The Voyage of the Star Wolf (28 page)

“No, I insist. Let's see how it works. After all, you went to all that trouble.”

“Are you sure?”

“I'll make it an order, all right?”

“Uh—I'll put it in now.” Jonesy turned to the antigrav bed and stepped into it. He began disconnecting its control plate. Tor got up from the desk and came around to watch him work. She leaned provocatively against the tube. Her figure was surprisingly lean and hard.

“This won't take long,” Jonesy started to say, “and then I'll be out of your hair.”

“Take as long as you need.” Tor smiled, tossing her head back. “I
don't mind having you in my hair.” When he didn't react, she added, “I'm actually glad of the interruption.”

“Really?” The plate popped off in Jonesy's hand.

“I was signing off on duty reports. Busywork. It has to be done sometime, but sometimes you'd rather do anything but—”

“Mm,” said Jonesy. He grunted as he fumbled the new plate into position. “I wouldn't know. I don't get to do busywork. And most of the reports I have to do are autologged.”

Tor allowed herself a smile that hinted of knowledge not yet shared. “I should put you into a leadership-training course. You'd learn about busywork. Everything has to be documented.”

“I guess so. But I prefer things I can get my hands on.” Jonesy looked up at Tor and suddenly realized how close her body was. “—Uh, you know what I mean.” He forced himself to refocus his attention on the control plate. He lined up the plugs and pressed it firmly into place. “There—” He pressed the
SELF-TEST
button and waited. The unit cycled, flashed, and confirmed that it was fully operational. “That should do it.” He gave her a satisfied look. “See—you can't turn on the shower accidentally. You have to press the
SHOWER
button, and then the
AUTHORIZE
button within three seconds. Otherwise nothing happens.”

“Well, let's try it out,” said Tor, stepping into the antigrav tube with him. She reached past his shoulder and tapped the free-fall switch. The gravity faded gently away from beneath them; it was a dizzying sensation of lightheadedness. It took some getting used to; some people never rid themselves of the sensation of the whole bed being turned upside down into an endless drop. They floated up off the floor and drifted in midair. Tor turned Jonesy so that he was facing her.

“It works,” he said.

“Of course,” she said.

She looked directly into his eyes and waited for him to start flustering. He surprised her. He looked directly back. She waited for him to speak first, surprised at how long the moment was lasting.

It was his voice that gave him away. “Um,” he said. “Can I speak candidly?”

She nodded.

“I, um—some of the guys have been teasing me. They say that you—uh, I hope this doesn't offend you. I want you to know how much I personally respect and admire you—”

“Go ahead, say it.”

“Well, some of the guys think that you . . . want to . . . well, you
know . . . with me. And I—thought you ought to know. I hope you're not offended. I mean, personally, I think you're a very attractive woman and—it would be an honor and a privilege to—”

Tor made a decision. She reached past Jonesy and tapped the
SHOWER
button. Then she tapped the
AUTHORIZE
button. Warm water shot up from the floor and flooded down from the ceiling, soaking the both of them and drowning Jonesy's carefully phrased words in a sputter of coughing.

She grabbed his shoulders to steady him. Then she grabbed his face between her two hands and said, “Listen to me, you don't need to do that anymore.”

“Do what?”

“The flustered little boy act.” She raised her voice to be heard above the steaming water.

“Um—I don't—”

“Yes, you do. You do it whenever there's a chance of you and me being intimate. You do it to distance me. It's very annoying—and it keeps us from really getting to know each other. It keeps us from being real friends. Or anything else.” She stretched forward and planted a firm, but gentle, kiss directly on his lips. Jonesy blinked, surprised. The water continued to swirl around the both of them.

“First of all, you're a
very
attractive young man. You don't know how attractive you are. And yes, it's true. I would like to tumble with you. But I don't tumble with children, so you're going to have to grow up first.” She touched his chin gently. “Lose the act. It's not you.”

“Um,” he said, but it was a different kind of sound than before; a deeper, more thoughtful “Um.”

“If you want something—if you want
me
—just say so. The worst that can happen is that the answer will be no. It might also be yes. But if you never ask, you'll never know. So, what's it to be, Lieutenant? Do you have something to ask me?”

“Um—” Jonesy swallowed hard—and then something happened. He
stiffened
. He seemed to straighten before Tor, almost growing in her grasp. “Commander Tor,” he began, in a voice she'd never heard before. “Request permission to initiate docking maneuvers.”

Tor laughed. “That's a good start, but a little too formal. Try again. Just say it in English.”

“The truth is,” Jonesy admitted candidly, “you're the most beautiful woman I've ever taken a shower with.”

Tor flushed in surprise and delight. It was his naked sincerity which won her. She was too surprised to respond.

“So,” continued Jonesy, “would you like to tumble with me?”

“Yes, I would,” she said. “Very much.” She looked deeply into his eyes. They were shining and bright.

Now it was Jonesy's turn to be surprised. “Really—?”

In answer, Tor pulled him close to her in a passionate kiss. She opened her mouth to his. For a moment, he didn't realize, then he opened his mouth to hers. She wasn't going to rush him, she let him explore the sensation of the moment, the intimacy of shared breath—and then he surprised her, his tongue touched hers. It was just the quickest, most fleeting, touch; but the boldness of the initiative told her what she wanted to know, that Jonesy would not be afraid to explore her body, that he really did want to be intimate with her. He just needed to know that it was all right.

Slowly, Tor wrapped her arms around Jonesy's wiry torso, sliding naturally into his embrace. His long gangly arms closed around her shoulders, his hands slid down her back, looking for the right places to touch. One of them came to rest on her hip, then slid around to the gentle cleft at the top of her buttocks; the other found the back of her neck and became a warm, comforting presence there. She sighed and let her kiss open wider, allowed her tongue to touch his again.

They floated, locked together and spinning, turning in the whirling waters. She lifted her legs and wrapped them about his pelvis, pulling him even more tightly against her. She could feel his hardness against her and it sent waves of pleasure up through her belly. She enveloped him, holding him inside the warm envelope of her embrace. She could feel his warmth up and down her entire body.

And then, Jonesy broke away, holding her at arm's length. “I have to look at you,” he explained. “I like looking at you. I like seeing how beautiful you are.” His hair was plastered wetly across his forehead; the water was clinging to him in shining globules; and his eyes were incredibly alive. “You're terrific,” he said.

“So are you,” Tor laughed back. “Why don't we get out of these wet clothes—”

Jonesy's smile widened into a broad silly grin. It was the wild, un-tamed look of a man who was about to share a secret.

Tor started giggling then, so did Jonesy—and then it got even funnier. Not all the old jokes about antigrav beds were true; two people
can
get undressed in a tube, but it does take a while—and they have to like each other
a lot
.

Fortunately, Tor and Jonesy liked each other
more
than just
a lot
.

The
LS-1187
slowed as she approached her rendezvous, cutting her speed from six hundred lights to three hundred, then to one hundred, then to twenty-five, five, and finally one-point-five. She was scanning all the way in, but there were no hyperstate ripples visible anywhere at all within her locus of detectability.

The
Burke
was not to be seen.

Korie studied the holographic display with a sour frown on his face. Hodel and Tor stared at him from across the table, waiting for his assessment. Jonesy joined them. So did the new weapons specialist, Goldberg; a stocky, red-haired man.

“Holding at one-point-five,” said Hodel. “Coming up on primary target sphere. Still nothing.”

Hardesty entered through one of the doors at the back of the Bridge. Brik followed him in and crossed to the primary weapons console while Hardesty stepped down to join his officers on the Ops deck. Korie glanced over at him.
Do you want to take over
?

“Carry on,” Hardesty said.

Korie turned back to Hodel. “As soon as we cross the horizon, back it off to oh-point-oh-oh-two. Let's coast a bit and see what's what. Keep all stations alert.”

“You want to go to yellow?” Tor asked.

“Not yet.”

“Stabilizing,” Hodel reported. “Oh-point-oh-oh-two.”

“Approaching rendezvous point,” Jonesy reported. He checked his own screen beneath the display. “Still no signature—” He looked to Tor, worried. She ignored him.

“Hodel, stand by to collapse the envelope.” Korie looked to Hardesty. “With your permission, sir. There's no sign of the
Burke
. We've scanned for ripple-effect, both long and short range. There's nothing.”

“And you think she's hiding?”

Korie nodded. “She should have sighted us by now and made her presence known. I want to pop back into normal space and see if she's coasting. Maybe she has a good reason to play hide-and-seek.”

Hardesty considered it. “All right, go ahead.”

Korie turned to Hodel. “Collapse the envelope.”

“Collapsing—”

The great stardrive bubble around the starship unfolded in an instant—and once again the
LS-1187
hung in black space. But her sublight velocity was enormous.

“Normal space confirmed,” reported Hodel. He swung back to his main console. “Beginning deceleration now. One hundred and fifty gees?”

“If Mr. Leen says it's okay,” Korie grinned. He raised his voice so that everybody on the Bridge could hear him. “All right, everybody stay alert. If something is sneaking up on us, we'll have less than thirty seconds to inject back into the safety of hyperstate.”

Tor looked up from her screen. “I've got the
Burke
.”

Everybody looked to her at the same time.

Tor didn't even look up. She just frowned as she read off the details. It didn't make sense to her either. “She's right on station—right where she's supposed to be, but she's absolutely silent.”

Jonesy spoke first. “Two hundred sixty mega-klicks and closing.” Then he looked across the display at Tor; his expression was puzzled. “Is she derelict—?”

Korie looked to Hardesty. “This is not according to plan—” He punched at a control and the holographic display flashed to show the intercept vectors.

“Should I hail her?” Tor asked.

Korie was at a loss. “She's
got
to know we're here—”

“Think she's dead?”

“I don't think anything yet.” He looked to Hardesty again. “Sir—?”

Hardesty's voice was almost as dispassionate as HARLIE's. “So far, you have been following the book, Mr. Korie. And that is correct. Fleet Command has a purpose behind every procedure.”

“But—?” Korie prompted.

“But nothing,” said the captain.

Korie straightened up from the display to look the captain straight in the eye. “If I understand you correctly, sir, you are arguing the opposite position from what you said to us when we began this mission.”