Destructive Forces by Harry F. Rey

Author:Harry F. Rey [Rey, Harry F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NineStar Press, LGBT, sci-fi, futuristic, war, space, war of worlds, gay, lesbian, military, royalty
Publisher: NineStar Press
Published: 2019-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“ENGINE REPORT, NOW,” the hard-nosed, cold-blooded captain yelled at the top of his lungs. The bridge of the Emperor Shabi was a whirl of activity, with dozens of officers running around as the fleet prepared for a synchronized launch. Mahnoor sat at a control station in the pit of the bridge, the last one of four along a row of holoscreens, and the complicated hands-on controls required to operate. The other three pilots, in their sharp black jackets, had both hands melded with the control stick, staring intensely into the holoscreens in front which displayed a rolling inside view of the ship’s engine systems.

Mahnoor had not yet touched the control stick. Top priority was the fight to keep his breath steady and figure out the connection of movements between the control stick and the holoscreen. Straining his eyeballs as far to the right as they would stretch, he caught the movements of the pilot beside him.

The man was as beautiful as he’d been on the cart while being dragged cross-country by a stinking Susah. His features were as inviting as when Mahnoor had first laid eyes on him from across the crowded Blackhole Bar. And from the moment Mahnoor had stepped inside the bridge to take up his commission in the engine team, his heart thundered in his chest and emotion crawled up his throat in the exact same way it had when he’d realized the pilot’s foot had not touched him in the cart by accident.

The wink the pilot had left him with—one sharp blue eye framed with an eyebrow so thin it could have been drawn on—held Mahnoor tight with a piercing gaze while the other clamped down, the lines of the pilot’s face scrunching up as he gave him a sign only for him. The magic of being noticed, of being wanted by someone he, too, wanted, cast a powerful spell, one he was more than happy to let himself be enchanted by. The pilot had turned on his heel as quickly as the wink had been given, before darting along the gangway and disappearing into the immense bowels of the docked frigate.

Even if Mahnoor had been told boarding the ship would mean certain death, he would have followed him in without a second thought. Getting on the ship had been a whirl of faces and commands he simply could not focus on. Errol had attached himself to Mahnoor and narrated all the things that passed them by with incessant, mindless nattering.

“Oi, Mahnoor, we better go this way. This way is pilots. That way is infantry.” Errol called across the crowded crush of the boarding space. Something akin to a queue swiveled around the room as people gathered at one of four different exits, waiting for an unseen official to process and assign them a job on the ship. Mahnoor kept high on his tiptoes, gazing across the crowd, glad Kandian genes were finally coming in helpful in a room full of Kyleri.

“Oi, Mahnoor, over here.”

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