followed her down the tunnel.

…

Ava

There was too much to think about.

The passionate Hunter
McClane kept revealing facts she couldn’t
ignore.

Meva had lied to him about Avixan society.
Worse, apparently she frequently took her bangles off.

Unless under exceptional medical
circumstances, a non-priestess was never meant to remove their
bangles.

They weren’t mere adornments. They were
locks. While they did not function the same way as Ava’s – holding
her completely off from her powers – they could be activated.

Should an Avixan forget the most sacred
rule and begin using their powers to rule and destroy, a priestess
could activate their locks, and the offending Avixan would fall
unconscious into a specialized stasis that could only be broken by
a priestess.

All Avixans wore locks, not just as a
constant reminder of what they should not become, but as an
insurance measure, lest they ignored all decency and became devils
once more.

As for the fact Meva had obviously been
lying to Hunter, that was a different matter.

Avixans considered sharing information
about their society a crime for one reason and one reason alone: so
the truth did not come out. They couldn’t let the modern Milky Way
know what they’d once been. Devils. Murderers. Vicious
conquerors.

Meva had not breathed a word of this true
reality, so technically, she’d committed no crime.

“
Hey, you’ve gone all quiet,” Hunter said
gently from in front of her, twisting over his shoulder to check on
her, “You okay?”

She nodded.

She was not okay.

She didn’t know what to do.

Technically she could contact the Avixan
government and share her suspicions with them, but she didn’t have
any evidence, just hearsay.

She’d need evidence to have Meva extradited
back to Avixa. Not just because her case wouldn’t stick, but on
moral grounds, too. Putting aside the fact Meva hated her, Ava
couldn’t get her extradited if she’d done nothing wrong. In all
likelihood, Meva’s unusual behavior was just a reaction to her
freedom. The same freedom Ava as now trying to enjoy.

“
What are you thinking about? It’s… not
what I told you about Meva, right? Look, I think I might have made
a mistake; I shouldn’t have shared that information. You’re not
gonna… get her in trouble, right?”

Hunter plucked her problem right out of her
head and laid it before her.

She had to make a decision now.

She took a breath and found herself shaking
her head. “No.”

“…
You’re not actually lying, are you?” he
asked after a few seconds of peering at her intently.

His observation threw her, and she blinked
hard. “Sorry?”

“
I think I’m the one who should be sorry,
Ava. I’ve judged you too harshly.”

“
I…
oh…” she trailed off, head dropping down as she gazed at
her hands.

He chuckled lightly. “You’re not usually
lost for words. I guess that was one of the reasons you, ah,
irritated me so much,” he gave another bashful chuckle as he
massaged the back of his neck, “You always seem so calm and in
control. Nothing fazes you. Nothing scares you.”

“There’s plenty that scares me,” she
answered in such a quiet tone her voice could barely carry. Her
gaze sliced naturally towards her armlets. When she looked up, she
realized Hunter had followed her gaze.

He looked pointedly from her armlets to
her face. “I guess there is. I misjudged you. I’m sorry.” He
stopped and reached a hand out to her. “Friends?” His direct gaze
took on a strange quality as he stared right into her
eyes.

She didn’t take his hand.

He grinned awkwardly. “I’m not going to
bite. It’s okay, you can shake it.”

“
I kinda don’t want to kill you.” He’d
reached his left hand out towards her right hand. She pulled up her
right arm and pointed to the insulation.

He gave an embarrassed wince. “Sorry about
that.” He dropped his hand.

On instinct, an odd energy playing through
the pit of her belly, she pulled up her left hand and held it
out.

She said nothing.

He hesitated for the briefest moment.

Then he reached out and grabbed his firm
hard fingers around her own.

They shook hands.

There was energy behind the move, and a
prickly heat spread through her chest.

Suddenly his WD beeped. He jolted back,
clearly not expecting the distraction. “Yeah?” he answered.

“
Where are you?” it was Captain
McClane.

“Still in the tunnels, Harv. We’re almost
out.”

“
We?” Captain McClane
questioned.

Hunter’s lips drew together in an
unmistakably angry move. She’d honestly seen enough of the wrong
side of Lieutenant Hunter McClane’s anger to recognize it
easily.

“
Ensign Ava’s here with me. I assumed you
knew.” Hunter said.

Then he mouthed something.

Most wouldn’t have been able to pick it
up. Ava could. As his lips moved harshly over his lips, he mouthed,
“Though you didn’t ask.”

There was a long pause. “That’s good to
know. How long until you get out of there?”

Hunter didn’t answer right away. Instead
he jerked his head to the side and stiffened his jaw. “Not what you
should be asking, Harv,” he whispered.

“
Lieutenant
?” the captain prompted.

“
She’s holding up great considering the
circumstances, but she is injured,” Hunter replied, even though the
captain hadn’t asked that.

There was another considerable pause from
the
captain’s
end.

Even though she was just guessing, it seemed
uncomfortable.

“Yeah, she’s injured her wrists again,”
Hunter continued in the kind of tone that suggested he was
responding to a question.

A question that had never been asked.

“We’re also going to need a decon team. She
got some neural liquid on one of her armlets. I’ve cleared away as
much as I can and covered the armlet with insulation. But it’s
still going to have to be cleaned.”

“
Right,” Captain McClane eventually
answered. “I’ll relay the message to the Chief.”

“Hmm,” Hunter grunted. “We’re about three
minutes away.” With that, Hunter ended the transmission.

She stared at him in shock. “What was that
about?”

Hunter shifted his jaw around. “Sometimes
Harv needs to be reminded of what really matters. I’m sorry,
Ava.”

“
What are you sorry for?”

“
Your captain shouldn’t have forgotten
about you,” Hunter blurted, looking at her meaningfully from under
his crumpled brow.

“It’s okay.”

“
Maybe to you, but not to me. Anyhow, I
guess we should push on. The sooner we get you up and off your
wrists, the better.”

She nodded, another strand of hair cutting
in front of her face.

He automatically leaned forward, bare chest
brushing against her left arm as he tucked it into her bun. “Come
on,” he said in a strange tone when he finished.

She followed him.

She was sure not to look at his naked
torso.

She knew humans were not as free with
their bodies as Avixans. Nudity was not an issue within Avixan
society. Humans found great indignity in baring their
skin.

So, though her gaze kept slipping back to
the hard muscled line of his back, she determinedly returned her
eyes to the floor.

Those three minutes flew past in a
flash.

Finally they found a hatch.

“Hold on,” she said before he could open
it.

Carefully, she began removing her tunic
top.

His eyes widened, gaze snapping down to her
chest. “Ah, what are you doing?” he choked.

“
It’s okay. I have a singlet on underneath.
You can have my tunic top.” It was hard undressing with only one
arm. She’d have to be extremely careful when pulling her arm out of
from her right sleeve. But she knew she could do it without the
fabric touching her armlet.

“It’s okay, Ava,” his words were still
choked for some reason.

“
I understand humans aren’t comfortable
with showing bare skin. Please, you can use this.” She reached her
right sleeve, and found it was much harder to wriggle out of it
than she’d accounted for.

“It won’t fit, and it’s okay,” he
chuckled.

“
No, but I—”

He kept chuckling.

He had a nice chuckle. Light. Melodious.

“Just stop before you get stuck.” He gently
pulled her top back over her head.

Then he rested back on his haunches and
laughed again.

She couldn’t tell if he was laughing at her,
but it certainly didn’t seem derogatory.

“
Come on.” He tilted his head towards the
hatch. As he broke her gaze and turned to the hatch, his eyes
lingered on her for a few seconds.

Then, with a cough, he opened the hatch and
clambered out.

There were already people in the corridor.
B'cal and a few other engineers.

B'cal took one look at Hunter’s naked torso
and cleared his throat. “I’m not even going to ask.”

Hunter visibly flushed. “I used my top to
soak up the neural gel on her armlet. It was the only thing at hand
absorbent enough.”

B'cal shrugged. “Well that does make
sense. Anyhow, where’s my gel leak?”

Ava hesitated, then proffered her arm.

B'cal raised an eyebrow. He pursed his
lips together and whistled. “Those armlets of yours save the day
again, ha? One of these days you’re going to have to tell me what
they’re made of. Most metal would have been eaten away within a few
minutes of exposure to neural gel.”

She didn’t say anything.

She couldn’t.

“
Anyhow, come here.” B'cal plucked a
scanner from his belt and waved it over her armlet. He nodded.
“Damn, it’s holding up alright. The residual neuro gel hasn’t eaten
through it. Hasn’t even dented it as far as I can tell.” He
whistled through his teeth.

“So there is residual gel?” Hunter
blurted.

“
Sure is. Only so much you can mop up with
a lieutenant’s top. We’re going to have to clear the rest back in a
decon room. In any another circumstance, I wouldn’t advise walking,
but you seem fine,” he nodded at her, “So let’s go.”

“Wait, is that safe?” Hunter blurted
again.

“
Relax, lieutenant – you’ve done a pretty
good job containing any residual gel with that insulation. She’ll
be fine to walk. And frankly, considering the state this ship’s in,
it’ll be quicker. So come on.”

She pushed off, and Hunter took up step
beside her.

B'cal arched his eyebrow. “Lieutenant, you
might want to take the opportunity to nip back to your quarters and
put on a top.”

Hunter cleared his throat.

He looked at her once more before
reluctantly pushing off into a sprint.

He’d changed.

Quickly.

When he’d argued with her this morning,
she’d been ready to write him off.

Now she was starting to realize he was a
decent man. Maybe something even more….

“Keep your arm steady, don’t go banging it
into anything,” B'cal warned from beside her. “Luckily for us, a
decon room is close.”

She nodded.

They reached the room at the end of the
deck. By the time she’d walked inside, somehow Hunter was
back.

B'cal narrowed his eyes and looked at him
warily. “How in the hell did you run back to your quarters so
quickly?”

Though Hunter was puffed, he didn’t look
as if he’d run the more than kilometer expanse of the
Mandalay.

“I ran to the armory,” Hunter explained as
he quickly caught his breath. Then he nodded at her. “Have you
cleaned it yet?”

“
We haven’t even begun,” B'cal snorted.
“Some of us aren’t as fast as you.”

“Well, what do you need?” Hunter asked
hurriedly.

“Nothing. This should be relatively simple,”
B'cal mumbled.

It wasn’t simple.

…

Lieutenant Hunter
McClane

Something wasn’t right. He didn’t need to
rely on the sinking feeling pushing through his gut – he could see
it in B'cal’s pressed stare.