Daughter of Destiny (15 page)

"Shit."

The door opened and
Katarina stared at him. "I'll talk to you later, Naia." Katarina
ended the call and pocketed her cell phone.

"You weren’t going to tell
me?"

Katarina walked to the bed,
leaving the door open. "I didn’t want you to feel any worse about
leaving than you already do."

"I have a right to know
about my own child."

"I know," she
whispered.

"I’m not going to abandon
my child."

She looked over her
shoulder. "Zane…"

"I’m not." He slammed the
door.

She turned and sat on the
bed. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

Zane took a full minute to
corral his temper before saying anything. She ceased blocking him
and let him see the misery and turmoil insider her, which kept him
from saying or doing something he might regret. Zane stood there
watching the woman he loved, the mother of his child, all but
cringe as she waited for him to unleash his anger. He turned his
face to the ceiling and for the first time in his life wondered if
a higher power listened to the pleas of men.
What do I do? How
can I leave her, leave them?

He lowered his gaze back to
Katarina and then walked to the bed. He knelt in front of her and
waited for her gaze to meet his. "I love you. You believe that,
right?" A tear spilled over and traced down her cheek. She nodded
her head. "No matter what happens, I will always love you. I see
inside you the same as you see into me. There is nothing in you
that will ever make me stop loving you." The single tear turned
into a silent stream. "You're right, I do have to leave. That
doesn't mean I can't come back."

She swiped at her tears.
"Come back?"

He shrugged one shoulder.
"Okay, technically it is highly illegal and it won't be easy, but I
don't want to live without you." He cupped her cheek and she fell
into his arms, burrowing her face against his shirt.

She whispered against his
chest. "I love you."

A chime sounded and Zane
cursed at the timing. He took his computer out and activated the
mini-holo. "What, Coran?"

"I fixed--" he broke off
and stared. "What in the galaxies are you doing? Why are we talking
with her in the room?"

"Coran, she's known who I
am since before we even landed."

"What?! You compromised the
mission?"

"No, I selectively ignored
rules. Now, what did you fix?"

"Huh? Oh, the teleporter. I
was calling to say I'm on the way and you don't have to catch that
shuttle."

"Fine. When you get here,
bring a medscanner ."

A low hum interrupted them
and Coran materialized with a handheld device in his hand. Once the
transporter released him, he aimed it at Katarina. She gasped.
There was little confusion as to his intent. In one move, Zane
pulled her behind him, putting himself in the line of
fire.

"Move out of the way, Zane.
I don't know why you let her live this long, but if you aren't
going to follow protocol, then I will."

"Nice to meet you too,"
Katarina said in Truscan. She peered out from around Zane. "I've
heard a lot about you."

Coran's aim waivered. "She
speaks Truscan?"

"I can't let you kill my
wife, Coran."

"Wife?!" Katrina
blurted.

Coran's face paled to a
pasty white color. "What did you say?"

"As is my right as a Braag,
I claim this woman as my wife. As such, she is mine and outside the
jurisdiction of IGCF."

Coran opened and closed his
mouth several times before slamming the weapon into a holster on
his hip.
"Kraghak!
That is an asinine idea."

Katarina stepped out from
behind Zane. "I agree. While I appreciate not being killed, what
the fuck do you think you are doing? I'm not property and when did
you ever consider yourself Braag?"

Zane shrugged. "It suits my
purpose, which is protecting you."

Katarina let out an
inarticulate sound of frustration. "Zane Gratig, I do not need
protecting."

Zane ignored her protest.
"Coran, pull up all the logs. I want all mention outside of her
public Earth records stricken, and I need a medscanner."

Coran muttered under his
breath as he pulled out a handheld computer. He glanced at
Katarina. "Since you seem to be just as angry at him as I am, I
think I like you."

***

Perched on the bed, Zane
went to work on the logs. In theory he could leave her name as a
tour guide he hired, but he preferred General Xu didn't even know
she existed. If anything went wrong, it provided an extra layer of
protection for Katarina.

"Here. I wrote a script.
It'll automate it and flag any entries that require more detailed
editing." Coran leaned over and typed in a series of commands and
then the computer took off with the task, doing it far faster than
Zane.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. You
know that if internal comp auditors look at this they'll be able to
reconstruct the original files. It might take them an eternity, but
nothing is ever really erased unless you torch the damn ship. If I
end up court-martialed because you got a case of dick-brain, I'll
beat you to a bloody pile of bones."

Zane glanced over to the
bench on which Katarina sat. She glowered at him and his heart
turned over in his chest at the thought of her being killed by
IGCF. "Then I'll make sure we don't give them a reason to dig. It
isn't my dick talking, Coran. It's my heart and soul."

Katarina chimed in. "This
is moronic. Leave my name in. I never figured out who you were. You
came and left. Problem solved." She rose from her seat and marched
over. "I will not be the cause of death for either of
you."

Coran whipped his head
around. "When did he tell you a court-martial was a death
sentence?"

"He didn't. What he knows,
I know and vice versa. It's just how the bond works. When I need to
know something it just kind of pops up, although not always right
away." She scrunched up her face. "And not always in the right
order."

"Bond?" Coran's voice
dropped to a whisper.

"Yes, Coran, we are bonded
telepaths. Now do you understand?"

Coran groaned and turned
away, walking to the far end of the small room. He pounded a fist
on the plaster wall, leaving a dent. He spun around. "How could you
be so
kraghakti s
tupid? There's no guarantee you'll even be
able to make the trip without losing it. What happens when I show
up to Yopmar and you're a babbling quizark?"

"We don't have a choice."
Zane said.

"Why the hell did you do
something so irresponsibly moronic? That is not the man I know. Did
she do it? Aside from the most disciplined telepaths, most don't
even risk travelling without their mate, but you're just going to
zip across the galaxy and hope you can manage?"

"No, it wasn't her. We
didn't plan the damn thing. It happened and we're going to deal.
Drop it, Coran." Zane looked at her.
"You're a powerful
telepath, love, and you've a will of duratanium. You'll be
fine."

She looked up and met his
gaze.
"What about you?"
She pictured Zane as an
unresponsive, catatonic body and another blip of information popped
into her head.
"If they can't revive you, they'll euthanize
you."
Guilt tore through her as she realized the odds of him
surviving no matter what he did seemed bleak.

"All the more reason to
live up to my reputation of being a stubborn SOB."

"It's my fault."

"I made my choice, love. If
I had to choose again, I'd still choose you."

Despite his words, the
likely outcome hit her hard and her knees buckled. Her knees hit
the floor with a thud. Zane popped up from the bed and rushed to
her side. He scooped her up and carried her back to the bed and set
her down. "Medscanner?"

Coran pulled one from the
kit-belt around his waist and brought it over. "She's right to be
terrified, Zane. I don't need a medscanner to figure that out. At
least one of you is realistic."

Zane shot a glare in his
direction. "You aren't helping. I know that, but I realized I need
to make sure her physicians won't run into biology they can't
explain."

"Huh?"

Zane pressed the scanner to
his hand and activated the DNA extraction mechanism. He repeated
the process on Katarina. Coran peered over his shoulder. "Holy
supernova. What does that mean?"

Katarina stared at him with
wide, fearful eyes. He shrugged one shoulder and offered a smile.
He turned the scanner so she could see. "It means that I'm not the
only one who isn't entirely human. However, we are genetically
compatible."

She took the scanner from
his hand and stared at it for a long minute. "I was always too
afraid to run my DNA." She counted the number of chromosomes.
"Definitely will be using a midwife rather than a doctor." She
tilted the scanner toward him. "I have no clue how it's possible,
but I have three more chromosomes than a human should have. If a
doctor ran blood tests on me I'm not sure they'd read
normal."

Zane shook his head and
took the scanner. "Most of my blood chemistry does. If it was too
different from human, you wouldn't be alive. Whoever your father
was, his species' DNA isn't in the database." He aimed the scanner
at her abdomen. Read it. Repeated. Read it again.

"What's wrong?"

Zane stared at the scanner.
"Twins." He looked up and met Katarina's shocked gaze.

"I'm having
twins?"

"She's pregnant?" Coran
blurted. "Excuse me while I go find that bottle of Numabar wine my
mom sent me. I need a drink. You have five minutes then I'm
teleporting you up to the ship." Coran hit a button on his
computer, the teleport activated, and he disappeared in a swirl of
light.

"I think we traumatized
him." Zane offered her a grin.

"Him? I was panicked at the
idea of one baby."

Zane set the scanner aside
and pulled her into his lap. "We'll make this work. I
promise."

She grabbed a fistful of
his shirt as she nestled against him. "I love you."

He buried his face in her
hair as tears swam in his eyes and emotion choked him. Three words
never once said to him before filled him with more joy than he ever
imagined. He opened his mind to her and she did the same. Neither
spoke.

***

She materialized in her
living room, her belongings appearing a moment later. She supposed
she should appreciate not having to take the shuttle back home, but
the instantaneous mode of travel made the whole thing feel like a
dream. She left the lights off as she listened to the silence.
Katarina stood for a long time, feeling Zane grow farther away.
When will I no longer sense him? Today? Tomorrow?
A clock
struck ten, echoing through the apartment. The utter stillness that
once offered peace, if not contentment, pressed in on her. She fled
her empty apartment.

Outside, she ran down the
vacant sidewalk. Warm rain fell in a soft mist so that by the time
she covered the mile and half to Naia's house, her blouse stuck to
her skin and her sneakers squish-squashed with every step. She
stumbled through the yard and onto the porch. She pounded on the
door with her fist.

Robert's muffled voice
answered through the door. "I'm coming. I'm coming." He opened the
door a minute later and Katarina rushed inside.

"Where's Naia?"

Behind her the door shut
and Robert muttered, "Good to see you too."

"Naia!"

"Oh, for fuck sake, woman,
you're dripping all over the hardwood floor. Naia will have a hissy
fit if this floor warps. Do you have any idea how difficult it is
to get real wood?"

Katarina turned around.
"Naia isn't here?"

Robert pointed to the
safety goggles on his head and the solder iron in his hand. "I
would not be playing with these at this time of night if she were,
so no, she isn't here. I thought you were out of town."

Katarina rubbed her arms as
the chill of the air conditioning registered. "I got back early.
Where is she?"

"It's Friday night," Robert
said as he dashed into the kitchen. Katarina frowned and turned to
follow him, but he came right back out holding a kitchen towel. He
dropped it on the floor and mopped up the trail of water. He
stopped when he reached her and sighed. "I guess you need a towel
too." He turned and disappeared before she could stop
him.

She huffed out a breath and
waited for him to come back, which he did about a minute later.
Robert tossed her a large, fluffy, green towel.
"Thanks."

"No problem."

"What's special about
Friday?" She blotted at the water dripping from her
pants.