Obsolete (Terran Times Second Wave Book 24) (5 page)

He came out, presumably as naked as the day he was born. He checked her selections and nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me sex wasn’t mandatory to put out the fire?”

Brin blinked slowly. “Because I am a male, I am attracted to you and you were offering to couple with me. In no incarnation would I ever refuse that particular offer.”

She sighed and collected the first few plates, carrying them to the table. “Explain how this works.”

“Fair enough. The power I shared is the power of Lomit. It is one frequency, one energy signature; it is one part. My mind and body are unable to contain the entirety of it, so I sought a compatible female to share it with, both for my own preferences and with an eye on the future.

“You will be drawn to contact with me, because the power wishes to remain intact. You need only get as much of you in contact with me as possible when the heat strikes. For me, I go cold. Lomit warned me that it would become increasingly uncomfortable the longer we were apart.”

She glanced at him while they each took a platter to the table. “You feel it as well?”

He quirked his lips. “I feel it was Lomit’s way to make sure that I was not alone. I would only wake for a compatible female.”

“So, you are not fussy about your companion.” His lack of standards made her scowl as she settled on her chair.

“I am very fussy about my companion. You are simply everything I could imagine needing or wanting.” He quirked his lips again. “The scavenger would never have found my pod otherwise. You are not the first compatible female to have entered this area of space, and yet, no one else ever discovered me. I remained hidden until my perfect consort arrived, and then, the pod glided out into the scavenger’s zone. You know the rest.”

Olena felt waves of relief. She wasn’t just a random and convenient person. She was at least moderately special. She tucked into breakfast with a small smile playing around her lips. Some days, moderately special was all you needed to get through it.

Chapter Six

No matter which way you looked at it, matter manipulation was weird. Brin was insisting on creating a travelling wardrobe for her, and it echoed his own skirt and boots, but a light top was thrown in for her.

“Why this particular design?” She waited as he worked on crafting a breast band for her.

He glanced up at her and smiled. “Nostalgia. It was the fashion in my home when I was growing up, and I learned to do everything in this particular garb. When I think about getting dressed, this is what I think of.”

She turned slowly when he gestured for her to do so.

“I have never seen any women of my kind wearing a band to hold their breasts in.”

She crossed her arms and watched his gaze fixated on the aforementioned assets. “I am guessing that your women were not heavily endowed.”

He shrugged innocently. “Being a good lad, I am sure I didn’t look, but now that you mention it, you may be right.”

“Well, take a well-endowed Terran woman and have her working without some kind of support and those lovely assets will not only get in the way, but they will lose quite a bit of cohesion. Neither comfortable, nor aesthetically pleasing.”

“Understood. Breast bands it is.”

He grabbed the next sheet, and it dissolved into a dozen bands of varying hues. “There, that is sorted.”

She snickered and bent to pick the bands up. She folded them into tiny rolls and looked at him. “What next?”

“Do you need additional covering?” He seemed disappointed.

“I do. I need to dress as if the breast band wasn’t in place. It is just there to keep everything together and out of my way. The outer wear is for blending in.”

He nodded. “As you wish. I shall dress you as a Lomit woman of my home clan.”

“As long as you are aware of the alternative. I have two work suits and a skinsuit that would make intimate access impossible.”

Brin chuckled. “I stand warned. The skirt makes you look taller, and since you are tiny, you can use all the hinted height that you can get.”

She frowned as a wide-banded halter-top came into being within his hands. He was dressing her in rich purple and black. It did make for a striking appearance in the mirror.

The boots were comfortable; they were warm but barely there. “How is it that you can manipulate matter?”

“It was a skill I had before I became Avatar. Lomit considered it one of my more attractive features.” There was a wistful tone to his voice.

“How long were you with him?”

“Lomit and I were together for three hundred years. The last hundred were preparations and evacuation of his soil.” He sighed.

“You miss him.”

“I do. He was a voice in my mind and a presence in my blood for centuries. The first few days without him were hard, so I put my emotions into dormancy while I left my mind open for information but closed off my grief. It will surface one day, but I hope to be settled before that happens.”

She swallowed hard. “I... never mind; it is stupid.”

“What?” His eyes were kind as he smiled and kept up his tailoring.

“I was going to say I had a pet and I felt the grief when it passed. I am guessing that having someone living in your mind would be a little more invasive and hurt a bit more.”

He cocked his head. “I think grief is grief. You mourn the loss of something missing in your life. If you have truly loved, you will truly grieve. The measure depends on your own heart. It should never be compared with someone else’s.”

“That is... fairly intense.”

He grinned. “Sharing your mind with an ancient power makes you look at relationships a little differently. It isn’t the length of time you are together but the memories inherent in the shared experiences. An hour with some folks is worth more than a lifetime with others.”

There was no denying that statement.

It took another hour for him to destroy another few sets of sheets to bring her wardrobe up to what he considered tolerable levels.

“What is there to do on the station in the off time?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea. I should have been at work today, but for some strange reason, I did not feel like going.”

“Is there an in-room news feed?”

She nodded and went to the wall, stroking her fingers along a nearly invisible panel. The screen materialized, and the menu was displayed on the table next to the low couch.

He flipped through the options and selected the station broadcast.

Olena winced. “You weren’t kidding. Is that a pile of dust?”

The image on the screen was her workspace from the day before, but instead of the treasure trove of technology, there was a surprised-looking Hrath standing in a pile of dust.

“It is. Without you or I to stabilise it, the tech simply dissolved. You did warn them. I heard you. It is not your fault that they didn’t listen.”

She made a face. “True, at least it is on record. Everything in the controller’s office is recorded.”

“Excellent. Now, let’s see what commercial entertainment has to offer.”

They watched comedies in languages that she had to translate for Brin, but the jokes managed to cross species boundaries.

When she found herself yawning, she glanced at the bedroom with trepidation.

Brin sighed. “At your request, I did make you that sleeping gown.”

“Fine. Okay. I just thought I would give you all the space you could want.”

“The bed is just large enough for me length wise. You have seen the size of the capsule I was sleeping in. Rolling over is not an issue, and I would rather have you where I can find you.”

She made a face.

Brin looked at her with a serious expression. “Until we are anchored and I can provide a safe environment for you, I do not want you out of my sight.”

She grimaced. “Isn’t that excessive?”

“Whether you can access it or not, you are carrying a portion of the power of a dead world. You can carry it with you and learn to use it or be forced to use it. There are methods that are known to pull power out of you against your will, and this transitional time is the most vulnerable moment of your life.”

He got to his feet and held out his hand. There was more order than request in his stance.

Olena slapped her hand into his, and he pulled her to her feet. They entered the bedroom and she went to the folded pile of clothing and she selected her sleeping gown from the top of the pile. Since nudity wasn’t an issue after the day of fittings, she removed her top layers and slipped the gown on before she loosened her skirt and pulled off her boots.

“You have a knack for changing without exposing much.”

She glanced at him over her shoulder. “When I was growing up, I had a sister. We had to share a room, and it was better for my peace of mind to keep covered up while changing.”

“What happened to her?”

Olena blinked in shock that she had let that slip. “She was shot. She had a true enjoyment of the woods, and she was running through the foothills near our cabin when some poachers took a shot at what they thought was a deer. It wasn’t. She died on the way to the hospital.”

“What happened to the poacher?”

Olena made a face. “Nothing. He was considered punished enough by shooting his own daughter.”

Brin came up behind her and placed his hands on her arms. Her new impulses wanted her to lean against him, but her self-sufficiency wanted to punch him in the abdomen. She settled for patting his left hand with her right.

“So, that is why you are out here.”

She shrugged. “My boss nagged me into it. I left home after the hearing and had to make my own way in the world. I ended up making whirligigs at a small shop in the valley.”

“What is a whirligig?” His hands moved slowly on her arms.

“It is a moving, wind-powered sculpture. It is a blend of gears and pulleys, blades and cups all moving as the wind blows.”

Olena acknowledged that he was distracting her, and when he turned her in his arms and leaned down to kiss her softly, she also agreed that it was working.

His skirt came off with a few sharp tugs, and he fell to the bed, taking her with him. They cuddled together and kissed softly as her mind cycled into a sleep pattern. As she curled against him, he held her with one hand on her back and another on her hips, pulling her tightly to his body.

It was a strange night. She woke twice with her body heating rapidly, but Brin stroked her skin and eased his thigh between hers until she cooled and slept again.

The morning arrived before she knew it.

He used their sheets to make her a duffel bag and him another change of clothing. When he had her bag over his shoulder, he offered her his arm. “They are on their way into the space surrounding the station. They will be docked within the hour.”

“How do you know that?”

“They are my people. I can feel them. Well, they are mostly Lomit. The bloodline has diluted over the last few eons.” He shrugged. “They still know the language, so they cannot have strayed too far.”

She swallowed and looked around. “I have no idea if I am supposed to resign or what.”

He chuckled. “When you leave with me, it will be apparent. We can send the station an official resignation when we leave.”

She sighed. “They will probably drain my account.”

He shrugged. “It is not a concern. Where we are going, currency is not required.”

She made a face. “I would really rather keep my accounts.”

“We will discuss this when we have arrived on the moon.”

He escorted her out of the VIP suite, and she took over navigation through the station.

She muttered, “Keep me posted on their location. I am getting some nasty looks.”

“I sensed that when I arrived. There is hostility directed toward you.”

Olena made a face. “Outsiders are not welcome here. I was invited because of my skills, but that didn’t mean the local salvagers had to like it. There is even a rumour going around that I am unlucky.”

He squeezed her hand. “You might be unlucky for Hrath, but you are just what I was hoping for.”

She moved a little closer to him as small clumps of salvagers formed behind them and followed them to the shuttle bay.

The clumps had formed a crowd by the time they were waiting at the door to the bay. Olena watched the lights cycle, and the moment they indicated atmosphere, she hauled Brin through the hallway and into the sealed area.

“You are right. They do not like you.” Brin chuckled.

“This is the only available bay for the incoming vessel.”

He smiled. “We are not boarding the vessel from the station. They are waiting outside for us. Hold on.”

He picked her up and held her close, levitating off the pathway and toward the great outer doors. The maintenance door to the side of the large doors opened when they reached it, and all Olena could do was hold her breath while he flew them into space.

Chapter Seven

The hot tea was welcome, but the calculating look that the crewman gave her was unsettling. It was a cross between suspicion and lust, not the normal combination she was used to.

Brin was with the navigator, explaining their destination. She could hear them arguing about the actual location and how there was no moon in orbit around that gas giant.

Brin’s lyrical tones washed over the navigator and out into the hall. He was insistent. He had the coordinates, and he wished to be delivered to that position.

“So, you are enjoying your time with Lomit’s ex-Avatar?” The crewman loitered near her.

She sipped at her tea and shivered again. “It is interesting. He is very well adjusted for someone who has been asleep as long as he has.”

The crewman casually ran his hand through his hair, showing off extremely pointed ears and skin that was more olive than green.

“What species did the Lomit blend with?”

He smiled and stood, bowing gracefully. “The exotic and powerful Admaryn. When our ancestors were thrown out of their home, the Lomit took us in.”