With Lisa light as a twig in his arms, Qaiyaan shoved through the crowded casino as if the building was on fire. Local medical assistance wasn’t an option—Bolisare was all but a pirate planet, and word of her nanites would expand like a supernova. He’d called Mek, who’d told him to stay put, but there wasn’t a moment to spare. Qaiyaan could get Lisa to the ship faster than the doctor could gather his equipment and flag down a rickshaw. What were those bastard Syndicorp nanites doing to her right now? He felt for her pulse again, reassured by its steady beat yet terrified about what was happening to her mind.

He’d been so proud of himself back in the room, remaining in full control, focusing only on her pleasure. But he should’ve known better than to believe Syndicorp tech might actually work in his favor. He bared his teeth at a long-limbed rakwiji bouncer standing in the path ahead, her scales flared in aggression. She grimaced back, long teeth glinting in the multi-colored lights, then seemed to think better of a confrontation and scurried out of the way.

He burst from the dark casino onto the brightly-lit sidewalk outside. Ignoring the outraged looks of other patrons, he shoved to the front of a line waiting for rickshaws and set Lisa in the back of the nearest one. When the human who’d been haggling price with the driver began to argue, Qaiyaan shoved him out of the way. The human skittered backward and fell onto his backside, his companions shouting in outrage. Qaiyaan didn’t give an anaq. As he climbed in next to Lisa, he shouted at the driver, “Spaceport. Now. I’ll pay double if you can get us there in under fifteen.”

The driver lunged against the pedals, pulling the vehicle away from the curb and into the line of traffic. Picking up speed, the rickshaw careened past an oncoming u-bus, taking the corner toward the space station at breakneck speed.

Qaiyaan tapped his cochlear implant. “I’m on my way.”

Mek’s voice entered his head. “I told you to stay put.”

“I’m not standing by helpless while you get your limp ucuk in gear. Where can we meet?”

A sigh. “The cargo doors. Any improvement?”

Qaiyaan pulled Lisa’s torn dress closed over her breasts, wishing he could see into her brain. “No.”

“You’re sure you didn’t nudge her?”

His previous pride about keeping control tasted like ashes. Had he nudged her? He’d been so into her, so tranced by her amazing body, that he wasn’t sure. He didn’t think he had. He hadn’t felt a need to. The connection was already there, already calling him, telling him what she liked, what she needed. A presence that was uniquely Lisa. And she’d never told him to stop. Never warned him she was losing control. Her orgasm had washed deliciously over him, a moment of shared pleasure like he’d never felt before. His cock had been ready. Then the intangible bond had snapped. Twanged with a resonance that still rang through his bloodstream. He provided Mek the only answer he could. “She wanted to experiment. To see how far we could go.”

The silence over his implant expressed Mek’s disapproval far better than his words. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

Guilt clogged Qaiyaan’s throat. Instead of answering, he tapped his implant to silence it then shouted at the driver, “Can’t you go any faster?”

His entire crew was waiting at the open cargo bay doors when the rickshaw skidded to a halt on the blistering-hot tarmac. Qaiyaan lifted Lisa from the seat and strode toward the ship. Behind him, the driver clambered after him, cursing loudly for his promised fare. Shouting at his first mate to pay the angry yanipa-nimayu, Qaiyaan headed for the med bay. Mek ran alongside waving a portable scanner over Lisa’s limp form.

Normally in an emergency situation, Qaiyaan would've sent a surge of ionic energy to his feet, allowing him to leap onto the second-level catwalk toward the med bay. But his terror of using any of his powers around the fragile woman in his arms sent him climbing the stairs three at a time.

In the med bay, he lay her gently on the exam table, pulling her gaping dress closed against his crewmen's gazes. When he felt Mek's hand on his arm, urging him away, he stiffened, instinct demanding he defend his woman. Then Mek's voice brought him back to reality. "I'm not sure what's causing her blackouts, but you're the common denominator. You need to leave."

Nausea rolled through him. He was the common denominator. Great Ellam Cua, what if he’d killed his only chance for a mate? He stepped backward, his attention glued to the woman on the table. To his mate on the table. Consummated or not, there was no denying that now. “She was trying to reprogram her own nanites. Trying to make us compatible.”

Mek narrowed his eyes. “Was she successful?”

“Obviously not.” Qaiyaan croaked out, his chest full of regret. Why had he ever allowed her to talk him into this?

Tovik moved between Qaiyaan and the exam table, his green eyes full of compassion. “Come on, Captain. I know where you hide the akluilak wine. Let the doctor do his thing.”

Reluctantly, he followed his engineer to the galley.

Three shots of wine later, Qaiyaan felt no calmer. His soul felt like it’d been ripped in two. Tovik had been called away to talk to Nupnup’s repairman, and Noatak now sat in the galley in silence, both feet propped on the neighboring chair, arms crossed over his chest. They both watched the door, waiting for Mek to make a report.

When the doctor arrived, he paused, face downturned as he read his handheld. Qaiyaan wanted to strangle him for taking so long yet was hesitant to interrupt the doctor’s analysis. Noatak broke the silence. “Stop being an ass, Mek. If you’re not ready to talk, go back to the med bay. The captain here’s about to go into a rasvrid leviathan rage on our galley furniture.”

Mek continued staring at his handheld. "Her brain waves are way off kilter, but it's different than last time. The nanites are reproducing and reprogramming at a rate I can't track. Her synapses can't keep up and I don't know how to stop it. She's so sensitive to energy frequencies, I can't get decent readings with my low-level sensors and I'm afraid anything more intense might make things worse. I've given her a test dose of a synaptic equalizer, but I'm not sure how human physiology will react." He lowered the device. "Can you tell me exactly what happened? Start at the very beginning, from the moment you left the spaceport."

Qaiyaan rose, scrubbing both hands over his face and up through his hair. He relayed every move they’d made, sanitizing their intimacy yet making it clear they’d taken that step. “But I didn’t nudge her, I swear. I went no farther with her than any of us have with women during shore leave.”

“I warned you that any intimacy could be too much for her.” Mek’s recriminating gaze barely touched Qaiyaan through his own quagmire of guilt.

“I know.” Qaiyaan grabbed the wine and took a long swig directly from the bottle.

Tovik arrived, gaze sweeping from Mek to Qaiyaan. “The hull guy’s almost done scanning the damaged panels. What’d I miss?”

Noatak kicked his feet off his makeshift footstool and reached for the bottle. “Mek just made the captain kiss and tell.”

“Aw, man!”

“Shut up, you two,” Mek warned.

Qaiyaan paced the small galley. The helplessness and rage he felt now were nearly as strong as what he'd felt upon hearing about the destruction of his planet and everyone he loved. "This is all my fault."

Mek once again consulted his handheld. “I wish I understood her nanite programming. It’s made her more sensitive to a nudge than even perhaps a Denaidan female would be.”

Tovik sat next to Noatak. “Or she just doesn’t know how to shut the sensitivity off. Isn’t that why our women couldn’t leave the planet? They couldn’t shut out the other races’ input?”

Qaiyaan planted both hands on the table. “If she can’t shut them off, can we remove them? Purify her blood or whatever?”

Mek’s brows drew together. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple. They’ve become so enmeshed with her synapses, removing them may do more harm than good.”

An image of Lisa’s mind overrun with tiny fucking robots filled Qaiyaan’s mind. Robots she could never shut down. “She’s still sensing me, isn’t she? That’s the problem.”

“Perhaps. But she should avoid using her nanites until we figure this out.”

“She’s sensing him? Or those Syndicorp nanites are?” Noatak asked. “What if she’s transmitting all this straight back to Syndicorp spies? I say we stick her back in cryo.”

Mek nodded thoughtfully.

Qaiyaan put his hands on his hips and faced his crew. “We’re not sticking her in cryo.”

“Don’t be so hasty. The idea may have merit.” Mek was scrolling his handheld, gaze darting over the information as if he couldn’t read it all fast enough.

“She’s not a threat to us, not like that.” Qaiyaan insisted. “And she nearly died in cryo last time.”

“It’s not that we don’t trust her—” Mek started.

“I don’t trust her,” Noatak said.

Mek frowned at the first mate. “You’re not helping.” He turned back to Qaiyaan. “Slowing her nanites might break the programming cascade and allow her mind time to regain control. Plus we still haven’t addressed the issue of her withstanding burn frequencies once we leave Bolisare. Cryo would stabilize her until we figure something out.”

Qaiyaan took a deep breath, trying to remain rational. Much as he hated to admit it, Mek might be right. "So where do we get a cryo-pod?"

Tovik drummed his fingers on the table. “I made repairs to her old one. It should work even better now.”

Noatak raised an eyebrow. “No offense, Tovik, but I’m not sure we should put her in one of your new and improved inventions.”

Qaiyaan nodded. Tovik’s most recent improvement to the Hardship’s lavatory shower had used up half their water supply before they realized what was happening.

“Hey!” Tovik glowered at all three of his crewmen. “My upgrades have saved our asses more times than you can count.”

“And I appreciate it when things work, Tovik. I really do. But this isn’t the three of us going balls out to escape some heist. This is…” Qaiyaan wasn’t sure how to explain. “This is Lisa. I’ll go back to Nupnup and ask for a pod.”

An unfamiliar voice spoke from behind him. “Too late for that.”

Qaiyaan spun, hands balled into fists. A human male wearing a repairman’s jumpsuit blocked the doorway, aiming a fully-charged pulse pistol straight between Qaiyaan’s eyes.