The Lost Star: The Complete Series, page 11
“Make contact when you’re out.” With that, Harvey signed off.
Hunter began to grin, then stopped.
He realized something. Not once had Harvey asked where Ava was. Maybe Harvey had no idea she was in this section, but B’cal would have told him, surely.
Which left another uncomfortable possibility.
Hunter found his stomach knotting as he thought about it, a cold sweat prickling between his shoulders.
The rational part of his mind told him he was jumping to conclusions. The irrational, passionate side couldn’t push away the fear Harvey wasn’t concerned about Ava.
As Hunter’s stomach clenched even harder at that thought, he couldn’t stop himself from appreciating the irony.
Literally half an hour ago, he’d been certain Ava was the enemy.
Now….
“Come on.” She shifted forward, flexed her wrists, then locked her hands on the floor. “Where should we head?”
He didn’t tell her he wanted to stay right here and finish the conversation they’d just started.
She had to get out of here, and her right armlet had to be cleaned of neural liquid.
So he assessed the map Harvey had sent him and made some quick calculations.
Then he winced. “I’m sorry, Ava, but it’s going to take at least ten minutes of crawling to get out of here. Are your wrists going to hold up?”
“I’ll be fine.”
He couldn’t stop himself from chuckling lightly. “You’re meant to be weak, Ensign Ava, so how come you’re turning out to be so strong?” He had no idea where that comment had come from. It had sprung from his lips before he’d thought it through.
Now it hung there in the air.
Slowly she shifted and glanced at him. He could just make out those little pale blue halos of light around her pupils. He found himself wanting to get closer to study them in full.
“True strength doesn’t have anything to do with how much you can lift,” she noted as she turned and kept shuffling forward. “It’s to do with how much you can withstand without breaking.”
Her quiet words sent a tingle down his back as he followed her down the tunnel.
…
Ava
There was too much to think about.
The passionate Hunter McClane kept revealing facts she couldn’t ignore.
Meva had lied to him about Avixan society. Worse, apparently she frequently took her bangles off.
Unless under exceptional medical circumstances, a non-priestess was never meant to remove their bangles.
They weren’t mere adornments. They were locks. While they did not function the same way as Ava’s – holding her completely off from her powers – they could be activated.
Should an Avixan forget the most sacred rule and begin using their powers to rule and destroy, a priestess could activate their locks, and the offending Avixan would fall unconscious into a specialized stasis that could only be broken by a priestess.
All Avixans wore locks, not just as a constant reminder of what they should not become, but as an insurance measure, lest they ignored all decency and became devils once more.
As for the fact Meva had obviously been lying to Hunter, that was a different matter.
Avixans considered sharing information about their society a crime for one reason and one reason alone: so the truth did not come out. They couldn’t let the modern Milky Way know what they’d once been. Devils. Murderers. Vicious conquerors.
Meva had not breathed a word of this true reality, so technically, she’d committed no crime.
“Hey, you’ve gone all quiet,” Hunter said gently from in front of her, twisting over his shoulder to check on her. “You okay?”
She nodded.
She was not okay.
She didn’t know what to do.
Technically she could contact the Avixan government and share her suspicions with them, but she didn’t have any evidence, just hearsay.
She’d need evidence to have Meva extradited back to Avixa. Not just because her case wouldn’t stick, but on moral grounds, too. Putting aside the fact Meva hated her, Ava couldn’t get her extradited if she’d done nothing wrong. In all likelihood, Meva’s unusual behavior was just a reaction to her freedom. The same freedom Ava was now trying to enjoy.
“What are you thinking about? It’s… not what I told you about Meva, right? Look, I think I might have made a mistake; I shouldn’t have shared that information. You’re not gonna… get her in trouble, right?”
Hunter plucked her problem right out of her head and laid it before her.
She had to make a decision now.
She took a breath and found herself shaking her head. “No.”
“… You’re not actually lying, are you?” he asked after a few seconds of peering at her intently.
His observation threw her, and she blinked hard. “Sorry?”
“I think I’m the one who should be sorry, Ava. I’ve judged you too harshly.”
“I… oh…” she trailed off, her head dropping down as she gazed at her hands.
He chuckled lightly. “You’re not usually lost for words. I guess that was one of the reasons you, ah, irritated me so much.” He gave another bashful chuckle as he massaged the back of his neck. “You always seem so calm and in control. Nothing fazes you. Nothing scares you.”
“There’s plenty that scares me,” she answered in such a quiet tone, her voice could barely carry. Her gaze sliced naturally towards her armlets. When she looked up, she realized Hunter had followed her gaze.
He looked pointedly from her armlets to her face. “I guess there is. I misjudged you. I’m sorry.” He stopped and reached a hand out to her. “Friends?” His direct gaze took on a strange quality as he stared right into her eyes.
She didn’t take his hand.
He grinned awkwardly. “I’m not going to bite. It’s okay – you can shake it.”
“I don’t want to kill you.” He’d reached his left hand out towards her right hand. She pulled up her right arm and pointed to the insulation.
He gave an embarrassed wince. “Sorry about that.” He dropped his hand.
On instinct, an odd energy playing through the pit of her belly, she pulled up her left hand and held it out.
She said nothing.
He hesitated for the briefest moment.
Then he reached out and locked his firm, hard fingers around her own.
They shook hands.
There was energy behind the move, and a prickly heat spread through her chest.
Suddenly his WD beeped. He jolted back, clearly not expecting the distraction. “Yeah?” he answered.
“Where are you?” it was Captain McClane.
“Still in the tunnels, Harv. We’re almost out.”
“We?” Captain McClane questioned.
Hunter’s lips drew together in an unmistakably angry move. She’d honestly seen enough of the wrong side of Lieutenant Hunter McClane’s anger to recognize it easily.
“Ensign Ava’s here with me. I assumed you knew,” Hunter said. Then he mouthed something.
Most wouldn’t have been able to pick it up. Ava could. As his lips moved harshly over his lips, he mouthed, “Though you didn’t ask.”
There was a long pause. “That’s good to know. How long until you get out of there?”
Hunter didn’t answer right away. He jerked his head to the side and stiffened his jaw. “Not what you should be asking, Harv,” he whispered.
“Lieutenant?” the captain prompted.
“She’s holding up great considering the circumstances, but she is injured,” Hunter replied, even though the captain hadn’t asked that.
There was another considerable pause from the captain’s end.
Even though she was just guessing, it seemed uncomfortable.
“Yeah, she’s injured her wrists again,” Hunter continued in the kind of tone that suggested he was responding to a question.
A question that had never been asked.
“We’re also going to need a decon team. She got some neural liquid on one of her armlets. I’ve cleared away as much as I can and covered the armlet with insulation. But it’s still going to have to be cleaned.”
“Right,” Captain McClane eventually answered. “I’ll relay the message to the chief.”
“Hmm,” Hunter grunted. “We’re about three minutes away.” With that, Hunter ended the transmission.
She stared at him in shock. “What was that about?”
Hunter shifted his jaw around. “Sometimes Harv needs to be reminded of what really matters. I’m sorry, Ava.”
“What are you sorry for?”
“Your captain shouldn’t have forgotten about you,” Hunter blurted, looking at her meaningfully from under his crumpled brow.
“It’s okay.”
“Maybe to you, but not to me. Anyhow, I guess we should push on. The sooner we get you up and off your wrists, the better.”
She nodded, another strand of hair cutting in front of her face.
He automatically leaned forward, bare chest brushing against her left arm as he tucked it into her bun. “Come on,” he said in a strange tone when he finished.
She followed him.
She was sure not to look at his naked torso.
She knew humans were not as free with their bodies as Avixans. Nudity was not an issue within Avixan society. Humans found great indignity in baring their skin.
So, though her gaze kept slipping back to the hard, muscled line of his back, she determinedly returned her eyes to the floor.
Those three minutes flew past in a flash.
Finally they found a hatch.
“Hold on,” she said before he could open it.
Carefully, she began removing her tunic top.
His eyes widened, gaze snapping down to her chest. “Ah, what are you doing?” he choked.
“It’s okay. I have a singlet on underneath. You can have my tunic top.” It was hard undressing with only one arm. She’d have to be extremely careful when pulling her arm out of her right sleeve. But she knew she could do it without the fabric touching her armlet.
“It’s okay, Ava,” his words were still choked for some reason.
“I understand humans aren’t comfortable with showing bare skin. Please, you can use this.” She reached her right sleeve and found it was much harder to wriggle out of it than she’d accounted for.
“It won’t fit, and it’s okay,” he chuckled.
“No, but I—”
He kept chuckling.
He had a nice chuckle. Light. Melodious.
“Just stop before you get stuck.” He gently pulled her top back over her head.
Then he rested back on his haunches and laughed again.
She couldn’t tell if he was laughing at her, but it certainly didn’t seem derogatory.
“Come on.” He tilted his head towards the hatch. As he broke her gaze and turned to the hatch, his eyes lingered on her for a few seconds.
Then, with a cough, he opened the hatch and clambered out.
There were already people in the corridor - B’cal and a few other engineers.
B’cal took one look at Hunter’s naked torso and cleared his throat. “I’m not even going to ask.”
Hunter visibly flushed. “I used my top to soak up the neural gel on her armlet. It was the only thing at hand absorbent enough.”
B’cal shrugged. “Well, that does make sense. Anyhow, where’s my gel leak?”
Ava hesitated, then proffered her arm.
B’cal raised an eyebrow. He pursed his lips together and whistled. “Those armlets of yours save the day again, ha? One of these days you’re going to have to tell me what they’re made of. Most metal would have been eaten away within a few minutes of exposure to neural gel.”
She didn’t say anything.
She couldn’t.
“Anyhow, come here.” B’cal plucked a scanner from his belt and waved it over her armlet. He nodded. “Damn, it’s holding up alright. The residual neuro gel hasn’t eaten through it. Hasn’t even dented it as far as I can tell.” He whistled through his teeth.
“So there is residual gel?” Hunter blurted.
“Sure is. Only so much you can mop up with a lieutenant’s top. We’re going to have to clear the rest back in a decon room. In any other circumstance, I wouldn’t advise walking, but you seem fine.” He nodded at her. “So let’s go.”
“Wait, is that safe?” Hunter blurted again.
“Relax, Lieutenant – you’ve done a pretty good job containing any residual gel with that insulation. She’ll be fine to walk. And frankly, considering the state this ship’s in, it’ll be quicker. So come on.”
She pushed off, and Hunter walked beside her.
B’cal arched his eyebrow. “Lieutenant, you might want to take the opportunity to nip back to your quarters and put on a top.”
Hunter cleared his throat.
He looked at her once more before reluctantly pushing off into a sprint.
He’d changed.
Quickly.
When he’d argued with her this morning, she’d been ready to write him off.
Now she was starting to realize he was a decent man. Maybe something even more….
“Keep your arm steady. Don’t go banging it into anything,” B’cal warned from beside her. “Luckily for us, a decon room is close.”
She nodded.
They reached the room at the end of the deck. By the time she’d walked inside, somehow Hunter was back.
B’cal narrowed his eyes and looked at him warily. “How did you run back to your quarters so quickly?”
Though Hunter was puffed, he didn’t look as if he’d run the more than kilometer expanse of the Mandalay.
“I ran to the armory,” Hunter explained as he quickly caught his breath. Then he nodded at her. “Have you cleaned it yet?”
“We haven’t even begun,” B’cal snorted. “Some of us aren’t as fast as you.”
“Well, what do you need?” Hunter asked hurriedly.
“Nothing. This should be relatively simple,” B’cal mumbled.
It wasn’t simple.
…
Lieutenant Hunter McClane
Something wasn’t right. He didn’t need to rely on the sinking feeling pushing through his gut – he could see it in B’cal’s pressed stare.
After several minutes of trying, Ava seated on a metal bench, her elbow and wrist locked in place by robotic arms, B’cal took a sharp step back. “There’s only one thing for it. We’re going to have to remove the armlet.”
Ava stiffened, her head tucking low as she snapped her gaze away from B’cal.
“I know, I know – you’re not allowed to. Don’t worry. I’ve met enough Avixans to know this isn’t the done thing. But unless we do it, your life’s going to be in danger. I have no idea how long your armlet is going to hold up against the gel, but it won’t be able to do it forever.”
Ava withdrew into a pressured silence, her gaze locked on the opposite wall.
“She can’t remove it,” Hunter found himself rising to her defense automatically. “Apparently they don’t come off.”
“What?” B’cal frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“There’s a note on her file. Look it up.”
B’cal didn’t waste time. He looked up her file on a holographic panel.
He pushed a breath through his thin lips. “I really don’t see any way around this. Ensign, your file says we shouldn’t try to remove them, but—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish. At that moment, Harvey and Shera walked in.
Ava’s gaze locked on Shera so quickly it was a surprise her purple eyes didn’t spring from her head.
Her breathing became short, her chest barely shifting as it seemed she devoted all attention to watching Shera.
Harvey drew to a stop and nodded at B’cal. “I was informed we have a potential neural gel contamination. Have you cleaned it?”
B’cal looked uncomfortable as he shook his head. “The contamination is on one of her armlets. I’m not sure why, but I can’t clean it with standard procedures. Nothing’s working.”
“Then remove the armlet and dispose of it,” Harvey ordered easily.
“We can’t remove it,” Hunter interrupted at once.
“Why not?” Harvey challenged. “I’m well aware of Avixan protocol around their ceremonial wrist bands. However, considering the direct danger this poses to my ship, I’m ordering you to take it off.”
“I understand, Captain, but there’s a note on her file saying we shouldn’t attempt to remove it,” B’cal said diplomatically.
“Ensign, explain this to us. How do we remove your armlet?” Harvey demanded.
Ava couldn’t look at him. As she sat there, her face became blotchy, and she drummed her left hand against the metal table in a flighty, nervous move.
She was barely breathing.
“Ensign,” Harvey snapped.
Hunter’s hackles rose. “Captain, I don’t think this is that simple,” he said through bared teeth. What he really wanted to say was Harvey was completely out of line.
“Fine. Lieutenant Commander,” Harvey turned to Shera, “how do we remove that armlet?”
Shera hadn’t looked away from Ava once. Her expression was enough to curdle his blood.
“You can’t remove the armlet. I suppose you could chop her arm off.”
Hunter lurched, his limbs jolting at the mere suggestion. “What the hell?”
“You do that, and it’ll kill me,” Ava said in the smallest voice imaginable. Finally she turned and looked right at Shera.
“Sorry, Ensign?” Harvey demanded.
As Ava looked at Shera, something happened. The terror that had been pulsing through Ava’s gaze seconds before hardened. “If you attempt to remove them in any way or chop my arm off, you will kill me,” for the first time, she spoke loudly and directly, all the time staring at Shera. “Which is something you already know, Lieutenant Commander.”
“I would watch your tone,” Harvey snapped almost immediately.
Shera didn’t move a muscle.
“Are you serious? It’ll kill you?” Hunter asked.
Ava nodded.
Harvey still looked angry, but Hunter could see as he cast a nervous glance from Ava to Shera. “Is she telling the truth?”
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