A truth of Valor

Could've been worse. Could've been a cooking show.

No surprise the little freaks didn't watch porn like normal people.

Craig could see that as far as di'Taykan went, Nadayki was a lime-green geek-and-a-half, but he was still a di'Taykan and di'Taykan were hardwired to default to sex. Sex seemed to be an obvious tactic to delay the opening of the seal, with the potential to be a repeat performer. As his stomach had steadied and the red-hot spikes were not currently being driven into his temples, Craig figured it made sense to get the initial encounter out of the way

"The thing with CSO codes," he said, looking up from his slate, "is that they're hard to put in and even harder to take out."

"Unless you know the sequence," Nadayki snorted, eyes locked on his screen, ignoring the potential for i

Craig fired off a second attempt. "Give us time and we'll get it off."

"Fukking right. There's no way some stupid scavenger is going to create a seal I can't break."

Any other di'Taykan would have made a proposition and started the foreplay by now. Raising his assessment of the kid to a geek-and-three-quarters, Craig upped his game.

The seal had been positioned in vacuum, which put it at an idiotically awkward angle with gravity applied. Upper body bent at about forty-five degrees, with the kid standing so close the movement of his hair kept Craig thinking of spiders and slapping at the back of his neck, it was easy enough to brush his ass to Nadayki's groin with every position shift.

And yeah, they still hadn't talked about where they stood with di'Taykan before the Heart of Stone had blown their lives apart, but Craig knew where Torin stood as far as staying alive went. She'd expect him to do what he had to. So, when Nadayki finally got with the program-and seriously, he had never expected to use the word finally when it came to a di'Taykan and sex-Craig responded with, if not enthusiasm, at least interest. First chance he got, he dialed the kid's masker back a couple of levels and enthusiasm became moot.

Then the kid decided to prove he could evoke the same response without the pheromone boost and Craig took back every disparaging thing he'd ever thought about geeks.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Nadayki muttered in Taykan against wet skin-maybe a description of the specific act or maybe bitching about the interruption, Craig had no idea and really, really didn't care-but kept going until Cho grabbed a handful of hair and yanked him back.

"No gods damned fukking on my time! I catch you again, and I'll have Doc cut your damned kayti off. And then I'll have Doc cut his off…" Half a dozen lime-green hairs floated to the floor as Cho released his hold and jabbed a finger toward Craig. "… and fukking feed it to you. Put your damned clothes on and get back to work!"

Craig had hoped Nadayki would argue, but the mention of Doc acted like a cold shower, and the kid complied without protest, his eyes pale, one hand rubbing at the side of his head. Di'Taykan hair wasn't actually hair. It was part of their sensory system, and losing some of it must've hurt like hell. Given three dead on the Prime Progenitor's lawn, Craig couldn't bring himself to care. Still… "You couldn't have taken another fifteen minutes to show up?" he grumbled, shooting the captain a disgruntled glare as he shrugged back into his overalls.

"You can fuk on your own time, Ryder," Cho snarled. "And your time is mine until that armory is open." He jerked his slate off his belt. "Huirre, get down to the locker."

"Now, Captain?"

"Yes, now!" Cho smiled unpleasantly. He jabbed a finger into Craig's chest. "I am warning you, do not fuk around on me. You forget why you're here while Huirre's watching and I'll let him pick a part to snack on." The jab became a shove.

Fingers curling into fists, Craig wondered how long it would delay things if he took a swing at the captain. Given the way he felt, he'd get the shit kicked out of him in any fight, but, hell, as long as he was alive when Torin found him, that only mattered in the short term.

Something in Cho's eyes stopped him. Something that said go too far and you'll be out the air lock wearing bruises and fuk all else.

Because the trick was to stay alive until Torin found him.

A second shove, to prove Craig wouldn't respond, then Cho backed up snarling, "Now, get back to work before I start carving bits off myself!"

"This is all your fault," Nadayki muttered sullenly as they bent over the seal again.

True enough. "Takes two to tango, kid."

"What the fuk is a tango? And stop calling me kid!" "What if Presit's little protege found the wrong Vrijheid Station," Mashona asked, saving one of Ceelin's games as the Second Star began her ten count before emerging into normal space.

"How many Vrijheid Stations that supposedly took a dirt dive during the war could there be?" Werst demanded from the second chair.

Mashona shrugged. "Space is big."

The stars reappeared.

"Ceelin found only one Vrijheid Station, and full disclosure laws give Presit access to government databases." Torin lifted her hands up off the control panel and started working the stiffness out of the fingers.

"She could be sending us on a fool's errand while she heads in to get the story," Ressk said thoughtfully, rubbing a thumb along the edge of his slate. "I mean, she said she knew you weren't going to let her join us. She could've set up equations to a different station and then faked her protests."

Werst shook his head. "You always this paranoid?"

He glanced over at Torin. "Just trying to cover all bases."

In the old days, being paranoid was a part of Torin's job. Now… "I trust her. I'm not one hundred percent positive she wouldn't screw me over, but she'd never risk Craig."

Mashona's brows rose and fell in exaggerated lechery. "You need to worry about her making moves on your man, Gu

"Not everything crosses species lines, Mashona, di'Taykan excepted." Her response to Mashona's joking almost sounded normal. Under the circumstances, it was the best she could do.

"Gu

Grateful for something to focus on, she gave Werst her full attention.

"At least some of the cark in this station will know you from Presit's vids."

"I'm counting on it. Me, and the three of you."

"Yeah." His nose ridges flared. "And they'll know Craig from that last vid."

"No, probably not. Like Presit said, he was behind the camera about ninety-five percent of the time, and when he wasn't, Presit was all but shooting up his nose. He had the beard then, and the edits…" Under the old adage of know thy enemy, she'd seen all the vids once. "… focus exclusively on the gray ru

"And Nat, the woman who…"

"The woman off the Heart who set us up for the ambush that took Craig," Torin growled. "I remember her."

"She saw you."

"Only for a minute, and she was paying no attention to me. Had her eyes on the game. The man who came into the bar with her, he might be a problem."

'The guy with the crazy eyes," Mashona put in.