The Marine's Queen (30 page)

He kissed her, drowning in the warm, familiar welcome of her embrace. Every time they made love, he understood it could be their last.

As their bodies became one, he wondered if their union stopped at the physical joining. His climax exploded upon him, pouring his seed deep inside her. If he had believed he had a soul, he would have sworn it also flowed from him to her.

* * * *

“
So, Captain Edow, what do you think?” Callie pretended to sip the potent wine she’d ordered served with dinner. Her father always claimed wine mellowed a man.

“
I can’t make a judgment, your highness.” Edow took only a scant sip of his wine. “I’m only here to gather information and collect the escaped renegade.”

“
We’re only asking you to have an open mind, sir. Do you believe what we told you about Hadrason?”

Edow frowned. “Those of us who patrol the trade routes have questioned some practices of Hadrason Mining. Our inquiries never seem to go very far up the chain of command.”

“
Captain Edow.” Joe entered the door that led from the kitchens.

Callie wanted to throw her wine glass at him. She’d instructed Joe to hide until she was sure they could trust Edow.

The captain stood, his eyes wide. “They didn’t tell me who the outlaw was.”

The other officers looked as shocked as their captain.

Sontu looked at Callie and shook his head.

Joe stayed where he was, his hands spread wide to show he had no weapons.

“
We heard they’d court-martialed the Interplanetary Recon Marines.” Edow walked around the table, never taking his gaze off Joe.

“
I surrender.”

Callie’s heart cried out a protest, but she stiffened her spine and pushed her emotions down. “Hadrason would frame Joe for Smeltz’s murder. I can testify against that lie.”

“
And I have the video evidence that proves Joe’s innocence,” Sontu added.

Edow stopped three steps from Joe. “The Recon Marines were sentenced to life imprisonment on the Nye moon. Wait. Did she call you Joe? You’re the leader of the marines?”

“
I am Joe and was the leader. The Recon Marines are no more.”

“
The charges against Joe are false,” Callie insisted.

“
And do you have video prove that the first charges were untrue, your highness?” Edow asked without looking away from Joe.

“
I give myself into your custody, captain.” Joe didn’t look at Callie. “I ask to be taken to a civilian court for my hearing.”

“
I’m going with him,” Callie said.

Edow signaled one of his officers. The man unhooked a thin chain of crystallized iron from his belt. Joe’s mouth tightened as the soldier fastened the inescapable shackles to his wrists and then around his waist.

“
I’ll deliver you to the civilian base at Banok.” Edow still stared at Joe. “Out of respect for the sacrifices and service the Recon Marines have given to the Galactic Military, I will personally guarantee your safe arrival.”

“
I don’t want the queen to accompany me,” Joe said without looking Callie’s way.

“
As you wish,” Edow agreed quickly. “Thank you for your hospitality, your highness.”

Edow led the way in a quick exit before Callie could argue against Joe’s shocking request.

“
Callie.” Sontu’s tired gaze followed the last of the officers out the door. “Joe asked me to keep you here. He doesn’t want his trial to taint you.”

“
To hell with what he wants.” Callie started toward her quarters. “Get a ship ready. We leave within the hour.”

Chapter Fifteen

The brig wasn’t uncomfortable. They served him regular military fare, the same as he’d eaten all his life until the last few weeks.

The last few weeks. Joe began his conditioning workout. Marines knew how to stay in shape even in cramped quarters. He worked until sweat soaked his body, and his muscles quivered. Then he worked more until it took all his willpower to continue.

“
Trying to kill yourself before your trial?” Edow asked, one eyebrow raised and a half smile curving his lips.

Joe had heard the man approach, but he’d hoped the captain only wanted to check on his prisoner’s condition.

“
I saw you and your men in action on Pixtel,” Edow said after waiting a long moment for Joe to answer.

Joe stopped working and drank from the water outlet on the wall. Four of his men had died on Pixtel. He didn’t want to think about it.

“
You guys were like a rain of bullets the way you cut a swath through those lizards. We were supposed to be your backup. Two hundred aliens and you finished them off with about thirty marines.”

Irritation overcame Joe’s desire to be alone. “The Recon Marines were bred and trained to be killing machines, captain. It’s what we do. What we did.”

“
And why would a killing machine protect a flighty princess?”

“
Flighty?” Joe didn’t know what the word meant, but it sounded insulting. “She’s a queen.”

“
And what are you? Her knight?”

Joe gripped the bars separating him from the captain. He sensed no sarcasm, but what did he know about the nuances of speech? “What do you want? Speak plainly.”

Edow stepped closer. “I’m trying to get your measure. I’ll be questioned about the situation on Giroux.”

Joe could reach through the bars and break the man’s neck if he wished. But if simply answering Edow’s questions helped Callie, Joe would tell the man anything. “I lost four men on Pixtel.”

Joe walked to the back of his small cell and sat on the floor, leaning his head against the wall. “By the time we were ordered to subdue the lizard invaders, I’d begun to suspect we were being given suicide missions. Why send thirty men against those large numbers when regular army like you were available?”

“
I remember thinking the same thing myself.” Edow pulled a chair near the bars and sat down. “But why?”

“
I’d questioned some orders a few missions before that one. We were sent to assess a settlement on some little tropical planet. We found a small colony of illegal squatters farming in a fertile valley.” Joe recalled the scene clearly. “It was the first time we’d ever seen a human village like that. They never even knew we were there, looking at them through our sights. There were children running in the fields. We could hear people laughing, smell bread baking. We withdrew and reported our findings. After our next mission, I found out they had sent in a star cruiser and fried the entire area.”

“
Who ordered it?”

“
Someone who didn’t like me asking questions after I found out about it.”

“
And your court-martial offense?”

“
Looking back, I think it was a test. We were ordered to attack a pirate enclave, but when we got there we found no pirates or pirate ships. Just another uncharted town filled with women, children, and simple houses. We refused. I refused. They arrested us. By then there were only eleven of us left. They sent in someone to destroy the town anyway.”

“
How did they countermand your argument at your trial?”

“
We weren’t permitted to speak or testify. The army owns us. I was the only one permitted to attend.”

“
Did no one speak for you?”

“
Many spoke against us.”

“
Joe, I think you were set up.”

“
Set up for what?”

Edow stood up and began to pace. “Set up to take a fall so what you knew could never come out. You saved Queen Callie when her ship crashed on the same planet where you were stranded?”

“
Yes.”

“
Why?”

“
My primary duty as a Recon Marine is to protect the people, civilians, of the Galactic Alliance. Isn’t it yours also, captain?”

“
It is. I assume that when you were court-martialed you were stripped of your military status.”

Joe nodded. It had been the last ignominious actions taken against them.

“
Then you are a civilian, and as a civilian you can request a law expert to defend you. You also have the right to the protection of me and my soldiers.” Edow placed his hand flat against an identification panel and then punched in a code. The bars retracted into the ceiling. “Would you care to join me for a meal, Joe?”

* * * *

“
Will we catch up to them, Jak?”

“
It doesn’t matter if we do.” Jak leaned over the shoulder of one of the pilots. “I wish we had brought a bigger ship and more men. Joe will be furious to see you have only me and ten men to guard you.”

“
He can rant about it when we free him.” As if Joe would ever display such emotion. “I’ll have my own set to with him about his high-handedness in trying to keep me away.”

“
He was only thinking of you.” Jak moved to a different display, asking a quiet question of the soldier examining the input of the ship’s sensors.

Callie didn’t doubt Joe’s loyalty or his willingness to make a personal sacrifice for her. When did those things cross the line and become love? Would Joe know love if he felt it? Could he feel such a deep emotion? If she told him of her love, would he run or feel even more indebted?

She sensed his feelings of obligation though she didn’t understand his reasoning. He’d saved her and her friends on Crevan Four, but he acted like she’d rescued him. She wanted Joe with her forever, but only if he freely chose to remain. She didn’t want him tied to her by his overwhelming ideas of duty.

Jak spoke with the officer working the communication station. Callie watched their expressions, realizing the captain had acted distracted when they spoke moments ago. When he retraced his steps to speak with the pilots again, alarm surged through her thoughts.

“
What is it, Captain Sontu?”

Jak pulled her aside and lowered his voice. “We’re being followed. It’s a large ship, and they’re not trying to hide.”

“
How long until they overtake us?”

“
Two earth hours.”

“
You believe they’re hostile?”

“
They won’t answer our hails, your highness.”

Callie stared out the front viewing screen, seeing nothing but glittering lights from stars so distant no traveler had ever visited them. It seemed as if the obstacles in her life stretched as endlessly. “How far ahead is Edow’s ship?”

“
No less than ten earth hours. They’re able to move faster than us.”

“
Request their aid and apprise them of what we know. If our shadow is an innocent and only a rude traveler, I’ll apologize the Captain Edow.”

“
They won’t get here in time.”

“
I know.” Callie wished her Sentinel was at her side.

* * * *

Major Hooper joined them for dinner. He and Edow discussed shipping lanes while they ate.

Joe only half listened, his thoughts on Callie and worrying about her safety with Hadrason still on the loose. Hopefully the mine owner was on the run and no danger to anyone, but Joe couldn’t stop worrying about it.

“
Joe, did your unit ever go into the Foxanna system?” Edow asked, pulling Joe back into the conversation.

“
Once.”

Edow did the thing with his eyebrow. “Want to expand on that answer?”

Joe realized the raised eyebrow indicated amusement. And expanding on the answer would require conversation. Joe needed to practice conversing about things beyond giving or taking orders. “It was early in our deployment. We still numbered forty-two. One planet and one moon had been judged habitable for humans by an unmanned probe.”