Wreck of the Nebula Dream (22 page)

“Oh stop that,” Mara said with resignation, watching Nick. “Pick your head up for a minute and I’ll sit down. You can use my lap for a pillow.”

“No arguments, ma’am, not from me,” Nick agreed drowsily.

“Khevan, go check out those two locked doors, at the far end,” Mara ordered. “See if there’s anywhere better for him to stretch out than this damn bench.”

The Brother nodded, walked away, Twilka shadowing him. A few minutes later, Nick heard the crunch of shattering wood as the Brother evidently smashed open the doors in question.

The D’nvannae came striding back. “There’s a small storeroom and an office at the end of this observation deck. Let’s get him in there. He can sleep on the couch.”

Khevan and Mara supported Nick as he stumbled the short distance to the office.

Mara sat first, patting the cushions beside her invitingly. Once he had sunk onto the soft piece of furniture, she pulled him to lie down as much as possible, using her lap as a pillow. Gently, Mara massaged the back of Nick’s neck and his upper shoulders, which were cramped up tight with tension, radiating pain. He winced as her hands strayed to the injured shoulder. Apologizing, she rubbed the tight muscles, humming a few bars of some catchy tune over and over under her breath, to keep the rhythm of her hands even and soothing.

Nick drowsed a bit, knowing Khevan was on guard in the outer observatory.
 

It hardly seemed any time at all before there was a knock and Khevan stuck his head into the office. “How are we doing? Can we move out yet?”

Nick tried to sit up. “Yeah, I’m ready –”

Mara pushed him back, shaking her head at Khevan. “He’s still shaky. Maybe if we’d had an adrenephix inject –”

Lips compressed, forehead lined, Khevan’s expression was grim. He hefted his blaster and stared at them silently for a minute. “I’ll check with you in another half hour. We can’t stay here much longer.”

“Are the children doing okay?” Mara asked, as he went to pull the door closed on its broken hinges.

“They’re fine. The Lady Damais sits with them.” Khevan left.

Mara sighed heavily but didn’t resume her massage. Reaching up, Nick took her hand. “Don’t stop, I liked it. Soothing.”

“Oh, well, if you’re sure.” Mara blushed. “How’s your head?”

“Hurts some, but I’ll make it.” Favoring his shoulder, he sat up and grimaced. “How are you doing?”

“Honestly?”

He nodded.

Avoiding his gaze, she drew circles on the couch cushion with her fingertip. “I’m scared.”

“You don’t show it much.” He gave her a hug.

Mara nestled into the warmth of his body. “If I give in to the fear, I’ll lose control. I won’t be able to do what needs to be done.”

“And you don’t let yourself give less than one hundred percent, do you?” Nick studied her face. “You dedicated your all to Loxton’s contracts and negotiations –”

“They gave me a chance to make something of myself. I’m from a poor Inner Sectors planet originally. I got a low-level job with them right out of school and learned the shipping business. They sent me to their own university. Promotions came pretty fast because I worked hard. I’m good at it.”

Nick lowered his head to hers and stopped the conversation with a slow, simmering kiss.

When he pulled away, Mara was blushing but met his eyes steadily. “No one has ever made me feel the way you do, Nick. Right from the first time you tripped over me at the spaceport on Glideon. I felt this electricity. I wanted to sit next to you and find out all there was to know about you, right then.”

Nuzzling her cheek, feathering kisses along her jawbone, he whispered, “Why didn’t you?”

She blushed again, averting her gaze. “I’m shy.”
 

What did she just say to me? Someone who negotiates huge contracts for Loxton is shy?
He turned her head to him with one gentle hand.

“No, really, I am. When it’s about the business, when it’s for Loxton, I can be a barracuda. When it’s about me, I – I’m awkward, clumsy.”

“Not with me, Mara, never with me,” he said softly. “You’re beautiful and smart and brave.” He lowered his head to hers. “I never expected to meet a woman like you.” He kissed her gently at first, but then his tongue was probing at her lips, seeking entry. She opened to him, arms going around his neck.

The embrace lasted for a long moment, before Nick regretfully pulled away.
 

Making a needy sound deep in her throat, Mara tried to recapture his lips, pulling him closer.

Holding her, Nick stared into her eyes. “I want to make love to you right here, right now, more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

Her eyes were big and luminous, her lips bruised from their kiss. “Probably not a good idea.”

He looked at the door. “Right, damn it. This is not the time or the place.”
 

As if punctuating his words, there was shouting from the observatory. Nick grabbed his blaster and, wrenching the door the rest of the way off the hinges, was gone from the office. Mara hurried behind him.

Nick stared, blaster in hand. Khevan was standing beside Lady Damais, who was holding the girl on her lap. “What’s the matter? Where’s Twilka? Where’s Paolo?”

“Gianna, honey, where did your brother go?” Mara asked softly.

“Paolo said he messed up by not telling Nick he heard noises when we were in the hold. He said he heard you talking about Nick needing a medkit. Paolo knew where one was, so he left to go get it. He said he’d only be a few minutes,” Gianna explained, probably not understanding exactly what the adults were so upset about. “He wants to help the captain, like he’s been helping us.”

“Paolo had a nice idea, sweetheart, but we have to stay together right now,” Mara answered.

Nick rubbed his face. “Lords, I could use some coffee. Or a stim inject.”

“Well, evidently Paolo went to get one for you,” Mara informed him tersely. “And Twilka chased after him.”

“And neither has returned,” Khevan said.

“Lords of Space, what in the Seven Hells is that?” Mara’s question came on a sharply indrawn breath. She was staring past the two men and out the observatory shielding.

Khevan wheeled, scanning the sky. Nick stared in the direction she was pointing as well, but for a moment there was nothing out of the ordinary.

“What did –” Nick started to ask as a trio of sleek spacecraft sped by overhead. “Pirate kite fighters! We’re in trouble now. We’ve got to get out of here, find the boy and Twilka, and get to the shuttle bay. Our odds just fell from bad to worse.”

Like a person confronting a venomous snake, Mara was staring out the great expanse of the viewing bay in fascination. Three sleek spacecraft were flying formation with the drifting
Nebula Dream
. The pirates had evidently overshot the space liner on their first pass, which is when Mara had seen them go by, and had now flown past again to check the ship’s condition more thoroughly.

Nick swept Mara off the bench and behind it, crouching as low as they could get. Khevan had gone to assist Lady Damais and Gianna in seeking the same inadequate cover behind their bench.

“Can they see us?” Mara whispered, a few inches from Nick’s ear.

“I don’t know. Shemdylann pirates aren’t sophisticated in their technology, but they kill well enough. We have to get out of here.” Nick looked over at Khevan. “You ready to make a move?”

The Brother nodded.

Suddenly the
Nebula Dream
shuddered, lurching under their feet. A terrific grinding and screaming of tortured metal came from somewhere above and to the starboard of the observatory.

“Docking.” Nick’s pronouncement was grim.

“The pirates’ main ship? Here so soon?” Khevan was disbelieving.

Nick nodded. “Breaking through the bridge bulkheads with probes and docking to the
Dream.
We’re out of time, people. Move it!”

Grabbing Mara by the hand, his blaster drawn, Nick made for the stairs. Khevan, also with his blaster at the ready, indicated for Damais and Gianna to precede him. Nick stayed close to the bulkhead of the observatory, working his way to the stairs. Khevan glanced up through the clear canopy. The three kite fighters stayed locked in their position, holding a stationary orbit with the
Dream
.

“I imagine they know we are here,” he told Nick in the stairwell.

“Maybe, maybe not. They may not be scanning. There are obviously going to be some people left on board. Not enough lifeboats floating out there. Even a Shemdylann will be able to do the calculation. The pirates will want to consolidate their control of the ship as fast as possible, then go through it at their leisure. We’ve got a few minutes to get the hell off this level, down the grav lift, and into the shuttle bay,” Nick said. He rubbed his hand across his forehead for a moment, wearily.
 

“But Paolo? And Twilka?” Mara demanded. “We can’t leave them!”

“I don’t intend to,” Nick was calm, in command, no matter how miserable his body felt as an aftereffect of the fastlink episode. “Where exactly did the boy think he had seen a medkit, does anyone know?”

“Gianna?” Mara drew out the child’s name. “Did your brother tell you where he saw the medkit?”

“When my mommy and daddy came to the casino the first time, my mommy fainted. She was going to have a baby, you know,” Gianna confided, clutching her big stuffed bear.

The adults exchanged glances.

Gianna chatted on. “Daddy said sometimes, when a mommy is going to have a baby, she faints. Mommy told us they took her to a doctor right here by the casino. Paolo went there.” Her tone implied it should have been an obvious conclusion, even to adults.

“A doctor – sick bay?” Nick wracked his brain, trying to remember where on this level a medical office might be located. “Anyone know where –?”

“There is a clinic on this same level,” Mara said. “I remember their mother telling me about it the next morning at breakfast. It’s at the far side of the casino, across from where we are now, by the cashiers and the casino manager’s office.”

Not great, but at least I have a general idea where to search.
Nick squared his shoulders. “All right, this is what we’re going to do. I’m going after Twilka and Paolo. Khevan –”

But the Brother was protesting already. “You are not well-enough recovered. I’ll go after the boy, and Twilka. It is my duty. I was supposed to be on guard and I left my post, which is what allowed Paolo to make his well-intentioned but foolish run, with Twilka right behind.”

“Can you fly a shuttle?” Nick asked.

Reluctantly, the Brother nodded.

“Listen, I –” Mara tried to join the conversation between the two men.

“Mara, not now. I need you to stay with Lady Damais and Gianna, please,” Nick cut her off. He didn’t need anymore volunteers for the reconnaissance run, even if she could shoot a blaster decently. “We’ll go through the casino together, as far as the main entrance, separate there. I’ll go to this clinic, probably meet them coming back. The rest of you move as fast as you can to the stairway and get to the next level. Then take the grav lift to Level Eight and pick out a shuttle.”

“Why can’t we take the grav lift directly from this level?” Mara seemed confused by his rapid instructions. “Wouldn’t it be faster?”

Nick shook his head emphatically. “Too close to the short end of the corridor, where the access to the bridge is, remember? The pirates will be coming through the auxiliary ramp any minute, if they haven’t already. We’re out of time,” he said, his voice intense.
What part of this aren’t they getting?
“Take the stairs, get the grav lift at the next level, go to Eight, get a shuttle. Don’t wait for me more than ten minutes under any circumstances. Understood?” He fixed Khevan and Mara equally with a steely glare. “Don’t wait. We aren’t going to be coming if it takes longer than that.”

Khevan nodded. Mara got a better grip on her blaster, staring at the casino beyond, apparently not willing to give even tentative consent to abandoning Nick.

There was another series of loud, metallic bangs from the bridge overhead on the next level.

Nick shepherded his group into the casino, eyes narrowed, doing his best to penetrate the gloom to find any danger before it found them. He took the point position, Mara in the middle. Lady Damais was leaning on her somewhat, but being careful not to block Mara’s blaster hand. Gianna clung to the Lady’s gleaming black skirts with one pudgy hand, bear’s paw firmly in the other.
 

At the entrance, Nick kissed Mara on the cheek, before motioning them curtly to move out into the main corridor and head for the stairs as ordered while he moved quickly through the casino, heading for the clinic.
 

There was no one else moving in the casino. Tripping, Nick almost fell across a dead body.
Easton, the junior attendant from the gym.
He didn’t bother to investigate the cause of death, but moved on as soon as he got his balance.
Nothing I can
do for him, poor bastard
. Hearing voices ahead, Nick slid behind a gaming table lying on its side.

“Don’t ever do a thing like that again,” said a woman, the sternness of her words belied by the light, high pitch.