Relaunch Mission Page 13

Lindana angled her hips and sheathed his hard length within her sex in one smooth thrust. She cried out in pleasure as he gripped her hips. Heaven—this was heaven, and every inch of her body burned with hungry heat. Damn him for being the only man who made her feel this way. Lindana moved slowly at first, afraid to hurt him. She leaned down for a long, slow kiss, and Gabriel wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

  “A perfect fit,” he murmured.

  She swallowed the reply that she bet he said that to all the girls. She didn’t want to think of the other partners he’d had—or she’d had, for that matter. What mattered was that they were together now.

  Lindana distracted him from further comments as she kissed him breathless. Gabriel’s hands stroked her back, massaging hungry paths that alternated between cupping the back of her head, gripping her hips and grabbing her ass. She moaned as she picked up her pace, and soon she was drowning in sensation. Pleasure built in increasing waves until she came with a gasp, but Gabriel didn’t slow, moving beneath her with an almost desperate rhythm.

  He nudged her shoulder until she leaned back, arched above him, and he stroked her clit. Lindana cried out as the added stimulation brought her to a second devastating climax that left her panting and shaking. The musky scent of great sex filled the room as he moaned her name, and she begged.

  “Please,” she whimpered. “Please, Gabriel.”

  “Please, what, my dear?”

  Bastard. She could hardly form coherent words and he wanted her to spell things out for him?

  “I need you,” Lindana said. Then she blinked—dear God, she did need him. How did that happen? She laid her palm against the yellow-green bruise that was all that remained of his mended gunshot wound. “Why, Gabriel? Why did you save me?”

  “Because I couldn’t find you just to lose you again. I don’t want a life that doesn’t have you in it.”

  Gabriel grabbed her hips and rolled her beneath him. Lindana gasped as he spread her legs wide and pounded her sex with a desperate, relentless rhythm. Her back arched as she locked her legs around him, and she grabbed a fistful of his long, silken hair and tugged his head up to feast on his mouth. She conquered and devoured, then held his head in place and forced him to meet her gaze. His pale eyes were clouded with lust and need.

  “You won’t lose me,” she said. “It’s my ship. All you have to do is stay.”

  “All you have to do is let me.”

  His breath grew ragged as he drove into her. Lindana moaned high and loud as she came again—shattering, consumed by pleasure so sharp it skated the edge of pleasure and pain—and then Gabriel followed. He murmured her name over and over like a ragged prayer as he emptied himself inside her, each pulse of his cock inspiring additional shudders of ecstasy.

  Gabriel brushed tender kisses against her hair. “Forever. I could stay in your arms forever.”

  “We’ll start with tonight, and work from there.” She closed her eyes, held him close and shed silent tears for all the years they had missed, and all the time they would never have.

  Chapter Nine

  Lindana and Jiang shared green tea and shortbread cookies on the floor of Jiang’s quarters. Jiang had asked to speak with her in private—a rare occasion, because Jiang generally kept her own council. Her spartan quarters were devoid of the personal touches and little knickknacks that most spacers picked up in their travels. Lindana wondered what Jiang spent her money on. It couldn’t all go toward tea, and it certainly didn’t go toward clothing. Jiang always wore the same uniform of an olive jacket and dark cargo pants.

  “What’s on your mind?” Lindana asked.

  Jiang studied her captain over the rim of her cup, her dark eyes inscrutable like a hunting cat’s. “Do we trust Raiya’s information?”

  “Sveta,” Lindana corrected. “There’s hardly any information to trust. All we know is what she and Gabriel have told us.”

  “Do you trust him?”

  Lindana scowled and devoured a biscuit. “Maybe. Yes. It’s complicated.”

  “Do you love him?”

  Lindana choked and raised a hand to avoid spitting shortbread crumbs across the room. She sputtered and gulped down tea.

  “Also complicated?” Jiang asked. Lindana suspected that she was hiding a smile behind her cup.

  “Understatement. I did love him once. At least I think I did. He was my first love, and first love is always...naïve. You don’t know any better, and you’re blind to a lot of things. I was definitely blindsided.” Lindana grimaced. “Okay, yes, I trust him. Any other feelings are still in question.”

  Jiang nodded. “I believe they’re telling the truth. Which means we’re in trouble. Obviously. Someone is desperate enough to keep this buried that they attacked an innocent colony. We need more information, and I think I know how to get it.”

  “Oh?”

  “Soviet space is dotted with communications listening stations. They’re small, with only a skeleton crew to maintain the surveillance equipment. If we took the Novosibirsk we could pose as a supply ship to gain access to one. I have a few old IFF codes that we could use. Keep it quiet, without raising an alarm.”

  Lindana’s brow furrowed. Identify friend/foe codes formed the basis of identifying other ships. Altering a ship’s IFF code was highly illegal—not that it mattered in this instance, as this whole idea was likely to get them all sent to a Soviet gulag if they were caught, if not executed outright. “You have Soviet IFF codes? And you never mentioned it before?”

  “It was never relevant before,” Jiang countered.

  “Anything else I should know? You’re not hiding missile launch codes under your pillow?”

  “I prefer to keep them in the heel of my boots.”

  Lindana chuckled. “Good to know. I guess we’re holding on to the Novosibirsk awhile longer then. We’ll have to figure out something for the Mombasa to do in the meantime.”

  “They shouldn’t stay here.”

  “Agreed. No one is staying here. I don’t think they’d be safe even in orbit.”

  Under normal circumstances Lindana could have left the colonists behind for the Alliance to rescue, but something struck her about the fact that no Alliance ships had arrived yet. A cruiser should have shown up in response to New Nairobi’s distress signal ages ago. Where were the reinforcements? Was the Alliance battling the Soviet Union? Had they already released the mysterious weapon Sveta warned of?

  The Mombasa and the Novosibirsk were both loaded up with the survivors of New Nairobi, and this resulted in a number of young parents, children and the elderly underfoot, as well as a startling number of pets and livestock that had been carried into the shelters. Tomas joked about how much Kenyans loved their goats, and Sveta insisted that dogs on spaceships were good luck. (She would, being a former Soviet.) Lindana didn’t appreciate the cat hair that sent her into sneezing fits, particularly since a rogue calico kept sneaking into the cockpit of the Mombasa and napping in her chair.

  “Make a list of who you want to include in the mission,” Lindana said. “You’ll run it. I don’t trust Sveta enough to put her in charge.” She paused long enough to take a steadying breath. “There’s more.”

  Jiang quirked a brow. “I’m not sure we’re equipped for more at the moment.”

  “I know. Gabriel says we have a leak on the ship. He found a homemade transmitter near the engines. No way to tell how long it’s been there, or who made it.”

  “There was no DNA? No skin tags?”

  “Not quite. There were four different DNA hits, but they were all engine room rats, including Maria.” Lindana grimaced. “I trust Maria. I don’t think she’d turn. I don’t think any of them would.”

  “Which is part of the problem. We’ve become complacent. We trust everyone on the Mombasa, and forget that everyone is here for a r
eason.”

  Lindana sighed. “Said reason being that they screwed up somewhere else and this was the last stop before Pirate Town. Right.” She scrubbed her face with her hands as weariness sank into her bones. “But someone sold us out. It’s why our last few jobs went sour. We’ve got to find this leak and plug it.”

  “Agreed.” Jiang tilted her head. “What will you do when you find this person?”

  “Well, I’m not going to space them, if that’s what you’re thinking. And no, that doesn’t mean you get to space them, either.” She arched a stern brow at Jiang, who grinned. “We’ll hand them over to Alliance Intel and let them sort it out.” Lindana rose and her joints creaked in protest as she unfolded her legs. “Ugh. I feel like I’m a hundred years old. We’ll all need shore leave after this. Provided we live through it.”

  “I have faith in our people. It will all work out,” Jiang said.

  Lindana prayed that she was right.

  * * *

  Gabriel uploaded his data and set the tablet to work on analyzing the virus and the power plant’s security footage. The camera feeds were practically a nonstarter—the cameras were designed to monitor ground and local air activity, not orbital units. Still, if they were lucky they might see something useful in the firing pattern, or the type of weaponry used. In some ways explosives were universal—once one took into account the unique variables of each planetary target, it was relatively easy to blow it up, but each military had its own procedure on how to do so. And each pirate group had its own signature attack moves, but this... No, pirates had not razed New Nairobi. It was most likely the Soviets looking for the Mombasa and Red Raiya. But how had they known? Was the leak responsible? Gabriel’s tablet had been monitoring for new signals and nothing had come up yet, so the traitor hadn’t built another transmitter after Gabriel disconnected the first one.

  He grimaced—frustration and lingering pain were combining to work against him. He was half tempted to ask for another dose of pain relievers, but he doubted that Tomas could spare them at the moment. There were plenty of injured colonists to look after, and not enough supplies to go around.

  Gabriel tapped out a new message. MISSION SUCCESSFUL. TARGET ACQUIRED. ORDERS?

  There. That ought to appease Command for now. Intel would likely want to take Raiya—Sveta—into their custody. Sveta would not go quietly, and neither would Lindana let her friend be taken away without a fight. Friend. Is that what the two women were? Friends? Gabriel knew that he had no right to be jealous, but regardless his skin itched and his fingers drummed the desktop in an irritated rhythm.

  Well, they would simply need to fake Sveta’s death. She had been considered dead by the Soviets before. Perhaps the pirate had nine lives. It would be simple enough to create a new identity for her. Dr. Nyota could doubtless handle some simple plastic surgery to alter her physical features as needed.

  Gabriel stared at the green cursor as it blinked steadily—no reply. Not that he expected one so quickly. The previous fast response time had most likely been a fluke, for often Intel Command was too busy tying itself into paranoid knots to bother replying to its agents. Particularly to agents like Gabriel who were in the proverbial dog house, as it were.

  Gabriel leaned back into his chair and propped his feet up on his bunk. Might as well get a spot of rest while the tablet worked.

  All you have to do is stay.

  It seemed so simple when put that way, but so little was simple at the moment. This was quite possibly the worst set of circumstances to start a relationship under. Though, if they managed to survive this, any other problems would seem like smooth sailing in comparison.

  Gabriel smiled, and hoped.

  * * *

  The two ships were minutes away from entering hyperspace when the Alliance finally arrived. A standard patrol—two scout ships, two gunships—dropped into real space on the opposite side of the system, within communications range.

  “Should I hail them?” Kala asked.

  “No,” Lindana said. “Jiang, keep us in the shadow of the outer planet. Send a burst to the Novosibirsk. Tell them to run quiet and wait.”

  “What are we waiting for?” Kala asked.

  “I’m not sure yet,” Lindana said. “I’ll know it when I see it. Send a probe to get us a visual.”

  “As previously requested, I’m supposed to remind you that probes cost a thousand credits each,” Jiang said.

  “Noted. Thank you. Launch it.”

  “Launching probe.”

  The tiny yet exorbitantly expensive piece of equipment launched like a missile and streaked through the system. The long-range camera transmitted video of the Alliance ships as they glided toward the planet. Under normal circumstances Lindana would have thought the sight beautiful, like a flock of birds soaring through space, but there was something ominous about their silent approach. They should be broadcasting to the colony, asking for New Nairobi’s status and sending assurance of incoming aid. But these ships weren’t behaving like saviors—more like predators honing in on wounded prey.

  “I don’t like this.” Lindana whistled low. “That’s a lot of firepower for a rescue mission.”

  “They could be tracking the pirates who attacked the colony,” Jiang suggested.

  Lindana nodded. It was possible. “The probe should be able to get an ID on them.” At the moment they only had the ships’ affiliation and class.

  The ships reached New Nairobi. And opened fire.

  “Holy shit!” Kala’s exclamation filled the cockpit.

  Holy shit was right. Instead of scanning the planet or launching aid, the Alliance ships were finishing what the pirates had started by firing upon a defenseless colony. Bright flashes illuminated the hulls of the Alliance ships as their weapons unloaded. The lack of sound in the vacuum of space added to the eerie surrealness of the attack, like watching a drama vid on mute instead of live footage of real destruction.

  The probe was too far out of range to zoom in on the surface, but Lindana didn’t need to see the footage to know what the barrage looked like dirtside. She had seen enough footage of it during the war, and she’d thought she would never have to see it again. There would be nothing left of the colony, just blasted rubble that would be quickly reclaimed by the planet’s arid terrain as though New Nairobi had never existed.

  The Alliance had betrayed them, and that knowledge sat in Lindana’s stomach like a poisonous lump of lead. She and Tomas had devoted their lives to serving the Alliance; so much of what they had now was a result of the advantages the Alliance had given them. Was it all a lie? Gabriel’s assertions that he had done terrible things in the government’s name suddenly seemed darker and more terrible. What had they done to him?

  “Why would they do that?” Kala asked.

  Lindana licked her bone-dry lips. “They came back to check that the power plant melted down, and to tie up any loose ends. Bastards. Tell the Novosibirsk to jump now. We’ll be right behind them.”

  Jiang sent the message, and the Novosibirsk ran. The sudden burst of energy and movement caught the Alliance ships’ attention, and they turned. Two of the scout ships broke off from the group and headed in their direction. They were fast, but too far to reach the Mombasa. Lindana intended to jump before they got within attack range.

  “Hail them now,” Lindana ordered. The comm beeped as it connected and Lindana clenched the armrests of her chair. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  Static. Apparently the Alliance wasn’t used to being addressed that way.

  “Identify yourself,” a man said.

  “I’m an Alliance citizen and I demand to know why you’re firing on an Alliance colony,” she countered. More silence.

  “They’re entering ID range,” Jiang said.

  “Let them ID us. I want to hear what they say,” Lind
ana said. “Run up the engine and ready for jump.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  The Mombasa retreated as the scouts advanced. Finally a new voice spoke up. “Captain Nyota, power down your engines and prepare to be boarded.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “You and your crew are under arrest for acts of piracy against the Alliance, treason, and destruction of Alliance property.”

  The words hit her like a punch to the gut. Fury and nausea at the betrayal warred within her until Lindana’s anger won out.

  “Like hell. We didn’t attack New Nairobi. You did, you sick fucks.” And the Mombasa had everything recorded. It was the sort of data that the C3 or the Soviets would kill for—or pay exorbitantly to possess.

  “We have warrants for your arrest,” the voice said.

  “Warrants, huh. Issued when, and by whom?”

  “That is irrelevant.”

  “No, I think it’s very relevant, and I’m also pretty sure you’re required by law to share that information. But obviously you’re not focused on enforcing the law right now. Jackass.” Lindana cut the comm. They weren’t getting anywhere. “Jiang, jump when ready. Let’s get out of here.”

  Chapter Ten

  Gathered into the Mombasa’s mess hall were Mama Mo’s officers, Sveta, three officers from the Novosibirsk, and delegates from both the Soviet dissidents and the New Nairobi survivors. The group feasted on pasta and protein balls, which Ryder loudly decried as tasting nothing like meat. Lindana almost broke open the liquor cabinet to allow the group to indulge in a few bottles of red wine with the meal, but erred on the side of keeping everyone sober. At least she hoped they were sober—Lindana was fairly certain that the Novosibirsk’s crew members had flasks of vodka hidden in their uniforms.

  Lindana rose and gained everyone’s attention. “Here’s where we stand. We went to New Nairobi in hope of leaving the Novosibirsk’s guests there, as well as their dissenting crew, but things obviously went awry. After we left New Nairobi an Alliance patrol jumped into the system. We observed this.” Lindana activated the mess hall’s vid screen and played the recording of the Alliance attack, followed by her exchange with the Alliance ships. The friendly aura of the room faded, leaving grim silence in its wake.