Part 2 - Femme Fatale

Alex took the woman’s hand and shook it. Looking deep into her eyes, he searched for the reason why he had been unable to mentally reach her to tell her that they were friends. She was an enigma.

“I am sorry we were late. Leena was dying, so she searched for me and sent me to help you.”

Maria looked at the tall, lanky man. His aura was certainly powerful, tinged in purple and glowing in a way that only an Eminent One's aura would glow. She recognized him immediately for what he was. His thin small beard and powerful dark eyes were offset by his dark hair, slightly long and curling. All in all, he was very nice-looking with a light in his eyes that spoke of power and living. Kathleen had had that same twinkle. For a moment, Maria lowered her head and mourned her friend, but something moved along the fringes of her own perception. Kathleen?

Before she could speak, the man at her feet made a noise. A groan.

“Yeah, great. Everyone can ignore me! I’m lying here in pain and freezing my damn ass off.” Michael coughed.

Maria crouched down next to the man she had tossed and almost killed. “You okay? They still in your throat?” She couldn’t keep the amusement from her voice.

Michael’s eyes narrowed. He reached for his gun again.

“Whoa there, partner. Let me look at you.” Kyle quickly interceded before Michael decided to shoot the young woman. Kyle just tsked at him. “Michael, no shooting the client.”

Michael just growled and lay back.

She sat down on the ground next to him, her body shaking, and Michael finally registered her wet hair. Looking at her critically, he noticed the perfect whiteness of her unflawed skin, but it had a bluish tinge.

“You were in the water as well?” At Michael’s question, Alex immediately turned to look at the woman. She nodded.

So he wasn’t just a stupid enforcer with a rifle arm. The man had some brains, and probably even used them when his body wasn’t trying to combat the pain of a crushed set of male genitalia. Maria studied his long body, appreciating how large he was. She had never heard him move up behind her. Actually, she missed him telegraphing his intent or presence. That hadn’t happened in a long time. He had long light brown hair and a scruffy beard, but it was the golden warmth of his whiskey brown eyes that held her attention. He looked all craggy and strong, but his features had a continuity about them, a belonging. And his lips were full and soft - totally kissable. When his tongue came out to wet his lips, very aware of her regard, she felt responsiveness run down her body. Men weren’t supposed to look like that. Tough angels.

He squirmed under her gaze and then cursed his reaction. “Hey, I said...”

“Yes.” Maria was shocked at her husky-sounding voice. Clearing her throat, she spoke more firmly. “Yes, I was in the water. All the lower decks are flooded.” Without her helmet to close the unit of her thermal suit, she was starting to adapt to the surrounding cold. Her body temperature was dropping fast.

Kyle looked at the woman and frowned. Quickly giving Michael a neural block in his lower spine to deaden the pain in his groin, Kyle turned his sensors on Maria.

“Your core body temperature is dropping fast. How long were you in the water?”

Michael frowned as her small body began to shiver and shake at an alarming rate.

“Too long. It took me three trips to find what I was looking for and I still missed one.”

Sean came to join them. Giving Michael an amused look and feeling for him at the same time, Sean dropped a load of manuscripts at the woman’s feet. They were all in protective casings.

“Those are mine!”

Sean just smiled at her. Whooooa, pretty. Nope. Actually breathtakingly beautiful. “Calm down, little sister. Actually everything here is yours.”

Maria looked at the man in irritation. He had touched her property! Steeling herself and swallowing her natural instinct to beat him upside the head, she tried to quell the rising coldness of her body and the internal shakes. Fuck. Her systems were starting to shut down.

Kyle made another sound of distress. She was sinking fast. They needed to warm her up. This was more than hypothermia.

“I need to get her back to the runabout and then to the Shiva. Her temperature is dropping fast. Warm saline bath and heaters. I don’t get this. It’s not hypothermia.”

Maria ignored Kyle and looked at Alex. “I need that last manuscript. It’s essential. This job is a search for three missing gems of immeasurable importance, and then one last task to neutralize the imbalance of power and restore the natural order. I need that manuscript.”

“Lady, you’re not getting it.” She turned to look at Michael.

“I...”

He cut her off. “No one! Not one of my men is risking their life in that freezing water, and definitely not with those creatures.”

Maria turned to look at Alex. “Everything else on this ship is yours as payment. There are thirty-seven unflooded cargo holds, each with treasures unimaginable...all packed and waiting to be taken.” Sean made a sound of delight.

Michael scowled at his friend and took out his com unit.

“Command.”

Michael heard his brother’s voice, hollow-sounding and far away. “Go, Michael. What’s the situation?”

“We’ve found our newest client and the area is secure. Send down as many recovery teams as possible. We need a warming unit from Sickbay and a full size bed. Have them bring it down and install it in the back compartment of my runabout.” Michael looked at Kyle who nodded. That should work. “Tell them to be careful of the cross chop coming in. They’ll be riding an ice storm all the way and lifters freeze on the drop, so coat them in liquid heat before starting.”

“They’re on their way.” Michael could hear Max in the background giving orders.

“What’s the field look like?”

Max voice came back. “The system is clear, so we still have time. Let's clear the salvage and chalk up some distance from this dead system.”

“Agreed.” Michael turned off his com. Turning to Kyle who was helping the fallen woman. Her body was shaking so much he could almost feel the shivers from where he was lying. She was next to him gasping for breath, as her skin turned even bluer.

“They’re bringing a warming bed.” Michael looked at her, concerned.

“She’s dropping too fast. I don’t get it!” Kyle continued to monitor her and gave her a shot of adrenaline to speed up her metabolism, thereby generating more heat.

Alex was looking at Maria’s manuscripts, frowning. Sean, after a gesture from Michael, took off to organize the crews into starting the recovery process.

“I need that last manuscript.” She could barely speak through the chattering of her teeth.

“I said no!” They lay facing each other, both refusing to back down. Maria looked down at the oxygen supply of her environmental converter. It was still attached to her neck. She just barely had enough.

Looking at him again, she shrugged. Grabbing his face, she leaned in and stared him in the eye. “You really are a handful.”

She was suddenly up on her feet, and Michael didn’t register that she was stepping out of her protective suit until she stood there in a flimsy white thermal bodystocking. In a flash she picked up her weapon, ran and dived into the cold water.

“Son-of-a-bitch! Michael struggled to his feet, combating the nerve block Alex had given him that made his legs feel like rubber, prickling with tiny nerve endings. He quickly removed his bulkier outer clothing as Kyle injected him with adrenaline to speed up his body's metabolism. Alex attached a ripcord to Michael’s body as he hurried to follow her.

“Michael!” He turned back to Kyle, as Kyle tossed him his forgotten weapon. He dived in after her.

The lower decks were strangely dark, but iridescent from some unknown source. Going through the only possible access port from Engineering, he came out in the corridor of a lower deck. With no idea where she had gone, he kept watch for large moving objects. It took him almost a full deck of storage rooms to find her. She was in the second to last room, struggling to remove another protected manuscript. It was jammed.

Sensing the movement of water she suddenly turned, aiming her weapon at him until she realized it was him and not a sea creature. He moved her aside and struggled to remove the bloody manuscript. Looking at her, he was shocked at how blue she appeared.

Suddenly her body stiffened and her arm came up. Michael finally got the manuscript free in time to turn and see her shooting at a huge creature approaching them fast. Taking his weapon, both of them shot at it until it was dead, but with the fallen creature came a flurry of activity as its blood called to other predators. They couldn’t leave the way they had come.

Seeing an access junction in the corner of the bay, Michael passed her the manuscript as he ripped its cover from the wall. Pushing her inside, he quickly followed. Keeping an eye on her body, he rushed through the smaller, tighter passages, swimming as quickly as he could with the limited leg room. He noticed her using her free hand to pull her body along with the sides of the ship. Tucking his weapon into his waistband, he followed her lead, catching up to her quickly.

They came out in another flooded corridor. It was teaming with underwater creatures, most ignoring them. Michael pulled himself from the access port, but when he tried to follow her he couldn’t. Turning he saw the cord that Alex had tied to him was tangled through the maze they had just come through. It was keeping him bound. She must have sensed he wasn’t with her, and turned to see him trying to untie the cord with his frozen hands.

Swimming to his side, their eyes made contact as she looked down. The water had tightened the cord, and both of them where too cold and numb to really feel or operate their fingers. Suddenly Michael looked up, and Maria saw fear move across his face. Turning, she saw a large sea creature bearing down on them. She reached for her weapon, but it was gone. She had dropped it in the access corridor to free a hand while holding the manuscript with the other.

Michael was still trying to untie himself. He couldn’t move. Maria grabbed the weapon from his waistband, turned and fired repeatedly. The blood would bring others. Already the smaller fish and creatures were feeding on the downed animal. She turned and shoved her manuscript in his hand and handed him the weapon to keep an eye out for others.

Sinking almost to her knees, she struggled with the tight knot that held them captive there. She couldn’t leave him behind, not even for her cause. Struggling, she could feel the movement in the water, the increase in activity and him firing over her head. Suddenly there was a touch to her head. She looked up. He gestured for her to leave him. She shook her head no. He motioned to the corridor filling with more of the same creatures, and gestured for her to leave again.

Again she refused. In the watery grave their eyes fought a fierce battle, both refusing to stand down until finally in a gesture of sheer annoyance, she took his gun from him and aimed it at his lower body. He closed his eyes as she blew a hole through the safety cord, releasing him.

Taking the manuscript from him, she returned him his gun, and taking his hand she swam for another corridor, pulling him after her. He kept his eyes trained behind them shooting the creatures following them. As they died, the crowd behind them slowed as they stopped to feed on the dead bodies. Michael and Maria swam through the corridors as fast as they could, until he noticed she was faltering.

Looking at the environmental unit on her neck he saw the red indicator blinking empty. She was out of oxygen. Pulling her to him as she struggled in a panic, he put his mouth over hers and breathed oxygen into her lungs. After a short time of buddy-breathing, he looked at her and she nodded that she could go on. They progressed slowly, moving upwards through the flooded deck, searching for oxygen and freedom from the water. It was slow going, what with killing creatures having large mouths and lots of teeth, plus having to stop and breathe for her. Finally he found a set of doors semi-open with a strange gleam to the top water.

Atmosphere! Daylight!

Pulling her with him, he broke for the surface. He dragged her out of the water, and they both lay on the deck just clear of the water, panting for breath. Oh, damn! They were in the burned out Bridge from earlier in the day! Michael cursed under his breath. He had sealed the doors from the other side, and the crushing winds and ice were hurling into the room, dropping the temperature even more. With their wet bodies and almost no real clothing on, both were shivering to death.

It was her gasping breath that reminded him of the high nitrogen mix in the atmosphere. Her environmental unit was still empty. Gathering her close, he joined their mouths, breathing oxygen into her body. She was losing ground fast, her skin was so much colder than his. Taking his gun, he shot at the closed doors with no effect. It could withstand a full cannon laser blast. They were dying.

Maria reached for his hand. Putting her hand over his, she turned his arm away from the closed doors to the open rip in the Bridge that was allowing the elements in. Putting her finger with his on the triggering mechanism, she made him shoot through the hole to the outside.

Smart. She was smart. His men and the recovery teams were setting up full recovery perimeters and loading the artifacts and treasures off the Saratoga. They would see the energy dispersement field. She was almost unconscious, dying. He gathered her close and breathed into her mouth again, trying to keep her warm with his own cold body. Fuck this. Alex! Alex, pick up that damn mental phone of yours and get your asses to the fucking Bridge!

He kept cursing Alex out in his head while breathing for the both of them and shooting through the open side of the ship. Her body was so tiny and small compared to his - and way too cold. He could feel unconsciousness threatening him as the pull of darkness increased and his breathing labored against the cold. If he stopped, then she died. Alex. Max...

~~~

Kyle and Alex pulled on the safety cord. It wouldn’t move. They’ve been down too long. Kyle checked his sensors on his hand unit, and medical scanner. Too much movement below, but he could still read two humanoid life signs.

Sean came up to them. “I’m going in after them!”

Alex shook his head no. “We do not know where they went. With all the sea life down there...”

“I’ll follow the line.”

“Sir! Topside says they're picking up energy readings off the port side. They're coming from a hole in the hull of this ship.” The three men looked at the young crewman and then at each other. Alex grabbed the manuscripts and shoved them in his pack, then gathered up Maria’s clothing as Kyle grabbed Michael’s.

“It has to be them.” Sean rushed from the room, as Alex paused. Alex.

The com system came alive. “This is Max, where is Michael? I can barely feel him. Alex, dammit, respond!”

“Max, it’s Sean. Michael is missing.”

“We’re picking up huge energy blasting from the portside hull.” Max said rechecking the science sensors himself.

Alex came alive and rushed from the room down the corridor. “The Bridge. They came up in the Bridge.”

Sean followed. “Then why didn’t he join us? One of those damn sea creatures must have taken a bite out of his ass.”

Alex just shook his head. “He can’t. He sealed the Bridge from the other side.”

They made it down the side corridor to the main one from which they had entered the ship. Grabbing the safety ropes tossed along the forty-five degree angled corridor, they used the ropes to keep themselves from sliding further into the bowels of the ship. Crossing to the other side corridor that led to the Bridge, they ran, using the walls to keep them steady.

Sean worked fast to release the frozen lock while Kyle scanned the other side with his medical scanner.

“Hurry, Sean. One’s not breathing and their life signs are almost gone.”

Alex tried to open a time/space corridor to the other side so they could walk through, but he couldn’t. He didn’t have enough control, and the last one he opened seemed to just appear at his will.

Sean just swore and sped up. The doors were finally freed and he and Alex pried them apart. They rushed in to find Michael leaning over Maria, his body covering hers, kissing her.

“We rushed in here just to watch Michael mack on the girl?”

Michael lifted his head at the sound of Sean’s voice. “Kyle...oxygen. She ran out awhile ago.”

Kyle rushed to their sides, as Michael rolled off Maria’s body and lay gasping, trying to breathe for himself for a change. Sean and Alex came to him and helped him back into his clothes. Putting hands under his arms, they dragged him out of the Bridge into the more sheltered corridor. Michael’s whole body was shaking. He couldn’t feel his hands or feet, actually he couldn’t feel his entire body. He was numb.

Alex rushed back into the Bridge to help Kyle with Maria as Sean began to rub Michael’s arms and legs to get the circulation going again.

“Just because ya already kissed her, don’t be thinking she’s yours yet.”

Michael looked at his friend and his eyes darkened. Sean just swore under his breath. Damn, already? Something told him that his friend was going to be lacking humor in regards to this woman.

Sean looked up as Alex and Kyle came through the doors carrying Maria. They laid her down next to Michael who turned and looked at her, concerned. They had put her back in her heated environmental suit, and Kyle put a new environmental unit on her neck. She was breathing again, but still unconscious and blue.

Kyle worked on her furiously, talking to himself the entire time, as Alex went back to reseal the doors. He found the temperature control on the suit and turned it up. She must have used it before the other three times she went into the water to stabilize her body temperature. Kyle began packing small heating packs into her suit to increase her temperature.

“I don’t understand why her body isn’t compensating for the cold and increasing the shivering effect with a push in metabolism. The adrenaline I gave her isn’t even touching her, except to speed up her heart. I can’t give her any more.”

Alex came back to join them. “I think it is her nature to take on the surrounding temperature.”

Kyle looked up confused. “What do you mean?”

“The manuscripts she was so intent on retrieving. They were Anterraan.”

The three men looked at Alex in shock. That was impossible! Anterra was the first planet that Khivar destroyed before the war started. That world and its entire star system had been pulverized and sucked into a negative energy sinkfield - a black hole. Khivar had turned his newest deadly weapon on their sun and blew a hole in its middle. The collapse of the giant star into itself was so great in mass that its gravitational field wouldn’t let even light escape. It took out countless surrounding star systems as the gravitational pull of the black hole overwhelmed the stable orbits of nearby systems. It was the mass destruction that began the war - that and Khivar raiding worlds for genetic materials for his cloning project.

Even Khivar had been surprised at the power and destruction of his new weapon. The loss of genetic material and the loss of the Anterraan homeworld was a terrible lesson. Anterra had been an anomaly. The inhabitants were evolved far beyond their surrounding worlds.

They were capable of space travel long before the others, but as a race they tended to avoid traveling in space by conventional methods. They were fabled to travel great distances in a wink of time. A cold-blooded race, their internal bodies did not self-regulate their body temperatures, but rather took on the temperature of the surrounding environment. The coldness of space was almost too much for them to withstand.

“Poikilothermic?” Kyle scanned the surrounding temperatures and then her body. “Anterraan. No one knows their physiology. They weren’t very forthcoming about themselves with other races.”

Alex nodded. They were a once-silent race, keeping all matters about themselves hidden from outsiders. But their silence ended there. They helped all those who needed help. Their loss to the known universe was mourned and the outrage brought on by their destruction brought the rest of the universe to the brink of war that lasted almost ten years.

It appeared that their newest client was the last surviving member of a now extinct race. She and she alone held all their collective knowledge and history. She also was the last surviving genetic representative, and thereby priceless to Khivar. Alex felt a strange common fellowship with the woman.

“We need to get both her and Michael to the runabout and put them in the warming bed. She’s been cold for too long.”

“I’m fine.” They looked down to see that Maria had regained consciousness. “Where are my manuscripts?”

“I have them.” She looked at Alex and then simply nodded. They were safe with him.

Michael searched her face and body. She was still blue and shivering, but at least she was breathing. “You’re not okay. Alex get us out of here before she decides to take us for another swim.”

Her eyes narrowed at his tone, but then she turned and ignored him. Kyle, Alex and Sean helped the two to the end of the corridor and into the larger one. Michael looked up the forty-five degree sloping incline and groaned. He wasn’t getting paid enough.

Kyle looked at the woman. She was still shivering. They had lost the helmet to her environmental suit, so he couldn't close it.

“I don’t know that it’s a good idea to take her outside. Her suit is open and her body will adapt to the outside temperature. I’m not sure her body and heart can take the stress. It’s been pushed to the limit already.”

“She is sitting right here, thank you. I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about me in the third person.” Maria leaned against the wall, looking up the incline. She could make it if they’d just let her get her breath back. Her lungs felt like they had exploded in her chest, and she was still coughing up water.

Michael took out his com. “Report. What is the status of the recovery teams?” Michael waited for his main recovery officer to come back with a report.

“Commander, we set up a protective field and installed heaters. The protective areas are already warmer. Twenty-three of the thirty-seven storage bays have been emptied.  Sarasvati is already on a turnaround trip, and the other two ships are loaded and ready to take off.”

Michael did a quick calculation. The Sarasvati was their largest recovery ship and commanded the most storage space, but even she couldn’t hold fourteen more storage bays.

“Send the other two ships to Shiva. I want them unloaded and back as soon as possible. Is the Trinity up and working?”

“No, Sir. She is still in dry dock for refitting of blown power couplings. Her aft shields took damage on the last job.” Raiders and Pirates only attacked the smaller recovery ships that Shiva housed in her immense landing bays. No Pirate would take on the full battleship with her armor and weapons, so the smaller recovery vessels were their best bet.

Michael swore. That meant they only had Vishnu and Kali available since both Trinity, one of their larger ships, and Rama, their newest, were still in dry dock for repairs.

“Do what you can.” Michael closed the link at his officer’s affirmation. “Max?”

“Good to hear and feel you, little brother.”

“Yeah, no big. Just took my weekly bath early.” Michael ignored his brother’s chuckle. “Do me a favor and light a fuse under the recovery team to unpack the Vishnu and Kali and send them back. I don’t like this ice planet.”

“Will do. Stay dry and warm.” Max disconnected. Max looked at his com officer and nodded for him to send the orders as he searched the scanning fields of the system, looking for Raiders.

Michael looked at Maria again. She was still resting up against the wall, appearing to be asleep. Michael then turned taciturn eyes on Sean.

“Dammit, Sean! I thought you’d have all the ships ready for recovery!”

“Little shorthanded right now, Michael. I’ve got the normal crews keeping Shiva operational, and all the landing and light craft mechanics working around the clock on full shifts.” Sean frowned at Michael, who seemed to be warming after his ordeal, but was still shaking. “You’ll remember that half my crew is missing in action. We left them on Riodan on our last six days off.”

Michael just grunted. Yeah, forgot about that. They had lost half their engineering and mechanical staff on their last six day shore leave. Sean’s boys had gotten into a little brou-ha-ha in a local cathouse and gaming establishment. The result was the shutdown of the house, with half those involved incarcerated for half a cycle. That had been over three months ago, and they couldn’t pick up their missing crewmembers for another three months. Repairs and refitting had been slowed by working at half staff.

“We’ve got to move her, Michael.” Kyle scanned Maria again. She was warmer, but her body kept trying to adapt to the cold ship.

Michael looked up the long inclined corridor, watching his men emptying and moving cargo out of the storage bays. They could move now, and the sooner the better.

“Okay, let me go first. You tie a support line to her, and help walk her up and out of the Saratoga.”

“She can walk. Thank you.” Maria opened her eyes and regarded the irritating man closely. “It’s only an steep incline, not a mountain. And I’ve been here over three days climbing in and out of this ship. I’m cold and tired, but I’m not helpless.”She stood up to make her point. “Alex must go first. He’s carrying my manuscripts.”

Michael stood up as well. “By all means! We’d not be wanting anything to happen to those.” Michael’s sarcastic tone took on a heavier angry sound to it. She was so irritating. He liked her better when she was unconscious. “Get going, Alex.”

Kyle looked at his two patients and frowned. “Neither of you are in any shape to make the few meters walk to the ship.” He looked at the woman’s shaking form and frowned yet again. “The outside cold could be deadly to her.”

Maria looked at the doctor. “I’m not going to your ship. I’m going to mine.”

“The hell you are!” Michael practically shouted. Michael reached over and gestured for Kyle to start up the incline. “Get going. She’ll be alright outside. Recovery has set up heating units inside the protective shield. It’s warmer and not so stormy as when we set down.”

Maria brows furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean 'inside the protective shield and heaters'?”

Michael just shrugged. “On an inclement planet we set up a forcefield protection grid to shield our salvage and our ships in case pirates follow us in. Inside the grid we turn on outside heaters attached to our ships that warm the area within the forcefield. It sets up a mini environment, and allows our recovery teams to move faster and more efficiently without combating blinding ice and winds.”

Maria actually cursed aloud, causing the three men to stare at her in real interest. “You can’t be that stupid!”

“What?” Michael took offense.

“Do you have no concept of where we are? The Saratoga went down in the iced ocean of Linius VI. This isn’t just a ship buried in the ground connecting with an underwater river. It’s an...”

“Ocean!” Michael looked at Sean sharply. The other man nodded. “Go!” Michael looked at Kyle. “You, too.”

Kyle nodded and grabbed one of the safety lines and began following Sean out of the ship, trusting Michael to see to Maria’s safety. She took a cord as well and Michael was bringing up the rear, when suddenly the ground shook. The Saratoga's decks shifted and moved, knocking their feet out from under them. Kyle and Sean above them lay on the deck holding onto their lines, and Maria, who was just above Michael, looked back in time to see Michael’s hand slip from his line as it snapped. Another worker above had used the same line and the added weight snapped it from its mooring.

The darkness at the bowels of the ship and end of the corridor was now approaching. It was the ocean’s water as the Saratoga slipped free of the ice that had held it for years and continued to sink into the ocean. It was fast approaching. As Michael scrambled for another safety line, Maria reached down with her free hand and grabbed his hand just as his body started to slide down the incline towards the icy waters. The added weight on her arm made her grunt in pain. The Saratoga’s deck was no longer at a forty-five degree angle, but sixty and the deck was sinking rapidly into the water. Michael felt it sloshing at his feet.

“Let go of me! The added weight will snap your line, and you can’t climb one-handed while you're holding me.”

“No!” Michael looked up into her eyes, stormy and fierce. She was trouble - pig-headed and obstinate. Damn! So damn beautiful, and possibly the last thing he would see in his short life.

Michael swore and tried to reach another line, but he was afraid to move too much. Her hold on him was tenuous and she looked like she would let go to grab him. Grabbing the bottom of her line, he pulled himself up enough to relieve the pressure on her hand and slowly climbed up and over her body as the ship shifted and sank even more. Looking up, Michael saw that both Sean and Kyle had cleared the corridor. As the ropes released in slack they both slid downward.

Their legs were back in the water, and Michael thought about climbing up, but with their combined weight on the line he didn’t want to chance it. The best bet was for him to release the rope and let her climb free, and then when she cleared the corridor use the rope to climb out himself.

“Don’t even think about it!” He looked at her stormy eyes. How could she read him so completely? “You go, we both go.”

“This is stupid! You can’t take the cold water, but I can. We’re not both going to make it, and you holding onto me means you can’t climb.”

“Then we climb together, and you can stop trying to sacrifice yourself for me. I don’t know you. You don’t know me. Stop being so damn honorable!”

Michael just snorted. Honorable his ass. He had no intention of dying, and he had every intention of demanding payment from her in the future in some form or other.

“Lady, this isn’t me being honorable or altruistic. I expect to be fully compensated for the pain you’ve been in my ass.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Whatever! If a reward is what you want, then reward is what you’ll get. But you better start climbing because I’m not leaving you behind.” Shesnorted as he cussed, trying to find some purchase on the slick icy deck with which to pull himself up and over her. Pain in his ass? She thought she had established herself as a royal pain in another part of his anatomy as well.

They both slowly climbed as they heard Sean and the others trying to get a handle on the rope from above to pull them up. They were clear of the water, and halfway up the steep slope when they both paused to breathe. He had managed to get himself above her, but just barely. They lay side by side, panting. Her hands were so cold, she wasn’t sure she could hold on much longer, and her face was practically resting in his stomach.

“What’s your name?”

Michael looked down at her hearing the muffled sound of her voice against him. “What?”

“Your name. I want to know your name.”

“Why?”

She made a sound of exasperation. “So I can say a prayer for you when you die?” She snorted. Big boorish boob. His parents probably didn’t bother to name him, but just stuck to ‘Hey you.’

“Michael. My name is Michael.” He looked up and saw Sean’s head as he tossed a new line down to them. This one was more than likely on a winch so they could pull them up. “Why didn’t you let me go? You don’t know me. I tried to kill you a few times today. So why risk your life for a stranger?”

Maria looked up too and relief passed over her face as Michael reached out for the other line, and secured it to his body. As he dragged her with him, she put her arms around his neck and held on as the rope pulled them up.

She mouthed her answer into his neck where she lay against him, cold and still breathing hard. “I’ve seen too much death...more than I can stand. I could happily live a thousand lifetimes to never see it again.”

Michael looked down at her. God, she was so cold. Looking up as they inched forward, he hoped Sean hurried. She needed to get warm again, soon.

He couldn’t understand her. This sense of loyalty and honor extended to a stranger. In his world they barely extended that much to known family members. Husbands and wives were at times barely able to tolerate each other enough to actually procreate. Michael never walked far for a stranger, but kept his friends and family safe, along with those he considered his responsibility. She didn’t even know him, and this was the second time she had saved his life in less than a few hours of meeting him. She hadn’t even known his name. Michael didn’t allow himself to forget that she had almost gotten him killed a few times too.

Sean’s hand reached over and grabbed Maria from Michael’s arms as both grabbed a hand from Kyle, and Alex reached for Michael. Pulled to safety, Michael breathed for a few moments as the ship around them groaned and creaked, slowly moving downward. His legs were so damn cold from where they had dangled in the water that he was stomping them for feeling. The were on a side corridor leading out, and walking on the wall now.

He turned and took Maria from Sean’s arms, lifting her up into his. Ignoring her protests, he and the others took off out of the Saratoga.

“Shut up!” Michael looked at Sean. “Sean, the others?”

“Done. The Sarasvati was loaded with six more storage areas before they were forced to abandon the recovery. That was a total of twenty-nine.” Michael nodded. That left eight lost. The trick to a successful recovery was learning not to be too greedy, and keeping their teams protected and safe at all times.

“The runabout?”

“Mal has it ready to go, just waiting for us. The ice field has already cracked up to thousand meters out. This whole section is going to go.”

They hit the outside when Maria struggled out of Michael’s arms. Michael lost his grip and cussed when she stood up and tried to turn away from him. He stopped her as she turned to run.

“What the hell is your problem? There is no more time for your protests and antics.”

“My ship! I’ve got to get to my ship.” She struggled to get free of him.

Michael grabbed both of her arms and shook her hard. “There is no time! It’s twenty clicks out on a cracking ice field. It’s too late. Let it go.”

“The hell I will!” She stepped hard on his instep and pulled away. Giving a growl of anger, Michael nabbed one of her arms and pulled her back around. The last thing she saw was his fist before unconsciousness took her over.

Michael swept her up in his arms as she collapsed.

“Shit, Michael. Hitting a lady?” Sean cussed under his breath as Michael tossed her unconscious form in his arms.

“This she-devil ain’t no lady. Put her in the warming bed and tell Mal to take off.” Michael turned in the direction Maria had been heading.

“Where are you going?”

Michael just kept cussing as he ran. “To get her damn ship! Now go!” Dammit, she was putting his life in danger again.

He could hear the ice cracking under his weight, and some areas were already puddling with water. They had thoroughly weakened the ice field with the onboard heaters. Reaching her ship, he actually admired its clean lines. A top class fighter in a design he had never seen. Scrambling up to the cockpit, he found the release hatch and pulled himself inside.

More cussing. It was a tight fit. No doubt designed with its real pilot in mind. Michael studied the control consoles as the hatch closed. The symbols were foreign to him, but searching the field he easily found the engines, which fired up immediately. The language was unreadable, but fighter crafts tended to be designed the same way despite different builders. Moving the lever for the vertical lifters, he was shocked to see his after burners fire. Damn! Okay, some things weren’t universal.

Michael punched it. The afterburners further weakened the ice and as he lifted off, he felt the ice cave in behind him. Circling the recovery site, he watched Saratoga slide away to her final watery grave. In another hundred years this entire ocean would be nothing more than sheets of solid ice, and Saratoga would remain there for all eternity.

~~~

Sean entered the runabout carrying Maria. He followed Kyle to the back compartment to lay her down in the heated warming bed. Watching Kyle for a moment as he stripped her down again to her white bodystocking, he finally patted his friend on the shoulder.

“Is she going to be okay?”

Kyle nodded. “I think so. Her heart took some stress, but once she’s warm again everything should be okay.” Kyle looked at the tiny woman, still unconscious. “I can’t believe Michael hit her.”

Sean just shrugged. He was having a hard time with it as well. Michael didn’t always like women, but he usually treated them nicely. Or at least nicely for him, and hitting them weren’t really part of his normal method of dealing with them. Sean did remember the few times Michael felt like killing his sister, Serena...but that was years ago now. Sean could still feel the loss of his twin like a hollow ache inside. He knew that Max still mourned her, which was more a tribute to Max’s bond to his sister than anything else. Max had actually loathed Serena most of the time, and a few times had tied her up and gagged her just so he didn’t have to hear her bitch. They had the perfect marriage.

“I wasn’t. Their fighting wasn’t just vocal, but mental as well. I think he was angry at her and it only increased by the hard-on he was sporting while trying to get to her plane.”

Kyle looked at Sean sharply. “Aroused? By this little slip of a girl?”

“Major woodage, and his mood was getting ugly.”

Kyle laughed at that. “Guess this is one lady we won’t be competing over.”

Sean just rubbed his chin with a gleam in his eye. “Oh, I don’t know about that.” He turned to go to the forward compartment. “Call me if you need me. I’ll be in the cockpit with Mal.”

~~~

Michael took some time getting used to the controls of the smaller ship. It was actually a work of art. Small in design, but fast with tight controls. Its power source was a mystery to him, but he suspected that it had more power than even the Shiva, with twice the running speed. There was a copilot's chair behind the pilot’s, that was stuffed with her belongings. No doubt all she had left of her world. No wonder she was reluctant to leave it behind.

He located the hyperjump mechanism, but also found something different next to the normal slipstream. This ship looked powerful enough to make it from one corner of the known universe to the other, which was unheard of in a ship of this size.

“Michael?”

Michael looked around trying to find the com control to respond to Max’s hail.

“Maxwell! You so have to see this baby! She’s a total wet dream, and then some.” Michael ran his hand over the console dash and was glad he hadn't left it to sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Max actually smiled at the sound of his brother’s enthusiastic voice over the open com. “Well perhaps if you’re finished playing with it, you could dock it in fourth level aft bay?”

Michael reluctantly turned the ship towards the Shiva’s coordinates. He had taken Maria’s ship out for a little test drive, from one end of the star system and back. Max was no doubt seriously wanting to put distance between them and this dead system. Michael finally lined up the ship for landing.

It was no surprise that Max was waiting for him when he disembarked from the fighter. His brother, older by a mere three minutes, at times looked years older and more responsible. It wasn’t hard to miss the difference in their temperaments, or the fact that Max felt his responsibilities like a heavy burden.

“I worried about you, M.”

Michael just patted his brother on the back as they exited the landing bay. Michael spotted the deck attendant.

“Have someone take all the belongings from the back of the fighter to our guest’s quarters, and I want the whole ship in quarantine. Scan it for bugs, and let me know how it checks out.”

“Yes, Commander.” The man looked at Max and nodded. “Captain,” as he walked away to find some workers.

“Quarantine?”

“No more space herpes or any other creepy crawlies.”

Max laughed at that. “You realize that space herpes were originally transmitted sexually, right?”

“Maxwell, pilot that ship, and I promise you it will be the closest you've had to an orgasmic rush in years. It’s like sex in space. I swear if I catch anything from piloting myself in that...”

“Oh God! Don’t even tell me you jerked off while piloting that ship.” Max just rubbed his face at his brother’s sheepish expression.

Michael’s face made this strange grimace and he just shrugged. “What? No! Of course not. The cockpit was too tight.”

Max looked at his brother and shook his head as they turned towards Sickbay to check on their newest passenger.

“You’re sick...totally mental. You realize that, right?”

Michael just laughed at his brother’s assessment. As they entered Sickbay, Michael’s laughing decreased as he looked around for her.

Max looked around as well. He was curious about their new client, the owner of all that wealth, and the person who could get his brother in sub-artic waters. Max had heard Sean’s report, and his curiosity was more than just a little piqued.

“Kyle? Where is our guest?” Max asked as Kyle finished his work on a crew member that had been wounded while their altercation with Maria.

“She’s still in the warming bed. I decided to leave her unconscious while someone was out there joyriding in her ship. Didn’t see any reason to give her more cause to be upset.” Kyle looked at Michael in amusement. Big kid. He had felt Michael’s reaction at the mention of Maria’s ship.

Max just gestured for Kyle to waken her. Kyle took an injector and lifted the heating bed’s lid. Max’s eyebrow went up at his first sight of the woman. Looking at his brother discreetly, Max suddenly understood much. Alex’s sisters were beautiful in some very conventional ways, all of their features coming together to create them. But this woman was beautiful in her exotic unique looks, all that coalesced in a unique breathtaking appearance. Her lips were almost too large for her small thin face, but somehow were not. Instead they were wonderfully perfect, and totally fantasyworthy. Her nose was small and delicate, perfectly balanced. Her body was small and tiny, but gloriously voluptuous in its proportion to itself, with legs that seemed to span her entire length. And then she opened her eyes and stared straight at Max.

Did he say beautiful? He quickly amended it to gorgeous - breathtakingly gorgeous. Her eyes. They were the most alive green with flecks of gold, and seemed to burn with the fire of life. She didn’t waken confused and disoriented, but ready to fight. Max let a small smile move across his face. She reminded him of his wife, Serena, that same expression of intense readiness.

“Welcome aboard the Shiva. I’m the Captain, Max, and I believe you’ve met my Commander and brother, Michael.”

Her eyes looked at the man standing next to him, and they narrowed. Sitting up gingerly at the side of the heating bed she fingered her sore jaw with a bruise on it. Max watched amused as she stared Michael down, oblivious to the fact she was in nothing but a tight white bodystocking.

We’ve met - of sorts.” Max smiled even broader at that. Obviously, Michael had left an impression.

“Your ship has been brought aboard. It’s in quarantine right now to check it out for any bugs, but your belongings have been placed in quarters for you on C Deck.” Max missed her sharp look at Michael. “I understand that you’re not able to self-regulate your body temperature. I’m afraid the Shiva gets cold at night, but my engineer has fixed it so that your quarters will still run the day temperature, which, granted are still cold, but not as cold as the rest of the ship. Next port of call we’ll see about finding some individual space heaters.”

Kyle interrupted Max. “What about this heating bed? She could sleep in it at night and program whatever temperature suits her needs.”

Max just shook his head no. “We thought of that. The heater bed needs a special power relay only found in Sickbay and the runabouts. Power on C Deck isn’t enough to power the bed.”

Maria hopped off the bed and was annoyed to find her legs still rubbery. Michael grabbed her and straightened her. She knocked his hands away and used the bed to steady herself.

“That’s alright. I’m sure normal operating temperatures will be sufficient.” Maria looked at Kyle and gave him a genuine smile that seemed to captivate the males in the room. “Am I free to go to my quarters?”

The silence dragged on until Max jostled Kyle. “What? Oh! Yes...of course. You check out fine, just a little cold, but otherwise, perfect.”

“Thank you.” Maria pointedly ignored Michael and smiled again for Max. “I don’t suppose you could direct me to this C Deck and my belongings, or to the Eminent One?”

“Yes, delighted.” Max went to the Sickbay doors and waited for his guest, she started towards him, but suddenly stopped.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Pivoting on her left foot, she swung around so fast that no one registered the movement at first, not until Michael was knocked back against the wall, and he slid down to rest on the floor. He never saw her fist hit him, but he could feel it through his entire jaw. She packed quite the punch.

Shaking her hurting hand, she went and stood over him, straddling his legs and looking down at him. Slowly she crouched down beside him.

“That was for hitting me on the planet. You want to hit me? Next time make sure we're both aware it’s going to happen, and we at least have some type of understanding.” Michael just stared at the angry woman, barely registering what she was saying. The word 'understanding' meant ‘sex’ in his vocabulary, and that had some impact. “And this is for saving my ship and my life.”

The first touch of her mouth against his own carried Michael so far beyond rational thought that he may as well have been a completely different person; he couldn’t comprehend that this wasn’t just them sharing breath, that she was actually kissing him. She flicked her tongue out, licking Michael's lips before forcing those lips apart and invading his mouth. She smiled when she heard faintly Michael's gasp of shock, the strangled whimper he gave as her tongue stroked against his. Michael’s hands tightened painfully at Maria’s waist, but she didn't care. She slid her hands through his long, silky hair and hungrily devoured the mouth of the man that had just saved all that was left of her people and her most prized possession - her ship. He tasted like heaven and home and Maria lost herself in that sensation for just a second.

Michael didn't so much respond to her kiss as he did react, unable to prevent the deepening intimacy of her touch. The shock held him captive under her mouth.Shock then ran into awareness that he could do this forever, and as his eyes closed and he tried to join her in the kiss, she quickly stood and stepped away, following Max out of the room as if it meant nothing.

Stunned by the sudden unexpected loss of her, Michael stared up into Kyle's face in bemusement--only to see his friend’s thoroughly amused face. "Oh crap, Kyle!" Michael cursed, his eyes flashing with a mixture of surprise and bewilderment. "What the hell was that?"

Kyle just laughed harder. Reaching down he gave Michael a hand up. "What do you mean? I believe it’s called a kiss."

Michael shook his head violently. "I’ve been kissed before and that wasn’t just a kiss...I mean it wasn’t...” He swore under his breath, “I think I’ve been. . . ravished!"

Kyle fell over laughing against one of his sickbay beds, and the furrowing of Michael’s eyebrows made him laugh even harder.

Max walked with the smaller woman to a lift. They were both silent, lost in their own thoughts. Finally they entered C Deck, and Max showed her to her quarters. Her quarters were on the same deck as his and Michael's, Sean's, Kyle's and Alex’s. Most of the higher ranking officers were assigned to living quarters on that Deck.

Stopping at the newly opened stateroom, Max punched in an access code and had her place her hand on the door.

“That will activate the door to your hand only. The only other way to enter is by a security override.”

Maria nodded. “Security? And that would be?”

Max almost hated to tell her. “My brother.”

She looked at him and frowned. He enjoyed the marring of the smooth lines of her face. It gave her a mischievous look.

“The big lummox I left on the Sickbay floor?”

Max smiled. “The same.”

“Damn,” she whispered under her breath. “I guess it would be too much to ask that you have more than one?”

“Actually, my twin.”

 

“Oh, this just keeps getting better and better.” Maria looked around the rooms they entered. The were servable. Nice, but plain. “Maybe I should explain...”

“No need. I know my brother. The story will be told many times over and over, and every time it will get more unbelievable.”

Maria actually smiled at that. “I’m sure. There’s something about him, something that tells me to keep my even ground around him, keep him unbalanced. Just instinctual response I guess.”

Max nodded. Michael had a way of overwhelming a situation. “There is a replicator installed and working. You can program your favorite foods and such, or you can join the crew in the mess. The food isn’t the greatest, but most of it is surprisingly fresh. We make an effort to restock food supplies at every stop, and our hydroponics bay provides us with fresh fruits and vegetables.”

“That’s impressive.”

Max just shrugged. “We’ve been working almost non-stop for three years. That’s a real long time in space without going home. Replicator food gives you what you want at the moment, but after a while, it stops tasting like anything. Every crew member rotates and works the galley, so if you want to be added to the list, just talk to the steward. I do suggest that you avoid eating the days Michael or Sean cook...it’s usually inedible.”

“The replicator energy drain can be immense. I think I’ll eat with the crew, and my cooking…? I think I can give your Michael and Sean a run for their money. I can’t cook.”

“I guess it was too much to hope. My wife, Serena used to terrorize the entire crew during the war with her rendition of reconstituted rations. It was grounds for divorce.”

“Does she still cook?” Maria asked distractedly.

“No. She died in a conflict at the end of the war.” Maria looked at the man and speculation filled her. He still talked to his dead wife, very much the way she talked to her dead people.

“The dead walk with us every day. They are sometimes the reason we continue to live.” Maria said knowingly as she looked through her belongings that had been placed in the rooms. The buzzing of the door announced a visitor, and Max went to answer it.

It was Alex.

“I am sorry, I did not want to intrude.” Maria just smiled and gestured him into the rooms.

“Not at all. I believe the Captain was just about to ask me important questions, and it’s perhaps best you be here as well.”

Max looked at her and his eyebrow went up. She was intuitive.

“It’s about this journey...” Alex paused, uncertain how to continue. Leena hadn’t told him anything, not even that his contact was a woman, much less her importance.

“I need to retrieve three gems, and then I need to find something stolen from my world before its destruction.” Max sat on the edge of a table and listened.

Maria watched him from the corner of her eye. He was different than his brother. Smaller and more finely boned, with a touch of feminine softness to his face, but that boyish softness was marred by the long scar across his left face dissecting his face between nose and ear. The scar ran the length from brow to jaw, and surprisingly it was...intriguing. It made him look strong and edgy, authoritive and decisive. His hair was long, and pulled back in a leather restraint except for the few pieces that escaped, and like his brother, he favored black leather. He had the same brown eyes, not the same whiskey golden color of Michael’s, but a deep brown.

“You know where these gems are?” Alex asked.

“Technically, no. Not yet. That’s why I spent almost six years searching for the Saratoga and the lost manuscripts. It was my luck that they were submerged underwater. I wasn’t even sure that Khivar hadn't taken them, and that they weren’t lost for all time.”

Max was intrigued. Pirates and salvagers had looked for the downed Saratoga for years as well, but none had located her before.

“How? How did you locate her?”

Maria continued to search her bags. “It wasn’t easy. I plotted all starfields within an equal distance of where she entered the slipstream. Her systems could only tolerate so much distance, which still was immense. Then I removed all star systems that were heavily populated with a sophisticated sensory net and available tracking.”

Max smiled at that. “Because a system with tracking technology would have picked up the Saratoga when she came out of the stream, and they would have tracked her to her crash site.”

“Exactly. No one reported it, and in six years none of the treasure was sold on the open market or in underground bartering shops. But even after removing all those star systems, it still took me six years of space travel and endless star systems to pick up her warp core signature.”

Alex looked at the woman in admiration. It wasn’t just the dedication, but the sacrifice. Anterraans didn’t like space travel, and yet she had spent six years doing exactly that. She hardly looked a day over eighteen, but reason told him that she had to be older. The worlds she must have mapped, the other treasures and relics she must have found. Her knowledge was immeasurable.

“About payment...” Alex had already talked to Max, but Maria forestalled him.

“I told you, you can keep the salvage.”

“It is too much.” Alex said as Max silently watched the interplay.

“No, it’s not. It’s not enough!” Maria rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. “Look, we’re talking about treasure I would’ve never taken or used. I was going for the manuscripts and nothing else. Nothing else concerned me. I’m paying you with treasure and wealth that I’ve no real claim to. It was never mine.”

“Regardless, the salvage is yours. You found it when no other could.”

Maria stood up from her searching with arms at her hips and almost stomped her foot in frustration. “I don’t care. Keep it! Keep it all. Money, credits and wealth have no meaning for me.” She watched him ready to argue and interrupt her. “Listen, this was never the method with which I planned to pay you or your crew. This little adventure? It’s not little. It’s not something that’s going to start tomorrow and be complete in a week.”

“What are we talking about here?” Max asked quietly.

“We’re talking about a long dangerous mission. We’re not just going to park it in a system, run down, grab a gem, rejoice and go to the next. I have to translate the manuscripts to determine the first gem's location, and from there we pick up the key to decoding the second manuscript, and so on and so on...”

“So we are waiting until you have finished decoding the first manuscript? How long for that?”

Maria just shrugged. “No clue. So in the interim, I suggest you process and contact the worlds those lost treasures belong to, and continue your normal work and contracts like I'm not here. Once I need something or know where our destination is, I’ll let you know.”

Alex was understanding what she was saying. It had taken her six years to find the manuscript, and it could take longer for her to find her gems. Still...

“The price you are paying is too much, Maria. Passage to three places, and living on Shiva is hardly worth what you have already paid and what you will pay in the future.”

Maria just shook her head and found what she was looking for. “No, it’s not. The salvage was unexpected and never meant to be the payment.” Maria handed Alex something wrapped in a special cloth bag. “This was.”

Alex unwrapped the bag and stared at it in shock, as did Max. “This is a uranium power node.”

“Actually, no. It is a stabilized uranium-plutonium-curium power node approximately 3 kilos. The casing is designed to let it lie dormant for eons without interacting and losing its yield. The amount of becquerel associated with the radiation is unmeasured.”

Max took the node from Alex. “This is worth more credits than all the treasure of the Saratoga ten-fold.”

The node was a radioactive combination isotope that had all but been conquered by them centuries ago. Once engines began to use antimatter and crystalline isotopes that generated more power than the old ones, things like uranium, plutonium, and even curium passed from use. It wasn’t until someone discovered that those isotopes, when introduced into a containment field of an antimatter reactor or even the slipstream core, could repower dying core crystals and restructure them once they had fractured. Those isotopes were searched for and mined to the point that they no longer existed in nature. The loss of them made worlds try to create them artificially, but they were manufactured with no real results. The manufactured isotopes didn’t affect the power structures, but rather helped to increase their breakdown.

“Is this the real thing, or manufactured?”

“It’s real. Give it to your engineer.” Maria told Max as she sat down on the edge of a table.

“Where did you get this?” Alex had only seen a uranium node added to a reactor core once. It increased yield by a hundred-fold, and gave two extra years of energy to the ship. This was more.

In their universe, energy was in great demand and short supply. During the war all the reactor crystals andsources of energy had been scavenged to fuel and power the battlecruisers. The universe left in its wake was fast depleting its known power sources. That was why they conserved their power on Shiva.

“Where I discovered it is unimportant. It was to be your payment for your assistance on my quest.” The two men stared at her in confusion. This was far too much to pay for a simple recovery mission.

“What aren’t you telling us?” Max felt suspicion creeping up his neck and spine.

“We're going to take away Khivar’s weapon of destruction, and in the process most or even all of your crew could die.” Both men stood up at that. Khivar. She was planning on taking on Khivar! “So you see. I’m not asking just for your help, but for your lives, and believe me - all the treasure of the Saratoga, or even this power node can’t be payment enough.”

Max walked over to the woman and pushed the node back in her hands. “There is no need for payment. Whatever it would take, whatever the cost, this crew would pay it to see Khivar defeated. There isn’t a single man or woman aboard this ship who hasn’t lost everything they loved, lost their worlds, family and way of life to Khivar’s rule.” Max looked the woman in the eyes. “Keep your payment, your treasure. This is a mission we’d do for free no matter how long or what the cost.”

“Rebels instead of mercenaries?” Maria took his hand in hers and put the node back into it. “Rebels are more dedicated and much more to be trusted, and I thank you, but keep the payment and the node. Returning the treasure will be a good excuse to enter systems that are Khivar’s strongholds, and the node, once introduced to your engines, will activate your power structure for a minimum of five years. More realistically like twenty-five. Give it to your engineer. Tellhim the outer casing is stable and will let him store it indefinitely until it is needed.”

Max took the node, but kept one of her hands. “What do you get out of this? Your people are all gone. Lost.”

Maria stared down at their joined hands, and then at his face. “I do what my people would have done sixteen years ago when this war started. I’m returning the balance of power to this universe.”

“So, you’re a rebel as well.”

Maria just shook her head and went to stare out at the stars. God how she hated space.

“No. I’m a savior.”

~~~

Max and Alex finally left her quarters. Neither talked as they walked to Engineering to find Sean.

“Is she the One, Alex? The One you've looked for since you saved us all those years ago?”

“I am not sure. She is strong and holds a power that is unclear. Her people, they were different. So many legends and tales about them.” Alex rubbed his face. “One thing is clear. The path we started years ago, the one that led me to you and the others, is tied to her. She is another piece to that puzzle.”

“Then where she goes, we follow?”

“No. Where she goes is where we were going as well.” Alex frowned at the revealing matrix. “The path is cloudy, but the players - like strings - are defined. We have a destiny.”

~~~

Two weeks later, the ship had resumed its normal operations. The recovery crews were cataloging and processing the salvage from the Saratoga. They had already identified and contacted eighty-seven worlds to negotiate the return of their relics. Some immediately made offers while others wanted to know what Alex wanted in return their property. Of those who made offers, twelve worlds were already in possession of their treasures without any counter-offers made.

Sometimes the offers were for food and material, raw materials or technology, and sometimes for actual credits. In between the return of the treasures, the Shiva also picked up a small contract. In all that time, Maria remained holed up in her rooms translating her manuscript. She came to the mess and ate with the crew, but almost always apart. She was friendly enough, and was slowly learning everyone’s name, but she remained isolated.

As promised, she pulled her shifts in the galley, and after convincing the cooking crew she pulled rotation with that her cooking was dismal, she was assigned to cut and prepare the vegetables for cooking and salads. She was treated with great respect, since many saw her as they saw Alex - something untouchable. Being the last remaining Anterraan made her a source of interest and speculation.

Michael watched her, as did others. And Max watched his brother. Michael’s fascination was increasing, as was his arousal. That kiss Maria had given him had done nothing but increase his interest. Max watched, both amused and worried.

Maria was making great strides towards becoming part of the crew after two weeks when it was Sean’s and Michael’s turn to work the galley. No one had warned her. Over the years the two were kept together so they only messed up one night of eating and not two. All the crew members kept an eye on the rotation and stockpiled food from the previous night to tide them over on the nights Michael and Sean were in charge. Maria sat down and stared at the concoction on her plate with a touch of trepidation. She looked up and moaned as the two men waited for her to try it.

Sighing in resignation, she took a bite. Controlling her features, she swallowed the vile stuff and smiled at them. She caught looks of sympathy from other crew members discreetly disposing of their food, and eating what they had stashed from the night before.

“How was it?” Sean asked anxiously. “I told Michael not to add too much of the beetamon root, but he felt it would give it a nice woodsy taste.”

“At least I didn’t dump so much salt in it that it killed the flavors.”

“That was just to combat the sugar. I told you that guava juice was too sweet, but did you listen?”

Maria interrupted the two men as they argued over their culinary mistakes. “It’s a lovely stew.” She was going to hell for that lie.

Michael frowned at her. “It’s a chili.” Michael took a taste and his faced clouded. Hitting his friend across the head. “Dammit, Sean you made our chili into a stew! Now we’ll have to start over.”

Maria wasn’t surprised when people in the mess started fleeing for their lives. Joining the two men in the kitchen she placed her plate on the counter and looked in the large pot.

Sean looked at her with his most charming of smiles. Women loved domesticated men. “Would you like some more?”

Maria quickly put her hand over her full plate and shook her head. “Tempting, but...no. I’m basically a vegetarian.”

Michael looked at her critically. She looked smaller than he remembered, and she was dressed in layers of clothing and leather to stay warm. He still could detect a shiver.

“That’s why you’re so small and skinny.”

Maria shot him at murderous look, ready to demand he take it back. She wasn’t skinny. She was thin.

“I’m not skinny.” She ignored his snort and looked in the pot again as Sean stirred it. “Though the meat in your stew...um...chili was quite...flavorful. What was it exactly?” Her stomach was still rolling from the vile stuff, and her mouth tasted like something died in it.

“Zatirean warthog. Michael and I caught it while we were on their world last week.”

Maria looked at the two men. “Last week? You refrigerated it, right?”

“No, we hung it.” Sean said smugly.

“Yeah, we gutted it and hung it in one of the back landing bays to let it drain. That’s supposed to take out the gamey taste.”

Maria stroked her chin. “I heard that!” The two men looked at each other in self-congratulations. “But isn’t that supposed to be with a salt rub at the same time or smoking?”

“Um...salt rub?” Sean asked. Michael frowned.

“Yeah to cure the meat?” Maria thought about it for a second. “Oh, it probably doesn’t matter since the landing bays are so cold, it has to be about the same as refrigeration.”

“Yeah, sure it is.” Michael said suddenly brighter. That was a relief, especially after the last time when he and Sean put half the crew down with food poisoning. All they needed was to give them botulism.

“Well, either way, congrats on scoring some real prime meat. I understand Zatirean warthog is a delicacy. A very robust meat and the only thing you need to take to do is to be sure to remove the sebaceous glands.”

Michael scratched his eyebrow and looked at Sean, then said not so discreetly, “Sebaceous glands?”

“Sure. You had to have smelt it coming. They're notorious for their overpowering smell.”

”Oh yeah, a real stinky fellow he was. That’s how we tracked him. Michael started retching about thirty meters off. The fellow was snoozing, stinking up the place when...bam, we nabbed his ass.” Women loved adventurous and fierce hunter men. Sean smiled his charming smile again.

“Shut up, Sean.” Michael turned concerned eyes on Maria. “What about the sebaceous glands?”

“Oh, just that you know you’re supposed to remove them, or they taint your meal. All that nasty stinky oil just bleeds into the pot and...” Maria stopped talking as she noted their horrified expression.

“Remove them?” Sean looked at the pot in horror, and the three looked in it as he stirred taking a real smell. All three backed up.

“Uh oh!”

Max, Kyle, and Alex were entering the mess as the last of the diners rushed out in a mass exodus. Max heard his twin’s ‘Uh oh’ and immediately turned around as did Kyle and Alex.

The three men walked away not saying anything.

“So Sickbay replicators for dinner?” Kyle asked quietly. The other two just nodded.

~~~

Maria got up and walked to the porthole to stare at the stars. It was already late into the night, and she was tired. But her body was so cold that she couldn’t sleep from the shivering. She hadn’t slept in almost a week. Instead she had stayed up and tried to translate the manuscript.

The yellow manuscript was first. The language was in the symbols and language of the Ancients. She had studied it since she was twelve, when she was first sent away to begin her training. The language was correct and she read it easily, but the meaning was lost to her. It was gibberish.

Her head hurt. Headaches. They were getting worse. She needed sleep, and soon. Giving up, she reached for the com unit.

“Kyle?”

His sleepy voice came over the com. Maria felt badly. She must’ve woken Sean as well since Kyle and Sean were bunk mates.

“Maria? What’s wrong?”

“Can you meet me in Sickbay?”

“I’m on my way.”

Maria left her room and quickly went to the lift. Leaning against the wall, her shivering had become more severe as she stepped out of her quarters into the main decks. Her quarters maintained the day temperature around the clock, but the rest of the ship was powered down for the night. By the time she made Sickbay, Kyle was already there, and not surprisingly Sean was too.

Kyle took one look at her, and felt what she was feeling. The pain and the cold. He rushed to help her into the room.

“How long?”

“About three hours now. Can you give me something to make it go away?”

Sean watched them confused. He couldn’t feel her headache so he had no idea what they were talking about.

Kyle pushed her down on a bed, and loaded a sedative and analgesic into the injector. Maria hardly noticed he gave her anything. She was too busy freezing to death. Sean was shocked at the whiteness of her skin, and the visible shaking of her body.

Heaters. He had forgotten. “Oh, God, Maria, I forgot about space heaters for you. I’ll check for some at our next...”

“It’s okay, Sean. I’m fine. I just have a headache.” Maria rested on the bed, but she was too cold to stay put. “I think I just need to go back to my quarters. Kyle, how long until this takes effect?”

“About five minutes, but I really think you should spend the night here. I can set you up in the heater bed.”

Maria sat up slowly. “I’d rather be somewhere isolated and alone. And in a couple of hours your day staff will be in, and I don’t plan to wake up.” Maria got down with Sean’s help. She smiled at him gratefully. “I’ll be fine.”

She quickly left before either man could protest.

It was hours later, and the unusual appearance of Kyle on the Bridge before anyone questioned how she was. Max turned in his chair at the marked silence that fell over the Bridge.

“Kyle? Can we help you, doctor? You’re a long way from Sickbay.”

“I must’ve taken a wrong turn.” Kyle said smiling. He’d been on the Bridge many times, but it wasn’t part of his usual haunts. “I was wondering if I could borrow Michael for a little while.”

Max looked at his brother and smiled. “Take him. Keep him. Whatever.” He ignored Michael’s narrowed look. Attilaans weren’t known for their superior humor.

“What’s up, Kyle?” Michael asked as they left the Bridge.

“Maria.” Kyle led the way to the lift to go to C Deck.

“Maria?” Michael quickened his pace. “What’s wrong with her, other than the obvious?”

“I can’t find her.” Kyle waited until Michael requested C Deck. “She called me last night because she had a terrible headache. She looked cold, tired and in pain. So I gave her a sedative and something for her headache. When I went to check on her, she didn’t answer her door.”

Michael shrugged. “Maybe she felt better and went to do something. Did you check hydroponics? Or maybe she's poisoning someone in the mess?”

“I checked all her usual haunts plus a few she doesn’t usually frequent. Nothing.” Kyle stepped off onto C Deck. “Thing is that we know so little about Anterraans that she could’ve had a bad reaction to the medicine last night.”

Michael just nodded and stopped up to her door. They rang for entrance, but there was no response. Michael entered his security override and they entered. The front rooms had the manuscripts and translations everywhere. Michael left Kyle in those rooms and went to check the bedroom. The bed wasn’t slept in. No Maria.

Michael called his security teams to search for Maria and report back to him. Sending Kyle back to Sickbay, Michael promised to find her and bring her to see him.

“I just want to check her over.”

“Understood. I’ll bring her, don’t worry.”

“She can be stubborn.”

Michael just snorted. He and Maria were still having a merry war between them, but things were better since the warthog cooking session. She was still a pain in his ass...and in other places.

“I said I’ll bring her.”

Kyle looked at his friend suspiciously. “Just promise me you won’t hit her again.”

Michael grimaced. “What? Do I look like a beater of small creatures?”

“No, just of obstinate, opinionated and pig-headed ones.”

Michael had to concede the point. Holding up a hand, “I promise to not hit her.” He watched Kyle walk away. “Much.”

Michael went back to this post on the Bridge and waited for reports from his teams as they searched the ship. Nothing. He ran a sweep for her Anterraan life signs, and again nothing. Calling Alex, he made sure Maria wasn’t visiting Alex’s sisters in their cloaked rooms. So far, Maria had yet to meet the twins, just like everyone else on the ship. Even though they finally had their own rooms, Alex still kept them hidden and under a tight rein.

Michael was beginning to worry. She couldn’t have left the ship. He would’ve been informed. Thinking for a moment about where she could be, he excused himself from the Bridge and went to check out a hunch.

He stood looking at her ship in the aft landing bay. It was truly a thing of beauty. Climbing into the cockpit, he found her. The now empty co-pilot’s seat reclined back as did the pilot’s seat to form a long narrow bed. It must have been where she slept when on long space flights while the ship was on autopilot.

Opening the hatch, he tried to wake her.

“Maria.” Michael reached and jostled her, watching for her quick weapon hand. “Maria, come on...wake up.”

The onboard heaters were on and she was sleeping comfortably. Michael looked around for the landing bay crew. The aft landing bay wasn’t really in use so it took a few moments to find someone. Requesting a real platform, he waited until he had something firmer to stand on than a ladder to get her out. He would’ve left her there to sleep in the warm cockpit of her ship, but he had promised Kyle, and her running engines were a work hazard.

He powered down her ship, and then lifted her out of it. It was either the drugs or a testament to how tired she was, because she never stirred. Waiting for the platform to take them down, he searched her face. She looked too small and too pale. She moved in her sleep and moved her arm up and around his neck.

Walking quickly, he carried her to Sickbay. It was hardly an effort, and her lightness worried him as well. Kyle was waiting as he entered the medical lab.

“You found her!” Kyle opened the warming bed he had ready as Michael placed her in it. “Just tell me you didn’t knock her unconscious.”

Michael just gave his friend a disgusted look, and then walked out without a response to the question. Not this time.

Kyle kept watch over her until she woke a few hours later. Sitting on the side of the bed, she stretched and rubbed her eyes, confused as to where she was.

“Feel better?” Maria turned to her head to see Kyle. Nodding, she got out of the bed. “What do you want to eat?” He was standing at the replicators. He ordered hot tea first and handed it to her.

“This is fine. I’ll hit the crew mess on my way back to my quarters.” She frowned at her husky voice still full of sleep and cleared her throat.

They both turned as Alex entered Sickbay. Maria just groaned. Great. Another person to question her.

“Alex, can I help you?” Kyle was confused by the conflicted emotions running off Alex’s body. Alex never telegraphed his feelings. He was too controlled. Kyle couldn't pick up his empathic readings normally, and even Maria was hard to do. Now people like Max, Michael and Sean, whose people outlawed emotional displays, were a cesspool of thoughts and feelings - all hot and intense. They hadn’t learned to guard their more baser emotions, and lately all three of them had Maria issues in some shape or form, with Michael’s being the more...erotic.

“You okay, Maria?” Alex asked quietly.

“I’m fine. I had a headache. Kyle fixed it, but whatever he gave me made me sleep a nice long sleep.”

“You were sleeping in your ship, Maria. That’s where Michael found you.” Kyle said as she suddenly turned and looked at him. He noticed a blush running up her neck, and suddenly he felt a wave of embarrassment running off her body.

“Michael?”

“I was concerned when I went to check on you, and you weren’t there. He had his people searching the entire ship until he finally found you. I think he would have left you alone to sleep it off, but the engines running in the landing bay were a safety hazard, and he promised me to bring you here.”

Maria cursed under her breath. Great, now she had something else to thank the big baboon for. He disturbed her with his deep penetrating gaze all the time. And since the whole cooking thing, she hung out with him and Sean more and more. Sean was harmless, flirting outrageously, but Maria took his teasing like that of a big brother. Michael’s regard had nothing brotherly about it.

“Why your ship? Are you tired of the Shiva?” Alex sat on the bed and searched her face interested in her response.

“No. Of course not. It’s just that I’ve not been sleeping lately due to the cold, and it gives me a headache. I just need rest and to feel warm. My onboard heaters kept me warm in space, so...”

Alex shook his head. “We were supposed to get you some individual heaters. We did not. I apologize.”

“It’s okay, really. I thought the normal day temperatures would be okay, but I didn’t consider the fact that I’m usually moving around and doing things. At night, lying still, it just seems so much colder.”

Kyle thought out loud, “You could sleep here in Sickbay until we can get your heaters. The warming bed works here, or maybe we can find a way to have Sean rig an energy supply to your room that would run the bed there.” Maria just moaned. She didn’t plan on being that much of a bother.

“Body heat.” Alex said making both Kyle and Maria look at him.

“Excuse me?”

“Body heat. You need a bedmate, someone whose body will generate a temperature that your body will automatically adapt to and simulate.” Alex thought about it for a second. “My sisters are close to your quarters, but they can’t sleep in your rooms since I want them behind the dampening field. Khivar will be actively searching for them. The first thing he’ll do is scan the ship for their signatures, and if he detects them, he’ll board. He wouldn’t dare board unless he was certain.”

Maria just shook her head. “I can’t move inwith your sisters. I need the extra space to translate my manuscripts. That takes space and concentration.” Maria smiled at the man. “Though I wouldn’t mind meeting them, maybe having a talk.”

Alex nodded. “They would like that. Being confined to quarters has them stircrazy.” Actually their whining and boredom was beginning to affect Alex. He needed to find a better solution, a better place for them.

Maria patted Alex on the cheek. Stopping to kiss Alex’s cheek as well, she headed for the door. “Let me know when I can meet the sisters of the Eminent One. You know where I live.”

“Maria, we haven't found a solution to your heating problem.” Kyle was exasperated. She was going to walk out and he’d see her in a few days when the lack of sleep and cold brought her back with another headache.

“Sure we did. Body heat. I’m going to work on that.”

Kyle didn’t know whether to be relieved that she was better, or worried about what she was going to get messed up in. Maria. She was fast becoming everyone's mascot. Her enthusiasm and unquenchable interest was a source of amusement and amazement as well. A part of her seemed tough and seasoned, almost jaded, but then a hidden part of her shone through, like a child all excited by a new world. An enigma, and twice as deadly. She kept them all on their toes.

“Nice of you to come check on her. Don’t tell me she’s wormed her way into your heart as well.”

Alex just smiled. “She is an interesting woman. Hydroponics swears that since she started helping them, everything grows twice as fast.” Alex rubbed his forehead. “Actually I came to see you about me.”

Kyle frowned and tried to sort the emotions coming from Alex. “What’s up?” Alex was never sick, and he healed at an amazing rate.

“I am not sure. Lately, I have felt nauseated and sick. I feel tired. I am irritable and not sleeping well.” He didn’t bother to mention that his sisters' endless chatter and bitching was putting his teeth on edge.

“Why don’t you lie back and let me look you over.” Alex nodded and moved back waiting to be poked and probed.

~~~

Maria found her way to the Bridge. Standing in the lift door, she waited to be noticed as she took in the big area. Max’s communication officer noticed her first. Max became aware of his regard and swiveling in his chair, he turned to see her there.

“Maria?” It was his day for unexpected visitors.

“Request to enter your Bridge, Captain.”

“Granted.”

Maria smiled and noticed Michael’s moody look. Making a face at him, she came in and looked around at all the different stations. Max watched in amusement as she slowly made it down to his command chair.

He stood up when she got up there. “So this is the big chair, huh?”

“Yeah.” Max actually smiled when she looked at it and back at him. He nodded. “Go ahead.” Maria gave a small squeal of glee and tossed herself in the chair. Max had a hard time keeping track of all her questions, and stopping her from pushing all the buttons on the console, as she used her feet to move the chair about.

Maria was suddenly up and wandering around stopping at different stations. Max didn’t care as long as she stayed out of his chair. It was like she had a hundred hands. Max tried to work, but like the other people in the room, she was a source of amusement and he couldn’t help but watch her.

“So what does this do...um, Sol? It’s Sol right?”

“Yeah, Sol. No, don’t push that...” The lights on the Bridge went out and everyone startled in silence.

“Oh, I’m bad! That was me. Sorry.” The lights came on and Maria looked at Max and smiled sheepishly. Glancing over at Michael, she shriveled up her nose at him.

Wandering over to his security station, she reached out a hand to touch something, when he slapped it away.

“Don’t touch.”

Maria put her hand under her arm and pouted. “I wasn’t.” He just made an ‘uh huh’ sound and continued working. Maria looked at him, and then turned to ignore him saying under her breath, “Spoilsport.”

Michael looked at her sharply, and she continued to ignore him. Maria’s eyes scanned his station and sensors. Reaching out a hand again, she pointed at a sensor.

“I told you not to touch.” His voice had a touch of exasperation. Max's chuckle from his chair didn’t help matters.

“I wasn’t! I just want to ask what that is.” Maria frowned at the sensors. They were so different from those on her ship.

Michael looked at what Maria was pointing at and swore. “Max, we’ve got an Imperial scanning array coming up.”

Max swiveled in his chair to look at his brother. “How long?”

“Eighteen parsecs.”

Max swore and called through to Alex to warn him to make sure his sisters were under wraps, and then hit an alert button to get the working crew to close up the hidden cargo bays in their cloaking fields.

The Bridge was suddenly very busy. Maria looked around in confusion. “What’s going on? I don’t understand.” Everyone continued to work, and Michael continued to ignore her. “Michael?”

“It’s an Imperial sensor net. After the war, Khivar placed sensor grids across the known universe. You’ve probably run into them a few times.”

Maria muttered a ‘Not likely’ under her breath. “And?”

“He monitored and classified all ships. These arrays run sensors over ships as they pass. They would find the Saratoga cargo and Alex’s sisters in an instant if we didn’t hide them.”

“Then just bounce the sensor wave.”

Michael looked at her in confusion as did Max and a few other crew members. Maria just sighed.

“Read the incoming sensor wave. Its harmonic frequency has to be able to penetrate your shields. But if you meet the wave front in a frequency adulation that is running perpendicular to the incoming wave...”

“It would bounce off.” Michael said.

“Exactly. It creates a foil or mirror effect, and the information it reads will be its own returning sensor wave.”

“That would make us virtually invisible to the sensor net.” Max said impressed. The concept was so simple and easy. “Sol...”

“Already on it, Sir.”

“I would still take precautions. This ship is so big that the outer shields are probably not uniform. And some of the harmonics will be off, so some of the wave might penetrate. I’m uncertain how much though.”

Max nodded. It was a given. They all worked in haste while Michael finished closing down all areas they didn’t want scanned. Khivar used the scan to locate beneficial genetics as well. So it was good that Alex’s sisters were behind a dampening field. Suddenly Michael’s body stiffened. Maria!

“Maxwell, howunique do you think Khivar would find the only remaining Anterraan?”

Max turned in his seat and looked at his brother. They shared a silent communication. He would find it very unique indeed, and utterly investigational. Max just swore. The scan might all be deflected, but then again some might penetrate.

“How much time?”

Michael checked his consol. “Eight parsecs.” Max swore again.

They didn’t have time to close her in a dampening field. They couldn’t risk opening any of the ones already closed.

Michael looked at the woman with concern. She was exposed. The sensors would pick up her genetic pattern as anomalous.

“Maria, earlier when you were sleeping, I scanned the ship trying to find you but my sensor couldn’t locate your life signs. You were in your ship sleeping.”

“Yes.” Maria looked at him confused at what he was trying to get at or wanted to know.

“Why? Why couldn’t I read you?”

“My ship is made of a special alloy, and the engines produce a phase shift. It’s almost like a plastic aluminum that seems transparent. Sensors bend around it.” Maria frowned.

Actually the shields emanated a phase variance that made all attempts to probe her shields to flow around the shields in an almost liquid medium until it reached around them and continued almost undisturbed, which read the ship as invisible. It’s how she had avoided all of Khivar’s sensor nets over the past six years. They couldn’t read what they couldn’t understand.

“Michael!” Max’s voice warned.

“We’re gone.” Michael grabbed Maria’s hand and pulled her with him off the Bridge. They needed to make the aft landing bay in less than six parsecs.

Max watched his brother and Maria leave and ordered his speed cut to open the field a little, giving his brother more time to get to Maria’s ship. They couldn't go full stop because the sensors would read that as an indication they had something to hide.

Michael and Maria hit the landing bay in a full run. Michael went up the ladder first, opening the hatch and jumping inside starting the engines. Reaching for Maria when she got to the top of the ladder, he pulled her inside the craft literally on top of him. The hatch closed.

“Maxwell, we’re in.”

“Made it with under a parsec to spare, little brother.”

Maria struggled on top of him. “You could have put the seats up.” They were both lying flat out in the makeshift bed that he had taken her from earlier.

“No time.” Michael grunted as she shifted around trying to find space and room. He was big and he took up all the free space. “Careful with that knee!”

“Sorry.” Maria couldn't decide what to do with her arms and hands. She was lying full length on top of him, so she curled one up on his chest, and wrapped the other around his neck. “I know why I needed to hide, but why are you in here with me?”

“Because when we detected the sensor array the ship went on alert. All hands converged away from areas that needed to be hidden or battened down. This landing bay is barely used. So a sensor sweep putting me in an empty bay next to an invisible ship wasn’t where I wanted to be.”

“Okay.” Maria could kinda see that. “So you and your crew seem to do this a lot, or enough to have an established drill.”

“We do. This time it was made more difficult with Alex’s sisters aboard, all the hidden treasure from the Saratoga which is strewn about as it's being worked on, and then there's you.”

Maria thought about it for a moment. “You’re smugglers.”

Michael just laughed. “Perhaps, in a way. If you look at it from Khivar’s point of view, meaning anything he wants that we hide is like smuggling, then yes, we’re smugglers. But all our contraband is on the up and up, however we give Khivar no reason to want it or take it.”

“Like me.”

Michael looked into her eyes. “Yes, like you.”

Maria sighed and shook her head, and finally just laid it against his chest. The small cockpit was nice and warm, and she was still tired. “I don’t understand any of this.”

“Khivar’s great plan?”

Maria just nodded. “I was twelve when I left to begin my training. It was just before my people died. I remember the day it happened. There was a Hushing. It was as if a billions of voices rose in protest, and then winked out of existence...silenced. I didn’t understand what happened exactly, because I was too young. But my masters did. The Temples were quiet for a hundred days in prayer, and I just knew that, whereas once I was part of many, suddenly I was alone.” Maria’s fingers plucked at his shirt’s front. “I’ve been alone since.”

Michael moved his hand along her back in comfort. Being alone for life was something he could understand completely. “When did you return home?”

“The war just ended. It took me almost a year to piece together what exactly happened to my people, to search all the places they normally visited to make sure that no others survived. It didn’t matter. It was busywork, because I already knew I was the only one left.”

“I’m sorry.” Michael hated that his people were enslaved, forced to work in Khivar’s forces and treated barely as property, but at least they existed and there was always the hope of freedom, emancipation.

“It’s not your fault.”

Michael looked down at her quiet small voice. There was the wetness of tears on her cheek. Wiping them away, he tried to find something to distract her, to take her mind off her loneliness.

“So where is this place you trained?”

Maria avoided his eyes. “Somewhere...else.”

Michael smiled at her avoidance. Trying another question. “Why were you on the Bridge earlier?”

“Oh, I came to find you.”

“Me?”

“Yes, but then I got distracted. All those interesting stations. My ship is so small and streamlined. Do you think Max will let me learn the different stations?”

Michael thought about it, remembered the havoc she wreaked and then answered honestly. “Not a chance.”

“Why not? I’m an experienced pilot, and...”

“And you’re a menace.”

“I’m not!”

“Oh yes you are. Let’s see... In the short time you've been here you opened a bay door, cut environmental to three decks, put the crew on Red Alert, then Yellow and back to Red, you killed the energy to the Bridge, turned off the deck lights, disengaged the shields, and...”

“I was busy.”

Michael actually laughed at that. “You certainly were.”

“They were honest accidents.” Maria looked up at him. He was lying back with his eyes closed. “They shouldn’t make red buttons. Red always attracts the eyes.”

“Uh huh.” Michael wondered if they had cleared the sensor array yet. “So why were you looking for me?”

“Oh! I forgot again.” Maria suddenly lost her courage.

“Maria.”

“It was nothing. I mean...not really. I just wanted to ask a favor of you.”

Michael opened his eyes and looked down at her. A favor?

“Ask.”

Maria was suddenly not sure that it was such a good idea after lying on him in close quarters, but then again, he was incredibly warm, and so...big.

“Well you know I’m not able to regulate my own body temperature.”

“Caught that fact when you insisted on swimming in sub-artic waters and turned a nice shade of blue.”

“Hey, you weren’t looking exactly pink.”

“Maria!” Michael could feel that niggling irritation rising.

“All right! So anyway, I’m not doing well at nights, even with my rooms at day temperatures. The cold keeps me awake and it results in headaches from sleep deprivation.”

“Hence your earlier jaunt to Sickbay and then coming here to sleep.”

“Right.” Maria cleared her throat. “So a solution was suggested, and I was thinking...I mean after considering all my options and such, that perhaps...that you would be...I mean...”

“Just ask already!”

“Will you be my bedmate?”

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