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“Gee, I wonder where Charlotte gets that trait from,” Tyler quipped from the doorway.

“Knock it off, Tyler.” Samantha couldn’t help but grin. “You’d make me happy if you

agreed to carry a gun, Charlotte. Come on, you know you always like to please me.”

A variety of mixed emotions fluttered across Charlotte’s face. “Well…fine. But I’m only

agreeing to do this because of your ability to convince me to walk through fire for you.”

“Good. Thank you. You don’t know how happy that makes me.”

Samantha engulfed Charlotte in a tight hug. Charlotte patted her on the back, while trying

to slip out of Samantha’s grasp.

“The things you get me to do. Honestly.”

“I know. I’ve got you wrapped around my pinky finger.” Samantha grinned. “I have to go

now. I just might think I’ll have Devlin’s eyes gorging out of his head when he sees how we’re

going to travel down to the surface!”

Charlotte smiled; something distant entered her violet eyes. “Make it quick. Rory’s as

good at finding trouble as you are.”

Samantha didn’t need any more encouragement. She walked away from Charlotte and

grabbed Tyler’s arm. “Come on, you’re going back to the bridge.” He looked at her askance,

almost as if he was going to argue. She gave him a determined look. He shrugged his shoulders.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “But I am not okay with this!” He glanced behind him once more

but the fact that he was looking at Charlotte’s door and not at Samantha disturbed her a teeny bit.

He seemed way too fixated on all things Charlotte and it was giving her a nasty chill.

She led Devlin into a secluded area in the docking bay. Flourishing the tarp off of what

seemed to be a hover car, she waited in expectation for Devlin’s reaction.

“Uh, no. You didn’t. Wait, it looks as if you made these for you and Tyler. Why are you

showing them to me?” He stared thoughtfully at her.

Samantha sighed. “This just felt right,” she admitted. “And besides, Tyler can’t show

himself in public too often because of what happened on New Monaco back when you wanted

him dead....”

“Okay, well, I don’t know if I can ride one of these things without you.”

“You know how. I bet you are a man of many talents, Devlin.”

“One day you just might find out how far my talents span....” He gave her a roguish grin.

She rolled her eyes.

“Maybe....” she laughed.

“If you’d let me, Samantha,” He closed the short distance between them. “I could show

you firsthand....”

Her heart raced. “Let’s not beat around the bush here, Devlin. While Quinn is occupied

and everyone else is out of hearing range I want to make one thing abundantly clear to you. I am

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taxed to the limit right now resisting you and with all of the other drama in my life, please don’t

try pushing me over the edge.”

“But if I did push you over the edge, I would be there to catch you before you hit rock

bottom. Samantha, you’re taking the first few steps toward who you are supposed to be.”

“And who do you think I should be?”

“You, Samantha, should be mine.”

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Samantha pushed Devlin away as a hazy fog started to run through her brain. Tyler was

close. She wanted to scream. She told him to go to the bridge and now here he was. The man

didn’t know how to take instructions at all. “Not a word about what just went on between us.”

“Do you think I am stupid?” Devlin asked.

“Samantha,” Tyler stopped short. “What are those?” he asked.

“Dylan and I have been working on these babies for ten months.”

“Dylan and you.” Tyler looked at her with a smirk twitching at the corners of his mouth.

“Okay, maybe Dylan did most of the work.”

“Most?”

“Fine, all of the work. But I helped when I could.”

“Wowzers. Look at all of this stuff. It’s gorgeous. I never thought I’d see another

Kingsley Hover Motorcycle. These things are classics.” Tyler bent down to rub his hand over the

sapphire blue exterior.

Finally, his old personality was resurrecting itself.

“You like it?”

“I love it. How did you scrounge up four of them?”

“There’s a bit of a story to that.”

“Does it include one of your bounties?”

“Yes.”

“Well, why don’t you lay it on me.” Tyler scrunched his eyes shut, sighed and then

opened them again.

“Are you sure your heart can take it?”

“I’m healthy. I’m young. If I can’t take it now, I’ll never survive the rest of our

marriage.” For once he gave her a smile that lit up his eyes. Her heart yearned. He hadn’t looked

at her like that in months.

She shoved her hands into her leather trench coat pockets.

“The guy was a biker. He’d killed five of his gang and I guess he thought no one would

come after him. But he made the mistake of killing a high profile businessman while he was

taking out the rest of his gang. A bounty was issued, and I went after him.”

“And of course you brought his sorry ass in and you got these hover motorcycles by

default.”

“You could say that. No one else seemed to have any use for them, so Dylan and I

thought we would take them and put them to use. So, voila, there you have it.”

She gave him a cheeky smile.

“These will definitely be useful. But I can see you didn’t just make them for me. You had

an ulterior motive. Have fun with Devlin. I am going back to the bridge.” He stood up and

started to walk away.

There he’d done it. Tyler smashed her hope that he had come back to his senses. Maybe

the fire had completely fizzed out of their relationship.

Johanna’s voice streamed out over the intercom. “You all are good to go. I’m maintaining

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an orbit and no one seems to have noticed me yet. They don’t have normal orbiting procedures

like most Earth Certified Planets do, but then...,” Johanna let out a shaky laugh. “We aren’t

exactly in Kansas anymore are we? This planet is so far from Earth that it’s ridiculous.”

“Johanna, put the shields back up and put the ship back into stealth mode, as soon as we

leave. I want everyone to arm themselves just in case something goes awry while we’re down on

New Beijing. Oh, and keep the weapons on standby.”

“I know, Samantha. Veronica is already up here on the bridge with me, griping that

you’re leaving her behind. When it comes to bitching and moaning, Veronica can give you a run

for your money,” Johanna muttered.

“Tell her to suck it up. She needs to stay behind and watch your back. Ross will no doubt

be needed in engineering, if things get hairy. Lucy!” Her summons did not go unheard. Lucy

crackled into existence with her usual dramatic flair.

“Yes, ma’am.” Lucy did a mock bow.

“Lucy, I don’t have time for your stupid shit right now. I need you to be on guard the

whole time I’m down on the planet. You need to warn Johanna and Veronica if ANY sort of

ship gets within striking distance of the
Excalibur.
”

“I know, I know. You don’t want a repeat of the pirate incident.”

“Exactly.” Samantha looked over to where Charlotte was just climbing into
Eleanor
.

“Hey, Charlotte, I love that outfit. Think you could lend it to me sometime?”

Charlotte looked back and grinned.

“Maybe.” Charlotte fingered the crimson leather trench coat and pants she wore. “I’ll

have to give it some consideration.”

“Were the two of you trying to look like mirror images of each other? If we run into a

colorblind fellow, he’ll never know the difference.” Devlin snorted.

“Well, at least we’ll know the difference,” Quinn interjected. “You can tell the difference

between them, can’t you?” Quinn smirked at Devlin.

“Of course I can.” Devlin tugged at his collar. “As soon as they open their mouths it

becomes crystal clear.”

“What do you mean by that?” Samantha asked.

Devlin gave her a smart-ass grin and climbed onboard the hover motorcycle she’d

originally intended for Tyler. Her heart burned.

Before Quinn climbed into
Eleanor
, he turned and looked their way. “By the way, I love

your new snazzy rides. If I’d known you were outfitted with hover motorcycles, I’d have offered

my seat to Samantha!”

“Quinn, I’m going to be riding the purple hover motorcycle. I happen to like hover

motorcycles. It’s quite the rush.”

“Yeah.” Quinn looked envious. “They are beauties. Okay, maybe I’ll get a spin at riding

one of them before Rory and I go back to New Earth.”

“Yeah. Maybe.” Samantha tightened her ponytail. Reaching for her gloves from her

pockets she slipped them on. Then, she attached her gadget bag to the hover motorcycle. “Oh,

Devlin, there’s one more thing. Strap this baby on.” She handed him the object that she’d pulled

from behind Johanna’s hover motorcycle.

“It’s a jet pack.”

“Yeah. We all wear jet packs that are fully charged, when we go out on these things. Just

call it insurance.”

Devlin gave her a slow seductive smile. “I love your idea of insurance, Samantha.”

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“You will also notice that the hover motorcycle is fully equipped with a weapons array.

That’s your second wave of insurance.”

“And what would be my third?”

“You have me watching your back.”

“Good enough for me.” He swung his leg over the motorcycle. “Something just occurred

to me. You said your landings were something to be desired back on New Monaco. I doubt

you’ve had any time for practice in the simulator room… how are you going to land safely?”

“Well, that would depend upon your definition of improvement. I’d say I could handle a

shaky landing.” Devlin’s eyes flashed with anxiety.

“On second thought, maybe you should ride with me.”

“Are you kidding me? Where would we put Rory if we found her first?”

“I guess your right. Just be careful, for the love of God!”

“I will. I wouldn’t want you to go grey before your time.”

They both put on their personalized helmets. “Let’s get this show on the road,” Samantha

laughed, as her force field activated around her hover motorcycle ensuring their oxygen supply.

She revved up her engine. Lucy released the docking bay door. Samantha activated the personal

communicator that linked her hover motorcycle to Devlin’s.

“Are you ready?”

“You bet I am.”

“Then away we go!” In a flash she was outside of the
Excalibur
with Devlin on her right

side and
Eleanor
behind her. This was it. By midnight tonight, they’d have Rory back. Rory

would be safe.

She’d be home.

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By some slim miracle, Rory had snuck aboard the hover bus without being noticed. She

could see that The Triad had sent men out after her. The streets were lined with hired guns. She

shivered and wiped a tear off her face. She was SO tired. She just wanted to eat and sleep for a

week.

Feeling eyes on her, she turned her head and met the gaze of an old woman. The old

woman’s eyes softened as they flew over her body. Rory gave her a nervous smile. Something

felt off. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but for some reason she suddenly felt

claustrophobic. Touching her lucky pendant, she muttered a silent prayer.

“Someone, please help me. God help me.” Dragging her eyes away from the old woman

she looked out the window again. A blockade had been set up at the next intersection. Her heart

stopped.

What could she do?

“Are you lost, little girl?” The old woman finally spoke. Her dry croaky voice reminded

her of someone that had laryngitis.

“You could say that.” She smoothed her hand self-consciously over her pink dressing

gown.

The woman smiled again, and patted the bench beside her. “Come and sit with me. I have

some food in my bag.”

Rory’s eyes fell to the raggedy carpetbag the woman carried. As if on cue, her stomach

let out a gigantic roar.

“I couldn’t.”

“I insist. Come, sit.” Again, she patted the seat next to her.

Rory stood up and dashed over to the bench. Plopping her bottom down, she gave the old

woman a soft smile.

“My name is Kim Wong. What is your name?”

Rory faltered for a moment. “My name?” she echoed. She couldn’t give the woman her

real name. That much she knew for sure. She thought of her mother’s middle name. “My name is

Lee. You can call me Lee.”

“Such a pretty name.” Kim gave her another affectionate smile and reached inside of her

carpetbag. “I have some nice chicken dumplings in here. Not too rich, but they fill you up.”

Rory swallowed and unconsciously licked her lips. “They look delicious.”

“Here, have one.” Kim handed her one on a napkin and then produced a bottle of Earth

Certified water. Rory nearly died and went to heaven when her eyes took in that particular sight.

Rory took a small bite of the dumpling. Time stopped. The taste rocked her being. Never

before in her life had she tasted such divine cuisine. “Thank you,” she said, once she had