Dana Cartwright Mission 1: Stiletto (16 page)

“Only partially. If I do not choose an Alphan female as my mate, there is a price to pay.”

Calagura checked the readings again. “You do realize Dana is a hybrid - Enturian/Galaxean?”

Kieran nodded. With his awareness fully restored, he wondered at Calagura’s interest. “Do you disapprove of interracial marriages, Doctor?”

“DOC Cartwright most certainly will. You should be aware that adding Alphan genes to a hybrid could cause complications in your offspring. I just recently attended a conference with a discussion of that very topic.”

“Did she ask for your medical opinion?”

“No, however, Dana is a friend and I worry. Children are not a good idea, unless you go the Enturian method, and the child is conceived in vitro and incubated at a genetics center facility.”

Kieran’s smile vanished. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. “You’re right, of course. It complicates things.” Then he wondered, “Have you seen her personnel file?”

“I have,” Calagura answered. “I am Chief of Staff and, as such, I reviewed her educational accomplishments before we granted her an internship here at MCE. However, her parentage records are sealed. I have no access to those. Only DOC Cartwright knows the details.”

“Did you know that Doctor Garcia, Chief Surgeon aboard
Navitor
has an adoptive brother — also an Enturian/Galaxean hybrid — with the same mismatched eyes.”

Doctor Calagura was intrigued. “How fascinating! She should look him up and compare DNA.”

Kieran decided not to disclose Doctor Garcia’s findings about Dana’s DNA matching. He closed his eyes, instead wondering, “If Dana is a hybrid, might she have been born at — what did you call it — a genetics center on Enturize? They would have records. She wants to know. I promised I’d help, if I could.”

“Quite probably they do...” Calagura nodded. “The Enturians are notorious for sealing the birth records of their dignitaries’ offspring. Overly protective in my opinion, but also a hold-over from pre-Republic days. Maybe the Enturian Ambassador can help?”

Kieran scowled. “Brettes is an ass. I’ve met the man.”

“Most ambassadors are…”The Doctor continued, “I doubt he would help. Birth records are beyond an ambassador’s purview, in any event. The request would have to go through the Master Captain of their Star Service.” Calagura offered Kieran his hand. “Ready to sit up?”

Kieran gladly accepted the help.

“Any discomfort? Do some gentle stretching.” The Doctor watched carefully for signs of distress.

Kieran happily reported, “I feel great.” He was about to take his first steps when there came a rap at the door and Dana entered.

“Just in time, Doctor,” Calagura called, inviting her to stand at Kieran’s right to steady him if needed.

She gladly clutched Kieran’s hand and held her breath as he took his first steps.

“Like new,” Kieran declared, unabashedly. He started to flex and stretch more deeply.

“Gently!” Dana cautioned, “At least for a few days…and not in a diaper…”

He laughed easily. “Feels great.”

She let go of his hand and went to a digitizer, ordering a generic uniform. While she helped Kieran into it, Francis Calagura programmed the android nurses to log off the case.

All at once the intercom sounded. “Doctor Calagura to intake: code green. Doctor Francis Calagura: code green.”

Francis shook Kieran’s hand. “Have to run.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

“Thank your surgeon,” Calagura insisted as he headed for the door with the trio of androids trailing.

Kieran did just that; lavishing kisses upon Dana. “I can’t thank you enough.”

She affixed his voice-badge to the collar of his uniform, standing on her toes to reach. “You still need to rest. No work! Not until tomorrow.”

He nodded agreement. “How about food? I’m famished.”

“Something light… Takes awhile for the gut to recover from the anesthesia.”

“Join me?” He invited, sliding his hands around her tiny waist. “You do need to eat.”

“Why don’t I fix something for us at my place? That way we both can relax.”

He readily agreed.

As they approached her apartment, Kieran reminded, “I’m not a vegan… Would you mind going to the spaceport?”

Dana forced a smile. “Wherever you want…”

He sensed her ambivalence. “I promise, you’ll like this place.”

He tapped his voice-badge and requested a MAT transfer for them to The Viewery.

Dana clung to him. The view took her breath away.
 

They materialized in a clear bubble viewport on the skin of Station One.

“You’ve never been here?” he wondered.

“No! Oh, it’s breathtaking!” She reached out to touch the triple-pane while Kieran spoke to a maitre d’ behind them and asked for a table for two with a view.

Kieran tugged Dana back to reality and they crossed the restaurant to a table at the back with a view of Saturn and Jupiter.

He chuckled at her childlike awe. “I can’t believe DOC never brought you up here.”

“I know why he didn’t… He knew I’d want to join Star Service and leave Earth behind.”

Kieran leaned over, wiped a tear from her cheek, and gave her a gentle kiss. “You can see it a thousand times at the Observatory but it’s not the same.”

Dana totally ignored the menu, leaving the ordering to Kieran.
 

“How can you eat? Look!” She pointed to
Navitor
. “Look at the size of her!”

Kieran laughed. “Yeah, she’s a big one!”

“What’s that?”

“A K-17 shuttlecraft…”

“And that?” Dana pointed.

“That’s a Galaxean ambassadorial shuttlecraft…”

She craned her neck. “Wow!”

He pointed to a privateer. “That’s a Crown Enterprises privateer! They’re the fastest private passenger vessels in the galaxy.”

Kieran stared at the privateer, wondering if Doctor Garcia’s brother had taken one. He’d have to check.

Dana slid her left hand across the table, her fingers touching his badly scarred left hand. The telepathic link between them was strong; it made words unnecessary.
 

He repeated, over and over,
I love you
, until she began to believe it.

K? What would it mean to be your mate?

He knew immediately her fear.
I’m not sure. Obviously, since I’ve never mated before. You’re not Alphan. My brothers, the twins, both say it’s blissful. No need for voice-badges — no matter the distance, but for an Enturian?
He shrugged, then quietly asked, “Did you know that telepathy is against the law on Enturize? I never knew that.”

She frowned. “Why?”

“It’s a rather long story, something about first contact with a neighboring race and it all going awry.”

Her eyes glistened like the stars, so full of wonder. “I’ll have to do some reading. I know very little about the Galactic Colonies.”

“Your Galaxean half certainly has the potential for telepathy.”
 

She glanced away. “Will I be accepted by either race? Is that why my records were sealed? I’m a half-breed.”

“A hybrid,” Kieran corrected, assuring, “It’s becoming far less of a stigma. I think, truly, your records were sealed because your parents were very well-known and well-liked. They wanted their offspring to be free of the family traditions. Ask me some day about family traditions for Alphans.”

He squeezed her hand, trying to comfort. “As my mate, the telepathic link would be stronger, unbreakable. We would be one. They say the ‘chapter 10’ fun is unbelievable.”

She blushed at his reference to the anatomy and physiology textbooks.

“You would have all my memories of Puff and the twins and growing up a rebel.” He chuckled at her feigned expression of horror. “Would I see Dana with pigtails and…”

“I never wore pigtails,” she scolded, “always a braid.”

She pulled her hand away, embarrassed by the notion, and hid it on her lap as their meals arrived.

“What did you order?” She wondered, seeing both platters — huge platters of food — exquisitely prepared for eye appeal.

“Yours is the Galactic rice medley — all Vegan. Mine is Kobe beef with stuffed mushrooms and pearl onions.”

“You should eat lightly after being under anesthesia.” Then she had a second thought, “Eek! If we were mates, would I taste what you taste?”

He laughed. “No, I don’t think so. Taste and smell are not telepathically transmitted — at least, not by Alphans. I think other races may be capable though. Perhaps Galaxeans…”

Dana tasted a bite of her meal.

“Need rum?”

“What?”

“It’s made with coconut milk.”

“Oh!” She chuckled. “Tastes like curry… Quite good.”

He used a sharp knife to cut off a bite-sized chunk of his medium-well steak. “On Centauri Prime you can’t get Kobe beef. Our cattle are — well, you might call them hybrids — they’re smaller and very prolific breeders, but not as tasty.”

Dana wrinkled her nose.

“Is DOC a meat-eater?”

“He prefers fish — raw, the oriental way. His second wife was Asian. Kyoko… I don’t remember her. She died just after I went to boarding school. I remember a nanny, a housekeeper, and a dog. Rex chewed up my favorite blanket so DOC gave him to Greg. I think he was afraid Rex might bite me.”

“He’s been very protective of you,” Kieran observed.

Dana tried to remember more, but couldn’t. “It’s all a blur.”

Something in her eyes made him ask, “Why do you hate him?”

“I don’t,” she countered, “It’s that he’s so controlling…”

Kieran sensed he’d touched a sore spot. “You don’t like being controlled. You’d make a good starship captain… Until you take the EVA-Stress Evaluation Module, of course.” Kieran chuckled. “That’s the one that challenges control issues.”

“Why?”

“It’s a no-win scenario.”

“Life is a no-win scenario…”

He chuckled. “I’ve heard that said before.”

She nodded, admitting, “I don’t remember who told me that…”
 

He waited for a long time for her to continue, but finally had to ask, “Are you alright?”

She nodded, but unconvincingly.

“Dana?”

“I’m afraid…” She whispered.

“Of what?”

“Of you…”

“Of me?” He wondered, “Why? You know I’d never hurt you.”

“Of the work you do… I’m afraid of loving you with all my heart and all my soul and then losing you.”
 

She was near tears.

“You’ve never lost anyone, have you?” He sensed it.

She shook her head.

“Not even a patient?”

She shook her head.

Kieran quoted some Shakespeare. “Thou know’st ’tis common; all that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity…”

 
“Please don’t quote
Hamlet
. It’s a tragedy…”

“Would you rather I quote
Macbeth
?” He teased. “Out, damn’d spot! Out, I say! Act 5, scene 1.” He dabbed at a dribble of juice that had hit his uniform. “I’m such a ham!”

“
Macbeth
is also a tragedy.” Dana looked down at her hands. “Please stop…”

He just stared, knowing there was something very deep in her psyche that troubled her about sharing intimate memories. “Dana? Have you a secret? Is that why you are so afraid?”

She stood abruptly and touched her voice-badge, requesting a transfer to MCE.

He tried, telepathically, to reach her, but her emotional pain blocked the link.

Kieran bit his lower lip. “Why is she so afraid?”
 

Though he had barely touched his meal, he motioned to the staff and signed for it.
 

The thought came of MAT’ing to her apartment to wait for her, but his voice-badge beeped.

A mechanical voice asked, “Colonel Jai?”

“Here…”

“Ambassador Cray would see you.”

It was the android aide. “MAT transfer me there, LittleJohn.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kieran realized they were not aboard
The Flamebearer
. The Ambassador’s android led Kieran to the anteroom of the spaceport suite and turned to leave.

“LittleJohn?”

“Sir?”

“How is he?”

“Resting comfortably.”

It was a purely mechanical response, not an accurate assessment.

“Yes, but…”

The door to the bedchamber opened and Doctor Santero stepped through.

“Ah, Colonel Jai. He’s been asking for you.”

Kieran saluted formally in the Alphan way, acknowledging the member of the Royal family and fellow Master of the Elect. Then he went inside.

Cray looked extremely pale. A black patch covered his left eye. His right looked dimly focused.

“Kay?”

Kieran saluted his Ambassador, chuckling at the pet name the man had coined for him.

“Sir…”

Kieran moved to the bedside and knelt, thankfully without even a hint of back pain.
 

“Good of you to come,” Cray began, “You’re looking well.”

“Much better, sir, thank you.”

Cray bobbed his head. “As you can tell, I am not.”

It was obvious.

“Santero could not save my eye.”

“Oh…” Kieran sighed. “Perhaps Doctor Dana can. That’s her specialty, you know.”

Cray held up a hand to silence him. “All is well.”

Clearly, it wasn’t; but Kieran didn’t dare to contradict.

Cray switched to old Alphan and motioned, “Come closer?”

When there was but a few inches between them, Cray reached for Kieran’s hand to establish a telepathic link. “Set a trap. You must catch those who did this and bring them to justice, and then I can rest in peace.”

Kieran answered, “Yes, sir.”

“I was scheduled to attend the closing ceremonies of the Meeting of the Masters.”

“You think they might strike again?”

Cray nodded. “Don’t let them win.”

Kieran bowed his head and closed his eyes, responding, “I will see it done.”

Cary cautioned, “Be alert. Be ready. Be proud.”

The words of the fight song from Centauri Prime Academy racing team brought a smile to Kieran’s face. Cray was a founding member and Kieran a decorated solo craft pilot.

“Your father will be proud,” Cray added, breaking the link.