“What about us?” Captain John Tarrence of the Braynow Gaston joked as he appeared in the gangway. He carried several large bags, as did his First Officer, Alex Parisi, and the mate, Jules Green.
Emi silently snickered. Donna never was a light packer. Emi wondered how many crates in the Braynow Gaston’s cargo hold belonged to her.
The men of the Braynow Gaston handed the bags off to the K-2 crew. “Of course you guys can tag along,” Elloy joked. “You brought our missing crew member to us. We owe you.”
Parisi snorted. “You thank us now. You should see how much crap she brought with her.”
Emi finally laughed. “That sounds like the girl I went to school with.”
“Oh, come on, it’s stuff I need,” Donna groused. “Not like I can pop out to the store any time I run out of my favorite shampoo or eyeliner.”
Elloy kissed her again. “You don’t need makeup.”
“You say that now, but you have no clue.”
They finalized dinner arrangements. Emi waved off Donna’s invitation for Emi to join them while she got settled in on the K-2.
“No, I think your guys have plans for you,” she teased.
“Got that right,” Parisi mumbled as he shouldered one of the duffel bags. His eyes had never left Donna since he spotted her, his unbridled passion hitting Emi’s empathic senses in strong waves that made her want to return to the Tamora Bight and drag her own men into bed.
Emi grinned as she returned to her ship. Donna would be doing a lot of things that afternoon. After all that time spent away from her men, however, unpacking probably wasn’t one of them.
When they gathered at the restaurant later that evening, Donna sported a love bite on her neck that hadn’t been there upon her arrival at the station. Emi noticed all three of the K-2 men appeared more relaxed than they had before.
Emi arched an eyebrow at her friend as they stood in the lobby and waited for their table to open.
“What?” Donna asked, snuggling closer to Gregor Davis, her arm hooked through his. “They missed me!”
Caph snorted with laughter. “I bet they missed you two or three times worth each this afternoon.”
Donna grinned while Gregor’s face turned red. “Maybe even more than that,” she teased. Emi laughed. Donna had no problems dishing it out, her ball-busting attitude a perfect complement for the K-2 crew. A Beta-ranked healer, her rating not as high as Emi’s own Alpha ranking, but still a respectable achievement and nothing to sneeze at. Apparently she’d used the journey from Earth to bone up on the region they were traveling to and had compiled all available reports and information on the colony.
“They’re a huge agriform group,” she explained to everyone at the table once they were seated. “They didn’t have to terraform the planet, but they have done a lot of genetic crop engineering. It’s been an active colony for four Earth years, and they’re slated to go online in three years as a far-space permanent base for the ISNC and DSMC to use as a jump point for more distant explorations.”
Emi scrolled through some of the information in the hand-held reader Donna had taken from her purse. “No idea what their problem is?”
“No. The transmission cut off before it finished. They declared a class C-3 medical emergency. That means something widespread, of unknown origin, and potentially fatal. They asked for research and medical support, as well as security support.”
“Security?” Aaron asked. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” Donna took the hand-held back as their waitress appeared to take their order. “It’ll take a four-week jump to get there. I’m hoping the DSMC can send us more info before we jump.”
Once their jump drive engines kicked in, the jump couldn’t be stopped or changed until they reached their destination, and they couldn’t receive outside communications from the DSMC. Because of their ships’ configurations, they would execute a tandem jump, joined together by tractor beams, which meant they could still have ship-to-ship communications between them.
The security request explained why several crates of weapons had been added to their cargo manifests, as well as an emergency retrofit adding large, powerful long-distance plasma cannons to all three ships. The docking crews currently working on their vessels would finish just hours before their planned departure late the next day.
The landing vehicles were also switched out on all three vessels, providing them larger vessels that could carry more passengers and cargo from the ships to the planet’s surface and back. And unmanned cargo transports were added as well. While she’d thought their cargo bay was full before, Emi realized she felt practically claustrophobic in the cavernous space. Every square inch of space that could reasonably be utilized had been filled.
Despite their dinner’s convivial atmosphere, Emi sensed a disquiet in all the men, enough to outweigh the happiness in Captain Elloy’s soul over having Donna back with them. Aaron and Elloy seemed especially disconcerted. Perhaps Captain Tarrence, far less experienced than the other two captains and with a background in research, not combat or space missions, didn’t understand something the other two captains did.
Halfway through their meal, Donna and Emi excused themselves to the ladies’ room. Donna opened up to Emi. “They’re great!” she called out of her stall. “Oh, my God, those guys are fantastic! Man, did I miss them.”
Emi used the facilities, washed her hands, and waited for Donna to emerge. They had the bathroom to themselves. “I didn’t get the impression when I met them that they were…fluffy kind of guys.”
Donna laughed as she emerged and washed her hands. “I definitely wouldn’t call them that, but they sooo have their soft spots.” She grinned. “I’m hoping I can work on them and get them into an arrangement like you’ve got.”
Emi’s eyes widened before she laughed. “Somehow, I don’t see Elloy bending over and taking it up the ass from anyone.” She hadn’t told Donna about Kels. “My boys had a very unique beginning. Remember, they’ve been together twenty years now.”
“I meant a single group cabin.” She winked. “I’m going to chip away at them one point at a time. Not like they haven’t seen each other naked before. Why waste time having a stuffy, old schedule to follow.” A smile filled her face. “But who knows? Maybe I can work on loosening their inhibitions.”
Emi suspected Donna might have her hands full. “Isn’t something like that against ‘regulations’?”
Donna examined the hickey on her neck. “Yeah, well, I set them straight about their rigid view on ‘regulations’ from the start.” She slyly grinned. “Then I proceeded to jump on the table and offer them a free sample. By the time I turned them loose, they were drooling and begging me to sign with them. I talked to the Braynow guys first, though. Then again, that all happened in the sim.” She shrugged. “They were nice and everything, but they didn’t flip my switch. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah. So why did you decide to join the DSMC?”
Donna blushed. Emi didn’t miss that rare event. “I saw how happy you looked with your guys. I’d been thinking about it for a while, after you joined.” She shrugged. “Hey, who knows what the future may hold? I’ve got three guys who are crazy about me and sort of have them held captive. Not going to complain about that or about the money.”
The question Emi longed to ask. “What’d they do to you in your sim session? What did Dr. Graymard have the techs put you through?”