Home.
After her parents died, “home” had been memories of Montana and whatever dorm room she happened to occupy. The surrounding cities she’d lived in, boarding schools first in Bozeman, and then later in New Phoenix and Tempe for college, were an afterthought. The only times she traveled were for symposiums relating to her studies. Twice to New York, once to Cambridge, and once to Los Angeles. All she’d seen of those cities were the airports, hotels, and conference centers.
Under the watchful eye of an armed guard from the Petrovis Skye, she sat on a bench in the shade outside Ilse’s house. No traffic noise, and only the faintest sounds from the food processing center on the far side of the compound area. The colony had been established to not only thrive, but to coexist with its surroundings, hopefully avoiding environmental mistakes made on Earth for hundreds of years.
Peaceful. Relaxing.
But not home.
Aaron emerged from the medical center and walked across the compound. Ford and Caph had already returned to the Tamora Bight, running the cargo drop from that end. Aaron sat on the bench next to her and draped his arm around her. “Just heard from the Forrester Cross. Their transport’s on the way. They offered to give us a ride back up if we want.”
Emi let out a relieved sigh. “Yeah. Please.”
He kissed her. “Go pack for us. I’ll go talk to John and Alex and see if they’re ready to leave, too.” One of the cadets from the Petrovis Skye was helping Jules Green run the cargo operation on the Braynow Gaston while the other two men helped out on the surface.
By the time Emi returned with their things, she heard the landing pad warning tone sound on loudspeakers, making sure everyone stayed clear. The lander was much larger than the one they had on the Bight, and ten crew emerged from its side as the large back cargo hatch also opened. Ilse walked over to greet the newcomers. When she spotted Emi, she waved her over.
Emi hoped for a quick departure, but Ilse invited her, Aaron, John, and Alex to join them all for one last lunch together.
One of the female medical officers, Dr. Sophie Vanderlin, seemed to catch John and Alex’s attention. They spent the entire meal talking with her.
At one point, Aaron nudged her. She leaned in so he could whisper in her ear, “I think they just found their med officer.”
“Really?”
He nodded toward the men. “I’d bet money on it.”
It turned out Dr. Vanderlin, a Beta-ranked healer, was actually between official assignments and eligible to leave the DSMC if she wanted, her contractual obligation completed. She’d planned on staying at the colony for six months, until the next resupply mission arrived, to work there as well as rest, since she had no husband or kids to return to. Five years older than Emi, she wore her curly brown hair loose. Her blue eyes sparkled with good humor, and her laugh could frequently be heard over the din of the others at the tables as John and Alex kept her in stitches.
Emi and Aaron bid good-bye to Ilse and Sascha and started loading their gear into the lander. That’s when John ran over to the lander and stuck his head inside.
“Uh, Emi, can I ask you a favor?”
She didn’t miss Aaron’s playful wink. “Sure.”
John blushed. “Since you’re a commissioned fleet med officer, you’ve got official capacity to um…sync someone. The chips. Right?”
Emi grinned. “Yeah? Your point?”
“I checked the regs. We didn’t go through pairing, but there’s nothing in there prohibiting us from finding a suitable fourth on our own.”
“Aaaannnnd?”
He blushed even more deeply. “She said she wouldn’t mind hitching a ride back to Mars with us. At least on a trial basis.”
“She hasn’t met Jules yet.”
“Ilse let us borrow her private com panel, and she got to talk to him.”
“Hmm. Let me think about it.”
“Oh, quit busting his balls, Em,” Aaron teased. “Yes, of course she’ll sync you guys.”
Emi laughed and hugged John. “Maybe you’ll be ready for a wedding of your own by the time we get to Mars.”
“Well, from what Rob and Aaron told me about the sim sessions, I’d much rather find someone on our own than have to go through that bullshit.”
“Can’t blame you there. We’ll have them stop at the Braynow Gaston before they drop us off. I can sync you all at once there with your ship’s chip kit.”
His face brightened. “Thanks, Emi! I’ll go tell them.” He raced off.
Aaron pulled her into his lap. “You’re an evil woman, teasing him like that. No wonder I love you so much.” He deeply kissed her. “How’d we manage to beat them out, anyway?”
She wrapped her arm tightly around him. “They were nice, but I just didn’t click with them like I did you guys. Why, are you complaining?”
“Um, that would be a hell no, sweetheart. You think I’m crazy?”
“After twenty years with the twins, I’m not sure. You might be.”
Chapter Sixteen
There wasn’t much else for the three DSMC crews to do. With the Braynow Gaston crew now complete at four after Emi chipped and synced Sophie to her new ship and crew with Graymard’s approval, the ships headed out. Rob officially turned custody of the Petrovis Skye over to the captain of the Forrester Cross, and the three DSMC vessels once again linked together via tractor beam for the return trip to Mars.
Emi still wasn’t fond of entering jump mode and didn’t look forward to the process, remembering how it made her feel before and put her nerves on edge.
Aaron sat in his command chair, hooked an arm around Emi’s waist, and pulled her to him. “What do you want to do when we get back? Graymard said we’ve got a few days off coming after this bullshit.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. We definitely need to do something for Donna and her guys. Oh, can we go see Mom and Dad again, too?”
Caph laughed. “If we visited Mars and didn’t see them and they found out, they’d have our hides. Believe me.”
When she went to the galley to fix dinner, Emi realized she needed some fresh greens for their salad. That meant a trip down to the hydroponics lab.
Emi hadn’t spent nearly as much time here as she’d have liked to over the past few weeks. Ford and Caph helped out when they could, but she needed to do some serious sprucing up during their return to Mars. She grabbed a colander. After a moment of hunting, she finally found her kitchen shears, which Caph had put in the wrong drawer, again. Those she slipped into the front pocket of her hooded sweatshirt.
Being underway, the men had turned down the temperature in most of the ship to conserve energy. As she approached the hydro lab, a weird feeling settled over her that she couldn’t place. She sensed her men still up on the bridge. Everything appeared to be normal. None of them seemed stressed beyond normal duties.
Shaking it off as nerves because of the jump engine influence, she walked into the hydro lab. Not too much damage done, fortunately. Poor Ford had a black thumb, but even he hadn’t been able to kill off her hardy plants. She spent a few minutes pruning back some of the leggier ones and then started gathering what she needed for the salad. She loved the hydro lab, it was her escape, her haven. She could think about her childhood in Montana before her parents took the moon job.
She quickly ended that line of thinking. After the past stressful days, the last thing she needed was more stress or sad memories.
With a full colander, she returned the shears to her front pocket when the lights went out in the hydro lab. Not just the ceiling lights, but the grow lights as well, plunging the large room into total darkness.
She’d been near the far wall and spotted the com link button’s pale red glow. Easing over to it, she punched it. “Aaron?”
“Yeah, babe?”
“What’s up with the hydro lab lights?”
“What?”
A shiver ran up her spine. “I’m sitting down here in the dark. They all went out.”
His voice turned serious. “Hold on.” A moment later, he said, “Em, wait right there. I’ll come take a look at it. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
Regardless of what his words said, his tone spoke otherwise. A sharp, edgy current ran through his voice, worrying her. “Okay.”
Something felt wrong, but what? What couldn’t he say over the com link that had him sounding like he was about to rip someone’s head off?
Quietly, she pressed her back against the wall and slowly slid down it. After setting the colander on the floor, she silently moved to her left, to the far corner of the hydro lab, until she knew she had reached one of the large hydro tables.
That’s when she felt it, the other presence. Not Aaron, he was still on his way from the bridge—at a full run, she realized—but someone…
Eckhart.
Holding her breath, she tried to track his presence through the room. He stood by the door, had probably sabotaged the lights in the decontamination chamber people had to cross through to enter and leave the lab. The inner door was silent. No wonder she’d never heard him.
She slid on her belly under the table. The next three had enough clearance she could slip under them as well. The five after that were too deep, had bases without enough room to hide under.
Eckhart worked his way to the back of the lab down the main corridor. Emi froze behind another table as she felt him pass on the other end. He was working blind, quietly feeling his way, but acting like he’d memorized the lab’s layout.
Emi’s heart chilled. He probably had. The last cargo lander had been brought aboard two days earlier. They hadn’t left the ship since. That meant he’d been on board at least two days, probably hiding in the massive cargo bay.
She gathered her feet under her. No telling what kind of weapon he had, but she knew he had one and he planned to use it.
He reached the far end of the room by the time she neared the decon chamber door. That’s when he tripped on the colander and sent it skittering across the floor, swearing as he did.
Emi felt the kitchen shears in her front pocket digging into her stomach. She grabbed them, holding them like a dagger. Fighting the rage coursing through her, she kept her steps light.
“Where are you, Doctor?” he muttered. “I want to talk to you.”
Sweat broke out on her skin despite the cool temperature. He didn’t want to talk, he wanted to kill. She suppressed a gasp when he opened fire into the ceiling with an energy rifle, briefly illuminating the lab. She’d been ducked down behind a table, and he didn’t spot her.
“If you don’t talk to me, Doctor, I will kill your men anyway. After I kill you, of course.”
Emi fought the urge to yell at him. Then, horror-struck, she realized Aaron had reached the hydro lab deck. He’d be there in less than thirty seconds.
She reached out and felt the tomato plants on the table by her. Carefully, she pulled two of the large, still-green fruits off their vines. After working her way to the doorway, she lobbed one as hard as she could toward the back of the room and hit the button to open the decon chamber door.
He heard her and screamed her name as she lobbed the second fruit at him. It fell short and splattered on the deck. In the darkness, he slipped and fell in the mess as he fired off another round from the energy rifle.
She shrank against the far wall of the decon chamber. The outer door wouldn’t open until the inner door had completely closed and the decon cycle completed. In the meantime, she was trapped.
Eckhart slammed against the inner door, throwing his body against it but not budging it as he screamed at her from the other side. Emi heard Aaron pounding on the outer door, screaming for her. Then Eckhart fired again, apparently hitting the control panel inside because the decon cycle stopped.
The outer door wouldn’t open.
Aaron’s voice rang through the ship. “Ford, Caph, emergency! Get your asses to the hydro lab right fucking now! Bring weapons!”
Eckhart’s maniacal laughing scared Emi even more than the weapon he fired at the door again. “Nowhere to run, Doctor Hypatia,” he screamed at her. “I’ll get to you before they do!” He hit the door again. This time, in the dim light from the decon cycle display panel, she saw he’d managed to pry open a small gap in the door.
She shrank against the far side. As one of his hands emerged through the opening, trying to gain purchase on the door panel, she remembered the shears in her hand. With a scream of her own, she reached out and slashed at him, nearly taking off one of his fingers.
He pulled his hand back, roaring, enraged. “You fucking bitch! You’re going to pay for that!” He stuck the barrel of the energy rifle into the opening and fired, but the shot harmlessly hit the outer door.
Afraid the outer door would open and one of her men would be hit, she grabbed the barrel and yanked it into the chamber, knocking Eckhart off balance. She wouldn’t let go and pointed it toward the ceiling. He tried to pull it back, and she jammed it backward, again startling him. Apparently she hit him in the face when she did, because she felt and heard bone crunch, followed by a pained yell.
She yanked the energy rifle toward her again. This time she got it all the way into the chamber. That’s when the outer door opened a little as Aaron pried on it. She jumped to help, wrapping her fingers around the edge to pull, when Eckhart yelled again.
“I’m gonna kill you!”
Enraged, Emi grabbed the energy rifle, turned, and fired through the small gap in the inner doorway. She aimed low, but apparently he’d ducked. She heard the sickening thud of him hitting the deck. When she checked the setting, she realized he’d had it on the highest setting.
Lethal.
Aaron and Caph pried the door open wide enough to pull Emi out. She sobbed and fell into their arms as Ford took the rifle from her. “I shot him!” she cried. “I think he’s dead, but don’t take any chances!”
Ford handed her off to Aaron, and with Caph’s help, he overrode the lights and decon chamber controls.
Eckhart lay on the hydro lab floor. With half his face missing, there was no question as to his condition. Aaron cupped Emi’s chin in his hands. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head. “He didn’t hurt me.”
He pulled her tightly against him, crushing her against his chest. She felt his heart racing, his jumbled emotions finally settling as she wrapped her arms around him and held on.
“Get him out of there,” Aaron hoarsely said. “We have a couple of body cases in cargo.”
“We can’t eject him while in a jump,” Ford softly reminded him.
“I know. Seal him up in it, then lock it in the small life pod. We’ll dump him with the authorities on Mars.”
Emi closed her eyes and didn’t look as Ford and Caph carried the man’s body away.
Aaron scooped her into his arms and carried her to their cabin and into the head. There, he stripped her, and they engaged in a short real water shower. He soaped her body, never letting go of her, kissing her.
“Jesus, I thought he’d got you,” he hoarsely said.
Ford and Caph soon joined them. Together they stood, the men tightly wrapping their arms around her and each other, as the hot water sluiced down the drain.
Chapter Seventeen
Ford and Caph took care of cleaning up the worst of the mess in the hydro lab. They couldn’t repair all the damage, especially the cosmetic issues, but they did their best. The next time Emi went down there, Ford and Caph went with her.
It would take a while for her to regain her sense of security and serenity when working there, but she’d damn sure try. As it was, she couldn’t leave their crew quarters area, between the bridge, their cabin, the rec area, and galley, without one of the men with her. Nerves on edge, despite repeated scans to reassure herself they were alone on the ship, she couldn’t bring herself to do it at first.
She spent several private conversations on the com with Donna, as a fellow doctor, not just as a friend, trying t
o talk out her fear.
After two weeks, Emi forced herself to return to the hydro lab alone.
As she stood inside the inner doorway and stared at the few visible scars of Eckhart’s attack, her nerves twisted and churned, but she forced herself to remain still and calm.
After a few minutes, she walked into the lab and overrode the decontamination chamber, forcing both doors to remain open. Her peace of mind was worth more to her than losing a few plants.
She picked up a pair of small pruning shears and set to work. An hour later, she jumped when the com whistled.
“Emi? Are you okay, babe?” Ford’s voice sounded tinged with worry.
“I’m okay.” She realized what time it was, and while she wouldn’t say she felt happy, she was glad she’d lost track of time. “What’s up?”
“Need any company?”
She suspected Ford had been tracking her throughout the ship. It was his turn on watch, but Caph would be coming up for duty soon. Aaron was catching up on his sleep in their cabin.
“I’m okay. But if you want to come help me cart some of these veggies up to the galley when you finish watch, I won’t refuse the help.”
He sounded relieved. “I’ll be there as soon as the big guy shows up.”
She smiled and turned to look at her progress. Weeds weren’t an issue, thankfully, and she’d pruned back the plants needing it while picking everything that had ripened.
Ford arrived a few minutes later.
“Did you wake Caph early?” she chastised.
He grinned. “Won’t hurt him.” He glanced at the walls and ceilings where they hadn’t been able to erase all evidence of Eckhart’s attack. “We’ll get the retrofit crew to take care of this as soon as we get back to Mars, babe. You’ll never know anything happened.”
She let him pull her into his arms. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me about Aaron’s nightmares?”
She felt his body tense. “Oh.”
“Uh, yeah. Oh. You are in sooo much trouble, buddy.”