The Planet Whisperer

By E E Montgomery

Jonah Starovski, a Planet Whisperer, harnesses the energy surrounding dead planets and redirects it into new growth. Abandoned by the man who bought him from a brothel sixteen years ago, Jonah flounders in a world he’s ill equipped to deal with. He must accept the help of a stranger in order to rebuild his life.

First Lieutenant Marcus Davis volunteers as Jonah’s assistant without realizing the terraforming process requires Jonah’s sexual release. Balanced on the knife-edge of fear and ambition, Marcus is faced with his mother’s machinations and threats to his career. Marcus’s parents bring their illegal scientific experiments to the planets Jonah is terraforming just as Marcus learns to accept himself and his feelings for Jonah. At the same time, Jonah’s past catches up to him, putting them both in danger.

Jonah and Marcus must trust in each other to put a stop to the illegal activities, rescue an endangered animal, and create the future they both want—a future they can share.

In memory of my dad, who loved science fiction and always encouraged me to ask questions.

Acknowledgments

To everyone at Dreamspinner Press, thank you. Your professionalism and support throughout the production process and after is very much appreciated.

Chapter One

Jonah

WHERE THE hell was Wes? He should be there, waiting with Jonah. Why did the captain need this meeting at all? The next three contracts were signed weeks ago. They were the last ones. Jonah paced four steps to the left, then turned and paced four steps back. Abandoning his pockets he ran his hands through his hair, then clenched them together. He leaned against the opposite wall and darted a look down both ends of the hallway while he tapped the toe of his shoe against the floor. Wes had promised. Three more planets and they’d find somewhere quiet, a nice planet where they could settle down and grow a small garden of their own.

Wes had laughed when Jonah first mentioned that was what he wanted to do. It had taken four contracts before he realized Jonah was serious. After traveling for fifteen years and terraforming planets to make them habitable, Jonah wanted something of his own. He wanted to see the same stars every night and feel a breeze on his face that wasn’t from an air recycler.

He looked down the hall again. Still no Wes. Perhaps he was already inside, waiting for Jonah to get his tardy ass into gear and join him. Jonah pressed the request button on the captain’s door, then shoved his hands into his pockets, stepped back, and checked the empty hall. He stepped forward to buzz again just as the door opened.

“Ah, Starovski. There you are. Good, good. Come on in, then.” Captain White was a round, blustery man with a jovial glint in his eyes like he’d been born under a circus star. Jonah double-checked everything the captain said, just as he’d done with the circus masters he’d known in his childhood.

This morning White’s eyes were flat, his jaw tense. He strode around his desk and sat, shuffled some papers to the side, clasped his hands, then unclasped them, and tapped the papers with his fingertips.

Jonah settled into his usual position against the wall just inside the door and waited for Wes. That was probably why the captain seemed so nervous. Wes said no one felt comfortable with Jonah because he was a sullen bastard, but Jonah thought it was probably because everyone thought he could do to them what he did to planets: age them with a word.

Wes had started the rumor when they’d first started this business, saying it made Jonah more mysterious and alluring. Jonah had never worked out what was supposed to be alluring about a man who could supposedly turn a person into a wrinkled prune with the wave of his hand and a grumbling phrase of nonsense, but the contracts had poured in after that, so he supposed Wes knew what he was talking about. It meant no one initiated conversations with Jonah, though, and he was left with just Wes for company.

“Well, sit down, Starovski.” The captain’s hands had stopped moving and now rested loosely clasped on the desk.

“I’d rather wait for Wes,” said Jonah. His voice came out in his usual tenor, which was better than the ruined rasp it became when they started a new contract.

“Farragher won’t be coming.” The captain sounded as confused as Jonah felt. “He left in his shuttle last night.”

Wes left? He won’t be coming? “What shuttle?” Jonah’s smooth tenor was gone. He stumbled forward and dropped into a seat. “He left?” Jonah gripped the edges of his seat, sure the small piece of furniture was the only thing preventing him from floating away through the walls of the frigate Keiki and off into the dead dark of space. His breath came to him in a vacuum. “When will he be coming back?” The words left him in a strangled whisper, but even as he heard them, saw them hovering in an oily mist in the air, he heard the answer whispering in the dark like a lover.

“He’s not coming back.”

Through the fog Jonah heard a request-click at the door and White call, “Come!” The door opened behind him, and the air billowed and swirled as someone came in, but Jonah didn’t turn to see who it was. It wasn’t Wes. Wes was gone, and Jonah was still here. On his own. He lowered his head and stared at his hands clasped around the edges of his seat. His fingers were going numb from the grip. He wished the ache in his chest would go numb too. Finally he was able to draw breath and looked back at the captain.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “We still have three more contracts.”

“That’s right, and as you requested last week, they’ve been paid in advance.”

Jonah gasped in the thick silence that followed. “I didn’t request—” Jonah stopped and drew breath. Wes always acted for Jonah. “Contracts are always paid on completion.” That was one factor that had been nonnegotiable from the beginning. His cheeks grew cool even as a fine sheen of sweat broke out on his forehead.

“Not this time.” White growled out the words. “Farragher explained your situation.”

“My situation?” When White did nothing more than glare at Jonah, Jonah changed tack. “I didn’t think the ship had the budget to—” Jonah bit his lip to stop talking. He didn’t need to tell the captain how things usually worked. The fact that White had paid from his own budget probably explained the scowl on his face. It would put a lot of pressure on operations for the duration of those contracts.

After another long pause, Jonah said quietly, “I need to go back to my suite.” His knuckles glowed white from his tight grip on his chair. Deliberately, one finger at a time, he lifted his hands away and looked back at the captain.

“I need to discuss with you the conditions of the contract, Mr. Starovski. Your responsibilities remain the same, and now that Mr. Farragher is no longer here, you’re also responsible for anything he’s agreed to. Surely whatever you need to do—”

“I need access to the net.”

The hardness in White’s gaze softened as he tapped the screen of his tablet a few times, then slipped it across the desk. “Enter your codes in there, Mr. Starovski.”

Jonah reached a trembling hand to drag the tablet toward him. His heart beat frantically as he typed. If he was wrong about this, even if Wes didn’t come back, everything would be okay. Please be wrong.

Silence clung to the air in worried vapor, punctuated by the tap-tap of Jonah’s fingers on the screen as he accessed his bank accounts. The screen morphed into a spreadsheet that showed regular deposits and a growing balance, until the last one. The zero at the end of the column of numbers seemed to pulse with Jonah’s harsh breathing. He cleared the screen and tapped frantically until another account came up on the screen. It told a similar story.

Those were only their working accounts. There were other accounts that Wes had set up for their future. Jonah opened screen after screen, the tapping, sharper and louder with each screen, punctuating the dense waiting in White’s office as he accessed the accounts. Empty. Empty. Empty.

Fuck. He wouldn’t believe it. Wes wouldn’t have cleaned him out. He wouldn’t have taken it all and left Jonah with nothing and no one except contracts to finish that he wasn’t even going to be paid for. Because they had already been paid for them. Black spots danced in front of the screen, and Jonah realized he’d been holding his breath. He sucked in air, harsh and acrid in his throat. It burned his eyes, but he blinked the sting away.

He opened the last account. It was the one he’d opened when Wes had first shown him how to do it. One just for him, after so long of not being able to have anything for himself. It held the same amount he’d had when he was in the brothel. Nothing.

He stared at the zeroes while he got his breathing under control. As his heart rate slowed, his anger grew. He’d worked with Wes for fifteen years, building a life that would keep him away from Tolifax, the rat-infested planet he was born on. They’d been building a partnership.

“When will Wes be back?” he asked. He would be back. Jonah knew it. White was wrong before. He had to be. Jonah just had to ask the question in the right way.

“I don’t think he will be, Mr. Starovski. He surrendered his ship pass when he left.”

The zeroes blurred in front of him. Wes wasn’t coming back. This wasn’t some quick jaunt Wes took for fun. Jonah knew that too. Wes never went anywhere without weeks of planning.

He reached out to close the screen but paused. Wes knew the passwords to all the accounts, including this one. There was nothing left, but these were the only accounts he had. When he eventually made some money of his own, he couldn’t risk Wes taking that too. He was too old to go back. No one wanted a thirty-two-year-old trick.

So, new password. Something Wes would never think of. He looked at the captain. No, too obvious. The other one. The one who came in late. He turned suddenly to the man standing at the door. His brown eyes widened when Jonah looked at him, as if he was surprised Jonah even knew he was there.

“What’s your name?”

“Lieutenant Davis.”

Davis. Jonah replaced a couple of letters with numbers and symbols. No way would Wes think of that for his password. He changed the passwords on all the accounts: if Wes deposited money in them, he wouldn’t be able to take it out again. Jonah would have grinned if his stomach wasn’t still churning. For the first time, he was glad that Wes had insisted they each have total control of all the accounts. It had allowed Wes to drain the accounts, but it also meant Jonah could make changes without his permission. After he’d changed the passwords, he removed Wes’s authority from them too, so he couldn’t request access. He’d still be able to deposit, but wouldn’t be able to do anything else. Once everything was changed, he pushed the tablet away, sat back, and stared at his hands twisting in his lap.

“You can make a complaint, you know. The matter can be investigated, and a tribunal will determine how much of the money was yours. You could press charges,” said White.

Wes was gone and had taken all their money. A tribunal deciding half the money was Jonah’s wasn’t going to change that. “No,” he said. Jonah’s dream of finding a quiet place to live and grow things was shattered. Somewhere deep down inside, his broken heart was screaming and flailing against what he knew he had to do, but there was no choice. Jonah had to keep going. He had to find a way to survive that wouldn’t take him back to his past. There was only one thing he knew how to do. He looked up at the captain. “Are there more planets to be terraformed?”

“There might be one or two left in this galaxy, but they haven’t undergone the stringent testing for native life-forms,” said White. “I don’t have jurisdiction in other galaxies. You’d have to submit applications directly to other terraforming expeditions.”

Jonah cringed at the pity he heard in the captain’s voice. After another lengthy silence, he sighed and stood. “Thank you, Captain. Please let me know as soon as we’re in orbit around the next planet.” He shifted on his feet and swallowed audibly. He’d never worked alone before and wasn’t sure what would happen if he did now. Sometimes the power built so strong he felt like his body would explode and paint the room with everything he was, as well as his breakfast. If it got really bad, he’d send out magnetic impulses that would interfere with the ship’s operations, or worse, harm the crew. He wasn’t going to allow his power to do that again. The screams still echoed in his dreams. He’d have to have someone there to assist him, but he wasn’t going to have someone ordered to do it. He still had nightmares of the time Wes forced a rent boy to help him release the energy. “I’ll also need a volunteer from your crew to assist me during that time.”

The captain stood and reached across his desk to shake Jonah’s hand. “Of course, Mr. Starovski. Lieutenant Davis will be assisting you for this contract.” He nodded at the man at the door.

“Captain, I asked for a volunteer.”

The captain smiled then looked pointedly to the officer who’d joined them. Jonah looked toward the brown-haired man who stood silently behind him.

“I’m happy to help any way I can, Mr. Starovski,” he said. His words were confident and the voice pleasant, but Jonah could feel the trepidation pulsing from him in staccato bursts. His defenses were high, too, and Jonah knew if he pushed, he’d achieve nothing more than a belligerent refusal to back down. If the lieutenant wanted him to believe he was volunteering, Jonah had to accept it.

Jonah’s ability to read other people and the intensity with which he approached everything scared people. Wes always told him to keep his mouth shut because he just made a fool of himself when he opened it. His breath clogged in his throat as he thought of Wes gone and the empty bank accounts, but he pushed it away. He’d think about that later. He clamped his lips tightly and nodded.

“If there’s nothing else, Captain?”

White shook his head.

“I’ll await your advice on achieving orbit.” Jonah looked at the lieutenant before leaving the captain’s office. He was halfway down the corridor to the lifts that would take him back to his suite when the lieutenant caught up with him.

“Starovski. Wait up.”

Jonah paused and waited, keeping his head down. His skin was stretched tight, abrading the nerve endings. Pain pricked through him and burned his eyes. He had to get back to his suite before he broke down completely, but the lieutenant was assigned to him and was going to be working with him for the next month, unless Wes came back. Wes wasn’t coming back. Jonah had to learn how to work with Davis. He clenched his hands in his pockets and turned to face the younger man.

“I wanted to ask you exactly what my duties will be so I can prepare.”

Davis felt more resigned now, but Jonah could still feel a thread of anger in him. It wasn’t directed at Jonah, though, and he didn’t think it was toward the captain either. “There’s nothing for you to prepare for. I’ll do my job, then explain what’s happening on the planet, and you’ll write a report to submit to your captain. That will happen every morning.”

“Is the shuttle already booked for tomorrow? What time will we be undocking?”

Jonah lifted his head to stare right into Davis’s eyes, allowing some of his power to bleed through. There was no way the lieutenant would miss the color or the way his eyes glowed with the power swirling inside. Davis took a step back but then squared his shoulders and stared back. Other crew members wouldn’t meet Jonah’s gaze or stay near him once they’d seen his eyes. Perhaps this one was the right choice for the captain to make, after all.

“We won’t be going to the planet. All I need is visual contact. I can do everything I need to do from orbit.” Jonah continued walking, stretching out his stride so the lieutenant would leave him alone, but Davis tripped along beside him, curiosity hovering around him like a heat haze.

“There must be more than that if you need me there full-time. If it’s just a debrief and a report, I can do that in an hour at the end of the day.”

“You’ll be my liaison. While I’m working I won’t have contact with anyone else. It’s too distracting.” Jonah paused. “There are also some other things you need to do to finish the process. Physical things.”

Marcus

PHYSICAL THINGS? Like running ten miles? Or…? “You mean I have to touch you?”

Marcus’s mind spun. What sort of touching does he want? His gaze skittered around the walls and floor, and he shifted slightly on his feet. That wouldn’t be the case, and no way was he going to raise that possibility. He had plans for his career, and a sexual harassment suit from the preeminent terraformer wasn’t one of them. Probably it was just a massage on his shoulders or something.

Jonah nodded, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed.

“And if I don’t?”

“The process doesn’t work. Reversal of the terraforming process begins almost immediately if I don’t release the energy back to the planet. The release stabilizes the rate of spin and maintains the chemical reactions that lead to atmosphere generation. I’ve tried to… do it myself, but it doesn’t work that way.”

Marcus nodded. It was almost impossible to massage kinks out of your shoulders and back by yourself. “Sure. No problem,” he said. He knew what it was like to be hunched over equipment for the entire day.

“You should consider this carefully, Lieutenant,” said Jonah. “If you decide not to go ahead, let me know tonight so I can ask the captain to find someone else for me.”

By that time they’d reached the door to Jonah’s suite. He activated the entry and stepped inside, then turned and blocked the doorway, so Marcus couldn’t follow him in. He didn’t leave, though. He stood in the middle of the corridor, confused.

“What?” Jonah said.

“It doesn’t seem like I’ll have anything to do while you’re working.”

“What do you normally do?”

A wry smile tugged at his lips. “The captain never said I was relieved of my other duties, did he?” he asked with a shake of his head. “I’ll see you in the morning, Mr. Starovski. I’d better get things set in place so I can work from your suite.” He tapped two fingers against his forehead in a casual salute, then walked away.

Chapter Two

Marcus

IT WAS late by the time Marcus had everything in place and returned to his cabin. White had issued a vague statement that Marcus would be working remotely for the next month, and all queries should be directed via his link, but he hadn’t made any other arrangements. Marcus had searched for information, but all he found was that the only person who’d ever worked with the terraforming expert was his manager, Wes Farragher, whose responses to any questions had always included a snide smirk. Questioning the men and women under his command had elicited a similar response. They knew little about Starovski that Farragher hadn’t told them. None of them trusted Farragher.

Online data gave a long list of successful contracts but little more. He had no idea what the process—or his new job—entailed. A call to the captain had elicited a dismissive response. “It’s not an onerous task, Davis. You’ll assist the Whisperer and write a few reports.”

Marcus locked his door, dropped carelessly into his chair, and then toed his shoes off, groaning as his feet experienced freedom for the first time in eighteen hours. He tugged his socks off and tossed them vaguely in the direction of the laundry hamper, then turned and put his feet up on his desk.

He leaned back and closed his eyes, too exhausted to do more than breathe, even though he knew he needed to get some sleep or he’d be useless the next day. They’d achieve orbit just before eight in the morning, so he had to be at Starovski’s suite and ready to assist him by then.

His desktop comm screen buzzed, and Marcus groaned before slapping his hand over the button to answer the call.

“Really, Marcus, you could at least sit up straight to greet me.”

Marcus opened his eyes and sat up straighter in his chair but kept his tired, sore feet on the desk. “Good evening, Mother. I distinctly remember requesting that you don’t call the captain about me.” His mother wore her white lab coat. Her iron-gray hair was tied back into its usual tight bun, but it was never tight enough to smooth out the frown between her eyes. In the background, he could see his father, head bent studiously over a book, determinedly ignoring them. Everything was as it usually was. Even his irritation at having to speak to them.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I’m going to call him, and I’ll thank you not to interfere. I had to get the Chancellor’s assistant to instruct the captain to take my call yesterday. I don’t like being put into the position of owing people favors.”

Marcus gritted his teeth so tightly he was sure he could feel cracks forming in the enamel. Every time his mother wanted something, she ran to the Chancellor. He wished he knew what that was about. Equally, he was glad he didn’t. “If you stopped calling, you wouldn’t have to promise any favors.”

“I’m not going to continue to discuss this if you’re going to be unreasonable, Marcus.”

“Why did you call, Mother?” He cast a wistful glance at his bed, but sleep wouldn’t happen until he could get his mother off the line.

“I want you to tell me about the Planet Whisperer.”

Marcus sat up, his feet sliding off the desk and thumping painfully to the floor. “Why?” How had she known?

“It doesn’t matter why I want to know.”

Marcus glared at her and waited.

Finally, she sighed heavily as if she was granting a huge concession. “His work aligns closely with mine, and I want to know more about his methods.”

Marcus opened his mouth to protest, to assert he wasn’t going to act as her spy to obtain industrial secrets, but she spoke before he did.

“Yes, I know all about your ethics and morals. I haven’t asked you to share any secrets with me. I know you don’t start work with him until tomorrow. I simply want you to give me your impressions of him as a person.”

Marcus huffed in surprise, then clamped his mouth closed. There had never been a time in his life that he could recall her asking a question that wasn’t designed to further her research in some way, or ensure her children made useful alliances. Luckily he didn’t have to lie to her.

“I can’t tell you anything, Mother.” He held his hand up when she opened her mouth to protest. “I met the Planet Whisperer”—he instinctively didn’t give his mother Jonah’s name—“for the first time this morning. We’ve spoken perhaps half a dozen sentences to each other, so I have absolutely nothing I can tell you.”

“Half a dozen sentences,” she mused. “What did you speak about?”

“Mother.” Marcus tried to put a stern tone in his voice, but he knew he’d failed when his mother’s lips pinched tight. He reached for the disconnect button. “I can’t tell you anything. Please don’t call Captain White again.”

“Marcus, if you don’t tell me—”

“So how are your bionic mice going?” he asked.

“Don’t be flippant. I’m not discussing my work with you.”

“Good night, Mother.” He pressed the button and the screen went blank. He’d pay for that show of defiance later, but truthfully he was too tired to deal with his mother right now.

He pushed himself to his feet and prepared for bed. As he tugged the sheets up over his shoulder and turned to face the wall, he wondered what direction his mother’s research had taken if she was suddenly so interested in the Planet Whisperer. Marcus had heard there was another Whisperer, out in the Ghost Nebula, but he didn’t know if his operation was the same as Jonah’s or if he achieved the same results with new planets. No one else had such a high success rate, and no one else could achieve what Jonah did in the same time frame. While most terraformers took at least fifty years to grow an atmosphere capable of supporting plant growth, they were scientists, not Whisperers. Jonah Starovski achieved that and an oxygen-rich atmosphere on any planet in a couple of months.

MARCUS WALKED into the mess hall the next morning to raucous laughter.

“Ho, the poor bugger, having to work with the Whisperer, hey,” called Ensign Betts.

“All day locked in a room with the Whisperer,” said Cavendish. “He wants to watch hisself with him. I drank with that manager of his a few times. A right creep, that one. The Whisperer couldn’t be any better, could he?”

“How do you reckon he got a cushy job like that? That Wes guy reckoned he just sat there all day and watched the Whisperer do his stuff, then wrote a report to the captain.”

“How do you know he’ll just be watching? I’ll bet that green-eyed devil will make him do all sort of things. I’m glad it’s not me stuck with him.”

Marcus pushed through the line and grabbed a tray of food. “What I’m hearing here,” he said into the sudden silence, heavier than the food in front of him, “is a whole lot of disrespect for a Government contractor, a guest on board. I’m also hearing things aimed at me that could be considered disrespectful to me and my rank. I’m sure all of you are aware of how you’re supposed to speak to and about superior officers.”

“Ah, come on, Lieutenant, you know we’re just kidding,” said Ensign Betts.

He walked over to a table and put his tray down. “If any of you have any legitimate complaints about Mr. Starovski or his work or would like to tell the captain that he made the wrong decision when he ordered me to assist Mr. Starovski, then by all means, put those complaints in writing and submit them to me. I’ll pass them on. If you’re just blowing air out of your assholes, then be prepared to be written up for insubordination.”

Grumbling filled the air as the men backed off. Marcus sat and arranged his cutlery and plates on the table, then set the tray beside his seat. The grumbling cut off abruptly, and Marcus looked up to see Starovski standing just inside the doorway. His stomach clenched, and his breakfast suddenly looked unappealing. Great. Just my luck, he heard all of that. He stood and waved the Planet Whisperer over.

“Mr. Starovski. Would you like to join me for breakfast?”

Jonah

THE MESS hall was crowded, and Jonah had only come here because he was hungry. It had taken him over an hour to realize breakfast wasn’t going to be delivered to his suite like it usually was.

The catcalls were loud, and he hurried his steps when he heard Davis’s name. He didn’t stop to wonder why. It’s not like he had any authority, but if it got violent, maybe he could divert the attention away from the younger man. Davis didn’t need Jonah, though. By the time he stopped at the end of the first table, Davis had taken over the room. He’d seen televids of teens at school that were like this. The men in the mess hall now were like all the popular kids who bullied the new kids or anyone who was different. Jonah was the new freak in town. He checked his position relative to the entrance. They might be military, but they were babes compared to the boys Jonah’d grown up with, and Jonah could still run way faster than any of them.

That’s when people around Jonah noticed he was there. He liked the jeering more than the silence that descended in increments as each person turned and saw him. He flexed his knees to gain more leverage and increase his balance, but before he could run, Davis stood and called him over, breaking his concentration and the tension.

He settled onto the seat across from Davis, automatically resting his hands on the edges of the seat to get extra leverage if he had to run. Davis’s eyebrows rose, and he looked from Jonah’s hands to his face.

Davis gestured to Ensign Betts to bring a tray of food for Jonah. A tray of food slid in front of him, and warmth seeped into his shoulder and arm from the young ensign who put it down.

“There you are, Mr. Starovski. I brought you a little of everything.”

“Thank you,” said Jonah. Betts didn’t step back, and the hair on Jonah’s neck twitched uncomfortably. The ensign leaned over to point out things on the tray, his arm brushing Jonah’s shoulder, his hip jostling against Jonah’s back. He shuffled his chair to the right, putting more space between them so his skin stopped jumping.

“Betts!” Davis glared at the ensign until the man backed away, and Jonah could breathe again.

“Let me know if there’s anything else you need, Mr. Starovski,” said Betts.

Jonah shivered at the suggestion in Betts’s voice but didn’t look up at him. “I’m sure I won’t need anything else. Thank you.”

“I haven’t seen you in here before,” said Davis quietly.

Jonah shrugged as he fiddled with his cutlery. “I usually eat in my suite.”

“Why didn’t you have breakfast there this morning?”

Before Jonah could think about it, he lifted his head and glared at Davis. “It seems my arrangement to have meals delivered disappeared with Wes,” he said harshly. Power bubbled through him, and he knew his eyes were glowing, but Davis didn’t flinch or back off like he did the day before.

“Was that so you could focus better or because you’re uncomfortable around other people?”

“It’s more that other people are uncomfortable around me. They—” Fuck. What was he doing? Having some sort of heart-to-heart with a bloody kid? Wes had only been gone a day.

Instead of dropping it and changing the subject, Davis nodded and kept speaking. “Yeah, I guess the constant reaction to your eyes must be annoying.” He glanced to the end of the table where Betts sat staring at Starovski. “And the fans must really irritate after a while.”

“Fans?” The man was being ridiculous if he thought Jonah had fans. No one even knew who Jonah was. No one cared.

Davis chuckled. “I don’t know what else to call it. There are at least a dozen men who’ve followed your every move since you entered the mess hall. I’ll admit a few of them look like they’d like to get you into a dark alley and beat the crap out of you, but most of them are fascinated with you. I’ll bet you end up with all sorts of requests to talk about your work or your eyes before you leave here this morning. They’ll be crowding around you.”

Jonah’s cutlery clattered to the table. He’d only taken a few bites of food, but his churning stomach told him any more would be a very bad idea. He looked at Davis’s smiling face, appalled. “I have to go.” He pushed back from the table as he stood, his chair clattering as it nearly tipped over before righting itself and landing back on its feet again.

Davis rose with him. “I’ll make sure no one—” Jonah didn’t give him a chance to finish. He had to get out now. He clutched a hand to his chest in a futile effort to hold the panic attack at bay. He raced into the corridor, desperate to reach his suite while he could still breathe and before the dark spots swimming in front of him joined together and buried him in the black cloud.

“Betts, pack that up and send it to his suite.” The words followed Jonah from the mess hall. He raced down the corridor, bumping against the wall as he tripped and lurched his way to safety. Someone grabbed his elbow and tugged him around. “Mr. Starovski, wait a minute. Nothing is going to happen.”

Jonah flailed backward, wrenching his arm from the grasp, gasping as loss of the warm grip left cold crawling along his skin. The spots grew and converged in front of him. The loud rasp of his breath overwhelmed his other senses. A darker man-shaped shadow loomed in front of him, and he tried to turn away, to run, but it had him, held him tightly, pushed him against the wall, came closer, breathed on him.

“No, no, no….” This hadn’t happened in years. “Where….” He gasped in air—never enough. His pulse pounded in his head, drowned out everything. Wes should be here. Wes kept everyone away from him. Wes would make it stop. “We—We—We—” His head was pulled down, and his face burrowed into the warm darkness, and he forgot Wes’s name. This darkness, warm and musky, sweet and soft, wasn’t Wes. It was… it was more than Wes. Jonah slumped into it and hauled in frantic breaths, filled his lungs with the sweetness and comfort of the man who held him and wondered disjointedly who he was and if he could keep doing this forever.

Chapter Three

Jonah

PLANET WHISPERER. It wasn’t a term Jonah would voluntarily apply to himself, but he supposed it was apt. It’s what he did, even though the chants that strengthened and directed his power were often more of a growl than a whisper. Jonah looked through the view screen at the planet below, took a deep, cleansing breath, and tried to banish the memories of the day before.

He’d made a fool of himself at breakfast, practically collapsed in a screaming heap on top of Lieutenant Davis.

The younger man had dragged Jonah back to his suite. Then he’d ordered tea and watched Jonah drink it, like he was an invalid. He’d ignored Jonah’s assertions that he was fine and stayed with him, not saying much until Jonah had finished.

He couldn’t work out what Davis wanted from him.

Today they were in orbit around the next planet that was awaiting a livable atmosphere and a name. It was Jonah’s job to gift it with the former.

Behind him the door opened, accompanied by the sweet cinnamon fragrance he associated with the lieutenant. As soon as the scent washed over him, Jonah relaxed.

“Good morning, Mr. Starovski. I brought some food in case your breakfast was delayed.”

Jonah turned and stared at Davis across the gray expanse of the room. His throat felt thick. Until now, he’d been harboring a hope that it was all a huge mistake. Wes would come back soon and explain what had called him away and why he’d taken all the money. It took cinnamon rolls and a smile from a stranger to make him realize how wrong he’d been. Wes had cancelled all his meals when he’d taken the money from their accounts. He’d deliberately left Jonah destitute. He wasn’t coming back.

“Thank you, Lieutenant.” He watched as Davis put the plate on the table. “Are you sure about this, Lieutenant? You’re totally on board with what you have to do?”

Davis frowned at him as he nodded. “Of course.”

Davis spoke again, but Jonah didn’t hear the words. He turned back to observe the planet below. It absorbed his attention as he settled his mind. At least this planet had a kind of atmosphere. Many he worked on were nothing but a lump of rock with gases trapped below the surface. He watched the clouds of gases swirl in curlicues across the surface, letting the patterns within them absorb him. The mixture of gases was perfect: mostly ammonia and methane. If the planet’s rotation were just a little faster, volcanoes would form and release the carbon dioxide and hydrogen from under the crust. It wouldn’t be long after that the planet would have water. When his breathing became deep and even, the chant began.

At first the chant was nothing more than a low rumble, deep from his diaphragm, but it gradually built, both in tone and speed. None of the words made sense to him, but he didn’t stop. He didn’t even know where the words came from or how they worked on each planet. He saw the results in the reports he was sent—that’s all that mattered. By the time they left orbit, there would be clean water and plants growing on the surface, with some pockets already habitable. Within a few years, the entire planet would have a breathable atmosphere. He focused on the northern hemisphere of the swirling gray planet below, because watching helped the speed and strength of the response even though no one would notice it except through monitoring equipment. Apart from those initial reports, Jonah had no indication whether or not what he’d done had improved things or made them worse. He might never find out for sure, even though the contracts kept pouring in. He just had to keep going, making the call, trusting the response of the planet would be what the Government needed.

Sweat beaded on his forehead and dribbled down the side of his neck. He clenched his hands into fists at his side, holding the power in until the last moment, then releasing all he could in a deep pulse of energy. Again, and again. In this initial stage, the energy was primarily magnetic, pulling at the planet’s magnetic poles to increase rotation. In the next few days or weeks, the energy would become electrical, encourage storms in the clouds of ammonia and methane, and would create longer chains of amino acids. He didn’t know what it was about him that made the difference, only that he could do in a few weeks what took scientists more than fifty years to accomplish. Finally the sounds in his throat rounded out, became less harsh, and whispered through every part of his body. His heart beat steadily in his chest, forcing blood to pool low in his groin, weighing heavily. His voice deepened again as his balls tingled, and his cock filled. He watched the planet and imagined he could see the power flowing from him in rippling waves and into the atmosphere of the planet below.

Eventually the rhythm faltered, his breathing fractured, and sweat dripped from the end of his nose. He stopped, panting, throat raw, body heavy with need. It was the best he could do without release.

“Is it done?”

Jonah froze, then deliberately loosened his fingers. Right now he’d rather be alone in his quarters, his rough hands pulling his dick until it exploded, even if it did undo everything he’d accomplished on the planet so far. Instead he got the lieutenant, then a debriefing. A harsh laugh burst from him as a vivid image of the slim officer in his briefs jumped into his head. He smoothed his features and turned, keeping his gaze on the lieutenant’s face. He reminded himself Davis hadn’t asked for this any more than Jonah had.

He nodded. “As much as I can do now.”

“What do you mean ‘as much as you can do now’?” Davis stood, the chair he’d been sitting on flowing gently back onto the floor. “Are you finished?”

Jonah shrugged. “I’ve finished as much as I can on my own. Hopefully it’ll be enough to begin the process.”

The lieutenant came closer. “On your own? Every report I’ve seen says you work alone.”

Jonah nodded and took a deep breath. It didn’t help. The scent of Davis so close exacerbated his problem. His body throbbed, radiating from his groin, demanding. “There’s a final release of power needed.”

“Then do it.” His voice scraped down Jonah’s nerve endings, and he shivered.

“I can’t.” He closed his eyes. “Not without your help, as you agreed yesterday.”

Davis’s hands jammed onto his hips, and he tilted his head in query. “What help do you need? Tell me, and I’ll make sure you get it.”

Jonah thought he’d been clear the day before, but it was obvious Davis didn’t know what he was getting into at all. He shouldn’t have started the chanting. He thought Davis had understood what he’d have to do. It wasn’t as if he kept it a closely guarded secret. He thought back to previous commissions. Wes had always made the arrangements before, and there’d always been a private room with a direct view of the planet. No one had ever disturbed them. It only just now occurred to Jonah that Wes had arranged it like that so that no one knew how the process worked. It would be just like him to add an air of mystique to what Jonah did. To hide one vital part of the process so that even those with similar abilities wouldn’t be able to replicate it.

Jonah couldn’t finish it alone. Every chant was different. He never knew what was coming, just knew he had to be in sight of the planet, and it was always more successful if he came, to release the last of the energy. After fifteen years doing the job, he didn’t question it anymore. But none of that solved the problem with the man in front of him.

“You’re offering to help?” Jonah whispered harshly, his throat raw from the tension still riding his body. “Are you sure you want to know what I need to finish this?”

Jonah almost smiled at the wariness that crept into the lieutenant’s gaze, but the amusement that relaxed his features died when Davis nodded. “I’ve orders to assist you in any way you need.”

Anger flooded him then. The stupid man was so focused on carrying out his orders he didn’t know what he was offering. What he was risking.

“Are you volunteering to help me, Lieutenant?” The roughness in Jonah’s voice smoothed to a silken purr, and the lieutenant’s expression finally showed the uncertainty it should have all along. Jonah felt guilty at the pleasure he felt in bringing that expression to Davis’s face. But only a little. He decided the lieutenant was a smart man when he stepped away.

“Tell me what I have to do, and I’ll tell you if I can help.”

Jonah forced a grin. He hadn’t tried to take control like this since Wes—better not to go there. Not while he was standing with power still tight in his body. The fallout would be beyond his control. Instead he reached out and grabbed the lieutenant’s hand and pushed it roughly against the aching length of his dick.

“This is what you have to do, Lieutenant. The power is stored there and needs to be released. My dick, your mouth. Get the picture?”

Davis snatched back his hand and fumbled a few steps back from the momentum. But he didn’t leave. Jonah frowned. He’d been sure he’d scare him off with that. “What’s your name, Lieutenant? If you’re going to suck me off, it seems a little ridiculous that I don’t know your name.”

“I didn’t say I was going to suck you off,” Davis exclaimed.

Marcus

MARCUS STAYED perfectly still, hoping this nightmare would end soon. Starovski couldn’t have suggested what he did, that he wanted Marcus to—Marcus stumbled a step backward, the movement jostling his shocked lungs into working again. His mind blanked completely while at the same time swirling with everything he thought and couldn’t possibly think. It was his duty. He risked discovery, the end of his career, reimaging. He’d always wondered what another man’s cock would feel like. Oh God, was he really considering this? No, he couldn’t be reimaged. The medical process forced on homosexuals and rebels would destroy him. There must be another way.

The warmth and hardness of another man’s cock lingered in his palm.

Jonah stayed silent, waiting. The strain on his face deepened as Marcus stood in front of him panicking, dithering. He should leave, run as far as possible away from this man and his crazy green eyes, but he didn’t. He remained standing in front of him. Surely if he was going to leave, he should do it now. Perhaps… perhaps there was a different way.

“Why do I have to suck you off?” Marcus asked suspiciously.

Jonah released a breath like he’d been holding it forever. “The chants release only part of the power, and as I chant, more power builds. It gets trapped in my body.” He gestured to his now raging erection. “If it doesn’t get released, I can’t guarantee the success of the job. It might work or it might not. It might not last without that final boost of power.”

“Then jerk yourself off.” That made sense, didn’t it? If that’s where the power was stored, it was easy enough to take yourself in hand to release it.

“That doesn’t work. Without a physical recipient, most of the power releases back into me, and believe me, that’s not something I want to do too often.”

Marcus couldn’t move. He knew he should, but his body was telling him there was a very good reason to stay. Stay, his cock whispered as it twitched. Find out what it’s like.

“For the gods’ sake, man, what is your name?”

Marcus swallowed audibly but ignored Jonah’s question. “I’ve never done that before,” he rasped as his gaze flickered to Jonah’s groin and back up. “Will that make a difference?”

A shiver raced through Jonah’s body, but he just shook his head. When did he start thinking of the Planet Whisperer as Jonah?

Marcus moved closer, dropping to his knees in front of Jonah. He stared hard at the bulge straining the fly of Jonah’s trousers before lifting his gaze. Duty be damned. He was really going to do this. He licked his lips and whispered, “My name’s Marcus.”

Jonah didn’t give Marcus a chance to change his mind. He flipped the buttons open and released his raging hard-on. It slapped against Marcus’s lower lip, and he lurched back, eyes wide. When Jonah didn’t move again, Marcus slowly slipped his tongue out and ran it along the soft flesh of his lower lip. He could almost taste the warm muskiness of the cock bobbing in front of him.

Jonah groaned, bringing Marcus’s gaze back to his face. When he looked back at the planet below, with its dark clouds swirling faster than before, Marcus relaxed a little. Jonah stood rigidly, his hands fisted beside his hips as if fighting the urge to grab Marcus’s head and force him down onto his cock. “Be sure,” he whispered above him.

Tentative warmth slipped through Marcus at the soft words, and he pressed his lips to the head of Jonah’s cock, letting just the tip slide in to press against his teeth. Jonah moaned. Marcus pulled back, his lips tingling with the silky pressure that had been another man’s cock. What was he doing? This would be the end… of everything. He’d never be the same again. He lifted his gaze to see Jonah regarding him solemnly.

“It feels good,” he whispered. “Do what feels good to you.”

Marcus frowned. How the hell was he supposed to know what felt good? No one had ever… hell, he’d never even had a prostitute. He regarded the stiff cock in front of him and licked his lips again. The slippery saltiness floated on his tongue, and he swallowed. It wasn’t so bad. He could do this and then move on. No one need ever know.

He leaned forward again, sliding his lips over the head of Jonah’s cock and engulfing it. Not so tentative this time. Slick and warm. Above him, Jonah released a billowing sigh.

Marcus flicked the tip of his tongue against the smooth cockhead resting against his lips. Was this what heaven tasted like? He sucked gently, his eyes closing with the pleasure. Before he could move again to slip Jonah farther into his mouth and taste more of him, Jonah grabbed his head and held it.

Then he thrust, pushing his cock over Marcus’s tongue and bumping it against his soft palate. Marcus gagged but recovered when Jonah pulled back. That wasn’t so ba—Jonah pushed in again, choking Marcus. He gagged again and brought his hands up but didn’t touch Jonah yet. Should he push him back? What were the rules?

The next thrust almost pushed Marcus off his knees. He gripped Jonah’s hips and pushed, groaning in protest.

“Yes,” hissed Jonah. His thrusts sped up, faster and stronger than Marcus could push against him.

He was gagging at every thrust now, shock keeping his jaw locked in place, his fingers digging into Jonah’s hips. Pushing, holding on, keeping upright. Swallowing against the need to vomit.

“Yes,” Jonah said again. His cock swelled as he moved faster, more erratically, and Marcus couldn’t breathe.

He thumped Jonah’s thighs—get off, get off—but Jonah kept thrusting, his hands buried deep in Marcus’s hair, his fingertips dug painfully into his skull. Then thick fluid pulsed into Marcus’s mouth, coating the back of his throat. Another thrust, fluid, gag. Oh God, he was going to die. He thumped frantically, pushed. Again. Then finally, finally, he was free. He fell back, scrambling crab-like on all fours, gasping, swallowing against the need to vomit.

Oh God, he was going to. He flipped over onto his hands and knees and, without even getting properly onto his feet, ran for the bathroom. He began retching before he reached the toilet, vomit splattering over the floor, running down the sides of the bowl. Hot tears ran down his cheeks and dripped off the end of his nose, joining the noisome mess he’d made.

That was… that was…. God that was awful. He never… never wanted to…. He finally calmed enough that he could turn to the basin and wash his face. Cleaning nanos whirred faintly behind him. He pushed the button to indicate a complete clean was required, and he stood, swaying and gasping from the shock of what he’d done while the cleaning nanos tingled across his chin and over his uniform. He gasped when they reached his groin. The tightness there wasn’t from fear.

He turned to the mirror and ran a tentative finger across his lips. He didn’t recognize the man he saw. This morning when he’d woken, he’d looked like himself: a man who knew who he was. He’d been a man with a future. Now he looked at a stranger, one with dark fear lurking behind his wet eyes and guilty pleasure resting on his swollen lips.

Jonah

FUCK WES.

Nausea churned in Jonah’s stomach then as well. It wasn’t sympathetic, even though he could smell the vomit from the small room attached. It was because of what he’d become. He hadn’t forced the man, but it hadn’t been Marcus’s choice either. The lieutenant allowed it to happen because it was his orders. But it was still coercion. Jonah knew too well what that was like and had sworn he’d never do it to anyone else.

Before Wes found him, his life had been about more than coercion. None of the johns in the brothel his mother had sold him to when he was eight had ever asked permission. And before that he’d pimped his mother after the john broke her jaw. It hadn’t been too bad, really, cleaning her and feeding her before leading the johns to her, but after she sold him…. Jonah paced, pushing the memories away, locking them in the darkness where they belonged. He stared out the viewing window. The swirling gas clouds around the planet washed the dark thoughts away, and he could remember better times, like the time Wes found him in the brothel and bought him. Wes never fucked him, so that must mean he loved him, right? Why else would Wes teach him to read and everything? Sure, Jonah didn’t get fed if he didn’t learn, but that was just Wes’s way. He never let Jonah go more than three days without food. Wes loved him. There must be a reason Wes had left and taken all the money. There must be a reason he hadn’t come back—wasn’t coming back. Jonah had to finish these contracts before he could go and find Wes and ask him what was wrong.

He’d need to find another contract too so he’d have enough money to search, but he didn’t know how he could do that without Wes. Wes was the only one who knew exactly what Jonah needed.

And now Marcus did too. Marcus might have agreed to do it but he hadn’t really known what he was getting into. Jonah wouldn’t do that again. No way was he going to allow himself to be even a little like the johns who’d used him when he was eight.

He’d ask Marcus first. And if he said “no,” Jonah would walk away.

Chapter Four

Marcus

MARCUS SLAMMED his cabin door closed and leaned against it, chest heaving from the mad dash from Jonah’s suite. He barely had time to pull his cock out before he shot his load. Then he collapsed on the floor and burst into tears. Abomination. He was everything he’d tried all his life not to be. He couldn’t do it again.

Fuck.

In the captain’s words, Marcus had to “do whatever it takes” to keep the guy happy.

There were no limitations placed on that order.

That’s how he’d found himself on his knees in front of a tall green-eyed blond, his mouth stuffed full of cock.

Oh, God, he’d had a cock in his mouth! He could still feel it, smooth and firm and slick from saliva, tasting faintly of soap and sweat. The fullness of it in his mouth was foreign, but Marcus had been… not enjoying it. He’d never enjoy it! Would he?

Then Jonah jammed it down his throat and shot, and Marcus barely made it to the bathroom in time. His throat was sore, and his lips felt puffy. Every time he thought of touching Jonah, feeling the weight of his dick on his tongue, he got hot, and his breathing ratcheted up.

He’d never sucked a cock before, never really allowed himself to think about it, never considered being that close to another man would be part of his life.

For five hours straight, Jonah stood there, staring at the planet and making loud rasping noises, then he turned to Marcus and told him it was his job to get down on his knees and… do that.

Marcus’s breathing fractured again. He’d never been confronted like that before yet he’d dropped to his knees like a pro. His conscience, the part of him that always insisted on absolute truth, whispered that he’d wanted to do it, that having orders to cooperate was a convenient excuse that allowed him to try something he’d never dared to before.

Now he was stuck.

The thought swirled through his mind like the clouds roiling around the planet below, churning without direction or purpose. The scene played on repeat in his mind. Jonah’s fierce green eyes, Marcus on his knees, Jonah’s cock, heavy and sweet in his mouth. Then he vomited afterward. Like, coughed up a lung. And when he finished, his own prick was still hard as a rock.

He groaned through the tears still trailing down his cheeks and pressed the heel of his hand against his cock, already hard and raring to go again. All it took was the thought of Jonah, his face clearly showing how he was hurting, pleading, demanding, denying, like he hated needing so much. Just like Marcus hated giving so much.

He’d done it now. If he requested to be removed from the task, someone else would find out what he’d done, and his career would be shredded. He’d have to do it again, every time Jonah needed it. If he didn’t, he’d face reimaging. Now that the invasive procedure was law on Earth, all mutants, homosexuals, Christians, and any other person who didn’t match the Galactic Government’s ideal of what a citizen should be had gone into hiding. If he were discovered, he’d be returned to Earth to have his memories wiped and gene-nanos injected to alter his personality, and whatever else the Government decided needed to be changed. And those were the only procedures he knew about. Once they had him incarcerated, they’d be able to do whatever they wanted to him.

The thought made him gag, and he pushed himself roughly away from the door and lurched to the bathroom. Too late. Bile and mucus and tears splashed over the floor and toilet bowl. Marcus curled up on the cold, damp floor, uncaring of the smell or what he lay in, and wept as the cleaning nanos emerged and did their job. Jonah’s desperate face shimmered in his mind.

And his cock was still hard.

Jonah

JONAH STARED at the gunmetal-gray door in front of him. When he’d first arrived at the door, it had been change of shift and he’d been jostled by sailors rushing to their posts or returning from them. Now the corridor was empty and silent, and he was left to stare at the door without interruption. He shuffled his feet, desperately wanting to turn his feet back in the direction he’d come from and go back to his suite, but he couldn’t do that. He’d forced a man, and it was his responsibility to make sure that man was all right.

He leaned his forehead on the cool metal. There was no way Marcus would be all right. Not after what Jonah had done to him. He sucked in a deep breath and stood up straight, raising his hand to knock. A soft whimper reached him through the door, and he froze. Slowly he leaned forward again, but this time pressed his ear to the door. There it was again, a small sound, but it wasn’t a whimper. It was a sob. Marcus was crying. Jonah’s stomach twisted into knots he thought would make him puke. Instead he rapped his knuckles against the door.

“Marcus? It’s Jonah.”

Silence greeted him, and he could imagine Marcus cowering in a terrified heap, crab walking his way across the room toward the comm unit. Jonah didn’t want enforcement to come. If that happened they’d take him away and charge him with rape. It wasn’t as if he didn’t deserve it, but he’d only begun with the planet below. The Government wouldn’t tolerate a contract half-finished, especially since they paid the contract up front and it was nonnegotiable.

“Marcus. Open the door. Please.”

More silence. Jonah sighed and turned to leave. A click behind him made him turn back.

“What do you want?” The door was open a crack, one red-rimmed brown eye peered out. Marcus’s voice was hoarse from tears, his breathing quick and harsh. The sourness of vomit wafted from the gap even as a cloud of nanos buzzed around him.

No way would an apology be enough. Jonah moved closer so he could keep his voice low. “I’ll see the captain and arrange for someone else to assist me. You won’t have to deal with me anymore.”

“Fuck.”

The word was a hiss of sound that startled Jonah as much as a yell would have.

“Come in.” The door opened and Marcus stepped back.

Jonah glanced down the corridor, wishing he didn’t have to deal with this right now. Being accused of rape was the kind of thing that got people sent to places like Tolifax. No way did he want to go back there. Ever.

“Come in, Jonah.”

Jonah sighed and entered the small room. Marcus’s furniture was all solid, permanently in place, not the liquiform he had in his suite that molded itself to the user’s needs. A narrow bed against the wall, a small desk and comm unit beside it. Through a doorway Jonah could see a well-organized closet and tiny bathroom. The bathroom floor was wet, and Marcus had odorous wet patches down one side of his uniform. His hair stuck up in damp, stinking strands. Jonah mouth-breathed and tried not to scowl at the smell. The nanos would be done soon.

“You can’t go to the captain,” said Marcus.

Jonah shook his head and stared at the wall opposite the door. He couldn’t look at Marcus, couldn’t make himself see the betrayal and desolation he’d caused. “It’s the only way to make sure you don’t have to deal with me again.”

“I’ve already ‘dealt with you.’ Going to the captain won’t change that. All that will achieve is to have me reassigned. Someone else will take my place.”

Jonah rubbed his hands down his face. Rats take it. He turned to look at the young man in front of him. His eyes were still red from crying, his soft lips puffy, his clothing disheveled, but he seemed calm enough. The nanos were nearly finished their work. “I have to finish the terraforming or I’ll be in breach of contract.” If that happened he’d be arrested. Thanks to Wes he couldn’t pay back the fee. He clasped his hands behind his neck. “If I don’t complete the release of energy, the process won’t set.” He forced himself to look at Marcus, to make sure he understood what he was saying.

“So I blow you whenever you need me to. What are we talking here? Once, twice a day? More?” There was a tremble in his voice, like he was afraid of Jonah but he was still going to do it to make sure another sailor didn’t have to. Jonah’s eyes burned, and he looked away. Fuck… and fuck Wes for leaving him in the middle of contracts, for turning him into exactly the kind of man he hated most.

“Once or twice, depending on how deep the chant goes. No more than that.” But if he did three chants in one day, he’d be so exhausted he’d sleep the whole of the next day, and Marcus would have a day away from him. It was the best he could do for the man.

“Fine. What time tomorrow?”

Jonah told him and left. The door closed behind him, but he was already halfway down the corridor, his feet eating the distance as he tried to outrun what he’d become.

THICK CLOUDS roiled in swirling circles, obscuring the land. It had begun. It was up to him to keep it going. He began early today, too restless to wait until Marcus arrived. The more he did now, the less time Marcus would have to spend with him—not that it would be any easier for the younger man.

Jonah took a deep breath and ignored the sweat pouring down his face and dribbling down his back in a constant tickling stream. He focused on the planet, determined to bring as much energy to it as possible and get done quickly. If he could cut the time down from three weeks, even by a few days, it might help Marcus, although not much could help what Jonah had already done to the younger man. He forced himself to stop thinking negative thoughts and sank again into the place where the chant rumbled, clanking rocks in a dry riverbed. For a long time, all he heard was his breathing. Just as he was about to give up, thinking he was done for the morning, the colors in his mind changed, and low murmuring pulsed within them. Keeping his breathing slow and even, Jonah allowed the chant to take him.

Chapter Five

Marcus

THE NEXT day dawned bright and clear. Marcus’s mouth twitched in half a smile at the cliché. It wasn’t true, judging on the appearance of the planet below. He tugged on his jacket as he rushed down the hallway, hoping no one noticed he was ten minutes late for his shift. Sleep had eluded him the night before. It wasn’t until he jerked off a second time, imagining the touch of a tall green-eyed man, that he relaxed enough to sleep. His face flamed at the memory, and he shoved it away.

He paused at the door to Jonah’s suite and took a fortifying breath. His stomach churned as he reached for the entrance panel, but he wasn’t sure if that was nerves, disgust, or simply because he’d skipped breakfast. Another deep breath allowed him to touch the panel.

The door opened with a hushed swish, revealing the low murmur of sound permeating the room. He suppressed the words he wanted to say. It annoyed him that Jonah hadn’t waited for him, but Jonah didn’t need Marcus’s help to begin, just to end. He crossed to stand beside the tall man, a little behind so as not to distract him.

Jonah was already bathed in sweat and swaying slightly on his feet. The day before, it had taken hours to reach that stage. Marcus checked the time, but he was only ten minutes late. He couldn’t think of any reason Jonah would have started so early, except to avoid Marcus. He clamped his jaw against the feelings that produced. He’d only met the man a couple of days ago, so there shouldn’t be any emotional connection. He shouldn’t feel rejected.

He looked out the viewing panel and reminded himself what was important. That didn’t change things, though. Two things remained regardless of anything else:

If anyone found out what Marcus had done, he’d not only lose his position, he’d be sent for reimaging. His career would be over, his life would be in ruins, and his parents would deny ever knowing him.

The second thing was worse. His first sexual encounter had been with a whore. Jonah had been whispering for years; someone had to be there to help him complete his “release of energy” or whatever he called it. That meant he’d had sex with a lot of people.

Marcus staggered. Jonah had sex with people he’d arranged to be there. Fuck. Jonah wasn’t the whore. Marcus was. He swallowed the bile that rolled in his stomach, his skin clammy, his knees trembling. The chanting stopped. Jonah turned to him.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked in his ruined voice.

Marcus opened his mouth to reply, but his legs gave way under him, and he ended up on his knees in front of Jonah, still unable to voice what he’d discovered about himself. By the time he opened his mouth to speak, Jonah had his pants open, his dick out and shoved in Marcus’s mouth.

His mind cleared of all thought, and he sucked Jonah in, the silky muskiness of him feeling like heaven on Marcus’s tongue. He did better today, not gagging until the end when Jonah’s thrusts grew stronger and deeper, and his cock lodged in Marcus’s throat and shot. Marcus looked up at Jonah then, catching rage and disgust on his face before he looked away. He was an abomination. Even the man who shoved his dick in Marcus’s mouth couldn’t stand him.

As soon as he was clear, Marcus scrambled to his feet and lurched into the bathroom, barely making it in time to heave over the bowl until only bile and groaning sobs remained.

Marcus’s career was on the verge of being destroyed, but he couldn’t tell Jonah to stop. If he stopped, he’d end up in jail. Marcus didn’t for a moment doubt how necessary it was for him to… do that to Jonah. Jonah had been too wretched and apologetic for it to be anything but the truth. And Marcus had checked the data.

Already the atmosphere was changing, with a clear jump in activity at about the time Marcus was lurching into the bathroom. So the choice was to destroy his and Jonah’s careers with one word, or to suck dick.

He was stuck.

He pressed his hand against his trembling lips, deliberately slowing his breathing. What would it be like to believe in what you were doing so much that you were willing to subject yourself to the use of whores to achieve it? Marcus rested his head on the cold porcelain, too ill and disgusted with himself to care what he might be rubbing into his hair. He refused to allow himself to think of the joy he’d begun to feel before he’d seen Jonah’s face.

A warm, damp cloth wiped over one side of Marcus’s face while Jonah’s other hand lifted his head upright.

“Come on, Marcus, let’s get you cleaned up a little. The nanos can only work so fast.”

Jonah’s hand trembled, and his voice held pain under the rasp of overuse. Marcus couldn’t look at him. He knew the disgust would still be there, and he didn’t want to see it again. He wanted, just for a moment, to believe the care Jonah was showing Marcus was something more than his need to clean up a stinking mess and get the whore out of his suite as soon as he could. That had to be why he started so early: to minimize the amount of contact he had with Marcus. The whore.

He retched again, thankful he was already at the bowl, not that there was anything left, just dry heaves. A smaller, cool cloth was placed gently on the back of his neck, and Jonah’s long, strong arm wound its way across his chest and lifted.

“Come on. Let’s get you into bed. I’ll order tea to settle your stomach.”

Jonah’s bed was large and comforting. The tingle of the cleaning nanos stopped. Another cloth wiped Marcus’s face, but he kept his eyes closed. Perhaps it was the same cloth, he didn’t know. He just knew he couldn’t face Jonah. Long fingers pushed his hair off his forehead, and he turned into the touch, tears leaking from his closed eyes when he realized he needed that, and Jonah was only being kind.

Jonah

JONAH SHOULDN’T have listened to him. Marcus assured him it would be fine, and he’d be able to help Jonah finish the job every day, but it wasn’t fine, and Marcus couldn’t do it, whether he wanted to admit it or not. Jonah cleaned him up the best he could but let the nanos finish the job. When Marcus snuggled his cheek against Jonah’s hand, Jonah’s heart just about broke. It was so stressful for him, he was seeking comfort, and the only one around to offer it was Jonah. The worst person he could turn to.

Jonah crawled onto the bed next to him and gathered Marcus in his arms. I’m so sorry. So sorry. Marcus sighed and relaxed against Jonah, his head on Jonah’s shoulder and one arm flung across his waist. Jonah pressed his lips against Marcus’s brown hair, and he pulled him closer. Gradually Marcus relaxed, his arm becoming limp and heavy across Jonah’s body, and Jonah allowed himself to take what felt like the first deep breath since he’d shoved his dick in Marcus’s mouth.

Exhaustion pulled at him, and he allowed sleep to take him.

He roused when the young man draped over him stirred. Jonah’s arms were still tight around Marcus, and his nose was still buried in his soft hair. Jonah didn’t want to let go, but he did. The last thing Marcus needed was Jonah making more demands on him than he had already. As it was, the terraforming ritual might destroy him.

Jonah slipped from the bed, careful not to let Marcus’s arm drop to the covers and wake him completely. It was lunchtime. Jonah wasn’t hungry but knew he needed to eat something to have the strength to get through the afternoon’s chanting, and Marcus would need something too, so he rang the galley and asked for food to be brought up.

A knock sounded at the door at the same time Marcus walked from the bedroom, his clothing crumpled and hair tumbled down across his forehead, lips still swollen. He looked well and truly fucked.

“You might want to straighten your clothing and brush your hair before anyone sees you.” Jonah’s voice was gruff, but it was the best he could do after spending the morning immersed in thick chants. Marcus’s pale cheeks flushed bright pink, then drained to a pasty white. He fled into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

An ensign brought lunch. He looked around curiously as he set the table. “Is Lieutenant Davis with you?”

“In the bathroom.”

He hovered after emptying his trolley, his gaze darting from the open bedroom door with the mussed bed visible beyond to the closed bathroom door, to the planet below.

“Is there something else, Ensign?”

He started and turned his wide-eyed gaze to Jonah. “I was just wondering how it works, sir. There isn’t much information on the process.”

Fuck Wes. “It’s a process of harnessing the energy produced by the sun and planets in the solar system and directing that energy to the planet below. At the beginning, it impacts on the planet’s magnetic fields to increase the rotation speed, but later focuses on the upper atmosphere to cause electrical storms.” Jonah gestured to the window. “As you can see, the process has begun, with clouds forming in the new atmosphere.”

The ensign dutifully looked out the window, his brows rising as if he’d never seen the planet before. “How do you do it so quickly? All the processes I’ve read about take thirty to fifty years to get to that stage.”

“If I made all my methods public, no one would need to hire me, would they?”

Pink flushed the man’s cheeks. “Of course, sir. I’m sorry, sir. Enjoy your lunch.” He turned to the door just as Marcus left the bathroom.

His clothes were straightened but still woefully wrinkled. His hair had been combed, but his lips were still blowjob plump. Beside Jonah the ensign gasped.

“Lunch has arrived. We’ll get back to work straight afterwards.” Jonah turned from both of them and pulled his chair out.

“Of course. What time do you anticipate finishing this afternoon?” Marcus’s voice was all business.

Jonah glanced out the window, judging the speed of the clouds. “Another three hours should do it for today. Then it’ll need a full twenty-four hours for the changes to set.”

There was a pause before Marcus murmured, “Of course,” and pulled his seat out. “Is there anything else you need, Ensign?”

“Oh no, sir. My apologies. I’ll leave you to your lunch.” The door clicked sharply when he left, and Jonah drew a deep breath.

“You might want to bring a spare suit with you or take your jacket off if you plan to sleep after the next session.” He looked up into Marcus’s flaming face and felt his own cheeks heat. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, knowing it was always going to be inadequate, but knowing he had to say it anyway.

Chapter Six

Marcus

HIS CAREER was over. Destroyed in one morning. Marcus knew what he looked like. The ensign had the same knowledge in his eyes. He saw Marcus’s damp hair and crumpled uniform, and he could tell. It was an easy assumption to make, considering Jonah’s bedhead and still-sleepy eyes. It didn’t help that there was no equipment in the suite to make it look like Jonah did any real work. No one could deny the results, the planet had obviously begun terraforming, but there was no evidence that Jonah had been responsible for it. All the ensign saw was two disheveled men and a messed-up bed.

It was obvious.

Marcus wanted to vomit again, but he swallowed the thickness in his throat along with a piece of chicken. It was done now. He’d made the decision the day before, and he couldn’t go back on it, regardless of whether or not he had any choice other than to follow White’s vaguely worded orders. He’d have to resign his commission at the end of Jonah’s current contract. What came after that, he didn’t know. Once word got out, no one would hire him; it wouldn’t matter how good his record was or what his experience. He couldn’t go home, refusing to even contemplate reimaging.

Good people he’d worked with had been admitted for reimaging and most were never seen again. Once, he met one, a man he’d gone to school with. He was an emaciated shell, full of hatred and shame, nothing left of the vibrant, funny boy he’d been before. He’d shown Marcus the scars from the probes they used when none of the “gentler” techniques, like electric shock, had worked. Marcus had heard he’d killed himself a few months after he’d seen him.

He put down his cutlery, unable to eat any more.

With blinding clarity Marcus knew he’d never marry either, not now that he could no longer offer his bride his innocence—he glared at Jonah, sitting at the other side of the small table calmly eating his meal—or his desire. Jonah wouldn’t even realize what he’d done. He wouldn’t know or care he’d destroyed Marcus’s career and his future with one demand.

Marcus shoved his plate aside, not able to force down another mouthful, and went over to the console at the desk by the door. He sat and logged in to his files. “Let me know when you need to finish off,” he said over his shoulder. “I have some reports to write.”

A FEW hours later, Marcus stretched his stiff back, arms high above his head to relieve the pain of too much sitting in one spot, and realized the room was silent. He turned in his seat to see Jonah leaning against the wall beside the viewing panel, his hands clenched in fists, his face scrunched in agony.

“How long have you been waiting? I told you to let me know.”

He shook his head. “I don’t want to. You don’t have to. I’ll be fine.” Every sentence was clipped, shot from his clenched jaw like bullets of pain.

“You said you needed this to finish the process. Was that a lie?”

“Not a lie.” Jonah still didn’t open his eyes to look at him, and Marcus had no idea why he was doing this, but it was too late to stop now. He had been committed from the first time he dropped to his knees. There was no coming back from that. Marcus moved closer and dropped to his knees again, wryly amused at how familiar it was becoming. Another few days and he would begin to think blowing Jonah was the most natural thing in the world. He might even start to forget that for everyone else in the world he lived and worked in, it was an abomination.

Jonah didn’t open his pants and shove his cock in Marcus’s mouth. He remained rigid and unresponsive. Marcus was the one in control this time, so he took it more slowly. Jonah’s pants were old-fashioned blue denim, a fabric rarely seen anymore because cotton was so rare. They were soft and worn, obviously quite old. Marcus flipped the button open and lowered the zipper. Jonah’s cock, long and pale, blushed pink on the end, tipped out toward him, a drop of milky moisture glistening on the top. He stuck his tongue out and licked it up, not sure if he liked the taste.

Jonah gasped and pushed his hands flat against the wall at his hips but otherwise remained still. Marcus decided Jonah’s lack of response gave him the perfect opportunity to explore, to find out if he liked this action or not. He licked around the head, learning the taste and texture that was at the same time familiar and different to anything he’d tasted or felt before. Jonah groaned as Marcus sealed his lips around the head of his cock and sucked gently. While he remained still, Marcus could feel the tension in him, the need to thrust like he had both times before.

Marcus bobbed his head, sucking as he drew off, using his hand to pull Jonah’s balls out from his pants and roll them gently in his palm.

“Oh fuck, yeah, Marcus. Ohh.” Jonah groaned and shot into Marcus’s mouth. His cock wasn’t lodged in Marcus’s throat as it had been both times before, so he tasted his come, thick and bitter sour. Marcus gagged, the fluid filling his mouth, clogging his throat. He pushed himself up and lurched toward the bathroom, spitting and coughing over the bowl but, thankfully, not vomiting again. Fuck, that was disgusting.

He returned to find Jonah slumped on the floor where he’d been standing, his elbows on his raised knees, hands threaded through his white-blond hair, his flaccid cock peeping out from his jeans. Despair radiated from him, and Marcus began to understand how much his job cost him. Being forced to have sex with someone, or lose the contract, was rape, and Jonah had been subjected to it for years.

Marcus went over and grabbed Jonah’s arm, hauling him to his feet. “Come on, Jonah. Get into bed and sleep it off. Things will seem better in the morning.”

He shook his head, even as he stumbled along beside me. “It’s never going to be better, Marcus. I can’t change it. I’m always going to have to do this.”

“Why? Can’t you get another job?”

He shook his head again. “Wes took the fees from this contract and the next two. I have to do them or be in breach. I’m so sorry.”

“Wes is your manager?”

“Was.” His raw voice jumped over the word as if he’d never admitted it before. “He’s gone. Took everything with him.”

Fucking bastard. Marcus pushed Jonah onto the bed, then tugged his jeans off before throwing the comforter over him. Not only was Jonah forced into allowing himself to be raped twice a day, his manager, a man he should have been able to trust, stole from him and disappeared, leaving Jonah to carry on with nothing. How was he going to support himself until he could be paid for another contract? Who would he have to help him release the energy for the next two contracts? Marcus wasn’t sure if his ship was contracted with Jonah for them or not. He’d have to check. At least if it was them, Jonah would have Marcus and wouldn’t have to deal with another stranger.

“Marcus.” Jonah rolled to bury his head in his pillow. Marcus shucked his jacket and crawled onto the bed behind Jonah, running his hands over his back and shoulders.

“It’s all right, Jonah. You rest. I’ll be here.”

He didn’t think Jonah heard him, but his shoulders relaxed, and his breathing evened out.

Jonah

THE PLANET changed daily, the violent storms from the first weeks gradually settling into slowly drifting clouds and gentle rain that epitomized a predictable climate. Jonah and Marcus fell into a routine too: chanting, blowjob, sleep, lunch, chanting, blowjob. Marcus worked on reports or whatever else he seemed to need to do at the workstation while Jonah worked on the planet. After the last blowjob, Marcus always left, returning the next day at the same time.

Each morning Jonah rose with a smile on his face. For a long time, he had craved Wes’s company and believed their relationship was something special, but Wes had never made him smile like this. Besides, Wes was gone, and Jonah was too busy and too fascinated with Marcus to miss him. If he thought about the way Wes had left, anger bubbled up, but he couldn’t maintain that if he wanted to fall into the chant each day. So he put it aside. For the moment his needs were being met. He had enough to eat, he was warm and clothed, and, while he had coerced a man—no matter how much Marcus said it was his choice—he enjoyed Marcus’s undemanding company. Part of him still worried about the impact their association had on Marcus, but the man had stopped vomiting every time and seemed willing to help Jonah finalize the energy. With a small start, he realized it was good. It had never been like this before. Every other planet he transformed had been a job and nothing more.

Jonah paced. Marcus was late this morning. As he waited it struck him that he’d been waiting for Marcus every morning. He didn’t know when he started doing that, but he was now reluctant to begin work without Marcus there. He didn’t need him to begin, only to end, but he still waited. Marcus finally arrived an hour after the time they usually began.

Jonah was ready to berate him for holding up the process, but then he saw Marcus’s face.

“What happened?” He rushed over and reached a hand out to touch the worst of the bruises, but Marcus recoiled from him.

“Nothing. Why haven’t you begun? Didn’t you say today was the last day with this planet and you had to start early to make sure you finished on time?”

Marcus’s harsh tone clawed at him, and his lungs were suddenly tight. “I thought….”

“You thought what?” He flapped a hand dismissively. “Once this planet is done, that will be the end of it, so why are you standing there like an idiot? I have work to do and so do you.” He turned and strode to his work console, sitting stiffly in the seat. He made no attempt to log in but stared at the blank screen, pointedly ignoring Jonah.

What else had Jonah expected? There was no way Marcus could consider him a friend, regardless of how Jonah had begun to feel about him. Jonah knew better. He was a whore. Not even Wes had wanted him; there was no way someone like Marcus would. He stared out the viewing screen at the planet below. Little more needed to be done, just a basic locking chant so the progress would continue and not backflip as soon as they left the area. The planet would be suitable for seed-drones to be sent to the surface within a few months. Once the plants sprouted and grew, people could begin to populate the new land.

Jonah resisted the temptation to look back at Marcus even though he could feel the tension and pain radiating from him. It looked like he’d run afoul of one of the gangs on Tolifax, but Jonah had never heard of Government spacemen beating each other up—not officers anyway. They usually reserved that for the inhabitants of the planets they conquered. The more he thought about what might have happened to Marcus, the more his breathing fractured and the less his concentration held. He turned back to Marcus to find him still sitting in the same place.

“Marcus.”

“Just get to work, Jonah. All you have to do is do your job. Nothing else.” He sounded determined, but there was a thread of hopelessness in there as well that made Jonah’s stomach knot. Marcus didn’t want his help, and he could offer nothing more, so he turned back to the planet below and forced his concentration on it.

Twenty minutes later and the chant still hadn’t deepened to the unconscious level. Jonah’s skin tingled with awareness, but his body wasn’t alive with need. He stopped and rested his forehead on the cold transparent panel.

“What’s wrong?”

Jonah jumped at the quiet voice just behind him. He didn’t know how long Marcus had been behind him, but now that he was aware of the other man, he could feel the heat from his body, a marked contrast to the chill seeping into Jonah’s forehead from the viewing glass.

“It’s not working. I’m too distracted.”

Marcus’s sigh gusted between Jonah’s shoulder blades, and he shivered. “Tell me what I can do to help.”

Jonah turned to look at him even though it was the last thing he wanted to do. “The quickest way to get me focused is to touch me,” he whispered, looking away from him.

“What exactly do you mean by ‘touch you’?”

He glanced at Marcus’s narrowed eyes but had to look away. His cheeks were already hot from embarrassment, and he didn’t want him to see it in his eyes as well. “When Wes was training me, he used to run his hands over my skin to keep me focused on the planet.”

“Your skin? You mean you’ll be naked.”

Jonah nodded and turned back to the planet below. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll eventually get it right.”

Marcus gripped Jonah’s elbow and spun him around as he peered up at him. “Tell me exactly what would work.”

Just that easily Jonah was looking Marcus full in the face. He told himself it was surprise at the firm command in his voice, but it was more than that. Marcus was taking charge, and Jonah no longer had to be responsible. His relief slipped out in a sigh.

“The closer the contact, the deeper my concentration. You just have to touch me, pinch my nipples, tug on my cock.” He squirmed a little as he whispered, “My ass.”

Jonah couldn’t stay still under Marcus’s scrutiny. Just as he was about to turn away again, Marcus spoke.

“Wait here. I’ll be back.”

“Where are you going?”

“You’re too tall. My head barely reaches to your shoulders. I’m going to level the playing field.”

The door swooshed shut behind him, and Jonah was left waiting in the empty room. His skin tingled still from having to tell Marcus what he needed, his dick twitched, and his ass clenched.

Chapter Seven

Marcus

THE ONLY thing that prevented Marcus running all the way to his cabin was his rank. It wouldn’t do for a lieutenant to be seen running in the hallways unless they had to abandon ship. He finally opened the door and tumbled into his cabin. As soon as the door swooshed closed behind him, he unbuttoned his pants, took his cock out and, in a few short strokes, was shooting all over the floor. As he leaned against the closed door, catching his breath, he laughed. This was becoming a habit. Damn Jonah.

When his knees grew strong enough to support him again, he stepped over the cloud of cleaning nanos on the floor, pulled a small step stool out of his closet and a jar of lotion from the bedside table. A vague image of him leaning over Jonah’s shoulders to massage oil into his pecs and pluck at his nipples haunted him.

His reflection in the mirror surprised him. The bruises looked worse than they had a couple of hours before. The ache had subsided, so he’d forgotten they were even there. It had been a long time since he’d had to break up a fight between his men. Most people saw his insignia and stopped. And no one messed with the only son of the Government’s top scientists. Anyone who did, and if he failed to hide it from his parents, tended to disappear.

The men who’d attacked Betts wore masks, but they’d made it clear they had a problem with him associating with the Planet Whisperer. Accusations of cheating were added. It might take Marcus some time, but he was confident he’d identify them and find out what the real story was. Prejudice and bullying had no place on his ship and never would. A few well-placed rumors could solve the situation without any further effort on his part. Those men would never work for the Government again. The smirk reflected in his mirror made him realize this was the first time he was actually glad that people knew who his parents were and what influence they had.

A quick check of his uniform assured him no indication of his impromptu ejaculation remained, so he gathered the materials and rushed back to Jonah’s suite.

He was still where Marcus left him, self-contained, yet somehow dejected. Marcus wondered what his history was but then reminded himself he didn’t need to know. He was Jonah’s handler for this contract. It was his job to make sure Jonah had everything he needed to ensure successful completion of his work. The fact that over the last few weeks Marcus had begun to enjoy something he’d been taught was wrong caused him some sleepless nights, but everything would return to normal once he finished this assignment and Jonah was gone.

Marcus made sure the door was secure, then made his way over to where Jonah leaned against the viewing panel. “Do you still need to be naked for this to work?” he asked.

Jonah sighed like Marcus did on lonely rainy afternoons. Marcus tried to ignore it. He couldn’t allow himself to care for Jonah. His life had been mapped out from the time he was born, and he couldn’t afford messy emotions for a man who needed his cock sucked twice a day.

“Yeah.” He remained staring at the planet below.

“Well, clothes off, then. It’s already midmorning, and you haven’t started. Do you want to finish this contract on time or not?”

“Rats of evil, lay off, will you?” He rounded on him, forcing Marcus to step back.

Marcus’s morning had already included being up close and personal with several violent jerks; he didn’t need an encounter with another one. Instead of lashing out at him, though, Jonah ran agitated hands through his hair, then began unbuttoning his shirt. “Fine,” he said, his voice testy. “Let’s get this done.” He glared at Marcus. “I sure hope you’re prepared for what you’re going to have to do.”

Marcus swallowed, thinking of the lotion resting heavily in his pocket, and his face heated at the images of what he could do with that and a naked body in front of him. While Jonah shucked the rest of his clothes onto the floor, Marcus double-checked the door and removed his jacket.

“What are you doing?”

“You said I have to touch you.” He held up the lotion. “I thought a massage might relax you and get you into the ‘zone’ more quickly.”

“You…. No one….” Jonah clamped his jaw tightly and was silent for a long time before he sighed and nodded.

Marcus worked hard at keeping his eyes firmly focused on Jonah’s face. He’d never taken the time to actually look at Jonah’s cock for any longer than he needed to guide it to his mouth, but he knew for sure right then wasn’t the time to start, no matter how much he wanted to. He took a deep breath as Jonah turned around, presenting Marcus with tight round buttocks. Jonah was pale all over, from hair to toes. Marcus watched the muscles in his back and buttocks twitch as he draped his trousers over the back of the chair at the workstation. His shirt quickly joined them, but he left his underclothes on. The air in the room was no cooler, but it raised goose bumps on his heated, exposed skin. Ignoring the sudden trembly shivers that raced across his skin, Marcus scooped up the lotion and the step stool and walked over to Jonah.

Jonah jumped at the first touch of Marcus’s hands on his shoulders. His skin was warm, the heat of it seeping into Marcus. At first he simply smoothed his hands back and forth across Jonah’s shoulders, but with each jump of muscle under his palms, he pressed harder until he was digging the heels of his hands deep into the tight muscles.

“No wonder you’re having trouble focusing. All your muscles are knotted so tightly it’s amazing you don’t have a massive headache or something.”

“I do.”

Marcus couldn’t resist leaning forward and pressing a light kiss to the back of Jonah’s neck. “It’s a good thing I decided on a massage, then, isn’t it.” He ran his fingers across Jonah’s shoulders again to identify the worst of the knots and dug in. Jonah groaned, but Marcus didn’t lessen the pressure. “Breathe through it. The knot will ease in a minute.” Jonah’s breath came fast and hard. “I’ll breathe with you,” whispered Marcus. “Slow it down a little.”

Jonah’s breathing deepened, the evenness drawing Marcus into it so that he breathed with the same cadence. Within minutes the chanting began and slowly built in intensity. Marcus didn’t know how long it went on before he realized he was humming along with Jonah, his own tenor providing a counterpoint to the deep-throated rumble of the unintelligible words that poured from Jonah’s mouth. Marcus’s hands wandered from Jonah’s shoulders, and he used his knuckles to dig into tight knots under his shoulder blades.

The tone of the chanting changed, throbbing through Marcus and drawing him closer. He leaned his chest against Jonah’s back, the heat radiating from him making him shiver. Jonah leaned forward against the viewing panel, taking Marcus with him until he was almost lying along the tall man’s spine. His cock, hard and hot, nestled between Jonah’s buttocks, only the thin layers of their underwear between them.

Jonah groaned, the chanting coming to an abrupt halt.

“Keep going,” Marcus gasped as he reached around Jonah to rub the oily moisturizer into his tight pecs, his palms teasing taut nipples. Marcus’s hips flexed without any conscious effort. The heat of Jonah’s buttocks almost scalded him as he pressed against them, making him hiss with the deep pleasure of it.

“Finish me.” Jonah’s voice rasped.

Disappointed, Marcus moved his hands to push himself off Jonah so he could move around in front to suck him off as he had every other time. Jonah grabbed Marcus’s thighs and held him in place.

“No, stay there. Finish me from there.”

“How?” Marcus was standing on a stupid step stool, so he was taller than Jonah and could reach over his shoulders.

“Fuck me.”

Marcus froze, his mind awhirl. Blowjobs were one thing. He could convince himself that it was simply his duty, part of the job that needed to be done. Fucking didn’t fall into that category, no matter how he looked at it. If he fucked Jonah, he would lose any semblance of the life he might once have imagined for himself. What he needed to do was back off, get off the stool, and leave. The situation was so far out of control that he shouldn’t even suck Jonah off.

Marcus froze in place, not able to decide. He wanted Jonah in a way he’d never wanted anything before. It wasn’t just the sex, either. He enjoyed spending time with him, enjoyed learning how Jonah reacted to every touch. He loved watching Jonah’s face as he came.

“Marcus.” Jonah’s voice was hoarse from overuse and need.

Marcus’s hips flexed again and then again, totally involuntarily. He turned his head just enough to bring the soft skin behind Jonah’s earlobe under his mouth, and he closed his lips over it, his tongue darting out to taste him. Heaven.

“Marcus,” Jonah said again as he reached back for Marcus’s hand, bringing it around to cover his cock. Saliva flooded Marcus’s mouth as he touched the smooth skin at the tip but couldn’t reach any farther.

He pushed clumsily off Jonah’s back and stumbled off the stool to pull Jonah around to face him. Jonah’s cock bobbed in front of his face as he sank to his knees. Marcus took no more time than he usually did to look at what was in front of him, but simply opened his mouth and swallowed Jonah’s length. His taste was addictive, and Marcus had grown to crave it.

This time, as well as gripping Jonah tightly and sucking on his cock, Marcus used his other hand to fondle his balls and rub the soft skin just behind. He’d been thinking about doing that for days.

Jonah’s hands landed on Marcus’s head, his fingers burrowing through Marcus’s hair. He’d begun doing that the week before, and Marcus loved it. He bobbed faster on the long, slim cock, sucking as strongly as he could on each upsweep.

Jonah fisted his hair and groaned his name, then froze as his cock pulsed, hot and hard, shooting into Marcus’s mouth.

Ambrosia.

Jonah

JONAH LEANED back and rested his head on the glass. A shudder wracked his body as the tension built from Marcus’s now-skilled mouth. There had been a moment, an extended breath of time, where Marcus paused, and Jonah thought he meant to fuck him. His body had screamed out for it to happen, but instead Marcus had slipped between Jonah’s legs and sucked him down. Jonah fought his orgasm even though he knew it was the worst thing he could do. He had to release the power to ensure the terraforming was complete, but he wanted… that’s all. He wanted in a way he’d never wanted before, not even with Wes.

Even though he knew it was wrong, Jonah had wanted Marcus to fuck him, to control him. No one had fucked him since Wes had bought him, and he’d been glad of that. He’d never wanted Wes to fuck him but instead had thought it was a good thing that he didn’t disrespect Jonah like that. This thing Jonah felt for Marcus had nothing to do with respect or lack of it. It was all about want.

Jonah’s body burned from the power coursing through it, and it all centered on his dick where Marcus’s hot silky mouth and clever tongue were working a magic he’d only ever dreamed was possible.

Jonah slipped his hands into Marcus’s hair, soft and silky like the sheets Wes used to have on his bed, but better. Marcus groaned as Jonah’s fingers tangled in the strands, and the vibration was enough to set him off. His body folded in on itself, around him, as he shot his load deep in Marcus’s throat.

Marcus didn’t spit Jonah out and move away as he usually did. Today he stayed seated in front of Jonah, his mouth gently cradling his softening dick as he calmed. When Jonah’s knees stopped feeling like rubber, he stepped away, his flaccid dick slapping wetly against Marcus’s chin as it slipped out of his mouth.

Jonah couldn’t look at Marcus, suddenly aware they were both almost naked. They’d never done that before either. This situation was different to the last time—too much like Jonah’s old life. His clothes languished in a heap on the floor, but images of how he would look bending down to pick them up froze him. Where he came from, bending over in front of anyone, particularly if you were naked, was asking for a dick to be shoved up your ass. Jonah might have entertained a wish that it would happen, but now he was confronted with the possibility without his power riding him, his mind ran flailing and screaming from it. Leaving his clothes exactly where they were, he walked into the bedroom and closed the door behind him.

When he entered the room, he stopped, not sure what he intended to do. The planet was done, as much as it could be. Now it just needed time to grow and develop. Jonah needed to see the captain to find out where he had to go for the next contract. That could be done tomorrow. He should… right now it didn’t matter what he should do. He crawled into bed and pulled the covers over his head. He was going to spend the rest of the day reliving every blowjob from Marcus and every lunchtime conversation with him. Perhaps if he did that, some of the guilt over what he’d done to the younger man would dissipate. If he committed all of it to memory, perhaps he could find a way to carry part of Marcus with him everywhere he went.

Perhaps then he wouldn’t feel so alone.

Chapter Eight

Professor Winnifrey Davis

WINNI SCOWLED as she stared at the message from Captain White. Behind her, Harry started mumbling at his results. She wanted to tell him to be quiet so she could focus, but that would shatter his concentration, and she needed those results today or they’d be behind schedule. Harry had turned the hold of their small spaceship into a lab that rivaled those of the best research laboratories on Earth. The mix of stainless steel and crisp white soothed her, although Harry had added a red-framed photograph of the children and their families and insisted on bringing his lucky green chair. Winni allowed those anomalies in her lab so Harry’s research would continue smoothly.

She kept staring at the screen, but the words stayed the same.

“Fool,” she whispered. “I knew that boy was going to do something stupid.” In the corner of her screen, the video played on a loop. Snippets of obviously much longer videos taken over the last month showing her son—her son—on his knees in front of another man. Today they were almost naked, and Marcus was…. Shit. She couldn’t keep looking at it. “Who the hell does he think he is to send me something like this?” She reread White’s e-mail. “Oh, sure, you think I should know what my son is doing. Sure, you’re just sending this to me from a sense of duty. You don’t want anything from me at all. Asshole.”

“What’s that, dear?”

“Nothing, Harry. Go back to your work.”

The son was turning out to be a lot like his father—resistive to Winni’s good sense. Winni could almost hear her mother’s cackle. “You chose to marry him and have children by him. What else can you expect?”

“He’s a bloody genius. So is his son—my son. I should be able to expect great things. I did expect great things, and I’ll get it all, very soon. That’s why I married him.” Winni closed the e-mail and turned off the monitor. She didn’t want to look at that anymore. She needed time to think about how she could turn her son’s association with that man to her advantage. She gasped. That man. She turned the monitor back on and brought up White’s e-mail again. The Planet Whisperer. She chuckled. Her son was fucking the Planet Whisperer. Oh, that was perfect.

“Harry?” she called, still looking at White’s e-mail. No response. “Answer me, you asshole.”

“Yes, dear?” Harry looked up from his monitor, his brown eyes large behind his black-rimmed glasses.

“What do you know about the Planet Whisperer?”

Harry looked up at the ceiling. “No one knows where he came from. He appeared just as the final approvals were given for Ranjanara to be terraformed. His manager convinced the captain in charge to allow the Planet Whisperer to attempt terraforming the planet. If he was successful, they’d pay him one-tenth of the budget for the traditional terraforming process. If he wasn’t successful, the captain would still be able to land and finish the project with only a short delay. He was successful and has been terraforming planets ever since. That’s fifteen years now and he’s had a 98 percent success rate. Much better than the usual 67 percent the traditional methods got.”

“I know all that.” Did he think she was a total idiot? “What do you know about his methods?”

Harry shrugged. “Nothing at all. I once spoke to his manager, but the man didn’t tell me anything.”

“You spoke to him? When?” And why wasn’t she involved? Was Harry hiding things from her?

“It was at the International Bio-Science Conference four—no five—years ago. They were there, but the Planet Whisperer didn’t speak to anyone at all. I don’t think I saw the man more than once or twice the whole week. His handler did all that.”

“What does he look like?” She immediately corrected herself. Harry couldn’t describe anything unless it was in front of him. His research was brilliant, but he couldn’t ever talk about it. That was her job. “Come and look at this. Is this him?”

Harry frowned and fidgeted with his keyboard and pens for a few seconds, then sighed and came over to her.

“You can go back to your research once you see this,” she said impatiently.

She played the video as Harry watched. “Oh, yes, that’s him. That’s Jonah. He seemed like a nice man. Even though he didn’t talk at the conference at all, I could tell.” He frowned at the screen. “I don’t think that’s Wes, though, and what’s he doing to Jonah?” he leaned forward, his concentration crease deep between his dark brows. “Oh—oh!” He stepped back suddenly. Before he turned away, the man behind Jonah turned, and his face was clearly visible. “Is that…? That’s… that’s Marcus! What’s Marcus doing with…? Oh—oh! I didn’t know Marcus was gay.” He turned to Winni. “Did you? Did he tell you? Why wouldn’t he tell me?” Harry’s shoulders slumped and he looked down. “I thought he knew he could talk to me.” He looked back up at Winni. “What if he leaves and never comes back, like Inderey? I don’t want to lose another child.”

“He didn’t tell me.” She refrained from adding “idiot” to the end of the sentence. She also didn’t tell him that Inderey didn’t just leave. Winni had made it clear her daughter wasn’t welcome in the house until she was prepared to live a normal life and marry the man Winni had chosen for her. He was an eminent politician and would have been invaluable in having grants approved for her research. If Inderey came back now, Winni would have to find another husband for her because her politician had married someone else last year. The woman she’d picked out for Marcus—the daughter of a pharmaceuticals magnate—was still single. “He’s not gay. He must be doing that to keep the Planet Whisperer working.” There could be no other explanation for it. She didn’t have a gay son. She’d already lost one opportunity to that malady—she wasn’t going to lose Marcus. The pharmaceuticals girl was the best chance of research funding of them all.

“Oh, well,” said Harry as he continued to watch the video. “He does look very uncomfortable to start with, so you must be right, dear.” He walked back to his desk. Winni let him go. She wasn’t as complacent as Harry about the whole gay issue. Surely he wasn’t oblivious to the impact any whisper of something like that would have on their funding. By the end of the video, her son was having too much… fun… to be normal, but she’d deal with that later. Right now, she had to decide how this new relationship her son had with the Planet Whisperer would further her research. She needed a plan for how to approach him to make sure she got the most out of the encounter. The first step would be to find out everything she could about how the Planet Whisperer worked. His name would be a good start. What did Harry say it was? Jonah. She smiled as she closed down her e-mail and opened up a search page.

Chapter Nine

Marcus

A KNOCK sounded at the door just as Marcus finished dressing, making him glad he’d resisted the temptation to crawl into bed with Jonah and find out exactly where what they’d been doing before could lead. He opened the door to find the ensign with their lunch. Behind him was the captain.

“Ah, Davis, good.” White pushed past both the ensign and Marcus and strode into the suite. “Bring that trolley in, man,” he said to the ensign, “then go on back to your duties.”

Once lunch was set up and waiting for them, White pulled a chair out and sat.

“How long do you expect the Whisperer to sleep?”

Every cell in Marcus’s body stilled. There was something about the captain that didn’t ring true, apart from the fact that he never visited anyone. Everyone always had to go to him. Marcus didn’t respond, preferring to wait until he could work out exactly why he felt so uneasy.

“Well go get him, Lieutenant, and make sure he’s dressed appropriately.”

Fuck. Marcus fled the living area, pulling the door to Jonah’s bedroom closed behind him.

“What is it?” Jonah’s head poked out from the blankets.

“Shh.” Marcus rushed over to the bed. “The captain’s here, and he knows.”

“Knows?”

Fuck, Jonah looked terrified. Without thought Marcus reached his hand out to Jonah’s and gripped it. “He told me to make sure you put clothes on. He knows what we’ve been doing.”

Jonah didn’t respond straightaway but released Marcus, pushed the covers back, and went over to his wardrobe to find clothes to wear. As he dressed he said, “Tell me exactly what he said.”

After Marcus told him, he sat on the edge of the bed, his stoic features harsh in the dim light. “How well do you know the captain?”

Marcus shrugged. How well did any lieutenant know his captain when all he did was follow orders? “I’ve only been on board six months. He seems to have developed a friendship with my parents.”

“Your parents?”

The way he said it almost made Marcus laugh. Like the word “parent” was some sort of blasphemy. Instead he shrugged. “They’re very influential—my mother particularly. Anyone with ambition and an opportunity to meet them would try to cultivate a relationship.”

“How did he meet your parents?”

Marcus’s face heated, and he looked away. It made him sound like he was still a child.

“Marcus?”

He sighed. There was no way he could avoid this, so he looked at Jonah and enunciated carefully. “They call every week to check on me.”

Jonah’s eyebrows rose, and his mouth opened and closed a few times. Eventually, he simply asked, “Why?”

Marcus sank down onto the mattress beside him. “My mother likes to be in control of everything she owns. In her mind, that includes me.” He played with the crease on his trousers. “I don’t mind so much because they haven’t visited at all and, except for the weekly calls, haven’t interfered since I was posted here. I’d cut ties completely, but my father… he’s sweet.”

Jonah’s eyebrows rose at the “sweet” comment, but he didn’t say anything. “You don’t think the calls themselves are interference? Do you listen in to what they talk to the captain about?”

“Of course not. That’s private between them.”

Jonah didn’t respond, but he didn’t have to either. Marcus knew exactly what he thought and he knew what it meant. Marcus had stuck his head in the sand and avoided the situation, and now the captain thought he had something he could use to make Marcus’s parents support him. He wished he knew if he could trust him. Half the time, he seemed hell-bent on undermining everything Marcus did.

“It won’t work, you know.” Marcus looked at Jonah. “Whatever White has planned, won’t work. My parents won’t hide any scandal surrounding me. They’ll simply disown me and pretend I never existed. I’ve seen them do it before.”

“To you?”

“No. My sister.”

“Why the hell haven’t you caused a scandal long before now? Surely you’d want to be free of them?”

“They’re my parents.” And he really couldn’t leave his father alone with his mother for too long. Recently, her ambitions had become… scary, but his dad was so focused on his work, he’d never see it.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Jonah sighed and stood. “What do you want to come out of this?” He looked down at Marcus, his green eyes earnest. “Tell me what you want, and I’ll make it happen.”

Marcus ignored the warmth that flowed through him. Jonah didn’t have any influence over Marcus’s parents, but he liked that the offer had been made. He’d obviously never dealt with anyone like Winni before, but he told him anyway. “I don’t want them to call the captain all the time. Hell, I don’t want them to call me all the time, just sometimes. I want to be able to pursue the career I want, not the one they’ve mapped out for me.” He stood in front of Jonah. “And I want to keep working with you,” he whispered.

Jonah sucked in an audible breath, looked away for a second, and then asked, “What career do you want?”

That’s what he wanted to know? What Marcus wanted to do in his career? What about the rest? Didn’t he care? Marcus almost asked the question, but in the end, he decided it didn’t matter a great deal. If Jonah wasn’t interested in helping him find out exactly why he’d not only become used to sucking him off but enjoyed it, Marcus couldn’t make him.

“I have degrees in planetary regeneration and holistic healing. Eventually, I want to be part of a task force that settles newly terraformed planets and prepares them for habitation.”

“Why aren’t you doing that?”

“Lieutenant!”

Marcus jumped and stared at the door. “Fuck. I forgot he was waiting.” He stepped away from Jonah, suddenly terrified they’d be caught, even though he knew the captain somehow already knew. “Come on.” He opened the door and slipped through.

Jonah

JONAH CHECKED his clothing before he left the bedroom. The captain might know what they’d been doing during the terraforming process, but he didn’t need to know Jonah enjoyed what he did with Marcus. He wasn’t ready to admit that to himself. Marcus was a good kid, and Jonah wanted to help him. As he walked to the door, he ran through all the people he’d met who might be able to help him get Marcus into the career he wanted and away from his parents without them disowning him. Most of the people he knew weren’t that benevolent. With them, only the people they liked would end up still alive. Jonah didn’t think Marcus wanted anything like that to happen. He stopped on the threshold and watched the captain smile slyly at Marcus and thought perhaps dying wouldn’t be a bad thing for that man, but it would hurt Marcus.

Jonah couldn’t work it out, but making Marcus smile, pleasing him, seemed to have become important to him. As he walked over to the table, it occurred to him that Wes would know exactly what to do without getting anyone killed. Unfortunately, he didn’t know where Wes was, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to ask him for a favor anyway. There was no such thing as a free favor in Wes’s world.

The three of them sat at the table and went through the motions of having lunch.

“Mr. Starovski,” said White. “This is the last day of your contract for this planet. Have you finished?”

“The contract expires at midnight, ship time, Captain. By then the terraforming process will be in place and unbreakable, and you’ll have the schedule for seed-drones and settlement on your desk.” Jonah still hadn’t worked out how to do that part of the job. Wes had always written the reports.

“So there’s more chanting to do?”

The bastard. Jonah needed to check his suite for surveillance. There’s no other way he could have found out what he’d been making Marcus do. He glanced at the lieutenant beside him. His stonelike expression made Jonah take a chance. “You’re welcome to be my assistant for the last chant if you’d like to see what happens, Captain. For me, it’s a fascinating and most exciting process. I’m sure you’d find it so, as well.”

Both White and Marcus choked on the food they were eating. Jonah thumped Marcus on his back and grinned at White. Marcus brushed Jonah off and sipped water. Jonah sat back and smiled as he waited for the captain to speak.

“Thank you, Mr. Starovski, but I have no need to be part of the process.”

“Pity,” Jonah drawled. “Marcus has been assisting because he was ordered to do so, but I’m sure he’d be relieved to not have to do it.”

“What?” Marcus pushed his seat back as if to stand. Jonah dropped his hand over his wrist and held him still.

“Relax, Lieutenant. I know that you’ve only been following orders and that your loyalty to the Government and to this mission is what’s kept you here, but there are some aspects that you surely have found unpleasant. I think the captain needs to know that.”

The older man blustered as he wiped his mouth with his napkin and dropped it on the table before standing. “Of course,” he said as he moved to the door. “Of course I know how dedicated an officer Lieutenant Davis is. His duty is important to him.” He stopped at the door. “I’ll look forward to reading your report, Mr. Starovski,” he said before he nodded at Jonah and left. He had completely ignored Marcus.

Marcus rounded on Jonah the moment the door swooshed closed. “What the hell was that about?”

“What do you mean?”

“Asking the captain if he wanted to blow you.”

Jonah shrugged. “I thought it would get him off your back.” He stumbled under the unexpected shove at his shoulders.

“I can handle the captain.” Marcus shoved him again, but Jonah held his ground. Marcus was too short to make much of an impact on a man Jonah’s size. “Or were you looking for a way to get rid of me. Haven’t I been doing it right?” The anger still threaded through Marcus’s voice, but Jonah thought he detected an element of hurt buried deep.

“No, of course not. It’s perfect.” Jonah took a deep breath. Now that the moment of truth was upon him, he didn’t want to talk about it. Suck it up, Jonah. You made this mess, you clean it up. “I know I forced you, you know, that first time, and you don’t really want to do that to me, not to anyone, I suppose.” He shoved his hands into his pockets to hide the trembling. Nervousness was making him ramble to such an extent he didn’t know if he was even making sense, but he had to do something about the devastation on Marcus’s face. It wasn’t his fault he hated doing it. “I’m sorry I raped you, Marcus,” Jonah whispered. “If there was another way, I would do it. I never meant to hurt you.”

Marcus didn’t respond. Jonah had apologized for forcing him because that was the least of what he needed to do, but he didn’t expect anything from the younger man. Jonah turned to the viewing pane. He had several hours of chants to go through before he could say he was finished and ask to be transferred to the next ship and next contract.

Marcus’s hand gripped Jonah’s arm just above the elbow and spun him around. “What are you doing?”

Jonah gestured to the window. “Preparing to work.”

“Forget that for ten minutes. We have to find the surveillance cameras White has planted.”

“What difference could they make now?”

“If I’m going to fuck you, I don’t want anyone watching.” Marcus went over to the door and began systematically running his hands over every surface.

After a few stunned seconds, Jonah joined him.

Twenty minutes later they’d uncovered one camera. Jonah stared at the small device sitting in Marcus’s palm.

“Do you have any objection to anyone watching you shit?”

“What?”

Marcus shrugged. “I thought it would be perfect to put this in the toilet bowl since the captain seems so fascinated with what you do with your ass.”

Jonah coughed on a laugh gone sideways. “I think he’s more interested in getting something on you. There’s never been a problem before. Wes… Wes swept our quarters regularly, on every job. You said your parents could help White’s career.”

“Well he’s going about it the wrong way.” Marcus shoved the camera in his pocket, then began to undress. “Come on, let’s get started. I think after the last three weeks, you need a full night’s sleep and a day off tomorrow.”

It was long seconds before Jonah snapped his mouth shut. It sounded like Marcus cared, but that wasn’t right. It was just that they’d spent nearly all day every day for the last three weeks together. They’d worked in the same room, Marcus sucked Jonah off, they’d eaten lunch together every day and slept together in the same bed. You couldn’t go through all that and not feel close to the other person. That’s all it was. Jonah wouldn’t allow himself to hope for more. No matter how much having Marcus for a friend, or more, appealed to him, he refused to consider it a possibility.

Marcus

MARCUS’S CHEST felt tight but he resisted rubbing it. He’d begun to spin fantasies of working beside Jonah, of traveling with him and terraforming planets together. He thought Jonah had begun to care for him just as he…. He turned away to undress. He didn’t know why he was taking his clothes off except because he wanted to feel Jonah’s skin again. It wouldn’t mean anything to Jonah, but Marcus needed it. If this was the last time they spent together, he was going to do what had been preoccupying him every day for at least a week. He wanted to know what it felt like to sink his cock deep into that body. He wanted his hands on Jonah’s hip bones, and he wanted to rub his chest against Jonah’s back and feel the skin ripple against him.

He might only get to do that once, so he was going to make the most of it.

The captain could tell Marcus’s parents the next time they called, but he had an idea how he could preempt that. He wasn’t sure if it would work—his mother wasn’t known for her compassion, particularly where her own children were concerned—but his idea would appeal to the scientist.

Marcus threw his jacket over the workstation, just in case they were tracking them through that as well, and turned to find Jonah staring at him. His face held no expression, so Marcus couldn’t be sure what he was thinking, but the fact that he was naked suggested he wasn’t opposed to something more than a blowjob happening this afternoon. His cock plumped up as Marcus watched him. So did Marcus’s. He picked up the step stool and moved over to Jonah.

“Did the massage help this morning?” Marcus nodded toward the viewing panel so Jonah would know he was asking about the planet, but he was also asking about him.

“It was the strongest release of energy I’ve ever managed.” Jonah’s brow furrowed.

“Does that bother you?” Surely, after all the years he’d been doing this, he’d know what achieved the best results.

“I’ve never done that before—fully naked, you know.” Jonah moved to stand in front of the window, looking down at the planet. “Wes only ever jacked me off or blew me.” He swallowed audibly as he darted a look at Marcus before going back to his contemplation of the planet. “He always kept his clothes on.”

Marcus remained silent, but the more he heard about Wes, the more he thought the man a jerk. It was obvious Jonah needed a sexual release to complete the process, however he made that happen, and surely naked worked better than clothed if you were going for that. “Well, now you have me.” He retrieved the bottle of lotion from the floor, dropped the step stool behind Jonah, and climbed up. He didn’t care how silly he looked on the thing. Jonah needed the touch to concentrate today, and that was the only way Marcus could reach him.

“Marcus.” Jonah’s voice sounded tortured. “You don’t have to do this. I won’t force you again.”

“This wasn’t even your idea, Jonah, so shut up and enjoy it while it lasts.”

He sighed then, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly. Marcus squirted some lotion into his palm and began smoothing it over Jonah’s pale skin. As he kneaded the muscles, he noticed tiny ridges marring Jonah’s flesh and leaned closer to get a different angle from the light. If his skin weren’t so fair, Marcus would have noticed the scarring earlier, but the damaged skin was the same color as the rest of it. He only knew how many scars Jonah had when he touched him. Marcus’s heart ached for the silent man in front of him.

Marcus’s parents might be emotionless and have high, sometimes unrealistic expectations, but he’d never been beaten, not even with the flat of a hand. He leaned into the massage, putting more pressure into it. Jonah groaned, and the chanting began.

As had happened in the morning, Marcus couldn’t resist leaning closer and rubbing his chest against Jonah’s back as his hands dug into the tight muscles in his neck and shoulders. The chanting continued without pause, but Jonah’s voice deepened until it throbbed through his body and into Marcus’s. Marcus reached around and tugged on his nipples.

Jonah leaned against the viewing panel, his peaked nipples pressed against the cool glass, and Marcus worked his way down his body, making sure every muscle from neck to ankle received the same level of treatment. When he reached Jonah’s ankles, he worked his way up again, noticing the way Jonah shifted slightly with each press of fingers. Periodically, he squeezed more lotion out and rubbed that in too. By the time he was again massaging the tops of Jonah’s thighs and his buttocks, his legs were spread, his balls hanging between them.

Marcus knelt between his feet to massage the insides of his thighs, all the while watching the way his balls swung as he pushed into the muscles. As his hands moved higher up Jonah’s legs, the skin covering his balls crinkled, drawing them up closer to his body. It was at that time Marcus realized how close his face was to Jonah’s buttocks and how much the earthy scent of him was adding to his own arousal. He moved his attention upward. His hands followed.

As he had moved down Jonah’s body, Marcus had focused his attention on tight muscles. Moving upward, he was more aware of the way Jonah reacted to his touch. His skin jumped and skittered every time Marcus’s fingers moved closer to the crack between his buttocks. Marcus’s cock throbbed, but he ignored it, so focused on the fascinating jump and twitch of Jonah’s butthole, glimpsed each time he swept his hands over the firm mounds, his thumbs delving deeper between his buttocks on every pass. Marcus breathed with the movement of his hands, the air gusting from his lungs each time he separated Jonah’s buttocks.

A groan punctuated the chant, and Marcus paused, looking up. He couldn’t see Jonah’s face and didn’t want to move away from him, so he waited to see if Jonah would reject him. Jonah’s feet shifted, sliding farther apart, and his hips tilted back, both actions causing his buttocks to separate, giving Marcus more room.

Marcus took that as an invitation to continue.

Chapter Ten

Professor Winnifrey Davis

“DO YOU think it will work?” Winni leaned over her husband’s back, as far as his breathing pack allowed, to see what he was working on. They were in a shallow cave on the second to last planet on White’s list for this patrol. It was very efficient of the Government to combine regular security patrols with the terraforming of all the eligible planets in three solar systems. She chose this one, Protea IV, not only because it had the best balance of chemicals trapped below the surface, but also in case something went wrong and her data was compromised—then they’d still have another planet to try. The animal they’d incarcerated for this round of experiments wasn’t a native to this planet, which truly was completely uninhabited, but the potential for habitation was among the highest she’d seen in all her travels throughout the Laniakea supercluster. It would take several hundred more years to map and identify every potentially habitable planet in all the galaxies in the supercluster, but she was going to make sure her work would be at the forefront. With the military stretched so thin across the massive area, patrols were rare, and she could work in peace.

Harry tightened the last bolt then pushed to his feet, dislodging Winni from her position. “Everything is as secure and precise as we can make it. We’d better get off-planet as quickly as we can. The Whisperer is due here in seventy-two hours. Once he starts his process, there’ll be nothing we can do but observe.” His voice was tinny through the small speakers at the sides of his helmet.

“I’ve checked the data-read and the baseline. The calibration is set as low as it can be. We’ll pick up even the smallest alteration in structure.”

“Good.” He smoothed his gloved hand over the thick covering on the cage. “This should protect it from any geological changes as well as direct radiation.” He tapped his fingers on the metal, then stepped back. “I’ll finish packing up the equipment. Will you be ready to leave in two hours?”

“Of course.” Winni checked her watch. “Once we’ve left orbit, it’ll be time to call Marcus again.”

“Good. I want to check that he’s happy with his assignment to the Whisperer. I don’t think the captain has our son’s best interests at heart. There’s always been some question about his agenda.”

Winni wasn’t sure if Harry meant the captain’s agenda or the Whisperer’s. She schooled her voice to that of caring mother to hide her irritation at Harry’s protectiveness. Marcus was a grown man and could deal with his own life in his own way—as long as Winni approved of the direction his career was going. “It’s better he’s there than on-planet somewhere. You know he still wants to be part of a terraforming task force.”

Harry shook his head. “I know. After all the effort we put into ensuring he had the best possible education to place him perfectly for research, he wants to be on the ground helping people.” Winni and Harry had never argued about the importance of research. It was the one thing they completely agreed upon.

“Leave it to me, Harry. I’ve been working with White. Marcus is going to get to the stage where he’ll rebel, and then we’ll be able to haul him in and make sure he follows the right path.”

Once she had a talk with White, he’d forget all about whatever scheme he had in play with that video. She’d only need to remind him that she had the Chancellor’s backing. White was the ambitious sort; he wouldn’t risk coming to the attention of the Chancellor unless it was for promotion.

“I hope you’re right, Winni. I want Marcus to be happy but—a humanitarian?”

“That’s no son at all,” said Winni as she snapped the locks on some equipment they were taking with them.

Chapter Eleven

Jonah

FROGS AND toads, Marcus was going to kill him. Jonah pressed his chest against the window and tilted his hips out farther. The tip of one of Marcus’s fingers caught at the edge of his hole, causing the chant to flutter and deepen. Every time Marcus’s fingers pulled his buttocks farther apart, his breath gusted over Jonah’s heated skin, making him shiver. It was almost too much. Jonah wanted Marcus to just do it.

One small part of Jonah’s mind was amazed. Marcus was the first person he’d actively wanted to stick anything in his hole. Before now everyone had either paid for it or taken it by force. They meant nothing. Marcus was so tentative and so caring of Jonah’s comfort that every nerve ending screamed for him. Jonah pushed back farther.

Marcus’s reaction was immediate. Both thumbs pushed against Jonah’s hole as his hands held Jonah’s buttocks apart. The stretch combined with the warm gusts of his breath dragged a moan from Jonah, the chant mingling with it and then resuming. Then something soft and moist rubbed against his hole. Marcus’s tongue. Rats, Marcus was rimming him.

The chant became little more than a forgotten rumble in his chest. All his attention was focused on what Marcus was doing behind him.

Marcus’s thumbs slipped in the saliva. Jonah groaned, thinking Marcus would lose his grip and Jonah would lose that warm, wet stretching, but it didn’t happen. Instead they slipped inside, together, and Jonah gasped at the slight pinch the sudden entry brought.

The chant shuddered to a stop.

Marcus removed his thumbs.

“No. Don’t stop.” Jonah slumped against the window, eyes closed in an attempt to hold on to the sensation longer.

“You stopped chanting.”

“It’s finished.”

“You didn’t stop because I distracted you?”

“You’re distracting me, but that doesn’t stop the chant. Once it starts it keeps going until it runs its course.”

“Okay,” Marcus agreed, but he still moved away. Jonah tensed to push away from the viewing panel and turn to him. “Don’t move.” Jonah stayed still, but remained tense. He couldn’t see what Marcus was doing and could no longer feel him near. Then his step stool scraped along the floor, and Jonah almost wept with relief when Marcus touched his back again.

“I want to fuck you,” he whispered in Jonah’s ear.

Jonah’s panting breath fogged the cool glass, and he nodded frantically.

“Are you sure it’s what you want?”

Jonah swallowed against the whimper wanting to escape. Marcus might be the virgin, but he was experiencing all the firsts. No one had ever touched Jonah as though he was important to them. No one had ever tried to make him feel good. No one had ever asked him if he wanted it. He nodded again.

“Fuck me, Marcus.” Jonah shoved his ass out. “Do it now.”

Marcus leaned over Jonah, the warmth of his skin sinking in and somehow making Jonah feel wanted in a way he’d never felt before. His throat tightened, and his eyes burned, and he wished the feeling were real. He knew it wasn’t. This would be their last time together. Marcus couldn’t possibly have meant what he said before. When Jonah was transferred to the next ship to do the new planet, Marcus would remain behind. Jonah would never see him again.

“Hush, Jonah. Give me some time to do this properly.”

“Properly?” There was a proper way to do this? “Just shove it in.” With the regular health checks of all the crew and the extended isolation from others on planets or space stations, there was little chance of any disease.

“No. I’ve been doing some reading.” His hands wandered over Jonah’s skin again, the touch bringing with it a skittering awareness that made Jonah tremble. The sound of lotion squirting from the bottle preceded a cool finger probing between his buttocks. “Just stay there, and let me make you feel better.”

“I don’t need to feel better.”

“Of course you do.”

Warmth flooded Jonah. Marcus truly cared about him. Jonah knew Marcus knew there’d been others, and he saw the scars, but Marcus still wanted to make him feel good. Rats, he was going to cry.

“You need to come to finish the release of energy,” Marcus said.

Jonah was sure he was going to cry now and held his breath to try to prevent it. What kind of fool was he to actually believe Marcus cared about him and wanted him to feel good? The lieutenant was just doing his job. Knowing that didn’t stop Jonah’s body craving it.

The blunt head of Marcus’s cock pushed against Jonah. Jonah almost told him to stop. Not because he didn’t want Marcus to do it, but because he wanted it so much. It meant everything to him and, after Marcus did this thing to him, asking when everyone else had taken, Jonah would never be the same again.

Marcus

FUCK. MARCUS wasn’t even in, just his head pressed against Jonah’s hole. The heat seared him, took his breath away. He paused to savor it, but it was the wrong thing to do. As soon as he stopped, his brain kicked in. If Marcus did this thing, he’d never be the same again. It wasn’t just his parents and being disowned. It wasn’t even destroying his career that he was worried about. He’d be changed inside. There would never be another moment where he could contemplate a future, a wife, or a family.

He’d have to stop lying to himself about everything that had brought him to this point.

“Don’t stop.”

The need in Jonah’s voice set off a deep ache inside Marcus. If he pulled away now and blew Jonah like he usually did, that ache would still be there on the day he died. He had less than a second to decide if he could live with that.

He should… pull away. Marcus’s head dropped forward with the effort of not moving, and his lips grazed the smooth skin of Jonah’s shoulder, the taste of him exploding in his mouth. He slipped his tongue out for a closer touch. Marcus groaned and pressed closer, needing to taste more, to feel more of the man who had introduced him to pure pleasure.

“Yesss,” Jonah hissed.

Until Jonah spoke Marcus hadn’t realized his need to get closer also meant pressing deep inside him, but the snug warmth surrounding his cock couldn’t be denied. As Marcus sank into it, goose bumps rippled over his skin and down into his cock. He gasped in Jonah-flavored air as he pressed his lips openmouthed against him.

“Move.”

Yes, move. Marcus needed to move, but he didn’t know how. Jonah’s hand slipped over Marcus’s hip, and his brain finally caught up. He pulled out slowly, the cool air on his wet cock shocking. He pushed back in, trying to do it slowly, to savor each sensation, but it was too good. He gripped Jonah’s hips and repeated the motion. With each sweep the tension inside him built. He wanted more. He wanted faster. His fingers dug into Jonah’s soft flesh, and he pounded his ass, his breath harsh and hot in his dry throat, his mouth open and pressed against Jonah’s shoulder.

Jonah’s living room filled with the sound of moaning. It wasn’t all Marcus’s.

In front of him, Jonah shifted higher, and Marcus found himself spearing into him at a different angle. Jonah moaned and gasped and pushed himself back every time Marcus thrust forward. He could go on forever.

Heat built inside him, pressure increased, and his movements stuttered. He shoved his cock deep into the heat, tipped his head back, and howled as he came, his cock pulsing out all the tension from the base of his brain to his toes.

Dimly, he heard Jonah groan. Then rhythmic pulses squeezed Marcus’s cock and set off another round from him. A chill skittered over his skin, followed rapidly by a tremor that could have been warm water washing over him. Every muscle trembled and his skin jumped in response. He groaned and collapsed against Jonah’s back, unable to do more than drag in gasping breaths. At about the same time, strength began returning to his muscles. His spent cock slipped out of Jonah’s body.

Marcus pushed himself off Jonah’s body and took a step back, forgetting he was standing on the step stool. He stumbled and fell, landing heavily on his back, the breath momentarily knocked out of him. He decided to stay there, eyes closed, even his arms too weak to lift.

“Marcus.”

Jonah knelt beside him, and he opened his eyes to see the brilliant green gaze full of concern. He smiled up at him.

“No one told me it would be that good,” he panted.

Jonah’s grin lit something inside his chest, and he realized he’d never seen Jonah smile like that before. He lifted a heavy hand to Jonah’s neck and drew his head down. He resisted a scant second before he lowered and allowed their lips to touch.

It was the kiss that did it. Before that, Marcus could convince himself it was just another new experience, and he could walk away. That kiss, though. That changed everything. As Jonah lifted away from him, Marcus opened his eyes and gazed at him. Marcus wanted to be with Jonah, completely and constantly, for as long as Jonah wanted him. No sooner than the idea had entered his head, it was blurted out of his mouth.

“I want to stay with you,” Marcus said, then modified it when he heard how needy it sounded. “When you move on to your next planet, I want to be the one to help you.”

“Why?” Jonah didn’t move away, which Marcus took as a good sign, but he didn’t do anything else either. He was sort of frozen there, like what Marcus had said shocked him or dismayed him. What was he expecting him to say?

“I want to be with you.”

“So you can fuck me.”

“Yes.” Marcus didn’t get it. If he was with Jonah, of course they’d fuck again, but it was more than that. “I feel good when I’m with you.”

Jonah stood and backed up a couple of steps. “I need a shower.”

Marcus was left on the floor alone.

Jonah

THE WATER pounded over Jonah’s head and shoulders with the same rhythm of the thoughts inside his head. His hands went through the motions of washing automatically, years of training ensuring he’d never be able to wallow under water simply for pleasure. He’d known letting Marcus fuck him would change him, but he thought it would change him for the better. Instead it had undone everything he’d striven for over the last fifteen years. Every bit of self-respect he’d built because he was no longer a whore with no choice about it was gone.

With that one sentence, Marcus changed something Jonah had begun to think was special, like a normal relationship between normal people, into a trick. He was a whore again, nothing more. It’s all he would ever be.

The door opened, sucking out half the steam he’d managed to build up. Jonah shut the water off and stepped out. He grabbed a towel off the rack and pushed past Marcus. “Shower’s all yours.” He paused a second. Marcus might not like water showers the way Jonah did. “Or use the nanos if you want.”

“Jonah?”

Jonah ignored him, closed the door between them, and went into his room to dress.

He glared at the bed. Usually after the release of energy, he would crawl into bed and sleep for an hour or two. The release he’d just experienced had been ten times the strength of anything he’d ever done before, so much so, he was almost afraid to look at the planet and see what was happening. He was exhausted. He needed to recoup, but he couldn’t in that bed with Marcus only a room away. He was sure to come searching for Jonah once he finished in the shower.

He had no destination in mind after he left his suite. He simply had to go, had to keep moving. Perhaps if he walked long enough, what had happened would start to feel… okay. If he walked long enough, maybe he wouldn’t feel like he’d been used, thrust back into a role he’d been forced into as a child and had only recently started believing he might have escaped.

Chapter Twelve

Winni

WINNIFREY STOWED the last of her suit, plugged it in for charging so it would be ready for the next planetfall, smoothed her hair back, and then made her way to the cockpit where her husband was already at work.

“Is it reading clearly?” The time window between the last Government patrol ship that did the confirmation scans and the next one that was bringing the Planet Whisperer was tight. They barely had time to get everything in place and secure against any scans the frigate might do. The moon where they’d set up their monitoring equipment would be on the other side of the planet when the Keiki came into orbit, and wasn’t the target, so their presence should be undetected. “It’s brilliant.” He frowned at the data feeding onto the screen. “It’s moving.”

Winni bent over Harry’s shoulder to see. “There was no sign of movement while we were there.”

“Nothing. Either there were capabilities we weren’t aware of or it’s already evolving.”

“We missed nothing.” She reached over his shoulder and pointed. “Adjust that setting.” She waited five seconds after he did before asking, “Anything different?”

“No. There’s still movement and some evidence of growth. After such a short time since monitoring began, it’s significant.”

“Video feed?”

“Three seconds to activation.”

They waited in silence. Winni gasped when the image finally came up on screen.

“What’s it doing?” she asked.

“That’s the door to the cage. It’s trying to get out.”

“That’s impossible. There was no sign of intelligence in it. We observed it for three full weeks.”

As she spoke the words, the brown blob they’d transported to the planet below twisted.

“It’s looking at us,” she exclaimed. “How did it know we were here?”

“You can’t be sure that’s what’s happening. It might be just coincidence.” Harry bent over the controls and typed before sitting back again.

“What did you do?”

“Activated a security screen around the camera so it can’t damage it.”

“You just said it couldn’t do that.”

“It can’t, but there’s no harm in being sure.”

“We need to keep observing this. Right through the terraforming process.”

“Winni, are you sure about that?”

She turned to him and smiled. “Harry, just imagine what we could learn. We’ve never seen what happens to intelligent species during terraforming. We’re on the edge of making an incredible contribution to science.”

Winni waited for her husband to agree, sure he would. Chances were no one would notice the small life-form on the planet before the Whisperer began, and once he’d started, there was no stopping it. All her research, miniscule though it was, on him confirmed that. It was the reason they were here in the first place—because they knew how good he was, how reliable.

If they were caught, they’d lose their positions and their reputations, quite apart from being prosecuted. She ran down a mental list of things that would point investigators in their direction if the experiment was discovered, to make sure they wouldn’t be caught. “Remote access to the equipment is still active.”

Harry nodded. “Until the terraforming process is complete.”

“We’ll have to go back down there. We’re going to have to delete the data from the computer banks and create a new reality for the records.”

“Delete it? Why do it if you’re just going to delete it after?”

“Delete it from the computer banks, Harry. Pay attention.” She bent over his back again and pointed at the screen where the brown blob was once again trying to open the door to its cage. “Now do exactly as I say.”

Chapter Thirteen

Marcus

MARCUS RUSHED through his shower and hurried into Jonah’s bedroom, expecting him to be in bed waiting for him. After every chanting session, he’d slept and, since that first week, Marcus had slept with him. He was looking forward to doing it today, naked. After what they’d just done together, he expected it to take some time to get to sleep this afternoon. He had plans to rub himself up and down Jonah’s naked body. He wanted to take the time to touch Jonah, learn what every inch of him felt like and looked like. All Marcus had experienced so far was Jonah’s cock in his mouth and his cock in Jonah’s ass. As fantastic as that was, he knew there was more.

The bed was empty. So was the room. Marcus checked the entire suite, but Jonah was gone. He dressed slowly then logged on and checked his calendar. The appointment with the captain wasn’t until the next day, so he wasn’t there. There weren’t a lot of other places that Jonah would be. In the three weeks he’d been aboard, he’d shown no interest in anything outside his suite except a twice-weekly visit to the exercise floor. Today wasn’t his day to go there.

After an hour Marcus gave up waiting and went looking for Jonah. He wasn’t on the exercise floor, in the mess hall, or on the entertainment floor.

“Lieutenant Davis.”

Marcus turned at the captain’s call, surprised he was in the corridors seeking him out.

“Where’s that Whisperer of yours?”

“He’s taking a break, sir. Can I help you?” He wasn’t about to let the captain know Jonah was missing.

The captain smirked. “I’ll bet he needs a break, hey, boy?” Marcus didn’t respond. “But you better be careful with that sort of thing.”

After an awkward silence, White cleared his throat and continued. “Well, anyway, when you see him, tell him I want to speak to him. Got some news he’d like to know.”

“Of course, sir.”

“Your parents are at home, are they, Lieutenant?”

“I don’t know, sir. They mentioned receiving a research grant for the food supply problem, but I don’t know where that might take them.”

White didn’t move away immediately but stared at Marcus as if he expected him to say something more. There was nothing Marcus wanted to say to the man. What he wanted to do was find Jonah. He couldn’t work out why he’d left without saying anything. What had Marcus done wrong?

After an interminable time, White huffed, spun on his heel, and strode down the corridor.

Marcus gave up looking for Jonah after the final bells signifying the dinner shift was completed, and trudged back to his quarters. He turned into the corridor, and there was Jonah, sitting on the floor, his back leaning against the wall beside the door. Marcus rushed up to him and squatted down in front of him.

“Jonah. Are you all right? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” He reached out to touch him, but Jonah shied away. “What did I do?”

Jonah looked up at him. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t want me to touch you. What did I do wrong?”

Jonah pushed himself to his feet, forcing Marcus back and onto his. They stood there staring at each other for a long time. Jonah looked… wounded. Fragile. Marcus wanted to go to him and hold him close and ask him what was wrong, but he wouldn’t let Marcus touch him, so he stayed where he was.

“I wanted….” His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. “Thank you for your assistance with this project. It wouldn’t have been as successful without your help.”

“What?”

“That’s all I wanted to say.” Jonah pushed his shoulders back, nodded at Marcus, and then turned to go.

Marcus reached out and grabbed Jonah’s elbow. “Oh no, you don’t. If you think I’m going to let you give your little thank-you speech and walk away, you don’t know me very well at all.” He punched the access for his quarters, and the door opened. “Inside. We’re going to discuss what’s going through your mind, and then you’re going to listen to my response to that.”

Jonah didn’t move, just stood there and shook his head at Marcus.

“Jonah, don’t make me pull rank on you,” Marcus growled.

“I’m not military, Marcus. You don’t have authority over me.”

“Try me,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Jonah sighed and walked into his room.

It was crowded inside with the two of them. It was crowded when it was just Marcus there. His room wasn’t designed to have anyone in it who wasn’t sleeping on the narrow bunk, or working at the tiny desk. They stood beside the bed, facing each other silently.

“Well?”

“Well what?”

Marcus rolled his eyes at Jonah’s juvenile response. “Talk to me, Jonah. What have I done wrong? You’ll have to tell me because I have no clue what I’m doing here.”

A frown clouded Jonah’s bright green eyes. “You haven’t done anything.”

Marcus raised his eyebrows. “Okay, what should I have done?”

Jonah huffed out a breath. “Don’t worry about it. You haven’t done anything, and you don’t need to do anything. I’m a whore; I get it.” He looked away from Marcus. “I just can’t keep working with you now.”

Marcus was grateful his bed was so close because his knees gave out. He bounced a couple of times on the mattress before it settled. In front of him Jonah shuffled his feet. Marcus was so bad at sex he’d made Jonah feel like a whore. “You hated it,” he breathed. Jonah’s sharp gaze focused on Marcus again, and he continued. “I’m sorry, Jonah, but I can’t change the fact that I have no experience. I’m sorry it was no good for you.” He jumped up to his feet and placed his hands on Jonah’s chest. “I can do better. I know I can. Will you give me a chance?”

Jonah gripped his hands, and Marcus was sure he meant to push him away but he couldn’t let that happen. For the first time in his life, he’d felt something real and honest—basic—and he wasn’t going to let Jonah throw it away without a fight.

“If you tell me what you like, I’ll do it.” Marcus rubbed his hands up Jonah’s chest until his fingertips found the tight nipples under his shirt. “You liked me touching your nipples this morning, didn’t you? I could do that more, make it better.” He hadn’t felt this desperate since he’d landed on his uncle’s doorstep and told him he had to study something other than the science or politics his parents were insisting on or go mad. Thankfully that wise gentleman had steered him into something that worked for him and satisfied his parents.

Jonah gripped his wrists, stopping his hands from moving. “Marcus, stop it.”

Marcus deflated, like Jonah’s desire had been the only thing holding him up. Now that he didn’t have that, he was nothing.

“If you don’t stop touching me, we’re going to end up naked on that bed, and you won’t get that conversation you seem to want so bad.”

Marcus jerked in surprise, his gaze flying to Jonah.

“Why do you want to stay with me?” Jonah asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Marcus realized how stupid they sounded. If it was obvious, Jonah wouldn’t have had to ask. He took a deep breath and thought about exactly what he wanted to say. He dismissed the first dozen sentences. They sounded too much like his mother, and he already knew how her pronouncements made people feel. While Marcus sifted through his whirling thoughts, Jonah shuffled on his feet like he was going to give up and go away. Marcus curled his fingers into Jonah’s shirt, holding on to him so he couldn’t leave. Finally he took a breath and began.

“I like being with you. Lunch is fun. We talk while we eat.” He shrugged. “I’m not doing this well, but I’m trying to tell you exactly how it is. I feel calm when I’m with you, like I’m finally in a place where I belong. I like your smell and the feel of your skin and the taste of your come.”

“Rubbish,” he scoffed. “You vomited every time for the first week.”

Marcus’s face flamed at the memory. “Then I worked out how to stop you choking me.” He wouldn’t tell Jonah how much he hated the taste of it to start with. He’d become used to it now and loved knowing he could make him come. “I like that we’re making memories together,” he whispered.

Jonah sighed. “The captain says he’s taking me to the next planet and wanted to know who I wanted for an assistant this time.”

Marcus held his breath.

“I told him you.”

The grin burst from him, and he threw himself into Jonah’s arms. “Excellent,” he murmured as he pulled Jonah’s head down so he could kiss him.

Jonah

MARCUS PULLED him into another kiss. He seemed to know what he was doing, so Jonah relaxed and let him continue. It felt nice. It felt strange, his lips soft but firm. When he pulled away, Jonah’s lips still tingled with the connection. He followed Marcus down, wanting to feel it again.

The second kiss was more comfortable. Jonah knew what to do now—at least he did until Marcus’s tongue touched his lips. Even then it seemed the most natural thing to open his mouth and let him in. That’s what he’d been doing for the last three weeks—letting Marcus in. Yet he still asked what he did wrong. Jonah wrapped his arms around Marcus and drew his body in close, utterly content for the first time in his life.

THE NEXT day they met with the captain. He scowled at both of them as they sat.

“Lieutenant, I want an assurance from you.”

Cold settled into Jonah’s stomach as he remembered that the captain knew what happened after every chant. He hadn’t considered the damage it would do to Marcus’s career if he was tied to Jonah for more than one planet.

“What sort of assurance would you like, Captain?”

A smile tugged at Jonah’s lips. Marcus was more than a match for the captain. Jonah sat back to enjoy the change in dynamics between the two.

“Your parents.”

Jonah didn’t think the captain noticed how his request affected the lieutenant because Marcus’s face showed no emotion. Marcus didn’t move at all, his body held perfectly still, like he was waiting for a blow. Jonah tensed in response, although he didn’t think White would actually hit Marcus.

“What about my parents?”

“They requested I bring Mr. Starovski directly to the next planet, without his usual day’s rest. In light of your mother’s relationship to the Chancellor, and her own position in the Think Tank, I didn’t think I could refuse. I don’t have any jurisdiction over the Think Tank except for military security. Even general scientists outrank me. I want your assurance that neither your parents nor anyone from the Chancellor’s office will turn around and have me charged with overstepping my duties.”

“Do you have a recording of the request, Captain?”

White nodded.

“I suggest you keep a copy of it in a secure place that no one in authority would consider, and delete the original.”

Jonah stared at Marcus. What kind of parents did he have that he recommended resorting to clandestine activities after they made a fairly innocuous suggestion?

White sighed. “Fuck. I was afraid you’d say that. I never could pick the right side to bet on. Good thing I’ve learned to cover my back.” He opened a drawer and pulled out two sticks, handing one to Marcus. “This is a second copy for you to have. It also includes copies of all the conversations I’ve had with your parents. I would suggest you find somewhere safe for it, although with all the available copies on board one ship, I don’t know how secure this information is.”

“It’s fine, Captain. I have a method of ensuring data records are kept off location. I’ve been doing it for years.”

The captain looked stunned. “Those pods you release. They’re not just drones returning physical data to the Think Tank.”

“Not all of them, no.” For the first time, Marcus’s voice sounded condescending. “How do you suppose I managed to become a lieutenant on a patrolling defense frigate rather than a research ship like my parents wanted?”

“We’re doing research now,” White reminded him.

Marcus nodded. “They outmaneuvered me on that one, and the fact they’ve been calling you so regularly indicates they haven’t given up, but I’ve been here six months now, and they haven’t managed to get me transferred.”

“What sort of threat do you pose, Lieutenant Davis?” the captain asked with narrowed eyes.

“To you? None at all, Captain. I just want to do my job and work toward my goals.”

“What are your goals?”

Marcus looked at Jonah for a long second, a small smile on his face. “I want to work with the Planet Whisperer for a time, and I also want to be part of an eco settlement task force on a newly terraformed planet.”

“Well, surely your parents would support that.”

“They won’t disown me for it, but they certainly wouldn’t encourage it. It’s too far away from pure research to be worth anything other than pity.”

Jonah looked at Marcus with renewed respect. He had such amazing self-possession for a man so young and sheltered as he’d been, although listening to the way he handled his parents, perhaps he hadn’t been as sheltered as Jonah had thought.

“What about you, Mr. Starovski?”

Jonah jerked at the question, not expecting anyone to pay attention to him amidst all the political intrigue. “What about me?”

“What are your plans?”

“I have two more planets to terraform under the current contracts.” He shrugged. “After that I’m not sure. I need some sort of contract, of course, but whether that’s one for a complete terraforming or for an eco”—he glanced at Marcus—“settlement task force, I don’t mind.”

Marcus grinned at Jonah, his soft brown eyes shining with happiness. The captain coughed.

“Yes, well. I’m sure you’ll do well, whatever path you take, once you resign your commission.” He shuffled papers around on his desk. “A word of warning: your parents are particularly interested in the next planet.”

Captain White seemed so different now from what he had before. It was like the conversation had resulted in a complete personality change. Jonah said as much and received a glare for his efforts.

“Mr. Starovski, I reserve the right to be an unmitigated asshole to my officers, but I don’t like it when other people, particularly scientists, interfere with my plans.” He glared at Marcus. “I don’t care whose parents they are.”

Marcus laughed even though Jonah still regarded White suspiciously. “I’m happy to hear you say that.” He sat silently for a few seconds. “When do you expect to hear from them again?”

“They said they’d call at four bells to check our estimated time of arrival.”

“They don’t want to be caught by surprise, then. They want time to make sure whatever they’re doing is either complete or hidden. I can’t imagine what they could want with a planet about to be terraformed, though. All those planets are completely uninhabited. Their research is focused on how underdeveloped life-forms can be used to increase food resources for the galaxy.”

Something Wes had said a couple of years ago came to mind. It was a throwaway comment he made after negotiating a contract, but Jonah thought the idea was so shocking it stuck with him. “There are people who want to conduct experiments on the impact terraforming has on life-forms.”

“No!” Marcus shot out of his seat. “They wouldn’t do that. They couldn’t.”

Jonah stood and placed his hands on Marcus’s shoulders to hold him still. “Relax, Marcus. I’ll do a thorough check for life-forms before we begin. There won’t be any unnatural mutations happening while a planet is under my care.”

Marcus’s muscles remained tense under Jonah’s hands, but he took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right, of course. We’ll add some random sweeps to the usual stringent life-form checks before you start.” He turned to the captain as Jonah’s hands slid away. “Can you add two hours to the time of arrival you give to my parents? I think we’ll need at least that much time to find out exactly what they’re up to. Is there anything else, Captain?”

Jonah turned his snort of humor into a cough. He wondered if the captain realized Marcus was the one in charge right now. From his expression, Jonah guessed he knew.

“Dismissed, Lieutenant.” He nodded at Jonah, his scowl firmly in place. “Starovski.”

Marcus

MARCUS HOPED Jonah was wrong. He knew his mother wouldn’t think twice of using undiscovered species in experiments just because she thought it interesting. And there had been that furor over Harry’s experiments with cockroaches at home. Winni had instigated those experiments and assumed that no one would notice or care because everybody hated cockroaches, but she’d been wrong. Animal rights and right-to-life groups had created such a scene about her studies into reflexive growth she’d had to abandon the entire project.

It happened six months before Marcus left for university, and she hadn’t calmed down in all that time. Father spent a lot of time in his office during that six months. For all Marcus knew, he still did. She’d been more subdued since then, focusing on creating food for the ever-expanding population.

“Do you think there’s anything in it?”

Marcus controlled his start at Jonah’s voice, but he still gasped. He’d forgotten Jonah was walking with him. If someone was experimenting on life-forms on planets scheduled for terraforming, it would impact on Jonah’s career. Marcus owed him honesty. “If it was only my mother, I wouldn’t hesitate to say yes, but my father is usually more circumspect. It isn’t often their fields of research overlap, but they’ve been working together on a major project for the last five years. I don’t know the details, but it has to do with galactic food resources.”

“Your father wouldn’t be involved with experiments on animals?”

“Oh yes, he wouldn’t hesitate if he thought it would further his research, but he does prefer things to be legal.”

“‘Prefers.’”

Marcus sighed. If his parents had anything to do with the planets Jonah was going to be terraforming, he’d find out anyway. Marcus hated talking about them, even thinking about them, even his father, because wherever Harry was, Winni wasn’t far away. “For both of them, the science comes first. They try to keep it legal, mainly because if they don’t, they get shut down. I thought trying to increase the food resources for the galaxy was a good thing, and I would be able to focus on my own career, but it seems possible they’re into something they shouldn’t be again.”

“Again?”

“My Father has experimented on animals before.”

“What about your mother?”

Trust Jonah to pick that up. “She has too. She was conducting experiments on adolescents—humans as well as animals—in an attempt to use the production of growth and sex hormones to bring about more efficient absorption of protein molecules during adolescence, so that smaller amounts of food produce better results in growth.”

“Why would she need to experiment on people?”

“Mother’s research is nothing if not exhaustive. She didn’t want to miss anything just because she couldn’t test it on humans.”

“Where do you fit in the family?”

Marcus looked at Jonah for a long minute. He was amazed that he was still asking questions without a scowl or sneer on his face. Most people, by this time, were suggesting Marcus was one of his parents’ experiments, or were convinced he was immoral and threatened to report him. “I’m the youngest. I told you about my sister, Inderey. We were really close as children, but I don’t know where she is now. She refused to study the course my parents enrolled her in. That was bad enough, but I think the fact that she left Earth and married when she was only twenty-two sealed her fate.” He sighed. “Even then, my parents might have forgiven her if she’d come back and begged forgiveness, but we found the reason she had to leave Earth was because she married another woman. My mother had her struck from the family history after that.”

“Because she’s gay?”

“Of course.” Marcus could see Jonah didn’t understand. He’d only been away from Earth a couple of years but he’d learned a lot in that time. “On Earth, being gay is punishable by death. You either submit yourself for reimaging, find a way to go somewhere else, permanently, or you die. There’s no other option.” For the first time, Marcus realized Inderey’s decision to cut all ties might not have been as easy for her as it had seemed. He’d looked for her the first year or so, but not since then. Perhaps it was time to try again.

“Fuck.”

That didn’t need a response. “I have three other sisters. They’re all much older than I am and have all followed the paths set out by Mother. I haven’t seen or heard from them since I graduated.”

“How long until we reach the planet?”

“Three days.”

“So we have two days to find out exactly what your parents are working on and have a plan in place.”

Marcus should have removed himself from the situation, but he didn’t. He had a definite conflict of interest, but all it took was one look at Jonah and he was resolved. Whether it was his parents or not, whoever was fooling with planets slated for terraforming was jeopardizing Jonah’s career. He wasn’t going to let them get away with that.

Chapter Fourteen

Winni

“THEY’RE ON their way. Is everything in place?” asked Harry.

“Of course it is. You worry too much. I’ve taken care of everything.”

Harry grumbled.

“If you have something to say, you need to say it out loud.”

He turned to look at her, and she pressed her lips together, fighting to hold her neutral expression in place. It wasn’t Harry’s fault he was ineffectual as a human being. He was intelligent and malleable, and that’s all she needed. Most of their children took after him too. She’d had high hopes that Inderey would have followed in her footsteps, but the girl had been much too headstrong and a lesbian as well. It simply wouldn’t have worked.

Marcus was even more like his father than the three older girls were. He hadn’t agreed to marry yet, but he’d done everything else she asked of him. She frowned as she made a minute adjustment to a dial. There had been that odd degree he’d done without asking her about it first, but that was probably Roger’s influence. Harry’s brother had always been alarmingly liberal. She dismissed the resistance Marcus had been showing her since he’d been on board that ship. He’d come to heel when she was ready for him to move forward with his career and her plans.

“Come on.” She left the monitoring equipment with a last longing look, double-checked her oxygen levels in her suit and walked over to the door that led out to the hostile surface of the moon orbiting the planet where they’d left the animal. On the horizon the dull red edge of the planet rose. “We need to be away from here before they arrive or they’ll suspect something.”

Chapter Fifteen

Jonah

USUALLY THE day after completing work on a planet, Jonah slept and was tired for three more because of the slow dissipation of residual energy in his body. He wasn’t ready to bound out of bed this time, and he’d win no prizes if they had to run anywhere, but he felt surprisingly well considering he couldn’t sit without wincing.

Wes had never told him that the release from fucking was ten times better than a blowjob. For the first time, he began to wonder if Wes had had Jonah’s best interests in mind, the planet’s, or Wes’s own. He stopped thinking about Wes as soon as he remembered the missing money. What he really needed to do was finish these two contracts as quickly as he could and then work out what he wanted to do with his life. It would have to be something that paid well because he had nothing to live on now Wes was gone.

Jonah wondered how many planets there were that were suitable for terraforming. He could continue doing just as he was for a while, but he thought it would get progressively more difficult to get people to volunteer as handlers once it became known what he expected of them. It didn’t matter that Marcus had said he wanted to continue working with him. Whatever he thought now, he’d change his mind when his career was threatened. His family would probably disown him, and if the Government found out, he’d be sent straight for reimaging. From what Marcus had said, there wouldn’t be much left of him if that happened. Jonah couldn’t let him continue. He had to make sure Marcus went back to the life he wanted.

The next guy wouldn’t fuck him. Or maybe he could get a woman. His stomach churned as he remembered the things the johns had done to his mother. No, no women for him.

Jonah still wasn’t sure what to think of Marcus. On the one hand he seemed to like Jonah and want to spend time with him. Like a friend. On the other hand, he wanted to fuck Jonah. Just like all the others. It didn’t make sense. Perhaps, once the next two contracts were completed, they could work out how to be friends, without the fucking. Marcus said he wanted to be friends. Jonah hoped it wasn’t all an act.

Vermin, scum, and rats of evil, he was acting like a child. Does he like me; does he not? You’re thirty-two years old and responsible for yourself for the first time in your life. Act like it. He berated himself as he remembered all that stuff about Marcus’s family could be an elaborate story to lower Jonah’s defenses. Considering who his parents were and how he manipulated the captain earlier, that wasn’t so hard to believe. Jonah opened his mouth wide and moved his jaw from side to side to release the tension building there. It didn’t matter what fantasies he’d begun to weave about him and Marcus traveling the galaxy terraforming planets together. It wasn’t going to happen. Jonah might always be a whore, but he was going to decide who he’d whore himself out for, and it wasn’t going to be Marcus.

“Jonah? Where are you going?”

Jonah stopped and turned back when Marcus spoke. He’d completely forgotten they were walking along the corridors together. He looked at the door he stood beside. They were at Marcus’s quarters.

“I’m going to my quarters.”

“Your quarters? I thought you’d like to stay here tonight.”

“Why would I want that?”

Marcus gasped—a full-on shocked and dismayed gasp—and his mouth flapped open and closed a few times before he spoke. “I thought….” He snapped his mouth closed, all expression leaching from his face. “Never mind.” The soft rasp of his feet shuffling on the floor echoed around them. “Will I see you tomorrow? We could spend some time on the games floor, if you like.”

It sounded fun, but Jonah couldn’t work out why he would suggest it. It was like Marcus wanted to spend time with him again—unless he had realized Jonah wasn’t going to let Marcus fuck him again and was trying to soften him up. That must be it. Wes had bought him, paid money for him, and hadn’t wanted to spend time with him. Why would Marcus? “I have work to do tomorrow—those reports for the captain. Will you let me know who my handler is for the next planet?”

“Who…?”

“Yeah. Thanks… um… for everything. You’re easy to work with. I’ll let you know if I find anything about the planet that might interest your parents.”

“Work with.”

Jonah wanted to tell Marcus he didn’t want to work with anyone else, but he could hear Wes’s voice in the back of his head, telling him to suck it up and get on with the job. There didn’t seem to be anything more Jonah could say, so he nodded at Marcus and walked down the corridor toward his quarters.

“Jonah, wait!”

Jonah increased his pace. Marcus kept telling him to talk to him, but he couldn’t. He’d say the wrong thing again and Marcus wouldn’t want to work with him at all. A small part of him kept hoping Marcus would volunteer for the next planet. Once he turned the corner and was out of sight, he rubbed the heel of his hand into the ache in his chest. His eyes burned, and his throat felt swollen, but he knew it was the best thing to do. He was through being used by people.

Marcus

“I’M EASY to work with.” Marcus stomped into his cabin and flung his jacket onto the bed. “Fuck him. It was all a fucking ruse to get me to fuck him.” The comm unit buzzed, notifying him of a personal call. He groaned and rubbed his hands down his face. The unit buzzed again, and he went over and checked the caller ID before hitting the receive button.

“Hello, Mother. This is a surprise.” He thought he’d have another day before they called.

“You’ve been assisting the Planet Whisperer personally.”

Marcus used to wish his mother would at least ask about his health or the friends he made. He wasn’t sure when he stopped craving that, but he no longer wanted her interest in him. “That has been my task for the last three weeks, Mother,” he confirmed as he sat on the edge of his bed.

“He has a rather unsavory reputation.”

“I wouldn’t know about that. I’ve just been working with him.”

“Doing what?”

“Pardon?”

“What have you been doing while you’ve been working with him?”

Fuck. She knew. She must. Marcus took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. There was no way she could know. No one knew exactly how Jonah operated, not even the captain. Up until this planet, Jonah had brought his own handler with him.

“Are you going to answer me, Marcus?”

He started, having forgotten she was there in his panic. “Of course, Mother. I’m just trying to decide what I can share with you, as you’re a civilian and this operation is by military request.”

She scowled, but he ignored it. The couple of seconds it would take her to formulate a new plan of attack would give him time to think.

“Whether we’re working for the military right now or not is irrelevant, Marcus.”

He controlled the cringe. She always used his name a lot when she was irritated with him. “We have passed all the security checks, so there is no reason for you not to tell us everything.”

“Mother, I can’t—”

“Do you spend the entire time with him?”

“I don’t know why you need to—”

“What assistance do you give him?”

Why was she so insistent about this? There was no way Marcus could tell her what he really did, but he needed to get her off his back. “I order lunch and dinner for him. I make sure he is undisturbed while he rests, and I write the report for each day.”

“What do you put in the report?”

“Exactly what he tells me to, Mother. I can’t discuss this with you.”

“Marcus.”

“Mother, I’m not going to discuss this any further. I’ve told you all I can.”

“So there is something in those reports. Send me a copy of your last one.”

Marcus looked at the clock. His mother had been on the line for ten minutes, hadn’t said “hello,” and hadn’t asked how he was. “I suggest you talk to Captain White about that.”

“I have. He said the reports have already been forwarded, and he no longer has access.”

The man was brilliant. “Why did you ask me for a copy, then?”

“Because I know you could get a copy for me. You always keep a copy of your reports.”

He did, but there was no way his mother would know that unless she’d hacked into his account at home. He made a mental note to check the security on all his backup files. “I follow protocol on this ship, Mother.” He did, but he also kept his own notated copies of things.

“Marcus, I don’t like the way you’re trying to thwart me here.”

Marcus pushed back on the bed so his back was supported by the wall. He didn’t want to get comfortable while talking to his mother, but this had the markings of a very long conversation that would eventually achieve nothing good. “I’m not trying to thwart you, Mother.” He grimaced when he realized he had developed the same habit with name use that she had.

“Then give me a copy of your report.”

“I can’t do that, Mother. As Captain White said, it’s already been forwarded.”

“Then tell me what you do when you’re there with him.”

That was an easier request. Marcus wondered how long it would take his mother to realize she was asking the wrong questions and how quickly he could end the call so he could avoid the right ones. “I usually do my own work for most of the day. I told you, I order lunch and dinner and make sure he’s undisturbed.”

“What does he do?”

Marcus wasn’t fast enough. His next sentence would have been an excuse to leave. He fell back on what he’d already told her and hoped she’d drop it. “As I said, Mother, I’m usually working. I don’t watch him all day.”

“But you do some of the time. You can tell me what he’s doing then.”

The door chimed, the sound distinctive enough that his mother would surely have heard it.

“I have to go, Mother, there’s someone at the door.”

“Marcus, I want to know….”

“I’ll talk to you next week, Mother.” He disconnected the call, knowing she’d be furious with him for at least the next month, but he was immensely pleased he’d switched off video connection after her last call. Knowing she could see him and read his expression would make the contact with her so much worse. The doorbell chimed again and he went to open it.

“Ensign Betts.” Marcus stepped back in surprise, giving him room to enter. He stared at him as he stood awkwardly beside the table. “What can I do for you? Are you recovering well?” The swelling in Betts’s face was gone, and the bruises were fading.

“Yes, sir, thank you.” His gaze slid away from Marcus before returning to look somewhere in the vicinity of his chin. “I’m sorry, sir, but I have to ask: what do you do with him?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Before I bring your lunch. What do you do with him?” He still wouldn’t look Marcus in the face.

She wouldn’t. A cold stillness settled over Marcus, and he had to ask. “Why do you want to know, Ensign?”

“Ah, well….” He shuffled his feet then seemed to draw himself together and looked up. “You always seem so flushed before lunch, like… like….” His shoulders slumped. “Oh, hell, never mind. I’ll go now.” He took a step forward, but Marcus shifted to block his exit.

“Tell me why you want to know first.”

He sighed. “I had a phone call.” Color flooded his face. “I mean I’ve wondered, you know, but I wasn’t going to say anything or ask or anything. It’s just there was this phone call.”

“From whom?” Marcus didn’t really need to ask. He knew who initiated it.

“Professor Harry Davis.”

She had his father on board with this. Marcus was disappointed but not really surprised. His father often worked on his own projects, but if his mother put her foot down, he always did as he was told. When Marcus was a child, he had thought that was because his father loved his mother, but he was no longer sure that was it. She simply kept pushing until she got her own way. Marcus had always given in, as well.

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“It’s fine, Ensign. I know exactly how hard they are to say no to.” Marcus stood aside and motioned for him to leave. When he didn’t move, Marcus raised his eyebrows in question.

“The thing is, sir,” he said as he shuffled his feet. “He’s going to ring back tonight. What do I tell him?”

“You tell him exactly what you know, Ensign. I assist Mr. Starovski by ordering his meals, ensuring he’s undisturbed as he rests, and writing his reports at the end of each day. That’s all there is to know.”

He looked relieved. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. I won’t tell anyone anything else, sir. You can count on me.” He strode through the doorway, shoulders back, head high, a man comfortable now that he had orders to follow.

“Ensign!” Marcus called just as the doors slid closed again. He didn’t return. “What do you mean you won’t tell anyone anything else?” He shoved his hands through his hair. This situation got more complicated every time he turned around. He opened the door to the tiny attached bathroom as he wondered what the hell his parents were involved in that they needed so much information about Jonah, why they seemed so desperate for it, and why Betts.

As he pressed the button and waited for the nanos to do their job, he wondered why Jonah had…. Fuck. Marcus thought they’d grown closer. Jonah let Marcus fuck him. That’s not something you do with just anyone. Marcus thought Jonah felt at least as much for him as Marcus felt for Jonah. His skin tingled as the nanos worked. He was obviously wrong.

Jonah

EVEN THOUGH he hadn’t been on land for twenty years, Jonah hated being on board ship. The one good thing about Tolifax was that there were doors you could slam. Real hard. These quiet swooshing sliding things didn’t give the same satisfaction at all. There was no option but to resort to cursing. Jonah cupped his balls protectively. “Clapper-clawed toads, eat the bastard’s eyes out.” There, he said it, and Martha—who’d been tasked to ensure he was clean and fed while he was in the brothel—hadn’t come after him with a spoon to scoop his balls out, and the ceiling remained firmly where it was, although he couldn’t resist a glance at it to see if the cracks Martha always threatened them with were forming. He deliberately shook his hands out and stood straighter. Holding on to a childhood fear of a woman he hadn’t seen since he finished his initial “training” in the brothel on Tolifax was ridiculous. He wasn’t eight anymore. It was time he put the past behind him and dealt with the present.

It didn’t help. He was still all tied up in knots, still disappointed that Marcus was like all the others. He thought getting away from Natch’s brothel and Tolifax would give him a new start, that people would stop treating him like the whore he was. It had worked for a while. Wes hadn’t treated him like a whore after he bought him. Jonah thought he’d never have to worry about that again, but Wes was gone, and Marcus had taken his place. He couldn’t let Marcus be drawn into his life. Marcus deserved better than that. He had plans and a future. Jonah had to let him have that future.

Jonah gripped the back of his neck hard to try to stop the thoughts running around and around in his head. It was over. He needed to find a way to move on and not wish that Marcus would be happy to be his handler without the fucking. He shivered. Even though he’d begged for it and enjoyed it. He flopped onto the sofa that faced the viewing panel, noting nothing but stars staring at him. They’d left the planet’s orbit hours before. Watching the stars didn’t help either, so he leaned back and stared at the crack-free ceiling.

Fucking had never felt like that before. Jonah never enjoyed it, not once in the whole time he’d been whoring. It must be the release of energy from the terraforming that made it so good. He shivered at the thought of doing it again, without the chanting first, to see if it could be as good without it. The ring of the doorbell startled him so much he almost fell off the seat. He steadied himself and took a moment to calm his breathing, reaching the door as it rang a second time. He pressed the opening mechanism, wondering what Marcus could want. He’d made it clear he wanted another handler for the next planet.

“Ensign!” He looked nervous, eyes darting up and down the corridor like he shouldn’t be there. Jonah’s nerves skittered uncomfortably, but there was nowhere to run. This isn’t Tolifax. No other planet is like Tolifax. He’s not going to attack you. It’s been twenty years; you should be past it by now. Jonah ran through his mantra then forced himself to relax and leaned on the doorjamb. “What can I do for you, Ensign?” Play it cool. Don’t let him know you felt threatened even for a second. Keep the upper hand.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, Mr. Starovski.” He darted another frantic look around. “Could I come inside? I need to ask you something.”

“Wait here.” Jonah closed the door and went to his bedroom. He retrieved the small knife he’d begun keeping in his bedside table. He remembered enough from his childhood to slice someone in close quarters if he needed to, even though he probably wouldn’t need to. He was still fast. No one would catch him. He was back in less than a minute, adjusting the cuffs of his shirt as he walked. The ensign entered silently, walked over to the viewing panel, and stared outside.

When it became obvious he wasn’t going to volunteer information, Jonah asked, “What is it you want?”

He turned then, his face a curious mixture of determination and dread. “What do you do to him?”

“Who?” Jonah knew a lot of people feared or revered his talent with terraforming, but this was the first time someone had assumed he could read their mind as well.

“Lieutenant Davis.” The ensign shifted on his feet, the only outward sign of nervousness so far. Jonah remained silent long enough the younger man felt the need to fill the silence. He was glad of that because he had no idea what he should say. “He was different before, very controlled and kept to himself but friendly when he was off duty. Now he’s jumpy, like he’s done something wrong and is scared he’ll be discovered.” The man looked directly at Jonah for the first time. “So I wanted to know what you did to him.”

The whole sorry mess almost blurted out of Jonah’s mouth with no censorship at all. Nearly. He clamped his mouth closed and ground his teeth together until he knew he could control the words that wanted to spill from him and ruin not just his career but Marcus’s as well. “I didn’t do anything to him.” It was true of their recent dealings. Everything between them since those first horrible days had been Marcus doing things to Jonah. “He assisted me each day, and then he left.”

“How did he assist you?”

The question contained a level of intensity that made Jonah look sharply at the young man. After Wes left, he knew he couldn’t hide what he did for long, but he also knew how that would impact on Marcus since he’d been helping Jonah for nearly a month. Marcus was the one who had to share that information, not Jonah. “He ordered my meals and wrote my reports.” That was all he could share.

“What did you do before lunch?”

Jonah frowned at him, puzzled by the question. Before lunch he chanted. His eyebrows rose as he realized what the ensign was getting at, but he could answer that question honestly too. “I slept. I get tired when I’m working.” Jonah walked back to the door panel and opened the door. Ensign Betts opened his mouth to say something else but thought better of it and left. Jonah sighed in relief as the door slid closed, then groaned as he realized what this visit meant.

He turned to glare at the comm unit. He was going to have to talk to Marcus and find out what was happening.

Chapter Sixteen

Winni

“THEY WON’T tell me anything I don’t already know,” said Winni.

“Do you suppose that’s because they don’t want you to know?” Harry asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m a preeminent scientist. My knowing is important.” Winni glared at her husband. Honestly, sometimes she wondered why she’d remained married to him for so long. He was the most annoying creature. Almost as annoying as Marcus. She watched as he completed the calibration for the recording of data from the planet and sighed. He was a good scientist and assisted her with her experiments, often for no better reason than that she was his wife. She’d taken advantage of his loyalty on many occasions, but he was still a trial.

“It’s still evolving.”

She bent over Harry and skimmed through the data scrolling on his screen. “I don’t understand it. The Planet Whisperer hasn’t even arrived yet. How can there be this much growth in such a short time without him?”

“Are you sure we haven’t missed anything in our initial assessments?”

“Like what?” Immediately she was defensive. Their initial research had been thorough. Harry had recorded the data himself. While this planet was ripe for development, nothing had started on its own, and all indications were that it wouldn’t begin without a catalyst. That catalyst was the Planet Whisperer.

“Do you think our presence here had an impact?”

“We decontaminated every time we landed and again before we left.” They needed to get this sorted and off-planet before they were detected. Their shielding wouldn’t last forever. It wasn’t perfected yet, and coverage fluctuated randomly.

“We decontaminated ourselves. What about the shuttle?”

“Any bacteria outside would have been killed as soon as we left the atmosphere.”

Harry nodded as he made some more minor adjustments to the calibration. “What if there’s something on the planet that we don’t recognize and that reacts differently to everything we know about at this time?”

She slapped him on the shoulder, causing his hand to jump the stylus across the screen. Turning to hide the smirk at his irritation, she said, “You and I both know life can’t survive in deep space. There’s obviously something wrong with your readings.”

“What about the video?”

She turned back. “Show me. Is it doing something different?”

Harry flipped to the video stream of their subject. The globulous creature was still stuck in their compartment but had stretched all its limbs out between the bars. The only things that remained trapped were a bulbous body and what looked like its head, large and ovoid, and too wide to fit through the confines of the cage.

“What the hell is it doing?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think we need to worry about it, though. It’s obvious it can’t escape, and we can still gather data on it.”

Winni frowned at the creature for a few seconds, but it didn’t move. It seemed that once it reached out as far as it could go, it was satisfied, or else it had given up. “Do you think it’s stuck?”

Harry shrugged. “I don’t know. In terms of our research, it won’t make a difference. It’s still alive and still growing, and we can still read all the data from it.”

“That’s all we need, then.” She was about to leave when she noticed Harry still stared at the life-form in the cage. “What?”

“It just seems sad. It obviously doesn’t want to be trapped in the cage, and we don’t know what the terraforming is going to do to it. It’s already evolving.”

“Don’t go soft on me now, Harry. You’re a scientist, and you know as well as I do that sometimes it’s necessary to sacrifice things to achieve your ultimate goal.”

“I know, but usually we know there are more of a species to carry on. We don’t know if there are more of this one or not. What if the terraforming kills it?”

“It’s going to die anyway. We’ll need to dissect it to ascertain the exact impact of change.”

When her husband didn’t respond, Winni walked away. If Harry was getting soft, it might be time to do something about him. She nodded briskly to herself. Marcus first, then Harry.

Chapter Seventeen

Marcus

MARCUS FUMED throughout his shower. First it was his mother and her incessant demands for information, then it was Betts and his questions and insinuations, but, finally, he settled on the real cause of his temper. Jonah.

Before Jonah, Marcus hadn’t even realized men sucked other men’s dicks. He knew women did because the guys talked about it in the locker rooms all the time, but he’d never considered a man doing it before. No, that wasn’t true. He had wondered what it would be like to have a man suck his dick but he’d had no idea how to make it happen before Jonah. He scoffed at himself. He still had no idea how to make it happen. It wasn’t as if he could tell someone to do it or the planet they were orbiting would slide back into oblivion.

So he still didn’t know what it was like. Would it be better than sinking into someone’s ass? Marcus would like to find out, but chances of that happening any time soon were negligible. Jonah had made it clear he didn’t want to work with him anymore, and there was no one else Marcus could approach without risking his career, although he was beginning to be less worried about that than he was about Jonah.

He snapped his jacket closed with determination. He had to find Jonah and make him ask for Marcus for the next contract, and for any other contract he did on this ship. Marcus was “easy to work with” after all. Bastard.

Marcus took a deep breath, decided his increased heart rate and tingling skin were nervousness over discovery, not at the prospect of seeing Jonah again and being close enough to touch. If he channeled enough of his mother into his demands, he could make Jonah feel so guilty about what he’d done that he saw no recourse but to take Marcus back. His stomach churned at the thought of manipulating Jonah like that, at being no better than his mother, who always made Marcus feel inadequate, but he dismissed it.

If Jonah didn’t want him, Marcus had no other choice. His career was all that was left.

He didn’t know how Jonah had become as important as his career.

MARCUS HEARD Jonah curse as he pressed the bell to his door. Great. Jonah in a temper was going to make Marcus’s job that much easier. He didn’t wait for Jonah to open the door, instead used his pass. Jonah stopped, midstride, his mouth falling open as he saw Marcus step inside and close the door.

“We need to talk,” Marcus said quietly as he walked to the sofa and sat down.

Jonah watched Marcus but otherwise didn’t move. Then he inhaled and crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you want to talk about?”

Feigning relaxation and calm took all Marcus’s energy. He didn’t have anything left over for small talk. “You have to request me to be your handler for the next planet and any other planet you do while on board this ship.”

Jonah’s feet shifted, and his arms tightened their hold. “Why would I do that?”

This was where it got sticky. Marcus really didn’t know Jonah well enough to know what appeal would work, so he decided to stick with honesty. Channeling his mother could only get him so far; at some point he had to be himself. Marcus stuck one finger up in the air.

“We work well together.” He raised another finger. “I already know what you need, so you won’t have to explain it to anyone else.” A third finger. “If you request someone else, people will wonder what was wrong with me, and”—a fourth finger—“the next person might not be as accommodating as I am. If you have a complaint of homosexuality laid against you while working for the Government, they’ll lock you up. When Wes was your handler, no one questioned it, but now you’re using others—” Marcus tapped his own chest. “—people are going to find out.” Marcus had read things had been different before the Galactic Government seized power, but that didn’t change the fact that he would be dishonorably discharged before being charged. He didn’t mention that to Jonah.

It took less than a second for Jonah to answer, but when he did, Marcus’s breath rushed from him. He was glad he was already sitting down.

“I worked all that out for myself and put in the request to White this morning.” Jonah didn’t relax his stance at all.

“What else?” Marcus asked. Jonah was still too tense to have finished. There was something else bothering him.

Jonah moved then, so Marcus guessed he had been waiting for Marcus to notice his tension.

“Why is Ensign Betts asking so many questions?” Jonah asked as he took two steps toward Marcus.

“He came to see you as well?”

“He wanted to know what I did before lunch.” Jonah looked worried.

Marcus surged to his feet and turned to the viewing window. “He asked me something similar. Apparently, my father asked him to question us. Besides that, he suspects something.”

“What’s the solution?” Jonah came to stand beside Marcus, also staring out at the stars. “Do you think he wants to be brought on board?”

“What?” Marcus stared at Jonah in shock. He surely couldn’t be suggesting…. Marcus’s mind stuttered to a halt, unable to envisage it.

He shrugged. “I got the impression he wanted something. Usually that means sex.”

Marcus stared at Jonah, wondering what kind of life he’d had that sex was the first thing he thought of when people started asking the kinds of questions Betts had been asking. “There’s also power and money. In fact, I’d suggest those two are more common reasons for trying to embarrass or manipulate people like that.”

Jonah turned to him. “Is that what you’re looking for? Power and money?”

“I’m looking to stop my career from gurgling down the toilet,” Marcus retorted.

“What would you have done if I didn’t agree to keep you on?”

“Then I would have tried manipulation or threats.”

He laughed. Jonah goddamned laughed at him. His hands fisted at his side. Jonah must have noticed because he held his hands up placatingly and took a step back. “I’m glad you didn’t get to the manipulation or threats, then. I felt intimidated enough as it was.”

Marcus gaped at him. He was joking. Serious, focused Jonah, who had obviously been treated badly during his lifetime, had a sense of humor. When Marcus didn’t respond, Jonah’s laughter died, and he looked unsure of himself—another expression Marcus never thought he’d see. He stepped up to Jonah and curled his fingers around the other man’s hand, pressing his fingertips into his palm. “I’ll make sure I tell you when I try manipulating someone. You can come and see how it’s done. I learned from an expert, after all.”

Jonah’s features relaxed into the shyest, sweetest smile Marcus had ever seen. His heart jumped before resuming its usual beat.

Jonah

MARCUS INVITED Jonah to watch him manipulate someone. He doesn’t want to fuck me; he wants to share things with me. Jonah felt a smile tug at his mouth, and Marcus’s lips spread in a delighted smile. Then he stepped away and cleared his throat. “So… um….” He waved a hand at the door. “I’ll just go, then.” He took two steps away.

Jonah didn’t want him to go but couldn’t work out what to say to make him stay. Then it came to him. “We could go down to the games level, if you want.” It must have been the right thing to say because Marcus grinned at him.

“Do you know how to play Helix Force?”

Jonah had never heard of it.

Marcus gripped his elbow and steered him to the door. “You’re in luck. It’s my favorite game, and I love a challenge. I’ll teach you.”

“Are there many rules?” Games had rules, didn’t they?

“Heaps. That’s why it’s so challenging.” He paused as they waited for the door to slide closed behind them. “What games do you play, if you don’t play Helix?”

What a puzzling man. “I don’t play games. I terraform planets.”

“But you have downtime, like now. What do you do then?”

“I research the next planet. I exercise.” Jonah paused to think what else he did, but that was all Wes ever gave him to do.

“Hmmpph.” Marcus slapped his shoulder. “Well, things are going to be different, at least for the next two days before we reach the planet.”

“The exercise helps my focus.”

“Then we’ll keep the exercise, and you’ll still need to do some research, but I can help you with that in amongst my research into my parents’ work. There’ll still be plenty of time to do other things.” He skipped a little to get just ahead of Jonah to look directly into his face. Jonah stumbled to avoid tripping over him. “What movies have you seen?”

“I don’t watch movies.”

Marcus stared at him, disappointment clear in his eyes, until he tripped over his feet from walking sideways instead of watching where he was going. Jonah grabbed his arm and steadied him. Once they were walking side by side again, he released his hold and curled his hand into a fist to keep the warmth of his body with him.

“So Helix Force is basically a fighter-training program that became so popular they decided to release it to the public. They even use it now to identify potential fighter-pilot candidates. It’s amazing. You can create your own avatar and your own scenario.” Marcus looked sideways at Jonah. “Although I think we’ll keep to a few of the standard ones for the first few sessions. You’ll need to know what the program is all about before you can begin to exercise your imagination and create your own. The fighter software is the same as what the military use, and it’s updated every time they update their own, so you know the skills you learn will be useful.” He seemed to think about that. “At least it would be if you were ever to be fighting someone.”

“I’m not a fighter pilot. I just chant.” Jonah didn’t want to tell Marcus where he was from, and that would become obvious if Marcus ever knew exactly what type of fighting Jonah had done as a child. His records showed exactly what Wes had set up for him, and none of them mentioned anything about Tolifax. Jonah wanted to keep it that way. If they knew where he was from, no one would ever hire him again, no matter how good he was.

“Don’t worry about it. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll try something different. There’s bound to be a game that works for you.”

THREE HOURS later they left the gaming level. Jonah had a grin on his face that was making his cheeks ache. “I had no idea it would be so much fun.”

Marcus scowled at him, the expression so comical Jonah laughed. “It must be beginner’s luck. There’s no way you could develop the reflexes to win at Helix Force in such a short time.”

“You didn’t tell me all I needed was quick reflexes. You said it was a fighter-pilot game. I don’t know anything about piloting, but my reflexes are good.”

“Obviously.”

They walked a few steps in silence, Jonah’s grin still firmly in place.

“Where did you learn to be so fast, anyway?”

He stopped. Marcus walked a few steps farther before he realized Jonah was no longer with him.

“Jonah?”

He shook his head. “I have some work to do for the next planet,” he said, his head down so he couldn’t see Marcus’s face. He walked away quickly, not checking to see if Marcus followed him to his suite or not.

Once inside, with the door showing the “do not disturb” light, Jonah flopped onto the sofa and stared at the ever-changing stars.

“It’s just work, Jonah,” he told himself. “You’ve made it this far without friends, so you don’t need any now.” He sighed and continued to stare at the stars.

THE NEXT two days Jonah focused on the research he needed to do for the next planet. He exercised late at night because the gym was practically deserted at that time.

He didn’t see Marcus at all.

Marcus

JONAH WAS avoiding him. Marcus called every couple of hours during the first day, but Jonah refused to accept his call. He wouldn’t open his door. Marcus reminded himself that he was a reasonably intelligent man and stopped calling.

Today was different. They were in orbit around the next planet. Marcus used his override access code, not bothering to ring the bell first. In hindsight, that probably was a bad idea.

Jonah stood at the window looking at the planet below. Marcus quickly hit the lock on the door. He didn’t want anyone else walking in on Jonah while he was naked, and he refused to think about why that was. It wasn’t as if Jonah himself exhibited any shyness over his body, but he deserved privacy as much as anyone else.

“Forgotten how to knock, Marcus?”

Marcus started at Jonah’s voice. It didn’t make sense, but he’d expected to be the first one of them to speak.

“I wasn’t sure you’d let me in if I did.”

Jonah turned to look at him, and he couldn’t resist sliding his gaze down the long body. Jonah’s cock stirred as Marcus stared at it. He looked away. Jonah’s body might be interested in Marcus, but the blond man had made it clear he wasn’t. They just worked well together.

“I’m going to get dressed,” Jonah said as he walked into the bedroom.

MARCUS WALKED over to the window and stared at the swirling atmosphere around the planet. He smelled Jonah before he came to stand beside him, fresh and damp from one of the water showers he favored. He wore what Marcus had come to think of as his working clothes: denim pants of varying colors and patterns, soft semitransparent shirts, and spongy slip-on shoes. Today’s color choice was green, all different shades of green and different patterns on the shirt and pants. On most people it would have looked ridiculous, but it suited Jonah. His tall frame, white-blond hair, and vibrant green eyes looked like they melded with the clothes.

“There’s life already on this planet.”

Marcus was sure his breathing stopped completely. He checked the results for the most recent scans on his comm. Nothing showed, but he didn’t doubt Jonah’s assertion. “You haven’t started anything, have you?” There must be a fault somewhere in his systems.

Jonah glared at him. “Of course not.”

Marcus hit his communicator. He didn’t wait for a response. “Run another set of independent diagnostics on the planet. Use the new equipment. Compare them with the records currently in the system.” He turned to Jonah. “What sort of life?”

Jonah shrugged, the movement oddly incongruous with his large frame. “It was just a blip, but I felt something in the southern hemisphere on the other side of the planet.”

“Was it flora or fauna?”

“It was too fast. I couldn’t tell.”

“Diagnostics coming through, Lieutenant” came the tinny voice from Marcus’s wrist-comm. He stared at the information feeding into it. It was small but definitely in the area indicated by Jonah. Microbial and bacterial residue was scattered in a formation around it. “Is the bacteria associated with the larger life-form or independent?”

“Impossible to tell at this distance, Lieutenant. We’d need to be closer.”

Closer would mean entering atmosphere. Landing. Marcus couldn’t remember the last time he’d been on-planet. Not since Earth at least. He had a sudden urge to feel solid ground beneath his feet. Even ground that had minimal gravity and little atmosphere.

“Arrange a shuttle. I’ll go and check it out.”

“Lieutenant, might I remind you of protocol number….”

“Thank you, control. I am aware of the protocols. Inform Captain White I’ll report directly to him when I return.” He looked at Jonah. “The Planet Whisperer will be coming with me.”

Surprise shone in Jonah’s eyes, but he just nodded.

“READY?” HE asked by way of a sound check. Jonah responded, and they began the process of boarding the shuttle and going to the planet below. The flight was comfortable and so quiet Marcus fidgeted. He wasn’t used to this much silence.

The light on the surface was a soft gray. Marcus had an urge to leap out into it and float peacefully for the rest of his days. Of course if he did that without being suited up, the rest of his days would be approximately three minutes.

He checked Jonah’s suit over, clicked his own helmet in place, and then snapped on his outer gloves before looking back at Jonah. The man was growing on him in a way no one else ever had. He was prickly and secretive, but even that was familiar now, and Marcus was beginning to realize Jonah was a truly nice person. He didn’t do what he did just for the money. He had scruples.

Marcus wasn’t sure why he found that so surprising. He worked for the Government, so he knew all about ensuring the safety of others, making decisions that were morally and ethically right. That was the culture of his employer, regardless of the fact they expected orders to be obeyed without question.

At Jonah’s affirmative reply, Marcus punched in the code to open the air lock. He stepped onto the dusty surface, his magnetic lifeline automatically activating as he left the safety of the shuttle. Jonah followed. The data screening down the inside of Marcus’s helmet also included Jonah’s life signs. Marcus had insisted on that when Jonah admitted to never having worn a suit or been on a planet without a livable atmosphere. He had also linked a secondary magnetic lifeline between the two of them so neither could go more than fifty paces from the other.

Jonah held the directional device showing where the life-form was. “This way,” he murmured, not taking his eyes from the map in his hand. Marcus grasped his elbow to steer him around a boulder. Jonah looked up in surprise.

Marcus shook his head at him, although he didn’t think Jonah could see that through the tinted visor. “You just keep an eye on that thing. I’ll make sure you don’t run into anything.”

After about ten minutes, Marcus had to ask, “Can’t you sense the direction, like you did on board?”

Jonah stopped, his body floating a few steps forward before coming to a halt. “I didn’t think of that,” he said as he lowered the map. Slowly he turned around to face different directions. At the third step, he paused. “That way.”

“Any idea how far?” Marcus knew how far away they’d landed, but he also wanted to check Jonah’s accuracy.

Jonah shrugged as much as his suit allowed. “Not far.”

They started walking.

Chapter Eighteen

Winni

“THEY SENT a shuttle to the surface.”

Winni rushed to look over Harry’s shoulder. The screen of his computer was split in three. One area showed their creature, still in the same position, stretching through the bars of the cage. The second section showed the planet, data already scrolling over the screen. They would use that one for the macrodata of the terraforming process. The third screen tracked the progress of a shuttle heading toward the surface—to the exact place they had set up their experiment.

“Blast it. How did they find it? That cage is shielded.”

Harry laughed. “I’ll bet that’s why it’s stretched out like that, putting its body outside the cage.”

“There wouldn’t be enough exposed to be sensed from the distance that ship is, unless they knew exactly what and where to look.”

“If they have the sensor Russell Industries was flogging last year, they might be able to pick it up.”

She turned on him. “I thought you said it was unreliable. You said no one would pay the money for it.”

Harry shrugged. “I heard they had offered the Government three of the machines free on a trial basis.”

Winni was quiet for a long time. Meanwhile the shuttle landed, and the third screen changed to a mapped image of the surface where they could track its progress.

“They landed a long way away. Perhaps they don’t have a definite position.”

“We can’t let them ruin this experiment, Harry. We have to go back there and make sure it’s undetectable. We can’t leave before that’s done.” She turned away and began donning her suit. “Grab the weapons before you suit up.”

Harry stood and faced her. The look on his face made her wonder if he was finally going to grow a pair and argue with her. She glared at him, daring him. He looked away and reached for the weapons.

Chapter Nineteen

Jonah

IT WAS so overwhelming Jonah had to look at the ground. If he looked up at the barren landscape stretching to the violently swirling sky, his head spun. He’d fall over, spin out of control, fly up into the sky, and fall down, splat. He was going to be sick. He stopped walking and closed his eyes.

“Jonah? What’s wrong?”

Jonah shook his head but didn’t think Marcus would see that so he reached out his hand. His glove limited sensations to nothing more than pressure from Marcus’s grip, but it was enough to ground him. “It’s too big.”

Marcus was silent for a long time, and Jonah knew he was trying to figure out what he meant.

“How long since you’ve been on-planet?”

“Twenty years.” Sixteen years of small ships and four years in brothels on large ships or space stations. Before that it was Tolifax with its narrow alleys and tall buildings. No sweeping landscapes. No sky. “I didn’t realize….” What could Jonah tell him? He didn’t realize planets could be so big? This wasn’t a large planet.

“Look at me.” Marcus’s voice wouldn’t be denied. Jonah opened his eyes and looked at Marcus’s serene face behind the Perspex of his helmet. “Good. Now breathe.” He hadn’t realized he wasn’t, but he took a deep breath, and then another. His head cleared, and his stomach settled. “Good. Good.” Marcus patted him on the shoulder, but his suit and the atmosphere made that cumbersome, so he stopped, a sheepish smile shining through his tinted visor. “Okay, this is what we’re going to do.”

What we’re going to do. Jonah repeated that in his head over and over, not hearing what Marcus was saying. It wasn’t the first time someone had said that to him, but it was the first time he thought they meant whatever would happen would be a joint action and not something Jonah had to do for them.

“Do you understand, Jonah?”

“Um.” He hadn’t heard a word. His face heated, and he hoped the tinting prevented Marcus seeing his blush.

“Never mind.” Marcus didn’t sound angry, so Jonah let out a breath in a sigh. “All you have to do is stay focused on keeping us going in the direction of the life-form. I’ll take care of the rest. Okay?”

Jonah could do that. If he could keep looking at Marcus, he could probably even keep his eyes open. Marcus gripped Jonah’s elbow again. “Do I have to keep my eyes open?”

He laughed. “Only if you want to. I’ve got you.” His grip tightened for a second before releasing again. “I won’t let you fall.” Jonah didn’t know why he trusted Marcus so much that he would let Marcus lead him, blind, through unfamiliar territory, but he did. He thought about it as they stumbled along, slowly making their way closer to the glowing dot that was life on this planet. When it came to him, he stopped and stared at Marcus in amazement.

Except when he fucked Jonah, Marcus had never treated him with anything less than respect. Not even when Jonah forced him the first time.

Perhaps even when he fucked Jonah.

“Jonah? Are you all right?”

Jonah took a deep breath and smiled at Marcus. “You’re my friend,” he said in wonder, feeling juvenile and stupid for not realizing it earlier, but he’d never had a friend.

Marcus grinned at him. “Of course I am.”

They continued on in silence. The grin on Jonah’s face remained.

Marcus

MARCUS’S HEART ached for Jonah for so many reasons, but the main one was because Jonah was surprised that Marcus would be his friend. Guilt flooded him. A man so in need of a friend wouldn’t understand what had happened between them last week. Marcus darted a glance at Jonah. Had he really been on board with making love last week, or was that just the need for release after the chanting?

It wouldn’t happen again, not until Jonah let Marcus know he really wanted it. Wanted him.

His heart ached for that too. It had been the single most amazing experience of his life, and he was willingly committing himself to celibacy because Jonah needed a friend more. At least he was used to being celibate.

As they walked the sound grew, a wailing of wind they could see and feel no sign of. The plain they were on was calm, the temperature outside their suits too hot for them to have survived more than twenty minutes without them. Gradually they began to climb, the slope indiscernible until sweat began to bead and trickle down Marcus’s back. His breathing deepened, and the air-conditioning inside his suit struggled to keep his visor clear of fog. It had been a gamble landing so far from the site, but he thought his mother would be too absorbed in her work to notice a distant landing. He knew, without any proof, that he would find his mother where they were going. Part of him wondered if he’d landed so far away because he wanted to give her time to get away, but the erratic winds near the site justified it.

He increased his pace.

Eventually, they crested a rise and stopped to inspect the change in the landscape. They’d come from open plains to pockmarked rocky outcrops. In the dim light, the marks looked like acne growing on the surface of the rocks protruding from the sandy ground, but as they walked closer, it became clear that there were caves. It was like massive pumice stones growing out of the ground. The wind howled, swirling sand in whirlwinds around the rock outcroppings, tugging at them and making them stumble as they made their way down into the valley.

“It’s somewhere along the left side. We’re getting close,” Jonah panted. He’d calmed immediately after leaving the plains, the tall rocks similar enough to buildings or whatever he was used to before spending twenty years aboard ship.

Marcus slowed down and tapped buttons on his wrist scanner. Data scrolled down his visor, joining the atmospheric and medical data on himself and Jonah that was already there. He reached to his hip and released the catch on the weapon holster.

“What are you doing?”

“We don’t know what we’re heading toward. We need to be ready.” An alarm sounded on Jonah’s life signs scanner.

“There are three now. Two are new.”

Marcus leaned forward, reading the data. “They’re human.” He looked up at Jonah. “And weren’t there before.”

“How did they evade the sensors before now?”

“They must have some sort of dampening equipment.”

“That doesn’t exist.”

“Yes it does. My mother was trialing some about two years ago and… fuck.” Marcus pulled his blaster from its holster with one hand and dragged Jonah behind a tall rock with the other.

“What is it?”

“I knew it but hoped I was wrong. There’s a scientific experiment in progress, and the person running it won’t allow anything to interrupt it.”

“What sort of experiment? Who’s running it?”

“I don’t know what exactly, but as for the who—my mother.”

Jonah looked at him for a long time, and he waited for the disgust and distrust to wash over his features. It never did. In the end all he did was nod and unclip his blaster. “I’m assuming you don’t want her killed,” he said.

“Alive would be good, but whatever experiment she’s doing is illegal. She knew this planet was slated for terraforming.” Part of Marcus was amazed that he could believe such things of his own mother, but for the first time since he began high school and understood the theories of physics, everything he knew about her slotted into place. Her experiments, her science, was her life. If she wanted to know something, she set about finding it out. That meant formulating the experiments, finding the necessary funding, and then searching until she found what she was looking for. While Marcus’s own records weren’t enough to prove it without doubt, he knew that she wouldn’t balk at breaking the law if she believed the experiment was important to her knowledge of something. She was a purist and believed science above law and ethics. Nothing stood in the way of science, not even her family.

“Shit…. Dad.” He looked at Jonah. “Last I heard she and Dad were working on something together. I haven’t spoken to Dad since I asked him what it was about. I didn’t think about it before now, but it’s probably because he’s such a lousy liar and couldn’t tell me anything. He’ll be with her.”

“You want him alive too,” Jonah stated emotionlessly.

“You seem very comfortable with the idea of deciding if someone should live or die.”

He shrugged, his whole suit moving with his shoulders. “Where I come from, those sorts of decisions have to be made very quickly.”

“When we get out of here, you’re going to explain that to me, but right now we have a life-form to protect and an illegal experiment to shut down in the face of the scariest scientist I’ve ever met. They probably already know we’re out here and are waiting for us to go in there.”

“Will your mother shoot to kill?”

“Fuck. I don’t even know if she knows how to fire a weapon, but she’s been traveling to different planets for years, so she probably does.”

“I’ll go first.”

“This is my mission….”

“It’s your parents, whom you want to stay alive. I’m the best bet to have that happen. They might shoot first and ask questions later, so if I go first, you’ll have an opportunity to talk to them and get them to disarm.” Jonah set his blaster to stun.

“What if they shoot you?”

“They won’t.”

“How can you be sure?”

Jonah stared at Marcus, the small smile on his face more scary than comforting. “Because it doesn’t matter how good they are, I’m better. Remember the game? Besides, I can move fast.” Jonah strode away from him, the hours traversing the surface of this planet serving to make him comfortable moving in the gravity and wind.

Marcus let Jonah get ten steps ahead, then followed.

Jonah

FINDING OUT about Marcus’s mother calmed Jonah. Wes had always told him he was the only person with a whore for a mother. He knew that wasn’t true on Tolifax, but he thought it was true everywhere else. Wes said Jonah was the only person who knew how to kill people with his bare hands. Jonah found out, his fifth year out, that wasn’t true, but he still never questioned anything else. Now he knew that people were bad all over. Even Wes.

Good people, like Marcus—because Jonah was sure he was good—seemed to be very rare. He couldn’t remember meeting another person like Marcus, not once in his life. He owed it to Marcus, for being his friend, even after everything they’d had to do, to keep him safe and try to keep his parents alive as well.

Jonah walked to the cave at an angle so that whoever was inside didn’t have a clear shot. They would know he was there and even what direction he was coming from, but they wouldn’t see what he was doing until the last minute. It was ironic how much of his current situation reminded him of sneaking around the streets of Tolifax when he was a kid. He reached into the holster. Slipped down beside the blaster was a knife. Jonah had never gone anywhere on-planet without at least one readily available and, even though he hadn’t used one as a weapon since he was eight, he wasn’t going to let a little thing like time and a space suit end that run.

His grip on it wasn’t comfortable; the gloves that had to be worn to keep his body pressurized were thick and cumbersome. Even with that and the years since he’d held one, it was still more comfortable than holding a pistol. He paused just outside the entrance and listened. There was no sound, but he stayed still. One of them would underestimate him and would make a noise to tell him where they were.

At his third inhale, he heard it: a small scraping of gravelly sand over rock. Remembered scenarios flooded through his senses, tingling over his skin. He leaned against the rock wall and breathed through the disconcerting sensations. It had been twenty years since he’d been planet-side, and he’d forgotten how his body responded to even the slightest changes in atmosphere. He instinctively interpreted what they meant.

“There are two people inside. One male, one female, both 3.2 meters from the entrance of the cave. They’re hiding behind a rock outcropping. A further two meters behind them is another being, not human.” Jonah whispered the words through his comm unit, feeling strange at having someone to share things with. Wes had said they were partners, but Jonah was beginning to realize they’d never been anything like it.

Marcus signaled that he understood. His gaze locked on the knife in Jonah’s hand, and he shook his head frantically. Jonah sighed and put the knife away again, pulling out the blaster with a raised eyebrow. Marcus nodded. Okay, so there’d be no overpowering anyone by piercing an oxygen hose. Jonah set the blaster on stun.

“You really think it’s your mother, don’t you?” His voice sounded tinny and insubstantial in his ears.

Chapter Twenty

Winni

“I TOLD you we should have put it in a completely sealed container,” Winni hissed.

“Any container that would shield it from detection completely would also shield it from the process. This was the best option all around.”

Had Harry always sounded so condescending? Winni couldn’t remember, but she’d been irritated with him for the duration of this project. That was coming up to five years.

“It’s not working with that thing stretched out through the bars. We’ve been here two hours already, and you haven’t fixed it yet.”

“There’s nothing to fix. The shield works but only inside the cage.”

You’re bloody useless. She swallowed the words before they slipped out. She still needed his expertise to finish this experiment. Once it was done, she’d find someone who’d do the work properly. “Then what have you been doing for the last hour? We have to leave now if we don’t want them to know we’re here.” Winni gathered up the loose equipment and stowed it in the box to protect it from whatever forces the terraforming would raise.

“It was too late for that an hour ago.”

She spun around to glare at her husband, automatically correcting for the low gravity. “What do you mean? They landed over the ridge. There’s no way their equipment would have adjusted to the erratic magnetic fields and pinpointed this spot yet, let alone detected how many life-forms are here.”

Harry shrugged. “They must know we’re here. Whoever they sent to investigate is coming this way, will be here in a few minutes. You probably didn’t listen when I said that an hour ago when we could have left. You might want to come up with a reason you’re here and why you have the little one in a cage.”

“Little one?” Fuck. The stupid bastard had gone soft on the thing. A jumping needle on the motion detector in front of Winni grabbed her attention. “Shit, they’ve come right to us.” She pulled her blaster out of its sheath and flicked the switch to Kill.

“You can’t shoot them. It’s a Government military ship. They’re soldiers.” Harry gripped her arm, but she shook him off.

“You touch me again, I’ll shoot you straight after I shoot them.”

He stepped away, and she turned from her view of the cave opening long enough to see the shock on his face. He shouldn’t be shocked. After forty years of marriage, surely he knew she’d never let anything interfere with one of her experiments.

The needle jumped again just as the light in the cave changed, deepening as a soldier ducked his head under the overhang. Another man-shape loomed behind him. Winni raised her hand and aimed, her thumb hovering over the trigger button. Just as she clenched her hand around the blaster, the second soldier raised his head, and she saw his face through the visor as the tint cleared upon leaving the bright light outside. Her stomach clenched. “Fuck.” She squeezed, her thumb pressing the trigger.

Three things happened at once. The images flashing through her brain in rapid fire, like the blaster light careening around the cave. The figure in front of her dropped to the ground, Harry lunged forward, and he knocked her arm up, causing her to shoot again. A spray of gravel rained on them as the second soldier in the entrance dropped to his knee and raised his hand, blaster flashing and firing directly at her. Something thudded into her chest, the bloom of pain dark and thick as her feet left the floor, and her helmet cracked against the cage behind her. Tentacle-like arms wrapped loverlike around her neck and chest and held her immobile as she tried to breathe through the crushing pain and stuttering crackle of her damaged oxygen regulator.

Chapter Twenty-One

Marcus

THE SUN could have crashed into the planet and Marcus would still have been crouched in the entrance of that cave watching his mother die from a wound he was responsible for. Peripherally, he realized the coolness with which he observed the situation, but he wasn’t surprised. That was how his family dealt with stress. That’s how they covered up any wrongdoing or mistake they made. They became sanctimonious shits so the authorities would dismiss them and look elsewhere.

His mother lay against a cage in the deep shadows, watching him with eyes he’d never seen before. Usually her eyes were narrowed and focused. Sometimes they were scrunched with disgust. Marcus had never seen them wide with fear. She raised her blaster again, and his frozen limbs unlocked. He surged forward from his crouch into a long dive. He slid into her hip, and his outstretched hand bumped her arm enough that her aim lifted. The sizzle-crack of energy from blaster fire reverberated through his suit as he landed in a sprawl across her legs. Thunder followed.

Rocks rained down on them, pummeling Marcus and smashing against the life-support tank on his back. A weight landed on top of him, sliding him off his mother’s legs and into the hard-packed earth beside her. Jonah’s gloved hands covered his own and dragged them in under their joined bodies for protection as dust filled the narrow space and visibility dropped.

The collapsing roof roared through his sound system. With no distance to diffuse it, the thunderous sound carried easily in the sketchy atmosphere. Jonah’s legs scrambled against the ground and pushed them farther back in the cave. They bumped up against bars. Marcus had scant moments to realize there was something behind the bars, drawn back from the edges and curled into a ball, before the rest of the ceiling fell down, blocking the entrance and taking out the lamps with it.

The silence was black with no spark to relieve it. After what seemed an interminable stillness, the rocks above Marcus moved. Jonah’s helmet light flickered on, and he rose large above him.

Marcus regarded Jonah’s solemn face and nodded in answer to the question he saw in his eyes. He hadn’t moved yet, but, apart from Jonah on top of him, he didn’t feel restricted at all. And was it wrong of him to notice, even with the weight of their suits around them, how much he liked the weight of Jonah on him? Jonah smiled but didn’t immediately move off him. Perhaps he liked it too.

Rocks tumbled from one of the haphazard piles around them, and another suited person rose like a specter from the dust. Marcus wasn’t surprised when the man turned to him and began working his way toward them. His parents had been working on a project together for the last few years, so if his mother was there, his father would be too. Marcus didn’t move to help him, not only because Jonah was still partially on top of him, but also because he wasn’t sure if his father intended to kill him as his mother had. His father’s support for his mother’s work was unconditional, but he might draw the line at killing his own son.

Harry raised his hand toward Marcus, blaster held at the ready. Was Marcus surprised? Dismayed? He couldn’t immediately tell and didn’t have time to work out what the maelstrom inside him meant. Jonah moved. With a twist and flick of his wrist, he sent a sparkling knife tumbling through the air to hit blade-flat against Harry’s blaster and knocked it from his hand. Harry immediately lunged after it, a thread of protest on the thin air.

Marcus pushed at Jonah to get him off and rose cumbersomely to his feet, Jonah looming beside him. Beyond Jonah, Winni groaned, her eyes flickering with regaining consciousness. Her twitching limbs told Marcus she had been stunned, nothing more serious than that. The deep back of the cave, where they were, was pebbled with shattered gravel. Harry seemed the worse for wear from the rocks. His suit showed dark marks that could very soon become rents, his faceplate was scratched, and his life-support tank was dented. He seemed to be yelling at Marcus.

Harry had raised a blaster against his own son. Marcus didn’t think there was a clearer way of telling him that his father thought him worthless, but years of training prevented him from turning away from the older man.

“Jonah,” Marcus said, battling to keep his voice even, even though he knew the speakers didn’t portray emotion. “Meet my mother”—he pointed to Winni as she struggled to regain her feet—“and my father, Winni and Harry Davis, the Galactic Government’s prized scientists.”

“You fool!” Mother’s speaker wasn’t damaged by the rockfall. “Look what you’ve done. Who knows how much data you’ve destroyed.” She bent and started moving rocks. “Help me set this up again. Perhaps we can salvage something before starting again.”

Marcus didn’t move to assist, but he didn’t say anything either. His stomach churned, and he hoped he wasn’t going to vomit into his helmet. The scientific investigations in this sector had been finalized more than a year before. There was no legal reason for them to be here. Whatever they were doing was illegal and probably immoral and unethical as well. He had to arrest them and bring them to account for their actions.

The slight noise of the caged animal moving about reminded him there would be animal rights violations as well as charges of trespassing and whatever else the Government lawyers decided on. He looked at the dismayed expression on his father’s face. He didn’t need to look at Winni to know she would look angry and determined, nothing more. He swallowed against the nausea that threatened to overflow its banks again. He couldn’t arrest his own parents.

Jonah

MARCUS’S PARENTS weren’t what Jonah had expected them to be. Then again, perhaps they were. His father stood in the midst of the rubble blocking the entrance and stared at his son. Marcus’s mother scrambled drunkenly among the destroyed scientific equipment, setting it to rights and attempting to get it working again. Neither of them had shown any inclination to keep their son safe. Wes used to say protecting was what parents did, but Jonah had never seen it. His own mother sold him as soon as she got a reasonable offer for him.

He leaned over and took a stone from Marcus’s mother, then turned her to her husband. He didn’t want either of them in the back with him and what was there. He activated the comm link between him and Marcus. His mother had used her speaker, but Jonah had no intention of broadcasting his conversations with Marcus.

“Marcus, why don’t you and your parents start clearing a path out of here. The right side looks less congested.” Marcus flicked a sharp look at him, but he couldn’t explain now. Getting out of there and back on board was more important than arresting Marcus’s parents for illegal activity. Then Marcus did something no one had ever done before. He lifted his hand and placed it on Jonah’s shoulder, then nodded. Like he didn’t need to know why Jonah wanted him away from the back of the cave, that he was trusting Jonah without explanation. Trusting him. Him.

He stood awkwardly as Marcus helped his mother over the rocks to where his father waited, frantically waving his arms at them. Marcus pushed them to the section Jonah had indicated, then bent and picked something off the ground. Jonah gasped when he recognized his small throwing knife just as Marcus folded it and secured it in the cuff of his glove.

Jonah’s throat was suddenly too thick to breathe properly, and it wasn’t because of the tentacle-like limbs wrapped tightly around his lower legs.

Once Marcus and his parents had disappeared beyond the pile of rubble, Jonah reached a tentative hand down and touched one of the limbs wrapped around him. It jerked at his touch but remained in place. As gently as he could through the thick gloves, he rubbed the small animal, trying to impart a sense of safety, a lack of malice. Over time, although sooner than he expected, the animal released its hold on him, and he was able to turn around. He took a small step back but, swift as breath, the tentacle wrapped around him again and stopped him moving away.

“It’s okay. I’m not leaving. I need to move away a little to give the gate room to open so you can come out.” He grasped the limb and tugged it a little, trying to convey his need for release while still maintaining contact. Remaining still, he kept petting the animal. It worked on stray cats on Tolifax, and it was the best option he had here. The animal’s grip had been strong; Jonah would never have been able to break free on his own.

Finally the tentacle released his calf but remained touching him, flickering glances up and down his legs. Moving slowly Jonah reached for the catch to the door of the cage.

“I really hope you’re not going to kill me when I let you free. Are there any more of you? I didn’t hear any before we left the ship.” All the while Jonah spoke, he rubbed the tentacles that kept coming back to touch him. The limbs were warm and firm, the sensors in his gloves telling him they were slightly rubbery to the touch. The tentacle around his calf maintained pressure but didn’t squeeze any harder. Jonah breathed through the pain until, eventually, it loosened its hold. He gasped at the rush of blood to his leg. “Thanks, beautiful. I do need that leg.” He shuffled to the side and unlatched the door, all the while batting away the warm soft arms of the animal in the cage. It flicked the tip of a tentacle against his arm in retaliation. The rubber band sting of it made him laugh. “You need to move your… arms out of the way. I don’t want them to be pinched in the cage when I open the door.”

The creature’s grip tightened around his leg again when Jonah grasped the hasp holding the gate closed. “Come on, baby,” he whispered. “Let me open the door so you can come out. You don’t belong in there.”

Slowly, sensuously, the tentacle slipped off his leg, sliding upward and flicking against his ass as it went. “Stop that. I’m not your type.” He pulled the door of the cage open and stumbled back as the creature swarmed him, all six long limbs grabbing on and climbing up his body until the soft, fleshy torso was clinging to his chest, right over his exhale filter. “You have to move, beautiful. You can’t stay there.” He tried to move the animal, but it held on tighter around his waist and his shoulders. It snuggled its head against his shoulder and purred. The movement and sound made Jonah think it must be female. “You don’t have to get off, but I need the filter clear.” He tried to push her to the side again, but she clung tighter. Already, Jonah could taste his air fouling, a thickness that fogged his thoughts and burned his throat. He grasped her tighter, eliciting a similar response from the animal. He was panting now, sweat beading his forehead, breath burning in his lungs. He stumbled sideways, reaching blindly for something to keep him upright. His fumbling steps jerked the creature, and she scrambled off his chest and landed on top of his helmet with her tentacles draped over his shoulders.

“Okay,” he gasped. “Okay. You stay there, princess, and we’ll do just fine.”

Marcus

“IF YOU don’t help clear this mess, we’ll still be trapped here next week,” said Marcus as he stowed his father’s blaster then bent to move yet another rock from the entrance. Beside him, his father lifted a rock but dropped it again without moving it. Marcus stood and glared at him even as his stomach tumbled at the show of defiant disrespect. Unsurprisingly, his father wasn’t looking at him but at his mother. You can’t be serious. He glared at his mother. Thankfully her blaster was still in the back of the cave. Marcus had no doubt she’d be using it if she still had it.

He wanted to tell her he didn’t care how important her work here was but knew that would achieve nothing more than an argument. “If we don’t leave quickly, they’ll send another team. Already the terraforming has been delayed because you’re here.” She stared at him for a long time before reluctantly bending and moving a rock. His father followed her lead.

Within minutes they’d moved enough to clear a narrow passage to the entrance. “Where is your shuttle? We didn’t see it as we came in.”

“Don’t you worry about us,” said his mother as she shot a clear warning glare to his father. “We’ll leave you to go back to your ship.”

Marcus stepped in front of the entrance. “You know I can’t let you do that, Mother. You’ll come back to the ship with us.” He had to take his parents back to the ship so he could determine why they were there and what they were doing. They had to have an opportunity to explain what they were doing on this planet—illegally. He couldn’t see a way out of them being charged with something, but that would be up to the captain, once they were back on board.

He and his parents remained in their stalemate until Jonah joined them, a dirty brown squirming lump sitting atop his head.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Winni

“OUR SHUTTLE is over this way.” Winni pointed to her left and tried to veer that direction, but Jonah gripped her elbow and steered her along the path. “This is ridiculous.” She tugged at her arm but couldn’t free herself from Jonah’s grasp.

“Your shuttle will be fine there for a while,” he said.

“Marcus!” she called. “I’ll take our shuttle and meet up with you on your ship.” She tugged again and glared at Marcus and his father ahead of them.

“We’ll all travel together, Mother. I’ve already contacted the captain, and he’s sending a pilot to collect your shuttle.” There was a pause. “Jonah, the animal….”

“She’s fine where she is, Marcus.” Jonah stroked his hand over the tentacle that draped over his shoulder. The animal still perched on top of his head. When Winni pulled against Jonah’s grip again, another tentacle crept down Jonah’s arm and wrapped around Winni’s just above her elbow. “Professor, she’s strong enough to cut off your circulation completely, so it would be a good idea not to struggle against her.” Winni finally subsided.

The pressure on her arm eased a little, but the tentacle remained wrapped around her flesh. Winni stared at it, absently noting the differences in size and tensility. The creature’s growth had slowed, and Winni had thought it might have reached maturity, but since the Planet Whisperer had touched it, the tentacles had almost doubled in diameter and were definitely longer. She wondered if continued contact with the strange man was the catalyst for the growth rate restarting.

Suddenly, accompanying Marcus and the Whisperer on board the ship didn’t seem such a hardship. If she could get the Whisperer to cooperate, she could easily continue her observations of the creature and perhaps—she looked sideways at the tall blond man, hoping he couldn’t read her intentions on her face—she could do a few experiments on him as well and find out exactly what it was about him that made him so special.

She tried to increase her pace, but the band around her arm tightened. She sighed impatiently.

“If I have to go with you, we should go. This namby-pamby wandering is wasting time.” She glared at her husband when he spun around to gape at her. He blinked twice, swallowed heavily, then turned and continued. He tilted his head toward Marcus, talking quietly. She cleared her throat, and Harry straightened and stepped away from Marcus.

Good. She’d spent too much time training the man to let things go lax now. She smiled at the Whisperer beside her, ignoring the frown he returned. This could work out better than she originally planned.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Marcus

SHIT. IT figured his parents would be at the center of something that could blow out to become a massive lawsuit. He didn’t believe they didn’t know what they were doing was illegal, although—he glanced at his father walking beside him—his dad was probably so focused on the experiment, he hadn’t thought about ethics or legalities. He should know better, though. He would know he couldn’t publish anything that was illegal. Marcus opened his mouth to ask his father what he was thinking but clamped it shut again. It didn’t matter what his father was thinking.

Nothing would change the fact that they had been conducting illegal experiments. There was no way they couldn’t have known this planet was scheduled for terraforming. His mother had been manipulating White, and who knew how many influential politicians. The only conclusion Marcus could draw was that they intended to conduct illegal experiments, putting at risk the entire terraforming program and risking the careers and livelihoods of everyone on board Marcus’s ship.

“Why didn’t you shoot me?” Fuck. The first words out of his mouth since they left the cave, and they were needy and juvenile. At least they got his father’s attention.

“Shoot you? Why would I shoot you? You’re my son.” Harry sounded truly offended, and Marcus’s childhood-trained guilt tripped in and threatened to smother him. He fought it.

“Dad, you pointed your pistol right at me. You can’t tell me that was for fun.”

Harry grabbed Marcus’s elbow and pulled him around so they faced each other. He flicked a quick look at Jonah and Winni, then leaned in close. “I wasn’t aiming at you. You were in the way. That’s why I didn’t shoot.”

Marcus checked Jonah and Winni’s progress. The tentacled animal was still perched on top of Jonah’s helmet, all but one tentacle looped carelessly around the helmet or resting lightly on Jonah’s shoulder. One limb was clasped firmly around Winni’s arm. All three of them were behind Marcus when Harry threatened them.

“Which one of them were you trying to kill?” Only then did Marcus think about how readily he’d accepted that his father would never try to kill him, regardless of what it had looked like at the time. Was he being a gullible fool?

“Kill? Oh no, no, no. I could never do that.” Harry’s hands fluttered around his head as he spoke. “You see the cage was secure. The material above the caves has a significant amount of iron in it, which always throws the sensors out, and I’d reinforced the roof so nothing would be visible, but somehow it knew about that, or suspected, because it reached out. Smashed its body against the bars, and reached all its arms outward. That’s what your sensors picked up, but I don’t know how you would have picked up the small amount that came through the iron above it unless you were looking specifically for that signature, and I know you weren’t. No one knows about these experiments; your mother made sure of that. And all the instrumentation has been calibrated to ignore—oh, I wasn’t supposed to say that.” Harry clamped his mouth shut and shuffled forward quickly until he’d drawn ahead of Marcus.

Marcus stared after his father, feet planted in the soil as if they’d suddenly grown roots. He gasped a couple of shocked breaths then spun to glare at his mother. “How did you get the ship’s equipment recalibrated? Why would—” He raised his hands palm outward. “Forget it. It doesn’t matter.” He stomped over the gravelly rise after his father, and half slid down the slope to their shuttle. He’d have a better chance of getting answers once they were back on board and he had access to the computers.

Jonah

JONAH PLODDED along beside Marcus’s mother. His mother! Listening to her drone on about the necessity for experimentation to further the strength and development of the human race across the skies, he was beginning to think being raised by a whore and sold into a brothel hadn’t been such a bad life. Marcus might have been fed and educated, but what kind of hell had he had to endure inside his head. At least Jonah only had to deal with sex, drugs, and violence.

He kept listening to the ramblings of the woman he was beginning to think was stark staring mad as they climbed the rise above their shuttle. The bay door was open, and Jonah could see Marcus already settling into the pilot seat, his father buckling into the dickey seat behind him. Jonah wanted to run down the hill and slam the door before Winni could board, but he couldn’t do that. Firstly, Winni had to answer for her crimes. Secondly, if he left her behind, she’d probably just go back to torturing poor animals. Thirdly—Jonah sighed against his ambivalence—Marcus would be upset with him if he left Winni behind.

Winni’s step became more purposeful the closer they came to the shuttle, and Jonah reached out a hand to restrain her. “You’re sitting behind me,” he said quietly. She glared at him and opened her mouth to speak, but he had his response ready. “It’s either that or my new friend here”—he patted the smooth limb looped over his shoulder and smiled at the rumbling purr that vibrated through his helmet in response—“will sit with you. She’ll probably sit on you, actually, and I won’t give her any instructions not to squeeze too hard.” He grinned at Winni, wide and insincere. “Your choice.”

Winni scowled at him and strode into the shuttle. She ignored her husband and son, jammed herself into the dickey seat behind the copilot’s seat, and began strapping herself in.

Jonah reached up to the animal on his head. “Come down here, beautiful.” The animal’s grip tightened. “I’ll be taking my helmet off soon, so if you want to stay with me, you have to let go.” All the while he spoke, he stroked her arms soothingly. She seemed to like the physical contact and seemed also to want to please him. He sat in his seat and hit the button to seal the shuttle and restore air, hoping the creature could survive with the changed atmosphere. As that was happening, he monitored her for signs of distress, but there were none. If anything she became more animated. He dragged his seat belts over his shoulder and secured the catches at his crotch, batting the curious tentacles out of the way as he moved. “I know you’re curious, but if you don’t back up a bit, you’ll get caught in the clip, and it’ll hurt. I don’t want to hurt you, babe.” He kept his voice soft and soothing as he unclipped and lifted his helmet off, storing it in the compartment beside him before turning to Marcus, only to find him gaping at him. “What?”

Marcus looked swiftly away, clearing his throat and shifting in his seat as he flipped switches on the boards in front of him, to the side, and above. “Um, nothing. Um.” He cleared his throat again. “We’ll be ready for takeoff in a minute.”

The animal reached a curious tentacle over the narrow divide between their seats and stroked down Marcus’s cheek. He jumped and turned to stare at Jonah in shock, but he didn’t push her away. Another tentacle lifted and made the same movement down Jonah’s cheek.

Jonah gasped at the sensations that ran through him at the touch. Sleek warm skin, salty come, Marcus’s naked body pressed up against him the way it had been when they finished the last planet. Jonah grasped the limb and lifted it away from his body, glad he still had his gloves on. “Don’t,” he rasped. Beady black eyes considered him as the tentacles slowly drew back toward her body. “It’s rude to intrude on private thoughts.”

“She did that?” Marcus still gaped at him.

Before Jonah could do more than nod, Winni demanded, “What did it do? What are you hiding from me, Marcus? Harry, what monitoring equipment do you have on you? We should record this.”

“No one’s recording anything,” said Jonah. “You two just sit there and be quiet. Marcus, get us back to the ship.” He glared at the animal—he really needed to name her so he could call her something other than “the animal.” “And you: keep an eye on them behind us, and let me know if they try anything other than breathing.”

The purr rumbled through the front of the cabin, and the animal shifted enough that two tentacles hung over the backs of Jonah’s and Marcus’s seats like they were sensors or microphones. Two more tentacles rested on the floor, supporting the small bulbous body that hung suspended between the seats. The other two tentacles were stretched toward Jonah and Marcus, the tips resting lightly on their shoulders as if the contact was needed to keep her safe.

Jonah looked over at Marcus and shrugged. Marcus smiled and shrugged back before turning his attention to the shuttle and running quickly through the preflight checks with Jonah. Within minutes they were in the air and headed home.

Marcus

THE SUMMONS to the captain’s office was waiting for them when they docked. Marcus glanced at Jonah, the animal once again curled securely around his head and draped over his shoulders. Was she larger than before? His parents followed behind. As they disembarked and entered the open hangar, his mother began her harangue.

“I demand to be taken to the captain. This interruption to my research is untenable.”

She would have continued but Marcus had had enough. “We’re on our way to the captain now, Mother, and I’ll definitely be talking about your research.”

“That won’t be necessary, Marcus. I can explain quite well what we were doing and why we should never have been interrupted.”

Marcus spun to face his mother and strode to her until he was less than an arm’s length away. “You will tell the captain nothing that isn’t directly asked for. In case you haven’t realized it yet, Mother, you were caught conducting experiments on a planet slated for terraforming, in direct contravention to at least a dozen laws I can think of without even referring to the documents. You’re already facing jail time. Don’t make it worse by insisting that you should be allowed to continue.”

“Of course I should be allowed to continue. You don’t have any idea what we were doing there. If my hypothesis is correct, I can solve a lot of the problems currently facing the human race, and I can finally be given the funding I’ve been—”

“You still don’t get it, do you? It doesn’t matter what problems your research might or might not have solved because all of it’s unethical and illegal. What you’ve been doing to this animal and probably hosts of other species as well won’t be allowed to continue. This isn’t about you or your grants or your reputation. This is about what underpins us in our humanity and civilization.”

“You always were such an idealist, you foolish boy. I know the captain agrees with me, so we’ll talk to him and then see how far you get with your idiot notion of preventing my research from continuing.” Winni strode toward the exit, not waiting for her police escort or her family.

Marcus’s father paused beside him. He didn’t look at Marcus at all but seemed fascinated by the creature curled over Jonah’s head and shoulders. “I had no idea it was sentient until after we’d started the experiment. I promise I didn’t. If I had….” He looked away, across the expanse of the hangar. “You know, Winni has often insisted on putting some little plant or animal on planets to test reactions. I never thought—I wonder how many other intelligent species I’ve injured or killed because I didn’t take the time to check Winni’s assertions they were nothing more than instinctive….” He patted Marcus on the shoulder, not seeming to notice the way Marcus’s muscles jumped in rejection of the contact. “Don’t worry. I’ll fix this.” He wandered away in the wake of his formidable wife.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Marcus

SEETHING. THAT was a good word. Much better than irritated or annoyed. Furious. That was another one that described Marcus’s emotions toward his mother as they strode down the corridor to White’s office. Livid. Fuming. Enraged. Incensed. His mind stuttered to a stop at the same time they reached White’s door. He couldn’t think of any more words that didn’t include “fucking kill the bitch.”

His mother had already knocked perfunctorily and opened the door. Without being invited to enter.

“He won’t let her continue, will he?” Jonah walked beside him, the fingers of one hand stroking a long limb that was draped across his chest. “They can’t experiment on animals.”

“It depends on how deep White is already into this. If he’s been working with her for a while, we might have problems.”

“Is he…?” Jonah clamped his mouth shut, then continued. “What can we do to stop them?”

We. Jonah thought they were a “we.” Marcus wanted to stop and… breathe in the knowledge they were a team, breathe in the joy that came with being trusted by someone, unconditionally. He glared at White’s open door and his father dithering in the hallway, taking one step toward Winni before taking two back toward Marcus. Finally, he seemed to make up his mind and followed his wife into White’s office. “What they’re doing is illegal. We’ll do whatever we have to do.” He reached a hand up to stroke the animal as Jonah was. “Little ones like this need someone to protect them.” The tentacle wrapped around his wrist and throbbed over the soft skin on the underside. The limb Jonah stroked moved to wrap around Jonah’s wrist in the same way. Liquid warmth flooded from his wrist, filling Marcus with a languid sensuality that could very quickly become something much more. His breath caught, and he tugged his hand free.

Jonah regarded him solemnly, his green eyes pulsing with a disconcerting mixture of knowledge, desire, and power. Marcus cleared his throat and joined his father in White’s office. Jonah entered behind him and closed the door.

Winni was standing over White, finger jabbing in the air in front of his face, her voice strident. “This interruption to our research is untenable. Forcing us to come here has caused such a delay we’re going to have to begin all the calibrations again. The original recordings and statistics are absolutely useless considering the growth that has occurred since we began.” She waved a negligent hand toward Jonah.

The low rumbling purr of the animal stopped abruptly. It wasn’t until it stopped that Marcus realized how soothing he’d found it even though he hadn’t thought he’d noticed it at all. The atmosphere in the small office was suddenly icy, although Marcus and Jonah seemed to be the only ones who noticed.

“Mother,” he said, keeping his voice low and calm. “You weren’t experimenting on a different strain of bacteria to see if it could increase crop production. This is a sentient being.”

“Don’t interrupt, Marcus.” She glared at him. “It’s an animal with less sense than the average rat.” She turned back to the captain. “How soon can you have our shuttle ready to take us back to the surface? You’ll have to delay the terraforming until we’re set up.”

“No.”

Everyone froze. It was the first time Jonah had spoken, and his forceful tenor came as a shock. Winni didn’t stay frozen long. “This has nothing to do with you,” she began.

“My contract clearly states the planets I terraform will be completely uninhabited. If there’s even one bacterial cell present, I don’t go ahead.” His heavy gaze landed on the captain. “If you’re found in breach of contract, the fine is equal to the original payment of the contract, plus 15 percent. I’ll be sticking to the contract, to the letter, Captain. What about you?”

“Oh, well, there’s no reason for this to get all legal. I’m sure we can come up with a compromise that will please everyone.”

“Captain,” Marcus interjected, “I’ll be submitting my usual report to Admiralty at the conclusion of this contract. I don’t think the admiral or any of his legal advisors would be happy to hear about any compromises that might lead to a breach of contract—especially considering the sum of money that breach would incur.” He glanced at his parents but ignored the leaden feeling in his stomach and continued. “My report will also include the reasons for the delay in the start of the terraforming process for this contract.” Even the Chancellor himself couldn’t hide a report sent so openly to so many people.

“Marcus, you can’t!” Winni’s façade broke for the first time since Marcus had seen her in the cave. “If you do that, there’ll be an investigation. My research will be delayed indefinitely.”

Marcus sighed at the look of chagrined resignation on his father’s face. As he watched the older man, Harry looked up at Marcus and nodded. “There’ll be more than an investigation, Mother. I suggest you contact your legal counsel. You’re probably going to need representation.” As he spoke he removed his small tablet from his thigh pocket and tapped in various codes.

“There won’t be any charges laid, Marcus. How dare you suggest such a thing? There’s no evidence at all to suggest we were doing anything wrong.”

Harry coughed, and she glared at him. The glare intensified as Winni recognized the chagrin on Harry’s face and what it meant.

“You and I both know that Dad always keeps complete records of his research and would never allow the originals to be corrupted or changed.” Marcus held up his tablet. “I know where he keeps his records, and I’ve just taken copies of them.” He looked around at the faces of those gathered there. Winni looked furious, White looked terrified, his father resigned. Jonah—Jonah with his bright green eyes and pale blond hair and smooth rubbery alien wrapped around him—looked puzzled.

“Jonah,” Marcus continued. “Can you sweep the planet for life signs as we continue in orbit? I’m not convinced we can trust the ship’s equipment. If nothing shows in the next twenty-four hours, we can begin this contract.” He waited for Jonah’s nod of acknowledgment. “I have reports to write.”

“You’ll regret this, Marcus. I’m going to call the Chancellor about this. Your career will go nowhere—if you have a career at all.”

He ignored his parents and White, nodded at Jonah, and then left.

Jonah

JONAH SLIPPED out of the office as soon as Marcus’s mother insisted White secure a comm to Earth for her. Before the door closed completely, he heard Winni say, “The Chancellor will agree my experiments must continue.” Marcus was already out of sight and, while Jonah wanted to make sure Marcus was all right, he needed to be alone more. The small office had seethed with uncontrolled emotion. White’s fear clashed with Winni’s anger and greed. Harry was sad, a deep sadness that had taken a long time to build. But it was Marcus’s loss and betrayal that had torn Jonah to shreds.

It flayed him, red raw and burning with grief. He rushed to his quarters. Locked the door behind him and tore at his flight suit. The animal squeaked and jumped off his shoulders, landing precariously on the back of the sofa as Jonah threw his clothes from him and slammed open the shower door. Scalding water burned away the tears and hid the harsh sobs that tore from his chest. It was his fault. He’d caused the pain that radiated from Marcus. If he had ignored that tiny blip of life and done his job, Marcus would never have found out what his parents were doing. He’d never have been put into a position of choosing Jonah or them.

Finally, Jonah turned the water off. Guilt flooded him as he realized he’d used more than a week’s quota of water in one shower, but he felt calmer now than he did before. His stomach twisted as he thought of the situation with Marcus and his parents, but then he walked into his sitting room to find the animal perched on the end of his sofa gazing alertly out the viewing window at the planet below. She began to purr as he came close. He would keep her in his suite as a precaution against any bacteria she might have brought with her, even though the routine decontamination they went through after returning from the planet would have killed anything harmful.

“Hey, beautiful. Is this your first glimpse of a planet from orbit?”

She chirped curiously and tilted her head to the side.

“No, I suppose you don’t understand what I’m talking about. You’re only little, aren’t you?”

Another chirp, followed by the soothing rumbling purr.

“You’ve grown quite a bit since we found you. I wonder how quickly you’ll reach maturity and how big you’ll grow.” He patted one of her limbs absently as he spoke. “We really do need a name for you. What sort of name would you like? You could have a name like Ruth or Boadicea.” The rumble turned to a growl. “No, I don’t suppose they suit you at all. You’re a bit clingy and soft and squishy at the same time, aren’t you? Like tapioca pudding.” The purr grew in volume. “You like that one? Pudding?” One of her limbs lifted and slapped Jonah across the back of his head. “Ow. So, not pudding,” he said as he rubbed his head. “Tapioca?” The tentacle slithered around Jonah’s neck and settled comfortingly as the purr grew loud enough to vibrate the sofa. “Okay, Tapioca it is. Are you hungry? We should find something you can eat.” Tapioca snuggled in, showing no inclination to move. “Okay, not hungry yet?”

Someone knocked on the door, and Jonah froze. He hadn’t let Marcus know they were ready to begin terraforming, and it wasn’t a mealtime. Frowning, Jonah walked over to the door and stared at it. The second knock, right in front of him, made him jump. He palmed the mechanism to open the door.

“Good, you’re here.” Winni pushed Jonah aside and strode into his sitting room. She scowled at Tapioca before turning her glare to Jonah. “Have you begun yet?” She clapped her hands and called out. “Harry, hurry up, will you. You need to get set up so we don’t miss anything.”

Harry stumbled into the room, laden down with boxes. A coil of electrical cords was looped over his shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Jonah asked.

“We can’t continue our experiments on the surface, so I’ve made some notes to rewrite everything as an observation of your process. Someone will arrive shortly to take the animal back to the surface, and you can begin.”

“Winni, that isn’t what we discussed.”

“Shut up, Harry. Of course we discussed it. You disagreed; I said we’d do it anyway. How else are we going to get the results we want? The Planet Whisperer will cooperate.” She glanced up at Jonah, then went back to work. “You don’t have to worry about your contracts. This research is much more important than anything they might say.” As Winni spoke, she opened the boxes Harry put down and pulled out equipment and began setting it up.

“No,” said Jonah.

“You don’t have a choice, Mr. Starovski. I’ve spoken to the Chancellor, and he agrees that these experiments are vital to the future of our race, and they will be carried out.” She lifted another piece of equipment from a box and handed it to her husband. “Set that up in front of the viewing panel. It’ll give us the best view of the planet. Make sure you connect the infrared to it so we can see what happens beneath the outer atmosphere.”

Jonah felt invisible. His heart pounded, and sweat beaded on his upper lip. Tapioca had moved to the far end of the sofa and was curled into a ball, eye slits barely visible above her arms. “You can’t do this,” he said. They ignored him. At least, Winni ignored him; Harry shot him a commiserating look but continued setting up. “I want you to leave.” This time even Harry ignored him. He strode to his communicator and punched in Marcus’s contact number. As soon as the line connected, Jonah began talking.

“They won’t leave. You have to get them out of here.”

“Jonah? What’s wrong?”

“They’re here, and they won’t leave.” Jonah heard what he was saying and knew he wasn’t making sense, but nothing in his head made sense either. His breathing ratcheted higher, and sweat trickled down his neck. Harry approached Tapioca, a bundle of electrodes gripped in one hand. Jonah gripped the handset tighter so his trembling fingers wouldn’t drop it. “Marcus!”

“I’m on my way.”

Jonah dropped the communicator and rushed over to Tapioca. He pushed Harry away, then lifted her to his chest, cradling her close. “Stay away from her.” Tapioca curled all six of her limbs around him and held on tightly.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Winni said. “How are we going to monitor the effects of terraforming on it if we don’t connect it to the equipment? Harry, get it connected and into the cage quickly. They’ll be here in a few minutes to collect it for the shuttle.”

The door slid open, and Jonah gripped Tapioca more tightly and backed up toward his bedroom, ready to make a run for it and lock himself inside. He couldn’t let them take her. He’d seen what terraforming did to biological forms; he still had nightmares over it, and he wasn’t going to allow anyone to force him to do it again.

“Mother! What are you doing?” Marcus strode inside.

“Oh, good, you’re here. Get that animal from Starovski and bring it to your father. Once we’re set up and the shuttle has landed, Starovski can begin.”

Marcus

THE LOOK on Jonah’s face stopped Marcus solid. To most other people, Jonah would have looked stoic, calm even, but after spending so much time with him, Marcus could tell—Jonah was close to panicking. Marcus looked closer, noted the tiny creases under Jonah’s eyes and the firm set of his lips. Forget panic; he was close to violence. Even as Marcus’s heartbeat accelerated, he tapped his comm unit over his name on the left breast pocket on his jacket. “Security, you’re needed at Mr. Starovski’s suite. On the double.”

“Oh, good,” said Winni. “That will make things much easier. Harry, why have you stopped working? Get the equipment set up and operating so we can start as soon as security arrives to get the animal.”

“Um, I don’t think—”

“I know. That’s why you married me.” Winni strode toward Jonah, but Marcus stepped in front of her before she’d crossed the room.

“Mother, go and sit on the sofa until security gets here.” He strode to the desk and opened the ship’s records, only to find White hadn’t confined his parents to their quarters. All he’d done was restrict their access to outside communications and their equipment. Restricted. Not denied. Marcus ground his teeth together so hard, he was sure it could be heard at the other side of the room, but it was either risk a cracked tooth or begin a rant about compromised officers.

“Oh, this is ridiculous,” said Winni as she strode to the sofa and sat. “There’s altogether too much notice taken of people’s sensibilities, if you ask me. Harry, you’ve stopped working again.”

Before Harry could respond, the door chimed, and Marcus opened it to two security officers. “Escort the professors to their suite, please, and ensure they don’t leave again today. Later this afternoon, can you get someone to pack up and collect this equipment? Store it in the secure section of the hold.”

“Yes, sir,” replied the sergeant. He turned to Harry and gestured. “Come along, Professor.”

Harry sighed and nodded, then walked to the door.

Winni shot to her feet as the other security officer walked toward her. “This is ridiculous. Marcus, what do you think you’re doing?”

“You entered Mr. Starovski’s rooms without invitation, Mother, and began procedures for illegal experiments.” He tapped on his tablet as he spoke. “You should already have been confined to quarters, under arrest, pending investigation. I’ll make sure that happens now. I’ve begun the process for charges to be laid. That will be added to the report I file.” He hit send, then immediately opened another window. His mother wasn’t going to let him get away with this show of defiance without retaliation. She seemed invincible at the moment, especially after the Admiralty had informed him the orders came directly from the Chancellor’s office. As soon as he was finished here, he’d have to find out what his mother had on the Chancellor to have such unwavering, unquestioning support from him.

His career was probably over now, but he knew she wouldn’t stop there. She’d want him destroyed financially too. Blocking out his mother’s strident protests and threats to him as security restrained her and marched her from the room, Marcus logged in to his bank and initiated a transfer of all the funds he had available to him.

He had to pause for a few seconds because he couldn’t think of anywhere he could put the money his mother wouldn’t be able to find and somehow break into; then he heard Jonah murmuring soothing sounds to the animal, and he grinned. Opening another window, he quickly found Jonah’s banking details for his contract.

“Jonah,” he said. “Which of your accounts is the most secure?”

Jonah started but answered readily enough. “They should all be now. I’ve changed the access codes and authority to all of them.”

Marcus nodded, chose an account at random, and hit Send. He smiled at the message on his screen. He might not have access to any of his money now, but neither would his mother.

By the time he’d finished and put his tablet back in his thigh pocket, his mother’s strident tones had faded down the hall, the door was locked, and Jonah’s suite was blessedly silent, except for the soft purr of the animal snuggled against Jonah’s chest.

“Thank you,” Jonah whispered. “I didn’t know what to… how to….”

“Yeah, Mother has that effect on people.” Marcus flopped down onto the sofa with Jonah. “I’ve bought us some time, but don’t think she’s going to give up. She’ll argue her way out of house arrest, and she’ll be back angrier than ever.”

“Does no one else care what she’s doing is illegal?”

Marcus leaned his head back against the sofa and closed his eyes. “I’ve seen her in action. Hell, I’ve been on the receiving end of it most of my life. There’s no arguing with her. She sounds so plausible and powerful, and she has backing you wouldn’t believe. Sometimes I think the only way to stop her would be to expose her completely, but even then she’s probably got a plan B, or a plan X, Y, or Z, and everyone else would come out looking like vindictive criminals and she’d smell like a fresh breeze.”

“I won’t let her take Tapioca.”

“Tapioca?”

The animal turned her head and stared solemnly at Marcus. He laughed. “It suits her. Soft and squishy and so sweet you constantly want more.”

The purring increased in volume as Jonah stroked his hand over her head and fondled the small buds on the side.

“Are those ears?”

“I think so. I keep remembering a dog in the neighborhood where I grew up. It had the softest floppy ears and loved it when I played with them.”

“Shit! Is she growing into something you recognize? Just for you?”

“I don’t think it’ll go that far. She has six legs and smooth skin, like a dolphin. I don’t think that’ll change, but I think that there’s some leeway while she’s growing.” Jonah looked sheepish. “It’s just a feeling I have.”

“Have your feelings ever been wrong before?”

He shrugged. “Not that I can remember, but I’ve spent a lot of time on board ship so haven’t tested it out, except on a planetwide scale, for a long time.”

They sat silently for a while, and Marcus closed his eyes again to better soak up the peace while he could. He didn’t even jump when a soft rounded tentacle slid over his forearm; he just lifted his other hand and stroked it gently. Beside him Jonah sighed, and they sat in silence, listening to Tapioca’s contented purrs.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jonah

“THANK YOU,” said Jonah after the quiet had had a chance to soak into his skin and calm his racing thoughts.

“For what?” Marcus sounded languid, like he’d just woken from a wonderful dream.

“They’re your parents. I didn’t expect you to… to….” Defend him, was the only term that came to mind.

“Don’t worry about it, Jonah. I’ve been dealing with my mother all my life. It took me a while, but I know exactly what she’s like, and I also know how to stop the worst of it.” He shifted on his seat. “It’s fine. It’ll be fine.”

“Rats of evil! She’s going to destroy you, isn’t she?”

Marcus chuckled. “Not anymore.” After a few seconds silence, he continued. “By the way, you’ll notice a heap of money in your account. It’s yours to keep, but I won’t be averse to a small donation to keep me liquid once this shit storm is over.”

Jonah jumped to his feet, startling Tapioca, who leaped to the viewing panel and stuck there like an overgrown spider. “You gave me your money?”

Marcus shrugged. “It was the only place I could think of that she wouldn’t be able to touch.”

“You can’t do that. It’s yours. You have to take it back.”

“Relax, Jonah. I wasn’t using it anyway. I have my pay coming in regularly. It’s not as if I use much of that when I’m on board ship all the time. I’ll soon save enough to live on for a very long time. What I gave to you was nothing.”

“I don’t care. It’s yours. As soon as this is over, you take it back.”

“Okay.” Marcus stood and cupped a hand around Jonah’s cheek. “As soon as this is over, you can transfer it back to me. In the meantime, you can keep it safe from my mother. Okay?”

He was caretaker. That felt better than beneficiary. Jonah could handle caretaker. He nodded. “Okay. I’ll look after it for you.”

Marcus smiled at him, and Jonah found himself smiling back. He couldn’t stop the stupid grin overtaking his face, alien and uncomfortable, but there to stay. Heat rushed from his chest, up his neck, and over his face until he was sure steam was wafting from the top of his scalp. The roots of his hair prickled, and he turned away, glaring at the planet below. Thankfully, Marcus remained silent, and Jonah pulled himself together.

“We’re late starting,” he said reluctantly. Apart from the whole becoming-a-science-experiment thing, Jonah had enjoyed his day with Marcus and Tapioca. It had been quiet and peaceful, with no demands on him to do or be anything other than what he was. He sighed. That couldn’t last. There’d never been a time in his life when someone didn’t expect something from him. Right now he was the Planet Whisperer, and he had a job to do.

Marcus rose to his feet and began unbuttoning his jacket. “Is the footstool in the bedroom?”

Jonah nodded. “Take Tapioca in there too, will you? I don’t know what impact this will have on her.”

“Sure,” Marcus said easily as he gently lifted the animal off the window and into his arms. She curled into him trustingly and purred.

“I’m going to keep her,” Jonah said. The sudden volume of his voice made Tapioca start, but her purring became louder.

Marcus grinned at him. “I kind of figured that when I found out you’d named her.” He looked down at Tapioca. “What do you think about that, beautiful girl? Do you want Jonah to be your daddy?”

Jonah squeaked. Then he gulped. He opened his mouth to protest. He couldn’t be anybody’s daddy, least of all an animal of unknown origin and unknown talents. He was just keeping her with him to make sure she was safe. That was all. No words came out, though his mouth flapped open and closed several times before Marcus came out of the bedroom—minus Tapioca—footstool and lotion in hand. Jonah continued to try to justify his decision, without sound, as Marcus closed the bedroom door, then set things down and continued to undress.

“It’s okay, Jonah. She wants to stay with you too. I ordered a selection of food from the replicator for her to see if there’s anything she’ll eat. You don’t need to make any more decisions than that.” He unbuttoned his fly and lowered his zip. “Get undressed so we can start this planet. The quicker we finish, the better chance we’ll have of thwarting my mother’s plans to turn you into one of her experiments.” Marcus draped his clothes over the workstation on the desk, double-checked the door was locked against any interruptions, and then set his footstool in place in front of the viewing panel.

Jonah’s heart, racing at the sight of Marcus stripping his clothes off and revealing all that smooth pale golden skin, stuttered and sank. Of course, Marcus was only interested in getting the terraforming done. He hadn’t come to enjoy what they did, like Jonah did. He didn’t look forward to their time together, didn’t crave Jonah’s touch, the way Jonah had begun craving his. Jonah ducked his head and swiftly discarded his clothes.

He turned toward the window and regarded the planet below, automatically scanning for life-forms. As he watched the swirling gases, an idea came to him. Before he thought it might not be a good idea, he blurted it out.

“If you fuck me before I start chanting, it might make it stronger and faster.”

The silence in the room was rich and full of fruity notes and tannins, like an aged wine.

“You want to start before the chanting takes over?”

He nodded, swallowing against the sudden nervousness that filled his throat like pneumonia phlegm.

“It’ll be more than the release from the chant, then.” Marcus’s voice floated, barely disturbing the tentative air between them.

“I want more,” rasped Jonah. “With you.” No! Inside, his head screamed at him that he couldn’t do this. It wouldn’t work. Marcus would reject him. Laugh at him. Deride him for needing… needing….

Marcus sucked in an audible breath and closed the distance between them. His hands cupped Jonah’s face, his breath warm and fragrant of something lemony that he’d eaten before he came. “I want more too,” he whispered. “I don’t know what… it might not….” He sighed and shook his head. “I want more of you. As much as you can give me.” He closed the minute distance between Jonah’s lips and his and pressed them together in a soft promise of care.

Jonah melted. He stood, leaning over Marcus, kissing him tentatively, then more deeply, then desperately, but inside, he was a melted pot of goo waiting for Marcus to mold him into something useable and desirable. Something wanted. Perhaps… something loved.

Marcus

KISSING. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. F-u-c-k. He had no idea… no idea at all that kissing—kissing—could be so…. What was left of Marcus’s brain switched off when Jonah’s hands trailed down his spine. One settled on his lower back, one long, thin finger delving into Marcus’s crease, hitting nerve endings he hadn’t realized existed. He moaned. Pressed closer. Scrabbled his palms, his fingertips over Jonah’s warm skin, slipping in the sweat beading on the surface.

Jonah’s hands moved lower, the finger sliding deeper into the heat between Marcus’s buttocks. His other hand smoothed over Marcus’s butt cheek, the fingertips cupping under, digging into the crease, pressing, lifting. Marcus lifted his leg in response, and he hooked it around Jonah’s thigh, pressing them together, cocks rubbing, digging in, weeping, closer, harder. More.

The air around them sparked hot and cold, steamy, thin, and Marcus gasped, clinging to Jonah’s shoulders as his vision cleared and he looked into the stunned face of the man who’d turned his life upside down. They stared at each other, panting, speechless as their skin cooled, and the trembling racing over them slowed enough that Marcus could put his leg down and step back.

“I think…,” he panted. “I think….” He couldn’t finish, couldn’t even think what he was trying to say.

“Yeah, me too,” said Jonah, just as breathless.

Marcus smiled, then grinned when Jonah smiled too. Soon they were chuckling like idiots, clinging to each other, sweat-slick skin gliding, threatening to begin the maelstrom all over again.

Marcus dragged his concentration back to the job at hand. Jonah had contracts to complete, and Marcus had reports to submit every day. What they were building between them—whatever that might be—would still be there at the end. Marcus had to believe that or he was risking everything he had, and everything he was, for nothing. A momentary pleasure. “Are you sure you want this before you start chanting? Won’t it throw your concentration?”

Jonah shrugged. “It occurred to me that with the way the energy builds through the chant, if we began the build before the chant as well, it would build higher, and the release would be greater.”

Like a bucket of ice tipped over my head. He doesn’t really want me to fuck him at all. It’s just for the planet. Marcus pushed down his instinctive protest. He opened his mouth but closed it again before he could berate Jonah for leading him on, for making promises he wasn’t going to follow through on. Jonah had promised nothing. It was all Marcus and his naïve romanticism, making up stories to make him feel better about what he was doing—selling himself for the job. “Do you often experiment like this with your assistants?” he asked.

A fiery blush washed up Jonah’s cheeks. “We have to do it anyway. I… I just thought it would be better—”

“That’s fine.” Marcus knew he sounded angry but couldn’t do anything about it. He was angry. Furious. With himself. What a fool he was to think Jonah might be starting to care about him and what they did together, that he might be starting to think it was something special. Like Marcus did.

“Marcus—” Jonah reached a hand toward him as he stepped back, out of reach.

“No, it’s fine.” Marcus picked up the lotion. “Let’s get started.”

Jonah stared at him for a long time before he sighed and turned to the window. He rested his palms against the panel, spread his legs, and stuck his ass out to give Marcus easy access.

Marcus swallowed against the sudden burning in his eyes and squirted lotion into his palm. This was just a job to Jonah. He had to remember that, regardless of what it had started to become for him.

He warmed the lotion, then began at Jonah’s shoulders, smoothing over the jumping nerves and digging in to the tight muscles, gradually working his way down Jonah’s back. He pushed the footstool to the side and knelt behind Jonah as he moved down over his hips and legs, loving the feel of the smooth, almost hairless skin under his fingers and the firm muscles that jumped under his touch.

“Marcus, please,” Jonah begged. “Touch me.”

He almost—almost—laughed, made a joke of Jonah’s need, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He needed to touch Jonah as much as Jonah apparently needed to be touched. What he wouldn’t give for their reasons to be the same as well. He swallowed down the pointless desire and ran his hands up the back of Jonah’s legs until his firm buttocks separated beneath Marcus’s fingers and thumbs. As his fingers cupped Jonah’s buttocks, his thumbs slipped neatly between, and he gasped at the warmth that swallowed his fingertips.

“Marcus,” Jonah hissed, need clawing through the word. Then silence, then harsh panting. Jonah tipped his hips farther.

Marcus’s thumbs slipped unerringly to the wrinkled bud of Jonah’s anus, and he worked the lotion around the tight hole. When he couldn’t stand it anymore, he pushed one thumb in to the first knuckle, then slipped it out again.

“Marcus,” groaned Jonah. “Please. Don’t tease.”

Marcus released Jonah’s buttock long enough to squirt more lotion, then returned his thumb to its spot and pressed in again, deeper this time.

Jonah dropped his head to the glass and panted, his hips jerking back and forth, pushing Marcus’s thumb deeper each time. Marcus moved his other hand and pressed his thumb in with the first one, stretching Jonah. He inhaled sharply, but the earthiness of Jonah’s body here didn’t repel him. It was like the richest loam in Uncle Roger’s garden back home. It smelled like he belonged right where he was, never to leave again. He leaned forward, breathing deeply, then stuck his tongue out and licked the wrinkled skin stretched around his thumbs.

Above him Jonah gasped. “Fuck, Marcus, if you keep that up, I won’t last. Get in me, now. Please.”

Jonah’s words brought Marcus’s awareness back to himself. His cock throbbed with need, as close as he’d been to coming without touching himself since he was a teen. He nipped the smooth skin on Jonah’s butt cheek as he carefully removed his fingers from his ass. Then he stood and swiped more lotion over his cock, the coolness calming him so he knew he’d last at least long enough to bury himself into Jonah.

He hooked his toes around the footstool and dragged it into place before stepping up onto it. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah. Any more ready and I’ll burst.” Jonah’s voice had the harsh gravelly tones that accompanied his chanting, and Marcus knew he was close to going under the influence of it. It might be vanity, but he wanted Jonah to be fully aware of him as he sank into his body. He wanted Jonah to feel every inch of him stretching every inch of him, without having to accept he was just part of the terraforming process. He wanted to be more. To feel more.

“Feel me, Jonah,” he said as the head of his cock slipped inside.

“Marcus!”

Marcus rocked back a little, then in again, farther this time. Jonah met him, thrust for thrust.

On the fourth thrust, a harsh groan burst from Jonah. It quickly morphed into the familiar gravelly chanting Marcus had become so familiar with. He closed his eyes and breathed with the rhythm of the sounds Jonah made and soon sank under the influence of the chant, his body moving smoothly in and out of Jonah’s, his hands tweaking Jonah’s nipples before sliding down. He teased Jonah as much as he could, playing over his skin, digging into the firm muscles but never touching his cock.

“Marcus!” His name came layered in the chant, and Marcus felt Jonah’s power wash over him and fill him with warmth and joy. He laughed and thrust deeper and faster as his hand gripped Jonah’s cock and slid in the precome. The chant deepened, like it did at the end, but Marcus knew it couldn’t be over yet. Jonah had only been chanting a few minutes; they had hours to go yet. Marcus wasn’t sure what he was going to do once he came because it felt like his entire life would shoot out of the end of his cock, and he’d collapse in a dazed heap, leaving Jonah to finish the chant on his own.

Beneath his hands Jonah’s cock swelled like it did just before he came, and Marcus squeezed tighter, loving the feel of Jonah out of control, unable to stop his release. Within seconds warm, sticky fluid spurted over the viewing panel and over Marcus’s hand.

The chant continued unabated.

Jonah’s ass clenched, the tight rhythm holding Marcus inside, unable to move while Jonah’s body slumped forward. Marcus, still inside Jonah, went with him, leaning over his back. He panted through the tightness gripping his cock, preventing his own release, and wrapped his arms around Jonah’s body as he waited for Jonah’s muscles to relax enough for him to continue moving.

The chant rumbled through Jonah’s chest, still going even though he’d just come. Warm tingles raced over Marcus’s skin and sank deep. He breathed easier, in concert with Jonah. As he closed his eyes, he began humming, his tenor a bright counterpoint to the bass rumble of Jonah’s chant. It came easily, without thought, as though Jonah’s magic was connected to him and drawing him along for the ride. A niggling thought at the back of Marcus’s mind told him this wasn’t normal, but it felt good. For the first time since he began this project, he felt in control of his actions. He smiled as he hummed and ran his fingertips over Jonah’s skin.

By the time Jonah relaxed enough to release the death grip he’d had on Marcus’s penis, Marcus had come down from the edge. He wasn’t edging with the need to come anymore and moved languidly, enjoying the rippling sensations of desire as they skittered over his skin and pulsed deep within his body. He continued to hum with Jonah.

Gradually, the pace increased, and sweat began to slither between them, prickly and alternately warm and cold in the moving air. The languidness reduced as Marcus’s pace in and out increased, and soon he was slamming into Jonah, grunting on each instroke, gasping on the outstrokes.

Jonah’s chanting stopped abruptly, and he stood, hands braced against the glass, head hanging low, sweat dripping from his hair, his chin, and his nose. Marcus’s need ratcheted higher, and he slammed into Jonah in a rhythm as old as the stars. Within seconds tingles skittered across his skin and pulsed through his body, racing down his spine and squeezing his balls. He froze, hanging on the precipice, dangling on the edge of divinity, then, just as Jonah’s body began rhythmically pulsing around and below him, he came. A harsh cry burst from him, drowning out Jonah’s whine of completion. He dug his fingers into Jonah’s hips and held on through the maelstrom.

In the silence that followed, Marcus and Jonah slithered down the viewing panel and collapsed in a sweaty, shivering heap on the floor. Cool air wafted over them as their gasping breaths fogged the window overlooking the planet below.

Marcus slid from Jonah’s body, and they wriggled around until they could clasp each other close and hold on. Tears flowed down Marcus’s cheeks; his throat was raw from his harsh breathing and cries of completion, and every muscle in his body felt like it was about to liquefy. He wanted to speak, but his mouth couldn’t remember how to form words, and there wasn’t enough spit in his mouth to make more than a garbled choking noise.

It was enough. Jonah wrapped heavy arms around him and dragged his head close enough to plant a panting, openmouthed kiss on his forehead. Marcus stopped trying to make sense of anything, closed his eyes, and allowed sleep to take him.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Jonah

IT COULD have been five minutes or it could have been more before Marcus moved against him. Jonah had been leaning against the glass viewing panel, his head turned to watch the swirling clouds around the planet below.

A chill air ghosted across his skin, making him shiver. Or that could have been his thoughts. The chant had lasted a little more than an hour, one-fifth what it usually went for, yet Jonah was more exhausted than he felt after days of chanting. The planet also showed the amount of energy he had poured into it. Already there were glimpses of clear atmosphere, of water clouds forming, rather than toxic gases.

Marcus’s face snuggled into the juncture of Jonah’s neck and shoulder. Every cell in his body cried out for him to cuddle him close, to start it all over again. Not because it would benefit the planet, but because Jonah had never felt connected to anyone like that before. It was like Marcus was an extension of his consciousness, of his sense of reason in the world. Like they belonged together. Marcus sighed, and Jonah froze.

The chill wasn’t from the air anymore but from what Jonah could sense, smell on Marcus’s breath. He gripped his shoulder and pushed him away.

“What the fuck did you do?” he demanded, immediately knowing how unreasonable he was being. Marcus hadn’t done anything other than what Jonah demanded he do. Jonah had done it. He’d done it all. He twisted out from under Marcus’s warm, pliable body and scrambled to his feet. Beside him, Marcus, his face blank with shock, rose too.

“What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything you didn’t ask for? Did I hurt you? I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he babbled, hands reaching for Jonah. Jonah stepped back. “I thought I was doing it right. I thought you liked it. I’m… I’m sorry.”

Fuck, he was going to cry. Jonah rubbed the sudden tightness in his chest and stepped farther away. “Don’t touch me.” He ran a hand through his hair, tugged at the strands before he let go. “Fuck. Look at you!” he exclaimed finally.

Marcus looked down at himself but almost immediately returned his frightened gaze to Jonah. “Jonah? I have to admit, buddy, you’re scaring me here. What’s wrong?”

Jonah grabbed Marcus’s wrist and dragged him to the bedroom door. He pushed it open so hard it slammed against the wall and bounced back at him. He caught it and pushed it away as he dragged Marcus into the room and pushed him to stand in front of the full-length mirror. “Look!”

Marcus looked.

And gasped.

“Fuck,” he said.

“Exactly,” said Jonah.

Marcus ran his hands down his suddenly impressive pecs and chiseled abs. “I’m cut.” He ran his hands back up again. “How did that happen?”

Jonah tugged on his hair again, his breath billowing out in uncomfortable bellows. “I don’t know. It’s never happened before.” He rubbed the heels of his hands against his stinging eyes. “I’ve never done that before—you know, chanting at the same time.” He lowered his hands and glared at Marcus. “Fuck.”

Marcus stared at himself silently for a while, tilting his head from one side to the other. “Well, it’s not a bad change, at least.” He looked at Jonah. “Is it permanent? Or will it wear off?”

“How the hell do I know? Didn’t you hear me say I’d never done that before?” Jonah began pacing. “What if the changes are more than what we can see? What if I’ve done something to you that… that….” Jonah couldn’t breathe through the cramp in his stomach and the lump in his throat. His eyes stung, and everything in him blurred.

“Hey, Jonah,” whispered Marcus as he stepped in front of him and drew him gently into his arms—arms with larger biceps than they’d had that morning. “I feel fine. Stop worrying about it. It’ll be okay. There’s no way you’d ever hurt me.”

Jonah pushed back, ignoring the hot tears pouring down his cheeks. “You don’t know that. I don’t want you to die!” he wailed. His legs gave out under him, and he crumpled to the floor, his breathing fractured. Is this what hyperventilating feels like?

Jonah dragged Marcus down with him. Marcus barely had enough time to catch him under his arms and soften his fall. Jonah’s thoughts spun, but none of them could find purchase in the new reality of what he’d done. He tried to take deep, deliberate breaths to quell the panicked screams bubbling up inside him, begging for release, but he couldn’t. His mind spun with images of flames and heat and death. Jonah never meant to do anything to Marcus. Not him. Marcus was always kind and gentle. He’d never hurt Jonah.

Jonah should never have suggested what he did. Marcus didn’t know what he was agreeing to. Jonah should have known. He should have remembered and known. Marcus sighed above him and pressed a kiss to Jonah’s hair. Jonah didn’t remember because he was thinking he’d get to have sex with Marcus without it being all about the terraforming. Idiot.

Jonah’s sobbed noisily and messily over Marcus’s chest. Through the noise he heard Marcus’s voice.

“Hey, Jonah. I’m okay. I’m not going to die. Why are you so upset? You can see I’m fine.”

Jonah just shook his head, his hair rasping against Marcus’s nipple. Marcus patted Jonah’s shoulder. “Come on. Get up and into bed. I’ll bring you a cloth to wipe your face and a glass of water. You’ll feel much better then.”

Jonah stayed where he was, gripping Marcus more tightly so he couldn’t move. “Jonah? Tell me what’s wrong. It’s not just that I suddenly have muscles, is it? There must be more to it than that.” A soft chittering sounded beside him and he turned to find Tapioca sidling up to them, one tentacled limb hovering in the air in front of her like an antenna. “You’ve got Tapioca worried too, love,” continued Marcus. He tugged on Jonah again, and this time he rose at the pull. “Come on. Into bed.”

Jonah rose like slow-moving lava, gradually unfolding from his curl around Marcus, then stumbled to the bed. He crawled under the covers and curled into a tight ball. If he kept his eyes closed, if he stayed curled up, he wouldn’t have to see anything, and he wouldn’t feel anything. Marcus’s hand left him, and he heard the sound of running water from the bathroom. While he was in there, Tapioca climbed onto the bed and curled around Jonah’s knees, her head pressed against his thighs. Her warmth seeped into him, and his sobbing eased.

Marcus wiped Jonah’s face and put a glass on the bedside table before he crawled in behind Jonah and draped himself around him. Jonah leaned back a bit to press the whole of his spine against Marcus’s front. He needed to feel Marcus’s warmth and the soft inhale and exhale of his breath to assure himself he was still alive, that Jonah hadn’t killed him. He jumped when one of Tapioca’s limbs stroked the back of his hand before slipping over Jonah’s body to connect with Marcus as well.

Gradually Jonah’s breathing settled into a normal rhythm, and the air calmed. He waited until Marcus’s soft breath told him he was dozing before Jonah began to talk.

“When I was little, a john beat my mother so bad he broke her jaw. I tried to stop him, but he threw me against the wall and knocked me out. When I came to, my mother was lying on the bed, still bleeding, her mouth hanging open. She couldn’t even whimper without it hurting. I think she had broken ribs too.”

“How old were you?”

“I don’t know. Six or seven maybe.” Jonah shrugged. “It was fine. I cleaned her up and wrapped up her face as best I could, but I soon realized we wouldn’t survive without her being able to work. I hadn’t worked out how to grow things by then, so I went out and started picking johns up for her and leading them back. I could have sold myself until she was better, but it didn’t even occur to me, and all the johns I approached wanted a woman.”

Marcus snuggled closer, and Jonah allowed himself to enjoy the closeness. It would be the last he’d ever have. He couldn’t stop talking, though.

“I didn’t see that john for a long while after that, but about a year later, he came knocking on the door. I wouldn’t let him in, but he just pushed through. He punched me, and I blacked out. When I came to, he was just finishing with my mother. He’d beaten her again, almost strangled her, knocked her out, and then raped her. You might not think it’s possible to rape a whore—”

“Of course it is. If it’s not consensual, it’s rape, no matter what you do for work.”

Jonah sucked in a shaky breath. “I was angry. I was scared, too, because I knew he’d just keep coming back, and she might not survive another one. I stood up and screamed at him, and I felt my power build. Since his last visit, I’d discovered I could grow things, and we had vegetables outside that I sold to help pay the rent because my mum didn’t attract the johns like she used to. I used to touch a plant and feel the trickle of energy slip from my fingertips. It felt good, but what I felt when I saw what he’d done didn’t feel good. It was red and burning and sizzled from me as I screamed at him. My hands burned red-hot as I ran to him and pushed him off my mother. I know I burned him—I saw the welts form on his skin—and I screamed that I hoped he burned in the bowels of the rat-infested hell we lived on.”

Jonah gasped, a liquid shock of sound that filled his throat and his head with white noise. “And he did.” Sobs burst from him, uncontrolled and uncontrollable. “He did,” he rasped through his tears. “His body grew and bulged, and his bones burst through, and there was blood everywhere. Then his skin began to darken and sizzle and….” Jonah sucked in a shaky breath. “He burst into flames and burned, right there beside my mother’s bed until there was nothing left of him but a slip of oily silt on the floor.”

“Fuck.”

A watery laugh escaped Jonah. “Yeah. Now do you see why—”

“Yeah. Fuck.” Marcus breathed heavily for a few seconds. “But you didn’t hurt me. I’m fine. I’m better than fine. You can see that, can’t you?” He rose on his elbow and leaned over Jonah. He grasped Jonah’s jaw and tilted his head so he had no option but to look at Marcus’s earnest expression. “What you did to that man was justified. It was kill or be killed. Sure, if you were older, you might have found a different way to deal with him, but you were a kid, Jonah. You did the only thing you knew how to save your mother.” After a beat or two. “What happened next?”

Jonah shrugged and turned away, not able to hold Marcus’s gaze. “After that my mother wouldn’t let me touch her. She ate the food I grew because we had nothing else, and she spoke to me when she had to, but….” He sucked in a breath that still hurt in his chest, even after all those years gone by. “A few months later, she sold me.”

“Fuck.” Marcus draped over him and held him tight. “I’m so sorry, Jonah. She was your mother, and she abandoned you. Christ, you were just a kid. Who did she sell you to?”

Jonah shrugged again. If he treated it like nothing, it was nothing. “A brothel.” At Marcus’s shocked gasp, he continued. “It wasn’t bad.” Marcus huffed. “Really. They didn’t beat me or anything, just knocked me around a bit if I refused to go with a john. They didn’t like us to be bruised, so it was never bad. And when they worked out how good I was with plants, they let me work in the garden in the daytime. We always had lots of fresh food to eat. It was good.”

After a long silence, Marcus shifted against Jonah, his muscles relaxing a bit. “How long were you there?”

“Until Wes bought me. I guess I was about sixteen at the time.”

Marcus jumped off the bed and began pacing. Jonah shivered against the sudden shock of cold air against his back. Tapioca wriggled upward and wrapped her arms around his neck. He held her close, thankful she still liked him enough to be near him. She didn’t think he was too disgusting to touch.

Jonah listened as Marcus stomped into the living room and then came back. The rustle of fabric told him Marcus was dressing—hurriedly and without a lot of care. He kept cursing under his breath. Hot tears leaked from Jonah’s eyes, different from the ones he’d cried before. These ones burned in his chest and made his lips tremble.

“It’s a good thing you killed that bastard, Jonah, but if I ever come across that Wes, I’ll… I’ll…. Fuck!” Marcus stormed out and slammed the door behind him.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jonah

A MEAL that Jonah hadn’t ordered arrived that night. He eyed it narrowly, his outburst of the afternoon reminding him that sometimes people wanted him dead. He didn’t think Marcus was one of those people—was he? He’d ask Marcus about the meal in the morning. His stomach ached too much to eat anyway. After his crying jag, he ached all over.

The plate remained untouched as Jonah stared at the planet below. Tapioca sidled up to the food and sniffed before nibbling on a few of the vegetables. She left the meat alone.

Whatever they’d done that day, it had worked better than anything he and Wes had ever tried. There was clear atmosphere over most of the planet. Jonah could probably walk away from it now, and it would continue the terraforming process on its own.

He paced the living room, noticing for the first time that the equipment left behind by Marcus’s parents was gone. Marcus must have arranged for it to be collected while he was sleeping. He was the only one who had access besides Jonah. And the captain, who was in some sort of weird partnership with Marcus’s parents—who wanted to turn him into an experiment, a research subject without name or identity.

Jonah sighed, a deep breath drawn from his toes to the top of his head, large enough to cleanse him completely, but it didn’t. Nothing changed. He was still the Planet Whisperer, a whore and a murderer, not worthy of either loyalty or love.

He didn’t want to return to his bedroom, but he needed to check on Tapioca and make sure she was okay. He dimmed the lights and walked to his bedroom.

JONAH STARTED chanting early the next morning after a restless, sleepless night. The chant came after an interminable time but didn’t draw him deep like it usually did. Behind him the door swished open.

“Marcus!”

The chant stuttered at the sound of Winni’s voice but continued.

“Not now, Mother. I’m working.” Marcus’s voice moved across the room behind Jonah, and he imagined Marcus leaving his desk and ushering his mother out of the suite.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I know exactly what you do with the Planet Whisperer. I’m sure you can put aside your baser instincts to help me set up this equipment.” The chant stuttered again as Winni’s voice became louder with every word.

“What? Are you kidding me? No! You can’t bring that in here. Get out. Get out now!” Shoes squeaked on the floor and the argument grew more distant, then the door swished closed, and the room grew blessedly silent again.

The chant continued, growing deeper. Marcus was here. He came back even after what Jonah had done to him. Jonah tried not to read too much into it. Marcus was assigned as Jonah’s assistant; he had to be here. It was his job, nothing more. Still, Jonah’s smile grew, and the chant became a song.

He stumbled when it finished, sweat pouring off him, soaking his clothes.

“You didn’t wait for me,” Marcus said quietly behind him.

“I didn’t think you’d want to—”

Marcus grabbed his arm and spun him around before clasping his face between his hands. “I want, Jonah. God help me and whatever hell I’ll be assigned to for it, but I want,” he whispered, then dragged Jonah’s face to his.

Jonah fell into the kiss. Sank deep and drowned in it. Marcus had come back, and he wanted Jonah. Wanted him. Jonah tugged him close, pressed their bodies together, hard planes and ridges rubbing. The pressure pushed a groan from him. Marcus whimpered and shoved his hand between them, cupping Jonah’s length. Jonah stuttered, gasped for breath, and came. A few more rutting thrusts and Marcus’s teeth latched onto the soft skin under Jonah’s ear as he panted out his release.

Finally they separated and flopped onto the sofa together. “Why didn’t you wait for me?” asked Marcus.

“I didn’t think you’d want anything more to do with me—after yesterday.” He cast a wary glance at the planet, hoping the hand job release hadn’t sent it backward, but it seemed healthy.

Marcus sighed. It wasn’t an exasperated or impatient sigh. It was one of contentment. “Yesterday was brilliant. I want to do that again, only next time, perhaps without any chanting at all.”

“No chanting?”

“Nope. I want to feel just you, without the magic brouhaha, and I want you to feel just me without being distracted or in the grip of a planet’s energy, or whatever the hell happens.”

Jonah’s vision narrowed, and his breathing came fast and panting. Sweat broke out on his forehead and the back of his neck as he thought about what Marcus wanted. He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t expose himself so completely, become so vulnerable to another person. There’d be no way of protecting himself if Marcus… Marcus…. “What would you do to me?”

“Do?” Marcus turned to him and ran his hands up and down Jonah’s arms. “I’d love you.”

“But what would you do?” Would he tie Jonah up and flog him? Would he slice him like one of the johns liked to do before he fucked him?

“I don’t understand, Jonah. Tell me what you mean.”

After yesterday, he was too raw, like his skin was stretched too thin to contain him, to keep him from exploding into a million pieces and splattering over the endless nothingness of space. He jumped to his feet and paced to the end of the viewing screen, then turned back to Marcus. “No. I can’t.”

A look passed over Marcus’s face that could have been hurt or disappointment, but might have just been irritation. “Okay,” he said as he stood, his hand held out in supplication. “We don’t have to do that if you don’t want. We’ll just continue as we are.” He took a deep breath, then turned to look out the window. “Wow, look at that. The last planet didn’t clear up so quickly, did it? It looks nearly finished.”

“It is.”

“But how? Doesn’t it take weeks to get to this stage? Was this one already started or something?”

“Yes, it does usually take weeks, and, no, it wasn’t already started. We did most of that yesterday.”

Marcus stared at him, wide-eyed but not fearful. “We? I didn’t do anything.”

Jonah couldn’t hold Marcus’s gaze. “Perhaps not on your own, but what we did somehow ramped up my power. All I need to do is the final setting chant tomorrow, and we’ll be done.” We’ll be done. Jonah clamped his lips closed, but he couldn’t pull the words back. He was beginning to think of him and Marcus as a team, like he and Wes had been a team. No—better than that.

“Wow. I had no idea. Why haven’t you been doing that all along?”

Jonah rounded on Marcus, suddenly furious. “Did you listen to anything I said yesterday? I’ve never done anything like that before. I didn’t even know I could do that. Wes never fucked me—never. Not when I was chanting or any other time. You’re the only person who’s fucked me since Wes bought me. How could I know that would happen? How can I know, even now, what I’ve done to you?” He clamped his mouth closed against the internal wailing, strode into his bedroom, and slammed the door.

Tapioca lifted her head and gazed serenely at him. “Don’t look at me like that. All you have to do is eat and sleep.” She blinked at him, then lowered her head back to the pillow of her arms and went back to sleep.

Jonah stood in the middle of his bedroom, fists clenched at his sides, jaw tight, sweat dribbling down his face, and tried to make himself breathe evenly. He closed his eyes and imagined the most peaceful image he could remember: the birth of a distant star shooting white light into the blackness of space. The rays told Jonah more clearly than anything he’d ever seen or been told that he wasn’t alone. He sighed and opened his eyes.

Marcus stood in front of him, regarding him silently. Waiting.

“What?”

“It’s lunchtime. I thought you might like to come to the mess hall with me and eat there. It would be good for you to get out of here for a while, especially as this planet is happening a lot faster than we expected.”

Jonah swallowed against the sudden nervousness churning in his stomach. No one had asked him to go to dinner with them before. He scrubbed his hands over his face and traced his fingers through his hair until his hands rested on the back of his neck. It was the one pose that almost guaranteed he could think clearly. It was just a meal. He nodded and gestured to his sweat-soaked clothes. “I’ll change and meet you at your cabin?”

Marcus’s gaze flicked to the wet spot in Jonah’s trousers, and he blushed, his hips squirming in his own soiled pants. “Yeah. Changing is a good idea. I’ll see you in fifteen?”

THEY MET in the corridor outside Marcus’s cabin and walked silently to the mess hall. Was Jonah supposed to make small talk? What exactly was small talk? Small words? Small topics? Why bother with a topic that had no meaning?

“I’m sorry about dinner last night. I totally forgot to order it for you. What did you end up getting?”

Jonah gripped Marcus’s arm and turned to look at him. “You didn’t send dinner in for me?”

“No. I forgot.”

“Someone remembered. I didn’t eat it.”

They continued walking. As they reached the door to the mess hall, Marcus stopped. “Do you think someone wanted to harm you?”

“I don’t know. I don’t eat food if I don’t know where it’s come from—or who.”

“I’ll look into it and let you know.” They stepped through the doorway and into the cacophony that was the mess hall.

“Marcus! You and the Whisperer will sit here.”

“Shit.” Marcus ducked his head and dragged Jonah in the opposite direction from his mother. “The last thing I want is to have dinner with her. If she gets her hands on you, you’ll never escape.”

Adrenaline spiked, and Jonah scoped out the room for escape routes. “Can we go through the galley?” He turned in that direction but stopped when Marcus released his arm.

“No. We came here to eat, and that’s what we’re going to do.” He signaled security. When the man came close, he said, “Return Professor Davis to her cabin and ensure her meal accompanies her.” The man nodded and went to intercept Winni as she wove her way between the tables toward them. “I wonder who she coerced into allowing her to eat here. Someone isn’t going to be happy when I fine them for that bit of incompetence.”

Jonah’s gaze darted around the mess hall, glancing off interested stares, noting which ones showed more interest than he thought they warranted. “I’m still sitting near the exit with my back to the wall.”

Marcus chuckled. “Good plan. A backup plan is essential where my mother’s concerned.”

“IT WAS my first year away from home, and I was staying with my uncle—my father’s brother.” Marcus leaned over his empty plate, bringing his head closer to Jonah. His eyes sparkled with glee and forbidden knowledge. “I had no idea people like that existed and knew if my mother ever found out she’d have me removed. Roger, my uncle, had invited me to join him and his friend Andrew for dinner but suggested I’d be more comfortable in my room afterwards.”

“I don’t understand. What was wrong with them?” Jonah pushed his plate aside and rested his elbows on the table.

Marcus darted secretive looks around them, then leaned closer. “They were abominations,” he whispered.

Jonah leaned close too, trying to picture what abnormality made the existence of abominations a thing to be hidden and abhorred. “What was wrong with them?”

“They’re men that like men—you know—in that way. On Earth, if they were discovered, they’d be reimaged or put to death.”

Jonah regarded Marcus silently for several moments. Nothing Marcus said made sense within the world of Jonah’s experiences, except…. “Are you saying what we do together is an abomination?”

“I enjoy it,” Marcus whispered, but the guilt shining on his face gave a different response.

Jonah’s stomach churned around the small amount he’d already eaten, and he pushed his still full plate away and stood. “I think I’d rather eat in my room.” Jonah pushed his chair in carefully, then stopped at the serving counter to grab some food for Tapioca before striding to the door.

“Mr. Starovski!”

Shit. Would Marcus’s bloody mother ever get the message he didn’t want to talk to her or be part of any of her sick experiments?

“Mother. How did you get out?”

Jonah breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped through the door and left Marcus to deal with his mother. He needed space away from everyone, Marcus included. When he entered his suite, he found Tapioca curled up on the sofa solemnly regarding the planet below. He sat beside her and fed her the steamed vegetables he’d brought for her.

“Do you think I’m an abomination, beautiful? I know I’m a whore and a freak, but I didn’t think that made me an abomination.” He sighed as he ran his hand over her head and played with her soft ears. “What does that even mean? Who decides what’s an abomination and what isn’t?” Tapioca responded by sliding her head and two of her limbs over his lap and settling in for a cuddle. Her purr rumbled, resonating through the air and soothing Jonah’s despondency. Perhaps he’d always be derided. Perhaps no one would ever want to be with him, consider him a friend, or anything more, but he had Tapioca. “Don’t worry, Tapi. I’m going to find us a nice planet to form, and I’ll make you the perfect home.”

He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, imagining what his first home would look like. One hot tear slid from between his eyelids when the image of Marcus relaxing at the edge of a placid lake filled his vision.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Jonah

MARCUS ARRIVED early the next day, before Jonah started the chant. Tapioca was again locked in his bedroom so she wouldn’t be affected by the chanting. Jonah stood in front of the viewing panel, the planet a swirl of green, blue, and white behind him.

“Your eyes are glowing,” Marcus said as he unbuttoned his jacket.

“I can feel the planet. It’s different to the others. Almost like it knows I’m here.”

“Is that because of what we did?”

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t have thought it would have been enough to affect the planet that much, but I don’t know what else could.”

“If we did the same again today?”

Jonah started shaking his head as soon as he understood what Marcus was suggesting. “No. You still look different after the last time. We don’t know what doing it again would do to you.”

“I’m willing to—”

“I’m not.”

“Oh,” said Marcus. He stood and walked over to the console, fastening his jacket as he went. “Well, I’ll just get some work done, then.” He kept his face averted. “Let me know when you’re ready to finish.”

Jonah shoved his hands into his pockets and swung around to glare at the planet. He stood there while his toes went numb, and the muscles in his neck tightened until they burned, but the chant wouldn’t start. Marcus’s hands on his shoulders, kneading, startled him.

“Relax, Jonah. It’ll start when it’s ready.”

Jonah sighed, then breathed in Marcus’s scent. As he opened his eyes, the chant began, low and slow, seducing him and the planet below. The clouds swirled faster as his groin tightened.

The chant ended the way it had always ended: trailing off to nothing, leaving behind trembling, sweaty muscles, bone-deep exhaustion, and unfulfilled need. Jonah gasped as Marcus’s hands trailed from his shoulders and down his back. Before he could accustom himself to the sensation of Marcus touching him, his hands were gone, and Marcus was kneeling in front of Jonah, fumbling with the opening to his jeans. The warm moistness of Marcus’s mouth brought a groan from so deep inside Jonah he thought the chant was beginning again. The chant didn’t come, but he did, fast and violent, wrenched out of him like a tsunami.

Each pulse bowed his body until he was bent in half, one hand cradling Marcus’s head at his groin, the other clasped across Marcus’s back. When he was done, all his energy drained from him, Marcus rose and led him to the sofa.

“Relax awhile. I’ll get you a drink,” Marcus whispered.

As soon as the bedroom door was opened, Tapioca skittered across the floor and launched herself at the sofa. She landed heavily beside Jonah, then spun in several slow circles before finally settling with her head on his lap and her limbs splayed across the rest of the sofa. Her loud purring filled the silence.

A chuckle accompanied Marcus’s return. “Well, I’m obviously not needed anymore,” he said. Jonah thought it was meant to be a joke, but it sounded sad. As Marcus leaned over Tapioca to pass Jonah the glass, Tapioca wrapped a tentacle around his leg and tugged him closer. She shifted as Marcus half toppled, half sat beside Jonah so he didn’t land on her. They ended up sitting side by side with her sprawled over them both, purring loudly.

“I think you’re needed here, just as much as I am,” said Jonah, relief and contentment washing warmly through him.

“Is it done now?” Marcus’s voice cracked the silence wide open, and Jonah’s eyes burned against knowing it was finished.

“It’s done,” he said quietly.

“I’ll file the report and notify the captain we can move to the next planet.” Marcus moved to stand as he spoke, but Tapioca gripped him more tightly, and he settled again. “This will be the last planet of your contract, Jonah. You’ll be free to do whatever you want after that.”

Jonah looked at him but couldn’t work out exactly what Marcus meant. Jonah didn’t have any choice after the next planet. He’d have to do another one, and another and another. He wasn’t good for anything else and had no money of his own to survive anywhere else. He began shaking his head to tell Marcus he wasn’t free, but Tapioca pushed her head under his hand and purred. “I’ll have to find a planet for Tapioca. She won’t thrive for long without that.”

“She seems happy with you here.”

“She is, but that doesn’t mean her body isn’t suffering. The food has been grown on chemicals she can’t tolerate.”

“How do you know that? She doesn’t talk.”

“No, she doesn’t, but I can still tell what she needs, just like I can tell when a planet is finished with the terraforming.” He shrugged, not able to explain it any better than that.

“Okay, we’ll look for a planet for her after this one’s done.” He shifted Tapioca from his lap, then stood and walked to the console. “I’ll file that report and get us moving on to the next one, then I’ll order us some lunch.”

“You eat at the mess. I’m not hungry right now. I’ll call for something for Tapioca later.” Jonah pushed Tapioca off his lap then went into his bedroom and closed the door.

He dropped facedown onto his bed and groaned. He didn’t understand why his life suddenly seemed so complicated. He and Wes had worked steadily and calmly for fifteen years without any of the emotion he’d felt working with Marcus for just a few weeks. He couldn’t keep doing this, whatever this was. One day he thought Marcus liked him and respected him, then he treated him like the whore he was, then he seemed to think that was a good thing too. Marcus seemed to have forgotten that what they did together could cost them both their jobs and possibly put them in jail, then he told Jonah he was an abomination. Jonah’s head spun, not able to settle on any one thing that would explain to him what was happening.

None of it made sense, and Jonah didn’t know what to do to make it make sense. All he could do was more of what he always did: terraform planets. Marcus would help him with the next one, the last one he had to do with this contract, then he’d… do whatever he’d planned to do before Wes left and Jonah was left alone to fumble through building a rapport with someone else he could work with.

A low rumbling filled the room, and Jonah knew thrusters had been engaged to put them on course to the next planet. Within seconds the claxons sounded to herald the imminent shift to warp speed. Something thudded on his bedroom door, and Jonah shot to his feet.

Tapioca!

He threw the door open and stumbled back under the thrust of Tapi’s panicked leap. She wrapped all her limbs around him and buried her head against his chest, her body trembling. “It’s okay, beautiful. We’re just going on a trip to the next planet.” She didn’t respond but calmed when Jonah started patting her head and fondling her ears. Her purr was noticeably absent. He carried her over to the chair beside the bed and sat. “You’ve been in a shuttle, so the first part will be okay. Then there’ll be a few dips and funny feelings in your stomach, but it’ll be over soon, and we’ll be at the next planet.” He kept his voice low and as smooth as he could after the ruination of the chant. “I’ll hold you the whole time and won’t let anything hurt you, okay?”

It happened just as Jonah said it would, but Tapioca wasn’t soothed. The trembling increased along with thin wails of terror. When they dropped out of warp and into orbit around the planet, her little body convulsed, and she vomited all over Jonah. Her brown skin looked grayish, pale, and dry, and she drooped over him miserably.

She clung tighter to Jonah when he tried to lift her away. “I’m guessing you don’t want to let go yet. Not even to let me clean up?” His nose wrinkled at the odor. “Okay, but this really does smell bad, and it’s only going to get worse.” He stood with her in his arms. “Let’s get in the shower and wash the worst of it away. You won’t have to let go at all, but you will get wet.” A growl rumbled through her. “Not a fan of water? That’s too bad, Tapi, because I need to get this smell off me before I start vomiting too, and I can’t stand the feel of nanos over me.”

At the first splash of water, Tapioca roared and leaped off Jonah and onto the hand basin. He quickly shed his clothes and washed, donning only a robe afterward because Tapioca still didn’t look well, and he didn’t want all his clothes vomited on again. As soon as the robe was tied, Tapioca leaped from her perch and landed squarely against Jonah’s chest, her limbs again wrapped securely around him. “I’m guessing you want to be cuddled until you feel better?” He strolled into the sitting room only to stop short at the sight of Marcus eating his lunch at the table.

“I brought something back for you and a bowl of vegetables for Tapioca. Does she eat meat?”

“Why are you here? I thought you were eating in the mess?”

“No, you told me to eat there. That doesn’t mean I am.” Marcus continued eating, watching the stars as he chewed each mouthful.

Jonah pursed his lips, wanting to speak his mind, but Wes had never allowed that. His stomach rumbled, distracting him from the fledgling thought that Marcus wasn’t like Wes. He had to admit that the food smelled good. “What is it?” he asked as he walked to the table.

“I thought you might like a hamburger.” Marcus smiled at him. “They don’t usually serve them because the assembly is too time consuming, but the cook owes me a favor or two.” He picked up his burger and took another bite.

“You eat with your hands.” Jonah sat at his place and shifted a still-clingy Tapioca to his hip.

“These I do, yes.”

The conversation was banal. Jonah didn’t know why he was still talking to Marcus if they weren’t going to talk about anything important. He filled a small plate with vegetables for Tapioca, who slid to the next seat to eat. After watching how Marcus held his burger, he leaned over his plate and carefully lifted his in the same way. Meaty juices and sauce spurted out the side and ran down his chin and into his palm. Marcus laughed.

“They’re great, aren’t they? That messiness is exactly why I like them. You can’t eat a burger without getting up close and personal with it.”

Jonah blinked through the burst of flavors from the food. This would rival the meal that Wes had given him the first time he brought Jonah food after he bought him. After three days with no food, the dried meatloaf was ambrosia.

“So, what’s the plan with this planet?” Marcus asked. “Are you going to follow the same process you’ve always done, or we could try doing what we did before.”

“No, you could be seriously injured.”

“You haven’t hurt me, Jonah. The only thing that happened is I’m now healthier than I’ve ever been. That’s not a bad thing.” Marcus reached a hand over and laid his long, warm fingers on Jonah’s forearm.

“But if we keep doing that….” Jonah stopped talking because it was becoming clear to him that Marcus didn’t want to hear Jonah’s objections. He didn’t understand how dangerous Jonah’s powers could be. He hadn’t seen someone explode or shrivel to a hard prune-like husk. Jonah put aside the rest of his food, withdrew his arm from the weight of Marcus’s need, wiped his hands on his napkin, and stood. He had to get out of there.

“Jonah.”

He paused but didn’t turn. “I’m going for a walk,” he said as he walked into his bedroom. He hastily threw clothes on, then returned to the sitting room but didn’t do more than glance at Marcus before turning to the door. “I’ll be ready to start the terraforming tomorrow.”

“But—”

“Leave it, Marcus.” He sighed, knowing he’d do whatever Marcus wanted, but he wouldn’t agree to it yet. He needed some time to think about how he might minimize the impact on Marcus and keep the energy flow going solely to the planet.

He stumbled through the doorway as Tapioca landed on his back. “Umph.” The door slid closed behind them, and Tapioca scrambled around to her preferred place on his chest. “You want to come for a walk, do you?” She pressed her face against his chest and purred.

Half an hour later, Tapioca had begun exploring for herself, returning to Jonah to touch him lightly before scampering away again. The first time she left his sight, he panicked, his heart pounding as he ran down the corridor to see where she’d gone. By the fifth time, he’d stopped worrying and simply called to her if he turned down a different corridor.

Marcus waited for him around one corner, and Jonah stopped, his breathing steady, blood flowing swiftly through his veins after his hour of walking, his skin warm from the light exercise. Against expectations, his body didn’t settle after stopping. With Marcus so close and regarding him in silence, his heartbeat increased.

“Will you come to my room?” Marcus cleared his throat. “To… um… discuss the next planet.”

Sweat beaded the back of Jonah’s neck as he thought of Marcus’s small room and how close they’d have to be just to talk. Then he looked closer at Marcus, the uncertainty in his gaze, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed thickly, and his dick plumped. He nodded and followed Marcus without a word.

Marcus’s room was tiny. There was a single bed, a desk with computer and comm, and an alcove that contained a wardrobe on one side and a small en suite on the other. Jonah hunched his shoulders even though he knew his head wouldn’t hit the ceiling. He was just too big for the space.

“This is where we see if this will work.” Marcus’s soft voice behind him raised goose bumps all down his back, and Jonah shivered.

His mind flittered in a thousand directions, and he didn’t know which idea he should settle on first. “If what will work?” He knew the fucking would work. He’d done it before, countless times. Just lain there and let the johns take him. It would be the same, wouldn’t it? Even though he knew Marcus and knew exactly how Marcus’s fingers felt when they trailed along his skin, and how his breath warmed and cooled at the same time and made Jonah shiver when he felt it behind his ear. He knew how Marcus’s mouth felt on his cock and how his fingers and cock felt inside him, the stinging stretch and gasping, breathless pleasure of it.

“Us. You and me,” said Marcus. “It might be wrong, but I want to know if there’s more than… It feels like there is, but I want… I need to find out for sure.”

“You and me?” There was no “you and me.” There couldn’t be. Even after sixteen years with Wes, there’d been no “you and me,” no matter how much Jonah had thought there was. There had been all the lessons and the food and learning how to focus his powers—building a business together—and there still hadn’t been any “you and me.” Jonah couldn’t fathom a brain that would think there would be something more than there was when he and Marcus had only known each other for a few weeks.

Marcus’s mouth dropped open, and Jonah got distracted by his plump lips, soft and ready for a cock to push between them. He took a step forward, and Marcus rushed to him, reached for him, dragged his head down so their lips mashed together, teeth clacking, heat and moisture and taste blending into something Jonah had never had before. A craving was building inside him so that every time he saw Marcus, this was what he thought of. When he wasn’t with him, he thought of it anyway and counted down to the next moment they would touch. He tore himself away only when his head spun from lack of oxygen. Marcus’s fingers fumbled with his clothes.

“Take these off. I want to feel your skin against mine.” He trailed his nose down Jonah’s neck and into the opening of his shirt. “Oh, yes. Touch me.”

Oh. Oh. Jonah couldn’t catch his breath. He touched and stroked any of Marcus’s skin he could find, breathed the sweet citrus scent of him, dove into the sensation that was Marcus without the chant. This was… new. He never touched, was only touched. He never took, but was taken. Now he touched—hindered Marcus as he tried to step out of his clothes. He mouthed the warm skin under Marcus’s jaw and trailed his fingers down Marcus’s arm to tangle around his wrist.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jonah

MARCUS STUMBLED backward, tumbling Jonah with him until they landed with a thud together on the narrow bed. Jonah’s head scraped against the wall as they went down, but he just turned to the other side of Marcus’s neck and sucked on the soft skin there. He closed his eyes, wanting to believe this touch was all there was, that there wasn’t going to be any time of reckoning. The planet wouldn’t call tomorrow, and they’d never have to stop and go their separate ways.

Jonah paused. His hands rested on the smooth warmth of Marcus’s ribs and stomach.

Marcus lifted his head and peered at Jonah. “You stopped,” he accused. He dipped his head to nip small kisses along Jonah’s jaw. “Don’t stop,” he whispered.

The battle within Jonah was short-lived. He could no more deny Marcus what he wanted than he could jump ship in deep space and survive. He trailed his fingers along Marcus’s ribs and down the indentation of his spine. The round mound of his buttocks with the warm, dark valley between tempted him, but he resisted. This wasn’t about him taking pleasure but giving it, and perhaps gaining some in the process.

Marcus surged upward, straddling Jonah’s hips. Jonah’s dick nestled between Marcus’s buttocks, the heat and pressure making him gasp.

“Can I fuck you like this? So I can see your face?”

The innocent eagerness in Marcus’s face mixed adorably with the uncertainty. Adorable? Rats, Jonah had to pull himself together or he’d end up… He frowned, not sure what he’d end up. Friends, perhaps? Is this what friends did?

“Oh,” said Marcus as he scooted backward. “I’m sorry. I just assumed you would know.” He cleared his throat. “I mean, you’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

“Get between my legs.” Jonah’s throat felt like sharp gravel had spilled over it.

Marcus scrambled to comply, his gaze clearing as he lifted Jonah’s legs and pushed his knees back toward his shoulders.

Jonah grinned and gripped his thighs behind his knees. “Quick learner.”

Marcus’s face flushed a soft pink even as he reached for a small bottle of lotion from the desk beside the bed. His touch was familiar now but also new. The last time Jonah had been fucked lying down was… different. He forced himself to focus on the differences so he wouldn’t drown in the powerlessness and the pain of the last time and all the times before. This was Marcus, who didn’t hurt him, who was smiling down at him with a soft but intense expression in his soft brown eyes. This was Marcus, who touched him with wonder and gentleness, who was trying to make Jonah feel good, make him want more.

He was succeeding. Jonah groaned.

Marcus pushed a second finger into Jonah, and he hissed at the sting, then gasped when the stretch deepened into something addictive. Marcus continued his torture, adding a third finger and sliding in and out until Jonah was panting and whimpering for “more, more, give me more.” Then Marcus’s hand was gone, and Jonah was left gaping and empty, floating on a sea of grasping loss. Marcus shifted, rising over Jonah, pressing his legs wider and higher, lifting his buttocks. And the pressure returned, larger and blunter than fingers but pushing in easily.

Jonah panted through the stretch and threaded his hands under Marcus’s arms and around his back to hold him close and keep him pressing forward. Finally, Marcus was fully seated and paused, looking down at Jonah, his gaze intense, as if he was holding something back. Jonah wanted to turn away or close his eyes, but he couldn’t. He was frozen in that moment of time, staring back, his skin stretched so thin over his soul he thought it would burst. Unlike before, the thinness wasn’t from a lack of anything in him—it was from an overabundance. He was too full to contain everything that bubbled and churned within him, and Marcus was there, moving inside him, watching him—seeing it all. Deep inside his heart, his secret place where no one touched. He cringed. Then Marcus dipped his head down and melded his lips with Jonah’s, and Jonah’s heart… his heart… oh, his heart exploded, washing need and want and warmth through him, spiraling down his spine and twisting in his balls. He clamped his eyes closed to contain it, but a sob escaped, along with the first spurt of his come.

“Jonah,” whispered Marcus as his movements stuttered in the same rhythm as his voice. He froze, pushed deep inside Jonah, and Jonah felt the swelling pulse of his dick as he came.

Jonah waited, eyes screwed shut, as he listened to Marcus’s harsh breathing echo his. When the sweat and liquid between them began to cool and stick, Marcus moved, sliding gently from Jonah and resting at his side. Silence filled the spaces between them. Jonah’s muscles threw off the languor of release and tensed with a need to think of something to say. Nothing came to him, and he readied himself to leave.

“So we can try this again tomorrow?” Marcus ran his hand across Jonah’s chest.

Jonah’s chest rose and fell under Marcus’s hand, the sigh coming deep, releasing the tension he’d been carrying around with him since he’d first seen the changes wrought in Marcus’s body. He closed his eyes and allowed his senses to roam over Marcus. He felt Marcus’s health deep within him and knew nothing he’d done had harmed Marcus. “I don’t want to change who you are.”

Marcus chuckled. “You won’t. I’ll still be me even if I do have a few more muscles now.”

Another sigh fractured Jonah’s soft breathing. “Okay. We’ll do it your way tomorrow.”

“And the day after too. If we do it the same way, you can finish the planet really quickly, and then you’ll be able to look for one where you get to keep the fees.”

Jonah’s chest tightened. Once this planet was finished, Marcus would move on with his life. There’d be no question of his professionalism because no one would know what he’d done. White knows. So do Marcus’s parents. “You know people will find out about us. This won’t make it better.”

Marcus chuckled. “I find it remarkable that you think this could be better. It makes me wonder what else I have to learn.”

“You’re very relaxed about this.” Jonah waved his hand between the two of them.

“I wasn’t. It terrified me.” He huffed a laugh. “It still does—at least getting caught does. But I can’t seem to… I mean I want to… It feels good,” he said finally.

Jonah laughed. “It feels good. That’s what’s stopped you being terrified? Rats, you’re easy.”

“I can’t be too easy. You’re the first man I’ve ever touched.”

“But not the first man you’ve ever wanted.”

“I remember going on holiday with my father and sisters one year. I was about eleven.” Marcus’s voice was tentative but heavy, as though what he was saying was vitally important. Jonah waited silently for Marcus to continue. “We went to the lake house. It was winter, so the water was too cold for swimming. We did a lot of hiking.” Marcus tugged at his immaculate jacket. “Dad brought a colleague of his, and they spent the days walking around the lake, talking about their next research project. I remember feeling very calm for the first time in a long time.” He grinned up at Jonah. “I think it was because my mother had stayed in the city to complete an experiment.”

Jonah nodded and smiled. He could imagine Marcus enjoying not having to deal with his mother.

Marcus cleared his throat. “I remember I raced inside one day to grab something from my room because Inderey needed it in the game we were playing. I ran down the hallway in my socks and slammed into Dad’s friend just as he was coming out of the bathroom. He’d had a shower. I don’t think he expected anyone else to be in the house because he only had a towel wrapped around him.” The words came faster now. “I tried to stop but couldn’t, and ended with my face pressed against his chest. He grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me back straight away, but I still remember the warmth of his skin and the soft bulge of his cock under the towel.” Marcus took a shuddering breath. “He went straight to his room, and I stood there, stunned.” He flicked an embarrassed look at Jonah. “It was my first ejaculation.” He sighed. “And it was from the feel of a man’s cock.”

Marcus took a shuddering breath, and Jonah wrapped his arms around him more securely.

“If I… I can’t want men if I expect to live on Earth or in the military, or even if I want to advance my career,” continued Marcus. “If I wanted to want men—and if I want to survive without reimaging—then I would have to change my career to one removed from the Government and from Earth society. I wouldn’t be able to remain on board ship in this capacity, and I wouldn’t be able to live on Earth or any of the near planets.”

“And yet you’re here, even after I gave you a way out. This was your idea.” Jonah untangled himself from Marcus and rose from the narrow bed. He began tugging his clothes on, and Marcus tossed the sheet back and stood. “So what is this?” Jonah continued even while part of himself was amazed he was still talking. He never talked. “Are you slumming with the whore before you move on to the life you want?”

“No!” Marcus grabbed Jonah’s biceps, his fingers digging in with desperate strength. “I… I….”

“So you don’t mind if other people find out about—”

Marcus released his hold on Jonah and stepped away, a look of horror on his face.

“That’s what I thought.” Jonah shoved his feet into his shoes. “I’ll be starting straight after breakfast.” By the time the door swished closed behind him, Jonah’s fists were clenched tightly, and his teeth ground against each other. He didn’t release the pressure as he stormed through the corridors toward his suite. It’s okay for him to fuck me but not admit that we’re doing it. He sighed and shook his head, ignoring the startled looks of the occasional passing crew member. I don’t know why I’m so angry. That’s how whores are always treated. Finish the job, find another contract, and move on.

He strode into his suite and flopped down on the sofa, eyeing the planet below balefully. They were still too far out for his chants to have any great impact, but it wouldn’t be long before they were in position. He calmed as the planet inched closer. After a few minutes, he frowned and walked to the viewing panel. He hadn’t chanted, hadn’t been channeling his powers at all, yet the cloud structure below seemed more developed than it should be. He’d seen the data on this planet. No way should it have cloud formations like that yet.

“Frogs and toads, what the fuck is happening?” He pressed his hands against the glass as if that would help him see better, as if he needed to. “Fuck.”

“What’s wrong?” asked Marcus as he walked into the living room.

“It’s started.” Jonah turned to glare at Marcus. “This is supposed to be an undeveloped planet. When did it start?”

Marcus strode across the room to join him, frowning at the clouds. “I checked the data yesterday before we jumped. There was nothing like this in it.”

“So is the data wrong, or did our fucking do this?”

“How could our making—doing anything—start this? You weren’t chanting.” Marcus frowned at the planet, then crossed the room to log onto the comm unit. He began tapping at the keys. “I’m ordering an atmospheric analysis and also a scan for life down to bacterial stage. If there’s no bacteria but the chemical balance in the atmosphere is in flux, we can still go ahead with the terraforming.”

Jonah bit his tongue. He hated terraforming when a planet had already begun on its own. It might take thousands of years for the process to complete naturally, but the planet would develop the life it was always meant to have, not the life impressed on it by him. At least he’d always thought that’s what he was doing—impressing life. If he’d just sped the natural process up, other life-forms would develop, and humans wouldn’t be able to settle. He thought about Tapioca. He had no idea where she came from. She definitely wasn’t from the last planet they were at. He gasped. What if other life-forms were forming and the scientists and Government were taking them for experimentation even as they settled the planets. Could that be how Marcus’s mother ended up with her?

“It’s genocide!” he exclaimed.

Marcus spun around from his comm unit. “What is? Is there life on the planet already?”

Jonah brushed that concern off. He hadn’t had time to check. “Tapioca! Where did she come from? Did they remove her from her planet so it could be settled?” He strode into the bedroom, but his bed was bare. “Tapioca?” He looked in the bathroom, but she wasn’t there either. There was nowhere else she could be. “Where is she?”

Marcus looked up, his brown eyes unfocused for a second while his mind shifted gears. “Who? Tapioca? Isn’t she on the bed? Oh, wait. She went with you, didn’t she? Did you bring her back? She wasn’t with you when—”

“Rats of evil! She’s lost.” Jonah thumped the door release and pushed himself through the opening as soon as it was wide enough. He stopped for a second to visually scan the corridor both ways, then took off at double time, pausing at junctions only long enough to check for her. He could get someone to take him out in a shuttle, just far enough away that he could scan the ship’s life-forms and pinpoint where she was.

“Jonah, wait!” Marcus caught up to him and pulled him to a stop. “You can’t just start running all over the place. How do you know you don’t turn a corner just as she turns another one in the opposite direction? You could be chasing each other over the ship all day.” He tapped the comm on his chest. “Security Detail One, report to my quarters at the double. Davis out.” Another tap on his chest ended the communication, and Marcus turned to Jonah. “I’ll get them searching in a grid. We’ll get the word out, so if anyone sights her, they’ll let us know.” He slipped his hand around Jonah’s bicep and led him to his quarters. “I know you want to be out there looking for her yourself, but believe me, we know the ship better than you do. The men will know all the possible hiding places and will be able to spread out and search in more than one place. Come on, Jonah. I promise, by the time you finish your chant, we’ll know exactly where Tapioca is.”

THEY RETURNED to Jonah’s suite after Marcus had briefed his men on Tapioca. I shouldn’t have let her roam so far. I should have kept her in clear sight. He slanted a guilty look at Marcus. I shouldn’t have gone to Marcus’s quarters. “I can’t just sit around and wait for your men to find her.”

“Of course not. You can start the chant while you’re waiting for them to bring her back.”

“You seriously expect me to be able to chant while she’s missing?” How could he—

“She’s not missing, Jonah. She’s just wandered off. They’ll find her.” He punched in the release code for the door. “Come on. I’ll rub your shoulders for you so you can relax enough to start.”

Jonah followed him, not because he wanted to start the chant but a massage from Marcus would calm him down. He didn’t want to be all stressed out when Tapioca came back. She’d begun picking up on his moods and would become agitated if he was stressed.

Marcus checked his comm. “There’s confirmation of chemical development in the cloud forms, but no life-forms found either in the cloud forms or on the surface.” He shucked his jacket and rolled his shirtsleeves up. “Get your shirt off, and I’ll start the massage.”

“You’re not undressing?”

“They’ll bring Tapioca straight here when they find her.”

Jonah took a deep breath and released it slowly as he took off his shirt. Marcus’s confidence was catching. He nodded as he opened his senses to the planet below and tried to sense any life there. He’d do the chant, and Marcus would look after Tapioca when they brought her back. Then, when Jonah was finished, he could sit on the sofa and cuddle her close—and try to get her to understand he didn’t want her wandering away again.

He settled into his “chanting stance” in front of the viewing panel. Marcus came up behind him and stepped up onto his stool. He placed his hands on Jonah’s bare skin, the touch familiar now but still exciting.

It happened very quickly. One minute he was sitting at the table gazing out the viewing window, almost moaning at the perfect pressure Marcus was applying to his neck and shoulders, and the next the chant began, rising from so deep within him he felt his insides were turning out.

This chant was different from all the rest. It was deeper and stronger, and took him over completely. His awareness sank into the planet so far it was almost as if he could feel every molecule swirling in response to the song he sang. He let it take him. He’d always found the feeling of being one with a planet—even for a short time—addictive. The soul-deep resonance was impossible to resist. If he sank any deeper into it, he’d be able to feel the molecules break apart and reform into something fresh and alive.

He sent his awareness out, checking for changes in the atmosphere. There was a blip on the edges of his awareness, but as he rumbled through the song of growth, the blip moved into the planet’s sphere of influence. He couldn’t stop now, even as he realized what the blip was.

A shuttle hurtled through the newly forming atmosphere toward the surface of the planet, and inside it was a life-form that had the same shape and color that Tapioca had. The chant stuttered but didn’t stop. It ripped itself from him as harsh sobs ripped his soul apart. Tears scalded him as they coursed down his cheeks and dripped off his jaw.

Marcus’s hands left him, and through bubbles of despair, Jonah heard him. “Jonah? What’s wrong? What is it?”

Then he was gone, and the soft swish of air brushed across his back as the door opened.

“What the fuck do you mean, she’s on the shuttle…? We’re in the middle of a terraforming operation. Regulations clearly state there’s to be no contact…. Call it back…. Overridden? Only one person can override my…. Who gave the order to put her on a shuttle to the planet?” Marcus’s voice had dropped to a dangerous level, but still Jonah kept chanting. He’d keep chanting now until it was done, even through his sobs. “Stay here. I have to go and fix this, but I’ll be back.”

Jonah slid to his knees, leaning against the window, his gaze locked onto the planet, his senses locked onto his beautiful Tapioca who was being subjected to… only the fucking evil of Tolifax knew what he was doing to her. Tears poured down his cheeks, and his stomach churned, but the chant had found its stride, and he couldn’t stop until it was done.

Marcus

MARCUS STRODE to his parents’ suite.

“Marcus, this really isn’t a good time.” His father looked more furtive than Marcus had ever seen him.

“Do you know what she’s done?”

“She’s monitoring some equipment right now and wants me to analyze the data. We’ll probably take a break around dinnertime. Why don’t you—”

“This isn’t a fucking social call, Dad. She’s sent a sentient animal to the surface when we’re in the middle of terraforming the bloody planet.”

“It wasn’t sentient. That’s illegal.”

“I know it’s bloody illegal. And it is sentient. Do you know how many regulations and laws she’s broken? She’s stolen the animal. Hell, I don’t even know how sentient it is. It’s possible it would fall into the category of intelligent life, which means it’s a kidnapping offense.”

“No, Marcus, you’ve got it wrong. She’s just monitoring the planet.”

“She gave the fucking order to put the animal on the shuttle and send it to the surface.”

Silence fell between Marcus and his father.

“Jonah’s doing the terraforming right now. It can’t be interrupted.”

“Really?” Harry leaned to the side, trying to look around Marcus as if he could see right to Jonah’s suite.

“Dad, will you focus? I’ve reported her for this. I’m not going to let her continue to abuse living beings.”

“But that will mean—”

“Your research will stop, and you’ll be investigated, along with her.”

“Harry!” Winni’s voice called through the comm. “You’ve got to see this. It’s incredible what that man can do. Just look at these figures. We should have been following him for years instead of trying to do it on our own.”

Harry appeared torn, darting a look to the side where Winni worked and then back to Marcus.

“Those aren’t just figures, Dad. That’s the life of a living breathing animal, a little one with floppy ears, a deep purr, and the sweetest nature you could ever imagine. What you’re doing is wrong.” Marcus’s voice broke on the last word as his mind filled in the gaps between his mother’s excited chatter. It was futile. He’d never get through to them. He stormed away. Captain White was the only one who could do anything now. As he walked, he dictated his report.

Chapter Thirty

Jonah

EVENTUALLY THE chant began to lose power. Marcus must have heard it because he moved into Jonah’s view, only it wasn’t Marcus, but Betts.

The chant stopped.

“Lieutenant Davis was called away, Mr. Starovski. I’m here to assist you.”

Jonah caught his breath and stood, wiping the moisture from his face. He couldn’t deal with the ensign right now. He wanted Marcus. He wanted to ignore the weight in his groin, the steady demand for completion, until Marcus returned, but he had no idea when that would be, and the only person available was Betts. He wanted to wait for Marcus, had become used to his calm presence and gentle touch. This was work, nothing more. It had to be done.

“When will he be back?” he asked.

Betts shrugged and smiled, congenial and a little sly. “I’m sure I couldn’t say. There’s a situation with Professor Davis. He told me to assist you.” Betts’s eyes slid to the left before returning. His smile widened.

Marcus had left Betts here to assist him. That told Jonah all he needed to know about how important he was to Marcus. How important what they’d been doing together was. He shouldn’t be surprised or upset; he’d known this would happen. Hadn’t the johns always told him he was worthless? And Wes had had Jonah for sixteen years and then left without a word. He should have known Marcus would do the same. Jonah had to remember that, regardless of what Marcus said to him about what they did, he was just a job to Marcus. Another task in his day. He wouldn’t have time to continue working with Jonah the way he had been. Jonah had been too enamored of Marcus and what they did together to see it coming. Just like he’d never seen Wes’s betrayal coming.

He was a fool. And right now, he was a fool with a hard-on that needed release or the planet would slide. Tapioca’s life couldn’t be for nothing. He had to finish this last planet so he could find more work and move on. On his own.

“Do you know what you have to do?” he asked Betts.

Betts gaze turned calculating. “I’ve heard rumors.”

“And those rumors said what?” Would Marcus have said something to Jonah if he’d heard any rumors?

Instead of answering, Betts stepped forward and boldly cupped Jonah’s balls. When Jonah didn’t object, he dropped to his knees and freed Jonah from his pants. Jonah took a deep breath, ready to tell Betts to stop, he’d wait for Marcus, but he was too slow. Moist warmth engulfed him, and he groaned.

Betts had a lot more experience than Marcus did. He knew exactly how to take a cock deep and work it with throat and tongue until Jonah was thrusting helplessly and shooting fast.

He stared at the planet below as his spent penis slid out of Betts’s mouth. Rage filled him as he stuffed himself back into his clothing.

“You can go now,” he said harshly. Betts said something, but Jonah wouldn’t listen. He refused to look at the other man. “If you don’t leave now, I won’t be responsible for what happens.” That worked, empty threat though it was. Within seconds he was alone in his suite, the roiling planet below, a large storm supercell already forming in the new atmosphere.

MARCUS RETURNED a few hours later. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here. Betts didn’t call me when you were finished. Do you need to start again?” He unbuttoned his jacket as he talked.

“It’s done, Marcus. Finished.” Jonah continued to face the planet but watched Marcus freeze in the reflection of the glass. He seemed shocked, but Jonah didn’t know why he would be. He’d sent Betts in his place.

Marcus’s fingers lay still on a button. “The planet? What do you mean ‘finished’? I wasn’t here to help you finish.” He scowled at Jonah, then began doing the buttons back up. “So who did you use? It was Betts, wasn’t it? He’s been angling to get closer to you. You realize he doesn’t care, don’t you? He’s going to use you and discard you, just like Wes did.”

“Isn’t that what you’re doing? You’re the one who left without telling me and told him to stay here and help me out. What did you expect me to do?”

“So you… he….” Marcus looked bleak.

Oh fuck. What have I done? In Jonah’s old world, sex had value, like money. It had no meaning other than that—something to trade. Realization raced over him like a cold chill. With Wes, that’s all it had been. The same with Betts. Nothing but a means of achieving an end. That’s why he’d been so angry since Betts. It wasn’t Tapioca—not just Tapioca. It was Marcus.

Marcus made Jonah feel. So many feelings that coursed through him and around him, inside his body and his mind and filling him up with caring and laughter.

But Marcus had left, and Jonah…. “I needed to finish. What did you expect me to do?”

Marcus remained silent for so long Jonah thought he wasn’t going to speak. “Nothing, Jonah. I don’t expect anything from you.” He turned on his heel and left, ignoring Jonah’s call behind him.

He thumped his fist against the viewing panel, anger making it difficult to breathe.

Tapioca was down there, probably dead. Marcus had left, like Wes. No. Wes had never made Jonah feel… just feel. All Betts had done was use him. Marcus…. Marcus had accepted him. Appreciated him. Loved him. Fuck. It hit him like a sledgehammer to the back of the head.

He fucking loved Marcus, and he didn’t know it until it was too late, until he’d had Betts and realized exactly what he’d been doing with Marcus. It wasn’t work. It wasn’t release. They’d been making love.

His legs gave way, and he landed heavily on his knees. His eyes burned, and his breath rasped in his throat. It was all for nothing. Everything he’d ever done had led to this point, and he was alone.

Tapioca was dead.

And Marcus was gone.

Marcus

MARCUS RETURNED an hour later, unable to stay away when he knew the anger and betrayal he was feeling was unreasonable. Not unreasonable for him but unreasonable for Jonah. Jonah had needed Marcus, and he wasn’t there. Betts. Fuck. Betts had…. Betts had used Jonah like the whore Jonah said he once was.

Jonah was motionless, kneeling at the viewing panel, staring at the planet, such a look of desolation on his face that Marcus immediately knew Betts wasn’t important. What Marcus felt about it wasn’t important either. None of it mattered. What did matter was that Jonah needed him. He knelt beside Jonah and drew him into his arms, wanting to give any comfort he could. He shuffled forward, lining their bodies up, and held on tight.

“I’m so sorry, Jonah. I had no idea she’d pull something like this. I should have been here for you regardless of anything else.” As he spoke he rubbed his hands up and down Jonah’s back, his face buried in the warm dark spot where Jonah’s neck met his shoulder. The warm sweaty skin tasted of spice and exertion. He deliberately ignored the images floating in his head of Betts on his knees in front of Jonah.

It’s just a release. It meant nothing to him. He knew that, but it still made him wonder what he meant to Jonah. Was he just a release too?

Jonah wound his arms around Marcus but didn’t drop his head. Marcus knew he was still watching the planet, still trying to find Tapioca’s life force.

“I can’t find her!”

Marcus squeezed his eyes shut against the agony in Jonah’s voice. There was nothing he could do to help except hold Jonah. As he knelt there and stared at the brand-new planet, he realized most of his life had been spent in the pursuit of other people’s dreams. He’d been sucked into a pattern of using other people for no good reasons, and the only result that had come from any of it was that Jonah had been hurt, and Tapioca had died.

And he’d let it happen. He’d been so entrenched in trying to please all the “important” people in his life, he forgot about everyone else, and he’d forgotten about himself. His actions, as much as his mother’s, had led to Tapioca’s death, but that was going to end right here and right now. He would never again allow himself to be used in such a way, and he was going to do his damnedest to make sure his mother never had an opportunity to do this again.

Once Jonah fell silent, Marcus helped him up and put him to bed. He wiped his face and kissed his forehead and held him until he fell asleep. Then he straightened his clothing and marshaled his thoughts.

He pulled out his tablet and began tapping the screen. First stop: his mother.

WINNI OPENED the door when Marcus arrived. “I’m not interested in any of your liberal ideas or protests, Marcus. I know what your opinion is, and I stand by my actions.”

For a moment Marcus could envisage the argument they could have, but he knew she’d never change her mind, and he’d back down and walk away to keep the peace, just like he always did. It wasn’t worth the effort, and if he was honest with himself, he didn’t want to spend that much time in his mother’s company. “I didn’t come to argue with you, Mother.” He almost smiled at the pleased surprise on her face. “I came to tell you not to contact me again. Don’t talk to me, don’t call me, don’t write. Don’t send any messages via anyone else, either.”

“What are you talking about? You’re being ridiculous over some dumb animal.”

“She wasn’t dumb!” He clamped his mouth closed, reminding himself he wasn’t going to get drawn into a dead-end argument with his mother. “What she was, is the end of the line. I’ve realized I can’t be part of a life that includes such disregard for living things, so that means I don’t want any further contact with you.”

“Be careful what you say, Marcus.” The threat was there in her tone and Marcus was suddenly on familiar footing. He’d heard all this before.

“You don’t have to bother threatening to disown me and cut me off, Mother. It isn’t necessary.” He smiled at the smug relief on her face. “I’m cutting myself off. From today, I’m an orphan. I’ve already registered the papers removing you from my emergency contacts and every other official document. There are now no legal links between us, and any overture by you will be denied.” He stepped back. “Good-bye, Professor Davis. I sincerely hope the rest of your life brings you everything your treatment of others deserves.”

As he strode down the corridor, he realized he felt free. For the first time in his life, he was the only one making decisions about his life.

Next stop, Captain White.

“COME!”

Marcus rolled his eyes at the imperious command. He’d focused on doing his job in the six months he’d been on board, but this morning he’d lost any respect he’d built for his captain. He entered the office and took his usual position to the right of the door, facing the large gray desk.

White scowled at him as he tapped the spot on his desk that would spin the screen toward Marcus. “Care to explain this, Davis?” The screen contained a copy of the report Marcus wrote and submitted after Jonah had finally fallen asleep.

“I think it’s self-explanatory, Captain. You authorized a shuttle containing a sentient life-form to land on a planet undergoing terraforming. I reported that.” He’d also included a link to data from every trip the ship had undertaken in the past six months, only about half of which were Government sanctioned. When that timetable was cross-referenced with criminal activities in those areas, the links to White became obvious. He’d helpfully included all that in his report. He hadn’t been able to report what White had done with Tapioca without explaining where she came from in the first place. His parents would be investigated too. He knew White wouldn’t forward his submission, but Government protocols allowed unapproved reports to be submitted automatically if they were confirmed by the writer twenty-four hours after original submission. All he had to do was still be alive and have access to his comm in twenty-four hours.

“You’ll recall that report right now, Lieutenant.” White gestured to the screen that now contained a flashing green light labeled “recall.”

“And if I don’t?”

“I don’t need to tell you how well-known your mother is: you’ve used her connections for your own ends yourself. Leaving that report there will put her experiments under a microscope, especially this one where you’ve been working so closely with the Whisperer. Regardless of what that will do to your parents, you’ll find yourself charged with numerous offenses.”

It took several seconds before Marcus could draw a full breath. He’d foolishly thought White would argue for his own career first, but he’d gone straight to the offense. He mentally reviewed all his options. Contrary to what White seemed to think, Marcus tried never to go into any situation without all the facts and several backup plans. His work with Jonah was the only thing he hadn’t been totally prepared for in the last three years.

As he thought, White’s lips stretched into a smile. He tapped the green button on his screen, and a password prompt came up. “Tell it your password and recall the report.”

“And then what?” Marcus didn’t really need to know. Allowing White to cow him wasn’t one of his plans.

White’s smile grew to a grin. “There’s a little planet just outside the reach of Government space that needs a little work. We’ll go there, and you and the Whisperer can ‘do your thing’”—he grimaced as he said the words—“and I’ll have a nice little place to set up a side business.”

“You own the planet?” Marcus wasn’t sure why he was asking. He’d rather put his foot on a pulse bomb than continue working with White now.

“Let’s just say I’m the only one who knows about it. There are several others that would benefit from the nice little partnership you have going with that freak.”

Marcus had a list of all the eligible planets, and none of them were in the area White described. Any other planet that would benefit from terraforming already had life-forms developing so weren’t eligible.

“How long have you been working with my mother to terraform ineligible planets?” he asked.

White’s face reddened. “That’s nothing you need to know about. You need to remember that without your mother’s backing, you’d be cut off without a lifeline. You’ll end up swallowed by the deep dark, and no one would care enough to look for you.”

“Is that a threat?” It sounded like a threat to Marcus. His suddenly sweaty hands and tight throat told him it was a threat.

“Of course not. I don’t need to threaten you. Do I?”

Control was slipping away from Marcus. A retreat was in order or he’d end up… he didn’t know where. The brig, maybe. Or the deep dark. He didn’t really need this confrontation with White. All he needed to do was confirm submission in twenty-four hours. “I’m going to talk to my mother. See what she wants to happen. I’ll take care of the report.”

White’s smile grew oily. “You do that, boy.” He clapped his hands, and his screen flowed back into his desktop, and then he swung his chair around to face the viewing panel behind him.

Marcus left quietly and forced his feet to an even marching rhythm, rather than the panicked race he wanted.

Chapter Thirty-One

Marcus

MARCUS RETURNED to Jonah’s suite to find his father sitting comfortably on the sofa, reading. Jonah stood against the wall, as far from the sofa as he could get without jumping out the window, glaring at him.

“Dad? What are you doing here?”

Harry tapped the screen on his book and put it aside before he looked up and smiled. “I was waiting for you, of course.” He patted the seat beside him. “Come and tell me how your work has been going.”

“Have you spoken to Mother?” Marcus asked as he sat at the other end of the sofa.

“Oh, yes. She told me you don’t want to see her anymore and has sent me to talk some sense into you.”

Marcus opened his mouth to retort, but Harry held his hand up.

“I’m not going to do that. I think getting away from her and making your own way in life is the best thing you can do. I came to tell you what I’ve done to make sure you can make a clean getaway.”

Getaway? Had his father been drinking? “You’re the one who’s been conducting illegal experiments on sentient animals, Dad. Why would I need to make a getaway?”

Harry blushed. “I know. I didn’t realize…. That’s no excuse, of course, but it was just so interesting, I didn’t ask many questions.” He sat up straighter, nodded toward Jonah, and then focused on Marcus. “That’s why I’m here. I brought the data from the planet for you.” He flicked a switch on his wrist-comm, and a holographic screen popped up in front of him. Numbers scrolled down the screen.

“You need to leave,” said Jonah, his voice harsher than Marcus had heard before. “I don’t want to see how you killed an innocent animal.”

“Oh but you must see.” Harry grinned. “It’s fascinating.”

“Dad.” Marcus gripped Harry’s elbow as he stood. “Go back to your room. I’ll call you this evening.”

“But I want to tell you—” Harry clapped his hands, and the screen disappeared as Marcus dragged him to the door. “Come and visit, Marcus. I want to tell you—”

“Dad, I thought you’d spoken to Mother.”

“Yes, yes, I have, but I want to tell you about the experiment.”

“I’ve submitted reports on the experiments, Dad. Expect an investigation.”

The door slid closed, but before it was fully shut, Harry said, “Good.”

Not wanting to chase his father and find out what he meant, Marcus turned to Jonah, who still stood exactly where he’d been before. The scowl was still in place, but as Marcus waited, Jonah coughed and turned to look out the window.

“So that’s what you’ve done? Written a report.”

“Yes, I’ve written a report. One that White wants withdrawn, or he’ll expose me and send me for reimaging.” Marcus flopped down on the sofa. “I’ve also told my mother I’ve disowned her.” He chuckled a little at how bizarre that sounded. “What else can I do?” It wasn’t as if he could change the fact that Jonah had sex with someone else. Anger pulsed through Marcus, followed by a sick despair he’d never felt before. It was done. It meant nothing. The words whispered through him along with the suggestion that what they’d done together meant no more than what Jonah had done with Betts. No. I won’t believe that.

“I understand about Betts, you know,” he said. “It was just what you had to do after the chant, just like—”

“Just like what you and I do?” Jonah snarled.

Marcus thought what he and Jonah did was something more, and he’d thought Jonah felt the same, but perhaps he was wrong. Had Jonah wanted Betts all the time? “Is that all it is to you? I thought it was more.” The strangled words hung in the silence of the room.

Jonah slammed his hand against the glass and strode into his bedroom.

“What’s up your nose now?” Marcus asked the empty space. Jonah’s past was so different from anything Marcus could conceive of, he didn’t know what was going through Jonah’s head. The red glow from the lock mechanism glared at Marcus until he finally gave in and left.

Jonah

JONAH LAY on his bed and stared at the ceiling. Even this escape was ruined for him now. Only a few days had passed, but Jonah had become used to having Tapioca curled up at the foot of the bed with him. It was ridiculous. Jonah had gone his whole life without a pet, without attaching himself to anything, and now he was… was crying, dammit, over a… a…. He stood up and pressed his thumb on the door sensor to unlock it.

“I want to know what the fuck they thought they were doing, sending her down there,” he demanded as he walked into the living room. He stopped short when he realized it was empty. Fuck. He was an idiot. Harry had been there, willing to talk, and Jonah had Marcus throw him out. Now Marcus was gone too, and he’d never find out anything. He clenched his fists and spun in a circle, looking for something to punch. There was nothing. The room was programmed as a sitting room and dining room, so there was only that furniture available for summoning. Jonah found his shoes, jammed them on his feet, and left.

Halfway down the corridor, he broke into a jog. He’d passed the door to the gym before he realized he was already there so simply continued, upping the pace until he was breathing heavily, and his feet were pounding rhythmically, and he lost himself in keeping moving.

Thirty minutes later, he found himself in front of White’s door. On impulse, he knocked and entered as soon as the door slid open.

“Ah, you’ve come to make arrangements to help me with my planet,” said White, his hands crossed loosely on his desk.

“Do you understand what I do to the planets I terraform?” asked Jonah.

The smug look on White’s face dimmed.

“I age them. Thousands, sometimes millions of years, in a matter of weeks.” He paused to give White time to think about what he said.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I do it from a distance too. I prefer to have the planet in sight when I’m working on it, but it doesn’t really matter if I don’t.” That part wasn’t entirely true, but it was a small deviation from the truth. White wouldn’t know the difference.

“You’re wasting my time, Starovski.” White stood. “Go back to your suite and your obscenities.” He rounded the desk and slapped the mechanism to open the door.

Jonah smiled, enjoying White’s narrowed gaze and the way his throat moved when he swallowed nervously. As he stepped past White, he leaned closer and whispered, “Imagine what would happen to a human body if I got angry enough to lose control.” He stepped away, just outside the door. “Your threats to Lieutenant Davis make me angry.”

All color drained from White’s face.

Jonah continued his run.

HE RETURNED more than an hour later to a message from Marcus and dinner being delivered by Betts.

He stood, sweating and hot, awkward, as Betts laid out the table for two. “Have you heard the rumors? There’s going to be trouble, if they’re true. I always thought Professor Davis was the best.” He deftly positioned silverware and removed covers before wheeling his trolley to the door and turning back. He was a stranger, proper and servile. “You know, sir, I thought it odd that you always wanted your meals freshly prepared and would never use the replicator, but I tried it myself the other day, and I have to say the taste is something, isn’t it. I couldn’t afford to eat like that all the time, though, but I suppose you get enough from your work to do that. Enjoy your meal,” he said as he slipped through the door and away.

Jonah stared at the closing door, unable to decide which topic needed his attention most. Betts behaved as if nothing had happened, like what they’d done was nothing more than… than a card game. And what had Marcus’s mother done now that was scandalous? How much were his meals costing him? He’d thought they were part of his contract. He replaced the covers on the food and tapped his desk to open his access. After logging in he brought up his copy of the contract for this planet. A quick search revealed his meals and use of all facilities on board were included in his contract.

Next, he opened a couple of news feeds. If there were rumors on board about Winni, something might be there. There was nothing, so Jonah was in exactly the same position he’d been in before. He left his meal languishing and went to shower.

HE BEGAN preparing for the final chant early the following morning. He waited through three rotations in orbit, scanning obsessively but detected no life, only an increase in chemical production and a change in balance of the chemicals. Marcus arrived with breakfast and ignored the food just as Jonah did. Another rotation passed before Marcus spoke. His scans were showing no life-forms.

Jonah closed his eyes and counted his breaths in and out, trying to still his mind so he could continue. What he really wanted to do was go down there and find Tapioca, but all his requests had been denied. For the first time in fifteen years, he resented his life. He’d thought his life with Wes had been good, but he had no more control over it than he had at the brothel. It was all illusion.

Marcus’s hands slid over Jonah’s shoulder and began a massage through his shirt. The touch was tentative in a way it had never been before.

“Marcus,” he whispered through a suddenly thick throat. “I… please, I need you. No one else.” It was true. He could never allow Betts to touch him like this, would never want him to. Marcus was the only one. He turned and cupped Marcus’s face. “I can be myself with you.”

There was pain in Marcus’s eyes, a deep heavy weight he was struggling with, but as Jonah held on, it lightened. Finally, with a small sigh Marcus nodded. Jonah leaned forward and rested his forehead against Marcus’s. “It’s never been like this. I didn’t know this was possible.”

“It’s okay, Jonah. I understand.”

Jonah wasn’t sure he did understand, but it was enough that he was willing to try. He turned back to the viewing panel, Marcus’s hands once again kneading his shoulders. Within just a few minutes, Jonah felt the tension drain from him, and his focus on the planet sharpened. The chant didn’t start easily, but at least it started. After this one, he’d be done, and he could find Tapioca and bury her.

Eventually the chant began to lose power. Marcus must have heard it because he spoke for the first time. “What do you want me to do for you? Do you want me to remove your clothing and fuck you?”

The chant stopped, finished. Jonah leaned back against Marcus as he caught his breath. He wanted to ignore the weight in his groin, the steady demand for completion, but he couldn’t. It had to be done. He wanted to forget, too, that Marcus hadn’t been there when Jonah needed him most. He’d left Betts as if what they’d been doing together was nothing. They’d talked about it, and Jonah thought they’d sorted it out, but he was still angry. Furious. Rage filled him as thoughts of Tapioca and Betts got mixed up in his head.

He grabbed Marcus’s arm and tugged him around in front of him before pushing on his shoulder until he was on his knees. Jonah opened his pants and, for the first time since the first times with Marcus, Jonah shoved his dick into Marcus’s mouth without thought or care.

Marcus gagged, but Jonah didn’t stop. He threaded his fingers through Marcus’s hair and held on, not letting the other man back away. Marcus wasn’t the reluctant innocent he’d been before, though, and he gripped Jonah’s hips to reduce the depth of his thrusts, but didn’t push him away. After a few thrusts, Jonah calmed and released his grip in Marcus’s hair. Marcus held on, encouraging him to continue. Jonah’s release, when it came, wasn’t full of promise and need like it usually was. This one was filled with sadness and longing. Jonah stood silently when it was over, his shaky knees barely holding him up as Marcus fixed his clothes.

Marcus rose to his feet and drew Jonah into his arms. “It’s okay, Jonah. I know you’re angry at me, and it’s okay. We’ll be okay.” He rubbed his hands soothingly up and down Jonah’s back.

Jonah held Marcus more tightly but didn’t look away from the planet. Storm clouds began forming in the atmosphere, and Jonah sighed tiredly.

“What is it?”

“It’s raining.” Jonah nodded to the surface of the planet. “I think this one is going to be a wet one.”

THEY REMAINED in orbit for three days. Jonah hadn’t seen Marcus since he’d completed the planet. He’d knocked on Marcus’s door yesterday, but there’d been no response. A comm message got the same result. The only person Jonah had seen was Betts when his meals were delivered, but Jonah had refused to speak to him and was relieved when he left. Jonah was too restless and… lonely—he was lonely. Perhaps he always had been, but this was the first time he recognized it. He’d spent sixteen years with Wes, the last fifteen traveling and working with him, and he’d thought he’d been happy. What he felt now, the dearth of happiness, the devastation of loss—not just for Tapioca, but for Marcus too—showed him more clearly than anything else in his life had: he’d never been happy and had always been lonely. Until those few weeks with Marcus and Tapioca.

He wandered the corridors of the ship for hours. The residential areas were quiet, but the mess hall and gym were busy. He ended up in the staff rec room but that was almost deserted, only one group of half a dozen men playing cards. He turned to leave when a soft gong sounded.

“This is a notice to all personnel. Captain White has tendered his resignation, effective immediately. First Lieutenant Davis will be Acting Captain pending appointment. That is all.”

Jonah barely had time to feel a glimmer of satisfaction that his threat to White had worked and Marcus’s career was safe, when Ensign Betts jumped up from his chair and tossed his cards to the table.

“I told you!” exclaimed Betts. “I told you it was true. Cameron, you owe me fifty credits.”

“How the fuck do you always know these things, Betts?” asked a man who pulled a plastic square from his pocket.

“I volunteer for all those shit jobs you avoid, moron. You’d be surprised what you can learn when you deliver meals to the rich and privileged.” Betts laughed as he took the square from Cameron and tapped it against his chest-comm. “Authorize the transfer,” he said as he handed it back.

“Fifty credits. Transfer authorized,” said Cameron sullenly. “So who are you delivering meals to lately?”

“Ah, ah, ah. If I tell you that, you might work out what the next hot topic is, and I won’t win as much with the next bet.”

“Asshole.”

Betts slapped the other man on his shoulder as he pushed his chair in. “Only for you, darling.” He straightened his uniform jacket. “I’m on in five. I’ll see you all next shift.”

Another man at the table called out as Betts turned away. “You always do that, you bastard. The minute you start losing, you suddenly have to go on shift, and you take all our money with you.”

“How else am I going to afford the life I want to be accustomed to?” Betts joked. He looked up and found Jonah standing just inside the mess hall. His features blanked for a second before his smile widened. “Mr. Starovski. Welcome to the rec room.” He waved a hand at his friends. “I wouldn’t play cards with these guys today. They don’t have any money left for you to win.” Then he was gone, breezing past Jonah and walking briskly down the corridor. Another man slipped out behind him after waving at the remaining four at the table.

“You’re the Planet Whisperer, aren’t you?”

Jonah turned to see the four men staring at him, their cards forgotten.

“Betts delivers your meals, doesn’t he?” The smallest of the four spoke, his blond eyebrows stark against the flaming pink of his face. His carroty hair was cropped short, sporadic strands glowing copper from the overhead lights.

“Yes.” But he won’t be anymore.

The four exchanged glances, and then Carrottop spoke again. “Would you like to join the game?”

“What are you playing?” The alternative was spending the rest of the day alone in his suite or continuing his aimless wandering.

“It’s called seven-up. Do you know it?”

The name wasn’t familiar, but Jonah recognized the lay of the cards in front of them. Should he tell them he used to scam the johns while they waited for his mother to be available? “I don’t recognize the name,” he said as he wandered over to them. “Show me how to play?”

An hour later Jonah had won enough to pay for the next three weeks’ meals—if they hadn’t already been included in his contract. He pushed his chair back as he accepted the last credit transfer.

“You could have told us you’d played before,” Carrottop grumped.

“You call it something different. I didn’t realize it was the same game.” He grinned as he spoke. “Let me know if you’d like some lessons on the finer points of scamming people.” He stood and winked. “Invite Betts if you like—or not.”

They all laughed. “Good idea, Starovski. I’ll call you when I’m off shift, and we can set something up.” Carrottop, whose name he still didn’t know, stood and offered his hand.

Jonah left the rec room with a smile on his face. Had he just made friends?

He couldn’t wait to tell Marcus.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Winni

“HARRY?” HARRY’S lips twitched. She knew he heard her. He was ignoring her like he did all the time now. “Asshole!” Winni’s voice was strident, hateful.

Harry looked up, his eyes innocently wide. “Yes, dear?”

Winni flicked her fingers, and a newsfeed popped up between them. “Where did they get this information?”

“What information is that?”

“Look!” She stabbed a finger through the hologram where her name appeared in big black print.

“Are you in the news again? That’s nice.” He turned back to his reader.

“Harry! Look at this. Those bastards are saying I lied to get grants and that I’ve embezzled money from our company to further my research. They’re saying I’ve conducted illegal experiments and hidden it from everyone.”

Harry looked up again and blinked slowly. “But you have. Why are you so upset when they’re telling the truth?”

“Where did they get the information?” She loomed over him. She knew it was him, but she wanted him to admit it. That way, when she decided how to get rid of him, she wouldn’t feel guilty about killing her children’s father.

Harry put his reader aside and stood, moving out of her reach. “I don’t understand why you’re asking that, Winni.”

She gaped at him. “Of course you don’t. You bastard. You gave them the information, didn’t you?”

Harry smiled, even as he stepped farther away from her. “Of course I did.”

“You’re just as much involved in all this as I am, Harry. If I go down, so do you.”

“I’m aware of that.”

Winni clenched her fists. Her face cooled, and Winni knew all the blood had been shunted to her muscles. Harry’s smile faltered. Good. He wasn’t such an idiot then that he didn’t recognize when she was ready to kill him. She palmed the small knife she kept secured inside her belt and flicked it open. Harry took another step back.

“These experiments will make my career. I’ll discover a new way of manipulating animals’ genes for specific results, and my name will go down in history as one of the greats of science. No one is going to take that away from me, least of all you.” She lunged at him, the knife held securely in front of her.

He dodged to the side, but she slashed her arm in a wide arc, and the tip of the blade sliced across his forearm. Blood welled as he yelped and jumped back. She came at him again and grinned at his reaction. “You should be scared, you bastard. You’ve ruined me.” She slashed again but he was out of range. He had nowhere to go, though, as their room was compact. Not as small as Marcus’s box of a room, of course. She swiped at Harry’s chest and grinned when the blade caught in his shirt. More blood welled, but it wasn’t enough. The bastard was still standing. Still yelling at her to stop.

Still breathing.

Winni changed her grip on her blade and raised her arm to stab him in the neck. That would bring the bastard down and put an end to him. “I’m going to kill you, you bastard.” She thrust, but he leaped back. She changed her grip again and followed. “And when you’re dead, everyone will know it was you who did those terrible things.”

“They already know it was you, Winni,” Harry panted as he dodged another slash from her. “They have the data.”

She swiped at him again, catching him on his shoulder this time. “I’ll tell them you changed the data to protect your own reputation but couldn’t handle the guilt.” She grunted as she lunged at him and managed to lodge the blade in his upper chest before he tore himself away from her and turned to open the door. She stabbed at his back, but he dodged sideways, and the blade slid across his deltoid as the door opened, and he fell through.

A crash sounded as she followed him out, knife held out in front, ready to cut him again. A cry that wasn’t Harry echoed through the corridor before her outstretched arm was yanked down and twisted behind her.

“Drop the knife, Professor.”

A thumb pressed against her wrist, and the knife fell from her nerveless fingers. The burble of a comm unit connecting sounded near her ear. “Code 4-35. Code 4-35. Sector 314.”

Winni stopped struggling against the hold and attempted to straighten up.

“Stop struggling, ma’am. You’ll only hurt yourself.”

Winni finally placed the voice. It was the ensign who delivered their meals. She tried to straighten again, but his hold tightened, and pain shot up her arm. Her fingers were numb, and her shoulder began to ache. She stilled, her mind whirling.

“It’s you, Ensign.” She couldn’t remember his name, but hopefully he wouldn’t realize that. “Thank goodness you came along. He tried to kill me. My own husband tried to slice me open with a knife.” Her voice trembled with anger, but he’d think it was fear. Men always thought she was frightened by things she saw. As long as the ensign listened to her, she’d be able to get free.

Before she could begin her campaign in earnest, guards thundered down the corridor toward them, followed closely by blue-suited medics. Two beefy men grasped her by the arms and dragged her back into her quarters. The medics surrounded Harry.

“He tried to kill me,” she cried. “He sliced me with the knife.”

The guards exchanged a look but said nothing as the door closed behind them. The ensign did something with the door control, then tapped his chest-comm. “Captain, there’s a problem you might want to handle yourself, in sector 314.” A deep voice murmured something in response, but Winni didn’t hear what was said.

“I want him charged and locked up.”

“Who’s that, ma’am?”

“Him! My husband. He tried to stab me to death.”

“Are you injured, ma’am?”

“Of course not.” She didn’t say “you imbecile,” but from the tightening of the man’s jaw, he heard it anyway. “I’m pressing charges.”

“We’ll just wait until the captain arrives, ma’am. Please take a seat, and make yourself comfortable.”

“These are my quarters. Don’t tell me what to do in my own quarters,” she railed at them, then clamped her mouth shut as she remembered she was supposed to be the injured party. She put a hand to her forehead and slumped onto the sofa. There was a soft snort, but when she glared at the guards, their faces were impassive.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Marcus

MARCUS RAN his hands through his hair, wondering what else could go wrong, and then he was called with the next drama of the day. He had no one else to blame for the disaster the last few days had become. He’d expected something of Jonah that Jonah wasn’t able to or prepared to give. He knew Jonah’s needs, so he shouldn’t have been so angry when he’d fulfilled them in the only way he knew how. Marcus needed to go and talk to Jonah, but reports about the captain and his parents had resulted in a day full of video conferences and paperwork. He’d managed to avoid White and confirmed the report on the twenty-four-hour deadline. Now White had resigned—about five minutes before the order to stand down would have been issued—and was confined to his quarters pending criminal charges being laid.

White could still expose Marcus, but Marcus didn’t think he would if he hadn’t already. There’d be nothing to gain now, and he’d have charges of Harboring an Abomination added to his current list of misdemeanors. Harboring was treated the same as being an abomination; White would face reimaging if he ever returned to Earth.

Marcus twitched his shoulders. His uniform jacket was the same, and he was sure the epaulettes weighed the same, but the captain’s bars sat heavily on his mind. This wasn’t the way he anticipated being promoted. He wasn’t even sure if he still wanted a captaincy. Remaining with the military wasn’t compatible with what he and Jonah had been building. He snuffed a snorted laugh. Incompatible, his ass. If he was found out, he wouldn’t be given the polite option of a quick resignation.

Then the call from Betts—bloody Betts—came, and his day just got better.

“…There’s a problem you might want to handle yourself.”

Sector 314 was his parents’ quarters. “What’s my mother done this time, Betts?”

“She claims your father tried to stab her to death.”

Marcus’s stride faltered as the image of his father in a killing rage ran through his mind, and he scoffed. “Are you sure it wasn’t her with the knife?”

“Oh she definitely had the knife, sir, and your father is the one covered in blood.”

“What?”

“The medics say all his injuries are superficial. They treated him on site and released him.”

“Where is he now?”

There was a silent pause. “I… um, I don’t know, sir. I was busy restraining Professor Winni Davis in her quarters.” There was another pause, and Marcus imagined Betts gazing around in confusion.

“I’ll be there directly,” Marcus said, letting the ensign off the hook. He disconnected comm. “Lieutenant, I’ll be in sector 314. Then I’m off duty. Call me if I’m needed.” He didn’t wait for the response before leaving the bridge and entering the transfer cube, sighing in relief as the peaceful silence engulfed him.

HIS MOTHER didn’t even do “arrest” the way any normal person would. She stood beside her bed, arms akimbo, scowl firmly etched on her face. Dark red spots dotted her shoes and the carpet between her and Marcus. “Marcus. About time you got here. You can sort out this misunderstanding while I continue my work.”

“What work were you doing this morning, Mother?” Marcus asked as he gestured one of the guards over. “Find my father and take him to my quarters. Place a guard on him there.” He looked up to see satisfaction steal over his mother’s face. “Would you care to tell me what happened?” he asked.

“That man has thwarted my work for the last time.”

“What did he do?”

“He… I’m not discussing my work with you.” Winni crossed her arms under her breasts and lifted her chin haughtily.

“Did he do something to your data?”

“Marcus, I said I’m not discussing my work.”

“Did you attack him because of what he did?”

“I didn’t attack him at all! He attacked me.”

“Why?”

“Why? He wanted to kill me, of course.”

Marcus could think of a number of people who wanted to kill his mother, but his father was the least likely candidate even if he had most reason to. As he stood in front of his mother, his men scanned the blood spatters on the carpet.

“You haven’t given me any reason for him to want to kill you, but you have given me a reason for you to kill him.”

“Her prints only, sir,” said a sailor holding a knife in a plastic bag.

“Blood spatters correspond with the suspect standing there.” Betts pointed to where Marcus stood, then continued scanning. “Smudges matching the shape and size of a woman’s shoe show from there”—he pointed again at Marcus—”to here.” He pointed at Winni’s feet.

“It was self-defense, and you can’t prove otherwise,” said Winni.

Marcus regarded his mother for several seconds. The only surprise was that he wasn’t more surprised she’d tried to kill someone. He’d need to find out exactly why, though, for any charges to stick. “Betts, you’re primary on this case. Report directly to Lieutenant Gailen. I’m removing myself from the case.” He turned to Betts. “Make sure all your data is secure, and don’t make any allowances.”

“Marcus!”

“You’re under arrest, pending an investigation, Mother. Make yourself comfortable.” He turned and left, ignoring his mother’s screamed imprecations.

MORE THAN an hour later, Marcus finally headed for his cabin. He couldn’t wait to take his uniform off and stretch properly. Then he was going to have the quickest shower the nanos could manage and visit Jonah. There were things they needed to talk about before Marcus’s career took off without him and everything he and Jonah had built was washed away—if it hadn’t already been. If Jonah didn’t want him anymore, if he was happy to use people like Betts…. He palmed the control for the door to his quarters, and walked into the room to find his father on his bed.

Harry looked up from the bed where he reclined and smiled as he put his reader aside. “Hi, Marcus. I’m glad you’re here. I want to talk to you about the experiments.”

Marcus raised his hand. “Stop there, Dad. I’ve had a day from hell, and I really don’t want to talk about your experiments at all.”

“But—“

“What happened with Mother? The medics said you’re not badly injured.”

“Well, that was part of it, you see. She was very angry with me and decided she doesn’t need me anymore.”

“Couldn’t she just divorce you like normal people?”

Harry laughed. “That would be my first option. In fact, I’ve already filed the paperwork. She was going to be served before we began this round of experiments, but I postponed it because I didn’t want the fallout while I was working.”

Marcus didn’t know what to say to that. He’d wondered for years why his parents stayed married; it was obvious they didn’t like each other. Now he knew it was the science that kept them together. Ridiculous reason to stay with someone you hate, he thought.

“So I need to tell you….”

Marcus still wasn’t ready to hear his father’s excitement over Tapioca dying. He didn’t blame him, exactly, because he knew how Harry was with his work. Nothing else mattered. Nothing intruded—not even morals or ethics. “You stay here, Dad. I’ll get other quarters.” He stood and walked to the door. “I’ll send someone to collect some things for me. Make yourself at home.” The door slid shut behind him, leaving him in blessed silence that drowned out his father’s excitement over the experiment with Tapioca.

As he walked he realized there was only one place he wanted to go. Jonah.

Jonah’s suite was empty when he arrived, so Marcus took the opportunity to finish some of the reports he had to write after the disaster the day had been. Now, there were added reports on his parents’ domestic altercation to add to the ones he’d begun to have them investigated. There was no good outcome for any of this. His mother—and probably his father—would both end up doing jail time. They’d be stripped of their status, and all their research would be discredited. If he was lucky, he’d be able to keep it fairly quiet and restricted only to the scientific community. Heaven help them if word got out and the tabloids heard about it.

If his mother had been angry enough to try to kill his father today, he hated to imagine how angry she’d be if her actions became public knowledge. That woman lived for recognition but not that kind of recognition.

A clean uniform for his next shift was delivered with dinner, but there was still no Jonah. Marcus accessed the ship’s security and searched for Jonah’s physical indicator. He was in the rec room, the one place Marcus didn’t want to go now that he was suddenly the captain. Instead he opened the file he’d created after he’d intervened in the altercation with Betts—Bloody Betts. Betts was willing to press charges against the men who attacked him but hadn’t recognized who his attackers were. A wry smile tugged its way across his face as he thought about the looks on his attackers’ faces when they found out Marcus had not only recognized them but, now that he was Captain, their protection was gone. Too bad he couldn’t prove White had instigated that one.

Still, the time in the brig and the official reprimand he now lodged gave him a warm feeling inside.

Finished with his paperwork, Marcus stretched and checked the time. Jonah still hadn’t returned, but Marcus wasn’t concerned. Jonah didn’t have his own private shuttle like Wes had, and he couldn’t access any of the ship’s shuttles or escape pods, so he’d eventually have to come back here. A yawn filled Marcus’s body from his scalp to his toes. He rose and headed to the bathroom for a shower before bed.

He grinned at the thought of Jonah’s reaction when he found Marcus asleep in his bed.

Marcus’s comm unit buzzed as he was pulling his undershirt over his head. He tugged his arm out of the sleeve and reached over to tap the connection, expecting it to be Jonah.

“Marcus, why haven’t you done anything about this? They tell me you’re the captain now.”

Marcus was so used to trying to work subversively around his mother’s demands, it took him precious seconds of deliberate silence to formulate a response. He was too late.

“Your father tampered with the data from the last experiment, and he’s threatened to go to the media. He has to be stopped. I don’t care how you do it, but I want him silenced—tonight.”

“Mother—”

“I don’t want to hear any of your nonsense about regulations or ethics. These experiments are important. I’m so close to proving that the same energies transferred in the terraforming process can increase muscle mass. If I can streamline the transferences, there’ll be no end to the benefits. Food production would skyrocket, and it could be used to encourage muscle growth after injury. The Government has expressed interest in my findings. I’m not going to allow anything to prevent me from achieving the results I want.”

“No.” That should be succinct enough for her.

“I’ve been told he’s in hiding, but now that you’re the captain, you’ll be able to find him. If you don’t want to follow through on it, just bring him to me, and I’ll take care of it.”

“Mother, you’re under arrest, confined to quarters pending an investigation. If you don’t want a charge of conspiracy to murder added to the other charges, stop talking now. I’m able to check on your health and well-being occasionally, but I can’t have any further contact with you than that. I’m blocking your number now.” He didn’t say he didn’t want any contact with her. He’d already told her that. He disconnected the call and then blocked all direct calls from his mother’s personal comm and from her quarters. He nominated his first lieutenant to be her primary contact and sent a quick message to the lieutenant. He forced a yawn to release the sudden tension in his jaw and continued undressing.

The sheets were cool and smooth on his skin, obviously Jonah’s personal property, and Marcus shifted and twisted to enjoy them fully. A chime from his comm made him groan in frustration.

“Davis.”

“There you are, Marcus. I wanted to tell you about the experiment.”

“Not now, Dad.” Perhaps he should limit his father’s electronic communications as well. He might not have a call every hour if he did that.

“But do you want me to—”

“Dad, I’m not going to talk about that experiment with you.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, I guess I’ll sort it out myself.”

“Goodnight, Dad.” Marcus disconnected and glared at the ceiling. There was nothing his father could do without his equipment or access to the data, so Marcus dismissed the worry that had begun to grow during the conversation with his father. Even after he’d disowned his parents, he didn’t get any peace from them. Probably because he didn’t really hate them, no matter how much he disagreed with his mother’s attitudes and his father’s single-minded blindness.

He shifted on the sheets again and breathed evenly, tensing and releasing each muscle in turn, beginning at his toes and finishing with his scalp. By the time he finished, he felt boneless, ready to sleep. If only Jonah would come back.

No sooner had he thought the thought than the main door slid open on a swish that was more displaced air than noise. Seconds later Jonah entered the dim room and stopped.

“I don’t care what happened with Betts, but you’d better not do that again. You’re mine,” Marcus blurted as he lay naked in Jonah’s decadent sheets. When Jonah didn’t respond, he continued. “My mother tried to kill my father, so she’s under house arrest, and he’s hiding in my quarters.”

“So you have nowhere else to go.” Jonah’s voice was dry and droll, a thread of humor bleeding through that Marcus had never heard from him before.

Marcus grinned at him. “As Acting Captain, I made an executive decision that I should sleep in the best quarters available.”

“And me?” Jonah took three steps into the bedroom. His lips twitched.

Marcus sat up, allowing the sheet to slide down to his hips. “You’re part of what makes these quarters the best.”

Jonah’s only response was to turn into the bathroom and close the door behind him. Marcus waited for about a minute, but then the fidgets set in. Should he stay there and wait? Or should he follow Jonah? Did Jonah even want him there? Should he leave? He was about to get out of bed and get dressed when Jonah opened the bathroom door and came out.

Naked.

Oh, that’s a good sign. Marcus relaxed against the headboard and grinned at Jonah, even as his gaze traveled the length of his body, stopping at all the interesting bumps and bulges along the way. Images of Betts with Jonah kept intruding, but he determinedly pushed them away. It was just the job, nothing like what he had with Jonah. And it wouldn’t happen again. He retraced his steps once he reached Jonah’s long toes and stopped again at his cock. Part of Marcus still couldn’t believe he’d had that cock in his mouth and his hands. Another part, growing stronger by the minute, wondered what it would feel like to have Jonah fuck him, like Marcus had done with Jonah.

“I want you to fuck me.” He froze as the words floated between them, the letters almost visible in the suddenly thick air. He’d meant to say they needed to talk.

Jonah scowled at him. “Because of Betts?”

“No! You enjoy it, so I thought—”

“Just because I let you fuck me doesn’t mean I expect to—”

“I want to.” Marcus pushed the sheet all the way down, wanting to get this moving before he changed his mind. He did want to do this—he wanted to know what it was like—but there’d be no turning back from it afterward. He’d be the abomination everyone would think he was. He’d never be able to return to Earth. His career… his career would be over, yet he wasn’t as upset about that as he thought he would be.

While he’d been stuck in his head, thinking all the hard thoughts about his future, Jonah had crawled into bed beside him and begun running the tips of his fingers down Marcus’s arm. He shivered, shut his thoughts down, and leaned in to kiss Jonah.

It was different this time. Jonah’s lips were just as firm as they’d been before—and just as soft—but Marcus was different. At least, his expectations were different.

He reached up and dragged Jonah closer, on top of him until the heat from Jonah’s chest seeped into Marcus. The weight of him grounded Marcus and was more real than anything he’d done before. He breathed in against the heaviness as Jonah lowered his head and nuzzled under Marcus’s chin.

“What if I change you again?” The tenseness in Jonah’s muscles wasn’t the kind of tension Marcus wanted. He wanted Jonah focused on having sex with him, nothing more. Listen to me being all bold about fucking a man. He chuckled, and Jonah lifted up.

“What?”

“You won’t make me sick or anything, and it doesn’t matter what I look like. I’ll still be me.”

“Marcus.”

“Jonah,” Marcus mimicked. “You won’t hurt me.” He reached up and pulled Jonah’s head down. “There’s no planet here; there’s just you and me,” he whispered before he pressed their lips together.

Jonah relaxed on a sigh. Marcus knew he still worried, but he also knew Jonah would do whatever he had to to keep Marcus safe. The last time was different: Jonah was in the middle of terraforming a planet. This time he wasn’t using his powers at all.

“I want this with you. Show me how good it can be.” Marcus ran his hands over Jonah’s shoulders, the small scars no more than little bumps under his fingertips. He reveled in the twitches and gasps that turned into groans as his hands skimmed over Jonah’s buttocks, and he delved his fingers into the crease.

“I thought you wanted me to fuck you,” moaned Jonah.

Marcus chuckled. “Just making sure you’re focused.”

Jonah pushed himself up and reached for the lotion Marcus had stashed in every likely place. “I think you’re the one who needs to be more focused,” he said as he wedged his hips between Marcus’s legs. He pushed back onto his knees and froze, a handful of lotion held before him.

“What’s wrong?” Jonah’s expression was as serious as Marcus had ever seen it. Is he backing out?

Jonah gulped and looked down before determinedly returning his gaze to Marcus’s. “I’ve never done this before, so you have to promise you’ll tell me if it hurts so I can stop.”

“What do you mean you’ve never done it? You told me you worked in a brothel.”

A sad smile tugged at Jonah’s lips. “How many johns do you think go to a brothel to get fucked?” He paused, but Marcus waited, knowing there was more he wanted to say. “And those that do always choose the beefier whores. I didn’t grow into my height until after Wes bought me, and I’ve always been skinny. They took one look at me and thought ‘bum boy.’ I always got the muscle-bound jocks.”

“Oh.” They stared at each other until the silence became heavy, and Marcus thought they’d lost the moment. He smiled at Jonah. “So this is the first time for both of us,” he said softly. “We can discover it together.”

Jonah’s eyes glistened as he returned Marcus’s smile, and he dropped forward to press a mushy kiss on Marcus’s nose. “I’ll try not to hurt you, but you have to tell me if I do.”

Marcus nodded. “I will; I don’t like pain at all, but really how bad can it be? I mean, things that size…. Surely I just have work out how to push out without… you know.”

“You’ve thought about this a lot, have you?” Jonah asked as he pushed Marcus’s knees wide and rubbed lotion into—

“Oh God, that’s…,” Marcus moaned. “It never feels like that when I’m in the shower.”

Jonah chuckled, and Marcus felt the pressure of his finger disappear in the strange sensation of penetration. “You spend a lot of time in the shower playing with your ass like this?”

Marcus chuckled then gasped as Jonah’s finger moved in and out. “I clean myself, idiot. Oh that feels….” Not fantastic, not even great, but strange and—he looked at Jonah as he watched his finger slide in and out—wonderful.

“Not hurting?”

“No. I told you, I regularly, umm….”

“This is a bit different.” Jonah squirted more lotion; then Marcus gasped as a second finger joined the first.

“No,” he gasped. “Not usually. Keep moving.” Marcus planted his feet on the bed and pushed his hips up to encourage Jonah. “Oh, that’s good.” Goose bumps chased beads of cooling sweat over his skin, and his dick lengthened and hardened. Jonah did something that brought a sting of pain, and Marcus jumped.

“Relax,” whispered Jonah. “This is the easy bit.” As he spoke, he shifted closer until his cock bumped against Marcus, beside his fingers, which still plunged and twisted. Tingles twittered over Marcus’s skin like early morning birdsong, and he lifted and wriggled, trying to get more of it. “Hold still now.”

Marcus froze at the seriousness in Jonah’s voice. His eyes flew open when a cool bluntness butted up against him, beside Jonah’s hand. Jonah didn’t remove his hand completely; Marcus still felt stretched as his fingers scissored inside him, but the stretch became more and more, and then Jonah slipped his hand away and left behind was… was…. He gasped as the sting he’d felt before intensified and coalesced into a burning pain.

“Shh. It’s okay,” whispered Jonah as he leaned over him.

Marcus hadn’t even realized he’d been making a noise, but then the pained whimper reached his ears, and Jonah moved closer. “Jonah,” he gasped, his hands gripped tightly on Jonah’s shoulders, ready to push him away.

Jonah did move away, and Marcus sighed and relaxed. Yes, out is good. Out will stop it hurting. But Jonah didn’t keep moving out. He came back, sliding in, and the sting was gone, but in its place was a dull ache low in his stomach, and Marcus thought he was going to…. “Jonah, I need to—”

Jonah huffed a laugh. “Yeah, that happens. Just ride with it.”

“Ride?” Marcus couldn’t get his breath, huffing and puffing with each of Jonah’s moves. “It… it….”

Jonah shifted and linked one of his arms under Marcus’s knee, spreading him farther. Marcus lost his footing, slipped, no longer in control, and… oh God, it was… gasp… fantastic.

“More,” he begged in a strangled voice. “Faster.”

Jonah moved again, faster, just like Marcus wanted and… and…. Marcus couldn’t keep his thoughts in his head, couldn’t keep air in his lungs, could only feel the heat and the sweat and the stretching tingles tearing through him as Jonah thrust and pulled out.

“More, yes, more,” he babbled. “Like that, faster, harder.”

Jonah grunted, and all Marcus could do was hold on through the ecstasy and edging pain flowing through him like a pyroclastic surge, igniting every nerve ending and drawing it all out through… his… c… o… c… k….

He screamed.

Or Jonah did.

No, that wasn’t Jonah’s voice echoing through the room. Marcus couldn’t catch his breath and pushed weakly at Jonah’s shoulders to get space for his lungs to expand. Jonah tipped to the side, Marcus’s leg bent painfully at his hip, and he grunted and tugged until the awkward tangle was cleared, and they lay on their backs on opposite sides of the bed, panting. Marcus pressed a hand to his abdomen and shifted his legs to try to relieve the sense of gaping emptiness. Warm fluid dribbled between his buttocks.

“Oh God,” he moaned but didn’t have the energy to get a cloth to mop up.

Jonah’s hand landed on his hip, then slipped away, and he turned to see Jonah’s face settle into the most serious expression he’d ever seen. They stared at each other silently for several heartbeats, and Marcus watched the fear build in Jonah’s eyes.

“I… um, not right now,” whispered Marcus in his ruined voice. “But soon, we are going to do that again.”

Jonah laughed. Out loud laughed. It was relief and happiness like Marcus had never heard before, and before he’d made any sort of decision at all, he found himself joining in. Jonah reached his arm across the bed again. Marcus met him halfway, and their fingers tangled together.

Gradually the laughter subsided, and quiet fell. Marcus slipped into a light doze, then deeper sleep, his hand still tangled with Jonah’s, a smile on his lips.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Winni

WINNI PACED in her quarters, the space growing smaller and smaller the more frustrated she became. Marcus had blocked her calls. Her room had been locked against her access so she couldn’t leave or find Harry. And Harry. Bloody Harry had suddenly grown a conscience—and balls, apparently—and threatened to expose everything, even more than he’d already done. He wouldn’t, of course. Exposing her would also expose him. All the research either of them had done, at least in the last five years—possibly ten—would be called into question. Their careers would be over. Their reputations would be ruined, and they’d probably face charges, and even jail time.

That was unacceptable. As soon as she could, she’d call her lawyer and get him working on damage control and a counteroffensive. She smiled as she paced. She’d call the Chancellor. By the time she was finished, the Government would be begging her to continue her research. She’d have carte blanche and whatever funding she desired.

Her first attempt to call the Chancellor was unsuccessful, so Winni placed a call to her lawyer, activating the video feed at the same time.

“Conrad, I need you to patch me through to Brian Lord.” Conrad had acted as a go-between for Winni before, so he didn’t question her request. After several interminable minutes, the Chancellor spoke.

“Winni, I’ve been getting some concerning reports about your activities lately. Tell me what’s happening.”

The Chancellor looked distracted or displeased, Winni wasn’t sure which. He sounded impatient too, but she ignored that.

“Brian, I’m so close to finding the proof I need to move this research to the next level. The data coming through is amazing, and I’ve found someone who’ll be able to get results even faster.”

“There’s a report here from a Lieutenant Davis on board the frigate Keiki—”

Winni swiped her hand in front of her, dismissing Marcus’s report. “That’s my son. Take no notice of that. What’s important is the Planet Whisperer and how he can help me with my research.”

“The Planet Whisperer? Winni, you can’t mean—”

“Brian, stop interrupting. I need your help. Marcus has placed me under house arrest after some silly misunderstanding about an animal. I want you to make those reports disappear—”

“Do you know who the Planet Whisperer is, Winni?” the Chancellor interrupted.

“Of course I do. He’s here on the ship with us: a skinny, ineffectual man who’ll benefit enormously from my support.” Winni continued pacing while she talked, the movement helping her prioritize what needed to happen.

“That man has the full backing of the Government. And its protection.”

“I know. That’s what makes it so perfect. You’re the leader of the Government, so you can assign him to me.”

Silence was the only response Winni received. She moved back in front of the screen so she could see him.

“Brian?”

“I can’t support you in this, Winni.” The Chancellor’s voice sounded at once tentative and determined, his brow furrowed in a way he’d never let the public see.

Winni stopped moving. When she became aware her arms were frozen in midwave, she lowered them and glared at him. “What do you mean you can’t support me? We’re in this together, Brian. We always have been.”

“And up until now, the arrangement has been beneficial to both of us, but that’s no longer the case. Your experiments have been skating along unethical and illegal for some time, and I find I can’t condone what you’re proposing.”

“But the Whisperer can—”

“I know exactly what the Planet Whisperer can do, Winni. He’s off-limits. Completely.”

“I need him to progress my research in the way I want, Brian. He can’t be off-limits. Have you forgotten—”

“I’ve forgotten nothing, Winni. I know what our arrangement has been about.”

“Then you can’t refuse—” The Chancellor turned away from the screen and began speaking to his computer. The muffled sound filled Winni’s shocked silence. “Brian! Pay attention.”

He said a few more sentences, then turned back to Winni. “Anything you threaten now is only relevant while I’m in office and on Earth.” There was a pause while Brian took a deep breath. A small tap on his computer punctuated the sound. “Professor Davis, I’d like you to be the first to know I’ve tendered my resignation, effective immediately. I’ll be retiring off-world at the earliest opportunity.”

“You can’t do this, Brian. We’ve come too far now for you to abandon me.”

“I should have abandoned you when you first had your wild idea to cover up the situation, and taken the consequences then. No scandal is worth what I’ve had to do over the last fifteen years.”

“Fourteen years, and you were just as much to blame as I was for all those people. More so, and you know I have the proof. At least I didn’t let the experience go to waste. Our knowledge of the way atmospheric activity influenced genetic development grew exponentially after that and has directed my research ever since.”

“I’m blocking you from my list of allowable contacts. Don’t try to contact me again.”

The screen went black. After a few shocked moments, Winni tried reconnecting. The automated message denying her access made her clench her fists and scream her frustration and anger. When she calmed, she began pacing. In her mind, she sifted through all her contacts, looking for one who would ignore the facts and help her find a way out of this mess. White was gone, Marcus wouldn’t speak to her, Harry was—who knew where Harry was now. Brian was out, the bastard. She refused to contact any of her colleagues. They knew nothing of her methodology except what they read in her reports, and she wasn’t going to tell them anything now, avaricious beasts that they were. Her daughters were useless, together wielding the political influence of a bowl of sauerkraut.

That left Conrad.

Jonah

JONAH WAS lying in bed, listening to Marcus breathe, when the outer door swished open. He rose silently and retrieved a pair of pants from his wardrobe. The bedroom door opened before he could put them on.

“Well, hell, I knew you’d be okay while I was gone, but this is going a bit far, don’t you think?” Wes’s oily gaze flicked to Marcus before sliding down Jonah’s body. “And it looks like you’ve been getting some serious action. How much are you charging?”

Wes’s question sank him into sharp, pointy memories—things he didn’t want to remember. “I don’t do that anymore,” he said quietly, hoping Wes would stop but knowing he wouldn’t. He never did. “I didn’t think you were coming back.”

“So it’s just for fun, then? Nothing serious? What’s the point of that?” Wes tossed his duffel bag on the floor beside the bed and sat. He could probably feel the heat left from Jonah’s body seeping into his thighs.

On the other side of the bed, Marcus yelped and scooted out, dragging the sheet with him as he stood. “What the fuck?”

Jonah tugged on his pants. “Marcus.”

“How the hell did you get back on board?” Marcus glared at Wes. “You surrendered your ship pass.”

Wes’s grin showed lots of teeth. “The lieutenant remembered me from before and gave me access to my quarters until you approved me.”

“These aren’t your quarters,” said Jonah. His stomach churned. Wes was back and acting as if nothing had changed. Jonah watched Marcus scrambled through discarded clothing until he located his trousers. Everything had changed.

“Yet you left my access intact.” Wes’s grin disappeared. “So get rid of your toy, Jonah, and let’s get to work. You still have two weeks on the schedule for this planet. While you’re doing that, I’ll make some calls and find our next contracts.” He bounced to his feet, slapped Jonah’s ass, and strode into the sitting room. “Get a move on, Jonah. Money’s slipping through our fingers as you stand there with your mouth open.”

Jonah turned back to Marcus, who was dressing swiftly. Jonah stepped in front of him before he could leave. “I didn’t think he was coming back,” he said.

Marcus gasped. “I know. Will you…?” Marcus clamped his mouth shut and glanced at Wes. “I have to get to work, seeing as I’m the captain now. I’ll see you later.”

“Marcus—”

Marcus ignored him and left behind nothing but the scent of their lovemaking and the displaced air of the closing door.

“Damn, Jonah, you must have been going at it 24-7 to get it to this stage so quickly. It looks finished.”

“It is.”

“Hot damn. If you can keep that up, we can do half as many planets on top of what we usually do. We’ll make a killing.” He tapped the comm unit to log in. “I’ll find some more contracts for us to do.”

“Wes.” Jonah’s voice sounded as tight as his throat. He fisted his hands but held back on the impulse to punch Wes in the back of his head. “You left.”

Wes waved a negligent hand over his shoulder. “Now I’m back.” He continued to tap away at the screen, quickly scrolling through documents.

“You took all the money.”

“Yeah, well, that didn’t work out the way I thought, but don’t you worry about it, Jonah. We’ll make it back real quick if you’re going to speed up the process like you have.”

“Wes.”

“Not now, Jonah. I need to book us some more planets. Why don’t you go and get some breakfast or something. After what I saw in there, you’re probably starving.”

“Wes.” Wes ignored Jonah. Jonah stepped forward and grabbed Wes’s shoulder, dragging him away from the screen. “You took all our money. You didn’t tell me you were leaving or what you were doing. You left.”

“Well, yeah, but I’m back now.” He turned back to the screen. “Hey, why can’t I access your accounts? I thought it must have been a mistake, so I came back to ask you about it. You know I need access to those accounts, Jonah.”

“You emptied those accounts when you left, Wes. Why do you need them now?”

“Come and put in your password.”

Jonah took an automatic step forward before forcing himself to stop. There must be a reason Wes had suddenly returned and why he needed immediate access to the bank accounts. “Why did you leave, Wes?”

“Just get over here and enter your details.”

Jonah’s body moved again without his permission. Again he stopped, and then he turned and stared out the viewing panel. “Why did you leave?”

“Hey, did I hear you found an animal on one of the planets? I’ll bet you loved that. How long did you force them to delay before you finally got to work? Damn, you won’t work if there’s even an unidentified bacteria detected.”

“How did you know that?” Jonah came back to where Wes was and glared at him.

“Hmm? What did you change the passwords to?” Wes frowned at the screen but didn’t look up as he tried again and again to enter the right passwords. “I’m not going to get far, without access to those accounts,” he muttered.

Jonah ignored him and quietly slipped from the suite. He was breathing heavily, like he’d been running for an hour. His mind ran through everything Wes had said since he’d walked in an hour before.

“He’s been gone six weeks—nearly seven,” he muttered as he strode down the corridor. “Seven weeks! Then he waltzes in and… and… I’m not a whore.” Not anymore. “And Marcus isn’t my toy.” He didn’t know what Marcus was, but he wasn’t a toy. He also wasn’t there. He’d left. Just like… no not just like Wes. Jonah turned and retraced his steps. He needed to talk to Marcus.

“HE’S NOT here, son.” The expression on Harry’s face made Jonah’s insides squirm. Did he know what they’d been doing? Marcus said men fucking men was a bad thing. Jonah couldn’t see it—he’d never done anything different, never wanted to, and it didn’t make him an abomination. Being a whore might, but not the fucking.

“Is everything all right?”

Jonah jumped, coming back to the present. “I just want to see Marcus about… about the planet.”

“Of course, of course. You know, I really should tell you about the data—”

Jonah didn’t wait to hear any more. What had happened to Tapioca was still too raw. He spun on his heel and was halfway down the corridor before Harry could utter another word. He had no idea where he was headed. He wouldn’t go back to his suite, couldn’t go to the mess without a shirt on, and Marcus wasn’t in his quarters.

He ended up at the gym, running. Sweat poured down his chest and back, and he wondered hysterically if it would take his memories with it. Could he wash away all the wasted years with Wes by running until he melted into a puddle on the floor and no one recognized him as him? Or was Wes what he was supposed to have? Had Marcus been a pleasant but transient interlude? Someone to show him what the rest of humanity could have, but he couldn’t?

Eventually he had to stop and stagger to the showers.

Marcus

MARCUS GRIPPED the arms of his chair as he stared at the data scrolling down his screen. In the top corner, a news channel aired snippets of the same data as a shellacked presenter sensationalized his parents’ careers and systematically tore their reputation apart.

“Any idea where the leak came from?” he asked. He didn’t think even the Government was given this kind of access to the raw data.

An ensign looked up from his console. “Definitely on board, but not our secure sectors.”

So… no one on staff. That only left Jonah or Marcus’s parents. He scowled. And now Wes. “Can you pinpoint the time of release? What time did Starovski’s… partner reboard?”

“Last night and this morning. Farragher—Starovski’s partner—boarded this morning and went straight to Starovski’s suite.”

His parents, then, but which one, or were they working together? What could they possibly have to gain?

“Sir, security on line one.”

“Captain.” The security detail sounded nervous. In the background a shrill screech sounded. “Sir, Professor Davis—Winni, that is—is watching the newsfeed.”

Marcus sat forward as another scream rent the air. “I gather she’s not happy with the news.”

“No sir. She’s threatening to kill your father and—” A series of grunts joined in the screeching, which was louder. “Ma’am, if you don’t settle down, I’ll have to restrain you.”

“Do it, Sergeant. She’s clearly not rational.” His mother’s curses became more and more shrill until she was once again screaming. Then the noise stopped.

“Done, sir,” panted the sergeant. “We ended up having to sedate her.”

“Very good, Sergeant. Secure the quarters, and contact medical. They can take over management.”

Marcus listened to the arrangements being made, then disconnected the call. “Lieutenant, you have the bridge.” He handed control to his first lieutenant, then headed to his quarters. It was time to talk to his father and perhaps hear what he wanted to say about the experiment.

Harry smiled as Marcus walked in and placed his reader beside him. “Marcus, I didn’t expect to see you so soon. I thought you’d be on duty.”

“I am.” Marcus tapped his console and brought the newsfeed up in front of them. “What can you tell me about this?”

Harry stood and came closer. “Oh, I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. I didn’t think we’d be so important.” He laughed and pointed. “Oh look, they’ve even put photos of us up there. I wonder where they got those ones from. Your mother doesn’t look her best, does she?”

Distracted, Marcus regarded the image of his mother. “She looks the same as always,” he said.

“Really?” Harry tilted his head. “She always looks that angry?”

“Pretty much.”

“Hmph.” Harry shrugged and returned to his seat. “How can I help you, Marcus?”

“Did you release the data to the media?”

“Of course. It was the only way to stop her. You know she’d just keep going, don’t you? She honestly believes there’s nothing higher than science.” He sounded sad as he said it.

“Don’t you think the same thing?”

“No. I mean, I did get caught up in it all because it’s so interesting, and I forgot….” He sighed. “That’s no excuse, though. They were sentient animals, and I got so absorbed in the experiments that I forgot about that.” He stood and came over to Marcus and grasped his shoulders. “You have to believe, Marcus, that I didn’t mean any harm. I wanted to help, but every time we took one small step, another one made itself plain, and I had to follow the path. I needed to know.” He released Marcus and returned to sit on the bed. “That’s why I did what I did.”

“So you released the data and destroyed your career.”

Harry looked up at Marcus. “I did more than that. Yes, my reputation is destroyed. I’ll never work in the field again. But this has a much wider-reaching impact than that. Every experiment we’ve done that has even the slightest link to this data will be called into question.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “Do you know how long we’ve been working on this project? Other scientists who’ve taken our results and used them in their own research will have to start again.” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Ten years, Marcus, with an average of one planet a year. Only the last four have been your Whisperer’s, though. Oh Marcus, if I’d known what that man could do before then, I’d have focused solely on his planets. He’s amazing. Did you know, every one of his planets shows normal bacterial development, even though it happens thousands of times faster than usual?”

“Dad!”

“Oh, of course. Now, where was I? Yes, at least the last five years of my life will be called a lie, probably the full ten that Winni’s been working on it because we’re married. Every article I wrote, every piece of research has now been discredited.” He stared at a spot in the middle of the room, his eyes vacant. “I’ll be vilified, and probably charged with… something.” He raised his gaze to Marcus. “I might go to jail.”

“So why did you do it? Why didn’t you just stop?”

“Your mother won’t stop, Marcus. You know what she’s like once she gets an idea into her head. She refuses to see that anything we’ve done might be wrong. The science is everything to her.”

“She tried to kill you.”

A raw, devastated chuckle escaped Harry. “That was a surprise. I mean, I know she doesn’t like me much, and the only reason she’s kept me around the last ten years is because I’m so good with the data, but I didn’t expect her to get violent like that.”

Marcus sat beside his father. “You know there’s nothing I can do to help you, don’t you?”

Harry nodded and patted Marcus’s knee. “There’s nothing you need to do, Marcus. I’m a grown man. I’ll take whatever I have to and hope in some way I can make peace with what I’ve done.”

“I’m resigning my commission at the end of this mission.”

“What? No! It’s my actions—and your mother’s—that’ll be under scrutiny. You’re not connected at all.”

“We’re family, Dad. They’ll assume that the rot is through all of us, especially since it’s both you and Mother. Of course they’re going to investigate all of us, but that’s not why I’m resigning.”

“It’s not?”

Marcus looked at his hands twisting his fingers together as he decided exactly how to tell his father. “I can’t stay with the Government. I can’t go back to Earth.”

Harry’s breath whooshed out. “It’s the Planet Whisperer isn’t it?” He turned and regarded Marcus solemnly. “Do you love him?”

Marcus jumped up. “Love him? Dad! Did you hear what I said? I can’t go back. I’m an abomination.”

“Calm down, Marcus. It isn’t the end of the world.” He shrugged. “Although, it might seem like it since you’re giving up your career and the life you’ve known.” He stood and placed his hand on Marcus’s shoulder. “You aren’t an abomination. You’re my son.”

“But—”

“You’re my son, Marcus, and that’s all you need to know.”

Marcus bowed his head, allowing his father’s assurances sink into him; then he looked up. “Thanks, Dad.” They stood in silence for several minutes. “What about Mother?”

“Ah, yes, your mother.” Harry released Marcus and turned away. “I’m sorry about that.”

A snort burst from Marcus. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He shrugged. “I suppose it’s a good thing I’ve spent so much of the last five years trying to avoid her, and I disowned her a couple of days ago. She might not notice when I never talk to her again.”

The door chime sounded, and Marcus sighed. “That’s security.” He stood straighter, taking on his “captain” persona and opened the door. “Professor Davis, you’re under arrest for your part in conducting illegal experiments on sentient beings. You’ll be held here, under house arrest, until you can be handed over to the authorities and charged. You’ll have no contact with anyone on board, except for the first lieutenant and occasional visits from your son. Contact off the ship is limited to thirty minutes a day with your solicitor.”

A wry smile tugged. “Thank you, Marcus. That’s very generous of you. I was expecting to be thrown into the brig.” He looked around. “These are your quarters. Where will you sleep?”

“I’ll have an ensign pack my things, and I’ll move into White’s quarters, since he is in the brig as of this morning.” He had intended to move in with Jonah, if he was willing, but now Wes was back…. Marcus spun on his heel and left the room.

NEXT STOP was his mother, so Marcus thrust all the annoying emotions he was feeling deep down. If his mother caught on, she’d be relentless, trying to find a way past his defenses so he would release her. Both security guards stood at attention outside the door.

“Weren’t you supposed to be inside until I arrived?” Marcus questioned.

“Yes sir,” answered one as he turned his face to Marcus, revealing a livid bruise on his cheek. “We decided it would be better to remain here to prevent Professor Davis from leaving.”

“She did that?” Marcus gestured to the man’s cheek and received a nod in acknowledgment. “Okay. Cover me as I go in.” He felt silly saying the words—and disloyal to his mother—but after the way she attacked Harry, he wasn’t taking any chances. “One of you, remain here. The other, come with me.” With a deep breath, he pressed his palm to the lock, and the door slid open.

Inside, his mother whirled around, a lock of hair flying from her bun. As Marcus came closer, he noticed several pins sticking out, ready to fall with the next sudden movement. Winni’s face was flushed, whether from anger or the aftereffects of the sedative, he didn’t know. His stomach twisted at his mother’s appearance. Even first thing in the morning, she’d always been perfectly groomed. “Marcus. Do you know what that fool has done?” She gestured wildly at the newsfeed, which showed the same shellacked reporter he’d watched with his father and the image of his parents. The volume was low but loud enough for Marcus to hear what he was saying. “Criminal!” his mother screeched. “I’ll give him criminal.” She shoved past Marcus on her way to the door, which closed before she could get there. She whirled to him.

“Marcus, open this door. For some reason outgoing calls aren’t working from here anymore, and I need to contact that reporter immediately.” The security guard stepped between her and the door. Brave man. She stepped to the side; so did he; she stepped back. “Marcus! This Neanderthal is blocking my way, and I need to go and speak with your father.”

“Mother, come and sit down.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, Marcus. I need to get out of here and do some damage control.” She strode to him and poked her finger against his chest. “If I don’t stop this and fix that data, everything will be ruined.”

She wasn’t going to sit down, and she wasn’t going to calm down long enough to listen to him. Marcus didn’t know why he still tried. He spoke over her.

“Professor Davis, you’re under arrest for your part in conducting illegal experiments on sentient beings. Other charges pertaining to the attempted murder of Professor Harry Davis have also been recorded. You’ll be held here, under house arrest, until you can be handed over to the authorities and formally charged. You’ll have no contact with anyone on board, except for the first lieutenant. Contact off the ship is limited to thirty minutes a day with your solicitor.”

She gaped at him for a second, and Marcus used the brief time to slip around her and head for the door.

“Under arrest!” Her voice was even more shrill than before.

Marcus stumbled as she threw herself against his back. “You’re not going to lock me up here like some criminal. It’s research!” Her arm wound around his neck, and he felt her other hand grip her forearm to tighten the hold on him. He couldn’t breathe, and out of the blue, he thought she’s done this before. Spots formed in front of him as he gripped her arm and tried to pull it away from his neck. The guard stepped forward and reached past him. A second later his mother slipped from his back, her hold loosening and dropping away. Marcus stumbled.

“Sorry, sir,” the guard said as he helped Marcus find his feet. “I came prepared, seeing as how we had to sedate her before. It seemed likely it would happen again.”

Marcus coughed, releasing the tension in his throat. “Thank you, Sergeant. Good thinking.” He looked back at his mother, slumped on the floor, and thought he should put her on the sofa or the bed, to make her more comfortable. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before she comes round again.” Once outside, Marcus keyed the door for emergency access only. He turned to the guards. “Hopefully, that will hold her.”

“Yes, sir.”

“There’s emergency access only now. She has the replicator for meals, but I’ll come back to check with you periodically. I’ll make sure there are two guards to accompany me in there and another two on the door. I don’t trust her not to attack again and try to escape.”

MARCUS HAD to get back to the bridge, but before he did, he wanted to talk to Jonah. After so many weeks seeing Jonah every day, working with him, talking to him, not seeing him left a gaping hole in his day. The first frantic days of his captaincy, where he couldn’t talk to Jonah and see his piercing green gaze totally focused on him, had shown him that he never wanted a repeat. He tapped the door and entered Jonah’s suite as soon as it had opened wide enough. He stopped short at the sight that greeted him.

Wes closed the bedroom door behind him and faced Marcus. His skin was damp and shiny above the towel tied around his hips. He frowned at Marcus before a slimy smile grew on his face.

“You look different in your uniform—” He squinted at Marcus’s epaulettes. “—Captain!” His eyebrows rose. “What happened to White?”

Marcus ignored the query, not feeling any inclination to answer questions from the weedy little man. “I want to speak to Jonah.” He stepped toward the bedroom door but came up short when Wes stepped in front of him.

“Jonah’s sleeping right now.” His smile widened. “I wore him out, poor thing, but before he dropped off, he asked me to make sure he wasn’t disturbed at all. Not even by you, Captain.” He crowded closer, and Marcus stepped back, not wanting to touch the other man. “He doesn’t need you here now that I’m back.”

“I’d like to hear that from him.” Marcus crossed his arms and frowned, hoping he looked as in charge as he wanted to.

Wes stepped forward again, crowding Marcus as he had before. “I’ll tell him you said that as soon as he wakes.”

Marcus was going to push it, push past the odious man and confront Jonah, but his comm unit buzzed. “Captain, could you return to the bridge?”

He tapped his chest. “On my way.” He glared at Wes. “I’ll be back to see Jonah later.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Jonah

JONAH WALKED slowly, trying to put off having to face Wes again. He couldn’t believe Wes had come back. No, that wasn’t right. Jonah hadn’t believed he’d left in the first place, but he had. After he’d accepted Wes had really left and cut all ties, he’d thought he was gone for good. Wes was focused on getting access to their bank accounts again, so he must have come back for the money. Jonah retraced his steps to the gym but kept going, stopping at the rec room and the bank of public consoles. Quickly he logged into his accounts and gasped at the balances.

Marcus said he’d transferred some money over, but there was a hell of a lot more than Jonah had expected. He checked the dates of deposits. Most of it appeared to be from Marcus, but there was another deposit in one of the accounts that was dated three days prior. That must be what Wes was after. He noted where the funds came from, then opened another pane and traced it.

“Shit.” Jonah leaned forward, unable to believe what he was seeing. “He’s been terraforming planets on his own. But how?” He tapped a few more levels back on the trail. “Fuck. No wonder he’s being such an asshole. If they find out he doesn’t have any talent, he’s dead.” He tapped further, looking for the planets Wes had worked on. Something’s happening, but it isn’t on a whole-planet scale. He tapped again. “And it’s showing signs of regressing.” He sat back and stared at the hologram in front of him. That’s why Wes had returned. Sure, he wanted the money, but he wanted Jonah more. Without Jonah, the two planets Wes had worked on would regress and the people who’d paid him would be very disappointed.

Jonah recognized one of the names attached to the money trail: Natch. Natch owned the brothel Jonah had worked in on Tolifax. He owned most of Tolifax and had connections throughout the galactic underworld. If he marked Wes, Wes would die.

So would anyone associated with him.

Jonah shut down his connection and headed back to his suite. He had to get Marcus to take him to the planets so he could finish the botched job Wes had started. Then he had to work out how to make it clear he had nothing to do with Wes, because there was no way in this lifetime that Jonah was going to have dealings with Natch again. He still carried the scars from the last time.

He would never go back to Natch. Or Tolifax.

“JONAH, BABY, there you are.” Wes didn’t look up, just kept tapping at the screen. “You forgot to give me the new codes for the bank accounts. I still can’t get in. I put some money in there for that planet you want to settle on. I’ve found the perfect one for us, but I need to transfer the money today if it’s going to be ours.” He turned to Jonah and stilled. “What?”

“You put money into the bank accounts.”

“Of course I did, baby. We’re saving for that planet.”

“You took all the money, Wes. Every cent.”

“Yeah, I know that’s what it looked like, but I did it for us. We only needed a bit more to make all our dreams come true.”

“How did you perform the terraforming?”

After five seconds silence, Jonah realized he’d never heard Wes stop talking long enough for Jonah to think things through before. His manager always talked, and kept talking, until Jonah agreed to whatever he wanted. It hadn’t been that way in the beginning, had it? Jonah thought back. No. It had been different. Wes never tried convincing Jonah in the beginning; he just told him how it would be and pushed on through. It was only after the prostitute, when Jonah realized he didn’t need Wes to complete the terraforming, that Wes changed the way he did things.

“Wes,” he said, as Wes remained silent. “How did you perform the terraforming?”

Wes scowled, an ugly twisting of his features that Jonah had never seen before. He pulled a small device from his pocket and pressed the edge. Jonah’s voice filled the room, the deep, guttural chant reverberating through his body like an echo of a long-lost love. “You recorded me,” he gasped. “You always said I couldn’t do that because it wouldn’t work.”

The scowl deepened, and he turned the sound off. “And I was right. Sure it works for a little while, but the range is limited, and the planet slides after a few weeks.”

“That’s why you came back.”

Wes ignored Jonah. “You have to come and fix it. There are three more he wants done after that.”

“Who?” Jonah’s stomach churned. He knew who was paying Wes, but he still hoped he was wrong. He wanted Wes to tell him something different. Twenty years since he’d been on Tolifax. Sixteen years since he’d seen Natch, felt his fetid breath on the back of his neck. He thought he was out, that he’d never have to go back. It was in his past, and it would stay that way. “Who wants more done, Wes?”

Wes sighed. “Now don’t get a pole up your bum, Jonah.” He held his hand up placatingly. “I know you don’t like him, but he’s a savvy businessman. He knows exactly what the next moneymaker is going to be, and I want in on that.”

“Who?”

Wes stood, planted his feet wide, and crossed his arms. It was the same stance he used in the early days when Jonah didn’t learn his lessons well enough. It’s how he stood when he told Jonah he wouldn’t eat until he learned what Wes wanted him to. Nervous sweat beaded Jonah’s back even though he knew Wes couldn’t control him like that anymore.

“Natch.”

Jonah’s breath left him in a rush, leaving him dizzy and weak. He’d known, but he’d still hoped.

“You have to do it, Jonah.” Wes’s voice took on a weaselly quality. “Natch knows about your little toy, Jonah. How do you think your precious captain will do with Natch’s brand of care?”

Jonah turned to the door. He punched the release before Wes spoke again.

“I had a nice little chat with him, you know. Your captain. Do you want to know what we talked about?”

Jonah glared at Wes, who grinned at him.

“Maybe not. The end result is the same, though. He told me he didn’t want to see you again.” Wes leaned negligently against the desk. “It seems the poor boy gets a bit squeamish at the thought of how many men have had you before him. Of course, that’s perfectly understandable. There aren’t many people who can tolerate whores in their daily life.”

Jonah strode from the suite and darted down the corridor, his feet moving faster and faster until he was running.

After his workout at the gym, he decided to go for a run. He was amazed when his feet carried him to Marcus’s quarters. Marcus had been so upset before that Jonah was sure he’d be here, in his own space. He palmed the lock and listened to the chime inside. Within seconds the door opened. Jonah had his mouth open to speak, to beg Marcus to forgive him, to come back and touch him and hold him again—like he had before—but Marcus didn’t open the door. His father did.

“Mr. Starovski. What a surprise.” Before Harry could say more, two guards stepped up to him and pulled him back into the room.

“Professor Davis isn’t permitted visitors,” one of them said before the door closed in Jonah’s face.

He went to the bridge, but other guards denied him access. He didn’t have the access codes to anywhere but his suite, the mess hall, and the gym and rec room. The mess hall was denied him because he still wasn’t wearing a shirt. He wandered the corridors but didn’t find Marcus—didn’t know where to look. The response when he asked at the gym and the rec room was that “The captain is on duty.” He passed all the emergency comms along the way. This wasn’t an emergency. He just needed to see Marcus.

He ended up back at his suite.

With Wes.

Winni

WINNI PACED faster and faster as her agitation grew. Hovering between her and the door was a hologram showing the face and shoulders of her legal counsel. Conrad Tippin was senior partner in the firm Harry had hired when he first went into research for the Government.

“Winni, I’m not joking here. The charges against you are serious. This isn’t something you can dismiss.” Conrad wore his serious face, the one that made his black eyes seem fathomless and his large nose hawklike. His thick white hair gleamed in the overhead light that was positioned so the shadows under his chin hid the loosening skin at his neck.

“I’m very serious, Conrad. You have to find out where these rumors have come from and squash them. I won’t have my reputation dragged through the mud because some idiot is a bit squeamish about some low-order animals.”

“Are you sure they’re rumors? I have some pretty convincing data in front of me right now.”

“That data is erroneous. There’s no way that last animal would have died.”

Conrad was silent for several seconds while Winni continued to pace and mutter about how the data must have been manipulated.

“The last animal?” he asked at last. He tilted his head so his nose appeared even more beak-like. He looked dangerous.

“The one on this planet we’re orbiting, wherever we happen to be right now. It won’t have died from the terraforming. It was evolving so quickly on its own the only impact the terraforming would have had would be to speed it up. I’m telling you it’s not dead. The data is wrong.”

“What difference does it make now if the animal is dead or alive?” asked Conrad.

Winni scowled at the speculation in Conrad’s voice, then dismissed it. He was a lawyer; there was no way he’d want to steal her research.

“That’s what they’re worried about, isn’t it? Isn’t that what the furor on all the newscasts is about? The fact that the animal died?” She stopped pacing and composed herself, clasping her hands loosely at her stomach. “It didn’t die, so they have nothing to worry about. You can get those stupid charges dropped, and I can continue with my research before the planet changes too much and I have to start again.”

“Professor Davis, your bank accounts and other assets have been frozen pending the investigation. If you’re found guilty as charged, any funds provided for the purposes of your research in this field will have to be returned to the sponsors. As you’ve been researching in this field almost exclusively for the last ten years, the last five with your husband, I would suggest that would constitute most of your assets. I’m not sure you can afford my representation.”

Winni paced another circuit of the small room before Conrad’s words registered. “What are you talking about, Conrad. Your firm has represented us for nearly forty years. You’re on retainer; you have to represent me.”

“Actually, I don’t. The original contract was signed with your husband, with your name being added two years later with a special addendum. This firm’s first loyalty is to Professor Harry Davis. If you would like, I could recommend several less expensive firms for you to apply to for representation.”

“Less expensive? You mean less effective. I don’t want anyone else to represent me.” As she spoke, a list of names and contacts scrolled through the air in front of her. “You can’t do this, Conrad. You’re under contract, and I plan to hold you to that.”

“My services are no longer available for this matter. I look forward to hearing from your new legal counsel should you wish to pursue a complaint. Good day, Professor Davis.”

“Conrad. Conrad!” Winni stormed over to the list Conrad left. “Bastard,” she hissed as she poked a finger at the name at the top of the list.

After a lengthy pause, a recorded voice said, “This contact has not been approved. Please choose another.”

Winni stabbed at the next person on the list. “Stupid bloody machines. I’m allowed to contact my lawyer.”

“This contact has not been approved. Please choose another.”

“I’m changing my lawyer, you idiot.” She chose the next person on the list but received the same response. After another three attempts, she placed a call to Marcus.

“The captain is unavailable. Please leave a message and await a response.”

“Marcus, you’d better get back to me quickly. This stupid system won’t let me make any calls.” She disconnected, shut down the hologram, and continued pacing. She refused to contact the lieutenant that Marcus said was her liaison.

Three hours later and six more calls to Marcus, she was still waiting. She’d removed her shoes and topped her glass with vodka more times than she could remember. A hank of hair slipped from the bun at her neck and slid across her cheek. She pushed it back and delicately tucked it under a pin. She sipped at her drink and used the back of her hand to dry her chin as she peered at the glass, looking for the imperfection that would make it spill liquid all over her.

“Maybe that could be my next research project,” she slurred. “Although I think Watkins had the sh-seminal paper on the changing qualities of glass under extremes of-of gamma rays in space.” She burped then covered her mouth and giggled.

Then she frowned. She was drunk. That wasn’t a laughing matter. She hadn’t been drunk since that time Inderey spilled her chocolate milk all over Winni’s final report for the new fuel source. Restringing that for the panel had meant she’d missed the deadline and missed the funding. It paid a lot more than the research she’d been doing, and she wouldn’t have had to hide half of it from the stupid animal rights people. Or the Government.

It was Inderey’s fault. No. Inderey was a child. You’re not supposed to blame children. It was Marcus who spit up his spaghetti on her suit before she presented her findings on molecular differences in irradiated vacuums and caused the panel to screw their noses at the smell. She sighed. Marcus was a child too.

“You can’t blame the children, says Harry.” She sneered and tipped the rest of the liquid from the glass into her mouth.

“It was Harry’s fault,” she cried as she poured more alcohol into her glass. “He’s the one who wanted children in the first place. He made me sign that stupid contract before he’d marry me and combine our research. I needed him to analyze the data; he’s the only one who can see patterns like that. No one else can. Not even me.” Tears streamed down her face. “And now it’s all over. I’ll never get funding again, not after this disaster. It had to have been Harry who released the data. No one else had access to it in that format. Only him—and me. Asshole. Doesn’t he realize his career is just as shot as mine is? They’re going to throw him in jail. They’ll throw both of us in jail. Oh crap. What if they put us in jail together? Another thirty years of Harry and his stupid bloody smiles for the children and his absentmindedness and gentleness with animals. He’s not a real scientist. Real scientists don’t care about any of those things. All we care about is the data, the research, and the results.”

She stood and swayed as she wobbled over to the cabinet to open another bottle. As she struggled with the twist top, she stumbled and grabbed hold of the cabinet. The top drawer popped open, and she stared into it at the jumble of Harry’s underwear and pills. She scooped the cards up and tipped them next to the bottles. There were pills for weight loss and for blood pressure. “Paracetamol, codeine, Valium, and…,” she whispered. She kept the Renitec pills in her hand as she flicked through others. She held a small bottle up to the light to read the small print on the label. “Hmph. Stilnox. No wonder he sleeps so soundly and never wakes when I want to talk about the research.”

Absently, Winni popped all the pills from the cards and dropped them into an empty glass. “I thought Harry had regular nano injections for all this. I wonder what his insides look like with him taking these all the time.”

She picked up the glass and jiggled the pills, then smiled. Harry always had a glass of juice before breakfast, and he would have to come back for his pills in the morning. She slid the glass into the dispenser in the wall and selected apple juice, but a buzz was the only response. She pushed the button three more times before her foggy brain remembered she’d cancelled Harry’s apple juice when he disappeared. She slid her finger over to the icon of a tomato. A thick red stream of tomato juice poured into the glass and covered the pills. They’d be dissolved by morning, and Harry would be dead.

“Just what you deserve for what you did to me, you asshole,” she whispered as she refilled her glass of vodka and staggered to the sofa. She tried again to call one of the lawyers on Conrad’s list, with the same result. She tossed her drink back, no longer feeling the sting of the alcohol in her throat, and called Conrad. As soon as the call connected, she spoke, ignoring the fact that the smooth metallic face of a messenger drone filled the screen and not Conrad’s hooked nose and black eyes.

“Listen, you bastard. I can’t call anyone but you, so you’d better shut down the media and get my funding back. Without my research I’ll die, and it’ll be your fault.”

“Your message has been saved as it is considered a threat. Calls from this locale are now blocked.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Jonah

WES TURNED to glare at Jonah when he returned. Jonah let the door slide shut behind him, then went to the console.

“About bloody time you came to your senses. What were you thinking locking me out of our accounts? That money is mine.”

Jonah paused before he opened the accounts.

“Don’t you dare stop now. I need that money.”

Jonah opened the account that Wes had deposited the money and transferred anything that was from Marcus into a different account.

“What are you doing?” Wes leaned over Jonah, peering at the screen. “How much money do you have?” He paused. “That’s my money. You can’t take it.”

“It’s not your money,” Jonah said as he tapped at the hologram and isolated the account with Wes’s money. He set three different levels of encryption—all based on the word “Tapioca,” because Wes didn’t know her name—on the other accounts, then dragged Wes’s account to the side, removing all links to any others. “Put your thumb here.” Jonah pointed at the screen, and Wes complied. Jonah’s heart rate increased when he realized that was the first time he had given Wes an instruction. And Wes had done what he was told. He closed his account access and stepped away from the hologram.

“That’s your account now. You’re the only one who has access to the money you deposited in there three days ago.”

“What about the money you took? That money was earned by both of us. Half of it’s mine.”

“You took all of our money, Wes, so stop with the bullshit. That’s not your money. It’s not mine either. I’m just minding it for a friend.”

“Minding it? What the hell kind of friend would trust you with that kind of money?” Wes whirled on Jonah and pushed against his chest. “You’re stealing from me. I wan—”

“It doesn’t matter what you want, Wes. That’s not your money, and you’re not getting access to it.” Jonah leaned back against the wall, trying in vain to put some distance between him and Wes.

Wes curled his hand around Jonah’s neck and squeezed. His other hand gripped Jonah’s balls. “I want that money, and I want it now. You have one minute to transfer it all to that new account, or you’re going to be dead.”

Jonah struggled to breathe. Dimly, he realized dead wouldn’t get Wes the money he wanted. In his struggle between doing what Wes wanted and protecting Marcus’s money, Jonah froze. Black spots danced across his vision.

Wes pushed him away and stepped back. “I want that money,” he said.

The door swished closed behind Marcus as he came into the living room. He strode forward and pulled Wes farther away from Jonah. “Get away from him!”

“There’s no problem here, Captain. Jonah and I were just discussing the money he owes me.”

Jonah gasped, then coughed against the tightness in his throat. He shook his head furiously at Marcus, hoping he’d believe him. For the first time, he could see where Marcus resembled his mother. Marcus was furious.

“If you want to get nasty about it,” he said, “I can make a claim on Jonah’s behalf against the money you took from the accounts when you left six weeks ago. Is that what you’d like to happen?”

Sweat beaded Jonah’s forehead and ran down behind his ears. He hoped Marcus didn’t push the situation. Wes wasn’t nice when he was thwarted. Jonah wasn’t sure if he’d stand his ground or if he’d give in and hand all Marcus’s money over.

He moved away from the console so he wouldn’t be tempted. That was Marcus’s money, and Marcus had trusted Jonah with it. He couldn’t give it to Wes. He kept both Wes and Marcus in his sights as he moved.

Wes was silent, and Jonah thought he could almost hear him working out how to get his way. “Jonah—”

“I’ve given you all the money you put into the account, Wes. The rest belongs to Marcus, and I’m not going to hand it over.” His heart pounded, and sweat dampened his clothes. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to defying Wes. Nothing good ever came from it.

“Jonah—”

“If you keep pushing this, Wes, I won’t even help you with the two planets you’ve stuffed up.” He kept his voice soft and was amazed at the menace it carried.

“What the fuck?” Wes grabbed Jonah’s arm and spun him around, so close Jonah could smell his fishy breath and see the green sparks in his dull brown eyes. Wes’s fingers dug in, making Jonah’s fingers tingle.

“You want to live, don’t you, Jonah?” Wes smiled under the single dim light, and sixteen-year-old Jonah pressed back against the bars of the cage. The metal was cold against his bare skin, but it helped ground him in the gloom. “I’ve been watching you. It took me a while, but I finally figured it out. They don’t want you for the sex, do they, Jonah?”

Jonah blinked rapidly against the burn in his eyes. Wes knew.

“Yeah, I’ve seen what happens to those johns when you get angry enough to react. That’s why they keep coming back.”

Jonah shook his head, frantically denying what Wes was saying. He wasn’t a freak, he wasn’t.

“I’m not going to use you like that. Sure, if you get angry, things will happen, but I think better things will happen if you learn to control it.”

Jonah’s mind stuttered on the first sentence. Not use him? Did Wes mean he wasn’t going to fuck Jonah? His gaze darted over Wes, searching for any signs that he was about to attack. There was nothing. All Wes did was bring a reader out of his pocket.

“You’re going to make me a lot of money, Jonah, and this time it won’t be on your back.” He pushed the reader at Jonah until he grasped it. “There’s a lesson loaded. Learn it.” Wes’s fingers dug into his arm above the elbow, pinching the nerve and making his fingers tingle. “You won’t be eating until you know it all.”

As he locked the cage, Jonah inside, Wes outside, Wes spoke again. “Remember Jonah, you owe me.”

That quickly, with just one touch, Jonah’s heart flapped frantically, and he struggled to keep his breathing under control. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’ll do the planets.”

“No you won’t, Jonah.” Marcus stepped forward, arms crossed over his chest, his frown commanding and forbidding.

Jonah took a deep breath, resisting rubbing his arm when Wes let him go. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe he and Marcus could convince Wes to take what he had and leave again. “But you know that’s not your money, and you know it’s not mine. You took it all when you left.” Vermin scum, why didn’t he keep his mouth shut.

Wes’s face turned red, a scowl screwing it into an ugliness Jonah had never seen before. He took a step back, out of reach, easily recognizing a desire to do violence in Wes’s body language. A thick silence hovered between them. Saliva gathered in Jonah’s mouth, and his gut clenched. He swallowed, hoping he wouldn’t ruin this stand he was making by vomiting everywhere. Words of capitulation swirled in his head. He should give Wes the money as well as the planets, but it was Marcus’s money, and he’d asked Jonah to look after it. It’s Marcus’s money, he chanted to override the impulse to give in.

“So….” Wes stepped back and gestured to the planet below. “How long until we can leave this one so you can finish the ones I started?”

Jonah’s shoulders slumped, and he released a sigh. Wes wasn’t going to push for the money. Not right now, anyway. I never should have let him see it was there. He turned away to hide his face from Wes and reached out to the planet below. He didn’t really need to; it was set and would continue to develop without any further help from Jonah. He allowed his focus to dance through the clouds to the surface of the planet and smiled. Already there were small life-forms in the oceans and waterways, and the tropical areas teemed with insects. Soon, reptiles would populate the swamps and—what was that?

Jonah leaned forward, his forehead bumping against the glass, but they’d moved past the blip he felt. “Shit. Wait. Wait.”

“What is it?”

Jonah ignored Wes and ran to Marcus. “Marcus. There’s life on the planet,” Jonah blurted.

Marcus tapped the console and brought up an infrared image of the planet. After a pause, he looked at Jonah. “It’s nothing that wouldn’t be expected at this stage of development, Jonah. Why the panic?”

Don’t you dismiss this. “We’ve gone past it. We have to go around and find it again.” He knew he wasn’t making much sense, but panic threaded through him.

“Jonah—”

“Marcus, it’s a mammal. It’s her, I know it. She’s alive.” Jonah paced even as he yelled at Marcus. “We have to go around again. We have to get her—”

“I don’t know what you’re so het up about. The whole reason behind terraforming is to make the planets habitable,” said Wes.

“It’s not a naturally evolved life-form. It was there before.” Jonah felt disloyal referring to Tapioca as “it” but he didn’t want Wes to know how much Jonah… cared for her.

Wes laughed. “That’s ridiculous. The only thing I’ve never been able to get you to do is to work on a planet that already has life. Your stubborn-as-shit attitude has lost us a lot of money over the years.”

“Fuck you,” said Jonah. “We have to go and get her, Marcus. We can’t leave her there.”

Marcus gripped Jonah’s shoulders and held him steady. “We have orders, Jonah. I can’t go against them,” he said quietly. He glanced at Wes. “I’ll arrange a guard for you while Wes is here.”

“No, I don’t need a guard.” Wes wasn’t what was important right now. “I’m not going to leave her there.”

“She’s alive, and we have to trust she’ll still be alive when we can come back and get her.”

“No!”

“There’s no other choice.” Marcus was implacable.

“What’s all the fuss about a stupid animal, Jonah? We need to make arrangements to go to the planets you need to finish.”

Marcus glanced at Wes, a frown on his face, then turned to Jonah, maneuvering him out of the suite, so they could talk with some privacy. “Stay here,” he ordered Wes as the door closed between them. “What’s he talking about? I thought you were going to search out your own planet.”

Jonah looked at his feet; it was better than seeing the disappointment and betrayal on Marcus’s face.

“She needs me,” he whispered but didn’t add that he thought he might need her too. He’d never had anyone rely on him before, not like she did, undemanding and unselfish.

“Jonah,” he said, threading his fingers with Jonah’s. “Look at me.”

Jonah lifted his head, knowing the devastation he felt showed in his face. “I don’t know why… she’s just an animal.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t care for her. Pets quickly become part of the family.”

Jonah frowned. “I’ve never had a family. It was just Dora and me.”

“Dora?”

Jonah nodded. “My mum. She’s probably dead by now. After her jaw got broken, the johns didn’t like her so much.” Marcus cleared his throat in the silence that followed, and Jonah thought perhaps he shouldn’t have mentioned his mother. “Sorry. I know most people don’t like whores.” He put some space between them.

“Jonah, she was your mother. She should have cared for you until you were old enough to look after yourself.”

“She did! She waited until I was eight and big enough to look after myself. She could have sold me much younger.” Bad things happened to little kids who were sold. Jonah was lucky.

Marcus must have got the message that the conversation was over because he cleared his throat and changed the subject. “Anyway, I did some checking, and this planet isn’t actually sold to anyone yet. It was just on the Government’s list of planets to be terraformed with a possible future sale.”

Jonah waited. So far he couldn’t work out why Marcus was talking about the planet when he’d already made it clear they were leaving—abandoning Tapioca.

“It’s affordable, so I’ve put in an offer for it, but there’s a catch.” Marcus suddenly seemed tentative.

“I don’t know why you’re telling me this. Is it because you want your money back? I told you I wouldn’t do anything with it. I can transfer it straight back now.” He walked over to the console near the door.

“No,” said Marcus, and Jonah paused. “I mean I will need the money soon, but that’s not the catch.” He took a deep breath and let it out on a loud sigh. “After what my parents have been doing went public, I submitted a proposal to rescue sentient fauna from illegally terraformed planets, and I thought… I mean, I wondered….” Another pause. Another deep breath and Marcus faced Jonah squarely. “Jonah, would you consider working with me? With your skills, you can identify the animals that have been impacted by terraforming—not the animals that have grown afterwards. We can… we could take them to our planet and take care of them.”

Jonah’s thoughts swirled. “You want to continue working with me?” That seemed the most important factor. Staying with Marcus was Jonah’s dream.

“I want so much more than just to work with you. You must know that by now. I mean, we’ll probably have to keep terraforming planets to get an income so we can look after the animals, and buying a planet isn’t cheap. All I have is enough for a down payment.”

“But—” A life together. Was that really what Marcus was suggesting?

“We work well together, don’t we?” Marcus stepped close enough to touch but didn’t. “I thought we worked well together outside the terraforming too,” he whispered. When Jonah didn’t respond, Marcus raised a hand and cupped his face. “I want to spend more time with you, Jonah. I want us to be together.”

“Us.” It was such a short word, but it felt huge in Jonah’s mouth.

“Captain, your father has requested an urgent meeting and there’s a situation in your mother’s quarters.”

Marcus cursed at the interruption, the irritated noise making Jonah smile.

“You’d better sort that out, then,” he said.

“Jonah—”

“As soon as you’re done, register ownership for that planet. I’ll search out a few more for us to terraform and begin writing the proposals.” He’d never written a proposal before, but how hard could it be? There must be others out there he could look at to find out how it was done.

Marcus grinned at him, planted a swift kiss on his lips, and left Jonah with a smile on his face and a warm feeling inside.

The smile faded when he saw Wes standing in the doorway, sneering at him.

Marcus

“DAD?” MARCUS remained just inside the door to his quarters. With his father and the guard inside, there wasn’t room for anyone else in the small room. He couldn’t imagine anything his father needed would be urgent, but Marcus would rather deal with him than his mother.

“Did you know they let me keep the newsfeeds?” Harry sighed heavily and dropped to sit on the bed as he peered up at Marcus. “This has become much bigger than I thought it would, Marcus. I thought it would be enough to stop your mother so she could never do this type of thing again, but I didn’t think….” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I knew I’d never work again, but I didn’t think our reputations would be completely destroyed. There’ve been claims made against the grants we’ve been paid for the last five years, when I first started working on this with your mother and probably for the previous five that your mother worked alone. There’s nothing left, or at least there won’t be once all the claims are registered.”

Marcus didn’t know what to say to his father. He knew Harry often forgot about the real world when he was focused on data, but he didn’t think he’d be so out of touch that he wouldn’t realize his actions impacted on the rest of the world.

“Conrad is still willing to represent me, but I need to pay him his usual quarterly retainer to ensure his services.”

“And you don’t have the money.” Marcus clenched his fists. He could see where this was going.

“You’re the only one I can contact, Marcus, and I don’t know if the others have anywhere near the amount of money available that Conrad needs.”

“What makes you think I do?” Marcus really didn’t want to do this. He wanted to buy a planet and work with Jonah. He wanted—

“Conrad’s not representing your mother anymore, did I mention that?”

“Damn.” He’d have to tell Jonah they couldn’t buy Tapioca’s planet yet and might never be able to. If Marcus couldn’t provide a planet for the animals, the Government wouldn’t give him the contract.

“I’m sorry, Marcus.” Harry looked small as he sat on the bed. He sounded small too, as if the essence of him had scattered to the four winds along with his reputation. Marcus couldn’t leave him to fend for himself.

“It’s okay, Dad. It’ll work out.” He left before he began screaming or howling at the injustice of it. His father was a grown man who’d made some bad decisions, yet Marcus seemed to be the one paying for them. “Ungrateful wretch,” he castigated himself. His father had lost his career and all his assets in one day. His marriage too.

He tapped his comm unit. “Starovski,” he murmured to connect. He waited for Jonah to answer but didn’t give him a chance to say anything. “I’m sorry, Jonah, but it’s not going to work the way I thought. Can you transfer the money back to the account it came from?”

“What’s going on, Marcus?” Jonah sounded bewildered. So he should, thought Marcus. I am too.

Marcus nodded at the guards outside his mother’s quarters. “I have to go now. I’ll talk to you about it all later. Can you transfer the money immediately?”

“Yes, of cou—”

Marcus tapped the entry pad, and the door slid open.

He slipped inside quickly but realized he didn’t need the speed or the stealth. His mother lay draped over the sofa, a tall glass in her hand and two bottles of vodka on the floor beside her. One of the bottles was empty.

“Marcus. Have you come to gloat?” Her voice was thick with alcohol, but she was surprisingly coherent, considering the amount she appeared to have drunk.

Marcus tried to ignore the rankness in the air. “Have you eaten today?” It was well after the usual time for the evening meal, but he saw no evidence that Winni had eaten. He turned to the dispenser. “Would you like something to drink?” He glanced at her. “Something more substantial than vodka?”

Winni giggled. “Tomato juice,” she sang. “Red and thick and full of seeecrets for Harry.”

Marcus didn’t know what she was talking about but found a glass of tomato juice already poured, waiting in the dispenser. He picked it up and placed it on the coffee table in front of her. “I’ve just spoken to Dad. Conrad is representing him.”

“Fucking Conrad. The bastard,” she spat.

So she knew Conrad wasn’t representing her. That was a start. “There’ve been claims registered against your grants.”

Winni sat forward suddenly, knocking her glass of vodka to the floor. She ignored it. “They can’t do that! That’s my money.” She waved her hand wildly. “Bastards.” She tried to stand but overbalanced and flopped back onto the sofa. “I have to call… I can’t call Conrad. He won’t take my calls.” She peered at Marcus. “You have to let me call someone else, Marcus. They’re all blocked.”

Marcus knew her lines had been monitored, but calls to legal representation were allowed, even if they weren’t on the original approved list. If no one was responding to her calls, it was because they chose not to. If Winni wasn’t so drunk, she’d probably realize that herself. He watched as Winni’s uncoordinated movements slowed and stopped; he could almost see her mind working through the implications.

“I’m completely ruined, aren’t I? Those idiots can’t see past a few dumb animals, and because of that everything we’ve learned in the last five years is going to be tossed out like rotten food.” She peered up at Marcus myopically. “I’m ruined.”

“I’ll see if I can find a lawyer for you,” he said as he tapped the panel to open the door. He turned as the door slid shut to see his mother lean forward and pick up the tomato juice he’d put in front of her. At least she’d have something more substantial than vodka in her stomach tonight.

“She’s been drinking steadily all day, sir,” one of the guards said.

Marcus nodded. “I got that impression. She didn’t want any food but asked for tomato juice. Hopefully she won’t feel like absolute crap in the morning.” The next few weeks were going to be one disaster after another for his parents. They’d be lucky if they didn’t both serve lengthy jail time.

Marcus rubbed his eyes, exhaustion pulling at his shoulders, then tapped his comm unit.

“I’m off duty until 0600,” he said.

He headed toward his quarters, then detoured abruptly when he remembered his father was there. With so many people under arrest and contained, they should reclassify the Keiki as a penal colony. He slowed his steps. What he really wanted was Jonah. Marcus tapped his comm again, connecting to Jonah’s suite, but there was no answer. Jonah would be asleep, which was what Marcus should be doing. He disconnected the call and walked on. He didn’t like Wes staying in Jonah’s suite, but Jonah had been okay with it and the Keiki wasn’t large enough to have individual quarters for everyone. Jonah would let him know if Wes became a problem, and so would the guard he’d stationed outside Jonah’s suite.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Jonah

THE SCREEN fuzzed as Marcus disconnected then snapped out, and Jonah was left staring into empty air. Marcus wanted his money back. They weren’t going to buy a planet and rescue Tapioca or any other animal.

“If you don’t want to do the planets for Natch, I can get out of it, no problem.” Wes sidled up beside Jonah and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Jonah shivered at the touch. He’d never considered Wes’s touch to be cold and oily before. He looked at the man he’d spent sixteen years with and wondered what was different.

“There’s another job we can do.” Wes tilted his head and smiled. It was the same expression he’d used countless times, and Jonah had always thought it was endearing. He’d always agreed to do what Wes wanted him to when he looked at him like that. But Jonah had never before had someone like Marcus to show him what true caring looked like. Now Wes’s swift capitulation after their argument rang alarm bells in Jonah’s mind. He stepped back, and Wes’s hand dropped.

He settled on the sofa and looked up a Wes, faking a nonchalance he didn’t feel. His fingers curled into his hands, and he forced them to relax. Whatever he’d thought he could have with Marcus was dust. Wes had been with him for half Jonah’s life. He’d cared for him and trained him and found work for him. Jonah owed him.

Wes must have seen something in Jonah’s posture because his smile widened. “I knew you’d be on board with this,” he said. He paced in front of Jonah, pausing to look at the planet receding into the distance. He shook his head. “I’d love to know how you did that so quickly, but that’s for another day.” He turned, a sudden frown clearing from his face when he noticed Jonah watching him. “I recognize him, you know. Your captain. He was the lieutenant and nothing more than a skinny kid. Now look at him. All broad shoulders and muscles. Did you see the thighs on that man? Of course you did.” Wes spoke faster and faster, his hands waving enthusiastically. “I go away for a few weeks and you suddenly change. You’ve always refused to even discuss the possibility, but here you are actually going through with it as soon as I leave. You weren’t trying to cut me out of it, were you Jonah?”

“What are you talking about, Wes?” A bad feeling settled in Jonah’s stomach, but he needed Wes to say it. Wes had raised the possibility of building a “Master Race” years ago but hadn’t said anything since Jonah had refused. Surely he wouldn’t still want that.

Wes scoffed. “Like you don’t know. You’ve already done your voodoo thing on the captain, so don’t try to act innocent with me now. The Government is looking for ways to grow better soldiers.”

“They already have the elite troops.”

Wes waved his hand negligently. “That’s drugs and implants. One of them has constant shifts in mood and the other either malfunctions or requires regular upgrades. They’re unreliable, little more than wild animals. They want something that’s a sure thing, that doesn’t require the pharmaceutical upkeep.”

“I can’t do that.” Jonah stood and went to the dispenser, needing a drink to wash away the bitter taste in his mouth.

Before he had a chance to request a glass, Wes grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. He pushed forward, pressing Jonah back against the dispenser. “You did it for him. You can do it for me.” Wes’s hand cupped Jonah’s jaw, his thumb pressed painfully under his chin. “What else are you going to do, Jonah? You’ve got nothing. He’s taken all his money back, but I’m offering you a way out, a way to make a future.”

Jonah pushed out of Wes’s hold. “No, you’re not. You’re offering me a way to make your future.”

“What’s the difference? It won’t be a big deal for you to do a little tweaking here and there with some soldiers. You’ve proven it works with no ill effects.”

“I can’t do it.” Jonah glared at Wes, but he didn’t back down. “I’d have to fuck them; there’s no other way to make it work.”

Wes stepped back and frowned. “What’s the problem with that? You’re a whore. You fuck people all the time.”

Jonah gasped.

“Oh don’t look so bloody indignant. You haven’t forgotten where I found you any more than I have, and I know for a fact you’ve fucked others the whole time I’ve had you.”

“I haven’t—”

“Bullshit. No way could you have kept it to yourself all these years.” Wes stalked toward him. “I know you’ve always wanted it with me. Is that what your problem is? You want me to fuck you first.” Wes grabbed Jonah’s chin again. “Yeah, you can do me first. Make me a superman. It’d be a great promotion gimmick.” Wes leaned forward, his face so close to Jonah’s he could feel his warm breath gusting over his lips. Wes’s free hand fumbled between them, opening Jonah’s pants. “I’ll plow that overused ass of yours if that’s what it’ll take, but you’d better do your mojo right. I’m not doing this again.”

Jonah’s pants loosened and slipped down his hips. All the evil in Tolifax wouldn’t save him if it went further, but that was all he deserved. Wes was right. He was a whore. His ass had been plowed by more men than he could remember. His pants dropped lower, and the cool air touched his limp cock before Wes’s rough hand grabbed it.

“Let him go!”

Wes stumbled backward and tripped over the edge of the sofa when Marcus shoved him away.

“Marcus,” gasped Jonah. “It wasn’t—”

“It was exactly what it looked like, Jonah,” said Marcus as he stalked toward Wes. “This bastard was threatening you. Again.” He dragged Wes to his feet. “You’re no longer welcome on this ship. You’ll be escorted to your shuttle and launched immediately.” Marcus’s hand moved to his comm’s control but in a swift, practiced movement, Wes twisted him around and pressed his forearm into Marcus’s throat. A knife glinted at Marcus’s ribs.

“No!” Jonah roared. His voice was loud and low, the timbre of the chant reverberating through it and echoing throughout his body. Even as he yelled, Marcus jammed his elbow into Wes’s ribs and twisted under his grip and away. The power in Jonah surged and shot toward Wes as he fell. Jonah froze as Wes hit the floor.

Wes’s wiry five-foot-eleven frame twisted and turned as he screamed in agony. Jonah tried to step back, but the wall was behind him, stopping him from escaping the horror in front of him. At his feet, every muscle in Wes’s body bubbled and bulged as if it was alive, like a mass of maggots were writhing just beneath the surface. As Jonah watched, Wes’s biceps grew, stretching the skin and raising thick veins to the surface. His deltoids popped, the skin stretched so thin Jonah was sure he could see the blood pulsing beneath. Wes curled in on himself as his trapezius bulged, and his spine twisted in response.

Jonah could hear the pop and crunch of bones breaking as the muscles pushed them past their limits.

Wes continued to scream. Jonah would have joined him if he could catch his breath. He huffed and whimpered with every twist and turn of Wes’s body. Tears streamed down his face. “I didn’t mean it,” he yelled over the noise.

Someone grabbed Jonah’s arm and turned him. Marcus’s face swam into focus in front of him, and Jonah sagged in relief. “Marcus, help him. Stop it.” Marcus held Jonah tightly and, in the midst of Wes’s screaming, Jonah heard him say over and over, “It’s all right. You’re okay.”

Wes screamed louder, and Jonah turned to see his legs bow sideways as the muscles there expanded unnaturally. Through the torn clothing, Jonah saw Wes’s kneecap pop sideways, accompanied by another scream.

Marcus crouched beside Wes but went flying when one of Wes’s arms flailed and hit him in the chest. Jonah lurched forward and dragged Marcus out of the way.

Wes’s screams cut off abruptly. Jonah’s breathing sounded harsh in the sudden silence as he bent over Marcus.

“Are you all right?” He didn’t wait for a response but patted Marcus down, checking for injuries.

Marcus pushed him aside. “I’m fine. What about you?” Barely waiting for Jonah’s response, Marcus hit his comm unit. “Medics to Starovski’s suite immediately.” As he spoke he looked over every inch of Jonah’s body. “Are you sure you’re all right. Did he hurt you?”

Jonah grasped Marcus’s hand. “I didn’t mean to—”

“He attacked you, Jonah, then he attacked me. You’re not the bad guy here, so stop worrying.” He pulled free from Jonah’s hold and leaned over Wes’s now still, distorted body and pressed two fingers against his neck.

Wes lay on the floor, every muscle bulged and misshapen, his limbs no longer straight but curled over each other. In places his skin had broken under the stress and bled. His shinbones poked through, glaring white against the red blood.

From his position on the floor next to Wes, Marcus looked up at Jonah. His gaze ranged over Jonah’s body, pausing as he saw Jonah’s pants undone. Jonah quickly buttoned up, his face heating. “I didn’t mean—”

Marcus rose and walked to Jonah. A bright red patch spread at the side of his uniform.

“You’re injured.” He stumbled toward Marcus, but Marcus stopped him.

“I’m fine. Open the door for the medics,” he said. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Jonah gasped at the coldness in Marcus’s tone. It was like he was a stranger that Marcus had never met before. He set the door mechanism to remain open, then went into his bedroom and closed the door behind him.

He sat on the bed and stared at the floor, the faint lines of furniture from previous occupants visible in its pattern. He started rocking slightly, back and forth, as images assaulted him. His life flashed in disconnected nonchronological prints as he tried to work out where everything went wrong. What was it that made him such a monster? A low keening filled his ears, and he realized it came from him. He covered his mouth to muffle the sound, and his fingers met dampness. He curled into a ball and pressed his forehead against his knees, but the noise didn’t stop. Nor did the tears.

Finally, he quieted, but his mind remained blessedly blank. After a time his door swished open, but he didn’t look up. The bed dipped as Marcus sat beside him.

“They’ve taken him to medical. Are you all right? I should have got them to check you over as well, but I didn’t see any injuries.”

Suddenly, Jonah couldn’t breathe. Images of Wes’s deformed body assaulted him, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

“Jonah?”

Marcus wasn’t going to go away. He was going to stay and keep on at Jonah until Jonah gave in and spoke to him. He pushed his legs out, straightening his body. Bile rose as he thought that Wes couldn’t straighten his body in the same way and probably never would be able to. “I didn’t mean to do it.” He sat up, then stood because he wasn’t going to deal with this lying down. “Wes wanted me to terraform people, to make an elite force of men. He kept saying I should do it because I’d changed you so it was obviously easy to do.” He pushed past Marcus’s arm, stood, and began pacing. “I told him no but he said it would be easy because… because I’m a whore anyway….” Jonah’s voice cracked, but he continued. “He wouldn’t leave me alone, kept crowding me.” His hand went automatically to his trousers and checked the zipper. “Then you came in.” He stopped pacing and turned to look Marcus in the eye. “He hurt you.” His gaze dipped to the red on Marcus’s jacket, and he rushed forward. “He hurt you,” he said again as he reached toward the bloodstained fabric.

“I’m fine. The medics dressed the wound. It’s nothing more than a scratch.” Marcus rose and stepped close to lift Jonah’s chin. His fingers ghosted over Jonah’s neck where Wes had pressed his fingers. “He did this?”

Jonah swallowed. “He… I couldn’t… he saw you, what I’d done to you, and wanted me to do it to soldiers, to make them bigger and stronger. Unbeatable, but without the drugs and implants. He wanted me to do it to him.” Jonah couldn’t understand why he was like this: trembling and useless. He’d spent his childhood dealing with worse attacks. Why was it so hard now? He stepped back, and Marcus’s hands slipped away. “I told him I couldn’t do it without fucking, and he… he hurt you.”

“Are you going to be okay? I need to check in with medical; see how he is. There are other things I need to see to as well, now that I’m captain.”

“I’m sorry.” Jonah stood straight and tall. His life had gone down the tubes. It had started weeks ago when Wes had left, and he’d thought it had been turning around, but it was all illusion. He’d been heading for a shipwreck of a disaster and, now he was here, facing Marcus and being dismissed, like he’d done it deliberately. He felt like he’d been hit in the stomach and was tumbling over and over in an airless vacuum. He was dangerous. No one could want him. Marcus wouldn’t want him.

“It’s okay, Jonah. You get some rest. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” For a second it seemed he’d come closer and touch Jonah or kiss him, but he didn’t. With a nod he turned and walked away.

Jonah walked to the doorway so he could see into the sitting room. The puddle of Wes’s blood lay congealing and darkening in front of the sofa. As he watched, the floor rippled, and the hum of cleaning nanos filled the air. The red faded and disappeared. Outside the viewing panel, the stars lurched and blurred as they dropped into warp speed. Jonah stumbled as the ship shot through the ether and cracked his head against the door control panel.

He resisted the urge to punch the panel as anger surged through him.

“Fuck my life,” he whispered as he sat on the sofa and stared out the window.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Marcus

“INFIRMARY. WHAT’S the status on the patient just brought in?” Marcus asked as he left Jonah’s suite.

“Shit, Captain. What the hell happened to this guy? It looks like all his muscles suddenly tripled in size, or more. Nothing else shifted, just his muscles, and they’ve exploded through his skin and squashed bones and organs. He went into cardiac arrest twice while we were working on him; his heart can’t keep up with the demand.” Evans, the doctor in charge, had arrived on board the same day as Marcus. They’d become friends of a sort, even though they had very different shifts and outlooks on life. Evans was career military. She had a plan and wouldn’t consider any action that deviated from that.

“Will he survive?”

Evans sighed. “Probably, although it’s going to be a hell of a life. I don’t know what’s happened to him so can’t even begin to reverse it. It’s impossible to set all those broken bones back the way they were. They’re all twisted and bent to accommodate the new musculature. He’s going to be in constant pain and will probably never walk without assistance.”

“Is he conscious?”

“No. I’m keeping him under for a while to give his body time to adjust to its new reality. I don’t know how he’s going to react when we bring him out of it.”

“I want to be there when that happens. I need some answers.”

“You and me both. I’ll let you know in plenty of time.”

“Keep a guard on him.”

“Already done.”

By the time Marcus disconnected his comm, he was at the door to his quarters to check on his father. The guard was outside.

“Anything to report?” asked Marcus.

“He’s been very quiet, sir, especially since an early phone call to his lawyer.”

Marcus nodded, tapped the chime before opening the door so his father would have some warning he was coming in. The guard followed him inside.

Harry was sitting on the bed with a reader, but he didn’t look like he’d been reading.

“How are you, Dad?”

Harry smiled, but Marcus could see he wasn’t feeling it. “I’m fine, Marcus.” He put aside the reader and swung his legs over the side of the bed to sit straighter. “Does he have to be in here too?” He nodded at the guard.

“I’m the captain, and you’re my father. I have to make sure protocol is followed to the letter, and that means having witnesses to our meetings.”

“You do the same with your mother?”

“Yes, and I have audio and video switched on.”

Harry chuckled. “I can imagine how your mother would react to that if she knew.”

“She should know. She’s been involved with the Government long enough to know how things work.”

“Conrad thinks he can make a deal for me,” Harry said abruptly. “He said the money you sent isn’t enough for a drawn-out trial, but he could negotiate a deal if I was willing.”

“Okay.” Marcus wasn’t sure if his father was telling him this because they were father and son or if Harry wanted Marcus to do something else for him. Surely handing over his life savings was enough. Marcus didn’t know what else he could do.

“Conrad said they’ll go for a deal if I plead guilty and offer voluntary exile to an uninhabited planet. Apparently my probable jail term would cost them a fortune, but if I can save them that, they’ll let me stay out of jail.”

“What about Mother?”

Harry shook his head. “I asked Conrad, but all the contracts are in her name, and all the initial contact was with her and her alone. She’s the one who’s documented all the experiments. She’s clearly been the lead scientist with me as her assistant. She started on this a full five years before she brought me on board. Conrad said there was no way she could avoid jail time.”

“I’ve given you everything I had, Dad. I can’t buy a planet.” No matter how much I want one for Jonah.

God, Jonah. What am I going to do about Jonah? His stomach churned at the memories of what happened to Wes. Marcus stared at the floor as he tried to make sense of the fact that, while he felt disgusted by Wes, it was mostly for his personality. He felt no pity for him after what Jonah did, and he didn’t think that Jonah was now a threat to anyone. Others probably wouldn’t agree with him, though, and that made it imperative that he find somewhere that Jonah could be safe. He scrubbed his hands over his face. There was nowhere, and no way to do anything about it since he’d given most of his money to his father.

Marcus jumped as Harry rushed toward him and leaned close. The guard stepped forward to prevent contact but Marcus waved him away. “A couple of years ago,” Harry whispered loudly, “Winni….” He shuddered and shook his head. “I got the idea it might be sensible to hide a bit away. If you look for it, you’ll find a planet for you and Inderey.” He shrugged. “It’s a pretty crappy planet a long way from any civilization, but it should be workable, especially with the Planet Whisperer on your team.” He stepped back. “So look for it, Marcus. See what’s there.” He sat on the bed and picked up his reader. “I’ll just wait here until you let me know what you decide to do.”

Marcus left with his mind whirling. There was no way Harry could know what he’d given Marcus. If he really did have the mysterious planet, and if he had to give up half of it for Harry’s exile, there’d still be enough room for him and Jonah to start their animal rescue. It would cost a lot but probably not more than he’d been expecting to start with. Briefly, he thought his sister could donate her share to the cause too, but he knew she probably wouldn’t. Besides, he was the one here, right now, the only one in a position to act. He paused outside his quarters, wanting to rush to Jonah and tell him they could still work together and explore what they could be to each other. He took a deep breath and centered himself. He was still captain of this ship, and he had to make sure all his actions stood up to any scrutiny. If he missed anything, he risked losing everything, and Jonah and what they’d planned was too important to risk.

He had to check on his mother again first, to make sure she understood what was happening. Then he’d write his report about what happened to Wes. He wanted Jonah cleared quickly. With a parting nod to the guard, he made his way to his mother’s quarters, only to find the guards outside pacing and whispering to each other as they glared at the door.

“What’s wrong?”

The guards snapped to attention. Before either could speak, his comm unit buzzed. “Captain, the guards at Professor Winni Davis’s suite have reported a disturbance. They’d like your instructions… as she’s your mother.”

The taller guard spoke. “We’re not sure what’s happening, sir. There were noises.”

Marcus raised his eyebrows. Noises. Yup, sounded important.

The shorter guard continued. “Professor Davis started groaning and then shouting. When we asked if she needed help she yelled at us that the only help she wanted was for us to… um, she didn’t want our help, sir, so we stayed at our posts.”

“Then what’s the problem now?” Marcus frowned at the door, wanting to barge in but needing all the information he could gather first. It never paid to meet his mother less than fully prepared.

“There was the sound of glass breaking and a thud. Then everything went silent. We thought you should check on her, sir.”

“She was drinking heavily when I was here a few hours ago. She’s probably passed out. I’ll need one of you to help me put her in the bed so she’s comfortable.” Marcus stepped forward to open the door.

Winni was collapsed on the floor in front of the sofa. Blood spread on her trousers at her thigh. Marcus rushed forward and shifted her leg. “She must have landed on her glass. It’s embedded in her thigh.” He tapped his comm. “Medic to Professor Davis’s quarters.” The guard who had accompanied him handed him a cushion from the sofa. Marcus put it under Winni’s leg so the glass wouldn’t be pressed farther into her flesh, and then he lifted her eyelids and checked her pulse and breathing. “It’s too slow. There’s something not right here.” He checked her airways, then maneuvered her onto her side into recovery position.

Winni groaned when his hand pressed against her side to hold her in place as the guard gently shifted her injured leg. He rested his fingers against the spot again, frowning as she groaned. “There’s swelling here,” he said, not expecting a response. “How far away are the medics?”

“THIS IS more serious than alcohol poisoning,” Evans said as she ran the scanner over Winni. “There are significant amounts of vintage drugs in her system.”

“What sort of drugs, and where would she get vintage ones? I thought everything was nanos and implants now.”

“You’re right if you’re talking Government issue, but these aren’t Government issue.” She focused on her scanner. “We’ve got a nice little cocktail of paracetamol, codeine, Valium, Stilnox and Renitec. Nasty.”

“How nasty?” Marcus’s heart thudded as he watched his mother’s still form. Every now and then a groan escaped her. “She’s in pain?”

“I expect so,” said Evans absently as she held the scanner near his mother’s side.

“Can’t you give her something to help?”

“It’s the painkillers she’s already taken that are causing the pain.”

“Painkillers stop pain.”

“Not when you’ve taken as much as she has. The Valium and Stilnox have put her to sleep. We’re not going to be able to rouse her without countermeasures, and we can’t do that right now. We’ve pumped her stomach, but there wasn’t much in there. With all she’s taken, she’s better out of it anyway.” She turned off the scanner and walked away, leaving Marcus to follow if he wanted to find out more. “The Retinox has lowered her blood pressure to a concerning level and contributed to the lack of consciousness. The codeine has also contributed to that, and that’s made her breathing far too slow, but we’ve ventilated for that. It’s the paracetamol that’s the big problem.”

“A basic painkiller?”

“Yeah, they used this stuff for years, thinking it was the new wonder drug. It doesn’t even take very large doses before it becomes very dangerous. The amount your mother has ingested, though, is.”

“In what way?”

Evans stopped and regarded Marcus for several seconds. “It means that your mother has severe liver failure. It’s already reached a stage that none of our nanoproducts are having any effect.”

“Liver failure?” Crap. That’s not good. Marcus turned and looked back at his mother.

Her tall, slim body seemed to sink into the narrow medical cot. The deep groove between her eyebrows, fierce and animated when she was railing about some perceived injustice, looked like pain now. The skin on her face and neck was loose and flaccid, aging her more than anything Marcus had considered possible.

“She’s dying?”

“I figure she has about twenty-four hours, no more.”

Silence hovered between them, and Marcus didn’t know what to fill it with. He heard the words but couldn’t work out how they made him feel. He wondered if he’d grieve for Winni, if he’d miss her in any way once she was gone. It didn’t seem so now, but she wasn’t dead yet.

“Thank you, doctor,” he said formally. “Keep me updated on her condition.”

Either Evans was already thinking about her next patient, or she was used to all types of reactions, because all she did was nod and stride away.

THE BRIDGE was running under the second lieutenant, so it must be the middle of the night. Marcus couldn’t remember the day or evening passing, but with everything that had happened, he was sort of surprised more time hadn’t passed. He sat in his chair and watched the swirly lines and bright streaks that always accompanied their passage in warp.

“Captain, you should get some sleep. You’re on duty again in four hours.”

Marcus sighed and stood. He was in the way, and he knew it. “Thank you, Lieutenant,” he said as he left the bridge.

He should have gone back to his quarters—White’s quarters—but instead he ended up at Jonah’s suite. Jonah would be asleep, of course, but Marcus let himself in anyway.

He stood for a long time watching Jonah sleep. It concerned him that Jonah was curled so tightly, like he was trying to protect himself. Marcus wondered what Jonah considered a threat, then remembered how he’d left things the last time they were together. He’d practically accused Jonah of deliberately modifying the genetics of another human being, even though he knew it wasn’t like that. Jonah was the gentlest person Marcus had ever known.

He turned and logged in to the console. He had numerous reports to write after the day he’d had, and he could start with the one detailing Farragher’s assault of them.

“MARCUS?”

Marcus hit submit and turned to Jonah. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“What are you doing here?”

Marcus pushed away from the console and stood in front of Jonah. “I had some reports to write.”

“You couldn’t write them in your quarters?” Jonah waved a hand. “No, of course not. Your father’s in your quarters.”

Mentioning his father made Marcus think of his mother. “Go back to bed, Jonah. We can talk in the morning.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I just had some reports to write.” Marcus turned away, but Jonah stopped him with a hand on his bicep.

“You’re tired. Come and rest for a while,” Jonah said quietly.

“How do you know?” The words seemed to have a life of their own. Marcus wasn’t sure he knew what he was saying. Jonah shifted his grasp to Marcus’s shoulders and drew him into a hug. They stood stiffly for a few seconds in the first voluntary physical contact Jonah had ever offered and the first comfort Marcus had sought. Finally, with a soft exhale, Marcus lowered his head to Jonah’s chest. He breathed deeply for what felt like the first time in more than twenty-four hours.

“Come and rest,” said Jonah again. “Tomorrow I’ll find another contract, and you can do whatever it is you need to do.” As he spoke he guided Marcus into the bedroom and began undressing him.

“Contract for what?”

“I don’t have any money, Marcus. I have to work.” Jonah ran his hands up and down Marcus’s back, and Marcus shuffled closer, hoping it would never end.

“We’re getting a planet and rescuing animals, aren’t we?” he whispered against Jonah’s warm skin. Jonah had carefully not mentioned Tapioca, and Marcus wanted to remind him of her.

“We need money to do that.” A small shiver raced down Jonah’s body, and he held Marcus closer.

Marcus sighed. “I like it when you say ‘we.’”

Jonah pushed Marcus toward the bed and followed him under the covers. “What will you be doing after you hand over your parents and White?”

“I won’t be handing over my mother. She’ll be dead before we reach the space station.” He briefly explained what had happened with his mother.

Jonah pulled Marcus more tightly into his arms but remained silent.

“Dad says they’ll do a deal with him if he goes into voluntary exile. White has already been charged and will be handed over for trial. Wes is still in the infirmary. He’ll live but… I’ve registered charges against him.”

“I hate that he hurt you. I refuse to feel bad about what I did to him any longer.” Jonah’s fingers stopped threading through Marcus’s hair.

Marcus leaned back and looked at Jonah. His white-blond hair shone in the dim light, and his eyes looked nearly black instead of the vibrant green they were during the day. “You shouldn’t feel bad. He needed me out of the way so he could control you again. If you hadn’t intervened I’d probably be dead.”

“But—”

“I’m sorry I had to pull out of our plan so quickly. My father needed the money for his defense. The good news is that according to my father, my sister and I own a small undeveloped planet on the edge of civilization. We’ll have to give half of it over to my father’s exile, but we can still use the other half for our animal refuge. If you’re okay to keep working, we’ll be able to locate more abused animals and save them.” Marcus tried to infuse confidence in his voice, but all he managed was exhaustion.

“You still want to do that?” Jonah didn’t sound sleepy at all.

“Of course.” He shifted so he could look directly at Jonah. “I love you, Jonah, and I want to build a life with you.”

“But you can’t. I mean… I’m a….”

“You’re a good man, Jonah, and you’re the man for me. The only one. Is that okay?”

“The only one?”

“I don’t want to do this with anyone else. Do you?”

Jonah pulled Marcus close again and nuzzled his neck. “No. I only want you.”

“Good.”

The silence stretched between them until Jonah realized Marcus was asleep.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Jonah

JONAH WOKE to Marcus’s fingers trailing across his chest and tickling his nipple.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he wriggled backward until his buttocks pressed against Marcus’s warm body.

Marcus chuckled, the sound smooth and dark and sleepy-warm. “It must be the right thing to do, with a reaction like that.”

Jonah slipped a hand under his pillow and brought out a small tube. He held it aloft for Marcus to take. He was just about to put it away again when Marcus’s fingers closed around his hand and the lube.

“Are you sure? You don’t know what will happen if we do this again.”

Jonah rolled over so he could look at Marcus. “You obviously need to talk—again,” he teased. He took a deep breath, not sure if he wanted to talk about this at all, but Marcus needed it. So did he. “I didn’t mean to hurt Wes, but in a way it’s a good thing.” Before Marcus could respond, Jonah clarified. “It’s not good that I hurt him, but it’s good that I did it because I learned a lot of things about myself.” Marcus hadn’t recoiled, so Jonah pulled him in closer. Jonah buried his face against Marcus’s neck. “Usually when I’m chanting, I’m not really conscious of what I’m doing. Even when we… we made love before, I wasn’t really aware of it all. But when I pushed Wes away from you, I was focused totally on him and what was happening.”

The warm darkness and Marcus’s scent was soothing, but Jonah owed him his face. He leaned back and looked Marcus in the eye. Marcus regarded him seriously but made no effort to interrupt or to ask questions. He simply waited for Jonah to get to the point.

“I know how my power works now, how it manifests inside and how I push it out. Since I… did that to Wes, I’ve been practicing.” Marcus’s eyes widened. They were in warp, nowhere near anything organic for Jonah to practice on. “I went to the hydroponics level.” Jonah smiled. “Your cooks are going to notice the vegetables are suddenly much larger and flavorful. So what I’m saying is that you’re safe now. I know how to lock it down, temporarily at least. I won’t hurt you, not even accidentally.”

Marcus rolled so he was leaning over Jonah. “You have never hurt me.” He slid his knee between Jonah’s legs, and Jonah let his thighs fall open, inviting Marcus in. “So, are you going to fuck me?” asked Marcus.

A smile tugged at Jonah’s lips. “I thought you might like to fuck me,” he said.

“We could take turns.” Marcus leaned down to kiss the corner of Jonah’s mouth. Jonah turned his head to seal their lips together.

Jonah lifted his legs, twisting his ankles together in the small of Marcus’s back. “Later. Right now, I want you inside me.” He pulled Marcus down toward him, trying to get him exactly where he wanted him.

“Let me up, Jonah. I have to get you ready.”

Jonah shook his head. “Just use lots of lube, and take it slow.”

Marcus reached for the lotion. “Tell me if it hurts, and we’ll do something else.”

Jonah smiled and ran his fingers through Marcus’s soft brown hair. “You’re the only person who’s ever worried about hurting me.”

“Get used to it,” said Marcus as he positioned his well-greased cock and pressed slowly inside.

Jonah gasped at the sting but held Marcus with his legs so he couldn’t pull away. “Give it all to me.”

“I’ll give you everything, Jonah. Everything I have and everything I am is yours.” Marcus groaned as he bottomed out. He settled on top of Jonah, pressing his abdomen against Jonah’s straining cock, and whispered in his ear. “I love you, Jonah Starovski, and I want to build a life with you.”

Jonah’s eyes burned, and he gasped, then gasped again as his orgasm raced through him, overtaking him, pulsing wetly between them, triggered by nothing more than words. Words of love.

“Yes,” hissed Marcus. He pulled his hips back, dragging his cock along all the sensitive nerve endings in Jonah’s passage, then thrust back in. Jonah, dazed from his unexpected release, levered his knees back and held on. In wonder he watched the tension fill Marcus’s face. When his release came, Jonah saw it first in the muscles on his face, a slight tick at his jaw followed by blissed-out relief.

Marcus collapsed to the side so Jonah could still breathe, and they lay panting and sweaty in each other’s arms.

Finally Marcus shifted, sliding out of Jonah on a rush of warm fluid. “I’ll get a cloth in a minute,” he murmured as he snuggled his face into the pillow beside Jonah.

“Are you sure this will work? Us, I mean.”

Marcus snuggled closer. “I’m so sure about it, Jonah, I’ve changed my entire life for it. You wait and see. In fifty years’ time, we’ll be old and gray, and we’ll still be together, just like this.”

Jonah lay still as he imagined what Marcus promised. He fell asleep to the sound of Marcus’s soft, even breathing in his ear.

THEY WOKE a couple of hours later to the sound of alarms. Marcus jumped and flailed and fell off the bed. He landed with a thump and jumped up almost immediately to stagger to the console and connect.

“Report!” he barked.

Jonah grabbed a pair of sweats and dragged them on, then picked up Marcus’s trousers and shook them out.

“What do you mean ‘escaped’? When did he regain consciousness? You told me he couldn’t walk without assistance.”

Curly blond hair filled the screen, surrounding serious brown eyes and black-rimmed glasses. Incongruously, Jonah wondered why Evans wore glasses when there were so many options for nanosurgery or physical rectification of eye problems but finally decided it was because she looked more serious with the glasses.

“His recovery was much swifter than anticipated even though his bones all knitted in deformed patterns. You have a message in your inbox that he regained consciousness. I had him restrained, just in case, but he convinced one of the guards to release him so he could shower. He didn’t come back from the shower.” There was no overt inflection in Evans’s voice but she still managed to sound angry.

“It’s Wes?” asked Jonah quietly.

Marcus nodded. “The alarm was set off when Wes’s shuttle launched.” He looked at Jonah steadily. “We’re in warp, so there’s no way of telling if he survived the drop into real space or where he ended up. Wes’s gone.”

“There’s more, Captain.”

Jonah and Marcus both focused on the doctor.

“He left a message for Mr. Starovski.” The doctor stepped to the side to reveal a blood-smeared shower stall. The red dribbled down the wall and would wash away soon, but the words were still easily read.

Jonah is mine.

One Month Later

Marcus

THE VIEWING panel of their small secondhand ship was a quarter the size Marcus had become used to in the military. The furniture was all solid and scratched, and the only nanos they had were medical. It was all Jonah could afford after terraforming one more planet. Marcus didn’t care. He’d clean the toilet every week for the rest of his life if it meant he got to stay with Jonah.

“What do you think?” he asked. Beside him, Jonah remained silent, but he was used to that by now. His lover would speak when he had something to say.

“It’s borderline, but it’ll work.” Jonah closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Marcus wasn’t sure exactly what that accomplished. They were in a shuttle in orbit around their planet—okay it was still officially Marcus’s and his sister, Inderey’s, but she’d signed a fifty-year lease with them in exchange for Jonah doing the terraforming.

“How long do you think it’ll take?”

Jonah threw his arm around Marcus’s shoulders and drew him close to his side. “If you fuck me hard, it’ll probably take about six weeks.”

“That’s… a lot longer than usual.” He eyed the barren landscape of the planet below. It didn’t have enough gases in the atmosphere to have formed even toxic clouds.

Jonah shrugged. “The elements are there, just trapped beneath the surface. Left on its own, it might develop into something livable over a few billion years, or it might never be anything more than it is. Even with my work, it might always be only barely livable: barren, storm-ridden.” He turned to face Marcus, excitement showing in his glowing eyes and wide smile. “This will be my greatest challenge, and you’ve got to admit, it’ll be a whole lot of fun.”

“We don’t have much choice either.” Marcus glanced at the door even though he knew Harry wouldn’t disturb them. “We’ve already taken custody of my father, so we have to put him somewhere.”

“He can’t travel with us,” Jonah agreed.

I will.

They both jumped at the sibilant whisper in their heads, neither of them used to having someone talk to them telepathically. Tapioca slid into the room, her long legs undulating sinuously as she moved. They’d found her the week before, trapped in a rockfall, injured and dehydrated, but she’d healed quickly once she’d been able to eat and drink.

She’d grown since they’d last seen her, and now, standing on all six legs, her back reached Jonah’s knees. Jonah thought she might always have grown to that size. The big surprise, and the one he firmly blamed on being exposed to his powers, was her ability to communicate.

“Don’t you want to build a nice quiet life on a new planet, Tapi?” asked Marcus. “My father will be there.”

Exactly, she said. We need to search.

“What are we searching for?” Jonah asked.

My mate.

“Fuck.” Marcus glared at Jonah.

“Don’t blame me. I’m not the one who took her from her own planet.”

“Have you thought about what it’s going to be like with two like her?” At Jonah’s confused look, Marcus continued, “She likes to sleep in the middle of the bed, Jonah. Between us!”

Jonah laughed until he nearly tumbled over Tapioca’s tentacles as she wound herself between his legs and around them.

It’s warm there, she said.

“Okay.” Marcus threw his hands up in defeat. “We’ll get this planet done, dump my father with supplies for a year, then find Tapioca her mate.” He jabbed a finger at Jonah. “You get to work scanning the planet. I’ll check the ship’s scans.”

“You’re in a hurry all of a sudden, love.”

Marcus grinned at Jonah. He loved it when he called him that. “Of course I am. The quicker she has someone to snuggle with, the sooner you and I get to snuggle all night without interruption.”

Jonah laughed, the sound still so new Marcus paused just to listen to it and watch the light play across his lover’s features. He tangled his fingers with Jonah’s as his focus shifted to the planet below. He’d known Jonah less than three months, and in that time he’d severed all ties to his family, discarded a promising career, and thrown out every goal and dream he’d ever had. From the ashes, he’d rebuilt his life into something with such promise that he smiled all day. He couldn’t have planned it better.

At his side Tapioca leaned against him, and he reached down to rub her ears the way she liked.

I protect you from the bad man.

Startled, Marcus stared into Jonah’s eyes. “Who?”

“I think she might mean Wes.”

“Fuck.”

Jonah drew him into a tight hug. “It’ll be okay, love. I don’t have any links to him anymore. There’s nothing he can do to us.” He grunted as Tapioca leaped and landed on his shoulder before curling her arms around his chest and arms.

“You’re right. Nothing to worry about.” Their future was still there, just as promising as before, but Marcus now had a bad taste in his mouth. He hoped Tapioca was wrong, but he’d get ready for the worst, just in case. He settled his face against Jonah’s chest and breathed in the warmth and security he offered without even trying.

It didn’t matter what happened in the future, what threats they had to face. What he had right here, right now, was worth everything, and he’d fight with everything he was to keep it.

More by E E Montgomery

Sequel to Between Love and Honor

In 1915, after his beloved Carl died from a vicious beating, David Harrison enlisted in the Army and went to war. He returns home to find a world seemingly unchanged, while he will never be the same. At Mrs. Gill’s boarding house, he meets Bernard Donnelly, a young man suffering the aftereffects of his own war experiences. David finds himself increasingly attracted to Bernard, but that terrifies him. He blames himself for Carl’s horrific death and fears he isn’t strong enough to lose another love to violence.

Bernard needs David to help him face each day and find a way they can be together without stigma—and without putting them in legal and physical danger—but David clings to his idea that the only way to keep a lover safe is not to have one. His fears threaten to destroy everything, unless he learns that sometimes the risk is worth it and finds the courage to love.

When Queensland Police Force Constable James Laramee raids a hotel room, he finds Vinnie Canterbury on top of a naked, dead man, covered in blood. Vinnie promptly vomits all over James’s shoes.

Thanks to a cocktail of horse sedatives and Hendra vaccine, Vinnie’s memories of his ordeal are fractured. Finding the culprits and the reasons behind his abduction will be a challenge. With his apartment trashed, his building set on fire, and his clothes, phone and wallet gone, Vinnie needs a place to stay. To his surprise, James not only takes him in, but also lets him cry on his shoulder. It must be true love. Vinnie has plans for his future with James all mapped out, and he hopes he can get James on the same page.

There’s a snake in Aidan’s bed, but it’s not the kind he wants. A nest of snakes under his house heralds the kind of disruption that Aidan has been trying to avoid all his life and turns him into a hysterical mess. First he sleeps with his best friend, Baxter. Until their one-night-stand, Aidan was happy with his life and their friendship. Now he’s lonely and craves a relationship Baxter doesn’t want.

Then Aidan meets Detective Sam Walters while consulting on a murder investigation and his dreams are suddenly invaded by a man who makes Aidan want to strip faster than an attack by green ants. Too bad Sam is straight.

When snakes take over Aidan’s home and a gorgeous snake catcher comes to his rescue, Aidan’s confusion is complete. To add to the mess Aidan’s life has become, a man ends up dead on his living room floor, Baxter confesses to his murder, and calm, cheerful Sam yells at Aidan. It’s enough to make a quiet professor of sociology prefer the snakes.

Sequel to Just His Type

Just Life: Book Two

Rebel Nguyen and Daron Boroughs both need to be loved, but when Rebel looks at Daron to fill that role, it mangles their friendship. Rebel tries a clean break and meets Jeremy. They hit it off, but Rebel is preoccupied with might-have-beens.

When Rebel doesn’t contact him for days, Daron feels lost. He decides he’ll never find love unless he can change, but the process of his makeover throws him into the arms of his last trick’s ex-boyfriend. Shockingly, they work together—until Daron inevitably screws it up.

Rebel and Daron both need to learn that they don’t have to change themselves for love—just the way they look for it.

Sequel to Just Like a Date

Just Life: Book Three

Mark Mendelson’s life is close to perfect: he has good friends, a successful business, and a solid reputation in the jewelry industry. He fought hard to get what he has after nearly losing it all fifteen years ago, when his then boyfriend, Cole Porter, stole his designs.

When a handsome man enters Mark’s store to request a commitment ring—a design Mark made specifically for Cole—Mark wants nothing to do with him. All he can think about is his rage at Cole’s betrayal, something he thought he’d dealt with long ago. But Mark’s would-be customer, Dr. Liam Watson, returns to the shop, thinking Mark might provide some answers. For years Liam has tried to convince his cousin Jon to leave Cole, who abuses him. As the relationship between Jon and Cole disintegrates, a fragile new one forms between Liam and Mark—but Mark can’t move on until he confronts Cole once and for all.

Sequel to Just in Time

Just Life: Book Four

After ten years in an abusive relationship and a near-fatal knife wound, Jonathan Watson is finally free. Unused to being able to make even the smallest decision and smothered by family and well-meaning neighbors, he’s floundering in the real world. Jonathan is afraid of falling into another relationship too quickly and realizes he needs time to rediscover who he is before he attaches himself to another man.

He never counted on meeting Ben Urquhart, though. Ben tempts Jonathan to forget everything and take a leap. For Ben, it’s love at first sight, and he doesn’t want to take it slow. He wants to build a life with Jonathan, free from harm and full of laughter. But before they can take the next step, they must protect Jonathan from his possessive, threatening ex. Jonathan must find the courage to confront him and break the chains of his past before he can be truly free to build a future with Ben.

Readers love E E Montgomery

Ordinary People

“I knew it was a good idea to pick up this story. I knew it… E.E. Montgomery is quickly becoming an author-to-watch for me.”

—Love Bytes

“I find this reading experience to be refreshing, new, and not at all formulaic.”

—Prism Book Alliance

The Courage to Love

“…all I have to say about this book is that if you like intense emotional rides this is definitely the book for you. Don’t miss it.”

—MM Good Book Reviews

E E MONTGOMERY wants the world to be a better place, with equality and acceptance for all. Her philosophy is: We can’t change the world but we can change our small part of it and, in that way, influence the whole. Writing stories that show people finding their own “better place” is part of E E Montgomery’s own small contribution.

Thankfully, there’s never a shortage of inspiration for stories that show people growing in their acceptance and love of themselves and others. A dedicated people-watcher, E E finds stories everywhere. In a cafe, a cemetery, a book on space exploration, or on the news, there’ll be a story of personal growth, love, and unconditional acceptance there somewhere.

E-mail: eemontgomery11@gmail.com

Blog: eemontgomery.blogspot.com

Twitter: @EEMontgomery1

Website: www.eemontgomery.com

By E E Montgomery

Between Love and Honor • The Courage to Love

Ordinary People

The Planet Whisperer

What About Him

JUST LIFE

Just His Type

Just Like a Date

Just in Time

Just the Way You Are

Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS

www.dreamspinnerpress.com

Published by

DREAMSPINNER PRESS

5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA

www.dreamspinnerpress.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The Planet Whisperer

© 2015 E E Montgomery.

Cover Art

© 2015 Aaron Anderson.

aaronbydesign55@gmail.com

Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.

ISBN: 978-1-63476-694-4

Digital ISBN: 978-1-63476-695-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015950528

First Edition December 2015

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Blurb

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

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