End of the Line (3 page)

The captain returned exactly an hour
later with a team of men who brought in two floating trolleys
loaded down with multiple domed platters. Both of the serving men
gave her quizzical looks before departing with a crisp salute, but
neither said a word.

The captain had impeccable manners and
waited for her to be seated at the table he’d folded down from one
wall so the men could set the table and place the main course ready
and waiting for them. So far, the dining rituals seemed very
similar to human practices, which surprised Lisbet a bit. She’d
heard the jits were barbarians and had almost expected them to be
ripping meat from the bones of some large animal with their
teeth.

Instead, she got gleaming, monogrammed
silverware and what looked like costly china with the crest of some
noble house. Her finger traced over the design on the rim of her
plate.

“
It is the sigil of my
house. The Fedroval crest.” He nodded toward her hand, still
fingering the raised golden symbol when she looked up to meet his
gaze.

“
You said your name was
Fedroval. As is the name of your ship.
Fedroval’s Legacy
, right? So if this
is anything like human nobility, you’re some kind of overlord or
come from a seriously rich family. Am I right?”

The captain bowed his head to one
side, holding her gaze. “I am surprised humans have such things,
but yes, to both questions. I am the Liege of House Fedroval,
eldest male of the line. And yes, we as a family have more than
most. Unfortunately, I am the end of the line for House Fedroval.”
His expression turned grim as he busied himself with the snowy
white cloth napkin, placing it on his lap.

The topic seemed painful to him, so
she let it drop. For now. She followed his lead, glad of the
etiquette her mother had tried to drill into her when she was a
young girl.

Funny, she hadn’t thought of her
mother in years, but she supposed the old girl would have approved
of this situation. For once, Lisbet was behaving like a lady,
sitting down to dinner with a rich and titled gentleman. Okay, so
he was an alien. Her mother was long dead, so Lisbet figured it
probably didn’t matter. Still, the thought brought a wistful smile
to her face as he uncovered the steaming dishes that had been laid
out for them.

The silence had lengthened, but she
didn’t mind. There was a great deal of information to process here
and if she wasn’t very careful, she would succumb to the captain’s
pronounced charm. He said he wouldn’t interrogate her, but she
wouldn’t put it past him to try to weasel information out of her
while wining and dining her. She had to be on her guard.

“
What amuses you,
Lieutenant?” he asked as he poured blue liquid from a wine bottle
into a crystal goblet and placed it before her. She watched as he
poured another for himself and took a sip before she followed
suit.

The flavor was fruity and
delicious—and intoxicating, she had no doubt.

“
I had a stray thought
about my mother. She always despaired of my tomboy ways. She taught
me the proper way to set a table and all the womanly things she
thought were so important, but I always wanted to do things she
thought were unseemly.”

“
Like flying a fighter
craft?” One of his dark brows arched and she got the impression he
agreed with her long lost mother.

“
It was good enough for my
older brother. Why should he be allowed to follow his dream into
the sky and not me?”

“
And did you truly dream
of the sky, Lieutenant? Did the stars sing to you?” He stared at
her over the rim of his goblet, seducing her with nothing more than
the tone of his deep voice and the look in his dark
eyes.

“
Always. My mother
despaired, but my granny knew my destiny was in the stars. She had
a bit of the sight, and she argued on my behalf with the family.
They listened to her, thank goodness, and let me go. A month after
I left Earth, my entire family was killed in an industrial
explosion that leveled half the town.”

He stilled, his expression growing
very serious.

“
I am sorry for your
loss,” he said in that deep voice, soft now with true emotion. She
looked into his eyes and met sorrow there. He understood. He’d lost
people close to him. She knew the look. It was the shared pain of
losing those who made your life whole.

“
Thank you.” She dragged
her gaze from his and took a sip of the fruity wine. It numbed her
throat a bit and dulled the jagged edges of her pain
momentarily.

“
Our first course is roast
water fowl from Solaris Delta. I believe all the ingredients used
by the chef tonight are compatible with your digestive system, but
please alert me if you perceive any difficulties. I’ve been
surprised by how much alike human and jit’suku physiology is since
I began my study of your species.”

“
Am I the first human
you’ve met?”

“
Yes,” he answered with
some surprise in his voice. “This ship was only completed a few
standard months ago. We have only engaged with your folk from afar
until today.” He frowned as he cut into the succulent bird with his
knife. She began eating as he did, lured by the delicious aroma of
the perfectly cooked meat. It tasted delicious. “It worries me that
we might have inadvertently engaged with female pilots before
now.”

“
Is it really that big of
a deal? I knew what I signed on for when I came out here. Every man
and woman in the military knows they could die at any given time.
We agreed to the danger when we volunteered to defend our galaxy
against your empire’s expansion plans.”

She spoke matter-of-factly. She didn’t
see any reason to pussyfoot around the issue, but she also didn’t
see any reason in getting all worked up. She was a prisoner here,
for all that he was treating her like some kind of honored
guest.

“
Making war on women is
not the jit’suku way. Already the men under my command are speaking
of what happened today, worrying that their honor has been stained
by what we did to you. It is a very grave matter.”

“
Really?” Lisbet’s eyes
widened as she regarded him. The man was serious. Wow.

“
I would not dissemble.
The warrior’s code is very specific and sacrosanct. We do not make
war upon females, children, or each other. With so many in the
warrior caste, we need these rules to keep peace among ourselves
and our various colony worlds.”

“
Your people live in a
caste system?” She was learning all kinds of things she’d never
imagined about her enemy.

“
Many males—usually more
than seventy percent in each generation—are born warriors. Of the
rest, some are skilled craftsmen or artisans. Some have other
talents that bring them to their proper caste. As is the case with
our women. Is that not the way of human society?”

“
The ratio is flipped.
Only about thirty percent of our men go into the military. Usually
they’re the biggest and strongest from each world or colony, but
not always. Women who want a military career usually end up in
supporting roles—piloting shuttles, doing supply or other
organizational roles simply because we’re smaller and usually can’t
fight hand to hand the way the men can. Mechanization equals things
out, so women are equal with men when it comes to piloting,
gunnery, et cetera. But a lot of women don’t seem to go for those
kinds of roles. They put us where we are best suited and needed. In
my case, that was patrolling the rim until you blew up my ship.” A
bit of her bitterness about losing her ship bled through into her
words, but she couldn’t regret it. He had to know she was upset
about almost dying out there at his hands.

“
If I had known you were
female, I would never have fired upon you. Even if I had given the
order, had my gunner known he was firing on a female pilot, he
would have refused the order and been within his rights to do so.
He was very upset when we discovered your gender.”

“
I had no idea you guys
were so touchy about women soldiers. If my commanders knew this,
they’d probably recruit all the women they could to throw at you. I
bet that would end the war real fast.”

He frowned, his dark brows lowering as
he considered her words. “Which is why I cannot let you go,
Lieutenant.” He sat back, ignoring his food while he studied her.
“You present a very large problem for me, Lisbet Duncan, and I have
no idea what to do about you.”

“
Who says you have to do
anything? You could just let me go and jump back to your own
system, where you belong.”

“
Retreat? That is not the
jit’suku way.” His frown deepened.

“
It’s either retreat or
fire on more women. Can your honor take that chance? I’m not the
only female out here. I wasn’t the first and I certainly won’t be
the last.” She challenged him, wanting to zing him a bit, even if
her position on his ship was precarious at best.

He stared at her for a long time
before shaking his head and returning to a more composed posture.
He lifted his fork and speared another bite of the meat, bringing
it to his mouth. She watched him chew, realizing he had the sexiest
mouth she’d ever seen on a man. Disconcerting and incongruous as
that thought was, she felt her body warm as she watched him. He
really was incredibly attractive, even if he was the
enemy.

She took her cue from him and returned
to her food as well. It was really good and she didn’t want to
waste a gourmet meal. Not when she’d been living on rations for far
too long.

“
You said something before
about your granny having sight. What did you mean by that?” he
asked out of the blue after the silence had stretched.

“
My maternal grandmother
sometimes had visions of the future. That side of the family
descended from a place called Scotland on Earth. My mother was a
redhead, which is where I get such fair skin from, even though my
hair is darker. Granny told me when I was very young that my
destiny lay in the stars. Mom didn’t like it, but gran insisted and
when I decided to apply for pilot training, it was Granny that
convinced everyone it was as it should be. Little did I know when I
left that I’d never see any of them again.”

“
We hold such gifts of
clairvoyance in great esteem,” he said in a very serious tone that
made her look up at him. His dark gaze pinned her. “They say
sometimes it runs in families.”

She squirmed in her seat a bit,
knowing what her grandmother had predicted for her. She wasn’t sure
she wanted to admit it, but perhaps the prophecy would help her
with this compelling man somehow.

“
Gran said…” She had to
clear her throat before she revealed a secret she’d never told
another soul. “Gran knew her gift would pass to my daughter. It
skipped two generations, but would be extra strong in my child. She
said my girl would be an oracle the likes of which hadn’t been seen
in our family in many generations.”

“
You have a child?” He
seemed shocked.

“
Not yet.” Lisbet had to
smile. “I’ve never known Gran to be wrong, but I wasn’t sure I’d
make it there for a while today. Somehow, though, according to my
granny’s prediction, I’m going to have a daughter who will be
strongly gifted. She saw me having other children too, but she
couldn’t tell me more about them, only the girl who will carry her
name.”

“
I find this fascinating.
If we’d had a seer in my family, perhaps I could have avoided—” He
stopped abruptly as if realizing he was speaking aloud. The pain in
his eyes made her reach out to him.

“
What happened to your
family, Captain?”

Chapter Four

“
It is not fit dinner
conversation.” He tried to dissemble, but she was having none of
it.

“
I just told you something
I’ve never told another soul. And I saw the understanding in your
eyes when I told you how I’d lost my entire family. Something
similar happened to you, didn’t it?”

He regarded her for a long moment.
“Are you sure you’re not as gifted as your grandmother?” She noted
the moment he let down his guard. His shoulders lost their tension
and his expression changed.

“
I am the end of the
Fedroval line because no jit’suku woman will have me. And rightly
so. I was not meant to be Liege of the House. I was a younger son,
meant to serve in the Zenai priesthood. I was away from home when
the unthinkable happened. My brothers were murdered by a rival who
has since paid for breaking the warrior’s code, but the damage was
done. I had to take over as Liege and give up my intended path as a
warrior priest. I was not been groomed for the position of Liege
the way my older brothers were. I made many mistakes. One was
allowing all the younger females to go on a trip alone, without
enough protection. I failed to keep them safe and they died. My
brothers’ wives and children. The next generation of House
Fedroval. All gone in an instant.”

“
Were they murdered as
well?” Lisbet kept her voice to a whisper, shocked at the awfulness
of what had happened to this man’s family.

“
It is still unclear.
There was an investigation, of course, but the mechanical failure
of their ship could have been accidental. There wasn’t enough
recovered to reach a conclusion of sabotage, though I strongly
believe some of the rival family’s members who escaped punishment
for the deaths of my brothers came back to finish the
job.”