Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Anna

I ’d bet he was cute when he smiled. Or, cuter . Lashe was probably the most attractive male I’d ever met of any species and now I knew what he looked like when he was carrying a heavy load in his arms. Muscles strained the fabric of his snug black flight suit, but that was the only thing that looked taxed. Not a single huff or puff or bead of sweat. The storage container might as well have been a pillow.

It shouldn’t have surprised me. He was as tall and muscular as any Destran male. His skin was ever-changing. Sometimes, its tone swirled in a prismatic display, although I only ever saw his face and hands. The rest was covered in his full-body suit. Sibyl had told me that the color changes could indicate the emotions of a Destran, but I didn’t see that on Lashe. His skin changed, but his expression, voice, and words never did. He was polite. He was professional. He was as distant as the Riut-la nebula that lay on the edge of the galaxy, unexplored and untouchable.

I could always see him up there, in his operator’s seat. The ship had an open layout so the whole thing from front to back was visible from the main cabin, except for my private quarters, which had a door and were located in the rear. He never slept when we were flying. He barely got up. He was doing his job, but I would have liked someone to talk to on the long trips to and from the Destran planet. I would have liked to get to know him better. Did I occasionally imagine what he looked like naked? Sure. However, his flat voice and stiff bearing made it clear that I was a body to transport through space. He was not having any other thoughts about my body; I was sure of that.

I pulled my datapad out of my bag, prepared to do some research on the trip, but the thing remained black. “What the…?” I murmured.

“You told me not to let you work on this trip,” said Stelis’ familiar voice. She’d patched into the ship’s sound system. “I took the liberty of deactivating your datapad .”

“Being in transit doesn’t count as part of the trip.” I huffed out a breath. “Turn it back on.”

“As you wish.”

The screen illuminated, but when I tried to access my work files, the screen only showed books I’d downloaded but never read, and films I’d been wanting to watch. “Stelis, please.”

“Anna, you are on vacation,” said Stelis firmly. “I can project any form of visual entertainment you choose onto the large, built-in screen right here on the cabin’s wall. You may listen to music, but you are not on work time.”

I shook my head, annoyed. “I’m having your program adjusted when we get back. You’re supposed to be my assistant, not my overlord.”

“I am following the guidelines for mental health that your employers specifically had integrated into my programming. Your sleep has been deficient. Your stress levels have been elevated, indicated by higher blood pressure and cortisol—”

“Forget it,” I snapped, leaning back in the seat and covering my eyes. “Fine. I’ll read.”

I was sure I caught a smirk on Lashe’s cheek. There was no way he missed that exchange, with Stelis’ voice coming through the ship’s com system.

Truth was, I’d forgotten how to relax. Work was the most effective way to push aside my feelings of…I wasn’t sure what. Emptiness, I supposed. But that didn’t matter as much as the vital work I did to keep relations smooth and friendly between Earth and Destra. I was more than an ambassador. I was Destra’s outside link to the greater galaxy. They were a very closed society, for good reason, and I was one of their protectors.

Well, that was a little overboard, but kind of how it seemed to me. In many ways, I felt closer to Destra than I did to Earth. If it was allowed, I’d retire there someday. Too bad it was forbidden for anyone but Destrans and their mates to live in a Sola.

I spent the first day reading, watching movies, eating my way through my favorite snacks, which Lashe always had on the start-up screen of the replicator, and napping in my private room. As the hours went on, I began to unwind a little. I relaxed just enough to become aware of how tense I’d been. Breakup heartache was there, but not as strong as I thought it would be. Roy was already fading. He sneezed a lot, for so many reasons, and on the other side of the relationship, I could say that I found the sound irritating. Other things weren’t great, either. I was only beginning to take all that in. As much as I hated to say it, Stelis was right. Damn her “adaptive” programming.

I slept well in the dark, soft enclave of my small but luxurious room, holding to the day-night schedule of Earth, but shifting it slightly to begin to align with the Destran cycle of sleeping and waking.

It was that next day, just before lunchtime, that things began to go wrong. And it began subtly enough, with just a bump of turbulence.

I looked up from the novel I was reading. “Did you feel that?” I was asking anyone who felt like answering, figuring it would probably be Stelis. Lashe rarely uttered a word on these trips.

But he replied, “Yes.”

I didn’t like the tone of his voice. It wasn’t quite as bland and bored-sounding as usual. “What was it?”

“One moment,” he said, but the words were spoken in Destran, which had me sitting up in my seat. I could speak fluent Destran, and Lashe had learned my language, but when we were on this ship, he only spoke in my language. This was the first time I’d ever heard him switch to Destran. It wasn’t intentional, and that alarmed me.

“I advise you to find your seat and fasten the safety straps,” he said.

I did as he said, pulling the straps around me and clicking them in place. “You’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

“We hit something,” he replied. “Sensors are trying to determine what, but we have some damage.”

Uh-oh. That didn’t sound good. “You can fix it, right?”

I stared at the back of his head, which was tilted at a sharp angle. “Stand by.”

That wasn’t a yes . I curled my toes into the carpet and clamped my mouth shut.

“The ship’s system is working to compensate,” said Stelis’ voice in a quiet volume. “Stay calm, Anna.”

“I’m calm,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Your heart rate is currently—”

“Shut up, Stelis.” I gripped the armrest as more turbulence rattled the shuttle.

A Destran curse slipped from Lashe’s lips. It was quiet, but I could hear it. “We flew into a cloud of irradiated particles. Looks like it may be from a destroyed nexian power core.” His dark hair fell over the side of his face that I could see. “I’m going to try and burn it off.” He glanced back, brows low and eyes hard. “Brace yourself. It’s going to be hot for a moment.”

I held his gaze and nodded. “Do it.”

He turned back around in his seat and moments later, the ship seized. The sound of groaning metal made the hair on my neck stand up and a wave of heat washed over me, causing me to gasp at the suddenness of it. It was like being washed with a flame.

“Did it work?” I asked anxiously. The turbulence was still there. There were some lights on in his station that I did not usually see.

“We have four disabled exhaust ducts and multiple system failures.”

Okay. Breathe, Anna . “What does that mean, Lashe?”

“It means we’re not getting to the Destran planet anytime soon.”

“Can you be more specific?” My fingernails were digging into the padded armrests. “I mean, are we going to die?”

“No. I will have to find a place to land. I’m scanning the area.”

I closed my eyes, dragged in a deep breath and reminded myself that Lashe was a thoroughly competent shuttle operator. He would find a way out of this. And the only thing I could do to help was be quiet and let him do his job.

“I trust you,” I said. “Do whatever you have to do. Please don’t let us die out here.”

He turned, glancing back at me. His face was streaked violet and red. His eyes were sharp and hot. “I won’t, Anna.”