Chapter Seven

It took several hours for all three ships to be moved from the secure hangar and lifted to their rendezvous point orbiting Mars. Emi stayed out of the way, not distracting her men as they prepared the ship for the tractor beam configuration prior to jump. As they coordinated with the other two ships, they made one last check with the DSMC for additional information. Then Aaron started the countdown, which was broadcast among all three ships.

Emi didn’t understand the jump engine. Quantum physics wasn’t her forte. It wasn’t even in the same universe as her interests and intellectual strong points. Her specialty involved the human body, mind, and psyche. As the jump commenced, Emi didn’t sense anything physically out of the ordinary, even when she looked through the front vid screens, which had replaced the now-shuttered front ports.

Mentally, however, she felt a sudden crawling of her skin, her nerves on edge. She’d also felt it on their journey to Mars. The short jump they’d made on the way to Mars from Earth had lasted briefly and carried them over halfway to their destination, giving her a blessedly short period of the nasty feeling.

“I can’t get used to that feeling, or the way the vid screen looks.”

“You will,” Ford assured her. “You come back in ten minutes, that vid screen will look totally different. It’s all part of the effect. It can’t keep up with it real-time. It periodically refreshes.”

“In all the vids I’ve watched, you see a blur of stars.”

“That’s Hollywood for you. You would see that if the front plates were down and you looked out the port. In real life, we don’t dare jump without the armor plates and full energy shields in place. Too much risk.”

Aaron confirmed all was well with the other ships before he stood and stretched. “Caph, you take first watch. I’ll take second. Ford, you can take third.”

“What about me?” Emi asked.

“Not right now. You’re not familiar enough with the jump system. If we were under normal power, yes, I would let you take one.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“Is that a loaded question or what?” Caph teased as he took over the command chair, stealing a kiss from Emi along the way.

* * *

Emi spent a lot of time working in the hydro lab. She enjoyed it, found it soothing. Not only practical, ensuring they always had at least a little something fresh in their daily diet, but a mental exercise allowing her to ignore the creepy crawlies the jump engine gave her.

Being on the Tamora Bight turned out to be an easy adjustment. Unlike her sim session, where she’d had a mini-meltdown over accumulated stress, she’d managed to keep her spirits up.

And her men.

Caph joined her down in the hydro lab one morning to help her assemble a second tomato table, as she’d dubbed it, even though she used the trellising setup for other viny plants as well.

“Jesus, babe!” He stared at the flourishing plants in awe, this being his first visit to the lab since before they left Mars. “This is beautiful!”

She puffed up with pride. “Like it?”

“Yeah!” He walked through the various tables, his fingers gently brushing against some of the plants. “You’re bound and determined to make sure we eat good, aren’t you?”

“Hey, gotta take care of my big guy.”

He grinned and pulled her into his arms. “Oh, baby, you talk like that, I’ll have something for you to take care of, all right.”

She felt his cock stiffen through his pants, and she wiggled her hips against him. “Seems like you’ve already got something for me to take care of.” Her big buddy. Even in the middle of their most passionate times, his fierce gentleness could melt her. Caph never brooded, unlike Aaron, and to a lesser extent, Ford. He wore his heart and his emotions on his sleeve. Caph was her big, sexy, well-endowed teddy bear. Not just with her, but with the other two men as well.

“I can’t help it if you guys make me horny.”

She jumped up and wrapped her legs around him as his hands caught her ass. “Didn’t say I was complaining, sweetie. Have I ever complained?”

He kissed her, his hands massaging her butt as he rocked his hips against her. “No, baby, never. I still can’t believe how lucky we are you picked us.”

“I picked you twice. In the sim and then in real life. You think I’m giving you guys up, think again. I told you, you’re stuck with me for life.”

He carried her over to the chair pushed under the small desk she kept there. Kicking it away from the desk, he turned and sat, his hands moving to the waistband of her sweats. “Let’s get these off, babe. I’ll give you something I know you want.”

With a sultry grin, she stood, kicked her shoes off, and pulled her sweats and underwear down. It was too cool to take off her sweatshirt. While she did that, he unfastened his uniform trousers and pulled them down his hips, exposing his stiff cock.

She felt heat pooling deep inside her as she leaned in and kissed the thick, engorged head of his cock. It twitched.

“Don’t tease me, babe,” he begged. “Please.”

She straddled his lap again, her pussy more than slick and ready to slide him deep inside her. “I’m not going to tease my big guy.”

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. She felt enveloped by his large body as he let her set the pace, adjusting her angle until she found that sweet spot she desperately craved with him.

So far, only Caph had managed to get her off just like this. He loved sitting back and letting her use his body for her pleasure, content to wait and watch and enjoy her sliding and rocking on his cock.

“That’s it, babe,” he whispered. “I know what you want.”

She closed her eyes and let her senses reach for him, basking in his love, his passion, enjoying the warmth of his mental embrace. His thick member spread her open, stroking nerve endings deep inside her, her swollen nub getting just the right amount of touch on every downstroke. It slowly built within her, never as strong as climaxes other ways, but always sweeter because of the way she achieved it. That, and she loved the pride that always puffed Caph’s ego when it happened.

“Ride my cock, Emi,” he gently encouraged. “Jesus, you’re so beautiful.”

She felt beautiful. She braced her hands on his arms as he held her hips, helping her, letting her lead, matching her rhythm until she felt that warm rush inside her.

“That’s it, baby. Take it from me.”

She threw her head back and gasped as the wave crashed over her, her muscles grabbing at his cock, tightening around him.

After a moment he took control, his grip clamping down on her hips as he thrust into her. She leaned forward and kissed him, sucking his tongue into her mouth and triggering his deep moans. She felt him explode, physically and mentally, his juices rushing into her as his love flooded her mind.

Gasping for breath, he pulled her tight against his chest. “Oh, baby.” He nuzzled the top of her head. “Gods, you have no idea what you do to me.”

She felt a lazy smile crease her face. “Actually, yeah, I do. Class two empath, remember?” She cuddled in his arms, not wanting to move, wishing they were in their bed.

He chuckled, the deep rumble vibrating through her body as his hands caressed her back. “How about tonight you and me take a trip to the sim room? A little desert sunset action. Ford and Aaron are going to run systems tests after dinner, so they’ll be busy.” He nuzzled her throat with hot lips. “They already said they don’t mind us having a little alone time.” They both enjoyed reliving their picnic, something that happened first in the sim, then reenacted in real life. And relived more than once in the ship’s sim room.

She shivered, with anticipation, not chill. “I think you just read my mind, baby.”

* * *

Four weeks of mostly mind-numbing boredom later, Emi and Donna had practically memorized all the information they had on the Aroykin colony during the jump. The colony’s last regular status report to the DSMC was received three Earth weeks before their distress call arrived. Since then, nothing from the colony. All attempts to contact them had failed.

For safety reasons, they emerged from their jump just outside the solar system. Emi listened to the inter-ship chatter between the three crews as they disengaged the tractor beam systems and the navigation computers quickly updated their maps.

With relief, she felt her unease dissolve as the jump engine powered down. While she’d gotten used to the unsettled feeling over the past few weeks, her body relaxed, her senses loosening as she enjoyed the calm flowing through her.

Aaron had been designated lead captain for this mission by the DSMC. He immediately tried to hail the colony. “Aroykin Colony, this is DSMC vessel Tamora Bight hailing. Please respond. Over.” He waited, then repeated the message, recorded it, and set it to auto-hail over all possible frequencies.

It would take them three days at top non-jump speed to reach the colony. They transmitted their status to the DSMC, receiving a trans-light response the next day. Backup forces from the ISNC were on the way to help but wouldn’t arrive for several Earth days.

Emi busied herself double-checking her supplies one last time and familiarizing herself with their locations. Of the three vessels, the Bight had the largest and best-equipped sick bay, but the Braynow Gaston had more lab facilities, able to run more complex testing much faster than she could. As the three ships settled into orbit around the planet, locking into a position relative to the colony, they had still not received a reply from below.

Emi sat at the scanners and compared the readings to the records she had. “I’m showing human life forms.” She tweaked the settings. “Can’t tell for sure, but in approximately the same numbers we should be seeing.”

Aaron’s businesslike frown bothered her. He’d slipped into full captain mode, which made it harder to read him. He reached over and activated the com link. “Hey, Rob, it’s Aaron.” The captains had dropped the formalities over the weeks, making it easier to work together.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“You’re further back in orbit than we are. Can you lock onto their com satellite?”

“Hold on, let me check.” He came back a moment later. “Yeah, we need to shift orbit a bit. Why?”

“Can you pull it in and take a look at it? See if there’s anything wrong with it? Or at least dump its memory into your computer and see if we can retrieve the whole message?”

“Sure. Give us an hour.”

Aaron sat back and stared at the front vid screens. The planet looked remarkably similar to Earth, only with more land mass, two gigantic continents surrounded by a freshwater ocean. If plans for its development succeeded, it could provide a lot of food for this section of the galaxy. The planet’s life forms hadn’t evolved to intelligent humanoids yet. The highest apex predators were reptiles similar to dinosaurs, but none larger than a big dog. Mammals were limited to birdlike animals and small, rodent-like creatures, and the oceans teemed with a variety of sea life suitable for human consumption.

The area settled had been picked for a variety of reasons, including climate, soil, and commonality of habitat. The DSMC wanted to balance sound ecological practices with their need to expansively develop the planet and didn’t want to wipe out any native species if they could possibly avoid it.

“What are you thinking?” she asked him.

“I don’t want us to go down there without knowing as much as we can first.”

“Well, they’re not dead. At least, most of them aren’t.”

“Yet.”

“That’s a creepy thought. We need to get down there.” The doctor in her wanted to be on the way down there ASAP, worried lives might be lost because of the delay.

“We can’t walk in there without knowing what’s going on.”

“What about an unmanned drone?”

“I want to see what Rob comes up with first.”

It felt like a long wait. The com link whistled when Rob hailed them less than an hour later.

“We got it. The same message the DSMC received, and it cut off in the same place. There’s nothing wrong with the satellite. Whatever happened went down at ground level, during transmission. I had it ping back and didn’t receive a response from its base.”

Aaron stared out the front vid screens, deep in thought. “What kind of com traffic did it have before?”

“Nothing spectacular, outbound and inbound reports, mostly data links. The usual.”

“What do you think?”

“I think we have to land. Sending in a drone will only waste more time.”

“Emi and I will go.” Elloy started to protest, but Aaron cut him off. “Rob, no offense to Donna, but Emi has more skills than she does. We need Emi on the ground to evaluate the situation, and I’m not letting her go without me. I need you up here in case there’s a problem.”

“At least let me send Greg and Sam with you for backup.”

John Tarrence from the Braynow Gaston sounded off. “Why don’t you take one of my guys?”

Rob said it before Aaron could. “Because my guys have combat experience, and we might need all three of you working in the labs. We can’t spare your guys to go down there yet. Besides, there’s only three of you, and two need to stay onboard. He’d still need one of my guys anyway. It doesn’t make sense to waste time picking crew up from two ships.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry,” Rob said, amusement in his voice. “You guys will get your turn to explore soon enough.”

Aaron mulled it over. “Okay. We’ll leave at their dawn, that’s in,” he consulted the computer, “twelve hours our time. Emi and I will come over and pick your guys up then.”

“Roger. Out.”

Emi prepared for the vocal protests from Caph and Ford as soon as Aaron disconnected the com link. Sure enough, they didn’t disappoint. Their twin voice sounded, perfectly in tune.

“There’s no way you’re going! I’ll go!” the men protested then scowled at each other.

Aaron shook his head. “We need two on board to run the ship.” His face hardened. “As Captain, I’m making this an order. I go, you two stay.”

The twins shut up despite their angry scowls. From the tense set of their shoulders, Emi knew they felt less than happy about the decision, but they would obey their captain.

Emi and Caph spent the evening loading supplies into the lander, including scanners, basic first aid supplies, protective hazard suits, and decontamination units. She thought she was done until Aaron stuck his head inside the door and glanced at the neatly stacked items.

“How many weapons?”

“None.”

He shook his head. “Two side arms per person, one rifle per, a case of grenades, and three cases of cartridges for the weapons.”

Her eyes widened. “You can’t be serious!”

“I am.” He looked around one more time. “And restraints. Add a case of energy shackles. Just to be on the safe side.”

He disappeared. Emi wasn’t happy about his decree, the scientist and doctor in her wanting to think the best, not the worst, but she added the items to their inventory.

She got very little sleep that night, the delay in getting to the surface pecking at her conscience. The next morning, they hugged and kissed Caph and Ford in the cargo bay before they sealed themselves into the lander and launched.

Never having flown in one before, Emi’s stomach did a nervous roll in the reduced G before settling again as Aaron skillfully guided the lander into the K-2’s cargo bay. Gregor and Sam piled in, bringing even more supplies with them. Ten minutes later, they were on their way to the surface.

Aaron located the colony’s main landing pad homing beacon. An hour later, they slowly descended the last thousand meters to the pad.

He reached over and punched in a code after they touched down. The front armor plates slid out of the way as the vid screens deactivated, but the lander vehicle seemed encased by a yellow, hazy glow.

“Energy field,” Aaron explained at her questioning look. “Until we know for sure there’s no physical danger.”

Several women and a couple of men had gathered at the edge of the landing pad, well out of the way of their vehicle. They waved their arms at the lander, trying to get their attention.

Aaron activated the external com unit. “Please do not approach any closer. We have an energy barrier activated. We were sent by the DSMC. They received a distress transmission from your colony, but it cut off in the middle.”

All the people nodded.

Emi couldn’t read the people from that distance, especially with the energy barrier around the ship.

Aaron spoke to them again. “Is one of you in command?”

An older woman stepped forward. “I’m Governor Ilse Martinez. Our transmitter was destroyed.”

“What’s the nature of your medical emergency?”

“Some of our population is infected with an unknown pathogen.”

Emi leaned in to the com panel and spoke. “I’m Dr. Emilia Hypatia. What are the symptoms?”

“Extreme intermittent rages, worsening every time. We haven’t had any new infections in over three weeks, but we’re not any closer to finding out what’s causing it or why.”

“Contagious?”

“It’s only affecting certain people. All we know is it’s not airborne, waterborne, or contagious from person to person.”

“What people?”

“Adult males.”

She looked at the three men in the lander with her. “I’ll be right out.” She sat back. “Turn off the barrier, Aaron.” She climbed past him to the back of the lander and headed for the air lock. If the disease was only affecting men, she wouldn’t need a protective suit. The decon air lock would take care of making sure she couldn’t bring anything back inside the lander when she returned.

Aaron looked livid. “Now, you wait one fucking minute—”

She turned on him. “No, you wait. I’m a doctor. This is my job, Captain Lucio. You want me to get all regulation on you? A ranking DSMC fleet medical officer can override a captain’s orders when health and safety are at stake. I’m overriding you. You guys stay here until I find out what the hell is going on.”

Sam Johnson laughed. “She’s right, Aaron.”

Aaron frowned. “I don’t give a shit what the fucking regs say. I’m your husband, and you are not going out there alone!”

“I’m your medical officer. I say you’re not going out there, Captain!”

Stalemate.

Aaron glared at her. “How do you plan on keeping me here, Doctor?”

She looked at Sam and Gregor. “You got it under control?”

Gregor smirked and shook his head. “Oh, fuck no, you’re not dragging me into this, regs or not. I’m not a moron.”

Sam shook his head, too, although he looked amused.

Aaron’s eyes darkened. “She said it’s not airborne or contagious person-to-person. I’ll wear a protective suit.”

Emi wasn’t happy, but they were wasting time. “Fine. Get it on and hurry up.” She grabbed her medical kit and hand-held terminal.

He switched off the energy barrier and activated the decontamination air lock setting. Quickly donning a suit, he followed her out the air lock to the landing pad.

Governor Martinez led them from the landing pad to a nearby low, rambling office complex. Inside the lobby area, while tidy, the evidence of a violent attack still lingered. Wood covered one window. A long, winding crack crazed another. Gouges and burn marks scarred one wall.

This close, Emi could see and feel the wear, fatigue, and fear in the woman. She reached out and touched the governor’s arm. “Ma’am, what happened?”

That’s when Emi felt the other woman’s grief wash through her.

The governor burst into tears. “We don’t know! They just went crazy, but there’s no reason for it we can find!” She collapsed into a chair as Emi knelt in front of her. Fear now filled the governor’s emotions.

“What are the symptoms?”

“It’s all adult men, and not even all of them. They just started acting weird and having intermittent rages. We can’t predict it. We’ve had to sedate them and keep them that way.” Tears rolled down her face.

“Can I speak to your head doctor?”

That’s when what little was left of the governor’s composure shattered. She sobbed into her hands. “My husband, Sascha. He was one of the first to come down with it.”

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