Chapter Three

Outer Reaches. Geonate New Time, Year 2402
Mission: Day 8
Venture Stranded: 2 hours

A mysterious flying bird dazzled Anna. Its tail of colors caressing her skin, the bird flowed around her. She shivered. The molten glow grew, looming larger and larger.

Anna fell, but had no fear, only warmth. The alabaster bird swooped down, wrapping her in soft, long, streaming feathers. The cocoon kept her safe, sheltered, and strangely excited. She floated through space, the darkness holding an unknown danger. A danger she dismissed, encompassed by the protective comfort of the predator holding her.

The light circled. Anna spun around, tumbling, drawn into a soft, wall-like chest, emblazoned by bright vermillion feather-like tufts. The ethereal feathers dissolved. She found herself in a bed, flattened alongside a hard frame, and surrounded by the muscular arms of a man whose eyes blazed red.

The dream man kissed her. His tongue delved inside and built a passion that devoured. More wet heat. More strength pressed against her. He rained sultry kisses around her face, her eyelids, and her throat. Regardless of her urge to hold him tight, she pulled back, and his gaze traveled over her face.

Sliding a hand up his solid chest, she investigated his strange markings which fluctuated with different shades of crimson in time with her quickened heartbeat. He took her hand, sizzling her with his touch, and slowly drew it down his torso.

Anna’s fingers tingled and burned from his heat. She let him guide her hand. With her palm caressing his sleek skin, she grew enticed by the steely strength underneath. She hesitated before brushing further down his taut stomach. Her own need heightened, feverish. Against her base instincts to run, she caressed his erection.

Wrapping her hand around him, she slid up and down his length. He moaned, thrusting. His mouth grew ravenous, and his dominating tongue claimed hers.

He parted her thighs, and hungry touches ran over her skin, growing closer to the jointure of her legs with excruciating slowness. When he finally cupped her mound, she whimpered and clutched his cock in response. With a hiss, he thrust a finger inside her, tempting and taunting her with his torturous rhythm. When his thumb found her clit and applied tantalizing pressure, she exploded.

She fell back into the rainbow of colors.

*

Anna, moisture pooling on her brow, woke with a start and blinked her eyes to gain her bearings. She had a cramped neck from slumping in her chair. Sitting up straight, she stretched the stiffness in her back. Why was she asleep in her chair?

Right. After returning from engineering, she’d sat at her desk to check for one last update and had promptly nodded off.

Since she’d been briefed by Admiral Ryan and had seen the vids of the mysterious aliens, she’d had the same dream of a bird and a man with eyes of fire. Always culminating in a climax. Sometimes several times in one sleep cycle. She’d never had orgasms in her sleep before. She hadn’t even been able to talk with Len about it because Admiral Ryan had asked Anna to keep knowledge of the mysterious aliens a secret unless it was necessary to share with her crew.

“Figures,” she muttered. “We're hit with a solar flare, and I'm dreaming of fantasy men.”

Unbuttoning the front of her tunic, she tried to cool off by staring at the ceiling of her cabin and counting the rivets in the functional sheeting. The lights in her office shone dimly and gave the room a gunmetal cast. She rolled her neck to alleviate the cramp, ran her hands through her hair, and massaged her temples.

“Why can't I dream of a way to fix our engine? Or maybe how to radio a tug ship?”

Anna stood and looked down to examine her greasy uniform. Wet. Her skin pebbled. With the office chillier than normal because of the lower power to enviro, she needed to get dressed.

Anna stumbled to her cleaning unit. “Glutton for punishment, that's what I am. Of course, why complain about an orgasm? I should be more worried about why I’m talking to myself.”

Or why she had flashbacks.

Before she entered the dry shower, she stopped short. Enviro crisis meant no cleaning unit. Instead, she hailed her first officer, “Len, any sign of the ship?”

“No, not yet, but we are at the appointed mark and time. I did get the coordinate system and scanners stabilized, and I have a full report on repairs.”

“Go ahead.”

“We've verified the cause of our energy surges. When we plotted the wormhole, the star in this system was listed as stable. But now it’s going supernova. I don’t know when, but I’m monitoring the neutrino levels. You know as well as I do it could happen anytime.”

Anna’s heart stopped, then beat rapidly. Stranded near a supernova. Not good.

“Anything else to report?” Anna strangled the waver from her voice.

“We're working on creating a radiation shielding for our battery backup. It will stop the grid fluctuations and give us a month of life support.”

“A month. How long before we know if the shielding works? Are we stable otherwise? Can we rewire the batteries to propulsion?” Anna asked.

“No, if we take any power for propulsion, we’ll eat the power for life support within the day.”

“Guess we won’t be doing that.”

“Hell, Cap. You never know what we can rig together. And you never know who might happen upon us with an extra Casimir Engine handy.” After Anna’s incredulous snort, Len continued. “I’ve heard all sorts of rumors about the Outer Reaches. Anything can happen out here. Some even say there are energy vampires that cripple ships, leaving the crew to their doom.”

Anna clucked her tongue. She’d left out the rumors of energy vampires when she’d told the crew of their mission. The rumors weren’t pertinent. They were out here to meet another ship for their reconnaissance data and then investigate reports of pirates.

After she’d dug deep enough into the mission data and read witness reports, it had seemed more like small-time robberies between ships that otherwise had reasons to connect along their routes. It was common. When passing another friendly ship, extend the connecting tube and do some trading. Goods and information. The reports had been about family squabbles and friends turning on one another. Sure, the incidents had increased but that could be from a downturn of the trade in this region. Someone had compounded the data and spun it.

That person seemed to be this Koschei. He’d styled himself a leader of a trading union and the Geonate had welcomed a voice who spoke for some part of the ungoverned Outer Reaches.

All that didn’t matter right now. What mattered was getting out of here and keeping everyone calm until then. Even the usually level-headed Len.

“The only strange thing going on is that you could possibly believe in anything you didn’t learn from a physics book. Besides, you saw the briefing. The Geonate wants us to check on some robberies. There’s no danger. If there were, they wouldn’t have sent a cargo ship to investigate. No energy vampires,” Anna reasoned.

Len laughed. “Can’t blame a girl for dreaming.”

“No, I guess not.”

“Well, we’re testing the shielding on the batteries now. We should be able to maintain all our imperative systems, but we won't have propulsion. And, of course, no opening a wormhole,” Len continued.

“I want to see all the reports myself. Maybe I’ll find something you overlooked.”

Len’s short laugh barked through the comm. “Like I said, you have to do everything yourself.”

“I'll meet you on the bridge in five.” Anna threw on her uniform of a blue tunic and utility pants. After stepping into her black boots, she slid her portal open at a run.

The door of the bridge opened on Len studying BSG33, the star filling the view screen. The shifting colors created a cloud of blue and white swirls in a soft whirlpool of smoke.

“It's beautiful, even if it's about to collapse,” Anna said.

Covered in the same type of uniform as Anna, Len’s short frame filled it in curves Anna sometimes envied. Her friend looked over her shoulder with bright brown eyes. “Captain, it took a lot of grunt work, but we were able to rig the shielding.”

“Thank you, Len.” Anna turned toward her command chair. “Hailey, have we been able to send out a distress call with our coordinates?”

“No, ma’am.” replied the communications officer.

If she couldn’t send the signal, no one could. Hailey’s open, kind face held a harried expression. Full concentration on the data before her, she straightened in her seat before she continued her work.

“Since our contacts will be here shortly, I’m sure they can send a distress call for us. A repair ship can be here within minutes through a wormhole.” Unsure who she tried to reassure, her crew or herself, Anna sat and pulled up the pertinent information on her own console.

Reading reports of the neutrino levels of the star, she grasped for signs that the supernova would wait. She refused to panic. She had to be strong and confident for her crew, her only real family. Their future and their lives depended on the Venture.

Acutely aware of the time slipping away, Anna tapped her fingernails on the armrest. Now an hour overdue, the ship they’d planned on meeting had not shown, nor had any other spacecraft. The camera angles on her console alternated to reveal the outside of the Venture and the surrounding space, including the star. Ice formed along the cargo hatch doors and on several sensors and viewing portals. Shivering, she turned her mind to fallback plans.

Maybe they could pull wiring from other systems and rig the solar panels to limp to the nearest station. Anna searched a report of nearby repair stations, plotting which one would best suit such a plan.

Caught up in the data, Anna ignored the cabin. Feeling, rather than hearing, the sudden absence of noise, she looked up to determine the cause of the unnaturally quiet bridge.

The four women had stopped their work and wore rapt expressions. Anna followed their stares to the viewscreen.

BSG33 gleamed erratically while several light-forms danced and swooped around the Venture. The dancing lights looked like the sparklers children played with, bright white sparks surrounding a brilliant pure flame. Rainbow-like tails flowed behind them and stretched out endlessly. They circled each other, and tails collided sending sprays of lit particles flying in all directions.

“What are they?” Len breathed.

“Let's find out.” Anna refused to acknowledge the euphoria rising within her. “Hailey, take a reading of the energy signatures and scan for life forms.”

The fairy-like points all surged toward the star. Like streaks of lightning, they sped toward the blue supergiant BSG33 until they were spots in the distance before they disappeared. Shock, fear, excitement, and anticipation all took turns gripping her. Fighting the surety that her past had streaked into the present, Anna contained the turmoil rolling through her. She turned back to her command chair when she realized she’d moved close to the viewscreen.

“Hailey, did you get a reading?”

“They had energy levels off the chart and low-level life signs. What are they?” Trying to answer her own question, Hailey studied the panel at her station. “Did they look like birds to you?”

Len interrupted. “Maybe we’ve found our energy vampires.”

Anna ignored her. Although Len joked to relieve her own stress, Anna would have to face any rumors spreading through the crew. She focused on the problem she could see, or rather, the problem she had been able to see until it disappeared. “Pull up a visual from the mission data.”

The image on the screen displayed the light forms, discernible as eight winged creatures, all white at the head and upper torso with a gradual change of color along their lower bodies to an iridescent tail oscillating ruby and orange. In the middle of their otherwise ivory bodies tufts of crimson were arrayed in a funnel shape on their chests.

Hailey referenced her read-out. “I've measured them at about eight feet tall. The tails are at least twice that length.”

“Can you locate them? How far have they gone?”

“They paused for a moment, but when they moved, they neared the speed of light. I've lost them. They must be close enough to the star to be occluded by interference, because I can't get a reading.”

The fleeting memory of Anna’s winged dream lover dogged her again. “I have some visual data from Admiral Ryan. Could you compare these creatures with the data from the Geonate?”

Hailey concentrated on her work as if she hadn’t heard Anna, finally exclaiming, “I found them.”

“Bring them up on screen and magnify,” Anna ordered.

Onscreen for an instant, the unidentified creatures expanded their wings. Their scarlet breasts glowed. In a diamond formation, the fantastical birds moved as one, flitting off-screen.

“Find them again.” Despite herself, Anna’s excitement built, and she could no longer dispel her growing suspicions. She had seen a bird like this before, and not just in her dreams. They were, without a doubt, identical to those in Admiral Ryan’s mission vids.

“They're just off the bow!” Hailey continued, “My, they are fast! They're gone. I'm tracing—”

The proximity alarm interrupted Hailey. For the second time in three hours, Anna reached to her console to kill an alarm. She studied the viewscreen where Hailey displayed the swooping, dancing creatures.

The eight stayed off the bow, outside the observation deck at the tip of the ship. Their light reflected on the offline solar panels. Anna had an almost uncontrollable urge to order the deck shielding opened so they could see out of the portals despite the mortal danger from radiation. She wanted a closer look without the help of a camera.

She gripped her chair to keep herself from going to the observation room. The ethereal creatures all stopped as one and turned to stare at the camera.

One of the birds drifted toward the ship. It loomed on the screen, close enough to see its distinctive eyes, as red as its chest. It cocked its head with beak parted. The sharp bills took on a predatory nature.

Anna shivered and rubbed her arms. The fabric of her tunic swished in the silent room. She needed to reassure her crew, as well as take on the responsibility of first contact. Unaccustomed to the hesitancy to act, she crossed her arms and tucked her hands underneath.

Anna assumed this bird was the leader. It alternated its fiery stare between the ship and its companions.

“Hailey, we need to try to communicate with these beings on behalf of the Geonate. Any suggestions?” Anna prompted.

Hailey looked back from her console positioned closest to the view screen.

“I...” Stopping to clear her throat, she began again. “Well, since sound waves won’t carry in space, we can’t project anything to the outside speakers. There’s a lot of talk about mathematics as a universal language. Maybe we could come up with a way to communicate with blinking lights in mathematical sequences.”

“Okay, it’s a place to start. Use the proximity warning flashers on the forward cone. Use a progressive count. One flash, then two flashes, then three.”

When the lights flicked on and off, the leader tilted its head to study the camera. It turned to the flashing signal, moving its head back and forth between them and the lens. Looking at the other beings, the leader swayed its head in a “follow me” gesture. All of the birds closed on the ship at once. The leader dissolved.

Anna stood with her feet apart. Her heart pounded as the fiery raptor dematerialized on screen, and a small cloud of light swirled on the bridge. The glowing cloud grew larger, while smaller balls of illumination appeared around it. A faint cinnamon smell teased her senses.

Again, alarms blared. Anna squelched her excitement and dove for her console to kill the shrieking warning. In that split second, the energy beings materialized on the bridge of the Venture.

They had flowed straight through the bow of the ship.

Incredible.

Magnificently perched, they stood tall at the stern, covered in cloaks of light, and their tails curled around their legs.

The crew sprang to life. The click of drawn firearms sounded in the silent room.

“Halt!” Anna shouted. The birds could mean no harm.

Holding her hand toward the foremost avian intruder, Anna turned her palm up in a gesture of peace. She addressed the nearest creature. His red eyes, rimmed with a rich chocolate brown hue, startled her before a touch of humanity reached her from their depths. It cawed softly and cocked its head.

The magnificent avian’s companions moved closer, encircling the leader. As she watched, the space bird shimmered even more, flashing so intensely her eyes misted. Through the sheen of water, his shape changed into a man.

And what a man he was. Stunning. His presence overwhelmed the shock of seeing a bird of light turn into a man—a completely nude man.

She recognized him at once as the star of her recent erotic dreams. His thick, rich brown hair, liberally streaked with red, stirred memories of her hands clutching those locks. Fanciful memories, as the reality held a vividness not experienced in her dreams. Braids framed his face while the rest of his hair flowed freely to his shoulders. His chiseled features accented a sharp nose and high cheekbones. Anna licked her lips, the utterly ridiculous notion coursing through her to press against the mouth that softened his appearance.

Her thoughts clouded to all but his broad shoulders that narrowed to his well-toned body. A curious set of markings resembling a leafless red tree with many branches spanned his upper chest, covering the front of his torso. Her eyes followed the branches of the tree down over his tight stomach, down the trunk, to a very impressive root nestled in a thatch of brown hair between his thighs.

Anna had spent most of her adult life in space. She’d had relationships—until three years ago—and she had seen her share of attractive nude men. Hordes of brawny chests littered any given space station dock, but this man’s exquisite form struck through her well-built defenses. Not realizing she stared at his impressive display, she stirred from her stupor when he began to lengthen and thicken.

Anna clenched her fists in discomfort, keeping her hands from covering her face. Mortified by being caught ogling an incredibly large erection while surrounded by half her crew and seven other bird creatures, she forced her gaze away.

Even more alarming, she had grown hot and wet between her thighs. The man inhaled sharply, and she had the uncanny feeling he could smell her. He stared at her nipples, hardened and clearly visible through her tunic. Wishing she had worn undergarments, she cleared her throat and ignored her arousal. It was as difficult to ignore his.

Despite the logical assumption that he would not know her language, Anna introduced herself, heeding the inner voice telling her he would understand.

“This is the ship Venture, from Geonate. I am Captain Anna Voron. What may I call you?”

“Captain, I am Piotr dom Raven. The leader of this phoenix unit,” he replied. His voice mesmerized Anna. Rich and seductive, his slightly raspy speech held a strange accent interlaced with a sensual melody, deep and alluring while slightly familiar.

“Phoenix,” she whispered. Attributing the slight trembling in her hands to excitement over a first contact situation, Anna rubbed her damp palms on her pants, nodded her head, and asked him to continue. She would never fear a man again. Never want again. The slip of her mind had been remedied, and she buried the unwanted erotic response. “How do you know our language?”

“One of our people mated with a man of your world. She shared the language with us. We were on a mission in this quadrant to meet with your admiral when we saw your ship drifting towards the star. We would offer our help,” he said.

Nex training surfacing—she couldn’t divulge their plight to an unknown entity. The unusual meeting, the eerie way they already knew more about the Geonate than the reverse, made her suspicious.

“We are in control of our repairs, but thank you,” Anna averred, surprised her voice worked.

But her crew came first.

She’d even face this man who threatened her firmly locked-away sexual desires. Her fantasy lover had wrapped her with protectiveness and trust. He appeared to be that man, but how could he be? How could she have envisioned a man she’d never met before now? Why was he in her dreams? She didn’t believe in psychic phenomena. She’d never had visions. Never saw the future. No one could. The only answer had to be that they’d been set up.

Why did she still want to believe this man was her future?

She subdued momentary vertigo and steeled herself to take charge. Never in her life had she been impulsive, but she decided now to seek their help, reverse her statement of moments ago. After all, did they have a choice?

The strange avian assembly waited patiently as Anna weighed her next move, but her crew talked at once with questions thrown back and forth. Excited chatter filled the cabin. These birds were not only a distraction when her crew needed to focus on repairs, but their size made them physical barriers on the small bridge.

Strange urges bid her to hide this beautiful man from the eyes of her female crew, but she shrank away from the idea of being alone with him. A plan materialized in her befuddled head, and she rushed her thoughts past her lips before she lost her train of thought to the memories of orgasmic dreams threatening to crowd out all semblance of control.

“As exciting as it is that you are here, on our ship, my crew needs to get back to work.” She paused and took a deep breath. “We’ll adjourn to the conference room. We were to rendezvous with another ship here, only hours ago. The meeting time has passed. Are you with them? Are you here to greet us?”

“We are not aware of your meeting. But now that we are here, I would like to know more about you.”

He stressed the last word, and Anna grew hot all over at the implication. He wanted to know about her, not her ship or Geonate. Brazenly walking beside her, he seemed not to care that a bridge full of women watched his exposed body walking to the exit.

Anna called back behind her, “Len, see if you can find some clothes that will fit our visitors. We still have a stash of uniforms from the previous crew in storage, don’t we?”

“Yes, we do, Cap.” Len moved from her station to follow through the portal.

She turned to Piotr, carefully keeping her gaze on his face, “I'm sure you can see that you might be distracting to my crew without attire.”

“Ah, I had not thought. We are, of course, comfortable in either of our natural states, but we are accustomed to clothing.” He grinned wickedly as he continued. “You said your crew is distracted. Am I distracting to you, also?”

Anna’s cheeks prickled. Blushing again, dammit.

“No,” she replied. She didn't think he believed her.

She didn’t know what was more alarming, that desire tried to push its way out of the prison she’d forced it into, or that she and her crew were in the path of a supernova.