Chapter Eight
“Breathe.” Natalie reached a hand out to Rory’s shoulder and squeezed as best as she could through her bulky gloves. “Just breathe, Rory. You can do this.” Four hours. He’d been at this for four hours, tinkering and adjusting and messing with the camera pod. The only break he’d had was a short respite when they’d gone back inside to change their oxygen tanks to make sure they weren’t getting low.
Twice he’d had what she could only describe as panic attacks. He’d hunched over, breathing heavily into the microphone built into his helmet. Twice she’d been able to talk him down, been able to keep his beast at bay. But now… This third episode was bad.
Even through his suit she could see he was shaking. Being exposed this long to the moon’s atmosphere was taking its toll on him. She knew there was only so much more he could withstand.
More than once she’d begged him to give up. They could go home and be done with this place. Succeeding in their assignment was not worth losing his life. She would rather see him safely back on earth than have any recognition for their successful mission.
Rory would not be deterred, though. He’d tried everything in his knowledge to get the camera pod up and running again. This was his last attempt—their last attempt at success. If this didn’t work, he was out of ideas, out of options. They would be going home having failed.
Oddly, she didn’t care about that. As long as they came home, that was all that mattered. He just needed to hold on a little bit longer and then they could leave. They could put this whole terrifying, dangerous week behind them.
“Please, Rory,” she said softly into his earpiece. “Take a deep breath. Focus on me; focus on my voice.”
His ragged exhale sounded in her ears. “I’m trying,” he said in a voice so strained it almost didn’t sound like him anymore. “It’s just so hard.” Another harsh exhale echoed through her helmet. “He wants out. He wants out so bad … he’ll claw his way out of me if he has to. I can feel it. I can—” He broke off with a wail of agony.
Fear raced through her, but she forced it down. Taking him by the shoulders, she shook his much bigger frame, trying to shock him back into himself. “Push him back!” Her gaze bore into his from behind her large helmet. “Rory Jacobson, pull yourself together! We have a mission to finish! And damn it, we are going to get it done!”
Rory jerked to attention and stared back at her with a startled expression. He blinked for a moment, his beast pushed back by sheer surprise on his behalf. Then, after a moment, he let out a barking laugh. “You have no idea how much I want to kiss you right now.”
Relief flooded her at the calmness that seeped into his eyes now that he’d been forced to turn his attention away from the wolf inside of him. “Save it for the ship,” she said with a little smile.
Raw desire flooded his blue eyes, causing her cheeks to heat up at the implication of such a look. “Oh, I intend to, darling. I intend to.” He allowed his gaze to hold hers a moment more before he returned his attention to the camera pod. “And that time is coming sooner rather than later.”
Picking up a screwdriver, he began tightening the outer shell back into place over the top of the wires he’d been messing with. “This is it. I’m all out of ideas. If this here didn’t fix the issue, we’re going home. There’s nothing more I can do.” He shook his head, knowing this would not go over well with their superiors. “The United States government will just have to replace this camera with a new one.”
That was something that would never, ever go over well. It would cost more money than either of them would make in a lifetime. This mission alone had cost nearly that much. If it wasn’t for the new space race, their program probably wouldn’t even exist. It seemed that much of it still only existed to appease the general public. Aliens were a terrifying new reality, a boogeyman in the night, and the people wanted reassurances that their government wasn’t taking their existence lightly.
Trying to appear flippant about his comment, she shrugged. “Then that’s what they’ll have to do.” Still, she held her breath as he finished up and turned to the laptop he had bolted down to a special gravity table to his left. It was now or never. The success of their mission rode on this moment. The camera pod would either work or it wouldn’t.
If it worked, they would have helped to pioneer in a new era in the space program. It would make way for the opportunity to send more manned vessels into space. If they failed … not only would the odds of another crew going into space be less likely, but panic might arise at the loss of what citizens considered “spy equipment” in space. People would panic. She knew just what they would think—how could NASA keep tabs on alien activity if a camera pod was out? And if one was irreparably damaged, what was to stop the same from happening to the rest?
Not wanting to linger on the possible panic their failure might dredge up, Natalie put a supportive hand on Rory’s shoulder as he worked at the computer. She wanted so badly to ask what he was doing, but she knew that would likely only distract him. She just had to wait.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait long, because Rory spoke up no more than two minutes later. “This should about do it,” he said as he maneuvered the mouse across the screen. “Just a few more adjustments to the mainframe and…” He pumped a fist in the air. “Yes!” He let out a loud breath, clueing her in on just how nervous he’d been. “We’re in! It’s working.” He turned to her with a look of pure satisfaction. “We just saved the government a ridiculous amount of money. We salvaged a camera pod that was honestly nearly unfixable.” He grinned, looking more like the Rory she’d known back home. “We just kicked some major ass.”
Laughing lightly, she shook her head at his energy level. “I didn’t do anything. I just stood here. You did all the work.”
Obviously not wanting to linger, Rory grabbed hold of the table, and pressing a small button on the side, made it weightless. That made transporting it so much easier for astronauts. “Are you kidding?” he asked with a sideways glance at her. “You kept me from tearing out of my skin and becoming a ravenous beast more than once. I’d say you did more than your share, more than what you bargained for when we started this mission, surely.”
She smiled, following him slowly back into the ship. “It was worth it. Every moment.”
Sealing them in the airtight chamber, he undid the clasps of his helmet and pulled it off over his head. “I’m glad to hear that. Now can you please get out of that silly suit so I can ravage you? We’ve got three days before we get back to earth, and I intend to take full advantage of our time.”
Laughing, she popped off her own helmet. “Feeling wolfy? You need to be grounded?”
“No,” he said, his eyes dark and full of sexual intent. “I just want to fuck you senseless.”
She gaped at him for a moment in astonishment before offering a delighted laugh. “I’ll be naked in five.”
“Make it four.”