Seven Days - A Space Romance Page 10

  No.

  “I ran a diagnostic on the stasis pods on the lifepod. Only one of them was working at a hundred percent, and I didn’t want us to argue over who was going to live and who wasn’t, so I didn’t tell you. I’m sorry. It was a shitty thing to do.” He rubbed a hand down his face. “But I’m just a big dumbass meathead, and you’ve got so much going for you. And hell, I didn’t want to see you die. Nearly losing you in space, well, it killed me, right here.” He put a hand over his tattooed pectorals and made a fist. “I couldn’t let that happen again. So I made the choice, and I’m not sorry. I love you. I know it’s crazy to fall in love in six days, but I fell in love with you two months ago, when you got on board the Alcestis and gave me that prim, disapproving look. So really, not so ridiculous, is it?” He grinned, and her heart flipped.

  “I didn’t get the chance to tell you everything I was thinking. I regret nothing about our week together, Zoey. If I had to die in seven days, there was no one I’d have rather spent it with. You sent this old soldier off with a bang, and I love you for it. Now,” he said, looking a bit rueful. “The computer tells me that I have a forty percent chance of surviving in that chamber, and I’m going to take it, because even a forty percent chance to see your beautiful face again is one I have to take.”

  He looked backward, and she knew he was staring at her stasis pod. Tears washed down her cheeks as he glanced back at the camera, then smiled slowly. “But if I don’t see you again, well... This meathead loves you, Science Officer, and every minute I spent in your arms was worth it.”

  Zoey broke down and sobbed.

  #

  They kept her court-martialed for four weeks.

  The first week, it drove her insane. They would tell her nothing about Kaden’s condition. Had he died as they’d pulled him from his stasis pod? Had he recovered? Every time she inquired, they told her the information was classified. The angry-faced medical officer assigned to monitor her at first took her questions with clipped efficiency, but after a few weeks, when she’d asked, the woman had flat-out ignored her.

  And Zoey knew what that meant.

  He’d died.

  Otherwise, they’d have simply told her he was recovering and let her have peace of mind. That they wouldn’t tell her anything meant that it would upset her.

  She’d cried for days when she’d realized it—huge, heaving sobs that had shaken her entire body. She regretted that she hadn’t insisted that he stay in her stasis chamber with her. She regretted not telling him that she loved him. She regretted not checking the viability of the chambers herself before trustingly climbing into one.

  She regretted so many things. And she cried, because she was left all alone after everything they’d endured together. It wasn’t fair.

  She still wasn’t permitted outside materials while under court-martial, so she had no access to news, or phones, or books. She replayed the vidpic over and over again, pausing it when he smiled, just so she could see the sweetness of that boyish expression. Her fingers longed to touch him. Her heart ached so much that she knew she’d never recover.

  How had seven days changed her life so much? No, she amended. Six. They hadn’t even gotten to spend the seventh one together. Right now, she wanted that last day back, damn it. One more day with him would be worth anything.

  Zoey sank into a depression as she waited for news. Over and over, she was forced to go before a panel of investigating officers and give her testimony as to what had happened on the Alcestis. They would target a certain section of the records salvaged from the ship and ask her questions about them. Who had created this record? Had it been tampered with? Had they influenced Garcia into killing himself? Over and over she’d had to replay the details of that week for the tribunal. Over and over, she relived everything about those days.

  And at night, she dreamed of Kaden, his arms around her, holding her tight. When she would wake up, her face would be wet with tears, her heart a black ache in her chest.

  #

  Eventually, the military tribunal met, considered the evidence, and decided: Dr. Ian Nevis was found guilty of sabotage of an expedition vessel and willful negligence. The information had been delivered to her via a personal vidpic. Dr. Nevis would be detained by the tribunal for further investigations into his crimes.

  Zoey was free to go, though her job with the university was long gone—they’d filled it months ago when the report of her death had been filed. That was fine. She didn’t feel like going back to work. Not just yet.

  The first thing she’d done was check for Kaden’s records. She’d gone to a terminal on base and pulled up his contact info, only to find his file listed as “Officer fallen in line of duty.” She closed the file without looking further, her heart aching. She didn’t need to know any more.

  He’d died, knowing that there would be only one of them in the stasis pod.

  She checked her bank account and sure enough, the stipend of hazard pay had been dumped into her account—the military’s way of apologizing for trouble aboard one of their ships. It was a decent enough sum, though she’d have to go back to work eventually. For now, though... she was going to go to Europa 13. Spend some time on the beach, relax and recover, and try not to think about the man she’d loved and lost.

  With a heavy heart, she packed her small bag and left the base. No one had stopped her as she’d flashed her temporary badge. She’d been given full clearance to leave. Free to go. Alone.

  Zoey’d gotten on a public transport, headed for the closest spaceport. Maybe a few weeks on the beach would stop the ache in her heart. Or at least dull it a bit.

  #

  “One, please,” she said to the ticket-broker AI as she pushed her thumb onto the ID pad and waited for it to scan her eye.

  “Identity confirmed,” it said warmly. “Passport accepted. Where would you like to go today, Zoey Maldonado?”

  “Europa 13,” she told it. “One ticket.”

  “I am confirming the availability of that trip,” it told her pleasantly. “Please wait.”

  She drummed her fingers on the counter, glancing over at a nearby boarding ship. Everyone looked so happy and excited at the prospect of a vacation. All she was feeling was a vague, unhappy bitterness.

  She felt as if she’s just gotten off a damn ship, and here she was, boarding another.

  “One ticket aboard the Sunlight Dragon, first class to Europa 13,” it told her cheerfully. “This ship leaves in two hours and the price for the journey is thirteen thousand credits. Shall I make this reservation for you?”

  “Yes,” she told it tersely. It chirped out some other information, and then spit a ticket at her, and she snatched it up, barely looking around. Gate C-22, the ticket said, and she began to stalk down the long hall of the spaceport, toward that gate. Toward Europa 13.

  Toward her first step of forgetting Kaden Aziz.

  The problem was, she didn’t want to forget him, she realized as she got to the gate and sat with the rest of the waiting passengers. She wanted to burrow into her memories of him and never forget. As she had so many times a day, she put in her earbuds and flicked on the vid, just so she could watch him one more time.

  “Zoey. If you get this message and I’m not standing right next to you, well... I knew when we got in the chambers that this was a one-way trip...”

  “Zoey,” a voice bellowed, achingly familiar. She stared at the vidpic, frowning. Oh no. Was her file corrupted? Please no. This was all she had left of him. She paused it, then started it again, holding her breath.

  “Zoey,” came the call again, a hoarse shout. “Zoey Maldonado?”

  It... wasn’t coming from the vidpic? She tugged the buds from her ears and frowned, looking around.

  “Zoey Maldonado,” a man yelled at the top of his lungs somewhere in the distance. “Zoey!”

  That was... familiar. Hope burst through her.

  She stood.

  People turned, stared, whispering. She wasn’t entirely sure
she was awake. This was a dream, wasn’t it? Zoey walked forward. Scanned the crowd of travelers, looking for a big, tattooed man with disheveled hair and didn’t see him.

  But her gaze stopped and her heart stuttered at the sight of a man in the distance, heavily limping down one of the electronic walkways, dressed in a Tribunal uniform that covered his tattoos. He leaned on a cane, his leg making jerky motions as he moved forward, scanning the crowd wildly. His head was shaved, she noted in shock, an enormous scar tracing around one side of his scalp and along his ear.

  “Zoey,” Kaden bellowed again. “Where are you?”

  Tears welled in her eyes, slid down her face. She began to sob, dropping her bag and rushing for him. “Kaden?”

  He turned at the sound of her voice, and she saw him—his eyes, those beautiful brown eyes, that smile that lit up his entire face. And he began to rush toward her as fast as his bad leg would allow, wincing with pain each time.

  She ran for him, pushing people aside in her haste to get to him. “Kaden!” she sobbed loudly, not caring who heard. “Kaden, I’m here!”

  When she got to him, she flung herself in his arms at the same time that he tossed his cane aside. He wrapped his arms around her and they crashed to the ground and she didn’t care, because she was kissing him frantically, wildly.

  He was alive!

  “Why were you leaving?” he said between kisses. “I was waiting for you at sick bay. You were leaving without me.”

  She sobbed harder, shaking her head and kissing him. “Your records say that you’re dead. Kaden, I got your vidpic. You said you were a dead man. I thought you were dead,” she whispered. “I thought you’d left me.”

  “Not quite,” he said with a grin. “So... where are we going?”

  “Europa 13,” she said before kissing him again. “You said you wanted to go to the beach.”

  He grinned down at her. “I said I wanted to go to the beach with you.”

  “So you did,” she whispered, still dazed. “So you did.”

  #

  It was hard to stop kissing him long enough to purchase a second ticket and then board the tiny space-liner, but once they did, they claimed a private cabin. It was half the size of her old one on the Alcestis, but that didn’t matter.

  All she needed was Kaden.

  As soon as they were alone, she began to tug at his clothing with quick, frantic motions, and he reached for hers.

  “I love you,” she whispered against his mouth. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you that I loved you. That was dumb. So I’m telling you now. I love you. Love you so much.”

  “I love you too,” he told her. “I’ve missed you.”

  God, she’d missed him too. So much that she felt as if she never wanted him to leave her sight again. She tore at his belt, pressing a kiss to the skin she exposed.

  “Zoey, wait,” he said in hesitation. “I don’t know if you want to see that—”

  She didn’t care. His leg could be torn to shit and she didn’t care. Her fingers paused as she undid the belt of his uniform and slid his pants down... revealing a leg badly scarred and half-mech.

  Cyborg?

  She looked up at him in surprise.

  He sighed heavily. “There’s a reason why my public files were classified. The military hasn’t sanctioned cyborg replacement for the masses yet. They think I’ll make a good poster boy for it.” He looked unhappy at her reaction. “I’m sorry. I know it’s not attractive. I died on the table, twice. By the time they pulled me out of stasis, my body was infected from a combination of stasis and frostbite and I was losing more of my body than they could save. This was the only way.”

  She didn’t care. It brought him back to her. So she kissed the mech on his big thigh and slid back up to him, her fingers grazing along the scar on the side of his head. Likely more mech there, too. “Where else?” she asked him.

  “Here,” he said, tapping his chest, and she noticed a new scar along his pectoral. “And some in my back. I know it must change things, for you. It’s not... natural.”

  It changed nothing. “What about here?” she asked huskily, her hand moving to cup his cock. Thick, engorged, and heavy in her hand. “All Kaden here?”

  His eyes grew dark with heat. “All Kaden.”

  Her hand trailed up his chest, past the network of tattoos on his broad body. “And here?” she asked, tapping his forehead lightly. “All Kaden here?”

  “All Kaden,” he repeated. “And I love you. That hasn’t changed a bit. Not in the weeks we’ve been apart.”

  “I love you too,” she said softly and leaned in to kiss the new scar on his chest, nearly weeping with pleasure when he knotted his fingers in her hair in a familiar gesture. “Kaden, it doesn’t change a thing for me. I don’t care. All I care is that you’re back with me.”

  “I’m all yours,” he said, and then amended slowly, “for the next month.”

  She stiffened in surprise. “What happens in a month?”

  “The military conscripted two more years from me in exchange for the cyborg parts,” he said with a heavy sigh. “I’m going to be their spokesman for a bit. Do a lot of public service, a lot of interviews putting a positive military spin on things. Showing them that living with mech in your body isn’t a bad thing. You have to admit that it’s a great story. Meathead saves the life of a pretty scientist at the expense of his own ass.” He tilted his head, staring down at her with possessiveness. “The brass love it. I get to be their dog and pony show for a bit and then I’m free.”

  Two more years. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know you were close to being out.”

  He shrugged, his big hand skating up her back and tugging at the fastening of her uniform, sliding it down. “All I care about right now is you in my arms.”

  But now that she had him back, she wasn’t going to be able to rest. That month deadline loomed over her head. She didn’t have him back only to lose him so quickly again. A month wouldn’t be enough.

  She leaned in to kiss him again, stepping out of her uniform and groaned when he cupped her breast. “Kaden,” she said softly. “What happens to us when that month is up?”

  He stilled and looked into her eyes. “Well, I kind of thought about spending twenty-nine days on the beaches and making love to you. And then on day thirty, I thought I might see if you wanted to get married. The brass can’t separate a soldier from his wife, after all.”

  Now that was more like it. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her breasts to his chest. “Why wait for day thirty?”

  He grinned. “Have you always been this impatient?”

  “Only at the thought of being separated from you again,” she said softly, leaning in to kiss him again. “Never again. Promise me.”

  “I promise,” he said slowly, “that next time, if I’m in the stasis pod with you, this time I won’t get out.”

  “Deal,” she said with a giddy laugh. “I don’t care if they find the science officer with the meathead’s cock crammed into her body,” she said, throwing his words back at him.

  He got a devilish glint in his eyes. “Would you care to test that theory, science officer?”

  She pushed him down on the bed with a smile. “Absolutely.”