The Space Colonel's Woman (Dragonus Chronicles Book 1) (18 page)

He shuddered as if letting go of a burden long-carried, and sagged for a brief moment into her arms.

“It’s been a long journey for both of us.”

Mark lifted her into his lap and pressed her head into the crook of his shoulder, black leather soft and warming beneath her cheek.  She relaxed into the feel of him, ran her palms inside his jacket and around his back; snuggling closer.

“Julia?”

His whisper was loud in the tranquility.  The sky was turning from plum to ink and more of the stars he’d traveled to, began to twinkle silver.

“Mmmm?”

She would never tire of hearing the sound of her name on his lips.  He gazed into her eyes.  Brought their entwined hands to his mouth and kissed her knuckles; his breath a warm caress over her bare skin.

“Will you marry me?”

Just as she had when Mark’d asked her to abandon her life for the exhilarating possibilities of the unknown; Julia answered with her heart, without a second’s hesitation to cloud the moment.  She trusted everything would fall into place - as long as they were together.

“Yes.”

Mark grinned, teeth bright in the growing shadows, and lowered his mouth to hers.  He kissed her with everything he was; heat, love, strength, passion, and above all, hope.  When he pulled back, a single tear sat in the laugh lines at the corner of his eye.  Julia kissed it away, a grin splitting her face as she cradled her fiancé’s head into her shoulder.

As he held her tight in his arms she could hear his heart beneath her ear and she whispered her thanks to the universe for the bold, beautiful, and brave man; she’d travelled into an alternate reality to claim.

“This is for you.”

Mark reached into the leg pocket of his BDUs and brought forth a small box of red polished wood inlaid with delicate carvings of flower vines, and placed it in the palm of her hand.  He opened it to reveal the glint of an unknown metal.

“They’re beautiful.” Julia gasped, her hand shaking beneath her gift.  Mark tugged the wider of the two rings free from its brace and with trembling fingers, slid it onto Julia’s outstretched finger.  A perfect fit.

She’d never seen anything like it.  Finely hewn from a silver-blue metal, the ring had a wavy edge, like the ocean that had witnessed their promise.  Julia could feel the double grooves where the thinner ring would sit to complete the design.  When she tilted her hand, waving her fingers to feel the weight, a kaleidoscopic pattern flared into existence; colors fracturing into purples, blues, and pinks in the lights from the city above. 

“Made especially by the palace jeweler.” He chuckled with satisfaction at her stunned mullet expression. “Turns out, being friends with the Zefeirian Queen has its perks.”

“I’d say so.”

Julia went with him when he laid her on their blanket, his body pressed along the length of her side.  He supported her neck in the bend of his elbow and leaned into Julia’s touch as she traced her fingertips over the arch of one dark brow. “Just so you know, Colonel Holden, I’m expecting a hell of a lot longer commitment than nine minutes twenty-two seconds.”

“I do believe you’ve got yourself a deal, Miss Swift.” He laughed, deep and long, his body convulsing with mirth until Julia tugged him in by his lapels and grazed his lips with her own.

“I love you.”

Mark leaned in and whispered against the delicate shell of her ear.

“Love you too.”

Chapter 15

“Rescue one to the conference room, immediately.” Julia’s earpiece squawked Mike’s summons.

Julia allowed the relocator in the FOQ common room to atomize her across two buildings and up ten floors to the conference room level.  She arrived in time to take the seat between Brendan and Levi, just before Kate and Zeb joined them.  Colonel Archer, accompanied by Major Dawson and Lieutenant Flynn, took her seat at the head of the silver and glass table as the doors slid closed; sealing them in sound-proof privacy.

“Wings, everyone.” Colonel Archer nodded in greeting.

A courteous
Colonel
was echoed by everyone as they settled into their seats, and waited for their Commander in Chief to speak.

“Colonel Holden’s team glided to Alonac-57 earlier today.  Their mission was to confirm Intel on an element rumored as a possible substitute for oil; find out how viable it is to mine, or to open trade negotiations with the indigenous peoples.”

Colonel Archer eyed each of them in turn.  Julia drummed her fingernails on the opaque swirl that patterned the surface of the table; her stomach happily tying itself in knots, while she waited for the punch line.

“Colonel Holden and his team were due to check in at ten-hundred hours and again at fourteen-hundred.”

“Colonel, why the panic?” Julia glanced at her watch; two-fifteen. “They’ve missed check-in before.”

It had taken months and months of off-world missions for Julia to understand how things worked in Phoenix City.  But she had trained herself to ignore the instant rush of icy panic that surged into her heart whenever her colonel and his team didn’t check in on time.  The worry was still there, but buried deeper where it could do less harm.  It took more than Mark missing check-in’s to start her fretting now.  He had a habit of showing up just as the rescue was leaving, and always with some fantastical, yet feasible, reason for his team’s break with protocol. 

After all, she would know if something was seriously wrong, wouldn’t she?

“Yes, he has.” Colonel Archer frowned. “Call it a hunch, paranoia, or a chance to up your flying hours.  But with all the Arcadian activity reported in that system, I want you to go now.  It’s a three hour flight from the nearest safe coordinates.”

Colonel Archer glanced between Julia and Major Dawson. “How long to prep?”

“The gliders are ready to go.  Fifteen minutes to gear up, and we’re out the door.” Major Dawson explained.

“We’ll be ready.” Julia assured, already pushing out of her chair.  Her nervous energy propelling her out the door and toward the Birdcage, the rest of Rescue one in her wake.

Her canyon training and subsequent practices every other day had Julia feeling confident that she could get the glider to the densely forested surface of Alonac-57.  But it would take three hours from the space coordinates to do so.  It would’ve been so much easier if they’d been able to glide from the Birdcage on Phoenix, straight to Alonac-57’s surface.  But to materialize out of a time-space portal there needed to be a definitive clear area larger than the glider and its dispersion field.  Stephen Garrett and his math geeks hadn’t been able to give that assurance.  Not with enough certainty to convince Colonel Archer to sign off.  This plan was slower, but safer; an important consideration when twenty-plus lives and three gliders were on the line.

Space bridge science was as mind-numbingly complicated as it was amazingly spectacular; but like anything, it had its limitations.  For example, the gliders were unable to glide cloaked. 

To reach Alonac-57, Mark had glided to coordinates in space six-million kilometers from the planet’s surface, then flown two hours to the edge of an asteroid field.  From there he’d run a gauntlet of continent and building-sized chunks of ice, rock, and Nahfenite.  The remains of a satellite moon destroyed millennia ago and pulled into orbit around Alonac-57, where they encompassed the planet like a plastic net around an orange.

Gliders three and four, followed by Rescue one, materialized from their portal into the inky black of empty space, and cloaked.

“Ready, Wings?” Major Dawson called over the radio.

Julia nodded even though the major couldn’t see her, eyes on the view out the windshield. “Ready, Major.”

Two hours of ultra-high-speed flying was nothing, she could do it blindfolded.  Mark had actually suggested she fly blind to test her connection with the glider during one of her training flights but Julia hadn’t been ready.  The challenge here would be the ducking and diving, rolling, and wing-tip turns required to get through the asteroid field.  It would be like running the canyon geography sixty times end to end without pause, as the landscape moved unpredictably around Rescue one’s comparatively tiny hull.

“Piece of cake.” Julia whispered under her breath.

Major Dawson was ranked in second place on the glider squadron’s score sheet; after Mark and before Julia, he’d be taking the lead.

“Wings, Andrews, confirm go no-go for asteroid run.”

Julia’s throat was dry and tight as she eyed the sprawl of humongous pumice floating out her windshield, and tapped her radio. “Go for Wings.”

“Go for Andrews.”

“Copy.  See you on the other side.”

With that Glider three decloaked and flung itself forward like a pebble from a slingshot.  Major Dawson displayed his amazing skills immediately when he swung up onto his port wing to swoop around a rock the size of Buckingham Palace.  Taking a deep breath, Julia accelerated into the field, ducking around the same rock and flipping onto her starboard wing to avoid the one behind it.  The cockpit and rear cabin were silent as the grave.  She was playing a larger-than-life game of space invaders with other people relying on her to make it to the next level.

A hiss escaped Zeb’s lips as they skimmed the top of a gigantic specimen – close enough for him to see the mountains and craters on its surface.  It
had
been a bit close, but Julia was already flying on her port wing-tip through a gap not much wider than the corridors on Phoenix.

“Shit!” She flipped horizontal; mimicked Glider three as Major Dawson dipped below and through the upcoming gap.  The planet’s surface was filling the windshield as they neared the field’s inner boundary, but Julia stayed focused as Rescue one’s equivalent of fog radar continued to bleep warnings of incoming threats; shoulders tense and knuckles white on the controls.  They were so close to being home free, and that, was usually when things went to hell.

A collision between two of the super-sized asteroids blocked her view of both Glider three and the planet.  The deceptive elegance of the impact fooled them into thinking it was a harmless tap.  Until the shower of mini asteroids sprayed in Rescue one’s direction. 

Julia threw the glider into a nosedive, but it wasn’t enough.  The sound of scoria sliding out the back of a dump truck echoed loud in the silent interior as supersonic baby asteroids skimmed and dinged the exterior hull; vaporizing in Rescue one’s propulsion wash.  With her lip caught between her teeth and adrenalin sparking up her arms, Julia pulled the little ship back onto Major Dawson’s six, and chased him through repeated S-bends.

“Zeb?”

Julia didn’t look at her co-pilot, her gaze fixed on her flight path and her jaw clenched hard.  He was studying the display’s feedback and it was a cliff-hanger moment before he answered.

“She’s all good.  Only surface damage, no hull penetration.  All systems, a hundred percent.”

Julia breathed again, unaware she’d been waiting to exhale, and pulled to a complete stop beside Glider three in the calm void just shy of Alonac-57’s atmosphere.  She stretched her fingers toward the roof and flexed her back, then leaned into the soft contours of her chair.

“Wicked flying.” Brendan praised from the seat behind her, his face dominated by a huge toothy grin.

“Thanks, it was wasn’t it?” She grinned and her team laughed with the giddiness only relief could bring; the sound rebounding in the small space.

“All gliders, I’m sending coordinates.  Radio confirmation.  Proceed cloaked.  We don’t know what we’ll find.”

Julia looked in Zeb’s direction and when he nodded she radioed the confirmation through to Glider three.

“Coordinates received, Major.  Rescue one inbound.”

“Understood, Wings.”

They flew through the orange and blue cotton candy layers of Alorac-57’s atmosphere.  The ground beneath them was twenty-seven shades of green, and beautiful – except for where Rescue one was headed.  An onyx maw, surrounded by streaks of caramel-colored earth, defaced the landscape.  Although they couldn’t see it with the naked eye, the display registered Glider one’s position, parked on the divide between lush forestry and ugly scarred wasteland.

“Can you decloak her from here?” Julia asked Zeb. “It’ll make landing easier if I can see her.”

Zeb nodded and pushed a few buttons on his half of the console.  Glider one appeared in 3D clarity at their three o’clock low.

“Colonel Holden, this is Rescue one, please respond?”

“Mark, this is Wings, can you hear me?”

With no response, Julia decided to circle around and get the lay of the land.

“Affirmative, Wings.” Major Dawson agreed when he appeared on scene with Andrews in Glider four.

“One o’clock low!” Zeb yelled, leaning forward to point out his half of the windshield.

It looked like an aerial photograph of the African wetlands when the water returned after a drought.  A large central hole with splintering cracks spreading out like tributaries.  As Julia circled further out they could see mining equipment, neglected and rusted.

“Major, we’ve located what looks to be a mine crater west of Glider one’s position.”

“Copy that, Wings, return to my position.”

“On our way.”

Julia had landed Rescue one next to Gliders one, three, and four; which meant they had two-hundred meters of ground to cover on foot, before reaching the mine crater.  Major Dawson’s team and two squads of Marines had fanned out to create and search the perimeter.  With Zeb, Levi, and Brendan hot on her heels, Julia ran at full speed, following the crowded sets of boot tracks.

“Mark!”

“Answer me, goddamn it!”

They were unable to get a look in the hole - which turned out to be the roof of an underground bunker rather than a crater – for fear more of it would collapse inward. 

Mark wasn’t answering. 

No one was answering. 

Major Dawson’s team was coming up empty in their perimeter search.  If the radio chatter in her ear was anything to go by. 

As far as Julia was concerned, there was no other conclusion to be made. 

Mark and his team had fallen through, and she was going in.  Considering the time frame, any injuries would require urgent attention.  She had to find out what was going on and action seemed the fastest way to get the information she needed.   Brendan failed to hide his pity when Julia glanced his way.  They all knew what this meant.  She just didn’t see how standing around staring into a hole in a marred alien landscape was going to help anything.

“I’m going down.  What do you think?”

Brendan knew she wasn’t talking about whether she should, but rather what the safest way of doing it was.  Debating the matter was pointless and he knew it.  Julia waited impatiently while he thought through all possible scenarios. “Tie off to Rescue one, fly up, get lowered into the hole.  There’s just one problem.”

“And?”

“You’re the pilot.”

“Major, can you meet me at Rescue one, please?”

“On my way.”

“Now, we have a pilot.” Julia met Brendan’s nod with one of her own before turning on her heel and heading back to her glider.

Major Dawson was waiting at the base of Rescue one’s ramp with Kate at his side, and a curious expression on his pleasant face.

“I need you to hover Rescue one over that hole and lower me in.”

“Ahh…” Major Dawson stared wide-eyed and speechless at Julia, the word crazy lingering in the corners of his mouth. “You sure that’s a good idea?”

Perhaps she was a little crazy, the jury was still out.  Her head might not be a safe neighborhood to take a stroll in right now; but she
was
working on a time-efficient plan to reclaim their team.

“Well, normally I’d use a chopper for this kind of thing, but since we don’t have one of those, we’ll have to improvise.”

“Right then.” Major Dawson marched up the ramp and into the cockpit, while Julia got equipment down from the cargo nets above the bench seats in the rear cabin and passed them to Kate.

“I’ll tie off under the starboard wing.  Then you take the slack until I’m about ten feet off the ground, hover over the hole and lower me in.”

“Sounds simple enough.”

“Why make it complicated?” Julia asked without looking up.  The buckles of her harness refusing to co-operate with her shaking fingers. “The sooner we get them out, the sooner we’ll know what they need.”

Levi was approaching the glider when she walked down the ramp wearing a headlamp and carrying a hank of climbing rope.  The look of resignation on his face told her Brendon had brought him up to speed.