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The tech was shrouded in mystery, a secret closely guarded by the colonies. It was a unique sensation, having all your particles taken apart and put back together.
“And this means the wedding… has to happen sooner?” Kaia looked confused.
“And grander.” Orion leaned into her side. “Isn’t that right, Mother?”
“Why?”
Mare Halena looked like she’d eaten an expired nutripack when she nodded. “You panicked people. Now you need to give them a distraction.”
“You think a party is gonna make them stop worrying about being sent to their deaths?” The way Kaia gaped at his mother was almost funny. She was so adorably clueless.
“It will.” Orion’s fingers smoothed a stray curl behind Kaia’s ear. “We do this before every expedition. Free kerogel always helps people relax. And this time it’ll be even bigger—the first commander’s wedding in hundreds of years. No way will people want to pass that up.”
“We will do it in one month.” Mare Halena dismissed them with a flick of the wrist.
As Orion was guiding Kaia outside with a hand on the small of her back, she called out, “You know what would bring people even more hope? An heir to the Halena line. Maybe get on that.”
CHAPTER50
KAIA
Shit was getting bad.
Three days after their meeting, Mare Halena’s distraction machine was in full swing. It was impressive how quickly the commander could get things to happen.
Things were moving too fast, and Kaia needed more time. She slammed a fist into the sim cockpit as her virtual craft collided with debris for the dozenth time. At least she made it through the full test, only taking a bit of damage to the hull. She’d been in the simulation rig all day, long since desensitized to the stench of her own sweat in the cramped space. It was the only place she could stop thinking about everything happeningout there. Everything that happened.
Flicking the reset switch, Kaia took a few breaths as the sim rebooted.
She was sore all over. She’d woken up with a bruised back the day after… after what happened. She hadn’t realized how hard he was punching her into the wall until then. His marks dotted her neck and jawline. Her fingertips had just begun scabbing over the sharp points the spikes at the nape of his neck had torn into her flesh. Her pussy was sore. The spikes in that part of him weren’t that sharp, but coupled with the rest of him, they pushed her to her limits. Orion was a creature designed to hurt, take, and leave plenty of evidence.
So why was she rubbing her thighs together as she thought of it?
“Shit.”
Kaia let out a shaky breath. It didn’t have to mean anything. It wasn’therback there. Just her body. A body she’d discard soon enough. Besides, she could use this. There was something there. What passed between them up on that platform wasn’t just a moment of involuntary arousal, like when they sparred. It was more fucked up, but also more useful: the realization that they both saw the twisted, ugly things within each other. And they didn’t want to look away.
Maybe that had its hooks in him too. Maybe it was something she could use. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
At least she left the experience with one critical advantage: Orion thought she must be addicted now. He said he wouldn't touch her again until she begged. That should at least grant her some reprieve from having to fuck him again, considering she still felt nothing.
Her tablet chimed, and Kaia glared at the screen—yet another pushy message from Loran. It’d been getting worse over the past two days. He’d clearly gotten the hint with her tentative invitation. Now, he was showering her with “brotherly love” and regaling her with familial stories ofRiker 109, asking for updates about her wellbeing. She didn’t have the time or energy to deal with him right now.
“Ariel Sim Twenty-Five, advanced debris maneuver scenario seven. Pilot, reminder to refrain from toggling thermaview.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kaia muttered into her helmet as instructions were parroted out.
Then there was the new attention now that the whole station knew about her and Orion’s engagement. She saw the holographic announcements on the thermaview in the passageways that day for the first time, and it made her want to shoot herself straight out the airlock. A stylized, much neater-haired version of her face was plastered all over the ship. It beamed with adoration at Orion’s determined face above. They didn’t makehishair look any different from real life… but it also wasn’t a perpetual mop on top of his head.
Kaia had pulled it back into what she hoped was a semi-neat ponytail for the duration of the day, feeling self-conscious.
She drew the yoke, narrowly avoiding the jagged chunk of metal blinking toward her on the nav screen. She was way too distracted for this. Kaia shut down the sim and shook out her hands. She leaned into the headrest and closed her eyes for a few moments, steeling herself to go back into the fray out there.
She needed to chill. She had what she needed. The hook. All she had to do now was act natural and play it out.
CHAPTER51
ORION
