Combustion, p.9
Combustion, page 9
He glanced outside again. “Intellectual curiosity. I’m a doctor and I’m interested in studying human sexuality.”
Flashing her an almost boyish grin, he walked to the bathroom and closed the door. She heard water running.
“Experience is the best teacher,” she called.
He stepped out and approached the bed. Sitting beside her, he caressed her cheek with the very tips of his fingers. “You do have a wild side.”
“I’m a pilot, right? I must enjoy exploring new territory.”
“Do you think our handsome agent would be interested?”
“So you are attracted to him.”
“He’s good looking enough and I haven’t been with a man since my relief partner when I was in med school. Until I met you, I’d been using the meds for years.”
“Why did you stop? Did you like me that much?” she purred.
“You know I do -- or at least you did know before this amnesia.”
“But your old partner was a man.”
“I had no interest in having children. Neither did he. Like most Pixiens, all we cared about was satisfying our monthly hunger. It was very -- impersonal.”
“What about me? Did I have a relief partner?”
“No. You told me you preferred the drugs because you got emotionally attached to the one relief partner you had. It’s difficult for Pixiens who want to share their life as well as sex with a partner. We were all talking one time aboard ship and we confessed that’s why we’re interested in humans. Mating for life is accepted on Earth. This species shares everything with each other. I find that fascinating. You said you did too.”
The lights went out abruptly.
The storm must have knocked out the power.
A moment later, the room lit up. Carlos had taken a light stick from his backpack.
“We could walk to the main lobby to see if Norm still has his radio on so we can hear a weather report,” Carlos said.
“Will it make a difference? Regardless of the weather, we have nowhere else to go but here.”
“True. We might as well try to get some sleep.” Carlos walked to the bed and climbed in. He doused the light stick and placed it on the night table.
Erica moved toward him and he tugged her closer.
The wind roared outside. Rain pelted the window. Still, a short time later she drifted to sleep, snug in Carlos’ arms.
* * *
I can’t keep on course,” Erica shouted, her heart pounding and her fingers flying over the control panel.
She switched to manual and gripped the navigational bar, but the ship didn’t respond. It continued its haphazard course toward Earth.
Carlos approached and made a failed attempt to pull back the bar.
“It’s no use.” Captain Wyatt rushed onto the bridge, his green eyes wild. He looked like he’d been fighting. One eye was blackened and bloody scratches covered his angular face.
“Trevor damaged the engine. Abandon ship. Now.”
“But, sir --” Carlos began.
“Now!” Wyatt bellowed.
“Get to the hatch,” Carlos told Erica.
“Where are you going?”
“To grab our gear bags.”
Before leaving the cockpit, Erica set the ship back on autopilot -- just in case.
Seconds later, she rushed to the hatch. Carlos tossed her a gear bag. They quickly pulled on their wings.
“Go, Erica,” Carlos shouted.
She glanced at him and as she jumped, she heard a thundering crash.
* * *
Erica sat up fast, her heart slamming against her ribs.
Carlos jumped out of bed and ran to the window.
“A tree fell on Ian’s car,” he said and threw open the door. He ran out, not bothering with boots. Erica pulled on hers and followed.
The top of a tree that had blown over in the storm had smashed several of Ian’s car windows. If not for the roof racks, the branches probably would have caved in the entire roof.
“Ian!” Carlos called.
The agent struggled to open his car door. Carlos pulled on it as well.
Finally Ian staggered out, his face covered in lacerations from the smashed window. How he had managed to escape the tree branches themselves Erica couldn’t say, but at this moment, he had to be the luckiest man in the universe.
His coat sleeve and the shirt beneath were torn through to his skin and soaked in blood.
“I don’t fuckin’ believe this!” roared Norm, stumbling through the muddy parking lot. He stared dumfounded at the tree. “Shit! Boy, are you all right?”
“Basically,” Ian said, glancing at his arm. “I’m bleeding pretty bad, though.”
“Come on. I’m a doctor. I’ll help you.” Carlos grasped his good arm and tugged him toward his and Erica’s room.
Chapter Five
In the room, Ian sat on the chair while Carlos opened his gear bag. He snapped on protective gloves and removed an extra pair for Erica.
“I can use your help,” Carlos said. “Do you think you can --”
“It’s not like I haven’t helped you before, Carlos. When Jace damn near cut his finger off while making adjustments on the engine, who assisted you?”
Carlos’ blue eyes widened a bit and he smiled. “Erica? You remember that?”
“I should have trusted you when you said my memory would return. After all, you’re the doctor.”
“Uh, guys, some help here?” Ian said, clamping a hand over the slice on his arm.
“You’ll be fine,” Carlos told him. While he cleaned the wound, Erica assisted him.
Then Carlos used his medical scanner to neatly seal the cut.
“You won’t have much of a scar,” Carlos told Ian who was staring at his wound, his brow furrowed.
“Doesn’t matter,” Ian said. “One more scar isn’t going to bother me. That device is amazing.”
“I try not to leave home without it.” Carlos winked. He made a few adjustments on the device, then he turned back to Ian and pressed the fine metal tip to his upper arm.
“What was that for?” Ian demanded.
“It’ll help you relax.”
Before Carlos finished speaking, Ian slumped forward, unconscious. Carlos caught him and struggled to carry him to the bed.
“I should have told him to lie down first,” Carlos grunted. “He’s a big fucker, as they say on this planet.”
Erica grabbed Ian’s feet and helped Carlos carry him to the bed. He was right. Ian was quite tall, his body hard and athletic.
With their unlikely guest sprawled on the bed, they stared down at him.
“Now what?” Erica asked. “Did you knock him out so we can escape? The weather is really bad and we have no idea where the ship is.”
Carlos strode across the room and searched through the pockets of Ian’s coat. He grinned and removed Brock’s communicator. “We do now. Let’s see if the communicator itself is working.”
“It’s been almost three days since the crash,” Erica said, glad her memory was finally working again. She recalled landing in an open field with Carlos. From there they had made their way to a small town where they had been given directions to this motel. Luckily they had their Earth-style wallets in their gear packs, so they had ID and currency.
Since they didn’t have their communicators, Carlos had suggested they stay at the motel for a few days. That would give the others a chance to locate them. Unfortunately Trevor had been the one to find them and that hadn’t ended well -- especially for Trevor.
Carlos turned on the communicator and they searched frequencies, hoping to locate their shipmates.
Finally they heard Tiana’s voice. “Carlos? We found your ship, and I’ve been tracking you all day. I’m not far, but this storm is slowing me down.”
“You’re on foot?”
“I’m in the woods. Not the best place to be right now. Jace is injured. I don’t think he has much time. We need you.”
Carlos and Erica glanced at each other. “We have to go,” she said.
Carlos nodded at Erica and spoke into the communicator, “Is he at the ship?”
“Yes.”
“Then we have its location and we’ll leave right away. Have you heard from Wyatt?”
“No. I thought he was wearing a wrist communicator, but we haven’t been able to contact him. He’s in a nearby city, though. Our scanners have picked him up, but we haven’t been able to get to him. The ship is our priority, per Wyatt’s orders. Jace needed me to help with repairs. Now that he’s injured, I needed to find help. Without Jace, we probably won’t get off this planet at all.”
Tiana sounded pretty worried, and that wasn’t like her. The security guard kept her cool in the worst situations.
“All right. We’ll help Jace first, then we’ll find Wyatt,” Carlos said.
“Since you have the location of the ship, I’m getting back to Jace.”
“We’ll see you soon,” Carlos told her before ending the communication. He turned to Erica. “Are you ready?”
“Let’s go.”
They quickly changed into their uniform clothes made from special Pixien material that adapted to the wearer’s body for warmth or coolness.
“I wish the power packs on our wings hadn’t depleted when we abandoned ship,” Erica said. “Speaking of the ship, how far away is it?”
“Like Ian said. About thirty miles through the woods.”
“Thirty miles! On foot that will take us --”
“We’re not going on foot. We’re taking those dirt bikes Norm has for sale in the carport.”
“Carlos, we can’t just take them.”
“Do we have a choice? The roads are closed and Jace is seriously injured. We have enough currency to pay his asking price, so we’ll leave it behind, but we can’t make an outright purchase. I don’t want any questions asked. It’s not only Jace’s life that’s on the line. If Ian can’t be trusted -- and if he’s anything like the government agents on the home world, he can’t -- then we’re all in danger. And we don’t have time to argue about it.”
“Speaking of Ian, will he be all right?” she asked, glancing at the agent. Now that he was unconscious and not staring at them with his unsettling eyes, he looked almost vulnerable.
“He’ll wake in an hour or two. By then we’ll be long gone.”
“You were planning something like this even before we contacted Tiana, weren’t you? To get away from him.”
“Of course.”
“And he’ll be fine when he wakes up?”
Carlos’ brow furrowed. “Yes, I’m sure. Do you think I want to hurt him? I just want to stop him from spying on us so we can find our crewmates and go home.”
“You really think he’d stop us?”
“He’ll do whatever his superiors tell him.”
“He said he could help us.”
“Did he help Brock?” Carlos stepped closer to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Did he?”
“No.”
“We have to go.”
She stepped away and Carlos tugged out his medical scanner. He sat next to Ian and ran the device over him. “Just making sure his vital signs are normal.”
Erica watched him carefully. “You like him, don’t you? Despite him being an agent.”
“The guy has a certain rough charm,” Carlos admitted.
“Remember what we talked about on the ship?”
“We talked about a lot,” Carlos said softly, his expression evasive.
“About exploring human sexuality first hand. He’d be interesting to experiment with, wouldn’t he?”
“Bad idea. And impossible. We’re leaving.”
“But --”
“No point talking about it, Erica.” Carlos rose. “Let’s go.”
She sighed. When he got in this mood, prodding him was useless. But they would discuss it later -- not that it would do any good. Like he said, they were leaving and would never see Ian again.
It was probably for the best. No matter how intriguing Ian was, Carlos was right. He couldn’t be trusted.
They grabbed their gear and their helmets and headed for the door.
Outside, the severe wind seemed to have passed, but cold rain pelted them as they headed toward the carport.
Chapter Six
“You are completely insane,” Carlos said, dismounting his bike a short distance from their crashed ship.
It had landed deep in the forest and sat amidst broken trees and crumbled rocks.
Carlos pulled off his helmet and glared at her. Like Erica, his clothes were splattered with mud.
“What possessed me to let you take the lead?” he continued.
“Because I’m the pilot. Travel is my specialty.”
“It’s amazing we got out of our galaxy alive.”
She pulled off her helmet so she could glare at him better.
The hatch on the side of the ship rose and a boarding ramp lowered.
Tall and imposing with long, braided black hair, Tiana stood at the top of the ramp and called, “Hurry! He’s in bad shape.”
“Go.” Erica told Carlos. “I’ll get our stuff.”
He grabbed his backpack with his emergency medical supplies and raced up the ramp. Erica grabbed their gear and followed.
The inside of the ship looked relatively unharmed. When she glanced into sick bay, Carlos and Tiana stood over Jace, who lay unconscious on the single bunk. His face was extremely pale, especially in contrast to his dark, wavy hair. Though not tall, Jace had a muscular frame that was partially exposed since a sheet covered him to his waist. Other than a bandage across his ribs, his torso was bare.
“Erica, will you assist me?” Carlos asked.
She glanced at Tiana whose grave expression took her aback. Usually the woman was in complete control.
“Of course.” Erica stepped into sick bay.
“Tiana, there’s nothing you can do here,” Carlos told her. “Go relax.”
“How can I relax?”
“Then try to contact the captain,” Erica suggested, seeing that their companion needed something -- anything -- to take her mind off Jace.
With one last worried look toward the unconscious engineer, Tiana left sick bay. The door slid shut behind her. Since the ship was quite small, sick bay was scarcely large enough for Carlos and Erica to work comfortably together.
“Am I wrong or did Tiana loathe Jace? Before we crashed, they were fighting like the ancients,” Erica said.
“Apparently things have changed.” Carlos focused on the bandage he was removing from Jace.
Erica sighed and prepared to assist him. By the look of Jace, they had arrived without a moment to lose.
“Is he going to make it?” Erica whispered.
Carlos didn’t reply, but glanced at her briefly. That look alone told her what she’d already guessed. Their engineer hovered on the brink of death.
* * *
“Carlos, you’re amazing,” Erica said.
Several hours later, they stood in sick bay, watching Jace rest peacefully. His color had already started to return and his breathing was slow and even.
“I’m amazing? If it wasn’t for you ladies, I wouldn’t have been able to save him.” He glanced at Erica and Tiana. The security guard sat on a stool, sipping a restorative drink.
During the surgery Carlos had performed, Jace had required a transfusion that Tiana had willingly supplied. Her blood, along with Carlos’ skills, had saved Jace’s life.
Erica opened the sick bay door and stepped out. It had been a very long day, but Jace was finally out of danger.
“Was he able to repair the ship enough for us to take off?” Carlos asked Tiana.
“I don’t know. When I got back here after leaving to search for you two, I found him in the engine room, unconscious. I don’t know how he even made it there from his quarters. He’s determined to get this ship moving again.”
“Sounds like you two have made a truce?” Erica prodded gently.
From the moment they’d met, Tiana had hated Jace, mostly because she felt that as an ex-con he had no business on this mission. Wyatt had handpicked every member of the crew except Trevor and he felt Jace was the best man for the job. Erica trusted Wyatt and obviously he’d been right. Jace had nearly given his life to repair the ship. He had proved that despite his past, he could be trusted.
“Tiana, you should get some rest,” Carlos said. “Erica and I will keep watch around here.”
“We need to get Wyatt,” Tiana said. “I have his location, but like I said, his communicator must be damaged.”
“You need to get some sleep,” Carlos advised. “Doctor’s orders.”
At Tiana’s skeptical look, Erica told her, “We’ll keep trying to contact Wyatt. Once you’ve had some rest and Jace is completely out of danger, we’ll get the captain.”
Tiana nodded and stood wearily. Before leaving sick bay, she bent and brushed Jace’s mouth with a tender kiss.
Carlos and Erica glanced at each other in surprise.
“Looks like things really have changed around here,” Carlos said. “And we’ve only been gone a few days.”
“Sorry it’s not just the two of you with a secret relationship anymore,” Tiana said.
Carlos and Erica again looked surprised.
“You know about that?” Carlos asked.
“Everyone knew about that,” Tiana said. “You guys weren’t as discreet as you thought. The inside of this ship has thin walls.”
Erica’s face heated. “I said you were too loud, Carlos.”
“I’m not the one who’s loud.”
Tiana chuckled softly as she made her way to her quarters.
Smiling wickedly, Erica stepped close to Carlos and slid her hand over his crotch. “I think we should practice being quiet.”
“Practice makes perfect.” He tugged her into his arms and covered her mouth in a passionate kiss.
He backed her out of sick bay and into the small lounge behind the cockpit. Carlos sat on the sleek silver chair built into the wall and Erica straddled him. He caressed her back and she wove her fingers through his hair while they teased each other with deep, slow kisses.
