Song of the Navigator by Astrid Amara

Author:Astrid Amara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: space;navigation;interstellar trade;lgbt;romance;gay;Carida;Dadelus-Kaku Station;Tover Duke;Cruz Arcadio;el Pulmon Verde;Harmony Corporation;futuristic;orbifolds
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2015-05-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

In the morning, Cruz joined his family and Tover for breakfast for the first time since Tover had arrived.

Tover still felt apprehensive having him nearby, but it was getting hard to remember that he’d wanted to kill the man a month ago. It wasn’t that he forgot his torment; he relived his ordeal on the Jarrow ship nightly in his dreams, and he couldn’t create an orbifold strong enough to take him anywhere.

But Cruz’s role in his torment had shifted. And although Tover was technically Cruz’s prisoner, it felt different.

More and more of the guards “imprisoning” Tover were friendly with him. He discovered that the soldier Lalo knew how to play Arlandian Parcheesi very well, and the two had spent several hours outside, board set up on the wooden step of the Arcadio house, drinking weak beer and competing viciously for the greatest number of wins. Tover managed to beat Lalo more times than not, but the soldier was a fast learner, and improving.

Cruz had no interest in playing, but he often watched, although he seemed more focused on Tover than on the game board. And even though Tover forced himself to recall what Cruz had done to him, it was hard to hate a man whose company Tover had once adored. Even now, while trying to keep his distance, Tover still felt Cruz’s presence like a magnet pulling him closer.

One evening, when Ana was out with friends and Lourdes was at her clinic, Tover decided to pull up one of the endless numbers of pirate films on the holoscreen in Lourdes’s office to watch.

Lourdes’s office was in the center of the house, with one door leading off to a guest room and another to a full bathroom for her patients. The office was a large open space and immaculately clean. He stayed away from the bone knitter and the surgical table, making his way to the corner, where Lourdes had a small couch and coffee table, with a holoscreen available.

Cruz joined him only seconds after the film started.

“I’d recognize that opening credit song anywhere,” Cruz mused. He hovered beside Tover, not sitting, but looking at the screen. “The Butchers of Alpha 9, right?”

Tover nodded. “A favorite, I take it?”

“You’ll see why in about thirty seconds.”

Tover watched, body alert to Cruz’s presence, unable to relax with all that heat and muscle close enough to touch.

The opening credits ended and the hero of the film appeared. It was Daniel Zenz, a famous actor of his generation who was inordinately handsome. As he swung precariously through the ropes of an ancient mariner vessel, flexing his biceps with each move, Tover laughed.

“Dan Zenz, really? His films are terrible. And he’s good looking but he’s not that great,” he commented.

Cruz sat beside Tover warily, as if worried Tover would hit him. “Maybe he’s more my type than yours.”

Tover looked over Zenz’s body, and was struck with the realization that the actor looked a lot like Tover. Blond hair, cut wild and slightly curled, bright blue eyes, lithe muscles.

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