‘What have you not told me?’ she asked, delightedly curious until Ringbalin explained his mysterious Power and how it worked. This had Dr Portus frowning and appearing hurt.
‘So, what I feel for you, this is not real?’ She panicked, hating to think she had been tricked into loving a man.
‘I can only influence a subject when I am touching them, and I never laid a finger on you,’ he pointed out in his own defence and Ayliscia was more than aware that this was true.
‘That’s why?’ She was visibly moved by his amazing restraint and when Ringbalin nodded, she took hold of his hands and placed them on her body. ‘No more prudence, please.’ She kissed him passionately and, being bombarded by his unbridled feelings of joyous desire, she felt compelled to fulfil their long-suffering lust for each other, right there and then.
A whistle from the doorway brought the botanists crashing back to earth. ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it,’ Starman reminded them, ‘and while I can well appreciate your sentiment there, we really need to focus on being outlaws right now.’ Zeven disappeared back into the cafeteria.
‘Right.’ Ringbalin found his sensibilities. ‘Thank you for forgiving me for my secrecy.’
Ayliscia grinned. ‘My pleasure. I understand, as…I’m a Phemorian spy,’ she said, direct and forthright.
‘Really?’ Ringbalin was stunned and, finding the news an incredible turn-on, he kissed her again.
‘Guys!’ Zeven called, to move them along.
When Lucian learned the secrets of all of his crew, he felt a little bewildered. ‘Am I the only one among us who does not wield a Power then?’
‘Dr Portus doesn’t,’ Zeven pointed out, feeling far more at home now that he wasn’t part of the minority any more—even his best mate, Leal, was in the same boat, and he’d never even suspected.
Ayliscia broke into a guilty smile. ‘Not entirely true,’ she admitted. ‘My queen chose me for this mission because of my scientific qualifications, yes, but also because I am a channel…I can connect directly to the Phemoray from any region of space.’
Taren smiled as she heard this, not only because it would prove very useful to her plan, but because, in that other reality she had foreseen, where Dr Portus had been arrested as a spy, her incarceration would have served to further enlighten the Phemoray. ‘Just out of interest, what was your directive, doctor?’
‘I was to observe you,’ Ayliscia replied.
‘But we have barely crossed paths more than a few times.’ Either the good Doctor had been distracted from her mission by Ringbalin, or she was harbouring more talents than she cared to mention.
‘I can also remote-view,’ she confessed.
‘Whoa,’ Zeven said, ‘it’s always the quiet ones that surprise you.’
‘Why me in particular?’ Taren remained focused on the topic and the doctor shook her head.
‘I do not know.’
Not entirely believing her, Taren looked to Kassa and Leal.
‘She’s telling the truth,’ Kassa said warily, ‘but suspects—’
An alarm tone sounded from Lucian’s control belt, and at a glance he knew. ‘We’ve got company…someone is trying to enter through the dry dock door.’
The entire crew made for the closest monitors in the office area.
‘Correction,’ Lucian stated, as he consulted AMIE’s security systems on the monitor on Aurora’s desk. ‘They have entered…’ He waited for a visual. ‘It’s Aurora,’ he said, whereupon everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
‘I’ll go fetch her,’ Leal volunteered and headed off.
‘Whatever your plan is, we’d better get onto it pronto,’ Starman suggested. ‘I don’t want to be sitting here when the USS forces come calling. Can I at least get us out of dry dock?’ he requested of Lucian, who looked at Taren and she gave a nod.
‘You get us into space, and I’ll prep the others,’ she suggested.
‘To do what? What is the plan?’ Starman begged.
‘We are going to teleport this vessel straight to the Phemorian system,’ she smiled.
‘But none of us have that ability. Do we?’ If they were doing a runner from the USS, he wanted to ensure they had some hope of doing it, or they’d be caught and various other charges added to their list of supposed offences.
‘Teleportation is an extension of PK—’
‘Oh no,’ he backed off, fearful of anyone pinning their hopes on his abilities just yet. ‘I was wrong when I said I was more afraid of myself than anything…you scare me more.’
‘Don’t worry, you’ll have lots of help,’ Taren winked.
Zeven shook off his horror and made for the elevator to the flight deck. ‘I think you are the one who needs help.’ He pointed a finger to his temple and rotated it a few times to imply she was nuts.
‘Insane is as insane does,’ Taren replied, which baffled Zeven. He was spared more bafflement by the elevator doors opening and he immediately stepped inside and pushed the button.
‘The Phemoray can assist,’ Ayliscia assured Taren.
She smiled, appreciative of the aid. ‘I was banking on that.’
Aurora was led straight to Lucian’s office by Leal, who then left to assist Zeven with lift-off.
‘What’s going on? Why are you fleeing Frujia?’ Aurora demanded, rather angered that if she hadn’t come as soon as she’d got Lucian’s missive, they would have departed without her.
Lucian immediately turned Aurora about and began guiding her back towards the hatch. ‘AMIE is in a lot of trouble, Aurora, the extent of which I do not have time to explain right now, but as you are not yet involved I insist you remain here on Frujia.’
‘No!’ She dug her heels in and stopped them in their tracks. ‘I’ve worked long and hard to secure my place on this vessel. AMIE is my home. You guys are my family!’
‘We will be outlaws, Aurora.’ Lucian grabbed her arm and began hauling her towards the exit hatch even faster. ‘I don’t have time to debate the issue.’
As they turned a corner and the dry dock hatch came into view, Aurora broke away and ran back in the opposite direction.
‘Aurora!’ Lucian gave chase.
‘I can’t go without Kalayna,’ she wailed, beginning to yell out her girlfriend’s name, having no idea where she had chosen to hide.
‘Who the hell is Kalayna?’ Lucian demanded to know. ‘And how the hell did you sneak her on board?’
‘I told her to wait inside the hatch, under the security camera, until I had you all distracted,’ Aurora confessed. ‘Our plan obviously worked!’
The sound of Zeven preparing to detach from dry dock caused them both to freeze.
Lucian punched Zeven’s number into his communicator. ‘Not yet. Aurora is still on board.’
‘We’re out of time, Captain,’ the pilot explained. ‘USS forces are in the terminal.’
‘Continue, by all means.’ Lucian shook his head as he looked at his young assistant. ‘You had better find your friend and let her know how much trouble you’re both in. And then report to Dr Lennox and see what help you can be to her.’
Aurora nodded, very subdued. ‘Yes, captain.’ She moved off and then turned back. ‘I’m sorry—’
Lucian held up a hand. ‘You’ve harmed yourself and your friend, not me. I am the one who should apologise, for embroiling you in this mess.’
‘I embroiled myself.’ She took full responsibility and departed on her search.
Aurora had searched through all four of the mid-deck modules and the lower marine module, without finding Kalayna. She still had the upper flight area to search, and so decided to head up to check out the pod and launch bays at the rear of the flight deck.
The elevator doors opened and Aurora saw all the crew gathered on the bridge listening to the orders of the Frujian authorities via the com-link.
‘This is Special Agent Nikkos of the United Star System’s Task Force ordering you to return to dock. If you do not bring your craft arou
nd and confirm this order within the next five minutes, you will be fired upon.’
‘Oh shit,’ Aurora uttered, not realising their situation was quite that serious. She decided to give up on her search for her girlfriend. Maybe Kalayna had got cold feet about life in space and stayed behind on Frujia, although she had certainly seemed more than excited about the prospect this afternoon.
‘Shut down communication with Frujia,’ Taren advised, ‘or we’ll never be able to focus on our objective.’
Zeven did as suggested, happy not to have the arresting agent’s annoying voice in his ear. ‘There’s no way we can get out of here that fast.’
‘Sure we can,’ Taren assured him.
‘Shut off all the external lights and close all the window shields,’ Lucian ordered Leal. This tactic switched the ship into camouflage mode right as it passed to the night side of the planet.
Once this was done, Taren asked those not involved in the next part of the plan to leave the flight deck and Zeven rose quickly. ‘Not you, Starman.’ Taren pushed him back into his seat. ‘You’re still our pilot for this next leg.’
‘I really don’t think I’m capable of this,’ he appealed in all honesty. ‘Don’t you have a plan B?’
Taren swung his chair around so that she could speak with him directly. ‘In my vision, when I was seeing our alternative fate, I saw you deflect men into walls without even being conscious of it. You also passed right through a solid security wall to save Aurora’s new friend from being raped. That’s how you exposed your Power to the USS and the MSS.’
‘Really…he did that?’ Aurora came forth to smile very winningly at the pilot who she’d been so mad at earlier in the afternoon.
Zeven seemed just as surprised and proud of himself, but then he frowned. ‘Ah, correct me if I am wrong, but neither of those feats entail teleportation.’
‘Either you teleported through that wall or you cleared a path through quantum space,’ Taren argued confidently. ‘Either talent will serve our purpose here today.’
Zeven noticed that Ringbalin had not made a move. ‘Why is he here?’
‘I’ll be going in a second,’ he explained. ‘I just have a small task to perform first.’ Ringbalin, Kassa and Ayliscia stepped in close to Zeven.
‘What’s happening, guys?’ Zeven asked nervously. Ringbalin had moved behind the pilot to place his hands on Zeven’s shoulders, and Kassa stood alongside him with Ayliscia Portus at her side.
‘Ayliscia has been in contact with the Phemoray,’ said Taren. ‘They have given her a vision of where they want us to land after our quantum leap. It is a location on the outskirts of their system, beyond the tracking capabilities of the regular Phemorian government. The Phemoray do not wish to attract attention to us by having our craft suddenly appear in their orbit—’
‘I can see that might panic the locals a little,’ Zeven concurred.
‘So, Ringbalin here is going to inject you with as much positivity as he can muster, and then Dr Portus is going to visualise our destination and, via Kassa, we will transfer this image to you. All you need to do is direct all the desire Ringbalin inspires in you into reaching the location Kassa is conveying, and, with a little of my verbal coaxing, hopefully we’ll have enough combined willpower to make the jump.’
Zeven was overwhelmed. He didn’t want to let everyone down, but his reasoning mind told him that the feat was impossible.
‘The Phemoray are empowering our intention from their end, so it isn’t all up to you,’ Taren assured him. ‘Let’s just give it a whirl, before you have time to sabotage yourself. Okay?’
He nodded dumbly. He’d blindly trusted in Taren’s way before and survived—with any luck today would prove no different.
‘This won’t hurt a bit.’ Ringbalin closed his eyes to focus all his desire and willpower into Zeven.
‘Wow, man, what are you doing to me?’ Zeven was quite turned on by the energy flowing into him and, as it was coming from another man, it was disconcerting to say the least.
‘Your primary motivating force is not willpower but desire, Zeven. You said it yourself,’ Ringbalin explained and Zeven felt put on the spot with women present.
‘I feel very sure Ringbalin is not thinking about you in terms of desire, if that makes you feel better,’ Taren whispered to Zeven, having figured out what his problem was.
‘You assume right,’ Ringbalin said without breaking his concentration.
These intense feelings are those Ringbalin holds for Dr Portus, Zeven assumed on the quiet. ‘Boy, if this gets much more intense, it could really get embarrassing.’
‘Okay.’ Taren gave Kassa and Dr Portus the all clear to proceed with their transmission. Ayliscia closed her eyes to visualise their target area and when Kassa picked up telepathically on the image, she placed a hand over Zeven’s third eye area to transmit the vision to him.
When Zeven perceived a clear image he was visibly startled. ‘I see a large pale green planet, and distant twin suns.’
‘The planet is Attica, an uninhabited ice planet on the rim of the Phemorian binary star system,’ Ayliscia told him, pleased that the transfer had worked.
‘Hold that image, Zeven.’ Taren gave a nod to excuse everyone. Kassa took Aurora with them into the corridor that led to the quarantine rooms and the flight bays.
‘Now what happens?’ Aurora wondered, wide-eyed. Zeven was observing her very differently today, and she couldn’t deny his amorous glances stirred that same old desire to be close to him.
‘Never mind,’ Kassa replied insistently.
As soon as the room had cleared, Taren began to verbally coax Zeven toward their goal, just as she had on his last mission, but after a couple of moments Zeven had to admit it wasn’t working.
‘Don’t give up so easily,’ she implored him.
‘No, I mean, you’re the captain’s girl now and I feel like I am betraying him or something, which is not turning me on at all.’ Zeven gave half a smile. ‘No offence.’
‘None taken.’ Taren bit her lip. ‘That does pose a problem though, because the same thing would apply to most of the women here.’
‘Except Aurora,’ he suggested shyly.
Taren was quietly delighted by the suggestion, but hid it beautifully. ‘Don’t move.’
Taren headed through the door into the corridor where everyone was bracing themselves for a paranormal event.
‘Is something wrong?’ Lucian asked.
Taren grinned. ‘I cannot inspire Zeven’s desire, as neither one of our hearts is in it any more.’ Taren looked at Aurora with a grin. ‘He asked for you.’
‘What?’ Aurora was stunned, delighted, bemused and a little sceptical. ‘He wants me to talk him through this?’
A loud blast shook their vessel violently and sent everyone offbalance.
‘The USS are attacking,’ Leal concluded.
‘What do I have to do?’ Aurora got to her feet. She was determined to prove her worth to her crewmates.
‘Firstly, and most importantly, make sure Zeven remains gripping his seat, or he may well teleport himself to a remote location in space…leaving the rest of us here.’ There were some nervous chuckles from the gathering.
‘Understood.’
‘Zeven has the capacity to rearrange the universe if he wants to…he just lacks focus and willpower, so you need to keep his mind focused on the region of the universe we wish to reach, whilst gently encouraging him to feel his personal power and have faith in himself.’
‘You want me to turn him on and when he’s really hot, get him to pour all his desire into reaching our destination,’ she summarised.
‘That seems to be the ticket, yeah,’ Taren conceded, ‘but if your intention to help him is fake…’
Aurora gave a cheeky grin and leaned in close to Taren. ‘I never fake it.’ She winked in reassurance while another blast, higher up the craft, set them all to staggering again.
‘You might also ask Zeven to imagine our craft
surrounded by white light,’ Kassa suggested. ‘If he can deflect men without a second thought, why not missiles?’
Aurora nodded and quickly returned to the bridge where Starman was in his seat, eyes closed, until he heard someone enter and turned his seat about to see who it was.
‘You don’t have to do this,’ he was quick to say. ‘I’m feeling fairly confident to try this on my own.’
‘If you lose focus, we could end up anywhere,’ she reasoned, straddling his legs to sit on his lap facing him. ‘And I don’t mind, really.’ She made him close his eyes and leaned forward so that she might whisper in his ear.
Zeven was delighted by her resolve and his natural reaction was to place both hands on Aurora’s behind to manoeuvre her into a comfortable position upon the erection trapped in his trousers.
‘Oh no,’ Aurora slapped his hands away, placing them on the armrests of his chair. ‘You don’t get to touch, lest we end up floating alone in space without life support. You get to focus on what I tell you to focus upon, and only I get to touch. Clear?’
‘Aye, aye, captain.’ He smiled at this sweet turn of events. ‘You do know you are only required to talk me through this?’
‘I’m a more hands-on kind of girl,’ she said tartly. ‘Any objection?’
Zeven shook his head.
Another blast rocked the ship and the sudden movement proved to be an unexpected pleasure for them both. Aurora repositioned herself so that her lips were close to his ear.
‘First, please imagine AMIE surrounded by a force field of light that nothing can penetrate.’ She gently gyrated her pelvis to excite his desire and a quiet moan escaped his lips.
The following blast sounded further afield and did not rock the craft or disturb Aurora’s seductive movement. She was inspired. ‘That’s fantastic, Starman…we’re good at this.’ She pushed against him gently in reward, and he was definitely very aroused.
‘A bit too good…I’d better focus on our destination rather quickly,’ he groaned with a cheeky grin.
‘Yes,’ she urged him, her enthusiasm for the job rather more intense than even she had first suspected. ‘Do you see the visual the Phemoray gave you?’ she asked in a seductive whisper.