Tymber Dalton - Bightmares

After, Donna and her men gave everyone a quick round of hugs and handshakes before hurrying to their lander to return to the K-2 .

Emi didn’t expect to hear much from them over the next few days. The K-2 had completed all their cargo drops and was now waiting on the other two crews.

As the days seemed to drag, Emi longed to be off Aroykin. Not that the planet wasn’t nice, because she found it beautiful. Unfortunately, knowing a homicidal lunatic lurked somewhere beyond the safe boundaries of the colony borders made her long for the security of the Tamora Bight .

Home.

After her parents died, “home” had been memories of Montana and whatever dorm room she happened to occupy. The surrounding cities she’d lived in, boarding schools first in Bozeman, and then later in New Phoenix and Tempe for college, were an afterthought. The only times she traveled were for symposiums relating to her studies. Twice to New York, once to Cambridge, and once to Los Angeles. All she’d seen of those cities were the airports, hotels, and conference centers.

Under the watchful eye of an armed guard from the Petrovis Skye , she sat on a bench in the shade outside Ilse’s house. No traffic noise, and only the faintest sounds from the food processing center on the far side of the compound area. The colony had been established to not only thrive, but to coexist with its surroundings, hopefully avoiding environmental mistakes made on Earth for hundreds of years.

Peaceful. Relaxing.

But not home.

Aaron emerged from the medical center and walked across the compound. Ford and Caph had already returned to the Tamora Bight , running the cargo drop from that end. Aaron sat on the bench next to her and draped his arm around her. “Just heard from the Forrester Cross . Their transport’s on the way. They offered to give us a ride back up if we want.”

Emi let out a relieved sigh. “Yeah. Please.”

He kissed her. “Go pack for us. I’ll go talk to John and Alex and see if they’re ready to leave, too.” One of the cadets from the Petrovis Skye was helping Jules Green run the cargo operation on the Braynow Gaston while the other two men helped out on the surface.

By the time Emi returned with their things, she heard the landing pad warning tone sound on loudspeakers, making sure everyone stayed clear. The lander was much larger than the one they had on the Bight , and ten crew emerged from its side as the large back cargo hatch also opened. Ilse walked over to greet the newcomers. When she spotted Emi, she waved her over.

Emi hoped for a quick departure, but Ilse invited her, Aaron, John, and Alex to join them all for one last lunch together.

One of the female medical officers, Dr. Sophie Vanderlin, seemed to catch John and Alex’s attention. They spent the entire meal talking with her.

At one point, Aaron nudged her. She leaned in so he could whisper in her ear, “I think they just found their med officer.”

“Really?”

He nodded toward the men. “I’d bet money on it.”

It turned out Dr. Vanderlin, a Beta-ranked healer, was actually between official assignments and eligible to leave the DSMC if she wanted, her contractual obligation completed. She’d planned on staying at the colony for six months, until the next resupply mission arrived, to work there as well as rest, since she had no husband or kids to return to. Five years older than Emi, she wore her curly brown hair loose. Her blue eyes sparkled with good humor, and her laugh could frequently be heard over the din of the others at the tables as John and Alex kept her in stitches.

Emi and Aaron bid good-bye to Ilse and Sascha and started loading their gear into the lander. That’s when John ran over to the lander and stuck his head inside.

“Uh, Emi, can I ask you a favor?”

She didn’t miss Aaron’s playful wink. “Sure.”

John blushed. “Since you’re a commissioned fleet med officer, you’ve got official capacity to um…sync someone. The chips. Right?”

Emi grinned. “Yeah? Your point?”

“I checked the regs. We didn’t go through pairing, but there’s nothing in there prohibiting us from finding a suitable fourth on our own.”

“Aaaannnnd?”

He blushed even more deeply. “She said she wouldn’t mind hitching a ride back to Mars with us. At least on a trial basis.”

“She hasn’t met Jules yet.”

“Ilse let us borrow her private com panel, and she got to talk to him.”

“Hmm. Let me think about it.”

“Oh, quit busting his balls, Em,” Aaron teased. “Yes, of course she’ll sync you guys.”

Emi laughed and hugged John. “Maybe you’ll be ready for a wedding of your own by the time we get to Mars.”

“Well, from what Rob and Aaron told me about the sim sessions, I’d much rather find someone on our own than have to go through that bullshit.”

“Can’t blame you there. We’ll have them stop at the Braynow Gaston before they drop us off. I can sync you all at once there with your ship’s chip kit.”

His face brightened. “Thanks, Emi! I’ll go tell them.” He raced off.

Aaron pulled her into his lap. “You’re an evil woman, teasing him like that. No wonder I love you so much.” He deeply kissed her. “How’d we manage to beat them out, anyway?”

She wrapped her arm tightly around him. “They were nice, but I just didn’t click with them like I did you guys. Why, are you complaining?”

“Um, that would be a hell no, sweetheart. You think I’m crazy?”

“After twenty years with the twins, I’m not sure. You might be.”

There wasn’t much else for the three DSMC crews to do. With the Braynow Gaston crew now complete at four after Emi chipped and synced Sophie to her new ship and crew with Graymard’s approval, the ships headed out. Rob officially turned custody of the Petrovis Skye over to the captain of the Forrester Cross , and the three DSMC vessels once again linked together via tractor beam for the return trip to Mars.

Emi still wasn’t fond of entering jump mode and didn’t look forward to the process, remembering how it made her feel before and put her nerves on edge.

Aaron sat in his command chair, hooked an arm around Emi’s waist, and pulled her to him. “What do you want to do when we get back? Graymard said we’ve got a few days off coming after this bullshit.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. We definitely need to do something for Donna and her guys. Oh, can we go see Mom and Dad again, too?”

Caph laughed. “If we visited Mars and didn’t see them and they found out, they’d have our hides. Believe me.”

When she went to the galley to fix dinner, Emi realized she needed some fresh greens for their salad. That meant a trip down to the hydroponics lab.

Emi hadn’t spent nearly as much time here as she’d have liked to over the past few weeks. Ford and Caph helped out when they could, but she needed to do some serious sprucing up during their return to Mars. She grabbed a colander. After a moment of hunting, she finally found her kitchen shears, which Caph had put in the wrong drawer, again. Those she slipped into the front pocket of her hooded sweatshirt.

Being underway, the men had turned down the temperature in most of the ship to conserve energy. As she approached the hydro lab, a weird feeling settled over her that she couldn’t place. She sensed her men still up on the bridge. Everything appeared to be normal. None of them seemed stressed beyond normal duties.

Shaking it off as nerves because of the jump engine influence, she walked into the hydro lab. Not too much damage done, fortunately. Poor Ford had a black thumb, but even he hadn’t been able to kill off her hardy plants. She spent a few minutes pruning back some of the leggier ones and then started gathering what she needed for the salad. She loved the hydro lab, it was her escape, her haven. She could think about her childhood in Montana before her parents took the moon job.