Jordan (7 page)

“Maybe he did. He’s kept me from finding them. And he’s used that time to rebuild the Tribes. Now that he has the Grail in
his possession, he believes he’s strong enough to take on Earth.”

“What happens if you unite the Staff and the Grail without all the keys?”

She sure had a way of driving right to the point. But just because he’d lived a long time didn’t mean he had all the answers.

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

“That’s not good enough.”

He raised his eyebrow. “Would you prefer I lied?”

“I’d prefer you had a plan to take us home, but that’s not going to happen is it?”

“Not just yet.”

She sighed. “So we might as well go find the keys and our Grail.”

“That’s my girl.”

Her eyes blazed with heat. “One very short, very meaningless sexual encounter does not make me yours.”

“For something so
meaningless,
you’re certainly talking about it a lot.” He took pleasure in annoying her. He could grow to love her scowl, he really could.

The greatest dangers have their allurements.

—P
HILIP
D
ORMER
S
TANHOPE
, 4
TH
E
ARL OF
C
HESTERFIELD

V
ivianne headed for the bridge with the dog tucked under her arm. But at the delicious aroma of frying burgers, the animal
squirmed for his freedom. She set him down and he raced off. She followed more slowly and poked her head into the tiny galley
to see the canine had already begged a hamburger patty from a slender, blue-eyed woman with her black hair pulled back into
a ponytail.

“Hi.” The woman smiled in greeting. “I’m Knox. Darren’s fiancée.”

“Vivianne. And those burgers smell delicious.” She prayed the gravity would stay on long enough for her stomach to remain
settled and for those burgers to cook.

“They’re almost done.” After wiping her hands on an apron, Knox kneeled to pet the Boston terrier, who’d inhaled his burger
in one bite. “And who’s this?”

“Another stowaway like you.” Vivianne grinned. “I’m sorry you got caught up in this mess, but I do appreciate your cooking.”

“Perhaps the dog will end up being good company for all of us.”

“He’s so curious I think we should call him George.”

George wagged his stumpy tail, then sat. Looking up with expectant eyes, he stared at the stove.

Knox washed her hands, then flipped the burgers. “Looks like he wants some more.”

“I don’t suppose you’ve found any dog food?” Vivianne asked.

Knox shook her head. “There’s frozen steaks and hamburger in the freezer. Rice and beans in the pantry. No vegetables. No
fruit. No spices. I found a few soft drinks, a moldy sandwich, and leftover lasagna in the fridge.”

Vivianne noted the countertops were immaculate but the ceiling was spattered with assorted crumbs, no doubt due to the sudden
lack of gravity earlier. She opened a control panel. “I’m going to program a floater to clean up the ceiling.”

“A floater?”

“It’s technology we bought from another planet called Honor. The floaters help clean the air and incinerate the garbage before
it clogs the filters.”

“Cool.” Knox filled a bowl with water and pushed it over to the dog.

George lapped it up. And Vivianne realized what went in was going to come out. “I’ll program another floater to clean up after
George.”

Knox returned to her cooking. “This is way more exciting than payroll. But my family is going to worry about me.” She bit
her lower lip. “You think we might be heading back soon?”

Vivianne doubted it. Especially since the engines might have sustained damage after they’d overheated. “I have no idea.”

“It’s just that I promised my little sister I’d be there for her graduation.”

“I’m sorry. I’m afraid all our lives have been disrupted.” Vivianne wondered how many of the crew were married. Had children.
Except for Jordan and her, everyone else likely had some kind of family worrying about them.

“I wish we could send a message home. So at least my family knows I’m alive.”

Vivianne clapped her hand to her forehead. Even after Sean fixed the communications system, their normal channels wouldn’t
work in hyperspace. However, they might have another communicator onboard—one that only Vivianne knew about.

Knox peered at her. “What is it?”

Vivianne didn’t want to raise false hopes about her untested system. “Maybe we can fix our communications.” Vivianne peered
hungrily at a burger. Torn between food and her need to check on the prototype unit she’d had installed in the captain’s quarters,
she decided her stomach would have to suffer. But did she have time for a test before Jordan wondered why she wasn’t running
the
Draco’
s diagnostics as he’d asked?

“Another few minutes and these burgers will be done. You can take some with you. Maybe take some to Jordan—”

“Sorry, I can’t.” Arriving on the bridge with cold food wouldn’t be appreciated. “Jordan’s asked me to run diagnostics on
the gyro circuits—”

“No problem. I’ll bring them to the bridge.” Knox’s tone remained friendly, but she teased, “I can see why you’d want to keep
your distance.”

“Excuse me?”

Knox grinned. “I have six married brothers. And all of them look at their wives—just like Jordan looks at you.”

“Jordan works for me. Other than that…” They’d shared lusty sex.

Knox winked at her. “That man only lets you think he works for you.”

“You’re mistaken.” Vivianne hurried aft. Knox had come to the wrong conclusion. True, Jordan’s eyes held a challenging gleam
when they met Vivianne’s. But that was merely due to the fact he enjoyed baiting her, not out of genuine interest.

And she wasn’t wasting another moment thinking about him when this might be her best opportunity to test the prototype. If
it worked, if she could contact Maggie, her former college roommate and an astronomer, Vivianne could stay in touch with Earth
and learn what was happening back home, even notify the crew’s families that their loved ones were all right.

She headed straight for the master cabin. None of the private quarters were luxurious. Space was at too much of a premium.
However, the captain’s quarters had a desk, its own tiny bathroom, and, best of all, its own porthole.

The view outside, glinting pinpoints of light scattered across a black velvet universe, was as spectacular as it was daunting.
Yet there was also the most magnificent promise just outside the porthole. A promise of adventure. Of the unknown. Of a tomorrow
that might be better than today.

Vivianne shut the door and keyed the lock. Anticipation thrumming through her, she headed straight to the monitor that tied
into all
Draco’
s systems—it was bolted to the desk. She flipped open the side panel, toggled a switch.

A tiny green light signaled that the prototype she’d designed was drawing power and good to go. Vivianne was first and foremost
a communications expert. This baby was her own invention, but there’d been no way to test it on Earth.

Vivianne heard a whine, and she jumped, then realized George was scratching on the door. She couldn’t work with him distracting
her and hurried to let him inside. He leapt onto the bed, circled, and settled, resting his head on his paws.

Vivianne turned back to the prototype. What should she say? That they were on a ship with an unproven hyperspace transport
device and an untrained crew? And no navigation charts? And an alien power source that filled her with lusty energy? Oh, and
let’s not forget the captain, claiming he used to be Merlin and was at least fifteen hundred years old and fully intending
to take the
Draco
into enemy territory, if they could find it.

Maggie would think she’d lost it.

Maybe she had lost it. She no longer knew what the truth was. How could she? While Jordan had answered some of her questions,
his explanation hadn’t proved or disproved his allegiance to Earth.

Even if she shared her doubts and Maggie agreed that Jordan might be a traitor, what could they do? The
Draco
was one of a kind. Earth didn’t have another ship to send after them. They were on their own.

A hard knock had her pulse racing. “Vi?”

It was Jordan. “Just a minute.”

Combing her fingers through her hair, she opened the cabin door, ignoring her elevated pulse and refusing to let his implacable
expression unnerve her.

Jordan held up a plate with a two hamburgers and two glasses of water. “Thought you might be hungry.” His tone was casual,
but she didn’t miss his sharp gaze roaming over the cabin or how he immediately made himself at home by settling into a chair.

At the scent of food, George jumped from the bed with a bark. Before he could stand on his hind legs and beg, she jerked him
back. “Down.”

George paid no attention.

“Sit,” Jordan ordered and, to her shock, the dog obeyed.

“Wow. Thanks.” She accepted the food and placed it next to the desk.

Jordan’s gaze settled on her prototype. “What are you working on? Is that a communicator?”

“It’s a prototype and has never been tested. I’ve calibrated it to bounce zeta waves along magnetic wormhole lines.”

“Zeta rays work like dropping a penny into a pond, the waves rippling outward,” Jordan said. “Only the ripples travel through
wormholes and three-dimensional space.”

“Exactly.” There were only about three people back home who could understand the theory behind her work. Again, he’d impressed
her. “It could take hundreds of thousands of years for a message to arrive… if it arrives at all. Or if it works as planned,
it might be instantaneous.”

“Fascinating.” He lifted his gaze from the prototype to her. “Your design, will it work in hyperspace?”

Pride zinged through her that he recognized the machine as her design. “That’s the idea, but even if our end does what it’s
supposed to, we left before I set up Earth’s end of the system.”

“But you have a backup plan, don’t you?” he guessed, laughter in his eyes.

She grinned and dialed down her excitement, told herself her reaction was normal. After all, she’d waited a year to test this
machine. “I have a former college roommate, Maggie. She’s an astronomer at Sunnyside Tech Observatory. Perhaps one of Maggie’s
instruments will pick up our message.”

“Won’t she just slough it off as a wormhole echo bouncing off Earth’s atmosphere?”

“Other astronomers might. But Maggie won’t. Not if she thinks it’s from
me.
”

He eyed her with curiosity. “And why would she think that?”

“Because in college we had a special code for when we went out. If I texted
qxq,
she’d call and make up an emergency excuse for me to return immediately to the dorm.”

Amusement lit his eyes. “Did you use that tactic often?”

“Often enough that she’ll remember.”

He picked up a burger and bit into it. George got off the bed and sat at his feet, the animal watching him chew. “So what
message will you send?”

Vivianne typed and pretended not to notice him feeding bites of his burger to George. “I’ll tell her we’re testing the
Draco.
Give her the names of everyone onboard and ask her to notify their families about the journey. And I’ll ask her to retrieve
the second zeta communicator from Vesta’s headquarters in Florida so we can have a two-way conversation.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Vivianne finished, left the communicator on to record a reply if one came in, but shut the panel. Jordan lifted the plate
and once again offered her a burger. She bit into her burger and savored the delicious meat.

“Captain,” Tennison’s voice came through Jordan’s handheld communicator.

Jordan lifted his wrist and spoke into the speaker. “Yes?”

“We picked up an unidentifiable energy surge… a burst we’ve never seen before. It appears to have come from inside the
Draco.
Do you think it’s the Staff?”

“It’s possible. Continue to monitor the situation.”

From the moment she’d picked up the burger, George’s attention had shifted from Jordan back to her. Such a little beggar.
Vivianne fed George a bite. “Why would the Staff spike now?”

“Why does it change our body chemistry?” Jordan asked her back.

“It’s almost as if it has a mind of its own,” she said between bites.

A few crumbs of the hamburger roll stuck to the corner of her mouth. She wiped it with her finger and looked up to find Jordan
watching her mouth.

He pulled a clean white handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at the corner of her lips. “You missed a spot.”

“Thanks.” Was it her imagination, or was his voice lower? Huskier? She took the handkerchief from him and stood, a little
uneasy at the intensity of his gaze. Knox’s comment about how Jordan looked at Vivianne crossed her mind. Was he interested
in her? She filed the thought away to examine later. “Any idea what those objects in the wormhole were?”

“No.” He seemed to be staring into space.