Viking Love Beyond Time (Time Travel Romance) (2 page)

             
Walking over to the captain’s chair in the middle of the room she sat down.

             
“Everything tickety boo on the hyper front Captain?”  Austen glanced up, her eyes flashing annoyance, Lieutenant Commander Luke Owen, twenty seven year old suntanned macho blond from
Flagstaff
,
Arizona
, returned her gaze.

             
She immediately glanced back down at the data board she was holding, there was no other word for it, the man fazed her, she had to force herself to be as rude as possible to him at all times.  With the other crew members she had always fostered an air of ‘I’m in charge but we’re all professionals’ but with Owen this was not possible, she could not allow even a hint of friendliness to creep into her tone, for if she did he would wilfully misunderstand.  She had had the misfortune to travel with Owen before, strangely he had been second navigator on
The Cloudburst
,
serving with both herself and Bradey
,
and he had spent the whole trip trying to talk her into bed - she had slapped him down immediately - sex had absolutely no place in Alodie Austen’s life, she was a virgin and intended to remain one.  There were ways, harmless drugs one could take, to suppress those archaic urges – the most popular being something with a 56 letter name, commonly known as “green tablets” or “green pills”.

             
“Yes Owen” she snapped “everything a.o.k. on the hyper front.  Surprisingly enough I did manage to get the ship into hyper without taking in an asteroid, forming a wormhole or crashing into anything” she held out the data board “now would you please correlate this data with engineering”  Owen smirked at Bradey and walked over to where Austen held out the board.  As he took it he allowed his fingers to caress hers, just for a split second.  Austen felt the blood rush to her cheeks.  He saw her discomfort and his smile broadened.

             
“No sweat Captain” he drawled, walking back to his console.

             
Austen ran her hand across her forehand and massaged her temples, what the hell was wrong? She felt totally strung out.  Fighting herself every inch of the way she allowed her eyes to rest on Owen.  It was hot on the bridge and he was only wearing a sleeveless vest and white jeans, Alodie idly watched the play of his muscles as they rippled along his arms and his broad shoulders when he turned his back. 
Snap out of it girl
she scolded herself and, shaking her head, walked over to where the third member of the bridge crew was sitting - Adair the science officer, a Medullan, therefore three metres tall and green.  He was Austen’s oldest and dearest friend, responsible for computer maintenance and the cargo’s safety and therefore, in the eyes of Vice President Loxley, the most important person on the ship.

             
“The exchange went very smoothly Captain, the klerth crystals are evenly spread around the hold” he informed her in his odd, almost stuttering tones.

             
Alodie smiled at him. “I’m sure you did your job properly Adair, you always do” Adair smiled back.  His mouth was twice as wide as a human’s and the smile almost met round the back of his head, a Medullan smile took a lot of getting used to.

             
Medulla was the closest inhabited planet to Earth, in the Proxima Centauri system, a few hours away in hyper, and therefore the first alien civilisation encountered by Earth back in the twenty second century.

             
Adair lifted a green finger and, placing it under Austen’s chin, raised her face “Are you not feeling well Captain?” She smiled, wanly, it was no use trying to lie to a Medullan, they could see through lead if they used their third eye, so a human’s innermost feelings were child’s play.

             
“I’ve felt better” she replied quietly.

             
“Do you think you need a green tablet Alodie?” he continued.  Alodie nodded, feeling suddenly embarrassed,  and turned away, only to come face to face with Owen.  His eyes swept her from top to toe in a way which made her feel stark naked.

             
“Gotta headache ma’am” he drawled “You should relax more, unwind”

             
Austen stiffened, then took a deep breath.  “Carry on” she snapped, ignoring him, and turning, she stalked angrily through the swing doors and down a short corridor to the galley.

             
Walking over to the replicator terminal she punched a couple of buttons for ‘dish of the day’.  A quite appetising cheese salad appeared in the hatch and taking it she placed it on the table.  Absent mindedly picking up a piece of celery she popped it in her mouth and began to chew.  How the hell had she come to this pass?  How had the company’s most promising young ensign become a space weary veteran at the age of twenty three?

             
Born in
Yorkshire
in what used to be called
England
she was the daughter of Jake Austen and Nerissa Varhend, a native of the hundred year old terraformed colony on Venus.  Jake and Nerissa had been deeply in love and young Alodie had spent the first seven years of her life in an aura of security, love and happiness until her mother’s untimely death in a hover car accident.  Distraught with grief, Jake had then dedicated his life to his little daughter and proceeded to bring her up the only way he knew how, as a son.

             
Jake was a senior star ship engineer and, recognising his daughter’s amazing intelligence, proceeded to teach her the rudiments of his craft.  By the time she was ten Alodie was enrolled, two years before the normal intake age, at E & MTC’s engineering school.  She passed top of her class at thirteen and then, with two years to kill before she was legally allowed ‘off Earth’ she began to study, and gain a degree in, navigation.  

             
Her first trip had been as navigation cadet on the star liner
‘Cloudburst’
where she had first run into Bradey and Owen.  Austen smiled, now there had been a ship, every component top notch, able to hit hyper 9.9.  She had made three trips in the
‘Cloudburst’
and became fascinated with computers.  She decided to study for yet a further degree, in science, and was promoted to junior science officer.

             
It was during that time she met Adair who pointed out to her that, bar her pilot’s ticket, she was the best qualified member of the crew, having degrees in engineering, navigation and computer science.  As the pilot’s ticket was the one essential qualification for a star ship captain, a rank very rarely obtained by a woman even in the twenty fifth century, she decided to take his advice.

             
She took leave of absence from E & MTC and, by pulling strings and getting her father to call in practically every favour he could, managed to get a place in the Pilots
’
College on Mars.  This faculty was unique in the known galaxy.  It was not owned by E & MTC, although they had endowed it generously, but by the Council of Planets.  It was an independent school for the cream of star ship crews.  To be a pilot a person had to be single minded, stable and cool and  Alodie again passed out top of her class.  After graduation she served as first officer on the galactic exploration ship
John F. Kennedy
and had been personally recommended by its captain, who was retiring, to take over command of that vessel.

             
She drained her cup and crushed it savagely in her hand “so why am I here, commanding
this
bucket of bolts, its the worst command in the whole damned fleet?” she said aloud.

             
“Talking to yourself Alodie?” said a deep voice behind her.  Suppressing an oath she turned, Luke Owen stood framed in the doorway “Sorry ma’am” he drawled “I came down for a cup of coffee and heard you talking to yourself, something about the worst command in the whole damned fleet”

             
Austen permitted herself  a smile and, pushing the chair back, stood up and stretched.  “Yes, well, the
Colossus
isn’t exactly prestigious, is she?”

             
Owen laughed and walking over to the machine helped himself to a cup of coffee.  “and your pissed because where most captains only have an engineering, a navigation or computer degree in addition to their pilot’s qualification, you have all three?”

             
Austen shrugged, “I suppose so”

             
He took a drink of coffee.  “Well, how do you think the rest of the crew feel?  Take me for example, I got a fair navigation degree, ten years experience, I tried for pilot school just before we set off on this trip”

             
Austen took a bite of cheese, chewed and swallowed “So, what happened?”

             
He shrugged and grinned, “That place is harder to get into than
Fort
Knox
, the morons didn’t want to know me - their loss I’d say”

             
“You mean you failed the entrance exam” she replied “what was your score?”

             
“You had to ask didn’t you?  Fifteen per cent, how about you?”

             
She smiled sweetly “ninety six percent, I dropped marks by answering wrongly on propulsion technique, I read up on it later”

             
Luke laughed loudly and walking over to the replicator got himself a ham sandwich.  “That doesn’t surprise me in the least - the fact you read up on it later I mean, I’m stunned that you got a question wrong in the first place”

             
Austen massaged her temples again “You’d do a lot better in life Owen if you took things more seriously.   Did you even cram for the exam?”

             
He pulled out a chair and straddled it, resting his chin on the back.  “Nope”

             
She shook her head, “exactly - nope, you didn’t care whether you passed or not, so don’t expect me to feel sorry for you.  Where you are now is where you’ll stay because you’ve no drive.  I should imagine though, Owen, that it was a damned sight easier for you to get as far as the entrance exam than it was for me, all you had to do was apply.  For your information, it took me almost a year to get as far as the exam”

             
Owen tossed his head back and drained his cup “I may not be much on the old ambition my darling but I’d like to bet that if I had passed out of PTS with your qualifications and got that glowing recommendation from Captain Williams I would now be at the helm of the
JFK
, not commanding a tub like this”

             
“Exactly” snapped Austen “and why? That’s what I want to know - why?”

             
Owen smiled and wiped his hand across his mouth “The answer lies in  your mirror, Captain”

             
Austen looked up at him “My mirror, what do you mean?”
             

             
“Come on, ma’am its obvious.  You’re twenty three, the most beautiful woman I, personally, have ever seen, a body made for sex, glorious golden hair IF you’d let it grow instead of cropping it the minute it gets over two millimetres long, a flawless skin, big sapphire blue eyes you could drown in, moist pink lips just made for kissing, shall I go on or do you get my drift?”

             
Austen sighed, “God, Owen, give you a light year and you take a parsec,
this
is why I give you a hard time”

             
“You asked me honey, I answered you”

             
Austen brought her fist down on the table.  “Do you talk to all your superior officers in this vein Lieutenant Commander?” she snapped. Owen took a bite of sandwich and shook his head “Why not?  Is it because you respect them and not me? God I could lose the lot of them on hyper logic!”

             
For a moment Owen looked at her with what seemed almost like pity, then shook his head “You’re missing my drift, Alodie”

             
Austen felt a wave of anger sweep over her.  “For the last time the title is 
Captain
or
ma’am
Lieutenant Commander, not
Alodie
or, for that matter,
honey
”

             
He laughed and, strolling across to the machine, helped himself to more coffee.  “Come down off your cloud Captain, wake up and smell the roses, I’ve never spoken to my other captains like this because you’re the only one I’ve ever wanted to screw”

             
Austen was speechless with rage, she felt an overwhelming desire to strike out, to hit something, preferably Owen, standing there in his bronzed, self assured,  maleness.  She swallowed down her rage as best she could and glared at him “And that, Lieutenant Commander, is why you’ll never be anything but a mediocre navigator, you’re ruled by sex - an archaic, outdated way of creating human life, messy, unnecessary and time consuming,  I’ll be glad when its done away with altogether.  Whilst humans are still wallowing about in the Dark Ages we’ll never catch up to, say, the Daltoids, scientifically”