“And you offer such a base?”
“I think he’s offered enough,” Eldrin said tightly.
Ragnar turned with lazy insolence, his arm still above my head. As I stepped away from the admiral, Eldrin walked toward us in the corridor outside my suite. His step remained slow, measured, so tightly controlled I almost expected him to explode. He watched Ragnar as if he had found a small, many-legged creature scuttling along in defiance of the robosweeps that cleaned the ship.
Ragnar bowed to him. Then he drawled. “My greetings, Prince Eldrin.”
Eldrin didn’t stop until he stood right in front of the admiral. They were about the same size, Ragnar a bit taller and Eldrin a bit broader in the shoulders.
Then Eldrin said, succinctly, “Fuck you,” and swung at him.
He struck at the side of Ragnar’s neck with the knife edge of his hand, aiming for below the ear. Ragnar jerked away fast, but the blow still hit his shoulder. He stumbled to the side, out of my doorway. As Eldrin went at him, Ragnar snapped into an enhanced mode. Moving in a blur, he pinned Eldrin against the bulkhead outside my door, pressing his forearm across Eldrin’s neck. Although Eldrin possessed greater natural strength, Ragnar’s augmentation increased both his strength and speed.
“No!” I shouted. In that instant, Eldrin struck Ragnar’s elbows hard with the heels of his hands, breaking his grip. He shoved the admiral away, but they immediately grappled again.
“Security,” I said. “Send backup.” It was probably a redundant request—the monitors had almost certainly recorded the altercation and dispatched a response—but I had no intention of taking any chances.
I didn’t try to interfere with the fight. Even if I could have held one of them back, it would only have given his opponent a chance to hit him harder.
Wrestling hard, they stumbled across the corridor and hit the opposite wall. Ragnar was obviously restraining himself; he could have seriously injured Eldrin by now. With a chill, I realized that if he toggled into full combat mode, he could kill Eldrin before he stopped his programmed reflexes. He would have it all on record, too, that he acted in self-defense.
“Eldrin, don’t!” I lunged forward and put myself between them, gambling that their reluctance to hurt me would make them stop. They might knock me over instead, but it was worth the risk if it kept them from killing each other.
They did pause, but only for long enough for Eldrin to push me to the side. Ragnar spoke in an urgent voice. “Dehya, stay back.”
Four Jagernauts ran around a corner in the corridor and came toward us. Nozzles had also emerged from the bulkheads. On command, they could disperse a gas that would put us to sleep, but they had done nothing yet. It didn’t surprise me that Security sent Jagernauts and only threatened the gas as a backup. I doubted they wanted to be responsible for knocking out any of us. Protecting me and interfering in my private affairs were two very different matters, and the border between the two wasn’t at all clear.
Eldrin and Ragnar staggered across the corridor and hit the other bulkhead, dark figures against the white walls. The thud of Ragnar’s back against Luminex resounded through the air. His face had the same impassive mask that Jagernauts took on when they switched into combat mode. Sweat dampened Eldrin’s blue shirt.
When Eldrin closed his hands around Ragnar’s neck, the admiral brought up his arms, fast and hard. He used so much force to break the hold that it threw Eldrin across the corridor into the other wall. The back of Eldrin’s head hit the bulkhead and he froze, his eyes glazed.
A husky Jagernaut interposed himself between Eldrin and Ragnar. When Eldrin tried to lunge forward anyway, the Jagernaut caught him in a hold meant to restrain rather than harm. Eldrin’s fury seared my mind. His gaze was unfocused as if he saw none of us. His rage beat against my mind like storm-tossed breakers crashing on a rocky shoreline.
Two other Jagernauts were holding Ragnar. It took them both to control him, but within moments he stopped fighting, and his face lost its automated expression. The fourth Jagernaut, a man with red hair, had stopped a few paces from Eldrin, his body positioned between the fighters. Although obviously prepared to help, he hadn’t yet touched anyone.
Suddenly Eldrin froze, staring at the fourth Jagernaut. He spoke with a scorching hatred. “You have no right, you goddamned bastard.”
Puzzlement washed out from the red-haired man, but he remained poised, ready to act.
Gradually Eldrin’s gaze cleared. He finally seemed to see us. Attuned to Eldrin’s mind, the Jagernaut holding him slowly released his grip, but maintained a ready stance.
Eldrin turned to Ragnar, who stood quietly now, flanked by two Jagernauts. “Tread carefully,” Eldrin told him softly. Then he strode away from us, down the corridor. His raw fury reverberated even after he left.
I knew then he hadn’t been fighting Ragnar or the Jagernauts.
His rage had burned at Corbal Xir.
“Can I enter?” I asked the door.
“Please wait,” it responded.
I stood shivering in the remote corridor, facing a blue archway in the Luminex wall, my arms folded across my torso. I wasn’t really cold, not physically. It all came from inside.
The Jagernauts who had accompanied me stood a few meters down the corridor, trying to look invisible. I had threatened a court-martial if they didn’t go away. They stayed anyway, but at least they had the tact to remain back there instead of looming behind me.
I was about to query the door again when it said, “Please enter.” Then it shimmered and vanished, revealing a dimly lit living room beyond.
I glanced at the Jagernauts. One inclined his head to me, but neither came any closer. A wise decision; I might have actually considered the court-martial if they had intruded that far. They would come to the door after I entered, but once the entrance closed, we would have a modicum of privacy inside.
I walked into the suite and the wall reformed behind me. It was almost dark inside; the only light came from holo-panels on the walls. They showed twilight views of the Dalvador Plains on the world Lyshriol. Shadowed grasses rippled in an unseen breeze, and stained-glass bubbles floated through the air, translucent, almost invisible. One popped and showered glitter over the grass. In the distance, mountains raised spindled peaks to a dark sky.
It was Eldrin’s childhood home.
As my eyes adjusted, I made out Eldrin sitting on a divan across the room, his elbow resting on its scrolled arm. Even in this dim light, dark smudges were visible under his eyes.
I spoke awkwardly. “My greetings, Husband.”
“What do you want?” His face was unreadable.
“Your company.”
“You had plenty of company earlier tonight.”
“I didn’t ask for it.”
“No?” He mimicked Ragnar’s gravely voice. “‘Dehya, we need to talk. Now that he’s back.’”
“He was out of line. I told him so.”
Eldrin snorted. “Right.”
Dryni, you know it’s true. If I had ever had an affair with Ragnar, you would have seen it in my mind. When he kept his thoughts barricaded, I said, “You ought to know me better than that.”
“I thought I did.”
“I haven’t changed.”
He spoke harshly, “He doesn’t want to talk strategy with you. He wants to control your power. He wants to control you. And he wants to get under that flimsy little nightshirt you’re wearing beneath that robe.”
“Eldrin, don’t.”
“How can you be so brilliant and miss something so obvious?”
I didn’t say I missed it.
Yet still you trust him.
Right now I don’t trust anyone.
Not even me?
You I always trust.
Maybe you shouldn’t.
Why not?
His thoughts had a clenched feel. I’ve been with the Traders.
I Stepped toward him. Don’t let them shame you.
Now you’re go
ing to do the comfort thing, right? I don’t want it.
I Stopped. What do you want?
His hand curled into a fist. The slave cuff glittered on his wrist. To forget.
I so much wanted to go to him. Let me help.
I don’t need help.
All right. I knew if I pushed, it would drive him away.
After a long moment he relented. Come sit with me.
I almost closed my eyes with relief. Then I went to the divan and settled near him. “I’m glad to see you, Dryni.”
A shadow crossed his face. He lifted his arm as if to touch my face, then let it drop again. In a low voice, he said, “I truly believed I would never …” He shook his head as if to throw away a memory.
“We don’t have to talk about it.”
He didn’t answer. But after a moment he thought, I had an idea that might help free my parents from Earth.
I would like to know. But maybe you should kiss me first.
He shifted his weight. Dehya, later.
I need an excuse to deactivate the monitors.
Ah. He still didn’t look comfortable, but he drew me into his arms, his motions stiffly formal. Then he lay on the divan, drawing me underneath him. As we sank into air-cushions, he gave me a perfunctory kiss. It felt familiar and strange at once, the first time we had touched this way since his return.
As we kissed, our hands wandered. At first Eldrin stroked me with a distant formality, only going through motions. But gradually his touch grew more urgent. He hinged his hand around my breast, and my nipple hardened under the nightshirt. He needed no thumb to complete his caresses; what he could do with those four opposing fingers made my body tingle. I pressed against him, distracted from my original intent to discuss Roca and Eldrinson.
After a while, I thought, Shall I deactivate the monitors now, so we can talk? I smilled. We must be raising the blood pressure of everyone in the Security office.
Eldrin laughed against my neck. Indeed. Perhaps we should save the talking for later.
I agreed wholeheartedly. “Suite attend,” I murmured.
“Attending,” the suite’s El answered.
“Please contact Laplace in my quarters and have it run ‘Welcome.’”
Welcome’? Eldrin nuzzled my neck. What is that?
It will stymie is & Security. I paused. I called it welcome for you.
He pushed up on his elbows and looked down at me. His face had gentled. Can Lapiace give us privacy?
For a while. Maybe a couple of hours.
He traced his finger over my lips. We shouldn’t waste our time then.
I drew him back into my arms, more thankful than I knew how to say that he was returning to himself, bit by bit. I breathed in his scent, and a trace of cologne tickled my nose. It made me wonder if he had come to my quarters earlier tonight for a more intimate evening. Blasted Ragnar. But perhaps this would work out.
I rubbed my cheek against his neck, pushing aside his shirt—and the diamonds of his collar pressed my skin, cold and hard. Startled, I jerked, my hands going still on his back.
The doctors haven’t finished mapping the web of biothreads inside me, he thought with brittle anger. The threads keep growing, using resources from my own body. It’s why I tire more easily now.
Flaming Aristos.
He dragged his wrist across my ribcage, pushing up his sleeve. The gems on his cuff scraped the underside of my breasts.
Does it bother you?
My face flushed. Actually, it feels good.
Curiosity flickered in his mind. What, this? He pushed his cuff over my breast and my nipple hardened.
I felt myself redden. Sorry.
For what?
For my, uh, nipple. You know.
A sense of amusement lightened his darkness. I won’t hold it against it.
We don’t have to do anything.
His lips quirked with his old mischief. Then again, maybe we do.
Encouraged, I rubbed the muscles of his back in that way he liked. After a while he sighed and slid his hands along my sides. We took it slow, relearning each other after our separation. His ragged emotions were like gravel, and he touched me with a rough urgency, as if to prove he had lost nothing. As we came together, his intensity swept us both, no longer rocky, now instead a fire consuming dry tinder.
Later, I drowsed in his arms, Eldrin on his back with me stretched along his side. My palm rested on his muscled chest. I felt the deep satisfaction I had only ever known with him, even more so because I had feared he would never come home.
He stirred, moving his large hand over my arm. “It’s always like this with you. Like we’re … I don’t know. Intoxicated with each other.”
“Yes,” I murmured, drowsy. I tickled his navel. “Beautiful, sexy man.”
Fond amusement came from his mind. Men are handsome, Dehya. Not beautiful
I thought of telling him how his eyes reminded me of the twilight sky after a glorious sunset, but I knew it would embarrass him.
Eldrin laughed softly. Probably. But my eyes thank you for the compliment. He shifted me in his arms. Think we’re still alone?
I think so. Laplace would let me know if anyone had breached its systems. Stretching, I added, You said you had an idea about Roca and Eldrinson.
I don’t know if it can help.
What is it?
Taquinil is still in psiberspace.
Yes. I refused to believe otherwise.
Perhaps we can reach him.
I’ve tried. I may have made contact. I’m not sure.
If we could, perhaps he could help us make a psiberweb.
I grasped at that thread of hope, as much for the opportunity to draw Taquinil back as for the chance it could help us reach Earth. By himself, he’s probably too isolated. But if I could form a specific enough thought in Kyle sppace, it might draw him out. I considered possibilities. Perhaps he could help us make links with Earth’s webs.
Eldrin ran his hand down my arm. If only he will come home. Yes. If only. If only.
“I don’t like it,” Jon Casestar said.
He was standing next to the telop control chair where I sat in a Node Room on the battle cruiser. Eldrin stood on my other side, a silent support.
“Jon, this is what I do.” I gestured toward the banks of consoles in the room. Operators monitored them, waiting for us to proceed.
“You work in Kyle space,” Jon said, intransigent. “Right now Kyle space doesn’t exist.”
“Of course it exists.” I crossed my arms. “I fail to see the point in protecting me from the very thing you all so zealously protect me so I can do.”
“You’re being deliberately obtuse,” he said. “Suppose you phase out again? We can’t risk it.”
“Everyone says that to me, all the time. ‘We can’t risk it.’ And why?” I thumped my palm on the arm of my control chair. “Because if anything happens to me, you won’t have anyone who can do this. So let me do my job.”
“She’s right.” The gravelly voice came from behind us.
Eldrin turned with a jerk. Ragnar stood in the entrance of the room, spare and craggy in his black uniform.
“Admiral Bloodmark.” Jon nodded, formal and reserved.
“Admiral Casestar.” As courteous and correct as Ragnar made his response, he still sounded as if he were poking fun at Jon. He addressed Eldrin in a smooth voice. “You look well this morning, Your Highness. I’m glad you’re feeling better today.”
Eldrin’s expression plainly said, Go to hell. But he didn’t rise to the bait.
My voice cooled. “Did you want something, Admiral Bloodmark?”
He glanced at me as if taken aback by my unexpected frost. He had his “injured-party” look down to perfection, but I wasn’t fooled. I had seen him pull this act with several truly insufferable officers in ISC, and also with broadcasters who criticized the Ruby Dynasty. In those cases, I had enjoyed his style, even if I couldn’t say so in public. But when he turned the sh
arpened edge of his intellect on Eldrin, I wasn’t amused.
“Actually, Pharaoh Dyhianna,” he said, “I was offering support.” His voice was a subtle parody of my own, but also with humor. He had always been a master at the nuances of human tone and undertone, a talent he had honed in the rough urban landscape of his childhood, parlaying it into personal gain.
I smiled slightly. “Thank you, Admiral. Your support is appreciated.”
Jon considered Ragnar, his gray-eyed gaze missing nothing. “You think the Pharaoh should use the telop chair?”
Ragnar joined him at the side of my chair, across from Eldrin. “Her Highness is uniquely qualified to discover what, if anything, remains of the psibernet, and to rebuild it. She is also the one most capable to determine if it is safe to work in psiberspace, and what would make it so if it isn’t now.”
“And if we lose her?” Jon asked quietly.
“You always run that risk,” I said.
Jon shook his head. “These aren’t normal times. We don’t have normal safeguards.”
I leaned forward. “All the more reason for me to investigate the web.”
He frowned, then glanced at Ragnar. “And you concur.”
Ragnar didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Jon turned to Eldrin. “What do you say?”
Although Eldrin revealed little in his expression, I felt his mood. He feared that instead of recovering Taquinil, he might lose me. He answered with difficulty. “I agree with my wife.” Then he spoke to me. “I can anchor you here. If you slip, I’ll bring you back.”
I touched his hand where it lay on the arm of my chair. Watching us, Ragnar stiffened.
When Jon cracked his knuckles, I felt certain he would refuse But then he said, “All right, Your Highness. Let’s do it.”
“Excellent!” I sat up straighten Finally we were going to act.
He spoke into his wrist comm, and the techs went to work at their consoles. When I activated my chair, its exoskeleton folded around my body, clicking prongs into my neck, spine, wrists, and ankles. Its silvery cage sheathed my body, flickering with lights.
Eldrin walked around my chair to the console on my other side, near the two admirals. Trying to ignore Ragnar, he sat in the command chair of the console, which faced mine at an angle. As he fastened himself into its exoskeleton, the web techs ran tests on the system like a ground crew checking out a spacecraft Then Eldrin winked at me. When I gave a startled laugh, he grinned.