Tian's Hero by Cherie Noel

Author:Cherie Noel
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3
Publisher: Silver Publishing
Published: 2012-03-15T13:00:00+00:00

* * * *

The second time the alarm announcing they had

dropped out of hyperspace sounded Kayron had regained

enough mental acuity to recognise the klaxon. Kay felt

grateful he had actually had enough wherewithal to realise 223

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Noel

what the sound was by the second time. There had been a few seconds during his orgasm when he had thought he was going to pass out. His remembering anything happening

while he was experiencing such a cataclysm of sensation was miraculous.

Kay rolled out of the bunk, stretching and arching

like a sun drunk cat fleeing a patch of shade. He shook his head at Tian’s languorous, sated expression. The debauched little beauty lay on his side, making no move to rise. Kay smacked him lightly on the arse.

“Rise and shine, ya cheeky bugger. You’ll be

landing this bucket of rust in a wee bit. Time to throw yer clothes on fer a change.”

Kay laughingly popped Tian once more on the arse,

then stepped back to scramble into his own clothes.

Tian eased out of the bunk. He caught the scrap of

towelling Kay threw to him, wiped himself off, and began dressing. With each piece of clothing he put on his face became increasingly pale and pinched. Fastening the last button at his collar he swallowed loudly and sat back down on the bunk.

“I’m scared Kay. What if I don’t know enough to do this? I could kill us all!”

Kay took in Tian’s pallor, the sheen of unshed tears

in his eyes, and his trembling hands. Though he wished he 224

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could take this burden from the wee man, he didn’t know enough. He knew nothing about flying a ship such as this skiff.

“Come on, me wee man. You and I both know

Lewell’yn has likely doctored this ship’s computers enough fer the thing to land itself. We can only do our part now Tian. The rest we leave to fate.”

“The Light.”

“What?”

“The rest we leave to the Light, Kay. Fate would

mean we haven’t got free will. Which would be like making bread the same way no matter where you were. Because

you know, there are a lot of adjustments you have to make for altitude and differing amounts of gravity. Fate’s like never making adjustments. We leave the rest to the Light.”

Kay smiled. Only Tian would be giving a

theology/cooking lesson in the middle of a life-or-death crisis. They walked down the passageway to the bridge side by side, taking comfort in the soft brushes of one shoulder against another. Once they reached the bridge proper, they split up, Kay moving to keep watch over Lewell’yn during the landing, and Tian to determine what was required of him. A solemn silence settled over them. Tian could see Lewell’yn had done quite a bit to the ship. He was

frighteningly certain they were going to run out of fuel 225

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before they landed, forcing him to make a manual landing.

No one even taught manual landings anymore. They didn’t happen. Well. They usually didn’t happen.

“Kay. We are going to crash. I need you to make

yourself and Lewell’yn as safe as you can.

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