Page 26 of Narzek
“At least you have good memories of them. It sounds like you had a strong, caring male role model,” she said. “I saw in the reports that the Consortium Warships were liberating slaves as well.”
“I haven’t given up hope, but I am trying to be realistic and acknowledge the fact that she may never be found. The odds are that I might never see her or my other sister again.” He choked up on the last.
Cayla squeezed his hand. “I know, Narze, and I’m sorry.”
He closed his eyes and just breathed in and out for a few micro-spans. He wished Commander Legatu had kept his advice to himself. Narzek believed hehadbeen realistic about the odds of finding his mother and siblings.
He was a Farseek Warrior, and Farseek Warriors were known to beat long odds against them. They were valued by the Consortium, which sent its own warriors to Farseek to train with them during the war.
Cayla waited, racking her brain for the right thing to say. Finally, she said, “You have known all along that she might not be found. That doesn’t mean you have to accept it as fact. I can’t even guess at the odds.”
He met her gaze and gave her a sad smile with a slight nod. He took her hand in both of his and brought it to his lips. “Maybe someone found her the way I found you, someone who will appreciate her the way she deserves.”
“It just might take a while for her to find a way to let you know she’s okay,” she said. “Without positive proof that she’s not alive, I don’t think you have to give up believing she could still be alive.”
“Come here,” Narzek said, tugging gently on her hand.
She got up, and he swiveled his chair and patted his muscular thigh, smiling up at her. Cayla accepted his nonverbal invitation and sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, hugging him.
“I love you,” he murmured, hugging her back.
“And I love you,” she said, leaning back to look into his eyes and caressing his cheek with her fingers. She followed that with a light kiss to his lips.
Narzek shoved his fingers into her hair at the back of her head and drew her back to claim her lips in a more thorough kiss, slipping his tongue between her lips to slow dance with his.
In the wake of the despair that led him on this journey, she was the light that shined on his soul. Hissolmatu.Her mere presence helped him keep that despair at bay. She convinced him that he could keep that glimmer of hope, despite what Commander Legatu had said.
Narzek knew putting Cayla on his lap was a bad idea. He went hard almost the moment her lovely ass settled there. Kissing her long and slow only made it worse, but he didn’t want to stop. He’d already had her twice that morning. Once in the bed and again in the shower. There wasn’t time for another round. They were due for training in the gym in a few mini-spans.
Finally, he groaned and reluctantly ended their kiss. “Can you feel what you do to me?”
Cayla giggled and flexed her ass cheeks against his rock-hard cock. “You’re hard, and I’m wet, but we don’t have time to play.” She made a dramatic sigh and got to her feet.
“No, we don’t,” Narzek said, standing up as well. He picked up his mug and swallowed down the rest of the now tepid tea in his cup as his mate did the same. He concentrated on his breathing and put his mind on the grueling workout ahead of him until his cock settled back down.
After physical training, Cayla went to the shuttle bay to train on a craft that was also equipped with a simulator. After months of study about everything from maintenance and repair of the shuttles and space flight, she was finally deemed ready for flight simulation.
Cayla was excited to take the next step, even though she knew it could be a long time before she also got to copilot a shuttle. Their mission didn’t allow for training flights, mainly because they were in a warzone. However, if she mastered the simulator training, she could be allowed to go on some rescue runs as an observer and help calm the rescues as they were transported from the planet.
Cayla had been through all the preflight checks numerous times. The constant repetitions were designed to make it second nature and to drill them on the standard parameters of each test to determine if a craft was flightworthy.
Hykara Elbatu had finally approved her to begin flight simulation. Her supervisor sat in with her as a copilot for the simulation. She simply observed at Cayla went through the procedures. It may have been a simulation, but it was the best Cayla had ever seen. It looked and felt real as she lifted the craft off the flight deck and turned it to exit the shuttle bay.
Lieutenant Elbatu watched her closely and spoke only to acknowledge the flight check as a normal copilot would. In the simulation, Cayla took the shuttle out into space following a low orbit on the planet until they got close enough to the landing coordinates to begin her descent.
All went well until it came time to return to the shuttle bay. She came in just a little too fast and not quite centered so she clipped the side of the opening and crashed into another shuttle in the bay.
“Well, at least you didn’t kill anybody,” Hykara said dryly. “Let’s go back and try that again until you get it right. We can’t have pilots busting up shuttles, especially when the only way to replace them out here is to steal one.”
“Of course, we have enough enemies out here without making more,” Cayla quipped.
The next few times she practiced the landing in the bay, Hykara had her just go through the exit and return procedures until she could park that shuttle just like parking a car in a garage. It took five repeats and most of the rest of the day, but Cayla worked it out.
She was only a little disappointed when Hykara couldn’t give her a time frame when she could expect to make an actual flight as a pilot. The lieutenant did, however, put her in as an observer for the next planetfall, the next step toward hands-on flight.
She had a feeling it wouldn’t please Narzek, and she was right. Cayla could see he wanted to dissuade her from going any further into what could quickly turn into a deadly situation.
“No!” he said. Then he sucked in a breath as he seemed to realize he had said it out loud.
