Stardust Dreams (27 page)

Wordlessly, he placed her
hands on the counter's edge in front of her and urged her to lean forward. As
his fingers quickly returned her to a state of desperate hunger, she parted her
legs to ease his way.

He wasn't slow or gentle,
and she didn't want him to be. She saw the truth in the mirror and accepted it.

They
were
a pair
of wild animals in heat, equally driven, equally matched.

Sometime later, Cherry lay
nestled with Gallant on his bunk, watching a crackling campfire beneath a
clear, starry sky. "This is nice. Too bad we didn't bring any
marshmallows." She had to explain what she meant by that before he could
grant her wish.

Once she described the
image for him, a stick appeared in his hand with a plump white marshmallow on
the end. "Would you like the honors?"

She sat up with a giggle
and pretended to take the imaginary stick into her hand and hold it close to
the fire. When the treat was just the right shade of toasty brown she brought
it to her mouth and blew on it. "You have to be very careful not to burn
the roof of your mouth, you know." She pulled the invisible marshmallow
off the stick with her teeth and made a show of savoring the sweetness. "Mmmm.
Wonderful. You ought to try one."

"No thanks. I never
eat my own creations." He pulled her back down beside him. "I used to
do things like this all the time when I was a boy. I forgot how much fun it
could be to play pretend."

Cherry kissed his chin. "Well,
I must say, your little talent certainly adds a new dimension to the game. You'd
be very helpful as a teacher in a mime class." She trickled her fingers
over his chest and stomach. "Smooth as a baby. But I'd still like you to
let it grow." She felt him chuckle silently. "I'm curious. Why
weren't there any images in the chamber before?"

"Probably because I
never took my eyes off you and that razor."

"Scared ya, huh?"

"Cherry, I—"

She clapped her hand over
his mouth and propped herself up on her elbow. "Let the image go and look
at me." She waited for him to bring up the room's lighting enough to see
him. "I just want to warn you that if you are thinking of apologizing, or
asking if you hurt me, or frightened me, I will be forced to give you a
demonstration of precisely how well I can defend myself with this arm of mine. If
you ever do anything I don't like, I am capable of stopping you, the same way I
stopped Frezlo from shooting you on Zoenid." She took her hand away and
gave him a peck on the mouth to make up for silencing him.

Giving her a smirk, he
said, "All I was going to say was that I would never be able to look at my
mother's gift to me in the same way again."

"Oh. Good. Then
there's only one more thing to discuss before going to sleep." The sudden
tension in his body suggested that he knew exactly what she was going to ask. "Will
you take me along with you tomorrow?" He closed his eyes, and she could
almost see his mind sorting through excuses to deny her.

"My job is not a game
or an illusion, Cherry. The risks are real."

"I know that as well
as you—I was with you on Zoenid, remember?"

"I had a specific
reason for taking you then, and besides, I knew what the risks would be there,
and I was prepared for them. I have no idea what might be waiting for me on
Lore. There are reports that no one landing on Lore has ever been heard from
again. They simply disappear, ship and all, into the mist, which, by the way,
has been tested and found to be lethal to humanoid life forms as well as most
oth-ers."

"Well, the way it
sounds, you're already risking my life just by taking the ship down there. It
was your decision not to put me off when you had the chance on Norona.'

"Cherry…" he
murmured in a warning tone.

"Okay. I won't start
on that again, but the fact is I
am
on board, I
want
to be
involved, and I might be of help. Two heads are usually better, you know."
His frustrated sigh let her know he didn't have an argument for any of her
points. "What are you going to do about the mist?"

"Wear a protective
suit, although if the reports are true, it might not be sufficient."

Cherry studied his features
for a moment. "But you don't believe the reports. You're thinking about a
certain Con rep that landed there and obviously returned to Norona because all
of the reps are now accounted for, right?"

He gave her a small nod. "Right.
If he went down there and left safely, I can, too. The fact that he went there
at all is what's important. As far as I know, no one has bothered to
investigate the planet in decades, so anything might be going on there without
being noticed. Someone or something must be on Lore, or the Con rep wouldn't
have run to it directly from hiring Frezlo. Thus, that something must have a
bearing on the Weebort's assassination."

"And your
mission."

"Exactly."

"I agree completely. Now
you
agree that if you leave the ship to go exploring, you'll be making
me Mar-Dot's responsibility. Won't you be worried about what I might do without
your
protective custody}
While you're hunting down clues, part of your
brain will be preoccupied with that concern."

"You
wouldn't"—his expression filled with the worry her suggestion
prompted—"Would you?"

She gave him an enigmatic
smile. "What do you think?"

"I think I've been
conned." He rubbed his chin a few times. "Listen, the deadliness of
the mist is not its only factor. It's also too thick to see through.
If
I took you along, and we got separated, I might never find you. Are you still
willing to wear the collar?"

She grimaced. "If
that's the only way you'll take me. But if it turns out not to be necessary, it
comes right off, okay?" When he didn't answer right away, she tickled his
side.
"Okay?"

He grabbed her hand and
brought it to his mouth for a kiss, then held on to it as he asked, "Will
you promise to behave like a slave, do everything I tell you to, and trust me
to know what I'm doing, even if
it
looks like I'm abandoning you, as
it did on Zoenid?"

She got to her knees and
bowed to him. "Yes, master. Whatever you say, master. Is there some
special service I can do now that will prove my loyal obedience?"

His thumb brushed across
her taut breast. "I'm sure I could come up with one if I give it some
thought." He coaxed her to stretch out on top of his body. "As I
recall, you did imply you were going to use sexual favors to influence my
decision." With a squirming motion, she cradled him between her legs. "I
admit I have been influenced by your efforts." She licked one of his
nipples, then the other. "Hmmm. I think one more favor ought to do
it."

She slithered up his body
and nipped his lower lip. "You're an insatiable barbarian."

Before they fell asleep, he
lived up to her description… and agreed to take her exploring with him on Lore.

The next morning, Gallant
was already out of bed when Cherry awoke. Her first thought was that he had
tricked her again, leaving her behind in spite of his promise, but the sound of
boot heels in the corridor outside reassured her that he had not. The door
opened and he came in carrying a tray.

She smiled, and with a
luxurious stretch sat up with her feet beneath her thighs and the sheet tucked
under her armpits. "I thought I was supposed to be the slave."

He set the tray on the bed
in front of her knees, then gave her a kiss before sitting down on the other
end of the bunk. "There are times when the slave is so good she earns a
few special privileges. I hope toast and a scrambler will do."

"Only if they're
real," she answered with a laugh as she picked up one of the mugs of
wake-up. "Your marshmallows didn't fill my stomach very well."

He clucked his tongue at
her. "I give you my best efforts and all I get is sarcasm." With a
smile, he stuck a fork into the yellow protein mixture and fed it to her.

Her taste buds assured her
it was real, and hadn't improved any since yesterday, or the day before that. "What
I wouldn't give for Belgian waffles smothered in blueberries and heaped with
whipped cream." In a flash, the boring plate of food looked like a
gourmand's delight. "Perfect! Now if you only had the power to improve the
flavor, I'd be in heaven."

Swallowing a bite of toast,
he shook his head. "Never satisfied, are your
¹
"

She wiggled her eyebrows at
him. "You should know the answer to that."

Instantly, her appetizing
breakfast burst into a flambe". Without thinking, she jerked away from the
flames and bumped her head on the wall.

The fire vanished, leaving
her plate in its original state. She rubbed the back of her head, but her
chuckle let him know she was unhurt.

"That's what you get
for teasing a barbarian," he said with a sexy grin. "I fully intended
to keep my mind on my mission this morning."

Her eyes widened. "Oh!
I almost forgot. Where are we?"

"Circling Lore.
Mar-Dot is scanning for life forms. Take your time. They haven't found anything
down there yet."

Nonetheless, they joined
Mar-Dot on the bridge a short while later.

"Anything yet?"
Gallant asked hopefully.

Dot smiled a greeting at
Cherry before answering. "We have scanned the entire planet, and there is
not one sign of life, either animal or plant. It appears to be as uninhabited
as we had heard. As you sug-gested, we used the vacuum technique to take
samples of the mist from several locations and had the computer analyze
it."

Gallant sat down in his
chair and Cherry perched on its arm beside him. "Results?"

The he-she turned their
body so that Dot could continue facing the captain with Mar still able to see
his monitor. "It is made up of a poisonous gas compound, but there is
nothing in it that would damage the structure of the ship."

"Will standard suits
protect us?"

"
Us
?"
Dot's eyes widened with apprehension.

"Not you," he
assured her quickly. "Cherry and I. Never mind how she talked me into
it."

Dot's smile said she didn't
need to be told. "The suits should be more than adequate. Of course, ours
will need some alterations if she is to use it."

"This is most
interesting," Mar said, turning toward Gallant. "Once we were certain
the mist would not affect the ship, we moved in closer for additional testing. The
gravitational pull is quite strong, but not enough to cause a ship to crash. Also,
the outside temperature is a fraction above freezing—not low enough to create
any problem with the drive unit. At first, I could not see any reason for a
ship to enter the mist and never come out. However, the computer just completed
the tests on the surface samples."

"Must you always go
into a long dissertation before getting to the point?" Dot asked with
obvious annoyance.

"Yes," Mar
replied indignantly, "whenever the situ-ation requires one. As I was about
to say before I was so rudely interrupted, the surface is slush, at least a
mile deep."

Cherry leaned forward. "Slush,
as in sloppy snow, sleet, and not quite ice?"

Mar nodded. "I believe
that description fits. Between the soft surface and the strong gravity, a ship
attempting to land on the planet would be sucked beneath tons of the matter
before the crew had a chance to reverse its position."

Gallant rubbed his chin. "And
yet Frezlo saw a ship go down there that had to have come back out."

Cherry put her mind to the
puzzle. "Maybe that ship just circled the planet within the mist like
we're doing."

Frowning, he shook his
head. "I don't think so. Frezlo made it sound like the ship headed
directly in without stopping. Only someone who knew in advance that the mist
wouldn't damage the ship—or someone bent on suicide—would go ahead without
running tests first. No, there has to be something we're missing."

Cherry got up and strolled
around the panel. "Mar, you said the slush goes about a kilometer deep. Then
what?"

"It appears to be
solid rock below the slush."

Cherry circled the bridge
again. "Could there be a civilization inside that planet, like Innerworld
is in the center of Earth? If the Noronians built tunnels into a planet ten
thousand years ago, why couldn't some other people have done it here as
well?"

Gallant caught her hand as
she made a pass by him and pulled her onto his knee. "Sit still, woman,
you're making me dizzy. She's got a valid idea, Mar. Look for any magnetic
fields similar to—"

"Already started,
Captain," Dot said, without turning toward him. "We'll have the
results in a few minutes."

Gallant pulled Cherry close
enough to whisper in her ear. "Do me a favor and get me an eye patch
before I embarrass you with an image of what you make me want to do."

She burst out laughing, but
when she leaned back she saw that his hand was shielding his left eye.