Shy Talent (StarLords Book 3) (2 page)

He’d thought that odd enough that he took the time to look into her personnel file. She hadn’t been tested in quite some time, and he found that odd, as well. The last testing she’d had didn’t indicate nearly enough power to do what she’d done with those heavy vehicles. He sensed she was hiding her obvious increase in power for some reason. He also sensed an aloneness in her he recognized well from his own existence. Before he’d joined the crew of the
Circe
and found acceptance there, he’d felt very alone—as she must feel, so young, so powerful, and so isolated.

Agnor had learned more about her home life, and his heart had gone out to the tall, shy young woman who had lost her mother and father so early in life. He didn’t know why he was so drawn to her, but it was an inexplicable feeling he didn’t question. He’d requested her for his crew without any further consideration. In fact, hers was the first name on the list when he’d been asked to draw one up. Eyebrows had been raised by his choice, but he stood firm. He wanted her on his crew. He wanted a chance to get to know her, perhaps share pleasure with her, and learn what hid beneath her protective outer shell.

Agnor hadn’t been the first aboard, but much of the crew was still arriving as the ship prepared for its maiden voyage. This ship was quite different from the
Circe
, but the bridge crew stations were similar. There was a nav station to Agnor’s far right where Dominar Petris Galeger would plot their course. There was also a pilot’s chair at the nose of the triangular bridge from which Authoritar Jemin Fortuna would guide the ship, and a comm station to Agnor’s left that would be manned by his former student, Specitar Brennin Dale. The weapons station to Agnor’s immediate right would be home to his Executive Officer, Specitar Lilith Cole.

She was one of the few people Agnor counted among his friends. She specialized in seeing probable outcomes and had a penchant for science and math, though her Talent seemed more metaphysical than scientific. Foretelling the future had always been a rare gift, and it was Lilith’s strongest Talent, though unlike most Specitars, she had a secondary ability of reasonably strong telepathy. She was older than most of the crew, older than Agnor himself, but she was a steady, likeable woman who was tough in a crisis and had a very useful Talent.

Making her his Executive Officer had also raised eyebrows, but this was his ship, and he wouldn’t be told how to run it. Lilith had a big heart and a kind soul, and she would help this odd group solidify into something more like the family atmosphere he’d experienced aboard the
Circe
. At least he hoped it would work out that way.

Agnor himself was a quiet man, and he knew he could never fill the almost fatherly role his old friend, Micah, had taken on as captain of the
Circe
. Micah had forged the crew of that ship into a family, and Agnor felt he didn’t have the ability to do the same without a little help. He also didn’t have the sheer charisma of the
Circe’s
current captain, his friend, the rogue Mage Master Darak. Agnor had always lived in the shadows of Micah and Darak. He knew he would need Lilith’s special charm if the crew of the
Calypso
was to be forged into a family.

Lilith would be the mom, the caretaker of the group. She wasn’t old, by any means, rather it was her kind heart that made people want to befriend her. In fact, she was gorgeous, though kind of short. At least a foot and a half shorter than himself, Lilith’s big personality made people think she was taller, or so she cheerfully insisted. She had beautiful curly red hair and sparkling bright green eyes, as well as a voluptuous body she knew how to dress. She wasn’t overly suggestive with her clothing, but when you looked at her, you knew you were looking at a woman with a capital W.

Agnor knew she would be popular with the men on the crew, even those who were quite a bit younger than she was. Perhaps especially with those who were younger than she was. He knew she could teach them all a thing or two about giving and receiving pleasure.

He hoped she’d have some success bringing shy Bettsua out of her shell. If Lilith couldn’t befriend the tall girl, then no one could. Agnor smiled fondly to himself, looking forward to watching that relationship develop. He wanted to see Bettsua gain confidence in herself, and he thought this cruise might be just the thing. He was already devising tasks that she could try to stretch her wings a bit, as well as push her power to the next level.

This first part of their mission was going to be a shakedown cruise. The brand new ship needed to be put through its paces before they could go off on their first real mission. They would have to test all the systems and start to come together as a crew. The relationships they built now would be vital in their future missions as a scientific vessel with a hidden agenda of gathering information on their enemies in order to keep Council worlds safe.

Each member of his team had signed on to that mission and sworn their silence on the real nature of the vessel. They’d been evaluated by the highest levels of the Council even before they’d been told of their selection to man this ship, and Agnor had had to fight to get some of his choices through. Lilith and Bettsua, in particular. But he sensed they both would be key to his success in this new adventure.

CHAPTER TWO

As the last of the bridge crew checked in, Agnor stood to take a final inspection tour of the ship before they pushed off from the space station and started cruising on their own power. He gave Lilith responsibility for the bridge as soon as she arrived, nearly passing her in the hatch on his way out. She smiled and shook her head indulgently, used to his ways.

He took off down the hall, noting the shiny new nameplates affixed to each of the crew compartments. There were more compartments on this ship than on the
Circe
, and the lounge was bigger to accommodate the slightly larger crew. He took a lift down to what would have been the hold on the
Circe
, but on this ship was separated into several different areas. There were laboratories and a state-of-the-art medical facility that took up about half the hold. The rest was a cargo area that housed their supplies, with some empty space held in reserve should they need to take on any more cargo in their travels.

All of the stowage was accounted for meticulously, as it was on all space-going ships, since fuel and navigational calculations depended greatly on knowing the exact mass of the ship. Further, the way things were stowed in the hold was very important, since heavy equipment or supply crates could shift when the ship encountered gravitational fluctuations and cause untold problems. It would be Bettsua’s job as Loadmaster of the
Calypso
to make sure the hold and its records were kept neat, orderly and safe.

Though she’d never been in charge of a ship’s hold before, her recordkeeping skills were tight, and she had a lot of experience with inventory control in the job she’d held in the Council offices back on Geneth Mar. She’d had a clerical job that Agnor privately thought hadn’t tested her full abilities, but she was painfully shy, and perhaps she hadn’t wanted to put herself in position to gain attention and be promoted to one of the more visible jobs. He thought it was sad that so much potential had been held back because of her innate shyness, but he knew that was all about to change. At least if he had anything to say about it.

He stepped off the lift with a smile of determination on his face and made his way to the hold, bypassing the labs and med facility, for now. He knew Bettsua was on board, but she’d closeted herself in the hold, and he wanted to be sure she knew she was welcome on the bridge, since she held one of the key positions on his crew.

He found her frowning at a datapad she held in one hand while, with the other, she directed a huge crate of foodstuffs across the wide hold using her Talent. It was quite a sight. He stepped through the hatch and leaned back against the wall to watch, knowing she hadn’t yet sensed his presence. He didn’t want to startle her, lest their food go crashing to the deck, so he waited, watching with great interest as she used her enormous power to direct crates that weighed tons, even in the somewhat sub-standard artificial gravity of the hold, with a single offhanded thought of her Talented mind.

“This isn’t right,” she muttered as she let the last crate down and turned to frown down at her datapad.

“What’s not right?” He pushed up from his leaning position against the wall, then walked forward, with what he hoped was a friendly smile on his face. He knew he’d startled her. She looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. “Bettsua, isn’t it?” he asked, knowing damn well what her name was, but wanting to put her at ease with polite conversation. “I’m Agnor Dallesander.”

“Yes, I know, Captain. I mean, Lord Agnor.” She looked and sounded entirely too flustered for his peace of mind.

“Captain will do, if you want to be formal, but I’d prefer it if you’d just call me Agnor. And may I call you Bettsua?” He didn’t quite know how to be charming, but he was trying his damnedest. This poor, frightened, shy girl was breaking his heart and testing his limits. He wasn’t the most suave man in the galaxy, and he’d never quite cared before, but now he wished he had even a tenth of his old friend Darak’s charm with the ladies.

She nodded at him, clutching the datapad to her heavily draped bosom. She wore the most unflattering clothing imaginable, but Agnor sensed there was more to this quiet woman than met the eye. He moved closer to her, reaching out with one hand to take the datapad from her trembling fingers. He had to practically peel it away from her chest and was pleasantly surprised to feel just a bit of warm, soft woman as he inserted his fingers between the datapad and what he discovered to be a temptingly hard nipple.

Not letting on that he’d noticed how tight her little bud was or that he’d just discovered how voluptuous her breasts must be, he stared down at the datapad, pretending to make sense of it. In reality, his senses were reeling. He hadn’t been this turned on by a woman in more years than he could remember.

But he desperately didn’t want to scare her off. She was painfully introverted, and he knew he had to tread lightly. Still, he couldn’t help but be thankful that his Specitar’s robes hid his raging hard-on for the most part.

“You can call me Bettsua, sir,” she answered him softly, “or just Bet, if you prefer.”

He smiled at her. “Drop the
sir
, Bet, and you have a deal. So, what’s the problem here?” He pretended not to notice the very becoming flush of her very real embarrassment. She was really, really shy, he realized, even more than he’d suspected.

Given a question to concentrate on, she focused on the crates, and her eyes narrowed. “The manifest doesn’t match what’s here.”

“Is there more or less here than what’s listed?”

“More, captain. Those three crates,” she indicated them, off to the far side of the wide hold, “have no records.”

Agnor smiled and handed back her datapad. “Ah, I think I see the problem. Would you bring the farthest one here, please?”

She looked a little surprised and then went for the automated retrieval system, but he stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm.

“Come now, Bet, I know you can do it quicker with your Talent. I’ve seen you in action before. No reason to be shy now.”

She eyed him for a moment before stiffening her lip in a way he found quite adorable and finally nodding. With a quick glance over at the crate he wanted, she had it moving through the air to land gently about three feet away from him.

“Beautifully done,” he complimented her Talent, making her eyes widen. “That’s quite a skill you have there.”

She seemed too stunned to answer, and he smiled to himself. This poor girl was starved for a kind word. It made him sad to think that such Talent had been treated so poorly through her life, and he made a decision, then and there, that she wouldn’t be so shabbily treated on his ship. He was captain now, and he would make sure she was treated right. Or else.

He moved the lid off the container, peering inside and smiling as he pulled back. “As I thought,” he said, “this is top-secret stuff, Bet. That’s why you have no record.”

“But how can I stow it properly if I don’t know what it is?”

“Ah, but you will know what it is, because I’m going to tell you. You are not to make any records of this, however. It will be your duty as Loadmaster to keep track of these items and have them available and ready for use should the need arise. But without the use of any sort of written record.” He smiled at her to put her at ease, but she still looked both confused and worried. “I know, it sounds fishy, but you’ll understand in a moment. Come with me.”

He motioned her to precede him out the hatch and then surprised both her and himself by taking her hand and guiding her down the corridor. They bypassed the med facility and the labs, coming to a nondescript portal strategically placed amidships on the underbelly of the cruiser. He pressed his palm on the keyed hatch, and it sprang open. Again, he politely motioned for her to precede him, and he crowded into the small space behind her.

“What is this?” she asked, looking around with wide eyes.

“It’s a weapons station.”

“Weapons? I thought this was a research vessel.”

“Come now, they told you about our other purpose as well when you signed on, didn’t they?”

“Information gathering…” she said softly, still taking in all the sophisticated equipment in the small room.

“Spying,” he said succinctly, shocking her gaze up to his. “It can be a dangerous game, Bet. There are two other rooms like this one in other areas of the ship. When needed, you will deploy the contents of those three crates to these weapons stations.”

“When needed?” she echoed, still somewhat shaken by the reality of what he was telling her.

“If and when we go into battle or need to defend ourselves.”

“What’s in those crates? Weapons?”

He nodded. “Ammunition. These stations are fully loaded now, but if we see action, those crates will be our only way of reloading until we reach Council space.”