9
Mikki, Planet Valuri, The Beach
The twisting tormentof the transporting to another world left me doubled over, gasping for air.
“That stinks,” I complained to Rachel, who stood next to me in a similar condition. She smacked me on the shoulder through the thick protection of the space suit I was wearing and grinned.
“Never get used to it, but it beats spending ten hours cramped in coach on an airplane back home.”
“True.” I stood and looked out over the new horizon of an alien world and forgot that two seconds ago I’d felt like I was dying, my chest squeezed and my head pounding as if it was about to explode. “Wow.”
“Right?” Rachel was already moving toward the water, directing one of the six large warriors to position her lab and sampling equipment that had transported with us. Everyone but Rachel was covered head to toe in the same black and gray space suit with cool, Star Trek inspired helmets. Since Rachel was with medical, her suit was dark green. Rachel had said this was their first visit to the planet, even though they’d been monitoring and testing for weeks. The data had come back that the planet was habitable, meaning the oxygen levels could sustain life—thus, the plants and greenery I could see beyond the beach.
Protocol—Surnen wasn’t the only one who followed the rules—dictated we wear full life support until a crew could confirm we wouldn’t drop dead from some random gas or imbalance. I was used to being in a bikini on a beach, not covered from head to toe.
It was midday, a small reddish-orange disk hovering directly overhead. I couldn’t gauge the temperature, not with the space suit on, but it looked pleasant. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure what a nice day looked like in this place, but to me, it was beautiful. Coral, rose and soft yellows filled the sky, making the clouds glow like cotton candy. The sky wasn’t blue, not like Earth, but the color I’d only ever seen just before the sun rose, when the sky was more pink than blue.
Through the space helmet, I glanced down at the sand, for it was the thick, movable stuff that made my feet sink with every step. Joy rippled through me, and I was shocked to feel tears streaking down my face as longing for this—the water, the sand, the open sky—welled up in me like a tsunami of emotion. I thought I’d made peace with never seeing the ocean again.
I’d been wrong. So, so wrong. Grief at the loss felt like a dormant volcano suddenly about to erupt.
“Mate, are you well?” Surnen’s voice came through my comms, and I shrugged off the melancholy swamping me. I was familiar with the deep-water masks from scuba, but they’d never had communications built in. Hearing someone clearly, as if they were right next to me instead of on a different planet, was cool but unfamiliar.
He must have felt my pain through the collars. Damn things. Was this my life now? The men in my bed knowing everything I felt, even when I was on another planet? My pussy still ached, though, a reminder of how much I liked his bossiness, of the rules he had. Some of them, I liked. No, loved. I was never going to forget protocol 2.467a or b.
“Answer me, Mikki.” His stern tone was a reminder that I had new adventures ahead of me, with or without the ocean. I would simply have to learn to love rocks. I could do that. Right?
“I’m fine,” I replied. “I guess I was passed out when I transported from Earth. I’m not used to the feel. God, it’s like using a portkey in Harry Potter.”
“You have transport on Earth?” Surnen asked. I couldn’t miss the surprise in his voice.
I laughed. “No. A woman wrote a book about something like it. Never mind.”
“I feel your pain, mate,” he replied, his voice sharp with his familiar sternness. “It is faint, but I feel it nonetheless. Perhaps you should return to The Colony.”
“We just got here. I’m fine.” His suggestion that I transport back effectively buried every other emotion beneath anger. I was not going to return just because this place, even at first glimpse, reminded me of Earth, of what I would miss on The Colony’s barren terrain. Not happening. “If you can’t handle it, just take your collar off, Surnen. I have emotions. I feel things. I’ll let you know if I need you.”
A sharp sting hit me through the collar, and I realized I had hurt him. Damn it. I didn’t want that either.
I sighed. “I’m sorry, Surnen. Mate. Please, I’m all right.” I looked around, took in the expanse of reddish water all the way to the horizon on my right, lush foliage with a mix of shrubbery and trees meeting the edge of the beach. I felt like I’d been shipwrecked on a deserted island.
“There are six huge warriors working on the beach. They’ll protect me, and there’s not another soul in sight. Rachel is setting up the equipment. Thank you for checking on me, but I’m exactly where I need to be right now.”
“Are you sure?” Surnen asked warily.
“You have your work conquering sickness. This is what I do. What I’m good at. I need to be useful.”
I heard him growl, and it made me laugh. “More useful than in your bed.”
“Yes, mate. You are quite useful there.” I felt the blast of arousal through the collar, and I squirmed, rubbing my thighs together to ease the sudden ache.
His silence stretched, but the sting coming from him had faded when I used the word mate. “Very well, but you will follow protocol to the letter. Do not remove your helmet and do not take any unnecessary risks. I will not see you hurt.”
Well, he was bossy and protective and kind of adorable in his gruff way. What a worrier. Sheesh. Maybe it was a doctor thing, always expecting the worst.
“I won’t.”
“I will monitor your progress as I am able.”