Second Contact (Okal Rel Saga #1)

Chapter 15.2 - When in Rome

Maybe it was the sword, which seemed to symbolize authority for Gelacks, or maybe the kiss was restorative. Whatever it was, Von snapped into action on Ann's command. She caught up with him as he opened a hatch on the bottom of the rel-fighter and stood back.

"You're coming?" she double-checked, suspicious.

He dashed off, calling back urgently, "Go!"

Ann nearly grabbed for him, but her nervous lungs held her back — they wanted out of the airlock. She stuck her head up the dark, almost vertical tube leading into the rel-fighter. The first question was whether to abandon the sword. But the silly thing was starting to feel like a good luck charm. Ann stuck her wrist through the guard and hoisted herself into the tube with the sword hanging downward along her side.

Her bruised flank let her know how it felt about climbing, but so long as everything worked she ignored her complaining muscles and groped ahead, finding ridges marked by dim light for handholds. The climb was steep enough she had to brace herself against the tube despite the handholds, and her feet slipped off them more than once. Ann paused to blow hair out of her eyes halfway up. There was nothing to be seen above but darkness that soaked up the dull glow of the handholds.

Ann feared her bruised leg would give out if she rested too long and she wondered, now, why she had brought the sword and whether she should let it fall. The distinct sound of an airlock beginning its cycle made her heart stop.

Von! She thought, afraid she was hearing him defecting back to H'Reth. No! she reassured herself, afraid to lose him and afraid to be alone. He is under Lurol's compulsion to lead H'Reth down the jump. Unless, of course, he had figured out it couldn't possibly have any impact on his past and had reverted to cowering in a lump.

Hands covered Ann's bruised buttocks from below, shoving her higher up the tube. She yelped in surprise.

"Sorry!" Von's silvery voice rose from below as his hands withdrew. "I needed room."

"I could get used to it," she told him, feeling better.

She heard the mechanical sigh of a sealing hatch.

"Can you keep going?" Von asked.

Ann looked up. There was no end in sight. She wished she had left the dumb sword outside, especially since it was now pointing down at Von.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I feel all quivery."

The next thing she knew he was sliding between her legs, carefully avoiding H'Reth's sword. His face, in the glow of the hand holds, was absorbed, but he moved with such casual precision that she doubted it took all his concentration for the task at hand. Physically, he was so confident it reassured her somehow, and his vanilla musk, mingled with the smell of his leather clothes, refreshed her spirits like a mild drug. As his hips passed, she repressed the impulse to indulge in a possessive hug. The snug leather of his flight pants felt more exciting than nakedness where they touched.

He climbed past her and vanished into darkness above. She was gearing up to shift her own grip once more, when he reached down from the top. At first, all she saw was his reaching hand, then Von, above, with his feet braced over the opening at the top. The interior of the rel-fighter was awash in a pale gray light that came from the lining of its inner hull. He was wreathed in it, like an angel.

Ann sacrificed her grip to clasp his hand. He caught her other hand above the dangling sword and hauled her up as smoothly as an elevator, then he set her on her feet with an arm around her while he reached for an unseen control that sealed the opening they had come through.