Denied - 49. Chapter 49

Captain had allowed himself to be distracted for a moment, and then he’d been back to business. I wasn’t nearly as strong as he was. It was a good thing I wasn’t in charge of anything, because all I could do was eat, drain the cup of blessedly cool water I was given and then another as soon as it was refilled, and watch him. He was so sure, listening to the reports the crew gave, considering each one, and issuing orders that took us out of the berth in port and set us on the original course to rendezvous with Freska.

“She’ll be there. Sooner or later.” He can such confidence in his crew. At least certain ones.

“Where is there, Captain Querry?” Kekillill asked.

“An out of the way planet. One not as under control as Central might like to think. And one where we have friends.” Captain nodded to the pilot at the helm, a grizzled species covered in poky spines all along his back. He had two long arms, and a pair of shorter, thinner arms that had long, dexterous digits that extended from two balls on the end. “Slidot has the coordinates.”

“Yes, sir. Ready to engage once we’ve dropped the decoy drones.” His voice was a thin as his fingers, high and reedy, not the deep voice I’d expected from the barrel-chested alien.

“Decoy drones?” I asked.

“Another bit of Freska’s handiwork,” Captain said.

“They’re small holo-emitting drones that cast a solid field projection that match out ship, right down to our emissions. We can use them to confuse our trail.” Slidot pointed to four different blips on the screen. “On the main screen, Captain?”

“Go ahead, this is always interesting to see.” Captain gave him a nod.

I watched as the screen lit and the small devices jetted out. They spread out in all directions. “Watch this,” Slidot piped. The screen split into four as the decoys got farther away. “Activating decoys now.”

Shimmering into view were four copies of the ship, each one a mirror image in every way. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were real, even though there’d been nothing but empty space around the tiny metal devices a second before.

“Navigation paths locked. Engaged in three, two, one.” All four ships shot off, trails disappearing rapidly as the ship moved in our own direction.

“And there’s no way to tell the difference?” I asked.

“Nope.” Slidot didn’t really have a neck to turn, but his head bobbed from side to side.

“Why didn’t you use those decoys when we were going into the port then, instead of getting reinforcements? Wasn’t it risky to contact more people, in case there are more spies working with Brox?”

There were a few twitters and sounds, some shifting. No one spoke, the silence complete except for the sounds of the consoles. Too late I realized I shouldn’t question Captain in front of his crew or bring up such a sensitive subject. I grimaced.

“The decoys can only follow a single set path, and since they are only tiny drones, they don’t have capabilities to hold an AI system capable of answering the port authority questions if the ships were intercepted.” Captain spoke as if I hadn’t just committed a huge mistake.

I nodded, not willing to open my mouth and say anything else stupid.

We traveled for at least another half-shift before Captain gave up his seat and headed for his quarters. “Contact me the second we hear anything.”

“Yes, sir.” Kekillill was also on a rest period, so the next person in command was yet another crew member I barely knew and a species I’d only heard of but never seen in person. The feathery tufts of fluffy pink hair on tendrils of skin coming down in a fringe from just below its eye were very distracting as it spoke and the air it breathed out sent the fronds dancing.

Captain’s pace back to his quarters was swift, though he stopped several times to reassure crew members who saluted him. The break was probably more for me than him—my breath was coming short, and the skin-crawling need was starting to ride me.

It wasn’t even sexual. It was all need. As more time passed and we didn’t hear from Freska, the more worried he got. He didn’t show it, not really, but I watched him constantly. I could see the tension in his body rising, feel its echo.

Entering his quarters started to ease it, but only slightly.

It was crazy, feeling someone else’s mood, their emotions. “There is always some madness in love….” I muttered.

“What?” Captain turned, his top half-off.

“Nothing. Just something I heard once.” Did I love him?

I wasn’t really sure what love was. But I needed him. And, based on the exhaustion in Captain’s eyes he couldn’t hide, he needed me too. I stepped in close, running my hand over the exposed skin of his chest.

“Kohen?” His breath caught when my thumb brushed his nipple.

“I need you.” I didn’t say anything else, and neither did he. We went to the room, the bed, and our clothes were pulled off and dropped to the floor. I pushed him onto the bed, then crawled over his body, touching as much of his skin as I could.

We should have cleaned up, the bitter tang of fear sweat a harsh reminder of the ordeal at the port, but it only fed our desperation. I sucked up a mark on his chest, then another on his belly, then one on his hip.

Then I applied all that wet, sucking pressure to the place he needed it most. His shaft filled my mouth, my throat, and my belly when he stiffened and shot come inside me so I could greedily swallow him down, to hold him inside me.

Captain hauled me up and a few rough strokes of his hand painted his belly with my seed. “Everett!”