Ice, Pirates, and Lace

  The story or stories contained in this e-book are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is coincidental.

  “Ice, Pirates and Lace” copyright © 2012 by L.H. Davis

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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  I.

  ICE

  NINA HESITATED BEFORE STEPPING THROUGH THE HATCH, out into the gloom of twilight. Bands of red and gold, fading memories of the day, accentuated the curvature of the small planet. A sole beam of sunlight skipped across the rolling field of ice, which encompassed all before her except the horizon. The beam flared into the full spectrum of colors as it struck the crystal canopy of Jax’s space tug, and then winked out. Finding the thin atmosphere little more than a hindrance, the scattered light faded into the cobalt-blue sky, resuming its perpetual journey through the blackness of space.

  The door closed behind Nina and hissed, sealing the warmth of the Compound from the bitter cold of Arcus. She shivered as the core of her being seemed to awaken with the knowledge that she was standing on the edge of the known universe. A feeling of absolute isolation settled over her like a smothering blanket, and then began to tighten.

  Oh, hell no. Breathe. This is a bad idea. Just breathe.

  Lifting her heated facemask to reseat it, Nina felt the dry evening air tear at her throat and threatened to frost her eyes. She pulled the hood of her jacket tight around her head, making certain none of her skin remained exposed to the environment. Given the opportunity, the ravaging winds of Arcus would consume her tender flesh within a few short minutes. The ground crew might eventually find the remains of her freeze-dried body, but the locator chip implanted in her skull was passive, and rarely monitored. Out on the open ice, death was always near at hand, much closer than a rescue party could ever be.

  Slipping a gloved hand into the pocket of her E-suit, Nina powered up her comm and activated the heads-up display in her hood. Icons then appeared in her visor, which she manipulated through the sensors in her gloves, and subtle gyrations of her hands. Sliding a finger along the virtual control of the suit’s heater, Nina pushed the indicator to its highest setting. Her destination was roughly a mile away, so she would need a fully functioning heater to survive the crossing.

  Jax had better be very happy to see me. I could be soaking in my hot tub right now. But then again...we could be soaking in my hot tub...with a little wine...some candles...but not dark.

  Nina toyed with the fantasy as she walked.

  She had only been sixteen years old when her parents, estranged at the time, left Abydos together on a deep-space mining mission. Their ship, and all hands, went missing in less than a year. Nina had never really known her mother, Phoebe, and had usually only seen her father, Mason, for a week each spring, although not every year. Mason resigned as CEO of Masonic Industries, an autonomous drone manufacturing operation, to take a commission with the Universal Imperium as the captain of the transluminal ship TLS Hyperion. It was his first and only command.

  Nina became extremely wealthy after the death of her parents, but she left the money and that part of her life behind on Abydos. The day Nina turned eighteen, she walked out of the private school where she had spent most of her life, and signed on with a group of laborers heading to Outpost Arcus. The Universal Imperium had established the colony on Arcus five years earlier to harvest the planet’s water ice, the primary form of energy consumed by the Pangean civilization. Under the command of Captain Mason, the TLS Hyperion carried a team of miners to the uninhabited planet and worked the ice for nearly six months, but then vanished without a trace. No sign of the ship, crew, or outpost had ever been found.

  Nina never understood why her mother had come to Arcus, but the planet had taken both of her parents. Arcus owed her something, if not a good life, at least a reason to live. She came to the strange barren world to learn the fate of her parents, and was determined to remain on Arcus until she found the truth, or at least a theory she could accept; murder would not do. She had been an outcast as a child and had learned to accept, even embrace, her solitary life—until she met Jax.

  Realizing the night had settled fully upon her, Nina turned, retracing her footsteps back through the scattering of snow to the Compound, the only structure of Outpost Arcus. As expected so late in the day, the building appeared deserted, although Nina knew it was not. Other than the TLS Titan, in geosynchronous orbit fifty miles above, there was no other place of refuge on the planet capable of sustaining life. Although she was already well out on the ice sheet, Nina searched each window of the Compound for signs of prying eyes. She saw none. Reassured she had slipped out unseen, Nina returned her attention to the distant spacecraft.

  As viewed from the Observation Room in the Compound, Jax’s space tug had been visible only as the shadow of a huge sphere, impaled on an equally large pyramid. Now, closer, Nina could see the red glow of equipment lights, captured in the crystal of the thirty-foot dome encasing the cockpit. Sitting on the apex of the ship, the dome recast the inviting light over several feet of the surrounding hull. The spacecraft called to Nina, and her pace quickened.

  With her thoughts fully wrapped around Jax, Nina failed to notice the two distant figures following in her footsteps.

  •

  Nina had struggled all her life with a sense of abandonment, and learned to deal with it by pushing away anyone who tried to get close. No risk, no pain. Like Arcus, Nina had been cold and inhospitable to all, until the TLS Titan arrived with Lieutenant Jackson, who had since risen steadily on Nina’s horizon.

  Jax was a graduate of the Space Academy on Abydos, and had taken the two-year assignment on Arcus as a means to position himself favorably for his next promotion, which he hoped would be to a staff position aboard the Titan. The Universal Imperium Council considered deep space experience a prerequisite for the officers of larger vessels, such as the Titan. The rule came into effect soon after the loss of the Hyperion. Captain Mason had no prior experience, but gained command of the Hyperion by financially motivating several members of the Council, an embarrassment the Imperium could ill afford to repeat.

  Nina ignored Jax when he first arrived on Arcus, although she found his smile, patience, and air of indifference alluring. Jax was a unique and pleasant distraction, but he was also an experienced pilot, which was a skill Nina had already decided she would pursue. Jax agreed to sponsor and train her, and asked for nothing in return except friendly conversation, which Nina soon learned to enjoy—and then desire.

  •

  Nina turned her eyes skyward as she reached the foot of the cast-iron pyramid supporting the tug, which towered 250 feet above her. To reach the escape hatch in the lower hull, Nina would need to scale thirty feet of the icy structure, which was a challenge in her bulky E-suit. Being mindful of her footing, she moved slowly and methodically up the sloping face of the iron ballast using the footholds cast into its surface. Nina was relieved to find the recesses entirely free of ice, although steam was still billowing from the exhaust port of her mask when she reached the hull. She then rested, considering her next move.

  Nina was convinced Jax loved her—or could love her—although he had always physicall
y kept her at arm’s length.

  But he didn’t voluntarily spend two hours every night with me…for the last six months…just to train me as a pilot.

  Nina did have doubts, however, when Jax would not take her as his copilot.

  “We’re too close,” he said. “It wouldn’t look professional. Besides, I have a copilot. I need a friend.”

  Nina looked up, visualizing Jax in the cockpit high overhead. “And you’re going to find out what I need…right now.” But she hesitated, wondering how Jax might react if she was wrong—if he wasn’t attracted to her. “Then to hell with him,” she said with a nervous laugh.

  Brushing away a light dusting of frost from the oversized keypad beside the hatch, Nina entered her access code. She would have only one chance to entice Jax gracefully, and she desperately wanted the element of surprise as a means to bolster her courage. Using her pilot accesses key, Nina deactivated the ship’s security sensors and released the hatch, which swung silently outward. She listened for the entry alarm, but it remained silent as she slipped inside.

  A cold wind whipped snow dust through the darkened cargo bay. Although much warmer than outside, the room was still too cold for Nina to remove her E-suit. Realizing she would need to find a warmer location higher in the ship, she crossed silently to the flight deck ladder. As she peered up the shaft, Jax walked by the opening, two levels above. Nina jumped back, near panic, then realized he could not have seen her at the bottom of the dark tunnel. After gathering her courage, she began to climb.

  Keeping her eyes glued to the opening above, Nina stepped off the ladder into the electronics bay, directly below the flight deck. She removed her facemask and found the compartment comfortable. Waste heat from the high-density electronics constantly kept the compartment overly warm. Multicolored indicator lights on the display panels provided subdued lighting, perfectly suiting her mood. Air currents, flowing through hot power supplies, filled the room with the metallic scent of ozone. Nina laughed to herself as she realized the tangy smell was arousing her even further.

  With her heart pounding, Nina moved as deep into the compartment as possible, and removed her clothes, allowing them to fall haphazardly to the deck around her bare feet. Her breathing became quick, and shallow. Nina was now totally committed and did not hesitate before crossing back to the climbing shaft. Carefully, she positioned herself on the ladder, advanced three rungs, and waited, listening for any telltale sound from above that would identify Jax’s location.

  “Please enter validation code,” a synthesized voice said.

  Nina pushed away from the ladder, intending to return to the electronics deck. Realizing the sound of impact would give her away, she grabbed again for the ladder, securing a rung with both hands. Her feet, however, could find only air. She dangled, twisting, by the tips of her fingers. Unable to remove her eyes from the opening above, Nina searched blindly for footing, pawing at the ladder with her feet. At last, securing a toehold, she repositioned herself on the rungs. As she freed one hand to smooth back her hair, Nina heard the clicking of a keyboard in the compartment above. Realizing Jax would be typing at the console with his back to the climbing shaft, she scrambled up the ladder and slipped silently onto the flight deck.

  A hot flash racked Nina’s body as she stood fully erect, and exposed, in the glass dome of the cockpit. Jax had not sensed her and did not turn. The subdued lighting, the rich star-field overhead, and the smell of Jax, accentuated Nina’s arousal beyond anything she had ever experienced. Feeling the warm rush of adrenaline, and a growing weakness in her knees, Nina realized she was close to her sexual limit, and slipped slowly into the reclined pilot’s seat.

  Turning at the waist, Nina strategically positioned one hip directly over the other, and tucked her knees to ensure the curves of her hips were perfect. She smoothed the full length of her hair around her breasts, cupping, but not covering. In the subdued red lighting cast by the instrumentation, Nina’s pallid hair glimmered with fiery streaks of gold. Allowing her fingers to wander briefly across her flat stomach, and narrow waist, Nina gained the confidence she needed. Her body throbbed as she moistened her full lips—and moaned.

  II.

  PIRATES

  JAX STIFFENED AT THE KEYBOARD and raised his head, but did not turn. The horizon, sprinkled with bright stars, was clearly visible through the crystal of the dome, but darkness had settled over the ice sheet below, rendering it invisible. Refocusing his eyes onto the surface of the dome, Jax used the crystal as a mirror to scan the compartment behind him. Spotting Nina, Jax grinned.

  “Nina,” he said. “What a nice surprise. You certainly look…inviting tonight. Is there something I can…do for you?” Jax turned, hoping she might notice his approval.

  “You bet your sweet ass there is,” a voice croaked from the climbing shaft. A grotesque head was rising from the floor. “But I don’t think you’re gonna like it much…boy.”

  Jax stepped back, hard into the console. The keyboard crashed to the floor, bounced, and clattered across the cockpit.

  Nina flew from the pilot’s seat and disappeared behind it. She peered around, as the man rose from the climbing shaft.

  “Sorry to intrude,” he said. “The door was open, so we came on in. Looks like she had big plans for you, Jacky boy. I hope you’re up for the job. I damn sure know I am. You guys don’t have to stop on our account. We don’t mind watching.”

  The hulking man stepped out onto the flight deck in a crouch, and checked for head clearance before standing to his full height.

  “How’s it going Jax?” a second voice asked. Another vile head appeared in the shaft near the feet of the first intruder.

  The two men moved onto the flight deck and opened their heavy coats to relieve themselves from the heat of the climb. The smell of stale alcohol, and pure filth, flooded the cockpit. Their faces bulged red and raw below masses of tangled hair. Multicolored streaks of filth leeched from unnatural substances embedded in the thatch around their mouths.

  Jax resisted an urge to cover his nose as their stench filled the cockpit. Nina gagged.

  “Rastus and Orin,” Jax said calmly. “What a surprise. Welcome aboard.” Shit. What the hell are they doing here?

  “Who’s your little girlfriend?” Rastus asked. He had been the first of the abominations to enter.

  “Of course,” Jax said. “Pardon my manners. This is Nina. Nina, meet the brothers, Rastus and Orin.” Jax peeled off his shirt and handed it down to Nina behind the pilot’s seat.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said. “Pardon me if I don’t get up.” Nina slipped the shirt on, but it covered little below her waist.

  “Please, do get up,” Orin said, cracking a squalid smile. “I’d like that.”

  “Someone please go down and get my clothes,” Nina said. “I seem to have left them on the lower deck.” Nina made eye contact with Jax and nodded, indicating he should go below to retrieve her clothes.

  Jax would not leave Nina alone. He had met with Rastus and Orin on more than one occasion, and knew them to be desperate, dangerous men. They were pirates, shipwrecked on Arcus for nearly a year.

  •

  The men had been on the planet for over two months before Jax spotted the wreckage of their ship on the far side of the northern mountain range. A rare form of wind shear, a phenomenon of the supercooled air of Arcus, forced their ship down as the brothers hovered to refuel with water from the melt created by their engine. The hull collapsed when it stuck the bottom of the shallow lake, which soon resolidified entrapping most of the wreckage below the ice.

  Jax became suspicious of the brothers when they refused his help, claiming their mother ship would arrive any day. Only a portion of the wreck’s hull number was visible above the ice, but it was sufficient to identify the spacecraft as a stolen vessel. The Imperium did not tolerate piracy or smuggling, both of which were punishable by death, so Jax could do nothing to help the men—except look the other way. If Jax reported the wreck, t
he Imperium would execute them; and, if he were caught transporting them, he would share their fate. Jax stayed away from the crash site for over four months, but after nursing his guilt into a full-grown monster, he returned with supplies, hoping the men were not there—or at least beyond his help. But the brothers were alive, although starving slowly to death, so Jax fed them, and had ever since.

  They might deserve to die, but not from starvation.

  •

  For the brothers to show up at the Compound, Jax could only assume they had finally given up all hope of rescue, and now intended to have their fill of food, drink, and women, regardless of the cost—which would now be their lives.

  Unless they kill us…and take the tug.

  “Nina,” Jax said, “why don’t you slip down and get dressed while I find us some refreshments. Would you men like some whiskey?” Jax motioned Nina toward the ladder.

  Orin flashed a brown-toothed grin, and said, “I’ll get your clothes for you…sweet thing. I know just where you took them off.” As he started down the shaft, he added, “And you needs to be more careful. You almost got hurt when you slipped off this here ladder.”

  The men had obviously watched Nina from below as she climbed up to the fight deck. The thought sent a chill down Jax’s spine.

  Nina cringed, and said, “What makes you think you can just walk in here—”

  “Nina,” Jax said, “it was obviously an accident.”

  She spun to face him. Jax feared Nina would express her raw opinion of the men, but she hesitated, as if sensing his concern. When her face softened, Jax knew she recognized the danger.

  Nina laughed. “Well I hope I didn’t look too silly.”

  “You didn’t look silly to me,” Rastus said. “You looked real good.”

  Orin emerged from the climbing shaft cradling Nina’s clothes in one arm. “Yeah, you sure do got a nice ass,” he said, holding out her clothes. Nina hesitated, so he motioned for her to take them.