Kayana checked the seals on her exo-suit, wishing again that she could take her armor with her instead. The contract had been specific, though. No technology outside what was provided by the race coordinators. She was only allowed to carry her family dagger because of an obscure “cultural display” loophole. She looked up as Ax came into the room, and Algol materialized.

“Welcome to Caldera.” The AI buzzed its wings and raised two of its complex mouthparts in what Kayana assumed was excitement. Or possibly hunger. The display screen behind the holographic avatar was filled with the image of a darkened planet orbiting a cool, red star. “Because the wildlife of Caldera is considered beautiful and unique, blasters are not allowed for this challenge. It is recommended that contestants take fire protection gear and respirators.”

“Wait, what?” Ax's voice cracked as his head snapped up to look at the AI, eyes wide. “I thought this was supposed to be a safe challenge!”

Kayana chuckled. “I don’t think any of them are safe. All we agreed on was low-scoring.”

“I’m pretty sure we agreed on team building too.”

“Perhaps.” She smirked. “Was that right after you said I was the boss?”

His jaw twitched, and she had to resist the urge to laugh. Provoking a response in him was too easy.

“You’re just lucky I like bossy women.”

“Actually, you’re the lucky one. It means we get along and I don’t shove you out an airlock. Everyone wins!” She gave him a toothy smile.

He chuckled and checked his exo-suit. “Do you need me to check your seals?”

“By the Nine, Ax Turner, that almost sounded like concern. Are you worried about me?” The warmth that flared in her blood at the idea didn't matter. She shoved it away as she turned and lifted her hair out of the way. This wasn’t flirting, just banter.

He grinned and double-checked her suit’s closures, fingers following the seal and leaving a trail of heat in their wake. “Let’s say I'm more interested in protecting the ‘beautiful and unique’ fauna of this place from you, rather than the other way around.”

They swapped positions, and he leaned his head forward as she pressed down on the closure where it followed behind his neck. The muscles beneath the suit were solid, and it drew her attention again to the appealing width of his shoulders. Her mind drifted back to the dropped towel in his cabin, and she blinked the image away.

“I do hope I’m interrupting something.” Berniss entered the room with a pair of holovid drones. “You know what they say - sex sells.”

Kayana stopped herself from growling, but it was difficult. “I hadn’t realized you were coming with us.”

Algol thrummed its annoyance. “The holovid crew is too valuable to be risked on this challenge. Caldera is still classified as uninhabited, feral, and lethal. They will however be sending a holovid drone. As stipulated in the contract, you are required to bring the drone with you and not interfere in its function.” The AI fixed its multifaceted eyes on Ax.

If the accusation bothered Ax, he didn’t give much sign. Instead, he huffed and rolled his eyes. The exaggerated gesture was almost endearing, but she refused to give him any credit for bucking against the ship’s authority. Solidarity wasn’t the same thing as alliance. She focused. “So. We are transmitted to the surface, and then what happens? How do we know what we’re looking for?”

The translucent blue avatar shuffled about, clattering its mouthparts together in an expression that could be frustration. Or, again, hunger. Actually, given how many different pedipalps, plates, and feeder antenna were around its mouth, Kayana wasn’t sure which displays from the AI weren’t about being hungry. For all she knew, whatever species it was supposed to be responded to all of life’s little challenges by consuming them. It didn’t make her feel reassured.

“The completion of each challenge is indicated by a gemstone,” the AI buzzed, finding a sense of composure. “For the challenge on Caldera, this stone is an uncut red diamond colloquially known as the Queen’s Eye. Once you have secured it, you will return to the ship and place it in the scoring matrix for evaluation.”

“So, we’re going down there to steal a royal-slash-religious artifact.” The disdain in Ax’s voice surprised her. He didn’t seem like the sort of person who would be offended by thieving.

“There is no civilization on Caldera,” the AI repeated. “Though the Octiron Corporation’s Great Space Race may require you to deal with other cultures as part of the competition, these cultures are all starflight capable and have been prepped for your possible arrival. Any attempts to damage, interact with, or undermine pre-contact cultures will lead to your expulsion from the competition.”

He scoffed. “That clears it up, thanks.”

Kayana had to agree with Ax’s sentiment. The Council of Great Houses was quick to condemn attempts to interfere with the development of pre-stellar civilizations. She pushed off the wall and stalked toward the display of the planet. “New topic. What are we allowed to know going in?”

The AI turned to face her, its projected avatar tilting its head to watch her with one multifaceted eye. “Ambient temperature is eighteen degrees Celsius. There is no expected sunrise or sunset as the planet is tidally locked.”

“If it’s tide-locked, why is the dark side so warm?” she asked.

“Gravitational forces acting on the planet have created geothermal instability, leading to a high incidence of volcanoes. Hence Octiron’s recommendations for fire protective gear. Respirators are also suggested, as the planet regularly emits pockets of sulfur dioxide gas.”

Kayana elbowed Ax in the ribs. He made a delightfully annoyed sound. “See? That’s a valuable question to have answered. You should grab some gear.”

“What about you?” He opened the supply locker and pulled out a pair of respirators.

“Fire doesn’t bother me.” She took one and clipped it to her belt. “I’m Malebranki. v’tana—fireshaping—is our birthright.” When he continued to look confused, she sighed. “We can manipulate fire with our minds.” Some better than others—most better than her, if she was being at all honest with herself. She wasn’t even able to generate her own flames, and had to grab existing ones to manipulate. Still, it wasn’t like he knew that or understood what it meant in her society. Or to her family.

He blinked, looking her over as though seeing her with new eyes. “Your hand, when you boarded. I assumed it was a hologram, just like the wings.” He sounded genuinely impressed.

“No tricks. I’ll show you while we’re planetside, if you like.” She felt her cheeks darken with a combination of pride and embarrassment. “Anyway, I doubt I’m good enough to protect us both if we end up taking a lava bath, so make sure you take your gear.” With that in mind, she grabbed one of the lightweight fire suits for herself as well.

The AI vibrated its wings. “You will also need the tracking device in the box on the floor. This will direct you to where the Queen’s Eye is, but not what you need to do to achieve it. As the tracker is recalibrated for each challenge, it will need to be returned to the box after this one has ended.”

“That’s it? That’s all the clues we get?” Ax didn’t sound especially hopeful about their chances. He hooked a survival pouch onto his belt opposite the respirator and pressed his thumb to a plate on the box the avatar had indicated. When nothing happened, he looked over his shoulder at her. “Apparently it requires both of us.”

Of course it did. She moved to place her thumb on the pad beside his. There was no way to do it comfortably, at least without being close to him, and the fact that their hands were almost touching made her frustratingly aware of his presence. She could feel the cool surface of his skin, too close to ignore the way he leached her heat. She swallowed, and the lock on the box whirred.

She stepped back immediately, glad to be away from him even a few feet.

Ax removed the tracker from the box. A flat white device, a touch screen covered one side, presumably where it would also display the location of the gem once they were planetside. He poked at the screen with a stern expression, but it didn’t respond.

“You going to be able to handle that?” She shouldn’t enjoy needling him, but it was so damned entertaining. “The on switch is on the side.”

“I know where the on switch is,” he snapped. He turned the tracker on edge and flipped the switch, but nothing happened. “See?”

“Your confidence with tools must make all the ladies swoon.” She grinned before remembering that she wasn’t flirting with him.

Fortunately, the AI saved her before Ax could respond. “The tracker won’t be enabled until you reach the surface of the planet,” Algol buzzed. “Until then, it won’t work.”

Ax nodded. “I knew that.”

“Both of you please step onto the platform.” When the avatar didn’t move to a control panel, it took Kayana a moment to remember that it was the ship. It didn’t need to manipulate the controls directly, it was wired into them.

Ax hopped up onto the silver disk that marked the edge of the beam’s receiving plate and extended a hand to her. “Alright, Kay. Are you ready?”

She bit back the reflexive desire to correct her name. If he knew it annoyed her, he’d only continue doing it. That wasn’t the only thing that gave her pause however. Matter transfer had a shaky reputation—there hadn’t been a serious accident in decades, but that didn’t mean she was eager to be the first. She glanced at the AI. “How safe is it?”

“Safer than spaceflight, and you’ve been perfectly willing to let me control that.” The giant insect clacked its mouthparts against each other in what may have been a laugh.

Kayana stepped up onto the platform, notably ignoring Ax’s outstretched hand. “That’s not reassuring.”

The AI hummed. “It wasn’t meant to be.” A split second later, white light blinded Kayana’s ability to see anything else, and she was gone.

#

OKAY. I’M PRETTY SURE that, if I could see, this would look a lot worse than it really is. Ax had a very limited idea of what his surroundings looked like beyond some dark, red-brown rocks at his feet. The horizon featured the dull orange glow of magma lighting a jagged patch of mountains. In between, he had no idea. He held the tracking device, trying to use the screen’s meager light to get some sense of where the AI had deposited them.

“You understand that waving that light around could draw the attention of whatever fauna calls this place home?” Kayana was near him, a deeper shadow in the darkness. At least when she spoke he could turn and face her.

Ax snorted. “Yes, well, we can’t all see in the dark like you.” Could she see in the dark? Probably. She seemed smug enough for it.

“It’s okay,” Kayana said, and he could hear the grin in her voice. “I’m certain there must be something humans are good at. I mean your species has lasted this long. It can’t all be random chance.”

So that’s a big yes on the night vision. “How about you just hook us up with some flame-dancing, and then we’ll be able to see our way out of here.” He stepped closer so the screen lit her face from below, accenting her lips and sparkling across the tiny scales on her cheekbones.

“I... Later. Something with the transmitter beam must have dampened my v'tana.” She looked away from the light and from him.

Ax had lied enough times in his life to recognize one when it was told to him. He wouldn’t press the issue though. Everybody had secrets. Hell, he had a planet’s worth. He stared at the tracker and pointed. “According to this we need to head that way. I think. Did the computer say this would be underground?”

“No, but it wouldn’t surprise me. It seems to leave out important details from its discussions. Besides, the volcanic activity means this place is riddled with caverns and lava tubes. It would only make sense if they are trying to hide the prize.” She took his hand and put it in the crook of her elbow. “I can lead you the rest of the way.”

Ax swallowed against the sudden dryness in his mouth from touching her. An electric energy vibrated in his palm at the contact. Her body was enticingly warm even through the protective exo-suit. And muscular. There was no denying the strength in the steely muscles beneath his fingers. Ax glanced down, and the tracker did a nice job of illuminating her curves. The suit fit more tightly than the lounge pants had, and it made her backside even more spectacular than he’d expected.

Ax shook his head to clear his thoughts and let her lead him over the rocky surface. Kayana was clearly not that kind of woman. She had no qualms about using violence to get her way. Any thoughts he might have about her ass, or any other part of her, were best kept locked up in his brain. Besides, she smelled vaguely like rotten eggs. Or was it...?

“Gas!” Kayana tugged the respirator off her belt and snapped open the silicone mouthpiece. She covered her nose and mouth, and a string of green lights illuminated along the black cylinder as it filtered the air in time with her breath. After taking two more breaths, she uncoiled the elastic straps and hooked them around her ears.

How had he not noticed she had pointed ears?

Ax opened his own respirator and pressed the soft, slightly sticky material of the facemask to his skin. The lights triggered as he pulled in a long breath, and he coughed against the burning sensation that seared his throat. Tears welled in his eyes as he fought to clear the gas from his lungs. He thumbed the emergency start but to no avail. The next breath was just as poisonous as the first had been, and he stumbled, unable to clear the toxic fumes.

Warm hands supported him, and a new mouthpiece covered his face. Clean, fresh air filled his next breath. Kayana waited until he could stand before checking his respirator for herself. She took a tentative breath, coughed and threw his unit on the ground before taking the mouthpiece from him. After a deep breath of the clean air, she indicated his respirator. “The filters are dead. It’s useless.”

Ax took the respirator, and a breath, beginning a pattern of passing the one functioning set of filters between them. “So now what do we do?” One respirator wasn’t going to do much good for the two of them, at least not as a permanent solution. And he really didn’t want to die choking on sulfur gas. Neither did she, he supposed.

“We will need to move quickly and get out of this area. The gas is heavier than air. If we can get to higher ground, we should be okay to breathe. She took another breath before passing him the respirator.

“Lead the way,” Ax said. “But stay close.”

She put her arm around his shoulders, forcing him to drape his arm across her back. As they walked, they could pass the unit between them. With working filters to remove the rotten-egg aroma, Ax realized that the smell of her skin clung to the facemask. Some kind of earthy spice, like cloves, though he wasn’t entirely sure what those smelled like either. He had always been rubbish in the kitchen.

For several minutes they continued in silence, though Ax could feel the ground rising beneath his feet. Just the effort of climbing used all the air they had, and talking would have wasted oxygen they didn’t have to spare. If this was what Octiron thought of as an easy challenge, he might have been better off trusting the tender mercies of the mobsters who wanted to take their money out of his hide. Literally. At least he could probably talk them out of killing him. Ax doubted he’d have the same luck with a whole planet.

Or half a planet. For all he knew the sunward side was a perfectly wonderful place. But that would probably be bad for the ratings.

He grabbed the scanner as it swung from a cord around his neck, and checked to make sure they were headed in the right direction. He nodded to Kayana, and the ground trembled beneath his feet. From the look on her face, she’d felt it too. “So, you spend a lot of time around volcanoes. That was perfectly normal, right?”

As if to reinforce his question, the vibration came again. And a third time.

In the dim glow of the scanner, he could see her wide eyes as she shook her head. “We should find shelter. Quickly.”

Something about the way she said it made his gut churn like a swarm of Grenian Ice-Worms had nested there. “What is it?”

Kayana took the respirator and a deep breath, while the ground shook twice more. “Earthquakes don’t occur at regular intervals,” she said. “Those are footsteps.”

Arms around each other, they scrambled up the incline. Even passing the respirator back and forth didn’t keep Ax’s lungs from burning, and the swing of the tracker hanging around his neck cast crazy shadows around his feet and created a flashing beacon for whatever might be stomping around in the darkness beyond.

Kayana took a breath. “It looks like there’s a fissure in the rocks up ahead.”

He lifted the tracker above his head, straining his eyes to see what she saw. “Where?”

She batted his arm back down, hissing, “Don’t! It might see.” She half-dragged him the last few dozen feet and pressed him against a set of rocks. After stuffing the respirator in his hands, she stepped away, leaving him in the dim circle of light from the tracker. In the silence, his breathing felt too loud, echoing within the facemask. Surely that thing would hear it. Ax tried to hold his breath, but even his heartbeat felt thunderous.

She returned, coughing slightly from the caustic air, but smiling. “Good news. We’re mostly above the gas.”

Ax took a tentative breath without the facemask in place. The rotten-egg smell remained, but it was much fainter than it had been lower down. “In my experience, good news means there’s bad news too.”

“We’re going to wish we were a lot thinner?” Her smirk was extremely kissable, he decided. Or could be, in a less dangerous location. The footsteps stomped closer, and he wondered if she could see the thing that was hunting them yet.  “The fissure’s right over here.”

If she saw the creature, she gave no sign. Kayana led him to a narrow crack between two boulders, more of an empty space where the rocks didn’t quite fit together than an actual cave. She squeezed in ahead of him, turning sideways to fit through the tight space.

He moved to follow and slipped on the loose rock, sending a cascade of scree tumbling down the incline with a clatter that felt impossibly loud. He stared into the darkness after the noise, as though he had some ability to will it away. Silence settled again, but then, far too close by, a sound between a screech and a howl echoed across the rocks. He looked into the fissure to find Kayana glaring at him. “You should probably get inside now.”

Ax nodded. “Couldn’t agree more.” The howl sounded again, and the vibration of the thing’s footprints picked up speed and strength as it charged toward them. He pushed himself into the narrow crack. “I don’t suppose we have a plan for getting back out, do we?”

“You don’t strike me as someone who does a lot of planning,” she grunted.

He understood her exertion, the passage kept getting narrower the deeper it went. Taking a breath was difficult. Taking a deep breath impossible. Ax worried that his skull might not even fit.

Ahead of him, she sighed with relief and whispered back, “It widens up a little bit, but not much.”

Outside, the animal howled again. Closer. Much, much closer. Ax squeezed through into the open area behind her. It was not, as she had described it, significantly wider. The two of them had to press together just to fit in the space available. But, he reminded himself, at least they were past the gas. In the dim light from the tracker, he could see her face, and her worried expression gave him a sudden desire to do stupidly heroic things. He’d always had a damnable soft spot for playing the hero. Even if she wasn’t exactly the “in distress” sort of woman.

“End of the line,” she smiled. “Now we have to hope that thing is as big as it sounds.”

“I’m not entirely sure how that’s a good thing.”

Kayana smirked. “Would you rather it could squeeze through the cracks and get in here?”

Ax conceded she had a valid point. He also had to admit it was a bit distracting the way her breasts pressed against his chest whenever she took a breath.

An investigative snort came from the front of the cave. The weak glow from the scanner didn’t make it all the way to the entrance, but his imagination was more than eager to fill in the details about what sort of giant nostril was probably there looking for them.

The animal let loose a series of short, sharp barks, followed by more sniffing.

“I think it knows we’re here,” Ax whispered. It also sounded suspiciously like the thing was calling for friends, but he didn’t mention that. No sense in alarming her if he didn’t have to.

The sudden ping from the tracker sounded impossibly loud and sent panic racing down his spine. He couldn’t see it without shifting, though, and the two of them had to wrap around one another to free his arm. He straddled one of her legs between his as he dragged the tracker up where he could see it. “That’s not good.”

“Dare I ask?”

“The Queen’s Eye is moving,” he replied. “On the plus side, it appears to be getting closer.”

She twisted, her arms snaking around his back as she tried to view the tracker screen. “I wonder if it means the gem is on one of the animals.”

Ax found himself watching her mouth as she spoke, and the sensual curve of her lips. Her nearness made the small space feel considerably warmer than the eighteen degrees Algol had mentioned, and he wished he’d bothered to memorize some kind of sports statistic, just to keep his body’s responses in check. Trapped in a cave with gods-know-how-many creatures prowling about outside the rocks was not the time or place to sport an erection. He shifted slightly to relieve the pressure and hoped she wouldn’t notice. “That seems insanely dangerous, even for the Octiron Corporation.”

That said, from an entertainment perspective, he could easily see Octiron doing exactly that. Having one of the contestants torn apart by a wild animal would probably send ratings through the roof.

She moved, and her thigh pressed into his erection. “The question of course would be how the company got it on the creature in the first place. If we knew that, we could do the same thing to remove it.” If she noticed anything else, there was no outward sign.

Ax gritted his teeth and visualized being ripped in two by whatever was outside in an effort to bring his renegade body under control. “No doubt they had big guns and plenty of tranquilizers to give it some downtime.”

She shifted again, and the way her leg rubbed along his length had to be deliberate. Ax risked a glance at her and caught her smirking. Her crimson complexion only added to the impish nature of her grin, and a charge of lust surged along his veins. He retaliated in kind, nudging his thigh between her legs.

Kayana’s eyes narrowed, and she made a quiet guttural sound like a growl. Or maybe a purr. Her gaze dipped to his mouth as she leaned forward. She paused halfway to him, one eyebrow peaked as though asking permission.

This was not the time or place, logic said. Reason warned him that this was, at best, a terrible idea. Then again, Ax had gotten by just fine without logic or reason up to now. He closed the distance, snaking his arms around her waist to pull her tight to his chest as his lips met hers.

The jolt was visceral, a combination of heat and electricity that fired along his veins. She dipped in playfully, brushing her mouth over his before sucking on his lower lip. He ground his thigh up, and she hummed into the kiss before rubbing her leg into his aching erection. The heat of her seemed everywhere, both on his skin and within him, overwhelming him and ripping a groan from him.

She chased after the sound, her tongue laying claim to his as they slipped together. Her fingers tangled in his hair, tugging him against her. Pressure built low in his belly, spurred on by the assault of her kisses and the rhythm of her thigh. His fingers skated up her ribs, thumbs grazing the outside edges of her breasts through the skin-tight exo-suit. She gasped, breaking the kiss as she ground down on his thigh. The sight of her, lips swollen and hungry, stoked a deeper fire in his blood. He cupped her breasts and wondered how safe it would be to open their suits inside the cave.

The tracker erupted in a loud series of beeps, which prompted a flurry of calls from outside. He counted calls from at least three different animals, but there could have been more.

The noise acted like a splash of ice water, and she stepped back as well as she could in the tiny space, leaving him cold where her heat had been a moment before. She brought an arm down and fished the tracker out from between them so he could read the screen. “Apparently, the Queen’s Eye is right outside.”