ë Archer - Chain Reaction

“Calling this food is an exercise in wishful thinking.” Using his fork, Nils prodded at what was supposed to replicate Nivalian stew. Aside from the name, and perhaps a few protein configurations, the substance on the plate had nothing in common with actual Nivalian stew, which was normally a delicious combination of long-braised rindroast and early-Solstice root vegetables.

Against her better judgment, Celene took a bite of the “stew.” She shuddered at the flavor, but forced herself to swallow. “We’ve got to eat this stuff, though. Nutrients are nutrients, no matter how appalling they taste. We need as much energy as our bodies can produce, now more than ever.”

Nils’s expression darkened. “Getting to the most dangerous phase of the mission.”

“Junior cadets make their mistakes right about now.” She took a drink of filtered water to get the taste out of her mouth. “They think the finish line is closer than it really is, get overconfident and wind up blown to asteroid dust.” Memories flickered like vids, far too clearly for her liking. She wouldn’t mind a little static when it came to watching some of her comrades cross over into the heavens. It usually wasn’t a pleasant and easy crossing, either. Fighter pilots met violent, messy ends. The best one could hope for was instantaneous vaporization. The worst… She’d seen the worst. And even years later, it still made her skin clammy and her throat close.

“There are times for confidence,” Nils said. “Not arrogance. Not when lives are at stake.”

“Your own,” she noted.

“And others’.” He frowned down at his plate. “So many are counting on us to complete this mission. If I fail—”

“We will succeed.”

His gaze held hers. “Is it always this way with you?”

“What way?”

“As if the galaxy’s already yours. All you need to do is reach out and grab it.”

She snorted. “We already know my swagger only goes so far.”

His hand covered hers. The feel of his skin against hers sent warmth along her arm and spreading through her. “You can overcome anything. Even your own fear.”

Her breath came quickly. She felt as though she were struggling to climb one of the towering cliffs of Zevi Lo. But the fall seemed so much greater.

Then he turned her hand over, so that they were pressed palm to palm. Trailed his fingers along her wrist, and he had to feel her pulse stuttering beneath his touch.

Her gaze moved from this sight to his eyes. Intelligent eyes, revealing more than brains, but strength, courage. And a depth of emotion that nearly robbed her of all air. He held nothing back from her.

He wanted her. All of her. And she wanted him.

They were on a distant, barren moon. The most dangerous phase of the mission loomed. It was time for her to jettison fear.

Wrapping her fingers around his wrist, she pulled him near. His eyes widened briefly, but his surprise didn’t last. She felt the coils of tension and power in his muscles, the fact that he had enough strength to resist her, but he didn’t. At her tug, he yielded, moving close. They leaned over the table, and their mouths met.

She could’ve been dining on a meal prepared by the celebrated Aurelian master chefs, drinking the finest roxowine. Nothing tasted better than Nils. She sank into the kiss, his flavor filling her mouth, exploring the new territory of their shared desire and her unfettered heart. Keeping one hand pressed to his, she wove the fingers of her other hand through his hair, holding him close. Yet he wasn’t pulling away. He seemed to want only one thing: to take her mouth as she took his.

His lips shaped hers, and mutual need deepened the kiss. Full and hungry, they learned taste and heat and energy, their tongues stroking against one another.

This kiss was unmasked, not shaped by the excitement after battle. It revealed need and desire, the pull of two bodies. More than bodies, for she felt a greater yearning beneath physical want. As Nils brought his free hand up to cup the underside of her jaw, as she leaned into him, she sensed their release, two constrained souls breaking free of gravity and wheeling amongst the possibility of one another.

She wanted more. Shedding the armor of Stainless Jur and her own trepidation lightened her. Her limbs felt buoyant, capable of flight. Abruptly, she stood, breaking the kiss.

His fever-bright gaze burned, and he reached for her. With an agility born from years of training, she evaded his grasp, sliding from his hands. He made a growl of protest, but the sound cut off when he saw her shove the remains of their meal off the table. Nimbly, she perched on the edge.

He was an intelligent man. He rose and positioned himself to stand between her legs. The harsh light within the Phantom carved his face into even sharper angles, and the fire that blazed in his eyes was directed not at an engineering challenge or logic problem, but her. He might be NerdWorks’ finest, but he was also a man. A man who wanted her.

“Lucid dreaming,” he rumbled, his large hands clasping her waist. “I uploaded texts about it to my digitablet, but no matter how hard I tried, I could never shape my dreams.”

“I never dream,” she answered. “Just fall into my bunk and the next thing I know, it’s time to get up and go on patrol.” When her squad mates discussed their dreams over morning cups of kahve, she always kept silent, wondering what it would be like to visit impossible places, do impossible things. Her life kept her firmly grounded, as if the dreaming part of her mind simply refused to emerge, lest she wish for what could never be.

His voice was rough, so different from the controlled Engineering Corps member she had encountered in the briefing room on base. “Countless times, I wished for this very dream. You and me. The taste of you on my mouth. The feel of you beneath my hands.”

“I can pinch you,” she offered. “So you know you’re awake.”

A corner of his mouth tilted. “My consciousness right now is not under debate.” His hips pressed snug against hers, and the feel of the thick, hard shape of his cock sent waves of need through her.

She dug her fingers into his taut shoulders, urging him even closer. Their lips came together, hot and demanding. For a man who needed delicacy from his hands, he gripped her waist with a strength that skirted the edges of pain, as if concerned she might turn to smoke. Yet she reveled in the power of his grasp, holding him just as tightly.

As they kissed, hunger grew. Sensation gathered in her breasts, between her legs, lighting her nerves like a thousand stars. She moved her hips against his. His sharp inhalation drew breath from her mouth, and she moved again. It was only an echo of what could be, muted by the layers of fabric between them, yet even this contact sent hot shivers of pleasure through her.

Clever as he was, he followed her lead, his hips surging against hers. He rubbed his length along her, both a tease and fulfillment. The heat of him scorched. Her body responded, and she could feel lush slickness between her legs.

“This is real.” He growled. “Even if I had been able to dream of this, it couldn’t match the actuality.”

When he lifted his hand to cup her breast, she moaned. And when he circled his thumb around her nipple, drawing it into a tight point, her moan deepened, becoming almost animal.

More. She needed more. She leaned back, until she lay atop the table. Nils stretched over her, his straining body covering hers, and she reveled in the sensation of his weight pressing her down. They both knew that, trained in combat though he was, she could have him flat on his back and helpless in microseconds. Yet her willing ceding of control ignited them both.

They moved against each other. Even with the uniforms between them, she felt the gleaming edge of release coalesce, drawing nearer. It seemed impossible. The last time she’d reached a climax from simply touching, she had been a restless teenager in the cockpit of a local boy’s dustcruiser. Too much experience had happened between then and now for her to be this aroused. And yet she was.

What she wanted, what she needed, was Nils. Inside of her. Erasing the boundaries between them.

She pulled at the fastenings of his uniform. “Strip,” she rasped against his mouth. “Let me feel you.”

“Last I checked, we’re the same rank. Can’t give me orders.”

“Then, as one lieutenant to another, I strongly suggest you get naked.”

His grin was both boyish and wicked. “Having taken your suggestion under advisement, I concur that it’s the wisest course of action.”

They smiled at one another before they both attacked the fastenings on his uniform. An alarm shrilled through the ship, and their fingers froze. An instant later, she pushed upright and went for her blaster.

Nils’s hand covered hers, keeping her weapon holstered. “It’s all right.”

“If that’s PRAXIS—”

He shook his head. “After I made the mods to the ship, I set up an alarm to notify us when the ideal time to approach Marek’s planet arrived.”

“And that time is now.”

He groaned. “Seems like we’re always being interrupted.”

“Missions don’t care if we’re about to get naked.” Her words were flip, but true disappointment cut her right down the middle. She’d been so ready to let down the final boundaries between them. To create true intimacy, the kind she’d never before experienced.

She prayed to the many gods of the Starfield that she and Nils would get their chance.

As much as Nils despised Marek, he had to admit his former colleague had shown ample intelligence when selecting a hideout. The small planet appeared thick with dense vegetation, huge stretches of land covered by tangles of jungle. Not all civilizations were visible from thousands of miles up, but he ran scan after scan and found scarcely any sign of sentient habitation. Aside from Marek, the only indications of culture came in the form of isolated encampments. Further scanning proved that the encampments consisted of a few primitive huts and nothing more.

He and Celene would have to avoid these settlements, in case any of the inhabitants had a connection to Marek and alerted him to their presence.

“We’re going to have to trek in to Marek’s compound,” he said as they approached the planet. “If we land too close, he’ll be able to detect us.”

“In all your training, you ever deal with bushcraft?”

“Some,” he admitted. “Mostly, I’ve read texts. You?”

“Used to go camping on my homeworld. But,” she added, “I haven’t been on my homeworld in decades.”

“The sightless piloting the sightless.”

He stared out the front window of the Phantom as Celene carefully guided the Phantom to a good landing site. As they drew closer to the surface, he noted the massive size of the trees, tall as buildings, with wide trunks and long, twisting branches. Seeing through the canopy to the ground below proved difficult, but he occasionally caught glimpses of forest floor bisected by green rivers. They were still too far up to get a sense of animal life, though bright-colored, avian-like creatures burst from the trees and wheeled in the sky as Celene located a clearing and began to lower the ship.

Despite the narrow confines of the clearing, she brought the Phantom down effortlessly. Not a single tree branch was disturbed or broken. He could see how easily legends about her formed. She did almost everything with faultless skill. Yet he possessed tangible proof that Celene wasn’t a legend, but a real woman of heart and flesh.

The increase of his heartbeat’s rhythm came not just from landing on an alien planet’s surface, but remembering what had transpired between him and Celene less than an hour ago. The honesty they had shared. The heat of their bodies. The brutal demand that transformed him completely. With just a few memories of her legs around his hips, his cock stirred, and his hunger returned on sharp claws. He’d been moments away from making love to her atop the galley table, and wanted to take her back there now.

He forced all of this away. Many geomiles of unexplored jungle stood between them and Marek, and when they did finally reach the traitor, they’d have to breach his security measures, destroy the plans for the Wraith disruption device, capture Marek, and find their way back.

The Phantom touched down. A gentle shake rocked the ship as it settled onto terra firma. Celene exhaled at the landing.

“Another perfect landing,” he said.