As Nissa steppedout of the Alchemia Space Transport Station and onto the giant floating raft that made up the main level of the planet’s capital, Cirrus City, the sights, smells and sounds overwhelmed her.
She stopped, neck arched, staring at the huge balloons floating above the city like giant starcruisers. Airships and smaller rafts were tethered to the main raft, giving the floating city a haphazard feel. Under her feet, she felt a gentle rocking that she figured the locals didn’t even notice.
The narrow street was lined with ramshackle two-story houses made of plas or wood. Steel or stone would have been too heavy. A mass of people hurried along the sidewalk—men in outfits similar to Justyn’s, people enhanced with mechanical limbs and other crude devices, clockwork droids passing with a distinctiveclackingnoise, and women in huge skirts and tightly-corseted bodices.
All kinds of transports trundled past—people peddling single-person transports and a few steam-powered rickshaws. Above her head, some people were flying tiny gyrocopters. The whirr of the gyrocopter blades competed with the huffs of stream from the rickshaws below and the shouts of hawkers selling their wares on the street.
“Takes a bit to get used to.” Justyn appeared unaffected by the chaos.
“It’s so different than any world I’ve visited.” She watched a woman rush past holding a wooden basket filled with clothes on her hip. “I just can’t understand why they don’t have more…modern tech. Steal it, smuggle it, something.”
“They can’t afford it.” Justyn studied the street now. “Mackon has a stranglehold on the planet.” He nodded at the transport station. “He controls who can come and go off planet. Only way in or out is the transport station where his very own starships transport people to the orbital station. For a hefty fee, of course.”
Where they’d left a disguised shuttle from theFreedom. They couldn’t risk bringing a Patrol ship in too close. Instead, her maintenance team had hastily painted a shuttle and modified any features that screamed “GSS”, and she’d piloted herself and Justyn to the orbital station. “So, very few of these people have ever been off planet?”
“That’s right. They’re more worried about using their coins to feed their families.” He nodded along the street. “Come on, we’ll head to the Flying Compass.”
“Flying Compass?”
“An inn. It has the best ale in Cirrus City. And also the best information.”
Nissa followed him down the street. She waved off women trying to sell fresh fruit and vegetables—guessing that somewhere in the city there had to be gardens. She caught a tiny street urchin in the act of trying to pick her pockets and sent the young boy off with a coin—another old-fashioned item they’d created on theResolute Freedom’s goods printer. Most of the rest of the galaxy had been using e-creds for centuries.
It was surprisingly cool in the city. A brisk wind blew down the streets, finding its way through clothes and ruffling anything in its path. She shivered.
“Cold?”
She glanced up to find him watching her. “I’m fine. Part-reptilian, remember? I’m more susceptible to the cold.”
“You’re from Thusia, right? It’s a pretty cold planet.”
“My father’s Thusian, my mother was half-reptilian from Sonash. She hated the snow.” Nissa remembered her mother always cradling a mug of hot tea in the winter. “I don’t mind it as long as I’m dressed for it.”
“Your mother’s no longer alive?”
A bittersweet sting of pain. “No. She died of Ophidian flu when I was ten.”
“I’m sorry.”
There was nothing but honest sympathy in his voice. “Thank you. It was a long time ago.”
“Still hurts. Kids always think their parents will be around to protect them, love them…it’s always a shock when they’re not.”
He turned and continued down the street, leaving her to wonder at the dark edge to his words. She fell into step behind him, but quickly lost track of their direction, thanks to the incredibly distracting view in front of her. The man looked far too delectable in his outfit. And the way his trousers molded over his tight ass…
Goddess, Nissa. She bit her lip and made herself look away. But seconds later, her gaze was back on him again. The way his too-long hair curled at the collar of his white shirt, the charming grin he tossed at anyone who looked his way.
The man just enjoyed…everything. He leaped into life, into adventure, and took his time enjoying every second of it.
And he’d made it clear he was interested in enjoying her.
Nissa swallowed. And goddess dammit, she was tempted. So, so tempted. She wondered what kind of lover he’d be—fun and adventurous, or strong and intense? Something told her Justyn Phoenix could be all of those things.
She’d enjoy it. She knew it. Having his big, muscled body spread out naked on her sheets. Him moving thickly inside her.
But afterward, he’d be gone with a smile, and she’d be left holding the tatters. She wouldn’t be the first Patrol captain tempted by the wild things the galaxy’s edge had to offer. She’d seen it happen before. You got so used to being around people who didn’t follow the law that you started to think it was okay to bend the rules. Other officers had indulged in ill-advised affairs, or gambling, or smuggling.
Aside from making her father proud, Nissa had ambitions. One day she wanted an admiral insignia on her chest.
