Chapter Six

Outer Reaches. Geonate New Time, Year 2402
Mission: Day 8
Venture Stranded: 6 hours

Piotr halted the efforts of his team while Len and two other engineers managed to repair leaks in the Venture batteries caused by their power sharing. While he and his team re-evaluated how to collect and disperse energy, the Venture made no progress away from the star. Without the batteries, the lack of life support threatened more than a possible supernova.

“If we can’t figure out this power transfer, Anna will just have to repair those solar sails,” Len muttered as she tightened a clamp of some sort onto a dampener she’d affixed to an isolated battery. Then she stood and cast a worried glance at Nadia.

In phoenix form, Nadia stood, bright and vibrant, full of power that she’d absorbed from the star.

“Throttle it back as much as you can,” Piotr encouraged his fellow phoenix and then addressed Len. “Step behind some shielding. Nadia has shown the most skill in controlling her energy flow. She’ll feed the power as slowly as she can but there could be an overload.”

“Right.” Len shoved the tool she’d been holding onto a tray and wiped her hands on the back of her uniform before entering the nearby control room which had blast shielding. Hands on hips, she stared through the clear plastie as Nadia sidled up to the isolated battery.

Sweat trickled down Piotr’s back and he frowned. He wasn’t used to this kind of fear—that energy harnessed from a star could hurt anyone under his care.

Nadia knelt next to the battery, bent her head to the conduit attached to the dampener and clamped her beak on it.

Light burst around her and she whipped her head back.

Piotr took in a singed-flavored breath.

The battery level pinged to full and everyone stilled—waiting. Hoping.

Nobody seemed to breathe. The battery didn’t move. Didn’t send out a puff of smoke or melt or explode.

Piotr’s shoulders relaxed.

“We’ve found a way.”

Within the hour the remaining batteries were back online with a dampener attached to each. Added to that success, the neutrino readings of the supergiant held steady, and time loosened its stranglehold on Anna’s crew.

They’d have time to work on the engine.

The camaraderie of the crew and their faith in their captain helped the women keep hope. Piotr was inclined to trust Anna as well. Despite the sense of wellbeing he’d received from the star in his energy form, an unusual frisson had created eddies in the currents roaming his body. It was as if the star tried to speak to him, but with no way to understand, he could only keep watch over it.

The crew had worked hard for hours on end, and now crowded into the mess hall to relieve the tension over a ration of ale.

The room full of flushed cheeks and smiles kept him from speaking with Anna to confront the dark past that loomed over them as much as the supernova. Until the phoenix had helped with the battery repairs, the two sets of peoples had been tense, aloof. Now they shared drinks.

Piotr spotted Anna standing next to Hailey at the refreshment station with a mug.

“Hailey, fill me up with a bit of that, would you?” Her voice, though not directed his way, threaded through the crowded room to wrap around him.

“Yes, ma'am,” Hailey replied and raised her brows. “Are you drinking with us tonight?”

“Just a little,” Anna replied with a thin smile. She turned from Hailey and walked to an empty table. Unable to stop his feet from moving, Piotr followed her.

Inclining his head in greeting, he sat at the table, alone with her. The silence grew thick and uneasy. He shifted in his seat to keep from reaching over to smooth the troubled expression on her brow. After lifting slightly in her seat as if to get up, she settled back. It was a habit she seemed to be forming, to run from him.

Seemingly resigned to speak with him, she cleared her throat. “Do all the men from your planet braid the front of their hair like you?”

He followed her lead and did not discuss the difficult subject of her captivity by a debased hybrid. “No, but many from the House of Raven who have seen battle braid their hair. All of the men in my unit have faced mimics, Koschei's forces. After our first battle, we braid our hair and keep it that way. I only take it out when I shower with water.”

She licked her lips and glanced down his body. Perspiration broke over his skin. The cinnamon scent of his arousal surprised him, and he struggled to restrain himself. To his relief, a distraction saved him when Gregory and Ivan entered the room with a few of the women from the Venture.

Anna nodded toward them. “You know Len. That’s Joylnn with her, our supply officer.”

She watched Joylnn. The tall blonde was pretty, perhaps the prettiest of the crew, with luscious curves and a ready smile that easily showed her sweet nature, but she did nothing for him. Not a spark.

Anna continued, speaking almost to herself, “Joylnn is leaving us. This crew has been together for three years. A few, like Joylnn were fresh from the Academy when I hired them. Len and Hailey came over with me from the Geonate.”

She winced and gulped a third of her beer, which had sat in front of her untouched until then.

“We built a solid reputation in ferrying cargo between space stations. We follow union regulations and always dock for extensive rest periods. On our last six month stint on Lotus-9, Joylnn had a relationship with one of the dock workers. I don’t know how she could have allowed it, but she’s pregnant. With all of the reliable forms of birth control available, I don’t really think it was an accident. Even I get my shots at yearly physicals.”

Anna blanched. Her hand shook as she put the beer back down. When she looked at him with moisture in her eyes, his mouth ran dry. Her eyes glazed over. “We all get the shots.”

Like when he’d tried to speak to her of her imprisonment, her faraway look returned. Before he could reply, she shook her head and continued.

“I guess I was weak. I allowed Joylnn to make one last run. She wanted to stay with the crew while she trained the new crewmember, Treena. Now we’re compromised. It was a mistake to bring her with us.”

Before he could stop himself, he reached over and held her hand. Though he expected it, she didn’t flinch. Still, the glassy expression remained. A tear rolled down her cheek, but she didn’t seem aware of it. “That poor baby may not make it.”

She shook her head again and looked down at the table. Her face paled even more before she moved her hand from his, slowly. At least this time she didn’t yank away as if he’d burned her. The need to hold and comfort her overwhelmed him. Not only wouldn’t she allow it, but he’d never comforted another. He didn’t know how, but that didn’t stop him from wanting. Involved in reading her every expression, he saw the moment pass, and she became the strong captain again. She smiled at someone near the door. Surprised at his reaction, Piotr growled to see that welcome on her face for another.

In the entry, Ivan nodded to Piotr, put his hand on Len’s back, and directed her toward them. He no longer had the captain to himself. Piotr cut back the scathing order he wanted to hurl at Ivan to go away.

The four at the door headed toward Piotr while they discussed the repairs and the parts to be acquired once they were in space dock. Treena walked in after them, waving at Joylnn before going to a quiet corner to sit alone.

“Hey captain, I see you've busted into the happy juice!” Len smiled at Anna and turned to Gregory. “Sometimes she lets loose to party. Then we get the good stuff. Do you two want ale?”

“Sure,” he replied, looking between Len and Joylnn. Turning to Joylnn, he asked, “How about you?”

“Well...” she began.

“No, the little mother can't drink,” Len interrupted.

“Mother?” Gregory searched the room, no doubt expecting to find a child.

“She’s having a baby.” Len beamed at Joylnn. “I’m going to be an aunt. Well, sort of, anyway.”

Grinning broadly, Gregory pulled out a chair at the next table, bowed to Joylnn, and motioned her to sit.

“My Lady,” he said and wagged his jet black brows while his red, green-lined eyes twinkled.

Joylnn didn’t respond but looked up at him with appreciation.

Ivan laughed. “You are such a flirt, Greg.”

Gregory scowled and replied, “My name is Gregory.”

“Whatever you say, Greg.”

“You are such a prince,” retorted Gregory.

Ivan grew serious, and like all other phoenix, followed their argument in mindspeak.

OK, that's enough, Ivan broadcast with a ferocious reverb.

Whatever you say.

“Greg-or-y,” Ivan snarled, drawing out the name.

Relax, I won't give away your secret. Nobody will find out you're a prince, Gregory jibed.

I'm not a prince.

Fine, a prince turning his back on his family, Gregory smirked.

Ivan crowded against Gregory, “Better watch what you say.”

Len butted between them, dwarfed by the two giants. “Do you guys always bicker?”

Ivan and Gregory laughed, and the tension evaporated. Piotr hadn’t bothered to move. He leaned toward Anna, but spoke in a whisper loud enough to reach the two. “They always behave like this, like spoiled brats. But they wouldn’t hurt one another.”

After a nod to Piotr, Gregory apologized as he sat next to Joylnn.

Len elbowed Ivan, “Come on hothead. I don't know what that was about, but forget it. We're here to have fun. Come, help me get the drinks.”

His lanky frame towering over hers, Ivan threw his arm around Len’s shoulders and led her to the refreshments.

Piotr ignored the antics of Ivan and Gregory. A crew member he didn’t recognize served their meal. He ate food he didn’t taste while he watched Anna drink and talk with Joylnn.

Was it possible he’d only known her for a day? No matter the number of hours, he recognized that she rarely let her guard down. What happened in those moments when her eyes glazed over and she seemed a million parsecs away?

She smiled at Joylnn. He wanted to see her smile at him. When he was done eating, he couldn’t help the urge to capture her attention, to make her see him, to laugh with him, to desire him.

“Would you like to hear about my people?” he asked.

Anna turned from Joylnn. The excitement written on her face forced the wind to leave his lungs in a rush. Her smile dazzled him, and he wondered if he could still speak as his mouth ran dry. He ignored his responses to her and blamed it on simple lust.

He knew better.

“Yes. Where are you from? How do you speak our language and know so much about us? How long have you had space flight?”

“Whoa!” Piotr laughed. The staccato of questions cleared his mind. “I’ll start with the name of our planet. Sirin. It’s about two weeks outside of your Outer Reaches at normal propulsion.”

“Sirin? That sounds familiar somehow.” Pursing her lips slightly, Anna’s brows drew together as she thought. Piotr’s groin tightened. He forced himself to look away from her moist, pink lips. Joylnn stared at her captain, a surprised, bemused expression on her face. He spoke to them both in turns.

“There is a legend of the birth of our people from a creature called Sirin, half woman, half bird. We do not know the exact story, but we do know we have magic long forgotten. We are much the same as you, but we can shift into our phoenix form. We have always returned to Geonate to follow the development of your race because we believe Sirin may have been in one of your northern regions.”

“No! Really?” squeaked Joylnn.

Anna’s eyes rounded, but no other response betrayed her surprise. “Geonate? I thought you were from out here, from your own home planet.”

An innate instinct took over, and his voice found the age-old rhythm of the storyteller. The phoenix nature, to sing a melody of history and lore, took him away, into a past of magic and wonder.

“Maybe we are. The truth is long gone, but our stories speak of Sirin. Our history is made of myths and legends, so I can’t give you a concise truth of whether we came from your world. I do know that some of the folklore from that region came from our ancestors going back to visit and follow human progress.”

Blue eyes wide and eager, Anna leaned toward him and dispelled the last traces of her earlier pain. “Why live on Sirin? Why not Geonate? Why do you hide from us?”

“At first, I think we separated ourselves because we’re different and humans had a difficult time accepting us. We were either treated with extreme reverence, or complete fear. We found a new, quite beautiful home. There was no reason to change after you evolved.”

“Ah, we’re evolved, are we?”

Piotr could see the humor in her sparkling eyes. Trying not to get lost in them, his mouth clamped shut. Whatever he’d been about to say, it completely left his grasp.

Disgusted with his developing boyish crush, he rued the nature of his race’s passion, different from man in its intensity, as well as importance. As an adult, he’d never been ruled by desire and wouldn’t start now.

“We age more slowly than humans. Most of us live for well over a hundred years and retain youth for most of our lives, but we do die. Our longevity and youthfulness are from the continual collection of energy into our bodies that renews our cellular structure. This regeneration makes our phoenix passionate, vibrant. It is the other half of our nature, but we must be careful to shift periodically to help alleviate the buildup of power.”

“So, shifting uses up a lot of energy? Can you use too much?”

“Changing does use a lot of energy. Power is all around us, waiting to be harnessed, but that is also why we cannot stay in phoenix form, because we absorb the ambient light and forces around us. We can overload.”

“If you’re the phoenix of Geonate’s folklore, then why do the stories say you can be reborn?”

Expression intent, as a child listening to bedtime stories, Anna reached out but snatched her hand back a mere breath away from touching him. The small hairs on his arm stood on end and heat rushed over his body.

“Most of us live again after death.”

Anna cocked her head to the side. “Most of you?”

“Our genetic imprints are the carriers of our essence. Upon death, the signature begins the process of rebirth. It’s difficult to explain, but we carry our energy signatures in the patterns of our tail feathers, which are immature until bonded. We are not complete until we have mated, and the feathers cannot mature until we’re mated. It’s imperative to our race. Without it, we cannot bear young nor be reborn.”

Her expression clouded with doubt, and she looked him up and down. Piotr’s melody crooned from his throat. Blatantly sensual, the tenor of his voice resonated through his body, and she responded. Lips parted, she panted while color spotted high on her cheeks.

“Are you . . .” voice husky, she stopped midsentence and licked her lips. Piotr shifted in his chair to alleviate the tightness in his pants. It didn’t help. She breathed the last, “Mated?”

Piotr nearly leapt over the table, but he stayed in his seat, rooted there from the truth he had to divulge. That truth brought him up short, and the melody thrumming to release from his chest stopped cold. He’d not thought of Vivie since he’d first caught sight of Anna, or perhaps, in honesty, not for a while before.

“No, I’m not mated,” he replied.

“What about Koschei?”

“Koschei.” Piotr’s voice had already lost his lyrical firebird cadence, but the one word came out in discord, strident.

Anna cringed. Joylnn put her hands over her ears. Ivan and Gregory eyed him from across the room where they chatted with Len and other crew. With effort, he evened his modulations and continued in a controlled tone.

“Around three hundred years ago, Koschei tried to force a mating with a woman he said he loved, but they were unable to bond. I find it difficult to imagine love residing within him, but no matter. He was certainly dedicated to her. He was also a brilliant scientist. When the full bond did not happen with his chosen, he began illegal hormonal and genetic experiments to mimic mating. At first, he kept everything secret, but when his woman died he became obsessed. He’d kept samples of her DNA and intensified his efforts to try to find a way to bring her back. Since she wasn’t successfully bonded, she couldn’t be reborn.”

Piotr read the pity in Anna’s expression, but after the atrocities of the resulting conflicts, he had none whatsoever.

“Wouldn’t his experiments benefit all of you?” she asked.

“The experiments weren’t kept to the lab. When our leadership council tried to put a stop to his experimenting on kidnapped phoenix and humans, he tried to take control of our twelve princedoms. By then, he’d created a new type of people. A mix of human and phoenix. They’re the mimics. The council met with a few and determined they were all empty shells, incapable of empathy. Mixing humans and phoenix only created something caught in-between with nearly the strength of a phoenix but none of the compassion or capability to learn.”

Piotr paused but neither Anna nor Joylnn seemed ready to question him. They leaned toward him, their expressions troubled but intrigued. He plunged on. Explaining his people to outsiders for the first time felt nearly confessional.

“They exiled Koschei. In response, he began a war for the resources in our solar system. He made more mimics. Over the years, we’ve caught some, interrogated them. They live a life empty of joy or emotion. They are automatons. Soldiers. They do not even care for one another. They only care about fulfilling the roles they’ve been given, to be a part of the war machine. The drive to procreate is strong but twisted in them. They only care about protecting the experiments that make more of them. To feed their ships. Their war. They do not live on planets. Only out here, in the dark, always looking for more energy to steal. Then we found out Koschei had a way to use energy to give him immortality without the need for rebirth—or mating.”

“He started a war with his own people? Would his lover have wanted him to harm others to bring her back?” Anna’s brow wrinkled, and he continued, relieved she showed concern for his people.

“The war started so slowly we didn’t understand it. At first it was a few skirmishes, to protect those that the mimics kidnapped. Then we found ourselves fighting to save stars in far-flung galaxies because it is against nature to bleed them dry. Before long, the war drew many of us from peaceful life on planets, in our aeries—our communities—into space to track and try to destroy the mimics before they destroy us all. Koschei’s war is draining our solar system and those surrounding it.”

Agitated, Piotr stopped his tale. He couldn’t think of Koschei without anger clouding his judgment. He spoke again in a halting voice.

“His forces captured a man in my unit a few years ago. They brutalized Carl and kept him from being reborn by stealing his tail feathers. Our energy signature is stored there, and if death follows before the tail feathers can restore themselves, we’re unable to regenerate. His mate, Katie, mourned herself to death. She destroyed her tail feathers before taking her own life. They’re both lost forever.”

Piotr didn’t tell Anna that was why he’d stopped looking for a mate and had come to an agreement with his patron, the king of the Talons, but she needed to understand the reasons behind it.

“Mating is a delicate balance. Initial attraction can compel the instinct, but we learn to control that powerful draw. When we first have those urges, mated couples teach us how to use reason while choosing a partner for bonding. Bonding partners can know they’ve met their mate at first glance. Others may date for years.” He paused before adding what would be the case for him. “Some bond partners are arranged by families.”

Now promised to Vivie, he’d given up the mate-hunt. Since then, he’d been abstinent to avoid an accidental mating with a lover. He could ill afford the weakness. In this time of war, mourning to death over a lost love was not uncommon. He would not follow that path.

But Anna called to him.

He did not understand the pull Anna had on him, but it didn’t matter. Bonding with a human was impossible. No phoenix had ever taken a human as mate. Such a decision would ultimately lead to true death.

Her brows slanted as she thought through what he’d said, and she latched onto the last part, the one he wished he’d not said but had come out like a confession.

“If some find their mates through an arrangement, then, once bonded, do they ever have feelings for one another?”

“We’re like humans in many respects when searching for a partner. The relationships can start in any number of ways. With emotional ties or not. But bonding shares DNA between partners. They become as one. Two halves of a whole. The ties are indescribable.”

Even if he fell in love with a human, he’d never be able to stay with her. Perhaps he could indulge his passions, if she would accept that he couldn’t stay. If he could enjoy an affair with Anna , it would hurt no one. Vivie had not asked for him to be celibate until they bonded. Once bonded, any love affair in his past would be as if it’d never happened. The love between bonded pairs seemed to transcend all past experiences. It wasn’t just how mated pairs had described it to him, but also in how the described their pasts, as if anything before mating lost all color, all ability to matter. It wouldn’t be fair of him to love someone and then forget that passion so utterly.

He took a deep breath. His ability to continue, to share what he could about his people, dried in his mouth, but he had to make her understand.

“Anyone who bonds, even those of us out here at war, are sent home and expected to breed children. We can only breed in our first lives. After rebirth, phoenix aren’t able to have children, although they remained mated. The war has decimated our population.”

His mouth clicked shut.

His duty was to produce offspring.

Once he had children, he would rejoin the war, but a mate would make him vulnerable. If she were taken from him or hurt, he would be useless to his people. Watching the slow death of Katie had taken its toll. He’d vowed to be invulnerable. Despite his internal debate, there was no way around the end result. His responses to Anna were stronger than any he’d ever had.

Piotr growled with disgust and pushed back from the table. He stalked to the exit, paused, and put both hands on the top of the door in a grip so tight his arms shook.

The moment Anna moved, her footfalls trickled through the static flowing over his skin. He shook himself. Foreboding nearly brought him to shift, to escape her nearness that rolled through him in ways it ought not. When she stood beside him, she tentatively reached toward him and then froze. With all his being, he wanted that touch. Her past had hurt her, and reaching for him, initiating that contact, must be an insurmountable barrier. Perhaps one day she’d welcome a man’s touch, but she would never bring herself to touch him.

The brush of her fingers along the small of his back ricocheted from his toes to the top of his head. She didn’t leave her hand there, but that small token made his phoenix want to warble with joy. He bit his tongue. The tension ran out of him. He hung his head and swung it side to side.

Anna had reached for him.

*

Treena gripped her glass as her captain and the gorgeous phoenix leader left their table. A pang of remorse shot through her for the hundredth time since joining the crew. As she’d gotten to know the crew, most especially the gracious and friendly Joylnn, she’d lost sleep. Every night she tossed and turned to wake in a cold sweat of fear.

What if the serum she’d added to the water harmed Joylnn’s baby?

On the flip side, she drank the same water and felt fine.

This was all for Ronin, the only family she had left. He’d always watched over her, and now it was time she helped her big brother for a change. He needed her.

Not having been on the bridge when the phoenix people had boarded, Treena had heard all sorts of wild rumors about the appearance of the beautiful people—and they were definitely beautiful. Even if it seemed to not affect the crew, she wondered if the serum would harm the bird men.

*

Anna let her hand fall from the light touch she’d given Piotr.

“What does Koschei want with your Geonate?” he asked.

After a sharp intake of air, she answered resolutely, “Come with me.”

She led Piotr down the transport tunnel to the level below. The silence from the centrifuge, which should have been humming next to the lift, punctuated the need to understand where her crew stood. How could they repair the engine? Why had the phoenix found them, of all the human ships in wide open space? What was going on? From the central tunnel, they passed through the lounge to her suite of rooms.

The Captain’s office was sterile. No personal objects decorated the plain walls, and though the furniture was comfortable, the room looked as it had when she took responsibility for the ship. She’d worked hard to earn the right of command but hadn’t set down roots here, nor in her quarters on the other side of the office. She regretted not collecting more in her life, more trinkets, more experiences, more friends.

“This room reminds me of the director of the academy I attended as a child,” she said. “Whenever one of us girls went to her office, we always came away wondering about her life, whether she was married or had kids. She didn't have any pictures. It occurs to me that I don't either.”

“What pictures would you have?” Piotr scowled at her.

“I don't really have family. That's why I was at the academy. None of the girls at the academy had families. That's what makes us perfect for long-range space travel. We don't leave anyone behind. After three years of space flight together, you’d think I’d hang pictures of the crew.” This discussion was pointless. “Well... let me find those communiqués.”

She showed him to a small round table, large enough for two, and flipped on the inlaid vid. Once it synched with her PCU, it gave her access to her files. Within seconds, she had the missives on screen.

Scowling fiercely, Piotr read the three missives twice each. “I think that Koschei wants contact with the Geonate for the usual reasons—money and greed—but I’m worried he’d deplete our solar system to create trade. Perhaps that is his motive.”

“But, why bring us here, near a star ready to implode?”

“I don’t understand Koschei. He’s been at these nefarious games for centuries, while I’ve only passed the half-century mark.”

Incredulous, Anna nearly sputtered, “You’re fifty?”

“Aye. Well, fifty-five. All of my unit, including myself, are mere hatchlings.” He chuckled and the sound deepened, resonating through Anna. He continued, “None of us have been reborn, but we’re older than most of your crew. The youngest of us, Gregory, is thirty. Alex and Tatyana are in their nineties. We are a close unit and will grow closer and more cohesive once we’ve all gone through rebirth. I’m still a mere chick, as are you.”

Anna smiled and tried to imagine Piotr as a boy, but she couldn’t. Piotr grinned back, and the brown rims of his eyes widened to soften the red centers. He appeared nearly human, but certainly not like a chick.

“No one has ever called me a chick without regretting it.” She laughed out loud. “I’m a mere babe at thirty-three, young to be captain of a long-range ship. But I don’t feel so young. I’ve had time to build a reputation for the ship, but with more time and experience, we’ll be able to take more lucrative runs. If we get out of here.”

His height giving him an advantage, Piotr leaned over the small table until he stopped a hand’s breadth from her face. Though she wanted to bolt, she remained in place. He murmured low, “Don’t worry. The batteries are working, and our ship will be here in a few days.”

“Yes, no need to worry unless the star decides to implode.”

Piotr winced. “You have time.”

Anna grew quiet. Unable to sit near Piotr for a moment longer, she rose to show him to the door. With what she hoped was a neutral expression, she stood at the portal. “I want to thank you. I don't know what we’d have done without your help.”

“No need to thank me.” In a slow, languid move he rose from his seat. “Do you intend to take my warning about Koschei? You cannot trust his motives.”

“I'll think on it and run some scenarios through the comp for analysis, but if nothing else, I suspect his motives for sending us to a supernova.” Not knowing what to do with her hands, she flexed her fingers. “Good night, Piotr.”

For a long moment, they stood there. Awkward with the silence, Anna waved toward the door, and it opened automatically. A strange loneliness overwhelmed her with the subtle invitation for him to leave. With all the craziness going on with the ship, she wanted to climb into her bunk and curl up into a ball.

When he stopped beside her, she recognized that look in his eye. The one before a man leaned in for a goodnight kiss. He didn’t. He wouldn’t. In the short time he’d been on board, he’d shown kindness toward her and made no advances despite the currents between them.

No, he’d not touched her. Which was what she wanted.

A pang of regret almost had her put a hand on his arm to stop him leaving, rather than spend another night alone, but she didn’t. She couldn’t.

He brushed by her, and the first full body contact with a man in three years made her dizzy. Only a hand’s reach away, he stopped and faced her. Her shoulder kept her vertical as she leaned against the wall with weak legs. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears.

Blackness washed over her, but she strained to keep the memories at bay. She managed to stay in the here and now, but her body erupted in fine tremors and immediately slicked with perspiration.

Piotr inhaled deeply. Her attention snapped to him, narrowed on his lowered brow. Concern for her plainly stamped on his visage, he stood so close all she had to do was straighten from the wall to be in his arms.

She didn’t.

Piotr cupped her cheek and ran his thumb under her eye. Had she cried? Did she slip into that black place and not even know? She shuddered and leaned into his hand. When he brushed his thumb over the seam of her mouth, she could taste the salt of her tears. Her lips parted of their own accord, and desire flooded all the places that had slept for years.

“I would erase that fear, if you let me,” he whispered, but he didn’t wait for a reply.

Warmth radiated through her until she overheated. She glanced down to her PCU to check her thermals. Fine. They were fine. One slight touch, and for the first time since the temps were lowered to conserve power, she didn’t crave a thermal blanket.

“I might let you,” she whispered.

Though he was gone, and the lounge outside her door remained completely empty, a warble answered, echoing from the transport tunnel.