Kerven felt invincible in the face of that enormous discovery.
My gesha…
Suddenly, all of the actions of his commander after finding his gesha, some of which he had found himself questioning at times, now made perfect sense.
"You saved my life," the female said then, slightly breathless.
She ducked past him for a moment, shooting a Hoola that was charging up right behind him, before turning her attention back to him.
He couldn’t help but grin.
Beauty and fierceness.
"Thank you. I am Dr. Paula Allen. If you don't count the big guy there, I'm sort of in charge,” she said, motioning at a large Terran man, who seemed wounded but furious regardless of the extent of his injuries. “Now, if you don't mind, would you kindly kill a few more of those bastards before they stomp us into the ground?"
The captain's heart leaped. She was exactly as he'd imagined – a force of a woman, as strong as she was gorgeous. By the looks of her, she had spent at least a week on the battlefield. The fatigue he noticed didn't make her any less enticing to him.
On the contrary, it made Kerven want to possess her utterly, to make her eyes burn in passion for him and him alone. A woman who could withstand hardship like that of a war as gruesome as this one was worth all of him, immediately.
"As you wish," he said, seeing the way his deep, forceful voice made her jolt slightly under his gaze and give him a longer look.
It was entirely out of place, seeing as death was raining down all around them. Yet he wouldn’t have traded it for anything, quickly storing the way she looked at that very moment to memory.
The sight went straight to his cock. The captain couldn't stop imagining her body under the uniform, how her voice would sound in bed, how her back would arch when he claimed her...
The roar of the enemies reminded Kerven that they were still there. Giving the female one more look, he dove into the melee and didn't return until the charge had been beaten back. Even then, he had never been more distracted in a battle. Not a step or a strike passed without the captain dreaming of pulling the female against him and tasting her plush, inviting lips.
Come what may, I will not leave this planet without her.
5
Paula
Well, fuck.
A distraction wasn't what she needed, yet that was what the Brion captain was, pretty obviously. She figured that out when she noticed herself almost beginning to stitch up the wrong leg of her next patient. Luckily she caught her error before making a single stitch.
You sure told him, her unhelpful memory provided to add insult to injury, making Paula groan silently.
She had, hadn't she?
What a perfect start to any sort of relationship, professional or not: "Hi, I'm Paula. You saved my life. Thanks. Now go kill things."
Great material there. I'll be here all week, thank you, thank you, no autographs.
The Brions were there to help, the smug bunch of walking protein shake commercials. She doubted the warrior – the most handsome man she'd ever met – was there to find dating possibilities. Brions had peculiar ways of dating to begin with. Always on the search for their fated, all others were just practice and amusement.
Paula didn't plan on being either of those things.
Which left concentrating on her work, on helping people as the war slowly seemed to be going away, as the only thing to really focus on. At the very least, the battle seemed to at least be retreating thanks to the insertion of the Brions, however few.
In truth, Paula knew it was at best an illusion. This couldn’t end so easily, the Hoolas would not allow it.#p#分页标题#e#
Though at least something was moving in the right direction and she was determined to take solace in that.
The plane of rocky, muddy earth that had been the front line for many agonizing days was now quiet. She could hear her own thoughts, she could see more than five feet without rocks blowing up in her face. That was something, right?
There was still the noise of the war, of course. In the background, the battle raged on, only now the tide had turned. So far, the Hoolas had been slowly but surely gaining ground. Their superior firepower had made it almost impossible to ever get to the point of hand-to-hand combat.
Now Brions pushed them back. With solemn certainty, they just kept going. Paula couldn't see much, other than their fading backs as they drove the Hoolas back to their camp.
It still left the Eden seeds grove out of reach, but Paula didn't doubt everything was going to be fine now. Brions didn't have a reputation for quitting. It didn't matter that the grove was guarded by the largest force of the Hoolas. For the first time in weeks, Paula had hope.
The first person to come find her was Major Burton. She saw the man coming over the field, walking fast and surely without ever stepping on someone. He looked like he'd gone side by side with the Brions, earning him Paula's very grudging respect.
One quick look at him showed that the man had fared better than she had originally anticipated after the roof had come down upon them. He had been disoriented at first but now he seemed to be back to his usual gruff, but mostly capable, self.
"Major," she said, not lifting her eyes from the chest wound that needed her attention and sight more. "I see you've survived the day. I'm glad. You saved my life before. Thank you. It seems I'm a walking target today."
The man nodded, a knowing grin on his face.
"That might be. I bet you liked that chiseled alien more than me, huh? I saw the look on your face. Any second there, you were going to faint or just jump into his arms."
Oh good. You had my respect for a total of three seconds. I think that's a new record.
She didn't dignify that with an answer, even if the major had struck a nerve. She could feel a slight blush burning on her cheeks. Paula couldn't deny that she would have liked to spend her vacation days in the captain's arms, if she could permit herself to fall into the world of fantasies. She ripped herself out of her musings and glared at Burton, who was observing her with blatant glee.
"For the sake of you covering me in the headquarters before, I'm going to change the subject now," Paula said. "How is the war effort going?"
Like all militaristic brutes, the major immediately switched to his favorite topic.
"I'm not saying this lightly – you know I'm not a generous man – but those Brions sure can fight. I saw your boyfriend put his spear through three Hoolas at once. Then he lifted the weapon off the ground like it was a chopstick and slapped a fourth dead with it while the poor dopes were still falling off the blade."
Nice imagery. I wonder if the Hoolas will finally back down now.
"And the grove?" she went on, focusing on her stitch work more now that she was poking at flesh that could actually feel pain.
"Again with that damned grove," Burton growled. "It's there. We saw it off the top of that hill there,” he said, motioning behind himself vaguely. “There is a good half a million of these buggers between us and your bloody seeds. Do you know how many men I will lose trying to break through their lines? Even with your boy toy and his warriors helping?"
Paula didn't answer at once, finishing her work on the soldier and making sure he was still breathing when she was done. Then she sent up a beacon for the unconscious soldier and turned to the major, choosing her words carefully.
After all, it was the first time Burton's voice had been anything else than mocking or dismissive when talking to her.
He cared. In a coarse, ruthless way, he really did.
"I'm going to tell you the same as I told a young man today," Paula said, not turning her gaze from the major's. "No matter what happens, this is worth it. The Eden seeds are the cure for the new virus in the Kappa section. It's like the plague, only on a thousand worlds.
“The section is densely populated and like all bad things, it's insanely contagious. Thousands are sick as we speak. Soon, tens of thousands will be dying and then, millions will be lost. On every one of those thousand worlds.”
She paused, letting it sink in, even if it wasn’t the first or even the fifth time she’d told the major about it.#p#分页标题#e#
"The cure for it is beyond that hill, Major. Get going. My colleagues and I will do everything we can for your men."
Before the major could reply with a witty and biting comment, a deep voice rang out, nearly making Paula wince. She managed to stop herself at the last moment out of sheer will not to embarrass herself before the captain.
"Interesting," the Brion said, walking towards them, exuding the power and grace of a warrior god. "We were told Jumel was important, but not why."
Blood was dripping off of him, evidently that of his enemies. He didn’t seem any more exerted than when he’d jumped out of the fighter and saved her life, being the second man that day to do so.
"The union wants to keep it as secret as possible," Paula heard herself replying despite the fact her eyes were undressing the captain with worrying speed, and not to check for injuries. "There are always those who would take advantage of a horrible situation. We're trying to avoid those. Chali traders, for example. They'd take the seeds and hide them somewhere to be sold for the price of half the union ."
The captain's face darkened at once.
"I believe they would," he agreed. "My general has recently had dealings with them. I regret to say that's exactly what they would do. There are some sinister people in the galaxy."