Govern Read online

  “So, if I asked about your sexual history?”

  “I would tell you that it is not necessary for you to know.” She glanced over her shoulder at him and grinned.

  “Pity, I believe that that could have been an excellent conversation.”

  Leo floated them through the city on a six-inch cushion of air and magnetic repulsion. They arrived at the hall with four minutes to spare.

  She walked just behind him and to the left. Govern kept an eye out for anything peculiar or threatening. It wasn’t likely, but stranger things had happened. The big danger would occur during the payment exchange but that was a bit away.

  Govern stood behind Ambassador Wikkio for three hours before her stomach rumbled. Skipping breakfast was never a good idea.

  She circumspectly summoned a beverage bot as well as one carrying snacks. Despite her care, several men were looking at her in shock as she ate a few bites and washed them down with water and tea.

  Govern glanced at the ambassador, but he was paying attention to the speech of one of the Tosh who was going on about sacred space and interlopers.

  Suddenly, one of them asked, “Your guard, does she control all electronics?”

  The ambassador turned to her and asked, “Do you?”

  “It depends on the situation. I can if there is reason enough for it.”

  The senior councilman got to his feet and said, “We are prepared to throw out all negotiations if you will assist us in an urgent matter.”

  Govern poked Ambassador Wikkio in the back.

  He spoke for her. “What is the nature of your urgent matter?”

  The councilman’s tongue flicked out and back repeatedly. “We have a ship that crashed near an inhabited area, and it is leaking radiation. If you can send in and control bots, then you can affect containment.”

  “Will this grant us the permission to build the station in your space without restrictions?”

  The senior nodded. “Whatever space you need is yours. We have an area that is rapidly growing completely uninhabitable. A few more days and it might even reach the water table.”

  She nodded and whispered to the ambassador. “I will do it. The faster the better. If they give us the coordinates, the Gold Fairy will meet us there.”

  He gave the councillors the information and a contract was drawn up. All parties signed and they were given the location. The assembled men inclined their heads and wished her good luck.

  Taking in deep breaths, she walked with the ambassador out into the bright daylight. “So, what kind of resistance to radiation do you have?”

  “A fair amount. How about you?”

  “I won’t be wearing this suit again if that is a clue.” She warmed up the skimmer and lifted it off.

  “Will it be dangerous?”

  “Not if there is a nice safe place for me to direct operations. If the area is evacuated, I will use a home.”

  “Good. Well, this has created a simple answer to the negotiations if you are able to shut down the leak.”

  “Let’s just wait and see. Hold tight. We are going to meet Gold in flight.”

  “Why not just meet her there?”

  “She can fly it in half an hour. It will take the skimmer six hours, and we will get bugs in our teeth.”

  “Fair enough.” He chortled and leaned back with his hands behind his head.

  The bulk of her ship lifted off and flew slowly away from the city. She elevated the skimmer and soared over rooftops. She couldn’t do it for long, but it would last long enough to get them inside the ship.

  It wasn’t her smoothest entry into her home, but the moment they were inside, Gold sealed the hatch and took off toward their destination.

  “I am going to grab a meal, care to join me?”

  “Of course. Lead the way.”

  Leo made her way up the stairs and sent a prep message to her sturdiest gizmo bots. They were radiation resistant and had enough tools to supply their own garages. She was starting with a full armament.

  Once they were seated, Eykanyo asked her, “Are you sure you can manage this?”

  “No, but I will try.”

  “Will you be in danger?”

  “No.”

  “Good. Now, let’s eat before your stomach makes another alarming noise.”

  She snickered and stabbed at her lunch, eating as fast as she could without courting a set of the hiccups.

  “So, what are you going to do when you get there?”

  “Well, Gold will let us out in a safe zone and then fly in to get the bots as close as she can. She will drop the bots, and I will direct them from the safe zone.”

  “Sensible. That should reduce the risk.”

  “I think so.” She drank a cup of tea and sipped at her water ration. “Do I have to keep the makeup on?”

  “It is better if you do. The Tosh may show up once the radiation levels drop. You don’t want to be socially naked.”

  She grimaced behind her mask of makeup. “Fine, but after this mission, you will be lucky to see me in lipstick, let alone this thick stuff.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Leo sighed. “Okay, a quick trip to the lav and we should be near the landing site. Promise me one thing.”

  He blinked. “Within reason.”

  “When this is over, I want to see your passive features. The ones you use when you aren’t thinking of anyone and nothing is shaping you.”

  “You are joking.”

  “No. I need to know what you are, what you really are.”

  “Oh. I see. Well, I don’t, but yes, you will see my natural features.” He smiled.

  “Excellent. Well, let me answer the call of nature and we will return to the surface for the mission.”

  He inclined his head, and ten minutes later, they were on the edge of the radiation quarantine and Gold was moving into position the bots as close as she could. It was time to show the Gah-tosh what a living ship and its damaged pilot could do.

  Chapter Five

  Govern took her supplies and walked into the abandoned city with Beholder right behind her.

  “I need to find the best view of the crash site as close as we can get, so I am thinking that building there.”

  She pointed and he followed her lead.

  “The museum, excellent choice.”

  “I am glad you agree. There really is no other suitable structure.” She nodded and made a beeline for the building. Gold was setting down and the bots were ready to go. The sooner this was underway, the better for everyone.

  The door opened when she struck it with one of the built-in pulsers that her suit came equipped with.

  Five levels of staircases later and she and Beholder were looking at the wreck and the retreating containment workers.

  Based on the levels that Gold was sending to her, those were all dead men. No one could survive those levels of radiation for long.

  Govern set out her water and snack packs. This was going to take a while, and she was going to have to eat.

  “Are you moving in?”

  “No, but I am going to be here a while. It is best that I keep all my supplies where I can get at them.”

  She walked to the edge of the balcony, strewn with vines and columns. It was a stately place, but it made a mockery of the devastation of the ship. Grace and beauty just a kilometre from burned wreckage. This was going to be quite the day.

  “I am preparing to send my bots.” She brought them all online, starting with the most radiation resistant.

  “Tell me if you need anything.”

  “Will do.”

  Leo took a deep breath and reached out for the bots on her frequency. It was time to examine that crack and see what she could get her critters to do.

  She looked at the world through the eyes of her bots via her link with Gold. She felt the trundling of their treads over the terrain as they climbed into the belly of the shattered ship. Finding the core was easy, they simply had to move as far into the radiation as th
ey could and the leak would be right in front of them.

  The crack was large but the shards of the containment vessel were nearby. Bit by bit, the bots filled in the hole and repaired the cracked core.

  Every hour or so, she stopped to eat and drink, gave Ambassador Wikkio a quick update and he passed it along to the Gah-tosh.

  Light faded and she kept working. The completion of the plugging was still hours away. Every inch of the unit had to be sealed, then it had to be coated in layer upon layer of radiation-resistant foam.

  She had lost five bots from her initial wave, but those that remained were working as hard as she could wish.

  Govern kept her mind in that ship, and the environmental clean-up crew were sent in at a reasonable distance to begin extracting the contaminated soil for sterilizing.

  Her body started to shake near the fourteenth hour. Two more layers of foam had to be put down before she could rest.

  She could hear Beholder talking to her, but her mind was inside the wreckage.

  She asked him softly. “Where do they want it?”

  “What?”

  “Once the ship is repaired, where do they want me to put it?”

  “You can move it?”

  She looked at him, and he flinched back. She knew what he was seeing, eyes gone red by the pressure and irises that were burning gold. “I can move it.”

  “Just a moment.” He walked away and muttered quickly into his com.

  She turned her gaze back to the ship and watched the progress. While the last of her bots finished the foam, two more were getting the main computer up and running. She was going to find out what brought the ship down.

  The information streamed along her connection, and she felt rueful pity for the Tosh. The Nyal Imperium was not the first negotiator for a place in Tosh space. A violent warrior race demanded that the Tosh refuse all requests for a place in their space.

  When the Tosh let slip that Ambassador Wikkio was on his way, the Pargu shot the Tosh ambassador’s ship down, causing the crash. It meant only one thing to Leo—things had just gotten exponentially more complicated.

  “Fifty kilometres north, there is a desert with a large volcanic bowl in the centre. Put the ship inside the volcano.”

  “For this, I will need to be inside the Gold Fairy. I need physical support.”

  “Call her, and I will help you inside.”

  “Good. She is on her way.” Govern smiled weakly. She withdrew her bots, had the contaminated ones report to the lined areas of the ship designed for just this sort of thing and, when they were all accounted for, she called Gold to her.

  “She is coming into the city?”

  “She is. She can fly through an area exactly her own shape. The Fairies were all designed to be self-propelling and accurate. She is no exception.”

  Her ship came to her, and she stood on the edge of the balcony. “If you want to come along, get up here.”

  He was perplexed, but he followed her, and together, they watched her ship approach.

  “How are we—” He didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence.

  Gold dropped out of the sky and hovered with the command deck even with the balcony. A gangplank connected the balcony railing to the ship, and Leo moved swiftly to close the distance between her and her ship.

  Her entire being sighed happily as the ship surrounded her.

  The ambassador stumbled in behind her. “I had no idea that she has an upper hatch.”

  Govern turned and waved her hand toward the flat panel of metal that had just been their doorway. “She doesn’t.”

  He was left to stare at the place they had entered the ship while she settled into her command seat.

  She let the specially designed seat support her as she sent her mind into the crashed ship. The flight wasn’t going to be pretty, but the ship was going to fly.

  She pulled switches, sent signals and the ship shuddered and reluctantly left the embrace of the surface. Govern propelled it up and shoved it toward the spot selected by the Tosh.

  “I cannot believe you are doing that.”

  “The ship is doing the work, Beholder. I am merely telling it what to do. Did you know that this area of space was contested by the Pargu?”

  He nodded and stood next to her, watching the image of the broken vessel as they moved it slowly to its final destination.

  “The Pargu have been using this system as a shortcut to their holdings. It was only a matter of time before they tried to enforce their desire to own the space.”

  “Well, this ship was the first shot. They are not going to take imperium interference lightly.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I got it from the ship’s systems.” It was hard to talk and control the ship’s systems. The damned thing was shedding wires and parts all over the countryside.

  They finally cleared all inhabited areas and passed over the desert. The volcanic crater called to her, and she was relieved to stop Gold’s progress and watch the broken ship fly directly into the bottom of the crater.

  Lava lapped over the stone lip, and Govern cut her connection to the ship’s systems, killing it before it died.

  “Gold, get us back to the spaceport, please.” Leo was on the fine edge of exhaustion.

  The ship turned and flew away as the broken vessel behind them gave into the destructive impulses of the world beneath them.

  A light, slow trill of music came to Leo in her mind and her surroundings. She relaxed in Gold’s embrace and let the fatigue wash over her.

  She could hear the ambassador speaking to the councillors via the com systems, but she let Gold take them back to where the ship had previously been parked.

  Her head spun as she tried to get up enough energy to get to bed. The Gold Fairy settled down and set up a chime in her mind.

  “Do you need help?” A hand cupped her elbow.

  “No.”

  A chime beat furiously, and Leo snorted. “Yes. Please.”

  The arms of her seat opened, and she fell out and into Eykanyo’s arms. He lifted her with surprising ease for someone slighter than she was.

  “Do you need to remove the makeup before you sleep?”

  She blinked up into his serpentine features. “I would like to, yes. Shove me into the shower on the sonic setting, and I should be fine.”

  “Very well. Do you need your suit off?”

  “No. I can sleep in it. I don’t want you hurting yourself.”

  He chuckled. “I guarantee it would be worth every ache and pain.”

  Her body started shaking in his arms.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I am tired. Controlling three dozen bots for hours is a little exhausting.”

  He carried her into her room and ran her through the sonic shower. When her face, clothing and hair were clean, he carried her into the bedroom.

  Eykanyo settled her in the bed and put his hands to her suit, peeling it off her in smooth moves, lifting and adjusting her as needed until she was naked and under her own covers, shivering.

  To her surprise, he stripped out of his own clothing and set it aside. He crawled into bed with her and wrapped her in his arms. “Sleep now. They will wait on any additional negotiations until you are recovered.”

  She grumbled and turned to her side, backing up against the body that was rapidly appreciating the friction. His hands softened and took on a velvety texture, as did his arms. Gold had dimmed the lights so she could only feel the body next to hers.

  Leo tried to identify the feel of his skin and the change in his body, but she slipped into a deep and restful sleep while her body was still trying to figure out who was holding her and what he really looked like.

  Chapter Six

  Waking in his arms was a little odd. She rolled over and came face to face with what she could only guess was his passive face.

  His skin was the greeny-brown of a slightly unripe nut. His hair was dark brown as were his thick lashes and brows. It was
the sharp beak of a nose, full lips and wings that surprised her. The eagle-shaped wings were definitely a shock.

  His eyes opened, and the green gaze was looking at her with nervous attention. His face didn’t shift into Tosh mode; he simply looked at her.

  “Good morning, Eykanyo. We should get some breakfast and get back to the Tosh.”

  He blinked. “You are not upset by my appearance?”

  She shrugged. “I rarely have a naked man in my bed, of any species. I have no problem accepting your features. You took care of me, and I don’t need to know anything else.”

  He caressed her back, stroking her skin. “You worked hard yesterday. I never even knew that was possible.”

  “I only activate and control the programming that already exists.”

  “Your bots are not programmed for repairs like that.”

  “No, but I paid attention in my ship dynamics class. I know what is needed to control and contain a radiation leak.” She smiled and stroked his face, the line of his jaw and his neck. “You have gills as well.”

  He nodded. “All the bits and pieces of a hundred races run through my veins.”

  “Do you have a tail?” Leo leaned in and stroked a hand down his back, touched his wings and then headed for his tailbone.

  “Let me know what you find.” He was amused.

  She scooted toward him until his cock was wedged between them, and she found nothing behind him but a firm and muscular butt. “Plenty to interest me but nothing too unusual.”

  “Aw, and here, I thought I was exceptional.” He pressed a kiss to her temple, her cheekbone and finally her lips.

  The kiss made her dizzy. It was a good thing that she was lying down. Her stomach growled, and he slowly retreated, pausing to drop tiny kisses on her lips as he leaned further and further away.

  “I believe we should conclude our time here on Gah-tosh. To do that, we need to get back to work, and I need to resume my Tosh form. Is that a problem?”

  Leo grinned, “No. You can be whatever you want to be, just skip being a lizard when you are in my bed. It isn’t comfortable.”

  He laughed. “I believe I can bring you around on that subject, but I am just pleased you will allow me into your bed again.”