Her laughter floated through the com unit and he leaned back in his chair as the sound danced into his ears. As it caused an odd tingling to shiver along his skin, he was sure that she was having some sort of empathic effect on him.
What am I doing? I’m supposed to be investigating her, not sharing stories.
Then again, he had said it himself during that meeting that they should make friends in order to get close to her. He was finding that more difficult than it should be. The way he had felt in the cargo bay as she looked over him was lingering and putting him off balance. If she was doing that intentionally, he was falling deeper into her trap by letting himself enjoy their conversation.
She started to lean more heavily on the door as her body fought against the weight of the gravity on the ship as it tried to pull her downward. She wanted to continue the conversation, but her mind was about to give out on her. “Forgive me, but I must rest.”
Ethan came out of his own thoughts and looked at her small figure leaning so hard against the door of her room. The vibe she gave off was anything but threatening. Then again, a large eyed and fuzzy Orellian gorth looked cute enough until it tried to dig your eyeballs from their sockets. “Yes, of course. Thank you for answering my questions.”
“You are most welcome.” Her smile widened and her hand moved to the com unit, gingerly touching it. “Goodnight, Ethan.”
Ethan watched her disappear into her room and cut the com link. His mind replayed the way she had touched the com unit so delicately, sliding her fingers against it. It looked to him like she had been caressing it the way you may lightly touch the shoulder of a friend in affection.
What had that meant?
His mind tried to logically classify the actions and failed, so he began running a systems check on the Zera’s communication grid. Finding nothing, he clasped his hands under his chin and leaned forward in his chair again, frustrated and confused. Organics were strange creatures in their own right, but this Vesparian was in a class all her own. Every look, every gesture and every word seemed to be full of deeper meanings that he just couldn’t pull together. Even her voice caused something in him to stir.
He wondered if she was toying with his system like that damn stabilizer. If she was, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure he disliked it, and that was what bugged him the most. His mind kept going back to her, as if some background process in his subroutines was stuck and running in a loop. He turned the view-screen on again and stared at the empty corridor outside her doorway with her last words replaying from an audio he pulled up from his memory bank.
“Goodnight, Ethan.”
Closing his eyes, he felt the need to replay it again and analyze it deeper. If he could find a hidden signal in her voice, then he would have the proof against her.
“Goodnight, Ethan.”
But it wasn’t there. No hidden signal, no special electrical feedback, no tampering with the communications systems or his own network. The effect her voice was having on him remained disturbingly unexplained.
“Goodnight, Ethan.”
Goodnight, Orynn.
6 Control
Hank was going to have a little talk with the Director later. Jehdra had certainly not felt the need to give full details on just what the Zera was taking on as a new crew member. Hank needed to know more about her previous missions and a full uncensored list of her abilities. She had just saved their butts, which had certainly earned her a few trust points, but a person with her capabilities could pose a serious threat to all of them.
After the ship cleared port and was on its way outside of communications range, Hank stood from the Captain’s chair on the bridge and thought about getting some rest. He let out a heavy sigh as he remembered the earlier conversation he had with Orynn and her request. Running a hand over his tired face and through his hair, he headed toward Ethan’s station.
The door behind Ethan opened and Hank stepped into the dimly lit system control room. The small room contained only the chair Ethan sat in, a technical work bench, a control panel and several view-screens which surrounded the area in front of the chair. Most of the view-screens displayed system readouts and the communication channels they were actively monitoring. One view-screen showed the corridor outside of Orynn’s room. Ethan shut it off as Hank approached.
Hank stopped behind Ethan’s chair, eyeing the now dark view-screen. He looked at Ethan’s face in the black glossy reflection. The Mecha looked frustrated about something. “Keeping an eye on our new guest?”
Ethan cursed to himself, hoping Hank hadn’t noticed that particular monitor. “I thought it may be prudent to keep checking in given all that we have witnessed regarding her Vesparian abilities.”
“Anything about her throwing up red flags?”
“Besides the fact that she can manipulate you Breathers so easily?” Ethan wasn’t clear if Orynn was doing anything to his friends, but he had seen what she could do if she wanted to. Merik’s warning had simply meant to keep his eyes on her, not that she was necessarily a threat. All the rumors about Vesparians had them pinned as untrustworthy spies for hire, but Orynn seemed genuinely interested in helping the crew.
Perhaps a little too much so. Despite that, he thought that it may just be the way she had looked at him in the hangar that had him so unnerved. Her mercury eyes had roamed over his body, inspecting every piece of him. Then their eyes had met. Now his head was filled with the sound of her laughter and the strange caress of her fingers across the com panel.
Goodnight Ethan...
“No, nothing yet.”
Hank stroked the hair on the back of his neck and sighed. Something was still eating Ethan’s neurons. “Ethan, I’ve been stuck with you most of my life...”
“Feeling’s mutual.”
Hank ignored the quip. “I can tell when something isn’t sitting right with you.”
“It’s nothing.” Ethan was getting annoyed by his friend’s presence now.
Hank frowned at the curt reply. “Look, if there’s something you aren’t telling me, something about her that may affect the crew, then you need to spit it out. I’m starting to trust her a bit, but if you see something off about her, even if it’s just a hunch, I’d like to hear it.”
“So far, I’ve been unable to find anything out of the ordinary with our guest, aside from the obvious.” Ethan really wanted to just be alone with his thoughts. He hoped a formal answer would satisfy Hank’s curiosity. “At this point, I can only conclude that she may be exactly who she says she is, as I haven’t seen anything to the contrary.”
“Well something’s got your silicone in a twist.” Hank crossed his arms. He hated playing the go between. “Fuck sakes, Ethan. She says she’s sorry.”
“What?” Ethan finally turned his chair around to face Hank.
“Orynn said she was sorry about what happened earlier, when she first met you. She asked me to talk to you before all this shit with the Xen’dari wanting to inspect our cargo. So if her gawking at you because you are... well what you are, has got you all uptight about her, maybe you could just let it go.”
“I see.” Ethan turned back to the view-screens.
“Look, it was your idea to make friends with her. I know she turned out to be a bit more complicated than we expected, but maybe you should just talk to her like you talk to any of us.”
“Is that an order, Captain?”
Hank furrowed his brow and glared at the back of Ethan’s head. “If it has to be. I’m not a damn messenger, but she asked me to talk to you and she appeared to be sincere.”
“Seems she can appear to be anything she wants.”
“Dammit, Ethan.”
“Alright, alright. I’ll try.” Ethan rolled his blue eyes at his monitor. “Can I have some peace now please?”
“Fine.” Still angry, Hank turned to go, but paused in the doorway. He took in a deep breath to calm himself. “Something inside me really wants to believe that she was being honest. If you could of seen her
eyes...”
Ethan had seen her eyes. That was why he was so unnerved.
His tense shoulders relaxed as Hank left him in silence at last. Closing his eyelids, he could see her smile and still feel her eyes on him. His body reacted and that unusual sensation filled him again. He remembered her voice. The excited soft tone when she had fixed the module had sent a shiver up his pathways. Her laughter repeated again in his head. He couldn't escape the sound of it, or how she had spoken his name.
Goodnight, Ethan.
That same feeling deep in his core resurfaced and this time he decided to let it override the warning protocols now sounding an alarm. It was time this shit was put to rest and he figured out just what she had been doing to him. As he enabled the overrides, he felt something new and strange come over him. Recognition set in and his eyes snapped open.
Arousal.
His hands tightened their grip around the arms of his chair as he waited for it to pass. One hundred and twenty-three sexual encounters, and never had he felt this part of him awaken. He didn’t even know it existed. All the times before, it had been a mechanical reaction to his partner’s needs. Like a light switch; off and on. This time, he was turned on without turning himself on, and he wasn’t exactly sure how to turn it back off. That Vesparian was causing a change in his system and he wasn’t sure he liked her having this sort of control over him.
He frowned and glared at his reflection in the view-screen.
Control.
Maybe that’s all it was. She could be trying to distract him so she could infiltrate their ship and like a damned fool he was finding himself aroused by it. With an angry heavy handed tap of the panel, he turned the monitor back on and rechecked the data from her room for any unauthorized activity.
What he found only made him tilt his head and raise an eyebrow as his anger dissipated back into curiosity. The door of the room had been sealed and the gravity setting inside had been set to twenty-four percent. The oxygen mixture of the air had also been increased. Unable to let it go, he turned on visual access to her room. The sight that met his eyes immediately made his arousal deepen.
Her body was floating in the middle of the room and it looked like she was dressed in the same liquid mercury that filled the irises of her eyes. Her back was arched, pushing her stomach up and causing her silver silk tank top to slide away from her skin. It looked as if an invisible hand was lifting her upwards by the small of her back, leaving her legs and arms to dangle freely in the air. A subtle smile was on her lips and he could see the peaks of her breasts outlined under her shirt. The soft moon-glow of the room’s dimmed night-lighting highlighted her nipples, traced over her stomach and disappeared between her parted thighs.
He knew he shouldn't be spying on her like this, but he couldn't force himself to turn the viewer off. The longer his eyes lingered over her body, the further the tremor of arousal quaked until it arced all the way up his spine. Before he realized what he was doing, he heard himself clear his throat.
Orynn stirred and stretched. “Hello?”
Ethan looked down at his console and saw that the audio link was active. His head sank to his chest with an internal curse. Against his better judgment, he responded. “Sorry if I woke you. I was doing my nightly systems check and noticed the gravitational variance in your room. Is everything alright?”
Her eyes fluttered open and her smile deepened. “Thank you for your concern, Ethan. I am fine.”
The silver irises of her eyes sparkled in the moon-glow lighting and captivated him. “Do you always sleep in low gravity?”
“Yes, when it is possible.” She rolled over in midair and did a long cat stretch with a soft moan.
Ethan bit his knuckle as her bottom raised into the air. Her silk pants formed to the curves of her backside and her tank top inched up her back. He could make out the start of a tattoo in the small of her back, but he couldn't read the language. A desire to run his hands along her skin and up under her shirt made him shiver. If she was trying to control him, he suddenly didn’t mind it so much.
Orynn finished her stretch and sat up in midair in a loosely cross-legged position. “I apologize. I should have told you of my unique environmental requirements.”
“Why do you require the lower gravity?”
“Vesparians originated from a small planet in the Urus nebulae where the gravity is naturally lower.”
“Oh.” Well that makes sense. Except... “How do you deal with the gravity the rest of the time?”
“Do you have visual access to my room? I could show you.”
Ethan hadn’t meant to ask her. The question had come out of his mouth before he could stop it. It was obvious she was exhausted and here he was bothering her with questions to satisfy his curiosity. The more he spoke with her, the longer he could look at her, too, and that was satisfying something else. A part of him was telling him to back away now and rationally analyze what was really going on. The rest of him was telling that part to fuck off and enjoy the sensation.
“Yes, are you decent?” He hoped she wasn’t able to read the dishonesty in his voice.
“Yes.” She floated over the com panel. “Is the lighting enough?”
Ethan had to steady his voice as her chest came closer to the panel. One hundred and twenty-three, and he had never felt this way at the sight of breasts before. It was as if he were seeing the body of a woman for the very first time.
After checking his reflection and running a hand quickly through his hair, he turned the two way visual on so she could see him. “It’s fine.”
Orynn took a moment to take in his blue eyes. Intelligence framed in sapphires.
She wanted very much to be able to look beyond them like she could with others. Ethan had an aura, but she couldn’t mentally connect with him in the same way. It was both frustrating and a welcome new challenge.
Pulling her gaze away from his eyes, she turned gracefully in the air so her back was facing the panel. Gathering her untamed white hair in her hands, she lifted it away from her neck to reveal what she wanted to share with him.
“Is that a neuro-stimulator?” Ethan leaned in and peered at the view-screen. He had seen the technology before. It was most commonly used in war victims who were paralyzed and in lower tech Mechatronics to aid in their movements. It was a round plate less than one inch in diameter, anchored into her neck by six metal prongs that disappeared beneath her skin. In its center was a raised disc that pulsed with a soft white light.
“It is.” She let her hair drop and turned back to him. “It is connected to over one hundred muscular stimulators throughout my body. It helps me to stabilize my muscle control in what others considered normal gravity.”
Ethan took in this bit of intel on their new crew member. She had just revealed a vulnerability to him and that wasn’t an action he would expect from an enemy. One well-placed hit against that control node or a surge from an EMP could cripple her. “It must be physically strenuous to be in an unnatural environment all the time.”
She shrugged. “I have become accustomed to it. Lowering the gravity when I can helps though.”
She touched the sides of the com unit lightly with her fingertips and pushed herself away from the panel. Her body arched again and completed a full back flip. Now laying on her stomach, she looked back up into Ethan’s eyes. She could tell they were curious, and the strange unease in them from earlier had vanished. By sharing her own odd physical nature with him, she had hoped it may give them an avenue to connect and get past the awkwardness she had inadvertently created between them.
She traced her tongue across her lips before breaking the silence. “Ethan, I am sorry about earlier.”
“It’s fine.” He almost groaned at the sight of her light pink tongue tracing her lips. Now his arousal was starting to become an annoyingly loud and distracting presence. The sudden disappointment in her eyes cut him. He hadn’t meant to be short with her. “Really, it’s alright. It was a misunderstanding.”
>
She forced a smile onto her face and nodded. She could still feel a strange undertone to Ethan’s voice, but at least he had accepted her apology. She was also tired and figured she could be hearing inflections that weren’t there because she was finding him so hard to read. Social interactions with others that weren’t masked behind one of her guises were still not easy for her to understand most of the time.
He watched her in silence for a long moment. She was uniquely odd in every action, and even the way she spoke without using contractions had started to grow in him a fondness for her. He could see her contemplating something and she looked like she may fall back asleep at any moment. The sudden vision of her sleeping while curled up against him popped into his mind and his arousal flared in response.
Fuck sakes. Turn off the monitor and get control of yourself.
“You should get some rest. The meeting is in six hours. They usually meet for breakfast at o-seven-hundred.”
“Thank you, Ethan.” Her eyes met his again as she floated effortlessly back to the com panel. She offered him a tired smile and casual wave of her small slender hand. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” He shut off the com and leaned his head back against the chair heavily. Out of a reflex from his cooling system, he took in a deep breath while he closed his eyes. Her silver eyes were all he could see and the ache in his groin heightened to the point of pain. The more he tried not to think about her, the more his mind showed him images of her nipples against the silk fabric of her shirt and her tongue tracing her lips. Despite his attempts, he was unable to find a way to disable whatever had been activated within him.
A frustrated groan escaped his throat. He finally understood the real reason Breathers had issues ignoring their urges, and it really fucking sucked.