Love at First Bight

Chapter Eighteen

Emi sat in the command chair, her legs drawn up under her, reading a book on her hand-held console. It was nearly two a.m. in their daily cycle. The boys were all asleep after their poker game, leaving her on watch.

The blinking indicator caught her attention a split-second before the alert beep.

She sat up, her heart racing. She’d never had a real-life notification during a watch before. This felt bad, very bad. With shaking fingers, she touched the screen, and a message box popped up.

Sensor indicates sentient signature.

Fuck. What the hell did that mean?

She couldn’t think. Then another message appeared.

Sensor reading, signature closing fast.

She punched the com panel, straight to the cabin. “Aaron? Guys?” Aaron’s sleepy voice. “What’s wrong, hon?”

“Can you come up here? There’s something on the sensors I don’t understand.”

He was immediately awake. “I’ll be right there.” She’d no sooner sat back than a klaxon sounded and the whole screen flashed red.

Aaron ran onto the bridge a moment later, in boxers and pulling on his shirt, barefoot, wide awake now. She moved out of the command chair and he slid into it.

“Fuck!”

“What is it?”

He shook his head. She knew that meant both that he didn’t know and to hold off on the questions.

The twins ran onto the bridge, Caph carrying his shirt, Ford carrying his shorts, both trying to dress.

“What is it?” Caph asked, sliding into his chair, alert and in crew mode. Ford went to the weapons panel and activated it, all business.

“Large vessel,” Aaron said. “Full power to defenses, back off secondary systems.”

“Roger,” Caph said, his fingers flying over his panel.

Emi froze, despite the literally hundreds of hours in simulations.

She watched, panicked, as Aaron barked orders at the twins and they responded immediately with acknowledgements or requested information.

Aaron glanced at her. His voice softened, calmed, the same voice he used with her that night at the Dry Port. “Em, take the secondary weapons controls from Ford.”

She nodded, sliding into the chair and activating the panel as feeling slowly returned to her numb limbs.

Just a simulation, she chanted in her mind. Just a simulation. This is just a sim, stay calm. Just a sim.

It wasn’t a sim, but maybe if she thought that hard enough, it would keep her focused.

Whatever it was, as soon as it picked them up on their sensors, it changed course and headed right for them. It was big and would intercept them in an hour at current speed. It wasn’t carrying an ID

beacon, meaning it was unidentified or possibly hostile.

How Aaron maintained his calm, she didn’t know. “Can we jump, Ford?” he asked.

Ford shook his head. “I need three hours warm-up from current sleep mode. I shut it down to save the extra energy since we weren’t close to a solar source. We jump with it cold, it’ll burn out the circuit board trying to backwash the energy.”

“Can we out-run it?”

“It’s doing L-6,” Caph said. “The fastest this crate will go outside of jump mode is L-5. We can run, but it’ll catch us, and we don’t have anywhere to run to. We don’t have the energy to run L-5 and weapons and defenses and life support and warm up the jump engine at the same time.”

Aaron activated the com. “Unidentified vessel, this is DSMC

Exploration Vessel Tamora Bight hailing, over.” Silence. After two minutes, Aaron tried again, recording the message to auto-hail over a wide variety of frequencies, hoping to snag a valid one. Twenty minutes later, the ship was still closing with no response.

The tension on the bridge thickened, suffocating. Aaron looked at Emi, and in the same calm, soothing tone said, “Go to the cabin, get dressed, and bring us full uniforms.” He tossed her a key card. “Then I want you to go to the arms locker, get us each¯including you¯a side arm, and bring us extra plasma energy cartridges for them, okay?”

She nodded and sprinted to the cabin, her hands fumbling her belt as she dressed, trying to find everyone’s clothes and not grab the wrong ones or forget anything. Emi raced back to the bridge and dumped them on the floor. Before she could leave again, Aaron snagged her arm and kissed her, distracting her the way he always did, even under these circumstances.

“Em,” he whispered, “it’s okay. Just a precaution. You’re doing great.”

She nodded but felt anything but great. She bolted for the weapons locker and had to try three times to get the key card in the lock before it opened. Her fingers didn’t want to hook the holster clasp to her belt, and she nearly burst into tears trying to get it right.

Taking a deep breath, she imagined Aaron’s calm voice. The boys weren’t panicking—neither would she.

She raced back to the bridge. She’d been gone maybe five minutes, but they were all fully dressed and at their stations. She handed out the side arms and extra cartridges and returned to her seat.

Then a tell-tale beep sounded. The men froze.

A low voice growled through the com, sounding like it was running through the translator circuits. “Vessel Tamora Bight, this is Granz executive vessel. You will maintain course and prepare to be boarded.”

Aaron tapped the com. “Granz executive vessel, we are a DSMC

exploration vessel, not a military vessel. Under interstellar treaty¯”

“We are not a treaty race. Your crew will not be harmed.” The com link went dead while Emi fought a wave of panic.

Aaron was tense, as were the twins, but they hid it well. “Em,” Aaron said, “look them up, see if there’s anything on them. Caph, what do you have?”

He shook his head. “Their sensor is overriding ours, or their defense shields. Energy pattern nothing like I’ve seen, can’t penetrate it. All I know is they’re a big fucking box, bigger than us by four times.”

Nerves and adrenaline sent Emi’s fingers flying over the computer, trying every possible spelling she could think of and coming up with nothing.

“Look up non-treaty species, cross-reference with this sector,” Aaron calmly suggested.

She did, then a notation popped up: Unknown species, intelligent race, restricted contact, DNC-2 standing orders.

She sent the notation to Aaron’s console. His face tightened.

“Okay, hon. Thanks.”

“What? What does it mean?”

He’d sent it to the twins’ consoles, and Ford spoke. “Do Not Contact.”

“What does the two mean?” she asked.

Caph answered, his face hard. “If someone’s taken prisoner, no one’s coming after you.”

Just a sim…just a sim…

The vessel slowed as it approached. Another klaxon went off.

“Tractor beam,” Ford said, his fingers manipulating settings, trying to prevent life support overloads. “Way too strong to fight it.” Aaron nodded. “Then don’t. Power down the engines to ready-neutral, let’s not burn them up.”

Just a sim…just a sim…

The com signaled again. “Captain, our diplomatic emissaries will appear on your bridge. In three…two…one.” Before Emi had time to register they’d said “diplomatic,” the air shimmered behind her, like heat waves off the New Phoenix pavement. Two large, humanoid figures appeared. The air glowed faintly yellow around them, and from the way her hair felt like it was standing on end she suspected they had an energy barrier protecting them. Emi thought transporter technology like that was the realm of futuristic stories, a favorite topic for writers for hundreds of years, not something any race really possessed.

Both were huge, nearly eight feet tall. They could almost pass for human except for their size, the way their black eyes were set much wider apart than a normal human, and their flat noses. They wore matching flowing blue tunics and didn’t appear to hold any weapons.

Then again, if you could materialize inside another ship through their defense shields, you probably didn’t need weapons.

The taller one turned to face Aaron. “Are you the captain?” Apparently the ship’s computer was still translating.

Aaron stood. “Yes.”

“Our sensors show four crew total. This is your crew?”

“Yes.”

The alien’s black eyes settled on Emi. An uncomfortable mental chill swept through her. She wanted to move closer to either of the twins but suspected a movement like that might be misinterpreted.

The second alien still had not spoken. The first alien looked at the twins, then back to Aaron. “Disarm. You will be transported to our ship to speak with our executive.”

Executive. That can’t be too bad, right? Just a sim…just a sim.

Aaron nodded, but his eyes focused on Emi. She felt him trying to send calming thoughts to her, sensing she was close to panic. If he was calm, she had to stay calm.

The twins and Aaron disarmed, laying their holsters in their seats.

Emi tried, but she fumbled the catch on the buckle and couldn’t get it.

The harder she tried, the more upset she got until she was nearly in tears.

The alien apparently sensed it. “Captain, you may assist your crew member.”

Aaron walked around the aliens and placed his hands over hers, waiting for her to look up and meet his eyes. He touched his forehead to hers.

“It’s okay,” he whispered, then smoothly released the catch and placed her holster on her seat. He turned, holding her hand, his thumb stroking hers.

“Gather here.” The alien pointed at the floor in front of them. All four moved to comply. When they were standing where indicated, Emi felt Aaron’s fingers tighten around hers, his thumb pressing into her palm, trying to distract her. Next to her, Ford caught her other hand. Behind her, Caph placed his hands on her waist, pressing close.

The air shimmered, shifted, and they stood on the alien vessel.

It was chilly, nearly uncomfortably so. “Follow us.” The aliens started down a corridor. Behind her, Caph gently nudged her forward when he realized she was too scared to move.

As one, the four trailed after the aliens.

Okay, so they didn’t have weapons trained on them. That was good, right?

Just a sim…Just a sim. It wasn’t working, but it was that or she was going to scream and succumb to the hysterics threatening to take her over.

They stopped at a closed doorway, and a low tone sounded. After a brief moment, another tone sounded in response, and the door slid open. Inside stood another alien, even larger than the first two. Naked.

And if their physiology was similar to a human, he was male. Emi was shaking, shivering, her teeth chattering in the chilly air and from the stress taking her over. From the size of the alien’s…appendage, either he was really large when he was aroused, or they liked it cold.

She prayed he wasn’t looking for a little loving either, because he would rip a human apart.

Head naked alien dude wasted no time. “What is your purpose?” Aaron subtly stepped in front of Emi without releasing her hand, sandwiching her between him and Caph. “We are a research vessel.”

“You are armed.”

“Only for defense, not attack.”

The alien nodded. “You are humans?”

“Yes.”

Naked alien dude stepped forward, but Aaron didn’t flinch. Emi watched from over his shoulder.

“What is your relationship?” The alien pointed at them, circling his hand, indicating all of them. Now she realized he had six fingers on each hand, and six toes.

Bet their decimal system is whacked…

She struggled to choke back the hysterical laughter. If she started, she knew damn well she wouldn’t stop.

Emi had no idea how Aaron kept his voice so strong and firm. “I am the captain of the Tamora Bight. This is my crew, my first officer, mate, and medical officer.”

The alien looked at Emi. “She is your mate?”

“She is our medical officer. We call our third in command the mate.”

The alien nodded. “Ah, I see. She is not your mate, then?”

“She is not my second officer, no.”

“I meant your mate. Your… female.” Aaron tensed. “We are bonded crew. We are partners together.” The alien’s eyes looked at each of them in turn, then lighted on Aaron again. “You are not a family unit? Spouses?” Emi felt tension build in the men. This couldn’t be good.

“No,” Aaron said. “We are designated as bonded crew by treaty¯”

“But you are not…married?”

Now Aaron’s voice tightened. “No.”

“So you are not spouses?”

“No.”

The naked alien turned and muttered something in a clicking, chirpy language to the alien who spoke to them on their ship, then walked behind a long, heavy purple curtain dividing the room in half.

Okay, that wasn’t so bad¯

“Our executive says one of you will stay here, he doesn’t care which one. The rest of you are free to go.” Okay, not good.

Aaron shook his head. “We all leave.”

“Captain, either one of you stay, or all of you die. There is no exception. You are not spouses. We would not separate you if you were spouses, but since you are merely crew, one of you stays.” Aaron’s voice was tight. “Why?”

The alien shrugged. “Our executive is bored. He wants a new toy.

Whoever stays will…service our executive.” Okay, very bad.

Aaron tensed. “I will not leave one of my crew.”

“Either one of you voluntarily stays behind with us and services our executive, or all of you die. You will have five minutes to give us your decision.” He stepped back to the other alien in the blue tunic and talked to him in their native language in low, clicking tones.

“You said you wouldn’t harm our crew!” The alien looked over “We won’t, if one of you willingly stays and submits.”

“That will harm our crew.”

The alien shrugged. “I don’t see how, it’s just…sex, but you have five minutes to choose.”

Aaron stepped back, forcing Emi and the twins to move. He left her standing there and pulled Ford and Caph a few feet away, huddling with them for a moment. Whether it was their nerves or the weird energy in the ship or what, she couldn’t read what was going on, couldn’t hear them.

Caph said something, sharp, and Aaron shook his head. Ford’s voice reached her, but she couldn’t tell what he was saying, only that he was arguing with Aaron.

The last thing she made out before they broke their huddle was Aaron’s firm, “…that’s an order, officer. Do it. You’re my first, that means you’re in command.”

Aaron turned to her and took her hands, looked into her eyes. “I love you, Em,” he whispered, then leaned in and kissed her.

Stunned, she tried to process what was happening. Caph and Ford suddenly flanked her, their hands resting on her arms.

Aaron met her eyes. “I will always love you, babe. You take care of these two guys for me, okay? Promise? Keep them out of trouble?” She nodded, numb. Surely he wasn’t saying what she thought he was saying?

He released her hands and kissed Ford, whispered something to him. Ford nodded and whispered something back, tears in his eyes.

Then Aaron kissed Caph and whispered something in his ear. He looked at Aaron and finally nodded, his face sad. Aaron quickly stepped away from them. Before Emi could stop him, Ford and Caph grabbed her arms and held her.

Realizing what was happening, she screamed, “No! Aaron, you can’t do this!”

He turned and smiled, but it was full of sadness and regret. “It’s okay, Em,” he said softly.

“No, it’s not¯”

“Emi, please,” Caph pleaded in her ear. “Don’t make this any harder on him than it already is.”

She crumpled in their arms, sobbing as Aaron walked away from them, heading toward the curtain and disappearing behind it.

“It’ll kill him,” she whispered in a tortured voice. “He’s volunteered. The chip will go off and kill him if the alien doesn’t.”

“He’s our captain,” Ford said, his voice thick with emotion. “He’s given us his order. I know it sucks, but no matter what, the bottom line is he’s our captain first.”

“We’ve got to save him,” she begged.

“Emi, we can’t, sweetheart. One of us has to stay behind, and we will not sacrifice you. He’s ordered us to go. I hate it as much as you do, but he’s given us his orders.” Tears ran down Ford’s cheeks, and she knew how final this was, no chance to go back and change anything.

No chance to tell Aaron one more time she loved him.

She cried, her heart breaking. She wanted to stay¯she couldn’t stand the thought of losing any of her men. She’d gladly stay and die if it meant they would live.

Ford and Caph forced her from the room, half-carrying, half-dragging her as she screamed and struggled against them to get to Aaron. A low tone sounded as they reached the doorway. They all looked up as an intercom cut on.

“Simulation complete,” a soft female voice spoke.

They froze. Ford started to say, “What the fu¯” There was sudden, deafening silence, followed by a moment of blackness. Then a light invaded Emi’s eyes and she realized she was laying down, the technician from the New Phoenix DSMC brain scan center bent over her.

“Dr. Hypatia?” He looked at someone. “She’s awake.” A male voice from somewhere else said, “They all are.” Confused, Emi struggled to sit up, wobbled, disoriented, and the technician helped steady her.

“It’s okay, Doctor. That feeling will go away in a few minutes as the sedative wears off.”

Emi looked around and realized she was dressed exactly as she’d been the day she first went for the interview at the DSMC. “What’s going on? Where am I? Where’s Aaron? Where’s the twins?” She wiped at her face and realized she’d been crying.

“The simulation is over.” Dr. Graymard walked into her field of vision. “I’m sorry, Emi, but this was necessary. We can’t throw you into space together for five years without seeing how you would handle realistic situations. I apologize for the deception, but the initial simulations are always more accurate if the subjects aren’t told about it up front.”

“They weren’t real?” Part of her was slowly starting to accept that Aaron wouldn’t die, but part of her was already grieving for her boys, her new family. Her friends, her lovers.

Her crew.

“Oh, they were real. They were in the simulation with you.” Grief quickly swung over to anger. “They were using me?”

“No!” Graymard quickly said. “They didn’t know it was a simulation either. The other two crews you met at first you really did meet—they were all tied in. As you rejected them, they were pulled from the simulation and their experience altered so they thought they really met and were rejected by you. That way, the next time they’re scanned they won’t know it was a simulation. The next step is real-life training with your crew to ensure compatibility. We can’t let subjects know it’s a simulation ahead of time or it might invalidate the results. It’s okay for training, but for the initial scans it has to be a surprise.”

“How long have I been here?” She remembered much of what happened, but it was swirling, starting to lose clarity, like a vivid dream flowing away at dawn.

Dr. Graymard looked at his watch. “Barely two hours. That’s why your sense of time in the simulation frequently seemed skewed, as were your senses of taste and smell, and why you rarely felt pain. We obviously had to speed it up to get through as much as possible.

Congratulations, you made it much further than any crew has ever made it. Successfully, I might add. Most of the time we have to stop the simulation earlier.”

Emi stood, the strength returning to her legs. She heard familiar voices from across the room and turned to look. Aaron, Caph, and Ford were sitting up in their scanner beds, looking as confused and stunned as she felt.

Unable to help it, she screamed when she saw them. She stumbled over to them and fell into Aaron’s arms, sobbing tears of relief as he held her, nearly crushing her in his desperate embrace.

“It’s okay, Em,” he hoarsely whispered, stroking her hair. “I’m okay, babe.”

Caph and Ford also put their arms around them. “Dude, that was rough,” Ford said.

Aaron glared at him. “No shit. You’re telling me?” Emi sat back and looked at him, touching him to ensure he was really there and okay. The others, too. “It didn’t happen. None of it happened,” she said, awe-struck.

Graymard had followed her. “No, but you were all in the simulation together, went through it together. As far as we can tell, you’ll be a perfectly matched¯”

He couldn’t continue, because Emi launched herself at him, screaming, decking him. “You son of a bitch! I thought he was going to die!”

The men pulled her back, Aaron catching her around the waist and dragging her into his lap. “Hey honey, try thinking you were the one gonna die.” He turned her to face him and kissed her, and that last little bit of what was missing slammed home. He smelled like oranges and cinnamon and tasted like apple cider.

Sobbing with relief, she pulled him close again as they formed their group hug. Their bodies pressed firmly against her, enveloping her with their warmth.

Graymard laughed and rubbed his jaw. “Well, Emi. Do you want to sign with this crew?”

She looked into Aaron’s deep brown eyes and smiled. “Damn fucking straight I do. These are my boys.”

“That’s my girl,” Aaron whispered, kissing her again.

“Hey, what about us?” Ford playfully griped.

She turned to him and laughed. “Give me some sugar, baby.” He kissed her, long and sweet, and she felt the familiar thrill run through her. He smelled faintly of cologne, a warm, musky scent she absolutely adored.

“Ahem.” Caph smiled, and she fell against him.

“There’s my buddy.”

“Thought you’d forgot me.”

“Never.” His kiss was even better in real life, tantalizingly seductive and lighting fires inside her. He had a natural, almost sweet scent, and his kiss reminded her of their afternoon spent alone making love by the small stream.

Something that hadn’t happened in real life, but she felt was a part of her memory.

The technician escorted them to a recovery room to fully shake the effects of the sedative they’d been given. Ford pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her.

“Damn, I’m glad you’re not an illusion. They woke us up, and after I realized Aaron was okay, for a minute there I wanted to cry when I thought you weren’t real.”

“Join the club.” She looked at her hand, which felt quite bare without the familiar ring on it. “I don’t know what I’d do without you guys.”

Caph sat on the bed next to them and held her hand. “What would I do without you to keep me in line?” Aaron stood in front of them, smiling, his color looking better now that he realized he wasn’t going to die as an alien’s sex toy. “You realize we’re just as bad in real life, right?” His smile could melt the coldest heart. She knew she was deeply in love with this man who, technically, she’d only just met. All of them.

Caph and Ford pulled him in close. Emi turned, slipping her arms around Aaron’s waist. “You were going to die for us,” she whispered, her face pressed against his firm abs.

“I can’t lose my crew.”

“We can’t lose you.”

Ford’s voice sounded strained. “Jesus, don’t you ever scare us like that again, Aar.”

Aaron buried his face in her hair. “Well, let’s just hope we don’t ever have to go through anything like that again.”

“You were really gonna die for us,” Caph said. “Man, I felt horrible I cheated at that last poker hand…” He stopped. “Well, I can’t say last night because we’ve only been here a couple of hours.” He laughed roughly. “Damn. So none of the good stuff happened either, huh?”

Aaron’s eyes held Emi’s. “No, but we can get started on that as soon as we can get out of this place.” She nodded. “Yeah.”

“Ooh,” Ford cooed. “I get to pop her cherry ass again.” She blushed and laughed as his hand snuck up her shirt, pulling her tight against his chest.

Aaron stroked her cheek. “You think you might like that? Not many women get to do that twice.”

She eagerly nodded. “You’d better believe it, mister.” Caph snickered. “I think it’s safe to say captain gets first dibs.” Ford sighed. “Yeah, I can’t argue with you there. It’s the least we can do.”