Impedimenta
Ann Somerville
This story is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Impedimenta Copyright © 2009 by Ann Somerville
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This novella is a sequel to Interstitial (http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/interstitial). There is a previous, free to read sequel, Synchronised, (http://www.logophilos.net/synchronised/synchronised_1_1.php) which takes place about two years before the start of this novella.
For more information please visit my website at http://logophilos.net
Cover art © Luca Oleastri (http://www.innovari.it) via Fotalia (http://us.fotolia.com/id/9444366)
Smashwords Edition 1, June 2010
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Published by Ann Somerville
Impedimenta
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
North’s voice cut easily through the background buzz of machines and public announcements echoing through the departure area. “Jati?”
She dropped her pack and was already smiling before she turned around to find him staring at her in obvious shock. “Oh, hi.”
She braced herself as he reached her in two long strides and swept her up into a bone-crushing hug. She nestled shamelessly into North’s big arms and familiar strength. “You’d think you hadn’t seen me in a year, Jason.”
“Near enough.” He let her go and didn’t even whine about her using his first name. He’d matured a lot in two years. It suited him. “You look fabulous. But why are you here? Last I heard, you were out on Tario, I think?”
“No, finished that job three months ago. Been on Ril since then. Now I’m heading to Galini. Didn’t Seb tell you I’d signed on as flight engineer for the trip and the new spaceport project?”
His mouth opened and closed and she laughed at his shock. “Forgot to tell you, huh?”
“I’ll kill him.” But all he did was hug her again. “It’s so good to see you again. So good.”
The undercurrent of something in his voice made her push him back so she could search his face. “Are you okay? You and Seb didn’t break up or anything, did you?”
His too-pretty blue eyes clouded for a microsecond, then he shook himself. “Nah. We’re fine. I’m fine. You’re really coming with us?”
She looked over his shoulder and grinned. “Why don’t you ask our boss?”
North turned, saw Seb walking towards them, and shook his fist. “Damn man.”
Seb was the picture of innocence for all of three seconds. “Something wrong, Pilot North? Glad to see you’ve discovered our missing team-mate.” Then he grinned back at Jati, and leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Lovely to see you again, my dear.”
He wasn’t getting away with that. She grabbed his arm and gave him a proper hug. “You too, cap’n,” she whispered. Seb looked the same as always—aristocratically handsome, lean and fit, the dark hair maybe a touch greyer, but his brown eyes still sharply intelligent. “You okay?”
“Completely fine. Uh, but we have company.” He eased her embrace gently off him and pointed behind him. Two people stood by a ground transport—a dark-haired man, and an elegant brown-skinned woman—both wearing flight crew uniforms and with personal packs at their feet. They were clearly waiting for Seb to introduce them. “Jati, North, I’d like you to meet Jorge Mendes and Liz Marby. They’ve just come off a year’s active service too. Jorge, Liz, this is Jatila Kan, senior engineer, and Jason North, senior pilot.”
She started to smile and hold her hand out in greeting, then froze in shock as both the newcomers snapped smartly to attention and saluted. “Captain Kan, Captain North, an honour and a pleasure, ma’am, sir.” Mendes said.
She blinked. North cracked up. “We’re famous, hon. The others pulled the same trick on me.”
“You set me up.”
“No, he didn’t, Captain.” The man stepped forward and held out his hand. Jati shook it. Nice eyes. “Jorge Mendes. It really is an honour. You’re a hero. You all are.”
“Yes you are,” the woman added, taking Jorge’s place, and offering her own hand. “Liz Marby, Captain.”
Jati accepted the handshake, noting the strength in the woman’s slim fingers. “Just Jati, Liz. We’re not on active service now. Nice to meet you both.” North shook hands as well. Jati looked around the bustling staff area but saw no one else obviously connected to Seb. “So where’s the rest of them?”
North grabbed her pack before she could protest. “Already on board. Seb was going to give orientation as soon as the stragglers turned up. Didn’t mention any names of course.” He gave his lover a significant look, which Seb met calmly and without a trace of guilt. “I can’t believe you’re going to be on this project. It’ll be just like old times.”
“God, I hope not,” Jati said tartly. “Come on, guys. I want to meet everyone.”
Seb had commandeered the transport for the five of them to travel across to the loading bay for their ship, the Kuniz. She was an older ship, a solid cargo vessel, but with very limited passenger accommodation. Didn’t bother Jati at all, that part—she didn’t want to be responsible for hundreds of lives again. Not in space at least. But it had been two years since she’d signed on as ship’s engineer, and she was looking forward to it. Not quite like old times, but that was good too.
As the transport whined its way across the massive expanse of the loading hangar, her new companions smiled at her. To her surprise, there was frank admiration in both friendly expressions. Jati thought of herself as mostly heterosexual, but Liz would turn anyone’s head. As for Jorge...he had such a lovely smile. Jati grinned at the two of them. “Excited?”
“Always,” Jorge said. “Bet you’re glad we’re heading away from the perimeter.”
“If a Karhal gets through, there won’t be any safe places,” Liz said.
North gave a theatrical groan. “She had to say that word.”
“Don’t worry, guys. This is a milk run,” Jati said.
Jorge clapped his forehead. “Oh no, she had to say those words.” Liz shook her head in mock-disgust.
“Got to agree with him, Jati,” Seb said from the driving seat. “You can think ‘there won’t be any problems’ but you never, ever say ‘milk run’ out loud. It’s asking for trouble.”
“Shut up, all of you. Stupid suspicious spacers.” That only made the grins even more annoying. Still, Jati felt the tiniest shiver in her soul. She really didn’t want a repeat of the situation on the Naurus. Once was more than bloody enough.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
North wandered into the tiny crew lounge, and found it empty, which, since there were only the four official crew members, was hardly surprising. The sixteen non-crew engineers—and Sam Barnes, the ship’s medic for the flight—usually headed for the larger and slightly more congenial passenger space to spend time with each other. Even that lounge was a dump compared to those on other ships North had flown on. The Kuniz wasn’t a patch on the Naurus but when a ship was only carting equipment, not paying passengers, there was no point in prettying it up. Right now, North was only too glad to get away from the rest of the people on board.
With orientation over and the cargo being loaded by a highly experienced hanger crew, he had little to do until take off but study the flight manual and be pissed at his boss and lover. Which wasn’t anything new these days. Not over Jati—he liked that kind of surprise. No, Seb was doing his “why don’t you go meet some nice young people for a change?” act again and seriously, he needed to knock it off, or North was going to...dunno. Tell Seb to knock it off, probably. It wasn’t like he would give Seb the satisfaction of proving him right by going off and finding someone closer to his own age, the way Seb seemed to think North should. The guy was only forty, not eighty.
It didn’t help that their entire complement consisted of ‘age-appropriate’ singles, and North could have been a little suspicious about that except Seb swore he had nothing to do with assigning project participants, only his own three crew members—North, Jati and Sam. Which had to be true, but the passengers on the Kuniz looked like Seb’s worst paranoid mutterings come to life. Didn’t the guy realise that he was more than enough man for North to handle? He didn’t want anyone else. Trouble was, he wasn’t entirely sure sometimes if Seb didn’t.
He should be looking forward to this, and he was. Or he had been until he’d met the engineers and technicians and flight medic heading to Galini to build a new terrestrial spaceport, and realised he would be spending more than six months being pushed at each and every one of them by his lover who spent more time trying to dissuade North from his ‘infatuation’ than he did at working at their relationship. Seb wasn’t old, but this sure was.
At least Liz was gay, and therefore completely safe. Mendes, whose wife had died a few years ago, was allegedly straight, but North had heard that before. Sam Barnes was dangerous. Seb liked Sam, and he thought North should too. Which was incredibly annoying because North did like Sam, but every time he spoke to the guy, he had to keep an eye out in case Seb saw them together and got some stupid encouragement out of it all. Dating the universe’s most neurotic war hero was really tiring.
“We’re not even in space and you’re sulking.”
He looked up from his flight manual and scowled at Jati. “Not even in space and you’re already nagging.”
“I thought you were glad I was coming along.”
“I am.” He sighed, closed the reader screen down and patted the seat next to him.
“So what’s biting you this time? It’s him, isn’t it? I thought you two were settling down. Isn’t that why you bought the apartment?”
“Yeah, it was. I thought we were, but it’s like...every time we seem to be really hitting our stride, Seb gets scared or something. Like he realises we might actually make a go of it, and he’s terrified we will. I don’t understand it. If he doesn’t want me around, then why not say it?”
She played with the end of her braid, and looked thoughtful. “Why do you put up with it?”
“Because I love the hell out of him. You know that.”
“Then I guess you put up with whatever’s bothering him until it stops.”
He made a face. “Gee, that’s helpful. I thought you were going to pull out some womanly intuition and tell me why he’s such an idiot.”
“Nope. I’m an engineer, not a counsellor. Besides, you know him best, and you probably already know why he’s doing this, and if you didn’t think he was worth the effort, you’d be gone. So you’ve just got to wait it out.”
“Yeah.” He glanced at her. “So how are things going with you? Still seeing Lucas?”
“Him? God no. That was....” She had to think. “Um, just after I last saw you, I think. I wasn’t that into him. Had better things to do with all the courses and stuff. The promotion was worth more to me than him.”
He shook his head. “You’re cold.”
“Just practical. I wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for the promotion.”
He poked her in the arm. “You got the promotion because of what you did on the Naurus.”
“So did you but we still had to make the grade, right, Captain?” She chuckled to herself. “Those two nearly gave me a heart attack, saluting like that.”
“Was worse when ten of them did it all at once. More for Seb than for me, but some of it was for me. I wasn’t expecting it. Didn’t feel I deserved it either. Not when we made it and the others didn’t.”
She took his hand, and he was glad of it. “People just want to say thanks. We did let everyone know the Karhal were on the prowl again. That’s a pretty big thing in itself. You heard they found two more out near Derpat? Just last week.”
“Shit—seriously?” He let his head fall back against the sofa back. “At least we shouldn’t have any of that. We might die of boredom though. Galini’s pretty backward.”
“Best fun I’ve had in my entire career was that three months on Nukvan just after call-up was cancelled. The locals could really party, and they were really grateful to the pretty engineer who helped them build the intercontinental maglev line.”
“Got some action, did you?”
She shook her hand and blew on it. “It was hot.”
He rolled his eyes. Who did she think she was kidding? “So hot you immediately signed up to go on patrols like I did.”
She shrugged. “They needed flight-capable engineers, and I needed the experience. Plus, you know...I needed to.”
“Yeah.” He’d felt the same. He’d stayed on as Seb’s pilot until more reports of Karhal had come in, and then he’d reactivated himself from reserve on a year’s contract. Seb had tried to as well, but they’d turned him down on account of his age and his ‘essential occupation’. That decision hadn’t gone down well at all. It had been the closest they’d come to fighting their way out of the relationship they’d started to build. At least it wasn’t a personal thing. But since then Seb had been on this ‘I’m not worthy’ kick and North wanted to shake him. “Liz’s nice, don’t you think?”
“Beautiful. Funny too. Not my type though—you know, female.”
“You should let her know.”
“I don’t plan to spend the flight sleeping my way through the team, North. You’re the only crew I’ve ever—” She stopped, looked away. “Sorry. Ancient history.”
He patted her hand. “Not that ancient, and sorry.” Seb’s unsubtle matchmaking had made him assume shit, and it wasn’t professional. “I better see if the loading’s finished.”
“And I have to go check on a few things.” She kissed his cheek. “I think this is a good opportunity for the two of you. It’ll be fun.”
“Hope you’re right.”
She loped off, and he picked up his discarded reader. He didn’t leave, though, but stared at the wall, seeing...things he wished he could unsee. Unremember.
The promotion hadn’t been worth that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 2
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Seb eased his way out of the BRAIN’s mind, and the flood of information dropped back to the usual background whispering, easily ignored unless he needed not to. North’s face lost its intent expression, and he stretched a little. “And that’s us for the next four weeks.”
“Pretty much,” Seb agreed. “Did you feel that kickback from the third aft stabiliser?”
North nodded. Now he was a senior pilot, he was expected to connect to the BRAIN same as Seb did and with similar ease, and though he wasn’t as naturally talented as Seb was in that direction, his skills improved with every flight. Seb had been impressed.
“We’ll need to keep an eye on it. She needs a bit more nursing than some, but then she’s an old girl.” Seb patted the console in front of him. “So now would be a good time for you to sit with the clones and get a feel for them.”
“Now?”
“You have other plans? Take Sam with you. He was interested in the way the clones responded to a non-adept.”
North’s jaw set. “Is that an order, Captain?”
“No, just a suggestion.”
“Then I’m saying no. Because I do have other plans, and I have plenty of time to show Sam Barnes the damn clones if he really needs to, which he doesn’t.”
Seb leaned back in his chair, suppressing a sigh and trying not to respond to the crankiness in North’s tone. “It’s not a matter of ‘need’. We’re going to be working and playing together for months, and being nice once in a while won’t kill you.”
“Then you show him. I’m not ‘playing’ with him and that’s final. Don’t you want to know about my plans?”
“Do they involve me?”
“Ooh, let’s see. First rest shift together in a week. Yeah, I’m really like to go find Jorge, Jati and half the team to have supper with, instead of the man I love.” North rolled his eyes so hard Seb was surprised it didn’t hurt him. “Moron.”
“Moron, ‘sir’.” North gave him the finger. “Ah. Sorry. I hadn’t registered. But we’ll have lots of time off now we’re on auto.”
“So? I like spending time with you. I like getting to bed early and making love too.”
“We really shouldn’t flaunt—”
North made a vulgar sound. “Please. We’re sharing a crew cabin as registered domestic partners. Not that it means much,” he added in a mutter.
Seb wasn’t picking up that one either. “So you want to eat together and have an early night. Okay.”
“Try and sound as if you might enjoy it, will you?”
“I will. I do. But we can’t treat this like....”
“A honeymoon? With your issues? Do I look crazy?”
Seb’s lips tightened despite his resolve not to get into a fight with his lover. “I should remind you our conversation is being recorded.”
North jumped. He’d forgotten, obviously. Seb could have switched to telepathy at any point but this conversation was already over-personal enough without it sitting right inside his frontal lobes. “Uh, right. We’ll talk about it later.”
“Fine. I’ll meet you in an hour. If you’re not going to look at the clones, I will.”
“Okay. I’ll definitely spend time with them next shift, but I’d rather show them to Sam later.”
“Suits me. Meet you in the mess.”
North left, a casual touch to Seb’s shoulder a welcome gesture even if Seb didn’t want to encourage it on duty.
Seb blew out his cheeks, before pushing himself out of the chair and heading down to the clone store. They were carrying far more than they needed for backup, since these clones would form the seed stock for Galini’s space transport future. The four-week journey would contribute to the essential development of the clones’ cortical material, and though it wasn’t strictly required, Seb intended to spend a fair bit of time communicating with them to help that process along. He wouldn’t have a lot to do otherwise, and the last thing he wanted was more time with North, talking about a relationship Seb was more and more convinced was wrong for both of them, however much he cared for the man. And he did care, damn it. Too bloody much. Otherwise it would be easy.
Now he’d have to find Jati and ask her to wipe the cockpit recordings.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Seb’s relief, North didn’t bring up the mini-argument as they ate. Two years ago, he would have. But North had matured, and Seb had to admit, it only made him more appealing as a lover. That was the problem. The more Seb saw North coming into all the promise he’d shown when Seb had first met him, the more Seb felt North was throwing his best years away on someone who was well past his prime. There were plenty of broken-down divorcees Seb could be with, people with baggage and history. North was fresh and clean and a real catch. They weren’t even compatible from the career point of view. North should be on the escalator towards promotion in the service and higher qualifications. But what had the idiot done? Gone and left active service, and signed up with the civilian transport service which was only fit for wrecks like Seb, people past their prime without the stamina and reflexes a pilot needed in battle. North was killing his own prospects, for the dubious benefit of sleeping with Seb.
Seb was too weak to send him away outright, but he would do all he could to show North what he was missing, and step away lightly when North realised it. He hoped they could remain friends, but he didn’t like his chances. After all, he’d never stood in Kurt’s way, and now Seb didn’t even have Kurt’s new address. His former husband had moved on, away, and may as well be in another galaxy for all the role Seb played in his life now, which was none.
He jerked back as a fork waved in front of his face. “Er?”
“What’s so fascinating?”
“Nothing much. These long-haul flights don’t get any easier, do they?”
“No, but I’m looking forward to helping with this station. All new to me.” North examined what was on the end of the fork he held. “I could swear this might have been alive at some point in the past decade.”
Seb snorted in amusement. “Great, that’s the end of my appetite. Civilian transport always has had worse food than the service. Didn’t you notice that?”
“No, can’t say I did.” He stuck the dubious lump of grey protein into his mouth. “Tastes like....”
“Chicken?”
“Hmmm. Maybe something a chicken ate once.”
Seb pushed his plate away. “Gee, you’re a fun date, North.”
“Sorry. It’s not bad, but if you’re not hungry....”
“Not sure I’d ever be that hungry.”
“I thought you old spacers could live on freeze dried ship hulls if you had to.”
“We old spacers have to watch our digestion. Part of the fun of senility.”
North raised an eyebrow. “This is the most boring conversational topic in the universe. I’ve told you that before.”
“Did you? Told you I was senile. Ow.” He rubbed his ankle where it had been kicked. “Mean little sod.”
“Silly old fart.”
“Steady on.”
“Better get used to it, if you’re going to keep this up. Finished with that crap?”
Seb nodded, and North whisked the plate of unappetising almost-food away to tip into the recycler. He returned with some of the vitamin drink that Seb had to admit was a damn sight more palatable than any of the food stores they’d opened to now. “I hear we should eat well on Galini.”
“If you listen to Jati we should be doing just about everything well, including screwing our brains out.”
“Ah.”
“Not that I will be,” North added, a belligerent glint in his eyes. “Not unless it’s your brains.”
Despite good intentions, Seb’s cock hardened a little. “I think you should be open-minded about possibilities.”
“And I think you should stop trying to get me to cheat on you,” North said bluntly. “Don’t appreciate what that says about your opinion of my morals.”
“I’m not,” Seb protested. “I’m...trying to encourage you to network. Make friends. You need them at this stage in your career.”
“Pffft.”
“Stunning intellectual comeback there, Jason.”
“Not even Jati gets a rise out of me with that any more. I do network and make friends. I don’t need to sleep with anyone for that. Want a massage?”
“Yes.” The answer slipped out with no thought needed. Massages had formed an important part of North’s rehab after the encounter with the Karhal, and he’d put some time into learning how to give as well as receive them. That it inevitably led to astonishingly good sex wasn’t the only reason Seb was a complete slut for having North’s hands on him. “But you don’t need to.”
“I like to, captain. And then you’ll owe me.”
Seb grinned. “Yes, I certainly will.”
North knocked back his drink, grabbed Seb’s empty cup and tossed both containers at the recycler. “Come on then.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
North stepped through the hatch into the medbay. “Hey Sam. I was just heading over to talk dirty to the clones again, and wondered if you wanted to watch.”
Sam shook his head and laughed. “Well, that’s a hell of an offer, North. Sure.” He took off his apron and joined North at the hatch. They kicked off together to the stairwell.
“It’s boring as hell, just warning you.”
“That’s okay. I find the whole idea of telepathy fascinating, and didn’t Seb say even non-adepts could experience it if they were in contact with a BRAIN?”
“Um, it’s a bit more complicated than that. But you’re welcome to try.”
It had taken North five days to swallow his irritation with Seb and invite Sam along. He liked the guy well enough, and he had to admit having company while he played mental footsie with the clones would make a boring job much more bearable. He just didn’t like being pushed. For a start, it made him feel awkward around the rest of the team and it made the task of working alongside harder than it had to be. But since Seb had laid off the unsubtle hints after a couple of verbal slaps upside his head, North figured the least he could do was play good little team-mate like his boss and lover wanted.
As they entered the clone hold, the icy air hit them. “Whoa, cold.” Sam rubbed his arms and shivered.
“Sorry, forgot to warn you. These guys like it chilly.”
Still clutching his arms around himself, Sam wandered over to look at the shapeless blobs in their glass tanks. “You’d think low temperatures would inhibit development, not encourage it.”
“Never really thought about it. Biology was never my favourite subject.”
“My reflexes aren’t nearly good enough for flying, so it all evens out. How do you do it? Use the BRAIN to talk to them?”
“No. I can’t down here, at least not with clones this immature. Seb can talk to the BRAIN anywhere on the ship, but he’s an adept. I need to be in the cockpit. But being physically close to the clones is enough for me to do this bit. Don’t expect much,” he warned as Sam’s cheerful face grew hopeful. “I’ve had a lot of training, and exposure to BRAINs makes it easier.”
“It’s okay. I’ve never had a chance to do this before, so it’s all good.”
Whatever turns you on, North thought. “You can touch the cases if you want. You can’t do any harm, though you won’t be helping. Like this.” He took up a seat in front of the most mature clone and put his hands on the glass. Immediately he felt the tickle in his head as the foreign thoughts and emotions came in contact with his own.
He wouldn’t tell him, but he could sense Sam straight off. Not actual thoughts, but he definitely felt his enthusiasm and curiosity. Not that he needed the clones for that, and he didn’t want the guy to think they had a special bond or anything. Sam hadn’t indicated any particular interest in North, though he was flirty with everyone—even Liz, amusingly. He wasn’t North’s type, whatever Seb thought. North liked guys who were a physical match for him. Sam was slightly built, fey, and cute in a pale-skinned, red-haired way. A good doctor, from what North could tell from the slight contact they’d had in the medbay, and from what the rest of the team said about him. North couldn’t imagine him in the reserves, though he was, officially. He doubted Sam would ever play a combat role, but the service needed medics too.
Since North didn’t care enough about his opinion to worry about making an impression, Sam didn’t put any stress on him. Besides, it would be good for Seb to see North spending time with someone reasonably attractive and not having an affair with them. Maybe then Seb would get the message that North might be young but he wasn’t a hound. If he didn’t, North might have to resort to having Seb’s name tattooed across his chest or something equally dramatic.
“Did you just think about a tattoo?”
North’s head jerked up. “Uh...maybe?”
Sam grinned. “Cool! Looks like I’m an adept after all.”
“Doubt it, sorry. With this many clones in one place, anyone could pick up the odd word from my head. If you were an adept, you’d know exactly what I was thinking. You wouldn’t have to guess.”
“Oh.” His expression fell. “Maybe one day the gene transplants will work and we’ll all be able to read minds.”
“I really hope not. It’s bad enough that I forget to watch my ‘mouth’ around Seb in the cockpit sometimes.”
“You read him?”
North shook his head. “He’s too cool to allow that. Captain Titanium.”
“I bet you never call him that to his face.”
“You’d win that bet.” North focussed on the clones. Something was bothering them all of a sudden but he couldn’t tell what, and now Sam had broken his concentration.
“Problem?”
“Maybe. Give me a few, will you?”
“Sure.”
North frowned and put his hands back on the container of the clone he was using as his main contact with the others. Maybe he should go to the cockpit and talk directly to the BRAIN, but Jati was monitoring things while Seb slept and North did the clone thing. She’d know from the systems reports if there was something he needed to deal with. The clones were so underdeveloped right now that they couldn’t pass on anything useful beyond vague impressions of wellness or unease.
“Maybe Central should encourage adepts to breed with each other. Create a pure talented line.”
North glowered. “Sam, shut up. I need to think.”
“Sorry.”
The clone North was touching suddenly threw a pulse of anxiety at him so hard his forehead felt like it had snapped in two. Okay, now he was worried. He raised his wrist to call Jati, but there was a thump, a thud and then....
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hmm, tongue between teeth, heavy frown upon the brow of yon maiden. Must be a toughie.”
Jati grinned as she looked up at Jorge, Liz at his side as she often was. “A bit. Seb originally wanted me to have a look at the stabiliser that gave them trouble during takeoff, but now I’m finding other things going screwy. Last thing I want to do is change something and make us drop out of hyperspeed.”
“You really don’t. Anything we can do?”
She readily made room for them on the floor near where she had a control panel open and hooked into her hand console. Five days into the trip, she’d found that of all the engineers on board, Jorge and Liz were the two she liked talking to most. Both had trained originally as civil engineers, but had done flight engineering training as part of being a reservist. She’d done it the other way around. Both were smarter than she was, she was certain, but she had the medals and the hero worship was novel enough that she let herself enjoy it. For now, anyway.
They didn’t have much in the way of useful suggestions, but Jati wasn’t under pressure since she was sure the problems with the ship were minor, and could be dealt with once they were planet-side. She was simply documenting all the faults, taking her time and carrying out what tests she could, so when they had the necessary facilities, the maintenance crew would know what she’d seen in a live situation. Seb and North corrected the handling difficulties perfectly well with their control over the BRAIN, and with a ship this age, that was safer than attempting any serious repairs which would undoubtedly put stress on the rest of the structure and cause other failures. It was still worth the others having a look. They had no official backup engineer on this trip but the combined knowledge of several members of their team would easily compensate if Jati were unable to do her job. Liz could step in now, at a pinch. She had the most flight experience of all of them, even more than Jorge.
Jati closed the panel she’d been working on. She could monitor things perfectly well with her handheld, and she felt like coffee. “Want to head over to the lounge? More comfortable there.”
“Sure,” Jorge said.
Liz checked her wristcom. “I’d love to but I said I’d meet Devi and Poornima for some quadro-boxing. I’d better change.”
“Have fun.”
Liz gave her a brilliant smile, then kicked off the floorplate to float down the chamber and through the hatch.
“You don’t need to use the gym?” Jati asked as she and Jorge eased carefully to their feet. Malik, unused to the way differential gravity was deployed on a large ship, had amused everyone the day before by rising from a crouch a little too quickly and ending up bouncing off the ceiling. Newbie spacers were always good for a laugh.
“Later. Maybe we could pair up.”
“I’d like that.”
He ducked his head a little as if he’d just realised there were many ways to take that conversation, but she pretended not to notice. A widower, and a little gun-shy, she’d surmised. Watching Seb for a couple of years had taught her the signs, though two men more different she could hardly imagine. Jorge was funny and warm, and though Seb had his affectionate side, he still came over more as a stern father figure than anything else. Jorge was more like....
No, not like North either. Jorge was a grown-up. North was getting there but he could still be a bit puppyish. Jorge had grieved, and that made a huge difference.
But that made it more important to be careful not to tread on the landmines, same as it did with Seb. Over the last five days, Jati had quickly worked out which of the team were looking, and which were definitely looking at each other. But other than mentioning his late wife a couple of times, Jorge was closed-mouthed about his current status. Jati respected that. Didn’t stop her being curious though.
“This is the longest flight I’ve ever spent awake as a passenger,” Jorge said as they settled down with their drinks. “I thought I’d brought enough to read but....”
“Actually this is better than most long-hauls I’ve done. More company, I mean. Usually it’s just me and three or four crew. Everyone else is asleep. Very boring.”
Jorge laughed. “It would be. I’m not used to spending so much time with nothing much to do. You’re lucky.”
She grinned at him. “No, just smart. That’s why I applied to be crew—to have something to do with my time. But it’s nice to have people to talk to. It’s a good mix.”
“Yes it is. Only...the co-pilot’s a bit of a funny guy, don’t you think?”
“North? He’s lovely. Why do you say that?”
Jorge shrugged. “He’s standoffish. To be honest, I think he just doesn’t like me, and I don’t know why. Everybody likes me.”
“Of course they do,” she said, copying his mocking tone. “He hasn’t said anything to me.” And for the life of her, she couldn’t see why North wouldn’t like Jorge. If this was some kind of moronic sexual jealousy thing, she would kick his arse. “He’s usually fairly easy going. Maybe it’s something going on in his head.” Or someone—was it this problem he was having with Seb? But why would Jorge be involved in that?
“I could just ask him, I suppose. Might wait until we’re planet-side. Pissing off someone who can pitch you out of an airlock is a bad idea.”
“I can pitch you out of an airlock, Lieutenant.”
“Don’t worry, I’m scared, oh great killer of Karhals.” She screwed up her nose at him, and he laughed. “It’s funny. I’ve seen you boxing, and I know what you’ve done, but you look so....”
Oh, this’ll be good. “So...?”
“I’m in trouble already, aren’t I?”
“Uh huh. So you may as well spit it out.”
“My wife always said I had a big mouth.”
“Sounds like she was right. So, so...?”
“So...not capable of pitching someone out of an airlock, begging your pardon, Captain?” He cringed. “Don’t hurt me.”
“I should. You mean I’m not butch and muscley.”
“No. I mean...you look like someone who can kill with your brain. You wouldn’t need a weapon.”
“Huh. Nice save, Jorge.”
He gave her a bright smile. “I thought so. Seriously, you don’t look like force is your first option. Which isn’t a bad thing.”
“No it’s not, and no it’s not. Sometimes you have to. Not a big fan of having the bad guy right up in my face though.”
“Rough?”
“Yeah, it was. I still have nightmares. North too. And Seb.”
“Makes me realise how lucky I am.”
“Not so much,” she said before thinking. “Sorry.”
He shrugged. “No need. I was lucky with Elena too. Not everyone you meet leaves you with only happy memories.”
“Hard act to follow.”
His eyes went a little distant, and Jati recognised the look of someone remembering something unpleasant, or maybe just sad. But then he smiled, completely unforced. “Not an impossible one, though. I used to think it was, but there are a lot of good people in the universe. It’s a big place.”
“I hope you’re right. Still looking?” she asked as casually as she could manage.
“On and off. I like being in a relationship, but not at any cost.”
“No. But if the other person is worth fighting for....”
“Someone in mind?”
She shook herself. Ancient history. “No, not really. You’re really good at that, you know?”
“What?”
“Moving the topic off yourself. It’s like your superpower or something.”
“Sorry. I don’t find the topic of me very fascinating. I’d rather talk about you. You’re the hero.”
“You’re doing it again.”
“Sorry. Oh, I said that already.” He folded his arms. “So what do you need to know about me? I’m an open book.”
She looked at his posture and slightly hunted expression, and decided to be kind. “I was only wondering if you like turbo-skiing. Galini has lakes perfect for it, I hear.”
He relaxed a little. “Actually—”
He stopped, shocked into silence, staring around him as the ship shuddered. She felt the thump all the way up her spine, and the thud made her chest hurt. The warning alarms on her comm went crazy as she belted over to the control console and called up the system report. Jorge was beside her by the time she realised what had happened. “Fuck, this is bad.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seb, still in his sleeping gear and only wearing deck slippers on his feet, kicked his way hard along the corridors towards the cockpit deck. “Jati, report! Where’s North? He’s not answering the radio.”
“He was with the clones. Seb, we’ve dropped out of hyperspeed, and the power levels are down to fifty percent. Right now we’re just drifting.”
The BRAIN wasn’t giving him any answers, which was worrying since the last time a BRAIN had failed on the job, a Karhal had killed it. “Find out why, and report back to me the second you know. And who else is awake? Dr Barnes? Are you around? Report.” Why the hell wouldn’t anyone answer him?
“Sir, it’s Sam. North just passed out. I’m with him in the clone hold.”
Seb grabbed a handhold and stopped hard, torn between two urgent destinations. “What’s wrong with him? Is he okay?”
“Yes, I think so...he’s coming around now.”
“Look after him, and if he’s fit, send him to Jati in Engineering. If not, take him to Medical. I want to know either way, Sam.”
“Yes, sir.”
Seb kicked off again, heading towards Engineering after all. What had happened to North? Clone shock? Seb had woken even before the status alarms had pitched a fit—probably the BRAIN throwing out an urgent warning, reaching him in even in his sleep. North would have caught the tail end of that if he was in communication with the clones, who’d have amplified the signal without any of the buffer the adult organism might have offered. If that was all it was, he’d be fine. He’d better be fine.
“Seb? You better come to Engineering. You’re not going to like this.”
“I’m sure I won’t, Jati. Sam? How is he?” He shouldn’t hector the guy, but damn it, it was North.
“Awake, sir. He said it was just the clone. He’s fine.”
“Good. North?”
“Here. Give me a minute, Seb.” His voice was slow but coherent. Seb forced himself to believe that was normal.
“All right. Sam, both of you, get to Engineering. North will need something for a headache the size of Hyberi.”
“Yes, sir.”
He’d somehow thought most people would be sleeping but when he arrived in Engineering, he found a little crowd of worried engineers waiting for him. “Jorge? Liz? What are you doing here?”
Jati didn’t even look up, eyes still intent on the screen read-out. “Jorge was talking to me when the alarms went off, Seb, and Liz heard them in the gym. She came to help.”
“I can clear off, sir,” Liz said. “If I’m in the way.”
“No, it’s fine, but I need to talk to Jati. What’s going on?”
“Something’s damaged the propulsion unit. Jorge and I were just looking at the video and I think part of that stabiliser sheered off, and took part of the drive with it. That’s not supposed to happen,” she added, looking indignant.
“No such thing in space, Jati. Can you fix it?”
“No, I can’t. We don’t carry spares because this isn’t something you can fix outside a repair dock. The ship’s already regrowing the stabiliser, but the drive’s power amplification unit is non-organic.”
“Okay.” He rubbed his hand through his hair. “Hyperspeed? Nearest planet with a repair facility?”
“We can probably make one jump using backup systems, and then use sublights to bring us the rest of the way. This is the nearest planet which can handle a ship of this class.” She pulled up the display. “Kefarno.”
“Then that’s where we’ll go. Are you sure you can give us that distance?”
“No, I’m not,” she said unhappily. “I’ll need a couple of hours to stabilise the damage before we try it.”
“Take all the time you need. Can you use Jorge or Liz? North?”
“North. Sorry, guys.” She gave the others an apologetic smile. “I need a pilot.”
Jorge patted her shoulder. “No problems. We’ll stay out of your way. Sir, can we help at all?”
“Not right now, so I suggest you tell the rest of the team we’re dealing with a situation. When Jati’s ready to jump into hyperspace again, I’ll need them in take off positions. Until then they should stay out of the way, either in the lounge or their cabins. Engineering and the cockpit are off limits unless you get a specific request for assistance. Jati, if you don’t think it’s safe to enter hyperspace, we need another strategy besides sending a distress signal because that could take months. Jorge, Liz, you guys may as well put your minds to that problem.”
“Yes, sir,” Liz said, then tugged Jorge’s arm. “Come on.”
Seb waited for the two passengers to leave, and close the hatch behind them, before turning to Jati. “Could this be sabotage?”
“No, I don’t think so. I suspect that stabiliser has been behind a lot of the anomalous readings. I need to start, Seb.”
“Do it. Keep me informed, yell if you need help, coffee, food, whatever. Can I help?”
She bit her lip. “I could do with you directing the BRAIN from the cockpit. North would be better here, no offence.”
“None taken. Carry on, Jati.”
Damn it. Still, it could be worse—at least if they didn’t turn up on time at Galini, someone would come looking, but it would be a month before that happened, and the Kuniz had then to not only be found but repaired. He needed to start thinking about alternative destinations within the limitations of the sublights and the supply situation.
He headed to the hatch but before he could open it, it swung and North stepped through, Sam at his heels. “Are you okay?” Seb asked, worry making him sharp. “What happened?”
“Clone shock. I’m fine. Sam gave me a pill.”
Seb searched North’s face—colour and pupils normal, and only a tiny frown betraying the headache no painkiller would completely eradicate—and found nothing to worry him too hard. “Hurts like hell, I know,” he said. “Jati needs you. She can explain the situation. Sam, you stay out of here. Jorge and Liz are with the others, so you could join...actually, no, come with me. I need your advice on some things. North, I’ll be in the cockpit. I’ll be ready for whatever you and Jati need me to do.”
“Understood. Bad, huh?”
“Pretty bad, yeah. Off you go.”
He touched North’s arm as he passed, and North gave him a warm smile. “Good luck,” Seb added quietly. North gave him a thumb’s up, and headed over to where Jati stood frowning at a control console.
“Come on, Sam. If they don’t succeed, we have some hard planning to do.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Talking to Sam was short and unpleasant, because Seb had bad memories of putting crew members into stasis to save their lives. Without stasis pods to automate and regulate the process, Sam couldn’t immediately offer him the assurances he was looking for—that their sixteen passengers could be put under and kept under safely. Seb told him to work on the problem, and to calculate how long their stores would keep them alive either with or without a largely dormant live load. He was a little sharper than he intended to be, the BRAIN’s distress at being ripped out of hyperflight colouring his mood more than he liked, and he made a note to apologise to the young man later. After they knew how the hell they were going to get through this mess.
In the meantime, he worked with Jati and North as they fought to stabilise the power supply and repair the propulsion unit sufficiently to make that all important single jump to safety. Seb’s main job was monitoring the BRAIN as it struggled to adjust to the damage, feeding reports to the other two, and running simulations whenever Jati asked. In the end, it took twenty hours, some surprisingly useful contributions from several of their passengers, and a worryingly long period with Jati and North in suits actually outside the hull, making holding repairs on the damaged unit, before Jati announced that the jump to hyperspace could go ahead. North joined Seb back in the cockpit, and Seb let him initiate the jump—only fair, since he’d made it possible. Seb held his breath for the three seconds it took for them to enter, jump and emerge at the pre-programmed point in space, then exhaled as the BRAIN calmly confirmed they were exactly where they wanted to be.
“Jati, we made it. Well done, everyone.”
“Thanks, Seb. Thanks, North.”
North grinned and saluted the air, then leaned in for a quick kiss which, regulations or not, Seb was happy to give him. “Twenty-four hours to Kefarno, and time for us to get some sleep. You first—your rest shift was interrupted.”
He desperately wanted some sleep but he had decided hours earlier what would happen now. “No, because you need to go to Medical and let Sam check you out properly. I would have insisted on it before, but we needed you.”
“I’m fine, Seb,” North said, frowning in exasperation at him. “I don’t even have a headache. I just need some sleep at some point.”
“Clone shock can cause seizures, North, so you’re going to Medical and that’s an order.”
North’s lips pursed in anger. “Aye aye, Captain. But I’m coming back here, and then you get that rest.”
“You could just sleep down there while Sam runs the tests.”
“I could, but I won’t unless you order me again, Captain.”
The glint in his blue eyes warned Seb not to push it. “Fine. I’ll grab five hours, then you come off duty. Jati? You’re off for the next eight hours. Can you ask Jorge to monitor things for you?”
“Sure. The sublights are working just fine, and the course is laid in. We should reach their planetary cordon in twelve hours. There’s nothing to do until then. The descent planet-side will be a little tricky but I don’t think you’ll have a problem handling that.”
“Then get some sleep, and thank you.”
We're on autopilot. We could both get some sleep, North said, using the cockpit telepathy.
This is a badly damaged ship, and regulations state a senior officer must be on duty until that situation is rectified.
You’re making that up.
No, I’m not. Seb sighed. I’ll join you for a couple of hours when Jati comes back on duty, okay?
I’ll hold you to it. And I’ll be done with the check-over in record time so you better be ready to snooze.
You don’t need to be snotty. I’m as tired as you are. So shoo.
North stood, then came over to take Seb into a brief, hard hug. He left without another word.
Damn, it would be hard to let him go.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
North woke, soggy-headed, unsure how long he’d been asleep for. He moved his hand and brushed Seb’s back—so, long enough for Seb wait for Jati to come back on duty, spend a bit of time shooting the shit with her about the ship’s status, and crawl into bed with him without waking him up. So...five, six hours. He checked his wristcom in the dim safety light. Yeah, five hours. There were no warnings flashing on the little screen, no messages waiting from Jati. All was quiet.
He needed more sleep, and so did Seb. He kissed his lover between the shoulder blades and closed his eyes. Just another couple of hours....
When he woke next, Seb was facing him, eyes closed. North wanted to kiss him, but he didn’t want to wake him. So hard to resist touching the lean face, stroking the broken nose.
But he didn’t have to resist long. A couple of minutes later Seb’s eyes opened.
“Hi,” North said.
Seb smiled crookedly. “Hi. How do you feel?”
“Completely normal, of course. Sam said clone shock has caused very mild brain injury in three recorded cases out of hundreds. You’re a panic merchant.”
“It’s my job to worry.”
“It’s your job to make sure we don’t worry.” He moved in and kissed Seb’s forehead, his mouth. Seb responded sleepily, his hands roving lazily under North’s shirt. “Want you.”
“I’m not stopping you.”
North pushed him back flat, covering him, kissing him, one hand in Seb’s dark hair, the other down Seb’s underpants, fingers curling around Seb’s hot erection without North even having to think. Seb squirmed, exhaling open-mouthed, and that made North harder than hell, seeing his man, always so in control and contained, losing it. He plundered Seb’s mouth, Seb pushed up against him. North squeezed Seb’s cock, then he slid down Seb’s body, pushing his underpants out of his way, getting his mouth on Seb in one, well-practiced move. Seb arched, his hands quickly gripping North’s hair, just as quickly letting go. North licked him from root to tip, then engulfed him again, using his teeth delicately, the way Seb loved and the way North had made sure he was good at for that reason.
He grabbed the lube from the wall locker and, still licking and nibbling, used his thumbs to open Seb up, something that made Seb grunt in anticipation. By the time Seb came hot and fast into North’s mouth, North already had a condom on and it took only a second to get Seb’s leg over his shoulder so he could bury himself deep into Seb’s tight arse.
Seb clutched at North’s butt. “Hard,” he whispered.
“Hard as you can stand it.”
North fucked him into the wall, practically, and Seb rode it, his face slack in pleasure, taking everything North could give him and still hungry for more. North was almost sorry to come, because Seb was so into it, and watching him was such a rush. Even when he came, Seb still squeezed his arse, as if trying to milk one more thrust out of him. “That’s all I got, cap’n.”
Seb grinned at him. “Then it’ll have to do. Come here.” He tugged North down for a long, tongue-tangling kiss. “Thanks.”
“Any time.”
North got rid of the condom and did a cursory wipe down, then wrapped himself around Seb again. Seb yawned and checked his wristcom. “We’ll reach the planetary cordon in an hour. I should get up.”
“Yeah,” North agreed, though he kept his proprietary hold on Seb’s body.
“Or I could just talk to them from here.”
“You could do that. I’m still wiped.”
“Hmmm. There’s probably other things to do.”
“Probably.”
“You’re not convincing me.”
North grinned against Seb’s stomach. “Nope.”
“This isn’t working out too well, you realise. Us being together, flying together.”