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“Strike might still leave without me.” The ship was his. He could simply fly away before she re-boarded the vessel.
That would devastate her.
“Then I’ll take care of you too.” Talley pulled back from her and grinned. “I’ll make nourishment bars for everyone.” She winked.
“You mean stone bars.” Kesser laughed. Her friend’s attempt, as a child, at making nourishment bars was a well-known disaster. “We won’t have to eat again for a solar cycle.”
“What I am is efficient.” Talley bowed and, while doing that, she nearly tripped on her long garment. She giggled. “Thank you. Thank you.”
“What you were was missing a few ingredients.” Kesser grinned. “Remember when we tried to make fermented beverage from that container of half-rotten foetor fruit?”
They chattered about their pasts, about Tsadok. Kesser’s friend was very much in love with her big green hunk. And they chattered about their futures.
Kesser felt more and more…logical, as her cyborg would say.
She had a plan. And she always felt better having a plan.
“You good?” Talley lifted her eyebrows.
“I’m good.” Kesser smiled. “Thank you. I needed that kick in the ass.”
“That’s me—ass kicker extraordinaire.” Her friend opened the doors and turned her around to face the hallway. “Now, go. Tell him you’re joining him on his mission.” She pushed Kesser out of the chambers. “Tsadok.” Her yell nearly broke Kesser’s eardrums. “I need you.”
A roar came from the direction of the bridge. “I’m coming, mate.
The Powluk passed Kesser in the hallway.
He was in a rush to reach her friend. His eyes glowed.
She suspected garments would soon be shed.
Her conversation with her cyborg would be much more serious. And far less sexy.
Kesser stepped onto the bridge.
Strike was standing by his chair. “You’re my female.” His expression was solemn. “I would have never left you without informing you first. My lack of communication damaged you, and that—” His voice broke.
She resisted the urge to run to him. If they touched, they’d end up fucking, and they really needed to have a conversation. “I’m accompanying you on your mission.”
“I should complete the mission on my own.” His jaw jutted. “You should stay on your home planet. Where you’ll be safer.”
That rejection hurt her.
At first.
Then she reviewed his words. “Those are a lot of shoulds.” Hope flickered inside Kesser. “What do you want to do?”
“Your mom needs you.” He didn’t answer her question. “And you need her. It damages you to spend time apart from her.”
She would endure that short-term damage to be with him.
“What do you want to do, my Strike?” Kesser asked her cyborg again.
“There might be killing on the mission.” He pointed that out. “Seeing that death would emotionally damage you also.”
That would be traumatic to witness. She quashed her grimace. But they would endure that horrific experience together.
She would be there for him. He would be there for her.
